New Collaborations with LWV and NAACP of Champaign County

New Collaborations:

If it looked like I've been having difficulty keeping up lately, you'd be right! I should be catching up on a big backlog of Cheat Sheet posts for various local government and related organizations soon. And a much wider variety than ever!

The League of Women Voters of Champaign County and the NAACP Champaign County Branch have started a collaboration to rejuvenate the local Observer Corps. This generational project of non-partisan reports on local government took a hit during the pandemic. There has been ongoing work and organization to get these non-partisan local government meeting write-ups going again and also make them more readily available for the public to stay informed.

The Cheat Sheet has joined that collaboration to help summarize and link to these full reports and meeting write-ups! As always, the Cheat Sheet will continue to attempt to avoid taking sides of different local controversies, parties, or ideologies. 

We'll report, to the best of our ability, confirmed facts and differing perspectives on the issues before local government. We'll link to local reporting, government documents, public statements, and recordings of the meetings themselves when they are available. 

The full meeting reports and write-ups that we link to from the LWV Observer Corps and NAACP observers are also meant to be objective, but any personal or organizational biases in them are not necessarily the views of the Cheat Sheet or its authors. Likewise, what limited stances the Cheat Sheet may take on various facts or perspectives are not necessarily those of anyone else we are collaborating with.

For anyone interested in joining either local organization and volunteering to be a non-partisan observer, just click the links above in this post or in our website's sidebar. You can also email observers@lwvchampaigncounty.org for any additional questions, on everything from the new collaboration or volunteer opportunities!

Bonus for Local Civic Nerds:

The League's Vice President, Ann Panthen, recently shared this treasure from the local LWV archives: a 20 year retrospective on the Champaign County Board from 1976 to 1996. She noted that it was "authored by Mary Blair- one of our most dedicated members and an observer for many years. Mary died recently at the age of 104!  She was also League president in the 70's."

The three page report talks about an era of rising conservatism nationally and locally, changing demographics, and long term pressure for better record keeping and transparency. It speaks of hope in more future intergovernmental agreements to work on behalf of everyone in Champaign County. That is something that we do actually see far more of in more recent decades and into today.

It also talks about earlier support for an elected County Executive by Democrats years ago. This was during the early days of coming up with any type of centralized administrative position beyond the County Board Chair themself. For those familiar with the change to an Executive Form of government, it was local Republicans who eventually pushed the 2016 referendum through, assuming that their candidate would win a County wide race in 2018! He didn't and the seat has been in Democratic Party hands ever since.

Needless to say, a lot can change in local government, especially over the long term. From this report, one can also see that many things do not change too!

Thank you for reading! We look forward to many Cheat Sheets and meeting write-ups in the future!

- Benjamin

Coronavirus and General Updates

Sometimes the Cheat Sheet doesn't have any posts for days or weeks depending on how busy everyone is and everything going on in the world. The last 12 weeks since we last posted have been an extraordinary time for everyone.

The coronavirus went through some naming conventions and concerns about political correctness versus inflaming racial tensions. Older posts still refer to the likely geographic origin, but the technical names for second severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2 and the coronavirus disease of 2019, or COVID-19, that it causes are a lot to type out.

I'll be referring to the coronavirus currently kicking humanity in the teeth as the coronavirus and qualify any other coronavirus with additional information (e.g. the original SARS or in contrast with less virulent coronaviruses that cause other diseases).

The latest County statistics on the coronavirus here are still available on the C-UPHD website here, with regular updates on their facebook here. There's also a collaborative effort to help businesses during the reopening phases here.

For folks looking for more detailed information and with some spare time on their hands (and coffee), I strongly recommend the last Champaign County Board of Health meeting video here (with a 17 minute delay during logons and Zoom setup). The meeting runs about two and half hours, but it begins with an update by Julie Pryde of the C-U Public Health Department with the latest information on local outbreaks and efforts. If you keep watching beyond that you'll get to see her respond to community and County Board member concerns on a host of issues.

Some highlight's from that update last week included details on the the 19 local outbreaks in Champaign County. There were over 700 people in quarantine (potentially exposed and avoiding contact and further spread) and 188 people in isolation (confirmed infected and avoiding contact with others). The low hospitalization rates due to the lower ages of many of those who have been exposed.

