He was first chair, and he was also the drone, the thing, the thing on his ass.

I'm getting the sheet, yeah.

Okay.

Did somebody else do it?

Huffines, yes, since it's 6 o'clock, Ruth, could you please give the invocation?

Good to be here after my short retirement. You guys are wonderful. Thank you for having me. I just want to read something from Psalm 116. It says, I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I shall call upon him as long as I live. So let's all pray together and call upon the Lord.

Our Heavenly Father, God, we are so thankful for the spring weather today, for the thoughts of new beginnings.

Lord, we thank you that you are omnipresent.

Father, we know that you are within the city, that you are looking over Freeport, and we know you're within these walls at this meeting tonight.

So our Heavenly Father, I just pray that we all open our hearts to you, because you have have all the wisdom, and you know the plans you have for this city. And so, Father, give us that wisdom. May our words give glory to you with whatever we say. May we show love for one another, and may, Lord, we represent our wards well, our department heads' teams Well. Father, you have given us so much to be thankful for and yet there's so much yet to be done. And so be with all of these here at this council. Lord, thank you for their willingness to serve you in this manner. Thank you, Lord, for their families who give up this evening for them to be here to represent the city, to represent you, Lord. Thank you, Miller.

I thank you again, Lord, for our mayor, our city manager, our beautiful city clerk, all our elder persons, all our department heads and their teams.

I've had the privilege, Lord, of working with them, and I know how hard they all work, and and I know the love they have for this city.

So now Lord bless this agenda.

May it bring glory to you Lord.

And may it prosper the city of Freeport in a mighty way.

In Jesus name, amen.

Amen.

Thank you Ruth.

So now we'll officially call this meeting to order.

Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll?

Mayor Miller?

Here.

Alder persons, Klemm?

Here.

Monroe?

Here.

Simmons?

Here.

Parker?

Here.

Here. Shadle? Here. Sanders is absent. Sellers? Here. If you could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Alderman Monroe.

The flag of the United States of America, and the Missouri Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.

And Alderman Monroe, the meeting is yours. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

So we'll move on to item number four, approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion?

So move.

Motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Parker.

All in favor? Aye.

Motion passes.

Sorry.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Item number five is the approval of the minutes from the committee of the whole meeting held on February 10th, 2025.

Settler.

Do I have a motion to accept those?

So move.

Motion by Alderman Sellers.

Second.

Seconded by Alderman Parker.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion carries.

Item number six is public comments for agenda items.

This is limited to three minutes per person.

We have several people signed up on the public comments.

We'll start with Matt Summers with comments about item number 13, sir, the podium is yours for three minutes.

Hello, my name is Matthew Summers, I'm from the second ward, I'm a resident.

I just want to talk quickly and briefly about the residency requirements, and I'm going to end with a little story.

This ordinance is antiquated, it should be removed.

We're one of the only communities that I'm aware of that still require this, that are and many other small communities like this.

Nobody really knows, there's a couple people in the room that it's had the honor to wear the chief's badge and do different things.

And I've seen this ordinance used as an attack on officers, both at the fire department as well as the police department.

When we haven't wanted somebody in a chair, we say, hey, you gotta live in the city.

When we want somebody from who doesn't live in the city says, I'm not gonna move there, it's all right, we'll change the ordinance.

and I live where you want to live.

And now we're down to, again, attacks on people and the negativity that goes along with that.

I had a lot written down that I wanted to share, but I knew I only had three minutes.

So I just want to share a little story, my story.

The reason I left the police department is I couldn't get away.

I couldn't go to my kids' football games without somebody sitting next to me and saying, when are you going to get that boy that shot my brother?

I couldn't play catch with a football in my yard without people driving by throwing some hand signals out the window We had a 12 and 13 year old boy and I was playing catch and they had to look at me and go what's that all about, do they know who you are?

And I had to explain to them, they knew who I was and that's why they were there I had to start walking at 4 o'clock in the morning because people would flag me down and I couldn't even go for a walk and even at 4 o'clock in the morning, 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning people would just are used for attacks, just because we don't like somebody who's sitting in a seat.

And I'll tell you what, to the people that I've worked with, my colleagues, yes, in transparency, Chris Shenberger is a very good friend of mine.

I've known him for 29 years.

I've worked with him for about 28.

And that man has never missed anything that I'd ever ask him or where to go.

So those of you who So those of you who feel like you're being attacked Just because we don't have anything else let them attack you let them attack your integrity chief I know but another a lot of other people stand up here and talk So he can call some officers over here and drag me out of here if he needs to but there's been You people put up with so much and For to be attacked for that let them attack you let them attack your integrity let them attack your character Miller.

Because it's not going to do anything with you.

Let them show us who they really are when they want to attack everyone.

Just because you live somewhere and you can't be a parent or a father because of an ordinance because they don't like the seats you sit in.

That ordinance needs to go.

Gary Melky, pro for county fair.

Good evening.

For those of you that don't know me, I am Gary Melky, I am president of the Students Stevenson County Fair Association.

I've held that position for seven years, been involved with that fair for over 30.

I also sit on the Illinois State Association of Agricultural Affairs as Vice President.

We govern 104 county fairs.

We answer to Director of Ag, Jerry Costello.

But I'm here on the item 12.

Stevenson County Fair is a non-for-profit.

We are a 501C6 agriculture.

We've been in this county, fair has ran for 170 years and has been very beneficial to this community and county.

So I'm here just to answer questions.

The door at the fairgrounds is always open.

If any of you wish to come down, see something, have a question, I'd be glad to meet anytime, anywhere and talk, take you around the fairgrounds, whatever you wish.

But I've seen this was on the agenda today, So I wanted to say I'm here to represent the Stevenson County Fair and answer your questions.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Aubra Palermo, pro for Tutti-Baker.

Hi, my name is Aubra Palermo.

I'm one of the committee chairs for Tutti-Baker Festival.

And I just wanted to, I saw this was on the agenda tonight.

I wanted to point out a few things.

And what other event in the community brings 40 to 50,000 people into our community.

Many people, as I've worked in real estate since 1998 in the Freeport area, ask what is there to do in Freeport and Stevenson County.

Companies, people who want to live here, people who want to relocate here.

We had people from all over the region and from 26 different states that came here.

Some of them were coming back for family get-togethers.

Some of them were born and raised here Miller, and they were coming back to see the festival that had not happened in over 20 years.

Some of those people might think about, do I want to relocate here?

Do I want to come back home?

Not to mention the people that stayed for two, four, five, six hours.

Most people stayed for over two hours.

Forty-five percent of the people said they stayed for three to four hours.

We did surveys after the event.

Thirty-two people said they stayed for over five hours.

How much money did those people spend in retail, in restaurants, hotels, things like that?

So how much money did that bring into the city?

The first year back, it was 30,400 people attended that weekend.

Second year, 41,000 people attended that weekend, just in a three-day weekend festival.

And it's all ranges from people 18 and older to little children.

So it's something that retirees enjoy, adults enjoy, parents and families enjoy.

The whole mission of the nonprofit organization is for family-friendly.

Downtown businesses that we surveyed after and other businesses that participated as vendors, we asked them how many people do they think came into their store.

Many of them said anywhere from 50 to 500 people.

Some of them said everyone that walked by came in.

and we asked them how many people do you think were new people that came into your store?

They were all saying a good majority of those people were new to their businesses and new to their stores that had never been in before.

So how many of those businesses stayed in business because of that one weekend because of the revenues they made?

How many of those businesses had new business continue and good exposure for their business?

Not to mention the exposure that it brought for the city.

Many people even thought the city put that event on.

they got credit in a lot of different avenues that the city, thank you to the city for bringing this event.

So we're happy to answer questions and I'm here if you need anything, it's a very small committee that helps coordinate this event every year and a few other volunteers that form the crafters and the vendors and things like that.

And thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Our next person up on item number 12 as well is Mike Martin.

Good evening everybody.

Thank you Mayor Miller, council, city staff.

Appreciate all the hard work you guys put into every Monday, every day.

Really means a lot to me.

Again, I'm Mike Martin.

I was previously on the board of directors for the Greater Freeport Partnership.

I served two terms and I was on there for six years.

I'm currently on the Highland Foundation Board for the college and I'm also on the Winnipeg Theater Board.

For the last 10 years, my wife and I have also been the proud owners of Mort's Bar and Grill here in downtown Freeport.

I'm obviously joining you as Alderman Monroe said to speak about agenda item 12 as a small business owner I understand the reality of finding ways to cut costs to streamline processes Produce efficient results and maintain a strong bottom line. I think about this daily But I have been able to achieve these goals without jeopardizing my product or customer experience Over time I realized that not every investment can be quantifiable or even tangible Miller.

Most dollars and cents can be accounted for, but it's the intangibles that make a long lasting impact.

When it comes to the direct impact that events like Music on Chicago, Wine Fest, Brew Fest, and Tutti Baker Fest have on my business, it's upwards to 200% positive increase in gross sales for that day, that weekend, sometimes even more.

And because of that added revenue, I am able to invest in my business, my community, and my city.

I have extra funds for building upgrades, employee bonuses, and that added sales tax goes right back to the city for your investment in our infrastructure and hopefully our safety.

Indirect impact comes in form of new customers, both local and not local, that come to downtown to be shown a great experience.

Now that produces some pressure on us to make sure that experience is fulfilled, but as As always taught, pressure is privilege, and I look forward to these chances.

They make a trip here and they see the charm, the history and the progress that they might not have noticed without these said events.

New and reoccurring customers base is a long-term investment worth realizing.

They keep coming back.

They spend money not only at Mort's, but they buy gas, they stay in hotels, they go to other restaurants.

The ROI of added revenue and positive perception of our city because of these events is infectious.

With that, I just want to thank you guys one more time.

Your hard work does not go unnoticed.

All their people, council, mayor, I just want to be able to keep using these opportunities to show the positive impact that we can do as community members for small business, for the city, both quantifiable and intangible.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

And that concludes public comments.

Item number six.

Mr. Chair, Madam Clerk, would you please let be known on the record, it was 606 when Alderman Sanders is in attendance.

I did get that, thank you.

Thank you.

Item number seven.

Discussion regarding Nordic residential and small business electrical aggregation contract presented by Mike Mudge, Rock River Energy, and I believe Mike is on the phone.

Is that correct, Director Suttman?

Yes.

Awesome.

Yes, I'm here.

Awesome.

Mike, would you like to speak?

Yes, I'd like to give a brief summary of why we're back talking about this when we signed the two-year contract Kupnodik, and then discuss the action item you needed.

I didn't get that.

None of us did.

Can everyone hear me OK?

We can now.

OK.

I'll briefly give a summary of why we're back talking about this when we signed the contract last May for a three-year contract.

So what happened after the contract was signed, and we're going to be switching people over in August.

During that interim period, PTM, the people that operate the grid, had a capacity auction.

Those capacity auction results came out.

and results came out at the end of July, the first part of August.

Nordic notified us, uh, to the Freeport along with, uh, three other governmental agencies that signed contracts with Nordic stating that they could not adhere to those price increases, we started looking for alternatives.

