Madam Clerk, if you could take the roll. Oh, I'm not even recording, but I bet Curt is. Mayor Miller? Here.

Alder Persons-Clemm? Here. Monroe and Simmons are absent. Parker? Here. Stacy? Here. Shadle? Here.

Sanders and Sellers are absent. I saw him already. Okay.

Okay, Sanders is present, but I'm sorry, so we do have a quorum, Sellers is absent.

Thank you. The Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Item four would be the approval of the agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Clemm, second by Parker, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passed. Item 5 would be public comments on agenda items? There were none. None listed. And then can you note that 501, that Alderman Monroe came? Thank you. And item 6 would be discussion of the following budgets by City Manager Boyer, and Director Richter. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We were going to drop the downtown loan budget just for the point of information. We're going to what? Dropping the downtown loan budget. All right. Good evening, everyone. I don't know what's going on with the air conditioning. Kind of discovered that today, so we should have that fixed here soon, but I apologize for the temperature. If we could, Curt, if you could go ahead and put up the police Police Department General Fund budget. So just picking up on where we left off, tonight we're going to go over the Police Department General Fund, the Drug Forfeiture Fund, and the Fire Department General Fund, the Fire Public Safety Fund, Fire Improvement Fund, and the various TIF funds, Lamb Road, Downtown, West Avenue, and Birchard and Meadows TIF. And then we'll discuss the Projects Fund. So I will be having some of the department heads

maybe chime in toward the end of each section just to kind of give any more specificity that's required.

So with that, let's go ahead and get started with the police department, police department budget. So currently talking about non-bargaining to start with, currently there's only, there's a cost of living increase included here. However, police bargaining, we are currently working or doing police bargaining at this time. So we have not included what we're thinking for what may be negotiated yet. So all you're seeing is like the standard 3% increase. And I just want to get that confirmed. Michelle, is that correct?

We've just included the 3% cost of living. We haven't included a 3%. We've only included where people are actually on the chart right now. They may have bumped up a longevity type increase, but there's nothing in there currently for the bargaining. Okay, so just bear in mind that we are currently in bargaining with the police and that is not reflected in this item as of right now. Also, the health insurance has been adjusted by the current staffing requirements, so if you go down to item 52 20 health insurance that's been adjusted by the number of folks we have on staff and this is also a reoccurring theme our workman's comp insurance this year was increased by 30 percent that has to do with the number of claims we had several claims that were long and coming got resolved last year but that is impacting our workman's comp moving forward for a little for the next few years, so the police pension fund contribution, which, let's see, that'd be item 5255, large property tax distribution is received, which will be October 4th. The amount to be paid this fall is $392.30 yards, so we're seeing some savings on that.

Department gear and clothing that increased to several more officers hired this year. So that would be item 6210. And this line is not expected to be over budget next year. So but it is we are compensating for the anticipated new hires. Education and training that is 6260. Also current year is over budget due to several more Officer is being hired this year, not anticipated to go over next year, so this is Academy and PTI for our newly hired officer candidate.

Office supply, a slight increase of $500 there, that's item 6710. And then machinery and equipment, Item 7010 we're looking at the addition of a new scene light an automatic defibrillator device radar speed sign and a range trailer so any questions on the police department general fund budget how many non bargaining people do we have I'm going to refer to chief chief you have that handy 10. And ask me, the union in the police department, are those like the 911s, the dispatchers? So how many of those do we have? There's 12. 12. Thank you. 12 full-time. Alderman Monroe. Thank you. Quick question. So there's several light items with very large numbers that are under. Move budget items forward. Like if it was budgeted this year and not used, used. It's not like I can roll that and add it to whatever we're budgeting for 2025. I don't know if that answers your question.

Not really. So how do we track that money moving forward?

I mean, if you do not use, so if you're allocated $5,000 and you only use $4,000, is that your question?

