County Board Roundup

This week there was a County Board Committee of the Whole meeting (what is this?)(agenda here and video here) and some news on a new candidate filing as well as a couple updates on the Nursing Home.

First following up on a previous Cheat Sheet post on the latest Republican to join the Champaign County Board races, the News-Gazette had a short blurb to add Thursday in the print edition:

More on the two District 6 seat races on the Cheat Sheet here.


Nursing Home:

The bid filing required by the buyers for the Nursing Home went through just in time for a state review board deadline to act on it sooner rather than later. From Wednesday's News-Gazette:

County nursing home's potential buyers file bid by deadline
The Evanston companies poised to buy the Champaign County Nursing Home submitted an application to a state review board Friday, just in time for it likely to be considered at the board's next session Oct. 30...

The state board has legal oversight over certain health care construction projects and the closing or sales of certain health care facilities, among them a county-owned nursing home.

Friday was the deadline for applications to be filed for the board's October session. The board doesn't meet again after that until December.

The Champaign County Board approved the sale of the county nursing home for $11 million this past May, and county officials originally anticipated turning over the keys to the new owners at the end of July.
More at the full article here.

The County Board began the preliminary steps to revert back to a 12 month budget for the Nursing home from the 6 month budget fought over previously. The point of contention prior to the sale was between Republican board members who wanted to operate under the assumption the facility would be sold and several Democrats who were still fighting to preserve County ownership. 

Champaign County Board recommends $4.5M budget for nursing home
...
Previously, the county board — months before a decision was made on the home's future — had only approved a six-month budget for the facility.

In May, following months of debate, the county board voted 15-6 to sell the nursing home to Extended Care Clinical LLC and Altitude Health Services Inc., both headquartered in Evanston, for $11 million.

The sale won't close until approximately Oct. 31, according to County Administrator Deb Busey.

That leaves lots of bills to settle in the meantime.

Since current appropriations are insufficient to cover nursing home operations, Busey said the board's action — if ultimately approved — would essentially restore the nursing home to its original 12-month budget, as proposed by the management company during the budget process.

A board vote on the appropriation is expected next week.

A few extra details at the full article here. The Committee of the Whole meeting itself went for about two hours and included a presentation from the new Executive Director of the Housing Authority of Champaign County, a concern about voting locations on campus, and a slew of appointments, including a new Deputy and Assistant Deputy Chair of the Justice & Social Services committee that has tried to facilitate the recommendations of the Racial Justice Task Force.

The News-Gazette had a good summary of the concerns about moving campus voting locations due to construction and renovations Thursday:

Proposal to move UI campus polling place draws concerns about overcrowding
Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten's plan to move one precinct's polling place to the Illini Union while its normal location is under renovation has some county board members concerned about overcrowding that could discourage voting.

This week, Hulten proposed transferring the polling site for the Cunningham 3 precinct from the Illinois Street Residence Hall to the Union, because the residence hall is temporarily unavailable due to renovation work in that building, he said.

If the county board approves, Hulten said, cards would be mailed to the voters of Cunningham 3 informing them of their new polling place. The campus precinct is bounded by Green Street on the north, Nevada Street on the south, Lincoln Avenue on the east and Wright Street on the west.

"We will also mail a letter stating the reason for the change and alerting them of the possibility of voting by mail or voting early," he said.

Some board Democrats oppose Hulten's plan, citing long lines at the Illini Union in previous elections — even before Cunningham 3 is potentially added to the mix.

Democrat Chris Stohr said he was an observer at the Illini Union in the general election in 2016.

"The lines there were long," Stohr said. "I counted up to 76 people in line. I don't agree that moving the polling place to the Illini Union would be a good idea..."

"The proportion of Election Day voters in the precinct we are talking about are among the lowest for any of the precincts in the county," Hulten said. "The voters of this precinct take advantage of voting by mail compared with the rest of the precincts in Champaign County."

The full county board is expected to vote on Hulten's proposal at its Aug. 23 meeting.

Full article with more details and arguments here. There appears to be genuine concerns about lines and how that can depress the vote (something the County Clerk agreed with Democrats on). But there are constraints by law and available space that won't budge. Hulten argued that students will gravitate towards the Illini Union as opposed to other proposed additional locations by convenience, traffic patterns and by default knowledge of the option.


Rest of the Committee of the Whole:

The Committee of the Whole also included a presentation by the Housing Authority Executive Director (his Power Point presentation is available here for a quick scan and video link here). He outlined the Moving To Work program and was asked several questions about accessibility to public transportation at housing locations and their main office going forward. The Champaign reentry housing issue was raised as something to be aware of, but not addressed in depth.

With the resignation and move by Robert King, there was an opening in the Deputy Chair position of the Justice & Social Services Committee. Jim McGuire was moved up from the Assistant Deputy Chair position to the Deputy Chair position. Kyle Patterson was appointed to the Assistant Deputy Chair position. There were a litany of other appointments in County government offices approved (full listing available on the agenda).

Some of the preliminary new rules for the upcoming County Executive form of government were distributed among members to peruse. The County Executive Transition Committee was mentioned by Chair Weibel as having some future meetings still to be scheduled to finish that work.

The Nursing Home management contract due to expire September 30th would be extended to the sale date of the Nursing Home if given final approval at the County Board next week.

Everything else voted on or reported in the agenda (outside of some corrections and re-corrections on what was to be on the consent agenda list) went through without additional fuss.