Cheat Sheet: C-U Local: June 2023

Thursday, June 29, 2023

MTD Updates and Decennial Committee

There's been a lot of MTD updates in the news and local government meetings recently. Also be sure to check out the overview of rural and local mass transit intergovernmental agreements over at the Cheat Sheet of Champaign County here this month!

The local mass transit district has been converting its fleet to cleaner energy and hybrid alternatives. The News-Gazette reported on the retirement of their last diesel-only buses with a grant for even more low-emission and no-emission alternative vehicles:

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District has been awarded a $6.6 million federal grant to pay for 10 new hybrid replacement buses...
The MTD’s money is paying for 10 40-foot diesel-electric hybrid buses...
About 98 percent of the MTD’s 118-bus fleet includes low-emission diesel-electric hybrid buses, with zero-emission hydrogen-fuel-cell electric buses making up the remaining 2 percent, officials said.

That full article here, mostly citing the MTDs own press release here. WCCU had similar coverage without a paywall here.

In honor of Juneteenth, there is a bus acting as a mobile Juneteenth exhibit through the end of July as well. WCIA had coverage of that initiative here. Smile Politely had some links to information on the MTD's Juneteenth Block Party event. Illinois Newsroom had an information table of the various activities and events involved here.

It's been a long while since I've attended an MTD meeting in person, but I was curious about how it would deal with the State's new requirement for a Decennial Committee on Local Government Efficiency. MTD's Decennial Committee is listed on their website here and includes MTD board members and MTD Managing Director Karl Gnadt. It also includes a couple local resident committee members: prior board member George Griedman and Donna Tanner-Harold, who is known for being extremely active in the community and the mother of Erika Harold.

The community members were approved at the May 31st MTD Board meeting and appear to have been recommended by "staff" via a letter from Managing Director Gnadt (page 45 of the 5/31/2023 meeting agenda packet PDF file here).

There is a Illinois Municipal League has a Decennial Committee factsheet that I found helpful in explaining the basic purpose of these committees and which government bodies are required to have one (and was posted on the County Board's meeting information website). The Township Officials of Illinois website had a lot of additional Decennial Committee information. It has suggestions for moving forward with these committees, including sample drafts, and legal references.

Decennial Committee Meeting: Meeting Video

As one can gather with a new, somewhat vague law and some preliminary factsheets and suggestions, the MTD's Decennial Committee was mostly establishing what it is that they were going to do here. The MTD attorney explained the basics as best as he could. The focus is for the committee to look for areas where the MTD as a local governmental body, as overseen by the MTD Board, can improve its accountability and efficiency. There are no metrics provided for the law on how to measure accountability and efficiency.

The law leaves it to the committee and whatever public input can be brought to bear through the process to come up with new ideas on accountability and efficiency. This is to eventually be put in a report and submitted to the local County government's administration. There doesn't appear to be any further outside follow up or mechanism to ensure that any recommended changes happen. It's not clear that the report becomes anything more than a public record at this point.

The discussion initially revolved around the possibly intentional vagueness of the law, but also taking advantage of the opportunity to find areas of improvement. It was acknowledged that some government bodies may elect to do the bare minimum and simply submit the required report, they would like to bring in a consulting firm and actually survey board members, staff, and the community for input.

The local resident committee members appeared to appreciate an offer of the same introductory board information new MTD board members get. Managing Director Gnadt assured them that didn't want to waste their time. They would like to have, in the end, a useful product from the consulting firm.

Member of the public in the audience were given opportunities to address the board with their concerns, but none of the two present took them up on the offer. Written surveys were handed out in the meeting with two basic questions (and an email to submit feedback later if they so chose). The questions simply asked what the the MTD could do better and if the resident rides or used to ride the local buses.

The Decennial Committee left off with a general agreement to move forward to get started on the process of finding a consultant firm. This process is called an RFP or "Request for Proposals" to give companies an opportunity to make public bids for services requested by local government bodies. The MTD attorney and Managing Director appeared to be ready to tweak the language for the RFP discussed to cover the committee's expectations and legal requirements for the work.

The meeting started a few minutes late after 3pm and adjourned just before 3:30pm. So, overall a pretty short meeting. The regular MTD board meeting afterward was a more typical 48 minutes or so.

