County Board Winter Updates

The past few months have seen some headway on the Jail telephone contract, attempts to get the budget hammered out going into the future, failed attempts to have a referendum on the Coroner and Auditor become appointed (as opposed to elected) positions, and more. There is a separate post on gun violence issues around the County.

There is a special meeting of the County Board this Wednesday, 1/31/2023 at 6pm to appoint the new coroner and honor resigning member Kyle Patterson (recently appointed to City of Champaign Township Supervisor). That same evening at 6:30pm there will be another meeting of the Opioid Settlement Task Force committee. [There is now a Cheat Sheet post up on these 1/31/ meetings here.] There are a few brief updates on the task force below.

The 2024 Primary Election (and first day of Spring!) is coming up on March 19th. Check out the VoteChampaign / League of Women Voters Candidate Guide for non-partisan candidate information. There will be County Board and other County Offices on the primary and general ballot this year. An unofficial list is up on the County Clerk's website here and there will be sample ballots available closer to the election.

Illinois Public Media had an excellent overview of the new Jail phone contract here. Excerpt:

The new company — Consolidated Telecom, Inc. — will offer two free phone calls to each resident per day. The new contract is set to begin on Feb. 15, 2024, according to the Request for Proposal. 

Local activists fought for the last several months to convince the county to contract with a company that could offer free phone calls from inside the jail. Champaign County Board member Samantha Carter said people who are in jail and their families should not have to pay exorbitant prices to keep in touch...

Many residents cited concerns with the past contract with Securus over the high cost of phone calls and the way the company collected biometric data. This included collecting the voice prints, or unique data of a person’s voice, while people made calls in the jail. 

That full article here. The News-Gazette also had coverage of the new contract here.

Failed Referenda on Appointed Offices and Taxes:

A renewed idea to save money by making the Champaign County Coroner and Auditor positions appointed instead of elected offices failed to get enough support to even put the issue to a referendum on any upcoming ballot in 2024. The News-Gazette had a lot of coverage of the arguments and pushback on this. From their concluding coverage after the County Board failed to move referenda forward:

After more than an hour of public comment and board discussion primarily regarding proper meeting procedure, the Champaign County Board shot down a proposed resolution that would have asked voters to decide the fate of the positions of coroner and auditor.

The resolution would have placed two questions on the primary ballot in March addressing whether the roles should remain as elected offices or be made into appointed positions...

Multiple speakers — including current Democratic Auditor George Danos — weighed in on how independence is important for the auditor’s office, as that individual deals with a lot of the county’s finances.

That full article here.The News-Gazette's Jim Dey highlighted some of the concerns about the move in an opinion pieces here and other local government reactions here. Dey also covered some additional drama involving vandalism to the Auditor's vehicle and some partisan infighting about how he publicly tied it to County Board activity.

It's worth pointing out that both of the Auditor and Coroner are up for election in 2024. The News-Gazette had information on the Republican and Democratic candidates for Coroner. Auditor George Danos appears to be, thus far, unopposed (along with the State's Attorney and Circuit Clerk).

In other budget concerns, the former Champaign County Executive, Darlene Kloeppel came out against the need for a referendum to increase taxes. County Auditor George Danos also made similar arguments.

Nursing Home Beds:

There was some coverage and updates on the local nursing home bed shortage from Illinois Public Media: 

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and local group Advocates for Aging Care have launched a survey to help identify the state of senior services in Champaign County.

Champaign County is currently short more than 300 skilled nursing home beds, according to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District... 

Over 1,000 nursing homes have closed in the U.S. between 2015 and 2022, according to the American Health Care Association. Many of the closures can be attributed to a growing national trend of “flipping” nursing homes — driven by the ownership shift from small, non-profits to for-profit corporations.

That full article here. There was an organized effort to increase attention to this problem by local community members and organizations. They brought their concerns before the County Board last year, as covered in this Cheat Sheet post.

The IPM article also linked to three C-U Citizen Access articles from last month highlighting the growing nursing home bed crisis and how we got here:

• Champaign residents warned the county about a nursing home operator. Now, four senior facilities are closed.
  
  
• Needs assessment survey for Champaign County nursing homes begins soon; Facilities facing bed shortage, staffing issues
  
  
• Elderly Champaign residents mourn the loss of services at Inman; Half of residents leave

More changes to the County Board membership, resignations, and appointments:

The latest appointment was Carolyn Greer to fill Mike Ingram's District 6 seat. Ingram had to resign and vacate the seat after moving to a new home elsewhere in Champaign County.

The News-Gazette's Jim Dey took issue with Ingram's attempt to remain the chair of the Champaign County Democratic Party through their rules and processes. The internal infighting between the local Democratic Party's various factions and personalities seems to keep flowing on social media or directly to journalists inboxes! Dey's "musical chairs" complaint is usually hurled at the younger Democratic candidates on the County Board who tend to move on (to new homes, new political positions, new careers, etc.) than some of the more settled long-timers who have served.

County GOP versus Democratic County Clerk Continued:

In more partisan arguments, the Democratic County Clerk took issue with County Republican concerns about local election integrity, specifically comments made by former County Board member Jim McGuire. The same Republican highlighted for questioning the local election system also had some input on how he viewed local Republican chances in local politics in the context of State and Federal partisan environments.

Opioid Settlement Task Force:

The Opioid Settlement Task Force committee continues to meet and get input on how to effectively use the funds awarded to the County for its part in the lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. The next meeting is this Wednesday at 6:30pm after a special meeting of the County Board. The News-Gazette had an update in November:

Their mission: determining how to put the county’s share of opioid lawsuit settlement money to the best possible use to help fight opioid drug abuse in the local community...

The money — just under $600,000 of which has already been received, with another $1.8 million expected over 15 years — is coming to Champaign County as a party to class-action litigation in which settlements have been reached with three large pharmaceutical distributors, three drug manufacturers and three pharmacy chains.

