Peoria approves $2.045M housing grant, $450K police settlement, defers cannabis ordinance

everyone please take your seats we're going to get started momentarily oh yeah [Music] foreign please take your seats we're going to get started momentarily good evening everyone foreign good evening it is six o'clock P.M Tuesday December 13 2022 I'd like to call the meeting of the Peoria city council to order I'd also like to welcome everyone in our city council audience as well as our listening audience at wcbu I'd also like to welcome the audience watching on cable channel 22.

the clerk the council mics are open can you please call the roll ing merrily council member Allen council member Sierra council member Graham council member Jackson here council member Jensen council member Kelly council member Euler council member reagenbach council member Rodrigo here and council member Val Pula we have a quorum present Madame mayor by Council from council member Rodrigo in accordance with rules established in order ordinance number 16142 and council member Rodrigo would be deemed authorized to attend the meeting electronically unless emotion objecting to the electronic attendance is made seconded and approved by two-thirds of the members of the city council physically present at the meeting if no such motion is made and seconded then the request by councilmember recall to attend electronically shall be deemed approved by the city council and the presiding officer and the and council member recall be declared present everyone please join me and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance for all sprinkler we are at the proclamations the back room looks so beautiful we have two proclamations today it's recognizes World AIDS day we have Derek Kimler who is the executive director of central Illinois friends and Chris McLaren who is the mobile Outreach Specialist of central Illinois friends can you come forward Gentlemen please and the proclamation reads whereas World AIDS day was first observed on December 1st 1988 to provide the opportunity for people to stand together in their fight against the HIV epidemic to show support for those living with HIV and to remember those who have passed away from illness and whereas today in the U.S 1.2 million people are estimated to be living with HIV and about 14 percent are unaware of this despite medical advances we continue to feel the loss of thousands of American community members to HIV or Aids related complications each year while the leading cause of death for people living with HIV is suicide continued stigmas and barriers to Health Care continue to make life difficult for those living with HIV today and whereas since the onset of the AIDS epidemic nearly 41 million people have died of AIDS related complications in 1996 medications became more readily available to help people living with HIV and today people living with HIV can live a long and healthy life with an undetectable status meaning HIV is dormant in the person's body and there is zero chance of transmission to others whereas Central Illinois friends continue to work with local organizations to achieve functional zero new HIV diagnosis in our community Central Illinois friends has also improved access to care for people living with HIV through a multi-pronged approach they provide pregnant women living with HIV Affordable Care so that children born in Illinois are born without HIV they ensure that all at risk of Contracting HIV have access to pre-ap pre-exposure boy I can't say that Derek helped me thank you a daily pill that prevents the transmission of HIV and they guarantee that HIV testing is available to all individuals and whereas on worlds a day aids day and throughout December our community remembers our past celebrates our present and recognizes how far we have yet to go in our fight against the HIV AIDS epidemic now therefore I read Ali mayor of the city of Peoria Illinois do hereby Proclaim December 1st 2022 and this month of December as world's AIDS day in Peoria's commitment to end the HIV AIDS epidemic in Peoria the Kimler Mr McLaren everybody here it pleases me to let you all know that as of today just an hour ago we cut a red ribbon on a brand new mobile unit that is sitting outside City Hall that mobile unit costs us 225 thousand dollars it was money that we raised as an organization through many years of hard work and efforts and because of that unit we will be saving taxpayer dollars in a big Way by Saving staff time on getting other mobile units to us but first let me tell you have the importance of the red tape that we cut millions of people as as merrily just said has died of aids-related complications in fact HIV AIDS epidemic was wrongfully uh poised as a gay plague or as a gay disease it wasn't until people started Living that we realized how many heterosexual individuals were affected by HIV the reason behind that isn't because people weren't dying that weren't heterosexual living with HIV before the reason was because of this stigma and because we just assumed that everybody who died must have done something bad to get it Maya Angelou says as you know better you do better and today we live in a world that now we know that there's nothing to fear we live in a world now that we know that HPV is the leading cause of of some of our most highest rates of cancer we know now the STIs and STDs are the leading cause of infertility and other strands of cancer so I'm here to stand in front of you to tell you that that mobile unit is going to go to our most vulnerable populations to cut the very red tape that gets in the way in their way that the stigma of Health Care has put there so that way everybody has access to public health services no matter the boxes they check on an intake form thank you Chris thank you for having me here I just want to say thank you to uh to Derek for the work that that he does every day um it seems like he doesn't take a day off to to to to be here for this community thank you to Peoria for for having me here and allowing me this opportunity I'm the driver of the mobile unit I'm also a Outreach specialist so I guess while I'm here just want to let everyone know Central Illinois friends does free and confidential testing we're right downtown here um we're here to service the community so please put us to use come down and see us we're a welcoming place and we really do try to treat everyone as our friends so uh thank you for having us here thank you Chris and Derek [Applause] up I I do want to add that they are providing tours of this beautiful mobile unit it's it's it looks amazing and it is going to break down the barriers in terms of providing access to something that is uniquely provided here and that's free the testing is free and you don't find that everywhere in fact people come from other places to get the free testing here and sometimes they decide that they're going to reside right in Peoria because they find such a warm and beautiful Community but this mobile unit as they mentioned will better serve the communities that it serves in our community in Greater Peoria relieve the burden of transportation and help this Central Illinois friends organization to be more consistent with their work in providing this free health care and they don't require IDs they don't require insurance and again it's free no matter what box you check it's free and available to you so I just want to congratulate uh you as executive director Mr Kimler to the central Illinois Friends board and staff and really to all the donors that help to make this happen in Greater Peoria Community congratulations [Applause] our second and final Proclamation tonight is recognizing the Peoria Notre Dame High School boys soccer team and they are right there all lined up uh their coach is Mike Bear he's the head men's soccer coach um and we have all these handsome beautiful players so I'm yes you're beautiful too I'm going to read the proclamation and then we're going to hear from council member Euler followed by council member uh Jensen whereas on November 5th 2022 the Peoria Notre Dame High School boys soccer team won the Illinois High School Association ihsa class II state championship at Hoffman Estates High School by defeating Chatham Glenwood with a score of three to one and finishing the season with an overall record of 23 wins three losses and one tie Peoria Notre Dame outscored its opponents 25-4 and posted four shutouts in his seven game post-season run to the State title and whereas this was the program's fifth State title placing Peoria Notre Dame's second all time among Illinois high schools for the most boys soccer state championships Peoria Notre Dame also won state titles in 2004 2008 2010 and 2012 and whereas the Peoria Notre Dame boys soccer program has a rich tradition of success including a state record of 16 state tournament appearances a state record of winning 14 State trophies five championships four state runner-up finishes a state record of 22 sectional titles 27 Regional titles and 24 conference championships boy those are some statistics whereas the program has a consistent presence in the state Regional and national rankings climbing as high as number three in the nation during the 2022 season now therefore I read Ali mayor of the city of Peoria Illinois do hereby recognize the Peoria Notre Dame High School ihsa class 2A boys soccer state championship in Peoria Illinois boy cold spare thank you so first off just a couple quick thank yous obviously to the mayor's office to Dr Ali to the city council we just really appreciate you guys having us down here today to receive this Proclamation it's obviously a huge honor for our program for our high school to be here today you know one of the things we talk about as a program is how we represent ourselves how we represent our school how we represent our soccer program but one of the things we talk about is how we represent the city of Peoria we often travel around the state around the region playing some of the top programs we visit gas stations hotels restaurants and everybody asks us where we're from and we tell them proudly that we're from the city of Peoria so um it's a great honor to be here today there's obviously a great season for us you mentioned some of the accolades to win the program's fifth State title some of the things we talked about the number of times we've been to a state tournament or state trophies that we've received um it's really cool it's really cool and we're just super excited to be here today I brought with me today some of our team and in a minute I'm going to introduce them but uh just wanted to say last year it's kind of the running joke within the team last season we went out in the first game of the postseason we lost in the regional semifinal and this season we want to stay championship and a lot of that has to do with the hard work of these players of our coaching staff for the support we have within our school and within our community that we're able to do that it's a huge accomplishment it's not easy to do winning a state championship is not easy even though we've got all these Awards it's not easy to do and these guys put in the work I'm just so proud of them and everything they've accomplished this season so at this time I'm going to announce their names we don't have everybody with us tonight we actually have a boys basketball game tonight against Peoria High so a lot of our players are multi-sport athletes they're playing basketball tonight um but we have the guys here with us so when I announce your name if you just want to raise your hand or step forward to get recognition Fabi Arellano Dylan bear Andrew Bonham Alex Brown Julian Corona Teddy dimler Tommy Graham Thatcher Hogan Kaden Hudson David Joseph Richie Kuby Teddy lahood Braden Layman Nevin leibert Maximilian matarelli Joseph Menke Joel McIntyre Zach nethery Patrick O'Donnell Nathan Oliver Sebastian Salazar Declan Schuler Dylan stickelmeyer Dominic Taylor Logan wolbizer Enrique Zamora those are our players and also I'd like to recognize our coaches Danny Burke Noel zirbonia coach Mark stride and I didn't tell him I was going to do this but I'm going to bring Danny Driscoll up with me great so Danny Driscoll uh he was the first coach at Peoria Notre Dame High School in the late 80s and he was the first coach to take Notre Dame to the state tournament and he's uh really a presence within the Peoria area soccer Community I don't think he's received a recognition that he deserves he was my coach for four years at Peoria Notre Dame he got me involved with coaching and if it weren't for Coach riskell I wouldn't be standing here today so thank you coach all right foreign again thank you everybody for having us here today we really appreciate it it's a huge honor thank you hold on don't go anywhere and we're we're proud of you and congratulations principal coach Driscoll as well uh council member Euler oh sorry there you go thank you mayor so a few months ago I had the opportunity to crash a party down at kellehers that the team was having and I was standing behind the person taking the picture not me but when they commented well I only take pictures of people that come in first at State and uh the whole team was pretty excited about that and they went to State and came in first so I've got that picture on my phone and I'm going to share it on social media later but I wanted to congratulate you and was honored to put this uh Proclamation forward since I had the opportunity to hear that exciting conversation and see you guys actually go out and do it so congratulations thank you councilmember Jensen uh thank you madam mayor I just wanted to take a couple minutes to congratulate all of you um coach bear the team like the mayor said the city's very proud of you um coach bear you've put together such an incredible program as a mother of two boys who played club soccer with many of the brothers of some of the guys on this team I know how hard and how committed you all are to the sport and I know coach bear you've made Peoria one of the top places not only in the state but in the country for soccer and we have you to thank for that and the whole program at Notre Dame so congratulations boys we're proud of you and you've done Peoria very well thank you thank you [Applause] okay Madam Clark we are at the minutes council member Euler thank you madam chairwoman I move to approve the minutes of The Joint City Council and town board meeting held on November 22nd 2022 as printed seconded by council member Allen uh please cast your ballots council member Rodrigo hi motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we have three town items 22-408 is a request from the town officials to approve the November 2022 actual expenditures and to approve the December 2022 anticipated expenditures for the town of the city of Peoria moved to approve as outlined seconded by council member Jackson any comments or questions that's your ballots council member Rodrigo hi motion passes unanimously 22-409 is a communication from the town officials budget committee with a request to adopt an ordinance living and assessing taxes for the fiscal year beginning April 1 2022 and ending March 31st 2023 for the general fund and the Illinois Municipal retirement fund of the town of the city of Peoria Peoria County and state of Illinois in the amount of 333 966 dollars council member Grant Madam chair I moved to adopt the ordinance as outlined seconded by council member valpulla are there any comments or questions cash your ballots council member Rodrigo aye motion passes unanimously the clerk 22-410 is a communication from the town officials budget committee with a request to adopt an ordinance living and assessing taxes for the fiscal year beginning April 1 2022 and ending March 31st 2023 for the general assistance fund of the town of the city of Peoria Peoria County and state of Illinois in the amount of 1 million four thousand eighty dollars council member Grant I move to adopt the ordinance levying and assessing taxes as outlined seconded by council member Kelly questions or comments slate please cash your ballots council member Rick Regal hi motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are now on to the city agenda we have one public hearing 22-411 is a public hearing regarding the annexation of 2700 West Altorfer Drive Peoria Illinois may I have a motion to open the public hearing move by council member Allen seconded by council member Kelly um see please cast your ballots council member rock regal hi motion passes unanimously is there anyone here that would like to speak regarding the annexation of 2700 West altofer Drive the second call is there anyone present who would like to speak to the annexation of 2700 West altofer Drive in Peoria and third and last call is there anyone present that would like to speak to the annexation of 2700 West Altorfer Drive in Peoria may I have a motion to close the public hearing move by councilmember Kelly seconded by council member Allen any additional questions comments please cast your ballots council member Rodrigo hi motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at the consent agenda 22-412 is a communication from the mayor and Corporation Council with a request to approve the Declaration of local state of emergency and on your desk there is a revised declaration with a revised state 22-413 is a communication from the city city manager and Corporation Council with a request to approve a settlement in Austin birchie versus Zachary Jansen and on your desk there is a handout 22-414 is a communication from the city manager with a request to approve the cancellation of the regular city council meeting on December 27 2022 22-415 is a communication with request to approve the purchase of two used vehicles from a Peoria car dealership in the amount of fifty thousand dollars 22-416 is a communication with request to approve the low bid of Oberlander electric company in the amount of 244 thousand dollars and award a contract for the Nebraska Avenue lighting Knoxville to Wisconsin with an additional authorization of fourteen thousand four hundred dollars for contingencies for a total contract Award of 258 400 dollars 22-417 is a communication with a request to approve a change order one to the storm drainage repair annual contract with JC Dillon Inc and to authorize the city manager to execute the extension to increase the original contract not to exceed the limit by one million three hundred fifty thousand dollars for a total of two million three hundred fifty thousand dollars and extend the completion date to February 14 2024.

