Urbana City Council Clarifying the HRO

Tonight's Urbana City Council meeting (agenda) will likely clarify an ambiguity in the City's Human Rights Ordinance that has existed since its passage. There are also a couple resolutions supporting the FirstFollowers Reentry program's services and on prioritizing de-escalation tactics by the Urbana Police Department. Most of the discussion and details of the items on tonight's agenda were had at last week Committee of the Whole meeting (agenda, video).

WICS had a brief overview of that meeting here. WCIA had a bit of additional information in its preview of the Use of Force related resolution prior to the meeting here.

In other Urbana news, the Urbana Poet Laureate is looking for public input and has a listening session Wednesday of this week. More information and links on that from Smile Politely here. Tom's Mailbag also had a couple Urbana related questions and answers on things like public and private sewer and septic systems and historical buildings here.

2/17 Meeting Writeup:

The meeting originally set for 2/15 was rescheduled due to the winter storm last week. It began with a presentation by Scott Allen of the Citizens Utility Board and Allen Max Axelrod, a local activist trying to stop utility shutoffs, especially to vulnerable populations. During the Q & A it was explained that there is an effort to get support from local governments throughout the state to help put pressure on the governor and relevant state agencies to put a stop to the shutoffs. The Mayor highlighted a local program through the Regional Planning Commission offering rental and utility assistance to Champaign County residents who qualify.

The public comments afterward raised concerns about application process and barriers that could create for some residents, especially those in the most desperate of situations. There were also concerns raised about the language in the Human Rights Ordinance and the need for the language to apply to the city. The language of the de-escalation and transparency resolution was criticized as insufficient to prevent past tragedies.  There were comments in support for funding and collaboration with the FirstFollowers reentry program as well.

The staff report included an update on the local Emulsicoat Inc facility. Data from the company and the Illinois EPA is being collected to help the council better understand the materials and safety issues involved. There is also going to be City Council training for current and prospective City Council members coming up soon. Starting on March 1st from 6-7pm there will be public meetings where the public may watch while candidates and incumbents participate in the training prior to City Council meetings.

The Mayor and Council member Brown highlighted some ways to get information out to the community on the RPC rental assistance program, including meeting with FirstFollowers and utilizing the list of big and small landlords registered with the City.

The presentation and discussion on the FirstFollowers funding is available here in the City Council video. There is a brief overview in the resolution document here. Excerpt:

First Followers is requesting funding for the Welcome Home Program to assist persons exiting the prison system. Many leave the prison system with few resources to help successfully reenter into the community. The Welcome Home program provides a safety net to provide support and resources to individuals returning to this community during the COVID crisis. The program anticipates serving twelve people through December 31, 2021.

The funding is coming through a small portion of the COVID related Community Development Block Grant money the City has received. From a post last year on CDBG block grants and jargon:

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.

Regular CDBG pop up a lot in city budgets outside of pandemic issues. For a general idea of how that federal money normally works its way to local government budgets, check out this link on the Illinois Department of Commerce page. 

The discussion on the resolution prioritizing de-escalation and transparency in the Urbana Police Department was discussed here in the Council video. It's worth noting that this is primarily direction and guidance to the Mayor, city staff, and police leadership on their expectations in policy. It specifically states the City Council's priority for de-escalation in the upcoming Use of Force policy changes and additional transparency in the UPD more generally.

The discussion on the Human Rights Ordinance, its application to the City Government, and how that might be enforced was a bit more complicated and is available here in the video. There was a presentation by the City Administrator Carol Mitten attempting to clarify the two issues involved. In a previous presentation at the January 19th COW meeting, there was a dispute about whether the options suggested by the Human Relations Commission were properly presented by the City Administrator.

At this meeting the Council decided to more narrowly tackle the clarification of the Human Rights Ordinance language. While the City Council members all agreed that the City must abide by the requirements of the Human Rights Ordinance, they are still looking for workable enforcement mechanisms. Part of the issue is the logistics of the City, or boards serving under the City's authority, attempting to enforce the ordinance against the City if it is in violation. 

The mechanisms to ensure an independent and fair hearing could be prohibitively expensive or leave potential conflicts of interest. One idea proposed was an intergovernmental agreement with Champaign that has a similar ordinance and Human Rights Commission structure. While clarifying the HRO language, the mechanism to enforce the protections is still left to be resolved.

At the end of the meeting Alderman Roberts had some updates on the Urbana sister-city program relating to Thionville. There is work being done towards a French/English exchange where Americans could practice their French and the French could practice their English. There was also a musical collaboration project in the works.

There were also some final thanks to the city staff and public during the winter storm, helping each other out, and clearing snow. Alderwoman Wu noted that the 217 area code will soon be one of two local area codes, so people may have to update their phones to include the area code if they haven't already.