At least 85 percent of the settlement money must be used on such things as prevention, education and treatment to abate the growing epidemic of abuse of such opioid drugs as prescription pain relievers, heroin and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

That full article here.The audio and minutes from the task force meetings are available on the committees web page here. 

As of today only the audio is available for the last December meeting. There was a presentation by Captain Voges on opioid issues faced by people in the County Jail. She covered various programs working inside and outside of the jail facility to work with people struggling with substance abuse. There was a strong focus in the Q&A discussion about reentry and the difficulties with the environment and homes people are being released into.

The Sheriff also joined the Q&A later on in the meeting. He highlighted the difficulty and the extreme delays that people can face in getting substance abuse and mental health treatment once they've left the jail. After the jail and reentry discussion there were staff updates (starting around the 36 minute mark of the audio).

One will hear a recurring theme on local mental health and substance abuse: there is a serious lack of options for people suffering from severe mental health and substance abuse issues when jail is not the appropriate place for treatment. This appears to be a broader problem that may require State and local level changes (legally and policy).

Other County Government Updates:

• The years long court battle over Carle's past tax exemptions continues with petitions for the Illinois Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the appellate ruling that ruled in Carle's favor last time. From the News-Gazette.
• Homer has ended its own police department due to staffing and funding issues. It will be relying on Champaign County Sheriff's Office for services, according to the News-Gazette.
• Jim Dey noted the passing of former Champaign County Board member Marjorie Sodemann (obituary is available in the 12/13/2023 News-Gazette).
• Grant money coming to the County to help support the costs of asylum seekers here, according to IPM.
• Update on the County Clerk's push to amend old racial covenants still on the books in Champaign County.
• News-Gazette offered a bit of insight into the overlapping jurisdictions and government layers involved in the I-57/I-74 interchange project.
• Kathy's Mailbag had some extra tidbits about the Mahomet Aquifer and possible connections / usage concerns across state lines.
• Kickapoo Rail Trail funding update from IPM. The News-Gazette highlighted how the project was nearing completion.
• Opposition to expanding solar and windfarms in Champaign County forced a supermajority requirement for a County Board vote, which was not met. More background here, also from the News-Gazette.

May County Board Updates

 

The May County Board meeting approved a solar farm on private property, but opposed by the local Homer government and many residents. Public participation at the meeting had representatives of the Village of Homer and the solar farm company make their cases (jump to video here). The County Board discussion before the vote actually involved a diverse range of opinions and philosophies behind the different members (jump to that point in the meeting video here). 

The Republicans weighed the impact and desires of the community with the private property rights. The Democrats had more internal disagreement about prioritizing private property rights versus greater needs of the community and world. There were also some back and forth on issues like long term climate change and more immediate world hunger issues depending on our regional agricultural world breadbasket.

The full meeting agenda packet and video are available now, and the minutes will be available on the County website at a later date.

There was also a detailed breakdown and spreadsheets of County ARPA federal relief spending and projects in the agenda packet (page 160 of the packet, page 164 of the PDF file here). There was a more brief oral update towards the end of the County Board meeting itself. 

For a more detailed look at the remaining spending decisions, I recommend the long, but extremely detailed discussion at the latest Prevent Violence Task Force meeting. They go through the remaining funds, timetables and time limits to use the funding, and break down the projects by committee member support and projects to be funded. The agenda packet for that meeting also includes the minutes from the previous committee meeting and an overview of the presentations at that time. The News-Gazette had an overview of area ARPA spending in a March article here.

Other Meeting Highlights:

• There is ongoing discussion on how the county should proceed in purchasing additional facilities for Animal Control (from the old Human Society owned facility that was on county land). Board members are looking at the tradeoffs and complications with exposing the unique facility to the market as opposed to purchasing based on (but under) the appraisals. 
  
  
• The Board will be setting up a committee to look at using the county's opioid settlement funds when they're made available in the future. The general plan as laid out by chair Patterson was for a few members from each side of the aisle to hear from stakeholders at these meetings.

Other County Updates:

More on the Nursing Home today on the News-Gazette front page this morning (article also has some additional County Board related information):

With another local nursing home gone, a group calling itself Advocates for Nursing Home Care sees a crisis ahead — not enough longterm- care beds in Champaign County at a time aging baby boomers are going to need them most.

It’s an issue the group’s founder, Cathy Emanuel of Champaign, said she confronted recently when her late husband needed nursing home care.

“We’re already finding that many of the people involved have friends or loved ones who have to go out of the community, because there aren’t enough beds locally,” she said.

Of immediate concern to Emanuel and more than 50 other members of the new group is the closure of the 243-bed University Rehabilitation Center — formerly the Champaign County Nursing Home until it was sold in 2019.

That full article at the News-Gazette's eEdition here. More in a Nursing Home Updates post here.

There will also be another post (to be linked when available) on the current jail and juvenile detention facilities, staffing issues, and other updates soon.

County Board Updates

There are some County government committee meetings coming up this week (more information on those on the weekly calendar here).

Following up on a previous post previewing the July County Board meeting here, the July meeting (agenda here, video here). There was an economic presentation by the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation that delved into some the current outlooks and challenges, including with the coronavirus pandemic ongoing (direct video link here, slide presentation here). There was a handout from the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce with local business owners and operators and the frustrations they have had with the coronavirus, government response, and the chaos both have caused. Many go into heartrending detail about the hurdles they've faced as the livelihoods and economic survival of themselves and their employees teeters over an uncertain future.

The meeting was perhaps more notable for the frustration on display between Board members than any items on the agenda itself. Many of the items were passed in omnibus and bipartisan votes, including authorizing the intergovernmental agreement on the Douglas County Enterprise Zone that would help that county navigate some tax and Enterprise Zone technicalities for a solar project there (presentation at the January Committee of the Whole available here). Also approved was the contract to Tyler Technologies for the new County government server/software replacement, frequently referred to in meetings as the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) System.

