The order will occur, please call the roll.

Council members alfaro.

Here.

Dixon.

Here.

Good.

Here.

Martinez?

Here.

Ortiz?

Here.

Powell.

Stefan?

Here.

Thorne.

Here.

May Mayor Captain.

Here.

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting of uh November 12th.

It's a special meeting.

Move approval.

Second.

Move the second for approval.

Any corrections or additions.

Hearing none called.

Sorry.

Ms.

Alfaro.

Yeah.

I just wanted to note on page five or the last page of those amendments.

It should um indicate that there on the discussion regarding Fiesta of the Elgin that there was a discussion regarding the inclusivity of various Hispanic groups in Fiesta of the Elgin.

So if you could just add that.

We have an amendment to the uh to the minutes.

Move for approval with the with the amendment.

Move for approval with the amendments.

Court, please call the rule.

Council members alfar?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

Motions approved eight zero.

Uh approval of the minutes of the meeting of November 19th, 2025.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move the second for approval.

Any corrections or additions?

Hearing none, Court, please call the rule.

Councilmember Zalfaro.

Abstain.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

The motions approved seven zero with one abstention.

Brings us to public comment.

We have uh six people signed or five people signed up this evening.

First person's Tracy Howell.

Um, I'm here because I've heard rumors that there's a concern that we're putting a um target on our head here in Elgin.

And I wanted to address that and say that Elgin's already been made a cowering example on the national stage when the Black Hawk helicopters brought ice ice Barbie and her flying monkeys at 5 a.m.

to disrupt our peaceful city residents.

Volunteers have been working tirelessly doing courageous work to protect our innocent neighbors from the unlawful ice invaders.

It was assumed in that conversation that ICE was acting within the law.

What are you, Mr.

Mayor, and the Algen police department going to do, seeing as there's an overwhelming evidence that ICE is purposely acting outside the law.

We need unprecedented solutions.

No one is asking for EPD to break the law.

However, no law enforcement department should turn a blind eye to another law enforcement department that is corrupt.

It ruins your reputation.

How are you all showing that you value us as residents?

This should have never been an us versus them.

Police used to be held in very high regard, and that is when they engage with the residents and built relationships.

Then they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they um came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

I would like to add, then they came for the immigrants, but I am supposedly not an inner immigrant.

Then when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

It is time to redefine how we want life in Elgin to be.

We need leaders who can do what needs to be done for the people.

If you aren't able and unwilling, then step aside and let those who can and will do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Kevin Zaldivar.

Hello.

Okay.

Hi, so I wanted to talk about the the budget because I didn't get to last time.

Uh I specialize in economics.

I studied that here in the United States, and I took some master level courses in Hong Kong because when I was younger, I was really interested in joining the world trade organization because I couldn't fathom how countries with rich resources were always uh considered third world countries.

I think today we understand the dynamics pretty well thanks to the internet on how that comes to be.

Uh after college, I became a software engineer.

Uh so while my culture taught me things that school couldn't teach me, uh, as a software engineer I learned patterns and economics, I learned how money works.

And uh I want to say that real quickly that inflation and is really just a transfer of wealth.

Um they try to indoctrinate this to you that supply and demand is something that is uncontrollable and that it's free to the market, but it's really not.

Um while I was gone, I actually uh became a professional advertiser, so I specialize in digital sales.

Um I could help a lot of businesses in Elgin.

And uh I found myself in a full circle position actually being able to create supply and demand, right?

Supply and uh working with businesses and getting their products across to everyone and demand uh by creating commercials, by creating uh billboards, by working with people to get their brands across and and what that messaging really means.

So when I am uh observing the budget and I read the you know the budget proposal for for the city, I started realizing that there are some fundamental things that are missing in this budget, and that is when we talk about the future.

How do the things that we do in this city invest and affect the residents every day?

This is a city of working class people, and I think that we're starting to realize that working class people get taken advantage of.

Um I want to generalize a couple things here.

Um that the cities, their investments often mimic uh what we see uh private equity firms do, where they put a bunch of money into a place and you know we expect outcomes that in reality we're just gonna raise the rents and the price of the goods and you know cause what we call inflation uh to the residents here.

And I started picking up on things talking about tourism and uh attracting other people from the city.

The demographics uh in our budget uh don't look like a demographic that needs that is struggling to make money.

I mean, we're composed of families and a medium income of about 80,000.

But what we do see is a failure to connect with the residents of Elgin and their money and how they want to spend it.

That being said, I think with the voter turnout of 10%, the city could do a lot better.

I don't have time to further evaluate, but you'll be hearing more about me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I believe it's Edith Palcastro.

Um here representing and speaking on behalf of the many residents who for their safety not here.

Uh, just to not be here today.

Uh this week a group of parents develop a five-year community vision, and the vision, the most important thing is family safe, peace, and sense of belonging.

This vision is supporting network to make this a reality, and for the network includes all of you and our representatives, whom we we whom we we trust and have the power to vote for an ordinance to protect our families in Elgin.

We know the city in Elgin is already a target where we are having attacked and terrorized in recently months.

We know that Bovino and his officers will be returned more aggressive and tactics.

And the least that you can do for our families is pass this ordinance today.

For some of you, passing this ordinance may not be half significant impact.

But for us, it means everything.

It means believing our representatives, believing injustice, and feeling free for working together for a strong, more inclusive and equity of the city.

The trauma these rates are inflicted on children's parents with irreparably, and we'll have a responsibility to prevent these from escalating further.

I hope tonight they show us that they truly do a lot for us, the residents of the Elgin.

Last month, I mean a few months ago in October, the City of Algin was experienced a total of 246 uh sites, and more than 105 residents were adopted.

In November, the City of Belgian experiences a total of seven seventy uh sites and twenty-five people were adopted.

So I'm here today, and for be the voice of those that come, maybe you can do something about it.

Help our community and tell us how we can help so we can be together and be better.

Thank you.

Thank you.

K Gamble.

Good evening.

Um I'm here as for the ordinance for immigrants.

And I don't know if you've heard of Tom Hartman before, but he uh said this recently in one of his columns.

He's a writer and uh has a podcast.

He said democracy survives on shared reality and shared humanity.

It survives when government understands that it works for the people and must be accountable to the Constitution to due process and to basic human dignity.

Masked agents, ICE agents, violently kidnapping, jailing, and deporting people does not abide by the constitution or due process or basic human dignity.

And I am definitely for the immigrants in this community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Corey Stanley.

Sorry, I'm here for 60.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Turn it over to the manager.

Thank you, Mayor, Council members.

The first item this evening is the Truth in Taxation Public Hearing.

The purpose of the Truth and Taxation Public Hearing is to provide transparency and allow taxpayers to comment on the city's proposed increase to its aggregate property tax levy, which does not include the debt service levy when that increase is more than 5% over the previous year's property tax extension.

Chief Financial Officer Deb Naraki is has a statement prepared that is a preface to the hearing that you'll be conducting.

Good evening.

The Truth in Taxation Law establishes the procedures that taxing districts like the City of Algin must follow when adopting their property tax levy.

Whenever a taxing district proposes an aggregate tax levy that is more than 5% higher than the total amount of taxes it extended in the previous year, it must publish the required notice in a local newspaper and hold a public hearing.

The notice was published on November 24th, 2025.

Anyone who wants to present testimony at the public hearing must be given the opportunity to do so, and after the hearing, the city may adopt the tax levy.

Allow me at this time to recite into the record for this public hearing the information required by law, and when that has been completed, the public comment period can commence.

The corporate and special purpose property taxes extended for 2024 were 55,983,629.

The proposed corporate and special purpose property taxes to be levied for 2025 are 63,648,790, a 13.7% increase from the previous year.

The property taxes extended for debt service for 2024 were 1,985,161 dollars.

The proposed property taxes to be levied for debt service for 2025 are 1,963, 150 dollars, a 1.1% decrease from the previous year.

The total property taxes extended for 2024 were $57,968,790.

The proposed total property tax levy for 2025 is $65,611,940, a 13.2% increase from the previous year.

Each taxing district must certify to the county clerk that it has complied with all truth and taxation publication notice and hearing requirements when it certifies its levy to the county clerk.

We'll declare the public hearing open.

Does anyone wish to speak to the uh truth in taxation and the property tax levy?

Does anyone wish to speak to the property tax levy?

Uh please come up to the podium.

All right, just more of a question.

Uh was there considerations of uh sliding income scale for uh property taxes?

And I pose uh were there any uh uh conversations about taxing businesses in the downtown area that may operate just as a landlord and may be contributing to uh the businesses coming in and out and uh staking the city.

I I don't think we did not review us a sliding scale for property taxes.

That would be something that would be uh beyond the city's um purview.

The taxes are extended by the county.

Right.

Okay.

Anyone else wish to comment?

Anyone wish to comment on the property tax?

Seeing no one at the podium, I declare the public hearing closed.

Mr.

Manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

Item B is a resolution in support of a Cook County Class 6B property tax incentive for 301 Ramona Avenue.

Vital RE LLC is signed a letter of intent to purchase 301 Ramona Avenue contingent upon receiving a Cook County Class 6B commercial property tax incentive.

Vital RE will then in turn be leasing the property to its related entity, Vital Truck and Van, spending about a half million dollars on improvements to the existing vacant building and grounds.

The purchase price of the five and a half acre parcel is about two point nine million dollars, and it contains two industrial buildings totaling about twenty-four thousand five hundred square feet of floor area.

Vital Truck provides professional upfitting solutions for fleets, vans, and trucks, and it's going to be moving its Illinois operations from Batavia to Elgin along with seven full-time employees.

It also plans to hire another ten full-time equivalent employees upon the completion of the improvements at the site.

Vital Truck has been in business since 2002 and has locations at two places in two municipalities in Colorado.

Vital Truck requires this incentive to make its relocation to Elgin economically feasible.

It will not be purchasing the property without the incentive.

Cook County provides a Class 6B commercial property tax incentive to minimize the financial burden associated with investments in vacant industrial properties.

The estimated Cook County taxes generated for all taxing bodies during the 12-year period of the Class 6B incentive is approximately $1.4 million.

The tax burden on vital truck without the without the 6-B incentive would be just over $3 million.

Should the property remain vacant, Cook County and its other taxing bodies will only be deriving about $820,000 in revenue.

City Council members are familiar with this incentive, as you know, it's ultimately upon Cook County to approve the 6-B incentive, but they will not consider applications without support of the underlying municipality.

Move the second floor approval.

Any discussion.

Yeah, I wanted to make a comment uh having been on the council, I think the longest except the mayor of anybody up here on the dias.

As uh the memo has laid out for us and therefore want to make the point to our residents.

The incentive if we approve it, which I support, uh would result in a tax revenue from a Cook County property such as this one that would just be slightly less than the King County.

The incentive if we approve it, which I support, uh would result in a tax revenue from a cook county property such as this one that would just be slightly less than the King County, and so I mean the point I'm trying to make is this will generate taxes that it would have if it were in Kane County, and as the council has learned, having been up here that we see these petitions frequently because our city straddles Cook County and Kane County, and we have this um dynamic going on where um the county taxes are so different in the two counties, and we're trying to give an incentive to make sure that businesses don't use that as a way to consider other towns.

So um I just wanted to make that point.

I I appreciate the memo and the explanation of uh the different levels of taxing that could occur or could not occur with if we give the incentive or not, and if the part property remains vacant and what it would have been in Kane County, so I will be supporting.

Okay, anything else?

Yeah, we've uh enacted this a number of times and it's been beneficial for us in uh in uh attracting businesses and keeping businesses in the city as well.

So uh offers my support as well.

Mr.

Thorne, yeah, yes, thanks, Mayor.

Also of note that it's uh going to generate uh 17 jobs.

Yeah, so that very well could be that 10 are new, it could be uh people moving into the city, or at least people that need work.

So good compliment for that.

Okay.

Clerk please call the roll.

Council members alfaro?

Yes, Dixon?

Yes.

Good, yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz, yes, Powell?

Yes, Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes, Mayor Captain.

Yes, the motion is approved 90.

Item C is the change order for the wing park family aquatic center longevity and safety renovations.

During the initial bid process for this project, site conditions did not indicate the depth and extent of the existing concrete, caulk deterioration, gutter wall damage, and exposed bear surfaces would be as significant as what was ultimately uncovered.

This project is modernizing the facility by completing necessary concrete removal and replacement, restoring gutter walls, removing and replacing deteriorated caulk, and applying it protective epoxy paint to expose gutter services.

Also, we'll be replacing the outdated toddler boat slide with a state-of-the-art plain up toddler slide.

The new slide incorporates interactive elements, general water water play in shaded areas, ensuring a safer and more enriching experience for the young families.

Um this $33,000 change order is necessary so the contractor can begin work during the off season.

Move for approval.

Second.

It's been moved and second for approval.

Any discussion?

Hearing on what please call the rule.

Council members alfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good, yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, motions approved 9-0.

Item D is an independent fitness contractor service agreement.

Independent contractors play a critical role in delivering high quality and cost-effective fitness services at the Edward Shock Center of Elgin.

Their specialized skills, professional certifications, and flexible schedules enable the city to offer a wide range of fitness programs without the financial burden of adding full-time staff.

The model supports strong community engagement while generating meaningful revenue.

In 2024, group fitness and personal training produced approximately $60,000 in net revenue.

In 2025, that uh revenue is expected to end up at $65,000.

The center currently partners with about 11 independent contractors who select who collectively support the city's goal of offering accessible diverse and high quality fitness opportunities.

Approving this 2026 service agreement for one contractor is needed because the project compensation exceeds the 25,000 dollar procurement threshold.

Move approval.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded any discussion.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a couple of questions.

The first one is it did say approximately 60,000 net revenue.

There's about 11 or 12 um independent contractors, uh fitness contractors.

So is that for all of them or is that per it's for all of them?

Probably.

Okay.

Um and then the second was the copy of the contract.

Um is this just a sample of what was given before?

Because it says not to exceed 30,000, and then the end date is December of 2025.

Mr.

Beck.

Yes, this is copy of last year's contract that was uh the there's been a legal request for an updated contract for uh next year's services, which uh I believe has been reviewed since the agenda has gone out, but it just uh the request did not come in sufficient time to get this the revised agreement on the before the agenda, but the final agreement will be updated.

So it would be 26,000 just to confirm.

