Township Board Meeting

STATE OF ILLINOIS CUNNINGHAM TOWNSHIP Diane Wolfe Marlin, Chair Charles A. Smyth, Township Clerk CUNNINGHAM TOWNSHIP BOARD Monday, March 4, 2019 The Cunningham Township Board met in Regular session Monday, March 4, 2019 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: Bill Brown; Shirese Hursey; Eric Jakobsson; Jared Miller; Dennis Roberts; Maryalice Wu Town Clerk: Absent Supervisor: Danielle Chynoweth Assessor: Wayne Williams ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT VIA TELECONFERENCE: None ELECTED OFFICIALS ABSENT: Charles A. Smyth, Town Clerk; Dean Hazen, Ward 6 OTHERS PRESENT: Fred Grosser; Wendy Hundley, and Members of the Media 1. ROLL CALL Chair Marlin called the meeting of the Cunningham Township Board to order at 7:06pm, following a special meeting of the City Council. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING Trustee Jared Miller made a motion to approve minutes from February 4, 2019, regular meeting and February 18, 2019, special meeting. Trustee Dennis Roberts seconded motion. Trustee Bill Brown made corrections to the minutes and asked the clerk to remove the language in the second paragraph under the supervisor’s report that said “Mr. Axelrod added that he looked at data provided by Trustee Brown data noting that the national average poverty rate is 12.7% nationally. After corrections, the motion carried by unanimous voice vote. 3. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA There were none. 4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION There was none. 5. COMMITTEE TO VERIFY BILLS The following items were presented in omnibus fashion: 1. Town Fund 2. General Assistance Fund Trustee Maryalice Wu made a motion to approve the Town Fund for $54,834.13 and the General Assistance Fund for $ 87,680.47. Trustee Eric Jakobsson seconded. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote. 6. REPORTS OF OFFICERS Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth provided the board a written monthly report. She gave a summary of her written statement, mentioning the following changes: Current participants decreased from 113 to 111; 39 participants in the workfare program at Salt & Light; three are on job search track; 55 disable seeking SSI benefits; 35 homeless (more of a challenge to stay connected/engaged in the program). Two households moved into housing with rental assistance, and four families avoided homelessness with eviction prevention assistance. Ms. Chynoweth acknowledged the remarkable support provided by angel donors, PACE, and Sister  Karen at the Community Resource Center at OSF HealthCare, with a participant that was on the verge of being evicted. Ms. Chynoweth also said that the Housing Authority would be launching a program to assist families with the rental deposit that have housing rental vouchers. Ms. Chynoweth addressed Trustees’ questions about employment status, Earned Income Credit, and correlation to their general assistance services. Township Assessor Wayne Williams addressed the board and reported that regular assessment work is proceeding at the assessor’s office with a target date set by statute, which is June 15. Scanning and compiling existing information from property record cards is an ongoing project that Mr. Williams foresees completion by the end of the current calendar year. The purpose of this work is to create an online property record card version. He also reported that the new Computer Aided Mass Appraisal (CAMA) software is still being tested, staff will meet with the vendor for training next, also visit Naperville Township who currently uses CAMA. The Township sent out over 1800 senior citizen exception forms, and 1200 have been received thus far, a database has been created to keep track of returns versus paper as it has been in the past. Trustee Miller asked for clarification about coefficient of dispersion. Mr. Williams said that this is a method used in measuring assessment uniformity. He said that according to the Illinois Department of Revenue, Coefficient of Dispersion (COD) means a statistical measure of variation of individual assessment ratios around the median level of assessments. (An average error expressed as a percent of the median; an indicator of assessment uniformity found by diving the average deviation by the median.) Cunningham Township median is currently at 32.08%, which is 4% lower than it should be. Mr. Williams also said that he would be working on improving the Coefficient of Dispersion (COD) that should be at 15 % but right now is at 19% and the only way to change these numbers is by doing property re-assessment. Mr. Williams addressed trustees’ questions and concerns. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was none. 8. NEW BUSINESS a. Resolution No. T-2019-03-005R: Resolution Authorizing the Cunningham Township Supervisor to pay Rosecrance (fka Prairie Center Health Systems) for Consolidated Social Service Funds FY 2018 Township Supervisor presented this item with the recommendation for approval. She said that township had an agreement with Prairie Center now Rosecrance. One payment was made and quarter two and four were not requested, however during an audit the discrepancy was found. Ms. Chynoweth is only asking for quarter three payment for $ 2,925.00. After the presentation, Trustee Bill Brown made a motion to approved Resolution No. T-2019- 03-005R as presented. Trustee Shirese Hursey seconded. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote. b. Approval - Annual Town Meeting Agenda Initial agenda was given to trustees as a draft and a final agenda was provided to each trustee at the beginning of the meeting. Deputy Clerk Wendy Hundley reported that the Town Clerk did not receive any items for the agenda by the deadline on Friday, March 1, 2019, 5: 00p.m.  Trustee Shirese Hursey asked for information regarding the Annual Town meeting and its purpose. Ms. Chynoweth provided an explanation and structure of the meeting. She encouraged everyone to come and participate in the discussion about changes that are taking place at the Township. Trustee Miller made a motion to accept the Annual Town Agenda as presented. Trustee Eric Jakobsson seconded. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote. 9. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Cunningham Township Board, Chair Marlin declared the meeting adjourned at 7:31pm. Wendy M. Hundley Recording Secretary Wendy M. Hundley Township Deputy Clerk This meeting was taped and broadcast on cable television. Website link for this meeting: https://www.urbanaillinois.us/node/7554 Minutes Approved: April 1, 2019