Oh, is this on?
Okay.
I think it is.
It doesn't sound like it's on.
Yes, it is.
Okay.
Shall we bow our heads?
Father God, thank you for your wisdom here tonight at City Council.
Father, we ask that every ordinance and every resolution tonight be conducted decently and in order, according to 1 Corinthians 14 and 40.
Let every word spoken tonight be with respect and maturity by everyone so our city government can move forward.
Let the protocol already set forth by our city council be observed by everyone tonight.
Father, thank you for your holy presence being here tonight.
In Jesus' holy and matchless name, amen.
Amen.
Now we'll officially call this committee, the whole meeting, to order.
Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll?
Mayor Miller?
Here.
Alderpersons, Klemm, Johnson, Simmons, is absent, Parker, Stacy, Shadle, Sanders, and Sellers is absent.
If you could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Alderman Klemm.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.
Item number four is the approval of the agenda.
Is there such a motion?
I have an amendment.
I make a motion for amendment to the agenda.
Number eight is saying that regarding the audits report, My memo is not regarding the audits report.
It's pertaining to the purchasing policy changes.
So you would like to have number eight be restated as purchasing policy discussion?
Yes.
Mayor Miller?
We'll get the second.
Yes.
So we have a motion made by Alderman Stacy.
Do we have a second?
That motion fails.
Do we have a second?
Yes.
Second by Alderman Sanders.
So discussion on just, yes.
May I note, that was my error when Alderperson Stacy called in.
We got it written down wrong and I pulled the wrong one, so my apologies, but her memo is clearly, we did that.
Her memo is clearly about the purchasing policy.
Okay, so the discussion is then on the purchasing policy being replaced for number eight.
If there's no discussion on that, Madam Clerk, would you please take the role on the amendment?
Klemm?
Aye.
Johnson?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
And Sanders?
Aye.
So then before you counsel is approval of the amended agenda.
Is there such a motion?
So moved.
Second.
Motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Klemm.
All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
That motion passes.
Madam Mayor.
Alderman Shadle.
Point of info, could we have attorney Zito go over some roles of counsel?
Point of info?
Yes.
Sure.
I object.
It's just a point of information.
It's still an objection because it was not discussed in counsel before he made that comment.
So before he can do that, he has to address counsel, and the counsel has to agree to them to address counsel protocols and formalities.
It is not for Attorney Zito to address that kind of issue.
Well, let's just see what the rules are.
Attorney Zito?
No.
You don't have the floor.
Alderman Sanders, please, you don't have the floor.
Yeah, it's a point of order.
So there's been a point of information requested by Alderman Shadle asking for just, Alderman Shadle I think just you want to just a quick synopsis of what our rules of counsel are there and so that's just that's a procedural Roberts rule item where he can make a point of order.
You don't have the floor this is your warning please don't do it again Alderman Sanders.
Alderman Sanders you are now out of order please oh please have the floor before you speak so Roberts rules have been adopted by the City Council also in addition to our rules of council so we've we abide by both there so just question on there so getting back to the point of information by Alderman Shadle then briefly our rules of council that as far as how our meetings are to be governed they're designed to to provide for an orderly and efficient meeting.
Our city council meetings are not a open dialogue necessarily between council members.
It's not an open forum for just open discussion there.
Our discussions are structured discussions.
There are rules of council say that when a older person wants to speak, they will generally they'll raise their hand, they'll get the attention of the mayor.
The Mayor calls on them then and gives that person the floor then they are allowed to speak if a person speaks when they don't have the floor then they would be considered to be out of order potentially our rules also say that you know the chair will call on people in the order that the chair sees their hands being raised there that our rules also say that a person won't speak a second We get to speak a first time on an agenda item until everyone else has been given an opportunity to speak a first time on an agenda.
If there is anyone that wants to speak a first time, everyone is allowed to speak twice on any particular agenda item and they get to speak for a maximum of four minutes of up to four minutes per their two times for those two times there.
Our rules also provide that the mayor as the chairperson conducts the meeting.
The mayor is the one as a chairperson who gets to call on people and give people the floor.
The mayor is the one who enforces whether people stay on topic, whether or not they run over their four minutes or not.
And then also the mayor is the one who gets to determine if anyone is out of order per our council rules there.
Again, these rules are not designed to keep anyone from being able to speak, but just that we speak in an orderly manner where No one is speaking over each other because everyone's just speaking at the same time.
So that's what our rules are designed to do as well.
Last thing I guess I'll say is that if anyone is called out of order twice by the chair, then our ordinance provides that that person can be removed from from the council chambers.
So I don't know if that suffices for you.
Yeah.
Alderman Stacey.
You know, I have asked questions on subjects that was not on the agenda and I was denied that.
I was told to stay on track.
So why wasn't that?
I said point of order and and it was ignored.
Why wasn't that made as an agenda item?
Since so Alderman Shadle made a point of information.
So that's just a Robert's rule thing that he can do on the fly.
Any, any point of information of information there and ask a question and to the extent that I can answer it or whoever the point of information, the point of information usually would go Go, to the, to the chair there.
And if it's answerable, if the person throws the answer off the top of their head, then it can be answered.
