County Updates

In addition to a followup on the July County Board meeting available here, there was some other County government related news worth checking out recently:

• Updates on the County "home rule" issue
• Court updates on electronic reminders and Judge appointments
• County Clerk dispute with Rantoul officials
• Champaign County Community Coalition meeting online

A County "home rule" referendum won't be on this year's ballot. From WCIA:

The question of giving Champaign County home rule will not be on the ballot this election.

Supporters say that’s because they couldn’t get enough support for it. They would need 500 signatures for it to be on the ballot. Today is the filing deadline. Supporter and county board candidate Emily Rodriguez say she’ll be trying again in 2022. She believes home rule is what the county needs to recover losses from covid-19.

Full blurb with video segment here. More on the home rule issue including a public presentation on the issue by the supporters on the Cheat Sheet here. The County Executive had a recent article explaining home rule in the News-Gazette here as well.

The Champaign County Court House is offering electronic reminders for court cases. From the News-Gazette last week:

Champaign County Circuit Clerk Katie Blakeman announced Thursday that people who have court cases in Champaign County may now receive text or email reminders of their next court dates by filling out a form at champaigncircuitclerk.org...

“Court-date reminders have been proven to significantly improve court-appearance rates, reducing the need to issue warrants for failure to appear,” she added. “We intend to closely monitor appearance rates following implementation and report on the success of the program.”

...

Blakeman said the idea of providing reminders to court participants was a recommendation from the Racial Justice Task Force report presented to the Champaign County Board in October 2017. She said she hopes to get money from the Illinois Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission to expand the messaging platform to include multiple languages and chat assistance for issues like parking and transportation.

Full article here. In other Court updates, another Circuit Judge has been added to the local bench. From today's News-Gazette:

[Judge Sam Limentato] has been an attorney since 1994; he’s had a robust civil practice in Champaign with Ken Torricelli for the last 20 years. He will take on the family-law docket that Judge Randy Rosenbaum has administered for the last few years.

The recent retirements of Ladd and fellow jurist Jeff Ford have meant the shuffling of judicial assignments that will need even more tweaking this fall when Tom Difanis retires from the bench after 25 years as a judge and 19 as state’s attorney before that...

Besides Ladd, there were 10 other judges from the Sixth Circuit present for Limentato’s swearing-in.

Among them was Ben Dyer, who was sworn in June 1 to fill Jeff Ford’s seat. He and Limentato were selected at the same time in May by Supreme Court Justice Rita Garman for their respective resident judgeships.

Both men will have to run in 2022 in Champaign County only for their seats. Limentato plans to run as a Republican and Dyer as a Democrat.

Full article available at the News-Gazette eEdition here (subscription).

The Champaign County Clerk is still demanding an apology for accusations made by Rantoul officials, blaming him for something that appears to have been their responsibility. The Clerk believes that the reasons for blaming him include the fact that he is an African-American in the position. This may be one of the issues that led to County Board member Stan Harper's self-described rant at the July Board meeting (more on that here). More on the dust up between the County Clerk and Rantoul officials from the News-Gazette:

The county clerk said Ramage made “grossly false” comments about him and his office regarding whether Rantoul’s Tax Increment Financing District 1 would come off the tax rolls this year or next year. Because Rantoul City Schools and Rantoul Township High officials thought it wouldn’t come off until next year, they did not levy for the additional money.

The two districts lost the opportunity to levy against nearly $700,000 in equalized assessed value. They will not be able to levy for that amount in years to come, either.

Ammons said it is neither his nor his office’s responsibility to oversee such matters. But officials from both districts said the county clerk’s office had provided such information in the past.

The state’s attorney’s office advised Ammons that he should “in no way advise, guide or track TIFs for any district,” he said. “My office was being blamed for not doing a job we’re not responsible for doing.”

Full article with additional information here.

And finally, a reminder that the Champaign County Community Coalition is continuing to hold meetings online with updates from local efforts against gun violence, police chiefs reports and other presentations for opportunities to get involved in local criminal justice reforms and social services. July's meeting is available here at their facebook page (also on their website with agenda and power points here). More information available on their website here. including on their next meeting coming up August 12th at 3:30pm (streamed live on facebook and Zoom and available afterward as well).