Peoria approves $2M homeless shelter grant, defers Highly Flavored liquor license on crime concerns

if everyone would please take their seats we're going to get started with our meeting thank you for is good evening everyone it is 6 o'clock pm on June the 25th 20124 I'd like to welcome everyone to the Poria city council meeting everyone in Chambers also everyone who's watching um listening on channel wcbu and watching on channel cable channel 22 Madam clerk the council mics are open please call the rooll mayor Ali present council member Allen present council member sear here council member Gordon young pres council member Graham council member Jackson here council member Kelly here council member Oiler here council member rickenbach here council member Val Pula present and council member Vasa here you have a quarum present Madame mayor thank you thank you madam clerk everyone please join me and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America stands Nation indivisible andice for all M clerk we are at the approval of the minutes council member ranot thank you Madame mayor I move to approve the minutes of The Joint City Council and town board meeting held June 11th 2024 as printed seconded by council member Kelly any questions or comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we have a public hearing 24-1 162 is a public hearing regarding the submission of a Grant application to the state of Illinois Department Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for the urban shelter grant program and we'll need a motion to open the hearing okay can I get a motion to open the public hearing moved by council member seir seconded by council member Allen please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Mr manager uh thank you Madame Mar I'd like to turn the floor over uh to Katherine Murphy from our Community Development Department she is the head of our grants Division and she'll talk through the reason why we're having this public hearing and then we'll open it up for public comment okay thank you thank you Mr manager thank you Madame mayor uh the purpose of this public hearing is regarding a Grant application to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for the urban shelter grant program the city is required to be the applicant on this Grant on behalf of Salvation Army for a new construction of a homeless shelter the new shelter is proposed to be built at the current labor Temple site with no displacement of their current residents the application requests $2 million in the state covid money with a total project cost of around $1 million that will benefit our lowincome residents that are experiencing homelessness the new shelter will increase their capacity from 45 to 72 individuals per night so the project will be funded through this state Grant as well as Salvation Army funds okay thank you Miss Murphy is there anyone who would like to speak to or comment on the public hearing regarding the submission of a Grant application to the state of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for the urban shelter grant program again is there anyone that would like to speak to the public hearing regarding the urban shelter grant application and lastly is there anyone who would like to speak to the public hearing regarding the submission of the Grant application for the urban shelter grant application program council member rebot thank you madam mayor if I may just make a comment um there are representatives of the leadership from the Salvation Army are here tonight and we just I just want to acknowledge their presence and thank them for their leadership in this the Salvation Army shelter that we're referencing in this Grant application is the only low barrier um shelter in the city of porus and it provides and serves a very specific popul and we're very grateful to have them and appreciate they're taking the lead on this um very important matter so I just wanted to thank them for being here and thank them for their vision for for the addressing this problem absolutely uh it's a very exciting project thank you okay can I get a motion to close the public hearing moved by council member sear seconded by council member Kelly please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Clark we have one town item 24-1 163 is a request from the town supervisor to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Poria regarding the lease of a portion of the Poria Township release Relief office for the co-response model project council member grah trustee I yes uh Madame mayor um I move to approve that intergovernmental agreement with the city of Pur regarding the leasing of 427 West Maine the puia township release office and I would furthermore like to thank our Police Superintendent and his staff and our state lawmakers for helping to make this co-response model a reality for our city and certainly at this location seconded by uh trustee Jackson any comments or questions please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we are back to the city portion of the agenda we're at the consent agenda 24-1 164 is a community Comm unication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to approve the 2024 annual action plan for submission to the par Department of Housing and Urban Development with a total Grant allocation of $2,647 1200 24-1 165 is a communication with request to approve a purchase with rarig Pacific company for 702 sorry 702 new 95 gallon garbage carts for placement and inventory in an amount not to exceed $4,185 24-1 168 is a communication with request to approve contracts for the 2024 vacant lot clearing services in an amount not to exceed $750,000 communic 24-1 167 is a communication with request to approve an intergovernmental agreement with a town of the city of Poria regarding the lease of a portion of the Poria Township Relief office for the co-response model project 24-1 168 is a communication with a request for the following a approve a highway Authority agreement between the city of Poria and City Gas Inc for the property known as 629 West Glen Avenue Poria Illinois and B adopt an ordinance for a limited area for groundwater for properties known as PIN numbers 51- 014 14-21 d151 d016 14-21 d151 032 14-21 d151 033 14-21 d151 d34 14-21 d151 d035 14-21 D1 51- 036 14- 21-1 51- 037 and 14- 21-30 1-1 together with all of the public street right away of West Glenn Avenue extending it its entire width adjoining the above described subject premises and all of the public Street W way rideways of North Sheridan Road extending from its Center Line Eastward to its eastern right of white Eastern RightWay line adjoining the above described subject premises including the intersection at West Glen Avenue Poria Illinois 24-1 169 is a communication with a requests to approve a resolution in support of a Grant application to the state of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for the urban shelter grant program 24- 170 is a communication with request concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance resoning property from a class R4 single family residential district to a class CN neighborhood commercial district for the properties located at 308 310 and 312 South Saratoga Street pioria Illinois 24-1 160 is a communication with request to adopt an ordinance amending chapter 27 article 12 section 267 of the code of the city of Poria to revise the motor fuel code violation penalties 24- 171 is a communication with request to deny the site application for a class B restaurant 50% Food liquor license with onsite consumption and retail sale of alcohol for Empire Lounge LLC doing business as Empire Lounge at 3033 North Sterling with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to deny 24-72 is a communication with request to approve the side application for a class B restaurant 50% Food liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for dire Hospitality Group LLC doing business as reservations at 718 West Glen Avenue with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve 24- 173 is an appointment and reappointment by mayor Ali to the solid waste landfill committee with a request concur of council member Mike vesa and council member Timothy rickenbach 24- 174 is an appointment and reappointment by mayor Ali to The Advisory Commission on housing with a request to concur of Cynthia Rivers Bri mower cherol Boswell Jane ginel Regina Morgan sha Hayes and VAV Shaw 24- 175 is an appointment and reappointment by mayor Ali to the cdbg public services advisory commission with a request to concur of David phelts and Kimberly McGee 24- 176 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the construction commission with a request to concur of Dennis Shoemaker 24- 177 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the downtown advisory commission with a request to concur of Ryan cheerer 24- 178 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the Downtown Development Corporation with a request to concur of council member Charles V graab 24-1 179 is an appointment by mayor Ali to to the East Village growth cell committee with a request to concur of Leticia Clemens 24-180 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the fire and police commission with a request to concur of Kelly Peterson 24-1 181 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the historic preservation commission with a request to concur of Edward Barry and Reagan Leslie Hill 24-1 182 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to The Liquor Commission with a request to concur of Paul Winkler 24-1 183 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the mayor's advisory committee for Citizens with disabilities with a request concur of K Barry 24-1 184 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the m Municipal Band commission with a request concur of Molly Slaughter Mary barthle Don Baker and Lee Winger 24-1 185 is an appointment and reappointment by mayor Lee to the Poria Area Convention and visitors bureau with a request concur of Kim Armstrong Timothy Cundiff Roberta English and Christopher seti 24-1 186 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the peor Civic Center Authority with a request to concur of yavon Greer baton and Lon Lions 24-1 187 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the Poria Housing Authority board with a request to concur of Robert Culp could Kadar Hefner and Carl Cannon 24-1 188 is a reappointment by mayor Al Lee to the public Arts advisory commission with request to concur of Demarcus Hamilton Betty Jane Lawrence Perry Johnson Bill coner and chariss Lewis 24-1 189 is an appointment and reappointment by mayor Ali to the public library Board of Trustees with a request to concur of Jacob Roberts Courtney Lee and Roberta Parks 24 190 is an appointment and reappointment by mayor Ali to the Poria urban forestry Advisory board with a request to concur of Tiffany Eckles and Matt Freeman 24-1 191 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the Planning and Zoning commission with a request to concur of Eric herd Brandon Martin and Richard unes 24-1 192 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the sister city commission with with a request concur of Julie Enz B and Randy Curry 24-1 193 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the Springdale Cemetery Management Authority with a request to concur of Kathy ma 24-1 194 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the tourism Reserve fund committee with a request to concur of council member Bernice Gordon young marwin Spiller Gregory Wilson and Dan Curry 24-1 195 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the Transportation Commission with request to concur of George G Brandon lot Patrick mcamera Jeremy Kors Michael Breitbach and James cotting 24-1 196 is a reappointment by mayor Ali to the zoning board of appeals with a request to concur of lawn Lions 24-1 197 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the advisory committee on police community relations with a request to concur of Stephanie brags darl Jackson and marel Somerville and that concludes our consent agenda take a breath Madam clerk great job thank you are there any items to remove from consent uh council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor uh I would like to have item number 24- 171 removed thank you council member Kelly uh thank you Madame mayor 24 uh 164 thank you are there any other items to remove council member SI move to approve excuse me Madam mayor move to approve okay seconded by council member Gordon young please cast your ballots motion passes unanimous ly Madam Clark 24-1 164 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to approve the 2024 annual action plan for submission to the Department of Housing and Urban Development with a total Grant allocation of $2,647 1200 council member Kelly uh thank you madam mayor um Mr manager I probably should have called you about this uh but I did not I notice in the uh background um that there was a uh a 1% increase in funding from HUD for cdbg funding and yet we have a decrease uh in that funding of 16,1716 councilman let me turn the floor over to Katherine Murphy who manages These funds and I'll let her explain um the rationale behind that thank you councilman um so in the body of that is actually a typo to say that there's a 1% decrease when it should have said uh I'm sorry increase when it should have said decrease at the line item where it says how much money that we are receiving um it gives us the total for 2024 and then indicates we received a decrease of s $16,000 thank you uh I make those sorts of mistakes all the time so uh thank you very much uh thank you Madame mayor you're welcome Madam clerk I believe we need a motion on that item oh yes council member Kelly did you want to make a motion there I will move to approve seconded by council member velpula any questions or discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark 24- 171 is a communication from the city manager incorporation council with a request to deny the side application for a class B restaurant 50% Food liquor license with on-site consumption and Retail sell of alcohol for Empire Lounge LLC doing business as Empire Lounge at 3033 North Sterling with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to deny council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor uh it was uh discussed uh at the uh May meeting of the ward Cliff neighborhood association to have its next meeting at the Empire Lounge there was some folks who were absent and many folks had expressed uh uh the fact that they had not had an opportunity Unity to visit so that decision was made unanimously so I would like to defer this item until uh the July 23rd meeting it would give them an opportunity to host their neighborhood association meeting at the Empower Lounge is that a motion yes it is okay can I get a second seconded by council member Oiler council member Kelly uh thank you madam mayor I may be a little behind on this um um do they currently have a certificate of occupancy okay all right thank you you're welcome the motion is to defer until the second meeting in July is there any other discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark we are at first readings 24-1 198 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to receive and file a first reading of an ordinance amending appendix a of the unified development code relating to ground mounted solar energy devices Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor for the first reading our assistant community development director Leah Austin is here and she'll walk through the proposed ordinance great thank you thank you Madame mayor council city manager um this is a proposed text Amendment brought to you specific to ground-mounted solar facilities when located in a front yard So currently the regulations allow front yard ground mounted solar facilities if they meet the setbacks of of the property of the lot um you may have seen an installation up on uh North Knoxville just north of the war andoil intersection when we received that application we processed it but it brought to our attention maybe a situation that wasn't favorable for ground mounted in a front yard so that's the proposed backstory for the regulation we feel that those types of structures can be large not appropriate for front yard more appropriate for a backyard or side yard if there's enough room so the regulation prohibits from this point forward if approved ground mounted solar structures in front yards but allows them in the other yards again with appropriate setbacks are there any questions that I can answer council member velpula thank you Madame mayor could you explain the rationale of why only you are Ling in the back backyard not not in the front I did not quite get that so for for zoning purposes the front yard is really that um that Vista of visibility from the street of of any property and your principal structure is usually what you would primarily see and then accessory structures which ground mounted solar um sheds um play equipment are usually more appropriate for a side or backyard mostly backyards so that's really the intent is to maintain that that open front yard as an aesthetically pleasing um desirable a visibility for any property and place those accessory structures more appropriately in rear yards thank you council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman would anything in the ordinance allow someone to come as a special use to have it in a front yard say it was a largely setback property on University or Knoxville that's treed at the front and it wouldn't be visible thank you for that question the relief for this would be through a variance so if someone does feel that their front yard is most appropriate for the accessory ground mounted structure they can apply for a variance that um depending upon the amount of relief requested could be an administrative variance all the way through a zoning board of appeals major variants so there is a relief valve for that special situation thank you good question okay any other questions thank you assistant director Allison can I get a motion to receive and file move by council member Gordon Young seconded by council member velpula please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark 24-1 199 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to receive and file a first reading of an ordinance amending appendix a of the unified development code relating to parking Mr manager uh thank you again uh I'll turn the floor over to assistant director Allison to walk through this item thank you so this is um really a cleanup issue we found um unintentionally that at some point in the past our regulations relating to parking specifically for our downtown is where we noticed the hiccup prohibited parking decks which clearly we have in the downtown uh area so we're bringing this to you to clean that situation to allow parking decks as they used to be in a previous version of the code and and appropriately in the the the downtown district we took the opportunity to actually clean up that whole section of parking make it easier to to read and uh hopefully return things back to the way they should be questions council member SE thank you madam mayor move to receive and file seconded by council member Kelly questions please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you director Madam clerk yeah we are at regular business 24-20 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with a request to approve the so Source purchase of five vehicles from a Poria based Auto Group for an amount not to exceed $250,000 not to exceed $50,000 per vehicle and this item requires a two-thirds vote of the council members voting no less than six votes Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor this is a purchase of vehicles for the neighborhood services unit and the chief is here to answer any question questions if the council has any Chief no questions uh yeah these are these are five vehicles that we want to purchase are coming from a grant uh thankfully our our grant manager who's sitting back here less some indirect cost in the Grant and was able to do an amendment to get these vehicles we have trailers light cameras uh light trailers that we need to pull our NSU unit is the unit that usually goes out and puts these trailers out in the neighborhoods and um we needed these type of vehicles to for them to be able to really do the things that they do and carry the thing the items that they carry and some of the neighborhood events as well Chief and again it's coming from Grants council member SI thank you Madame mayor move to approve seconded by council member Gordon young council member gray up uh no ma'am oh I oh I'm sorry yes I'm I'm for it and um okay accidentally hit the button okay got it any questions comments please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously cler 24-21 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with a request for the following a accept the fiscal year 2024 Recruitment and Retention Grant from the Illinois Law Enforcement Training training and Standards Board in the amount of $175,000 and B adopt an ordinance admitting the city of Poria 2024 2025 by annual budget relating to the general fund to recognize the receipt of grant funding from the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board in the amount of $175,000 and Item B requires a two-thirds vote of the council memb voting no less than six votes and item C is to approve the so Source purchase of 300 personal lies Yeti Coolers directly from yeti in the amount of $ 62,939 let be yes thank you um I remind everybody this is just a very small percentage of the 17.5 million in Grants that again our grant manager Jenny oriza has has ridden and is managing since I hired her in 22 June of 22 one of my first hires and uh absolutely one of the best hires and uh this is just again a small percentage of that uh we are going to be saving quite a bit of that money because if I'm correct this is a threee year Grant but part of this grant is part of it is retention as well so I know when people look at 300 personalized ye coolers alarms may go off part of our retention right this is not just our officers it's everybody that works in our Police Department we want to be able to give them something to thank them for what they do again this is half of a percent of all the money that we've received and we thought it was appropriate it's not an idea that I I I give credit to what credits do I got this idea from Rockford PD the Chief Red over there is doing the same thing and I I stole her idea I love the idea to be able to give our officers something to thank them and our professional staff who often feel left out uh this agency does not run without our professional staff our civilian staff who do a phenomenal job every day as well so this is just a token for us to them um and again we are I'll share some numbers with you if you will let me pull them up here um we have 20 we have 22 officers at the age of 50 with over 20 years and 13 at the age of 50 with 25 years we know that we are going to be seeing quite a bit of retirements uh here in the near future and and don't mind me here I got a bunch of paperwork um I'm going to give you another number here just to let everybody know where we're at as of today we have we started the year with 218 sworn we're at 20 14 and those numbers that I gave you we we're going to see another 30 by the end of next year retire uh or or not be here right um out of 218 we only have 206 who are actively working with restrictions we have people in the military we have people who are injured uh Etc and so part of that um what you see is that number is 206 but the positive about this is we have 24 applicants right now for our January class and the process is still open till July 31st so anybody listening we're still taking applications for that January class please reach out to us and we have currently 19 in background process for our September 2024 class and I'm allowed at this point 222 officers on staff so again this is just a small percentage but a a big thank you to our Police Department for the hard work they do every day thank you Chief and um first I want to say 7 .5 million in Grants over two years is pretty darn amazing Miss Jenny pretty darn amazing yes um and then relative to item C with the Yeti Coolers is that expense coming from a grant directly from this Recruitment and Retention Grant yes ma'am okay so that's an approved cost within that that Grant yes ma'am okay what wonderful thank you any questions for the chief can I get a motion somewhere uh council member Jackson sorry there we go Madame mayor I'd like to make a motion that item a be approved okay seconded by council member riggenbach please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously you council member Jackson Madame mayor I'd like to make a motion that item B would be approved seconded by council member riggenbach please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously council member Jackson and Madam mayor I would like to make a motion that item C would also be approved seconded by council member riggenbach please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you Chief Madam mclark 24-22 is a communication from the city manager in Corporation Council with a request to approve the side application for a class B restaurant 50% Food liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for highly flavored Poria LLC doing business as high highly flavored at 456 fton Street suet 186 with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve contingent upon the issuance of of an agreed upon plan of operation and on your desk on yellow there are handouts a letter from an applicant okay council is it Council Hayes speaking to this thank you madam mayor okay so the uh Liquor Commission held a hearing summarized in the materials um the applicant had applied for a 2 a.m.