Another issue everyone appeared to agree on was rejecting the proposed 6-year Workforce Plan (available on page 72 of the agenda packet, page 75 of the PDF file). Complaints ranged from board members who felt like they or their committees should have been consulted prior to the plan being presented to the board to wanting more input from the workforce itself in developing the plan. Deputy Director of Administration Isak Griffiths defended the process and the plan, but to no avail.

There was some silent protests and angry swearing peppered throughout the meeting as well. County Board member Jon Rector's business logo has often been visible in the background of his Zoom video feed, which has raised concerns about using the County Board for advertising among a couple Democrats on the board. To highlight the issue they changed their Zoom video alternate backgrounds to Rector's business logo:

County Board member Stan Harper took a moment in the middle of the meeting to announce he was going to go on his "semiannual rant and rave about stuff" where he began swearing about how tired he was of people like him being called Nazis and racists. It appeared that the County Executive muted him for violation of the County Board rules. That in turn caused a bipartisan push back about muting board members by the County Executive without some protocol being established by the County Board first. The Executive pushed the meeting along on the grounds that the discussion was off topic on the items being discussed (federal CARES Act election funding which was approved). 

As the meeting was going into closed session, member McGuire complained about the lack of an auditor's report earlier in the meeting. The Executive pointed to the previous auditor items on the agenda as the time to bring it up. County Auditor Danos was on the Zoom call and jumped in and exclaimed that the report is on the County website, "It's done! It's Done!" An argument ensued over the agenda structure and criticisms. There was no Committee of the Whole in July which usually covers reports like this as opposed to the regular meeting.

A handful of board members then struggled to navigate the Zoom setup for the closed meeting live on the County Board meeting feed, sharing phone numbers and codes and a moment where the Chairman of the County Board dropped the f-bomb in frustration for the public to hear (the video is still on the facebook version of the meeting video here).

From the presence requested for the closed meeting, including the Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, Director of IT, and others it sounded like it may have been related to legal and technical problems with the Treasurer's property tax system. But that's just a guess on my part from the context and the vague closed meeting description in the agenda: "to consider litigation which is pending against or on behalf of Champaign County, and litigation that is probable or imminent against Champaign County."

County Board: June Meeting / July Preview

The June County Board meeting (agenda here, minutes on page 4 of the PDF of the July agenda packet). The YouTube video of the meeting appeared to have a sound problem on the County Clerk's YouTube channel here, so I recommend the video on facebook here.

The big news out of that meeting was that the marijuana business zoning regulation passed in spite of the City of Urbana's City Council voting in favor of a protest to the regulation (forcing the vote to require a 3/4 supermajority to pass). The Urbana City protest, in spite of the county regulation mirroring their own, was against the advice of their own city staff who saw no negative impact. From the discussion at that meeting it appeared they simply wanted the County government to have to have broad support for the measure.

The primary opposition to the regulation was on the Republican side of the of the County Board who wanted more consideration for smaller communities to restrict marijuana related businesses near their towns and villages. The language of this resolution, that had finally made it through the entire legislative process and committees of the County Board, however appeared to be the only real option for now versus even less regulation if it failed. Given the choice between an arguably imperfect regulation or none (that wouldn't make hardly anybody happy), the board voted 19-2 to approve.

There was a bit of a question about whether the County had officially received the Urbana protest paperwork due to the timing of votes and communication with the County Clerk and staff prior to the office closing, but the supermajority vote made that irrelevant.


July Preview:

Tomorrow's July County Board meeting (agenda here) will include a presentation from the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation. There's also a handout from the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce here that has numerous personal stories about the hardships faced by local business owners and their employees due to COVID related policies and shutdowns.

I strongly recommend reading the various pleas and hardships faced by local businesses to better understand not only their plight, but also potential ideas and areas for accommodation and fairness. I don't know where the balance can be had between public safety and economic survival within this pandemic, but if we go too far in either direction lives and/or livelihoods could be destroyed unnecessarily.

Other items on the agenda include approving funding for mail-in voting via the federal CARES act/funding and the intergovernmental agreement with Douglass County on an Enterprise Zone for a solar farm and tax issues with the solar farm there (presentation at the January Committee of the Whole available here).


Other County Updates:

Vote by Mail applications are available now from the County Clerk's office for the November 3, 2020 General Election.

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has released its updated guidance for local schools. WCCU coverage here. Full guidance available here.

Champaign County LIHEAP program for energy assistance starts Julty 27th. News coverage from WCCU here. More from the Regional Planning Commission here.

February County Board and Committee Meetings

The County Clerk's YouTube channel has the various County Board and committee meeting videos up for the month of February:

• Facilities Committee 2/4: Video, agenda packet and Cheat Sheet post here.
• Environmental and Land Use Committee 2/6: Video and agenda packet.
• County Board Committee of the Whole 2/11: Video, agenda packet and Cheat Sheet post here.
• Regular County Board Meeting 2/20: Video and agenda packet.

There's also a video of one of the County Board of Review meetings (video here, agenda here) for anyone interested in seeing that board in action, though for an unusual circumstance. In this meeting they're looking at the charitable organization exemption for local hospitals in light of a recent ruling (more on that at this recent Cheat Sheet post here). The Board of Review's normal duties are explained on their web page here. Excerpt:

The Board of Review reviews property tax assessments in the County.  Three (3) members are appointed by the County Board after passing an exam administered by the State of Illinois.  The Board of Review meets each June to select a Chair and Secretary and to formulate and publish rules and regulations for that year's session...

Other duties of the Board of Review include the following:  intra-County equalization of property values, representing the County in all State of Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board proceedings, adding omitted properties to the tax rolls, acting on exemption requests and performing sales ratio studies.

