by Check CU | Dec 6, 2020 | Latest Articles
The candidate petitions for the City of Champaign 2021 election, to be held on February 23rd, are now available in Check CU’s records database. Thirteen candidates filed petitions for seven different positions: Township Assessor, Township Supervisor, and City...
by Check CU | Dec 6, 2020 | Latest Articles
One of the four candidates in the Democrat mayoral race for the City of Urbana has received a formal candidacy objection from the Diane Marlin camp. Michael Langendorf, who donated funds to Marlin’s 2017 mayoral campaign, is arguing to have newcomer candidate...
by Check CU | Dec 5, 2020 | Latest Articles
Curt Borman, serving as Urbana’s Freedom of Information Act Officer, has become known for numerous illegal records denials and fees in regards to resident requests for police records. Records provided by the Village of Carpentersville have Urbana residents...
by Check CU | Dec 4, 2020 | Latest Articles
Cunningham Township Assessor Wayne T Williams hired Chicago firm Matthew & Drnovsek Law to author his formal objection against newcomer candidate Meghan McDonald. McDonald is running against Williams’s partner, Chaundra Bishop, and Williams wishes to see...
by Check CU | Dec 2, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten claims that the City will sanction its public board members to prevent them from disclosing what happens in closed sessions. On the evening of November 30th, the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) assembled for an appeals...
by Check CU | Dec 1, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin has received four applications for the Ward 2 City Council seat left vacant when Council member Julie Laut suddenly resigned on October 28th. Laut was appointed by Marlin to fill the Ward 2 spot after Eric Jakobsson resigned in June,...
by Check CU | Nov 27, 2020 | Latest Articles
Just four days after being hit with an Open Meetings Act lawsuit, the City of Urbana is now facing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. The complaint, which was filed with the Champaign County Sixth Judicial Circuit court of Illinois on November...
by Check CU | Nov 26, 2020 | Latest Articles
A series of email snafus by Champaign County ACLU representatives has exposed a rather unsavory face of the civil liberties organization that we generally expect to act in the interests of the public. Champaign County ACLU president Carol Leff attempted to send an...
by Check CU | Nov 23, 2020 | Latest Articles
The candidate petitions for Urbana’s 2021 primary election, to be held on February 23rd, have all been processed by the City Clerk. Twenty-four candidates filed petitions for eleven different positions: Mayor, City Clerk, Township Assessor, Township Supervisor,...
by Check CU | Nov 23, 2020 | Latest Articles
On Friday, November 20th, a complaint was filed in Champaign County Sixth Judicial Circuit court of Illinois alleging Open Meetings Act Violations by the Urbana City Council and the Mayor of Urbana Diane Marlin. The lawsuit cites multiple Urbana City Council meetings...
by Check CU | Nov 22, 2020 | Latest Articles
Demonstrators amass just north of the Urbana City Building on June 1st, carrying signs for George Floyd, Aleyah Lewis, Black Lives Matter, and innumerable slogans for police reform and accountability. After the killing of George Floyd in May, almost every government...
by Check CU | Nov 20, 2020 | Latest Articles
A young male screams out as Urbana Police Officers use a prohibited drive-stun TASER technique to inflict pain. The individual had not been suspected of having committed any crime, did not have any weapons, and showed willingness to comply before being tackled to the...
by Check CU | Nov 16, 2020 | Latest Articles
The November 16th Urbana City Council meeting brought greater insight into the heavy-handed and poorly defined public speaking rules imposed last month. Apparently, the rules created by Mayor Diane Marlin which disallow “negative comments”, as well as “abusive”,...
by Check CU | Nov 15, 2020 | Latest Articles
It has been more than 7 months since the violent arrest of Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis. Tens of thousands of people have watched the videos of Urbana Police Officers throwing Lewis to the ground, pinning her, punching her in the head, and kneeing her in the...