closing um the location is uh within the um Twin Towers mall former site of the creep cor club uh so uh the applicant withdrew that 2 am request at the hearing um The Liquor Commission heard um uh the the matter um there was a a record developed about activity of this same applicant at the prior site that they were located at Landmark um within the area of the bowling alley um and the uh operator of the bowling alley U uh put a letter in the record but then the applicant also submitted a letter with a ceas and assist it's obvious that there's a dispute between U the operator of the landmark and this business uh which is more thoroughly explained in the materials presented to council I'm happy to answer any specific questions on that um that being being said the Liquor Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the site application contingent on the in issuance and agreed upon plan of operations uh The Liquor Commission was concerned about the hours and suggested a limitation to 11 pm uh for operation of the restaurant uh with liquor um in staff's review of this matter um in developing the operations plan which will be part of the uh which would be part of the licensure process not part of the council approval the council would either approve or deny the site location exactly uh the plan of operations though I had my staff include some materials on that in the council communication so that the council would be clear um as part of our ordinary business practices we require the applicants to provide a copy of their lease if they don't own the premises that they operate out of the lease that this entity has presented to date restricts the hours of operation till 8:00 p.m.

it's our understanding that the group that operates uh the Twin Towers mall has not yet taken action whether to expand that 800m closer time or not it would just so the council's understands it would be staff's intention to recommend to the mayor that the plan of operations include a limitation to 800m respecting the lease until such time as the applicant would Present written Authority from the landlord to expand their operations staff would be amenable if the mayor is to expand their operations up to 11: p.m.

as suggested by The Liquor Commission if if the uh landlord approves that uh we wanted to be aware as well that the plan of operation would address in some way or fashion the uh access to the area of the general mall if you're familiar with that footprint there are a number of businesses that would be closed late in the evening and this would really be the only business that has that open access uh from their entryway into the mall area and so there'll be a couple areas on the plan of operations to deal with the realities of that footprint as well as a late night sole operation um if Council approves um will U uh present those plan of operations details to the mayor the applicant may want to adjust those but that'll be part of the lure process and that's typical if the council isn't aware we have a few entities in town that operate with a plan of operations in place um and we do that to reduce any sort of chaos or upheaval at those establishments and we've had um good outcomes from those from those efforts I don't know if there's any other uh questions that the council may have I just want to update one additional matter there's an item in here in your materials indicating that they had not paid their City restaurant taxes in February or March and they still haven't paid those and they haven't paid for April but we'll be addressing that with the applicant as a condition of of lure as well I am addressing that only because it's in the materials sure that you receive thank you your honor okay thank you Council good information um I don't see any lights uh this is located in District Two so I'm going to turn to uh council member uh grup Madame mayor the uh petitioner um contacted me and wished to um address the council and I'm not averse to that as long as there's not a majority of us who would oppose allow him to address the council but I'm just going to say this if he's allowed to address the council people who might have a contrary view should be allowed to address as well uh seeing no objection Mr Sergeant uh no objection no no you can no objection from the council in terms of your communication yeah U I just want to had a time to uh thank you for the meeting Madame mayor and City Council Members um then I just want to I just I wrote a letter to you guys I hopefully you read it and you kind of have some insight on who I am and uh what I'm about but for those who don't know or maybe not had a chance to read it um I just want to address the council now and I wanted to ask when you look at me what do you see uh for me I'm an army veteran I served my country between uh 2008 and 2011 I was dishonor um I was honorably discharged so you know I believe our army values are some are dignity and integrity and those are some of the values I hold true to myself um I also wanted to remind the city councilman that I owned and operated the fry spot since 2021 uh where we were located in the residen area up prosp where we had a full liquor license there as well full bar and in the residential area we had no infractions or you know no complaints from the residents nearby also on Dre's Lane I operated the Fri spot for over a year I made good relations with WALL-E the owner there uh the owner of the Premier Building uh where there's also a full liquor license and gaming there as well where I operated and there was no infractions and you no issues there either so I said it to say that you know that's that's my track record I've been a pretty much a upstanding citizen in in the city of Poria um I've done my best to do good business and put out good food um I humble myself to actually work uh in the kitchen in my restaurant rests cuz that's where I find my peace you know that's that's uh where my uh gift comes from um and I also think that this decision this vote that you guys are passing down is is bigger than me this decision is to me um it's about equal opportunity I truly believe that everyone's everyone deserves you know a chance to do their best um I'm stand before you battling slander and things that were said about me opposed to things that was true and all I can say is uh I appreciate your time um nothing further thank you Mr sergeant councilman gr um are there any other people who wish to address the council everyone uh my name is shandel Walker and I'm just a concerned Community member I uh really appreciate what this young man said but I am opposed to highly flavored being in the Twin Towers I just drove up the street coming past Main Street and I drove past bison and hoops and the stench of alcohol uh the people laying on curves uh it's just egregious and I don't think and I'm quite sure some people would agree with me that we should have liquor served in the Twin Towers it's not a place that I think should that alcohol should be there now I appreciate the fact that he went to the Army and served this country and did some outstanding things I'm not opposed to you putting alcohol in any place in America but the Twin Towers I'm not I'm not I'm not for I oppose it and my father was a Vietnam veteran he served his country we all do some things we all make some choices we all make some mistakes and stuff like that but at the same time nothing changes if nothing changes meaning if we allow this stuff to go on it's going to continue to be Madness in the city of Poria now I moved from Chicago to better myself in this city now I gravitated towards the city of Pur it's a great Community out here I'm just a concerned Community member I just walked into the Twin Tower of today ordered me some sandwiches today I had peace of mind it was tranquil it was just awesome to see this madness carry on at night time at 8 9 10:00 at night what what have you it's some I don't believe it belongs there I don't believe we we need more homeless people hanging out there more alcoholics hanging out there we don't need this madness we're trying to improve the city not tear it down and I think that the police department is doing an outstanding job but they will have more problems on their hand had highly flavored be allowed inside the Twin Towers the new flavor in your ear is not the put him there thank you is there someone else good evening Council U my name is Harold Dawson um I'm actually in support of Mr Sergeant um now everybody's entitled to their opinion um the gentleman before me spoke upon you know new day in age stuff that he didn't want to see um I was a very supportive patron of Highly flavored um never witnessed uh anything uncanny or anything that was you know unruly while attending um highly flavored um I do believe that you know the environment that he mentioned with your neon bison your Hoops it's not the same environment that is brought that Mr Sergeant um provides um it's a very controlled environment now it's not perfect we all know we live in Poria um we know what we're up against but you you know I've witnessed him deescalate situations I've witnessed him um be very upstanding into you know decisions being made within his establishment while still running the business so I mean what I need to say is nothing that he didn't already address but um very upstanding businessman and good food I mean we live in Peoria I mean I'm tired of traveling to Chicago too uh e good so the the flavor that he is providing um in our community is not only that of that's edible but also that that can be felt which is you know um the highly flavored uh establishment that he did give to the the city thank you welcome there's someone else hello and I would like to address the Council um in favor of Highly flavored um I would like to say that uh I would ask that the council separate um highly flavored from Landmark I think that due to issues that were already ongoing with landmark and then highly flavored moved in and the issues continue so I think they kind of got an an unfair um wrap because they were they just grouped the problems that were already ongoing with highly flavored and I think it's important that they are separated Landmark we were uh the they were already having issues um out there so I'm just um asking that you separate that and look at his track record um in his other businesses that he had already started and were successful um so so I would just like the council to keep that in mind when making that decision thank you thank you someone else good evening my name is lesan nun I am I guess I'm a East Bluff Community Advocate and I am opposed to highly flavor getting a liquor license in the the twin tower building um not taking away that they they do have great wings but the service is horrible and I just want to speak on what I experience and I will never visit highly flavor again the smoking of the marijuana in my presence alcohol just the bartender whoever they had serving at the bar she was just pouring alcohol to all of her friends and I'm there at a party at an event and I did not appreciate that I have pictures and I may even have a video of them smoking weed in the establishment during business hours so I am opposed to highly flavor getting a liquor license in the T in the Twin Tower it would not be good for the businesses thank you anyone else hi hello um my name is Sierra sergeant and I am Jeremy Sergeant's wife um I just wanted to speak a little bit I heard a little bit of the concerns as far as [Music] um the young lady said smoking and and one thing I will say we did not allow that um if someone if we did notice it Jeremy was very good at um making sure that that person was told to put out whatever they were doing as well as um if they kept continued to do it they were put out um our children came to H flavored quite often so the things that were that we that we did not agree with we made sure that it was an something that our kids would be comfortable in being in um we tried to provide a an environment for everyone um from sun up to sun down to make sure that they felt comfortable eating and partaking in if they wanted to in the alcohol um like the young man said I just want the council board to take us away from um what was already being done in landmark and look at us and see the our track record of what we've had with the fres spy and um what we Tred to bring with highly flavor and what we're trying to continue to bring anyone else hello Rob Han hour I'm a business owner in the Twin Towers and since I sit on Facebook and comment about nearly everything I figured I should at least have the courage to stand up here and say what I think as opposed to letting Facebook uh do all my talking um you know let's take a look I recognize that we want to be able to segregate or separate uh the calls that were placed to Landmark generally and identify what was happening at highly flavored as opposed to Landmark and its [Music] totality that for whatever reason has been difficult uh because police reports that have been requested apparently there have been so many police reports uh that it would take too long to redact them in response to a foyer request actually two which tells you that there are problems at Landmark but let's take look at what we do know and this is information that has been provided to councel during the less than oneyear run that highly flavor flavored was located at Landmark there were 119 police calls okay and we can break that down 22 calls for disorderly conduct six battery or fighting calls 30 gunshots two calls for people with guns one assault call 19 incident reports and one gunshot victim now that's all of landmark I understand we have problems in this city it's a great City I work here I like it here but let's let's also look at some more information that's been made available to you all when you compare the months preceding highly flavored go going in there to the months that highly flavored was located in there similar number of preceding months total costs for service increased by 37% okay so even if we can't identify highly flavored we know that there's only one difference and there's been a 37% increase in crime now beyond that what kind of crime increased violent crime calls for service increased by 300% disorderly conduct calls for service increased by 300% battery and fighting caused by increase for service calls increased by 200% police incident reports increased by 46% across the board there was an increase in everything including violent crime okay so you know we're talking about we're talking about uh having a plan of operation why do we need to start with a plan of operation for an applicant if there a good applicant we don't have to be talking about how we'll have to square away debts that are owed before they get their license that'll be all part of it uh and you know we can also talk about the fact that we want to say that the fry spot ran perfectly there were not problems uh there are judgments in Poria County against the applicants prior businesses this is not I I am not opposed to having the the highly flavored restaurant no alcohol in our building but we need to be very careful about licensing good applicants and and I do want to speak to something I find it highly offensive that uh there was a news article went out that people in power allowed to happen where it made it look like anybody that was opposed to highly flavored including maybe the Proprietors of landmark were racist sometimes it's not race-based it's simple facts of Public Safety you know the Liquor Commission made a com the commissioner uh Camille coats made a comment with respect to Empire Lounge that she believes in public safety that's something important to her that's why she was mad that there was a party there or some sort of event without uh without an a certificate of occupancy you know the reality is we need to look at all the problems that we've heard from people up here tonight and I would respectfully request that you deny the application thank you is there anyone else hello I'm aella um I am opposed to it just because I don't feel like yes there's a lot of places down here that do serve alcohol and I just feel like it's giving people another opportunity to and if you know on the weekends downtown does get a little crazy so I feel as though just to kind of keep the Twin Towers safe and that just a little bit safe I don't think it would be best to you know give them the license although it is a nice idea to have I don't think it would be beneficial just because I feel like it just adds a little bit more danger just because when people are under the influence they aren't thinking clearly and when you're seeing so many options to go get alcohol it's just giving people another option too and especially with you know if they're open on the weekends but just in general I just don't feel like it would be smart to give people another option to have a place to go if you know say one place isn't open you know go to this because you know downtown is pretty busy and I just feel like it would to to keep Public Safety there just to not be able to give it to them but that's all that I have is there anyone else good evening Council my name is Darcy um I am approve excuse me opposed to the approval um simply because of the backstory and the conflict I am of the opinion that moving forward solely as a restaurant without the ability to serve alcohol at this time would be of the greatest benefit to the business and the community with further consideration in the future that seems to be the most logical um solution to this conflict at this time from what I've seen I do want to say um in defense of this restaurant that um issues that have happened at Landmark similar things have also happened with local Northwoods Mall and so I'm someone who is a stats nerd I love numbers I think they um state things Crystal Clear however I do think we need to understand the direct source and causes of these conflicts within our community without making a blanket statement towards a business thank you welcome anyone else council member gr well um colleagues I have to look at this um as relates to the applicant and not in an ad hominum way but any applicant who would be wanting to come downtown and go into the Twin Tower mall this introduces uh Public Safety complexities complex challenges for one thing the mall is rather open our police department has remarked about the openness and the lack of supervision as people would move into that building to go to whatever establishment it might be in the later evening hours and you know we do have other people who have property interests too and some of them have signed this petition here and they have offices or residences across the street I think they have some rights I think they should be listened to very closely the proposed site is also in the bar district downtown everybody knows that and they're currently 20 liquor license establishments in the bar District in peria we continue to sadly have situations where all available puia police officers have to respond to the downtown because of unruly crowds shots fired fights Etc what we have now is a public safety and officer safety nightmare what we have now siphons off police resources for the rest of our city in all five of our districts leaving our neighborhoods short now between October of 2023 through May of 2024 this applicant operated under the name highly flavored at Landmark this is history can't change history and during that time there were 119 calls for service that included fights weapons shots fired Etc it's of great concern that the huge uptick at Landmark occurred after highly flavored was established well let's just say it was mostly the bowling alley people well if they came to me as District councilman and said we want a setup shop across the street with the liquor license I would say no now when comparing April 23 and I have to be a numbers guy to a certain extent to September of 23 that was before highly flavored went to Landmark That's History to the time highly flavored arise from October 23 to May of 24 it's just fact that we had very disturbing data police incident reports Balloon by some 46% also the Liquor Commission has repeatedly been warned of the extremely high police call volume throughout our city last year alone our Police Department responded to over 118,000 calls for Police Service Citywide so for me given the track record of the applicant or any of the applicants coming from Landmark wanting a liquor license across the street the answer would be to deny those requests to approve that site application for a class B liquor license with on-site consumption and the retail sell of alcohol for highly flavored 456 Fon Suite 186 few years ago mayor I had an applicant who wanted to put in a chain store that makes very nice Pizza in a part of my district over at near Forest Hill and Gale I believe it's now in councilman Council woman council member Denise Jackson's district and talk about pressure all right we're happy to have you there at that intersection but the police just turned down the gas station and do you have to have a liquor license can you maybe get to know your neighbors first in Hamilton Park in this case but what we have before us now is we're going right in the liquor this isn't a restaurant application I think we would all look at it differently if it were and there could be a period of meeting the residents and so on and and then maybe if it fits in fine and there are no problems there could be a request for a liquor license at a later date but right now and you know I'm a politician I don't