Peoria approves $2.88 million mental health co-responder grant amid $368,000 grant scandal investigation

e e e everyone would take their seat we're going to get started you should be on now if everyone would take their seats we're going to get started you you hear me we're going to do then okay one item okay okay okay great thank you you turned it up okay [Music] good good evening everyone it is 6 o'clock p.m.

on Tuesday September 10th 2024 I'd like to call the meeting of the Poria city council to order I'd like to also welcome everyone who's here in our historic city council chambers as well as our listening audience at wcbu I'd also like to welcome our audience watching on cable channel 22 Madam clerk the council mics are open please call the rooll mayor Ali present council member Allan present council member sear here council member Gordon young present council member graab here council member Jackson here council member Kelly here council member Oiler here council member riggenbach here council member velpula present and council member vaspa here you have a quum present Madame mayor thank you madam clerk everyone please join me and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance Al toag of the United States of America to for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for M clerk we are at proclamations we have three proclamations today the first one recognizes Hispanic Heritage Month the proclamation reads whereas the city of Peoria recognizes Hispanic Heritage Month by honoring the histories cultures and contributions of our community members and their ancestors who came from Mexico the Caribbean and Central and South America and whereas the city of Poria is committed to building a welcoming and neighborly Community embracing diversity and fostering equity for every Community member and whereas more than 6% of the city of Pia's population identifies as Hispanic or Latin American in the 2020 census and Hispanic make up the largest ethnic minority group in the United States and whereas September 15th is noted as the start of Hispanic Heritage Month as the anniversary of the 1821 Independence declarations in five Latin American countries Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua while Mexico chile and Biz celebrate their independence days on September 16th September 18th and September 21 respectively and whereas the city of Poria celebrates the cultural heritage of our community members and the diversity they bring to the lives of our neighbors and neighborhoods Hispanics have impacted the culture of the United States Illinois and Peoria in areas of business government Innovation art education and Entrepreneurship now therefore I Rita Ali mayor of the city of Poria to hereby acknowledge September 15th through October 15th as Hispanic Heritage Month in Peoria Illinois our next Proclamation recognizes National senior health month we have Peggy jock founder of and executive director of Graceland Center for purposeful aging and Cindy Johnson chairperson of graceand Center for per purposeful agent can you come forth ladies and councilman Andre Allen will present this uh Proclamation there we go thank you Madame mayor whereas National senior censor month is celebrated each September by the National Council on Asian to H light the value of our nation's senior sinners in the lives of older adults and whereas the older adult Act of 1965 along with the laws creating Medicare Medicaid and Social Security recommended that all communities have designated centers that focus on the well-being of retired persons and whereas the research-based outcomes of the senior center participants demonstrate that older adults who participate in Senior Center programs can learn to manage and delay the onset of chronic diseases and experiencing me and experience measurable improvements and their physical social spiritual emotional mental and economic well-being and whereas older adults contribute significantly to the overall well-being of our communities through their financial impact work experience talent and by providing guidance and care to the members of all ages in need of support and whereas as gracel Center for purposeful aging initial programming in porori has grown in attendance in its first grant year averaging 40 to 50 participants from Peoria's robust aging population at weekly events and 20 partici participants and satellite events and whereas Graceland Center for purple Soul aging will continue weekly programming and fundraising building towards creating a community-based senior center for Peoria residents now therefore I Rita Ali mayor of the city of porori Illinois do hereby acknowledge September as National Senior Center month in peor Illinois dated this day 10th of September 2024 [Applause] ad thank you mayor Ali and city council members for supporting us and proclaiming our second senior center month last year was the first time that we presented the need for a senior center for Poria because we don't have one as I mentioned then we're the eighth largest city and the only one in the top 10 if not 20 that don't have one and we know that we have a third of our population is over the age of 50 so that's 33,000 people and 20,000 of them are over the age of 65 so we certainly have a need and so in this past year graceand Center had two fairly large grants from the American Rescue funding from the central Illinois Agency on Aging and the Community Foundation and so we launched um programming and we rent space at the life together Center at 2625 North Sheridan Road and um I would love to see you come and enjoy what we are enjoying um the joy and the of the participants is palpable when you come in um people we do programming for physical health with exercises we do emotional health with creativity and social ization we do mental exercises and learning and the comments that we get are I never um knew I needed to learn so much to age well or this has changed my life or um I feel so welcome here so we know that we're doing the right thing and that we know that in time hopefully we can work with you all at city council to um find funding because this is a community need that's much larger than Graceland Center um we need programming to enable people to live at home and to age well where there's programs at ICC and Bradley and the park district but none of them offer a comprehensive program like we do and the biggest component of that is socialization um we know that social isolation is a a health determinant um and there's a medical diagnosis for um social loneliness that impacts our health so we know that we have a responsibility to address that so we'd invite you to come to any of our programs and this year's um National Senior Center theme is making connections and that's what we're doing um a lot of of seniors don't know some of the programs that are available to them and how to access them so every month every week we have someone giving them um some learning experiences on community programs or how to stay physically active or whatnot so it's um it's a broader View than just going to programs that um you go to just as a one-time thing so our goal is to establish a birken mortar Senior Center for Poria and we know that they promote um when we promote aging well we promote the social and um emotional well-being of an entire community so thank you and um please come down and see what we're doing we'd love to have you we'd love to host you we have programs every Tuesday and Wednesday you can look at our website um or a Facebook page for the schedule so thank you you're very [Applause] welcome our next Proclamation recognizes hunger action month we have Christa Staley divisional executive director of Midwest food bank and Wayne Cannon program manager of the Poria area food bank can you come forward and council member Tim riggenbach is going to present the proclamation counc whereas everyone needs nutritious food to thrive in every community in America includes people who are struggling with Hunger more than 44 million people faced food insecurity in 2022 including 13 million children in the nation and 12% of people in the state of Illinois and whereas more than 23,737 individuals in tazwell County and 3,760 in Woodford County rely on food provided by members of the Midwest food bank and piia area Food Bank annually and whereas the members of Midwest food bank and Poria area Food Bank distribute food and help address Community needs through its network of food pantries soup kitchens and shelters while working with the food pantry Network hoi partnership for a healthy community and other community organizations whereas the month of September has been designated hunger action month to bring attention to food in Security in our communities and engage the public in action through volunteer shifts social media shares and donations food banks and organizations across the country will host numerous events throughout the month of September to help end Hunger in their local community now therefore Rita Ali mayor of the city of puia does hereby designate September as hunger action month in puia Illinois dated this 10th day of September 2024 [Applause] thank you mayor Ali and city council members uh for proclaiming this again once again hunger action month um on behalf of Poria area food bank and Midwest food bank I just want to say this is such a great forum for us the month of September does hold so many amazing opportunities for us to um showcase what we're doing in the communities to fight hunger and to fight food insecurity and it gives us more forums to shed light on on the issues at hand here with the food and Security in our area um we do have some amazing opportunities coming up yet I know that the heel program which is part of the tri count Area Health departments are showcasing they've already started every Sunday this month with Wayne and his team showcasing both of our food banks as well as some of our agency partners the food pantries we serve on Sundays on their website to just help people better understand one on the difference between a food bank and a food pantry and then the work that we're collectively doing together as partners in this community another thing that's coming up is the last Saturday of the month is our um repeated annual event which is the hunger action walk and that is something the food pantry Network leads as a subsidiary of the Tri County Health departments um we are also involved as food banks and some of our agency partners this month in many other ways that we are reaching out to radio um television media and other opportunities in Social to continue to spread the word about what is happening in our communities and Beyond and how other people can get involved through volunteerism and donations which help support our food banks and allow us to be able to procure the food that we're giving to the food pantries that is getting into the hands of the people with the greatest needs so again thank you so much this is a great opportunity for to us to continue to educate people on how they can get involved on what we are doing and how it's impacting the community thank you for great [Music] service and lastly I want to recognize uh one of our great Community Partners with Carl health and Trum Place uh Dr Keith NEP is here as well as I see Dr Derek booth and maybe Mary okay um I'll let Dr Dr NP take it from here thank you Madame mayor and uh honorable City Council Members we're grateful to have a few minutes of your time this evening I'm Keith NEP I'm the president of Carl Health grader Poria and with me is Mary Thompson president of trillian place we were here I didn't look back to see the exact date but um well over a year ago to share with you that we were purchasing the headington Oaks facility from the county of Poria to renovate that for a facility to serve Children and adolescents with Behavioral Health Services we've been working on that project since that time uh we came here that day to tell you about the project and to seek your support and we're very grateful that you've provided significant financial support for that project so we came tonight to say thank you for that support and to give you a brief update on a major milestone in that work and with that I'll turn it over to Mary to uh update you on the project thank you Keith