As we come through a bitter cold, thank you for your protection and your care for us and our lives Lord.
We thank you as we begin tonight that you are the rewarder of those who diligently seek you and so Lord I come on behalf of those here tonight and with them to seek your face, to ask for your help and for your blessing.
Lord, even as we've just gotten started here in this new year, 2025, Lord, we do pray for our plans, for our hopes, even for our dreams as a city, as citizens of Freeport of Stephenson County, Lord, as those who are directors and Chiefs, for the Mayor, for City Manager, Lord, not to leave anyone out, but for each one sitting here tonight, that you would assist them in their work, that you would give them wisdom, that you would help them to seek you, as again, you are the rewarder of those who do so.
And Father, we pray that you would bless beyond even what we request of you, that you would Surprise us with your blessing and Lord we pray for wisdom tonight for the things on the agenda here this evening that you would give us your help wisdom and Lord we ask these things even as you've invited us to come and ask of you in Jesus name amen thank you Justin now we'll officially call this meeting to order madam clerk would you please take the role madam mayor Miller here Alderpersons, Klemm, Monroe, Simmons, Absent, Parker, Stacy, Shadle, Sanders, Sellers Okay, we had a request that if council members could please remember to speak into their microphones.
It's difficult sometimes for the audience to hear.
So we will move on to item number one, which is the approval of the agenda.
Has requested the removal of 8 and 23 for a later date, and there is also nothing to discuss on item number 30, so we will remove that.
With that, is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Second.
A motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Sellers.
All those in favor, signal.
Yes, ma'am.
I have a question.
Why are we removing 8 and 23?
Staff requests not ready.
Do you want Manager Boyer?
That just needs a little, we need more time to consider the media, social media policy and also the transfer of properties, we're in a holding pattern until we receive some documentation back from the county on those.
Alderman Monroe.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
Why did we bring this up previously then if we weren't ready to move forward?
I think the last conversation we had, the last council meeting, highlighted some things that need more review.
All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
No.
That's seven to one, that passes.
Six.
Two.
Two nays.
Okay.
Sorry.
Six to two.
Five to two.
Okay, five to two.
Did he also say 30?
I did, yes.
You said 30? 30 Because there wasn't anything that was brought up for discussion.
We normally have the executive session just as a standing in case something comes up, but there wasn't anything that was discussed, so I just put that out there for removal, just to keep things clean.
Item number two is approval of the minutes from the regular meeting on January 6th, 2025.
Is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Parker.
All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
That motion passes.
Public comments?
I don't believe there's any.
Darren, can you take a look quick?
Is there any public comments?
Are there any public comments?
Nope?
Okay, thank you.
Item number four is the presentation of the Year in Review.
Director Bridge.
And John.
Good evening, Council.
As I shuffle my papers around, I just want to start off by saying that the numbers we are going to see tonight, the accomplishments that are put forward on these slides are, number one, only a portion of what gets done on a and the rest of the staff who have been working on this project.
We have a number of things that are done on a daily basis by our amazing staff.
Number two, these are simply numbers and again, simply words on a screen whereas the things that go on on a daily basis, a lot of time, a lot of effort.
And I know certainly on behalf of all of our staff, a lot of pride goes into what is presented here.
And the Street Department of Public Works.
In a record setting 2024, crews laid 15,221 tons of hot mix asphalt, paving over seven and a half miles of streets.
These streets completed by city crews included Oak Avenue, State Street, Chicago Avenue, Iroquois Street, Quail Ridge Drive, Sioux Drive, Dirk Drive, Coach Street, Yellowstone Court, Clinton Place and Street and Salem Court.
One of the strategic goals for Public Works is to implement the Street Improvement Plan by paving 8 miles of street per year using data including traffic count and condition of the street, curb, approaches, water, sewer and storm mains to plan each replacement project.
Crews also plowed 10,471 miles of roads in 2024.319 lots were mowed around the city.
43 City owned lots were mowed weekly.
Over 100 service cut repairs were managed and 4,566 calls from residents were fielded by Public Works.
The Street Department is in charge of many aspects of this city.
Cruz were able to remove a total of 261 dead and dangerous trees and plant 108 healthy trees with the help of the yield program.
150 Stumps were ground throughout the year.
The department handled a total of 78 dog-related calls through animal control, which, important detail, our animal control officer was on medical leave for a portion of last year.
Kroos also fixed 15 overhead lights around the downtown area, put up flags in a timely manner for all necessary holidays, and put up and took down 61 Christmas decorations.
One more thing before I ask Darren if he has anything else to add.
One of the other strategic goals was to improve public works wage structure to increase recruitment and retention, and I believe that was done in 2024.
Dern is there anything else you'd like to add for that section is there anything from council yeah I have a question maybe too in succession in succession that That means I don't have to omit my follow through.
Your name is Director Bridges, right?
Bridge, yes sir.
Yes sir.
I must not have been here when you were appointed as Director Bridge and with that appointment that you've been appointed to.
I never understood your job description, exactly.
What is the full scope of your job description?
Okay, Alderman Sanders, this isn't on topic?
No, it isn't, it's just I'm looking for the qualification for the annual report that is being made.
And Mary, and I'm going to talk about the annual report that is being made.
And that's why I'm the counsel.
You're not the counsel.
I'm asking him questions.
I'm just trying to help you stay on track.
Well, I am on track.
I know that I'm on track.
And the thing is, if I don't know who you are, I don't know if you're eligible or legally eligible to be making any kind of annual report because I had not seen your your personnel file nor your job description and so you're standing here giving us analytics and reports about what is going on throughout the city.
That is what I'm understanding as I listen to you.
So until I do, I'm just trying to find out whether or not what you're saying is is relevant at this point and who gave you, what department are you in, first of all, who is your supervisor, manager, or you're just a director?
Director Bridge?
I'm part of the Communications Department, Communications Director, and this is off topic, so you and I- No, it's not off topic because if it's- You and I mentioned it after the meeting about this.
It was stated that you're a Director of Communication.
It does not state that, it just says Director Bridges, that's all it says, okay?
So the agenda item that we're talking about right now is the year in review, it's being presented by Director Bridge, certainly Alderman, so that's the topic there if Alderman Sanders, if you have questions about how Director Bridge was hired, his qualifications, all that sort of stuff, that is something that should be handled offline, you know, or at a separate meeting you know when we put it on as an agenda topic there but the topic for right now is the presentation of the year in review that is the topic that's on yeah but it still doesn't say that he's qualified or eligible to do such a reporting and and that's not what we're that's not what the agenda topic is about so I can get any Joe blow off the street to give an annual report well he is an employee of the city that is serving in the role of Communications Director.
That's vague, very vague.
And certainly if you want his qualifications that is something that we can but that is a different topic.
So how many positions does he, that he holds within the city?
He holds one position, he's the Communications Director.
Okay, would you like to proceed with your presentation please?
Alderman Monroe, did you have?
Actually she The 15,221 tons of HMA laid, did that include the program with Avery Harrell?
Darren?
No, it did not.
That was only what the Public Works crew themselves laid on the street reconditions.
The material you're talking about is hot patch asphalt that we make, we don't buy.
This is purchased hot mix that goes on new streets only.
So Avery's numbers are not in there.
And I would have to consult with Pat Ingram to get the tons that we had from them.
I know we had it calculated, I just don't believe it's in the presentation.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Darren, but this also talks about just City Crew stuff, not Adams Avenue, so to speak.
Correct.
This is just City numbers that were derived from the projects that we did, and all the numbers that you'll see in this presentation were provided by the departments themselves to Brian for the annual report.
Thank you.
Alderman Monroe?
I withdraw.
Okay.
Go ahead, Director.
And others.
Thank you.
There we go.
Okay.
The water and sewer department still with Public Works.
Phase 1 of the wastewater treatment plant upgrades continues to expedite the entire project.
Lead service line replacement phase 3 is wrapping up and phase 4 is in the planning stage.
Freeport was presented the Goldwater Ambassador Award in 2024.
The treatment plant team has maintained water chemistry to EPA standards, helping to provide a safe source of drinking water.
In 2024, water and sewer crews responded to 35 water main breaks.
The team also installed 10 new fire hydrants around the city and assisted with 490 lead service line replacements.
12 Miles of sewer main were cleaned and 10 sewer main slash lateral repairs were executed throughout the year.
On average these crews received 20 Julies requests per day.
Once again Darren if there's anything you'd like to add.
Yeah I would just like to point out here the average number of Julies per day is a lot and it takes up a lot of crew time to do the Julies to do the research and to go out and others.
That's a very high number, which shows the amount of construction that's going on in Freeport between repairs and, you know, juries are called in for various items.
But that is a big number.
A lot of that has to do with the surf internet project that is providing low cost internet around the city of Freeport that's being built out.
That's a $15 million infrastructure project.
Alderman Sanders?
Sorry.
Yeah.
To mention Julies and how the personnel or is tied up with all of these Julies.
The Julies is just water and sewer.
Seward, is that what it is?
How many people needs to be on that task to do those particular duels?
Do you need a construction crew to go out and do duels?
Do you need that to even do water or sewer?
You need a you need a crew to do that?
With the amount of duels that we've been getting, it usually takes two to three of our staff members to be able to go out and locate and mark Julie's out it's not every day we try to concentrate it into segments but it does eclipse a lot of time because you actually have to do the research on each street and get the measurements and the calculations to be able to set those points based on the way the system is okay well I understand that part but My point, my thing is, does it require many personnel staff to go out and do julees?
Two to three.
OK.
Go ahead, Director.
All right.
I'm sorry.
Madam Mayor, is it possible to get the IT department to display the board?
The people at home are texting asking for it to be displayed.
They can't see it, for whatever reason.
Hey, keep going, Director.
In case you couldn't hear, he said it shows it's displaying.
I will continue for the time being, but Mayor, stop me if you need.
Before I move on from water and sewer, a couple highlights from their strategic goals was to secure funding for well number 12.
That happened.
Implement phase one of the Wastewater Treatment Plan improvements and plan for future phases of the Wastewater Treatment Plan improvements.
That is happening as we speak.
We will move on to community and economic development.
The improvements made throughout 2024 to the rental registration process highlighted a busy year for Community & Economic Development.
The team implemented new software in the form of Ptolemy Rental Registration to give both landlords and the City access to more features to help make renting a more successful endeavor in Freeport.
To keep all parties accountable, fees were also increased for non-compliant landlords.
In addition, staff made it possible for contractors to now complete registration or license renewal online, a process that previously required a trip to City Hall.
Another exciting development has been the ability to incorporate low-income homes into the Land Bank for the first time since 2020.
This process ends with dilapidated homes being refurbished and getting a facelift in order to avoid demolition.
The team also distributed $19,251 through the Facade Improvement Grant, including $15,000 to the Freeport Art Museum for their move downtown, 765 building permits were issued in 2024, 5,144 code enforcement activities were completed, as well as 23 new chronic and others.
We are now going to talk about the number of direct nuisance cases and 51 total demolitions.
Before I open it up, Director Duckman spoke on this not too long ago.
The strategic goals.
Expanding enforcement time for the code enforcement team.
Over 5,000 activities related to code enforcement.
And John, John, John, John, John, John, John, It says for tree removal and trash cleanup.
And I do know that trash cleanup has been a hot topic.
Yes.
So we've worked on a couple of different ways.
One major way we've accomplished that is working with our public works team.
Once we're getting chronic nuisance activities, or getting a property into chronic nuisance, or through proper notice, we're working better to clean up properties that have been habitual, dumping grounds, et cetera.
To continue funding and implementation of the demolition and blight reduction program.
Facilitate art museum transition to new location.
All these things were worked on in 2024.
Before I move on, I'll take a pause.
Alderman Stacey?
Yes, I would like to know if all letters have been sent out or if letters have been sent out to all landlords pertaining to registering their property.
They have not been sent out yet.
I met with them or talked to them last week, and we're using a company that's basically we send them the addresses to send out these mailers.
And they had some issues on their end, technical issues on getting the letter out.
So we've been working with them for the better part of a month, working through those technical issues.
We usually have good success working with that company.
They do our water bills and other billing or other mailers that we have.
It's just for some reason, I know that our IT departments work tirelessly with them to try to get that resolved.
So it should be sent out soon.
And obviously, InfoSend sends their regrets, but we've been working really hard with them to try to get through it.
But we're right there.
So that's my opinion.
Is it possible for the council to get an update?
Yeah, absolutely.
I can give an update at our next council meeting.
That'd be perfect.
Alderman Monroe?
What's the estimation of how many people are registered versus who are not?
My estimate is there's 1,100 registered, and that's rounding off, and that there should be right around 3,000 properties registered.
And that's typical, we've typically had right around 1,100 properties register in the last three years and using Ptolemae, which was a major success and breakthrough for us to not only, you know, for the city to kind of put all the data in one place, but it also kind of helps, it's also completely helped us identify who's out there that hasn't registered.
So my estimation is that there's 1,900 properties that need to register.
That are not registered go ahead director oh sorry another one follow up and and how many fines have been sent out since you took office we've not sent I can't give you that number I will get you that number I can email it and it's just to the registration nothing no other crimes correct I I'm gonna be honest with you I can get you that number next week but in my opinion it's low if any and coming Garvey.