Just if that's the amount, yes, it'll be not to exceed amount as approved by the council here.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, Dixon?

Yes.

Good, yes, Martinez, yes, Ortiz, yes.

Powell, yes, Stefan, yes, Thorn?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, the motion is approved.

Nine zero.

Item E is an engineering services agreement with Trotter and Associates for sewer infrastructure projects.

This is amendment four to that agreement.

The utilities department's water and sewer infrastructure requires regular maintenance to ensure its operational stability.

These maintenance projects require dedicated management oversight to ensure their success.

Rather than hiring additional staff to maintain an effective workload balance, the city uses professional service contracts to provide oversight for the necessary maintenance projects identified in any given year.

The fourth amendment to the existing engineering service agreements with Trotters being recommended to provide engineering services necessary to continue maintaining the city's sewer infrastructure.

This amendment includes ongoing support for the sewer lining program, ensuring timely and appropriate rehabilitation of the sewer system to maintain its long-term reliability and performance.

Move for approval.

Move and second for approval.

Any discussion.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh in the contract, it says the end date is December 31st of 2025.

Are they getting it done this month?

I just want to confirm that end date was correct.

Again.

So when these contracts get submitted and attached to the committee of the whole memorandum, they have not been uh in some cases gone through the legal review process.

They are all uh reviewed by the corporation council's office before they're on the agenda for final approval.

So uh this uh particular agreement that was for amendment agreement number three is for December 31st, 2025.

I won't be able to give you an answer offhand, but this is not the final draft of the agreement.

They will be finalized and have the proper end date.

Okay, I just want to make sure because it sounded like it was pretty fast to get it done with them by the end of the month with weather and stuff.

No, that's amendment agreement number three, and this is amendment agreement number four.

So I think it's for a one-year additional one-year term.

Okay, it looks like so.

Okay, thank you.

And actually, it says that in section two on page two, it says task order completion services to be provided pursuant to amendment number four by December 31st, 2026.

Yeah, I saw that, but with the other one, I just wanted to make sure to make sure consistency.

So appreciate it.

Thank you.

Manager, if I can add council member alfarro, this is a this is a common practice, and it's a it's a it's a concession actually the corporation council's office makes to the organization so we can continue moving our work forward on a regular basis.

And rather than waiting two weeks for this contract to be absolutely finalized, we can begin.

It's essentially we're working concurrently with advancing it through the legislative approval process while the corporation council's office is pulling together everything in the background so that within the next two weeks you always have an agreement that's signed ready, buttoned down with both parties for approval.

That's the method to the madness behind the scenes.

Yeah, I I do appreciate that.

I just want to make sure like numbers and dates were correct.

Everything else I get like gets fluctuated and stuff, but appreciate it.

Okay, clerk, please call the roll.

Council members alfaro, yes.

Dixon?

Yes, good, yes.

Martinez, yes, Ortiz, yes, Powell?

Yes, Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, motion is approved 90.

Item F is a is the year five ledge service line replacement program with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's public water supply loan program.

Um the city's been working with its engineering consultant, Engineering Enterprises Inc., commonly known as EEI to acquire a just about two and a half million dollar loan that will be forgiven by the IEPA under its public water supply program.

Additionally, the city is currently qualified to borrow an additional sixteen and a half million dollars using zero interest loans.

The city intends to borrow a total of fifteen million dollars from the IEPA in 2026, which includes that two and a half million dollars in principal forgiveness loan.

Staff and EEI have identified a plan for the program in 2026 that will be replacing lead service lines in areas in advance of planned roadway resurfacing projects and moving forward with the program of lead service line replacement citywide.

There are two requirements for the city to require to acquire this funding.

The first is to approve the instant resolution authorizing the city manager to sign the IEPA's public water supply loan program documents, and two approving a debt authorization ordinance to borrow funds from the IEPA's public water supply loan program.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move the second for approval.

Hearing none, Cork, please call the roll.

Council members alfaro.

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

Motion's approved nine.

Item G is a welcoming city ordinance discussion.

Councilmember Dixon with Councilmember Alfaro is the second is requesting an agenda item to discuss a welcoming city ordinance.

Okay.

Mr.

Dixon.

Thank you.

Appreciate everyone coming out tonight and for all of the emails that have been sent in to council.

We really appreciate it.

Councilwoman Alfaro and I uh found it fitting to have this conversation publicly so that everyone can hear what's happening, especially you know, because of the times that we are currently living in and everything that's happening.

So let me start with uh on November 5th.

Uh we conducted, we completed and approved a ice free zone resolution, which was great.

We wanted an ordinance, we got a resolution instead.

I voted in favor of it.

I was happy that we had something and that we've done some work.

Um on November 11th, Greg Bovino, um, head of the area for ice was quoted in the Chicago Sun Times saying that they were taking a break from Chicago land, but that they would be back in a few months.

And I have always been the one, been one to uh be proactive and not reactive.

Now, ICE is still operating uh in our city and throughout the Chicago land area.

They just have scaled back with the promises of coming back fourfold.

Um so they're going to ramp up their operations supposedly from 250 to 1000 uh ICE agents is what was estimated and quoted in the Chicago Sun Times.

Now, why do we need something on the books and what is the difference between what we've done and what we're looking to do?

So first let me just start with the the baseline.

So here in Illinois, there are numerous things that we already have in place.

We have the Trust Act, we have the Voices Act.

Um these things prohibit uh law enforcement uh and also sets um uh structure for how we conduct um our business as a city as a as it pertains to the the immigrant community, uh immigrant population.

Um being proactive, um what I ended up looking into is the welcoming city ordinance.

Now the welcoming city ordinance is not anything new.

Uh it's been around in Illinois at least since the 70s.

Um they've been around since the 70s, but in Illinois came around around 1986 to the uh to the state of Illinois, and which was the first community that that brought that forward.

So the welcoming city ordinance does not work against all of the existing things that we've done, being the Ice Free Zone, being all the acts that the state of Illinois has passed, and even recently passed through the governor's office.

It actually acts as an umbrella and it doesn't just focus on protecting spaces, but it focuses on protecting people and also provides supportive services to a community.

So this is an ordinance that would provide the framework for future councils and even us to modify as we go forward.

Now, every time that we need to do something when it when it comes to this subject, we are creating an ordinance.

Under this being a welcoming city ordinance, we would have the ability to change and alter as we need be as time goes on, and that framework and the practices that we put in place for that will be available to the community and future councils going forward.

So that's just the opening for the welcoming city ordinance.

Um that's just a brief overview and from that to for tonight.

What we want to do is just have that conversation publicly and to get the rest of our city council colleagues thoughts on this subject.

And from here, I'll pass it over to Councilwoman Alfaro.

Just to add what Councilmember Dixon has mentioned, a welcome zone ordinance is a broader ordinance, and it's a more about inclusivity and the sense of belonging.

We heard about sense of belonging during public comment.

This is a way to make sure our community always feels belonged here.

Regardless of immigration status, that our entire community feels included.

This is something I think is important to make sure that we have it by authority in law that this is how we as a community define our way of doing things, how we operate, and how we support our local community.

And so I think this is an opportunity for us to take a step forward as council member Dixon was saying as being proactive.

But also, in reality, I think personally, this is something we should have done a long time ago.

Right?

This is something that we as a community have have a large immigration population.

This is something that we should continue thinking about.

And as we are having this discussion with our fellow council members, there's different ways of things that we could put in here.

We could put a language access plan in here, which we've heard when we had our NORA rights training.

We asked something that they want, they mentioned Spanish translations during council meetings, et cetera.

So there are different pieces that we could add in here, and we could go above and beyond with this as a community, as we've done with our other resolutions, etc.

And so I before going further in, I will open it up to our fellow council members to hear their thoughts on this welcoming city ordinance.

Okay.

Um, Mr.

Ortiz.

Excuse me.

Yeah, we uh I think Mr.

Dixon alluded to it.

We got a bunch of emails last night.

I think we're about 13, three or four more this afternoon.

So I appreciate everybody that reached out.

Uh, when I get a lot of emails for one particular item, I what I do is I'll get us an Excel open and I'll copy and paste all those emails in and then email everybody back at once so the message well, my message stays clear and I don't mess stuff up.

So all I'm gonna do is just read the email I sent back to the 15 or 16 so people.

I also shared it today with the Elgin Area Immigration Alliance group, and there's about 80 so people in that email thread.

So I'm gonna read that and then this more or less be my remarks on that on the topic.

Dear neighbors, thank you for reaching out about the welcoming city ordinance on tomorrow night's agenda.

For your and thank you for your advocacy for our immigrant community.

I want to answer the main questions that came and to be clear where I stand and why.

For the general fund, this is the first time in over 10 years that we've had a raise this part of the levy.

That should tell you how expensive it has become to keep the core city functions running at a high level and and keep our residents happy and get what they what they expect.

Because we do not ask.

When a officer pulls someone over, they don't ask.

When somebody goes and signs up for a gym membership at the center of Algernon, we do not ask.

This is because Algin welcomes everybody and we do not discriminate.

This means every council member voted yes.

There's no intention to bring this back for reversal or tell the city manager to stop following it, or to remove the signage on city property that was recently installed.

We are committed to keeping that in place.

I also want to let everybody know there are signs available at City Hall for free for pickup.

You go welcome to come grab one and place one on your property.

And ensuring access to all city resources and services regarded in regardless of ethnicity, nationality, or immigration status.

This is also another thing the city has been doing for over 10 years.

A good example is the work the Elgin Police Department was done has been doing.

EPD alone hosts over 17 different public events every year.

They do not care about a person's immigration status or their ethnicity or their religion.

This is because our police chief has built a culture of accepting everyone as they are.

Events like Talk About It, Fiesta Mexicana, National Night Out, EPD elves, cheap for a day, are open to everybody, and they're free.

The department has done a strong job in showing the Hispanic community and everyone else in the city of Algen, they are here for us and they will not discriminate.

City also hosts uh events like concerts in the park where banda and Spanish music is played, movies in the park, where movies are in Spanish, Fiesta de Algen in September with the honor of Mexican Independence Day.

I also want to acknowledge concerns about an incident that recently was recently involved with an officer.

We did have an officer do something that in my opinion he should not have done.

Our police chief and city manager took quick action by placing the officer on paid administrative leave, which we have to.

While the investigation moves forward, I have faith that as in the previous case, the process will result in accountability.

We we all need to be patient and allow the outside investigation to be completed.

And I believe once it is completed, the arbitrator this time will be less likely to force the city to give this officer his job back.

I'm providing translation services and up for official documents and interpretation at city council meetings.

Our council meetings are translated in Spanish on YouTube, and while they are live streamed and during playback, if you want to watch it later.

Yes, it is true we do not currently have a per in-person translator in the room with us right now, and usually one or two people show up to a council meeting that always speak English, but that is not an excuse.

I know we need to do better.

We have been working on technology options using AI or other other forms for in-person translation.

For example, Elgin Police Department is getting new body cameras, the city council approved to do live translations in the field for when an officer encounters someone who speaks another language.

We have been discussing similar systems and technologies for city council meetings where a person can wear an earpiece and hear their in the in-live translation for whatever language they speak, not just Spanish.

We have not yet found the right product or suitable vendor, but I'm certain there is something out there that can help us all.

And documents are translated in Spanish.

On the overall welcome and city ordinance and the comments uh President Trump has made in his 60 minutes interview.

In the interview, he said ICE enforcement has not gone far enough and indicated that he is comfortable with the tactics ICE has been using.

He suggests that he might use the insurrection act to send the Army, Navy, Marines, and National Guard into American cities.

When he is asked about ice breaking windows, using tear gas in neighborhoods and tackling young mothers, he said he is fine with those tactics.

And that enforcement has not gone far enough.

He also talked about in the past of going after welcoming and sanctuary cities that like to label themselves as such.

With the con with these comments, and given that the city of Algin, Elgin Police Department, and our council are already doing everything a welcoming city ordinance calls for, plus more, I worry that a passage of a formal ordinance would put a bigger target on our community.

If federal immigrant federal government decides to crack down on these cities labeling themselves as such, I do not want Algin to be at the top of that list, or top of that list when our practices already reflect the values of a welcoming city in reality.

I share this as someone who has family, friends, and community members who are undocumented.

I have said this from the dais during a council meeting before.

I understand the struggles, fears, and worries my aunts, uncles, and my cousins live every day.

I often feel helpless because I am an elected official and there is limits of what I can do.

This is why I cannot support this ordinance.

I truly believe that it could cause more harm than good, given that everything requested in the essential emails that we have received are things the city already does.

I know this may be disappointing from some of you to hear from me, but no, I stand with my Hispanic community, my Mexicans, and everybody and every other migrant and undocumented individual in our city.

But doing this believes the best for our community.

I am not interested in political points or being able to point at a law saying I did that.

I'm here to keep our community safe and as possible, avoiding putting us on an unnecessary radar, especially when we are already living the welcoming values that people are asking us to adopt.

So I motion to postpone this indefinitely.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to postpone this item indefinitely.

Uh further discussion.

Mr.

Good.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

Um, I would just like to share my thoughts on this as well.

Um, so we can hear from the audience there actively booing the comments that just came from my colleague, uh, Mr.

Ortiz.

Um part of the process that we go through whenever we get an agenda item, uh, depending on what type of item it is, we do X amount of outreach to the community, um, outreach to stakeholders that have expertise in the area.

And so um my colleagues brought this forward today, and we're having the conversation now publicly.

Um typically something like this has stakeholder engagement involved, and so part of our responsibility every time we make a decision like this is to consider who's not in the room.

Um so as you can see, this is a small group of people here tonight.

Um, my guess is it doesn't accurately represent the makeup of Lgin.

Um, and in my the amount of time I had to do outreach into the community um and speaking with community leaders who interact with un uh undocumented community um and having opportunity to speak with people who are undocumented um and people who have made a varying level of degrees of decisions.

Um what my colleague Mr.

Ortiz just shared is is shared by other people in the community.

So I just wanted to say that kind of broad overview real quick.

Um what we're dealing with here, we heard a little bit of public comment tonight.

We have reports in there's 246 uh appearances, 105 apprehensions, uh detentions, kidnappings, however we want to frame that and term that um in October.

And November that number went from 70 to 25.

So those are real numbers.

Um how we got to those numbers, we typically like to do some background to check for those, but I think I understand the mechanism.