and we do have Dr Dereck Boo and shamim here from our co-responder model and of course uh Derek Works side-by-side with me every day as an executive director so again thank you so much for your support um currently we are this week planning for our ribbon cutting ceremony which is Thursday at 9:30 we're very excited about that and then we're also participating in the play for Poria event that's across the city uh by hosting a symposium we have two out of state speakers with Illinois ties that are coming back um as uh practicing psychiatrists to talk about Innovations in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry so we're just thrilled to have them we're also involving some of our local uh Community part Partners in a um um a forum in the afternoon and we are just so excited to have that happening so we really could not have done this project without the support of this entire Community the financial support of course is very welcome but also the other thing that to me is very heartwarming and inspiring is the all the words of encouragement all the words of support that we've seen along the way it's uh the the generosity of this community is is quite motivating I think just a a few details about the facility it is at the headington Oaks former nursing home on heading Avenue in West Poria if any of you have driven past pardon me past the facility you will see that we've renovated the exterior um and we of course have been hard at work on the interior we're increasing our inpatient beds from 23 to 44 we're adding outpatient services or we we will move our outpatient services there and when them will'll be adding some additional outpatient services over time part of the building we plan to uh rent to like agencies that also support children so we will have a One-Stop shop for children that are in need of Behavioral Health uh Services good news is we've hired most of our staff and we're hoping to open uh at the end of this month and we will keep you posted as to how we're doing but again I'm just here to express my gratitude and to share the good news that we're about to open and we have some exciting events this week so thank you again wonderful news thank you thank you for sharing that update we're very excited and it's going to provide tremendous additional expanded support for our residents in Peoria thank you madam clerk we are at the approval of the minutes council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor I move to approve the minutes of the city council meeting held on August 27th 2024 is printed welcome seconded by council member grab any questions comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we have one town item 24 4- 258 is a request from the town officials to approve the August 2024 actual expenditures and to approve the September 2024 anticipated expenditures for the town of the city of Poria trustee grup Madam chair I move uh to approve as outlined okay uh seconded by trustee Jackson any questions or comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we are at the consent agenda 24- 259 is a communication with request to approve the low bid of Illinois civil Contractors Inc and award a contract for the reservoir Boulevard Ada improvements in the amount of 260 ,72 with an additional authorization of $268 for contingencies for a total contract Award of $286,800 24-26 is a communication with request to approve a second amendment to a site lease agreement between the city of Poria and American Tower asset sub LLC for an extension of a lease agreement at the Glen Oak il2 Tower site 24 4- 261 is a communication with a request to approve a resolution regarding the approval of closed session minutes 24- 262 is a communication with request to approve a resolution in support of an application to the Illinois Transportation enhancement program for the Pioneer Parkway multi-use path project in the amount of $550,000 24- 263 is a communication with request to approve a state motor fuel tax resolution for the Adams and Jefferson signal upgrade oneway to two-way conversion project Adam Street from williamc Boulevard to Hamilton Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue from williamc Boulevard to fet Street in the amount of 1 m708 8770 24- 264 is a communication with request to adopt an ordinance approving the amendment assignment and Novation agreement with Wagner Properties Inc chick Flats LLC and chick Apartments to develop a commercial and residential mixed up mixed use development at 10001 Southwest Adam Street in the warehouse district and that concludes our consent agenda thank you madam clerk are there any items to remove from consent can I get a motion to approve move by um excuse me council member SI I'm just going to make a motion move to oh okay council member Allan moved uh seconded by council member sear oh okay oh you had some okay it's still our new system so it probably didn't pick it up uh council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor I'd like to remove item number 24- okay all right um you want to move to approve the Rest seconded by council member SE any questions comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 24 excuse me 24- 264 is a communication with request to adopt an ordinance approving the amendment assignment and Novation agreement with Wagner Properties Inc chick Flats LLC and chick Apartments to develop a commercial and residential mixed use development at 10001 Southwest Adam Street in the warehouse district council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor I would just like to defer this item for two weeks the developer wishes to tie up some loose ends you want to defer it for two weeks yes ma'am okay seconded by uh council member Kelly any questions comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we are at regular business 24- 265 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve the so Source purchase of an electrical distribution circuit upgrade for the oil distribution truck in the amount of $60,000 and this item requires 2third vote of council member voting no less than six votes Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor this is um a a good replacement of our um oil distribution truck the the electrical system needs to be replaced it's a $60,000 replacement um but it'll save us instead of replacing the entire vehicle $300,000 of expense and now that director Powers is here I'll let him answer any other other additional questions that he may have or uh that Council may have so sorry madam clerk you read real fast I was moving quick director Powers um actually I wanted to tell a really good story and the background of this vehicle it's a truck it's basically a truck that sprayed oil um we made a promise to you or well we committed to do two miles you may recall of Paving related to drainage last year in the utility um our operations crew is on track to do five miles and they're doing that by Distributing this oil by hand with this vehicle we can likely move that two miles in this next year's budget so I'm hoping but up somewhere around 10 and be restoring drainage facilities carbon gutter it's all Associated I don't know if you remember but again this vehicle is instrumental to that and it is um something that we'll be able to spray we can also use it to fog and or spray on what we saw chip Seal jobs or you see gravel or aggregate that you have to sweep and it people complain about we can spray this with this truck and it'll Bond the gravel down so a good piece of equipment to have in our inventory and it will really move up on what you're seeing the storm order utility doing in regard to the paving again just the fact that we're at five miles this year and had a goal with this we'll exponentially move that probably twice at number that's a stretch goal but I think we can do it that's what it's for money well spent any questions for director powers can I get a motion uh mooved by council member Allen seconded by council member Cordon young any questions or comments please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you madam clerk 24- 266 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with the request for for the following a accept the organized retail crime Grant from the state of Illinois Office of the Attorney General in the amount of $90,000 and B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2024 2025 by annual budget relating to the general fund to recognize a receipt of grant funding from the state of Illinois Office of the Attorney General organized crime retail crime Grant in the amount of $90,000 and we need separate votes on each please uh thank you Madame Mar I'd like to turn it over to our police chief to walk through this grant good evening Madam mayor council City management public um yes I want to first I want to start off by reminding everyone that October uh uh 23 we received 130,000 for through the same grant for a realtime intelligence Software System and some fly cameras I'm sorry our LPR cameras license plate recognition cameras that um at that time we pushed the flat cameras through but we were still doing some work on the realtime intelligence software and doing our research to make sure we got what we wanted so in April of 24 that came in front of you as of July of this year uh we have started to implement the fuses system that I will have our technical uh Services Lieutenant explained and the assistant chief who've been hard at work working through this um and so we are covered from July of 24 to July of 25 what is coming in front of you today is the 90,000 to use as of July 20 of 25 through 26 to continue to offset that cost of that program so I'll pass it off to Lieutenant Esser who has done a phenomenal job to get us up and running but we are at the beginning stages but we're doing very well Lieutenant Esser y thanks Chief uh just like the chief said we're at the very beginning of the fuses platform since July we've been working on building this this platform for the officers and we have just re got to the point where we can begin training the department and officers on this platform just so everybody knows where we're at uh just to remind everybody what fuses actually does it's there's two parts to it the first part is allows the public to register their cameras on a on our our through a online portal um and then it takes it a step further and it also gives them the option to enable live camera feeds to the P Police Department um that's not something they have to do that's something that they can choose to do if they want um this access to the camera feeds I would like to think of it as like a a gas station that has reoccurring problems or a car dealership that keeps getting broken into if they get onto the fuses platform and get um that will allow us to have access to these live feeds uh we can see what's going on at their business in real time as officers respond and this agreement is between um the donor site which would be the car dealership and the pure police department and they get to set up all the rules so if they want it just to be during 24 hours a day they can give us access 24 hours a day if they want to give it only while there's a police incident occurring at at this business then that's the only time we would have it it's it's it's fully customizable it can be in it specific cameras all cameras whatever they want it's an agreement we work out with them um we currently have 240 City cameras on the platform uh and that includes like well that does not include our body warn cameras our Fleet cameras our camera trailers that they're all on the platform too but the city cameras at intersections or the one that's in in this room right now it's already on the platform um and we've recently partnered with OT the Illinois Department of Transportation to get another additional 241 cameras on this platform and that was free of charge um so we've doubled the amount of cameras we have access to and uh we are still working on bringing on more so right now uh Lexing Hills Apartments have agreed to come on to the program we are close to finalizing that um agreement we also have started with the Pearson Hills and we are currently talking with dist uh Poria public schools and Bradley University and the park district they're all currently at different stages but we're looking at