Otherwise, if I didn't know the answer and couldn't give one, I probably wouldn't tell them.
But if you know the answer and choose not to answer it.
Okay, again, you don't have the floor.
Please don't do that.
Right.
So.
Pardon me?
You didn't have the floor.
You can't just blurt something out.
Alderman Sanders?
Sanders.
Yeah, I'm very disappointed at you, Attorney Zito, and you, Mayor, because you guys do not know how to implement the Robert's Rule correctly.
And this is what our problem is.
You cannot implement a Robert's Rules by way of city attorney, nor clerk, nor manager, nor the Mayor, the Robber Rules Act is entirely digested by council.
Council has all the duties and exertions of inserting Robber Rules, not the Mayor, not Attorney Zito not attorney Zito, nor the city manager.
We don't have the proper protocol and there's we don't have the proper protocol for robber rules.
This is why robber rules has been shoved down the citizens of Freeport's throat at their, at certain people will for us to abide by.
You cannot govern the city of Freeport or by robber rules according to Zito, according to the mayor or according to the city manager.
It can only be done by city council.
That's what this is all about.
It is the citizens who impose robber rule, not the mayor nor the city attorney.
It is the citizens who are the ones who are asking aldermen to come in here and implement the terms of robber and the other rules.
Not anyone else but council.
And when I hear individuals trying to explain to us and give us protocol orders and things of this nature, according to robber rules, you are out of order.
The ones who's trying to impose that up on the citizens of 3.4 taxpayers trying to implement a robber rule, you got this whole thing upside down and backwards.
And so on.
Until you guys understand the protocol, actually, everything comes under counsel, not under administration.
And that's where it's been going here lately.
There's a lot more to it.
I'm not going to elaborate too long on it, but I just wanted to put that out there.
And when Attorney Zito starts spitting out policies, he better have documentation of what he's talking about to show us how it came into existence.
These policy rules and every councilman should have it in their folder files or whatever, so they can address whatever coming out of attorney Zito's mouth and the mayor.
And so let's get ourself in order and start asking for these things that is being blurted out by counsel, no, by attorney Zito and counsel.
And then we look to them as council members for our direction.
I saw an article stated that counsel intentionally gave up their political policy rights to allow city manager to conduct who hires and who fires.
Who fires.
This is why the chief police is sitting in her seat right now, because I'm sitting here looking at the fact that council is in writing that council gave up the rights to allow city manager Boyer to conduct this kind of hiring.
And I know council did not do that.
It was just left up to city manager.
That's why we don't have a contract with with the Chief of Police, and a lot of other things that has been going on.
Alderman Sanders, your time has expired.
Oh, that's the time on the order?
Your time has expired.
Mm-hmm.
Madam Clerk, could you please let the record show that Alderman Simmons entered at 6.05 and Attorney Zito?
Did you want to say something?
Just one item to address, to answer one of the questions for Alderman Sanders is that, so pursuant to Section 220.10, Rules of Counsel, item number one, it does provide, which is It's an ordinance of the City of Freeport.
It says that Robert's Rules of Order, latest edition, shall govern.
So that shows that we've adopted Robert's Rules of Order and follow it.
That's it.
Move on to item number five, which is approval of the minutes from the Committee of the Whole meeting held on June 8th, 2026.
Is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
I'll second.
Motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Johnson.
All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
That motion passes.
We have two public comments.
Madam Clerk, This is from Shane Orlow.
I would like to submit public comment for item number nine on the agenda for the Committee of the Whole meeting.
I want to reiterate again that any sensible person would ask that increased benefits for our police chief to be performance-based.
At the last council meeting, I made comment that the position of our current chief was ineligible for benefits from the city of Freeport, said she was a 25-year employee of the city Boyer.
This was written in the memo by Mr. Rob Boyer.
Thank you for making that clear.
That sentence alone should instigate a vote of no by each older person since her tenure at the CPD makes her ineligible.
We should not be making special provisions for someone that has worked here for less than a year, has no proven track record of solving or reducing crime, instigated rifts in the trust at neighborhood watch meetings, as it has created little to no communication with the community that she is supposed to service.
If the conversation continues about making special arrangements for the one position of police chief, we should at least make them merit based so that the people of Freeport are not just a stepping stone or a footnote for any other police chief or city employee in the future.
If the position legally requires a plan, please make sure it is not at the cost of the people.
It needs to be the cheapest plan possible since our current chief is already benefiting from the largest city in the state.
Simply, we need to start seeing results, get information, and understand why this wasn't brought, wasn't thought of in the hiring process for this one position.
We need a proven track record before we give handouts.
Please consider the people over one position.
Shane Orlow, Sixth Ward Citizen.
Joshua Atkinson.
Good evening council, good evening mayor.
I came to read something, but that was, I want to pause on that.
And I want to speak to Larry, you know, it's, I, I like many in our community, have seen you up here and fighting for Freeport, fighting for the community.
But at some point sometimes you're on the right track with some of this stuff and what you're what you're frustrated about and we feel that and which is why we're on your side a lot of times but sometimes you're wrong and how you're expressing this.
