July and August County Government Updates

Reminder: 2026 Midterm Elections in Less than 90 Days!

For local and municipal government updates (including updates on surveillance policies, Flock, resignations, appointments, and a push to support a countywide reparations commission) please see our latest C-U Local updates here. 


Ammons Indictments: Illinois State Representative Carol Ammons and Champaign County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons were indicted on various federal charges last month. Their daughter Titianna Ammons was indicted in June for wire fraud for allegedly accepting disability payments while receiving other unreported income. From the Chicago Tribune coverage this morning:

Federal authorities alleged Carol Ammons falsified state campaign finance records to disguise payments to herself and her daughter, directed state and federal funds to organizations that used public dollars to pay her daughter, and overpaid individuals out of campaign funds, “then required the individuals to provide cash kickbacks to her,” according to the 12-page indictment.

Ammons then lied to an FBI agent investigating the alleged misuse of grant money and conspired with her husband to conceal the alleged misuse of campaign and public funds, according to the indictment.

The news had just recently broken around the time I was hoping to publish the July updates. Since then both State Representative Carol Ammons and Champaign County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons have released statements denying the charges. Both statements along with related coverage from the News-Gazette are available here. They were arraigned in federal court soon after.

As anyone familiar with local politics can imagine, different partisan and factional differences quickly emerged in whether these prosecutions were part of a pattern of federal political prosecutions or serious corruption charges.

Champaign County Government:

District 6 Board Member and former Chair Samantha Carter resigned at the June regular County Board meeting. Each County Board district has two representatives / seats. Chyna Figueroa-Dixon was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the resignation at the July County Board meeting. County Board member Figueroa-Dixon is also currently unopposed in her race for the other District 6 seat (4 year term) currently held by Dennise Arres.

Member Arres was initially appointed to finish out the term of Carolyn Greer who moved out of the district last year. Member Arres was not running to hold her incumbent seat in 2026, so that would create a new vacancy after her term ends at the end of the year. The News-Gazette indicated that the vacancy (2 year term) would be filled by special election in November. It’s possible that the party may slate Arres for that special election for the upcoming vacancy. The two will effectively switch seats when the new County Board is seated in December.

The Fiscal Year 2024 audit was completed on June 19th. The Fiscal Year 2025 audit process has already been delayed due to the extreme delays of the 2024 audit. It is hoped, by staff and finance committee members on the board, that the delays will be much shorter for the 2025 audit. Those delays will likely be related more to the late start than the multitude of problems that had to be corrected with the 2024 audit.

The creation of a new Reentry Council passed at the June County Board meeting. An amendment was proposed to ensure that service organizations and advocates hold at least half the seats on the new council, but it failed. The Board also approved the creation of a new Legislative Committee that will track state and other legislative issues that could impact the County.People visiting County government facilities may have noticed information and materials regarding the Champaign County Gun Safety. Regardless of any political views or positions, that County program offers safe storage information, gun locks, and even some smaller gun safes for local firearm owners.
At the July County Board meeting there was a resolution put forward by Member Jeff Wilson (who is also running as a Republican in the IL-13 Congressional race) to call for the resignation of County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons in light of the recent indictments. There was a successful vote to “table” the item until the July 2027 meeting.

There was an open question on whether this was properly tabled (a motion that does not allow for discussion) versus a postponement (which does allow for discussion) and has different rules on bringing the item back up again on future agendas. The County Clerk’s office is a separate elected office, so this resolution would have been symbolic.

Other County Government Related Updates:

• CSPH Homelessness Plan Draft: There is a draft of the countywide strategies towards “functional zero homelessness” being worked on by the Continuum of Service Providers to the Homeless (through the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission and in collaboration with Homebase).
  
  
• Nursing Home Bed Shortage Update: The State approved the certificate of need for the project proposed in Savoy. This project is not enough to address the full local shortages, but this may pave the way for more projects in the future to address the overall need. It is unclear whether the official “need” includes people who may need beds, but are considered outside of the “market” due to their financial situation or eligibility for related programs. Advocates for Aging Care is asking the County Board to use some of its tax levy, originally for nursing home related expenses, towards the costs of building a new facility. 
  
• METCAD: C-U Citizen Access raised concerns about ambulance response times in Champaign County compared to the Eight-Minute Standard.
  
  
• MTD: The C-U MTD board had to redo its annexation vote for areas that would allow a link for local bus routes to Carle at the Fields in Southwest Champaign. There was a technical violation of state law that prohibits meetings on election day (one of the public hearings for the annexation fell on the day of the March primary). There was a new annexation Public Hearing on June 22nd. The board approved the annexation at its June 24th meeting.
  
  
• Carrol Fire Protection District Controversy: There has been a lot of controversy and even a failed attempt to dissolve the fire protection district in the upcoming election.