Township Board Meeting

STATE OF ILLINOIS CUNNINGHAM TOWNSHIP Diane Wolfe Marlin, Chair Charles A. Smyth, Township Clerk CUNNINGHAM TOWNSHIP BOARD Monday, March 05, 2018 The Cunningham Township Board met in Regular session Monday, March 05, 2018 at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at the Urbana City Building, 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana, Illinois. ELECTED OFFICIALS PHYSICALLY PRESENT: Chair: Diane Wolfe Marlin Trustees: Aaron Ammons; Dean Hazen; Eric Jakobsson; Jared Miller; Maryalice Wu; Dennis Roberts Township Clerk: Charles A. Smyth Supervisor: Danielle Chynoweth Assessor: Wayne T. Williams ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT VIA TELECONFERENCE: None ELECTED OFFICIALS ABSENT: Bill Brown OTHERS PRESENT: Frederic Grosser; Kelly Mierkowski; Members of the Media 1. ROLL CALL Chair Marlin called the meeting of the Cunningham Township Board to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING Trustee Miller made a motion to approve minutes from February 5, 2018, Trustee Wu seconded. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote. 3. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA There were no additions. 4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION There was none. 5. COMMITTEE TO VERIFY BILLS The following items presented in omnibus fashion by Supervisor Chynoweth: 1. Town Fund - $76, 194.30 2. General Assistance Fund - $31,196.62 Supervisor Chynoweth provided a written report on the expenses noting unusual ones. Trustee Jakobsson asked about the general trend in fund balance. Supervisor Chynoweth noted that programming is under budget with about 40% expended and that she expects a leveling off clients. Page 1 of 3  Trustee Jakobsson made a motion to approve the Town Fund for $76, 194.30 and the General Assistance Fund for $31,196.62. Trustee Roberts seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote. 6. REPORTS OF OFFICERS a. Report of Supervisor Chynoweth: Supervisor Chynoweth distributed her monthly report and noted current statistics. She also passed out an invitation to a SOAR workshop. She reviewed the number of children served and pending cases that the office is working on. The workshop is an initiative led by Cunningham Township and funded by a competitive grant in partnership with the Consortium of Care. She noted that SSI and SSEI take a long time to get and the standard is rejection so that the average time is 1 to 3 years and as long as 10 for a decision. Local governments support folks waiting for these payments. The workshop is for leaders and policy makers to increase the number of success cases. Internships are being advertised for a number of tasks. These are 10-15 hours per week, paid, and mentored by the supervisor. There was a Homeless Assistance issue last month with two hotel and all residents had to be relocated to other facilities. Since then, 5 of 7 of them have been moved to permanent housing. Trustee Roberts asked about sponsors of the workshop to which Supervisor Chynoweth said that the Continuum of Care voted to support the application and the process. b. Report of Assessor Williams: Assessor Wayne Williams noted that his office is still taking senior exemptions. He is currently working on consolidating all the data from assessments from four different programs into single platform. He continues to work on ratio studies as well as new construction assessments. He plans to finish is May. Trustee Wu asked where senior applications are at compared to past to which Assessor Williams noted that they are about the same as last year. They provide walk in, home visits, or mail in applications. c. Discussion of Social Service Funding: Supervisor Chynoweth provided a written report and recommendations on Social Service Funding procedures after gathering input from staff and Mayor Marlin. She stated that this is an essential service that we provide but there are some things we could tighten up in the program. She proposed that the supervisor along with the staff provide a consolidated report to the board and City Council that would look at the program as a whole. The report would include priorities for the coming year. Supervisor Chynoweth also suggested that the board look at how the funding pool keeps up and that there are some aspects of the application that can be revised. Staff would initiate the start of evaluations and summaries of applications with recommendations and amounts in preparation for board input. Other recommendations to process include a need to keep up with the programs via review, to shrink disbursements to 1 or 2 per year and add narrative reporting on impact. Lastly, to encourage residents to report issues with agencies to the city. Trustee Jakobsson stated that this moves in the right direction and the big failing we’ve had is never the chance to sit in a room together and talk about the applications. The most important thing that can be done is to bring Champaign into the game as co-funders. Supervisor Chynoweth also discussed fee for service model to ensure that funds are spent on Urbana residents. In response to Trustee Wu, City of Urbana Grants Manager Kelly Mierkowski note that about half of the award amounts are under $5,000. Closed agencies  and increased administrative costs at the agencies used were also discussed. It was also noted that the application design and layout is driven and doesn’t need board/council approval but takes board input into consideration. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was none. 8. NEW BUSINESS a. Approval of Annual Town Meeting Agenda. Clerk Smyth noted the distributed Annual Town Meeting Agenda in packets. Trustee Miller moved approval of the agenda as presented. Motion was seconded by Trustee Roberts and passed by unanimous voice vote. 9. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Cunningham Town Board, Chair Marlin declared the meeting adjourned at 7:33 p.m. Charles A. Smyth Township Clerk This meeting was video recorded. This meeting was broadcast on cable television. Website link for this meeting: https://www.urbanaillinois.us/node/7078 Minutes Approved: April 2, 2018