like to to say no to anybody but I'm not going to say yes to something that I believe is injurious to the people in this district and in this building across the street and in our city and that's why I'm moving to deny as outline is that a motion it's a motion is there a second seconded by council member Oiler contined discussion uh council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor um um uh first of all I think that uh uh one of Mr Sergeant's uh uh objections to people objecting to him is uh racial discrimination and somehow someway in the midst of all our discrimination uh we have given licenses to relatives and to him in the past and I don't think we became racist uh you know in the last couple of weeks so I I don't appreciate that as a defense for him secondly he owes fees and there's something that has to be done with the lease and some other things I think at best we're premature in in our consideration of this um I uh I'm not quite at the point where I would like to defer this but I I wouldn't mind hearing uh someone on the council uh asked for a deferral and and defend that otherwise since we have these these things that are outstanding he should be clean as a whistle when he comes here and uh it seems like some of those things are in process so um but at the moment where things stand I don't I don't know that it would be I I I would be in favor of uh councilman grab's motion unless there's a motion to defer until these things are cleaned up um so um but I'm not willing to put for forward that denial Mo or that uh deferral motion thank you Madame mayor you're welcome and I do want to say I didn't hear Mr Sergeant say anything related to racial discrimination I heard him say he wanted equal opportunity but I didn't hear what you inferred I I didn't read that in his letter and I didn't hear that in his comments well I don't know what equal opportunity uh was denied him my I got an implication but you're right he didn't say it directly I think we throw some terms around that everyone is supposed to know what that means and uh that's what I think it means and uh perhaps I'm incorrect in that okay um and perhaps I'm not uh but um anyway thank thank you Madame mayor council member Gordon Young thank you Madame mayor um first I have a question for you um am I able to ask Mr Sergeant a question yes okay um Mr Sergeant could you come up please so thank you for being here and representing your desire to move forward uh I was one of those individuals that was there at Landmark when you know all of the vision was being discussed and things were being proposed and it was a very exciting time what happened between that and you know the past few months or whatever I'm not sure what and I'll get to my question in a second but one of the things I do think is important is that we understand the police calls and again I do want to make sure that we make an a fair decision but I want to make sure that we are armed with accurate information now I served as an 911 dispatcher and when police calls are put in the cad system uh the young lady said it it goes in as a general call and unless that caller or the officer unseen has proof that that particular business or the person is associated with that business then you cannot accurately say that it came from the person came from highly flavored or was involved at highly flavored and I think the mall is a great example that I often use use so if you if someone says there's a fight at the mall if they don't say the fight is at Finish Line or whatever business it goes in anyway it's still going to go in with the same address and the remarks may give the specific location of the incident and even with that being said it still does not indicate that those particular parties or that party is associated with that location so I do think that we need to be fair in representing the the data correctly and so so again so until we know that and maybe it is just a coincidence or maybe this has just a hot spot but they weren't necessarily affiliated with you and so I want to throw that out there but then I also want to ask you a question in terms of what your vision is for the Twin Towers location and I say that because I heard your vision you know when you started at the Landmark location uh I've always own an operated restaurants you know I I want a full service restaurant there's no bar nightclub and vision there's no late night traffic with loud music or anything of that nature it's a restaurant it's no different than going to Texas Roadhouse I believe Texas Ro house closes at 11:00 as well you know and and to speak to you know your comment uh when I say equal opportunity I spoke towards there's a bar located in the Twin Towers mall right now it's called Kickback it closed at 2: a.m.

it does have its own separate entrance off of Fon street but in my lease agreement everything's in place for me to operate till 11:00 with security that I pay for that will roam the mall uh before hours and during hours and after we close I personally plan on closing the restaurant down every night we operate uh Tuesday through Saturday um and like I said I'm personally be in the kitchen uh making sure that that the proper management is in place you know to run a successful restaurant this is what it is that's that's my Invision I so do you have a target audience or Target demographic that you want to cater to not at all I believe uh money is green you know all money is welcome it's no demographic or a certain audience that I'm targeting I put out good food um I have been for years uh I have over 6,000 followers on Facebook for frypot you know that's a big achievement that's that's and that's you know something to be proud of you know so to answer your question no okay and and with that I think it is I think we have to look at a lot of things here there are a lot of layers to this for example is there an assumption that you're going to attract a particular type of person or audience and with that is that discriminatory and then the other piece is um a couple things in terms of Kickback for example Kickback does not have uh patrons that have to enter inside of the Twin Towers so we can't necessarily use that although that is a business there right and it they serve alcohol but the the concern here is entering and you've talked about how you would address that entering that piece and then the previous tenant the creef core Club they did have a liquor license and they operated more as a restaurant right but it was also private and so again it's not like this is new to the area it's not like there aren't even a a a business inside of the twin towers that serves alcohol because there is and so I want to make sure that we are armed with all the information and then I want to ask you here here's my magic question for you are you willing to operate without a liquor license and focus specifically on food to begin with with the closing time of 800m that's indicated on the lease it's it's um I think that's a loaded question and I say that to say uh would I you know sure but that would be the choice that I'm forced to make uh opposed to being able to open um you know I'm willing to be compliant with the plan of operation willing to be compliant with closing times uh so it would it would be discouragement to answer your question to if I was denied and would I want to continue operate in the Twin Towers me personally I wouldn't I would love to be somewhere where I wanted right you know I would love to be somewhere where I'm wanted where I'm celebrated where I don't have this you know I would say this this this whole situation since being at Landmark you know and leaving has been a nightmare um you know I I honestly at this time I don't I don't have an answer to that question not a you know exact answer at least with that I'd like to move to defer you move to defer until when yeah and and no I'm sorry do you want do you want me to finish the when yes until the next first of all I think it's going to be important to [Music] um adhere to the lease agreement which is 8m um unless that is changed till 11:00 p.m.

because we can't have the hours after you 8:00 p.m.

but then also um clear up any any Revenue that needs to be paid and if there's an agreement for that that's understandable as well but I think it sounds like there um there's a misunderstanding in some areas and then because you do you have certificate of occupancy now yes okay so the twins Howers has already said you can come in and be a restaurant The Liquor Commission said you can have the liquor license right no okay no The Liquor Commission made a recommendation for a site application approval okay for the site application approval all right and that was three to the council okay to the council to decide okay uh I was just going to say that uh as far as the lease goes uh we are in conversation about that time frame and I I'm not sure what gentleman spoke I believe it was councilman Hayes that said um and correct me if I'm wrong that you said you know if I was to get the license well get the approval um that we can place it till eight and once our agreement was made with me and my landlord you know if we choose to move to 11 then we can adjust it then but as of right now we are in conversation as far as my closing time okay and with that you just think there's a you know I have a couple ideas that may be helpful and you know and I don't know if it's something you would want to consider I can share that with you now or we can talk offline it's completely up to that's fine it's basically that you consider going into operations without their liquor license now contention upon you know the next six months or three months and and then build from there councilwoman you want to make a deferral date yes I'd like to defer until the next council meeting I don't know the date is there a second seconded by council member Allen uh continued discussion council member vesa uh well thank you uh Madame mayor I I just I was going to say that I'm not um I was not going to vote up or down uh because I have sign significant financial interest in both the residential and Commercial aspects of the the Twin Towers but a def feral motion I don't think I need to abstain from thank you okay thank you uh council member Allan uh thank you madam mayor uh I want to share some comments that I have prepared uh while I appreciate the thorough information and context that's been provided on today's matter uh my goal is to remain objective as possible factoring both the petitioner and the various stakeholders of the Twin Towers while we cannot establish a direct correlation between police calls and highly flavored it's important to acknowledge that Landmark has faced behavioral challenges with his patrons over this past several years I respect the efforts that Landmark has made to address these issues and I remain hopeful that they will continue to succeed as a vital contributor to our community's quality of life and entertainment [Music] sector that's true I'll you what was that second to what was that oh okay pardon me on the deferral oh okay yes I was going to ask the police ch so on the motion to defer the discussion is limited to how long the deferral would be and issues related to the deferral that might Aid the council in by way of a report back so the the council has a rule on that I think that the calling the question would still yield to the motion to defer issues that are specifically in the council's rule thank you so so what's that mean I mean your question I don't know what your question is his question may relate to that so councilman reinbach my question is to the chief if the two-e deferral will give him time to supply the information on the foyer that was requested because obviously there's a lot of unanswered questions out there so I support the deferral but I want to make sure two weeks is enough if we need to do four weeks and Council Hayes there are 18 police reports from the period of time when highly flavored uh was at the Landmark we'll present all those redacted both to the foyer requestor as well as Council between now and the next meeting thank you in two weeks or four weeks is that sufficient time two weeks that is sufficient time thank you your honor thank you mayor thank you councilman okay okay so we are voting on a two- we the referral approximately 2 weeks please cast your ballots motion passes with three nay SE gra and Oiler okay Madam clerk 24-23 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com troller with a request to receive and file the month ended April 30th 2024 an audited financial report Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor we have our finance director here as it's time for our monthly financial report and I'll turn it over to uh director cratty thank you Mr manager I'll run through the report quickly uh the April report in your packet uh highlights that uh revenues are up 2.3% versus expected budget in the general fund um we have expenses up 7.9% versus expected um what I do want to call out with that is that is heavily influenced by how how uh we are spending our remaining American Rescue plan funds um so those have been uh being spent at a little bit faster rate than we anticipated in our model um so that is what's affecting that large increase um it's not necessarily operational uh changes um in terms of revenues um looking across uh the the different Revenue sources I provide um the home rule sales tax continues to be above pace for last year and in line with our budget um the state sales tax number does as well um in state income tax also is ahead of pace for last year um the one item that we continually have talked about is personal property replacement tax um that number is uh still within where we had budgeted to believe that it would be um it I am the Illinois Municipal League to put out new Revenue projections that decrease that number slightly for calendar year 24 uh with an anticipated 15% increase in calendar year 25 and we'll deal with going into the next budget um but we were conservative in how we had budgeted personal property replacement tax during that budget process so even though it is down it's still within line within the budget so our overall our revenues in the general fund continue to look strong um and with that I'm available for any questions that the council has council member sier thank you Madame mayor uh Mr cratty director cratty thank you very much for your time this morning for meeting with me and spent an hour to go over all these different questions I had so we can save some time tonight but I would like for you to explain just a few things number one uh tell us a little bit and our uh constituent that are listening well number one tell us what the type was there's a type on page five correct yeah there was the there the there was a typo on page five that uh says that uh the April amount was $10,000 6 10, 62394 and it says up from 10,520 uh numbers got transposed the number is 10 thou 10, 620,000 instead of 062 there was a the typo on that number thank you sir uh question on page uh six of 10 and you just covered a little bit about the personal property replacement tax yep we're at uh no 55% of last year right now again tell me what you told me this morning know about this this uh this record so far yeah so I you know I think uh the last couple years we had seen record numbers in what this Revenue was coming in at um and the city manager and I had constantly had conversations about you know this this is really kind of not in the norm of what these revenues look like so we had kind of been planning on there would be a pullback um the state did find an error in their formula for tax year 21 as well as tax year 22 that they are correcting with this pullback that is why the anticipation going into calendar year 25 is we'll have that 15% increase which is really just based off of that clawback that clawback amount going off the books from the state explain to us again the replacement tax what where does it go what percentage things like that yeah so a majority of our personal property replacement tax about I would say probably 85% of it goes towards p pions the remaining 15% this year um has gone into the general fund with our growth model looking at our pension obligations we anticipate that more than likely during the 25 budget there will be no allocation to the general fund and it will all go towards pension obligations and our pension obligation the next few years I mean nobody knows for sure but again tell me tell me what you told or tell us what you told me this morning about so we did receive we did receive the the funding request from the police and fire pension actuaries I believe about three to four weeks ago um the increase year-over-year is $2.8 million um we are seeing close to about a half million dollar a year increase uh over the last few years and we anticipate not only will continue down that path we will we will see escalation um more in that 20 to 30 timeline let's talk just a little bit it's not really I don't see that as your responsibility but I know you have all the answers I'm going to ask you talk to us a little bit about the Civic Center uh the uh the uh outstanding amount left uh maybe you can tell us about their capital investment plan uh I'm very concerned about our responsibility as a city on operation also so maybe you can cover what our responsible are what our responsibility are as far as helping the Civic Center with operation yeah so in terms of civic center operation we do have the existing agreement with them for uh the uh Hotel restaurant Amusement taxes they receive the remaining amount post Debt Service obligations for the Civic Center as well as some other parties um the information in the packet looks specifically at um the uh the loan that we have with the Civic Center so the Civic Center received a $25 million grant for Capital Improvements at their facility um because they've been they're a smaller organization we have been cash flowing some of their projects because they're looking at ex putting out 7 to 8 million sometimes in a specific quarter um and so the remaining amount that's still outstanding is that that second quarter allotment that they're in the process of requesting the reimbursement from uh dco at the end of the month so when are we becoming responsible for operation um in terms of kind of the operations of the C their cash flow for operation so the within the agreement the Clause kicks in at $1.5 million of cash reserve on their end which really is to maintain their daily operations um instead of looking at their capital A last question on this uh this one here my uh my colleague councilman Allen request some update a while ago a few meetings ago on the negotiation and again it's not your responsibility but Mr manager are we are we going to receive any I mean I've not heard I don't know if Mr Allen's requests or uh were responded to but yeah we we shared with you the the response from The Corporation Council for the Civic Center Authority the negotiations are uh continuing and ongoing and that's the status that we have okay uh the last question last page Mr cratty uh talk to us a little about the uh the audit um I understand Clifton Larson and Allen is responsible for our audit how much they charge us are you do we how long they've been doing our audit I know we're late again this year uh do we is it time to go out for RFP um I don't want to put you on your spot tonight but maybe you can talk to us a little about the audit I I am happy to report that we are progressing ahead of where last year's schedule was uh the city does have the draft of the audit that we're reviewing and I do anticipate that we will have the final draft in July is my anticipation um the city has been with I Clifton Larson Allen I believe since around 2016 as the city's auditor um the contract does terminate after this agreement um we potentially could go out to RFP looking at you know deci deciding whether or not we want to do an audit rotation which I think is usually in the best interest of communities to do an audit rotation um so it's something we'll be considering over the coming months and we'll bring something to council forward with that last last uh thing it's not really a question just a comment for Mark conversation this morning would it be possible for you to add the uh pension line item in the in on the last page since we're it's going to be a huge item moving forward and it's going up quite rapidly in the next few years so would that be possible to add that line back you you did point out to me that the overall budget is not on the fund level sheet which is the last page on here um so we will add that so Council has a perspective of what the overall budget is for the year thank you very much director cratty thank you Madame mayor you're welcome mam M Clark I believe we need a motion to receive and file that item please uh move by council member sear seconded by council member Allen to receive and file please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you director cratty Madame Clark 24-204 is a communication from the city manager and director of community develop El M with a request to receive and file a communication regarding the allowance of backyard chickens in the city of Peoria Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor I'm going to actually turn it over to our Corporation counsel as well as our assistant director of Community Development Leah Allison who will help to facilitate this discussion who's G to start Council Hayes I'll start okay I'm sure you'd all rather hear from