Peoria advances short-term rental restrictions; faces $4 million state tax threat

e good evening if everyone please take your seats we're going to get our meeting started very soon good evening everyone it is 6 o'clock pm on Tuesday February the 27th 2024 I'd like to call the meeting of the Poria city council to order i' also like to welcome everyone who's in our chamber audience as well as our listening audience at wcbu I'd also like to uh welcome the audience watching on cable channel 22 Adam clerk Council mics are open please call the RO mayor Ali present council member Allen pres council member sear council member Gordon young present council member Graham here council member Jackson here council member Kelly here council member riggenbach here council member velpula present council member vesa here and council member Oiler here we have a quorum present Madam mayor wonderful thank you madam clerk uh everyone please join me and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all at this time I would like to recognize Madam Stephanie Madam clerk Stephanie tar who has a special acknowledgement thank you Madame mayor council I just wanted to take a moment to recognize a member of my staff all of you know her Terina Bond she's my chief Deputy she's also known as the queen of liquor she processes all the liquor licenses in Poria in our customers love her well um she just achieved some a milestone in her career I've got to read my notes here because there's quite a bit to it she obtained her certified municipal clerk it's also known as her CMC you're going to be seeing that after her name from here on out she obtained her certified municipal clerk designation from The International Institute of Municipal clerks this is not just a personal achievement but a testament to her dedication commitment and unwavering pursuit of Excellence as Chief Deputy City Clerk in the Poria city clerk's office to earn this designation Terina had to demonstrate her willingness to invest extensive time and effort into education programs coupled with invaluable experience gained while working at the city the CMC program equips clerks to navigate the complexities inherent in their roles by providing top tier education and collaboration with Eastern Illinois University the municipal Clerks of Illinois and the central Illinois Municipal clerks organization this program has encouraged Excellence since 1970 fostering a community of over 4700 certified Municipal clerks worldwide so it's quite a honor behind the CMC program stands the in International Institute of Municipal clerks a Cornerstone organization that Champions continuing education and certification founded in 1947 with nearly 15,000 members I imc's primary Mission revolves around promoting continuous learning and professional growth for municipal clerks globally the S significance of professional training for municipal clerks is further under underscored by the Illinois State Statute outlined in the municipal clerk training act 65 ilcs 50 this legislation emphasizes the importance of ongoing Education and Training training for municipal clerks recognizing their pivotal role in ensuring the efficient functioning of local governments earning the certified municipal clerk designation demands unwavering commitment and determination as Trina can attest to the long hours the rigorous education requirements and dedicated learning hours signify a personal journey and an investment in delivering enhanced services to the community she serves Trina's achievement is not just a celebration of her success but a reflection of the collective dedication to Excellence within her field throughout her commitment to continuous learning and professional growth Trina embodies the values of diligence integrity and service which Define the essence of the certified municipal clerk program and with that we just received today her plaque designating her certified municipal clerk her CMC if you could all please give her a [Music] hand just like to thank everyone for this well especially Chief the um city clerk tar for this opportunity thanks everyone you're welcome thank you uh clerk Bond you make us very proud and it re it really means that we have the best I remember when you were acknowledged as a CMC clerk tar and now we have two certified Municipal clerks within uh Peoria city government so we have the very best thank you for your service thank [Applause] you I have a a special notice I'm going to read read this is a notice to our Township electors pursuant to Public Act d761 if you desire to have an item considered on the agenda at the annual town meeting to be held Tuesday April 9th 2024 at 6:00 p.m.

you are required to bring a specific request signed by 15 or more electors to the township clerk's office no later than Friday March the 1st any group of registered V ERS May request an advisory question of public policy for consideration by the electors at the annual meeting by giving written notice of the specific advisory question to the Township Clerk in the same manner as required for an agenda item under subsection B of section 30-10 of the Township Code before we go uh Madam clerk into the um the public public hearing section I'm going to refer to our city manager in regard to these hearings um thank you our first public hearing uh pertains to the Lamont special service area if I could I'd like to turn it over to our Corporation counsel just briefly discuss this actually Madame mayor if I may we need to have the approval of the minutes unless I've missed those okay oh I skipped over that yes um council member rigbot thank you Madame mayor I move to approve the minutes of The Joint City Council and town board meeting held on February 13 2024 is printed seconded by council member graab any questions comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously okay Madam Clerk we are at public hearings 24- 041 is a public hearing regarding the proposed West Lamont Avenue special service area can I get a motion to open the public hearing move by council member Allan seconded by council member seir please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Mr manager uh thank you madam mayor I'll turn the floor over to to our Corporation Council briefly thank you madam mayor pursuant to the Illinois compiled statutes this is a public hearing um provided for for the establishment of special service areas a group of Resident by way of introduction a group of residents within the 1700 and 1800 block of Lemont Avenue expressed interest in the former sidewalk participation program um City staff provided an alternative approach where a majority of interested residents might initiate a special service area um through a series of neighborhood meetings the residents expressed interest in the special service area option presented by City staff and that would include new gutter new curb and gutter as well as a Mill and overlay of the street the property owners within the special uh service area would contribute to the project but that would be limited to 80% of the cost of the mill and overlay the city will contribute the cost of the curb and gutter as a storm water Improvement and recognition of the previous expectations of participation in the um sidewalk participation program and the actual condition of the curb and gutter um this hearing is being conducted to gather public input um uh the ordinance proposing the SSA was published on January 23rd 2024 and set today as the public hearing um following this public hearing there's a period of 60 days within which uh petitioners could seek to um oppose the special service area but if a qualifying petition is not filed within that time the order an ordinance establishing this special service area will be presented for approval on May 14th 2024 and with that your honor you could ask for any public comments that might uh be wished to be made by members of the public thank you thank you uh Council Hayes at this time if is if there's anyone who wants to speak public hearing regarding the proposed W Lamont Avenue West Lama Avenue special service area please come forth if there's anyone who wants to speak to the public hearing on the West lont Avenue special service area please come forth and lastly if there's anyone who wants to speak to the public hearing regarding the West Lamont Avenue special service area please come forth I would request a motion to close the public hearing moved by council member graab seconded by council member Kelly council member graab did you no just two okay thank you please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 24-42 is a public hearing regarding the proposed Kina Road Industrial Park Tax increment financing District can I get a motion to open the public hearing moved by council member velpula seconded by council member riggenbach uh any comments questions please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously and we have someone is that Mr R oh uh Mr manager thank you um we we do have with us this evening uh herb Klein who is with Jacob M Klein who's our Tiff consultant as well as Steve kleene no relation who's with the Economic Development Group um they are our Consultants that helped us to prepare the Tiff document I asked them to just come forward to give a brief overview of the proposed Tiff District on Galina road that we're talking about uh and then open up the public hearing after they make those comments if if we could there's no action by council tonight on on this item or the next item uh it's just to receive the public input as part of the public hearing process thank you thank you madam mayor um our office along with the Economic Development Group which is a municipal consulting firm was asked to evaluate the gleen road map area uh for inclusion in a tiff District which is a statutory District established under Illinois law and the City of por has used them previously there are 70 Parcels in this Tiff District um we did a parcel survey of all of those Parcels evaluating them for inclusion in Tiff District under the Tiff act and I'm happy to report that 95.7% of the parcels we deemed as qualified in meeting the qualifications as required under the onl law for the Tiff Act those 35 of the parcels are vacant we found that all of the vacant Parcels qualify as part of the process one of the steps is to convene a joint review board which all the taxing bodies that have taxing Authority within the area are provided notice of the plan and then certain of those members have an advisory vote to the council that joint review board was convened and met on February 1st and I'm happy to report that they voted to recommend approval of the Tiff District to the council finding that the area on the whole qualified met the requirements of the Tiff act and that the plan itself met the requirements of the Tiff act so with that I think we turn it over to public comment thank you very much uh we have uh Mr Robert Ro can you come forth hello um my name is Robert row and I'm I'm here to um speak on on behalf of the hard ofo group Sierra Club um to offer Our advice on how to accomplish this development in a a manner that will be consistent with the this stated goals of the ti act and sound environmental safeguards the cact states that the Miss Mission specifically is to um do this in compliance with conservation measures and um um there are several environmental concerns with this development that will be um be that will make this a more sus sustainable and more profitable project if done right um these include the uh concern that the U the project is in proximity to a valuable and fragile popular Nature Preserve one solution to this would be to provide a setback from The Preserve boundary including a a walking trail and access to the Nature Preserve area and make use of the proximity of this this Nature Preserve to make this an attractive place to live and to work and to visit light pollution it disrupts migrating and and nesting in Birds one alternative uh would be to re require shielded down lights and and the low light security cameras the money saved on electricity would be better put to remote sensors and secure design ensure the safety of both surface water and groundwater particularly the um the sanc aquafer water well allow no the businesses and industries that potentially would emit hazardous Water and Air pollutants increased paved areas mean increased storm water runoff directly into the sensitive reparan habitat and and nesting areas Alternatives permeable pavers and limit the use of petroleum based sealers direct water through holding ponds which can be both Scenic and practical and noise abatement enforce the noise ordinances particularly for businesses such as as gyms and other recreational venues in summation let's get this this right and put Provisions into the the plan from the start and see that they are properly enforced keeping it green will keep you in the black so um I want to emphasize that this uh Nature Preserve is uh valued by thousands of visitors every year and hopefully uh the thff district and the Nature Preserve can coexist thank you thank you Mr Ro is there anyone else that would like to speak in the public hearing regarding the proposed Galina Road Industrial Park tax increment financing district is there anyone else that would like to speak to the proposed Galina Road Industrial Park Tiff good afternoon hi I'm Fred sep um I might be out of line we might be talking but I want to know um along with some of the other land orders I mean what's going to happen regarding obviously there's going to be purchase of land I mean has there been any discussion on how that will take this is just open for public comment not for Q&A I'm sorry I thought I might be out of line I just thought I'd run that's quite all right thank you for your time you're welcome is there anyone else that would like to speak at the public hearing regarding the proposed Galina Road Industrial Park Tiff yes sir good evening my name is James stuttle I am the President of the Skyline Drive Property Owners Association which is directly adjacent to the proposed Tiff on one section and also of course adjacent to Forest Park N Center which is also directly adjacent I would just like to reinforce our neighborhood's concerns that this be something that uh not change the nature of the environment in which we have chosen to invest and and and and to live in not only us but of course also the other neighborhoods in the area and the nursing homes that are in the area I would note that the Tiff District guidelines do call for taking livability of the neighborhoods surrounding the district R into account I would ask that you would consider those liability standards when you are doing your planning I would also wholeheartedly agree that lighting is a tremendous issue along the river the subdiv the uh subdivision has been quite concerned over the years with lighting and the um nursing homes have already faced issues with that and have actually had to spend great deal of money in order to adjust their lighting to have the low lighting so if you would make sure that any um ordinances that involve the T District involve these covered low-level lighting so that we particularly with the Nature Preserve right there uh that we don't have the issue from the very beginning and I also last but not least the San cot Reservoir is right there um any industrial project that's involved