Urbana

Via http://www.ucimc.org/node/3112, Danielle Chynoweth is apparently stepping down from City Council.

Dear Mayor Prussing and Urbana City Council Members,

Please accept this letter announcing my resignation from Urbana City Council.

After much consideration and attempts to schedule my professional life around council commitments, I have concluded that, with greatly increased travel and professional commitments, I will not be in a position to adequately serve Ward 2 residents.

Through my business, OJC Technologies, I have taken on the role of Development Director for Patch Adams. This new role will require me to travel extensively in the next year as we gather support to build a Health Care Teaching Center and Free Clinic in West Virginia. This is just one part of the growth in business we are experiencing at OJC. Other new contracts will be taking me out of the country as well.

These changes involve exciting professional opportunities as well as benefits for downtown Urbana. OJC Technologies, a company of 18 staff members (and growing), will be expanding into an office space in the former Busey Hall/Princess Theater on Main Street. This will allow OJC to grow, and for the Independent Media Center, which housed OJC for the past three years, to provide expanded services for artists and non-profits in the downtown post office building it owns.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you all and am proud of what we have accomplished together:
• Urbana’s new Public Arts Program, along with the gallery incentive program, will support and grow the arts and culture throughout Urbana.
• A Citizen Review Board of Police now provides independent review of citizen complaints.
• Business on Philo Road is expanding and beautification efforts are underway.
• Our new Rental Registration program protects tenant safety and levels the playing field for landlords.
• City Hall is more diverse in terms of gender and race than it has ever been in history.
• The firefighters have a contract that respects their contribution to this community.
• Urbana is installing bike lanes and paths throughout the city.
• The City of Urbana has sponsored two affordable homes that use passive solar to reduce energy costs by up to 75% and will soon be home to an entire affordable green neighborhood that will set a new standard for energy efficiency.
• Urbana Public Television has grown to hundreds of members and efforts are underway to establish a stand-alone public access television station where non-profits, churches, and residents can have a local voice.
• We have exciting plans for Boneyard Creek developments including a park and performance space by the creek that will greatly enhance downtown Urbana.
I am also proud of accomplishments with the previous council. We expanded the library, passed a living wage ordinance, passed an anti-war resolution which we hand delivered to Congress, and acknowledged the relationships of gay, lesbian, and non-married straight couples with our Domestic Partner Registry. And we consistently supported the growth and proliferation of local businesses that keep our tax dollars local.

Of the all changes, the one I am most proud of is the blossoming of citizen participation in government. Many council meetings are well attended because citizens see that their input has impact.

I am honored and blessed to have been able to serve Urbana for the past seven years. I thank everyone who has challenged me and supported me through these years. Although I am stepping down, I have every intention to stay in the community and continue to work to improve it, whether that be through holding a future elected position or in another role in our community. I wish you all the very best.

Sincerely,

Danielle Chynoweth
412 W. Illinois St.
Lovely Urbana, Illinois

Update: The News-Gazette has a story at http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/07/15/chynoweth_resigns_from_urbana_city_council

Today's News-Gazette:

The Urbana City Council rejected an appeal Tuesday night by Urbana developer Howard Wakeland, who is seeking to demolish a house in a historic district in the 800 block of West Main Street.

The council voted 4-3 to uphold the decision by the city's historic preservation commission to deny Wakeland a certificate of appropriateness to demolish a house at 809 W. Main St., and its decision to deny Wakeland a certificate of economic hardship.

Discuss.

The City of Champaign has a weak mayor. Nothing personally against the good mayor, but it is widely accepted that Steve Carter holds the power in Champaign.

The City of Urbana has a powerful mayor. Everyone now appreciates that if she wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, she might fire you in five minutes if you disagree with her. Score one for the strong mayor side making city employees more accountable.

The voters didn't elect Steve Carter and voters did elect Mayor Prussing. Score one for the strong mayor side.

Change can happen more quickly in Urbana. Score one for the strong mayor side.

The city staff of Urbana is going to do what the mayor says. The city of Champaign staff may or may not do what the mayor says. Score one for the strong mayor side.

Urbana city mayor can outline what priorities are for the city staff. Champaign city staff sets it's priorities according to the long term plan and it really doesn't seem to matter what mayor thinks the priorities should be. Score one for the strong mayor side.

In Champaign, everyone knows that it is not in your best interests not to disagree (too much) with city staff on something. In Urbana, if you disagree with city staff on something, the Mayor/council takes it under advisement. Score one for the strong mayor side.

In Champaign, the city staff seems to provide insulation from shady politics. Score one for the weak mayor.

In Champaign, things are looking pretty good overall. In Urbana, there are looking at very tough decisions in the near future. Score one (maybe more) for the weak mayor side.

