Update: The management announced today the naming rights have been sold – and for the same amount US Cellular was paying: $175,000 a year. It will be name Grossinger Motors Arena for at least 5 years. I haven’t heard who is paying for the new signs, letterhead, business cards, menus, etc. _____________________________________ By: Diane Benjamin […]
By: Diane Benjamin The old type Bloomington City Manager reports with real usable information ceased to exist when Alderman Diana Hauman called their “printing” a waste of money. The last REAL report was April 2016. City manager David Hales still does a City Manager report on-line, but it has little useful data. The old reports […]
By: Diane Benjamin Coliseum Quarterly reports are now on-line: http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-526 Last years reports for the year ended 4/30/2016 are still a secret. VenuWorks has been managing the Coliseum for all three of the quarters listed at the link above. 1st quarter revenue: $770,839.87 2nd quarter revenue: $275,590.46 3rd quarter revenue: $677,924.52 Don’t get excited – […]
By: Diane Benjamin The local purveyor of government propaganda has reported VenuWorks lost $674,000 in the 7 months since they took over. The only reason this story is out now is because Tuesday night the Coliseum Executive Director will make a presentation to the Council. _______________________________________________________________________ Side note: This is also Tuesday’s agenda: 2017 ends […]
By: Diane Benjamin The agenda for Monday’s meeting was posted on Thursday. The agenda lists the total to be approved for payment in Bills and Payroll. Somehow, even though the City knew what the list was, it wasn’t posted until after 4:30 Friday. Anybody think they are hiding something? See the list HERE Actually a […]
By: Diane Benjamin Except for the Council “light dinners”, “eating at your expense” is way down for October. Maybe Hales, since he will soon be gone, is tired of feasting with Council members. P-Card spending for October: Bills and Payroll for Monday night. Begins on page 121: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11652 ADMIN City Council Exp Coffee Hound $ […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when the City of Bloomignton introduced VenuWorks? Remember how VenuWorks was going to be ultra transparent? The City of Bloomington has a web page just to recap events at the Coliseum: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=10697 The last event posted is from September. The big concert last weekend isn’t posted. Thunder Hockey games aren’t posted. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Year End for the City of Bloomington and the Coliseum was APRIL 30, 2016. More than 6 months ago! The financial statements for both are still not available. Any private sector business wouldn’t tolerate this behavior. Last year the financial statements were presented to the Council at the first meeting in […]
By: Diane Benjamin I filed this Freedom of Information request with the City of Bloomington: I saw reference to this report in the last batch of emails I FOIA’d. Note: This request was denied. This is the reason given for the denial: So, one of these is true: The City is so used to denying […]
By: Diane Benjamin The email below was written by the now fired VenuWorks Executive Director. It was received under the Freedom of Information Act. The City of Bloomington heavily redacted tons of other emails, so this is all the information available. If walking at night from the Coliseum is dangerous for female employees, how safe […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s old news now that VenuWorks fired the Coliseum Manager. VenuWorks found the fraud, the City of Bloomington never would have. They completely ignored the old management and never blinked when the audited financial statements showed MUCH bigger loses than CIAM ever did. Of course, the City never checked to see if […]
By: Diane Benjamin The narrative Bloomington wants you to believe is they didn’t know about any malfeasance at the Coliseum by CIAM until VenuWorks took possession of the building. Forget for a minute that I’d been writing about CIAM since 2013. VenuWorks took over at the end of March 2016. This agreement was signed was […]
By: Diane Benjamin Eating at your expense and more: City Council Exp Arkansas Flag And Bann $ 100.96 8/15/2016 Banner pole for use by City Council City Council Exp Station 220 Inc $ 46.00 8/1/2016 Business lunch T.Renner & C.Koos City Council Exp Chipotle $ 14.95 8/2/2016 Business lunch T.Renner & M.Mwilambwe City Council Exp […]
By: Diane Benjamin I attended the press conference today to announce the new Coliseum Management. The Council will approve it at the next meeting. The only problem I saw was a lack of transparency and no Request For Proposal was issued. David Hales said two other companies were in town last week and another one […]
