Election day is long gone, but Mayor-elect Deb Feinen’s term is just beginning. A few days ago, I chatted with Feinen about how she will respond to some of the challenges facing Champaign and her long-term vision for the city. Here’s what she had to say.
Smile Politely: Congratulations on the election. How did you celebrate on election night?
Deb Feinen: I was with family and friends at Brookens when I got the news. We were there fairly late. Then I went with friends to Jupiter’s at the Crossing later that evening.
SP: What will be different about the mayor’s office under your leadership?
Feinen: I’m going to spend more time at the mayor’s office. I believe Don [Gerard] was primarily there on Tuesday afternoons. I’m going to try to be there for some period of time every day.
SP: Do you think the public face of the mayor’s office will be different under your leadership?
Feinen: Well, obviously I’m female. But, on a serious note, Don and I are different people. We approach problems in different ways. I think I’ll be more actively involved in projects we’re working on and what’s coming to council. I’ll also try to be as professional as possible.
SP: What challenges do you foresee in transitioning to the role of mayor from the role of councilmember?
Feinen: I’ve been a councilmember for nine years, but I’ve been kind of surprised to see how much more higher profile being mayor is than being a councilmember. I wasn’t prepared for how many people recognize the mayor or want to talk to you because you are a mayor. I would have thought that people would reach out to their councilmembers more. But in these last few weeks, I’ve seen there are many more people who are keyed into who the mayor is.
SP: How do you think the city of Champaign should respond to Governor Rauner’s budget proposal? And how will you respond as mayor?
Feinen: I want to meet with Governor Rauner and his staff in Springfield to talk about the impact of cuts for Champaign. But as of right now, we don’t really know what the numbers are yet. Will it be $4 million in cuts for Champaign? Something less than that? We don’t know.
I think it would be powerful to come at this from a community perspective. I have reached out to Pattsi Petry, Mayor Prussing, Representative Ammons, and Senator Bennett. Being able to talk about the impact on Champaign County as a whole would be a good thing. We need to work together for the health of our region. We all have a role to play with respect to our own budget issues, but if we can come together with one voice, we might be more powerful and more effective.
SP: To clarify, what is your personal stance on Rauner’s budget proposal?
Feinen: I haven’t spent enough time with his proposal to say what cuts should happen or what cuts should not happen. What I know is that what’s proposed for the city of Champaign is about $4 million, plus additional cuts to the University of Illinois and Champaign County as a whole. But I’m not prepared at this point to say which cuts I support or don’t support.
I understand that there is going to be some amount of shared pain as we try to get the state budget situation straightened out, but what would be helpful is having time for us to adjust. If there are going to be cuts, it would be better if they were implemented over time rather than just having a red line through budget items. We also need an opportunity to make our case for why this region in particular is an economic driver for this state. Cuts here may actually lower state revenues, which is not a good idea.
SP: Regardless of the final number, it seems clear there will be cuts to the city budget. What do you feel should be cut?
Feinen: We haven’t even started to make those decisions. Until we have a number, I couldn’t even tell you. If it is $4 million, those cuts would be coming after $18 million of cuts between 2007 and 2011, so the city is already really lean. What we did last time is that each department had proposals, we had different tiers of cuts, and we reviewed how those cuts would affect services. I imagine something similar would happen this time. But we haven’t even started the discussions.
SP: What specifically will you do to promote economic development in Champaign?
Feinen: The big one is broadband. Figuring out ways to exploit that asset we have in this community is really important to me. Also, in our budget year that’s coming to an end, we had allocated money for minority-owned and other small businesses, so continuing those kinds of things is really important. I’ve been talking with Councilmember Kyles about continuing to find ways to break larger projects into smaller projects so that smaller companies have the chance to bid and get involved in city process.
SP: There has been a spate of violence in Champaign and around campus these past few months. What will you do to address this?
Feinen: The police department is starting to meet with the community. I haven’t taken office yet, but I’ll need to talk to the police chiefs to see what we need to do to support our officers. I also think part of addressing violence is supporting our economic development and making sure it’s not decimated by the state budget. We need to support kids and also make sure they’re going home to healthy families. So we have a lot of work to do. The city will reach out to social service agencies and also faith communities. Of course, the city is not a social service agency, but we’re going to have to work together to address things directly.
SP: How will you work with Unit 4 to move forward after the referendum on Central High School?
Feinen: I’ve reached out to some of the newly elected board members. I think we need to hear from them about how they would like the city to be involved. It’s clear we’re going to need to all be proactively working together. Of course, we have planners at the city and they don’t at Unit 4. Perhaps having our planners help them is something we could do; it’s something we’ve done in the past. And I’m happy to sit on committees. As Unit 4 is working with the community to gather information and figure out how they are going to move forward, perhaps that’s something the city could help with. I want to be respectful, because it’s ultimately their board. But the city wants to be a resource because a new high school would help the community as a whole.
SP: What is your vision for the city of Champaign? What do you want to see it become by the end of your term?
Feinen: The big vision for me for the next four years is to really be proactive about broadband. There have a window of time when we are unique in the nation in having gigabyte speed and the infrastructure here in this community. We need to be exploiting it for education and economic development. Right now, that means continuing to work with ITV3 and getting it out to all of our neighborhoods in the community. I am hoping at the end of four years, we really see change that has been driven by the broadband asset.
I’d also like there to be absolutely no gun violence and continued improvement in police and community relations. And more diversity in city hires.
SP: Anything else you want to add?
Feinen: One thing I think is really important is that we’re a city manager form of government. We come together as a council and set goals as a council. It’s important to be mindful of the fact that this is not a strong mayor form of government. Of course, I hope others on council and in the city manager’s office agree with my priorities, but we set the policy and direction of the city by working together.