County Board 7/19

Reminder: Last month's County Board meeting is available on video now at the County Clerk's YouTube channel for those waiting for it. This month's video is already up and available here.

Last night's County Board meeting saw another failure to consolidate the County Recorder's office into the Champaign County Clerk's office.  From today's News-Gazette:

Champaign County Board votes to keep recorder around
In July 1968, Democrats on the Champaign County Board proposed eliminating the independent elected position of recorder of deeds.

The elimination never happened.

Exactly 50 years later, another generation of county board Democrats proposed the same thing.

And once again, it won't happen.

On Thursday night, the county board voted 15-7 against putting a question on the November ballot asking for the elimination of the office.

Five Democrats joined all 10 Republicans to ensure the status quo...

In other business, county board member Robert King said he will be resigning because he is moving to upstate New York, where he will work with students at Cornell University in residential programs there.

"I absolutely have enjoyed my time on the county board," King said. "I had a chance to work both with folks with the same opinions and differing opinions, and it has been great."

Full article here. According to the County Clerk, County Board member Shana Jo Crews, a Democrat representing District 9 also resigned last night. This page will be updated soon to reflect those changes and any appointment or election updates that result.


Meeting overview:

Public participation started with a couple Scottswood development residents pleading for more assistance in cleaning up their neighborhood. Two citizens explained their efforts towards encouraging better maintenance and organizing a low cost neighborhood mowing service to help those efforts.

County Recorder Mark Shelden made his argument to keep his office elected and separate from the County Clerk's office. He argued that his office is running effectively as is and the proposed changes couldn't be absorbed as explained by proponents of consolidation. He explained that simply replacing him with a lower paid staffer wouldn't work unless quality was reduced or other responsibilities of the County Clerk and staff suffered. Meanwhile the Democratic County Executive candidate Darlene Kloepel argued it made fiscal sense and was an unnecessary complication and expense for voters.

The Reentry Council Report was filed without any significant discussion. Member Petrie noted that she had some additional questions she'd be taking up with the Council. That report is available here on page 14 of the agenda packet PDF (page 9 on the printed version).

The Agenda items were generally passed unanimously and with little significant discussion outside of the Recorder's Office vote. The other exception was an question and answer session with a guest from the Regional Planning Commission about a criminal justice related grant and program (that required Board approval to go ahead). There weren't a lot of specifics yet as the project will be entering the planning phase in the near future. Board members pushed for specifics, but the RPC representative only had broad information at this time. The general consensus was that this was an important and positive victory for the County and appreciation was noted for the hard work behind the competitive grant process (RPC is only one of 41 organizations awarded the reentry funds). The program description (from the agenda XIV. New Business, Item 4.) lays out the general idea:

Multi-Year Federal Funding to Service Over 188 Young Adults Ages 18-24 Who Reside in High Crime & Poverty Census Tract Areas in Probation, Court or Detention or are High School Dropouts. Based on the Needs of the Target Population for the Project, Evidence-Based Interventions and Practices will be Implemented Including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Structural Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress, Intensive Mentoring & Development of Support Groups, Job Coaching and On-the-Job Training and Development of Apprenticeships in Building Trades. RPC & Community Partners will Utilize a Positive Youth Justice Framework that will Guide Development of Career Plans and Case Management to Positively Impact Employment and Reduce Recidivism Rates with High-Risk Young Adults.

More updates on this program as I find them.

There was an item authorizing more appropriations for litigation costs with the Carle Property Tax issue. Petrie and Administrator Busey discussed the complexities that prevent a full accounting of the County Costs as the issue is intergovernmental and multifaceted. There doesn't appear to be a way to track to compare costs to potential gain back to the county if successful.

The Recorder vote had a quick amendment attempt to change the starting date of the change to the end of the election cycle for the office (2020 instead of 2018 in the current wording for the referendum). That failed in a tie vote 11-11. The motion itself failed 7 to 15. I believe the yes votes were Patterson, Summers, Tinsley, Crews, Douglass, Fortado, and Chair Weibel. I was expecting a bit more argument, but folks seem to have gotten that mostly out of their system last month.

McGuire thanked all those who volunteer and work on the elections in relation to their approval of Election Judge appointments. They truly make this whole crazy democratic institution function. 

Petrie thanked Deputy Administrator Ogden for all her hard work on the ADA report to the Department of Justice (with additional information available at the very end of the agenda packet).

The Board went into closed session about a county employee/employment issue prior to adjourning.