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 and Jail Updates

Champaign County Board and most of the committee meetings in January appear to be virtual as opposed to in-person again. For example, tomorrow's Facilities Committee meeting agenda has this message at the top:

Pursuant to the Governor’s Executive Order establishing a pandemic disaster in the State of Illinois that covers the County of Champaign, and the County Executive’s determination that holding this meeting in person is not prudent at this time due to health concerns with rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations being reported in the county, this meeting will be held remotely via zoom. Public comment also will be taken remotely. The public may watch the meeting live or via recording on the County’s YouTube Channel.

In the public participation section of the agenda it notes that he public comments will be through the Zoom app and links to instructions and meeting information. Previous meeting videos are available here with meeting agendas and documents available here.

The County Board member information and district links on the Cheat Sheet should be up to date now. With all of the vacancies, appointments, and legal battles I had gotten behind on the current board. For example, Bethany Vanichtheeranont was appointed September 23, 2001 to the vacancy created by Jordan Humphrey in District 5 when he resigned due to a move outside of the County.

In a more prolonged legal fight, Wayne Williams was appointed on December 8th, 2021 to fulfill the term of Titianna Ammons unexpired term in District 11 after she resigned due to health reasons earlier this year. News-Gazette coverage here of the related legal battle on the appointment between the majority of the County Board and the County Executive.

That legal battle resulted in some odd agenda items, special meetings, and a couple other attempted appointments by the County Executive to the vacancy in District 11 that were either dropped (e.g. Angela R. Clark Terrall) or voted against (e.g. Lola Jones).

Other County government updates are in a separate Cheat Sheet post here that include updates on housing assistance, the Forest Preserve District, animal control, and a number of Sheriff's Office and corrections news links.

Jail Consolidation Vote Followups:

Last month's County Cheat Sheet updates linked to local news coverage on the Jail consolidation vote that passed in the November County Board regular meeting. Following up on that vote, CU-CitizenAccess had an article with some of the more recent updates on the Jail Committee and discussions on renovations, health care improvements, and more.

Preceding the jail consolidation vote there was a great deal of public participation from local activists and citizens (jump to public participation in meeting video here). The arguments and data presented in the five minutes allotted for each participant to comment generally get reduced to for or against in the meeting minutes. From the posted minutes of the 11/16 meeting:

Sherry Steigmann of Urbana asked the Board about the cost to borrow the funds to pay for the County Jail renovation and expansion.

Rob Dalhaus of C-U at Home spoke about homeless shelters in the county and requested American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funding for emergency shelters.

Mark Enslin of Urbana spoke in opposition to jail funding.

Matt Soyland of the Party of Socialism and Liberation spoke in opposition to jail funding and urged the funding of social services instead.

Captain Karee Voges, Champaign County Correctional Superintendent, spoke about a recent evaluation of the jail facilities by the state, noting the downtown jail is wholly inadequate; she urged the board to pass jail funding.

Micah McMahon, Correctional Officer, spoke in support of jail funding.

Brian Dunn of Champaign spoke in opposition to jail funding and urged funding social services instead.

Drake Materre, University of Illinois Master of Public Health candidate, spoke in opposition to jail funding and urged funding social services instead.

Allan Axelrod of Urbana spoke in support of funding social services.

Brian Dolinar of Urbana spoke in opposition to jail funding.

David Cisneros of Urbana spoke in opposition to jail funding and urged funding social services instead.

Chelsea Birchmier of the Champaign County Bailout Coalition spoke in opposition to jail funding and noted that since the passage of the cash bail reform in the state legislature, to take effect January 2023, there has been a steady increase in bail amounts.

Hiba Ahmed of the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice read a statement in opposition to jail funding and urged funding social services instead.

Luke Lee of Champaign spoke in opposition to jail funding.

Full meeting minutes available here. The minutes also summarized some of the technical details and amendments discussed prior to the final voice vote.

October County Roundup

There was a lot going on at the County level this month. I'm still not caught up with the latest on the Jail discussions, but there are links to last night's meeting below. Redistricting and budgeting priorities once again dominated the conversations.

The News-Gazette had coverage of the discussions going into the federal relief funds (ARPA) and how the various Board members were prioritizing plans from progressive projects to local facility needs. Excerpt from the News-Gazette coverage earlier this month:

While board Democrats are noting the categories of projects they want to prioritize, specific projects within those categories will need to be studied before projects can proceed, Patterson said.

A substantial amount of the federal money will be spent on county facilities, he said, and while the jail is one of those facilities in need of attention, it’s unlikely that a large portion of the $41 million would go toward a jail project...