We can look at two cities and see how they have progressed under these systems and determine which one we think is better based on results. Contrary to recent trends, I don't have a particular side that I favor. So which one is the better system? Am I missing something in my analysis? Am I just wrong on some assumptions?

This has been a topic of discussion on here before:

The city council on Monday will consider developer Howard Wakeland's request to rezone nearly an entire block of properties along North Lincoln Avenue.

The council meets at 7 p.m. Monday at the Urbana City Building, 400 S. Vine St.

The properties are west of Lincoln Avenue, between Hill and Church streets, just north of the Illinois American Water plant. The site is currently made up of single-family homes and Wakeland wants to change the zoning from residential to general business-university.

So, um...discuss!

I found this quite humorous . . .

The IRV advisory referendum will not be appearing on this fall's ballot in Cunningham Township after being defeated again last night.

It doesn't appear that Urbana voters will get a chance to weigh in on whether they would like to see city adopt instant-runoff voting for city elections.

At a special Cunningham Town meeting Monday night, a decisive majority of those in attendance, 98 to 43, rejected a proposed advisory referendum about whether the city should adopt instant-runoff voting for municipal primary and general elections.

Democratic regulars, along with some Republicans, jammed the 6 p.m. meeting and outnumbered instant-runoff-voting proponents headed by Urbana resident Durl Kruse. Any township resident who is a registered voter was eligible to attend.

I must admit that I find it both a little strange and very admirable that nearly 150 people care enough about an advisory, non-binding referendum effort to show up at a Township meeting on a beautiful summer evening.  The picture of the crowd voting at the meeting is just awesome.

Today's News-Gazette:

The Cunningham Town Board voted Monday night in special session to put one advisory question on the fall ballot but refrained from filling the ballot with two other questions.

The Urbana City Council, acting as the town board, was expected to put three questions on the Nov. 4 ballot to forestall an effort by local activists to force two advisory referendums in November, since three is the maximum number of referendum questions allowed.

The ballot question the board approved Monday will ask if motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians in crosswalks should be restricted from using cell phones.

The other two questions would have essentially asked voters if they support the status quo in regard to the local election system and in providing township financial and assessment information to the public. The board deferred action on the election question until after a town meeting June 30 and directed staff to come up with proposals to improve financial transparency.

Discuss.

Urbana's scaled-down restrictions on cell-phone use while driving have passed:

The Urbana City Council voted 6-1 Monday night in favor of an ordinance banning the use of text messaging while driving. The ordinance also enacts a $750 fine for those who are using cell phones while driving during the time of an accident.

Additionally, the ordinance requires that the Urbana Police Departments track the frequency of car accidents where cell phone usage plays a role. The report will span from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 and with finding being presented to the council afterwards.

The ordinance does include a clause that would make some city government workers exempt, saying that "all law enforcement, fire rescue personnel, emergency vehicle operators, public works personnel and other government personnel are exempt from this section if a mobile communications device is a piece of equipment necessary to the normal functions of their position."

As I've said, I doubt this will satisfy the nanny-staters, but this law is much more reasonable than the original draconian proposal.

Today's articles about the Jon White travesty are a follow-up to yesterday's "How Could This Happen" series.

First, Districts more careful about who comes in contact with children:

As for mandated reporting, Williams said, staff members "get information when they're hired, and then also at the beginning of the year."

Staff members must all sign a sheet stating that they understand they are mandated reporters. As well, he said, in the first in-service meeting of the school year, they get training on mandated reporting, another new element.

Training staff on mandated reporting is one way schools can make a difference in recognition and response to child sexual abuse, said Charol Shakeshaft, the author of a U.S. Department of Education-sponsored paper on educator sexual misconduct and an educational leadership professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"Training in this area needs to be done regularly," she said. "It needs to be done every year."

Second, Urbana getting bigger legal bills:

In invoices dated Feb. 15, 2007, and March 23, 2007 – just after White's charges were filed – the district received $24,928 in legal bills from Weedman's firm. In the previous two months, the district received $7,307 in legal bills from Weedman's firm.

The Urbana school board hired a separate firm, The Taylor Law Office in Effingham, specifically for the purpose of evaluating the district's response to concerns about White and to look at its policies.

Bills from the law firm – one from April 2007 and one from June 2007 – show the school district has already paid at least $42,804 for the external review.

Third, 2002 case strikingly similar to White case:

If the case of Jon White feels eerily familiar to some East Central Illinoisans, there's a good reason.

In 2002, Gerald Scott Huddleston, then a teacher at Chatsworth Elementary School in Livingston County, was charged with committing oral sex acts against young girls.

The circumstances of his acts read like a playbook that White – who attended nearby Illinois State University at the time – could have followed: bringing students to the classroom to help with cleaning, blindfolding students and having them perform a "tasting game."

