By: Diane Benjamin Downtown businesses didn’t even support the Downtown Bloomington Association. Now the DBA employees are happy City employees complete with higher salaries, benefits and pensions! The Coliseum and the Bloomington Center for Performing Arts (BCPA) were supposed to brings hoards of people downtown. The Visitor’s Center in the McLean County History Museum was […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bruce Meeks has had enough of the lies the Mayor of Bloomington is spreading. Today this email was sent to the Mayor. _____________________________ October 25, 2017 VIA EMAIL RE: CEASE AND DESIST – DEFAMATION Tari Renner 2 Sable Oaks Court Bloomington, IL 61701 Dear Mr. Renner It has come to my attention […]
By: Diane Benjamin Anonymous Editorial writer published one today against Tari Renner: http://www.pantagraph.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-mayor-needs-to-change-his-ways-and-fast/article_5de7dedd-4ac6-5590-8ebe-f5c1c1f95d2b.html You can decide for yourself why they wrote it. Even though a comment by Bruce Meeks stating he had never sued the City was published in THEIR paper, the writer allowed Renner to claim yet again Bruce has been suing for 5 […]
By: Diane Benjamin February 20, 2015 The Council issued a Resolution, they did not censure Tari Renner for his remarks made on BlnNews.com. The entire video of the meeting is below, it doesn’t officially start until 8:49. Most of the meeting is Public Comment. (starts at 19:00). A copy of the Resolution they passed can […]
WJBC has posted the audio and a story: http://www.wjbc.com/2017/10/25/renner-council-spat-shouldnt-impact-city-manager-search/ Tari: Maybe the Aldermen who won’t return your phone calls understand the public business is required to be done in public. See the Open Meeting Act you frequently violate. Of course it could be they don’t want to hear more lies any more than citizens do. Did […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari has thought he is god’s gift to Bloomington since the day he got elected the first time. He planned to RULE, not serve. Every action he has taken from his first day on the job proves that. He has no concept of what most people think a mayor should be. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unpacking last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting will take more than one story! Let’s start with Tari Renner getting his PCard taken away. Just hit play below to hear his comments. Tari claimed Finance Director Patti-Lynn Silva runs a great shop, there are no abuses of the PCard policy. Tari must not […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the VIDEO in this story: https://blnnews.com/2017/10/10/should-renner-be-back/ What Tari claims has happened is a FELONY. Were police reports filed? NO! Why was it denied? I originally tried to file for a longer time frame, but they told me it was too long. Then the City lost my response to a request to narrow […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last Saturday a guy mowing grass for one of Bruce’s neighbors fell in a hole near his house: Bruce grabbed a ladder and climbed in the hole. The mower had landed on the guy, luckily it didn’t cut him. Bruce got the mower off of him and waiting in the hole with […]
Verse added (Guest Editorial) You must sing this to the tune of the Beach Boys: Fun Fun Fun Well he took his P card and he treated all his buddies to lunch now He forgot all about the taxpayers ’cause he just had a hunch now That no one would see all the charges on […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=14866 Once again Monday the Council has TWO meetings scheduled instead of just one regular meeting. Besides discussing more Master Plans meant to bind the hands of future Councils and bankrupt citizens, they will convene another secret meeting for which the minutes will NEVER be released: Why the Council would want to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Even on sick leave, Tari can hold a business meeting at a bar and use the City PCard: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=14856 The rest of the council still has no problem feeding themselves at your expense. Looks like the Chamber of Commerce is behind “Quality of Life” Monarch Group is Real Estate Development. Funny how WHO […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington knew the law had changed on pension spiking in 2012. They changed the policy for NEW hires, but not for existing employees. Here’s the recap: The IMRF retirement fund was tired of paying for spiked pensions because of Sick Leave Buy Back payments that inflated ending salaries. Since […]
