URBANA – Whether or not ex-felons should be part of a Citizen Police Review Board in Urbana could be an issue as the city council decides whether to continue the program.

The Urbana council will meet as a committee of the whole for a study session at 7 p.m. Monday at the city building, 400 S. Vine St.

The agenda for the meeting includes an ordinance reauthorizing the Citizen Police Review Board.

Approved by the council in August 2008, the review board has seven members to hear appeals from citizens who are dissatisfied with rulings by the police chief on any complaints.

Tom Costello, assistant managing director of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District and chairman of the review board, said the group is still in its first year of operation and, so far, does not have any citizen complaint cases.

"Everybody in the public knows we have a process to hear complaints and the police officers know they are going to be held to certain standards," Costello said.

Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing, who appointed members of the review board, said a task force which looked at the issues before the board was formed recommended that former police officers be excluded from the board because there would be an appearance of bias in favor of police.

In a letter to Urbana Human Relations Officer Todd Rent, Ricky Baldwin, who is part of the County Coalition for Police Review Boards, said the current system excludes people convicted of crimes even after they've served their sentences.

"The disenfranchisement of persons with police records has a long and ugly history in this country, and it is not limited to the right to vote," Baldwin wrote. "The exclusion written into this ordinance is a violation of basic human rights to participate in the institutions of our society and must be removed."

Prussing said that when Urbana negotiated a union contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, the police union said that if ex-officers are excluded, ex-felons should likewise be excluded.

"This board is designed to be impartial," Prussing said. "We have a contract, but if an ex-felon is appointed, then we ought to have a former police officer on the board too."

Prussing said the council also will consider a recommended limit of 45 days, down from 60, on the time police have to resolve any complaints about officers. If a complaint is not resolved in that time, the proposed language calls for mailing of a status report to the complainant every 30 days until the complaint is resolved.

Also on the study session agenda are items to consider parking restrictions, waiver of rental registration program fees, an annual action plan by the Champaign County HOME Consortium, participation in a state first-time-buyer single-family program, fees for non-residents for certain fire and rescue services, and fees for the public-education and government access cable services.