22-418 is a communication with a request to approve an agreement with cdwg to provide a PDF software known as foxit in the amount of 22 291.20 -419 is a communication with request to approve the amendment to the intergovernmental agreement between the city of Peoria and Peoria County Treasurer pertaining to billing of refuse and garbage collection fees 22-420 is a communication with a request is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff for the following a to approve a resolution approving an annexation agreement for the property located at 2700 West Altorfer Road B adopt an ordinance annexing property located at 2700 West Altorfer Road and see adopt an ordinance rezoning property to class i1 industrial Business Park District for the property located at 2700 West Altorfer Road 22-421 is a communication with request to approve a resolution for the defederalization of the city of Peoria revolving loan funds 22-403 is a communication with request request to adopt an ordinance amending appendix a the unified development code relating to Family Care Facilities 22-422 is a communication with request to adopt an ordinance living a special service area real estate tax in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars for the tax year 2022 for the Westlake special service area 22-423 is a communication from the city manager and finance director comptroller with a request to adopt an ordinance living a special service area real estate tax in the amount of 148 060 against specified Parcels as described in exhibit a for tax year 2022 for the Knoxville Junction special service area 22-424 is a communication with a request to approve the site application for a class GB beer and wine only restaurant liquor license with on-site consumption for Feast Buffet Inc doing business as Feast Buffet 4232 North Brandywine Drive contingent upon the issuance of all appropriate permits and a certificate of occupancy with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve and on your desk there is a copy of the minutes from The Liquor Commission 22-425 is a communication with request to approve the site application for a class K Rental Hall liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for the table Peoria LLC doing business as the table 8305 North Allen Road Suite 2 contingent upon the issuance of all appropriate permits and a certificate of occupancy with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve and again on your desk there is a handout of the Liquor Commission minutes and 22-426 is a communication with a request to approve the site application for a class B restaurant 50 Food liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol with a subclass 1A 2 A.M closing hours for Pioneer University Roadhouse Inc doing business as big ones to Tejano Smokehouse and Katina 7723 North University contingent upon the issuance of all appropriate permits and the installation of a required signs for accessible parking spaces with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve and on your desk there are copies of the Liquor Commission handouts 22-427 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the Municipal Bank commission with request to concur of Marcia Boyer 22-428 is an appointment by mayor Ali to The Liquor Commission with requests to concur of Scott Jordan 22-429 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the zoning board of appeals with a request to concur of Colton Thomas 22-430 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the mayor's advisory committee for Citizens with disabilities with a request to concur of Stacy English 22-431 is a communication with request to receive and file the month ended October 31st 2022 an audited financial report and 22-432 is the Greater Peoria mass transit District's fiscal year 2022 audited financial statements with a request to receive end file and that concludes our consent agenda thank you madam clerk that was a lot so take a breath are there items to remove from consent council member grab uh 22-413 council member Kelly thank you madam mayor 22412 and 22 421 [Music] are there any other items to remove from consent may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda moved by council member Allen seconded by council member seer any questions comments please cast your ballots council member rock regal aye motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 22-412 is a communication from the mayor incorporation council with a request to approve the Declaration of local state of emergency council member Kelly thank you madam mayor um two items I was going to be voting against the Declaration of uh local state of emergency however this evening we received something quite different than what was in our packet and if I can read some of this and get our Corporation councils uh advice uh this says that uh the local state of emergency exists as of this day Tuesday December 13th 2022 and shall continue until such time is provided in the ordinance the first regular meeting of the city council on December 27 2022 or a duly called and noticed special city council meeting prior to the 27th despite the I'm not sure the languages is uh quite proper in that Mr Corporation Council but uh does this mean that since there will not be a meeting on December 27th which is further down in our agenda uh that the state of emergency expires on that date yes please I turned your light on Council thank you to right now the council hasn't taken action and Council that cancel that meeting so the items prepared in respect to that we're in a bit of an in situation because the governor's declaration will expire before our meeting in January and so we're going to recommend that the the few meetings that occur between December 27th and and our next meeting occur in person rather than remotely um the main purpose of our meeting is to give respect to our existing commissions and boards that meet and want to use this device to be able to meet remotely using the remote meetings under the disaster declaration that won't be available to them after December 27th and we will not meet and we're not scheduled to meet until after the governor's declaration expires in early January so we'll take this issue up again in January so our our declaration will expire on the 27th whether there's a meeting or not and we'll give guidance to the boards and commissions in the interim that there's a change for those couple of weeks they need to meet in person thank you thank your Corporation Council uh first of all it seems to me that uh if the reason for a continued state of emergency in our city is so that commissions and Boards can meet remotely I think that can be handled by an ordinance that is passed by this body the other features of the emergency declaration or the state of emergency I think are I think we should get back to standard business um and I do not believe that um there's really a call for it if we if people need to meet remotely I think this this Council can pass an ordinance that allows that forever if we want um uh so those are my comments I will not be voting for this anyway so someone else will have to move to approve thank you madam mayor okay you're welcome and Council can you provide some clarification uh doesn't the state have some Authority with regard to the state of Declaration under present law this is the only method by which our boards and commissions can meet remotely other than the very limited element of the open meetings act which allows members of a board to participate electronically under those limited circumstances of their own health the health or an emergency of a family member or business of the city or their personal business away from the city that doesn't allow them to attend and so it would not give the more expansive Authority that is exercised by boards and commissions from time to time to meet remotely in reference to their considerations about covid-19 and the potential transmission thank you Iran you're welcome I did read I think it came through Illinois Municipal League IML some legislation that's being proposed out there that may allow more Authority locally to look at virtual meetings when they're needed but that legislation is still pending it has not passed and maybe it's being edited um can you can you also speak to that Council Hayes thank you madam mayor I can um that initiative of the Illinois Municipal league did not receive a positive vote of the legislature during the recent veto session and it remains a priority of the league in their legislative agenda and I um helped with that when we initiated it in my formal role so they're still pursuing that but they haven't been successful very good thank you may I get a motion uh to approve item 22-412 moved by council member Allen uh seconded by council member Jackson any additional comments or questions please cash your ballots council member Rodrigo hi motion passes with one nay Kelly Madam Clerk 22-413 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to approve a settlement in Austin J birchie versus Zachary a Jansen council member Graham in a time when we send our men and women in blue out to keep our community safe and we ask them to do The Impossible on a daily basis I have a real difficulty with settling this case to the tune of 450 thousand dollars when our own legal counsel tells us that it is a defensible case I think we are sending a very bad message to those who are out there working for us and for those who might want to eventually come to work for the city of Peoria that even when we have a defensible case this council is going to settle and settle big here for four hundred and fifty thousand dollars so I will not be supporting this for the reason outlined in which we've already discussed okay thank you thank you may I have a motion from Council to approve item 22-413 moved by council member Allen may I have a second by council member uh regenbach any any questions comments council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor just to provide some limited comments this settlement in my opinion isn't a illustration of not supporting our men and women of our Peoria Police Department I think his settlement is an illustration that we are doing our best to make the best decision based off the information that's available to us to mitigate the risk of the taxpayers and so that is what this body is is trying to do based off of what is available to us so I know that the amount is a lot and I understand where my colleague councilman greb is coming from but this body did not make that decision easily but our job is to take the information that we have at our disposal and to make the best decision to mitigate the risks of the taxpayers but we support our Peoria Police Department and by no means is a settlement illustration if anything against that thank you thank you council members here Madam mayor I just want to Echo the sentiment of my colleague here Mr Allen if for me it's a vote of support for our police department and there's always two sides to every uh story so I will be voting yes because of the way I support our Police Department thank you welcome any other comments or questions please cash your ballot please council member Rodrigo I motion passes with two Nays Graham and Kelly Madam Clerk 22-421 is a communication from the city manager and assistant city manager with a request to approve a resolution for the defederalization of the city of Peoria revolving Loan Fund council member Kelly thank you madam mayor uh Mr manager uh I'll be voting for this but um what is the status of the de-federalized funds in the revolving fund are they handled any differently uh thank you councilman I'm going to turn the floor over to our assistant city manager and let Ms Richardson answer that question for you councilmember Kelly no it will be it will be what that does allow is that will be less reporting for staff so right now we have to report twice a year it's a very extensive process to do reporting that would be eliminated but every other aspect of our program with State remain the same so the program doesn't change it just allows us not to have to report uh additional administrative costs to that reporting could be significant depending on what is requested of us yes I I saw that thank you thank you uh I saw that in the uh the packet information but I wasn't sure if the status of the de-federalized money changed versus the federalized money and apparently uh the answer is no thank you very much thank you Amanda mayor and I'll move for approval okay is there a second it by Council member rickenbach the comments or questions please cast your ballots council member valpulla council member reaganbot sorry council member rock regal aye motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at first readings 22-433 is a communication from the city manager and the director of public works with a request for a first reading of an ordinance amending chapter 28 of the code of the city of Peoria relating to the Transportation Commission Mr manager uh thank you this is a first reading that just simply will allow the transfer Transportation Commission um to cancel some of their meetings if if need be I think this was at the request of the Transportation Commission that this came forward so Council have any questions want to receive and file anyone moved by council member Euler seconded by council member Jensen to receive and file your ballots council member Rodrigo hi motion passes unanimously we are at regular business 22-434 is a communication from the city manager with a request to approve the 2023 annual City legislative agenda Mr manager uh thank you and I want to thank the members of the staff that submitted requests and also thanks to the council members that submitted information to us you have in your packet the proposed legislative agenda it includes items for direct sponsorship that includes funding requests and it includes various positions support requests of our legislative delegation the request for direct sponsorship are those pieces of legislation that we were asking that our legislators take a a direct sponsorship in and support that legislation in Springfield the first is obviously Public Safety pension reform and looking at extending the amortization period of our Public Safety pensions the second item Council has adopted resolutions on the automated traffic law enforcement and amending that to allow that permissive activity to be included in Peoria um the third is the extension of our 911 surcharge that surcharge is set to Sunset and there's been some discussion about extending that and also looking at an increase in that to three dollars uh per month so that's a discussion point for our legislators we have the Peoria Stadium Tiff a request to legislatively extend that Peoria Stadium Tiff the Peoria Chiefs do have some improvements that are required by Minor League Baseball that they need to refinance and having the Tiff provides them a vehicle by which to make those improvements over the next 12 years we have been working throughout the the course of 2022 with the city of Chicago with Kankakee and Decatur on some recommendations on legislation regarding vacant and abandoned buildings and that's included in the packet as well and then we also have our request for um tax incentives and really looking at how we we assess property this is a site valuation tax this came from councilman Kelly this would look at a permissive language that would allow us to instead of taxing improvements on land you would tax the value of land uh since that's fixed uh it would really just be a different way of of property taxation and it would be permissive as well and then lastly from a legislative standpoint is the economic development incentives making sure that that we arm not only the city but the state with the appropriate level of Economic Development incentives to encourage economic growth in the state and in our communities from a funding standpoint we included funding requests we have projects that have been authorized by the Illinois General Assembly but they have not been appropriated that includes Main Street it includes the Peoria Riverfront it includes the South Side Fire Station and Community Center approval Pioneer Parkway and MacArthur highway so we're asking that those funding requests be fully funded there's a request for some additional funds for Smart City initiatives to continue our funding efforts on the law enforcement co-response model and also additional violence reduction initiatives we included requests for vertical capital projects including funds for a a parking garage in the warehouse District to include funds to help us to relocate the post office off of State Street and persimmon looking at where we might be able to relocate the the police or the excuse me the post office excuse me and then we had five horizontal capital projects that we included those would be road projects including Pioneer Parkway including not only the rehabilitation of Pioneer Parkway but the extension of Pioneer Parkway at 40 million dollars 15 million dollars for Allen Road to rehabilitate Allen Road from Northmoor to Willow Knolls 10 million dollars to improve Laramie basically from from Route 116 South to the to where Laramie terminates 50 million dollars for idot to to improve Lincoln and howette those are that's State Route 116 that would be the extension of of improving both of those one-way streets that make up the state highway and then five million dollars of funding for Springdale Cemetery for improvements of the road Network within Springdale from a position support standpoint we included as we have in the past information about the protecting our our state share revenues broadening our sales tax base preserving our home rule Powers reducing administrative fees charged by the state on taxes that we then get distributed language about automatic appropriation authority of some of those State revenues and that we would look at extending the state his there's a Statewide historic tax credit that's outside of the River's Edge Redevelopment Zone just looking at extending that tax credit and then making sure that if if Ida is going to get any money that they continue their support of land Banks as we've had in the past so that includes the legislative program and again I want to thank all of the Departments that submitted information and the council members as well it's a good list and it represents our entire city and and all the council districts within the city so thank you everyone for contributing to that list council member Kelly thank you madam mayor Mr manager I can't believe that I didn't bring forward I thought it was on here the requests we've made in the last few years about extending the tax abatement in uh areas of Urban Decay to rehabs currently the law only allows tax abatement on brand new construction and if we could move that to rehabs I think we uh we would be very encouraging to homeowners in those areas to go forward Rehabilitation we've done this in the past I I thought it was on the list but um if council's amenable to an amendment or or if you want to make an amendment to that regardless this comes forward for adoption we can include that in the in the program as well so uh well Madam mayor then I would I don't have any objection to that it was on previously and it you know somehow fell off the list so I don't I think that you can make a motion to receive and file with that adjustment uh would that be proper I think a motion to to amend the program to include or to direct the staff to include it then we'll we'll make sure that that language gets in for sure okay so this is not a receiving this is an approval it's an approval yes okay so uh councilman you want to make a motion I will uh thank you madam mayor yes I I will uh I would uh move to amend uh the list to include uh the rehab Amendment uh for tax abatement that we have approved in the past is there a second seconded by councilmember Allen any other discussion for Jensen mine's not on that motion my comment my comment's not on that motion oh it's not okay all righty comment is not on this particular it's on the the agenda item I put my light on before Mr Kelly made his motion so it's not on the motion that's pending right now okay but we're about to vote on the motion on the amendment and the on the amendment Amendment on the amendment okay okay got it all righty so we have a motion to amend we have a second any other discussion please cast your ballots council member Rodrigo I motion passes unanimously council member Jensen oh thank you madam mayor I just wanted to take a minute um to commend director Doolin and the city manager and the staff for all their focus on um these initiatives for the land bank and for code enforcement I think all of the proposals and that we're asking is our representatives and Senators to pass could really be important tools to help us take care of a lot of the issues that we have with vacant properties and poor quality housing in parts of our city so thank you director Doolin and manager Europe for your leadership on this it's important welcome you have a motion oh with that I moved to approve the um action item um the city's annual legislative agenda for 2023.