Critically, our local region, including Champaign County, is in a "sweet spot" according to Pryde when it comes to our hospital capacity in the cities and overall infection rates and treatment needs. This means that we're on track to move to Phase 3 of the reopening process. This next step allows other classes of businesses to open along with essential businesses and relaxes some other areas of the Stay at Home Executive Order. She answered numerous questions and addressed several concerns about the timing and process of this.

Phase 3 has a minimum period of 28 days (or two incubation cycles) to ensure that changes to the mitigation policy are being done safely. With the exponential nature of out of control infections, lives hang in the balance between being patient enough to have accurate data and acting quickly enough to control outbreaks before they get out of hand. An exhausting and constant effort that has been going on locally since the beginning of the year.

One of the issues that came up was child care access expanding in Phase 3, which would be necessary for many parents, but there were concerns about needing more details. Illinois Newsroom had a blurb on that this morning:

Child care facilities  will be able to operate again once Illinois enters the third phase of its reopening plan, which is expected Friday. Maria Whalen is president and CEO of Illinois Action for Children’s, which offered input into the plan to reopen child care centers. “I think that this is a plan that recognizes that at the end of the day, we’re talking about children who are being cared for in congregate settings,” said Whalen.  Newly reopened child care facilities will limit rooms sizes to eight for infants and 10 for others. There are now new sanitation and social distancing requirements. Children over the age of 2 will wear face covering when possible.

More information will probably be available as policy meets reality next week.

The meeting ended by adding an additional June 1st Meeting at 5:30pm (with Zoom meeting information for people to attend remotely to be made available on the Champaign County website later). It will be for additional public participation and updates prior to the regular meeting scheduled on June 16th. 

I'll try to get more updates and information on the Cheat Sheet going forward. I apologize for the long break while adjusting to the every changing landscape on how local governments were adapting and a tsunami of news and information that we just couldn't keep up with. I have a huge to do list on updates and information on how people can still participate in local government. Good luck and stay safe, everybody!

Primary Candidate Information and Guide

The Champaign County Voter Alliance has its preliminary Candidate Guide up for the primary election. They've sent questionnaires out to the candidates with contact information available and will be adding additional information as the primary approaches. Their guide covers a lot of the races you'll find on the ballot in Champaign County, not just County offices. It's an extremely helpful tool run by a non-partisan group that encourages voter participation in Champaign County.

A quick reminder that Vote-by-Mail ballot requests and applications are available now for people who wish to vote by mail. Information and applications available here at the Champaign County Clerk website.

I've added some additional contact information and campaign contact information for candidates on the Cheat Sheet, though I'm still catching up and waiting for some additional information. I updated the calendar page and a few oddball updates here and there on the Cheat Sheet.

If it seems like I'm a bit behind on a bunch of local government news, I am. I've been catching up with the local news coverage and meetings we weren't able to attend in person via on-line resources. A bunch of updates and overviews are coming up this week. Thank you for your patience!

Candidate Information

With the primary election less than two weeks away and more early voting locations opening this upcoming Tuesday, I thought I'd put together a post that has links to all of the candidate information here and elsewhere in one place.


County Offices Races:

County Executive: (uncontested in the primary).

Other County Offices: Main page with all of them (direct office links below)

Auditor: (uncontested in the primary)

Sheriff: Republican Primary

Treasurer: (uncontested in the primary)

County Clerk: Republican Primary


County Board:

District 1: (both uncontested)

District 2:  (uncontested)

District 3: (uncontested)

District 4: (uncontested)

District 5: (uncontested in primary)

District 6: Democratic Primary

District 7: (uncontested)

District 8: (uncontested)

District 9: (uncontested in primary)

District 10: Democratic Primary

District 11: (uncontested)


Other Race information that can be found on the Cheat Sheet (non-exhaustive), see Champaign County Voter Alliance's Candidate Guide for more complete candidate information.

State House District Races:

101st: Republican Primary: News-Gazette Questionnaires and CCVA Questionnaires.

104th:  Democratic Primary: News-Gazette Questionnaires, CCVA Questionnaires, and League of Women Voters Candidate Forum.