The Roberts rules and that's in you know mayor I know I don't defend you often at all ever but kudos to the way you handled the We're going to go back to the past five, 10 minutes of our time here.
It's Robert's rules is what is what everybody goes off of this.
She may not may not be this council but a council before you sat at these tables and said hey, how do we hold our meetings well there's a big document that says this is how meetings should be handled professionally.
Point the body the council a decade ago whatever said this is what we're gonna do if you don't like it you were 100% right everything goes back to this council but then that's on you as a council member if you don't like it you write an ordinance you write a proposal and say hey I want to change this and then you get a second and then you guys will talk about it and vote on it and it'll be voted down because this is just it makes sense but you've got to understand that stuff because you get so frustrated and it's what it's what gets you put out it does does, it's what makes the mayor bang the gavel, it gets everybody worked up, and you're losing us here, okay, and you know I love you, but you've got to understand that stuff, you know, it's just the rules.
I didn't come up here to talk about that, I came up here to talk about what I sent in last time, and I know I only have a minute left, so I'll just summarize it here, I was going to read the email, but you all have it in your emails, I emailed it to everybody if you want to go back and look at it, and my only frustration with the increase of city staff power to spend money, if we're going to expand on that power, is to look at the budget.
The budget came out, I think we're going over that later tonight, and there were four accounts, maybe there's a good reason that those four accounts were overdrawn or went over budget, I don't see how it would be responsible at all to raise the credit limit, you know, I'll use an analogy of your teenage daughter who's maxing out her credit card every month.
It just doesn't make sense.
And I really wish you guys would talk about it and really think about if that's the wise choice, because all it's doing is creating more distrust from the public.
You know, it's not that we don't want people to spend money.
That's that's why we're paying the taxes, right?
Spend the money.
But it's we need to make sure that we're not having the same time.
Good evening and thank you all for your attention.
We will keep our remarks brief this evening but efficient, brief and efficient, excuse me.
Tonight we're going to cover key highlights from the partnership's second quarter.
A full digest of those activities can be found in the second quarter report which Nicole is handing out right now.
Agenda will cover some workforce Alignment Strategies, our Business and Entrepreneur Basecamp Pitch Competition Partnership Membership.
You've heard us talk about the importance of workforce development before, and we're going to continue on that vein because it is so direly important in informing all of our work.
To grow existing businesses, allow them to expand or to recruit additional industry, the thing that is universally needed is workforce.
We continue to track employment data from Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Is it possible to have the lights shut down so that the screen is viewable or if everyone can see it, that's completely fine?
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
We continue to track employment data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
And from January 2026, unemployment in both Stephenson County and the city of Freeport has decreased.
More people are employed.
And John.
This is a consistent trend and signals a structural workforce imbalance.
This has all been very consistent and it's trending month over month that the top occupations that are looking for employees are clustered into healthcare, logistics and manufacturing.
You'll see the information.
I'm not going to read it for you.
But in May of this year, there were 900 Huffines.
There were 995 unique job postings and there were only 831 unemployed individuals looking for work.
So, you heard us talk last quarter that we began our workforce alignment strategy and we're committed to coordinating migration and employment data tracking, creating a dashboard from HR feedback, human resource feedback, to understand their employment employee pool, and John.
We are also working on the retention and attraction.
Data highlights from our initial survey are as follows.
This is a snapshot of a much longer survey, but we wanted to share this information with you.
This is the first survey that we held with HR, with human Fowler, and the survey results for only 16 responses, which seems very low, but that actually represented 20% of all jobs in Stephenson County.
And they cover all key sectors.
Employers believe that less than 25% of job applicants are well qualified for the jobs they are applying for, meaning there is great room for improvement regarding job training.
Sanders also noted that the highest skill gaps identified are technical skills, poor workforce history, attendance and reliability, and lack of certifications.
We're using this information to partner with our educational partners so that they can help shape future training programs.
Additionally, we're looking at the supply side of this equation as well.
For working with area high school students to area high schools to gather information regarding their graduating classes, surveying graduating seniors to understand what are their plans for the future year.
So of this initial survey, we had 13 districts responded.
So this extended a little bit further outside of Stephenson County, representing 653 graduating seniors.
So not just all high school students, but graduating seniors.
It boiled down to 70 percent of those graduates were going to continue their education in some form, two-year, four-year university, 27 percent were going to directly enter the workforce or some workforce training program such as the trades or pre-apprenticeship program and 3 percent were going to head into the military.
Again, our goal is to stabilize and grow our prime workforce.
The things that I just talked about are some of our efforts in that arena as well as, we'll discuss later on in the presentation, a restart of our Young Professional Network to create a network for young professionals so they get connected as employers recruit that talent here we want them to stay, as well as the Come Home campaign so we can market to those individuals who have left the area and try to get them to come back home.
I'm now going to turn the presentation over to Mercedes.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Mercedes Joyner.
I have the honor of being the new member relations director with the Greater Freeport Partnership.
If we can start off with looking at base camp.
So I have the opportunity to work with some of our entrepreneurs for a 12 week business education series where they learn the basics of planning their business to executing it, planning us out, talking about their marketing.
And then they all participated in a pitch competition where they shared that with a panel of judges.