One of us tonight is an agenda and I believe Kurt was going to put that up on on the screen, there's an agenda item that I sent last week to Dovie and to Rob, the city manager and it simply states that we do not want to the replacement cost that Nordic offered us for the next 12 months that replaces the three-year contract that we had at 8.315 Smith.

The council thought that it was prudent to sign a contract for three years knowing that energy rates were going to go up.

Let me talk about what capacity rates are and what that has to do with our energy rate.

Capacity is a rate that all rate payers pay, all kinds of rate payers, and also from states from Illinois all the way to the East Coast and 13 states altogether.

Capacity is a charge that we all pay to ensure that there's adequate generation, that the present existing plants are maintained, and there's an incentive for new plants being constructed, so we're having no supply.

and that rate came back tenfold. That's knocking the whole market out of whack. What we needed to do was find, okay, if Nordic was going to do that, what would the replacement rate be? And it took time to do that. We also looked at what other suppliers would do and we're also looking at what the cognitive rate was and to determine what the best options are for the city.

But the first thing is to, is to pass this resolution.

Uh, that was before, before the council stating that we do not want to accept, accept Nordics replacement offer and, and, uh, drop us, drop us from their and the contract. We can go to a second supplier. We can go to a different supplier. We can go back to ComEd. There's a third program, the MC Squared has, that says, we will give you a price guarantee that our price will not be any more than ComEd. And with the way the market's at, the uncertainty and the volatility of the market, that would be our or second. Tonight, we would need to have this resolution go to the full council for your full review and discussion. Any questions?

Any questions? Alderman Stacey.

Okay, so are you saying that the price you offered us when we agreed to a two-year account It's no longer on the table. That's correct. Nordic cannot hold that price, nor can ComEd, if they were at that price, or any other supplier, hold that price because of the capacity cost that's a regulated item is passed on to everyone.

and I have been asked to release the citizens back to comment, just like a letter came out, and if we did not say no, we were automatically changed, so now a letter needs to come out, putting us back into the hands of comment, and if we don't want that, then we have to say no, and the two-year contract is in violation. Am I correct?

Yeah, there was a three-year cancellation at the rate of 8.315 cents, and that contract is, like, Nordica's not going to, cannot hold that price or they'll virtually cease We need to pass a resolution that releases them, in other words, that for lack of a better term, no, we do not want your contract, nor your thing, so our residents and the council is free to look at an alternative.

So Mike, it sounds like we need two motions tonight, one motion to do away with the Nordic agreement and a second motion to have staff look at a secondary option for electrical supply for Freeport.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

And that's what the other three entities are currently doing also.

Alderman Sanders?

Huffines.

What about individuals, suppliers with Nordic?

Does that affect, I know we're talking about the city, but does that affect individuals that have signed up with Nordic and is that the same thing?

Yeah, that goes away.

That goes away.

Okay, because I've been having trouble with Nordic just here recently and I had to turn and the men to the ICC of Illinois simply because some shady things were happening with my account and I had to, what I want to say, I had to make a complaint to the ICC department and they're working on this issue at this current time.

and so I am, I am, I would be glad to cancel my service with them if the ICC department does not follow the complaint and everything.

But the thing about it is the way that you're bringing it to the council and to the community Fremont, and I think we have all of the detailed information regarding to how you guys are providing service.

and now I'm looking at the fact that the rate can possibly go from 6 point to 10 point and I understand that you want to cancel this, but the point is we had an agreement until what month was that, May, for two years?

Two more years.

It's a three-year agreement.

Three years and you want to cancel that.

Well, are you being fair to the people at that rate when ComEd is trying to and other suppliers are trying to raise that Rate at least 10 above and we don't even know how we're going to deal with another supplier But is that is that that's a problem?

I believe that we're gonna have down the road down the line. And so if that is the case Bates, it would be appropriate to receive a letter in writing that your reasoning for justifying what you want to do, and as far as I am concerned, council is not really obligated to be doing this today, we can suspend this or sustain this, if not, okay, Mike.

We have to move it to a regular scale.

We have to move it to a regularly scheduled council meeting.

Council meeting, okay.

Well, I tell you what, I am going to wait for that to happen.

Alderman Stacey.

I would like to ask City Manager Boyer this piece of paper that he's speaking about that was received that we're supposed to be looking at.

Do you all have it?

I'm gonna refer to Mike on that one.

Essentially what we're doing here is Nordic is saying they can't support the contract that was previously approved They're asking to be voluntarily released from their from their contractual agreement And we're looking at whether or not a to release B. Then what do we do from there? Okay?

I understand all that but I'm asking about the piece of paper that he said that he sent to you and Miss Dovie Anderson and and why isn't that paper available for us to see?

We, the council and the citizens deserve the right to see the breakdown and understand exactly what he's saying.

So what is it gonna take for us to get a copy of that paper?

Adjudicator, yeah, that's what we're gonna need.

We'll get it to you right away.

Thank you.

so that said do we it sounds like we need a motion to attorney Zito go right so I think what Mike is asking for is a motion be made that a resolution be put on the next council agenda basically for lack of a better term ending the the agreement with Nordic and then authorizing staff to move forward at looking at alternatives to potentially replace Nordic quick question for city Manager. No, one second. That's correct. That's correct. You'll be able to see this agenda item on the full council. And then also, we can discuss alternatives. My thinking with the way the market is and so on and so forth, ComEd, or a company guaranteeing a price guarantee with the Price's ComEd will be a good place to be in the next year because there's a lot of uncertainties out there in the market and the best thing that we can do for the citizens and the small businesses of the city of Freeport is to look at ComEd or price guarantee from the supplier as a safe harbor until the whole energy market activity settles down.

Just my opinion and we want to do the best. We want to do the best for that. And as far as the comments about no one expected the auction results, those fully regulated to come out so high for what they would normally be, which essentially is going to add three cents and John.

And that's the real world that we're in.

No one had any control over that.

Over that time.

Yeah.

I think there's two things that have really impacted this significantly.

A, the adoption of, you know, electric automobiles, things like that, but these data centers that and John.

We have a lot of people that are being spun up for AI-driven information are expanding at rates that are unbelievable in some areas around us, and they're drawing an intense amount of energy. But there's other reasons, too.

But I think what we need now is a motion to put this on a regularly scheduled agenda item to do away with the agreement provider and with Nordic thank you and also a and it will deal with that one first. Okay and then we'll also along with that get a motion for staff city manager and staff to come up with a plan B for us kind of moving forward. Is it Still so moved? Second. Alderman Klemm and Alderman Simmons. Sellers? Sellers, I'm sorry. I had the S right. If we have a question. Yes, let me, yeah, can we move this to executive session? No. We can't do that. Okay, so it'll be the next council meeting. Next council meeting, okay. Anybody else before we, I'm gonna go Do you want to take a roll? Okay. Do you want to start it? Thank you, ma'am. Sure. Aye. Simmons. Parker. Aye. Stacy. Abstain. Shadle. Aye.

Sanders, Sellers, Klemm. The motion passes 6 to 1 with one abstentia. 7-0-1.

Thank you very much. You're welcome. Math in my head is not my strong suit. That's awesome. So that'll carry over to the next regularly scheduled meeting. Item number, Mike Mudge, thank you again for joining us remotely and explaining kind Thank you everyone for providing me the time to go down this path and share it with you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Have a good night.

Item number eight is a discussion regarding firefighter health and safety screenings presented by Chief Miller.

There's a memo as well as a screening of UDS screening view agreement, or Chief Steekle.

Says Miller on here.

Yeah.

Thank you all. I'm here tonight on Chief Miller's behalf. He's finishing up with the COVID and will be able to return to us here shortly, but this was very important to our members and he wanted me to make sure that we presented this to you.

I'll probably need a little assistance from Mr. Zito in what this will may or may not have to form into in the end but I'll just go forward with Chief Miller's thoughts to the Honorable Mayor and members of City Council from Scott Miller, Fire Chief dated March 4th this subject is firefighter health and safety discussion the background Freeport Fire Department has been proactively taking measures to identify Fowler.

We have identified and minimized potential exposure to occupational hazards within the fire service.

PFAS, or known as Forever Chemicals, have been identified as potential carcinogenic sources.

Discussion.

The department has adopted several policies to diminish exposure to various carcinogens.

Current practices include prompt extracting, which is laundering of our turnout gear after and John.

We have been working on changing every fire, changing our protective hoods that protect our head and neck areas and inhalation pathways of smoke particles via our SCBA.

Additionally, the fire department has eliminated all storage and use of toxic firefighting foam and replaced with an environmentally safe class A firefighting foam.

Huffines.

We are monitoring the development currently of turn out gear and closely meeting with Fowler.

Thank you.

Thank you to the representatives from each manufacturer to try to understand the timeline for when we can possibly purchase the safest gear available.

Members of the Department and the Department Safety Committee have researched this topic and have found that the Freeport Fire Department has adopted to now industry best practices.

In addition to reduction of PFAS exposure, monitoring and testing of air quality have proven to reduce firefighter mortality by early testing and health examination specifically related to firefighting operations.

Such examinations include blood testing, x-rays, and ultrasound examination of certain organs.

The request we are making, members of the department have looked into various health Health and Safety Testing Companies and have approached the Department's Foreign Fire Insurance Board to authorize and sponsor health exams for the testing of 45 members of our department.

The safety committee is recommending contracting is recommending contracting with United Diagnostic Services UDS for on-site firefighter health screening funding funding would be available from the foreign fire insurance board the cost the total cost would be fourteen thou is is estimated to be fourteen thousand six hundred and twenty five dollars the foreign fire insurance board has approved the expenditure to not exceed Huffines.

This is a strategic plan for safe and inclusive community and I'd be happy as much as I am able to answer any questions you might have.

Alderman Sanders?

Yeah, I just wanted to understand that at the current state right now, are we going to answer your question. We do not currently do any screening of this type within our business.

Okay. The committee, the board or whoever, is this request something that you guys are making after we're discussing this matter tonight? Are you guys are going to continue screenings and have a regular type of scheduling program going on that will subject all of and the other guys.

And I think that's a very important part of the firefighter's to these types of screenings where they're, you know, since the insurance is there and the funding is there, it would be appropriate for us to continue a regular type of schedule on the screening process because we don't want guys sick and not notifying anyone about what's going on in our lives.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks for asking that.

This is currently the first screening.

We have yet to determine whether or not this will be annual or every two years.

This will be the baseline.

This will be the first for us, but it is the hopes of the safety committee that we can continue to do this in an ongoing basis.

This will keep our people safer in the long run, and it will, you know, any cancer that's caught early Stieckle.

So I think it's much easier to manage and to deal with if you find it early rather than later.

You're into stage three or stage four and you're not aware of that.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

All right.

Yes, that's...

Chief Stieckle, a question for you.

So many years ago, we went through something similar in buildings with wrapped pipes, the same type.

Huffines.

Does washing the gear is consistently treating and does the gear need to be replaced more often?

