We'll call the meeting to order. Do we have a quorum? We do have a quorum, but I'll call the roll and confirm that, too. Mayor Miller?


Miller, Alderpersons, Klemm, Monroe, Simmons, Absent, Parker, Stacy, Shadle, Sanders, and Sellers. Yes, we do have a quorum.


Okay. Could we all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.


can I have a motion to approve the agenda? So move. Second. Okay. It was approved first by Klemm and second by Parker. Okay. Just a second. I'm trying to write into that. All those in favor?


A motion to waive the requirements for only this meeting of Section 220-1023b, Rules of of Council, addressed by non-members to increase the time allowed to five minutes for members of the public to speak.


Is there a motion? So moved. So moved. Okay, it was moved by Parker this time and second by Klemm.


Are there any, yes, any in favor? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Okay. So we move that to five minutes now instead of three. Overview of budget process by Finance Director Michelle Richter.


Thank you Alderman Sellers. Our budgeting process began quite a few months ago. Towards the end of July, beginning of August, our department heads started to gather their departmental budgets.


they look at past history they look at the previous budget and they start compiling their information into each individual section that they are responsible for once that is completed they are reviewed by the city manager and we've been in the process of presenting these budgets to the Finance and others.


We have also had one previous public input session. This is our second public input session.


We will have two more meetings presenting various pieces of the budget before we get to the actual passing of the ordinance, our first reading.


The other two meetings that are to follow, so in the agenda this evening were attachments to all the presentations we've had so far.


We've had, I think, five Finance Committee of the Wholes so far. Our next Finance Committee of the Wholes next week will cover some of our grant budgets.


We have several of those. We'll be covering the fire pension, the police pension, and foreign fire, and so that will kind of wrap up us touching each one of the budgets and departmental budgets, at least for the first time.


Since it has been, you know, two months since we've started this process, some of the numbers are going to be tweaked.


and I. We just received the latest projection numbers of revenue estimates for the state of Illinois from IML. This one just came in the mail today, so I'll be reviewing this in depth to look at our budget numbers. So once we presented everything once, finance is going to go through it again. City Manager is going to be going through it again. All of us will give it another final review. There might be a few tweaks and then that whole, those tweaks will also come to council. And so you'll see all of those and the public as well. Prior to the last thing, prior to the first reading of the 2025 appropriation, There will be an additional public comment that will be held prior to the meeting that night.


Do you have any dates on when those other two meetings will be? So we will have a Finance Committee of the Whole on November 4th, next Monday at 5 o'clock.


then we'll also have a Finance Committee of the Whole on the 12th okay that's a Tuesday after the holiday and then on November 18th is the intended first reading of the 2025 appropriation and it will require two readings for passage Okay. Anyone have any questions? If not, we'll move on to number seven. Overview of the budget that has been reviewed to date by City Manager Boyer and Finance Director Richter for September 9th, 2024, for September 16th, 2024, for October 7th, October 15th, 2024, October 15th, 2024, and October 21st, 2024.


Manager Boyer? Thank you, Your Honor. We have already reviewed the City Council budget, and that total amount is $35,760.


We have gone over the Commission's budget, and the total amount there is $40,020. We've reviewed the City Clerk's budget at $172,915.


The Communications Department at $88,950. We've also reviewed the City Manager and Mayor budget, which is $215,110.


We've also reviewed the legal budget, which is $296,000. The finance budget, which is $159,750.


We've reviewed the buildings budget at $272,725. We've reviewed the community development budget at $481,820.


Human resources budget at $112,350. And the hearing and administrative budget, which is $25,000. We've reviewed interdepartmental budget at $5,04,465.


And we've looked at the MIS budget, which is our information systems budget, at $784,438.


You have to bear with me. I have some of the pages turned around in here a little bit.


We've also reviewed the police budget at $7,109,750. The drug forfeiture fund, which is essentially a net zero, but $20,000 in income, $20,000 of expenses.


We've reviewed the fire budget at $6,772,965. The Fire Public Safety Fund, which is, again, similar to the Drug Forfeiture Fund, has an income of $12,500 and expenses of $12,500.


We have the Fire Improvement Fund with a revenue of $2,146,750 and equivalent $2,100,000. 178,795.


$795 in the Fire Improvement Fund. We've discussed the in detail on that. We have the Downtown TIF Fund with a revenue of $702,205 and expenses of the same. The Lamb Road TIF Fund, which is $3,851,455 and expenses of the same. The West Avenue TIF Fund, $680,115, and then expenses of the same.


The Bercher Hills TIF Fund, which is $20,025 and expenses of $20,025. The Meadows TIF, which is $251,190 and expenses of $251,190 as well.


And then Projects Fund, non-departmental, which is essentially a zero. Then we have the Sidewalk Program, which we're budgeting $20,000 for the Sidewalk Program.


