City of Urbana Updates

There are numerous updates on Urbana City government since our last update in June (available here) where the City Council had just approved the re-appointment of Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin in spite of a deluge of public opposition for the status quo in the wake of the George Floyd protests. Among the demands by activists during public comments were for the charges to be dropped against Aleyah Lewis, an independent investigation into her arrest, and reforming the police review board to be more effective and empowered. Here are just some of the updates and coverage on a few of those issues:

• In July the Council approved training standards for the police review board. Coverage and details from WAND here. A training video for the review board was posted to UPTV here.
• The police review board approved a Taser report that was long overdue and which they were roundly criticized. More on that from the News-Gazette here.
• Illinois Newsroom had coverage about the independent review of the Aleyah Lewis case by a consulting firm approved by the Urbana City Council in June.
• The Urbana mayor committed to systemic change but urged patience at the July 27th City Council meeting. News-Gazette had coverage on that here.
• The Board approved the NAACP's "10 shared principles" on policing at the June 23rd City Council meeting, covered by the News-Gazette here. A small cut to the police budget was also added to a Council budget item that passed (more on that here).

The Urbana Mayor and City Council had a discussion on Public Safety and Policing this week at the end of their most recent City Council meeting (video here). The Mayor went over plans for an Advisory Committee on Public Safety and Policing towards future reforms and policies. There are challenges to fill seats on such a committee when there is already a need to fill vacancies on the review board and Human Relations Commission. Board members discussed possible organization and the advisory nature of the prospective entity.

Earlier in that City Council meeting, Chief Seraphin had an update on a June incident where a driver pushed through protesters in her vehicle on the street and some of the details around that incident.

The Citizen's Police Review Board has been very active in the aftermath of the June meetings and public input, starting with a special meeting on June 24th available here. In that June 24th special meeting there was a long discussion about the new format and guidelines for the review board which also has a new chair. In July there was also a regular meeting and another special meeting. Each runs around 3 hours including public input. The News-Gazette had coverage of the increase in meetings here.

Housing Discrimination Updates:

The City of Champaign recently passed compromised language on their Human Rights Ordinance to limit discrimination on rental housing and criminal histories. The City of Urbana has more broadly prohibited this kind of reentry housing discrimination (as Champaign once did). Cunningham Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth has recently raised awareness that even with broader protections, compliance and enforcement of housing discrimination rules is an ongoing issue in Urbana. Earlier this year she gave a presentation on housing issues to the Urbana Human Relations Commission (video available here with the presentation starting at the 15 minute mark). There is also a written report available here which she describes and explains in that same presentation.

At the most recent Urbana City Council meeting there was also an update on housing assistance and funding due to the coronavirus pandemic (e.g. via the federal CARES Act and money funneled through CDBG programs).

Other recent Urbana news items:

The development project at the site of the Landmark Hotel is currently stalled due to the coronavirus. Tom Kacich had an update on the project in his Tom's Mailbag column in the News-Gazette last week here.

Dr. Julie R. Laut was appointed to represent Ward 2 on the Urbana City Council at a special meeting on August 3rd (announcement available here), News-Gazette coverage here). Video of the appointment included a description of the process followed and is available from the City website here. There were two eligible applicants to fill the Ward 2 seat being vacated by Alderman Eric Jakobsson to fill the remainder of his term into 2021. Two of the applicants were disqualified for not living in the ward boundaries according to WCIA coverage here. The applicants made statements to the City Council at the July 27th meeting (video here).

Durl Kruse, a retired public school administrator and long time Urbana resident, had a guest commentary in the News-Gazette and his views on systemic racism and policing were discussed by the City Council during their talks on an advisory committee.

City of Champaign Updates

There have been unending developments over the summer with the City of Champaign on issues from the pandemic response to police reform. Yesterday there was also an update on the reentry housing issue. From the News-Gazette today:

After more than a year of talks, the Champaign City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to reduce the amount of time landlords can hold certain felonies against potential tenants from five years to two...

In December, the council moved forward with changes that were approved Tuesday and will make it clear that the two-year rule refers to convictions in which someone is sentenced to prison, not probation. It also lists the types of felonies that can be considered, such as murder, robbery and arson.

Full article here with additional information on relief for liquor-license holders impacted by the coronavirus as well. I checked in with Esther Patt of the C-U Tenant Union and proponent of repealing the language altogether to see if the language passed last night was in line with the compromise the City agreed to last year (the legalese of these things can make it hard to tell sometimes). She confirmed that it was what the Council had agreed to at the time:

The language is exactly what was agreed upon at the last study session.   The three changes are:

1. The exemption from fair housing protection lasts only 2 years instead of 5  years;
2. Felony convictions for drug possession (as opposed to sale or delivery) cannot be grounds for denying housing;
3. The exemption from fair housing protection only applies to a forcible felony conviction for which the person was sentenced to state prison.   

It has been a long wait, but we have accomplished an important reform.

In other reform news, the City's Human Relations Commission supported recommendations from its Citizen Review Subcommittee that functions as the City of Champaign's police review board. From the News-Gazette yesterday:

Members of Champaign’s Human Relations Commission were supportive of proposals brought to it that aim to make complaints against the police more transparent and shift funding toward mental-health services...

The Citizen Review Subcommittee plans to vote at its September meeting on the recommendations, which will then be sent to the police chief and city manager’s office for feedback...