Republican board member Brad Passalacqua said Republicans haven’t drafted a formal proposal for where the $41 million should be spent, but have made their views known at public meetings.

Republicans support a significant amount of the funds going to solve some of the problems with the county jail in downtown Urbana and the satellite jail and for much-needed broadband infrastructure throughout the county, he said.

That full article here. WCIA had a more extensive look at the jail consolidation needs and cost issues earlier in October here. There was a Jail Facilities Committee meeting last night, but I haven't had a chance to review it yet. The video is available here on the County's YouTube channel.

In addition to the latest jail discussion updates, the Board approved funding for two more Sheriff's deputies. Republicans had pushed for adding funding for four more deputies during the debates on budget and need. Excerpt from the News-Gazette coverage prior to the regular Board meeting vote:

Heuerman said his recommendation would be to add four deputies, but he welcomed the addition of two more.

“We could always use more deputies,” the sheriff said Wednesday. “I could absolutely use the four.”

The additional two deputies had been negotiated as part of the budgeting process with County Executive Darlene Kloeppel based on what money the county has available, he said.

Heuerman said adding two deputies will cost the county $242,000, including salary, benefits, equipment and training.

That full article here. WCIA's coverage, including a video segment, also noted the Sheriff's hope that the additional funding for two more deputies may come with the next budget.

Another big issue this month was finally working out the last details of the County Board district map with the late census data. The delayed census meant that the various proposed maps were working off of estimates to meet the usual deadlines. There was a lot of fighting within the local Democratic party in addition to disputes with the Republicans leading up to this point. The final map was approved over the objections of the Democratic County Executive and Republicans on the board. The News-Gazette had the map and coverage of the disagreements. Excerpt:

[County Board member Jim Goss] said Friday that while Democrats did their job in coming up with a map that equalized population variance among districts, this latest map also leaves his district, District 1, with an area of 388 square miles.

“It’s just ridiculously large,” he said.

Under the new map, seven board districts favor Democratic candidates, three favor Republicans, and one, District 5 in northwest Champaign, is a toss-up.

That full article here. The News-Gazette also had an article previewing this month's map debate here. Illinois Newsroom had coverage of the latest map approval here.

There was a Victory over Violence town hall and panel discussion including local activists, organizations, and the Champaign County Sheriff. The full video is available on the Champaign Government TV channel online here.

The News-Gazette also had an overview of the history and latest updates on the Champaign County Crime Stoppers program. Excerpt:

Today, the process is significantly more sophisticated.

When calls come in, they’re routed to a company in Canada called Northern Communications, where identifying information is stripped. A random number is then given to the caller, who is answered by employees of a company called Alternative Answers. Information is taken down and recorded in an app called “P3 Tips.” Tipsters can also submit directly to the app or at champaigncountycrimestoppers.com.

The fact that calls are routed to Canada is not random happenstance. Canadian law protects the information that might identify a tipster, Geoff Coon, the agency’s current law-enforcement coordinator.

That full article here. WCIA reported that there were some unusual thefts of weather research equipment highlighted by the Crime Stoppers program this month here.

There were many other County items in the news this month as well:

• C-U at Home homeless shelters are extending their hours according to WCIA.

• The eviction moratorium has ended, spurring local protests reported on by the Daily Illini as well as WCCU.

• Smile Politely has links for the public health district's Community Needs Survey here.

• Central Illinois on track to a record harvest this year from Illinois Newsroom.

• WCIA had an investigative report on habitual offenders and the criminal justice system in Central Illinois, including Champaign County.

• The News-Gazette had an interview with the new executive director of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District.

• Proposed County staff bonuses in the new budget (still pending final approval), also from the News-Gazette.

• MTD updates, including staff shortages and a new zero-emission bus from the Daily Illini. More on the hydrogen bus from Illinois Newsroom here.

• More Democratic infighting and dirty laundry shared in conservative Jim Dey's opinion columns in the News-Gazette.

• Illinois Newsroom also had a great deal of news on the news itself, declining newspapers and alternative media, etc. There's a list of the latest articles under the "journalism" tag on their site here.

Jail Updates

There have been a number of recent special committee meetings involving jail consolidation planning and funding. I only briefly touched on the subject in the September Roundup last week. For folks wanting more information on the decisions coming up in the next couple months, here is some additional information and helpful links:

The latest "jail committee" meetings. These are special meetings of the County Board's Facilities Committee and delve more into the planning and facility needs:

• 10/6/2021 Jail Committee Video on the County's YouTube channel This meeting got into more details about potential funding scenarios with bonds up to $20 million (scenario overviews start on page 10 of the PDF file here). Brief overview from the Action Report here.
• 9/8/2021 Jail Committee Video. Action Report brief here.