Alright, so just单ving into it our biggest concern when I came into this process and was talking with, er, first I was talking to city manager Bu kas um then talking with city manager Boyer.
Our biggest concern was if we are sending out fines for not registering how do you know somebody is not a registered rental.
If you would drive down one block in Freeport and you say is that person registered, should and others, continuing to counsel, as well as Manager Boyer is saying, well, before we really start, you know, enforcing our rental registry with these fines, to be fair, we should really know who should be registering.
And we call that, and we worked with Ptolemy, and when we selected Ptolemy in April of 24, one of the major things I said to them was, I really want to identify who should be registered so I can know who to actually fine.
Otherwise, when I told you we identified 1900 properties we think should register, without that software, how do we know who should be fined?
I'm asking, that's a legitimate point, how do we know?
We're going off of an old list, and it's saying, hey, we need to take care of this, and I'm like, well, we need some technology to help us along to say who should be registered, Are you secure now in knowing who should be registered and who isn't?
Yes, yes, we have a much better picture of that, yes.
And that's where I said that there's roughly 3,000 properties that should be registered, we have 1,100 that are currently registered, and there's 1,900 properties that should be registered.
So yes I feel like we have a much better picture.
Alderman Sanders.
How effective are we collecting data on these particular registries?
What kind of mechanism do we have in place that we total up registered and non-registered?
What do we have in place right now without going out to survey the community or whatever the case because this is not the first time that this subject comes up.
So what kind of mechanism or data that we have retrieved to make these determinations, because right now, from what I'm hearing, we're not trying to be competent enough to go and find out these kinds of things.
In other words, the data is there.
What measures are we using to implement this or retrieve it.
That's my question.
It's a good question.
A couple of things there.
That question was posed to me, and I had the fun job of solving it.
And so what we did, my team and I, and also the help of the IT department.
So I want to make sure I include them.
We got together, started looking into this, and trying to answer that question.
How do we know who is not registered and should be?
It mines the data from different sources and is for example one excellent item that it does is it's going to take essentially let's just say from a tax assessor it's going to look through all the properties in the city of Freeport and then it's going to say okay where is the site address you know different than the property address so if you're sending your tax bill if the tax bill S. K. K. K. K. K. K. K. K. K.
And then we need to know how to go after.
And then the go after part, Alderperson Stacy is correctly asking me, hey, when are these letters going out?
So we know that these letters have to go out to say the deadline for registration is April 1st of 2025.
And at that point, after due notice, if a property owner doesn't say, hey, you know what, that's not a rental property, my son lives there, or it's a second house, if they could prove some sort of, you know, sending a utility bill, other proof that it's not a rental okay fine it's not a rental but the majority of these people are rentals and they will need to register or be subject to a fine so the letters already written all the addresses have been compiled we're just working with the we're working with a consultant a company that actually does the mailing actually stuffs the letters actually mails out the letters and that's when I was telling all the person Stacey that it's taken them long much Delosa, Michael.
So I'd like to make sure that we're able to have people searching SKU search ferries for much longer than usual too actually get the letters mailed out.
So all right, you head director Thank you.
Our next section is Human Resources.
And I know Kim isn't here tonight, physically but if you have any questions, she's happy to answer them through Finance, City Hall, 24, Police Department, 65, Fire Department, 49, Public Works, Street Department, 17, Water and Sewer Department, 24, and the Library, 17.
And the Library, 17.
Over the course of the year, 53 new hires were managed with 37 separations and 4 retirements.
I move on.
The Clerk's Office.
The Clerk's Office managed 136 resolutions and the City of Washington.
We have received a 37% increase from 2023 and a 68% increase from 2022.164 FOIA requests were received.
A 43% increase from 2023.
Licenses for the following were processed.
36 Video gaming In 2024, the Clerk's Office processed 41 special event permits and attended and managed the agenda for 64 meetings.
I move on.
The Police Department, I want to start with their strategic goals.
Increase police force census and implement proven strategies for reducing crime, including a three-prong staffing approach that includes community service officers, law enforcement, and social workers to reduce crime.
Hire and retain a diverse team to reflect the community we serve.
Deploy more technology to reduce gun violence and improve the efficiency of the police force.
2024 Saw the Freeport Police Department continue to hire new officers, which allowed for the reestablishment of positions like the canine officer, general case detective, school resource officer, telecommunications supervisor, and administrative lieutenant.
Lieutenant.
In total, 82 firearms were recovered as a result of police investigations.
4,457 Police 911 calls were received.
1,533 Arrests were made and 1,884 traffic citations were written.
485 Pounds of prescription drugs were collected and taken in for disposal.
And others.
Last month in December, 17 kids were taken on a shopping spree for shop with a cop, and the FOP lodge sponsored a family of four children who lost their father to gun violence.
56 Neighborhood watch meetings were hosted, and the department continues to offer a civilian police academy.
If there's anything you'd like to add, Chief, you're more than welcome to.
No, thank you.
I move on.
The Fire Department With six new firefighters joining the department, crews had a busy and successful 2024.
They responded to and investigated an estimated 95 fires where flames were present.
More than 400 fire inspections were conducted to ensure safety in commercial and residential buildings.
19 Fire drills were held at schools and multi-unit apartment buildings.
And others.
288 Fire alarms were installed in 115 homes in the city, a service that is free to all residents.
Department highlights include the revival of National Night Out in collaboration with the police to bring the community together.
A new fire engine was delivered and is now stationed near Adams Avenue.
And the Emergency Telephone Systems Board approved the purchase of a complete VHF radio network replacement.
This project would have a total cost of more than $120,000, but is being completed at no cost to the city.
Once again, Chief, if you need to add anything, feel free.
So yes, thank you.
So when we talk about 288 fire alarms installed, it's actually smoke detectors that are received from Red Cross.
And then they're installed by the firefighters in 115 homes.
Thank you.
We move on to the Freeport Public Library.
Their goals to launch the Arts and Culture Commission, which I believe happened, support cultural festival Bates, and events, sorry, support cultural and cultural festival events to engage and build connections among diverse groups.
A major highlight of the library every year continues to be the attendance of the Summer Reading Program.
In 2024,498 children and teens registered, with 274 completing the program's goals, such as reading 60 books and more.
The program doesn't just get children to read, however.
From June 3rd to August 10th, the library offered 141 programs as part of summer reading.
6,048 Children, teens, and adults attended, an increase of 25% from 2023.
This number sets a new mark for one of the library's most popular programs.
Throughout the year, 107,508 books were circulated along with 21,530 Fowler, a total of 344 youth programs tallied in attendance of 17,026, a total of 109 adult programs tallied in attendance of 1,271.
There are 4,568 active library cards, 27 public computers occupy both floors of the library, 9,506 computer sessions were logged in 2024, Fowler.
43,728 Visits were paid to freiburgpubliclibrary.
Org.
The meeting rooms were used 450 times, while the study rooms were used 456 times, and in 2024,165 notarizations were completed.
Once again, I forget your last name.
And Dr. Huffins.
Okay.
I will continue.
Hold it.
Yeah.
Alderman Sanders.
Yeah.
Question about, you know, yeah, okay, she's sitting there and she probably can give me more insight on how books are acquired and how and do we make requests, recommendations on books, categories and classifications and things of this nature.
How do we proceed to put more books in our library than what we have because I don't and others.
I don't know if they are selected or chosen or they are made by request from the citizens of the community.
It's both.
Anybody can make a recommendation for adding books to the collection.
And we often do add the books when they are requested.
We just don't get that many of them.
But we do have a collection development policy that we follow and I.
We have a lot of things that are implemented by the Board of Trustees.
And then we have two main staff members that pick all of the items in the collection.
And then we do have rules and policies in place for where they go in the collection.
And a lot of that is based on cataloging rules, which are associated with our library consortium.
And we have 138 staff members that pick all of the items in the collection.
And I have a lot of great libraries that are in the same consortium following the same rules of where to put things.
But we also have flexibility to create our own section.
Like this year we created an urban fiction section with grant money and we were able to purchase about 250 books for that, specifically for that collection.
And that, you know, did that help answer your question?
And the Department of Finance.
The Finance Department prepared and assisted auditors during the 2023 financial audit process, resulting in a clean opinion from the auditors.
The 2025 balanced spending plan was approved by the Department of Finance.
And the financial audit process resulting in a clean opinion from the auditors.
The 2025 balanced spending plan was approved by council.
The team also participated in the career tech job shadow program.
In 2024, 3,916 vendor payments were processed.
And others, and they issued an average of 11,203 paychecks for an average of 200 employees for the year, 140 new water and sewer accounts per month, 155 disconnects per month, and they issued an average of 11,490 water bills per month.
Good?
Okay.
We'll move on.
Yeah, I just wanted to understand the 140 new accounts and what are those accounts and what Miller, the purpose of 140 some accounts like you I know you probably I know you probably have an answer for that already, but the thing is, I'm not aware of what the purpose of all of those accounts are for.
So the pertains to water and sewer accounts, so new renters moving in, people moving around town.
So we consider that or moving into town.
They have a new account set up for water sewer So that could be either they moved within town.
That's still a new account at a new address So they could be either locally moving around in Freeport or coming out of town moving into town.
Thank you Move on and I'm going to talk about the IT, information technology.
254 Total work tickets were processed in 2024.
The department also replaced 18 computer workstations.
They worked extensively on cleaning data for the new Tollamay rental registration and planned a 2025 migration to Office 365.
Throughout the year, and Sh mourning.
I am proud to say that this is a moment of truth that we have been waiting for.
We have been waiting for a long time to see the fight for justice in the last four years.
We have been waiting for a long time for a long time to see the fight for justice in the last four years.
And the rest of the city.
So, we have a lot of questions.
And I think the question is, if we are going to be responsible for all technology that is acquired by the city, who is responsible for those kinds of tasks?
Director, something can come up here if he wants, but the simple and I was looking for another angle.
Okay.
I wasn't looking for that particular information.
Sure.
I misunderstood the question.
Well, no, no, you assume that I may have said something that triggered that.
But yeah, but when we're talking about attacks on the and that triggered that.
But yeah, but when we're talking about attacks on this, the attacks that the Internet or the technology, softwares and things like that is being attacked throughout the city, who is responsible for those kinds of things when we have a hiccup in our system that violates all of the, I don't know if we had any successful attacks because they're always someone out there attacking the system.
Have we been able to divert any of those kinds of attacks from being placed in our system and corrupting our system?
Have we been able to do that?
To my knowledge, we haven't had any network malware attacks since we've had an IT department.
All the attacks are sent back either by IT staff or our software and hardware appliances are built for that.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
That sounds good.
I just wanted to see who was attacking, who was covering for all of these attacks that we're getting, you know, throughout the city.
So it's good to know that we have someone or some technical specialist that is taking care of those issues.
All right, thank you.
And we will finish with communications.
The strategic goals for communications include making bilingual communications available for all key documents and outreach efforts.
I can speak directly on that.
As far as the website goes, we continue to find ways to be more ADA compliant and part of ADA compliance includes making things on the website bilingual.
We are still putting effort into that.
We have seen a success in creating bilingual communications as far as newsletters and a few graphics.
It does take time however being a one-person department I can say that I am getting better at it and it will only get better from here expand city participation in community events to increase visibility are you finished where you pass it back to mayor can he finish his presentation on that yeah I I got here in April and since that point we have attended if not all most large community events with the goal of speaking to residents and hearing their and others.
I believe that we need to be able to share concerns face-to-face in an environment where it is not as formal.
And I believe that the numbers, which I don't have in front of me, but the numbers that we got from these different events just shows that being at those events is very important.
And then finally, improve storytelling and data sharing efforts to better highlight the progress being made in Freeport.
And John.
The City's page reached 7400 Facebook followers, which is a 23% increase from 2023.384,300 accounts viewed city posts throughout the year, a 114% increase in visibility.
68 Press releases were sent, a 467% increase from 2023.
Alderman Sanders Are we set up for comments from the general public and not only the general public, but the city staff and people of that nature?
Are we set up to make comments so we can respond to whatever it is that is injected into our media accounts and things of that nature?
We're on the verge of doing all of those things.
So I believe you're speaking about Facebook because all the other media accounts that we have don't allow for comments.
For Facebook, the topic was brought up in December and then two weeks ago and at this time we are choosing to review what we have put forth and review it until we come up with with a Better Solution, at this time, at this time, comments are not allowed.
Okay.
And now we're going to increase the staff in that department area to help in the process of mitigating all kinds of communications, media, information, and anything like that that's going to help you to improve your work status there.
At this time, the goal is not to increase staff.
We do have options for internships here and there.
We have not pursued them yet.
This position was created, I believe, back in 2021.
It's still a fairly new department.
The numbers speak for itself.
I do believe that the communication that we have put forth improves our transparency at every level.
And whether or not we choose to pursue more staff members for the communications team, that is not our goal at this time.
Okay, well, I'm looking at that chart, not chart, but that information chart you have up there.
Who's doing the analyticals and where is that information that's coming from that I'm looking at at this current time and we talk about transparencies and press releases and things like that.
Who's handling all of these objectives that I see, especially that analytical chart up there?
I'm looking at this chart and I'm like, where are you getting that information from?
