Good evening.
Evelyn, could you please give the invocation this evening?
They Heavenly Father, we bless your holy and matchless name during this City Council meeting.
Father, every part of this agenda we give to you to make known what is beneficial for the City of Freeport now and in the future.
Let no one place anything before this council that you have not approved of for all the people of the city.
Philippians 2.3 says, be free from pride-filled opinions, for they will only harm your cherished unity.
Don't allow self-promotion to hide in your hearts, but in authentic humility, put others and other members of the board.
Father, we lose wisdom in your governmental authority to every Councilmember to hear what is needed.
Let every member understand that you have the final say when you are invited to be a part of these meetings.
And we close the door to every negative negotiation, every negative thought.
We ask it all in your son Jesus Christ's name.
Amen.
Thank you Evelyn.
Now we'll officially call this meeting to order.
Madam Kirk, would you please take the roll?
Mayor Miller?
Here.
Alderpersons, Klemm?
Here.
Monroe is absent.
Simmons?
Here.
Parker?
Here.
Stacy?
Here.
Shadle?
Here.
Sanders?
Here.
And Sellers.
And it has come to my attention that Alderman Sanders is passing his chair tonight to Alderman Stacey.
So if you could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Alderman Stacey.
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.
Go ahead Alderman Stacy.
Okay, so next we have the approval for agenda, but before that happens, we wanna make note of the dot under number eight, we'll be moving up to number seven.
Do we have a motion for approval just to clarify that you're moving the dot actually up to right after number seven okay just to clarify do we have an Approval for the Agenda.
So moved.
Second.
Do we need a vote?
No, all those in favor is fine.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Nay by the same.
I'm so sorry I missed the motion in the second.
Shadle first, Sellers second.
Thank you.
Okay.
Approval of minutes from the Committee of the Whole meeting held on November 12th, 2024.
So moved.
Second.
We have motion by Shadle, second by Parker.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion passes.
Okay, we have two public comments, first being Joshua Atkinson.
Thank you Chair, Mayor Miller, City Council, my name is Joshua Atkinson, I just keep this I wanted to talk about item number 8, the grant money going to 1010 South Adams.
I've been talking to a number of people over the past couple weeks, and it seems like that the property owners on this one, they own a total of 8 properties in Freeport.
Some are houses, some are vacant lots, but they also listed on their application that they were landlords.
And Mr. Dixie.
So, then the question got raised of whether or not they were part of the landlord registry.
That's been taking up a lot of conversation over the past couple of weeks here.
And it has been said that they are not registered.
So, they've had these properties.
They have not registered to be landlords in town, which opens them up to owing the city fine dollars if we were to be because they listed on their application that that was their business.
That's who they are.
So, you know, that's just one more thing that kind of raises a red flag with this particular grant placement.
Thank you.
Okay, and the second one we have is Rhonda Scott.
Good evening.
I'd like to address the grant issue for 1010 Adams as well.
We have received about a half a million dollars in grants, giving the City Council an opportunity, a big opportunity to decide how the best use of this money could overcome the city's many challenges with blighted income, low income neighborhoods.
We have a problem with this one specific property because there's a question about whether this individual is actually low income.
Now it is a requirement that community development rehab grants go to help low income, elderly, and disabled people correct unsafe and unsanitary conditions in blighted neighborhoods with their homes.
But before income is even determined, there has to be a project or a purpose for those funds.
So you don't just throw it out there with applications and let people apply and you and I.
The project would likely be we're going to improve the corridor on Adams Street and we're going to fix up all the houses that are a major eyesore on there so that when you're driving into Freeport, you don't have the impression, gee, I wouldn't want to live here.
So we need a purpose and the Community Development Block Grant has been established since 1974 to eliminate conditions of blight and correct unsafe and unsanitary conditions to benefit the low to middle income community.
The project for these funds is determined by the Freeport Community Development, the City Council, and public input.
Adams Street is the current project.
I mean, I don't know what you've identified as the current project, but that's what we're going for.
And then there are the best practice guidelines put out by the HUD Grant Assistance Program so that when we get a grant we can figure out how do you use the funds.
They're suggesting that you prioritize the greatest needs to ensure community challenges are met.
Then you have grant oversight and transparency to prevent fraud.
Reducing administrative costs is to ensure that the money is used efficiently and makes Hicks, the greatest improvement to benefit the low income community.
Somehow a house in very good condition was offered an application which doesn't help the city achieve its goal.
Apparently no one took the time to identify which houses were contributing to blight and let the process be based on income alone, which is only one step in the process and it is not the first step.
My point here is that if we are ever going to expect to make improvements in this community, we have to prioritize the homes that actually need repairs and be transparent and submit photos to City Council before asking us to approve funding.
Thank you.
Okay, next we will have discussion regarding potential redevelopment agreement for 521 West Cottonwood Street, presented by Joel Fredenberg, Fredenberg, thank you.
Joel, do you mind if I just give a little intro?
You mind if I just give a little introduction here?
Yeah, appreciate that Joel.
The Region 1 Planning Council works with the City of Freeport on the Northern Illinois Land Bank and so it's been a while since we've done a land bank property in Freeport.
It's a really exciting program and so instead of coming next week with a resolution for an agreement, I really wanted to bring Joel from Region 1.
He's an excellent partner for the City of Freeport, does a lot of good things with the City of Freeport.
And the idea here is to give you an introduction into what the Land Bank does, how they work with the City of Freeport, and a couple of upcoming projects.
So with that being said, thank you Joel for coming and look forward to your presentation.
Yeah, like Wayne said, I'm just gonna kinda give you a brief update.
For some of you, it's probably been a little while since you've heard about the Land Bank or R1.
And so we're just gonna briefly touch on who we are and what we do and then get to what's going on with the land bank in Freeport currently.
Here's the service area of R1 in the land bank.
The areas in blue is the land bank jurisdiction so you can see here Freeport and Stephenson County are within the jurisdiction, recently added in Lake County as well.
Kind of gives you an overview of what R1 as Land Bank Authority does.
The goal is to combat community deterioration by returning property to productive use and getting, you know, non-tax paying blighted properties back on the tax rolls.
And a lot of times trying to save properties from demolition before, you know, that becomes and John.
So that's the necessary outcome.
About us specifically as the land bank, we serve just under 1.5 million people.
In the about five years that we've been around, we've done about 1.2 million in sales, 41 homes sold, and that generates about $150,000 in new tax revenue.
Go through a couple of successful projects that we've had over the last few years in Velvedere and Rockford and then kind of get to what's going on here with you guys right now.
This was a blighted house in Velvedere.
As soon as Velvedere joined the land bank, you know, the other people had this on their list.
They said, please, you know, somebody needs to do something with this house.
It's such an eyesore.
And so it was the first thing we acquired in Velvedere, sold it for $41,000 and a couple and a couple years later it was completely rehabbed and sold for $174,000.
This is a recent one in Rockford where right by East High School, really good neighborhood and sometimes the owners just disappear, they die with no heirs, you never really know what happens but you see those two years of delinquent taxes and that's when you know it's time and others.
And we were able to acquire this one.
It was in okay condition, but only a couple of people really could see a vision for it.
And so sold by the land bank for 23,000.
Eventually, after being rehabbed in under a year, sold for 140,000.
This is the kind of the most recent success that we had in probably over three years by now Wayne since this took place.
Yes. 850-70 Shawnee was sold I believe in 2021 by the land bank for 15,750 and looks like it was recently listed again for rent at 875 a month and you can see there in the pictures a little bit of the transformation that took place and the rest of the city.