Champaign police have planned community engagement sessions for this summer and fall, and last month it updated its use-of-force policies to include de-escalation, the duty for officers to intervene during unlawful use-of-force and an explicit ban on chokeholds.

Full article here with a lot more additional details and information. More coverage, including video segment from WCIA here. A draft report of the CRS Recommendations are available here. For more background on reform recommendations prior to the George Floyd protest movement earlier this year is on the Cheat Sheet here (with the last pre-pandemic update here).

The Champaign Police Department gave an overview of its updates in light of the protest movement in the aftermath of the George Floyd arrest death to the City Council (written report here, Study Session presentation here). Illinois Newsroom had coverage of the use of force changes suggested at that Study Session here. 

In other recent City of Champaign government news:

• Champaign gun violence news conference including City and Police officials (video here) The News-Gazette had an overview in its coverage here. WCIA's coverage also included a list of organizations and links for people to get involved in stopping gun violence locally here. First Followers Reentry Program also announced a new initiative against gun violence this week as well (more from WCIA here).
• In a previous City Council Meeting, small business relief and Garden Hills demolitions for future improvements were improved. News-Gazette coverage on that here.

Rogue Barber Co. Protests and Incident:

Local activists have been protesting the Rogue Barber Co. barber shop after it was made public they had restricted their services to members who signed statements disavowing affiliation with Black Lives Matter, "antifa" (a nebulous term for anti-fascists) and other organizations they considered extremist. Smile politely had an overview of the disagreement and video of a customer who drove through protesters after leaving the shop. WCIA had coverage of that incident here. A Champaign Police representative said that the investigation into that incident is ongoing, but making progress at last night's City Council meeting.

Here are some clips from public videos posted on social media showing the incident from three angles From the video it appears that the customer left wearing a branded T-shirt for the store, backed up and drove through the protesters rather than go the opposite open direction away from the protests. The third clip shows that the first person he hits is one of the protesters directing traffic just prior to accelerating through the full group. As he drives through the group the protesters react in an apparent effort to stop the truck, hitting it and one person even ending up in the truck bed before it drives away.

The compilation of video at different angles may help shed some light on local discussions have often presented one or more of these videos with descriptions at odds with what witnesses and the videos show occurred. For example, many people defending the driver have reversed the order of events, such as arguing the protesters hit at the truck prior to him driving into the crowd. They have described the those guiding traffic away from the protest as blocking him in as opposed to directing traffic away from protesters. They've also made a lot of hay over the woman yelling about kidnapping as he drove away with one of the protesters still in the back of the truck during their attempts to stop it from running through the crowd.

I leave it to viewers to make up their own mind on these arguments and perspectives. The full videos are still available publicly on social media, primarily facebook for those who want the full context of the situation. You'll find bullhorn speeches, marching, and chalking messages on the ground, but no violence preceding the truck incident.

Coronavirus Updates 8/4

This post has a collection of coronavirus updates including the trends locally, regionally, at the State and federal level. At the end is also a list of tentative school reopening news links as well.

The local and regional coronavirus news is still better than many parts of the State of Illinois and the country in general. There was an update from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (latest COVID information from C-UPHD here) in an interview with Elizabeth Hess on Urbana Public Television yesterday and available on YouTube here:

Illinois Newsroom had additional coverage on C-UPHD guidance last week here. Unfortunately the bad news is our local cases and hospitalizations are up recently. More details available from the News-Gazette website here and reporter Ben Zigterman's twitter feed here. Here's a snip of the chart's he posted today:

The News-Gazette had a more detailed local breakdown for the area with some recent remarks from the Governor today here.

Looking at the regions of Illinois for coronavirus data, we're still doing better than other regions by test positivity. This bug doesn't respect borders, so it depends entirely on people on whether the it moves from place to place, however. Illinois government and politics reporter Hannah Meisel has regular updates on her twitter page here:

The national numbers are disheartening after many were expecting the daily deaths to plateau at a low of roughly 500 per day, which is still pretty terrible compared to many of other Western industrialized nations at this point in their response. Unfortunately that plateau came and went and we have gone back up to roughly a thousand American deaths every day and rising. Where we go from here is completely dependent on public behavior when it comes to mitigation policies. More at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation here. This chart is from last week, so expect an updated projection later this week based on the latest numbers:

A lot of folks locally are concerned about schools reopening. The C-UPHD put out its guidance for school openings last month (Smile Politely had a brief overview and links here). More recent updates on school openings here:

• Daily Illini on UIUC summer athletic testing and infections.
• The Champaign Federation of Teachers statement opposing the Unit 4 reopening framework (available in full here).
• UIUC to require coronavirus test to enter buildings from today's News-Gazette.
• UIUC to shift most classwork to online and no return to classrooms after Thanksgiving break.
• Chambana Mom's had a recent overview of the Urbana reopening plans here.
• The News-Gazette had an overview of Parkland's reopening plan with most classes online and mask requirements here.

With rising cases and the future difficult to predict, it's hard to say how these plans will change over time, if reopenings will go on as planned or if they'll face sudden cancellations like the Major League Baseball season right out of the gate. Hopefully this post gives readers some helpful links to stay updated on the various numbers they may be interested in. As always the official County numbers are available from the C-UPHD website here and regular updates are posted on their facebook account here.