Official County Board Weekly Calendar: link here
Tuesday October 31, 2017
Local Emergency Management Program Advisory Committee (more info) @ 10:30am
ILEAS
1701 E. Main, Urbana
Just north of Nursing Home, North of Brookens (Map!)
Wednesday November 1, 2017
Crisis Response Planning Committee (more info) @ 1:15pm
Rosecrance
1801 Fox Dr., Champaign
Just up the road from Rodney Davis' office (Map!)
Friday November 3, 2017
Highway & Transportation Committee (more info) @ 9am
Highway Building
1605 E. Main, Urbana
North of Brookens (Map!)
Sunday, October 29, 2017
GOP County Races Liven
From the NG: Tom Kacich: County clerk race gets more interesting
Now... on a cheat sheet that's supposed to make it easy to click and get info on those politics. I'm going to have to add a page or two and work on an election 2018 page for quick clicks and easy info to untangle these snakes. To do list for the week filling up...
Last week's announcement by Jon Rector that he would challenge Matt Grandone in the Republican race for Champaign County clerk next spring surprised some people because it had been assumed Grandone had a clear path to the nomination. He announced before Labor Day, and Rector waited about eight weeks — until about a month before the candidate filing period begins — to enter the race.So that would be Rector, a County Board member of District 5, challenging Matt Grandone, the county clerk employee running for County Clerk with the backing of the current County Clerk, Gordy Hulton (who is running for the County Executive spot). Rector is being backed by former County Clerk, and current County Recorder, Mark Sheldon who you might recognize as a familiar name if you're even remotely involved in local politics.
"This isn't a game of dibs," said Mark Shelden, the Republican county recorder, former county clerk and chairman of Rector's campaign. "This is about what's best for the county clerk's office."
Shelden had been searching for someone to run against Grandone, but said it was nothing personal nor was it a sign that he was challenging Gordy Hulten, the current county clerk who is backing Grandone to be his successor. Hulten is running to become the county's first elected county executive, and so far he is the only Republican contender.
Now... on a cheat sheet that's supposed to make it easy to click and get info on those politics. I'm going to have to add a page or two and work on an election 2018 page for quick clicks and easy info to untangle these snakes. To do list for the week filling up...
Friday, October 27, 2017
County Jail in the News
Smile Politely is a local on-line magazine that has local writers about a variety of topics of local life from entertainment to dining to politics. They had a jail article that elicited a response from a County Board member in the comments, so if county board members are reading it, I suppose we should too. Here's an excerpt from the full op/ed piece:
The jail plan that won’t die
A multimillion-dollar bond that would provide county public safety sales tax revenue to upgrade the county’s satellite jail, including facilities for mental and medical health care, has not appeared in Champaign County Administrator Rick Snider’s budget proposal, and it’s fair to say that vocal grassroots pushback has quite a bit to do with that. The Department of Justice grant that funded Deputy Sheriff Allen Jones’s Crisis Response Planning Committee, supposedly formed to divert arrestees in need of mental health or substance abuse services from the jail, but now working to provide in-jail facilities, has not been renewed. Jones himself was cited in the News-Gazette on October 13th saying that the jail was the wrong place to deliver mental and medical health services.
But seemingly unbeknownst to many on the County Board and in the local media, the jail plan lives on. The figure of $261,113 — over a quarter of a million dollars — is in the current proposal to be allocated either for planning the building of new cells at the satellite jail or for construction at the downtown jail to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act in fulfillment of a years-old Department of Justice citation. It’s not clear how this determination would be made, but past statements have made it clear that the sheriff’s department very much wants to demolish the decaying downtown jail and upgrade the satellite jail. In an August meeting of the county board facilities committee, Sheriff Walsh and Captain Vogees, who runs the jail, spoke of the need for 50 to 60 beds in double-bunked cells, plus a new item: 24 one-person cells dedicated to “special management housing.” The stated intention behind these cells is to provide specialized care inside the jail, though of course this takes funding away from a possible community-based behavioral health provider, and it’s also not clear how qualified round-the-clock staffing would be paid for. In addition, if built, these cells would likely be used for punitive solitary confinement; this is almost always the purpose served by a “special management unit” in a prison or jail...
Thursday, October 26, 2017
The Week Ahead 10/23 - 10/29
Official County Board Weekly Calendar: link here
Tuesday October 24, 2017
Labor/Management Health Insurance Committee (more info) @ 2pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Lincoln Legacy Committee (more info) @ 5pm
Urbana Free Library
210 W. Green
Urbana
Wednesday October 25, 2017
Developmental Disabilities Board (more info) @ 8am
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Mental Health Board Study Session (more info) @ *5:30pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Thursday October 26, 2017
Racial Justice Task Force @ (more info) *6:30pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Meeting is broadcast live on Comcast Public Access and at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/champco1776
Last meeting notes available here.
Zoning Board of Appeals *7pm
Dimit Meeting Room
(Room 1A on this map on the Washington Street side. Pod 100)
Where is Brookens?
Brookens Administrative Center
1776 East Washington Street
Urbana, Illinois 61802-4581
Phone: 217-384-3772
*After 4:30 the Washington Street side Parking Lot is Closed See Maps for the North East Parking Lot Access
Tuesday October 24, 2017
Labor/Management Health Insurance Committee (more info) @ 2pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Lincoln Legacy Committee (more info) @ 5pm
Urbana Free Library
210 W. Green
Urbana
Wednesday October 25, 2017
Developmental Disabilities Board (more info) @ 8am
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Mental Health Board Study Session (more info) @ *5:30pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Thursday October 26, 2017
Racial Justice Task Force @ (more info) *6:30pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Meeting is broadcast live on Comcast Public Access and at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/champco1776
Last meeting notes available here.
Zoning Board of Appeals *7pm
Dimit Meeting Room
(Room 1A on this map on the Washington Street side. Pod 100)
Brookens Administrative Center
1776 East Washington Street
Urbana, Illinois 61802-4581
Phone: 217-384-3772
*After 4:30 the Washington Street side Parking Lot is Closed See Maps for the North East Parking Lot Access
Developmental Disabilities Board 10/25/2017
What is it?
This Board deals with county programs for the developmentally disabled and related county activities. You'll notice a lot of folks in the audience that appear to be at work and almost all of them are. The various agencies that provide services and deal with the county programs for the disabled, independent living, accessibility to work, etc interact with the Board at these meetings for reports, success stories, and to provide the Board with information.
Their main page is here: http://www.co.champaign.il.us/MHBDDB/DDBMeetingDocs.php
Also... I finally got some building layout maps to help people find rooms and entrances better than my scribble sketches here.
At this particular meeting: (Agenda packet and audio)
The recent art expo's success was discussed as well as some of the ground work for the upcoming art expo in April.
Ed McManus' newsletter, input for funding priorities, and having him attend to consult in the future was raised. He's apparently an expert on DD services and if you're interested, here's some information about his consulting company (assuming I have the right Ed McManus dealing with DD services).
A new reporting system for all agencies is apparently in the works and coming soon.
Integration success stories were shared as well as honoring a local business and an exceptional employee there. It was a bit difficult for my layman ears to keep up with a lot of the acronyms and jargon, so if you're planning on attending a meeting it may help to familiarize yourself with local programs. The April expo link has a bunch of resources as does the Regional Planning Commission website. It all depends on how interested you are in the subject and how much you want to dig.
For non-wonks, one issue raised that was a bit heart breaking was hearing about families who survive and live independently because of programs that are funding, at least in part, through medicaid, worried about the bottom dropping out with all of the deregulation and massive spending cuts to medicaid and the dominos falling towards programs essential to their livelihood and well-being.
At this meeting they were organizing their thoughts on how to get community input on concerns and fears in order to better inform those who may be worried with the drastic government changes in this new America.
It's all more than a little unnerving the way it's reaching out and hitting the most vulnerable first. To loyal applause and raging intimidation and cruel mockery from every corner of comments sections and real life. But never mind that...
They were looking at options for live streaming with public input and working out the details on accessibility for TTY, closed caption, an ASL interpreter, and CART services. Also whether or not facebook as a social media platform with live video may have features that can cover this.
A good idea was raised for these meetings as well. The audio only is recorded, and someone mentioned that video helps make sense of who is talking to who and other context that would be helpful. Seems quite possible given how the room is wired for exactly that.
It was more brief than most meetings I've attended at the county, starting at about 8:05am (yes, those agencies work banker hours, so this is an early bird meeting) to about 8:44am.