by Check CU | Nov 15, 2020 | Latest Articles
U of I Assistant Professor Erik J. Sacks Threatens Lawsuit Over Zoning Proposal One Urbana resident and U of I Professor is particularly unhappy with a proposed zoning change to a row of houses on West High St in Urbana. The proposal is to rezone 5 contiguous...
by Check CU | Nov 12, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana Police Use of Force Listening Session (Mayor Diane Marlin, Chief Bryant Seraphin, Lieutenant Joel Sanders, Community Engagement Coordinator Sherman Lemond Peppers) An Urbana Police Listening session revealed some disturbing behavior from Urbana’s new...
by Check CU | Nov 12, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana Police Use of Force Listening Session for Youth (Mayor Diane Marlin, Chief Bryant Seraphin, Deputy Chief Richard Surles, Community Engagement Coordinator Sherman Lemond Peppers, Lieutenants Joel Sanders and Matthew Bain, School Resource Officer Chad Burnett. ...
by Check CU | Nov 11, 2020 | Latest Articles
On the evening of November 10th, a special hearing of the Urbana Human Relations Commission was convened at the City Building for an appeals hearing to a Human Rights complaint. I filed the complaint myself on September 14th, and City Attorney James Simons...
by Check CU | Nov 10, 2020 | Latest Articles
On Tuesday November 10 at 5:30pm, a special hearing body of the Urbana Human Relations Commission will consider an appeal to a discrimination complaint that was dismissed by the City Attorney. Urbana City Attorney James Simon, for the second time this year, has...
by Check CU | Nov 10, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin continued her new tactic of actively muting residents for criticizing public officials at City meetings at the November 9th City Council meeting. Since March, Urbana has been holding all of their meetings using the Zoom conferencing...
by Check CU | Nov 6, 2020 | Latest Articles
I just received a rather concerning email from Daniel Larson of the Urbana Human Relations Commission. In preparation for a hearing in regards to a Human Rights complaint that I filed in September, I made a number of inquiries with Larson, who is to serve as...
by Check CU | Nov 5, 2020 | Latest Articles
The November 5th meeting of the Urbana Plan Commission contained more of the same: a small number of West Urbana residents upset at virtually any kind of change near their neighborhood. The Commission held two hearings. The first was a fairly simple request by...
by Check CU | Nov 5, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten speaks to the Council on November 2nd, 2020 City Administrator Carol Mitten gave a presentation at the November 2nd Urbana City Council meeting in regards to a contentious police complaint requirement that has been under...
by Check CU | Nov 2, 2020 | Latest Articles
Council member Bill Brown earned an opportunity to wield Urbana’s new speech restrictions at the November 2nd City Council Committee of the Whole. The past president, and current steering committee member, of the Champaign County ACLU showed the public that not...
by Check CU | Nov 2, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Attorney James Simon continues to exhibit general incompetence on a regular basis. This morning, Simon sent an accusatory email to Urbana resident Adam Rusch, telling him to recuse himself from an upcoming Plan Commission Hearing because he had...
by Check CU | Nov 1, 2020 | Latest Articles
I have been speaking at Urbana Civil Service Commission meetings for the past several months. I have been making the general point that City of Urbana employees, especially those with the primary task of engaging with the community, tend to always work in the...
by Check CU | Oct 30, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Council member Dennis Roberts released a statement on October 29th indicating that he will not seek a fifth term on the Council. Dennis Robert’s statement, posted on Facebook: “Dear HEUNA Friends, Having served 16 years on the City Council, I have...
by Check CU | Oct 28, 2020 | Latest Articles
The October 26th meeting of the Urbana City Council saw a manic Mayor Marlin, re-elevated to her civilian-crushing characteristics of September 14th, when she once again interrupted and muted multiple members of the public for encroaching on her newly-invented speech...
by Check CU | Oct 27, 2020 | Latest Articles
City Administrator Carol Mitten gave a presentation on Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) complaints and appeals hearings at the Urbana City Council meeting Monday night. I had predicted she would attempt to deceive the Council and the public the previous week,...