State Senate Race:

51st State Legislative District: Write-in candidate Benjamin Chapman (Cheat Sheet post)
Illinois Senate 51st District is also the House 101st and 102nd combined: countywide map, in-town map).

Illinois Attorney General Races:

The People's Agenda local Forum for Democratic Party candidates, Republican Party candidate forum at Chicago event, Democratic Party candidate forum at Chicago event, and CCVA Questionnaires.


U.S. House Races: Illinois Congressional Districts

13th: News-Gazette Questionnaires, CCVA Questionnaires., Illini Democrats Forum, and Bend the Arc Forum Democratic candidates, Congress and the Black Community forum (most recent).

15th: News-Gazette Questionnaires, CCVA Questionnaires, and Coles Progressives Democratic Candidate Forum.


Sixth District Judges: 

Republican Primary Judicial Candidates. Bar ratings and forum.


Democratic Party Central Committee Committeewomen Races:

13th District: Information and News Links

15th District: Information and News Links

General Voter Information: Registration, Early Voting, Vote-by-Mail, Sample Ballots on the Election page or quick links here:

Last two weeks of Primary Voting! Election day falls within Spring Break so have a plan to vote early!

• Early voting: https://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/elections/early-voting

This week early voting is still only at the Champaign County Clerk's Office. Next Tuesday other Early Voting locations open in town and around the county going into election day. Locations in link above.

• Vote by Mail: https://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/elections/vote-by-mail

Applications have to be sent in and received by Thursday, March 15, 2018 to get a ballot to mail in. If you plan on voting by mail apply sooner rather than later.

• Grace Period Registration: https://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/elections/grace-period

If you still need to register to vote, the only option remaining is to use grace period registration at an early voting location or at an election day voting location. See the link above on what you'll need to register and vote when you do it.

• Voter Information Lookup and Sample Ballots: https://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/elections/voter-information

Cheat Sheet: C-U Local

This year's mid-term elections have County races on the ballot (primary voting has begun: more info here), so I'm going to keep focusing on making sure whatever helpful information for voters, candidates, and folks just curious about how to engage with their local government can find answers to their questions.

But, what about other local government? I'm fiddling with that, but it is a work in progress (slow slow progress). Right now it's called the Cheat Sheet: C-U Local. Here's the gist:

Information about the local Champaign-Urbana government and how to learn more about the City Councils, Township Boards and other local government offices such as:

• Their membership information and contact information

• Policy issues

• Latest news links

• Maps

• Information for candidates and about candidates

• Election information and upcoming races

• More up to date meeting information

• Primers on major local issues

• Issue positions and candidate statements

In time, with some hard work, this will hopefully be an easy and quick guide on what's going on with local government, how to effect change in it, and how it works for everyday voters. Someday I hope it can be useful enough for the political wonks, help folks become more political wonky and maybe even run for and become part of their local government.

The information is intended to be factual and based on government resources, local journalism sources, government officials themselves (either directly or through those same sources) and presented without spin as we observe it. We aren't endorsing any candidates or party. We merely hope people will simply find their local government more easily accessible, influencing it easier, and voting for it more informed.

There's not much there yet. But that's how the Champaign County Cheat Sheet got started.

BPNJ Valentines Day Meeting

The talk of the town is the Racial Justice Task Force recommendations as meetings and movement on various fronts has begun and interested parties are looking to put their energy towards something real and organized. Robert King beginning to organize and bring the Justice & Social Services Committee to life has people in various organizations, including Build Programs Not Jails, looking to see how they can push for criminal justice reforms in the report. Everyone is talking about who is talking to who, and who is working on this or that. It's still early and confusing and malleable. 

The County Board just passed two of the beginning recommendations of the housing section of the RJTF report, simply urging the Housing Authority of Champaign County and the City Council of Champaign to amend their rules and ordinances respectfully in order to reduce housing discrimination among those attempting to re-enter their communities from the criminal justice system. This intergovernmental move seemed to go off without too many toes stepped on, but not a non-zero number of toes as one Board Member found out.