There's reports, they're confirmed, they're verified.

Um and so something I want to share in this conversation of increasing the surface area of attention for the federal government.

What we've seen from them is that they've done things like um put a list together of states and municipalities that are welcoming and or sanctuary cities and and did it haphazardly.

They went, they posted on a federal website, they ended up getting scrutinized for it because they had inaccurate information on their like listing entities that do not even exist as a municipality.

Um but it just gives you insight into maybe how they're looking at things behind the scenes.

Um so at that point in time, Illinois was listed on there, and seven communities were listed on there.

Elgin was not one of them at that point in time.

Um what does that mean?

No, to my understanding, I've not spoken to anybody who knows that.

So there's a lot of unknowns, and we're trying to do our best working through that.

But what I'll share with you is a real story from a real person that lives here in Elgin that is looking at the circumstances in front of them, and they're deciding to leave.

And what they're hoping for right now, between now and February, is that that plan to bail on that future that they had built, the future that the the marketing campaign this country has always pushed forward, they are now bailing on that and hoping that nothing happens between now and February.

So we just heard that the feds, which mind you, ICE was operating here, and then they brought border patrol.

So Bovino is border patrol.

He was applauded for his tactics in Chicago.

They want that in other communities throughout the country.

So we're dealing with multiple different agencies.

They could have bluster and they can say what they want.

We do not know what they're gonna do.

They could say March, it could be January.

We don't know what they're gonna do.

So I'm saying this right now to say I do not have that experience other than why I can live by talking to people that are my family over the holidays, uh friends, community members who have reached out and have said that this is an incredibly challenging topic to discuss because we do want to do the courageous thing.

We want to be bold.

Elgin has a history of that.

But in trying to look back, there was a comment that was made here by uh a member of the public recently.

It was a few meetings ago, and we kept using the word unprecedented.

And they ended the meeting coming up here and saying, I understand why you're saying that, but it this isn't that's not true.

Things like this have happened in the his in the history of this country and other countries.

And so that really stuck with me because this is unprecedented for my lifetime.

But in trying to appreciate what other communities have done in moments where people, their neighbors, their loved ones are being attacked because of how they look, what they believe.

The evidence points to operations that were grassroots.

It was noncompliance, it was stealthy.

When they decided to be very public, it was very intentional.

It wasn't a haphazard approach.

And so we've seen that in this country where there is ways that you can change the narrative and you can do something very intentional.

And so when we make these decisions, that's what I want us to be doing.

So the underlying elements that are being discussed as part of this umbrella of a welcoming community.

Um I think we've seen that the city is living up to X number of those items, and I think we had acknowledgement that there's room for improvement, and I believe that this body would do those things.

But what I've heard from the community as well is that they want the community partners to be thoroughly engaged.

They want the people who are not in this room right now, the people who are gonna be most exposed to be part of the conversation.

And and those are hard conversations to get to because people are hesitant to speak, at least to myself in trying to do outreach.

I can imagine why they wouldn't want to speak to a government official.

But that's the work that needs to go into this because there is a possibility that nobody I've talked to can dispel of what does this mean for the people that are most vulnerable.

And so then my question is how does this protect more people in our community?

So that's what I that was my thoughts thinking about this over the weekend conversations that I've had.

Um is again, I think what was laid out the timeline of the the actions that this group has taken, um, paired with some of the reactions that we've seen that were shocking that the feds would come here with Black Hawk helicopters, that they would send their secretary here, um, and that that just so happened to coincide less than a week after an action that this body took.

Um those are things that do have the public concern.

I talked to people in the public that said this is retribution, and they're going after places that are blue, voted blue, and whatever indicator uh or tag that they want to apply to that.

So um part of me is is happy that we're having this conversation.

Uh another part of me when looking back at what other um communities have done in different times where they were able to work through an awful period of time doing it organically and um kind of through quiet resistance.

Um I just hope we're not taking some of that optionality off the table with what we're saying tonight.

So I I we're here, we're having the conversation and I just really encourage us to go full circle with this conversation with who we're involving in the community when we make these decisions.

So I'll stop there.

That was a lot.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Mr.

Stephan.

Yeah, I just wanted to make a couple quick comments.

Um I will not be supporting the postponent, and I will be supporting the welcoming city ordinance concept, and I I think the discussions have gotten a little ahead of themselves.

The agenda item is talking about a discussion, and there really isn't anything to vote on specifically yet.

Um I would assume if it is supported by a majority of the people up on this dais that it would come back in some kind of a concrete form for us to consider it at that point.

I think if people have objections or feel that we're doing things that a welcoming Sydney ordinance would lay out in other ways, then they could vote against it.

But I think it's too early to start picking apart something that we don't have in front of us in a concrete form.

So uh to summarize, I I'm not gonna be in support of postponing this.

Uh, and I'm hoping there is a majority on this council that will want us to bring something back for more concrete consideration and a possible vote uh at the next meeting.

So I I will be in support of uh the concept of having this come forward.

Anybody else?

Ms.

Powell.

Thank you, Mayor Captain.

Uh, thanks to uh Councilmember Dixon and Councilmember Alfaro for bringing this forward.

I know we've had some conversations regarding this.

Um I I echo Councilman Stefan's uh statement.

I'm I'm interested in seeing you know what a concrete ordinance um would look like.

I think it's it's premature to say we're not interested in doing this.

Um and and just listening to some of the comments.

Um I I guess I'm trying to figure out how does this put us as a community at bigger risk for retaliation for lack of a better term than what we just passed a couple weeks ago.

I mean to me that makes no sense.

I mean, we the head of homeland security has already been in Elgin.

Um we've we've already had multiple people, you know, kidnapped and moved removed from our community from ICE, using their terrorizing tactics.

Um I just feel like um well, for one, in terms of looking at, you know, pointing out the things that we are doing as a community which have been good, and and I definitely agree with you know I think councilwint Murray Arties pointed to some of the things the police chief has done and some other members of our staff.

Staff changes, so does council.

So I I want us to understand that yes, the police department under Chief Lally, you know, some of the things that have been brought up here tonight, you know, have made improvements.

Um but putting an ordinance or a policy in place as a welcoming city um supersedes all of that, um, and I think that's important because some of these people are going to be leaving at some point.

People up here are not necessarily going to be here in the future.

Um I'm definitely in in favor of seeing something come forward.

Um I'm not of the mind that we need to back down because it's going to bring more scrutiny or additional retaliation on us because I it's it's already happening, thank you.

And uh bottom line, bottom line Miss Powell has the podium, not the audience, please.

Uh bottom line, Elgin needs to be on the right side of history.

We need to be on the right side of history when it comes to what is happening not only in our community but in this country.

So um I support uh directing staff to bring forth um a draft welcoming city ordinance for um our review and consideration.

Um I will not be voting in favor of tabling this indefinitely.

Thank you.

Mr.

Thorne.

Thank you, Mayor.

I thought uh first of all, I want to compliment Mr.

Ortiz on his uh uh details.

Uh but one thing that I did in learning about this ahead of time was that I called uh some uh respected community business leaders in the Hispanic community and spoke with them, and uh they are not in favor of this ordinance.

I thought I would share that uh highly respected people.

Um I compliment uh Anthony's uh details, and uh uh I will not support the ordinance.

Thank you.

Ms.

Martinez, yes, thank you, Mayor.

I just uh would like to say that uh I also have spoken to people in our community, you know, leaders and um neighbors, families.

Um the sentiment is that uh in our community, what has happened is horrific.

Nobody's disputing that.

I never in my lifetime thought that I would see this, and some of us up here either know somebody or related to somebody that's been affected by that.

Uh and it's being looked at not only just by uh adults, the mayor and I went to uh speak to an elementary school, and there's fear.

There's fear, even people that are documented, people that live here that are were born here, there is fear.

Okay.

This is why I think that we need to be careful, because when we are trying to do something, sometimes it's called uh unintended consequences, and um I believe that something like this will probably affect that, and I'll tell you why.

Um I um got an email from a resident, and well, I got a lot of emails, and what I noticed on in those emails, they're always quoting the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant refuge um refuge rights.

And what it's asking, you know, uh we're very clear in highlighting, limiting collection of information about immigration status, you know, sharing the personal information, limiting cooperation with ice requests.

And I think about that, that Algin has always done that.

Um has done it since since I I've been on.

I remember with our previous chief, I was invited with um uh Elisa Lara, you know.

We went and we spoke to churches, and spoke to after uh after the masses, and spoke to people telling them and explaining them what their rights are.

The police department has a right to stop you, and what's expected from you is a driver's license.

What's expected from you is insurance, but they can never ever ask you what your status is.

Nobody has a right to do that.

And we we insured people that this is what happens.

Um this happened with the previous police chief, and now with this current police chief, we can all see how um the the police department interacts with the community.

Um I can name uh some events that have happened where our community comes out, our community comes out.

And what I mean by that is uh we've had for a couple years and um some events out in Festival Park.

You don't know Festival Park, you're not aware of many things that happened because it's really really hard to fill that park up.

It's huge.

And these events that we had were geared for our Hispanic community or my Hispanic community, and I never imagined that um these events would happen that could fill a park like that.

And it did last year, and I'll be honest, I thought this year it was going to be affected because of what was going on, but it was a relief and it made me feel good that people felt comfortable to come out and participate.

We had more people than we did the previous year.

You know, we just had at the symphony and the other Los Muertos, very successful.

People from our community are coming out.

Um ICE does, you know, they're acting on behalf of what President Trump has them do.

And in that same interview that Councilman Ortiz was talking about, you know, it's um an interview with um Nora O'Donnell, and she was interviewing the president, and he did say, he did say when they asked him, you know, to make comments about what's happening to uh immigration in regards to immigration, and he said it.

He was very proud to say that yeah, that's happening, and still we're not doing enough.

And he plans on um exchanging more money needed for a lot of us to go ahead and invest in immigration.

You know, and this is more with technology, this is more when they come, it's I think it's gonna be even uh worse.

You know, this isn't over yet, at least while this administration is here, you know.

Um I also feel that um, you know, um I understand people want things to be done, but the reason why we say there's a target, you know, just on Thursday, on Thursday, I'll read this a little bit of this.

It says a federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from yanking funding from 16 cities and counties across the country because they have laws designating to protect undocumented immigrants by prohibiting state and law enforcement officials from helping federal agents.

Okay, and the headline is federal judge blocks from yanking funding from 16 sanctuary cities, counties uh and ruling that bolster Chicago's efforts.

This was the article that I saw.

So, what it means is that you know, if we are already doing, if we're already practicing where we're not asking these questions as a community, you know, but I I get it.

Some people say, well, you would need to have an ordinance, you need to have uh regulation that says this.

And I'm saying that is not good because what's gonna happen, somebody already mentioned it before, they go down a list, and if you're on that list, you're gonna be affected.

You know, I I understand what the council members that propose this are trying to do, they know and they believe, they said that Algin does a good job, but we can do better, right?

We always say we can do better, and I think that uh we've always been open to this.

Uh I feel that um if we had time and staff can look at this, you know, of course we can do better.

I'll give you an example of what happened to me one time.

Uh I was um out and about in the community, and I heard some people speaking in Spanish, and one of them was really upset because they came to um to the center, and they wanted to register their child um for um an event for sport.

And that and this lady was very upset, very hurt, because the person who was inquiring or asking the questions made her uh a question that said, Are you a resident?

And she was so offended, and she said she walked away.

You know, how could the city do that?

But then I had to interfere, and I had explained to her, you know, you misunderstood, and maybe the question was asked wrong.

They're asking if you're a resident of Algin, because if you're not then they charge you more for being a resident of somewhere else.

And then she laughed and she said, That never occurred to me.

But I right away came back and I came to that um director and I said, you know, um, we have to train, we have to be more sensitive and train our employees that when they ask questions, the correct question would be do you live in Elgin?

Do you reside in Elgin?

You know, because meanings, you know, uh, I think I would have been offended, but she was just, you know, we were insensitive in how we asked that.

That's an improvement of what we do.

But if you look, we have um a lot of programs where people participate, you know, and that's what I'm saying.

Um people are participating because they feel comfortable, because they feel safe.

You know, are we limited on what we can do?

It's been said we are.

And um, it's something that as far as uh immigration, it's something that's been broken at a federal level.

And um at this local level, we can only do what we can, and I applaud uh the police department for not going and stepping out of bounds and asking for other things.

Now my personal story um when I went to get my benefits at age 62 for Medicare, and they were denying them because even though I'm born in Elgin, they said my status says waiting to be deported.

Okay.

Well, you know, I kind of was like, you know, that's wrong, that can't happen.

Well, I thought they cleared it because I did get my benefits.

Well, thank God that this last uh November 26th on Wednesday, I finally got something that states that they look through my records and that that finally that status was finally removed from my records.

Now I have to look to see if maybe with the IRS, maybe somewhere else.

But can you imagine if I would have been stopped?

Of course, you know, uh it's like they do things and then ask questions later.

You know, so I was in fear.

I understand, but I'm saying that if we put this, if we put an ordinance on this, it's really gonna put us in a different category.

And it's unintended consequences.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Um I just a couple comments for me.

I think that um uh I've been calling uh uh not in the same sense, but I've been calling Algin uh a welcoming city um going back to my state of the cities address probably five or six years ago from a different context.

That we welcome anybody to come here.

We welcome people to live here, we want to make it be as comfortable as you can.

We want people to be safe.

That's the job of the city council, and that's what we try to do.

Uh many of the things I saw on the list um uh the bullet points, uh we are but have been doing for a number of years, maybe over ten years.

And uh uh it's continuing policy for us.

A lot of things are policy issues, so we can deal with that.

Um is there room for improvement as everybody says, I don't think there's any question about that.

We're seeing things that uh become new for us every day.

And we're dealing with federal government that does things differently every day.

So we're uh we're really working against a moving target.

I think that uh uh this is something that uh additional time and discussion is important for.

It's important for us to look at this as a council, important for the city to look at it as well, uh to get as much input as we can to find people's thoughts, uh interested about the comments from businesses.

We kind of forget about them as a part of their they may not live here, but they do business here, and they deal with customers that are here, so they are important to us as well.

Uh I think there's uh uh room for improvement, there's room for discussion here, there's room for uh us to go out into the community, talk to people, talk to the neighbors, uh, talk to my neighbors, and uh see what they think about it.

