January County Board Meetings

I'll update with video links on the County Clerk's YouTube once they're up (normally available here). This post covers the January 15th Special Meeting and Committee of the Whole and January 24th regular County Board meeting.

Special Meeting: (video)

The special meeting, rescheduled from the previous week due to a lack of enough board members available to form a quorum, again was aimed at Nursing Home debts. The home which still has yet to change hands due to compliance and other delays (more posts here), is still the responsibility of the County government for now. From the News-Gazette last week:

Champaign County Board OKs another $6M in nursing home expenses
...
At a special meeting Tuesday night, the board voted 16-4 to appropriate $1,980,400 to pay off bills to nursing home vendors dating back to the 2015 fiscal year.

County Executive Darlene Kloeppel said the payments will make the vendors whole. She said some services they provide have been at risk in recent weeks because of the large amounts owed.

Kloeppel said the payments also will eliminate some late fees and penalties being paid by the county.

In addition, she said, the nursing home business office and county auditor's office won't have to re-enter hundreds of invoices and vouchers into the accounting systems because they were not paid.

The county board then voted 20-0 to write off more than $4 million in bad debt from the nursing home.

Full article here. The Illinois Department of Public Health recently fined the Nursing Home for safety violations. More on that here. These violations don't appear to be delaying the sale further as happened with previous compliance violation delays. From last November:

County admin: Deficiencies delaying sale of nursing home
Finalizing the sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home is being delayed as a result of a state inspection of the home last month in which 21 deficiencies were identified that require correction, according to a county official.

"The county simply has not met a condition to close," said Van Anderson, temporary special projects administrator for the county.

That condition, specifically, is that there aren't any outstanding life safety code or Illinois Department of Public Health violations at the home that haven't been corrected at least three business days before the sale is closed, he said.

The county first sought a one-month extension on a required Nov. 30 closing date from state regulators. Then last week, county officials filed a second request for a three-month extension until March 1, 2019.

That full article here.


Committee of the Whole: (video)


There was a presentation by the Champaign County Drug Court's Circuit Judge Jeff Ford and Coordinator Amber Edmonds (presentation slides here and video here). In a brief summary the Drug Court deals with those convicted of a crime in a voluntary program that requires participants to get treatment, maintain a year of sobriety, avoid criminal trouble, and life skill program to graduate. Life skills include education, employment, or volunteer work per the individual's ability and medical needs. The gist of the presentation was a cost benefit analysis showing the millions the program may save the community in crime and other costs compared to the recidivism and costs of systems without a drug court. During the Q & A afterward they emphasized their desire to expand services is primarily limited by their time access to a single Sheriff's Deputy to manage cases and also a need for drug testing on the weekends.

Other measures on the agenda passed without much discussion or argument, but there was yet another discussion on the parliamentary rules for committee chairs during these Committee of the Whole meetings. It fell again on the technical issue of who is "chair" or "acting chair" to make or ask for a motion and a second on their committee votes. The new County Board rules under the County Executive form of government has caused some confusion compared to typical Roberts Rules of order. The technicalities could be relevant if someone gets litigious on any of the issues being voted on attempting to claim a rule or policy wasn't properly passed.

A few specific issues worth pointing out is that an additional $2,000 in Drug Court funding got advanced. This will allow for some weekend drug testing mentioned above (more from the News-Gazette here). Another law enforcement issue was the new NIVAN criminal database for Champaign County. This would help with analyzing evidence and connecting it to suspects that the County currently has to go through Springfield and its backlog to use.

There were also a few technological issues being moved. One was a new LIDAR topographical survey of 4-8 points per square meter (important to the various data crunching GIS information that local governments rely on to manage various functions and infrastructure). The last LIDAR survey was in 2008 and at 2 points per square meter resolution at best. Another involved predictive technology for traffic crashes in order to plan better for future transportation infrastructure. A lot of transportation planning and changes are dependent on accident and injury data. Unfortunately this often means tragedy precedes changes, but it would also be cheaper to budget, in the long run, if such needs could have been anticipated.

There was also a budget report (link here when available). Next month's report may be more interesting as it will likely include the Nursing Home debts dealt with in the Special Meeting before this meeting, however.

Regular County Board Meeting: (video)

I didn't attend this one personally, but the News-Gazette had a summary earlier this week (full video here):

Champaign County Board OKs 1,600-acre solar farm southeast of Sidney
...
On Thursday night, the Champaign County Board voted 15-2 to authorize construction of the 150-megawatt solar farm proposed by Irvine, Calif.-based Bay-Wa r.e. Development LLC.

All previous solar farms approved by the county are 2- to 4-megawatt projects.

Bay-Wa plans to build the Prairie Solar farm on 1,609 acres of land east and south of Sidney, though the solar panels would only take up 1,191 acres, according to attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Meyer Capel, representing Bay-Wa.

Construction is set to begin in 2021 and will take an estimated 18 months...

In other business, the board also voted 15 to 2 to issue a $1,980,400 taxable general obligation promissory note to finance operating expenses related to the Champaign County Nursing Home, and authorized the sale of the promissory note to Hickory Point Bank and Trust.

More at the full article here, including an explanation that this solar farm will cover more acreage than 18 Disneylands. Very big. WILL had some more details:

Champaign County Board Approves 1200-Acre Solar Farm Near Sidney
...
The project, to be developed by California-based BayWa R. E., would more than double Illinois’ current solar power generating capacity, which is currently estimated at 80 to 100 megawatts.

BayWa’s initial plans called for solar farm acreage to wrap around Sidney, from the southwest to the southeast. But County Board member Eric Thorsland (D-Champaign) says the company listened to the concerns of Sidney village officials about blocking future development.

“They were very proactive with the village, and moved a good portion of (the solar farm location) so that it wouldn’t box in Sidney,” said Thorsland, who also serves on the Environment and Land Use Committee. “Most of the development in Sidney’s going to the west, and they moved it from the west.”

Sidney village officials still opposed the project. And the mayors and village presidents of several small towns in Champaign County have voiced their opposition to solar farms that encroach on their ability to control what development happens within 1.5 miles of their borders.

BayWa has obtained Renewable Energy Credits which will allow it to take part in a state program under which the major utility companies in the state must obtain a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources.

State officials say the program, part of the 2016 Future Energy Jobs Act, is aimed at increasing the state’s solar power generating capacity by thirty-fold, to 3,000 megawatts by 2030.

Full WILL article here.

Beyond possible Nursing Home arguments (full video now available here) it appears that the Board passed funding for a new contract with NICOR for the County's weatherization assistance program through the Regional Planning Commission. According to the resolution information in the agenda packet, it will expand the assistance to 10 additional eligible households.