there that is releasing pollutants literally right where Illinois American is drawing water out to serve half the city uh with their water you really have to make sure the ordinances are taking special care to control for those issues last but not least I would like to mention that I have reached out to the uh the city three times to ask for information on this and have not heard back very nice very cordial phone calls once a week for the last three weeks and I would appreciate hearing back so that we can be kept in the loop in this and if there is a way that the Skyline Drive homeowners association can actually get literature on this um we would appreciate it so that we are in the loop and we understand what's going on and I'll be kind I'll be glad to share that with my fellow homeowners thank you and um appreciate your time thank you sir is there anyone else can I get a motion to close of public hearing moved by council member SE seconded by council member Gordon young please cast your ballots passes unanimously Madam clerk 24-23 is a public hearing regarding the proposed Distillery tax increment financing District Mr manager thank you Madame mayor uh again I'll turn the floor over to uh Mr Klein to just give a a quick overview and then we'll turn it back to the public thank you Patrick and uh the second Tiff District that this public hearing uh is for is what's known as The Distillery Tiff District this is an area I know you're all familiar with along the elai river uh between Southwest Washington Street and Southwest Adams Street from Sanger Street up to the Route 116 Bridge again we surveyed the area there are 109 Parcels in This Ti Tiff District finding that 82.6% of them qualify under the requirements of the Illinois law and the Tiff act and there are 37 Parcels considered vacant and we found that all of them qualify Again The Joint review board met on February 1st uh the taxing bodies that were present that have a vote and the vote of the joint review board which is an advisory vote to this Council was that the area qualifies the city has followed the procedures to date required under the act and they recommended approval of the Tiff District thank you thank you uh we have Miss Joyce harant speaking at the public mayor if we could have a motion to open please oh I'm sorry it's okay thank you uh moved by council member Allen seconded by council member Jackson please cast your ballots to open motion passes unanimously Miss rant and councilman um my son he has something that he wants to say regarding the Distillery Tiff uh good evening ladies and gentlemen mayor and council members I'm here today to speak for all the kids who cannot speak for themselves please vote no to any tax dollars going towards any pollution or a dangerous Pipeline on the south side of Peoria the kids down there's life is already in danger please don't allow anyone to put their lives in any more danger thank you and God bless you [Applause] all um he wanted to come too I didn't force him he made me bring him he said he wanted to come and speak so I couldn't stop him I had to bring him make sure he was looking right for the occasion but um I just want to say that and can you identify yourself Mr I'm worth Muhammad and that's my son Warth Muhammad Jr um and I am a longtime resident of the southside of Poria it's um a food desert down there those Tiff dollars can definitely go towards like a grocery store or something um the violence the homicide rate on the south side is through the roof as well the last thing that the people need on the south side of Poria is a pipeline that could potentially bust because just the ground shifts which happened in satar Mississippi the ground shifted and this pipeline burst and people up to a mile away just passed out in their cars and is suffering from brain damage to this day so um as far as the Distillery Tiff any tax dollars going towards anything that can pollute or put people lives in Harm's Way on the south side of Poria we urge that the mayor and the council members vote no thank [Applause] you is there anyone else that would like to speak in the public hearing regarding the proposed Distillery tax increment financing District good even good evening uh honorable mayor Ali and council members Administration um I am Martha Ross and I live at 1018 West RB Garrett Avenue I've lived there for 44 years ever since I uh came to Peoria I've served on many committees commissions and the entire time I've lived here I've been standing for justice equity and equality in my neighborhood I wear many hats I'm here this evening as president of the Southside Community United for change better known as SCU this organization on the south side is made up of neighborhood groups residents and other organizations and businesses that seek to improve the quality of life for individuals and families living working or just visiting on the South Side the group found found was founded in 2013 it is a nonprofit and it includes households and residents in the 61605 zip code our purpose to is to enhance the liability of the Southside area educate the residents and Implement sustainable activities and programs that address neighborhood problems and concerns thank you to the city manager Erick olich sorry and staff um for the additions that have been made to The Distillery Tiff proposal and my thanks for the opportunity to discuss uh the redline edits the city has taken our input into consideration and that is appreciated we do need additional time to get feedback from concerns citizens and we will supply a written response to the city Redline wording as soon as possible we are asking that the city council mayor we would like to defer the planning for March 12th March 12's vote on this distill reti uh to a later date this needs to be a historical transition to stop doing business as usual to the South Side equity and environmental justice must be ensured in this Distillery Tiff we need confidence that Tiff funds will not go toward adding new air water pollutions and other hazards and risk of carbon monoxide side to the people who live in that area we need to be sure that the generations of disparities for residents in the South Side will not continue in my 44 years in the South Side I have seen over and over again the impacts of cities decisions not to invest in the southside's quality of life the Southside needs new businesses and industries to help attract new homeowners and in years of disinvestment discrimination and pollution impact this Tiff can set a new future for the POR for Poria that has been needed for a very very long time focusing on equity and Justice and reducing the United States Environmental Protection Agency environmental justice levels of pollution impact and socioeconomic disparities for the southide we will be highly significant and we will uh Prosper the time is now for the city leaders to walk the walk that they've been talking for all these years by changing the future of the southide by doing a 360 degree bold step toward valuing the lives of all citizens of Poria thank you for your time and attention you're [Applause] welcome hello um good good evening uh mayor Ali and and council members and staff uh my name is Alicia Granderson and my address is 1014 West VG West Virginia Avenue um however I grew up on the South Side as a child so it is very near and dear to me um I am an elected board member with the heart of Illinois group Sierra Club and I am here tonight to present comments for the group Sierra Club emphasizes Equity diversity and inclusiveness along with addressing a wide range of environmental ISS issues first we thank City staff for taking public concerns with the distillary Tiff into consideration it is clearly essential that the final wording in the Tiff must protect Southside residents from more pollution and life and safety risk such as carbon dioxide pop pipelines or carbon capture and sequestration secondly we urge the city to be sure that the final word wording can achieve the results that are needed to protect residents and neighborhoods from Decades of higher pollution and levels of injustices based on where people live we ask you to strengthen your language to be sure that it is possible to award City Tiff funds with full considerations for reducing and not adding to pollution Tiff funds must not continue discrimination in quality of life in areas such as uh 61605 and 61602 zip codes the city of Poria must be sure that any Tiff projects are reviewed considering the findings in the city of Poria and Poria County 2022 annual report of The Joint Commission on racial Justice and Equity Justice delayed is Justice denied now is the time for Poria to give development the scrutiny it requires for addressing risk hazards and pollution we ask the city to use Tiff funds to reward projects that help quality of life and health and not add to existing inequities for a better future for all all residents of Peoria thank you very much for your [Applause] time good evening Council I'm Joyce blumenshine I live at 2419 East P Poria not East peia Poria in P in Poria here pardon me um so some photos were at your desk took this photo on Sunday um at about going on uh 2:00 and was the first I had really noticed of a very dark smoke plume coming from the stacks the Smoke Stack at bio urg plant and and that is the red and white stack on the left corner and then this view was from the East Peoria side of the river I had to pick up some things at Office Depot and they have a parking lot on the south and so I just pulled in there zoomed my phone and it's the best I could take but I just want to point out I'm not a scientist but whatever this is dark particulates are in there something's in there I'm going to try to find out more and ask bioer but we know that decades upon Decades of pollution have impacted the life and health of people on the souths side it exasperates asthma and many health conditions heart problems so as many speakers said tonight we just thank city council thank um attorney Hayes and uh administrator urick for their attention to the Public's comments and your attention to the comments tonight and we want to work with you to keep refining this because this is a historic time for the city of puia to get things right for equity and Justice thank you [Applause] welcome is there anyone else that would like to speak to the proposed Distillery Tiff District yes good evening my name is Steve Fairbanks I reside at 286 founder act Drive in East Poria I'm here tonight as a member of the faith Coalition for racial equity which was formed in Poria in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer here is the mission of the Coalition we are a growing Coalition of Faith communities benefiting from White Privilege who Advocate dismantling institutional racism and our vocal and visible allies of black communities in Poria through joint action Faith communities represented in the Coalition include University United Methodist Church St Paul Episcopal Church the Jewish Federation imod day Church Universalist Unitarian Church First Christian Church the faith Coalition for racial Equity supports additions to The Distillery tax increment Finance District Redevelopment plan additions We Believe promote environmental justice and highlight concerns about carbon pipeline transport in the event of a carbon pipeline burst families living on the South Side would be directly affected and over time such an event also endanger endangers families living throughout Poria metro area thank you for listening and for including the planned amendments [Applause] welcome is there anyone else that would like to speak to the proposed Distillery Tiff District good evening Madame mayor and Council my name is Reverend Jennifer inis I'm the minister with the Universalist Unitarian Church here in Poria I'm a resident of Poria and I have two children getting a great education in the public school system I am speaking if I can get the phone open I am speaking I'm also part of the faith Coalition for racial Equity uh and I'm here to support the Amendments the call on the city to reduce the environmental risk to areas such as the Southside and not permit CO2 capture and transport by pipeline or increase pollution levels in EPA permits I support the amendment that calls for the city to work with the EJ community of concern on the south side to enhance the community Through the lens of environmental justice and diversity Equity inclusion and AC accessibility as a person of faith I recognize the Deep systemic hardships of the Southside environmentally economically from racial Justice perspective and so much more the Southside residents businesses and organizations stand firm on the fact that this new Tiff does not allow funds to go to the establishment of a CO2 pipeline or any other environmental hazards in the Southside or the surrounding areas and I'll also offer that as much as Poria may have deep divisions among economic and racial lines I tell tell you a cloud of CO2 does not care and a cloud of CO2 that may come from a possible accident can affect all of us it is not worth the risk and I also want to encourage the council and all elected leaders and those making decisions to do anything in our power to be thoughtful and mindful about our environmental situation reflecting on a day when it is what 7 something degrees and tomorrow we may have a snow day in the schools makes me very mindful of the fragility of our environment and we are all called to do better on that count in any way that we can thank you [Applause] welcome good evening and thank you very much for this opportunity to speak I'm Joyce heren and I'm here as a part of the central Illinois healthy Community Alliance um I'd like to to thank um um administrator urick and attorney Hayes for the meeting that we had on Friday regarding the um additions that we would like to see regarding the the use of funds in terms of CO2 Pipeline and and EPA increased U air or water pollution permits and you know it was a a really I think a unique opportunity I think it was a first a first of its kind kind of opportunity and so we really do appreciate it and the efforts that um everyone took to um PID really close attention to how we can work together to move forward on environmental justice we I think and we think that we we can move farther and that we would appreciate having the opportunity to be able to provide something in written form uh as response to um the redline version and do uh sincerely ask that the council defer your vote from the March 12th deadline uh or that's actually in the schedule that you can if you can defer that um um I also have a comment from dorce coaster um she is not in the in the community can I read that at this okay assuming I can punch these numbers correctly in my phone okay uh this is Darice coaster and she lives at 157 South Argo uh Street in Poria uh as president of Nish Inc and a board member of Southside citizens for United change I stand against Tiff money being used for a CO2 pipeline in Peoria Illinois I'm dismayed by the backdoor methodology being used to get this information to get this environmental landline um installed in our city as this Fight Continues three things will not change the CO2 pipeline is a safety hazard for our community the citizens of Peoria will continue to vocalize re our rejection of a CO2 Pipeline and any other lucrative deal that puts lives at risk