Um anything else here.

We have a motion on the table right now.

The motion is to uh postpone this item uh discussion indefinitely uh from Mr.

Ortiz, second by Ms.

Martinez.

Is there anything else at this point?

Miss Ofar.

I just want to state that um council member Dixon and I put this on the agenda as a discussion.

And as you saw after we spoke, the very first council member shut it down.

Didn't even allow the discussion to go all the way through before making a uh a call for a vote to postpone it indefinitely, right?

That tactic was so wrong, in my opinion.

Allow everyone to speak, and then we could have just came with an ordinance ourselves.

But we were like, no, let's feel out, let's feel because of an open meetings act, we can't all talk together.

We can only talk in pairs.

If more than two of us are talking, there has to be a public meeting.

So we were like, okay, in order to have a discussion with everyone, let's have it at a meeting, open it up, let's not bring anything, let's just hear everyone out and figure out what is the game plan, what makes sense, or what doesn't make sense.

So it really does bother me that someone would try to shut it down right away without even having discussion with everyone.

In addition, the welcome city ordinance, it's a broader thing, as I mentioned before.

Going back to people not in this room, that's what the welcome city ordinance is about.

It's about civil engagement and too.

There's a component in there where we could put in that so we are engaging people who are not in this room.

It's to further in increase that engagement to make sure that everyone has a voice at the table.

We're talking about we're already doing it, we're already doing it.

Well, then let's be more intentional about further doing it.

Why can't we be more intentional?

We need to stand up for our community.

The resolutions that we've done, that was great, but that is just the beginning of continuing to make sure that we stand in solidarity with our community.

Why can't we take it further?

What are the solutions?

What other alternatives are there then to continue supporting and making sure there is a sense of belonging and inclusivity?

We have a diversity, equity, and inclusion plan in the city.

This is what this welcome city is also tied to.

It's about include making sure that inclusivity is there.

That sense of belonging in our community is there.

We could take this further.

It's also making sure our LGBTQI plus community feels included.

This is not just limited to what we want it to be of just immigration.

We can make it much broader.

And I don't understand if we are everyone's claiming we're already doing this, we're going to do it.

Why not put it all together?

Make sure it's in a local law to what councilwoman Powell mentioned, that then they cannot change unless this council itself votes for that change.

Because a lot of other things that we have are in policy, which means staff can change things at times.

So why can't we have this as something that is in local law, have a further discussion, and not just shut it down.

If we're talking about why not make sure, then why are we not trying to engage more people?

Why are we just trying to shut everyone up and be like we're gonna sit in this corner in the dark?

I don't believe it's sitting in the corner in the dark.

We need to stand in solidarity with our community right now more than ever.

Anything else?

Ms.

Martinez.

Yes, I was kind of surprised that this was brought up the way it was, because normally what happens if I have a proposal, if I have an idea, I would go to staff and I would explain to them.

And um, that gives an opportunity to staff to not only look at what we have here, but what's happening everywhere else.

And it's more of a preparedness, you know, like for me to just find out when um this agenda comes out that this is gonna be a discussion.

Yeah, I hurried up and I talked to some people, but I would have liked to have uh more of an opportunity.

You know, normally when we talk to staff, uh they're the ones who look at everything full circle and see what what we can do what we can do, they would bring back and say, hey, this community does this, that community does that, and then what we can do is put all that together.

To me, it just seemed kind of rushed.

Thank you.

Okay, anything else?

Mr.

Dixon.

Thank you.

I just want to speak to a few points, and I'll I'll just start from councilwoman martinez's last points.

I want to let you know I did that.

We did that.

We went to staff first.

We met with um we met with corporate counsel Chris Beck.

Um, we had conversations uh and made city manager uh aware of those.

That was the first thing that we did.

And that was a month and a half ago.

And nothing came forward after the conversation after it was agreed upon that we would have some type of working draft ordinance.

And so it was agreed upon that we would have something come forward in December at this meeting.

Uh in the meeting that Councilwoman Alfaro and I had with with Mr.

Beck.

Uh, and that didn't seem like it was happening, which is why we said, you know what, let's just have a broader conversation, and we can discuss that as a city council.

So I did want to let you know we went to city staff first.

We didn't bring it here first.

Sure, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you.

Can I just say that you went to staff and then you know I didn't know that you went to staff, you know, but I'm sure that if we go ahead and we run it out like it should, staff comes back with stuff.

But I would like to have the city manager uh speak if he's council member, there was a request to have an ordinance produced by December 17th, but there was never agreement.

We had discussions talking about the amount of work that would be required by council member, council member, excuse me, corporation council back to complete that work.

We never you and me had a conversation about you coming back with something, a paired back ordinance that was never completed with what components would be able to be removed.

So while there were initial discussions, there was never a promise from me or corporation council back to produce something by December 17th.

You were supposed to come back with a reduced welcoming city ordinance that did not have some more of the extensive components that didn't just involve drafting an ordinance but work with the staff to figure out how the components would be working through the city.

I'm sorry, but that's my understanding.

Okay.

So we have two different understandings, and that's okay, because in the meeting that Councilwoman Alfaro and I had with Chris Beck, the we had an agreement between the three of us that an ordinance would be drafted and would be brought back to us for discussion, and then we would then bring that forward to the rest of City Council to have that broader discussion here publicly.

That was the conversation that we had, the first meeting, a conversation that we had internally.

Um City Manager is correcting that we in our discussion, he suggested that it be scaled back.

No, what we had discussed in that first meeting is what I would like to have produced.

I never agreed to that.

Did he suggest that we do otherwise?

Yes, but I never agreed to that.

So I so maybe we were talking past each other, but we did not have the agreement that we we would not uh m move forward.

So that's how it went to staff, and then that's how we were ending up here now.

So but but long story, you know, short on everything else that has been discussed here this this evening.

Um we figured it there would be a shutdown tactic.

We knew it in advance because the conversations that we have up here as a council um are very different from the ones that we have behind closed doors, and let's just be honest.

Some things need to be said publicly, and some things need to be shown publicly.

If you're not for having a conversation as an elected official publicly in front of people about a subject, what are we doing?

You'd rather you'd rather shut down the conversation about an important subject that more than 50 percent of our community is affected by.

So if you have ideas about what more we can do, we can codify that in an ordinance.

It doesn't mean that we erase everything that we did.

No, it works in conjunction with it.

It supports it.

If you want to do more, this is the opportunity to do so.

If not, that's just talk.

That just sounds good, but that's not effective.

That is not governing.

That is not policy making.

That is not leadership.

That's just a lot of jawjacking and no action behind being elected to represent this community.

Now I'm someone since I've been on city council eight years now, going on nine years.

I'm obviously a black man.

I just don't advocate for black people.

Have I?

Absolutely.

I advocate for my Latino brothers and sisters, my Hispanic brothers and sisters.

I advocate for the elderly.

I'll advocate for uh for veterans.

It does not matter because I was elected to serve everyone.

So you don't just have to, I don't have to be affected personally in order for me to be an advocate for that subject.

When I grow up in this community, and my kids go to these schools, the same schools that I go to, and my daughter goes to a school on the east side that's probably 80% plus Latino and Hispanic, and she's coming home crying to me because her friends aren't showing up the school because the parents don't want to send the kids to school because they're worried about ICE enforcement because the kids are afraid of what's going to happen.

That's a problem.

That's a problem.

So don't have a conversation if you want to.

But the problem ain't going away.

And it's going to get worse.

And there's nothing that we can do that is going to that is going to stop the federal government from doing whatever they are going to do.

So the target, if there's if there's a worry about the target being on our back, the target is already there.

It's been there, it ain't going anywhere.

And we're just getting started.

He's just getting started, y'all.

So we can sit back and say, you know what, we just want to fly under the radar.

We don't want to make the orange man mad and have him come at us.

We could do that if we want to, but that's not going to work.

So I'll rest my comments there for now.

Um Mr.

Glenn.

Thanks, man.

So as you can see, we don't agree on everything or or how to get there necessarily, but um I would like this evening to conclude with everybody in Elgin feeling like we are united in making sure that we're protecting everybody in Algin.

Um agree with a lot of what's been set up here.

Um I think there's some things that we've heard, whether it's through email correspondence or even this evening, where we we just don't know.

Um, and so I I I appreciate that there's a sentiment that you know they're already here.

Um being present isn't it just not the same thing as intensity.

Um, and so I think what you're you're saying up here is a group that has evidence on the record that we support everybody in LGIM.

Um, I think the reason why there's any friction at all tonight is because there's people in the community that have heard different things from different groups that are impacted by this.

Um, and so that's that's been my experience.

When I reached out, um, you know, for those of you who do might not know, you know, my my wife and I had to go through the immigration process from start to finish.

Um, so we have people that are very close to us, friends, family that are impacted by this deeply, and that's where I think this is coming from, where we're sit questioning how this is happening, who was involved, um, how is this gonna unroll?

And so, what we have right now in front of us is we have uh conversation that was brought forward um by part of the council that's incredibly worried about what's happening and trying to take action.

We have part of the council that's hearing from the community that community members that are exposed and vulnerable are concerned when it is taught when it's discussed and laid out, they have concerns about it, and I've heard them say everything from absolutely no to not now to not like this.

Um, so in the spirit of trying to keep momentum going, you know, what we have here in front of us sounds like it's gonna be a pretty close vote on postponement.

It sounds like we also have agreement that there is more that we can be doing.

Um, and it sounds like from my conversations, there's a lot more people in the community that wanted to be more deeply engaged on this, and there's also individuals that have just not been spoken to yet that we need to speak to.

So I think in that spirit, I just want us to all remember how does this help protect the community?

Um, what are we doing to help protect the community?

Um, and even to Miss Alfaro's point, how do what do we do to get more people engaged in it?

Because right now we're dealing with something that's acute, but we want to make sure that the entire social fabric, the civic fabric of this community is strengthened by things that we do.

Um so you might not have the list in your mind right now or in paper in front of you, but there's a a pretty uh common set of components that make up a welcoming city.

And so for the sake of trying to tie this all together, um I I think I will be um supporting a postponement vote, but I would like us to make a motion to move forward on an area that we we can make a difference on that's tangible and direct staff to um come back to us with something to improve improve the live translation services um at city events.

And so I I'm not making that right now because there's a motion on the table that we have to vote on.

Um, but in this for the sake of having this conversation yield action that's positive for the community, um, while also respecting that there are individuals in our community that are concerned about this current approach, and that and and I again I I hear the words like be on the right side of history um to my council member who brought that up.

That was part of the legwork in doing this is looking back at what did communities do in this situation, and the criteria for looking at is which communities were most successful at protecting the most people in terrible instances like this.

And the what yielded to me was it was groups that were more stealthy and had an organic grassroots network that helped people.

So taking in consideration everything I've heard from my community members, taking consideration that reality that I learned from looking into this, that's why there's any level of hesitation on just going full board with this right now because honestly, I think all of us up here had we not heard these things from the community.

If we had heard, yeah, go for it.

Absolutely, we have no concerns.

I think you unanimous conversation right now.

But that's not the case.

And so I just don't I just don't want us to have this body look like we're disjointed in how we want to approach or what we actually want to do.

I think it's a matter of approach.

Um that's in my mind maybe uh a middle ground tonight that we can make some action happen in an area that we know we can improve on.

Um so with that I'll step back from the mic.

Um Ms.

Paul and Ms.

Martinez, and we're gonna have to vote.

Okay.

Yes, thank you.

Um I just want to point out there's nothing that has been proposed that would eliminate or prohibit us from incorporating and seeking out input and feedback from the community.

That I'm assuming is would be part of this process.

I think the goal of having this discussion is to hopefully be able to move forward with directing staff to draft an ordinance that would come back to this council for final approval in conjunction with getting that feedback from the community from the stakeholders in this community.

I don't think I'm what I'm hearing makes it seem like we're not trying to take that into consideration, and I think that's not accurate.

I just want to point out, at least from my perspective, and I'm quite sure from my conversations I've had with my colleagues that brought this forward, I don't think that's their intention either.

But there's nothing in front of us to vote yay or nay on.

So kudos, councilman Dixie and kudos, councilwoman El Faro for doing the legwork on this.

Um Councilman Dixon, you're absolutely right.

Like, what are we afraid of?

This is a conversation.

So to try to shut it down before we even have an ordinance to vote on or a document to review and i if if you don't like it at that time, vote against it.

But to say we don't even want to put something together for consideration.

I I just think that's very short-sighted.

Um I I I think I've made it pretty clear about where I stand, you know.

I'm interested in directing a staff to move forward with bringing something forward for us to consider.

Um and I'll just say, yes, I definitely want to engage stakeholders in that process.

I I I have no problem doing that.

I think that's important to engage stakeholders in that process, and I I don't think that that was ever not the case with with anything that's being proposed here.

So um look forward to seeing how this vote goes.

Thank you.

Miss Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, I I've always been asked what have you done for the Latino community.

And my response has always been what I do for the Latino community, I do for the whole community.

And um when I make decisions or I vote on something, I want to be informed.

I don't like to do um votes and not be informed.

One of the uh quotes that I just heard is you know, we don't know what this is gonna look like.

I don't know what this is gonna look like.

I don't like that.

I want to know what it's gonna look like.

So that's why I'm gonna support to postpone it.

Thank you.

Okay, we have a m we've had uh we have a motion and uh second.

Can I just add just something brilliant?

Well everybody gets a yes, this is your third chance.

Let's get a lot of people went over their three minutes, so I just want to answer.

No, no, no, no.

I got three chances to speak.

So thank you.

I just want to add that um the reason for the discussion was to talk about what we wanted in the ordinance.

That was the discussion was about.

So to say, like, oh, I can't vote because I don't have the inform the informed was to have it as a discussion here.

We want language language access, we want civil engagement, we want this, etc.

As an ideas to then direct back to staff to come and draft something for us to review.

So I just wanted to indicate that that this was a discussion for us to talk about what we would want in there if there was interest to have this.

Okay, we have a motion on the table.

The motion is to postpone the item and definitely it's been moved and seconded.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro.

No to postponing Dixon?

No.

Good.

Well, sorry, but I was having a sidebar conversation.

Um, just for accounting of what's transpiring now.

So we're voting on a postponement, and if this vote passes the conversation for okay, so um the other item that's on the table is discussion to direct staff to we didn't get that far because we got shut down right away.