Huddleston was convicted on three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, and is now serving life in prison at Menard.

Discuss.

The fighting over advisory referenda in Cunningham Township is getting more and more vicious:

Two Cunningham Town Board members have called a special town board meeting for 7 p.m. Monday, where the board (which also serves as the Urbana City Council) will consider placing three advisory questions on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The meeting will be in the Urbana City Building, 400 S. Vine St.

The move could wind up pre-empting a special town meeting that had been scheduled for June 30, where two advisory ballot questions were going to be considered by township residents.

And:

"Isn't that really dirty?" Kruse said. "I can't believe they would stoop that low to prevent the people from discussing issues.

"Our meeting should take precedence," he added. "We're going to have to get an attorney. This is really crazy."

But Prussing said the move by the town board is fair and that it is Kruse and others who keep bringing the issues up after being defeated.

"I think they're misusing the township," she said. "I don't want to have to be called into a special meeting every month to talk about the same stupid thing. These meetings take time and energy and money to conduct. If they're making the contention we need discussion, we'll put it on the ballot."

Discuss.

Today's News-Gazette:

The budget put forward by Prussing includes $36,000, including salary and benefits, for a three-quarter time arts coordinator and $24,000 in rent subsidies for art galleries that have opened in downtown Urbana. But the $50,000 line item for public arts projects relies on the donations and arts events revenue.

Chynoweth wants to raise the public arts line item, which could pay for arts grants and commissioning public art, to $76,000 and to use tax increment money instead of hoped-for donations.

"One of our top council goals was to provide a dedicated revenue stream for the arts," Chynoweth said. "We created a task force and then a public arts commission. Now it comes to budget time and we say 'Whoops, there's no money for art!'"

Prussing said the budget reflects what the city can afford.

Discuss.

Today's N-G has an excellent article on how Jon White might have been stopped earlier, and wasn't.  There's also a followup about what's happened since, and some related articles about mandatory reporting.

Jon White could have been stopped much earlier.

There were at least seven warning points at which a school employee in either Urbana or McLean County could have justified a call to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

No one did.

And so White – the man convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for acts involving 10 children – kept teaching.

Discuss.

Today's News-Gazette:

The leading candidate to become the city's next administrative officer has taken another job.

Mayor Laurel Prussing said Wednesday the city will reopen the search and use a search firm this time around – meaning it's likely to be months before the position is filled.

Mark Brinson of Elkhart, Ind., underwent interviews in Urbana on May 28 and 29 and was identified as the leading candidate by Prussing. But Brinson told Prussing on Tuesday that he recently accepted a job as community development director in Goshen, Ind., a city of nearly 30,000 that is in the same county as Elkhart. He starts there next Tuesday, according to the mayor's office in Goshen.

Discuss.

From today's News-Gazette:

Police Chief Mike Bily said he doesn't see major problems with enforcing a proposed new ordinance that would impose a $750 city fine on drivers who get into a traffic accident while talking on a cell phone or two-way radio.

The proposed ordinance, which won tentative city council approval Monday night, also would ban drivers from text messaging while driving.

A final council vote is scheduled for next Monday.

Bily said city police officers investigating an accident will ask the drivers if they were using a cell or mobile phone, two-way radio, or text messaging, at the time of the accident. Passengers and other witnesses will also be interviewed.

"I'd like to believe a portion of the public will be honest," Bily said. "That's typical of what we do when we investigate an accident. We're not usually present when an accident occurs. We ask what happened and seek out witnesses."

In some cases, such as when a fatality occurs, a driver's phone records might be subpoenaed, he said.

This makes a lot more sense than banning them outright, but the nanny-staters won't be satisfied.

Urbana has been aggressive in downzoning and imposing unattractive and costly restrictions on developers.    The restrictions on demolition is a great example where a developer can be 100% in compliance with zoning guidelines, meeting all the costly requirements as required, and not be able to build their project.   City Staff openly admits to property owners that the neighborhood association conspires to decrease the value of properties.   The intention is that a property will become dilapidated to the point where the acquisition price will be affordable for their preferred lower density option.   Neighborhood groups openly admit the same and are leveraging the recent demolition restrictions and threatening property owners with the hassles that await them, hoping they'll donate their property to them or sell it to them at a very low price.   This whole trend has raised some concerns....

Concern #1:  Zoning rules no longer reliable
As an Urbana resident I stand firm that the residents should dictate the zoning rules that guide development.    At the same time, I want Urbana to attract good property owners.   I have yet to hear anyone argue that Urbana does not want good investors.    As a good developer, would you want to invest time and money when you can no longer rely on zoning guidelines?    It can cost tens of thousands of dollars simply to perform due diligence when you factor in architect fees, etc.   If you purchase a old house, your project can be stalled for months or more and rejected on the basis of "historical" even if the argument is irrational.   Whether or you agree with this statement, it is now a huge political challenge to build a building that zoning says conforms with the look and feel of the neighborhood.   