Nothing happens to it. It stays in general fund. It goes into fund balance.

you know it then you know unless the the directors are allowed to work within their departments so they may have a line item that's over a thousand and they may have a line item under a thousand where that would mesh each other out but if their total budget is so much and they did not come close to spending their total budget that doesn't go any anywhere I mean um it contributes to our end of the year budget surplus or deficit whatever the case may be right unless there's anything unforeseen you know there's something council did different during the year that we have to rebudget everything always has to stay within the general fund though this is a general fund budget um it has it to stay within general fund follow-up thank you um so kind of going line by line it looks just like about 90 percent of these line items in that it has been increased year over a year as far as the budget goes. Why is that? Well, I would say that it aligns with essentially our mission, so you're seeing increases in the staffing levels because we've increased our capability. So we have a cap staff of 48. We've been under that for several years in a row. We're getting close to full staff. So to answer your question there, that's why. As far as the other

items are concerned. Could you, if you have any items specifically of concern, let's point those out.

I think it's just the general, you know, idea that it's just going to increase and that that's okay and acceptable.

Okay, as far as I understand, we've got pretty much two major concerns in the city. One is our law enforcement.

So we're trying to move forward and be effective and have the appropriate funding necessary to accomplish our goal and to manage our situation as best as possible.

as best as possible. Chief, you got anything you want to throw in there, feel free. Yeah, I mean, we just try to account for growth and new equipment, especially like, for example, machinery and equipment. One of the things we need is, you know, we have a lot of complaints about people speeding and we're out there trying to do radar patrols and things like that. So we would like to get radar signs, signs that show the speed in life.

and then show how fast you are but then also compile data so we can find out what's actually going on in those areas.

So, I mean, that's why that has a big increase there.

Allerman, Stacy.

Okay, so I'll stick with the five and the four.

If we budget for $5,000 and we spend four, why would that $1,000 not transfer over and instead of budgeting another $5,000, only budget $4,000 because we already have one that's still there.

Go ahead.

Each year is its own.

So budgets don't transfer from year to year or add on from year to year.

Each year is its own.

Follow up.

Yes, Alderman, Stacy.

Um, so, um, the money we're budgeting for the police all comes from the general fund?

This budget here, yes, is all general fund.

All right, any other questions on that?

I just want to comment that I'm not seeing, I guess, what Alderman Monroe was talking about, all these line items going up, other than the stuff attributed to more personnel.

Ammunition's up a little, $1,000. Animal supplies due to a new canine. Contracted vehicle repairs is down. Equal, equal, equal, equal. Fuel and gasoline is down.

But we still have how many months? Alderman Monroe. Thank you. You know, I guess my biggest question is we've got almost $300,000 of built-in overtime for non-bargaining, ask me police, but yet we're reaching full-time status filling of all the positions. So why would that necessitate so much overtime? It feels like we're building fluff into this budget. And the one thing the citizens of Freeport, they do want things dealt with like speeding and gunshots and everything else. And we've been doing a lot of work on that. We've given a lot of money to the department for new vehicles. We bought a new van. We bought other new vehicles, new equipment, new radios. That's my concern is that here we've got all this built in, almost $280,000 just in overtime. I understand on the 12-hour shifts that there's four hours of overtime every two weeks. That should be much easier to kind of understand than keeping it the same. It shouldn't stay at the same levels of overtime.

if you're fully staffed. That's, I mean, that's something we've kind of had back and forth with the fire department as well, and it's going to be one of my questions. You know, we have to maintain spending within our allowance, our budgets. We did a big pay increase for one of the departments this year after we did the 1% increase for taxes, and, you know, this tax and spend mentality must be kept in check, And I think it's important for all of us as council members and citizens of this community to make sure this community remains at a level that we can afford to live here. And that's the reason why I'm asking these questions. You know, when you have $280,000 in overtime built in, we should really know if we're fully staffed what that overtime is. There shouldn't be a guesstimate. There shouldn't be a whole lot of, and if we need to come back to it during the year, we address that. And we always do.