Yeah.

This is a motion.

You got that far into discussion.

So if this if this motion passes, we don't even get to the second point.

Right.

Dustin, we could if you want to do your technology with uh AI or uh translations.

Once this motion's done, wherever which way it goes, any council member in Royal Abbott's rule is gonna put over throw a motion on the floor.

It's new business, and you can call that for a vote to to direct staff.

So if you want to do your translation, how you mentioned, once this if this passes, then how uh Miss Offaro and Miss Powell said this this conversation dies.

But if you want to move forward have staff move forward with the translation portion of it with technology, you can do a whole new motion once this is done to direct staff to do that.

Or vote in favor of this and just incorporate that into a welcoming ordinance.

Good brief.

So I apologize to everybody who's here and everybody's watching.

This is the first time I've I've jumped into procedure like this and and broke up a vote.

Um I was just really trying to make sure on what I was voting on after that conversation.

Um and it it's again this is uh I do.

Well, it's so it's again it's not the the issue of killing it, it's the the way in which we approach this.

And so um I I I don't want to shut this conversation down.

Um I don't want to encumber our ability to to move forward in meaningful ways, but I also don't want this to be something that um goes around some of the concerns I heard from the community.

And so I I think again we're working with the council that's I think all pulling in the right direction.

Um so for for that reason I'm I'm I'm gonna vote no on postponing this.

Martinez this right here.

I'm sorry.

Can you um please repeat what we're voting for?

Can you repeat to postpone the item indefinitely to postpone it indefinitely?

Yes.

Ortiz, yes.

Powell, hell no.

Stefan?

No.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

The motion five, four, five no's audiences.

Um I'll make a motion to direct corporate counsel to move forward and developing um.

I'm just gonna loosely call it welcoming city ordinance.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to uh develop a welcoming city ordinance.

Um any further discussion?

Miss Martins.

This is how I think it should have been to begin with.

Uh that's why I had voted no.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Ms.

Powell.

So now would be the time.

Councilman Good or anyone else up here, if you have ideas, because this is a discussion.

If you have ideas that you want corporation council to incorporate into the draft that is going to be brought back to us for review and further discussion, now is the time.

Now is the time to throw those ideas out here so that they can be incorporated.

Now, if you think of stuff later, you're not prohibited from emailing those to him as well.

But again, this is a discussion.

We're just asking, we wanted the majority or needed apparently the majority of the council to agree to direct staff to put this together.

So thank you for those council members that voted in favor of us getting to this point.

Thank you.

Okay, Mr.

Dixon.

Thank you.

Um I actually need to amend my motion.

And remotion it, I guess, if I can give that a second again.

Um well the the amendment is the naming of a welcoming city ordinance.

I'm just gonna say br of staff bringing back an ordinance um that reflects the conversation that we have here tonight.

And the and so maybe name it.

Second.

Second, and I think that's pretty appropriate.

Okay.

That would to reflect the conversation as it's gone.

Right.

Okay, because it's been all over the place, and I think that I'll give Mr.

Beck time to go back, look at the look at the uh uh the video and see what was actually said here, and I think that's an appropriate thing to give us something to work on when it's brought back.

Right, and and the the reason if I may speak.

Um tonight we had a lot of conversation, but not about the actual subject and the meat and potatoes of the uh of the topic.

So if you didn't come prepared with points of things that you feel like we could um improve on uh as a city, you know, I don't know where you're gonna get those points from, but what what I what I would just like to have here is just a uh honest open conversation about how we can improve uh you know a language access policy or translation services or um you know or the way that we operate, you know, as far as a municipal uh our employees operate um in a municipality, or whatever it is, whatever the ideas, that now is the the time to do that.

So I I'm not taking any offense to the things that transpired earlier.

This is a part of the process, it's a democratic process, and let's just you know have the conversation.

So way down here.

Ms.

Alfado.

Thank you.

Um in this ordinance, um council member Dixon already talked about a language access plan.

If we could call put in there also an economic component to it as um to ensure that we're being inclusive to the community and doing an intentionality outreach and helping our immigrant owned businesses and all businesses, etc.

And there's an intentionality commodity, and also a civil engagement component, as we have talked about, engaging those that are in this room.

Thank you for being here with us tonight.

Um those that are watching at home, but also engaging those that are not watching and are not here as well.

So we could have a civil engagement component as well.

Thank you.

Is that sorry?

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

My thoughts were going.

Uh Miss Powell.

That said, um, I would like to have a supplier diversity component added to this ordinance.

Let me talk about being a welcoming city and talking about some of the things that are involved.

Um supplier diversity is something we've we've talked about on and off a lot here, but have really yet to really enact anything.

So it's something I really want to see incorporated into this ordinance.

I know we asked certain questions of our contractors in terms of like their employee utilization, but I'm more interested in who are we actually doing business with?

Um who are we spending our money with?

Um that is something I would like to see included in this.

Mr.

Mr.

Good.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um as this is all transpiring, I'll tell you where I'm at currently still.

Um the concerns I had heard from the community are still, I think, potentially bubbling up here.

Um, you know, and that was the individual components.

Everybody agrees upon it and enforces and it wants.

Um I know we've had the uh articulation of you know an ordinance does some uh official locking in, so depending on who's on council or who's on staff, it's there.

Um but for me I support the individual underlying elements and build this to be what it is.

The concern I've had from the community is putting a name on it.

Um so again, I did this is an area to your point about you know, we're elected officials, we have uh conversations in public.

Um we're having this tonight.

I think in a perfect world, you know, uh a little bit more input from folks around the community.

Um but I just the attempt I made earlier to say, like, hey, I feel this is going a certain way, um, and let's do something actionable, because it seemed like we could all agree upon uh the item that there is the ability for us to provide translation services, not just in the Spanish, um that that was something that we could rally around.

So I guess that's where I'm trying to get clarity now is um are we throwing out individual items and components for staff to consider and come back with variants of this is a policy change, is it uh an ordinance change for the individual components, or are we moving forward right now with this as being under the official umbrella of a welcoming city?

Um with all that being said, you know, the the official move, the suggestion here would to direct staff to come back with something to ensure um more language access, which is already been said, but yeah, and I I think I can I can speak to that a little bit and then councilman councilwoman.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Part of the difficulty is this there is no one welcoming or sanctuary sanctuary city ordinance.

And what was presented to me and corporation council back in the first instance had a lot of components that involved analysis that impacted multiple departments in the city, creating the legal defense fund, creating the municipal ID system, creating translation for all city documents.

There's analysis that's involved with that that takes time, and as I told you, we wouldn't be able to do the work that was necessary to provide meaningful information to the council by December 17th, as you planned.

So I don't believe that it's fair to simply drop on the corporation council's lap, come back with what you think is your best idea of a welcoming or sanctuary city ordinance because no different than the divergence on this council, there's no shortage of variations that are out there.

I think that those dis I thought that we were on the path for these discussions is we had that so that the council can instead of dealing with concepts have concrete items to review and discuss instead of just pulling ideas out of the air.

I don't believe that that opportunity is passed, but it's the type of thing that I think involves work behind the scenes.

Yes, sometimes talking with your council members two by two so that a document can then be presented to the council as a whole to begin having that that discussion.

Again, it's the council's prerogative at the end of the day is as to how it wishes to proceed, but I think that you're putting staff in a tough situation now of saying come back and add this because I never would have included supplier diversity, never would have considered that for a moment as part of a welcoming city or sanctuary city ordinance, and I don't want Mr.

Beck or anybody on the staff to be criticized for falling short on those items.

Thank you, Mary.

Yeah, and if I can just respond, because I I think you know, city manager was speaking to me directly on this.

Um I'm open.

I'm not so to any one area, just like you know, um Councilman Good.

He said, you know what, probably should stay away from giving it a title at this point.

Not a bad idea.

Let's call it as an ordinance, it's going to reflect what it the conversation that we're having here today.

So I'm not against it.

I did try to have those conversations in advance, and again, I wasn't married to any one idea.

I was complete I was completely open, and I remain open.

I just want what's best for our community as a whole and specifically the community that's being affected the most.

So we could go about this a couple of different ways uh in my mind.

idea let's call it you as an ordinance it's going to reflect what it the conversation that we're having here today so I'm not against it I did try to have those conversations in advance and again I wasn't married to any one idea I was complete I was completely open and I remain open I just want what's best for our community as a whole and specifically the community that's being affected the most so we could go about this a couple of different ways uh in my mind um we the idea of tonight was to have a discussion to see what if any ideas existed individually amongst council people to have the conversation to possibly go forward to develop an ordinance that was the that was the thinking that was the thought process of of what should have happened tonight the plan didn't lane didn't land and get there you know completely right um so at this point we could have that conversation and people throw out ideas but I also do appreciate having community feedback now all of us are represented representatives and we get here because we're elected by the community we all hear different things we speak to different groups um and so we all are providing the feedback that we hear from the streets so to speak um so we could go forward and provide a few things but we also could say hey we're gonna move this forward for future conversation at the next city council meeting we're gonna solicit some feedback from the community continue to have conversations with not only residents but business owners that you know as was pointed out we can do a myriad of things but to just do nothing and not have any conversations just shut things down like that that would just be wrong.

We we owe we we owe more to our community as as a as kind of a start just kind of a starting point here why don't we uh classify this as a policies discussion policy discussions in the uh vein of creating an ordinance so we create policies we're talking about policies because Ms.

Powell brought up a policy that's not part of the of a of uh a welcoming city ordinance so if we want to talk about those kind of things how do then how do we incorporate those so that would be policy discussions but with the with the with the intent of of creating an ordinance okay just wanted to make clarification so because like policy is different staff can change that when at any will whereas ordinance have to come to the city council exactly so we create a policy and now this policy from the city council becomes an ordinance.

Okay.

Thank you for that clarification and and if I just want to say I I I don't want this conversation to become convoluted with all the things under the stars and get then get diluted down to be something that is not originally meant to be the topic of the conversation tonight was welcoming cities how do we support um and protect our immigrant our immigrant population here in this community that all policy discussions all you know ideas should be geared towards helping that population and not all things that are policy so I just want to be clear on that.

This ordinance is not the end all and be all for everything that every problem facing the city no it's the we have a subject right okay Ms.

Martinez I would also uh would like to include where uh it's explained to us what are the pros and the cons of the things that we are uh proposing are doing in this um resolution in this conversation thank you uh Mr.

Ortiz I want to add that EPD continue the policies that Chief Lally instilled and she put into the Eldrian police department because she only has a short views left maybe a couple years so I want wherever she has in her policies to continue with the next chief and so on.

So things to include okay we have a number of things to work on we have direction for Mr Beck correct sort of we have some broad direction giving me a kind of high rule here so yeah broad direction but um I don't know if this can be done I doubt if this can be done by the 17th.

No that's not possible.

So I think it's something that we'll take over into uh next year and uh to be honest for people uh that's a low time for us as a city council uh January and February are kind of slow times what we do is pay bills mostly so it's a good time to become an of well that's not such a bad thing.

But uh that's so that would be a good time to have this discussion.

Yeah just I I think that makes sense and just as a point of information from my perspective the more specific direction I have as to specific policies and then it's just a matter of me putting those ideas into words that are specific that that can be done fairly easily for me to kind of go out there and take a survey of the best practices and try to come back with what I think is the best ordinance takes considerably more time.

So again the more specific direction with respect to specific things the council would like incorporate into an ordinance I can put those to words fairly quickly.

I can put those to words fairly quickly.

Mr.

Dixon.

Yeah, just some clarification on what uh staff would like.

Um I don't know if all the ideas are going to come up here tonight.

So uh City Manager Cozell, you know, uh what do you think about setting a deadline to receive feedback from council members?

Um maybe that's a you know the month of December and the and then that's court incorporated, you know, come January, February we have those conversations.

I I thought that the input from the council was done now and it was coming back to Mr.

Beck and then there were there would be the review.

I mean, he didn't seem to think that uh he had enough clear direction, that's why I was asking.

Well, but but then again, I think it becomes more difficult if it becomes a moving target.

If you just call with direction, there's no clarity as to whether everybody else is in agreement with that, and so he might be required to spend a lot of time on something that doesn't have the support.

So unfortunately, it's a requires the discussion with a broader council to make sure it's not just an initiative that's supported by other than the majority.

Ms.

Powell.

All right.

He got the ice free ordinance done without a lot of input.

So my guess is he could he has enough in this instance to get something to talk about in a month or so.

Yeah, well, and I and actually sent out a couple of examples of um of ordinances uh that have a uh council manager form of government, right?

So there's always already tons of precedent for it.

Uh and it's probably about nine communities in the state of Illinois that that have some type of working ordinance, and they're not all called welcoming city.

There, you know, it's various you know different things.

So I think there's enough framework, enough precedent.

Sure.

So that you can't.

So if you if I get direction you'd like an ordinance like Evanson has or the city of Chicago.

I mean, that could be done in a number of hours, but I I'm getting a lot of things about a civil engagement component, supplier diversity component, uh economic component.

I I don't really know what those mean.

So if there's like a specific policy, or if you just want Evanston's ordinance, I can you know we can come back with Evanston's ordinance or any other cities like but that's that's what I mean about being specific.

If that's specifically what you want, I can get that done very quickly.

I can share the economic one that I've seen.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Are we good here for the moment?

Ms.

Paul.

And that's actually what I was gonna say that we might want to give um Corporation Council some specific direction around use maybe Evanston's ordinance as a base to build on.

Um I think that would be proper direction, which it sounds like that's already kind of happening.

So if there's an ordinance that we at least want to use as a base and incorporate some of the things that have come up.

And you know, I I'm fine with you know uh I mentioned supplier diversity, and I think I personally think that there's uh uh a a component of um a welcoming city ordinance that kind of ties into the economic piece that um councilwoman Alfaro said.

Um I mean, and and that's kind of like where I was going down.

So um I'm not trying to convolute it.

If we need to deal with that separately, I'm fine with that.

Um I don't want to overcomplicate this because I do want you know staff to be able to do this and bring something back, you know, that that that we can that we can uh review and vote on.

Okay.

Okay.

I believe staff has direction and we can uh we can kind of move forward here.

Sure.

I okay I just wanted to add, yeah, just timeline-wise for transparency to the community.

Are we thinking then because I think the 17th is too soon?