This Board deals with county programs for the developmentally disabled and related county activities. You'll notice a lot of folks in the audience that appear to be at work and almost all of them are. The various agencies that provide services and deal with the county programs for the disabled, independent living, accessibility to work, etc interact with the Board at these meetings for reports, success stories, and to provide the Board with information.
Their main page is here: http://www.co.champaign.il.us/MHBDDB/DDBMeetingDocs.php
Also... I finally got some building layout maps to help people find rooms and entrances better than my scribble sketches here.
At this particular meeting: (Agenda packet and audio)
The recent art expo's success was discussed as well as some of the ground work for the upcoming art expo in April.
Ed McManus' newsletter, input for funding priorities, and having him attend to consult in the future was raised. He's apparently an expert on DD services and if you're interested, here's some information about his consulting company (assuming I have the right Ed McManus dealing with DD services).
A new reporting system for all agencies is apparently in the works and coming soon.
Integration success stories were shared as well as honoring a local business and an exceptional employee there. It was a bit difficult for my layman ears to keep up with a lot of the acronyms and jargon, so if you're planning on attending a meeting it may help to familiarize yourself with local programs. The April expo link has a bunch of resources as does the Regional Planning Commission website. It all depends on how interested you are in the subject and how much you want to dig.
For non-wonks, one issue raised that was a bit heart breaking was hearing about families who survive and live independently because of programs that are funding, at least in part, through medicaid, worried about the bottom dropping out with all of the deregulation and massive spending cuts to medicaid and the dominos falling towards programs essential to their livelihood and well-being.
At this meeting they were organizing their thoughts on how to get community input on concerns and fears in order to better inform those who may be worried with the drastic government changes in this new America.
It's all more than a little unnerving the way it's reaching out and hitting the most vulnerable first. To loyal applause and raging intimidation and cruel mockery from every corner of comments sections and real life. But never mind that...
They were looking at options for live streaming with public input and working out the details on accessibility for TTY, closed caption, an ASL interpreter, and CART services. Also whether or not facebook as a social media platform with live video may have features that can cover this.
A good idea was raised for these meetings as well. The audio only is recorded, and someone mentioned that video helps make sense of who is talking to who and other context that would be helpful. Seems quite possible given how the room is wired for exactly that.
It was more brief than most meetings I've attended at the county, starting at about 8:05am (yes, those agencies work banker hours, so this is an early bird meeting) to about 8:44am.
Friday, October 20, 2017
County Administrator Leaving
The County Administrator is leaving:
From the News-Gazette: Champaign County administrator moving to Rantoul
Champaign County Administrator Rick Snider will be Rantoul's new village administrator.
The village board voted 4-2 following a 40-minute executive session Thursday night to approve Mayor Chuck Smith's selection of Snider for the job. LaTonya Rufus, director of planning and development for the city of Harvey, was the other finalist.
Smith said Snider will begin his duties in Rantoul on Dec. 1. He will be paid an annual salary of $135,000.
"I'm thrilled to have been selected. I'm looking forward to making contributions in the village of Rantoul, serving the people there," Snider said. "I'm a little bit sad leaving the county, though, at this point.
"I would have liked to have been able to do more perhaps while I was here. But it's been an honor to serve as the county administrator. This is the best county in Illinois."Also from another article: Next Champaign County administrator could be chosen next month
The chairman of the Champaign County Board hopes a decision is made next month on who will replace the outgoing county administrator.
Rick Snider was approved as Rantoul's new village administrator Thursday night. He will be paid $135,000 per year and will begin his new job Dec. 1.
Champaign County Board Chair C. Pius Weibel said his goal is to get approval at a Nov. 14 committee meeting to begin negotiations with a replacement candidate. Weibel said that person could be approved at the county board's full meeting on Nov. 21...
Former county Administrator Deb Busey declined to comment on whether she has been asked to return on an interim basis.
GIS Meeting 10/20/2017
Today there was a GIS Policy Committee. First question: what is this? Also: FAQ. Previous GIS Meeting agendas, information packets, and minutes can be found here.
If regular old County Board meetings and other county government offices weren't interesting enough, let's talk orthophotography, sewage systems, water permeability of soil and drainage and the intricate systems that allow a consortium of city and county governments, as well as private companies needing data.
Over your head? A bit too wonky even for you? Well maybe. The fine folks who do this extremely cool digital work has infrared scans of your neighborhoods and creates correcting scripts to accurately make the data for all the folks who build the systems that keep this whole crazy corner of civilization running with fewer floods, better and more informed policies in your local government. It's certainly on the nerdier side of how the sausage is made. It's also an amazing functioning cooperation between various local governments towards common goals with tangible and good outcomes. So, less depressing than your average government news on c-span.
Speaking of national news though. Russians and ransomware and the attack on your county government a couple weeks back. Yeah, I hadn't heard about it either. Apparently a clicked link opened up the door to a possible new ransomware attack that got through recently updated/patched firewalls and security and began encrypting data, but fortunately was caught before it began deleting the originals (if I understood this correctly). With some quick shutdowns and a couple days of being off-line, a server restore, etc... the damage appeared limited. The County Administrator, who represents the county in the consortium explained that the county government as a whole staved off most of the possible damage.
The issue highlighted how dangerous it is for even for a local government group you may never have heard of and the data precautions that are required... and how quickly those feeling out for vulnerabilities adapt their attacks, from phishing with obscure vendor formats and logos in e-mails to ransomeware attacks, and constant poking around by possible malicious sources, including notably from Russian IPs.
The meeting:
I took a lot of notes, much like you'd do if you were taking notes for a friend in a class you aren't in or understand, but a quick summary seems sufficient.
They couldn't recall having a member of the public sitting in before. The Open Meetings Act makes all sorts of government meetings mandatory open to the public, but it sounded like this was a first to all members' recollection. If you're used to parliamentary rules/Robert's Rules from other meetings, the format will be familiar and if you're thinking about being nerdy and wonky and attending they discussed adding public participation on the agenda just in case any one else wants to check out this little meeting that covers big things.
Before ending on the, "wow, ransomware and Russians?" part they discussed many of the typical needs of a government entity, finances and who is getting what done. The finances sounded pretty non-controversial and appears their budget is doing fine. If you already read the links at the top about what the GIS is and FAQ you can see their contractual services and that the data is also essentially a product for private sale.
There was a discussion about leasing space at the county building and added to things you might not know about county government. The Brookens building leases out space to parts of the government that aren't "general fund entities," so like renting space it requires a lease agreement and some of the meeting was devoted towards the age old question of paying the rent and looking into a longer lease than two years as some other bodies have done in the past. Changes to the lease beyond an editorial level would require County Board approval.
They discussed some changes to the digital data policy for all data and not just derived products being covered. Examples of customers like TomTom and First American were mentioned as data customers, which you might find interesting too. The changes were approved unanimously.
The director's report had the meat and potatoes on new aerial photography coming in with CIR images, or color infra-red that will help determine areas that can't percolate water. This affects issues where people might face higher rates for drainage services if say 80% of the land is impervious to rain absorption. All that rain's gotta go somewhere. There was some brief discussion about shadow issues, spot shots that can be used without additional photography because they've already been taken and just have to be included.
A U of I geography major is volunteering with cleaning up the drainage district data. This a multi-year project that staff works on as well, but it is big help right now. Members discussed opportunities for future student volunteers through the University, specifically with the iSchool, which is the information sciences school at UIUC. A lot of the work is data and computing and QC scripts for error reporting and data consistencies and making sure the data can be migrated and inputted. So that might be right up some experience internship desiring student's alley.
There was some discussion of "the Parcel Fabric" and the difficulties with implementing it. If you're interested in an overview that link seems to explain it. Or at least explains it well enough that you might find some better search terms for more information via google. Long story short, it has many impressive advantages, but it's "a completely different world" and "a lot to get used to." So they're evaluating as they go if they need to delay the transition for a year while they try to get the work done.
There's apparently a genealogy project in the works that may be close to completion later this year or earlier next year due to a programmer having been able to put extra time into it. So that's something to look forward to. I don't know if it's anything similar to what this article discusses, but if you're curious, this may or may not be related: GIS and Genealogy
After that there was a bit of talk about mailers and Piatt County getting a full time assessor in the future before ransomware and Russian pings discussed above. Which ended the meeting on a bit of an ominous note. I had joked about "consortium" eliciting images of the X-Files conspirators, but by the end I actually did have a smidge of paranoia. We live in interesting times.
