Peoria denies Empire Lounge liquor license in contentious 3-6 vote after community dispute

e e everyone if you would please have your seats everyone please take your seats we're going to get started with our meeting thank you for good evening everyone it is 6 o'clock pm on Tuesday July 23rd 2024 I'd like to call the meeting of the Poria City Council to order I'd also like to welcome everyone who's in our council chambers as well as our listening audience at wcbu welcome also to our audience watching on cable channel 22 Madam clerk the council mics are open please call the rooll mayor Ali present council member Allan present council member SE here council member Gordon young present council member Graham council member Jackson here council member Kelly council member Oiler here council member riggenbach here council member velpula pres and council member vaspa you have a quorum present Madame mayor thank you Madame clerk everyone please join me and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to of the United States of America and to the for it stands na under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Adam clerk we have one Proclamation our Proclamation is a little bit different this time around uh this is a proclamation that will be presented uh by the County Board we have present Peoria County board members it's chairman chairman James C Dylan we have board member Linda Daly and we have board member Danny failen it's a presentation of the Peoria County flag to the Peoria city council uh welcome I'm used to giving presentations so uh I'm going to just ignore this five minute timer right here oh ignore it but um in all the years I've been in politics this is the first time I've addressed this horseshoe um and it's sometimes you still get butterflies at things and being in this beautiful building and I just want to thank everyone here from one elected official to every other elected official and all of your staff because we only look good as our staff are and we have two of the best here tonight Gretchen and Nick and Stacy and your staff is fantastic um so thank you to all you I know it's a thankless job um so a few years ago um remember Renault and his son was studying flags and we have we had no identity as in a county or anything so we put it out for a competition and this was a design that came back and sometimes when you ask for things to come back and get suggestions you're a little scared but like anything Poria always Rises to the top and the amount of applications and the um designs that we got were topnotch so one of the things the county is doing is we're going on a little road show and want to make sure that all of our municipalities have the county flag um that's represent us so with that um I want to just thank everybody and I'll read the proclamation I know you have a light agenda and that doesn't happen very often so try to move this along whereas puy County Will C celebrate its Bicentennial anniversary in 2025 and in recognizing this Milestone we honor the many organizations and individuals that have contributed to its successful 200-year history and whereas P County adopted an official flag in 2022 featuring a color scheme representative of the county itself blue for our water and natural resources green for our agricultural Roots gold for our innovation in all Industries and featuring symbolism for our area such as the Illinois River in the bottom corner or the letter P along the left Edge and whereas the history of por county is linked with the city of the Poria through Poria was though Poria was incorporated as a city in 1845 its roots stretch back centuries to European settlers and even further to the indigenous people who first called this area home making it the oldest community in Illinois whereas the city of Pura has been and continues to be the Cornerstone of our Region's economy and culture with its thriving business and industry vibrant arts and entertainment scene and numerous Community organizations Poria has supported and enriched the lives of its residents and whereas we acknowledge that every person who has called the city of Poria home has also been part of Poria County Heritage whether here now or in the distant past whether born here or newly arrived whether passing through are making it their home for Generations now therefore I James C Dylan chairperson of the Pei County Board on behalf of the County Board proudly present the city of piure with an official pure County flag and a recognition of our shared history and symbol of our United Future it's beautiful thank you very much thank you chairman Dylan for member failen thank you for your leadership Madam clerk we are at the approval of the minutes council member riggenbach thank you madam mayor I move to approve the minutes of The Joint City Council and town board meeting held on July 9th 2024 is printed seconded by council member Jackson any comments or questions please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark we are at the consent agenda 24-26 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve the low bid and award a contract to laser electric for the Prospect Road Street lighting improvements in the amount of $483,500 57 for contingencies for a total contract Award of $531,500 24-27 is a communication with request to approve the low bid and award a contract to Oberlander electric for the 2024 street light replacement Southwest Adams Street in the amount of $398,500 with an additional authorization of $398 5250 for contingencies for a total contract Award of $438,900 56 with an additional authorization of $399 , 43144 for contingencies for a total contract Award of 4,393 744 24- 219 is a communication with request to approve the authorization and payment of a workers's compensation settlement in the amount of $351,900 plus $72,900 122 in commission awarded wages and a maintenance worker in injured on May 23rd 2019 24- 220 is a communication with a request to approve a 4-year contract with image Trend llsc to replace the Poria fire department's records management system with the option to renew for four additional one-year terms in the amount of $12,750 40 24- 221 is a communication with request to approve the following a approve a three-year contract with the cleaning source for the firste base amount of $284,400 four and B approve a three-year contract with a new view cleaning service for the firste base amount of $2,746 for janitorial services to City Building Group 5 and C approve a three-year contract with ph G for the first year base amount of 96,5 1928 for janitorial services to the city building groups 2 and three 24- 222 is a communication with request to approve a 2-year contract for the 2024 Towing and storage contract with Joe's Towing recovering and Mr toit's Record Service Inc 24- 223 is a communication with request to approve a 2-year contract for the 2024 inoperable unit recycling contract with gyx Landscaping LLC 24- 224 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 Popup Express LLC doing business as popup chicken shop at 800 Southwest Adams sweet 106 with with recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve and 24- 225 is a communication from the city manager director of Public Works and finance director com controller with a request to receive and file a report from the Illinois Department of Transportation titled documentation review number 77 and that concludes our consent agenda thank you madam clerk are there any items to remove from consent agenda can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda moved by council member sear second by council member Allen any comments or questions please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we are at first readings 24- 226 is a communication from the city manager incorporation council with a request to receive and file a first reading of an ordinance creating chapter 27 Article 1 Section 2 of the code of the city of Poria to authorize Lans for delinquent Municipal Taxes this going to be Corporation Council Hayes thank you thank you madam CL uh Madame mayor the uh city's been improving its tools uh that we use for collection of debts um the municipal code allows municipalities to establish leans uh to collect unpaid taxes due to the municipality you may recall that a few weeks ago we did a simil similar um uh enactment to allow us to uh impose responsibilities on both the operator and property owners of gas stations uh this is another Improvement on the collection retail sales taxes which the Proprietors collect at the till but sometimes don't turn over to the city in a timely fashion we think this will promote more timely payment of those amounts due um if they don't pay in a timely fashion we give 60 days notice and thereafter we can establish a lean on the property that would uh protect the city's interests going forward uh we we're here on a first reading today and I'd be happy to answer any questions the council has and we'll be looking for a approval of this as an ordinance at the next city council meeting thank you your honor you're welcome what questions might you have for Council Hayes uh council member SI was that your yeah thank you madam mayor move to receive and file seconded by council member Gordon young any discussion or questions for Council Hayes council member velpula thank you Madame mayor thank you Corporation Council for a brief uh meeting that we had this evening I have uh I have all my questions answered but I have a couple more questions that I wanted to ask you um you know just for the sake of understanding what is the criteria what criteria will will determine the appropriateness of pursuing a tax lean I I'm sorry I didn't catch how do you def what is the criteria that you follow to kind of uh pursue a tax lean um so our um our method of collection right now is to just