January County Board Meeting

The regular meeting of the Champaign County Board was this week (agenda packet, video). Click these links for previous Cheat Sheet posts on Committee meetings earlier this month here and last week's Committee of the Whole and Special meeting here. The January meeting came on the heels of a ruling on the the longstanding disagreement on the appointment power of the County Executive in her favor. From the News-Gazette earlier this week:

A legal dispute between Champaign County’s first elected county executive, Darlene Kloeppel, and the county board over executive authority has been decided in Kloeppel’s favor...

The county board hasn’t contested Kloeppel’s authority to make appointments to non-elected vacancies. In filling elected position vacancies, however, the board has relied on the state election code, which states unexpired terms of elected officials should be filled by the appointment of the county board chair with the advice and consent of the county board.

The board contended that the plain language of that statute controls language in the county-executive law, Bohm wrote, but that fails to take into consideration that the county-executive law was passed more recently than the election code.

Full article here. This had left a previous appointment to fill a vacancy on the board in a bit of limbo. Former County Administrator and Deb Busey served as a parliamentarian in case of complicated protocol issues arose. A vote to confirm the appointment of the previous appointee, Cameron Raab, maintained the status quo without any fuss. Some board members facial expressions appeared to ask what the point was of this protracted battle that changed nothing in the short term.

The News-Gazette's conservative opinion columnist Jim Dey had overflowing praise for the ruling as "persuasive," "a tour de force, a clear and concise examination of all the issues involved and a thoughtful rationale..." that leaves one wondering if he's merely a glowing fan of the new Republican Judge. More likely, Republicans are looking at the long term ramifications and the original conservative intentions of the County Executive as a Republican check on a Democratic County Board. The position was designed by and for the popular former County Clerk Gordy Hulten who compared the position to being President of the County. Dey only went as far as describing it as "akin to having a mayor for the county."

When the political tides change, we may see another reversal of who wants to keep the County Executive Form of government, and who wants to revert back to having an appointed County Administrator.

After the appointment was approved, Board Member McGuire called on folks to help others with access to the vaccine. Some of the methods for gaining access use technology which can be difficult for some, especially many elderly people at greater risk. He was also hoping for more detailed breakdowns of vaccination progress among categories such as age groups and Nursing Home residents. The health department's vaccination dashboard has more general data, but includes the current phases and eligibility here.

Appointment votes on a few other boards and commissions fell down mostly party lines. Democrats blocked an appointment to the Mental Health Board, seeking a different candidate to be nominated. Republicans voted against another MHB nominee, but didn't have enough votes to block him.

The Auditor had a presentation for folks interested in the nitty-gritty of the previous year's budget, CAFR (what's this?) and process. It's available at the 45 minute mark in the video. The presentation slides are available here on the County website.

There was an issue with a public participation earlier in the meeting, with one person unable to be heard due to a technical issue. The Board voted to allow Amanda Dixon the opportunity to comment later in the meeting with a vote at around the 54 minute mark. She expressed her frustrations about Animal Control and other authorities not taking her complaints about a pet hording couple seriously until they had caused serious harm to the animals.

There appeared to be some other members of the public attempting to comment as well, but the vote to make an exception was only for the speaker who had the earlier technical issue by name. After last week's nearly 5 hour long COW meeting, there didn't appear to be a willingness to have an extended late night public comment opening.

The meeting ended with a bipartisan statement of appreciation of Deb Busey helping as a parliamentarian and her long time dedication to the County government.