The whole meeting for the Elvis and City Council for June tenth, twenty twenty-six to order.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council members of arrow.

Here.

Dixon?

President.

Good.

Martinez?

Here.

Ortiz?

Here.

Powell?

Here.

Stefan?

Here.

Thorne?

Here.

Here.

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting of uh May twenty-seventh.

So moved.

Second.

Moved and second, and any corrections or additions.

Hearing none, Clerk, please call the roll.

Council members of our role.

Oh, I had a comment.

Sorry.

Sorry, I was trying to grab my notes.

Um it's gonna be a minute because I believe that meeting did not go to seven o'clock.

Um, the time on there, and then there was one other thing.

Um I can't remember where the other thing is right now, but the timing.

And if it's uh minor, I'll email Kim.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sorry about anything else.

Okay, please call a roll.

Council members of our own?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Camp.

Yes.

Motion's approved eight zero.

We have a number of people signed up for a public comment this evening.

Uh first people signed up for items on the agenda.

Uh, Bob Johnson.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

I'm here tonight again to advocate for the inclusivity and diversity ordinance.

We are effectively sixty days from when that timeline was established to review the twenty-page document.

It's been seventy-seven calendar days.

It is my opinion that it is our duty to our neighbors to do everything within our power to help them.

Especially when they are being oppressed by our federal government.

I am aware that a report is scheduled to be given at this council tonight, and the details of it to the city staff or from the city staff for the research they did with regard to the ordinance and its components.

I want to point out that while we are as a city are in a review process, our neighbors continue to be hunted by ice.

Since this process started in December, there have been seventy-seven confirmed sightings of ice in Elgin.

We must be willing to risk federal funding to do what is right.

We must prioritize people over money.

Families over bridges and potholes.

Many of our neighbors live in fear of losing their loved ones to a system that operates outside of the law.

They should be able to rely on their community for some kind of help against a powerful and tyrannical government.

We can let our residents know that while we can't stop ICE, we will help.

That our help is more than a whisper in a policy, but a statement made in an ordinance that says we don't believe in what ICE is doing.

And to our ability, we will help.

Hope they don't notice us.

That said, in September of 25, there were 197 ice sightings in Elgin and 40 abductions without due process.

Those are not arrests, those are abductions.

In October, we had 246 sightings of ICE agents and 105 abductions.

In November, we had 70 sightings and 25 abductions.

That's 542 sightings and 170 abductions, not including the numbers I gave you since the summer.

Who among us would want to live with this impending doom hanging over them?

I won't go into the conditions at the various concentration camps throughout the nation, but the reports are not nice, and in fact, horrendous of the ones that I've heard.

Certainly not a criminal, and most of these people are not criminals.

I beg that we do the right thing here and pass this ordinance without further delay to provide a small sense of hope to our targeted community by proving that we care.

Thank you.

Thank you.

People are feeling left in the dark.

They're feeling ignored by their elected officials at many different levels.

And I feel like they're reaching out at this level because it's closest to them.

I had um on a part of the pattern.

I had been to a small business that was talking about the difficulties of getting things going and in line.

And then got the business is going great, and the city, I guess, um celebrates and recognizes when small businesses are start, like that month or something.

And he felt left out because his business wasn't on that list.

And I'm just curious what what is it that dictates when someone's paid attention to and when someone is ignored?

And I'm curious what uh the city spends on residents by demographic.

Because it's it seems like there's a disparage discrepancy and this ordinance is a really loud thing that is sitting here, the elephant in the room that people just want to be heard, acknowledged, and they want to feel like they matter.

And we already know that nothing can be done to stop ice.

But we want the city to celebrate the people of Elgin, all of them.

And I just I I can't help but see patterns, and I will continue watching and and trying to figure this out and bring up things as I see them, but I'd really like to see something that's more inclusive and that celebrates everyone.

Um that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I came here this evening to speak out on a situation, and apparently it is evolving to make sure that Elgin does not follow the path of becoming a sanctuary city.

We can see what the results are in Chicago and other major cities around the country.

I can sympathize with the immigrants that have come here.

But I've also done a lot of work in checking how did these people come here?

How were they influenced to come here?

What incentives were they given to come here?

What not-for-profits profited from bringing these people here.

I know they've been put under a lot of duress.

I know that it's been very difficult for their families.

I think that we need to really do a little bit more work in establishing that.

I also am upset with the fact that we are being challenged and brought to task to support all of this work.

We have organizations that are out here proposing and moving these people and throwing the burden back onto us to take care of them.