upon explosion of a CO2 pipeline we will all have 8 seconds your job is to represent and uphold the voice of Poria residents dorice coaster thank you very much you're [Applause] welcome good evening I'm Barbara girtler I too am a member of the faith Coalition for racial equity and I don't plan to repeat any of the very wonderful words that have been said tonight about the tax increment proposed tax increment I just know that you are and the council are reasonable people and that you know that the south side has suffered many injustices over the years and you've heard much of that tonight too so I'm just another person that is telling you it's in our hearts and Minds that it's time for environmental justice human rights and social Equity to be given to the puia South Side so when you begin working again or more on the tax tax increment I just want you to remember people live there people don't need to be polluted anymore and I ask that you just add to what you are proposing safe guards for all the things that you've heard tonight that can be a problem thank you for your time you're [Applause] welcome is there anyone else that would like to speak at the public hearing regarding the proposed Distillery Tiff good evening Council Madame mayor city manager counselor um thank you for allowing me this opportunity I'd like to piggyback on what everyone else was speaking of in regards to environmental justice the obvious threats to the environment um I understand that maybe once upon a time it was a a good idea to consider capturing carbon and somehow stuffing it into the ground I don't think anyone ever intended funds to be used to schlep it all over hell's Halfacre um I think this is an issue that both uh that is rare it unites Democrats it unites Republicans nobody wants this in their backyard and that's from from Iowa all to where all the way to where they plan on depositing it in decar um I would like to Second Martha and Joyce's requests and ask that a final decision be put off till March 12th um largely so that more of the public will be able to provide that input but also so I can show you some really beautiful pictures I've lived at 331 Fon street across the street for the last 11 years and I have some beautiful views on a clear day I can watch the construction from my bedroom or my living room on the mccluggage bridge and I can see the Bernie Baker bridge out my window as well um one of the prettier things is to watch the fog roll into the river valley the fog is nice it's beautiful but it's water vapor it ain't going to kill you and it's not displ placing any Oxygen in the process I respectfully request that the city use Extreme Caution to assure that bioa who just got a break um we through American Water applied for $950,000 in a grant to upgrade water infrastructure and we paid for a lift station to which bio Ur makes a big contribution um they don't really need any breaks to poison us and I understand the focus on the south side and environmental justice for the south side but you can smell bio urgia on the way over here it smells very yeasty this evening that's what Vapors tend to do is they tend to accumulate in our River Valley hence the reason when you see the temperature on the weather channel it's always going to be 5° higher right here at City Hall in the river valley but um I would respectfully request that no monies go to This Disaster of carbon capture not just for the sake of the Southside but because you can see it out my window there are 200 people who live in my building right behind me and the people that are outside walking their dogs are the first ones to die you only get 8 seconds good luck getting the fire department to fire up trucks and come and save you combustible uh combustion engines won't kick in to come and get you when we get gased and when does the gas leave the river valley I don't know maybe when the wind blows um I think that it's a risk that doesn't need incentive iing and it doesn't better the neighborhood in any way so I I do respectfully request that city council um at least put off a decision until they can obtain more in input from the public but the public doesn't need to incentivize a risk to our lives thank you you're [Applause] welcome is there anyone else that would like to speak to the proposed Distillery Tiff District well my name is Rachel O'Reilly thank you for hearing us out um it seems to me that this carbon capturing pipeline is really a loophole it seems like legislation to cut carbon emissions is because scienti scientists know that climate climate change is serious and I just urge all of you to be heroes um don't go where the money is be a hero for future Generations actually we need radical change not um loopholes shoving carbon somewhere and the way the way that the Earth is changing the way that everything's going on it's very likely it could have a a disaster so please be mindful please be heroes thank you welcome anyone else can I get a motion to close the public hearing moved by councilwoman Jackson seconded by council member Kelly did you want us you were just moving right pardon me yes and I would also like to speak I would okay so we're just receiving public comment okay we're not taking action though right okay I not at all okay we can I would like to uh ask to defer we're this is just a public hearing okay yeah okay please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you everyone for your comments Madam clerk we are at the consent agenda 24-44 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com troller with a request to concur with the recommendation of staff to set a public hearing before the city council on Tuesday March 12th 2024 at 6 PM regarding Citywide sewer rate adjustments 24- 45 is a communication with request to approve a 2-year contract for the 2024 weed and litter contract with Burnside Brothers GX Law and Order and Robert's custom mowing as primary contractors and Chambers and Suns landscaping and Rutherford Enterprises as secondary contractors 24- 46 is a communication with a request to approve a 2-year contract for the 2024 tree trimming and cutting contract with hline Enterprises LLC and GX 24 4-47 is a communication with request to approve a 2-year contract for board up services with C Lindsay as the primary contractor and gyx as the backup contractor 24-48 is a communication with request to approve a 2-year contract for the 2024 exterior rodent control contract with Poria pest eliminators 24- 49 is a communication from the city manager in Corporation Council with a request to approve a resolution regarding the approval of closed session minutes 24-50 is a communication with a request for the following a approve a highway Authority agreement between the city of Poria and ILO Inc for the property known as 3036 North Knoxville Avenue Poria Illinois and B adopt an ordinance for a limited area for groundwater for properties known as parcel identification numbers 14-33 d201 1-1 14- 33-20 1-2 14- 33-20 1-3 14- 33-20 1-4 14- 33-20 1-5 14-33 d201 d012 14- 33-20 1-13 14- 33-20 1-014 14-33 d201 d015 14- 28-4 54-22 14- 28- 454 D28 14-28 d377 d66 and 14-33 d132 018 as well as portions of West Forest Hill Avenue East Forest Hill Avenue and North Knoxville Avenue all in Poria Illinois 24- 051 is a communication with a request to concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to deny a request to approve the ciger subdivision with waivers for the properties located at 9310 North Fry Road 24- 52 is a communic a with requests concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to deny a request to amend an existing special use ordinance number 13115 as amended in a class C2 large-scale commercial district for a shopping center to add Class 2 tobacco or alternative nicotine product sales used for the properties located at 4123 North Sheridan Road 4125 North Sheridan Road and 900 West Lake Avenue peor Illinois 24- 53 is a communication with request to concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance amending an existing special use ordinance number 13392 in a class R7 multifam residential district for an assisted living facility to allow a building addition and parking lot expansion with waivers for the property located at 3415 North Sheridan Road 24-54 is a communication with a request to adopt an ordinance making temporary amendments to chapter 18 to reduce fees and allow additional locations in article 17 mobile food vehicles and to reduce fees in article 12 of the code of the city of Poria 24-55 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com troller with requests to adopt an ordinance partially abating the tax here here to for levied to pay special service area property taxes on the holiday M Property Tax special service area in the amount of $126,000 and 24- 56 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com troller with a request to adopt an ordinance partially abating the tax here to Le Levy to pay special service area property taxes on the peia sports center property tax special service area in the amount of $117,000 and that concludes our consent agenda thank you madam clerk are there any items to remove from consent council member Seer thank you madam mayor um item number 24- z51 please council member Kelly uh thank you Madame mayor 24- okay any other items I have them moment motion to approve the consent agenda moved by uh council member Oiler seconded by council member Gordon young please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 24-50 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request for the following a approve a highway Authority agreement between the city of Poria and ILO Inc for the property known as 3036 North Knoxville Avenue Poria Illinois and B adopt an ordinance for a limited area of groundwater for properties known as parcel identification numbers 14-33 d2011 14- 33-20 1-2 14- 33-20 1-3 14- 33-20 1-4 14- 33-2 1-5 14- 33-20 1-12 14- 33-20 1-13 14- 33-20 1-14 14-33 d201 D15 14- 28-4 54-22 14- 28-4 54-28 14-28 d377 d66 14-33 d132 d18 as well as portions of West Forest Hill Avenue East Forest Hill Avenue and North Knoxville Avenue and we'll need separate motions on each okay well done Madam clerk council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor and I'd like to apologize to the clerk uh thank you for uh that Clarity I uh and I'd like to speak to uh uh to manager or I um went through this or or I'm sorry I didn't know you were here Mr director I I guess I'll address my questions to you I went through this and kind of went through it and went through it and I have to say I'm not sure I understand what's going on I don't think I have any objection but I'm not EX exactly sure what's happening and let me just try to simplify it for myself is this a uh there there have been core drilling core samples and whatnot taken and am I correct in that there are some uh dangerous uh chemicals there but they're they are so rare in the sample that it's underneath the um the limits where we would have to do remediation is that is that fair fair that's correct and the remediation it's basically it would offer you would have to do remediation if they proposed using a prop potable water I'm sorry would you proposed using the site to extract portable water drinking oh yes so if it were that if that were the case it would be above that level that's basically in I'll try to make this simple this simply restricts the use of that parcel for development and they cannot use or extract portable water they can develop but they cannot extract water and use it for portable means that in essence is what this restriction creates and that seems to me to be not much of a restriction correct okay it just it restricts them for use for that use thank thank you very much I'm sorry for my thickness Madame mayor I would move to approve item a okay is there a second second by council member velpula any discussion on item a please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously council member Kelly uh without uh detailing uh Item B come on come on I would move to approve Item B seconded by council member velpula any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 24- 51 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to deny a request to approve the cigar subdivision with waivers for the properties located at 9310 North Fry Road Poria Illinois council member sier thank you Madame mayor move to defer four weeks until the March 26th meeting please seconded by council member Oiler any discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we are at presentations 24- 57 is a communication from the city manager and chief diversity and inclusion officer with request to receive and file a presentation on minority and women-owned business utilization and minority and women Workforce data and on your desk there is a handout with a revised presentation for tonight Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor I have with us this evening we have uh our uh Chief diversity and inclusion officer Melody green who's going to walk through a presentation um at the request of councilwoman Jackson she'd asked to U for some historical information and we have some other information that we'd like to share this evening hopefully we're able to get that up on the screen there we go yes yes you yes we can we we can now thank you so tonight I'll be I'll be showing a presentation regarding our minority business enterprises our women business enterprises our individual minority and women Workforce utilization I will also address some common barriers that women and minorities face in the construction field in general and I will close out with some of the positive actions that we as an organization are taking to do our part I recognize that these are very data heavy slides and so for timing's sake I won't make a reference to all of the data but you have it there in your hard copies at your desks most of this data has been provided by human capital development El l c which manages our construction and procurement data for the public works and purchasing departments through erism soft one slide detailing our Capital spend data was provided by our finance department and I will make reference to that slide when we come to it later the next three slides will give a summary of our Workforce participation our minority business Enterprise utilization and our Women Business Enterprise utilization over a 10-year period on all three slides you'll see our aspirational goals which are set by the city manager pursuant to chapter 17 section 120 of our city code on the current slide you see that for contracts and subcontracts our goals are currently set at 10% for minority business enterprises and 5% for women business enterprises additionally for our Workforce goals we're set at minority 18% Workforce and 3% women Workforce goals so with this slide we see that of the total number of Workforce hours in the construction field between 2014 and 2023 women accounted for nearly 5% and minorities nearly 19% what this means is that the workforce goals have been met on the aggregate over that period of time we'll see later in the breakdown that these numbers numbers however do vary year over-year this next slide lists the same goals for Workforce and additional for contracts and subcontracts goals applicable to this slide are again 10% for minority business enterprises and 5% for women business enterprises on Prime contracts now a