Peoria unanimously approves $20M Civic Center bond study for deferred maintenance

thank you foreign good evening everyone would please take your seats we're about to get started good evening everyone it is six o'clock P.M on Tuesday February the 28th 2023 the last day in February it came so very fast I'd like to welcome everyone in our city council chambers as well as our listing audience at wcbu I'd also like to welcome the audience watching on cable channel 22.

Adam Clark the council mics are open can you please call the roll mayor Ali present for Ellen remember Sear s council member Jackson here remember Jensen council member Kelly here council member Euler here council member reaganbach council member Rick Regal and council member valpulla President we have a quorum present Madame mayor great thank you very much everyone please join me and stand for a moment of Silent prayer and Silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance thank you the United States of America indivisible with liberty and justice for all Madam Clerk we are at proclamations or we have the notice to read for the township this is a notice to our Township electors pursuant to Public Act 095-0761 if you desire to have an item considered on the agenda at the annual town meeting to be held Tuesday April the 11th 2023 at six o'clock P.M you are required to bring a specific request signed by 15 or more electors to the township clerk's office no later than tomorrow Wednesday March the 1st any group of registered voters May request an advisory question of public policy for consideration by the electors at the annual meeting by giving written notice of the specific advisory question to the Township Clerk in the same manner as required for an agenda item under subsection B of section 30-10 of the Township Code have three proclamations this evening the first is to acknowledge World Day of Prayer we have joining us Miss Aina norgaard and Miss Doris wyaneth with the women's Church women United correct ladies yes yes okay the proclamation reads whereas Church women United is a racially culturally and theologically inclusive ecumenical women's movement and whereas world day of prayer is a worldwide movement of Christian women of various races cultures and many Traditions who come together to observe a common Day of Prayer each year and who in many countries have a continuing relationship in prayer and service and whereas through World Day of Prayer women affirmed affirm that prayer and service are inseparable and that both have immeasurable influence in the world and whereas the church women United will lead the community in world day of prayer on Friday March 3rd 2023 at Salem Lutheran church located at 1700 West War Memorial Drive all are welcome to attend now therefore I read Ali mayor of the city of Peoria Illinois do hereby Proclaim March 3rd 2023 as World Day of Prayer [Applause] thank you very much mayor Ali Church women United is active and alive in our country and in our city and in our state Patty pokery regrets that she could not be with us tonight she is currently the vice president of the state of Illinois and she is the immediate past president of the National Church women United on Fridays this week just three days from now we will be meeting at Salem Lutheran Church this is where Inez norgaard is member and they are hosting us the material that we will be following is written by the ladies of Taiwan and it's the scripture that that they are using is Ephesians 1 15-19 and the theme is I have heard about your faith there are many beautiful pictures that we have that will be on the screen interesting music that they have given us to to use and a wonderful program we hope that everyone present and you will invite friends we would like to fill the church and that would take a lot of people so please come and join us we welcome you all thank you ladies I enjoyed last year's program fantastic [Applause] our next Proclamation celebrates acknowledges Ms awareness week we have Brian Gorsuch with the community council he's the president whereas multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease of the central nervous system affecting 2.8 million people worldwide over 1 million in America and whereas the national Multiple Sclerosis Society greater Illinois market reports that over 21 000 people are living with Ms in Illinois and that the disease generally strikes people in the prime of Life between ages 20 through 50 and the cause and course of the often debilitating symptoms of MS remain unknown and no cure currently exists whereas the national Multiple Sclerosis Society has been committed for 77 years to a world free of Ms heightening public knowledge and insight into the disease and whereas since 1946 the national Multiple Sclerosis Society has been a driving force of MS research relentlessly pursuing prevention treatments and a cure and has invested more than one billion dollars in groundbreaking research whereas funds raised through the national Multiple Sclerosis Society fueled 42.1 million dollars funding 380 research projects at the best medical centers universities and other institutions throughout the United States and abroad leading to many breakthroughs in the treatment of MS and whereas stopping Ms in his tracks restoring what has been lost and ending Ms forever is the mission of the national Multiple Sclerosis Society and one that all Americans and illinoisians should support now therefore I read our lead mayor of the city of Peoria Illinois do hereby Proclaim March 12th through March 18th as Ms Awareness Week in Peoria Illinois [Applause] Mr Gorsuch Madam mayor chief city council members speaking for the national MS Society and the entire AMS Community I'm extending a heartfelt thanks and a gratitude for your recent Proclamation and support of Ms Awareness Week your efforts in raising awareness about multiple sclerosis are truly commendable and it's heartening to see the city of Peoria showing support for multiple sclerosis as someone who has personally affected by multiple sclerosis I understand the challenges that people with MS and their families face every day this disease can have a profound impact on a person's quality of life and it is crucial that we work together to raise awareness and Advance research towards finding a cure the national MS Society has many arms from programs support and advocacy but our main thrust is research the national MS Society is dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of Ms through groundbreaking research and we are proud to say that we are currently funding 380 new and ongoing MS research studies around the world with 10 of these studies taking place right here in Illinois when fundraising people often ask me do the funds stay in Illinois and my response is always does Ms stay in Illinois well to that point we are delighted to partner with the Illinois state lottery for the MS project an instant win ticket and we are thrilled to see the net proceeds from the ticket sales going into the Illinois Lottery MS research fund this fund is critical in supporting the research efforts of neurologists scientists and other medical professionals across the state who are working towards a better understanding and treatment of MS we are also actively recruiting and providing grants for providers to specialize in Ms care the Illinois Neurological Institute has met the requirements to be a certified as an MS a national MS Society Ms care center and one of Peoria's newest providers Springfield Clinic has expanded neurology to Peoria with the goal of becoming a national MS Society Ms Care Center we're also working with ucomp and Bradley University to provide educational programs on multiple sclerosis with that said I am emphasizing the national MS Society supports the city of Peoria to become a premier biotech Center your support our efforts in Peoria is greatly appreciated and we are proud to be partners with you and our efforts to improve the lives of those affected by Ms thank you once again for your Proclamation and support of Ms awareness week and that we look forward to continuing our partnership with you in the future I would like to invite the council and the community to join us on April 23rd at walk Ms Peoria this walk has been in Peoria for over 30 years and to register go to walkms.org thank you very much for your leadership our final Proclamation recognizes American Heart month we have fire chief solo salberger and Mr Andrew Rand CEO of Advanced Medical Transport AMT whereas since February is American Heart month it's a good time to Champion healthy Hearts while raising awareness about cardiac emergencies and diseases whereas tonight we acknowledge the medical Excellence of Advanced Medical Transport AMT and the Peoria Fire Department in a Medical Response for sudden Cardiac Arrest which continues to be the leading cause of death in America whereas AMT and the Peoria fire department are involved in a partnership known as the race to the top program which operates to improve Cardiac Arrest survival through evidence-based practice industry-leading expertise crew experience patient outcomes and data-driven operational decision making and whereas the national leading practice of pit crew style CPR ensures high quality CPR is performed through on-scene collaboration and is the foundation of successful cardiac results and whereas in a recent nationally recognized clinical publication Peoria area patients with a stopped heart were three times more likely to survive neurologically intact than the national average whereas yes that's worth clapping for whereas the practice and results of the Peoria collaboration are transforming standards of care and establishing the best practice for cardiac response in the United States and the world now therefore I read hourly mayor of the city of Peoria do hereby acknowledge February as American Heart month of Mayor and distinguished Council I just want to say thank you for taking the time to recognize the collective efforts between two agencies working together over a long period of time this is only one example of when people put their minds together and they work together on a very consistent basis we we respond together dozens of times a day every day in the particular events that we're talking about cardiovascular Cardiac Arrest these are some of the more difficult calls that we go on on a very regular basis and for us to be able to think outside of the box and I know uh director Rand and their crew at AMT working with us it's a very very long list and I could bore you um just naming the people that were that started this program it's so impactful and so you see the results of that three times the national average I think that that bears repeating and I think it also Bears repeating the fact that we were one of the only communities when this first started throughout the whole United States and that we understood why why we should do this so I just wanted to say thank you and I think that it's important for us to recognize um it's easier for us to stand up here and and talk about all of these things the harder part is is to be on that event so I do want to applaud our firefighters and our paramedics through both agencies that are on these calls and to have these type of results thank you thank you Chief Mr Ryan mayor members Council thank you for having us back again tonight I want their heart American Heart Association comes every February and it seems like we have opportunities and proclamations each and every year but this year is particularly special because the results that are coming out of our program which is designed to minimize variability so that we could measure what works modify what doesn't and then go back and start that over again the next day each week our team's review I think it's on Wednesday three to five cardiac arrests and there are several hundred data points per event that we're monitoring and studying the main point being that positive outcomes in eliminating variability is what we've been striving for for several years and it's starting to work it's true that we've just been published in a national journal on Cardiology so that other communities perhaps want to take some practices of ours but what happens at the beginning middle and end of the day is there's a tremendous level of collaboration between the fire medical Crews and our crews at AMT and above all over the decades the collaboration has replaced I think competitiveness and that common desire to serve the city that we're dedicated to serve is I think what's winning the race so thank you for the recognition I want to thank the chief because he's a new kind of leader for us to work with and we're just so excited to work with him in local 50.

thank you thank you it's an amazing program race to the top and it's producing amazing results and Mr Kravitz and other media I hope that that you do something more to get the word out help help to get the word out on this amazing program right here in Greater Peoria thank you Madam Clark we are at the the approval of the minutes council member Euler thank you madam chairwoman I move to approve the minutes of The Joint City Council and town board meeting held on February 14 2023 as printed I get a second seconded by council member Kelly any discussion please cast your balance motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at public hearings 23-054 is a public hearing regarding the annexation of parcel identification numbers 09-16-400-001 and 09-16-300-004 Peoria County Illinois so I asked the question if is there anyone who would like to speak to public hearing regarding the annexation of parcel identification numbers zero nine one six four hundred zero zero one and zero nine one six three hundred Dash zero zero four I do have some cards of individuals that have requested to speak and if there are individuals that want to speak after the cards are announced you will still have that opportunity so first we have Alan Curry oh sorry I'm sorry I need a motion to open the public hearing moved by council member Jensen seconded by council member seer please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously and thank you Council Mr Curry members for letting me have time to speak up here um I didn't prepare any words so I'm going to just speak from my personal experience I'm a lifelong resident of Mossville my whole life we've spent watching my family go through extremes and local meetings and everything to try to keep Mossville Mossville the city of Peoria has always been trying to slowly take bites out of Mossville and it seems like the pace is rapidly picked up I've noticed just from this even coming up I went to the plant map started looking to see who owns land around the area I've noticed over the years pure Park District has bought up massive amounts of land all around Moscow all around the caterpillar tech center all up through the woods that's of course reason why the township put up the Great Wall of Medina the strip of land that kind of separates Mossville from the Peoria area I have nothing personally against Peoria but the reason why we live in Mossville is because we don't want to live in Peoria I don't want to live in Chicago I don't want to live in Chillicothe I want to live in Boston that's where I spent my whole life um like I said I grew up listening to my parents talk about what we could do to keep Mossville Mossville how Mossville is a good place to live uh I love the members of Mossville our townships great um I see no problem with working with Peoria but things have been done to Mossville for long periods of time like we can never get access to city water now we got water mains that run through Mossville but yet you can't access it uh when I was an engineer on the Chillicothe fire department we can never come to agreements where we could get any kind of mutual Aid either to Peoria or from Peoria um so there's benefit I guess an animosity almost between Peoria and Mossville and we want to keep muscle moss and like I said this isn't about hating Mossville or any anything like that it's just that people come to Boston and want to live in Mossville because it's Mossville uh not with this land that they want to subdivide they want to bring that into Peoria if you go through and look at the plant maps you will find it's a steady chain of either Park District land or city land slowly encroaching and the idea is to surround Mossville to force the annexation of it uh the gentleman and the people that own this land that want to have it subdivided or you do decide to nxs Mossville you got to look for all the infrastructure that you will have to put in like the fire hydrants the water mains sewage that's all by law has to be put in once it becomes the city of Peoria so this is to me as far as I'm concerned a big can of worms um and like I said Peoria could move on Peoria Is Not A Bad City not bad people it's not about hate or anything like that but the subdivision of this lot will just further this agenda to take Mossville in and tax dollars are draining out of Medina Township with caterpillar shrinking I know that would have been a big motivation to capture that land to get caterpillar within the city limits to bring in tax funds and whatever that the city could benefit from it but now like I said over the last several years caterpillar itself's been shrinking tearing down buildings caterpillar will not be in hospital forever and by the time the city of Peoria gets gets a hold of it they're going to have more of a burden for the city of Peoria rather than the benefits that they would have been receiving so therefore I would like to ask that that this city of Peoria did not and access this land because there are a lot of residents that feel this way but a lot of them don't even know what is going on around them but if this does go forward I I'm going to spend the rest of my time educating everybody in this area of the things that they may not be aware of like the the park district land that's why they're closing golf courses and everything like that because they're trying to liquidate as much money as they can to buy up as much land as they can and just go to the plant maps look around just start clicking and you'll start seeing who owns this land and why the hell would they want to own a bean field I don't I don't get it but either way I'll Just Surrender the rest of my time and thank you for your time thank you Mr Curry next we have Kurt stepping thank you thank you for this opportunity my name is Kurt stepping I live at 14127 Ivy Lake Road Ivy Lake Road is oh roughly half a mile to the East and runs north and south for approximately two miles relative to the properties in question here a couple things I wanted to point out here one is I don't think um any of the Redmond I'll speak specifically for myself but I think most would probably concur that we don't have anything this is not personal with the Herman brothers or fence line properties um I would even ask if is it possible to allow the properties to be sold subdivided into the four plants that they want and allow for single-family housing the pre-annexation agreement that I've read over is specific to single-family housing it does not allow for multiple family housing or any recreational uses it's single-family housing and or agriculture you know existing uses on there also one of the things that's in there is a a mention of if the properties down the road were to be further subdivided then it would require a public sanitary system to be constructed there one of the things you'll note on one of the plant maps a survey comment on there that this is a flood plain on there do you want to inherit a flood plain and try to incorporate a sewage treatment facility or sewage facilities in there um construction of a sewage plant other facilities there such as that then would require an npdes permit an npds permit on a flood plain I don't know all the details with that I'm primarily familiar with mpds testing requirements as I worked 41 years in that market but I don't know that that's something that the city of Peoria wants to take on I believe you have enough issues with your existing CSO with Illinois River in the U.S EPA that this would just exacerbate that that issue there's already an existing npds discharge into Dickinson run Creek that goes through there I have not foided the information but I suspect there's probably exceedances there a new sewage treatment facilities on a flood plain when it floods which you know it will flood at some point time now you're just talking more issues of E coli and fecal coliform going through Dickinson run Creek ultimately to the into the Illinois River and aggravating your CSO issue that you're already dealing with I don't know that you have an answer for that yet I know there's a lot of stuff in the works but this is only going to complicate that another thing that I noticed specifically in the pre-annexation agreement that I want to make sure that the council is aware of this is the language in that agreement says that you know it's a 20-year agreement well when we were at the public hearing that the zoning commission had a couple weeks ago then they said well okay if nothing happens in 20 years it all will just go away well the fine print and that agreement has language in there that stipulates or mutual agreement of the parties it can be extended so 20 years isn't 20 years there isn't a definite time frame on this if the city and whoever it's hard to say who's going to own the property you know 20 years from now but if the owner and the city then both mutually agree this can go on and on and on and never in that's one of the things I hope that you're all aware of in that pre-annexation agreement and also point out too that all the things I've seen the agendas uh things on the media whatnot all say that this is an annexation well it's not just make clear that it's not an annexation my understanding at this point it is a pre-annexation and annexation will only happen if it becomes contiguous with the city of Peoria and there's 20 years down the road but 20 years isn't necessarily a magic number then there's language in there that that could go on as long as possible by Mutual consent of both parties so I'm sure others will have more details thank you for your time thank you Mr stepping [Applause] next we have Rick Scott hotter mayor council members my name is Rick shadowfer our property and our family farms occupy the north side of the property that's in question live there since 1956.