And we have a lot of property restrictions on the exterior and that is the same shot of the stairs on the inside there below.
And this is all achieved because we have these strong deed restrictions on these properties where if you are going to be the buyer of a land bank property, you know that at this time it was a year, typically we bring that down to nine months.
You have nine months to get everything up to code and it So the buyers know what they're getting into and they know they have to get moving and do a good job.
So that brings me to the buyer that has come forward for this 521 West Cottonwood property.
This is the reference point that we have for him is he purchased this one on 418 Tay Street in Rockford that, but as you can see, it was in very rough shape, nobody wanted to touch this and he saw a vision for it and Wayne and I actually toured this yesterday, and this is what it looks like now.
This is seven months on, so he's still got another two months of his deed restriction and he is just one final building inspection away from being good to go.
I'm the one who put the abandonment sticker on this house, you know, well over a year ago.
I had to put it on the boarded up window to the side because it was so overgrown in the front.
Again, you know, I'm just an admin guy.
I can't see the vision for these houses.
And Wayne.
It's crazy to me to see what some of these people can do with these houses.
And so that brings me to, like I said, Leo Holmes, Ivan, is the applicant for 521 West Cottonwood Street in Freeport.
And so I'll kind of give you a brief overview of what the situation that we're doing here with this house is.
City of Freeport was initially preparing for a Demolition, but Wayne and my colleague Eric kind of took a look at the house and decided, you know, I think there's something that can be saved here.
We tested the market's interest in it by taking applications through our land bank sales portal that, you know, like we saw earlier, we've successfully sold 41 properties through the land bank through that sales portal over the last couple years.
And one thing that we heard from the city was that you really wanted a tight restriction and that's what we already have as a default is that nine month deed restriction that gives you the clawback option that the land bank can come back and take that property if they're not doing it properly.
We had an open house on 11-8 and Ivan from Leal Homes who has done that 418 Tay Street Rehab showed up, drove all the way from Lake Zurich and said he really wanted, you know, He saw a vision for this property, wants to do it and he submitted a bid for $8,000 and the plan is for a free port to then quit claiming this property to the Land Bank and we will sell it to Ivan and Leal Homes and then it will be the Land Bank's responsibility to continually follow up with them and make sure that progress is being made and keep harping on about that nine month deed restriction.
We also just received a deed through a successful abandonment case to 52 North Bailey here in Freeport and Wayne and I just went through this earlier, it was the first time I had seen it, I wasn't the one who stickered this one.
And this is one that will, like I said, just got the deed, we'll do an inspection and see what it needs.
It definitely needs a roof and so we are going to put out an RFP to see if we can get somebody Doeruff and use grant funds of our own to to do that.
So that's kind of an update of where we're at with specifically 521 West Cottonwood and kind of give you an overview of what the land bank does as a whole and what we're wanting to do in Freeport here.
Yeah, any questions?
Yes, I'm sorry, Joy.
No, that's all right.
I just want to say, I love it.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Is there a limit on how much, how many properties you can do in an area per year?
I mean, is it just finding the properties?
It's a matter of finding and others.
So, finding the properties, evidence needs to be two years of delinquent taxes pretty much.
There's a more complicated route involving water bills, but it's typically two years of delinquent taxes.
It's got to be the first thing.
And then it does truly have to be abandoned.
Usually if somebody comes forward and claims the property, the case pretty much dies there.
It's when there truly are no errors, no interest in the property.
And also, the people, the people that are living in, in these types of homes, the lapidated run down and everything of that nature, are they eligible for this particular program to rehab their homes and, and restabilize?
Nice, no, so the land bank specifically deals with abandoned, only abandoned homes and the purpose of that why is And the purpose of that, why is that?
Why abandoned homes are homes that are vacant?
Why is that?
That a home that a person lives in is just as shady and shoddy as an abandoned home?
You know, why can't that home be eligible for rehab?
So, specifically, our funding is through Strong Communities Program and we use that, you know, we are a land bank.
What we can do as a land bank is acquire vacant, abandoned houses and use some of our money to rehab them and sell them again.
By the State of Illinois statute, that's what a land bank can do.
Okay.
Alderman Simmons.
Alderman, Simmons So how are potential buyers made aware of these properties so that they can make bids, like how was this person from Lake Zurich made aware of this property?
Yeah so he was initially made aware of the property in Tay Street either through our mailing list or you know through word of mouth, you know I'm not sure how he found out about We didn't know about it initially, but, you know, he did the property on Tay Street in Rockford, met us, formed a relationship with us, and, you know, when he was interested in this, we all thought, you know, this seems like a good partnership, you know, we've seen him do a good job, he was really the only one that expressed a strong interest in this property, but he was made aware initially through the Tay Street property, whether that was through our mailing list or word of mouth, and made aware of the Cottonwood one by virtue of having done the previous property in Rockford.
Alderman Sellers.
Yes, so there's no website or anything that.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so are they listed on a website or anything or not?
Yeah, so all the sales are done online through an online sales portal.
You know sometimes we have live auctions and you know it updates in real time but this one specifically we were the goal of the West Cottonwood property specifically was to make sure we could find the right buyer price wasn't really you know something that we were concerned about at all it was more about getting that person who we know could take this property and and fix it up and Alderman, Sellers, I mean, Sanders Yeah, also these fundings, the grant fundings for these rehabs, who receives those grants to disperse throughout the communities of of these properties and do they, are they owned by the bank or do the bank purchase these vacant properties and using grant funds to make rehabs to these properties?
Yeah, so the land bank has strong communities funds and then when we acquire through abandonment process a property, we're able to use strong communities funds at our discretion to, you and others.
So, you know, like I said, do an RFP to put a roof on Bailey, or, you know, we had a property on Church Street in Rockford recently that had a broken window, so we replaced the window before we put it on the market.
Yes, Director DePauw.
And Alderperson, Sanders, thank you, and Alderperson, Sanders, I want to state that when a property stops paying taxes, like he has 52 North Bailey up here, they stop paying taxes, they have two years of delinquent taxes.
If a property does not pay taxes for three years, then the county trustee will petition for a tax deed in the fourth year.
So essentially if a house, if we don't use a land bank, a house will go four years abandoned by utilizing the land bank.
They use their own attorneys to petition to our courts to take ownership of it before it actually even goes to a tax deed.
And then they took ownership through a court process, and that's through our partnership and I have been working with them as collaborative government partners.
They went through and paid for the funding to get ownership of this through the courts.
I can't remember how many actual appearances they had, but this process to get 52 Bailey was timely.
It took quite a bit.
I meet with Region 1 at least once a month, if not weekly, and we go over properties that could potentially be land bank properties and going back to the, you know, with Cottonwood, That's a property that the city owned that had actually been abandoned for four years and that the city had purchased from the county trustee off of a tax deed.
So in this situation, going back to Cottonwood, what the city is saying is, you know, we have it, we can demolish it, would probably cost the city between 15 and $20,000 or we can, in all my meetings, I'm always going over my demolition list with the land bank and If there's a property that they think could be salvaged, they said, Hey, let's show it to some of our developers.
Let's have an open house.
Maybe we can find somebody.
And that's kind of how this worked with 521 Cottonwood.
And really the option is, do we move forward with moving into the land bank?
We can potentially save it, utilize their resources, or do we demolish it and turn it into a vacant lot?
I mean, it's really kind of our options with the property.
