See also: Meet Michelle Jett, Democratic candidate for Champaign County Executive.
CHAMPAIGN – Democrats in Champaign County will decide who will be the next County Executive in the primary election. Early voting begins Thursday, with the primary election set for March 17.
Democrats Sanford Hess and Michelle Jett are seeking their party’s nomination for the role. The winner of the Democratic primary is presumed to be the next County Executive, since there are no Republican candidates. The new County Executive will replace Democrat Steve Summers, current Champaign County executive, who has been in office since 2022.
Hess, a Virginia native, has had a long history with Champaign County, working with local government administration for over 30 years, including as a government consultant, City of Urbana IT director as well as member of the Mayor’s cabinet and a division manager.
Hess said local and federal issues inspired his decision to run for County Executive.
“What’s going on in our country, and even down at the local level, motivated me to get involved and put myself back into this effort,” he said. “I think that government administration is an incredibly important part of getting the work done for everyday residents, voters, and taxpayers, and I’m here to give myself to that effort.”
The Champaign County Executive is responsible for day-to-day operations of the County Administration.
The role of County Executive is relatively new to Champaign County. Champaign is one of only two counties that holds elections rather than appointing the role.
While other local government roles are responsible for delivering one type of service or being part of the decision-making body, the County Executive is an operational role responsible for day-to-day, logistical back-office processes that support all of county government.
Hess said he believes his experience in IT and government consulting make him the right person for the role. “Ultimately, what I’m trying to do in this role is bring my expertise in getting work done in government to the county,” he said. “The county has a lot of challenges, and I believe that I have the right background and experience to make a difference in this role.”Despite his technology background, Hess said, he remains cautious about integrating certain technologies in government, especially with the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
“Although I’ve spent decades helping governments use technology, I’m also a technology-skeptic: I don’t believe that just throwing money at technology is always the right solution,” he said.
He believes some people will have a hard time allowing AI to be used in government processes, so he said he would approach it in a careful way.
“We need to make sure that we’re doing it effectively, that we’re doing it transparently, and that we’re doing it in a way that people’s information is secure,” Hess said.
According to Hess, Champaign County faces challenges with its finances and county employees.
“We have a structural deficit, as we are told by the county board, and that’s something that we need to manage and work on, and there are efforts beginning on that, so I applaud those and support them with employees,” he said.
The county is also experiencing an “ongoing wave of retirements of long-time county workers,” following national trends, he said.
“So what we need to work on there is making sure that we’re supporting a workforce and bringing in new people to the workforce who might not be looking at government careers, so we need to make the county an excellent place to work so that we can attract new people,” Hess said.The County Executive is also responsible for county-owned facilities, which includes the Brookens Center, which previously used to housed countywide offices. Champaign County administrative offices have since relocated to the Bennett Administrative Center in downtown Urbana.
With the recent move of Champaign County administration to the Bennett Administrative Center, and the Brookens Center was put on the market for $3.5 million.
“I support the idea of selling it, I’m skeptical that there will be a buyer who wants to pay the price that’s being asked, and I fear that eventually we may have to go ahead with a demolition project in order to clear the land to make it more enticing to a future owner,” Hess said.
Hess said there are also issues related to the County Courthouse.
“The courthouse has space issues, so what we have is too many people to fit into the same space, and unfortunately, it’s going to require some kind of a substantial project to identify how to grow the courthouse, how to add space, and how to accommodate our increasing caseload,” he said.
Hess said he’s planning to connect with residents through transparency and openness.
“The biggest difference that I would say between myself, my opponent and the current county executive office, is that I would lead with transparency and openness and explaining to people why we’re making these changes,” he said.
Reflecting on the January County Board meeting, Hess said “decisions are being proposed without full financial support for what the rationale is, without people explaining what the options that were considered, and without a good explanation of what the current problem is that we’re trying to solve.
“So I’m going to be first and foremost with presenting information to people to justify why we’re doing things so that they can better understand and not stop and worry that we’re wasting money or wasting time.”
Hess has no endorsements listed on his website.