WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.290 started. Debbie Leininger, would you please open in prayer? Bible verse that I felt led to read 00:00:16.290 --> 00:00:23.130 tonight is from Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not 00:00:23.130 --> 00:00:28.630 lean on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path 00:00:28.630 --> 00:00:34.610 straight. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we just thank you for today. We thank you for 00:00:34.610 --> 00:01:02.010 For each member of our city council and all of the city employees that are here today, Lord, we ask that you would bless them and give them wisdom and knowledge to make good judgment. And Father God, we just declare the promise of your word that if we acknowledge you and are true to what we do, if we diligently know what your word says, that you will direct our paths and make it straight. 00:01:02.010 --> 00:01:14.330 And so this evening as we go through our meeting, Lord, we just ask that the decisions that are made here are according to your precepts. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:01:14.330 --> 00:01:46.880 Well, good show up. I was excited to say the Pledge of Allegiance. You get to leave it today. Well, you are a few minutes. I know. Yeah, it's got you down doing the pledge. Yeah. 00:01:47.560 --> 00:02:15.660 I was expecting it. I appreciate it. Thank you. Well, we will call this meeting to order. Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll? Mayor Miller? Here. Alderpersons-Klemm? Here. Johnson? Here. Simmons? Here. Parker? Here. Stacy? Here. Shadle? Here. Sanders will be marked absent at the moment and Sellers is absent tonight. 00:02:15.660 --> 00:02:44.400 All right. I'll entertain a motion to allow Alderman Sanders to attend remotely. We'll move. Second. We have a motion made by Alderman Clemm, seconded by Alderman Shadle. Madam Clerk, please take the roll. Clemm. Aye. Johnson. Aye. Simmons. Aye. Parker. Aye. Stacy. Aye. Shadle. Aye. And the motion passes six to zero. Alderman Sanders will be marked present at 6.03 p.m. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:48.300 And if you could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Alderman Simmons 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:59.220 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands 00:02:59.220 --> 00:03:04.920 One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all 00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:10.440 Alderman Sanders, can you hear us? 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:22.540 Kirk, can you see if he's on? 00:03:22.540 --> 00:03:52.520 He's on. Alderman Sanders, can you hear us? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Item number four is approval of the agenda. Is there such a motion? So moved. Second. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Clem. Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll? Simmons. Aye. Parker. Aye. Stacy. Aye. Shadle. Aye. Sanders. Aye. And Clem. Aye. The motion passes seven to zero. 00:03:52.540 --> 00:04:22.480 Monroe. How about me? I say aye. Well, that is blank. I am so sorry. That's all right. I say aye. Okay. And it's still seven. I apologize. Item number five is the approval of the minutes from the committee of the whole meeting on August 10th, 2026. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Johnson. Madam Clerk, please take the roll. Simmons. Aye. Parker. 00:04:22.540 --> 00:04:56.130 Aye. Stacey? Aye. Shadle? Aye. Sanders? Clemm? Aye. And Johnson? Aye. And the motion passes, 7 to 0. Public comment on agenda items, we have one that the clerk has for reading. This email was originally sent to the city on, I guess it was September 8th, and then it later was requested that it be read as public comment. 00:04:56.130 --> 00:05:16.410 Dear Ms. Simmons, I should note it is from Nipco, Leslie Lightwin, and Renee Kane. Dear Ms. Simmons, we are writing to kindly ask you to cease all harassment and intimidation tactics regarding our care of the stray cats on Crocker and Wilbur Streets. 00:05:16.410 --> 00:05:38.610 A member of our organization, NIPCO, TNR, NFP, works tirelessly to feed and care for several cat colonies in different areas of Freeport. Taking care of these cats is an act of compassion and monetary sacrifice. NIPCO has been caring for, feeding, vetting, and providing shelter for cats in Stevenson County for the past five years. 00:05:38.610 --> 00:06:01.110 When we organized in 2021, we had the blessing of Public Works and the City Council. To date, we have trapped, spayed, or neutered, and provided vet care to well over 1,500 cats in Stevenson County. Our goal is to reduce the community cat population, which helps the caretakers who selflessly care for these cats and allows the cats to live peacefully without further breeding, fighting, and suffering from disease. 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:25.570 Your recent numerous attacks on one of our members, threatening, intimidating, and telling him, a taxpayer, that he doesn't belong on your side of town and to go back to Cherokee Hills can constitute harassment. We also are very taken aback by the racist tone. If you were in Cherokee Hills and you were told you didn't belong there, I can only imagine the blowback. 00:06:25.570 --> 00:06:55.550 also Steve doesn't live in Cherokee Hills the cats in the colony on Wilbur are also being fed by someone who does live there she puts a help needed post on Facebook in July asking past tense she put a help needed post on Facebook in July asking for help feeding them which is when we stepped in we have fixed and medically treated four of the cats so far out of our own funds we will continue to trap and 00:06:55.550 --> 00:07:25.530 spray neuter the rest to reduce the population and the suffering of these cats. The hatred and cruelty towards cats in Freeport is profoundly disturbing. One of our volunteers on Homer found several of her already fixed strays she cares for all dead last week from being poisoned by a neighbor. This is a felony in Illinois and in most communities it would be enforced but not in Freeport. Your actions towards the person merely feeding hungry cats are very 00:07:25.530 --> 00:07:30.970 disturbing and aggressive. There are much more productive ways to communicate your concerns than 00:07:30.970 --> 00:07:37.690 yelling, verbally attacking, and harassing a citizen of your county, and the fact that you are a city 00:07:37.690 --> 00:07:43.390 official makes it even more disturbing. We are happy to sit down and calmly and politely speak to you about 00:07:43.390 --> 00:07:49.610 this issue if you want. We work hard to better the Freeport community, and we are at a loss as to why 00:07:49.610 --> 00:08:18.410 you have so much hostility towards a group trying to help defenseless animals. Let's work together to keep the neighborhoods peaceful and clean for both the residents and the community cats. We have also included our local news media outlets if they are interested in bringing awareness to the situation as well. Thank you for your time. We would also appreciate acknowledgement of email received. Leslie Lightwin and Renee Kane, NIPCO TNRNFP. 00:08:18.410 --> 00:08:41.440 That concludes public comment. Number seven is presentation regarding electrical aggregation rates for the wastewater treatment plant, 24 pumping locations and downtown street lighting. Darren, would you please just give a quick explanation of electrical aggregate before Mr. Mudge comes? 00:08:41.440 --> 00:09:11.260 Certainly. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Electrical aggregation for the city of Freeport is done throughout the city. Residents have options, and then the utility itself has options as well. Companies like Mr. Mudge's company represent third-party people that supply electrical generally cheaper to our residents and to our utilities by buying years in advance. 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:41.280 so you're betting on the futures of the markets basically. Mr. Mudge meets with us regularly if you don't remember him and gives us an opportunity to bring a vote together to bring cheaper costs to the utility. Tonight he's going to be presenting aggregation on the wastewater treatment plant, electrical, pumping, and then lighting. Those three options. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:59.960 And he's going to basically give the city of Freeport several options between duration and cost that we can vote if we want to move forward. That timing does not get decided tonight. It gets decided on the day that it's locked in because it's a fluctuating rate that changes every day just like 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:27.840 rate that changes every day just like the market. And so I just wanted to give everybody a recap of that. I know we don't do this very often. Mr. Mudge has been helping us for several years and to date I don't believe he's steered Freeport in the wrong direction. Thank you. Mr. Mudge. Thank you for putting me on the agenda. All right. We're here. Okay. We are looking at three different 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:57.360 bids tonight. One is for our 24 facilities that the city owns. Most of the usage is by the water wells and the treatment plant. Is this on? Yeah, you got to just tip it up a little bit. Okay. So we have, as I said, three bids. One is for the 24 accounts. One bid is for the wastewater treatment plant, which gets special 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:05.500 Special Treatment because it has solar there and suppliers don't want to mix that together. 