Fathers, God, lead this council meeting tonight and every time we meet by your Holy Spirit.
Let every discussion, let every resolution be good for the people of Freeport.
Let no burdens fall upon the citizens that will cause any more financial hardships.
Father God, set straight any crooked places and any cracks in the foundations of the laws and ordinances set forth in this city.
Proverbs 2 says, When wisdom enters the heart and knowledge is pleasant to the soul Good sense Will look out for you.
Understanding will keep us.
We ask it all in Jesus Christ's name.
Amen Thank you, so we'll officially call this meeting to order madam clerk, would you please take the roll mayor Miller here Alder persons Klemm Monroe here Simmons is absent Parker here Stacy B. C. Here.
Shadle?
Here.
Sanders?
Here.
And Sellers?
Here.
And could you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in light of Alderman Persons Simmons being absent.
Alderman Parker, would you lead?
Yes, ma'am.
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 Alderman Parker if you wouldn't mind chairing this meeting okay well we called the meeting to order you can skip down to item number four number four okay okay need approval agenda so move second Klemm and Monroe all in favor Number five.
You have to ask for a post.
Oh, need a vote on that?
No, you're okay.
Just ask if anyone opposes.
Oh, okay.
Anybody opposes that agenda?
Thank you.
Public comments?
You got to do the minutes.
Item number five.
Approval of the minutes from the Committee of a Whole held on March 10th, 2025.
So moved.
Second.
Shadel.
Anybody opposed?
Anybody?
Let's vote on it.
Anybody opposed?
All them in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Thank you.
Now we'll try this.
Public comments.
We got three.
Cheryl Altman.
You got three minutes.
Please give them your name.
Good evening.
My name is Cheryl Altman.
My first concern is the discussion of with the ordinance.
This ordinance was passed by you in 2017.
You didn't follow the ordinance, but that's not the only ordinance that the city of Freeport does not follow.
The fast track, instead of counting on the landlords to fix their property, how about the city be responsible for their properties?
Matter of fact, one of your donors, your biggest donor, bought a whole bunch of properties on the tax sale.
And they're the biggest piles of crap on the city of Freeport, along with the Raleigh building.
My next one is about replacing Joshua with a guy that's a criminal.
You can sit there and smile at me Mayor, I don't care.
You smirking, that just shows you how much you care about the citizens of Freeport.
You're replacing it with a criminal and he's got recent charges on him coming up for serious charges.
So sit there and smirk all you want.
But the city of Freeport, the people of Freeport will catch up with you.
Next one is Linda Johnson, number 11.
Hi, I'm Linda Johnson and Mayor Jodi and Manager, Boyer and Council.
I'm addressing Ordinance 11.
I questioned several people in my area, some I know and some I don't know.
Following is the information and questions I presented to them as well as the results of those who responded.
The first thing, I gave them a scenario.
A person who has worked several years in a position that does not require living within the city limits, serve faithfully and are advanced to a higher position that has the requirement to live within city limits.
I asked, should that person be required to move if they are not able to move?
And the answer was that 92% said no, 8% said it depends on the circumstance.
The second question, should that person lose their opportunity if they're not able to move?
92% Said no, 8% said it depends on the circumstances.
The third question, should the ordinance be changed to remove the stipulation that certain leaders live within city limits except for the city manager?
44% Said no, 55% said yes.
A few that said yes stated that the people in these positions should live either within the county or in a three to 10 mile radius.
One said the fire chief, police chief, and city manager should live within the city limits.
Question number four, shall the council be empowered to make exceptions to the rules of the ordinance at any time?
50% Said yes and 50% said no.
Also the argument regarding a person living outside the city limits not supporting this city financially is not necessarily true.
In my working days, I worked in a different city than I lived in.
I would buy groceries and gas and gifts in the city I worked in more than I did in the city I lived in because on my lunch hour I could go, it was quick, it was easy plus there was a different variety of stores in the place I lived in.
So those who live outside the city We probably do provide some finances and taxes to this city and gas and food and other things.
The bottom line is there was an issue with the ordinance.
We can't change what happened yesterday, but we can take steps today to ensure that it does not happen again.
Thank you.
Okay.
Next one, you get three minutes, Rhonda Scott.
Good afternoon.
I'm Rhonda Scott.
I'm here to speak on the Lamb Road Tiff.
I have my statement in writing with an attachment and I would like to submit it into the record if that's possible and we can discuss that later.
The Lamb Road TIF is a tax increment financing district.
It is a development that was formed as an industrial TIF in 2003 for the purpose of retaining and creating more industrial jobs which the community was losing.
The development is located on the south end of town at Lamb Road and Route 26 where we where we had existing manufacturing including Sega, Tri-State, Metals, Honeywell, and a few others.
I served on the Planning Commission in 2005 when plans were submitted to build a Walmart Superstore and a Menards Big Store within the boundaries of an industrial TIF.
At the time there were concerns for the Planning Commission.
Why were we moving existing Walmart and Menards stores into a Freeport TIF district in an and industrial area.
They both needed bigger stores and the city's strategic plan had already identified that the future retail development site would be Route 20 and Route 26 where the city had invested significant amounts of tax dollars to extend water service and a lift station to make it happen.
But why didn't it happen?
The explanation given by the group of developers at the Planning Commission in 2005 was that moving the stores into the TIF by doing that, those new property tax dollars from Walmart Menards would be redirected from the community for the purpose of generating an industrial manufacturing job complex.
To date, the Lamb Road TIF has collected $10 million in property tax and diverted it from our community.
These property taxes have been used to pay development costs for various expenditures, including project construction, Huffines.
In the last 20 years, we've been receiving tax dollars, legal fees, engineering studies, and marketing costs, and I've got them for you right here, all the people who've been receiving tax dollars.
In 20 years, no manufacturing plants have received TIF funds to create new jobs.
Only two existing industrial businesses have benefited.
Sega Vending Machine Plant, owned by Steve Chesney, received $175,000, and Tri-State Menard's stores received 2.5 million in property taxes.
So now with projects completed, there is a surplus of $3.8 million.
Their surplus is being misused.
Freeport Greater Partnership has received $1.3 million without accomplishing the mission of creating new manufacturing jobs.
While they may be doing marketing and promoting for the entire city, the TIF eligible requirements may be doing marketing and promoting for the entire city the TIF eligible requirements limit the cost of marketing projects in the TIF to promoting the project to developers.
Thank you.
Number seven, Greater Freeport Partnership quarterly presentation.
Ms. Winters.
We're gonna distribute.
We're gonna distribute some materials to you while I begin the presentation so bear with us You will also receive an updated version of our quarterly report when we mail that over Thank you so much appreciate that Tonight's presentation will cover highlights from our work in our key strategic focus areas This information has been outlined in more detail in our monthly board reports that you receive as well as our first quarter report Huffines.
We have the report that you received in your packets.
This is a reminder that this is a summary of our efforts in strategic focus areas, which are identified specific metrics in measuring progress to the goals.
Just as a reminder, we've broken these.
These are our key focus strategic, key strategic focus areas, excuse me, and that's how we've outlined our work in our quarterly report, and that's how we will proceed We will expand the boundaries of the Enterprise Zone to enable this project, and construction is slated for later this summer.
Many of the workforce for this manufacturing plant are residents of Freeport.
We hosted a vehicle manufacturer for site tours of existing buildings in Freeport.
This is a direct result of our efforts promoting existing buildings and sites to intersect Illinois.
The former visitor center building was sold late last year and is now home to AutoSmart which opened April 1st.
This is a high-end consignment car dealership.
The business has relocated from a Chicago-Collar County location and is already planning an expansion.
We started our second year of our entrepreneurship program base camp, Bill will talk about this more later in the presentation, and in February our annual dinner recognized 10 individuals and organizations doing great work in the region.
We were able to connect with and do business visitation visits with 33 businesses this last quarter.
The information of some of the things that we heard was that geopolitical uncertainties and the ever-changing tariff regulations have created interest in some energy but has paused investment in others.
Many are still operating under the wait-and-see attitude.
Due to this economic uncertainty, our business support programming was really tailored to meet the questions that businesses were struggling with.
We had the administrator for the foreign trade zone come and talk about the benefits of the foreign trade zone and how that can help a business defer tariffs.
We also had the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center provide information on their supply chain portal.
As businesses try to onshore, reshore, alter their supply chain, it's great for them to understand the resources that are there so that they can locate other vendors.
It's also a great opportunity for our manufacturers to list their product and or service on this portal to be match made or matchmaker with other manufacturers.
We assisted nine entrepreneurs in business development process plus the four current students that are in base camp.
And we helped four businesses apply for a DCO small grant program.
That application was just submitted last Monday.
