That's fine. All right, being 531, we'll call to order the Finance Committee of the Whole meeting.

Mayor Miller? Here. Alderpersons, Klemm? Here. Johnson? Here. Simmons is absent. Parker? Here.

here, Stacy, I thought I saw her, yep, Shadle, Sanders, and Sellers is absent, but we have a quorum, Chair.

Very good.

If you could join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you and we're looking for item four approval of the agenda.

So moved. Second. Motion by Parker, second by Klemm. If we can have all in favor.

Aye. And opposed. That motion carries. And item five, there's a misprint on the The agenda, the September 9th date should be September 8th, and I understand the error was on the minutes themselves also, so that would need to be corrected.

Oh yeah, it was a different error, but they both need to be corrected.

With those corrections in mind, we have a motion for approval of the minutes.

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Parker, second by Johnson.

If we have all in favor.

Aye.

opposed? That motion carries. Do we have any public comments? There were none signed in a minute ago. Okay. You don't have any? No. Okay.

And then we move on to discussion of the following budgets. City Manager Boyer and Director Reeder, General Fund Police, Capital Equipment Fund, Police, Drug Forfeiture, General Fund, Fire Public Safety, Fire Improvement, Foreign Fire, TIF Budgets, Projects, Fund Budget, and Downtown Loan. Manager Boyer.

Thank you Alderman Shadle. So tonight we're going to start out with the Police General Fund Budget.

Just a few items to note. 101-151-5000 on bargaining wages. There is an increase of $70,300 over the 2025 budget. 101-151-5010 ASME wages. There appears there to be a We've had a decrease in the 25 budget and we have rechecked our numbers and had employees with higher longevity move out of the PD to another department and new employees begin at a lower rate so that accounts for the reduction there.

101-151-5015 police wages. There's an increase of 261,155 over the 2025 budget agreement.

There's no additional staff here, so this essentially is related to the negotiations, the outcome of the police negotiations.

Then we have 101-151-5220 health insurance. There's an increase of 166,915. We are working to contain this as best we can, but this is related to the health insurance expectation here for the 26 fiscal year.

Fiskel, 101-151-5255, police pension contribution, the annual commitment to the police pension, the amount is determined by our actuary, and this is in addition to our annual bond payments.

However, there is funds set aside for the police and fire pensions.

and John.

We now have two canine officers, so there are some additional expenses there.

101, 151, 60, 150 consulting services.

So we had an increase of 15,000 from 2025, our OVW grant, violence against women grant for the PD will need to be reapplied for in 26.

Salton to complete the forms. So the OVW grant is a three-year cycle so it's coming up this year. 101-151-6155 contracted building repair and maintenance. There's an increase of $15,000 for remodel of the dispatcher kitchen included in the budget this year. 101-151-7010 machinery and for equipment over 1,000.

We're budgeting 5,000 for additional surveillance cameras, 5,000 for a new water fountain, 10,000 for an equipment shed, 10,000 for awning replacement, 12,000 for two speed signs, and 14,500 for 10 additional body cameras.

So the Police Capital Equipment Fund, Movin' to the next one here.

So as you see on the slide, the items we purchased include radios for the squads, portable radios, four squads with radio and DVRs, and one golf cart, being that we use that for events, and the one we have is broken.

Any questions on that?

Can I go back to?

Sure, I'm sorry.

Should I give you a chance?

Departmental gear.

Yep.

I believe it's the last one on the second page.

We were at 24 budget, 20,000, and we used 18-6 out of that.

This year we budgeted 8, and we're to date at 18-6, and then we budgeted next year again 8.

Chief, is that a reimbursement?