give notice of delinquency and take action against licenses that we have this threat of a lean will allow them to focus on the idea that we can impair the value of their real estate that they may own some propri this won't be appropriate for but our thought is that this will be another tool that we can promote collection uh once the lean notice goes out in the 60 days run we'll file the lean with the County recorder and that perfects those interests as to subsequent uh transactions what potential legal challenges does the city anticipate in implementing this Ordinance do we do we anticipate any legal challenges in that or no I'm not aware of these types of leans being challenged other than people who might come forward and say we've paid the debt or somehow the debt isn't owned uh for the most part we're aware that the retailer has been operating and we know that there's some amount do if they haven't filed a return that's a separate matter that we can pursue with an ordinance violation and in fact when we do so the fines our daily fines and the're very significant um so I think that this again improves our ability to collect against the retail entities that are collecting these taxes from their customers and not passing along to the city in a timely way and uh any administrative costs that are associated while enforcing these kind of uh tax leans so there will be some costs involved in this and we'll be recouping those through other activities with that U with that uh to in order to relieve the lean they'll have to pay all of our costs thank you thank you Corporation Council thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member back thank you Madame mayor um Corporation Hayes is this this I'm I'm supportive of the this concept my question is though what about the the people that are delinquent and behind that they're just they just rent the space I mean how how is there any recourse um on personal real estate or anything like that that we could so um we're using different means already for those circumstances this just improves our position with folks who both operate and own the property of which the business is located so U I do think that over time we'll see that this is somewhat of a rarely utilized tool but I think an important one to add to our our set of tools that we're using to collect you're right that a rental occupant we don't have the same tools and we but we do have ordinance violations from the for non-payment of taxes that result in Daily fines that are very significant so we'll use those tools for those cumstances thank you we just want to make sure your toolbox is full right thank you this will be a more efficient means of collection when all of those factors line up than our present uh tools afford us thank you you're welcome and Council Hayes you mentioned and council member velpula asked about additional costs associated with the collection or the imposition of the Lan and collection activities will any of those costs be passed on in addition to the lean right so when we record leans we add that to the leaned amount and so we're able to recover that when the leans are paid off but in order to record a document the recorder has a set fee structure it shifts over time to $39 right now for a simple document so it's no big huge amount or big surprise to the correct it's not I mean that's not nothing but it's it's not an operationally significant amount and we we file leans nearly every day out of the legal department so okay thank you thank you council member Allan uh thank you Madame mayor uh council member riggenbach we were on the same page I kind of wanted some clarification regarding those who made lease versus owning the property so I appreciate you asking that clarifying question sir um in your uh exploration of this opportunity do you find that this is a best practice that municipalities are are utilizing I'm just trying to see how we possibly match up with some of our uh M municipalities similar to size um I haven't I haven't made that investigation so I don't have a valid answer to your question we can look into what other units of government are doing I just felt like in some of our circumstances this would be a much easier means for us to collect rather than uh going through collection proceedings citations to discover assets things like that you get a lean on real estate it winds up getting a lot of attention right away to get payment process rather than going through an adversary proceeding and based off of our current landscape um do we have I guess some participants who would be l for this right now is that the feeling of why you feel like you needed to bring something as dire as this Ford right we have a class of operators of retail outlets right now who we're looking at being in the rear haven't matured to the point where they where we take this action yet uh but a few of them do also own the real estate that they are operating out of and so this will give us a more ready tool we also um have the circumstances with the Shell stations ongoing where we've engaged in significant fine accumulation part of that triggered the gas tax issue or motor fuel tax issue we did a few months ago but also we're looking at Future um situations where the ownership of those types of establishments might align with the operator and that this tool would be useful there as well thank you thank you Madame mayor so we have a motion on the floor to receive and file have a second and there's no more discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously we are at unfinished business 24- 171 is a communication from the city manager incorporation Council with request to deny the site application for a class B restaurant 50% Food liquor license with on-site 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 uh Council Hayes or our assistant city manager which one of you will take this be happy to indicate we were if the council recalls we were here I believe a month ago on this matter um and staff had recommended denial there was a substantial amount of opposition at the time from the local neighborhoods um this is a organization that's applied for this use at at this premise in the past and has either been denied or they've withdrawn it based on that opposition I believe it was councilwoman Jackson who made the motion to defer this so I'd defer to her on whether there's been any advancement at this point in time okay thank you thank you very much uh council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor uh I would like to if I could Madame mayor Grant privilege of the floor uh so that we can give uh individuals an opportunity to uh voice their concerns the the ward Cliff neighborhood association did meet at the Empire Lounge on uh July the 10th but un un fortunately uh no one from Forest Hill was represented and um you know in my conversation with the representatives from Forest Hill uh it was indicated that there was not adequate notice and the president was out of town so having said that I would like to uh take this time if I could to Grant PR privilege for individuals to come forward uh from first maybe we should start by hearing from uh Mr Sims and then uh the presidents um of those neighborhood associations and I do know um I don't know if wardcliffe has co-presidents so one has been absent if he is here tonight uh Mr liard I'd like to hear from him as well okay so if there's no objection from the floor Council floor I'd like to invite uh the owner of s sims the owner of Empire Lounge to speak Sim Council woman Jackson can you identify yourself and my name is John Sims and I'm representing Empire Lounge LLC um to start I would like to uh start by addressing the Liquor Commission vote of 3 to deny now it's understood that the Liquor Commission relies on its field inspectors um comments to make their decisions that would be Mr lithicum um Mr storm and um Mr Pon our fire inspector before I uh go into that detail though I owe this Council an apology there was an incident that took place at Empire Lounge on January the 6th it was a dinner party that I allowed a friend of mine to have for his mother it was not unopen to the public event it was not some big big old shindig it was a simple dinner party it still doesn't excuse what happened and I take full responsibility for that my nerv are a little bit shaky here but um you know a lack of knowledge and um a lack of community communication led to an event that should have never happened and I give my sincer apology for that event and take full responsibility for it I spoke with the staff after that situation got a clear understanding I paid the fine and we moved on and we did so without further incident we've hosted seven other events since then without any incidents with that um I'll move back to The Liquor Commission vote um wish these guys were here but they're not but Mr lium told the Liquor Commission on several occasions that we had multiple violations and that simply isn't true January 6th was was it had one violation um police were sent to the location one time after that um and at that particular time we were having a a meeting um and with staff and I met them at the door and I simply told them that um we we weren't open for business and there was no need to do a compliance check there was no hostility or any of that type of stuff and the officers understood and they left we continued the meeting um at that particular time we had already received the C ofo by the way the full certificate of occupancy and that was issued on March the 26 so I felt like it was really unfair to leave the commission into believing that you know we were um wilding out somehow because it's just not true Mr storm Mr storm told our Liquor Commission that I had outstanding violations on the um Hood the kitchen hood range with the health department I had a