prime contractor sometimes also called a general contractor for the public they're responsible for work on an entire project so they work consistently on that project for its duration however they hire and lead other contractors on smaller portions of the contracts and those contractors are known as subcontractors so per this slide for these Prime contracts over the 10-year period we see that our goals have gone unmet we are at 60% for minority business Enterprise participation on Prime contracts and 2.20% for participation on Prime contracts for women business enterprises over that same period of time me make sure I didn't get ahead of myself okay thank you and so the next slide slide four details our subcontract participation data for the same 10-year period our goals remain the same as those for the prime contracts 10% MBE 5% wbe and again they've gone unmet on the aggregate with 1.34% for minority business Enterprise participation and 4.26% for Women Business Enterprise participation Slide Five details a breakdown of those same Prime contracts but for the years of 2014 through 2018 of note we can see that from 2015 to 2018 no minority business enterprises were awarded any Prime contracts now we don't know at this time if they bid on any Prime contracts but we do know based on this data that they were not awarded any Prime contracts during that time frame and the same goes for women business enterprises from 2016 and 2017 we then see a jump in the area of women business enterprises to 7.2% on Prime contracts which would exceed the 5% goal for women business enterprises next slide is a continuation of the previous slide but for the years of 2019 through 2023 here we see that minority business enterprises continue to obtain 0% of prime contracts until 20 22 this slide is a visual representation of just how much of the pie minority and women-owned businesses are not getting on Prime contracts for the 10-year period and again we see that minority business enterprises are less than 1 % over that aggregate period of time and women business enterprises are just over 2% slide eight details subcontractor utilization for the time period of 2014 to 2018 here we can see that there are no zero percentages like we saw on those for major Prime contracts we also see that women business enterprises exceeded the 5% goals twice during this fiveyear time period minority business enterprises did not meet the 10% goal during this same time frame for the years of 2019 through 2023 this is a continuation again of the previous slide and we can see that minority business enterprises appear to not have been awarded any subcontracts during the years of 2019 and 2020 women business enterprises met the 5% utilization goal in 2019 and then again in 2023 and here we have another visual representation of the piie chart this time for subcontracts which show minority business enterprises again at 1.34% and women business enterprises at 4.26% in subcontracts slide 11 details our Workforce data call that our Workforce data goals of 18% for minorities and 3% for women on the aggregate had been met for that 10-year period here we can look more closely and see that women met the 3% goal every year between 2014 and 2018 and minorities met the goal in 2014 and came close again in slide 12 is a continuation of slide 11 but for the years of I'm sorry 2019 through 2023 we have similar data here but here women in the construction Workforce appear to have decreased a bit between the years of 2019 and 2023 and minorities increased with the highest of all years being the year 2023 at 24.9% of the workforce slide 13 is the last of the pie charts and it details construction Workforce data showing again that 18.54% for minorities and 4.78% for women in the field of Workforce slide 14 details data provided by the finance department and that data shows that Minority and women business enterprises spend on capital projects capital projects are larger projects that typically aim to improve infrastructure in some way we do not currently have goals related to Capital spend projects specifically however we can see here that the last year that last year for both groups we are trending upwards in a positive direction with 4.6% of our total spend going towards MBE and three 3.05% of our total spend going to Min to women business enterprises if you take a look at the year 2018 you can see that that's a drastic difference from 2018 when minority business enterprises had .6% and women business uh Enterprises had zero I included s slide 15 because it details a snapshot of United States Construction Employment by race this data comes from the US Bureau of the Labor Statistics and is just one example of barriers that some minority communities face which is simply entering the field of construction we see here that of the races and or ethnicities listed 60.9% of the construction sector is comprised of non-hispanic whites on the contrary the percentages for blacks and Asians are drastically lower to demonstrate just How Deeply rooted and systemic these barriers are in 1999 the US Commission on civil rights wrote an article addressing barriers facing minority and women owned business in the field of construction that report cited some common barriers as difficulty gaining access to necessary information and capital a lack of collateral personal expenses needing to be used in lie of financing capabilities limited buying power which limits volume which in turn limits best pricing from suppliers which in turn can lead to higher pricing with which in turn deems minority firms less competitive also listed as barriers were limited job training opportunities bonding requirements for smaller businesses false claims of minority and women business Enterprise solicitation and apprenticeship program requirements lastly listed were problems associated with completing Municipal contracts amongst other problems problems 1999 was 25 years ago and these barriers remain but as strong as these barriers are we are proving that we too as an organization and a community are strong enough to work against them so what are we doing we all have a part to play so for example first you as our leaders you've shown support by approving staff recommendations to award Grant money to organizations like the minority contractors that seek to address these barriers by providing minorities with Pathways to construction and other trades internally you all have approved the Peoria equity and accountability program for my office to run and in doing so we've added nearly 100 minority and women B business Enterprise listings and growing every day in the field of construction Food Service Serv consulting services and other areas we've also continued and increased Community engagements and some have listed here financial literacy Forum with St Paul church and Chase Bank Community Management Department we've attended minority business days in Hispanic chamber of commerce minority and women business business Enterprise events very importantly internally we are reviewing our processes that we follow as we practice our jobs day-to-day and in doing so we are reviewing our pre-bidding processes so that the Equal Opportunity office can have a more visible role in those processes we are going through strenuous good faith efforts review of minority and women business Enterprise utilization when documents are reviewed from divisions such as the public work works department and purchasing departments that handle the majority of our large contracts we are also engaging in procurement Equity training across our organization with all levels of staff and we'll begin that training next week one of the most exciting things that we are working on in conjunction with the finance department and our procurement Equity team that I'll speak about on the next slide is this transparency dashboard this dashboard will allow for Real Time public access to minority and women business Enterprise information and it'll increase visibility for businesses it'll help us identify Trends and inform our decisionmaking so that we can be more intentional it'll Foster trust and accountability and further our strategic plan goal to embrace diversity equity and inclusion the last slide details a procurement Equity working group established in 2023 by mayor Ali you can see our partner organizations that I've listed here the NAACP Poria Branch minority business development center Bradley University Small Business Development Center and many others that you see listed here we have at least monthly group meetings and we work to develop ways to increase minority and women utilization not just in the field of construction but across our organization as a whole and I believe that our staff and our department heads have bought into this on March 28th 2024 the procurement Equity Group will host the equity and procurement Expo that will be held at the Poria Civic Center it will allow attendees to learn about the city's procurement processes and meet with other government agencies that may have procurement opportunities available we'll have presentations from the state of Illinois Commission on equity and inclusion and their their business Enterprise program also presentations from the minority business development center and Bradley University Small Business Development Center the invitations for that event for that event are circulating now and we are expecting a great success with that I'll answer any questions that you may have thank you Chief green for this presentation excellent job and uh I do have a couple questions for starters okay but the data is compelling very compelling mine are not numbered so I'm just going to go through and count one two three four slide four if you could go back to that okay actually let me see if I can okay is it this slide another one five yes you indicated that um those numbers were from 2014 to 2018 for MBE well 2015 to 2018 were all zeros for the MBE but you indicated that you were not sure if MBE had actually bid on the projects aren't we able to go back and find that information out didn't we have a or did we not have a system that allows us to go back and look to see whether there were bids I am not sure at this time I can check with actually m zaja is here he maintains our data he may be able to pull that information and I could report that back to council but at this time this is the way that the data was submitted so I am not able to confidently say that we even had minorities uh minority business enterprises bid on Prime contracts and that is not a rarity with prime contracts because those are larger contracts they require much more capital um and much more in in terms of bonding requirements and other things that smaller minority and women own businesses often lack access to I totally agree but if there's any way to determine whether uh minorities actually bid in from 2015 through 2018 I would sure like to know absolutely okay and then the only other question I have have is on slide let's see let's that's five six seven slide nine actually I have two more questions slide nine 22 that one right there just want to verify that 2022 for MBE is $5,000 that is correct mayor Ali and I did double check that number because I too uh was wondering what had occurred okay and I actually um was able to find out from our consultant that that was a contract um I'll tell you in one second and I apologize I think I left that last document in my office so I don't have it here but that was one contract that was awarded for that $5,000 amount and I can report back to that as well okay great thank you and I don't know the number but if you could Advance maybe about four more slides I'm sorry it's called total procurement amount and capital spend and it is that one at the very top um the third column over is should that be MBE versus m wbe absolutely Mar Ali that is a typo it should just be MBE percentage of spin because the next column is wbe percentage spin okay great thank you thank you very much there's several questions uh from Council we'll start with uh council member Allen uh thank you Madame mayor and thank you Chief green for the very detailed presentation this evening um the data was very sobering but I think it's very important that we have a baseline we have to know where we came from to know where we want to go I appreciate the intentionality from your office and the collaboration between the various departments as well too that are going to help us uh move in the right direction uh we have some growth opportunities obviously too but I think one thing I appreciate about our city um is that we are not running away from these issues we are owning it uh we're looking at the data and then you all are implementing actions uh to improve it so I definitely appreciate that um just two questions for you though um in your U time in this when you're interacting with uh minority women owned businesses and disadvantaged business owners Etc um what are some common barriers they're saying to you when you're having conversations to them when it comes to point of entry and participating with the city of Poria you know the the barriers that I've heard are no different than the barriers listed in that civil rights report that I referenced earlier um and in fact the procurement Equity Group has met with other jurisdictions that have also expressed similar barriers um and so those barriers include access to resources access to Capital um perceived legendary contracts or actual legendary contracts um you know a lot of times when businesses come in and want to bid on contracts they are intimidated because of the process that has taken place for so long that they have not been privy to and so that is in itself can act as a barrier to gaining access to the city organization and other organizations as well no thank you and then another question um and you reference the P program that you launched out of your office last year um as a tool and our toolkit to try to get more participation can you maybe share a success story uh of a business that is participating in that please sure the P program is a success story all around and I will share an individual um um success story that I believe to be relevant but overall I would say that across our organization each department has really taken a hold of P's purpose I have received calls from the C- Department Public Works um the clerk's office and almost every other office about ways that they can utilize that p app list or businesses that I might know of that can provide any service large or small to that particular department and overall I think that is what's necessary because ultimately our policies and our procedures and the way that we with the power move is the thing that will move these numbers um but also to answer your question specifically councilman one thing that I can think of is for this upcoming uh procurement Equity Expo one of the vendors that we'll be using is Shep um Shep has also been utilized for other City events including um we love the Southside and so we're excited to be able to say that she is listed as a p member we have utilized that list and pulled her off of it and we've also used other minority vendors for other portions of the procurement Equity Expo and so this is a an intentional action by this group and I see intentional actions across this organization so I'm confident that we will improve these numbers now