By: Diane Benjamin The video in this story was only on Facebook. https://blnnews.com/2026/04/08/public-comment-chaos-at-springfield-council-meeting/ The City of Springfield now has it on their YouTube channel. Just hit Play to hear the comment from the former Police Chief that started the chaos. You should know the alderwoman who responds is a far leftist. Alderman Shawn Gregory then […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the closest I can get to showing what happened yesterday, because the City of Springfield pulled the video. https://www.wandtv.com/news/illinois/springfield-council-meeting-ends-abruptly-after-clash-between-alderman-former-police-chief/article_e21b6b00-a8f0-430f-99af-9dea8d6d6bd5.html I know many people who speak during Public Comment believe they deserve an instant response from the Mayor or City Council. This is why that doesn’t happen. The former police chief […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Remember the communist organizer from ISU – Andrew Franson? https://blnnews.com/2025/10/16/email-from-an-isu-communist/ He calls himself a communist, I didn’t label him. I received an email from him saying the picture in this story is wrong: https://blnnews.com/2026/01/30/tiny-anti-ice-crowd/ Andrew claims people had left by the time the picture in the story was taken. He claims […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this post with REAL profit from a show at the BCPA? The show was Adam Wainwright. The event report originally displayed was posted by mistake. That event report actually showed how much he got paid to appear and therefore the TRUE profit. Now go to this page to see the “revised” […]
By: Diane Benjamin Link to Jeff Jurgens salary: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/30312/638496297817500000 Link to Tim Gleason’s 2023 salary: PDF page 7 https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/30290/638487793683670000 Hard to read? Of course it is. Jeff Jurgens Total Compensation negotiated when he became City Manager: $262,802.52 Tim Gleason Total Compensation for 2023: $241,614.68 For the math challenged: Jeff Jurgens is making $21,187.84 more than […]
By: Diane Benjamin It was worth going to a few Tri-Valley School Board meetings to ask for more transparency. I hope someday they decide to live stream meetings! Of course District 87 still doesn’t. The new transparency Tri-Valley is doing is worthless unless people READ what’s being discussed. Evidently nobody read the September 20th Superintendent’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin Another hearing is scheduled in the Senate for Amtrak Directors. Maybe Biden finally picked candidates that represent the whole country, the last list failed to move forward because everyone but Koos was from the East Coast. https://blnnews.com/2023/04/26/a-democrat-is-keeping-koos-off-amtrak-board/ The hearing can be watched live – June 21st at 10:00. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2023/6/nominations-hearing-amtrak-and-ntsb Chris Koos is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Board packet for Wednesday is actually posted! https://www.tri-valley3.org/documents/board-meeting-agenda—minutes/2022-2023-agenda-%26-notices/402369 It’s only 66 pages long, every word doesn’t have to be read to see what is actually happening in the district. I’m happy to see my son’s favorite teacher is still teaching: Jeff Benter. He let his students blow things up. I don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin I attended most of the School Board meeting last night. Parents need to pay attention to the changes they are making. In my opinion they are dumbing down education. If your child doesn’t turn in an assignment and gets a ZERO, it won’t affect their grade. There was much discussion about “mastery” […]
By: Diane Benjamin The most important thing right now is holding the County Board to only $30,000 in funding for Extension. There is something seriously wrong this organization, participants in 4H are far less than half of just 10 years ago, and Extension is sitting on huge reserves. Local 4H groups are largely self funded, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Taxpayers OWN Bloomington government, they work for you! Why is it so difficult to get information? Instead of fixing the functionality of the City website, they just redesign it. They have many useless tabs that aren’t used, nobody is cleaning them up or making SEARCHING for information easier. It’s almost like hiding […]
By: Diane Benjamin Did you know some Bloomington officials SEARCH on this website because it is impossible to find what you are looking for on the City of Bloomington website? Instead of concentrating on function, the City is changing the look of the Bloomington website and providing LESS vital information. Example: https://www.cityblm.org/government/city-council/meetings-and-agendas Details from this […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-114 No BCPA event reports have been posted to the City website. Evidently I have to FOIA all of them. From this year’s budget: $1,700,000 of the Revenue is from Home Rule Sales Tax. Of that $840,206 goes to bond payments. See the complete BCPA presentation in the budget starting on PDF […]
