Advocates Wanted

For those who can look out for kids who need it more than most, the News-Gazette highlighted a County program that'd be worth the while.

Champaign County CASA training begins next week
Training begins next week for volunteers interested in speaking up for abused and neglected children in the Champaign County court system.

Champaign County Court Appointed Special Advocates will conduct classes beginning on Tuesday for three nights a week until completion on May 9.

Advocates are paired with the more than 370 children in the system, working with the child and social-service agencies to ensure that the best interests of the child are met throughout the court process. The advocates report to the judge assigned to the case.

Champaign County CASA has been providing services since 1994; in 2004, the agency became the "guardian ad litem" for all abused and neglected children in the county.

Full article including qualification information here.

County Update on Fake Weed

In a recent interview the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Administrator spoke about the cooperation in the area to prevent the sale and use of dangerous fake marijuana alternatives that have led to  deaths in the State. The podcast interview is available here. Excerpt from the News-Gazette website last night:

Check of local businesses turns up no fake weed
The area's public health chief said local businesses are cooperating with efforts to clamp down on synthetic cannabinoids that have killed three people in Illinois.

Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Administrator Julie Pryde said she visited convenience stores, liquor stores and tobacco shops in the county and found no traces of so-called fake weed. Pryde also said the shop managers allowed her to post flyers about the epidemic...

The Illinois Department of Public Health said since March 7, 114 people have suffered severe bleeding after using the synthetic cannabinoids. None of the reported cases are in Champaign County.

Full article here.

RJTF Letter to the Editor

 A letter to the editor asking for more coverage of the Racial Justice Task Force work being done locally was in the paper today:

Write more about special task force

The News-Gazette (Resolutions, Dec. 31, 2017 edition) urged the county board to act on recommendations issued by its appointed Racial Justice Task Force: Report and recommendations developed to reduce racial disparities in the Champaign County criminal justice system (Report is Just the Beginning, Dec. 1, 2017).

We are hoping that the newspaper will follow up with expanded explanations of these proposals and their possible impact on our community.

We are aware that small groups are working toward the recommendations related to housing policy and restorative justice practices.

Status reports on these and other initiatives would allow readers to determine ways to assist with these efforts.

Addressing and correcting disparities and working for equity is of vital importance to improving life for all of us in our communities.

Please consider publishing additional articles that will help us understand and advocate for positive change.

TAMMIE BOUSEMAN MICHAEL B. CROSBY MARCIA E. NELSON JAN SABEY on behalf of the First Mennonite Church Racial Justice Working Group

More updates on the housing issue meetings will be up here tonight or tomorrow. Here's a link to the latest Reentry Council meeting where the issue came up about the Housing Authority and City of Champaign. An update on CU Indivisible's efforts on the issue is coming soon as well.

County Board COW Write Up 4/10

The County Board had its Committee of the Whole this week. I caught it on the County Clerk's YouTube page today. The agenda packet is available here, with addendums and supporting material available on this page. It included a presentation (video here, PowerPoint here) that had a break down of the 5 year forecast. Which overall shows revenue failing to keep up with expenses at an increasingly alarming rate even without the Nursing Home Operation / Disposition that is not part of this forecast other than the impact of loan forgiveness (click to enlarge):

The Racial Justice Task Force recommendations for community engagement (page 17 of the RJTF Final Report) were discussed. McGuire pointed out his opposition based on the fact that many of the ideas will require money and it's not known when in the foreseeable future the County would have funds for this or anything else in the current budget crisis. He voiced general support for the recommendations, noting "a lot of good things in here." He said there may be some overlap with some current community organizations such as the Reentry Council and Champaign Community Coalition, but another issue may be that the board simply doesn't have any place to tell local police departments what to do.

Chair Weibel and others highlighted that at this point the motion is only to facilitate and collaborate towards the goals, not any spending at this point, and not leading other government entities in any actions. Member Hartke suggested a leadership role would be good. Member Esry noted some concerns about ADA compliance with some of the recommendations, but Weibel again pointed out that this motion isn't for implementation yet, merely a call to action to look into facilitating and cooperating with these recommendations. Member Price said it is good for the Board to get its feet in the water on this and that it will take a coalition within the community to pull it off.

It passed by voice vote with what sounded like only a few nays.

Other reports were submitted and filed by voice vote. Nominations passed by voice vote for several appointments. Sheriff proclamations designating the Week of May 6th as National Correctional Officer Week and another designating the Week of May 13th as National Police Week passed by voice vote as well.