by Check CU | Oct 26, 2020 | Latest Articles
The “use of force” listening sessions that Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten briefly mentioned at last week’s City Council meeting were officially announced this afternoon. The announcement is coupled with the creation of a new section on the Urbana City...
by Check CU | Oct 22, 2020 | Latest Articles
This article isn’t exactly scholarly – more of an anecdote which gives a glimpse of how Marlin views the public. After the October 19th Special Urbana City Council meeting, there was a brief recess before the actual Committee of the Whole meeting, and Mayor...
by Check CU | Oct 21, 2020 | Latest Articles
After bringing two different variations of ordinance (on September 21st and October 5th) that would significantly restrict the public’s right to speak at Urbana meetings, Mayor Diane Marlin managed to get her legislation (Ordinance 2020-09-49) passed on October 12th,...
by Check CU | Oct 16, 2020 | Latest Articles
Just six hours after Mayor Marlin interrupted me and others multiple times and muted me based on her newly invented public speaking rules at the September 14th Urbana City Council meeting, I submitted a request for review to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office....
by Check CU | Oct 15, 2020 | Latest Articles
Council member Bill Brown expressed his support for Urbana’s new speech restrictions at the October 12th City Council meeting. The past president, and current steering committee member, of the Champaign County ACLU also said that the speech restrictions would be...
by Check CU | Oct 15, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Attorney James Simon, for the second time this year, has claimed that Urbana’s human rights laws do not apply to the City of Urbana itself. In other words, Urbana City employees, as well as elected and appointed officials, are allowed to discriminate...
by Check CU | Oct 14, 2020 | Latest Articles
The Urbana City Council finally passed the speech restrictions that Mayor Marlin has been pushing for the past month. Marlin first violated the recorded public input rules of the City Council on September 14th (article here), when she arbitrarily reduced speaking...
by Check CU | Oct 12, 2020 | Latest Articles
On Monday October 5th, I wrote a letter to the Urbana City Council predicting that City Attorney James Simon would lie to them and the public about how the city legal department has been charging fees on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Here is that...
by Check CU | Oct 8, 2020 | Latest Articles
Since her appointment to the Ward 2 seat by Mayor Marlin, Julie Laut has rarely provided substantive response or input on any subject, and almost never does so when constituents contact her directly. I have personally emailed Laut on numerous issues, and rarely...
by Check CU | Oct 7, 2020 | Latest Articles
During the October 5th Urbana City Council discussion on the conduct of City legal staff in regards to public records requests, the question of requiring government identification was raised. City Attorney James Simon and Assistant City Attorney Curt Borman...
by Check CU | Oct 7, 2020 | Latest Articles
City Administrator Carol Mitten attempted to put a new spin on the recent attempts by the City of Urbana to regulate speech at public meetings. Mitten declared that meetings of the Council, and its associated boards and commissions, should have the same rules...
by Check CU | Oct 6, 2020 | Latest Articles
On the tail end of a discussion on Urbana’s policies and conduct regarding public records requests, something remarkably out of order happened. City Clerk Phyllis Clark interrupted Council member Jared Miller to recite a condescending and factually erroneous...
by Check CU | Oct 4, 2020 | Latest Articles
City of Urbana Assistant City Attorney & FOIA Officer Curt Borman After several letters from the Illinois Attorney General indicating that Urbana’s new fees for public records are a violation the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, FOIA Officer Curt Borman...
by Check CU | Sep 25, 2020 | Latest Articles
This letter from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office may not appear terribly interesting at first glance. So the City of Urbana didn’t try hard enough on their records search, so what? This might be one of those situations that is too complicated to...
by Check CU | Sep 24, 2020 | Latest Articles
I have been speaking at Urbana Human Relations Commission (HRC) meetings for several months now, ever since they decided that the Urbana Human Rights laws don’t apply to the City of Urbana or its employees. This rather cowardly decision goes against everything written...