By: Diane Benjamin I thought for a minute somebody had kidnapped David Hales and replaced him with a conservative. He actually said the Council must lean how to say NO. He said the City can’t maintain what we have now, but people keep talking about building new things. Library David? Aquatics center? Sports complex? Public […]
By: Diane Benjamin I will get to the rest of the Committee of the Whole meeting later. For now enjoy the ONLY public comment last night: Angela Scott – just hit play:
By: Diane Benjamin I know some of you have seen this story on Facebook, but I kept running into people this weekend that didn’t. That means I HAVE to print it. Here’s the back story according to Judy Stearns: Tari Renner was on WJBC this week. Scott Laughlin asked him about Judy’s appearance Monday night […]
By: Angela Scott An open letter to Bloomington City Council and Mayor Renner. Here are a few quotes from the Mayor’s comments last week.Tari stated, “Frankly here at the local level and I’m talking about more than words” and goes on to imply there have been physical altercations. He also stated, “Frivolous complaints and multiple […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s way past time for adults to be running the City of Bloomington! We are tired of the lies and the abuse of taxpayers by pretending the city doesn’t have enough money because taxpayers aren’t paying enough. End the charade. Cancel the court jesters. It’s OVER! They just don’t know it yet. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The 10 year agreement with CIAM to manage the Coliseum contained numerous paragraphs granting the City rights to everything happening at the Coliseum. Tari Renner, David Hales, and the Council either never read the agreement or are lying because they failed to protect taxpayers from John Butler and company. See the agreement […]
WJBC posted the podcast: https://audioboom.com/posts/6384179-tari-renner-bloomington-mayor-10-11-17 I forgot to mention he thinks the local acrimony is a bigger story than CIAM! He also claims he did everything possible to get information from CIAM AND he decided not to renew the contract. Funny Tari – I remember you were shocked they pulled out of the negotiations. I was […]
I received yet another email from the City: ____________________________ I received the first response to my FOIA request below. The Bloomington staff under David Hales does not know Bloomington elections are not handled by McLean County. Bloomington has it’s own election commission. I only FOIA’d the City because Tari Renner specifically stated the ballot challenges […]
By: Diane Benjamin FOUR people mentioned me at Public Comment last night. The camera really needs to pan to the Council paying ZERO attention to the speakers. They are too busy looking down to acknowledge people who took the time to speak to them. I hope future speakers stop and ask the Council to at […]
By: Diane Benjamin Hit play to hear Mayor Renner’s comments at the end of the meeting last night. Is he fit to be mayor? I want to see the police reports that have been filed in connection to his accusations.
By: Diane Benjamin The most interesting parts of tonight’s festivities by the Bloomington City Council won’t be the Council business at 7:00. The pre-meeting David Sage led discussion of Renner’s PCard usage will be enlightening. I wonder if anybody will ask why Tari still has a PCard? Will Sage ask Tari how this PCard lunch […]
By: Diane Benjamin Maybe some members of the Bloomington City Council finally realized their fearless leader has been abusing his government credit card. We’ve listened to Mayor Renner spew his “there are no free lunches” for years in order to raise taxes while he was dining on the backs of taxpayers. The Japan trip finally […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hope we’ve heard the end of Tari’s pre-public comment speech he’s been using for over 4 years. His new Open House policy ends the open and transparent Mayor persona. I wonder if the Mayor will close the fish pool doors for those making appointments? I wonder if the public can sit […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the Pantagraph story announcing CIAM (John Butler) would not be renewing the contract to manage the Coliseum: http://www.pantagraph.com/entertainment/u-s-cellular-coliseum-to-receive-new-management/article_194a2f7c-d482-5d82-8885-7e5eafddb2b4.html That was March 8, 2016. Tari Renner is quoted saying CIAM might get a short-term contract to help with the transition – maybe 30-60-or 90 days. Obviously Renner had no urgency to remove […]
