Champaign County

I still wonder if these proposals will ever be allowed to come to a vote:

The two issues related to the county board are part of a package of various reforms, including whether to eliminate the office of county auditor and whether to establish an independent county board redistricting commission.

Tuesday's public meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Brookens Administrative Center, 1776 E. Washington St., U. It will be held within the county board's regular committee of the whole meeting, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

Discuss.

I don't know how seriously to take the County Board redistricting proposals, because I don't know if the County Board Democrats will allow any proposal to come to a vote.  But it keeps coming back up:

The goal of an independent commission, supporters said, is to open up the mapmaking process and encourage competitive elections.

"We're not getting people to come out and run for election. They won't run because they think it's all planted and the districts are all fixed and the incumbents are all in," said Urbana Democrat Steve Beckett, who authored the redistricting commission resolution before the county board.

Beckett said he was "embarrassed" by his vote for the last redistricting map.

"Two people in a backroom drew a map. A major component of that was incumbency, could they eliminate people they wanted eliminated from office. And they succeeded," he said.

The Republican-drawn map 10 years earlier also was "ridiculous," he said. "That wasn't representative of this county."

Champaign Republican Alan Nudo said competitive districts would lead to better candidates for the board.

"Good candidates will come to the fore if they think they have a competitive election," he said.

Discuss.

From the Champaign County GOP:

We’re thrilled to announce that planning is underway to welcome Karl Rove at this year’s Champaign County Republican’s Lincoln Day Celebration. You may have noticed this little bit in Tom Kacich’s Champaign News-Gazette column on Sunday:

There are few details so far but Champaign County Republicans are looking forward to a big Lincoln Day dinner this spring featuring Karl Rove, the senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to former President George W. Bush. Date: March 20. Time: noon. Other details to come.

 

The Champaign Tea Party had their first meeting yesterday, and were gracious enough to let me attend.  I couldn't stay for the entire meeting, but the room was over full, and I'd estimate 100 or 150 people were there, and they were incredibly energetic.  A very bad picture I snapped with my phone:

I'm not sure what the longer-term goals of the group are.  They talked about monthly meetings to discuss conservative issues, causes and candidates, but the people I talked to were adamant about not being an arm of the Republican Party.  The atmosphere was very Perot-esque, as I vaguely remember the feel of the 1992 campaign.  Either way, I saw lots of new faces, and most of the officers/directors have had no affilation with the local GOP over the years, so there is clearly some new energy being brought to politics, and it's been almost a year since the Tax Day rally last year, so I don't think it's going away. 

And I'm glad for that - more people and more energy in our political processes, especially our local political processes, is a good thing.

The NG:

"There are some lab reports that have not been completed," Rietz's office said in a release, "which will be provided when available.

"We will not release information about the report until our review has been completed. We do not have an estaimate as to when our review will be completed.

"The report consists of hundreds of pages and numerous computer discs. We will review all the information provided thoroughly, and if needed will request follow-up investigation.

"We appreciate ... the patience of the public as we move forward with this process."

Is the report FOIA-able, or exempt because it relates to a criminal investigation?  Is there a good reason it can't be released to the public now?

(UPDATE: Typo fixed in headline. Sorry!)

Palazzolo indicted:

The former executive director of the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has been indicted by a Champaign County grand jury on seven felony counts stemming from his behavior while in office in 2006 and 2007.

State's Attorney Julia Rietz was attending a conference Friday and could not be reached for comment, but Champaign police detective Pat Kelly, who has investigated Vito Palazzolo for more than two years, said Rietz planned to make a statement Monday about the charges against Palazzolo, 53, who was fired in August 2007.

Ugh.

Today's News-Gazette:

Under a tentative plan, every one of the 27 county board members would be expected to attend the three meetings – committee-of-the-whole sessions on the first and second Tuesdays of the month and a full board meeting on the third Thursday.

One reason for the switch is to streamline the board process and reduce the number of meetings that County Administrator Deb Busey has to attend, said board member Steve Beckett, who suggested the change. Another reason, said board Chairman C. Pius Weibel, is to give all board members equal access to information and debate.

Action on a second, more controversial item – reducing the size of the county board – was put off for at least six months. The policy committee is suggesting that at least two public hearings be scheduled in February to discuss the idea.

Committee Chairman Tom Betz had suggested in a memo that the board move from having nine three-member districts to 13, 15 or 17 single-member districts.

Discuss.

Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden has been blogging like crazy over at his official blog, on issues affecting the clerk's office and our local election like universal registration.  If you're an election processes junkie like me, just go here and start reading.

Today, he discusses:

Just how long is too long to vote?  How many people don’t vote because of long lines?  How big is the problem of long lines?  Why do these lines occur?  What can be done about it?

Go read the whole thing.

Urbana Democrat Tom Betz reverses course and now seems open to supporting the concept of reducing the size of the County Board.