seconded by council member oil or any other questions or comments council member Grant manager I would like you to explain what the holdup is as it relates to the Main Street money Riverfront money South Side Fire Station money Community Center money Pioneer Parkway money MacArthur Highway money now that was part as you know of the rebuild Illinois programming and we have we're blessed here in Central Illinois with a very hard-working Cadre of lawmakers who work across the aisle can you give us the latest rationale as to why this hasn't happened yet well I I think that that um it's not for a lack of the hard work of of our legislative delegation I think it's just simply a matter of there are so many projects Statewide and as the money comes in that they're starting to roll those out through the Department of Commerce and economic opportunities where most of these dollars are coming from it's just a matter of time and so hopefully we'll see that these dollars get released in the very near future and that we're coming back to you with the the good news that the dollars have been released so um and actually I guess one might consider these ious to our city we're certainly treating it that way and we're hopeful that that will come we did list those in our in our capital projects or in the budget in the out years because we just didn't know when the dollars would be there we didn't want to appropriate those at that point in time but yes that's what we're how we're treating all right so you're saying patience all right I got that let's jump down a little bit and here we have the city request on the co-response law enforcement model it says provide continued funding to support the efforts of the PPD to develop that integrated co-response model does that mean we've already had money sent our way to do this and we have in reality been doing it so so this year we were awarded just a little over three million dollars from the state our Police Department worked to put together a budget for that that had to go up for approval through the Illinois criminal justice information Authority and I think that that meeting was held last week I'm not sure if the chief has any updates on that if there's been any approval for the co-response funding or not but but at this point I think it's it's in the hands of icija once they they will bless it then the money will be released for us to spend it so so this was included in the PA in the packet here to just say that if there's additional Appropriations that we can receive in in the following years that we're asking for those dollars as well so right now if we have a mentally ill person we're calling our ers we're still working with ERS at this point we don't have an intact co-response model yet oh yeah we we have like I said we we've presented it to the state to get their approval and then we'll staff that up in the first part of of 20.

because I recall um one of our Representatives mentioned that Puria would be a test City for this and I think it's that's correct I think there are four communities that that four communities that are that are included in this pilot project yes Mayor Lee thank you you're very welcome okay we have a motion to approve the annual City legislative agenda we have a second cash or ballots council member rock regal aye motion passes unanimously thank you manager metal Clerk 22-435 is a communication from the city manager and Community Development director with a request for the following a to approve a grant award in the amount of 2 million forty five thousand Seventeen dollars and the home are funding to Phoenix Community Development Services for Phoenix Manor and B to approve the home our plan to submit to the Department of Housing and Urban Development Mr manager uh thank you madam Mary I'd like to turn the the floor over to director Doolin to um basically just outline the the request here and and the approach that we're taking here with Phoenix development Community Development Services thank you uh mayor Mr manager Council uh as many you recall this uh property um the former Methodist College has gone through the play and Zoning commission process a while ago uh Phoenix Community Development Services was present to talk about the project uh and this is kind of the next step in that uh the city of Peoria was awarded home funds as part of the American Rescue plan completely separate of the direct allocation the city received that specifically had to be used for uh housing specifically related to certain populations within our community we shoot an RFP as part of the process Phoenix Community Development Services responded to that with the project at Methodist uh very appreciative of the work they do for our community the work that Christine called does as I'd like to ask her to come up and just briefly talk about the project a little bit I know we've talked about it before on Council floor but um this this adds a huge need for our community and uh I think anytime we can grant the privilege of the floor to a fantastic organization we're happy to do so so thank you for having me tonight um this development is a 55 unit development and I just wanted to point out you're used to our Supportive Housing projects by now but I think there's a couple of unique features to point out about this one and that is that with the capacity of family units that will be added to this development our local Continuum of cares waiting list for families will basically be eliminated we'll get to functional zero meaning that then as new homeless families come into that system the system will still need to respond but we will have gotten rid of the backlog for family units the second item that's unique about this development is that on the ground floor of this this building used to be a Ramada Inn hotel years ago for those of you old enough to remember that and so it's got a large footprint on the ground level and so one of what is being um included in this development is the special housing and Healthcare collaboration that is intended to focus specifically on on increasing access to health care for individuals that are facing housing instability not just the ones that will be living at that development but living at the local shelters living and continuing to live on the street and living at our other Supportive Housing projects so it's a way of addressing some Health Care disparity issues in addition to that only other comment I came prepared a little bit for you councilman Kelly tonight I cannot help and speak to your concerns about how much these projects cost but one of the things that I did want to come and just point out to you is that there is a return on investment that we don't always talk about with these kind of initiatives and that is that research has shown that after you allow for the cost of housing the community saves twenty nine thousand dollars per person in public cost associated with that and these developments require a 30-year use Covenant so when you take that twenty nine thousand dollars even with just one person in that household the return on investment to this community over that 30 years is 47 million eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars so I know that doesn't speak to your issue of costs I just encourage you to look at this as an investment not just a cost okay any questions for me thank you Miss call council member Jensen thank you madam mayor I just wanted to say congrat congratulations hats off I've been on you know a long time supporter of everything uh Phoenix House is doing this is an incredible project I wrote awesome on my notes when I reviewed this so thank you for bringing this forward and I enthusiastically approve it and I can't wait to see it get started and with that I moved to approve okay is there a second seconded by councilwoman Jackson councilmember Kelly thank you mayor mayor and thank you Ms call um I don't know how to get around my problem the the cost per unit with this program this is a 24 million dollar program cost per unit is 442 thousand dollars per unit we could buy several houses for these people at that kind of cost I would ask you if you would to bring to us a breakdown you're not required to do this by the way but I would ask that you would do it bring us a breakdown of the costs of these programs this particular program or one of your prior programs you know I think we started out at hundred and ten thousand dollars uh uh for small uh single homeless people Etc and up and this is this is the biggest so far 442 thousand dollars per unit um if you could bring us a breakdown I know this this is easy for us because it it isn't very much of our money you know but still um uh we should be prudent in our spending and if you if you wouldn't mind bringing us a breakdown uh I I would appreciate it I can do that all right and thank you thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member reaganbot thank you madam mayor and thank you Phoenix a missed call for for another project that this I think is exciting in many levels and that it's using that building that's been sitting there for so long that could have just as easily been torn down and turned into a parking lot or something but going to provide housing 55 units and that's that's a significant step in this you highlighted that eliminating the backlog for families that are experiencing homelessness to be able to move into facility a home a home like this is something that I think we can really consider an investment and um the Comprehensive Health Care Cafe I think is another thing that is going to really speak to perhaps the needs of this population so just thank you very much for thinking outside the box and I would just mention to my colleague that I think the appropriate conversation about costs for things like this needs to be directed to our Congressional Delegation because these come funds come from HUD right and and the strings attached to Federal money are what Drive the cost so I'm happy to invest this and help our community move forward and do what we can to eliminate Nate this this issue of homelessness so thank you thank you councilman uh rickenback this is an incredible project and I respect your leadership Miss call and the Phoenix organization is doing great things for residents and and homeless formerly homeless people uh in this community so thank you council member Grant thank you mayor um this call it's good to see you here tonight another great project I'm just wondering when you sleep not often you have a strong team yes you're going to need it when you get people in your programs and they need to be hooked up to substance abuse counselor or whatever it might be you're able to make those connections aren't you correct and part of the healthcare Cafe will include on-site substance abuse services for this particular project that's excellent because one of the things that I believe is on my mind and on the minds of all of us and certainly I think all of our constituents is how we're going to best reach the people who will decline services who may have substance abuse issues that are such that they're not interested in going into a roof situation and I understand we have some of the finest Minds in the city working on a plan um talk to the manager this morning we have very bad weather coming on and it's just impossible to imagine people living the manner in which we can find them in some parts of the city it's just incredibly wrong for this community to allow this to continue without doing everything possible to intervene so to me you're just like a an Angel that's come into the council chambers tonight and I think when you consider some of the people that we reach and may keep out of trouble one just needs to keep in mind that just one big murder case can cost the taxpayers of the county one and a half to one and three quarters million dollars and I think we're intervening in such a way with your programs that we are short-circuiting some folks from going in the wrong direction I know this is geared only two families but also to individuals who might be in need of one of these apartments you've got Studios what one bedroom and three so you could take a family up to how many people well technically in a three bedroom they could house up to six people usually under the HUD occupancy requirements in there and you you um attempt to transition them to a more permanent solution for them so in some respects it is exactly what it's described here as being transitional it's not meant to be permanent housing well this is a permanent Supportive Housing Development they don't have to leave but most of our residents ultimately move on to permanent housing that doesn't have the support services involved in it so that but that's up to the individual and it's done through individualized service planning with them so there could be people who might come into this program who will be there 15 years from now I didn't know that thank you very much and thanks for coming here and I'm going to wholeheartedly support this thank you and that motion was related to item a correct and it was seconded related to item a please cast your ballots council member Rodrigo wholeheartedly I great motion passes unanimously um Jensen oh I moved to approve Item B uh seconded by council member valpulla any discussion please cast your ballots council member Rick Regal all right motion passes unanimously Madam Clarke 22-436 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development whether with a request for the following a to approve a contract with door and Associates Inc for the Harrison School demolition project and B to approve a contract with green demolition contractors Inc for the McKinley School demolition project uh Mr manager thank you once again I'll turn over to director Doolin to update us on this agreement mayor thank you Mr manager thank you Council um so the item in front of you is uh the next step in finally demolishing Harrison and McKinley schools um for those of you recall during the the budget process a year ago uh in deciding what we were going to spend the American Rescue plan funding money on uh two million dollars was specifically earmarked uh for the demolition of both of these properties a little history on both the properties um they have not been functioning schools for very very long time up until about five or six months ago the city never owned them they traded back and forth multiple times after being sold from the school district and no owner really stepped up to take responsibility for any of the properties unfortunately the city throughout the years didn't have the additional funding to be able to make the significant capital investment in taking these properties down so I think you know the first opportunity we had uh that's where the money was secured in addition then congresswoman Bustos through the earmark process was able to give us an additional million dollars to go towards the demolition costs for both of these buildings as well I think there was a little uh maybe too much excitement for the timing of both of these on SAS part but the HUD did not give us the actual agreement uh with the money until October 10th so this is kind of as soon as we got that agreement from HUD we were able to issue the RFP and come to this process so I just want the public to understand it hasn't been a lack of urgency or a delay from the city a lot of it was dependent on kind of getting those agreements back from HUD and going forward with the um RFP process um with that said though we do have a few kind of unanswered questions on item a related to some of the labor agreements with our local labor organizations uh so I'd ask that you would defer item a until the next council meeting so we can just work out some Logistics with them and make sure we have a good plan going forward but approve B so we can start the the next steps for McKinley School all said and done both buildings will still meet the timeline of of being finished down and clear by the end of May and completely wrapped up by the end of June of 2023 you know I think having the Phoenix Community Development Services item go before these items is very important because it just removing both of these just shows our value to neighborhoods and shows the potential reuse for both of these sites in the future as well of working with non-profit organizations the neighborhood to see if we can add some additional housing and quality affordable housing to the neighborhood in its place so I have happy to answer any questions director Doolin just confirm again that deferring a won't have a negative impact on the timeline uh it will we will make sure it does not okay so member Jackson um thank you madam mayor well I just