By: Diane Benjamin At 5:30 last night Normal held a Work Session so the “professionals staff” could tell the Council how the American Rescue Funds should/could be spent – $10,879,113 over 2 years. Half has already been received. None of that money is in the current budget, at least some will be in next year’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin More emails the Normal taxpayers need to see. Note the date, Rivian never requested water from Normal. The Town of Normal is trying to talk them into it. Pam Reece has said OVER and OVER spending $5 million+ for water lines on top of Bloomington’s is for future economic development. The email […]
By: Diane Benjamin This statement is in the Town of Normal code: No the Council can’t “waive” disclosure requirements, but that’s not the important part. The Open Meetings Act states they can’t vote on anything not disclosed 48 hours in advance. The code states the City Manger must know a week in advance what will […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Council held an Executive Session on December 9th to review minutes of previous Executive Sessions. Review is required by the Open Meetings Act. The cabal then votes on what minutes no longer need to be kept confidential. See PDF page 46: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1052&Inline=True The Council voted to keep minutes that are 24 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The last event report posted by the BCPA was from October 2: https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1784 Are they: hiding losses? afraid to show what happening at this TAXPAYER owned building? on a long vacation? way too busy to do a simple report? coming to work late and leaving early? Taxpayers deserve to know what the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Stan Nord has tried to reach out to fellow Trustees who claim to care about taxpayers. Scott Preston was one of those. Think back to this story: https://blnnews.com/2019/07/31/did-chris-koos-lie/ Preston knew before the rest of the Council that Chris Koos wasn’t telling the truth about Nord going “lone wolf” because Preston was copied […]
By: Diane Benjamin For a long time we have known that much of what happens at Council meetings is pre-determined. This email proves it – the council members have 3 on 1 meetings with the City Manager: Hold on before you think this is a problem! They meet three on one to keep from violating the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nothing is more frustrating than government employees who can’t get their story straight. Here’s another example: See PDF page 4 of the February City Manger’s report: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21477 According to the guy in charge, the BCPA held 6 events in February. How many do we have event reports for? http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1702 TWO! Where are […]
By: Diane Benjamin (I’m not having a good day and tomorrow won’t be any better!) Water Rate documentation for tonight: PDF page 72: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3230 Back when Normal wasn’t afraid of transparency, they posted the history of rates citizens pay for essential services. Luckily, I copied them: https://blnnews.com/2012/05/30/normal-il-what-is-up-with-the-debt/ Water rates in 2009 were: $4.95 per 1000 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Did you know… In the Library Trustee’s “FAQ’s”, they state the liquor commission “…confirmed that the district does not violate any state liquor law by offering complimentary wine.” Will they provide documentation to that effect? Probably not. A FOIA sent to the Illinois Liquor Commission requesting all documents and findings pertaining to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington likes to pretend they are transparent. They even have a transparency portal on their website: http://www.cityblm.org/government/transparency One of the items listed is: As I’ve written before, the BCPA documents are mostly non-existent unless I FOIA them. https://blnnews.com/2019/02/14/it-a-secret-bcpa-creativity-center/ These are the event reports currently on the City website, there […]
By: Diane Benjamin It wasn’t that long ago the data pertaining to City functions was available. We used to know what the tax receipts were – now we don’t. We used to know traffic at the library has been declining – now we have no idea. Traffic isn’t included in Library Board reports either. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin In the past month I had to file a FOIA request for the missing Sister Cities Committee minutes: https://blnnews.com/2018/04/18/cut-sister-cities/ I also had to file for the minutes missing from the Police Safety and Community Relations Board (PSCRB): https://blnnews.com/2018/05/17/pscrb-update-police-review-board/ The March and April Liquor Commission minutes are also missing: Tari needs to tell […]