The latest special Finance Committee of the Whole meetings dealing with a lot of the ARPA federal emergency relief funds available to the County:

• 9/30/2021 special Finance Committee of the Whole meeting video. The agenda packet included a list of proposed ARPA funded projects starting on page 3 (page 4 of the PDF file here). During the meeting there was discussion on what direction to give staff on the budget (though no actual votes were taken to appropriate any money at this time). Many Republican County board members advocated for using ARPA funds to ensure the jail consolidation needs were finally addressed. Democrats generally agreed with the need for jail consolidation, but disagreed on whether or how much ARPA funding should go towards paying for it.

Earlier this year the County Board had a presentation from the Sheriff on the safety issues at the downtown and satellite jail facilities. From a January cheat sheet post with links to the video and written reports:

January's Facilities Committee, which usually deals with more mundane planning and projects for the vast properties the County government owns and operates, was a good start. With a new County Board the Champaign County Sheriff had an overview of the Main and Satellite jail buildings, safety issues, and pandemic updates. The agenda packet with safety inspections on both facilities is available here. The full meeting video is available here.

The dire state of the downtown jail means it could be shut down at any time due to non-compliance and other safety issues. The current satellite jail is not currently able to meet the needs required to safely separate and house the entire population. There are both concerns of violence, medical needs and safety issues for staff and those being held in the facilities.

The funding for any consolidation plans was already controversial. There has been a long local fight about whether to invest funds into more jail facilities or local programs and services in the build up to the current crisis (a look at our Jail page that hasn't been updated in a while covers some of the earlier bases). The division is mostly along more subtle and incremental criminal justice reform ideas and those communities and organizations wanting significant action to curtail mass incarceration policies over the past couple generations. The NAACP report on local criminal justice issues is probably a good general place to start on that topic locally.

The opposition to jail funding has generally been an argument to finally address the needs of traditionally underserved communities instead of using the criminal justice system as the only tool to address the problems that emerge from their segregation and neglect. The support of the jail funding has generally been viewing those solutions as long term, while dealing with the current criminal justice system needs. Over the years both sides of the issue often feel that lack of action and support has led to the current jail and violence crises.

Using the federal emergency relief funds may technically apply to a project like jail consolidation under the funding rules. Given the impact of the pandemic to vulnerable communities, however, the use of those funds for a jail instead of the needs of those communities is untenable to some. It provides a funding option to get the jail consolidation project done for a county with almost no wiggle room in its budget already.

In spite of the County Jail being the responsibility of the County government, there was also some open talk of the cities of Champaign and Urbana possibly chipping in with their ARPA funding, given the overlap of use and need. Given the statutory separation of responsibility, however, this would likely be a non-starter with either City government according to some in that same committee conversation.

There does appear to be some signs towards a compromise of some ARPA funding and borrowing to make it happen among Democrats and Republicans on the board. It may end up being a compromise where nobody is happy, but perhaps avoids a bigger catastrophe.

County Board Updates

March was a busy month for local government, and the Champaign County Board was no exception. The biggest issue had to do with the continued delays related to the County's finances. County Board members from both parties appeared to give credit to the improving situation in the Treasurer's office under the newly elected C.J. Johnson, but the fallout from her fellow Democratic Party predecessors has left the Auditor facing questions about his role as an "independent watchdog for taxpayers." Programs that depend on timely audit reports have been put in jeopardy by delays. From the News-Gazette a couple week ago:

Champaign County is facing a potential freeze on its state and federal grant funding because the 2019 county audit remains unfinished.

The county’s Regional Planning Commission and Children’s Advocacy Center have already received notices of a funding suspension from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and County Executive Darlene Kloeppel said more county offices could potentially receive similar notices...

At a special session of the RPC board meeting Friday morning, CEO Dalitso Sulamoyo said the bulk of its $34 million budget — about 90 percent — comes from federal and state grant money, some of which helps pay for critical services for some of the county’s most vulnerable people.

That full article with a lot of additional information here. The RPC's Dalitso Sulamoyo also spoke during public participation at the beginning of the regular County Board meeting (at the 10:25 mark in the video here).

The County Board has approved temporary funding to ensure the RPC continues to function, but it remains critical for the overdue audit to be completed as soon as possible to prevent further loss of reputation and program funding. More from the News-Gazette after the regular County Board meeting (agenda, other handouts, addendum and auditor memo available here, video):

Champaign County will make a short-term loan of up to $5.3 million to the county Regional Planning Commission to help the agency through a state and federal funding freeze resulting from the county’s overdue 2019 audit.

