Peoria approves $300M budget, authorizes $17M riverfront redevelopments, defers brick street debate
PEORIA, ARIZONA — November 14, 2023

Peoria approves $300M budget, authorizes $17M riverfront redevelopments, defers brick street debate

Peoria City Council approved substantial budget, development agreements, and police transparency dashboard while deferring contentious brick street policy debate over historic preservation versus maintenance costs.

Peoria Approves $300M Budget and Riverfront Redevelopments; Defers Heated Brick Street Row Over Historic Preservation and Cost Burden

The Peoria City Council on Tuesday night moved swiftly through 19 votes in four hours, approving a sprawling 2024–2025 biennial budget and two major downtown redevelopment agreements while deferring one of the evening's most contentious moments: whether to strip three historic brick intersections from the city's protected-street list, citing maintenance costs and plow damage versus the architectural character and fairness concerns that turned the debate into a proxy fight over district equity and preservation philosophy.

The meeting's notability rests across three major buckets: the sheer dollar volume and process quality of the budget adoption; the simultaneous unlocking of two riverfront projects totaling roughly $17 million; and the dramatic reversal midway through public comment, when City Manager Matt Richardson agreed to a two-week deferral on brick streets—a move that allowed Council Members Denise Jackson and Charles Greb to air grievances about plowing myths, neighborhood disinvestment, and the city's inconsistent historical preservation stance.

Key Speeches

Budget and Finance

"I think we've done an effective job deliberating all the topics in this year's budget. I think the manager and staff has done an effective job as well putting the presentation together for us and working with department heads and staff to come up with a good plan for the next two years." — Dr. Andre W. Allen

"I can't remember the last time I voted to approve a budget for the city—I think I've been a nay the last several years. I think we've done an effective job deliberating all the topics in this year's budget." — Council Member Zachary Oyler

Brick Street Policy

"I grew up on a Brick Street, 12 White West Johnson Street, and when the bricks were intact they looked beautiful—they have character. But when the bricks start to get damaged, we had so much patchwork right down the middle. And then it doesn't look good anymore." — Mayor Dr. Rita Ali

"This is not an accurate memo. The idea that we have a policy going back to April 5th 1988 regarding brick streets is flawed. It's not true. We had a council under manager Michael D. McKnight and Steven Van Winkle, Public Works director, that decided that we were no longer going to ruin the look of brick streets by doing what the mayor just described—throwing down asphalt to repair an otherwise very nice-looking attractive brick street." — Council Member Charles Greb

"If we don't want to mishmash—if you think it's despoiling large parts of the city that are historic and not consistent with the goals of the council to maintain the historicity of the city—we can continue to maintain the streets on the West Bluff, Center Bluff, East Bluff, Southside as they are. And come to find out, with the passage of time, we're hearing that brick is rather permeable. Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same." — Council Member Charles Greb

Police Transparency Dashboard

"My mother Denise Jackson asked me about community awareness of Black boys and men dying and killing each other. After over 75 years of living in Peoria, she spoke with great disappointment and desperation. She said there was a time in this community where Black families, churches, and leaders would not have tolerated such behavior. The four phrases that came to me were: know the data, share the data, own the data, and change the data. Each phrase connecting a pathway to a change in community safety." — Pastor Linda Butler, Police Department Chaplain

"The vision of the 'No More, No More' campaign is shares information that results in transparency, legitimacy, and trust to achieve a safer community. The mission is to empower our community through transparent and honest communication to change lives and reduce crime." — Chief Ed Varta

Timeline

Proclamations & Civics (6:00–6:50 p.m.)

Public Hearing & Town Agenda (6:50–7:10 p.m.)

Consent Agenda (7:10–7:45 p.m.)

Presentations (7:45–9:00 p.m.)

Police Transparency Dashboard (23–374): Chief Varta and Crime Analyst Jacob Mussan unveiled the "No More, No More" initiative—a comprehensive real-time dashboard launched in partnership with Pastor Linda Butler's vision of community data ownership. Features include:

Council feedback: Dr. Kiran Velpula noted the site requires login for some users (Mussan promised to fix). Timothy Riggenbach emphasized the importance of real-time updates. Dr. Kiran Velpula suggested adding 5-to-10-year historical comparisons and national benchmarks; Mussan agreed. Allan praised the tool as "a game changer." Motion to receive and file passed unanimously.

Public Works Facility Property Purchase (23–375): Director Powers briefed council on acquisition of 1725 Southwest Washington Street (former Miller and Sons junkyard) for $50,000 plus $2,500 closing costs, using Warehouse District Tiff funds. Site will be paved and used for equipment storage adjacent to existing Public Works facility. Initial environmental assessment complete; no major issues anticipated. Approved unanimously.

Edward Byrne Justice Grant Distribution (23–376, A–D): Chief Varta and Grant Manager Jenny Giza presented $91,915 Edward Byrne grant, split 60/40 with Peoria County. City's 60% ($55,149) will upgrade a news server for security camera video storage at police, city hall, and various city locations. Items A–D approved unanimously.

Organized Retail Crime Grant (23–377, A–C): Invitation-only $130,000 grant from Illinois AG's office. $30,000 will purchase 12 new automated license plate readers for placement on I-74 and Route 6 on/off ramps to intercept retail theft suspects fleeing the city. Total LPR fleet: 71 units. Data retained 30 days unless used as evidence. Remaining $100,000 reserved for real-time information platforms (TBD). Captain Briggs confirmed retail theft surge over past year. Approved unanimously.

414 Water Street Redevelopment Agreement (23–378): Assistant City Manager Kimberly Richardson presented a $7 million mixed-use project at 414 Southwest Water Street (kitty-corner to former Hooters). Includes 5 luxury residential units and commercial space (20,000 sq ft). City will grant up to 15 ft property easement for fencing/landscaping. Developer receives 50% of Tiff-generated property tax increment over Tiff life. Approximately $1 million increment anticipated; developer reimbursed once project complete and taxes realized. Zachary Oyler praised the riverfront revitalization. Dr. Andre W. Allen asked about former Hooters building: Richardson confirmed the city owns it and leases it (RFP out for food/beverage tenants preferred); consistent interest but no imminent deal. Motion to approve passed unanimously.

Peoria Innovation Hub / Distillery Labs Redevelopment Agreement (23–379): 2011 Southwest Adams Street nonprofit renovation. Seeking 100% Tiff reimbursement (vs. standard 50%) while appealing state property tax exemption. State of Illinois invested $10 million in capital costs. Reimbursement obligation triggered if tax exemption appeal fails. Chris Edwards (Board Representative) explained the 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and appealed tax exemption case pending in Illinois Department of Revenue; expected ruling within months. Manager Richardson defended 100% reimbursement as appropriate given nonprofit public-private partnership model (comparable to Maui Gym deal, 85%; OSF campus, 90%). John Kelly noted the unusual structure but recognized public sector support. Timothy Riggenbach ultimately supported motion. Approved unanimously.

Financial Report, Storm Water Ordinance, and Bond Abatements (23–380 through 23–383):

2024–2025 Biennial Budget Adoption (23–384):

Proposed Amendments: Council Member Greb moved to add one additional Public Works painter ($205,572 in 2024, $164,500 in 2025, split general fund and capital). Rationale: three outdoor painters insufficient for lane markings and pole maintenance; corroding light poles visible throughout older neighborhoods; third painter could address facilities maintenance in winter. Director Powers corroborated: two painters on paint truck, one on facilities; no formal plan for pole rotation, but 5–6 year paint cycle expected. Timothy Riggenbach pressed for specificity and sequencing; Powers acknowledged ad hoc prioritization. Allan raised fund balance concern: with this motion, 2024 fund balance ~$32.9M, 2025 ~$21M—still compliant through 2028 but tighter. John Kelly opposed on principle: record spending, record revenue, every department could use more funds; "nobody's extremely happy, nobody got everything they wanted, but I think we're finished." Greb countered that brick streets and pole maintenance are core city assets requiring upkeep; compared to crime wave of 1990s when council hired more police. Vote: Failed 6–5 (Yes: Greb, Gordon-Young; No: Dr. Rita Ali, John Kelly, Zachary Oyler, Timothy Riggenbach, Dr. Kiran Velpula, Michael Vespa, Allan).

Main Budget Vote (Item 23–384): Finance Director Cratty summarized: fund balance projects $32.9M (2024) and $21M (2025), remaining in policy compliance through 2028. Includes Edward Byrne Justice Grant ($91,915), Organized Retail Crime Grant ($130,000), and standard operations. Zachary Oyler noted heartburn with budget size but praised collaborative process and staff rigor. Timothy Riggenbach thanked Cratty and city manager for readability and timeliness of report-backs. Motion to approve passed unanimously.

Opposition

Brick Street Removal (Item 23–364):

Number of speakers against: 2 (Denise Jackson and Greb, both vocally opposed during council discussion; no public comment received).

Main concerns:

  1. Inequitable cost burden on low-income residents: Denise Jackson objected that 61605 (the first district) cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket for brick restoration. Concern that concrete replacement shifts maintenance cost to residents who are already economically disadvantaged, in contrast to North-side residents with brick streets.

  2. Survey methodology and representation: Denise Jackson questioned whether 42 surveys distributed and completed truly reflected resident preference, especially if respondents could not afford brick maintenance and answered accordingly.

  3. Historic preservation and neighborhood character: Denise Jackson and Greb emphasized that brick streets are 100–150 years old, define older neighborhoods, and maintain aesthetic continuity. Denise Jackson noted that many blocks remain 80% intact brick; concrete patching "doesn't look good" and detracts from community character.

  4. Plow damage overstated: Greb and Denise Jackson disputed the assertion that modern plows destroy brick. Greb noted the city has plowed brick streets for a century; Denise Jackson pointed out that plow damage affects a small portion of streets, not the entire intersection.

  5. Alternative materials ignored: Denise Jackson proposed repurposing bricks from demolished buildings (e.g., McKinley) or exploring permeable pavers to maintain aesthetics and permeability without abandoning brick character.

  6. Policy precedent and equity: Greb invoked the city's 1988 brick street protection policy (crafted under Manager Michael D. McKnight and Director Steven Van Winkle) and argued that abandoning it on the South Side while maintaining brick on the East and West Bluffs creates a two-tiered preservation regime inconsistent with equity.

  7. Tiff-funded alternatives: Denise Jackson suggested that Tiff funding—available for the CSO project—could help offset resident costs for permeable paver or brick restoration, similar to other development subsidies.

Most compelling argument: Greb's invocation of the 1988 policy history and the principle that "we should not mishmash" neighborhoods by using asphalt patches on brick streets in some districts while protecting brick in others. His allusion to the city's successful brick preservation track record under McKnight and Van Winkle, combined with Jackson's stark equity concern ("most impoverished in the country, people cannot afford out of pocket"), created a narrative that the removal proposal violated both historic precedent and fairness.

Organized opposition: None formal; solely council member advocacy during deliberation.

Support

Brick Street Removal (Item 23–364):

Number of speakers supporting: 1 (Director Powers, on behalf of public works operations).

Main arguments:

  1. Plow damage and winter maintenance: Director Powers asserted that snowplows destroy brick streets. Modern equipment rounds off bricks or dislodges them; plows then create cracked, damaged surfaces. Brick streets do not hold up to seasonal salt and freezing cycles.

  2. Low permeability and ice accumulation: Despite common belief, decades-old brick streets are compacted and non-permeable. They retain water on the surface, which freezes, creating hazardous icy patches and further plow damage.

  3. Survey consensus: Powers cited a resident survey showing 42 responses, with the "majority" preferring concrete restoration over brick maintenance. He noted that no surveyed residents voted to keep brick streets as-is.

  4. Cost of maintenance: Brick street maintenance is labor-intensive and expensive. Permeable paver alternatives cost slightly less than brick but more than concrete, yet offer durability and aesthetic benefits.

  5. Structural integrity: Powers noted that patching damaged brick requires hand-laying (labor-intensive and pricey), leading cities to default to cost-effective asphalt patches, which degrade street appearance long-term.

Most compelling argument: Powers' practical concern about plow damage and ice accumulation; the tension between preservation ideals and operational reality in a Midwest city with harsh winters. However, Denise Jackson and Greb's historical pushback undermined this claim—if plows have damaged brick for a century, why is removal sudden now?

Organized support: None (public works staff position).

Project Details

414 Water Street Mixed-Use Development

Peoria Innovation Hub / Distillery Labs Redevelopment

Brick Street Removal (Item 23–364)

Vote Breakdown

2024–2025 Biennial Budget Adoption (23–384)

Additional Public Works Painter Amendment (proposed budget amendment)

Brick Street Removal Deferral (23–364)

Other Unanimous Votes

Outcome & Next Steps

Budget Adoption

The 2024–2025 biennial budget is now in effect. Fund balance projects at $32.9 million (2024) and $21 million (2025), remaining in compliance with city policy through 2028. No new painter position funded.

Redevelopment Agreements

Both 414 Water Street and Distillery Labs redevelopment agreements are approved and can proceed. Developer agreements will govern Tiff distribution and contingencies on tax exemption status for Distillery Labs.

Brick Street Policy

Motion to remove three West Aken Avenue intersections from protected list deferred for two weeks. Staff to return with:

  1. Cost of brick street repair (on-site brick).
  2. Cost of concrete restoration.
  3. Cost of permeable paver restoration.
  4. Analysis of CSO-funded alternatives.

John Kelly also requested a broader report on the 1988 brick street policy history, current practices for salvaging bricks from demolition, and rationale for permeable paver use on street perimeters.

