[Peace] UPDATE: threat to "Eliminate Justice" in Champaign County

[Randall Cotton]

The Policy, Planning and Appointments Committee of the Champaign County
Board met this evening. There were 4 public speakers opposing the Beckett
proposal to slash the Board's committee structure (including the
elimination of the Justice & Social Services Committee).

myself
Barbara Kessel
Brian Dolinar
Neil Parthun

No public speakers spoke in favor.

And while the result was successful (they did NOT vote to forward the
proposal on to the full Board), it wasn't an outright victory (the
proposal was not killed). Instead, the proposal was shunted off to an
already existing subcommittee called the Administrative Structure
Subcommittee for further consideration. Politically, I'm not sure exactly
what this means yet because I don't know very much about this
subcommittee, which is composed of only 3 members:

Tom Betz, chair (Democrat, quite strongly opposed to the proposal already)
Brendan McGinty (Republicrat, has not taken a position yet)
Steve Moser (Republican, rural Urbana, position unknown)

I'm looking into when this committee will meet next.

While I think public opposition played a part in this success, it seems
there was also a small kernel of hesitancy among some Republicans, which I
suspect was magnified by the public opposition, the combination coming
together to decisively prevent passage, though the ultimate outcome is
only postponed.

The vote was unanimous among the Policy, Planning and Appointments
Committee to send it off to the Administrative Structure Subcommittee.

The Policy, Planning and Appointments Committee is:

Tom Betz - Chair
Carol Ammons - Vice Chair
Matt Gladney
Kevin Hunt
Greg Knott
Brendan McGinty
Alan Nudo
Jon Schroeder
Pius Weibel

All were present and voted.
R