Then Trail and other projects, $21,000. And Downtown Revitalization Loan Program of 45,000 and expenses of 45,000.


So that's the September 16th discussion. October 3rd, we discussed the revenues. So the total revenues are $25,485,575 for the city. We have a government buildings budget, which is $262,500.


262,500, the Cemetery Care Fund, which is 15,200, the Neighborhood Housing Fund, which is 625,000, and Tourism Fund of 285,000.


In addition to that, we did debt service at revenue of $4,531,760 and then also expense of 4,531,760, and then Health Care Fund, $3,159,010 and expenses of $3,159,010.


Landfill Closure Fund, we have a revenue of $603,205 and an expense of $503,205 with $100,000 going to build that account balance.


We had the downtown revitalization loan, and as I already mentioned, was $45,000. You said that October 3rd?


I'm sorry, October 7th. Oh, OK. Stan corrected. October 15th will be next. Public Works budget, Public Works is zeroed out this year.


That would be the Public Works Director budget. Under the Street Department, we are budgeting $3,527,205.


Under the airport, we're budgeting $654,435. Under the cemetery budget, we are budgeting $94,420. Under our forestry budget, we're budgeting $401,580.


Under animal control, we're budgeting $88,245,000. Under Traffic Engineering, we're budgeting $63,000. Under Street Lights, we're budgeting $321,000.


And in Motor Fuel Tax, we're expecting to get roughly $1 million. This is a projection, but $1,030,000.


Under the Street Improvement Fund, we're expecting to receive $4,316,000 and expend the same amount.


And then our next one to review is October 21st. When we did that, we went over all the capital projects, transportation, facilities, water projects.


So under transportation, we're budgeting a total for next year of $3,033,100. Under Facilities, we're budgeting $13,160,000.


Under Water Projects, we're budgeting $38 million. I'm sorry, stand by. I'm sorry, Water Projects is $13,160,000.


Facilities is $3 million. and Transportation Projects is $8,800,000. Under Wastewater Projects, $38,760,000. Stormwater Projects, $1,150,000.


And Vehicles and Equipment, we're budgeting $1,315,000. Under the Street Improvement Fund, we expect to receive, and I think we already just went over that, we're going to move along, Capital Equipment Fund, We're budgeting $996,525,000.


In the water fund, and this is including all revenue sources, including loans, we're budgeting $10,327,410.


And on the expense side, on capital equipment fund, we're budgeting $996,525, as we mentioned before.


and the sewer fund. We are budgeting $5,429,150. And under storm sewer, we're budgeting $1,272,200 and $600. And then on the expenses were for budgeting $5,429,150, and that includes debt repayments and revenues.


In addition to that, I think that kind of brings us to a conclusion. We've pretty much gone through all the budgets so far.


Are there any questions? I do have one. Sure. when you talked about the cemetery you did you talked about that twice you did a 19 and a 15 why is the cemetery in two different cemetery you're thinking a cemetery care fund as well as the cemetery operations budget okay so that's okay those are the two and then another one the the neighborhood housing fund what what is that I did get a call someone wanted to understand what was that's the real estate transfer tax so anytime there's a sale of property it's 0.004 is what we take out of that and we take that money and that's what goes towards our demolitions and a little bit of that goes towards economic development but that tax is all from the real estate transfer selling a property So anytime a property is sold, it goes into that fund and we use it for demolitions.


Okay, thank you. And then I have another one. You talked about the street lights. What is that going to consist of?


It's mostly the power bill. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. And this sidewalk, is that that 50-50 deal or what is that?


That's it. Yep. And you said that was 20,000? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions?


if not we'll move on to number eight discussion of remaining budget by City Manager Boyer and Finance Director Richter Michelle would you go ahead and take this one you kind of touched on this already but the only budgets that are left are the grant budget so we'll have several grants you know be that police department community development there's several grants we'll go through through next week.


And then we'll have the fire pension, the police pension, and foreign fire. Those are real, those budgets are really not set by council.


Those are fiduciary funds, so we just kind of watch over them, but we don't have a say.


They have their own boards. The foreign fire board makes their decisions. We do include them as part of our audit and part of our things, but they have their own boards that approve their budgets, but we do include them with us.


So that's why we kind of keep those at the end. that's why we kind of keep those at the end and really that's we just have those budgets to go over we'll be discussing the property tax abatements just as kind of maybe more of an educational why do we do it that kind of thing we'll discuss it before they'll those will come up those will be an ordinance that we'll have to read what you know go through two readings on so we're gonna to bring that up hopefully on I believe on the next meeting on the 4th. We were due to talk about the tax levy on the 4th as well, but I don't have the EAV numbers quite yet, so that will probably be deferred to the Finance COW of November 12th. That is a very important piece to have before we kind of wrap things up with setting the 2025 budget.


