* Background is here if you need it. Press release…
The Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center’s mission is to foster the creation and distribution of media and art that emphasizes underrepresented voices and perspectives, and to promote empowerment and expression through media and arts education. Over the past 26 years, the UCIMC has brought hundreds of thousands of residents to events in downtown Urbana, supported hundreds of emerging artists, and incubated dozens of community based projects.
Recently, several news sources published stories about a federal indictment of Representative Ammons where the UCIMC was mentioned.
In response, we would like to share with our community the following context.
In 2021, UCIMC received a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) for a Non-profit Incubator to strengthen the capacity of local organizations working to alleviate the impacts of poverty and violence in Champaign County. We are grateful to Representative Ammons for her advocacy in addressing this and many local needs.
UCIMC was selected for this grant based on our longstanding experience in operating a fiscal sponsorship program that has supported the development of over 60 organizations. The majority of the Non-Profit Incubator grant funds were pass-through funds to support organizational capacity building for seven emerging nonprofit organizations over 12 months. These participating organizations received training and support through five modules: Statutory Requirements, Nonprofit Leadership, Digital Marketing, Grant Writing, and GATA (Grants Accountability and Transparency Act) Certification. Contracted experts supported each module. The program was successful and all seven organizations completed the program with good standing as formally recognized 501c3 organizations.
As part of the Digital Marketing Module, UCIMC chose to contract with Tatianna Ammons to support incubator participants in creating and improving their websites and digital marketing. Tatianna Ammons was selected due to her experience in the subject area. The selection of Tatianna Ammons was transparent and approved by our board of directors; her selection was in no way influenced by Representative Ammons. UCIMC paid Tatianna Ammons a total of $9,990 dollars to support seven organizations over the course of the grant and she completed all work to satisfaction. UCIMC submitted her work for reimbursement, no issues were flagged by DCEO, and UCIMC successfully administered the grant. We are grateful to Tatianna for her support in the success of the program.
As the story unfolds, the UCIMC encourages our community to remember that the U.S. Constitution guarantees due process with the presumption of innocence. UCIMC is a non-partisan community based organization that supports human rights for all residents.
Discuss.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 12:35 pm:
Sure, Jan.
- DuPage Dad - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 12:48 pm:
Am I crazy or isn’t her name spelled “Titianna”, and this organization repeatedly misspelled her name?
- Alton Sinkhole - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 12:53 pm:
@ DuPage Dad
Lol, fantastic catch.
- Red Ranger - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:00 pm:
A “we don’t comment on legal matters” would have been so much better here. Literally no one believes this statement. Im sure her mothers role, position in the HDem caucus and proximity to Speaker Welch had nothing to do with the hiring.
- Ponyboy1964 - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:07 pm:
“a total of $9,990 dollars”
Seems like a strange amount. Does $10,000 trigger report requirements to DCEO?
- Adroit Opiner - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:09 pm:
Might as well have made it $9,999.99.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:21 pm:
===Tatianna Ammons was selected due to her experience in the subject area. The selection of Tatianna Ammons was transparent and approved by our board of directors===
I’m no expert, but I think they’re going to need to give their community stakeholders a little bit more evidence to support this statement.
- Leslie K - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:27 pm:
That’s a whole bunch of words…
- Friendly Bob Adams - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:32 pm:
“no issues were flagged by DCEO” doesn’t mean much here. DCEO would be doing routine monitoring of federal funds, not looking at who was employed as a consultant.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:56 pm:
What they didn’t spell out was the subject area apparently is “Someone with a well connected elected official last name”.
- JS Mill - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:58 pm:
=Sure, Jan.=
@Three Dimensional Checkers +1
- NITA minute - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 1:59 pm:
Two questions for the UCIMC.
1. When were your organization’s leaders interviewed by federal authorities?
2. Is this what you told the feds?
- hisgirlfriday - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 2:20 pm:
@DuPage Dad - Got the Ammons spelled right though. Lol
- wayward - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 2:44 pm:
The Ammonses and UCIMC have had a good relationship for a long time. I doubt there was any explicit quid pro quo here as much as a desire to help an ally who’d gotten them money. So possibly unseemly, but not sure about illegal. I don’t know why the salary was set at that level.
- 13TH - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 3:05 pm:
it may not be reporting to DCEO, but more around the organization financial policies maybe $10,000.00 and above requires a Request For Proposal (RFP) or some additional process, so they would not be outside their policies
- Shytown - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 3:20 pm:
Uh huh…
Are they willing to say that in a court of law?
- Cubs in '16 - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 3:32 pm:
===Am I crazy or isn’t her name spelled “Titianna”===
‘Oh, TItianna. Yeah, she was a total patronage hire.’
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 3:44 pm:
And they had such a great relarionship with her that they can’t even spell her name right.
- Larry X - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 4:00 pm:
For a family that’s already the beneficiary of one gubernatorial pardon, you’d think they would be staying on the straight and narrow path.
- Tom - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 4:07 pm:
==For a family that’s already the beneficiary of one gubernatorial pardon,==
Which Governor gave Aaron the pardon?