No, I think the reason for that is because this year we did hire quite a few people. We don't anticipate having to do that as much next year, so that's why we kind of kept it the same. Correct. Thank you. Yes. Question Chief, on the cameras and that kind of stuff, does that have anything at all to do with what we're talking about tonight We did add 10 body worn cameras. I mean, like I said before last week, my feeling is that the appropriations, everything's going to be fine. However, if not, we, I asked our talk to the finance director and said we still need body cams, minimum of 10. So if that falls through, at least we can get those 10. However, if we get the appropriations, we won't use the 10 in the budget. We're just budgeting.

to be on the safe side for that. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. And we just discussed the capital equipment fund. Any questions on that? Just to itemize those things mentioned there. Okay. The next one is drug forfeiture fund. So this fund is controlled by the PD as there's a specific use of drug forfeiture funds. The budget is the same amount as last So no changes there. Now we'll move into the fire general fund budget. So we'll start with 101, 152-5000 and 50-20 non-bargaining and fire wages. Both line items increased by cost of living and in the case of the fire bargaining, they've included longevity and educational increases. Then on 101, 152-5140 overtime for Fire is projecting a decrease to overtime expenses. 101-152-5220 health insurance.

$150,000 increase is anticipated. Again, we're working on the overall package for the city, so we'll do our best to keep that to a minimum. 101-152-5260 fire pension contribution, same as the police contribution works. This is our annual contribution. In addition, we pay the annual bond payments for the pension obligation bonds.

And the remainder of the budget is very similar to 2025. So keeping keeping things pretty level.

Any questions on the fire general fund budget? Okay, we'll move on to We'll move on to the Fire Public Safety Fund.

This budget receives donations to alleviate the cost of public education materials used during Fire Prevention Month in the public schools.

So no significant changes there.

Any questions on that?

Okay.

Then we have the, oops, sorry about that, Curt.

The Fire Public Safety Fund, I'm sorry, the Fire Improvement Fund.

The city uses these funds to account for ambulance revenues and capital purchases.

Per ordinance, a yearly transfer is made to the general fund of 54% of the revenues, not including collection or administrative fees.

So the revenues include ambulance service.

Projections are in line with the prior years.

Accident, fire and extraction, lift assistance fee, ALS Huffines.

So those are your revenue side, and then expenses, the next two slides contain the detailed information on the funding expenses.

So yes.

That 54% that goes to the city, where is it being put?

It goes back into the general fund.

Anyway, on the capital budget, we've got, what you're looking at there is all the different revenue items that we receive annually, so that's staying in line with 2025, and then in terms of expenditures, this represents the expenditures, a couple items. Chief, did you want to itemize or call out any of the notables here?

Sure. So if you look at second row from the top, central station window replacement, we're projecting about 400,000 Fehr Graham, put together some vendors to come out and take a look at it.

And that's about where we projected that to be.

But that was earlier in the year.

So we would not be surprised if there was some fluctuation to that.

So an example, about eight years ago when I was here previously, we identified that that was a need back then.

And those costs came in at about 141,000.

So putting it off and putting it off and delaying it eight years, we're now at 400,000.

So we can expect that trend to continue if we keep putting things off.

So that building, those windows we feel are from the 1970s, the building itself is about 84 years old we have a variety of windows that need to be replaced by in the weight room there's a broken one it's been broken for a long time and it leaks rain if you get a north rain from the north into the building it leaks on the floor we've even opened the walls to see where this is coming from we're not able to identify exactly where it's coming from upstairs this past year one of our firefighters almost lost the tip of Huffines.

The window came down like a guillotine and sheared off the tip of his finger.

He was off for a short period of time on workers' comp.

And then we have other windows that are intended to be opened for ventilation.

They won't open.

They're stuck closed.

So it's something that should be done or at least considered even if it goes out to bid over a period of two years.

In that bid spec, we should indicate that the same windows should be used over the course of that two-year period, the same contractor, the same vendors should be, all the people should be the same from year one to year two.

Thank you, Chief.

And then one other thing, if I may, if we look at 7010 firefighter turnout gear, we've We've been carrying $100,000 in that specific line item for two years waiting for PFAS-free firefighter gear.

Right now it does not exist.

So we're not going to expend those monies until the industry comes up with a safe turnout gear.