The county board approved the move Thursday night, but not before some Republican members chastised Democratic Auditor George Danos about the late audit and called on him to resign...

Of the $5.3 million loan being made to the RPC from the county’s general fund, $2 million will be covered by reserves and the balance will come from a general-obligation promissory note not to exceed $3.3 million.

The county will pay up to 4.4 percent interest and a $10,000 bond counsel fee on the note, according to Deputy Finance Director Tami Ogden.

That full article here. In coverage following up on this situation, the RPC's executive noted that these issues may arise again if the audit work isn't completed by May 1st. WCIA also had coverage on the audit issue with video segments here and here.

The debate on changing the Deputy Treasurer position and paygrade to better reflect the actual duties of the office was mainly during the Committee of the Whole meeting on March 9th (agenda, video). The position hadn't been reevaluated since 2009. Many of the concerns involved whether one looked at this like a raise for the duties previous office holders held before, or correcting the pay for an office that has long been underpaid for the actual duties it performs compared to its description and paygrade. The board eventually approved the changes, with an additional compromise (lower on the pay scale than the mid-point proposed).

At this same Committee of the Whole meeting, Wayne Williams, Cunningham Township Assessor, raised concerns about redistricting delays because of the 2020 Census data delays. He encouraged approval of the new maps by the statutory deadlines regardless of the Census delays. There was also a helpful presentation for understanding the County's FY2020 Budget with a slides and breakdowns for folks who want to get into the nitty gritty of the County's financial situation. It included an overview of the Nursing Home issues related to the budget still (presentation slides, video at 1:16:40 mark)

Other March Committee Meetings:

The Facilities Committee (agenda, video) is still reviewing and approving the various projects to repair the roof and HVAC damage from the hail storm that damaged numerous County buildings as well as a large project for the Satellite Jail's outdated system (on a similar schedule to the hail damage process). Some RPC staff were complaining about air quality and related medical concerns at one of their offices in a County facility. Testing is being conducted to pinpoint the problem.

The Downtown Jail came up in regards to the indoor recreation room that is currently out of service and need extensive work to be safe and usable again. This raised the issue of how long the Downtown Jail will be operational at all. It remains possible for the facility to be shutdown at any time due to legal and safety issues. Dana Brenner, Facilities Director, expressed his hope that the Downtown Jail facility remains operational at least for the next year. There is currently no workable alternative or plan being actively considered to deal with its sudden closure. This remains a serious problem for the County government. Complicating this is a great deal of vocal of opposition for more investment or expansion of incarceration systems locally and across the nation.

The Environment and Land Use Committee (agenda, video) had part 3 of 5 of its waste management overview (starts at the 11:45 mark of the video).

Champaign County Bailout Coalition Updates

This post has updates and links from the last meeting of the Champaign County Bailout Coalition, but first some context with the passage of a major piece of legislation. The Illinois General Assembly recently passed a police and criminal justice reform bill that is now waiting on the Governor's signature to become law. In a recent Cheat Sheet post we had the Champaign County Sheriff's reaction, but the bill would also impact many organizations that work with the Criminal Justice system like the Champaign County Bailout Coalition. NBC Chicago had a detailed overview of the bill earlier this month:

House Bill 3653, authored by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, was approved by the Illinois General Assembly Wednesday, bringing "significant changes" to things like police training policies, police accountability, transparency in law enforcement and the rights of detainees and prisoners, according to Sen. Elgie R. Sims, Jr., who sponsored the bill.

Among the changes the bill would bring are the elimination of monetary bail, a requirement that all police officers wear body cameras by 2025, a ban on all police chokeholds, new guidelines for "decertification" of police officers, and an end to suspended licenses for failure to pay, among several other changes. It also bans police departments from purchasing military equipment like .50 caliber rifles and tanks, increases protection for whistleblowers, and adds to rights for detainees to make phone calls and access their personal contacts before police questioning.

Full article here with a breakdown of the bill by topic. There is a great deal of pushback by law enforcement across the state. From CBS Chicago:

The executive director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, Ed Wojcicki said he wants to be part of any upcoming discussions involving the bill.

“We’re going to ask the governor to veto it, or certainly ammendatorially veto it,” Wojicicki said. “We’re going to identify the most egregious portions of the bill.”

Once he gets the bill, the governor has 60 days to sign it. He issued a statement Wednesday supporting the bill, calling it a model for the nation in justice reform.

That full article with more details here.