that's great thank you for sharing Chief green and and thank you so much again for the the work in this and if we have an economy that everyone could participate in that is a tide that raises all boats so again I commend your efforts thank you mayor Ali for launching that um that committee to look over this as well too and I look forward to the event at the end of the month thank you thank you council member Gordon young thank you Madame mayor thank you Chief green for this informative information that I found uh enlightening and also disheartening um but I but we have to look at it we can't fix what we want to acknowledge um but I had a couple of questions one is very similar to the question that Dr Ali asked and it was regarding the uh businesses that did not re uh their bid was not accepted what was the follow-up process um then or even now is there a process that they get informed on or there some assistance in moving forward well I wasn't here at that time so I can't speak to that but what I will say is that that is a perfect question because those are the things that we are working on internally now uh I think the second to last slide detailed how we are operationalizing equity and some of the important things that we are doing are looking at our processes from start to finish and one of the things that we would like to be able to do is to grab a hold of the these contractors who are not awarded bids and go through and try to determine how we can be an asset to help them as they proceed next time I know something similar that the police department has done is with their grant writing workshops and I found that to be something powerful for grantees who who did not win awards at that time and we've seen them come back later and then be awarded contracts and I think that we can achieve the same thing here in this area if we're intentional about doing so totally agree I was wondering if although you weren't in position during those years if perhaps you could obtain that data and maybe reach out to some of those organizations if they're still uh you know operating some people get you know discouraged and they may still do the work or be able to do the work but just to say we see you we want to include you and then one more one more comment or question regarding the um the monthly group meetings and also marketing uh this wonderful collaboration how are we reaching organizations or companies or even individuals to let them know that this is available we are engaged in intense team efforts to spread the word so the P listies have already received notification and invitation and we started to see those registrations come through but our partner agencies some of which are in the audience here today also have listings and resources that they have sent the invitation out to or that they will be sending the invitation out to um so the Illinois State Black Chamber and the NAACP and uh Bradley Small Business Development Center has a vast listing all of those listings will be receiving notification of this event if they have not already and then we will just continue to market the event that way thank you Chief green and thank you for all that you do thank you Madame mayor welcome and council is encouraged to come out absolutely please do council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor thank you very much uh Chief green this was a very extensive report and uh it certainly well it didn't surprise me but it it it does at least uh acknowledge that we have some work to do and and we're willing to do what we can to uh try and level the playing field um I had just a couple of questions um and I don't know if you have the data one refers to the Chart talking about Workforce Workforce hours um at 24.9% for minorities do we know um what those jobs entail are they primarily subcontractors uh Trucking come do we know any of that information at all I'm just kind of curious yet we saw progress but it would be interesting to know what types of jobs okay again I can try to go back and flesh out some of the data but I can say um that they would not be subcontracting jobs because this is Workforce data so Workforce data is strictly individuals working in the field sub contractors would be classified under the chart that that was titled subcontracts so this is just to be thought of as individuals in the workforce for which we have an 18% goal here it's 24.9% in 2023 okay so that could include anything from companies like uh Burnside Brothers is that what you're saying no or what um if Burnside Brothers um Burnside brothers would be a contractor okay so they would not be con okay Mr Man said Mr manager what we're talking about here these would be skilled trades workers so these are people that are working either as laborers as Teamsters oh so these are the skilled construction trades that we're talking about here so okay that's the workforce data okay all right well that that gives me soms Brick Layers okay okay um my other question was with regards to you know I hear a lot about the fact that when uh the city notices or sends out notices for bids uh the law stipulates it always is the lower lowest bid and often times um minorities aren't in a position to outbid the lowest bidder uh are we in a position to do anything with regards to impacting changing the law well I'd like to not I am an attorney but I do not want to step on our legal council or our city manager here but I do think that there are things that could be addressed we're we're looking at at some options that we can bring back to you as some suggestions within the purchasing ordinance um we don't have it completely fleshed out right now that we could say what they are but we're looking at whether it's an incentive structure or looking at at ways that we can can do that we have for example we do have a clause in our purchasing ordinance that says that if you're a peia based business and you're within a certain percentage of the low bid we can select you over the next bidder if they're not from the city of Poria so we're we're looking at what options we have there uh try and make some revisions to the purchasing ordinance back to you probably in in the next month or two with some of those suggested changes the other question I was uh thinking about um a lot of times people in trades I though I had a brother who uh was a journeyman um made good money uh a lot of times he when he started out here in Peoria he always got laid off in uh the wintertime and he and his buddies traveled all over the country getting good jobs and the question I I had that came to mind was do we do we advertise all across the country or do we limit ourselves to Jess Illinois when we're looking for my minorities because sometimes when you're just talking about a certain geographical area Andor region or city it really does limit you in terms of the pool of individuals that you can choose from and you know sometimes you hear well we want to always go local but if the pool local pool is is is is small and and doesn't contain enough uh uh is the city ever in the business of advertising uh around the state around the Midwest uh to in an effort to uh give those minorities subcontractors an opportunity to bid on some of these jobs locally what I can say is that for example the P list it is a publicly open list it's open to any minority in any area of this country country and we did that strategically for that reason so that we can consider minorities wherever they are if we have to we know that we have to be intentional in intentional in doing that and a lot of times it is as you said the particular businesses that we may need to utilize just aren't here at that time and so we may need to look out further so that is something that you know my office and I believe the city manager is in support of when we need to be um with regards to advertising um I think that the purchasing department would be better suited to respond to that or the public works department as they are the ones who facilitate bid documents being circulated sorry Kyle in in terms of our solicitations that that we do um a lot of those go through a software called bidnet um that we have at the city uh those have the opportunity to be uh broadcasted locally nationally um we also are intentional in ensuring that we are saying those out to the registered mwbe in their system um to try to increase those participation rates okay thank you thank you very much director green Chief green thank you few more um council members that want to speak to this I just wanted to thank uh director Kyle cratty for he and his team led that effort to build that transparency dashboard system that all of us have access to and maybe we need some instructions on how council is able to to get to that information um because it's it's at our fingertips now we can go in any day and access that information it will be live shortly oh it's not live yet when I put dashboards live it's two things I always want to make sure is the consistency of the data which we've met and I like to make sure we have a limited amount of human input into it so it just maintains itself um that is the piece we are finalizing so I anticipate with by the end of the by the next couple weeks we'll be finalizing online with it and you'll be able to go back and look at multi-year worth of the data the one distinction with this in this conversation is this is total spend for the city so this is not just on capital projects this is total spend it did take us a while to get through because we had to go through our entire vendor database and Mark vendors as whether or not they were procurement or not getting energy through amaron is not really a procurement so we need to ensure that our numbers are accurate um from that purpose so that took us a while to get through but we will be live shortly I just wanted to make sure it was was something that would just consistently continue to work and everyone would have it at their fingertips okay whenever we're ready to go live if you can send out some instructions yep absolutely okay that'll be great council member riggenbach thank you madam mayor and thank you Chief green this is um really critical information for us to have I'm I think I can speak for many of us council members that when we set goals and um these these metrics that were striving for to fall that far short um is a real wakeup call for us so um this isn't the information I think any of us like to see but it's the information we need to see so thank you for presenting it in such a um understandable format if I could um start off with a question and I think um director cratty kind of alluded to that looking under things like under the prime contract um slide I think that's maybe number four it has the contract value a dollar amount and then the percentages to mbes and WBS did I understand him to say that's the total spend so that's not my my question was going to be can you tell me for instance in 2014 that 9,450 th000 how many contracts that represented I don't expect you to know that off the top of your head but but I think it would be helpful to know that all those goose eggs make me very uncomfortable let's be clear about that but is that a half dozen contracts is that 20 contracts is that one or two contracts so that that would be just be kind of help put it in a little bit of context I think that that could be useful for us as well okay and if that's Way Beyond the information that you have historically I understand but um I'll do my best all right thank you you're welcome but looking at all those those zeros up there and hearing the discussion that's taking place here I was very relieved to turn to the last page to see some actual action items that are addressing this headon I guess my question for you now in in your role and um you're showing the value of your role more and more um as as we go through this presentation what else what in your perfect world what what would you have us do what is it that we as the policy makers can can help Empower you or how can we how can we be intentional so that those goals become more real more likely to be fulfilled instead of just have disappointing numbers to again in five years in my perfect world we would go back as staff and bring those options to you that this city manager mentioned earlier we'd like to bring back purchasing ordinance amendments our purchasing ordinance is very old and in need of amendments we could include amendments that would be beneficial to the pat business list and it would also um thank you and it would also allow us us to um make Headway in terms of pro the progress that we're trying to make um we also have things like the incentives that we're looking at um city manager mentioned the local incentives that are in place now city council as a body would have had to approve those and so when we come back to you and ask you to approve those for this purpose we would just ask that you find the importance in this purpose as well things like that are the ways that we can make true change I can review good faith efforts all day long but if I never get the contracts to begin with to review then they'll never be there if the barriers are never removed then minority contractors and women owned businesses and small owned businesses will never have the sustainability that they need to be competitive and so that's what I would ask councilman rig riggenbach when we do come back with proposed ideas please have an open mind and know that we are doing this for um just as worthy of purpose as the other reasons such as the local incentives that are offered looking at the the progress in the recent years here and it's still like you alluded to that at the beginning of your presentation how it's really ups and downs and um are I don't think any of us are satisfied with it being that far far off the goals but do you have confidence that we're on the right track and that the efforts being made are more likely to get us to our goals than previously I have absolute confidence and that is because of the organization and the staff that I work with I see the intentionality behind really trying to get behind this minority and B B minority and women business utilization and to support the minority and women Workforce so I do have absolute confidence in our in our internal organization and I have confidence that you all will support us if we come to you asking for what we need thank you very much and I think the takeaway word for me tonight is going to be intentionality so thank you for the data thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member vesa uh thank you Madame mayor um I I Echo the comments I think that we've all we've all been uh saying uh we see a lot of zeros we see a lot of 0.8s a lot of one point 1.8s and I mean that's that's embarrassing for us um I am glad that we're advertising uh a wider array but um I I do want to see you know a larger breakdown of the bids that we receive and um because it seems like we we keep seeing the same firms over and over again I I'm sure they do a great job um but you know if we're just told as a council that this is the lowest bid please accept it I think that's incomplete information uh going forward um obviously you know there's there's a long long list of reasons why we're in this situation uh going back a long time um and it's probably going to take a little it's going to take intentionality and a lot of effort to