So should you attend a meeting? If you're curious about how county government operates, this is one fascinating aspect in understanding it. If you're a bit nerdy like me you might find it more interesting than others, but it's not a requirement. I certainly learned a few new things and didn't understand everything, so I consider it a small victory towards understanding how county government all fits together, so maybe visit at least once. It seems sad that they may have never had a visitor from the public to make use of the Open Meetings Act before.
If regular old County Board meetings and other county government offices weren't interesting enough, let's talk orthophotography, sewage systems, water permeability of soil and drainage and the intricate systems that allow a consortium of city and county governments, as well as private companies needing data.
Over your head? A bit too wonky even for you? Well maybe. The fine folks who do this extremely cool digital work has infrared scans of your neighborhoods and creates correcting scripts to accurately make the data for all the folks who build the systems that keep this whole crazy corner of civilization running with fewer floods, better and more informed policies in your local government. It's certainly on the nerdier side of how the sausage is made. It's also an amazing functioning cooperation between various local governments towards common goals with tangible and good outcomes. So, less depressing than your average government news on c-span.
Speaking of national news though. Russians and ransomware and the attack on your county government a couple weeks back. Yeah, I hadn't heard about it either. Apparently a clicked link opened up the door to a possible new ransomware attack that got through recently updated/patched firewalls and security and began encrypting data, but fortunately was caught before it began deleting the originals (if I understood this correctly). With some quick shutdowns and a couple days of being off-line, a server restore, etc... the damage appeared limited. The County Administrator, who represents the county in the consortium explained that the county government as a whole staved off most of the possible damage.
The issue highlighted how dangerous it is for even for a local government group you may never have heard of and the data precautions that are required... and how quickly those feeling out for vulnerabilities adapt their attacks, from phishing with obscure vendor formats and logos in e-mails to ransomeware attacks, and constant poking around by possible malicious sources, including notably from Russian IPs.
The meeting:
I took a lot of notes, much like you'd do if you were taking notes for a friend in a class you aren't in or understand, but a quick summary seems sufficient.
They couldn't recall having a member of the public sitting in before. The Open Meetings Act makes all sorts of government meetings mandatory open to the public, but it sounded like this was a first to all members' recollection. If you're used to parliamentary rules/Robert's Rules from other meetings, the format will be familiar and if you're thinking about being nerdy and wonky and attending they discussed adding public participation on the agenda just in case any one else wants to check out this little meeting that covers big things.
Before ending on the, "wow, ransomware and Russians?" part they discussed many of the typical needs of a government entity, finances and who is getting what done. The finances sounded pretty non-controversial and appears their budget is doing fine. If you already read the links at the top about what the GIS is and FAQ you can see their contractual services and that the data is also essentially a product for private sale.
There was a discussion about leasing space at the county building and added to things you might not know about county government. The Brookens building leases out space to parts of the government that aren't "general fund entities," so like renting space it requires a lease agreement and some of the meeting was devoted towards the age old question of paying the rent and looking into a longer lease than two years as some other bodies have done in the past. Changes to the lease beyond an editorial level would require County Board approval.
They discussed some changes to the digital data policy for all data and not just derived products being covered. Examples of customers like TomTom and First American were mentioned as data customers, which you might find interesting too. The changes were approved unanimously.
The director's report had the meat and potatoes on new aerial photography coming in with CIR images, or color infra-red that will help determine areas that can't percolate water. This affects issues where people might face higher rates for drainage services if say 80% of the land is impervious to rain absorption. All that rain's gotta go somewhere. There was some brief discussion about shadow issues, spot shots that can be used without additional photography because they've already been taken and just have to be included.
A U of I geography major is volunteering with cleaning up the drainage district data. This a multi-year project that staff works on as well, but it is big help right now. Members discussed opportunities for future student volunteers through the University, specifically with the iSchool, which is the information sciences school at UIUC. A lot of the work is data and computing and QC scripts for error reporting and data consistencies and making sure the data can be migrated and inputted. So that might be right up some experience internship desiring student's alley.
There was some discussion of "the Parcel Fabric" and the difficulties with implementing it. If you're interested in an overview that link seems to explain it. Or at least explains it well enough that you might find some better search terms for more information via google. Long story short, it has many impressive advantages, but it's "a completely different world" and "a lot to get used to." So they're evaluating as they go if they need to delay the transition for a year while they try to get the work done.
There's apparently a genealogy project in the works that may be close to completion later this year or earlier next year due to a programmer having been able to put extra time into it. So that's something to look forward to. I don't know if it's anything similar to what this article discusses, but if you're curious, this may or may not be related: GIS and Genealogy
After that there was a bit of talk about mailers and Piatt County getting a full time assessor in the future before ransomware and Russian pings discussed above. Which ended the meeting on a bit of an ominous note. I had joked about "consortium" eliciting images of the X-Files conspirators, but by the end I actually did have a smidge of paranoia. We live in interesting times.
So should you attend a meeting? If you're curious about how county government operates, this is one fascinating aspect in understanding it. If you're a bit nerdy like me you might find it more interesting than others, but it's not a requirement. I certainly learned a few new things and didn't understand everything, so I consider it a small victory towards understanding how county government all fits together, so maybe visit at least once. It seems sad that they may have never had a visitor from the public to make use of the Open Meetings Act before.
County Board 10/19/2017
If you've never been to a County Board meeting, whether it be a general one that this is about, or the committee of the whole or other meetings, here's a primer on where to find them, what they're like, where the bathrooms are, etc: Attend a Meeting
Today was a general County Board meeting, the big shebang, and not to be confused with the Committee of the Whole, that is more focused on areas of responsibility of subcommittees and offices of county government. This is where a lot of the major decisions on policy are made, along with a lot of administrative decisions being voted on fairly quickly.
When are county board meetings? The County Clerk website describing the various county meetings puts it this way: "The Champaign County Board typically meets the third Thursday (following the first Monday) of each month at 6:30 p.m." So, if you look at the yearly calendar, it's probably just best to check the calendar until you're used to checking for the first Monday and not just counting Thursdays. I'd probably goof it up unless I checked which third Thursday myself, so I used their Calendar that already figured it out.
To catch an older meeting: https://www.youtube.com/user/champaigncountyclerk
Today's meeting:
A solid overview is available from the News-Gazette: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-10-20/county-board-rejects-motion-request-bids-nursing-home.html
There was a preliminary meeting due to an increase of the tax levy at 6pm that had its own basic agenda printed out that essentially just explained the confusing state mandated announcement in the paper that required it be formatted in a way that made it sound like taxes were going to go up.
What's going on is that the court case on whether or not hospital property will be taxed is still working its way through the courts and the levy needed to be adjusted now to take into account that property being taxed if the court rules that way. If it rules the other way it's legally simple to adjust the levy back down later. The reason to be pro-active and adjust it up is that it is legally difficult (perhaps impossible) to adjust it up in hindsight if the court rules the property taxable.
The end result for the tax payer depending on the way the court rules is estimated to be about 45 cents difference on a $150,000 home. So literal pocket change after the levy is applied to estimated property values and the tax is calculated. Handy information on tax levy versus tax rates from the News-Gazette and couple other sources including a quick confirmation e-mail from County staff.
[Update: I added an addendum on the tax levy page by someone who knows what they're talking about and explained both tax levies *and* this hospital situation related to them here with a direct jump link.]
Regular meeting:
Chris Stohr was sworn in:
The agenda was a bit confusing this time around. There was the two sided County Board Agenda, that was apparently out of order and had to be re-ordered during the meeting. That was stapled to a yellow consent agenda for other items to be voted on, and a third loose addendum agenda that added three more items to other business. Makes it a bit harder to follow along.
Again, the News-Gazette article is concise for the bullet points on the contentious votes to prepare a 12 month budget too and allowing the brokerage firm to start getting bids for the Nursing Home.
Public participation included a couple people I believe I saw at the BPNJ meeting who spoke along with a few community members and a former board candidate in support of the Nursing Home being managed by the new company and not being sabotaged by signals that the Board is going to assume its sale or failure. Appeals were made for pre-trial services and not using jails as providers for rehab and mental health care.
The upcoming MLK Jr. celebration will be honoring local youth. There will be details on the website to nominate a young person to be honored at the event.