Police Transparency Dashboard

Live immediately after meeting; real-time crime data, shot spotter alerts, community events calendar, and gunshot victim filters accessible to public. Council feedback incorporated; dashboard subject to ongoing user-testing and refinement.

License Plate Readers

12 additional readers purchased and installed on I-74 and Route 6 on/off ramps within 60 days (estimated); brings fleet to 71. Data retained 30 days unless used as evidence.

Next Regular Meeting

Deferred deferral return: two weeks (approx. November 28, 2023) for brick street cost analysis. Deferred items: 8x8 Telecom Services (now approved, November 14 after one-month deferral); E-911 Services Board approval obtained.

Controversies & Context

Brick Street Maintenance Debate: Historic Preservation vs. Operational Cost

The brick street controversy reflects a deeper fault line in city governance: whether to preserve the aesthetic and historical integrity of older neighborhoods (predominantly on the South Side, first district—lowest-income areas) at public expense, or to prioritize operational efficiency and cost-control by switching to cheaper concrete.

Policy Lineage: The city's brick street protection policy dates to April 5, 1988, when City Manager Michael D. McKnight and Public Works Director Steven Van Winkle decided to stop using asphalt patches on historic brick streets, which they deemed visually destructive. That decision codified brick preservation as official policy for 35 years. Council Member Greb invoked this history to argue that the current proposal to remove three intersections contradicts the city's stated commitment to preserving historic neighborhoods.

Equity Concern: Denise Jackson highlighted the peculiar burden on the city's most economically vulnerable residents. The 61605 ZIP code, which contains much of the first district and the contested brick streets, ranks among the country's most impoverished communities. Denise Jackson argued that residents there cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket for brick restoration (if municipal maintenance were privatized), unlike wealthier North-side residents whose brick streets might remain on the protected list. This framing transformed the debate from a technical maintenance question into a fairness issue: does the city maintain brick streets equitably across all districts, or does it abandon them in low-income areas?

Operational Reality: Director Powers presented a plausible operational case: modern snowplows degrade brick; frozen bricks are slippery and hazardous; permeable paver and brick maintenance cost more than concrete. However, the force of this argument was blunted by Greb's historical riposte: the city has plowed brick streets successfully for a century; the recent shift toward abandonment may reflect not new operational knowledge but rather changing political will or budget pressure.

Survey Methodology Question: Jackson's skepticism about the 42-survey sample (undisclosed how many households in the contested area, response rate) reflected a common concern in city planning: small surveys in economically stressed neighborhoods may capture the preferences of those who can afford maintenance, not the majority. The "majority preferred concrete" finding thus becomes suspect if the sample skewed toward lower-income residents unable to afford brick upkeep.

State and Federal Context: No state preemption or federal mandate on brick streets was invoked. The debate was purely local—a choice between city values (preservation, equity, aesthetics) and operational/fiscal efficiency.

Police Transparency and Community Trust

Chief Varta's "No More, No More" initiative addresses a city with an acute gun violence problem. Since 2021, Peoria has experienced a surge in homicides and shooting incidents (17% increase YTD in shooting incidents, 22% in gunshot victims). The phrase "No More, No More" was coined by Pastor Linda Butler, a 96-year-old mother who asked why the city's Black community was not mobilizing to stop Black-on-Black violence—a pointed moral charge that animated the transparency initiative.

By releasing real-time crime data, gunshot victim demographics, and shot spotter heat maps, the department aims to shift accountability from police to community. The logic: citizens who "own the data" become stakeholders in crime reduction, not passive observers. This represents a significant cultural shift in police practice—moving from secrecy and reactive investigation to proactive transparency and citizen partnership.

Council reception was unanimously positive, though Dr. Kiran Velpula and others flagged operational concerns: labor intensity of data entry, login issues on initial rollout, and need for longer historical baselines to contextualize year-over-year trends.

Budget Size and Fund Balance Trajectory

Zachary Oyler voiced a latent concern: the city is spending at record levels and drawing down fund balance. While the 2024–2025 budget maintains compliance with policy (minimum fund balance ~$13M, city projects ~$32.9M for 2024 and $21M for 2025), the downward trajectory is real. Zachary Oyler, John Kelly, and Timothy Riggenbach all noted the need for caution once federal relief funds (American Rescue Plan) expire and new obligations (fire staffing, police grants) plateau.

The proposed painter position, failed at 6–5, became a proxy for this larger anxiety: every department can articulate a legitimate need, but fiscal constraints mean not all can be funded. Greb's point about corroding infrastructure in older neighborhoods was philosophically sound but fiscally inconvenient—the council essentially chose to defer deferred maintenance rather than expand capacity.

Duration

Other Notable Items

1. Edward Byrne Justice Grant & License Plate Reader Expansion (23–376, 23–377): Police Department approved for $91,915 Byrne grant (video server upgrade) and $130,000 Organized Retail Crime grant (12 new LPRs). License plate reader network now 71 units, focused on retail theft interdiction at interstate on/off ramps. Data retention: 30 days unless evidence. Approved unanimously.

2. 8x8 Telecom Services Cloud Phone System (23–323): Sole-source $200,000 agreement for cloud phone system replacement, deferred one month for E-911 Services Board review; board approved advancement, citing improved dispatch services. Approved unanimously.

3. Illegal Dumping Follow-Up (Council Member Jackson's New Business Request): Denise Jackson requested staff report on illegal dumping and "no dumping" sign placement. Director Duan confirmed signs available; code enforcement coordination ongoing with Neighborhood Services Unit and police (deer cameras, license plate capture). Denise Jackson asked for location tracking and follow-up on tip submissions; Duan agreed to provide list and coordinate placement.

View source transcript ▼

Source: Peoria City Council Meeting November 14, 2023 — November 14, 2023. Auto-generated YouTube transcript; may contain transcription errors.

e you if everyone would take their seats we're going to get our meeting started thank you good evening everyone it is 6 o' p.m.