Regular MTD Board Meeting: Meeting Video

The regular MTD Board meeting followed the agenda (full agenda packet here) with some corrections on the Managing Directors report and some brief bits of presentation and discussion on the action items. While discussion was limited, the board approved some pretty significant items that had already been worked through, including:

A budget for the fiscal year.
Renewing intergovernmental agreements with the County government (through the Regional Planning Commission and the County Board more on the County side here).
Approving an extension of a $10 million line of credit as needed for MTD projects, equipment and operations.
Approving the 5 year audit agreement with Baker Tilly, an experienced government auditor, but the only bidder for this RFP (likely due to the current strain on auditing services available).

The meeting ended with a presentation on the replacement of old in-ground diesel tanks for refueling buses. There were additional costs with removing the old tanks. Some of that was due to extra materials and additional concrete work. Some was due to contamination in soil samples during the process. The contamination does not appear to have been from the old diesel tanks (which did not have any breaches to the external tank structures). Soil samples around the tanks did not test positive for contamination.

It didn't appear to be immediately clear if the contamination was from the refueling activities nearby or remnants of past industrial operations at the same site throughout its history. The Illinois Environment Protection Agency was notified and potentially contaminated water on the site was removed through exhaustive additional measures (multiple truck loads) and not released into the local environment.

The agenda packet lists the additional costs of removing, storing, and transporting the contaminated water to an appropriate disposal facility (pages 145-150 of the PDF file).

Other MTD News and Updates:

The News-Gazette's "Meeting Minutes" feature had coverage of the MTD Board meeting earlier this month, approving contracts with the local school districts and designating Willard Airport as a "preferred" airport for in-district flights.
An earlier News-Gazette "Just Askin'" article on the new cleaner energy buses MTD is striving towards.
WCIA had coverage earlier in the year of some of the upcoming changes to routes this Fall and the public input opportunities available at the time.
And of course, MTD services in the summer are still a bit reduced while the students are gone. Summer service reduction information from the MTD's website.

Monday, June 26, 2023

City of Urbana Updates

City Council Highlights:

The latest news out of the Urbana City Council was their holding firm against Automatic License Plate Readers, but there was a debate on the legal language to ensure that. From last week's News-Gazette Meeting Minutes:

“The city of Urbana will not authorize or purchase automated license-plate reader, ALPR, technology without explicit majority approval from the Urbana City Council,” Marlin went on to say at this week’s council meeting. “While the prior debate and vote on ALPRs centered on a budget amendment to purchase ALPRs rather than a general policy statement, the council discussion and 4-3 vote defeating the amendment made the position and concerns of the majority of the city council very clear.”
Marlin spoke in response to a resolution from Alderwoman Grace Wilken ahead of next week’s vote on the city’s budget. Fearful that Urbana police would attempt to buy surveillance technology without first asking council for approval — given that last year’s ask was for funding to buy plate readers, not permission to buy them — she proposed adding a side letter or amendment to the budget...

More at that full article here, including the proposed language and arguments on its necessity and semantics.

The City is also looking for public input on a variety of issues, including an increase in the stormwater fees residents pay. From the News-Gazette:

The fee, which covers the cost of maintaining and improving various components of the stormwater infrastructure — such as sewer pipes, manholes, ponds and a pump station — is already set to rise July 1 from $5.60 a month to $5.82 a month for homeowners.
Come Jan. 1, the monthly fee could rise to as much as $27 a month, with the city council’s approval, depending on just how proactive with maintenance and improvements the city decides to be.
Urbana has charged a stormwater utility fee for a decade, and it covers upkeep and improvements that are largely invisible to the public — unless that upkeep is neglected, which can lead to flooding.

That full article here. The public can access the feedback tools here on the City's website. The city recently voted to increase other fines and fees by 4% according to the News-Gazette's preview of City Council meeting last may. While the vote passed at that meeting (jump to video link), there doesn't appear to be a copy of the exact language or an agenda packet for that meeting on the City's website for some reason.

The City of Urbana is also asking for public input on almost every possible issue in the budget at it's Imagine Urbana public input page and multiple in-person events here.

