Good evening everybody, it's 6.05 and we're going to start this meeting.

My name is Barbara Burns and I'm the town clerk for Freeport Township and to my left is our attorney Michael J. Phillips and would you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

First thing we have on the agenda is we have to establish the salary for the moderator and I need a motion and a second as to how much.

So I need anybody want to give me an idea of how much we want to pay this person.

Last year we paid $100.

That helps.

who second it Patrick thank you okay is there any other motions any other all in favor of $100 to pay the moderator say aye all opposed say no okay the moderator will be get $100 for playing with us today okay now we need to You have the election of the moderator, I need a nomination from the floor to nominate a moderator.

Yes, sir.

I'd like to nominate Shane Orwell, second.

Motion made by Stephen, seconded by Harv, Burns.

That's why he's here.

Are there any other nominations from the floor?

Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to close nominations.

Wilkins, and seconded by Harv.

Okay nominations have been closed.

So now we need to vote on the moderator for Shane Orlow.

Do I have a motion and a second?

Now we already have that.

So all in favor of Shane Orlow?

All opposed?

Mr. Oller, would you come up to accept the oath of office. Raise your right hand.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the moderator at this town hall meeting to the best of your ability?

I do.

Please sign here.

Okay, have a seat over there.

Where am I going?

Right there in that other chair.

Nope um yeah there you are that way we can okay next order of business yep uh presentation and review of annual township meeting minutes for 2025 we need a motion and a second I did. He did take the oath. It's all here. Motion and second, anybody? Motion and second, please. All in favor? All in favor? Aye. Okay, motion passed. Next. Okay, we have number six, reading of the annual financial statement from the town clerk. You all have this statement?

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Philip Byrd and I am Chief Deputy Assessor for Freeport Township.

Meta Ridgway, our Township Assessor, sends her apologies.

She will not be able to make it tonight, unfortunately.

Thank you all for your interest and your Township government.

Per Illinois state statutes, property is to be assessed at one-third of market value.

For the past few years, the real estate market has drastically increased.

In 2025, due to the rise in residential market values, the residential property assessments had to increase approximately 14% to maintain the required 33 1⁄3 level of assessments by the state of Illinois.

Even with this increase, assessments are still low compared to sale prices.

For the 2026 year, our preliminary market analysis reflects overall assessments will again need to be increased in an attempt to be more reflective of the real estate market here in Freeport Township.

Freeport Township Assessor's Office continues to strive not only valuing properties according to market value, but remaining equitable between similar properties.

The Township Office encourages anyone with questions concerning the appeal complaint process to please contact our office.

There are some brochures in the back of the table back there if you all have any questions concerning the assessment process.

Thank you.

We need a motion and a second to approve the presentation.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

Aye.

I'm learning on the job here.

Motion passes. Thank you guys for being patient with me. Next is Supervisor's Report.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am Patrick Sellers, Supervisor of your Freeport Township.

And tonight, as I have done year after year, I stand before you to give an honest account of where we are, Where we are, how we have served you, and where I believe we must go from here.

That is not merely a tradition, that is a covenant.

It is the fundamental promise that every elected official makes to the people who entrust them with power.

A covenant that I take seriously.

And so I will not insult your intelligence tonight with half-truths, comfortable silence, or carefully worded statements designed to protect political relationships at the expense of your rights to know.

Let me begin with what's good.

In 2025, Freeport Township conducted all estate-mandated services with excellence.

Every program ran, every eligible client was served.

Our staff showed up day after day and did their jobs with professionalism and dedication.

Not a single dollar of your hard-earned tax money was wasted.

Our budgets remain firmly in the black.

We have been good stewards of the public trust and I am proud of that record, but pride in what we have done well does not give us permission to look away from what remains broken. And tonight I am here to not to simply celebrate accomplishments but I'm here to tell you the truth, the whole truth because that's what you deserve. For as long as I have held this office, I have spoken openly and urgently about the deterioration of our neighborhoods. I have not done so to be dramatic. I have I have done so because I walk these streets, because I talk to residents, because I see with my own eyes what is happening to the community I was elected to serve.

I have raised questions about dilapidated and abandoned properties that scar our blocks and invite criminal activity.

I have spoken about illegal dumping that disrespects our neighborhoods and signals to residents that no one in power cares about the condition of their streets.

I have warned about the creeping expansion of criminal enterprise, activity that was long and largely confined to east of the red line of West Street, which now has crossed further west with each passing year, following the path of least resistance because too few people in position of power have been willing to confront it head on.

I have made pleas. I have delivered proposals. I have put forward ideas, concerns, and concrete suggestions.

And you know what I received in return? Silence. Dismissal.

My words treated as unsubstantiated jargon, as if the evidence was not visible to anyone willing to open their eyes and look.

The evidence is not hidden. It's in our streets, in our headlines, and in the grief of our families.