Miss Allison but um so our Council rules and our code allows citizens to propose matters directly to our planning and zoning committee that's what occurred here with this proposal citizens came forward and suggested that we start looking at allowing and permitting backyard poultry or chickens so the process was that this matter was submitted to the planning and zoning committee based on the proposal from the citizens that hearing Was Heard and you've got a summary of that just by way of discussing how staff looks at this proceeding you might recall that we did a number of of um interactions with Council to arrive at how we would proceed on short-term rentals so from here going forward we anticipate a conversation tonight with Council inform you and answer your questions about the proposal from these citizens if the council determines that there's going to be no further action you can make that motion and we can end the matter at at that point tonight if the council has additional items that they'd like to see or have staff put to task to build out a proposed ordinance and a regulatory scheme budget impact Financial Impact Staffing levels things like that staff would be happy to undertake that but needs to direction from Council to do so once we complete that task we'd present it back to council like we did with the short-term rentals and once council's comfortable with that if they chose to proceed down that path it would go back through Planning and Zoning for their recommendation to councel and then back to councel for approval so tonight two major issues to deal with after the discussion do we proceed any further or not and if we do give sta some time to get back to you and speaking with um uh Miss Allison earlier today we would tell you that it's a substantial undertaking 60 to 90 days we'd be back to council with uh some sort of form of of a of an ordinance and a regulatory scheme and the financial impact and that type of thing as you can see from the uh letter from the County Administrator there is a significant amount of Staffing uh development of where the enforcement activity and Licensing activity would take place um and so there's a number of of issues for us to deal with staff didn't want to make I didn't want to have staff make that substantial commitment of time and resources without direction from Council to do so thank you and then on the substantive issues uh we'll turn Deputy uh director thank you thank you assistant director Allison thank you um Corporation Council uh hey has really you know summed it up very well thank you I provided in your packet that letter from Poria County for you to review I tried to summarize the major points in your Council cover memo uh the points that they bring to your attention are concerned for for for costs of increased Staffing that may be generated with additional enfor M calls um costs that could be incurred with the physical structure of their current uh facility is not designed to house chickens and they would want to in a humane way provide that housing so there could be the potential for changes or upgrades to their physicals setting to to house any chickens that would have to be um uh brought to their facility um they also you know touched on public health sanitation making sure that if chickens are brought to residential neighborhoods that there's safety measures and and guidelines that keep everybody safe with health and sanitation and that could be in the form of spacing and minimum lot sizes and maximum number of chickens um so they brought that to your attention for consideration um some concerns that they want you to keep in mind uh as Corporation Council Hayes mentioned you have a choice if you want us to do more research we certainly will and bring it back to you if you feel that further action that's something you can consider as well tonight I'm happy to answer any questions council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman I'm just looking at some of the materials on the desk here and I'm curious is this a staff proposal it has the city's logo and says city of porori at the top and doesn't say it's from someone else so I was just curious if it was a that was not distributed by staff I'm not sure what that document is but it was not distribut if I may that was distributed by one of the citizens in the audience okay thank you council member gret uh yes um Madam chair I think we have a couple of citizens um who would like to address this I believe James keer and um perhaps his colleague uh would like to address it as well but Mr Mr keer okay before we before we go there I want to ask whether there's any more questions from Council for for director assistant director Dr Allison uh council member velpula thank you madam Madam mayor this is a very interesting topic I would say it's more like allowing backyard chickens The Feathered Friends to become the I would say hoping to revolutionize the urban farming in purian I mean this is a very well thought out book i' I've gone through it I like the way it is written and then I also I also admire uh the people who presented this data and the only thing that is not mentioned in this one is like the number of eggs that each hand gives in a month so basically each hand gives you 30 20 to 30 eggs and if you're allowing uh five chicken then you'll have 100 to 150x per family so that is the that is the positive side of it but again the isas reason why I wanted to ask you is you mentioned something you touch Bas something on the increased calls for service and you also said there would be additional Personnel to handle complaints and probably that could cause a potential strain on the local government resources we are just you know it's a tip of an iceberg just like um uh Corporation Council said that we we had to do a due diligence before we do that I also don't know if there is a procedure to address safety risks for I mean you there is a mention saying that uh there will be they will not cause any diseases but then chickens are supposed to create bird flu aen flu aen influenza salmonella and zunos I don't know if you have a a plan or education what happens when there is an outburst we don't I don't see that and the and the second one quarantine measures during an outburst how do how do we prepare ourselves for that I don't think it is very well thought out and then also the last one is the human conditions we don't know what what to do if someone doesn't want a hand it was not thought out yet so I mean noise and Order there is a mention on that but but uh to me it is a good idea but at the same time we need to do a lot more work on that before even you know thinking through that this is a good idea or bad idea because I don't know how much burden we are going to take as a city addressing this one rest of all is fine everything is fair but then I don't know where and how much energy we need to spend on this one and I would love to see your thoughts are if you wanted to work more do some research and get back that'll be that is my take on it thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor uh Mr Corporation counsel I'm a little confused um this particular item the item is to receive and file uh these reports um am I correct that if we want to go into this at some length and start asking the the staff to bring us information shouldn't that be under new business I mean we don't have any action item on this on this item it's just procedural I'm not so our um as I mentioned our code allows citizens to make a proposal directly to our Planning and Zoning commission that's what's occurred here staff has taken no action to invest investigate these matters or develop materials I I have not seen the document that Dr vulo was referencing or that was distributed that's not a city document despite its appearances and so I don't know what's in it um it's it's my view that our our procedures in our ordinances anticipate that Council would give direction to staff what to do so either it's received in filed and staff need to take no further action or it's received and filed and staff needs to report back on the aspects that Dr velpula outlined Health sanitation enforcement what the ordinance is going to say how we're going to approach it so staff hasn't undertaken that effort because we're awaiting some direction from Council to do so um we've we've scripted the these motions for how to end the conversation tonight for one of your colleagues so uh if if if I could assist anyone else in making the motion i' be happy to but we anticipated a discussion tonight to get the sense of the will of the Council on whether to proceed or not and then fashion a a motion to give staff direction to do so uh my question is rather nitpicky shouldn't that discussion Etc be under new business I mean the only the only thing here is to receive and file um if we want to talk about this and direct staff to do this or that shouldn't that be under new business it's yes I as a technical matter the code doesn't give guidance on this but if someone wants to make the motion under new business that would be fine but because we're dealing with the matter right now um on okay on the first reading or you know on the point we're at uh we can dispose of that in that in that matter because it's related okay thank you thank you Madame mayor welcome additional questions council member Jackson um thank you Madame mayor well I um I remember when this came up about a year ago and um I just um couldn't phanthom how um well let me let me back up I my mind went back to I think it was 2010 when the city um made significant cuts to the staff uh code enforcement um Public Works um Police Department uh and I think there were some also some other administrative folks who lost their jobs and so um you know we have been dealt with consolidation um and I know as first district council person um my uh district is um we've got I'm told we've got the largest number of inspectors which is three but I'm going to tell you even as the council person I often times wear code enforcement has uh and while they do a fantastic job I and I believe that they uh are often um taxed in terms of their duties and responsibilities uh their inability to keep up with the demands of uh code enforcement uh Public Works and they do a fantastic job given the circumstances they been placed in which to work over the last uh 10 or 12 years um I cannot imagine in good conscience how we would um even consider um doing something like this given the uh magnitude of uh code enforcement and um public safety issues that we're already dealing with uh that's my question and and I don't know how we would pay for something like this and and and let me um you know mayor um I've I've gotten calls from residents with concerns about um I don't know what they're called they're they remind me of beavers we've got all kinds of wildlife in the city already uh some of which have eaten foundations of homes um and people inquire about how they are expected to deal with this uh so to throw chickens in the mix is would be an enormous undertaking uh in my estimation and I would I could not in good conscience do this to City staff given the burdens they already have to deal with thank you sorry about that thank you councilwoman council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor I've had um people bring this topic up to me several times in the last couple years and I'm I'm happy to have this discussion tonight but I think the thing that gives me Immediate pause is the letter from um Scott sell the County Administrator because as you recall pcaps our Animal Control is something that we contract out to the county and that's a substantial cost to us as it is so reading his take on it which I assume was relatively um quickly compiled as well since this the timing on all this has been kind of accelerated um I I think we really need to take a step back here it's easy to say that they while they allow this in Chicago or champagne or naville you can name several cities that do that but the the fine print is where some of the the devil is in the detail as they say and in in those three cities I just referenced the city's building and code enforcement departments take care of this and as as my colleague just stated as a as a district council member I get calls all the time send code enforcement out we we frankly don't have enough code enforcement and it's very complaint driven as it is and it's very um this would be an incredible additional burden on them to say the least um another interesting comment from the peaps folks is that already this year they have had 12 12 complaints about chickens in the city of Poria and you know 12 that's not very many but they're not allowed and that's already we're already getting complaints about it so that that's something to to take note of I think the costs that would be incurred just to update the pcaps facility or establish a new facility at public works or who who knows where we we would do that we just heard from our finance director about the dire condition that the budget's going to be in as soon as the arpa funding goes away so are we really prepared to spend another $4 or 500,000 to build a facility to to control this and not not to be a conspiracy guy or anything but but the bird flu and and the diseases that are associated with animals all animals is something that needs to be considered and and how how would that be regulated we would have to get the health department involved in that so that's another intergovernmental agreement that doesn't come free obviously so there there's I I would love to be convinced that this is the cool hip thing to do because it it is but I'm I'm really concerned about the costs and the the long-term implications that it's going to have in some of our heritage neighborhoods so um that's all I have for now I I'll sit back and clearly listen but I need to be convinced thank you council member vesa sorry about that there you go oh sure okay all right so uh assistant director Allison I look at these cities that are listed it doesn't seem that a city in puia County uh Village or town or a city in puia County already allows backyard chickens is that true I believe you're correct okay so then it would make sense that the county in our next intergovernmental agreement would try to assess us basically the costs of taking on the burden um in the Animal Welfare shelter of additional chickens and you know I I know if if we were to license chickens it would probably be responsible people that are getting chickens but you know just like with cats and dogs you can get one and then change your mind and you take take them back to the uh to the shelter and um you know the the letter from uh Mr sell mentioned that they are currently chickens being housed next to barking dogs um they don't have a separate facility for them I think that's inhumane as it is um I I think we're a pretty densely populated um you know City uh people living pretty close with each other I have concerns um especially considering we've seen complaints here in Council about they're being rats because neighbors aren't taking out their garbage um I think you know with chickens in the backyard you have to be very on point and people can do that people can be very good at cleaning up after their chickens um preparing for the winter uh it it's a very significant investment too it can be done but if it's not always done properly it will be to a degree a burden on us and I think that might necessitate a high lure fee if we were to to start licensing these out which runs counter to the argument that people make that they should be doing this to self- sustain for feeding themselves and their families well it's going to be very expensive to get started um I would I would like you know if we're going to do this make sure both sides uh both Neighbors on each side of of a piece of property okay with it you know affirmative consent I think that would be important um because I certainly wouldn't want to wake up and know there's a chicken coue 10 feet from my house um so I mean is it impossible to do this I don't think it's impossible um but there's there would be a lot of work to do and I do have substantial concerns thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member Allan uh thank you Madame mayor uh assistant director uh Allison in any of the preliminary findings did you all actually talk to any of the municipalities that are mentioned here that have um this ordinance on the books and maybe just get any feedback from them of of how it's been going from an enforcement standpoint or any type of Burden or opportunity has presented itself since they implemented the ordinance um I did have the opportunity just by happen stance to talk to uh East Poria and their uh program is a pilot program as a special use and they haven't had uh any significant application um another conversation I had was actually with the city of Washington which is not on this list but um they had adopted ordinances for allowing chickens at some point in the past and actually most recently retracted their allowance so they they took a step back and said we don't want chickens anymore just felt that the process was it was a special use process for whatever reason they just felt that an urban farming was not appropriate for their city and chose to to to to prohibit that now if there's any that are there they're grandfathered at the point at this point in time but that's the only two conversations that I've had just um real quick conversations about two close municipalities no thank you and and I know that again we're at the very beginning of this and I you know I think the conversation tonight is to determine if staff is going to invest additional time and I'm sure you'll get more of those testimonies and and narratives where I'm at on this matter is one I think is important that our citizens feel seen heard and their opinions are validated now am I going to go to Manards and build a chicken CPE if this passes sometime in the future absolutely not my wife's not going to even let me get a puppy but I do think though it's important that we have the entire picture I think councilman vest councilman riggenbach really pointed out a lot of nuances that are still very vague of what we need to know now I do want to be very respectful of staff's time I know you all have a lot on your your plates but I do think though that this is worth inves investigating just so that way our citizens do feel that their petition brought forth was was thoroughly vetted and we did our due diligence um I would be in support or at least consider supporting a pilot of some sort um because I think that allow us to evaluate demonstrate a proof of concept to see is this worth investing more uh whether that is a some type of Lottery system where we would award so many permits maybe per District um to truly evaluate this is something that we truly want to play in Poria or not so that's just you know my initial thoughts on this I know that there's more conversation around the Horseshoe but uh but I'm intrigued with the thought but I do respect my colleagues and administrator sell as well too and and talking to some of our colleagues over at the county within the health department and pcaps there's a lot of nuances that we would have to iron out in order for this to be implemented and ultimately successful thank you madam mayor you're welcome any other questions for assistant director Allison thank you assistant director and I'm going to ask um anyone commenting to restrict your comments to five minutes or less preferably less uh council member Kelly did you want to comment okay all right and if you would just give us your name and then you can proceed with your comment absolutely my name is Kimberly Geraldo and I live in the Uplands and I just want to start kind of talking about the nitty-gritty I have called a lot of these folks a lot of these different jurisdictions and so I want to give you guys some numbers and what it would really look like to have chickens and talk about some of the um issues that might come up first off chickens and urban settings is very normal Across the Nation most major cities already allow backyard chickens and I've listed many and we've talked about those here today when you look at the top 150 largest cities in Illinois they all accept sorry 71 1% of them allow backyard chickens and the community thinks that Poria should join them we've had tremendous community support for this initiative we have almost 2,000 signatures on change.org and hundreds of supportive comments online now we suggest that we should model our proposal after that of Champagne Illinois they've been doing this for almost 13 years now with very little issues and any time that we talk here we'll be referencing them sort of as a model we have a similar size of um we have a similar size population so we're going to go over what that kind of looks like and you've got tons of uh of a packet there and the yellow one is actually our proposal and then the rest is kind of some facts and figures and we've also looked at the response from peaps and the health department and we wanted to make sure that all of that was taken into consideration as well because we want to make this as easy as possible for the staff and the city to put together now we understand that there may be some concerns from the community and the majority of those are basically just based in misinformation and so I want to go over the top three right now noise people think that chickens are noisy uh they think that uh they imagine the crowing at 5:00 a.m.