[I]n a memo to members of the county board's policy committee – which will discuss the proposal at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Brookens Administrative Center – Betz now suggests there should be 13, 15 or 17 county board districts, each with a single representative. There are now 27 board members, with three each from nine districts.

"My recommendation is that we approve this structure as a county board in the near future so that we have publicly communicated our intent well in advance of the reapportionment activities that will occur in 2011, and which will dictate the election of board members in 2012," he wrote.

Discuss.

Eric Thorsland is running as a Democrat for County Board District 1.

I am writing to let voters who live in District 1 of the Champaign County Board know that I will be running for the board in the 2010 election as a Democrat.

I will be on the primary ballot in February and am currently visiting district neighborhoods to collect petition signatures and meet residents. I have been informed that there are at least three Republican candidates considering running, and with that un-unified opposition I am delighted to say I have the united support of countless citizens in the district behind me in my effort to best represent the area's interests at the county level.

The incumbent is Chris Doenitz, and at least two other Republicans - Stephanie Holderfield and Gary Maxwell - are circulating petitions as well.

I'll admit that I have paid little attention to local news lately.   I feel guilty when I listen to radio personalities talk about local newspapers going out business as I read the WSJ.   Now that the BOT BS is behind us...now that the Gov appointed someone with a big political last name with no affiliation to the UofI...at a university where prominent professors didn't think the behavior was newsworthy...I'm looking forward to re-engaging in the local news scene.

So what's interesting?

1. Has the local media done anything besides puff pieces for city-backed development projects?
2. On that note, have the local small business been getting paid on these projects or do they continue to file liens as developers finance projects on their backs?
3. Have they asked a city council member to mathmatically explain how the return on investment is calculated on a project like the parking deck? 
4. Any follow-up on Tony Fabri or did the media take it easy on him?   They were brilliant with the phone record idea. 
5. Is it safe to assume the media didn't follow-up on Mayor Prussing's tax evasion?  http://www.illinipundit.com/2009/03/31/mayor-prussings-house-s.
6. Does either city have a plan to address rising pension costs or are they going to grow faster than the ponzi scheme requires?   
7. Does WCIA continue to report on interest groups who shockingly conclude that tax increases are the only solution to fund their special interest?
8. How's the Gorski house project coming along?   Are they required to pay prevailing wages?  
9. Is the nursing home going to make money and what happened with the negotiations?

I know blogs have a bad reputation and sit at the center of the misinformation debate.   I just wish the local media could be half as interesting as the Illini Pundit.   I will give it another chance in the name of preserving local media and sign up for a subcription and start to TIVO WCIA news.

Thank you in advance with help answering my questions as I get back into the swing of things.

Tom Kacich in the NG:

Thursday night's 14-12 Champaign County Board vote for a binding referendum on the future of the county auditor's office guarantees a 15-month-long campaign about the issue.

It might take that long to explain the issue – whether to appoint or elect the low-visibility position – to voters.

But the sides already are chosen.

The incumbent auditor, Democrat Tony Fabri, said he's eager to campaign to keep the position elected by citizens.

"Regardless of whether I'm the county auditor, regardless of whether I run for re-election (his term runs out in 2012), I truly believe that it is important to have an elected auditor," Fabri said. "I will definitely campaign for this because it's critical for good government in Champaign County."

Stop laughing.

Unsurprising:

But he appeared to be the only sure vote for the referendum among the 10 Democrats at the party caucus Tuesday. Five other Democrats missed the meeting, and at least one of them, Brendan McGinty, who also supports the referendum, will miss Thursday's vote.

A board committee voted 5-4 earlier this month in favor of calling for the referendum.

It's unclear how the board's 12 Republicans will vote. They aren't scheduled to caucus until shortly before the meeting Thursday.

Meanwhile, most of the Democrats at their caucus indicated they will resurrect the idea of combining the offices of county recorder and county clerk as well as county sheriff and county coroner.

"If it results in two less offices, I think it's worth discussing; I really do," said board member Barbara Wysocki of Urbana.

"The original idea," said board member Alan Kurtz of Champaign, "was to bring in all the elected officials and have them defend themselves, and let's see if we can find some efficiencies and money-saving. That was what the objective was in the beginning. The true story, though, was (County Auditor Tony) Fabri and his party, the Democratic Party.

"When we could have done more investigating about the recorder and clerk, and the coroner into the sheriff's office, those questions never arose."

Kurtz called the plan "political."

That may be true, but the opposition to a referendum on the Auditor is clearly political, too.

Last week, a County Board Committee recommended to the full Board that County voters should be able to decide at the 2010 election whether the office of Auditor should remain elected or become an appointed position.

If the board follows its policy committee's recommendations, a referendum on the auditor's office would go before the county's voters in November 2010.