I have come to understand something about political culture.

It is far more comfortable to maintain the illusion of peace than to do the hard, unglamorous work of confronting disorder.

It's easier to host ribbon cuttings than to shut down drug corners.

It is easier to attend award ceremonies than to demand accountability for conditions our most vulnerable citizens endure every single day.

My voice has been an unhelpful voice.

and my voice has been an unwelcome one in certain circles, but I'd rather be unwelcome and honest than welcome and complicit. Some of my colleagues have worked very hard to convince this community and perhaps themselves that we do not have a serious problem. They operate on the belief that what is not spoken loud does not exist, that out of sight truly means out of mind, and Buss. I reject that belief entirely and tonight I want to name plainly without apology the realities that too many people in this city would prefer to whisper about than to confront. When youth are being shot and killed in our streets, there is a problem. When illegal drugs are sold openly in our neighborhoods in plain sight without shame, there is a problem.

When illegal firearms are discovered at an Airbnb in one of our more prominent neighborhoods, there's a problem.

When Homeland Security, the FBI, the IRS, and local law enforcement conduct coordinated raids in our communities and the residents are left to piece together the story from rumor and speculation because no one in authority is willing to speak plainly, there is a problem.

when a 12-year-old child takes his own life and the public response is little more than a murmur, a moment of quiet, and then silence. There is a problem. Each one of these realities represents a failure, not a failure of any single person, but a collective failure, a The failure of systems, of priorities, of will, and they demand not silence, but sustained, courageous action.

God's a 12-year-old child.

Twelve years old, if that does not move us, all of us, to ask harder questions and demand better answers, and to insist on real change, then I am not sure what will.

The absence of public outcry in the wake of that tragedy is itself a symptom of numbness that sets in when a community has been failed for far too long. When a community stops crying out, it's not because the pain is gone, it's because hope has been deferred one too many times.

We cannot allow hope to die in this city. I won't allow it. Not under my watch and not while I hold I am fully aware of what my comments and my candor will cost me.

I know that these remarks will be characterized by some as pessimistic, as divisive, as unhelpful.

I know that I will be called an agitator.

I know that certain invitations will not be extended to me.

That certain conversations will go quiet when I enter the room.

And that my political standing among the comfortable class will suffer for it.

Let me be clear. I do not care about that. I am at peace with those consequences. I did not run for this office to be popular. I did not run to be comfortable. I did not run so that I could be included in the right social circus to protect my political future.

I ran because I believe, and I still believe, that this community deserves representation by people who will tell the truth, advocate relentlessly on people's behalf, and refuse to be domesticated by expectations of political conformity.

There is a concept in politics called the status quo. The idea that things are as they are and maintaining that stability is itself a form of governance.

I have no quarrel with stability, when stability means safety and flourishing, but when the status quo means that children are dying, drugs are flowing freely, and that families live in fear, and that an entire generation grows up believing that no one in power sees them or cares, then the status quo is not neutral. The status quo is a choice, and it is the wrong choice.

I will never silence my voice to preserve a seat at a table.

Not when silence could mean the difference between life and death for the people I would duly elect to serve, not now or not ever.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will not stand before you year after year raising alarms, absorbing criticism, pressing on if I do not believe in my bones that things can be different and that this community has the capacity for something far better than what we have settled for.

They say the darkest hours just before dawn. I believe that. We are in a dark hour. Let us not pretend otherwise. But darkness is not permanent. It is not destiny. It is a condition that yields eventually to those who refuse to stop fighting for the light.

The power to change Freeport is not in Springfield. It's not in Washington D.C. It is not in the hands of some distant authority waiting to rescue it.

It is here. It is in this room. It is in the hands and the voices and the votes of the people of this community.

That power was given to us by our Creator, by our history, by every generation that sacrificed so that we could sit in rooms like this and speak freely.

and through the institution of democracy we entrust that power to the people we elect with the expectation to demand that they will use that power faithfully and courageously.

Hold us to that standard, guys. Hold me to that standard.

Demand honesty. Demand action. Demand leaders who will look you in the eye and tell you the truth even when the truth is hard.

And then roll up their sleeves and get to working to change it.

I remain committed to that work. I remain committed to you, and I will not stop until the dawn we are waiting for finally arrives.

The power to change our community belongs to us. Let us use it together. May God bless you all.

We need a motion and a second to approve his report.

We need a motion and a second to approve the report.

I'll move.

Second.

All in favor. All in favor. Next we have the board report. Any board of trustees want to say anything?

Yes, it's Kelvin McIlwain. Kelvin McIlwain.

I'm Kelvin Mcllwain, a Freeport Township trustee.

