By Adam Studzinski
BLOOMINGTON – It’s the latest round in the ongoing dispute between Bloomington and Normal over the city’s terminating the Metro Zone agreement.
Bloomington mayor Tari Renner said during a press conference Thursday the city first brought this issue to Normal mayor Chris Koos’ attention in the fall of 2014.
“There was certainly support on the council for re-examining the Metro Zone agreement,” said Renner. “I remember it pretty clearly because I was surprised, he said, ‘if you do that we will sue you.’
I said, ‘that’s what I’m trying to avoid.'”
City Attorney Jeff Jurgens hoped to avoid a lawsuit.
“Certainly we’re hopeful this can be resolved diplomatically and that both parties can come together with kind of a refreshed approach on this,” Jurgens said.
Renner produced pages of emails showing ongoing correspondence between the two cities over the deal though much of it has only been in the last few months. The emails begin in 2014. There is a two year gap in conversations between April 2014 and November 2016.
“I really think we need to set the record straight, so you can see exactly what happened and when, and so we don’t have this ‘he said she said,'” said Renner. “This is the time to be grownups.”
Following Bloomington’s vote on the Metro Zone, Normal released a statement saying it’s reviewing all its intergovernmental agreements with Bloomington. Normal Mayor Chris Koos has said Bloomington can no longer be trusted.
In response to a request for comment, a spokesman for Normal said via email:
“The Town takes considerable issue with a number of Mayor Renner’s claims, but they will address these issues in an open and public discussion at the regularly scheduled Council meeting on Monday night.”
Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].