And to your point Wayne a lot of times with the tax sale properties end up in this death loop of claiming sale and error and so nothing ever actually happens with them land bank through abandonment is able to kind of interrupt that process and and get the public the property back whereas you know claiming sale and error just allows the tax buyer to continually accrue interest on it can Can you tell me if you have contractors that give the land bank their services for little to nothing at cost?
Do we have contractors that give their services to the land bank?
Yes.
No.
We put out RFPs or RFQs and then people apply to do work.
Like bids?
Yeah.
Do you have anything to add to that?
You know what I mean?
They have to pay prevailing wage for their any services.
No, my point was Like let's say for the average person to put in that wood floor would cost thirty thousand dollars I just didn't know if you had contractors that would say For this type of house.
We'll do it for twenty No, so when it comes to to using the Strong Communities funds, like Wayne is saying, we would have to, you know, take a bid where someone was going to use a prevailing wage.
Once somebody buys the house from us, there is still usually a lot of work to be done.
How they get there, as long as it passes, you know, codes and inspections and stuff like that at the end, is up to them.
And a lot of times, those are general contractors who are doing a lot of the work themselves.
Okay, yes.
So the way they're making their money, Cecelia, is they're buying these properties cheap and then they're investing, they're taking a risk on the property to be able to sell it for the $140,000, that's where they make their money.
Yes, Alderman Shadle.
Director Duckman, are you looking for a motion to get this for a vote from the council?
I'm making uh I'm making the council aware that at the next council meeting either December the next one in December January I'm letting everyone know that there's going to be an agreement for 521 West Cottonwood so we know what this is and hopefully moving forward I can bring more agreements that are similar so if I say I have an agreement for this address in the City of Freeport with the Region 1 Land Bank you are under hopefully there'll be less questions because you understand the process and I wanted you to be aware that this is coming soon Soon.
Very, very good.
Thank you for that.
Thank you.
Alderman Sanders.
Yeah.
Is this in-house?
All of this restoration that's taking place?
So it could be restoration with components that are not directly in the City of Freeport?
Sure.
So this person that's interested in 521 Cottonwood is from Lake Zurich and they're going to get and Jeff, and Ryan, and the City of Freeport, and they can use their license or license through a contract with my department.
There is no requirement that they have to hire a contractor in the city of Freeport.
I just wanted to see if there was a level playing field here where other contractors here in the city of Freeport can have the opportunity to bid on or to sign up or apply for these types of venture programs.
And others.
I just wanted to see how we are administrating the whole thing, you know, with everyone.
That's all I'm asking.
Sure.
No, just to be clear, we're utilizing their resources to put this back into the hands of a responsible contractor and then there will be a resolution to you stating what this contractor is going to do, what their deed restriction says, they'll have a timeline to fix the property and that's their expertise and that's what they would be doing.
We are giving the property to the land bank so that they can send us a proposal for you to vote on at the next meeting.
Okay.
Alderman Simmons.
So, what's the website and what are the requirements for one to be able to be in?
Yeah, so, did you say what is the website, is that your first question?
R1 Planning.
Org.
So when you go to the home page right at the top, there's a link to properties.
There's no fee or anything like that to sign up.
You just make an account on our website, sign up, and then you can apply.
There's no sort of transaction ahead of time.
It's just a cashier's check for the full amount when you close.
You know, and we're not nickel and diming people in the process.
And you said r1planning.
Org?
Yeah, letter R, number one.
Any other questions?
Thank you.
Next we will have a presentation regarding CDBG-HG Grant by Tara Walters, Region 1 Planning Consultant for CDBG-HR Grant.
My name is Tara Walters.
I work for MSA Professional Services.
I am a Community Development Administrator with my company and I am the current Grant Administrator for the City of Freeport's CDBG Housing Rehabilitation Grant.
So what I'm going to do in this presentation is simply walk through the Housing Rehab Program that's administered by DCO, which is the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity at the state level, as well as some of the national objectives of what the program is meant to do and how the state administers it.
So first, this is a very overarching process of what the Housing Rehabilitation Program is and how it goes.
Essentially, a city or an applicant, a unit of local government within the state of Illinois can apply.
The City of Freeport's application was submitted in 2021.
Once those applications are reviewed, the state awards the most competitive grant Applications.
The City of Freeports was awarded in 2022.
The City then has two years to complete the project.
So the original award, this project had a sunset date or a grant sunset date of November 30th, 2024.
We did apply for a six month extension.
So our new sunset date on these funds is May 31st of 2025.
Once a grant is awarded, the City then has to go through We're an environmental review process.
A tier one is the first step.
Within the application, the city assigned a project area.
And I don't have the project area from the application pulled in this presentation, but it was the area of South Adams, South Hyde, East Center, Wyandotte, and East Pleasant, kind of that general area.
They decide upon this area based on the amount of low-income persons, the amount of blight, the place in the city that is a priority.
And they also once they decide on an area part of the application is going out and surveying homeowners in this area for income as well as housing needs so as part your application was scored on you know the amount of low-income persons in this area as well as the needs for housing rehabilitation the environmental review at the tier one level is completed for that entire area so at this point we're not selecting individual houses we're just kind of blanketing I'm I'm so sorry.
I talk with my hands.
We're just kind of blanketing that entire project area.
Once your tier one is approved by DCO, you can then start the individual rehabilitation application.
So this is when you're accepting applications from individual homeowners within that project area.
Once those are scored, we then have to do the environmental review tier two level, which is for each individual house that scored the highest.
And so in terms of who was kind of taking over during this process at the application level.
That was the City of Freeport.
You guys compiled and submitted your own application.
You were awarded Environmental Tier 1 MSA got involved because we were working with Wayne a little bit on a different CDBG grant.
So we assisted with that Tier 1 environmental review.
The baton was passed to R1 who helped the city with the individual home application process and the scoring and started the Tier and then that was when the baton was passed back to myself and my colleagues at MSA to finish off the Tier 2.
Once we get Tier 2 approval from DCEO, they say everything looks good, we can then bid the project and start construction on the individual rehabilitation.
So some of the program objectives, this is an excerpt from the, from the 2023 CDBG guidebook from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
CDBG funds are a federal pass-through essentially, so they're granted by HUD, so in order for the state to administer these CDBG funds, they have to meet one of the three HUD national objectives.
The three objectives are one, benefiting low to moderate income persons, two, aiding in the prevention or elimination of slums and blight, or three, meeting other community development needs that pose a serious and immediate threat to the health and welfare of the community, also known as urgent need.
The CDBG program, the CDBG housing rehabilitation program specifically, as well as their other program called public infrastructure, is falling under the benefiting low to moderate income persons.
Though the housing rehabilitation does help with the prevention and elimination of blight, the state's program is meeting the HUD objective of low to moderate income persons.
Some of the other excerpts from the HUD national objectives.
An LMI housing activity is carried out for the purpose of providing or improving permanent single-family owner-occupied residential structures that will be occupied by LMI households upon completion.
And I'll skip down to the For each assisted unit, the family size and income ranges 30%, 50%, and 80%, which is the level of income compared to the state's or the area's median household income of an occupant household and the amount of CDBG funds spent.
And then second, data on racial, ethnic, and gender characteristics of persons who are applicants for participants in or beneficiaries of the CDBG activities.
And lastly the CDBG program under the state of Illinois for a household to be eligible.
This is again in the 2023 CDBG guidebook.
The grant team was certified that the program recipients meet the HUD eligibility requirements which is low to moderate income and to do that they must submit their IRS form 1040 and when using this IRS 1040 we determine an applicant's annual income.
They must use the and the most current version.