Because I like to know.
Yeah, I like to know where it's coming from.
And that is all done in my office by looking at a screen and seeing the stuff that we have done.
I counted those numbers by hand.
It's not a big enough number to where I have to use any software.
The Facebook followers accounts it for me.
The accounts viewed, that counts it for me.
The press releases, I counted that myself.
We had 12 in 2023.
And then the numbers in the chart, Stewart, I counted those by hand, those were simple right off of Facebook.
Alderman Stacy, did you have something?
No.
I would like to ask Attorney Zito to look into the actual blocking of any and all comments on government platforms.
I believe the Supreme Court as well as several other federal courts have ruled very clearly on this.
And if this is our position, you know, I think it's behoo of us to double check that this is okay.
And I, clearly the Director doesn't understand what the rules are, the City Manager doesn't, but that's something that's, it's very clear.
There's a couple of cases, and this is just quick search on Google, it's by no means legal, you know, but it's very clear several people and others, and it is generally been ruled that you cannot block opinions just because you feel like it.
If it is vulgar, if it is offensive, if it is threatening, then that makes sense, but that line is pretty well laid out by the Supreme Court.
Okay, so are you making a motion to task him to do this?
Yes.
Is there a second to do that?
Second.
Okay, so if it be the will of the Council for Alderman Monroe's motion seconded by Alderman Stacy to task the attorney to look into that, is there any discussion concerning that topic itself?
Madam Clerk, Director?
I'll discuss it.
This topic was brought up, as you are very well aware.
And others.
So, my view on it is that we need to open it.
It needs to be reviewed further as to whether or not that's the best option based on the discussion we had on this floor among these individuals here.
So, we were involved, all of us, in that decision to discuss it further, which led to a, hey, let's review it further.
As far as the legality that does fall As far as the knowledge on my end, I have seen many communities put forth guidelines to where no comments at all are allowed and I have reached out to them specifically and they have permission from their attorney.
So we have a motion on the floor.
If there's no further discussion on that, is there a motion?
Madam Mayor, I'll withdraw that motion on the grounds that I'll seek other means to address it.
Alderman Stacey?
I'll withdraw.
Okay, is there any further discussion concerning the year-end review?
I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
We can have the lights back on.
We'll move on to item number five, which is the Consent Agenda.
The Consent Agenda is considered to be routine in nature and acted as one motion.
Unless a member of council would like to have something removed for further discussion.
The Consent Agenda consists of approving to receive and place on file the minutes of boards and commission meetings from the Liquor Commission meeting December 12, 2024.
The building permit reports, the police department reports, the fire department reports dated December 2024.
Also is a semi-annual report to the City Manager from July to December 2024.
Approval of the finance bills payable in the total of $4,995,298.61.
And the approval of payroll for pay period ending July 11, 2025 in the total of $706,602.71.
Also is the Finance Report, the Cash and Investment Reports for November 2024, and the adoption of Resolution 2025-11 for resolution requesting temporary closure of streets for the annual Memorial Day Parade.
Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Madam Clerk, Klemm, Aye.
Monroe, Aye.
Simmons, Aye.
Parker, Aye. Stacy, Aye.
Shadle, Aye.
Sanders, Aye.
And Sellers, Aye.
The consent agenda is approved, 8 to 0.
Thank you.
Item number 6 is a reappointment.
Re-appointment of Steve Cox to the Board of the Northwest Illinois Enterprise Zone for a 3-year term effective through December 31, 2027.
Mr. Cox has asked that his name be pulled for consideration.
Madam Clerk, could you please read for the record his statement?
Mayor Miller, I am requesting that you please withdraw my name for consideration for the City's appointed Enterprise Zone seat.
I understand that this appointment has been the source of some disagreement, and I do do not want to be the source of any further division on the council.
I would however ask that you please make clear to council that the apparent origin of the discussion, a courtroom photograph indicating that I was somehow a participant in the petition controversy, is, in that respect, a complete misrepresentation.
My purpose in attending court that morning, as I do quite regularly, was to cover some routine probate matters.
I actually had no idea the petition hearing, which was scheduled for the following day, was set for consideration.
Bein pulled into a political controversy was certainly not on my agenda when I went to the office that morning.
Thank you for the original consideration for the position.
It has been an honor to serve on the E-Zone committee for the last 8 years and I will continue to support those efforts in any capacity that I can.
This is exactly the kind of thing which will continue to happen if we create an issue out of every unsupported accusation that comes along.
Now we have a subject matter expert Fert, Steve Cox, who has donated his time as this is not a paid position in an effort to help this community who does not want to be pulled into another baseless argument just because someone tagged him on a Facebook post.
This will continue to happen as long as every unfounded accusation is allowed to disrupt the business of our city.
We are going to lose more and more people who have historically been willing to participate on our Boards and Commissions who do not want to be pulled into the chaos that now surrounds this Council.
And when all we have left to choose from are people who want to pull us down to their level, where does this leave the City?
With empty seats.
Thank you, Steve, for your eight years.
We'll move on to item number seven, which is the second reading of Ordinance 2025-02.
Could you please read this for the record?
Operations authorizing Northern Illinois Gas Company doing business as NICOR Gas Company to construct, operate and maintain a gas distributing system in and through the City of Freeport.
Manager Boyer.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
As discussed at the Committee of the Whole in the last meeting, NICOR has brought forth a request to renew the agreement with the City of Freeport in past years.
We have pretty much covered the cost of all city buildings, but we have included the library in this particular agreement to move forward that will provide us with decades of gas for heat at no cost to the city so staff requests council move forward with this with this agreement thank you is there any further discussion madam clerk please take the roll Klemm Monroe I Simmons I Parker I Stacey I Shadel Sanders and Sellers aye the ordinance passes 8 to 0 item number 9 is the first reading of ordinance 20 2504 could you please read this ordinance regarding part 14 building and housing code chapter 14 42 point 14 increasing plumbing permit fees and adding chapter 14 77 point 14 solar interconnection types Thank you.
Director Duckman?
Last COW that we had, the Committee of the Whole meeting in January, we talked about part of this ordinance.
And that part of the ordinance discussed the plumbing permit fees.
So just to kind of for a refresher here, we talked about how water and sewer service installs would be go from $50 to 150.
So from 50 to 150, which is $100 increase.
And then we also talked about how installing a fixture requiring a new water line would go from $30 to $100.
And for a refresher here again, we talked about how when we're doing our water and sewer service installs, it's requiring time from our public works team, our water superintendent actually having to inspect these services and also for the water services not requiring an actual service line that's going to our asset which is for the fact that our consultants, B&F, Building Code Services, they are upping, they've upped their prices to $100 an hour.
So the idea is that staff is just trying to do, to be more responsible and recuperate some of these fees and some of the time included there.
So that's the one part of it.
And where this comes from, and I talk about it in my memo, but it's also written in the ordinance is that this goes in front of our Building Commission.
And in our last Building Commission meeting, this portion was voted in favor by a vote of six to zero.
The other part of it is a little more technical and it deals with interconnection types for solar.
So I'll try not to get too technical or in the weeds here.
But essentially what was talked about at our building commission was how are we connecting, how are we requiring solar panel installers, solar installation companies to connect actually into the ComEd meter and there's been some issues and it's been some contention in how they're actually doing it and one of the one of the methodologies or one of the issues that we're having is we're requiring, you know, UL approved Fowler.
Connections and main reason there is that we have some older wiring and we want to make sure that when people are installing the transition from the solar power back into the ComEd meter, we want to ensure that there's not actually damage being caused to the property owner.
We want to make sure that our contractors are not cutting any corners with there as well.
They're also talking about there's an adapter that they're putting on for the interconnection that actually connects to the existing meter and another issue there is it can Impede certain driveways we know that in Freeport we're an older city and we have some smaller tighter lots And that if people are for allowing Our solar contractors to just simply put on these We want to make sure that the person can now still park their cars, etc., and that it would actually not impede access into their property.
So that's what's before you.
This went to our Building Commission.
It was recommended for approval by a vote of 6-0, and staff is recommending moving this forward.
Thank you.
Is there a motion to move this forward?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Sellers.
Discussion.
Alderman Monroe.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
Director Duckman, so I know that negotiations have been kind of going back and forth with some other city officials.
Is this is this going to cover the cost that once the pay raises go in that have been promised to them by City Manager.
Is that going to cover the cost of having the superintendents and others go out there?
I don't I don't believe that was the the intent here is to help cover the cost for their time to inspect that connection.
We're trying to be more responsible.
One thing one initiative that I've been working on with the with the Public Works Department is hey we've especially with sewer connections but it's also water connections is saying like for example in sewer connections and I worked for a sanitary district of Rockford for seven years so I have a lot of a large body of experience in these sewer service connections is if you don't have the Fernco connected correctly you could have issues of infiltration in the system of storm water and then that goes into the system and then you're actually essentially training storm water so you have a better system when you are there I've worked with our Acting Director Stekel to say, hey, we've got to do a better job of scheduling these inspections and making sure they're there.
I will tell you that in any time we're talking about permitting, because it's a public service, I don't think we're intending to recuperate all of our costs, because I think that would be too.
I think that would be injurious to our people to truly try to recuperate every cost that's involved with an inspection.
You know $100 going to $150 I couldn't say that in a straight face that that would cover you know all the administrative time and and you know a superintendent's time to go check it the pictures that are taken the documentation etc so I I think it's just helping to incorporate some of that cost okay thank you Alderman Sanders yeah I'm listening to that report that Alderman Monroe was given in addition to that are we the city absorbing any of the costs for inspections and not only that who come up with the notion that these things needs to come be applied who makes who's making that decision for the Hicks, and more.
I want to ask you, Mr. President, what are the increases for the inspection for these homes when there is new water or sewer services?
Who is putting this in place, and how do we come up with the fees and the cost, and why is it put in place?
Because you have to remember, before you came on board, these kinds of things were already in place.
Inspections of anything was already in space.
In place, and others.
I'm just trying to get an understanding to when was this put in place to make these types of decisions, to take fees up to charge folks and things of this nature, additional fees to what they're already getting.
They're paying for their water bills, their utility bills already, and I thought the city was part of the ordinance of making sure that all homes and owners had the proper hookups.
I'm trying to understand this.
How did we get into the business of charging folks for hooking up water services and inspections and things of this nature?
You are correct.
Here well before my time and more than likely since the city was incorporated that if you have a water service or a sewer service, you need to get a permit and then pay for the permit and then ultimately there's an inspection.
What I'm presenting to council, what I presented in the committee the whole last week and what What I'm also now putting for first reading is the reasoning behind why staff presented to our building commission raising our sewer, water and sewer service installation when you get a permit.
So if your sewer collapses and you have to call a company in Freeport and say I need to fix my sewer service, it's collapsed, there's currently a fee of $50.
And in working with Public Works saying, look, we're spending more time improving our system, making sure that people aren't doing this under the table, we're stepping it up, making sure that we're there, we're making sure people pay the appropriate fees.
In working with our Public Works Department, it was saying, hey, this fee seems to be low.
We should be incorporating some more of our fees.
And I said, well, the proper way to ask for a larger permit fee is to present it to council and the committee as a whole, explain our reasoning, and then ultimately now this is the first reading of the ordinance and now it's up to you.
I mean, certainly you could, you may have the position, and I know other Alderpeople have had the position that, you know, we need to keep permit fees low.
That's an understandable position.
I'm just trying to present that staff has worked on this and we think it's reasonable We're going to be able to move it from 50 to 150.
$150.
The Building Commission has a licensed plumber on, you know, we have a licensed plumber on the Building Commission that reviewed this.
They thought it was reasonable.
So there is some support for it other than just staff.
And that's really the decision.
Is there a program in place where it helps the homeowners to offset these types of increases and bills and others that are going to be due coming to them is their program to help those individuals who are struggling as already struggling to be able to go to some kind of office or place to try to get a lower adjustment price on these kinds of things because these fees, People just don't have these kinds of dollars in this current time, in day and age, we don't have, folks don't have that, and so what I'm getting at is that I feel that we're nickel and diming homeowners, pinching them for everything that we are doing, and as far as I'm concerned, as I hear what I'm hearing As I hear what I'm hearing, what is the city doing for the homeowners who are paying their enormous amount of taxes each year to make sure that they are in compliance with the city and that they need stress level mitigation as well?
What are we doing for the citizens here in Freeport?
And others.
So, you know, I think it's important for us to do this report because you guys, what you're saying to me, the staff, the staff or public works or whoever thought that was a great deal to increase or something to increase the cost for all the work that they're doing.
You know, there was a time, I'm like, there was a time we just did it to secure the fact and others.
I think that we did the work, or the plumbers did the work, that they don't have to come back 10, 15, 20 years from now to repeat the same task.
And that's what I feel that should happen when a homeowner takes his dollars and pay it out to these utility companies and plumbers and water and sewer and all these other kind of stuff.
People just don't have that kind of budget to do that.
What?
A water and sewer service is an expensive, horrible event that you don't want to have happen to you.
Exactly.
Nobody wants to have a water line break from the city, you know, from the service side because now you have a house without water and nobody wants a sewer service to break because you're going to have your basement full of raw sewage.
It's horrible.