We always support the police department, but what we've got to get better at is understanding these numbers and having huge overances in from year to year really makes it challenging to set an accurate budget that that makes sense is what my point is. Chief, if you'd like to respond. I don't want us to get confused with fully staff meeting that like right now we're at 45. We have 45 officers out there. No, we don't. We have you can subtract eight from that. So we're at 37 because we have five in the academy and three in field training. So we're still understaffed. I mean, we don't have those bodies available to us. Now, I think also what I should bring the attention of is we run a lot of the only Department of Transportation gives us $52,000 a year to hire back officers to do speed enforcement, DUI details, occupant protection. So that overtime is taking taken out of our overtime budget, but then we're reimbursed, but then that goes back in the general fund, so I don't think that we necessarily see that coming back into our overtime budget.

So I don't know exactly all the numbers on reimbursed overtime, because we also get reimbursed through ILEAS, but there's a good portion of our budget that is reimbursed.

Madam Clerk.

Another portion that's reimbursed is for special events, and that will always be called back on overtime, correct, Chief, if you always, when a special event comes in and so many officers are requested or the Chief deems that officers will be needed, like Music on Chicago, they're always called back on overtime, they're never taken from people that are on the street, and then my office bills for some of that.

Holderman Monroe. Thank you. And that goes to my point. We should manage and track that on separate line items, because if we know we're getting the money back, we should have that broken out so that we know what our actual cost is going to be year over year. And that's one of the problems that I'm not seeing here, is it's all piled in together, so we've got money moving back and forth, and it doesn't make a lot of sense to the layperson.

Director Richter We do have that on a separate line item when we go through the general fund revenues that the PD overtime reimbursements are indicated there. We don't tend to or we don't like to we don't put revenues and expense items in the same line to mesh them together because you lose the data there and I think you do want to know how much we're receiving back and that is in our revenue section of the General Fund, and I'm sorry, you're only seeing, we've only started through the expense section, we haven't gone through the revenue section yet.

Thank you. Manager Boyer.

Okay, moving on, just to touch on the drug forfeiture fund, this fund is governed by the state of Illinois statutes.

The funds are for use in the enforcement of laws, regulating controlled substances and cannabis, and I'd like to ask Chief if you want to just mention a couple things on this one.

Sure. Did you say the drug fund? Sorry, I got distracted.

Yeah, it's...

Yeah. So the drug fund is comprised of monies that's lawfully seized and awarded to us through the Illinois State Police.

So, for example, if we seize $1,000, it goes through the court process. Once it's awarded to us, we get 66% of it.

the rest of it goes some of it goes to state's attorney's office some of it goes to the Illinois State Police so that money can only be used for the enforcement of narcotics violations and Cannabis Control Act type violations so this year we used it on our evidence software which has an annual fee it's an approved expenditure that was about $3,600 I think we We also, our K-9 went through a training, we helped pay for that with the drug fund, we also bought a mobile high resolution camera with its own DVR that integrates into our system so we're able to see it online, state's attorney actually split the cost of that with us which was over $5,000, we paid about $2,500 so we used it for that and to pay for our title and registration for a vehicle that was seized with drug through the drug fund, Drug Forfeiture Laws, and then, so we used that money to pay for the title and registration for that vehicle.

Any questions on the Drug Forfeiture Fund?

Alderman Moreau.

Thank you, Alderman Shadle.

So does the vehicle we sold a few years ago that we had seized, does that money go back into this fund, or does that go into a different fund?

Do you know which vehicle it was?

It was the Escalade that was driving around.

Okay. So more than likely, I would assume that that would go right into the general fund. It did not go back into the drug fund. That would have been as long as we possessed it for as long as we possessed it for amount of time defined by statute then then that would have been gone back into the general fund it didn't go in the drug fund I know that so okay thank you yep okay with that I'd like to move on to the fire department general fund so the fire department wages have been adjusted for cost of living and the bargaining group has been adjusted for the contractual increase for 2025 staffing level is the same as 2024 Also, workman's comp has been also adjusted upwards due to the, as previously mentioned, the increase in workman's comp. The fire pension contribution has not been paid yet for this year and we'll wait until the second large property tax distribution is received, which will be October 4th. The amount to be paid this fall will be $703,437.