So any time that we're looking at a house at the application stage, before the construction stage, we're always getting these updated forms to ensure that they are still eligible under state and federal requirements.
Further, that was more national objectives, so I'm switching over to the state program objectives.
This was a presentation given each year, the DCEO has a CDBG administration workshop.
I've just pulled these from the presentations at said workshop, so the eligibility requirements for housing rehab recipients are they must be a single-family residential unit, they must be owner occupied and prove that they live there, and they must have homeowners insurance.
Secondly, the income must be verified again via the IRS tax form 1040, and they must be 18 or older.
And this must be re-verified prior to any type of construction.
DCO goes on to state that the prioritization of housing applicants must be given to very low income elderly or handicapped households and then 51% of the points in the entire project area must be given to these two criteria.
I didn't have the income limits but you can go to HUD anytime we're looking at where a person falls and whether they're low to moderate income we go to the HUD income limits which are updated annually and they're they're updated and the House is next in line.
I essentially talk to the homeowner.
I ask for their IRS form.
I also ask for supplementary documentation such as you know their Social Security benefit, you know statement things like that to verify against their taxes and Make sure that their income falls below those income thresholds The 30% 50% 80% is a percentage of the median household income for the county and Joe.
So, anything under 80 percent is considered low and then 50 percent moderately low and then 30 percent is very low.
Is there anything else you want to add, Wayne?
No, I appreciate it.
I think that there certainly may be some questions now.
I know I definitely appreciate you chiming in or I know Joel is also here.
He did the scoring for Region 1.
There were some particular questions, I think, I know Alderperson Stacey brought ahead about 1010 South Adams and their application, so I think any questions, you know, just be available for any questions we have on the overall process, I just want to say I've worked on this grant now for the three years I've worked here, and I know that the city would not have been able to get this far and offer any funds if it wasn't for your hard work, if it wasn't for Joel's hard work with Region 1.
This grant provided the city, I think it's $64,000 in consultant fees to help administer this grant with the extreme amount of documentation you have to provide.
I'm sitting right here on, I think I measured this to be six inches of paperwork, this is for the grant application, and it's immense, and it's really a juggernaut to take on.
So there's going to be questions, and I would just appreciate you staying to answer any questions with the grant administration process.
May we have the lights on?
Are there any questions?
Alderman Sellers.
So you're saying that the 1010 South Adams did meet all the requirements to have done what they need be done?
Correct.
To be eligible for the grant funds if they did Thank you.
Ms. Walters, do you consider yourself an expert on this type of grant?
I've gone to seven years worth of DCEO trainings.
I can't say I'm always surprised.
Every single year things change, but I know exactly where all of the resources are.
I'm talking with the state, not the state representatives, but but you know, members of DCEO on a daily basis and ask them many, many questions any time I'm stumped and they always assist in every way they can.
How long have you been doing this?
Seven years.
Correct.
Alderman Parker.
We're certainly happy you're taking the time, you obviously know more about it than anybody I have a question.
Is there a rule that you have to stay in this renovated property for a certain length of time after the work is done?
There is not a rule per DCO and HUD requirements.
However, in order to be eligible for the project, the idea behind having homeowner insurance, if we get wind that they're going to sell, DCO recommends that you contact them to figure out a process.
They do not like to see it.
However, they cannot stop a homeowner from selling after the grant has completely commenced.
But there's no penalties.
No.
Can you tell me, I'm sorry, is there anyone else?
Can you tell me when was the first application given and what was the cutoff date?
So what we're talking about here is when I looked at the grant application it's from 2021 and really what they discuss in the narrative of the grant was written by the former director here.
They talk about how they originally had 68 applications and 60 of those applications were eligible.
So they're actually called income surveys, and there's a one-page document with address, and they basically state their income, and it talks about the income limits that Ms. Walters has discussed.
So at that time, it was 2021, and in the grant application, that was when those originally were submitted.
Nobody here was working on that project at that time, so I'm not sure what deadline they they gave, but what I do know is they stay in, they state in the budget, they state in the narrative of the grant application that there were 60 people that were originally considered.
And do we still have those applications?
Yes, I'm looking at them right now.
So it's in the text of the grant application and it's also in the grant.
And I'm looking at the 60 right here that were attached.
Okay.
I had asked for that information and what I received was the 30 that came out, I believe, through Tier 2.
Sure, so I know I talked with Attorney Zito.
I know you're at his office and had an opportunity to look at these originals.
So if there's a communication gap there, I could certainly have these redacted and send you the original applications, we have them in our possession.
But I will also say that from the 60 applicants, and Joel's here to answer any questions.
When we went through that process that we saw where they were scoring, we kept a log so to make sure that everyone was included and that we were transparent I know you were provided the log that Joel did for all 60 of these people and I talked with Joel today oh did you not send her the log an email on Friday they had the log there no the application did not submit a because it Smith, Jack, Jack, and a few others, and they were almost 60 and they had to submit 60.
And they asked for a grant application and they said, okay, 60 people are being considered.
That's what they say in the grant application.
And then Region 1 was retained to review those eight people.
They were only submitting 60.
They said, okay, 60 people were being considered.
Gillespie, John, McCann, David, Derrick, Todd, Kamala, Taylor, Brandon, Paul, Scott, Ariella, Mark, Anthony, Jerry, Mark, Jodi, Shawn, Amy, Kana, Jodi, Al, Craig, Jesse, Cedric, Joseph, Roy, Rami, Chris, Chris, Vinnie, Chris, we're going to go into detail next and then just go on to the questions.
We did have one question from one of the speakers over at the Center from the Congressional Board of Education.
He talks about what he thinks that being a board member or a resident is going to cost Borg, Doration, Duration, Duration.
And we actually ended up meeting twice.
Several people had additional follow-ups to the door.
He said several people actually hung up on them, weren't interested, but it's all documented under the work that Region 1 did to ensure how we went from 60 people from 2021, then we went to 30 people that actually submitted all the required documentation, and then those 30 people were graded.
You need it correct and Joel can probably chime in if you'd like any questions on it he did the actual all the work with working with those 60 applicants do you want to step up and answer a few questions yeah I'm not sure how many people are actually on the call log but everybody that's on there that that made it you know far enough to be requesting that and others.
I called them all, like Wayne said, at least twice.
And as you referenced, you know, sometimes I was trying to explain, you know, just one more thing or something like that, and that was the end of the road for them because it was felt to them like it was too much and, you know, I'd get hung up on or something like that.
Okay, so why was there a second application hand-delivered to prior applicants to fill out again?
That's required.
That's a requirement for us to move forward.
We cannot move forward without that information.
So how do we know that all 61 that quali- B1, the qualified even received that second application.
Through our log, through our communication log, through the communication log.
That's why we keep a communication log so that if somebody says, I didn't receive it, well, we called you on this date, called you on this date, sent a letter to your address.
I believe we sent letters as well.
So we sent you a letter on this date in our log, called you on this date, called you on this date.
That's why you have a log.
That's why professionals keep logs when they're doing work like this.
Information at your office.
We, I asked for this, we talked about this and talked about this and talked about this.
Right and so all right at my office we didn't have this information yet so this past Friday I was like so we got a response from.
But he said it's in that book that you had.
We have this book here.
I'm sure there and I'm sure as I've stated before you and I've met several I have no problem getting you these original, from 2021, these surveys, these income surveys.
We can certainly provide those to you redacted with all the information that you would need.
They're pretty simple.
I guess the best way to look at these original 60 is a simple one-page document where they're told to state where their income falls between how much money they make, and then that's used in the application to move them on to the next step.
