June Champaign County Updates

There is a separate post highlighting some of the local Juneteenth events, as well as some other event information for June and in general here.

Issue highlights:

Gun Violence: There have been numerous incidents of gun violence in recent weeks. The Police Chief Updates at the June 10th Community Coalition meeting will likely be the best source for more general updates. That meeting starts at 3:30pm, but will also be available online as early as the next day at this link.

Homelessness: Both the City of Champaign and the CSPH (Champaign County Continuum of Service Providers to the Homeless, operating out of the Regional Planning Commission) are developing strategic plans on the issue. The CSPH process involves the national consulting firm Homebase and is working towards “a community-wide plan to achieve functional zero homelessness by 2028.” 

A draft version of the City of Champaign’s Homelessness Prevention Blueprint was included in the Study Session report on May 26th (starting on page 32 of the report here). The City’s planning already includes a proposal for a new “homelessness and community services manager” position. The position and its duties are expected to evolve, with decisions on permanently funding the position after the initial three years. I’d expect the final vote(s) on the finalized blueprint to happen with the Fiscal Year 2026/27 budget votes this July.

Aging Care: There will be a public hearing on an application by Advocates for Aging Care for 120-licensed skilled nursing beds, as part of its efforts to address the local need. The hearing will be held at the Savoy City Council Board Room (611 N. Dunlap) on Tuesday, June 9th from 1:00-4:00 pm. Those wishing to submit a letter of support must submit them no later than June 20th. AAC's flyer is information, regardless of your views on the topic (click to enlarge):

Champaign County Health Care Consumers has a lot of additional information on the project being proposed and discussed at this Public Hearing here. 

Champaign County Government:

The state bill restricting data centers, known as the POWER Act, is reported to have stalled, at least for this legislative session. This was discussed in the latest Data Center Activities Task Force meeting earlier this week. Last month’s report noted that the county passed a 12 month moratorium on so-called “hyperscale” data centers that are a major source of concern, especially its impacts on the aquifer and power supply. Unfortunately both could still be negatively impacted by any data centers built near Champaign County without more state regulation.

While some local government bodies have their Fiscal Year starting in the middle of the year (with many budget discussions happening right now), the County's Fiscal Year mirrors the calendar year. Here's a quick reminder of the County Budget process and timeline:

We don't have a lot of updates this month, as we're hoping to collect more information on the delayed audit and other issues during this month's meetings (see our May updates for more on that). Hopefully we can have some more helpful information in July. 

Other Government:

MTD: Last month’s report pointed out that the C-U MTD board will redo its annexation votes for areas that would allow a link for local bus routes to Carle at the Fields in Southwest Champaign. There appears to have been a technical violation of state law that prohibits meetings on election day (one of the public hearings for the annexation fell on the day of the March primary). There will be new Annexation Public Hearing on Monday, June 22nd at 5pm, held at Curtis Road Church of God in Champaign

June Events Highlight: Juneteenth and Jettie Rhodes Community Events

I'd like to start off by highlighting a few of the many Juneteenth celebrations and activities happening this year, as well as the annual Jettie Rhodes event. People may have different opinions on these events. Some are clearly more secular in nature and others more overtly religious depending on your own preferences and interest. 

For our purposes at the Cheat Sheet, they tend to involve a great deal of local political information and outreach: from tabling by various organizations, voter registration events, and often a lot of education on local issues and advocacy. 

This list is in order of starting date/time. The flyers are by city location:

• June 13th, 12pm-3pm: Champaign Park District Juneteenth celebration including a lot of tabling and other events.
  
  
• June 19th, 10am-3pm: DREAAM hosting a Freedom Bike Ride, festival, basketball shootout, and voter registration events at Stratton Elementary campus. 
  
  
• June 19th, 2:30pm-5pm: The Well Experience is hosting a parade and celebration in Urbana starting and occurring at the Sunnycrest Mall parking lot.
  
  
• June 19th, 6pm-8pm: Champaign Park District hosting a free concert at Douglass Park. 
  
  
• June 27th, 12pm-4pm: Jettie Rhodes Day which will include tabling and other events.
  
  
• Wednesdays in June, 6pm: Juneteenth Bible Study via Zoom featuring AME pastors from Champaign, Bloomington, and Minneapolis.

Click to enlarge the images for the event flyers.

Champaign:

 

Urbana:

 

Online:

There are some events in June for Pride month, but the larger local Pride Fest event usually occurs in the fall here when the students are in town. For more information on local Pride events, reach out to the Uniting Pride Center. The UP Center is generally a good starting point for events and organizing around LGBT and related issues.

Of course there are always a lot more events going on locally, many may be directly related to your political interests or issues that you care about. It can be difficult to keep up with everything going on and many organizers struggle to get the word out on their events to a wider audience. 

The Champaign County Community Coalition may be a good starting point for most people learning about all the organizations and organizers out there related to local issues: on everything from gun violence to rental assistance, from youth programs to the need for nursing home beds.