00:11:05.740 --> 00:11:12.020 There's some confusion on what it is, but the treatment plan itself gets a special rate. 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:21.380 And then Dusted On Street Lighting is the third contract that's up in December and we're looking 00:11:21.380 --> 00:11:40.640 doing that now. And on that Dusted On Street lighting, that is including the ComEd lights for just the power that's used and for the city-owned street lights, your downtown lights and different lights. 00:11:40.640 --> 00:12:10.460 So, one of the things that I wanted to mention was about power, our excess power is shrinking fast, the new demand for power is increasing a lot faster than what new power coming online is, and that's even with all the solar net that we're seeing, and it's a countrywide problem, it's not just the state of Illinois, and we used to export power, or we have, 00:12:10.640 --> 00:12:40.640 and we will be exporting power to neighboring states about 2029 we're going to start importing power which is unusual because all our nuclear plants have done well. So that's kind of the state AI and data and electric vehicles are are consuming are the major corporates. One electric vehicle takes the place of two normal households so you don't have to see very many electric cars around 00:12:40.640 --> 00:12:44.240 before you can see that adding on to the grid. 00:12:45.200 --> 00:13:02.180 But on the individual bids, if you want to look at the pumping accounts, it looks like Dynegy is like the lowest cost provider for us. 00:13:02.180 --> 00:13:31.380 I might mention some municipalities have gone out now four and five years and so the energy's rate of 56 months would be worth would we be worth considering for the council next era is five years they're actually the lowest now I just want to mention 00:13:31.380 --> 00:13:33.980 we've not used NextEra. 00:13:34.700 --> 00:13:36.440 They're new to our bids. 00:13:37.660 --> 00:13:45.740 NextEra is a utility in Florida, but if you, they're also a very large utility that has a retail site. 00:13:45.740 --> 00:13:53.280 They have a lot of wind and solar along with generating assets. 00:13:53.980 --> 00:13:55.600 So we're pleased to have them in our group. 00:13:55.600 --> 00:14:25.600 going next to the wastewater treatment plant that has special bids we have if your sheets looks a little bit different where we have a bid from a supplier and we have energy only they're not quite certain it's a negative peak load capacity which cuts that cost down quite a bit so we have energy only or energy or full 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:55.580 Price. And my thought is we want to show the full energy price because as you set your budgets and so on and so forth, you got to have a little bit of certainty. When we say energy only, there's capacity and transmission costs that would be added to that bill that can change. Right now, it would be, there would not be any cost added, but we don't know 00:14:55.580 --> 00:14:59.860 I don't know what next year would bring or the year after or down the road three, four, five years. 00:15:01.560 --> 00:15:14.960 And then on the Dusted On Streetlights, it looks like our current provider, Constellation has the lowest traditional three-year rate at 4.4 cents. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:19.420 The comment rate to compare is 5.5 00:15:19.420 --> 00:15:26.840 So the difference is about $7,000 savings to the city for the streetlights 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:33.060 So I'm kind of throwing three pitches to you at the same time 00:15:33.060 --> 00:15:38.400 But at this time I'll open it up for any questions that the committee may have 00:15:38.400 --> 00:15:39.540 Discussion? Darren, did you want to add? 00:15:40.460 --> 00:15:42.100 I actually have a couple questions 00:15:42.100 --> 00:16:11.940 So, you know, Mike, we usually ask you for recommendations, and I've actually been, you know, reading up on futures and stuff, and right now, you kind of hinted at it, that people are really pushing out to five years on these just because of the futures are really unknown, and the electrical energy is predicting major cost increases from what I've read due to all the electrical cars, the data centers, and ComEd's 00:16:12.100 --> 00:16:36.620 their inability to keep up with the infrastructure, right? They need to reinvest in their infrastructure, which is going to be translated through these accounts all across the Midwest, United States. So are, I mean, I'm looking at every one of these contracts, all of them look like that's going to be an increase over some nature because costs have gone up. Based on rates, are you suggesting that we should look at longer terms? 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:58.800 That would be my recommendation. I don't like to tell anybody what to do, though. But you're right. And our largest, I won't name any communities, but our largest community in our northwestern Comet area is looking at doing just that. They're ending also in December. 00:16:58.800 --> 00:17:22.360 Right, if you just look at residential rates, what residential rates have done, everybody's seen a very large increase over the last two to three months on residential electrical rates, and if you guys remember, we actually had our electrical aggregation supplier back out on us on the residential contract because costs had increased so much. 00:17:22.360 --> 00:17:26.700 That was approximately six, seven months ago that that happened. 00:17:27.340 --> 00:17:33.020 So, I mean, reviewing this is still council's decision, but I tend to agree with Mike. 00:17:33.120 --> 00:17:42.560 Energy costs are going to go up significantly over the next five years due to the lack of infrastructure or the lack of updated infrastructure. 00:17:42.780 --> 00:17:44.800 Data centers aren't going away for anyone. 00:17:45.060 --> 00:17:47.840 There's talks of lots of them throughout Illinois. 00:17:49.060 --> 00:17:51.080 So just keep that in mind. 00:17:51.080 --> 00:18:23.120 and again I know we can't vote on it as a price but we do we will have a recommendation that at the next meeting we'll be giving to City Manager Boyer on a price and term that we're kind of hoping to look at and then it'll be based on the market. Yes. So with that I suppose we just need a motion in a second to move this to the next council meeting and then ultimately then then there'll be the discussion of 00:18:23.120 --> 00:18:30.760 that at the next council meeting as well. So that way it would give Rob the authority, city manager, the authority to lock in at the lowest rate. Darren? 00:18:31.640 --> 00:18:43.320 And Mike, if I'm remembering correctly from the last ones we did, at the next council meeting, Dovie will have updated sheets with the trend at the next meeting. 00:18:43.320 --> 00:18:50.160 It still won't be what we end up signing because that would be the next day or after, but it would be that current rate on those days. 00:18:50.800 --> 00:18:51.320 Alderman Stacy? 00:18:51.320 --> 00:18:55.900 Yes, so you're a broker, you're a consultant 00:18:55.900 --> 00:19:04.120 Yeah, we're a licensed broker agent to sell, assist people to sell power and natural gas in the state of Illinois 00:19:04.120 --> 00:19:15.340 And we've been doing this with the city since, actually the Freeport Water and Silver Commission way back in the day 00:19:15.340 --> 00:19:18.520 We've been doing this since about 2005 00:19:18.520 --> 00:19:24.900 And I'll still entertain that motion to move this forward 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:25.300 So moved 00:19:25.300 --> 00:19:26.040 Second 00:19:26.040 --> 00:19:34.380 We have a motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Parker. Any further discussion? Alderman Klemm? 00:19:34.380 --> 00:19:55.140 I'd just like to say that I've had the pleasure of working with Mike a number of years, even before being here in the council. Mike has been a big representative and been involved in the HVAC industry and all the industries that are involved in this, in buying and selling this. 00:19:55.140 --> 00:19:57.400 and he's been doing it a number of years. 00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:04.120 and doing it a number of years. Everything has gone right until MC2, MC squared came along, right? 00:20:05.120 --> 00:20:07.240 It was actually Nordic Energy. 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:09.000 Oh, Nordic Energy. Okay, yeah. 00:20:09.020 --> 00:20:09.700 Ended up with MC2. 