County Board and Jail Updates

Champaign County Board and most of the committee meetings in January appear to be virtual as opposed to in-person again. For example, tomorrow's Facilities Committee meeting agenda has this message at the top:

Pursuant to the Governor’s Executive Order establishing a pandemic disaster in the State of Illinois that covers the County of Champaign, and the County Executive’s determination that holding this meeting in person is not prudent at this time due to health concerns with rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations being reported in the county, this meeting will be held remotely via zoom. Public comment also will be taken remotely. The public may watch the meeting live or via recording on the County’s YouTube Channel.

In the public participation section of the agenda it notes that he public comments will be through the Zoom app and links to instructions and meeting information. Previous meeting videos are available here with meeting agendas and documents available here.

The County Board member information and district links on the Cheat Sheet should be up to date now. With all of the vacancies, appointments, and legal battles I had gotten behind on the current board. For example, Bethany Vanichtheeranont was appointed September 23, 2001 to the vacancy created by Jordan Humphrey in District 5 when he resigned due to a move outside of the County.

In a more prolonged legal fight, Wayne Williams was appointed on December 8th, 2021 to fulfill the term of Titianna Ammons unexpired term in District 11 after she resigned due to health reasons earlier this year. News-Gazette coverage here of the related legal battle on the appointment between the majority of the County Board and the County Executive.

That legal battle resulted in some odd agenda items, special meetings, and a couple other attempted appointments by the County Executive to the vacancy in District 11 that were either dropped (e.g. Angela R. Clark Terrall) or voted against (e.g. Lola Jones).

Other County government updates are in a separate Cheat Sheet post here that include updates on housing assistance, the Forest Preserve District, animal control, and a number of Sheriff's Office and corrections news links.

Jail Consolidation Vote Followups:

Last month's County Cheat Sheet updates linked to local news coverage on the Jail consolidation vote that passed in the November County Board regular meeting. Following up on that vote, CU-CitizenAccess had an article with some of the more recent updates on the Jail Committee and discussions on renovations, health care improvements, and more.

Preceding the jail consolidation vote there was a great deal of public participation from local activists and citizens (jump to public participation in meeting video here). The arguments and data presented in the five minutes allotted for each participant to comment generally get reduced to for or against in the meeting minutes. From the posted minutes of the 11/16 meeting:

Sherry Steigmann of Urbana asked the Board about the cost to borrow the funds to pay for the County Jail renovation and expansion.

Rob Dalhaus of C-U at Home spoke about homeless shelters in the county and requested American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funding for emergency shelters.

Mark Enslin of Urbana spoke in opposition to jail funding.

Matt Soyland of the Party of Socialism and Liberation spoke in opposition to jail funding and urged the funding of social services instead.

Captain Karee Voges, Champaign County Correctional Superintendent, spoke about a recent evaluation of the jail facilities by the state, noting the downtown jail is wholly inadequate; she urged the board to pass jail funding.

Micah McMahon, Correctional Officer, spoke in support of jail funding.

Brian Dunn of Champaign spoke in opposition to jail funding and urged funding social services instead.

Drake Materre, University of Illinois Master of Public Health candidate, spoke in opposition to jail funding and urged funding social services instead.

Allan Axelrod of Urbana spoke in support of funding social services.

Brian Dolinar of Urbana spoke in opposition to jail funding.

David Cisneros of Urbana spoke in opposition to jail funding and urged funding social services instead.

Chelsea Birchmier of the Champaign County Bailout Coalition spoke in opposition to jail funding and noted that since the passage of the cash bail reform in the state legislature, to take effect January 2023, there has been a steady increase in bail amounts.

Hiba Ahmed of the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice read a statement in opposition to jail funding and urged funding social services instead.

Luke Lee of Champaign spoke in opposition to jail funding.

Full meeting minutes available here. The minutes also summarized some of the technical details and amendments discussed prior to the final voice vote.