Many people hopefully have insurance to cover that.
I know it's something that is covered by some insurance companies, some aren't.
So some of these horrible experiences are going to be covered by insurance.
And when they're not, it's, regardless of how it's handled, nobody wants to deal with it.
Nobody wants to have a water or sewer service go down.
Absolutely.
Now, what City staff is saying here, and the benefit we're talking about, right now the The benefit costs $50 to the homeowner, and what staff is saying is we believe the price should be increased to $150.
Again, you're voting on that, and you may certainly say, you do have a strong standpoint to say, look, we're holding the line at $50.
But the benefit is that when you do go through this and you have raw sewage in your basement, you have a house without water, is that you have a public works employee who's coming Miller, Mayor, Mayor, Mayor, Mayor and I have seen jobs repeated because of poor construction work to homeowners when they have to pay double to make sure that they get the right plumber and the right inspection in there.
They have to pay double duty to make these corrections.
It comes from the and I have seen poor inspections.
Even with our own city's inspectors, I have seen those kinds of things.
I'm talking about my experience.
And so these things happen.
And God forbid any homeowner runs into this kind of situation and have no recovery.
They can't recover.
That's the reason why I'm asking.
Is there a program that will allow homeowners to offset these types of costs?
And others.
So, I just wanted to state that the public works fees, water and sewer enterprise funds, We need to capture at least our cost on these items in order to make sure that we're not running these departments at a loss.
We are only going by the codes and ordinances and, for instance, a sewer lateral is owned by the homeowner from the house to the main.
That is our code, right?
And EPA is requiring documentation to show that we are, per our CMOM, reporting that that we are inspecting those connections and making sure we're not getting water, water infiltration into a sewer.
That's just on that.
We have always had cost in place to do these works.
The costs that are there now are not covering the cost and per our enterprise zone to make sure that water and sewer doesn't get in the shape that it was years ago.
We have to cover the cost of the work that's taken.
We do have multiple trips and I will say just in the last month, we've had two sewer repairs that had to be redone because on the inspections, they were wrong.
So the inspections are important to happen.
Alderman, Stacy, you had your hand up.
Yes.
Last week, we spoke about $100 going from 50 to $100 fee.
Was that even considered?
It's considered now.
It 100 I mean 100% considered now if that's the motion you'd like to make you know staff staffs recommending 150 but certainly you could recommend $100 okay these duties that we're saying we need more money for it's nothing that's been added to this job title it is what it is correct it's it's their duties is what they're hired to do yes I believe what you're asking here is the inspector that goes out and looks at the sewer connection as there has their job duties changed no they are required that specific job duty has not changed So, if we feel like they deserve more money for doing their duties, then should that be coming from an increase in wages from the city and not on the homeowners?
To clarify, the money doesn't go to the employee, the money goes to the utility company, the sewer or water department, whichever one it is, it goes as a fee just like everything and others that go back into our general fund and our accounts, it's a permitting fee is what it is.
To recoup some costs.
It has nothing to do with any payment to any water and sewer employee whatsoever.
Attorney Zieto, did you want to add to it as well?
No, well, I'm just going to try to give another example of the fact that, you know, I think the permit fee increase that's being requested or being proposed, it's just like with anything Harnon, 你知道, 오버 타임, this fee hasn't changed probably for over a decade, if not more.
It's been 50 dollars for the for the inspection permit fee, right?
Well, over the course of time, inflation, this, that the cost of everything, whether people get raises over time, you know, cost of paper costs more, cost of ink costs more, whatever it is cost more, right?
10 Years later now.
And so every so often, whether it's, you know, permit fees or the cost of a hamburger, when you go to the store, things get more expensive because, you know, inflation.
So I think that's all they're I understand that, but to go from 50 to 150, I feel it's a bit much And certainly, as Director Duckman said, this is before the council right now for your guys' consideration, so certainly, if you guys want to change it from, deviate from staff's recommendation and take it to a different number, you guys can make a motion to amend it to $100 or whatever you want to call it.
Whatever the number you guys want.
And if the consensus of the council is to say, yeah, we think 100 is better than 150, then that's how the ordinance will be amended and we'll draft it up that way and go from there.
But they didn't just pull a number out of the hat.
This was an evaluation of expense and at the recommendation of the Building Commission.
So if you want to change it, it's just that's the recommendation that's coming forward.
Alderman Monroe, did you have anything to add?
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
A couple of questions, then I'd like to comment on your response.
How many of these do you do per year, and what's the average hourly rate of the people that are going out to do these inspections?
We, excuse me, we had 40 of these last year, and I can get.
Rough estimate.
Well, the only reason I'm saying I'm going to go to our Public Works team on this one is so and to give you some background is we will get a plumbing permit for a sewer service, my department will and we'll say okay that's $50 and then what Attorney Stiegel is saying is hey you know we have by our EPA permit we've got to check that connection to our sewer system so then he has to we have to coordinate with him to say and Jodi.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
We have to coordinate with him to say, okay, we have a plumbing permit for a sewer, you need to send your people out and inspect it.
And the reason why I would say the hourly rate, a little bit out of my department, is when I'm calling Public Works, I'm saying, hey, we're getting this, you have to, in conjunction with my department, you also have to be there.
So it's I guess I guess so he could tell me what would I don't know what are your what are your guys paying or what's the rate for inspector he's looking it up now I just don't know what the Alderman Sellers so well I'd like to make my comment you know $150 and you just hit where I was going with my comment we've already charged for a lot of this because they've gotten a permit that We're now increased at the 1% of the cost.
So the permit, anything, any work's done.
Driveway, any home improvement, all of that.
We just voted on that within the last, what, two, three months?
That's 1%.
And I don't know any time that somebody goes and starts digging in your yard, working on water and sewer, that it's less than a few hundred dollars that's probably coming back to the city.
And because those types of breaks at that point, where it goes back into the system, cause substantial damage to the interior of the house.
They cause damage to the, there's damage into the lines going back and forth, the water and sewer.
And they've already paid probably a few hundred bucks is my guess because I had a backup in my basement.
It was easily would have exceeded the 10 grand and I had coverage.
So, when you get into this, these numbers get big and it's just like another 150 bucks.
Water bill is already 200.
I mean, at what point, that's where Alderman Sanders was going, at what point does it make sense to say, okay, we're getting to that breaking point for a lot of the citizens in the city of Freeport and once again, I'll and others.
So, I'm going to come back to it.
There's a lot, the average salary or the average income per family in this city is less than $50,000 a year.
So, right around $44,000, $45,000, I think, last time I checked.
And these are going to be substantial costs to them.
And that's why we end up with these houses that we have these discussions about that we're tearing down because people can't afford to fix them.
They can't afford to live.
And just throwing a number out.
See, these are things that should be known.
If I'm doing this 40 times per year, I should know what the cost is, and this is the difference between government and business.
Business would know every single piece of this.
I guarantee you Alderman Shadle goes out and does an electric job.
They know how many hours.
They know how many miles they drove.
They know everything about it.
They've estimated every piece of that.
We're not leaving the city limits.
So the estimation of the mileage, that's pretty minimal.
But how long does it take to do the permit?
How long does it take to do the inspection?
Do I need to go back out a second time?
Those are the things that we need to kind of have a basis.
And you should have a better idea before you come to council and say, oh, we're just going to take it from 50 to 150.
That's $100.
That's a significant increase.
And we need to know those costs.
And we can't just keep going back to the well and taxing the hell out of the citizens of Freeport just because we haven't done our jobs.
We haven't sat down and thought this through and thought of it as it's our money and that's where we're at right now and I'll leave it at that.
Olin Sellers?
In the memo it says $100 so it was already.
It was an increase of $100.
Yeah.
It was an increase of $100.
So it wasn't the 150.
So it was an increase of $100.
It's to increase it to $150.
So instead of the $150, they did do the $100.
No.
No, it's an increase.
What's being proposed is $150.
Oh, so the whole thing.
So you want to do it $100 to make it $150.
Correct.
Not just the $100.
And again, the idea here is to recuperate the Public Works Department's time that they have to go out and do the inspection.
What is their job?
Alderman Klemm?
Yeah, I'd just like to, as long as you're taking all this math into it that makes no sense, let's take and add the price of the employee, the price of work that's come, Cronenbaum, the price of the truck, the price of diesel, the price of tools, and the price of him going there and back and going there and back.
So that enters into it, too.
I mean, and how many years has it been since there has been an increase into it?
So everybody sounds like they are willing to talk about something or either talk about it.
This is only first reading.
It is going to come back again.
So we have plenty of time to work with it.
Aaron.
Yeah.
So we didn't willy nilly throw this together.
Andy Leverton and I did sit down and calculate his time and staff's time in doing this.
Fuel benefits the whole package to the utility.
So yes, 150 is a little bit more than we need.
But also this hasn't been changed forever.
And we didn't want to come back.
This is not something that is annually looked at for We can make that work.
The issue is, is that we do get called out to most of these places at least two times, if not three times.
So, if the council wants to change it, we're more than apt to that.
But as directors and staff members, we are here to make sure that the city is covering our cost and doing the right thing for the city.
And that's what we're trying to do.
So, if you guys want to change it to a hundred, so be it.
We can make that work.
Clark, the issue is, is that we do get called out to most of these places at least two times, if not three times, right?
Anywhere in the city to travel, 15, 20 minutes here and there, fuel, gas, extra trips, it all adds up to the utility.
And this is how we got in the situation of not being able to replace our infrastructure is the utility is actually nickel and dimed and then we don't have expenses to cover our and our sewer main breaks and those types of items which end up going to utility increases for everyone.
So we're trying to do the responsible thing and we did put the math to it and this is our recommendation.
You guys set policy so if you want to set it lower, so be it, we'll accept it.
I would like to make a motion.
Well, actually, Alderman Sanders, you've already exceeded your limit of how many times you can speak, so Alderman Stacy, would you have something more?
I would just like to make a motion that we take this to a flat $100, a $50 increase, and not the $150 that was recommended.
I'll second it.
So you want to make a motion to make the increase $50 increase taking it to $100 to make it a flat $100.
Okay, so that motion was made by Alderman Stacy, seconded by Alderman Simmons.
No.
Alderman Sellers.
Alderman Sellers, I'm sorry.
Is there more discussion on that amendment only?
On that amendment?
Exactement, so as to increase it to a flat 100.
So I would support that.
I know it needs to increase and I understand that.
But when it came to recouping costs on that system, to hunt down these landlords that won't register, that wouldn't be heard when we talked about raising that price.
So the citizens deserve and others.
Thank you.
You can get some of your money back, but some of that should be and I hope was included in the budget for the year that the cost of going out and inspecting for a permit.
So I'm totally for the $100.
Do you have something different right on this motion?
Yeah.
Yeah, who's liable to, with this notion, to raise these rates?
And what department, I know you say public works, but who's losing?
Does the city lose anything?
Because these kinds of things usually the city has budgets for.
They're budgeted at the first of the year to offset homeowners.
We're not doing anything to help homeowners.
What we're doing is throwing them under the bus by saying, well, we're going to charge you this, this, this.
But what are we doing for the citizens of Freeport?
Because what I'm hearing is that we're throwing fees out there to increase something that has been going on for decades.
Police, and now all of a sudden they're looking at this, this is a surprise to a lot of the homeowners to give that- Alderman Sanders, Attorney Zito wants to- So, Alderman Sanders, so the motion that's on the floor right now is just about changing from 150 to 100.
And I say no, period.
I was trying to give an explanation to why I was saying no for any increase because this This has not been recorded.
And John.
And I just wanted to make it clear that just to throw that out there like that, there has not been a study for the council to even make that distinction of what we used to have and what we're trying to do today or whenever we ask for it.
Or whenever okay so we've talked about this at a cow we've got this and it's Alderman Stacy and Alderman Sellers that have put this forward to change it to be a flat rate of a hundred so unless there's any more discussion on that particular piece of it madam clerk would you please take the role on the motion made by Alderman Stacy Klemm no Monroe no Simmons Parker hi Stacy Aye.
Shadle?
No.
Sanders?
No.
And Sellers?
Aye.
We are tied at 4 to 4.
Mayor?
No.
That motion fails.
4 To 5.
Okay, so we're back to the original of moving this forward, so are we ready to move this on to the next City Council meeting?
So move.
We have that and I.
So I'm in, is the discussion done, is what I mean?
Darren?
Yeah.
You know, sitting back, so if it's, went to 100, we're talking about 40 inspections, so it's a $50 increase, we're talking about $2,000.
If it went to 150, what are we talking about, an increase of $100, it's $3,700, right?
So again, we did the math and the study of what it cost.
The city at the $50 rate currently on the inspections, we don't break even on what the employee, the equipment, the inspection time that it costs.
We're just trying to make the city whole so we don't lose ground and end up in the same boat that the utility was in seven or eight years ago when we had to do massive increases for utility rates for every person in town.
This is how you get behind in your utility and you can't afford it.
So we are, we are just trying to do the right thing for the utility and the city that owns the utility.
That's what we're trying to do is make sure that we at least cover costs of the goods and services we provide.
That is our responsibility as the enterprise zone.