Concern #2:  Disrespect for good developers
I appreciate what the atkins group has done for Urbana.    I was told recently that Brandon Bowersox held up distracting cards while the AG was presenting it's signage proposal to point out how annoying electronic signs are.    He changed his cards every 10 seconds to prove his point.   Every good developer is talking about that and how disrespectful that was at a city council meeting.   While he earns points for being cute and creative, I just don't want good developers to be reluctant to invest in Urbana because they'll be harassed by city council members if they don't like a proposal.   What is said and what is real may be two different things.   There is a perception that Urbana has been taken over by fanatical political activists.   I would much prefer that Urbana work towards building a more positive brand that does not emphasize this sentiment.   We need good examples to look at and need to stop providing ammunition to the idea that urbana is fanatical and unreasonable.  

Concern #3:  Potential Lawsuits
There are rumblings that a huge lawsuit against the City of Urbana is imminent to recover damages as a result of downzoning.    I have also heard that the conspiracy to decrease property value is also unlawful and is likely to face a legal challenge.   Now I'm not a lawyer and this argument may have no merit.   As a citizen I'm EXTREMELY worried, maybe even paranoid.   I appreciate that when you take the value of the best use of a parcel of land pre downzoning and compare it to the best use of a parcel of land post downzoning, the damages can be hundreds of thousands of dollars per parcel.   This might cost the taxpayers $10s of millions if the investors fight and win.    If the legal bills are $400,000 for the nursing home, imagine what they would be in a case like this even if the city prevails.    The political activists thus far have been impressive in their ability to stick it to investors, but what happens if the investors strike back?

Concern #4:  Selling your investment property will be more difficult
Considering all the uncertainty and challenges an investor faces when dealing with the City of Urbana, smart buyers will be including more and more contingencies into any offer.    Imagine receiving an offer where there is a contingency insulating the buyer from the demolition restrictions, zoning boards, and city council.    These contingencies are now required for a conventional project that conforms with zoning guidelines, not just special projects.    A contingency period could last 6 months or more on a conventional investment!

Urbana is going to be announcing budget deficits.   There is the dark cloud of the likely lawsuit against the Urbana School District for failing to protect kids from sexual deviants.    I'm disappointed that Urbana has decided to actively drive away potential investors and harass those who have invested in Urbana.   I want good developers to invest in Urbana and I suspect that the greater majority of people agree with me.   

The forces of reason and common sense have won a rare, if temporary, victory.

A proposed ordinance banning cell phone use while driving might be put off indefinitely by the city council.

Alderman Charlie Smyth, D-Ward 1, who proposed the ban, said the city might instead opt to take some interim steps while gathering information about how often traffic accidents occur due to cell phone use while driving.

In the meantime, the city council will consider enacting a distracted driving ordinance under which a person who gets into a traffic accident while talking on a cell phone or similar activity would be subject to a traffic ticket with a substantial fine of $500 or more, he said.

Yea!

Good article:

This coming fiscal year, Urbana expects to allocate $300,000 toward social service grants. That's an increase of $12,000 compared with the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

That level stands in contrast with Champaign, which this coming fiscal year plans to spend $113,000 on social service grants – but has announced that such grants will be ended, starting July 1, 2009.

Discuss.

Unsurprising:

The Urbana school board passed a resolution Tuesday night calling for a 1 percent countywide sales tax to be put on the November ballot.

With its vote, 11 school districts in the county have now passed such a resolution. Those districts represent almost half of the county's school enrollment, said Jane Quinlan, superintendent of the regional office of education. State law provides that districts representing at least 51 percent of the county's school enrollment can place a tax question on the ballot by approving a resolution such as Urbana did.

A county policy committee will discuss the proposed sales tax at a meeting tonight.

The Urbana school board also passed a resolution Tuesday pledging to use a portion of the money it would receive if such a tax passes to abate property taxes. The resolution states that the district would use $1 million annually to pay off building bonds.

"It's the first step in moving away from a total reliance on property taxes," said Urbana school board President Mark Netter.

Saw something in the legal advertisements in the News-Gazette last week that caught my eye.  If it runs again this week I will try to give citation to it.

If I read what I saw correctly, the owners of the Melrose Apartment complex on Bradley and Lincoln are being sued for non-payment of their mortgage.  I would be curious to find out how long the current management company has had this complex, what their vacancy rate is, and how leasing is running for the 2008-09 school year.

Ok, I was around Lincoln Square this past Saturday, and I could have sworn that I saw Alderman Charlie Smyth of Ward 1 in Urbana riding his bike while talking on his cell phone! Ok, that is sheer hypocrisy and he needs to be called out on it!