waking up the neighborhood which is why we're only asking for hens hens are generally quiet topping out at 50 to 60 DB which is significantly lower than common Urban sounds like barking dogs and Lawn mowers now some people might say they stink right I don't want a stinky chicken next door well neither do I none of us do but thankfully a flock of five chickens which is the max that we're asking for produce much waste as a mediumsized dog so very minimal but what about Predators most predators in urban areas are opportunistic so our proposal already includes things like feed storage and CPE construction as a way to deter pred s again all of this is included in the champagne ordinance which has been successful for over 13 years so what could this look like for us if we went with the model that champagne does they have a coupe license and that's done through the zoning and planning and they want to make sure that you have a certain amount of setback from the property lines and all of that and then enforcement and concerns are complaint-based so public nuisance tickets will help fund the enforcement making the system self-funded and Community Driven now this all sounds great but how many chickens are we dealing with that was a question right how many chickens are we going to be overrun with chickens in the street are there going to be chickens running across the road champagne issues five to 10 new licenses a year we're not talking about thousands of chickens five to 10 new licenses so realistically the strain of our permitting Department would be very minimal year-over-year as one of the council members uh said it there is an investment to setting up a chicken cpop and going through the process of getting a permit so there is a little bit of a barrier to entry there and what about Animal Control now uh as we mentioned earlier we see about a dozen chickens a year in our facilities and peaps is worried about what those numbers look like so I spoke to animal control and champagne let's see what they had to say they reported seeing only three to four chickens a year for the entire County and they were very quick to tell me we have very little issues with permit holders and I heard similar responses from several other cities and that's um what of the back pages of one of your notebooks there and that makes me wonder would our chick would our numbers go down if there was a legal Pathway to chicken ownership because the ones that we're already seeing are already here so I'm going to skip through here a little bit but what I want to do is I want to ask for a compromise there is a lot of details and a lot of Nu nuances and I know that it's so much easier to just say no so what I'm asking is let's try a pilot give us a 100 licenses let's see how many chickens we actually see in the shelter how much we are actually putting astray or not putting astray thank you thank you is there's someone else hi my name is Andrea chanowski I am an addition to being a longtime resident of Poria I'm a small business owner and a healthc care provider so I am very familiar with some of the concerns you have regarding disease I did want to first start by addressing some of your concerns and questions that you had so I wanted to start with a addressing the disease concerns if you look in the packet that was brought to you from the zoning and planning commission we did have letters not only from pcaps but also the health department with some guidance as to what we should include inside of the lure or the uh ordinance changes uh regarding not only the distance from property lines and other residences but as well as Gardens and other things too I do think that's something that can be addressed and put in the ordinance um one of the other concerns was again the sanitation again those are in there as well and that could be something that could be included in the ordinance changes um I know we had a question about the number of eggs typically chickens lay about 300 eggs a year for each chicken so that's to address that question there um I did want to kind of go over what I thought would be a good place to start if we are going to look into changing an ordinance or to draft that um I know that to make this work we do need to make sure that the city council can draft something that will address clear regulations and also enforcement to minimize issues and additional demands on peaps while also balancing Humane treatment of chickens and the safety of our community due to those disease concerns with it in mind I do want to kind of go over what we already have um we did give out packets to you guys so you'd have some information as to what we're proposing and also have a starting point so our current ordinance states that accept us provided the zoning ordinance set out an appendix be of this code section 45 all farm animals including but not limited to members of swine ovine Bine caprine and ecne families poultry and braet shall be prohibited then right after that we immediately have a path to Legal ownership for rabbits we're asking for a similar addition for chickens so obviously our proposed ordinance is going to be modeled after champag which again has been having chickens for over 12 years successfully with very little issues um one of the suggestions that I did have since we are proposing more of a licensure system is that we would propose as part of that a map very similar to how you would propose fencing on your property where it would have numbers and also sizing of the coupe and run as well as relation to property lines neighboring residences as well as any Gardens in the area as well that application for licensure should be yearly and that should also be renewed as well annually we are asking that potentially if we do propose and pass this or at least start drafting it that we could potentially do a trial of no more than a 100 licensers as Kim mentioned typically champagne gets about five to 10 a year maximum so it would be very minimal even if we did a lower number as a trial she did mention already we are asking for five hens so again very small amount not very loud there's no roosters in there um we did have also some stipulations on property lines as well as other those stipulations with guidelines from the uh Health Department as well um now one of the things that is a big concern for a lot of people is that disease management as part of that permit we would have a chicken Basics information as well as a defend the flock workbook that would detail all of what needs to be done to prevent disease as well as any concerns for pass through as well as how to deal with AVM flu is there is an issue or outbreak in the flock and we would also have in-person courses available another big concern you have was current peaps and dealing with the chickens we have not only uh volunteered and actually given and talken to Becky Spencer we have donations from the community that have actually volunteered to fund the purchase of an eight chicken Coupe that we would donate to pcap so they would already have a new facility there wouldn't be additional budget complaints because we would provide that for them we've also partnered with local chicken re rescues that have volunteered to take un any chickens as well as the feed costs from those so we've provided chicken Coupe as well as care for any that need to be surrendered or any that need to be um rehoused if they don't fit at peaps thank you for your time and consideration you're welcome [Applause] person James keer 16 30 West Parkside Drive I'm a neighbor of Kimberly uh Madame mayor uh City Council Members thank you so much for letting us talk about this today um I never thought that I'd come here and talk about chickens I uh when I first heard about the chickens I thought well who should I call about this who should I get information so I called my daughter uh she lives in Chicago she's kind of hip lives in Bucktown I'm sure you guys know where Bucktown is and I said hey you know they're talking about having backyard chickens in pury what do you think about this she goes dad you are way behind the times come on you know so she makes some Ruckus she starts making some noise like what are you doing said well I'm going outside I said why are you doing that she takes a photo on her phone and sends it to me there's chickens literally across the alley where she lives in Bucktown and this is not a you know some shady area of Bucktown this is a really nice area the homes are at least 500,000 to two and a half million in that area and there's chickens there somehow they make that work it's not some weird bizarre thing like a lot of people think it is it's it's a growing Trend that is kind of hip it's cool I want our city to be hip and cool I want people to be able to you know Portland OR Denver Colorado wherever it is look at PE Illinois and say hey that's kind of a cool fun place to live I'd like to live there I know quite a few people on Moss and Avenue that have come here and uh Chuck knows them well as well and uh uh they they really dig our Vibe they love Peoria and I'd like to give them other reasons for that um earlier I heard uh councilman vesa and uh councilman Allen talk about a pilot program and also about uh having have your neighbors sign off before doing this I completely agree with both of those and I think that's something we should consider thank you you're welcome [Applause] mayor Ali City Council Members my name is Sandra Crow and I'm here to oppose chickens okay can you hear me now okay I'll start over my name is Sandra Crow thank you Rita Marita Ali and the council for letting me address you I'm here to oppose chickens in the city um I feel like you know a lot of people aren't even aware that this is happening I found out by mistake s and you know anybody I've talked to since is just pretty you know upset about it so I think you are going to have some problems with you know people um um you know I've lived at my address since 1987 and I worry about you know um I've talked to people in Washington and they said it was chaos they were so glad when it was over they said it actually affected affected selling homes cuz people if there was chickens they didn't want to buy a house next to a chicken something you have to look at um and I think that's a question that should matter um the biggest problem if you do much research the biggest problems with Urban chickens is noise odor pests and Waste Control they can say that that's not a concern but it is um and my concerns are that every year I or every other year I get a letter from the city saying that the area where I live has a rat problem okay and people aren't picking up their dog poop so you know although I've not ever seen a rat I have abstained from having a compost pile because we obviously have a wet rat problem where I live so um so you know I don't want to draw these Predators into my flower gardens and will chicken poop not be a huge draw to these P predators and it takes a five to six foot fence to keep the Predators out um and I know for a fact that we have a raccoon problem in my area um and also I think people will are romanticizing the idea of having chickens and they're probably ill repaired to take on the responsibility I'm an Iowa farm girl so I know a whole lot about chickens a whole lot about livestock and yes they're noisy and yes they smell um and there are a lot of cost involved in raising chickens probably $70 to $100 a month for five chickens not including a chicken Coupe in the fence they're going to need um and does zoning allow for this I mean you know people are getting turned down for building a shed in their backyard so where do chicken coops come in there um and it's my understand that they can put this chicken cpop within 10 feet of my property 10 feet that's not very far okay and also will people do any better job of picking up their chicken poop than they do their dog poop will we find garbage bags strewn along the interstate in disposal of the chicken droppings and if they don't keep their little farm clean what will be my options and peaceful enjoyment of my property despite the what The Advocates are saying chicken poop smells and chickens are noisy most cities who have rescinded their chicken zoning it was due to to disputes in the neighborhoods um we have many tight neighborhoods with small fences and so chickens could actually get over a fence and there's always a risk of disease um in 2020 there was three let's see Salam salmonella breakouts linked to backyards resulting in the hospitalization of 333 people with 24% of ill people being children under five so yes there is a risk with disease um see in other areas around Poria I mean East Poria has rescinded theirs and they're looking at um you know considering a pilot project for conservation zones on the periphery of the property that might be a better thing to look at for Poria um I simply lack that faith that people would take the responsibility to adequately care for or handle the cost of raising chickens um you know chickens produce less than one EG for two hens you know for 3 to four years so basically okay I'm about out of time here but you know I just ask that you look carefully at all these things and consider the people who don't want chickens I mean I don't know that I want chicken coop next to me you know and I don't want if I ever wanted to sell my home I wouldn't have to worry about that either and so I just think it's something you need to you know there would have to be neighbor thank you yeah thank [Applause] you I didn't even know this was on the agenda um but uh I wanted to speak about it because I'm the president of the Union that uh the code enforcement uh people are a part of and when councilwoman Jackson and councilman riggenbach both say that code enforcement is under staff that's an understatement code enforcement was probably the hardest Department in the city hit by the budget cuts the unnecessary budget cuts that went through an '08 10 18 and as a result we have code enforcement people that are covering twice as much territory as they did before sometimes three times as much territory as they did before and the city Prides itself on the fact that it's gotten done more with less because that's what cities do but for my members it means they work longer they work more they cannot get two things and so the concern that adding more stuff to their workload is a valid one um and I think it's one that you should investigate by letting City staff come up with proposals and what this would mean and things like that and for the people that support this I want to point out that one of the reasons why this might not be able to be possible is because the city of Poria won't fund public services to the way that champagne does or the way Elgen does or the way Kaki does or the way Rockford does where they have government agencies that can handle these things I deal with peaps every day in my job as a 911 dispatcher they have office hours 8 to 5 if you have an animal emergency after five it's very very limited on what they'll come out for they won't come out for straight dogs they won't come out for a dog roaming the streets they won't come out for wild animals that are not in the main resident areas of your house like a raccoon gets in your basement they won't come out for that so these intergovernmental agreements that we signed that took public services that we provided and gave them to the county maybe we need to investigate if that's the best bank for the buck as opposed to when we did it ourselves and so I those concerns are valid and my members I will weigh in with my members as to what they think about that but I think the bigger picture is is we've admitted that we don't fund public services to the level where we can do anything more than what we're doing and we admit that we can't even do what we're doing now and that to me is the far bigger problem than whether or not I my my partner and my daughter live in Rogers Park in Chicago there are people with chicken coops in the area and if they take care of them it's fine there was a neighbor who didn't and it was a problem but that's the same with dogs you know are there people that do this diligently for 20 years and they raise hands yes are there people that do this because this was the latest thing they saw on an Instagram thing and then six months later when they see a new Instagram thing that's what they switch to absolutely so I'm agnostic on whether or not chickens are allowed in pure I am very much not agnostic about the members of my union being asked to do more things with less money and the same number of people and we continue and continue and continue to do that when Staffing levels now are a fraction of what they were in 2008 and we have a larger City where we're asking us to do more stuff all the time so if you can make it work out I'm for it but if this is just another thing of like uh like you said councilwoman Jackson you actually have usually you have a code enforcement and two AIDS so if that Code Enforcement Officers now asked to regulate the chicken CPS as well as all the other stuff and there's not another code person brought in that that's not fair to my members that's not fair to the people of the city of Poria and it's not fair to the idea that public services should be provided at an efficient and high quality way so thank you next person hello my name is Natasha Zinda and I am a small business owner and I also live in the Uplands which is one of those uh historic neighborhoods you guys were speaking on on earlier Legacy neighborhood I believe it was called so obviously I'm here in favor hence the colorful outfit I'm here to speak on some things that really haven't been touched on and I hope y'all bear with me I'm a little bit nervous today I stand before you guys to discuss an initiative that has the power to transform our community in profound and Lasting ways backyard chicken initiatives who' have thought while it may seem like a smallscale solution with kind of big scale Nuance problems that I feel like may seem bigger than they actually are the implications of promoting backyard chickens for food sovereignity and racial Equity are vast and deeply significant it is essential particularly for our city of Pia Illinois and how it can address issues of food deserts impact crime rates and enhance mental health food sovereignity is about the right for communities to control their own food systems including their methods of production and distribution it's a movement towards local sustainable food sources that Empower residents and reduce dependency on external and often inequitable food supply chains often since Co unreliable as well for Peoria this means enabling all residents regardless of income or race to have access to Fresh nutritious food racial equity and food access is crucial in Purity in puia there are Stark disparities that exist between different neighborhoods according to recent statistics because I know we have a lot of numbers fans approximately 19.6% are significant racial disparities for African-Americans it's nearly 40% these economic inequity inequities manifest in limited access to healthy food options which are often more prevalent and predominantly white and more affluent neighborhoods backyard chicken initiatives offer a step towards closing the Gap by providing a means for self-sufficiency and access to high quality things food deserts which Poria once became in 2009 have limited access to Affordable and nutritious Foods hence all the Dollar Generals little markets they sell you a bunch of prepackaged stuff with a bunch of preservatives those things make people really unhealthy it caus a lot of health issues backs up our health system and on and on and on it climbs everything is kind of related approximately 30% of Peoria's residents live in a food desert now impacting their ability to maintain healthy diets by promoting backyard chickens we mitigate the effects of these food deserts it's the beginning things like the wonderful amount of Community Gardens that we have do great work too especially with our unhoused community chickens are relatively easy to care for and they provide a reliable source of food this can be particularly beneficial for lowincome families who struggle to afford food Studies have shown a correlation between Community engagement and positive activities in reduction in crime rates Peoria's crime rates are wild I'm from a very small town of Mississippi I moved here two years ago with a hope and a dream to live in a really Progressive and kind place and I have loved living here when individuals invest their time and effort into caring for where their food comes from they also invest their time and effort into their Community the way that we're all being civically engaged right now it helps build and Foster those types of relationships things that I know that you as city council probably cherish even though we do tend to wax a little poetic at times moreover vibrant engaged communities experience lower crime rates and lower substance abuse rates as well because they Foster environments where neighbors look out for each other and they build strong social networks the hunger and income gaps in Peoria are Stark 20% of the residents here are below the poverty line and are experiencing food access issues with 10% of those being children I really really think if