uh you you all know how long I've been uh waiting for this I just wondered uh uh director Doolin if they're well the mayor and took the question I had with regards to the timeline um is there any uh is there any information you you'd be willing to share about the deferment and why it it has to happen at this time yeah um item a uh you know unfortunately the Project's this size uh you know we try to to get the best uh contractor for the job and sometimes that attracts uh non-local contractors uh so sometimes there's some logistical concerns I think with our labor organizations about ensuring that they meet all the city requirements to um you know hiring as many local workers as they can making sure that they do the good faith effort with uh hiring women and minority owned contractors and just some concerns were raised that that we want to just make sure to address to make sure we're doing everything we can um to kind of get everyone on the same page uh I think uh we're not we're not at any place where we're going to have a disagreement but just a little more time will allow us I think uh to have everyone on board and be able to really kind of push forward in January and I it's unfortunate I think we could have got it done in two weeks but because we don't have another council meeting December it unfortunately has to be deferred to the first week in January uh but as as I mentioned when we originally set the timeline in scope we thought uh that we might be selecting one contractor for both projects uh and that was kind of what we were thinking for the timeline so I think even deferring it a month uh will not slow down the the timeline for either project uh now if the winner is not as uh you know uh hazardous as it can be will that could that in any way shape or form um facilitate uh the the timeline for uh demolition uh could it happen sooner rather than later uh I'm I'm not entirely sure that'll have a huge effect on it a lot of the work and the substantial time commitment will be the environmental remediation of inside the property um you know when we got in there and discovered there's a significant amount of lead-based paint that needs to be remediated a significant amount of asbestos that also needs remediated uh and a lot of that work should not be kind of weather uh any weather delays with that the actual demolition of the building can go pretty fast once you get those kind of technical pieces done um but we I will pass along for them we want them to complete ahead of schedule as well so we will we will do everything we can to try to make sure that happens okay thank you very much for your hard work and we look forward to this moving forward thank you madam mayor you're welcome thank you councilman Jackson for your support I know you've been working very closely on this with us I appreciate that council member Jackson did you have a motion it's Madam mayor I would like to make a motion that uh okay would it be i a okay item a of 22 436 uh be uh approved as uh listed did you want to defer I'm sorry yes I'm sorry I'm just I'm getting ahead of myself I'm so excited uh yes Madam mayor I would like to make a motion that item a would be deferred did we say for two weeks uh to the first meeting I'm sorry that's right because we're we're not going to meet in two weeks okay so be deferred into the first council meeting in January is there a second to that deferral seconded by council member Kelly other discussion council member asir additional discussion uh yes and it doesn't have to be right now but I just had a budget question for Mr manager I'm assuming this is 2023 budget uh of course the item we budget three million dollars and this is roughly is going to be 2.1 million dollars my question is where will we use the other nine hundred thousand dollars in addition to this we've had some environmental work we've had some of the the cost of of scoping out the project I think by the time it's all said and done we may be close to that to that three million dollars for for both demolitions thank you you watch those numbers don't you want to watch somebody actually it's good it's a good thing uh we're voting to on the motion to defer item a to the first council meeting in January if there's no other discussion please cash your ballots council member rock regal aye motion passes unanimously council member Jackson thank you madam mayor I would like to make a motion that item B uh be approved as uh listed okay is there a second seconded by council member Allen in the additional discussion your ballots council member record all right motion passes unanimously thank you director Doolin Madam Clerk 22-437 is a communication from the city manager and finance director comptroller with a request to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the Peoria Civic Center Authority for a capital bridge loan Mr manager uh thank you I know we had a discussion about this at the the last city council meeting the attached agreement is included in the packet for your consideration this evening uh our finance director uh director karate is here to help answer any questions that the council may have and as well in attendance I believe that we have Yvonne Greer who is the chair of the Civic Center Authority is here as well so and their Council does anyone on Council have questions council member Val Pula the legislative agenda says that the city will provide cash flow anytime cash results for the Peoria Civic Center Authority drops below under drops below 1 million so I have couple of clarification questions so how much Capital does Peoria Civic Center Authority have it now uh the last update in terms of their cash flow on hand that that we were made aware of last week was around eight hundred thousand so that means we are obligated to pay the first installment now correct is because it's part of the ramp up with this Capital the Civic Center has put out about 1.6 million dollars in Capital Improvements already towards this grant um so that is why they are in they have around 800 000 in cash right now so in the in the in the in the attachment we find that the city of Peoria will lend 1.6 million dollars as a first installment of the bridge alone correct and then there is another follow-up which says that the manager is authorized to extend Bridge alone financing not to exceed the aggregate of 25 million dollars that is the cost of the project that is the that is the total amount of the grant that they have through dceo um in conversations with the Civic Center Authority um at no point will the entire amount that has output at one time be 25 million it's going to ebb and flow based off of their reimbursement schedule with the CEO um they will be making requests through dco on a quarterly basis for reimbursements for their work and once they receive those reimbursements they will reimburse the city for what is open on their Bridge Loan so how long does this reimbursements take uh normally the reimbursements take anywhere from dco is saying two to four weeks my experience traditionally with dco is you're talking closer to two months for reimbursement so that would normally be the amount of time that the city would have that amount of the bridge loan out at any given point so does the dceo release the 25 million at once no so the entire Grant is on a reimbursable basis so in essence the Civic Center Authority has to put forward all the capital up front to get reimbursed so it's going to be based off of their project schedule which right now they've outputted a total close to 4 million they have some bills that have not been paid as of yet but there will be a ramp up in projects next year so currently the plan is to have a lot of the projects done by 23 but I do believe there will probably be a request for extension for some of those projects to go into 24.

so so I am okay with the I mean I'm very comfortable with the fact that they are gonna give us back but then the fifth one is uh probably we may have to change it because giving a consent of 25 million dollars outright probably we can we can actually work it in an installment basis rather than giving a power of attorney to give 25 million dollars outrightly to this project that's something I wanted to see what your thoughts are a lot of [Music] obvious to show what the total amount that they received was part of the desire also was as we get into construction season next year some of these bills that they have for things like their roof project will be in multi-million dollar chunks and so in some of those cases time is of the essence to get those reimbursed to get the payments made so we were wanting to make sure that there was the ability to do this so that we had the ability to meet their cash flow needs as their projects ramp up next year thank you thank you you're welcome council member seer thank you madam mayor just a few questions for Mr manager I know we would not do anything illegal but what are the legality of uh providing a bridge loan at zero interest well they're they're legally you can do it I mean this is another governmental entity this is um you know what what we're we're doing here is trying to help partner with the Civic Center um you know they don't have any taxing Authority on their own so they rely on us through our HRA tax agreement to provide them resources and to finance the debt that we've issued on their behalf so that's ultimately the the reason why we structured this the way that it was is that is that we're looking at this as you know if you look at our financial statements our our audit every year we show the Civic Center Authority as a component unit so it's really in a lot of ways they're they're they're like our little brother so what we're really doing here is is trying to make sure that they've got the cash flow that they need and then as they get the money back from the state will get reimbursed for them so when our little brother lose some money who loses money well I mean ultimately if there's any deficits they have to look at how they manage to their bottom line and then they may have to come back to us for any support So when they make money then where does the money go well ultimately that money stays within the Civic Center in their operations and ideally from year to year that that money is then used uh to help to finance other Capital Improvements I mean I think what we've seen is that is that over the years they've been able to to manage the operations it's some of the large ticket items like like Capital Improvements that they don't have the resources to support So SM Global ASM Global have very deep pocket how come they're not part of this agreement I'm they investing any money at all in capitals for the Civic Center ASM is the Management Authority that that runs the Civic Center and and you know maybe the the legal counsel and and uh and Ms Greer could come forward and we could you know they can explain the relationship there the Management Authority that are that is operating the Civic Center the Civic Center Authority is a public body that is responsible for the operations of uh the the Civic Center I understand that but I was just questioning why we as the big brother to the little brother why would the management management company from the Civic Center would not participate in loaning or maybe having a bridge loan and no interest loan to the pure Civic Center Authority good evening good evening Bob Gates Council for the Civic Center with Yvonne berbat and our chair two things so ASM of course is the operating entity that helps run our facility when we uh when we entered into a contract with ASM they did invest in the Civic Center in terms of its operation at the time that the contract was signed to help with some Capital Improvements so they have made an investment in the past the narrow question right now is in light of the fact that this is really a timing issue and needing to pay out the dollars first and then the dollar is coming back to City Hall that having the pre-existing relationship with the city provided the pathway for convenience and efficiency and in understanding how dco and the state of Illinois worked going to a private entity for debt regarding the Civic Center is at the end of the day we don't have collateral to put up in a traditional lending environment the traditional lending environment would say okay well if we're going to borrow money from you bookstore collateral can you secure our interest in and currently as a city manager mentioned the city of Peoria has issued the bonds it holds the main collateral position for the Civic Center and the building that's really our only asset and the City Peoria would be in position one based on the bonds that were done for the expansion many years ago so if we went to ASM where a private lender we would still be coming back to City Hall in some ways be to ask for that debt to be subordinated based on the pre-existing bonds so either way we would be making a stop here at City Hall and based on the relationships as you mentioned on the legislative agenda the hard-working legislative core that we have here in Central Illinois of course director craddy noting all the details at dco and having visibility into the timing brought us to City Hall first for this uh hopefully narrow point in time Capital Bridge zone so that we can show the CEO that yes the check has been paid that roof was replaced or that parking deck was replaced or the chillers were replaced to continue those 25 million dollars in Capital Improvements hope that's responsive your question councilman thank you yes thank you very much two more questions for Mr manager don't we have or do you somewhere in our rules there's a maximum amount of money that you're allowed to spend and invest on your own without the consent or the knowledge from the Council people we do it's fifteen thousand dollars fifteen thousand dollars so how's the 25 million dollars is that greater than fifteen thousand dollars and how does that workplace can you explain that to us please but well by you approving this bridge loan you're approving that authority to allow that to go forward I just want to make sure Dr valpulla understood that and also uh last question is where will this money come from well this will come out of the general fund and as we've we've mentioned uh it's where we have the most flexibility it's where we have the most uh Revenue that's come in that's currently um unobligated and it gives us the opportunity to provide that flexibility to the Civic Center so Mr crater I think you would know that answer I know the last meeting we were around 50 some million dollars in our general fund for our emergency fund and now we're down about 32 if I remember correctly some that neighborhood do we have enough money for these obligations so the 50 million dollars that you're discussing is where we believe we're going to end this year with the budget which we still have revenues to come in so we still believe that we'll be at that 50 million dollar number uh when all said and done with the audit this coming year and so even with um if we were to extend the full 25 million dollars at one point which we're not going to part of this agreement we'd still be close to a 25 fund balance which is the which is the requirement of policy thank you very much thank you Mr manager Madam mayor thank you great questions um my question the only question I have really is related to an end date when do we anticipate that this will all be wrapped up thank you some of it mayor will be dependent on construction schedule so the original Grant agreement dco which has been signed and executed by both parties and returned to dco which was an important First Step as mentioned earlier some of the we hope to have enjoyed those projects completed by end of 2023 but as director craddy mentioned there's a possibility that some may extend into first and second quarter 2024 just based on material supply design time and construction season for some of the exterior Capital Improvements that would need to be done and dceo is allowing that flexibility and schedule I take it given our director of facilities has given dco and our grant manager a heads up that we'll need to make an amendment or request an amendment to extend into the first or second quarter 2024 once we get that feedback from both our design engineer and ultimately the contractor that we've chosen for those projects so very likely you anticipate that by June 30th 2024 this will be wrapped up correct yes yes council member Jensen thank you madam mayor I have a few a couple follow-up questions to the mayor's question about the term so based on your response because I don't see it here in the action item um the grant term is through 2023.