We had three different winners and the total of the prize money added up to about $5,000.
It was all grant funded.
I just do want to share that this was a very special experience to see the individuals go from apprehensive and scared to very confident about their businesses and ready to pretty much take on the world and share that in other aspects.
And if we go on to membership, we currently have 386 members and we've had 61 business retention visits this quarter.
The business retention visits look like one-on-one conversations with business owners and organizations to sit down and talk to them about what's really going on with their business and the resources that the Greater Freeport Partnership has to offer.
They give us feedback and we try to help them in whatever way that we can.
Sometimes this is marketing, collaboration, event support, different things in that aspect.
And then we have six new members who have joined the Greater Freeport Partnership.
As far as looking at continued business support, I'm super excited to share that we are relaunching our Young Professionals Network that launched on June 16th.
This is going to incorporate two events a quarter.
So it's going to look like one event that will be a social event where you can come and meet people.
And then the second event will be a professional development event.
This is going to not only help with career retention, but help those young professionals feel more confident and get the proper resources in their fields.
And then we're looking at our business education program, which we are currently rolling that out for the rest of 2026.
This is more workshop series for entrepreneurs and our business owners and just our community people who are a part of the membership to be able to give them more resources.
We have an increased focus on our membership retention visits.
Like I said earlier, this is one-on-one visitation, giving more resources.
That way they are understanding what the Greater Freeport Partnership has to offer, who we are, and just staying in their faces so they always remember that we're here for a resource.
I'm also excited to share that we are doing a business climate survey.
We're sharing, getting feedback from our business owners.
Just another check-in, another tech touch point to see what is it that they need.
Another point to remind them that we are always here and they are not alone.
I'm super excited to invite you all to our eighth year celebration on August 20th.
That's going to be at the Greater Freepart Partnership.
It is an open house style, so it's going to be from 4 PM to 7 PM Come out, celebrate with us.
And then I'm excited to introduce Nicole Haas, which is our Marketing and Tourism Director.
Good evening, everyone.
We always try to tie all of our collaborative efforts together.
So the first one being the Talent Retention and Attraction Campaign.
As Andrea mentioned in all of that workforce data, yes, we want to keep our graduates here and local, but we also want to recruit new people back to the area.
So launching our Come Home videos, you can see a screenshot of one of them in the upper corner.
That launched on May 8th.
We are specifically focused in social media channels that are working towards our target demographic of 25 to 44.
And then increasing the number of area advocate meetings that we have with new residents.
We send out, just as a reminder, postcards to everybody who records a deed in Stephenson County.
There's usually, depending on the number of homes that sold, about 60 a month.
So there's about 180 that go out every quarter.
We pick at least one date, sometimes two, within a quarter to allow people to come in and ask questions, talk to them about their new community, and give them lots of information.
I often reference a lot of the city's resources as well, making sure they're signing up for alerts that they're getting the newsletter, things like that, so they know everything that's going on.
Also, we're very fortunate to have a great relationship with our bigger employers and community partners.
When they are looking to hire for key positions, they call us to take their either new hires Sanders, or people who are looking to move here on community tours.
And that goes over really well because they get to see a side of Freeport and Stephenson County that they wouldn't necessarily see if they were just talking to the employer alone.
On the front of community branding and messaging, we are continuing to lean into our Pretzel City USA mantra.
We had Pretzel Fest on April 25th and started the Great Pretzel Bite, which we hope to continue to see that increase in number every single year.
Boyer, and the co-hosted events that go along with that, with the Polka Fest that happened across the street.
We are starting to sell the pretzels of our sister city from Tom Sturgis Pretzels right here in Freeport.
And that has been a great partnership as we keep talking about the pretzels and the history of the pretzel in Freeport.
And then we're again tying into small business and Again, tying into small business and what Mercedes just said, it's actually opening as CheeseScapes, but home of the Freeport Pretzel Company will be going into the old Hilldale Deli location later this fall, and she made that announcement later.
So we're really excited to see all of this kind of culminate between small business, attraction, and also filling downtown vacancies.
We also work hard to support the events of others.
In the last quarter, we helped promote the memorial and dedication of the Lena Jet Park, all 10 museums throughout Stephenson County and their tour across the county for the museum passport.
Cedarville's fireworks and festivals, Juneteenth's, Tutti Baker Fest, I know I'm getting into third quarter there a little bit.
And then we also have help track the economic impact and through the place or NGO fencing data that we have access to for any of those events who would like to see that.
We also had held restaurant week April 24th through May 2nd.
Going into visitors, we had three really great events in June, happened almost back to back or at least once a week, all hitting a different demographic.
One was a cycle ride from downtown Freeport to Lake Leaquana and back.
Six Summer, which was a drag and drive car group that filled We filled all of our hotels.
They were throughout the tri-state area, but happened to stay over in Freeport and we loved having them.
It was a great group and they spent a lot of money here.
Tour bus group, actually two different full buses that came through on June 25th.
And while they didn't spend the night, they still spent a lot of money at area attractions and learned a lot about Freeport and our history in northern Illinois.
We were very excited to be a part of the Old Baymont becoming City Express.