Is it dislodging the fibers?

Is it presenting a greater risk doing some of the things that we're doing or do we know yet?

That's a loaded question and I'll answer it as best as I'm able to.

So we are taking seriously our gear.

Some of what we're experiencing with the PFAS is baked in the cake, literally.

Anything that makes firefighting gear waterproof so that it sheds water or it doesn't allow petrochemicals to be absorbed into the material, things like that, are the very products that have the PFAS in it.

Foss is essentially any forever chemicals is what makes something waterproof. And so the industry is trying at all speed to deal with this. I'm aware of the fact that I believe the state of Illinois is going to make it illegal to purchase turnout gear that is not PFOS free in the year 2027.

With the caveat, if the technology has not been found yet in the textile industry to make that possible, they would extend that on a year-by-year basis.

This seems to be where the industry is heading.

It is happening with great certainty out on the East Coast.

Large cities are already pushing this forward.

They recognize.

On our department, we're taking the steps to get guys out of their gear.

if they're not in a fire, if it's not necessary, a fire once conditions are safe, you know, get your gear off and stuff like that.

The things that we can change out that touch our skin that's mostly exposed, our necks and our heads and stuff like that, you know, we're putting greater emphasis on cleaning.

After the fire with wipes, as soon as we get done putting all our gear back together and we're back in shape, getting back to the stations and showering, You know, we're utilizing all the best practices we can.

Some fire departments are putting saunas in because that's where the industry is going.

That's not where we're at right now, but we're doing everything short of that.

So again, we're already meeting with manufacturing reps.

We're trying to find out where the industry is at, where it will go.

There is a lot of language out there that suggests that gear, no additional PFAS is added, known PFAS, a key term, but they won't, no one will actually tell you that their gear is PFAS free right now.

And I actually believe personally that if the golden unicorn were to be found, everybody would be the path to its door.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Do we have a motion to move this forward?

Second. We have Alderman Klemm. Yes, because there's an agreement with, um, U.S. UDS. UBS. That wouldn't be approved by the Foreign Fire Board? It already was, right? They've authorized the payment there, but the agreement, there's an agreement with the City of Freeport also. Okay. So we have Klemm and Sellers. Voice vote okay for this one? All of those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries, 8 to nothing. Thank you very much, Council. Welcome, thank you. Discussion regarding ordinance amending various parts of City of Freeport Code of Ordinances regarding the regulation of wells and septic systems presented by the other Steele tonight from Fehr Graham.

So I want to give just a background before I get into the memo. So the City of Freeport Freeport.

Currently we do have some wells and septics within the city limits.

Those are at residence mostly that are grandfathered in until they don't work anymore.

So we already have within our codes and ordinances that you can't replace a septic and you can't replace a well at this time.

So I'll get into the background here.

The public works staff of the city of Freeport conducts ordinance audits throughout the year.

I've been pretty adamant about doing this here in 2025.

I have one of our staff members combing through all of the water and sewer ordinances.

A recent audit determined that the ordinances concerning private wells and septic systems within the city of Freeport show they are outdated and pose potential risks to the city's water supply.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is requesting all municipalities renew codes and ordinance to limit potential contamination and liability to city-serve drinking water aquifers by updating these ordinances to 2025 protection standards.

Freeport has recently invested over $20 million in drinking water wells due to forever chemical contamination issues, and this ordinance revision is another method in securing the water supply for all the residents and businesses in Freeport.

I also would like to remind you that we're on the cusp of bidding a new well in Wellhouse Huffman.

So the discussion point is the city is making significant progress in improving water quality and continually seeks to provide citizens with safe and clean drinking water.

To achieve this, the city adheres to strict regulations and guidelines set forth by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The proposed changes to this ordinance align with the regulatory agencies and enhance our city's ability to manage stressors and competing demands for our water supply and address potential pollutant sources.

We're trying to protect our investment in our water. The city and the residents and the council have made significant improvements. And we want to make sure that we stay there. There is no financials for this. This is just updating an ordinance that's currently on the books. And the staff recommends that we make sure that the water is clean and that the water is clean.

Harris, Clarke, Lee. It's just not clear to people that are coming to town that we don't allow wells or subjects.

fuck this is an old foot discussion yeah okay Director Derrick what prompting this when you talking about contamination What is prompting this when you're talking about contaminations and the fact that we're ready to invest so many millions of dollars to do a relocation of the existing well?

What is prompting this? Because I heard the term contamination.

Are we having a contamination issue at this current time with our water supply and the distribution of our water supply throughout the city?

Are we having an issue with that?

No.

Unequivocally, no, we don't have an issue.

We had an issue.

It's been resolved.

It has been resolved.

Yup.

And we've been talking about that for several years with the addition of Well 11.

Levin, and when it came online, we have completely eliminated those sources.

They're in emergency standby.

That's why we still need one more water plant, right?

So we currently do not serve Brick Street to the system unless there's an emergent need.

So it's kept on standby only.

Yeah, there is a funding program to install this new well that you're requesting that we're opting to do.

There is a lot of funding in place, not completely funded, but $13.2 million is what we've secured for the new well.

And this is not going to cost the taxpayers anything at this time?

This ordinance change is just a housekeeping event for the city of Freeport.

This has nothing to do with anything but protecting the city water supply within the city.

The county also has ordinances, which right now they have a setback of a thousand feet and many others, and we want to create well within this thousand feet of this city.

And this is just something that is not clear to people that are coming here because it's embedded within some of our other codes.

We want to be clear that wells and septics will no longer be acceptable in the city.

We serve – I did a quick little study, which I know you're going to be proud of – without the exception of the west end of Stevenson Street.

We serve water to almost every corner of Freeport or we have the ability to get water there now with the exception of that one leg of Stephenson Street.

That's the only kind of area that we don't connect city water to right now.

So there is a study in progress at this time.

It's right up here, buddy.

What if you're not here tomorrow?

You'll remember it, right?

Well, my thing is, my thing is, we did a complete survey of the land, property, and everything that we want to do the installation and all of these things, there's, what I want to say, plan and scheduled for the progress to move it, proceed with it, we have all of that in place.

That's why we approved it last week.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

All right.

I have a couple questions. How many septic tanks do Freeport house?

It's an unknown number. I would say we have about roughly 11,000 customers in Freeport, maybe, I don't know, maybe five percent. We still have some areas in the B. Arcade, I know that are still on septic.

We had areas like Oak Hill where Greg lives.

They were completely on septic till we did that.

I believe some of the houses on Meadowbrook are still on septic that I know of.

There's certain pockets of town that still have septics.

Are you saying that there's a potential risk if this language is not adopted?

Certainly.

Yeah, and I'll explain that.

So anybody that has a residential well, those are not monitored by the city of Freeport directly.

Those are homeowners property.

So anybody could go open one of those well caps unbeknownst to us, go over, you know, dump antifreeze or whatever they want that would eventually silt down into the city's aquifer.

That is the primary reason it's health and water safety protection.

the city of Freeport, our public work staff checks our water seven days a week, various spots throughout the system to make sure that all the water is up to EPA standards, safe and drinking water.

Somebody that could potentially contaminate or throw a bucket of oil down in the aquifer, that could cost the city residents millions of dollars just by look at what PFAS has done.

We've spent $20 million and we're heading for another $20 million.

So what we're trying to do is make sure that the aquifer that we're taking our primary drinking source water out of has no contaminants, no potential.

That's why the ordinances that we already have say wells that were within the city.

Once your well dries up or it needs repair or capping it off and you've got to connect to city water because we've already invested in that city water.

The other thing is an ancillary source of our drinking water is our fire protection.

So if you are not on the city drinking water, you're really not paying for that infrastructure that's going in front of your house, but yet we're going to use it to put your house out.

Everybody inside the city needs to share that cost, right?

That's why we have the ready to serve fees that we've passed.

This is just bringing everything all together, saying if you're in the city of Freeport, you're going to eventually connect to the city, right?

Because your well's not going to last forever.

Nobody's does.

Alderman Klemm is next.

No, I was on target.

Okay.

yeah wasn't there a program to do the very thing that we're talking about right now in regards to septics and wells and and the program was mandated by the federal government or yeah the state order that was the unsecured communities grant we've got they want all septics and wells within corporate limits to be and John.

I just wanted to say that we're going to be eliminating it in every town plus that thousand-foot buffer.

Okay, so what I understand you saying earlier that there was a five percent of those items still exist in the ground at this point in time.

What are we doing to eliminate those?

So actively, we can't do anything till their systems fail.

They're grandfathered in, they can keep their system as long as it's active.

But septics don't last forever, so once they go to a replacement...

We can't force them to connect if they were already grandfathered in, but once they go for a renewal, we don't issue any more permits for wells or septics within the city, so they can't renew.

Okay.

Okay.

Paul McLean.

However, if work's done in that area and the new water and sewer goes through there, they have the option to hook up at that time.

Yeah, correct.

Stepping back, I guess I should explain this. When we did Bradmar in town, there was people out there with wells and septics.

When we do new installations of water and sewer, at that time we do heavily discounted and even basically free connections of water and sewer at that time to the houses.

You didn't say free, did you?

Well, we do it free to the right of way. We don't do it free on their property.

Fowler.

It's up to each person to spend that money from their house to the street to connect, but we stub it to their house for nothing as part of the project.

But there's also connection fees that we have, and connection fees are real fees that people pay to connect to the municipality's water or sewer system.

When we're in an area and we renew the entire street, we run services to every property and we give them one time to connect that we don't charge them those fees.

if they choose not to connect at that time, then they have to pay them the next, whenever they do hook up, they have to pay them at that time.

Do we have a program for homeowners, residential property owners at the time that this kind of construction take place?

No.

And if so, you'll find a lot of homeowners just can't pay that fee.

There should be a mechanism in place or program or something of that nature where they want to connect to the municipality but they can't afford to.

We need something in orbit to allow them to do so.

People, you know, we've faced this throughout some of the projects we've done, Alderman Sanders.

Realistically, that's, you know, a lending option from a bank.

That's their choice to go to.

The utility doesn't have the money nor the financing mechanism to finance homeowners on a five-year payment.

and the owners on a five-year payment plan for their connection.

You'll see the city, when we go through and do these connection plans under new, we are very reasonably charged for the work as in comparison to somebody renewing this with a contractor just doing it on their own.

It's very, very expensive anymore.

You can't hardly even do a sewer repair anymore without it costing $6,000.

So we're very cognizant of that.

We advertise.

We get out.

We publicly let people know, hey, we're coming.

Now's the time to connect.

We've had some people fight it, and they find out that it ends up costing more later.

But this ordinance really brings everything full circle, right?

We all live here.

We want to protect the water.

We don't want our water rates and sewer rates to continue to climb.

If we get more contamination, I mean, it's up to all of us to pay for it.

So this type of ordinance protects our system from anybody, you know, dumping anything into the ground.

We have a lot of different codes that relate back to this type of ordinance.

And really it's just a housecleaning item to make sure that it's very confident.

And I will tell you, I didn't make this up on my own.