full C ofo which is signed off by Mr parin and Mr storm so and I also have my health depart Health Department certificate of approval so there's no way that could been been true couldn't have been the case and I have these things in this folder uh since these guys are not present I'll let the facts represent themselves on paper if necessary but that was was also misleading to The Liquor Commission Mr ping whom I 100% am sure is committed to Life Safety in the city of Poria in fact um someone told me that he's the only fire inspector in the city of Poria uh that same individual told me if we had two Charlies and two stor two more two Rich storms we'd still be short-handed for what these guys do so I applaud that however he made the statement to Liquor Commission that Empire lngs put lives at Jeopardy on January the 6 that's absolutely not the case every life safety compliance was met prior to January 1st of 20124 the sprinkler uh the sprinkler system the alarm the shunt bre Breakers um you know we actually requested the first CFO Jan uh December 26 of 2023 because all of those things um were complete um the vent Hood system was installed and ready for inspection and passed inspection August the 14th of 2023 November 14th of 2023 fire alarm sprinkler system was installed and tested December 15th of 2023 final inspection of alarm sprinkler and shunt Breakers December 21st of 2023 sprinkler heads repaired and inspected December 26 of 2023 was the first request for the CFO and uh that request was denied and we were told we will receive an additional list of deficiencies that list was issued January the 16th of 2024 and included two things uh bathroom toilet partition which are not life safety issues Sims I need for you to wrap up about 30 seconds please okay in the interest of um I don't know which part to skip I think district one um okay so okay I got to read this open page please uh moving on in the interest of providing Clarity and insight to Future applicants uh in our community I've seen it on social media often that this process has been about race I do not share those sentiments this is a system and applying for a liquor license as a process within that system if you don't follow the process uh don't expect to clear the system we started off wrong um not engaging with uh district one Council woman Jackson and the neighborhood associations was a big misstep in that process so we don't blame anybody for delays that has happened or anything else that has happened in this process we weren't all the way together with it in in fact I want to thank district one councilwoman Denise Jackson for her guidance knowledge understanding and patience through this process our relationship with our neighbors is stronger than ever because of it I understand that there may be um someone that are not supportive of the Venture but we have had open doors and everyone uh could come in and voice their concerns in fact they War Cliff neighborhood association held their monthly meeting at Empire Lounge on uh July 10th I was able to answer questions at that time and I was uh left with the impression that the support was garnered from that Community I understand that Gail Avenue and Forest Hill had initial concerns but no one from those neighborhoods I'm wrapping up to W no one showed up to voice their concerns I believe we have the majority support and um we can't expect 100% of the vote but we've done everything that was asked of us thank you sir did we have someone from the neighborhood associations uh that wanted to speak my name is Dennis Lippert I'm the former president of the word Cliff neighborhood association this all started back in August or September of last year that's when I heard about Mr Sims was wanting to open a restaurant and also have liquor I heard that from city council members at that point we invited Mr Sims to our September neighborhood association meeting at that meeting he presented everything that he planned there Forest Hills was also present at that meeting at the end of that meeting the two neighborhood associations voted to deny Mr Sims a liquor license at the beginning Denise Jackson was there and she told us that she had spoke to Mr Sims before we met in September and said he needed to contact the neighborhood associations around and let him know what he was doing that didn't happen then his January incident came up which he wasn't even open for business at that time but that came up and I understand he was cited for that and he admitted to it and apologized um at the recent neighborhood association meeting that we just did have at his business I was not present I was with family on vacation but I've heard from several wardcliff members that he also admitted at that time that he had liquor at that same event on January 6th I was at the Liquor Commission meeting the last one he was at a couple months ago he stood right there and looked at all the people on The Liquor Commission and said there was no liquor there now he's admitting that he had liquor there and then I understand there was another event like he said when the police stopped by the door was locked they wanted to do a walkth through he said there's nothing going on he wouldn't let them go through I'll tell you if that's my business and I had screwed up in January I would definitely let him come through and see nothing's going on this business is in the wardcliffe plaza which is part of wardcliffe subdivision I live in wardcliffe and I'm speaking as a resident of wardcliff that's concerned I've been watching this since the beginning I've never agreed with it and the more things that happened wrong would you want a business in your neighborhood that has had these problems I mean anything that happens there good or bad the publicity the media is going to pick up on wardcliffe I live in wardcliffe do you thank you thank you sir good evening mayor Ali members of the council my name is Bill O'Brien I'm president of the Forest Hill homeowners association our homeowners association is a state chartered homeowners association it was formed on October the 1st 1975 our mission is to preserve and improve the property values of every house in our subdivision the Empire Lounge does not do that our concerns are reflected in the report that you have from the po police department and the fire department I think those speak for themselves the trust necessary between John Sims wardcliffe and Forest Hills has been broken and cannot be repaired because of that lack of trust the C I asked the council to deny the request for the liquor license for the Empire Lounge thank you very much thank you sir good evening uh I'm Ronald L given um and I live also in wardcliffe I am the current president of the war Cliffe Association this has been a strain on both uh associations because we have members and residents who obviously have concerns and different opinions on the 10th of January or July when we met at the uh Empire Lounge uh as has already been stated we didn't have any representatives from uh the other side of the street the uh Forest Hill uh uh Association uh I made a call and I thought i' text to Mr uh the president and uh I was in Chicago at the time I do travel a lot again but the B I guess the bottom line is is that uh we had a meeting that showed that the lounge was very well put together the people that attended the overall opinion that I received and several of them and some of them are here uh was that they thought that uh he had admitted in front of all of us the mistakes that he had made he also admitted that he would do what it would take to make sure that he was a good neighbor we asked certain questions at that time every opportunity was given to the neighborhood that was there the residents and many of them did have questions and as a president like I said I I was at the first meeting as the rest of the meetings and I understand where my uh previous predecessor comes from nobody wants to have Ruffians and disorder in their neighborhood not one person however at this point uh I don't have to make that decision the decision is made here you know what it's all about so I don't have to go into a lot of that I do commend uh uh councilwoman Denise Jackson for coming she did an excellent job of answering questions and also being part of uh what was going on so she could see firstand what what was potentially the problems and what was the good part of it so I'm not going to make a commitment right now I don't have to vote yall have to vote and I'm kind of neutral I've had side conversations and this has kept me up at night believe it or not as a new president in the uh in the war Cliff situation so uh I do think that you know uh business needs to be done we can't turn away businesses we need to be uh very Vigilant we have an excellent Police Department of course uh and of course the chief would agree with me on that and if any any problems should arise should arise if he has a license having experience please are going to come and take care of it and you won't have to worry about seeing Mr Sims again because he'll take his license and it won't be there so I do appreciate the opportunity to speak to this illustrious group and I'm sure that will come to the proper decision based upon everything that you have had and heard here tonight and in the past thank you very much Mr given is there any other neighborhood associations residents within the neighborhood association area okay you can um my name is Devon sidor um I've been in this Council a few times in the past um I'm here on behalf of Mr Sims and Mr Miller we went to the um the meet and greet and it was really nice it was really nice and I was at the Liquor Commission meeting also uh Mr Sims basically admitted he made some mistakes we're all human beings everybody in this room is a human being okay you can't judge him