They are now affiliated Marriott property with that brings along a lot of those other loyalty programs.
Sometimes people pick hotels based on whatever loyalty card they have and Marriott and Bonvoy is a big one.
So we're happy to see that switch for City Express and as well as a huge remodel and investment in that property.
It looks amazing.
Tourism marketing grants reopened again with the state of Illinois.
So have applied for those funds and continue to get the state funded LTCB program and then based on the occupancy graph and the placer AI data that we show you in the quarterly reports, the 2026 tourism season stands to surpass both 24 and 25 as we see both weekend and midweek stays continue to rise.
So we hope that that trend continues through the third quarter.
Thank you very much.
Happy to answer any questions.
Thank you, Andrea.
I requested that ordinance number 2026-34 be placed on the agenda for further discussion because a proposal of this significance deserves more than just a routine vote.
This ordinance made substantial changes to the city purchasing process and to council's oversight of taxpayer dollars.
Since its introduction, it has became evident that many Freeport residents hold serious Those concerns have continued to grow following the recent release of the City's 2025 audit, which once again identified expenditures exceeding Council's approved budget and recommend stronger Huffines.
I believe we owe it, we owe this ordinance, the time, discussion, the time, and the resources that we have.
We owe it.
And John.
The fiscal change is adhered to.
Whatever position each of us ultimately takes, I believe we owe it, we owe this ordinance the time, discussion, and careful consideration it's warrants.
The taxpayers of Freeport rightfully expect this council Hicks, how public funds are spent.
I look forward to a thoughtful discussion before final action is taken.
Discussion?
Alderman Sanders?
Can you put your microphone down, please?
Okay.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
And to couple that sentiment and comment that Sister Cecelia Stacy has made, not only We have to further discuss this finance proposal on how we structure the taxpayer's dollars and how it is spent.
Yes, it is warranted that we should go into a formal meeting to discuss it with more detail and exclusive with the council to understand exactly how we got here because all the details of how we got here is not being explained to the citizens of Freeport, but we're asking them to just give authority to certain individuals to spend their tax dollars however they choose We need that executive type of setting so the people of Freeport can see council at work.
They don't see council typing, analyzing, doing diagnostics reports on the outcome of of how we come to the conclusion of how the taxpayer's dollars are being used.
And so we should get into a meeting of some sort to make sure that the people of the citizens of Freeport recognize that we are about their business.
We have not been about the business as counsel to the taxpayer's business.
It's almost as if we're here on vacation.
That's how I recognize it.
That is the perception that I'm seeing.
As if though we're on vacation and not doing the business and the work of the citizens of Freeport.
So we need to change our strategy.
Let the people of the city of Freeport see the open doors and the executive office and being able to converse with councilmen even when they come into a public forum.
There should be a dialogue with public forum.
I don't know where this policy come from.
I don't know if there's something that the council implemented, but dialogue between citizens and council, it should happen.
And the only way that can happen is council has to implement that kind of motion or those kinds of policies.
We have to understand when I'm when I'm reading things like council intentionally surrendered their Hans to administrative bodies here in the city of Freeport.
When I read stuff like that, I also read documents on how we end up with the police chief and people in the city of Freeport scratching their head, as if, though, how did this could have happened?
Well, there's a reason why all of that happened.
But council has not really had a chance to talk about it in depth to make that decision, whether or not we should go along with the contract.
First of all, the contract should never happen if council is not in agreement with it.
It's not solely up to one individual that makes that contractual decision, hiring practices.
It's not designed for that, and that's not how council should operate.
But that's what we're doing.
We are throwing up our hands, letting the administrative bodies make our decisions for us.
Alderman Sanders, your time has expired.
Anyone else have things to discuss?
Seeing none, we'll move on to item number nine, which is the discussion regarding Qualified Retirement 401A Plan for Certain Eligible Employees.
Alderman Stacey?
I requested that resolution R2026-87 be placed on tonight's agenda for further discussion because a proposal of this nature warrants careful and deliberate consideration before this council takes final action.
I recognize that state law I recognize that state law requires the city to establish an alternative retirement vehicle for employees who are ineligible to participate in IMRF or the police pension fund.
That being said, this resolution creates a new employer-funded retirement benefit finance By Freeport Taxpayers.
Given that fact, I believe it is entirely appropriate and indeed our responsibility for this council to discuss openly both the financial impact of this decision and the long-term implication of this city.
At our June 6 meeting, a number of residents Spoke in opposition to this proposal and non spoke in support whatever conclusion each of us ultimately reaches.
I believe those concerns are entitled to be acknowledged and addressed on the on the record before this council takes final action.
We owe it to the public to ensure that decisions involving taxpayers' funds, employees' benefits are made transparently, thoughtfully, and only after every reasonable question has been answered.
I look forward to a respectful and productive discussion.
Discussion Council?
Alderman Sanders?
Yeah, and coupling that.
Alderman Sanders, can I just remind you that the last topic kind of got off a little bit, so if you can just stay on the topic of what is proposed here, it's the 401A, okay?
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I'm okay.
I concur with Alderman Stacy on the revelation that she has presented to us.
And everybody in this council should also concur.