County Board Updates into October

This post contains updates on County Board meetings since our last update ahead of the August 13th Committee of the Whole meeting of the County Board. There's a separate post on other County government updates, including County Auditor and Treasurer updates, public safety departments and sales tax issues, and some Regional Planning Commission updates.

Upcoming October Meeting Highlights: (agenda packet)

It's unclear whether there will be reports from the County Auditor and Treasurer at the upcoming Committee of the Whole, given recent news and controversies (see Other County Updates Cheat Sheet post). There appear to be a couple agenda items related to election software in the County Clerk & Recorder's office and increased costs to the State's Attorney's office and its participation in the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Program.

There also appears to be a tentative budget from the County Executive that may elicit some discussion. That budget summary is available in the agenda packet starting on page 74 (page 78 of the PDF). There were several budget related meetings over the past couple months that get into a great deal of detail about budget issues and decisions. See the special budget hearings in August and the special finance meeting in late September below for more on that. 

The most recent Facilities Committee meeting (agenda, video) appeared to confirm that a major first step of the jail consolidation project is almost wrapped up (jump to video link). This would open up the new spaces for use while older spaces are then upgraded.

Below are links and overviews of the August and September meetings of the County Board:

August Meetings:

8/13 Committee of the Whole (video, agenda packet):

The meeting minutes highlighted most of the key moments from this meeting. Auditor George Danos spoke during public participation to oppose the county's referenda on increasing the Public Safety Sales Tax and abolishing the elected auditor position (his current office).

Coroner Steve Thuney gave a report on his office, staffing issues, and other needs in the Coroner's office. Thuney is currently up for re-election with another staff member running against him. See the VoteChampaign non-partisan candidate guide for more details on local races.

The County Clerk & Recorder gave updates on election issues and other projects. The Sheriff gave updates on the jail consolidation project and issues related to housing inmates in other counties during and after that work.

At this meeting initial approval was given for the new record keeping system and the intergovernmental approvals that will need to come with it. Initial discussion of changing the County Board's order of business to honor County employees earlier in the meetings and in a way more convenient for the recipients, their families, and the board to address them when they're on the agenda.

8/15 Special (video, agenda packet):

This was a short meeting where the County Board approved revised language for the ballot referendum related to abolishing the elected auditor position. The language was trimmed to avoid any language that might be challenged as crossing the line from informative to advocacy. The meeting minutes are a concise overview of the public participation and limited discussion that occurred at the meeting that night.

8/22 County Board (video, agenda packet, addendum):

The minutes summarized the public participation, discussion and votes. Experience C-U had a presentation (jump to video link), including topics such as updates on the Champaign County African American Heritage Trail, Destination 2027 (mentioned in their most recent quarterly report), ARPA funded initiatives and more.

Several agenda items and updates were moved up on the amended agenda for the sake of the participant's time:

• There was a discussion with updates from the Opioid Settlement Task Force (jump to video link) and an approved proposal on how to spend some of the funds "for the purchase, renovation, and opening of the C-U at Home Mid-Barrier Campus." You can see the C-U at Home PowerPoint presentation on that here and listen along here starting at the 3 minute mark). There was a roll call vote later to address a point of order on the original voice vote. There haven't been any updates on when the next meeting will be for this task force (the report at this time suggested sometime in September or October).
  
  
• ARPA updates included some discussion about the Small Business grant program among other technical questions. More detailed updates are available in the agenda packet starting on page 176 (page 181 of the PDF).
  
  
• Rural Broadband updates including some modified proposals to better address the expansion goals.

Later in the meeting there was an extended discussion on the updates and delays surrounding the new County Plaza building. It appeared that the contingency spending has been within normal and acceptable levels given the size and type of the project. Limitations to elevator installation services continue to be a factor in delays and a bit of a project bottleneck.

Additional decennial reports are now on file. All of those reports are available here on the County website. There is a Cheat Sheet post with an explanation and overview of the decennial reports from earlier in the year.

8/26-28 Special Budget Hearings:

• Day 1 (agenda, presentation, video). There was public participation opposing the public safety sales tax, campus protest prosecutions, and 
• Day 2 (agenda, presentation, video)
• Day 3 (agenda, presentation, video). There was public participation opposing the increase to the public safety sale tax and the concern that it may weaken support for the low barrier shelter tax issue for the City of Champaign Township.

September Meetings:

9/10 Committee of the Whole (video, agenda packet):

• Communications and Allegations:

This meeting began with some shocking, although admittedly baseless, accusations by Board Member Brett Peugh against his fellow Democrats. During communications he alleged that a dead cat was left on his porch with some sort of feces on it, implying this was done by his own party members in retaliation for disagreements. Peugh made similar allegations during the party caucus meeting and on social media prior to the meeting. He made clear in his social media post that it was simply a "guess" that other Democrats were involved.