I worked with attorney Zito and attorney Cox to come up with this along with the compliance as an officer.

And we all agreed that this met the matrix that we think we need.

Huffines.

Okay.

Alderman Stacey.

Yes.

So, are you saying rates are climbing due to contamination?

No, I'm saying that we had to invest in new wells and new water plants, A, because they are 100 years old, and B, because of the location that they're at, the PFAS showed up in those Wells and obviously as Scott just mentioned PFAS is the hot button for EPA anymore we can't we can't serve that in drinking water there's actually legal limits that you can serve we we've chosen not to do that to the residents and that's why we've shut that plant off and only have it in emergency backup we're we're trying to be as safe and as resident conscious as possible so that's why we we test that plant we actually flush that plant and don't turn the water over to the citizens Huffines.

We actually dump it just to keep it for emergency.

Once well 12 is completely done online and operating well, the Brick Street plant that has become the nemesis of it will be completely shut down and we'll have to go after a grant to remove it completely and whole.

Any other questions, comments?

I'm asking that you guys move this forward to the next meeting and I would like at the next meeting to ask if it's potential that we could suspend the rules and adopt this.

I would like to make a motion that we gather and collect more information. We understand what the ordinance is saying and what is being asked and at the meeting next week we can Huffines.

We're not suspending the rules tonight.

We have to do that at that meeting.

So there will be an additional...

But I don't want them to say, oh, at the cow you are ready.

No, we...

Suspended.

It doesn't count.

Okay.

Correct?

Correct.

Okay.

So tonight would just be moving this forward to the next regularly scheduled meeting, and then we would have to take a vote to suspend the rules at that time when that meeting comes around.

The only thing I would ask and I'm fine with that motion totally if you have questions please reach out to me during the week so we can get those answered because if you ask me next Monday I might not be prepared for the question so I'm fine to get any answers you wish I just need to know what they are. Okay thank you. Sounds good. Regular voice vote. All of those members in favor say Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, eight to zero. Item number nine, discussion regarding ordinance amending various, oh, wrong one. Item number 10, discussion regarding bike path status update involving the Freeport Park District Highland Community College and City of Freeport presented by Alderpersons Monroe and Stacy. Do you want to start us off? Yes. I just wanted some discussion on where we're at with this matter.

It was brought to the council.

It failed.

It was brought back to the council with Mayor Miller breaking the tie.

It passed.

The people running for Highland are talking about how it's already moving forward and in the process of, and nothing has even been said are brought back to the council.

So I would just like some information on where we're at with this.

Manager Boyer.

Thank you.

As far as our current status, we applied for the ITEP last year, I believe that was August?

They're about, they're about August.

They're, you know, this is a two year cycle and there hasn't really been any updates and we haven't received confirmation that the ITEP grant has been accepted, so.

So you're saying it takes two years to find out if?

I'm not saying it takes two years to find out, but it's like a two-year process.

So as far as the acceptance is concerned, I'm sure we'll hear something at some point very soon.

Yeah, we didn't submit till fall, and we don't expect to hear.

I believe their time frames that they even put out is like summer of 2025 before we'll find out, and then you get two years to do it.

So as the status of Freeport, I'm surprised By, what you heard because I'm the main communication person and I've heard nothing and said nothing about this project so The only thing that's moved forward is the memorandum of understanding that if we get the grant that all three partners would Contribute to the match money that is the only thing that's happened there has been no design moving forward there has been no action Because there's no project without a grant I Thought you did a design We just did a concept preliminary of the route, but we don't we haven't done any design money or anything with that that you can't IDOTs their type of grants that they do you can't do design You can only do concepts if you do grant or if you do designs before the grant you eliminate yourself from receiving the grant So you you actually have to pause and wait till you're awarded. Okay, so the $90,000 we paid you to do a design was not a design. I I don't think you've paid me $90,000 for this. I don't believe we, no, I don't You had said it was going to take six to eight months to do a design. They voted on just the design.

I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. What, when was it?

There was no vote taken on you doing a design only.

No, ma'am. Not on that project.

Okay, so can you tell me what project am I mixing this up with?

It might be the water main.

No.

No?

No. Maybe you're right.

The 90,000 sounds like the...

Designed for the water main?

The water main, yeah.

Forgive me.

Yeah.

Forgive me.

I mean, it sounds close to that number, yeah.

So it could be another year and a half before we even find out if we get that grant for the bike path.

I will say that I think we will find out sometime in the summer of 2025, whether we are awarded or denied one of the two.

And then we'll have up to two years to design it and get it to construction.

That's the way those grants work.

Alderman Sanders.

Director Darin.

speaking of that bike route what I assumed what I understood the last time we had this discussion is that this bike path is supposed to be something that highlights the whole city of Freeport or the residents of Freeport to have access to this bike path, and that it's not designated for a particular area, because there's no plan.

If there's no plan, it's not set in stone yet.

Am I correct?

Not exactly, and I'll clarify, because when you approved the grant submission for this particular project, there was a concept plan put out there, and this particular grant had, I believe, two or three key components.

you had to tie to schools, you had to tie to neighborhoods and you had to tie to shopping.

And so the project that was laid out at that time was connecting from, I'm gonna call it West Cherokee Hills, Sandy Point area where there's the bike path out there, going around Highland, back down Pearl City Road through Reed Park and going out the back of Reed Park to connect to the mall area.

and then there was another leg that was shown that would connect out to the Walmart.

So that was shown that would connect out to the Wal-Mart segment, so there was walking or...

You mean Crate Park?

Crate Park.

Yeah, excuse me.

Okay.

So that is not serving all of Freeport.

We're talking about residential as well, am I correct?

Yes.

That is what my mindset was on when I last talked to you about that.

is that cover the Freeport residents here in Freeport where it's not placed in a particular area where it only serve a few.

And so my understanding was when we talked is that it will serve the residents of Freeport.

That's my understanding.

There's residents all over Freeport.

Yeah, I understand, but.

And that map was supplied with the packet that you voted on.

We never give any of that without the packet.

So that was the entire route was laid out in the packet for the grant.

So I can't speak to what we talked about eight months ago, but that path was completely laid out.

And that's what we voted on was the grant with those three partners.

Because remember, we're using Highland to help pay for the Highland portion.

We're using the park to help pay for the park portion, right?

and John.

We can't single-handedly absorb that much match money and or grant money at the same time.

So we had to bring partners.

So what is the city portion of this discussion?

What do we talk about then?

Because if we're talking about shares, if we're talking about shares, then when you start...

I believe it's a total match of $360,000, right?

Yeah.

All of it, regardless of where you're getting the grant, if the city of Freeport has to participate, are we a part of that grant, if the city is part of that grant, and then inclusion of the residents, if this is coming from the city, whatever share the city is Miller, and John.

And I would like to ask you, if you're implementing for this program, we're talking taxpayers, dollars, and more. Am I correct on this?

My point is if the city begins to implement in this project program, it takes funding to do so. And if that is the case, where do those funds come from?

We created 120,000 out of the 360,000 matches in the city. Each partner's match, I believe, was 120.

But where's the fundings coming from? That's what we need to know.

General fund. City Freeport General Fund. That was what was assigned in the MOU that the council approved.

Okay. Okay.

And that's what's in the budget for when the project, if we are awarded the project. If we're not awarded, then it won't be used.

Year over year.

it'll revolve back into the central.

Well, these types of grants are only available every other year.

They're not available.

They're only available on the evening.

No, I'm talking about the city funding.

Yeah.

So when we did the strategic planning of the budget, we budgeted some money in 25 and some money in 26 to spread it out because it's not going to get done in one year.

Right.

And the way these grants work is the city has to expend their match money and Highland and the park would have to expend their match money before you'd get any grant money, right?

The match money gets spent first.

Okay.

Yep.

Any additional questions?

Any comments?

This does not need a motion to move forward, so we will move on to item number 11.

Discussion regarding a status update on the Watermain extension on West Stevenson Street, including Open Bible.

Alderman Stacey, would you like to?

Thank you.

Alderman Monroe, and it should have read discussion regarding status update on the open Bible water main. That's what it should have read. And so I would like to know where we're at with that process. Director, Darren, our city manager, Boyer?

Sure, I'd be happy to update you. First of all, the water main extension, it does provide water to Open Bible, but it also provides water to approximately ten households and also Highlands Project research field there. With that being said, the permit was... What was that last part? Highland is working on a, like a field, like a research field there to the east of the Open Bible property in between the park and Open Bible.

So there's gonna be bathroom facilities and things that that water would go to.

With that being said, the permit was approved by the US or the IEPA and we're currently working on a plan to bring before council to construct that.

Okay, so when will we gonna find out that it was approved?

When was it approved?

We're just saying the permit was approved, not construction.

So Illinois EPA has to approve our design plans to be constructable, which they've done.

Nothing else has been done.

OK, that's what I'm saying.

When was the design plans approved?

January, I believe.

In January, they were approved.

And we've been looking for funding since then.

And so why couldn't we receive an update on that?

And it's like you've already planning, and we have not gone that far.

You're planning for Stevenson Street.

You're planning for Open Bible.

Now you're planning for Highland.

Council approved the putting together the plan and submitting for the permit with IEPA.

That's what we've done.

We approved for the design, Darren did only.

We approve for design and that was part of submitting to the EPA to get a permit.

Okay, but you just named three different avenues that's moving forward.

I'd simply redefined the title of this, which is Yes, Open Bible.

It's also several, probably seven homes and Highland College's research plot.

So I just wanted to make sure that was clear.

Okay, you can make sure that that's clear.

However, when it was brought to the council, We were asked to put in a water main at Open Bible because 25 years ago, the public works person shook hands with a principal and said the city would do it for free.

And when we didn't go for it, then you started adding Stevenson Street, then you started adding nine or 10 other residents.

And my questions, Director Darren, about this ordinance and the language change was all due to this question.

Because what's gonna happen now to open Bibles well so that we don't have no choice but to give them a water main.

So just to be absolutely clear with everyone, item number nine has nothing whatsoever to do with open Bible or their well.

They have a well, they are grandfathered in to have that well and they can have it as long as it works.

It has nothing to do with this item whatsoever.

That other ordinance pertains to everything within the city limits.

I had nothing in mind with Open Bible whatsoever with this situation.

So I want to be absolutely and totally clear has nothing, one has nothing to do with the other.

Open Bible gets to keep that well as long as they don't have city water because when we bring water up there they'll have the ready to serve fee if they don't connect which obviously they will, but until we bring it there they have the right to keep that well.

And anybody that connect is at their expense 100%.

to, yeah, they will have to connect from the right away.

So again, when we build water mains, we run new water main, which is our responsibility in the services.

We run them to every house to the right away.

That is our responsibility as a city.

That's what we own.

And then the connection from that piece to the house, that becomes the owner's cost, no matter who it is.

We can't, that's spending public money on private property and we can't do that.

Alderman Sanders.

Let me help you out.

I need a lot of help.

Yeah, yeah, because as we're speaking, things are changing.