The amount was determined by our actuarial and due to the fire staff increasing by three in 2024 we have increased this expense item for 2025 and that is the additional firemen that are paid for through the safer grant this does two things it begins our ability to cover an additional ambulance and it also prepares for future department retirements so in addition to that We've got building repairs, $50,000 of this line item is for repairs at the park station. There's an issue with the sewer drain there in the parking lot. And so we're budging that out of two locations, but approximately $100,000 total. Contracted vehicle repairs and maintenance. This has been decreased due to in-house work that's been going on there to keep our repair costs to a minimum. So we had a small increase over last year, but $5,000 just moving forward to 2025. Education and training, this increased $10,000 for new employee training, paramedic school, and fire academies. So again, this is like a one-time cost to bring additional staff on. And then both diesel fuel and gasoline are going up due to the actual cost of what they, their actual costs.

and then all supply, all supply line items have been budgeted at the same amount for 2024. So any questions on the fire general fund? If I may, excuse me, may I add something? Yes. So just a couple of highlights that I identified when putting this budget together was overtime has diminished over 50% since 2023. We have eight line items that are the same projected We have five lines that have decreased within the budget, so how I comprised this is I looked at spending history, and if what was previously budgeted from 23 or 22, I saw a downward trend, I verified reasons why it was downward, because we managed our accounts better, so I adjusted the proposed budget for next year accordingly, same with all the other other items that, okay, we budgeted $30,000 for equipment repair and maintenance. Halfway through the year, we're at $16,000. That tells me we're right on with our projections and our budget. So that's why many of these things are the same, because looking at spending history, we are right on track with where we should be.

Holderman Monroe.

I'd like to just make one comment. That's what I was expecting to hear from the police department as well as we get back to full staff, is that type of downward trajectory with the overtime. Now, with the 80-hour every two weeks, you know, with four hours of overtime, it's 84 hours actually if you break it out, you would expect four hours of overtime on every police officer plus some occasional. So those are the types of things that I think we should be trying to do as we go forward because all of these officers that he talked about were and will complete training by the end of the year for the most part. I mean, there may be a little bit into the early part of next year, but for the most part, we should see a downward trend, but I appreciate that, Chief, really do.

Okay, any other questions on fire?

Yes. What we budgeted for 2024 and what we have used, we still have over $2,486,000 plus. So in December, you're telling me that money is just going back into the general fund?

Director, Richter.

It's, if it's not spent, just like your checking account, if you have a budget and your, your ComEd bill comes in less, that money stays in that bank account, it doesn't go anywhere else. That's what happens here.

But the general fund is not the FHIRS bank account.

The general fund is comprised of many different departments, and it is all one. It's not still going to stay for, if FHIR doesn't spend it this year, it's, it's, that particular number from 2024 does not add on to the budget for 2025.

And it's no longer FHIR's money?

No, not unless, FHIR sets a new budget, just like we're doing right now, and these are the new numbers that he will work with next year.

So, if we budgeted, if we didn't even spend over $2 million of what we budgeted, why are we even still yet budgeting more?

Could I just address that?

Manager, Boyer.

Alderwoman Stacy, are you referring to the 2024 year-to-date activity column?

Yes.

We're in September.

Well, I just said we had three more months.

Yes, and it is likely that we will have a, it's likely we'll have a small surplus, but it won't be $2 million and change.

So you think we're going to have a $2 million surplus?

No, no, no, no. I'm saying that it'll be, it'll probably be a small surplus, but it's not going to be the budget minus the year-to-date activity.

You've got to remember there's still a lot that goes out between now and the end of the year.