to get us out um so I I mean you mentioned grants you mentioned uh you know financing we've been helping uh because you know uh minority and women-owned businesses might not have the same access to financing you know as other as other firms uh we still have that going on though right we're still offering offering grants for these for these firms right um I don't know I can't my office does not have you know Grant Management at this time I will say that the grant that I mentioned I did sit on that um evaluation panel and so that's why I thought it it important to mention the minority contractors they are um recipients who are exactly on point with what we need to achieve some of the go these goals that we are attempting to achieve um but I think that going forward you know wherever there are grant opportunities available to make impact here we'd be happy to look at doing that I think that is really the only way that we can get to some of the root barriers that exist um and unless we do that like I said before we won't see the businesses even come to the city with the capability to compete for these contracts so councilman if I could add we have provided a significant amount of our American Rescue plan funds in Economic Development towards Small Business Development and we've had Grant programs there the the majority of those funds have gone to minority owned businesses over the last couple of years but there's a difference between this slide that's Prime contractors where you're talking about businesses that not only have to be in the construction trades but they have to be certified to have a certified apprenticeship program based on our requirements that we have so they have to have employees that have gone through the apprenticeship programs that are certified by the state of Illinois uh or the the State's Department of Labor in order to be able to get a prime contract in this so there has to be vendors out there that meet those requirements I mean Prime contracts right we're talking about road projects we're talking about sewer projects we're talking about large scale capital projects that need you need to have that kind of skill set there are other projects and other other areas where we talked at the end of this presentation that goes to other items where we may be doing other work in the city that that Finance director Kate is trying to calculate what that total spend is that may not require those those uh specific requirements that we have for construction jobs okay so I mean it sound it sounds like there's there's a licensing problem is what it sounds like it sounds like um I that might be the issue I is there any way we could you know help people get licenses maybe maybe help uh seminars um you know um so that people could actually get these to be able to then bid that's actually the intent of what we're trying to do with the the uh equity and procurement um seminar that we're going to have on March 28th we're going to bring in representatives from the state of Illinois to talk to uh attendees about how you can get certified as a minority business through the state which is really important to have that designation we're going to have representatives of the Small Business Development Center and the minority business development center there uh representatives of the Chamber of of Commerce the Black Chamber of Commerce as well to talk about how they can do business and then we're going to have other public bodies at that event so that we can talk about how they can do business with others in the community whether that be the county whether that be the the city link whether that be uh the school district or the park district so we're going to look at a kind of a broader swath uh in order to to use that as an opportunity to network as well okay I appreciate that that actually sounds encouraging thank right thank you thank you Madam mayor you're welcome I don't see any more questions Chief green so we thank you very much for your hard efforts and your uh presentation it's very informative thank you very much thank you can I get a motion to receive and file okay moved by uh councilman Oiler seconded by council member Allen if there's no questions please cast your Ballance motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we are at first readings 24-58 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to receive and file a first reading of an ordinance amending appendix a the unified development code relating to shortterm rentals Mr manager uh thank you I'm going to ask assistant um commity development director Leah Allison to come forward and just kind of walk through the changes that are here in this first reading of the the changes to the unified development code there we go you very much so um this is just bringing back to you the uh uh Direction you provided to us with regard to short-term rentals and some additional regulations or changes to regulations that are in place so so the first change is to um reduce the cap that currently is at 3% down to 1% and then to increase the radius of that measured area from uh half a quarter an acre to half quarter mile to Half Mile and the Third change is to add a separation requirement of, 1500 ft to short-term rentals all that are through the special use approval process so just as a reminder the special use short-term rental is when the owner does not occupy the property while the short-term rental is is uh rented while the property is rented the owner leaves the premise that requires the special use approval and that's what these changes would be applicable to uh planning zoning commission is recommending approval we actually had two uh neighborhood or citizens Express support at that Commission meeting for these changes so hopefully this just reflects the direction that you gave us and if you if you have any questions I'm here to answer council member grup move to receive and file as Outline seconded by council member velpula uh further discussion council member sier thank you madam mayor uh just want to congratulate Miss Allison and the staff and Joe Duan for great great great job job well done and discussion's been great uh moving forward I just want to kind of plant a seed after an incident that I'm aware of that happened not too long ago the definition short-term rental rental as I my understanding anyway it's 30 days or less is that the only part of the def definition yes so we have a short-term rental versus a traditional long-term rental and the 30-day is the is the Tipping Point for that is a def definition okay so I'd like for my colleagues and your staff to uh maybe in the future to think about making having a minimum number of nights for me if you only rent one night I think I think you're asking for more trouble than if you're asking or renting your property for maybe two or three nights so I just want to plant a seed there I don't know if it's a goodidea idea or not but I know in the past some of the troubles we ran into were people that rented for one night so just want to plan that seed with my colleagues tonight thank you very much for a job well done thank you thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member gr was that accident wasn't it well not to be uh at a loss for words I want you to know I'm I'm healthy you know I think this is one of those issues uh that has um changed us as a council as we've gotten more and more feedback from the citizens we represent and I think it's always um encouraging to see the council respond to positions maybe they had taken in the past to actually altering those positions and embracing what the constituents are asking for some of us in the beginning thought our fractions were too large and so what we're trying to do is roll back uh the increasing commercialization of our neighborhoods we've been listening to our constituents the Wortham case um Cil Hayes helps provide a firm foundation for what we are doing as a city as relates to regulating these and also addressing disruptive conduct that is occurring at short-term rentals in our city would you like to elaborate a little bit on waram uh thank you councilman the U Item B is addressing this very directly um staff work hard to come up with ways to strengthen our ability to respond to disruptive behavior at short-term rental um units and so the whole set of issues in Item B is meant to comp complement and allow the enforcement of the slightly more restrictive you know use permission permissions that will be granted or considered by the council um and give us the ability to respond more directly if there is a disruptive event related to those so that there is U I think of the two different packages of coordination between them to work together to be able to be more responsive when everybody's convinced we need to do something about that event that said I think it is um helpful to understand there's a lot of this activity going on without any incident and so there's been some voice to where we're at I took some comfort when I talked to Leah today about what was the traffic at our hearing after all the discussions we had here we had a Planning and Zoning commission hearing and there were two citizens who showed up to speak in favor no industry participants showed up to object nor have they directly or indirectly articulated any objections to what what we're trying to do here I think the responsible folks in Industry look at this as healthy for them as well as for our community so when the airbnbs and verbos and other places are operating well yeah I think it adds to our whole community and tourism and that type of thing so I think we're heading in the right and we don't want to paint with too broad up brush as you say the responsible short-term rental uh entrepreneurs certainly do not appreciate um some of the activities that occur at poorly regulated ones so I think I think we I think we probably hit on The Sweet Spot but like anything uh times change values change but I think uh this is the way to go now I know uh my fellow councilman Tim riggenbach suggested that maybe we consider going forward um no short-term rentals in residential communities R1 to R4 uh I'm not here tonight to push that I think that we need to have a lot of thought going into that um but I think there's been a reaction to some folks going in creating a development of some sort with unclean hands and then coming after they are detected doing this to us telling us oh please give us a permit you know we didn't mean to break the law and so on and so forth it just is unseemly and we've had way too many cases of that in my opinion and very prominent cases where it just shouldn't happen if people come to us with unclean hands asking for us to BL bless their operation when they've been sneaking it in I say no because it reflects on the uh Fitness of the applicant the character of the applicant so I I commend the consel for making these adjustments it's never the last word we may choose to make other adjustments down the road and I I thank you uh councilman riggenbach for your uh thinking about this is maybe something we can contemplate as well but tonight what we're asked to do is to receive and file the first reading of this ordinance yes thank you that was pretty good for accidental button once in a while have a good night council member Gordon young thank you madam mayor I don't know if this is the time to ask but but I will um uh several weeks ago I asked about having short-term rental addresses listed in the cad system is that something that has already taken place has there been communication or even more work in that area so yes we have started that conversation we're keeping the list and then we are working to get that to the syst system that you mentioned um last time it hasn't happened yet but we are in the works of of trying to make that happen okay any proposed timeline gosh I don't I I don't have one just yet apologize okay just something to consider during this um this time period the main reason is for emergency purposes so if there is some emergency fire or any you know emergency uh or significant event event homeowners can be notified so thank you thank you madam mayor yes good point council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor um I I think I need to be brought up to date just a little bit when uh people set up short-term rentals in the city before we begin to regulate them uh I I think I remember a number like 90 or something that we were aware of 90 short-term rentals is that do you recall I I'm not recalling the exact number there were quite a few that did operate before we had any regulations yes correct okay um and I if I'm not mistaken most of those have gotten in line to be approved it is that correct so I think they're operating in seems to me they're operating in good faith and we're handling them at you know three at a time or or whatever whatever it is if all of those were approved would those approvals violate this prospective or so yes there are some currently approved short-term rentals that will not comply with these regulations and they'll I'm I'm sorry that was my next question but the question I have is if all these that are waiting in line were approved okay who have been operating already would I I I guess you s sort of answered it anyway um would would they end up being in violation of this new ordinance there are some that will be but they will be allowed to operate until effectively their license or approval becomes null and void and that can occur with a change in ownership um uh so so if there's any change where the the approval is is um terminates any new application would have to comply with these new regulations okay so those who were operating and who are in line because they were operating uh we might say that some of them who might look like they're in violation would be grandfathered under this ordinance if they're compliant with the current regulations before this change they'll allow to remain until there's a change that would cause have to be a reapplicant then new these regulations would be applicable thank you thank you Madame mayor you very welcome thank you assistant um director Allison we have a motion to receive and file please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously madam 24- 59 is a communication from the city manager in Corporation Council with a request to receive in file a first reading of an ordinance modifying the license regulations for short-term rentals Council Hayes thank you madam mayor as I mentioned earlier this misspoke I thought it was an AB it's not but this item is the um modifications to our penalty sections allow us to move more quickly uh uh when there's a a violation of our ordinances there's an an improvement or an increase of the fines gives us the ability for uh to have the discretion on a single violation of disruptive behavior to revoke the special youth permit Andor the license and puts us in a position to protect the public from any sort of repeated action I think it'll um Drive some compliance and some better management amongst the more responsible operators as well thank you you're welcome council member Seer thank you Madame mayor move to receive and file seconded by council member Allen council member Kelly I'm sorry madam mayor that's what I was up to okay very good thank you any other discussion council member grah I'm sorry um Corporation Council Hayes could you repeat your