bringing them all onto this platform um this platform also allows officers to bring up blueprints to say there was an incident here officers would be able to look and see the blueprints of City Hall know exactly where the cameras are located at inside this building and could access those cameras and respond to a trouble call that's going on on the third or fourth floor um we would also like to see this program be used by other department in the city such as like Public Works the fire department code enforcement and we would allow this through certain roles and permissions um they wouldn't have complete access like an officer would there's no need for them to have access to a a business uh like a car dealership but more likely if there's a snow route that needs to be plowed or a water main break or something Public Works could get on and check the cameras and be able to see what's going on with the street before they send somebody out there um we are also currently working on a website uh to present to the public that will have frequently asked questions away wait for them to register their devices and um this will be through the city Department website and I'll take any questions no thank you lieutenant um I'm a big fan of having tools like technology to help in crime reduction how many cameras uh can be included I mean what is there a maximum number of cameras no it's it's pretty much unlimited there's a like Atlanta is one of the the originating departments that started fuses and they have thousands I I can't quote it but it's tens of thousands of cameras on their system okay um so do we have a goal do you have a goal for a certain number of cameras coming on um our gold startup before we went live before we got to this point was to get about 500 cameras on that's what fusus recommended and we're sitting right around just under 500 um but now that we have access to the platform and we can we could show you guys if you wanted a demo of it we can bring people into the station now and show them what it does and and people get that buy in more now that they can see it we we were not able to have access to it until we had at least the 500 cameras we were shooting for on there um because they didn't want to show us a unfinished product and now it's finished enough that we can show people and start bringing more businesses on but disguise the limit the more cameras the better that's great any questions uh I think those are council member council member Allan uh thank you madam mayor and thank you uh Chief assistant chief and and Lieutenant um just two quick questions first can you speak to what security measures are in place to to uh address potential cyber attacks yeah um and I can only speak so far into this but I know they are completely seious compliant um everything is encrypted and cloud-based um Bes beyond that I couldn't talk I could read off uh it says the data is secured with AES 256bit encryption at rest in transit and in the cloud um diffuses core establishes a secure connection with TLS 1.3 um so a lot of it's above me but the important part here I think is that it reaches the uh sieges compliant um and it has data redundancy stored in multiple geographically separate storage locations so I could get somebody with fuses to speak more on that but um it meets all the requirements we're looking for as a department respectfully it's probably above me as well too uh but it's just good to know that there's mechanisms in place and I'm sure that this is a common practice so I'm sure I just want to make sure that there are some things in place and then the second piece you talked about it being implemented at residential complexes uh pearon here and I think you also said Lexington Hills for the residents of those neighbor or those apartment complexes that are listening can you talk a little bit about what does it look like if it is installed there and how are there I guess the ownership groups of those complexes how are they informing the residents that this is going to be possibly getting implemented do they have any you know do they have any ways to say that they want it or they don't want wanted you know what type of Rights and responsibilities do they have yeah I'm I'm not I think that would be based on that Resident uh how how they manage it the manager if they want to let them know right now I mean they have cameras up and if we need video footage from them we would go and meet with the manager and get that footage and I'm not sure I think everybody knows they're under surveillance um I do I would recommend that the managers tell them tell their residents that they're implementing the fuses program and that we would have live access to it during whatever arrangement we arranged with that manager or the owner of the cameras uh but I don't know if um change it yeah it really shouldn't change the dynamic because they're already being recorded they know they're being recorded uh the only thing this would do is just give us faster access to that footage so this is basically for cameras that are currently installed yes yes this is not we're not installing any new cameras this is currently just bringing all the cameras that we already request footage from and bringing them onto one platform so you can see them all on one map see where they're located and just kind of cut out that middle person of having to knock on somebody's door wake them up have them come out and provide us footage if the the agreement is met the conditions are met for us to have access to that footage we could get that footage and I think B I think most people are probably going going to allow us access if there is a call at that residence if there's no call at that location we would not have access to it and and I think what's important to know as well is nobody is going we're not in the business of sitting behind a computer to watch cameras that's not what's happening this is a funnel right all these cameras can funnel and say there's a 911 call if they decide that if when there's a call on scene to have access then they will give access during that period and maybe an hour or two prior uh let's say there is a shooting somewhere or whatever crime well was there something happening prior to that that led to that well we'll be able to have access to that if that's what they allow and then this system is connected already through the station attor to our evidence.com where we push our evidence so example when we talk about the schools there's things that happen sometimes on the weekend that happen outside of a school and we can't get something this allows us to be able to get it depending on what what the the donor allows us to get I think I feel like you want to jump in no I I just to just to reiterate we're not adding anything we're getting access so um you know these are cameras that are overt cameras they're not hidden um if you live in a um complex you see the cameras we're not getting access to anything that everybody doesn't already know about and really for the officers it's a workflow issue so instead of going to the business uh getting the manager in in the middle of the night um which we do frequently U we'll call them in only certain people have access to it U the workflow on our end is the technology of this app they can grant us access so we don't have to get we don't have to wait for the manager to come in they can just remotely give us access to it so it's a it's a workflow technology it puts all the cameras that are already existing on one platform and the residents shouldn't see any difference at all they're already there we're not adding anything thank you gentlemen for the context and clarification thank you madam mayor you're very welcome council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor well uh just a couple of questions um you know I you you said you'd like to add additional cameras to your platforms I was just kind of curious for those uh entities agencies that have decided to participate was this something they voluntarily did um you know we know there are certain how can I describe it businesses that uh have the propensity to be Hotspots for Crime um how will [Music] you or will you seek to collaborate with those types of businesses yeah absolutely in those hotpots yeah absolutely those are the kind of businesses that we want to bring on and I'm sure they some of them want us to be on there too just to you know keep them from coming out in the middle of the night or or just save them the headache of sitting there for an hour or two downloading video and watching it with us get the right video um that's going to be something that we're going to start doing it's completely voluntary right now we're there's no way for us like force somebody onto this platform uh but we are looking at those those places where we have frequent problems and maybe we can have officers have live feed there um and like we've reiterated like it's based on what they want so like if there's a gas station where we have reoccurring problems they they may only give us access to the exterior cameras not the interior cameras which is fine as long as we have something that we can respond and see what's going on um and if they want us to have to monitor it uh Beyond just the the the time of the call so I like to think of it like if there's a big fight at the park um we get called there we dissolve the fight it goes away we might want to check on that location an hour or two later so they might give us access a couple hours before or after the incident but that's the only monitor net we would do is related to that incident um but yeah we uh I know like there's some um car dealerships that get broken into a lot um and that that's one of my priorities is to I've already reached out to them they are in the process of getting new security systems out there so we haven't brought them on yet once they have those in place that they're more than willing to come on uh just to help try to reduce the crime of being broken into so I hope that answers your question thank you thank you Madame mayor oh and just I forgot so when we do this website that's going to go live and people can register their cameras they will also have an option to uh let us know that they want to be have their cameras uh live feed integrated into fuses so they'll have both of those options just to register their cameras let us know where they are and then also let inform us that they are wanting their cameras online and right now we are we currently have um multiple devices that we can provide to the community to bring these businesses on um so right now everything's free for the businesses yep you're welcome council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor um couple other questions um I've read I think others have read about uh storage problems with uh data with video uh is this going to not storage problems with storage costs um is this uh system going to increase our costs and if so do you have any uh so it's it's actually not storing any video is for a very limited time based on the agreements set up with the donor sites um for example like uh if a donor gives us three days access um that camera that video goes away it is not stored anywhere we can collect it again it's not being stored for a lengthy time now if we need that video and we've been allowed to collect it we will take that and it's integrated with our um evidence management system through axon we can upload that video right into um evidence.com which we have unlimited storage space on currently and that would be a faster way of doing what you're doing now I suppose with their local video capture yeah Curr like currently most 99% of the time we have to go out to the gas station or business with a little flash drive and get downloaded onto the flash drive meet the manager spend a couple hours find what we're trying to find then upload it into evidence.com this kind of just lets the officer do it all within a couple minutes okay thank you and uh when you mentioned uh uh some people just want to be online I I suppose what we're talking about here is a continuous feed is that right or no that's not really um when there is an incident therefore if they're just online when there's an incident do you have to still get permission from them or can you go right can you go right to