on Tuesday November 14th 2023 I'd like to call the meeting of the peia city council to order I'd also like to welcome everyone in our council chambers and those listening on channel wcbu and cable channel 22 clerk Council mices are open please call the rooll mayor Ali council member Allan pres council member sear council member graab here council member Jackson here council member Jensen coun I'm sorry like wrong list these are old ones to go I apologize council member um Jackson here council member Kelly here Council member oer here council member riggenbach council member velpula and council member Vasa Gordon young here and council member Gordon young pres thank you we have a quorum present Madame mayor thank you Madame clerk please join me everyone and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance IED Al to flag of the United States of America to the it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Madam clerk we have several proclamations for tonight we have five proclamations and in light of that I've asked several council members to help me in the reading of the proclamations the first is the proclamation on Native American heritage month and uh council member Allan is going to read that Proclamation uh thank you madam mayor uh I'm going to ask for Grace ahead of time uh in case I mispronounce uh any of these words out of respect uh whereas the history and culture of all of the great nation have been significantly influenced by American Indians elastic native peoples and Indigenous peoples and whereas the contributions of the Native American Indians has enhanced the freedom prosperity and greatness of America today their customs and Tra Traditions are respected and celebrated as part of Rich history throughout the United States and whereas the name Peoria derives from the aloian language spoken by the Peoria tribe of Indians of Oklahoma while porori originally meant comes carrying a pack on his back a more modern translation has defined it as to dream with the help of Mato and where as we recognize the Native Americans who live in Illinois and contributed to the community's cultural Legacy we acknowledge those who have made their home here first the sulk the masaki the palala Mami kikapu winnabago kokia kakasa and Poria among others and whereas Native American awareness week began in 1976 and recognition was expanded by Congress in improved approved by President George Bush in August 1990 designating the month of November as Native American Indian Heritage Month now therefore I Rita Ali mayor of the city of Peoria do hereby acknowledge November as Native American Indian Heritage Month in peori Illinois dated this 14th day of November 2023 ad great job thank you our next Proclamation recognizes dwali awareness day it was it will be presented by councilman velpula whereas diali a festival of great significance is celebrated annually by millions of Hindus SS Janss and Buddhists throughout the world Diwali is a festival of lights when celebrants light small oil lamps place them around the home and pray for knowledge peace and Universal well-being and whereas the word Diwali is a shortened version of the Sanskrit term the pavali which means row of lamps the row of lamps symbolize the light of knowledge and Truth within the individual that signific that signifies the destruction of all negative qualities such as violence anger jealousy ignorance greed fear or suffering Diwali celebrates the victory of good or evil and whereas the Hindu sik Jane and Buddhist communities which are comprised of mostly Indian and South Asian Americans as well as other diverse races and eth ethnicities constit Ute a vital part of Poria diverse ethnic and social Fabric and whose languages cultures and religious beliefs have enriched our communities and whereas Diwali is celebrated by Hindus as a day of Thanksgiving for the homecoming of Lord Rama and the beginning of the new year for many Hindus for six Diwali is celebrated as the day that the sixth founding s Guru Guru hargobind was released from captivity by mugal Emperor jangar for James Diwali marks the anniversary of the attainment of Moka or Liberation by mahavira the last of the tangaras the great teachers of Jane dma at the end of his life in 527 BC for Buddhist especially newer Bud Buddhists Diwali is commemorated as a Vijay dasami the day the great emperor Ashoka embraced Buddhism as his faith now therefore I rali mayor of the city of Poria Illinois do hereby recognize November 12th 2023 as Diwali Awareness Day in Poria Illinois dated this 14th day of November ad councilman we're going to recognize yeah we have uh mandar mandar paker and he's here to receive the proclamation and he does a lot of uh sa in Poria and I let him speak uh thank you uh thank you honorable mayor and the city council for this opportunity uh first of all Namaste which a Hindu greting which means the Divinity in me recognizes the Divinity in each of you um this week Hindus are celebrating Diwali which of course is a festival of lights just as a single lamp single oil lamp can light millions of other lamps without diminishing its own power so can the light of wisdom each of the five days of Diwali celebrates the relationship between brother and sister husband and wife the power of women Animal Welfare as well as the victory of good or evil we Hindus are celebrating Diwali by conducting SE Diwali which is a food drive which we have been doing in Poria for last 17 years this year sorry last year we collected and donated £30,000 of of food and non perishable items which were divided for the center of prevention of abuse Neighborhood House and triin school nationally last year we donated 600,000 pound of food finally I pray that this Diwali light the flame of wisdom in the hearts of all and bring peace much needed peace to the world thank you thank you sir thank you our next Proclamation recognizes the community Festival of nativities uh we have present uh Corey wacher and Rick Simpkins and uh council member Kelly is going to present the proclamation thank you Madame mayor whereas December 25th is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ as Christmas Day whereas the story of the Nativity and the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ are important to the re to the religious celebrations at Christmas and whereas St Vincent to Paul Catholic Church Holy Family Catholic Church All Saints Greek Orthodox Church Pur Heights Congregational Church Mount Holly Community Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have joined together to present the community Festival of nativities now in its eth year and whereas visitors from the Greater Peoria area Bloomington normal neille and Beyond will enjoy hundreds of nativities on display from around the world and whereas this year an outdoor live nativity with animals from Barnyard discoveries to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the first crash by St Francis of aisi will be displayed along with the historic St Mary's Cathedral Nativity sacral cubism artwork by world famous painter George Coco and The Eclectic Nativity collection of St bead's Academy of Peru Illinois will be on display in addition to over 2,000 pieces from Diana L Fontanini collection Roland Johnson's beautiful Inc mosaics and a display of artwork by local school children there will also be performances from local musicians and children will enjoy a scavenger hunt and Bingo and whereas the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hosting this year's event titled Oh Holy Night at their place of worship 3700 West W West Reservoir November 30th through December 3rd this is a free event and open to the public hours and information may be found at Community Festival of nativities tocom now therefore I Rita Ali mayor of the city of Poria Illinois do hereby recognize the community Festival of nativities in Peoria Illinois dated this 14th day of November 2023 ad thank you gentlemen yeah thank you very much and appreciate mayor Ali and and your recognition of the community festival and nativities it is truly a wonderful opportunity to bring Community together um It's a Wonderful opportunity where um multiple congregations as was read um come together in a lot of service hours and efforts um sharing and enjoying the birth of Jesus Christ um we have wonderful um opportunity to just enjoy in the wonderful spirit of Christmas uh the wonderful um teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in in the spirit of just bringing us together when we do celebrate with multiple congregations um in Christianity but different um slightly different beliefs or or of of the Christian beliefs what we're showing and emulating is when we come together on a common purpose to uplift and to share and invite people to come and be better um that's really what the community festival and activities does um for the community and it's going on for eight years now um and it gets better and better each year so we just encourage uh for you to share with your family your neighbors your communities school children preschools elderly folks that would love the spirit of Christmas in their life this year it's a wonderful opportunity thank you very [Applause] much our next Proclamation recognizes National apprenticeship week and we have uh Mr Benjamin Nicks Jr and Tori Davis uh Mr Nix is the employment services program manager for Illinois Department of Employment Security and Mr Davis is the the business services manager for Illinois Department of Employment Security the ne the northwest region um we have councilman rinox going to read that Proclamation thank you madam mayor whereas National apprenticeship week is celebrating its 9th anniversary of raising awareness of the vital role registered apprenticeships providing creating opportunities by allowing apprentices to earn while they learn and preparing a pathway to good quality jobs well-paying careers in Poria and across the nation and whereas registered apprenticeship programs enable employers to develop and train their future Workforce while offering career Seekers affordable paths to secure high-paying jobs and whereas Poria recognizes the role of registered apprenticeship in expanding opportunities in our Workforce that are inclusive of individuals who have been historically underserved marginalized and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality thus providing a path for all qualified individuals including women youth people of color rural communities Justice involved individuals and individuals with disabilities to become apprentices and contribute to America's industries and whereas Poria recognizes that registered apprenticeship a proven and Industry driven training model creates access to good paying family sustaining jobs for all starting with Youth and Young adults while addressing some of our nation's pressing Workforce challenges such as rebuilding our country's infrastructure addressing critical supply chain demands supporting a clean energy Workforce modernizing our cyber security response and responding to core economy issues issues now therefore Rita Ali mayor of the city of piia Illinois does hereby recognize November 13th to November 19th 2023 as National apprenticeship week in Poria Illinois dated this 14th day of November 2023 thank you Dr Ali and to all of you our city council members I do want to say that it is important to recognize the jewel that we have here through Illinois Central College of the apprenticeship program that they are spearheading and leading in that Innovation and bringing people into a place where they can find training education and gainful employment I do want to uh give this time to what I would consider an ambassador for the program a young lady by the name of Kiana Pitman who is here and I would like for her to share her story good afternoon everyone um I will start by saying that for me personally my story is very unique because not only am I an ICC Apprentice I was also a product of the Woodruff uh CTE program in the industrial field so that was pretty fun for me but I do have to say that that this apprenticeship kind of gave me a grasp of what it means to be an adult straight out of high school like literally I was 17 years old in a Foundry and I've been there since and I've grown so much as a person as a worker as a student and as a citizen of the city and I am proud to say that I was able to do that because of this excuse me this appr apprentic ship and I would love for you guys to if you don't know about Apprentice ships look into it if you do know about Apprentice STP ships try and push your children your grandchildren into it it is a great opportunity and we want to see all these kids succeed so I say if you have that knowledge of that apprenticeship program or if you don't have the knowledge try and learn about it try and push it try let's strive to get our youth the youth that we want it to be very well said both of you I also have a representative from the local business that is working with Kiana Mr Zach Bell is here from AllCast and I would like for him to give you a few words from the business perspective of the apprenti ship program good evening I'm Zach Bell from alcast company on the facilities manager out there we're a permanent mold aluminum Foundry and I have struggled to find employees for quite a while I graduated from ICC and uh actually six years to the day today uh ICC started an initiative to uh Start Up apprentiship Programs again and they started with the industrial maintenance program so from day one I was on board with ICC trying to help them uh mold a new apprenticeship program uh the very first uh year they offered it I sent two students through it h it was very successful the quality people they found us was wonderful uh the education was great and I knew the kind of education they'd be getting because I went through a similar program years before that uh fast forward a couple years uh Kiana came to us through woodruff's uh construction skilled trades program she came through as a uh intern so she came in as a tour for Woodruff uh what winter of 2019 and uh something just clicked she uh was drawn to Outcast uh thankfully so uh early 2020 she started her internship unfortunately Co cut that short but we were impressed with her enough that once she graduated we hired her on full-time and uh we still were impressed with her work ethic and her uh you know just attitude towards things of willingness to learn new things so I again partnered up with ICC for an industrial apprenticeship and also got with Norm back here through CareerLink and he has helped us with tu tuition reimbursement so uh that helps out especially smaller companies like alcast to uh be able to help people like Kiana get into the trades and I just thank everybody this is a win-win for everybody business and workers yeah congratulations and our final person I have Norm Griffin is our Title One partner through Career Link thank you I just wanted to say um how proud We Are of Kiana and all her accomplishments all the barriers she's broken this is why Career Link exists this is why we do what we do just to give people opportunities that work hard she got almost Straight A's just give her a hand thank [Applause] you exciting our uh last but not least our Proclamation recognizes our Civic Leadership Academy and I would ask that uh Nick Rula and all the graduates I think this is you're going to be graduates right after today all the graduates come up to the podium please Nick you're the spokesperson right okay whereas the city of Peoria is committed to partnering with other local units of government to best serve our community and whereas the city of Peoria has again partnered with Peoria County to offer a combined Civic Leadership Academy and whereas Civic Leadership Academy is a Community Education course that raises awareness of the responsibilities of local government and the services that we offer whereas Civic Leadership Academy allows participants an opportunity to experience local government in a unique Hands-On environment through a series of two-hour sessions and whereas many elected and appointed officials have given of their time to present the sessions to interested and involved citizens and whereas the participants had an indepth look at local government facilities including the fire department Police Department emergency communications center Public Works City Hall Courthouse jail coroner's office and animal shelter and whereas the Civic Leadership Academy participants are deservedly graduating tonight now therefore I Rita Ali mayor of the city of Peoria Illinois and on behalf of the Poria city council do hereby recognize and grad and congratulate the Civic Leadership Academy in Peoria Illinois uh thank you everybody I just uh want to say thank you again this program would not be possible without City Council of course mayor Ali I appreciate it um I know you said them out loud I just wanted to thank everybody again uh chairman Dylan and the P County Board uh the Corner's office the Sheriff's Office Jail uh the fire department I believe I saw the chief here earlier tonight um but uh if he's out there somewhere thank you animal protection services uh the emergency Communication Center as well and I believe I saw director blay tonight he's somewhere around here um the Police Department chief edia appreciate it in the Public Works building is well uh there's a whole lot that goes on in this program to really give insight into what local government does for the residents of Poria and Poria County and I hope that everybody got a little bit of insight out of it a little bit of education and it was it was fun too at the end of the day and uh the program's been going for 15 years at the very least uh the oldest document I found in my desk is from 2008 so that's kind of where I get the number from um I wanted to introduce everybody here uh I I wrote them all down just to make sure I didn't forget everybody so uh maybe give a little wave or something you know I'm saying yeah uh Chelle Cru and beatric frosto uh John pek Amy cusac Elisa Hefner Kelsey Wright Veronica Haskell Booky Robertson Gabriel gavara Gavin hunt and Kim green and uh there may be some faces you recognize in here and it's just a great group this year and I was really happy to be able to host it and thank you again for hosting us fantastic keep in mind that we have commissions and we're always looking for people to serve on on City commissions Madam clerk we are at the approval of the minutes council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor I move to approve the minutes of the special city council meeting held on October 17th 2023 the minutes of the regular city council meeting held on October 24th 2023 and the minutes of the special city council meeting held on October 31st 2023 as printed seconded by council member velpula any questions council member Allan uh thank you madam mayor uh Corporation Council Hayes uh since I did miss the meeting on October 31st should I abstain or how should we carry you're able to vote on approval of the minutes even if you weren't present thank you sir thank you Madame mayor very good yes please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madame clerk we have one public hearing 23- 358 is a public hearing regarding the 2024 2025 B anual budget and we'll need a motion to open the hearing yes may I get a motion to open uh open uh excuse me Mo move by council member Kelly seconded by council member Allen please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously is there anyone present that would like to speak regarding the 2024 2025 banial budget is there anyone present that would like to speak regarding the 2025 banial budget and finally is there anyone present that would like to speak regarding the 2025 banial budget may I get a motion to close the public hearing mov by council member graah seconded by council member Kelly please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark we are at the Town portion of the agenda 23- 359 is a request from the town officials to approve the October 2023 actual expenditures and to approve the November 2023 anticipated expenditures for the town of the city of Poria say gr uh move to approve as outlined seconded by trustee Jackson any questions comments please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously 23- 360 is a communication from the town officials budget committee with a request to adopt an ordinance leving leving and assessing taxes for the fiscal year beginning April 1 2023 and ending March 31st 2024 for the general fund and the Illinois Municipal retirement fund of the town of the city of Poria Poria County and state of Illinois in the amount of [Music] $333,900 any questions comments please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark the last Town item is 23- 361 a communication from the town officials budget committee with request to adopt an ordinance leving and assessing taxes for the fiscal year beginning April 1 2023 and ending March 31st 2024 for the general assistance fund of the town of the city of Poria Poria County and state of Illinois in the amount of $1,480 trustee grup uh move to approve as articulated by our city clerk seconded by trustee Kelly any questions comments please cast your ballots passes unanimously Madam clerk we are on to the the city portion of the agenda we are at the consent agenda 23- 362 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to approve the funding recom