We anticipate, we hope that'll be available sometime in 2026.

So we know, if a vendor, there's a handful of turnout gear vendors, none of them can produce this garment. But we recognize that the first vendor that does is going to take advantage of that technology breakthrough and the prices are going to go way up.

So we've proposed to increase that by another $50,000 and have that available if that turnout Geer becomes available.

By NFPA standard, turnout gear needs to be replaced every 10 years.

And I think right now, we're somewhere between six and seven years in our current gear.

So by the time gear is developed, we start replacing our existing stuff with PFAS-free things.

Then we'll be on track, and we'll have some money for a good start at that desire I have one question, Chief. Where is this central station located?

It's across from Slumberland at Walnut and South.

Oh, that one.

That one, yes.

Okay. Is that an estimated cost for budgeting for next year?

I'll defer to Darren. Is that about what it came in when we did that early in the season?

Yeah, we actually had a reputable window company come out and we went around the building with them.

So there might be a little cushion there, but it's pretty close.

And everything that Chief stated about the current windows is absolutely correct.

They're very old single pane leak and it's also costing them heating and air conditioning money as well.

so that would be at the same location where this is uh estimated and things like that all this this was exactly for that location we actually physically brought people to central station to look at all the windows there's quite a few i don't remember the amount but there is a lot of windows on that station and we even proposed a few of them that are extraordinarily large cutting them back and and putting in, they call them fill spacers, putting in a couple of fill spacers in some of the big windows to try to keep some of the costs down.

But you have to remember, when you're dealing with any of these stations and this has been something that, you know, we've been having to deal with a lot more.

Anytime the city's involved, there's prevailing wage standards and this would qualify as prevailing wage, which drives the cost up significantly.

okay thanks okay all right with that I'd like to go on to the foreign foreign fire fund so the foreign fire fund has its own board that determines how the funds are spent the fund itself is treated as a fiduciary fund on the city's books we track the inflow and outflow of dollars but the board makes the decisions on the Huffines.

So, what are foreign fire funds and where do we, where do they come from?

By state statute, all insurance companies not incorporated under the laws of the state of Illinois provide fire insurance for property situated within an Illinois municipality that maintains a fire department must remit 2% of the fire portion of the insurance policy premium.

The fee must be used for the maintenance and use and benefit of the fire department.

Essentially what you have here is a very similar budget. It ebbs and flows but we've budgeted about $21,000, I'm sorry about $83,000 for 2026.

Any questions on the foreign fire fund? Yeah, how is that generated? How do we generate that fund? By Illinois State statute the insurance companies and I'm going to be the chief of insurance.

We have two percent of the accounts that we provide to this account each year.

Is that it?

Yes.

It comes from insurance companies.

Okay.

I like to look into that a little bit more so I can see how that is done.

I'm sure chief can help you out with that anytime.

So to answer your question, how that is generated is let's say we have several buildings that have insurance, meaning homeowners insurance, business insurance or whatever, and they elect to insure through companies that are not local, they're not residing in Illinois.

So if they choose to go to Wisconsin or Iowa or California or wherever, those companies by Estes.

Those companies by a state statute have to give the fire departments and that's just not Freeport That's all Illinois fire departments two percent of their their proceeds and like the manager Indicated this the statute states very specifically decided for the use and benefit of the fire department And and how that is managed by the board that the members elect and put in there And then that's used to supplement budget items for tools and equipment things like that So it's a great benefit to the city to reduce some of those operating costs Getting into the TIFs, downtown TIFs So these expenses include bank fees for downtown loan bond of $700 professional services that include attorney fees Greater Freeport Partnership, Illinois Tax Increment Association dues site improvement and that goes to façades We have proposed increases in the amount available to $100,000, so we're looking at an increase to the Facade Improvement Grant.

Current redevelopment agreements, so currently we have Hampton Inn, Merritt Crane, and additional funds for new redevelopment agreements there.

And then transfer to debt service from principal and interest, so that's the 2015A bond and the 2018 bond.

