WEBVTT

00:00:07.820 --> 00:00:27.670
What is this? Oh, we got two up. What's going on? I have. Working through their permit time. Are you excited?

00:00:31.630 --> 00:00:39.130
Blessers doing that? Good evening. Evelyn, could you please give the invocation?

00:00:39.130 --> 00:00:51.760
Borrow heads, Father God, we thank you for being who you are in all areas of our government.

00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:56.180
Thank you for leading and guiding this city council meeting tonight.

00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:02.780
Father, please lead and guide every council member in all the discussions that are discussed tonight.

00:01:03.580 --> 00:01:06.580
Let there be no division between any council member.

00:01:06.580 --> 00:01:34.440
Psalms 33 12 says blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord we thank you for the city of Freeport and for the leaders you have put in place to lead us in Jesus name amen amen thank you Evelyn now we'll officially call this meeting to order madam clerk would you please take the role Mayor Miller here Alderpersons Clem here Monroe here Simmons is absent Parker here Stacy here

00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:42.740
Shadle, Here, Sanders, Here, and Sellers, Here, and Alderperson Simmons, are you present?

00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:48.260
If you could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Alderman Sellers.

00:01:48.260 --> 00:02:01.480
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.

00:02:03.160 --> 00:02:04.880
Alderman Sellers, the meeting's yours.

00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:06.380
Thank you.

00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:10.660
At this time, can I have a motion to approve the agenda?

00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:11.740
So moved.

00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:12.220
Second.

00:02:13.260 --> 00:02:21.540
It was approved by, first by Greg, well, Shadle, thank you.

00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:22.800
Shadle and Clemm.

00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:30.360
Okay.

00:02:30.900 --> 00:02:31.540
All those in favor?

00:02:31.820 --> 00:02:32.760
All those in favor?

00:02:33.260 --> 00:02:33.560
Aye.

00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:35.300
Any opposed?

00:02:37.460 --> 00:02:38.660
Motion passes.

00:02:39.260 --> 00:02:43.960
Approval of minutes from the Committee of a Whole meeting held on December 9,

00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:45.960
2,024.

00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:47.260
So moved.

00:02:47.500 --> 00:02:47.820
Second.

00:02:48.980 --> 00:02:51.100
Okay, it was first by Shadle.

00:02:51.940 --> 00:02:52.600
Oh, right here.

00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:53.360
It's okay, Yohan.

00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:57.640
Okay, first Shadle, okay, and second, Clemm.

00:02:58.400 --> 00:02:59.000
Okay.

00:03:00.220 --> 00:03:00.900
All in favor?

00:03:01.420 --> 00:03:01.680
Aye.

00:03:02.100 --> 00:03:02.900
Any opposed?

00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:05.240
Motion passed.

00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:10.240
At this time, we'll have public comments, and there are three names.

00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:12.960
The first name is Diane Yoakam.

00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:47.290
Hello, my name is Diane Yochum, and I'm a citizen of Freeport, and I noticed on the agenda number 15 that it's coming up again about some of the ordinance changes that one wants to do, I think, to some of the meeting principles that go on here, in particular fines and so forth.

00:03:47.290 --> 00:04:18.680
One part of that that I especially want to speak against is section 20, I believe it's 20 part 4, where it states in this, any member present when his or her name is called to vote on any question during a meeting of the city council or any of its committees and who shall refuse or neglect to vote shall forfeit $100 of their compensation for the current month unless he or she has a conflict of interest.

00:04:18.700 --> 00:04:43.300
McF

00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:45.220
and Dr. Comm

00:04:45.220 --> 00:05:15.200
in section 45.3 that there is a right of abstention and it is not necessarily always connected to having a conflict of interest and so by putting this in I think it is an unjust and unfair principle that is being added into this because for me not only is it unjust but it also I think is down a slippery slope of basically a form of vote suppression of city council members and heaven knows we've got concurrence

00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:42.420
I have no concerns about that enough as it is, and that I do not think this is fair, that it's right, that it's just, and I think it's very undemocratic, per se. I don't particularly like this whole ordinance as a whole, but some of these principles, I think, are not necessary. You already have, I understand, in the ordinance rules about what you can do and cannot do regarding this, and I think these changes are completely unnecessary for the reason that I spoke about.

00:05:42.420 --> 00:06:12.400
Robert's Rules of Order, I suggest you look at 45, 3, and read that section through. There's another area where it talks about if you have a conflict of interest, which by all means, any person should indeed abstain from voting, but by right, you do have that under Robert's Rules of Order, the option to abstain whether or not, and it doesn't have to be called an abstention when the vote is called,

00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:18.840
Call, but you do, by right, have that freedom and that opportunity to abstain. Thank you.

00:06:19.900 --> 00:06:34.670
Thank you. Next on the list is Akia Sanders. How y'all doing? This is my sister. We own 404 together.

00:06:35.430 --> 00:06:41.230
I just want to state that she was never served at her address. Steve Cox used my address to serve her.

00:06:41.230 --> 00:06:48.170
My sister lives in Rockford, and they ask you, where do you want the deed sent? She sent the deed to me.

00:06:48.210 --> 00:07:18.210
but that was not to be used as her primary address he did that on his own I was also called Friday by the police to say that they are not going to press any charges on Tony I don't know if his last name Miller Albert or whatever his name is because they would have a hard time proving intent there was three different occasions he brought my belongings to whoever but it's called a theft after the fact or something like that but you mean to tell me three times he didn't know he had my stolen

00:07:18.210 --> 00:08:00.080
property, insane. And then on another note, as this came out, I was told that Rob Boyer was asking or telling people, do you know who this is about? This is Akia Sanders. I don't know what he meant by that, but I just want him to know that means more, says more about you than it says about me. Okay, next on the list is Cheryl, is it Altman? Thank you. Good evening. I owned a house at 124 Black

00:08:00.080 --> 00:08:06.680
Hawk. And I think that they did the fast track demolition process on me. We were not served any

00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:12.500
notice, no registration. One day it was there, the next day it was gone. And we had a whole bunch of

00:08:12.500 --> 00:08:17.900
stuff in there. And matter of fact, when they went through my house, they broke in to go through the

00:08:17.900 --> 00:08:24.760
house. The house was locked. So now I lost not only my house, but all my building material that was in

00:08:24.760 --> 00:08:29.600
this house. And that's unfair that I was not served any notice. And then we have another property,

00:08:30.080 --> 00:08:59.440
that we're trying to get it. We have our contractor's license. We're trying to get a permit. We had to have an engineer it for 16 to 422 and a half prospect years. We had the engineer come in, gave them the report that it's a sound building. We got a permit last year, but they refused to give me this year, and we were two-thirds of the way done with the house, and now they want to try tearing that down, too. This is unfair. The city needs to take a look at some of their buildings, like the Raleigh building, which has been a very eyesore for years.

00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:32.360
and you guys got grants but yet it's still standing and you got trees growing in there hundreds of windows that are broken that's the biggest eyesore in Freeport. Okay, at this time we'll move to discussion seven discussing regarding possible implementation of a flock license plate reader LPR and video system presentation by Chief Schimberger. Thank you. So the Freeport Police Department has utilized vigilant

00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:40.640
which is Motorola, LPR cameras at various locations in the city and sound thinking gunshot detection sensors.

00:09:41.040 --> 00:09:47.440
The use of LPR cameras and sound thinking have significantly helped the PD staff with shots fired investigations.

00:09:48.280 --> 00:09:56.360
LPR cameras have also benefited PD staff with investigating other crimes including recovery of stolen vehicles, serious felonies, and retail thefts.

00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.840
Staff has been working with representatives

00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:00.840
at the end of the day.

00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:27.980
working with representatives from FLOC with potentially expanding our technological resources that will allow officers to be more proactive and improve the response to criminal incidents. FLOC offers a three-pronged approach, LPR cameras, live video cameras, and gunshot detection. The City of Freeport is currently under contract with sound thinking and vigilant until 2027. Staff is looking for other alternatives to improve public safety and feels that FLOC can

00:10:27.980 --> 00:10:57.960
offer more alternatives under one user-friendly program. So there is no funding at this time or any cost. This is just something we're looking to explore and looking into possibility of maybe being some grant funding out there or in the future of reallocating funds that's used towards sound thinking and vigilant after the expiration of the contracts. But the contract with vigilant was paid up front, so there is no annual cost with that.

00:10:57.980 --> 00:11:16.660
until the contract expires. I also have Blaine Thomas. He's a representative from Flock. He's just going to, you know, give a little presentation to the council and everyone who's watching here and at home just to give you an idea of what Flock can do for the city.

00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:27.960
Yes, thank you, chief, and to the council and everybody here. I know that you all have a packed agenda tonight, so I greatly appreciate y'all.

00:11:27.980 --> 00:12:04.590
given us the time to go through this. Yeah, absolutely. While he's pulling up the slides, I can speak a little bit to who Flock is. My main objective for this time is really to highlight what the company, what our company does, what Flock does, briefly speak to our technologies. There's a lot to go into, but I'm going to try to highlight the ones that the chief brought up. And then finally, kind of share the vision of Flock and how

00:12:04.830 --> 00:12:06.770
how all the technology works.

00:12:08.990 --> 00:12:10.630
What does that mean, Flock?

00:12:11.270 --> 00:12:12.430
Flock's the name of our company.

00:12:12.850 --> 00:12:13.110
Huh?

00:12:13.470 --> 00:12:14.650
It's just the name of the company.

00:12:14.910 --> 00:12:15.590
Name of the company?

00:12:15.650 --> 00:12:15.810
Mm-hmm.

00:12:15.950 --> 00:12:16.150
Okay.

00:12:16.330 --> 00:12:16.490
Correct.

00:12:16.590 --> 00:12:16.770
All right.

00:12:18.390 --> 00:12:22.750
So to give you all some context, Flock is a public safety technology company.

00:12:22.750 --> 00:12:34.810
We have a host of hardware sensors, whether that be live video, LPR cameras, gunshot detection, drones, mobile security trailers,

00:12:34.830 --> 00:13:04.750
a number of different technology assets. We then take all of that data and put it into a public safety platform that allows the police department to make objective data-driven decisions. To give you a little bit of an idea of the scale of our company, we work with approximately 1,500 law enforcement agencies in cities across the United States, have right at about 90,000 license plate reading cameras throughout

00:13:04.750 --> 00:15:42.890
throughout the country. For the sake of time, I'll kind of continue here. So the way that the way that the company works is so... Could I please get your name while we're waiting? Yeah, Blaine Thomas. Thank you. Yep. I can go from here. Am I able to scroll down on this? Okay, great. Yeah, so I went into this a little bit. I'll be brief on this slide. We at Flock, we understand that public

00:15:42.890 --> 00:16:12.770
Public Safety creates dynamic challenges and it's also a resource constraint business, whether that be manpower or financial resources. We use our technology to try to multiply the impact that a police force and a city can ultimately have while still providing safeguards to ensure that the public's data is that the city is a good steward of public data.

00:16:12.890 --> 00:16:42.530
To kind of go over this one more time, so at the top you'll see a number of different technologies, what you see from left to right is LPR, gunshot detection, and live video. We also have a few other products, but those are the primary ones that I'll speak to this evening. We have a three-pronged approach when it comes to the data that our technology captures. We detect the data, and then we decode it, and then we deliver it.

00:16:42.530 --> 00:17:12.510
In that decoding layer, we take AIML models and put it over the different technologies that we have, whether that be over the image that a license plate reader captures or a video stream that a live video camera will pick up. And then we ultimately deliver the data in a digestible manner to law enforcement. There's a number of different ways that we do that, which I'll go into when I dive into

00:17:12.530 --> 00:17:19.110
to the products a little bit more. LPR cameras, this is something that you all already have in the city.

00:17:19.690 --> 00:17:26.790
What makes our LPR cameras a little bit different is that they are plugged into the nationwide network of FLOT cameras.

00:17:26.790 --> 00:17:37.650
What that means is that if, say, a vehicle that is associated with a felony warrant out of Chicago, Bloomington, insert whatever city you will,

00:17:37.650 --> 00:17:43.910
If one of those passes a camera in your city, the police department will get alerted to that.

00:17:44.390 --> 00:17:56.270
The idea of that is being able to prevent crime, to go and investigate certain vehicles before a crime is committed.

00:17:56.850 --> 00:18:00.230
Also, the police department has the ability to go back and look at historical data.

00:18:00.230 --> 00:18:30.210
So if an incident happens in a given, you know, in a given part of the city, the police department can go back and see what vehicles were in the city during that time. I was just down visiting a customer on the eastern side of the state. They had a 911 call that somebody heard gunshots and that was the extent of what the police department had. They looked at their LPR cameras in the area within about a 15 minute time window of that 911 call.

00:18:30.230 --> 00:19:01.560
call. Saw one car that had blood on it, one car that had bullet holes in it. So the idea, right, is being able to give the police department more data, more insights to do their job. I always like to just spend a second on the slides. I think it's important. Just really speak to what LPR is, what it isn't. An LPR takes a license plate reader takes a picture of the back of the vehicle. We are going to get the license plate of that vehicle as well as some unique

00:19:01.580 --> 00:19:32.740
characteristics, make, model, color, if there's a bumper sticker, roof rack, etc. What we are not doing with these cameras is there is no facial recognition going on. We are not looking for or at individuals. We are simply just looking at a vehicle. Next piece that I want to go into is live video. Live video is nothing that is new. What makes our live video cameras a little bit different is that they have the ability to detect people and vehicles. So while it's not an LPR camera, it can still

00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:58.020
record characteristics of vehicles that pass it as well as have features like people detection so if if you know if let's just say that if if you want to be alerted to you know maybe groups of people past a certain time of night the the cameras have the capability to do that next gunshot detection gunshot detection is also not

00:19:58.020 --> 00:20:25.520
Gunshot detection is also not a new technology. We have a couple statistics on this board that we take pride in. First one would be 90% accurate to within 90 feet. Gunshot detection is really only as good as it is accurate. We actually slow rolled this product to market to make sure that it was as accurate as possible. If you have a wide area that a potential gunshot could have happened, it is not as effective as if we can

00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:52.660
triangulate it to a relatively precise area. The one thing that I do want to talk to you before I speak to how this platform works together are the things that we do to make sure that data is protected. Ultimately, the police department, therefore the city, owns all of its data.

00:20:52.660 --> 00:21:22.660
data. We do not sell the data. I personally don't have access to the data. It's not like every flock employee has access to the data or anything like that. The city owns the data. The city is able to create policies around their data and you own 100% of that data. Also, the data is only retained for 30 days. This is not a technology that can go back and look at the movements of an individual over two years. The idea is to get this objective data for a

00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:31.690
period of time to allow law enforcement to do their jobs and then to have the data go away.

00:21:31.690 --> 00:21:55.910
There also is a transparency portal, which we provide if the city would like that. This is a public website that anybody in the community or really the country can have access to. What this will do is it will show if the city has an LPR policy, it will show that, as well as how the LPR is used, any agencies in the area that might have access to that data. This will all be, this will all be public.

00:21:56.150 --> 00:22:18.310
To speak a little bit about how the platform works together, I use this example here to kind of illustrate how it all comes together. LPR, live video, gunshot detection, they are products that do great on their own, but together they really start to have a profound impact.

00:22:18.310 --> 00:22:47.050
So if we, this is a bank robbery case here, but if we use our imaginations here, if we get a hit on a LPR camera, and you have live video cameras in town as well, you can say, you know, if you get an alert on a LPR, you can then go into the live video cameras around there, and officers can be getting situational awareness to what is going on while they are en route, as opposed to just maybe getting a call for service and showing up

00:22:47.050 --> 00:23:10.050
to that call without a lot of context. Same thing works with gunshot detection. If you get an alert that a gunshot was detected, police can then go and look at the cars that were in the vicinity during that time, as well as pull up live video cameras to understand what is going on on the ground while in route.

00:23:10.050 --> 00:23:13.670
I will pause there.

00:23:14.670 --> 00:23:25.170
I think that that covers the 60,000-foot view, and more than happy to answer any questions if we are doing questions.

00:23:26.390 --> 00:23:28.530
Are there any questions at this time?

00:23:30.490 --> 00:23:30.710
Oh.

00:23:31.610 --> 00:23:32.350
Thank you.

00:23:32.350 --> 00:23:32.830
Alderman Moreau.

00:23:32.930 --> 00:23:33.810
I've got a few.

00:23:33.810 --> 00:23:52.790
Thank you. So just a quick deep dive into some of your past with cameras. Seems like there's a lot of issues with cameras popping up as far as the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. I noticed that there was a lawsuit that was filed back in October of last year against Flock.

00:23:52.790 --> 00:24:02.210
Flock. Storing this data for 30 days clearly is potentially a way to track somebody who's not

00:24:02.210 --> 00:24:08.110
committed any crimes. What is Flock doing to protect citizens' rights and the community from that type of

00:24:08.110 --> 00:24:16.850
intrusive behavior? Yeah, so what I will say to that is we have a legal team that I can connect you with

00:24:16.850 --> 00:24:46.050
that can answer that in depth. What I can, because I don't want to speak out of term on public record, what I can confidently say though is that there have been a number of cases where precedent was set that this technology is okay, the state of Illinois has said that this technology is okay under certain parameters. Our 30 days data retention is under the, that is a, that is less retention than the state law has, but I can,

00:24:46.850 --> 00:25:16.530
I can provide some greater context as a follow-up to you. Can I follow up? That'd be the two you wanted to be? We don't get two in this one. Oh, okay. Well, go ahead. So my second question coming back to that, and I appreciate that information, there are safeguards put in place so that a police officer or some official could not run your license plate multiple times to check on somebody's status, their information for no reason, just going in for random

00:25:16.850 --> 00:25:22.690
are there protections like that with this type of software? Yeah, that's a thank you for asking that

00:25:22.690 --> 00:25:28.730
question in the sake of trying to be timely. I breezed over that. Anytime that the system is used,

00:25:28.790 --> 00:25:35.770
there's an audit trail. So if I so I cannot go in there and look up I cannot go in there and look at

00:25:35.770 --> 00:25:41.030
my wife's license plate willy nilly. What I would have to do is I would have to put a search reason

00:25:41.030 --> 00:26:10.870
as to why and then the system would log that myself, Blaine Thomas, searched XYZ license plate for whatever reason and that's an audit trail that lives in the system. Awesome, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you for the questions. Yeah, is that dedicated to the police department only of what Alderman Monroe was just saying? The ability to use the system? Yes. Yeah,

00:26:10.870 --> 00:26:37.580
Yeah, so the way that it works is yes. The police department ultimately is the, I don't want to say owner, is the owner of the system. And what I mean by that is a bad word. They manage the system. So the police department ultimately can, they grant access to who they want access granted to.

00:26:37.580 --> 00:27:03.740
Okay, so this would not be something that the public can access? Yes, correct. Okay, what is a sound, thinking, vigilant that the city is currently running? You familiar with that? Yeah, those are competitor products to Flock. They are what? They're competitive. Those are products that our competitors have taken to market.

00:27:03.740 --> 00:27:32.980
And the city of Freeport is affiliated or own anything of that nature? Chief, do you want to? Yeah, we have vigilant LPR cameras and then sound thinking, formerly known as ShotSpotter, we have a contract with them as well. And we only, do we have mapping of where these cameras are located? No, we don't. Okay, so who did the installation and then provide

00:27:32.980 --> 00:28:02.960
and the locations of these of these devices. Well, I mean, we know where they're at. They're fixed. They're in fixed locations. So, yeah, I mean, but the installation, I believe, I think we went to it in 2021, but it might not have been rolled out until 22. So. Okay. But these cameras that that we're looking at, the city hasn't purchased any of those yet, have they? Yeah, you're correct. The city has not purchased any of those.

00:28:02.980 --> 00:28:34.060
cameras. Okay, and do you sell this all over the country? Is this device sold all over the country? Yes. Okay, and who does the installation of these cameras? We do. You do? Okay, at the discretion of the police department? Yes, correct. We require a permit for it. We pull permits for every installation, so whether that be on city right away or IDOT right away.

00:28:34.060 --> 00:28:55.900
So there, okay, so there's books and pamphlet installations and the value of these cameras that the city might consider purchasing or may not consider purchasing, so there is things that we can look at to make a determination if that's the route that we'd like to go.

00:28:55.900 --> 00:29:13.160
Yeah, just to understand, just to make sure that I understand the question correctly, are you asking, are there like budgetary quotes and other types of documentation? Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Yeah. Okay. Alderman, Clem.

00:29:13.160 --> 00:29:41.280
Chief Shenberger, I really appreciate you bringing this forward, like last year we brought forward the drones and they were turned down, but it shows that we have some of this existing technology now, but this is a chance to upgrade it, move it around, and locate it in more spots that may be more beneficial, but I appreciate the fact that you're proactive in taking a look at the different things that we can do.

00:29:41.280 --> 00:29:55.600
So, needless to say, manpower is one thing that's increasing, but anything that we can do to help with assist manpower is really a great thing for the city. Thanks for bringing it forward.

00:29:55.600 --> 00:29:55.720
City. Thanks for bringing it for me.

00:29:58.540 --> 00:29:59.460
All the mistakes.

00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:15.040
Yes, Chief Shenberger, I would like to know, are we or would we be replacing what we have already spent money on, or is this in addition to what we already have?

00:30:17.320 --> 00:30:24.660
So, I mean, eventually the contracts with Vigilant and Sound Thinking, they expire in 2027, so we would have to consider renewing.

00:30:24.660 --> 00:30:52.440
I'm just exploring options on perhaps getting started with the flock system and possibly, you know, transitioning to that if, you know, the council is on board with that. I mean, it just, I'm just putting this out there just to show, you know, what's available to us. As of now, Vigilant, like I said, has been, that was paid up front. So we don't, it doesn't cost us anything, but eventually it will again.

00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:58.140
and the sound thinking, you know, we pay annually. There's two more years left on that as well.

00:31:00.490 --> 00:31:01.970
That's the cut. Oh, I'm sorry.

00:31:01.970 --> 00:31:10.590
Just a second. So you're saying, Chief Shenberger, that if we add this, this will take away the other two

00:31:10.590 --> 00:31:12.810
shot spotters that we have?

00:31:13.670 --> 00:31:19.330
It could eventually, yeah, because, I mean, if you think about it, we have an LPR system that's one

00:31:19.330 --> 00:31:48.010
Company. Then we have Sound Thinking, that's another company. Well, they offer, you know, LPR's live video, which is something we've, well, I've been talking about, and gunshot detection all in one company, one program, instead of, you know, utilizing different programs. We have a fixed camera, you know, that takes one program. We have a portable camera that takes another. So it's just a good option to have, something that can offer all three with just one program.

00:31:48.010 --> 00:31:58.750
Okay, so one more question. So this would be an upgrade, and we paying one bill instead of paying maybe two, or is that, would that be correct?

00:31:58.750 --> 00:32:15.570
It could be, yeah, I see it as an upgrade, and I mean, he could talk more about the cost of it. So like, for example, Vigilant, right, we paid for that up front. I've had a couple things go wrong with them, so I had to go through the company for, to RMA to get them replaced.

