Committee of the Whole 5/15

Quick Summary:

Passionate pleas to sell the Nursing Home and save other parts of the County including County jobs clashed with distrust of the new potential owners, including one on a top ten worst owner list along with fellow family members, and pleas for more time and consideration to at least find a better deal.

An app on the GIS website for orphaned land parcels was talked about being dealt with to avoid another Nasty Joe situation. There was a reference to the GIS map app to help people find these problems and fix them on the web. There was a presentation at the end of this meeting here.

Other highlights include a negative response to higher property taxes this year, a computer virus attack around election time unrelated to the election it turns out, and budget planning squabbles revolving around the Nursing Home, of course.


Meeting Write-up:

The Champaign County Board's Committee of the Whole this week was nearly three hours long last night (which is still way shorter than the six and a half hour marathon meeting last November). The agenda packet is available here (with addendum) and the video is available on the County Clerk's YouTube page here.

The meeting started a few minutes late and a little closer to 6:35pm. There were a lot of people in the audience and the overall time limit on public participation was reached during the 13th speaker. Only one speaker went over time and not by enough to get a verbal warning. Many spoke for themselves and other employees of the County worried that continued support of the Nursing Home instead of selling it would further threaten their jobs, force them to continue shoestring budgets for pay and needed staff and resources, and generally make their jobs even more difficult. For example the public defenders office had many people out to make clear that they're already struggling with almost no investigative resources outside of homicide cases. They pointed out that potential cuts to other programs like the Youth Assessment Center would increase court use as fewer people are diverted to other services. Thus increasing their workload while they face further staff reductions. As it stands they are already asked to do more with less and nearly maxed out.

Folks who worked with the Regional Planning Office pointed out the strain and abandonment further cuts could cause to children who depend on their services. Employees talked about having to have a second job because the County can't afford higher compensation commensurate with the cost of living here.

Proponents of keeping the Nursing Home focused on the people behind the sole minimum bid, and a listing of the top ten worst nursing home owners including one of the presenters at the last special meeting and his family members. Many asked that the County Board at least take more time to look for better buyers or at least get a better idea of what who they're betting the future of the Nursing Home's residents on. Some questioned the broker's methods and relationship with the sole bidder. Claudia Lennhoff of Champaign County Health Care Consumers urged the board to halt the process and hire an independent specialist to get an accurate valuation for a public Nursing Home.

Some made a more direct appeal for the residents' care, arguing that quality staff who help you with your day to day needs and care are far more important than the puppies and ice cream cones the bidders highlighted as perks at their facilities that residents enjoyed.

After the public participation time ran out the board began quickly working its way down the agenda. Announcements included a thank you to the Illinois Marathon Group and congratulations to Member Tinsley for graduation (majoring in political science).

McGuire announced the Innovator County designation in the Justice & Social Services Committee report. The board also voted to allow the application for a grant for the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. The board quickly voted to confirm several appointments. One appointment to the Sanitary District involved discussion about their members continuing to pay themselves the maximum allowed by statute ($6000 per year) far beyond most public board compensation, especially given their low contact availability and workload. The pay rule isn't controlled by the County Board, but McGuire said he'd have a discussion with the appointee about the issue since it's a party based replacement about adjusting it to something more reasonable.

Most of the reports were just put on file (and available on the website here). Several items were voted on involving reduced revenue due to a tax issue not being decided in time for this particular budget. The departments had already been instructed to operate as if that money may not be available so it is not expected to disrupt any current funding activity according to the Deputy Administrator of Finance. The Auditor had an additional funding item for their work on digitizing their books which was described as and accepted as a win-win project.

An approval for an antivirus software package included background on an attack around the primary election that the FBI has since confirmed was not part of a coordinated attack on the election itself. Apparently an e-mail attachment Trojan was opened and the virus propagated itself on the courthouse network and then to the Sheriff's office. It later jumped to the adult detention center's networks via a laptop that physically carried it. During the Q&A the presenter noted that when the system is eventually upgraded from the AS400 to a more cloud based Windows network the software security issues will be larger.

Other finance items passed without controversy.

The Treasurer's Report highlighted the upset phone calls received with the increase in property taxes as payments were recently due. There were increases for many due to the Unit 4 schools referendum and others who got a double whammy after being annexed into a taxing district that included that and mass transit taxes. Treasurer Farney noted that there were some crushing phone calls with low income senior citizens who were struggling with the new costs and fixed income. He argued that people didn't understand exactly what they were voting for with the pricey referendum.

There was also a discussion about some of the internal money moving that was over my head that covered how costs covered with the public safety tax get repaid.

An issue with an orphaned land parcel was talked about being dealt with to avoid another Nasty Joe situation. There was a reference to the GIS map app to help people find these problems and fix them on the web. There was a presentation at the end of this meeting here.

The usual bad news about the Nursing Home obligations was covered... ever increasing with a bleak future for the budget and a need for further future loans. There was unexpected good news on the 1% sales tax performing well and increasing even though revenues were predicted to drop a bit. The reasons for the increase aren't yet known.

The budget process preliminary votes eventually passed with one successful amendment for the option A (where the Nursing Home is sold) and one failed amendment for option B (where the Nursing Home is retained). This guidance is only for planning out a budget, not final approval by any means. The successful amendment (passing with a roll call 15-4) included funding for the Racial Justice Task Force recommendations as that was regularly assured to get funding if the home was sold. The failed amendment to the retained home budget scenario was intended to provide guidance for cuts with partisan disagreement on the feasibility of protecting items in the discretionary budget which may, by necessity, be required to be cut before mandatory programs. The sense of Republicans seemed to be that this option is going to hurt programs both sides support and there's nothing that can be done to avoid it anymore. Democrats seemed desperate to find some way to protect those programs in the planning process. It failed 8-11 also in a roll call vote.

Both budget planning options were put on the regular County Board agenda for final vote. The consent agenda was agreed upon for that meeting as well. Chairman Weibel then did his GIS presentation on finding and fixing orphaned land parcels to avoid Nasty Joe situations and the board adjourned immediately afterward.