and I wanted to fill you in a little bit on the history of the valley down there first off the parcel that we're talking about is definitely in a flood prone plane okay this property I have grown up on across the street from has had major flooding several times in 1970 the creek came out of its boundaries it took out Cedar Hills Drive in two spots took the whole bridge out at the base of the hill and a brand new bridge had to be built and the old one hauled away okay this is just not a little creek going through uh also with this crack the affluence coming out of Lake of the Woods treatment plants go down this Creek so there's question there about the viability of either drawing water out of there or using it for a septic system okay that's just a little history on the ground itself I received a notice that asked my opinion and on the annexation of this property it's actually a preenance pre-annexation but um I was told fry the city they classified it as a type of annexation okay um immediately went to our neighbors we organized and wanted to get the opinion of the community out there we took and organized uh both electronic petition and also written petition I personally went door to door in a lot of instances the results of produced a unanimous solid core of citizens and property owners over 300 in this community are opposed to the pre-annexation of the property um this property we do not have an objection with being divided we just do not want the city coming over the Medina wall which was created approximately 20 years ago I could be off a year or two on that um with this we would then went to the township the township has given us a hundred percent support the road commissioner the trustees and they are totally behind the objection so I am asking you to vote no on the pre-annexation of this property it's within your power to vote no and we as a community and as the township are asking for a no vote tonight thank you very much Mr shot holder [Applause] we have Wes Jacobson good evening mayor good evening ladies and gentlemen in the city council Stephanie of my handouts are out with the team members yes you've been provided to handouts I would like you to pick up the one labeled city of Peoria Municipal Code subdivision there's been a lot of confusion about whether this is required or not and this is your city Co I'd like to direct you down to the bottom of page one where it says the subdivision plants for land within one and a half miles of the jurisdictional jurisdiction maybe that's maybe it doesn't say required or have to but it may be reviewed so it's not a requirement I would like to direct you to the third page I'd like you to direct you to the bottom yet these are the procedures review procedures per ordinance the bottom one says plot within one and a half miles of the Extraterrestrial jurisdiction can be divided there's no notification of of citizens required the director can approve it and the zoning report does that but for some reason uh our friend from fence line it was directed to follow the column that's highlighted above in three which brings us to where we are tonight I just want the the members of the council to realize that this isn't the required method he was directed to go this way and what we'd like to know is why does that benefit him and how does it benefit the city to do this those questions have not been answered and and because you are home rule here I'd like to direct you to the last page of this code it's there are special circumstances or conditions where you can change a code that you have there is if modification is necessary for the homeowner you can do them your home rule and you can do these things making sure there are no detriments to the public or to the welfare of the citizens of both Peoria County and the city of Peoria now I'd like to quickly review the development review board analysis that's a single sheet of paper a handout you should have it's a matrix all of you have that thank you so you have what the review board analysis was it looked boilerplate it does not show any you know considered an effort from The public's point of view the first review you know detriment to public health safety or general welfare we've got a flood plain it's not contiguous to Peoria policing Fire Road districts via roads further sketch and it further stretches the lean capability of our resources in the city right now fire police and the road works there's over 300 residents now that have signed a petition not to do this these people live in Rural and they like it that way and it's not it's not going to diminish our our property values well the people that live there don't like it and the tax rate increases by 16.5 percent and it's safe to say higher taxes lower property values so on point number two there is injury no impetitive to orderly development usually when the state legislature put this together they're expecting roads City Water gas lines electricity and everything to be available for orderly development like we have out like you know Grand Prairie that's all flowing nicely this is a bluff that is used to hunt and we've got agriculture on this is not early development you can read the rest uh there's some safety concerns about traffic on the road it's going to increase because there's going to be residents there so on behalf of over 300 of Peoria County's residents we'd like you to vote no on this proposal if not table it and there are other options where all parties win the cities the northern Peoria the citizens of Peoria and fence line properties and I would hope that we would all work together with our friends of the north the city and our friends of the South part of the county in Medina Township thank you very much mayor and city council thank you Mr Jacobson [Applause] thank you next we have Bill Jones Bill Jones speaking to this issue bill you speaking to this particular issue okay all righty we have Brian alsasser foreign thank you mayor Ali's city council members uh Brian Alcester Peoria County Board I represent the area that's uh uh we're talking about tonight with the pre annexation agreement uh thank you so much for talking to me over the last few weeks on the phone for those of you who did and uh listening to me I really do appreciate it tonight I'm here because uh 300 of my constituents and a lot more of them if they knew about it would be very willing to sign a petition and that's a lot because I do want to share with you just three different things that I've heard over the last few weeks and first of all initially there was the suggestion that this is a requirement well I know after talking to um to Lee as she said it is a requirement in your in your code to and the protocol in your code to uh ask for pre-annexation on a zoning case but then it's not a state law or a city of Peoria law so I know you you normally do this but when you have you ever had a situation before where you've had three or four hundred people opposing something I mean that's a lot of people especially out in the county now I know I know in the city you may have issues and the population is much more dense than you it might not be hard to find three or four hundred people so I would ask for that consideration and number two I've also heard that um that it's a way for the city of Peoria to control the zoning and the zoning will be under the auspices of the county whether there is a pre-annexation agreement or whether there isn't a pre annexation agreement and and after I get into speaking and later on you please correct me if any of these things are inaccurate and the third uh uh um thing that I kept hearing throughout the week was that the petitioner requested the pre-annexation agreement I talked to the petitioner a month ago and I talked to him again yesterday and that would not be accurate he would have not wanted the pre annexation agreement but it was the only way for his subdivision plan to be passed and also I wanted to mention after these three points that there was a one of my constituents was an attorney that couldn't be here tonight and she she said to ask the council this she said why would you want a pre-annexation agreement in an area where there is no public water or public sewer aren't you going against the rules and the codes that the city has in place for situations like this and I thought that was a very good point tonight I humbly ask that you would consider this I hope that at least two of you will make a main Motion in a second to remove the requirement of the pre annexation agreement and then the majority of the council would vote against the pre-annexation agreement and then afterwards support the subdivision and Platte I think this is about relationships I've been saying and I said it in my email that I sent to all of you the city does best what the city does the county does best what the county does and we all have a lot of work to do and the city and the county and all of you would admit that we don't have enough resources to do everything we want to do I think that would be an accurate statement and so for for good relationships please consider this I can honestly say that if someone said I want to give the county 90 acres in the middle of the city I promise you that I would not vote for that number one because we have enough to take care of ourselves and number two it just wouldn't be a good Community relationship um situation and so again thank you for listening to me and thank you for your consideration and please please vote against the pre annexation agreement I think it will create a much better feeling for for between the Medina Township and the city and the county and it will put all these residents at more at ease for the next several years thank you thank you Mr alce [Applause] and before I call you up Mr Herman I want to ask is there anyone else that would like to speak to public hearing regarding the annexation of parcel identification numbers 0 9-16-400-001 and zero nine Dash 16-300-004 Chad Herman thank you thank you madam mayor and city council appreciate the opportunity just to to share our our position here is uh we would like four Parcels in our 90 acre track um we are surrounded by 15 Parcels of land all from 1.21 acres to 50 acres on our north east south and west and so when we look at the community and what the community wants they want rule Lots between 1.21 acres and 50 acres and that's our proposal is to do these rule Lots from 10 13 32 and 32 Acres we've told that our Avenue is pre-annex so that's why we're here tonight and who we are is we are a group of 18 couples that love land love the outdoors we love the to improve land and enjoy it and we have work days on these lands to try to keep our friendships rolling and see each other we also have some a young couple that is interested in buying 32 Acres from us to build their dream home we would love that opportunity to give them this opportunity as well so we've heard a lot about the flood plain our land is 90 acres of land there's roughly a less than a third of that in the flood plain so there's 60 acres of land that are wonderful to build on as a former Builder I can assure you there's some wonderful spots there and in regards to this petition um we have been approached multiple times by people who have said there's lots of information in this petition there's rumors of factories Section 8 homes a lot of fear-mongering going on of what our purpose is and our goal is our goal is rural residential homes on large track lands that are completely in in realm with all the community around us and that's what we really want to do we want to be treated like everybody else and have the ability like all the 15 Parcels around us to parcel off our land into four Parcels to be able to improve each for a future home for somebody so that's uh where we're at at fence line properties and we really appreciate you considering our pre Annex tonight thank you Mr Herman and this would be the this will be the last call if anyone would like to speak to public hearing regarding the annexation of parcel identification numbers 09-16-400-001-09-16-300-004 with that I would ask for a motion to close the public hearing moved by councilmember Kelly seconded by a council member grab any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously animal Clerk we are at the consent agenda 23-055 is a communication from the mayor and Corporation Council with a request to approve the Declaration of local state of emergency 23-056 is a communication with a request to approve the low bid from CNG Concrete Construction Company Inc in the amount of one million three hundred fifty seven thousand three hundred and seventy dollars for the sidewalk and Ada ramp program with an additional authorization of 135 737 for contingencies for a total contract Award of one million four hundred and ninety three thousand one hundred and seven dollars and on your desk there is a handout with three Maps 23-057 is a communication with a request for the following a to approve a contract with jymax landscape LLC for the tree and stump removal by size tree trimming by hourly rates to December 31st 2023 in an amount not to exceed seventy thousand dollars and B to approve a contract with diamonds jymax landscape LLC for the emergency tree and stump removal by size and tree trimming by hourly rates to December 31st 2023 in an amount not to exceed thirty thousand dollars 23-058 is a communication with request to approve a three-year sole source contract with Municipal emergency services to purchase fire turnout gear as needed requires two-thirds vote of council members voting no less than six votes 23-046 is a communication with a request to adopt an ordinance amending chapter 3 subsection 52 of the code of the city of Peoria to create the class NP liquor license and 23-059 is a communication with a request for the following Aid to approve an incumbency certificate and resolution accepting a grant from the Illinois housing department Authority for the home repair and accessibility program in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars and B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Peoria 2023 revised annual budget relating to the capital fund to recognize the receipt of a grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority for the home repair and accessibility program and the corresponding expenditures in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars which requires a two-thirds vote of corporate authorities eight votes and that concludes our consent agenda thank you madam clerk just a clarification on 23-058 requires two-thirds vote of council members voting is that correct no less than six votes Council thank you uh so our ordinances provide that but we don't know how many council members are going to be present so if we were short a member or two or three it would take we would still have a quorum it would take two-thirds of the members voting on that matter but the ordinance also provides but not what it has to be at least six votes so tonight it requires eight votes if everybody votes I don't know if anyone's going to abstain or not be present but that's why it's written that way because it respects the language of our ordinance thank you so tonight it would require eight votes thanks for that clarification are there any items to remove from consent council member Grant uh thank you mayor 23-059 council member Kelly thank you madam mayor 23056 thank you any other items to remove from consent can I get a motion to approve the uh the consent agenda move by councilman Sears seconded by councilmember Jensen any discussion please cash your ballots Ocean passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-056 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve the low bid from CNG Concrete Construction Company Inc in the amount of one million three hundred fifty seven thousand three hundred and seventy dollars for the sidewalk and Ada ramp program with an additional authorization of 135 737 for contingencies for a total contract Award of 1493 107 and on your desk there is a handout of the maps council member Kelly thank you madam mayor um perhaps I'm the only one in this boat I'm sort of file challenged and I really really appreciate the uh iPad that the city provides and all the items on the agenda and all their attachments Etc are on that iPad and I don't have to buy a filing cabinet at home I can just look it up on here but oftentimes we get things like this this is wonderful I'm all in favor of it but why you know this is on the agenda we've known it's on the agenda and several other items here and uh oftentimes most the time these things are included uh on the iPad but I would just like to uh urge the the clerk or the city manager to make sure that we're not getting a whole lot of stuff on the night of the meeting that it is available to us ahead of time so with that I will move to approve is there a second second by council member uh rigenbach sorry about that any other discussion councilmember regenbach thank you madam mayor I was going to wait and make comments under new business on this item but since you've pulled it councilman I'll just say thank you to public works for taking the request of council serious during the budget cycle and councilwoman Jensen was very adamant about doing sidewalks throughout the city that we're in need of repair so um hats off to the engineering department at Public Works and um I'm fully in favor of supporting this thank you council member Jensen uh thank you madamir um and I'm in support of this but I do have a question for I think I saw director Powers walk in sorry I can't see you behind the podium um are these the only sidewalks that we're moving forward with with repairs for this next year because I mean when you look at the map it's only it looks like three and a half blocks in District 2 in about the same in District 3 and 5.

and to me that's just um I see the manager shaking his head yes that's such a little amount um you know and here we are tonight going to consider issuing bonds for 20 million dollars to help the Civic Center with their Capital expenses and we need to be using our money and our bonds to improve the sidewalks in the older parts of the city and even the newer Parts um so I'm just going to make that point again I think we should be spending more dollars in improving the sidewalks throughout the city but primarily in the older neighborhoods I don't know if you want to comment to that director powers I will thank you counselor Justin for bringing that up actually in District three there's significantly more than three blocks there's three blocks approximately in District Two I believe and that uh well actually it's four and then there's some infill in District Five and then significant work in District three and during the budget process I know we talked a lot on this topic and just the budget in general and the challenges we're having across the board of improving sidewalk in Peoria and what we were doing with some of the previous programs how we parse the work out the cost of fuel cost of materials cost of the supply chain everything that we are dealing with it was actually difficult to bid those jobs in fact they didn't at one time we had to go back out so we're making a concentrated effort now to focus the spending and this is 1.3 million dollars annually that we've committed perpetually during this program to move through the city and find the worst sidewalks and improve them and invariably will be moving through the city as we move through based on condition and need and a lot of that is complaint driven and then of course we go and assess it with that keep in mind in district one there's still two million dollars pending for an investment in that area in sidewalks only so on top of this 1.3 million in this year we're still hoping to see that and I understand that we will be seeing that two million dollars for an investment in district one alone so we're over three million already in this year alone and again perpetually we'll be spending 1.3 million or we hope to the budget Health stays the way it is our fiscal Health stays the way it is throughout the years and to move around this city in a more effective way we also will still have the special service area so I'm kind of going to go through I guess a bit of Education here so that people who still want to participate in what was formerly the sidewalk participation program will now be entering into a special service area agreements again still involving a voting process for participation than us doing a full assessment of the appraised value of the properties in that area taking the full appraised value the higher priced homes of course would pay a higher share of the cost for the installation of sidewalks than the lower price valued homes so they would be a weighted payment if you will however each home our property owner would have one vote relative to participation or not and again please counsel if I got that wrong straighten me out but I believe that's it it's that's pretty much in a nutshell we actually have one group that's come forward to us already in that interest and we're working with them now in fact in District Two um let's see if there's anything else that I wanted to cover in this area I think that pretty much covers it so to the point of you being in an older neighborhood counselor we will be there it's just we have a finite amount of money it's a million dollars or just over a million and we will be moving through that area and we'd like to do that just from an engineering perspective with all infrastructure and let the conditions speak and eventually cycle through the city if we can keep this spending level where it is we will get there we will get there it's just going to take a little time so with that I'll close it if you have any further questions I'll try to answer Council Jensen yeah thank you for that explanation again I just reiterate I'm glad we're moving forward with this and I you know wholeheartedly support these but I hope we continue and we look for spending more money towards repairing the sidewalks throughout the city thank you thank you council member Graham so director we had a change in programmatic design as it relates to sidewalk when we thought that it would be most efficient to do huge hunks of our city at the same time with no cost to our citizens other than what they normally pay in terms of taxes yes sir but that would not rule out what I think you're referring to councilor Jensen the long-standing uh initiatives that citizens could take to fix up their particular sidewalk and or curb um and I know councilman Sandberg worked hard to liberalize the allowance to make it easier for people to do this and we really didn't have the free component I'll put that in quotation marks back then so if anything we're probably going to be able to do more lineal feet of sidewalk with the free quote-unquote combined with the SSA special service option where citizens can band together or they can individually agree to pay part of what it would be if they don't want to wait a thousand years for us to have these red lines crisscross the entire city that that is correct counselor that it would I would say in essence move them because we have a commitment that would we would meet that match and perform the project yeah I never thought a number of years ago we would ever get to the point where we would be doing this for free never so what we have here is a bonus we aren't going backwards we're not subtracting we're adding thank you thank you thank you councilor we have a motion and a second to approve 23-056 if there's no more discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Adam Clark 23-059 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request for the following a to approve an incumbency certificate and resolution accepting a grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority for the home repair and accessibility program in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars and B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Peoria 2023 revised annual budget relating to the capital fund to recognize the receipt of a grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority for the home repair and accessibility program and the corresponding expenditures in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars and Item B requires a two-thirds vote of all corporate authorities councilmember Graham thank you mayor um manager I mentioned something to you before the meeting started and I would just like to say it publicly I think that your staff has been working overtime to um lift our city up and help to provide a Renaissance for our city and this is a time for us to make up for lost time pandemic years Etc with some of these unprecedented funds both federal and state that are coming to our city to lift the city up and lift our neighborhoods up director Doolin I know you've been working overtime with your staff could you just give a brief Tracy of what's involved here in both A and B and and then we can go from there uh yes sir thank you councilman um so the item in front of you the the city of Peoria is submitted for a competitive Grant through the Illinois Housing Development Authority uh for three hundred thousand dollars it was a grant opportunity uh that we competed with municipalities throughout the state city of Peoria was lucky to be selected uh we were receiving 300 000 as a kind of a sub program of theirs specifically for roofs uh the need in our community for new roofs is very high in addition to this program every year we have a roofing program with our community development block grants we have about slots for about 20 roofs through that program this year the program application period closed about three weeks ago and we had 91 applicants uh so unfortunately only 20 of those 91 applicants will get roofs luckily with this additional funding from the state of Illinois we'll be able to give about 15 more roofs into that list so the need and demand is definitely in our community the you know a roof goes a long way in preserving a structure for a long time if the roof goes things starts leaking that's when our property quickly goes to a demolition process so we appreciate the Illinois Housing Development Authority making this uh Grant award to us also uh me Tech located down in 61605 also received this same Grant but for roofs and whole house rehabs related to accessibility so the total for the community to get about one million dollars the city gets about 300 000 and they're getting a large chunk of that so they'll be releasing releasing their programs separately but a lot of money coming to our community for home repair so this helps many of our citizens in our aging historic Legacy neighborhoods to fix up their homes and when you think about the city of Peoria as it's grown 50 square miles The Heart of the City is probably the oldest we have some of the oldest housing stock it's not all in a City Historic District or a National Historic District so this is going to afford the opportunity for some of our people who are stressed for cash to actually fix some of these big ticket items up and keep them in a home that's been fixed up and repaired and for that reason I'm very grateful for these funds and we have to continue to renew the housing stock in the Heritage neighborhoods and I think this goes a long way toward that one question director I'm pretty good after these years with the acronyms but I can't for the life of me figure out what the acronym Ami stands for area medium income average median area median area I didn't think average would go with the median okay thank you very much I would move to approve uh a as outlined uh mayor seconded by council member rickenbach thank you for highlighting this councilman grab it's a very important program any other discussion councilmember Jensen thank you madam mayor um since this was pulled I do have one question director Dylan will this um three hundred thousand dollars be in addition to the money that we typically use from HUD so how so so this is going to be extra so how big how much will the program be now uh uh usually do about 350 to 400 000 of Hud funds and so this will about it'll take us from doing about 20 roofs to about 35 this year terrific that's why I wanted to know thank you right uh we're voting on item a please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously council member Grant uh Mayor Lee I moved to adopt the ordinance amending the city of period 2023 revised annual budget relating to the capital fund to recognized receipt of a grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority for the home repair and accessibility program and the corresponding expenditures and the amount of three hundred thousand dollars second by council member reagenbach a discussion please cast your balance motion passes unanimously I'm Adam Clark we are at regular business 23-060 is a communication from the city manager with a request for a discussion on funding additional capital for the Peoria Civic Center Mr manager uh thank you madam mayor as you know at the request of councilman Seer we asked he asked that we would have a discussion about ways that we can address the situation between the Civic Center and the Peoria rivermen and City staff over the last several weeks has been working having some discussions with the Civic Center Authority having some discussions with you madam mayor and as well the liaison to the Civic Center councilman ruckriegel about ways that we might be able to address the the funding Gap that the Civic Center currently has they did a study several years ago that identified that they had about 47 million dollars of unmet capital needs and they have been fortunately the recipient of a 25 million dollar State Grant the Civic Center Authority has prioritized that list that list as prioritized is in your packet in the handout here in addition there's about six years that are remaining on the Civic Center 2007 expansion bonds so that debt will run through 2028 payable on January 1st of 2029.

