Chambana Sun

City of Urbana City Council met December 4.

Here is the minutes provided by the Council:

Elected Officials Physically Present:

Maryalice Wu, City Council Member Ward 1

Eric Jakobsson, City Council Member Ward 2

Aaron Ammons, City Council Member Ward 3

Bill Brown, City Council Member Ward 4

Dennis Roberts, City Council Member Ward 5

Dean Hazen, City Council Member Ward 6

Jared Miller, City Council Member Ward 7

Diane Wolfe Marlin, Mayor

Charles A. Smyth, City Clerk

Elected Officials Present Via Teleconference: None

Elected Officials Absent: None

Staff Present:

William Gray; Elizabeth Hannan; Sylvia Morgan; Brian Nightlinger; John Schneider; James Simon; Scott Tess; Bryant Seraphim; Robert Fitzgerald; Melissa Haynes.

Others Present:

Belden Fields; Carol Inskeep; Robert King; Durl Kruse; Martell Miller; Ken Salo; Members of the Media

A. Call To Order And Roll Call

There being a quorum, Mayor Marlin called the meeting of the Urbana City Council to order at 7:58 p.m. following a Cunningham Town Board meeting.

B. Approval Of Minutes Of Previous Meeting

City Council Member Hazen made a motion to approve minutes from November 20, 2017. City Council Member Ammons seconded. There were no corrections and the motion carried by unanimous voice vote.

C. Additions To The Agenda

CM Ammons made a motion to provide Durl Kruse with 10 minutes for a presentation at the time of the IDOT Traffic Study discussion. Motion seconded by CM Miller and carried by unanimous voice vote.

D. Public Input

CM Jakobsson noted the issue related to a recent Suburban Express add and that anyone with a complaint should contact Vacellia Clark, the city’s Human Relations Officer.

E. Unfinished Business

There was none.

F. Reports Of Standing Committees

1. Committee Of The Whole (reported by City Council Member Jared Miller)

a. Resolution No. 2017-11-075R: A Resolution Accepting Ameren Energy Efficiency Staffing Grant Incentive – PW

CM Miller moved approval of Resolution 2017-11-075R. Seconded by CM Jakobsson. There was no discussion and the motion carried (7-0) by unanimous voice vote.

b. Ordinance No. 2017-11-068: An Ordinance Approving Amendment No. 1 to a Power Purchase Agreement with WCP Solar Services, LLC – PW

CM Miller made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 2017-11-068. Motion seconded by CM Wu. There was no discussion and the motion carried (7-0) by roll call vote as follows: Ammons – aye; Brown – aye; Hazen – aye; Roberts – aye; Jakobsson– aye; Miller – Aye; Wu – aye.

G. Reports Of Special Committees

There were none.

H. Reports Of Officers

Mayor Marlin noted that applications for the City Administrator position will close December 8, that there were 45 applications to date with more expected, and that the interview process will begin after the beginning of the New Year.

I. New Business

1.IDOT – Traffic Stop Study Quarterly Report Follow Up Discussion

Public Input:

Belden Fields noted that he made recommendations to Council previously. He doesn’t fault the city for trying to bring about a change in the attitude of some members of the police department. He has participated in several meetings with police and police chiefs. He notes the police training institute program where he has participated in a panel about policing in a multiracial society. He noted that the composition of officers hasn’t changed and are still predominantly white and asked how we can change this. His stated that we won’t get anywhere until we diversify the police force and outreach programs need to be developed.

Ken Salo gave a shout out to Supervisor Chynoweth’s presentation at the earlier Cunningham Town Board meeting on the humanitarian side of the unaffordability of housing. Like Mr. Fields he’s been part of groups thinking through the complex problem of racialized state violence and referred to studies around the events in Ferguson. He stated that the IDOT study is but a sliver of the problem and there are other more structural issues such as poverty and the mobility of poor people. He indicated his concern about a deeply segregated nature of policing based on geography and economics, and that structural issues need to be addressed. Discussion between CM Jakobsson, Mr. Salo, and CM Hazen followed concerning housing discrimination, implicit bias, and income disparity relating to geographical location of police patrols.

Durl Kruse spoke to written comments he provided council members. He stated that he rejects the notion that traffic stops are related to poverty. In addressing the results presented at last week’s Committee of the Whole, he wanted to focus on UPD policy practices as they apply to traffic stops. He stated that we need to move to a different place and asked if the UPD annually reviews location of traffic enforcement. He read from city policy that the goal of traffic enforcement is to reduce collisions. He stated that this should not be influenced by calls for service and not conflated with other responsibilities but if this is an explanation or a justification then it needs to counter acted. He proceeded to discuss facts from the study results and highlighted certain geographic trends comparing traffic stops by street location and offered the suggestion that an immediate review of all secondary streets for enforcement levels be done so that there is equity across the city.