Just want to say the past year our trustee board has done an awesome job and has been proud to work with our assessor and our supervisor to always be fiscally responsible, have a balanced budget, But you more importantly provide our staff and assessors office with the technology and tools they need to get proper assessments on our properties and also be in a position to work with our township supervisor to provide programs that meet needs of the community.

Some specific examples that were done this past fiscal year was an emergency donation to our local food banks when it looked like there was uncertainty in funding for government assistance programs and also programs that have helped young people in our community make themselves available more ready for jobs and even find employment.

So, we were happy to do those type of activities and we look forward to continuing with that in the next fiscal year.

We don't have to do a motion on this.

Item number eight, voting on maintaining one million dollars for the general assistance levy.

We need a motion and a second, or do we vote on it first?

No, that's all right.

It's one mil.

One mil.

It's not a mil.

I'm sorry. That's okay. Most people do the same thing. We still need a motion in a second. Motion in a second. One mill. I'll correct myself. Sorry for that. One mill for the general assistance levy. We need a motion in a second.

Okay, all in favor. All in favor. Item number nine. We are the vote on disposal of surplus slash obsolete equipment and the list is provided. Right there. It is two computers without hard Hard Drives, two computers without hard drives.

We need a motion and a second.

We need a motion and a second.

I'll make the motion.

I'll second it.

Who said Gary?

Thank you.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay.

We're going down the list.

Number ten, any other business coming before the town or electors?

This is where any public wants to talk.

If anybody from the public would like to speak.

No, no, that's, that's right.

We have another place for public comments, so move, go ahead.

Okay, I'm sorry.

That's not, that's you.

Number 11, presentation of the Nicolet Nicky Bender Award for Outstanding Public Service.

Mr. Sellers, you're welcome.

Over the past five years or so, at our annual town meeting, I and Patrick Sellers, supervisor of Freeport Township, have been blessed with the distinct honor of presenting the Nicolet and Nicky Bender Award for Outstanding Public Service.

This year's presentation is both a joyous and an aggrieved occasion.

Joyous because this year's recipient, like all previous recipients, so deserving of this award and aggrieved because 2026 represents the first time this award will be presented without Nicky's physical presence on this earth.

On July 28th, 2025, our beloved Nicky was called home to be with our Lord, leaving behind a legacy of all inspiring public service, shoes that are not easily filled and even more difficult to walk in. Her love and compassion for the community in which she lived was only matched by her love and devotion to our local veterans. Those of us whom have had the pleasure of Nikki's company can probably hear her saying right now, oh, Jesus, Sellers, get on with it. We ain't got all night. So I'm going to get on with it. I met tonight's recipient back in 2013 under well stressful conditions and I must admit our relationship started off a little rocky.

Since then we have learned to understand and appreciate each other and I have personally observed and learned and yes even mimicked his meticulous approach when it comes to conducting business for his organization.

His focus and his drive are testaments to his fortitude to do things decently and in and to him I say thank you for those lessons.

How does one describe an individual like tonight's recipient, words like greatness, sacrifice, unwavering courage, commitment, compassion, unyielding dedication, honesty and integrity just can seem to capture the essence of who he truly is and what he means to this community.

There are favorite individuals amongst us, people that were placed on this earth for for a specific purpose, whose impact on humanity cannot be measured, quantified, or even explained.

They can only be felt.

Nikki Bender was one of those people, and she is accompanied by tonight's recipient.

He is a man that I am honored to call my friend, and blessed to be called his.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the 2026 Nicollet Nikki Bender Award to none other than Mr.

and Gary Oz, now we're singing.

Applause Oh, it's a nice one too, man.

Now I'm going to get out of your way and I'm going to let you have your moment, my friend.

You're very welcome.

Just like when I was chairing national conventions for Vietnam Air for a lot of years. I'd get behind a podium like this and there'd be a kid's chair here or there'd be a carton stacked up there so and then they always say well okay Eisenhower stand up be counted and also. Again thank you Patrick. I'm humbly honored to accept the Nicky Bender Award of Public Service.

I'll get myself collected here. I have known and work with Nikki on various community projects for about 25 plus years and she was an influencer, everybody knows she was an influencer and she impacted a lot of people with her leadership and she made a big impact on our community with her leadership capabilities.

She is definitely a role model for public service.

And this community award in Nikki's honor is a legacy that exemplifies her leadership is a public servant. And I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to this board for this consideration. So God bless everybody. And in the interim while I'm up here, I just want to thank the trustees and Patrick especially for the many grants that we've received in and last three years for the VAC, which has made a big impact on our ability to take care of our veterans.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next item is public comments.

Any public comments?

None.

None.

Next is, Moderator's Declaration of the Conclusion of Business for the Annual Town Meeting.

It's April...

Alright, so then we go on to vote to adjourn.

We are going to vote to adjourn until April 13th, 2027 at 6.05 p.m.

Motion and a second.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

All done. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate it. Thank you, everyone.