This allegation and others have made their way into Jim Dey's series of opinion articles in the News-Gazette on the drama surrounding the Champaign County Democrats. These include allegations by the County Board Chair Samantha Carter that her fellow Democrats may have been involved in a cracked taillight on her car and the auditor claiming his tires were surgically slashed and later partially deflated. 

FOIAd police records show that the auditor simply had a low pressure indicator and had picked up a nail in the tread. In the report the auditor states a conspiracy by other Democrats to retaliate against him with this nail in his tire. He refers to a previous "surgically precise slashing" that appears to have gone unreported to police at this time. No evidence of any person, Democrats or otherwise, being involved in the tire deflation.

Other Democrats have expressed disbelief and extreme skepticisms that any of these incidents involved politics or retaliation. In the case of the auditor's nail in the tire, some doubt any other person was involved at all as opposed to a common road hazard. There are two extensive opinion articles by Marti Wilkinson overviewing the auditor controversy and some of his tire retaliation claims, including the police report. It also includes some response by the auditor himself here.

In other intraparty drama, Board Member Rodriguez called for a future formal vote to remove the chair due to behavior she deemed inconducive with being able to properly conduct meetings. She noted she didn't want to take the item up tonight with the chair absent and unable to respond.

• Rest of the 9/10 COW Meeting:

At this meeting there was a presentation by the Regional Planning Commission and their legal department about the expansion of the Head Start program to neighboring counties. There was a technical conversation about past practice versus best practice when it comes to the specific language of authorizing the RPC to use certain grant funds. Board members and RPC representatives appeared to agree on a process going forward to ensure the proper "findings" and intergovernmental agreements are covered on the County Board's end.

There was a discussion and approval of the new employee health insurance and benefits plan for FY2025.

There was also some irritation about the lack of an auditor's report given the upcoming deadlines and ongoing issues expressed by former County Auditor and current County Board member J.J. Farney.

The public portion of the meeting ended as the board when into closed session to discuss litigation before they adjourned.

9/19 County Board (video, agenda packet, there's a number of additional documents and addendum as well):

• Democratic Party Caucus:

Prior to the regular County Board member on September 19th, the News-Gazette ran another Jim Dey opinion piece on the intraparty drama, specifically about Member Rodriguez's call to remove the chair at the last COW meeting. Other media showed up to the regular meeting expecting the "shootout" he believed was planned. The issue, however, was not on the agenda.

During the Democratic Party's caucus meeting ahead of the County Board meeting, it was made clear that the item was not on the agenda or planned to be added to the agenda as an action item that night. Illinois State Representative Carol Ammons (D-103rd) and her husband County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons both spoke against removing Chair Carter at this or any future meeting. 

Representative Ammons noted that she was addressing the caucus instead of the media with her concerns at this time. She expressed her hope that she would not need to comment publicly on the matter, noting the news vans in the parking lot at the moment. Both Ammons warned of the precedent such a removal might set.

Chair Carter made a statement reiterating her belief that she has asked for help and never received it, that she has given respect, but never has been respected back. She also brought up the cracked taillight on her car. She argued her intentions were always to unify, not to divide people. The rest of the agenda was an overview of the upcoming County Board agenda (including some duplicated complaints about the auditor covered below).

• Regular County Board Meeting:

Once again, a number of agenda items were moved up for the sake of presenters' time. Many of them would otherwise have to wait through unrelated meeting items for a long while. Public participation began with both a character reference in support and a critic of Chair Carter. Another speaker complained about mysterious explosions near Mahomet and his frustration in getting the noise issue resolved.

The Vice President Blanton Bondurant of the local NAACP Champaign County Branch spoke about his concerns related to the County Executive and the treatment of the Chair Carter. He demanded answers to his previous questions in writing prior to the meeting requested by the County Executive. He stated his concerns about the proof of residency for Board Member Rodriguez and argued that it should be a simple matter for her to present papers establishing her residency. 

Member Rodriguez audibly scoffed at the demand to see her papers, causing a tense and awkward moment (as back and forth interactions are not allowed by County Board rules during public participation). Mr. Bondurant reiterated his demand for written answers to his previous list of questions from the County Executive. Executive Summers acknowledged that he would respond to that inquiry.

During communications, Chair Carter denied any racism behind her questioning of Member Rodriguez's residential qualifications. She noted a long history of the County Board's problems, racism, not listening to certain voices, and other issues. She denied that she had done anything wrong, but was open to conversation, coffee and mediation.

County Executive Summers noted that there was no leadership vote on the agenda or being added tonight. Rodriguez reiterated her concerns with the Chair, others board members she believed have asked Carter to resign as Chair, and that she believed she had the votes to remove her if the vote was held tonight.

The ARPA funding updates are available in the agenda packet starting on page 115 (page 118 of the PDF). I didn't catch this meeting in person and the video appeared to skip a bit during the ARPA discussion.

There was a long discussion of the frustrations with the auditor and references to the auditor's letter that the current audit was going to be late again. Members Farney and Fortado both spoke at length of the late notice of the issues he claimed to be having in delivering a complete audit to the external auditor. In addition to the lateness, there appears to be ongoing concerns about a lack of timely communication about the problems he says he is having, and denial of assistance offered to help with those issues.