We hope to know that, we hope to find out that one of them have received some funding, if not all, early June.
In Workforce Solutions, we continue to work on projects and initiatives with our partners to build our local workforce pipeline.
We partnered with Midland Institute CEO Entrepreneurship Leadership Program to help our educational partners and business community.
This program helps high school students learn how to start their businesses and be community leaders.
The program is currently under development and programming and we're meeting with Freeport High School admin as well as teachers.
And we plan to launch the fall of 2026.
We had a wonderful meeting that manager Boyer and Mayor Miller were able to participate with executives from Honeywell early in the quarter.
And they talked about the planned growth for Honeywell here.
The locations for what plant one and plant four do here and others are instrumental to their overall operation.
And they project nothing but growth.
But their barrier for growth is workforce.
And follow up conversation with them.
We've connected them with Freeport High School, CareerTech and Highland Community College to talk about and help identify the programs that are already in existence and how Honeywell could partner with them to meet their needs.
So we're having a tour of those facilities at different Highland at Freeport High School, talking with some students on Wednesday afternoon.
In housing, we have partnered with the NAACP Housing Committee as well as the United Way to host a series of stakeholder engagement sessions.
One of the flyers that was distributed to you was a notice of a stakeholder engagement session that will be May 1st.
This is your invitation to attend, I hope you do.
And childcare, we have surveyed, distributed a survey gauging the impact Child Care Shortage to our partners.
Responses will help us develop a public information campaign in the second quarter.
In this last quarter, we received 17 new business attraction leads.
Eight of those leads came from Intersect, Illinois.
Five of those leads we were able to respond to and submit proposals for existing sites and buildings that we have here in Freeport and Stephenson County.
Three we could not respond to because we lacked sites that were over 100 acres and one because they were looking for an existing building and we did not have an existing facility that met the site or the specific requirements the company asked for.
We had nine leads that were generated from local businesses or government agencies.
Four of those were new businesses to the area and five were existing businesses that would like to expand or relocate within the area.
I'm now gonna turn it over to Bill who's gonna talk about membership.
Good evening.
So membership, we had a good membership quarter.
Our membership stayed strong.
We added 18 new members to the partnership.
And as you can see up on there, the basic breakdown is 249 basic members.
That's our base level membership.
120 Are not-for-profit, courtesy or individuals.
Courtesy is often government individuals.
And then 39 are partner level or government partners.
We had a very good retention rate of 97, almost 98%.
One of the nice things about a lot of the new members is a lot of them came to us as referrals from other members and that's always a sign I feel that they like what we're doing so they want others to join also.
Wanna also talk about Base Camp.
Basecamp is a program we created last year to serve entrepreneurs and new and small businesses to provide them, expose them to some of the resources and information that can help them succeed.
And we all know starting a business is a risky endeavor and we wanna make it a little less risky and give them a little more tools.
What we do is we, in this year, we had six classes plus a bonus class for not-for-profits that students could come to.
They were taught by local leaders and the reason we do that is not only do we want to share the information with those entrepreneurs and business people but we want to help them build their network, help them connect with people that can help them and that's exactly what happened.
We had the last class last Tuesday and we talked about that and some of the a lot of the members and others have already reached out back out to some of the instructors to follow up on some questions, to work on business plans and things like that.
So that's the idea.
You know, it's not just here's the information, but we also want to help them build that network because we all know that's a big part of what we're doing.
We had a diverse group again this year covering a lot of different areas of business.
One of the two fun little points, one business opened their doors during base camp.
That was the full circle cafe in the library.
Kate and Amara are part of the base camp and they got to open their doors and have, from all I can see, been doing pretty well.
Another person, and this has happened both years that we've done base camp, totally changed what they were going to do.
They changed their mind and they went in a different direction.
Got some information, started thinking about it, and kind of got some clarity.
So that's why we do it.
We look at an opportunity to help give people some opportunity to know what's going on, and to kind of think through things before they make big investments.
And now.
So and now Nicole come and talk about marketing in the region.
Thank you.
I won't spend too much time on bullet one We passed it all out.
We created and distributed the community guide the annual community guide Which serves as both our member directory as well as our visitor directory We know that there is a lot of ability to cross promote those two audiences So that's why we put it together in one guide Also the creation of the rediscover your downtown brochure Miller.
We use this as a tool so that downtown businesses can cross promote each other and also the events that are happening not just on behalf of the partnership, but all events through downtown Freeport.
And then that's accompanied with a map as well.
So if people are new to the area, they can figure things out.
Our talent attraction and retention plans for marketing and creating a campaign to keep people here, help employers keep people here and recruit new people.
We're using a nationally recognized company to kind of put all of our ducks in a row, so we have a really well developed strategy for who we want to recruit and how best to get them here.
And that strategy will be brought to all of you in second quarter.
They've met with all of our stakeholders and they were actually in town last week.
It was a fantastic visit.
They see a lot of potential in Freeport and we're looking forward to seeing that report come full circle here in the next 60 days.
We co-hosted the Illinois Underground Railroad exhibit with Lincoln-Douglas Society and the Freeport Public Library.
It was a great success bringing new people into the library.
It was great to have it over spring break so that families could go take advantage of that.
There were four accompanying educational programs and all had at least 50 people in the room, which was phenomenal, and all of our speakers were very impressed with the people that we were able to bring for that program.
In visitor attraction, our visitor campaigns have been finalized and those will all be starting in early May.
Choose your adventure and rediscover your downtown are our two themes that we continue to stay with here.
Also, despite decreased occupancy rates in 2024 that you have seen on that graph that we put on the back page of the quarterly reports, We pay very close attention to data because hotel-motel tax is the majority of the funding that we receive from the City of Freeport so it's very important to us that we keep a close eye on what that fund continues to do in the City of Freeport and both the City of Freeport and Stephenson County saw an increase of three percent of hotel-motel tax from 2023 to 2024.
What that means is the and the average revenue per room was higher in 24 than 2023.
Obviously some corporate rates get a discount.
So we just had more tourists that pay full rate and less of those corporate rates coming in.
So something that we like to see.
We also organized a passport visitation program.
One is a renewal of our Northwest Illinois Ale Trail that cross promotes our breweries with Joe Davis County.
And also we're very excited that our local historical museums, we have a I believe eight and then if you count the Engine Museum and a couple other it's 10 that are going to be doing their own cross-promotion program from May through September and we're very excited to be able to help cross-promote all of those really fantastic gems in Stephenson County.
Thank you.
We'll take questions now.
Any questions?
Yes, I have a question.
You spoke about AutoSmart opening April 1st.
Did you have anything to do with that AutoSmart coming?
Yes, we met with that business.
We talked about the Enterprise Zone and they are hoping to expand.
They filled the building with cars and they want to put another building on the lot, but we need to expand the Enterprise Zone to do so.
So we're going to help them and some of them expand their business.
I believe there was also some relationships between somebody who was a member of the board, the ownership board, the nonprofit that owned the facility had some connection in the car industry, the classic car shows with this dealership that was in the Collar Counties.
And how did you say we're gonna help them expand?
So the partnership administers the Northwest Illinois Enterprise Zone and I in the few months I will probably be coming before you asking to expand the Northwest Illinois Enterprise Zone.
So that's an incentive zone that the state has basically allowed us to have to help incentivize business development.
And that expands and it's in areas of Freeport, Stephenson County and Joe Davis County.
Okay the 17 new business leads you spoke about, how many of them have committed and are coming?
Well the five existing businesses that expand or relocate they've committed they're here.
So the four new businesses starting are Huffines.
And then as of right now, one of the leads that we had from Intersect Illinois, the business I talked about that came to give a tour, or we gave them a tour of existing facilities, they took that information back to their board of directors and they're evaluating it.
Huffines.
So we're looking at some of the factors that are beyond our control right now.
It's, they're looking at geopolitical situations between Canada and the United States to make a determination of whether they're going to relocate some of their manufacturing here to Freeport.
So, some factors that are a little bit beyond our control.
Okay, you said base camp.
Six classes taught by local leaders.
Who are those local leaders?
From the Community Development Department talking about the city regulation.
We had some local bankers to talk about finance.
We had the Small Business Development Center talking about how to develop a business plan.
Ashley came and talked about some of the resources at the library.
And we had marketing people come and talk about marketing.
Attorneys, yes, to talk about some of the legal issues you have to look at, business structures and all that.
So we had a wide range of people.
Okay, so how does one find out about these classes?
We market when enrollment is open, we market it pretty widely.
We do a lot of advertising and I don't know, we do radio, we do print, we do online advertising to promote it.
Did you all know about these classes?
Okay.
Any more questions?
I do.
Monroe.
Thank you.
This is probably going to expand a little bit but from the last presentation you gave a quarter ago how many of those businesses that you put on the new businesses starting or interested in the area have committed to moving to this area?
