City council hopefuls share views at forum
CHAMPAIGN – Not everyone was watching Chief Illiniwek's last performance.
Eight candidates for the three at-large seats on the city council spent nearly two hours Wednesday night sharing their views at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Champaign County.
An audience of about 35 people at the Champaign City Building saw the candidates discuss a variety of issues, including the need for rental inspections, whether to repeal the smoking ban, urban growth, whether to change the form of city government and the wisdom of enacting a civilian police review board to review citizen complaints against officers.
Nine candidates are vying for the three council seats that are elected citywide. The field will be narrowed to six candidates in Tuesday's city primary. Those six candidates will then vie for the three open seats in the April 17 consolidated election.
Eight of the candidates were at the forum, including incumbent council members Tom Bruno and Giraldo Rosales, council appointee Deborah Frank Feinen, and newcomers Karen Foster, Patricia Avery, Annette Williams, Bill Glithero and Michael Henley.
Candidate Freddie Gordon did not attend.
Whether to implement rental registration and city systematic inspections of rental properties proved to be a divisive issue, with Rosales, Williams, Avery and Glithero favoring rental registration and Bruno, Foster, Henley and Feinen opposed.
"Over half the properties in Champaign are rental," Glithero said. "In the Big Ten, Champaign is the only Big Ten community that doesn't have rental registration at this point."
Glithero said rental homes in some neighborhoods are neglected and a blighting influence that lowers property values.
Bruno said he rents four apartments above his Urbana law office and recently received a $100 rental registration bill from the city of Urbana. "Somehow, I've got to pay that," he said, adding that eventually such costs will be transferred by landlords to renters.
Feinen said she would consider registration only for out-of-town landlords that don't contract with a local property management firm.
On another issue, Rosales said he would support, after City Manager Steve Carter retires, changing Champaign's city manager form of government to a mayor-aldermanic form like Urbana has.
On the issue of urban growth, Henley said "if you're not growing, you're dying."
"With urban sprawl there might be a little more to manage, but you're going to have resources to handle it," he said. "I don't have a problem with urban sprawl."
Most of the candidates said they do object to sprawl, including Feinen, who said the city should encourage development in "targeted growth areas" and should also encourage infill development "in our core city."
The candidates were split on the wisdom of the city's Indoor Clean Air Ordinance, which bans smoking in bars and restaurants. Rosales, Avery, Williams and Bruno support the ban; Henley, Foster, Glithero and Feinen either want to repeal the ban or substantially weaken it.
"This is a public health issue, and other communities are dealing with it and accepting it," Williams said.
"I have been in contact with several establishments and their concerns and they are having a severe economic impact from the smoking ban," Foster said.
On the issue of whether Champaign needs a civilian police review board to hear complaints against police, the council candidates split again.
Rosales, Williams and Avery are staunch supporters of a review board, and Glithero also said he supports the concept, but would like to see a countywide board for all law enforcement agencies.
Bruno, Foster, Henley and Feinen expressed doubts about the concept, but they all said they would listen to any proposal put forward by the police chief.
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- Obituaries