The taxpayers of the city of Freeport should concur, should concur on this, on this on this particular We're talking about 401A retirement eligible employee.
The chief of police is definitely not one of them.
I just want to say that simply because like it was said, there's a criteria to this proposition that is being proposed upon the taxpayers and the citizens of Freeport.
Without them understanding, they rely on council to give as much depth and detail about what is really going on with our council.
Before Mayor Miller came into play, there was what we call executive power, Strong executive power ran by one individual who handed down every order, ordinances and things of that nature, which caused a decline in the fundings and the finance departments seemed like things had become, is my allegation to believe that misappropriation came into play as the reason why they had to have a referendum.
Because of the misuse of the fundings that implemented Home Rule.
Home Rule didn't come into effect until the declined of the people, taxpayers, dollars.
That's how you ended up with Home Rule.
Well, I'm talking about the retirement plan.
This is okay.
Yeah, I am off topic.
You're right about that.
But anyway that right there has to be amended as well.
Policies are being conducted by outside of forces that are trying to run council and trying to whitewash this whole thing by pushing this little short agenda.
This agenda don't have enough ink on it to talk about anything of discussion of the taxpayer's dollars.
I don't even know how in the hell we got this agenda.
Excuse my language.
Alderman Sanders, your time has expired.
My time has expired.
Okay.
I got you.
City Manager.
It's state law to offer her a retirement plan, and the 401A is the most cost-effective approach.
Alderman Stacy.
City Manager Boyer, What are the chances of you giving us an option, like maybe three different options to look at and see what's best instead of just appointing a 401A, giving the council a choice to look at other options?
During Chief Frostow's contract negotiation, that is what was negotiated.
What was negotiated?
The retirement plan as part of her compensation package.
No, that's law.
Correct.
Let's stop the back and forth.
Okay, I just asked about options.
And he answered you.
No, he didn't.
Would you like the floor again Alderman Sanders from what I'm listening to someone is rebuttal is in a rebuttal right now and the fact that this is going back and forth you just can't put that kind of discretion on counsel when it's back and forth rebuttals and so it's not up to the mayor to make decision whether and others.
She spoke one or two times.
It's a rebuttal statement, comments are going on.
So she has a right to the floor until she has been satisfied or exhausted.
You just can't give administrators the leeway to just elaborate on how they feel.
You just don't do that.
And that needs to change as well.
These policies that you have in place in reciting mayor is something that was not done by council.
And others.
And we have our own policies that are implemented above and controlling it.
Alderman Sanders, this doesn't have anything to do with the topic of the 401A. Okay, I got you.
You're right.
You really get me going, man.
I tell you.
But that's okay.
I'll come back.
Any further discussion?
Item number 10 is discussion regarding chapter 242.53, entitled Fire Department Capital Fund.
Alderman Stacy.
During one of our meetings, the Chief of Police spoke about the Fire Department's Capital Fund.
The purpose of this agenda item is to propose a greater, proposing to create a greater annual We have a capital threshold amount to be spent only for capital expenditures for the city fire department as described in section 242.53, fire department capital fund.
Every year, the monies that's brought in rather be through the fire truck service or through through the Ambulance Service, the City of Freeport, The City of Freeport takes 54% of all those earnings, leaving the Fire Department Capital Fund the 46%.
And I just feel that we need to re-look at this.
If at least a change of maybe 54% staying in the fire department capital fund and the 46, I guess, going to the city general fund.
The fire department have been able in the past to, through their fire department capital fund, purchase whatever they needed.
It's getting real close and that's not going to be able to happen real soon here.
And so I am asking council to reconsider what is taken and what is left for the fire department capital fund.
I would like to see it maybe 40-60 and 60 to the fire department fund, but surely not 54-46 anymore longer.
We need to look at this and see what we can do so that the fire department is able to maintain the funds they need in their capital so that they don't have to come to the city for funding.
Thank you.
Attorney Zito.
Alderman Stacy, just real quick clarification.
When you first started, your comments, you said the police chief.
Did you mean the fire chief?
Fire chief.
Okay, just wanted to clarify.
Alderman Sanders.
Yeah, I'd like to reiterate, not quite reiterate the things that Sister Alderman Stacy was reciting to the council.
But I think we forget that council is the oversight committee.
I think we forget that.
And we forget the fact that we are the individuals who's supposed to be in tune with all department heads, directors and managers and mayors, that it's our job and it's our duty to scrutinize Any department directors and departments, when it comes to auditing, when it comes to red tape, follow the paper trail, wherever a tax dollar is spent, it is part of the council's governing power and authority to be over the oversight of every department.
Yes, every department, but the fact of the matter is, we're not doing that there.
That's the reason why so many percentages of this is going here, percentage of this is going there, without consultation.
We're not even talking about these kinds of issues in counseling.
And so the thing about it is my point is following up with Ms. Stacey, Alderman Stacey, is that until we change the policies of how council conducts itself when it comes to oversight, when it comes to oversight, that is one of our.
Alderman Sanders, that has nothing to do with Chapter 242.
Well, I want to put that in there.
How about that?
You know, Mayor, I'm not going to get mad at you, but the thing about it is these are the amendment changes that needs to be made, okay?
