The program rebates the property tax difference between the overall tax rates in Urbana and Champaign to owners of new homes for a total of five years.
City staff has already recommended approval along with the Urbana School District. The Urbana Park District will hold its formal vote for approval until Dec. 14. Because the resolution’s approval is after the program deadline on Dec. 1, the proposed resolution would be retroactive.
In addition, two reports, the annual and quarterly, will be given by the Civilian Police Review Board created a few years ago to ensure a fair and independent external process existed for the complaint reviews against sworn police officers by citizens. Of the complaint determinations from 2005 to July 2010, 63 percent were unfounded, meaning the Urbana Police Chief Patrick Connolly determined the findings do not support initial allegations or do not raise further concerns.
Of the total complaints, most seldom rise to being reviewed by the Board and are usually dealt with internally, said Charlie Smythe, Ward 1. It is usually something handled directly by Connolly. Five complaints are currently pending, and one is getting started, none of which have reached the Review Board’s level.
“I’m in the service business, too, and sometimes things just don’t go well,” Smythe said. “That happens. You want to keep those as few and as far between as possible, and that’s what having a professional police department is all about.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
In addition to a resolution regarding the release of closed session minutes and an ordinance allowing a nonconforming, freestanding sign at 608 North Cunningham Ave. to be modified for reuse, a couple mayoral appointments will be made. These include Peter Folk as UPTV Commission Chair and Eric Jakobsson, filling the vacant seat left by David Gehrig, former alderman, Ward 2.
Jakobsson’s appointment will last from Dec. 6 to the swearing-in of the elected candidate in April, 2011. A 39-year resident and husband of State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-103, Eric Jakobsson was described by Mayor Laurel Prussing in a recommendation letter to the council as “an individual of the highest integrity who will bring a balanced, humane and fair-minded approach to moving Urbana forward.”
The meeting will conclude with a closed session on pending litigation issues.
