Following up on last week's County Board meeting (News-Gazette overview in previous post). Agenda here, addendum here, and handout here. Video here at the Champaign County Clerk YouTube Channel.
The board seated and swore in Pranjal Vachaspati, James Quisenberry, and Jodi Eisenmann replacing open seats due to previous resignations. For more on the recent changes and turnover on the board: Tom Kacich | Turnover plaguing Champaign County Board.
Public participation included one of those previous board members, Brooks Marsh, giving his view on County's future as it plays catch up on facilities and other budget issues now that the Nursing Home is sold. He looked forward to a couple years from now when the County has caught up on those issues and can do some great work for the community.
The solar ordinance on the agenda had a few supporters and detractors. A developer in support, a homeowner pleading for sound limiting rules to both physically reduce the sound generated and consideration for actual decibel levels, rather than distance alone. A couple landowners looking forward to the opportunities and a harbinger warning not to count on that solar money in the long run as it dries up over time.
Friends and family of a local victim of "Nasty Joe" begged the board to do more to address his scam of buying pieces of people's yards and other property that they assumed was theirs, but through various discrepancies didn't include a small strip or section here or there (sometimes under their porch or through their fence in this case). The County has a way to search to see if your property has one of these sections so people can resolve it before this guy buys it and essentially holds it for ransom. Links from a previous board meeting:
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.This particular situation appears to have gotten particularly nasty as the guy profiting off these discrepencies was harassing a homeowner trying to fight the loss of a strip of her property. While being spotted in the area hopping over fences to scope out pieces of property the fence of this previous victim was damaged. This left the owner feeling unsafe in her own home with little recourse. She complained that no matter where she turns, every agency tells her it's not their problem.
Darlene Kloeppel and another resident talked about their concerns with the campus voting location change and previous voting patterns in hopes of persuading the board to find a better solution with more convenient access for voters on campus than the current plan on the agenda.
The rest of the meeting was mostly covered by the News-Gazette summary from last week here except the tourism presentation and the campus polling place debate. There was a presentation on tourism by Visit Champaign County available here on all the work done to bring and promote tourism to the area. It's roughly 15 minutes long.
Campus Polling Places:
The discussion on the polling place that was consolidated with the Illini Union due to renovations got a bit testy. There was a noticeable division between campus concerns and rural concerns. While the newly seated Vachaspati talked about the confusing layout and having to leave and come back to vote due to long lines as a student rural members chastised citizens who couldn't be bothered to put in "a little effort" to vote. Member Goss said Mahomet has long lines too, more voters, they have to drive to their polling places that aren't walking distance, and yet they vote in every election, he said. He argued if you're worried about long lines, vote early.
McGuire pointed to the County Clerk's report at the previous Committee of the Whole meeting about a lack of better options and the issue being mostly out of his or their hands due to a renovation. He later pointed to the unique rural and military difficulties of voting that are a part of the process in comparison.
Summers and Patterson felt the unique roadblocks need to be addressed. Patterson said that the University, knowing that the Illini Union is a required voting location by law should be doing more to accommodate the County. The interaction between he and the Clerk got a bit contentious with Patterson talking about people rolling their eyes and the Clerk getting visibly irritated and sarcastic about how awful the union is that so many people prefer to vote at.
Douglas asked him if there's even another place available with only two months left to go. The Clerk admitted he hadn't checked as he viewed the consolidation at the union as the only and obvious solution. This led to Patterson stating his disappointment and the Clerk shortly replying, "Noted."
The Clerk's argument against establishing another location points to the fact that almost every organization, partisan and non-partisan and even his own office have made the students aware of the union as a universal voting location and that's where the students will go, regardless of whether they set up an additional location (if one is even available). Many of the Democrats remained skeptical. Former County Clerk primary candidate on the board, Rector, blamed the division on them playing politics.
In the end voting it down could have meant that there would be no realistic time for a vote and notification for a new location which could mean setting up an outdoor tent at the current location being renovated, which generally appeared untenable to all. The vote to consolidate the voting location at the union passed, but with a handful of protest votes.
The meeting ended with resolutions honoring previous board members who recently resigned and a reminder about the budget books needing to be brought to the budget meetings this week and started being read through. Going towards the end of the year, the County budget will probably be one of the bigger issues... other than an election and possibly even more turnover, of course.
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