After some easily passed measures they got to the discussion on preparing the 12 month budget. The gist was that Republicans see only doom for the County Budget if they act like they're going to retain it and liberals won't be able to fund all of those marvelous programs they want if all the budget keeps going to keep the Nursing Home limping along with loans and all its debt. Democrats argued intensely that the home is still the obligation of the board and no vote has been taken to sell it by the board and it would be irresponsible to act like such a vote has already taken place when they don't even have the votes to pass the sale yet.
The chairman tried to calm tensions as it was becoming apparent in tone and demeanor that people were getting upset at accusations that Republicans were only looking for a tax cut at the expense of residents. Democrats appeared upset at the apparent disingenuous support for other services and one member using a public participant's family member to argue against their position.
All of this to merely prepare a 12 month budget to have as comparison. Not pass a budget. It passed by hand vote, a roll call request coming too late.
The discussion towards the release of RFP (essentially to allow the brokerage firm get bids for the Nursing Home under various requirements to maintain so many beds, services, etc) continued to the discussions about the tightness of the budget in hiring staff, as with a previous vote, and the proverbial money pit the Republicans believed the Nursing Home to be. They accused the Democrats of kicking the can down the road which in their estimation is why they're still dealing with a failing system. Democrats inquired where the minimum sale price and other figures came from and the Administrator said it was mostly through the brokerage firm looking at similar sales elsewhere and other factors.
In the end the vote with Republicans and Patsy Petrie against the Democrats in a failing tie vote 11-11 roll call. The following items on the agenda relied on the RFP passing and it was brought up that the lawyer recommended against having a vote on those dependent items. It was mentioned that the RFP vote could not be reconsidered at this meeting having failed as such.
Some folks lingered and talked to their board members afterward. I waited to introduce myself behind a couple other constituents, but ran out of time. I'm starting to remember some faces and names and following a couple on facebook for updates and reactions. So, I might slowly be figuring out what the county government is up to... and maybe eventually effect positive change in it. It's not so bad if you want to give it a whirl.
Today was a general County Board meeting, the big shebang, and not to be confused with the Committee of the Whole, that is more focused on areas of responsibility of subcommittees and offices of county government. This is where a lot of the major decisions on policy are made, along with a lot of administrative decisions being voted on fairly quickly.
When are county board meetings? The County Clerk website describing the various county meetings puts it this way: "The Champaign County Board typically meets the third Thursday (following the first Monday) of each month at 6:30 p.m." So, if you look at the yearly calendar, it's probably just best to check the calendar until you're used to checking for the first Monday and not just counting Thursdays. I'd probably goof it up unless I checked which third Thursday myself, so I used their Calendar that already figured it out.
To catch an older meeting: https://www.youtube.com/user/champaigncountyclerk
Today's meeting:
A solid overview is available from the News-Gazette: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-10-20/county-board-rejects-motion-request-bids-nursing-home.html
There was a preliminary meeting due to an increase of the tax levy at 6pm that had its own basic agenda printed out that essentially just explained the confusing state mandated announcement in the paper that required it be formatted in a way that made it sound like taxes were going to go up.
What's going on is that the court case on whether or not hospital property will be taxed is still working its way through the courts and the levy needed to be adjusted now to take into account that property being taxed if the court rules that way. If it rules the other way it's legally simple to adjust the levy back down later. The reason to be pro-active and adjust it up is that it is legally difficult (perhaps impossible) to adjust it up in hindsight if the court rules the property taxable.
The end result for the tax payer depending on the way the court rules is estimated to be about 45 cents difference on a $150,000 home. So literal pocket change after the levy is applied to estimated property values and the tax is calculated. Handy information on tax levy versus tax rates from the News-Gazette and couple other sources including a quick confirmation e-mail from County staff.
[Update: I added an addendum on the tax levy page by someone who knows what they're talking about and explained both tax levies *and* this hospital situation related to them here with a direct jump link.]
Regular meeting:
Chris Stohr was sworn in:
The agenda was a bit confusing this time around. There was the two sided County Board Agenda, that was apparently out of order and had to be re-ordered during the meeting. That was stapled to a yellow consent agenda for other items to be voted on, and a third loose addendum agenda that added three more items to other business. Makes it a bit harder to follow along.
Again, the News-Gazette article is concise for the bullet points on the contentious votes to prepare a 12 month budget too and allowing the brokerage firm to start getting bids for the Nursing Home.
Public participation included a couple people I believe I saw at the BPNJ meeting who spoke along with a few community members and a former board candidate in support of the Nursing Home being managed by the new company and not being sabotaged by signals that the Board is going to assume its sale or failure. Appeals were made for pre-trial services and not using jails as providers for rehab and mental health care.
The upcoming MLK Jr. celebration will be honoring local youth. There will be details on the website to nominate a young person to be honored at the event.
After some easily passed measures they got to the discussion on preparing the 12 month budget. The gist was that Republicans see only doom for the County Budget if they act like they're going to retain it and liberals won't be able to fund all of those marvelous programs they want if all the budget keeps going to keep the Nursing Home limping along with loans and all its debt. Democrats argued intensely that the home is still the obligation of the board and no vote has been taken to sell it by the board and it would be irresponsible to act like such a vote has already taken place when they don't even have the votes to pass the sale yet.
The chairman tried to calm tensions as it was becoming apparent in tone and demeanor that people were getting upset at accusations that Republicans were only looking for a tax cut at the expense of residents. Democrats appeared upset at the apparent disingenuous support for other services and one member using a public participant's family member to argue against their position.
All of this to merely prepare a 12 month budget to have as comparison. Not pass a budget. It passed by hand vote, a roll call request coming too late.
The discussion towards the release of RFP (essentially to allow the brokerage firm get bids for the Nursing Home under various requirements to maintain so many beds, services, etc) continued to the discussions about the tightness of the budget in hiring staff, as with a previous vote, and the proverbial money pit the Republicans believed the Nursing Home to be. They accused the Democrats of kicking the can down the road which in their estimation is why they're still dealing with a failing system. Democrats inquired where the minimum sale price and other figures came from and the Administrator said it was mostly through the brokerage firm looking at similar sales elsewhere and other factors.
In the end the vote with Republicans and Patsy Petrie against the Democrats in a failing tie vote 11-11 roll call. The following items on the agenda relied on the RFP passing and it was brought up that the lawyer recommended against having a vote on those dependent items. It was mentioned that the RFP vote could not be reconsidered at this meeting having failed as such.
Some folks lingered and talked to their board members afterward. I waited to introduce myself behind a couple other constituents, but ran out of time. I'm starting to remember some faces and names and following a couple on facebook for updates and reactions. So, I might slowly be figuring out what the county government is up to... and maybe eventually effect positive change in it. It's not so bad if you want to give it a whirl.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The Week Ahead 10/16 - 10/22 - UPDATED
[UPDATES 10/17] Official County Board Weekly Calendar link here.
Wednesday October 18, 2017
Technology Oversight Committee - [UPDATE: CANCELLED]
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Mental Health Board @ *5:30pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Thursday October 19, 2017
[UPDATE: There's a schedule and announcement listing for the same meeting at 6pm on this day. I thought it might have been a scheduling conflict, but the wording was just different due to a state law required announcement requiring a specific format.]
Tax Levy Hearing listed on the calendar as "County Board Truth in Taxation Public Hearing" (agenda empty as of 10/14) @ *6pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
***Champaign County Board Meeting*** (Agenda) @ *6:30pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Friday, October 20, 2017
GIS Policy Committee (what is this? Also: FAQ) @ 11:00am
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Where is Brookens?
Brookens Administrative Center
1776 East Washington Street
Urbana, Illinois 61802-4581
Phone: 217-384-3772
*After 4:30 the Washington Street side Parking Lot is Closed See Maps for the North East Parking Lot Access
Wednesday October 18, 2017
Technology Oversight Committee - [UPDATE: CANCELLED]
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Mental Health Board @ *5:30pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Thursday October 19, 2017
[UPDATE: There's a schedule and announcement listing for the same meeting at 6pm on this day. I thought it might have been a scheduling conflict, but the wording was just different due to a state law required announcement requiring a specific format.]
