County Board Updates into June

There continued to be a great deal of drama between Auditor and a great deal of the rest of the County government. Recent public statements by those involved appear to put the Auditor at odds with many of the staff of the County Auditor’s office itself, most of the County Board members of both parties, the County Executive, and the administrative staff under the Executive). This culminated in a County Board censure of the County Auditor for alleged mistreatment of staff, pornographic material on a work computer, and other criticisms of his work (or allegedly the lack thereof). From the News-Gazette:

After at least a month of discussion on the subject, the Champaign County Board has voted to censure county auditor George Danos for alleged failure to act as an "independent watchdog" of taxpayer funds and actions "unbecoming an elected official."

...

"The actions of Champaign County Auditor, George P. Danos, have created a work environment the County Board does not condone or support," the resolution states. "... The Champaign County Board seeks to make Champaign County government a safe working environment, free of harassment and misconduct for all employees."

Voting for the resolution: Elly Hanauer-Friedman, Jennifer Locke, Jenny Lokshin, Diane Michaels, Don Owen, Emily Rodriguez, Jilmala Rogers, Ed Sexton, Mike Smith, Chris Stohr, Jennifer Straub, Leah Taylor, Jeff Wilson, John Farney and Stephanie Fortado voted for the resolution.

That full article here. We had a previous Cheat Sheet post on the controversies surrounding the Auditor back in April here. The Auditor gave his perspective and answered many questions about the accusations in the censure resolution on WDWS' "Penny for your Thoughts" radio show this past week (in the second hour of the June 5th episode here). The conservative opinions editor of the News-Gazette, Jim Dey, has also taken an interest in the local Democratic Party infighting with no less than seven opinion articles focused on the dispute in the last two months.

May County Board Regular Meeting:

The last regular County Board meeting (video, agenda packet) lasted over 5 hours due to a great number of presentations on a variety of important programs and topics, as well as public comments in support of looking at the contract / bidding process for minority owned contractors and sub-contractors. Highlights with video links:

• Public Participation included several comments in support of looking at the process of awarding contracts, ensuring minority owned businesses are given proper consideration per the County's own equity goals (go to video link).
  
  
• Presentation on the Racial Covenant Project out of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office (go to video link).
  
  
• Updates on the wider H3 program from many of the organizers behind that and the local First Followers Reentry program (go to video link).
  
  
• Updates on C-CARTS (Champaign-County Area Rural Transit System) funding and projects (go to video link). Staff from C-CARTS had been waiting well over 4 hours by the time their funding item came up and they had a chance to speak on it.

The meeting also went on to cover some contentious issues such as the salaries for countywide offices and their historical imbalances. The new salaries would continue to be imbalanced between the countywide elected office holders. The meeting ended on a long discussion and vote to censure the County Auditor (jump to video link) that was covered in the News-Gazette article mentioned above.

During board member Communications, Chair Carter expressed her ongoing frustration that she is facing racism within the County government and a double standard by her own colleagues. Some of the frustrations appeared intertwined with the County Board's concerns with the Auditor's office. A heated moment came when she complained about the behavior others during and after the 4/4 Special Finance Committee Meeting disagreement. She had previously publicly apologized for her own behavior in that incident (at the 4/9 Committee of the Whole a few days later).

There were repeated points of order and admonishments not to criticize other board members during meetings per the County Board's rules. Carter yelled over the admonishments and received some applause from the audience when she finished her statement.

April County Board and Committee Meetings Roundup:

• 4/4 Special Finance Committee Meeting: the only agenda item for this meeting was discussing a response to the public FOIA information on the County Auditor. The agenda packet also included that same FOIAd information that had been made public.
  
  County Board Member John Farney made a point of order early in this meeting that the County Board Chair, Samantha Carter, took issue with (jump to video). While it appeared that the point of order was mundane, the gestures, yelling, and other behavior during this moment has become the subject of further apologies and arguments.
  
  
• 4/9 Committee of the Whole: This meeting began with admonishment by various board members about Samantha Carter's behavior at the 4/4 special meeting. Chair Carter apologized, noted some ongoing frustrations, but assured the board that it wouldn't happen again. Bruce Hannon was honored as the "eternal keeper of the clock" for the County Court House (see more on that later in this post below). There were updates on the Reentry Program by Rosecrance (jump to video here) and the censure process regarding the auditor.
  
  
• 4/11 Labor Committee: This meeting (agenda packet, minutes) was almost entirely about the auditor, proposed censure language, and the priority of the committee's intent to protect County staff in the Auditor's office who lack many labor protections afforded County employees in other departments. There is a separate Cheat Sheet post that got into the weeds of that meeting and the Auditor issues here. I wasn't able to cover May's Labor Committee meeting, and it appears that the only media coverage was an opinion piece by Jim Dey here. It also centered on censure language (agenda packet including a new proposed censure resolution, tentative minutes of the May meeting are available in the June Labor committee agenda packet).
  
  
• 4/18 County Board Regular Meeting: This meeting included a presentation by the County Auditor with his own interpretation of the County's financial situation and dispute on the budget projections. There was a separate Cheat Sheet post on this dispute over budget forecasts as part of the budget process and the Public Safety Sales Tax here.
  
  
• 4/23 County Board Special Meeting / Study Session: This meeting (agenda packet, video) was focused on addressing board member questions about a referendum to increase the Public Safety Sales Tax by a quarter cent. In the end, it was decided that the County Board's intent was to move forward with putting the question on the ballot. There would still have to be additional approval by the County Board itself.

Bruce Hannon, Eternal Keeper of the Clock:

The County Board passed a resolution to dedicate the courthouse clock as the "Bruce Hannon Memorial Clock" at the April Regular Meeting. From the News-Gazette:

“Bruce Hannon was instrumental in forming the Citizens Committee to Restore the Clock and Bell Tower at the Champaign County Courthouse in 2001 and became Chair of said Committee,” county officials said. “... Under his leadership, the Clock and Bell Tower Committee raised $1.15 million of non-public funds by private donations to underwrite the re-construction of the historic tower at the Champaign County Courthouse and to restore the Clock therein.”

...

A plaque will be placed at the site and a dedication ceremony will be held at a later date.

Steve Beckett, a local lawyer and former Champaign County Board member who was part of the clock tower committee, said Hannon had a gift for persuading people to get involved with different projects, including the clock tower restoration.

That full article here. Steve Becket's full remarks in at the April Committee of the Whole meeting in favor of the resolution, and a touching story of Bruce Hannon's clock work in the community that made him a legend, are available here at the County government's YouTube page.

 

More County Government News:

• There was a 6/10 meeting of the County Board's Broadband Task Force (agenda packet, video starting after the staff resolved some serious technical issues with the sound), which included some presentations and a long discussion on the rural broadband goals. It appears that a lack of state funding had seriously reduced the number of households the VOLO project had hoped to reach. State funding appeared to be an issue with Nextlink's goals as well. The discussion by Task Force members afterwards appeared to highlight a number of technical disagreements and concerns about the lack of progress.
  
  
• Tom Kacich had a profile of the new Champaign County Republican Chair in the News-Gazette.
  
  
• Savoy voted to go ahead with an agreement with the Champaign County government towards its viaduct project, according to WCIA. There was an additional article previewing the vote with more information here.