More information, including more meeting documents here. I don't entirely understand the Board of Review yet, so that'll almost certainly be a future Cheat Sheet post. I'm especially curious where more current minutes are kept and if they're more detailed than older ones I've found, like this annual one from 2015.

There was an earlier Cheat Sheet post on the February Committee of the Whole meeting here.

The February 20th regular County Board meeting was a culmination of earlier work and discussions in the Environment and Land Use Committee on Solar farm regulations changes. Two versions of the revised regulations similarly addressed concerns about timing and the ability of localities to have sufficient notification and ability to respond to possible solar farm projects near their communities. They differed on how far outside their municipal borders and into unincorporated County jurisdiction that the balance of County versus local concerns was weighed in the process.

In both the ELUC committee and the regular County Board meeting, the issue came down to a 1.5 mile versus a half mile where the nearby municipality had greater influence on weather the solar farm would be placed there. Municipal concerns included future expansion and growth, which over the 20+ years of some solar farms could be highly unpredictable. The Mayor of St. Joseph attended both meetings (she had a five minute overview in the regular meeting here, but she spoke at length to the ELUC here) and explained those concerns in detail. There were also letters and input by proxy by other towns and villages in the County.

Another concern raised by some Democrats on the board was representation, since the unincorporated areas can't vote for the representatives in those nearby municipalities, the County has a role in representing and prioritizing their interests. Some of the nuance included whether a municipality had a Continuous Urban Growth Area (CUGA) that would give additional consideration to planned future growth. There's a wonky explanation here. Excerpt:

CUGA represents areas with multiple planning jurisdictions that are destined for urban type land uses. Area inclusion within a CUGA is largely dependent on physical feasibility and established planning for expanding sanitary sewer service. CUGA is defined as unincorporated land within the County that meets one of the following criteria:

• Land designated for urban land use on the future land use map of an adopted municipal comprehensive land use plan, intergovernmental plan or special area plan, and located within the service area of a public sanitary sewer system with existing sewer service or sewer service planned to be available in the near- to mid-term (over a period of the next five years or so).
• Land to be annexed by a municipality and located within the service area of a public sanitary sewer system with existing sewer service or sewer service planned to be available in the near- to mid-term (over a period of the next five years or so); or
• Land surrounded by incorporated land or other urban land within the County

The nuance gets even more complicated since we're mainly talking about the default process for solar farm approval. Exemptions can still be made by the County Board, but these bills differed in what distances and situations exemptions would be made versus a more straightforward approval process.

Localities would still have the ability to protest and make their case against developments they don't want, but depending on the distance they'd essentially have more leverage closer to their borders than other areas.

In the end the Democrats passed the version that weighed the County's interest more up to the half-mile of the municipality. Republicans, Chairman Giraldo Rosales and Connie Dillard-Myers appeared to join the Republicans in wanting to weigh the municipal interests more out to 1.5 miles out.


Other Issues:

The jail consolidation plans were discussed at length in the Facilities committee meeting (at the 11 minute mark in the video). For activists concerned about consolidation plans and what the hurdles and pressures specifically are, the full discussion is nearly an hour long, but addresses a lot of critical questions and issues.

The meeting documents included a letter from the Sheriff explaining some of his response to potential reform impacts on future jail populations raised by criminal justice reform activists including State Representative Carol Ammons (Cheat Sheet post including video link for recent panel event here). That full letter is here. While backing reforms in future possible legislation, he highlights the urgency of the current situation under current law, especially in the downtown jail:

At the regular County Board meeting the public participation also included advocates for criminal justice reforms to avoid adding overall bed space to the satellite jail that could create systemic and budget pressures to fill.

A concern raised by Member Goss at the COW about the County Clerk's polling place location in his district was answered and explained it appeared to everyone's satisfaction to avoid another move and the costs of reissuing new registration ID cards.

Towards the end in New Business, Member Fortado uged expediting the selection of a replacement Treasurer. There appears to have been an expectation by some for a decision sooner rather than later. She expressed disappointment it hadn't been brought to resolution at this meeting. (the YouTube video is cut off, but the streaming buffer link still has it at the 1:42:33 mark here).

The meeting ended in closed session to discuss litigation issues, which I believe was related to the property tax ruling given the news that emerged from the Board of Review afterward in support of an appeal decision. More on that here. One issue that was raised before the Board went into closed session was the timing on the agenda. It had apparently been placed at the beginning of the meeting as lawyers were waiting and possibly billing waiting for it at the end. I couldn't tell if that was just a possible concern or a definite cost issue at the time. The discussion happened at the 1:44 mark on the video (cut off on the YouTube channel, but still available on the streaming buffer here).

HAZMAT, Champaign FD and the Marathon Terminal

Earlier this month, Tom's Mailbag had information on the history and safety issues with the big Marathon Champaign Terminal on the west side of town where you may have seen giant tanks and been stuck behind fuel trucks coming and going. The part that stood out to me was the collaboration with local government and safety in case of a spill or accident. They listed details of their response plans and regular training and collaboration with Champaign County Emergency Management Agency and the City of Champaign Fire Department, which is part of MABAS 28 regional response for HAZMAT and other collaborations as well:

— Utilization of the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) System to constantly monitor pipelines and check for potential pipeline leaks. If a potential leak is detected, an Operations Center systems analyst is immediately alerted so that the line is shut down.

— Development and maintenance of an Emergency Response Plan (OPA 90) that details our response strategies.

— Utilization of the company's Corporate Emergency Response Team to ensure an organized response, utilizing best practices.

— Conducting HAZWOPER training for employees so that they can respond quickly and effectively to ensure the safety of themselves and the public.

— Conducting annual emergency response tabletop and equipment deployment exercises to ensure preparedness.

— Formation of the Rapid Ecological Assessment Countermeasure Team to coordinate the ecological activities associated with an emergency response."
...
John Dwyer, the coordinator for the Champaign County Emergency Management Agency, said his organization has a general "hazmat response plan" for hazardous materials incidents.

