Tuesday evening’s (July 25th) Danville City Council Public Services Committee meeting brought about more conversation on recent topics. Vermilion County Mental Health 708 Board Executive Director Jim Russell was in attendance to hear positive discussion on his request for $25,000 from the city for part of an initial one-year salary for a new position. It would be for the Mental Health Board to hire a full time coordinator to help put the ROSC system to work. ROSC is “Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care.”
As Russell stated to the City Council back on July 5th, the idea is that with so many residents struggling with addictions such as opioids, fentanyl, and more; why not bring in a liaison to help connect those that NEED help with those that CAN help. This is now scheduled to go before the full City Council next week, and both Russell and Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr are hoping for a positive outcome.
AUDIO: (Russell) I think with the support that we’ve had from not only the council members who were here tonight, I think it will be approved. (Williams) If we can save just one life, I think a $25,000 investment from the city is worth it.
The Vermilion County Board has already said “yes” to Russell’s request for $75,000 in COVID relief funds to help fund the new position’s first year salary. The 708 Board is hoping for grant funding to keep the position going afterwards.
There was also talk of the City of Danville going to having city offices open Monday through Thursday 7:30 to 5:30, and then being closed on Fridays. Mayor Williams says this will require further discussion and fine-tuning, and the union would need to be given proper notification. But the idea is, give residents more hourly flexibility if they have city business to take care of.
AUDIO: One of the biggest complaints I’ve had from the public, both as an alderman and now as mayor, is that we open when they’re already at work; we close when they’re still at work, or just getting off of work. This would allow us an extra half-hour before we open; an extra hour in the evening time that folks can do business with us.
At the end of the meeting, more discussion came on the recent proposal put forth by Public Works Committee Chairman Mike Puhr and Alderman Bob Iverson. The main point of perhaps requiring “a majority of all City Council and committee members” to have something passed instead of “a majority of the quorum present at the time of the vote” continues in the balance; with Aldermen Sherry Pickering and Jon Cooper, and Mayor Williams, saying Tuesday night that they are strongly against it.
In addition, Iverson stated that the part about having anything not approved by the committee NOT still going to the full City Council has been dropped, after much protest was expressed.
Another point in the proposal is having the Credentials Committee disbanded. Mayor Williams says it looks like that will be discussed further as well. But he agrees that the City Council seems to be having a committee that just duplicates a lot of duties the Danville Election Commission already performs.
AUDIO: I believe that we are. However, Vice-Mayor Teague raised some poignant questions which I want to investigate a bit.
And going back to the “majority of everyone or the quorum present” issue, individuals on both sides are saying the City Council’s rules on this need to be specified. But Corporation Council James Simon says that actually, they currently are; because since the city rules are not specific on this, the city then defaults to Robert’s Rules of Order, which calls for it to be a majority of the quorum present at the time of the vote.