because he made one mistake and and have the audacity where this man can't make a living okay you know a liquor license is basically needed for him to flourish he needs that to flourish this is not a full-blown restaurant now me personally in the years past of of of the hungry moose I used to patronize that okay Bogies for years I patronized that so it's amazing to me I don't understand what the problem is if Mr Sims doesn't do right with his liquor license you then snatch it from him that's why I don't understand why this is such an issue I really don't guys I don't understand why this is such an issue because all he's doing is trying to make a living like everybody in this room is doing right now so when you sit there and you make these comments and say well certain people aren't appeased it makes no sense to me I'm a grown man he's a grown man we all make mistakes so to basically say you don't want to give him a liquor license as a result of him not I get a little emotional I'm sorry um having to appease a couple people they had the they had the opportunity to come to the meet and greet Mr given then asked the question at the meet and greet and said are there any opposition to this nobody raised their hand nobody raised their hand so I then said to Mr given if they were here they should have been here at the meeting I heard Mr Lipper said he was out of town but he wasn't the only one they could have came to the meet and greet but they chose not to you know so that's kind of how I feel and there's there's there's there's lounges all around in that area who have liquor licenses I don't understand why this young man and his his partner are trying to do the up and just have a business that's viable in the P area for a certain demographic that's all I have to say thank you petty good evening my name is Jackie Petty and I'm a resident of Pura I used to live close to this Empire L and incident ly I am in support of them getting their liquor license I attended the commission meeting The Liquor Commission meeting and you could tell there was such a communication failure it was just too bad it was on both sides I feel I also attended the Empire Lounge on my own just to see what it was like and it's beautiful I can't wait for that to open and I can go there and have dinner and a glass of wine if I'd like that I don't see what the problem is either because like Mr syor said if something goes wrong you can close it down you have the capabilities of doing that but I don't I don't feel that that's going to happen Mr Sims told us that he is going after the older person or people to attend there and that would include me and I'm looking forward to it and I hope that you will give them a chance and give them their liquor license thank you thank you Council good evening uh I'm Michael Miller I am an employee at the lounge with John Sims and um I also attended uh the neighborhood association meetings the last two times that they had it uh I think that there was a failure of communication until we made clear what our plans is and what the the actual uh intentions are with the lounge and uh is to provide a an upscaled experience to mature adults 35 and up uh enforcing dress codes providing indoor and outdoor security and having a a wrap free zone um and in addition uh as far as with our hours of operation we wanted to do Sunday through Thursdays uh from 11:00 a.m.

to 10 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.

uh we're not trying to compete with other um clubs cuz we're not a club this is a lounge and it's it's it's for uh our more mature type of crowd um for me I have a daughter that's 26 and I I do not want to be in the same place she is uh at night when I'm having dinner I want to have a drink I do not want to be with my daughter and um um and so this was where we came up with the concept of how to operate the lounge we wanted to make sure that the people who came in fit a certain type of criteria uh that would prevent us from having the same incidents and altercations between patrons as they do in other late night establishments um our our establishment will not be a late night uh situation most of our uh events and uh have been daytime events uh uh some of which have been right around happy hours and things like that but basically it's just in a time frame where we won't where we can avoid the problems we know what the problem ours is we know who the problem crowd is so our intentions are to avoid that and to do that we keep from offering the things that they enjoy in a way you know so we keep it away from that and it's just the way that we came up with to try and keep the business going without us having any problems just wanted to let you guys know that so thank you very much thank you sir seeing no other speakers there's one more okay I don't really understand if this is open to anyone here um is is it okay that is is that the case it's it's on this topic it's on this it is um I have no personal relationship to the Empire Lounge I don't know John Sims I don't know any of the people who have spoken yet um I am a peio resident I am a peio resident who's very concerned about this debate I've paid attention to it I've read the the minutes um from the liquor hearings I've also been paying a lot of attention to higher flavored and I think this has a lot of parallels I would like to make a couple Salient points you have a few people here in opposition to this bringing up property values vacancies would be really bad for property values perhaps worse and it's not something the opposition is taking into consideration when I drive around Peoria I see a Poria that's mostly vacant and I hate it and I hope that you all hate it too in front of you is the opportunity to give someone a chance to both make a living and improve the landscape the cultural and economic landscape of Peoria maybe they'll fail lots of people do but as has been brought up to you already if they fail so hard that it's a problem well that's what this your Administration is here for uh I also want to say that uh this potential business would not strictly serve the wardcliff and Forest Hill neighborhoods do you believe that one world on Main Street University rep uh exists solely for the first district does Panera Bread exist solely for the second district or whatever District it's in these businesses bring people in from all over the place to engage in whatever Vibe they curate there are probably many people assuming John Sims is successful who would gladly engage with this business but they will have no idea that there's this debate going on they cannot show up tonight to say that this lounge and the vibe that he would curate is exactly something they want because they're not glued to uh Council meetings and agendas and minutes like I am so I want to represent all those people who might love something like this but have no idea that it the existence of it is in front of you so all of us would like you to to give John Sims a chance thanks council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor um wow um you know I heard something uh that's been a common theme uh throughout um well let me see um shortly after this process has began and that has been trust uh it was good to hear that communication somehow broke down uh from both both sides uh Mr O'Brien said something that uh kind of um kind of stuck with me and I you know as a as a as human beings uh I I think everybody is entitled we're all trying to grow everybody's entitled to Chances and opportunities and um I appreciate Mr sims's acknowledgement of his um mistakes um but I you know I I just W to say that um there's been a lot of talk about trust and I want to say back in September when September of 2023 when uh Mr Sims did come to the neighborhood association at that time uh they were happy about the idea of him having a restaurant and in fact we're in favor of it and and uh I have seen restaurants flourish without a liquor license at that time he talked about the success of his jerk chicken so the thought process was that if this chicken is so great you'll go ahead and do it and come back in a year or so and maybe we could review this whole process again well unfortunately uh during the course of that time that's when the uh breakdowns began and um everything from trust or a lack thereof kept coming up um people even tried to inject race into the picture and I you know I I have to say that um Mr Sams acknowledged tonight that that was not a problem but one thing I think uh that has to be apparent Beyond race um there has to be certain qualities inherent uh when you're talking about operating a business uh within a community especially within a neighborhood association and I'm I still wear my neighborhood association hat and those qualities that are so inherent they must be solid trust we've heard a lot about a lack of trust violations of that trust uh residents back in September uh asked about asked for for a business plan um I've never seen it surface at least not in a hard form um and and then there was a an incident I got a phone call from residents they were saying Oh there's uh he's advertising for a bartender uh without a liquor license again um trust lack of transparency um and consistency uh there's been no consistency with regards to um maintaining this criteria that I think is just so um inherent if you want to operate a business anywhere in the city of Peoria whether it regards whether it involves a liquor license or not [Music] um and I appre appreciate the fact we've got petitions here um with several signatures um totaling I think about 31 I you know i' I've talked to lots of folks many of which are not here to tonight um and I believe Mr Sims uh you have a great future as a business person in the city of Peoria and I believe me I would love to see you move forward in that direction