May City of Champaign Updates

The May meetings started off with a 5/5 meeting of the City of Champaign Township (video, agenda). There's a quick overview of the Township government on the Cheat Sheet here taken from the official website here. The cities of Champaign and Urbana both have coterminous Township governments with City officials serving as the Township board for the City of Champaign Township and Cunningham Township respectively.

The Township Supervisor Andrew Quarnstrom gave a shortened presentation of Township budget. The budget is up for public view on the website here and on display by the City Building doors and Township Supervisor's Office doors. There were some modest increases due to increased demand for services and expected demand increases going forward due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Township Supervisor noted that the Township annual meeting is postponed for now. They've transitioned to remote case management and canceled in-person meetings. The office has partnered with Cunningham Township (Urbana), the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (RPC) and the United Way for additional support programs. The United Way is reimbursing some Township spending as part of that partnership. From the News-Gazette last month:

The local United Way and the Community Foundation of East Central Illinois have set up their own COVID-19 Relief Fund, which has already distributed $20,000 to City of Champaign and Cunningham townships for housing assistance and $6,000 to Champaign, Urbana and Rantoul schools for home-learning supplies.

They are expecting an unprecedented need with housing and are applying for additional grants towards addressing those needs.

After the Township meeting adjourned the May 5th City Council meeting began (video, agenda). The Emergency Order was renewed. The agenda items passed, but there was a little technical hiccup on the video links jumping ahead by one, so if you're looking up a particular item, make sure to listen to the bill numbers being discussed.

After those items a few Council members took a moment to thank various staff and highlighted some of the challenges they face during the pandemic to keep the City functioning. The City Manager used her time to have Planning and Development Director Bruce Knight give an overview of City efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic impact including:

• outreach and Zoom meetings with local businesses for relief and reopening coordination in cooperation with the Champaign County EDC and Visit Champaign County.
• helping distribute face masks for local businesses
• building a local plan around the governor's 5 phase regional reopen plan
• planned business survey on the horizon to get feedback on how they're being impacted by the coronavirus to better support them
• City of Champaign is also taking the lead on developing and refining a regional reopen plan with other governments in the region.

One issue he pointed out was encouraging students to report their residence as their campus address as opposed to their permanent home address if they live out of town. I've been wondering exactly how that would work since a lot of tax dollars and revenue are directed according to that census data. If a large portion of the campus population reports their residence elsewhere, that could have long term revenue impacts to Champaign-Urbana.

The May 12th Study Session (video, agenda) dealt with the single topic of the Proposed Budget Overview. The City Manager explained that the health emergency was expanding into a economic emergency. She explained that the City will need to change and redefine its work to deal with the reality of the coronavirus situation. The includes the reality of likely historical revenue shortfalls.

The presentation explained a two-tiered approach towards dealing with the upcoming budget realities:

• Starting with a balanced budget at the Fiscal Year beginning July 1st.
• Engaging with the public and employees on budget cuts going forward

Some of the potential cuts were listed around the 4 minute mark of the video including funding reductions in the following areas:

• Infrastructure
• Vehicles and Equipment
• Economic Development
• Personnel Costs (including pay freezes for department heads, unfunding non-emergency vacant positions, and the elimination of merit based pay increases for non-union employees)

These steps were described as necessary, but not taken lightly or without regard for the impacts they will have on the community and City employees. Finance Director Kay Nees then continued the presentation. She compared the usual budget process with what they're facing with the coronavirus impact. She highlighted projections that may be a best case scenario assuming the stay at home order continues through may with a slow opening from June to August.

Decrease in revenue assumptions for Fiscal Year 2019/20 were projected at 5.1% or a decrease of $5.3 million. The decrease for FY 2020/21 is initially projected at 7.3% or a decrease of $7.8 million. Sales tax is 43% of the City's revenue and where it is very vulnerable to coronavirus related impacts.