um how the city pays that debt on the Civic Center it comes from Hotel restaurant and amusement taxes and we've seen that over the last seven years we've been averaging roughly around 10 million dollars a year of HRA taxes but that includes the two years that we were affected by the pandemic if we take the pandemic out we've been running closer to the the 10.6 to 10.8 million dollar range in terms of revenues that we've collected um the the Cascade of funds from the HRA taxes are not the simplest drawdown the way that we have it structured the the way that that drawdown works is that we pay our Debt Service First the the debt that we have on the Civic Center gets gets paid first so that that you know seven million 6.8 million dollars a year of debt service that runs through 2029 is what gets paid first because that's you know debt that we've obligated the city to pay back after that one-third of the HR of the a portion of the tax which is the amusement tax comes back to the city to fund City operations uh one quarter of the H Tax which is our hotel tax uh which is set at eight percent inside the city comes back to pay for roads we we have used that that was done in 2015 uh that was increased by two percent and that money comes back to support our road Network here inside the city uh the next drawdown comes back out of the the HRA taxes that are generated on site in the pure Marquette and that's used to pay the debt service on the pure Marquette following that there is the distribution to the convention and visitors bureau it's about 542 thousand dollars annually that goes to the convention and Visitors Bureau and following that we distribute money to the tourism Reserve fund the tourism Reserve fund is a it's a joint effort between the CVB and the city uh where events in the city uh conventions or you know events that may be going on either at the Civic Center or in the community uh we use those dollars uh to sub to subsidize portions of that event or we'll use a large portion of it to Market Peoria we Market the city of Peoria with those dollars to try and attract more tourists and more people to come to the city of Peoria lastly we have funds for marketing the riverfront we work with the park district on marketing our Riverfront activities we have money that goes to Arts Partners we have a hundred thousand dollars that goes to Arts Partners we take a little bit more for financial Administration and then what's left over goes to fund the maintenance of the Civic Center when you have a building the size of the Civic Center you're going to have broken sinks and you're going to have life sites that go out you're going to have all of that cost of maintaining a building of its size and its complexity uh over the years we have seen roughly about a million six uh being distributed since going back to 2016 uh on an annual basis to the to the Civic Center Authority uh for maintenance and operations except for the covid years those two years of the pandemic uh the first year 2020 when everything stopped we only saw about a hundred and thirty thousand dollars coming in the next year was seven hundred thousand dollars this year 1.6 so we're seeing that that number has picked back up to where we've been in the past so as our finance team started looking at how we could look at where our debt was currently situated and is there a way that we could maybe possibly wrap around debt with with an additional Bond issuance we looked at that and examined whether or not we could afford it and as we we started to look at that I believe that we could afford a 20 million dollar issuance of debt to provide additional Capital expenditures for the Civic Center Authority uh it would cost roughly about nine hundred thousand dollars a year for the next six years of additional Debt Service and then uh after that debt service is paid off it would increase uh to 1.9 million dollars annually and that would be for 14 years so that so again the big chunk of Debt Service gets paid off from the HRA taxes that we're paying that we're using to pay for that debt uh in 2029 and then you know as we start to look at this we felt that what we could do is say to the Civic Center Authority what we can do is we can provide you with a guarantee of 1.2 million dollars of operations and maintenance support each year through the that 2029 period once that period was complete if the city has had to subsidize in any of those years any of these six years that we're looking ahead we would get paid back as if we were a bondholder and that that money would come back out of HRA tax revenues to pay the city back so we do think that this this provides us an opportunity uh to it doesn't close the gap entirely and all the Civic Center needs in the Civic Center Authority uh and I believe they're here in the audience this evening uh the chair of the Civic Center Authority and other members and their their Chief counselor here in the in the stands or the the audience this evening um they have made a request I think of our legislature for additional support additional Grant support if it's available uh as the the budget process works its way through Springfield but we do think that this is an option that allows for uh the key piece being the ice plant obviously that that helps us to fix that it wouldn't be this year would likely be 2024 that they would have to plan for it because you've got to clear all the events out of the Civic Center in order to be able to to get that kind of work completed and then lastly you know the the question is it would still require the Civic Center Authority uh as the landlord to negotiate a lease with the Peoria rivermen but this at least addresses the capital needs if we go forward with this what the way we've structured this or whether we've put this in your packet we've also included the the outstanding Capital that the Civic Center has identified that's the second handout that's in your packet as well I think in talking with uh our bond Council and talking with our financial advisors it's likely that we won't be able to issue any debt until May just by the time we get all the paperwork put together but it does provide us I think you know this is just for discussion this evening however Council wants to go forward if you want to proceed forward with this you know if there's direction to for us to come back to you with with you know some sort of item for Action we can do that but we wanted to have the discussion this evening with you and so that's why we wanted to put this together manager thank you for that overview also thank you for the due diligence involved in in coming up with a strategy that will help to restore and protect one of our greatest assets and that's the Peoria Civic Center uh the Civic Center is important to all of us within the city of Peoria as well as the Greater Peoria area the mission statement of the Civic Center is that we will be a catalyst for improving the quality of life and economic fatality in our area by hosting diverse events that are enjoyed and supported by all segments of the General Public I don't think it's any secret to anyone that there is a need for Capital Improvements within the Peoria Civic Center those that have visited the Civic Center for various events may have seen witnessed some of the repairs that are needed the old carpet in the Civic Center you may not have been high enough to see the roof needs but there's certainly a big price item in preparing and repairing the roof of the Peoria Civic Center replacing it so I want to first thank the state of Illinois for providing the 25 million dollar Capital Grant through the leadership of of leader Johan Gordon booth that certainly has helped tremendously that money is actually flowing and and we're very grateful for that but we as a city have a responsibility to help protect this asset and so I'm just grateful for the discussions that have been held discussions with our Council liaison councilman Rick Regal he's the liaison to the Peoria Civic Center Authority from the council council member Seer has been on these discussions as well and again civic center chair Yvonne Greer Yvonne Greer is here and we may have some questions tonight uh Mrs Greer so that's that's just to kick off our discussion and and that's what we're here to do tonight is to begin the discussions on the improvements to the Peoria Civic Center councilmember rock regal thank you madam mayor and um thank you for your words and your synopsis as well on being able to pull this together and for our city manager thank you for laying out what really is um ultimately a kind of a complicated issue and I think one thing that's important for our audience to know is that unfortunately the Civic Center doesn't have the ability to go out and um release their own bonds they don't have that vehicle and so that's sort of what ties the city piece into into the Civic Center piece and and I think it can't be overstated and mayor you mentioned it and and I'll reiterate it as well that when a capital list was put together several years ago there were those 47 million dollars and those were in those dollars we've had some inflation as well and and some pressures on being able to get materials and things but when the when that list was put together we were very lucky in having representative Gordon booth in Springfield being able to find and to be able to work into the capitol build 25 million dollars for us and I think that that is actually the foundation for why we are able to have this discussion here tonight because um that had had the Civic Center Authority really looking at the capital needs and how do we be able to rally um to be able to do those I had a great question about that was posed to me about the lease and the timing and why wasn't the lease done before and and I think for the public to understand we have two great entities we have the Civic Center Authority and the rivermen who both want to do the right thing and be able to have a really good partnership and it is through through no fault of either entity about how we got to today because you can't sign a lease without knowing what the plant and the physical um conditions are going to be of where you're going to play especially when you're signing a lease going on and unfortunately the Civic Center had Capital needs that including the roof that had to come in and we're on very limited dollars what we have in front of us tonight is I think a very workable plan I'd like to take a minute and be able to thank council member Seer for leading off this conversation and for really bringing to the highlight and working with an idea that if we're going to address one need at the Civic Center let's address the capital needs that really do improve the whole situation and councilman berser has I think really encapsulated the right thought in that because it is the success of the Civic Center in totality and we have a lot of capital needs carpeting we can go through the list you you see him here um that really go to the quality of life and the quality of life also includes the rivermen and we know that we have a very workable plan financially feasible and one could say well let's wait till 29 until the bonds run out and then issue new bonds but we can't wait that long because we can't have have a time where we don't operate and the rivermen are important to that operation so what what I would ask for council tonight is full support as we go into this because this is an enhancement for our rivermen it's an enhancement to our Civic Center it's an enhancement to our downtown it's enhancement to Peoria and this is an enhancement to all of the areas that surround Peoria this is really keeping the Crown Jewel the crown jewel now I think it's also important to understand that in this and I believe you know I again I've got to go back to council members here was asking how do you keep the maintenance up and those important questions and that is why that 1.2 million dollars that we talked about was there because that's the protection Gap somebody said how do we not fall back into this area again because with the 25 million and this 20 million we're able to get caught up Capital needs when you get behind they're hard to be able to catch up this catches us up and it's able to be able to kind of as I like to say get that flywheel going again on the capital pieces so that then we have smaller projects that we can take on year in year out um I know there's going to be some great questions tonight um I I would ask for Council support on this and with this this then allows us to be able to have the Civic Center Authority know that they've got the funding mechanism coming down the pipeline because tonight's for discussion only we would have an ordinance that would come next and then we would have bonds that would come in the summer but it gives them the ability to start negotiations for a lease to be able to renew a lease with the rivermen and both those parties go in it's important to know and our city manager said it we have some dates we we've done some releasing of dates from the Civic Center for possible Riverman games for next year but we need to be able to solidify those and that would come in those lease negotiations as well and then the other part of that is for the future because we wouldn't have this ice plant come in this season we would have to do that next season uh or between Seasons but but next year we would need to clear out the arena for a while while we do that a lot of scheduling a lot of sort of um date Works to be able to work around but they all really hinge on everybody doing their individual pieces our peace really would be able to come up with the bonds to be able to fund this so that the Civics and our Authority can then do their next piece so with that I will um I'm free to answer any questions or I know we've got our Authority here as well or the city manager and then I'll come back later on thank you very much councilmember Allen thank you madam mayor thank you to everyone who worked on this proposal it's a step in the right direction the Civic Center is one of our most precious Assets in the region and it's very important that we address those Capital Improvement needs Civic Center has done a great job rebounding uh from the pandemic but even before the pandemic it was going on a great trajectory so we want to continue that momentum this also provides our authority to be able to negotiate with the rivermen in good faith and I'm sure that a deal will be forthcoming I'm very excited about that potential so again thank you all so much for coming to the table and making this investment because we know that the Civic Center not only is the quality of life asset but it's also an economic driver for our city and our region so thank you all so much and I look forward to supporting this and for things to come thank you welcome council member Euler thank you madam chairwoman I appreciate you reading the mission statement of the Civic Center because I think that's really what this comes down to is the quality of life issue that doesn't mean that we don't have to have our hand on the pulse of making sure that it's financially viable and I think there's a lot of work that we all need to do to ensure that but I think this is an important step in the right direction and funding the needs of the Civic Center to have what I am hopeful as a world-class facility here to not just make it better for the rivermen but attract other things to our Civic Center and our community to drive the revenue needs that it will take to continue to support not only the bond payments but continued work on the Civic Center I've met in the prior weeks here with both membership of the authority board and ownership of the rivermen and made it very clear that my expectation is that we're all operating in good faith here and that we're working towards a fair negotiated contract for everyone and that's what to me this is predicated on is that we make an agreement here and that my expectation is an agreement here and that we are doing our part now it's time for them to do theirs and it has to be focused on a good working relationship amongst both parties that allows us to increase membership attendance at the games we have to do better with marketing we have to do better with engagement in the community and making sure that we have people in seats and enthusiasm it was incredible to see what happened at the Bradley game over the weekend uh 10 450 people in our Civic Center I see no reason why we can't do that here but it's going to take work on everyone's part to make sure that we're all working together on the same page filling that arena for everyone's success and so when that resolution does come I will be in favor of the investment in the Civic Center and look forward to a successful negotiation between both parties thank you thank you councilman [Applause] I share those same sentiments and those same expectations thank you councilmember Kelly thank you madam mayor um I think we're over a barrel I don't think we have much choice I think we have to go forward with this and I'll vote to go forward with it I'm very upset hold on I'm very upset that a facility of this size and a Community Asset of this importance has not been continuously reinvesting capital 20 I was shocked as I said a couple weeks ago that they were 25 million dollars behind in capital I was just being naive 45 million dollars behind and I know what what the council councilman said is Catches Us up now I don't know the whole thing is a little opaque to me but I've heard that this doesn't catch us up I don't know what that building's worth I really don't so let's say it's worth a hundred million dollars and we've got Capital needs of half of that value now a few years ago I assisted with the four million dollar loan because of covet to maintain that building while it really wasn't being used four million dollars um walked away from those meetings very satisfied I thought I'd done a great job we hear about the great programs that come there I am a I'm I'm at the Civic Center pretty often I enjoy the Civic Center but this to me is really unconscionable that I anyway maybe I'm alone I had no idea that we were this far behind in capital any business that operates sets money aside because the air conditioner will break the roof will need to be replaced the carpeting needs you know etc etc corporations do it not for profits do it and everybody in their home does it but not the Civic Center now we're going to ask the state for more money because the Civic Center doesn't budget this way in the meantime the HRA tax was set up to support the Civic Center and we have nickel and dime to nickel and dime that HRA tax now we're taking 2.3 million dollars a year out of the HRA tax in putting it in places that have nothing to do with Hotel restaurant and Amusements I'm I'm I'm very upset about this whole thing I feel like I've been snookered and well you you say no we've never heard anything like this until just recently um so I will be voting for it but I'm very upset about it and I think the management of this very very important Community Asset needs to be examined and it seems to me that some changes there are warranted thank you madam mayor [Applause] council member reagenbach thank you madam mayor I would just concur with um my colleagues on the other side of the room at least I'll get to you in a minute Council no oh I I would just say that talking about the quality of life and the significance of the Civic Center holds to our community as councilman Oiler said if you were at the Civic Center on on Sunday afternoon you know exactly why it's there um I I I've told the story about my 14 year old running onto the court you know and taking pictures with the Bradley players that that's what makes fans for life and I can only imagine the the thrill for those that are the hockey fans experiencing something like that as well so I'm very excited to support this to get the Civic Center um polished up and moving forward for the next 40 Years of its existence and I just think with what we just heard it's important to look at something on the council communication the hotel restaurant Amusement tax since 2016 has ranged between 9 and 11 million dollars when you look at the bond service which is roughly seven million dollars plus it's councilman Kelly pointed out that two million dollars that goes to other agencies you're only leaving the Civic Center with a million bucks to operate so how in the world can they possibly set aside reserves when when that's all they've got they don't have the ability to to tax um that's why we're issuing these bonds because that that's our responsibility so if there's anyone to blame I think this Council needs to share as much of that responsibility as anybody else in this room this is something that we're all in together we value the significance that the Civic Center brings to our community but clearly it doesn't come cheap and we need to own up to that and I will definitely be supporting this to get these bonds issued to get these improvements made and get that capital under control Mr manager I would just say I know this isn't the time or the place for this discussion but in 2029 when those bonds are paid off um there's going to be a significant amount of HRA dollars that will need to be um reallocated so whether it's some kind of an endowment I don't know if we we can't do an endowment as a public entity but I think we need to look at ways to set those funds aside so that this doesn't happen again so that we are prepared for the future and enabling the Civic Center authority to to operate so um that that's not a discussion for tonight but I certainly want to put that on all of our Collective radar that that's something that we will need to be addressing so yes thank you madam mayor I look forward to um when this comes forward for a vote thank you thank you and we're going to hear from [Applause] council member Jensen and then uh back to you council member recall uh thank you madam mayor um I agree the Civic Center is a huge asset maybe one of the biggest most important assets to the city and to downtown and and the rivermen as well and support issuing bonds for the ice um whatever it's called the ice plant and the improvements to the to the Civic Center but I do agree with councilman Kelly I have some concerns I mean when we increase the HRA tax was it I think it was about five years ago when we you know we had a heated discussion about it and vote and the purpose of increasing that tax was to make sure that the Civic Center had the money it needed for operating and some of the capital expenses and here we are instead of being asked to increase the HR a tax for being asked to issue bonds so and I'm okay with that with issuing the bonds for the Capital Improvements but I do have concerns what hasn't been discussed which is part of this proposal is to require us the city to guarantee a 1.2 million dollar minimum floor in operating for the Civic Center now that's doable when the HRA taxes are good I think your projections are that if they continue to be good and increase at one percent or 1.5 percent growth will have to pay 313 000 per year but if they don't increase if we have a bad year or they're not as high as what's projected we're going to be obligated for 5 million more dollars thank you member the the way that we looked at that from a sensitivity analysis standpoint was that let's assume that each year it declined one percent a year so that's saying that from its current 10.6 million then it shrunk one percent a year over the next six years that that the potential exposure for the city would be 5.5 million do I think that it's going to shrink one point or one percent a year I don't believe it will I'm not sure it will grow one percent a year but we'll have to to look at where we are I think that the more activities we have at the Civic Center the more that we have events at the Civic Center the more that we have people downtown spending money that's going to draw more HRA tax dollars and so that's the importance of that as well so so it's I I think we just wanted to show you that range of where that might be I do still think where the city's current fiscal situation is that we can sustain that even if it was to decline one percent a year for the next six years but I guess to my other question when we when we increase the HRA tax wasn't we thought that that would cover the operating no we increased the HRA tax we went the age tax was increased in 2015 from six percent to eight percent and that increase went to pay for Road improvements in the city so that's dollars that's not going directly HRA tax I thought that was a hotel tax increase in 2015 that went from six percent to eight percent and that two percent that quarter of the hre tax the H Tax excuse me is going to roads and we we transfer that's the seven hundred thousand dollars that gets transferred into the road fund that's listed on the the disbursement and that would be the number four on the very first page of the council communication to it says to the convention oh okay I see the 700 000 per year correct okay so that was all that that was supposed that was when when when we adopted that in 2015 when Council directed us find ways that we could put more money towards our road Network we increase the age tax we agreed to a a property tax levy for roads of 1.2 million and then we agreed that we would put two million dollars of property taxes into debt service and then the sales tax revenue that was pledged to that Debt Service would go towards roads so that totaled between all of that roughly about a 3 million or four million dollar increase in our road funding back in 2015 and we've held that constant since that period of time okay I appreciate that explanation I still I will just reiterate I do have concerns about obligating this Council for you know 20 more years of a really high amount of debt I mean after we pay off the current debt service and it's going to be Our obligation will be 1.9 million dollars The Debt Service will drop to 1.9 million but you'll that you you won't have I mean it as it were anticipating it being 8 million you're in essence gonna have six million dollars to do the council in 2029 we'll have to discuss what to do with that six million dollars of hre tax money and where should that go at that point in time so I do I will support it but um I I just got a voice my my deep concerns especially about that additional 5.5 million dollars for operating which is a real possibility thank you thank you council member Rick Regal thank you madam mayor there's been some great discussion here tonight and I think that all of the comments are in it's intrinsically valuable for the public for the Civic Center Authority and for our Council to have heard those questions and those concerns I think any time that we've got a project this big in front of us we should look at it from all aspects and I think that that has what has allowed us to be able to do this for one anytime that we obligate ourselves to bonds I agree with council member Jensen we need to be concerned about how they get paid back it it's easy to be able to say something to be able to say the check is going to be delivered but it's how those bills get paid and so I think that that is um a valuable question city manager I think that where you pointed out that in 2029 we go from a 7.7 million dollars of debt service really down to two that frees up it's gonna be the responsibility of this council at that time to make for sure that the concerns that we heard are taken in and that those are acted upon so some great advice there councilman Kelly I hear you and I think the Civic Center Authority has had those same concerns the the people that work on the Civic Center Authority and they're volunteers they didn't make the formula to be able to have the ability of how many dollars are going to come to Capital they inherited that they inherited a big job because there were some delayed Capital needs but I will tell you that each and every person on there that is working on those Kappa on the capitol plan and has had work with the Civic Center devotes many many hours to be making sure that this is the crown jewel of Peoria and of central Illinois and I and I will guarantee you that that four million dollars that you were very proud of to be able to help make sure that the Civic Center could survive covet extremely was important you played an important role and your questions here tonight are also very important because I I think that the funding structure has created the Gap in there and it's a conversation that for a later time we will be able to have will this get us totally caught up this gets a major part of the list there will be some things on the list that will still need to come in but it gives us some breathing room can't imagine where we would be without the Civic Center for downtown Peoria and on the night that they took that vote and people often refer to that meeting somewhere here in person to be able to see it some were not but that had to be one of those moments in time where you decided what is right for the future I'm glad they did and we can go back over the past 20 years and figure out how we got here but I'm glad of the council that we have here tonight because the questions that I've gotten over the past week week and a half and weeks leading up to it we're not always easy questions they were valued questions and I think as a council we were able to get to a really good solution it doesn't take away the answers that we're going to need to answer in the future but we've got two great partners we've got the Peoria rivermen and we've got the Civics Center Authority which by passing this and tonight we're going to ask for an ordinance to come back and hopefully that will be voted on so that the staff can be able to do their work then those two entities can be able to meet and negotiate that lease you want to keep the rivermen here it's the intention of what this 20 million dollars is is focused on this conversation of being able to make sure the capital plant is there we love the Civic Center we've got some work to do and so I will make a motion that we ask staff to bring back an ordinance issuing 20 20 million dollars in bonds that will be paid as laid out in our sheet with adding Debt Service um through 2029 in in the wraparound of nine hundred and ten thousand dollars and going to 2030 of 1.935 so 1.1 million nine hundred and thirty five thousand dollars this will be able to get us have these bonds paid off by 2042.