uh there there are just too many um problems that we've encountered uh during this particular time and uh I would like to see you come back and Mr O'Brien if you would consider um trying to see if you could regain trust uh over time with Mr Sims you made the comment that that trust has been violated and it could never uh be accepted well I I don't think that should ever be the case when we're talking about human beings and and we're talking about communities so um I I would like to at this time um I cannot support this just because of uh all of the inconsistencies that we've seen uh I do believe there there is an opportunity to try to fix this process it has to to happen on both sides of the spectrum with the the neighborhood associations as well as uh Mr Sims and I uh I cannot in uh good conscience uh support this with all of the decisiveness uh that's present right now so having said that uh Madame mayor I um I can't support this right now so can you make a motion please um Madame mayor I would like to make a motion uh that at this present time we would just request deny the request is there a second is there a second to deny sir uh there's no second to the to your motion is there a substitute motion member Gordon young do I just we'll throw it off do I just say what what I'd like to amend or do I can I just speak and add and then say does that make sense Council Hayes can you provide some direction well if uh councilwoman Gordon young would like to express what she'd like to achieve I can help with phrasing the motion but I I'd be taking a okay so I wanted to amend to approve but I wanted to give some content as well in terms of why so I would recommend you make a motion to approve the site application for class B restaurant 50% food liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for Empire Lounge LLC doing business as Empire Lounge at 30 3033 North Sterling so you might want to say sove moved and then you can State your justifications during debate okay first you say so moved can I get a second seconded by council member Allen proceed so one of my concerns many of my concerns are are we giving our residents life sentences for not having the expertise one of the challenges in this particular situation is I believe that Mr Sims um yes I agree that you've made some mistakes in this process but I think part of the challenge is the manner in which you have represented yourself you didn't represent yourself um from your heart um and and and all the investment that you have put into this business and the financial loss that you've already endured and I think it is important that we realize that and recognize that and allow some level of Grace um and I agree you know if you mess up and I hope that you would not then action can be taken but to not give you an opportunity I've been in there it is absolutely beautiful and I don't I know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars you've put into it but you've certainly done the work on that end um with a mentor or some other you know aenos help you and I think people have tried to do that but I think that this Council um deserves you deserve to have at least an opportunity with this Council and so that is why I want to amend the motion that we um approve okay additional comments uh council member Allen thank you Madame mayor um Mr given this has kept me up at night as well too um this is I'm in a very unique place um although I'm a district four representative I used to represent both War Cliff subdivision and Forest Hill um subdivision Association lot of great Rapport over there two strong neighborhoods um I've got family that live in the area and so I don't take making seconding this motion to approve lightly um I would always when I make certain votes I say is this something that I would live next door to is this something that I would put my family next door to um and I know that um hindsight's 2020 I'm sure Mr Sims would have loved to have done things differently um but I believe that we can repair this relationship I believe that he can be a contributor to the neighborhood I believe he can be a contributor to the city of Poria um when I talk about or excuse me when I reflect on a void that I believe that the Empire Lounge is going to fill um when I have friends come to town and they ask me about places to go I'll be honest I struggled telling them places to go in the city of Peoria and um shout out to the heights but as somebody who represents the city of Peoria I don't like telling people go to the Heights I'm just being honest and so I want this for our city I want this for our culture I want us to have great places where people want to go and have fun in respect to the neighborhoods and I think looking at the minutes it looks like they've agreed to a plan of operation to uh close at 10: throughout the week midnight on Friday and Saturday I think that alleviates the opportunity for the late night trouble my mom used to say nothing good happens after 1:00 a.m.

so I think we're addressing that I think that he understands and his business understands the microscope that they are under uh as someone who's represented both of these associations you all are very engaged and will hold him to a standard that I'm sure he knows that he has to follow but I feel good about this I wouldn't I wouldn't take this this stance lightly and so um I want to see this happen and I want to see this relationship mended because we need vibrancy in our city we need vibrancy and that shopping center if I'm being honest and so I I want to see this pass and I want to see you all Rectify this and I want to see this have a happy ending and I believe we have the mechanisms in place to ensure that that happens and if it doesn't we have the mechanisms in place to rectify it thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman I had the opportunity to tour Mr Sim's establishment and I'm impressed with the amount of work that you've put into it but also at the same time I think it's going to be a very difficult situation to survive when the neighbors who live there who also elect me to be here to make decisions for them are in opposition to it and so I certainly can't say that I would never support it but I can't support it tonight without some resolution to the feelings of those that live in the neighborhood because that's who elects me to be here that's who asked me to do the work for them on the council and basically the feedback of the neighbors are neutral to negative and so that concerns me at this point I would really like to see you have a very successful business here I think it would probably be better if you could have some success in running the restaurant and maybe you know the liquor piece of it could come later if there's some resolution to the relationships in the neighborhood but tonight I can't in good conscience vote against my constituents that have expressed to me that this is not the right thing for their neighborhood thank you welcome other comments well I have a few comments um I have mixed feelings over this very mixed feelings and part of these mixed fillings come from what just happened a few minutes ago when Mr Miller your manager walked out the door and slammed it very hard and if he did that when councilwoman Jackson was expressing her concerns and if that is reflective of the type of behavior that we could expect from a manager at Empire Lounge I have serious concerns about the operation I have concerns Mr Sims that that you've gotten ahead of yourself and kind of put things um the cart before the horse in a lot of instances with this situation you invested a lot of money and you have a beautiful Lounge I've been in there on a tour it's beautiful hundreds of thousands of dollars before knowing whether you were going to get sight approval you invested a lot of money before talking to the neighbors and getting support uh before working things out and establishing a relationship with your Council representative you got a head of the cart there you had an event I think it was your manager's event January the 6 before you had site approval for occupancy certification those are concerns and and they're not little mistakes they're big mistakes when you're seeking to get Cy approval for a liquor license it's sight approval it's not the liquor license it's the sight approval for the liquor license so I have mixed feelings I I want to support your establishment I I want to see your business restaurant business that could probably only survive if you're able to have that added liquor license support but those relationships are critical that trust that councilwoman Jackson talked about is critical trust trusting relationships with the neighbor neighbors with the neighborhood associations with your representatives your constituents those are my mixed feelings those are my concerns yet i' I'd like to see you have a chance to to prove yourself I'd like to see you have a chance to prove that that kind of behavior that kind of management is not going to take place anyway I'm I'm going to be in favor I'm going to vote Yes may not pass not sure I'm GNA vote Yes because I'd like to see you get a chance but I'll tell you if if it does pass and if there are violations that continue you will be shut down I know it because I'm the liquor commissioner and I wouldn't hesitate to revoke your license so with that um we have a a motion to cast their votes motion fails with three Ys Ali Allen and Gordon young Madam Clark 24-22 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to receive and file a communication regarding the allowance of backyard chickens in the city of Poria Madam mayor yes Council Hayes J you got a number of department heads and staff members have been working hard to come up with a report back but we still have work to do okay so we ask the council to give