00:32:15.570 --> 00:32:44.770
that was quite a process it took about three or four months for me to get get the replacements and get them them fixed with with flock they would come out and just do it it's a per camera cost but that includes everything it's an all-inclusive it's like 3,000 a camera but it's all-inclusive that includes cloud storage that includes replacing the camera all that stuff. Okay, thank you. Any other questions. Oh,

00:32:45.570 --> 00:33:11.510
Yeah. It's Blaine, right? Yeah. Blaine, I've been to a couple presentations of Blaine's and just something I wanted to bring up that I thought was really valuable. Other police departments in the area, including, I believe, the county police, the state police in our area, and many of the smaller communities are utilizing Flock. Rockford is entirely Flock. Yeah, and Rockford, too. Yeah, I forgot about Rockford. Thank you.

00:33:11.510 --> 00:33:19.550
and maybe you could speak to the ins and outs of that and what the benefit of being on the same program as the other communities around us.

00:33:20.210 --> 00:33:36.350
Yeah, absolutely. Ms. Sellers, just so you're aware, there's a slide in the PowerPoint in your agenda packet that goes over some of the things that are included in the subscription, like the maintenance and everything like that.

00:33:36.350 --> 00:34:04.430
Yeah, so one of FLOC's biggest value adds to a community is the broader network of FLOC. I briefly touched on it earlier, but when you join the FLOC network, you not only have access to the cameras that are in your city, but also the surrounding cities, really the state and beyond.

00:34:04.430 --> 00:34:17.670
So that means that if a vehicle that was associated with a violent crime in Rockford, Illinois, if they entered into the city, your police department would be alerted to that immediately.

00:34:17.670 --> 00:34:36.510
Additionally, if you were trying to find a suspect vehicle and you were relatively confident that they fled town, you would be able to look for that vehicle on any other agency's cameras that has shared their camera feeds with you.

00:34:36.510 --> 00:34:59.690
So if somebody fled to, say, St. Louis and they passed by 19 flat cameras on their way out of town to St. Louis, the police department would be aware of that and could alert the police department in, say, St. Louis, for example, that that suspect was in their town.

00:34:59.690 --> 00:35:16.330
I have one more question. So you're saying does it only have to be a flock camera or could it be any camera from any camera that takes pictures? I mean, does it only have to be your company or could it be any camera?

00:35:16.330 --> 00:35:35.890
Any camera that's integrated into the Flock system. For example, there are some license plate readers that will be fixed to police cars. So that would be a case where those cameras are ingested into the Flock system. So that would be a case that that license plate is now in the Flock system.

00:35:36.210 --> 00:35:36.610
Oh, okay.

00:35:36.610 --> 00:35:38.470
So is that just in the state of Illinois?

00:35:38.470 --> 00:36:02.670
No, so the cameras are all over the country. The reason that I use the state of Illinois is because LPR policy is different from city to city, so it ultimately is dependent on the policy of the police department and the broader city as to what cameras you have access to as well as what other cities have access to your cameras.

00:36:03.870 --> 00:36:04.870
Any other questions?

00:36:04.870 --> 00:36:10.370
So, would these cameras be placed on our comm-ed poles?

00:36:15.510 --> 00:36:17.130
What poles? Excuse me. Sorry.

00:36:17.610 --> 00:36:18.410
Utility poles.

00:36:18.470 --> 00:36:33.830
Oh, utility poles. So, the cameras are infrastructure-free, so they run off solar power. So, we generally will put a pole in the ground ourselves. Mounting on power company poles can sometimes be costly.

00:36:33.830 --> 00:36:38.490
or shouldn't say costly, but there can be a fee associated with that sometimes because that's not

00:36:38.490 --> 00:36:48.270
our property. And did you say it's $3,000 per camera? Approximately, yes. There are some differences in

00:36:48.270 --> 00:37:00.750
price based off different models, but for a standard camera, yes, ma'am, $3,000. One other comment I'll

00:37:00.750 --> 00:37:06.530
make because I've seen this a couple times and this was in a brief version. One of the stats that he had

00:37:06.530 --> 00:37:36.510
at another meeting I was at that I was really taken back by was 70% of the crimes use a vehicle at some point within the crime and so that's why the LPR technology is so important to the situation of finding out who does it. So for instance if somebody was targeting an area I think you said you could actually sort the vehicles to pick license plates that were from out of the area to that area.

00:37:36.530 --> 00:38:06.510
area to narrow the field very quickly. And in the presentation that I was at, I mean, they could narrow the field in minutes, which time is of the essence with crimes. So it's kind of, it was very interesting to learn that. What's the acronym to the LPR? What's the acronym to the LPR? License plate reader. License plate reader? Is that what it means? Okay. Are there any other questions? Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Appreciate you all.

00:38:06.510 --> 00:38:20.610
At this time, I would just like to know if Chief Shemberger, where do we go? Do we go to wanting to get more information or do we want to take a vote on it, put it in a first room? How do we want to do this?

00:38:20.610 --> 00:38:36.110
This is just something I've been working on for a few months. Continue talking with Blaine and his team and we'll get to the point where I'll get a bid

00:38:36.110 --> 00:39:07.680
or get an offer and I let the council know and then let you guys decide what you want to do but right now it's just kind of in its infancy you know we're in the planning stage of it trying to find the best option that we have for the city while utilizing the technology we still have right now so and that we're using so okay and we currently have two more years in that contract correct yep any other questions if not we'll move on to number eight greater free

00:39:07.680 --> 00:39:13.560
for Partnership Quarterly Presentation to Council presented by Andrea Schwartz-Winters.

00:39:23.900 --> 00:39:25.080
Are you putting it in presentation mode?

00:39:25.800 --> 00:39:26.020
Okay.

00:39:26.440 --> 00:39:31.890
All right.

00:39:32.030 --> 00:39:32.310
Awesome.

00:39:33.170 --> 00:39:38.340
Good evening and happy new year.

00:39:39.220 --> 00:39:44.460
Tonight's presentation, we will cover the highlights of our work in the fourth quarter.

00:39:47.170 --> 00:39:52.570
This information is outlined in more detail in the fourth quarter report that you received in your packets.

00:39:52.570 --> 00:39:53.990
as

00:39:53.990 --> 00:40:22.000
Packets. As in previous presentations, we're outlining this in order of our strategic plan key focused areas, which just to remind you all are business retention and expansion, which involves our workforce development efforts, new business development and attraction. This includes attracting new businesses, helping businesses start, and assisting small businesses to grow. Marketing the region to prospective businesses and employers to show them

00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:51.240
the opportunities for growth and work in Stevenson County as well as marketing the partnership services to future and existing businesses. Visitor attraction, which encompasses our tourism attraction efforts. Advocacy and policy is related to our internal work and we do a lot to track legislation that might affect local industries and communities. It's been very active in the fourth quarter and I would foresee that in the first quarter of this year.

00:40:52.000 --> 00:41:00.020
And we are looking to always build the partnership's capacity by increasing our membership numbers and maintaining a high retention rate.

00:41:01.020 --> 00:41:06.420
I'd like to highlight some fourth quarter wins, some positive news from the fourth quarter.

00:41:09.540 --> 00:41:16.360
As outlined in our strategic plan, we completed a countywide business survey.

00:41:16.360 --> 00:41:46.340
There are some key factors and key takeaway points in the report you have before you, but the survey was completed last quarter and 84% of the businesses that responded reported that their company was stable or expanding. We see that as positive news. An existing ag manufacturer publicly announced last quarter that they have established a partnership to revolutionize ethanol production.

00:41:46.360 --> 00:42:16.340
production by capturing and converting CO2. Now, this is not my area of expertise by any means, but I think if you see anything in conversations around what's happening in the energy sector and alternative energy, I think that this is key and this company is on the forefront. This project has been in the works for over two years. Enterprise zone benefits will be utilized to make this project come to fruition, but not only is this helping to diversify,

00:42:16.360 --> 00:42:42.840
this company's existing income stream. It's also allowing them to use something with their byproduct that puts them as a competitor and entering into another market. So they are looking at how do they continue production of ethanol and push into other markets at the same time. They're doing something that they're one of the first in the nation. This is outstanding work.

00:42:42.840 --> 00:42:49.880
An existing manufacturer in Freeport added jobs to support a new service that was previously outsourced.

00:42:50.100 --> 00:42:54.540
With that has come job creation, around nine new jobs.

00:42:55.380 --> 00:43:02.200
We attracted a new manufacturer to Freeport to fill an existing space and co-locate with a current manufacturer.

00:43:02.920 --> 00:43:05.300
This is still under development and in the works.

00:43:05.300 --> 00:43:12.260
I will meet with this company later this week to get a better understanding of investment level and job creation number.

00:43:12.840 --> 00:43:20.520
The former Visitor Center building was sold, closed on December 31st, and will open as a new business later this spring.

00:43:20.760 --> 00:43:28.360
We were also awarded five awards at the state conference from the Illinois Main Street Association.

00:43:29.420 --> 00:43:36.360
Two of those awards are in recognition of volunteers, awarded to Tim Connors and the Pretzel Pickers.

00:43:36.360 --> 00:44:06.240
We were also able to take home some hardware in relationship to a promotional approach for our Rediscover Your Downtown campaign, and noteworthy was our economic vitality business startup program, Basecamp. Additionally, our organizational approach, the partnership was recognized for its merged collaborative approach to economic development, which is being sought after, this merged efficient model

00:44:06.360 --> 00:44:36.340
and other communities. Moving on to business retention and expansion, key activities where 18 business retention visits were conducted last quarter. As always, we need to understand what the needs and difficulties of our local businesses are so that we're able to respond to them with solutions and resources. I already mentioned our business survey results. We connected businesses with the Illinois Workshare Program, which is an alternative to layoffs. As you might see in the news,

00:44:36.340 --> 00:45:06.340
and I'll allude to this a little bit later is that there has been some upheaval commodity prices have been lower that has a ripple effect into some of in the ag manufacturing or ag sector with that you have some local manufacturers who are related to that sector and that they have taken a hit and so understanding that there are programs available for those businesses so that they can do something in an alternative to layoff we're trying to connect them with resources to keep as

00:45:06.340 --> 00:45:36.200
people employed here as we can. We worked with 11 entrepreneurs and assisted them in their business development process, the majority of which were women or minorities. We connected multiple Stevenson County businesses with an international business forum that was hosted by Representative Cabello. It was an opportunity to understand what they would need to do to kind of enter the global market and what relationships they would need to build, and there was representation from multiple

00:45:36.200 --> 00:46:07.410
different countries. Workforce solutions. As we've talked about, we can't have thriving businesses without a talented workforce. The highlights of our workforce development effort was really around building our local workforce pipeline. We had the honor of working with our educational partners as well as our business community and really trying to bridge that gap in the fourth quarter by playing a key role in these three events.

00:46:07.410 --> 00:46:38.770
here, working to coordinate, schedule, promote, help organize manufacturing day, the career and job fair, which was co-hosted by Highland Community College and Freeport High School, and the Ag Expo. These are, it's an opportunity for businesses, or for, excuse me, students to understand that there are future career opportunities right here. This was, they were able to secure internships and some job offers through these

00:46:38.770 --> 00:47:07.910
through these events, and I think maybe most importantly was the takeaway that employers and the community gave that helped the student to build an understanding that their community wants them to stay here, that there are opportunities for them to be gainfully employed and contribute to the community that they've called home. Additionally, last quarter we reported that our efforts led to a connection between the YIELD program and Goodwill Industries. We're happy to say that that effort is paying off.

00:47:07.910 --> 00:47:40.580
This connection led to funding which has expanded the yield program training to include education on alternative energy sector and basic electrical construction this is a requirement as of the CEJA grant or that is an acronym for the climate and equitable jobs act so that was a key training component that needed to be involved in the yield program for them to access these funds to help fund the yield program next in business attraction

00:47:40.600 --> 00:48:10.580
and Development. In the last quarter, we received 14 leads. Eight of those originated from a statewide business attraction organization, Intersect Illinois. We were able to respond to five of those leads, those requests for information with information on existing property and sites. We were not able to respond to three leads due to the requirement of a large acreage and or a building that met specifically

00:48:10.600 --> 00:48:18.300
requirements, and one opportunity required a heavy water user that wouldn't work for the city of Freeport.

00:48:19.920 --> 00:48:25.260
Additionally, there were six leads that originated from local businesses and or government agencies.

00:48:25.260 --> 00:48:31.680
There are three new businesses, and three were existing or relocating businesses within the community.

00:48:32.360 --> 00:48:36.620
I will now turn the presentation over to Nicole. We'll talk about marketing the region.

00:48:36.620 --> 00:49:08.190
Good evening. Fourth quarter was really about trying to promote the area to existing residents to continue to help small businesses, organizations, and future events thrive, whether that was in the fourth quarter itself or in the upcoming year. We printed, it was a first-time project, a 12-month calendar, because we continue to try to find new ways to help people understand what's going on in this area. We continue to hear.

00:49:08.190 --> 00:49:38.030
I didn't know that this thing happened until it was after it was passed. So this new 12 month printed calendar was funded by advertisers who paid for the availability of putting their event on a calendar date. And then that calendar is available in the homes of residents throughout Stevenson County. And they have a constant reminder of the things that are happening in the area. We have already gotten rid of 800 calendars. They really literally flew off the shelves. So we hope that

00:49:38.190 --> 00:49:43.890
With that success, we will have even more advertising dollars to make a larger print order next year.

00:49:44.730 --> 00:49:51.990
Shop Local for the Holidays was the campaign started in mid-November, highlighting opportunities and different small businesses.

00:49:51.990 --> 00:49:58.820
and different small businesses so residents could learn to shop local as they purchased all of their holiday gifts.

00:49:59.520 --> 00:50:11.500
Mistletoe Walk was part of that as well, which happened on November 23rd. From our survey to downtown businesses who participated, we've received great reviews and actually participating locations for the most part.

00:50:11.500 --> 00:50:41.320
all of them or a great portion of them over 70% cited increased in pedestrian traffic and increased sales in compared to the last year and the last year was a day and a half event and this was just in one day alone and I might also say weather was not as nice this year as it was in previous years so that really goes to show how many people came out to support businesses during mistletoe walk the photo you see here is another feature that we added this year in the lot next to jet

00:50:41.320 --> 00:50:48.780
Beauty. We actually set up a couple of different photo locations as well as a free s'mores bar for

00:50:48.780 --> 00:50:56.200
residents. Visitor attraction, we hosted our annual tourism partner meeting on November 14th at Lena

00:50:56.200 --> 00:51:01.860
Brewing Company. This is our opportunity to talk to the executive directors of different nonprofits who

00:51:01.860 --> 00:51:11.300
own attractions or hotels, a lot of other agencies here in town about what went well in 2021.

00:51:11.320 --> 00:51:41.200
24, what we're planning on for 2025 and how we can be involved and also hear their feedback on other ways that we can help their attraction or organization. A lot of them have some issues with funding or increasing programming, so we continue to send multiple grant opportunities for attraction funding to those parties who can apply. The Choose Your Adventure campaign wrapped up in October with engagement that is greater than tourism industry average.

00:51:41.200 --> 00:52:05.180
Why I recognize that is when you see the ads pop up, whether you're on social media or whether you're on Google, the amount of times that somebody will click on that ad is considered engagement. And the industry average for local tourism entities, we actually scored almost double what that industry average is. So that's a pretty good indicator that we've been using.

00:52:05.180 --> 00:52:31.460
Pretzel City Brewfest, which was held September 28th, that is one of our largest tourism events where we are really looking to attract people from outside of this area. This year was no different. More than 50% of our attendees, because all of our tickets are purchased online, we can tell by zip code that they are all 50% or more were coming from 30 miles away. And I'll turn it over to Bill. Thank you.

00:52:31.460 --> 00:53:03.440
Good evening. So membership was pretty steady in the fourth quarter. As you can see, we are still hovering around 400 members. We added 10 members over that course of time, and we continue to retain our members at a very high rate, which we're proud of and hope to continue to do. And really, that's all we have. If there was questions, I think we'd all be glad to.

00:53:03.960 --> 00:53:17.700
entertainment. Are there any questions? If none? Oh, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you. I didn't see you. Okay.

00:53:19.080 --> 00:53:26.580
So, Andrea, you did the first slides with the businesses, so these questions probably should

00:53:26.580 --> 00:53:35.760
come to you. So, my question was, with the increase in membership, that means we've gotten more businesses

00:53:35.760 --> 00:54:05.660
in Freeport? With the increase in membership to the partnership? Yeah. Well, we hope there's a correlation between that, right? I mean, it's our goal is that as we work with businesses and show our value that they become members to the partnership. Okay. Go ahead. So do those members pay? But my question is, do non-profit members pay to be a member? They do. We have a non-profit rate

00:54:05.660 --> 00:54:35.740
that's $165 a year. Okay. And then for the sale of the business center, was that to a business that you found and reached out to and convinced to come to Freeport? Not you personally, but the partnership. That was through a connection that one of the ownership group had. We worked with them. We met with them when they were going through their due diligence process.

00:54:35.740 --> 00:55:07.470
And we talked about the enterprise zone that's out there, what their plans for the building were, how our organization could support their business as they move to Stevenson County. They're not a business that's here currently, and they would be relocating their business here. Right. So they came, they were coming anyways, and you reached out to see how you could help? Correct. Yes, they were. That was through a connection from the ownership group. Do you have any more questions?

00:55:07.470 --> 00:55:14.410
I do. Oh, okay. What are retention visits? What does that mean? Retention visits? Sure. Great question.

00:55:14.410 --> 00:55:20.170
It's really just a meeting. We go and we meet with the business and we talk about what's going on in

00:55:20.170 --> 00:55:24.670
their business. We usually ask them for some information around employment numbers. Is that

00:55:24.670 --> 00:55:30.910
changed? How do they see their business growing? Do they see their business declining? How do they see

00:55:30.910 --> 00:55:35.990
their business fitting into the larger market? What can we do to help? Are there having any

00:55:35.990 --> 00:55:42.250
infrastructure troubles. Are they having workforce issues? It's really just a meeting to talk about the

00:55:42.250 --> 00:55:51.940
health of their business. Is it okay? Is that okay? Yeah. So if in these retention visits they say, hey,

00:55:52.440 --> 00:55:58.800
I'm missing this, this, and that, then do you go out and find that for them or at least put them in touch

00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:07.760
with the people who need it? Yes, absolutely. Right. And so sometimes it's not even, there are programs

00:56:07.760 --> 00:56:37.360
that we connect them with, like, let's use the work share program as an example. It sat down with a business and they were talking about that they were going to be slowing down in the fourth quarter and that they looked like they were going to be running not as many days, not as many shifts per week. And so I knew there was a potential that there could lay off or furlough workers. And so I knew of this work share program, their HR department did not currently, that's where we coordinated and had a

00:56:37.360 --> 00:56:43.060
presentation. And then I invited as many businesses, I let all the businesses know that we were offering this

00:56:43.060 --> 00:56:50.560
to try to connect them with resources. So your question is exactly, that's what we're doing is

00:56:50.560 --> 00:56:56.040
we're connecting them with the resources that are there. And if there aren't resources that meet that

00:56:56.040 --> 00:57:01.560
need, how can we help create a solution to the problem? Did that answer your question?

00:57:01.560 --> 00:57:31.540
Yes, yes. I'm looking at these, this annual report, looking at the slides that are being presented. All of the slides that have been presented has no pause, no gaps, or has no time to inject a question. While the slides are flowing, the audience or the council has not an opportunity to elaborate on the

00:57:31.540 --> 00:58:01.520
the things that you're presenting. And my thing is, if you're presenting these types of slides, then there must be a space where questions can filter in because you're blowing over these slides, your whole crew is going over these slides, but we're not able to inject a question to open it up to the public so we can get more collaboration,

00:58:01.520 --> 00:58:28.460
for detailed information in regards to all of the things that we've been hearing. I'm subject to ask, well, I want to ask all this that you laid out in these slides, where can we find more detailed information so we can follow up because there was no telephone numbers to make contact with during these slides and things of this nature.

00:58:28.460 --> 00:58:58.460
the companies that you and the visiting the visitors programs whatever programs that are going on objectively throughout the city we have no way to validate whether or not these things have taken place this is just stuff that is thrown together and we're supposed to assume that is relevant to the council if we don't have further details we just can't take things top that right off the surface

00:58:58.460 --> 00:59:04.620
and can't dig deeper into the programs that you're presenting and the slides that you're presenting.

00:59:04.620 --> 00:59:26.460
So I think I would like to see more detailed construction of what we're doing or what you're doing because that is very relevant to us because the public needs to hear more details in the effects that the Greater Freeport is causing, creating within the city.

00:59:26.460 --> 00:59:50.000
I mean, I mean, it's almost like we didn't slow this this videotape down or this track down. We didn't get a chance to absorb it mentally because it was just flying by us. And so if we want to have a opportunity to come back and ask you about these things, because there's a whole lot of things that took place.

00:59:50.000 --> 01:00:17.980
There's a whole lot of things that took place in the last quarter, according to you guys, but we have not had an opportunity to evaluate these things and objectively looked at it for our own satisfaction, and we're just not contesting the things that you're bringing to the council, and I would like to be able to absorb more of the details of the work that you're doing.

01:00:18.000 --> 01:00:31.960
guys are doing because this is just surface annual reporting that is not digging deep into the process of what your program is all about. So that's all I'm saying. I just need to get more.

01:00:33.000 --> 01:00:41.980
Other person, Sanders, well, first, this would be a great time if there's any questions that you'd like to ask about anything we presented, we would be happy to answer.

01:00:41.980 --> 01:01:11.240
Sure. Second, I know, I think in the agenda was linked to this report that's here. This is our full fourth quarter report. And we just extrapolated or took out highlights of what's in here and presented it to you tonight. So more detail is in here. And I would be happy or any member of staff would be happy to sit down and we can answer any questions you have at a later time. If you want to walk through this, we would be happy to answer any questions then or now.

01:01:11.240 --> 01:01:35.480
Yeah, because I also want to make sure that the general public can get access to these kinds of things because we're all are querying about what it is that Greater Freeport Partnership is actually doing. And I just don't want you to come here and just give us these reports without giving us really analytics.

01:01:35.480 --> 01:02:05.460
No, and understood that this would be of benefit for anyone in the public residents of Freeport or Stevenson County to know what we're doing. And that is why everything that I've mentioned tonight, as well as a link to this report, is on our website at greaterfreeport.com. People are welcome to view that and reach out to us if they have specific questions. Sure. All right. Thank you. Yes. You had said something about grant funding. Who can apply?

01:02:05.480 --> 01:02:09.940
who can apply for grant funding that you have?

01:02:12.120 --> 01:02:28.380
We can, well, I think I'll let Nicole elaborate on that, is that the grant that we, the grant funding that we helped other organizations apply for was not grants that we were administering or there were grants that we operate.