Tax Levy Hearing listed on the calendar as "County Board Truth in Taxation Public Hearing" (agenda empty as of 10/14) @ *6pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
***Champaign County Board Meeting*** (Agenda) @ *6:30pm
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Friday, October 20, 2017
GIS Policy Committee (what is this? Also: FAQ) @ 11:00am
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Brookens Administrative Center
1776 East Washington Street
Urbana, Illinois 61802-4581
Phone: 217-384-3772
*After 4:30 the Washington Street side Parking Lot is Closed See Maps for the North East Parking Lot Access
Build Programs Not Jails Meeting 10/18/2017
What is Build Programs Not Jails (BPNJ)?
Their website explains their history, what they do, and involvement with the county board, the Racial Justice Task Force and their meetings and actions: https://programsnotjails.com/
I also made a quick cheat sheet page here: http://cheatsheetcc.blogspot.com/p/build-programs-not-jails.html
While not a part of County Government, BPNJ is an invaluable resource for many liberals and progressives who may already be interested in criminal and social justice issues as it relates to county government which oversees jails, mental health programs, and many other issues directly related to criminal and social justice.
From their resources, blog, and other information you can quickly see that they already have a solid ear to the ground on a lot of county issues from the nursing home, to the jail planning, and mental health programs. This was my first meeting to check out who they are and what they do.
Meeting Notes:
Introductions! It's a very friendly atmosphere and you might feel like you're in a college group right off the bat as they go around the circle and everyone introduces themselves. Caught me off guard being the kind of person that uses self-checkout in spite of my fears of Skynet and artificial intelligence singularities starting with tracking my grocery purchases. Just kidding (mostly... computer engineering major, leave me alone!)
Afterwards there was probably one of the more valuable parts for people trying to understand what the heck the County Board is doing at its various meetings. Here members who attended report on what happened at the meetings and who they talked to about this issue or that. I saw at least one person from my first "Committee of the Whole" meeting who had spoke to the board about questionnaires for feedback during public participation.
She did get some responses talking to members, McGuire, Patsy Petrie, Summers, and Stephanie Fortado who was apparently very responsive on finance issues and recommendations for promoting issues to the board.
Example: Understanding Budget Making (how the sausage is made):
Outside of major expenditures, most of the County Budget is generated by staff and experts within the constraints of their departments. A lot of the budget issues are hammered out before the board makes more general changes and fixes as opposed to the minutia. Like large complicated bills in the U.S. congress, staff does the bulk of the nitty gritty work while the members vote on the whole shebang.
Announcements:
BPNJ will have members at the Expungement Summit coming up this Saturday. More info on that at the facebook event site here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1819949354887672/
Full-service assistance with application, preparation, and filing for adult and juvenile criminal record expungement, sealing, and alternative forms of relief.
Hosted by the Champaign County Circuit Clerk's Offfice, with legislative sponsors Rep. Carol Ammons and Sen. Scott Bennett.
Register online here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Champaign_Expungement_Sealing_Summit_2
Questions? Call 217-384-3725.
ACLU Listening Tour in Champaign November 7th
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/360865144359187/
Website Info: https://www.aclu-il.org/en/events/aclu-listening-tour-champaign
There was also a Peoples Response Committee event with community defense training? I was unable to find information on this. I think I may have written it down wrong and will correct when I verify. It sounded like it required an invitation and had limited spots for an October 28th event. Apologies in advance for assuming I'd google search and fill in the blanks.
And the IMC staff mentioned that Monday night there will by a Hot Topics YWCA event with speakers from Chicago that have expertise in legal aid: http://www.ywcauofi.org/hot-topics
Oct. 23, 7-9 pm, WRC | The Abuse to Prison Pipeline
Join us during Domestic Violence Awareness Month for a dialogue about the sexual abuse to prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects women of color in the United States.
Facebook Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/129534097677986/
Final Thoughts:
BPNJ appears to be an invaluable and underutilized resource for local progressives and liberals who care about criminal justice and social justice reform and a multitude of related programs in the area that get overlooked in politics because local politics can be overwhelming.
They were looking to reach out to allied groups who could help bring attention to County Board votes and agendas that affect these issues and for a small investment of time, people to join and participate in local government.
They're friendly, the atmosphere at the UI-IMC is, if you're unfamiliar with it, extremely casual. While this meeting was going on, they were setting up for a music show. It's an interesting place with a lot of spaces for community events and organizations and even if you only know it from the left-wing blog or newspaper, the IMC is a local gem beyond that.
Monday, October 16, 2017
Short Notice: Board Seat Replacement
From the News-Gazette: 3 Dems apply for District 10 county board seat
Three Urbana Democrats have applied to replace Chris Alix, also an Urbana Democrat, on the Champaign County Board.
One of the three — Tanisha King-Taylor, Christopher Stohr or Durl Kruse — likely will be chosen Monday night when Democratic precinct committeemen within county board District 10 meet.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the county Democratic headquarters, 110 S. Neil St., C.
Stohr, a committeeman in the Cunningham 12 precinct in east Urbana, has the greatest number of votes to cast among the nine committeemen who will select the new board member. He has 627 weighted votes of the more than 3,100 available. He is a business owner and former staff member at the Illinois State Geological Survey. He also is secretary of the county Democratic Party.
Kruse in the past has run for Urbana City Council and mayor of Urbana, but lost both times.
King-Taylor, in her application for the position, said that she has not run for an office before but that she serves on the board of directors of both the YWCA and the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club. She is director of the tenant union at the University of Illinois.More info to come... and now here it is:
Chris Stohr, the secretary of the Champaign County Democratic Party and a founding member of the East Urbana Neighborhood Association, was appointed Monday night to complete the term of Chris Alix, another Urbana Democrat, on the Champaign County Board.
Stohr, 68, a retired geologist at the Illinois State Geological Survey, was chosen at a meeting of Democratic precinct committeemen from County Board District 10. He was named over two other candidates, Durl Kruse and Tanisha King-Taylor.
Maryam Ar-Raheem, chair of the county Democratic Party, did not disclose the weighted score that each of the candidates received. Although the candidates made their presentations in an open session, precinct committeemen held their deliberations in a closed session...
Stohr, an Urbana resident since 1980, is expected to be seated at Thursday's county board meeting, replacing Alix, who resigned because of an increased workload at his business.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Tax Levies versus Tax Rates
A helpful explanation on tax levies versus tax rates on an issue coming up on the County Board this week.
From the News-Gazette: Tom's #Mailbag, Oct. 13, 2017
Property tax increase"Noted in last week's News Gazette of an upcoming Oct. 19, 2017 public hearing to approve a proposed Champaign County property tax levy increase for 2018. Total property tax levy increase was documented at 7.74 percent. Have searched online for info on reason(s) for this large property tax increase. Please advise where I might access this info in advance of the Oct. 19 public hearing."
The public hearing on the county's proposed tax levy increase will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, just before the county board meeting at 6:30 p.m. State law requires the notice you saw in the paper and dictates its form and content, said County Administrator Rick Snider.
The important thing to remember is that an increase in the tax levy doesn't mean there will be an increase in the county's tax rate.
The 7.74 percent increase in the levy — the amount the county government is seeking in property taxes next year — "is a result of the continuing legal matters surrounding the hospital property tax exemption case," said Snider.
He is referring to the legal case, which went all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court and is now back before the circuit court, regarding the tax-exemption status of the two Urbana hospitals.
"We learned that there is still a possibility that a ruling may come before the Board of Review closes its books in March," Snider said. That's on a second case that the Supreme Court agreed to hear — Oswald V. Hamer — on Sept. 27.
"We are overlevying to capture the new growth attributable to the hospital properties returning to the rolls. If this does not happen then the county clerk will automatically reduce the levies to their proper levels under the (Property Tax Extension Limitation Law)."
In other words if there is a court ruling favorable to taxing districts in the next few months the levy will increase up to 7.74 percent. If there isn't a favorable ruling it won't.
"This does not increase the rate on other taxpayers," Snider said. "If we didn't act and the properties went back on the rolls, the opportunity to capture the growth is permanently lost and in future years the tax burden would increase for everyone else."Of course seeing the announcement on the County Board website, had me do a double take even after reading the NG's explanation:
Notice of Proposed Property Tax Increase for Champaign County, Illinois
A public hearing to approve a proposed property tax levy increase for Champaign County for 2018 will be held on October 19, 2017, at 6:00 p.m. at the Lyle Shields Meeting Room, Brookens Administrative Center, 1776 E. Washington, Urbana, IL.
Any person desiring to appear at the public hearing and present testimony to the taxing district may contact Tami Ogden, Deputy County Administrator/Finance, 1776 E. Washington, Urbana, IL 61802, (217) 384-3776, togden@co.champaign.il.us.
