Catching Up - June County Updates

Sometimes the Cheat Sheet gets behind and we have to catch up. The process involved can be helpful to anyone wanting to get caught up on what's been going on at the County Board and other County government bodies lately. Over the last few years we've attended and watched endless local government and organization meetings with notes filling up the filing cabinet. When we don't have anyone available, we have to play catch up, and we start with the local press. To jump to information on other resources, click one of the links below:

• County Board and Government Resources
• County Board Members
• Other Organization Meetings

Local Press:

The local press can be complicated for activists on various issues or political ideologies, but as a general rule I'd encourage supporting the local paper. For those with serious grievances, one might have to rely on access through their local library's online tools. For most people, a simple key word search for Champaign County Board on the website will do (sorting by "start time" so you get recent articles as opposed to years ago):

You can usually get more hits by searching from within the News-Gazette's eEdition tools, but you'll have to skip over a lot of Section D legal notices too! Here's a list of County Board articles and updates in June:

• The Board of Review seats are now all vacant after ongoing appointment battles and recent resignations. 
• An earlier article had more general coverage of the June County Board meeting here, including highlighting the support for rural broadband internet expansion. It is missing coverage of the mental health care related vote that failed to pass, however (see more on that below).
• There was additional coverage of the discussions behind the feasibility and fairness of extra compensation for County employees who had to work in-person during the pandemic.

There's almost always some hidden gems in the search results that might not appear related to the County Board in the preview text. There's usually an article or two related to County government, if not necessarily County Board business:

• Barbara Scott, a former elected Champaign County Board member, died.
• Jonathon Westfield died. He was active in local politics, a former police officer, and criminal justice issues including coordinator at the Youth Assessment Center.
• There was a profile of Champaign County Auditor George Danos.
• And there was some concern over profanity at a board meeting and YouTube rules addressed in an article and a letter to the editor.

The May and April County Board updates are covered in a separate post here.

Other local news sources can be more hit or miss on something as specific as the business of the local County Board, but tend to pick up other angles on bigger news items or additional news not picked up by other outlets. WCIA has a "Champaign County" local news page here where you can keep loading articles further back in time or a simple keyword search. For example, from WCIA's coverage in June:

• More details about the Board of Review situation, resignations, and documentation.
• Additional coverage on Jonathon Westfield.
• Updates on the Delta variant of COVID from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District including a recent update yesterday and one earlier this month here.

Other area television news stations include WAND and WICS/WCCU which often have some local coverage in Champaign County. WAND's search function is similar to the News-Gazette website. WICS's Fox Illinois web search feature is a bit more limited and will mix in some older results relevant to the keywords as well. For June there was a County government related story worth noting from WICS here:

• There Sheriff's office hired a social worker as part of its new justice diversion program.

Between the local newspaper and one of the local tv news station searches you'll probably get a decent gist of what's happening when checking out the agenda of the next County Board or committee meetings you're interested in.

There is almost always more out there if you've got the time or have another preferred local news source. Some good examples of sources we cite regularly here on the Cheat Sheet include the Daily Illini, Smile Politely, and Illinois Newsroom / WILL. Here's some County news item examples that pop up in basic keyword searchers in June:

• DI: HUD emergency housing voucher updates with the Housing Authority of Champaign County.
• DI: Updates on the MTD terminal expansion project.
• SP: Vaccine programs for underserved communities.
• SP: Information on the Champaign County Forest Preserve District and League of Women Voters Summer Concert series.
• SP: Information on the limited Independence Day festivities and fireworks this year.
• IN: Overdoses and homicides are up in Champaign County and Illinois generally.
• IN: More details on the County Board's process towards expanding rural broadband.

As you can see, broader search keywords (e.g. Champaign County) on these websites will pop up other local government bodies and issues from the MTD to the Forest Preserve to the Housing Authority. All of which have unique relationships and collaborations with local government, funding sources, and governing bodies.

Of course the most comprehensive source of information about the County Board and County government is directly from the source.

County Board and Government Resources:

Meeting information, including agendas, agenda packets, minutes, etc are available on the County website here. We have some basic information on the overall structure of the County government under the Executive Form of County Government here. The general flow of County Board meetings each month tends to start with committee meetings where a smaller group of County Board members look at a set of issues and items and make recommendations or move resolutions towards the full board for a vote. The Committee of the Whole meetings are generally the next step where all the committee and other resolutions before the board are either moved to the full regular meeting of the County Board for a final vote or discussed, amended, etc.

The regular County Board meeting tends to pass uncontroversial items with unanimous support from the Committee of the Whole before moving on to other votes that can be contentious or pass fairly easily. Certain votes, like budget votes that increase spending, can often require a supermajority to pass.