recommendations from the home for all Continuum of Care for the 2024 2025 emergency Solutions Grant 23- 363 is a communication with a request from the cdbg Public Services Commission to approve the 2024 Community Development block Grant Public Service fending recommendations in the amount of $269,400 23- 364 is a communication with request to approve the removal of intersections located at West aen Avenue and South Stubenville Street West Aken Avenue and North Sand Street as well as W West aen Avenue and south duable street from the list of brick maintained streets in the city of Poria maintenance of brick streets policy 23- 365 is a communication with request to approve change order number one to the contract with Illinois civil Contractors Inc to authorize the final payment of the combined sewer overflow control project year one in the amount of $138,600 a a First Amendment to the agreement with Crawford Murphy and Tilly for an extension through December 31st 2025 in an amount not to exceed $515,000 for storm water program manager Engineering Services b a First Amendment to the agreement with Hansen Professional Services for an extension through December 31st 2025 in an amount not to exceed $120,000 for transportation program manager Engineering Services c a First Amendment to the agreement with meat and Hunt Inc previously symbiance science engineering and construction for an extension through December 31st 2025 and an amount not to exceed $620,000 for Combined sewer program manager Engineering Services and d a First Amendment to the agreement with with Millennia Professional Services of Illinois for an extension through December 31st 2025 in an amount not to exceed $615,000 for construction program manager Engineering Services 23- 367 is a communication with a request to approve a 5-year agreement with flock safety Inc for 71 licensed Plate Reader cameras 23- 368 is a communication with request to approve an agreement with axon Enterprise Inc for a taser tin bundle package including 11 taser tin devices associated equipment and extended device warranties 23- 369 is a communication with request for the following a to approve an agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation for the city's participation in D4 Bridge washing 2024 in Poria Marshall Mason and tazwell counties and B approve a funding resolution for the city's cost participation in the D4 Bridge washing 2024 in the amount of $334,500 plus contingencies 23-3 370 is a communication with a request for the following a approve a local agency agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation to re request 80% Stu funding in an amount not to exceed $2,421 th000 for the Pioneer Parkway and University Street intersection project and B approve a resolution authorizing the city's estimate minimum local agency funding match in the amount of $ 4,179 th000 subject to I do approval for the Pioneer Parkway and University Street intersection project 23- 371 is a communication with request to approve a resolution for signatory Authority with the Illinois Department of Transportation for authorizing the city manager to sign Federal funding forms and electronic signature forms on behalf of the city 23- 372 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the visory committee on police community relations with a request to concur of Al kusan Jr 23- 373 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the fire and police commission with request concur of Misha Armstrong and that concludes our consent agenda thank you madam clerk are there items to remove from a consent council member Jackson thank you madam mayor uh yes item number 23 3- 364 thank you council member graab uh the same item okay council member vula Madame mayor 23- 362 and 23- 363 thank you can I get a motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda moved by council member Oiler seconded by council member Allan thank you please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 23- 362 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to approve the funding recommendations from the home for all Continuum of Care for the 2024 2025 emergency Solutions grants council member velpula Madame mayor I serve on the board of Center for prevention of abuse so I'd like to abstain from voting on that understood thank can I get a motion by someone else moved by council member Oiler second it by council member Allan um please cast your ballots motion passes with one exstension velpula mam Clark 23- 363 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request from the cdbg Public Services Commission to approve the 2024 Community Development Block Grant Public Service funding recommendations in the amount of $269,400 council member V Pula thank you Madame mayor again I work at College of Medicine at Poria and I also serve on the board of Center for prevention of abuse so I would like to abstain from voting understood thank you may I have a motion to approve move by council member Kelly seconded by council member riggenbach please catch your ballots passes with one abstention velpula Madam clerk 23 death 364 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve the removal of intersections located at West aen Avenue and South Stubenville Street West Aken Avenue and North Sand Street as well as West Aken Avenue and south duable street from the list of brick maintained streets in the city of Poria maintenance of brick streets policy council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor uh first of all I just want to uh Begin by um thanking uh the public works department for uh finally looking to uh repair uh what has been a long-standing problem but uh I do have some questions uh with regards to um our um red brick paved streets uh first of all I I live on a street that has the red bricks and I must say um despite the age uh I believe uh they're an asset for our community uh an asset that has held up in well very well in many many places and um as we look towards Redevelopment I think um uh in the interest of continuity and if I'm not mistaken these areas we're talking about repairing are not not um substantially large areas and um given the durability of some of these streets to uh continue to uh you know with maintain be maintained and uphold the uh weather uh I was just kind of wondering why uh we um have not chosen to replace these small areas with um with red bricks uh in the interest of continuity as we look to redevelop some of these areas one in particular uh Adrien Hinton is not too far from uh Allen Academy and most of that entire roadway uh is still intact with the ex the exception of the interstate area down where they're talking about repairing and it's not a very large area uh mayor but uh I'm just thinking and I I did look over the background information talking about the cost but um you know I've often wondered we've torn down McKinley uh we've got bricks all over the place uh you know I always look at opportunities for repurposing and I believe these projects would these areas would serve well if we could find some way to repurpose reuse some of those bricks and maintain the old character of those streets uh which I believe are a wonderful asset uh to our older communities uh so I would love to see and I appreciate the fact they're fixing it because the intersection is terrible uh on um it can uh where in the Middle where it uh intersects with the I can't remember I want to say can't remember yeah but um if we could find a way to repurpose some of these brick bricks that we have as you know we had thousands of bricks that were uh demolished when mckenley was torn down so if there's some way we could find to repurpose and and just for the sake of maintaining this wonderful old asset within our older communities I think it would serve us well especially as we look towards the future towards Redevelopment and and at some point putting new homes in those areas so if there's some way we could um find a way to repurpose those bricks director powers and uh I can't imagion the cost would be that expensive we're not talking about huge areas and uh in these areas most of the roadways are are still intact with the exception of those areas where uh you know the there are bumps and things of that nature director Powers M mayor councel Mr manager um actually councilman that's the intent of the Brick Street list is to protect those streets po a historic in in that kind of state that's the whole idea that in and of itself as was pointed out today is somewhat dated actually the manager pointed out think it was written crafted in 1988 um a lot of things have happened since 1988 relative to even how we can lay brick so it's not as expensive as it used to be it used to be most people were discounting brick streets just because it was very labor intensive because it had to be done by hand now they actually have equipment that can lay brick um there's permeable pavers that take on a brick look in that very to your very point so it is about cost and keeping that and actually keeping the historic flavor of a neighborhood and street but they do not do well with snowplow things like that they they just don't hold up the plows actually destroy them um so that's really what this was about and then we actually at in this particular instance we did a um survey of the residents and asked them what their preference would be and the majority wanted them restored in concrete not brick so that's the reason we're actually doing this is because and that's why we're asking for them to be removed from the list is because the survey showed the majority of the residents wanted it restored in concrete and none of them voted to keep the Breck so that's why we are at this point on this particular point but I agree with you about maintaining brick streets hence that's the whole idea of the Brick Street list um well uh you know there not a lot of there were not a lot of um respondents uh 42 surveys were distributed and you know I I venture to say there's not a there's not as many homes in that area as there have been and I know there was some question about uh whether or not the residents were not able to pay for that and I get that um but when we're talking about a community uh director powers that um is probably as we all know one of the most impoverished among the most impoverished in the in the country uh people cannot afford uh to pay out of their pockets unlike residents who might live in the North part of the city so um you know I have to say in all due respect I don't I I don't think uh we should expect people in that particular area to have to come out of their pocket because they cannot afford to uh we're talking about 61605 and um I'm I'm I'm sure sir maybe these decisions were probably made with that thought in mind I cannot afford to do this so I'm just looking at the overall Aesthetics of the the neighborhood uh you know when you look at streets that are primarily aching up and down from top to bottom is all brick and so I'm just saying in the interest of um continuity um the character of the neighborhood I don't think these people made a decision based based on um their ability to pay because most of them probably cannot afford to pay uh so I I just think most people would appreciate maintaining the look of the community based on how most of the those streets in that area are uh have been built so um I would hate to see this project go forward you know we we have streets in areas especially on these bricked roads it would be different if it were an asphalt road but when you do something like that on a red brick road it just takes away from the overall Aesthetics and the beauty and the character and I would just hate to see that uh happen given the fact that we have I think we've got a couple of streets I mean we've got some older neighborhoods up in Manor Parkway where they've chosen to put uh the pavers but what I'm saying sir is we have uh bricks that could probably be repurposed and I'd be even willing to go so far as to say if they can't afford to pay it maybe we could look at whether or not there might be Tiff funds available to help the further cost I would just hate to see those roads destroyed like that taking away from the Aesthetics and the character you know and and I've been kind of watching I say that because I've been I love the bricks on my street I've watched some of the road um uh repair projects in some areas it like I said it would be different if it were asphalt but we're talking about red paved and we're not talking about large areas director Powers they're not very big areas I'm not disagreeing with you councilwoman I I don't disagree just it the decisions were made based on cost and that's brick streets do not hold up to Modern equipment like plows they do settle that was it's no more than a monetary decision there there was no decision beyond that other than what we asked the neighbors through the survey that's that was that was the only determining factors I don't think plowing is going to have a terrible effect we're talking about a small area the city still has to come and plow the entire streets of those areas and we're talking about just a small area mayor we're not talking about the so to me that's not a that's not a factor because PLS do oh I I get damage the road it's not damaging the plow the snow plow damages The Brick Street just my point okay woman I I I grew up on a Brick Street 12 white West Johnson Street and when the bricks were intact they looked beautiful they have character they act character but when the bricks start to get damaged we had so much patchwor right down the middle there was patch patchwor um right down the middle and then there's I'm just looking at some of the pictures yeah there's Patchwork here and Patchwork there and then it doesn't look good anymore and you know just like when the plows come through and destroy the bricks there's just it just it and ie not a good look I agree mayor and what I was just getting at is that um Aken in particular were just talking about a a a small area um and you're right mayor um most of that street I would say if I'm not mistaken I would say 80% of that street on the other side of Allen Academy is still all intact intact I could see if it were you know 50 70% brick torn up but I think most of that street the red bricks are still intact if I'm not mistaken now I would just and and and I'm not suggesting that we do it in every area but I I would just in streets where most of the streets we're talking 80% maybe more of the street is still red brick and still intact it would I don't know Mr manager um mayor I mean I and councilwoman I think what we can do I mean as the as the Director mentioned cost was one of the factors here let us come back to you in two weeks I don't think two weeks is going to hold this up but but we can come back to you and and just at least identify what the cost of um the repair would be what the cost of the removal would be in going to a concrete Street and then lastly we can look as well since this is in the CSO area and this is being used we're using CSO dollars on this we can look at what the cost would be to put in permeable pavement which or permeable pavers which we've done on some streets in the Southside that at least you can get some uh understanding what those costs are as we go forward with that we'd be happy to put that together for you okay that's fair and let me ask you this director Powers how are the brick streets on snow just because because when when when I grew up on the brick streets we slid up and down they they were very slippery in terms of drivability so it you're correct they you would think that they're permeable they are not because of years of sitting there it's compacted it's not the base is not what we seeing with permeable papers they actually collect ice and the cracks and they are very slick and again they're not permeable they're red clay so they hold what they hold the water on the surface of the street and it freezes and again then the plows further damage the bricks as You' see the most of them are rounded off or we pull them up and then we're in trying and we can only replace them by hand because it's peace work or they end up filled as a pothole just to be expedient but they are do not do well with the winter hence that's why they've gone away from them and then the cost the overall cost of maintaining a Brick Street okay do you want to move to different prer for two weeks yes yes uh yes I would like to um yeah if we could do that and I think for the folks who've lived here all these years this is the Midwest um and uh we haven't learned how to drive by now um help us yes that motion is seconded by council member grab oh nope no I thought you raised your hand a second oh okay all right can you turn your light than you madam mayor council member grab turn turn your light on please seconded by council member Kelly council member grah yes I thought my light was on this is not an accurate memo the idea that we have a policy going back to April 5th 1988 government running brick streets is flawed it's not true we had uh a consel under manager Michael D mcnight and Steven Van winkl Public Works director that decided that we were no longer going to ruin the look of brick streets by doing what the mayor just described throwing down asphalt to repair and otherwise very nice looking attractive Brick Street and I remember the discussion that night and what was in the crosshairs then councilman riggenbach were those brick streets in the East Bluff we have brick streets all over this city and I do not think the first district should be treated any differently than any other district and the idea that we would ask people on the south side to pay for something when we weren't asking the people on the East Bluff to maintain those beautiful red brick streets and when we heard from the public works director was sitting right about where our journalist our reporter is he said we have materials to fix these brick streets said just takes a little longer to do it but we have plenty of brick to do the repairs that way so conso if you don't want to mishmash if you think it's despoiling large parts of the city that are historic and not consistent with the goals of the ccil to maintain the historicity of the city we can continue to maintain the streets on the West Bluff Center Bluff East Bluff Southside as they are and come to find out with the passage of f of time we're hearing that brick is rather permeable seems like the more things change the more they stay the same so there is a huge change and trajectory of policy you all would be signing on to if you allow this to happen because this has implications for Brick streets everywhere and I'm going to fight for the first district just as I would for the second third fourth my colleague laid out the case beautifully and the idea that we would have policy April 1988 which has been superseded many years later as what should be influencing our decision on this somebody's not doing the homework from our Administration and yes nobody wants to see asphalt thrown down we could do that all over town where we have red brick streets that's what we were trying to stop and we had this discussion under Michael mcnight regime with Steve Van winkl as Public Works director and that's been official policy sense it has been our policy since that we maintain the brick streets don't let them do that to you thank you you're welcome council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor i' just like to remind everybody that the motion on the floor is to defer and that's what we're discussing I have plenty of wonderful things to say about this but it doesn't have to do with the deferral that's what is under discussion now and I plan on saying some things that new business about this but right now we're supposed to be discussing the deferral not the original motion thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member gr uh you've done this before councilman Kelly you can discuss what is pertinent to a deferral especially when information is to be brought back it would be totally inappropriate not to after a motion to defer is made not to bring to the attention of this body additional information that the administration should be aware of and it should be so publicly stated I've heard this over and over again it's not accurate when there's additional information that needs to be brought we can talk about emotion to defer and wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't have that ability to do so any other communication the motion is to defer please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously that complaints our consent agenda items Madame clerk we are on to presentations 23- 374 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with request to receive and file the no more no more public transparency dashboard presentation Mr manager sorry thank you Madam mayor uh we do have our police chief and representatives of the police department here they're going to walk through uh the transparency dashboard presentation for you so I'll turn it over to our chief July of or wow they got loud the previous of July of 2021 when I was going through my interview process with everybody was part of that uh we talked about the transparency dashboard and I wanted to bring that to flourish and and due to the talent of Jacob mushan and uh Jason biller our city GIS manager we have gotten a lot of movement on this and we're going to present that