The two government bodies urged to take action have meetings coming up next week:

Champaign City Council next meets February 20th at 7pm

Housing Authority of Champaign County Board meets February 22nd at 3pm

People interested in voicing support for the recommendations should probably attend and get to know who their allies on the Council and Board are. More information on that as I learn who's who and what side members are taking. There will almost certainly be resistance given the real concerns about recidivism, but also issues of bias and fears that may go beyond statistics. These aren't easy topics and it'll be tough to present data to allay those worries.

Speaking of data, the next County Board COW on March 13th at 6:30pm will have more RJTF issues raised including on a related database of racial data in the County's criminal justice system. More information on that as I understand it and can pass it along coherently.

Discussions continued into talking about interest in pre-trial reforms and then to their discussions with County Board Member Robert King and his interactions with other players within the system who note that Champaign was ahead of the curve on some of the state Bail Reform Act going into effect now. There's going to be disagreements on how well the system is already doing versus how much further work needs to be done. Activists will be pushing up against players within the system that believe they are doing a better job than most, and might take issue with the more pessimistic depictions of idealists and dreamers. Navigating those relationships and expectations successfully may what saves this ship from sinking on the rocks.

One of the contentious programs, Public Safety Assessment (PSA) Court risk assessments may not be very popular with some current officials. More information on the algorithms that attempt to factor out race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc and give a fair risk assessment for bail. The idea is to focus on public safety risks and further criminal activity risks as opposed to unnecessary and punitive jailing due to inherent bias or financial woes. More information on that here: http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/initiative/criminal-justice/crime-prevention/public-safety-assessment/

There was discussion of a charitable bail fund that UU and other local church members may be organizing to aid defendants beyond internal criminal justice mechanisms. Some other ideas about policing alternatives for neighborhoods were tossed around and might become ideas for a future reform proposal. Court observation groups were discussed, including possibly organizing one to watch for bail issues at arraignments given the new Bail Reform Act in effect.

A couple statements for and to other groups were discussed, including a statement of support for the GEO graduate student union now that there may be an impending strike. Some internal housekeeping on outside individuals who may want to attend meetings as part of the media or some official capacity and whether the current rules and information is adequate.

A discussion on how the group's primary "asks" should be presented as opposed to each member's individual policy goals for presenting and coordinating with the burgeoning Justice & Social Services committee, as well as communicating and working with other groups towards shared goals. Specifics on criminal justice reforms were discussed as well as the need to focus on the "Building Programs" aspect and ideas towards making mental health and treatment a viable and real alternative when appropriate here and across the State.

It was noted that jail expansion is still a factor with the candidates for Sheriff at their recent forum. This is even with the jail population at new low figures (recently as low as 130 with a capacity of more than twice that).

Orientation ideas were discussed for new members such as a casual introductory primer to help people get started with what they need to know to start catching up at meetings... as well as for short term student members who may only be around for a semester at a time and ensuring there is "institutional memory" for the work to be left off and picked up as people rotate in and out of the fight.

Finally a discussion of note takers and people to attend meetings. I became a topic of conversation briefly as I pointed out the Cheat Sheet as a haphazard resource as I've tried to learn about and bumble my way through how local government works so others can follow in my footsteps with less bumbling.

The meeting adjourned at about 8:43pm. The next BPNJ meeting is February 28th at 7pm at the UC-IMC. The first step to making a difference is showing up and learning what's going on.

Cheat Sheet Updates

• Added a link to the News-Gazette Questionnaire for the Republican County Clerk primary race. in the County Office races page.

• Added a new page by Amy on appointed positions and how to apply for them under the County Offices list.

Did you know that you, as a Champaign County community member, can apply for term-limited positions through the Champaign County Board? The County Board accepts applications for positions on “appointed bodies,” which consist of various commissions, advisory boards, and task forces.

If you are interested in learning more check out the Appointments Information page for an explanation and links!

• Added and updated links on election information on the Election page and elsewhere, including outside link to the Champaign County Voter Alliance website that also has additional information on registration, voting options, and a candidates guide!

Attend a Meeting

It seems simple enough. You want to learn about the Champaign County government, you go see what the Champaign County government is up to (Maps!). They have meetings open to the public for a variety of reasons, from a Full Board Meeting (like this one) to other meetings for other County Board business.

