On March 16, 2020, the Urbana City Council met to discuss and vote on a “Temporary Emergency Ordinance to Address the COVID-19 Virus Pandemic”. Three days before the meeting, Urbana City Attorney James Simon sent out an emergency ordinance proposal to the Urbana City Council for consideration. Simon’s proposal contained…
On March 16, 2020, Champaign Police Chief Anthony Cobb released a video informing the public about changes to the Police Department’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most notably, Champaign Police will not be taking any walk-in reports and officers will not be responding in-person to reports of crimes unless the…
On March 16, 2020, the Urbana City Council met to discuss and vote on a “Temporary Emergency Ordinance to Address the COVID-19 Virus Pandemic”. The City of Champaign, which immediately abuts Urbana to the West, passed such an ordinance three days prior, and was met with national scrutiny for their…
On March 13th, 2020, Urbana Illinois City Attorney James Simon sent out an emergency ordinance proposal to the Urbana City Council in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed ordinance cites the Urbana city code “Chapter 6 – CIVIL EMERGENCIES” as insufficient to address an emergency such as the COVID-19…
Just hours after unanimously passing an ordinance that grants “extraordinary powers” to Champaign Mayor Deborah Feinen during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City is scrambling to explain itself to citizens and news outlets across the state of Illinois. In less than 12 hours, Champaign gained a moderate amount…
CU-Underground is in receipt of a string of emails which include communications from Urbana City Attorney James Simon and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. The communications reveal City staff violating public records laws, and Simon repeatedly lying about the legal findings of the Public Access Counselor at the Attorney General’s…
Just hours after unanimously passing an ordinance that grants “extraordinary powers” to Champaign Mayor Deborah Feinen, the City is making efforts to deceive citizens about what was actually voted on. The ordinance that was discussed at Friday morning’s emergency Council meeting contained a list of 30 “orders and regulations”, or…
On Thursday March 12th City of Champaign Mayor Deborah Feinen called for an emergency council meeting the following morning. The Council met in full attendance at 9:30am and had significant public attendance, plus at least four news agencies were present as well. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss…
City of Champaign Mayor Deborah Feinen issued an Executive Order on March 12, 2020, declaring a local emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. At the time of this emergency declaration, there have been no reported confirmed cases in Champaign County. City Council convened on March 13, 2020 for a…
On March 11, 2020, the Champaign Citizen Review Subcommittee (CRS) held a meeting, but board members had virtually nothing meaningful to say. Once again, the only item discussed during the open portion of the meeting was public input on how dysfunctional and ineffective the police complaint process is for victims…