01:02:28.380 --> 01:02:35.840
We were connecting those organizations to a grant opportunity that I believe the state had in this specific instance.

01:02:37.280 --> 01:02:57.720
I believe I was the one who mentioned that. The Illinois Office of Tourism provided two grant opportunities that closed in December. We provided those via email. I mean, they're always available through the state, but we were just alerting the attractions and events who we thought fit the criteria to those.

01:02:57.720 --> 01:03:03.860
and then offered our help in writing letters of support, helping to gather data for that those

01:03:03.860 --> 01:03:10.460
opportunities. Also from the Foundation for Northwest Illinois, they have a letter of intent that is soon

01:03:10.460 --> 01:03:16.900
due on February 1st. So we have alerted nonprofit organizations that can apply for those funds as

01:03:16.900 --> 01:03:22.860
well to that opportunity. So we try to be selective to really send opportunities to where they're going

01:03:22.860 --> 01:03:40.420
Okay. I have one more question. On your hotel occupancy, this is your fourth quarter report, but it stops at September. What happened to October, November, and December?

01:03:40.420 --> 01:03:49.840
I apologize for that. When I had to send it to you guys, the last hotel had not submitted theirs. I will send out the revised report for that.

01:03:49.840 --> 01:04:19.820
I didn't want to guess at their occupancy for the fourth quarter and I hadn't heard back from them so thank you for noticing that I will send they got back to me of course the day after your agenda came out so I will resend that to everybody so you can see that thank you so much for asking the visitors for site that was sold who find I mean who does all of the real estate

01:04:19.840 --> 01:04:49.820
I think the state is governed by, I should say, and who takes care of that, and when was it up for sale again? We didn't get any reports on that, and we'd like to get a report on where did the asset go that was invested in that property or sold for that property, where did all of those things go, and where did they end up? And then not only that,

01:04:49.840 --> 01:05:00.480
the building, something else that you brought up that was supposed to be purchased. Did I hear that right?

01:05:01.220 --> 01:05:05.720
If I can answer your first question, and then if there was another question about a purchase, I'm happy

01:05:05.720 --> 01:05:12.720
to have you follow up. The Stevenson County Visitor Center Board, which is a separate organization from

01:05:12.720 --> 01:05:19.500
the partnership, was founded to construct the visitor center. That organization, which was a

01:05:19.500 --> 01:05:47.340
separate nonprofit owned the visitor center and the partnership leased that building to run visitor center services from that facility. So when it was sold, that was never an asset of the partnership. We were only leasing that space. So what they there, it was their business to sell it, you know, authorize the sale. And what they do with that money is up to that board. That's completely separate from our organization.

01:05:47.340 --> 01:05:48.860
So that's the Stevenson County

01:05:48.860 --> 01:05:56.440
It is a separate non-profit. It has nothing to do with the actual county. It was just the name of the

01:05:56.440 --> 01:06:03.000
organization. Oh, that purchased the building. They were the ones who owned the building and sold it.

01:06:03.000 --> 01:06:05.300
And sold it. Okay. All right. Thank you.

01:06:05.980 --> 01:06:14.600
You had two events to raise money. One was for decorations for next year Christmas,

01:06:14.600 --> 01:06:25.560
and one was to beautify downtown. Did I miss it or was that spoken about? It's outlined in the actual

01:06:25.560 --> 01:06:30.860
written report. I mean, I know we would love to highlight lots more, but we try to be respectful

01:06:30.860 --> 01:06:35.040
of everybody's time, which is why we provide so many different opportunities to read about things.

01:06:35.600 --> 01:06:41.460
The first concert that you were saying was for downtown beautification actually had to be

01:06:41.460 --> 01:06:48.540
canceled. That never happened. So that one, it is actually rescheduled. I believe it's for April

01:06:48.540 --> 01:06:55.160
5th, if my memory serves me. And then the second one was Christmas Wizards, which was held at the

01:06:55.160 --> 01:07:01.740
Masonic Temple. Christmas what? Christmas Wizards. It was a Trans-Siberian Orchestra tribute. That is the

01:07:01.740 --> 01:07:07.560
one that was for future holiday decorations. Obviously, holiday decorations are an asset that,

01:07:07.560 --> 01:07:13.320
you know don't depreciate in a year they would be available for years to come so we are still

01:07:13.320 --> 01:07:20.120
collecting expenses from that but we do anticipate having a profit from that that will then be

01:07:20.120 --> 01:07:26.520
restricted for holiday decorations in the future but you haven't made a profit yet we are still so it

01:07:26.520 --> 01:07:32.240
hasn't been or I guess just today it's a full 30 days so we're still collecting all of the expenses

01:07:32.240 --> 01:07:39.260
so I'd hate to give you a full figure right now are there any other questions

01:07:39.260 --> 01:07:46.620
I do. Thank you. This is a question, I'm not sure who would handle it. How much city funding was used to

01:07:46.620 --> 01:07:59.880
build the visitor center? Oh, that, I'm not positive. And that was in 2005? Yes. So very much predates this

01:07:59.880 --> 01:08:06.200
organization, let alone me. So would the sale return any of that funding back to the city?

01:08:06.200 --> 01:08:34.340
so the this is the my only portion of it that I know Alderman Monroe so I will give you what I can that the majority of those payments have been paid by hotel motel tax I don't know if there was an any initial investment at all from the city of Freeport again that would have been much earlier in the construction project and that would have to go question to be asked to the the nonprofit who owned the board or who owned the building okay

01:08:34.340 --> 01:09:01.320
Sorry, I'd like to follow up with another question. So on your slides, there were three businesses that did not, we didn't answer their request for information. 200 acre sites, one heavy water user. Sounds an awful lot like manufacturing, distribution, food production kind of businesses.

01:09:01.320 --> 01:09:29.710
businesses. We've been talking about this for four years now. We've put almost $2 million into the GFP and we're still not in any better place to bring in large-scale businesses that would help a significant number of Freeport residents, county residents, so on and so forth. How do we fix that problem that we've got?

01:09:29.710 --> 01:09:45.070
because we've been asking the same question, and I know the city manager, we keep asking him, we're not getting the answers that I would like to hear, especially when we've invested 60-something, almost $65 million into the water, wastewater treatment plant.

01:09:46.730 --> 01:09:47.910
Yeah, it would be great to use that.

01:09:47.910 --> 01:09:52.060
Yeah, it would be great to use a heavy water user that would be able to pay some of that back, right?

01:09:53.320 --> 01:10:14.080
So one of the key things we know, greenfield site development, having shovel-ready sites is key, not only for attracting new businesses, but for any existing businesses that would need to expand. Late last quarter, we submitted a grant application to the state of Illinois for a site readiness planning grant.

01:10:14.080 --> 01:10:42.760
The state said that they were going to what notice of award was in January. So we're waiting to hear that would help us. We that grant was structured for planning, not construction, but it would help us identify key locations where we could do planning activities. We've already met with some of the landowners, but what would it take to get infrastructure there so that it could become shovel ready. So it's kind of the first step. We hope to get any day now.

01:10:42.760 --> 01:11:12.740
I think we had a little bit of misinformation there, but I'll see if I can correct some of it. The city has zero amount of money in the in the visitors bureau years ago. It was organized by a group of people. It was a complete separate entity. I think it ended up that there were four people that ended up owning it. They ended up selling it and they ended up selling it and they ended up selling it.

01:11:12.760 --> 01:11:39.860
Bill in it, so guess what? The money's there. We can talk about shovel-ready projects. For years, we can start out by Mill Race Crossing. The county themselves lost about three places that were going to go in there and were voted down by the county. We still do not have water and sewer there, which is a big entity, which makes it a shovel-ready project.

01:11:39.860 --> 01:11:47.920
As you get these things from the state of Illinois, they are required to fill out the paperwork for them.

01:11:48.540 --> 01:11:58.780
So if we don't have 120 acres of farm there that somebody's going to sell to produce a land for, it's not their issue to come up with it.

01:11:58.840 --> 01:12:01.980
It's their issue to work with people to see if that's available.

01:12:01.980 --> 01:12:29.660
and obviously that is not available and if it's a big water user, needless to say, we're reconstructing it at the plant and have been and there'll be phase two, three, and four. So it isn't as though it's something that's going to end tomorrow and it's going to continue. But all those costs are not necessarily laid on the greater Freeport partnership. A lot of those costs are laid upon the city of Freeport, the county of Stevenson.

01:12:29.660 --> 01:12:59.340
if you remember they went out for an estimate for water and fell far short of the dollars and cents so the project was not completed. We still all as a group need to work to complete those projects so we can get some of those done. We don't have an overabundance of structures that sometimes people are looking for. We know that there's two, three, four that have been sold here lately that have great potential for stuff.

01:12:59.660 --> 01:13:09.340
but I appreciate your work on it moving forward and we all need to work together to try and get these places shovel ready so we can do something.

01:13:11.540 --> 01:13:13.660
Are there any aldermen Simmons?

01:13:14.080 --> 01:13:24.760
Okay, I'm sorry, I have one last question for the Workforce Solutions slide with the different events or career type fairs.

01:13:24.760 --> 01:13:34.980
Were those things thought of and created by GFP or something that once you found out about them, then you joined on and offered resources?

01:13:34.980 --> 01:13:49.000
The Manufacturing Day has been in existence for many years, and I think one of the organizations that predates the partnership, NIDA, which was the Economic Development Organization, worked with that.

01:13:49.000 --> 01:14:18.440
We've been on the planning committee every year for that. We give feedback and engagement in terms of I think trying to evolve that event and I think next year opening it up talking with right now CareerTech and seeing how it might be expanded into other Freeport high school students that would get exposure into what manufacturing is. The career and job fair was something that I think

01:14:19.000 --> 01:14:48.680
We created in partnership with Highland and Freeport High School. Before it had been Highland had their own job fair, and then about three weeks later, Freeport High School did. And so this was kind of a brainchild sitting together and saying this would probably be most efficient for the employers, especially as both of these events had been put in the fourth quarter, and we know how everyone's fourth quarter is very busy, especially if a business is on a calendar fiscal year.

01:14:49.000 --> 01:15:13.700
that if we could combine these events, so, and no, we did not create the Ag Industry Expo, the Highland Community College Ag Industry Expo has been in existence for a number of years, but we continue to help provide them with information to make sure that they are reaching the right person at the right company, so that they make sure that they have the opportunity. It's really about connecting, so.

01:15:13.700 --> 01:15:15.920
And the YIELD program, you mentioned that.

01:15:18.130 --> 01:15:18.690
YIELD?

01:15:19.110 --> 01:15:19.550
Yeah.

01:15:19.550 --> 01:15:24.470
Yeah, YIELD, so we've helped promote the program as much as we can through the community, but

01:15:24.470 --> 01:15:33.350
what our key role, I think, was late last year was we knew that YIELD program through board

01:15:33.350 --> 01:15:38.410
members and through other community members that we've engaged with didn't have sustainable

01:15:38.410 --> 01:15:38.750
funding.

01:15:39.190 --> 01:15:42.770
They didn't know how they were going to continue, and it's such a critical and important program,

01:15:42.770 --> 01:16:06.690
especially getting people more people into the trades. So I saw an opportunity with the CJA grant that maybe that would work for funding. And so it was really connecting the dots, reaching out into our network, Goodwill Industries, the workforce connection, really understanding who the point person was, and then connecting some leadership within the YIELD organization to connect them. And thankfully, it worked out.

01:16:06.690 --> 01:16:10.770
Alderman Klemm.

01:16:11.050 --> 01:16:14.250
If I could, just one more thing for the audience so they know.

01:16:14.770 --> 01:16:21.910
All of these documents that were presented tonight, over a week ago we received the fourth quarter presentation.

01:16:23.010 --> 01:16:27.690
Our packet was the slide presentation before tonight's meeting.

01:16:28.110 --> 01:16:32.930
It was in there at least on Friday's meeting in the packet.

01:16:35.680 --> 01:16:36.200
Okay.

01:16:37.480 --> 01:16:38.960
We're not allowed to ask questions.

01:16:38.960 --> 01:16:41.260
Were you talking about the fourth quarter?

01:16:41.360 --> 01:16:43.460
Go ahead and talk together so you can figure it out.

01:16:43.800 --> 01:16:44.560
No, it's figured out.

01:16:44.680 --> 01:16:47.540
I asked my questions because they were not presented in the packet.

01:16:47.880 --> 01:16:49.420
They were presented by email.

01:16:49.960 --> 01:16:51.900
Not the questions that I asked.

01:16:52.100 --> 01:16:53.740
Okay, we're going to move on.

01:16:53.740 --> 01:16:56.880
Okay, you guys, we've got to bring the meeting to order.

01:16:57.000 --> 01:16:57.860
You have the information.

01:16:57.940 --> 01:16:59.460
You have to bring the meeting to order.

01:17:00.320 --> 01:17:00.660
Okay.

01:17:01.460 --> 01:17:02.340
Thank you, Andrea.

01:17:02.340 --> 01:17:02.600
Thank you.

01:17:02.880 --> 01:17:03.740
We appreciate it.

01:17:04.280 --> 01:17:08.120
Okay, at this time, we're going to go to question number nine.

01:17:08.120 --> 01:17:15.280
Discussion Regarding Ordinance Amending Chapters 608 and 806 of the Liquor Coal.

01:17:16.440 --> 01:17:18.840
The presentation is by Attorney Cox.

01:17:19.760 --> 01:17:20.080
I know.

01:17:20.460 --> 01:17:21.880
That's what he's, he does.

01:17:22.020 --> 01:17:22.260
I know.

01:17:22.660 --> 01:17:23.080
Evening.

01:17:23.480 --> 01:17:24.200
Good evening.

01:17:24.300 --> 01:17:27.440
Not much exciting here, but just good governance generally.

01:17:27.620 --> 01:17:28.060
I'm with you.

01:17:28.060 --> 01:17:33.680
This is part of the Liquor Commission's commitment to keep our liquor ordinance up to speed and up to date

01:17:33.680 --> 01:17:46.320
at keeping track of legal developments through ILCC and conditions that we're experiencing on a regular basis, including things that Dovie and I run into in the licensing process.

01:17:46.320 --> 01:17:51.960
I'm not going to take much time. Please stop me, ask questions as we're going through here. I'm going to move pretty quick.

01:17:52.180 --> 01:18:01.480
So if you look at Section 2, that's a modification of Section 608, which previously required that everybody keeps a landline phone.

01:18:01.480 --> 01:18:31.480
I'm not sure how many of our establishments have a landline phone anymore but we feel that that's probably an obsolete requirement as long as we can get a hold of somebody via cell phone that's good enough and that's taken care of through our authorized agent process and our resident manager. Section three involves a modification of section 608.18. This is actually a statement which came out from ILCC's legal division

01:18:31.480 --> 01:19:00.140
regarding retail establishments having paint and pours, things like that to attract businesses in. I think, you know, generally those are well received by the public, but ILCC is really putting their foot down about what's allowed and what's not. So if you are serving free alcohol, for instance, to get people into your store, that's just not okay. We did put a de minimis of eight or less persons there so that if it's just a social gathering, that's not going to run afoul of the provision.

01:19:01.480 --> 01:19:31.380
but if you're running a special or something open to the public that's not allowed a couple modifications to the definitional section in 806.01 first is we added a brewer and then there's a class BR if you look at section five there as well this was simply added because we have we we never had somebody that fell under this category before recently generations has been upgraded in terms of their their brewer license and we just didn't have anything to track that so we're adding something that

01:19:31.380 --> 01:19:46.000
tracks almost exactly with what ILCC has for their definition. Also, resident manager previously required a full-time employee. That's just not the situation.

01:19:46.000 --> 01:20:12.240
employee. That's just not the situation. You know, these managers kind of bounce around from store to store, and there's no reason to require a full-time. We have specific provisions that say that we have to be able to get a hold of you, and we've got contact information for each of the establishments there. In 806.03, we've got Tier 3 licenses, we've got a caterer license. We'd have previously and intentionally left out

01:20:12.240 --> 01:20:21.320
The incidental part of food service that is required here, again, this is an ILCC legal thing.

01:20:23.700 --> 01:20:35.940
Dovie is very, very connected with the clerk's network, and the ILCC has been pushing back on that and saying that if you are a caterer, liquor can be provided as part of a package, but it has to be incidental to food service.

01:20:35.940 --> 01:21:06.540
so you can't just have a traveling bar. And a couple more, again, just technical changes. 806.07, that's Section 6 of the ordinance, took out the requirement of listing all owners in a publicly held corporation, Walmart, Walgreens, that sort of thing. We don't need a list of every shareholder. And they don't provide it anyway. They just tell us to go look at the website. So that doesn't need to be provided as part of the application.

01:21:06.540 --> 01:21:19.380
Roof of Liability Insurance, this just tracks what we've already been requiring, that any of the insurance certificates list the City of Freeport as a certificate holder. Again, that's been a requirement for years, it just didn't say it in the ordinance.

01:21:19.380 --> 01:21:49.360
at least 806.22, the Festival District, that actually, there's an addition to that and that extends down Chicago Avenue from Spring Street to Jackson. That's from Wagner House South to pick up the exchange, which is a new establishment. And that's it. Again, nothing very exciting there, but all changes that need to be made and the Liquor Commission has

01:21:49.360 --> 01:22:16.780
has all vetted this and is recommending those changes. So any questions for me? Any questions? Thank you. If not, thank you. Do we need a recommendation to move that forward? I'll make a recommendation to move it forward to the next meeting. Any second? Okay. It was first by Clem and then second by Parker.

01:22:16.780 --> 01:22:19.540
All in favor?

01:22:19.940 --> 01:22:20.260
Aye.

01:22:20.860 --> 01:22:21.680
All opposed?

01:22:22.940 --> 01:22:24.220
The motion passed.

01:22:24.780 --> 01:22:27.880
We'll go to discussion regarding amended ordinance.

01:22:28.320 --> 01:22:38.200
Ordinance 2025-04, Chapter 144.2.14, Increasing Plumbing Permits.

01:22:39.180 --> 01:22:40.180
Director Duckman.

01:22:40.380 --> 01:22:42.820
Thank you, Alder Persons Sellers.

01:22:42.820 --> 01:23:12.500
So at the heart of this proposed ordinance so we're discussing it today is to move costs from a water and sewer service install from $50 to $150. So basically what that means is you're getting a new water service a new sewer service outside your building. A lot of times this is common when people's sewers collapse. There's a lot of old clay sewers in town. So that would be the most common

01:23:12.820 --> 01:23:41.320
type of work to think about here. Reason we're discussing a increase in this fee to $150 is there's a significant amount of staff time. Our water superintendent has to go out and physically inspect all of these connections. And there's also staff time involved in processing the pictures, the paperwork, etc. And so the request has been made and gone through our building commission.

01:23:41.320 --> 01:23:50.480
has reviewed this as well and made a recommendation to go from the $50 to $150 for a water and or service

01:23:50.480 --> 01:24:00.560
install. The other part of this that's being discussed is increasing from $30 to $100 for any standard water line

01:24:00.560 --> 01:24:08.800
that's going to be installed in a building. The reason for this is our plumbing inspector, which is BNF Code

01:24:08.800 --> 01:24:36.640
Services out of the Chicago suburbs. They raised their rates from $80 to $100 per hour, and the intent here is to help cover some of these inspections. So this ordinance change, this went through our building commission. What's not being discussed is there's some technicalities with the types of connections used in our solar. That will be discussed at the next, when this goes to council with recommendation for approval.

01:24:36.640 --> 01:25:08.840
but really wanted to kind of discuss and focus on the increasing the rates for our inspections or pardon me for our permits. At this time is there any questions? Okay Alderman Sanders. Yeah how you doing doc? Good. Listening to the reason why the cost is increasing for homeowners is this subject is this a mandatory

01:25:08.840 --> 01:25:27.300
for all homeowners. Is this a policy or ordinance or something that has not been implemented yet, but we're making a decision, or wanting to do an increase on people's property or for their services for these upgrades?

01:25:28.000 --> 01:25:34.740
Well, the reason for discussion is this would go to council. The intent is to bring this to council at the next meeting.

01:25:34.740 --> 01:26:04.720
but I think whenever we're talking about something like raising rates on permits it's a good idea to bring it to a cow committee of the whole talk about it discuss it so right now there's not actually there's no action being taken on this today but it's going to be moving forward to a council meeting so now's the time to ask questions about why there was why was it suggested that we raise the rates for this so certainly you know you could hear this and say this is ridiculous but I

01:26:04.720 --> 01:26:27.620
No way, keep the rates the same, and I anticipate certain people are, and that's fair, but as a member of staff, it's important to say that, you know, the rates from our plumbing inspector, which is contracted out to BNF code services, they've raised their rates from $80 to $100, so we're trying to capture some of that money back.

01:26:27.620 --> 01:26:40.060
The other part of this is we are doing a better job in our public works department of ensuring that we always have every single sewer connection and every single water connection inspected at the time that the work's done

01:26:40.060 --> 01:26:42.400
That's what I was going to come up with next

01:26:42.400 --> 01:26:51.440
And we've done a better job with that, I think, and not, I don't want to get too much into the weeds about why it wasn't done as good in the past or as efficiently

01:26:51.440 --> 01:27:21.420
but I've worked hard with the public works team to kind of look at especially with our sewer connections oftentimes there's what's known as infiltration which is basically stormwater or groundwater runoff that will get into a sewer system and that's when you don't a fern co is the connection that goes on to a sewer service pipe and if those aren't done properly you can't have what's known as infiltration which is bad for your treatment plant you're basically treating stormwater as opposed to sewage water so we've done a better job of

01:27:21.420 --> 01:27:29.720
I've worked with the public works team and to do a better job of making sure that, hey, when we're getting a sewer service, let's make this, let's make sure this is done every time.

01:27:29.720 --> 01:27:32.000
All right.

01:27:32.000 --> 01:27:33.000
Do you want to move this out?

01:27:33.000 --> 01:27:34.000
Yes, followed.

01:27:34.000 --> 01:27:35.000
Uh-huh, go ahead.

01:27:35.000 --> 01:27:51.000
Yeah, and the method that you might use to determine whether or not stormwater or any kind of infiltration is getting into a property owner's sewer line,

01:27:51.000 --> 01:28:15.440
you would have to do some form of testing to declare whether or not water has water is getting into this location or this property owner's property. We would have to do something in order to make sure that the inspection is done correctly and not just inform homeowners that the possibility that there might be an infiltration.

01:28:15.440 --> 01:28:45.160
You are correct in that we're going to have our water superintendent is going to either be himself or it's going to be someone under his responsible charge to go out and inspect the connection at that time and if there's something not done right that's when the water superintendent or the person under responsible charge would actually say hey you got to redo this connection isn't done right and then once it's approved then they can backfill or

01:28:45.160 --> 01:28:49.300
And we do take photos before and after, right?

01:28:49.520 --> 01:29:01.600
Yes, and that's the one thing that it's mentioned, too, in the memo that that's what's being accounted for is the documentation, excuse me, of the work done, which is part of it is photographs.