The end of cash bail isn't immediate in the bill and it appears that it could take a couple years to transition to a system where a suspect is jailed based on factors such as public safety and flight risk as opposed to how much money they have. The Bailout Coalition's website about page makes clear how their mission remains relevant until that transition occurs:

The Champaign County Bailout Coalition is a non-profit and volunteer-run alliance of local individuals and organizations committed to the abolition of money bail as the criterion for determining pretrial release in Champaign County. Unaffordable bail disregards the legal right of the presumption of innocence and condemns individuals to jail before trial. Moreover, decades of research show that the risks of an individual committing a punishable offense during pretrial release or missing their court dates are unaffected by payment of bond. We believe that justice will be done only when this criminal practice is replaced by mandatory non-monetary release for as many people as possible and support for those awaiting trial.

More information on their about page here. In their most recent meeting and on their facebook page they have made it clear they're still looking for volunteers right now:

CCBC collaborates with other criminal justice reform minded organizations for court watching, fundraising and groups like the Coalition to End Money Bond. Local criminal justice activist and Co-Director of the FirstFollowers Reentry Program in Champaign County highlighted the bail reforms in his initial impressions of the passed bill:

The ending of cash bond is momentous and has been the product of years of grassroots struggle. While legislators will no doubt claim credit for this advance, the real credit goes to the Coalition to End Money Bond and the Chicago Community Bond Fund and other activists/advocates who have been so instrumental in getting this passed. In keeping away multiple attempts to water down this legislation and raising consciousness about EM and all the other ways the system tries to pretend they are making change. I especially salute the impacted people who stepped up so heroically to share their experiences of EM and pretrial injustice. Without their stories and determination, this legislation could not have passed. 

People can listen to more reactions from various organizations and activists at a virtual townhall on the Chicago Community Bond Fund facebook page.

Last week's meeting covered a multitude of topics, but a timely issue involved advocacy for priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine for incarcerated people in prisons and jails. Danville Correctional Center recently had an outbreak that they're still battling. From WCIA last month:

 New numbers released by the Illinois Department of Corrections show 30% of Danville Correctional Center’s inmates are currently battling COVID-19.

“We dreaded this day,” Education Justice Project‘s Rebecca Ginsburg said. “We thought it was likely to come eventually. The warden, especially at Danville Correctional Center, has done a good job of delaying this day. But the day has arrived. The numbers are increasing, doubling – more than doubling on a weekly basis.”

Full article here. Another update from WCIA a few days ago included two new deaths:

Two men in their 60s who are inmates at the Illinois Department of Corrections prison in Danville have died since Thursday after contracting coronavirus...

WCIA reported Jan. 5 that an inmate in his 40s had died on Dec. 26.

Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 896 inmates have tested positive for the virus. Of those 741 have recovered and 155 cases are still active.

Another 147 jail staffers have also tested positive. Of those, 135 have recovered and 12 cases are still active.

That full blurb here. The local Champaign County Sheriff gave a presentation on safety issues at the Main and Satellite jails in Champaign County to the County Board's facilities committee (agenda, video) earlier this month. His presentation included the various ways they have attempted to prevent outbreaks locally in spite of serious limitations in their ability to separate and quarantine the number of incarcerated people during intake and in housing.

The Champaign County Bailout Coalition meetings are bimonthly on Thursday evenings and the upcoming dates/times can be found on their facebook events page here. Their meetings are currently on-line and their next meeting is January 28th at 5-6:30pm. 

June County Committees

Each month there are a number of Committee meetings that deal with topics such as Facilities, Environment and Land Use, Highway and Transportation funds, etc. The County government is generally much larger and complicated than folks imagine. This can be confusing and confounding for folks just trying to understand how to have their say on a specific issue that may affect them. Democracy is messy and at the local level it takes persistence and learning just to figure out where you can have an impact.

So far this month, before the regular County Board meeting next Thursday:

• Facilities Committee (agenda, video)
• Environment and Land Use Committee (agenda, video)
• Highway and Transportation Committee (agenda, video)
• Committee of the Whole (agenda, video)

The Facilities Committee focuses on the maintenance and building needs of the County. Here is where you would have seen a lot of discussions about potential jail consolidation plans, presentations and overviews of various upkeep and repair projects, etc. At the June meeting, the jail situation was brief and one of resignation. It really sounded as though the plan going forward is to hope and pray that the County can get through the pandemic hurdles and come up with a workable jail plan before they're forced to close the downtown jail. At that point the County would have to find a place to house prisoners separated for safety and legal reasons. And during a pandemic, outside regional jails may outright refuse the infection risk.

With the coronavirus epidemic and economic fallout, there doesn't appear to be any chance of reviving the plans presented earlier this year. An overview of the jail consolidation outlook in February is here with a lot of helpful background information. Below is an excerpt from the last updates from the County May meetings on jail consolidation:

In Board communications, member Stohr advocated an ad hoc committee to look at and possibly revive the jail consolidation plans. Member Harper would vehemently oppose the idea in the regular board meeting's communication portion next week. Jon Rector emphasized the public participation comments on the desperate economic relief needed locally in balance with health concerns. There were other members who spoke on and thanked community members for their efforts to help fellow citizens and other topics...