I believe those were those demos.

One of them is for the demolition of the bookstore that was downtown on Stevenson and the other one is a portion that was split between different funds.

So there's two different bonds there, one is demolition and one was for a variety of different services.

Thank you Wayne.

Yes.

What is the site improvement?

Is that for, what is it, what's the number there on site improvement, my eyes don't get me that far.

650.

So that would be, well, Wayne, you can go ahead and answer that if you want.

Yeah, sure.

So under site improvement here, we have your current redevelopment agreements that we've just spoken to.

You also have your facade grant improvement program.

That's $100,000.

And then another thing to also look at in site improvement, this is the downtown TIF fund.

We're budgeting for any other potential site improvement.

So that could be if it comes back to a project where potentially we're talking about budgeting.

So if we have money budgeted for site improvement, somebody may come down the line and say, look, we have a public parking lot.

We have a project proposed that would be for the public good within the TIF district.

And it could be used overall to improve our downtown infrastructure.

that could be brought to the city council as a potential site improvement project.

So oftentimes what ends up happening is council will ask, hey, was this budgeted for?

Staff will come up with a project and this would be a situation where we would say, yes, we budgeted for site improvement under this TIF district.

This project came up, it fits within our budgeting and that's what we'd like to use it for.

What current redevelopment agreements do we have?

In this downtown TIF district, you have the Hampton, the hotel.

Then you also have the Merritt Crane, which came to council this year.

They're building another storage facility.

And then the other one I have on here.

The Crane?

Yes, that was, I believe, three months ago, four months ago.

Do you remember all the person's Shadle?

Because I remember you had some knowledge.

I'm saying two or three months ago.

2 or 3 months ago they came in and they're a crane rental business they they came in and they're going to build a storage facility for some of their equipment so that's what I have for the downtown redevelopment agreements currently yep that is correct yeah okay with that I'd like to move on to the Lamb Road TIF so we have some expenses that are related to attorney fees. Again, GFP gets their revenue or a good portion of their revenue through the TIFFs and Illinois Tax Increment Association dues. Site improvements include, we have a redevelopment agreement with TriStar and a remainder for miscellaneous repairs and demos.

The remainder of the site improvements would include miscellaneous repairs and demos, but we are working on the lift station as a major improvement. So tax distribution funds go back to the other taxing bodies. So there is some amount of the generated increment that goes back to the taxing bodies as the original agreement specified. And then again, as I mentioned, the transfer to sewer to fund the Walnut Lift Station. So we're projecting the current project to use about half of the approved funds in 2025 and the other half in 2026.

What miscellaneous do we have out there? You said tri-star and miscellaneous. What's miscellaneous?

I have to defer to the finance director on that one. Is there anything?

He's deferring to the finance director.

I'm sorry, Rob. Sometimes it's like, it's muffled when, I mean, I don't know if you're too close to the mic or not close enough. I just, I could not understand what you were So the miscellaneous part, so even though we have one line for site improvement there, we have a list, you know, it could be all the redevelopment agreements and that kind of thing. So we have the a hundred thousand could be miscellaneous repairs or demos or it could be new RDAs, just how Wayne was speaking about so if someone comes to us with a project that we would have Huffines.

We have a lot of funds there available.

If I wanted a copy of that list, is that possible?

Yeah.

Okay.

Another thing, while we're at that, considering what miscellaneous is, that's a broad brush when you throw that in there without a description, a definitive description and a breakdown of what miscellaneous is.

And what is it for?

Fowler.

What is it projected for?

And so if we're not understanding why we're paying out on a miscellaneous and have no description to it, why are we investing into something that we don't have a clue about?

Because of miscellaneous- Is that what you just answered?

No.

No.

She didn't just answer that.

She just answered what the miscellaneous funds were being spent on.

I'm asking something different.

It sure didn't sound like it.

Well, then you should open your ears, clean them out, wash them out, or do something because what I'm trying to get to, I'm listening for the description of what miscellaneous estimation cost is going to be.