staff some additional time and ask that the matter be deferred until the next city council meeting which is three weeks from today where we'll be prepared to give a report back on the Financial impact of moving forward with regulation of chickens so uh we also made a public pronouncement that we wouldn't be taking the matter up today so that the public was aware that staff wasn't ready with its report back so thank you youron you're welcome councilman riggenbach I would move for a um deferral till our August 13th meeting on this item okay second seconded by council member Seer any discussion please cast your ballot motion passes unanimously Madam Clark If there is no further unfinished business we would be on to new business new business council member Allan excuse me Oiler thank you madam chairwoman I uh I think most everyone is aware that there's uh been some Court decisions recently related to camping out in public spaces and so I would like to request staff bring back in an ordinance prohibiting unauthorized camping on public property within the city limits of Peoria this has been a significant concern especially for our businesses downtown and so I think that we need to have that discussion thank you okay all right um assistant city manager Richardson received we will have that prepared for the next coming council meeting okay thank you council member we're under new business council member sier uh thank you Madame mayor um Madame mayor on June 25th you gave a proclamation to the Illinois State Danto society and I just want to give you a report back tonight because a lot of people are not aware of the service they provided but this uh this uh Society Dental Society has a Mission of Mercy every two years and they were in peor at the Civic Center on um I want to say June 28th and 29th and they provided uh they have over a thousand dedicated volunteers number one and but with the help of all these volunteers and obviously the the dentists they provided over $1.6 million of services at no cost to their patients there was over 1,300 patients uh during those two days so I just want to congratulate them uh it's an incred it's not very well known I don't know why it's not very well known but it's an incredible service to our uh our area I'm going to say and Dr Danner who was here to receive the proclamation with some of his colleagues I just want to congratulate them and say thank you for all these know million $1.6 million uh U of free services so thank you thank you very much and we should have a lot more better Smiles around this area since then so thank you doctor and all your colleagues and thank you madam mayor for shedding a light on their services yes thank you beautiful update thank you very much uh council member rigbot thank you Madame mayor I just wanted to thank Council for their support on the very first item that was on consent the lighting project on North Prospect um I hope you noticed as you were reading that that it said that there were barrels setting up set up on foundations along that road since 2017 so this project has been waiting the residents along that stretch have been waiting for quite some time to see this come to fruition so I'm just thrilled that we're able to get this rolling now so um it didn't want to pull it off consent and and drag the meeting on longer unnecessarily and um the other item though I think also that deserves recognition is the Nebraska reconstruction I know that's something that councilman graab has talked about for a long time as well and when we did the work on Nebraska on the east side of Knoxville a couple years ago we always had visions of expanding that um even further so I'm happy to see that's taking place as well so thank you madam mayor you're very welcome council member Allan uh thank you Madame mayor uh back to school season is here um poror Public Schools returns back to school uh July 31st and there has been a great initiative going on called the field the fire trk initiative it is a collaboration between the Poria Park District the Poria afroamerican firefighter Association and then Peoria firefighters local 50 there have been multiple events happening over the last several weeks um celebrity Bart attending events that myself and council member Gordon young participate in we were serving some good sodas weren't we uh but we were raising money for a good cause and there was an amazing trivia event actually held the other weekend at at trivia um and then you may have seen firefighters and volunteers at at uh area Walmart's uh collecting funds and school supplies for this initiative with the goal of filling a fire truck to give free school supplies to area kids and peia public schools the uh distribution is taking place uh this Thursday um at the Poria Park District trewin park at 2219 South Idaho Street uh at 5:30 um and so it's in collaboration with the park district streets belong to me they're going to have a lot of amenities it's going to be a family fun event um but let's make sure that our young people have the supplies and and things they need to have a successful school year so again shout out to everyone who who put that together and who participated in this great event um and look forward to uh supporting and and please bring your young people out this Thursday to ensure they're prepared for awesome school year thank you fantastic thank you councilman Allen um I want to you know a lot happened over this last week with the crowd strike problem that impacted the airlines impacted computers impacted the city of Peoria's computer our I information services staff worked all night trying to get all the computers that were impacted back up to to par working systems working I think we had a problem um manager Richardson with our phone systems Information Services again their team director Jessica stepped in and her her entire team to help to get that system back up and going so we we just want to applaud our information services staff uh for doing a f fabulous job do you have anything to add there I just thank you mayor and thank you for the acknowledgement for our is Staff who are always behind the scenes never seen most of them probably would know that they are staff member until you need them but they were immediately on the scene and I just want to acknowledge that the investment that this Council has put into our emergency Communication Center which is our Dispatch Center when our phone systems went down which was nothing that had anything to do with anything on our infrastructure we had a backup that allowed for emergency communications to continue to come through the city and us to continue to respond so that happened on um Tuesday and then a couple of days later we had the crowd strike um outage that occurred as well and by the time we were back in the office at 8:00 half of our system was fully operational and only um our emergency communications was up and fully running again no later than one or two o'clock in the morning so I just want to acknowledge both our ECC staff and our leadership team as well as our staff and just so you understand that these are things where communities were days without service and so for us to only be a an hour or so that we had to be in convenience unfortunately that hour was a critical time we were able to respond and continue to be responsive so that none of our systems were down completely to the community to respond to emergency communication so I just want to appla all of our team police fire and ECC for their efforts as well thank you mayor you thank you okay um Madam Clark we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council I have about six cards six speakers our first speaker is Jeff Leroy hello again everyone I've been here before uh just so I'd give you an update on how things are going talked with Joe duelan uh just the other day and he finally stated that the neighbor had not been F at all and that he had directed Ashley to start finding the neighbor uh to try and get some resolution to it one upon a little checking this guy besides doing what he did there did not pay us taxes last year has not paid his taxes this year or any of the things that has accumulated with the city of Poria and uh so I was concerned about the part about him being fined and so I talked to council Hayes beforehand and he said there's a thing coming out in two to three weeks where it'll be directly sent to them to try and uh get the uh fine directly from the neighbor but um since I talked to you last time he still had two dogs and the kid let the dogs out and they raced after the dogs trying to catch them but they didn't so now there's no dog feces in the backyard or anything to pick up but the weeds are tall and now we've got possums and other animals moving in to the yard next door so when it comes time that you take a vote on letting chickens in the city please don't do it because I can see my neighbor would be one of the first ones to do it and when I when I expressed these problems a while back the last time uh councilman Oiler came out and took pictures and he he got he addressed me and I've had connection with Denise and and Chuck grab and John Kelly called me so we've talked talked to him so I appreciate all the followup by all of you so far and and hopefully he said that uh they'll start being fined they got box springs laying up against the side of the house they got garbage laying out in the front of the street out there so hopefully this is a turning point here with them next door so thank you very much all of youc next we have Estella Diaz oh I know we keep coming here our group is over there but you know what I'm here to talk about Palestine obviously um and I just wanted to say that if you know on July 19th 2024 the icj uh announced that Israel was an apartheid state so with that being said you guys I I hope