this is a good plan it took a lot of work thank you council member seer cannot say that enough Madam mayor for your work and for the work of every single person on this Council that brought this forward city manager to you and your staff let's show our commitment to the Civic Center to Peoria and to the rivermen tonight by having staff go back and do just a little bit more work for us so that the next council meeting we can pass this ordinance thank you that motion is seconded by council member seer council member seer thank you madam mayor thank you very much to all my colleagues especially Mr rock regal I Echo all his sentiment what you just said it's very important to me that we all understand what can be accomplished when we work together as a team I will not take the credit for this by myself I would say it would be impossible to have this conversation tonight with our city manager who came up nobody knows I always tell him Nobody Knows the numbers better than our city managers and so thank you very much Patrick for all your work on this thank you very much Madam mayor for the meeting and and the councilman rock regal to start this conversation going this is a great plan a lot of great things can be can can and will happen in the future and to use a hockey analogy I tell everybody that now we're now in the second period and after this vote tonight obviously I'm asking all my colleagues to vote for it and by the way I have to say thank you to all my colleagues that I talked to them we got some great conversation you have some great questions hopefully I was able to give you some good answers but we did have an everybody's been part of this and I thank all of you and hopefully we'll have unanimous vote tonight it'll be great but it's important that people that are listening to us tonight this was a team effort and now we're gonna end the second period tonight hopefully and now we're going to third period which means there's still a lot of work to do but we will get there eventually so thank you for being here tonight all of you thank you for all my colleagues and and hopefully we'll uh uh we'll finish second period tonight thank you very much Madam mayor thank you more discussion council member Kelly thank you madam mayor um just for clarity uh the rivermen if there is a will the ice plant hold out for the 20 23 2024 season next year's season maybe if I could ask a representative of the Civic Center Authority or councilman record or do you want to maybe take that and talk about the discussions have been held about the ice plant so far councilmember Kelly tonight is is full of great questions and this is another one and you know what I'm glad you asked that because it's something that we have not touched upon yet yes we will limp the ice plant along okay it has done really well on being able to support our Riverman hockey for a lot of years we will get it through for one more year so that then we can come back in and put the proper plant in and a new plant that by the way has that has the future coming on because and and I we can geek out about R22 and all of these things it will be the latest and greatest of ice plants that will be the proper ice plant for the Civic Center today but yes we can limp along and we'll make that happen because that way then we don't mess with their season and we can replace the ice plant at a time frame that is workable for everybody thank you and I have another question is it proper to for this motion uh to specify the dollar amounts rather than saying until 30 or I'm sorry until 29 we're going with uh interest only and then uh through 42 principle and interest rather than specifying the number I I think that as we as we work with our bond Council and financial advisors and the bond Underwriters those numbers might change so if the if the principal amount is 20 million I think that's that's the and then we'll work on the the wraparound structure I think the structure is doable we've done it with other bonds that in other debt that the city has issued so okay do you wanna thank you councilmember Kelly are you finished and I'll go back to councilman Rick Regal okay thank you thank you very much uh councilman Rodrigo we'll do a friendly Amendment to the ordinance including interest only through 2029 and principle and interest after that point seconded by council member Seer any other discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously [Applause] Madam Clerk 23-061 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to receive and file a report back on the city's efforts related to housing quality and affordable housing uh thank you madam mayor what I'd like to do is turn the floor over to our director of Community Development Joe Doolin to walk through the presentation that he adds thank you manager thank you mayor thank you Council councilman rickenback had asked us I believe a month and a half ago to provide a report back about the city's efforts as it relates to affordable housing and housing quality in our community um I didn't grab the power of the um thank you Paul uh so this presentation before you just goes over some of the city's direct efforts and what we do to support uh housing quality and affordable housing in our community uh kind of the holistic approach the Community Development Department plays specifically with this topic and kind of an overview of some of the things we've done over the last five years specifically related to housing quality in Peoria so specifically what is affordable housing mean in Peoria affordable housing in Peoria really means that 30 percent of your gross monthly income is spent on housing so it doesn't really define necessarily an individual person or their income level it just means what your overall spending of your monthly budget if it's less than 30 percent you're considered a for living in a situation that's affordable to you uh if if you're spending more than that you're in a situation that's not affordable to you so in different parts of the country there's a different definition of what affordable would mean so some of the often things you hear and correlated with affordable housing is market rate affordability that's kind of what I just explained then housing Choice vouchers which is often referred to as Section 8 public based housing vouchers where our projects specifically geared for those who make less than a certain income amount and then their rent is specifically tied to that income amount versus just the market rate that's available and public housing often in Peoria is Peoria Housing Authority so then just going a little deeper into that definition uh based on some of Hud's qualifications so when you hear extremely low income with housing those are projects specifically Geared for people who make less than 30 percent of Ami uh area median income um and so for a family of one that's about 18 000 a year for a family of four that's about 27 000 and then up on the PowerPoint is just then what your income would have to be for to be affordable uh so a lot of in our project-based vouchers uh properties in the city of Peoria uh your rent is specifically tied to this so you have to be at an income level to be at those properties because of that your rent isn't set so they don't advertise a set Rent it's specifically tied to 30 percent uh of your Ami often because those are fully subsidized properties they don't pay property taxes because they're a fully subsidized uh property through the federal government and then low income that's a lot of the programs that the City offers that's 80 of Ami so for a family of four that can go up to a sixty eight thousand seven hundred and fifty a lot of the affordable housing tax credit projects we have in our community eighty percent uh is their Max uh to let someone live at the property uh and then their rent is essentially cannot go over a certain amount but it's really set at those Market rents because as you can see where the 30 percent Falls uh is is traditionally lower than the rent that gets charged in our community the last kind of slide about this specific topic is uh fair market rents in Peoria this is what um the Housing Authority uses to set Section 8 vouchers uh and it's based on kind of the average net income of properties throughout our community so in Peoria fair market rent for a one bedroom is 707 uh two bedroom 896 and three bedroom uh eleven hundred and sixty four dollars so that's if you go through the housing voucher system that's the rent you would pay as well so that's kind of the overview of of kind of affordable housing I think that the thing I want to really drive home of um councilman grabe often uh reminds me uh the role Community Development and code enforcement plays in public safety so during budget times we hear a lot about Public Safety entities and and housing is a huge part of that Public Safety multiple studies show that good quality housing reduces gun violence it improves Health uh Equity issues in our community housing is a very vital key thing to our community and I believe our community development staff has done a fantastic job over the last five to ten years of really focusing all of our efforts related to housing our staff has done a great job of buying into this notion uh that they all play a role in improving housing quality and thus making it more affordable in our community so the the next part of the slide the presentation is going to kind of hit on three main things improving housing in Peoria our focus on individuals and families experiencing homelessness in our affordable housing project support so the main thing we do about improving housing in the city of Peoria is our code enforcement work I think you know our code enforcement staff you often think of being out in the community making sure that grass gets cut litter gets removed things like that and they do a fantastic job with that but one of the things that often goes notice is they're really the role they play in improving the housing conditions of our residents in over since 2018 uh they have started about 4007 uh 4779 housing cases in our community of those uh we have brought into compliance about 3 000 of them uh about 1200 have defaulted and we currently have about 484 that work through our system that number stays about pretty stagnant where we get some drop off because we get compliance and then we're starting new constantly I really appreciate all of the work our legal department does to support us I think you know when we talk about code enforcement and we talk about the emphasis and value that they have we often forget about the back end office and the work the legal department does to help us with this not only do they administer the court process for us but they've really been working with our land bank and our demo court process really to improve a lot of the things we're trying to do in our community so the code enforcement staff does a fantastic job I know we often during budget time or other times talk about how we wish we had more proactive rental inspections in our community I understand the value that that would play but I think we've done a lot to kind of make sure that that while we don't have proactive rental inspections so we're not in rental property every day uh and proactively looking at them we've done an excellent job of making fantastic relationships in the community with Prairie State Legal Services with other non-profit agencies who do a fantastic job of vouching for staff so they make those connections to tenants they say we understand that you know if you call the city they're going to make sure your landlord doesn't retaliate against you please let them know when there's a violation our local media has actually done a really good job of letting us know getting our message out to tenants that if you have a Code Enforcement issue please let your landlord know but if they don't fix it reach out to staff so it really has supplemented very well our efforts of not having a proactive rental inspection program to ensure that we still get in these bad properties and we can specifically focus on the ones that are causing the issues instead of spending a lot of time in the properties that aren't causing the issues the next kind of tool in our in our chest to really focus on uh housing quality is our work with the land bank you know the land bank was started about two years ago in the city of Peoria through a grant through the Illinois Housing Development Authority is very important for us and we started that to be able to do it on our own terms often when we're talking to other communities and we've talked to other leading experts in these fields one of the things they're really impressed that Peoria does is that we take this holistic approach in every aspect of housing so whether it's code enforcement the land bank our grants division our planners it really is a team effort focusing on housing and I think the land bank strategy that we've created has really taken that a step forward um one of the best things the land bank can do is to remove properties that should never be rented thus eliminating poor housing quality stock from our community I think last year with with your guidance we were able to remove about 85 houses from the county auction process that had we not done I'm very certain would have been sold for seven hundred dollars uh and a large majority of those have been rented out where almost all of them need demolished so I think it's very important to highlight the work our land bank is doing um you know even before our land bank we focused on demolitions uh in the last five years we've demolished about 308 structures in the city of Peoria over the next two years we'll probably do about 200 more with our American Rescue plan money we've been able to acquire about 335 properties the the land bank has been very successful in transferring Lots so to Neighbors when they meet in certain criteria so we don't have to cut those properties anymore and then we've been able to to take those properties when there can be rehab to really get them out to people who can rehab and fix them and also provide some vacant lots for Habitat for Humanity for peer opportunities Foundation to build new construction and new affordable housing on them the next Focus that we do to improve housing quality in Peoria is kind of our direct assistance to housing improvements in our community uh I think earlier when we approved the roofing program through the Illinois Housing Development Authority we touched on this a little bit but since 2018 we've been able to repair 108 roofs for our residents in Peoria we have an emergency repair program that's available year round that really focuses on hot water heaters and furnaces to ensure that properties don't become an inhabitable so if you do meet our income requirements you can always call our office and we'll get out there as long as the repair is less than five thousand dollars and you meet those requirements we can help fix that issue for you in addition we have a ramp program available for Ada accessibility to ensure people can stay in their house if they need a ramp and then in the East Village Gross cell specifically since 2018 we've been able to do 36 matching grants to properties who made repairs to the exterior of their properties in addition since 2022 so not that long but we've uh through the American Rescue plan money been able to allocate 28 grants for down payment assistance programs the important thing to know with those are they're only available in all qualified census tracks so that's essentially the area south of me clear our older neighborhoods we've been able to encourage and help 28 Property Owners become homeowners in that area and that program will be available in 2023 and 2024 as well so we'll hopefully continue to drive up that number in addition one another big aspect in affordable housing is making sure that uh your daily expenses are also affordable we saw uh during covid uh when people lost income and a lot of things that that were happening uh that were detrimental to our community we used our federal funding to really step in and help people uh with some of those bill payments in 2020 specifically we helped 58 households rental assistance this was before the Illinois Housing Development Authority launched their rental assistance program so we quickly pivoted once they launched their program and got people to apply for the state program and we could focus our funds elsewhere and then the next year 2021 we use those covid money to help 133 households with utility assistance and then at the end of last year during the budget time we talked about switching some of our programs to provide utility assistance for our residents this year due to escalating costs and we currently have 279 residents in that program that get a monthly stipend for four months to help with their utility bills as well the last kind of major Grant and program that we have available is our rehousing program often one of the four or five years ago the critique we heard is people are afraid to call the city of Peoria because they don't want their landlord to retaliate them so if it's not their fault they call us we go out we find code violations we post the property uninhabitable now they're homeless so they were reluctant to call us so we launched a rehousing program um if you remember correctly I believe it was 1505 Pennsylvania uh Terrace there was a large apartment complex that had a multitude of code violations um with our legal department worked very well with me to ensure that that property owner uh paid the fine that was allocated to the city of Peoria they paid 50 000 that specifically went to launch this rehousing program and then we set up the process to uh kind of fund the program with itself with criminal housing management tickets and other citations we write so the program continues to have funding for it what this allows for our residents when their property is posted uh uninhabitable and it's because of no fault of their own it's something the tenant isn't I mean the landlord isn't fixing uh we start this program they can get some rental assistance for security deposit moving expenses we try to connect them with landlords that are in our community so really people don't feel threatened by their landlord in fear if they let us know they'll be homeless one of the reasons the program was specifically launched was because we heard some feedback from our non-profit community that that they also have programs like this available but the thing that they can't do is go after and recruit the costs from the landlords when this happens so by the city having this program if a tenant is involved we build the the landlord for the program and go after those costs associated with uh for the re-housing as well in addition to the programs that we specifically administer we also from time to time provide a funding to other non-profit organizations to provide housing assistance as well so over the last five years we've had a very successful lead match program with our health department they've got Federal funding to remediate lead in properties where children tests have high blood levels elevated levels for lead poisoning we provided Tiff funds to pcco for their Federal Home Loan Bank program we provided funds for Phoenix Community Development Services for their Federal Home Loan Bank program and provided funding in the past for Rebuilding Together so the the next piece I'm going to go into is kind of our Outreach and our role in uh assisting families dealing with and experiencing homeless I want to to make sure though to drive home the point that that our role with this is much more of a supportive role than leading the the efforts um the city of Peoria is a member of the Continuum of Care led by Kate green uh who is it's a multitude of many non-profits in our community who know much more about these issues uh than I do uh so we really rely on their expertise to help make the decisions and guide us with a lot of the things going in our in our community the city does receive 150 000 each year uh in emergency Solutions grants that specifically go towards the nonprofits we're really the the pass-through to get this money out to those non-profits that are delivering the work um in addition last year the city of Peoria hired a housing coordinator to specifically work with our non-profit Partners the program that we I did I discussed earlier the rehousing program she administers she makes a lot of great connections with landlords tenants in our community and really works is that direct liaison to a multitude of different people uh to really focus on housing for our community so some of the other things that we've done to support the efforts of our nonprofit Community we provide funding through our nonprofit Capital grant for our Dream Center Renovations we use some of the additional allocation we got from kovid for emergency Solutions grant for renovations the Dream Center Salvation Army Center for prevention of abuse and then our annual that 150 000 I talked about goes to shelter operations and Rapid re-housing so really as I said our role with with support for our homeless population is really relying on our experts in the community to help guide our decision making they do a fantastic job uh often when we get calls about whether it's an encampment or someone loitering at a property that someone feels they might be homelessness you know the first call isn't necessarily going to be to to the police department or fire department we often call our Phoenix Community Development Services has a fantastic Street Outreach team we make that connection to them they go out they introduce themselves they try to connect them directly to house and they let them know that there's space in our shelters that that they can stay in and really try to ensure that that person has the resources they uh they know about the resources that we have in our community and they're really that first step to really work on that uh getting that person housed the the last subject I'm going to talk about is uh kind of our role with supporting affordable housing projects in Peoria and I want to highlight kind of the ones we've supported over the years so the city of Peoria uh being an entitlement Community with HUD receives an annual allocation of cdbg and home funds that specifically have to be used to benefit low-income people and our home funds have to be specifically go towards housing projects in addition our one of the other things our city does that's pretty unique is we waive all building permit fees for housing projects that serve residents at 80 percent of Ami and in addition as I mentioned the land Banks work in acquiring properties and trying to get those to support Supportive Housing some of the the past and current efforts of projects that have come to fruition in the city of Peoria East Bluff housing Service East Bluff housing was a Peoria opportunities Foundation tax credit uh that they built new housing in the East Bluff Habitat for Humanity has built a significant amount of properties over the last five to ten years in Peoria that um really promoted home ownership in our community Parkwood Commons was completely renovated uh by Walla communities and then Madison uh one two and three is a Phoenix Community Development Services we recently approved funding for Madison 3 and in addition addition we provided funding for their Workforce Development Center there where they're specifically creating office spaces that go uh job training and will eventually open a coffee shopping Cafe to help job training for as part of their permanent Supportive Housing the the last three projects on your list are projects that were just recently submitted uh to the Illinois Housing Development Authority for housing tax credits so we're very hopeful that they get funded the first one is the Redevelopment of of the old Methodist College that's permanent Supportive Housing for families experiencing homelessness and then the last two were the Peoria opportunities pivotal housing projects that were submitted in 61605 I think the the main thing to understand the city's role in affordable housing projects is you're talking about projects that often come with price tags of 10 12 15 million dollars We aren't ever coming to no one is coming to the city council and asking for us to fund those programs the city just doesn't have the the means to do that so often the funding that we do provide is that home fund home funds from the federal government that directly have to be used for projects like that and we usually see how we can get the most housing units the best projects uh the best return on investment for our community and and that's really the role we play in trying to get more affordable housing projects and I think the the work our land bank has done to acquire and demo more property in the city of Peoria I think more and more over the next few years we're going to see more and peop more and more companies coming into the city of Peoria who want to do affordable housing projects uh so it's very exciting and and I think they play a huge key role in in providing tenants a safe place to live but with that we uh from our discussions uh at a previous meeting I don't want to undersell how valuable we also understand home ownership is in our community that's why we have you know put money in the down payment assistance program that's why we have those housing rehab programs specifically for homeowners and that's why we continue to work with habitat on their affordable housing projects as well that are specifically geared towards home ownership the last thing I want to talk about before I open up for questions uh the city of Peoria does have a Housing Commission um the Housing Commission uh was reformed if you remember correctly it used to be part of the fair housing commission and Fair Employment Commission then they were combined and then separated so now we have a Housing Commission that started meeting in April 2022 more regularly they're currently working on a comprehensive housing strategy specifically around fair and affordable housing that you will see in the future that specifically highlights a lot of things we talked about today and really lays out a strategic vision for housing in Peoria over the next few years so as that's created we'll make sure to keep Council in the loop and bring that back for feedback but that's what the Housing Commission is currently working on so with that uh happy to answer any questions on on the all of the work our staff does and really appreciate all the work that Community Development staff does we have a fantastic staff who really believes in the mission of being a public servant and housing is a huge piece of that thank you director Doolin great presentation questions for our director of Community Development oh oh is something not working here councilmember regenbach thank you madam mayor and thank your director doing for a very comprehensive overview of this topic and um before we get too far into the questions I want to make sure we recognize Catherine Murphy um who's also here Catherine's the one responsible for all these grants that we're approving for instance the the roof repair program and her and her team really do a yeoman's job and um making Peoria aware of those opportunities and getting those for us so Catherine thank you very much um really spurred my desire to have this discussion with Council was the experience we had with the Darwin homes and sfr3 right before Christmas time as you recall this um property manager was issuing notices to vacate right before Christmas time and director Doolin and his staff went to bed immediately after that council meeting I remember that first council meeting in December clearly and reached out to Darwin got a 30-day extension and has continued to work with them and establish that dialogue so um director doing if you could just highlight a little bit about um Nicole Morrow's role in that our housing coordinator and that as you recall is a position we established just about a year ago wasn't it so could you tell us what specifically what her actions were in regards to the Darwin and how she reached out to folks uh yes sir um so you know if if you remember Darwin homes is the property management company for a company sfr3 which is a national company that owns about 14 000 properties across the United States back in December uh they completed some purchases and had a very large portfolio of about 59 properties that they were taking action against and the timing couldn't have been worse for a lot of families who lived paycheck to paycheck and had been in properties for a long time and they issued a 30-day notice to vacate which was legally within the right uh in the state of Illinois um but but I think we can all acknowledge that the timing was terrible uh and it probably wasn't the right thing to do from a humanitarian standpoint Darwin homes as the property manager was not very easily easy to get in touch with or communicate with so we reached out directly to sfr3 we were able to get in contact with their kind of Midwest director of properties and I explained the situation and nicely asked if he would give our residents a 30-day extension and explain to him uh owning property in Peoria comes with wanting to have a positive relationship with the city of Peoria and this would go a long way in extending that positive relationship with the city of Peoria they were actually very amendable to that they saw the timing was very poorly it was a poor reflection of their company not what they wanted to do so they offered an extension of 30 days to all the residents who were affected by this well a large majority of those 59 properties were in the East Bluff they were all not all not located in East Bluff in fact some of them were not even located in the city of Peoria but sfr3 extended the 30-day notice to all properties that were given that notice for 30 days at that point um three of our staff members including Nicole reached out to all of the property uh the tenants affected and let them know this should be coming you'll have 30 days an extension please let us know if you have any questions or need connections to landlords that we can try to make you uh a bad situation A Little Less bad um at the end of the day they still were going to have to to leave the property if that's what the property owner desired but we wanted to do everything we could to ensure that they had the the right tools to kind of get to a better spot uh in addition to that we reached out to Prairie State Legal Services who also shared the same feeling we did while it was legal what they did uh we wanted to make sure that the tenants uh they were still filing the legal process so Prairie State Legal Services hosted a webinar in conjunction with us that we put up on the city of of Peoria's website we reached out to them throughout this process about 21 of the tenants contacted them for legal advice about 18 of them reached out to the city for for assistance of what we could do to help we made various connections to landlords that we have a list from from other things we connected them with two on one and made a multitude of different referrals in addition we talked to the Salvation Army who had some rapid rehousing money available and we were able to make six uh direct connections for the Salvation Army uh to provide direct assistance for deposits and first month's rents for six of the tenants as well so um it wasn't still the ideal situation for a lot of people who had been into properties for a very long time and were asked to move but you know I think our staff really reacted well to try to ensure that it was mediated as best and legally as best as we could with with what we could control well I certainly appreciate the efforts personally and I know many of the residents in in the East Bluff in particular have reached out to me appreciate it so um we want to recognize those efforts because we we hear complaints oftentimes so when we can um hear the opposite that's always appreciated I just want to point out two things and then I'll I'll stop page 10 I think that the grants again is is an incredible um resource for our community and really helps that the homeowners who perhaps are struggling with the affordable aspect of their housing and I I would just proudly point out that East Village grow cell Tiff since Inception in 2016 has put over 50 homeowners in touch with 50 500 000 so um that's been a great success and this year is as we move forward into the programming we really would like to see some down payment assistance um coincide with some of those housing rehabs so maybe we can get somebody to buy a new house in the East Bluff help them with the down payment assistance and then they can also afford themselves of the rehab program so there's a lot of exciting opportunities out there and I think it all begins with with with the people experiencing homelessness on the streets you know that the Emergency Shelters we have at Dream Center and Salvation Army and then what's going to be happening at the old Methodist hopefully some some good stuff so thank you again and direct dueling for a very thorough um overview of of what the city is doing to help on this matter thank you madam mayor indeed council member Rodrigo thank you madam mayor great report comprehensive and I think it really does show the totality of of the issues that you were facing and working with your department from homelessness whether that be the Continuum of Care all the way through um question to them maybe not saying or maybe I'm overlooking here how many units right now are we missing in both the rental side and maybe the homeownership side in the city if we were to plan what what's the number that we're looking for in both those categories I don't have that but we can get back to you guys with that that'd be great and I I think that that would be an important number just as we're sort of planning and finding out uh where we want to go with this as well this is an amazing report thank you for this councilmember Allen thank you madam mayor definitely great report uh director Doolin as a member of the Continuum of Care do you possibly know what percentage of our population is in-house uh that's an excellent question because I just asked Catherine uh approximately um during the point in time contact which happened about two weeks ago I think we're a little over 400 uh residents that were experiencing homelessness in Peoria with 39 of those unsheltered so I think as we you know look to move forward and determine what our role in is addressing that is just determining what is our role in trying to reduce that moving forward and then allocate appropriately because we definitely want to address and provide shelter make sure that our unhoused population is provided with resources thank you uh just just to add that to that I think one of the the key numbers from from and and we'll be getting a report back to you on that information but it was just conducted about two weeks ago uh is that there was a slight increase in the number of of people in our shelters but the number of unsheltered residents so those during the time that were on the street was 39 last year and 39 this year so we're not seeing that number increase which I think is a positive sign for our community and speaks very highly of the work that all of our non-profits do in our community to to Really connect people to shelters and housing you know during during the winter uh maybe it's whenever we had the very cold snaps our staff to our staff did a fantastic job working with the non-profit Community to ensure updates on the capacity that was going on in our shelters around town and while I think most shelters would tell you they are full I think what they would also tell you is they don't turn people away and they work really well together to connect residents who might show up who might not fit the demographic of their shelter whether it's families things like that and they do an excellent job connecting them so during those months even even our shelters they weren't turning anyone away so while our shelters are full and there's probably some capacity issues they do not turn people away and try to provide as much resources as possible council member Kelly thank you madam mayor and thank you director doing for the report I thought it was uh as it was very comprehensive um one minor item on slide number eight um if you had 4 700 housing cases since 2018.