but before we present that I I really love for our chaplain Linda Butler to to step up she gave me a letter the other day referenced this and I thought it' just be appropriate if if if she could read this to you guys and just kind of share where kind of the name of of no more no more came from and how we kind of arrived to this moment today and we'll try to make it short because we know that the chief's daughter the fire chief's daughter got her last first game in basketball today as a senior so we'll do what we can Chief good evening everyone and I am going to take the opportunity before I began to say that I live on a Brick Street so I will be following that issue good good evening mayor Ali city council members and also special recognition and acknowledgement of my District representative councilman Chuck greb I am Pastor Linda Butler a volunteer chaplain with the Peoria Police Department since November 2021 a year ago my then 96-year-old mother Estella Jackson asked me about Community awareness of black boys and men dying and killing each other other after over 75 years of living in Peoria she spoke with great disappointment and Desperation she said there was a time in this community where black families churches and leaders would not have tolerated such Behavior she was referring to our ethnic group being responsible for closely 100% of the shootings that evening during a lengthy conversation she kept asking me questions about how the issue could be addressed for the next couple of weeks her questions played over and over in my mind a sense of urgency grew within me of course as a pastor I expected a god response and it came with four phrases know the data share the data own the data and change the data each phrase connecting a pathway to a change in community safety after a few months of talking with Chief ETA and Mary Peterson community relations crime prevention manager manager those four phrases were condensed to no more no more which is an empowerment phrase with action resulting from knowledge value of community and the use of resources which can produce a change in the data of shootings and deaths that have been highlighted in Peoria since 2021 no more no more offers hope and future prosperity to our youth young adults and their families I am grateful for a mother soon to be 98 who remembers her care of community 50 years ago and she continues to want the best for Peoria this issue of gun violence and Peoria needs to no longer be discussed behind closed doors but open discussion for all to hear no more so there will be no more I am my mother's voice and passion in Seeking a change and I am excited that the rest of Peoria can join us thank you Pastor Butler thank you and there's and and to her point there's been many conversations that are being had around this uh but we really want to put this information out to the public because we believe in the transparency and legitimacy and trust that we can build so the vision of the no more no more campaign is shares information that results in transparency legitimacy and Trust to achieve a safer Community the mission is to empower our community to transparent and honest communication to change lives and reduce crime we are committed to working with our stakeholders to build trust and create a safer Peoria and our purpose this campaign strid is to build trust peace unity and partnership throughout Peoria our theory is that by being transparent with real time and accurate information we will build relationships with the community that are based on trust these relationships will Foster collaborative Partnerships with the peora community the desired outcome is for residents to feel a sense of responsibility to share information resulting in a reduction in crime in Peoria no more no more will become or is a tab now on our new Peoria Police Department transparency dashboard which will be released right after the city council tonight um and I'll let Jacob mushan talk about that the transparent dashboard will be key to the no more no more campaign and it will give live immediately we'll go live immediately after this presentation community policing involves three key elements developing Community Partnerships engaging in problem solving and implementing community policing organizational features this trans transparency dashboard is being designed with those three elements in mind one you will see how our officers engage the community to encourage active Partnerships with the people we serve two how we use the data to proactively identify problems develop Innovative responses and evaluate the results three how the use of Technology will provide access to Accurate Community Information to enhance two-way communication that supports community policing Partnerships and problem solving efforts the the transparency dashboard is a One-Stop view for residents to see information about crime statistics events and resources this dashboard will report on items including shots fired shootings homicides motor vehicle theft and more also events and activities hosted by or in collaboration with the Poria police department will be posted here as well and so we want this to at some point our calendar that's in there will act as a funnel um for all our other agencies that we partner with to have their events and have a place for our community to go and find okay this is what's occurring on this day at a One-Stop shop with that I'm going to pass it off to Jacob musan thank you Chief Madam mayor members of council as the chief said my name is Jacob mushan I'm the crime analyst for the Pia police department and uh at the direction of the chief started building this dashboard several months ago and it has taken some time so with that being said as we go through this there's actually an area for you toh take a survey not just you but anybody and we really ask that uh members of the council and the community to please fill out that survey if there's something you want in the dashboard that's not there and we can do it we'll get it there if there's something you don't like and it's not user friendly we'll do our best to adjust so we fully understand as we move forward that there will be adjustments especially as we update our Cad and RMS system um there will be a lot of adjustments and this is only the tip of the iceberg of what this is going to be uh this will be our homepage as you can see here for the police transparency dashboard um in it we have our message from the chief which he went over a second ago about why this was developed and and what we're looking to do with it um here is where you can fill out our survey here uh we can go to that right now show you how quick and simple it is you can go through you can tell us was it easy to find uh was it easy to use did you understand it and then you can give feedback and all you have to do is fill that out click submit and we'll get it directly again please fill that out so that we can tailor this to the community um from here all these you'll be able to see our community engagement you'll be able to see our Workforce diversity you'll be able to go to our crime stats on our homepage also you have the police department's homepage and how to get in contact with the leaders of the police department uh the chief uh felt very strongly that the community needs to know who their uh police department leaders are and how to get in contact with them uh going all the way down to who our Patrol lieutenants and what shifts they are so the community can get in touch with those involved on here too you will also see uh a link to our Facebook account so as we are doing our press releases there the press releases will automatically be updated here as well um under Community engagement M you uh will be able to find our community officers or our resident officers here not only will we be to see who they are but they will be posting um events that they are having you will see who they are a little bit about them where they reside and be able to get contact information on how to get in contact with that um as we develop this further again calendars will also be linked to their events that they host and that they're involved in so that the community members around that area can get involved we've talked a lot and we'll see if it's going to load here we go we talked a lot about our p uh the police department chaplain program again more information on who our chaplain are what church they belong to and more again another opportunity to get to know those who work within our Police Department uh including our volunteer chaplain we get a lot of requests about our neighborhood associations who are they where are they at and what they do so uh by going through this you'll be able to see the neighborhood association as we build out you'll also be able to click and be able to get all the contact information email phone numbers and everything else this also will go into our crime stats where you'll be able to be able to look at our crime stats by The Neighborhood associations um we also here have a police interaction survey this survey was developed not just for good interactions but if you have a bad interaction we want to know that too we do want to know the good interactions too so we can properly give credit to the uh all the hard work and good work that our officers do on a daily um this again will be a direct alert so anytime you fill out a survey here we'll get a direct alert and and be able to go through that this was a little bit of the uh events calendar that the chief was talking to what this event calendar allows us to do is that there's actually a um Community facing side of this dashboard and as we push out and develop more Community uh organizations will be able to go in and submit their own events to this calendar so it won't just be Police Department events but through this event they will be able to see what the event is they'll be able to see where it's at they can get directions to it and not only that if this is an event you have to register for they'll be able to register right here and submit and be done so there won't be go here to submit or fill out this document and email it to this person you just click uh register and then you're done and we get all of that um under Workforce diversity you will be able to see uh in this page will continue to develop but you'll be able to see the police department's current diversity within uh our Police Department you can look at our commission officers as well as our civilian employees that's updated every time we lose somebody or we gain somebody that'll be updated there um the big one of the big Parts is going to be our crime stats so we get a lot of uh questions about gun crime is it up is it down how's it trending this is where going to be able to go and find it so there's two uh parts of this one we wanted to make the uh numbers pretty easy to find you know are we up or are we down well we're 17% up right now uh in shooting incidents and we're 22% up in gunshot victims what we have a lot of is requests for uh information on demographics one so this will be updated again every time there's a new shooting in incident this information gets updated and we'll show you the demig Graphics of and you can see it actually said it there this was updated 9 seconds ago so it's good to know that it's still accurate on what the demographics of our shooting victims in pure are if you want to take a deeper dive and this is where we really going to need a lot of feedback is this is our gunshot victim dashboard what this dashboard is going to allow our users to do is filter through a lot of different data and Export that data and use it in any way that they really want to whether it's for Grants whether it's for education or whether it's for personal use um so right here what you're seeing right now is all of our gunshot victim data from 2013 to to present year to date right now everything on the right are filters so you'll be able to search through and you'll say I don't want to look at the last 10 years I just want to look at the last four so now you just have the last four years and then you want to look at maybe a specific race and say just African-American and then you say you want to look at a specific gender and say just African American males so all of this is up to the user on what they want to look through and how they can get that data we have our charts here looking at year month and day of week everything expands so it's easy to see and easy to use all of this data can be exported and then we can reset everything as well so that we don't have and we can go back to beginning because what we really want when we say giving ownership back to the community if you want to look at a certain maybe your address you can type in your address down here and get up to uh 2500 ft which is a half mile radius of your house the other thing or whatever address you put in the other factor is that we can see that there's a major hot spot here and you want to get all that information we can adjust all of our filters and just drop a pen and it'll pull all that information and show you that there's been 142 shooting victims in a half mile radius of that location in the last two 10 years all of that information can then be exported for the user's use so we get a lot of requests for this for Grants and other uh ways to submit the data now our users can go through this and and sort through it uh themselves but more importantly it's used for studies and in a a lot of other different areas with that under that as well we have a uh shot spot alerts dashboard so this will be updated every single morning looking at how many shot spot alerts we've had this year year to dat uh this month compared to last month we'll show you how many rounds have been fired this year comparatively to last year as we get further uh in this dashboard we will be creating a more live uh shot spotter dashboard which those will be updated not immediately um as it could create an officer safety issue but it'll be updated within about an hour or maybe a little bit more of an actual shot spot alert so you can get real time data as quickly as possible on the shot spot alerts we have we also have a shot spotter uh dashboard Munch like our gunshot victim dashboard this will allow users to pull that data again and look at it in much of the similar fashion you can look through the last 10 years which is as long as we've had it you can look through single shot alerts or multiple gunshots alert probable fire alerts and you can also look through and again do by address or by location uh we get a lot of requests for shot spotters um another feature that's something that's not in right now that will be as we're looking to put our school districts in there as well um as well as our neighborhood associations we really want the school districts in there as a safety thing to look and see what is going on directly around those school districts when is it happening um and this is also used this is how we also use it for uh a lot of police Staffing where do we need to put our officers and when this is much the similar way that we do that uh is we just start breaking all that information down uh rather quickly on this dashboard as well um will be uh this is not this is one of the areas where you know we talked about that we're updating still once the data is input here this will tell you whether are crimes against persons and property and Society where they stand Now versus year-to date so again that's another area where people can look and see is crime up is crime down and how's that looking what is available right now too is our public crime appap so this will be uh up updated uh every day and it holds 30 days of data uh for for the last 30 days and this will allow users to look at arson or any other one of these contributing factors again and also set their own different filters much the same way as we showed you in the last two dashboards as well that all of this can then be exported as well so we're not just looking at gun crime we're looking at every other crime here so right now the city has crime mapping and we're uh slowly developing this to be our onstop shop for all our our crime data and and crime information from here you can also submit a a tip 411 uh and then several other uh additional resources uh as the chief said this is also the home site for our no more no more program um this will be our umbrella for getting all of our information out how to uh get the community involved and where to go to find that information um under upcoming events this is much like our calendar but this is where we really want to get everybody in the community involved and make this so that everybody can really see what's going on instead of saying I need to go to this website or I need to go to this website if we can get the community involved all go here there's no more of that so now everybody can be on the same page and and work together more more Co coherently with that that is all I have on it so just before you have any questions because I'm sure there's some questions is is this is a work in progress we we we got the bulk of it but we know there's going to be more things that'll come up there's going to be things that council members maybe the mayor or the city manager would want to see on here um please take a look at this there's something else that that intrigues you when we are able to get it on there we will we have some other things that we will further down the road we'll we'll put on there um and some of our interal uh Internal Affairs things that we have at the agency we'll we'll at some point have some of that on there but we really wanted to get this information out sooner than later uh I will we will open up for questions or comments Chief Mr michan uh first I I'll open up with one question uh but first I want to say this certainly exceeds my expectations it's very comprehensive very impressive um I'm somewhat of a research junkie so I can't wait to get my hands on it and filter um but I'm wondering how how labor intensive is this um how much I mean do you have to upload all the information manually is some of it uploaded automatically or is it going to take somebody constantly putting calendar information in there putting shot spotter information in there how how labor intensive is this some of it's both yes it'll be labor intensive and some of it will be automatic so the calendar there's only one way to do that is that will be Auto uh labor intensive somebody will have to go in and put that information in there um but once that starts going then it stops you from duplicating it other spots um some of the information as far as the crime stats is manual uh for now because we are in the midst of updating our Cad and RMS once that Cad and RMS system is updated 95% of all the data that's in this will be updated daily automatically so it's as far as as the the hard work I'll say this the hard work of is building the infrastructure which is what we've done there is more manual work now than I foresee with even within the next year uh it will be updated uh within I think probably about every six hours to a day at minimum so this is meant to be we wanted it to be real time data not kind of real time so we're pushing towards that real time okay thank you and just to elaborate on that is when when we talk about the calendar there'll be a public public side right and so we will vet let let's use it takes a village it takes a village has uh some programs that they're doing and they're going to be giving out food or or clothing or items that they give out at a certain date and a certain time well if we vetted that organization and they're part of we give them an access where they're able to go in and update that just that they can't change anything in there but they'll be able to update that part of that calendar and get that information there perfect uh in in in the meetings that that you run with the safety Network one of the things that constantly comes up is well there's this there's that all these events that are happening all these things that are happening how do we funnel that somewhere this could be that funnel perfect thank you council member Allan uh thank you madam mayor uh thank you Chief Ed varia and thank you Mr michan uh this is impressive this is intense um I'm excited to to go through and the various filters and see uh what this is I mean this is something that is a game changer for our community you know I know that you're the subject matter expert in this Mr michan but I don't even know how you even made this happened like this is just it's very impressive um and I also want to publicly give you your uh your Kudos Chief I was fortunate to be in uh one of your final interviews when you were interviewing and this was one of the things you said in your platform that you wanted to do for the city of Peoria and to see it come to fruition um is great so we're very fortunate for your leadership we're very fortunate for the rest of the leadership with in the P police department and I'm excited uh for the future of this thank you and thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor uh I can only Echo the the remarks thus far I mean what an amazing tool and um Mr musan will remember you when you were presented on shot spotter a couple months ago with the detail and the um Clarity which which you made a complicated presentation so thank you for your continued work on this and as far as the user friendly ability