00:20:09.700 --> 00:20:17.100 Okay, I was thinking it was MC, but yes, it's one of those deals you find out you have a contract, but they don't necessarily have one. 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:25.980 But I would tend to believe, like you're saying, with the future unknown and a lot of this and the steady increase, 00:20:26.000 --> 00:21:01.220 to go with a longer rate. There's no further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll on moving this forward? Simmons. Yeah. Parker. Yes. Stacy. Yeah. Shadle. Aye. Sanders. Aye. Clem. Aye. And Johnson. Aye. The motion passes seven to zero. Thank you, Mr. Mudge. Mayor Kuhn, one more comment? Sure. Quickly. The chart that's on the bottom of the page, 00:21:01.220 --> 00:21:05.720 which the pumping was the PGM capacity auction results. 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:19.420 This is a federal-run auction, and what capacity does, this is the money they collect from every utility customer, every ComEd customer, and it's given to the generators to bid into this auction. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:25.160 This is to maintain their existing facilities as well as encourage them to build new facilities. 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:54.840 and as you can see the bars on the right jumped way up and those are set and there's a cap on that and if there wasn't a cap that the different governors in that in the state that the states that are good operates in our race would be even even higher than than that so we know that cap out to the year June of 2029 so since we brought up a good point and where are things going 00:21:54.840 --> 00:22:00.860 I think that's one reason to make that extension and thank you for the extra minute. Okay, Alderman Klemm. 00:22:00.860 --> 00:22:24.160 Okay, just ask a question, Mike, while you're still here. I remember we worked with you on moving the thing forward about buying from, being able to buy from solar sources and that type of stuff. Has there ever been any work move forward on the landfill electricity that that's gone for? Well, just while we're on the subject. 00:22:24.840 --> 00:22:52.040 Uh, yes, uh, Mike, uh, hooked us up, um, with his package, which is a different package than the local landfill supplier, and I did negotiate with the, uh, local landfill supplier, a company out of, I believe it's New York, Luminous bought them, um, and we tried to, uh, I don't remember what the term is, sponsor, I believe it is. 00:22:52.040 --> 00:22:58.460 you sponsor a section, you don't pay any money, but that landfill was, by the time we discussed it with 00:22:58.460 --> 00:23:04.140 Luminous, we were talking about some landfill in Indiana. They had already sold all the credits from 00:23:04.140 --> 00:23:15.600 our landfills prior to that engagement, and that's kind of how the way it works. And so when we saw that 00:23:15.600 --> 00:23:21.980 our landfill was already gone, or those credits were already gone, it wasn't as advantageous for us 00:23:21.980 --> 00:23:51.960 to be part of that without it being local. Right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. We will move on to item number eight, which is the discussion regarding kennel upgrades at the Public Works facility on Island Avenue. Darren? Yes. I have our environmental compliance officer, our multi-tool Randy Kolbauer here to help me tonight. But the gist of it is there are a lot of changes that are 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:58.520 are going on with animal control within the city of Freeport. I know that, you know, anybody that's seen 00:23:58.520 --> 00:24:08.820 Facebook, there's feral cat representation issues. Nibco is defending their rights, you know, as an 00:24:08.820 --> 00:24:18.660 organization throughout the city. There's also adoption issues going on. Kennels are full everywhere. 00:24:18.660 --> 00:24:24.740 Friends Forever's are full. If you reach out to neighboring communities like Winnebago County, 00:24:24.740 --> 00:24:30.780 they are overflowing with animals. Stevenson County just bought a new facility in Freeport. They are 00:24:30.780 --> 00:24:41.140 already at max plus capacity. So it's really leading to a lot of issues. So one of the things I want to 00:24:41.140 --> 00:25:10.980 mentioned tonight. And it does lead back to one of the public comments. So the city of Freeport did, I believe it was in 2021, have an arrangement with Nibco TNR here in Freeport. And we've pulled that ordinance. Just for the record, it's ordinance 2021-45. Thank you for the clerk and getting that to us. There was an ordinance and a memo. Those are only tied to trap, neuter, release. Those are not tied to feeding in other areas of 00:25:10.980 --> 00:25:18.680 Town. Those are not tied to cat colonies, which I've seen many, many posts about these throughout the 00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:26.080 community. I don't actively participate, but I get them. I read them. So I want to be clear. Nibco has a 00:25:26.080 --> 00:25:32.540 right to trap, neuter, and release without a permit. That is in our ordinance currently. It can be revoked 00:25:32.540 --> 00:25:40.160 at any time. That was wrote into the ordinance 2021-45. There are no rights to feed stray animals 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:46.480 throughout the city of Freeport. That won't be a popular comment, I'm sure, after this meeting, but there are 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:53.760 no rights. The county actually defines each individual parcel within Stevenson County that you cannot feed 00:25:53.760 --> 00:25:59.380 more than three animals or you have to have a kennel or borders license. I looked that up tonight. That was 00:25:59.380 --> 00:26:06.960 interesting. And so our take on it is we're having several issues with animal control. You know, you 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:13.220 you really technically cannot feed animals off of your own property. That is what the ordinance says. 00:26:14.860 --> 00:26:22.320 So skipping to where we're at with animal control. We roughly spend about $100,000 a year on animal 00:26:22.320 --> 00:26:29.640 control in the city of Freeport. Maybe not quite that much, but it's significant. And again, we only 00:26:29.640 --> 00:26:40.200 trap or catch dogs and cats. We don't do raccoons. We don't do coyotes. We don't do squirrels. Those are 00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:46.460 considered wild animals, and they're not within our ordinance. And we do have a co-op program that we've 00:26:46.460 --> 00:26:52.300 been running for about a year where we have an agent, third-party agent that comes in. It's a co-op cost 00:26:52.300 --> 00:26:58.180 per animal to remove those. It's got to be approved by the city. It's not just a willy-nilly effort. 00:26:58.180 --> 00:27:07.020 Um, but we are in a predicament. Um, there's been several changes throughout, uh, our County on animal 00:27:07.020 --> 00:27:14.000 control. Uh, currently, um, the animal hospital, which has been taking most of the feral cats in town as 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:21.160 they're caught. So I want to step back a second animal control. When we get a call, our animal control 00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:29.240 policies and codes and ordinances supply. So if we get a call for a cat or a dog that's on somebody's 00:27:29.240 --> 00:27:34.560 property and they don't own them, we need to respond to those calls. That's per our ordinance. 00:27:34.940 --> 00:27:41.900 Right now, we have nowhere to go with cats. The county will not accept cats any longer. They're full. 00:27:42.800 --> 00:27:48.620 The animal hospital, which is where most of the cats have gone for several years, they are no longer 00:27:48.620 --> 00:27:58.040 taking cats. They are full. We do appreciate Nibco's efforts with the trap, trap, neuter release and the 00:27:58.040 --> 00:28:04.820 V-notching of the ears, but it still is a problem when they go on to someone else's property to do 00:28:04.820 --> 00:28:10.740 their business or colonate or do whatever they do and that person doesn't want them on their property. 00:28:11.340 --> 00:28:18.260 So while it's a great effort that they're doing that, it still becomes a problem when the 00:28:18.260 --> 00:28:47.720 The rumor mill says that there's about 1,800 feral cats in Freeport right now between these seven colonies. That's a lot of cats. I see them regularly around town myself. For the last two months, we have not been able to pick up any cats because we have nowhere to go with them. We had just, I want to tell you how big of a situation this is. We had one house that was condemned about six weeks ago. That single house had 17 cats inside of it. 00:28:47.720 --> 00:29:14.200 So it's become a large issue. So where that leads to for us. So we have a great animal control officer, Quez. He does a good job. He's got thick skin, in my opinion. He cares about the animals. He has asked for remodeling to be done at our animal control facility on the island. 