Carol Inskeep did not wish to address the council but continues to be concerned about disparity in traffic stops.

Martel Miller addressed income disparity issues stating that he thinks that it is officer discretion that leads to many traffic stops. He also pointed to a need for traffic enforcement on Illinois Street.

Robert King stated that he is thankful that the city is studying the issue of traffic stop disparity. He pointed out that there is a national movement to improve policing across the nation. He spoke of several traffic stops of himself. He asked that the city find a way to integrate and find a uniform way of addressing disparities with the city of Champaign and the University of Illinois and the county.

Chief Morgan and Melissa Haynes addressed the council with their plans to address questions from last week. These plans include emailing how to read reports from the Urbana Crime Reporting website, providing a staff report on marijuana statistics, providing highlights on the Justice Department grant next week, and getting a breakdown by ethnic groups for Lincoln Ave. stops.

CM Wu asked about at the distribution of traffic stops versus step patrol stops. Chief Morgan indicated that Step Stop locations are based on several things including notorious spots with speeders, accident spikes in certain areas, and complaints such as Broadway Avenue. There is some school zone related step patrol and ad hoc for community complaints where UPD will send an officer around to monitor it for a few times different days/nights or they might use the Speed trailer to document. She noted that Step Patrols are overtime, that Washington been a step area for a long time as long as she’s been an officer. She also indicated that she doesn’t know how other communities such as Champaign determine their locations but that officers have knowledge of where problems are and that is how they may choose to go to a particular location though they make stops as they move around in their beat.

CM Ammons recited statistics related to African American drivers for the past year and asked about the economic impact of these citations for which most are $120 fines levied by the state. Chief Morgan and Ms. Haynes noted that with the use of the mapping software they are now having conversations about geographical locations and the impact of exposure in the statistical results.

CM Ammons read from a prepared statement to share his thoughts about implicit bias as it relates to Urbana. He indicated that he has spent the last 15 years organizing and that he better understands marginalization and the challenges faced by such communities. He stated that as elected officials we need to respect and take into account history, that we should accommodate requests from citizens, and address the grievances of marginalized groups.

Mayor Marlin recognized that there is racial disparity in traffic stops and that one of the big differences in examining stops is through the new mapping software where we can see the geographic issues. Our way forward is to look at the internal policy and we are working and will work forward.

In response to questions from CM Roberts and Jakobsson concerning how officers distribute themselves within their patrol beat and other exposure related issues, Chief

Morgan reviewed how police decide on Step Patrol locations and the Mayor reminded everyone that the Traffic Commission will look at specific complaints. CM Miller supported the examination of statistics related to arterial indicating that he would like to get more education on police practices to which Chief Morgan replied that policies are guidelines and are online. She also stated that police officers are trained to patrol their beats and deal with traffic issues as they see them. They need to be close to the problems.

CM Brown encouraged everyone to do a ride along with the police department and also mentioned the Citizen Police Academy program. In response to CM Brown, Ms. Haynes indicated that there are 30,000 calls for service annually including traffic stops. CM Brown agreed with Mr. Kruse that the disparity is coming from where we are stopping people and wants to keep looking at the spatial issues but noted that with the numbers as infrequent as they are, how do you identify the stops that cause the disparity. In response to Chief Morgan, CM Brown suggested using IDOT average daily traffic numbers to indicate the streets which are well traveled.

A variety of quick questions, discussion, and answers followed including how officer discretion for stops is noted in police reports, using the format of the annual report for quarterly updates, relative deterrent effect of citations versus warnings from traffic stops, citation fees being set by the state, geographic distribution of crime, that pretextual stops are allowed by the Supreme Court, and that disparity increases at night based on Urbana’s data.

Mayor Marlin announced that the next phase of discussion related to the Traffic Stop Study will be a public listening session Jan 23 from 6-8 at the Urbana Civic Center. She also indicated that our outreach coordinator is working with Urbana youth to film the steps in a traffic stop.

In response to a question from CM Ammons, Chief Morgan indicated that the timeline and expectations for measuring the impact of planned changes would be quarterly at the soonest though as the data is based on a rolling 6 months, that much data is needed at a minimum.

J. Adjournment

Mayor Marlin noted that there would be a ribbon cutting at 2:00 pm for Airport Road Thursday December 7 and for the new Highland Green apartments at noon, December 11. There being no further business to come before the City Council, Mayor Marlin declared the meeting adjourned at 10:37 p.m.

https://www.urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/12-04-2017_Minutes_app.pdf