County Board 11/21 Meeting

Highlights:

Well for starters we have a 6 months (option B) budget that doesn't resolve the Nursing Home issue either direction in finding money to save it or that forces it to be sold, but perhaps inevitable depending on which party you ask. I didn't catch the exact roll call, but Chair Weibel said it was 13-8 of which I definitely heard Pattsi Petrie vote for with the Republicans. Fortado summed up the Democratic feelings about the 6 month budget: It is not a responsible precedent. It is a collective failure, including herself in that failure, not to have a 12 month budget. It's something we will all regret and it will be felt sharply later this year. The associated levy passed without opposition shortly after.

There were some goodbyes. It was County Administrator Rick Snider's last meeting as well as County Treasurer Dan Welch's. Both were thanked and had standing ovations by the board and others.

The replacement process was moved along further along last week, as noted by the N-G, as well as with additional votes tonight that were unopposed:

URBANA — Champaign County Board members Tuesday agreed to begin negotiations to rehire former county Administrator Deb Busey as interim administrator.

The current county administrator, Rick Snider, has resigned in order to become the village administrator in Rantoul later this month.

The move to rehire Busey, who would be limited to 600 hours of work under Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund regulations, was made by Republican board member Aaron Esry but approved unanimously.
...
Also Tuesday, the board unanimously approved the appointment of John Farney as the new county treasurer, beginning Jan. 1. Farney, currently the county auditor, will replace longtime treasurer Dan Welch, who is leaving office 11 months early. Both Welch and Farney are Republicans.

As pointed out in an earlier update, this means that there will be an abbreviated ballot petition period for any candidates wanting to run for County Auditor in the 2018 elections. That same link notes some of the early candidates seeking appointment to the fill the vacancy in the mean time by the Champaign County Republican Party.


Other Meeting Notes:

Public Participation included complaints about dilapidated properties and numerous citizens asking the Board to consider the Racial Justice Task Force recommendations for everything from pre-trial hearings, treatment programs for addicts, mental health care services outside of the jail system, etc. Build Programs Not Jails had a strong presence and pleaded with the Board to take significant action on these issues.

Illinois Bicentennial flag arrived and will be up in front of the Court House soon. Chair Weibel also noted a Chair/Vice-Chair meeting about the agenda that is poorly attended after Republican complaints last week at the COW about difficulties getting an item on the agenda.

"Visit Champaign County" had a presentation on marketing Champaign to outside visitors with a video presentation and a run down of numbers brought in through tourism and visitors. Stohr asked that taxicab services be better highlighted in their printed publications along with Uber/Lyft. The sheer number of independent cab companies (>50) makes it easier to link to in on-line materials.

Apparently "cornhole" is a popular game that has a following and events here in Champaign. It was mentioned and nobody snickered. I feel as though a college joke went terribly wrong somehow. They also brought up that the State Farm Center does not have a good layout for large (2000+ person) trade shows and it makes it difficult to host large events in Champaign County because there is not a large convention center that's ideal for the task compared to other regional ones.

The Youth Assessment Center (more info) via the Regional Planning Commission is looking for a new space and highlighted the Racial Justice Task Force recommendations as well. Their work with restorative justice in the community. After fielding some questions on staff and space requirements, it was pointed out (by Circuit Clerk Katie Blakeman, I believe) that it's a fairly unique program on the cutting edge of  criminal justice reform. Sounds like a program I need to learn more about for a future post.

Other agenda items were passed smoothly by voice vote or roll call as required.

The meeting adjourned at  8:37pm. Not 12:53am the next morning like the last COW. So YAY!!! YAY for THAT!!! Phew!


Reactions [Updated 11/22]:

The News-Gazette's Tom Kacich has more details and specifics, including this excerpt on the budget vote:

County board avoids cuts by funding nursing home for only 6 months

URBANA — Champaign County Democrats were unable Tuesday night to pass a county budget guaranteeing 12 months of operation for the county-owned nursing home.

Instead, by a 13-8 margin, the county board approved a fiscal year 2018 budget that includes only six months of funding for the financially troubled facility.

And because of savings from operating the nursing home for only six months, the approved budget doesn't include any of the $1.425 million in staff cuts, polling-place consolidations, capital reductions (including almost $400,000 for police radios), or program cuts (such as the Youth Assessment Center and re-entry council) discussed in recent weeks.

But county officials cautioned that there's great uncertainty about the budget, including a $500,000 payment the nursing home is to make to the county general fund in December and the need for tax-anticipation warrants to help fund the facility's continued operation.

"I don't think passing a six-month budget for any part of the county budget is a responsible precedent," said Democrat Stephanie Fortado.

And she urged county department heads to "keep your wallet in your pockets for the next six months, especially for big-ticket items. If there's something you can wait on, please wait."

And outgoing County Administrator Rick Snider predicted that the board would have to make "significant budget amendments" throughout 2018.

Voting for the budget were all 10 board Republicans and Democrats Pattsi Petrie, Chris Stohr and Shana Jo Crews.

Voting against it were eight Democrats: Fortado, Steve Summers, James Tinsley, Lorraine Cowart, Josh Hartke, Robert King, Kyle Patterson and board Chairman C. Pius Weibel.

Champaign Democrat Giraldo Rosales was absent from the meeting

I'm not seeing any other reactions yet today, but I'll update if I do.