is that right it's like a two-year Grant correct okay and then I understand you can ask for extensions it doesn't appear to me that we have any such limit on on this agreement between us and the Civic Center is that right so what I would would say with the agreement is what the agreement is very specific to this grant so it's really comes down to um we are only going to be reimbursing costs associated with the Grant and so if the Civic Center is unable to get that extension of that Grant through dceo the bridge loan will also end so it really is just very specific to those Grant eligible expenses that will be extending that bridge loan if you look at the grant agreement on the very first after now therefore it talks about the fact that we're talking about this bridge loan for the grant agreement which is referenced in that the grant number that that dco has so it's specific to this loan agreement that or this grant that they're receiving from DCU okay um another question I have it it doesn't appear there's no limit on the request or the draw that we give to the Civic Center or the Civic Authority that is correct obviously the overall extended limit is the 25 million um just because especially as we get into construction season next year and we're talking about the roof project which I believe is close to a six to seven million dollar project um there may be the the possibility that they will need you know four to five million dollars in a specific quarter to be able to pay those bills so because of the unknown scheduling of Capital Improvements we didn't put a cap limit on it that's why the cap is a 25 million but obviously the intent is that every quarter of the Civic Center Authority will put in that reimbursement with dceo so that the numbers aren't getting into that 10 12 15 million dollar number that we have extended I guess I just have concerns sort of along the same lines as councilman Seer that our budget can handle that if we get you know a substantial request at a time when our it isn't as healthy as it is right now well I think that that we would have the ability to tell them no and and that they're going to have to Stage their their capital projects and their timing on payments in order to meet our requirements and we'll look at our cash flow I mean I think that's that's entirely appropriate on our end as well to tell them you're not going to be able to draw five million dollars in May of 2024 it's going to have to be two and a half and I think we have that that right to do that okay and then I don't I just I mean at least right now the state is pretty healthy in their budget but I know over the years DC CEO can be very slow at providing the money once it's requested even when a grant has been approved and awarded I mean do you have any concerns any experience with that recently since in the last year or two things since the state has improved its financial situation since the state's improved its financial situation we don't have really any concerns at this point in time that they're not going to submit the full 25 million once the grant agreement is signed it's there it's not like the situation that we found ourselves in with the legislative program where we we haven't even received a grant agreement from the state yet that's where I think we're seeing the delay from the state it's just as those grants are in queue so okay and then um one more question about the loan that we gave to the Civic Center in 2021 has any of that been paid if you look the very last clause in this agreement makes it clear out of seven in the very last page says that that four million dollars will be reimbursed to the city once the The Debt Service has been paid off so the next four million and that's I believe in 2027 or 2028 2028 that that 4 million of Revenue there will be no disbursement to the Civic Center Authority that comes back directly to the city at that point in time so it's not until then though that that 4 million will be paid back that's correct okay hang on I think I had one more question um now I'm drawing a blank I did have one more question but I can't think of it right now hang on I guess that's it thank you okay you're welcome uh stick around guys council member Kelly thank you madam mayor um Mr manager or Mr cratty or or both uh is this arrangement uh uh be that the Civic Center is not generating enough money to make Capital Improvements this doesn't in particular have anything to do with covet does it well I know that covet has slowed things down I I think covet had a direct impact on the the not only the HRA tax revenues that we saw in 2020 but the the financial performance of the Civic Center in 2020.

so what we've seen though over the last couple of years is that the Civic Center's performance is improve all right so this agreement does not press a new era for the Civic Center that they can handle their operations but they're not necessarily going to be able to handle their Capital expenditures when in 2005 they talked about the expansion of the Civic Center and they talked about refreshing Capital they came to the city to finance those improvements yes and we did that with the HR an extension of the HRA tax yes yes okay so in the HRA tax while it took a pretty good dip during covet it's still there okay so my question is are we entering an era now where under normal operating conditions as we project them whether the eight whether all the revenues including the HRA tax is going to not only cover operations but is going to continue to cover Capital Improvements or is or are we going to be chronically short as it looks into the future on Capital uh Capital uh demands um I'll try and answer it and then I'll turn it over to our our friends from the Civic Center Authority that that even during the best times we had before covid we were only able to the Civic Center was only able to put in a million and a half to a million two of capital every year that's not enough to sustain the Civic Center facility that's one of it it is it that's one of the challenges of having a physical plant that's as big as the Civic Center so uh I can't say that it's a new era because in the in the 11 years I've been city manager it still has been an ongoing issue that there hasn't been enough funds for the Civic Center authority to put into the Capital Improvements that they need which is part of the reason why they have this grant is that this grant is helping them to catch up on some of that that Capital that needs that they have and you know maybe we could I I think you've answered it okay I think you've answered it um uh that's uh distressing to me because uh you know we have we always had a lot of Rosy projections when we build these things and we've had Rosy projections with the initial Civic Center and very Rosy projections with the expansion um chicken chickens have come home to roost here to the tune to 25 million dollars which is not an inconsiderable sum and apparently the Civic Center for capital is going to be relying and I hope I hope this isn't an acceleration but is going to be relying on uh other bodies like City like the city of Peoria and like the state of Illinois in order to keep itself uh from a capital perspective up to speed that's um distressing but perhaps that's how it's always been thank you Mr manager thank you madam mayor welcome council member Grant chairwoman Greer all these people who are concerned about money need to recognize the Peoria Civic Center is a huge economic engine not only for the city of Peoria but for the entire region we can go back to its very creation it was a huge debate and it barely passed I think by one vote to even have a Civic Center in our community and then a number of years ago we realized we had to do something about our Civic Center because it was not adequately sized and our expansion which we had to sell to the community amounted to about 65 million dollars which was pretty much on par with what the original Civic Center cost I have no doubt that everything will be fine I do always appreciate questions that are asked about civics or whatever agreement we're entering into but we've been doing very well with our events uh downtown and drawing people from all over and I just have full confidence that everything's going to turn out just fine and manager this is up to 25 million dollars and who knows when the money will actually flow but I have absolute confidence that it will uh chairwoman Greer this is your chance to address the council well good evening Council everyone thank you very much this is this is a complicated animal it has lots and lots of moving Parts I believe our current leadership is doing an exemplary job of bringing in accent entertainment and community events that not only are attractive to the citizens of Peoria and its surrounding communities but from around the Midwest and sometimes across the country if they're family members here who want to come and share a show I believe that that kind of effort is going to help us all as a community because not only are we having events that are going to be popular in the local community but as others come to experience the events as well they're going to stay in our hotels they're going to eat in our restaurants they are going to visit our museums they're going to walk along our Riverfront and take part in the markets in the summertime they're going to enjoy the community the way that we do that is our effort at the Civic Center and I believe it's being done well this dceo grant it's a Time game and it's out of our hands and so we thank you for your consideration with allowing us this bridge loan until until those funds get into our hands thank you and councilor ruckriegel you're on the other end of the phone aren't you lest no one forget he is our liaison to the Civic Center Authority I just want to make certain we recognize you I was just about to do that thank you council member Rodrigo did you want to make a statement or a comment yes and and I think tonight we've had good conversation and uh both from the questions that were asked but also from the answers that were given um what what we see here is a true partnership with um with the state on being able to help bring up the capital the needs of the Civic Center and we have had great support on being able to get us to this point and what we are seeing here tonight is not asking for 25 million all at one time but actually just to being able to help on the cash flow as these things become available um and you know let's not forget that uh these things are things that I think probably each one of us around the council have noticed um that those improvements are both necessary and needed including the HVAC that we have within our own our own City Chambers are directly tied to to the Civic Center and I think that what this allows us to do is to be able to keep on Pace and track with those Capital needs so that as we're ramping up and there's been some talk about us being able to ramp up um post covet into the full um experience the Civic Center can do that allows us to take most advantage of that as we can so that we delay we do not delay um farther down the line some of those opportunities we see the successes that the Civic Center is having time and time again I can't go personally anywhere downtown where I don't hear from um restaurant from hotel years from the bars from businesses around that may or may not be directly even in the entertainment business but they but they are seeing the activity that it drives and those come back in the form of us of the city at sales tax dollars it's an incubator it's one that has been very successful for the city over the years and it is and very different vehicle because it is like operating three different venues all Under One Roof your Civic Center Authority does some amazing work they put in lots of hours we have great leadership uh with chairman Greer on being able to make for sure that we are giving you a quality product what you're asking for tonight and what you're asking to approve is actually a bridge to be able to help us keep those improvements going so that we can continue to find work that we're doing if it's a big Center and I would appreciate all of my council members support in being able to make this happen and again I think as you read the agreement what you're saying is as as those funds come back in from from the state this gets repaid so this is not an extension of any long-term loan this is truly a cash flow to be able to help keep the construction and the Reconstruction going thank you thank you councilman council member valpulla thank you first off I'm not a boast to this bridge loan but I just wanted to make myself clear of our ability to to to fund and lend but then I still have two more questions to you director karate I mean so would it be possible to come to the council when you have a request for a or a million dollars will it be too hard before I mean I I like the fact that we need to give um a right of way I understand that I see that is echoing across the Horseshoe but then why do we need to have a free fluff like like we gave a budget number of 25 million dollars but would it be ideal to have you come back to the council when there is a need of a million dollar you it might be 25 times I can agree that but at least we know that we are spending the and it also will help us to track the transactions of how much was paid how much we paid and how much we got back even if it is still 2024.

thank you madam mayor it's manager well I I mean I think we would be staff would be more than happy to provide regular reporting on the draws that come forward so that we can keep Council informed of of what the draws from a Civic Center look like but there may be a need and and ultimately it's you know from an administrative standpoint the ease of us being able to do this we do have the funds available we can we can provide you with a regular you know financing of of a report through the finance department that shows we're going to have to account for this in the audit anyways we're gonna have to show that that these are funds um that we have have loaned out to the Civic Center Authority and then we can provide that reporting on a regular monthly basis back to you so that you get there thank you any more questions thank you everyone I think we need a motion though uh let's see we do have a motion on the floor don't we no motion yet council member Euler a second seconded by council member grab more discussion please cast your ballots council member Rodrigo hi motion passes unanimously 22-438 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to adopt an ordinance amending chapter 3 subsection 52 of the code of the city of Peoria to revise the class in liquor license Council Hayes thank you madam mayor recently the Illinois state Liquor Commission determined that the licensing process for the park district had to change they had to draw a local license from the city prior to this matter coming before the council we had a class n liquor license that allowed the park district to sell liquor at the Gateway we would expand we would recommend expanding the class n license to allow the park district to have alcohol served at their facilities as they do now but now properly licensed by the city as well as the state they would be required on events to give notice 10 days prior to the event to the liquor commissioner so we could track those issues and monitor them over time there were any issues that were arise we could address them by Future modification of the class n license this would allow the park district to operate continuously as close to their presently operating without complicating things with additional approvals by Council but they would have to as I mentioned notify the liquor commissioner prior to every event um so you wouldn't see see a change in the way that they're dispensing liquor because they've been doing this for quite a while it's just a matter of documenting and Licensing appropriately to satisfy the state and to allow us to keep track of what's going on be happy to answer any questions thank you madam mayor makes sense any questions for Council council member Jensen I moved to approve okay is there a second seconded by council member Kelly any additional discussion please cast your ballots council member record aye motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at unfinished business 22-293 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with request to adopt an ordinance amending Article 19 operation of a cannabis business of chapter 18 licenses and miscellaneous business regulations of the code of the city of Peoria Mr manager Council which one are you going to take this uh I'll I'll let Council Hayes take this one but the last one uh thank you mayor so uh we were directed by Council last session uh to remove the on-site Provisions that we had suggested after the policy and policy meetings and public hearings the account the uh ordinance before you has that removed uh and uh we also will be approaching the zoning Planning and Zoning commission next month with a couple of zoning changes consistent with council's Direction what this ordinance will do it will um it will require that um dispensary cannot be located within 1500 feet of a pre-existing dispensary unless that dispensary is a social Equity applicant keeping in Pace with the comments from the public as well as the input from the council and the changes in state law we're defining social Equity applicants and requiring annual proof of that in our own local licensing and adding language to strengthen the Restriction of transfer and licenses as I mentioned in addition to not having the on-site consumption will be requiring that the special use permits will only be valid for six months rather than two years we would allow the buy ordinance city manager to extend that for an additional six-month for Good Cost shown we're also going to require through a modification to our zoning ordinance that a special use be required for every zoning district and that's consistent with input from the council as well I don't know if you have any questions but if you do I'd be happy to respond thank you thank you Council Hayes there's been a lot of input into this uh ordinance hopefully we're ready to take action council member Kelly thank you madam mayor Mr Corporation Council um if a an applicant meets all the criteria and um there's no question every everything is ship shaped everything is fine uh that applicant can come here and we can turn them down for any reason that we want