In other budget news, there were updates on the city's proposed Capital Improvement Plan with an interactive map to help with public feedback. The Daily Illini had a short blurb on that here. The News-Gazette had a more detailed overview here. A vote to approve the plan is happening tonight. Latest updates and overview in the Agenda Packet for tonight's meeting (starting on page 22 of the PDF).

The News-Gazette also had a round up on the city's new Chief of Police:

Fourteen months after Bryant Seraphin’s last shift, Urbana’s police department now has a full-time leader...
His two-year contract, made available prior to Monday’s meeting, will pay Boone an annual salary of $205,000, making him the city’s highest-paid employee...
Boone, a 33-year law enforcement veteran who retired as police chief of Norfolk, Va., in 2022 after a six-year run, emerged in April as the sole finalist for the job held down on an interim basis by interim Chief Rich Surles since Seraphin’s retirement.
The hiring of Urbana’s second African American police chief coincides with the city spending $235,000 for the national consulting firm BerryDunn to help evaluate how it delivers public-safety services.

More at that full article here. WCIA also had coverage here. The town hall event videos for people to get to know the new Chief are still available on the City's website here.

Kathy's Mailbag highlighted an ongoing local census concern with the pandemic interruptions:

The city has identified the areas that showed the biggest declines in population, and they are concentrated near campus. Those areas would be recounted in the Partial Special Census. An added benefit for the city is that the recount could include several campus-area multi-family housing developments that were built after the 2020 Census...
[Mayor Diane Marlin] said the city is “requesting an estimate first because the entire cost of a Partial Special Census is borne by the community and we need to make sure the benefit outweighs the cost. We expect to get the cost estimate from the Census Bureau in a month or so and will make a decision after that.” She said the most likely timeframe for a possible recount would be the spring of 2024.

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

C-U Gun Violence Updates

Every month the police chiefs of all of the local law enforcement departments report on gun violence and trends within their jurisdictions at the Champaign County Community Coalition meeting. May's Police Chief updates started early around the 1:50 mark of the meeting video here (agenda here).

The Urbana Police Department's interim Police Chief Surles (Urbana chose a new Chief recently) noted that shootings the past month were down over 50% from last year. And last year was down 25% from the year before that.
Chief Tyler of the Champaign PD also noted a continued downtrend in gun violence: 58% reduction since last year and a 71% reduction in the past two years.

This appears to mirror trends across Illinois (e.g. Quad Cities) and the United States (e.g. New York) after a massive peak in gun violence in 2021. Politicians and government officials tend to take credit for good news when they can, but it may be difficult to statistically tie gun violence reduction to any specific funding or efforts from one city to the next.

One may look at the city budgets, police staffing, and actual policy changes or programs (in the works or actually being implemented) hoping to find a connection to the roller coaster of gun violence trends. Or one can look at many other potential forces more or less out of any local government's control. A complicated combination of factors are likely at work here.

The recent City of Champaign update post included some budget updates on federal, state, and county funding going to some of the local projects related to public safety infrastructure, investing in impacted communities, and more direct local gun violence programs.

In related news, WCIA also recently reported that the City is attempting to reinvigorate its Neighborhood Services organizing:

Champaign’s Neighborhood Services are launching a new campaign called 43-43-43. It’s meant to re-engage the 43 registered neighborhood groups throughout Champaign.
Organizers say now that the pandemic is over it’s time for the groups to get back to improving their neighborhoods.
The city would like to see them get more involved with their neighbors. It can be through a neighborhood cleanup, beautification, or environmental education event.

More at that full blurb here. As the City's recent hiring tweets and advertisements show, they are also looking at hiring for a number of positions, including Neighborhood Ambassadors and a Neighborhood Services Director. From the 6/4 News-Gazette:

Urbana similarly looks to be reinvigorating its neighborhood outreach programs, including on gun violence. From Smile Politely's overview in March.

First Followers was in the news for its recent survey on the causes of gun violence. From Illinois Newsroom in April:

Research and social justice are often separate issues — but one local organization is using its connections to figure out how to combat violence before it starts.
First Followers helps formerly incarcerated people re-enter the Champaign-Urbana community. The group released the results of their survey of people in Champaign-Urbana on the leading causes of violence. Almost 60% of people said they’d been impacted by gun violence...
Poverty and access to guns topped the list, followed by gangs, drugs, and a lack of mentorship and constructive activities. Although these results weren’t a surprise, Corbin said, it’s helping guide their recommendations for local leaders and organizations about how they could help address local violence.