So we will, you've already exceeded your, again, you have exceeded, you've already spoken I just need some clarity okay so this is going to move to the next the next City Council meeting the way it stands okay so what if the ones that said yes to the hundred now say no to no change at all then we're right back where we started Ordinance Approving Special Use Permit Application at 219 East Stephenson Street, Submitted by Davis, and Jeff Schultz to examine the special use of a B2-2 limited service business district zone property to allow restaurants, taverns, packaged liquor stores, and any other establishment selling alcoholic beverages for consumption on or off the premises, Section B11.
Director Duckman.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Staff received a special use application from Michelle Davies and Jeff Schultz for their restaurant.
And it was an application to sell alcoholic beverages at 219 E. Stephenson Street and staff brought this petition to the Zoning Board of Appeals on January 2nd and it was recommended for approval of a vote of 5-0 with zero abstentions.
On January 9th, staff brought this to the Planning Commission and it was also recommended for approval by a vote of five to zero with zero abstentions and staff in line with the Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Commission is recommending approval but also wanted to state that per the request of the new proprietors of the business, they are requesting a suspension of the rules so they can get moving on their liquor license.
Is there a motion to move this forward?
So move.
Second.
There will be a motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
On this ordinance.
We'll move on to item number 11, which is- You wanted the rules, right?
And who made that motion?
I did.
Second.
Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Sellers to suspend the rules.
Suspension of the rules is non-debatable and must pass by two-thirds Majority.
Madam Clerk, please take the rule on the suspension only.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
Simmons?
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
And Sellers?
Aye.
The suspension of the rules passes eight to zero.
So then now before you, Council, is for the final passage of this ordinance.
Any further discussion?
And Sellers.
The ordinance passes 8-0.
Item 11 is the first reading of Ordinance 2025-06.
Ordinance Approving Special Use Permit Application at 219 E. Stephenson Street, submitted by Michelle Davis, and Jeff Schultz to examine the special use of a B-2-2 limited service business district zone property to allow restaurants with outdoor serving areas, Section B-10.
Director Duckman.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
So staff received a special use application from Michelle Davies and Jeff Schultz, same proprietors of the business at 219 E. Stephenson Street.
And what this special use was for was to allow them to have a restaurant with an outdoor Outdoor Serving Area, and put up on the screen, the prior owners also had an outdoor serving area at their establishment.
So this was brought to the Zoning Board of Appeals on January 2nd, and it was recommended for approval with a vote of 5-0, with zero abstentions.
And on January 9th, it was brought before the Planning Commission, and it was recommended for approval by a vote of 5-0 with zero abstentions and the proprietors of this business are not looking to suspend the rules, it's fairly cold outside, I don't think that they plan on having any outdoor dining for a few months so they did not, they had not sought a suspension of the rules here so in line with the Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Commission we are recommending moving this forward.
Motion to move it forward.
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Sellers to move this ordinance forward.
Any discussion?
Did you want this, you said you did not care about this being moved forward, this suspension?
There's no, there's not been a request for suspension of the rules.
Madam Mayor?
Yes.
This, this would affect me in issuing their liquor license, however, if we did the outdoor later, I'd have to issue it twice and redo it.
Motion to suspend the rules, Mayor.
Second.
We have a motion to spend the rules by Alderman Monroe, seconded by Alderman Sellers.
Stacy.
Alderman Stacy?
Again, suspension of the rules is non-debatable and must pass by two-thirds.
Madam Clerk, could you please take the roll on the suspension only?
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
Simmons?
Absent.
Oh, I am so sorry.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Sanders and Sellers aye the suspension passes seven to zero so then now before you counsel is the final passage of ordinance 20 2506 if there's no further discussion ma'am clerk please take the role Klemm Monroe aye Simmons well she's still absent Parker aye Stacy aye Shadle Sanders and Sellers aye and the Ordinance Passes 7-0.
Thank you for making my load a little easier.
Thank you.
Item number 12 is the first reading of Ordinance 2025-07.
Could you please read this?
Ordinance Approving Variance Application at 207 West Empire Street submitted by Tim and Vicki Rowe to seek relief from 1252.05 F1 to allow a front yard of less than 25 feet.
Thank you.
Director Duckman.
Thank you.
Director Duckman.
Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I'm going to be putting up on the screen here just some images so we can see it a little better what's going on here.
So staff received a permit application on December 13th for 207 West Empire for a front yard setback of less than the required 25 feet.
And if we scroll down here, I can show you an image of what we're talking about here.
The setback that they're requesting is a two-foot setback.
So right off the cuff it sounds to be a little extreme but the reasoning for this front yard setback is it's for an accessibility ramp.
So staff has put this forward on January 2nd to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
It was recommended for approval By, a vote of five to zero is zero abstentions and at that at that hearing there was one neighbor who gave support for the variation there's also wanted to mention that this property owner has been at the same address for 30 years and now needs accessibility into their property.
So that was recommended for approval on January 2nd it was also recommended for approval by Planning Commission on January 9th, and it was recommended approval with a vote of five yeas, zero nays, and zero abstentions, and in line with these recommendations, staff is recommending moving this forward.
Is there a motion to move this forward?
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Sellers.
Discussion?
Alderman Stacy?
And My eyes deceive in me or is it already done?
It yes, and I'll give a little background that it's already built and the son was helping the father Bring his father back home and started construction so that he could help his Father who is having mobility issues into the house so started the work without the permit came to the city and and based on the fact that it was practically, and you can see it's practically touching the sidewalk, said, look, we're going to need a variation.
We'll work with you on the permit.
We want to help the situation.
We don't want to be difficult.
But at the same time, we also want to make sure that you went through the proper channels with the permit and also to have council approve this variation.
So that's why we're here.
I, okay, I understand all that, but it just seemed like we're already past that, so why aren't we just asking counsel to accept what needs to be accepted so that the father have access to the house and move forward?
I mean that's what we're, what we're asking here is saying that this happened, this was constructed, they should have gotten a permit, they should have in theory done this before, you know, their father, the patriarch of the family fell ill, or lost mobility, I should say, however, that didn't happen, they built it without a permit, so they came to my department, we reviewed the permit, and said, by the way, you also are going to need a variation because of how close you've built to the front yard setback.
Totally agree this was built the Sun had this built in haste prior to getting a permit I was just going up Wayne summed it up basically they they put the car before the horse but in this case you still make them apply for the variance so that it's a legal it's legal that they are that close to the to the sidewalk yes that's why they that's why this before you now because they were told Hey, you got the cart before the horse.
Apply for the variance.
We'll run it through the council.
And that's what's before you guys now.
Okay, if there's no further discussion.
And we'll move on to the next item.
Which is item number 13, the first reading of ordinance 2020-508.
Would you please read this?
Ordinance amending chapters 608 and 806 of the Liquor Code.
Alderman, Parker, would you mind flipping the lights back on?
Thanks.
Manager Boyer.
Thank you your honor.
Periodically the Liquor Commission, legal council, and the City Clerk review chapters 608 and 806 of the liquor codes to ensure the verbiage is current and reflects current practices and trends.
Modifications to chapter 608 and 806 of the liquor code have been identified as portions for the Code that are out of date, such as requiring landline phone numbers or the need for further clarifications.
For example, the requirement for a certificate of insurance has been listed in the codes for some time.
In the language, all such certificates shall list the city of Freeport as a certificate holder has been added to clarify that the city does not need to be named as an additional insured.
Other outdated sections of the code have been adjusted or removed to match observed needs of the license holder and actual circumstances throughout the city and staff request you to move this forward to second reading.
Is there such a motion?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Klemm.
Discussion on this ordinance?
Move on to item number 14, which is the first reading of ordinance 2025-09.
Could you please read this?
Ordinance approving airport hangar M2 lease with Kelsey Excavating.
Thank you.
Manager Boyer?
Thank you, Your Honor.
By the way, staff is requesting suspension of the rules on this one.
Kelsey Excavating is interested in leasing hangar M4 at Alberta's airport.
The agreement generates $165 per month in revenue to the city, and staff recommends approval of the lease.
Is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Parker.
Any discussion on the ordinance?
Alderman Shadle.
I just want to point out that I believe the memo said it was Hanger M4.
I'm sorry, correction M2.
Make a motion for suspension.
Second.
We have a motion to suspend the rules, made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Sellers.
Again, must pass by a two-thirds majority.
Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll on the suspension only?
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
Simmons?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
And Sellers?
Aye.
The suspension of the rules passes 8-0.
Okay, then, now before you, Council is the final passage for Ordinance 2025-09.
Any further discussion?
And Clerk, please take the roll.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
Simmons?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
And Sellers?
Aye.
And the hanger lease under the new format is approved, 8-0.
We'll move on to item number 15, which is the adoption of resolution 2025-01.
Could you please read this?
Resolution, approving memorandum of agreement between the City and AFSCME to create the position of Instrument and Control Technician slash Electrician 1.
Manager Boyer.
Thank you, Your Honor.
As previously discussed at the Committee of the Whole, staffs identified the need for a stair step, Grade 15, to allow individuals from within the City utility to be able to apply for a future position within the maintenance department, ultimately ending at a grade 17 so staff requests approval from City Council to move forward in creating the interim grade 15 step so that we can allow qualified applicants to begin the process to move to grade 17.
Is there a motion to adopt?
Alderman Sellers?
Second.
Motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Parker for the Adoption of Resolution 2025-01.
Discussion?
Alderman and Sanders?
Yeah, Manager Boyer, we did talk about this, about the grade, the pay grade.
We talked about that and then I wanted to ask you, have this, this is a new position, am I correct?
Yes, this would be the creation of a new position.
Okay, is that, is that the going classification rate for that position?
Is that, is that and so on.
So I'm just wondering, since this is new, who created the pay grade?
Who did that?
So in consultation with the utility superintendent, we were looking for a solution in line with some of our other pay grades, similar to a street trainee is hired on at the city and there's an interim.
So that first step, they hire in at a lower grade, I believe it's a 13, and then they move into a grade 14 when they become a street maintenance worker.
This is a similar thing just for a bit higher classification of a technical ability requirement.
15.
So the 15 would be So the 15 would be if we have some employees in the city that have a pretty good mechanical background, have rudimentary understanding of hydraulic and pneumatic systems, but maybe don't possess the understanding of how to do programming on starters, motors, and drivers, and controllers, or don't have any background on rebuilding some of the motors or pumps.
This gives us that transitionary step to go from wherever they are in the organization to the ultimate goal, which would be instrument controls technician, grade 17.
I'm waiting.
What are you waiting for?
I'm waiting for you to tell me I spoke too many times.
That's what I'm waiting for.
You spoke once, did you wanna speak again?
Yeah.
Okay then, how about you do that?
Okay, nobody opposing it, okay.
Why not the highest pay grade, if it's recommended that you want to move him to a 15, is it because he hasn't met the skill levels yet, or the knowledge, or the training?
Is the reason why he's at that you propose a 15 as opposed of a 17 yes and and what would the what would be the requirement he meets all of the all of the uh uh training skills and things of this nature before you can move them a step higher essentially what I'm saying here is you need a year or two of mentorship with the with the maintenance department to gain the finer skills My biggest ordeal with this whole deal is that there are weeks from going into negotiation.
And I don't know why this could not have been settled in negotiations first of all.
Second of all, we have had people placed in positions that were not equipped for that position yet they were still placed there.
They were given extra training and whatever they needed through Highland or wherever to and others, and we have to get what they needed to qualify.
And so, how do we determine who we do that for and who we don't do that for?
And I. I just feel that this position should have stayed at the level 17 as it was and the person that was bidding on the position should have been given the education or the training or whatever it needed at that level because even the person before the level was empty was not qualified for the position yet they remained at the level 17 and we have I get to treat people equally, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
These people have to work in one another's faces daily.
They don't need to be enemies working side by side, they got to work together.
And we as a council need to make sure that things are happening fair and just.
That's all.
There's no further discussion.
Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
No.
Simmons?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
No.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
No.
And Sellers?
Aye.
The Resolution passes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to 3.
Item number 16 is the adoption of Resolution 20-2504.
Could you please read this?
Resolution approving Memorandum of Understanding with the Fraternal Order of Police regarding Post-Employment Health Plan, or PEP?
Chief Shenberger?
Yes.
So this matter was before the council two weeks ago, and then I think it got pushed to the COW.
So we've talked about this.
I'm not going to read the entire memo, but basically what it says is during the negotiations with the FOP during this last contract, three officers were either at 20 years for years of retirement or will be at 20 years during the duration of this contract.
And they were offered an ability to be grandfathered into the prior PEP provisions where if they did retire with at least 20 years of service, they then would get compensation for their sick time that they accumulated.
So this is just, I guess, solidifying that agreement and it's something that we talked about for the last two weeks now.
Thank you.
At the last council meeting we did have a motion to adopt this resolution made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Parker, so we don't need to do that again.
So is there any further discussion?
Seeing none, Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
Simmons?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
And Sellers?
Aye.
The resolution is adopted 8 to 0.
Item number 17 is the adoption of resolution 2020,505.
Could you please read this?
Resolution ratifying emergency board up of 1300 East South Street by NYCAM Construction.
