Urbana City Council Committee of the Whole 6/1-3

Catching up on Urbana's City government has been a slow process. This post covers the recent City Council's two day Committee of the Whole meeting which ran nearly seven hours total. It will summarize and highlight as opposed to a full write-up (link to jump to part 2 below). There was news coverage of the first half of the meeting by the Daily Illini here and Illinois Newsroom here. They both mentioned the racist and vulgar "Zoom bombing." Excerpt from Illinois Newsroom:

At their Monday night Committee of the Whole meeting, Urbana City Council members condemned the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  Earlier Monday, several city officials had participated in a demonstration on the streets of downtown Urbana in George Floyd’s memory. But afterwards, the city council members heard criticism of some of their own officers, regarding the arrest of Aleyah Lewis made by Urbana Police in April.

Close to 100 people showered the online council meeting with Zoom calls and emails. They said that Urbana Police would not have wrestled and body-slammed the 21-year-old Lewis if she had been white. Lewis was arrested on April 10 during a gun investigation involving her companion...

Many of those who spoke or emailed demanded that charges against Lewis be dropped, and the officers who arrested her be placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation.

That full article here. More background on the Aleyah Lewis case from the News-Gazette here, and the George Floyd case from NPR here.

Reminder: there is a regular City Council meeting tonight (agenda) at 7pm. It streams live at 7pm here. It will be available later on the City Council website here.


COW Meeting Part 1. June 1 (agenda, video):

Many of the public comments also demanded that the Civilian Police Review Board be empowered as a tool for the community to be better informed and hold police accountable. There were many complaints that the Board was failing its basic functions, not issuing required reports, and was too heavily influenced or controlled by the Urbana Police Department itself. Others accused City Staff of undermining it.

Minnie Pearson, the President of the NAACP of Champaign County, spoke of the history and trauma of brutality faced by African-Americans like her throughout her lifetime. From Emmet Till to George Floyd. Linking the national issues and the local, she noted that the violence has been going on for 400 years, but now it's being caught on film. The local Alayeh Lewis was also record on video and came to the attention of the public online. Her full comments are available here in the video.

Danielle Chynoweth, long a player in Urbana government noted her own role in creating the CPRB and expressed her shame in what it had become. In her comments she lamented the compromises that watered it down in the first place and the "shambles" it was in now. She also had an overview of local accusations of police abuse over the years and tied it to the national issue of police brutality in light of the George Floyd case. Her full comments are available here in the video.

There were some complaints that many who wished to speak were forced to wait for hours while the Council and others spoke first and emails were read into the record. One speaker also expressed frustration that the Urbana Police Chief, Bryant Seraphin, made initial comments, but left before any public comments were read or shared.

Council member Jared Miller noted that as Chair he had read 30 emailed public comments, which took roughly an hour, and he still had 44 emails with public comments remaining. The Council decided that all of emailed public comments would be added to the record of the meeting and be available to the public (with redactions for email addresses and other requirements).

The meeting was continued to Wednesday, June 3rd to complete the City business on the agenda (including two presentations and several ordinances). Mayor Diane Marlin was interviewed in a segment that appeared on WCIA that day available here.


COW Meeting Part 2. June 3 (agenda, city website video, YouTube video (missing first 6 minutes):

The second part of the meeting began with an announcement about steps taken to against Zoom bombing. Settings were changed to prevent audio and video disturbances. Additional emailed public comments were added to the record.

The meeting began with an overview police review boards in general and then a nearly hour long question and answer period between the new Chair of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board, other members of the board and City staff.

The discussion addressed the lack of required reports being filed and attempts to remedy some of the previous shortfalls. It addressed technicalities in the language of the ordinance on issue such as requiring a notary to confirm the identity of the complainant. The notary issue has become a serious impediment with coronavirus social distancing rules. Before the Urbana police staff performed this role when a complaint was submitted. There was a discussion of the language being on the form due to previous police practice and not required by the ordinance itself. There was further discussion of potential requirements under State law and questions about why other localities, such as the City of Champaign operate without a notary requirement in light of possible related State statutes.

At the end of the CPRB discussion, Council member Miller expressed his hope that the Council doesn't lose sight of the bigger police reform picture that constituents are demanding beyond simply empowering the CPRB.

There was a presentation on the Capital Improvement Plan (the first of two installments) which typically documents the financial and budget planning of the City in accordance with the Department of Housing and Urban Development funding requirements. The Mayor noted that this presentation was easier to follow for laymen compared to previous presentations. For folks wanting to get into the weeds and details of budgets and future projects, there was a lot of information here.

There were a few interesting questions that popped up on what would potentially happen with old firehouse properties that had to be replaced and a discussion about private sewer systems. The public information on private sewer systems, a map of where they exist, and other records revealed some concerns about "vulnerability" to the city. I honestly couldn't tell if they were talking about some sort of legal liability or environmental or public safety vulnerability.

If I'm understanding the issue, it appears that there are some small private sewer systems built a long time ago within the City's full sewer system where records don't necessarily exist. Other documents on the rest of the system reveal information about them, but there are some concerns about mapping out the full system.

There were overviews of each of the ordinances on the agenda. All were sent to the full City Council with a recommendation to approve. The first two ordinances related to a development at.

The last group of ordinances dealt with funding and planning that included COVID-19 relief and spending. There was a presentation on that (video here) as well as questions and answers about technical details on housing subsidies, rental assistance, and small business assistance.

Some of the jargon and acronyms can get mind numbing on coronavirus relief funding that the federal government included with the CARES Act. The mechanisms that already existed for federal dollars to reach local programs were used to avoid re-inventing the wheel. So, in local government meetings, you'll hear Council members rattle of terms like "CDBG-CV funds." You probably don't need to know that it's referring to additional COVID-19 related spending in addition to the usual federal Community Development Block Grants. I didn't even like typing that last sentence. It's federal relief funding due to the pandemic.

Local governments are being encouraged to spend the money quickly to help protect the economy, but there are still a lot of concerns to avoid waste, "duplication" of payments from other programs, and ensuring that they will be reimbursed. Federal funding like this is usually reimbursed like clockwork and wouldn't normally be a concern for local governments to spend their money knowing the program will reimburse them. But this emergency funding happened quickly and the federal guidance isn't final yet.

Local government officials may be more aware than most that not dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's is a recipe for bureaucratic nightmares. It truly is the little things that get you. So there's a bit of anxiety on funding that is normally extremely reliable. A lot of folks would probably feel better once they know for sure they're within the final guidance and requirements for certain.

If you're catching up on Urbana City government like me, this was probably a good place to start. Even if it was a nearly 7 hour crash course.