Nursing Home Update and Sale Delay

There appears to be yet another delay of selling the Nursing home. Initially the time was adjusted slightly due to the required State board's timeline of approval of the sale. What exactly is causing the requested delays since doesn't appear to be in the public sphere yet. There doesn't appear to be any doubt that the sale will still happen, but when seems to be an open question. From the News-Gazette today:

County board seeks second extension on nursing home sale till March
A Chicago law firm has filed a second request with state regulators for an extension to finalize the sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home — this time seeking an additional three months.

If this extension is approved, the county could continue to be the owner of the financially ailing nursing home until March 1, 2019.

Just a bit over a week ago, the Champaign County Board and the nursing home buyers had filed a request with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board for a one-month extension — to Jan. 1, 2019 — on a required Nov. 30 closing date for the transfer of ownership...

County Board Chairman C. Pius Weibel said Friday he wasn't able to comment on reasons why more time is being requested to finalize the sale or why county officials filed two extension requests about a week apart. County Administrator Deb Busey couldn't be reached Friday afternoon.

As of Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health hadn't yet received an application for the change of ownership of the nursing home, agency spokeswoman Emma Ciavarella said.

Earlier this week, the county board unanimously recommended forgiving two loans to the nursing home — totaling $500,000 — that the home can't repay.

Full article with more information here.

Sheriff Updates

The new incoming Sheriff has chosen a Deputy Sheriff. The current Sheriff is still retiring and the current Deputy Sheriff, who was running for Sheriff in this last election, will be retiring as well now. From the News-Gazette today:

There's a new sheriff in town - and he has a new chief deputy
Dustin Heuerman admits that Tuesday's landslide vote to make him the first Democratic sheriff in Champaign County since 1934 came as a surprise...

His Republican opponent, Allen Jones of Rantoul, a 29-year employee of the Champaign County Sheriff's Office, said in a Facebook post Friday afternoon that he will retire Nov. 23. As the chief deputy to outgoing Sheriff Dan Walsh, Jones was an at-will employee, not enjoying union or civil-service protections.

Heuerman said his experience working under Walsh as a road deputy on second and third shifts was good. His relationship with Jones, who was his lieutenant, was not as good and part of the reason he moved on to his position at Lake Land College in Mattoon, where he is program coordinator and adviser for the criminal justice program. He is also a part-time police officer there.

Heuerman has bachelor's and master's degrees in criminology and a doctorate of education in community-college leadership. He is also a member of the Illinois Community College Board.

With the election over, Heuerman said he and Barrett are putting together an agenda to improve morale in the department and get things done like consolidating the jails, trying to limit the number of mentally ill people who are jailed, getting more deputies hired, and increasing training for deputies and correctional officers.

Full article here with a lot of details on the unexpected election results, the party dynamics, and other additional information.

Champaign HRC and NAACP Report

This week's City of Champaign Human Relations Commission meeting (agenda here) included a presentation of the NAACP report on criminal justice. Thomas Moore argued that the report is an educational tool as opposed to a road map and what we've tried over the past forty years hasn't worked. He argued for a new focus on the ineffectiveness of punishment in the system of mass incarceration. He noted that jails are a big part of the problem and a local issue. Video is available here and the NAACP report begins at the 6:20 mark. There were many ideas discussed and listed in the News-Gazette yesterday:

Among the suggestions discussed during Monday's meeting:

— Allowing those incarcerated to register to vote and cast votes while in prison.

— When drawing up legislative district boundaries, assigning prisoners to the locality they come from instead of the prison site.

— Advocating for more humane policies that stress restorative justice.

— Having the NAACP form a partnership with local libraries to develop a crime-and-punishment bibliography and establishing a repository of books and articles on incarceration, public safety and justice.

— Advocating for the collection of data on the justice system "to develop more grounded responses to crime and punishment."

— Developing justice reform that gives a prominent role to the faith community.

— Exploring programs that restore civil rights for those incarcerated and awaiting trial.

— Developing a pretrial-assessment protocol in Champaign County.

— Integrating restorative practices within both the Champaign Unit 4 and Urbana 116 school districts.

Full article here. One item not mentioned in this list was their support of the recommendations of the Racial Justice Task Force (more information on that here). Some of the discussion talked about mass incarceration being a new Jim Crow which references a study of the mass incarceration system that looks at disparities throughout the criminal justice system. More information on that information and popular book in criminal justice reform circles here.

Election Results

I'll be updating the elected official pages soon. Democrats scored victories in all of the County-wide offices and retained control of the County Board under the new Democratic County Executive in the new County Executive Form of Government. More details from the News-Gazette local Election Results here. Here's a snippet from their coverage:

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Democrats have swept all Champaign County offices.

— Democrat Darlene Kloeppel won the race for the new position of county executive over current Republican Clerk Gordy Hulten.

— Democrat Aaron Ammons won the race for clerk with 54 percent of the vote over Republican Matt Grandone.

— Democrat Laurel Prussing won the race for treasurer with 54 percent of the vote over incumbent Republican John Farney.

— Democrat George Danos won the race for auditor with 56 percent of the vote over incumbent Republican Diane Michaels.

— And Democrat Dustin Heuerman won the race for sheriff with 55 percent of the vote over Republican Allen Jones.

Full article here and results here. Full County results from the Champaign County Clerk here. For Illinois results generally check out WBEZ's list here. National results here from Axios.

If you noticed a lull in new posts lately that's been due to illness and election madness. We'll be getting back into the swing of things soon. Municipal election information will continue to come from the Cheat Sheet: C-U Local with more information as we approach the consolidated election primary!