explanation of that I didn't understand it so the um penalty sections yes the ability to respond quickly to violations um those sections of the the prior sections of the code were much more liberal required multiple violations over a limited period of time um these changes primarily give staff the flexibility to um seek to revoke uh permits Andor licenses if there's an egregious event and so it'll put the industry on notice that you've got to responsibly manage these properties in order to maintain the privilege of use by special use as well as the privilege of use by license so this is kind of The Penalty Box aspect of what we're doing actually kind of focus us on that right in a couple different conversations when I was explaining what the potential outcomes from a disruptive event would be yes there was a significant amount of dissatisfaction with how far away an actual effective sanction was uh based on the number of incidents that it was required so we've tightened that up considerably I share that that provides us with the discretion to do so but not the requirement because there may be circumstances where a single ban event is attributable to an aberration of an otherwise responsibly right there is the possibility of a hearing too on this process right yes if there's if there's a um violation so I understand now thank you welcome council member Gordon young I just wanted to reiterate on this point the this is why it's I think is so important that we have the homeowners information I don't want people to get dinged for having an Airbnb and they didn't even know or an Str Str sorry they didn't know that there was an issue until they received something in the mail or until it's out of hand so again um want to support but I want to make sure that we have all the elements in place so that we're not setting people up yes thank you right welcome the motion is to receive and file please cash your balance says unanimously Madam Clark we are at regular business 24-6 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve the sole source purchase of econolite traffic cabinets from traffic control Corporation in an amount of $100,000 and this requires a two-thirds vote of the council members voting no less than six votes Mr Man manager uh thank you Madame mayor I'm going to ask director powers to talk about the need for this purchase thank you madam mayor Mr manager I appreciate it uh this is our basically our annual replenishment for traffic traffic signal cabinets and Associated Parts uh the reason they sole source is because again they're there they exist and it's not something that we can wait and go through possible supply chain lags when a signal goes down we need to be on it and fix it in a nutshell that's it and this is the vendor that the preponderance of our signal cabinets are sourc from any question council member Oiler approve move to approve seconded by council member sear any questions please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you director Powers Madam clerk 2461 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to approve the soul Source annual subscription contract with quicket Solutions Inc in the amount of $19,700 and this item requires a two-thirds vote of council members voting no less than six votes Mr manager uh thank you I'm going to ask our community development director to explain uh how we utilize this software and the reason why we're asking for your approval uh thank you mayor thank you Council uh the item in front of you is just uh the annual subscription renewal with an extra uh report capability for the system so the code enforcement division uses quicket software to write citations out in the field uh it's hooked up to GIS it provides real time kind of information for them but the really neat feature that it does that very few softwares of this uh in the code enforcement world do is that it also automatically populates Administrative Hearings uh so so it's a great tool for our legal department for the hearing officer so the inspectors go out they write citations uh it automatically creates a docket for the legal department and so then on those hearings when we're hearing the cases the hearing officer pulls it up sees the photos from uh the inspectors they can see the case history at the property as well so it kind of gives him some valuable information in making the system uh we were one of quicket solution's first clients ever uh they are a startup company uh six or seven years ago out of Champagne Illinois a couple graduates students that focused in uh police uh technology uh they made a picture to our Police Department um and they invited me because they had a mobile citation process and I said hey the police department wasn't interested but I said hey we'd be interested in in you guys exploring something for that uh so we have a uh firsttime customer uh annual rate which is why with most software packages you see a much higher price um so that's part of the contract then the other part of the contract is about four years ago we had them specific spefically design and build a notification system for us for when code inspectors are out in the field and if they Abate and uh or issue a work order on a property if you sign up for the notification system it'll send whoever signs up for that property uh a text message or email this was kind of in response to our Communications with landlords who say uh why don't you call me when you have a problem and we would explain we're not your property manager you should be proactively doing it so this is kind of our Middle Ground to say uh we're still not going to manage your property but we'll at least give you a heads up with there hopefully you can get the violation corrected quickly the last piece of this contract specifically deals with um some of the work the legal department is doing in regards to improving their collection efforts uh they are uh need some custom Fields some custom reports some custom information pulled from there that's the third part of this so uh this is for the renewal for the contract for this year thank you director council member Kelly thank you madam mayor uh this sounds like a really great tool but why wasn't why wasn't this in the budget uh so this is it is in the budget but this is uh because it's over $15,000 um so with the additional uh when we first hired them it was below the threshold that would have to come to council since then the other annual subscription they have for the notification system gets us slightly over what the threshold is and then with the additional money we're giving them for the reporting it pushes them to 19,700 over the 15,000 Mark which is why the contract renewal for the first time is really coming to council and in the future will as well so you didn't anticipate this High uh a renewal rate no no our purchasing ordinance requires anything over $155,000 that we have to come to council for approval even if it's in the budget so this is in we have budgeted it okay and it's there it's just requires Council to approve it okay thank you move to approve seconded by council member rebot any other questions please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark 2462 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com controller with a request to receive and file the month ended December 31 2023 un audited financial report CC member gra move to approve okay um what are we approving oh the financial you okay all right seconded by council member Oiler thank you all right director crty uh just very briefly with the report um the revenues year-over year are down about $10.8 million um the expenses are also down about 2.98 million uh year-over-year I think the most important number to actually look at is going to be more looking at that budget to budget which I'm happy to report at this point um we are still working on closing the books for the year to start our audit um we are sitting in 102% of our Revenue collection and only 96% of our expenditures out so we're in the positive direction on both sides of that um we will have some additional revenues that come in throughout the rest of the year like sales taxes that we will be will be booking um but we are on Pace for the uh budget to be in line with what was presented to council during the 2024 2025 banal budget process um so we are still in a strong financial position in that area um one other item that I just will bring to council's attention on the last on the third second to last page of the report is is a discussion on the bridge loan to the P Civic Center I am happy to report that the Civic Center was given uh reimbursement of the full $9.3 million from dcoo this month um while that will not show up on this report nor the January report you will see that bridge alone clear uh in February um we may have additional draw Downs uh in future months as they start to do additional work in the summer um but the amount that they owe the city is is being made whole uh a d CEO so with that I'm available for any questions I have a question um related to the governor's propos elimination of the 1% grocery tax uh as it stands right now in our initial review of that proposal from the governor that would be an elimination of around $4 million in revenue on our general fund so just for for kind of a communication standpoint of the community uh those dollars are collected by via the state they're remitted to the municipality those come in as our sales taxes so we primarily fund our operations with sales taxes including grocery taxes um when I look at these numbers and this is just really for us to have kind of an understanding of the scope of what this is um that equates that 4 million doll number is larger than 10 City departments including the emergency communications uh division it includes the Community Development Department both of those budgets are below $4 million um it equates to about 40% of the Public Works operations uh 17% of the fire department operational budget and about 12% of the police department budget so the reality is is if the state goes forward with this proposal um there would have to be discussions on what that impact is going to be to our budget um the reality with a proposal like this is more than likely this will go into effect July 1 with the approval of the state budget so it will impact immediately the 24 budget it obviously will have a larger $4 million impact in the 25 budget but it will impact the 24 budget as well so I want to respond to that by saying that this I believe is the unintended consequences of what was deemed to be a break something good for the residents of Illinois without fully understanding the impact that it has on municipalities cities across the state of Illinois like ours we would not have anticipated $4 million annual loss uh moving forward from from 2024 moving forward and the Really the damage that it could cause to Services because it would it would mean significant deep Cuts we are communicating our our concerns are the impact that would have on the city to our state representatives to our state uh legislators and ultimately to the governor um because you know other cities and also represented by the Illinois Municipal League the IML are very concerned about the impact that this would have on our budget especially with the unfunded mandated uh pension liability which is going to increase you know just significantly year after year so you know there there there is a chance that this will pass in the budget and if it does we have to be prepared to take action because it would be almost impossible for us to absorb this without again significant cuts to the services uh to our employees what percent of Public Works what percent of Community Development so it would be 100% of Community Development it's 40% of Public Works operations and obviously at the end of the day it's probably not going to get cut in that direction but I think it's always important to look at it in terms of that scale so an alternative if this passes is for the city to actually implement the 1% grocery tax so this the state has the the funding um excuse me the state of Illinois has the authority to eliminate this tax but but the city especially home rur cities can re reinstate it locally is that right Mr uh Council Hayes uh Mr manager yes ma'am okay and the governor is also said that um certainly we don't want to take anything away from our residents but we would be taken away from our residents by cutting services significantly so I I I just want to say one last thing about that during covid there was a temporary elimination of the grocery tax but the state of Illinois paid that back to the city so it was temporary but it was returned to us this would not be returned to us any can you add anything to that uh Mr manager well I I think is uh director crowy said and as you said the the state held us whole um it's a $4 million hit it's a you know clearly it was unanticipated but you know um if it goes into effect July one it could be something that we would see immediately in this year as well so it's concerned okay thank you council member s wow I don't know where to start with this one um thank you for meeting with me this morning director TR number one number two I had three questions two of them's been uh answered I believe um obviously when I talked to you uh the last few months I always ask you know what is your biggest fear for our Budget moving forward I think that 1% tax was one of them probably cost us a million s because know that just make sure everybody understands listening to our conversation state budget started July 1 so it cost us a million 7 this year if they eliminate that 1% is that correct OB based off if it's a straight line collection yeah it's about7 Milli now just to make sure we all understand also usually usually when there's Cuts Like This does it cut does the cut come from the capital investment or come or from operation usually usually because of where the revenue sources are it's it's coming out of the operation side operation very important to understand that the second thing about our conversation from the past we all know I think we all know that now there are some conversations in Springfield debt to eliminate tier three from pension which would be tremendous tremendous problem for every cities in the state of Illinois if that happened you know we talked before about emergencies we talked before about not spending know all our emergency money now we're below $50 million right now as we speak and some of us were here a couple years ago when we had to have some type of pension for our fire department so uh let's keep the conversation going that's all I'm saying I mean the director K and I know our manager they just know what's what's in the future what what what what our elected official are talking about in Springfield in Springfield that would not be good for the city of Poria so let's just be careful about that uh the other thing is there's a trend in our real estate taxes our revenues can you explain that to everybody's listening why our real estate tax revenues coming down a little bit thank you very much for all the work you do director cran thank you madam mayor absolutely just just just really briefly um on the prop property tax chart um you will see that that number is going down in reality that's a misnomer to our tax collections the reason that is occurring is we had three tiffs expired