What are we having a miscellaneous on?

If I could just interrupt, if it's the council.

No, you can't interrupt, Rob.

I'm talking.

I'm talking to...

He's trying to answer the question.

No, no.

I'm talking to...

You need to be quiet.

That's what you need to do.

I don't care who you think you are. I don't care who you think you are. I don't care who you think you may be. Could we have order, please?

Yeah, when you shut your mouth, you should shut your mouth first.

Can I ask that the individual be reprimanded here?

No. No, you can't do nothing. You can't recommend anything.

He is the chair of this committee, so he runs this meeting.

Well, my point is he can't just conduct this meeting as he so pleases.

you know I have a voice I'm on the floor and he's trying to get you your answer look no I didn't ask him okay you need to stay out of this particular argument as well okay this is inappropriate and you need to stop well my point is my point is this the charade of not getting my question answered I want to know a definitive answer of character of the miscellaneous material stuff that is and Mr.

Wayne.

I need to understand what miscellaneous is and I want it to be broken down is what I'm getting at.

That's your question. Michelle, can you repeat your answer for him?

I'll do my best here. Can I start by saying this?

You guys are a joke. Come on.

We're going to discuss having him removed.

This is disorderly, so please allow the discussion to happen for a Director Duckman to answer your question.

Without feedback, away from the microphone.

Sure. Alright, so we're talking about budgeting.

And in budgeting, we have to have items to represent where money could be spent.

So, when we come, what ends up happening is, which is a good thing for the city, there would be a developer that would come and they would be within the Land, Road, TIF district.

They want to build a Culver's or a McDonald's. Let's just go with a McDonald's by Menards, right?

And they are going to come to me and then they would say, well, we want to do a redevelopment agreement.

Part of that, we would have to demolish.

We would have to demolish an existing building here that's older. I'm just, you know, there's a little mini mall out there They want to demolish that mini mall and they would say well, is that TIF eligible?

Do you have money, you know, for for this redevelopment agreement? And then I would say You know, I would go over with attorney Zito just because it's it's proper protocol There's there's laws that you want to go over a redevelopment agreement to make sure that when I come to to yourself and the rest of the council members.

I want to speak intelligently.

I want to be professional.

And I want to say, I've reviewed this redevelopment agreement.

I know that it's within the laws.

And then when I ask, I would say, I would like to do $100,000 to demolish the existing building, would be city funds.

And then your question would be, did we budget for this?

And I would say, well, yes, we did.

In the Lamb Road TIF district, we put $100,000 for the potential of a demolition, the potential of maybe it's landscaping, which would fall under miscellaneous.

There's site repairs that could be done.

And maybe, and I apologize if we're not more clear, but I believe what we are trying to say is there is no actual $100,000 right now that is committed.

There's no committed funds right now in that for miscellaneous.

But there could potentially be.

and if I came to council and said I have this project in this TIF district, if it's not budgeted for, I can't ask for the, or I have to do special provisions to ask for that type of redevelopment agreement.

Mike, and also with that, you would be more specific with whatever miscellaneous interpretation is, am I correct?

Yes sir.

It will be broken down what it is that we're trying to do and what the funds are geared toward when we go forward, if we decide to go that route with it.

But the point that I'm trying to make is clarification, interpretation of what this miscellaneous item is or whatever the project is or whatever the case is.

it has to have more definitive clarity with it so we can have a good visual especially a good insight visual of what you're referring to and that gives us that gives us a good viewpoint of what it's all about. I understand and thank you. I do. Ms. Stacy. I would like to make a motion that we stop with the budget at this level because I don't want to just run through these other tips I want to understand them. It's already after six so I'm making a motion that we stop with the budget after this diff and pick up here next Monday. I second it.

Attorney Zito. Attorney Zito, yes. Is that adjourned then? Yes. Okay. We have I just wondered if it was a clarification to return to it after the meeting is over or to just return to it next time or what?