you guys are looking into this you really look at it from like a top down approach a pilot program access for us to be able to donate and give excess eggs to the porch pantry and things that really provide and give to our community the people that are looking at this and the people that will invest in this are very much people that are community-minded and will do the right thing thank you for your time you're welcome [Applause] thank you Council and Madame mayor I am coming to speak to you because I am a fan of backyard chickens and that's why I'm vehemently opposed to the petition as it stands I had addressed uh letter to council at large and Madame mayor and my councilman Chuck Graham because I don't think the petition is a serious petition the petition calls for a chicken Coupe to be no closer than 10 feet from the neighbors and if you can imagine say where councilwoman Dr Bernice Gordon young is sitting if that's where she was sleeping would she really want a chicken Coupe where councilman Oiler is sitting or if councilman graab his bedroom window was only 10 feet from councilman Kelly I think that the feces and the animal waste and the animal feed are going to draw cockroaches and rats like a magnet um I live at 331 Fulton apartment uh 331 Fulton apartment in 11:07 across the street I have been fighting an intractable poop problem that has been persistent for the better part of I don't know two decades and just when I think I've got it solved we've got mut mitts dispensed in my building and we've got most of my neighbors on board to pick up poop trust and believe there are two or three who will make things miserable for everyone we even um credit to manager urick for finding funding for the uh Community mini grants one of the mini grants was to pick up poop on the Plaza because poop is a problem contrary to popular belief yes it does spread disease you have uh a biologist uh extraordinary extraordinaire here in councilman Vespa ask him exactly um what was the spreader of the plague never mind bird flu um I think that if allowed it would have to be permitted and just like East Poria I saw that the disingenuous petition that was circulated online implied that he's porow chickens they don't they have precisely 10 for a population of 23,000 people puia proper is a city of what 115,000 people that is a really densely urban area to bring in a lot of feces a lot of feed a lot of food waste a lot of feathers especially in places that are already experienced in problems with um rodents I hear that it's been pitched as a way to feed our families it's going to cost somebody a couple $3,000 before they get their first egg the expenses uh chicken maath the expenses for feed the expenses of additional electricity running extension cords out to the garage to um heat the water so it doesn't freeze this is not something that's going to solve a food desert problem this is a a very expensive hobby if someone wants to take it on and I think it quickly can become a nuisance if not managed properly I think that um the petition as it stands should be denied and without uh enforcement where it's not just a matter of finding someone if you become a nuisance for your neighbors and they need to start paying for pest control because you're bringing rats and cockroaches into the backyard of everyone um I think that uh the consideration needs to be taken that permits will be um remanded or taken away if you can't keep things clean and you you end up being a nuisance for your neighbors thank you for your consideration thank [Applause] you hello Council um my name is Alex Carmona moved here from Colorado about five years ago uh I don't really want to stand up here and talk to you about chicken stats or anything like that we had chickens they're easy to care for um it's uh you can find a lot of different information on both sides but I want to come at this from a different approach um my family owned chickens in three different homes throughout our city back in Colorado the simple permitting process only required obtaining consent from our immediate neighbors I'm here to remind the council that issues concerning private property and mutual agreements between Consulting adults should not fall under the purview of government control or regulation when natural rights are not being violated heard a lot of concerns uh from everybody around here valid concerns of course uh about the lack of enforcement and oversight the city is capable of at this time I'm here to remind the council that it is not here to act as a as a paternalistic body that has to watch over its citizens at all times that a free Society need not look up to its rulers and ask permission for the right of property when it is already outlined by the supreme law of the land the council need not concern itself with OverWatch of its citizens when there are already processes in place that are built into our system to adjudicate disputes between neighbors and individuals um there's a petition there's a lot of people that are for this some that aren't for it um and I would just say that um recommend this to at least move forward to do further research uh would be advised if you're looking at this from a governmental standpoint and from a standpoint of you all as Leaders listening to your community thank [Applause] you uh Christine Bearer uh want to thank my husband James keer for speaking I'd be a Miss if I didn't apologize for my attire just left the Poria program where we did bring 85 people into Poria to support children's hospital and these people are actually like spending their money in the Poria County so I'm really excited about that um James and there's been a lot of things that come that have been spoken but first I want to acknowledge everyone that took the time to just have a phone call with me and uh James and others uh last night in the last few days my my point on this really is I feel like and this is a feeling um but we we have a tendency to say know a lot of times and not necessarily figure out how we can work with our community um have you as you've heard from Kim and um from Alex and these other individuals that are moving in I would like to find um a workable agreement where we can work with these individuals and give a win to these Advocates that are coming to Poria that are taxpayers that are investing in historic homes in our neighborhoods uh is there an opportunity where where the neighborhood councils and our HOAs could potentially mandate what's happening in their neighborhoods for chickens I love the idea of this being able to create a community talk to your neighbor to your left and your right is this okay I know there was a a statement about 10 feet I believe that it's been moved to 20 feet there's a workable way without saying no to making this an opportunity for those that really want this opportunity in their backyard um that's really all I wanted to say thank you guys you're [Applause] welcome my name's Michael live out in the Vista neighborhood Miss Jackson uh wherever she want to she need to clean our mailbox so she can get some telephone calls in but anyway uh I'm a homeowner out in the visist area neighborhood I've been on farms I've lived on farms chickens are not chickens are farm animal they're not zoned for here in here in town we don't we don't need chickens in town town we don't need farm animals in town if I want to live on a farm I'll move to a farm I want my house in town I want the value of my house going down because of chickens we don't need chickens in town next person um good evening members of the council my name is Jackson web and I live in the Uplands uh I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight about what backer chickens mean to the community of Poria over the past few months we've attended many farmers markets events and festivals where we've had a booth dedicated to discussing chickens one of the remarkable things I've noticed is how people's eyes light up when we talk about chickens these aren't just animals to many chickens are beloved pets we've met people eager to share stories about their flocks from previous homes each bird with its own name personality and quirks the joy Pride on their faces when they speak about the chickens or similar to how people talk about their grandchildren or dogs and cats it's clear these people SC that these birds are deeply loved some people would tell us about the secret chicken coops in their backyards and they shared how they exchange eggs with neighbors who in turn share vegetables from their Gardens and how these exchanges have helped Foster a strong sense of community and connections among neighbors others Express excitement at the prospect of keeping chickens once more having been told for so long that it wasn't possible for many the idea of having these Cherish Pets in the backyards again was really exciting in talking with the community we've also heard from individuals struggling financially who see keeping chickens as a way to reduce her grocery bills others felt frustrated that they couldn't use their own property as they wish the feedback we've received about chickens has been overwhelming positive which has been heartwarming to hear I myself work at local bakery and since the chicken petition began making the rounds the topic of chickens has come up frequently in conversation we have a farmer who brings us four dozen eggs every couple of weeks in exchange for a pie and some cookies he let talk about his chickens and this exchange is just an example of how chickens can help build a sensitive Community my experiences and conversation with the community have shown me the positive impact that backer chickens can have with almost 2,000 signatures supporting this initiative I believe allowing backyard chickens in Poria will bring many benefits to our community say yes to making a motion to bring forward with the next [Applause] step is there one more good evening I'm jessemine Hill lives in 61614 I am here wearing yellow I'm in solidarity and in support of raising chickens in the city of Peoria why race chickens four reasons reason number one because Peoria south of Forest Hill Avenue is a food desert with the exception of hadad's grocery the fresh Asian market and all these convenience stores popping up like a bad case of pimples selling hot chips and colored sugar water the food desert problem began in this town in 2009 when the campus Town saveal lot closed followed by Cub Foods on Knoxville and then in 2018 Kroger closed the East Bluff and Southside locations and that led to folks having to travel 10 to 20 minutes to Bartonville East Poria or north of Forest Hill to buy food or they have to depend on rations from the food pantries once a month reason number two we have plenty of empty lots where houses once stood a property owner who lives next to a lot that used to have a house on there they can come downtown here to the township assessor's office and buy all or part of that lot Annex it to their property and build a chicken cpop reason number three food shortages and supply chain issues even after that heck hole called the covid-19 pandemic shelves are still getting empty for example I went to the Sterling Bazaar Kroger and their shelves for the produce and bread they were nearly empty thus meaning families will have to wait until morning or next week for the trucks to bring in food from the distribution centers reason number four raising chickens in the city is educational I bet you a percentage of City Slickers still think eggs and other Whole Foods come from the store wrong they come from rural and urban Farms raising chickens in the city teaches children about agriculture and where food really comes from in addition I understand why the zoning commission would want input from Animal Control because they think someone could smuggle in a rooster or someone might abandon and neglect a flock of chickens leading to figure out where to place them with the power of social media groups chickens can be rehomed the last thing we would want to hear in terms of input from Animal Control would probably be something like we have too many dogs and cats in our shelters and we don't have room for some stupid chickens it's just a thought as for homeowners associations they have have their own rules on just about anything and if they don't want chickens then that's their choice and as for any of the kirens who are complaining in regards to Wildlife you ever heard of squirrels white-tailed deer pigeons and woodchucks and songbirds and the concern about bird flu that the sensationalist fear-mongering mass media is spreading that disease is due to factory farms where chickens are kept in concentration camps like conditions crowded together never breathing fresh air or seeing the light of day or feasting on bugs and worms free range backyard chickens won't need to worry about bird flu so I'd say if Kroger High ve IGA and these corporate owned grocery chains don't want to open in working class poor neighborhoods then we peorian can take back Main Street so I hope mayor and city council that you take everything my myself and everybody else says into consideration to pass this ordinance to encourage Urban farming healthy eating solving the food desert crisis and making Peoria a wonderful place and unique place to live PS did you know during World War II the federal government encouraged all Americans to grow their own food they called them Victory Gardens now fast forward it seems like the government doesn't want us to be independent they want us to live off of hot chips and color sugar water thank you evening thank you all for your time my name is Josh hunt I live at 3:15 West Westwood uh I appreciate your time tonight you've heard a lot from a lot of us and I uh how do I say this I I empathize for you uh if this isn't a topic you love that you're still sitting here and listening to us I do appreciate that um and you know as I'm sitting here reflecting on this I have my reasons I want chickens obviously uh ultimately I I lived in Dallas where they're illegal I've raised chickens uh some of the things you're hearing here about the negatives of chickens I would say are overblown or in some cases false but I can't convince you of that any more than I can convince some of the other people so ultimately you know you've heard discussions about poop in apartment buildings which isn't really M of this proposal you've heard concerns about uh are they going to be running wild and all I can say is if I go to all this work to have chickens in my yard and following the guidelines there's no way I'm going to let these these Critters run wild my kids will give me so much grief I have five little kids I don't want to explain that to them why they're chickens missing it's not happening so I just want to encourage you all uh that some of these concerns are valid and important but uh the degree to which you might be stressing about them uh I just want to encourage you to calm down internally a little bit about that and and really the bigger part do the work of governing is what I would ask so I can appreciate if it's something you're not familiar with I would just simply ask that you um you know there's a a crowd here and and you ultimately are in your shoes not mine and I'm not in yours but I would just ask that you do the weird bizarre work of City governing and learn about chicken life to whatever degree you need to to make an informed decision so that at the end of the day you can feel confident in knowing well how many Chi how many eggs does a chicken actually make not what that guy in yellow said or the guy who wasn't in yellow said or how much do they smell how loud are they um really my ask is for that uh additionally I would just say I've I worked in public schools previously high schools uh in a previous line of work and I'm in a a public facing role now with I I see all parts of the city all sorts of young people and there's a theme that I don't love and I know pure's got a lot of great things going for it also some things that you know with eyes open we can say we could improve on and one of the refrains that makes me a little leery is this idea that I have to go somewhere else to live the life I want to live or to do the things I want to do to open the business I want to open or chase whatever ambition you know in uh high schoolers particularly at that age where they're deciding what's my next destination what's my my vision for life and I don't want you know I I like I said five little kids I want them to grow up and think Pur is awesome and I can I can go after the things I want to accomplish right here I don't need to move to Chicago or Denver or Austin I don't I don't want that for my kids um so yes this is a silly little topic like chickens but for some people it's a bigger topic and I think it's emblematic of this discuss we ought to consider more frequently of what is our vision for Peoria is it a place where people can pursue their weird goofy Hobbies even if they're not my hobbies uh but in a way that's respectful of their neighbors and that builds Community or is it a place where uh that's not really conventional so we're just going to be a no um again I'm just asking you to do the the research on your end to learn more about it so that you can make that choice uh in a way that that honors that Vision that each of you have for the reason you ran for the position you're in now thank you thank you all thank you all for your [Applause] feedback we appreciate your your expressions and thoughts Council me council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor well there was a lot of convincing going on wasn't there um I think for me I'm not prepared to say yes or no tonight to be totally honest and I would suggest that we take 30 days till the next meeting in July to get out to our neighborhood associations to hear what the HOAs say to see what the people to our right and our left say about it um there's some really good information information here that we've been provided and I think before we instruct staff to go into it we as the council need to get a feel of what the temperature is in the community and hear what our our constituents really are are interested in I mentioned this at an HOA meeting last night and got kind of a muted response and if that's the way it is in 30 days fine but I think we owe it to ourselves as as council members to to take it to the street if you will and see what the folks say so I would move to receive and file this this um communication and bring it back in at the second meeting of July for further action is there a second seconded by council member velpula and if I might quickly add and and to instruct staff to take no further action at this time amended uh action okay I do have a question question uh Mr manager is it possible to put an estimated cost to an ordinance like this and not now but in 30 days is it is it possible or or is that taking a lot of well it it'll take some staff time to do that I mean in order for us to really look and analyze this to talk to other peers uh and then come to a a better estimate it'll take staff time to do it certainly um but we can come back to you in 30 days with some estimates on what that cost would be okay that would be I think that would be helpful I know it's a little bit different from your motion but I think knowing the estimated cost is important to council absolutely so any other comments questions Dr uh uh council member Gordon young thank you madam mayor um I want to thank everyone who for coming out to discuss chickens tonight we chuckle about it but it gave me an opportunity to sort of go down memory lane um where most Summers uh my family traveled to Slayton Texas to visit my family who had chicken farms or chickens raising chickens um and in that thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman the way the motion was worded I'm not I had my light on to talk about the topic I'm not sure if this is technically a deferral and whether I should continue that or if [Music] we it's not a deferral no he's just he he said receive and file he did say receive and file and bring it back in 30 days for further no I can make that one motion I think it needs to be two or one or the other or something but if I'm calling point of order I want to make sure I know exactly what I'm talking about here and I'm not sure what I'm talking about you want you want to receive and file and then ask to well it is kind of a deferral but I bring that up in new business appropriate Corporation coun Council Hayes what's your recommendation well I certainly think that if the motion if councilman rig out wants to stand on the receiving file and then bring a new matter up under new business that'd be appropriate and within our rules I think the confusion is that a motion to defer which is sort of looks like has some other additional rules under the city council rules so I think councilman Oiler has made an excellent suggestion to get what councilman riggenbach wants I'm confused okay your motion stands that your motion stands at receive and file with the request to revisit this in 30 days Days yeah that was seconded by Council yeah councilman velpula councilman Oiler I'm just to save my questions for these fine folks in a private setting thank you all right council member graab well this is um a night where um the council people want to defer