The corporate and special purpose property taxes extended or abated for 2017 were $30,802,598.95.
The proposed corporate and special purpose property taxes to be levied for 2018 are $33,302,118. This represents an 8.11% increase over the previous year.
The property taxes extended for debt service and public building commission leases for 2017 were $1,442,772.56.
The estimated property taxes to be levied for debt service and public building commission leases for 2018 are $1,440,463. This represents a 0.16% decrease over the previous year.
The total property taxes extended or abated for 2017 were $32,245,371.51.
The estimated total property taxes to be levied for 2018 are $34,742,581. This represents a 7.74% increase over the previous year.Which of course made me ask, "wait... are my property taxes being increased or not." And then I had to re-read Tom Kacich's explanation again. And no, tax rates are not going up, just the levy, which is what the board *seeks* in property taxes next year. If I'm understanding it correctly it's more like setting an income goal on your next year's budget (even if you don't know how many hours, bonuses, side jobs, or raises may happen) to plan your spending goals accordingly. If you set that levy higher, it doesn't automatically get you more money for your budget.
For accountants and wonks that have dealt with budgets outside of my napkin doodles, it seems they toss around the term "levy" as a budget term for an assessed amount *that doesn't* always have the negative connotations it does with tax payers. I'll rely on their far better understanding of it than my previous understanding of it being synonymous with "taking my money."
Now the real question is how will a higher tax levy affect future tax rates? That is a good question and one I hope to have an answer to in a future post. UPDATE: Yes, it can. Additional information follows:
Here's a great generic explanation of Tax Levies versus Tax Rates someone pointed out to me. It is available at this pdf. It's from a school board elsewhere, but the ideas are the same and probably beats my attempt to explain it as best I could muster at the end. Y'know, from people who know what they're talking about. Here's an excerpt:
I wanted to make sure that I was still understanding this right, so I got in touch with the County Treasurer's office and asked:
I had a quick question that perhaps you or your staff could answer. I think I understand a tax levy, like the one being voted on this week, as being a bit like a budget goal. We hope to get that much for the budget from tax revenue.And got a reply that made sense:
Are the tax rates calculated from that then? Or are tax rates voted on separately?
Thank you for your time and help.
The levy is the document we use to determine the tax revenue to be collected. The levy applied to the taxing district’s taxable value is how we calculate tax rates.So levies are important and an increase that outpaces the rise in the district's taxable value could cause your tax rates to be higher than last year.
Hopefully that helps. If you already knew this and just like to watch slow people struggle to grasp basic government concepts for entertainment? You're welcome!
Addendum 10/20/2017:
Local yokel and someone who has been following this issue with a far better understanding than I, Laura Sandefur, explained tax levies and also the hospital issue that was at issue with them this week. She gave me the thumbs up to quote her, and I think you'll find her explanations as helpful as I did:
A tax levy is the taxing district asking for the money to keep their people paid, the lights on, and the doors open--money to pay all the stuff they do and services they provide. By law, they have to hold a public hearing about that. Think of it as a kid asking for an allowance. (not being demeaning here, so please don't yell at me!)Okay, that last part wasn't necessary to quote, but it helps to remember that in politics we're dealing with real live human beings with real loved ones doing real life things trying to get by in this crazy rock hurling about the cosmos sometimes. She got back to me on the the hospital taxes thusly:
The tax rate is what you have after all the various taxing districts submit their levy each year. Once ALL those taxing districts have sent in those levy amounts in, they are then split out across ALL the real estate present in that district, and that is a tax rate. Add all the percentages for each of the taxing districts on the tax bill, and that is the aggregate tax rate for that property Think of that as mom and dad deciding how much they each are paying of that kid's allowance.
Property taxes are calculated based on the ASSESSED value (approx 1/3 of market value according to Illinois law, unless you live in Cook County) for the property. Think of that as mom paying $20. of the allowance and Dad paying $30.
Clear as mud? I spent over a decade trying to explain Illinois property taxes to property owners. Sorry I didn't spot this discussion earlier... Will try to get back later to explain the whole tax exemption portion. Gotta go pick up my mom.
The issue with the tax exemption question the the paper says is outstanding is in regard to the hospitals. They were not paying property taxes on hospital property for a very long time. They were given exemption from property taxes just like churches and publicly owned property like parks and schools. Without getting bogged down in all the details (if you really want those, one day we can all sit down with beverages and talk like folks!) the hospitals were put back on the tax rolls and they became liable for taxes.If you feel like you actually understand this after all that, congratulations! You are one step closer to the wonk side!
Court battles ensued with all kinds of lawyers going back and forth, until, ultimately, the Illinois Supreme Court handed down a ruling saying the hospitals owed property taxes. More court battles came. Then, the Illinois legislature passed a new law that opened the door to the hospitals possibly being exempt again. Even MORE court cases followed after that new law was passed because there is a question about the ability of the legislature to even PASS that new law.
Last I heard, I think I saw, the **original** question was remanded back to the local courts for determination...
You may be tempted to ask how ANY of this relates to you. Can't blame you for asking. Here's the deal, any time a property is given tax exemption that means the rest of the property owners have to pay the share of taxes that should/would have been paid on those exempted properties. When you start talking about "a few" million dollars of property that is exempted, that can add up pretty quick. It increases the tax liability for the rest of the property owners. You pay more so they don't have to.
Levy bodies (taxing districts) are gonna get their money. The question of who is gonna pay it is what's hanging out there right now.
Saturday, October 14, 2017
RJTF Meeting Oct 12
[UPDATE: Live streaming link error was just a bad link typo from the RJTF page, the correct link is on other board meeting pages and also here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/champco1776 . Also notified their tech department.]
The Racial Justice Task Force is coming to an end and has one meeting left before submitting its report to the County Board and the community at large. For more information on what the RJTF is and why it was created by the County Board you can either go to the RJTF website here or for the brief cliff notes on this site here. The live stream on the county board website did not appear to be functional to watch it from home. I'll update this when I get an answer on if there's a new link not on the County Board website on Monday. Until then, livestream appears to be down:
This second to last meeting was almost entirely working on the final report, and a lot of time dedicated to the introduction of that report. You can imagine a committee editing typos and suggestions on a google documents up on the overhead projector and all the excitement that work entails. Short but civil debates occurred on being clear, concise, but ensuring the content accurately represented the reasons for the report, why it the task force was necessary, and effectively describing it all.
There was a lot of work to do and I imagine the final meeting will probably run long as well. Many subcommittee/subgroup tasks were assigned to format and fix their assigned portions and also to review them prior to the next meeting. If you're curious to see the nitty gritty work that goes into having to work on projects as a committee within county government, that last meeting may be interesting as the pressure to complete is either met or runs late. This meeting adjourned at 9:51 pm by the wall and my clocks, so remember where the bathrooms are from the "Attend a Meeting" primer.
There haven't been any minutes posted for recent RJTF meetings, but older ones are available here at the very bottom of the page under the 2017 and 2016 meeting menu buttons. Also it's been a couple months since any videos of the meetings have been uploaded, but those older ones are available here.
For most sane people, the next big news will be when that report is released in its final form. The very buried lede is that they were looking to present it at the next County Board "Committee of the Whole" meeting and get it on the agenda for that to present and answer questions on November 14th. There was an initial concern about the regular County Board meeting being right before Thanksgiving (moved from its usual Thursday spot to the earlier Tuesday), so I'll try to update here on which way that ended up getting on the COW agenda or the general County Board meeting agenda.
If you're still reading this...
...you may be getting wonky! #nerdgoals
The Racial Justice Task Force is coming to an end and has one meeting left before submitting its report to the County Board and the community at large. For more information on what the RJTF is and why it was created by the County Board you can either go to the RJTF website here or for the brief cliff notes on this site here. The live stream on the county board website did not appear to be functional to watch it from home. I'll update this when I get an answer on if there's a new link not on the County Board website on Monday. Until then, livestream appears to be down:
This second to last meeting was almost entirely working on the final report, and a lot of time dedicated to the introduction of that report. You can imagine a committee editing typos and suggestions on a google documents up on the overhead projector and all the excitement that work entails. Short but civil debates occurred on being clear, concise, but ensuring the content accurately represented the reasons for the report, why it the task force was necessary, and effectively describing it all.