One of the finance budget items was rather large and the handful of questions took some explanation from the Highway Department. An Ameren project that required heavy transportation on Staley Road was expected to cause some damage and an agreement was reached beforehand for Ameren to pay the cost of restoring the road to its previous condition after the project. This utilized a before and after survey and a measuring guide known as the "Pavement Condition Index." This motion is to be made available to the Highway Department for that work: $900,000 out of the $1,043,000 paid to the County by Ameren. The funding passed by voice vote.

There was a closed session about some pending litigation. When the board returned to open session they agreed that the addendum item on the Nursing Home shortfall would no longer need to be addressed due to the contents of that closed session.

The Board of Review annual report was submitted and the Treasurer's reports were presented. Several items about a positive set of resolutions involving mobile homes and taxes that apparently is helpful to the County from what little I could understand all passed by voice vote.

The Deputy County Administrator Tami Ogden went through the Five Year Forecast report presentation available here (PowerPoint here). Aa2 Negative Outlook from Moody's Rating, July 2017 was probably a somber, but concise, summary from the report:

The negative outlook reflects the expectation that without material changes to operating revenues or expenditures continued support of the county nursing home will likely continue to weaken the county's reserve position, placing downward pressure on the rating. 

The Question and Answers are after Ms. Ogden's presentation and start here. A bit of obligatory stating the obvious on the dire situation along with some answers that involved how needed upgrades to the server systems really need to know how the Nursing Home situation is being resolved or not in order to plan replacements and/or upgrades. Chair Weibel had a question about possible increased income from solar farms. Apparently the assessment will probably be higher than the previous farmland, but upon further questions it appears that nothing specific is certain yet.

After that the rest of the agenda was run through with no new business and a quick addition to the consent agenda of a couple items and then an immediate adjournment.

Local River Endangered

Following up on the recent news of toxic coal ash seepage into the Middle Fork River here. A national environmental advocacy group has now listed it as one of the top 10 endangered rivers. From today's News-Gazette:

Looming decisions on coal-ash ponds put Middle Fork on group's endangered list
Along with legendary American waterways like the Rio Grande, the Middle Fork River in East Central Illinois is garnering national attention for making a national top 10 list — but not for its natural beauty.

Illinois’ only Wild and Scenic River has been ranked at No. 9 on the list of “America’s Most Endangered Rivers,” the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group American Rivers will announce today.

The “danger” stems from 3 million cubic yards of coal ash — enough to fill the Empire State Building twice — that’s left over from a shuttered coal-fired power plant and sits along the river’s western bank...

Dynegy completed some bank stabilization work in December 2016, plans similar work this year along another section of bank, and says it intends to place the earthen caps over the ponds, leaving the ash in place forever.

But local residents, public officials and environmental organizations have long argued that the waste pits are leaching contaminants into the river, including arsenic, barium, boron, chromium, iron, lead, manganese, nickel and sulfate.

Those contaminants, said Andrew Rehn, water resources engineer with Prairie Rivers, are known to cause birth defects, cancer and neurological damage in humans, and can harm and kill wildlife, especially fish. And the river, as a Dynegy-funded engineering report has shown, is carving into the banks that hold the coal ash — erosion that Dynegy was addressing through its stream bank stabilization work.

But river advocates argue that similar stabilization methods put in place decades ago eventually succumbed to the natural forces of the river and will again.

Full article here. Following up on these posts: More Coal Ash News (3/2/2018) and Coal Ash Cleanup in the News (2/9/2018).

Nursing Home Foreshadowing

There was a bit of news and opinion in the paper this Sunday preceding Tuesday's County Board Committee of the Whole likely to get into the same issues. First from Kacich's roundup today:

Nursing home finances

A chart that was shown last week to members of the committee reviewing the single offer to purchase the Champaign County Nursing Home was a reminder that it’s possible the county might not come out ahead with the $11 million bid.

The various sale-related costs (broker’s fees, sale counsel, bond counsel), plus outstanding bonds,

outstanding bills to vendors and loans the county has made to the nursing home could eat up the $11 million.

“The longer this goes, the more they’re adding to the debt,” said County Treasurer John Farney, who keeps track of the nursing home’s cash flow and the money it owes to the county government. “That hurts the chances of us being made whole.”

The county government, he said, already has forgiven more than $2.8 million in loans to the nursing home.

And there’s a new batch of loans that add up to about $1.5 million owed to the county government. There’s no guarantee the county will get that money, he said.