is that correct a lot of leeway in your licensing Authority and this is an area where the law anticipates there'd be intense scrutiny on licensees I would say that your denial could not be arbitrary and capricious but if you have a good faith basis to deny that would be supportive it's somewhat subjective I suppose those criteria um I I can't make the law perfect but I can tell you what the law is but you're right it is somewhat subjective thank you thank you man Amir I think I'll be this but I am Disturbed that and you know how I feel about cannabis anyway but people who follow the rules and that all the eyes cross all the t's can come here and get turned down and I I just don't think that's right thank you you're welcome any other comments or can I get a motion motion to approve the ordinance moved by council member rickenback is there a second count seconded by council member Allen in the other discussion councilmember Jensen thank you madam mayor I I do have concerns I won't be supporting this ordinance um from the very beginning I have said there should be some limits on the number of dispensaries that we have I'm not opposed I've been very supportive of dispensaries but I think that we need to have a limit Citywide as well as District I don't we've already approved five licenses and according to this action item this communication there's seven more that have been approved by the state that can be awarded in our area and I just from the very beginning when we adopted the ordinance to deal with the legalization of cannabis and the state allowing these dispensaries when we first talked about this before many of my colleagues were not on the council we talked about if at some point the state changed the rules at that point you could only have three there were only three licenses to be awarded in our area which included many other communities we all talked about that we would come back and talk about limits at that time when we allowed it there was only the potential of three now I don't know what the magic number is but certainly with the um right here we could have up to 12 and I think 12 may be too many I've always said we should have limits per District I do not want one area of the city saturated with cannabis businesses just like I don't like how Knoxville and University we have a row of payday loans and that all happened before I got on the council but I have always said that was one of my primary concerns I didn't want all of these businesses in one location in the city and this ordinance doesn't address either of those I understand that the survey the majority of the people that responded to the survey said they weren't in favor of limitations but surveys can be worded in different ways um I don't think that shows that a majority of um the citizens are want Limitless number of cannabis businesses and dispensaries in the city um I will note that the surveys did show that 32 percent of the people that responded did not want any more dispensaries in the city and that's a pretty substantial number so I think this merits further discussion by the council and I hope um a majority of counselors sitting around this horseshoe will agree but I think we have a responsibility to make sure you know we have to make tough decisions and not just do what's popular but we need to make sure that whatever regulations and requirements we adopt do it in a manner that isn't going to negatively impact the city so I will not be supporting this at this time thank you councilmember Allen thank you madam mayor corporation uh Council Hayes can you provide any insight how I know that an applicant will have to show evidence of their social Equity uh designation from the state of Illinois one of the things that I challenged us when we were talking about our ordinance was making sure that those who receive that designation uh operate within the spirit of it meaning they don't just get someone that they know that meets the criteria to get that designation and then once they get the license they say all right hey bro we appreciate you give you a few dollars and then you walk away um how are we as a city going to reinforce this with these entities that are setting up in our um our city limits that have the designation just to make sure that they're truly operating in the spirit of social equity oh hey how you doing uh Madam mayor if you don't mind I would like to defer to our Deputy Corporation Council who is everybody knows has done a tremendous job uh providing information and supporting the city's exploration into these issues absolutely Council thank you uh excellent question on how we will ensure that the licensees that are coming to us is social Equity applicants are in fact social Equity applicants so right now the seven available licenses in our BLS region there are seven that are available there are two that have gone through the sighting and Zoning approval process with the city they have yet to submit their actual business license applications but their zoning is correct that does leave five outstanding social Equity licenses that could go anywhere within our BLS region although I will say that the the time is running out for them their clock is ticking they need to have their brick and mortar order store open roughly within 180 days and those licenses were issued at the end of July so they are going to be coming up on those deadlines very quickly so for those two applicants that have gone through the zoning approval process and will come to us for as we anticipate business licenses we will ask them to provide the same information they provided to the state which is their its exhibit P to the state application and it will identify how they obtained their social Equity status right now it's a little bit easy because we know that those are the only licenses that are out there the bigger question is how will we know if that social Equity status changes and we put specific language in this ordinance that says if there is any transfer of even member organization even membership interest of the company that that potentially triggers them having to come back to the city for a new or different business license so for example um world of weed for example comes to the city as they've received zoning license or zoning approval and then they get a business license from the city and for whatever reason perhaps hypothetically that company is bought out or they want to sell their interest not that that would be prohibited but they would have to come back to the city for a business license and at that point you could reevaluate it thank you I appreciate that um because again um as we are having businesses come in our our city we just want to make sure that they are operating under that social recognition and living up to the true Spirit of that um thinking about the comments of councilmember Jensen um I understand where you're coming from as well because I do think that there is because I do believe that we don't want oh I mean although this we have the survey but talking to some of my constituents you know they have reservations about how many dispensaries we have set up in our city and I don't know what that Suites number is I really don't um I don't know what that strategy is I think the challenge that we have as a council is you kind of have these ghost licenses if you will where people are being awarded licenses but then we still don't know if they're going to ultimately set up shop and come to fruition so we're planting these seeds and they may not yield so it's very hard for us to say that yeah we have five licenses out here but they may not all mature so I don't know what the answer is I mean I do think though if we do approve this tonight we can continue to have discussion um because recreational marijuana is still fluid and so I think that we still need to have an open mind but I think there is a sweet number that we should consider because the constituents I talk to they do want us to have a strategy when a Asylum strategy of what record recreational marijuana looks like in our city and they do not want a lot of of these throughout our city thank you welcome council member Euler thank you madam chairwoman there's a couple things I guess going through the packet that are conflicting one line says we're allowing onside and other says we're not allowing it I still have some uncertainty on a few things here and it sounds like there's still questions so I'd like to make a substitute motion to defer to the first meeting in January okay is there a second to defer to the first meeting moved by okay you agree with that council member reagenbach seconded that motion um we got some more discussion here thank you councilman council member valpulla thank you very much since it is different I'll wait to listen learn more about it thank you okay you're welcome council member Grant um Corporation Council uh seems like when Illinois decided to go down the path of legalizing uh recreational as well as medicinal marijuana there was some discussion about a finite number for each state police region is it did you refer to that with an acronym a few minutes ago our BLS region so our Bureau of Labor Statistics region but you're absolutely correct councilman that when the state initially rolled out the dispensary licenses they were limited by State Police District so that we're going to anticipated that there would be about 75 um Statewide and then with the release of the licenses in July I think that is I think they released 110 licenses in addition in July so there's not a finite number placed on our state police region just our BLS region and what is that number to be determined so they although we had a three a limited of three recreational dispensaries and with that first round of licenses that came out in 2020 they have now issued seven social Equity licenses for our same BLS region if the state were to roll out an additional lottery or issue additional licenses I think it's uh be determined if they would cap that at a finite number based on BLS region or would they look at the number of licenses that were issued per BLS region maybe some of them weren't used maybe there have been transfer issues or closures or mergers so I think it's just to be determined so might they come back and say you you folks in Peoria Imperial City Council you've approved too many of these they don't limit it to municipalities it is limited to our BLS region and you know we are mindful of the fact that Peoria allowed recreational cannabis use not all communities did so uh they they that and that is one of the reasons why they did not issue licenses per municipality and they went by BLS region because all communities had the ability to say they would not authorize it for their City well I certainly support the motion to defer also I would just make an observation that we get too many of these nobody's going to make any money the Adam Smith market economics will take over and so from the get-go I thought we were going to have some kind of structure coming from the state but probably that's too much to expect from the state of Illinois that we would have some kind of structure um because that was to my way of thinking always going to be part of what we would have to operate within we'd have a framework and so yes uh we need to defer this thank you mayor you're welcome I sense from several members on the council that even though there's been a lot of input um provided by both the community and council with regard to this that there's still um a desire for a little bit more time possibly a few additional tweaks and one of those common themes seems to be the number the number of dispensaries that we allow within the city um if we are deferring this to January the first meeting in January I hope that we can give enough input between now and then that we can actually take action and have a majority of the council to approve based upon that additional input if we're is the maximum within this ordinance is it is it 12 there is no maximum in the ordinance pardon me there is no maximum number of licenses in this ordinance okay I heard that number come from what was that 12th I'm sorry it's the seven that the state approved for our area that potentially could apply here plus the five that we already approved okay I see what you're saying okay but it could be more than 12.

correct if the number is always hard to give you a definitive answer because it's a bit of a moving Target and remember that this Council has only approved um Zoning for five locations not all of those locations have returned to the city to actually not all of them were actually awarded a business license from the state not that they couldn't associate with somebody that was already approved but they need three things they need your zoning approval they need a state license and then they need a city business license so it's difficult to say that we've approved five licenses there were five zoning I think special use permits but technically there's the city has only approved two business licenses right now there are seven available dispensary licenses all of which are social Equity applicants that doesn't mean that another location perhaps that's already approved for our BLS region maybe one that's across the river wouldn't want to come to Peoria that would be you know another one they you know at one point did already go through the special use process that has expired they would have to do that again so we have two existing dispensaries there's another one in our BLS region and then there are seven available licenses so I think the number is probably closer to 10 if you're looking at what a cap actually is for us right now okay or we could approve this without any kind of cap and then get to a certain point and say enough you certainly could take that approach the survey and the community feedback from the public meetings you know that was one thing that was although the community meetings weren't well attended the folks that were there were pretty vocal about the fact they did not want to see a limit on the number of dispensaries so we did not incorporate a limit into this ordinance but we could certainly you know provide you a version that has a limit in it uh what's your pleasure Council did you turn on I have a deferral a motion to defer on the floor yes thank you madam mayor councilman uh rigginboth Regal um just a couple of thoughts here and and I appreciate the deferral because I um while there was some good work in what we had in front of us I thought that there were a lot of questions that I still had and I hear several of my fellow council members also have that um but what I do see is you know the survey was sort of a starting point I think for our conversations about where we go to there's some great things I think in front of us such as um lessening the time frame that somebody can hold a site um and in essence um stopping somebody else in the process um being able to shorten that but I think that there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered and from my standpoint I don't know that especially with the holidays and then a the first meeting in January that we've got enough time to be able to really come together and to be able to discuss all of those kind of open-ended questions that many of us have here I would like to make a friendly um friendly Amendment to the deferral and come back in the first week of the first city council meeting in February yeah okay so you want to amend I'm good with amending the motion to the first meeting in February okay second Ed by council member seer discussion I have a question about one of the applicants that's been pending who went through all the right processes who hasn't come back to council yet is this holding that up will this hold that up you should not it should not okay good councilmember Jensen thank you madam mayor um I I was wondering what my question is this would it be possible or I have a request for another request for Deputy Corporation Council to bring back or send us information since it'll be over the holiday um what I know you gave us some information on what other cities do our size but I think there are cities that do put a limit that are similar in size to us if you could give us a report back on cities that do and what that number is that are similar in population and size to us because I think that's going to be the hard part is to determine what that cap or limit should be so I think that would be helpful I'd be happy to provide that and if there are any additional questions that you want to email to Corporation Council Hayes or myself we can put together one large report back to give you all in January so you have enough time to consider those issues or ask more questions before February okay thank you yes we may need it as a discussion item before that first second that first meeting in February thank you okay thank you all right we have a motion to defer this item to the first meeting in February of 2024 2023 I'm getting ahead of myself please cash your balance council member Rodrigo hi motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 22-400 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class R3 single-family residential district for a short-term rental for the property located at 6525 North Talisman Terrace Mr manager um this this item was deferred I believe at councilman Allen's request I don't know okay I mean councilman Allen might want to discuss that hi councilman Allen uh thank you madam mayor I appreciate it uh before we uh dive into discussion I would like to ask for privilege of the floor for two individuals one is the petitioner uh Miss Felicia Triplett and then also uh one of the lead objectors of this uh site the short-term rental and that is Mr Kyle Rose looks like we have Miss Felicia already at the mic so I'd like to give her privilege of the floor thank you but yes uh good evening hey I'd like to give you some background of my short-term rental I established in 2020 um and at that time I also hired a management company who notified me that Peoria did not have any ordinances or licenses that needed to be obtained and my daughter is a marketer and so she was like researching different cities and things about short-term rental and she found infomercial online that was talking about how Peoria was into now short-term rentals so uh from that I contacted the city who led me to the zoning board and I met Julia and Julia gave me the process on what to do to become part of the city ordinance as a short-term rental I've been a homeowner there since 2013.

