Treasurer Updates

Champaign County Treasurer Laurel Prussing resigned at the end of last week. Before she left, she made one last change to allow the Deputy Chief Treasurer the ability to serve until her replacement is appointed. From the News-Gazette yesterday:

A geologist, Weibel has been working part-time in the treasurer’s office for several months. He was already serving as chief deputy treasurer and is qualified for the job, Prussing said. Prussing resigned her four-year term, with Friday being her last day in office.

Before leaving, she changed Weibel’s status to full-time, effective to the start of the last county pay period on Jan. 26, she said. Prussing said it was necessary to have Weibel in place so he could sign certain documents handled by the treasurer’s office until a new treasurer is appointed...

County Board Chairman Giraldo Rosales said he’ll appoint Prussing’s replacement sometime after Feb. 15. Rosales declined to identify any of the applicants at this time, but said there have been several.

Full article available here. WCIA also had coverage with brief comments by Prussing in the video segment here.

More on the various problems arising in the Treasurer's office under Prussing is available from a previous Cheat Sheet post here: Treasurer told to "Stop the Bleeding." A happier note with the Treasurer helping recover money from the State in the form of finding refunds owed was in the News-Gazette earlier this week here.

WCIA also had an update on Thursday to the issue where taxpayers who had paid their property tax were having their property threatened for non-payment anyways.

Pilarski’s ‘delinquent’ property taxes were paid in June, but she received notices about delinquent property taxes in Oct. and Nov. before the taxes on her home were sold in Dec. to Bass Master Tax Investments, LLC...

Target 3 filed an open records request through the Freedom of Information Act to get additional information about administrative sales in error or a property sold for delinquent taxes...

We received several emails and included in the response was a partial denial, which said our request was in part denied “because no properties were being sold for delinquent taxes.”

Full article and segment here with links to the FOIA materials. This issue was mentioned in a previous Cheat Sheet post here. Relevant excerpts:

Midday Wednesday, more bad news broke on the County Treasurer's office that it had dropped the ball with people who paid their property tax, but still got warnings that they hadn't paid and threatened consequences for non-payment... From WCIA Wednesday:

Imagine you paid your property taxes on time, in full, only to have the county turn around and sell what it says are delinquent taxes...

Four properties in Champaign Co. were impacted by what’s known as an “administrative sale in error,” Pilarski’s included...

It’s unclear how much Champaign Co. will have to pay to settle with the four tax buyers.

Full article here with video segment. After months and months and failing to live up to assurances made, the County Treasurer's Office still has yet to rectify the problem for the tax payers. This was raised along with continued issues for school districts and Republican frustration about their previous complaints and concerns being ignored in their view while the situation deteriorated in the office.

Full Cheat Sheet post going into local Democratic Party disputes on this and other matters here. WCIA article mentioned in this excerpt here. One of the political disputes between the County Board's Democratic majority and the Democratic County Board Chairman (who won the seat in a coalition with Board Republicans against most of the Democrats on the board) revolves around how a replacement Treasurer will be selected for appointment. Relevant excerpt from a previous Cheat Sheet post covering a Committee of the Whole meeting where it was discussed at length:

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.

Full Cheat Sheet post here. Full video of the Chairman's comments and discussion from the COW meeting video here. For a rundown of the confusing Democratic Politics going on behind some of this puzzling infighting, see our latest updates on the Champaign County Democratic Party meetings in January here or a general overview of party politics at the County level here.