The follies and tribulations of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) process continue to add up at virtually every meeting or action of the board and related City staff. Communications from a citizen show that “Community Relations Specialist” Preston James failed to mail required documents to a complainant after a CPRB appeal hearing that occurred in January 2020.
The CPRB ordinance requires that the written findings of the CPRB be mailed, by certified letter, to the complainant after an appeals hearing. The Human Relations Office (in this case, represented by James, since the primary HR Officer, Vacellia Clark, refuses to attend meetings) is also required to send a “a thorough and objective written summary…to the mayor” within 10 working days.
None of these events took place, so the complainant sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, asking for the documents. The problem was that the documents, even months later, had never been generated as required. Records show that a small frenzy of emails between City staff ensued, and Assistant City Attorney Michelle Brooks, known for covering up illegal actions of City staff, also stepped in. Brooks’s statement has been redacted from the records, but from context, she likely became aware of the James’s screw-up, and was making arrangements to protect the City legally.
The City’s solution: just pretend it never happened. James generated the documents and sent them out months late, with no explanation or apology.
Preston James was an Urbana Police Officer who injured his knee in 2014, and it seems the City of Urbana invented for him the cushy and somewhat meaningless position of “Community Relations Specialist”. Preston’s wife Monique had already obtained a similarly meaningless staff position, “Executive Department Administrative Assistant”, likely invented specifically for her, since her husband was a UPD officer. To the chagrin of citizens who have been victims of police misconduct, the husband-wife team inserted themselves into administrative positions on the CPRB. This means that when citizens want to issue a police complaint, in addition to 1-2 other police officers, there is a retired Urbana Police Officer posing as a regular City staff member, and a police officer’s wife sitting in as well. Preston James has been known to aid in the ‘stuffing’ of police complaints (so that they never reach the review board), proctor CPRB meetings in a way that favors police input, and cutoff citizens when they attempt to speak at meetings.
To make matters even more suspect in regards to the particular complaint mentioned in this article, Preston James had previously made false statements about Chief Bryant Seraphin’s findings for the complaint to the Civilian Review Board back in October of 2019. Given James’s recent history in the UPD, it seems likely that James may have be trying to cover for one or more of his friends.
In the photo above, Todd Rent and Preston James very tactfully try to explain to the CPRB why they have been violating public records laws and administratively ‘stuffing’ citizen police complaints. Monique James, wife of Preston James, also works for the Urbana Police department. Todd Rent quietly left the state shortly after the Illinois Attorney General found that he was violating public records laws.