Urbana parts ways with consulting firm over disagreement

URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — Urbana is cutting its contract with a consulting firm over a meetings disagreement.

The city hired BerryDunn a year and a half ago to help the city with a full public safety review. They completed the first two phases of the review and the third would've focused on developing an alternative response model to send other organizations instead of first responders on certain 9-1-1 calls.

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Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin said the disagreement came over the meeting style. The city wanted them open to the public, but the consultants wanted them closed.

"We hadn't specifically outlined meeting logistics when we were doing scope of work or when we were doing the earlier parts of the study," Marlin said. "I think both the consultant and the city went into the task force workshop phase of things with different expectations."

She said both parties left on good terms as parting ways was mutual. BerryDunn will send over all the materials they've done for the city so far and Urbana will pay the rest of what they owe.