Dwyer said Marathon also sponsors regular pipeline training seminars for first responders and excavators who work in the area.

Champaign Fire Chief Gary Ludwig said his department has "an excellent working relationship with the Marathon plant in Champaign. They consider safety a priority as much as we do. We regularly and often meet with them and train with them.

More information at the full article here, including more background and details.

County Roundup

There were a few news items related to County government this week:

• The results from the State's lottery on solar farm bids was announced. 
• A superbug fungus in Illinois hasn't been found in Champaign yet, but C-U Public Health Department is keeping an eye out for it.
• There were a couple news items following up on the Jail online bond fraud.

The News-Gazette had coverage of the solar farm lottery results and the local impact. In one article Thursday they had a overview of the winners and losers:

Five area solar-farm projects win renewable-energy credits from state
Only five area "community solar" projects were big winners in Wednesday's Illinois Power Agency lottery in Chicago, where about 10 percent of nearly 1,000 proposals snagged the renewable-energy credits made possible by the Future Energy Jobs Act.

In the larger-community category — mostly 2-megawatt projects that will generate electricity Illinoisans likely can buy through subscriptions — only one Champaign County project was chosen: a 2-megawatt farm proposed by Forefront Power near Sidney...

Not a part of the power agency's lottery were another 740 "large distributed generation" projects that were also awarded. These projects, which generally consist of smaller arrays at businesses or homes, do not connect directly to the power grid and offer subscriptions. Instead, Star said, they are designed to offset electricity use where they are located, like the one at Monticello Middle School — one of about 70 approved in Champaign and surrounding counties.

More at the full article here. The News-Gazette also highlighted one of the Urbana projects delayed by missing out on this year's lottery:

Urbana solar project on hold for at least a year after losing out on incentives
...
The project to bring a solar array to Urbana's old landfill site was not one of them, much to the disappointment of the city's environmental sustainability manager, Scott Tess...

In December, aldermen voted to strike a lease option agreement with San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower DevCo, which allowed them to apply to the incentives lottery. The two-year lease-option agreement — the first of three steps to realizing the solar-energy project — would give SunPower the exclusive right to develop solar arrays on 41 acres of Urbana's landfill property, managed by the Champaign-Urbana Solid Waste Disposal System.

Under the agreement, SunPower would have the exclusive right for two years to develop the property, as well as a lease renewal option in the event it can't secure incentives or funding in that time. But in order for them to start work on the array, they have to be secure in knowing who they'll sell the energy to.

Without the incentives, Tess said, it's not likely that the energy output generated by the array would be cheap enough to stave off competition from natural gas and other popular sources. The immediate next step for SunPower will be to apply for next year's incentives lottery.

More at that full article here.


WCIA had blurb and a video segment on local concerns with a superbug spreading nationally in medical facilities:

There have been more than 150 cases of this superbug in northern Illinois.

No one has been diagnosed in central Illinois, but the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District is keeping an eye on the situation.

Doctors say that's because more people have become resistant to treatment.

The fungus -- called Candida auris spreads quickly.

It affects people with weak immune systems, usually through contaminated surfaces or equipment...

Simple things like washing your hands after coming into contact with patients and cleaning surfaces can help stop the threat.

That article and video segment here.


There were also a couple recent followup stories on the issues with the County Jail's online bond payment system that was recently shut down due to fraudulent payments (more on that at a Cheat Sheet post here). From the News-Gazette website on Tuesday (and print edition Thursday):

An Arkansas man who showed up at his pretrial hearing Tuesday on weapons charges was arrested so he could post bond legitimately.

Edwin McCraney, 25, of West Memphis was one of about a dozen defendants for whom arrest warrants were issued last month after Champaign County Jail officials learned that their bond had been posted through an online service using stolen credit-card information.

In the wake of that discovery, Sheriff Dustin Heuerman suspended the use of GovPay.com on March 20.

Heuerman said at the time that there had been more than $25,000 in bail paid with the remote online option from suspected stolen credit-card information since the beginning of the year...

Assistant State’s Attorney Chris McCallum said the rightful credit-card holder lives in Pennsylvania and had no connection to McCraney.

Heuerman said he’s heard no complaints from anyone about the suspension of the GovPay service.

Credit cards may still be used to post bond, but they have to be presented in person at the jail by the poster. Cash and money orders are also acceptable forms of bond, he said.

More information at the article here. There was another article in today's paper along the same lines:

A Champaign man who was released from jail a month ago on bond that was paid with a stolen credit card is back in custody.

Jaime Varelas, 21, whose last known address was in the 1300 block of Williamsburg Drive, was returned to Urbana on Thursday after his arrest in Kankakee County on a warrant issued March 21...

He was jailed starting not long after the alleged incident until March 12, when someone posted $5,034 bond for him using the online service GovPay.com.

Within three days of his release, county jail administrators were notified that the bond had been posted with credit-card information that had been stolen...

Varelas' was among the highest bonds posted with the stolen credit-card information. Heuerman said the amounts ranged from as little as $184 to just over $5,000.

That full article here.

County Roundup

It's catch up time for the Cheat Sheet! We've been running behind, but will have a bunch of overviews of February local government information as we get swinging in March.

Here's are County Board meeting links and coverage for the last month as well as a couple quick March County news items from to get things going:

February County Board Meetings:

• Committee of the Whole: Video, Agenda, News-Gazette Coverage on solar farm approval,


• County Board 2/21/2019 (regular meeting): Video, Agenda Packet, Addendum, News-Gazette Coverage with highlights of the Nursing Home sale delays cause more consternation as the Nursing Home rating drops to the lowest level.


• Study Session: Video (not yet available), Agenda (more information in Handouts), News-Gazette Coverage, Bonus: Champaign County Government Strategic Planning Overview

March County Facilities Meeting: News-Gazette coverage of Youth Detention Center's potential new roof. This is one of many facility maintenance issues the county has been delaying due to budget crunches. WCIA had an additional article and video segment on the County's plan to start dealing with long neglected facility maintenance here.