01:29:02.000 --> 01:29:03.820
Right. Okay. Thank you.

01:29:03.820 --> 01:29:13.260
I have a question. Do you think that, I know you said from $50 to $150, correct?

01:29:13.260 --> 01:29:39.980
Correct. That is what's being proposed. That's what will be proposed. Do you think that, you know, that's tripling it. So do you think that there's some way that we could start off with maybe trying 100 and see how that, you know, affects, you know, different plumbers and, you know, so that price won't be put on to the consumers so much? If we could just, since we do, you know, that the, you said the other company raised their price, you know, we have to do something.

01:29:39.980 --> 01:29:43.980
So, do you think that just doing it to 50 instead, I mean, doing

01:29:43.980 --> 01:29:48.900
just doing it to 50 instead, I mean, doing it to 100 instead of the 150 and see how that helps us out?

01:29:48.920 --> 01:30:11.620
I think it's a reasonable compromise. I mean, this is a public service, correct? So the idea, you know, public services, which governments provide, the idea is not always to make sure you're making a profit or making money, but at the end of the day, too, you also want to be responsible with the public's money, and so you're also looking at it going, okay, we see, you know, we're increasing in this, in the case of, you know, with having our inspectors do a better job documenting the service

01:30:11.620 --> 01:30:17.200
connections. Well, we're using more time. So yes, some of that is the idea of public services where we're not

01:30:17.200 --> 01:30:21.500
necessarily trying to make a profit on their time, but it also is their time. So we want to be responsible

01:30:21.500 --> 01:30:27.580
with that. Same thing goes for BNF services who does our plumbing inspections. They're increasing their

01:30:27.580 --> 01:30:32.180
prices. Certainly an argument can be made that we do provide public services. Some of that should be

01:30:32.180 --> 01:30:37.080
burden should be taken on by our general fund already. But at the same time, it's also being

01:30:37.080 --> 01:30:44.600
responsible, and saying, you know, an increase is necessary. So our building commission, we presented it

01:30:44.600 --> 01:30:51.300
to them. These were the prices that was agreed upon. However, you know, incremental increase,

01:30:51.600 --> 01:30:57.120
certainly, you know, that's your purview and something to consider. You know, you can obviously

01:30:57.120 --> 01:31:03.240
put that into ordinance if that's what you'd like to do. Okay. Alderman Monroe. Thank you, Alderman,

01:31:03.240 --> 01:31:33.220
Thanks for taking my call today and returning my call. And question for you really comes back to, you know, why are we not tying the actual cost of the inspection as opposed to setting a rate in the ordinance? It would make sense if they charge $100 an hour and they come out for less than an hour and they're going to charge it for $100. They would pay $100, not $1.

01:31:33.240 --> 01:31:39.100
50. Why would we do that? That was number one. And number two, why are we using a company out of Chicago

01:31:39.100 --> 01:31:46.380
when we probably have somebody closer that could do it for less money? Well, the thing is, we do not have

01:31:46.380 --> 01:31:54.040
one that I'm aware of that has bid on the contract to do plumbing inspections. So believe it or not,

01:31:54.240 --> 01:32:00.060
the state license to do plumbing is a highly coveted license. I believe it's, and again, I could be wrong

01:32:00.060 --> 01:32:04.720
on the years here. But I believe it's 10 years you have to work for a licensed plumber. So you cannot just go

01:32:04.720 --> 01:32:08.840
out and say, I want to be a plumber. It's like some people come out and say, I'm a contractor. It's a

01:32:08.840 --> 01:32:14.800
little easier to do that than it is to be a plumber. Plumbers have a very strong grip on being a plumbing

01:32:14.800 --> 01:32:22.960
inspector. And oftentimes when you have that license as a plumber, you're golden for your career. And

01:32:22.960 --> 01:32:29.080
oftentimes, so my point that I'm getting at is in the community to then be a plumbing inspector,

01:32:29.080 --> 01:32:58.980
that's a highly coveted designation to have it's not not to say somebody couldn't do it locally or not to say that we couldn't look into possibly at a next and that's something you know you can task staff with I can double check when our contract ends with BNF but we could certainly reopen it again and kind of look into that professional service so that would answer your to answer your question is is we'd have to go out again and see when our contract would be enough ends and then we could look into entering with another

01:32:59.080 --> 01:33:29.080
another company or going for an RFP to kind of look for those professional services. So it is, but it is, I will say it is difficult. I've ran into it in other communities as well where that's a powerful state license to have. Thank you. Yep. So are you, are you saying that this has not been ran by local plumbing? Oh, it has because that's the building commission. So the building commission is where our local contractors, architects, or, you

01:33:29.080 --> 01:33:59.060
you know our building commission would have looked at this and they recommended approval have you taken advantage of GFP to see what they have what leads or direction they can lead us I work well at the greater Freeport partnership I've never known them to be plumbing experts but I I guess I could go down that path I mean by the next time I I will make a comment at the council meeting what the GFP had to say can you tell me how many premieres

01:33:59.080 --> 01:34:31.360
it's pulled in 2024? Yes, 39 for plumbing. Thank you. Darren? Yeah, I sit on the building commission and there is a very reputable local plumber that sits on that commission and he agreed that the field structure that was set was reasonable and I believe it was approved unanimously. If the council decides they would like to do less, that's fine. In discussions with local groups,

01:34:31.360 --> 01:35:01.340
they would rather see an amount that they can count on instead of a various amount by the inspection so they know what to include in their price and just I wanted to point out as part of the utility we are required as a city to observe and document these connections for water and sewer it's part of our ordinance structure and they want to make sure that we're cutting eye and eye out and we want to make sure the connections are proper to our potable water system as well so it is

01:35:01.340 --> 01:35:24.180
something that we have worked hard with Wayne to make sure that we are doing a very good job of it and we have made it mandatory for a physical inspection of all of these connections now. It's not something that somebody's taking a picture of and send us. The superintendent or one of the crew members are going to verify it, documenting it, and recording it for our future as-built records for the city.

01:35:24.180 --> 01:35:26.500
Very good

01:35:26.500 --> 01:35:27.860
Any other questions?

01:35:29.680 --> 01:35:29.980
I just

01:35:29.980 --> 01:35:32.460
Are you saying though

01:35:32.460 --> 01:35:34.760
Are you saying that

01:35:34.760 --> 01:35:38.080
There is no local

01:35:38.080 --> 01:35:40.320
Inspectors to be hired?

01:35:41.320 --> 01:35:45.180
I am saying that because I would have to look at our contract with BNF

01:35:45.180 --> 01:35:49.220
We entered into a contract and I do not know the deadline there and that's an easy enough

01:35:49.220 --> 01:35:51.660
Ask which I will get the deadline for BNF

01:35:51.660 --> 01:36:16.800
We have a contract with BNF services to do these inspections and so once that contract would expire we can put an RF request for proposal for that to kind of gather and it would probably fall under request for qualifications as well since they have to have that state plumbing the proper licenses but once the once the contract is over with BNF we can certainly put that out for bid again.

01:36:16.800 --> 01:36:18.520
Do you know how long we've been in it?

01:36:18.900 --> 01:36:26.780
I know as long as I've been here, we've been using BNF, so three years at least, but I can double, I can get that information to double check

01:36:26.780 --> 01:36:31.980
Okay, yeah, Wayne?

01:36:32.320 --> 01:36:32.580
Yes

01:36:32.580 --> 01:36:45.060
Sir, have we looked within our own entity, within the city ranks itself, because everyone that works for the city

01:36:45.060 --> 01:37:15.040
has some form of qualification of doing any kind of plumbing inspection inspections. This is the work that they do. If they're working in this particular field and they're asked to do these types of inspections, do we have the personnel that could be qualified? Because I assume that all personnel that works in construction have that ability to do those inspections.

01:37:15.060 --> 01:37:17.520
I see Darren over there shaking his head.

01:37:17.620 --> 01:37:19.240
And I know he's shaking his head because...

01:37:19.240 --> 01:37:31.840
Yeah, but my thing is, my thing is that before Darren personnel, city personnel were doing those types of things of inspection jobs and things of that.

01:37:31.840 --> 01:37:35.380
Let's, yeah, so let's, let's back it up to kind of look at what's going on here.

01:37:35.560 --> 01:37:39.200
You're talking about BNF is doing our plumbing inspections.

01:37:39.200 --> 01:37:44.280
So let's say you're running into your house and you just ran all new copper or packs.

01:37:44.280 --> 01:37:46.120
because you ran new water lines in your house.

01:37:46.360 --> 01:37:49.560
That has to be a licensed plumbing plumber.

01:37:49.560 --> 01:37:52.420
Oh, in that respect, yeah, I can understand that.

01:37:52.420 --> 01:38:01.440
And I would just say that that is a highly coveted, in this state, that's a highly coveted license to have.

01:38:01.580 --> 01:38:08.980
And anybody who has it is very protective of that license, meaning people will go and try to get their own plumbing license.

01:38:08.980 --> 01:38:19.300
and if that plumber finds out you put their name on it and you didn't work there 10 years or the required years, they'll go after you because they really protect that plumbing license.

01:38:19.540 --> 01:38:36.920
So when we're talking about property and city, okay, we go to a degree, we go to a certain point when we're evaluating whether there's infractions or any kind of intrusions

01:38:36.920 --> 01:38:45.760
or anything that is creating a problem on the city side? Who does the inspection for the property owner?

01:38:45.760 --> 01:39:06.040
So that's where you are. See, I think I know where you're going with it with this. When you have a water or sewer service connection, which goes into the city's utility, that's their asset. That's where our water superintendent is going and checking because that's they're doing that to protect the asset of the city to ensure that there's not that infiltration we talked about.

01:39:06.040 --> 01:39:22.940
Okay. And then when you get a building permit with the city, the city is doing its inspection, which is protecting the property owner. Because if you don't have a licensed plumber, if you don't have a proper contractor, and you don't have inspections, work gets done, it doesn't get inspected, people can get hurt, people can get sick, etc.

01:39:22.980 --> 01:39:26.620
So that's the liability of the city to make sure that that happens?

01:39:27.060 --> 01:39:29.620
We have to do inspections on all construction, yes.

01:39:29.620 --> 01:39:30.360
Okay. Yes.

01:39:30.460 --> 01:39:32.460
All right. Okay. Thank you for that.

01:39:32.600 --> 01:39:33.860
Are there any other questions?

01:39:33.860 --> 01:39:40.860
Okay, at this time, do we want to move this to a first reading?

01:39:40.860 --> 01:40:09.980
First reading. Is there a motion? Make a motion to move it to the next council meeting. Second. Okay. It's been moved and second by Clemm and Shadle. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passed. Number 11. Discussion regarding solution 20, no, R2025-01.

01:40:10.000 --> 01:40:39.980
approving memorandum of agreement MOA between the city and the American Federation and state. City and municipal employee asked me to create the position of instrumental and control technician and electrician. Manager Boyer. Thank you, Madam Chair. The city of Freeport's maintenance department, primarily the utility we're speaking of, is vital to the care and operation of the

01:40:39.980 --> 01:40:46.160
utility facilities, performing high-skilled tasks to support water and wastewater treatment plans.

01:40:46.820 --> 01:40:58.480
However, one of the department's two skilled grade 17 maintenance positions has remained vacant for nearly a year due to lack of qualified candidates who are obviously not applying.

01:40:58.480 --> 01:41:05.060
This increases the strain on the team and causing a growing backlog of routine maintenance activities.

01:41:05.060 --> 01:41:35.060
Staff is proposing a new pay grade 15 so that would be two grades below the grade 17 just mentioned and this would focus on routine maintenance tasks as a promotion step toward the currently vacant 17 role. This position would be easier to fill internally offering advancement opportunities while ensuring the maintenance crew remains adequately staffed and trained to support critical utility operations

01:41:35.060 --> 01:42:05.060
operations. The approach also fosters employee growth, promotes retention, and provides budgetary savings, helping to maintain safe and efficient operation of the utility. I'd just like to go over a couple of the highlights in terms of the two positions here. So on a grade 15, you would have basic knowledge of water and wastewater process, power and control circuits, and hand-powered tools and minimum exposure to

01:42:05.060 --> 01:42:35.040
to a PLC and SCADA system. So that would be like your motor drivers and controllers and also the software that's related to those operating those in the system. The responsibilities would be somewhat lower than the grade 17. So that'd be routine maintenance, including lubrication, oil changes, general building repairs and equipment inspections, assistance to maintenance utility workers as needed in on-call

01:42:35.040 --> 01:43:04.860
duties for emergencies. In addition, the required experience required would also be less two years of industrial, environmental, or wastewater and water systems. And that's the primary focus of the 15. So just to give you a little bit of context, the grade 17, which is the current position that we're had trouble filling, that essentially would expand responsibilities into troubleshooting, repairs,

01:43:05.040 --> 01:43:35.040
and comprehensive preventative maintenance of advanced electrical electronic and control systems greater independence and technical decision making so from a technical skills perspective that would include comprehensive knowledge of water wastewater process advanced understanding and operational use of PLC's and SCADA system strong troubleshooting skills for power control circuits and instrumentation and proficiency in reading electrical schematics and performing

01:43:35.040 --> 01:44:05.020
electrical installations. Also with the grade 17, the responsibilities are higher, including troubleshooting complex systems and performing calibrations, managing subcontractors, ordering parts, scheduling deliveries, and processing invoices, handling maintenance records and coordinating with vendors, and independent problem solving in a varied of operational conditions. So the grade 17 also currently requires five years of industrial environmental or water wastewater system.

01:44:05.040 --> 01:44:35.870
with at least three years focused on electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and electronics. So staff would request that we move this on to the next meeting and that eventually approving this grade 15 position as an intermediate step to the grade 17 for the water and wastewater maintenance department. Are there any questions? Yes. I'm looking at you with these query eyes.

01:44:36.930 --> 01:45:05.470
because I don't agree with, well, let me say this first. AFME, the American Federation, they entered into a meeting with you to discuss the agreement on this 15 classified upgrade for new job creation. Is that what took place? Has that taken place?

01:45:05.470 --> 01:45:34.910
So we just talking about it right now discussing this matter. Ask me if supportive of it. So ask me, okay, so the job description that you listed meet the rate quality, does that fit the job description at the rate that you're mentioning at a 15, maybe going to a 17, but does that fit the

01:45:34.910 --> 01:46:04.890
I don't want to hire a guy that does not have these kind of technical background skills at a rate of 15. A guy that's with all of this listing of description, he has to be qualified, certified somewhere along the line. And I don't think 15, a great job description, does that fit?

01:46:04.910 --> 01:46:34.910
I think grade 15 would be the appropriate one. I'm just wondering, is my ears cleaned out or something is just not balancing right? It just don't balance right to me right now. And I guess that's the reason why we'll move it to the next council so I can probably come to you again and have a full-blown discussion on how did we get there and why did AFME

01:46:34.910 --> 01:46:57.510
whatever they are, uh, agree with that. I, I, I, I have to, I have to go with the problem with, I have a problem with the balancing of the rate, the grade, the pay grade and all this other kind of stuff. I have a, I have a problem with that. Okay. And so I just want to get in, get into, get in tune with it just to see how did we get there.

01:46:57.950 --> 01:47:02.630
So you're saying you're gonna, you want to get with manager Boyer and talk with him later.

01:47:02.630 --> 01:47:35.860
Yes. Okay. Okay. Sure. We can set up a time. Yeah. Yep. Yes. City manager, Boyer. Yep. I had hoped to seen a job description at the 15 level. So can you tell me what duties are different between the 15 level and the 17 level? I did just touch on those. I did just touch on those.

01:47:35.960 --> 01:47:43.160
So the main changes are the technical skills, and the responsibilities, and then the experience required.

01:47:44.160 --> 01:47:58.220
Overall summary, the level of complexity, the level two involves more complex systems, PLCs and SCADA, and advanced troubleshooting while the level one focuses on routine maintenance and foundational skills.

01:47:58.220 --> 01:48:28.200
and the independence level two requires greater autonomy and decision making where the level one operates under close supervision and the experience the level two demands more years of experience and specialized knowledge reflecting the advanced nature of the role and then administrative responsibilities level two includes administrative tasks like processing invoices and managing subcontractors and that's not included in the level one so I hope that covers some of the main differences there.

01:48:28.220 --> 01:48:32.000
Um, yeah, I, I just was handed them

01:48:32.000 --> 01:48:33.840
Uh, what

01:48:33.840 --> 01:48:36.640
They're both hyperlinked

01:48:36.640 --> 01:48:38.620
I never saw the 15

01:48:38.620 --> 01:48:39.120
Okay

01:48:39.120 --> 01:48:41.480
It's a new agenda

01:48:41.480 --> 01:48:44.600
Forgive me

01:48:44.600 --> 01:48:46.340
You are correct

01:48:46.340 --> 01:48:48.100
Um

01:48:48.100 --> 01:48:50.860
How long

01:48:50.860 --> 01:48:52.480
Have this

01:48:52.480 --> 01:48:54.780
Job when it was filled

01:48:54.780 --> 01:48:58.180
How many years have someone been in this position

01:48:58.180 --> 01:49:21.280
that was not qualified. When this job became available, the person that had it before, it became available, was not qualified, did not have these qualifications. A young man bidded on this job, and now things are changing, and he's being asked to accept a position at a lower level.

01:49:21.280 --> 01:49:39.510
and why not bring him in at the level everybody else came in at and give him the needed training or schooling like we do everybody else to get him prepared.

01:49:39.510 --> 01:49:41.330
to get him prepared for the position.

01:49:43.010 --> 01:49:45.330
I believe that's kind of what we're doing.

01:49:45.410 --> 01:49:50.310
We're trying to make a permanent change here, similar to like a street trainee.

01:49:50.570 --> 01:49:53.090
We don't hire people in as street maintenance workers.

01:49:53.330 --> 01:49:55.110
We hire them in as street trainees.

01:49:55.390 --> 01:50:03.810
So I think we're making a, you know, we're really improving this particular case by providing that stair step.

01:50:03.810 --> 01:50:25.830
So I think, as you noted, there's been times in the past when folks get promoted into a position based on their background and experience and their resume, and I think that this is a necessary change that will allow our staff to graduate into more complex roles.

01:50:25.830 --> 01:50:35.190
So will he be getting training from his supervisor, the person that held this position before he did?

01:50:35.990 --> 01:50:55.610
Well, I mean, we've had several people promoted or hired in and promoted. We had one gentleman who is no longer with the city. So obviously he won't be here. We've got two other gentlemen. One is now the foreman and the other one is instrument controls technician currently spent a lot of time

01:50:55.610 --> 01:51:26.230
on the wastewater side, and he'll be doing a lot of the mentoring and training, yes. And he's qualified? Yes, he's, he's, when you, when you have as, as many years in grade as this individual had, um, yes, he is qualified, yeah. Is there a motion to move this for first reading? So moved. Second. Okay, um, it was first by Clemm and second by Shadle. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

01:51:26.230 --> 01:51:30.370
Okay, motion passed.

01:51:34.420 --> 01:51:51.340
Okay, let me, discussion regarding R-2025-4, approving memorandum of understanding with the Fraternal Order of Police regarding post-employment health plan by Chief Schemberger.

01:51:51.340 --> 01:52:22.880
Thank you. This was presented last week to the council. The intent of this is to enter in MOU with the Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council regarding three individuals who either have or will reach the years of retirement during this next contract. This was something that was part of the negotiations to get rid of the post-employment

01:52:22.880 --> 01:52:56.120
health care plan, but yet offer these three individuals an opportunity to have their sick time paid out if they chose to retire during these next three years of this contract. Are there any questions? Yes, I do. Thank you. So, Chief, was this taken out during the negotiations or was it just overlooked? I mean, Attorney Zito probably can elaborate.

01:52:56.120 --> 01:53:25.980
So the plan, the PEP plan, was negotiated out of the contract there, so that's something that is in this current contract, the FOP negotiated it out. It wasn't something that they were willing to give it up as a part of the contract. However, what they negotiated as a part of that, we'll give it up, but there are three particular employees, they're the only three, that are going to qualify for under the original plan, because they're going to hit their

01:53:25.980 --> 01:53:32.900
within these next three years, they would hit the 20 years and they would have the requisite number hour of days that could be cashed in.

01:53:33.040 --> 01:53:37.520
So they asked, we'll give up PEP, but could you grandfather just these three people in?

01:53:37.880 --> 01:53:42.460
So we've already approved the agreement and now we're coming back.

01:53:42.860 --> 01:53:51.540
To memorialize with this MOU just those three because it wouldn't be appropriate to write the three of them into the overall contract there.

01:53:51.540 --> 01:54:19.160
So that's why you would handle this separately as a side MOU, just with regards to these three people, the grandfather, these people, and again, there's no payment to them if they don't choose to retire in the next, within the term of this, this, this CBA. So if they don't require in the next retire, excuse me, in the next three years or in 27, then this goes away. And then, and, and then pep's gone for everybody at that point. Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Okay. Are there any other questions?

01:54:19.160 --> 01:54:49.140
If not, do we have a motion to move this to the first reading by Parker and Clem? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passed. The next status update of the street light at the intersection of Iroquois and State. Presentation, Manager Boyer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to invite a representative, George Galraff, to do this kind of touch

01:54:49.140 --> 01:55:22.900
based on this, I think he's pretty well handled this already. Good evening, George Galrap, President of Freeport, Employee of ComEd. So, as I was asked, I started in the Fifth Ward. I did a survey of Fifth Ward for all the lights there, looking at them. They're all functional. They don't have any foliage in front of them. Of course, here we are in January. Be good to go through this again in the spring when there are trees and things like that. Continue to work with

01:55:22.900 --> 01:55:51.820
City Manager Rob Boyer and Darren Steakl, Public Works. I went north of the fifth ward into the third ward and went to the corner of Ottawa and State Street. ComEd installed a light there today. It went from a 40 watt to a 70 watt, which is 75% brighter and actually encompasses a little bit of Shalom Park, if that's the correct pronunciation. I asked them to tilt it a little bit.

01:55:51.820 --> 01:56:21.800
I called three aldermen up that were within the area, told them that, left messages for them. I talked directly to Alderman Sanders about the light, asked them to drive by it, see what he thought about it. It's quite a bit brighter. It's a big difference from when I was there last week. Okay. Any questions or concerns? Yeah, I did have a question. As I looked at the park itself, I didn't think

01:56:21.820 --> 01:56:51.000
I think it was illuminated enough. No, it's not. And because anybody that wants to peddle anything in that area can conceal any evidence, even though there's a little lighting there. Yes. But it does not cast off enough to eliminate the possibility of someone either bringing illegal alcohol, drugs, weapons,

01:56:51.820 --> 01:57:21.820
uh whatever country bands or whatever the situation is i don't think it's bright enough to deter uh individuals that they just can't just show up at this park and and try to conceal their their actions and things like that i i would like for it to be so so so bright over there that they wouldn't even want to come back well and i agree i agree 100 but if you want to do that it's private property so you're going to have to go to the property

01:57:21.820 --> 01:57:51.800
owners. Right. And they're going to have to call a new business to install a light and they're going to have to pay for it. All right. Okay. I don't believe that city council or the administration would approve using. What about a lamp? What about just a lamp, a little property lamp? You know, one that stands up in the yard and. That would be up to the property owner how they want to do that. They don't want. Okay. Okay. I don't know who owns that property. Me neither. I don't. I don't. Is anybody else on the council? I know. You do? Okay. So it's really up to the property

01:57:51.800 --> 01:58:21.740
owner, and I'm sure this is very supportive by the city of Freeport, but it's something that would have to be done with the property owner and a new business, the ComEd, and I'd be happy to walk them through it. Overall, it does look lit up. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we got right on it today, so. Yeah. Okay. Yes, Alderman. I would like to thank you for that. Oh, you're welcome. I, too, on the way here tonight, drove through, and it is a little better.