June's regular County Board meeting agenda packet is available here. The most recent videos of the County Board meetings are available on the County's facebook page (and later the County Clerk's YouTube channel here after it is processed). The June regular County Board meeting is available here.

Even with the beginning of the meeting cut off, the video of just this meeting is over two and half hours long. For folks with limited time, jumping to agenda items of interest can be a bit of a guess and test. I have a process of jumping ahead and listening to hear which agenda item the Board is on to see if I jumped too far, or not far enough.

The debate on the mental health funding resolutions begins just before the 1:42 (hour:minute) mark on the facebook video here with a reading of the first resolution. The resolutions were discussed and voted on together. Both required 15 votes to pass. The agenda had a long description of the item purpose:

This [American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)] funding will be utilized by the CCMHB to expand grant funding for local agencies providing mental health and substance abuse treatment services to individuals and families in Champaign County. This expanded grant funding will allow local agencies to continue to strive to meet the growing need for these services in Champaign County. The CCMHB grant year runs from July 1 through June 30. In order to provide consistent, uninterrupted grant funding for these local agencies throughout the entirety of the upcoming grant year, 50% of the ARPA funding will be utilized from July 1 through December 31 of FY21. The remaining 50% of ARPA funds will be utilized from January 1 through June 30 of FY22.

The debate and discussion revolved around the timing and a disagreement about why this specific ARPA funding needs to be approved so quickly compared to other funding to be discussed in future meetings. This approval would only be for a small percentage of the overall funding, but related to programs and grants that need more immediate funding. It failed mostly along partisan lines with Democrats in support and Republicans opposing.

A deeper dive into the details of this resolution and the programs involved is available in the agenda packet on pages 98-122 (pages 103 through 127 of the PDF).

County Board Members:

Beyond the arguments you might hear in the County Board and committee meetings themselves, County Board members are generally happy to explain their votes and positions on issues from previous meetings. You can contact them from their contact information on the County website here and district maps on the County Clerk's website here (currently more up to date than the Cheat Sheet with Samantha Carter joining the Board). If you follow them on social media, you might get long arguments on various subjects or links to more information and resources.

Often Republicans and Democrats will simply complain about the other being partisan or political, like Board member Jim Goss criticizing the Democratic majority's redistricting vote last month. This month Democrats complained about the Mental Health care vote, such as on board member Jennifer Traub's public facebook page that took issue with a few Republicans leaving without putting their name to a no vote. Board member Samantha Carter echoed the frustration on her own public page and shared a longer criticism of the Republican no votes and not voting.

One can sometimes find some public comments or even extended arguments by board members on various local social media groups and neighborhood apps as well.

Other Organization Meetings:

Following up with the various impacted organizations and communities related to or directly affected by County Board votes is probably one of the more difficult and time consuming end of catching up on County Board business. It's also probably one of the most important. It'll be interesting to see if there's any discussion on this contentious funding vote in the upcoming Mental Health Board meetings next month at the end of July. 

The previous MHB meeting in June, just prior to the regular County Board meeting had some discussion on the violence in the community as it relates to mental health starting with MHB President Joseph Omo-Osagie and then Executive Director Lynn Canfield at around the 9:15 mark in the meeting video (agenda available here). Lynn Canfield's report directly addressed the County Board resolution, the doubts about whether the vote may succeed, and what that may mean going forward.

Follow up on the rural broadband issue will likely be simpler to follow up as the Board works through the issue in study sessions like the one last night (agenda packet available under the Committee of the Whole page). That meeting video (the first fully in person County Board meeting since the pandemic) is available here. It has presentations on the County's role in broadband expansion, groups and service providers with introductory information on the topic. This is working towards work that will be done by the "broadband committee" going forward.

It's definitely a challenge to keep up with all of the various local government and organizations related to local government on the County level and the C-U Local Cheat Sheet. The goal is still to help make it easier to stay informed and involved in your local government.

New Candidate Filings

Following up on a previous post (and News-Gazette blurb here) more candidates have entered the fray through party nominations and appointments will begin tonight at the County Board to fill the remaining terms of seats empty due to resignations and moves. From the News-Gazette Tuesday:

Nominees selected to fill out three vacancies on Champaign County Board
On Tuesday, precinct committee members in District 10 proposed offering the seat vacated by Robert King, who moved out of state, to Tanisha King-Taylor, who defeated the other District 10 representative, Chris Stohr, in the Democratic primary.

If King-Taylor turns down the offer to serve out King's term, Democrats will nominate former county board member James Quisenberry instead.

