Township Board Meeting

STATE OF ILLINOIS CUNNINGHAM TOWNSHIP Diane Wolfe Marlin, Chair Charles A. Smyth, Township Clerk CUNNINGHAM TOWNSHIP BOARD Monday October 1, 2018 The Cunningham Township Board met in Regular session Monday October 1, 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; Bill Brown; Dean Hazen; Eric Jakobsson; Jared Miller; Maryalice Wu Township Clerk: Charles A. Smyth Supervisor: Danielle Chynoweth Assessor: Wayne Williams ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT VIA TELECONFERENCE: ELECTED OFFICIALS ABSENT: Dennis Roberts OTHERS PRESENT: Frederic Grosser 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 September 4, 2018. Trustee Brown seconded and the 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 - $33,840.63 2. General Assistance Fund - $47,692.21 Trustee Miller made a motion to approve the Town Fund for $33,840.63 and the General Assistance Fund for 47,692.21. Trustee Jakobsson seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote. 6. REPORTS OF OFFICERS a. Report of Supervisor Chynoweth: Supervisor Chynoweth summarized her written report to the board noting that General Assistance has leveled off at about 114 clients. She provided a revised statistical format noting 52 clients are homeless, 19 assigned to Community Workfare, 37 on work track, 50 have pending SSI/SSDI cases, and 11 are senior citizens (60 years or over) and exempt from workfare. She highlighted a new model and partnership with Salt and Light, Urbana as the primary location for Workfare where clients receive credit for GA as well as store credit for purchases. She will be looking at additional partnerships with Salt and Light. Ms. Chynoweth also reported that 3 SOAR training have occurred with 11 active from 8 agencies with additional training planned. Seven households were served by Homeless Assistance. Supervisor Chynoweth made several announcements: Expanded emergency family shelter planned via additional monies from City of Champaign and proposals to various local Page 1 of 2  agencies; A wellness fair was held for GA participants with 50 attending; and a register to vote campaign. In response to Trustee Jakobsson, Ms. Chynoweth noted that various agencies are working with Courage Connection to replace emergency housing for women that was lost due to Federal grant cuts. Supervisor Chynoweth provided a quarterly Financial Report. She noted being under budget on some items, over on others with explanations noted on the spreadsheet when over 30%. She explained that the most over budget is Emergency Homeless Assistance because last year’s hotel expenses are in this year’s payments, that they are under budget for GA, and she doesn’t have specific concerns at this point. Assessor Williams gave a presentation based on his attendance at the recent IAAO Conference providing an overview of where his office is today. He noted that they have no digital records, only paper. He provided examples of what other Assessment Offices are doing using Google Sheets for collaboration, using R Statistical software for assessment evaluation and modeling, Drone technology for hard to review properties, and an example of using digital data from assessments for other research purposes. He indicated his strong desire to move to digital records and provided a list of goals. Trustee Jakobsson noted his interest in regression analysis asking if predictive ability would enable decisions on zoning and similar. Assessor Williams indicated that nothing could be done until they had digital records. He also explained the use of cost versus income assessment based on residential unit size. Additional discussion followed concerning open data and collaboration with other institutions such as the University of Illinois and Mayo Clinic. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was none. 8. NEW BUSINESS a. Resolution No. T-2018-10-014R: Resolution Authorizing the Supervisor to sign an Agreement with CU-Men’s Emergency Shelter Supervisor Chynoweth presented a revised agreement with CU-Men’s Emergency Shelter. She reviewed the details of the Social Services Funding award noting that the shelter was unable to open as early as desired and would open November 12 staying open until April 15, 2019. The new contract is for $9,000 less reflecting the change of one month less than originally requested. Ms. Chynoweth clarified the costs and noted that CU at Home is running the Phoenix Center at the former Times Center Building, leased from Rosecrance, where the Men’s Shelter will also be located. Plans are to merge the Shelter with CU at Home for next year. With no further discussion, the motion 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 7:38 p.m. Charles A. Smyth Township Clerk This meeting was video recorded with website link (viewable on demand): https://www.urbanaillinois.us/node/7321 This meeting was broadcast on cable television (UPTV) and streamed live: http://urbanaillinois.us/uptv Minutes Approved: November 5, 2018 Page 2 of 2