Um are we thinking the first meeting in January, second meeting in January?

You tell me what do you think?

Um second say February, Chris, you know how that's how much time you need.

Yeah.

No, I I feel comfortable.

I'd be able to come back in the second meeting in January.

I mean, if in the council's preferences something sooner, I mean and I I'll make it work.

But uh second meeting in January, I think I seriously.

I think that's fair with the holidays and everything.

Okay.

Thank you.

And if I'm understanding correctly, you you the more direction the better.

So I'm just I'm trying to help.

And if I was to give a to amend my motion for the second time to reflect what you were just saying, say um amending the motion for you to develop a an ordinance uh that is reflective of Evanston's ordinance, which also includes the things that we discussed here.

That would give you a little bit more framework.

Yeah, I'm asking.

If that's the direction of council, then that the start and so I'm just trying to make sure that I that you have enough to work with.

I'm just trying to make sure that I that you have enough to work with.

I think I have a problem.

Uh how do I know of uh what Evanson's ordinance is?

Am I gonna vote?

I'm gonna vote on uh an amendment that's gonna follow Evanson's ordinance, and I don't know what that is.

No, it actually uh I had to send out to the entire council.

Yeah, but I had in it and we're we're not voting like the review that before I would vote on that.

I think just we're not we're not voting on the ordinance.

No, this is just he says that he just needs more framework in which to develop something to bring it back.

So we're not voting on an ordinary like like uh maybe like, but even that is might be a little stretch.

Okay.

No the motion is to what's the motion now?

Is that uh uh use uh guideline, Evans then as a guideline.

I second that motion.

Okay, Mr.

Good.

Um so I I thought we had come to like an agreement that we were gonna focus on the underlying individual components and make those ordinances and codify it that way rather than looking to again.

My whole issue this this meeting has been because I've gotten feedback from the community that they're worried about being uh in a community that has a label welcoming city and it draws more attention.

Where they're already here, we understand that the intensity getting worse.

Again, the example that I tried to give to make this as real world as possible is that we've got people in the community who are now trying to proactively leave this country by February.

And so we we don't and so that's my that's been my concern this whole time.

So now I I I feel like I felt like we were getting there, and then now if we're giving uh direction to follow another municipality's example of the welcoming city, I just want to be clear right now that I don't disagree with that necessarily.

I just want to be really clear that we're not just foregoing that entire conversation that just happened, and we're gonna come back in the second week of January and we're gonna be voting on a welcoming city board.

What is a what is a motion that you would feel comfortable with?

To direct corporate council to bring back uh suggestions that make up the that account for the underlying elements and components that actually make up a welcoming city and see where we can do better.

Uh address those individual components and keep doing uh you know what the good work that the city's been doing, uh work with the community members who have been creating the organic support networks, go that route.

I just don't want this fixation to be on this label that was expressed to me by constituents that that's the concerning point of it.

Everybody agreed on the underlying elements of it.

There might be some back and forth, maybe on a couple of them, but I feel like a lot of them it's slam dunk.

And so the concern about it not being codified and being an ordinance, I understand.

So that's what I was under the impression we were giving direction to was that he was gonna go back, he was gonna take into consideration, watch the tape about all the different items we we discussed, potentially offer uh window of time for us to bring additional items forward for consideration, and that we would then handle it in that way.

That's what that's what I was under the impression of.

So it seems like it was an original motion then, right?

That was your original motion was I thought I thought corporate council was asking for more framework.

You were trying to ask you.

Yeah, so it's the original motion then that to create a type of ordinance with some kind of name.

We don't know what it is, maybe sensible belonging, inclusivity, whatever, right?

That includes this language access plan, the civil engagement economic component that also ties in supplier diversity procurement, um, as well as um continuing EPD policies.

That's what we had so far.

Yep.

That was the original motion.

Second, yeah, that was okay.

We're not gonna make it.

Well that's your motion.

That's my motion.

Make it again.

That's right.

You just said a second.

Okay.

Okay.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Council members Alfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Campett.

Yes.

Motion's approved 9-0.

Okay.

Was it torturous route?

Announcements from the council.

Mr.

Ortiz.

Uh I was talking to Mr.

Thorne on before Thanksgiving, I think.

And he told me that his birthday is coming up on Saturday.

He's going to be 132 years old.

So I just want to say happy birthday to uh Mr.

Thorne.

Okay.

Mr.

Good.

Um it's a I guess I could have said this in the previous conversation.

But just really want to give a shout out and thanks to everybody who has been doing uh the the challenging work in the community.

We've seen a really successful food pantry pop up, but that's never really a great thing.

You know, you always want to have the need be at zero, but um just wanted to give a call out to everybody that's been doing that work, volunteering their time, canvassing, um distributing all your rights, mutual aid, so all those things build up what's going to be the strongest part of this, and so I just want to give a shout-out recognition to that.

Anything else from the council?

Mr.

Dixon.

Yeah, I echo those words, and I and also just want to say thank you to all the residents here and everyone here that really stood in with us tonight and sat through this meeting.

Um, and I also want to say thank you to um to city staff in advance uh for the work that you're going to do in writing this ordinance and say a special thank you to uh my city council colleagues um for giving this an opportunity um for us to have this conversation and for us to build something that's for Elgin that's gonna help us and protect our residents and bring us forward.

So thank you to to everyone here tonight.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Stefan.

Yeah, I wanted to think about it, and you just asked for council announcements tomorrow night.

There is a do-it-yourself messiah.

If people want to get into the holiday spirit, it will be at Second Baptist Church.

It will include the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, the Elgin Master Corral, and soloists from the Midwest Opera Theater.

Takes place tomorrow night, December 4th, 7 p.m.

Proceeds will support Wellchild Center's food pantry for families.

If you haven't seen it or toured it, uh it's always good to do.

Uh it's over there on Wing Street and Route 31.

Tickets are five dollars per person.

Children under 12 are free.

Uh I don't have a website, but if people are interested, um I would say join them at Second Baptist Church tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

Miss Martinez.

Uh yes.

I um recently attended the Scouting of America, the Three Fires Council, and they had a good scout uh breakfast, and I'd like to congratulate the honorees.

Uh Lori Baker, uh she is the president CEO of AID.

And um, if you look at the building that's next to the DMV, that's something that AID did.

I I invite you to please look at that.

Uh Kyla Britton was the other one, and Kyla, she has built a career around uh deep commitment and philanthropy and community impact.

And then um the third one was Elisa Lara.

Elisa Lara is a seasoned and dedicated health uh professional, and she's almost like our MC for the city, and then finally Mr.

Uh Mark Siegel.

You know, Mark uh Siegel and his family that are committed to um the Algen community that has been uh defining part of uh his life and career, and he's been very generous with um what he has done for our city.

So I just wanted to congratulate all four of them.

And then uh lastly, um I wanted to announce, but I write down the information.

There's gonna be um information given about people who want to give inputs on sidewalks, city manager.

Do you what is it?

December 11th.

December 11th.

And uh what exactly is it?

Um it's a survey.

So if you have ideas or something that you want to come and um let us know about it.

There's gonna be um this event at um the center on uh Thursday the 11th.

Thank you.

Uh one announcement for me.

Uh I have a sign on in my yard that says no trespassing.

I'm not allowed.

There are hundreds of them downstairs, and where are people to come pick them up?

Let's get them.

You guys are out in the audience.

Let's get a sign in your yard.

Okay, uh also some staff.

No announcements, mayor, but I just want to give a shout out to the city snowplow drivers who work through the majority of this holiday weekend.

Unfortunately, the record snow for this year has cut short by one week.

The planned leaf rake uh leaf pickup in the rake out areas, and given the amount of snow that we have on the ground and with the facilities being closing up, we are unfortunately not going to be able to make supplemental pickups.

The plows are on the uh the the plow blades are on the trucks for the remainder of the season.

However, we will be exploring supplemental pickup in the spring if that's possible.

Also want to give shout out to the Cultural Arts and Special Events Department who did everything they could to try to complete the tree lighting and with the Santa activities.

We pulled the plug late in the afternoon, but we will be back bigger and better next year with the tree lighting and those festivities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Move in a second to adjourn, Court, please call them all.

Council members of our Sixen.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz.

Yes.

Powell.

Yes.

Stephen?

Yes.

Thorn?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, we are adjourned.

We'll reconvene at the regular council meeting at eight fifteen.

So for December third, twenty twenty-five to order, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God is indemiscible with liberty and justice for some.

Well, Cork, please call a roll.

Council Member Zalvaro.

Here.

Dixon.

Good.

Here.

Martinez.

Here.

Ortiz?

Here.

Powell?

Here.

Stefan?

Here.

Thorne?

Here.

Mayor Captain.

Here.

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting of November 19th.

Move for move and second for approval.

Any discussion.

Or corrections.

Ms.

Alfaro.

Um, from page well, from the complete packet, so forgive me, I'm joining from the pages of the complete packet.

Thirteen to thirty-one.

Um, it lists that I voted yes when I wasn't at the meeting.

So if we could just take my name off.

Um, given I wasn't present.

Thank you.

Motion to approve is amended, please.

Second.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Council members alfaro.

Abstain.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, motions approved date zero with one abstention.

We have uh no communications this evening.

We have a few people signed up.

Elijah Stein.

Hello, I'm Elijah Stein.

I have lived in Elderton for ten years now, and I would like to bring a new take on an old standing problem, which is health care.

Healthcare is a basic human right.

I really don't feel that I need to argue that.

If you really don't think that it is, you're just lucky enough to not need it right this second.

Most politicians would like you to believe our healthcare system is broken.

However, I would like to present the opposite truth.

Healthcare in the USA is operating exactly as intended.

How then does one fix a system that's functioning against its own customers?

Many answers have been posed, but I prefer the simple and effective approach the American public has to say on, albeit the unpreferred one.

Deprioritize their bottom line.

Choose to pay for the food your family need to live, the transportation you need to work, and the things your children need to give them a brighter future.

Prioritize what really matters.

And remind healthcare companies that they've forgotten their priorities as a service provider.

In business, the only service worth paying for is a good service.

Gabe Newell, the CEO of Steam said it best.

Piracy is not the result of people wanting to steal.

Piracy is the result of bad service on the part of get bad game companies.

Using that same logic, Steam prioritize creating better services for their customers, and now they're the biggest platform in the world.

Healthcare companies don't improve services purely for the fact that they have no incentive to, and they fully understand just how much of a need medical services are.

As such, they sit pretty as politicians funded in part by healthcare industry dollars, claim it's too complicated a process to solve.

Meanwhile, other countries have solved it decades ago.

We cannot wait for a hero to fix our problem for us.

If we as the American people wish to see better value for what we pay for, then we need to be the reason for change.

We need to remind these companies of what it is we pay them for.

And if they try to tell you that they're wrong for treating them just like another business while they tried to take your money without giving the service that you have paid for, feel free to remind them.

That's just how business works.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Dorothy Apoulis, did she stick around or did she leave?

I believe she left.

Kevin Saldabar.

Hey guys.

Um I wanted to continue on with uh the comments that I mentioned earlier uh in the last meeting uh about economics, but I first want to say um that was like a major like filibuster moment.

Um I think what would look like well moving forward is like if people disagree with things and policies and parts of what we uh you know are presenting, like we need to understand how to talk that out.

Like what do we disagree about?

Why are we disagreeing about this?

Like you guys are lawmakers, right?

We we're supposed to be hearing you guys make laws or be dictating how you're making laws, not necessarily whether you come here to just agree and disagree.

Like I think a lot of the pushback that you see from the residents uh is because like we come here and we vote and that's it.

Like we don't understand why.

So back to my economics comment earlier.

Why are we funding the things that we're funding?

How do we forecast the things that we fund and who is it going to impact?

The mayor said something the other time.

He said, uh, not everything is for everybody, right?

And so that's the importance of these discussions, right?

Um I'm kind of mentally exhausted from that filibustering for that hour ago.

Um, because you know, I'm trying to keep track of a lot of things that are happening here.

A couple points about the ordinance stuff.

I think we also need to just like realize that like if there's a problem with writing the ordinance for like anti-commandeering laws, let's just we write it plain and simple, like we don't want ice to commandeer our property.

Like that's as plain to simple as it gets, and then you leave that open to interpretation, which is pretty like not open to interpretation.

It's like at face value.

That being said, um I do want to uh highlight something that happened very that is happening right now, and we're finally discussing public safety without the presence of police here.

I think that's a major accomplishment because forever, for four years ago, even we've been talking about how public safety does not just exist in the realms of police.

It exists it exists also in the realms of health care, right?

Uh it exists in systems and a cooperation between community and government outside of the realm of police.

I also wanted to point out then the city budget, like whose idea was it to put city services and not like divide police services and what the city is spending on like things like the recenter and XYZ, like city employees.

Um also uh I tried to leave a public comment.

I didn't really want to come in today, but uh digitally, I don't I don't know who to email anymore to I don't know if you guys are still doing that, but reading public comments by submission via an email, I don't see that online anymore.

Ums crap, I ran out of time again.

But maybe we'll yeah, we'll maybe we'll discuss this.

But you know, it's just how we deliberate, how we talk and like how we express this, and I think it would really help moving things forward from here on out.

Thank you.

Thank you, Matthew Willis.

Okay.

Okay.

That brings us to bids.

First item is a Bose Creek, a bid number two five-036 Bose Creek Golf Club uh entrance sign.

Move toward the bid to Aurora Science Company, an amount of $32,000 sixty dollars for Bows Creek.

Bose Creek entrance sign.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Any discussion.

Hearing none, Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

The motion is approved nine zero.

Item two is bid number two five-zero five six.

Uh 2025 traffic signal capital improvements.

Uh Mayor will move that we award this department electric uh in the amount of 424,996 dollars.

Second.

Move and second or any discussion.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Zalvaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, the motion is approved nine zero.

Item three is bid number two five-zero five seven.

2025 sewer cleaning and lining project, not to exceed 584,000.

Mr.

Mayor, I recommend that we award this to Hoare H O E R R Construction Incorporated.

Second.

Move and second and any discussion.

Hearing none.

Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmember Zelparo.

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

The motion is approved 90.

Brings us to other business.

The first item is a resolution regarding the determination of the amount estimated to be necessary to be raised by taxation for the year 2025 upon taxable property in the city of Elgin.

Move for approval.

Second.