King-Taylor will face Republican David Weisiger on Nov. 6 for election to a full term for the seat currently held by Stohr...

Earlier Tuesday, Democrats nominated University of Illinois doctoral student Pranjal Vachaspati to serve out the remainder of the District 9 seat vacated last month by Shana Jo Crews, who is moving out of the county.

Vachaspati, a participant in the 2017 "Jeopardy" Tournament of Champions, was already nominated in the primary to run for Crews' seat in November. He will face Republican Traci Nally, who is general counsel and vice president of human resources for News-Gazette Media.

Meanwhile, Republicans appointed Jodi Eisenmann of rural Mahomet both to serve out the remainder of Brooks Marsh's term and as the candidate for his District 1 seat in November's election.

Eisenmann has experience as an educator and farmer, assisting her husband, Derric, in their family farming operation, JDE Ag Farms Inc.

More at the full article here. Updates to the Elections, County Offices and District pages are coming soon to reflect the new filings and information.

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

July and August County Government Updates

Reminder: 2026 Midterm Elections in Less than 90 Days!

For local and municipal government updates (including updates on surveillance policies, Flock, resignations, appointments, and a push to support a countywide reparations commission) please see our latest C-U Local updates here. 


Ammons Indictments: Illinois State Representative Carol Ammons and Champaign County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons were indicted on various federal charges last month. Their daughter Titianna Ammons was indicted in June for wire fraud for allegedly accepting disability payments while receiving other unreported income. From the Chicago Tribune coverage this morning:

Federal authorities alleged Carol Ammons falsified state campaign finance records to disguise payments to herself and her daughter, directed state and federal funds to organizations that used public dollars to pay her daughter, and overpaid individuals out of campaign funds, “then required the individuals to provide cash kickbacks to her,” according to the 12-page indictment.

Ammons then lied to an FBI agent investigating the alleged misuse of grant money and conspired with her husband to conceal the alleged misuse of campaign and public funds, according to the indictment.

The news had just recently broken around the time I was hoping to publish the July updates. Since then both State Representative Carol Ammons and Champaign County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons have released statements denying the charges. Both statements along with related coverage from the News-Gazette are available here. They were arraigned in federal court soon after.

As anyone familiar with local politics can imagine, different partisan and factional differences quickly emerged in whether these prosecutions were part of a pattern of federal political prosecutions or serious corruption charges.

Champaign County Government:

District 6 Board Member and former Chair Samantha Carter resigned at the June regular County Board meeting. Each County Board district has two representatives / seats. Chyna Figueroa-Dixon was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the resignation at the July County Board meeting. County Board member Figueroa-Dixon is also currently unopposed in her race for the other District 6 seat (4 year term) currently held by Dennise Arres.

Member Arres was initially appointed to finish out the term of Carolyn Greer who moved out of the district last year. Member Arres was not running to hold her incumbent seat in 2026, so that would create a new vacancy after her term ends at the end of the year. The News-Gazette indicated that the vacancy (2 year term) would be filled by special election in November. It’s possible that the party may slate Arres for that special election for the upcoming vacancy. The two will effectively switch seats when the new County Board is seated in December.

The Fiscal Year 2024 audit was completed on June 19th. The Fiscal Year 2025 audit process has already been delayed due to the extreme delays of the 2024 audit. It is hoped, by staff and finance committee members on the board, that the delays will be much shorter for the 2025 audit. Those delays will likely be related more to the late start than the multitude of problems that had to be corrected with the 2024 audit.

The creation of a new Reentry Council passed at the June County Board meeting. An amendment was proposed to ensure that service organizations and advocates hold at least half the seats on the new council, but it failed. The Board also approved the creation of a new Legislative Committee that will track state and other legislative issues that could impact the County.People visiting County government facilities may have noticed information and materials regarding the Champaign County Gun Safety. Regardless of any political views or positions, that County program offers safe storage information, gun locks, and even some smaller gun safes for local firearm owners.
At the July County Board meeting there was a resolution put forward by Member Jeff Wilson (who is also running as a Republican in the IL-13 Congressional race) to call for the resignation of County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons in light of the recent indictments. There was a successful vote to “table” the item until the July 2027 meeting.

There was an open question on whether this was properly tabled (a motion that does not allow for discussion) versus a postponement (which does allow for discussion) and has different rules on bringing the item back up again on future agendas. The County Clerk’s office is a separate elected office, so this resolution would have been symbolic.

Other County Government Related Updates:

• CSPH Homelessness Plan Draft: There is a draft of the countywide strategies towards “functional zero homelessness” being worked on by the Continuum of Service Providers to the Homeless (through the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission and in collaboration with Homebase).
  