Emergency Management News:

• News-Gazette coverage of Champaign County Emergency Management Agency advice on weather radios and having at least two sources for receiving emergency notifications.
  
• METCAD will likely be hiring in the Spring. METCAD is the agency that does a great deal of the area emergency dispatch for emergency services. Information available from Tom's Mailbag and the City of Champaign website. METCAD is a collaboration of local governments, including the City of Champaign which manages the personnel. From Tom's Mailbag last week:
  

  "Our hiring is done through the city of Champaign Human Resources, as we are employees of the city. Our requirements include a high school diploma or equivalent, ability to pass a data entry test that equates to about 30-35 words per minute with 90 percent accuracy, and the ability to earn a passing score on our telecommunicator aptitude test," she said. "We have some preferred qualifications as well: prior dispatch experience, customer service experience, and experience working with computers...
  
  "We are currently exploring some updates to this process to make sure that we are visible and accessible to those looking for a career in emergency communications and that we are finding good people to fill the openings we have. We plan to hire again in the spring and people can always check the city of Champaign website (champaignil.gov) to see when we start accepting applications."

  More details at the News-Gazette article here.

First Step to Another Solar Farm

Another potential solar farm near Homer passed the first step towards eventual approval this week. The proposed solar farm this time is much smaller than that 1,600 acre behemoth approved at the last regular County Board meeting. From Friday's News-Gazette:

Champaign County zoning board OKs plan for solar farm near Homer
...
Representatives from Atlanta-based SolAmerica Energy LLC appeared before the Champaign County Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday night to seek a special-use permit for a 2-megawatt solar farm, to be called the Champaign Sinclair Farm.

After a two-hour discussion, the board voted 4-0 to recommend approval of the permit, which advances the proposal to the county's Environment and Land Use Committee.

The proposed facility would be built on a 75.33-acre tract of land owned by Phyllis Jane Sinclair east of the village of Homer, west of the Vermilion County line and north of the sewage treatment plant.

Solar panels would take up 14.6 acres of that property and would generate enough energy for between 200 and 300 homes...

If the Champaign Sinclair Farm is ultimately approved by the county board and is selected in the Illinois Power Agency's lottery for contracts for renewable energy credits, Peters said construction would begin in May or June of this year.

Full article here.

January County Board Meetings

I'll update with video links on the County Clerk's YouTube once they're up (normally available here). This post covers the January 15th Special Meeting and Committee of the Whole and January 24th regular County Board meeting.

Special Meeting: (video)

The special meeting, rescheduled from the previous week due to a lack of enough board members available to form a quorum, again was aimed at Nursing Home debts. The home which still has yet to change hands due to compliance and other delays (more posts here), is still the responsibility of the County government for now. From the News-Gazette last week:

Champaign County Board OKs another $6M in nursing home expenses
...
At a special meeting Tuesday night, the board voted 16-4 to appropriate $1,980,400 to pay off bills to nursing home vendors dating back to the 2015 fiscal year.

County Executive Darlene Kloeppel said the payments will make the vendors whole. She said some services they provide have been at risk in recent weeks because of the large amounts owed.

Kloeppel said the payments also will eliminate some late fees and penalties being paid by the county.

In addition, she said, the nursing home business office and county auditor's office won't have to re-enter hundreds of invoices and vouchers into the accounting systems because they were not paid.

The county board then voted 20-0 to write off more than $4 million in bad debt from the nursing home.

Full article here. The Illinois Department of Public Health recently fined the Nursing Home for safety violations. More on that here. These violations don't appear to be delaying the sale further as happened with previous compliance violation delays. From last November:

County admin: Deficiencies delaying sale of nursing home
Finalizing the sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home is being delayed as a result of a state inspection of the home last month in which 21 deficiencies were identified that require correction, according to a county official.

"The county simply has not met a condition to close," said Van Anderson, temporary special projects administrator for the county.

That condition, specifically, is that there aren't any outstanding life safety code or Illinois Department of Public Health violations at the home that haven't been corrected at least three business days before the sale is closed, he said.

The county first sought a one-month extension on a required Nov. 30 closing date from state regulators. Then last week, county officials filed a second request for a three-month extension until March 1, 2019.

That full article here.


Committee of the Whole: (video)


There was a presentation by the Champaign County Drug Court's Circuit Judge Jeff Ford and Coordinator Amber Edmonds (presentation slides here and video here). In a brief summary the Drug Court deals with those convicted of a crime in a voluntary program that requires participants to get treatment, maintain a year of sobriety, avoid criminal trouble, and life skill program to graduate. Life skills include education, employment, or volunteer work per the individual's ability and medical needs. The gist of the presentation was a cost benefit analysis showing the millions the program may save the community in crime and other costs compared to the recidivism and costs of systems without a drug court. During the Q & A afterward they emphasized their desire to expand services is primarily limited by their time access to a single Sheriff's Deputy to manage cases and also a need for drug testing on the weekends.

Other measures on the agenda passed without much discussion or argument, but there was yet another discussion on the parliamentary rules for committee chairs during these Committee of the Whole meetings. It fell again on the technical issue of who is "chair" or "acting chair" to make or ask for a motion and a second on their committee votes. The new County Board rules under the County Executive form of government has caused some confusion compared to typical Roberts Rules of order. The technicalities could be relevant if someone gets litigious on any of the issues being voted on attempting to claim a rule or policy wasn't properly passed.

A few specific issues worth pointing out is that an additional $2,000 in Drug Court funding got advanced. This will allow for some weekend drug testing mentioned above (more from the News-Gazette here). Another law enforcement issue was the new NIVAN criminal database for Champaign County. This would help with analyzing evidence and connecting it to suspects that the County currently has to go through Springfield and its backlog to use.