Tonight there was a Committee of the Whole Meeting, not to be confused with a regular old County Board meeting. At these meetings the various areas of responsibility report in with other County departments on everything from proposals to budgets, but mainly their monthly reports. For County Board pros, click here or scroll down to jump to tonight's meeting. If you're still learning how all this works and more information on these meetings in general, just keep reading. 

If you click around the main County Board website, you can get to it by going to Meeting Info and it's the first under County Board and Regular County Board meetings. There you can find information for older meetings or tonight's. There you can find the Agenda and the Agenda Packet.

The Agenda lays out what was planned on being discussed, while the Agenda Packet has all sorts of supporting information relevant to the meeting, including the previous Committee of the Whole's minutes... which summarizes what was said, motions, and vote totals.

They also have printed agendas and public participation forms on the table by the rear entrance of the Lyle Shields Meeting Room... the room where most of the various County Board meetings are held. For those curious who Lyle Shields was, I snagged this excerpt from the News-Gazette:

Mr. Shields was very active in area government and leadership activities. He was a member of the Champaign County Board for 41 years and served as chairman of the board for 10 years. He served as Condit Township supervisor for 36 years and in the Sangamon Valley Fire Protection District for 40 years as a volunteer fireman. 

Mr. Shields served on the National Association of Counties for 11 years as a member of the board of directors. He was president of the United Counties Council of Illinois for two years. He was a Republican Precinct Committeeman for 30 years. He was selected as Farm Leader of the Year by the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette in 1992. He was a member of the Champaign County Farm Bureau.

But remember, if you can't make it in person, they do like to remind you that:

Meetings are live streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/champco1776 This is an offsite link. 

Recordings of prior meetings are posted on the County Clerk's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/champaigncountyclerk

With the Agenda and a note pad, you're pretty well all set to go. Although if you have to go, the restrooms are across the hall just inside the two "Pod 400 Urbana Park District Gym" doorways. The ladies' room is in the doorway nearest the meeting room, and the men's nearest the entrance (the after 4:30pm North East one... there are signs, there are maps! It's not so bad, I swear!). I quickly scribbled a layout of the meeting room with a bonus hallway and bathroom map, but it was all pretty obvious other than the bathrooms. But just for good measure... my Lyle Shields scribble map, for the harshest of judgement: [Update: better maps (now with less reflection glare too!) here]

Tonight's Meeting (for those who skipped ahead):

Tonight's meeting lasted a couple hours, but last month's Committee of the Whole on the County Clerk's YouTube channel was three and half hours. So they can be longer. Once they get started, it's much like any parliamentary meeting you ever may have attended. Roll calls and quorum check (enough people attending for it to be a legitimate meeting) and approval of minutes. But then public participation.

Katie Blakeman announced some of the preliminary results of her Amnesty Week effort. And a couple citizens came up to ask the board to consider alternatives to using the jails as mental health and behavioral centers as well as asking for responses to a questionnaire previously submitted to the board. I didn't quite follow either very well, so I'd refer to the video (link now available) on that. The rules say five minutes, but with only a couple participants it appeared they cut off the longer speaker at about eight after a "quickly please" a minute prior. Speaking of those public participation rules:

The various departments went through their reports and tossed about numbers with other officials sitting at the same desk/seat used for public participation to answer questions about numbers or policies that involve them. For example the auditor or Tammy Asplund (Recording Secretary), Tami Ogden (Deputy County Administrator/Finance). You'll find that during the meetings first names are used quite a bit, so a first challenge is to familiarize oneself with who is in the room and referring to previous minutes to find out who "Mr. Hall" is if the context makes it difficult to discern with so much administrative bureaucracy blurring together.

One thing of striking note was the County Administrator's report about all of the software systems needing upgraded from ERP software, IRS software, Metcad, Courthouse systems, and another software program relied on where the vendor is closing their business and they need a whole new provider. All while still wanting to move on the hardware side from mainframe to cloud based system.

And the IT director is eligible for retirement and there isn't an human resources director.

There was a great deal of MS4 compliance work that honestly went way over my head since I literally had to google a few times to find the relevant Illinois Environmental Protection Agency page that helped me get half a clue.

