This past week the County Board had a Committee of the Whole meeting, a special meeting, and a court ruling on appointments. The discussion and votes mostly revolved around appointments and a referendum on eliminating the County Recorder office by merging it with the County Clerk's office. There was also some discussion on the Animal Control office and its handling of euthanasia cases after a tragic mistake over Christmas.
The Committee of the Whole (video, agenda packet here) was a marathon meeting lasting nearly 5 hours. Most of the public comments revolved around the outrage of the Animal Control euthanasia error and some input on how best to eliminate the Recorder's office. The News-Gazette had an overview of the Recorder referendum approved a couple days later at the special meeting (video, agenda):
The long-debated question of whether Champaign County should eliminate the elected office of recorder of deeds is now set to head to voters.
At a special meeting Thursday night, the county board approved putting the question on the April 6 ballot.
Specifically, voters will be asked if the office of Champaign County recorder shall be eliminated, with all duties and responsibilities of that office being transferred to the county clerk’s office, at the end of this year.
Full article here with a brief overview of what the Recorder office does and how those duties are often part of a County Clerk's office in Illinois counties. Most of the discussion in this week's meetings revolved around the technical issues of how long it would take to transfer the responsibilities of the office and ultimately end the elected office overseeing it. A compromise for the end of this year won out in the end.
Of the long discussions and arguments about appointments, probably the most important point was that appointed positions are difficult to fill and the County needs more applicants and interest.
If you are interested in learning more and applying for a vacancy, start on the Board Appointments page: http://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyExecutive/Appointments.php
The County Executive also has appointment news on the Executive's News page: http://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyExecutive/countyexecnewsreleases.php
This page lists the different appointed bodies overseen by the Board. To find a current opening, start by clicking on the “Vacant Appointments” tab.
The appointments links on the County website can be a bit circular and confusing as the appointment authority has changed with the new County Executive form of government. This has been a subject of lawsuits, including the most recent ruling establishing the Executive as the clear appointment authority, with the County Board's authority to advise and consent to those nominations. The News-Gazette highlighted a potential hiccup with a recent vacancy appointment to the board itself:
Whether it will have any impact on the recent appointment of Cameron Raab to fill the other District 6 seat formerly held by Mike Ingram, who resigned after being elected county recorder of deeds in November, remains to be seen.
Kloeppel vetoed Raab’s appointment, but her veto was ignored and Raab was seated as a new board member.
Kloeppel said Friday she could potentially appoint Raab herself, or she could let her veto stand — in which case the board could override it — or she could contest the appointment, though that would require going back to court.
That full article with more details and background here. Other appointment discussions included more legal technicalities about statutory requirements for partisan balance on the Board of Review (an overview of the Board of Review is available at a previous Cheat Sheet post here).
The discussion on the Animal Control Department didn't result in any substantive votes or changes, but there have been a couple updates in the local news about new protocols to hopefully prevent any further errors and allay concerns with the public. Illinois Newsroom had an overview of the discussions and copies of memos on the subject:
Both County Executive Darlene Kloeppel and Animal Control director Stephanie Joos issued memos reporting on the incident (they can be seen below, following this article). In her report, Joos said she’s taken steps to prevent future mistakes. Because there was confusion over the description of Dada, additional fields have been added to the department’s loss report form, so staff can provide more details. And kennel cages at the department’s pound will have additional signs showing the status of each animal.
“These new measures have been implemented to assure this will not happen again,” Joos wrote in the memo.
That full article here. WCIA had additional coverage with a short video segment here.
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