2 900 are in compliance which is great twelve hundred and one defaulted I don't understand that what does that that mean and what are what are the ramifications of that uh yes so uh when a property is code violations are noticed like the code defines how we set a property through that process so we have to notify them they have to hopefully show up uh and then make the the repairs so if they don't make the repairs or they don't show up uh that is considered defaulted and then at that point we kind of decide where we go from there so if the property is minor violations we often re-enter that process and go through them or if it's the property that kind of Peters on the edge of demolition we'll start it with demolition Court I think that is one of the of the things that Council asked us to look at for 2023 and 2024 specifically addresses this issue uh and and what we can do and so we've been working with Corporation Council and his staff on uh planning for the future with some of those defaults about doing some memory of judgments filing some liens against property owners how we can take that 1200 not with the goal of recouping those fines that we put in place but really getting them to show up and just really fix the houses thank you for that and uh once as I've done before I'd like to compliment you on first of all the deal with the county on getting into the auction early and secondly the really very innovative program where a house that's on the bubble can be acquired by somebody and if they do the amount of work that we have set aside for demolition and to our to our satisfaction we'll give them that money and I you know I think those are both very very Innovative I appreciate that and the committee will pick up again after the election thank you madam mayor council member Jackson thank you madam thank you director Doolin for your reporter I I just had one question about um age six uh just the data does it always and it says it's the rates established by the Department of Housing and Urban Development does this consider um the entire Peoria area including distressed communities um are you talking about the fair market rents yes uh yeah it's a community average okay okay all right thank you I mean I think unfortunately often you find in more distressed areas uh rent is not reflective of the housing conditions unfortunately and that that was what I was kind of trying to get to uh and sometimes in areas um people are paying rent for something that um they wouldn't pay the same amount for in another area just because of you know a lot of factors and and sometimes uh you know you find out that um well they shouldn't be paying what they're paying because of where they're living and so that's why I was kind of wondering if it considered uh all of those factors okay yeah and I think that's why it the the first part when we talk about the efforts of the code enforcement department because Peoria is a very affordable housing community but but but our mission and goal is to really improve the quality of that affordable housing and the work they're doing because you're absolutely right that that often when when people are faced with situations where they're uh the housing is the last resort because they might have bad credit they might have a a record uh they just might not have the wages to afford something better uh there are property owners who take advantage of that and charge unfortunate rents which is why we really need to continue to focus on improving the quality uh and when noon units come on you often see those get rented up because uh there's they're they're better they're the higher quality thank you thank you madam mayor thank you thank you again uh director Doolin for your leadership thank you Miss Murphy and the entire team within Community Development much appreciated can I get a motion to receive and file move by council member Allen seconded by council member Rick Rico any other discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Adam Clark 23-062 is a communication from the city manager and fire chief with a request to re create a program establishing and implementing a system working with insurance companies to collect fire recovery fees within insurance policies for services rendered by the Peoria Fire Department manager uh thank you madam mayor I'd like to ask Chief solberger to come up and talk about this program I know that we have representatives of local 50 here as well and and uh I'll turn the floor over to him to talk about this program we're constantly challenged throughout time basically trying to come up with creative ways to generate Revenue throughout the city we all know that inherently that's a little difficult for the fire department that being said working with Josh Martin and Peoria firefighters local 50 we started these discussions in the fall this is not a new talking point I believe that this was explored in 2019 as I accurately relayed this information to all the counselors as we presented this to you it was a really short time frame we didn't have the ability during 2019 to fully vet this have a better understanding of how it works how can we answer all the questions what are the potential pitfalls to the community and the taxpayers so as Josh and I work through this with one particular TPA we felt like we had the ability to answer most of these questions and so as we presented this to all of you individually we feel like we had a better understanding to be able to vet this answer questions concerns we also had the ability I had one local insurance agent reach out had a great conversation with him answered those questions as well so we felt like giving this time and kind of slowing the role a little bit we have a better understanding of what we're potentially getting into and I think it's if it's okay for me to interject as well that I think this is a systematic approach and I think I accurately relay this to everyone as well this is phase one so phase one is agreeing to the concept and then if we agree to this tonight then it's me working with finance and purchasing and legal going through the RFP process bringing more information back to you and then the Final Phase of that is creating an ordinance to be considered by Council I thank you Chief salberger I wanted to highlight that last page where you indicate that there are over 150 communities in Illinois that currently use this fire recovery these include Huntley Fire Protection District DeKalb the city of Elgin Lockport Township Morris city of Kankakee Joliet and Rockford to name just a few of those so we're opening for questions council member Kelly thank you madam mayor I just I know the answer but I'd like you to tell us if this goes through where do these funds end up these recovery funds and end up incorrect me if I'm wrong Mr manager but they would end up in the general fund thank you and is there a I'm not looking at it right now is there a motion uh necessary to receive and file or closer to to proceed yeah true go ahead and proceed I so move seconded by council member Jensen more discussion councilmember Jensen thank you madam mayor I'm um been a huge proponent of this for a number of years so I'm glad to see we're finally um going to actually do it so it's a great idea and I think it a lot of other municipalities are doing it and it will help us get some fees for the services the fire departments providing um to entities that you know are covered by insurance and that I think we should proceed and I hope the whole Council will support it and the sooner we get it done the better thank you you're welcome councilmember Allen uh thank you madam mayor and I appreciate you bringing this fourth Chief and the rest of your team just for the public just to ask a couple clarifying questions that I already know the answers to but I think it's good for our listeners to uh to have the answers if someone doesn't have insurance what would be the offense of trying to collect that with the city go after them civically civically or what would that look like that would not happen as I accurately relate to each of you as we presented this I am that filter so as we provide information to that TPA if the information comes back to us from whoever we end up using and we find out that this person or persons do not have insurance no we do not proceed forward there will be no taxpayer receiving a bill and this would be applicable to anyone that's within the city of Peoria so not just Peoria residents but if you're passing through you get into an accident and you require our fire Services um you would essentially um contact their insurance for payment that's correct and so to answer that accurately we currently do that right now in regards to car accidents anybody who lives outside of the city and they're involved in a car accident here requires our services we do bill for that already and so I think it's important to mention as well whoever we end up working with through this process once the RFP goes through we create the ordinance there's other faxes to this that intrigue me even more so as the fire chief we get called from Mutual Aid all of the time whether that's for our paramedics in providing ALS services or a really good example is bioergia and I brought this up to all of you guys individually in the presentation I know that I challenged myself to do to the best of my ability to be able to recapture funds quantify over time lost equipment but I know for a fact for lack of a better phrase that I left money on the table and so what this potentially does is that we're bringing in experts that are in this field of work every single day and then we can lean on them and and we can do to the best of our ability for the Peoria community uh thank you Chief and thank you madam mayor welcome councilmember Euler thank you madam chairwoman I just wanted to thank especially Josh Martin and the chief in the department for continuing to pursue this I know it's probably frustrating at times when the governing body uh rejects an idea when it comes to the floor but you've continued to dig into this to get it right and make sure it was something that we can pass that we can all support so I appreciate the continued effort to find ways to make sure that we can be better leaders in running the city and collecting the revenue that's out there so that we can continue to provide services to the taxpayers so thank you and your department for the effort councilmember Rock Rico thank you madam mayor I'd like to Echo those sentiments both to both the to you and to Josh Martin for this is the kind of thinking that we need to be able to uh to help fill those gaps that we have and we've talked about this for a long time and I think this is a very interesting program that you both have studied and brought forward to us question on that do you envision like a certain start date um how how would this work if if an ordinance is passed and it would go into implementation um I'd like to get going on this is as soon as we possibly can but to be able to answer that as accurately as possible I'd love to be able to explore the possibility of looking at 2022 incidents with whatever TPA we end up using and how can how that can fall in line with the ordinance and state laws and things like that so I would love to be able to explore the possibility of that and see what that looks like and again for our listening public that doesn't mean that people are going to be getting a bill it just means that if if this insurance side would be available that that would be done but but there's no bill that's being sent for any sort of previous activity that's correct and I think what I'm just as excited about is being able to bring this back to you um with even more knowledge and more education on how this process works but we know that it's legal we know that it's possible and we just love to be able to explore on this and and create a program so we have a motion on the floor to create this program to collect fire recovery fees with insurance policies for services rendered by the Peoria fire department any additional discussion please cast your ballots Ocean passes unanimously thank you chief and Clerk 23-063 is a communication from the city manager with a request for the following a approve a real estate transfer for 9 30 3917 Southwest Adams Street Peoria Illinois 61605 and be a proven intergovernmental agreement between the city of Peoria pleasure driveway and Peoria Park District Mr manager uh thank you madam mayor I'm going to be very brief and I'm going to turn it over to councilwoman Jackson if I could right after that um very pleased that we have this item in front of you this evening this is a two-part item the first is that we're asking to acquire a parcel of property at 3917 Southwest Adams and we'll go into that the reason for that in just a moment and then second we have an intergovernmental agreement with the Peoria Park District on the maintenance of this site when it gets finished and and put together but I'd like to turn if I could to councilwoman Jackson to introduce a special guest we have here absolutely thank you Mr manager well I um I'm excited uh I before let me before I get started I would be remiss if I would not thank Mr Bob Hoffer's wife because this this historic project probably would not be here before us tonight if it were not her expressing interest in finding the great site of one of her relatives and that led to um just a remarkable Discovery here a remarkable historic Discovery in our city and with that I'd like to bring Mr Bob Hofer up to tell us a little bit about this great piece of uh history here in our city thank you everyone I appreciate the introduction and the opportunity to share this story with you I first of all feel both privileged and humbled to be on this busy agenda and I will do my best to help you and not stand very long between you and and the next item at least um also want to commend and thank every one of you around this horseshoe for working as hard as you do for our community in governing the Affairs of this city anyone who thinks that governance work is easy work has never done it this has been a very interesting project and I want to first introduce to you those who came with me this evening and as council member Jackson mentioned my wife Evelyn is here this is because her family has been directly affected by the story also with me is Steve Peterson who is the head of the local roofers Union here in Peoria who has been involved in graciously donating a piece of property to the city that will form the basis for something we're calling freedom and Remembrance Memorial and I'll tell you more about that as we go and many in the gallery may not have heard much about this other than what's been in the press and so on but I know that all of you have some briefing materials on that also with me tonight is Bill Poorman he's a member of our little six guy team that has worked on this thing for several years and he is our media guy that takes care of our Facebook pages and websites and so on but to begin Peoria all of you know has a long long history and it also has a lot of Forgotten Mysteries and one of them is this old lost Cemetery down on the south end 200 years ago this June a Moffat family they were Pioneer settlers here arrived from Ohio the men had been here the year before in 22 and scoped out Peoria as a place to live and so this begins a 200 year story and I'm going to quickly try and walk you through that I know you've seen it many of you have seen the materials but I'll quickly do it they started they came here to Peoria started Mining and Milling businesses and all four of them the uh Captain Joseph and his three sons served in the Blackhawk war in 1832.