And I apologize I don't have a list of right in front of my my face but um I know some of the businesses we're working with a project and James.
I'm going to be honest.
If a salesperson told me that, they didn't know, and they were talking about their territory, I would probably ask them why they're not doing their job.
Point blank.
I know that's a little harsh, but flat out, not knowing who, what, when, what to do, what to do, is not going to help them.
So I think that's a little bit of a challenge.
I think that's a little bit of a challenge.
Fowler.
That's a little harsh.
But flat out, not knowing who, what, when, where coming to this city, that's why we're not getting anything.
We're not working those leads and opportunities the way we should.
Maybe if we weren't paying to put elevators in our buddies' buildings and putting business money into other entities that exist already here, a single owner business type of thing, We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars coming out of funds that the city could desperately need and does need to expand our footprint for opportunities to come here.
Because the biggest problem that we run into, we don't have 100 plus acre sites.
We don't have water, sewer, power hooked up to places.
And the reason we don't have that is because we keep giving all of our buddies within a and a small group of people the money to put into their businesses that they haven't paid back yet.
So that special treatment and funding will stop us from ever being able to bring a business here that's meaningful and will bring jobs to the community.
And we have to get to the bottom of what's going on already.
So we've lost high V, the truck stop sounds like it's dead out in Lena now.
So Stephenson County, even though it doesn't really, we gave up some of our enterprise Zone to that area to help develop that business, and now we're going to.
We didn't give up any of our Enterprise Zone boundary or area to that project.
We went through the process.
We went through the process for the enterprise zone boundary expansion.
The company that was leading that development decided to stop.
I encouraged them to finish the application since we were 95% done in case they wanted to green light the project.
They decided not to.
So that is an area that I think was under about five acres, still in the zone.
I'm not exactly sure what fund unless you're referring to a TIF fund that you're talking about.
Are you implying that the partnership is giving money away?
Potentially and the question I've got is when we get into the TIF districts and the TIF dollars that's going on around the city of Freeport and I start going through documents that were presented to me, I start asking and I have had a lot of questions.
$95,161 To Sega.
I look at another instance of money given to the Wagner house for an elevator.
And these things are stopping or inhibiting our ability to expand upon shovel-ready ground, which I've heard for literally almost eight years.
I think it's great.
One of the things that was mentioned about the Lamb Road TIF is it did enable and help tri-star metals to expand and build in addition to their facility, which did create jobs.
Any TIF redevelopment agreement is not approved by the partnership.
It's approved by this governing body that's precise.
It's meeting right here, right now.
So you're saying the GFP has no input into where any of that?
No, I think that we definitely have conversations with city administration and community development in the business about the TIF is an incentive tool just as the Northwest Illinois Enterprise Zone is as well.
But we can't make decisions on how TIF funds are being spent.
That's all of your job.
We can make recommendations.
We can talk about pros and cons.
We can talk about when the Enterprise Zone would be more beneficial than the TIF district.
TIF funds Huffines.
We're happy to break those all down.
And that's part of the expertise we bring.
But then it's a redevelopment agreement would be decided upon by this governing body.
Mr. Parker?
Yes, Mr. Klemm.
It's a little unfair to attack greater Freeport partnership for a couple of things you mentioned because all of that was done through the city council.
Okay, you were not a member of it at the time.
I don't know some of the history, just so you can pick up on some of the history.
The elevator project that you talked about came from a revolving loan fund that the city of Freeport had.
The state of Illinois called all the revolving loan funds back and said, either use them or turn them back to us at this date.
One person applied for that revolving loan.
And nobody else would apply for it.
That person inherited it.
The $95,000 that was given to Sega, that's the most controversial thing in the world and it was all done by this council.
So you can own this council for that.
Mr. Chesney came to the council and whined that he had been not getting a bunch of money, but it turned out that in the process when he cut a deal with the City of Freeport, the following year he applied to get his taxes cut because he didn't agree with them and they were.
So he received monies that really weren't entitled to him if you want to look at it that way.
I was one of the only two opposing votes to that.
So, you know, these guys, City Greater Freeport Partnership doesn't give away money.
If somebody's giving away money, it's the eight people up here.
You know any other comments since you brought it up I'll read adopted April 23rd 2018 eyes Klemm mcclanahan Smith busker brash a keister and there was one abstention you flat-out just lied on the floor you voted yes for what that what What is that?
Is it a pile of shit or is it something you can talk about?
It's a FOIA document, buddy.
Well, that's okay.
You come up with all this crap and you've done absolutely nothing to do anything to move the city of Freeport forward in the last six months, other than moan and groan about every member of the city that you have for employees and their board.
Hey, let's get back to the subject here.
Pardon me.
The liar.
Rachel's got a comment.
I do have a question.
Thank you for your presentation this evening.
Both of you, thank you for your input.
My question is though, as is public record, we pay you approximately about $400,000 a year upfront that everybody's aware of.
What return outside of helping people apply for grants have you brought to the city?
We are looking for industrial jobs.
We're not looking for you to piggyback on events that have already happened initially that you have started.
You have started what return can you say that you have brought to the city I think right now in this economy it's what jobs have we retained nope new that's my question we have honeywell has been here for years new jobs outside of minimum wage fast food restaurants that you've piggybacked on that have already decided they are coming here what new jobs have you brought to Freeport illinois So if a new, if an existing company is expanding, you don't count those jobs?
New company, please.
Not existing.
New companies.
My question is new companies.
And you just want specific manufacturing?
Trayback Automotive.
Trayback Automation, excuse me.
They were outside of the city of Freeport.
They're a small manufacturing company.
They were in a really rural location, and they now are renting space in the first McNeist building.
I would like to make a comment about it.
Treyback's leaving the city.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Yeah, me too.
Can you One more, one more time, go.
Can you expand on Treyback?
Were they already interested in the city or is this a lead that you reached out to and through your work process?
Excuse me.
And if so, how many jobs did that create?
I think it's a small manufacturing and at the time they had We had somewhere between like under 10 employees.
So I can't give you a breakdown right now.
I don't know.
And so yes, they were in a really rural location and they had a problem with freight getting in and out.
And so they wanted something that had easier access for transportation.
They were an automation company that worked with the food manufacturing industry.
Thank you.
Any more questions?
Okay, we'll move on to number eight, unless you had something else to say.
Discussion regarding revision to Fehr Graham letter of recommendation to lead service line replacement, phase four, manager Boyer.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
On April 7th, 2025, the City Council approved a bid for five-star energy for lead service line replacement, phase four.
This memo is for clarification of a conflicting amount and so we're clarifying that today.
Fehr Graham bid recommendation letter inadvertently had a typo in the full project amount that did not match the submitted memo.
This was discovered when issuing the notice of intent to award based on the IEPA concurrence of the bid.
To confirm to the original city memo was correct, Five Star Services LLC out of Waukesha, Wisconsin was the low bidder at $19,731 per base bid total.
The total contractor project amount for the phase will be $2,525,000 for service replacements.
This is just being brought to the council for transparency purposes of the conflicting numbers in the previous agenda.
The city of Freeport will fund the phase four project, and Stacey.
In that $3 million, you said 100% forgivable loan.
So what does that mean?
What that means is the city will be reimbursed 100% of anything we spend on lead service line replacements for Phase 4.
So it will not cost the city nothing?
Correct.
As that's been all of the phases?
It costs the citizens nothing?
That's correct.
Well, I'm sorry.
I just feel like I have to ask each time because we just don't know if we don't ask.
Okay, no action to be taken on that, right?
Okay, number nine, discussion regarding Lamroad Tax Increment Financing District presented by financing district, presented by Alderman Stacy and Simmons.
You know, it's already been hit on.
Councilpeople, you received the two papers before a meeting even started.
This fund, this TIF fund, is being used illegally and it needs to be shut down.
It needs to be shut down there's currently 3.8 million dollars in this fund returning the fund would help pay for all the government services that make property tax bills for homeowners so high the property taxes from Walmart Howard and Minaj should be going to help pay for running our community and should not be used as a slush fund.
I recommend a call to action that the city terminates land relative and return all the to 3.8 million to those that actually need them to pay for police and fire protection, schools, parks, library, and the county.
And let's not forget our roads, which is trying to keep the nursing home running so that it won't be shut down.
This money can come back to the taxing bodies and not continue to sit there in a fund and continue to be misused.
And I have a question for City Manager Boyer.
And this question probably should have came first.
Why are we continuing the Lamb Road Tif when all process projects are completed?
And why are the funds going, currently going, to fund the Greater Freeport Partnership?
Well, I'll start with saying the funds are not just sitting there.
We are working on a lift station at the corner of Lamb and Walnut.
