AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION

of Champaign County

Steering Committee

April 7, 2005

Present: Maeve Anderson, Bill Brown,, Roger Clark, Rachael Dietkus, Ward Henson, Esther Patt, Gary Peters, Jay Rosenstein, Richard Schnuer, Steve Shoemaker, Shirley Stillinger, Vinay Tota, Harvey Welch,

Absent with notice: Susan Cohen, Brian Issleb, Stuart Laird, Alan Levy, Stan Levy, Stephen Portnoy, Kristen Solberg, Carol Spindel

Guest: Pam Burnside, Senior Assistant Public Defender

 

The meeting was called to order by the acting chair, Bill Brown, at 7:35 p.m. Introductions were made around the table and the minutes were approved as distributed.

Announcements

The Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU will honor Hiram Paley at its Bill of Rights Celebration in Chicago on October 1.

Rachael said that the Urbana Human Relations Commission is organizing a program for the fall on prisoner reentry into the community. They would like ACLU support.

Presentation

Pam Burnside presented two videos taken by the Champaign Police Department in the course of an arrest in support of her argument for the need for a civilian police review board. The videos did not seem to correspond with the written police report. Ms. Burnside said there was a need to work on the Champaign city council members and the city manager and asked for attendance at meetings and letters of support. There was extensive discussion.

Student Chapter

Maeve reported that the students were looking forward to the statewide meeting the next Saturday. She also said that the chapter is going to have a membership drive on the quad on the Day of Silence.

Annual Meeting

So far, the number of reservations is 120. Rachael passed around a menu and said she would be sending out a press release.

Bill announced that there would be two new members on the slate to be presented at the annual meeting: Richard Schnuer and Marsha Woodbury. Stuart Laird will be taking emeritus status.

The meeting was adjourned.

NEXT MEETING: Thursday, May 5, 2005