When I look back on my first term as your council representative, there are far too many issues to address in a review, but I'll try to list some of the major ones below. Besides the major issues, I also take pride in thoroughly reviewing budgets, agreements, and routine department reports and offering suggestions for improvement. I attend numerous city functions, C-U business group meetings, downtown events, neighborhood meetings, Community Coalition, park district and other community events to keep in touch with constituents and network with other decision makers. In addition, every year in May each member of the council scours through nearly 2,000 of pages of grant applications (distributed electronically on CD) for our social services funds, designated to leverage important work being done in our community by non-profit organizations, which provides about $250,000-$300,000 annually. Final amounts for each organization are determined by averaging allocations suggested by the seven council members, mayor, and township supervisor. Typically about 40 organizations request more than $500,000 to continue or improve services in Urbana, and about 35 are funded at some level.
If re-elected, I hope to make a habit of posting to this blog at least monthly so that I can provide an update on current issues. Council meetings are always public, with opportunity for the public to make comments on any issue for up to 5 minutes. Meetings are televised live on UPTV Channel 6 or U-Verse channel 99, and streamed live on the UPTV stream. They are also archived within 24 hours on the Urbana City Council website (see recent meetings). Our meeting packets are also posted on that site. Packets are posted on Thursday afternoons for our meeting the following Monday.
We meet every Monday except holidays (meeting moved to Tuesday) and when there are 5 Mondays in the month we skip the last one. The 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month are Committee of the Whole meetings where we have in-depth presentations when necessary on each council bill during its first reading. This is the meeting where we usually hash out changes or discuss concerns. For each resolution or ordinance, we either forward it to the following meeting for final approval or keep it in committee. Then on the 1st and 3rd meetings of the month we have our regular council meetings for final approval of the bills, sometimes with amendments - or we could send them back to committee for more discussion.
Each council member also serves on a board or commission. My assignment the past four years has been the Urbana Free Library Board. I'm continually impressed with the quality of services and programs the library provides, especially for youth and our seniors. My term started with a bang with a weeding controversy that lead to a separation agreement with the former Library Director. We then appointed a temporary Director while we held a search that resulted in the hiring of Celeste Choate, the current Director. Celeste has painstakingly managed a challenging budgetary situation where property tax revenues devoted to the Library were held constant or even decreased over the past 5 years.
A similar challenge faced us on the City Council in 2013 when Carle applied for additional tax exemptions after the tax levy had been extended, resulting in an unexpected shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Mayor and Council were determined to keep the city portion of our property tax rate at a level similar to Champaign, so we made some cuts and raised the home rule sales tax slightly in order to balance the budget that year. Property tax rates are a whole 'nother blog entry - maybe another day. But the gist of it is that Urbana's property taxes are roughly 20% higher than Champaign's due to higher rates from the School District, Park District, and the Township. City rates are competitive. Property taxes only make up about 14% of Urbana's City budget, with most of it allocated to police & fire pension funds and the Library. One of our council goals is to increase the tax base through responsible development to provide more tax resources for the School and Park Districts. With Champaign's massive new school bond issue and some bonds in Urbana districts maturing, we're hoping to see a narrowing of the gap.
Here are just a few of the more notable issues we addressed over the past four years:
- Going for nearly 2 years without a full time finance director after a sudden resignation
- Recovering from a major website crash lasting weeks and hiring a new IT director (who won't let it happen again!)
- Several controversial historic preservation nominations (I supported 2 and voted against 2)
- Creating a "gambling hall" liquor license to better control the number of establishments whose primary purpose is video gambling. I have voted "no" on more gambling hall licenses than any other council member.
- Navigating rapidly increasing METCAD fees. We pay more than $700,000 annually for METCAD 911 dispatching services for our police and fire departments.
- Carefully evaluating the pros and cons of providing TASERS for some of our officers who have received Crisis Intervention Training. Developing and approving an oversight policy.
- Responding to resident's concerns - the Sims Hackberry Tree, digital billboards, police use of surplus military equipment (MRAP swat vehicle), medical cannabis, pot possession fines, brick streets, disparity in traffic stops, distressed properties and crime, etc.
- Finding money to get Windsor Road fixed after an early pavement failure, only to have post-construction issues that prevented opening. I and other council members played an active role in justifying and advocating for a re-opening while responsibility for additional repairs is still being determined.
- Responding to concerns in the community by re-affirming rights of immigrants, refugees and other non-citizens. We don't want our police force used as agents for enforcing federal immigration codes, though we will act on any valid criminal warrants. Nearly 1 in 5 residents of Urbana were born abroad - they should not be placed under a magnifying glass of suspicion. All residents should feel comfortable reporting crime and coming forward as witnesses.
- Boneyard Creek Project
- IL-130 widening and improvement
- North Broadway to Crystal Lake Pool
- Olympian Drive bridge over railroad tracks
- Lincoln Avenue extension (ongoing)
- Main Street to city limits east, with new bike lanes
- Washington Street, with new bike lanes
- Race Street by High School
- North Matthews Ave
- Many resurfacing projects
Numerous economic development initiatives include:
- Major incentive program for new single family housing construction - Think Urbana
- Nearly complete build-out of the Gateway Shoppes area at University and Vine
- Campus Circle apartments, a 524-bed complex on University at Goodwin
- Student Apartment building with 84 units at Western & Lincoln
- 33-unit development on Kerr Ave utilizing low income tax credits that will include units reserved for veterans
- Re-activation of several storefronts in the 200 block of W Main (Pizza M, Sipyard, [Co-lab], Stephens Building coming soon)
- Riggs Brewery on IL-130, and another brewery under construction on the Boneyard
- 401 N Broadway incubator space on the Boneyard under construction
- Approval of redevelopment agreement for the historic Cohen Building at Main & Race
- New Cafe space under construction in the old cosmetology building at Water and Race
- New downtown central TIF that will replace TIF 1 and TIF 2, providing a potential resource for incentivizing new construction and redevelopment.
- A fantastically successful Farmer's Market that also acts as a community gathering space, much like Lincoln Square, which is showing promise as an exposition center.
What to do about the Landmark Hotel? That will definitely be a separate blog entry in the next week or so. Council members have been briefed generally on the proposal and have submitted comments and concerns to staff. But here are a few things to consider -
- The city doesn't own it, and we probably don't want to buy it
- Hilton won't invest in it and they won't "run" it - they might offer a franchise, which would cost the developer a couple hundred thousand up front and a recurring percentage of room revenue, likely 9%
- There are no existing Hilton Tapestry projects to compare
- Industry estimates of local spending impact are grossly exaggerated
- A similar project in Peoria has run into trouble, and one in Bloomington was rejected
- Any incentives provided should not take longer to recover than the life of the asset. If a remodel effort will need to be done again in 10 years, the incentive should be fully recovered in that time.
- The original Hotel is a unique building that could, and I think should, be re-activated.
- Any incentives should preferably be self-funded as rebates, otherwise secured with an equity interest or other performance guarantee
- We should heed the advice of professional evaluation of market potential, long-term success, and likelihood for a better outcome if we say no. It seems to me that more creative ideas should be encouraged, but I'd consider a deal if the price was right and we are protected.
