Stanford: Why did you pay triple?
By: Diane Benjamin Tearing down the old Village Hall was approved at the June meeting:
Tag: Village of Stanford
Is Property Fraud now Legal?
By: Diane Benjamin Continuation of this story: Did Village of Stanford’s Attorney File Fraudulent Easement Documents? New Problem: The original TEMPORARY easement contains this statement: Temporary Easement The Village of Stanford President and Village Clerk signed the document in the presence of a Notary. So, what’s in the May 20, 2010 meeting minutes? FOIA […]
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Did Village of Stanford’s Attorney file fraudulent Easement documents?
BY JMKRAFT ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 • ( 1 COMMENT ) STANFORD, IL. (ECWd) – This is a story of a Village, or maybe an attorney, who appears to have tried to take the easy way out of a problem by allegedly filing false paperwork with the McLean County Recorder’s Office. Thanks to local Bloomington, IL. investigative journalist Diane Benjamin, of […]
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When Lawyers Don’t Care About the Law
By: Diane Benjamin Long time readers know finding a prosecutor is almost impossible. Public corruption prosecutions must be demanded by many people before equal justice under the law actually exists. Then there is McGrath Law Office in Mackinaw. These guys represent many small units of government who evidently aren’t capable of reading the Open Meetings […]
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Stanford AGAIN
By: Diane Benjamin At the October 20, 2016 meeting this was approved: http://stanfordil.org/id529.html Notice anything strange? It doesn’t say who the contract was given to! That information had to be obtained by FOIA: Next, see who the Village Clerk for Stanford is – the person who writes the minutes: Understand now why the minutes don’t […]
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Stanford and the State’s Attorney
By: Diane Benjamin Back in June the Village of Stanford Board approved a contract to tear down a house after a presentation by a relative of two board members. The presentation and vote were not on the agenda, so that vote was illegal. See two stories: HERE On the agenda under Legal – Mark McGrath […]
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Another OMA violation – Allin Fire
By: Diane Benjamin The Open Meetings Act was created to make sure citizens are informed about actions their government takes. Imagine what would happen if all government actions took place in secret and you got the bill for whatever they dreamed up! The Edgar County Watchdogs wrote an easy to understand version of the Open […]
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More on Stanford’s actions-ILLEGAL
By: Diane Benjamin See this previous story: https://blnnews.com/2016/11/03/stanford-still-being-suspicious/ The presentation by Brad Hinch for demolition of the property at 310 N Kathleen Street took place at the meeting held on 6/16/16. The vote to hire Hinch took place later in the same meeting: http://stanfordil.org/id514.html That vote was illegal! According to the Illinois Open Meetings Act, […]
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UPDATE: Stanford: Still being suspicious
See this followup story: https://blnnews.com/2016/11/03/more-on-stanfords-actions/ By: Diane Benjamin Stanford is so small, the Board has a husband and wife serving? Seriously? The Board wanted a house at 310 N. Kathleen torn down. Instead of bidding demolition, this happened: From the 6/16/16 meeting: http://stanfordil.org/id514.html All bids were requested under the Freedom of Information Act, this entry […]
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Stanford shreds money
By: Diane Benjamin Less than 600 people live in Stanford. It’s so tiny that understanding “limit government” should be easy. I still don’t know why pitchforks and tar haven’t been deployed over dropping Danvers police patrols because “they couldn’t afford it”, and then hiring their own force for twice the cost. https://blnnews.com/2015/10/28/stanford-do-you-ever-get-mad/ Now see these minutes […]
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Stanford: Taxed Enough Already?
By: Diane Benjamin The Village of Stanford has around 600 people. See this spending list: Stanford Expenditures Here’s a summary: Total expenditures are budgeted at $1,060,060. That’s for 600 people (including kids) $1,767 for every person in the Village. I think this ordinance is posted here: http://stanfordil.org/id4.html Unfortunately, there is nothing to click on. Feeling […]
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Stanford-Allin Township, nobody cares
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written a long list of articles concerning the Village of Stanford and the Allin Township Fire Protection District. Just for the record, Sheriff Sandage isn’t investigating and State’s Attorney Jason Chambers isn’t prosecuting anything I’ve written about. They probably won’t care about the Allin Township Fire Protection Trustees appointing an illegal […]
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Stanford: Does anybody care?
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written lots of stories about the Village of Standford and the Allin Fire Protection District. Even though the Supreme Court has ruled that “bloggers” are media, the Standford Police Chief doesn’t care. Ed Petrey refuses to answer my emails. Earlier in August I asked Ed to refer investigations to the McLean […]