so I followed all the requirements and provided all the information about my home and measurements and things driveway and all of that um and I had my uh meeting on the 3rd of November where the zoning board uh they unanimously said yes and then they said if once approved it would be five so um after that it was like a bomb that hit and I instantly became a villain but I have not had any problems with my short-term rental I nearly came to the city because I found out that the program exists and the zoning board told me they had only been in existence about 11 months and uh was you know welcoming that I've come to them to you know follow the uh Pathway to doing it doing the right thing um and since then I'm sorry I had to take a deep breath because like I said it's like I'm I did something wrong but by doing that because now it's it's a problem um but as I said I follow everything my neighbor also some of my neighbors have came to me and told me that that their signature was solicited based on the fact they were told that there weren't trying to stop me they don't mind mine but they don't want five which is what the zoning or the number that came up with so uh is I'm just being transparent and that's that's what it is I've been operating and it's been wonderful and the reviews that I've gotten is people have stated that they were able to come and enjoy the things that Peoria has to offer um family nurse practitioner by trade and so um to you know connect with the medical uh environment as well I mean we are a college town people come and want to visit their children that's in school and then we you know face it we've had a lot of deaths I mean people have come for you know funerals and things like that and again no one has uh knocked on my door and I have not been a problem then I had the police come to my home and uh so I'm I'm just asking to be considered uh to be just like the zoning board set not a threat to the community uh an opportunity to actually help build I mean Peoria to continue to be a great City thank you Miss Triplett well said thank you can you state your name again please thank you sure good evening council members mayor Ali my name is Kyle Rose and I am a resident in the Lyndhurst neighborhood I also sit as a Treasurer on the Lyndhurst homeowners association and in representing the Lyndhurst homers Association tonight I wanted to provide you with information that regarding the hoa's actions since we've learned of the short-term rental in our neighborhood once the HOA was notified of the application for 6525 Towson Terrace we saw an input from our homeowners we see received enough concern that the board voted to engage an attorney to draft an amended version of our restrictions governances to restrict short-term rentals and to take that to a vote to our residences so um we sought out volunteers to go door by door in the cold weather and sought out votes from our residents our body laws require 75 percent vote of our homeowners in order to amend our restrictions and governances and we currently have 345 homes in our in Lyndhurst so it would take 259 homes to ratify an amendment to our restrictions and governances the results that we received by going door to door where we received 263 signatures to vote to restrict short-term rentals in our neighborhood and 34 votes to reject the amended proposal for our restrictions and governances so we we've reached our 75 percent threshold but also had a positivity rate of 88 percent of those that we were able to get in touch with in our in Lyndhurst so we directed our attorney to file the amended restrictions and governances and those were filed last week and we asked tonight on behalf of the HOA representing the majority of those in Lyndhurst neighborhood to deny the request from short-term rentals as we believe our residents have spoken and told us that they do not want short-term rentals in our neighborhood so we appreciate your consideration welcome councilman Allen thank you madam mayor um over the past uh couple weeks I did my best to illustrate a diplomatic approach and listen to all parties involved in this matter um and although I've had pre-positioned on short-term rentals I have to be respectful of the information that's been gathered in this period of due diligence illustrating overwhelming opposition to this particular short-term rental um with that being said I moved to deny thank you is there a second attention is to deny is there a second Ed by council member Jensen discussion I have a question for counsel oh what's the matter voting what's the matter oh okay it's fixed I think it's fixed okay good thank you I had a question for counsel did you receive written confirmation from the neighborhood association that the charter has been uh legally uh technically adjusted thank you man mayor we received a recorded version of the amended homeowners association uh covenants that included a restriction uh on uh Airbnb and other types of short-term rentals and that was received on Friday and I believe it was recorded on Friday as well okay our ordinance as it relates to short-term rentals if a neighborhood association has a charter with such restrictions um can you communicate that please I would be happy to yeah so our licensing provisions section 27-149 provides that when the special use application is made the homeowners associations that have registered with the city received notice from the city but there's been an application for short-term rental they're provided a period of 10 days within which to file covenants with the city that would restrict that that notice was provided in October to this homeowners association and um in Syria would have been due 10 days after but in practice any time before the November 3rd Planning and Zoning commission we would have considered Timely for them to file Covenants the covenants weren't in place until December 9th and so that restriction was not timely under our ordinance okay so from a perspective of the council they didn't take us up on the invitation when we passed short-term rentals to restrict at that time no criticism there because the issue wasn't at their doorstep but once it did you heard that they took action but under our ordinance that restriction does not bind the city council on whether to approve this special use and license thank you another question Council if the City Council approved the request but the homeowners association has a covenant that says it's restricted what is their their recourse and who has the stronger position so I'm not their attorney Madam mayor and I'm uncomfortable wading into private litigation okay but in my view that would be an issue between the homeowners association and that homeowner it would relate to a full review of their homeowners association covenants that existed prior to this amendment which I don't have okay and the amendment what process was in the previous homeowners association covenants haven't been provided to the city and we specifically indicate we're not going to investigate in that way okay their remedy with the city is to bride us with those covenants in a timely fashion according to our ordinances and they didn't perfect that okay thank you all right okay council member Euler thank you madam chair and woman uh obviously I've been probably one of the biggest proponents of short-term rental and I I believe in them I also believe and Property Owners rights and so I I historically have supported I think all of these and so this is going to be a big shift in my position but it is due to the discussion that we've had um here tonight and the actions that have been taken by the homeowners association for my background in real estate the lowest level of restriction prevails and in that case here being the homeowners association they did the things that they needed to do to to Outlaw short-term rentals from their bylaw restrictions and nothing in that new filing says that they're grandfathering in anyone that has already been in process or already operating so I do not feel comfortable putting a homeowners association nor a petitioner in a legal bind by a decision that we and I believe that's what we will effectively be doing if we passed it would be to say that now you have to take the matter to court because we went ahead and passed it I think some of our language here may be a lesson learned that we need to look at how we have this 10-day policy worded because at the end of the day if an HOA restricts that it's restricted and that's one of the risks that you take when you choose to buy a piece of property that is covered by an HOA and that's discussions that in real estate we have with our clients when they make those decisions and you sign up to be a part of that and that's a restriction on your property changes can be made and you may be affected by them an unfortunate reality of this one is those changes were made after the fact and I can't in good conscience put an HOA especially of such significant size in our city and a legal risk battle here which I think is what it will turn into and so I will be supporting the denial because at the the end of the day the HOA says no it's been recorded and what we do effectively has no bearing on whether or not they operate because it's going to create a legal battle and end up getting in my opinion thrown out at the end of the day so thank you thank you counselor councilmember Kelly thank you madam mayor I plan on being fairly consistent with my position on these things and others what we have is a situation where a petitioner went jumped through all the Hoops that had been set and was approved after that after that the homeowners association decided well we're not going to allow short-term rentals which is fine but they had to have that in effect before before application or within that time span which they did not so it makes our denial quite arbitrary we just feel like it we've got somebody here who's played by the rules our rules the rules that we voted on they played by our rules and now it comes to us and we say well that doesn't matter um I am sympathetic to the homeowners I'm sympathetic to the HOA but rules are rules that's why we have them and so I will be voting uh against the denial thank you madam mayor welcome council member Jensen thank you madam mayor um I guess first I would like to respond to councilman Kelly we set up this special use process so that we could take into consideration what residents and neighbors have to say or what if they have concerns about a property going to be short-term rental that's why we set it up was to give that additional protection this body is not a rubber stamp of the zoning commission and if the zoning commission chooses not to listen to the residents that are opposed then it's up to us to listen to them and that's why I have consistently advocated for Neighbors when they have said they don't want that for various reasons in their neighborhood and that's why we have a special use process set up so we have the ultimate say and so that residents can give their input to us before we make that decision to approve a short-term rental in this case it's pretty clear that a majority of the residents in the neighborhood do not want that a short-term rental in their neighborhood so I I will be voting against it as I said at the last meeting that this came forward and I just want to make a point this neighborhood Lyndhurst is lucky they have a homeowners association and they were able then to to get all the neighbors together and amend their homeowners agreement but a lot of the neighborhoods were most of these short-term rentals are going in the older part of the city do not have homeowners associations they live in neighborhoods like mine and councilman grabs where it we have a residential Association but you don't have to be a homeowner to be a member of our neighborhood association so we don't have covenants and we don't have the ability to prohibit them in our neighborhood and many of the other neighborhoods so that's why a majority of this Council adopted a special use process to protect those neighborhoods that don't have the ability to adopt a homeowner's agreement that prohibits them it is our duty as council members to listen to What the residents say and to listen to their their concerns it doesn't mean that we're against all short-term rentals I've approved a number of them but I just want to bring that up on the council floor again and explain why we have that process um and I'll be voting against thank you council member Graham there is no way I can improve on the explanation that was just provided and which we have mentioned on previous occasions with other applications for short-term rentals and thank you for the history lesson if we weren't supposed to be part of the process we wouldn't even be here tonight talking about this we'd be an executive session so this is the Universe of rules we're the end agent we're the final Arbiter on these and and there there was a time when some council members suggested well these just shouldn't even come to us and and with respect to councilman Kelly I think he's been quite consistent on this he probably feels that it should stop with the Planning and Zoning commission and I want to speak for you but it seems to me that some members of the council thought that we shouldn't have all this turbidity depending on the reaction of the people in certain neighborhoods with these short-term rentals that it should just be decided at a lower level and it shouldn't even come to us but we have not done away with the special use process that is an integral part of our short-term rental approvals so thank you and and so we're not violating rules We are following the rules we're following the rules and tonight when we vote we'll see how it turns out thank you councilor um I want to first ask a question to Mr Rose if you wouldn't mind thank you Mr Rose um the question about the 10 days my understanding is the notice went out to the neighborhood association was this uh before after the recommendation of planning and zoning was this before after the recommendation of Planning and Zoning Council when does the notice go out this goes out in advance of the Planning and Zoning commission meeting about 15 days I think before that meeting to give adequate time for that material to be available for the Planning and Zoning commission to take into consideration okay so if and if a neighborhood association wanted to change their Charter they would be expected to do that prior to the consideration of planning and zoning it's my observation from an objective standpoint that the mechanism anticipates that this would respect covenants that would have already been adopted prior to the application being filed okay but it doesn't limited to that so if a neighborhood association could respond quickly they'd be able to make use of it but the I think the sensible reading of this ordinance is if you've got a Covenant already in place send it to us so we can respect it okay thank you that makes sense and so I guess the question that I had for you Mr Rose in terms of uh your inability to respond within that 10 days can you can you speak to that sure so we first became aware with the notice sign in the practitioner's yard and uh at that time just began gathering information so we've learned what the city's policy was we learned what our current restrictions had or did not have in them and then we sought input from our residents which ultimately led to a vote taken to our residents so I feel like we moved as quickly as we possibly could in that process Gathering that many votes from our homeowners is a process and it is a difficult one to track down that many people in that short of order in order to amend our just due to the size of Lyndhurst it is a task so I feel like our RHA moved in aggregated resources as fast as we could to address that so you went to work after the council deferred the um the motion deferred the the decision is that correct can I have another Resident speak on that yeah yes Council so being new okay our community development director prompted me to another section that does indicate for this automatic provision to apply the the Covenant had to have been adopted prior to um the application being filed in respect to the comments of counsel that doesn't mean you can't take the issue into the issues raised into account but it doesn't automatically preclude it you put another way there wouldn't have been a recommendation to approve from the zoning and planning and zoning commission and staff would have indicated to the applicant you're not eligible we're not going to approve it because we bound ourselves to these covenants that are recorded prior to the application okay for instance if someone came from this subdivision next week staff would just tell them we can't issue this in order to do it you'd need a variance okay so it wouldn't be a special use process and thank you thank you yes yes council member Rodrigo thank you madam mayor yes um and and hearing hearing the conversation tonight um I I first am taking um I think into the fact that the neighborhood association acted very quickly um they did something which a lot of times probably has not happened where there's new evidence that it's come forward after the zoning hearing to the council and I think that is something very important and so we come down to the question of timing on when that Covenant was put into the association for me is that peace that it is in the cup in the Covenant it is hugely important because it I think may not follow exactly the letter of the of our ordinance but it goes to I think the spirit of it because the other thing about our ordinance is we're not supposed to be operating a short-term rental until all the approvals are taken place and and through maybe no fault of of an owner of somebody in front of us today I'll make a general statement is for occasionally we have people who after the fact come forward and I think that we as many cities have had long conversations on these and so whether this is short-term rental or another type of business that operates within our city limits I think it is pertinent for that process to be on the business owner to be able to make for sure that we have all the licensing and and all of those things taken care of so we actually have um timing issues on both sides of this issue um one for operating prior without getting the necessary licensing and the requirements the the homeowners association which acted quickly but may have been acting just slightly beyond that time frame that was originally put in the ordinance so for me tonight I have to support the denial on this because I think that the homeowners association has acted quickly they have put into place of Covenant and this immediately I think would go to court and I think that on the spirit of what is in place and not not being a lawyer I would think that this would probably be a longer drawn-out case and I don't think that is anybody's intention on Council when we put this ordinance into place would be having homeowners having to take this to court in in that I think that we were asked to be able to give a little bit more clarity so for tonight with all the facts that have been presented on both sides for me I will be supporting the denial thank you councilman and Miss yes what's your name good evening my name is Christina Rose and I serve as the secretary on the Lynnhurst homeowners association board and I just wanted to answer your question that on November 22nd we had already gathered about 180 signatures we just simply did not have the 259 required signatures because as Kyle previously stated excuse me Lyndhurst has 345 houses and I don't know anyone who could have done it in 10 days much less 10 days prior to the date of the zoning meeting thank you for your time you're very welcome thank you thank you Mr and Mrs Rose um so yeah this is the first time that we've actually had this experience and I want to say to both Mrs Miss Triplett as well as the roses and the neighborhood association I I don't feel that anybody did anything wrong I think that you know Miss Triplett you went through the process that we have in place you know to try to get approval and that the neighborhood association responded as quickly as they could to try to get a change to the Charter uh to have a restriction in place and and this is the first time that we've actually experienced this situation I've been this the same with you council member rickenback council member Kelly you follow the process if it fits I'm gonna support it I've done that this is to me an exception to those other instances and in this case I have to support the denial want to hear from you council member rickenback and then we have council member uh Euler and yeah what a what a complex um situation has evolved here going back before the council approved the short-term rental process there was a house in the Knolls in the Third