  
• Nursing Home Bed Shortage Update: The State approved the certificate of need for the project proposed in Savoy. This project is not enough to address the full local shortages, but this may pave the way for more projects in the future to address the overall need. It is unclear whether the official “need” includes people who may need beds, but are considered outside of the “market” due to their financial situation or eligibility for related programs. Advocates for Aging Care is asking the County Board to use some of its tax levy, originally for nursing home related expenses, towards the costs of building a new facility. 
  
• METCAD: C-U Citizen Access raised concerns about ambulance response times in Champaign County compared to the Eight-Minute Standard.
  
  
• MTD: The C-U MTD board had to redo its annexation vote for areas that would allow a link for local bus routes to Carle at the Fields in Southwest Champaign. There was a technical violation of state law that prohibits meetings on election day (one of the public hearings for the annexation fell on the day of the March primary). There was a new annexation Public Hearing on June 22nd. The board approved the annexation at its June 24th meeting.
  
  
• Carrol Fire Protection District Controversy: There has been a lot of controversy and even a failed attempt to dissolve the fire protection district in the upcoming election.

County Government September Updates

Reminder: 2026 Midterm Elections in 60 Days!

Election Updates:

• Early Voting starts September 24th! See Early Voting locations and times here at the Champaign County Clerk and Recorder's Website.
  
  

• Illinois Public Media 2026 Candidate Interviews: in collaboration with the NAACP Champaign County Branch and the LWV of Champaign County.
  

• LWV Local Candidate Guide: available through Vote411.

Champaign County Government Updates:

Legislative Budget Hearings: Each year the County Board hears from all departments about their budget needs and a brief overview of updates and what has changed since the prior fiscal year. There are three sets of slides with a very quick overview. All three meetings are available on the County’s YouTube page if you want more detailed presentations and information.

Hyperscale Data Centers: there is currently a moratorium on larger data centers in Champaign County. There has been a Data Center Task Force collecting public input and additional information to draft permanent regulations on larger data centers. This task force is nearing a final recommendation to the County Board. There is a local group organizing to ban or heavily restrict hyperscale data centers. That group has had a strong presence in local government meetings as well.

Public input has generally been in opposition to these data centers over environmental impacts and opposition to various uses (e.g. surveillance, generative AI applications, etc.). The Prairie Rivers Network has a webpage devoted to understanding more about data centers, local legislation, and how to be effective in advocating for the regulation people may be interested in.

There was a last minute attempt at putting “home rule” on the ballot as a referendum item, but a walkout during the special meeting to meet the ballot deadlines prevented a quorum or vote on the issue. In general, local governments lack the authority to permanently ban otherwise legal business activity under the law and longstanding court precedent. For more information on this see the Prairie Rivers guide on data center regulation and this article on moratoriums on some of the specific legal hurdles.

Carbon Sequestration: The moratorium on carbon sequestration facilities is likely coming to an end, to be replaced by a framework that would require special use permits to build. The next step for this policy will be the Environment and Land Use Committee meeting recommendation on September 10th.

Flock / Surveillance: Sheriff Heuerman answered questions at the August 20th County Board meeting on the Sheriff's Office use of Flock licence plate readers, access, and data sharing. Access has been recently limited from national to state and then Champaign County law enforcement agencies. He spoke of some additional safeguards implemented by Flock. County Board members raised a variety of concerns about potential abuse from the local to federal level. Many of the concerns mirrored longstanding issues raised by the ACLU about how the data is collected, used, and accessed. 

Nursing Home Bed Shortage: There was a continued push this past month by Advocates for Aging Care for the County Board to allocate $1 million towards the costs of building a new nursing home facility. This is to come from the tax levy originally designated for the old County Nursing Home expenses that is still generating revenue for the county since that facility’s sale. There was News-Gazette coverage from earlier in the month on this effort.

Resignations and Litigation: Jeff Wilson has resigned from his County Board seat (District 1) to focus on his congressional campaign for the IL-13 district. County Board vacancies are appointed from the same party, generally at the recommendation of the local party.

The most recent update on the federal cases against State Representative Carol Ammons and Champaign County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons were that both were granted a continuance. The next trial date for both is currently scheduled for November 3rd, which is election day. Aaron Ammons’ attorney has filed a motion to push back this and other court dates beyond November 17th to ensure they don’t interfere with his duties.

County Board 8-23-2018

Following up on last week's County Board meeting (News-Gazette overview in previous post). Agenda here, addendum here, and handout here. Video here at the Champaign County Clerk YouTube Channel.

