On Monday afternoon the Normal Electoral Board met to begin the process of handling an objection to a petition filed by Citizens for a Better Normal that would end at large elections of town council members and create six districts with one council member elected from each district.
The Normal Electoral Board is made up of; Mayor Chris Koos, Senior Council Member Kevin McCarthy and City Clerk Angie Huonker. McCarthy was not able to attend the meeting. That left a weird situation where no second was required for an amendment since there were only two members on the board and Koos was the chair.
The objection was filed by Patrick Dullard, an advocate for more bike and pedestrian travel in Bloomington-Normal and President of Friends of the Constitution Trail. Friends of the Constitution Trail is listed on Normal’s web site on a page titled Bike Related Organizations.
Koos is the owner of Vitesse Cycle Shop, a bicycle retail store.
Bike Blono’s Patrick Dullard files an Objection Against The Normal Districting Petition
Monday’s meeting was an initial hearing. Koos appointed town attorney Brain Day to the Board. The next order of business was the adoption of rules.
Patrick Dullard was recognized as the objector and was provided with information.
Kathy Siracuse was recognized as the respondent and was provided information.
Siracuse told Cities 92.9 how she became the respondent saying she delivered the signatures for the petition to the town clerk to file and “because I delivered them to the desk they needed someone to file a piece of paper as a contact person. I signed that not knowing that I would be the one that got the summons for the hearing, that I would be the one that got the registered letters in the mail, that I would be the one that had to stand up and speak on behalf of the group.”
Citizens for a Better Normal is a group loosely organized by Stan Nord, a Normal Council member. The group has no officers or organizational structure. Nord did not want to be seen as the face of the group because he felt the effort might be more successful if it was seen as a grass roots effort. And that is exactly what Nord spurred.
Persons supporting the effort by gathering signatures have come from every political spectrum. Individuals that gathered signatures range from Krystle Abel on the left to Diane Benjamin on the right.
Full disclosure, this writer was one of the people asked by Nord to head the group but was too committed to other duties to take on the role.
At yesterday’s hearing Koos was asked if there could be more than one respondent. Koos answered no.
Normal Playing Loose Again With Numbers Regarding Underpass.
The board assigned a case management call to be held today. The call will involve Day, Dullard and Siracuse.
Koos announced that any briefs or motions must be filed by Friday the 26th. It was stated that if necessary a records check will be made on Friday.
Koos then scheduled a second hearing for Monday, August 29th at 3:00 pm in the council chambers. After that the meeting was recessed and the public was allowed to comment.
Pastor Rochelle Patterson of God’s Decision Outreach Ministry spoke during public comment and restated her thoughts for Cities after the meeting saying, “My comments were based on help, really needing a personal relationship with a councilman, someone that we can look up to, someone that we know would be willing to fight for us.”
Patterson continued, “And when I say us I mean a neighborhood, someone that has a one on one relationship with the neighborhood so that they would know what you’re going through and when you say this is happening in my neighborhood, well you live there too councilman, so you know this is going on.”
Also speaking during public comment was Alice Sheetz who told us after the meeting “The referendum that we have been getting signatures for is a referendum that has been signed and approved by the people of Normal.”
Sheetz added, “I was walking around getting signatures and found out that the people of Normal did not know how the council worked and how they are demographically located. And so there is no representation as far as the whole city of Normal is concerned. They are all in one place, demographically located in one place. And so the other people on the other side of where they live do not have any representation at all.”
“So, districting, or dividing Normal into six districts, will represent the people better because you will have one representative that has accountability to you, to take care of your problems. These people that signed agreed with the referendum and the referendum needs to be put on the ballot. This is what the people of Normal want and this is what they deserve.”