so the overall property tax number you see on here includes that full collection of the tiffs when those expired that increment of the city was collecting is now being remitted to the other taxing body so that's why you see a drop off when really the city over the last couple years has captured um that new value of property so the actual Levy that we're using towards pensions has gone up equal to that growth council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor director Kat I I know that you are responsible for what I'm about to uh say I I would just like like the all of us and the public to understand that uh because our income went up somewhat and our expenditures went versus versus the budget and our expenditures went down versus the budget the differential there is about $7 million which put us in a place where we had budgeted for or a deficit and it turns out to be a surplus this year so and I know that it's I know that it's you that did that director Katty but uh I I think it's an important thing to know we are we were on the plus side unanticipated plus side uh for 2023 thank you madam mayor you're welcome uh we have a motion to receive and file please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you director crat Madame clerk we are at unfinished business we don't have anything so we are at new business any new business council member Allan uh thank you Madame mayor uh Mr manager if we could if we can get a report back on the status of the the ice being implemented at the Civic Center um I've heard rumors of this summer um if we could if the council can just get a confirmation on that also I I'm aware that I believe there was an extension with the Riverman for the lease of the 24 25 season and if maybe we can get some clarity on when are the negotiations that going to reoccur for maybe an ex a potential extension of that just so that way we're prepared to answer any questions that we get filled from the public of when the ice is getting implemented what are the negotiations looking like with between the Civic Center and the river mes so that way we can be preppy to that information we'll do thank you sir council member vesa thank you Madame mayor um I I I'm uh encouraged um by what I heard earlier I know everyone's left the chamber and we're tired of hearing about it but uh with regard to The Distillery Tiff um you know we are we're working to put together language uh that does address the CO2 pipeline concern and you know make no mistake that is a boondoggle um you know it's it's put together by energy companies so that they can continue to drill uh drill the fossil fuels and then put the CO2 underground and then uh labor likes it because tons and tons of jobs um but you have to put lives over jobs it's totally unacceptable and unconscionable to put a kind of risk like that on our most vulnerable population so uh I know wolf has pulled their application when they when they uh do reile um I I will be asking for a moratorium thank you you're welcome Madam Clark we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council okay we have four comments uh first we have Tom Logan uh since July 2nd I crashed my car in a wck and uh 61 years of driving is worst accident I've ever made mistake but anyway uh since then I've been riding a bus everywhere and I I've been out at the corner of Allen Road and Town Line Road where the AR Arby's restaurant is there and I after I got off the bus I walked over there and walked down this uh Hill which is about a 45 degree angle but I thought well I won't slide and I went in and ate and I was thinking about boy this is kind of dangerous they don't have any guard rail up there well since July 2nd a school bus has jumped the Curbing and gone over the gone over and crashed into the building and and also recently a car did the same thing went over the jumped the Curbing and went over the down the hill and hit the building now fortunately nobody was hurt but it could have wind up in an injury to people and somebody getting killed next time it just might be a semi coming over that curb so I think the city of Poria needs to build a guard rail a steel guard rail or a cement guard rail that could stop any kind of vehicle from coming down that hill and uh it's just not safe for anyone and I I urge the city of Poria to build this and build it soon like I said since July 2nd there's been two crashes into the building fortunately nobody's been hurt thank you Mr Logan soel Al Madame mayor City Council Members respected attendees good evening everybody uh my name is Soh and I have been living in Poria for more than two decades and I am a professor at Bradley University uh I must start by apologizing uh for the strong address that I'm going to give you right now because I'm a man of passion and I really feel strongly about the issue I'm going to be talking about two weeks ago more than 25 people I think and I stood before you in this chamber to ask that you consider adopting a ceasefire resolution in support of the people of Palestine who are being massacred by the Israeli War Machine with financing from our tax dollars it's not that such resolution will make Israel stop its genocide it's more to show that our city has a heart and that it stands for the most basic of Human Rights the right to live and for the sanctity of human life Madame mayor I was extremely disappointed by the statement you released right after the city council meeting two weeks ago clearly your statement was prepared in advance which indicates a complete disdain toward everyone who spoke about the issue that night and everyone else in our city who supports a call for a ceasefire you may still be adamant about your position so let me put put it in perspective for you one may understand neutrality in the case of a war when two armies of two countries are involved in a fight over disputed territory or to defend their interests but what's going on in Palestine is not a war what we have gone on in Palestine is an occupying Army which is one of the strongest and best equipped armies in the world is indiscriminately dropping 2,000 P bombs 2,000 pound bombs on residential buildings hospitals schools churches mosques and refugee camps and killing and Ming scores of innocent children women and men even the dead are not being spared as cemeteries are being systematically desecrated by the Israeli forces what we have going on in Palestine is a crime against humanity according to all reasonable observers it is a case of collective punishment using all kinds of illegal means of warfare what we are witnessing in Palestine is one of the most atrocious crimes crimes of our time and when you are witnessing a crime you cannot be decent and neutral at the same time you are either actively defending the victim by any means that you can or you are participating in the crime when the crime is happening right before your eyes and you do not do the minimum you can to possibly save the victim or at least to voice your condemnation of the crime you are par ipating in it when a crime is taking place right before your eyes you either stand up for the victim with whatever means you have or you are one of the criminals there is no in between I do not believe that you all are uninformed one has to be living in a dark and soundproof bubble not to be aware of what's going on in Palestine nowadays I do not believe that you are not smart enough to understand the gravity of what's going on you have to have a minimum level of intelligence to get get elected or so I hope as we speak there are nearly a million people in Gaza who are at risk of dying from Hunger because of the Israeli bombings and continued blockade of the strip just in February the amount of Aid that was able to get into Gaza dropped by 50% from originally insufficient amounts during January so the only reason I see for see for your refusal to bring a ceasefire resolution to vote in a is your complete bias towards the aggressor for whatever reason you have may it be Financial racism or other this is a clear bias towards a criminal upper tight State and that makes you a participant in the crime there will be elections coming up and Madame mayor I did quietly campaign for you during the last elections and I can tell you that my wife and I our children and significant and their significant others all of our friends and their significant others and anyone else we will be able to influence and I can tell you that we will be putting in the effort will not vote for anyone who tolerates gen genocide I love our city and I do not think and I do not think it should be run by people who lost their sense of humanity and refuse to stand up against genocide thank you for listening free paltin RZ AB be a car good evening uh Madame Mayer and council members uh by coincidence uh I happen to have similar comments to Mr shil um I am rames Abi akar uh 29 years peorian um the topic for the reason for me coming here tonight is to uh fight or dispel the misar characterization that happened last time after we talked two weeks ago requesting ceasefire we heard in the media and on the internet stuff that we do not nobody should believe let's try to do that and hoping that everybody here knows some facts I'm going to recall some of the background that everybody needs to know about the historical background of this issue there is a substantial volume of priorians in m in Pia here whose roots are from the Middle East the the large Lebanese community in particular where I descend from the massive disorder on the Palestinian land Gaza and West Bank in this time is a matter of huge concern on the humanitarian level this is what we're addressing in you the issue is beyond a war between Israel and hamama as the media by deception makes you feel um the Palestinian people are constantly under uh military occupation of a foreign country prohibiting them from governing themselves in a democratic way the land they live on is not part of Israel is not part of Israel as the UN says explicitly Israel as of now has no determined borders like every country on Earth Israel has no determined bordered Israel and Palestine are two different entities separate one from another maybe the public doesn't know this historical fact they think all are part of Israel just accepting this fact gentlemen would be a start for a resolution to the long-term conflict from the point of my view of Lebanon of Lebanese person it has always Lebanon has always been in the center of the storm Lebanon has rarely been in a peaceful stand because of its proximity to the ongoing violence we'd love our first country to live in peace what I aim to in this brief talk is to raise the attention on the original facts of this this conflict just to remove the occupation just remove the oppression uh and the issue will settle the next day Lebanon would be free so would Palestine so would Israel whenever it has well determined borders unlike today it is flexible only then everybody will be happy and every country in the region will be secure thank you Mr Terry Burnside good evening everyone thank you Madame mayor thank you Council and AD Administration excuse me a little raspy um I came here tonight just in reference to agenda item 24- 045 it's about weed and litter contract um then I was kind of moved to even start to talk about some Contracting issues because I am a contractor based off of something Mr Jackson said tonight and also something Mr Vesper said and Mr reinbach so we talked about some of the goose eggs up there on the on on this uh presentation that was given tonight um is is somewhat disturbing because as a contractor tonight I was given a correspondence last week from the purchasing department saying that my my contract wouldn't be considered tonight unless I paid a storm water bill and it was supported by a ordinate city ordinance saying if you don't pay this bill we will not conceive you for this contract that's up for Council on the 27th so what I do I wouldn't pay the bill so that would be considered um just is talk about the contractors I'd like to talk about Level Playing Fields um it's kind of disturbing even to hear uh city manager urick talking about response to Miss Jackson and say because we're not prime contractors or because we're not skilled trades that some of the stuff we would not be considered for well I consider myself a skill Tradesman I've been doing work for the city of Poria and the por City County health department since 2010 um I'm right now probably the only licens Le contractor afro americ in the city of pora uh but some of the concern I have is being a Level Playing Field there are a lot of rfps that come out that we don't let me talk about me that I don't get invites to or RPS for but I have received them for a $400 million combined sewage overflow RFP I've been on that list because I guess I'm on the list of contractors I have received those rfps but there's a snow removal contract that's annually I never received a RFP for that there is a some current concern I have about maintaining Municipal properties for the city whether it's some of the greenery or some of the stuff like that the plants and vegetation I've never received the RFP from that nor has there ever been an RFP circulated for that kind of stuff then I go on to look about as a contractor I will be considered for what I call some of the low hanging fruit like a mowing contract of a city board up contract or even a weed and litter contract which here again that's not a skill trade or a issue that could should be considered for smaller entity like myself I've had conversations with Mr Kevin Evans I have conversations with Mr Joe douan to see if we could get different resources to help us get some operating Capital not just operating Capital maybe we could get more and better equipment to help us better sustain ourselves and get more opportunities always fell on deaf ears I go back to the conversations I had with Mr faran Muhammad and even with our most recent director green and I talked about some of these disparities and some of this fairness and still you have to get responses to these kind of things um I don't know just kind of bothers me how we you know certain contractors will get considered for certain things but other things we get excluded from so I just want to bring that to your all's attention but I would encourage everybody I heard heard somebody said they're going to go back and look at some of the communication around those goose eggs across the board for years I would encourage you all go look at some of the emails and look at some of the things that were sent out who were invited to the table I encourage you no the contractors that I know of was even invited to the table including myself so IID encourage you all to do that and you can you know get better answers again excuse me for a lorasi voice but I just want to say that share that tonight it's just was SED me to say something after I heard Council Jackson respond about the contractors thank you for your time and enjoy the rest of your evening welcome clerk we are at executive session 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 cs22 C1 to discuss the performance of a specific employee and pursuant to the open meetings act 5 i l cs12 c21 for the approval by the body of closed session minutes moved by council member Oiler seconded by council member Allan please cast your ballots thank you for your service