of this um I'll test it and let you know okay so but I am interested again and think the updating that you just referenced to the mayor's point is is going to be critical because if if this is data from last week or something people are going to just kind of Slough it off so having that update is critical and and the events calendar I really am excited about that cuz that's something some of us has talked about for a long time people always talk about the things that our nonprofits and organizations are doing but nobody knows where to find it anymore with all the respect to the newspaper um so um this this is this is exciting at many levels and thank you chief for your persistence and getting this done and Mr mushan thank you for taking his vision and putting it into reality thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member J next up thank you Madame mayor and uh just to Echo um my colleague's uh comments this is a wonderful tool um I just had two questions um one was well how do you uh hope to Market this uh into to who um you know I I'm just thinking of some of the neighborhood associations that are very active and secondly um information about uh crime fighting activ activities uh often times people have questions about what's going on or nothing's happening is that the kind of information the public could expect to find on something like this or not or is it too um is are the crime fighting activities uh I guess I need a little bit more understanding what what you mean by that people ask about um things like well the Cure All or the you know what's being done you know you questions like that um would the what kind of information would on this would answer that would it be um the number of re arrest or yeah yeah so you you'll have the data that we have number of R number of stops uh whether it's traffic whether it's not traffic uh yeah you'll have that I I don't know if you'll necessarily have what we're doing in the Moment Like step right but yeah you you'll have that and and second to your how we marketing this um I think Mary's here but I I'm pretty sure we've already started there's some Billboards out there already uh we have some Billboards there going to be signs on buses posters Flyers QR code videos Etc um and and we've had this all budgeted through Jenny and her magnificent grants that she's able to get us so um we're able to do all that thank you thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor um I too uh uh am very appreciative I think this seems like a a terrific tool and uh uh at least on your presentation very very well done and and thank you I do have one uh Oddball question what is a crime against Society yeah so there's uh several different crime categories so we talk about about crimes against persons that's where we talk about violent crimes and crimes against property where there's actual property Grant uh damage crimes against Society are those that don't fit either one of those so we think about drunk and disorderly can often be a crime against Society we think about uh loud music complaints and things like that those are crimes against Society where there's no one direct victim often times that will fall under a crime against Society thank you thank you madam mayor maybe we could add some definitions on here we'll do that might help out the rest of the public council member velpula thank you Madame mayor as my fellow councilman and as the mayor mentioned it is is a wonderful tool and it is an opportunity to show transparency I have couple operational questions so you build this site so when does it come online when are you going to release it to the public that's my first part of the question second part is I as you are presenting I went to your site so there are several things that you need to have a login ID so is it a uh given is it given for a public interface that whatever you showed will be demonstrated on the site or you it's only for the sake of knowledge purpose yeah it's live already it's already live so um sir I'll get with you uh probably tomorrow and figure out why you're having to sign in because you shouldn't have to sign in I'm looking at this gentleman's computer in front of me right here he's not signed in and he's got it all pulled up so be interested to see why it's having you sign in as far as when does it go live it is live now and if you go to our website the city's website that for Pur Police Department it is right there on the homepage and we'll take you right to here um I will leave when I leave here I'll jump in and figure out why it's trying to have you sign in because it shouldn't that's uh you can come and look over my iPads it's exactly showing that the second follow-up question probably it's not a follow-up question it's a suggestion and if you look at the crime stats so it's it's always good to have a national average but what I what I really think would help us is to show what what Pua what are the stats in Pua for the past 10 years if you scroll up you can see a bar graph and this is this is the national average I guess this is this is our year yearly gunshot victims from Yeah so basically if if that is the case I I I would really I really like like to see you know there's a I work in this field so yes the bar graph on the y axis should be something else not year versus year okay yes sir yeah we can make that fixed yeah yeah so yeah yeah yeah I I see what you're saying yeah and we'll change that and I actually really like I didn't consider putting in a national average comparing us so people can fully understand yes we're up but where are we nationally so I'll definitely start working on that right away and and if it is not a time-taking effort maybe if there is a way we can play around at least for the past five years to see yes what happened in the past 5 years yes how where are we averaging in the five years that makes it more I would say interactive with the community and also gives a sense of Pride that what whatever we are spending on on on this crime reduction programs is really being fruitful for us so that really gives a sense of uh um you know success in in this area I mean it's a hard things to it's it's very hard to do that but again if you can do that it'll it'll be more and more user friendly well it is a hard thing to do but I do know we can do it and I look forward to working with you to make sure that we can do it right uh because this input's very this is the Insight that I really look forward to getting back as we push this out like we said we know there's going to be changes and we know we missed things we just don't know what we missed and that's certainly something we missed and we'll work to correct right thank you thank you Madame thank you Chief council member Gordon young I Echo the sentiments of everyone outstanding job I started to have a a bit of a feeling that um caused a bit of anger when I'm looking at the crime statistics and I want to um remind us all why we have this in place it's one thing to um you know hear about a shooting or know about one or a victim here and there but when you look at this collectively in this small community with this large problem thank you for outlining it so that we can see it and I also want to thank Pastor Butler's mother I think that was amazing and spot on we need all hands on deck so again thank you for the work that you all have done but as a community we have worked to do together thank you thank you Madame mayor you're welcome okay thank you very much for this outstanding presentation I would ask Council to uh move to receive and file move by council member Oiler seconded by council member Allen please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at regular business 23- 375 is a communication from the city manager director of Public Works and Corporation Council with requests for the following a approve the purchase of real estate located at 1725 Southwest Washington Street for the amount of $50,000 plus closing costs not to exceed $2,500 and B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2023 revised budget relating to the warehouse District Tiff for the purchase of property in the amount of $52,500 an item B requires two-thirds vote of the council members voting no less than six Mr manager um thank you madam mayor uh I'll turn this over to director Powers but just to orient everyone to this this is our Public Works facility on Washington Street uh a Miller and Sons was the junkyard that was right next to that on the same block as that public Works facility um they've gone out of business at that location and so this was an opportunity for us to acquire this piece of property I'll turn it over to the public works director to explain a little bit more about uh what we'll be utilizing this for if you approve it again thank you mayor thank you Mr manager counsel uh the manager outlined the opportunity pretty clearly and frankly we need storage that's what we will be doing with it we've done initial environmental assessment we don't think there are issues there there were some tanks and an adjacent property at one time which won't be affected especially since we're going to be basically Paving it which in essence is a remediation action that you can use for a parking lot so our idea is to take and store equipment if you've been to Drees um you know that's what we're lacking is the place to put equipment and store it in the off season so that is our primary use it is adjacent to our existing facility there or or the existing prop property and that is our purpose so really the only Improvement we' be doing would be inhouse and do Paving corporate Council Hayes thank you madam mayor I'd just like to point out on the budget amendments on tonight's agenda to require seven affirmative votes thank you okay thank you any questions for director pow can I get a motion move by council member Oiler seconded by council member velpula any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously okay put your seat belts on everybody we got nine more regular agenda items Madam clerk uh Council Hayes that'll require vote on the separate items both A and B oh I'm sorry that was for a I'm sorry council member uh Oiler second by council member Allan please cash your ballots passes unanimously thank you for catching that Madam clerk 23- 376 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with a request for the following a accept the fiscal year 2023 Edward burn Memorial Justice assistance grant from the Bureau of Justice assistance of the Department of Justice in in the amount of 91,9 15 B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2023 revised budget relating to the general fund to recognize a receipt of grant funding from the Bureau of Justice assistance providing the fiscal year 2023 Edward burn Memorial Justice assistance grant in the amount of $ 91,9 15 an item B requires 2third vote of council members voting no less than six votes c a approve and authorize a city manager to execute an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Poria and the county of Poria under the fiscal year 2023 Edward burn Memorial Justice assistance grant in the amount of $3 36,7 66 and D approve the distribution of funds to pay for a portion of the news server used to store security camera video footage from the police department City Hall and various locations throughout the city in the amount of 55,000 $149 U utilizing the fiscal year 2023 Edward burn Memorial Justice assistance grant and we need to vote on each item okay Mr manager thank you Madame mayor I'm goingon to turn the floor over to the chief to explain this item and I'm going to turn the floor over to Jenny or Giza who I've spoken about many a times but she has the opportunity to speak today she's the grant manager and she's got all this information for us we're just talking about J okay so in this grant what we're going to do is we're going to pay our portion so we bifurcate this with the county they get 40% we get 60% we're going to take our portion we're going to upgrade our server the rest of the server is being paid for out of Grant funds as well okay any questions on that any questions can I get a motion to approve a moved by council member velpula seconded by council member Kelly please cast your ballots item a motion passes unanimously council member velpula m mad mayor move to approve Item B seconded by council member Kelly please cash your ballots MO passes unanimously council member velpula m to approve item number c seconded by council member Kelly please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously council member velpula move to approve item number D seconded by council member Kelly we're going faster than the system please cash your ballots passes unanimously Chief Madam clerk 23- 377 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with a request for the following a to accept the organized retail crime Grant from the state of Illinois Office of the Attorney General in the amount of $130,000 B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2023 revised budget relating to the capital fund to recognize the receipt of grant funding from the state of Illinois office of Attorney General's organized retail crime Grant in the amount of $130,000 this item requires two-thirds vote of council members voting no less than six votes and C approve the distribution of funds to purchase 12 automated license plate readers in the amount of $30,000 with the organized retail crime grants and we will need separate votes on each Chief yes ma'am so in the last year or so we've really seen an uptick of retail thefts um and really working hard to work with our retail establishments to try and curtail that make AR rest um I I'll have uh Jenny come back up and talk about what this retail organized retail crime Grant is and how we received it and then I'll have Captain Briggs who oversees our our lprs kind of talk about locations and why we're we're putting lprs in specific places so this this was an exciting grant for us because this was actually invitation only this wasn't something that we applied for and had to compete for we were invited by the Attorney General to apply for these funds and so excuse me and so receiving these funds was super exciting for us and um we received $130,000 which is kind of amazing yeah so out of the 130,000 30,000 will go to the lprs currently we have 59 lprs utilized without the throughout the city of Poria this 30,000 will give us 12 more and we're going to focus on the retail locations and a lot of times we see uh people from outside the city coming into our jurisdiction hitting our retail locations and then immediately flee in the city so we are going to utilize these 12 lprs on the inter well not the interstate but the onoff ramps of the interstate system 74 and Route 6 coming directly into our areas with our main retail locations and I know there may be a question about what happens to the other 100,000 we are a little looking at some realtime information platforms um and so we're holding off on that we'll bring that to you later and we want to be able to funnel all our information when we talk about cameras lprs all into one platform um that's what we're looking at with with the remaining funds but we will bring that to you on the later date just wanted to acknowledge that just in case a question comes up great and just to our listening public LPS's license plate readers if there's no no questions from Council I would ask for a motion to approve moved by council member Kelly seconded by council member grab uh council member Allan uh thank you Madame mayor just a a clarifying question uh what happens to the data that is obtained um from this uh technology as far as you know the I guess the duration of how long you will store it yeah councilman so our policy states that all that data is only kept for 30 days and then it rolls over now if we use data in a case as evidence then it gets taken from the flock safety which is our LPR platform it gets taken from there and put into our evidence location which is evidence.com and then that would stay for the state mandated time so but anything else that we don't use rolls over every 30 days thank you thank you madam mayor you're welcome okay mooved by council member Kelly seconded by council member gra council member gra uh just one additional question um What's the total number of alprs we have in puron now currently 59 71 thank you we're voting on item a please cast your ballots motion passes unanimous ly council member Kelly I move to approve Item B seconded by council member Grant okay please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously council member Kelly thank you mam mayor I move to approve item C seconded by council member graab please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you Madame clerk 23- 378 is a communication from the city manager with a request to adopt an ordinance approving the Redevelopment agreement with 414 Water Street for property located at 414 Southwest Water Street Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor before we get into the financial items we have two Redevelopment agreements uh that we want to talk about and I'll turn it over to our assistant city manager good evening the first being 414 Southwest water this property if you are not familiar is kitty corner to the former Hooters building it's right off of the riverfront this is exciting um I would say excited project as it is a mixed use development which is about 20,000 square feet it's going to include the projects going to include a five luxury residential units in a commercial space um the approximate cost for this would be over a little bit over 7 million um as well the city will be allowing up will be allowing the sell of up to no more than 15 ft of a property for them to be able to put up fence and any additional um Greenery around the property this would be the life of the Tiff any questions council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman I first wanted to thank uh city manager and our Economic Development Department uh Kimberly Richardson for the effort that was put into this and the rest of our staff this will be a great addition to peus Riverfront and will really clean up an area that has had a pretty stagnant look for quite some time so I appreciate all the effort that this group has put into trying to come to terms and finally reaching an agreement with this developer and his um employees working on this particular project and it'll be exciting to see it happen so motion to approve second it by council member Jackson he discussion council member grab manager Richardson did you say this is the old Hooters building no it's kitty corner so it's across the way from the Hooter's building got it thank you council member Kelly uh thank you m Madam mayor um uh uh manager Richardson I um the Tiff funds that are going to be used to assist in this development um are these going to be forwarded to the developer before they are realized or will they be forwarded to the developer once they are realized this will be um once the project is completed there is a approximately $1 million of property tax increment that would be generated in the way that our our structure of the of the agreement is that they receive 50% of the tax increment generated um throughout the remainder of the Tiff life of the Tiff I I understand that when will the funds will will we send out the funds in anticipation no of the million dollars or will we and my question is will we do that or will we only forward funds once received from tax payments I'm going to say no to your first part of the question and yes to your second part thank you thank you Madame mayor you're welcome Council M Alan uh thank you Madame mayor and uh thank you for this this is very exciting and I agree with my colleague councilman or Oiler in an area of the riverfront that's been pretty stagnant um I know that this obviously isn't the old Hooters building but the old Hooters building gets a lot of attention because it's been vacant for some time um I don't know if you can let the cat out the bag but do you see any type of now interest in that space because of this potential development we consistently have interest in that space and as you all may not know that that is a property that the city owns it's currently as we have a structure it's for lease so we're not looking to sell that property recognizing where it's situated uh so we continue to entertain individuals and we have it as an RFP for IND any developer or any interested parties who may want to look at that property for development but for the most part we've only seen interest as continuing to keep that as a restaurant um but you know hopefully we can find a tenant that is appropriate use for that space yeah know absolutely especially when we think about the future of our Riverfront development plan and want to have the right tenant go in that space But thank you for this and thank you madam mayor there's no more questions uh please cast your ballot motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 23- 379 is a communication from the city manager with a request to adopt an ordinance approving the Redevelopment agreement with Poria Innovation Hub doing business as Distillery Labs located at 2011 Southwest Adam Street assistant city manager Richardson yes so this Redevelopment agreement is with the Pia Innovation Hub also known as theity labs they are currently in the process of renovating 2011 Southwest atams uh they are