The board seated and swore in Pranjal Vachaspati, James Quisenberry, and Jodi Eisenmann replacing open seats due to previous resignations. For more on the recent changes and turnover on the board: Tom Kacich | Turnover plaguing Champaign County Board.

Public participation included one of those previous board members, Brooks Marsh, giving his view on County's future as it plays catch up on facilities and other budget issues now that the Nursing Home is sold. He looked forward to a couple years from now when the County has caught up on those issues and can do some great work for the community.

The solar ordinance on the agenda had a few supporters and detractors. A developer in support, a homeowner pleading for sound limiting rules to both physically reduce the sound generated and consideration for actual decibel levels, rather than distance alone. A couple landowners looking forward to the opportunities and a harbinger warning not to count on that solar money in the long run as it dries up over time.

Friends and family of a local victim of "Nasty Joe" begged the board to do more to address his scam of buying pieces of people's yards and other property that they assumed was theirs, but through various discrepancies didn't include a small strip or section here or there (sometimes under their porch or through their fence in this case). The County has a way to search to see if your property has one of these sections so people can resolve it before this guy buys it and essentially holds it for ransom. Links from a previous board meeting:

An issue with an orphaned land parcel was talked about being dealt with to avoid another Nasty Joe situation. There was a reference to the GIS map app to help people find these problems and fix them on the web. There was a presentation at the end of this meeting here.

This particular situation appears to have gotten particularly nasty as the guy profiting off these discrepencies was harassing a homeowner trying to fight the loss of a strip of her property. While being spotted in the area hopping over fences to scope out pieces of property the fence of this previous victim was damaged. This left the owner feeling unsafe in her own home with little recourse. She complained that no matter where she turns, every agency tells her it's not their problem.

Darlene Kloeppel and another resident talked about their concerns with the campus voting location change and previous voting patterns in hopes of persuading the board to find a better solution with more convenient access for voters on campus than the current plan on the agenda.

The rest of the meeting was mostly covered by the News-Gazette summary from last week here except the tourism presentation and the campus polling place debate. There was a presentation on tourism by Visit Champaign County available here on all the work done to bring and promote tourism to the area. It's roughly 15 minutes long.

Campus Polling Places:

The discussion on the polling place that was consolidated with the Illini Union due to renovations got a bit testy. There was a noticeable division between campus concerns and rural concerns. While the newly seated Vachaspati talked about the confusing layout and having to leave and come back to vote due to long lines as a student rural members chastised citizens who couldn't be bothered to put in "a little effort" to vote. Member Goss said Mahomet has long lines too, more voters, they have to drive to their polling places that aren't walking distance, and yet they vote in every election, he said. He argued if you're worried about long lines, vote early.

McGuire pointed to the County Clerk's report at the previous Committee of the Whole meeting about a lack of better options and the issue being mostly out of his or their hands due to a renovation. He later pointed to the unique rural and military difficulties of voting that are a part of the process in comparison.

Summers and Patterson felt the unique roadblocks need to be addressed. Patterson said that the University, knowing that the Illini Union is a required voting location by law should be doing more to accommodate the County. The interaction between he and the Clerk got a bit contentious with Patterson talking about people rolling their eyes and the Clerk getting visibly irritated and sarcastic about how awful the union is that so many people prefer to vote at.

Douglas asked him if there's even another place available with only two months left to go. The Clerk admitted he hadn't checked as he viewed the consolidation at the union as the only and obvious solution. This led to Patterson stating his disappointment and the Clerk shortly replying, "Noted."

The Clerk's argument against establishing another location points to the fact that almost every organization, partisan and non-partisan and even his own office have made the students aware of the union as a universal voting location and that's where the students will go, regardless of whether they set up an additional location (if one is even available). Many of the Democrats remained skeptical. Former County Clerk primary candidate on the board, Rector, blamed the division on them playing politics.

In the end voting it down could have meant that there would be no realistic time for a vote and notification for a new location which could mean setting up an outdoor tent at the current location being renovated, which generally appeared untenable to all. The vote to consolidate the voting location at the union passed, but with a handful of protest votes.

The meeting ended with resolutions honoring previous board members who recently resigned and a reminder about the budget books needing to be brought to the budget meetings this week and started being read through. Going towards the end of the year, the County budget will probably be one of the bigger issues... other than an election and possibly even more turnover, of course.

County Board Winter Updates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Failed Referenda on Appointed Offices and Taxes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nursing Home Beds:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

County GOP versus Democratic County Clerk Continued:

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

Opioid Settlement Task Force:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other County Government Updates:

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