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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...