I was in service in the Philippines, and I had the opportunity to meet a beautiful family in the Philippines.

I had three daughters and a son.

And after I returned stateside, I was able to help two of the daughters come to this country.

They were professional, but they also came here without any other support other than family members.

And I had to sign for them and to make sure that they were taken care of.

One was a bookkeeper and the other one was a nurse.

And they both got married and raised families here.

But they came the right way.

And they did it right.

And I'm very proud of being able to help those individuals to come here and raise families and do it right.

I'm again that takes me back to I am against having to support all these people who are coming here by outside groups, trying to make it seem like we are the bad people for not accepting them and not providing things for them.

I'm sorry.

No, if they want to come here, they have to have their own support and be ready to go and have a job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, Mr.

Manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

The first item this evening is a presentation on the diversity and inclusivity initiatives.

Staff has been conducting research on the proposals, and tonight, Ms.

Hiller will be providing a status update on the project on the progress of that research and analysis.

Good evening, Ms.

Hiller.

Good evening.

Thank you so much for having me this evening.

And this is my first time in front of you, so this is fantastic.

Thank you.

So I have a presentation prepared for you.

It is an initial analysis of what we have found to date.

There will be a second presentation given in 45 to 60 days from now that will conclude our analysis.

So please just know that going into this presentation.

This is only step one of two presentations.

In this analysis this evening, I will cover a broad overview of what we have found that is already in practice within the organization and the gaps that also exist.

This is important to note because the gaps are where the cost come in and where additional capacity or staffing or policy would be needed.

So as uh as I go through this, just keep that in mind, please.

So without further ado, um I wanted to recap how we got here, uh, just in case the members of the public aren't aware of where we were and how we got to where we are today.

So if you recall in December, we had a discussion with the council where members Alfaro and Dixon sponsored the initiative to bring forth an inclusivity and diversity ordinance.

Then in December, from December through March, we had public meetings and council discussion that further explored this inclusivity ordinance, the proposed ordinance, and corporation council drafted a proposed ordinance.

On March 26th, the council gave direction to staff to complete a full analysis of the legal, financial, and operational analysis before further action would be taken by the council.

From April through June, which is where we are today, staff from multiple departments have been conducting a comprehensive analysis, legal review, state law compliance, fiscal impacts, etc.

on all the items within this inclusivity ordinance.

Tonight is where we are today, June 10th, where I'm presenting presentation one of two.

Additionally, we do have the engage Elgin page that did launch on April 8th, and we have been giving updates on that about every two weeks.

So as a big picture overview, broad brush stroke, Elgin is already an inclusive city.

In the review of departmental practices across the organization, it does confirm a consistent pattern.

Many of the proposed inclusivity initiatives are already integrated into daily operations, and they are embedded in established procedures, staffing approaches, and service delivery.

This is something you should celebrate.

We have over 200 languages supported on our city website.

Approximately 30% of our police department's sworn personnel are Hispanic or Latino.

And I dug into the data a little bit more, and this is kind of exciting.

Since 2022, our permanent full-time employee breakdown in 2022 was 72% white and 28% minority, with 20% of that being Hispanic or Latino.

Today, in 2026, we pulled the numbers today because I wanted them as close as possible.

Our permanent full-time employee breakdown is 67% white and 33% minority, or 23% Hispanic or Latino, which shows from 2022 to current, we had 28% minority in 2022 and 33% today.

So we are showing a continuous improvement across the organization in our permanent full-time.

This does not take into account our part-timers or our seasonal workers, in which case, if you looked at those numbers, the actual percentages would be even higher.

So and then also all of our city services are open to all regardless of your status.

We do not discriminate.

So when we look at the five primary initiative areas within the ordinance, I will not be reading this these definitions.

I just want to highlight what they were.

So that's important to note.

So when staff does an analysis of any proposed ordinance or policy, we always do something that I call a gap analysis.

So what is a gap analysis?

Well, when organizations undertake major policy initiatives, a gap analysis is a common management tool used to avoid creating unnecessary regulations or duplicative existing work.

Rather than assuming every provision represents a new program, staff evaluates where the city already meets the ordinances' objectives and where an actual operational exact gap exists.

This allows us then to focus our operational, legal, and cost analysis on the areas where new action would be required.

This is important.

This is important because if we're already doing it, that means I don't need to hire more people to do it, and I don't need to find more money to do it, right?

So two really big things.

If we're not already doing it, I have to look at what needs to change in the organization so that we can do it.

Is it going to cost us money?

And does it require additional staffing?