Ten, and this is nothing but a discussion, this is nothing but a discussion, not a policy nor ordinance that you're trying to impose upon the council when we're discussing any matter, as far as that is concerned.
Everything we got here in this agenda is about discussions, and the discussion does not clarify or dictate whether or not we stay on topics or not.
If we're talking about the discussion of auditing or the capital funds, I think Oversight Committee has more to say about that than you do, Mayor, to be honest with you.
We're not talking about any Oversight Committee.
If you can stay on Fire Department Capital Fund, then you can continue to finish your four minutes.
Well, see, you narrowed things down to a. That's the item we're on, Alderman Sanders.
Okay.
All right.
I'm not going to get mad at you, Mayor.
We have to come with a different type of a proposal in order to make sure that council is starting to wake up and doing its and I'm criticizing all of us, not just certain individuals or departments, I'm talking about all of us, because I'm part of this community and I don't want to see our tax dollars being squandered away.
Okay, I'm done.
My time is up, Mayor.
Thank you.
Is there any other discussion concerning Chapter 242?
Seeing none, item number 11 is public comment.
Yes.
Hi guys, Josh again.
You guys, that was just really frustrating.
You guys had three things on the agenda right there at the Committee of the Whole to talk about it.
I just checked 4,300 people saw last Monday's meeting.
Right now it's just under about 150 people are watching this one right now.
Larry, I understand Alderman Sanders, I understand what you're saying, but we all get that.
What we want out here is for you guys to discuss that stuff, you know, and Mr. Boyer or City Manager Boyer is 100% right, it's the law.
We have to.
And I get what Alderman Sanders is saying, or Sellers are, I'm sorry, Cecelia Stacy is saying that, you know, is there a chance that we can get three different options?
Because right now we're just taking City Manager Boyer's at his word that that's the cheapest Bates, or Most Affordable Option, I can't remember how you said it.
So either you're gonna choose to just take that word, or you're gonna push and say, no, bring us three proposals, and let us see that that is true.
Trust and verify.
But this was the opportunity for you guys to talk about that for the spinning limit.
So us out here and the 4,300 people that watched last meeting that were anticipating all this stuff, it's either you guys have all made up your minds, and you know how you're gonna vote, but I mean, hell, at this point, go on a retreat or something because it's you you guys don't like each other that much that you guys won't even have a conversation about the stuff that you're voting on.
Talk about it, you know, and then, oh my gosh, it's so frustrating from out here.
This was the opportunity to even if you guys understand it completely, it was, you know, City Manager Boyer, can you please explain to the city of Freeport because you know I tear you guys up about all kinds of stuff and if I'm wrong and leading people wrong, that's your opportunity.
Mearns.
You could have said exactly what I put in an article, why she is owed or deserves or whatever the words you want to use, a retirement account, whatever it is, 401A, or is there something, another option?
Do we have to go to that company?
Are we, you know, are there three different companies we could go to?
You know, but half the city of Freeport right now thinks that we're just handing her more money because we want to.
That's not the case and you guys know that.
But your residents, your constituents don't.
Talk about this stuff.
Why would you have this meeting if you're not going to talk about any of it?
And then something came up in this, wrote a contract.
What I don't understand, and if somebody would answer it today, please, is city manager Boyer wrote a contract with the police chief that said she was going to get this kind of retirement plan.
My question is and it may be the answer may be because it happened in executive session because we don't get to see what happens in there was did we allow our city manager to write a contract that he couldn't even fulfill without your approval the only way she can get a 401a plan is if this council votes yes on this whenever it comes up I don't know if I don't think it's coming up tonight I don't know when it's coming up or did it happen in executive session because that's what we're going to be talking about all day tomorrow your time has expired thank you Anyone else?
How you doing?
I'm Kia Sanders.
I'm trying to figure out if it did, because we actually, the whole city was in an uproar about her asking quote unquote for more money.
The transparency, the trust and everything still to me relies on Rob.
If she did, if this was in her contract, somebody should have been made aware.
So you lined her up for a punching bag basically because everybody thought it was her coming in asking for this.
Bates, and the rest of the city.
I was born human, first.
I'm a woman, second.
You gotta be who you are.
You have to go with what is right.
If you gotta put to defend people in this city, defend them.
Do you want somebody going to spend your money for you without you without careful consideration?
Do you guys go out and just let people frivolously do things to you in your life?
We're asking for you guys to make the decision for us the right way.
And I'm asking to just have some type of Cecelia Stacy passion.
Have some Larry passion.
Have some Rachel passion up in here.
We already know it.
I'm looking at the three puppets for sure.
I pray to God that y'all just be human for one time and consider other people.
Don't be selfish.
So that's that.
So I decided I was going to use Teddy Baker as my platform and I was getting people registered to vote and everything.
The discussion about why we are in the back has come up from black people, white people, whoever it was.
I want to say if it was set up to segregate us, we're going to take the small win as Josh told me.
That didn't work out.
They can't beat us.
They joined us back there.
So I appreciate that.
And then last, I wanted to thank Dovie last time I got, you know, I walked myself out of here.
She came in courageously in Juneteenth when they cut the grass two minutes before we decorated at the park.