Moved and second for approval.

Any discussion hearing none, Clerk please call a roll.

Councilmember Zalvaro.

No.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne.

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

The motion is approved 8-1.

Brings us to uh public hearing.

Public hearing on the 2026 proposed city of Elgin budget.

I declare the public hearing open.

Uh discussion from the council at this time.

Seeing none.

Uh anyone in the audience wish to comment on the 2026 proposed budget.

Anyone in the audience wish to comment on the audience?

Mr.

Ortiz, what's the comment?

I just want to say I want to say thanks to city staff, other department heads, city manager's office, and corporation council for putting this budget together.

I know they start in quarter two.

Is that correct, Mr.

Manager?

Were you gonna start doing this?

Are you already starting for next year?

The chief financial officer starts then.

I I come in a little bit later.

All right.

Well, Mr.

Naraki, I appreciate you for uh keeping us balanced, keeping us not in a deficit and keeping us as a lean organization and only spending money on what we need to spend money on it.

I appreciate you for that.

And keeping us in line when we spend too much money.

So thank you.

Uh anyone else in the audience wish to comment on the budget.

Mr.

Dixon.

Thank you.

I um I just wanted to say that um you know raising taxes, property taxes is never anything that any elected official wants to do.

Um but here in this community, uh, because we've had such great city council members and city staff for so many years.

This in 11 years, this is the first time while everything else around us is going up.

Um and so this is is not an act of um you know negligence.

Um this is um financial stewardship really at its best and is a reflection of our um our financial director um and uh miss narocki who I'm looking at right now and also the wonderful city staff that we have uh throughout our community um and continue to do the work every single day and stretch themselves thin, you know, work many hours, not have a lot of staff, and so we um I I I appreciate it and uh and I recognize that and so it was not it's not easy to raise you know taxes, but under these circumstances given what we've been through and how we've been punching above our way for so long, um it's necessary at this point.

So anything else, Ms.

Powell.

Thank you.

Um I also want to thank staff for their work.

Um I I know that this is not easy.

Powell thank you um I also want to thank staff for their work um I I know that this is not easy um similar to what councilman dixon said um it's never easy to raise taxes and is there's never a good time um I will say that Elgin's not unique or alone being found in this situation right now several other communities around us are faced with the same challenge I won't call any of them out but in my day job I not only get to come to obviously our city council meetings I go to other community city council meetings and I've sat through their meetings where they've raised their um home rule sales tax right now another community is in the process uh similar to us of raising their general fund uh property tax levy after having not done so in over ten years so I think that's important for our residents to hear that this is not just unique to Elgin um we really do our best to try to contain fees and taxes and and how we're spending money so I think it's important for people to understand that you know we're we're not unique right now this is something that's facing several other municipalities in this area so uh I will be voting uh in support of this not because I want to spend more money or I want to take more money from people everything that we do as a city costs more and it has cost more for a long time just like at home everything that we buy at home costs more but imagine for a a city the size of a the size of Elgin 115 12000 people so magnify what you buy at home by probably 300 or 3,000 or 5,000 or more that's what the city of Elgin is facing in terms of additional cost.

I also want to point out and and we dealt with it a little bit on this this um agenda tonight we are doing a massive amount of lead pipe replacements that is impacting um our budget significantly but it's work that needs to be done not just because the federal government says that we have to do it it's work that we have been doing as a community but we've had to speed that up because of the new laws but it's important work that has to be done and this council supports that work.

It's important for our community it's important for the health of our community and that is not cheap work.

It's not cheap work at all.

Another shout out to staff for working diligently to identify grant funding and the loan programs that we've um identified to help offset the literally millions and millions of dollars that we are spending on lead pipe replacements in this community so thank you uh for the hard work thank you to uh my colleagues up here for supporting that work and those are those are my comments thank you anything else anything else from the public anything else from uh anybody in the audience wants to speak okay seeing nobody at the podium I declare the public hearing closed brings us to item three is consideration of a petition 30-25 for 451 North McLean Boulevard plan development as a map amendment to allow construction of a larger than permitted monument sign in a refuse collection area in uh enclosure in the uh street yard at Kimball Middle School Mr.

Millot thank you check thank you Mr.

Mayor good evening members of city council this property is located on the east side of McLean Boulevard between Demon Street and Lawrence Avenue here is McLean this is Demond and this is Lawrence Melrose is along the east side of the property this is Paul's Family Restaurant Auto Zone the Sheridan at Tyler Creek and the south end of the Wing Park Shopping Center.

U 46 requests approval of a larger monument sign and a new refuse collection area enclosure within a street yard at Kimball Middle School the proposal is part of the Kimball Middle School expansion and renovation project that otherwise conforms to the zoning rates and is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2026 2027 school year.

The new monument sign along North McLean would replace the existing sign.

The zoning ordinance allows one 10-foot high, 40 square foot monument sign with a 20 square foot electronic message board.

The proposed sign would be seven and a half feet high, just under 100 square feet, and the electronic message board would be a bit more than 27 square feet.

The new sign would match the monument signs recently approved for the new middle school on Morrison Road, which was just named Legacy Metal School, and four Hilltop Elementary School.

The new refuse collection area is proposed on the east side of the school.

Because this side of the building fronts Melrose Avenue, the area east of the building is technically a street yard where a refuse collection area is not allowed.

U 46 requests that the refuse collection are be appropriately located next to the school kitchen.

It would still be more than 400 feet from Melrose and enclosed with an eight-foot-high masonry wall that matches the masonry of the building.

The applicant is present.

Should you have any questions?

Staff in the planning and zoning commission recommend approval, subject to conditions, outlined within your packet.

Move for approval subject conditions.

Second.

It's been moved and second for approval, subject to conditions.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Ortiz.

Yeah, as uh once I continue appreciating U 46 for putting more money into the schools here within the city of Algen.

And uh this is a huge improvement because talking to Miss Powell that the sign that's up there now over on North McLean.

That thing's been there since I was a kid, so I'm glad they're improving it.

It's probably a little bit bigger than well, obviously it is bigger than real house, so but I'm okay with it because that thing right there, I think it looks dope.

So I appreciate your 46 for putting more money into our schools here within the city.

Okay, anything else?

Mr.

Dixon.

Oh, well, I'm sorry.

Mr.

Manager, go ahead.

Oh just I've had the privilege of being able to work with deputy superintendent, Dr.

Ann Williams, who's in attendance.

The amount of work that you echoing what Councilmember uh Ortiz is saying, the amount of work that U-46 is putting forth and the cooperation and effort that you've worked with staff has been incredibly enjoyable.

And thank you for the partnership and the investment in the city.

It's truly commendable.

And I don't know when you sleep.

Okay.

Mr.

Dixon.

Yeah, I I want to say thank you too.

And this is the second edition for this same school because there's a new addition being added on to Kimball, and that was a groundbreaking, I don't know, I don't know, six months ago or so.

Something like that.

So just really happy about what's happening.

And honestly, like I would have took anything over that ugly sign that's out there right now.

So this is absolutely a huge improvement.

So good job and keep up the good work.

Okay.

Anything else?

Ms.

Paul.

Thank you.

Um as Councilman Ortiz said, we were just admiring the nice new sign and trying to speculate on how old the current sign is.

Um but thank you for all the work that because you guys are doing a lot, a lot of capital work right now.

Uh I'm sure it's not easy, but I can't wait to see the final product.

Uh the investment in our community, uh, in Elgin in particular, but throughout the district that that serves our families, is huge, and it's going to pay dividends in this community and throughout the district for decades to come.

So thank you for uh all the work that you're doing.

And uh just uh a point of clarification.

If you can, Mark, go back to the uh slide.

Yes, that one.

Just because I'm a garbage girl.

It it says is there room?

Garbage girl, not trashy girl.

There's a difference.

Yes, two two different things.

Um does that allow for the truck to that white part, is that sidewalk or is that where they can drive upon the property?

Across that, yeah.

They can drive.

Okay.

All right.

If we look at the site plan, you can see the circle right there allows them to come right up to the given.

Uh yeah.

The left, the right yellow, the right yellow circle off the new driveway.

They can come right in.

Okay.

But then the but the garbage containers are going to be in closed enclosed, so they'll just have to wheel them out.

And that's a and that's a requirement of city code.

You can't have dumpsters out in the right.

Okay.

Just curious.

Yep.

All right.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anything else?

Mr.

Ortiz.

Oh, I forgot to clarify.

I'm an abate kid, so I'm always going to be an abid kid, but I will support my uh my rival over on uh North McLean Boulevard.

Okay, Clerk Please call or Mr.

Stephanie.

I'm sorry.

I just wanted as a graduate of what was then Kimball Jr.

High.

I am appreciative of the changes that are being made.

Um the biggest one that's causing the dumpsters to be moved to the west side there is the fact that they're taking the cafeteria out of the basement, which is where it was when I was there.

And now it's going to be on the ground floor in the back, and it's also where the auditorium is, and that's being turned into principal's offices and other things.

Um but I that was one comment I made wanted to make.

The other one was I appreciate the um planning and zoning commission for asking the questions that I always turn to when these petitions come to us and got clarification on the times of the garbage pickup and the reason why they're it's now going to be next to the where the kitchen is going to be located, which is where all the trash is going to be generated.

So that and the fact that the sign is as has been pointed out is definitely overdue.

Um that's why I'm supporting this and appreciative of that work that is done at that lower level.

So thank you.

Anything else?

Okay, Mr.

Dixon.

Uh real quick, I was just going to say ABB O T T.

I was the abdicate too as well.

That's probably the only thing that myself, me and uh councilman uh agree on tonight.

So and Larkin's battery than Algen, but you want to do that.

I want the both, so that's right.

I was kicked out of one.

I don't know if you want to count that.

Court, please call a roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro, yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Campton.

Yes, motion's approved 9-0.

Item three.

Is uh consideration or I'm excuse me, item four.

Is consideration of petition 31-25, a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow murals in the A B uh districts establish regulations for traditional housing facilities, allow accessory package liquor sales as permitted use in the C C One district and other miscellaneous amendments.

Uh, Mr.

Millot and Mr.

Millot will lead us through these one at a time.

Yes, sir, for a vote.

Each one will get an individual vote.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mayor.

Staff of the Planning and Zoning Commission are recommending for your consideration tonight five amendments to the text of the zoning ordinance.

I'll stop after each amendment for any questions or comments you might have.

And if City Council is so inclined, we could entertain a motion for the specific amendment at that time.

Moving right along, then the first amendment would move accessory package liquor sales from the list of conditional uses in the C C 1 Center City District to the list of permitted uses.

Accessory package liquor sales allow businesses to sell a limited amount of beer, wine, and or alcohol in their original package for consumption off-premise, in addition to the primary purpose of the business.

Accessory package liquor is not the same as a liquor store, which would remain a conditional use in the downtown zoning districts.

The conditional use process here is really a belt with suspenders because the liquor commission, which consists of sitting city council members, still retains full discretionary authority to determine whether the business receives a liquor license.

The conditional use process in this instance only adds time and cost for certain downtown business owners.

Notwithstanding, this amendment takes an incremental approach.

It only includes properties in the C C 1 district or the core of downtown, the CC2, center city district, and or other zoning interests could still be considered at a later date.

Again, the C C One District is a core of downtown, highlighted in red on the map.

It's about 40 acres, generally extending from Symphony Way on the north to Prairie Street on the south, and from Center Street on the east to Riverside Drive on the west.

The other setters center city district consists of another approximately 150 acres radiating out from the C C 1 district.

The city has been working with a tenant to occupy the ground floor of the newly renovated 42-page court building called the bottle shop.

They intend to provide about two dozen beers, primarily from Illinois Brewers, non-alcoholic beer, pre-batched cocktails, and craft sodas, all on draft or on-site consumption.

They would also have standing coolers containing 300 to 400 other bottled and canned beers, non-alcoholic beers, premixed cocktails and craft sodas that they could open and pour in a glass to the consumer with a corking fee.

The bottle shop would like a customer to be able to purchase from this wide selection of bottles and cans to either take home and consume later or perhaps take to a restaurant that has a BYOB Corkage liquor license.

The bottle shop also intends to offer wine and cocktails for on-site consumption and pre-packaged wine and a curated selection of liquor to go.

The bottle shop will also allow persons to bring outside food into their establishment.

If the zoning amendment is approved, the bottle shop would not be required to go through the conditional use process.

Instead, only request approval of a liquor license from the Elgin liquor commission.

I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

The operator of the bottle shop is present tonight.

Staff in the planning and zoning commission recommend approval.

Approved.

Do you want to have you one at a time?

I'll I'll make a motion to approve the text amendment as exploited.

It's been moved to the second for approval.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Steph.

I'll just jump in as one of the five council members that's also on the liquor commission.

We just had a meeting earlier, and the applicants were present at that.

I can verify or or support the statement by our development director, Mark Millot that the liquor commission is very much on top of this.

We're trying to work with the applicants on making this work without the need to go through this conditional use process.

So I I just wanted to make that comment, and if people had concerns that they shouldn't, because I think as you had pointed out, the liquor commission has that fully under is aware of it and under control.

So Mr.

Dixon.

Yeah, uh thank you.

Thank you, Mark, for the presentation.

Um when I read the materials on this, I was kind of shocked a little bit initially because we had had issues over the years, not in recent years uh as much, but this kind of seemed to, I thought, like, you know, take us back a little bit uh initially.

But once I you know continued on and read through the materials of like, oh okay, this this probably could work.

But it was a little shocking, it was a little jarring initially.

Um but um I'm willing to try it and uh and I look forward to it uh you know succeeding.

So thank you.

Okay.

Uh in a motion, we have a motion on this and motion and uh vote uh clerk please call the roll.

Councilmember Zalvaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes, good, yes.

Martinez, yes, Ortiz?

Yes, Powell, yes, Stefan?

Yes, Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Campton.

Yes, motions approved 9-0.

Congratulations.

Okay, the second amendment would allow properties owners in the AB area business district to put a mural on their building.

Murals are currently only allowed in the C C 1 and C C2 center city districts.

The zoning map shows the A B zoning districts in red, are generally applied to major arterials like Randall, Larkin, McLean Dundee and Summit.

No other changers are proposed to the mural regulations.

Buildings can have one mural.

Murals cannot cover major architectural features such as doors, exit, and windows, and murals cannot include more than three percent text.

