Good evening.
Linda, could you please give the invocation?
Dear Lord, we come to you tonight with the problem of finding funding to repair our streets.
We are asking you to lead us because you already know the path that we should take.
I release your word from 1 Corinthians 1440.
Let all things be done decently and in order.
And Father, I stand in the gap and offer up repentance for whatever has caused the animosity and mistrust.
And Cum, your will be done this night for this city as it is in heaven.
Amen.
Thank you, Linda.
So now we'll officially call this special meeting to order.
Madam Clerk, could you please take the roll?
Mayor Miller?
Here.
Alderpersons, Klemm?
Here.
Monroe?
Here.
Simmons is absent.
Parker?
Here.
Stacy is absent.
Shadle?
Here.
Sanders and Sellers are absent but we do have a quorum.
Thank you and if you could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Alderman Shadle.
Item number one is the approval of the agenda is there such a motion so move second the motion made by Alderman Shadle seconded by Alderman Monroe all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed that motion passes item number two is public comments we have three of them the clerk has one to read in first this was received by email from Lynette Williams Freeport citizen I watched Monday September 18th in caps oh my goodness make a motion get a second talk rescind the motion make a motion no second hot potato hot potato who has the hot potato I'm lost and so we're most people trying to follow this discussion 60% of citizens in the city of Freeport in November 2022 voted home rule in not and Keeley.
I am your referendum proponent.
Everyone gets a voice.
But I feel if you put this to referendum two situations will happen.
One, road work won't be done for 12 to 18 months.
And two, I think it will fail.
You have the authority.
60% Of the voters in the last election say you do.
My suggestion is a motion to continue talks through details of possible road funding sources Thank you.
Next we have Kevin Lamb.
Alderpeople, Mayor.
Look, did you say we have a quorum?
Yes, sir.
I'm looking at the rules here.
It says that the majority of alder persons have to be present.
There are nine and five are present.
It specifically says alder persons.
Madam Clerk, the attorney wants to address that.
So under the, I believe under the Illinois Open Meetings Act that for a quorum that yes, you can You can count the mayor for purposes of establishing a quorum.
But wouldn't your city council rules take precedent over general rules?
My understanding is that the interpretation has been that a quorum for purposes of establishing a meeting, you can count the mayor for establishing quorum.
That's always been my understanding.
Okay.
And that also is in line with the IML one rules.
Doesn't say that in your own rules and procedures.
And then we also have Barbara Vines.
Hello, I had in mind what I was going to say, but the letter from Lynette that was read was so articulate and so echoed my sentiments that I'm just going to second what she said.
And that concludes public comments.
So we'll move on to item number three, which is the first reading of ordinance 2346.
Madam Clerk, could you please read this?
Ordinance Approving 3.25% Increase in the Home Rule Sales Tax.
Alderman Monroe.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
So last week, as you heard in some of the public comments, there were some struggles with passing an ordinance that approved a 1% increase with additional revenue being dedicated to funding salaries, wages, and I have been working with the city of New York City to get those types of things along with the roads.
That was one of the big holdups to several of the members voting either yay or nay to the agenda item.
This year, you know, we are in a position right now that we don't have set-aside funds for the roadways.
And as you heard also in public comments, it's going to take DeVito, Kirsten, Pat, and the rest of the board.
The next item is the budget.
The budget is to get a referendum item through all of the process steps if it were to pass in a public vote in 2024.
So that would first come up for vote I believe in November of 2024.
And then it would have to go through all of the process to get the funds set up to move forward.
Fowler.
And in an effort to kind of bring people together, and clearly that hasn't achieved its goal, was to decrease the ordinance from 1% down to.
75%.
It would also keep us in line with what Rockford and other large cities across northern Illinois are doing.
It would also fund the road work for the next two years.
It would then be sunset when those two years were up.
And what that means is this is a two year ordinance with a drop dead date at the very end of it and the city will speak and tell us what they want to do.
It's not the way I wanted to go but in an effort to kind of bring sides together I think it makes a lot of sense to fund this for the next two years and then move to whatever we're We're going to do.
If it's a referendum in November of 2024 or some other direction, which seems unclear at this time.
Anybody else like to speak?
Add anything to it?
I, you know, from my standpoint, we have to continue to move forward on the road.
We bought a lot of good equipment in the last two years.
We've got our crews trained.
The Public Works Department is doing a much better job.
They're doing a great job.
Fowler.
I'm proud to kind of fund that continued improvement of our infrastructure and at least give the city manager and the staff a chance to continue to move forward on fixing our streets.
And I will say out loud, I really am against new taxes.
I think new taxes for the City of Freeport put a wet blanket on our economy and I really think it hurts some of our businesses but right now the roads themselves are hurting our businesses.
So we have to make a decision, we have to act as grownups and we have to do something to move things forward.
Mayor.
Further discussion?
Well, how do you propose we move forward?
I'm going to make a motion that we adopt.
And the board of trustees.
I'm going to move the motion that we adopt ordinance 2023-46 and move it to a special meeting.
Can I do that at this point?
Our normal protocol is you need a motion and a second to move the item forward.
That's all that would be on it.
By Alderman Monroe, seconded by Alderman Parker to move ordinance 2023-46 onto the next regularly scheduled meeting.
Madam Mayor.
Alderman Klemm.