So this is more of a preliminary, it's called a Community Development Block Grant Income Survey.
So these are the 60 people that were, this was all included in part of the original application that moves them on to the next step, which was shown on that first slide when we go over the steps, what they have to do.
But it was more than just the income survey.
I don't know what you're asking for at this point.
And John.
I have a question about the tier 1 applicants.
You just said they just, it was basically an income survey that they filled out.
That's what I have here.
Yes.
And I believe Tara Walters can confirm that the state of Illinois does their block grant, community development block grant as LMI, low to moderate income.
That's their factor.
Just that income survey so as part if I may as part of the application the income surveys are sent out to everyone within that project area the more income surveys that you have to submit with your application the higher you score so that process is essentially used to get the grant it doesn't promise any of those people that filled out that income survey it's it's just proving to the state that we have a need in this area.
It didn't ask for any income information, it asked them to self-certify on that application.
Once you're awarded, you can then go back to those 60, you know, 60, 68 folks and they do another application and that's when they're submitting their income information and certifying their application and it's moving the steps forward.
So what's the first application?
Similar to the second application I would have to pull it up it's very similar it's very similar I mean we like I said we can I'll make copies of these and send them to clerk Anderson and she you can look at them if you'd like the second application asks for those prioritization bullet points disabled and age, things of that sort.
So that would help R1 score each application individually versus just income.
And I think what you're looking for, I mean, I would also, you know, I don't know what you're going to find in here.
I mean, we can look at it again.
I'm not, we're certainly willing to look at it.
But this documentation here from 2021, that's what the state looked at to say, okay, we will give you $550,000.
So they looked at these grant income surveys as part of the grant application and said okay City of Freeport you now have $550,000 but in order for you to use it you now have to follow up with these individual 60 property owners and get more detailed information.
So these surveys really are here for the state of Illinois to say okay we'll give you the $550,000 you've proven through these stated incomes which is what they are people saying I make X amount of dollars but then in order for them to actually be awarded the individuals to get the actual funds then they have to follow up and that's what Joel did was he contacted these 60 people and said okay now you have to show us proof of income, show us your tax returns, show us your pay stubs from you know your social security statements and half the people did not want to follow through with that.
So that's what we're talking about here.
Okay, Director Duckman, I have tried for the last five weeks to see what you're telling me is right in front of you.
And so I would like to see them and I trust that we will be setting up a meeting, setting and John.
So I'm going to ask the question because I don't know what this will do for you.
This grant's been awarded.
So it's been awarded on those already.
I'm just asking the question of, and I will, we can go through another meeting and show it to you.
I don't know what the, my question would be is what are you hoping to gain by looking at those?
Maybe you can ask a question of MSA on what that would affect.
I still don't understand how we went from 61 approved applicants to 30.
There's a, there's a log that the 30, all 60 people were contacted.
And we provided a, there's a log, there's an actual, every property owner says on this date I'm not saying he's being untruthful, so please don't put those words in my mouth.
What I'm asking is, I remember when a second application had to be presented, and Third Warrant, Alderwoman, me, Fifth Ward Alderwoman, and some of the community people wanted to help with this, offered to help with this, and was denied the opportunity to go door to door and give them this second application that we were being told they had to fill out.
And so, I am in nowhere calling you a liar.
I am just saying, how do we know all sixty of those applicants received this second or Tier 2 process.
So do you understand what the log did, right?
So we hired them to have a communication dialogue with these 60 people.
You understand that part, right?
Do you understand that we hired Region 1 to contact these 60 people?
I know that's what you say you did.
And so they were directed to log all communications with 60 applicants.
So if we take him for his professional word and he documented in a log that he did this, then I'm telling you the work was done per the log.
Okay, I just, I want to see the log, I want to see the list of the 61, I want to, I just want to see it.
Alderman, I mean, I'm sorry, Attorney Zito.
So the log was emailed to you on Friday because that's what I got it on Thursday or there because my ride was I got the response to you and I had a phone call I had to look at the response from the state there and I was going to send you a summary as a part of that summary that I sent you on Friday there and it included the log of the MSA log of all the times they called people so that should be in your email but it included the log of the 68 or the 31 Let me just state really quickly, in this grant, my predecessors said they received 68, and essentially eight of them did not qualify of the 68.
That's their words, that's their testimony in the grant application.
So what they're saying is, they received 68, eight of them came back, and they're saying they made too much money.
So they got an income survey, and the person said, I made $100,000.
And then they said, well, that doesn't count.
So they submitted 60, but they're stating they received 68.
So the other eight, that's not part of the grant application.
I don't have those eight, it's not part of the grant application.
I'm not asking for the eight, I just ask for the 60.
OK, yeah.
Director?
Yeah, so just a side note, we do the CDBG grant process as well, but we do it on infrastructure, not housing.
The 68 applications that were done just defined the target area of the grant.
That's all that did is said.
We got 68 applicants.
Is said, we got 68 applications from this street to this street.
Here's our target area now that where the money can be spent.
That's tier one, right?
So that's the Adams corridor that was selected.
That's all that did.
The second tier is where you drive down into the homes to see who is truly qualified.
The first survey is done on an honesty basis that you're gonna tell me that this is your real income and you sign that.
Sometimes when you go to the second tier, and many others, but that's not the case, or people didn't file correctly, and they won't produce the second piece of information which automatically excludes them.
So again, Tier 1, the first 68 applications, just defined the Adams corridor that had the need for the 550,000.
That's why we were awarded for that.
The second tier drives down to each individual house on who is really qualified, which if I'm hearing correctly, had nothing to do with this, is our 30 people.
Right?
And so those are the final 30 that actually responded, gave us, if there was five pieces, all five pieces that were needed to qualify, that's where the basis comes in Tier 2.
So I just wanted to explain to that, the 68 applications, every quarter that's picked for Community Development Block Grants has to have, let's say you have 100 houses, you got to have 70% of them low to moderate income or it doesn't qualify, the money can't be spent in that area.
And I'm going to talk about the income requirements.
If we tried to, I'm just picking an area for clarity, if we tried to move this grant out to Marvin Lane, none of those, it would never move forward because those incomes would never qualify.
So if you had a hundred houses, you got to have 70% of them that would qualify for this money to be able to be used anywhere in there.
And then if I live there and made too much money, then I understand that.
Right.
So, Miss Walters, did you go from neighborhood to neighborhood and look at all 31 of these houses, you personally?
No, I did not.
Who did?
The original grant application was done by my predecessor and what I was told was that they went through the neighborhoods and handed these out.
That's what I was told I don't know if that's true or not I don't so that's the original 2021 but I'm saying after the 30 was chosen yes who went back to those 30 houses to see which ones were in the worst shape that doesn't matter that was never considered and then and I can have miss Walters explain that again do you understand that condition of house per the state of Illinois does not I understand that, but when you have low income, whether you have 50 points, let's talk about the point system, but then someone with 40 points get chosen to receive these funds before Someone with 50 points.
That would have, the point system would have prioritized income, disability, and age.
I understand that.
So my question again is why wouldn't the higher point, why would a 45 be done before a 55?
Or 35.
Yes, Attorney Zito.
I think the question I think you're talking I think what you're asking is that ultimately once we got the 30 scored and everyone had points right then there's still additional hoops that have to be jumped through there as far as environmental and this and adding you know some submitting additional documentation there so I think ultimately we had enough We had enough money, roughly, let's just say, that we knew that we could do about 10 houses.
Out of the 30 that we scored, that we could do about 10, there was enough money to do about 10.