- Average Voter - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 4:41 pm:
If the grant recipient says they weren’t leaned on to make a specific hire, then I believe them. What incentive would they have to deny being bullied into a personnel choice once the bad actor gets all this heat? The IMC is merely affirming their independence.
That is all.
- Juvenal - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 4:41 pm:
It appears Titianna has an associate degree in history from Parkland Community College. We deserve to know what made her uniquely qualified to to assist seven media organizations in web design and digital marketing, and I would love some comic relief.
Bonus points to anyone who publishes the response when you ask for a list of her references or former clients.
In Champaign-Urbana, you cannot walk five steps in any directions without running into someone who owns a web design company. Its literally the town that invented the web browser. Atleast one black-owned web design and digital marketing consultant is listed on the local Black Chamber of Commerce website, Chrisp Media.
- green mountain boys - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 4:42 pm:
- Tom - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 4:07 pm:
==For a family that’s already the beneficiary of one gubernatorial pardon,==
Which Governor gave Aaron the pardon?
Qwinn. Now, there is NO RECORD of it being signed, but AARON claims he has one so he could run for the Urbana City Council. Quinn signed it allegedly on his last day in office.
- Juvenal - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 5:35 pm:
The tax returns for UCIMC for 2021 and 2022 do not report any government grants in Part VIII Section 1e.
They do however report $186,000 spent providing “Bail Bonds” for those two years.
SMH.
- Juvenal - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 6:01 pm:
Also, contrary to claims, atleast one of the nonprofits funded through UCIMC had its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS in 2025, The Well Experience. Per the IRS, they have not filed a tax return since 2021, which includes the period during which UCIMC was making grants to them.
- Juvenal - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 6:04 pm:
Make that two: Trauma Survivors Heal 2 has also never filed a tax return per the IRS, and its nonprofit status was also revoked.
- Juvenal - Monday, Jul 13, 26 @ 6:12 pm:
Make that three: Wayne McClain Pipeline filed a “postcard” tax return for 2022, claiming less than $50K income. According to UCIMC, they gave Wayne McClain Pipeline NFP $77K that year.
So, not revoked, but likely filed a false return. Big fat oops.
For anyone who cares, receipts: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/
- Former bookie - Tuesday, Jul 14, 26 @ 7:44 am:
I worked with two programs affiliated with the UCIMC when I lived in Urbana. Books to Prisoners responded to paper letters sent by IDOC inmates with the books they requested. Most were freely donated to us, but we had so many requests for dictionaries that we had to buy those sometimes.
3RS (Reading Reduces Recidivism) cooperated with prison librarians in Illinois to make general circulation materials available to them.
I’m no longer working with either organization, since I moved away, but I’m disheartened to see the good work some of these organizations do put in a bad light due to the poor decision making of the UCIMC directors. It’s not enough to simply not violate the law. One needs to be mindful of the appearance of impropriety. Employing Carol’s daughter was a decision that merited more deliberation than it likely received.
I look forward to a blatantly partisan investigation of her by statehouse Republicans, and hope she resigns or is expelled. And if wrongdoing is proven in court, I hope she serves a sentence appropriate to dissuade others from such actions.
- About Time - Tuesday, Jul 14, 26 @ 9:29 am:
==I doubt there was any explicit quid pro quo here as much as a desire to help an ally who’d gotten them money.==
Given that the federal indictment alleges Carol was informed by the State of Illinois years ago that nonprofits receiving those grants could not hire her family members, this take seems more than a little silly.
It’s also worth noting that several past and present UCIMC board members, including Danielle Chenoweth and her partner, Jane McClintock, are close personal friends of Carol. When you’re a public official with significant influence, part of the responsibility is avoiding not only actual conflicts of interest, but even the appearance of impropriety.
- Juvenal - Tuesday, Jul 14, 26 @ 1:25 pm:
Danielle Chenoweth is not just a “close friend” of Ammons, she is the former chair of her campaign fund which is alleged to have been part of the fraud. While Chenoweth was no longer chair of the PAC, its hard to believe she was unaware what was going on and it makes the statement that the board approved the contract much, much worse I think. The conflicts-of-interest here are breathtaking in just how widespread they are. No one appears to have been concerned about how this might look from the outside, and of the potential harm to the group’s reputation.
- Juvenal - Tuesday, Jul 14, 26 @ 1:41 pm:
Continuing my series: the “Radical Thought Collective” for which Ammons reportedly did web design and digital marketing consulting does not appear to have a website. The address they reported to the IRS, www.radicalthoughtcol.org, does not exist.
I’m not going to bother cross-referencing officers of these nonprofits with Ammons’ campaign donors, but there is more than enough here to suggest that the state of Illinois should audit this grant or the AG should investigate, and I’ve yet to hear that’s happened.
- About Time - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 8:13 am:
==The conflicts-of-interest here are breathtaking in just how widespread they are. No one appears to have been concerned about how this might look from the outside, and of the potential harm to the group’s reputation.==
“One set of rules for me, another set of rules for thee” seems to be the Urbana activist left’s approach.