00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:21.060 And, Curt, would you be able to bring up that, I believe it's the second page in the memo, the exhibit, please? 00:29:23.060 --> 00:29:28.040 And I can talk while we do it, but the current facility houses about 12 dogs. 00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:30.300 We have no facilities for cats. 00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:33.560 We actually have no cat kennels because we've never taken them in. 00:29:33.560 --> 00:29:37.460 We've always taken them to the animal hospital or the county. 00:29:37.460 --> 00:29:55.940 um with the limited space that we have uh we're asking to remodel our our current facility doesn't meet codes um but we try not we are not an adoption agency right so we we we we uh trap or 00:29:55.940 --> 00:30:25.920 Thank you. 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:45.480 just because we are trying to get them adopted. We're trying to get them somewhere. But COVID has left us a real large effort of a lot of animals that are getting released regularly that people don't want. Per our ordinance as well, if somebody surrenders their animals because they can no longer take care of them, which happens quite often in Freeport, we have to take those animals if they surrender them. 00:30:45.480 --> 00:31:06.620 We just had a situation about four weeks ago where a gentleman surrendered three dogs and I believe one of them was dead or nearly dead and the other two were in very poor condition that we spent quite a bit of money trying to get them back into an adoptable or getting them to an adoption agency to take care of. 00:31:06.620 --> 00:31:31.980 So, as you can see on the screen, it's not a large picture. What we're proposing, right now we have about $40,000 that we have not spent in the public works facility budget this year. It was supposed to be spent on the, really the workers facility, but the workers facility needs so much work that that's not going to put a dent in that facility. 00:31:31.980 --> 00:32:01.100 So Pat Ingram and Quez came to me and Randy and asked us to consider moving this money around within the budget to animal control to update this facility. We'd like to add outdoor indoor kennels within the facility. Currently, we have none, which that does not meet code. We have a outdoor play area that Quez actually takes the dogs that we have and he takes them out there daily. 00:32:01.100 --> 00:32:07.240 this would provide them a indoor outdoor door that they can go in and out themselves cleaning up the 00:32:07.240 --> 00:32:13.060 facility is very difficult we have one floor drain in the center of the building so trying to clean the 00:32:13.060 --> 00:32:19.060 kennels and clean it down every day is very difficult so I suggested adding some trash drains so we can 00:32:19.060 --> 00:32:25.140 clean them up faster we can use pressure washers right now Quez and he does a phenomenal job but it 00:32:25.140 --> 00:32:30.520 takes him forever to clean these kennels out and we have to clean them daily it's not something that we 00:32:30.520 --> 00:33:00.000 We can let go. We are proposing about a 20-foot addition to the south side of the building to have some type of an evaluation room because we currently don't have that. We usually do the evaluations in the back of Quez's van. And then because of the fact that we have nowhere to go with these cats and we don't want to become a cat facility, but we have to have somewhere to hold cats. We currently have no cat kennels. We're suggesting that we have cat kennels. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:07.460 and according to the code they're supposed to be in a separated room without the dogs. Then you'll see that 00:33:07.460 --> 00:33:13.700 we have these boxes over to the right-hand side those would be for the dangerous dogs. Dogs that are very 00:33:13.700 --> 00:33:20.540 aggressive you know we don't have a lot of contact with our staff with them. Again Quest does a really 00:33:20.540 --> 00:33:28.400 good job with it but it's a safety issue for our people and with that Randy's here you can ask her 00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:58.240 and I any questions. I would say, to be honest and fair to you, $40,000 would do about half the work we need to do, so we would probably have to budget $40,000 this year and $40,000 next year. This building needs a new roof as part of the issue as well. It's completely rusted out. It has not been updated ever, to my knowledge, and what I'm suggesting is not doing this with a contractor, but doing this in-house with our staff members. 00:33:58.400 --> 00:34:03.120 Thank you, Darren. Is there a motion to move this kennel updates forward? 00:34:03.840 --> 00:34:05.420 So moved. Second. 00:34:05.960 --> 00:34:12.500 Motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Clemm. Discussion and questions for Randy? 00:34:14.830 --> 00:34:16.170 I have a question. Alderman Stacy? 00:34:16.170 --> 00:34:30.990 So if you give $40,000 up this year and you already know you're going to need $40,000 next year, where are you going to get the funds for the original event 00:34:30.990 --> 00:34:34.510 that needed repaired so desperately. 00:34:37.180 --> 00:35:01.880 So we would re-budget, because it's in the Public Works Department, but we would re-budget the $40,000 that we have parked for the upgrades to, because it's still in a Public Works facility, we would just change the facilities, so that's the first $40,000 from 2026, and then we would budget, we're going through budget cycles right now with Michelle, 00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:33.680 and we would budget that in next year's budget to finish the upgrades because we again in order for us to make it affordable we're going to have to do sweat equity with our internal people to make it affordable and this is a facility that we you know we're very confident we can do this with in-house staff from the streets department the roof and all yeah mm-hmm yeah we wouldn't Simmons we would suggest roofing redoing the roof with steel which our guys can do 00:35:33.700 --> 00:35:57.950 I think it's a good idea. I agree with it. I'm for it. And I agree with everything that you said earlier. However, if we have people that are so entitled to believe that you asking them not to feed cats in your backyard is harassment, we're going to have we're going to continue to have this cat problem. 00:35:57.950 --> 00:36:02.970 and we're not going to be able to build enough shelters and cages to deal deal with them all. 00:36:03.690 --> 00:36:13.770 So I would like to post the council that maybe at some point we consider an ordinance, an enforceable ordinance to stop that because. 00:36:15.770 --> 00:36:20.330 First off, it's just common decency if someone says, hey, please don't feed the strays over here. 00:36:20.730 --> 00:36:27.570 You don't do that. And if NEPCO was trapping the cats to help so we didn't have to do things like this, 00:36:27.570 --> 00:36:57.130 that would be awesome but they were not they had cases of food and they were feeding about seven or eight cats we all know you feed cats they have no reason to do anything but lay around and mate and make more and so you know this is great we should do it but it's not going to fix the problem if we have organizations who are entitled to the point that they think that they should be able to feed cats in your backyard we're going to continue to have this problem because they're just going to continue to mate. 00:36:57.570 --> 00:37:29.530 Alderman, Stacy. Okay, so I want to understand this. Are we saying that you can trap these animals, these cats, and you can take them to the other side of town and drop them off? No. No. No. Because that's what's... 00:37:29.530 --> 00:37:31.110 But that particular day he was just 00:37:31.110 --> 00:37:33.960 Go ahead, Darren 00:37:33.960 --> 00:37:55.660 So I can't honestly speak to NIPCO's practices. My understanding is the only two people, it's not my understanding, it is the law in Freeport. The only two people that can trap cats are our animal control officer and NIPCO. That is the only two that can trap it. 00:37:55.660 --> 00:38:00.480 Um, we do not catch cats and then release them as the city. 00:38:00.580 --> 00:38:01.520 We do not do that. 00:38:01.960 --> 00:38:08.500 The, the Nibco or TNR, uh, trap, neuter, release, they do trap the cats. 00:38:08.640 --> 00:38:17.880 My understanding from only my readings is that they take them to somewhere up in Madison because that's the cheapest resource for them to have them fixed. 00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:24.200 And then they bring them back to Freeport and they release them back into the community, into what they call the cat colonies. 