Thank you Director Duckman.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
The former hotel on US 20 most recently branded as a Travelodge Inn formerly the Holiday Inn It has been condemned since January 11th of 2017, declared a chronic nuisance on November 16th of 2023, and in 2024, it currently has a lien of $34,100 on it.
The city is currently petitioned to the Circuit Court for a demolition order, which is ongoing.
On December 3rd of 2024, Fire Chief Scott Miller informed me via email that there was an apparent break-in at the property which was immediately investigated by our police department.
Chief Miller shared his immediate concern of the building being a fire hazard with people potentially starting fires to stay warm in the upcoming winter months.
Winter months.
Due to immediate health and safety concern, I solicited bids from three contractors in accordance with our codified ordinances to board up all entrances into the building with half-inch OSB.
The three bids were provided below to you in the memorandum and they came in as NICAM construction bid $13,863.
Winter construction bid $15,000 and CMM and Associates bid $23,076.
Clarks, City move forward with NICAM construction as the lowest responsible bidder to perform the emergency board up and the work was subsequently completed on December 16th of this year or 2024 rather.
Staff recommends approval of the resolution to remit payment to NICAM construction for the emergency board up services at 1300 South Street.
Is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Second.
Made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Alderman Sanders, did you have something?
Yes.
Director Duckman was recommended to condemn and demolish this property.
Is that what we're saying?
We are working on that and we do have an ongoing case on that to demolish this property.
What prompted, what was the neglect that prompted this move?
Well, it's long been neglected.
It was condemned in 2017 and it was declared a chronic nuisance by my, by the hard work of my department of November of 2023.
And in that time we've, it's accumulated I know Chief Shenberger already made a comment, but I was just wondering, are we patrolling that area to prevent any other kind of provocations or whatever that might cause problems?
Problems like incidents, fires, or anything that the city would be liable to from this abandonment of this property because we got to post it first though, right, or have we done that already?
We are currently in that process right now.
I do want to commend Chief Shenberger and Chief Miller for constantly keeping me abreast West of what's going on on that property.
Keeping me abreast of what's going on on that property.
They do a great job monitoring it.
And prior to this time, my team, my inspectors have been boarding up the property, doing the best that they can.
But they find another window to break in.
And this last incident had several areas of entry and several broken windows.
And it was to a point where with the winter months coming, really needed to secure the structure.
Definitely.
OK, thank you.
Alderman, Stacy.
OK, you spoke about boarding it up.
What are we looking at to board this up again?
I didn't write down my totals.
OK, so it's already boarded up right now.
It's been boarded up.
But the total cost to board it up was $13,863.
OK, now this is what I don't understand.
Anderson.
Okay, I understand you're wreaking havoc from the owner?
The landlord?
The owner?
Alright, I'm sorry, what was the question?
Are you wreaking havoc from?
I'm wreaking havoc from that person?
Yes.
Meaning I'm trying to understand how I wreak havoc.
Is he giving you a hard time?
You don't want it tore down?
Well, I will say that yes, the city is moving and We fast-track this property and they said with it being a commercial property we're gonna move forward with a petition at the Circuit Court so it's an on-goal it's an ongoing legal matter right now and I just would say personally I strongly believe it needs to be remediated immediately yesterday yeah 13,000 to board it up when it needs to come down I'm with you a hundred percent I am with you a hundred and others.
The resolution is adopted 8-0.
Voice for use of subscription material.
Chief Shenberger.
The Freeport Police Department has used Lexapol Knowledge Management System for the development and issuance of policy and procedures since 2019.
Strong policy and procedure is critical for law enforcement agencies to ensure staff responds to calls for service in a consistent manner.
Some of the benefits of utilizing Lexapol KMS to develop and maintain policies and procedures include ensuring the agency's policies are current and comply with changes in laws.
Lexipol KMS adapts policies to include legislative language when state legislator enacts new legislation.
Responding to civil and criminal cases, Lexipol KMS monitors court cases and ensures the policy and procedures are compliant with changes in case law.
And Lexipol KMS includes language necessary to facilitate the accreditation process.
The annual subscription for Lexapol KMS is $15,180.52.
This cost is included in the fiscal year 2025 PD budget underlying item 101-151-6150.
Is there a motion to adopt?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Discussion on the resolution.
Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Klemm, Monroe, Simmons, Parker, Stacy, Shadle, Sanders, and Sellers.
And that resolution is adopted 8-0.
Item number 19 is the adoption of resolution 202507.
Please read this.
Resolution approving purchase of ENCODE module for accounts payable automation.
Director Richter.
Thank you, Your Honor.
Currently, the City of Freeport uses Tyler ENCODE for payroll, general ledger accounting, utility billing, and accounts payable since it was implemented in 2020.
The current process, and this is just very basic from beginning to end, the current process for entering invoices for payment is inefficient and impacts many departments.
Currently, the Fire Department, Police, Library, Public Works, and the Finance Department enter their own invoices into the system.
The process for entering invoices is a hard copy of the invoices received by mail or we print it out from an email.
The invoice is reviewed and matched with packing lists as applicable.
Once reviewed by the department head, the invoice is coded and signed as approval and the invoice along with any backup is scanned into the system.
The invoice is hand-keyed into Tyler Encode for payment and the scanned document is then attached.
Each of the departments I listed before, they submit their packets of invoices electronically to finance for review.
The City Accountant reviews all packets by checking the key data and comparing it to the original invoice and that Pile of bills.
So for example, the packet that you approved in the consent agenda is this big And so Electronically, well, I'm sorry at this point the paper bills go from the City Accountant.
They go to my desk I review all of them then they go to the City Manager's desk Desk, he reviews them, and then they end up in the consent agenda for counsel.
Tyler Encode has developed an advanced module called Accounts Payable Automation.
Once a scanned document is uploaded into the software, the information from the invoice, such as the date, the amount, the vendor, is electronically imported into the software.
The imported information does need to be verified, so you still need a human, and the account code needs to be entered.
Once the invoice is entered, the invoice is put into an electronic workflow.
For example, instead of manually signing and coding a piece of paper, the invoice is electronically forwarded to the department head for approval and then into a flow to go to the city accountant for Review, Finance Director, City Manager.
By adding this technology, we anticipate the reduction of staff time necessary to enter and approve invoices.
This will not only positively impact the Finance Department, but also all departments that enter their own invoices.
The strategic plan alignment here is responsive, efficient government.
The Finance Department staff request approval to purchase the Accounts Payable Automation Module that is just a piece, a new piece of Tyler Encode at the quoted price of $11,838 annually with a 250 implementation cost.
Is there a motion to adopt?
So move.
Second.
Okay, motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Parker.
On the Resolution, and Alderman Stacy.
Yes, I'm concerned that it took us four years to realize this isn't giving us what we need or really want, and we're willing to buy a second piece of the same ENCODE, Tyler ENCODE Company, is that the route we need to go, or do we need to look at something totally different?
Manager Boyer, did you want that?
Yes.
Alderwoman Stacy, I think you're referring to when we changed accounting systems, and I think you get an opportunity when you first purchase a new piece of software to elect to find out what of the modules you actually want to use, because there's a lot more modules I submit to you that this is actually more of an evolutionary process, a refinement process, and I think it's a, I support it fully, so thank you.
Okay.
If there's no further discussion, then please take the roll.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
Simmons?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders is absent.
Sellers?
Aye.
The resolution is adopted 7 to 0.
Item number 20 is the adoption of resolution 202508.
Could you please read this?
Resolution approving Fehr Graham master service contract for 2025.
Thank you.
Manager Boyer?
Thank you your honor.
So the city has various annual engineering needs projects that come up and things as we go along with the large construction and others.
We have a number of things that come up throughout the year are topographical studies, infrastructure system mapping, geo information systems, construction survey and staking, elevation records, ADA issues, multiple grants and loan assistance, water, storm and sanitary sewer utility system design, structural assessment, street infrastructure, airport engineering support, various right of Way Permitting, Illinois EPA Protection Agency Requirements, Illinois Department of Transportation Necessities and Quality Assurance and Quality Control via inspections and observations related to construction.
In addition, soil borings and analysis and all emergency needs for professional engineering requirements.
So this consultant work is performed outside of specific project contracts brought to the the Council and it requires specific funding sources.
Freeport requires an engineering firm to provide support with staff, technical professional licensed engineers who specialize in these diverse areas of expertise.
So the City of Freeport approves various engineering contracts throughout the year and the support for all the city staff departments as needed.
So this would be a contract that's related back to the time and material needed by staff and Jeff at various times throughout the year during the construction phases.
This contract allows general engineering requirements not related to a specific contract to be performed on a day-to-day need basis.
So it also enables the city to be reactive to our daily needs and requirements as the infrastructure emergencies arise.
We've been doing this for several years and all the major projects are handled separately and I've, you know, if we do not use this entire agreement, we do not use it all.
We just use what we need.
So it's been very helpful and it allows us to contend with issues that emerge in the field efficiently and effectively.
So with that, I would request council approve this resolution.
Is there a motion to adopt?
So moved.
Second.
Do we have a motion?
May be Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Klemm.
Discussion on the resolution.
Alderman Sanders.
Yeah.
What are we trying to say here?
That Fehr Graham made a proposal.
Is Fehr Graham making a proposal to the city?
Well, each year the city actually requests that Fehr Graham put together this master services agreement and as I mentioned just a little while ago this gives us the flexibility to get certain projects done and completed throughout the year because whenever you're dealing with construction, whenever you're dealing with things day in and day out like we do, whether it be lining, whether it's sewer cleaning or replacements of sewer mains, this gives us the and I have the operational flexibility to get those things done and we have kind of a cap amount and I don't believe we've exceeded that since we started.
Alderman Sanders?
Should I wait?
Alderman Sanders, go ahead.
Using Fehr and Graham services to do the inspection, the whole entire ball of wax or whatever, when, whenever inspections or job needs to be, projects needs to be considered and things like that, we are dependent upon Fehr and Graham to make that assessment and determination and the cost and the estimated cost that we have not had a chance to, to determine whether and others are not, their cost is justifiable to work on the city, for the city at large.
In other words, what Fehram Graham has not revealed to us, all of his cost services, and all of this structural cost service and infrastructure cost services and are these estimated costs because I like to have a cost that is already something that the council has determined whether or not we will go forward with certain services and certain costs.
Director Boyer?
If I could speak to that point, number one, it's been my experience and I've dealt with a number of different engineering design firms and different engineers.
Fehr Graham not only is local, they know and understand our systems, whether it's transportation, water, sewer, storm, and a whole lot of other systems.
They have always delivered at or below cost and when they have had a problem where they've had a cost overrun we didn't see a change order they just took care of it they took care of it internally because Freeport is an important customer to this to their organization however I want to address your point which is as far as the time and material portion of this contract is and others concerned.
This is definitely reviewed and overseen by staff.
We make sure that anything they're doing, we're keeping track of those times.
And we're also keeping track of all of the activities that they're doing and that we go through and parse those out and approve them individually when the invoices come through.
But I wanted to make one last point, which was in the relationship that we have with Fehr Graham, the only difference you would do in other ways Mays, like for instance, if you had another project and you were interested in pursuing other help or other engineering services contracts, you wouldn't, this wouldn't be a bidding situation.
It would be a statement of qualification where you would submit to various engineering companies their statement of qualifications and you would receive those.
I've looked at a number of those different process, different statements on different projects and I will suggest because of their, not only their track record of success and and their knowledge, deep knowledge of the city, they are very, very qualified to the point where it would be difficult to find anyone more qualified.
Alderman, Stacy?
Yes.
I don't know that we did, but I don't know that we didn't go over last year because Fehr Graham came back and asked for $250,000 extra.
And I know what was budgeted, what was started with, and I know there's also a 20% increase that can be added up in there as well, if I'm not mistaken.
My only concern, my only request.
We have 20, 30 items on this agenda and three are contracts with Fehr Graham.
It would have been nice to have gotten these in November or December at the latest to go Go through all this, instead of spending the weekend trying to understand.
And I know it happens, but how many people are really even reading them to even understand what it's saying and what we're committing to?
Or are we just getting back and saying, yes, aye, aye, aye?
We don't take the police.
We don't take Ashley.
When their contract is up and take a couple days to approve their contract and we just need to see this information before it runs out in advance.
I'm not against it happening, we're indebted to Fehr Graham, I'm not against Fehr Graham but it would be nice to get these type of things in advance.
Well, if you think that, you know, it's gonna be two, three months in advance and I mean, we'll never get anything done.
I mean, this is normal procedure to put moving forward.
What is normal?
It's not normal.
It is, adoptions of resolutions are.
Mayor Jodi Miller, all I'm asking is that not that nothing be changed but that we receive it in advance to go through it in case we have any questions because I don't want to make a motion to move this to the DeKal in February, that would be my right.
That would be my right so please understand where I'm coming from I know what's been norm but what's been norm don't mean it's been right all I am is trying to take time three contracts am I correct on this agenda I don't want to just, okay, all I'm asking is that if we're going to vote on something in January pertaining to Fehr Graham's three contracts, is that we get them in November to look over them, to ask questions, to do whatever we may want to do.
Maybe some don't want to do nothing because they ain't done nothing for so long.
But some of us want to understand.
Darren, did you want to add to that?
Yeah, sure.
We can certainly try to get contracts here sooner.