“The county’s going to get paid last on all of these things, kinda like a bankruptcy. Vendors will get paid before us,” Farney said.

Van Anderson, the temporary special projects administrator who is working on the nursing home sale, said officials are working hard to “come up with defensible numbers” to assess where the county would be after a possible nursing home sale this summer.

Among the numbers still moving: how much the nursing home will be able to recover from the estimated $4.8 million it is owed, how much closing costs will amount to and whether the nursing home will be able to pay any of the money it owes the county government.

Full article including other topics here. There was also a local business owner and attorney arguing not to scare off the single bidder, including a great deal of budget and historical facts worth considering. The full commentary is available here, but ended on this summary note:

I understand that five or six offers to buy the nursing home were expected on the Feb. 28 deadline. Only one was received. That's extraordinarily discouraging. Given the circumstances, I strongly urge that every reasonable effort be made to complete the sale to the offeror.

The county isn't mandated by law to provide a nursing home. We've spent tens of millions of dollars chasing a daydream that the county clearly can't afford. I've seen neither the opponents to the sale nor the labor union offer money or any solution to these unceasing problems. It's time for the opponents of the sale to reconsider and to support selling the nursing home as soon as possible.

Assessors Collaborate

In the confusing world of Illinois township politics existing alongside more typical local government a lot of us already find confusing and often alien... both having tax assessors leads to further confusion and frustration. American bureaucracies are notorious for their Departments of Redundancy Dept, so skepticism is warranted. Tom Kacich went to the supervisor of assessments for a quick run down of how these tasks are actually a cooperative effort in his Mailbag web article last night:

Property assessments
“Property tax assessors have been in the news a lot lately. How many assessors are there in Champaign County and how do they relate to each other?

“There’s a county assessor that handles property tax bills and periodically sends out adjustments, but there’s also a township assessor. What do they both do?”

Paula Bates, the supervisor of assessments for Champaign County, explains the process:

"There are 30 townships in Champaign County. We have 19 township assessors. There are seven multi-township assessors and 12 township assessors that are elected, or contracted by the townships," she said. "The township assessors assess all real property in their jurisdictions and turn in their work to the county assessment office yearly.

"The supervisor of assessments also has assessment authority to assess or make adjustments (equalization factors). Our office also maintains tax maps, property record cards, taxpayer names and addresses, property tax exemptions, assessment notices, provides clerical assistance to the board of review, and provides assistance to the township assessors."

For other local questions and answers, check out the full article here.

The Week Ahead 4/8 - 4/14

The results from this month's primary election (with links to additional information) are here. This week I'll start transitioning the Election information here to the General Election Races and archive the Primary.

Other Events:

Groups that crossover with Racial Justice Task Force recommendations meeting this week:

RJTF recommendations on Community Engagement will be addressed at this Tuesday's County Board Committee of the Whole, Tuesday April 10th at 6:30pm. More information below.

Champaign Community Coalition meets Wednesday April 11th from 3:30pm to 5pm at the Champaign Public Library.

Urbana Human Relations Commission meets on April 11th at 5:30pm. More information on Urbana Council Chambers and meeting times here.

Build Programs Not Jails meets this week, but it will be at an earlier time. April 11th at 6pm at the IMC. There will be a presentation on electronic monitoring at 7pm at the IMC that many will be attending for more information on the criminal justice system.

There may be more news this week on the RJTF Housing Recommendations as it applies to the City of Champaign. There appears to be movement by local groups and the Housing Authority of Champaign County (more from the Reentry Council meeting this month). The County Board vote (more information and links on the Cheat Sheet here) and a recent Smile Politely article have motivated a lot of ideas towards movement.

County Calendar: See Meeting Locations on Calendar Chart! They Vary a Lot This Week!

The week kicks off with the Nursing Home Board of Directors meeting at it's new 6:30pm time (agenda here). From this previous month's agenda packet you can see this is more of a managerial board discussing financials and marketing more than policy or politics.

On Tuesday the Committee of the Whole will be meeting (agenda packet here and Nursing Home budget offset addendum here) at 6:30pm. RJTF recommendations on Community Engagement will be addressed. There's almost certainly going to be Nursing Home discussions on offsetting their budget shortfall (in addendum) and after the single minimum bid was met by an underwhelming response in the committee overseeing that process.

The Sheriff's Merit Commission meets on Thursday. The agenda should be up here when it's available (not as of 4/6). From the previous minutes on the same page, it appears that this body determines the qualifications for hiring and advancement in the Sheriff's Office and makes decisions on the same.