There were also a few technological issues being moved. One was a new LIDAR topographical survey of 4-8 points per square meter (important to the various data crunching GIS information that local governments rely on to manage various functions and infrastructure). The last LIDAR survey was in 2008 and at 2 points per square meter resolution at best. Another involved predictive technology for traffic crashes in order to plan better for future transportation infrastructure. A lot of transportation planning and changes are dependent on accident and injury data. Unfortunately this often means tragedy precedes changes, but it would also be cheaper to budget, in the long run, if such needs could have been anticipated.

There was also a budget report (link here when available). Next month's report may be more interesting as it will likely include the Nursing Home debts dealt with in the Special Meeting before this meeting, however.

Regular County Board Meeting: (video)

I didn't attend this one personally, but the News-Gazette had a summary earlier this week (full video here):

Champaign County Board OKs 1,600-acre solar farm southeast of Sidney
...
On Thursday night, the Champaign County Board voted 15-2 to authorize construction of the 150-megawatt solar farm proposed by Irvine, Calif.-based Bay-Wa r.e. Development LLC.

All previous solar farms approved by the county are 2- to 4-megawatt projects.

Bay-Wa plans to build the Prairie Solar farm on 1,609 acres of land east and south of Sidney, though the solar panels would only take up 1,191 acres, according to attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Meyer Capel, representing Bay-Wa.

Construction is set to begin in 2021 and will take an estimated 18 months...

In other business, the board also voted 15 to 2 to issue a $1,980,400 taxable general obligation promissory note to finance operating expenses related to the Champaign County Nursing Home, and authorized the sale of the promissory note to Hickory Point Bank and Trust.

More at the full article here, including an explanation that this solar farm will cover more acreage than 18 Disneylands. Very big. WILL had some more details:

Champaign County Board Approves 1200-Acre Solar Farm Near Sidney
...
The project, to be developed by California-based BayWa R. E., would more than double Illinois’ current solar power generating capacity, which is currently estimated at 80 to 100 megawatts.

BayWa’s initial plans called for solar farm acreage to wrap around Sidney, from the southwest to the southeast. But County Board member Eric Thorsland (D-Champaign) says the company listened to the concerns of Sidney village officials about blocking future development.

“They were very proactive with the village, and moved a good portion of (the solar farm location) so that it wouldn’t box in Sidney,” said Thorsland, who also serves on the Environment and Land Use Committee. “Most of the development in Sidney’s going to the west, and they moved it from the west.”

Sidney village officials still opposed the project. And the mayors and village presidents of several small towns in Champaign County have voiced their opposition to solar farms that encroach on their ability to control what development happens within 1.5 miles of their borders.

BayWa has obtained Renewable Energy Credits which will allow it to take part in a state program under which the major utility companies in the state must obtain a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources.

State officials say the program, part of the 2016 Future Energy Jobs Act, is aimed at increasing the state’s solar power generating capacity by thirty-fold, to 3,000 megawatts by 2030.

Full WILL article here.

Beyond possible Nursing Home arguments (full video now available here) it appears that the Board passed funding for a new contract with NICOR for the County's weatherization assistance program through the Regional Planning Commission. According to the resolution information in the agenda packet, it will expand the assistance to 10 additional eligible households.

Solar Farm Updates

The proposed solar farm near Sidney would be the largest private solar farm in the area if approved later this month by the full County Board. The News-Gazette had updates on the ongoing approval process in the county government required to build in the area:

Second Champaign County panel OKs proposed large solar farm near Sidney
...
On Thursday, the Champaign County Environment and Land Use Committee voted 6-0 to recommend that the county board approve a 150-megawatt solar farm proposed by Irvine, Calif.-based Bay-Wa r.e. Development LLC...

If the development, to be called Prairie Solar, gets final approval from the board on Jan. 24, Bay-Wa r.e. plans to build it on 1,609 acres of land east and south of Sidney...

"Bay-Wa has a strong commitment to being a good corporate citizen," Fitzgerald said. "The proposed Prairie Solar facility satisfies and, in many aspects, exceeds the requirements of the Champaign County solar ordinance."

Fitzgerald said in cooperation with landowners, the entire project area will be pattern-tiled so as to not disturb drainage.

Fitzgerald also announced Thursday night that the Illinois Power Authority has awarded the Prairie Solar facility a full subscription of renewable-energy credits, which would lower the price of electricity to the buyer.

The project was previously approved by the county's Zoning Board of Appeals on Nov. 29 in a 4-2 vote.

Full article here. In other solar farm news the University of Illinois received recognition for its efforts in Climate leadership, including its solar energy intiatives:

UI selected as recipient of ninth annual Climate Leadership Award
The University of Illinois was selected for the ninth annual Climate Leadership Award from the Boston-based nonprofit Second Nature, in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council.

One four-year university and one two-year college are chosen annually for the award, which recognizes innovation and leadership in climate action...

The awards are based on advances in climate innovation, collaboration and student preparedness. The UI was cited for:

— The breadth of its sustainability, energy and environmental research.

— Efforts to make the campus and its buildings more sustainable, including a solar farm, purchase of renewable energy, conservation efforts and a framework developed in the Illinois Climate Action Plan to reach carbon neutrality no later than 2050.

— Courses in sustainability across campus, with participation from almost every college and the majority of academic units.

— Initiatives to change behavior and engage students, including the Certified Green Office and Laboratory Programs, zero-waste athletic events, and student organizations and events dedicated to sustainability.

Full article here.