I would like to state that this is the exact same contract, the exact same everything for the last three years.
That is why it wasn't presented sooner.
It's an annual contract and it is a time and material estimation contract if you read it.
So we could continue on the current contracts that we have because there's not a final set amount on it, but City Manager and and Alderman Monroe.
Did you have something?
Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor.
Normally I've supported this in the past but recent events have changed my mind and there's a lot of reasons why.
On January 8th, Fehr Graham made a post on Facebook.
That post says we are proud to collaborate with clients like Rob Boyer, City Manager of the City of Freeport, City Hall.
Rob shares how Fehr Graham's dedication, communication, and exceptional service sets us apart from other firms.
Join us in making a difference and enhancing our communities we cherish.
Together we create real change.
What most people don't realize, a lot of people in the City of Freeport, is that happens Dixie.
This is how convoluted this has become.
We've got the Public Works Director signing off on a contract with Fehr Graham to the City of Freeport that is then countersigned and sent back to the City Manager.
These agreements come back and forth, the communications, so the Director sits in multiple positions.
He works for Fehr Graham.
Stiegel.
He participates in a lot of this work that's done and no doubt Mr. Stiegel does a great job in a lot of things.
But it creates a conflict of interest.
And that conflict of interest gives the impression of a pay for play or something that's nefarious going on.
And I. We have to actually be going on to break and violate the law.
A class 4 felony.
And we walk in this room, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it's like, well, this is what we've always done.
Well, we should be questioning everything we do because we're spending money that we don't always have, and we're constantly raising rates on everything.
And we have to come back.
And this is this is the Illinois law a conflict of interest occurs when a person's personal interests could compromise their judgment decisions or actions this includes financial interest family relationships friendships or social factors this is a state of Illinois this is not my opinion this goes above that as well and these things have been going on behind closed doors and Robert, and they have been occurring over and over and over again.
I bring this up because here we go.
We are just going to say 350,000 for this, 100,000 here, 150 here, another 100 over here.
It doesn't matter.
Fehr Graham loves us.
Of course, I would love the City of Freeport if they gave me half a million or three-quarters of a million and others.
But it causes the appearance, even if it's not happening, it causes the appearance that something nefarious is going on and we're blocking out other engineering firms that theoretically could be bringing opportunities to the City of Freeport as well and not putting all of our eggs in one basket.
And having been in a business and run a business, I understand the dangers of doing that.
And others, and they put you in a situation where you're no longer able to check, could somebody else do the same thing at a cheaper cost, at a better solution, you don't know.
We've completely pushed all of the other players out.
And now, we've built this deep relationship where we've got a Fehr Graham employee who's also a City employee, kind of, I don't really know.
I asked the question, nobody's really given me a great answer on that yet.
I happen to like him a lot.
I think he does a lot of great things for the city but it doesn't change the fact that this looks not good.
My personal opinions don't matter on that.
My duty is to the citizens of the second ward and the rest of the citizens of Freeport.
And when I see things like this coming through that well we don't know how much it's going to be, it could be more, it could be less, it just depends on what we do, how busy we We are what we've got going on and last year was a busy year.
I mean, we did a lot.
We did Adams.
We did a lot of streets.
We did a lot of work.
But at the same time, now we're starting to now we're starting to understand why I'm asking the question.
We've already paid for the city employees on the other page who are going out and checking and following up to make sure the water mains are connected the right way.
But now we understand why we're We're asking for an increase there as well because now we need more money to pay Fehr Graham more money.
It's not about our city employees, it's about our contractors.
And the people of Freeport deserve better than this.
And Cecelia's right, Alderman Stacy is 100% right.
This should have come to the cow.
There's no reason it couldn't have come to the cow.
And we talked about it last week, instead, you're going to shove it through all three at once.
And you know what we know what's gonna happen it's gonna pass but it's not gonna pass because I say yes but people should start questioning people should start looking at what's going on in this building and asking questions not enough people are involved and they should be but these three contracts $350,000 master service contract for 2025 is is insanity you should have to come back and John, and I'm going to say, we're going to put it back to us or put it in the overall budget, lay it out, here's what we're going to do, here's the projects, here's what we think it's going to be, but once again, we don't do that.
We don't lay it out.
And, again, that's three years of the same contract and a lot of unsupported accusations.
Darren, did you want to defend that?
Yes, I would.
So I am going to take those comments personal because there is no situation going on here.
I work very hard for the City of Freeport every day.
I don't know another consultant that has brought in 13 million dollars of funding just this year, which maybe we have a great relationship going on and the interactions between government and a consultant is actually producing more than other other areas.
I'm very proud of the work that I've done and I will state again there is nothing going on between city government and Fehr Graham.
We have been embedded in this community for 51 years.
We have done the city engineering here.
There is no employees from any other engineering Firm that live in the city of Freeport.
We employ 40 people down in our office that are all people that spend money in Freeport.
We have a long-term We have a long-term lease at our building in Freeport, so we are embedded here.
I can give you examples of other projects that have happened here over the years and one of them you guys just approved money for a contract that an engineer that didn't even finish their work and decided to pay them but Accusations are coming after us.
I will tell you Mr. Monroe our firm lost We lost $21,000 on the landfill contract last year, and we never came back and asked for a penny.
We wrote it off, we ate it, because that was the agreement.
The general engineering contract, which this is the master service, is what it is, that is in replacement of the city engineering department that doesn't exist here.
These are things that we have to be nimble on when buildings fall down, when IDOT permits are needed to do water main construction.
There is a lot of work in the City of Freeport that requires this everyday engineering with engineering stamps and with a team of people that are nimble and can react for the City of Freeport.
Again, I have 40 people in a building down there that we are paying family wages to.
There is not, there is another firm in town.
They have nobody that lives in the City of Freeport.
So compare apples to apples.
We invest in the community.
We also donate to the community and we have been a great partner to the City of Freeport.
I just added this up and we have personally, our firm has brought in over $50 million worth of funding that did not need to be repaid to the City of Freeport in the last, I believe it's 10 or 12 years.
So we have been a good partner and I am taking it personal that you are putting out on the council floor that there's accusations that are not there.
You know me better than that.
Alderman Klemm?
Yeah I'd just like to bring up that I've had the pleasure of working with a number of people in my 20 years as an alderman.
Many of them have been from many other engineering firms.
Some of those firms have been successful.
Some of those firms have have caused us problems.
I've worked with probably three or four city engineers over that period of time, at least, that caused us great problems and great costs to the City of Freeport, who were employed by the City of Freeport, where everybody thought they were saving money.
Over the last year, as Director Bryan gave his speech about the City of Freeport, we did seven miles of road last year.
That's never been done in the City of Freeport.
And it took cooperation between Fehr Graham, their partners, and remember they oversee all these projects, too, that happen.
It took them, there has never been a year where that much has been produced without any hassle, without any overcharges.
I mean, you mentioned they They came back once for monies for things.
They have managed the landfills for years.
I go to fitness lifestyles every morning at 5 o'clock or 5.15, 5.15, 5.30 in the morning.
Who do I see in Honkat going into work?
Darren.
Who do I call at 6 o'clock at night when I've got a question on a project?
Darren.
Fehr Graham has been a great partner to the City Fripport, as any firm we have ever worked for.
And I would never say, I can't think of one project that we went back on that Fehr Graham had to redo, reproduce, do it over again or change things on.
I believe if you read this, they are asking for X number of dollars and they are asking for there is a limit set on the amount of money that they can make on this project.
There is nothing more favorable in the world and I know this is being a contractor than a time and material contract, time and material contract that you can work with a company that you can trust to get a job done.
And I call the question.
I am well I asked for procedure here we're doing oh if that's that's cool that's cool are you are you making a motion to call the question so a motion has been made it would need a second and then a vote if that passes by two-thirds majority then the question is called what's the motion you made him call the question call the post I'll second that question and so we have a motion made by and John, and so on.
So, it's been passed by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Klemm, made the motion, and it has been seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Oh, after you got done making that long comment you just made.
You don't have the floor, Alderman Sanders, I'm sorry.
Yeah, but he wants to close, he wants to close the discussion.
Yes, he does.
That's what I'm on the floor.
Well, that's his prerogative, but.
Yes.
Okay.
So, we have a motion on the floor for that.
So, it's not debatable.
It has to pass by and James.
I will call the roll on calling the question.
Do you understand what this is?
Do you understand?
Okay.
So if you could please call the roll on calling the question.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
No.
Simmons?
In favor, so that fails.
So then more discussion.
You have already had twice a talk, Alderman Stacey's once, Alderman Klemm's once, Alderman Rose once.
Is there?
Are we on the same subject or different subject?
Yeah, we are on the same subject.
So Alderman Parker, Alderman Simmons, Alderman Shadle, Alderman Sellers, do you have anything you want to add?
No.
To?
To this resolution, adopting this resolution?
I do.
Okay.
The first thing is, why wouldn't I want someone that I could trust, or I'm a good partner with?
I mean, that's life.
You want a good partner in marriage, you want a good partner in business, you want a good partner in friendship, you know, why wouldn't I want to be working with somebody that I have a good relationship with?
That's what I can't understand.
It's the same thing that we've done the year before, the year before.
We've got the ball rolling, we're moving, we're making some strides, people are complimenting us on our work, but we come and we complain on every number, on every part of the agenda.
We have, it's just combative on everyone and it's, it's tiresome.
Alderman Shadle or Alderman Simmons, did either one of you have anything you want to add?
You've already had your twice, Larry.
I will.
Alderman Simmons?
Alderman, Simmons, yeah I just want to say asking questions that's that we got to stop considering that combative like we shouldn't be expected to just come say yes to everything some things you may have the answer for and you may be in the mic questions and you want to ask those questions on public record but it's always assumed that people aren't prepared or they're combative and aggressive when they have questions and I just don't think that's fair like I don't have any more questions or discussion but if somebody else does and I will vote no to call in the questions so they can finish their discussion.
That's only fair.
Alderman Stacy, did you have your hand up?
No, but I will say that I, too, said no because I feel that if someone has something to say, they should have the option to say it.
I mean, we've been limited to two questions, so I'm not going to take that from someone if they have further discussion.
I said what I said.
I meant what I said.
We have three contracts on this agenda.
It would have been nice just to have gotten them in advance.
I'm not saying anything negative about anybody all I just said no not all the time most of the time not all the time I'm just saying I wanted the contracts in advance I understand we'd have had the same contract for the last That's 3 years.
Last year I believe was my first time voting on the contract.
And I didn't know what I was voting on.
I couldn't understand half of the stuff that was in them.
Do that make me stupid?
No.
That make me ask questions.
And maybe it should prepare you.
That's my right and so just like when I go into When I go into contract negotiations, it's a three, four, five month ordeal.
I'm not asking for that.
I'm just saying so that when the year is up, like where we're at today, that I've already didn't just have Friday till today to prepare.
I know I could call you.
I call you often.
I'm going to keep calling you.
I called you yesterday and I'm alright with that.
But I'm not going to be called combative because I open my mouth and I speak.
Well, we have a resolution to adopt for Fehr Graham's Master Service Engineering Agreement.
You've already spoken twice.
I did.
Yes.
So if there's no further discussion, Madam Clerk, please take the role.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
No.
Simmons?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
No.
And Sellers?
Aye.
The resolution is adopted 6-2.
Item number 21 is the adoption of resolution Resolution 2025-09.
Could you please read this?
Resolution approving Fehr Graham Master Service Contract for Public Works Service for 2025.
Thank you.
Manager Boyer?
Thank you, Your Honor.
The City also requires a professional public works assistant for various civil, environmental, engineering, and managerial duties daily to oversee the City Department effectively and efficiently.
It's essential to have a director who is immersed in the City Infrastructure and has the history and knowledge to handle the various demands of the position.
City requests assistance to handle the volume of daily duties required by this large department including but not limited to right-of-way permitting, overweight permitting, IDOT bridges, streets, forestry, water, wastewater, sewer, and storm infrastructure.
City staff requires professional assistance as needed from Fehr Graham to assist in the management of the department and specifically duties related to the various civil environmental and others.
These are all engineering and project management services that require an expert level of knowledge and experience.
The Public Works Master Service Agreement provides a team of local engineer experts for the city resources as needed.
The total cost of these services is $100,000 on a time and material basis and is billed as needed as the City Manager or Department Directors require.
So this contract represents cost savings to the city.
A Public Works Director, hired position with full salary and benefits with compensation would be essentially $130,000 or more.
So recommendation, staff recommends City Council approve the Public Works professional related assistance.
Is there a motion to adopt?
So moved.
Second.
There will be a motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Discussion on this resolution?
Alderman Sanders?
Yeah, we throw in that term, directors, without the consultation from the council into knowing who is stepping up to the plate to play these roles.
Obviously, we're being bypassed for these individuals who are directors as per se.
And we don't understand the whole criteria of these directors and what are they here for and who is doing the hiring or putting people in place without the consultation of the council.
And if we're doing that, no, I got to keep talking because she's going to shut me down and put me on the pause list.
And so I don't want that right now.
I don't want you to interject at this point in time because she's subject to negate what I'm trying to talk about.
But my problem is we're putting people in place to make decision making decisions without the council.
I have a problem with that.
