By:  Diane Benjamin

The County is FINALLY live streaming County Board meetings.  The chairs have been rearranged and two cameras are being used so almost all members are on the video.

The problem now is most of the work is done in Committees.  If any controversy occurs, it is most likely going to happen in there.   When those meetings are live streamed citizens will finally have the ability to be informed.  Audio isn’t good enough because it can’t be scanned like a video.  It isn’t possible to scroll, stop, and listen as necessary.

It appears the November 19th meeting was also Live Streamed.  The site shows it only lasted 35 minutes.

The December 17, 2019 a County Board meeting was live streamed, it lasted over an hour.  Since it concerned cannabis there was a lot of discussion.   That discussion starts at 23:15.  If you listen to the meeting prior to this, you will see most items sail through with little to no discussion.

Chuck Erickson’s committee wanted to put two advisory referendums on the Primary ballot in March.  The first was whether to allow growing, processing, and infusing in the unincorporated areas of the County.  Bloomington and Normal control this inside their boundaries.  The second referendum was a yes or no question to allow dispensaries in the unincorporated areas of the County.  Both failed.

It would have been nice of the members had used their microphones when they voted.  Some were difficult to hear.  Many of the no votes were because members felt the public has plenty of opportunities to voice their opinions in committees.  We need committee meetings on video!

58:20 Chuck Erickson – cannabis prohibition.  This vote was only to get everybody on the record.  “Opt Out” failed.

At 1:12:00 was a report concerning the 911 phone problems.  Frontier will be replaced as the emergency phone carrier.