That is to convey waste and create additional capacity in the Lamb Road to Tiff area.
And it also will be useful in terms of making, ensuring that there is no issues with the Wastewater Collection System, adjacent to the nursing home.
So why haven't we done this before?
But I am not done talking.
Why haven't we done this before now?
I'm sorry.
I'm not done talking.
Let him finish, please.
He can finish.
Okay.
Then good.
We like to hear him finish.
Then you can ask the next question.
Okay.
And the second part of that was, at this time, I don't have the information in front of me, so.
Of course.
You always have it.
Well, I'm sorry.
I don't have a memo here.
And I have been provided so there's really no way for me to prepare for this item tonight.
Okay, so from now on if I put something on the agenda, are you telling me I need to have a memo attached?
I think you need to provide something so we know what you would like us to research.
Okay, but that has never been said.
My two years on the council, that has never been stated.
And no one else that has put anything on the council other than you and the directors have ever had a memo.
So now that I know that, and know to do better, I will do better.
Thank you.
So my question, why is this lift and everything coming up now?
Why, why now?
Because we want to close the TIF?
No, this was in the plan for the last several years.
But it's not down on the- We put it in the budget.
It was in the, it was in our master plan for the year, our capital improvement plan.
I'm sorry you didn't notice it there but it's been there for, it was there this last year.
So who sees the master plan?
You do.
I do.
Yes.
Huh.
You approved it.
And it said a lift station?
Yes.
It pointed everything out?
Yes.
The capital plan included a lift station for Lambon.
And how much money was budgeted for this?
I don't recall off the top of my head.
So if it's budgeted for, then we shouldn't be pulling from the Land Road Tif.
Correct?
Kessler.
It's budgeted for through the Land Road TIF.
Rachel has a follow-up to that.
Okay.
Alderman Klemm, then?
Go ahead.
She said go ahead and do you.
Oh, okay.
Attorney Zito, I'd like to ask a question if the Land Road TIF is being used properly and has been used properly.
To my knowledge, again, this TIF predates me, but to my understanding, since I've been here.
I'm unaware of any improper use of TIF funds there that the, for example, using it to build a lift station there.
Those are public improvements within the TIF district.
So that is an authorized TIF use there.
There were redevelopment agreements that were entered into previous there, you know, reimbursing developers for TIF eligible costs is a allowable use of TIF funds.
I'm assuming again, I don't know all the types of costs.
I don't know all the agreements because they, some and a lot of them predate me there, but I'm unaware of any improper use of TIF funds.
So if we were to use that Lamb Road TIF as part of what Manager Boyer brought up, and it was to extend water out to the airport, out to Mill Race Crossing, so on and so forth, monies from that could be used from the Lamb Road TIF.
So monies from a TIF district can be used within the TIF district.
Thank you did you want to say something then yeah okay all right so I think the direction we're trying to influence everybody to maybe consider is once the lift station that has been budgeted in this budget is completed we have not had any successful real industrial growth in that TIF district which is why we implemented that and that maybe we look at moving that money back to the pot so that we can use it for infrastructure and what we really need it for.
I think that is that is why we brought it up so that we can put that in your mind so maybe give it a give it some thought we've already allocated for that money for this year but in the future maybe thinking about bringing it back until we have actual strong leads looking to build industrial and and bring those Shadle.
Thank you.
The lift station at Walnut Street goes back at least a year and a half if not two years.
It's been revised at least once to include a section of main by the landfill that was inverted.
It's been voted on several times as far as moving money from this I think at this point in time everybody's number one concern is to get some jobs here it's been mentioned several times tonight and however there's nothing happening there's a well being drilled Holden Pump House being built this summer that's going to bring a source of water sufficient enough to feed industrial users and the expansion on the south side of town is going to need that money.
I think it would be very short-sighted to fall away from a potential fix to what everybody pretty much agrees is the major issue.
Alderman Rowe and then Alderman Sellers.
Thank you.
City Manager, this could potentially be the Director of Community Development and Public Works as well.
To us where exactly is the lift station slotted to go and where do we approve it to go?
The lift station is designed to go at the near the corner of Lamb Road and Walnut near the intersection on the west side east side it would be on the I guess it would be another side of the intersection north east or west east so that's not in the TIF district it's a it's actually going at the corner of the Landfill property, which I believe is in the district.
That's where the drainage all goes to in that basin.
Thank you.
Only with Simmons.
Sellers, I'm sorry.
I would like some clarification.
Can you take TIF money from one TIF and put it somewhere else and use it somewhere else, just like how they have the downtown TIF?
We can't take the downtown TIF.
We can't take the downtown TIF and put it somewhere else, Kim. Shadle, I mean, Zedal.
I'll confirm this off the top of my head, though.
I believe you can port TIF funds between TIF districts as long as the TIF districts are contiguous.
If they're not contiguous to one another, like they're not touching each other, the two districts, then I don't think you can port the funds back and forth.
But if they're together, I believe you can port them back and forth.
What do you mean together when you say that?
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay.
She done?
I'm sorry, Simmons again.
What I meant when I said until we actually really need those funds to develop that area, I meant it no longer being a TIF district.
So then that money would not be specifically use for a TIF anymore, that will be money that goes back to the general fund for us to use.
That's what I meant, not switching money between TIFs.
Okay, Alderman Stacey.
How long can a TIF exist?
Is it 23 years?
I'll tell you, I think the good news for everybody is that this thing is sunsets in one year, so this conversation is probably going to resolve itself.
One year, Daudy, and then the other things dead.
Okay.
Darned.
I'm sorry.
So yes, it's 23 years.
Alderman Shadle, you spoke about a well.
Are you speaking of well 12?
Okay, so I thought it was said that we were no longer getting that money for well 12.
Can someone explain what Sorson said about well 12?
Darin.
That's not factual at all.
We do have what 13 million secured in different sources of funding.
Okay, but.
So the well money is secured.
We have total of 13 million.
There's three different funds for that.
IEPA revolving forgiveness, then we have emergent contaminant money, and we also have just short of a million dollars from Eric Sorensen that has already been appropriate.
The money I think that you're referring to is water main money that was appropriated for this year but did not pass.
And that's the money that was never really allocated.
It was sent out there but it wasn't approved at the federal level.
So that's the money you're talking about.
That was for this year for 2025.
And that wasn't just for Freeport, that was all of the monies?
Correct.
All all congressionally direct spending was was frozen for this year and they said that they'll be reapplied for in 2026, I believe.
Okay, can you tell me out of the 13 million, where is that money being pulled from again?
We have an an EPA revolving loan the same way we've done these other projects.
EPA loan?
I EPA, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
We have five million from them in forgiveness.
We have, I don't know the exact number, but it's like 7.2 million dollars from emerging contaminants.
And then we have 959,000 I believe it is from Eric Sorensen that is appropriated towards that project.
Okay, can you help me understand this IEPA loan.
Yes.
And you said five million?
Yes.
So this is very similar to how we've done the wastewater treatment plants and other infrastructure projects.
The Illinois EPA has a state revolving fund.
It's called an SRF loan.
And those are the projects that we go after that we get forgiveness off of projects.
So for instance, if a project costs a million dollars, We can apply and we get we get basically state funding off of that project.
So in the case of well 12 we will get essentially 12 million from the EPA and the other million from Eric Sorensen to put towards that project in whole to offset the cost of the taxpayers So that's going to be the 13 million.
Yes, ma'am.
So why are we taking a loan out for?
Did you say 15 million 5 million?
We will be taking the way the revolving fund works is you have to take out a loan for the full amount of the project so if we bid this project and it's 18 million dollars you take out a loan and then when you're done with the project they subtract all the forgivable funds off of that project so that you end up with a net of say 5 million or something like that that's how all of the state Huffines.
We have a lot of great revolving funds work.
EPA grants, if you will, the money to Freeport for the infrastructure project, it's quite a process to get it.
When the loan agreements are signed, that moneys, the forgivable moneys, is already booked and in there and everybody's aware of it.
We build the project, we pay out the funds, and then when we go to sign the final loan, they forgive that amount of money that the citizens of Freeport have to pay back.
I don't have the exact number, but we're probably pushing in the ballpark of 30, $35 million of a forgivable funds that we've received over the last 10 years to the city of Freeport that we haven't had to pay back.
Does that sound fair?
But the 5 million we'll pay back.
We will have to pay back.
Whatever the project bids at minus 13 million, that's what we'll have to pay back.
And that's what we're set up through our CIP funds, and Scott.
So, we have been trying to get into the infrastructure that we have been incurring for several last years for these projects.
I should also state that those, we call them SRF funds, also come with a potential 30-year loan and 1% interest, which we have done quite a bit of research on that, and there's nothing that can touch these infrastructure loans for financing.