Are there any other questions? I'd like to say something about these board of directors and these boards for our department and how we got it set up and how it was governed and who are the people that are on these boards.


Do we have any perspective on how this is set up within the city that we have no way to make a determination or judge or whatever, have anything to say about these boards?


How is that set up and why is it separate from the council that the council cannot intervene or discuss the matters of the boards for every department within the city?


Is it a policy set up or governing body that sets that up or an administration that sets that up?


How is it that it's separated from the council? I'm just trying to find out why is that excluded from the council being able to review any of this stuff by board members or whatever and who are the board members that plays a part.


I like to have those things revealed to, I like to hear those persons who are on these boards and how it came about because there's no historical, I have not heard anything about how these things just come.


Alderman Sanders, is there a particular board you're questioning? Yeah, I'm talking about all the boards.


Okay, so that's, okay, so how that is, is those spots are appointed by the mayor and approved by the council.


So you have approved those, a lot of them. When they come before the council, you either say yes or no.


That's how they're seated. and they're and they're on for so so long so it might have been some of them that are on correct me some of them are have already been established and they're still on there because they're are they like four and five years it just depends summer three-year term summer seven-year terms it just depends on which one and so when someone is appointed by me if they have to be approved by you on all I'm trying to understand the process of how it is that you're determining what boards are elected to whatever department.


I think we're out of order with that sequence because it has not been something that we talked about as a council nor as an administration for the city.


and many others. So I'm just trying to see how we got there. That's what I'm saying.


It's been that process for as long as I've known. It's set by ordinance. Yeah.


It's set by ordinance. Yeah, as long as you... If it's an ordinance, then we say that it's an ordinance. That's what I'm saying. If it's an ordinance that has already been part of policy that helps to govern the departments of these administration and then who are they reporting to, the boards, who do they report to if we have questions. We might want to question the board in regards of their duties, their whatever that's happening. We have not been in an arena where we have this kind and I like to know why it sounds like it's being omitted from the council that we have not had an opportunity not even to introduce ourselves to these boards and board of directors.


So I'm just trying to figure out how we get to where we are and how I should look at it and how the council should look at the situation because we just can't keep doing the same and I, and I'm going to talk about the whole thing over and over, if there's no oversight committees, if there's no oversight to talk about these boards.


I like to hear a full-blown discussion about how board of directors operate within the city.


Well, that's really a wrong term you're using there, Alderman Sanders. They're not a board of directors.


There's boards, there's commissions, there's that type of thing. And again, like the clerk said, that's all set by ordinance.


So if you wanted to look up the ordinance, it's been in place for years.


So why have a board if they're not called Board of Directors? They're not called Board of Directors.


I know, they're not called Board of Directors according to your, I don't know, who makes that definition?


Madam Chair? I guess, oh. Yeah. Who defines it? I'd be happy to speak on the makeup of the Foreign Fire Insurance Board if you care to hear that.


Yeah. I'd be happy. So regarding Fire Department, the Foreign Fire Insurance Board, that is set by a statute, whereas the board members are elected from the Fire Department. So there's an officer and then it's served as president, secretary, treasurer, myself, ex officio.


So any matters related to foreign fire are submitted, very much modeling after the city and the Council here. They're submitted to the Council for Foreign Fire Board for consideration.


Discussion takes place. Is it within the guidelines of the purchasing provisions of foreign fire that is voted on by the board members? How funds are generated by foreign fire that consists of outside insurance companies, out of state insurance companies that by federal statute they have to provide 2% of those revenues back to the fire department for the use and benefit of the department. So it's very specific language that governs that use. And so annually finance receives a check which is generated by the IML. They manage all this. They take and others.


They make a small portion out for their oversight of this fund and then they submit a revenue check to the Foreign Fire Insurance Board.


They review it, sign off on it, and it goes into the account. So it's a small amount, but that oversight and those personnel are defined by statute.


By statute. And then Finance Director Rick did want to speak. Go ahead. and the fire pension and police pension are similar so other cities work exactly the same way as we do they have their own pension board trustees and their trustees they're entrusted with the fire and police pension dollars and to manage those correctly so that their pensions are there when they retire okay are All of the minutes for all of the boards and commissions are included in the consent agenda with every council meeting.


They are their own bodies, so they approve their own minutes, but a courtesy copy is provided to council and the public with every agenda.


when you go through that long, when the mayor reads that long list of minutes, you can see what determinations have been made by those boards and commissions.


So those boards, I'm sorry, those boards are being, making decisions on behalf of the board of the fire department, police department, and the other department, they're the ones that are making the decision, they're the decision makers. Am I correct? Yes, go ahead.