I have a problem with every prominent positions like directors.
I need to know who these directors are because these directors are making decisions on how taxpayers' dollars are being spent, how we're billing things, how we're doing anything when it comes to contract.
This is what's happening constantly and I don't want the residents in this city to be in the dark.
I want to make sure that everything is brought to the and others.
How we got here, because people are sitting at home, is, well, where did he come from?
How did he get here?
Who hired him?
Who authorized the position?
Well, if the council is not mediating none of this, talking about it, then we're clueless.
They're just popping up like popcorns, you know, and we got to get a handle on that.
When I look at my manager, I know that he's the link to these kinds of things and we have to ask more questions.
That's the reason why questions need to be asked in terms of how we go about the day-to-day operation and business of the city.
And so we need to know these things and we shouldn't have to be debating it.
And John.
I'm just going because the chairperson is running things and I don't want nobody to speak while I'm speaking until I get an opportunity to say what I have to say.
I want to make that a practice.
I think every council person wants to make that a practice because I sit here and listen to others elaborate on I want the same respect when that comes forward.
And my question was just one question, well, maybe more than one, but the point of matter is I'm trying to find out how we are handling Financier, Patrick, and Peter.
And I'm glad that we're able to bring people together and do things when it comes to bringing people to the floor to make consultations to tell the Council what is going on and what is expected and what they're trying to do.
I want my City Manager making these kinds of discussions and proposals.
I want him to be more involved into understanding when I want to go to your office, if I want to go to your office and want to talk about what went on in council, I want to be more involved in understanding what I expect something different than what outside people are talking about.
I want my council, I want my manager to know all these things so I can have a legitimate answer and when I come into the council, the people can understand that I consulted with you.
I have someone to say, well, this is the information I got from my manager, my city manager, and and I'm just going to voice that to the general public so they can understand why we vote the way we vote and sustain and things of this nature.
And so my whole thing is that I want to say we might need an overhaul on how we do things from the administrative position.
So that's my whole thing.
If you want to cut me off.
Come on.
Oh, no, I'm holding my tongue.
So I believe you're asking who gets to make the decision of the master service contract for the Public Works.
That's what this is.
So you can vote yes or no.
Yeah, but it's already in place.
It's, it's for you to make a determination.
You either vote yes or vote no.
That's what this is.
Okay, so any further discussion?
Darren?
So I'll answer your question or try to.
This works no differently than it would if somebody else sat in this seat.
Directors have a certain responsibility to the city.
They can only approve so much.
Anything else has to go.
It's a purchasing policy that is by the city.
Michelle ensures that we follow the and I have a purchasing policy of anything that's done.
It all comes to council.
I believe anything, Rob can't prove anything over $9,999 per our ordinance.
So everything's still run through the council.
We don't make decisions independently of the council.
Rob and I work together on public works every day to ensure that our team has a good mission and we're getting things done, which I think is proven in the city that more and more and more is getting done since I've been assisting the city over the last two years.
So I have sat in that director role for the last two years.
We're asking to continue it.
We're making great strides and our contract, I believe is advantageous to the city because it's for less than they could hire somebody for with benefits, a truck, equipment.
Our cost is all in 100%.
It's time and material as needed.
We've last year we made it the whole year and we have enough to We've done a good job managing the contract.
And there's a lot more to this.
We do permitting for water and sewer permits for residents.
We also do overweight permits.
We also do civil reviews for the City of Freeport.
So in these contracts, there's money returned to the city through those fees through Mr. Duckman's department.
I don't know if you've heard of it.
And others.
I don't know the exact number.
Michelle could probably get it.
There's probably over $100,000 in permit and civil review fees that get returned to the city for the work that we do every day through contractors, trucking companies, things like that, that before I took this role, nobody was really managing.
And it wasn't really happening.
So I have done my best to clean up the areas that we could and should.
I think the role has been very avid changes to both parties and I'm living Freeport, I love Freeport and I work hard for Freeport every day and if you don't believe me, you can ask any other directors of the other departments that I work with every day from Fire, Police, Finance, Community Development, even the Library and let them judge it Any other discussion?
Madam Clerk, please take the roll Klemm?
Aye Monroe?
No.
Simmons?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
No.
And Sellers?
Aye.
The resolution is adopted, 6 to 2.
And item number 22 is the adoption of resolution 2025-10.
Could you please read this?
Resolution approving Fehr Graham agreement to provide Alberta's airport stormwater inspections and reports.
Manager Boyer.
Thank you, Your Honor.
Similarly, we have to, every year we have to renew We do our stormwater permits.
Alberta's airport requires its own stormwater permit.
So this is essentially an agreement with Fehr Graham to process a stormwater permit.
The total amount budgeted for this item is about $5,000.
Is there a motion to adopt?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Discussion?
Point of correction, $5,500.
Alderman, Stacy?
I thought it was.
OK.
Any discussion?
Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Staying.
Simmons?
Aye.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders is absent Sellers aye the resolution is adopted 601 item number 24 is update of the city's goals for the Social Justice Committee presented by manager Boyer thank you honor and in the interest of time I will keep this as concise as I can at we the Social Justice Committee when it was meeting offered several recommendations and metrics to assess the city's progress in diversity, equity, and inclusion within city employment primarily.
There are some other metrics, but I do want to compare 2020 as our first year to quarter four of last year and just highlight a few of the pretty significant increases that have happened here.
In the police department.
Female employees were increased 26.3% in that period of time.
So we started off with 19 working for the police department.
We currently have 24.
That was an increase of five.
In terms of minority employees, we started off with six minorities in the police department in 2020.
We have increased that to 16.
That's a positive gain of 10.
That's a total increase of and I would provide the total employment in 2020.
We had 63 full-time employees at the police department.
Currently we have 67.
That's a total staff increase of four.
So while we increased our diversity and our women employees, it certainly didn't match the number of employees and Chris.
We're working on fire, it's a lengthy process that involves various steps and requirements for qualification.
I think we had reached out through various marketing methods this year when we solicited for new recruits and I believe Chief has received the most recruits coming to the fire department that he's ever had before.
But Chief, if you could elaborate on that, I would appreciate it.
Sure, I'd be happy to.
I believe this last recruitment effort, we had 37 applications picked up and 36 returned.
A number of those applicants either failed to show up for the written exam, written exam in orientation, or they could not produce the Correct.
Paperwork at the orientation and written exam.
I believe it was 19 showed up for that.
And then we had, I believe, six washout from the written exam.
And then we also had a number of other applicants washout from the testing process, the honesty test, the background Fowler.
So, eventually, we wound up with a final eligibility list of five.
But just an example of our recruitment efforts this year, we recruited, we sent out publications, we advertised, I should say, in more than 42 different areas.
So our outreach was greater.
This recruitment process, the prior one, we advertised about 24 different areas.
So we more than doubled what we were trying to do and recruitment retention is difficult in the fire service whether it's here, the suburbs or even in the city so this last group we tried extra hard to have a cross section of our community and we wound up with a eligibility list of five.
Thank you Chief.
And I. So just to round this out, so all other departments, so not including fire and police, we increased our female employees by 32 percent, our minority employees by 100 percent out of a total increase of staff of about 12 percent.
So enterprise-wide, we increased our female employees by 30 percent, our minority employees by 116 percent, and that is with a total employment increase of 10 percent.
Thank and reach out to all the department heads and everyone who's been a part of this.
It's very important work that we're doing and I'm glad that we are able to find qualified folks to not only represent as our city employees, but especially as our first responders.
So thank you very much for all your efforts on that and that's all I've got Madam Mayor.
Thank you.
We'll move on to department heads finance.
Thank you, your honor.
I would just like to thank council for the Approval of the software.
It's much appreciated.
Thank you.
Community Development?
Nothing tonight, Madam Mayor.
Thank you.
Public Works?
Nothing except for thank you for the generous contracts.
Fire?
Yes, thank you.
Each council member received a copy of the fire department's 2024 annual report that's highlighting the department activities for the last calendar year.
And Mayor.
Thank you.
Fire?
I'm sorry, police?
I have no report tonight.
Thank you.
Library?
I'm going to talk for a little bit longer than I normally do and I know it's been three hours so thank you for your time.
We are starting our One Book, One Free Port community read on Saturday.
We have our book drop party from 12 PM to 2 PM and One Book, One Free Port is our biennial community read program.
Community read programs work to promote literacy while engaging an entire community in a common reading experience.
Join us on Saturday, January 25th for our official kickoff event.
For all ages, pick up your free book and enjoy live music from the Early Jazz Society, Tasty Snacks, a community craft activity, and a puzzle for everyone to contribute to.
After the book giveaway, the library hosts a variety of programs to explore, including film screenings, group discussions, story times, and crafts.
Be sure to check out our website for our calendar of events.
And I can officially tell you that the book that was chosen this year is Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.
So be sure to come to the library to get your copy of the book and it is free and you get to keep the book 12 to 2 on Saturday.
And then really excited.
And then a really exciting announcement.
We are officially going fine free effective on February 1st.
So have you heard that starting on February 1st, the Freeport Public Library is fine free.
Returning late due to being out of town, no problem.
Keeping a book a few days longer so you can finish, we've been there.
Found a book and a pile of kids toys while you were moving and you're afraid to come back to the library because of how many fees you'll have.
We understand life happens.
Welcome back.
Overdue fines are widely recognized by professional library organizations as a form of social inequity.
And there's been multiple studies conducted that show that imposing fines neither teaches responsibility nor motivates borrowers to return their items on time.
And any outstanding late fines on Freeport Public Library items will be purged from our Patreon account starting on February 1st of 2025.
All of our items will be fine free with the exception of our hotspots, our STEM kits, our parent kits, and the Library of Things items.
Essentially those items cost a lot more money than the average book, so we'll still have some overdue fines on those.
The borrowing privileges will be suspended for patrons with significantly overdue material and for lost and damaged items, the cost of the item will still be charged to the patron account if they do not return it.
If you have more questions for us, feel free to call us at the library or come in and we'll be continuing to update our website with more information.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
IT?
Airport?
City Manager?
Thank you, Your Honor.
I'll keep this quick.
I just wanted to thank Director Bridge for his report tonight.
I thought it was very comprehensive and it reflects a tremendous amount of work and effort and execution that's been done by the city staff.
So thank you to the staff.
Thank you to our employees.
You all have done an excellent job in 2024.
I agree.
Alderman Klemm.
Mayor.
It's my turn.
It is my turn.
Alderman Klemm?
I just wanted to announce that on January 28th, we will not have our Neighborhood Watch.
Please attend the event being held at the library at 6 o'clock that night.
It will be the new candidates that are running for positions.
That's far more important than the Neighborhood Watch is at this point.
Please participate in that.
Last Saturday, January the 18th, we had our National Day of Racial Healing.
What an empowering event it was.
Also, we were scheduled yesterday to have our Dr. King celebration and due to the cold weather, it was cancelled, but we will be having it this Saturday, January 25th, opening up at 4.30 with praise and worship and program at 5.
Please come out and show your support.
Alderman, Shadle.
I just want to commend Darren Steekle and Fehr Graham.
A lot of things said tonight that were stretches, the amount of value that we get out of that corporation is phenomenal.
The amount of integrity that's sitting in that seat is phenomenal.
Thank you.
Alderman, Sanders, Alderman, Sellers, None Public Comments?
Tommy?
You said about the hotels mentioned?
Wasn't it going to.
Open real soon, Tommy.
Real soon.
They have to go to court for that?
They sure do, Tommy.
And we'll let this Jodi, Jodi, Mike, Angela want to know when.
We all want to know Tommy, we all want to know.
Are there any other public comments?
Bernie?
Good evening everyone, Board and Madam Mayor.
I'm going to take a very short thing.
I think you're doing a fairly good job.
I really appreciated Director Bridges report tonight.
There's only one thing missing on that report, and that's the association with dollars by department.
And to that I had noticed that in the consent agenda the best we could do is having a report as of November 30th not December 31st so I think these things need to merge together so that the the strategic plans reports and the financials come together so we know what we've done and how much we've done and and what it cost us to get it done.
In regards to the, I appreciate doing the scanning, but it's not going to solve all problems.
I think you're going to have to take a look at purchase orders or purchase requisitions in the future so that you can get ahead of the game so that you can close your months on time.
Now, I want to divert to a little politics, and I think you're doing a good job.
You're getting there.
These are some quotes from a person that lives, really, had lived a long time ago from this particular area.
He says, Cheap cigars come in handy.
They stifle the odor of cheap politicians.
He also said That if we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be the Mason-Dixon, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other.
Ulysses S. Grant quoted that.
He also said, I would suggest that taxation on all property equally whether church or corporation.
And there are a few more things that, oh the last one is you can violate the law and banks may violate the law and be sustained in doing so.
But the President of the United States cannot violate the law and he was a President.
So some very interesting things that date a very long time ago, something to ponder over and think about, and Mr. Boyer, I forgot to bring in my pink snout, I was going to share it with you, okay?
We used to live very close to each other in Virginia and the commanders have won and are going to be in the playoffs and at one point in time they were called the hogs and I think you probably are a Redskin fan.
Is there any other public comment this evening?
If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Second.
A motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Shadle.
All those in favour?