There was a lot of work to do and I imagine the final meeting will probably run long as well. Many subcommittee/subgroup tasks were assigned to format and fix their assigned portions and also to review them prior to the next meeting. If you're curious to see the nitty gritty work that goes into having to work on projects as a committee within county government, that last meeting may be interesting as the pressure to complete is either met or runs late. This meeting adjourned at 9:51 pm by the wall and my clocks, so remember where the bathrooms are from the "Attend a Meeting" primer.
There haven't been any minutes posted for recent RJTF meetings, but older ones are available here at the very bottom of the page under the 2017 and 2016 meeting menu buttons. Also it's been a couple months since any videos of the meetings have been uploaded, but those older ones are available here.
For most sane people, the next big news will be when that report is released in its final form. The very buried lede is that they were looking to present it at the next County Board "Committee of the Whole" meeting and get it on the agenda for that to present and answer questions on November 14th. There was an initial concern about the regular County Board meeting being right before Thanksgiving (moved from its usual Thursday spot to the earlier Tuesday), so I'll try to update here on which way that ended up getting on the COW agenda or the general County Board meeting agenda.
If you're still reading this...
...you may be getting wonky! #nerdgoals
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
The Week Ahead 10/9 - 10/15
Monday, October 9, 2017
Closed for Columbus Day
Tuesday October 10, 2017 @ *6:30pm
Committee of the Whole (Not to be confused with "a whole board meeting") (What is this?)
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Thursday October 12, 2017 @ *6:30 - 7:30pm
Racial Justice Task Force meeting (What is this?)
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Brookens Administrative Center
1776 East Washington Street
Urbana, Illinois 61802-4581
Phone: 217-384-3772
*After 4:30 the Washington Street side Parking Lot is Closed See Maps for the North East Parking Lot Access
Closed for Columbus Day
Tuesday October 10, 2017 @ *6:30pm
Committee of the Whole (Not to be confused with "a whole board meeting") (What is this?)
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
Thursday October 12, 2017 @ *6:30 - 7:30pm
Racial Justice Task Force meeting (What is this?)
Lyle Shields Meeting Room
Brookens Administrative Center
1776 East Washington Street
Urbana, Illinois 61802-4581
Phone: 217-384-3772
*After 4:30 the Washington Street side Parking Lot is Closed See Maps for the North East Parking Lot Access
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Attend a Meeting
It seems simple enough. You want to learn about the Champaign County government, you go see what the Champaign County government is up to (Maps!). They have meetings open to the public for a variety of reasons, from a Full Board Meeting (like this one) to other meetings for other County Board business.
But remember, if you can't make it in person, they do like to remind you that:
With the Agenda and a note pad, you're pretty well all set to go. Although if you have to go, the restrooms are across the hall just inside the two "Pod 400 Urbana Park District Gym" doorways. The ladies' room is in the doorway nearest the meeting room, and the men's nearest the entrance (the after 4:30pm North East one... there are signs, there are maps! It's not so bad, I swear!). I quickly scribbled a layout of the meeting room with a bonus hallway and bathroom map, but it was all pretty obvious other than the bathrooms. But just for good measure... my Lyle Shields scribble map, for the harshest of judgement: [Update: better maps (now with less reflection glare too!) here]
Tonight's Meeting (for those who skipped ahead):
Tonight's meeting lasted a couple hours, but last month's Committee of the Whole on the County Clerk's YouTube channel was three and half hours. So they can be longer. Once they get started, it's much like any parliamentary meeting you ever may have attended. Roll calls and quorum check (enough people attending for it to be a legitimate meeting) and approval of minutes. But then public participation.
Katie Blakeman announced some of the preliminary results of her Amnesty Week effort. And a couple citizens came up to ask the board to consider alternatives to using the jails as mental health and behavioral centers as well as asking for responses to a questionnaire previously submitted to the board. I didn't quite follow either very well, so I'd refer to the video (link now available) on that. The rules say five minutes, but with only a couple participants it appeared they cut off the longer speaker at about eight after a "quickly please" a minute prior. Speaking of those public participation rules:
The various departments went through their reports and tossed about numbers with other officials sitting at the same desk/seat used for public participation to answer questions about numbers or policies that involve them. For example the auditor or Tammy Asplund (Recording Secretary), Tami Ogden (Deputy County Administrator/Finance). You'll find that during the meetings first names are used quite a bit, so a first challenge is to familiarize oneself with who is in the room and referring to previous minutes to find out who "Mr. Hall" is if the context makes it difficult to discern with so much administrative bureaucracy blurring together.
One thing of striking note was the County Administrator's report about all of the software systems needing upgraded from ERP software, IRS software, Metcad, Courthouse systems, and another software program relied on where the vendor is closing their business and they need a whole new provider. All while still wanting to move on the hardware side from mainframe to cloud based system.
And the IT director is eligible for retirement and there isn't an human resources director.
There was a great deal of MS4 compliance work that honestly went way over my head since I literally had to google a few times to find the relevant Illinois Environmental Protection Agency page that helped me get half a clue.
The gist was they need staff to get all of the the things done and they did make a motion to make part time guy a full time guy as an alternative to getting someone with a masters degree in administration to be an assistant county administrator. There seemed to be confusion on what the County Executive position would take over on workload.
Mr. Hall, who may be John Hall (Zoning Administrator), but I need to verify that also got into the MS4 EPA issues and stressed similar issues with staffing for it with a part time guy who has only been at it for a year and having no way to inspect for permits with the MS4 workload. On the enforcement program he stated he didn't even want to talk about how far behind we are on that.
Mr. Hall made the argument that a little bit extra in staffing will pay dividends.
In the end the board had two votes on an assistant county administrator position, that passed by a hand vote, but due to 1 non-voting had a second roll call vote with a switched vote that failed, which left open frustrated arguments on which one was valid, which I believe was the initial hand vote... but even I got confused when it was brought up again later in the meeting. I believe it will be an item for the full board meeting coming up.
Mental health got a one time bit of extra funding with a unanimous vote.
Animal control got the go ahead to work with U of I Petmed for a revenue neutral cooperative program for spaying and neutering by a unanimous vote.
Tami Ogden fixed a long running formula error causing a discrepancy between the Administrative Services budget numbers and the Auditor's official numbers.
And a bit contentious sounding was the "Approval to Release Request for Proposals for the Purchase of the Champaign County Nursing Home" that passed by what appeared to be a split Democratic vote. I believe this helped move the process of selling it along, but as the motion title suggests only in putting out a request to get proposals. Ah, parliamentary bureaucracy. Ain't it exciting!
The News-Gazette had an article on the release request, available here and added to the Nursing Home page here. It has additional explanations of what was actually voted on that makes more sense.
So, there you have it, with more details and corrections to come, I'm sure. But you've joined me on my first County Board meeting...
...so hopefully yours will be better prepared and less like an away mission to strange new worlds and more like a simple way to view and interact with a a level of government that we probably should pay more attention to as a community. If you're a pro at this and see errors, mistakes, or if you're a n00b like me and have questions, feel free to laugh, mock, ask, or demand I draw a better more legible map in the comments section.
(also it's already 11pm, so typos will be fixed in the morning!)
Tonight there was a Committee of the Whole Meeting, not to be confused with a regular old County Board meeting. At these meetings the various areas of responsibility report in with other County departments on everything from proposals to budgets, but mainly their monthly reports. For County Board pros, click here or scroll down to jump to tonight's meeting. If you're still learning how all this works and more information on these meetings in general, just keep reading.
If you click around the main County Board website, you can get to it by going to Meeting Info and it's the first under County Board and Regular County Board meetings. There you can find information for older meetings or tonight's. There you can find the Agenda and the Agenda Packet.
The Agenda lays out what was planned on being discussed, while the Agenda Packet has all sorts of supporting information relevant to the meeting, including the previous Committee of the Whole's minutes... which summarizes what was said, motions, and vote totals.
They also have printed agendas and public participation forms on the table by the rear entrance of the Lyle Shields Meeting Room... the room where most of the various County Board meetings are held. For those curious who Lyle Shields was, I snagged this excerpt from the News-Gazette:
Mr. Shields was very active in area government and leadership activities. He was a member of the Champaign County Board for 41 years and served as chairman of the board for 10 years. He served as Condit Township supervisor for 36 years and in the Sangamon Valley Fire Protection District for 40 years as a volunteer fireman.