The possible financial ramifications of a late audit begin with warnings, but quickly escalate over time to include a great deal of additional planning and work by other departments. At this point in time the county has not lost any money or faced any stop payments. Board members discussed the timeline of cascading repercussions depending on how late the audit ends up being.

There was a disagreement on the auditor's language on a budget item regarding the advertising spending about county referenda. It appeared to include a legal opinion about the spending which was discussed at length by board members and staff as to whether the language could be amended. Ultimately the item failed, with only Member Cowert and Chair Carter voting in favor of passage. It's unclear how this spending approval will be addressed going forward.

Additional decennial reports are now on file. All of those reports are available here on the County website. There is a Cheat Sheet post with an explanation and overview of the decennial reports from earlier in the year.

9/24 Special Finance Meeting (video, agenda) spent a couple hours discussing the FY2025 budget and decisions facing the County Board going forward in the budget process. For a detailed overview of the items discussed, you can see a draft of the minutes from that meeting in the upcoming COW agenda packet starting on page 6 (page 10 of the PDF)

State's Attorney and Campus Protest Charges

The Cheat Sheet does not take any position on foreign policy and generally limits its content to local government related news and information. On controversial issues like this, we will try our best to highlight different perspectives, while still doing our best to confirm any facts in contention. We leave it to the reader to form an opinion.

Last semester there were continued protests relating to the current conflict in Gaza and other ongoing concerns about the Palestinian people and policies of Israel. These protests eventually included an encampment as part of the protest tactics. There seems to be little dispute that civil disobedience was involved, both of university policy, rules, and even minor legal infractions. The more controversial issue is the use of a Class 4 felony "mob action" prosecution against several protesters. This is as opposed to the typical misdemeanor trespass or resisting arrest charges more common to civil disobedience incidents.

One can compare and contrast the civil disobedience involved in such tactics with the divestment protests regarding South African apartheid in the mid 1980s, which included occupying University buildings, trespass during University Trustee meetings, and a "shantytown" on the quad that the University demanded to be removed as well. 

The Learning & Labor podcast has a well cited overview of those protests and arrests, but takes its own position on the comparison. For obvious reasons, many find any comparison of Israel's policies to South African apartheid to be inherently erroneous and offensive, even if the two respective divestment campus protests themselves may have some parallels. 

Overview:

Illinois Public Media had an article back in July when news of these belated summer charges, built off of surveillance and social media video, started to drop:

In a statement to IPM, University of Illinois spokesperson Robin Kaler said, “Free speech and free expression are bedrock principles and a cornerstone of academic inquiry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.”

However, Kaler said that when students choose to move from speech to civil disobedience, they must be prepared for the consequences.

The News-Gazette reports investigators used videos and social media to link Issa to an afternoon demonstration on Friday, April 26.

During the protest, students locked arms around their encampment near the U of I Alma Mater to prevent police from tearing their tents down. Administrators warned students the tents were against school policy before sending in campus police. Police were not able to clear a path to the tents. Students took them down themselves later in the evening and rebuilt them on the Quad later that weekend.

More at that full article here. WCIA had similar coverage at the time here. At the time the ACLU of Illinois noted its previous concerns about the "mob action" statute and it being used as anti-protest tool:

We are aware of students from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign along with community members being charged in state court with felonies related to their actions around encampments at the U of I campus at the end of the last school year. The charges are brought under a “mob action” law that the ACLU of Illinois opposed when it was first considered in the Illinois General Assembly. We expressed concern at the time that the felony penalties available to prosecutors under this statute would be used against those engaged in protest. Despite repeated declarations by lawmakers that this was not the purpose, we see this charge now being used in this way. 

A felony conviction carries serious, lifelong consequences and prosecutors should pursue felony charges only where necessary. 

In response to the student encampments on campuses across Illinois, the ACLU of Illinois has consistently urged restraint – from students and administrators. We urge prosecutors to exercise that same restraint in charging any violations emanating from the protests. 

That statement is available here.

Niko-Johnson Fuller, of the Learning & Labor podcast noted above, had noted some of the similarities between the recent encampment tactics of campus protesters and the anti-apartheid encampment tactics on campus in the past. From his article in Smile Politely:

One significant escalation the [Divest Now Coalition] took was the construction of a shantytown on the Main Quad in April 1986, which pro-Palestine organizers today have compared to the recent encampment in a similar location. This action served multiple purposes, providing symbolism of the poor living conditions of the Black majority in South Africa, creating a sense of community among protestors, and forcing the administration to respond to their demands for divestment.

That full article here, with a much broader overview of the protests here against apartheid as well as for the University to divest from that regime and the economy that maintained it.

The News-Gazette also highlighted the use of surveillance and social media footage towards building the case against protesters in addition to the two arrested at the time of the protests themselves.