Amongst those 10, people had, each 10 still had to submit more paperwork, more verification of this or that, more hoops to jump through.
Sometimes a person with a lower score submitted all their paperwork in first, so they went ahead and said, okay, well we'll process you, even though you had a lower point, we knew you were in the top 10, so there's money for you, and and the rest of the board.
I think that's what you're asking about.
Why did some people with lower points get their houses, their projects started sooner?
Yes.
And I think that's the answer.
That is the answer.
Production, an Independent State Inspector has to go through the house and determine the scope of work, which Ms. Walters is in charge of as part of her grant administration is going to these property owners and saying, okay, we need to schedule your inspection and then ultimately get your scope of work.
So that's a process that also has to be done.
Okay.
So, how would you know if someone, if you lived in the house 10 years or more, you got Winslow.
I want those extra 10 points.
Five years, you get five points.
So let's say I've lived in my house nine years, but I want those extra five points.
So I say I've been there 10 years.
How can you prove or how do you know?
On their application, they are self-certifying that the information is true.
That's what we have to go off of.
I will also state that every bit of this process, and Joel's here to tell you about the grading process, but we also, and it's also been provided to you, our state grant manager has provided answers to these questions, but they're also available for you to contact.
So you know, if there's any distrust, which seems like there's quite a bit here, on how our professionals did their work, our grant manager, who I spoke with, has said everything's has been above board within the process, done correctly, and our grant manager is available for you to speak to as well.
But I would say that there is a timeline on these funds and would like to truly start moving forward with some more of these applications to get people the funding or else it's just going to, it's just going to sunset and where nobody's going to get the money.
Alderman, Simmons.
Can you, Kurt, one of you go back a couple slides when it you listed it had three bullet points that determined the need for the grant.
I think it was the the one you just can you go back one or forward one no it was one that mentioned in Blythe income so yes yeah okay so the purpose of this grant yes moderate to low income is first but aiding in the prevention and elimination and Stacey.
And I think that is what Alderperson Stacy is getting at when she's being told the condition of the home doesn't matter.
Yes, it does.
It's one of the purposes of this grant.
So if we go into people's houses and do inside stuff first before these houses that are contributing a great amount of life to Adams Corridor, that defeats the purpose.
And I believe that is the point that she's trying to make when she's being told that the conditions of the house doesn't matter and please don't add misinformation.
It's right there in writing that is part of this grant.
This slide is stating the three national objectives but the Illinois any state program must meet just one of these and the one that's highlighted is the one that CDBG housing rehabilitation is meeting by the administration of the grant.
So I do want to add here too this is national objective and I and you did a really good job saying how this is what's called a pass-through federal government money Coney passes through to the state.
So what Ms. Walters is saying, and she can correct me if I'm wrong, this is what the federal government says, if you are going to administer this grant as a state, you have to fall into one of these.
And our state says we're going to do low to moderate income persons.
The state of Illinois is saying that is how we are going to administer these funds.
So when I say it doesn't matter, it's because the The state says we are involved in this factor.
This is what the state is saying.
This slide is federal government.
The state of Illinois falls under LMI, Low to Modern Income, not these other two.
And John.
And that's why our state says in the applications we need to verify income.
That's why, and if you go to another slide, that's actually state level.
It states that here's the objectives from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity who administers this grant.
That's why I'm saying it doesn't matter.
We need to stop this are working with standards provided by the state, not necessarily, we're not working directly with HUD.
Correct.
If I may add to that, for example, if we go back a slide, the state of Iowa uses the second bullet as their national objective for one of their programs, which is treating slum and blight in the downtown.
So the state gets to decide which objective they would like to base their program around, as long as it meets one of them.
I have a question then.
So, but we as a city have that discretion as well, correct?
Correct.
And it would it would benefit us more so to hit two birds with that one stone where we meet low income and reduction of blight versus just helping people with low income who really their home is not a blight.
It's like they don't need any outside work but that's what we're trying to do.
That's our goal.
I I would hope that's our goal in administration of this grant is to help reduce and help that area that we just had a whole new street put in, which is an entranceway into the city and making that look better.
I don't understand why that isn't the goal, just because it's not necessarily the specific requirement of the state, however it is mentioned.
So it's not like we'd be doing something against what's written.
So I'm confused.
There's one thing I do also want to reiterate here.
Any work done on these houses is an independent state inspector who determines the scope of work.
So when we're talking about it should have the front look like this, it should have a new water heater, the state inspector determines that.
They come in, we schedule an inspection and the state inspector comes in and they determine what work is done.
And the state inspector has to come in and determine it.
And if the state inspector creates the scope of work, if it's not done by a state inspector, the work isn't approved.
It isn't.
It won't happen.
So are you saying a state inspector drove by all 31 of these homes?
Nope.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying once these homes are selected, once these homes are selected, the scope of work that's approved comes from a state inspector.
That's what I'm saying and the state of Illinois that I've spoken with repeatedly and when we talked about the scoring with region one we had several meetings they said you have to focus on the need of the applicant and not the condition of the home that was what was stated repeatedly and I invite you to please call our grant manager from the state and they could reiterate what they told me and what they told Joel was that when we were scoring these applicants you have We have to focus on the applicant, not the condition of the home.
So we're following the guidelines of the state.
There is no other agenda than that.
And if I may add, the repairs are prioritized by code violations, lead remediation, or other public health hazards within or outside the home, as well as energy efficiency and accessibility.
Prioritize, not required.
They can do other repairs as well.
Yes, I believe that they've all answered all of our questions and they followed the state guidelines, not our city guidelines.
So I'd like to move this on to the next item.
Miller.
Yes.
I think we need to get back to what the Council's responsibilities are here.
So the Council is responsible to approve or not approve when something comes before you.
Your responsibility is when Wayne comes to you and says, I want to apply for this CBD grant.
You can say no, you don't like the grant.
You don't like the guidelines.
That's your responsibility.
Your responsibility is not in walking out every single detail of what our director does or these two that have been administering something.
The day-to-day is not that responsible.
If we did that on every single item that we have to approve, we'd never get anything done.
You have to remember, you are the legislative body.
You are not the day-to-day body.
So you either trust those that are put into these professional spots or you don't.
If they're not doing their job then we should fire them.
Fire, but obviously they're doing their job.
And this was brought to us and I'm learning because it should have came with pictures and it didn't.
Information has been withheld purposely.
We come here and as directors, as head of the city, we trust that you're bringing us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
And in reality, that just don't happen.
So I am here on behalf of the people.
And I will inform my constituents in every way possible where we have been misled on something but took a vote, yeah.
You told me the other week, you voted for this, and I did, but not having correct information in front of me.
We get what you all want us to have, and that don't always totally involve the truth.
So if you want to move on, thank you for your time.
Thank you, Joel.
If you have a business card, I would love to have one.
Thank you.
Thank you very much moving on to number eight Kurt this is when I need you C. D. B. G., Adam Avenue Housing, Rehabilitation, Application, Discrepancies, This presentation aims to make the public aware of the discrepancies that the City of Freeport has allowed to occur within the CDBG Adams Avenue Housing Rehabilitation Program.
Such discrepancies should have disqualified the applicants.
But the city has decided to provide grant funding to them anyway.
$48,000.
This is a total disregard for the individuals living in the affected area who really need and deserve assistance.
Welcome to 1010 South Adams.
This is a list of all of their property that they own.
They are landlords.
They write their their own 1040s, that's their business, totaling 290,500, but their low income.
Next slide please.