Alderperson?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you.
So, my question, this goes back Huffines.
My question, this goes back to really what I was getting to with the GFP, is as I look through a long laundry list of recipients here of almost $2 million, million and a half to $2 million, math is a little rough.
My question really becomes, we've got 3.85 million in that surplus.
We've got a bunch of vacant land in areas that we've got water, sewer, electric, we've got services in place.
Why have we done nothing, nothing, in developing that area, which is really a manufacturing zone or, you know, behind Menards, behind Wal-Mart, where it really doesn't make a lot of sense for housing and things like that.
Why have we not taken this money and developed that into shovel-ready ground, bought the Fowler, 铆the man with this money, and developed industry with it.
Instead, we would rather do things for our friends.
That's what I'm trying to get to.
Can anybody answer that?
That's fine.
So, I can't speak to specifics, but I can tell you generally speaking, just with TIFFs in general, the way that they're typically intended to be used, the funds are, usually and Kelley.
And then we have a couple of more questions, a couple of them from the panel.
One of them is from the panel.
And I'll say this, I'll say this, because this is the first time that we've done something that we've done something like this before.
And we're not going to do it again.
We want to do it again.
But it's a good idea.
We want to do it again.
And I think one thing that we're doing but we can put a lift station and a well and other things in with it.
Why can't we do things to develop it further to bring industry in and make it so GFP actually brings real viable jobs to this community instead of a half a million dollars basically going away every single year.
I think we have to and this is what we've been asking for.
I know I have since today I got my first seat here.
I've asked for that.
I've asked for ideas.
From the previous director to the current director, it has been four-plus years of nothingness and it's disappointing and we've got this money sitting in this diff, we've got, and I walk through there, there's a lot of property that could easily be developed down there in the south side of town that we could use these funds for in that zone to make it attractive to somebody who wants to bring meaningful jobs and the other people.
And we're doing nothing to stop the people from getting the jobs to the citizens of Freeport.
Period.
And that's, I think they should, everybody should be asking these questions.
What is the vision?
We put out these 2040 plans that are field goods.
We need meaningful development.
We need meaningful jobs for people to live and survive in the city of Freeport.
To fix it and you know and here it's it's absolutely a slap in the face to sit and go well we did 10 business retention visits and I know as a sales executive that 10 visits could be two days.
Two days.
I've done 30 meetings in two days and I'm not a superstar, Miller.
I'm not anything special.
I'm just a person that lives in the city of Freeport, pays his taxes, spends his money in this community, and takes it to heart when his money that he worked so hard for that's taken from his family, from his friends, from his friends' friends, and is this wasted.
And you know, we've got this ongoing question about how do we do stuff.
And you brought it up Alderman Klemm and we keep wanting to run water all the way out east of town and go out to this area to develop, I have no idea why, it makes no sense to me.
We've got infrastructure in the city of Freeport that is decaying that we can't even pump enough water for a fire and we want to run brand new pipe out into an area with six farmers Johnson, Len, Thomas, Keene, Nicole, Paul, Jeff, Mike, and Gertrude.
So we've got a couple of strong providers along the edge of the road that really don't even want us coming through there.
So we can put business outside of the city limits and not be able to tax it.
We've got businesses inside the city of Freeport that don't even pay taxes.
One of them is at the airport.
And GFP goes out and throws a party for them.
Fowler.
We've got to have the will and the strength to do it, and as long as we sit here with no plan, no ethics, no morals, it's not going to happen, because we're going to be friends with our buddies and everybody else be damned.
We move to number 10, discussion regarding future plans for EV charging stations and discussion regarding possibly resending resolution RES-2025-42, approving the agreement with Fehr Graham to provide civil engineering services related to EV charging stations installation projects, Stacy Simmons.
Okay, so this was presented to the council upon last week.
And it was presented in two agenda items, 23 and 27.
So long story short, everything on 23 said that the program is 100% funded.
So, I won't speak on item 23, but I do want to speak on item 27 and what we were not told.
And so people don't think I'm being harsh and mean.
Darren and I talk.
And we don't have a problem with one another.
So don't think I'm trying to make him look bad or throw him under the bus because it's not him.
This project with these EV chargers, when it's all said and done, it's gonna cost the city right around $200,000.
How do we have $200,000 for EV chargers?
For EV Chargers.
We don't have $200,000 for our roads, for our streets.
We're told, oh, well, there's no street fund or this or that.
Why not put $200,000 in our street fund?
Now you're trying to add out-by-crate into the, what is it, Glade Woods?
And to the solution when we get four more years of our own roads before you're saying we will have enough money to even complete four more years.
That's why I made the comment that I made, do they realize how far back they are?
However, it was not said about the electrical work and making it A, something ready.
We did figure out we don't need eight, we only need four, because it's two hookups per one charger.
We did figure out we don't need eight, we only need four because it's two hookups per one charger, but it's gonna cost us $90,730 just to design the doggone thing.
We need to prioritize some things.
I don't see how we have $200,000 for this.
Now, I will say, Mr. Galret was here earlier, come in.
I will say that there's some more money out there that we might qualify for.
Am I correct?
Do qualify for it.
That we do qualify for, but we haven't gone after it yet.
And we have not got confirmation that we're gonna get it.
So I can't count on that.
All I can count on is what's for sure.
And that's the $320,000 that we know we have.
I just don't know how this come.
Is this really something we need to be focused on right now?
And how do this come before our streets?
$200,000 Could help a whole lot on our roads.
Thank you.
Anybody else?
Go ahead.
I just wanna add one comment.
Fowler.
I got a phone call after our last meeting when we discussed the chargers that are located at Freeport Ford.
I just want everybody to be aware that the company that put those in, installed them, gave warranty service for it, promptly then filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter.
So the EV industry is very much upside down and crazy.
I'm not sure honestly how to proceed with this, but to be honest, I think we have to proceed carefully.
Are electric cars the future?
A lot of Americans are voting with their pocketbooks and saying no, but there are some that are voting and saying yes.
So do we try to welcome people here that have said yes?
Do we create opportunities for them to charge their cars?
I don't know.
It seems like a lot of money to me, you know, to put these types of chargers in place, especially in areas that I haven't seen a lot of EVs downtown.
And I've done a bit of driving around and I just haven't seen them.
But and the rest of it, their CEO came back and said, we're going back to V8 motors and getting away from EVs, but Chevy's doubling down on EVs.
So take it for what it's worth.
I don't know.
I'm not a big car guy, but I just wanted to put that out there and I was corrected after our last meeting.
Thank you, Darren.
Yeah.
I just wanted to clarify a few things if I could so please know that The monies that are here are not to fully remodel the Municipal lot or the we call it the Lindo lab, but it's a city lot at State and Maine This is just to the monies that are needed are just to repair the areas that will become the EV charging station if you will so I also have been working a lot on this over the last few days trying to figure this out so I want to give some explanations we just approved the contract last week it just was returned to me today I haven't been able to dig deep into this yet this is kind of a design build type contract right because EV Chargers are not our typical type of construction project where we put a plan Huffines.
And then we put it out to bid and we build it.
So we have strategically partnered with two companies, or will if this moves forward, Thayer Energy Solutions out of, I believe it's Belvedere.
They're one of the leading area places that service and sell chargers.
They're a very reputable company.
My research shows that they represent a lot of different charging outfits.
Something that's important to me if we move forward with these systems would be to be honestly on ChargePoint, which is a brand, like a model.
ChargePoint is one of the national leaders, and when you drive your EV cars around and you look for level three charging opportunities, if you're part of their system, which is is the most recognized out there.
Freeport would come up on them and show the locations and the availability for people to charge.
So that's one of the reasons we like them.
Also, Thayer services what they sell.
So they've been in business for a long time.
They've led the charge of EV in the market and I do trust their judgment.
Something that is rolling on this because we haven't been able to dig deep into it yet, again, because it's, we submitted a grant a long time ago to see if we could get money to build this.
And the grant took forever.
Things have changed in the industry.
But realistically, I can confirm we have the CEJA money, which is the EV charger money for $320,000.
We qualify for, as of today, at 4 o'clock, we qualify for potentially another $500,000 from ComEd because it's based on the grant conditions and the kilowatts.
So it's a scale.
You get basically $1,000 per kilowatt that you're installing.
And the grant has many requirements that have to be done, which one of them is ADA compliance.
I've saw some posts on why did we choose the downtown lots?
As a municipality, right now, when we submitted the grant, you had to own the lots that you put them in, right?
It wasn't an option to go throw them out at Menards or Walmart.
Now there's new grants that are out there that allow you to build them at other locations.
But our grant is locked down for the two locations that were previously selected.
Whereas I think the project could cost potentially 200,000, we're not far enough along with the process.