The Zoning Board of Appeals meeting Thursday night may have drama spill over from last time over concerns with Solar Farm noise and proximity to homes. WAND had an article about the concerns that had a large public turnout to the last meeting (upcoming agenda here). Board page here. 

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

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

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

Where is Brookens?

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

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

Reentry Council

In a nutshell, the Champaign County Reentry Council connects people reentering the community from the criminal justice system to the services and support structures they need to succeed individually. That success also translates to less recidivism in the community and better support for families to be safe and successful as well.

The Council was created by the County Board to address the needs of the entire reentry population and not just substance abuse under the previous program years ago. It began as an a coordinating and advisory group to the then reentry program and then was enhanced with the efforts of the Collaboration project (final report here and more information from the Cheat Sheet here). It currently exists through a County agreement with Rosecrance and meets at the Rosecrance facility on Fox Drive. Here's some basic information from their bylaws:

The purpose of the Reentry Council of Champaign County is to provide a means of communication and coordination among community organizations, public officials, advocates, and others involved in the community response to persons returning to Champaign County from incarceration in federal prison, state prison, or the county jail. The Council also receives and reviews data regarding jail bookings, jail-based screenings, and connections to services for the purpose of coordinating community services and planning. The Council receives regular reports from organizations providing reentry and related services, reviews funding opportunities, and recommends actions which will enhance public safety, reduce recidivism, and improve outcomes for those returning from incarceration and their families.

The constituencies with voting representation on the Council are the Champaign County Board, the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, the Champaign County Mental Health Board, the State's Attorney's Office, the Judiciary, the County Jail, Champaign County Health Care Consumers, Champaign County Probation, U.S. Probation, Rosecrance Central Illinois, the Champaign County Continuum of Care, Champaign County Housing Authority, Champaign County Regional Planning Commission, FirstFollowers, Ann's House, GROW, State of Illinois Department of Corrections Parole, TASC, a law enforcement representative, a liaison from the Crisis Intervention Team Steering Committee, and a designated Citizen Representative.

There's not a lot of online information about the Reentry Council (although a lot of the work leading up to it is documented on the Sheriff's website here) and it does not have meetings open to the public, although they do extend invitations for guests to sit in. Their contract renewal was recently moved closer (by procedure) at the last County Board meeting (more information here, video of their presentation here). Board Member McGuire stated at the Reentry Council this month that he was optimistic about renewing the program and thanked individuals for their hard work on the progress and three years of data collected.

Another highlight of the meeting was the new Housing Authority of Champaign County Executive Director was in attendance with the interim director and they spoke specifically about the housing issue here. They're applying to be one of the Housing Authorities to take part in a trial program to open up more housing for the reentry population with funding from the Vera Institute. Champaign County has recently been recognized as an Innovator County (see County Board report video link) for its work in criminal justice reform, so there's a good chance we could be accepted. This could help with housing programs generally, not just HACC. It would still allow for screening, but it would not be a catch-all for those with a criminal background. It would also allow for more creative and flexible solutions than most options at the moment.


Meeting Summary:

Here's a quick meeting summary as opposed to a full write up:

Bruce Barnard (from the report to the Board) was the facilitator for the meeting. Folks from the County Board, Jail, law enforcement, probation, and support organizations, etc were in attendance. A guest speaker from Jesus House Restoration Ministry gave an overview of their program. They discussed the annual report at the County Board and program updates. HACC discussed the Housing pilot program mentioned above.

There was quite a bit of collaboration between the organizations and corrections agencies sharing information over my head and updating each other on the status of various parts of the reentry population and programs and services available and in use.

The meeting ended with a couple announcements. The Champaign County Health Care Consumers award event is coming up. More information here. NAMI Champaign is having an event for the community as well. More information on that here.


[Last updated: 12/12/2018 with additional information on the Reentry Council]

Primary Election Results Official and Historic

In an update on primary election results, the News-Gazette had additional information about turnout and vote counts today:

Champaign County's results for 2018 primary are certified — and historic
The turnout was a record for a nonpresidential primary and amounted to 26.3 percent of the 119,979 voters in the county.

The 57.7 percent-to-42.3 percent split favoring Democrats is a noteworthy reversal of every other recent gubernatorial election year in Champaign County. In 2014, for example, 63 percent of the 23,299 voters in the county took Republican ballots to 36.7 percent who took Democratic ballots...