in the in the current process of appealing their tax exemption status with the state and so while they're going through that appeal process they requested from the city if we can enter into a Redevelopment agreement and what we're requesting is uh request is reimbursed of 100% of the Tiff generated from the remainder of that particular Tiff as well the Redevelopment though I want to be clear if they win their pill from the state and get their tax exemption status of um nonprofit tax exemp status the Redevelopment agreement does require them to to reimburse the city uh for 100% of their up up upfront cost that we provided them and um any additional uh cost or payments so this is the goal is that they become a tax exempt and we will not have to deal with um keeping their agreement as is we want them to be tax Exempted council member Kelly uh first Madame May uh I'd like to move for approval uh and then I have a comment if there is a second okay is there a second second to by council member velpula council member Kelly uh thank you Madame mayor um uh assistant manager Richardson how is it determined that uh developer a has a 50% uh reimbursement and developer B a 100% uh reimbursement I would tell you that we typically most of our agreements especially when it comes to private development we do a 50% reimbursement that is our practice this is a unique situation that our goal is that they do become tax exempt and reimburses and this then this agreement is null and void because their property would not generate any taxes so because the uniqueness of this particular request we are definitely going outside our practice but the goal hopefully is that they become tax exempt and then if that happens they will reimburse the city back for any funds that they requested but we're going through the they're going through the appeal process and until that has been determined we can we want to make sure that they have some support because this has been treated as a nonprofit generating project so they're not a private developer such as the other um rdas that we bring in from the council okay but if they lose their appeal uh then we're still going to reimburse them 100% of the increment versus other developers getting 50% what is the rationale for a 100 % reimbursement versus 50 or versus some other number that I think have have come along uh in the meantime every RDA is looked at individually we can talk about our recent RDA that we did out in the Madina Plains that's structured differently we look at each project and we determine from the project but are typically for typically like in the warehouse District I would say because because of the type of project we've been very consistent with the 50% this is a unique situation and we're looking at this as this was not a private development This was meant to be developed as a nonprofit development because of the tax exemption status being denied they are working through that appeal process but we look at every uh request individually but looking at the request we also look at what are the comps to these types of projects and this is a unique situation and because of that uniqueness we recognize that they needed additional support to help with the development and Redevelopment of the project again if the tax exemption appeal is successful they will reimburse us that's not typically what happens when you're dealing with private sector rdas I'm I'm aware of of that I'm just wondering it seems a little bit arbitrary I know that we've got uh I'm going to be sarcastic here a tremendous risk management inside City Hall we've demonstrated that over a number of years um that's why I like tax abatement rather than uh tiffs but I think one of the reasons that the warehouse district has been successful is because we are returning real estate taxes back uh something that uh we didn't do with our other uh tiffs some of which worked some of which did not I'm aware that we get 100% back I mean it's it you know if if they win if they lose they're not tax exempt so what's the difference then between them and the previous the previous item on the agenda if if they are required to pay real estate taxes and not being tax exempt why did they get 100% manager do you want to I do want to respond councilman number one um the previous developer has a profit motive is is investing in that property to make money and that's one of the reasons that they're doing that um in this in instance um Distillery Labs is a nonprofit it is a it's a public private partnership we've invested in Distillery Labs ourselves uh through funds through the American Rescue plan to support their operations this is their intent and mission is to try and grow small business and Entre entrepreneurial businesses inside the city they're taking an ICC building that didn't pay any property taxes before this is the ruling that they've received so far they're appealing that um in this instance um not unlike we've done with other development I I mean in essence we we are giving 100% of the the increment um up in the Maui Gym deal 85% to the developer 15% to the school district in uh the East Village Tiff OSF receives 90% of the Tiff increment uh that comes forward with this this is a body that was cre created to try and grow small business it's aligned with our efforts to try and you know a number of points that align with our strategic goals of trying to grow small business and trying to grow our downtown and in this instance the overall property tax increment would be about 1th of their actual development costs so this just allows them if it goes forward to recover those costs over the the life of the Tiff so those are the rationale about why we set 100% um this is a again it's a public private partnership and we didn't want to put that burden in place for them in this deal I would add that the state of Illinois has invested as well with the grant to the tune of $10 million if I'm correct Mr seti 10 million um of cap for Capital costs um yeah I I did make the motion to approve Pro it yes you did because I can see the handwriting on the wall I would like to point out that they're getting lots and lots and lots and lots of public help yes um I'm for them you know I me I want them to succeed uh I think however we have uh over time uh been arbitrary in how much rebate we give if any of real estate taxes to given developments depending on how much we like them and uh I don't think that's a good way to do business however it is the way we do business and uh so I will stop so thank you Madame mayor welcome council member rbot thank you Madame mayor Mr SEI nice to see you in the back row there um what assistance to the manager what does the the appeal process for this property tax the nonprofit status look like what's what's what's the process and what's the expected timeline for that appeal to be heard and ruled upon can I invite Chris Ed up to the podium to answer that question sure see I nearly got away with it uh no one's more surprised that uh we were put on the property tax roles as a as a we are a 501c3 uh organization so first of all thank you on behalf of the Distillery lab's board of directors I represent them tonight as a board member and Bob searing uh our board chair um asked me to come and and represent organization uh um the current status of which it is is with the Illinois Department of Revenue we had submitted our um exemption paperwork through the County's uh um board of review they approved uh their suggestion I should say they don't get to approve it um was that uh that we should be tax exempt it went down to the state of Illinois and we got kind of an almost an immediate rejection uh of our our request but we have an opportunity to appeal we actually filed that request for appeal sometime in August and we haven't had a chance to have our hearing yet uh so property taxes uh property tax exemption is based on two things um nonprofit ownership which I think is very clear that we are a nonprofit organization say as an organization it's the only reason we uh were able to uh receive those grants um from the state of Illinois and from the US economic development Administration uh the other is exempt use and I think we have sufficient evidence that we have exempt use as well um that's what uh prevents a a a a um city for example from owning space that they rent out to an ice cream shop you still have to pay taxes there Bradley University owns the pur next Innovation Center they don't pay property taxes on that and I would suggest that Distillery labs and and Pur next are very similar business models so that's the argument we will make when we were given our when we are given our day uh down in Springfield to make that argument but I have no idea what the time frame is like I said I've been working on this for a year not not with a lot of uh effort because it's filing a a piece of paper and then waiting for six months so hopefully in sometime in the next few months we'll know thank you for that and I guess to the Layman a 501c3 being a nonprofit organization you would assume that as a tax exempt organization as well so I would I would think the argument around ownership is is is easy uh um whether or not they believe our use is exempt but it is a tech we are a charitable organization we cannot earn money you know we can't make a profit we can't uh you know if if there's a if there's profit at the end of the year we can't distribute it to shareholders all of the things that require so we you are in fact through this action making us tax exempt by we'll pay it you'll pay it back uh because I think you as a body or at least most of you believe that we should be tax exempt so the Tiff allows us we weren't in a tiff we would just have to pay this property tax we're lucky that we're in the downtown conservation Tiff and have this or else it really becomes an um an operational burden that we weren't expecting of having to pay property taxes every year it just wasn't in the proforma when we when we put this together well thank you for that further explanation and based on your explanation Mr manager as well I think it's totally appropriate for us to do a 100% reimbursement so I will be supporting the motion okay all right everyone please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 23- 380 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com controller with a request to receive and file the month ended September 30th 2023 un audited financial report Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor I'm going to turn the uh floor over to our finance director director crat right thank you Mr manager we have a number of items so I'll be brief with this item um overall through the month of September uh the overall revenues are down about $7 million year-over-year um in terms of overall expenditures overall expenditures are up about 3.3 million um year-over-year um what I kind of just want to speak to that point on both of those items um is this was anticipated in both of these and we are as I've been telling you I believe for about the last four to five months that as the year went on we would start to see those numbers shrink down and that is what we are seeing um and also just as important is the financial projections that I have in front of you tonight with the September report is still in line with the financial projections that's in your budget that will be discussed later this evening um and with that I'm available for any questions there's no questions can I get a motion to receive and file moved by council member Allen seconded by council member Kelly please cast your ballot motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 23- 381 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com controller with a request to adopt an ordinance amending chapter 31 of the code of the city of Poria pertaining to storm water utility director Kat uh this item is part of the the overall budget uh uh recommendations this evening uh this would continue the practice that the city has had since 2021 um to uh not do the CPI increase this year for the storm water utility um the fund balance in that fund is still at the at a level that the staff is not recommending um to do that c CPI increase this ordinance would put it back into effect for 2025 obviously pending financial performance um and so staff would bring that back to Council in future years for future consideration can I get a motion to approve by council member Fula seconded by council member grup questions council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor uh director kedit just for our in information uh what is the cumulative uh forgiv forgiveness uh deferral no it's not a deferral but uh off the top of my head I would say is probably close to 10 to 12% accumulative over the last few years obviously the CPI increase this year would have been really relatively dramatic somewhere close in the 6% range um so it's prob it's in the neighborhood at 10 to 12% thank you thank you Madame mayor miss your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark 23- 382 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com controller with a request to adopt an ordinance abating the tax here to for levied to pay principal of an interest on General obligation corporate purpose bonds of the city of Poria P County Illinois 2015 series b c and d 2016 series C 2018 series a 2020 series A and B 2021 a b and c 2022 series a and 23 series a and the partial abatement of taxes here to for to pay principal and interest on 2018 series B General obligation Bonds in the amount of $500,000 the partial abatement of taxes levied to pay principal and interest on 2019 General obligation Bonds in the amount to $500,000 and the partial abatement of taxes levied to pay principal and interest on 2022 series General obligation Bonds in the amount of $256,750 director crat thank you Madame mayor this is a long-winded ordinance that in essence uh lays out the abatement of property taxes that followed these Deb issuances uh it has been Council practice over the last few years uh to Levy $2 million for road projects so that's what those three partial abatements uh get to a tax a total tax R $2 million with that I'm available for any questions any questions council member Oiler to approve uh is there a second seconded by council member Kelly please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23- 383 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com comproller with a request to adopt an ordinance leving the taxes for fiscal year 2024 for municipal purposes for the city of Poria Illinois director cratty thank you Madame mayor uh this uh Levy has been presented uh I believe on October the 17th as an estimate to city council uh we had a truth and Taxation hearing uh at our last meeting on November the 7th um just some overall information with the levy the total extension of the levy this year uh would be 29,9 4,599 uh the key Point uh with this is this is a 7% increase to the overall tax extension um but this is keeping the promise that the city council has in policy of keeping the tax rate flat so the tax rate for 20203 would be this tax year is the same as 22 tax year as approved um and with that I'm available with if the council has any questions a motion to approve mov by council member GB seconded by council member riggenbach questions council member Kelly uh director cratty um I had a little trouble with uh the verbiage here as I as I think you know could you explain to us we have a uh uh last year's City rate of uh a dollar uh 11 point or 1.13 yep and a library rate of 045 and of course that does not equal uh 13534 correct U so could you uh explain where these numbers how these numbers add up thank you so what is also included in in those figures um is the library debt which was not abated as part of this the ordinance that Council just passed and it also includes the in essence the associated rate for the $2 million in debt that the city is is or the $2 million in taxes that the city didn't debate as part of the last as the last ordinance um so in essence those two numbers go into that 1.54 number um but what council was approving as part of this ordinance is the 1.35 34 cents um but the overall rate uh is still staying the same uh thank you director cratty uh thank you Madame mayor you're welcome please cash your ballot motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 23- 384 is a communication from the city manager and finance director com controller with request to approve a resolution adopting the 2024 2025 banal budget for the city of Poria this item requires a majority vote of the council members voting no less than six votes also on your desk there are two handouts one is a report back number four and another one is an additional proposed motion to amend the budget Mr manager uh thank you um Madame mayor we we do have councilman seir had asked for a report back on the cost of additional fire positions uh that was included um the the cost of 11 positions annualized is about 2.1 million and the cost of seven positions annualized would be about $1.5 million so that was included uh and then uh this week councilman graab had asked uh for an additional budget motion for consideration uh to add an additional uh painter in public works um that cost would be uh 205 $572 in 2024 um that is split between the general fund and the capital fund and then $164,500 streets um lined with fresh paint uh Kyle you can answer this if you want to it's all right uh okay all right uh director Powers um I I knowe that there's a great deal of uh urgency the step of our Public Works employees trying to get the um streets painted where we literally don't have lines I've heard a lot about this uh and gotten emails maybe some of you have also our corroding light poles um seems like we we just are behind the eightball with the current Staffing and in order to get some critical work done did we have to Outsource some of this work we did Outsource uh the polls on Maine from University to North we were able to paint 30 of I believe the 45 to 50 poles for $15,000 and and we really haven't touched downtown ornamental polls or ornamental polls in many other sections of the city well we might have had uh one or two projects but it just seems to me as if what do we have four people who are dedicated to painting Street and poles for I actually misspoke there's three there are two two that are on our paint truck that are committed to the marking so again the outdoor work counts are to your specific point the temperature weather is very dependent on what you can paint so we have two painters that are committed to the paint truck a third painter committed to facilities we do not have a fourth painter so I misspoke I thought it was two and two it's two in one so when I reported you prevor if we need paint walls in a building correct we still have only this number that is correct I I I don't understand how we can say Optics are a priority or even um preserving or trying to extend the lifespan of some of our corroding uh street light Street poles uh it just uh it's incredible to me that we've gone all this time with such a u corporal's guard um I don't want to send any of our uh City administrators to a mental hospital by completely and totally upending the financial system of the World by making a motion to hire one additional person but I'd like to know how my colleagues feel about this this short staffing before I even make a motion well we have some lights on councilman grb so let's let's talk council member uh reinbach thank you Madame mayor director Powers I don't recall well first of all I don't to be honest I didn't realize we had such corroding infrastructure on our light poles I don't recall seeing that in any of your reports or requests since you've been here so thank you councilman gra for bringing that up but what what is what is the take on this now um to hire at at a position at the 11th Hour what's I mean what what would the job entail I mean hire a painter that's easy to say but what exactly I'm sorry I didn't understand the way you first phrased it it would entail if you think back to what I just said about the two painters on the truck that are Outdoors those poles the only time we could paint outdoors is during the same time that we're doing the lane markings so this additional painter would take up the additional outdoor painting needs which isn't just the poles it's the decorative planners it's any other outdoor painting that would be required the garbage cans um the poles would be the preponderance of it keep in mind the city own own metal poles the ornamental poles are painted we have over what 5,800 City poles X percentage of those being painted so that's what the full-time job would be outdoor painting away from the paint truck but only during the the warm weather months obviously so what would they do the rest of the year they would go to facilities to assist with facility painting and what's the what's the lifespan on a paint job on on a how how what's the rotation how often should we be painting these poles and that's a variable counselor it depends on the material like what type of metal uh salt the types of winners we it I would say with most of our metal poles that we have and the type we have probably five to six years we probably expect the paint before it would fail and do you have is there a plan proposed on how this would unveil or is this something we're just throwing together here again at the last minute obviously Tak