it okay so there's there's maybe maybe I confused um some people uh there's two things they can register their camera if that's what you're talking about and that's just letting us know that Eric Esser has four cameras at his house if you guys need access to it please contact that contact Eric at this phone number and that'll show up on the officer's map in their car it'll just say this house has cameras if you need it based on an incident you can contact him that's the registry portion then there's Eric Esser who wants four cameras and give access live feed access to the PPD and that would be based on the agreement that I have made with the PPD um this say just for an incident and I only give them an an access for an hour prior and an access app um after the incident that's all they would have access to if they if the officer gets what they need dur so that's me giving them permission if there's a call at my house they have permission to collect that video during that time now if they need video beyond that time they would have to contact me and I would have to give them permission and they would have to meet me at my house like we've always done and collect that video cuz it would no longer be be accessible through fuses thank you that's very clear mam mayor do we have a motion welcome pardon me we don't um I'd like to move uh to approve item a is there a second second by council member belula we've still got more discussion uh council member vesa thank you madam mayor um just to be clear uh these uh these apartment complex cameras are they're in the common area right it's not like you're you're in any place that they have an expectation of privacy we're talking about you know in the parking lot yeah that's that's correct it's it they're either in the hallways most of them are going to be exterior cameras that's what we're that's what we're mostly interested in is the exterior cameras who's coming who's going um the interior we we would like but it's but there's nothing inside a private where there's a expectation of privacy okay all right yeah that's it thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member rean Bach thank you Madame mayor and thank you gentlemen this is this is really helping take things to the next level I think and I think we need to recognize the efforts of the police department with the bicycle Patrol earlier this summer with the drones that we've purchased that this just is another tool in that Arsenal and violence prevention so hats off for all the efforts taking place and I see um one of your civilians in the back there Chief Jenny and I think we'd be remiss if we didn't recognize the work that she does in helping secure grants like this so um Jenny we appreciate your efforts in in making things like this possible for us so one question though Lieutenant if I may this is called the retail crime organized retail crime program but you've also mentioned residential cameras is that if if I'm Joe Jones on the street can I register my personal camera as well you can um the core devices which are the devices that we would hook up to to your camera system um they have a certain number of cameras on them so if you only have one camera we might not unless it's a very important camera for us we probably wouldn't Implement into the program but if you had like 10 or something then it would be worth putting a device on and bringing that in but um we we will provide those devices at least during the initial setup until we run out of devices and then we'll have to have internal talks about how to proceed further but the public can also purchase these devices and and have them installed into our for our system if if we were not willing for some reason to provide it remind me do we have a indry for residential cameras now we do um and we're looking into importing what we currently have into the new system um currently it's in in a database that the officers have to go through other people to access this would put it right in their squad cars and they could see exactly who's registered without everything would be in one place that's what we're trying to do and it would make it the officers can even see where they're at on the camera um based on their body cameras in squads so they can see what cameras are around them which cameras are registered who to contact all of this in one place sounds sounds like a a great program so again congratulations and thank you thank you welc madam mayor you're welcome so we have a motion on the floor a second uh please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously M clerk thank you CH oh you got another one okay don't go too far then thank you lieutenant okay assistant chief we need a motion for Item B please um Kelly council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor uh I'd like to move to U approve Item B oh I'm sorry we did A and B sorry about that thank you uh seconded by council member grup please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 24- 267 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with a request for the following a accept the co-responder Grant from the Illinois criminal justice information Authority in the amount of $2,876 250 B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2024 2025 banial budget relating to the general fund to recognize the receipt of grant funding from the Illinois criminal justice information Authority providing the co-responder unit in the amount of $2,876 250 and C approve and authorized a city manager to execute an extension of the previous memorandum of understanding between the city of Poria and Carl Health Services Under the co-responder unit for a one-year period in the amount of 1,6 8,989 and we'll need separate votes on each please okay Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor again I'll turn the floor over to our chief he has uh others that are here with him that'll talk about the co-responder program yes good evening again with me is uh Dr Bu from Carl shamim Jalil who is the director of the co-response and obviously I think everybody knows Jenny she's our The Works the magic with the grants 24 million so far 22 I added to more I'm sorry um in April 23 we received 3 million uh and that came in front of everybody before we Contin to to work through this process it's been a slow tedious process things have changed uh some legislation has been difficult to deal with on some ends and then hiring uh but we were blessed enough to again now get another 2.8 and we're in front of you to to receive that obviously um I have not introduced shamim to everybody so um I think I'll start off with maybe I'll start off with Dr boot here um and can kind of give a quick overview of how Carl's been the partner on this and then he can maybe introduce your me sure sound good all right yeah Carl Health uh trillian place has been pleased to partner with the p Police Department to assist with responding to calls that may involve individuals either in a mental health crisis or uh having a family issues something that doesn't involve a AR rest that may be able to assist with deescalation um the biggest piece of the supports that the co-responder provides are really after uh the calls is the followup the case management the connecting individuals and families to to needed Services uh so this has been a wonderful uh uh partnership that we have uh with the pure Police Department we're fortunate to hire uh shamim Jalil who is a wonderful uh project coordinator and Project Director for the co-responder program and so uh shamim is responsible for all of our uh assisting with our data reporting assisting with hiring uh into staff and putting together a lot of the coordination orientation binders building this program from the ground up and so I'll with that I'll introduce sh hello everyone good evening Madame mayor councilman and the public my name is shamim J and I'm the director for the corresponder program um we have accomplished a lot in the first year for the corresponder program mainly focusing on building staff um setting up a space for our staff in the community um and then also um you know working through the policies and all the background work that is needed and building up a program that is within this capacity um as you may already know there are several benefits for the corresponder program you know in communities including um improving and enhancing crisis response um re reducing the high utilization for law enforcement and you know hospitals in our community and then mainly providing that holistic support for victims in our community so we're very excited to be able to um continue to build the program and and provide that positive impact here for the community thank you thank you Miss shanine and if we wouldn't mind I'm going to ask Jenny just to come up and just briefly go over what this 2.8 million covers because I know that's probably a question that you may have so um Personnel INF Fringe are the city staff so we offset some of the chief's salary some of the assistant chief salary some of my salary the administr assistant and the data analyst that we just hired so that's what those two Encompass the big one here is the contract and that's our contract between us and Carl health so that 1.68 million is not entirely Carl Health some of that is our contract with Verizon our contract with AT&T our contract with Amarin all of those things are encompassed in that contract cost as well and then we have travel for our staff to go to conferences and this is actually for City staff to go to con conferences not for Carl staff to go so we in essence wrote this in a way that we'll be able to send six people instead of only three I seea limits us to three people on their contracts so then we had Carl put in three people on their contracts because shamim found some amazing conferences that we think it would be really beneficial to send more than three people to then we have training in education which is the cost to help train our officers and our community on a holistic health approach um supplies equipment supplies are your basic standard office supplies equipment is to finish the the building so if you've seen the space we're using it's very large and we've segmented it so that half of it is just for co-responder and then there's a main half that will be outfitted as well so that the community can use it but we'll have tables and monitors in there and everything so that everyone else can use it as well and then the uh 156,000 is indirect costs we claimed a Minimus costs of 10% on this particular Grant and those costs will be reallocated through a financial Grant agreement modification that I will do once we determine where those costs need to be so right now it sits in indirect costs if shamim comes to me and says we need uh some major item and I need money to do that then I can do a financial gam in order to move that money but it's just sitting there in a bank make sense yes absolutely this is a lot of money and a huge opportunity for us if there oh we have one question council member Gordon young thank you Madame mayor um not necessar a question just a comment this is one that's been very exciting to see unfold and um just the marriage between mental health and law enforcement and how we really need to roll things out differently um it's it's exciting isn't even the work but it's a safety um it's a safety element that our community needs so my question in the in that is do we know when the co-respondents are going to be out and about well they have been already out and about now we had a specific incident uh I won't give too many of the details but for privacy reasons but uh it was a barricade subject and we had the co-respondents out there in the vehicles who literally sat in the vehicle with the victim um it was a domestic situation we were able to get the victim out the barricade is subject stated uh actually the mayor came out on scene our corporate counsel came out on scene Dr boot was there as well and we took our time and we were able to talk through the process uh I I just got an email this is how how many months ago probably two months ago now yeah and shamim is still in contact with this victim we provided some relocation pay for some relocation costs um and we were able to safely get the the suspect out but as well safely have the