Not the fire department, only the fire pensions and only the police pensions. Okay. How involved are boards within the administration of the police and the fire department and any other Department. I keep saying that because I'm gonna nail it down eventually what all departments have boards and if they have not been disclosed to the council we need to know what they who they are what they are and I like to know the individuals.


and others. The individuals that are on these boards making decisions, making decisions for financial, fire, police and anybody else, I need to see who are the Board of Directors.


Well, you say they're not Board of Directors, they are appointed, but they're still acting Lack, Board of Directors. That's the functionalities of a board. So my thing is what is or who are the people that's being appointed to these boards who are making decisions within the city that involves taxpayers' dollars? Whenever they're having board members, they're talking about taxpayers affairs and things of this nature.


So I'm just trying to see what are they doing that the City Council is not doing because they're able to meet and City Council are not meeting unless you call this is a meeting and we're not separate.


They're separate from the council and we don't get to integrate or to talk about the functionalities of these boards and that's my problem with that.


But you have the right to go to any of those meetings if you want to.


You can go to the fire, you can go to the liquor, you can go to any of those meetings if you want to.


So, oh, the Chief, go ahead. Alderman Sanders, I can tell you I've been on the Police Pension Board since 2012.


So they say it's set by ordinance, but I believe the ordinance probably mirrors the state statute.


So our board consists of two active participants, two people from the police department. So the police department then votes on who they want to be on the board, and that's a two-year term.


There's also a retiree that's on the board, and then there's two appointees, and they and John.


We have two individuals from the community, both of them work at financial institutions. When it comes to managing the funds, we used to have more involvement with investments when we had a consultant, but ever since the money has been consolidated, all the police fire funds are consolidated and controlled now by the state of Illinois.


So we really have zero input on how it's invested. We do have a meeting this Wednesday at 11 in here, and I know it's posted and you're welcome to come if you want to How many people on these boards And I don't really know what this has to do with the budget those are questions that you can you can ask those questions We're gonna keep the meeting on the budget, but you can get that, get a copy of that, you can take it home, and you can look it over, and you can go over it, and you'll know who's all on every board, and what, is it the times that they have their meetings, is it on there?


That is a list of who they are, the times are also available on the website, the directory is available on the website, so we'll get you a copy of that, and then you'll know who's all on.


who's all that. This is your copy, Dovie? That sits by the front desk in case anybody comes in and asks for it. Okay. Okay, we'll move on to, um, are there any other comments?


If not, let's move on to number nine, public input. I don't have anything. Does anybody sign in? Did anybody sign in? Oh, no. Andrea said no. Is there, huh? From the floor? No.


Is anybody from the floor wanting to speak? You're more than welcome. I guess not. Motion to adjourn.


Come up front. Speak on the budget or speak on... She's running from the wrong spot.


Okay. Ms. Sue Cook, and I was just, when I listened to the City Council meeting this past week, there was a mention about the fire truck, and that we needed to order the fire truck, is that correct for that? Because the fire truck, it takes approximately four years, and our fire truck over at Park and Park Street is approximately 14 years old. And having dealing with an old car myself when you hit that that point because it sounded like 15 is about the point where a fire truck started to be put into retirement because they've taken such good care of it if we go ahead and order that truck now at a million or how was it a million 1.2 million rather than wait until four for years from now when it's maybe 6.2 million for the truck, and then you have to wait another four years. If you did that, you would have an 18-year-old truck. Now, Mr. Monroe brought up the fact that how many fires, catastrophic fires, have we had? And I think you mentioned three. Is that correct that you said three, or did he ask about a number?


There was an incident with that particular vehicle and through our use, three times that ladder has actually made contact with the building back in.


That's what he was talking about. Oh, that's okay. Okay. Okay. It's just, it's supposed to be just public comment and not, um.


Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Yep, yep. That's all right. That's all right. And one of the things I wanted to say is we do have tall buildings, Hosmer, Brewster, Lincoln Towers, we have the old Stevenson Hotel down here.


We have the Metal Ridge Park Ridge where there are people that can't get out.


So if we have another truck and a truck in reserve, it's gonna be a lot safer for the citizens to have that new truck and a truck in reserve.


So that 14 year old truck, by the time that new truck comes is gonna be 18.


if they take meticulous care of it, you have a new truck, you have one in reserve and minutes do count, especially if people are on balconies, especially if there's elderly people on balconies needing help.


It can really count. And so I think that it's a wonderful investment because it's an investment in people and it's an investment in citizens.


It isn't throwing money to the wind. You have a reserve truck and a new truck coming in four years. That's an awesome investment. Thank you very much.


Thank you. Are there any other? If not, can I get a motion for adjournment?


Can I get a second? anybody want us to okay it's been first and second by Parker and Klemm all in favor aye any opposed