The jail consolidation issue was brought up again, with all of the concerns about the downtown jail being on the verge of having to be shut down at any time, no current plan to come up with a facilities remedy, and now a situation where other jails are unlikely to accept any prisoners that may need to be segregated or moved elsewhere.

That full Cheat Sheet post here. More information about the consolidation plans falling apart from the March/April meetings here. It was worth noting that some of the glass demand for pandemic related safety barriers has been stretched even more thin by recent looting and window smashing around Champaign-Urbana. No County facilities were damaged in those incidents, however.

The Environment and Land Use Committee (ELUC) often deals with agricultural and zoning issues. This month's focus was on nailing down the language of the cannabis business regulations around towns that may not want certain elements of the industry nearby. In this case there are desires for a 1.5 mile area around such towns where they'd have primary say. There are ongoing disagreements about what that means for the people who live nearby, but aren't represented by those local governments, but rather their County government.

Highway and Transportation deals with a lot of the spending and details of the various road projects and transportation related issues on county roads and integrating transportation with local and State government. 

For your average Joe just wanting to keep up with what's going on in local government, almost all of the work of these committees ends up going through the Committee of the Whole where reports and recommended items are then passed on to the full regular County Board meeting. These steps can be confusing and there are all sorts of rules to ensure that they're done with enough time for public input and opportunities to speak out at each step.

Activists and other folks who have an issue they really care about or could impact them take advantage of these parliamentary steps to pressure County Board members at every step of the way. They do sometimes have more extended discussions and presentations on difficult topics, which can be useful for wrapping one's mind around them.

The Committee of the Whole this month was a bit of a bear, so I'll be doing a separate post on that meeting soon. For folks who can't wait to get their COW fix, I strongly recommend the presentation on the Soil and Water Conservation District local government body (starts at the 28:30 minute mark in the video). It may not sound exciting at first, but they're a government entity created in 1943 in response to the Dust Bowl and have been protecting the last few precious inches of top soil in America.

Their work intersects with our local economy, long term concerns about feeding the population, watershed protection, climate change, and building trust with science in a sector with a lot of traditionalist thinkers.

Drama over malfunctioning property tax systems and accusations of supporting white supremacy rounded off the meeting in ways I'm still figuring out how to write up.

May County Board Updates

May had a return to many of the County Board committee meetings since the initial coronavirus cancellations and transition to remote meetings on Zoom. While most members are still attending remotely, there are some attending in person at the Brookens Administrative building. Some County Board members have raised safety concerns about the current process. Videos of the May meetings are primarily available on the Champaign County Clerk's YouTube Channel:

• 5/5 Facilities Committee (video, agenda packet)
• 5/7 Environment and Land Use Committee (ELUC) (video, agenda packet)
• 5/8 Highway and Transportation (video, agenda packet)
• 5/12 Committee of the Whole (COW) (video (date typo on YouTube), agenda packet)
• 5/18 County Board of Health (video, agenda, Cheat Sheet post)
• 5/21 Regular County Board meeting (video, agenda packet)

Agenda packets are generally available from the County website "Meeting Info" page by clicking the specific Board or Committee you need information for. This is a handy page to get previous meeting minutes and presentation materials and other handouts.

This post gives overviews and summaries of most of these meetings, but also has an additional reference to the City of Champaign's government that has put out a call highlighting a funding crisis being caused by the Champaign County government (jump to that item below here).

Committee Meeting Overview:

The Facilities meeting covered topics like public safety in County buildings, including the County Courthouse. The News-Gazette had an overview of coronavirus related precautions the Courts are taking to begin jury trials soon:

The first batch of summonses for jurors in a pandemic have been sent out in Champaign County with accommodations in place to make the process as safe as possible.

Those include watching jury orientation from home, only reporting to the courthouse when a trial is set to begin, sitting several feet apart and deliberating in a separate courtroom, not a jury room.

More details at the full article here. There was a more comprehensive overview of reopening the Courts earlier this month. Excerpt:

Pieces of Plexiglas are being installed around the witness stands to shield the court reporter, who is seated right in front of the witness, and to the side of the witness stand, to shield the jurors who sit closest to the witness.

It’s impractical to spread jurors out in the gallery because that would preclude spectators from having a place to sit. And Difanis noted that jurors have to be up close to hear audio clips and see physical evidence.