victim in a safe area and I think this is the first time that I seen where the public was out watching this and we involved them in in a sense and kept them out there kept them informed as well they did not know where this victim was this whole time cuz we have those big V those big black vehicle vans that we purchased through this where we now able to have a victim in a safe place where nobody can take vide of them during the situation and um we there was a round of applause when this whole thing was done by the community so it was a very successful event and and the the co-respondents there's two now there's one that they just interviewed that we should be hopefully getting on board and we did not say is that we're also looking in November to a veto session to hopefully change some legislation uh to to make the hiring process a little bit easier because there's people that are qualified that don't necessarily have to be lcsws and so we want to be able to hire those people as well and we've been in communication with the other three Chiefs of the other police departments and they're on board as well so we're still working through that process together but we're we're optimistic that we'll hopeful to get some change made in the legislation that loosens up who we can hire that uh can help us really get this moving forward further yeah you took the words out of my mouth because that's been my only concern with the co-responder model is that it limits who's qualified to do the work when we know that there are other areas of qualifications that will fit right in so that's really good to hear but congratulations thank we don't want to rush this thing we want to get it right and looks like you guys have it right thank you abolutely thank you thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member Gordon young uh we have three items we have to approve do you want to make a motion here yes I move to approve item a Sarah second seconded by council member Allan council member Kelly uh thank you Madame mayor I don't have much to add except uh Chief I I just want to thank you you sent us uh I guess by email I guess it was by email um that information on the change of uh the statute um it was a little bit long but I really appreciated that kind of inside info I don't know much about these things and so that was that was very helpful so thank you very much yes sir thank you Madame mayor you're welcome okay uh please cast your ballots item a motion passes unanimously council member Gordon young move Item B seconded by council member Allan any questions comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously council member Gordon young move to approve item C seconded by council member Allen any questions comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you chief Madam Clark we are at unfinished business 24- 235 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to deny the addition of a subclass 1A 2 amm closing hours Thursday Friday Saturday to an existing site approved for a class B restaurant 50% Food liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for hosi Anda El Mirador LLC doing business as Henda El Mirador at 5805 North humble Avenue sweet 1 with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to deny Council Hayes Mr manager thank you madam mayor you're welcome as Council will recall this matter was previously deferred uh due to the oppos of the neighbors uh with regard to the extended closing hours uh The Liquor Commission uh recommended denial and for that reason the uh staff has recommended denial has requested denial um out of respect for that thank you mayor you're welcome uh council member sier thank you Madame mayor move to defer two more weeks until the September 24th uh meeting please seconded by council member Oiler any questions comments please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark If there's no further unfinished business we are on to new business new business council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman it was brought to my attention this week that there's some potential in propriety over at the health department with City related funds and I believe there's a couple of Health Department board members here that would like to give us some information about that so who is here who is here that you want to I can see Ben Brewer in the on the back row here Mr Kennedy did you want to approach the floor if there's no objection you can come forward good evening I'm Mike candy and I'm currently serving as the president of the Board of Health this is Ben Brewer who's serving as secretary were the two officers from the Board of Health um this is going to be a point in time report and that things are still evolving there's going to be some things you're going to ask us we don't know yet because we're in the middle of assessing the situation um this is about the violence prevention strategy it goes along with some of the things you folks have just talked about already this evening give you um two-minute history 2019 Board of Health and strategic planning decided that they want to look at what are the evidence-based programs and if we could Implement something for the city of Peoria 2021 money started to become available 2022 an initiative out of Chicago called cure violence came down and did a community assessment to determine the community's Readiness to do something about it and the individuals they spoke with felt that the community was ready to do something you may be aware that there have been two initiatives initiated so far one was on the East Bluff that was back in 2023 a group called peaf fous Community against violence was awarded the um the grant to implement there were some funding issues and they withdrew their their application we did not have an alternate to go in there and do anything about the initiative and so we suspended it in 2023 a second initiative was offered that's in the South End of Poria um there were two entities that made proposals the proposals were evaluated by a group of citizens in the community um at that point in time um House of Hope which is a nonprofit organization down in the South End was awarded the um the grant they chose to partner with minority business development center uh to do the financial management of the grant um over the course of the last seven months to say it nicely we've had difficulty getting the grant to go the way it should um as most of you are aware you get any kind a governmental Grant there are requirements to meet certain kinds of stipulations whether it's reporting things whether it's being in compliance with CFR 2000 which is the federal code book of how you're supposed to handle Federal money um there were some logistical issues uh something as simple as uh having a process to review and employ the staff of interceptors that would work on this project um we identified to the vendor um we need these issues we did um what would you call it plans of actions try to remediate them after about seven months we said this is not working out we're going to terminate the relationship as a result of that minority business development did an a quick audit of of the financial standing of that particular project and found some funding discrepancies it was reported to the P Police Department who initiated an investigation is now in the hands of P State's Attorney where we go from here is um the pur City County Health Department staff felt that the health department should take on that initiative and it was in done for a couple different reasons the initiate the initiative had just started we probably have the administrative capacity to do it we aren't sure we're the right organization to serve an administrative role with it we were monitoring the money from the governmental perspective but we were not in the uh best position to initiate a program like this what we have done is we have stopped the operation completely we've notified the funding sources and said we're exploring what we may do at this point in time we do not have an alternate entity to go into the either the East Bluff or the near North Side I'm sorry the south side to be able to implement this strategy it's something we want to look at we've talked about things like um organizations that have the capacity to be able to manage a a federal GR Grant it's those of you who have done it know there's a lot of te's to cross and eyes to Dot and you have to do it exactly because it's governmental funding there's organizations that are good in it and there's good organizations that are good service providers people that would work in the streets where the violence occurring so right now we're exploring are there options out there we will have conversations he left with the police department with the sheriff's department um it's an issue that um there is no one way of doing it right now we are waiting for the final review of the fiscal audit on the funds it's due to report to us next Monday within probably three or four days after that we'll have an account if everything is the way it's supposed to be so if you folks have questions thank you Mr Kennedy I I do want to turn to our city manager to give us u a status update uh thank you mayor y i uh appreciate that with the notice that we received from the health department uh that The Cure violence program had been had been terminated or suspended we uh sent them a letter to date letting them know that that we were uh considering this a partial termination of the award uh um there has been about $368,000 of the two gr we had two grants up to $650,000 that were set aside for cure violence from the arpa funds that we had for violence prevention um $368,000 have been released there's still about $282,000 that we would still have so at this point in time um we know that that with the the arpa deadlines in place we have to re obligate any unspent arpa dollars by the end of this year and then have to be spent by the end of 2026 so um this will be something that we'll bring back to you we have some other funds that I think from where we are with some of the other programs that we know that we're going to have to to do that as well so the total amount of the two grants that you anticipate coming back uh to the city well we have not we have not distributed to the health department $282,000 so we're still holding on to that oh okay okay but but of the 368,000 that's been released you know we'll after they do their audit and complete that whatever uh needs to be reimbursed back to to the city we'll ask for that as well okay thank you Mr manager uh council member Oiler I'm trying to get you back on here we go uh thank you woman I have several questions some of them might be for the city manager and Corporation counsel some of them might be for the Board of Health members but is this all arpa dollars that we're talking about or is there other City funds tied into the situation there there's no other City funds there uh may have been a portion of the first grant allocation that was from the $3 million we are from monies that we received from the state of Illinois so it's not monies that are directly City dollars there are other Grant funds that we've passed through for that okay and we we'll verify that for you and confirm okay and what role will the city be taking in this investigation and oversight of next steps thank you uh councilman so our grant agreements include Provisions for them for a closeout auditing as well as clawback if any of the expenditures don't meet the program requirements right now we don't have any Optics into the actual money released by The County Health Department to these entities and once we have that full accounting we'll assess whether they meet the grant requirements any that don't will be using the clawback provisions to request a return of those funds so on the other side of that should the city come back to the Board of Health to claw back those funds or funds still there to pay it back or where would that come from well go ahead I'm not sure I understand the question I think I understand there' be a two-part question so does full transparency the day after we cancelled this agreement a transfer left that account um a substantial amount of money and a a call was made to that individual to return that now that's part of the State's Attorney's