The same, the same.

the same the same information we talked about last year about this particular program and we did not go forward with it the languages are still changing what was said back then is not being said today but my thing is what is prompting this water main at one point some million dollars to be installed first of of all. What is prompting this taxpayer's dollars for running such a water main if we're not obligated to put a water main down this particular, I don't know how many feet it is or whatever it is, but- Twenty-two hundred feet.

Whatever it is, it's not something that taxpayers just want to take 1.7 million dollars and just stick it in the ground, just to stick it in the ground unless we're requested to do so, a purpose for it, unless we're obligated.

If there's a mandate that the city is liable to do this, where is this coming from?

Who is making this motion that we do such a thing?

To install something in the ground that specifically don't serve anyone before it is even put in the ground at one point some million dollars.

My thing is, why are we opening up the ground for one point some million dollars just to stick a pipe in there?

I'd like to answer that.

Yeah, go ahead.

So there is absolutely some confusion with this council, and it's getting very taxing.

No, I'm talking right now.

You can respond.

There is no intent to build this main at this time.

Nobody's asked to build it.

Nobody has ever said we're building it.

We designed it so we could have it shovel ready, which is where we're at right now.

If you go back to the comments from when we approved the design, we said we would move it forward, get it shovel ready, get it EPA permitted, and look for funds to do it.

That is where we're at.

That is what we've done.

We fulfilled our promise.

Nobody's asking to build this today.

Nobody's asking to build it tomorrow.

We're trying to figure out a way to get it done.

We have been weekly shopping, if you will, for grants, looking for any avenue to get this paid for, and we have not been successful so far.

So that's the status.

Well, my thing is, why are we investing our time trying to install a water main that's it's not going to serve nobody currently or what's the purpose of it for it's not going to serve why are we sticking it in the ground that's 1.4 million or whatever million dollars that we're using of taxpayers dollars to install something in the ground just to let it sit there until someone decides they want to connect to it why are we doing that well because if we build it open Bibles going to connect to it immediately because they've requested it. So you asked who requested it, they requested it. They requested it 25 years ago. There's 12 other residents of the city of Freeport that live in that corridor, and they will connect. They did not request that 25 years ago. It doesn't matter what they requested. It does. We have a responsibility. It does matter. Let them answer. We have a responsibility as the city Freeport to feed our constituents water, potable water, if they want it. We have a responsibility.

That's what these ordinances are right. They can't just go drill new wells. We're not going to let them. We have a responsibility to serve water and sewer to anyone within the city limits that wants it. That is our job as a municipality. That's why we charge for it.

That's what utility rates are all about. Well, from my discussion and everything about this, they didn't want this water main to connect to initially.

I don't know why you're digging up stuff that is not true.

That's not true.

Oh, okay.

They wanted it.

They wanted it.

Okay.

But they wanted it for free.

Okay.

They wanted it, but they wanted it for free.

They wanted it at taxpayers money, dollars, and it's a not for profit organization.

My complaint was all the time is, Do the city accommodate any establishment entity at all if they're non-for-profit?

We're in the business of installing things like that when it comes to other non-for-profit entities to invest taxpayers' dollars to put in the ground just for the notion that an open Bible might want to connect to it because they still may not want to connect as far as I know but the point of the matter is there's there's money going into the ground and yeah well that's the that's the whole requesting the whole premise of our discussion. Let me let Mayor Miller. I just want to bring a little clarity just in discussions that I've had with the director there they've never asked for something for free they've always had the intent that when the line is there they would be like anyone else any other business any other I'm just curious if we're actually having discussion on the update of this or whether we're arguing the point that isn't even in front of us yet.

Well, we're discussing the update.

However, when it was first brought to the council, City Manager Boyer asked us to do this for open Bible for free.

That's what he was asking.

Because we needed to respect what this community development person had promised but as long as they were getting those inspections waived for not having a sprinkler system, it was okay.

But when it came down to our firemen doing the inspection and realizing there was no water sprinkler, then the ball changed and that was the 25 years later.

Yeah, so I think we have discussed this area a lot and everybody involved, which is I think no one here admits that there's a major error 25 years ago that this didn't get pulled forward.

We can't blame people that aren't here anymore and we fully take responsibility for it.

but I take responsibility for calling it the open Bible water main extension that's completely my fault 100% Darren Stiegel's fault I called it that because I didn't have a better name for it at the time but that's what it came to council as yeah but but so I just picked the name to put on the permit said it wasn't a title it wasn't a mission it was just a A name of the project, just like we named Adams Avenue.

Is the city liable for that water main to be installed?

Is there an ordinance saying that we are liable for that?

We are responsible to serve water.

No, answer my question.

It's not a liability thing.

Nobody else can install it.

Are we liable as taxpayers to put that water main in that ground?

Are we liable?

Answer that question.

I'm not going to get into it on an open floor as to whether or not the city is obligated, responsible, liable for something because that's not to the city's advantage to admit anything whatsoever, okay?

So, but I will say that there are potential obligations of the city based off prior acts, comments, affirmations made by city staff back then.

Whether or not a judge would say that we are absolutely responsible for it, I don't know unless and until we're in court.

I don't want to find out if we're in court, you know, necessarily.

I don't think the city wants to necessarily go that route, but maybe it does.

That's for you guys to decide at the end of the day.

there's a lot of talk around this this project talking about you know should we do this are we obligated to do this you know from from what was said in the past at the end of the day it really doesn't matter what happened in the past it's good to know I'm not saying that we should not talk about what happened in the past but what it all boils down to is what the elected City Council wants to do now if you don't want to extend the water don't extend the water if you want to extend the water extend the water you can have whatever reason you Shea, and you want for it. Justification for how you vote, that's fine. But that's the bottom line. If the council votes to not move it forward, then you don't move it forward. But if you guys choose to the majority says build it, then you build it. That's it. It's simple.

Well, let me interject this mischaritization of what this is all about and what we're talking about to even be talking about it at this time on the floor, we have already visit that area. And what we're trying to do is bring something up where misinformation is being provided at this time. And so my thing is, I object to the fact that this is being brought B.

So I think that this is being brought before us again without understanding whether we are liable or there's an ordinance that we promised something or made an agreement.

We have not seen anything in writing.

We need to explore this a little bit more before we commit the taxpayers money.

We're not there, honey.

Yeah.

We're not there.

Okay.

We're not there yet?

Okay.

We're not there.

I'd like to point out that- So, at this time, Alderman Sanders, there's nothing being moved forward. What's on the agenda right now was simply an update.

The nutshell summary of the update is that Fehr Graham has gone and designed the work, which is what was authorized by council, and then the permit's been issued, and now they are looking for funding for that. That was all that was agreed to back then, a few months ago, there.

there if they're if they find no funding then it's gonna have to come back to the council and say hey we didn't find any funding what do you guys want to do and then the council will decide okay well we didn't find funding then maybe we vote and say no we're not moving forward or the council can say well even without funding you know we're gonna find the money somewhere and we're gonna move forward with it that's up for you guys to decide at that time that's that's not I have to object with you, attorney Zito. Rocky, that's how it is honey. No, no it isn't. That is how it is right now. Yeah, oh okay, well what I'm, what I'm, what I'm trying to say is this, we're speaking in like, we're speaking as though we're going to make a move or vote for something that we have not even. We're not. Okay. Nothing's, nothing's happening tonight. It was just a status update where we're at, what's going on.

that's all it was supposed to be.

So we will move on to item number 12.

Discussion regarding the costs and impact of events on city of Freeport services presented by myself and Alderman Sanders.

I'll start this off if that's okay.

Yes, sir.

So there's been a lot of discussion about different events and things happening, you know, that in a lot of ways would require council, you know, approval, as well as spending money on services, may it be police, fire, whatever it might be, city services, blocking roads, doing all the types of things it takes away from our daily tasks, the planning meetings, things like that.

So the questions that really came to my mind, you know, what were the actual costs to the city for these events that we've done?

you know I've heard a lot of different things you know kind of back and forth question I had popped up was overtime you know things like that were there overtime were people scheduled to work those shifts did we bring in extra patrols you know did we you know put city services at you know a point that we you know probably needed more you know or was everything okay and I that's Miller.

So that's why I put this on here, put an end to the discussion and the concerns, hopefully be able to get to the bottom of where we are and what it actually cost us and if this is something we should budget in on a regular basis or have discussions about moving forward because I have heard from a couple of people that I've heard, yes, we would approve anything for anybody who brought a festival or something forward, but I've also heard from other people that said they've been denied these services.

So the question that I'm bringing to the table now is to have a conversation about, you know, what we spent on each of these, you know, what we kind of did.

And that's why, you know, I put on here, you know, just a couple just to have a conversation about city manager, mayor, fire chief, police chief kind of go over this because, you know, I think our public works even, you know, because we are blocking streets are we are taking time to do things.

There are clean up things like that.

and I just wanted to make sure all of it was captured.

Do we, I don't know if staff had a chance to kind of take a look and see if.

Staff has actually not had a chance to look this over and do the research necessary and if it's council's will to move forward with an effort to do so, I'll be happy to comply.

Ask a question. Sure.

Why are we just picking these two?

Why wouldn't we also want to look at what it would cost Yoo, can I just add for like, don't they do like, cruise night, paint the port, you know, all those different activities that we have that also takes city time too, so why just these two?

I think these two, it was more of a, I picked the two bigger events, the one that was, you know, out the county fairgrounds, we do have a lot of city police officers, we, you know, auxiliary, other pieces, I know auxiliary doesn't have a cost to it, but just trying to understand from that kind of a standpoint. It was not necessarily to isolate these two organizations. It was more of just to pick one that was a for-profit, which I didn't even know before I started looking into this that Stevenson County Fair wasn't part of Stevenson County. It's a Stevenson County Fair Association, which is a for-profit entity, not a not-for-profit entity, and Freeport Festival because it's, gentlemen says wrong.

OK, interesting.

So that would be wrong on there.

OK, understood there.

But the other was the Freeport Festivals does take a lot more.

Well, I would say cruise night also takes quite a bit.

So, you know, I I would like to make a motion, at least at this point.

I know you've got questions, but I'll let you ask a question.

Yeah, I just wanted to chime in on this one.

to find out who's organizing the festivals and cruise nights and things of this nature because there's funding that has to be exhausted in order to conduct these type of events.

So my thing is who's organizing it, what committee that's in charge of it, and any monies that and others that are being fundal to these particular programs or these events, where the funding is coming from, and who's the oversight or overseers of these particular events.

I like to get right down to the basics of how we got here, how we got here and how it was organized.

and John. I would like to explain a lot of things to me to understand what is really happening and how do we get where we're at and why we're having these events and who's constructing them. That's what I like to understand. Who are the individuals that are making these proposals that we should have these events? I like to get right up to the basics of the foundation of it, you know, which right now we're just floating over things and just letting it happen.

and we can't do that we have to we got a whole whoever it is responsible for the outcome and not only that the managing of the funds and how it is dispersed where where's these funds coming from because taxpayers that are involved in this some kind of way but I have not explored it completely but the thing about it is we need to know where the nuts and bolts are that's operating this machine. So what would you need manager Boyer to kind of move forward with direction on this to kind of pull forward at least since it sounds like everything is not-for-profit to pull forward you know what each of these events cost the city how much time would you need you know what what would it take to pull this together I I think just the authorization to direct staff to do the research and come back with the report.