District that was being used as as a rental and the homeowners association became aware of it and promptly put in a New Covenant prohibiting that I'm from the future so even once the process to legally operate a short-term rental came about they were prohibited in that neighborhood I'm sure you all remember my vote last week for my next door neighbor voting against my other next door neighbor um in support of a short-term rental and I think I've been a very consistent voice in that and we talked with the northmore Hills homeowners association at that time about putting covenants in place and they said they would look into that but clearly they didn't think it would be appropriate to divert the system and and put it in place in something that's already been in the work so I I gotta respect the the Homer's Association for their tenacity in getting this done and accomplishing it I think it's unfortunate that there wasn't a grandfather clause or an effective date that you would allow Miss Triplett who's been running this for the last two years to continue I mean it sounds like many people didn't even weren't even aware of it so that speaks to the Quality I think that most short-term rentals how they're run but I think councilman Rick Regal your words the spirit of the law oftentimes is is the deciding factor and I'm not a lawyer I'm not the judge and jury on this but um I will be supporting the denial on this as well thank you thank you madam chairwoman I may regret asking this question and opening this can of worms but when we have a special use is there some number or radius of things that we send out notices in the mail letting the neighborhood know we send notices to properties within 250 feet okay we're on the subject thank you I thought that there was a number there and said I've noticed some head nodding when the question came up about um when everybody knew and how they knew and so I wanted to clarify that with the homeowners association the size of Lyndhurst that they wouldn't have all gotten noticed because there's only a certain boundary that we do that outside of and this property is nestled into the neighborhood and so it wouldn't have reached everybody nor would they have been likely to have seen it when initially it could have been brought up so also do notice neighborhood associations when they're registered with the city too so we did notice the Lynnhurst neighborhood association itself thank you and then just you know one point of clarification from some of the commentary I do understand that legally we are within our ordinance to make a decision to say yes and that would be up to us to do that but legally outside of us this is a problem for the HOA and I just personally don't believe that we should start a legal battle in a homeowners association knowing that that it's already outlawed and I just I don't see the sense in sending everybody down that path even though we could send them down that path it just doesn't make sense thank you welcome have a motion to deny and a second on the floor please cast your ballots council member Rodrigo hi motion passes with one nay Kelly we are at new business is there any new business council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor in the spirit of short-term rentals I talked about this with uh city manager eurek yesterday and our monthly um I would challenge staff in the new year to evaluate our process um whether that stays the same or we bring some potential amendments or options um I think there's opportunity to improve our process you know and I think that we have learned a lot from the airbn or the short-term rental that was just before us about some of the outliers and some of the aspects that we need to consider um because this is a very fluent process and so I definitely would like to to challenge staff to maybe consider some different options that the council can review for short-term rental use I also would suggest that we need to consider what type of Engagement we're doing with the homeowner associations but then also the neighborhood associations as well too to really get a pulse on their true feelings of these short-term rentals um I feel that we are we as a body are reacting but then also I think the neighborhoods are reacting as well too because they're they get the notice in the mail and then they're like oh wow this is operating already in my neighborhood and then they're trying to mobilize and not every neighborhood is as diligent and able to mobilize like Lyndhurst subdivision so we need to figure out just what type of communication that we're doing to engage the neighborhoods ahead of time so that way we can be more proactive when applicants are coming even forth to submit their um their application for short-term rental that we can say hey we've already surveyed this neighborhood I'm just letting you know you're going to be up against a tall task as we've already surveyed and we kind of have a pulse of this neighborhood so just some some food for thought um because when these short-term rentals are coming up I'm starting to sweat and I don't like sweating so we need to figure out an improved strategy thank you thank you councilmember Jensen thank you madam mayor um I have a request um for a report back from the city manager about whether Amron and Illinois American Water have what their security plans are given what occurred in North Carolina a couple weeks ago I think it would be helpful to know what their plans are to prevent um situations like that and if and if they're working on tightening up security and what their plan is for trying to prevent things like that from happening thank you thank you any other new business I'm Clark we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council okay we have six individuals uh first starting with uh Kristen at least six um is it Mercury yes Kristen I don't want to pronounce your name wrong okay okay um before I get into my written statement I um overheard Phoenix today uh or this evening responding and asking for the city for money they are the one and only uh Housing Development that helps homeless people in Peoria our homelessness is skyrocketing we have families on the street okay people are coming in and crying every day I run into this I just want to put that out there because I don't think there's a plan I don't think the city has a plan what are we going to do and with that I'm going to get into from the East Bluff I am proud to be from the East Bluff and I am disgusted by what's going on in the East Bluff and so again my name is Krista meyercord I am president of the East Bluff neighborhood association and president of the ACLU Peoria chapter and thank thank you for the opportunity to address this body tonight and to express our concerns about recent efforts by Darwin properties and sfrc which is the LL sea out of China okay about recent efforts by them likely to result in unnecessary increase in people experiencing homelessness in Peoria as the recent media reports confirm more than two dozen residents of the East Bluff Community have received eviction notices from Darwin eviction notices that will be effective before the end of the year many of those affected by Darwin's actions have been living in the community for some time they are neighbors and our friends our family and our fellow Peoria residents and now they are in crisis experiencing homelessness creates trauma and hardship that can extend for years and transcend Generations this trauma is accentuated by the suddenness of this situation as well as the proximity to the holidays children's education will be disrupted the ability to sustain employment can be threatened and the weight of finding affordable housing in the current Peoria real estate market can be a trigger for mental health issues this sort of Cruelty simply cannot be business as usual in our community we urge us Council to explore whether this complies with all local laws we also encourage you to mark this moment if Darwin and other corporations like this approaches this body looking for special treatment for favors in the future finally you have an opportunity to demonstrate real leadership and provide assistance to those being impacted by the Heartland heartless actions of Darwin properties we will call on this to be an all agency response aimed at locating new homes for those being unnecessarily evicted as well as assisting in other ways during this disruptive time and I'm going to I've got two minutes left and you know I'm going to talk so I want to ask you right now it you come into the East Bluff everything is always negative it's put there out there on the news okay we try and fight for our neighborhood and we get ignored you want the City downtown specifically to be revitalized look at the core neighborhoods Mr Graham you're looking down um yours is one I work in it okay um Mr rickenback has been wonderful to to to work with I Denise Jackson same she's been wonderful I think that we demand we need to demand the attention um do you just want to I don't know build a highway straight from East Peoria to out to Grand Prairie and just bypass our whole working-class neighborhoods it's not okay it's not going to happen we're gonna stand together and we're going to fight this I have got the state ACLU involved we are involved we're not going to let this go and uh as the East Bluff resident who loves where I live I'm not going to want to help thank you [Applause] Mr machard Lawrence machard thank you mayor thank you city council we appreciate you giving us a chance to speak as Christian just made mention you know we have an immediate housing crisis in the East love as a result of this Darwin Association and whoever else is involved with it it looks very sketchy it looks very out of town okay what we have now is an immediate crisis a housing crisis a homeless crisis for dozens of people in our East Bluff neighborhood okay this is like a fire that has just hit them in the holidays okay they're going to be evicted many of these have received letters from Darwin and whoever the hell else is involved with this they've received letters to leave their homes to leave their places that they've been in many times for years on December 31st okay no reason no explanation no nothing okay number one these are my neighbors these are our neighbors and we demand they be protected okay the free market has not worked at all in this situation in fact the free market has caused this situation when we have a homeless already we have a homeless crisis in Peoria all the shelters are full when you dump literally dump dozens of people into that situation what do you think is going to happen at the very least they're going to be doubled up in their with their friends and their families we're already at the edge of the pandemic coming back it's already here and then you have this situation on top of that the government is there for a purpose it's to protect our people our residents our Peoria neighbors and families and friends you folks have the responsibility and the ability to help these people and it's not going to cost you anything we're not asking you to pay their rent we're not asking you to put them up okay but we're asking you to use some kind of emergency powers that we know you have and not let these people be evicted give us 30 days give us 60 days give us 90 days for God's sake and help these people who are being evicted through no fault of their own they're paid up these are just rapacious hedge funds and vulture capitalists swooping in on Peoria and doing the stuff that everyone knows about this is nothing new but it's blowing up in our face right here right now one thing that we have to keep in mind is we don't even understand and it's very questionable about the legality of this they're just getting eviction notices from Darwin or whoever you know happens to own their homes right now and telling them you know get out in 30 days they haven't gone through the legal process they're not coming through these letters or not coming through the court process now I'm not a lawyer an eviction expert but you know that has to be looked at and if it's legal that that the owners can just give them a 30-day notice and they're out to I mean that that's horrible that's immoral and it should be illegal okay regardless of that situation we are pleading with you to take on your responsibilities to help these dozens of people that are going to be thrown out on the street that are going to be thrown in with their families and their friends and their neighbors piling up on top of a of a bad situation for a million different reasons here please please look at the reports we're not making this up channel 25 had a good report on it last night you know and I'm sure there'll be more media coming out about it and you can do all the research that you need but these people don't have much time they need some relief can you imagine on top of all the bill pressures on top of all the holiday pressures you get an eviction notice and it's unjust it may be illegal and we are begging you to do the right thing and help our neighbors thank you thank you Mr Michelle Allen Misha okay Rachel Washington racial yeah okay hi um I am a victim of driver homes as well I've been in my house almost 10 years I got four kids I just had a baby in July um so to have the move five days after Christmas is horrible for me like I don't know what I need to do I don't know what I got to do to stay in my home just a little bit longer I do want to leave I don't want to be under Darwin uh company I just want I just need a little bit more time to move it five days after Christmas four kids I don't have the funds right now and renting skyrocketed to thirteen hundred dollars fourteen hundred dollars for houses that I need so for me to have to make that move five days after Christmas is pretty much impossible so I mean I'm just asking for your help you know and hear our cries and help our community and help us to be able to get a little bit more time just to get where we need to go you know to get places established we nobody's gonna move us and like we got three weeks and I'm working still you know it's too much it's just if we can just get some help and some relief just be able to enjoy the holiday with our kids and our families but I happen to still sit here and be stressed out my five-year-old just asked me last night like Mom can we please put up the Christmas tree I was dreading putting up the Christmas tree because we got to move five days afterwards I told her you know what I said you know what we're gonna put the Christmas tree up it's my my one year of my I got a four month old this is his first Christmas so I said we're gonna you know we're gonna go ahead and put the Christmas tree up and try our best to enjoy it but we got to take it down five four days three days after Christmas we just don't have to do it but I still try to make it right for my kids to be able to enjoy this holiday but with the world on top of my shoulders so I just hope you all listening to us and hear us out and try to find some type of relief for us thank you Miss Washington thank you [Applause] uh a ghost saw Blossom Lawson no okay how about Noah Palm hi Noah hello uh good afternoon my name is Noah Palm I am the chairman of the Peoria Communist party I'm here to show solidarity with my friends over in the East Bluff as they go through this terrible time as we speak as they've mentioned dozens of families are at risk of being evicted from their homes uh shelters are at Max Capacity uh outside corporations are buying all the affordable housing while uh using incentives that the city council has set aside to cater for corporate interests and by being at the beck and call of course corporate interests you have shown yourselves to be inadequate to solving the issues facing our community as a city council you have shown yourselves to be inadequate to solve the issues of inhumane living conditions and public housing you've shown yourself inadequate to solve the issues surrounding police violence you've sown yourself to be uh inadequate to address widespread poverty in the crime created by said poverty and all of this needs to change this is a perfect example of neoliberal hypocrisy you grant special interests for corporations to come into our communities to increase tax income to cover social spendings and to create more jobs then these same corporations evict their tenants suppress the wages of their workers and hoard the well wealth we created for them we as in the working class we the Oregon class are the ones who bring the value to the city from our labor we produce all the Commodities we produce all the services and we create all the wealth that is enjoyed by the corporate class class without us pure is nothing I urge you to enact the demands of the Working Families by stopping these unjust evictions create a serviceable plan for those negatively affected by corporate greed and stop giving incentives to those only wanting to enlarge their already engorged Pockets thank you foreign [Applause] Diaz kind of on a similar issue that Kristen brought up but I'm here tonight to give the police department actually some praise in reducing the number of guns off the street in the last couple reports over a hundred guns taken off in the BuyBacks good work congratulations on another note I don't want you to leave off service in the protect and serve in the last few months we've had issues where people illegally dumped were caught the police were called and a police report was not written and filed in a timely manner and only filed after I came in to find out why it wasn't this last week an officer facilitated a resident leaving their broke down car in my lawn I called the police department I was assured that a tow truck was on the way and the police officer was still on duty and would take care of it 24 hours later I still had a car in my lawn facilitated by the police department councilman rickenback you're very aware of the situation I shared some of the details with you the thing is folks if you want people to reinvest in this community you have to have the same standards that you would in my neighborhood as you would in Lyndhurst where you respect the residents and their want for no um Airbnb and short-term rental I just want the police department to respect our neighborhood and the residents of the neighborhood we have a resident neighborhood officer who lives in the neighborhood yet we still have prostitutes in front of a community center that's supposed to be religiously based they hang out in front of Saint Mary's Cathedral and has caused significant damage to the cathedral yet we don't address it in talking with officers some of it comes back to our city legal department not Prosecuting cases I don't put this all on the police department it's a community-wide effort we all have to be pulling in the right direction I believe I'm in this neighborhood pulling in the right direction sometimes floundering asking for help and the commitments are falling short assured that a phone call would be made back to me on Monday yesterday about the car in my in my yard because I had to spend quite a bit of time to get it done get it out of there and to bring in not only parking but the police department and kind of they did a little bit of this it's just not right folks if you want reinvestment in the community treat us like you would every other part of this community if not what we will end up with is the only people who can live there are the ones that you're subsidizing um 400 and some thousand dollar living units who then aren't on the tax rolls because we feel that the only people that should live down there shouldn't complain and just take what they can get and we deserve better thank you you're welcome [Applause] I'm Madam Clerk we are at executive session um Council Hayes thank you madam mayor I would like to invite a motion to convene in closed session immediately following adjournment of the city council meeting pursuant to the open meetings Act five ilcs article 120 section 2 C11 to discuss pending litigation also pursuant to the open meetings act 5 ilcs article 120 section 2 C2 to discuss Collective negotiating matters and pursuant to the open meetings Act five ilcs article 120 section 2 c21 for approval by the body of closed session minutes um I'd invite a roll call vote on that motion and then immediately after that we could perhaps take a motion to adjourn thank you okay a roll call vote did you move moved and seconded uh moved by councilman Allen seconded by council member Euler please cash your ballots council member rickenback sorry darn it council member Rodrigo no no problem at all thank you sorry about that uh now we need another motion uh we need a motion to adjourn I moved by council member Allen seconded by council member Kelly please cast okay let's clear out now please cast your ballots so remember Rodrigo hi we are adjourned thank you for your service