[Peace-discuss] Letter in N-G from John Wason

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

Vote ignores review board consensus

Monday August 13, 2007

It was a Champaign City Council meeting that will live in infamy.

There was a bit of humor, though: the joke played by Mayor Schweighart  
on certain citizens of Champaign.

The Champaign City Council, by a vote of 5-4, recently rejected both  
the recommendation of its own Champaign Police Complaint Procedures  
Subcommittee to establish a citizen review board and any further  
discussion of the matter.

The Champaign Police Complaint Procedures Subcommittee, a subcommittee  
of the Champaign Police Community Relations Committee, consisted of  
representatives from the police department, the city staff and the  
community. It met once a month for 12 months, and is final  
recommendation reflected a consensus among the representatives of the  
three constituencies.

But it wasn't the consensus that retired police officer Schweighart  
wanted. So he invalidated the hard work of his subcommittee. Following  
almost three hours of public input, with all but two speakers in favor  
of some form of citizen police review, he made a motion to ignore the  
subcommittee's recommendation and maintain the status quo without  
further discussion or public input. His own vote was the tie-breaker.

This marks at least the third time in the past nine years that the  
Champaign City Council has disregarded the recommendation of one of its  
own governmental bodies for some form of citizen police review. At this  
point, one has to wonder why any citizen would ever serve in a  
volunteer capacity on a city board or commission.

At least three of the council members who voted with the mayor asserted  
that they, as elected officials, are the citizen police review board.  
Perhaps we should put their word to the test.

JOHN WASON

Champaign
  Find this article at:
   
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/opinions/letters/2007/08/13/ 
vote_ignores_review_board_consensus
JAN Kruse
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