Three months' worth.

plus the seven, oh, sorry, director, Richter. You're saying three months and there's, it's probably more like four months. Bills take a while to get here and get in the account and get paid. We also, I mean, we're still getting bills in January and February that are for something we bought in December. So those go back to this budget.

if we bought it in December it gets applied to this fiscal year so there's quite a lot of activity to still happen and I just want to mention October 4th we'll be making that pension contribution of 700,000 so okay did you have anything to add chief just one last thing I want to belabor but the way I look at is the general fund is a bucket and then this line represents what the fire department will use out of that bucket so when we don't use it that just stays in the bucket for police bucket and all the other departments that are general fund if at the end of the year if all the bills come in we don't use it we're not expecting that to be reinserted into our budget next year we start all over again with a new line item with a new budget for the next calendar year so I understand what you're saying and then I think Michelle is kind of grouping it all together as well based on her Her, you know, finance practices, but I look at how you do. Look at it as a pants pocket full of money. If we don't spend it, then that goes back to the family. Thank you. That helps. Okay, with that, I'd like to move on to the Fire Public Safety Fund. So this is a miscellaneous local sources of revenue. The source of funding for the Fire Public Safety Fund is

mostly donations and memorials. So we have here supplies and education and the expense of these funds are public education materials, fire prevention month items and then Lindo theater handouts and public engagement handouts.

engagement handouts. Do we have any questions on the fire public safety fund? Okay, moving on, we have the fire department general, I'm sorry, the fire improvement. There's two pages here in the budget. You'll see the one with the highlighted green column that itemizes quite a few of the expenditures that have been budgeted for this year. So the funding for the fire improvement fund comes from the ambulance.

Ambulance Revenue and Other Small Ambulance Fees. Ambulance Call Revenue has been decreased to $1 million down from $1.2 budgeted for the 2024 year. This decrease is based on actual experience in 2023. The accident, fire, and extrication, the city bills insurance companies only, not the residents for this account.

lift assistance revenue has decreased in this item lift assistance is received from nursing home facilities that call for assistance with residents that fell and they cannot get them up and then ALS upgrade services so there's a slight decrease there in the budget to align with actual receipts and we have the GEMT or the ground emergency medical transport there was a small decrease from last this year based on Medicaid transports. This program helps the city obtain the true costs for providing a Medicaid transport. However, half of the funds received are required to be returned to the Illinois Department of Health and Family Services. This semi-annual payment is actually part of tonight's consent agenda we'll be talking about or that is in the consent agenda. I apologize. And then the expense items are detailed on the second page. So just briefly going over those.

We're looking at this year, so we're looking at the highlighted in green section. At main fire, we have a floor epoxy repair that needs to be done to the garage. Essentially, what we've got there is just a coating to put on to preserve and protect it for years. Also, on the park station, we're looking at a repair to the sewer system, the sewer service line coming out of the park side lift station, or park side.

Fire Station going out to the city interceptor. Also, we were adding some security cameras, radios. Again, we discussed the GEMT accounting services there. Hose nozzles, turnout gear for additional firemen, SCBAs, so that's self-contained breathing apparatuses, so an update there, and then an autoloader for the ambulance 3. It's to kind of save on people's backs when they have large patients. And then we have a couple of other items. Chief, if you want to discuss that, I'd be happy to. I know they're going to have some interest in the 7005 Replace Engine 1. So I know we've been fortunate enough and have your support to replace other aged equipment. So following our replacement schedule, which has kept us out of trouble going forward, the build time it takes to receive a new truck if we placed an order today, we would not see that order for four years. So this engine that we're suggesting, considering replacing, is due for replacement in four years. We'll be fine for now, but truly it takes four months to deliver an engine that's ordered today,

and if we don't place an order those costs continue to rise exponentially over the period of time so this dollar amount that is put there for consideration they told me that there will be a price increase of 1.5 percent November 1st of this year another 1.5 in February May August and November of 25 so for a written order with no money down, this will lock in our cost at today's prices versus four years from now. Also puts us in that queue or on that waiting list to get a vehicle built. So there's no jumping ahead of somebody else, there's no fast track. This is once you place an order, you get put in line, and they're at 47 to 49 months for delivery time. Plus we'd be exposed to subsequent price increases.

And they also go into greater detail for prepayment options. So if by chance there was enough money to prepay that fire engine 100%, that would reflect into $119,278 savings that would come off the purchase price. If we paid half of that amount, we would save $59,639,000.