Now that it's made a motion and seconded on the floor, my intentions are to vote against this and I'll tell you why when I do the vote.
Don't need no whole debate.
But if we're talking about what we're seeing here we basically have four people absent okay we have a couple people one of those persons I know has got a husband that's very ill one of them I know had a meeting that that they couldn't attend to be at this one I asked at the last meeting that we delayed the vote of this because everybody was not here mr. Parker was not here so we We didn't have a full array of aldermen and I believe something that's this important should be.
However, one of our jobs as being aldermen is to do what we feel is the best thing for our community and that's obviously been displayed that that's not happening on either side.
No how, no way in the leadership, anything else.
To come back with this, one week after it was voted on to kill it, to move it to a referendum, some place people gotta take a look at ethics, groupals, so on and so forth.
And we've passed that.
I think this, since in my 16 plus years on the council, is probably the biggest mirrored Mearns, Pat, Chris, Patrick, Mark, Sam, Chris, Mike, Jim, Jeff, Kofi, Bill, Mike, Vincent, Huffines.
We have sat and looked at the streets of Freeport for 20, 30, 40 years.
The infrastructure is falling apart.
I've only been on the council two years.
And all I've done is try to fix both streets on both east and west side.
I always constantly hear east side, west side of 26.
It is a way to try and push a divide between people based on the color of their skin.
And I've got a real problem with that.
I've got a problem with people that don't wanna fix our streets.
And I'm disappointed that 16 years on the council, I've seen very little in the way of roads getting repaired.
What we've done in the last two and a half to three years is incredible.
We've cleaned up Chicago street.
We've done major construction.
We're seeing that now on some of our streets that support some of the biggest businesses in our town.
And now we run the risk of going to referendum two years from now, being able to put money towards something, the Hancock Bridge could fail.
If that fails, those businesses, those people are cut off from a lot of services.
You have a major fire, major disaster there, they're stuck.
Sorry, only trucks that can get through there are the Freeport Fire Department.
No other outside agencies can.
And this is disappointing.
This is disappointing because this isn't about the east or west side.
And the rest of the people who are here today.
This is about the city of Freeport.
This is about doing the right thing by the people.
And here we sit, four people.
I understand.
It's hard.
I missed a lot of meetings myself with health issues.
But the second I could get back, I was here.
And this isn't a difficult task.
I've made phone calls.
I've sent texts.
And I've gotten nothing back.
Huffines.
She's the only one to try to call me back.
The rest, MIA.
I've done a lot of research, and I'm fired up, I'm angry, I'm just beyond, I can't even say how I feel because, you know, the decorum of this room is much more important.
But I did a FOIA request, 16 years, Alderman Klemm, you've sat on this council, nobody has held the Freeport School District accountable, 33,391 pages of emails between two people who are gym teachers, one member of this council, and another member of the Freeport School District about election interference and election stuff going on.
We are not holding anybody accountable, specifically the people in this room.
And that's what I ran for office because I saw it happening and I sat back for years.
Eighty-six percent increase in this Freeport School District annual expenditures.
Meanwhile, the city of Freeport up only forty-four percent.
Forty-four percent.
I've got the numbers right here.
We've held our taxes in check.
We've done all we can.
Meanwhile, the city's been fleeced by the Freeport Township, the Freeport School District, and they continue to take money out of this economy that could help us get back on our feet.
It's disappointing.
$23,000 Per student.
The highest of anybody in Northern Illinois.
The highest.
And we have the lowest rated school in all of North Central and Northwest Illinois, and we can't get $3.5 million to fix the road into this city.
It's beyond.
Johnson, Excuse me.
Mr. Mayor, I have been asked to come back and speak to you.
I am a very committed, committed to the state of Illinois.
This is beyond believable at this point.
We sit here.
We argue about a 3.15% increase to get the roads fixed.
Meanwhile, 86%, $85 million goes to the Freeport School District and they turn out some of the worst students in the state of Illinois.
That's not me.
That's the education department of the state of Illinois saying that.
Alderman Monroe, you have to stay on topic.
And I will say that it is a huge problem.
We don't know what is going to happen.
This is disappointing.
The fact that nothing is going to get done for two years plus because it will take us to get going.
What are we going to do?
Our fire department will be able to fight fires.
We've got water and sewer that is failing.
How many times do we go and put a tanker truck or hit to run water out of the Peck River?
And I can't believe that we can't come together to come up with a solution for this and if your vote no we're done here.
First of all we all have to come to the table and that's obvious tonight that that's not happening.
No.
So Attorney Zito.
So I just wanted to go back to the quorum Mr.
So I did have a chance to check our code so I appreciate Mr. Lam bringing that to our attention so our code is and others.
So, I think it's important to note that our code is actually specifically different than what is typically state statute.
Our code actually deviates from what is what I will say the majority of communities do and actually what even IML as recently as last week had chimed in as to what our quorum is.
Normally, they say you count the mayor.
That's the normal calculation.
However, our specific code of ordinance says that all meetings, a majority of other persons elected shall constitute a quorum.
So it references a majority of the older men.
So it actually doesn't include the mayor.
So because of that, we actually do not have a quorum for tonight's meeting, so.
I make a motion to adjourn then.
Second.
Is there a second?
Motion made by Alderman Monroe, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
All those in favor?
Aye.