Healthy reserves have been maintained by the City in past practices, so the City of Champaign may be in better shape to take the brunt of the impact than other local governments. Specific proposed budget reductions and their impacts included:

• $1.28 million reduction to the transfer from the General Fund to the Capital Improvement Fund therefore reducing available funding for capital projects planned in the 10-Year Capital Improvement Plan; as a result some projects may be delayed to future years, have the project scope reduced or be cancelled altogether,
• $382,694 reduction to the transfer from the General Fund to the Vehicle Replacement Fund resulting in the delay of nonessential major vehicle purchases in FY 2020/21 and extending the life cycles of 86 vehicles by one year,
• $1.14 million reduction in salary and benefit costs by holding current vacant positions open through July 1, 2021 which will have service impacts and require Departments to realign departmental priorities and goals for the coming fiscal year based on available staff. This amount includes holding 2.0 FTE Police Officers vacant/unfunded which were added with the passage of the Food & Beverage tax increase,
• $113,333 reduction of personnel costs by unfunding the Pay for Performance program for Non-Bargaining Unit (NBU) employees for one year, which would delay employee progression through pay grades, and a
• $50,000 reduction to Economic Development budget resulting in less funds available for new or underbudgeted economic development incentives.

These details and more can be found in the report available here. The Council approved guidance to the staff for the two-tiered approach. Their comments were appreciative of the work involved with staff that were freezing their own salaries as their workload increased. The overall town was somber. Council member Gladney noted that it was a sad time, but that we will be in a better place again someday.

In the remote audience participation there were concerns read from Emily Close hoping to get answers about the City's FOIA process and the status of the person in charge of handling access to documents for the public. She expressed frustration at not being able to get an answer on retirement or a successor for the position.

The 5/26 Study Session was canceled due to graduation and too many schedule conflicts for a quorum, but was instead added after the 5/19 regular City Council Meeting below.

The 5/19 regular City Council Meeting (video, agenda) had some interesting Council Comments before approving agenda items and adjourning into a Study Session. Council member Brix commented on recent shootings and community reactions online. She spoke against normalizing the violence even as the coronavirus overshadows our lives. She highlighted police and community response in additional patrols, visibility, and the City's Neighborhood Services engaging in Zoom discussions and getting community input. She implored residents to contact the police or CrimeStoppers if they "see something, say something."

The Mayor highlighted her concerns with the County government's Fiscal Year 2018 audit that is required for a lot of social services funding through the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (RPC). She stated outright that this was a crisis and warned that funding sources were writing to say that funding was in jeopardy if they did not have the needed financial audit information.

She pointed out that this could put upwards of $37 million in jeopardy for programs like Head Start, energy efficiency, social service programs, transportation planning (CUUATS), and more. She asked residents to contact their County Board members to ensure the audit gets taken care of in a timely manner before funding is lost. She also highlighted the upcoming 5/22 RPC board meeting would have the outside auditor speaking during public comments and taking questions. That RPC meeting video is available here. His presentation and the Q & A covering this topic are at the beginning of the meeting video.

The County Auditor passed along a message that the necessary work will be done in time and that funding is secure:

Thanks for reaching out. RPC and I are in close communications and my office has worked every day throughout the lockdown. My new deputy and I have placed the 2018 CAFR on the Auditor website; the external auditor’s opinion is coming very soon...

The cognizant agency for RPC is Illinois’s Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). The Accountability Officer has alerted Champaign County that we are not yet in compliance and to please do so—but also that enforcement procedure are delayed due to COVID.

There is no “stop-pay” letter that gives you 45 days. The 2018 audit will beat any such warning, let alone the stop-pay date.

The outside auditor at the RPC meeting encouraged people to pester and pressure the County government to ensure they have all the information and support they need from the Treasurer and Auditor's office to complete their work. Many of the local government leaders on the RPC board expressed ongoing concerns at the 5/22 meeting.


At the 5/19 Study Session after the regular Council meeting there was a presentation (video, written report) by the Library Director, Donna Pittman. The coronavirus had changed the presentation from what she had hoped to present. She went over many of the planned events and budget concerns that have arisen since the pandemic struck. There was also some discussion about the logistical issues with returning materials safely given the equipment involved and the staff proximity. If you ever get the opportunity to take a tour of the Champaign Public Library again, they take "sorting" seriously:

The second Study Session topic was a presentation by Bruce Knight on the Capital Improvements Plan and adjustments due to projected revenue declines. He made comparisons to the "Great Recession" where the City was forced to delay and cut projects due to budget constraints. He noted that the City had just caught up from those delays and cuts after the "Great Recession" in the last couple of years.

He noted that there is more potential bad news and the City may have to revisit the Capital Investment Plan when the impact of the coronavirus is better known versus current projections. The City Council directed staff to include both the revised Library and CIP budgets into the overall budget proposal.