I haven't signed a contract with Fehr because we got sure if you guys wanna move forward or not so I'm not gonna sign somebody up for a bunch of costs that we're not gonna move forward or if we are.
EV Chargers is changing the world.
I think it was stated at the last meeting while it would be great if people could use the EV chargers here in town and had a car and wanted to charge the real draw of this is trying to get more people into Freeport to spend money.
So there's a couple of things.
So right now, as of today, we have about eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars that should be committed to this project between ComEd and the CJA grants.
I don't have enough information and I would need at least probably another month to figure out You know what the exact costs and nail them down to the close to a penny That's not something I can do overnight and it's an awful big projects.
The reason the two lots were selected Was because we have the minis plots our biggest lot, but there's the power requirement these these chargers take a lot of power There's a requirement in the alley at the post office So when we built Chicago Avenue, we actually built the infrastructure under the street to power the chargers at the municipal lot in that that corner by the park and the library, right?
A spot that everybody goes to the other the state and main lot were picked because the power requirements are right there in the alley.
We were trying to minimize the cost of the connections, the transformers, all those things that go along with the project.
So while I say it's controversial, this is a thing that communities our size are doing and entertaining and trying to and John.
This is a process that is very important.
And it will continue to attract new people to our community.
It is progressive.
It's not perfect.
I'll be the first to say it's not perfect.
But we have to work through the process if we want to do it.
And I'm being honest with everybody around that.
There's nothing to hide that we submitted for this grant as a group.
We received it as a group.
I want to say this has been lingering on for up to a year Warded, and the whole nine yards.
And we did budget $180,000 in the 2025 budget to address this project for the construction, because we knew or thought that there may be some costs that would not be covered by the grant.
Thank you.
Alderman Sanders.
Yeah.
Listening to the lecture that you've just Huffines.
Thank you.
Thank you for giving us in terms of the EV charging.
Have you considered a survey of the population here in Freeport to make a real good judgment whether or not the city of Freeport need a charging station or whether or not there's enough EV cars or anything like that that's driving around complaining about charging and their vehicles and my thing is I can understand the grant if it's appropriated for these things.
If it is, I don't see a whole lot that taxpayers will be taking up on, but the thing about and others, let us get an insight on what the population of Freeport is saying and making sure that the car dealerships here are selling EV cars because my studies and my research is that I will say within the next five years these things will become obsolete, electric vehicles will be coming obsolete within the next 2030.
They're gonna start phasing out.
They're gonna be just items that's sitting in vacant lots hoping somebody drive through the city with electric car that might wanna find an electric charger for convenience or whatever.
But my thing is, have we done a survey to understand the magnitude of whether or not we should have these kinds of stations occupying the city of Freeport.
I'm just asking because if there's something that we can consider that will be beneficial to the city of Freeport and if we can, if the grant purpose, the grants that are coming in for these particular items, are they solely designed for the EV stations?
Is one of the things that I wanted to take on.
Yeah, so the CEJA grant that we received is for EV chargers only.
We can't use it for anything else out there.
I believe the answer to the survey question is no.
And I think the reason that is, I guess I can only surmise, people that own EV charger cars here in town have chargers in their house or they wouldn't be able to charge them.
So that's probably not the clientele that we're trying to entertain with.
Exterior chargers is probably not our own people.
It'd be out of town people trying to draw people to our events, to our hotels, those types of things to spend money, sales tax dollars for Freeport.
I forgot to mention something that you kind of remind me of while you were talking.
So we submitted for this We've accepted this grant and it will be a black eye on Freeport if we decide to return it, which we would have to do if we decide not to move forward, but it would be a black eye on our community on future grant opportunities because we took dollars from some other community.
We took dollars from some other community when it gets returned.
These dollars that we have here from CEJA and ComEd, they need to be spent in 2025 as part of the grant program.
And that's why we're talking about it now, so it gives us enough time to get these in place by the end of the year.
Okay, Rob?
And just to follow up on that, Alderman Sanders, kind of the idea here was we've got people coming from Chicago to Galena every single day.
A lot of them have electric cars, not all of them, but quite a few of them.
So the idea here is they get off the bypass, they come to downtown, they charge their car because there's really no other place to charge between here and maybe there's a place outside Galena, but there's really not that much charging infrastructure in this part of the area.
So kind of the whole idea is for very little money, the city drives traffic to our downtown, then we also collect the charging fees related to the charging.
So you know we look at $200,000 and we got eight eight chargers we're potentially bringing on here I look at as a revenue generating stream that would also help bring tourism to our downtown area director Darren I'm sorry if I and I misspoke about redoing the entire lot.
When we talked and you had said that we need to put $100,000 for that process, I just thought $100,000, we got to repair the whole lot.
But still, it's still $100,000 just for preparing the lots and that's not even fixing the raggedy things.
Okay.
Thank you.
Further discussion on ordinance 2025-17, amending codified ordinance regarding residency requirements for certain positions presented by Alderman Stacey and Simmons.
Okay.
So, I asked the question.
Last week, the City Manager Boyer was not able to answer.
However I did receive my answer today and I can tell you that the jobs that were listed last Monday totaled 15.
Ten of the 15 are here in Freeport and five are not and I.
I don't believe that that was really the issue.
The issue was that we have an ordinance that's in place and have been in place, but has not been properly used, properly acknowledged.
And this is not my first time of saying this, we put these rules and regulations in place and then we pick and choose who they apply to.
Not right, not fair, no matter how you look at it, it has to be the same across the board.
I believe if I applied for a job, and after accepting the job, I knew I had six months to move, and if I don't plan on moving, why would I take the job?
It's an ordinance.
It's already in place.
It's been in place.
But what's even bigger than that is why you wouldn't enforce it.
That's my theme with this ordinance.
We pick and choose who we do for and who we don't do for, who we're going to make it work for and who we're not going to make it work for.
And I'm not even blaming the people that's in position.
Heck, they want a job, but they don't want to move to Freeport.
So behind the scenes on the side under the carpet, we'll to work out this and it's all good.
Not good.
And we just got to stop that.
Right is right and wrong is wrong.
Okay.
You done?
Can I speak?
Okay.
Several years ago it was not enforced.
And that was under Mayor Goetz.
It was not enforced and it should have been taken care of then.
I agree.
But we want the best person for the job.
So now we are trying to fix the issue.
That's my.
I just can't help but feel that if we had, and Chief Miller and Chief Shenberger, I don't think ill of you all, we communicate, we talk, but I just think if, I can't say all these and I. I'm not saying that they don't go above and beyond because our police have come a long way.
But if this was their city, maybe there's an extra mile that they would go to secure whatever needs securing in our city.
I'm answering about the ordinance, so any more?
Yeah, one last, I'll add something as well.
You know, I don't work in the city of Freeport, haven't for a long time, always had jobs outside of Freeport, have to travel for a living.
And honestly, where I work now, I only, you know, I don't really care about that community where I'm going to work every day.
I don't live there.
My family's not there every day.
And one of the things, and this was, this goes back many, many years to a good friend who was the chief of police at a much, much larger department who I have a lot of respect for.
And he fought to get law enforcement officers living in various parts of the community and he got money for them, extra money, significant money, 10 grand a year kind of money to put them in the areas and it was very, very successful in bringing crime down and I know our past and the Chief of Police came in and was very upset because he felt like he had been targeted in the community.
But at the end of the day, I don't think that happens as much as people say it does.
I know it does happen.
Because if it did happen, my address wouldn't have been given out to somebody who I reported.
But at the end of the day, we own this community and we can't be fearful of people that want to run around and try to bully us in our community.
We have to love our town, we love our community, we stand up for it.
And sometimes we take positions that are not always well accepted in the community, but it's the right thing for the community at large.
And you know I I too wished it had been dealt with but it wasn't and it's hypocritical not to enforce the rules equally across the board and that's the problem and that's where it lies and I know we're gonna go back I know it's gonna vote it's gonna happen it's gonna pass but it doesn't it doesn't mean it was ever right and you really have to be you have to take your oath that you take Fremont.
I want to take for that office seriously and that means equal protections under the law across the board and our city ordinance is essentially a law saying you live here if you take this position and if you can't do that then don't take the position.
But to say, I mean you're from Freeport, you served as chief of police, you know, you've We've done a lot of years here, and you know a lot of people, and that buys you.
That ability to communicate with the community, it's huge.
It's very huge.
It's huge.
It's very huge because people will tell you things because they know you that they won't tell somebody that's from out of town.
And I think that's part of the problem we run into here.
When we hide from the problems and we don't face those problems direct on, we end up in a situation we're in right now where we've got some thugs, let's call them what they are, causing issues in Freeport.
But I commend the chief.