The top vote-getter in the county in the primary was Aaron Ammons, the Democratic candidate for county clerk with 13,802 votes. Tops among Republicans was Hulten, the GOP candidate for county executive, with 11,596 votes.

Full article here. More results information on our results page here.

Nursing Home Committee Meets

The committee reviewing the single bid for the Nursing Home seems to be letting the reality of the situation sink in. The single minimum bid is viewed as sufficient and well funded by Republicans and with underwhelming minimum bid reception by Democrats. From the News-Gazette today:

Nursing home sale review panel underwhelmed by bidder's first proposal
Members of the special committee reviewing the sole offer to buy the Champaign County Nursing Home say they're impressed with the bidder's financial stability but are less inspired by other parts of its proposal.

After putting out a request for proposals to buy the home, the county got just one response — jointly from Extended Care Clinical and Altitude Health Services, both of Evanston. The $11 million offer, however, met the county's minimum request.

The nine-member evaluation committee decided Tuesday night that the proposal was responsive and worth reviewing. And it agreed to tour three of the companies' homes in south suburban Chicago later this month.

But some members of the panel, particularly those with backgrounds in health care, admitted they weren't bowled over by Extended Care's proposal and the detail in some of its answers to the county about operations and programs at its other nursing homes. It operates about 18 facilities in the Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin area...

Details of the companies' proposal, including supporting documents, have not been made public by the county.

The timetable for the review of the proposal includes more meetings this month, plus a tour of Extended Care nursing homes in Willowbrook, Crete and Beecher.

After the Extended Care/Altitude Health Service presentation to the county board May 1, the evaluation committee will make its recommendation on whether to accept or reject the offer no later than May 17.

A county board vote is tentatively scheduled for May 24.

Accepting the offer would require a "yes" vote by at least 15 of the 22 county board members.

Full article with more reactions and information here.

Citizens Utility Board Scam Warning

The Illinois Citizens Utility Board had some helpful information warning about scammers and also advice on getting the best rates for your electric service in the News-Gazette today:

Citizens Utility Board warns about electricity-rate scams
Champaign Public Works Director Dennis Schmidt said customers in the city who didn't opt out of Champaign's municipal electric aggregation deal with Homefield Energy have continued to save some money, though it's been in the $12- to $15-per-year range...

CUB spokesman Jim Chilsen said savings aren't guaranteed with every municipal aggregation offer.

"But most community power deals have had solid consumer protections — no exit fee, for example — and CUB has been pleased with that," he said.

Some tips from the CUB to avoid making bad power deals on your own:

— If you live in a community that has an aggregated power supply deal, such as Champaign and Urbana, beware of door-to-door marketers claiming they're affiliated with the community's power supplier. Municipal aggregation programs such as Champaign's don't do this kind of marketing, and they won't send people to your home about that.

— Sales people claiming to be from "the electric company" offering deals at your home could be trying to obtain your account number to sign you up for an alternate supplier without your permission.

— Before you sign up for an alternate deal, some good questions to ask are how the company's rate compares with your local utility's price, whether this is a fixed or variable rate, whether it's an introductory rate subject to increases, whether there is a monthly fee and whether there is an exit fee for those leaving a plan before a contract is up.

The CUB said it has seen fees as high as $9 a month among alternate power suppliers. The group also said it receives many complaints from consumers who said the lower price they signed up for with an alternate supplier skyrocketed a few months later.

Full article here.

Nursing Home Committee

This is a followup to the The Week Ahead's mention of this committee meeting this week. It's called the RFP 2018-001 Evaluation Committee on the calendar to the delight of bureaucracy fans. For the rest of us it's referring to this specific "request for proposal" which is simply bureaucratic-speak for an open bidding solicitation. From the News-Gazette today:

Decision on nursing home sale may come soon
The next two months should determine whether the Champaign County Nursing Home remains a county-owned facility or whether it is sold to a private company. A newly appointed county committee this week will start to dive into a review of the only offer advanced to purchase the money-losing facility, a proposal worth $11 million that comes from two Evanston-based companies, Extended Care Clinical LLC and Altitude Health Services Inc.

If the committee assesses the offer and decides that it meets the requirements established last year by the county board, it could make an affirmative recommendation to the board by May 17. If the committee decides it doesn’t meet the requirements,

it could be back to the starting line for the county. Either way, though, the 22-member county board will have the final decision on whether to sell.

Fifteen must vote in favor of selling for the vote to pass. All 10 Republicans are virtually certain to vote to sell, based on public comments they’ve made. More importantly, will there be five Democrats willing to vote yes?

Full article here.