00:38:24.200 --> 00:38:54.000 which again I'm not educated to know where these cat colonies are but I've been told there's I believe seven cat colonies maybe Randy knows a little bit more than I do about it but there's supposedly seven cat colonies and the way you can tell that they're a fixed cat is they get a V notch cut in the top of their ear that is visible if you look at the Facebook feeds and post they're very angry that the city of Freeport does trap 00:38:54.200 --> 00:39:02.360 the V-tipped cats, and we only trap them when we have resident complaints and we're forced to trap them 00:39:02.360 --> 00:39:09.340 because they're on someone's property that doesn't want them. Rachel, I agree with exactly what you said. 00:39:10.380 --> 00:39:18.600 I talked to a vet, my vet, and my vet told me if you feed cats, they're not hunters anymore and they won't 00:39:18.600 --> 00:39:47.640 hunt, and therefore, you know, it's a happy place for them if they're getting fed, right? Just like me. My wife feeds me, I go home, right? So I'm just saying, you know, if everybody's got their own situation, they're having compassion for the cats. I understand that. The more we feed them, the more cats we have. You know, I don't know if the 1800 number is factual, but I believe it's somewhere in the ballpark. It's a lot of cats. 00:39:48.600 --> 00:39:53.360 and I think the council is quite aware of a situation we had by the north. 00:39:53.360 --> 00:40:21.820 situation we had by the North Walgreens about a year ago with a cat colony and people from out of town even feeding cats there and it became a very large issue because one person likes them and the next person does not. And, you know, I don't want to sound insensitive, but our ordinance right now strictly state that if somebody doesn't want them on their property, that the city of Freeport has to remove them in the city of Freeport. 00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:28.300 Again, legally, if we have nowhere to go with them, we can't trap them either. 00:40:30.380 --> 00:40:36.920 Can you find out where these colonies are? How do you find out where these colonies are? 00:40:38.240 --> 00:40:51.220 That's a good question. My suggestion would be to try to work with Nibco because they seem to know where they're at outside of, you know, I know where one of them's at, 00:40:51.220 --> 00:41:10.480 but I don't know the rest but I agree with you or whoever made the comment about when they bring them back where do they go like what where is that I don't know you know I don't if they pick one up on Harrison Street does it go back to Harrison Street or does it you know go over to Miami I don't know. 00:41:10.480 --> 00:41:41.650 I thank all of you for the conversation, it's really great, and it's a problem that didn't have to start yesterday, started many years ago and has been around, if we're going to redo the candle, I would highly suggest, like Rachel and CeCe do, that we've got to put other things intact, because, you know, we had the problem out in Platteville Court 00:41:41.650 --> 00:42:11.010 you know there was a woman that fed them and fed them and fed them and all over out there they had cats the other the other real great sign of somebody is feeding cats is drive by and when their garage doors up about that high you know just leaving it open enough so the cats can get in and eat it's a bad deal you know and it isn't as though you know Darren Nipco spending what $250 a cat or so or I mean you know. 00:42:11.010 --> 00:42:12.890 I don't know what that number is, but 00:42:12.890 --> 00:42:40.630 I had heard that number, you know, the last time I think it came up at Walgreens, you know, but I think the case that you had with the 17 cats, I think was a minor detail to one a number of years ago. And, you know, to many people, a pet is a person in the family. I mean, it's unbelievable. I mean, they're attached, they're great things. 00:42:40.630 --> 00:42:47.510 and so on and so forth, but when they're running stray on the streets and causing problems for other people, that's also a problem. 00:42:48.150 --> 00:42:54.470 So all I'd say is let's look as we move forward to try and do something different or find out what we can do different. 00:42:54.470 --> 00:43:06.250 Yeah. Thanks for bringing up a point there. You know, we do have on record, there are ordinances about dog and cat leash laws. 00:43:06.250 --> 00:43:12.670 they're equally the same. And I know that that's not viewed the same, but that, that is actual law. 00:43:13.030 --> 00:43:18.890 There's also other things that we could do. Um, I believe, uh, dogs have to be chipped. I don't know 00:43:18.890 --> 00:43:24.210 that cats fall into that yet. Um, maybe, maybe Randy knows a little bit about it. She's actually 00:43:24.210 --> 00:43:30.110 deals with a little bit more of this than I do, but it is a, it's a much broader issue than, 00:43:30.110 --> 00:43:37.810 than what people think. And I'm not going to lie, the last thing the city of Freeport wants to do or the 00:43:37.810 --> 00:43:43.570 public works department is want to spend our budget euthanizing animals. It's not productive for us. 00:43:43.570 --> 00:43:49.190 And it's very expensive. Euthanizations right now are running about $80 a piece. 00:43:51.350 --> 00:43:58.050 I understand that. I mean, this is kind of sensitive on many levels, but we have to kind of tighten our 00:43:58.050 --> 00:44:04.420 conversation up because this is supposed to be about upgrading the kennels. Alderman Johnson. 00:44:05.160 --> 00:44:11.800 Well, I agree with the upgrade of the kennels. It looks like it's needed. I just have one question. 00:44:12.180 --> 00:44:18.000 Who provides all the money to feed all these dogs and these cats that are in all these facilities that 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:25.880 we're feeding and keeping alive? Public Works. Do you have any idea how much? I believe we 00:44:25.880 --> 00:44:33.760 estimated it because of the cleaning requirements that are very stringent for us. Randy, do you have that 00:44:33.760 --> 00:44:39.600 number? I believe it's around $20 a day per animal. Right. I think it's close to that or a little higher. 00:44:40.040 --> 00:44:47.280 Yeah. I have to pull up the CBA again. Okay. Thank you. Right. And nine times out of 10, if we can't adopt 00:44:47.280 --> 00:44:56.300 that animal out or we cannot, you know, we don't recover anything. Okay. So, Madam Clerk, could you 00:44:56.300 --> 00:45:26.190 please take the role on moving the kennel upgrades forward. Simmons? Parker? Aye. Stacy? Aye. Shadle? Aye. Sanders? Aye. Clem? Aye. Johnson? Aye. The motion passes seven to zero. Oh, may I ask a question? It wasn't stated, but we're just moving this forward to September 21st? Yeah. Okay. 00:45:26.190 --> 00:45:47.250 Item number nine is discussion regarding ordinance amending chapters 816, 842, 1036, 1248, 1255, 1254, 1258, 1450, 1475 pertaining to antennas and transmissions. 00:45:47.990 --> 00:45:49.230 Director Heimerdinger. 00:45:49.610 --> 00:45:50.590 Thank you, Madam Mayor. 00:45:50.590 --> 00:46:13.030 During the last building commission meeting, the commission commissioners voted in favor of forwarding the proposed text amendments to chapter 1450 antennas to the city council for consideration. Prior to forwarding the amendments, the building commissioners proposed revisions to section 1450.10, governmental services. 00:46:13.030 --> 00:46:33.530 We staff is presenting the changes made by the building commissioners for counselors consideration and seeking which version of the text you guys would you guys would want to be incorporated into the final chapter 1450 text amendments. 00:46:33.530 --> 00:47:02.250 The reason that we are bringing it to you is that planning commission passed it as it was written which is how the attorney drafted that section but building commission wants it drafted in a different way and so we thought well since we have two commissions wanting different things we thought we'd bring it to a cow and have you guys kind of decide how you wanted that final how you guys would recommend that final version being drafted. 00:47:02.250 --> 00:47:09.130 I do have it. It will be up on the screen here so you guys can read it as well. I will read you the 00:47:09.130 --> 00:47:17.630 proposed which was passed by Planning Commission. And this is for Governmentor Services section of the 00:47:17.630 --> 00:47:25.470 antennas and transmissions. So antenna chapter was so outdated that it was talking about things that 00:47:25.470 --> 00:47:55.310 don't actually exist anymore. And so we went through an evaluation and kind of redid it and made sure that we had provisions in there so that, you know, you would need a variance if you were going over a certain height and everything like that. Section 10 speaks about governmental services, the proposed language that Planning Commission approved or wanted 00:47:55.310 --> 00:48:25.290 to pass to council was the restrictions of this section shall not apply to towers utilized exclusively for municipal services offered by the city of Freeport, including but not limited to towers constructed for and used exclusively by 911 service, fire department, or police department use. Any other governmental unit operating within the city shall be required to comply with the provisions of this 00:48:25.290 --> 00:48:53.670 section. And then the building commission wanted it to change. And the primary difference in what you'll notice is that the original language exempts city municipal services towers from restrictions, while the building commission amended language applies to regulate municipal towers in the same way that any other 00:48:55.290 --> 00:49:02.410 corporation or business would be regulated. So this reads, the restrictions of this section shall apply 00:49:02.410 --> 00:49:08.190 to towers utilized for governmental or municipal services provided to or on behalf of the City of 00:49:08.190 --> 00:49:14.190 Freeport, including but not limited to emergency services and other essential governmental services. 