I didn't think that we would make as big a dent as we have with the challenges that we face from our state government, but he's done a pretty damn good job doing what he's supposed to be doing.
Yes, he has.
But at the same time, I think there's things that we could have done that would have helped the situation along as well.
Larry, Rob wants to speak, do you want him to talk before you or do you want to go first?
No, I need to go first.
You did mention me first.
Yeah, because I don't want to.
Maybe he'd answer your question.
No, he won't answer this question.
I just want to give the people of the city of Freeport a reminder that when aldermen are sitting, councils are sitting here making judgments and decisions and people don't understand how do we come up with ordinances.
They don't and John.
They don't understand what we are facing as aldermen.
They assume that when we're looking at our agenda for today, it's based upon whatever is being said, but to be honest with you, the ordinances are designed to help govern the body of the council.
It also helps the citizens of Freeport to understand that these ordinances are put in in place so the council can be trusted in following the governmental procedures of our ordinances.
The ordinance of this city governs this body and the people within the city.
Violate one of those ordinances as a citizen here in Freeport.
You're subject to be locked up in jail or fined or whatever the case may be.
Just violate them.
And so those individuals who don't know all of the ordinance that are applied here in the city could get a rude awakening of not understanding how I violated an ordinance.
Well, here's the thing, people of the city have to also understand that you can actually draft ordinances that goes before the council to be put on the agenda.
You as citizens, it's not, the council has no jurisdiction in putting ordinances together.
It comes from the citizens of Freeport who draft these ordinances.
They have, we have forms where you can make your complaint or issue about something that can be adopted as an ordinance or placed on the docket as an ordinance, just like all the hundreds of ordinances that we have currently here in the city of Freeport.
We just have ordinances all over the place.
And the thing about it is who's creating these ordinances?
And I think the people of Freeport don't understand that the ordinances are drafted by someone.
Someone has to be accountable for introducing these ordinances.
And so we as a citizen, the citizens of Freeport has to understand how the development of ordinances come to mind or come into the city government by citizens of the city of Freeport.
There's a process.
I want you to know that there's a process that you go through in order to file for ordinances that you feel that is dear to your heart or complaints or whatever the case may be that you have the rights to draft ordinances.
We sit here every day looking at agendas with ordinances in them that guides us through the process.
And if we can't violate that ordinance because it's already set, try an ordinance that is not on the agenda and violate one of them as a public citizen, you have to answer that.
You are going to be accountable for that.
Yeah, we're getting back to that stuff.
Yeah, I'm talking- Not all ordinances and the attorney's got something to- Well, I'm saying what I'm saying.
Okay.
I'm saying what I'm saying because I want to give an, this is informative.
This is informed information.
I want people to know where it's not always the council's objection to make things seem like it.
And John.
It's going to be midnight pretty soon.
Look, look, look, okay, okay, I'll say something different for you, Shadle.
Just remember, you have a right as a citizen to draft an ordinance, and don't let the council bring the ordinance to you.
You make sure that your ordinances are on the docket.
I don't care how many times it is.
I just want to make sure the citizens of Freeport understand that they have a right to bring ordinances just like council does.
Well I hope it's done and your remarks does not enthuse me at all.
Okay.
So my thing is again, if you want to interrupt me again, I will keep on talking.
Okay.
Respect everybody.
Well, you interrupted me!
Who's saying that?
I just want to remind the council please that we have to stay on topic.
The topic that was on the floor for discussion right now is about the residency ordinance.
I'm just reminding people to keep all their comments about the residency ordinance.
Thank you.
Thank you thank you I just want to make one statement about our police fire and the folks that are impacted by this residency requirement I want to just say number one the residency in this environment is very challenging because we are not we're in a different area we have a different generation now we are all fighting for the same small pool of policemen and firemen and I also want to support the firemen and police they they do care very much and living in Freeport is not an indication about how much they care they come in they give of their life and they give of their energies every single day to this city and I think it's it's not appropriate to be talking about them in those terms so I just wanted to say that although this is kind of a vestige of a Bagan, Bagan-Era when there was plenty of people to work and Freeport was a very competitive wage wise employer.
Today, we appreciate everything that our officers, police and fire are doing as well as public works, but we need to be able to have a little bit of an open policy so that folks can live where they feel safest and also where it makes the most sense.
And that'll make us able to be more competitive in terms of the folks that we hire, getting the most qualified people in those positions when they come open.
One quick statement and then Stacy wants to talk, but I'm going to make one quick one.
I got a phone call the other day, Belvedere and the city of DeKalb have also eliminated residency.
Just going to say that, it's your turn, Cecelia.
Okay, we're not Belvedere.
And you said who?
Who else?
Belvedere and DeKalb.
We're not Belvedere, we're not DeKalb, we're not Rockford, we're Freeport.
Boyer.
I don't know if you have had hands-on in hiring any of these people that's in this position.
And with that said, if it was said, I missed it because I don't think anyone was putting down Chief Miller nor Chief Shenberger as if they were not doing their job.
I heard that Chief Shenberger was applauded for the changes and the difference he has made.
So please don't paint a picture that anybody is putting anybody down.
They able to do what they do because you let them.
How'd you let them?
And that's basically it.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Okay.
James?
Thank you.
And I'd like to remind the city manager that it also applies to Public Works, who seems to be an afterthought of this administration.
And quite honestly, they deserve just as much pats on the back as anybody.
They've worked hard.
I know I've been really hard on them, but at the same time, what I've been really hard on is we haven't staffed them appropriately.
We haven't paid them appropriately.
We haven't done the things that we've done for the other two departments.
So this residency requirement is very, very important to deal with for them.
And quite honestly, they probably, it matters least to the city about them, just because because they're not policing and fighting fires and other things that they would notice on a daily basis if they lived here.
Okay.
Oh, Rob. Go ahead.
I just have one quick question.
Item number 12?
No.
I have one quick question.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Didn't see you.
If this was to pass and be gone, would that also apply to our 9-1-1 dispatchers?
I think they're labeled TC's.
No.
Did this also apply to them?
Residents, the number of miles outside the center of Freeport is dealt with through the contract.
So if you have people in public works, the contract stipulates that.
If you have people in TC's, if you have fire officers, or you have police officers, that's all in the contract.
What we're talking about is individuals who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
We've got to open it up for everybody.
Okay, Aaron.
So currently this ordinance just deals with, for lack of a better term, your department heads.
Okay, right now, this ordinance that's on the table now.
Your police, for the most part, I'm generically saying that, but for the most part, it's the department heads, okay?
Or your supervisory levels.
Your police department is governed by their own contract.
Fire department's covered by their own contract.
Police union is covered by their own contract.
I believe police and fire contracts already removed the residency requirement and Public Works is up for bargaining coming up you know, or soon there.
So that potentially could be discussed during bargaining there, so.
Okay.
Number 12, okay.
Number 12, discussion regarding status of landlord registration deadline ending April 1, 2025.
Alderman Stacey and Simmons.
Okay, so, as you all may recall, we had a lot of landlords that were not even registered in the city of Freeport last year so a letter was composed and sent out to all landlords and they had till April the 1st to comply.
Well, today is April the 14th, and I would just like an update on this matter.
Where we're at, who complied, who didn't, are we finding people, and where do we go from here?
Good news is we doubled our participation rate.
72 Percent of landlords in this town have registered.
That's 2003 registered properties.
Last year we had 1,000.
So I really want to thank the council for supporting the Tollamay software.
It made this possible.
Right now we have 763 properties in violation and we are in the process of and John.
And then the next step is to take the process of issuing the fines.
And where we go from here is sit back, relax, and I guess let the fines come in. » Okay.
Also, there's an ordinance or a law or a rule that says any landlord that's 20 miles outside of Freeport must and Lenny.
But our software takes care of that, yes.
So, is that happening?
As I said earlier, our software takes care of that, yes.
Thank you.
That's good news.
Okay, number 13.
Discussion regarding appointment of Dustin Wilkinson to the Planning Commission replacing Josh Atkins, Stacy, and Simmons.
Last week on the agenda, last week agenda, we were asked about appointing this person, Dustin Wilkinson, to the planning committee.
However, what we were not told was that there was no open position on the planning committee.
You know, we see these things just like you do.
So when someone is being appointed by the mayor, we think there's an open position.
We don't think that someone is being fired because that's never exposed.
However, Tuesday, Joshua Atkinson received an email being terminated from his position on the planning board and replaced by this guy, Dustin Wilkinson.
I'm not gonna talk about him and what all he is and what all he don't do and the trouble that he's in.
Look him up, it's public information and it's out there.
I don't understand why, well, maybe I will talk about it.