Or if there's the interest, the desire, I should say, place the order and then once it's complete in four years from now, then just pay the whole balance in full. So that's something to consider. Again, we're looking more medium range planning, but trying to capitalize on today's costs.

So that's something that, you know, we would need to consider, but again, there's another proposal, another price increase coming November 1st.

Then the next item in there is replace shift commander vehicle. So what this is doing is we're replacing the oldest, oldest vehicle to 2006 Trailblazer.

That was like the last Trailblazer we replaced. The whole rear frame assembly is rusted out.

So we would surplus that one out, and it is a reserve response vehicle. It has a light bar on it and radios and everything. That's what the shift commanders or the deputy or myself would use if our car was in for service or repairs. That's a reserve response vehicle. So being that it's rusted out, we were told a year ago, we'll do some temporary welding on it, plan on getting rid of that car.

So then what we would do is downgrade the existing shift commander's Explorer into that reserve response vehicle status and replace that with another response vehicle. This time it would be a Tahoe similar to what I'm driving. They've outgrown this Explorer. There's not an empty seat in it, so the passenger front has got a suitcase and a binder in it.

the back seats have command boards and portable light fixtures. You open up the back and there's all the radios and their turnout gear. They've outgrown that vehicle with the amount of equipment that they carry on it. So the cost for that vehicle and the upfitting, meaning lights and sirens and everything, is coming in about $75,000.

and that's through joint purchasing the through the Iowa emergency vehicle provider provider service that Public Works just received a pickup truck from. So clearly those are the biggest ticket items. Any questions on? Alderman Monroe. Thank you, Alderman Shadle. How old is Engine 1? Engine 1 is a 2010.

Okay. So right now it's 14, four more years, it'll be 18 years old. And we intend to keep that in reserve status in the event we need a second elevated stream. We're downgrading that replacement engine. Right now it's a short ladder truck. This proposal would just be a fire engine, no ladder.

Mayor. Okay. With that, I'd like to move into TIFs. So I'm going to start with the first couple TIFs. I'm going to have a little bit more of an interactive with Director Duckman on this. So we'll start with the downtown TIF. You'll notice here we've got $581,000 budgeted. The idea behind this is we're going to be resurfacing the municipal lot near the Stewart Center there on exchange in between Van Buren in Chicago. So this really needs to be done where we're going to be installing some EV chargers there and then we're going to resurface and restripe the parking lot. We've also got downtown facades in this and Wayne, is there anything else I'm not? No, thank you. You covered the major item here.

We have an $800,000 grant for EV chargers. And so with that being said, right now we have not received the official grant agreement, but we want to be ready. Staff wants to be ready as we start working with the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. We want to be ready to have match funds available for these eight chargers. The large scope of the project would be a total of eight chargers, four at each.

Chargers. Four at each site. The one would be, as City Manager Boyer has already explained, four of the Chargers would be at the lot on Douglas. It's right across from the Douglas Center. And the other one would be northeast of the Lindo Theater. There's that large city lot there. And the idea is the grant manager has told us the funds are forthcoming. The agreement is forthcoming for 25. A couple thoughts there are we would need match funds. And then we would also, since the equipment would already be staged there. It would be a perfect opportunity to save some funding and saying, hey, you know, the grant contemplates paving at the location of the chargers, but if the equipment's there, we would like to budget, have the opportunity to pave the rest of the lots, which are in bad shape. So that's the reason that line item's higher this year.