01:58:21.800 --> 01:58:24.140
Okay, 75% better

01:58:24.140 --> 01:58:24.660
Yeah

01:58:24.660 --> 01:58:33.280
Well, you said we went from a 40, a 70, we went to from a 40 to a 70

01:58:33.280 --> 01:58:35.800
Yes, yes, so 75% more lumen

01:58:35.800 --> 01:58:38.700
It looks much better

01:58:38.700 --> 01:58:40.700
It does look better

01:58:40.700 --> 01:58:45.720
Hopefully we can work together as, you know, like, drive through the fifth board with you like I did today

01:58:45.720 --> 01:58:47.540
And we can take a look

01:58:47.540 --> 01:58:51.700
I have a list that I received from Chief Shenberger

01:58:51.700 --> 01:58:52.160
Okay

01:58:52.160 --> 01:58:55.020
The concerned areas

01:58:55.020 --> 01:58:55.860
All right

01:58:55.860 --> 01:58:59.340
Where crime happens and take place

01:58:59.340 --> 01:58:59.780
Okay

01:58:59.780 --> 01:59:06.340
And I would like to do that this week if possible

01:59:06.340 --> 01:59:08.960
Let me check my schedule and get a hold of you

01:59:08.960 --> 01:59:11.840
The cell number I called today is the best one to reach you at

01:59:11.840 --> 01:59:13.100
You didn't call me today

01:59:13.100 --> 01:59:15.420
I called the 908 number

01:59:15.420 --> 01:59:18.280
Yeah, that I got off the Freeport website

01:59:18.280 --> 01:59:36.980
All right. Is that an office number? No, sir. Okay. I got it on my phone the number I called. I'll let you know. 908-9814. What is it? 908-9814. Okay. I'll check my phone. Please and thank you. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Any other questions?

01:59:36.980 --> 01:59:37.160
Any other questions?

01:59:38.840 --> 01:59:39.400
Alderman Simmons?

01:59:39.400 --> 01:59:41.120
That's not so much a question, just a comment.

01:59:41.360 --> 01:59:41.600
Yes.

01:59:41.800 --> 01:59:46.780
I do appreciate that it was done and handled in a very timely manner.

01:59:47.040 --> 01:59:47.680
Oh, you're welcome.

01:59:48.040 --> 01:59:48.280
Anytime.

01:59:48.440 --> 01:59:48.760
Thank you.

01:59:48.760 --> 01:59:52.860
Well, I'd like you to get to the corner of Oak and Empire.

01:59:55.580 --> 01:59:57.100
I'll do that on the way.

01:59:57.480 --> 02:00:01.140
Do La Cresta out there where Monroe lived.

02:00:01.140 --> 02:00:17.960
Okay, as we move on, discussion regarding resolution approving the transfer property, commonly known as 431 and 437 South Adams Avenue, from Stevenson County to City of Freeport, presented by Manager Boyer

02:00:17.960 --> 02:00:25.560
Thank you, Madam Chair. Eric, could you put the map up? Yeah, thanks, Wayne

02:00:25.560 --> 02:00:59.400
So over the last several months we've been working with the county discussing several topics. This property is one of them. Currently the county owns this property and has come to the city asking if we'd have any interest in taking this property off their hands. I am favorable toward that since it is so close to some of the other community facilities and it would fit in close with our existing, we have some

02:00:59.400 --> 02:01:28.760
Lots in that area. We're investigating some infield housing possibilities, and I know we've worked with GFP a couple of years ago on a concept for this, so I think it makes a lot of sense for the city to take over this property from the county, and it would be an opportunity for us to also control it and make sure it is maintained in the interim until we are able to move forward with any residential or commercial opportunities with it.

02:01:28.760 --> 02:01:33.680
So, I guess I will open the floor for any questions or discussion.

02:01:36.230 --> 02:01:37.570
Alderman, Stacy.

02:01:38.010 --> 02:01:41.530
What would it cost us to take this property off the county's hands?

02:01:42.410 --> 02:01:46.670
I believe the county is just willing to deed it over to the city.

02:01:47.270 --> 02:01:49.590
So, zero or minimal cost.

02:01:49.610 --> 02:01:50.230
Paperwork says a dollar.

02:01:50.650 --> 02:01:51.150
A dollar.

02:01:51.330 --> 02:01:51.710
A dollar.

02:01:51.790 --> 02:01:53.210
It's in your packet.

02:01:53.690 --> 02:01:56.790
And what does the city plan to do with this property?

02:01:56.790 --> 02:02:18.930
Well, as I just mentioned, we're looking at a couple of infill projects along this corridor, being that we've just redone it, and we've also investigated some other commercial activity or potential for development there. So I would say either one of those would fall under the category of what we would be looking at.

02:02:18.930 --> 02:02:22.310
Would the city consider a third ward park?

02:02:22.310 --> 02:02:55.040
Well, that would be up for discussion, and that would have to involve the park district, but I'd definitely put that a yes. So the answer would be yes, we could have further conversations about that. Any other discussion? Yeah. Yeah, just FYI, Alderman Stacy, the park district was the original owners. Is that right? The park district was the original? Yes, and it was deeded over to the county as a part of

02:02:55.060 --> 02:03:03.980
West Block when they acquired it, so I would find it hard to believe that the Park District would want to get back in that, but there's a possibility, I don't know.

02:03:04.180 --> 02:03:13.780
Well, I'm a little surprised because I just had a conversation with a gentleman on Saturday, and I will be having another one with him tomorrow.

02:03:15.780 --> 02:03:16.260
Auderman.

02:03:18.910 --> 02:03:19.390
Yeah.

02:03:20.030 --> 02:03:20.510
Yeah.

02:03:20.750 --> 02:03:21.070
Thank you.

02:03:21.070 --> 02:03:21.290
Yeah.

02:03:21.930 --> 02:03:25.530
Freeport Park District covers a lot of areas in Freeport.

02:03:26.370 --> 02:03:44.930
and their locations is not being, what I want to say, conveyed or revealed of why they have these jurisdictions under their government, under their jurisdiction.

02:03:44.930 --> 02:03:56.270
I just like to know where does the city factor in? Why is it that the Freeport Park District has so much territory, land, property here in the city of Freeport?

02:03:56.370 --> 02:04:18.050
did they inherit it or did the city give it over to them, parked it into their possession to create parks and things of this nature? I'd just like to know how it originated that the park district was able to cover much land base here in the city of Freeport.

02:04:18.050 --> 02:04:40.690
And we don't have that because I'm trying to get it all out right now because I may not get another chance. So I'd like to get more details about it. I would like to have a conversation. I would love to have more than just what I'm going to say.

02:04:40.690 --> 02:05:07.010
I wanted to talk about it more with other individuals, understanding the whole magnet to all of it, and so I would like to create a meeting that we can some form of way that everybody can get involved and talk about it. I'm talking about the whole council. I'm talking about everybody to talk about the thing and see what we come up with.

02:05:07.010 --> 02:05:13.870
I think we can work on that, but I would suggest maybe we start with a one-on-one with the park district director.

02:05:14.190 --> 02:05:14.430
Okay.

02:05:14.630 --> 02:05:14.830
Okay.

02:05:16.030 --> 02:05:18.330
Are there, Autumn and Clam.

02:05:18.930 --> 02:05:21.550
Just have a question I agree with is not a problem.

02:05:22.090 --> 02:05:26.450
I just want to ask about the corner at the top of the drawing there.

02:05:26.450 --> 02:05:31.510
You show four lots that are equal and then you show a fifth one and a thing going over.

02:05:31.790 --> 02:05:36.710
And I'm just wondering if that creates a headache down the line or what that is.

02:05:37.010 --> 02:06:11.660
Uh-huh. My guess is that would be like a driveway or something that somebody had at one time and somehow got orphaned in the data. Eric, I don't know if you can overlay the city-owned parcels. Do we own any of the other adjacent parcels there? Sure. I may be staying corrected here, but I believe we actually currently own a couple of parcels there as well from previous demolitions, so that would allow us to kind of accumulate that piece and perhaps move

02:06:11.680 --> 02:06:38.400
move forward with another project there, whether that be infill housing or recreational related, but I think it makes sense and it, because we have our, we already have an established crew that's taking care of lots, the only maintenance related to it besides cleaning it up is mowing it, so since we are kind of in a good position in that regard, it seems like it'd be a good opportunity to pick that up and be able to control that moving forward.

02:06:38.400 --> 02:06:41.840
I just, oh, go ahead, Tom, I can wait, go ahead

02:06:41.840 --> 02:06:43.880
I was just going to make a motion to move it forward

02:06:43.880 --> 02:06:49.800
Oh, no, I just wanted to know, at one time, I know as a little girl, I lived in that area

02:06:49.800 --> 02:06:56.280
So, at one time, that used to be a park, it was called Tutti Baker Park, and that's what that was

02:06:56.280 --> 02:06:59.420
So, I know that, okay

02:06:59.420 --> 02:07:00.320
Fantastic

02:07:00.320 --> 02:07:04.920
Tom wants to make a motion to discuss it at the next meeting

02:07:04.920 --> 02:07:07.600
Do I get a second?

02:07:08.400 --> 02:07:09.220
Second.

02:07:10.220 --> 02:07:10.740
Okay.

02:07:12.200 --> 02:07:13.160
Excuse me.

02:07:14.040 --> 02:07:17.600
Motion first by Clem, second by Parker.

02:07:18.480 --> 02:07:19.600
Are there...

02:07:19.600 --> 02:07:21.640
Oh, I thought he was pointing.

02:07:25.010 --> 02:07:26.110
I just went blank.

02:07:27.630 --> 02:07:28.970
All in favor?

02:07:29.130 --> 02:07:29.630
I'm dying.

02:07:29.790 --> 02:07:30.470
All in favor?

02:07:30.930 --> 02:07:31.650
All opposed?

02:07:32.770 --> 02:07:33.930
Motion passed.

02:07:33.930 --> 02:07:39.610
Number 16, discussion regarding electric bill provider of kilowatt hours,

02:07:39.610 --> 02:07:45.650
distribute fees and process for residents to switch to a different provider.

02:07:46.450 --> 02:07:47.610
He skipped 15.

02:07:48.490 --> 02:07:49.870
Oh, sorry.

02:07:50.290 --> 02:07:50.870
Okay.

02:07:50.870 --> 02:08:01.830
I have a discussion regarding ordinance amending chapter 220, council section 220.10, rule of council, presentation by

02:08:01.830 --> 02:08:03.710
Audermon, Stacy, and Monroe.

02:08:05.390 --> 02:08:05.990
Yes.

02:08:07.150 --> 02:08:09.670
On November 12th,

02:08:09.670 --> 02:08:12.850
there was

02:08:12.850 --> 02:08:16.870
an ordinance that was brought to the council.

02:08:19.270 --> 02:08:22.600
Mayor Miller was not present.

02:08:24.460 --> 02:08:25.780
Attorney Zito presented.

02:08:26.980 --> 02:08:29.040
And it was voted on and moved to

02:08:29.040 --> 02:08:32.520
supposedly the December 16th agenda.

02:08:33.560 --> 02:09:05.100
and I want to know who have that power to take something from an agenda when it's been voted on? What right and why did it happen? Why was it removed? That's what I want to say.

02:09:05.100 --> 02:09:07.420
I would like to know, please, and thank you.

02:09:17.060 --> 02:09:26.590
For three minutes.

02:09:26.790 --> 02:09:27.630
I can answer the question.

02:09:27.710 --> 02:09:28.030
Please.

02:09:29.070 --> 02:09:36.030
So this ordinance was originally along with my understanding with some other older persons to present this.

02:09:36.030 --> 02:09:39.800
with some other persons to present this ordinance here. It was scheduled to be placed on the November

02:09:39.800 --> 02:09:47.420
cow. They're at that November cow. The mayor was not absent, so I presented the, or the mayor was absent,

02:09:47.500 --> 02:09:54.060
excuse me, so I presented the ordinance at that meeting. Then this item was laid over. There was a

02:09:54.060 --> 02:09:59.500
motion, a second, to lay this over to the following cow for further discussion there. So that would have

02:09:59.500 --> 02:10:07.280
in the December cow. Prior to the December cow, the mayor contacted me and said, Aaron, the group of

02:10:07.280 --> 02:10:12.880
aldermen and I, we talked that were proponents of this, I put this forward. You know what? We don't want

02:10:12.880 --> 02:10:17.180
to, we're not ready. We think we got to look at this more. So, you know, we want it removed from the

02:10:17.180 --> 02:10:23.600
agenda. We're not pushing it forward anymore there. So that's happened before in the past when someone

02:10:23.600 --> 02:10:29.360
who proposes an item, whether it be a property owner who says that, hey, I'm applying for a text

02:10:29.360 --> 02:10:59.340
amendment to the zoning code or whatever and it starts to move its way forward and then when that applicant says, you know what, change of mind, I don't want to move this forward anymore, the item just gets removed. So that's why I relate when the mayor contacted me and said, hey, the people that were proponents of this were withdrawing it. So I said, okay, following past practice, I reached out to Dovie and said, hey, the people that wanted this no longer want it. You know, they don't want to put these changes forward anymore. So that's why it was taken off.

02:10:59.360 --> 02:11:29.120
the agenda. Attorney Zito, once it was asked to be moved forward by myself and seconded by Alderman Simmons, shouldn't it have come to us if you were going to question or decide to just take it off? We were the ones. I think the only thing about this, Alderman Stacy, was the fact that normally, yes, it would be on the

02:11:29.360 --> 02:11:59.340
agenda, right, for further discussion. The only reason why the difference here was because the people that were pushing it, that wanted it in the first place, that asked for it to be on the agenda, basically withdrew it. Why would that matter? It had went past that step. It had went to another level by two different people. So why would that have mattered? You know, I just felt disrespected. I felt like my opinion and what I asked for and what we all took a vote for,

02:11:59.360 --> 02:12:29.340
Ford, 7-0, I believe Alderman Monroe was missing that, that it should have been acknowledged and should have been granted because regardless of who puts on or who takes off, just like today, because it was moved all the way to February, Kyle, and I said, no, I want it on January's, Kyle, and I've been told over and over again that as long

02:12:29.340 --> 02:12:41.520
as two people bring it that anything can be on an agenda. So two people brought it and it should have been respected.

02:12:41.520 --> 02:12:59.720
Well, and that's why it's on now because two people have asked to have it on. So that's why it was put back on because you and Alderman Monroe have asked for it to put that on. And that's fine. You can always do that there. And that's an accurate statement that our ordinances say that any two older persons could have an item added to the agenda.

02:12:59.720 --> 02:13:04.620
But for the 16th, seven people, seven people agreed to bring it.

02:13:04.620 --> 02:13:14.120
And I think that to have further discussion on it, and the difference being is that at that point, though, the proponents of the ordinance in the first place asked to have it withdrawn.

02:13:14.120 --> 02:13:17.700
So that's the difference here.

02:13:18.240 --> 02:13:27.820
So I give the example that when an applicant, a citizen, applies for a text amendment to change the code, right, to change the zoning code or whatever it is,

02:13:27.820 --> 02:13:55.880
That can go through Zoning Board of Appeals. It can come to committee. Committee can say we vote to move it forward to first reading. If prior to first reading or even prior to second reading, the applicant says, guess what? My application, I withdraw my application. Typically, that item then is just removed from the agenda without the council saying, you know, okay, we officially allowed for it to be removed, you know, your application to be withdrawn. It's usually just withdrawn.

02:13:55.880 --> 02:14:25.720
but that involved one person this involved eight I suppose well it involved I suppose the proponents of the ordinance originally there was more than one person there asked for it to be withdrawn I suppose ultimately to clarify if you know if this is what the council wants to say that hey whenever anything is moved forward to council even if it's subsequently withdrawn or the

02:14:25.720 --> 02:14:55.340
the person, you know, drops it, you know, doesn't want it anymore, that will still hear the, you know, put it on the agenda, and the council can then be informed of the fact that, hey, such and such is withdrawing the motion, and then you guys can say, okay, well, if you're withdrawing the motion, then there's no, you know, or you're withdrawing the topic, then there's no really a need to discuss it anymore, unless someone else wants to keep, you know, if you want to discuss it, you can have it placed back on, right, you know, because that's the difference here, is that the original group,

02:14:55.720 --> 02:15:27.240
that wanted it put forward. They said, we don't want it anymore. We don't, you know, we don't feel the need to move forward with those proposed changes there. Now, if you want to put forward to say, hey, well, I still want to talk about some changes, maybe not those changes. I didn't, you know, maybe I didn't agree with those changes, but I want some other changes made to this, this rules of council. Then just like our one and says, two people put it on and you guys can move forward with then, you know, whatever changes that you guys want there. So are there any other questions?

02:15:27.260 --> 02:15:59.090
questions? Is this something? Which one do we do? Do we have to take a vote? Okay, we'll move. We can move it to the... Nobody's made a motion to move it. Oh, okay. I'm saying. As of right now, the group that wanted this draft here withdrew that prior to the December, whatever. Now, if Alderman Stacy and whoever else, if you guys have other chains,

02:15:59.090 --> 02:16:27.170
like your own changes that you want to make to that section we can put we can my purpose for bringing it here tonight was to get clarity on why it was not on the December 16th agenda when it was voted on and passed to be and the response to that is because the proponents of the original proponents of the ordinance asked to have it withdrawn they didn't want to even they didn't want to put forth those suggestions anymore.

02:16:27.170 --> 02:16:58.140
and I still feel that once I asked for it and it was seconded, that it was no longer at that level and that if indeed that was was going to happen, which is what did happen, that it would have been respectful to inform Rachel and I, Alderman Simmons and I, what you were doing instead of just not doing it like we were going to forget

02:16:58.140 --> 02:17:01.780
and not remember, or not know, or.

02:17:02.100 --> 02:17:05.440
Alderman, Roe, do you have any discussion on it?

02:17:05.520 --> 02:17:07.080
No, I'm not at this time.

02:17:07.080 --> 02:17:07.860
Okay, yeah.

02:17:08.360 --> 02:17:11.260
Okay, we'll move on to item number 16.

02:17:11.720 --> 02:17:12.740
I'll read that again.

02:17:13.300 --> 02:17:19.140
Discussion regarding electric bill provider of kilowatt hours, distribution fees, and the

02:17:19.140 --> 02:17:22.500
process for residents to switch to a different provider.

02:17:23.360 --> 02:17:25.420
Alderman, Stacy, and Monroe again.

02:17:25.980 --> 02:17:26.360
Yes.

02:17:26.360 --> 02:17:37.520
So, gentleman came here, and he proposed some rates. Could you help me with his name, Manager Boyer, or the company?

02:17:39.440 --> 02:17:49.620
It's Mike Mudge with Rock River Energy, but that's the generation aggregation contract that's different than the increased changes recently.

02:17:49.620 --> 02:18:19.600
just for him. Okay. So he came here and he presented some numbers to us. We all received this in the mail and you either had to apt out using this company or you automatic was switched. And then he came back about, oh, I don't know, six, eight weeks.

02:18:19.620 --> 02:18:52.830
weeks later and because rates were going up, he could not guarantee us at the original quote. Am I correct? It is, however, we have, there's not, yes, the, the. He never said the rate was going up. Oh, no, the rate is not going up. I'm sorry. No, no, no. He, he questioned if they will be able to meet what they had

02:18:52.830 --> 02:18:54.090
told us the first time.

02:18:55.450 --> 02:18:57.790
And we discussed, I actually had a conversation.

02:18:57.790 --> 02:19:00.790
Because rates were going up, not their rates, they didn't know.

02:19:02.050 --> 02:19:10.590
Well, this is about generation, and on the generation side, they weren't sure what was going to happen with the ICC ruling coming down the pike.

02:19:10.590 --> 02:19:18.590
So they were expressing their nervousness about being able to fulfill the aggregation contract that we had bid and accepted.

02:19:19.530 --> 02:19:21.550
That has to do with generation.

02:19:21.550 --> 02:19:30.050
We could not, we could not cancel the contract. They would have to drop us. We couldn't drop them.

02:19:32.780 --> 02:19:41.900
Yeah, offhand, since I didn't realize the direction of this conversation, and I guess I don't have everything I need to adequately

02:19:41.900 --> 02:19:45.420
He gave us three different options.

02:19:45.540 --> 02:20:02.400
Yes, he did. Long story short, my phone has been blowing up because people feel like their electric bills are higher than ever before, and they don't want to stay with this company, they want to go back to their original holders.

02:20:02.780 --> 02:20:25.300
If they were on an original aggregation contract with the previous, I think, AEP, that contract lapsed and then we re-bid it with, yeah, so if they were on ComEd previously, they can go back to ComEd and that's fine.

02:20:25.300 --> 02:20:35.100
But when they call ComEd, they're being told that the company you signed with has to release you. ComEd can't just switch them over.

02:20:35.100 --> 02:20:39.340
So they should just call Mike Mudge, they should call Rock River Energy to get that moving forward.

02:20:39.640 --> 02:20:39.840
No.

02:20:40.760 --> 02:20:41.000
No.

02:20:41.120 --> 02:20:41.800
He doesn't want them.

02:20:42.620 --> 02:20:45.920
He doesn't want them calling him. I've already been told that.

02:20:46.400 --> 02:20:48.180
I'm sorry, Nordic. Thank you, Dovie.

02:20:48.180 --> 02:21:00.520
But we do need information available to the constituents so that they can have the correct number they need to call so that they can cancel this service if that's what they want to do.

02:21:01.060 --> 02:21:06.120
And that's what the purpose this was for here tonight.

02:21:06.120 --> 02:21:18.960
to inform the people of the number they need to call if they want to switch back to ComEd so that they're not being tossed to and fro and getting nowhere.

02:21:20.240 --> 02:21:26.720
But it was in your contract when you made that decision on if you wanted to stay or if you wanted to go.

02:21:26.780 --> 02:21:27.360
Alderman Sellers.

02:21:27.760 --> 02:21:28.400
Yeah, go ahead.

02:21:28.400 --> 02:21:54.640
So one of the things, and I think this is where the concern and the confusion is coming from, a lot of people submitted the form saying they were opting out. Now they're being told they never received the letter. They're not able to opt out. So they're stuck in this no man's land between Nordic and ComEd. And they're looking to us to assist them or figure out a way to get out of this agreement with Nordic.