That full article here. The ELUC meeting was covered in the News-Gazette and looked at cannabis business regulations again. More on that at the News-Gazette here.

The Committee of the Whole (COW):

The Committee of the Whole began with public comments from a local business owner begging for economic relief and highlighting the damage being done to business owners and their livelihoods. The County Clerk made comments about the impact of the coronavirus on the primary election and potential impacts and planning for the 2020 general election.

The COW also had a presentation on the Youth Assessment Center and its work on diversion and restorative justice services. The slide presentation is available here. The video presentation is available here with a direct link.

In Board communications, member Stohr advocated an ad hoc committee to look at and possibly revive the jail consolidation plans. Member Harper would vehemently oppose the idea in the regular board meeting's communication portion next week. Jon Rector emphasized the public participation comments on the desperate economic relief needed locally in balance with health concerns. There were other members who spoke on and thanked community members for their efforts to help fellow citizens and other topics.

After the Treasurer's report, there was a technical discussion about payment penalties being delayed or forgiven, but the topic involved some confusing legal technicalities that I didn't fully understand. Deputy Director of Finance for the County, Tami Ogden and the Treasurer's office explained some of the administrative hurdles and complexities involved with some of the suggestions.

A little bit later there was a 50 minute discussion on mitigating expenses for 2020 and 2021. This discussion had an overview of the County's financial situation (dire) and projected hardships and revenue decreases (severe). There appears to be real concerns among Democrats that austerity measures will go too far and Republicans that the Board may not be prepared to cut deep enough to keep the County government functioning. The discussion appeared sobering to all County Board members who were already looking at difficult budget choices before this crisis. The Finance Committee will be looking at the issues and sacred cows raised during this discussion to bring some options back before the board later.

There was some debate on extending the county disaster proclamation, a dispute about the message it sent for reopening the local economy versus its role in ensuring that the County could receive funding related to the the current coronavirus emergency and other funds. Republicans throughout the meeting emphasized the economic concerns while Democrats emphasized the health concerns. The differing emphasis aligned with assessments of economic and health impacts and interpretation of data that has become a divisive topic in both local and State politics.

The jail consolidation issue was brought up again, with all of the concerns about the downtown jail being on the verge of having to be shut down at any time, no current plan to come up with a facilities remedy, and now a situation where other jails are unlikely to accept any prisoners that may need to be segregated or moved elsewhere.

The video of the meeting cuts off around three and half hours in, but towards the agenda of the agenda items. John Clifford resigned at the end of the COW meeting according to the agenda.

Regular County Board Meeting:

The regular County Board meeting began with multiple public participation speakers on the topic of the coronavirus and its impact. There was a presentation from scientists at the University of Illinois on coronavirus data. Will Kyles, an at-large member of the City of Champaign City Council spoke on the impact on minority owned businesses and the need to consider that impact in reopen policies. Others spoke on impacts to those in addiction recovery, the local health care industry, and our local homeless population.

Former County Board member and Champaign County Auditor Diane Michaels was sworn in to fill the vacancy left by John Cliffords.

The County Executive delivered her annual report to the County Board, though the video quality and compression made it unreadable from the Zoom app to the live streaming videos for home viewers. The projections started at a worst case scenario, but overall the outlook is looking grim for future revenues. The current budgets were already strained under debt, limited balances, and departments already operating on limited staff. Maintenance, IT, facilities, and other basic needs have been delayed for years and in dire shape (if not flirting with disaster such as with the downtown Jail or unsupported technology).

The County Executive asked County Board members to make sure their priorities and sacred cows were made known so that the upcoming budget cuts could take their concerns into consideration. Funding for the County's reentry programs and staff employment and pay were mentioned in the discussion afterward.

City of Champaign:

The City of Champaign's Mayor raised serious concerns with the Champaign County Board and Treasurer's Office during "Council Comments" of the most recent City Council meeting. at the 27:40 mark in the full video. She argues that social programs in Champaign and through the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission are being threatened due to a lack of an audit required for funding. She explains that we are in jeopardy of losing millions of dollars of that funding and encourages people to contact to their County Board members to address the audit delay. She says they have been receiving letters from funding providers citing the lack of audit for a potential loss of funding.

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).

Criminal Justice Reform Panel

There was a Criminal Justice Reform panel discussion at the Champaign City Building earlier this week. On the panel: State Representative Carol Ammons, County Board Member Mike Ingram, Cunningham Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth, Dr. Thomas Moore of the NAACP, and First Followers reentry program had director Marlon Mitchell and member Marcell McNutt. Tatianna Ammons, candidate for County Board district 11, chaired the panel.