criminal investigation so I'm not going to step on that but money left and and then came back from that amount of money that actually came back then the the balance came through with my minority business to say wait a minute there were supposed to be additional beyond the amount that was taken and so that's the question and right now until the 16th of September the organization uh has the ability to come back to the health department and say for our directed process here is the expense let us give it to you as a receipt you approve it and then we can take the money out with our signatories but the money that is um in question is money that was not approved for our process so we can say hey there's a receipt coming for it and we still have to by the grant accept that receipt and for that expense but that that process didn't follow our uh internal processes in place so for our accounting of it right now we're we're short and so that amount of money you know I I would hate to say what could come as a receipt by the 16th but that is the amount of money that could come back uh to the city so at this point you don't really know what that number is or where those funds would come from if the city's taxpayers were to be refunded no so this is is very FR I mean I appreciate shedding light on this situation but it's very upsetting and frustrating especially to some of us around the council because two years ago we voted this down for concerns over lack of oversight lack of due diligence not being prepared to take on a program and if you go and as a result of that a number of us around the Horseshoe were told that we were making this a race related issue and not an issue based on the facts of the situation if you go to a July 2022 article from wcbu it further goes into a community leader calling those same council members out and telling us that we have a a problem because we're not putting enough faith in the health department and Monica Hendrickson as its leader and here we are two years later and there's a clear lack of oversight a clear lack of accountability and a program that appears to be completely mismanaged so what is going to be done on the health department side to rectify this situation because at the end of the day it makes us all look bad and so um we uh voted unanimously uh to terminate The Cure violence program and we had started work through steps to unwind and and develop a process because unfortunately there are employees that were brought over to the health department in this transition um full transparency if if you look at our May meeting uh minutes we did authorize as the board an employee to come over there were four additional employees that we need to take care of because that's who we are in the community are but those are four positions our board of directors did not approve um they were just added to our our Personnel line so we are we are handling that and we'll handle those uh issues with our Personnel but in terms of the program itself uh we did employ an independent auditor um or are employing an independent auditor to look at these uh and be fully transparent about our findings because we want to make sure that there's nothing that we could have done to prevent this but again this money is not in a Health Department account it's just a program that the health department works with and to your point councilman Oiler um when this program got voted down uh by the uh Council two years ago that program showed up on our agenda for the health department less than a week later with all this context saying we've been talking about this for years but if if you open and look at any of our minutes you'll never see cure violence mentioned in any of our board packets because it was discussed with our board for the first time 5 days later after the city council voted it down however uh President Kennedy did mention that we have been talking about strategies because we have we just never talked about cure violence because it made its way 5 days later and that is a question that we have internally as well how did this get put on our plate and no context uh whatsoever but I've been on that board for eight years and I like to tell the story I've never had multiple City Council Members call me in the same day to talk to me about this project and I said man this must be a political doing and that's what I think it is is today I think you might have answered the question somewhere in there but I picked up earlier on Mr Kennedy indicating that this was being terminated because the health department can't handle it what made the health department decide to begin with that they could handle it okay if I said that that's not what I meant when I said we can't handle it this is a very specialized um intervention working in violence is not something most of us could do organizations very traditional nonprofit organizations could manage it as long as you know the rules and go by the rules that's fine when you use a subcontract or you use a subrecipient to do it only thing you can do is manage them as best as they're will allow to be managed we have documentation of when we started to see the efficiencies in performance that we've attempted to remediate and I think the staff was more than patient giving them s months to correct the deficiencies we saw once we saw it we dealt with it the issue of the the fund discrepancy was not part of our decision we had already terminated the relationship with House of Hope before the funding discrepancies were made available to us and I think my last question I I don't think Council has gotten anything directly from legal or the manager about it and so at what point was this discovered and when was it reported to City authorities because you know I'm just in the last few days hearing about this from other sources sure okay say August um 15th is when the contract was terminated you probably saw on Thursday news our directors thought at the same time and on that Friday is when this first issue happened our board of directors met on Monday night and we were still not aware uh and then we found out through uh the Great Vine after so I think it was the the 20th uh we were NE never directly trolled from our administrator until we inquired about it that's all I have thank you council member gret well I certainly uh do appreciate uh Two Gentlemen coming over and being very transparent about what transpired and manager um whatever money we have left here uh we need to make a decision how it can best be used to serve the people in this community and would our future model perhaps involve city and county working together or is it back in the city's hands at this point this would be back in the city's lap these are these are the arpa dollars that we had been um uh allocated through the federal government so this is a council decision about what to do with those dollars and um okay this a lot to absorb in one night uh thank you you're welcome can I had a make a comment of clarification and I'm not sure that you're aware of this one there is 650,000 of the city's money there's 500 64,000 and 64,000 a US senator member initiative that we have so some of the money went straight to the health department some that comes to the city am I correct of the 650,000 we've only dispersed about 382 of that so there's there or there's still 282,000 that we're still holding that would have been had expenses been incurred we would have been distri to the health department okay thank you gentlemen is there any other new business council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor um as the council representative to the landfill committee uh councilman vesa and councilman oer and I often bring you news that isn't necessarily things that you like to hear but there is a piece of news from the P Civic Center Authority that you probably have heard about through the media that at their August 29th meeting they went ahead and um accepted a bid for the ice plant at for the Civic Center so uh as we've talked about that um quite a bit and as we put the bonding together through councilman Sear's leadership a couple years ago I just wanted to make sure the council knew the first step was taken and the order for the ice plant was made now 's a lot more to come of course there's construction and whatnot the Civic Center itself will need to be shut down the arena for the replacement which is tentatively scheduled for 2026 so okay just wanted to share that with all my colleagues thank you thank you thank you councilman council member SE very much Madam mayor thank you very much Mr Ring bog for the report just got one question uh uh about this subject here any news at all of a contract been signed between the Civic Center and the Riverman I'm sorry councilman could you repeat that any contract do we have any news of any negotiation or any contract being signed between the Civic Center and the Riverman yet I don't have any update to what's been continuing to go forward I know they have been talking and continuing to negotiate I think there's a couple of business points they're still discussing thank you thank you madam mayor welcome Madam clerk we're on to Citizens opportunity to address the city council okay I have six cards uh the first is Miss Darcy [Applause] Katie good evening city council members and Dr mayor Ali so tonight Pi for Palestine has returned to ask that the council take the proposed ceas fire resolution that you received last week in the red folders to a vote at the following meeting this would be September 24th our Grassroots Coalition has worked diligently over the course of the last 11 months with the goal to provide accurate and accessible information to the general public by hosting educational events such as the one held at ICC featuring a talk with doctors whom had worked in Gaza post October 2023 we have also focused on creating Unity within the local community by participating in cross-cultural celebrations such as the puia St Patrick's Day Parade to give thanks and celebrate Ireland for recognizing the state of Palestine and for their continued support of recognizing the Palestinian people's right to exist with our final action being to raise awareness of the plight of Palestinians that are being exterminated in a genocide with the goal being to pass a ceasefire resolution locally here in Peoria Peoria for Palestine has done this by creating a meaningful and impactful presence online via social media across multiple platforms as well as hosting rallies and forming strong connections and relationships with local organizations and nonprofits lastly consistently coming to City Council meetings to advocate for this cause I know most of you on the council at this time are in support of a fire resolution that you have arrived at this conclusion after a great deal of personal research along with review of the information our Coalition and others have provided to you along with deep consideration for the impact it will have on the community in which you all deeply care for however for the few council members that are still unsure let me provide some clarity and examples of how the council already supports the principles within the proposed ceasefire resolution currently the city of Peoria has a historic preservation commission with the goal to be quote make sure that historical districts or local with local landmarks excuse me having special historical architectural aesthetic or Community significance be preserved enhanced and continued in or restored to use to preserve the city's character and Heritage end quote and yet we the citizens of Poria are currently funding the destruction and damage of hundreds of cult culturally or historically significant buildings libraries and museums alongside the destruction of Palestinians cultural heritage this includes St harion Monastery the remains of which have spanned more than 400 years and have been characterized by five successive churches which has sustained significant damage since the latest onset of attacks beginning in October 2023 along with the oldest mosque in Gaza the great Omari mosque that was completely destroyed by an air strike in December 2023 and all excuse me and at the previous city council meeting we witnessed what I can only describe as a bit of a paradoxic paradoxical scene playing out as our mayor Rita