I appreciate the park, but Dovie went home and got her board, blew the grass from where it was supposed to be.
She kicked in, she helped us a lot.
To me, she's the city's best employee.
Not only because she did that, but because you call her, she's compassionate about help.
Heimerdinger, John, That parking lot was a big concern, probably because of the Tutti-Baker Day.
Second, Rachel, I want to applause you for last week.
You were trying to explain something to Alderman Sanders.
If Jodi wouldn't have gone in, you would have had 30 seconds and you would have been done.
The fight would have never went on.
But no, that didn't happen.
Second of all, you got in a fight, Jodi, with Sanders and Rachel.
When Joy Seller tried to butt in on Rachel, you did nothing.
You didn't correct her.
You didn't say you're out of order.
You did nothing.
And then Shadle, you're back here like this behind Sanders' back acting like a two-year-old and nothing was done to him.
And Chief, you put your hands on Rachel was wrong.
She was packing her stuff up and then you had a cop stand behind Alderman Sanders talking stuff to him he should have been out of order and you should have corrected him for that but you didn't and you wonder why Freeport it was fighting for it against you you're not watching out we got Alderman's here that sit back yes ma'am yes ma'am you weren't watching out for us that's wrong we're here counting on you guys and I'm sorry Don Parker but I'm gonna have to say this to you you did a naughty too and you weren't called on it When you screamed and hollered at Wendy when she was up here and told her to shut up and get out.
That was wrong, but you weren't called on that.
And Klemm, when you hit Monroe, you weren't called on that either.
Laugh all you want.
But you're sitting there looking like an idiot.
Any other public comments?
Hey, Patrick Vandenberg, I just want to say thank you to you guys.
You guys, there's a battlefield every week.
And you stay strong whether you're hired or whether you've been elected you're in the fight and you know fault finding is a cheap gift you know all you have to do is have a set of eyes and you can find faults in people takes a lot of love to be able to see fault in people and then still be able to work with them and I agree there should be some discussion in a healthy mature way but I want to thank all of you guys I want to thank you for doing your job I want to thank you that you come in here and you know it's gonna be a pit full of crocodiles that everybody's trying to chomp on every little decision that you make every little thing that happens every how you interact with people and you're gonna have people that are gonna applaud you you're gonna have people that are gonna criticize you one thing that I've learned that I hope that we could all do as a community at the very basic level for everybody we're human beings we need and Keeley.
Let's stay at that basic level.
Love one another.
Treat each other with respect to the way we communicate.
If we do that, these meetings in our community is going to be a lot better.
Thank you.
To the council, to the people here, my constituents, 5th Ward, I came here tonight and I tried and to no avail because no one had nothing to say but Audemars Sanders.
And so we just showed Freeport how not all of us even have a voice.
Not all of us are treated like we matter or what we say is important.
But I'm going to continue doing my part and it will come up again and there will be questions and answers, just you wait.
It just, it won't be the memo for me, it'll be for someone else and it will be acknowledged.
Please remember, we have a responsibility to the people of Freeport and how funds are being spent while maintaining the highest standards of their trust with our integrity.
City Manager Boyer, I wanna thank you for coming out and being a part of our Juneteenth First Parade.
It was thoughtful for you to come and join us and walk with us.
And that should be acknowledged.
Dovie Anderson, what didn't you do?
You bluegrass, you voted for the best barbecue Contest, and you even got up in line dance with people.
And I say thank you.
Thank you for coming out and being a part of us.
Being you.
And to the Park District Police, Mr. Manning, thank you.
Thank you for being that awesome Park Police Officer that came and who supported us and gave us just what we needed.
Thank you.
I appreciate all of the sentiments that the audience bestowed upon us because what they're stating is something that council should appreciate.
You know, I wanted to say this, whether we know it or not, there are people that are and their walking around in government has no spirit and no soul and no compassion that we actually have people sitting in our audience recognizing who is human and have the compassion for people for the citizens of this community.
But there's actually people here sitting with no spirit, no compassion, no soul.
The reason why I say that is because I looked at an article that was addressed by, I can't call their name, but I will bring it and have it posted and I just want the I just want the council and the attendees to listen to what I what I'm about to say.
I'm sitting here reading this article, I think I passed it out to a few aldermen, but I'm sitting here watching, looking at an article that says this in verbatim, because it's written, it's in writing.
That council, council, I'm talking about all aldermen of this city had given up the right and intentionally the authority in the political arena to allow an individual like the city manager to have authority over them so he can address the police chief Issue, hiring practice.
That is in writing.
I'm sitting here looking at this with my jaws hitting the floor.
Nobody else probably read this, but I'm just letting you know.
If you want to see that article, I'ma bring it.
I didn't bring it tonight, but I'ma have it posted.
And I want you to see what the intent is of council is allowing managers and mayors to assert the governmental party in the council and not to recognize what our job is really about.
We don't have the power and authority as we think we do in this council because it's in writing.
And the writing says council intentionally vacated the authorities and their power right here.
I'm gonna show that posting.
I was just floored with it.
Your time has expired is it okay thank you for that but I want you guys move on to item number 12 which is We will reconvene in five minutes.