02:21:54.640 --> 02:22:20.780
Yeah, I, I'm sorry, I've been trying to flag you. Yeah, I feel the same sentiments that you guys are feeling because I called them. I called them directly. And when I was looking at my utility bill, that their service, whatever they're supposed to be providing was not part of my subsidy or my

02:22:24.640 --> 02:22:51.160
letter stating that I'm using Nordicist, but ComEd charged me because they did not comply with ComEd. ComEd had no idea that that should have been implemented to my electric bill, so I called Nordic, and they're scrambling, trying to get the right information to me, and telling me that they're going to take care of it.

02:22:51.160 --> 02:23:15.580
Well, I'm looking at, I'm going to look at my bill this year, this month, yeah, this month, and see if their name is on there, see if there's any adjustments been made, because they gave, they gave me, uh, sure numbers that would benefit me, and I, and I had not seen that yet, so, uh, yeah, there's something nefarious going on there, and I like to know what it is myself.

02:23:18.240 --> 02:23:19.660
We can follow up on that.

02:23:19.660 --> 02:23:26.420
So how can we get the people this information? Is it something can go on the city's website?

02:23:29.700 --> 02:23:47.340
Yes, we will basically get with Mike, address the concerns that you've expressed tonight, put together a statement, we can push that out on social media, then we can get with also to ensure some of the customers aren't confused because there was an increase on their distribution and green energy portion of their bill.

02:23:47.340 --> 02:24:09.740
So to ensure that we're actually talking apples to apples here, they may be confused because just recently the ICC approved an increase going forward, which was pretty substantial on the portion of their bill that's not related to the generation. It's related to distribution and so on. So as long as we're talking about the same thing here, yes.

02:24:10.240 --> 02:24:19.080
Are there any other? Oh, if we could, I'm just trying to confuse things more here.

02:24:19.420 --> 02:24:27.940
not actually, but as you mentioned, there's an upcharge on the distribution side and that kind of stuff.

02:24:28.580 --> 02:24:36.060
Well, Mr. Golrapp's here. Could he explain that? So we know what's there and an estimate of what's there.

02:24:36.220 --> 02:24:43.100
So we know there's issues on that side. When you get done with dealing with one part of it, you know what the other charge is.

02:24:45.440 --> 02:24:50.080
Alderman, I mean Alderman. George Golrapp.

02:24:51.280 --> 02:25:21.350
I'm ready. Well, let's start with Nordic Energy. Their phone number for customer service is 877-808-1022. So, and when people call to opt out at this late date, they want to make sure that there's no type of administrative fee attached to it. Some of these companies do have it. It should have been on the contract whether or not they had it. I checked with city manager on that.

02:25:21.350 --> 02:25:33.690
As far as ComEd's concerned, you'll see a rate increase for, because we're the suppliers, or we're the distribution side, we're the wires and the poles, we take the energy and bring it to your home.

02:25:34.470 --> 02:25:43.390
In June, there will be a substantial rate of probably about $10.50 per month, depending upon the size of your home and what you currently incur.

02:25:43.390 --> 02:26:09.010
A lot of that is due to electrification, so electric cars, putting in the infrastructure for that, the enormous amount of data centers we have in the area, the increased cost to upgrade and maintain the distribution center or grid itself, but there's two different parts, so you have Nordic, who supplies your energy, and ComEd, who delivers it to your home, okay?

02:26:09.010 --> 02:26:38.990
Has ComEd fees went up since September? I believe January 1st they went up slightly, but the main increase will be June 1st of 2025. And I get that information to you. Fees. Yep. Okay. It's been a two-year process with the ICC that we've had a multi-year grid plan in place to make sure that the grid is sustainable. We are the number one company, electric company,

02:26:38.990 --> 02:27:06.770
company in the nation right now. So some of the state senators and representatives question why we want to continue to put money into our system and we want to stay number one. We want to make sure that you have your power. We see a lot more people working in their homes, a lot more electricity being used, and we want to make sure we maintain the system itself. Nobody likes an increase, even myself, even though I work for ComEd.

02:27:06.770 --> 02:27:36.770
but if you want to maintain things and have good reliable service we have to continue to take care of our grid which we do so thank you. I have a question. So switching from Nordic to ComEd will not necessarily lower their electric bill significantly. I looked up the rates. Do you have them? Yeah I think Nordic is at 6.399. 0.08315. Okay that's a little bit different

02:27:36.770 --> 02:27:44.290
than I have. So I think we're within one hundredths of a penny. What is ComEd right now? I believe within

02:27:44.290 --> 02:27:51.030
one hundredths of a penny compared to Nordic. Of what? A penny. From the rate you said? Yeah, they had

02:27:51.030 --> 02:28:02.130
6.399 and then we were 6.4. And you were 6.4? Yeah. And that is lower than Nordic, but Nordic will stay

02:28:02.130 --> 02:28:06.650
at that contracted rate for three years and ComEd can fluctuate right up and down, correct?

02:28:06.770 --> 02:28:36.090
Correct. And the electrical supply is not the largest part of the bill? No, I don't believe so. It just depends on who you use. Yeah, so that's the apples and apples that Manager Boyer was talking about. But you would really like to have Mike Mudge come here and talk to the council again. I think that would be, he's been a proven person as far as getting great rates since I was mayor.

02:28:36.090 --> 02:28:55.550
We were the first administration to have an aggregation. Saved everybody about $300 a year. So it just depends on where your supplier is. So it's tough right now, though. It's difficult right now with electrification and how much energy is being used. Okay. All right. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

02:28:55.550 --> 02:29:26.200
Any other discussion? If not, we'll move to 17. The discussion and explanation of a fast-track demo process presented by Stacy and Monroe. Are you doing the presentation? No. No. No, we're going to start off with trying to understand the process for a fast-track demolition. There's not a lot of information.

02:29:26.960 --> 02:29:30.920
online that we have. If you have, awesome.

02:29:30.920 --> 02:29:53.570
Awesome. So who's doing the presentation? Oh. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Alderperson Monroe, Alderperson Stacy.

02:29:55.250 --> 02:30:03.250
Starting off here, just going back, this was in April 28th of 2023. I'm pulling this from, we had an

02:30:03.250 --> 02:30:08.630
orientation, so it's just kind of a little background on when I kind of talked about this in the past. It's

02:30:08.630 --> 02:30:15.510
kind of a little bit of a refresher. So I talked about in that orientation kind of the four main areas my

02:30:15.510 --> 02:30:20.330
department works in code enforcement, planning and zoning, building code enforcement, grant administration

02:30:20.330 --> 02:30:26.770
in the upper left is where in our orientation we kind of talked about our general process, our chronic

02:30:26.770 --> 02:30:33.970
nuisance and fast track and how this all kind of works in our code enforcement. Scrolling down when I

02:30:33.970 --> 02:30:41.590
talked about this back in 2023, which it hasn't changed significantly. Basically, when we're talking code

02:30:41.590 --> 02:30:48.650
enforcement, the first process here would be a warning issued. Then a property would have one week,

02:30:49.130 --> 02:30:52.530
this is all general, but a property then would have one week to address their violation.

02:30:53.490 --> 02:30:58.230
At that point, a property would issue a citation with an associated hearing date. And a little

02:30:58.230 --> 02:31:28.210
background there is anybody who receives gets to step three we have a hearing officer you're given a date I always consider it similar to traffic court but it's not it's it's an administrative hearing process and essentially at this point this is where you'd have a hearing and if you don't show up to the hearing you get a default judgment similar to traffic also you get a chance to plead your case you can get your case can be continued you can hear it

02:31:28.210 --> 02:31:37.330
have a judgment for or against you at this point. Moving down, moving up the ladder here, I kind of gave some

02:31:37.330 --> 02:31:42.710
information on when our hearings are. They're held the first and third Thursdays of each month. Some of you

02:31:42.710 --> 02:31:47.970
have showed up to these, so you're aware with this process. At that point, when you're at one of these

02:31:47.970 --> 02:31:54.890
hearings, a fine would be issued. The next two steps are how you eventually get to, these are what you

02:31:54.890 --> 02:32:01.290
gets you to get to fast-track demolition here. Chronic nuisance is the big step here before you get to

02:32:01.290 --> 02:32:07.490
fast-track demolition. Chronic nuisance means you get three of these violations in a six-month period.

02:32:08.150 --> 02:32:14.410
So you have to have three judgments in a six-month period to be declared a chronic nuisance.

02:32:15.910 --> 02:32:21.410
All of the fast-track demolitions that I have processed have gone through this chronic nuisance

02:32:21.410 --> 02:32:29.250
process first. And then finally, we get to this fast track demolition process. When I was speaking back in

02:32:29.250 --> 02:32:37.590
2023, one of the points I mentioned was that my department, one of the goals when I took over

02:32:37.590 --> 02:32:47.730
the department in 2022 was to increase code enforcement. So as you can see, these are the years

02:32:47.730 --> 02:32:54.670
here. And this is kind of cumulatively how many code enforcement cases, inspections, hearings we've had.

02:32:55.090 --> 02:33:02.510
And I was really proud of the team, as you can see here in 2022, and it's carried on into 23 as well.

02:33:03.090 --> 02:33:09.490
We really increased the number of inspections, which that leads to ultimately at that time when I was

02:33:09.490 --> 02:33:14.410
talking about it is it leads to higher chronic nuisance cases and then eventually more fast-track

02:33:14.410 --> 02:33:21.230
demolitions, which ultimately gets you to more blight remediation, which is in line with our strategic plan.

02:33:21.230 --> 02:33:27.270
I mean, I'll get there later, but kind of go forward here. So won't get on too much about chronic nuisance,

02:33:27.370 --> 02:33:33.150
but want to kind of talk about it a little bit here. Three violations in a six-month period. It requires

02:33:33.150 --> 02:33:41.530
a judgment from a hearing officer. So again, these cases go. Due process is important. A hearing officer

02:33:41.530 --> 02:33:50.250
has to declare a property a chronic nuisance. City can be granted authority to take action, remove garbage and

02:33:50.250 --> 02:34:00.710
debris, demolish a structure, could also, big one here is this $100 a day. So when you get to this point,

02:34:01.130 --> 02:34:06.970
that judge is going to give you $100 a day. And that tends to lead properties into

02:34:06.970 --> 02:34:16.150
high liens, etc. And then what I talk about is that in 2023, we had 20 fast track demolitions. So this is

02:34:16.150 --> 02:34:23.210
kind of what I talked about when I was going through our orientation for that year. So now we talk about

02:34:23.210 --> 02:34:29.230
fast track demolition. Again, kind of what I talked about when you saw that ladder there, it is the last

02:34:29.230 --> 02:34:35.410
resort in the process. It essentially means you've gone through at least, you know, three code enforcement

02:34:35.410 --> 02:34:41.610
cases, you had a judgment for chronic nuisance, and now you're at a part for fast-track demolition.

02:34:44.940 --> 02:34:51.760
So why did I come here? I created this slide here to kind of say, okay, I see the numbers, we see the

02:34:51.760 --> 02:34:59.880
statistics, we've seen the process, but why do fast-track demolition? Why have it? I thought it

02:34:59.880 --> 02:35:06.100
was a good point. I think when we came up with a strategic plan, I really did appreciate Alder

02:35:06.100 --> 02:35:36.000
Person, Monroe, says, well, I don't want to pay for a strategic plan that is just simply put on a memo and nobody does anything with it, right? Why just have a strategic plan if you're not going to run departments behind a strategic plan? So I kind of tied here how fast-track demolitions are tied to the strategic plan in the sense that, you know, this is one of our major goals or one of our major strategic initiatives here, safe and inclusive community.

02:35:36.100 --> 02:35:51.380
One of our key strategies here is to ensure that neighborhood buildings are well-kept improving safety by expanding enforcement time for code enforcement team, increasing penalties, continue funding, and implementation of demolition blight reduction program.

02:35:51.380 --> 02:36:14.680
So my team, my department is essentially judged by making sure that I keep our neighborhoods safe by remediating blight. So while we're getting into the technicalities of how this works, why do it? Well, this is why we're doing it. And all of our council members put into this plan and agreed upon this plan.

02:36:14.680 --> 02:36:46.290
all right so now this is where it gets to be I would say a little bit more in-depth granular but I've highlighted some important parts this is a statute that the city enacts so property has to be three stories or less the corporate official designated to be in charge of enforcing the municipalities building code that's me as I'm really interested in charge of enforcing the building code.

02:36:46.310 --> 02:36:52.110
building code and determines that the building is open and vacant, an immediate continuing hazard to the

02:36:52.110 --> 02:36:57.390
community in which the building is located, then the official shall be authorized to post a notice less

02:36:57.390 --> 02:37:04.030
than no less than two feet by two feet in size on the front of a building. Practically speaking, this is

02:37:04.030 --> 02:37:11.890
what you'll see as an orange sign put on the building. Next step, sorry, I'm bending over here. Next step would

02:37:11.890 --> 02:37:45.220
would be you have to do three types of notices in addition to the posted notice, certified mail, newspaper published, and then you have to record a notice at your recorder's office. So looking up here, I'm just highlighting in other parts as a municipality may proceed to demolish. And I'm just reading the highlighted parts here to for a fact here of what we're essentially talking about. Under this subsection within 120 day period following

02:37:45.220 --> 02:37:50.260
the date of the mailing of the notice if the appropriate official determines that the demolition

02:37:50.260 --> 02:37:58.120
is necessary to remedy an immediate and continuing hazard. So that basically says once the letter is

02:37:58.120 --> 02:38:06.580
mailed and the 30-day period has lapsed for an injunction, the city has 120 days from that

02:38:06.580 --> 02:38:14.340
mailing period to demolish the structure. Following, and another important part here is following

02:38:14.340 --> 02:38:20.180
demolition, a municipality may file a notice of lien against the real estate for the cost of the demolition.

02:38:20.180 --> 02:38:26.560
So oftentimes another part that's been tasked with my department is being stronger on property owners.

02:38:26.680 --> 02:38:30.980
We're talking about, you know, why aren't we holding people accountable? Why aren't we holding people

02:38:30.980 --> 02:38:38.000
accountable? Fast-track demolition is a means to hold problem property owners accountable. And how is it?

02:38:38.000 --> 02:39:11.260
well essentially once that demolition is performed the city can then put a lien against the property so our department takes that information and kind of puts it into this flow chart here and it makes all of that language and legalese a little bit that statute a little bit easier to understand so you start with a building that is three stories or less in height it's got to be open and vacant it has to be an immediate

02:39:11.260 --> 02:39:17.840
and Continuing Hazard. Then I talk about posting the notice on the building. We have 30 days to do our

02:39:17.840 --> 02:39:24.020
three notices here. And then in 30 days, we talk about, hey, has an objective been filed? If yes,

02:39:24.100 --> 02:39:29.740
then we stop this fast-track demolition. If no, we demolish the structure. And then in 180 days,

02:39:29.740 --> 02:40:00.410
and then in 180 days we record a lien or have the ability to record a lien and so that concludes the process is there other I mean maybe we'll put the slideshow back on in case they have some questions are there any questions or do you guys want to take this to a private oh I'm sorry yes who oh no I I do have questions I do have questions so I've actually got several questions so as we've

02:40:00.410 --> 02:40:30.410
you've seen in in many city council meetings. He's got I'm sorry, I just want to keep that in case he had a question on that. Yeah, many city council meetings that come you come along with city manager to the council asking for money to be appropriated to tear down specific houses. Okay, so why are these different than those instances? And why not just hold that money back for these fast

02:40:30.410 --> 02:40:35.710
fast-track demolitions. Well, there's a couple different reasons there. I mean, there is a time

02:40:35.710 --> 02:40:42.170
period on fast-track demolitions of 120 days. So, but I'm also trying to understand your, I'm genuinely

02:40:42.170 --> 02:40:47.930
trying to understand your question here. So, we're talking about the fast-track process. So, I'm really

02:40:47.930 --> 02:40:55.290
genuinely just trying to understand your question so I can answer it appropriately. Well, my question is,

02:40:55.290 --> 02:41:02.690
is why don't you come to council for these types of demolitions? Oh, that makes sense. So, when I go to

02:41:02.690 --> 02:41:13.370
a slide here and on this this is directly from the statute it talks about how the corporate official

02:41:13.370 --> 02:41:17.330
designated to be in charge of enforcing the municipality's building code determines that a

02:41:17.330 --> 02:41:21.870
building is open and vacant and an immediate continuing hazard to the community which the building is

02:41:21.870 --> 02:41:26.730
located then the official shall be authorized to post the notice and you know on a two by two sign and then

02:41:26.730 --> 02:41:32.430
it goes on to the duties gotcha so that's so I'm going to come back at you the different one so why on a

02:41:32.430 --> 02:41:38.390
House, that you fast-track demolition, you've put these notices up, you then go back to that person

02:41:38.390 --> 02:41:45.690
and say, no, you cannot have a permit to correct the issues that are outstanding. Sure, that's you, most of

02:41:45.690 --> 02:41:51.310
the time, and I could show in specific cases, and I think one of our people here, I think it was Miss

02:41:51.310 --> 02:41:57.830
Altman, had stated, oftentimes when these buildings are up, the structures are deemed dangerous and

02:41:57.830 --> 02:42:04.570
unsafe. Oftentimes we get a dangerous and unsafe designation at the chronic nuisance hearing.

02:42:05.290 --> 02:42:10.150
So when a building is considered dangerous and unsafe, at that point the city is going to require

02:42:10.150 --> 02:42:19.030
that you have a structural engineer approve the plans to save this structure. And if they don't

02:42:19.030 --> 02:42:24.470
provide that, then the city will not move forward with a permit. That is not going to happen. So if

02:42:24.470 --> 02:42:54.290
you have look at a building and it's leaning like this or there was a fire inside of it it's this this department is going to require a structural engineer analysis as well as plans to move forward with a permit and that happens it's stated in our code that the department will require that and it's also common practice in many municipalities so once you get that engineering letter saying

02:42:54.290 --> 02:43:24.250
that it's safe and that it should be remedied and you continue forward with the demolition is that a normal practice well I've yet to I'll be honest with you I've yet to see an actual engine when I've been in these processes and I've been in this faster I've done a process several of them here I've yet to seen us I've yet to see a satisfactory architect or engineer come in and provide plans stating that demolition you know or stating that they have

02:43:24.250 --> 02:43:49.430
the plans to reconstruct the property. I've yet to see one. I've definitely seen people say a contractor might write a letter, but ultimately when you're dealing with fire damage, you're dealing with age, you're dealing with termite damage, you're dealing with immense water damage on these structures, I am going to require a full analysis from an architect or structural engineer to protect the safety of the people who live in that building.

02:43:49.430 --> 02:43:57.630
because ultimately there are situations where not only can a city be liable but actual the head of the

02:43:57.630 --> 02:44:03.470
department can be liable if somebody gets hurt and dies on a permit allowing somebody to build something

02:44:03.470 --> 02:44:11.910
that somebody falls and dies in or collapses and dies. I'll be honest I've gone back and I've looked at

02:44:11.910 --> 02:44:18.690
some of the houses that you fast-track demolitioned and I have seen significantly worse around this town

02:44:18.690 --> 02:44:48.670
and I I'm really questioning right now if this is the right rules and I think no well I mean it is the correct rules this is from the statute but I mean we go back to and we're not following them okay that's fair I mean if you think that they're not being followed I mean I will certainly listen I'm listening with all ears and there's also do there's also due process and anybody here who has had a fast

02:44:48.670 --> 02:45:09.310
Direct Demolition is certainly welcome, and I've spoken with them and provided resources that says if you feel like you've been wronged in any way, you know, Prairie Street Legal Services is a place that I refer to people often, where if they feel like they've been mistreated or haven't received proper due process, I want people to have due process. I genuinely do.

02:45:10.630 --> 02:45:11.030
Alderman.

02:45:11.130 --> 02:45:12.190
I wish I could believe you.

02:45:12.850 --> 02:45:15.130
Yeah, I understand. I understand the lack of trust.

02:45:16.630 --> 02:45:17.510
Alderman, J.D.O.

02:45:17.510 --> 02:45:41.530
Yes, thank you. The thing we need to consider is you're emphasizing on what happens after they've had three violations in six months and have been in front of a judge. That happened three times in six months before he can get to that point.

02:45:41.530 --> 02:45:48.710
I'd also like to say it's all it's three judgments plus an additional judgment for the chronic nuisance.

02:45:48.710 --> 02:45:51.750
So they've been aware of this.

02:45:51.870 --> 02:45:54.290
But if you can't get the permit, I have the floor, sir.

02:45:54.510 --> 02:45:55.210
Yeah, you do.

02:45:56.070 --> 02:46:09.410
And if you haven't got it in your head after four times coming in here and speaking with the judge, then I don't know what argument you have.

02:46:12.260 --> 02:46:13.020
Audubon Monroe.

02:46:13.140 --> 02:46:13.560
Thank you.

02:46:13.800 --> 02:46:43.780
you really so we'll go down this road and I'll show I can show images of the property in concern I can show text messages from city employees to an individual sitting in this audience tonight whose house and property were taken and torn down and the problem is people like you don't have a heart and care about the citizens of this city and it's based on the color of that person.

02:46:43.800 --> 02:47:13.780
Anderson's skin. And I, I know, I have the floor. I don't care. I will show you the house. I don't care if you like what I say or not. What I'm saying is the fact and the truth. No, no, no, no, no. Don't correct my speech. You are violating. I'm not hollering. I got hollered out. I've got the floor. I'm telling you right now, this is appalling to me. Appalling that we would

02:47:13.780 --> 02:47:41.780
go in and tear a property down that's got a better roof, got better outside exterior, I can pull up the images still on Google Earth, I can walk through it, I can look at it, I've seen pictures on the inside, and I've got, and I drive down 26 on West Ave, and I've got roofs collapsing, porches collapsing, and those buildings are still there, and we're fast tracking this young lady's house for what?

02:47:41.780 --> 02:48:05.860
Well, I can answer some of that. Number one, if there's any properties, and I've sat down with many community groups, community leaders, if there's properties that are a concern, I will listen, I will take them, and I will work them through due process. So that's number one. So if there's properties with concern, we will address it. I can assure you of that. I will work it through due process.

02:48:05.860 --> 02:48:33.540
but I'm sure you're talking about the next agenda item which is um the discussion regarding demolition of 404 East Shawnee I'm if that's what we're talking about we can move on to that agenda item whenever you're ready we can go right into that but I believe Mr. Alderperson Clem had a question but whenever you're ready um fully prepared to talk about that property as well okay let's well then let's move on and let let's let Alderman Clem yeah I just I just like to say don't keep being sorry

02:48:33.540 --> 02:48:38.000
What do you have to say?

02:48:38.300 --> 02:48:40.600
Nothing now, nothing now, but you asked over me three times.

02:48:40.600 --> 02:48:44.740
Yes, I'm sorry, I can't, I can't see that way.