This house that we're calling 1010, once upon a time was 1012, and the little house in the The back of the b- The little house in the back of the big house, if you would, was 1010.
But now you can clearly see that the big house is no longer 1012, but it resides as 1010.
Why switch the addresses?
If we're not doing something, I'm Fair here.
Next slide please.
10-10, 10-10.
In 10-13 or 20 that address did not read 10-10, it read 10-12.
Moving on, the incomplete application, the housing rehabilitation specific document was created by the Illinois Department of Commerce.
The corresponding document, the application, has the City of Freeport seal on it.
It shows that the application was incomplete.
Why did the city accept an incomplete application who authorized this uncompleted application?
Next slide, please.
We saw this with Ms. Walters.
Next slide, please.
What you see highlighted was their scoring of 1010 slash 1012 South Adams.
Next slide please.
This is the application.
As you can see, the application home must be paid off based on the fact that the existing debt on the property was left blank.
Did anyone from the city bother to ask if there was any equity in the house that could be used for any repairs?
Remember that the city plays when the applicants next supply any income they never supply any income information the application even asks for rental income based on the applications 2020-2021 tax returns both the applicants and spouse House Occupants are listed as rental properties.
This applicant owns six rental properties and I am hard pressed to believe they receive zero income for any of them.
Them.
Next.
This is the final page of the application.
What I would like to call this page, the applicants are to date and signed to verify that all the information provided in this application was was true and complete to the best of their knowledge.
As you can see, the applicants who did not date nor sign this document were still approved.
Howe, $48,000, brand new hot water heater, brand new furnace, brand new central air unit, and others.
And it goes on and on and on.
Deck fixed.
This final page, how?
How do you approve?
How do you say someone is going to be the How do you approve?
How do you say someone qualifies and approve them for $48,000 when they didn't even sign or complete the application?
I rest my case.
Next page please.
Citizen of Freeport, I want to provide you with information on how the Adams Street rehabilitation program is handled.
You and I know what I presented tonight will not make a difference.
The City is still going to give grant funding to this applicant.
It does not matter that the application was incomplete, that critical information was withheld from it, that the applicant has a healthy real estate portfolio or that misleading information was provided.
The thing, these things may not matter to our City Manager, they may not matter to our Mayor, They may not matter to our Director or even some Council Members, but they matter to me.
Citizens, please understand the significance and gravity of this situation.
Those grant funds that the City has agreed to provide for the rehabilitation of this application home are still your tax dollars.
They used to get these funds speak volume about the integrity of the applicants, but even louder about the integrity of the ones who approved them.
Thank you.
And next we have discussion.
I'm sorry, Attorney Zito.
I just wanted to make a quick, quick brief point here or comment here though.
So, Alderman Stacy, just so you know, and I don't Don't know maybe if you haven't seen my email from Friday, there was, I did as a part of that email that I sent to you that had the log in it, Wayne did also was able to find a copy of the signed application, so I did email that to you so that you have that.
That application was signed.
Attorney Zito, Director Duckman, I came in here November 26th and I asked for a copy We are the 68 original applicants.
What I get was the 31, not the 68.
I know what I asked for because I knew what I was looking for.
And I get the point system.
And what I was given the application I was handed was not signed.
I'm not making this up.
This is what you gave me November 26th before I came to your office November 27th and I voiced my concern to you about this.
It was not filled out properly.
It's not even signed.
And so I did pose that question about the signed application to to Wayne and I believe he then reached out to Joel and I think on Thursday Friday morning is when we Joel was able to go and he found through his records the signed application so that's why I provided it to you on Friday in my email.
Or did we go get a signature?
Oh I know we didn't get a signature because I provided him a screenshot that showed when the file was scanned and copied so I know it's not a We didn't go out and get a signature that that grant applicant signed put it put their signature to it and I also want to reiterate that assets are different than income it's a very simple economics 101 accounting 101 and the state of Illinois requires income verification I've asked the state of Illinois they said we do Do not consider assets.
I've asked the state.
They said under no circumstances they put in their and Jodi.
I want to make it clear that in those circumstances they put in their documentation that they require an IRS tax return.
They do not require assets.
So I want to be very clear that the state is not requiring us to go check everyone's bank account, real estate portfolios, 401Ks, et cetera.
It's not part of it.
So again, that's misinformation.
There is a difference between income and assets.
What's a landlord?
I, too, can make my own 1040.
Is there anything else?
I'm moving on.
Thank you.
If I could, please?
Yes.
You can make your own 1040, but the IRS has nobody to play with.
It's not.
If I was a landlord and I documented on a 1040, there's a separate form for each piece of property.
Schaedle, you have to document everything that's in your portfolio is listed as income plus and minus on a form on your 1040.
So it was reported if there was any income that was part of their income, the asset of the building itself is irrelevant.
Alderman, Shadle, all of their properties were not even listed on their income tax.
Moving on to number nine, discussion regarding social media policy, Director Bridge.
Good evening, Council.
I aim to keep this brief.
And the City Council.
Since 2017, the City has managed social media pages for city postings, information and more.
The social media policy for all staff has been in place to set guidelines for personal use, but has yet to set guidelines for page administrators.
And the City of Freeport believes that the use of social media platforms can effectively broaden the reach of government communication to its constituents.
The use of social media platforms has been a key part of the city's policy to improve transparency and strengthen the communication pipeline between the city and residents.
A revised policy has been created to aid page administrators in allowing comments and fostering a more dynamic environment for social discourse.
As the city's statement of purpose reads, the City of Freeport believes that the use of social media platforms can effectively broaden the reach of government communication to its constituents.
And the City Council.
The use of social media by the city is to convey or obtain information that is useful to or will further the goals of this local government.
The revised policy also outlines important guidelines for page administrators to ensure discourse remains informational and appropriate.
Obviously, there would be no financial repercussions to enforcing this and staff recommends that when the time comes, obviously not tonight, that we move forward with the policy.
So, let me introduce you to some important notes in the policy, regardless of if you have it in front of you or not.
It's a pretty simple one.
It has, I believe, eight headings on it, but there are about three that are actually important to look at.
I'll start with Section 3, which is titled Comment Policy.
So we all know that comments can most of the time be good for public discourse, but sometimes they fall under some not so great things for a city government page to have under their posts.
And I have listed nine things here of which are just to name a few promotes discrimination, we're getting rid of those comments.
Threatening any person or organization, we get rid of those comments.
So on and so forth.
That's just one section.
I'll move on to another section, which is section five, administrator usage.
I want to point out that again, the city already has a social media policy for employees in general and the City of Michigan.
In general, that applies to their personal use of social media.
However, we don't have anything yet for the page administrators, aka myself and the administrator of the police and the fire and the library.
And others.
These city employees are responsible for the posting of information, commenting, and communicating with constituents and moderation of activity on all social media.
Again, no one else other than the administrators, no one else is allowed to moderate these activities.
I'll move on to Section 6, which I believe is the last one I want to point out, but may and I have been working on this for a long time.
It's called Community Messaging Guidelines.
It talks about the types of community events that we're allowed to share, types of community events that we're not allowed to share.
City social media sites will not share community messages that include political, public issue, or prohibited product information.
And there's much more, but I believe that is the gist.
And we're here tonight obviously to discuss the issue personally from a communication standpoint.
I believe it improves the transparency, improves communication between city government and its constituents and I believe it's a good thing.
Any questions?
Thank you.
So I will just end by saying this.
We have discussed at the city that if there's no, how do I say this, fight against it, we will be moving it to first reading.