Ali presented Chief Craig Harper of the piia tribe of Indians of Oklahoma a key to the city mayor Ali would graciously go on to speak of how the tribe was forced out of Illinois and how it reflected the painful history of Native Americans in this nation I supported the mayor and the city council publicly then and I stand by that by honoring the original inhabitants of this land and the indigenous people of the Poria tribe however it's not lost on me that while our mayor and council members are delighted to give a heartfelt welcome and honor and support the indigenous community that was forcibly displaced removed and exterminated from the very land that this building sits on they feel that passing a ceasefire resolution at this current time that stops the forc displacement removal and extermination of an indigenous Community is simply a step too far the hypocrisy within this Council on that particular decision is glaring the citizens of Poria are not asking you to stand for anything that you do not already openly support instead we are asking you to be empowered and walk within your truth and to stand behind your guiding principles with complete conviction have some courage to stand up for what you already stand for ceasefire now and thank you Estrella Diaz hello Madame mayor councilman I hope you all are well so I just want to to say first off I want to say thank you to Madame mayor for recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month it means a lot to have that be made known as it makes many others and myself feel seen that are a part of that community so thank you um but moving forward as you know on September 24th the ceasefire resolution will be coming to a vote as it is presented one more I hope that you all have truly sat down and took some time to really think about your decision after the many months that our organization has appeared before you I'm not going to take too much of your time but I will leave you with this did you know know that just last week an American activist who is O who went overseas to the West Bank to protest what is going on was murdered she decided to go over there for her own sake to Bear witness of what was going on as she was protesting she was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier with a sniper as she hid behind an olive tree she was only 26 years old and had recently just graduated college what is so Eerie about this is she was a part of the same organization International solidarity movement as Rachel Corey uh the 23-year-old American activist who was murdered in 2003 by a caterpillar d d D9 bulldozer for simply being in protest of Palestinian home being demolished while she stood in front of the home in hopes of them not demolishing demolishing it which cost her her life if any of you are aware a couple of years back her parents actually came here in protest of caterpillar and I just wanted to let you guys know that if you weren't aware but with that being said again when the time comes I really do hope you guys make the right decision about this but that's all and a car good evening m madame mayor good evening council members again we're here um for the same reason uh my predecessors from Peoria for Palestine talked about on September 1 a news article this past couple of days ago this a news article written by krie Khan and Don Clyde who are American journalists writing for NPR stated and quote more than 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets in Tel Aviv according to organizers where people waved Israeli flags and others held signs calling Netanyahu a murderer and a criminal many feel Netanyahu is the one holding up the deal they're talking about a ceasefire deal continuing the quote protesters called for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza one of the parents of the hostages stated quote time after time there's a chance to bring them home and he finds other reasons for it not to happen so we just have to do something he's talking about Netanyahu end quote my humble opinion the reason the murderer and criminal Netanyahu as his citizens call him and the war criminal as the international court of justice the icj call him is continuing his Grizzly genocide and sadistic killing and torture of Palestinians both inside his prisons and outside is that the US has the spigot of money weapons and political support open to the max this is against what the majority of the citizens of the US want and I have uh information for you here hopefully you'll receive it after the meeting this is also against specific laws that the US have and also against International laws 105 hostages were released in the temporary ceasefire in November of last year this is the best chance for releasing the hostages since November many have been killed by Israel directly or while carpet bombing Gaza we know that the goal of the war criminal Netanyahu is the extermination and forced expulsion of the Palestinians from what remains of their Homeland this is why he is exacting the same techniques of Terror and indiscriminate killing and horrendous destruction in the West Bank now there is no Hamas there what is his excuse for the sake of humanity for the sake of the US and its people the taxpayers for the sake of the US standing in the world and for the sake of innocent civilians both Israeli and Palestinians and I have to add Lebanese because they are being killed every day by Israel we need a ceasefire now and please don't be intimidated by the strong pro-israel Lobby that has bought coerced and threatened our press and our politicians into blind submission for decades such actions have often harmed the US they cannot hurt you our council members because of who you are and your positions and they can't hurt you while we the citizens of Poria are fully behind you we count on you and your Humanity ceasefire now thank you Natasha divine all right uh greetings city council mayor uh all of you should have received uh an email with a resolution from me uh to automatically reject all nonlocal issues that are brought forward resolutions and um this is not specific I'm sure the Pea for Palestinian people will be maybe offended by that concept but this is not specific to their cause but it's a general idea that for example I have advocated uh for the weaker Muslims in China I have advocated for uh women who are protesting in Iran I've never brought any of these issues to the Peoria city council because I know the Poria city council can't do anything so there's a misunderstanding there I know that they're looking for some statement of solidarity but none of it really matters they don't like Netanyahu I'm not a huge fan but our opinion about a foreign leader of any foreign country shouldn't matter at the Poria City Council I have a lot of strong opinions about a lot of different countries I'm not going to bring any of them ever to any local city council no matter where I live in this United States because it's a it's it's a jurisdiction issue it's not the concern and it's trying to politicize local people into a national issue that's highly divisive Ive um and support for any foreign nation is going to be highly divisive this is not just about Peoria for Palestine this is not me telling you you make a statement of solidarity with Israel I don't want that I would never ask that I would ask that we stop the silliness with having a million speeches about atrocities all over the world and let's try and focus on local issues which is why I would ask you to consider the resolution that I've emailed to all of you I'm not going to go into reading all of it everything like that but the people who disagree on this issue are not going to be moved they're not going to get convince somebody that supports Israel to support Palestine I'm not going to be able to convince them to support Israel it's a divisive issue people are in their chosen camps and they're pretty much in them for good and this also applies to Russia Ukraine any war in the world somebody's going to take a side and somebody else in the same town is going to disagree with them but this is America we're supposed to forget all of these other things all right as far as I'm concerned the concept that an entire na doesn't deserve to exist used to be considered pretty extreme I have a couple viewpoints about other countries that might be considered extreme I don't want to try and convince anyone here to agree with them because we all have to get along in this country we all have to be neighbors I don't want to talk about at the Poria city council meeting what might be the better thing for Netanyahu to release the hostages I don't think it was right to to take hostages in the first place this is a divisive issue every foreign issue is going to be a divisive issue please let's just stop covering all these foreign issues have your opinion believe what you want to believe I don't support it that's fine I'm not going to come to your anything and try and get the government to support something that I want to happen in a foreign country so please let's be civilized and act like we're all Americans here and forget about foreign ISS issues until we hit the internet which is the international platform thank you that's all I have to say Tara wood good evening uh council members uh Madame mayor I don't have anything prepared uh so I was maybe not going to speak but uh just to address um Natasha um I appreciated some of what she had to say oh gosh um America is not supposed to get involved in any foreign issues I mean okay we know our country is involved in a lot of foreign issues oh gosh um and a lot of the things that she said I agreed with in terms of um you know human rights issues and stuff and I I mean obviously we have the same opinions in some ways about everybody should have human rights um the United States States is not paying to uh to force women in Iran to wear a hijab or something I mean we're not involved in some of the things that we're not involved in any of those things that she mentioned our tax money is not supporting Hamas uh in my opinion thankfully I think in all of our opinions thankfully um they commit war crimes we've acknowledged that um okay I have a doctorate in plant Health um I studied agriculture I now I'm into horiculture I won't I have a landscaping business we don't use any chemicals I have two giant anthills in my yard that I want to get rid of and I just can't kill the ants when October 7th happened I cried because I'm emotional and I care about human beings um I thought what happened was horrendous but what has happened since there is unbelievable and we're paying for it and Pur is paying for it and I think we've given you those numbers I think it's around $152 million that's a local issue um and that's something that we should be able to address um and very very respectfully I would in invite Natasha to read our resolution because uh if you haven't um I'm sure we'd be happy to share it with you because um you know I mean it just talks about Humanity um we're not supporting war crimes we're not supporting this is just a mess I I think I've made my point it's our taxes are paying for this and uh we don't want to do that anymore and I don't think anybody would want to know that their taxes are paying for uh kidnappings uh that their taxes are paying for children being sniped I mean you have the you have the documents right I mean you have the the sheets and stuff we've prepared um we're paying for it um ceasefire now free Palestine and I mean just we're open to talking about anything you know just uh you you have all of our email addresses I'm sure we've contacted you all many times thank you soel L good evening Madame mayor council members my name is soel I'm from Pure Illinois and I'm here to call on you to adopt and vote for a ceasefire resolution to protect innocent Palestinian children women and men this issue is affecting the lives of thousands of peorian and they want to know that their city government cares about human life this is not in support of any country this is just about Poria saying no to genocide this is very much a local issue it should be issue for every locality and every human being there have been continuous daily air strikes and shelling of tent camps schools that are heavily occupied by civilians seeking safe shelter no place