Why a drug addict, a felony, a domestic violence person is made to be such a good person who's in trouble facing charges now to where you would ask the council not knowing who he is, I know who he is now, to vote him in and not even say because I want to get rid of Joshua and Joshua Atkinson, or I plan on firing Joshua Atkinson.
You bring him to the council like there's an open position and there isn't, and there's an ordinance on this matter.
And guess what, Madam Mayor, you can't do that.
The ordinance tell how someone will be removed from a committee.
You put him on the committee we have to accept who you choose but there's a law on how and when and why he can be removed so I don't want a drug addict a wife-beater on a committee for the city like he's all of that when you know he's is not.
These positions are supposed to be filled with pride and just anything won't do.
I don't care if it is just the planning committee.
Shame on you for doing that to us and making me have to call you out on it.
So I don't know where we're going to go from here, but But as I said, it was not done properly.
He cannot be fired.
It just don't happen like that.
And I ask that this matter be resolved ASAP and that Joshua Atkinson is put back onto that committee.
And Mr. Scott, I want to make public comments.
I want to make public comments to that committee.
And Destin Wilkerson is removed.
≫ Any other comments?
Okay, we'll go on to 14, which is public comments.
Anybody want to make public?
Okay, Ms. Scott, name in three minutes.
≫ Ron to Scott, I have to follow up on something that was Taylor.
I have receipts on this.
It was not a loan.
It was not a revolving loan.
I only happened to find this out by accident.
There was a $1 million bond taken out of the downtown TIF.
And when I looked at the TIF report, I show the actual amount of that bond for financing is $1.3 million.
$89,446.
There you go.
So I asked the city what was this money used for because it didn't say in the TIF report.
And I had to do a FOIA to find out because nobody really know because nobody was here in 2018 except for Mayor Miller and maybe you Mr. Klemm, I'm not sure, and Mr. Chesney abstained.
So I want to let you know what happened.
One million dollars was used with a bond that the TIF paid for.
So when that bond paid Wagner House $60,000 for an elevator, the TIF paid for it.
The other expenditures that that $1 million paid for was mostly demolitions, which were for properties that belonged to Zajcek.
The other loan, the only loan in that $1 million went to Mahoney, and I can say this because it's on public record.
When you borrow public money, it's a public record.
And all that $113,000 loan by Mahoney, he still owes $95,000.
So I'm just letting you know, when we're applying ordinances to people, we pick and choose.
When we're giving out public tax money to people, we're picking and choosing.
And you all didn't know because you weren't here in 2018, but I saw the ordinance because I did a FOIA.
And that ordinance said that the City Council voted to give $1,045,000 to fund a bond.
And you know what it was for?
For redevelopment to improve the downtown for projects and to make loans to improve downtown.
Didn't say what the projects were for.
Didn't say how it was gonna be paid for.
And I'm just letting you know, this is the kind of crap that goes down in this city hall.
And yes, you're right.
Somebody does write up this ordinance.
Somebody wrote up that ordinance.
Chesney abstained.
And yes, city council passed it.
But what did they pass?
They passed because they wanted to redevelop and improve downtown.
But what got improved?
Nothing.
We tore down $800,000 worth of property belonging to Zichek.
We paid Wagner House $60,000 for an elevator.
Did that improve downtown?
We paid Mahoney $113,000 for a loan and he still owes on it.
That's where our money goes.
That's why we don't improve downtown.
I'm sick of it.
And Representative Jeff Keischer is sick of it.
He's passed two.
Your time has expired.
I'll continue later.
Good evening, city council.
I'd like to piggyback on Rhonda a little bit here.
I wanna talk about existing TIF dollars that aren't going in other areas of the city.
If you look up, if you Google TIF, you'll see an area that talks about TIFs can help revitalize areas struggling and with economic declines.
They can create jobs and increase private investment.
They can improve public service.
But what they're not telling you is that in the reinvestment portion of TIFFS, it's a public infrastructure improvement for streets, sewers, water lines, redevelopment of, catch this, blighted properties, attracting new businesses or expanding existing ones and cleaning up pollution.
Now, I brought this to your attention simply because in Chicago they have a community tip fund and they have a business tip fund.
Money goes into the community as far as businesses are concerned and then other monies are put in a lottery and the lottery is drawn up.
An individual who owns a piece of property in Chicago then is receiving a grant to fix up their properties.
So we need to understand that no monies has ever gone into any individual citizen's Hoss or property, first thing.
Second thing, we're talking about bringing some charging stations into Freeport because we've got people coming from Chicago going to Galena.
Well, let's tell the truth about that.
The average person that comes from Chicago going into Galena passes us up and goes straight into Galena.
They don't come through Freeport.
I've got friends that go to Galena every year.
They didn't even know if Freeport was on the map.
So you can stop that.
Stop it, because they don't have to come through Freeport in order to get to Galena.
Everybody sitting around here knows better than that.
When we start talking about residential, the police and the fire department, I have absolutely no complaints about what our police department is doing at this point.
I do think that there are certain things that could be done better.
Our fire department is on the ball.
My biggest issue with this is that tax dollars, that we're paying into their salaries is going outside of our city.
There are no property taxes being paid on their properties in Lena or any place else.
I do also understand that there are certain people that were given certain options as to whether or not they can move here.
And it's in writing, and I won't talk about that because it was shared with me.
But simply this, we need to look out for what is happening with us here in this town.
We need to start building up our communities.
Mr. Boyer, you said something last week that kinda pissed me off.
And what you said simply was, is that we can't seem to find people that are willing or capable of doing a job in this city.
Let me tell you guys the honest God's truth.
Nobody wants to work for this administration.
You guys have a revolving door that is as bad as business.
Thank you.
I like that Ford tough shirt.
Good evening, my name's Micaiah Stacy.
What makes me upset about the entire Dustin thing, Not the fact that Josh was improperly fired, but the fact that we have a drug problem that is known in this city.
And this council, maybe you guys didn't vote against it, I don't know, it was last year.
It was said that the council did need to be drug tested.
And we live in Illinois, nobody cares if you smoke a little weed, like whatever.
But to bring a man with an Alderman Stacey, I don't know if calling him an addict was a proper term, but a dealer, a meth dealer who, yeah, went to jail however many years ago, maybe he is reformed but to bring a former meth dealer into this town and put him on a planning committee is such a big F-U to everybody here.
I don't know the exact percentages or whatever but a lot of people die from meth.
If I was to walk out on the street, kill someone and then apply for a committee 20 years later, would you appoint me?
No, you would not.
Meth dealers are murderers.
Why is there a murderer on any committee in this town that has a drug problem?
I was told last week that the chief moved out of Freeport because he, like a safety issue.
I was told that he got flipped off.
I don't know how accurate that is, whatever.
But personally, I feel like you can't really lead a town or see the exact problems in a town from a town that's 20 minutes away, you always have that separation.
When I lived in Des Moines and mom would call me and say, oh, the committee's doing this, this, this, or the council's doing this, I'd say, oh, that sucks.
And then I could get off the phone and go back to my life and do my homework because I had that degree of separation.
And that wasn't healthy because I moved back here and I got thrown face first into whatever the hell goes on in this building.
So I know it's probably like a little too late to be like, hey, maybe you should move back to Freeport.
But a lot of people are feeling like, How can someone that doesn't live in the town that I live in properly lead me and know what I need?
Thank you.
Any more public comments?
I just have a quick comment.
Last week, Joy, you were called out because you're sitting there flipping through a magazine.
You're in when Stacy, Alderman Stacy was talking and Simmons and Monroe, you're picking your fingernails and looking at your phone.
The only time you paid attention is when Rob Boyer talked.
I sat there and watched you the whole time.
It's right now you're flipping through and just a quick comment again last time when Akia was here and having this big fight you and the mayor should shut your mic off and Before you start calling people out and talking bad about them because I still got that keep smirking the mayor keep smirking anybody else Tommy He's going to say we did a good job.
Wayne Dickens, we got a question.
Do you update the holiday and people's asking me?
Well, no vacancy there, Tom.
Are they going to get it?
What's that?
Are they going to get it?
We're going to get it, Tommy.
We're going to get it.
And Don Parker, you do a good job doing that one in the meeting.
Thank you, Tommy.
And Jodi Miller, don't forget that that cutting, cutting the ribbon coming up.
Monday.
Okay, if there's no more ones, we can have a motion for adjournment.
So moved.
Sellers and Shadle, all in favor?
Aye.
Hold it, hold it.
Any opposed?
Hold it, hold it.
I think it's over.
We're not done.
Huh?
We're not done.
Yeah, we're done.
The business, the business of the council have not made a proper announcement.
Stay here and talk, Larry.
We're leaving.
Have a good one.
You're out of order.
It's not the first time.
Totally out of order.
Man.
You get to a certain age, you don't give a damn.