County Board Approves First Solar Farms

The October 18th County Board meeting (video here, agenda here, and addendum here) mainly focused around approving the first solar farms since the ordinance allowing such developments was passed (more on that here). To jump to the portion of the meeting discussing the solar farms in question and concerns about the ordinance click here. News-Gazette blurb from yesterday:

Champaign County Board approves two rural solar farms
...
Members approved Community Power Group's plans to build a pair of 2-megawatt farms — one on 13.56 acres of a 57.84-acre tract at county roads 2350 N and 1700 N, north of the St. Joseph Sportsman Club, and another on 16 acres of a 36.77-acre tract at the southeast corner of county roads 1300 E and 3300 N in Ludlow Township, northwest of Rantoul.

The votes came with some reservations, as residents and officials of nearby municipalities have voiced concerns that the panels could bring noise, affect property values and restrict a community's ability to expand.

Some board members suggested at Thursday's meeting that the county's zoning board take another look at solar-farm rules, but no formal action was taken.

Full blurb here. There was also some discussion on RSM, the firm chosen to do the post-closing accounting services for the Champaign County Nursing Home after the sale. There were some concerns about conflicts in the past, but Administrator Busey had found that the auditors involved didn't believe those problems originated with RSM and shouldn't be a problem in the future. The full discussion is available at the video jump-to link here. Everything else in the consent agenda and regular agenda and addendum passed by either voice or roll call vote.

Middle Fork and Coal Ash Meetings

 There are a couple opportunities for public input on the proposed bank armoring project by Dynergy to deal with the toxic coal ash site near the Middle Fork River. The first meeting is this Monday night (tomorrow as of this posting) at the Champaign Public Library. From the News-Gazette yesterday:

Environmental groups set meetings on Middle Fork coal-ash campaign
Advocates of protecting the Middle Fork River from possible coal-ash contamination are encouraging the public to attend one of two upcoming meetings that will update citizens on the campaign and offer opportunities to get involved.

Texas-based Vistra Energy Corp., which recently merged with Dynegy, has filed an application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put more rocks along the river bank near coal-ash pits that were once part of the closed Dynegy power station north of Oakwood.

Recent decisions by the Corps of Engineers and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency have opened the door for more public input into the decision-making process on whether to allow Dynegy to stabilize the bank in the manner it has proposed and let it permanently leave the coal ash in the pits.

Lan and Pam Richart, co-directors of Eco-Justice Collaborative, and Andrew Rehn, water resources engineer with the Prairie Rivers Network, will lead both public meetings, providing updates on the government agencies' review of Vistra's plans and ways to provide comments and learn where each Illinois gubernatorial candidate stands on the issue.

The first meeting is set for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green St.; the second is set for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Danville Public Library, 319 N. Vermilion St.

More at the full article here. More information from the Eco-Justice Collaborative here. More information from the Prairie Rivers Network on the proposed bank armoring here. Their description of the problem explains their demand for Dynergy to seek alternative and hopefully permanent safeguards to the river:

The real issue here is the location of the coal ash – not the river. As long as the coal ash is in the floodplain next to the meandering river, there will be need for repeated bank armoring. Indeed, this project includes removal of the previous bank armoring efforts from the 1980s which used gabions. That set of bank armoring was daunting in size, yet despite the magnitude of the 1980s armoring, the river was able to negate its influence with time.

Bank armoring is a temporary practice. One day, this project will also need to be removed and replaced.

More at their article here.

The Week Ahead: 9/30 - 10/6

Vote By Mail requests are available to voters generally now. Ballot requests for the November 6th, 2018 General Election have already started and EARLY VOTING HAS BEGUN! More information on Vote By Mail in Champaign County here. Ballot request direct link for residents here. More information on County elections (including checking your registration, sample ballots when available, and early voting times and locations) at our Elections page.

Other Events:

There are a lot of political campaign and organizing events popping up (e.g. local candidate forums on upcoming Friday nights). Check out your preferred candidates and you will likely see campaign, canvassing, or voter registration events in the area. Many are using facebook to more easily share event information and reminders. Check out the Champaign County Voter Alliance's preliminary general election candidate guide to see who is running. We'll be updating County race information from the primary election to the general soon.
 
Groups that crossover with Racial Justice Task Force recommendations meeting this week:

Build Programs Not Jails meets Wednesday, October 3rd at 7pm at the Independent Media Center. Meetings are every other Wednesday at 7pm at the IMC.

At July's City of Champaign Study Session of the City Council, the reentry housing issue was raised during public participation (a full write up of the meeting is here and video here). This is following up on the preview of that discussion at the City Council meeting here: Reentry Housing Issue. The News-Gazette had a couple articles following up on the meeting linked on the Cheat Sheet here.

County Calendar:

On Monday evening there is the Nursing Home Board of Directors meeting at the 6:30pm time (agenda here). From the previous month's minutes in this month's agenda packet you can see this is more of a managerial board discussing financials and marketing more than policy or politics, but with the sale of the Nursing Home looming it may have additional related information.

On Tuesday evening there is a Special County Board of Health Meeting at the C-U Public Health District location. A quick agenda summary below and agenda here.

Also on Tuesday is the County Facilities Committee which meets back at Brookens. This committee deals with County facilities maintenance and projects. More information can be found in the meeting agenda packet, including previous minutes to get an idea of what they do.

Thursday has a meeting of the is the Environment & Land Use Committee, which deals with environmental issues and how land is used within the County's jurisdiction. This week there appears to be some updates on the Mahomet Aquifer Task Force and the Middle Fork River Coal Ash Pit situation. There appears to be some items on solar farm exemptions as well. More at the agenda packet here.


The full 2018 schedule is on the Calendar page and the County page. The regular County Board meetings are back to Thursdays until next holiday season.

If you're curious about learning more about how your county government works, it's easy enough to live stream a meeting or go in person: Attend a Meeting.

*Meeting is broadcast live on Comcast Public Access and at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/champco1776

Where is Brookens?

Brookens Administrative Center
1776 East Washington Street
Urbana, Illinois 61802-4581
Phone: 217-384-3772

After 4:30 the Washington Street side Parking Lot is Closed See Maps for the North East Parking Lot Access