and in 1833 Aquila moffatt came back to Peoria built a beautiful house down at that time on South Adams in fact it's the address turns out that it was 39.17.

in 1836 he received a large Grant land grant and that was to develop South Peoria and he and others began to do that and fast forward 30 years to 1865 after the Civil War he set aside some more of his property and he called it Union Cemetery and the idea was to provide low-cost or no-cost burials for the union members the soldiers that had come back home fast forward 10 years and in the 1870s he sold that property along with an old family burying ground that he had on the on the property down there to two investors and this piece of property was kind of like a a bow tie shape and it touched both Griswold and Adams streets foreign business really boomed from 1874 for about 30 years and then in 1905 the City Health Department and the city council ordered the cemetery to be closed unfortunately the owners abandoned it and it became a Dumping Ground and a South Side eyesore 50 years later Court actions gathered the rights to all of the shares of The Moffat Cemetery Association the burial records were said to have been lost and everyone there was said to have been moved gravestones that were still left the trees and all of the brush on the site were cleared off the city rezoned all of that property to light industrial and the parcels were sold at Kroger and Consolidated freeway in the mid 50s fast forward 60 years 2015.

my wife Evelyn asked me where in the world is my great grandfather buried in Peoria no one seems to know family lore said that he died on the steps of the Swedish Lutheran Church on Christmas morning well that began a long process and I got one clue that turned out to be the thing that made all the difference in the world and that was a clue about the possibility of some old records so in 2016 we were finally able to find these old records they were Undertaker reports that were made every month by all of The Undertakers around here and they covered the years 1872 through 1915 which more than covered or did cover most of the Moffat Cemetery activity down there at that time all of the pages of these old books were photographed and then they were transcribed by members of the Peoria County genealogical Society in the databases and they now have produced bound volumes that are for sale and they're making them available to libraries around the country these old records were the death and burial record for 32 000 people in Peoria and in some cases we think that they are the only death and burial record for perhaps 3 500 people to four thousand people twenty five hundred of these records were for this little Cemetery down there alone they had said that all of the records were lost and I think the that may well be the case that the cemetery associate Association records were lost but thank heaven for the records that were found 200 more buried there were found and also in 2016 we identified that there were at that time we knew of 48 Union Civil War veterans that were buried there including one by the name of Nathan Ashby he was in the United States colored Troops he was came from Pagan he joined the Union forces and he was actually at the original Juneteenth in Galveston Texas in 1865.

in 2017 we held a ceremony down on the site or very close to the site for the veterans it was a temporary Memorial we put up it was a vinyl maybe over the years you've seen it down there all of the names were read aloud and we figured that was probably the first time in 150 years those names had been spoken 13 Civil War reenactors were there battled him of the Republic was sung really readings were done a flower for each of the 48 was carried forward and put into a vase as their name was read rifle salutes for the reenactors and also for our local American Legion Post too in 2018 we discovered that there were others buried there other veterans one was from the Spanish-American War he was Aquila moffat's nephew one was from the war of 1812.

his father was in the revolution there was also a man there buried there now that is was in the 1792 Virginia militia his father and his father-in-law both served in the Revolutionary War Aquila Moffat the owner of this property in the days before his grandfather served in the revolution as did two of his great uncles and six of his cousins were in the revolution one of the individuals buried there at Moffett was a guy by the name of Jesse Boone holiday his father was in the War of 1812 his grandfather was in the Revolutionary War and his great-grandfather was Daniel Boone and he's buried down there in South Peoria in 2019 we made a major find and that was that Nancy Leggins costly the first African-American freed by actions of Abraham Lincoln a young attorney in 1841 when he won an Illinois state supreme court case that freed her and her three children Lincoln enthusiasts really took off after this was found and things really began to heat up so we formed a local team there's six of us in total local history enthusiasts were sometimes called the men of Moffat I'm not sure why but now also in 2019 the Nancy story went National and it appeared in over 150 newspapers across the country for two weeks I got phone calls from border to border and Coast to Coast about this this was an article that Phil Luciano wrote many of you may have seen it the state of Illinois and the Lincoln enthusiasts around Illinois and around the country got really excited about this at that time and also in 2020 then the local interests finally started to build Historical Society the Riverfront Museum the genealogy societies all kinds of things started happening with Memorial ideas and renderings for possible sites at this little place in the south side of Peoria the roofers Union in 2020 agreed to donate the land and this site that they are donating is on the original site of the Aquila Moffat Homestead it's not on the old Cemetery grounds but it is very near and that's an emotional element of the reason that we're asking for the city to take over this piece of property that's being donated in 2021 Illinois State Historical Society became our strategic partner State organizations started to line up national interests really started to take off grants for the markers and other things that we're going to put at the memorial site began to come in 2022 the funds are all raised and in-kind donations have been committed so there will be three large markers that are over four feet square that will be erected there a 25-foot solar lighted flagpole and a storyboard that will tell additional information one of the markers will tell the story of the cemetery the one in the center will tell the story of the 52 veterans that were buried there they're still down there the third one will tell the story of Nancy Legends costly this nationally known slave lady and her family in 2023 now all of the memorial elements will be transferred to the city that is the markers and the flagpole and other things storyboard and so on the city will create a passive Park and the park district has agreed to install the big markers because these take like nine foot aluminum poles and the city will install the flagpole and the storyboard idot will install historical signage on Adams Street for it also we hope this year and expect dedication celebrations will be planned for the over 600 peorians who are still buried under work Lots and buildings down at that location near the corner of Adams and Griswold most of them were born in the United States from 26 different states 380 were immigrants from 12 countries and this is very interesting and it gives us an indication of the times the 1800s over 62 percent of the people buried there were infants through Elementary School age is absolutely amazing but of course you know stillbursts and child deaths were just much more common than today so I want to recap very quickly a list of the donors and the grantors for this freedom and Remembrance Memorial Freedom thinking of the soldiers Freedom thinking of Nancy and her never-ending fight from the time she was 13.

in 1826 until 1841 when she was declared free she continued through four court cases to try and get her freedom and the guy had finally did it was Abraham Lincoln 20 years before the Emancipation Proclamation here are the donors in the grand Tours the local roofers Union I mentioned the city of Peoria Fury Park District pure historical society Peoria Riverfront Museum the Peoria County genealogical Society Illinois State Historical Society the national Abraham Lincoln Association the William G Pomeroy Foundation out of New York they gave us nearly four thousand dollars toward this project and this was the first project in their long history of donations that ever involved an African-American significance they were very happy to do it sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War the sons of the American Revolution Peoria American Legion Post 2.

and generous individuals from several States so that's the story 200 year history of Peoria wrapped up in one little spot down on the south side that is now going to have with your approval a memorial that I think we in the city can all be proud of so open for questions Mr Hofer I want to congratulate you for your tenacious determination and leadership in leading the effort to create this fitting memorial for Peoria's lost citizens I applaud you and I ask that you will help me to applaud thank you as I have told people before this these kinds of things are not done by one they are made to happen by many and I hope that all of you will feel good about being a part of that many that makes this happen today and I I wanted to close on another history comment history guys never hardly ever quit talking about history but this is I think you'll find this one interesting 350 years ago this summer two guys Father Marquette and an Indian Trader by the name of Joliet along with a crew of five other Frenchmen if you can imagine this all into birch bark canoes paddled Upstream past year probably in early August of 1673 350 years ago and it's it's just amazing when you think about Divine Providence because they left Quebec up in Canada in May came down to St Lawrence through the Great Lakes to Green Bay up the fox down the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi down the Mississippi to about where Memphis is today they turned around and headed back because they were afraid to get in the hands of the Spanish down there on their return they took a shortcut that was recommended by the Native Americans to go up the Illinois River to the Michigan to Michigan Lake and then back to Quebec and they came back they were back in early September so I mean we're talking about four months and thinks about how many miles that was on the water paddling for heaven's sakes you know and it's a good thing they did because when they came past year they saw the value of Peoria and they got that word around and it wasn't very long and a guy by name LaSalle and another guy by the name detonte soon were here and as they say the rest is history Peoria so I'll leave you with a question though should Peoria celebrate the 350th anniversary of its discovery this summer so I'll leave that with you thank you council member Jackson thank you I just want to thank Mr Hofer for his work that has been going on for what almost two years now or longer let's see is 2015 when EV asked me where a great grandpa was okay okay we know he's down there because he's in those old records we did put a stone in his memory over in Fond du Lac when all were all the rest of the family is buried and we put it right smack in the middle of all the other Family Stones so uh interesting my wife's family was first in America in 1650.

my first family members were in America in 1707. her first family members were in Peoria in 1850. mine were here in 1860.