Latest Update on Prosecutions:

From the News-Gazette last week:

Seven people stand charged with alleged criminal offenses tied to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations in April on the University of Illinois campus...

Arthur P. Paganini, 23, of Urbana, and Victor H. Smith, 20, of Champaign, were each charged this month with one count of mob action.

That’s a Class 4 felony defined as having used force or violence alongside others to disturb public peace.

The two were also charged with obstructing a peace officer, a misdemeanor.

Their charges arrive on top of five other individuals charged with mob action in connection with the April 26 protests.

That full article here. Those prosecutions include a former Unit 4 school board member and local activist, Elizabeth Sotiropoulos. Court documents state that the felony "mob action" charge is based on her "linking arms" and defining that as the coordinated "force and violence" of the statute. 

The State's Attorney doubled and then tripled-down on defining "linking arms" as being "force and violence" in her public statements in a WDWS radio interview on the Penny for Your Thoughts show. For many local activists, it is difficult to rectify this legal interpretation in plain language. Some of the most iconic images of the non-violent actions by the Civil Rights Movement involved the coordinated linking of arms by two or more people. The linking of arms was often, in itself, a symbol of non-violent resistance. Example image from 3/17/1963 during the Selma to Montgomery March protests:

In the same interview, the State's Attorney also appeared to suggest that lesser charges or sentencing may be more appropriate for some of the defendants. This seemed unusual for the prosecuting side of a case to say publicly during ongoing prosecutions, but it may be impossible to know what kind of plea bargaining strategy may be involved there.

We leave it to the reader to look into the various perspectives and the State's Attorney's own words to decide for yourself. Hopefully with enough context and tools to make an informed decision.

Additional Opinions:

The News-Gazette had a few recent perspective articles on the protests and prosecutions. N-G: perspectives: 

• Town Hall | Mob action or overreaction from 7/30/2024. This link includes an opinion piece by many university faculty in defense of the protesters. And State's Attorney Julia Rietz arguing that the charges are appropriate and not in conflict with free speech protections.
  
  
• Our Turn | Those who protested and allegedly broke laws should stand trial for their actions, an opinion piece from other university faculty, a variety of other local business owners, and many others.
  
  
• The News-Gazette's Opinions Editor Jim Dey took an even harsher defense of the State's Attorney's actions, condemning not just the protesters, but also the faculty who wrote in defense of them and their "uninformed entitlement," "ignorance and arrogance," and what he chides as their "childish" imitation of bravery.
  
  
• Contemporary and opposing opinions were expressed soon after the encampment was taken down at the UI Trustees meeting. The News-Gazette had coverage of that here. This gets into some of the more controversial accusations of antisemitism, supporting terrorism, etc.
  
  
• A recent LTE criticized the prosecutions as political and decried perceived accusations of antisemitism against the protesters in the News-Gazette. Others letters have accused the State's Attorney of the charges being tied to her public support of Israel or sharply criticized the implication. Others point to the State's Attorney's social media as taking sides in the underlying conflict the protests are about, waving the flag of Israel prominently on it since recently after the October 7th terrorist attacks on Israel.

Related News:

• Coverage of the first summertime charges related to the campus protests earlier this spring for Yafa K. Issa from the Daily Illini and the Illinois Public Media. WCIA coverage indicates she may have been one of those charged who held plywood as a barrier too. The IPM article also notes that there were two arrests at the time of the protests, also for mob action and other charges.
  
  
• Coverage of the charges against Kleckner and Sotiropoulos last month from the News-Gazette.
  
  
• Contemporary coverage of state legislators visiting the protesters. The supporters of the protesters attempted to highlight the diversity of religious views among them to dispel broader accusations of antisemitism.
  
  
• Contemporary coverage after the protests from the News-Gazette and IPM in May. 
  
  
• The reaction of other universities in light of their campus protests this year from the News-Gazette and IPM on both free speech policies and policing.
  
  
• University of Illinois policy changes regarding protests, from the News-Gazette.
  
  
• The Daily Illini with a brief overview of the new I-Team to help students engage in "expressive activities" deemed appropriate by the University.

County Board August Updates

A few points of interest from the agenda packet for tonight's Committee of the Whole meeting include:

• A possible update on the County Clerk and Recorder's Restrictive Covenants Project.
  
  
• Possible updates from the Sheriff's Office on boarding County Jail inmates in other facilities. See latest jail construction update links towards the end of this Cheat Sheet post.
  
  
• An agreement between the County and METCAD for a traffic e-citation system.
  
  
• Numerous appointments related to area drainage districts. You can find additional details about the various Drainage District commissioners on the County Executive's boards and commissions lookup tool.

July County Board Meeting:

A lot of the issues mentioned in last month's Cheat Sheet post came to a head or a vote in the (nearly 4 hour long) July regular meeting (agenda packet). The meeting video on the County's YouTube page appears to begin in the middle of a discussion on the amending the agenda order. There are a couple short clips available before that with partial recordings of the Call to Order, Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, etc. I'm assuming there was a bit of a technical issue.