it does push you in the right direction to want to you know approve the CI resolution again as I've stated many times it's not going to do anything on an international level but they are people and they deserve to have their voices Amplified by us and to now still have a little bit of hope that you know we do care about them and the thing is is the thing is is it does involve us too because they are now demolishing and committing atrocities in the West Bank which is separate from Gaza and their whole Spiel is to be like this is self-defense when they are shooting unarmed civilians they are bombing houses they're using caterpillar bulldozers to demolish houses in the West Bank um and I know this is probably unrelated but if you know who Sonia Massie is the lady who was murdered unjustly in Springfield where she was unarmed she was pouring hot water in a pot um and that's all she was doing and she was the one to call them for help um we can see the comparisons to how Palestinians are treated in the West Bank but also Gaza where they are simply just living um I'll give you this case where his there was a 12-year-old child his name was Ramy Haman and he was he had asked his mom to get some money to buy some sweets um to celebrate itar and he used the money instead of buying sweets to buy firecrackers to celebrate and as he let the firecracker off um an Israeli soldier had sniped him and he lost his life and simply because he was Palestinian and they were he was afraid and the security Min Minister um itman Ben Giver he was saying that you know labeling him as a terrorist but I just I want to show the comparisons that you know these issues are interconnected because if you didn't know there is this thing called the Gillie program which we have in America um which allows police forces to go overseas and train in Israel and the same tactics that was used on George Floyd with the knee on the neck is the same tactics they use on Palestinians daily so I think it's very important to consider the decision that you do make when we do present the ceasefire resolution just because again with icj's ruling but also just I hope you can find it some in some part of your heart to to want to do something and to jump on board to saying that this is enough because again even though they may say it's self-defense with Gaza they are committing more and more atrocities I mean just earlier today they tied a Palestinian man on the the top of a Jeep and used him as a human shield so if it's not I don't know I just I just want to say please I hope you make the right decision because you do have the opportunity to you know stand with the people of Palestine and to say that their lives matter but that's all I have tar wood good evening honorable council members and Madame mayor Dr Ali my name is Tara wood and I live on picture Ridge Road in Poria Illinois tonight I will start by summarizing a chat on our picture Ridge Facebook PL page that a city council member commented on and all of you should become aware of as it relates to the city's contract with our Waste Management Service gfl um first let me start off by saying that picture Ridge Road butts up against uh dut wer Park and it's a beautiful road we have lots of wildlife that we all really love and enjoy um one of our neighbors recently posted about an encounter she had with one of uh gfl sanitation workers who told her he had just come across a bin with a mama raccoon and four babies clinging to her fur um he took a picture and one of the babies ran away um but then he proceeded to dump the mama and the three babies in the bin and crushed the mama and her three babies uh this created quite a number of comments from the neighbors and many stated they would reach out to city council um saying like this is incredibly inhumane uh must be against gfls policy uh within the comments one of our city council members posted the following quote I have sent a strong message with City staff that this horrible and egregious Act was totally at odds with Humane conduct and gfl own policies later that day the original poster updated us on what she learned from gfl um about their policies and writes unfortunately it is in fact gfls policy to dump and d and Destroy anything in a trash can including Live Pets um if it's in the can it goes through the crusher uh in fact the supervisors give direction to destroy live after a photo has been sent so that's why the photo was first sent um our council member responds quote wow crazy I will check on this it makes no sense I will see if some lunatic has taken over over gfl if that is the policy it will be changed your taxpayer dollars go to this company they have signed uh the they have the uh single largest city contract stay tuned um another post claims uh other waste management companies have policies that protect Wildlife um and gfl should follow that the council member responds quote totally agree working on codifying this and the new contract uh with that said I look forward to seeing something done about this uh and I imagine something something will get done because I don't foresee anyone coming out against a policy that says like don't crush live animals in a sanitation truck now let me shift gears here I'm sure you saw this coming uh can we use this story as an analogy to what is happening in Gaza what the Israeli military is doing to civilians in Gaza our council members are Humane people I see all of you you value life as I mentioned at a previous meeting one of the council members said it would be inhumane to have chickens next to barking dogs suggest it might be scary for the chickens I that sounded like I don't care about chickens okay I care about chickens it might be scary for the chickens to have a perceived predator in their eyes and ears at all times so could you also imagine how hearing a drone at all times buzzing over your head wondering if and when it might strike could be inhumane remember drones are designed designed to be silent the Israeli military modifies them to be heard as a type of psychological warfare PR we have another council member who believes it is inhumane for mother raccoon and babies to be crushed to death and acknowledges that our tax dollars should not support such inhumane treatment so you must also find it inhumane when caterpillars D9 bulldozers Crush humans to death who are trying to defend their homes from illegal settlers or when they Crush humans who are throwing rocks at them in protest of occupation kidnapping illegal detention and overall violence can you imagine how we feel how Pur for Palestine feels we dedicate our time to organizing researching and educating in the name of Palestinian and all human rights and we fight and fight and fight for our city to pass a ceasefire in the name of humanity then we hear our city council members voicing their concerns over basically chicken rights and raccoon rights and quickly working on a solution to a real or perceived Animal Welfare issue and all the while we are looking at children being sniped shredded burned buried and exploded in Gaza once CE again porori for Palestine asks that you accept our invitation to sit together in good faith and discuss how porori wants to address the inhumane treatment of gazin on our tax dollars poror for Palestine is ready we will sit down as civilized Humane regular people dedicated to principled compromise and work together with whomever to create a ceasefire resolution containing language important to all sides to ensure that Peoria gets on that growing list of American cities that said we stood for Humanity in 2024 next we have Darcy Katie good evening council members and mayor Dr Ali so eventually you'll see before you some red folders and they're containing pertinent documents supporting why the local community in Poria is advocating for the council to pass a ceasefire resolution and also thank you for passing those out I'm sorry I turned them in late recently piia for Palestine hosted a successful public education event with Dr John Kor co-founder of Med Global Dr the Ahad and critical care float nurse Hamza Abdul kader all of whom have worked in Gaza in four-week intervals since January of 2024 this event was last Friday at icc's East Pua campus having the opportunity to speak to many of the 140 individuals in attendance to learn more about their personal stories and what inspired them to attend the event I learned that there was a multifaith community present and I'll admit this shocked even me there were Christians Muslim Jews agnostic Christians and spiritualists and also those of no faith and this struck me deeply I'm used to our group being diverse but seeing that reflected in the community interested really spoke volumes to me the same pattern would be repeated later at this past Sunday's protest a beautifully unique and diverse group of individuals coming together out of the greatest care and concern for Palestinian people as they continue to suffer through a genocide at the hands of the iof this is because the local community supports a ceasefire resolution tion at it as it is the single greatest Insurance the Palestinian people have to surviving if things continue at the current rate of progression Palestinians in Palestine will cease to exist they will be exterminated from their native indigenous Homeland that experiences something that no person or people should ever have to face the single most productive hostage exchange and temporary ceasefire took place when both the iOS under the direction of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders agreed to a ceasefire Hamas wanted to continue talks and work towards political Solutions with the Israeli government prime minister Netanyahu refused and has continued to refuse every single ceasefire resolution put forth since I ask you who sounds more unreasonable in the