by Check CU | Sep 22, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Attorney James Simon delivered what can only be interpreted as a threat to residents who have been speaking out about corruption within the Urbana City government. The Council was discussing an ordinance put forth by Mayor Diane Marlin and James Simon...
by Check CU | Sep 21, 2020 | Latest Articles
On July 25th, 2019 I sent a very simple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the City of Urbana. I sought to understand why a previous FOIA request was delivered late and also determine if Human Resources Director Todd Rent was lying to me about a...
by Check CU | Sep 21, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City staff continue to commit FOIA violations against the residents of Urbana. This request was in regards to police complaints. Lizabeth Kay Meharry illegally assessed $20 in fees and also sought to charge for postage. Meharry also claimed that...
by Check CU | Sep 21, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Attorney James Simon giving a presentation on July 20th, defending Urbana’s FOIA fee structure which was recently ruled to be illegal by the Illinois Attorney General On September 2nd, 2020 the Illinois Attorney General released a determination...
by Check CU | Sep 20, 2020 | Latest Articles
On September 2nd, 2020 the Illinois Attorney General released a determination letter indicating that the City of Urbana was in violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The City attempted to charge a requester $128.35 on a single FOIA request whereas...
by Check CU | Sep 19, 2020 | Latest Articles
At the July 20th City Council meeting, during a presentation about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Urbana City Attorney James Simon made a great number of false claims (documented to some extent in my letter to the Urbana City Council here). One particular...
by Check CU | Sep 18, 2020 | Latest Articles
This article will be mainly comprised of two emails that I sent to the Urbana City Council. The quick backstory is that after a number of complaints by residents (many from myself) about public records requests, the City of Urbana arranged for a presentation on...
by Check CU | Sep 17, 2020 | Latest Articles
In mid-April this year, Mayor Marlin announced that the Urbana Police Department would be giving a presentation on the Aleyah Lewis arrest, which occurred on April 10th. At the City Council meeting held on April 20th, Marlin further announced that the city...
by Check CU | Sep 16, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Council member Bill Brown released a statement on September 12th indicating that he will not seek a third term on the Council. Mr. Brown did not respond when asked why he decided not to pursue another term. Brown’s statement: “I’ve told a few...
by Check CU | Sep 16, 2020 | Latest Articles
It is hard to know how to respond when someone twice your age, a democratically elected official, and supposed community leader carefully calculates that committing crimes against her constituents is better than honest dialogue. That is, after all, what Diane...
by Check CU | Sep 14, 2020 | Latest Articles
Mayor Marlin at a Council Meeting, August 2020 On Saturday morning, Mayor Marlin sent out an email to the Urbana City Council and City of Urbana Department heads describing a plan to regulate speech during public input at meetings of public bodies. The relevant...
by Check CU | Sep 8, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana Police Officer Eric Ruff running toward Officer Michael Cervantes and Urbana Resident Aleyah Lewis On April 10th, Urbana Police officers arrested Aleyah Lewis using, to put it mildly, highly questionable techniques. Alongside many other Urbana residents,...
by Check CU | Aug 23, 2020 | Latest Articles
Bijal Patel, Christopher Hansen, Sarah Nixon, Alen Romero (originally published by the Public i) Officers Michael Cervantes, Eric Ruff, and James Cory Koker wrestle Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis to the ground and apply handcuffs (image captured from Eric Ruff’s...
by Check CU | Jun 23, 2020 | Latest Articles
On June 23rd, four Urbana residents submitted “A Residents’ Petition for Reforming the City of Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB)” to the Mayor, City Council, and the members of the CPRB. The petition was also posted to change.org and has been signed by over...
by Check CU | May 29, 2020 | Latest Articles
A Meeting of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board For the past seven Urbana City Council meetings, residents have lined up to deliver what has amounted to several hours of criticism and dozens of misconduct allegations against the Urbana Police Department. ...
