Urbana Administrator and Fix-it-Tickets

Urbana's new Administrator, filling a long time vacant city position, will be focusing on making local government more accessible and understandable for better engagement. From today's News-Gazette:

Admin pick aims to make a difference
Carol Mitten knows what keeps people from interacting with city government, and she isn’t shying away from it.

There’s confusing legalese, required procedures, dense reports and budgets with triple digit page counts — all things that could be difficult for the layman to comprehend.

“I want (citizens) to understand why we do what we do ... so they can give fully-informed feedback with context,” Mitten said. “Transparency can be just providing information, but I’d like there to be a greater understanding.”

As the new city administrator of Urbana, Mitten will tackle that work when she officially starts in early June. Mayor Diane Marlin announced Mitten’s appointment on Wednesday after conducting a nationwide search that received over 60 applicants.

Marlin said the administrator handles the day-to-day operations of city staff and coordinates communication and planning across departments.

The position has been vacant since 2007, when former Mayor Laurel Prussing decided against having one.

Full article here. More from the N-G website, including more details about the position and interviews with the Mayor and new Administrator here.

Also from Urbana's Council meeting this week was the new Fix-it Ticket pilot program explanation (more details at the full article, including exceptions). Also from the N-G today:

Taillight out? 'Fix-it Tickest' may lend hand
...
“Fix-it Tickets” would offer payment vouchers to drivers pulled over by police for broken headlights, taillights, blinkers or license-plate lights.

Preston James, the city’s community relations specialist, said a pilot version of the program would start July 1 and cost $2,500 — an expense the city already has budgeted.

The vouchers would only cover the cost of new car lightbulbs — not the labor needed to replace them. A local auto parts store would partner with the city to fulfill vouchers and shoulder the labor costs as a favor...

James said the city council won’t vote on approving Fix-it Tickets by itself, but the program will be included in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget.

If approved, James said the city will review how the pilot program went — after the $2,500 runs out — and decide what to do going forward.

Urbana police crime analyst Melissa Haynes said that from October 2017 to March 2018, there could have been 172 Fixit Tickets offered at the most.

Full article here. [UPDATE 4/27 at 2:38pm: The News-Gazette editorial board weighed in on this ticket solution, and not favorably. From one of the editorial's today:

Under normal circumstances, motorists would be expected to take the personal responsibility to get a light fixed. But the city is taking the approach — condescending to be sure — that it's unrealistic to expect some people to handle that personal responsibility.

The city expects the motorist to take the voucher to the auto-parts store and get the promised fix. The voucher would expire after 60 days, but is that really enough time to realistically expect the typical responsibility-shy motorist to act?

The sarcasm continues in the full editorial.]