Ecker Center on Larkin Avenue would like to put a mural on the front of their building as a key part of their strength in the community initiative celebrating 70 years of service to the Elgin community.

If the amendment is approved, Ecker Center is hoping to begin installation next spring.

Be happy to answer any questions you might have.

A representative of the Ecker Center is present.

Staff in the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend approval.

Move for approval.

Second, move to second for approval.

Any discussion Ms.

Martin Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I was looking at your zoning map in the northeast area.

Okay.

And um it's kind of hard to see, but I kind of like blew it up a little bit.

And um, I was questioning an area that is considered NB.

And I believe uh the street is uh God, I knew what it was.

It's on on Liberty.

Yes, ma'am.

It's uh where the American Legion is at.

It's Chester, that's right, Tester.

Uh that one there where Chester is, and then you go uh to the other side, which is uh slate.

That area there, um, how couldn't it be included into that or how how do we do that or what happened?

Uh I can cue up uh another text amendment similar to what I presented, but we can't do it tonight because the notice for this amendment was for A V only.

But we can certainly look at that and bring it back to you.

Would you please appreciate that?

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Mr.

Thorne.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Uh I spoke with Jennifer earlier from the Ecker Center, and I think she has an example with her of what this mural would look like.

Would you be so kind as to bring that up, Joe?

You can come up to the other podium over there.

It would oh hold on.

You don't have the the previous picture had the side of the building on it.

So this is one panel on the on the left and this is one panel on the right.

I love it.

Great.

Are you gonna paint it?

I might I might take a brush to it.

No, it's a professional mural artist.

And um Ms.

Ms.

Powell.

Thank you.

Thanks for showing the mural.

Obviously, as uh the liaison to the Cultural Arts Commission, I'm I'm really excited about this.

Um I'm glad to see that we're moving forward with making some text amendments that will allow more murals to go up throughout the the city.

Um in addition to what councilwoman uh martinez mentioned.

Uh sounds like there's some interest in maybe doing something at the Legion potentially.

So I I think this is a positive thing.

Had a chance to talk to Jennifer about uh this mural.

I think you said it was designed by one of your staff members' daughters who's a board, a board member's daughter.

Board members' daughter, who's a professional muralist, and who we who will be painting the actual mural um probably sometime in the spring when it's when the weather is is more conducive.

So I I look for I I go past this building a lot based on where it is.

So I'm I'm really looking forward to seeing this there.

I think it it's uh it'll be a welcome addition.

So uh we'll definitely be supporting this.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Anything else?

Mr.

Dixon.

Yeah.

Um I I just want to say it's uh it's a beautiful mural.

Um I love the color scheme and location.

That's a pretty busy world road there uh in Larkin Avenue, and I drive past it uh pretty often too.

And I just want to uh you know say thank you for staff for being reflective of um of the needs of this community when it comes to you know the art.

I for a long time we've relegated not relegated as a word, but I mean a lot of the art was concentrated downtown.

And there are so many artists all around the city who don't live downtown.

And we have so many opportunities to like really show our character as a community, and um that's reflected in art pieces like this.

And so I would just encourage those who are listening um who have other buildings that you know that fit inside of the city code is how we've uh changed it to encourage you to also do murals.

Um it really adds uh a certain you know kind of character to our community that I really enjoy, and I know that others really do too as well.

So thank you.

Can I say something?

Sure.

Oh, I was just please state your name for the record.

I'm joking.

Go ahead.

Uh no, I just wanted to say thank you to um everyone who's supporting it, and this is a way for us to show um our clients and our staff that we care about them and um you know it's it's intended to be uplifting and to show um you know resiliency in our community.

So I also wanted to uh commend Jennifer and the Ecker Center for going about this properly and uh coming to the city rather than just thinking they could put it up and do it.

So uh good job on that.

And uh I'll be supporting it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Uh just a comment from me.

One of my hobbies after uh uh dealing with the uh uh long discussions on freight trains coming through Elgin uh is sitting at the uh crossroads and looking at the freight cars coming by and wondering why we can't find artists that can draw on the side of a freight car.

And uh uh makes a whole difference on what a freight car looks like.

So uh I'd love to see murals and more of them in downtown.

Be excellent.

Okay, Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro, yes, Dixon?

Yes, good, yes.

Martinez, yes.

Ortiz, yes, Powell?

Yes, Stefan?

Yes Thorne?

Yes, Mayor Camp.

Yes, motions approved 90.

Congratulations.

Okay, Mr.

Martin.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The third amendment tonight would remove the arterial road corridor overlay district designation from the a small portion at the northernmost end of Dundee Avenue, north of I-90.

Several factors effectively disconnect the north thousand feet of Dundee Avenue north of the interstate from the two-mile long commercial corridor that starts on the south side of the interstate.

The map on your screen gives you a sense of that scale.

The orange line is the two-mile-long commercial corridor of Dundee.

The major left-right or east-west road on the screen is I 90, and the small red north area was the northern 1,000 feet at the end of the arc.

Dundee Avenue is separated by a substantial width and grade change of the uh Dundee Avenue overpass.

This aerial photograph looking south gives you a sense of the nearly 900 feet of horizontal separation that the interstate imposes, and this street view looking south shows the vertical change in grade that also separates the north and south sides of the interstate.

This is taken along the side of the industrial buildings on the east side of Dundee, and the crest in this distance of the picture is about eight to ten feet higher.

Also, the Dundee Avenue entrance gateway to the city has long been on the south side of the interstate at the single point entrance and exit ramp to the interstate.

Here is the raised center median and landscape enhancement, Dundee Avenue, south of the Interstate Ramp.

This feature was installed in October of 2007.

The request comes from one of the Dundee Avenue property owners north of the Interstate.

Plody property management owns the three industrial buildings at the at 1605 and 1625 Dundee, and has suggested to staff that the land use and site design restrictions of the Ark make it difficult to lease vacant space in their buildings, primarily when trying to consider logistics and transportation companies that would take advantage of the access to the interstate and the capacity of Dundee Avenue.

City has other examples where the character along a portion of Arterial Street is different enough from other segments of the street to Warren, including only a portion of the street within the Ark, including National Street between Villa Street and State Street.

Congdon Avenue, but only those properties east of State Route 25 are in the Ark.

Summit Street, but only those properties east of Dundee Avenue are in the Ark, and State Route 20, but only those properties west of Weld Road are in the Arc.

Be happy to answer any questions you might have.

A representative of Plody property management is also present.

Staff in the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend approval.

Second move to the second for approval.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Ortiz.

Coming off of 90.

I've always wondered what's the stadium and why is it pointing south on 25?

What stadium is it referenced to?

I don't think there is any text on that sign anymore.

On the brick monument sign?

Actually, it might be in front of it on one of those brown signs.

And it says stadium with the arrow pointing south on going south on 25.

That might not be one of our signs.

I could I'll check for you, though.

But if it's not ours, it's fine.

But I was always wondering what stadium is it talking about.

Okay.

I'll I'll have to I'll have to do a little deeper dive for you.

I appreciate this too.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

Motions approved 9-0.

Mr.

Mayor, the fourth amendment for you tonight would allow businesses along our Tiro roads to have a small commercial operations yard if that yard was generally not visible from the street.

Currently, commercial operations yard are not allowed in the arc.

A commercial operations yard is most often an outdoor space enclosed by a solid fence in which a business stores vehicles, equipment, or materials necessary for an accessory to the business.

It cannot be a junkyard or motor vehicle wrecking yard.

A commercial operations yard has setback screening and landscape requirements.

The amendment would allow commercial operations yards subject to site design requirements intended to ensure that the yard was not visible from the street, specifically only allowed behind a building on a property greater than four acres, back from the street by 200 feet or more, and not larger than 15,000 square feet.

The amendment would also waive the 10-foot setback requirement when along a railroad track and allow the development administrator to count existing trees and shrubs toward the landscape requirement rather than tearing them out and starting new.

Habitat for Humanity Restore on State Street needs a place to temporarily store items outside their building.

The items are typically associated with the shipment of donated building materials, furniture and fixtures, and other goods that are then sold from the building to raise money to support habitats efforts to provide affordable housing for income qualified persons in the Elgin area.

The area highlighted in red on the screen immediately behind the building is not visible from State Street and meets the criteria suggested within the amendment.

This street shows, or actually doesn't show, the location of the yard driving north on State Street.

Be happy to answer any questions you might have.

A representative of Habitat for Humanity is present.

Staff in the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend approval.

Move for approval.

Move to second for approval.

Any discussion.

Mr.

Thorne.

Thank you.

Um curious.

Obviously, you're you want this to be aesthetically pleasing.

Uh to put it bluntly.

It's not visible from State Street.

Is it visible from all those passengers on the train?

So that's why we didn't necessarily waive any of the landscaping or screening requirements.

Still has to be screened with a fence, still have to have landscaping, but in this particular instance where there's existing landscaping, we can count that towards the requirement.

So it'll still maintain a degree of aesthetic quality.

Good.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Anything else?

Miss Alfaro.

So just for clarification to that note, um, there's all that the trees of the other side to the parking lot will have a fence then.

Yes.

Okay.

All right, cool.

Okay.

Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmember's Alfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

Motion's approved 9-0.

Congratulations.

The fifth and final text amendment would create a new land use category for transitional housing facility and make it a conditional use in the GI General Industrial District.

Transitional housing facility would be a long-term residential facility intended to facilitate the movement of homeless individuals and or families to permanent housing within a reasonable amount of time, generally 24 months.

A traditional transitional housing facility could include various program elements for the benefit of the residents, such as a kitchen and meal service, child care services, supportive services for mental health housing, health care, vocational training, recovery and education, and/or retail sales andor services to provide vocational training andor funding for the facility.

A transitional housing facility could also include emergency sheltering for a transient population, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, andor permanent residential accommodations for staff or other like persons who help to operate the facility.

Supplementary regulations would require that a transitional housing facility must always be adequately staffed, and that individuals and families within a transitional housing facility enter into an occupancy agreement with the facility provider for at least one month.

The supplementary regulations would also require that a transitional housing facility could only be operated on not for profit basis.

The proposed amendment would allow Wayside Cross Ministries, a long-standing not for profit in the community that provides most of these services at 1730 Berkeley Street now, shown on the screen, to request a conditional use at 890 North State Street and expand their capacity to help address homelessness in Elgin.

About 15,000 square feet of the approximately 20,000 square foot building shown here on Berkeley is dedicated to helpless homeless individuals and families.

Wayside operates in about 7,800 square feet of the space, pads in the other 8200 square feet.

Two other tenant spaces make up the remaining floor area of the building.

The building on State Street is about 42,000 square feet.

If approved, Wayside would consolidate all Elgin operations on State Street.

The conditional use for an emergency shelter on Berkeley was approved by City Council in December of 2006.

This amendment would update the definition of that use to also reflect how PADS and Wayside currently operate on Berkeley Street, primarily by not requiring persons to leave the facility every 12 hours.

It would require the shelter to be run by a not-for-profit base on a not-for-profit basis and give a shelter operator the flexibility to provide other forms of assistance to their population.

Emergency shelters are only allowed by conditional use in the GI district, as is proposed for a transitional housing facility.

Wayside also works to prevent homelessness before it happens by providing the above described accommodations and services for individuals who are identified as on the verge of homelessness.

Be happy to answer any questions you might have.

The Wayside team is present.

If this text amendment receives favorable consideration, I'll next present Wayside's formal request for a map amendment and a conditional use.

For this attempt text amendment, though, staff in the planning and zoning commission recommend approval.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move the second for approval.

Any discussion.

Hearing none, Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

The motion is approved 9-0.

Brings us to item five is consideration of petition.

Petitions 33-25 and 34-25 890 North State Street.

Amendment to plan development, conditional use to allow adaptive reuse of an existing four-story office building for a transitional housing facility.

Mr.

Mullott.

Thank you, Mayor.

This property is located on the west side of Route 31, just south of the bridge that crosses the Canadian Pacific and the Metro tracks.

Here's Route 31 or State Street.

This is SKF Sealing Solutions and some other smaller warehousing and logistics companies.

This is public storage, and this is the Habitat for Humanity Restore and the Fox Valley Flea Market.

Wayside Cross Ministries requests approval to convert the existing four-story office building into a transitional housing facility.

The 42,000 square foot building is about 80 percent vacant.

Wayside is a faith-based charitable organization with nearly a century-long history of providing residential facilities, meals, spiritual guidance, and life skill training to the most vulnerable populations.

Since 2007, Wayside andor Pads of Elgin has been operating emergency shelter for up to 60 persons at 1730 Berkeley Street.

While PADS would continue to operate on Berkeley, Wayside would consolidate their operations at the proposed facility at 890 North State Street and provide housing and compassionate services for up to 126 persons.

The proposed facility would be modeled on Wayside Similar Facility in Aurora.

The facility would provide housing and a residential and recovery program for both men and women.

Wayside's five-step program guides and transitions residents through a series of activities and actions positively affecting their growth and transformation.

The basement would include a shared kitchen, dining room, and laundry facilities.

The first floor would be used for common area and include a variety of programmatic support areas to facilitate skills and job training counseling and spiritual and motivational support.

Most improvements will take place on the interior of the building.

Exterior improvements are limited to the installation of new wall signs on the building and a five-foot high ornamental fence surrounding the north parking lot.

In the future, Wayside may enclose the former drive through adding a 3700 square foot addition for a donation center and a resale shop.

Commission recommend approval.

Subject an issue is outlined within your package.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move to second for approval.

Any discussion.

So I fully anticipate this is going to be a wonderful project.

Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmembers Alfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Campton.

Yes.

The motion's approved.

9-0.

Consent agenda.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move and second for approval.

Any discussion.

Hearing none, Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stephan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Campton.

Yes.

Motions approved nine zero.

Miscellaneous business.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move the second for approval.

Any discussion.

Hearing none, Clerk, please call a roll.

Council members of our own?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Campton.

Yes, the motions approved nine-zero.

The next committee of the whole meeting will be Wednesday, December 17th, 2025 at 6 p.m.

in the City Council Chambers.

The next regular meeting of the Elgin City Council will be Wednesday, December 17th, 2025 at 7 p.m.

in the council chambers.

I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Move the second to adjourn.

Clerk, please call a roll.

Council members of our own?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

No.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Campton.

Yes.

The motion is approved.

8-1.