The infighting between several County Board members and the County Board Chair continued in the Democratic Caucus meeting and the County Board meeting itself. This resulted in calls during the regular meeting for an official parliamentarian to hold the board to its own rules and civility standards by Republican member Farney. It also resulted in open calls for the Chair’s resignation by members of her own party.

The controversies with the County Auditor were also mixed into those arguments as both the County Board Chair and Auditor made inquiries into the “residency qualifications” of the sole latina member of the Board. Accusations and counter-accusations of racism ensued. The auditor’s role went further as he had directly contacted her landlord, under the guise of his official duties as auditor to “audit her residential qualifications.” He even inquired to see if her rent was paid up, according to copies of the emails he sent.

Jim Dey of the News-Gazette has continued his series of opinion articles on the Democratic Party infighting, including at the July County Board meeting here. Board Member Lokshin wrote a Letter to the Editor expanding on and criticizing the County Auditor's inquiry here.

Referendum and DEIA+ Task Force Votes:

The Board passed ballot referendums to put both the Public Safety Sales Tax ¼ cent tax increase and making the County Auditor’s office an appointed position on the November ballot. They also passed a version of the DEIA+ Task Force that would create a subcommittee of the Labor Committee and Justice & Social Services Committee, as opposed to a new committee. While the Chair remains an ex officio member of this and all other committees, her role in selecting the task force members was more limited with the subcommittee option. 

There were numerous public (e.g. social media) and in-meeting arguments over emails and scheduling meetings in the creation of the DEIA+ Task Force and the recommendations for its members. The Chair believes she was cut out of the process, start to finish, while most of the other board members pointed to email exchanges about scheduling and availability to deny those claims.

A list of those invited to participate in the DEIA+ Task Force were listed on page 99 (page 102 of the PDF file) of the agenda packet. More updates are likely to come on who on that list confirmed their participation and a final roster.

Replacing the County's Case Management System:

A consultant from BerryDunn presented recommendations for replacing and updating the County's case management system, from their Case Management System Study (video jump to link). The good news appears to be that replacing these systems may end up being cheaper than expected (a topic of debate with the need for the increased tax revenue). The bad news from the discussion appeared to be that there is not a one-size fits all solution for different County Offices and their needs.

There was an extended conversation between the County Board members, the BerryDunn consultant, and the Circuit Clerk, on exactly what may be needed moving forward.

More County Government News:

• There is growing controversy about the appropriateness of "mob action" charges against campus protesters by the State's Attorney's Office. The News-Gazette had a recent perspective piece here. The ACLU of Illinois highlighted their concerns with using the "mob action" statute here. There will be a separate Cheat Sheet post on this issue soon.
  
  
• The Broadband Task Force met last week (agenda packet, video, action summary). Mark Sheldon used the Public Comment opportunity to give updates from Pavlov Media. There was a discussion about the funding sources and what areas are eligible for using those funds. It focused quite a bit on the nitty gritty details of Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) eligible homes. These meetings are jargon heavy, so be ready to look up terms like RDOF and ARPA.
  
  
• There was an update on the Satellite Jail construction at this month's County Board's Facilities Committee meeting. The agenda item and presentation is available on the County's youtube page here (jump to link). Construction appears to be coming along and the packet included numerous pictures of a lot of the completed work thus far.
  
  
• Dey had additional opinion pieces on County government and especially Democratic infighting. His column on the infighting at the July County Board meeting was mentioned above. He also had another opinion piece on the auditor referendum here, Board Member Owen no longer running for re-election here, and two more opinion pieces on the County Auditor drama.

County Board July Updates

July only has a regular County Board meeting. Most months also have a Committee of the Whole or "COW" meeting of the full board and some additional committee meetings (e.g. Facilities). This post covers the June County Board meetings and a special Study Session meeting towards the end of the month.

Public Safety Sales Tax Referendum:

The big news out of the June meetings, and after much deliberation over previous months, was the passage of a resolution to put an increased sales tax measure on the ballot for voters to decide on. From the News-Gazette a few weeks ago:

On Thursday, the county board approved adding a referendum on a “Special County Retailers’ Occupation Tax for Public Safety,” which would add a quarter-cent to the county’s sales-tax rate, to the Nov. 5 ballot.

Proponents say the increase is necessary to support investments such as competitive wages to attract correctional officers for the understaffed juvenile detention center, an additional sheriff’s deputy to support a new mental-health-focused court program and a budget that enables the public defender’s office to hire more expert witnesses...

Board member Brett Peugh acknowledged that the county needs the funds but noted that his constituents who live in a historically Black district will be hit the hardest by the tax and don’t support the measure.

That full article here. WAND had a very brief overview of the sale tax referendum here.

Nursing Home Needs Assessment:

At the June Committee of the Whole meeting, the Advocates for Aging Care group presented the findings of the local needs assessment to the County Board. That full presentation is available here. WCCU had coverage of the group's findings and the need assessment.

