January Urbana City Council Updates

This post covers some of the first of the year meetings of the Urbana City Council and the Cunningham Township Board. There are also some related appointments and election updates. 

In catching up on the Urbana City Council in January, it's probably best to start with the Ward 2 vacancy filled by Erik Sacks last month. From the News-Gazette:

Sacks was chosen by Mayor Diane Marlin over video producer Steve Drake, UI grad student Joseph Edwards and self-employed electrical engineer Christopher Hansen.

Sacks, Hansen and Christopher Evans are also running for the Ward 2 seat in the local spring elections... 

Sacks is filling the remainder of Julie Laut’s term. She stepped down in November for health reasons after being appointed in August to fill the remainder of Eric Jakobsson’s term.

Jakobsson had stepped down in June to focus on his research, writing a book and preparing to teach a course at the UI...

Full article here. The City's website had an overview of the applicants here. Another Ward 2 candidate, Verdell Jones III, did not meet the requirements to be on the ballot this Spring according to an Electoral Board meeting last month (more on that at the News-Gazette here).

There was a Candidate Forum for Urbana Mayor candidates hosted by the local League of Women Voters earlier this month available on YouTube here. The forum featured incumbent Mayor Diane Marlin and challengers Dennis Roberts, and Yinxi (Andy) Ma. 

That Spring election has already begun. Click here to Meet the Candidates and see the County Clerk's unofficial list of Primary and General consolidated election candidates. Sample ballots for the Primary Consolidated Election for February 23rd are up as of today (there may still be a message about their availability). Early voting has begun. More information on voting options are available here on the Clerk's website.

Regular and Committee of the Whole Meetings 1/4:

Anthony Rice was appointed to the Civilian Police Review Board at the January 4th regular meeting. There was some discussion about his general qualifications versus open questions on what special qualifications or interest in the Board that might be relevant. His appointment was approved regardless. The CPRB has a listening session open to the public on January 27th. More information on that listening session here. General information about the CPRB at their webpage here.

During the Committee of the Whole public comments, there was a bit of a back and forth between the public and the Mayor who responded in between speakers. A disagreement occurred between public critics and her framing of rulings and ongoing cases on possible violations of the open meetings act. They mayor expressed the two completed rulings as having determined there was no violation, while at least one public speaker said the court was simply unable to determine if there was a violation. The mayor also expressed frustration at criticisms of the Urbana Police Department she believed were at odds with the facts.

The COW meeting also included discussions on the various legal and technical issues towards gender neutral language reforms for Urbana City government. There were also discussions on possible agenda reordering and limiting the extensive debates adding to the length of meetings. More on the debate on debates at the 1/19 meeting below.

Cunningham Township Board Meeting 1/11:

The Cunningham Township Board has the same members as the Urbana City Council and covers the same territory as the City of Urbana. They had their first meeting of the year prior to the City Council meeting on January 11th (agenda, video). The meeting covered the Township Supervisors report on the various programs assisting community members on housing, utilities, and nutrition assistance. There was an overview of the budget (financial report here) as well as specific COVID related challenges and adaptations.

Regular City Council Meeting 1/11:

The bulk of the January 11th meeting (agenda, video) revolved around the presentation (video link) of the Urbana Police Department's Use-Of-Force policy revisions. The Use of Force revisions also came up in comments during the January 4th and January 19th meetings. The local branches of the NAACP and ACLU criticized the proposed language of the changes as weak. From the News-Gazette last week:

“Overall, this policy fails to accomplish the purpose of protecting the public from excessive use of force, or other misconduct by police, nor is it designed to substantially diminish the number of incidents in which force is used,” past president of the local ACLU Carol Spindel said on behalf of her organization and the local NAACP. “And really, this is a policy for the 20th century, not the 21st.”

...

And she said the new policy “relies throughout on the standard of what an officer believes is reasonable, rather than ensuring that force is used only when necessary.”

And local NAACP President Minnie Pearson called “weak” the language that says “tactical de-escalation should be used whenever feasible.”

“The word feasible kind of troubled me,” she said. “I thought a better word would be ‘shall.’”

Full article here with a brief overview of the proposed changes. The full statement from the local NAACP and ACLU is available here. The draft language of the use of force policy is available here (the legalese may be more complicated than it appears). Video of the presentation starts at around the 45 minute mark (jump to video), Council Q&A (jump to Q&A), public comments (jump to public comments), and Council comments (jump to link).

In the discussions about the language of the revised Use of Force policy Chief Seraphin repeatedly refers to a law enforcement policy organization called Lexipol. Lexipol has Use of Force policy information for both law enforcement and civilians here.

The Council comments ended on wanting to hear more of the community's voice in the policy, especially African-American community stakeholders who are often the most impacted by the disparities at issue in the discussion. The Mayor pointed out that she was meeting with stakeholders in the next week and that all public input would be taken into account in further edits and revisions going forward with the Chief.

One of the people appointed to boards and committees this meeting spoke during public comments as well, James "Tygar" Corbin. He thanked the Council for the opportunity to serve on the Sustainability Advisory Commission and represent perspectives from under-represented communities. Corbin is known for his civic engagement, especially with the First Followers Reentry Program.

Committee of the Whole 1/19:

Last night's Committee of the Whole (agenda, video) covered a variety of topics, from budget audit presentations to staff reports. A lot of the information revolved around COVID programs and funding, including discussions of the Fire Department budget and the extra costs due to the pandemic.

There were long discussions on changes to the Council's debate rules. A final amended version with some additional City Staff changes will likely be voted on at the next regular City Council Meeting. It appeared to have more to do with the Council itself and its ability to respond to the public and the length of Council discussions.

There was also a long and complicated discussion on how the Council might clarify whether the City's Human Relations Commission will be able to enforce the Human Rights Ordinance against the City itself. The legal and logistical issues involved had the City Staff believing that it wasn't a realistic option, but the Council decided to look at the details of such a possibility in a future meeting.

Mayor Marlin noted that she had a meeting with the local NAACP and ACLU on the use of force policy revisions the next day. Minnie Pearson, President of the NAACP of Champaign County, also participated in public comments to inform the public that there is a social media hoax going around about the organization and rumors of threats against African-Americans.

The next Urbana City Council meeting is a regular meeting on Monday, January 25th.