City of Urbana Cunningham Township Board met March 5.
Here is the minutes as provided by the board:
The Cunningham Township Board met in Regularsession 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 Physically Present:
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.
Trustee Jakobsson made a motion to approve the Town Fund for $76, 194.30 and the General
Assistance Fund for $31,196.62. Trustee Robertsseconded 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 businessto come before the Cunningham Town Board, Chair Marlin
declared the meeting adjourned at 7:33 p.m.
https://www.urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/03-05-2018_TB_Minutes.pdf
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