Advocates for Aging Care (AAC) along with the Champaign County Board, the Champaign County Health Board, and Champaign-Urbana Public Health District came together to conduct a survey assessing nursing home, rehabilitation, and long-term care facilities in Champaign County.

With over 850 consumer responses and over 50 providers, they found what they expected to be true, that there aren’t enough skilled care beds in Champaign County.

"So in our community, we’ve known by the numbers that we only have about 411 of the 748 beds we need, or are projected to need by the end of 2026 because not only do we have the need now but our older population is growing,” explained Cathy Emanuel with AAC.

That full article here.

More Auditor Drama:

There was a Study Session / Special Meeting of the County Board last month, a few days after their regular monthly meeting (video, agenda packet). The topic was about eliminating the Auditor as an elected position for Champaign County and looking at alternative models. The County Auditor made remarks during the public comment portion of the agenda (video go to link). He spoke in support of keeping the office elected and independent. He took issue with the local League of Women Voters report on a couple points (also here on his facebook page).

The League of Women Voters presented their study from a couple years ago on the benefits and alternatives to having an elected auditor for county governments. Their position predates any of the current drama with the current auditor and views the position as archaic and, in many ways, duplicative. The original study report is available here at the Illinois Public Media Newsroom website. Their presentation on the report from 2 years ago is available on the LWV YouTube page here.

Michelle Jett, the County's Director of Administration, presented and laid out more information on alternatives in other Illinois Counties and some of the nuance of what instituting that would look like in Champaign County if the voters approved it (video jump to link).

Republicans on the County Board seemed less enthusiastic about a ballot referendum on this question now that they've slated a candidate to oppose the current Democratic Party Auditor. There was continued discussion on the appropriate timing of such a referendum and how best to uphold democratic principles in local government.

Chair Carter continued to press the issue of the County Executive and the Executive form of government, but met resistance from within her own party due to the limits of the agenda itself and what the public had been given notice of. This continues some previous contention between the Board Chair and the County Executive's office and staff highlighted in June's Cheat Sheet here.

The meeting left off with planning to discuss the issue as an agenda item on the July regular County Board meeting (there is no Committee of the Whole meeting before the regular meeting in July).

The News-Gazette's Jim Dey has added three more articles to his plethora of Democratic intraparty squabble opinion pieces this month to cover the Auditor and County Board Chair / County Executive drama.

United Sovereign Americans:

At the June regular County Board meeting, there was a series of speakers on behalf of a national group called United Sovereign Americans, including two co-chairs for their Illinois chapter (jump to video link). They read the text of their proposed resolution for the County Board to pass for an "election audit." The version of the resolution they proposed to the DeKalb County Board is available here (starting on page 15 of the PDF file).

There's a separate Cheat Sheet post on this group, its background, and other coverage of it across the country here.

Rural Broadband Updates:

There was another presentation at the most recent Broadband Task Force this week. After last month's presentation, there were concerns about the need to lay fiberoptic cable to begin to lay the groundwork for broadband expansion to rural towns and areas. The presentation this month focused on initial ideas to lay cable to Royal, Ogden, Homer, and Sidney and the details of how many households may be close enough to get connected to those lines.

There was also a long discussion about the types of funding available, from federal (e.g. RDOF versus ARPA) to ongoing concerns that the State funding may not be awarded to these projects here locally.

More County Government News:

• There are indications that the old Champaign County Nursing Home building may have a prospective buyer, according to the News-Gazette.
  
  
• There was a presentation on the cover crop ARPA funded project and updates at the June COW (jump to video link).
  
  
• President Minnie Pearson of the NAACP Champaign County Branch spoke shared some concerns about the treatment of the County Board Chair by other board members and others (jump to video link). She insisted that board members treat each other with respect.
  
  
• WCIA had coverage of local efforts around the county to put on Independence Day parades, fireworks, and other events. They also had an overview of the county's main July 4th celebration organization this year.
  
  
• WCIA also had coverage of the removal of a very full animal barnyard near the City of Champaign, but within the County's jurisdiction after a long ordeal by neighbors.
  
  
• The Daily Illini had coverage of the local County tourism organization Experience C-U's collaboration with Champaign County African American Heritage Trail and others for local African American heritage murals.
  
  
• The acronym laden county organization for coordinating homelessness service providers in Champaign County (The RPC's CSPH) has found increased homelessness in Champaign County in 2024.

County Board Updates into June

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

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

...

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

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

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

May County Board Regular Meeting:

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

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

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

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

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

April County Board and Committee Meetings Roundup:

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

Bruce Hannon, Eternal Keeper of the Clock:

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

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

...

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

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

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

 

More County Government News:

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

County Board Updates: Summer into Fall

Since our last update earlier this summer, 11 year veteran of the County Board, Stan Harper has resigned. The News-Gazette had coverage here with a biographical article from a couple years back here. John Farney, a former Champaign County Treasurer and Auditor, was appointed to fill the vacancy in the District 3 seat. Long time County Board member Aaron Esry sits in the other District 3 seat. 

