County Board and Other County Updates

Updates in the post include the recent County Board Committee of the Whole (COW) (agenda packet here, video temporarily available on the live streaming site here, permanent video on the Champaign County Clerk's YouTube channel when posted here). Other County updates include (jump to link):

• Judge Ford's retirement, interview and thoughts on the County Drug Court.
• Judge Ladd's retirement and interview. 
• A potential write-in candidate (pending a lawsuit) for Treasurer. 
• The Circuit Clerk in the news on the marijuana expungement process and a radio interview. 
• And the County Executive attempting to summarize the County government for residents.

County Board:

Last week's County Board COW meeting ran just about two and a half hours, but not just due to fallout from the County Treasurer office. Republicans and the Democratic Chairman raised concerns about the Champaign County Clerk's scheduling of office meetings during hours required for county offices to be open under a 1972 ordinance standardizing County office hours.

The Chairman warned of a "Pandora's Box" being opened if each office was allowed to set its own conflicting hours that could be confusing the public, but the Clerk and others pointed out that exceptions like these are already the norm in various elected and non-elected County offices (examples ranged from the Circuit Clerk to the Veterans Assistance Commission).

Republican members, including Eisenmann and Harper appeared open to updating the hours in order to avoid overtime costs. Some concerns about notification beyond digital media were raised to ensure everyone can be aware of the exception. In the end the board approved the schedule changes for the County Clerk's office with an eye towards revising the overall rules in the future to resolve the overall concern with County office hours.

After that the board approved some technical changes for primary election judges allowing some flexibility with the minimum required judges in areas without lines versus areas that tend to have lines. The language was approved with an amendment that would apply to only the 2020 primary for now.

The Chairman then read a statement about the Treasurer's resignation attempting to clear up what he called a lot misinformation. He ran down the details of how the Treasurer's replacement is to be carried out. Applications and resumes submitted before January 31st (the Treasurer's last day in office) will be given full consideration, though they'll still accept applications after that date. He went over the requirements of the statute, including that State law requires a Democrat to replace a Democrat in this situation.

He tried to dissuade concerns about a Republican being appointed to the position in spite of this requirement due to the unusual choice of a Republican, member Goss, as part of his advisory selection committee in addition to Member Fortado, the County Executive, and Deputy Director of Finance Tami Ogden. He pointed out that the term "card carrying Democrat" isn't actually a thing, "We don't have cards." He said that the decision on whether the candidate was "Democrat enough" would fall to the County Chair of the Democratic Party. Due to current political divisions in the party on forming pragmatic coalitions with Republicans, this didn't appear to allay any concerns.

Audible moans and grumbling could be heard when the Chairman pointed out that the current resigning Treasurer, Laurel Prussing, was insisting on seating her own hand picked Deputy Treasurer prior to her resignation. This instead of allowing whichever future Treasurer appointed the option of selecting their own Deputy Treasurer.

The Treasurer's office came up again during a couple Finance resolutions to hire temporary staff. Chairman Rosales initially voted with Republicans against the first resolution which initially failed. Later he then asked to vote again after the second resolution passed. The board voted on a motion to reconsider and then in a second vote passed the resolution with Giraldo's support (it had only lost by his one vote previously).

There was also a presentation by a representative of BayWa and also Douglass County again trying to work out a possible collaboration with Champaign County on an Enterprise Zone to save BayWa on construction sale tax costs in its solar farm project. The presentation began at the 1:26:25 mark on the temporary video link here.


Other County Updates:

Judge Ford, including comments on his experience heading the Champaign County Drug Court available here at the News-Gazette. Excerpt:

Ford said when he ran for retention in 2018, he knew he was not willing to serve the whole six years but had things he wanted to do professionally before checking out.

That included seeing drug court, over which he alone has presided for 21 years, through certification by the Illinois Supreme Court. He also wanted to be available to a relatively inexperienced staff of judges. In 2018, seven of the 11 seated judges had been “in the building less than three years and a couple were brand new,” Ford observed...

Ford said in the last year he’s been reassured about the capabilities of the newer judges and is also confident that the certification of drug court should happen any time.

Full article here. Judge Ladd's interview is also available from the News-Gazette here. Excerpt:

Prior to taking the bench, Ladd was a standout prosecutor in the Champaign County State’s Attorney’s office, working 17 years for the same boss she has now, Tom Difanis, who’s been a judge only four years longer than Ladd.

That her retirement is coming in the same year as that of Difanis and fellow circuit judges Jeff Ford in Champaign County and Hugh Finson in Piatt County is accidental...

Given the timing of Ladd’s announcement, it’s too late for a candidate to run for election to her seat this year.

Difanis’ and Finson’s seats will be filled by election in the fall.

Also up for election is the seat that now-retired Judge Michael Jones left in 2018. It’s currently held by Jason Bohm, who is running as a Republican for Difanis’s seat in all six counties of the circuit.

Full article here. More on the upcoming Judicial races and vacancies on the Cheat Sheet here.

In an unusual move, a former Unit 4 school board member and perennial local government candidate, John Bambenek says he is suing to get on the ballot as a write-in candidate for Treasurer after being denied under current State law. The News-Gazette had the details on that here. Excerpt:

Had Democratic county Treasurer Laurel Prussing resigned before the candidate filing period ended Dec. 2, there could have been a race included on the primary ballot, according to Barbara Mann, chief of the civil division in the state’s attorney’s office.

Bambenek said he was aware of the law. But he filed anyway, with plans to seek a judicial review based on his contention that a section of the state election code is unconstitutional.

That full article here. I honestly don't know if there's any chance of winning a Constitutional challenge on that issue, let alone in time to be included on the ballot in an election where early voting begins in a few weeks (the official election day itself is less than two months away).

The Champaign County Circuit Clerk was in the news about marijuana expungement including an interview on WDWS radio here. Excerpt:

A warning from Champaign County’s circuit clerk: When it comes to expunging cannabis convictions, don’t expect the process to go quickly.

In the weeks surrounding the Jan. 1 legalization of recreational marijuana, Republican Katie Blakeman says her office has fielded many phone calls on the topic. The new law includes a provision for expunging certain minor cannabis convictions from a person’s record.

That process begins with Illinois State Police, which is tasked with identifying which cases are eligible for expungement, Blakeman said during a Friday appearance on WDWS’ ‘A Penny for Your Thoughts.’ From there, the cases go the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, which then makes recommendations to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office.

Full article with link to the radio interview here. She also had a presentation with a lot of information for people on expungement and sealing records that I found helpful here. From a previous Cheat Sheet post:

For a helpful explanation of expungement and sealing, including the new law on expungement of some cannabis convictions, the Champaign County Circuit Clerk had a recent presentation on the subject for CU Speaks.

That excerpt is from an older Cheat Sheet update on the Champaign County Reentry Council here.

The County Executive tried to simplify and explain the structure of Champaign County government in a commentary in the News-Gazette yesterday. She provides an overview of six main areas of responsibility as well as the structure of the County Board itself, etc. That full commentary available here.