City of Champaign Township and City Council Updates

Back in April the News-Gazette highlighted plans for a City Council review of the violence reduction blueprint spending and programs. It was initially expected to occur during one of the May City Council meetings, but you weren't alone if you thought you may have missed it. According to at least one City Council member, this has been pushed back to later this summer, but "no later than August."

City of Champaign Township:

You can catch the most recent 6/6 City of Champaign Township and City Council regular meeting on Champaign Government Television here (Township meeting agenda here and City Council meeting agenda here). The City of Champaign Township meeting included a presentation on the Township budget, including the new Strides "low barrier" shelter budget.

It has been a while since we've had a Cheat Sheet update on the City of Champaign Township, and there have been big changes with the resignation of Assessor Faraci (resignation letter here) to be appointed to the Illinois State Senate. There has also been some changes of both the overlapping membership of the Township board and City council members with the recent municipal election. Katherine Moore was approved as his replacement at the March meeting ("a Contract for Township Assessor Services" in the agenda). From the March Township meeting minutes:

Supervisor Quarnstrom also noted that applications to fill the Assessor role either in a contractor capacity or an employee capacity have been received, interviews were held, and the interview panel has selected Kathryn Moore, a current Township employee, to serve as a contractor to fill out the remaining Assessor term vacated by Faraci.

The News-Gazette also had some coverage of the appointment ahead of the meeting here.

City Council:

The City Council approved the Honorary Street names discussed at the beginning of May (see link below). Also approved were an additional funding boost to the Garden Hills street lights and sidewalks improvements from the County level ARPA funds. The News-Gazette had coverage of that here. Description from the resolution approved last night:

The purpose of this Agreement is for the County to provide ARPA Funds to the City in assisting with sidewalk and lighting enhancements in the Garden Hills neighborhood in Champaign, thereby improving neighborhood features that promote health and safety.

There was a similar $2 million dollar figure in State funding for the City's gun violence prevention initiatives. More on that 5/13 coverage below.

More City Council Updates:

For folks who want to catch up with the latest City Council meetings, the News-Gazette and its "Meeting Minutes" feature has been giving regular overviews and updates. Links and an excerpt from the previous Friday's "Meeting Minutes" feature. It's probably most easily accessible for digital subscribers who also get the eEdition:

City of Champaign 5/19:

With no formal policy on special-event sponsorship spelled out in the municipal code, council members this week signed off on creating one on a one-year trial basis.
The intent of the pilot program, which will run from July 1 through June 30, is to “bolster existing special events and generate interest in the development of new events for the purpose of attracting more visitors to downtown and the city’s central business districts,” staff wrote in a memo to council members.
Among the rules:
➜ It must meet specific criteria “aligning with the city’s mission, goals and policy objectives.” Those include being “broadly welcoming, inclusive and diverse”; designed to attract visitors to downtown, Midtown or Campustown; offering unique arts, cultural or educational activities; and having a sufficient security/risk management plan.

Champaign Police personnel updates 5/19
City of Champaign 5/13 (with video clip showing approval of the item in the excerpt below here):

The city of Champaign is poised to get $2 million in state money to help support its gun violence prevention and community development programs...

If approved, one chunk of the money — $846,825 — would go to reimburse the city for six Equity and Engagement projects and programs that have been underway since from July 1, 2022 through the end of the current fiscal year June 30.
The rest would be spent as follows:
$164,700 for fire department staffing, surge hiring and equipment.
$347,500 for police vehicles.
$641,001 for police officer training pay, patrol overtime, uniforms, equipment and help in the downtown area from a security company.

WCIA also had more on increased State funding generally in a May 26th article here with Mayor Feinen's remarks.

City of Champaign 5/9 article on four proposed honorary streets relating to local organizations and business legends. The full meeting video is available here with links to jump to the portions on recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month and the presentations on the honorees: Professor Abram Sachar, Terry and Liz Hawkins, Frances Nelson, and Chabad.

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