00:49:15.110 --> 00:49:22.950 Existing towers location utilized for such services within the City of Freeport as of the effective date 00:49:22.950 --> 00:49:51.950 of this section shall be grandfathered with respect to height, location, and zoning and may be replaced or reconstructed at the same height, location and under the same zoning status. This provision shall apply regardless of the governmental entity operating or providing the service including the city of Freeport, Stevenson County or any other governmental unit providing services to the city or its residents. So you can see the two differences in this. The first one basically 00:49:51.950 --> 00:50:17.740 In this, the first one basically grants that the city of Fleetport that's using it for 911 services, fire department, police departments, if they were to build the new tower anywhere in the city of Fleetport, they would not, and it went over the height or it went over the provisions outlined in the ordinance, they wouldn't have to go to ZBA or go to planning commission or go to council or have a public hearing. 00:50:17.740 --> 00:50:47.660 they could put that up because it is a public service it's a 911 service fire department it's based on emergency services the second the one that the building commission has recommended says no let's not do that let's have every tower that you would put up that's over that would need a variance because of height or because of the that it doesn't fulfill that 00:50:47.660 --> 00:51:17.640 ordinance would need to go through a public hearing, go to ZBA, go to planning commission, go to council to give the public the ability to say, to make comments on that tower. However, in that, anything that's already been built for the city of Fleetport or Stevenson County within city limits, they can rebuild that tower to the same height, the same zoning, the same placement. 00:51:17.660 --> 00:51:24.280 as they did previously without having to get a variance. So they can build it the same way on the 00:51:24.280 --> 00:51:31.400 same place of land without seeking a variance. It's just if they were going to change the tower in any way 00:51:31.400 --> 00:51:39.360 when they rebuilt it. I don't look for the city to, you know, put up. We don't have any future 00:51:39.360 --> 00:51:47.640 towers that we are putting up or planning to put up in any recent future time. So, you know, 00:51:47.660 --> 00:51:57.640 right now it's not something that is top of mind. The biggest thing is that going through, if we do the 00:51:57.640 --> 00:52:05.420 building commission amended version, the biggest thing would be that it does cost money to publish in the 00:52:05.420 --> 00:52:13.140 newspaper, to print a sign, to host a public hearing. It does cost staff time and it costs roughly, not 00:52:13.140 --> 00:52:43.080 including staff time but just for the sign and publishing in the journal standard it'll be about three over three hundred dollars for a tower that you would go up and have a public hearing and then your staff time as well so staff recommends that the city council provide provide direction on which section you would rather see in the final amended 1450 chapter for antennas so council do you have 00:52:43.080 --> 00:53:19.140 questions versus the Planning Commission versus the Building Commission's recommendations that you want to bring up? Do we have a preference? Alderman Clemm? I'll just mention, I think that, and I know one of the individuals that was involved, basically, the thing was saying that, and the Building Commission was basically, they didn't think the city should be able to build something that any 00:53:19.140 --> 00:53:49.100 citizen or anything anybody else could do, which is a real good point. The points of the 9-1-1, the center and emergency things, I mean, they have to be there. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about that. But I think this whole, I think this whole thing stems from the one at Park Hills, basically, is where it started out to say, hey, we've got to take a look at some old ordinances. So that's the difference in some of them that I see, but the 9-1-1 and stuff, you know, really got 00:53:49.100 --> 00:53:57.120 to stay the way it is. Police, fire, you know, for emergency, any of that. Or if it would be, and it's not 00:53:57.120 --> 00:54:03.560 mentioned here, any federal thing or anything that would come in. It would be in the best interest of 00:54:03.560 --> 00:54:17.240 the citizens. Gertrude? So what you would recommend is that we keep with the first one, but add in any 00:54:17.240 --> 00:54:37.140 other towers that the city of Freeport would be putting up, you know, that's not directly related to 9-1-1 or the fire department or the police department use, anything else that would be put up would have to be, would go through the provisions of the ordinance if they fall outside of the variance. 00:54:38.380 --> 00:54:42.760 Yeah, I would believe that, yes, it does answer that basically. 00:54:43.020 --> 00:54:44.100 Perfect. Sounds good. 00:54:45.320 --> 00:54:46.440 Anybody feel differently? 00:54:52.740 --> 00:55:22.720 Do you want a motion to move that thought forward or how do you want to how do you see this going in the next I don't know if I need a vote it was just a discussion topic but I appreciate I appreciate your feedback we we didn't know which way to go either and so we thought well let's go to the people who vote so we thank you guys for for lending your expertise. Thank you. Item number 10 is discussion regarding the 2027 budget process and review of schedule director Richter. 00:55:22.740 --> 00:55:23.900 Thank you 00:55:23.900 --> 00:55:30.480 I wanted to bring to council just a outline of how the budget will go this year 00:55:30.480 --> 00:55:33.160 We don't have very many changes from previous years at all 00:55:33.160 --> 00:55:38.960 We started on the budget back in August with the department heads 00:55:38.960 --> 00:55:42.960 And those budgets were presented to the city manager, myself 00:55:42.960 --> 00:55:48.080 And we are working our way through the rest of the fiscal year 00:55:51.920 --> 00:55:52.320 The 00:55:52.740 --> 00:56:15.340 I included in the agenda tonight a copy of our budget schedule. The budget schedule is for the finance committee of the whole meetings, and these individual budgets will be discussed at each of the individual finance cows. 00:56:15.340 --> 00:56:37.540 We plan on kicking this off next week. September 21st will be our first Finance Committee of the Whole beginning at 530. The Finance Committee of the Wholes will also have a public comment at the beginning of the meeting and at the end of the meeting. 00:56:37.540 --> 00:57:04.760 for our first meeting next week we are going to request and ask council if they would expand the public input session at the end of the meeting to five minutes instead of three minutes to allow for additional public comment but I do want to say that all of the finance committee of the holes will have public comment at the beginning and the end of the meeting I believe. 00:57:07.540 --> 00:57:28.940 I did start with how the budget is put together with department heads. At this point, all the department heads have met with the city manager once, except for public works and water sewer. We do kind of leave them towards the end. They're a heavy lift. 00:57:28.940 --> 00:57:45.240 So, as we go through the departments, we're evaluating where they are, what new programs, new state requirements are out there before we put our budgets together. 00:57:46.160 --> 00:57:55.700 Then we bring them to council, and as we present them, we try to highlight any significant changes over the years, or over the year, what's anticipated for next year. 00:57:55.700 --> 00:58:25.680 the once all of the all the individual budgets are presented we do kind of a recap because things could change from September 21st to the end of October maybe a price came in for an item that piece of equipment or something that changed so we do do a recap before we're looking at the final vote. 00:58:25.700 --> 00:58:55.700 it's also kind of a busy time as well we're not only working on the budget we're looking at the tax levy we're looking at tax abatements and things like that we are looking at getting the budget passed before the end of December also passing a capital a five-year capital plan before the end of December and then we'll also look at 2026 for any types of revisions the 00:58:55.700 --> 00:59:25.680 and then lastly the budget schedule that is prepared that is our best it it kind of ebbs and flows if there we are missing a number if we're waiting on a number from a vendor for how much something's going to cost we might swap out one of the budgets and put it to the next meeting but what you've been given tonight is what I'm working with right now and the identified budgets for next week are on target 00:59:25.680 --> 00:59:33.200 and will be presented on the 21st. Thank you. So please put that on your calendar for next Monday at 530. 