everything they don't want to vote anything up or down I don't know what we're going to learn in 30 days um by just going out to whatever neighborhoods we have that might be having a meeting in June a lot of neighborhoods don't have meetings in June or even July one thing I pick up when I talk to the people who are in favor of this is their passion for our community and they seem to have more restrictive attitudes than I could ever even imagine they've done a lot of research on this so you know I'm glad we listen to him a little bit tonight but eventually we got to get act together and say Yes No Maybe limitations whatever but everything's just deferred tonight I don't get it I I think that that it's analysis paralysis is what I think it is analysis paralysis and I'm not even sure that we're going to be getting much of anything additional back I think St needs to get some information for us tonight that's what I think staff should do and as I've told my constituents some kind of regulatory architecture that would work or maybe it wouldn't work but I don't think it hurts to look into it and some of the people who are here are here because they love Poria some of them come from other cities they don't want to live in other cities I pick up on that passion and I think that's something that's all too frequently lacking in our city and so I commend the people who are here but heck I don't know how many neighborhood meetings I'm going to have before we reconvene but I'll tell you what in one night I learned more from three or four of the people who are out there just by listening to them and some of their thoughts than from our staff so I think it's time for our staff to weigh in why not what are we going to learn in a month when most of our neighborhood associations aren't meeting anyway councilman I think what 30 days does certainly for me it gives more time to simmer this information to to absorb this information we I mean we got some emails uh maybe some calls from individuals related to this but I I think that we heard from probably 15 people tonight um who spoke to the issue and I I you know I would really like to know the cost estimated cost how much capacity is required for something like this because it seems like a huge undertaking of code enforcement and facilities and I want want to know what's all involved and we don't know that tonight well I did ask if they could come back in 30 days with an estimated cost that will take some effort um sorry should be put on a cost uh basis there are some intangible things like people who are enthusiastic about living here I would say this when it's all said and done what do you want to bet there aren't that many folks who would like to do this but those who do let's see if there's a way we can accommodate them I I I really predict that I think most the people in District 2 or all over the city as a represented everybody in the city at one time or the other wouldn't want to do this but is there a way that we can accommodate those who do and add to their quality of life um anyway not you know I it's just been analysis paralysis tonight and it's very frustrating to see this this great counil tied up in knots like this on this and other issues thank you you're welcome council member rbot thank you madam mayor I I'm purposely not deferring this but let's be honest this information is something that has been filling our email box for last couple weeks we've never talked about this as a body until tonight so I'm not no disrespect for anybody out there I I agree the passion is is palatable but we we need to talk about that as the policy makers for a minute before we run into this with a an investment which will take some dollars from the city so so I think I I don't want to be seen as obstructionist in any way but I think we owe it to have some dialogue amongst ourselves before we direct staff which way to go so that's my intention so I hope that was that comes across thank you madam May yes you're welcome council member Kelly thank you madam mayor um maybe I'm beinga a dead horse we we're looking at receiving and filing there isn't something that we are deferring what is it that we're deferring we're not deferring anything okay we we are taking uh 30 days to talk talk it over Etc okay um which to me should have been in new business but it isn't so i' I'd like to call the question even though we've got two things two different motions in the motion okay are you speaking to this councilman oer does he need a second to call the question oh I need a second well then I can go on with what I wanted to talk about because there's no second okay is there a second seconded by council member SE council member Oiler he's seconded so I can't talk about it okay rules okay we going recall the question please cast your ballots motion passes with one nay grup council member Gordon Young no oh I thought I voted okay okay I thought okay all right Madam clerk do it if I could for clarity was that motion on the call to question or was that vote should I say was that vote on the call of the question or was that vote on the receiving file that vote was on the calling the question so now we have to have the vote on the receiving file please cast your ballots motion passes with one nay grup thank you thank you so we are at unfinished business do we have any unfinished business I have one unfinish business item and that's that the uh application date for accepting applications for the interim Treasurer position has been extended until July 21st that's a Sunday July 21st to allow more time to receive uh qualified applications is there any other unfinished business Clark then we are at new business is there any new business council member Reagan Bach thank you madam mayor you know we talk a lot about our staff and how much we appreciate the work they do and the efforts that they put in day in and day out well one of our staff members is going to be celebrating her 25th anniversary with the city this week so assistant director Leah Allison if you would stand to be recognized [Applause] we we have those t-shirts we appreciate appreciate pure well Leah Allison we appreciate everything you do for us day in and day out thank you very much thank you beautiful council member Allan uh thank you madam mayor uh a notice will go out but a friendly reminder uh because of the holiday next uh Thursday Independence Day I will be cancelling my monthly coffee wi constituents which is held on the first Thursday of the month at Panera Bread and Westlake Shopping Center so notice will go out and I'll also post it on my social media but just wanted to put that out there to the listening audience I'm not sure if Panera is open next Thursday so if you still want to take the risk uh you can go but unfortunately I will not be able to join you and will'll reconvene in August thank you you're welcome also under new business the PE Area Chamber of Commerce will host the annual state of the city event this Thursday June the 27th at 5:30 p.m.

it will be held at Haven on the farm uh event facility council member gr thank you uh the next time I know you guys are tired of hearing me say this but the next time we meet as a body it'll be after the 4th of July okay before we have all the crises that uh we're going to have uh with incendiary devices that are being blown off in the city perhaps you superintendent of police Eric aaria could give a little overview on what the police department expects from our citizens and I'll tell you what I expect I expect a lot of us should be enjoying probably one of the very best fireworks in the entire State Chicago is not even having fireworks this year and we're going to probably have 200,000 people and I hope it's as orderly as it was last year on both sides of the Illinois River uh Chief uh you know every year we go through this and uh I want you to to lay down the law and what's expected especially in our densely populated neighborhoods where chickens could be a problem well well obviously fireworks are illegal and you could be fine for for doing it um so we we kindly ask that and and I and I recently said this to the media is remember what Fourth of July is and we have many veterans who suffer from PTSD who have far for this country and uh during that time may be hiding or shivering or or going through a moment because of the loud booms and we also have animals that may include chickens right that may be scared of the fireworks but most poorly dogs right that we hear about so don't do it it's illegal and you could be fined Chief uh we have these uh people who set up their stands in the county especially are we checking those to be sure they're not selling things that are wholly illegal in the state of Illinois I mean I know we're short on staff and we we were really surprised at how much all right if it's in the county that's going to be the Sheriff's Office and obviously we're in contact with the sheriff if we see anything within the city we'll obviously respond to that and take a look and see what's going on yeah we all want to be Patriots on the 4th of July but we don't want to be blowing up our neighborhoods and doing EX exactly what you said we don't need people showing up at the hospital emergency room without a hand or without or blinded and things of that nature and that's why I'm saying it now because Fourth of July is coming up and I don't know about you guys the other district council members but I get calls about the amount of pyrotechnics going on and the sheer power of some of them it sounds like a blast you're likelier to hear in a war zone yes sir and and that's not legal it's not and and the biggest problem we have with controlling that Chief is we have States all around us where people can travel to get this stuff and then they can surreptitiously bring it into the county and we can't police it the way we would like to we do the best we can but I I just hope this year is on a par with what it was last year whatever you did last year Chief it seemed to make things a whole lot better than the previous years and I appreciate your efforts thank you thank you any other new business Adam Clark we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council we have quite a few cards uh everybody may not still be here though but the first is uh Michael Peterson is Mr Peterson still here uh line King good evening my name is lorine King I live in pure Illinois I frequently don't attend Council meetings in person unless it's a special event however I still strive to keep up with discussions and decisions that are made around the Horseshoe because I like to be an Engaged and an informed citizen on June 11th I stayed over after the juneth proclamation to support the report of the two co-chairs of the racial Justice and Equity Commission because I'm a member of one of the subcommittees after the report was done one councilman made a remark where he stated racism is not no real big deal I thought I was experiencing a cognitive deficit so I set up straighter to listen more intently and a voice inside me said said what he's saying is a really big deal and I can't miss a word of this I was on the edge of my seat as the council began to espouse the benefits of the Jim Crow era and to my shrin my thoughts drifted to the head of one of the highly populated southern states where City citizens were told that slavery was beneficial to blacks those who know me know that I volunteer a great deal in the community and so I still had to make time to respond to these remarks I cannot shake my head and walk away so I want everyone who's in the sound of my voice to know that racism is and always has been a real big deal especially those of us who've had to experience it I was born into it I powered through it as a civil rights activist and occasionally I encounter it second the comments he made that appeared to be telling us that black families Thrive during the Dre Crow eror because the percentage of black marriage rates were higher than the majority of marriage RS in the US and there were few unwar mothers if any group of people has been enslaved separated from their biological families had relatives and children taken from them to go on the shopping block of course once they are no longer enslaved they're going to cling to each other and want to be together so I just want if any of you especially black children black adults think being free from slavery made everything hunor or you feeling lacad isical or just playing lazy I'm begging you take off your grave clothes and come to attention and put on the full armor of God CU this fight is not one that's fought with guns or bombs but it's about equality opportunity and fairness there was nothing positive about being black during the era of Jim Crow the laws were collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation for about a 100 years and Were Meant to marginalize African-Americans or black people by denying them to right to vote hold jobs get an education eat out go to Parks get medical care ride the train go to ball games and on the list goes on these laws were to functionally strip us of freedoms granted by the 13th 14th and 15th amendment laws that took blacks from enslavement to indenture servitude with the same objective maintaining them in a state of inferiority sound familiar in 2024 those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws faced arrests fines jail sentences violence and death some who try to make you feel nostalgic about Jim Crow may attempt to justify their perspective with a very narrow Viewpoint about black marriages that did not result in increased wealth well-being or income for those couples those who try to lute you into thinking blacks were more conservative we were conservative but not by the definitions that are utilized today to the argument about whether disparities is a cause or Effect one citation I read stated Health disparities are an underlying cause of many medical disorders vulnerable populations are affected disproportionately because of race income Etc in order not to get bogged down with nomenclature I hope that we can agree that racism disparities and Jim Crow laws all serve to diminish the positive outlook and potential for targeted citizens in our Nations so councilman disparities racism and laws can be changed with intentional policies and behavior you said you wanted the commission to bring you root causes and not symptoms so this Civic body can adjust them you sounded sincere so I even though I disagree with your perspectives so therefore as a member of the joint Commission on Race racial Justice and and Equity I invite Council McKelly to Advocate and assist this commission by talking with us contining this conversation to help clarify what you're looking for to help the commission help you get a better understanding of our perspectives in a civil matter the period Branch NAACP and our executive committee we welcome you to be a guest at what my our monthly informational meetings we're all stakeholders in this city and county of puia we work best when we work together toward the common good thank you mayor thank you Council people and thank you staff for allowing me to speak in this [Applause] forum I don't see him here uh Devin sidor Lawrence Mard thank you very much I just want to applaud the lady who just spoke and I want to I want to say before I even start please please consider about putting the public comment at the beginning of the meeting you know it seems like there's some intentionality involved here to try to actually push you know the public it's been three hours three plus hours which I know you all know so please consider changing the format um I'm here my name is Lawrence Mard I live in the East Bluff proudly so 710 East Arcadia and I'm here as a founder of Poria for Palestine again we want to be here to let the city of Peoria know that we are not going away that our issue has gotten only worse since February when we were all here and all very much involved with what we want to address which is a ceasefire in Gaza a resolution from the Poria city council now I'm very aware of what the good uh drct mayor Ali said at the time but I think things have changed like I said things are much much worse even the president of the United States sponsored a security Council a un Security Council resolution a measure for an immediate ceasefire I think that the public is behind us very strongly on this and we're looking at this from a human rights point of view now when we brought this issue to the mayor's office and to other people people earlier this year there was some folks who said well you know where were you folks when uh the other things were going on in our society like black lives matter you know where where were you folks and I I want to say this that we are Pur for Palestine is first and foremost a human rights issue it's a human rights organization and myself my partner all of my allies we were very involved with black lives matter when the uprising started you know in in 2020 we were part of the two huge peaceful rallies in Peoria no one had ever seen those kind of demonstrations we were part of the black black live of the black Trans lives matter rally here in Peoria not only that we were involved with the black lives matter rallies peaceful rallies in peacon Illinois uh a legacy uh A Sundown Legacy Town with all of all of that baggage that goes with that we were there not once but twice and then a third time when the Grassroots people the human rights Community stood up and said no we are not going to allow the suppression of these things to go unchallenged and we did this in Bloomington and we did this in mome okay so we have been with the oppressed at home and abroad for for a very long time this is something that the massacres go on nightly daily and we want to get Poria on the record as supporting a lasting durable and permanent ceasefire in Gaza just like the president wants please consider this thank you very much Anthony wall Raven I probably should should have sent you guys an email to be honest um my name is Anthony wall Raven I live at 90 9309 North Northview imp Poria president of the city employees union I came here to thank you guys for appointing Jacob uh Russell to the library board um which was done in a collaborative process where members of this Council engaged with the union and we put forth a candidate that we believed has experienced with the library which is rare as you guys kind of found out and who is passionate about the role of the library in the community and my union feels that that kind of collaboration between us and you could benefit the other boards that directly involve us such as the PHA and a few others so I want to commend the council members that attended meetings with us the ones that we're going to and then we had issues uh C Dr Young Council vesa councilman Allen councilman graab I know that councilman Oiler and councilman riggenbach and councilwoman Jackson had stuff lined up and you know obviously stuff happens but I want to thank you for that because that is the kind of collaboration that I think will make for a better Library System I also want to thank the city staff which is something that as a union president I don't probably do but we had an issue with our back pay um it turns out it hadn't been calculated properly according to the fair labor standards act and I want to commend City staff both in the finance department and human relations and legal we resolving that issue very promptly and fairly for not just my members but my retired members and union members across the city I think it was up to 600 some odd people will be getting a check on Friday day in total of10 over $180,000 so I want to thank City staff for handling that issue equitably and fairly and and and resolving it fairly quickly I I know the amount of hours that went into figuring that but it had to be resolved because the law was broken not intentionally just through an oversight to Pivot as we all know the grocery tax is expiring January 1st of 202 is it 2026 I'm sorry and count the city manager was uh interviewed by wcbu earlier this month and said that that will provide a $4 million hole in the budget and that you guys have until January 1st 2026 to come up with a solution for that I propose you just pass a lot a grocery tax of 1% that goes in effect right when the state one ends which is not a tax increase because we're all already paying it rather or come up with another Revenue source that provides $4 million a year to the city budget but to pretend that that is a tax increase when it's what we already pay and to pretend that the state did this when they merely acted as a pass through to get that money back to us is unacceptable uh $4 million hole in the budget will bring us back to the bad old days of not only just laying off my my members but laying off police fire closing stations cutting Public Services there is no other way around that a 4 million dollar year hole in the budget will devastate city services we have 18 months 24 months to come up with a a solution but that solution is not going to be it cannot be layoff members Furlow Furlow workers cut Public Services I think the simplest one is just to pass which we all know as a home rule City we can do pass the 1% grocery tax that would take effect the day the current one ends but what can't happen guys this happen so often