I'll say that louder, we'll be moving it to first reading.
Thank you.
Oh, Erin, go ahead.
Yes, Attorney Zito.
I was just going to ask, Ryan, are you looking for a motion then to have this by the council because we're at Cal, if you want to specifically move forward for first reading, is that what you're looking for?
That would be great.
So moved.
Second.
Take a vote.
I missed the second.
Shadle.
I did.
Shadle first.
Take a vote I miss the second shadow idea so do we take a vote individually right this is just a vote to move it forward to the next regular City Council meeting for first reading so voice vote is fine typically all in favor of moving this to the next council meeting for first reading say aye aye oppose thank you motion passed number 10 discussion regarding revised hanger lease and hanger rental rates presented by City Manager Boyer thank you madam chair Staff has reviewed all of the hanger leases, the lease amounts, and has put forth for review the new lease format, as well as a suggestion to make a change to ordinance 2021-05, increasing hanger J's rent from $575 to $800.
Just a few We've had a few high points.
The new lease agreement was put together.
We've been working on this for a number of months.
We've gone back and forth with Angie, the fixed base operator, and she is, we've kind of worked out some details and everything is looking really good with that, as well as she has compiled the competitive or comparative leases at local or other airports in our region of a similar size.
One of the outcomes was that we are looking pretty to all of the other airports.
We used Sterling, Dixon, and Rochelle as our comparisons, all of a similar size of traffic.
So with that, staff would like to bring this to the next meeting, next council meeting for approval of the ordinance change.
That would be, I'm sorry, yep, we'll bring an ordinance to the next Meeting with us changes to Jay Hanger.
So moved.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Discussion regarding authorizing Northern Illinois Gas Company, DBA NICOR Company, to construct, operate, and maintain a gas.
To operate and maintain a gas distributing system in and through the City of Freeport.
Francis, Agreement View, LOA, City Manager, Boyer.
Thank you, Chairperson.
So each year, or I'm sorry, every 50 years, the City enters into a franchise agreement with our utilities.
Various utilities require different durations, but NICOR's case, that's our gas company, it's a 50-year agreement.
So this hasn't been looked at for 50 years.
In the past, the City included all, as some of the requirements, the City required gas service for all City installations, which was included in the new version.
However, staff pressed back on NICOR to include the library due to the fact that the library is part of the city and also is one of our largest gas users due to the HVAC system that is required to keep the air dry for preservation of the books.
So city staff has finished this negotiation with Attorney Zito and we are ready to move We have a motion to move this forward to first reading at the next council meeting.
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion to move this forward at the December 3rd meeting.
All in favor?
Aye.
Excuse me.
I just want to clarify the moving it forward to which council meeting.
It'd be the December 16th, 16th December 16th.
I'm sorry, I just said the third month.
Yeah, December 16th.
All in favor.
Opposed.
Wait.
Question.
No, just comment.
So, City Manager is being a little, I guess, coy here.
I just wanted to mention that this, this negotiation that he was able to strike with NYCORN is a $20,000 savings to the city annually in gas for the library.
All right.
Thank you.
Opposed?
Okay.
Discussion regarding investigation into the political fraudulent financial forensic audit.
From Alderman, Monroe, and Sanders.
Due to the resource and the information that is not going to be presented today, Alderman, Monroe, and myself, we had not been able to collaborate to determine what it is the presentation will present today and what I'd like to do is suspend this and carry it over to the next meeting and hopefully we have all of the contents of everything that we need to bring forward to the next meeting so we want to suspend that for now discussion regarding oh I'm sorry public comments do we have any public Ha, a couple of comments.
Nope.
Yes.
Jodi Miller.
So the IV grocery store's not coming in.
Greetings.
Drying Dickerman.
Yes.
IV Store's not coming?
No IV, Tommy, I'm sorry.
What's Angela going to do now?
Put something in there?
She's going to continue to be our fearless leader.
Hello.
I just want to make comments about this black grant.
Please, your name?
Oh, I'm sorry.
I am Lucinda, Cindy, however you want to see me.
And so on.
But, okay, just regarding the block grant that has been discussed the last couple of months or so.
I applied for this grant.
I can remember this grant probably started back in 2019 per se.
I remember doing an inspection on my home with Ben, then with Amy Bacto that's no longer here.
And then in probably 2021, I probably did an application again with Lorena.
And so from time to time, I would ask Lorena about this, you know, the status of the block grant and all of that.
So she would say, you know, the state is this and the state is that, it takes long.
And I understand that.
But and when this grant came out, I remember getting the letter.
So it's probably one of the first ones that applied for this grant, okay.
And so in regards to this 1010 South Adams of all of these things that they have you know agreed to putting in furnace what have you so when Ben came to my house it was things that needed to be done and it's still things that need to be done okay I've been in my home almost 17 years and well has been 17 years and I've worked for this city will be maybe 24 years come February and I'm not, like Alderman Stacy said, you're gonna do what you wanna do but as far as it's being just based on income, I don't think that's legit but it is what it is and so I do need a $20,000 roof on my house but the city does not pay me enough to provide that so that's all I have to say, thank you.
I have to make a rebuttal about the presentation you saw tonight.
Alderman Simmons, you are absolutely 100% correct.
As long as we meet the state requirement, and it is a requirement as I stated, that the applicants have to be low income, but you can add as a community, Grant gives you the flexibility for you to set the priorities of what the greatest community needs are and how we're going to ensure that the challenges are met.
We are not going to meet challenges by going in with perfectly good homes and buying them new air conditioners, especially a landlord.
This is absolutely absurd and not what the grant intended.
So you were right, and this needs to be changed.
We are a home rule city, I think, I don't know if we dropped that, but as long as we meet the state requirement, you as a city, you can decide that the project area will address blighted homes in that area, and you can also decide that it will be safe and unsanitary conditions.
You can even decide that you do do not want them to fix air conditioners.
You can decide this.
This grant gives you the flexibility for communities to decide their own needs.
That's all I have to say.
Good evening again, Josh Atkinson.
I just want to say that I think we need to step back and take a lesson from this.
I honestly don't think anybody was doing anything wrong necessarily.
Mistakes may have happened.
But at the end of the day, it's the council that made that mistake.
We didn't set forth those parameters when it came to council however long ago.
Back in 2019, 2018, 2019, these conversations should have happened then.
We have the opportunity to get $550,000.
How do we use this to better our community?
That conversation didn't happen.
So the surveys went out.
We got $550,000.
And then Director Duckman had to figure out how to use it.
And with all faith, I believe he did the right thing and tried to figure out how to use it and they put forth.
Now we're saying that, oh man, we wish we should have done this.
We wish we would have done this.
And we failed.
We failed.
You know, we need to take that lesson moving forward.
There was a gentleman, Joel, presented, you know, the first thing that came, the only thing I saw about that great program, the land planning, is there was one slide that he presented that it said that it could be a rental property.
You know, one was bought for $15,000.
And many others.
So, you know, one was bought for $15,000 and turned around and it was renting out for $875.
First question that comes to mind is can we as a community, when that comes forward next week or whenever that's going to come back, can we put a stipulation in there that says it can't be rented out, it has to be sold or lived in?
You know, those are the things that we need to look at when council, when city staff brings this stuff to council to look at that stuff, read the stuff, discuss it and figure out How do we use all these tools, all this grant money that Freeport's been getting to better the whole community as a whole?
Alright, thank you.
Okay, if there's nothing else, I make a, do we have a motion to adjourn?
So moved.
Second.
Sellers, and all in favor?
Aye.