The Urbana, Illinois City Council has opted to reappoint the same, often unpopular, City Administrator, Carol Mitten, for an additional two years. On June 6th, 2022 Mayor Diane Marlin advocated for Mitten’s reappointment and the Council voted as follows:
- Maryalice Wu: Yes
- Christopher Evans: Yes
- Shirese Hursey: Yes
- Jaya Kolisetty: Yes
- Chaundra Bishop: Yes
- Grace Wilken: No
- James Quisenberry: Yes
None of the Council members indicated their reasons for voting for or against Mitten, who is Urbana’s highest paid employee ($166,711.83 in total compensation).
Check CU notes that, over the past few years, Carol Mitten has (among other things) engaged in the following questionable and sometimes illegal conduct:
- Engaged in the felony destruction and/or concealment of 40 years of police complaints
- Argued in favor of intimidating and discriminating against job applicants based on their arrest record
- Failed to recruit a firm to perform a Community Safety Review requested by the Council
- Allowed the Urbana Police Department to violate their FOP contract for years
- Helped craft a police complaint form that violates Illinois State law
- Shut down discussion of Open Meetings Act violations at a Council meeting, then shouted and swore at a member of the public who was attempting to record the meeting
- Warned the Civilian Police Review Board, a Board directed by ordinance to review police TASER usages, that they are not allowed to discuss possible TASER violations
- Gave an intentionally misleading presentation on human rights laws
- Pushed to have City employees and elected officials exempted from anti-discrimination laws
- Personally overthrew the outcome of a human rights hearing after it uncovered illegal discriminatory hiring practices by City officials
- Encouraged the City Council to engage in criminal free speech violations which resulted in a lawsuit which the City paid to settle as well as multiple citations of violation from the Illinois Attorney General
- Retaliated against a member of the public for submitting a complaint to the Attorney General, by publishing the victim’s home address and email address on the City website
- Threatened police review board members with “sanctions” if they ever disclosed details about their police complaint reviews
- Attempted to convince the City Council that the City should deny police complaints
- Attempted to violate Urbana’s police complaint procedures
- Attempted to hamper the police complaint review process
- Lied to the Council about police complaint notary requirements
- Attempted to hamper events at the Independent Media Center by charging new fees for small gatherings of people
Add to the list of questionable city administrator conduct: Has failed to acknowledge, address, resolve, most, if not all, of the serious issues brought to the City’s attention by community watchdogs, and exposed here by CheckCU’s diligent citizen journalism.
Urbana deserves better. And that’s what a City Council member “no” vote indicates.
A gaslighting spin from Mayor Marlin: City Council “no” votes are basically saying, we’re terminating your employment, and create uncertainty, and damage morale… We’re on the verge of starting searches for a chief of police and a community development director. People who apply for jobs in Urbana watch our meetings. At that level, they watch our meetings, they talk to employees, and the message that was sent [with the “no” votes] is that this is not necessarily a welcoming or supportive place to work.
But actually, the message sent is much simpler and laudable: It’s that Urbana has elected (at least some) City Council Members who will not be “yes men” puppets of the administration, who follow a professional set of ethics, standards, and duties toward not cronies, but constituents.
GO, Grace Wilken.
Add to the list of questionable city administrator conduct: Has failed to acknowledge, address, resolve, most, if not all, of the serious issues brought to the City’s attention by community watchdogs, and exposed here by CheckCU’s diligent citizen journalism.
Urbana deserves better. And that’s what a City Council member “no” vote indicates.
A gaslighting spin from Mayor Marlin: City Council “no” votes are basically saying, we’re terminating your employment, and create uncertainty, and damage morale… We’re on the verge of starting searches for a chief of police and a community development director. People who apply for jobs in Urbana watch our meetings. At that level, they watch our meetings, they talk to employees, and the message that was sent [with the “no” votes] is that this is not necessarily a welcoming or supportive place to work.
But actually, the message sent is much simpler and laudable: It’s that Urbana has elected (at least some) City Council Members who will not be “yes men” puppets of the administration, who honor a professional set of ethics, standards, and duties toward not cronies, but constituents.
GO, Grace Wilken.
It’s worth a try reporting her to the FBI and the Department of Justice for deprivation of rights under color of law. You as a citizen have the right to view the police misconduct records she destroyed. She may have obstructed Justice. Half the battle is getting the evidence to the right person and agencies.
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights/federal-civil-rights-statutes
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights
https://www.justice.gov/crt/deprivation-rights-under-color-law
I found the five minutes of commentary the city of Urbana’s administrator made to the public body in the video record CheckCU previously wrote about, to be an abject failure to recognize and/or admit any room for improvement within the city admin itself. If not for the “No’s” document in this news, I would regret having ever listened to her speak.
https://checkcu.org/carol-mitten-argues-for-kid-gloves-at-government-meetings/
Hell NO! We do not want her in Evanston 😡
Yiu should of pick someone from the city of Evanston