The gist was they need staff to get all of the the things done and they did make a motion to make part time guy a full time guy as an alternative to getting someone with a masters degree in administration to be an assistant county administrator. There seemed to be confusion on what the County Executive position would take over on workload.

Mr. Hall, who may be John Hall (Zoning Administrator), but I need to verify that also got into the MS4 EPA issues and stressed similar issues with staffing for it with a part time guy who has only been at it for a year and having no way to inspect for permits with the MS4 workload. On the enforcement program he stated he didn't even want to talk about how far behind we are on that.

Mr. Hall made the argument that a little bit extra in staffing will pay dividends.

In the end the board had two votes on an assistant county administrator position, that passed by a hand vote, but due to 1 non-voting had a second roll call vote with a switched vote that failed, which left open frustrated arguments on which one was valid, which I believe was the initial hand vote... but even I got confused when it was brought up again later in the meeting. I believe it will be an item for the full board meeting coming up.

Mental health got a one time bit of extra funding with a unanimous vote.

Animal control got the go ahead to work with U of I Petmed for a revenue neutral cooperative program for spaying and neutering by a unanimous vote.

Tami Ogden fixed a long running formula error causing a discrepancy between the Administrative Services budget numbers and the Auditor's official numbers.

And a bit contentious sounding was the "Approval to Release Request for Proposals for the Purchase of the Champaign County Nursing Home" that passed by what appeared to be a split Democratic vote. I believe this helped move the process of selling it along, but as the motion title suggests only in putting out a request to get proposals. Ah, parliamentary bureaucracy. Ain't it exciting!

The News-Gazette had an article on the release request, available here and added to the Nursing Home page here. It has additional explanations of what was actually voted on that makes more sense.

So, there you have it, with more details and corrections to come, I'm sure. But you've joined me on my first County Board meeting...

...so hopefully yours will be better prepared and less like an away mission to strange new worlds and more like a simple way to view and interact with a a level of government that we probably should pay more attention to as a community. If you're a pro at this and see errors, mistakes, or if you're a n00b like me and have questions, feel free to laugh, mock, ask, or demand I draw a better more legible map in the comments section.

(also it's already 11pm, so typos will be fixed in the morning!)

10/7/2017 (First!) Meeting Notes

First meeting! Introductions and charting a course on how to help unwind county government ourselves to understand it better for ourselves and help inform others on the issues, the players and possibly even to run for office someday.

We divvied up some initial tasks including:

• Attending meetings in person when available (on the Calendar link or County Board's page)
• Catching up on missed and some previous meetings available here (link updated on the Calendar page): https://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/countyboard/meetings/minutes)
• Updating this website with more information on candidates including pictures, issue positions, voting history, and helpful tips and notes.
• Updating this website on the issues with links to organizations and informational links to understand the major issues facing the Champaign County Board, including the new Executive position.
• Connecting open County Board races with potential candidates and the support and information to be successful.
• Election information for both voters and potential candidates on open seats, election schedule and the lay of the political land for those districts.
• Reaching out to local organizations already invested in County politics for information on upcoming votes, information to help people support them more effectively, and upcoming input/votes that need to be amplified.
• Contacting some current office holders for more direct questions on how the County Board works now versus how it will operate with the new Executive as well as the Administrator.
• That's the gist...

A lot of work to do over the next month. Hopefully we'll be able to work out the kinks as we figure it out ourselves. Over the next few weeks this skeleton of a cheat sheet should plump up a bit more, bit by bit, until it's user friendly and informative and handy for everybody wanting to get more involved in county government.

Special thanks to CU Indivisible for the idea and bringing some of us together for some wonky democracy in action.

Hello World! What is the cheat sheet?

Information about the Champaign County Board.

• It's membership information and contact information

• Policy issues

• Latest news links

• Maps

Coming soon:

• Information for candidates and about candidates

• Election information and upcoming races

• More up to date meeting information

• Primers on major county issues

• Issue positions and candidate statements

In time, with some hard work, this will hopefully be an easy and quick guide on what's going on with the County government, how to effect change in it, and how it works for everyday voters and maybe someday even the political wonks!