There was one request if we could do something with a little more like a little bit of landscaping in the corners. One of the things as you guys move forward with design. Yeah, that was a request that I was. Sounds good. Okay. With that, I'd like to move on to the Land Road TIF. This is one of the TIF districts that's performing. Currently, we have and I think we've discussed this in the past, but we have an inverted section of a large section of the collection main that runs on the east side of the landfill, presents a concern for bottlenecking and capacity, and we are planning to put in a lift station at Walnut Road and Lamb, and that should properly convey the waste from our largest businesses in town to the interceptor just past the creek on Walnut Road.

so that's what you're seeing in that item there yep okay so what was budgeted for 2024 compared to what was used yes so I can I can answer that as well see 2024 so last year what we had budgeted or this current year we contemplated also having the lift station built and it's not it's not going to be we're not we don't anticipate bringing forward the proposal for this year for the lift station however we do believe it to be a worthwhile project we do want to move forward with it as it our businesses in this TIF district could certainly use the help with disposal of waste snack kings one that we're talking about basically using an inverted pipe so you have a pipe section that's actually has to push some of the sewage up uphill so and that happens in communities it it's it's more common than you would think and when that happens we're looking to improve our infrastructure in this TIF district to basically motivate businesses more businesses to come and so we wanted we budgeted we expected it we were hoping that it would happen this year and now that it didn't happen we have to budget for it or we're budgeting for it staff is proposing to budget for this lift station in 2025 and if we don't budget for it

and there is an issue with the lift station, et cetera, then I would be coming back saying, hey, we're trying to re-budget the TIF district to incorporate the funds for this lift station, so.

So this $2 million that we didn't spend goes back into the Lamb Road TIF?

The Lamb Road TIF district, those funds are monitored and those funds stay in this.

this is a separate fund this is not a general fund so we were talking earlier about the general fund tiff district funds stay in their specific fund separate fund from the general fund that's a tiff district that's the lamb road tiff district fund okay um so if it did carry over okay wouldn't property taxes go down That's different. So the assessment is our tax assessor does the assessment and then it's not and then we have a levy, which that ordinance is forthcoming once we get our budget. So what you're saying is, is if we don't spend the TIF funds, should that lower somebody's property taxes? And that's those are not correlated. That's not correlated. They're not connected.

If the $2 million transferred to the next year, and instead of getting $3 million, because we already got two, only taking out one, wouldn't the taxes go down?

I think we're getting confused about property taxes and what's in this fund.

so you see my I'm not I'm just saying I think we're confusing that because there's monies go there's revenue going in you see the property taxes that's generated off of an increment so basically we've we've set up this tiff district 20 something years ago and when this was created all the properties there had a tiff base that was created so essentially what's happening in the lamb road tiff is anytime the property tax assessment and any of the taxes tied to the assessment over a certain base value gets put into this fund so whether or not we're spending that money it's that revenue source at the top there property taxes that's coming in based on this you know that money that money keeps coming whether we spend it out of that fund or not now it would be awesome because if we are spending it and we're getting redevelopment agreements and we get this infrastructure passed that revenue number should increase because the idea of TIF district is you're spending money on economic development that's actually going to drive that property tax number up to put more money to spend on businesses and infrastructure so if we spend it in theory the number the revenue should go up you know so we want to spend it essentially we we want to spend that for economic development so businesses come here and drive that property tax number up okay uh with that I'd like to move on to the uh West Avenue TIF and I am going to yield to or I'm

I'm going to yield my time here to Director Duckman on the West Avenue TIF, Bertrude Hills TIF, and the Meadows TIF.

On these three here.

So West Avenue TIF, you're going to see an increase here in site improvement for the West Avenue TIF, a fairly significant number from last year.

And I'm working with a few developers right now that are looking to expand their businesses and or bring in new businesses.

And so under the site improvement of this budget, fingers are crossed that I will be coming in 2025 with an actual redevelopment agreement that's working with a business, presenting it to council to say city staff is looking to work on a redevelopment agreement, spend X amount of dollars to expand a business and bring X amount of jobs to the city of Freeport.

So that's the reason you're going to see a significantly higher increase here in site improvement is because I'm working with a few developers on potential redevelopment agreements.

Hold on, Monroe.

Are these local developers or are they from outside the area?

One of them is local.

Well, let me take that back.

The two that I'm working with now are local.

The two that I'm working with now are local.

And one of them is regional, meaning Midwest.