so she's got me beat on that too but at least I found Great Grandpa's thank you very much we certainly appreciate your do your diligence and your hard work and I look forward to participating in this ceremony once we're able to get things lined up thank you so much thank you madam mayor do you have a motion yes Madam mayor I would like to make a motion that um item number 23063 a approve a real estate transfer for 3917 Southwest Adams Street in Peoria at 61605 be approved is there a second seconded by council member rickenback additional discussion council member rock regal just very quickly Mr Hoffer you might not remember this but a couple of years ago you and I were in line at a funeral and you were talking about this research as it was I think kind of starting and it started to get to roll and and it was a long line and we spent quite a bit of time kind of talking about the Moffett cemetery and it was in its infancy at that time it was a wonderful story then it's a wonderful story now thank you for sharing this for the broader picture and for what you're doing to make for sure that future Generations never forget it thank you discussion please cast your balance motion passes unanimously councilmember Jackson thank you madam mayor I would like to make a motion that item number 23-063 letter B approve and into not intergovernmental agreement between the city of Peoria pleasure driveway and Peoria Park District be approved second event council member grab any discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously [Applause] Adam Clark 23-064 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to approve a resolution approving an annexation agreement including a subdivision plot for property generally located east of North Knoxville Avenue West of old Galena Road north of East Boy Scout Road and south of Cedar Hills Drive identified as parcel identification numbers 09-16-400-001 and 09-16-300-004 Peoria County Illinois and this requires two-thirds vote of corporate authorities or eight votes Madam clerk Mr manager uh thank you madam mayor I would maybe I'll turn it over to director Doolin to just provide a quick summary of the item Mr thank you mayor thank you Mr raininger um so the item in front of you is an annexation agreement for a property um outside the city limits uh based on the city of code the city of Peoria has extra territorial jurisdiction in a 1.5 mile radius around the city of Peoria because this property falls within that jurisdiction and does not want to connect to public sewer they have to come to the city of Peoria uh per code and have an annexation agreement which allows for the subdivision of the property I believe we've shared a lot of information over the last few weeks specifically about this parcel I think some of the questions that have come up are about the future development of the property I'd like to just say that the action in front of you is the annexation agreement specifically related to the annexation in the subdivision of the property any future development that would occur and I think that some of the concerns about the flood plain that may exist in the area would be work through the county of Peoria we did touch base with them this morning and confirmed that they have very similar regulations that the city of Peoria had and any development that would occur in the flood plain would have to adhere to all of their rules as well this property is not continuous to the city of Peoria as stated earlier in the public hearing located between this parcel and the city of Peoria is the Medina wall it's unlikely that this property would ever potentially become contiguous with the city of Peoria but the reality is it's still important for the city of Peoria and the residents of the city of Peoria to have this agreement in place to protect the residents who live close to City boundaries to ensure that zoning stays what it is future development would still future changes to zoning they'd have to talk to the city about so does that a level of protection to our residents which is why this rule is in place so with that I'm having answer any questions and I would ask for your approval thank you director any questions from Council to director Doolin council member seer thank you madam mayor what was the result of the the vote from the zoning uh four to one four to one thank you and just one question for city manager um one was this rule or law started and what are as a councilman what are our responsibilities when I mean to me it looks like okay if I want to be a good neighbor or you know I don't like this at all but no I have taken a note to serve my community city of Peoria if we don't like something like this what are the procedure to eliminate something like this maybe I'll ask our Corporation Council to to weigh in as well we've had this in place for a number of years um we'd have to I'd have to look at the actual ordinance to see it references the date that we've had that in place um you know the general assembly has given Cities Power outside of their boundaries within a mile and a half to plan for orderly growth and development there was a case that came out of Sangamon County that was dealing with an annexation in the in the village of Chatham which gives municipalities strong discretion over annexations of properties and this is this at this point in time obviously um it's not likely since the Medina wall is in place that this proper property would ever come into the city of Peoria probably not likely During the period of time that the the annexation agreements would be in place but if it does for whatever reason this just ensures that the city has the ability to say that that property should come in if we ever abut it and we ever decide that that we want to bring that into the city um the the subdivision and the split allows the the the rights of the property owner to go forward to to do what he wants to do to put the the single family homes on those on those four Parcels that would be made from this um this is not uncommon I I think that that um the Community Development staff has put together um a pretty compelling presentation that we want to come back to you and talk to you about um that talks about the the annexations and particularly some of the annexations that have occurred by the village of Dunlap uh pre-annexation agreements that have occurred um that are moving closer and closer to the cities North and Northwestern borders and and I think that ultimately um the city needs to have that ability to say how we want to grow when we want to say that it's time for us to grow and I think that's important that we protect that right as the city of Peoria this is not the first time that we've had annexations in Medina Township in fact I believe there have been uh six different annexations there's a map that we presented to you it's on your desk this evening that shows that there were six annexations that have occurred in Medina Township that are currently not part of the city of Peoria but those annexation agreements were executed and there was never a concern about the city coming forward we allowed for that development to occur some of that's in Mossville some of that is is near Alta some of that is is west of of where we're talking about so ultimately a last chance Bar and Grill is a good example of that that's in Medina Township there was an annexation agreement for last chance because they needed access to public sewer we don't currently abut them they have public sewer they're not currently located so there are a number of these uh examples that have occurred um and I think that that quite frankly we just need to protect the city's rights in terms of uh looking at deciding how and when the city wants to grow thank you madam mayor you're welcome Mr manager uh there was one gentleman that mentioned the agreement is for 20 years but he indicated that there's a small print that says that it can be extended by mutual agreement this question may be for legal counsel is is that true yes uh the annexation agreements operate like any contract parties are free to it extend those agreements the original Agreements are limited to 20 years but at the end of those many annexation agreements now have Evergreen Clauses and things like that similar to boundary agreements with adjacent municipalities so it's quite common to have an annexation agreement be extended if if it's still necessary for the parties to protect all the interests involved and sometimes in larger Parcels where there's a long-term phase development you'll see that happen quite often in a number of jurisdictions in Illinois so that language is not unique to this particular agreement that language is likely in the village of Dunlap annexation agreements or other area agreements I have not examined any of those agreements but I would be surprised if they aren't in some if not all of them so I would I would say that the city of Peoria here is within its one and a half mile jurisdictional limits but there's no limitation on how far away from a municipality an annexation agreement can be executed and we see that in some from some of our neighboring jurisdictions there are annexation agreements within our mile and a half boundary that are Beyond a mile and a half from those jurisdictions and so uh I think the idea of protecting the development future development of areas around the city of Peoria to be in harmony with the development of the city of Peoria is what these annexation Agreements are focused on thank you thank you other questions discussion council member Jensen thank you madam mayor I guess um I've got a few questions I know Mr Doolin you and I spoke earlier today so they may be the same questions but just so the public understands and we've received additional communication from the city manager I think late this afternoon that covers some of this but um is there any possible scenario How likely would it be if this was approved that the city would ever be contiguous with these properties uh I I think as we heard today uh from some matina Township officials uh that they are not in support of this so the likelihood of them uh annexing the Medina wall property that's owned by the Medina Township is sounds unlikely based on the discussion tonight uh so fairly unlikely that they might become contiguous but it that's what's the barrier is and and it doesn't sound like that's going to change anytime soon so though can you just explain what the wall is for the public it's a it's a uh some parcels that are specifically owned by Madonna Township that stretch around kind of our north eastern border uh that are kind of go along with the city limits on those side and and the city because those are in the city of Peoria uh cannot kind of extend its boundaries beyond that because they block it and maybe if I could provide a little bit of historical context to the Medina wall and and I think that the wall was put in place when the city would Annex property and the township of Peoria would grow along with those annexations so that law was changed and so now Township boundaries are fixed okay so the only differences would be fire protection districts because we have a city professional fire department so that would that the Fire Protection District levus would go away and Library districts would change because we have the city has a public library those are the only two taxing bodies really that would change so now if we Annex property in Medina Township and and it comes into the city of Peoria Medina Township still gets the tax revenue from that as does the Road and Bridge District so it is not the way that so it was I think a defensive measure that was put in place to stop the city from growing when Medina Township was losing their tax base which is no longer the case and I guess as a follow-up you mentioned this in one of your Communications about the benefit that mattina Township has happened on the flip side of that you're exactly right on the flip side of that when the city grows in the city is is in Medina Township if we're if we're annexing property and we're and property values go up that grows the tax base for the township as well and we saw that uh when we when we implemented the Gross cell 1A with the the county and the city and we planned out uh the residential development in the area that's west of of uh Allen Road uh and it that runs out along um uh through wet west of Allen Road and why can't I think of the East West Street um where station 20 is is located fire station 20.

uh Wilhelm thank you thank you councilman I'll ask District Five councilman Sierra to tell me that road when we extended Wilhelm and we built the houses and most of that area of that development is inside Medina Township so that's generated a significant amount of tax-based growth to the township and to the Road and Bridge District of the the township as well okay and I had another question but I think um if the city were to vote this down does the property owner have any other option to divide his property Council I mentioned previously that many jurisdictions in our area uh would be able to extend an annexation agreement from their Village um to this parcel and provide the same relief that the city is but in order to have a subdivision without uh without the sanitary sewer they'll need some accommodation from some Municipal entity I don't believe the county would accommodate that presently so in order for this Village or municipal land control to apply an annexation agreement has to be crafted but there's a number of municipalities that might accommodate that so I guess is he within a mile and a half of Dunlap and I mentioned earlier that uh first of all this person has not within a mile and a half of Dunlap that's also not within a mile and a half of many other jurisdictions that would have the ability to do this but they want to isolate Dunlap but as I mentioned very near this property there are Parcels that are pre annexed by Dunlap that are well beyond their mile and a half limit so there's you know other options for this property owner but um then the city would not have exerted its control in harmony with our other areas that are very nearby and so we're protecting our own residents even if we never Annex these Parcels by doing this thank you okay and I have one more question if that's okay um the one thing that does give me concern about this proposal that I talked to director Doolin about if we approve this we're allowing the single-family residential development on each of the four lats without it being connected to a sewer and nor I mean our policy for since I moved here and worked here um I don't want to say how long I guess almost 30 years ago has always been that you can't Annex into the city unless you're connected to a sewer so that gives me concern and pause why we would approve this I would respond at our own code anticipates that these matters would come forward in the same fashion that this has and I'll quote all subdivisions of land within one and a half mile extratorial jurisdiction must be served with a connection to public sanitary sewer systems unless there's a couple Provisions here but this one if the resulting division creates Lots less than 40 acres in size and the property cannot connect to public sanitary sewer system and annexation agreement must be approved by the city and that annexation agreement is subject to review by the City Planning and Zoning commission and approval by the city council so we have anticipated that in some areas like this that are much larger and can absorb that type of development might be subject to approval by the city council and so what we're achieving here is we're allowing this development that won't be on on a sanitary sewer will be a well or well and septic system like many rural estate areas are and that if it further develops it would have to would have to have service by sanitary sewer which would be in that area a pretty tremendous engineering feat so I think that this would protect the issues that were raised early earlier as far as water quality and things like that because of the size of the parcels thank you okay and can one more follow-up so director Doolin how or maybe I don't know if it goes to you or to the manager do we know how many properties we've annexed that aren't connected to the sewers I mean is it just a handful or is it every single one of the parcels other than last chance that I talked about in Medina Township that's on the 20th the 23 23 parcels other than the two for last chance because they're connected to public sewer because they're sewer available in that area do not is there any other area there but they're not in the borders of the city of Peoria we have pre-annexation agreements with those parcels just like we're talking about here and that those agreements last for 20 years and until and when we ever but that it's going to stay in the county so those Parcels are not in the city correct I'm asking if there's any Parcels that we have Annex yes I'm not we have a significant number of parcels on septic system in the city of Peoria today everything if you get if you get on the on the east side of Knoxville north of of it north of the Dairy Queen that's all septic system there okay I didn't realize that if I could as well in 2021 the city council approved the annexation Parcels on Dixon Road which is and Dixon Road which is east of these parcels but in the same Northern Area outside of our city here and on the other side of the Medina wall that without sanitary sewer hookups similar situation large rural estate site properties that could absorb that use without presenting the environmental problems of very intense urban-like development on septic systems and then there was also Klein Road that was approved in 2021 that also was developed in the same general area without connection to sanitary sewer so just within the last two years there were a couple different scenarios identical to this that this Council approved under similar circumstances so there's a history of us doing this in our as I mentioned our code anticipates that these matters have come forward like this one has okay thank you you're welcome any other questions comments can I get a motion councilman seer yes Madam mayor uh I have been singing this chair for six years and and I had a few difficult moments I just don't agree with what uh with what's going on right now but I believe in our zoning commission I believe in in the oath that I took to follow our rule so I will make a motion as much as I don't like it because I want to be a good neighbor and don't like to pick a fight with anybody but I only got to preserve uh Peoria so I'll move to um to concur with the requests from the city manager and the Community Development second by council member Kelly any other discussion ballots councilmember Jackson you can cast your ballot we're voting motion passes with one nay Jackson Madam Clerk we are an unfinished business 23-051 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance amending existing special use ordinance number 15194 for a residential cluster development in an r in a class R3 single-family residential district to build a duplex with waivers for the properties located at 5723 and 5727 West Woodbriar Lane Peoria Illinois thank you madam clerk council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor if you all recall at our last meeting this item was deferred because there were some additional due diligence that needed to be performed and I'm excited to share that it has been executed uh I would like to thank the Villa Grande HOA and then also the engineer and the developer that are a part of this as well too so we have successfully landed this plane and I'm excited to move for approval for item 23-051 second to buy council member Euler any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes with one nay oh motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-052 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance amending existing special use ordinance number 15194 for a residential cluster development in the class R3 single-family residential district to build a duplex with waivers for the properties located at 5731 and 5735 West Woodbriar Lane Peoria Illinois council member Allen uh thank you again Madam mayor also I would be remiss if I not think assistant director uh Leah Allison for her help on this uh effort as well too uh with that being said I would like to approve item 23-052 thank you seconded by council member record any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at new business is there any new business council member Euler thank you madam chairwoman I would just like to take the opportunity to recognize our Bradley Braves on their significant Missouri Valley tournament win over the weekend and I asked the manager if we could turn the lights on the bridge red and white uh this weekend in honor of their trip to St Louis and Public Works obliged so uh make sure you check out the bridge this weekend in honor of our Bradley men's basketball team thank you that's great yes thank you I don't see any more lights but my understanding is that the Peoria High girls basketball team is going to state is that correct so congratulations to them as well [Applause] Madam Clerk we're at citizens opportunity to address the city council and I believe we had several cards okay we're going to start with Bill Jones Mr Jones good evening everybody okay tonight I come on several different things I want to discuss some good and a little bit of bad um one I was here back in July I think it was or June at a meeting and I had a little bit of criticism for your chief um before I actually met him I talked to the mayor the last time I was here and let her know how I felt about that and I wanted to tell you after meeting him and a few times at a picnic and several other occasions I think he's the best Chief this Peoria has ever had that's my opinion you don't have to agree with it um I know he's probably making mistakes a few of them and uh he probably will again like the rest of us we all do that um prior to meeting him I was just you know prejudgment of him and I want him to know cheap I think you're you ain't completely took care of the problems here in Peoria but I'll tell you he come into a mess let's just be honest he come into a mess here and uh I do think he's making big steps to correct it and the statistics show that you know do we still have crime sure we do but every other city does Mayor I do and I'll say this I know a lot of people don't agree with me and some do uh majority of them do I think you're the best mayor Peoria has ever had that's my opinion um You can disagree like I said we all can disagree and still have respect for one another um another thing I want to get to is a gentleman behind me him and his wives are standing directly behind me holding a sign I know some of you had seen it they've been on social media and things I know some of his family some of the friends they told me to get with them and I watched some of the video and it was appalling um Jupiter is a gentleman that would one of your officers and I said that I would do this privately I won't bring his name up here tonight he needs to be addressed by the way he uh conducted himself not just with them but with me last week during the shooting where there was 80 rounds or 80 something round shot at the house next to where my sister lives I was there after that happened I was there back in November of last year not even what a few months ago when this occurred a shooting occurred at the same house next to her with the gentleman that lived there her house got hit with the reason it affects me is because it'll hit my sister's home and her van with 45 slugs you know caliber slugs and high-powered rifle rounds I told the officer there last Sunday about it one of them was you know Mr Collins I know his brother and some of his family real nice guy I'm sure Chris is a nice guy but in this case he was absolutely 100 percent wrong there was 20 other people standing next to me there was a gentleman that owned the house that was shot up he was one of the I believe he was the landlord or the owner he approached me from 50 feet across the street and the media was there talking to another gentleman the neighbor and he was sitting in his police car 10 feet away with the window down and this gentleman I didn't know who he was he come up to me and another neighbor hearing us talking about the problem and he approached some private property and started yelling and getting on our face and that he was about two inches from getting his jaw broke I didn't do that I held my you know held back told him to leave I said man we don't know you get away it's on so he starts running his mouth getting nose to nose and Mr Collins instead of getting out and dressed in him says hey hey Bill he says he's trying to be naively I said did you hear what he just said I said he came 50 feet over on the private property into a private conversation and I don't even know who this guy is I said you need to tell him to get back over where he's going you know where he's at you know and he never did that he addressed me which is incorrect so I wanted to I wanted you to wanted you to know that I told him I'd be speaking to you tonight um if you were here also I wanted to let you know this gentleman here has been if you look at the video just look at it Chief if you could give him a little bit of time I told him I would tell you that if you could give him some time to talk to him about that you don't make the laws but you do enforce them and I told him he was a man that's a good guy I said if you you know at least give him a few minutes of your time afterwards or talk to him in private thank you guys and have a good night thank you Mr Jones next we have Emily Hageman hi it's me again um I am Emily Hegman for those of you who don't remember um I don't want to beat a dead horse so I'm not going to try to take up a ton of your time um I have a unique position because I've been at the Forefront of the operation save the rivermen on Facebook while my husband has been here for nine years this position has granted me visibility of people knowing who I am I'm used to standing behind him he Towers over me um and they've been able to share their heartfelt stories with me I have people share about their mental health issues losing a significant other suffering from social anxiety having a multitude of physical and health impairments and honestly my own fear of speaking in front of people which I'm trying to overcome now what every single one of those people have in common is that they have found a home in the Riverman organization and I feel like we are being heard by the comments I heard today um that's was really touching um to me I appreciate all the work that you've been doing this is not over I've been intending all of the meetings and following all of the stories in the news I promise I won't promise that I know everything that you guys are doing or how you're doing it but I am willing to learn about it um these have been my major takeaways thus far it has been made pretty clear by the Peoria Civic Center that a deal has not been reached which we understand Madame mayor I know you recently stated that you don't want the city to like overstep in those decisions but I'm hoping that maybe you'll reconsider the money was and still is a major hurdle and we still need to secure a deal the only thing that we can do as fans is attend meetings and make our voices known so here we are attending Peoria Civic Center meetings attending City Council meetings and speaking to the Riverman office as well what you see in front of you is only a small percentage of the people that want the rivermen to stay what you can't see is that there are people all online watching as well there are rival teams fans online that are watching uh that's saying a lot because my husband is known as a pest in a lot of Rivals eyes so the fact that they're willing to even watch these meetings to hear these things and hopefully uh come in favor of the rivermen is Major and it kind of shows that even though there's some type of Rivals that we can come and support one another in these decisions so I know that sounds really dramatic but it's very very truthful I implore you to take a minute to get to know all of the fans that the river men mean so much to have a conversation with those people because I've been just having amazing conversations with people that I wouldn't have normally got to talk to so thank you all for fighting for us and we appreciate all you're doing so thank you [Applause] next we have Brian Burnside hello mayor men and women with the city council on Friday our son was kidnapped by the hands of the city of Peoria Police Department uh Chris Collins to be specific um he was taken under a fraudulent warrant issue for a Majesty Burnside uh this has been it was validated at the time that the warrant was uh for a Majesty Burnside not my son it was looking for a baby girl named Majesty Burnside not my son that was taken and they knew this and they still took them after this happened we went to the police station and asked to speak the chief who was told the chief he was not there and would not speak to us um and they told us that he might not even be in town at the time um from there we've been getting the run around it's been four days we still don't know where our sun is uh the police refused to reverse their fraudulent decision and taking my son under identity of a female baby by the name of majesty and um to this point we still don't know where our son is our son is breastfed we don't know bad because you can't eat from his mother and um we haven't laid eyes four days we're very worried nobody has told us anything nobody's taking this situation seriously and I would like to direct the mayor to have to Chief of Police do his job and return our son that was wrongfully taken from us we also have like 50 affidavits from people that are very close to us that know that that our son is not majesty and to attest to the kind of mother and father we are and how we raise and take care of our son yeah so and like you said we haven't seen our son in four days you know I need my son I'm a mother at you know at the end of the day and this has been the worst thing ever um so uh like she said we've had 50 witnessed affidavits we share these affidavits with uh the court that issued the fraudulent warrant or wrongful War however you want to a word it they have not acknowledged the 50 affidavits uh petition that we have signed like men and women stating that this is the wrong uh child that was taken and also that we are a great mother and father more uh William and able to take care and caring for our son it was and they also uh testified that there's never been any danger opposed to our son which I guess they had Anonymous phone calls and a baby girl named Majesty first I was in danger again there's nothing to do with my family or my son you know I don't know that person and what is your name young lady call Burnside Burnside not Brian Burnside okay mother father okay thank you we'll speak to you briefly afterwards next we have Susie Cranford hello my name is Susan granford I'm 38 born and raised in Peoria a 2003 graduate of Woodruff high school and a proud supporter at the Peoria Riverbend I am the past present and future of the river in hockey the first game I attended was March of 1988 I was three years old and in awe of what I was watching while I don't remember much from the early years it is the foundation of which I have built my life on from the international hockey league to the American Hockey League the East Coast Hockey League and our current Reverend of the Southern professional hockey league I have been a small part of the thrilling winds the heartbreaking losses the small victories of first goals and the tear-jerking retirement of long-standing beloved players I've been there for the highs and the lows and the absolute Elation of winning championships while my feet have never stepped onto the ice to battle for the team I have been in the stands to support them through it all in March of 2013 the St Louis Blues who at the time owned the rivermen announced they would be removing the AHL team from Peoria leaving us without a franchise to say I was devastated was an understatement that's when Bart Rogers the late Bruce Sowers and other local Legends stepped in to provide Peoria with a franchise in the southern professional hockey league although the level of hockey decreased the passion for Peoria River and hockey only increased our current rivermen team features eight players from Illinois including three from the Peoria area those players who grow up in this area watch the rivermen and dreamed of becoming them one day and here we are their names on their back the Riverman logo on the front skating out to the Roar of the crowd at Carver Arena they give their Blood Sweat and Tears to be able to put on that Riverman Jersey and make Peoria a place to be proud of I am the past the present and I pray the future of the Peoria rivermen and I am not alone in this either I have a hockey family they aren't blood related but they are heart related they are the people I see every time I step foot into the Peoria Civic Center they are the people that season to season continue to support these men win or lose some grew up same as myself supporting them from a young age others have become fans in more recent years my family includes the players too they are my brothers who look out for me just as I look out for them The Men Who join me at local restaurants for dinner and drinks and to catch up after long road trips to celebrate wins and to just spend some quality time together unlike artists who come here for one night and take their money back to their home States these players live in Peoria for seven to eight months of the year make friendships and connections within and outside of hockey and put their hard-earned money back into Central Illinois so when you ask yourself what you are voting for or when you come across the option to advocate for the Riverman organization please know that you would also be a part of 41 years of family and you would become part of the present and the future advocating for the rivermen not only affects those of us in the stands today but also affects those on the ice those working at concession stands ushers security and even those who work in cleanup and changing over the arena between basketball concerts and hockey in September of 2015 the legendary Wayne Gretzky the best player to ever play hockey was in Peoria he said Peoria's history of backing its minor league hockey teams regardless of what level they are at it's solid even the great one knows hockey has or even the great one knows Peoria has value in the hockey world and I hope that you all know that also thank you thank you Miss Grant [Applause] and so we have Julie Bonar this my name is Julie Bonar I'm a resident of Limestone Township however I'm here this evening as the president and CEO of Neighborhood House which has an over 125-year history here in Peoria Neighborhood House is proud to announce our participation in the 21st annual March for meals this is a nationally celebrated month-long event that aims to celebrate Meals on Wheels and our senior neighbors who rely on this essential service to remain healthy and independent at home now even more so amid a lingering pandemic and high inflation throughout the month of March we will be sharing Vital Information about our program on social media to highlight the impact of Meals on Wheels from March 20th to 24th we will once again celebrate our annual community of Champions week in which council members Euler and Allen participated last year the annual March for meals celebration commemorates the historic day in 1972 when President Nixon signed into law a measure that amended the older Americans Act of 1965.