02:48:44.760 --> 02:48:46.820
Well, I flagged you, I flagged you three times.

02:48:46.840 --> 02:48:50.320
I'm not a flagger, but anyway, do you have something you need to say?

02:48:50.320 --> 02:48:51.560
No, yeah, I did, but I don't know.

02:48:51.560 --> 02:48:54.760
Okay, well then we'll move on to Alderman Clem, because it's getting late.

02:48:54.760 --> 02:49:02.560
I'd just like to bring up that this is not the only place in our town, whether it be 404, whether it be whatever.

02:49:02.560 --> 02:49:28.000
I'm working through a process in four houses in the first ward, three of them owned by one woman, one of them owned by another person, all are vacant houses that nobody lives in, the city mows them for them, sends them a bill, tries to lien their property and all that kind of stuff, and we finally got them on the $100 a day fine, the woman that had three houses wrote out a check for five

02:49:28.000 --> 02:49:52.040
Three Houses wrote out a check for $5,000. They're all still in violation at $100 a day. And when we got a van moved out of one of the houses, the guy next door, the house sits in between a business and his house. It's so overgrown you can hardly see the house. The business sent me a text that said, thank you for getting that van moved. It's only taken me 10 years to do it.

02:49:52.040 --> 02:50:07.720
So that gives you an idea how long these properties have been not mowed, gone before a judge, gone before a hearing judge, and to go into this whole fast-track deal. It isn't just one house here. There's plenty of them around.

02:50:09.320 --> 02:50:09.920
Thank you.

02:50:09.940 --> 02:50:11.160
Do you have anything you want to say?

02:50:11.160 --> 02:50:41.160
I just want to ask a question in regards to a home that has been sitting for over 10 years probably and my recollection is the last time I drove by it was still there boarded up and things of this nature and when I looked at the property 404 East Shawnee I'm just wondering if that's the same property now I'm looking at the property on Shawnee

02:50:41.160 --> 02:51:11.140
the north side of the street of Benton, which is on the east side of the street of Benton. So it's the northeast corner. And I just, I'm just, the reason why I'm asking is because it's been there so long, there's no, there's no fast track involved that that property is still sitting there. And then we need an explanation because it's a definite nuisance. It's an eyesore in the community. Have we paid any attention to that particular property?

02:51:11.160 --> 02:51:20.000
particular property, and what are we doing about it? Because I don't know if it's in the bracket of

02:51:20.000 --> 02:51:26.940
homes to be demoed. It's a great question to ask, and off the top of my head, I don't have my system here

02:51:26.940 --> 02:51:33.920
to know what the status is of that actual property. However, many of the older people here have worked

02:51:33.920 --> 02:51:38.080
with me, and I would say probably all of them have called me, or I will return their calls, and they'll

02:51:38.080 --> 02:52:07.740
say okay here's the property what can you tell me and where are we at and I will do that for you all the person Sanders we can sit down and talk about that property and I can provide updates because we need to because that that property is sitting in a very bad neighbor area I'm not gonna say neighborhood but in a very bad area and it's been sitting there for over 10 years board it up and I'm quite sure we have those two foot signs whatever but I don't see a

02:52:07.740 --> 02:52:34.480
two foot demo sign for that property. I'm just wondering why is that possible? I can meet with the other person, Sanders, and get that figured out. We'll move on to, is there any other questions? If not, we'll move on to 18. The discussion regarding demolition of 404 East Shawnee, including personal property missing, and reports stolen by the demolition company presented by Alderman Stacy and Monroe.

02:52:34.480 --> 02:52:43.180
Wow. So I'll start with this. You know, I understand now kind of who, you know, the authority and why it was

02:52:43.180 --> 02:52:51.540
done. But I will, I will question. So number one, you know, who authorizes the company that tore the

02:52:51.540 --> 02:52:57.400
building down to remove property from the location as well? Then if it's unsafe, why were they in there

02:52:57.400 --> 02:53:05.960
and not just demo it. And who goes through that process? Sure. I presented a, we'll put it in slideshow here.

02:53:06.020 --> 02:53:11.600
I presented a little process here for, prepared something for Sean. I knew this was a question to be

02:53:11.600 --> 02:53:18.720
asked. Lots of questions about this property and its demolition. And, you know, in the future, you know,

02:53:18.720 --> 02:53:23.120
I saw that this was put on, I think on a Friday, you know, today you called me, I was able to get some

02:53:23.120 --> 02:53:28.700
information for you. I'm always here to go over this in person, you know, so if you ever want to talk about

02:53:28.700 --> 02:53:33.560
something like this again, just call me up. I've met with all the person Stacy plenty of times. I can always

02:53:33.560 --> 02:53:39.880
talk in person for more detail, but I really wanted to make sure that I met, you know, he had questions on

02:53:39.880 --> 02:53:44.320
this property, so I kind of wanted to go through it here. This is a picture, we time stamp our pictures,

02:53:44.960 --> 02:53:50.280
this is a picture of the property on September 3rd, 2024. So I'm going to go over, kind of show some

02:53:50.280 --> 02:53:56.640
pictures and go over the history of this property. This picture was taken April 17th of 2024.

02:53:57.660 --> 02:54:00.900
Obviously, I put this on here because there was questions about whether there are holes in the

02:54:00.900 --> 02:54:07.140
building. Yes. Were there problems with the roof? Yes. This is, I just wanted to show some evidence there.

02:54:07.980 --> 02:54:13.300
Pictures of the outside. Were there issues with the foundation? Yes. This would require a structural

02:54:13.300 --> 02:54:21.520
analysis in a permit to move forward. A couple more pictures here. More of the back of the house issues

02:54:21.520 --> 02:54:27.720
with the back of the house here. Again, timestamped, our inspectors timestamp all pictures. Moving on to

02:54:27.720 --> 02:54:33.840
the inside of the house, as you can see in this picture, it might be a little difficult, but you can

02:54:33.840 --> 02:54:40.720
see here, this was taken October 10th, and it gives the address here, and it kind of shows what's being

02:54:40.720 --> 02:55:10.400
take a picture here drywall and it says here fireplace one of the issues in this building is work being done without a permit and right so we're going to get to the three permits that were pulled but one of the issues here is that in the permit when I start to talk about the permits which is later on in my presentation one of the issues with this drywall here is that had this this would be eventually pulled or torn off because we would need to see the exhaust

02:55:10.720 --> 02:55:18.020
in this fireplace or also need to see connections to a fireplace. So if you cover up that's anybody in the

02:55:18.020 --> 02:55:23.320
city of Freeport or any municipality for that matter in Illinois, when you start drywalling before you move

02:55:23.320 --> 02:55:28.480
forward in the proper steps in an inspection, you do have to take that off so that you can make sure that

02:55:28.480 --> 02:55:33.920
the exhaust and everything coming out of natural gas connections are done correctly. So I wanted to show

02:55:33.920 --> 02:55:40.440
time stamped time date material to put people's minds at ease that, hey, this happened, these pictures,

02:55:40.440 --> 02:55:48.040
took place. Due process happened. So I'm going to keep moving forward. Another picture here, this is another

02:55:48.040 --> 02:55:54.820
picture here of some of the drywall that was installed. This here, again, October 10th, drywall, living room,

02:55:55.200 --> 02:56:00.180
again, showing pictures. You can't see great in here, but you could see, looking at the outside of the

02:56:00.180 --> 02:56:06.320
building, you could see holes or protrusions where people are entering. The city has received multitude

02:56:06.320 --> 02:56:36.060
Institute of Complaints, which I will get into about people breaking and entering into this into this property, vacant property. So one of the questions that has been brought up by several people is kind of who owns this property? Who owns it, right? Who actually owns this property? So this is what's known, I'm doing a little title history here of like who owns of who owns a property. So this information here comes from our tax assessor. In

02:56:36.060 --> 02:57:03.820
In 2016, the property was sold from this person to the Freeport Habitat for Humanity, okay? Habitat for Humanity bought this house for $2,000. It was my understanding that when Habitat for Humanity bought it, the property had been sitting in a poor condition, I believe, since 2010, circa. It was longstanding when Habitat for Humanity had bought it for $2,000.

02:57:03.820 --> 02:57:33.800
dollars. So then when looking at the title history in 2017 the Habitat for Humanity quits quick claims a property to a Raven. So then the question becomes well what's the connection between Raven and IKEA taking some information from a summary report interview that's conducted by City Fire Marshal Hillary Brocious on December 19th of 2021. This is regarding two arson cases on

02:57:33.800 --> 02:57:40.720
the property from that year. And so this information was taken from that interview. And in that property, it says

02:57:40.720 --> 02:57:45.940
she, meaning Akia Sanders, advised that she and Raven were the sole owners of the property. She stated that

02:57:45.940 --> 02:57:51.860
they purchased the home for $2,000 from Habitat for Humanity. There is no mortgage on the property.

02:57:52.400 --> 02:57:56.660
Akia advised that there is not any insurance on the home. She commented that she did not think she could

02:57:56.660 --> 02:58:02.000
get insurance on the home due to the current state of it. This is important, very important information

02:58:02.000 --> 02:58:08.120
to have because when we're considering dangerous and unsafe structures, not having insurance is a death

02:58:08.120 --> 02:58:14.740
sentence for our community. What happens when kids go in there and they hurt themselves? Where are they

02:58:14.740 --> 02:58:19.400
going to get there? What's going to happen? What happens when people fight a fire and they burn?

02:58:19.880 --> 02:58:27.100
This house has no insurance, which really adds to how scary it is to have these properties in our

02:58:27.100 --> 02:58:35.940
Community. Okay, so still looking on to who owns the property. When this thing, when this property was

02:58:35.940 --> 02:58:44.160
eventually going through the fast track demolition process, Raven quick claims the property to Tiffany

02:58:44.160 --> 02:58:53.080
Sanders, which I believe from what I understand to be Miss Akia Sanders' sister. And that, excuse me,

02:58:53.080 --> 02:59:19.340
that happened on June 7th of 2024. So the title to Ms. Sanders was gone in June. So that, you know, I know you had stated it was her property. It's no longer her property. It's now her sister's property. But moving forward, the county will soon be taking this property for back taxes. So they've not, they not only do not, they've not only not paid insurance, they've not paid their taxes.

02:59:19.340 --> 02:59:25.340
So in 2024, a Liz Pendens, which is a fancy way for saying a notice

02:59:25.340 --> 02:59:31.720
Way for saying a notice. They're basically saying on December 9th of 2024, in June, they're going to be

02:59:31.720 --> 02:59:41.500
taking ownership of Ms. Tiffany Sanders' property for back taxes. So if the taxes aren't paid, the property,

02:59:41.640 --> 02:59:48.140
this will soon be the county's property. And then I kind of go into here a little bit showing all the

02:59:48.140 --> 02:59:55.220
years that the taxes weren't paid. It was since 2021, the taxes have not been paid. And here's some back

02:59:55.220 --> 03:00:26.760
tax payment amounts. Okay, building permit history, we wanted to talk about why are we not providing permits to people? It's a very good question to ask. The city provided three permits for this property, which totaled five years, six months, and 19 days of minimal progress from the property owner. I really want this to settle in. When we put in our strategic plan that we want to step up code enforcement,

03:00:26.760 --> 03:00:56.760
the city worked hard and bent over backwards to give the property owner five years six months and 19 days those pictures that you saw are the result of five years six months and 19 days of building permits that's the result the pictures I showed so I'm going to go over the actual permits now what was pulled in 2018 a permit was issued for one year the dates are May 9th to May 9th

03:00:56.760 --> 03:01:26.720
9th of 2019. The city granted a 180-day extension. So again, working with our community to try to fix this building. We granted a six-month extension on top of this one-year extension. During this time period, no work was performed during this and there were no subsequent inspections because when you get a permit, you do work, you call the inspector and say, I've done electrical work, I've done plumbing work, I'm ready

03:01:26.720 --> 03:01:56.700
for my inspection before I move on to the next step. That never happened on this permit. In 2020, a permit was issued for two years, probably asking why did we give a two-year permit? There was some leniency in terms for permits during the pandemic. So there was a two-year permit granted from December 17th to December 17th of 2022. Again, the city in 2022 granted a six-month extension. This had expired on June 17th.

03:01:56.720 --> 03:02:02.880
18th of 2022. So again, this narrative of the city not working with the property owner is very unfair

03:02:02.880 --> 03:02:09.660
because they're coming to us with a permit and we're saying, where's the progress? It's not there.

03:02:11.450 --> 03:02:18.230
On January 11th of 2021, I'm showing the work that was done in this permit. A rough electrical work was

03:02:18.230 --> 03:02:23.810
completed and this is from an inspection on January 11th of 2021. The inspection was approved for three

03:02:23.810 --> 03:02:29.430
rooms only. And this was the only work that was performed for the entire period and approved by our

03:02:29.430 --> 03:02:38.610
inspector was during this two-year period. So now you're looking at 2018 to 2022, four years, and you had

03:02:38.610 --> 03:02:45.750
rough electrical work done in three rooms. That was what was done. That was the work done.

03:02:45.750 --> 03:03:12.750
So in 2022, we issued another permit, this was one year, and this went from October 21st of 2022 to November 28th of 2020, a lot of 20s in there, pardon me for that, say that three times fast, 2023, the work that was done there was, there was footing inspections for a room addition, it was approved with notes, as I kind of showed before,

03:03:12.750 --> 03:03:17.630
there were some issues with some of the footings and the foundation on that property. So that's why it was

03:03:17.630 --> 03:03:25.650
approved with notes. Now at the end of this, our inspector went in and he's coming in at the end of

03:03:25.650 --> 03:03:31.070
this three years, five years, six months, and 19 days. And he's saying, okay, I'm going to do one more

03:03:31.070 --> 03:03:36.710
inspection and I want to see what the condition of the property is. And at that point, after this five

03:03:36.710 --> 03:03:42.730
years, six months, 19 days, he then said, this property is moving forward to code enforcement.

03:03:42.750 --> 03:03:50.330
it. Closing the permit and it's moving forward to code enforcement because there's multitude of code

03:03:50.330 --> 03:03:58.250
violations and they were given five and a half years to fix them. So now we're going to talk about our code

03:03:58.250 --> 03:04:03.970
enforcement history on this property. What were some of the code enforcement issues that ultimately led to

03:04:03.970 --> 03:04:12.350
it being a nuisance to this community? There were two arson cases in 2021 on this property.

03:04:12.350 --> 03:04:42.330
this property was properly inspected by City Fire Marshal Hillary Brocious and this was taken directly from her report which was given on both arson cases the act or omission that brought the ignition source and material first ignited together was a deliberate act of a person or persons so when I come in and I say it's a nuisance and a danger to the community it happens people are burning these vacant buildings I'm asking

03:04:42.330 --> 03:04:48.070
you to please understand the facts. I'm not making this up. People burn these buildings to the ground and

03:04:48.070 --> 03:04:54.150
people die and the owners don't have insurance. I don't know what else I can do to prove that this is

03:04:54.150 --> 03:05:02.230
a nuisance to the community and a danger. Please tell me what danger is if that is not. Here, this is from

03:05:02.230 --> 03:05:12.150
the report. Two reports in one night. First fire happened here. Second fire happened here. Here's a

03:05:12.150 --> 03:05:19.910
picture of the fire that happened. Here's one of the evidence pictures of the arson that happened on that

03:05:19.910 --> 03:05:30.020
property. So moving forward, we're going to go on to the code enforcement cases that happened after the

03:05:30.020 --> 03:05:43.040
five and a half years of permits. So I highlighted an important part of the findings of this case.

03:05:43.040 --> 03:06:09.040
A couple important parts to remember here is that Nicole Bowers are hearing officer. So when my team provides data and information on these buildings, Nicole Bauer looks at it, makes a judgment. Here's her signature. Here's the date. And you can see it matches up. It was after the city gave time and permits to fix the building. It came afterwards.

03:06:09.040 --> 03:06:15.060
and I want to talk about something very important and this is very it's a very good point to bring up I

03:06:15.060 --> 03:06:21.980
highlighted that the city of Freeport has proven violations by the preponderance of evidence I'm

03:06:21.980 --> 03:06:29.560
talking about preponderance of evidence here because we all watch Dateline we all watch TV and a lot of us

03:06:29.560 --> 03:06:35.660
quite frankly are obsessed with true crime and the burden of proof if you're going to put somebody in

03:06:35.660 --> 03:07:05.620
prison for the rest of their life is beyond a reasonable doubt. So a lot of us look at cases, we look at the city and we go, aha, I found a mistake, there's reasonable doubt that Mr. Duckman did his job wrong, throw everything out the window. I'm highlighting preponderance of evidence because it's a different burden of proof, it's a different level. And I have some legal training and multitude of my degrees and education and experience. And the way preponderance of evidence has always been taught to me is that

03:07:05.620 --> 03:07:35.360
You have two scales. Here's the defendant's scales, or here's the city, their evidence, and then here's the evidence that will be provided by the defendant, the owner of the property, and then the judge is going to look at it and say, okay, does the evidence tip slightly towards the city or slightly towards the defendant? So it's different than, aha, the city made a mistake, there's reasonable doubt. That's a different burden of proof. So oftentimes we're looking at the city, they made a typo here, they did something wrong here.

03:07:35.360 --> 03:08:07.900
oftentimes a hearing officer or if it goes to a civil case they're going to look at it by the preponderance of evidence versus what we're what we're all used to right we're all used to beyond a reasonable doubt so I highlighted that there so that we can start to understand how some of these cases are looked at so we have our next case here and if you notice the preponderance of evidence statement here doesn't exist well why doesn't it exist

03:08:07.900 --> 03:08:35.480
The property owner showed up to this case. So the judge is saying, I looked at the city's case, these violations here, I looked at it, and they proved their case by preponderance of evidence. The second case, appearance. They didn't show up. So they did not show up on this case. They didn't show up to testify. And that goes back to, was notice given?

03:08:35.480 --> 03:09:08.700
our hearing officer looks and checks this box saying yes the city of Freeport notified properly and then any box check below the statement constitutes as a final order default defendant failed to appear and the hearing will be held before me this day goes back to that similar with parking trap parking tickets etc and then that's why you see here she signs off this is case number two case number three similar to case number two there was no appearance

03:09:08.840 --> 03:09:23.330
Despite the fact that they showed up at the first case, notice was given, default judgment, so now we're at $1,700 plus $1,200, that's $2,900

03:09:23.330 --> 03:09:30.700
That's $2,900 plus $3,335. You're looking at about $3,200 already right now that has been accumulated.

03:09:32.220 --> 03:09:38.400
So now we talk about, and you should all see this falls right in line with the process I laid out

03:09:38.400 --> 03:09:48.960
to all of the officials when they came here in April of 2023, except the city worked with

03:09:48.960 --> 03:09:55.740
this property owner for five years before any code enforcement even was enacted. Five years before any of

03:09:55.740 --> 03:10:01.580
this process been enacted. So we have actually been more generous to this property owner than a typical

03:10:01.580 --> 03:10:08.860
out-of-town person who never has been here and never applied for a permit. So here it is. This case went

03:10:08.860 --> 03:10:16.520
before the judge on May 16th of 2024. And then this is kind of what the judgment says. And I want to bring

03:10:16.520 --> 03:10:24.500
this up here. Here's the $100 per day. Here is also Nicole Bauer writing a statement. This is not Wayne

03:10:24.500 --> 03:10:31.680
Duckman. This is Nicole Bauer, our hearing officer. This case has been ongoing for a significant period

03:10:31.680 --> 03:10:42.800
of time. There was ample time to appear on the other cases with legal counsel of if the, excuse me,

03:10:42.800 --> 03:10:51.360
if the defendant had chose to do so, plus ample time to correct these issues prior to this hearing.

03:10:51.880 --> 03:10:58.640
This is due process. This is time. This is not my words. This is the words of an independent hearing

03:10:58.640 --> 03:11:08.390
officer. So in addition to this $100 per day, the city says, and it's a little hard to read here,

03:11:08.490 --> 03:11:14.290
but the city sought, and this statement was incorporated in herein, so I'm showing where it is,

03:11:14.290 --> 03:11:22.970
the city was requesting that this be defined in chapter 1456 of the city's codified ordinances

03:11:22.970 --> 03:11:30.890
to be using remedy conditions that would be considered dangerous and unsafe. So on top of

03:11:30.890 --> 03:11:38.070
my statutory duties given to determine that a property is dangerous and unsafe, I brought it before

03:11:38.070 --> 03:12:11.230
It was brought before a hearing officer who said this is a dangerous unsafe building. It was brought before a hearing officer and they made that judgment in conjunction to the sign I put on the, a sign was put on the building. Questions are going to be had. Declaration of chronic nuisance. The property contains a structure. This comes from above. So this here comes from above here. And then I highlighted this.

03:12:11.230 --> 03:12:41.190
The property contains a structure which is dangerous and unsafe building as defined in chapter 1456 of these qualified ordinances and or within the meaning of the statute. The structure is defined as C attached and incorporated here in. And that's where we went to here. And then when you scroll down, I decided this is from our ordinances what was being defined. And it states, as used in this chapter, dangerous and unsafe building means any dwelling which

03:12:41.190 --> 03:13:10.470
which violates any provisions of this chapter and shall include but is not limited to any building or structure whether a dwelling or otherwise which A, is dangerous to the public health because of its construction condition which may cause or aid in the spread of disease or cause injury to the health of the occupants of it or of its neighboring structures. I think well beyond preponderance of evidence that has been proven. It's not just my opinion. It's our hearing officer's opinion.

03:13:11.190 --> 03:13:18.300
clear as day. And then I'll just go on. Because of the faulty construction, age, lack of proper repair

03:13:18.300 --> 03:13:24.000
of any other cause is especially liable to fire and constitutes or creates a fire hazard.

03:13:24.640 --> 03:13:31.120
I believe that one's checked. Reasons of faulty construction, age, lack of proper repair

03:13:31.120 --> 03:13:38.400
is liable to cause injury or damage by collapsing or by collapse or fall or any part of such a

03:13:38.400 --> 03:13:42.100
structure. I already showed a picture of its foundation. And by the way, it doesn't have to

03:13:42.100 --> 03:13:48.700
be all of these, but I'm showing examples of how they're all can be checked. Because of its condition, item D,

03:13:50.620 --> 03:13:57.080
such a lack of a door or window is available and to be frequently by male factors or disorderly persons who

03:13:57.080 --> 03:14:02.780
are not lawful occupants of such structure. I showed a hole on the side of the wall. I showed places where

03:14:02.780 --> 03:14:11.840
people could get in. I showed that with time dated pictures. This has not been substantially

03:14:11.840 --> 03:14:17.340
completed whose construction phase has been abandoned and which is unoccupied by persons legally in

03:14:17.340 --> 03:14:25.880
possession. Check, check, and check. Contains garbage, debris, or other hazardous, noxious, or unhealthy

03:14:25.880 --> 03:14:31.240
substances or materials so far as to pose a threat to the public health and safety. Yep, I think that one

03:14:31.240 --> 03:14:42.500
was considered as well. And check. So my department has been staffed with holding problem property owners

03:14:42.500 --> 03:15:12.460
accountable. That's what a lien does. This lien was filed on September 6th of 2024. It encompasses all of the due process and all of the judgments granted by our hearing officer to the tune of $14,451. Now, when this property, I'm just assuming they're not going to pay their property taxes because what a tax lien does and what a tax

03:15:12.460 --> 03:15:20.380
deed does is that wipes out any of these liens. So all that hard work of my staff is going to be

03:15:20.380 --> 03:15:26.640
unrecoverable when they continue to not pay their taxes and that goes to the county tax assessor and

03:15:26.640 --> 03:15:32.680
then you sir can yell at me for having to have people go and mow the grass because that's how that works.