00:59:33.760 --> 00:59:39.580 Item number 11 is discussion regarding adding city accountant back into the ordinance regarding 00:59:39.580 --> 00:59:49.860 Chapter 290, Compensation and Benefits, Director Richter. Thank you. In May of 2026, ordinance 2026-30 00:59:49.860 --> 00:59:50.100 with you. 00:59:50.100 --> 01:00:16.920 since 2026-30 was passed to create the position of finance specialist and delete the city accountant position within the finance department. The intent at the time was to update the title of the position as the current employee was leaving and we felt the title of finance specialist more accurately describe the position. Shortly after the ordinance was passed, the deputy finance director resigned and we advertised for the position and had a well-suited candidate, but that recently fell through. 01:00:16.920 --> 01:00:24.240 Reinstating the city accountant position in our ordinances will allow us to recruit an entry-level accountant. 01:00:25.180 --> 01:00:36.840 This approach creates a practical hiring pipeline, giving us the ability to bring someone in at the entry level with the potential to promote to a deputy finance director in the future. 01:00:36.840 --> 01:01:06.820 I'd just like to add there are really just three of us in the finance department that do book work as far as myself the deputy and the finance specialist finance specialist does payroll accounts payable accounts receivable I have an accountant and I have myself and so when we change that when when I suggested the change to the ordinance back then I wasn't 01:01:06.820 --> 01:01:35.880 anticipating such a quick change in my deputy finance director. I think a city accountant would be a more appropriate position to recruit for. As I said, we had someone lined up, didn't have very many applicants. I think this is a better choice for my department, and I'm asking council to forward this to the agenda on the 21st with an ordinance to put that back in. 01:01:35.880 --> 01:02:09.860 Okay. Thank you. Is there a motion to do that? So moved. Second. Third. Third. Okay. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Parker to move this to the next City Council meeting. Discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll? Simmons, Parker. Aye. Stacy. Aye. Shadle. Aye. Sanders, Clemm. Aye. And Johnson. Aye. The motion passes. Seven to zero. 01:02:09.980 --> 01:02:43.290 item number 12 is public comment madam clerk you have three non-agenda to read I do and I first will apologize to the three commenters I had these last week and I had them signed in and when the time came I so apologize I forgot so in the order they were received this is from Tesha Morgan dear city clerk honorable mayor and 01:02:43.290 --> 01:03:13.270 members of the Freeport City Council. I am submitting this formal statement to be included in the official record and distributed to the City Council ahead of the next scheduled meeting. As a resident of the Fifth Ward, I am writing out of an urgent concern for public safety, a severe failure in local law enforcement accountability and potential conflicts of interest within our local judicial system. For an extended period, a specific individual with an extensive criminal background 01:03:13.290 --> 01:03:42.210 Ground, who is well known to local police departments and the courts, has been allowed to repeatedly commit crimes against community members with zero legal consequences. Instead, this individual continues to manipulate the system by filing battery charges against victims they actively seek out prior and after, stalk and antagonize. Despite numerous documented reports, victims are being blamed by those that should help. 01:03:42.210 --> 01:04:12.190 and reports are consistently written incorrectly leading to a total lack of accountability specifically this individual continues to knowingly trespass on residential and business properties where they are legally banned drive completely unlicensed without intervention solicit and hire third parties to vandalize property and harass citizens in addition involve and display weapons parentheses witnesses posing an 01:04:12.190 --> 01:04:42.090 immediate physical threat. When victims attempt to follow the rules, law enforcement, the state, and victim advocates dismiss these repeatedly safety concerns, simply telling the victim to, quotes, keep documenting, end quotes. Inside the courtroom, judges have dismissed overt safety issues and inappropriate physical touch, and when this physical touch was brought to attention, the victim's advocates stated, in quotes, it's probably too late to do anything now. 01:04:42.190 --> 01:05:11.530 This brings about a critical question that this council must address. Who is this documentation actually for? Our community should not have to wait for another preventable tragedy or a murder trial before local authorities take action. The continuous dropping of the ball raises incredibly serious questions regarding systemic negligence, including whether justice is being obstructed due to a family member of this individual being employed 01:05:11.530 --> 01:05:18.010 inside the courthouse. As elected officials who oversee municipal operations and the Freeport Police 01:05:18.010 --> 01:05:24.290 Department, I urge you to launch an immediate review into how these specific complaints, trespass 01:05:24.290 --> 01:05:31.510 violations, and reports are being handled. Our community deserves to feel safe and our laws must 01:05:31.510 --> 01:05:36.570 be enforced equally without bias or protective oversight. Madam Clerk, your time has expired. 01:05:36.570 --> 01:06:03.170 you want to move on to the next one this is from Pete Norman please feel free to read at the next city council meeting we want to extend our gratitude and thanks to the city's forestry department and crew the crew of three recently removed our dead old oak tree professional and efficient manner we felt they deserve to be publicly recognized for their hard work and efforts sincerely Pete and Jen Norman 01:06:03.170 --> 01:06:18.580 I do and actually I meant to talk to Attorney Zito about this this was hand delivered and it is not signed 01:06:18.580 --> 01:06:26.330 I think we've traditionally not read public comment we don't know who it's from 01:06:26.330 --> 01:06:27.610 Okay, thank you 01:06:27.610 --> 01:06:30.470 Okay, then we will move on. Xander Bright 01:06:30.470 --> 01:06:49.660 Hello, everyone. I'm Xander Bright and I have a serious issue here to discuss 01:06:49.660 --> 01:06:59.260 I'm here regarding the serious concerns involving my brother, our neighbor, and the response of the Freeport Police Department. 01:06:59.860 --> 01:07:06.960 On August 9, 2026, my brother and I heard someone banging on our basement window. 01:07:07.520 --> 01:07:09.980 We couldn't figure out what the guy was seeing. 01:07:10.380 --> 01:07:11.560 We went outside. 01:07:11.780 --> 01:07:16.320 We found our neighbor intoxicated yelling something at my brother. 01:07:17.060 --> 01:07:19.160 He appeared to be intoxicated. 01:07:19.660 --> 01:07:35.840 So when we were outside, the first thing the neighbor did was approach him aggressively, began swinging at him, knocked him to the ground, climbed on top of him, and remained on his chest and neck, and the police were called immediately. 01:07:35.840 --> 01:08:02.260 I must say this is a 30 something year old man who attacked a senior citizen who has serious concern who have serious medical conditions. He could not defend himself because of the medication he was on. The officers did not witness how the confrontation began. But by the time they arrived, our neighbor was already on top of my brother. 01:08:02.260 --> 01:08:31.960 I have all video from beginning to end plus pictures in which the responding officer heard when he got out his car get off of him but yet though however the police report states that the officer witnessed my brother and the neighbor swinging and fighting each other which is not true no officer was on scene at that time it also indicates that my brother swung first that officer or no officer was 01:08:31.960 --> 01:08:53.360 present to determine that. I have, like I say, video showing what all occurred before the police arrived, as well as all during the time that they were there. I am also seeking the officer's body camera footage because there were five statements on that police report that was completely false, and I have proof. 01:08:53.360 --> 01:09:20.800 This discrepancy is extremely concerning because it portrays my brother who was attacked as the ingressor in a mutual fight. My brother, like I said, is a senior citizen with serious medical vulnerabilities. After the incident, he was required to go to the emergency room. He didn't that day, but ended up having to go on two different occasions. 