in peia and most of you weren't on the city council is in November of 2025 nothing has been done and then it's like well do we cut a firehouse or do we cut police officers or do we cut code enforcement or do we cut the number of plow truck drivers that's that's not acceptable we have two years but I just wanted to I haven't heard anyone mention that that was an option in the media but yeah we have the power as a home rule City to just keep that tax going the tax wasn't ended the state just isn't going to be the pass through for it anymore so I beseech you come up with something quick that way everyone knows what's going on my members don't have to worry about Job Cuts or service cuts and you guys can move on to other issues like the chickens so thank you very much I have to go to work have a good [Applause] night Estella Diaz Estella Diaz H A Car good evening and I know we're bringing this heavy topic to the end of a long meeting we appreciate your listening to us um we've been in this chamber before but things have changed since for us we we we think of a 76 brutal years since the nakba the catastrophe and here we are again in another NABA with no end in sight and absolutely no accountability for the occupier the perpetrator and the aggressor the nakba as you know is when the Palestinian land was taken over by a zealot minority at that time and became the country of Israel on you know on the land of Palestine so the genocide is ongoing 8 months and our country continue to be full partner in this genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza the last number our com our country is sending to Israel is 26 billion billion with a be of our tax dollars 14 of them are are weapons including 2,000 lb bombs a doctor who was in Gaza recently he told us that children were coming to the hospital dead but they looked like they are sleeping there are no external injuries their internals were shattered just by the violence of the explosions and I tell you from personal experience not even close to this but kind of that the sounds of these explosions and the sounds of jet fighters are the most horrific sounds you will ever ever hear so our tax dollars in support of the Israeli genocidal War if used internally would provide our state of Illinois of a couple of billion our city of Poria can receive close to $2 million yet murdering civilians in Gaza and the West Bank and Starving Children to an excruciating death seems to be more worthy cause for our government after all Netanyahu ordered us to pay Netanyahu is really despicable barbaric war criminal destined for prison in his own country and in war time crime tribunal if ever a law is applied he will be visiting our country to give a talk to the Senate joint session of the senate in towards the end of July and as we all watch all of our highly elected officials stand to kiss his hand and applaud him bazillion times remember that will be a very low point for our country very low point that a war criminal is addressing our Senate I want to say also that our children in schools in in universities showed us actually The Bravery in standing up for human rights for for the freedom of speech for what's right and this is an example for all of us I want to say also that their steadfastness gave me hope and we know that the tide is Shifting the youth is requiring us to speak up to talk about a Humanity to oppose genocide to oppose investing in genocidal Wars and and um for us I want to really beseech you to speak up against the genocide to oppose it to be for human rights to be for justice that's all we need Justice your voice that will tell this is a grassroot movement in every city in every town and Urbana passed a city council meeting but nothing no no division on the in the town happened and no battled insued it can be done it's the right thing to do we really appreciate your time thank you Adam K Adam I don't know if I should say good night or good evening because we're about to go to sleep um so obviously we're back again and we're going to keep coming back and one big thing that I've been getting I've spoken to City Council Members all the way up to Chicago and down to St Louis and the main thing I get when people talk to me about what's the ceasefire going to do it's not a local issue I mean are we going to have to wait until it becomes a local issue if we look at what happened in Chicago uhi a six-year-old boy who got stabbed 20 times by his landlord why he was wearing a kofia came back from a protest rally that happened in Chicago he got stabbed 20 times and his mom got stabbed three times I went to his funeral by the way it was back a long time ago like two three months ago and also in Vermont with the three boys the three college students who were wear who are also wearing the cofias who got shot each of them and you know it's just disturbing to know because obviously you guys all see my outfit you all see what I wear you know there's people like that all over the world and we need our city to speak up and know and help us know that we feel safe and protected so you know I don't want to take too much time since we've all had a long night but I do want to say one more thing you guys you know I know we've had a long night and everything I'm going to kind of ruin your night a little more I quit Cold Stone so I don't think anyone can get a free ice cream anymore [Applause] sorry Darcy Katie Darcy Katie good evening everyone city council members and mayor Dr Rita Ali thank you all so much for writing this wave tonight with this extended meeting um I'm here on behalf of Pura for Palestine so I really struggled to put what I'm about to tell you next into words because it's my story my sibling story and my father's story um I know relevance of this might not make sense now but I hope by the end of my speech that you'll see clearly why change is necessary and action must be taken um The Story begins in 1969 when my father chose to give up his full ride scholarship to play football for Bradley University and to enlist in the United States Navy at the age of 17 after receiving his training at US Naval Academy he would go on to become a member of the United States Navy Special Operations Force also known as the Navy Seals during his service he was stationed in Guam in the Western Pacific and later Vietnam while serving in Vietnam my father would be exposed to large amounts of a white powdery substance that would later become known as agent orange I recall being told stories of how he would be covered along with the other soldiers from head to toe as they would make their way through the Vietnamese jungle agent orange is a toxic herbicide that that was used by the US military during the Vietnam war from 61 to 71 as part of operation ranchhand according to the US military the goal was to rob the Viet Kong of food sources and places to hide amongst the foilage US military reportedly mixed and used agent orange at a rate of 6 to 25 times the strength recommended by the manufacturers this persistent organic pollutant would leave behind a lethal Legacy for all exposed to it as well as many of their descendants fast forward to 1996 and my father is suddenly diagnosed with an aggressive form of nasal Fingal cancer after completing multiple rounds of radiation treatments along with chemotherapy he was given three days to live by his medical team through sheer determination and grit my dad would go on to outlive his cancer diagnosis by 27 years and he paid the price for it every day I'm sorry the radiation and chemo treatments that he received he would lose all of his teeth his facial hair he would begin to aspirate food into his lungs due to the damage sustained to his esophagus and he would spend the last seven years of his life receiving nutrition through a g tube he would spend the last 5 years of his life with vascular dementia none of these things were hereditary they were all attributed due to his time in the service where he was exposed to Agent Orange by both his civilian doctors as well as his care team at the VA but remember what I said about a lethal Legacy my father would go on to have six daughters five of which would have presented excuse me five of which would present with rare and chronic diseases with no prior family history what makes this even more unsettling is that my siblings and I do not share the same diagnosis our care teams could not attribute these chronic and rare diseases after extensive testing to any other source other than genetic mutations I know none of you were expecting a review of seventh grade science tonight but the reason that I bring this up in detail is because it's important to clearly state that these diseases are not hereditary their origin is environmental we received mutated genes from our father's agent orange exposure and now we also pay the price too due to the United States government's negligent use of chemicals on a civilian population this is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention with my particular condition also known as safo syndrome I'm aging internally at approximately twice the rate of my peers my spine and major joints are fusing together and multiple body systems have been affected I apologize Madam mayor for the time I find this to be unacceptable and should have never happened to myself nor my siblings nor anyone but there are millions more of me being created in Palestine every time the iof drops white phosphorus bombs on innocent civilians paid for by our local tax dollars it's not enough for 5% of the Palestinian pal population to be wiped out in genocide committed by Israel and I'm sorry your time is up thank [Applause] you Sean hes the Keanan H hello my name is kesan hes and last meeting's main topic of conversation was about racism in particular racial disparities and racial discrimination I would simply like to add racial discrimination is often Quantified by actions and lack of actions and also Quantified by words racial discrimination is when a black family walks into a restaurant and the white family that walks in after them is tended to before and which much more friendlier service simply because the uh assumption that black families do not tip well and things of that nature another example of racial discrimination would be if a black man walks into a restaurant and instead of being offered a seat he's looked over and then asked are you a door Dasher are you here for a pick up order those are just some quick examples of racial discrimination in today's society disparities are symptoms of racial discrimination and racism overall yes but sneezing is a symptom of a common cold and you stop the sneezing to stop the spread of illness the same way you would stop the disparities to stop the spread of racism racism creates disparities disparities create Division and division creates more racism I'm not here to slander anyone's character or point fingers and name call I'm simply here to ask the city council to look Inward and reflect a little bit and that's all thank you welcome chandelle Walker here chandelle Walker Tara wood oh chandelle okay are you chandelle yes ma'am okay well I'm here to discuss a few a few issues and one of the issues that you all had on your agenda was issuing out $750,000 to a vacan lots cleaning if if I am allowed to ask a question is that money going to be distributed to uh you can ask but we can't give you answer in this format in this format but at least considered thinking about it I wanted to know who that money was going to be allotted to uh and another another topic I have was there are a lot of kids in the East poror neighborhood I'm from the East Bluff neighborhood and these kids seem to be not having any activities to do they're running around the streets they're doing whatever uh they walking the streets five six seven 8 years old by themselves uh it's not their fault uh their parents uh may be on drugs or what whatever the case may be but I think that we need to uh address this issue I do what I can by passing out bread and cookies and cakes I give these kids whatever they need I walk down the streets last night and give them bubble gum they they outside at 9:00 at night this is absurd uh and I I get it I get it I know some of you all have uh3 $400,000 H some of you all probably don't even really uh have an inkling of a concern and I get it y'all work hard uh you pay your bills and so on and so forth but I'm just a a simple guy trying to get some simple simple solutions to try to fix a problem that may be uh over looked and these kids do need uh a helping hand I don't know what the Su is you know 30 40 years ago we didn't have this we had to be in in the house before the street flights came out these kids are running the streets after the street lights and came out and I don't know I don't I don't have a a clue of what to do I'm just I'm just a a simple guy I work a honest job uh I get back to society and best where I can I do what I can when I can but in my community these kids are just out there running around doing whatever and it and it shouldn't be like that it's not their fault their parents are uh in a bad situation it's it's a cycle and I don't know how to break it I don't I'm not I'm I'm just by myself trying to figure it out myself you know I don't know if I'm doing the right thing I'm doing the wrong thing but I uh I beseech you all to you know just take a hard stance at it to try to you know build a football stadium or build a soccer field or whatever the case may be you know these are these are children that's can hopefully go up to be some some some be somebody someday or do something with theirselves someday but I'm telling you we living in two different peas I've traveled to Farmington Road I traveled to Pioneer Parkway I've been to every place in por I can possibly think I'm coming from Chicago and we living in two different peas just like we're living in two different Chicagos I'm not blaming nobody I'm not putting putting the blame nobody I'm just asking for suggestions I'm asking for help and it's all kind of all kinds of kids and all uh ethnicities uh just walking the streets roaming the streets doing whatever I had to look look in uh back of our truck a couple days ago and they breaking into a truck I mean it's not their fault their parents are doing whatever but however I'm just asking for you all to take a hard look at some of these symptoms some of these causes of why these children are in the shape that they're in that's all I got terara wood good evening uh Madame mayor honorable council members my name is Tara wood I live in District 5 with my spouse and six-year-old I'm here on behalf of PE for Palestine why haven't we passed a ceasefire resolution here in piia um is it something about the language and the resolution in the past asked is it that you think you'll be taking aside do you believe that uh this is not an issue for local government do you feel not informed enough to make the decision if it is the language let's sit down together as human beings dedicated dedicate ourselves to principled compromise to ensure the resolution contains language important to all parties let's add our city to the growing list of cities around the country over 100 of March who are saying we demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the region we demand the release of all Israeli hostages we demand the release of all Palestinian children and the Palestinians who are detained without charge we demand an end to military funding to a state being accused of countless war crimes what is controversial about this this is not siding with Israel or Hamas this is siding with Humanity by saying we must Stop The Killing especially when those most affected by the this war our children by remaining neutral at this point it looks like we cannot decide between the killing of innocence in humanity what is wrong with us that we have not said as a city stop one reason that has been given is that local government does not affect foreign policy not directly I guess but actions by local governments give federal leaders an idea of what Americans from from across the country are thinking and feeling and this informs their policy those of us in this room who are asking for this resolution have called texted emailed and had meetings with all of our uh representative state and federal leaders uh on a continual basis since October they are not listening if we are truly a country that claims to listen and act on the will of the people where do we go when our leaders do not see us or hear us I think some of you may be tired of seeing us but like where are we supposed to go when daily our eyes and ears are seeing and hearing videos with the voices of children slowly dying under the rubble we are coming to you our local leaders you say we are not Chicago okay sure Chicago ceasefire gets more attention than say a small town in Colorado but that doesn't mean the collective voices of those in a small town are less than in regards to the possibility that you do not feel informed enough to make the decision I can point you to the articles that together lay out Israel's blueprint for ethnic cleansing articles with evidence that journalists are being targeted to ensure their story is killed or the articles with evidence that healthcare workers are being targeted to ensure the healers are killed or the articles with evidence that humanitarian workers are being targeted to ensure the sick the wounded and hungry go without life-saving Aid or the articles with evidence of agricultural fields and infrastructure being targeted giving us a new horrible term called ecocide or about how every University in Gaza has been destroyed a term called scolastici how about a look at the numbers of innocent men women and children killed as a result of Israel's at all cost military strategy which amounts to Collective punishment and by definition genocide I could also point to the recent polling numbers that shows the majority of Americans disapprove of Israel's actions in Gaza most Democrats believe Israel is committing Geno genocide while the majority of both parties believe there should be an immediate ceasefire so please let us know what we can do to help out porori on the help put poror on the list of cities that has refused to stay neutral on an issue where one side results in more killing and the diminishing possibility of hostages being released while living and the other side being an immediate and permanent ceasefire you know not long ago I heard someone say that is it is inhumane to have chickens next to barking dogs sit with that comment while you reflect on the fact that as we speak a child in Gaza is taking their last dying breath after three days under the crushing Rubble of their home that was hit with a US bomb my time's almost up thank thank you for your time and your thoughtful attention tonight I appreciate [Applause] it we have two more speakers uh Jessica Jordan followed by romez ABI AAR hi um good evening uh Madame mayor and council members my name is Jessica and uh I'm incredibly anxious right now so bear with me um firstly I'd like to thank y'all for listening to us um and I'd like to re respectfully request that the council take the ceasefire resolution to a vote um unless I'm mistaken y'all in the past have denied such a request because um it's not a local issue and you want y all wanted to remain neutral however I'd argue it is a local issue as caterpillar has a significant role in this community and they provide Israel with bulldozers and other equipment in addition there are members of our community who have been directly affected by the ongoing genocide and As Americans our tax dollars are going to fund it in regards to neutrality I'd like to leave you all with two quotes the first is if you are neutral in situations of Injustice you are choosing the side of the oppressor and also uh as a helon fan if you stand for nothing well you fall for thank you raes AB AAR good evening U Madam uh mayor and the council members I didn't come in to hear the this word I just collected them while watching here you all how you do practice uh your your your uh political and uh citizenship life I was impressed and this is just a word of uh uh thank uh and U thank to to you all I have been here a few times uh but this time I saw a variety of topics that you all uh uh practice and you give the citizens the chance to talk about I I was impressed by what she do uh listening to that uh uh liquor uh certificate along with the food service listening to the chicken raising uh in addition to the misery of the Palestinian people uh you do a lot of things and I want to congratulate you for doing that I uh um the fact that you all give the chance uh to the community to raise their concerns is a very valuable V uh fact the listening you do to us all and the actions you take to properly respond to our concerns are of Great Value thank you all for the significant role you play in our [Applause] life thank you Madame Clark we are at executive session okay I'd like to invite a a motion to adjourn and to convene and close session immediately following the adjournment of the city council meeting pursuant to the open meetings act 5 I LCS 120/2 C11 to discuss probable or imminent litigation moved by councilman Oiler seconded by council member Allan please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you for your service