The key vote on the future of the auditor's office, and perhaps on the future of Democratic Auditor Tony Fabri, came from Urbana Democrat Brendan McGinty. Fabri was the focus of a News-Gazette story earlier this year that, using phone records, contended that he frequently missed work.

"Perhaps the issue would be moot completely if Tony was in there doing his job," McGinty said. "During the testimony I asked directly, gave him an opportunity to tell us, why weren't you there? He did not answer the question."

But Fabri said the issue should be about the office, and not about him or his performance.

And county board Chairman C. Pius Weibel said there was no evidence that the auditor's office was not meeting its statutory requirements.

Tom Kacich had an very good column on the political ramifications of this as well, but that's not online anywhere.

The NG:

A Champaign County Board member has been ordered to complete anger management counseling after admitting that he slapped another man at a grain elevator last fall.

Christian Doenitz, 48, a Republican from District 1 in rural Mahomet, pleaded guilty Wednesday before Champaign County Judge John Kennedy to disorderly conduct, a Class C misdemeanor.

He admitted that he "alarmed and disturbed" Brian Anderson when he slapped Anderson in the face during a confrontation on Oct. 22 at the Anderson's grain elevator, 3515 N. Staley Road, C.

I don't know if Doenitz is running for re-election.  Anybody?

Today's NG:

More than two years after filing a lawsuit over problems with its brand-new $24 million nursing home, the Champaign County Board on Thursday night approved a $1.225 million settlement with the Peoria-based firm that designed the facility.

The county originally had sought $5.5 million in damages from the Farnsworth Group, although county board Chairman C. Pius Weibel noted Thursday, "You know how lawsuits are. You ask for everything, including the kitchen sink."

A separate legal dispute with another nursing home contractor, Otto Baum Co. Inc. of Morton, is scheduled to go to arbitration in early August.

Discuss.

Interesting headline in the NG - "Champaign Dems reluctantly ready to OK school tax"

The sales tax for planning, land acquisition, construction and reconstruction of school facilities in the county will go into effect Jan. 1. It will apply to all purchases except automobiles, boats and farm equipment, plus food, drugs and certain medical equipment.

Ten of the 15 Democrats on the county board attended a caucus Tuesday evening and indicated they would support the measure, which will come up for a full board vote at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Brookens Administrative Center, 1776 E. Washington St., U.

And a key county board Republican, Alan Nudo of Champaign said separately Tuesday that he is satisfied that school districts in the county are fully committed to providing some property tax relief with the sales tax increase. Nudo and some other board members had expressed concern that school districts were backing away from that promise.

But he said he and county board chairman C. Pius Weibel met last week with Jane Quinlan, the Champaign-Ford regional superintendent of schools, who had received commitments in writing that the school districts that already have construction bonds out, including Champaign, Urbana and most others, will use the sales tax revenue to pay off those outstanding bonds in order to reduce property taxes.

"They all have basically recommitted to what they promised before the April vote," Nudo said. "I'm willing to sign off now."

The County Board can either reject the sales tax despite the referedum's passage, approve it a the full one percent or approve it at some smaller increment.  I had thought approval of the full one percent was a foregone conclusion due to the political cover of the referendum's passage.

Our County Auditor, Tony Fabri, knows that the law requires him to file his campaign finance reports electronically, yet he still keeps doing so on paper. 

Also notable is that this report is signed and dated January 20, 2009, which is when it was due, yet Fabri didn't get around to sending it to the State Board of Elections until June 15, nearly five months later.

I don't know if I've ever seen an elected official who is either this incompetent or arrogant or both.

I was remiss in not posting about this earlier, but it's been on the Champaign County GOP website for a while.

Jan Larimer, the No. 2 officeholder in the Republican National Committee, will be the guest speaker Wednesday at a meeting of local Republicans.

The event, a luncheon at Kennedy's at Stone Creek in Urbana, will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets, which are $50, are available by calling the office of Champaign County Republican Party County Chairman Jason Barickman at 352-5900.

I hope to see you there.

Interesting:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS
ELECTED OFFICIAL vs. APPOINTED OFFICIAL

OFFICE OF RECORDER OF DEEDS
OFFICE OF CORONER
OFFICE OF AUDITOR

You are invited to attend Public Hearings sponsored by the Policy, Personnel & Appointments Committee of the Champaign County Board, to hear presentations and receive information regarding whether the Elected Offices of Recorder of Deeds, Coroner and Auditor of Champaign County should instead be made appointed. The County Board sponsors these public hearings as a step in its study of whether to place the questions of appointment vs. election of the offices of Recorder of Deeds, Coroner and Auditor to the voters through referendum ballot questions.

The meetings are June 9 and 10 at 6 PM, one right after another.  To preempt the obvious question, two of those offices are currently held by Republicans, and one (Auditor) by Democrats.

(UDPATED to fix error in meeting dates. Sorry!)