01:09:20.800 --> 01:09:48.140 He suffered injuries of his neck where he was being choked. He had scratches in his eye, which one of his eyes was injury, and he is on medication for all of that. The situation has continued. This is someone well-known by the police department. Every time they respond, they say, oh, we know this guy. The situation has continued on September 10th, 2026, at possibly 2 p.m. My brother was cutting the ground. 01:09:48.140 --> 01:10:13.670 2 p.m., my brother was cutting the grass in the front yard, the same neighbor tried to run him over with his vehicle, my brother jumped out the way. Sandra, I'm sorry, your time has expired. I will continue. Thank you. Wendy? Good evening, City Council, City of Freeport. 01:10:13.670 --> 01:10:17.710 Dovie, I wanted to tell you thank you. 01:10:19.130 --> 01:10:20.730 I told you we were going to be on the agenda. 01:10:22.270 --> 01:10:24.810 I wanted to tell you thank you because you have 01:10:24.810 --> 01:10:26.830 compassion. 01:10:28.670 --> 01:10:30.170 You care about people. 01:10:31.290 --> 01:10:32.350 And you show it. 01:10:34.120 --> 01:10:36.480 I don't feel the same way about some of you. 01:10:38.840 --> 01:10:41.000 We have a child 01:10:41.000 --> 01:10:45.460 who committed suicide in this town, and we're talking about cats. 01:10:45.460 --> 01:11:16.100 We had a memorial for this child. None of you were there, but Debbie was. And it's not the first time that she's shown up when one of our kids has either killed themselves or took fentanyl and OD'd or was murdered in these streets or brutalized by a police officer. 01:11:18.750 --> 01:11:22.650 I'm quite aware of the situation that Xandra is talking about 01:11:22.650 --> 01:11:27.770 because I talked to somebody in the state's attorney's office about this young man 01:11:27.770 --> 01:11:33.410 and I was told that he was arrested for public intoxication 01:11:33.410 --> 01:11:41.310 and later on the charges were increased to aggravated or some form of battery 01:11:41.310 --> 01:11:46.490 but the officers refused to arrest him initially 01:11:46.490 --> 01:11:53.370 until a white shirt was called out and then he was arrested for public intoxication. 01:11:53.370 --> 01:12:02.490 Now what Xandra didn't tell you is is that the same individual tried to run her brother over while he was mowing grass. 01:12:03.170 --> 01:12:11.010 There are tire prints in her yard, not on his driveway, but in her yard. 01:12:13.250 --> 01:12:17.150 Now I'm going to say this to you guys and I've been holding this for a while. 01:12:17.870 --> 01:12:49.210 but anytime you have been in positions that I've been in in this town shutting down drug houses putting lights on streets where people have been shot and killed or shootings were occurring walking the streets and then you have officers and you talk about protecting city workers who's protecting us who has the compassion to deal with a family who's lost their 13 year old 01:12:49.210 --> 01:12:50.590 to suicide. 01:12:51.270 --> 01:12:53.710 It doesn't appear that our city council does. 01:12:54.310 --> 01:12:58.650 And I'm saying this simply to you because I was out of town or that I would have been there. 01:12:59.070 --> 01:13:00.650 But my phone blew up. 01:13:01.210 --> 01:13:05.750 And when it blew up, it wasn't talking about the little girl initially. 01:13:05.750 --> 01:13:19.090 It was talking about you, our elected officials who have no compassion, who hasn't reached out to a family who's lost their child, whose father couldn't hold his composure and the crowd cried. 01:13:19.210 --> 01:13:23.590 along with him. I want you guys to think about what you're doing and what you're not doing. 01:13:25.460 --> 01:13:35.800 Are there any other public comments this evening? Hi, my name's Cheryl Altman. I might have a solution 01:13:35.800 --> 01:13:41.600 to the cats. Have you ever thought of reaching out to farmers that are out in the country who are more 01:13:41.600 --> 01:13:47.920 than willing to take cats? Might be a suggestion. I live out in the country. I'd be willing to take 01:13:47.920 --> 01:13:53.460 some. I mean, there's always an opportunity somewhere. You just have to look. And like I said, 01:13:53.460 --> 01:13:55.300 that might be a chance to get rid of some of them. 01:13:56.140 --> 01:13:57.240 You might want to look into that. 01:13:58.060 --> 01:13:58.420 Thank you. 01:13:59.680 --> 01:14:01.000 Any other public comments? 01:14:10.700 --> 01:14:11.960 Oh, Jodi Miller. 01:14:12.800 --> 01:14:16.640 This is your Special Olympics Bank Bowling President. 01:14:17.560 --> 01:14:18.340 What's the date? 01:14:18.340 --> 01:14:33.920 It's on November 1st at the Cherry Bill Mall. 01:14:36.420 --> 01:14:40.970 And Tom Quinn, we're going to miss you. 01:14:42.310 --> 01:14:44.610 It's a long way off 01:14:44.610 --> 01:14:58.190 Hey, do you know what they're putting in that? They said they're going to put something in there, somebody told me 01:14:58.190 --> 01:15:07.560 Any other public comments? 01:15:27.460 --> 01:15:31.020 Hi, my name is Sue Cook and I live on Winchester 01:15:31.020 --> 01:15:35.620 Director Darren, how, I do have to ask this question 01:15:35.620 --> 01:15:41.540 I thought I heard you say three mouths to feed in the ordinance in the home 01:15:41.540 --> 01:16:02.120 Years ago, when there was another mayor, a gentleman, prior to Mayor Miller, this had come up, and I went in with Nikki Bender, and we talked about raising that to four, and as far as I knew, that day, it was raised to four mouths to feed. 01:16:02.120 --> 01:16:32.020 the reason being if people do have service animals and or pets at home when the retired service dog goes into retirement then you have your current service dog that gives you two if you happen to have one pet or one pet and a cat that brings you up to four so it it can or if you happen to have a pet that brings you up to three if something happens with your service dog your new service dog such as it gets hit it gets 01:16:32.020 --> 01:17:02.000 bit. It gets traumatized. That can put you up to four. And that's why I was questioning if they had said, at least the mayor had said, yes, that's possible. They voted. It came up to four. We did get that vote, but it appears it was never changed in the ordinance. Is that kind of correct? Okay. So I was wondering how would you bring up a amendment to an ordinance? 01:17:02.020 --> 01:17:29.180 to bring that up to four so that we could have four mouths to feed in case there was a situation where there were issues with service dogs or a service dog and a pet. I'd like you to consider that. The other thing with the cats, sorry, Wendy, the other thing with the cats is that if they are being trapped, spayed, and released, your colonies are going to decrease because they're spayed. 01:17:29.180 --> 01:17:35.020 there's not going to be kittens so they're just going to die out. The life of a street cat is three years 01:17:35.020 --> 01:17:41.300 approximately so that's a possibility what the colonies are eventually you're going to see the 01:17:41.300 --> 01:17:47.240 colonies decrease because there's there's no babies it's just a matter of getting those getting those 01:17:47.240 --> 01:17:56.320 animals neutered or spayed but I want to thank you for mentioning that this evening because I 01:17:56.320 --> 01:18:41.700 I really was under the impression that it had gone up to four because of the prior so if you could let me know what to do to maybe I don't know put that forward make an amendment to that I would appreciate it thank you next any other public comments this evening Cecilia Stacy fifth ward order woman what Miss Pearson said tonight 01:18:43.440 --> 01:18:59.750 It's a little disturbing to me because not only was I affected in the community, I was also affected on my job. 01:18:59.750 --> 01:19:18.460 I work for the Freeport School District and it'll be 25 years this October and I am sorry that I was not there because I was in town. 01:19:18.460 --> 01:19:25.260 Saturday I went to the 100th celebration of the high school 01:19:25.260 --> 01:19:29.560 and had praise and worship with the Cole family 01:19:29.560 --> 01:19:35.160 so if I could take time out of my busy schedule to do that 01:19:35.160 --> 01:19:36.940 then surely 01:19:36.940 --> 01:19:41.160 for the death 01:19:41.160 --> 01:19:44.640 of one of ours 01:19:44.640 --> 01:19:46.100 I would 01:19:46.100 --> 01:19:57.010 of ours. I would have been there, but I didn't know. I don't know where it was posted for me to know. 01:19:57.790 --> 01:20:11.810 Not everybody is on Facebook. There has to be a better way to get information out other than Facebook 01:20:11.810 --> 01:20:25.920 because I would have been there. Any other public comment? I'll entertain the motion to adjourn. 01:20:25.920 --> 01:20:33.600 So moved. Second. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Clem. Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll? 01:20:36.740 --> 01:20:49.240 Simmons. Parker. Aye. Stacey. Aye. Shadle. Aye. Sanders. Aye. Clem. Aye. And Johnson. Aye. Motion.