By: Diane Benjamin These are a few of the past payments to VenuWorks for managing the BCPA after Tina died: See anything strange? I’ll wait. Still waiting . . . . Okay, according to the dead tree, the City wants to contract with VenuWorks to manage the BCPA for a flat fee of $3000 a […]
By: Diane Benjamin Real journalism isn’t dead yet! The Joliet Herald News just proved it with this story: http://www.theherald-news.com/lists/2017/09/29/da82d31d3ccc4697970889c2a58349a5/index.xml?page=1 This paper isn’t done writing because my interview is not in this story! See this story for context if you missed it this morning: https://blnnews.com/2017/09/29/hales-if-a-perfect-fit-for-joliet/ Some tasty bits: “That’s the guy you want,” Regis said. “If somebody commits […]
By: Diane Benjamin I filed a FOIA request with the Illinois State Police for the investigative documents pertaining to the Renner/Japan/PCard investigation in the purchase of Margot Erhlich’s ticket. I just received a denial: _______________________________________________________________________ 09/28/2017 . Bloomington Normal News Ms. Diane Benjamin . Re: FOIR #17-2327 . Dear Ms. Benjamin: . Thank you for […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yep, Tari was on time out. “Medical related” meant he can’t handle his type A personality. See the interview he did with WMDB yesterday: http://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/exclusive-bloomington-mayor-tari-renner-opens-up-about-leave-of-absence/819831555 Tari was never on medial leave, he never quit being mayor! Tari claims he only took a couple of weeks off, that explains a lot about why […]
By: Diane Benjamin Attn: Council If your information on ANY topic, especially the Coliseum, is from David Hales or Tari Renner you are getting “Fake News”. Jamie Mathy is quoted in today’s paper saying the Management Agreement with CIAM “literally forbid the city from having access to the raw numbers”. SOURCE Jamie, why did the City […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are some of the stories I’ve written about the Coliseum. Some are opinions, some questions, and some proven facts. This isn’t everything, but it’s enough to prove the 5 Coliseum employees would NOT be under indictment of I hadn’t started investigating in 2013! Each link has a quote from the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Celebrate! Tari is returning from his “medical related” leave October 1st. Just like everything the City of Bloomington does, his return will have NO Transparency. Does he still have his government credit card? If he does, Freedom of Information Act requests are about to spike! Remember the citizen survey a few weeks […]
By: Diane Benjamin You already know that Tari Renner’s handpicked committee doesn’t represent the interest of anybody outside their tiny group who think downtown is the future. (Decades of facts to the contrary are immaterial) https://blnnews.com/2017/05/03/taris-downtown-task-force/ I know you don’t need proof, but: You can see what they have been up to here: http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-552 I […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City Manager is the only employee of the City Council. When David Hales leaves, another guy just like him will magically appear. The voters elected a progressive left-wing mayor and compliant Council, so citizens shouldn’t expect a sudden lurch to fiscal responsibility. Your taxes will continue to rise because the guy […]
Correction: Karen Schmidt did report that Diana Hauman was sick By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Hauman and Mayor Renner were both absent last night. Not a word was spoken about either. That means 20% of the people you elected were missing. Progressives evidently don’t think they have any responsibility to citizens. Of course watching them in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when Tari thought he was going to be attacked at his Open House and sent out a call for help? Note the name – David Parker is running for McLean County Board District 9. David Parker is another Biss for Governor- supporter. You remember Biss – the guy who picked a […]
By: Diane Benjamin I did finally receive my FOIA for the General Ledger entries to the Sister Cities accounts. Travel expenses is sometimes in “Travel” and sometimes in “Community Relations”. The accounts are full of transfers and memo entries that make it difficult to determine what is happening. The Sister Cities program is supported by […]
By: Diane Benjamin Now I have reports of 2 incidents unbecoming common decency. Until either or both are confirmed by somebody on the trip, I can’t do a story. I am told the Council most likely knows about at least one of these. I wouldn’t be posting this list if any of them had confirmed […]