Mr. Shields served on the National Association of Counties for 11 years as a member of the board of directors. He was president of the United Counties Council of Illinois for two years. He was a Republican Precinct Committeeman for 30 years. He was selected as Farm Leader of the Year by the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette in 1992. He was a member of the Champaign County Farm Bureau.
But remember, if you can't make it in person, they do like to remind you that:
Meetings are live streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/champco1776 This is an offsite link.
Recordings of prior meetings are posted on the County Clerk's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/champaigncountyclerk
With the Agenda and a note pad, you're pretty well all set to go. Although if you have to go, the restrooms are across the hall just inside the two "Pod 400 Urbana Park District Gym" doorways. The ladies' room is in the doorway nearest the meeting room, and the men's nearest the entrance (the after 4:30pm North East one... there are signs, there are maps! It's not so bad, I swear!). I quickly scribbled a layout of the meeting room with a bonus hallway and bathroom map, but it was all pretty obvious other than the bathrooms. But just for good measure... my Lyle Shields scribble map, for the harshest of judgement: [Update: better maps (now with less reflection glare too!) here]
Tonight's Meeting (for those who skipped ahead):
Tonight's meeting lasted a couple hours, but last month's Committee of the Whole on the County Clerk's YouTube channel was three and half hours. So they can be longer. Once they get started, it's much like any parliamentary meeting you ever may have attended. Roll calls and quorum check (enough people attending for it to be a legitimate meeting) and approval of minutes. But then public participation.
Katie Blakeman announced some of the preliminary results of her Amnesty Week effort. And a couple citizens came up to ask the board to consider alternatives to using the jails as mental health and behavioral centers as well as asking for responses to a questionnaire previously submitted to the board. I didn't quite follow either very well, so I'd refer to the video (link now available) on that. The rules say five minutes, but with only a couple participants it appeared they cut off the longer speaker at about eight after a "quickly please" a minute prior. Speaking of those public participation rules:
The various departments went through their reports and tossed about numbers with other officials sitting at the same desk/seat used for public participation to answer questions about numbers or policies that involve them. For example the auditor or Tammy Asplund (Recording Secretary), Tami Ogden (Deputy County Administrator/Finance). You'll find that during the meetings first names are used quite a bit, so a first challenge is to familiarize oneself with who is in the room and referring to previous minutes to find out who "Mr. Hall" is if the context makes it difficult to discern with so much administrative bureaucracy blurring together.
One thing of striking note was the County Administrator's report about all of the software systems needing upgraded from ERP software, IRS software, Metcad, Courthouse systems, and another software program relied on where the vendor is closing their business and they need a whole new provider. All while still wanting to move on the hardware side from mainframe to cloud based system.
And the IT director is eligible for retirement and there isn't an human resources director.
There was a great deal of MS4 compliance work that honestly went way over my head since I literally had to google a few times to find the relevant Illinois Environmental Protection Agency page that helped me get half a clue.
The gist was they need staff to get all of the the things done and they did make a motion to make part time guy a full time guy as an alternative to getting someone with a masters degree in administration to be an assistant county administrator. There seemed to be confusion on what the County Executive position would take over on workload.
Mr. Hall, who may be John Hall (Zoning Administrator), but I need to verify that also got into the MS4 EPA issues and stressed similar issues with staffing for it with a part time guy who has only been at it for a year and having no way to inspect for permits with the MS4 workload. On the enforcement program he stated he didn't even want to talk about how far behind we are on that.
Mr. Hall made the argument that a little bit extra in staffing will pay dividends.
In the end the board had two votes on an assistant county administrator position, that passed by a hand vote, but due to 1 non-voting had a second roll call vote with a switched vote that failed, which left open frustrated arguments on which one was valid, which I believe was the initial hand vote... but even I got confused when it was brought up again later in the meeting. I believe it will be an item for the full board meeting coming up.
Mental health got a one time bit of extra funding with a unanimous vote.
Animal control got the go ahead to work with U of I Petmed for a revenue neutral cooperative program for spaying and neutering by a unanimous vote.
Tami Ogden fixed a long running formula error causing a discrepancy between the Administrative Services budget numbers and the Auditor's official numbers.
And a bit contentious sounding was the "Approval to Release Request for Proposals for the Purchase of the Champaign County Nursing Home" that passed by what appeared to be a split Democratic vote. I believe this helped move the process of selling it along, but as the motion title suggests only in putting out a request to get proposals. Ah, parliamentary bureaucracy. Ain't it exciting!
The News-Gazette had an article on the release request, available here and added to the Nursing Home page here. It has additional explanations of what was actually voted on that makes more sense.
So, there you have it, with more details and corrections to come, I'm sure. But you've joined me on my first County Board meeting...
...so hopefully yours will be better prepared and less like an away mission to strange new worlds and more like a simple way to view and interact with a a level of government that we probably should pay more attention to as a community. If you're a pro at this and see errors, mistakes, or if you're a n00b like me and have questions, feel free to laugh, mock, ask, or demand I draw a better more legible map in the comments section.
(also it's already 11pm, so typos will be fixed in the morning!)
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Racial Justice Task Force Meeting Coming Up October 12th
CU Indivisible Pointed out an upcoming meeting:
It seems obvious now, but I missed the upcoming schedule the first couple scrolls through it. It was under the Extended Term Meeting Schedule link for the most recent schedule:
Regardless I'm going to try to attend and get more information to help present more information on about what it is, what it does, and accessibility. For other folks who want to check it out:
Their main page is here: http://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyBoard/meetings_RJTF.php⭐ Racial Justice Task Force meeting
⏰ 6:30 - 7:30pm @ Lyle Shields Meeting Room Brookens Administrative Center
It seems obvious now, but I missed the upcoming schedule the first couple scrolls through it. It was under the Extended Term Meeting Schedule link for the most recent schedule:
Regardless I'm going to try to attend and get more information to help present more information on about what it is, what it does, and accessibility. For other folks who want to check it out:
Meetings are live streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/champco1776 This is an offsite linkThis is an offsite link.Older meetings appear on a YouTube link off the above link, but not recently updated: https://www.youtube.com/user/ChampaignCountyIL
Saturday, October 7, 2017
BPNJ Meeting Coming Up
Main website: https://programsnotjails.com/
Meeting Info (from their meeting page):
Build Programs, Not Jails meets regularly at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center located at 202 S. Broadway in Urbana.
Upcoming meeting dates:
1st and 3rd Wednesdays at 7pm
October 18th
November 1st
November 15th
Children, families, and nursing parents are always welcome at meetings. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about meeting accessibility.
ACTIONS
We are also actively attending county board meetings, hosting forums, and sponsoring public events. If you would like to be involved but cannot attend regular meetings, please email us at info@programsnotjails.com and we will add you to our email list so you can receive updates and action calls.
10/7/2017 (First!) Meeting Notes
First meeting! Introductions and charting a course on how to help unwind county government ourselves to understand it better for ourselves and help inform others on the issues, the players and possibly even to run for office someday.
We divvied up some initial tasks including:
A lot of work to do over the next month. Hopefully we'll be able to work out the kinks as we figure it out ourselves. Over the next few weeks this skeleton of a cheat sheet should plump up a bit more, bit by bit, until it's user friendly and informative and handy for everybody wanting to get more involved in county government.
We divvied up some initial tasks including:
- Attending meetings in person when available (on the Calendar link or County Board's page)
- Catching up on missed and some previous meetings available here (link updated on the Calendar page): https://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/countyboard/meetings/minutes)
- Updating this website with more information on candidates including pictures, issue positions, voting history, and helpful tips and notes.
- Updating this website on the issues with links to organizations and informational links to understand the major issues facing the Champaign County Board, including the new Executive position.
- Connecting open County Board races with potential candidates and the support and information to be successful.
- Election information for both voters and potential candidates on open seats, election schedule and the lay of the political land for those districts.
- Reaching out to local organizations already invested in County politics for information on upcoming votes, information to help people support them more effectively, and upcoming input/votes that need to be amplified.
- Contacting some current office holders for more direct questions on how the County Board works now versus how it will operate with the new Executive as well as the Administrator.
- That's the gist...
A lot of work to do over the next month. Hopefully we'll be able to work out the kinks as we figure it out ourselves. Over the next few weeks this skeleton of a cheat sheet should plump up a bit more, bit by bit, until it's user friendly and informative and handy for everybody wanting to get more involved in county government.
Special thanks to CU Indivisible for the idea and bringing some of us together for some wonky democracy in action.
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