scenario I just described there's a reason why as of June 2024 the state of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 145 of 193 member states of the United Nations or just over 75% of all UN members I ask the council to please consider that the international court of justice has issued its ruling and the conclusion is loud and clear Israel's occupation and annexation of Palestinian territories are un lawful and its discriminatory laws and policies against Palestinians violate the prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid this Council cannot preside over international issues and I am not asking you to but I am asking you to support and honor the fact that your community does not want to funnel 1,746 412 of Poria Illinois taxpayer income to funding a genocide and that is why we are here consistently advocating for it to stop and supporting a reasonable ceasefire resolution people dying on our dollar is something we the community and you hopefully as the council do not want we ask that you exercise your right to change this and we believe that you should please don't let directly supporting and funding a genocide be your personal or political Legacy cease fire now and thank you next we have Imam Mazar mmud and greetings of Peace Madam mayor and honorable City Council Members today was a very emotional day where we started our day in our community facilitating a funeral for the mother of one of our physicians here in Poria Dr Rah Allah she breathed her last yesterday and we put her to rest today and it was an ongoing battle for about a month after she fell down May the Almighty have mercy upon her after the funeral was over the spiritual toll just increased and what added to that is I with a few of my colleagues we went to visit our beautiful Hospital which treats the sickly of the community where as we speak right now one of our babies is breathing his lust and I just thought to myself Madame mayor honorable friends that this was just one funeral and one baby suffering in one of my days and our days how do we fathom parents who are putting hundreds of babies to rest at times per day because of the discriminate bombings with our tax dollars that Israel is throwing into this is inh humanity and the tides are changing as my colleague Estella as my other colleagues Tara and Darcy have mentioned so far that the tides are changing the icj just ruled that Israel is an apari state it is our tax dollars Madame mayor you've stated before that this is not a local issue but let me rephrase that this is a gloal issue it's not a local issue it is a gloal issue where we're becoming extensions of those crimes that are that are being committed in Palestine and in razza Madame mayor it is my tax dollars that is killing my own [Music] people when we present this ceasefire resolution like we've seen in the past few days voices which were unheard before or neutral or should I say in their silence supporting those crimes now those voices are waking up and the waves are changing direction when push comes to shove and the oppressors become Victors I wish for people like yourselves who I dearly love so much people who are taking care of our beautiful city I wish that you are standing on the right side and written as the heroes of our history cease fire now and free Palestine Jonathan volter hello again my name's Jonathan VOD I live uh in the Uplands West Bluff of Poria you may recognize me uh I hope so um I have a couple things I want to touch on today uh first of all something rather positive uh in the agenda today uh you uh 24-28 communication from the city manager and director of public works with request blah blah blah uh for the Nebraska Reconstruction from Sterling Avenue to I74 um I want to thank you that you are taking the opportunity uh and maybe not you personally maybe this thank you is more so for the public works I'm not entirely sure uh but I like what I saw in this um I usually brush over these types of things when I look at the agenda and I'm very excited that given the opportunity uh when as uh a thorough needs to be redone you are um rebuilding the entire Street to be less intensive with the traffic and um in the background at the last sentence it even says in addition the north side of the roadway will be graded for a future multi-use path I love it I wish it wasn't a future thing I wish you were building that now with the $4 million you're spending but this type of work desperately needs to be done all over the city most of our streets are what is sort of on the internet I guess referred to as strads streets that are act as roads but you have businesses on these streets that people should be able to congregate to but you of heavy traffic that is exceptionally dangerous so thank you um my second point is that I want to in I hear I hear talked about in public in in with the I hear it talked about from people like yourselves or in in private spaces people that have a lot of control over how this city develops PE some people say that Peoria is very business friendly that's just not true now do I think that Peoria should just let anyone that wants to sell you anything get to do that know but I I hope that you as a as a horseshoe don't consider this Administration or whatever business friendly it's very hypocritical to feel that way um and and and that's not and that's not specifically to to the item you saw tonight I think that's in regard to many things uh I had another thing okay I'll probably think about what this other point was uh later and be very upset um but with two minutes left uh I'd like to uh Echo what uh Iman just said that uh this isn't a local issue regarding a ceasefire resolution um a Poria issue is any issue that the Peoria citizens deem it to be if you think that's not the case I don't think you should be sitting where you're sitting if por res tell you that they are concerned about what's happening thousands of miles away and they ask you to at least verbally support that you really I just it's it's hypocritical to to to tell them the citizens that it's not a local issue oh I know what the other thing was I kind of wanted to throw some shade at someone who's not currently here in regard to hypocrisy I do watch these every week even when I don't come and uh Mr gryb threw shade at deferring items and then deferred some items the next week I just really think hypocrisy that word should be thoroughly considered amongst all of you thank you now we have hes Hassan naru hi mayor and uh council members um thank you for listening to us today I've seen all of you intently hear us and know that you care about what we think and that is why you are in politics not because of money sure that there are better jobs that you guys could all be doing to earn way more but you're in it for the public service given that I'm assuming that many of you are against outside money in politics as part of the ongoing federal election cycle many states are holding primary elections for congressional seats recently there was a primary election uh in Westchester New York where uh an an organization called the American Israeli public Affair committee spent more than $50 million on a single primary combined with other money that was spent on this primary it was by far the most expensive primary ever this money was spent to remove a former school teacher a black man who was representing his district all of this was money coming from the outside from an organization whose stated goal and only purpose is to improve Israeli and American relationships however APAC is not classified as a foreign agent now you may say that how does one race in New York impact us in a couple of weeks there will be a primary in St Louis APAC has already committed to spend more than $3 million in that primary on a larger scale just on this just in this election cycle APAC is going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars with their Affiliates this is all to send a message to Representatives who support anything close to Pro Palestinian views on a federal level I I think it's easy to say that organizations like APAC have had a good return on their investment the US government gives Israel $3.3 billion every year no questions asked to a country which is very developed has better standards of living than Poria and provides very little if anything can return to the US in addition to that this year the US government gave $20 billion to a country which has free healthcare when our own residents struggle they struggle for basic necessities some of you talked about campsites others talked about the lack of businesses imagine if all that money was spent here the current prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to speak to a joint session of Congress this week he has spoken to a joint session a record this will be his fourth time which is more than anyone else ever what does the US get in return for this and what does Poria get in return for this as Darcy mentioned earlier the US has become a prior on a global level on this issue we recognize that peria tax paars are implicated directly in the v violence against Palestinians we have paid for the the bullets and we have paid for the bombs the only way to stop this killing is not to give more money to Israel just because the representatives are getting money from those organizations that support Israel it is to stop the cycle of violence through a peaceful process I hope you will rise above money in politics and push for a ceasefire resolution to send a message that at least within pure We Stand independent and support our citizens thank you you're welcome Madam Clark we do not have an executive session so we're at adjournment I would ask for a motion to adjourn moved by councilman Allan seconded by council member sear please cast your ballots thank you for your service ber ber um