I asked for next Monday to pick up with West Avenue TIF fund.

So it's not for a motion to recess until after tonight's City Council meeting.

she's actually asking to adjourn and then it would just be picked up at the next Finance Council. You next available. Thank you. Yes. There there is no scheduled meeting for next Monday. It would be a special meeting on a night that there is no meeting. Just pointing that out. The first of October. The first Monday in The next finance meeting that we will pick up from here.

Manager Boyer, do you have any input on that? Do we have time for that?

My only input on it would be, you know, I am available to ask, you know, more detailed questions about a question related to the budget, right? I mean, tonight we're reviewing the budget and kind of we're standing here reviewing the budget and anyone who has questions over the budget should get with me and we can discuss that, but this isn't the time to learn how the TIF works, this is the time to go over the budget. So that's my only comment. Madam Clerk, you take the roll on the motion.

Klemm? No. Johnson? No. Simmons? No. Parker? No. Stacy? Aye. Shadle? No. Sanders? Aye.

the motion passes four to three I'm sorry the motion fails it failed I said the numbers wrong though three to four okay thank you so we're moving on to the West Avenue TIF so we have the again the expenses related to attorneys fees GFP the Illinois Tax Recruitment Association. Site improvements would include new RDAs that we would need to budget for today that we may not realize that that will come up throughout the year as as Director Duckman pointed out and then also miscellaneous repairs also in addition to that tax disbursement funds go back to other taxing bodies meaning there's a sort of portion that's shared back with those those taxing bodies. Alderman Stacey. New RDA's. What's RDA's? I'm sorry that's a redevelopment agreement. Do we have any redevelopment agreements currently? I believe we do but I'm not I don't know if we have one in the West Avenue TIF district but as I just said the downtown had two of them Lamb Road has two of them. We do have existing redevelopment agreements. Okay with that

I'll move on to the Bertrude Avenue TIF. Expenses include again same as before attorney's fees, GFP, Illinois tax increment association dues, site improvements with redevelopment agreement with FHN, other RDAs and miscellaneous repairs. So again last one here tax disbursement funds go back to and the other taxing bodies. Any questions on the Burchard Tiff? Okay, moving on, the Meadows Tiff, so the expenses include the same as mentioned before, attorneys for GFP and the Illinois Tax Increment Association dues. RDAs include Culver's, Kendall and Grace, the Meadows Mall, and then other RDAs and miscellaneous repairs. The tax disbursement funds also go back to the other taxing bodies.

Bates, Principal, RDA with JJ Ventures. This is one that was set up in a little different way than the others and our auditors require the payments to be made from this expense line item. So, this was, I believe, one of the JJ Ventures agreement. That is a...

That was the Joanna Fabrics. Joanna Fabrics. Yeah, right. How many years ago was that? It was... You got me on the spot here, but...

Yeah, I'm sorry. It's been a while. Ten years, probably.

yeah probably 10 years ago that was because it started as a yeah so any questions on the Meadows TIF okay moving on to projects fund so both of the following items have been transferred to the general fund Street Department budget that used to be in the projects fund this is being done per recommendation from the auditors and there are zero revenue and expenses in this fund in 2026 so the sidewalk fund and the Gene Adams trail and Pecaton Pecatonica Prairie Path have been moved to the street department.

Alderman Stacy. I don't know if this is the place to ask this question, but what if we wanted to budget money for a lighting program?

That wouldn't necessarily fall here, but that's definitely something we could discuss in the street budget, or in the street light budget.

Okay. Moving on to the downtown revitalization loan fund. The city currently has one active loan from this fund. All available funds have been programmed to 2026. If a new loan is requested by downtown businesses, then we'll change that at that time. So, and that concludes tonight's presentation on the budget. Thank you. Any other discussion on the budget items Presented. None as public comments available for agenda or non-agenda items.

Seeing none, I take a motion for adjournment. So move. Second. Motion by Klemm, second by Parker. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?