is sacred in the eyes of the rock state that is VI violating every international law and human right with impunity the aperti state of Israel has been systematically targeting schools hospitals refugee camps mosques churches and violating every rule of law and decency known to mankind just the other day an 82y old man Palestinian was killed in front of his house in Janine that's in the West Bank with nine bullets that's self-defense 82y Old Man In Cold Blood just a couple of days ago an American citizen protesting for peace in the West Bank was shot and killed by an is Israeli sniper and she was not the first one and the response of our government to this incident is nothing but shameful to say the least just yesterday a 2,000lb bomb was dropped on a tent camp that was designated a safe place by Israel itself creating a 30ft deep 200 ft wide hole in the sand a large enough hole to hold a three-story apartment building pulverizing everyone in that area in addition to more than 65 and this is as of yesterday 65 other civilians at least between killed and injured in the surrounding area the huge mk84 bomb that was used was supplied by US the US taxpayers and anyone among us who does not do what they can to do to stop this madness has the face and hands tainted with the blood of all the innocent people who died in this genocide anyone does not see the genocide the systematic effort to kill and as many Palestinians as possible and destroy the infrastructure in all Palestinian territory that is in Gaza and in the West Bank for the purpose of making life impossible for any who may remain and kicking them again out of their land just like what happened in 1948 anyone who does not see that is either blind or blinded by hate or by Dirty politics enough is enough 75 years of killing and destruction is enough this is not well this did not start on October 7th just between 2010 and 20122 war criminal netanyahu's military operations caused more than 7,000 Palestinians casualties this is before 2023 this is in addition to the Daily killings and attacks that are constantly carried out against Palestinians of the West Bank the genocide has been going on for long before October 7th 20123 let me paint a picture a little closer to home what happened on October 7th is as if Canada while it has been claiming Idaho for itself for the last 75 years occupies Montana and then when un us fights back from California Canada destroys California claiming self-defense that's exactly what's happening in Palestine and it's crazy enough is enough call for unconditional ceasefire and an end to the brutal and the only occupation remaining on our planet one final thought do you know how decent people feel about their forefathers who either helped or remained silent in front of what nazzis did I am certain that they would do everything in their power to distance themselves from them so I'm going to call on you do not let your grandchildren distance themselves from you let them instead be proud of you let them remember you as a council member who stood for justice and the sanctity of human life thank you call for a ceasefire to help end this madness and free Palestine thank you Hassan Naru thank thank you council members for allowing us the opportunity to speak um I have talked to some of you uh and uh and I realize that some of you may hold Christian values um and due to those Christian values you think you should support Israel this may be due to a number of reasons the world historically and people of European descent uh must atone maybe for their historical injustices against Jews so the reasoning goes however uh does the repentance of former colonizers have to come at the expense of displacing indigenous people from their lands do two wrongs truly make a right another reason is that Israel is an ally and we should support our allies even if they are flawed sometimes has the US not really learned from sporting unjust regimes throughout the world these actions only lead to instability and harm to people who live in those countries our alliance should be with the Jewish people not with the state as historically evidenced the US used to support regimes in Iran or Iraq and numerous Central and South American countries those regimes went on to kill thousands of people and that I would argue we should hold our allies to a higher moral standard than we would to any other Nation additionally I think we should also apply these Christian values to the right of Palestinian Christians to return to their former Homeland Israel currently denies the right of any person of Palestinian descent to return whether they're Christian Muslim doesn't matter they cannot return to their historical Homeland Christians living in West Bank do not have the right to vote even though Israel claims West Bank as part of his territory and their Jewish neighbors who live in illegal settlements as defined by the US state department have the right to vote over 90% of applic permit applications to improved lands held by Palestinians in West Bank are denied and then these people are forcibly evicted from their land because they haven't been taken care of their land is this how we uphold our Christian value vales another reason brought up for not weighing in on this issue is that it's a slippery slope why should Pura get involved in an international conflict I would say that it's a fallacy to think that this is a slippery slope for example if he uh if politicians who support or who oppose same-sex marriage deploy the same tact and say that if we legalize samesex marriage what is to stop us from legalizing is between humans and robots clearly this is a slippery slope I would argue that the US funding for this conflict makes us complicit and is the reason why Poria as a city should weigh in and inform the federal government and the state government about our stance as a city yes the federal government is in in charge of foreign policy however as evidenced historic Al cities and states frequently do weigh in on foreign policy issues for example the state of Illinois passed laws against the former aparte state of South Africa limiting business activity with South Africa Illinois currently has a law on the books and it was the first state to pass that law which um by cots or limits actions of companies that bycott Israel and it State the statute defined by cotting Israel as engaging in actions that are politically motivated and intended to penalize inflict economic Haron or otherwise limit commercial relations with the state of Israel or companies based in the state of Israel or in territories controlled by state of Israel so Ben and Jerry's for example a company founded by Jews if it wanted to not do any activities in West Bank a territory occupied by Israel Illinois would have to sanction Ben and Jerry's so I would argue that our position does matter even if it is an international conflict because we are not weighing in on sanctioning Israel we're just weighing in for a ceasefire Nasha mentioned that we are polarized this issue is where people are and they cannot change is that really so why do politicians then have ads every presidential campaign to convince people to change their Viewpoint if it is really not possible to change people's Viewpoint sorry your time's up and last we have Zachary grid I just want to begin by saying that um I don't represent any organization the speech is just of my own for months now you've been asked to do the literal bare minimum by passing a purely symbolic non-binding resolution calling for a ceasefire for the ongoing war on Gaza between Israel and Hamas such a resolution merely calls for a cease to hostilities between all the parties involved and a release of all hostages those that have called for a ceasefire have been defamed in the most horrible ways some anti- ceasefire proponents have compared us to Hitler and Matt hail despite the fact that some of the older people here actually protested Matt hail back in the 90s one anti C's fire person has repeatedly called Adam katum a Nazi a Nazi of all people Adam some people don't like me but everybody likes Adam so intense has the campaign been against us that Susan Katz former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Poria lobbied members of this Council to censor speech during public comment that was critical of Israel furthermore on December 20th of last year Miss cats posted on the Federation Facebook an article from Newsweek entitled quote calls for ceas fire are an anti-semitic demand and the Articles said such calls were tantamount to calling for the genocide of all Jewish people the objective reality is that 95% of Israeli hostages were returned during a ceasefire or other negotiated settlement only 5% have been returned via military means this means that people who Advocate a peaceful solution who are defamed in the most horrendous manner have done more to bring home Jewish hostages than those would have you believe that we are rabid anti-semites right now in Israel over half a million Israeli Jews and every single hostage family are protesting in the streets demanding a ceasefire are these people protesting in Israel also anti-semites and calling for a genocide of Jews such assertions are absurd and long past time everyone sees it Dr mayor neutral you won by only 42 votes last time it's my understanding you went to every MOS and begged and pleaded for their votes and that very well may have gotten you those 42 votes your opponent who I lovingly call Mr growth sent Susan Catz a list of every Township voter back in March for the April Township meeting thousands of names numbers and addresses he took a side despite encouraging you to remain neutral who do you think Miss cat is likely to show greater Fidelity to do you think it could add up to 42 votes the reasons to support a ceasefire resolution are numerous do you want the last 100 Israeli hostages returned alive there's 100 reasons to support a ceasefire want to protect innocent life in Gaza there's 's almost 2 million reasons to support a ceasefire want Hezbollah to stop bombing Northern Israel so hundreds of thousands of Israelis can return home there's a few hundred thousand more reasons to support a ceasefire want the houthis and let Yemen to stop attacking us shipping which is causing massive inflation support a ceasefire to bring down inflation want Iran to stop attacking Israel support a ceasefire want to protect want to protect Jews in the diaspora who are seeing an increase in anti-Semitism support a ceasefire for reasons known only to the US military-industrial complex there are currently 55,000 US troops stationed throughout the Middle East and Islamic fascist terrorist organizations there blame the us for what is going on in Gaza because of the US's support of Israel since October 7th there have been over 170 attacks against US soldiers resulting in dozens of injuries and the death of three black soldiers who came from Georgia yet not a single attack occurred during the November ceasefire and that's the exact same for Hezbollah and the houthis and Iran not a single attack happened against Israel during that ceasefire so we know where the evidence actually shows do you want to support the troops that's always a good way to get votes support the troops support a ceasefire do not listen to voices in our community that would Gaslight us into believing Jewish hostage families are somehow anti-semitic and support genocide such assertions are ludicrous an insult and a blood liable to those families and the Jewish hostages that are legally being held in Gaza be a part of an enduring peaceful solution that has far more benefits even electorally than it has deficits be a part of a solution that says from The River To The Sea Palestinians and Jews must be free thank [Applause] you at this time I would like to invite a motion to adjourn and to convene and close session immediately following the adjournment of the city council meeting pursuant to the open meetings act 5 i l cs120 2c1 to discuss pending litigation and pursuant to the open meetings act 5 i l cs120 SL2 c21 for approval by the body of closed session minutes can I get a motion moved by council member Gordon Young seconded by council member Allen please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously and thank you for your service