by Check CU | Jul 28, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten (right) yells at Check CU reporter Christopher Hansen (left) for attempting to audio record an official Urbana City Council meeting. Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten showed flagrant contempt for the people’s right...
by Check CU | Jul 27, 2022 | Latest Articles
Octapharma Plasma representative Kerry Clish (center) is appealing the business type designation of “clinic”, arguing that plasma centers are not similar to other types of clinics. The North Carolina plasma collection business Octapharma Plasma, Inc. has...
by Check CU | Jul 24, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten and past City Attorney James Simon have spent part of their careers ensuring that discrimination complaints are never processed by the City After Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten unlawfully overthrew the...
by Check CU | Jul 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
Ward 5 Alderwoman Chaundra Bishop was one of four Council members who voted in favor of the County’s jail expansion The Urbana, Illinois City Council voted 4 to 3 tonight to approve an expansion of the Champaign County satellite jail by more than fifty percent...
by Check CU | Jul 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
The Urbana, Illinois City Council unanimously reappointed Anthony Allegretti and Tony Rice (left top and bottom) to the Civilian Police Review Board, despite repeated past misconduct while serving on the Board On June 27th, 2022 the Urbana, Illinois City Council voted...
by Check CU | Jul 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
On July 5th, 2022 the Urbana, Illinois City Council was presented with a plan for expanding the Champaign County jail, which resides within the City limits. The jail expansion plan would be expensive, and it would increase the total number of jail beds from 141...
by Check CU | Jul 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
County Board member Jim McGuire tours the Champaign, Illinois County jail On Tuesday, July 5th, the Urbana Illinois City Council Committee of the Whole voted to send a County jail expansion plan forward to the July 11th meeting for a final vote. The proposed...
by Check CU | Jun 22, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Attorney was reappointed by the City Council for an additional two years The Urbana, Illinois City Council has opted to reappoint David Wesner as City Attorney, despite his reputation for getting municipalities into legal trouble with dubious...
by Check CU | Jun 22, 2022 | Latest Articles
At a cost of more than $330,000, Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten was appointed for an additional two years The Urbana, Illinois City Council has opted to reappoint the same, often unpopular, City Administrator, Carol Mitten, for an additional two...
by Check CU | Apr 13, 2022 | Latest Articles
More than eleven months into their four year terms, the Urbana, Illinois City Council has finally agreed on a set of goals to work toward during 2022 and 2023. After a number of failed attempts, the Council finally voted to approve a list of goals at their April 11th...
by Check CU | Apr 13, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Officials appear to be more concerned with finding ways to deny and delay public records requests than they are with providing the actual records. The City routinely takes months to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from...
by Check CU | Apr 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
University of Illinois PhD graduate and Urbana resident Tracy Chong speaks during public input about FOIA violations The Urbana, Illinois City Council shows no signs of changing their well-established practice of ignoring residents’ reports of Freedom of Information...
by Check CU | Apr 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
On January 29th, 2022 Check CU requested a number of records involving police use of force from the City of Urbana, Illinois. The Urbana Police Department is still refusing to release some police reports and they have refused to release the names of police...
by Check CU | Apr 9, 2022 | Latest Articles
Research by Check CU has revealed what can only be described as the felony destruction of public records by Urbana Police Officers. Throughout 2020, amidst the nationwide demands for police reform, Urbana, Illinois residents took up similar causes with their local...
by Check CU | Apr 8, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Council member for Ward 7 James Quisenberry at the April 4th, 2022 Council meeting Since mid-2021, residents have been making requests to the Urbana, Illinois City Council to allow remote public input at their in-person meetings in the same way...
by Check CU | Apr 7, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Mayor Diane Marlin and Council members Jaya Kolisetty, Grace Wilken, Christopher Evans, James Quisenberry, Shirese Hursey, Chaundra Bishop, and Maryalice Wu The entire Urbana, Illinois City Council seems content simply ignoring numerous public records...
by Check CU | Apr 4, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten at the April 4th, 2022 City Council Committee of the Whole meeting Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten announced at a Council meeting tonight that the City had received zero bids in response to their...
by Check CU | Apr 3, 2022 | Latest Articles
New Interim Police Chief Richard Surles (bottom left), resigned Police Chief Bryant Seraphin (bottom center), and new Interim Deputy Police Chief Matthew Bain (bottom right) at the March 28th 2022 Urbana City Council meeting. On March 28th, the Urbana, Illinois City...
by Check CU | Mar 28, 2022 | Latest Articles
New Interim Police Chief Richard Surles (bottom left), resigned Police Chief Bryant Seraphin (bottom center), and new Interim Deputy Police Chief Matthew Bain (bottom right) at the March 28th 2022 Urbana City Council meeting. Earlier this evening, the Urbana City...
by Check CU | Mar 28, 2022 | Latest Articles
Residents now have an easy to use tool for submitting complaints about Urbana, Illinois Police officers. The non-profit “Civilian Resource Site” at UrbanaPolice.org now has a web portal that can be used to submit complaints at any time, by any person, even...
by Check CU | Mar 28, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Council members have thus far ignored the statutory and contractual violations by their Police Department in regards to the handling of complaints against police officers. Check CU recently published two articles showing that the Urbana...
by Check CU | Mar 26, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Mayor Diane Marlin will ask the City Council to appoint current Deputy Chief Richard Surles to the position Interim Police Chief at Monday night’s meeting. Lieutenant Matthew Bain will be appointed to Interim Deputy Police Chief. Police Chief...