There are two seats per County Board districts and vacancies are filled by a member of the same political party that held the seat before, regardless of which party may have majority control over or chairs the board itself.

This Cheat Sheet update highlights a new advocacy group for affordable local nursing home beds, SAFE-T Act / Pretrial Fairness updates as the new law goes into effect, advocacy for affordable jail communication, and other County government news. But it's also approaching 2024 election season and you'll see candidates circulating ballot petitions to get on the primary election ballot. If you would like to be a candidate or support a candidate, the work has already begun. More detailed deadlines and important dates are laid out in the 2024 Illinois Election Calendar here. The County Clerk and Recorder has been promoting Vote by Mail locally and with other area County Clerks in a bipartisan effort in the wider area.

There has been a local push for more nursing home beds in the heart of the county's twin cities, especially with the old Champaign County Nursing home shut down by its new private owners this summer (more on that in a previous Cheat Sheet here). The News-Gazette had coverage of the new collaboration pushing for an assessment of local nursing home bed availability to get the policy process rolling on addressing the issue:

The collaborative is an offshoot of work already begun by a group calling itself Advocates for Nursing Home Care that formed with the closing of one of Champaign County’s few remaining nursing homes, University Rehabilitation Center of C-U, which was formerly the county nursing home in Urbana.

Cathy Emanuel, an organizer of that group, said state public health data is showing a need for 721 nursing home beds in Champaign County (based on population) that will be 310 beds short by the end of this year.

That’s due to the recent closing of University Rehab and a planned reduction in beds at ClarkLindsey’s Meadowbrook Health Center, she said.

That full article here. Earlier News-Gazette coverage of the advocacy group is available here from June and the previous June County Board updates on the Cheat Sheet covered and linked to their large showing at the County Board general meeting that month (jump to that portion of the meeting video here, roughly 10 minutes in).

There was also coverage, including a brief overview by WAND here and an article in WCIA here.

SAFE-T Act and the end of cash bail (via the Pretrial Fairness Act that was a part of the larger SAFE-T Act provisions) went into effect this month. WCCU had an article on the impact in Champaign County earlier this month: 

Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz says the justice system in Champaign County is working well together but there are a few hiccups...

Rietz added she does not believe the SAFE-T Act will change the outcome of the justice system in Champaign County.

“I truly believe that in Champaign County, we've been making these decisions all along, and I really don't see this as changing the end result of our process, just the beginning part of the process,” explained Rietz.

That full article here. WAND had additional coverage of the State grant money heading to the Public Defender's Office to offset some of the additional costs here.

There has also been increased criminal justice reform activity surrounding the Champaign County government's budget and a "Request for Proposal" for jail phone and video call systems contract. Several public commentors appealed to the County Board at the September general meeting (jump to video of those comments here). WILL had coverage explaining the issue with some additional helpful links here. One of the activists, Brian Dolinar, involved had an article in Smile Politely discussing his concerns here.

At the County Board's recent Special Finance Committee of the Whole meeting (full video), there were additional public comments by Brian Dolinar on the phone contract issue and some clarifications by Finance Committee chair Stephanie Fortado on the actual costs of these phone calls: $3.40 flat fee per call plus an addition 13 cents per minute after that (remote video calls have higher costs). 

The Champaign County Sheriff had been publicly stating that the calls cost 13 cents per minute (e.g. quote from WCIA article here). This didn't mesh with the stated experiences and billing examples by family members and activists who received calls from inmates. Fortado's clarification appears to bridge the gap in some of the fees people were seeing in addition to the per minute rates. The Cheat Sheet will be looking deeper into the communication protocols and costs in the weeks ahead.

In other budget news, a new associate judge was approved for Champaign County. The downside is that the County budget that was already over $700,000 in the red now also has to find room for a new clerk for that judge, as required by law. This was also discussed in the Special Finance meeting (agenda packet, video) last night. News-Gazette coverage on that meeting and the likely increase of the budget deficit here.

Other County Government News:

• Champaign County Coroner to resign in order to take job with Mahomet-Seymour schools, according to the News-Gazette. WCCU also had a blurb on this news here.
  
  
• The last general County Board meeting included a presentation on the Mahomet Aquifer mapping project (video here, presentation slides here).

• Farm Bureau to help with building up rural broadband, according to WCIA.
  
  
• Champaign County bicycle safety issues growing as use increasing, according to WRSP.  
  
  
• Last month, the News-Gazette reported that a special prosecutor was denied in a domestic battery case involving a Sheriff's deputy. As of that reporting, he is due back in court in early November.
  
  
• The new Champaign County Humane Society facility was quickly overwhelmed by increased need and promoted adoption discounts, according to the News-Gazette. The initial community response was highlighted by Jim Dey in his News-Gazette column.
  
  
• Getting to know Champaign County court security officer by the News-Gazette.
  
  
• Updates on Champaign County's Drug Court and recertification by the State, from the News-Gazette.