In an effort to manipulate the conversation on police misconduct, Urbana Mayor Diane Wolfe Marlin violated the Illinois Open Meetings act by limiting the public input session of the June 8, 2020 City Council meeting.
Among the items on the agenda for the June 8, 2020 City Council meeting was the Mayoral Annual Staff Appointments. The contentious re-appointment of Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin comes in the wake of public outrage over the violent arrest of an Urbana resident. The recent murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police officers has fanned the flames of outrage over police misconduct.
On April 10, 2020, Urbana Police officers violently arrested and beat an innocent woman, Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis (video and original article here). For eight consecutive Council meetings since Lewis was brutalized, residents have voiced their concerns and outrage at the actions of the Urbana Police officers. Residents have called for the officers involved to be placed on leave and for charges against Lewis to be dropped. To date, Chief Seraphin maintains that his officers acted appropriately, and according to policy.
At the start of the June 8th meeting, Mayor Marlin announced that there would be 2 hours of public input. This requirement is stated in Sec. 2-4. of the Urbana City Ordinance. Over 140 residents provided public input via email. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, council meetings are held virtually via Zoom, and all public input sent by email is to be read aloud during the meeting.
In their letters to Council, residents voiced their opposition to the re-appointment of Chief Seraphin. Residents demanded an end to police violence and urged the city to address issues of racial injustice, and the lack of transparency and accountability within the City government and Urbana Police Department.
After 1 hour and 35 minutes (first public input started at 7:07:28 pm, last public input ended at 8:42:16 pm), Mayor Marlin abruptly ended the public input session.
Just before ending the public input session, Mayor Marlin could be seen leafing through the stack of letters to select a letter from retired Urbana Police Officer Preston James. In his letter, James showered his former colleague Chief Seraphin with accolades and was one of the very few voices in support of Seraphin’s re-appointment.
Preston James was an Urbana Police Officer until he injured his knee in 2014, at which time he was given the position of “Community Relations Specialist” for the City of Urbana.
In his role as “Community Relations Specialist”, James was assigned to provide administrative support to the Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) and has been criticized for the broken state of the civilian complaint process.
Preston James’ lied to CPRB board members about findings of police misconduct (article here), prevented the video recording of the CPRB meeting where the decision to stop reviewing TASER displays was made (article here), broke Illinois Freedom of Information Act laws (article here), and aided in the ‘stuffing’ of police complaints (so that they never reach the review board) (article here). James resigned from the City of Urbana in early 2020 and is now living in Oklahoma City.
Mayor Marlin not only selectively read letters from the public, but also contradicted herself when she read Preston James’ input. Midway through public input, Mayor Marlin declined to read a letter from a resident of Pittsburg, Illinois, saying she would read local input first. However, she read James’ letter even though he currently lives in Oklahoma City.
Urbana Council Member Jared Miller protested to Marlin’s selective reading of public input:
“[Preston James] doesn’t live in Urbana anymore, so, you know, he’s not part of our constituency, I don’t know why we need to consider him other than he worked with the chief before.”
According to Miller, they received over 140 letters in a 48-hour period that were not in support of Chief Seraphin’s reappointment, and only 5 in support of the appointment.
Mayor Marlin then spent 15 minutes of the time reserved for public input, to deliver a monologue sharing her own opinions and praising Seraphin.
In the midst of the overwhelming public outcry and protests against Chief Seraphin’s reappointment, residents felt that Marlin had broken her promise of an “honest dialogue”.