How much time?

A couple of months.

It could be a little while. I'm not precisely sure.

And just for a point of clarity, are you talking about everything that's permitted?

By state, I don't understand the question.

and the rest of the board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the question.

Well, the clerk receives a lot of permits from the memorial day parade to, you know, music on Chicago stuff.

I mean, there's just a ton of things that are permitted that are you looking at?

I mean, if you're going to evaluate, you might as well evaluate everything.

Sure.

Huffines.

Where are the taxpayers, to what extent, to what extent are the taxpayers paying for these events?

I don't care what it is that the city is doing, what entity, whatever organization doing anything, where does the taxpayers at the end of the day, where are their fundings, where are the fundings for these events and programs?

Where is it coming from?

Go ahead.

I'd just like to as long as we're discussing this and adding everything in the world into it that we've never talked about before I'd like to also see how much money this brings into the city of Freeport for all the businesses and everything else that's been mentioned by the two or three people that spoke beforehand. Tourism dollars are a big thing here and last year I believe we we bought 50 some million dollars worth then.

So I think that justifies some of this, but as long as we're looking at what everything costs and why we're doing everything.

Knauss, and why we're doing everything, let's take a look at how beneficial it is to us.

Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I think the concern right now is that we don't know if we spend $10 or $10 million. We have no clue how many dollars are being spent on these events, personnel, hours, vehicle time, all of that. And I do think whenever you're running a business, there is a cost benefit analysis that goes into this. And we want to make sure Fowler.

I want to make sure that what we're doing isn't the best interest of Freeport and quite honestly Cruise Night, this is my opinion, everybody's got an opinion, Cruise Night used to be a lot better than it is.

Now it's all spread out, it's not as tight, used to be a lot more stuff going on downtown, it's kind of an afterthought.

But I think what we've had, some of these events have been really positive for the city, others haven't been.

and I think it's wise to at least step back and at least have the conversation to look into, do we want to continue to do all of these different events and are we using a fair amount of taxpayer dollars to make these happen that we could be putting toward, you know, the question came up a few weeks ago about $25,000 for lights, where's that going to come from?

Well, if we're spending $25,000 on something that isn't bringing as much to the city as Bates, and Mark, and I think that's the only conversation that's coming up.

And at least make sure what we're doing, you know, because even with 503-C1s, you know, you do have the potential for money to be paid out to individuals.

And I think it's important that we ensure that if we're providing something at no charge Miller.

I think that's a smart thing to do, you know, there are rules for all of these things within the IRS and everything else.

Under certain amounts, things are not reportable, and I just want to make sure that what we are doing is the best interest of the City of Freeport and its citizens and every tax dollar that we spend.

Alderman Sellers?

Sellers.

I just want to say also that we know that you have to spend money to make money.

And you know that any time we have, you have any events within our community, we're going to have to have police and fire, we're going to have to have these people working to make sure that it's safe.

We want to have events in our community to draw people into our community to see what we have.

you don't want us to, I mean I think Tutti Baker days or whatever Freeport festival whatever they want to call it it has brought a lot of people into our community the the fair has brought a lot of people what is it the cruise night I mean paint the port all of those things have and we have to spend money to make Huffines.

We make money, and we know that.

So I think it's just something we're just kind of fussing about.

I mean, when has it ever come up before?

That's what I want to know.

When has these items with cruise night, as long as it's been, a night on Chicago, how long has that been, all these different nights, when did it ever come up before?

That's what I just want to know.

Why is it such a problem now?

Where there's new sheriffs in town, you know.

You can't keep doing things the old way.

Sometimes you gotta go with the change of the atmosphere.

And my thing is when someone says, I need a permit for this, I need a permit for that, and then the city gets involved in what these permits for whatever committee, entity or whatever, that's information that is data information that if we as council wants to know who are these permitters and who are requesting permits for any event or anything that is happening then council has a right to ask the question and get the answers of who are the permittees and then we can follow up from there and how things are organized. We've given our permits without and John.

I don't believe that I'm hearing this. And if it's not organized, there's something that we want to do that's not organized. We got to have a permit to do so. So I'd like to know who are these individuals who are getting permits to do anything throughout the city.

And I'll put this out there. So if I, as an employee at a company, I go to a national convention and there's a group and there's a group of people from my company goes to that national convention.

We know down to the penny about everything that was spent at that event and we are accountable for that spending and here in the city of Freeport we are not and the question that I've got for you, I'll tell you why it's got to change because I keep getting told it's another cup of coffee that I'm going to get charged for a $200 water bill, for and I have a $150 fee to have some clown from Chicago roll out here and look at my pipe connected to my house that it's not going to backwash into the sewer.

All of the costs come to me, the people putting these festivals on need to pay for them themselves.

That's where it's coming from.

And what we've gotten ourselves into a hole, and you're defending, which it doesn't surprise me.

No, no, no, no, no, I'm telling you why, I'm giving you the why.

it's because it's because is Rand Jodi and the Stevenson County Fair is Rob's wife is that what fair that's a fair question and I'm telling you straight up I think all of them have to be questioned and and the reason why is if I'm going to pay for it I need to know what my costs are as a person who lives Huffines.

We've raised all the fees for that, that's why this is coming up because the people in this community want our leaders held accountable and we've not been doing a good job.

Fowler.

I take as much credit as anybody would get on that.

I should have been holding people more accountable from the get-go.

There's not enough.

What I'm saying is, why wasn't the question saying for every event?

Well, I just put these down as examples.

Transparency.

Yeah, I'm trying...

Hey, if you would have said every event...

There's not enough transparency.

That's where I'm at.

Yeah.

So once we establish transparency...

Alderman Clems.

He's got the floor.

Sorry.

...then we might get somewhere.

Alderman Clems.

I just like to, as everybody's tallying up all this stuff, okay, for everybody, keep track of how much time you waste and how much it costs you, because every one of you guys got another job to do also. So when you ask for this X amount allowance, ask for something down the line, and they say, I can't, I'm working on how much it costs to have the fire department have a fire truck downtown that you guys got Tattou. Let's stop and take where we're really going here. First, you've got a motion and you've got a second. You haven't passed it to move forward yet.

Alderman Shadle? Was there a motion? Not yet. I don't think so. Yeah, we're having a discussion. I make a motion to table it indefinitely. Well, that's your opinion.

is there a second we have a motion to table it from Alderman Clem and a second from Alderman Parker discussion actually what discussion just on the We just allowed Boyer a month or so to get information gathered up for us, and he committed to that.

Well, that wasn't the direction of the council, though, Cecelia, it hadn't gotten to that point.

We need a resolution for this.

We need a resolution.

Hang on one second.

Okay.

Okay.

Alderman Monroe had asked about wanting to he said I want to make a motion to direct staff to look into the cost sounds like the revenues as well of all festivals there he asked Alderman Boyer how long do you think it would take he said he wasn't sure you know they might could take a little bit there but you didn't actually make that motion and there wasn't because conversations was still discussing there.

So there wasn't a motion yet made on that, okay?

You would agree with that?

I would agree.

So make the motion.

I can't, no, he's tabled it.

Of course you can.

Well, he's made a motion.

Alderman Klemm now has made a motion.

But you can make a motion on top of a motion.

Not these motions yet.

So you have to deal with the subsidiary motion first there.

So he has a motion to postpone indefinitely, seconded by Alderman Parker.

We're in discussion on that.

if that passes, then the item is postponed indefinitely.

If it doesn't pass, then you guys are right back to where we were and Alderman Monroe can.

where we were and Alderman Monroe can then make his motion to instruct staff to look into this, okay?

This is a trip.

What's on the floor is just a motion to table it indefinitely.

That's the motion.

Yeah.

I have something to say.

Go ahead.

Sure.

It has to be on the table.

It's about other person, Klemm, would you be willing to withdraw your motion to table if the request was just for what did the city directly write a check towards versus all the indefinite costs? Would you be willing to have that information revealed?

Say that exactly what you said again. Say it in your mic.

Versus being buried with numbers and information, we really just would like to know what amount has the city given like we voted to give a large amount to the Tutti-Baker Day organization to make sure that that happened if we're asking for those amounts how much did the city actually pay towards this or that which would eliminate a lot of work for city staff but it was still answer the question of what is the city directly contributing if you're asking for no Huffines.

You just don't know.

Period.

No.

You're just not going to answer?

Larry.

Oh.

Larry.

I made a motion.

Yeah.

I mean, we can vote on it.

That's the question?

Sometimes it's good to be silent.

Why don't you try it once?

Sometimes it's just that.

Alderman Monroe?

Yes.

Alderman Sellers.

So, are you also saying, Alderman Simmons, just on these two things to find out how much We're paying or for any event what do we if the city has written a check to that organization to sponsor that event yes okay I doubt there will be that many events that fall under that category don't yeah that's not yeah I just see what what we have given any event okay W you want to okay you start us off Monroe. So this is just so everyone knows what we're voting on right now. This is strictly the motion to postpone this topic indefinitely, okay? A no vote would be to vote against tabling it. Correct. A yes vote is in favor of tabling it.

Monroe? No. Simmons? No. Parker? Aye. Stacy? No. Shadle? Sorry, am I interrupting you?

No. I can make my own motions. I can move. I'm not bothering you. I believe you are.

Oh, you got a problem.

Sanders?

Uh, no.

Sellers?

The only reason why I'm saying no is because I would like to see what we have given other ones, so...

Klemm?

Why do you have to give an explanation?

Because I want to.

Don't worry about what I do.

That's what I want to do.

Shhh!

Alderperson Klemm, what say you?

Aye.

Yeah, go to the back.

It fails, five to three, well wait a second, is that the correct terminology?

Yeah.

Yeah, the postponement fails.

Okay.

Don't leave the room yet.

Save yourself 30 seconds.

I'm going to make a motion.

Excuse me, can I interrupt?

I took the floor a substantial amount of time ago, never said a word, got interrupted with a motion, so we just took care of that.

Can I at least have a chance?

I gave you the floor.

Well and I got interrupted.

Okay.

So here we are.

I was going to make a motion to give staff ample time to get this figured out in amongst their daily workings and bring it back at say the June or July COW and talk about it then.

If you have a motion then you have to ask the question.

So when he had a motion, why wasn't the question asked?

I got her interrupted as well.

So I...

Yeah.

And then I think you said, well, I'll wait to make a motion.

Yeah.

So...

Because of discussion.

He asked, he said that he would.

Because I had a couple of hands, that's why.

Yeah.

Do we have a second to that motion?

Second to Shadle's?

Third.

I'll second it.

Yeah.

Klemm did too.

We have Shadle made a motion, Klemm seconded.

The motion is to delay until July, June, I don't know whenever, is it July or June?