Okay, and moving on to the Bertrand Hills Tiff, again, this particular one is primarily paying on various previously done agreements, but Wayne, if you would Sure, this is one of our smaller TIF districts geographically, which makes sense geographically, as well as funding sources So what we have here is there's not much of a change from the prior year, and much of what we have here is we have a redevelopment agreement with FHN that takes up most of the funding for this TIF district.

Okay, on the Meadows TIF.

Okay, so Meadows TIF, similar situation here.

One, two developers here, one regional Midwest and one local are looking to invest in the meadows working on two redevelopment agreements that I would like to present to council and I believe and that's why I'm adding some extra money here to site improvement and as I'm working with a few developers and budgeting for this site improvement redevelopment agreement would be beneficial to the city, so hopeful to present those in 25.

Okay, on the special projects or the projects fund, next one there, yeah, again, we're budgeting $20,000 for sidewalk replacement for 2025, so that's the extent of the projects fund.

So at this point, do we have any questions?

What's the sidewalk?

6, 10, 49.

So every year we have basically a sidewalk budget for individuals to get a matching grant from the city to replace your sidewalk since in the city of Freeport the sidewalk belongs to the property owner.

So we've been doing this for a number of years and we're going to continue doing that.

Go ahead.

Mr. Stiekel.

Yeah, the sidewalk program for 2024 is up to the amount that's budgeted. We do remove and replace sidewalk for residents. The city will remove the sidewalk. People have to apply and be approved, but if they apply and they're approved, the city will go in and remove the sidewalk at no cost to the owner, and then I believe we reimburse $1.25 per square foot on their cost. They have to turn over their invoice. We go out.

It has to be built to city codes or there's no reimbursement but we've had quite a bit of interest in that program this year and really all over the city people have applied for it and then between myself and Pat Ingram we go out and administer the program. It's nice. We usually don't expend all the funds annually but it's a nice little program for people and we only do it for people that are going to replace their whole sidewalk. We don't do it for patching.

So did we do that this year? Yes. We had this program this year? Yep. Did we have it last year? Mm-hmm. How many years have we had this program? 2017, 2018. Yeah, at least five years, six years, something. Madam Carter. I believe when we did the budget cut for COVID, Michelle, when we took a million out of the budget, did we not do it that one year, I think.

I agree with that, but I think it's been around as long as I've been here, and I've been here 10 years, or nine, nine, I think it's been around for a very long time, sorry? How do they find out about this? About qualifying? Yeah. All they have to do is call Public Works and say they're interested in the remove and replace program, I believe it was on the city's website, and then we meet with them, and we see if they qualify, we have them fill out a form, and then if there's money left, We do it. If there's no money left in the budget for the year, then we tell them that they can apply for next year. But we, again, we only do it on somebody that's going to replace all of their sidewalk. We don't do it for eight foot of patching or something like that. It's got to be a full replacement and then it's got to be built to city codes.

So that would be part of the qualification that they have to restore all of the sidewalk, not partial or anything like that. That's for all districts? Anywhere. Anywhere within the city limits. Okay. So it's something that we need to probably update again, because I'm quite sure a lot of residents are probably not informed, well, probably have been informed but it's something that is not something they retain throughout the year so it would be nice to be able to update that information.

Manager Boyer.

Alderman Sanders, this is a match so it's not a complete replacement cost, it's a match so they have to basically get a reduction, they get some free work out of it in terms of sidewalk removal but it's not a complete replacement for free, it's a match.

It's a match. So there's a matching scale? Yes. Yeah. And that they would also, and the city will provide them with the labor and material? No. How does that work? They have to hire a contractor, they get an invoice, they agree to do it to city codes, and then they put it in, and then, or first we remove it, the city will remove it, really at no cost, and then we will reimburse them $1.25 per square, which is not the full cost Cost of replacement. Usually that's maybe 20% of the cost. Right. Okay. All right. Thank you. Stacy, did you have something else? Well, that's all I've got for you. Thank you. Um, we have any other discussion?

yeah he removed that for this evening brought that up yes um we have enough time for public comments three minutes if we have anybody that has any comments on tonight's seeing none I would take a motion for adjournment so moved second motion Parker second Clem all in favor aye opposed nay