03:15:33.760 --> 03:15:43.760
That's exactly how that works. I'm glad you're mad because now do the Raleigh building, now do other

03:15:43.760 --> 03:16:13.740
buildings, and I'll point them out to you, and I'll drive around this town. Let's meet. Let's do it. I'll do it. I'm here. Okay. Okay. Let's call the meeting back to order. Could you turn the light on for me? Because I can't see. Yep. Yeah. Are you done? No, I've still got more to talk about. Oh, okay. I thought you would. No, I think you've answered it. I think I was misled. Okay. And I will make an apology here in front of the room.

03:16:13.760 --> 03:16:42.080
I was misled, but at the same time, I will say, I question a lot of what's around the city that's not been done the same thing to, and that is where we sit right now, and quite honestly, I think the same could be true, and I pick on the Raleigh building, because everything you just mentioned, except for fire, I don't know if there's been a fire or not, I don't have the research, but all the windows are busted.

03:16:42.080 --> 03:17:11.520
that, yeah, well, the structure is not in great shape, but I'm just saying, okay, so, okay, wait a minute, we're going to have Alderman Sanders say something, then we'll, we'll move on, yeah, when I talked to you earlier about that, that location, I didn't know that was the same building we was referring to, so, yeah, man, I, I commend, um, all that you just said, I appreciate all that you just mentioned,

03:17:12.080 --> 03:17:40.140
for the preponderance of evidence has been there for almost a decade or more, and it was just an absolute eyesore, but after listening to all the detailed information that you guys have gone through, your staff and everyone, I say I take my hat off to everything that went forward because it was exactly how you described it.

03:17:40.140 --> 03:18:04.520
I want to say thank you, sir, and I want you to know, it doesn't always have to come to the floor, you can call me and I will talk with you, and if there's problem properties, please call me and set up a time, you called me today at 3 o'clock, and you said, hey, Wayne answered the phone, this doesn't have to go like this every time, you can call me and we will look at these buildings and we'll work together, I want to, I want to work to get this done.

03:18:04.520 --> 03:18:10.000
Otter, Ms. Stacy, Otter, I mean, Manager Boyer wanted to go and then you can go after me, you know.

03:18:10.360 --> 03:18:16.040
Number one, Director, thank you for that presentation, but are you complete with your presentation or were you just interrupted?

03:18:16.160 --> 03:18:19.520
If there's more questions, I can show this, I can show more ifness.

03:18:20.640 --> 03:18:21.520
Okay.

03:18:22.080 --> 03:18:23.900
Okay, we can go into that.

03:18:24.360 --> 03:18:27.180
Please finish the presentation without being interrupted, thank you.

03:18:27.200 --> 03:18:30.300
Well, I think all the person, does all the person, is there a question?

03:18:33.310 --> 03:18:34.050
Did you want to add?

03:18:34.050 --> 03:18:49.610
I just wondered why it wasn't demolished September 3rd. Why did it come to December?

03:18:50.150 --> 03:19:00.390
Let's, let's, this, I think I can answer, I genuinely will answer that question. I think the rest of these slides will answer that for you because I'm going to go into the process right now.

03:19:00.390 --> 03:19:22.010
but the answer to the question is you have to wait 30 days from September 3rd and then you have to wait for any court petitions from the property owner which I go into there were there were motions made at the circuit court by the property owners and I go into those details in this next slide so from the day

03:19:22.010 --> 03:19:51.390
slide so from the date of September 3rd the city has 120 days we have 120 days demolished from this date but you might as well knock off 30 days because you can't the property owner has 30 days to properly file at the circuit court an injunction so there here is the time stamp date of September 3rd 2024 here you can see the sign here's the notices remember I talked about you got to

03:19:51.390 --> 03:19:58.090
have letter. This is the letter. This is the recorded notice. And this is the receipt that it was put in the

03:19:58.090 --> 03:20:09.070
paper on September 10th, 11th and 12th. Those are the notices. Now I talk about you said, well, hey, why did

03:20:09.070 --> 03:20:19.650
you not demolish it sooner? Akia Sanders petitioned for injunction October 17th of 2024. This injunction was

03:20:19.650 --> 03:20:27.870
was dismissed on December 19th of 2024. And this right here has the date, December 19th, and it says

03:20:27.870 --> 03:20:32.650
plaintiff's complaint is dismissed. And there's the plaintiff, Akia Sanders and Tiffany Sanders, it was

03:20:32.650 --> 03:20:38.570
dismissed. So now we go through this process. Junction was dismissed. Albert and Son commenced

03:20:38.570 --> 03:20:47.050
demolition after this dismissal. Akia filed, and Ms. Sanders filed a new petition on December 19th,

03:20:47.050 --> 03:21:15.230
2024. So she filed another petition, which had to be answered. When that was filed, Albert and Son, by myself, was told to stop the demolition work because of the injunction. And if you remember the process, if somebody files an injunction or a petition of some sort, you stop. The work stopped. You need to get that stopped. So Albert and Son, when this work was done,

03:21:15.230 --> 03:21:45.210
they would then return the personal property to the site on December 20th, excuse me I keep getting too many 20s in here so when they they my understanding of this is that they took the property off site instead of throwing it in the street they put it in their shop and then I was on site to make sure that construction had stopped per the the new petition that was filed and Miss Sanders and I talked and she said hey there's property of mine that's

03:21:45.210 --> 03:21:52.010
missing. And I said, let me call the contractor and have it returned. And that's where I'm talking

03:21:52.010 --> 03:21:59.490
about here. The property was returned to the site on December 20th of 2024. I took, I have pictures of

03:21:59.490 --> 03:22:05.230
that as well. I don't have it here, but I, I confirmed that the property was returned. Again,

03:22:06.590 --> 03:22:11.310
a Kia filed, this is now, this is again, Ms. Sanders filed a new petition on December 19th that we're

03:22:11.310 --> 03:22:19.370
we're talking about. This petition was dismissed on December 27th of 2024. Defendant's motion to dismiss.

03:22:19.830 --> 03:22:34.960
The city of Freeport is the defendant and the motion to dismiss is granted. I'm reading through my notes here.

03:22:36.560 --> 03:22:42.000
Petition was dismissed on December 27th of 2024. Albert and some began demolition immediately following

03:22:42.000 --> 03:22:46.720
this dismissal. Ms. Sanders was allowed to enter the premises to remove personal property.

03:22:46.720 --> 03:23:16.660
Ms. Sanders notified me at that time that there was personal property missing I contacted Albert and Son and they returned the additional property to the site so that's the second time they brought property to the site and the conversation went like this I called Josh Albert and I said hey you better go through your site again and you better get the property over here now because we're not playing around the property owner is here they want their property back bring it back if you got it and he goes well I don't I thought we did it all I said no

03:23:16.660 --> 03:23:21.280
go take another check and look. So that's exactly what happened. And they immediately brought the

03:23:21.280 --> 03:23:27.720
property back to the site. After that, Ms. Sanders claimed that there was additional property missing.

03:23:28.640 --> 03:23:35.560
I told Ms. Sanders, I said, at this point, you need to file a police report to ensure that if there's any

03:23:35.560 --> 03:23:40.920
property missing, you need to make sure that you have due process and you get it back. Because I said,

03:23:41.020 --> 03:23:46.440
they're telling me that they returned everything in that building. And I said, you need to file a

03:23:46.440 --> 03:23:55.930
Police Report. And to my knowledge that they did. Now, there's been an accusation last week that I've

03:23:55.930 --> 03:24:02.270
been targeting Ms. Sanders for these properties. And I just want to go over some statistics. Two of the 20

03:24:02.270 --> 03:24:10.890
properties demolished in 2024 by Fast Track were Ms. Sanders. Zero of the 20 properties in 2023 were Ms.

03:24:10.890 --> 03:24:15.450
Sanders and zero of the five properties in 2022 were Ms. Sanders. The two properties that went through the

03:24:15.450 --> 03:24:40.850
Fast Track Demolition Process, our 402, 404 Shawnee, which was demolished on December 27th of 2024, and the other one was 909 South Oak, and this is the property that was Fast Track demolished on 909 South Oak. It's not targeting. It's going after blight remediation. This is the property that I've been accused of targeting the person on. This is it.

03:24:40.850 --> 03:25:10.830
Two building permits issued in 2022 on 909 South Oak. City worked with the property owner. These two permits expired on August 5th, 2023, stating it was dangerous to even enter the building, to stay away, watch the floor joists. It was extremely dangerous property. Code enforcement cases began. This should look very familiar because it follows the exact playbook that I had mentioned in the orientation in 2023. Code enforcement case here, code enforcement case here.

03:25:10.850 --> 03:25:29.010
here, code enforcement case here, chronic nuisance judgment, May 18th, 2023, fast track noticed on October 11th, property demolished on January 29th, and that's the rest of it, so that is why it took longer for this property to be demolished.

03:25:29.010 --> 03:25:31.290
Can you come back forward, right, back.

03:25:32.470 --> 03:25:33.270
Keep going up.

03:25:33.270 --> 03:25:33.450
More.

03:25:33.910 --> 03:25:34.210
Okay.

03:25:34.610 --> 03:25:34.910
Back.

03:25:36.350 --> 03:25:40.670
I wanted the one that had the doors and the window.

03:25:40.850 --> 03:26:13.200
yes okay so when I went over there okay this is what I saw not the holes and everything you show in the first pictures yes so I saw new windows I saw new doors I saw that so I knew work was being put into it so what you had showed in the beginning was not the final this is more of the final

03:26:13.200 --> 03:26:16.300
of what it looked like when it was demolished.

03:26:16.800 --> 03:26:18.220
Well, let's see here.

03:26:22.620 --> 03:26:24.760
I mean, let's talk about that a little bit here.

03:26:24.760 --> 03:26:30.020
I mean, you know, it is what it is, but, you know, even when they put the sign up, it looked

03:26:30.020 --> 03:26:31.540
a whole heck of a lot better.

03:26:33.560 --> 03:26:35.160
So work went into it.

03:26:35.240 --> 03:26:36.280
That's all I'm going to say.

03:26:36.900 --> 03:26:38.220
I saw the doors.

03:26:38.360 --> 03:26:39.440
I saw the new windows.

03:26:39.600 --> 03:26:42.140
I saw the work being put into.

03:26:43.140 --> 03:26:43.320
Right.

03:26:47.560 --> 03:26:47.900
All right.

03:26:47.900 --> 03:27:21.080
is that is that yes, yes, yes, done. Okay. I guess my thought on this is that I agree with you. I hate that we had to bring all this. I think it's a private issue and it should have been discussed more in the conference rooms with attorneys than us, you know, because you bring out people's personal information that, you know, it to me, I just think it's it's a personal issue that should have

03:27:21.080 --> 03:27:44.580
been handled behind the closed doors to not bring out other people's information. But does anybody else have? Anybody else have? James, are you done with what you want to talk about? You're done? Okay. Okay, I guess we move on to 20, to public comments. Oh, my goodness, I'm moving on.

03:27:44.580 --> 03:28:14.320
I'm willing. Can I make a motion that we move this to a later date and take it off? I'll make a motion since in the essence of time to take this off for tonight. Okay, is there a second? I don't have a date at this point. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and second to have this taken off the agenda for tonight.

03:28:14.580 --> 03:28:35.000
All in favor? Aye. It was Sanders. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay, now we'll move on to public comments. Are there any public comments? Okay, would you state your name?

03:28:35.000 --> 03:29:08.170
Okay Now you see in this fast track you give three types of warnings the posting certified letter and the orange sticker on the houses first of all my house was all enclosed doors new windows in there from window world the door was locked it was kicked in by cities officials to inspect this house I was never sent any certified letter that you were

03:29:08.170 --> 03:29:20.010
tearing down my house at all. I have building materials, a whole bunch of stuff in there that has just disappeared, gone. And I don't feel...

03:29:20.010 --> 03:29:24.280
and I don't feel that it was right for you guys just to come and take that property without a certified letter.

03:29:24.900 --> 03:29:31.420
I hadn't even come into this hearing administrative for that property at 124 Blackhawk.

03:29:31.840 --> 03:29:37.640
Never once did I appear in front of the hearing committee to get this taken care of.

03:29:37.920 --> 03:29:39.500
Not once did I have an opportunity.

03:29:40.740 --> 03:29:42.460
But you still took that house.

03:29:44.760 --> 03:29:45.640
That's wrong.

03:29:45.640 --> 03:29:53.920
You sit here and complain about the landlord's property, but the city owns a lot of properties that are in worse shape than with the house you tore down.

03:29:54.140 --> 03:30:00.360
We'll get the rally building going again. I have seen people in there. I own properties up there. There's trees growing through in there.

03:30:00.600 --> 03:30:07.240
The roof is caving in. That's been there for years, but the city still has not taken. They want to hold the landlord accountable for their actions,

03:30:07.240 --> 03:30:13.700
but the city won't be accountable for their actions in their property. This building has been there for years like that.

03:30:13.700 --> 03:30:18.580
So it's wrong for you to come on landlords when you don't want to take care of your own properties

03:30:18.580 --> 03:30:27.080
Okay, did you, did you want to say something ma'am? In the green, in the, you had your hand up

03:30:27.080 --> 03:30:28.760
Okay, come on up

03:30:28.760 --> 03:30:39.740
My name is Miss Garris and this is kind of a wild ride tonight

03:30:39.740 --> 03:30:45.860
This is the first meeting that I've been to ever here and I feel for everybody here

03:30:45.860 --> 03:31:15.860
and on the housing side what we were talking about with the building and permits and all that kind of stuff I'm coming from the side of I live next to a house like that I think there's a correlation with Habitat for Humanity I think is what it's called in selling these properties like this because in my case

03:31:15.860 --> 03:31:45.840
got a hold of it and he's been known, well known to do this over and over again where he buys properties, doesn't take care of them. I had a 10 foot antenna heavy iron fall on my house in the middle of the night. I am a single female, have no backup. I had to take care of that myself because the landlord would not respond. He bought that property, never did a thing to it for years and years.

03:31:45.860 --> 03:32:15.860
while I kept having people break into it I had to board it up myself with my own money and tools I mowed that lawn for probably eight years because he never took care of that picked up the garbage had to call the police for drug deals constantly on that house I had to put up a floodlight just to protect my own self so

03:32:15.860 --> 03:32:43.400
While I feel for the people putting money into these houses, you know, you have to understand where the homeowners coming from as well, because we're affected by all that. So that's part I want to say on that. The other issue that I wanted to talk about is maybe could someone look at from the city

03:32:45.860 --> 03:33:12.560
The couple intersections, some issues there. I'm not sure the addresses, but one of them is by the fire station on Adams. They newly redid the street, which looks great, and it's great to drive on. That's much appreciated. There's a stop sign, however, that's turned towards Adams, and people keep thinking that they're supposed to stop there.

03:33:12.560 --> 03:33:42.540
I have witnessed and then had it happen to me today where I had to slam on my brakes because the person in front of me was confused and didn't know if they should be stopping at that sign. It's actually for the side street coming this way but it's facing this way on Adams. Your time has expired. Okay. Okay. Thank you. There's who can I talk to about the other intersection? Right there. I think it's I want to

03:33:42.540 --> 03:33:44.940
say Winnishek and Adams, but I'm not sure.

03:33:46.020 --> 03:33:46.240
Oh.

03:33:46.540 --> 03:33:46.820
Yeah.

03:33:47.400 --> 03:33:51.640
Is there someone we can talk to or I can talk to about another intersection?

03:33:52.260 --> 03:33:52.740
Oh, I know.

03:33:52.740 --> 03:33:53.740
Okay.

03:33:56.460 --> 03:34:00.580
I guess Alderman Clem had a...

03:34:00.580 --> 03:34:02.740
Yeah, I just wanted to announce on...

03:34:03.460 --> 03:34:10.340
I originally had a neighborhood watch meeting set up for January 28th, which is my normal date.

03:34:10.340 --> 03:34:43.380
January 28th is going to be a candidate forum at the library I don't want to interfere with that I think it's more important for people to go meet the candidates and listen to what they have to say so I've sent a notice out I will send other notices out but I will rearrange a date maybe I can get together and do it at the same time as Greg's thank you is there any other mic

03:34:43.380 --> 03:34:53.100
Uh-oh. Well, I came up here to say everybody can start smiling now, okay? We can get the tension out.

03:34:54.000 --> 03:35:01.820
On behalf of Flight Radio Studio Production Company, I am the Program Director, and I am inviting the whole

03:35:01.820 --> 03:35:10.300
City Council to this upcoming Saturday's Dance Against Cancer Ball, okay? As the 70s and 80s Dance

03:35:10.300 --> 03:35:38.380
Against Cancer Ball. We are raising money for the Leonard C. Ferguson Cancer Center, and what we're doing is is trying to improve the city with through flight radio 105.7 FM. So I'm inviting all council members, please attend this Saturday. Mike, could you say your name? Say your name. Oh, Michael Johnson. I'm sorry. All right. Okay. Thank you.

03:35:38.380 --> 03:35:58.120
Okay, the event is being held at the Eagles Club this Saturday at 7 o'clock until 11. The Real Deal Band will be performing and yeah, we're coming out to have a good time and we're doing some community support, okay? Let's stop being mean, everybody. Let's get some smiles on our face. Thank you.

03:35:59.700 --> 03:36:02.980
Just a second. We'll get a Kia and then you, okay?

03:36:02.980 --> 03:36:32.560
So if you was listening to me, I didn't say that they didn't work with me during my permit phase. I told you they knocked down my house illegally, which his last statement was that he, the last dismissal, he forgot to say before they left that courthouse at the last dismissal, I served him and Steve Cox with my, only my sister's name on it, with a legal filing that is going to be, supposedly got heard on July 21st, I believe.

03:36:32.560 --> 03:37:02.560
that and what you did say was it's when somebody files a paper it stops so why didn't you stop when you and Steve Cox got served that paper that was not a let's make a decision Steve Cox and Wayne Duckman that was for the judge and to the judge hear it it wasn't supposed to be knocked down he dismisses it you don't dismiss the idea of me filing a paper you act I mean if you want to see that you talked about me bad in here if you consider that

03:37:02.560 --> 03:37:31.700
to win. I never said that you didn't work with me. It was over a 5,000 square foot house. It took a lot of time. That was a lot of material. And then nobody talks about my stuff being stolen. Three times it took somebody to bring my stuff three different times. How do you overlook bounce houses three times my size? You did nothing but show that the privilege is Jodi Miller's brother. He can steal what he want to. I never heard that there was a contract that you guys had.

03:37:31.700 --> 03:37:59.600
I did more houses, but go shopping first, steal something first. I never heard that. So somebody should answer. There's theft after the fact. And I'm just going to tell you, like, if you know me, you know this ain't the end of it. This is only a council meeting. I got laws to, you know, make sure that stick to me. And I never meant to mislead anybody, not you at all. This is truly what happened to me. And I'm going to see fit that something happens to him and whoever else is against me. And if you know me, that's not my brother.

03:37:59.600 --> 03:38:16.620
Okay, we're going to have, we're going to, but Akia, Akia, Akia, Akia, Akia, Akia, let's not, let's not do this, right, yes, right, but both, both, we're just going to have more, right, right, we're going to have

03:38:16.620 --> 03:38:22.960
You truly show who you for, truly, I got no minutes, but you need to, you need to get on the right side of this

03:38:22.960 --> 03:38:27.320
I don't care what you say, we're just, we're leading a council meeting

03:38:27.320 --> 03:38:58.850
Tommy. Okay, you need to stop or you're going to be removed. Tommy, would you come up and say what you got to say? Yes. Yes. Bye-bye. Right. Bye-bye. Yeah, I know who I'm for. Motion for adjournment. Oh, we got to listen to Tommy. Tommy wants to say something. I think James had something. Who? Wait a minute. Tommy, that's what it's about. We're not going to argue. Come on, Tommy.

03:38:58.850 --> 03:39:02.610
what do you have to say? Joyce, you did a good job doing that meeting in the hole.

03:39:04.110 --> 03:39:13.280
He did a good job and Jodi Miller is doing a good job too. Thank you, Tommy. Okay. Are we in a, are we,

03:39:13.280 --> 03:39:17.800
um, you have something you want to say? Okay.

03:39:18.660 --> 03:39:27.880
Saturday, January the 18th, there will be a National Day of Racial Healing at the Freeport Farm Bureau from 9 to 1.

03:39:28.340 --> 03:39:41.520
The purpose is to reflect on our shared values and engage in conversation to heal division and bring our community together.

03:39:41.520 --> 03:40:07.900
That's Saturday from 9 to 1, the 18th at the Farm Bureau, and let's not forget Monday, January the 20th, Dr. King's celebration, so I guess there won't be council that day, Monday at 5.30, and Mr. James Ryan says,

03:40:07.900 --> 03:40:19.720
I hope that this year's attendance will reflect the diversity of our community as we celebrate one of our greatest heroes.

03:40:21.800 --> 03:40:32.280
One last thing. Thursday, January 16th, Second Ward Neighborhood Watch Meeting at 6.30 at the Carson's House.

03:40:33.020 --> 03:40:35.140
Same place as always. No snow.

03:40:35.520 --> 03:40:36.780
You said January 16th, you said?

03:40:36.780 --> 03:40:38.380
Thursday, January 16th.

03:40:38.380 --> 03:40:39.380
Okay.

03:40:39.380 --> 03:40:40.380
Thank you.

03:40:40.380 --> 03:40:43.380
If there's no more, can I have a motion to adjourn?

03:40:43.380 --> 03:40:44.380
Second.

03:40:44.380 --> 03:40:45.380
Second.

03:40:45.380 --> 03:40:46.880
It has been moved and second.

03:40:46.880 --> 03:40:47.880
All in favor?

03:40:47.880 --> 03:40:48.880
Aye.

03:40:48.880 --> 03:40:49.880
Okay.

03:40:49.880 --> 03:40:50.880
Moved him adjourned.

03:40:50.880 --> 03:40:51.880
Yep.

03:40:51.880 --> 03:40:52.880
Yep.

03:40:52.880 --> 03:40:53.880
Second time?

03:40:53.880 --> 03:40:54.880
Oh, you're good.

03:40:54.880 --> 03:40:55.880
Yep.

03:40:55.880 --> 03:41:02.880
I mean, coo coo.

03:41:02.880 --> 03:41:03.120
Thank you.