By: Diane Benjamin The next time you are present when Tari talks about his transparency award – please start laughing! Bills and Payroll for Monday night are not posted. Normally delaying them means they are hiding something. (as of 10:30 Saturday morning) http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1609 They know what they are paying because the total is on the […]
By: Diane Benjamin It looks like the Pantagraph is now allowing Tari to write about himself, from March 23rd: http://www.pantagraph.com/special-section/bloomington-a-leader-in-open-government-communication/article_6376ee0b-1adf-58cd-ab19-55d71d5eccfd.html#tncms-source=infinity-scroll-summary-siderail-latest I wonder what section they ran this in? The article/editorial has some problems. Tari must have forgotten he changed the rules for his “Open Houses”. They aren’t open, citizens have to make an appointment. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner is a master at campaigning, it’s the governing part the citizens have a problem with. When he ran for reelection he repeated the same talking points over and over and never varied from the script. Truth didn’t matter, only the talking points. The uniformed fell for it. The first time […]
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 No, transparency doesn’t exist in Bloomington! This FOIA request was made on July 31st. I did receive the information on the dinner at Lucca Grill, I have not received the names of the people money was paid to IACE Travel for. A second request on August 10th and a third request on […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal came really close to ending their tyranny when Chris Koos was almost defeated in April. Renner didn’t get Modified Wards, but now that he’s reelected, nothing is going to stand in his way. The Council certainly won’t – gee they approved his girlfriend’s ticket to Japan! No, nobody is looking out […]
By: Diane Benjamin We have an A+ rating from the Illinois Policy Institute for transparency. – Tari Renner Did is more applicable Tari. Proof: The Attorney General found Renner and the WHOLE Council guilty of violating the Open Meetings Act by discussing Metrozone in secret. They were ordered to release the audio of the meeting […]
By: Diane Benjamin This isn’t the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last for the City of Bloomington employees to not care about the law. Lavish salary and benefits frequently make people think they aren’t answerable to the people who make both happen. Bloomington employees feel entitled to secrecy and therefore do […]
By: Diane Benjamin I sent this FOIA request to the City of Bloomington on March 27th: I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act: The following documents have disappeared from the website. They consist of Agendas and Packets: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11528 10/24/16 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11527 10/24/16 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11529 10/24/16 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11530 10/24/16 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11477 10/17/16 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11476 10/17/16 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11443 […]
By: Diane Benjamin One thing I’ve learned is Republicans never do what they say they will do in a campaign while Democrats lie over and over and over trying to get you to believe what they say. Just watch them for a while, you will notice it too. (Think: If you like your doctor . […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari’s campaign speech is probably memorized by everybody now. Repeat things often enough some people might believe them. No, transparency doesn’t exist at City Hall. I dare anybody to file a FOIA request and actually get the information they filed for. The windows are NOT “wide open” as Tari claims. Here is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois Open Meetings Act Law: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=84&ChapterID=2 Monday night the Bloomington City Council is approving minutes dated between 1998 and 2009. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12450 Not approving minutes as required by law isn’t just something the City did a long time ago. Here is another example from April 11, 2016: September 21, 2015 just happens to […]
Were these minutes ever approved by the Council? By: Diane Benjamin On February 20, 2015, the Bloomington City Council held a special meeting to CENSURE Tari Renner for his vile comments made on this site. The minutes have been missing ever since, a Freedom of Information Request had to be sent to obtain them. Luckily, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Everything is scripted in the City of Bloomington to make sure citizens only know what the City wants them to know. Unlike Tari Renner’s claims of transparency, very little exists. Try filing a FOIA request and see how long it takes, what is denied, and how much is redacted. It has gotten […]