by Check CU | Feb 27, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten at a City Council study session on February 22nd, 2022 (written displays only legible from the public seating section with a zoom lens) When public bodies, such as the Urbana, Illinois City Council hold meetings, they...
by Check CU | Feb 24, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Mayor Diane Marlin speaks at a City Council meeting study session on February 22nd, 2022. “This is a violation,” said Urbana, Illinois City Clerk Phyllis Clark when she became aware that a meeting of the Urbana City Council on Tuesday evening was...
by Check CU | Feb 10, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin The Urbana Police Department and the Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) have been openly violating their mandate for more than two years. Whereas City Ordinance and UPD policy require the Police Department to review TASER gun...
by Check CU | Jan 23, 2022 | Latest Articles
On October 27th, 2021, Check CU published an article which reveals many of the failures of the TASER review process by the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB): Urbana Staff Refuse Oversight on Police TASER Usage From the article: “When the Board members issued...
by Check CU | Jan 22, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana Human Resources Director Todd Rent (now HR Director for the University of Iowa) violated FOIA by refusing to provide City financial records to the News Gazette In April of 2014, the City of Urbana was cited by the Illinois Attorney General (IAG) for a Freedom...
by Check CU | Jan 19, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Clerk Charlie Smyth devised a scheme to unlawfully classify several Urbana residents as “recurrent requesters” which the City used to delay records requests for months and impose huge illegal fees. Check CU has covered numerous Freedom of...
by Check CU | Jan 17, 2022 | Latest Articles
After throwing her to the ground and punching her in the back of the head, Officers Michael Cervantes and James Cory Koker pin down a resident so that Officer Eric Ruff can knee her in the ribs. The City of Urbana has devoted considerable time and energy to debating...
by Check CU | Jan 17, 2022 | Latest Articles
City of Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin spent months actively muting residents for expressing opinions The City of Urbana offered to pay $12,750 for plaintiff’s attorney’s fees in order to bring an end to an Open Meetings Act (OMA) lawsuit which was filed on November 20th,...
by Check CU | Jan 16, 2022 | Latest Articles
The Urbana City Council reappointed police officials even after they repeatedly lied about conducting use of force reviews (Grace Wilken, Jaya Kolisetty, James Quisenberry, Diane Marlin, Maryalice Wu, Chaundra Bishop, Christopher Evans, Shirese Hursey) Over four...
by Check CU | Nov 14, 2021 | Latest Articles
A clip from a presentation given by Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and ALPR salesman Dan Murdock at the September 20th Urbana City Council meeting (yellow highlighting added by Check CU) When Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and a representative from automatic...
by Check CU | Nov 14, 2021 | Latest Articles
Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) photos provided by Rantoul Attorney David Wesner in response to a FOIA request (click image to see all 68 images in higher resolution) Nearly two months after Chief Bryant Seraphin pushed for the installation of automatic license...
by Check CU | Oct 27, 2021 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten interjects during a CPRB meeting, arguing that the Board is not allowed to perform TASER oversight. The September 22nd Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) meeting continued a theme that has been present at virtually every...
by Check CU | Oct 5, 2021 | Latest Articles
Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin has repeatedly abused meetings rules and the Open Meetings Act during her terms as Mayor Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) is certainly not a new phenomenon. Hardly a month goes by where Check CU...
by Check CU | Apr 11, 2021 | Latest Articles
The Mayor of Urbana and the Council who helped her promote content-based speech restrictions at public meetings are struggling to cope with a recent Attorney General determination that their meeting rules violate state law. The Council discussed the AG ruling at...
by Check CU | Apr 2, 2021 | Latest Articles
On March 8th the Urbana City Council finally brought a resolution to an issue that has been under discussion since January. The Council voted to remove City employees and officials from the Urbana Human Rights Ordinance such that residents cannot follow through on a...
by Check CU | Jan 22, 2021 | Latest Articles
At the Urbana Committee of the Whole meeting on January 19th, City Administrator Carol Mitten brought forth an ordinance change that would exempt City employees, elected officials, and appointed board members from being subject to anti-discrimination laws. Check CU...
by Check CU | Jan 18, 2021 | Latest Articles
The City of Urbana is once again moving in the opposite direction of the overwhelming public demand for increased equality and accountability. City Administrator Carol Mitten is urging the Council to exempt the City and all of its staff from Urbana’s Human...
by Check CU | Jan 6, 2021 | Latest Articles
On November 2nd, 2020, Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten spoke about a mysterious memo regarding the legality of the obstacles she had placed in front of Urbana residents attempting to submit police complaints. The memo was in regards to the filing of...
by Check CU | Dec 22, 2020 | Latest Articles
Attorney Ben Gehrt, hired by City Administrator Carol Mitten, argues that Urbana’s Civilian Police Review Board should not be allowed to accept police complaints based on video evidence. The Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) met on December 17th, though...
by Check CU | Dec 14, 2020 | Latest Articles
New Urbana Community Engagement Coordinator, Lemond Peppers, speaks at a Human Relations Commission meeting on December 9th, 2020. Check CU is in possession of records from the City of Urbana which reveal more about the recent hiring of Lemond Peppers as their...
by Check CU | Dec 12, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten and City Attorney James Simon. Mitten has administratively overthrown the outcome of a Human Relations Commission hearing wherein the Commission reversed the wrongful denial by James Simon of a human rights complaint against the...
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 | 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 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 | 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 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...
