[Peace-discuss] AWARE Meeting with City of Champaign

[Al Kagan]

Here is the full story.

AWARE Meeting with City of Champaign
July 20, 2004
Notes by Al Kagan and Randall Cotton

Attending: Joseph Hooker (Assistant City Attorney), Lt. Joe Gallo 
(West District Commander, Champaign Police Dept.), John Murphy 
(Deputy Chief, Champaign Police Dept.), Bob Finch (AWARE's attorney), 
Randall Cotton, Susan Davis, Al Kagan.

I think our main goal for this meeting was to impress upon the City 
that we are serious in demanding our full rights, and I think we made 
that point well. Bob Finch took the lead for AWARE and the rest of us 
chimed in as we thought necessary.  I thought Bob showed the right 
mix of cooperative spirit and firmness with the city officials.  In 
fact, I think he was quite masterful.

There were several action items that came up for both sides. The City 
agreed to do the following:

1. Threatening actions.  If we have any further threatening 
incidents, the City knows that we want appropriate action, and they 
agreed to communicate results and follow-up with us.  For a vehicular 
assault, there are 4 possible outcomes: issue an IL vehicle code 
ticket, arrest or give notice to appear for a state charge, same for 
a city code violation, and forward a report to the city or state 
attorney for action.  For anything to happen, we must be able to 
identify the driver.  Vehicles are not prosecuted, only drivers (as 
opposed to parking tickets).

2. Eavesdropping statute. In case of another threatening incident, we 
have the right to videotape, including sound-recording.  This is not 
a violation of the eavesdropping statute. However, they claim that 
there is a line between recording the incident and the official 
investigation, which we are not allowed to record.  They will 
research this point and inform us in writing of their conclusions. 
Bob Finch will then advise us, and perhaps make a response.  They 
will send a written reminder to all the police officers with a copy 
to Bob Finch.

3. City property boundaries.  They have agreed to send city engineers 
to survey the line between public and private property at all 4 
corners on Prospect Avenue.  They will then give this information to 
us, Tires Plus, and presumably the businesses on the other corners. 
We should follow-up to make sure this happens.

4. Towing. The towing ordinance is in Chapter 33, which is on the 
City website (www.ci.champaign.us). Susan is researching it. There 
are certain conditions for towing, even from private property. It is 
possible for towing companies to charge a "show-up fee" even if they 
don't tow a car, but they can only charge this if they have already 
hooked-up the car to the tow truck, and possibly ready to drive away. 
One can appeal such towing.  Joe Hooker is available by e-mail for 
answering questions on towing. He urged us to arrange parking in 
advance in vacant stores parking lots, or arrange for shuttle service 
to the demo site.

5. Leafletting agreement. They will refresh the memory of all their 
officers about the terms in our leafletting agreement. This is 
important because the shifts have changed in the last few months. 
They will also make it clear to them that police officers should be 
able to have a dialog with us; that is, not just tell us to shut up 
when we advise them about the agreement or want to discuss an 
incident.

We agreed to do the following:

Information contacts. Assign a contact person for each demonstration. 
That person will notify the Police front desk at noon on the day of 
the demo, giving their name and cell phone number. Our contact person 
should also get the name of their police supervisor for the Prospect 
area that day and his badge number.  (They mentioned Ricky, and we 
left it open that he might be the contact person.) The front desk 
telephone number is 351-4545. 

Other contacts:

Joe Hooker, tel. 403-8765; fax 403-8755; joseph.hooker at ci.champaign.il.us
Lt. Joe Gallo, tel. 403-7030; fax 403-6904; gallojf at ci.champaign.il.us
Bob Finch, tel. 344-0088; fax 344-0099



  What AWARE should do for each demonstration

1. Assign a police contact with access to a cell phone.

2. Our police contact calls Police front desk (351-4545) at noon on 
day of event to:
   - give notice of the demonstration
   - get name and badge number of police supervisor during the 
demonstration and confirm	precisely how to directly contact 
them.

3. Our police contact should notify them of any changes in the 
frequency of our demonstrations.

4. Make sure we have a copy of the leafleting letter and incident 
report form on site.

5. Make sure we have a copy of the parkway boundary documents on site.

6. Arrange to videotape the demonstration.



What to do if there are problems with police officers

1. Get the problem officer's name and badge number.

2. Immediately contact the police supervisor on duty by cell phone.

3. If problems remain unresolved, contact Lt. Gallo on the next business day.


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
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