Let's say July for clarification.

Okay.

Discussion?

Do what?

So to basically to instruct staff to look into the costs of all the various festivals and events, no matter.

So discussion?

Alderman Stacey?

Yes.

I don't think we should wait until June or July.

As I recall, one council meeting, we had 460 plus pages that we had to read through and had to be prepared from 540 on a Friday and we had to be prepared Monday.

What we're asking should not be that hard and I don't see why we need four or five months to get that answer.

If we take a month, we take a month.

for four or five month is absolutely ridiculous compared to what is expected of us as older people.

Alderman Klemm.

Yeah, if I take a look at this agenda, as of Wednesday or so, there were four items on it.

There are certain people that it's Monroe in this or Monroe in that or Sanders in this and Stacy in that that have brought up at least eight items in an executive session that we've had no time to repair for, no information to look at.

We never know when there's an executive session.

We never know until after we adjourn and it's said executive session.

And I have asked that it be stated on the agenda that we know in advance when there's Huffines.

It's an executive session.

And I understand that you guys asked for one.

I don't know nothing about it, so all these eight things that you brought up from Friday or whatever are all new to all of us, so we're just discussing them just like you went to.

Executive session, it tells you the last bullet point tells you what the executive session is about.

it's right there on the agenda any other conversation about this one could you repeat that so basically this is a vote to look into the expenditures associated with the actual costs to the city of Freeport for all of the events that we you know each and every event yeah well yeah I I want us to make sure that the who are in charge of these events give us some kind of acknowledgement that such an event is going to take place and who's in charge, what organization is running these committees and things of this nature, what is the breakdown of how much it would take taxpayers' involvement in these particular programs and I'd like to know who's the committee or organizations Huffines that are running these programs. That's what I'd like to know. And if council know anything about that, I would appreciate them talking to council members so we're not out here on limbo land trying to figure out what is going on with festivals and events.

Alderman Sanders, that's what we're trying to find out.

That's what we're doing.

I know. I know. I know that's what we're trying to find out.

So let's move forward with Mr. Dovie.

We're gonna take a vote. I just want them to hear that. So this is on instructing staff to gather info to be reported at the July COW. Monroe? No. Simmons? No. Parker? Aye. Stacy? No. Shadle? Aye. Sanders? No. Sellers? Aye. Klemm? Aye. We have a four to four vote. Mayor? Wilson.

Mayer. Well, since I am the president of one of these organizations, I will stay in. Oh, you are? Oh, that's news. That's not news Alderman Sanders. That ain't old news. That was a lie. I make a motion that we move forward with what Alderman Simmons. Yeah, that was a strategy move.

Axe. Yes. The motion fails for lack of a majority. Yeah that was a strategy move.

So just I think a point of clarity here had the city spent any money towards any festival it would have had to come past this council get approved. Absolutely. I kind of think that's a ridiculous question in nature. It is absolutely you would have had to approve it.

Hey, so the authorization of using vehicles, gas, trucks, your department was one of the ones that actually did support that we do know that it drove all the way to Chicago and back.

So yes, it is happening.

The police department has brought in extra patrols.

That wasn't the question.

If the city has wrote checks to these was the question.

That's not the question that was asked between just now.

It was expenditures.

Alderman said that's what she brought it up, but that's not what- That's the answer to that question.

Yeah.

Make your motion.

Make your motion that was skipped over.

All right, it's not gonna pass.

So at this point, we know where we're at.

So we'll just, I'm just gonna move on to item number 13.

So then we're still expecting that information from City Manager Boyer.

So, but that did clear up something though. Discussion of codified ordinance section 240.31 residency requirement for specific members of various departments and failure to adhere to the ordinance, various ordinances, and this is presented by myself and Alderman Sanders.

I've received several contacts with respect to employees that do not live in the city.

We heard earlier from the former chief of police voicing his opinion, but right now, and I was a little bit shocked to read into the ordinances a little bit further, that certain members of departments are required to live within city limits and some are required Bickert, Scott, and Jeff, and more.

I know that there are a number of people who are trying to live within a radius of the city of Freeport.

It has been brought to my attention that there are more than 10 that are in violation of the ordinance, and I wanted to bring this forward to at least have a conversation.

Fowler.

The men and women on patrol, you know, with each of the various entities, with the unions, that they no longer have that requirement.

I don't know if we went to a mileage distance.

I'm going to defer to the attorney.

But there's only one ordinance that's issued here is 240.31, which I believe goes to the police.

and then there's also a fire that's 242.25 or 26 something along those lines and at least the fact that it's been brought up via contact with email and a letter sent to myself I thought it was worthwhile to have the conversation on the floor and see about what changes or what we do about it.

you kind of I'll let you head the floor to explain what the ordinance is say and then so currently right now in a nutshell just looking at the police one as the example there the chief of police there's a requirement that the chief of police reside within the city limits and then for certain ranks all deputy chief lieutenants and sergeants they have to live within a certain radius of city of the fire of the police station excuse me there the code then goes on to and I think that's what we're trying to provide though that if those particular officers lived outside or outside of those radius areas prior to that ordinance back then being adopted, they were allowed to still stay there.

They didn't have to go move or buy a new house or anything like that.

Alderman Rowe, I think what you and I discussed ahead of time was, you know, does this ordinance make sense to even have on the books anymore?

Miller, or does it make more sense just to get rid of the residency requirement? Because as you noted, for in our police union contracts and our fire contracts and our ASME contracts that used to have the residency requirement, we ultimately negotiated those out there because we found that they didn't make sense anymore to have them. Again, I think that only applies right now to, as you call it, the boots on the ground, the rank and file there. So the question now is, do we want to apply, does the council want to kind of make it uniform and say, hey, this applies to department heads and then the other officers that are not rank and file, the lieutenants, the sergeants, et cetera, there.

Good synopsis.

Any comments?

Any thoughts?

So basically, the conversation is about the residency requirements for sergeants, lieutenants, battalion chiefs, deputy chiefs, chiefs of police, chiefs of fire, you know.

and other department heads actually too.

Yeah, and department heads.

Do we want to at least have a conversation to kind of move forward with either updating this based on, you know, current situation within the city limits of Freeport?

You know, are there, you know, because right now the way it reads, it says any officer Miller.

They're hired to a rank or title listed in the subsection, has to, within the effective date of accepting the position, they have six months to meet the residency requirement or it can be extended for an additional six month period based on the city manager's approval.

So the question that I've got is, you know, do we want to re-evaluate kind of the situation or you know, at least have a conversation about where we're at right now.

I'd like to make the motion to move it on to re-evaluate it, whether it's to keep it or get it re-evaluated.

Second.

It makes sense.

Can I just question I guess I have as to Alderman Parker's motion there because are because your motion is to say to reevaluate it like to have staff come back with a recommendation is that what you mean or are you making a motion to say amend it this way? Oh okay so to get rid of the residency requirement for the The department heads, the chiefs, the Everybody but the city manager.

Okay Okay Yeah, yeah, he didn't say motion you did no he said a motion and I second You have to remember this isn't passing anything this is just saying to bring it forward, okay Just to the next next meeting for discussion for yeah, so I have that discussion about it Do we want, I mean, are you basically asking staff to provide their input into this or, because right now we're having the discussion.

Yeah.

If the staff wants to give their input, that would give them time to do it. Otherwise, we, go ahead, Rob.

Yeah, I'm in agreement with your proposal.

Can I clarify, are you saying to the next COW or the next City Council meeting? City Council, thank you.

No, it's already seconded.

You mind if I ask a question?

You know, we've had this on the books for a while. Why haven't we been enforcing that?

Number one, there's been a number of personnel that have been outside of the area and it was staff's Intention to bring that before council to get this adjusted changed. So we just hadn't gotten that far along yet and Was looking forward to doing that is okay so we have a motion a second I'm gonna have Dovie go ahead and we're good Monroe hi I'm sorry that was yes hi okay Simmons Parker hi Stacy I Shadel hi Sanders, Sellers, and Klemm. Motion passes 8 to 0. Next one.

Next one. Discussion regarding resolution, R 202530 authorizing an agreement with MSA Professional Services to provide IHDA home repair and accessibility program grant writing services and use for new structures inside the city of Freeport.

This was brought forward because the last council meeting we had a question was asked to the city manager about new structures.

and others.

So I'm just trying to get some clarification into, it sounded like we'd already gone down the road a little bit of the way with, you know, building new houses on city lots, city owned lots at this point.

that was a just happen to see a video on social media you spoke it somewhere I'd forget where was it the Eagles Club or I don't remember where it was well I will say that infill housing is an important priority to kind of redeploy the vacant lots that are owned by the city especially in some of our more challenged words you know third fifth seventh word a lot of vacant lots that but that was not the idea behind this HTA home repair and accessibility program and I believe that these funds can't be used for new construction but I would ask for Wayne to follow up on that.

I mean the short answer is just no, you can't use IDA HRAP funds for it, I mean that's the for building new homes. You can't do it. You can't do it. I mean, I've got a couple of slides here I can show you just to kind of put your mind at ease. But I wish we could use some money to help people build new homes, at least partially fund new homes, because I know we had a housing plan done in 2022. And I think there's many people that would like funding that would help them start to build new homes. The good news is Huffines.

We're going to move on to the next slide.

This is being directed by council.

When we look here, the housing development authority, the housing rehabilitation and accessibility program, these activities, the program aims to preserve existing affordable housing stock, provide investment in underserved communities, improve the health and well-being of occupants, help low income and disabled or mobility and impaired persons in their homes.

and the next slide.

There's really three project types here.

And then I give a source that you can go to to kind of.

Hold up.

I can't see anything up there.

OK, so I'll just, sorry.

This grant, and they talked about this at the presentation, there's full rehabilitation projects, which is that you get $50,000 to help with your home rehabilitation.

you have accessibility projects which discusses accessibility if you have mobility issues and also other disabilities and then you also have roof only projects that's really that's really all you can I that answers everything okay I didn't know that's all you can stand okay perfect Alderman Stacy you have a can you tell me if that's covering all underserved and Winn, Will, and Stacey.

They have their own form.

And then when it's presented to the city, IDA has to approve the scoring for any income.

So anyone that feels they're eligible can sign up?

They can sign up, certainly, but they have to meet the income requirements.

And we talked about that at the last meeting.

Yeah, we talked about that.

and Stacey.

When will these applications be available for our constituents?

I'm hoping soon.

I know you voted against it, but I'm really hopeful that- Oh, you had to put that in there, didn't you?

Well, you asked and you voted against it.

I voted against a lot.

That don't mean it doesn't pass.

So since it passed, I mean, I just, you asked the question.

I still want information.

I understand it.

We're writing our application now.

We're writing our application now.

and we're hopeful to hear back by August.

Duckman, you're toying with me.

I don't play with toys.

I'm too old.

OK.

Oh, boy.

Any other questions?

So when is the application coming out?

We're going to find.

Ida says, what Ida is saying now is that they plan to let communities know between June and August.

OK.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Any other questions, comments?

We can put that one to bed.