Full video of the panel is available here on Carol Ammons' facebook page. She included a link to her website that had additional criminal justice reform materials here. Those materials included open letters from various organizations to Sheriff Heuerman. The Sheriff explained why he didn't attend the event in a WCCU article this week:

He said he originally planned to go until he saw derogatory Facebook comments made on the event's page about the proposed jail relocation from downtown Urbana to the satellite jail at 502 S. Lierman Avenue.

"It was pretty evident that whenever I started seeing some of those comments that there was not going to be an open-minded conversation last night and I would rather have a conversation in the public that has diverse views on both sides," Heuerman said.

The Sheriff's role came into the question about how much control he has over reform in the county jail...

Heuerman said he's still open to discussing pretrial and criminal justice reform with leaders and the rest of the community.

He would like to see the state's attorney and county judges involved as well.

That full article here. The event's discussion section currently appears empty and closed. Other coverage of the panel are available at WCCU here and WAND here, both with short video segments. The WCCU article highlights the media framing of the jail issue recently discussed at the County Board's Facilities Committee as inaccurate:

It was a packed house Thursday night in the city council chamber for its criminal justice reform meeting.

After Thursday's discussion, most agreed instead of spending more money on a jail, more resources should be spent on the people inside them.

Right now, there's a $47 million proposal to relocate the county jail from Urbana to the satellite jail at 502 S. Lierman Avenue in Champaign.

The Champaign County Board endorses the proposal due to the deteriorating status of the current jail.

That full article here. More on the recent Facilities meeting where this framing in the media is viewed as inaccurate and in need of correcting at this previous Cheat Sheet post. The study where the $47 million dollar figure comes from was of the most comprehensive option in a recent study on jail consolidation options. I have a Cheat Sheet post on that study here with my initial impressions. I can't say if my wording would pass the board's muster either.

County Board Committee Updates

There were two County Board committee meetings so far in January that touched on issues such as jail consolidation and marijuana regulation. There are some highlights and links to more information below. This week is the Committee of the Whole meeting (agenda packet here) which will be the first since the County Treasurer resigned (more Treasurer updates in a later post). County Board Member Charles Young is also meeting with constituents today. In addition to representing District 6 (map) he is also the Chair of the Policy, Personnel, & Appointments committee. From the News-Gazette last week:

Champaign County Board member Charles Young invites his constituents to let him know what’s on their mind over coffee at meetings in January and February.

The District 6 Democrat, who represents several precincts in Champaign, will be available on Jan. 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. in Room 101 of the Leonhard Recreation Center (2307 Sangamon Drive, C).

He’ll also meet with residents on Feb. 22, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the meeting room at the Douglass Branch Library (504 E. Grove St., C).

Full blurb available from the News-Gazette eEdition here (subscription). Other committee news:

Facilities Committee:

The January 7th Facilities Committee meeting (agenda here, video temporarily available here, will be up on the County Clerk YouTube channel when posted here) had a discussion about countering mistaken perceptions on what the jail consolidation study meant. Early on in the meeting Board Member Rector took issue with wording describing it as a "proposal" in a criminal justice reform panel event this week. Later discussion concerned how the study is being perceived as something more finalized than it is. Member Tinsley described it more along the lines of the school photo options, from your basic wallet size to the package that has every size picture and refrigerator magnets. Cheat Sheet post on that study's proposed plans and some of the initial disputes on coverage and options here.

The reaction from the community was already evident in previous county board meetings and the coverage may have led people to believe that the $47 million price tag for the broadest options in the study was the likely or even a final recommendation of some sort. More on the reaction at the County Board meeting following the study's coverage in the News-Gazette here.


Environment and Land Use Committee:

The January 9th ELUC meeting (agenda here, video will be available here when posted) had updates on potential marijuana regulations in unincorporated areas of the County. From the News-Gazette coverage yesterday:

The county board’s environment and land use committee voted Thursday to pass along two different zoning-amendment options to the zoning board of appeals for a public hearing, without recommending either of them.

One of the options on its way to the zoning board would allow marijuana businesses such as dispensaries, craft growers, cultivation centers, transporters and processors only within a mile and a half of home-rule cities with populations over 20,000. That would apply only to Champaign and Urbana, which have already opened their doors to marijuana businesses.

Under this option, marijuana businesses setting up shop in the 1.5-mile fringe area would be subject to the same restrictions imposed by the two cities.

The other option would widen the field for transporters, cultivation centers and craft growers to areas zoned as AG-1 — as long as there is a 1.5-mile buffer between them and any municipality that has banned sales of recreational marijuana or any residential district.

That full article here. More details in a News-Gazette article earlier this week previewing this meeting and the proposed regulations here.