some prioritization I mean to say we know what they would do and we know that they would be gainfully employed but to say we have a plan on X number per year we do not we would have to prioritize the condition of the polls right now we just simply haven't done that because we focus on Lane markings on streets and Facilities obviously with the facility painter all right I just sounds a little ad hoc to me at this point um that's all for now mayor okay councilman Allan uh thank you madam mayor uh just two or a couple clarifying questions so uh the $16,578.84 salary and benefits salary and benefits there the first year would be salary benefits and materials and then a truck for the painter to put their equipment in and so on so you'd have a capital expense and then salary benefits and materials the second year it would revert to salary and benefits only and then this might be for uh you director Katty I see that in the handout um when I look at our uh decrease in fund balance if we were to this it looks like it and just correct me if I'm not reading this correctly but it says our fund balance in 2024 would be uh almost $33 million and in 25 it it decreases to a a little over $21 million am I reading that correctly or so so what that is is is the use of fund balance so the overall fund balance is anticipated for the city to be around 185 million uh so what this is just showing is an Essence that use of funds um because as of right now and we have discussed the budget previously we were around 31 million we'd be at 329 um with this motion um but we would still be within our existing fund balance policy but then if we approve this position in 25 we will be below our fund balance policy I'm see this the impact of adding this position um would still have uh with the Motions that Council has made last week uh we still have the city in compliance with its fund balance policy and the general fund through 2028 with this position we would be in compliance du 2028 correct okay thank you sir thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member Kelly uh thank you Madame mayor um first my question uh is uh to uh to Mr manager Mr manager are you aware of any departments in the city that could not productively use more funds I I think if you asked every department head they'd say uh if there was a need for more staff or there was an offer of more staff they would gladly take it so um I that's the uh that's what I'm laboring under as well I it seems to me that there are multitudinous good places to put more money and where does this stop or who gets the exception um I think our um Public Works director does a very good job with the money uh that he has could he use more money well of course he could um uh he could use a hundred million do more money and still be behind I think I am not uh and and also we are already um we're already at record spending we're also at record Revenue but record spending I just uh I don't have any problem with more painters or all that but I don't have any problem with any of these extra things that we need but we've decided we're we don't don't have the money for and so I'm not going to be in favor of this Motion in that it just seems a oneoff and um a you know I think all of us around this horseshoe can generate a great aalia for a particular oneoff we've come to this far I think I think we're done and nobody's extremely happy nobody got everything they wanted but I think we're finished so I would I will be opposing the motion thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member grup well two rejoinders first of all Council don't get spoiled we have plenty of time to deliberate on our budget we've been stampeded to meet every single Tuesday almost as if it's a punishment for not approving what was brought forth by our Administration initially we can approve this budget as late as December the what 26 Stephanie tar still give you enough time to publish things well it would have to be before that because I believe the county clerk is closed on the 26th so uh when would that be because I talked to you about that so so they know since they seem to be in just almost palpitating thinking that they're behind the eightball on this well correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that would be Tuesday December 19th that we would need to get it on filed Tuesday December 19th and as for the comment that well we could always use more resources I remember we had a very political police chief he didn't last long in peria yeah and we had you think 26 homicides a year is new no we had 26 homicides a year back in the mid to late 90s and he did not want to stake out of position and so he was asked well we have these cops grants that are out there now uh first three years of the police officer paid for by the federal government uh you think you need more police and I mean we think that this is the only time we've ever had a crime wave and he said well I could always use more we could say that about everything we do the question is when you have something that needs to be maintained when you have roads that need to be marked when you have poles that are corroding and Rusty and I'll be happy to take any of you on a little ride around the city if you believe that's not the case case we can always say well this right here is is wasteful I suspect if some of these Optical issues were way out in the cornfields District 5 where everything is just so perfect it might be a big issue for some council members here but for those of us who live in the older parts of the city that need constant maintenance and we have kind of an inability to want to maintain things reminds me of some of our property owners who don't want to maintain their properties we should be setting an example so I I'm I I just really think that if this is a concern for some of you not to vote for this position don't vote for it don't vote for it if you think it's wasteful but when you get those emails about how come the Snows flying we still can't see the white lines or our street poles are corroding and only going to get worse our facilities look terrible that painter would go inside to paint correct director during the winter then if we would hire that person that's correct councelor have any of you been don't this is rhetorical have you been in some of our city facilities and been happy with the condition of them we're about to tear down uh a firehouse because it's superannuated you have to be willing to maintain your assets and I think this one painter is a good use of assets so I would move to approve it is there a second second by council member Gordon young any other discussion please cash your ballots MO fails with two three four five six nay Ali Kelly Oiler riggenbach vesa velpula Madam clerk well we're at the yeah we would need to vote on the actual you've already read that oh have you read that yet you've read it yes I did read it yes this was just on the additional Amendment okay so we're actually at voting on The adopting voting to adopt the 20 2425 banial budget yes can I get a motion to approve move by council member Oiler seconded by council member Gordon young discussion council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor uh just a comment on this uh process uh just want to thank the work of our city manager and director crat and all the different department heads that have provided us this information over this time uh thank you to the constituents that have been providing feedback throughout this process as well too um as someone who is again still newer to the council going through this process I don't take light take this lightly uh it's very humbling to be able to vote on a budget of this magnitude uh as we look to address the the many needs uh and opportunities within our city so uh I applaud the process I will be supporting uh tonight's budget as published but uh just wanted to commend the collaborative process that helped us get here thank you well said council member uh council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman I can't uh remember the last time I voted to approve a budget for the city I think I've been a nay the last several years so uh I i' just like to mention that I think we've done an effective job deliberating all the topics in this year's budget I think the manager and staff has done an effective job as well putting the presentation together for us and working with department heads and staff to come up with a good plan for the next two years I do have heartburn with the size of the budget and we're going to have to be very cautious over the next few years as some of the things uh roll off like the uh Co assistance relief funds and and making sure that we're doing our due diligence to really keep an eye on the dollars and what our actual long-term obligations are but I appreciate how well this process has gone and I think we've we've all done a really great job this time and working together to come up with a good plan thank you well said Thank You council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor I think it it just needs to be said even one more time how much we appreciate the leadership from director cratty and of course the city manager and the department heads and in their work in crafting this book in a very readable and understandable manner and um getting the report backs to us in a very timely manner which really helped um make the process very smooth I think for all of us so thank you for those efforts they don't go unappreciated and um let's vote on this thing yes yes I also want to thank staff leadership and also bringing in the new technology with all the the graphs and charts that made it easy to uh view some very difficult I would say um information so ready please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously yay Madam clerk we are at unfinished business 23- 323 is a communication from the city manager and Chief Information officer with request to approve the soul Source service agreement with 8 by8 Global Cloud Communications for the city of Poria telecommunication system services in an amount not to exceed $200,000 to replace the city phone system and this item requires a two-thirds vote of the council members voting no less than six votes Mr manager uh as you know we we deferred this item thank you madam mayor we deferred this item uh for a month um I have uh our is director Jessica mcken is here to to talk about the feedback that we got back from the 911 one board and we're ready to go forward I should have brought Randon in here with me so um the etsb board is um on board with this uh new phone system we're going to actually improve sorry ran over here the services that they um their phone services as well they will have um vry some things that they don't have now that will help improve the services they offer and give them give them um time back to work on emergencies versus non-emergency issues yes any questions for director mcken can I get a motion to approve moved by council member velpula seconded by council member Gordon young any other discussion please cast your ballots motion passes is unanimously thank you director Madam clerk we at new business is there any new business council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor um uh Mr manager I'd like to have a report back uh at our next meeting uh concerning Rick streets uh first of all uh um what the what the situation was with residential the residents of the area paying for um uh for replacing things uh with brick versus uh I think I think the item was concrete but concrete or asphalt either one um I you know the streets that we're looking at have only been around for 150 years perhaps certainly a 100 years so I I have a hard time with the idea that um uh that they are uh deteriorating um I don't know what the uh Public Works director knows about plowing but we've been plowing streets in Poria I suppose for a hundred years uh up and down those brick streets um so I'd like maybe a little bit more background on that secondly or thirdly um it has been kind i' I've never brought it up but it's been a concer of mind for many many years that when there's a problem on a Brick Street we go in I suppose we tear up the bricks we fix we fix the street and put asphalt down which is just ugly and these streets all of the sudden look look like you know a patched coat or something what did we do with the bricks I'd like I'd like to know that and um I think that uh certainly there's a lot of labor involved in putting in a Brick Street um there's a great deal of expense involved in uh replacing streets every 25 years and we don't have to replace these streets we they do require some maintenance uh the uh then the lack of their permeability um when we redo our streets uh generally the permeable pavers that we use are against the curb in the curb area the entire the main part of the street is impermeable and and uh so if if we're so dedicated to this well we can put the permeable pavers against the curb and still maintain that Brick Street i' I'd like some reports back on that I think it's a it's not the biggest item in the world but uh I I I I'd like to get some info uh before we vote on that thank you thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member Jackson thank you uh Madame mayor um if I I would like to uh see if director dlan could uh come to the podium I had a few questions about um illegal dumping um and I well I want to say about a year and a half ago two years ago even before I got elected to the council um having um participated in litter patrols I had noticed um a lot of instances where we've had uh illegal dumping and I I must commend Public Works since they've begun the process of um uh lighting alleys and um placing uh signs uh we well at least this past summer we didn't notice the problem to be as uh problematic as it had been but I must say and I I want to commend the chief uh I was on my way to work this morning and I don't go looking for these things but I always always happen to run across them we have so many little nooks and crannies in areas where people come and put stuff um the kids and I were we were picking up litter this summer we saw an alley um between catel and Smith Street and some girl some of the students were picking up trash but I noticed a vehicle sitting uh not behind the house but on a concrete P well on a concrete pavement just adjacent to the alley well make a long story short uh the city removed it maybe two months ago and uh you know the word was that the jeep was stolen and there was refrigerators there well I was on my way to work today and same drive that same area on my way to work and I noticed a guy uh and the chief said he did check it out and the guy said he was picking up stuff well I drive that same path but after the city cleared uh the stolen vehicle the tires and the refrigerator a few months ago while the next day a red Jeep popped up oh this morning Joe um I'm on my way to work and a guy is in a uh SUV and he's it the alley was empty yesterday this morning there was a couple of refrigerators there and um well I and so I asked him I said what are you doing he and it didn't sound like he was picking stuff up because the alley was empty yesterday so I interpreted that as if he was putting stuff there because I couldn't stay I was a few minutes late for work but I had asked about signs uh because we have so many places that if you're not aware of them you wouldn't know uh that it could be a potential hiding place for a legal dumping and I like I said I don't go looking for it but I just happen to run across this stuff but I had asked about signs um I've seen a few in places that I've noticed that there were problems but has there been any concerted effort to uh purchase and put them up because it's it's it's still a problem uh especially in the summertime you know there might be a place where uh maybe a house was torn down or someplace just adjacent that you can't see uh right close to the street but if you turn and look back you know um so could you give me a a report as the number of signs or if we were able to purchase any where they've been placed because um like I said people are still finding places to put stuff and it's still a problem uh yes uh it is uh it's it's one of the reasons that uh the code enforcement staff is so busy across the city uh it's not concentrated in in one part of town uh throughout most of our neighborhoods we're dealing with dumping in the alleys dumping at properties it's incredibly unfortunate that there are citizens and members of our community who don't respect the rules illegal dumping is very hard to catch uh because you have to have evidence to prosecute when you see them doing it um simply someone driving in an area then you see something it's really hard for us to prosecute we have worked very closely with the police department Neighborhood Services Unit in the past uh to try to catch uh some illegal dumping that's happened we've used deer cameras and been able to write some tickets for that uh we do have signs available that we usually when someone requests them for their sign about dumping so we can um happy to to have some in our office to get some locations for you want uh them and we'll follow up with it but uh the best thing we can say to everyone listening is is when you see something it's very similar to what the police uh said earlier when you see something let us know report things uh we'll look to it uh we have a very good relationship with with the neighborhood service the police department our code inspectors go out there uh they have a little more uh detective skills uh than some of our staff and trying to identify where things came from who they came from uh so we work closely so if citizens are out there and they're listening and they see uh sites they see illegal dumping please call pury cares and let us know where it's at and we'll take a look at it so it if someone sees someone takes a picture of the vehicle the license plates number and send it to you do you do you follow up do you give them a ticket if it a picture is presented and the person appears to be doing something in other words do we penalize I mean because I still get complaints from people that it they see it and it's going on uh it depends uh I think if we get uh depends what the evidence is I mean that's something that the police department looks into uh The Neighborhood Services Unit works with on that but uh if if the citation or or picture is evidence enough uh for them to do something to prosecute they do uh but sometimes you have to have that hard prooof evidence and ultimately a lot of times it's not exactly interview yeah yeah I I think uh you know tip 411 is a good example of what somebody can use if they don't want to personally uh call at the moment just send that information right through tip 411 we're going to work with his team and get the information they can go out we will look up the plate information just like we did today with the information that I received and then we can follow up from there but we will work hand inand with them okay uh thank you and director Duan if you could just get me a if if if you have do you keep track of uh the locations where you put them or do you just kind of randomly when somebody uh they're available when citizens sometimes citizens want them in the vacant lot next to them so we don't have a location uh I don't have a list but I'm happy to uh get you a list of how many I have available tomorrow uh and then if you have some locations we can get them out all right thank you thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member rigbot thank you madam mayor you know having just passed this $300 million budget I just have to point out one of the many things that we had in last year's budget that gets lost a lot of times when we talk about all the big ticket things we're doing and that's the neighborhood grant program that we use some arpa funds for Sunday night I got an email from one of the HOAs in the Third District and let me just read part of it the thanking the City for putting that program together and she says the project was smooth and fun to do a primary reason for this was working with City staff members who were knowledgeable helpful and a pleasure to work with and then she calls out three names in particular um who were her primary contacts and that's Kaylee Dre lamia du du Ai and building inspector Isaac Garcia so I just think when we get email like that we need to make sure we recognize the men and women who make us look good every day so director Duan please pass our thanks on to those three and everybody that was involved in that program because um it made a difference in a lot of neighborhoods and the folks really appreciated it so thank you thank you madam mayor absolutely there's no more new business we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council and town board we have not received any cards okay so then we are on to Executive session I would like to invite a motion to adjourn and to convene and close session immediately following adjournment of the city council meeting pursuant to the open meetings act 5 ilcs 120 2c1 to discuss pending litigation and pursuant to the open meetings act 5 ilcs 1202 c21 for approval by the body of closed session minutes moved by council member Gordon Young seconded by council member Kelly no discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously done

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