Item number 15, discussion regarding status update on contracts with both fire and public works unions presented or actually being asked for from myself and Alderman Sanders.

I know we've got both of those.

Okay, perfect.

So with regards to the fire union contract with IAFF, our current contract is good through December 31st of 2025.

So we wouldn't begin to bargain Huffines.

That's what the contract calls for.

So that wouldn't be until October 31st when we could even get a request to bargain from the union.

So we're still, we're still good right now on the fire contract, okay.

On the public works contract, that's what they asked me there.

So they gave us a request to bargain.

And that first, the very first and only so far negotiations took place in February there.

So just this past February they had the first meeting and they gave us just a handful of non-economic points there.

They have more coming there so we are just waiting for them to provide us with their other non-economic proposals there and then we'll be able to start dealing with those and addressing those and bringing those forward to council but they have not given us a complete list.

They've only given us like a very handful of their proposals.

They're still working on the rest of them.

So as we get all of those, and that's not even the economic proposals yet there.

So it's in process, but we've only had one meeting since in February so far.

Awesome.

Okay.

Any questions?

Anybody got anything on that one?

Sorry.

Next meeting is scheduled for March 20.

320.

Perfect.

So that takes us to item number 16, which is public comments, agenda, or non-agenda items Huffines.

We have three minutes per person.

We have Willie Graham, who has signed up first.

Oh, sorry, I didn't know you had one.

Yes, I'm sorry.

I shouldn't have spoke up.

That's okay.

First, I'd like to say good evening to everyone.

My name is Willie Graham, I live in the third ward here in Freeport, and I have some complaints.

and I was asked for y'all to listen to me and consider my complaints. First of all, I want to start off with, I need a house that I, about a year or so ago, that I was trying to get tore down, and I had a private contractor to do it. That didn't work out for me, because I found out that he wasn't the right kind of person that I wanted to do the and others.

And I'm not able to do it myself. And I hear that the city charged so much money, and so I won't say how much I was told, because I don't know if it's right or not. But I'm not able to get it told out. I got three lots right there. I have some living in. It's in and others.

I had to have some work done on it and I still got some more to do on it, but I think I can do that myself.

But the house that needed to be torn down that I had a letter telling me that they haven't put any signs or anything on it yet, but I think they're going to warn me that I need to do something with it.

I'm not able to do it. So, to get it towed out, I'm gonna need some help with it.

I'm going to need some help with it, and I've been talking to some other people that got their house towed out and they charge a fee to do it that I just don't have to do it.

I wanted to keep the, and I also wanted to keep the lot and with it to my kids.

I need some information on how to do that, and I need someone to help me out with this.

I know that you guys, I've heard, I don't know, I've heard that you guys have helped other people out.

Well, I'm the one that needs help out. I tried to keep the lots in pretty decent shape, all three of them.

I am not able to cut the lots, but I try to get someone to cut the grass and try to keep as much stuff up off the lots as I can. If someone will provide me with that information, I would appreciate it.

Also, I have a pickup truck that is not in running condition right now. My wife has a Car's not a running condition. Now we had planned on trying to get that done, they were sitting on the side of the street. Mr. Graham, your time is up, sir. If you stick around after the meeting, I'm sure we can chat with you and see what we can do to help you out, sir. Okay, thank you. Very welcome. Thank you for coming. That's all I've got that's signed up with any... Yes, ma'am. Wait, Ms. Dovie, let Dovie go I probably should have said it earlier. I'm sorry. Yes. I apologize. I received two public comments by email one last week came in from Amber Patterson. Dear City Council Animal Control Department, I am writing to express my concern regarding the welfare of animals at the Freeport City Pound. As a concerned citizen slash resident of Freeport, I believe it's crucial to ensure that all animals in your care are treated humanely and provided with adequate resources.

and others.

I would like to address the following living conditions.

The cleanliness of kennels, access to clean water and food, adequate shelter from the elements. What are the daily cleaning and sanitation protocols? How often are animals provided with fresh water and food? Veterinary care. Is there access to veterinary care, including vaccinations, spaying, neutering, and treatment for illnesses or injuries? What or through contracted providers?

What is the protocol for addressing medical emergencies?

Are animals provided with opportunities for exercise and socialization?

What enrichment activities are provided to prevent boredom and stress?

Adoption and rehoming.

What are the adoption rates, adoption procedures, and efforts to find suitable homes for the animals?

What procedures are in place to screen potential adopters?

What outreach efforts are being made to promote adoption?

Makeup, Hurry, What are the criteria for euthanasia?

Are all other options exhausted before euthanasia is considered?

I understand that animal control facilities face many challenges, and I appreciate the work that your department does.

However, I believe that open communication and transparency are essential for ensuring the well-being of the animals in your care.

I'm also interested in exploring ways that the community can support the Pound, such as through volunteering, donations, or fostering.

Thank you for your time and consideration, Amber Patterson.

The second email was received today from a Gmail address from Richard Chesney, received at 2.55 this afternoon, the subject was public comment, 3.10, 2025.

The salutation began high.

The remainder of the email was determined to be too personal and libelous to be read during public comment.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening, City Council, officials of Freeport. I've got three points, possibly four that I'd like to make. The first one is that in the process of talking about the houses, I've heard seven to ten houses. The next thing we heard was nine to eleven. How many really is there? What are we talking about when we keep changing our numbers on how many houses as you're talking about building, on land that you bought from, put it this way, on lots that you bought.

How many houses are we talking about?

This is the second time I've heard about housing.

I heard a program that was supposedly gonna happen with some 20 houses where individuals who came in to buy those houses would not have to pay taxes for a year.

So now we've got two different programs here and I'm wondering what the heck is going on here.

The other thing I'm asking is, I'm saying to you is simply this.

Do you think we're stupid that we don't realize that the votes that you guys are doing are happening and you're trying to put them off until after the elections?

Think about it.

You wanna totally not tell us how much money was spent to clean up the town after major events.

It's not, it should be the easiest thing in the world to do.

You should have a ledger that talks about what was brought in and what went out after the fact So we had to clean up, pay for police, pay for firemen, pay for gas so that the mayor could ride around in a buggy downtown, a golf cart.

The next thing I'd like to say is, for as much as I appreciate you and like you, Amber talks about there being somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 people attending Tutti-Baker, okay?

But, how much they loved it, how much the out of towners loved it.

but here's what you need to understand all of us need to understand this what they didn't see is the deterioration the shootings the lack of diversity the manner in which our kids move away and don't come back what they didn't see is the lack of transparency and trust in City Council and the city officials in this town what they didn't see is the eyes of the people who live here and and have to dodge a bullet walking down the street or dodge a rock that's being thrown at a car by Latin kings.

I've asked the question over and over again and I'm waiting on an answer.

And I'm sure I'll get it because I asked the chief for this answer.

We have an ordinance on the book.

That ordinance is called bad building ordinance.

That's what we know it is.

And you guys know what ordinance I'm talking about.

Why is it that a citizen like me has Piersen.

Why do I have to put her life on the line to shut down buildings in this town that are shooting, gambling, selling drugs?

Why do I have to put myself out on the line to ask you to shut a building down, to shut a house down?

Ms. Piersen.

I want the City Council to take responsibility for shutting down a house in the 900 block of oak that continues to cause this town problems.

Why haven't you done it?

Tommy.

Jodi Miller, you did a good job being Mayor of Sweet and I want to ask, uh, uh, Dwayne Dickman, you got an update about the Jodi, Mr. Jodi Mike in Sweetville?

Uh, you know what, uh, Tommy, I think you got a better update. I saw a picture of you outside with that sign and I was pretty impressed.

So, I'm looking forward to a sandwich pretty soon. That sign looks pretty good.

And so do you in front of it.

And Chief, I want to tell you, you do a good job, too. You're the best police department in the world. And the whole bunch of police departments do a good job, too.

Thank you.

How are you doing? My name is Zakiya Sanders.

The last time we spoke about my house, which everybody is familiar with, the 402-404 Shawnee, Wayne Duckman spoke on it was an emergency because there was a fire in 2021.

I wanted to point out and ask him, what about 476 Kenwood, that also set fire February 15th of 2021, you took that down, but guess what the difference was, you brought that in front of the council for approval, my house wasn't brought in front of the council, and then your buddy next to you, he plain just said, if you spend money in the city of Freeport, it has to come through the council first, so every time you open your mouth, you contradict something, then what about the other house on Kenwood, St., Little Ways. It caught fire in 2022. A man passed away in there. That was an abandoned house. His family still has to look at that house standing. It's not even in the phases of your fast track emergency or anything like that. I want you to just be honest. You targeted me. The people under you told me you said you was going to knock down everything that I own or have something to do with. And you went out of your way to knock my house down that was not approved by council that wasn't on the list at all and you made some big presentation and I want this not to be rocket science for a bunch of you that agree with them.

You cannot use a state law.

you cannot use a state law for an ordinance.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Hearing your discussion on funds, I just wanna clarify the city does not fund Steams County Fair at all.

We pay our way, we have police protection from the Sheriff's Department and City Auxiliary, we pay them.

Same thing, city water out there to the road, we paid if it ran everything in our property.

So we stand on our own.

You can check the books, but we do stand on our own.

And 65,000 people attended last year's fair between Farm and Fleet, Walmart, gas stations.

They all benefit.

So thank you for your time.

Yes, ma'am.

I just, good evening, council and staff and Mayor Miller and, and lawyer Zito.

I just want to make you aware there's also another organization in Freeport that works as a non-profit organization.

I'm grateful to hear about the housing money that you're trying to receive, the grant and so forth.

And this one is called Rebuilding Together, Stevenson County.

And they work together, you can look it up on Facebook and also on their website.

And they have lots of community links that are working together to make this happen.

They've received grant monies from, I think, to help even with veterans' homes.

And their mission statement is this, to bring volunteers from numerous organizations together to build communities that improve the lives of low-income homeowners.

The vision is to work hand-in-hand to address the growing blight and make Stevenson County, Illinois safe and vibrant, and to repair homes in Stevenson County, Illinois, falling into and Erika, and a couple of guys that are right now and they can do a lot of the inside work on them, they have ramps put and their phone number or contact number is 815-235-2824.

So if there's anyone in the community, you might want to check in about that to get on their schedules for this next coming year.

I don't know if it's filled up yet, but it is the whole of Stevenson County.

It's not just for report.

So I just wanted to share that information with you all tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Ms. Dovie? Yes, ma'am.

Tonight we have pursuant to 5 ILCS, 122C1, the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee to determine its validity.

C. Also pursuant to 5-ILCS-122-C11 litigation where an action against, effecting, or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent, in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting.

Do I have a motion to go to executive session?

So move.

Do I have a second?

To do what?

To go to executive session.

Second. Second. We have a first and a second. Stacy is the second. Sellers is the first. All in favor? Aye. Monroe? Aye. Simmons? Simmons. Parker? Aye. Stacy? Aye. Shadle? No. Sanders? Hold it.

What a second.

Uh, no.

Sellers?

Aye.