and this included a national nutrition program for seniors 60 years and older this critical support and federal funding has fueled the growth of the Meals on Wheels Network for more than 50 years at Neighborhood House our program serves close to 1200 seniors every year on a daily basis we are producing and delivering over 800 hot meals to our neighbors many of our clients are faced with the impossible decisions of having to choose between medication or food because of their current medical and economic conditions these circumstances make our program crucial in protecting our most vulnerable and oftentimes neglected Neighbors more than a meal our volunteers and drivers become an essential social Lifeline for those who are Homebound and cut off from interacting with the rest of the community the demand for our service is great each year we see a significant increase in demand for our services and we are so thankful for the support of this community but there are still so much more that we can do to ensure that everyone in need of our Vital Lifeline can benefit from being well nourished and more connected to our community and my ask is this tomorrow I will be sending out an email asking each of you to give just an hour or two of your time during our community of Champions week you could help prepare the meals to be delivered or as council members Euler and Allen did last year after and help deliver a few meals to our neighbors I ask that you please consider giving of your time to connect with the homebound seniors in our community thank you so much Miss Bonar [Applause] Brad Salisbury thank you mayor and members of the city council again for this opportunity to speak to you in regards to the additional funding for the Civic Center my name is Brad Salisbury and as I mentioned at your last council meeting I am not a resident of your city however I believe my thoughts on this matter are worth your consideration and I thank you for your efforts in resolving this funding issue that you've taken tonight and the plan for the Civic Center you've taken the first steps to continue that solid backing of which Rayne Gretzky spoke and reinvest in a venue that was designed from the start to host hockey before there was even a professional team in Peoria and maintain that functionality and vision for which the Carver Center was designed and has offered for the last 40 plus years to this community I understand that the replacing the ice plant is expensive but it's an undertaking that should have been planned by the Peoria Civic Center Authority boards and management over 20 years ago when the original ice plant was refurbished the first time instead we are scrambling at the last minute for a solution to an environmental and functional problem while things like carpet branding and replacing a working scoreboard have been deemed a higher priority none of those in my opinion have the impact on the quality of life in this region that maintaining professional hockey via new ice plant will have the prioritization of wants over needs by the Civic Center manager are why it's vital that if providing additional Capital to the Peoria Civic Center the ice plant replacement via specific requirement to receive any of the funding doing so will ensure that the money intended for the ice plant cannot be reallocated for some other purpose and will help ensure that good faith negotiations take place between the management of the Civic Center and of the Riverbend as a fan of hockey and someone who wants a vibrant downtown I'm counting on the council to prioritize this funding needed to continue a 41-year tradition of minor league hockey in Peoria that is a staple of the community both on and off the ice a vital part of the Peoria downtown entertainment experience bringing countless memories to people in and out of Peoria and if you issue bonds for this I will be one of those people in line to purchase those bonds and put my money where my mouth is thank you Celeste recipe I don't think I pronounced your name correctly you were really close for strepa okay thank you so thank you for this opportunity to speak and I think we can all say that ice plays in Peoria right that was evidenced by the 1300 people that quickly amassed themselves into a group for operation save the rivermen one thing I want to talk about is something that we haven't been really talking about and that's if we don't make this work if you don't make this work um in essence I think in a way it's going to steal the dreams of our children so let me give you an example of that anyone who parent knows that you never know what's going to stick with your kid in terms of Interest in my case my child fell in love for the first time at the age of four with hockey thanks to attending at Riverman gay I worked in public affairs at caterpillar at that time a sponsor our division offered some tickets my husband two sons and I had never been to a game we went nobody in our family played hockey nobody was a fan my husband is from Colombia it's not a country known for hockey um and of course what happens is after the first Riverman game my youngest son who was about four I think at that time wanted to play and I will confess to you right now I was personally opposed it was the sport the most equipment according to my hello my fellow sports friend moms and we were a soccer family shin guards a ball a bag a bottle of water good to go I don't like the cold and I confess we try to put him off and we successfully did that for two years thinking watching the game would just be enough it wasn't we gave him the opportunity he loved it we loved it and was a chance for him to shine and do something to nobody else in the family did he gained confidence the innate skills we didn't know he had for Speed and fast reflexes were a perfect match and it translated into other sports as well and this is what the Civic Center Ice does yes it provides entertainment and it gives families a chance to experience Sport and competition it won't be affordable for people to leave the city many of them and go somewhere else to have that type of experience but most importantly it gives people and children a chance from all backgrounds to discover a passion to fall in love with something different from not only seeing the rivermen but from seeing Disney on Ice and other ice dancing competitions having ice and the opportunity to view Sports on Ice in our city just simply enriches the fabric of our community much like Chiefs baseball which is something that this city has also supported financially it gives children an opportunity to Envision something they don't experience within their own culture within their own neighborhood and that simply is not going to exist here without ice to host these professional level type events and that should be valued it is unfortunate as a lifelong resident that I have memories from being a child of listening to my parents talk about how many of those that sat around the Horseshoe just simply did not make good decisions with our taxpayer dollars in uh we started paying the hotel and restaurant tax and the commitment to those citizens all the way back from then to now was that money was going to take care of the Civic Center and going to keep it up as a matter of fact in today's dollars councilman Kelly was asking about how much the building was worth and today's dollars it was 331 million dollars that was committed from the state and city and federal dollars to build the Civic Center we're now on the hook for 40 million dollars for the uh hotel and Skywalk these are improvements that most families will never experience in this area please please spend our tax dollars on things that benefit and add to the quality of life for many citizens seven thousand school children a couple months ago were here and they enjoyed a Riverman game that was the first experience for many of them how many of them will walk across the Skywalk how many of them will be at the pier Marquette we deserve to hold on to our championship team that has that long history community outreach we deserve our elected leaders to step up just as enthusically enthusiastically as they have in the past when it comes to working with the developer that maybe does not bring to fruition something that affects so many we want you to work hand at hand with the rivermen in that way a relationship that's going to continue to benefit our children and building a relationship that will benefit them as well so they can be successful and stay in this community please do that work for all of our citizens including our youngest and they deserve nothing less thank you thank you John O'Connor um Joyce blumenshine good evening thank you Amir Ali and members of the council and staff I'm Joyce blumenshine I'm here to talk about high pressure liquefied carbon dioxide pipelines with the many topics that you must deal with this is another one and I'm going to express some concerns about it uh it will be as far as we know now coming into the city of Peoria on the South Side through zip codes affecting possibly 61605 and 61602 those are areas that for decades have had discrimination and lack of investment and thanks to your consul's work to the leadership of the mayor councilwoman Jackson for the efforts to put improvements onto Western Avenue a new fire station the equity commission the joint commission for Peoria a lot of good things are happening so we have to question please why would we as a city want a new clear and present danger to public health and safety and environmental justice concern that could be here for decades to come into Peoria now industry will say they have all the less latest and best technology and all the controls and monitoring let's just look last week at Ohio at a train derailment accidents can happen things can go wrong and toxics can mean dangers to Public Health that could last for a person's life or even end their life a release of a cloud of CO2 in high levels can mean minutes to escape what about elderly what about people who are homebound what about people who might be sleeping and how fast can emergency people evacuate potentially thousands of residents in the area around an explosion we don't know we don't have the details I urge you to consider this is about money this is about profits for industry and I think it is hubris or let's say it's just really audacious of Industry to think they can bring in Clear and Present dangers risks that are hazardous new risks that we know about now to a community that has already been discriminated against and suffered industry will make money off of this and they're also claiming the blanket of greenwashing which many environmental communities question we have to ask how much more energy it takes for the processes that this will be taking and the fact that in Decatur where carbon capture and sequestration has been going on for some years in spite of their promises to sequester a million tons of CO2 a year and many millions of our tax dollars and other funding that sequestration site for carbon dioxide has only reached about 500 000 tons a year so they are half of what they've promised many many more times up to 12 million tons is now being possibly considered how's this going to happen how is this huge new taxpayer-funded large infrastructure build out of CO2 pipelines going to solve the climate crisis these are all questions that seem Way Beyond what you should have to consider but it will be here soon and we I myself as a citizen are urging you to get the full facts urging you to get the full details of the ramifications liabilities and potential risks to not only your citizens and taxpayers but to your EMT staff to your First Responders I thank you very much Bloom and shine next and last we have Tracy Fox hi my name is Tracy Fox my address is 15215 North Ivy Lake Road out in Chillicothe and I'm here tonight on behalf of central Illinois healthy Community Alliance we're the group that formed about 10 years ago to help address the pollution out of the Edwards power plant and ultimately brought the city great relief from that as well as an 8.6 million dollar settlement for the cleanup we're proud of that work but not resting on our Laurels I work with closely with Joyce and colleagues at Sierra Club on environmental issues and Joyce brought the pipeline issue to me and I looked at it and I was familiar with these pipelines they run through rural areas they tear up far ground they render the soil low yield and they're risky but it never occurred to me until she showed me the map that they would actually think about running one through a city through a dense urban area the way that high high pressure CO2 pipelines work is that they push the the material until it liquefies so it has to be held at really high pressure over the length of the pipeline and because those pipelines are designed typically to deal with the lower pressures of gas and oil flows they really aren't quite effective for CO2 and a lot of engineering work shows that they can actually unzip along the length of the pipeline and you get these big clouds of CO2 that emerge because of accidents you know poor engineering fatigue whatever the the metals problems are workmanship issues welding problems I mean there's a long list of things that can go wrong so you have this Cloud that basically likes to set in Low Places studying the AdWords coal plant Bloom I can tell you that pollutants also like to set in Low Places that's why the emissions for the south side of Peoria were such a big problem so now you have these people who are the most vulnerable in our community this is the issue this is the area that's an environmental justice Community by U.S EPA screening standards it's the area that was named as an R3 um under invested high crime uh other Justice deprived area under the cannabis bill it's the ZIP code that we all know as the poorest and most vulnerable in our city and now we're going to think about running a high pressure CO2 pipeline along the railroad routes there and put all these people potentially In Harm's Way and this is a really serious accident scenario because the gas is asphyxiating internal combustion engine spark plugs fail to work Emergency Management would need to get in there carrying oxygen and woe all the oxygen is stored on the south side where the accident could potentially happen you know this just seems completely inappropriate for a dense urban area for 5700 of our poorest households to live within a mile of this kind of ticking time bomb and so we say well why wouldn't anyone propose this how could it possibly benefit the city well there's some super lucrative tax incentives that came out as part of the IRA and there's also a ticking time bomb in terms of the pipeline safety Regulators they're contemplating a little better regulations for pipelines but those aren't even on in draft format yet so the guys who want to build these they are in a rush they want to claim the tax credits and get in before the really safety conscious regulation is even in draft form um you know and this worries me because this plant that would be bailed out by all of this that would capture its carbon and magically continue to run for another 25 50 years they're not a good neighbor I mean every time you go down to the South side and it's above 70 degrees there's a horrible odor that has to contribute to a lot of the problems in the area this plant burned for a week we had to get Mutual aid from Chicago to put it under control and you heard your own fire people tonight say that we left money on the table and trying to clean up after that cost and the plant has been a Serial under reporter and polluter that comp that story is a little bit complicated to tell but I'll say three things about it number one they have a long history of not reporting data at all so who knows what's going on number two the majority of the chemicals that they emit are not criteria pollutant the EPA doesn't issue you saying You must keep it under this level to be safe for human health the guidance from the EPA on many of the things that come out of that plant are basically do the best you can use the maximum available control technology not a hard limit not a health-based limit and finally I would say that in 2008 when this plant first came on my radar it was on the front page of USA today because it was named as one of the very worst emitters of pollutants within a mile or two of schools that was called The Smoke Stack of tax report and I went to the health department and we tried to contact ATM and we could never find any solution this time we don't need to be left searching for a solution there's easy steps that the city can take to put itself on a footing to fight this number one you need to think about how are we going to engage in this process at the ICC thank you mayor number two you need to make a public resolution that says we want to put a moratorium on any action of this right away and longer term maybe we just don't want it all together a big economic report is going to drop you're going to hear a lot of things about how beneficial this will be but come back to and remember why do these benefits have to come at the expense of the same people we always act asked to sacrifice I hope that environmental justice will hold the day and the city of Peoria can resoundingly say no to this atrocious project thank you thank you Miss Fox Adam clerk we are we are at executive session I would like to invite a motion to adjourn and to convene in closed session immediately following a German of the city council meeting pursuant to the open meetings act 5 i l c s 120 Slash 2 c 1 to discuss the performance of a specific employee and pursue pursuant to the open meetings act 5 ilcs 120 slash 2c21 for approval by the body of closed session minutes moved by councilman reprigo seconded by councilman valpulla please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously and thank you for your service foreign