So I just it's really important to think about.

When we went through it, we did find many of the proposed ordinance objectives are embedded in the city operations.

The primary gaps identified involve creating two new programs, which were legal defense and municipal ID, as well as establishing clear administrative policies for implementation.

So looking at it through that lens, this is great news as well that you should take pride in.

So how is it that we already have 75% implemented or adopted?

And I'm going to go through that, and you'll notice that across the top, it tells you already adopted, everything's color coded on the top right.

So the first item is the ICE Free Zones Resolution.

All of this work started back in November with the introduction of the Ice Free Zones Resolution.

Over half or 11 of the 20 pages of the proposed ordinance the city has implemented as part of the ICE Free Zones Resolution, formally known as prohibiting the use of city property for federal civil immigration enforcement activities.

So if you go to look for that for the public, that's what you're going to find it called on our website.

This November 19th, 2025 resolution formalized how the city responds to civil immigration enforcement activities.

Most notably, we have installed signs at all city-owned properties, made signs free and widely available to the public, and if you still need one, we have a lot of them still here at City Hall.

And we have full embraced this ICE free resolution across the organization and within the police department.

I am not going to read everything on that slide, but we are fully implementing the ICE Free Zones Resolution.

Next, alongside the ICE Free Resolution, the city is compliant with the Trust Act and does not participate in civil immigration enforcement.

As previously mentioned, signage has been installed on all city facilities, including city buildings, parks, and parking areas prohibiting immigration enforcement.

The city is proactively providing information also to the Illinois Accountability Commission and is cooperating with the Illinois Attorney General in pending litigation against ICE and CBP for enforcement actions in Lgin.

The police chief and the King County States Attorney are jointly advocating for Trust Act amendments that would allow local police to remain on scene during federal enforcement activity for traffic and crowd control purposes.

The city does not require, or actually, sorry, across the organization, we also embrace inclusivity in our service delivery.

So that's going to this other side of the slide.

Across the city does not require documentation of citizenship or immigration status for city applications, registrations, work orders, or service requests.

Also, contracts with third-party service providers do not include provisions that limit access based on lawful status.

And a comprehensive privacy policy is available on the city's website, and we do not collect any immigration status for our use, and therefore it cannot be shared with third parties.

So people's information is protected because we're not asking.

We don't care what your immigration status is when you access our services or when you access our website.

Next, we're going to look at language access and civic engagement.

As evidenced in our current practices, many of the ordinances' objectives are already in practice in city operations for language access and civic engagement.

Language access is embedded across our organization and not centralized.

We have citywide bilingual capacity built into every department, from our front desks to 311, HR, Finance, Parks and RAC, Fire Engineering, and more.

Literally everywhere in our organization, we have Spanish speakers that can provide bilingual access.

Additionally, 311 has a dedicated Spanish callback queue.

So if you are not able to immediately access a Spanish-speaking 311 operator, there is a callback queue, and then a Spanish person will get back to you.

So it makes sure that no matter who you are, you can access our services and speak to somebody in the language you prefer.

We also use plain language principles in all of our written materials with attention to fonts, colors, and layouts for residents with visual and cognitive differences.

So we're not just looking at language, but also looking at the visual and cognitive differences.

So to make sure that we are inclusive holistically.

PDFs are ADA accessible and translatable, and our city portal and mobile app are available in Spanish and Lao.

As a matter of routine practice, across the city, all printed materials and the city newsletter are published bilingually in English and Spanish.

The city also launched the Engage Elgin Inclusivity page as a method of civic engagement on April 8th to support transparency and to provide all of our inclusivity effort efforts and updates.

311 provides callers, immigration resource information, and knowledge based content utilized by 311 has been reviewed and confirmed as current.

The city website is continuously reviewed to ensure ease of access to information such as the council contact information, agenda links, social media currency, and language access gaps.

Communications video content includes open and closed captions translatable into platform supported languages and plain language principles are applied to all written materials.

These are all items that were identified within your draft inclusivity ordinance that you wanted to make sure we were doing.

And we are doing these things.

Now this slide shows items that are already in practice as well as some new implementation that is required.

So now we're getting into some of the stuff that we will need to do, but I want to also highlight the things that we are doing.

So for procurement, during review of the procurement section of the draft ordinance, it came to light that the terminology proposed of SEDI and VSB are actually not regionally recognized and will not work if the city hopes to embark on a disparity study in the future.

While SEDI, which means socially and economically disadvantaged individual, and VSB, which means very small business, are valid business classifications within certain Illinois economic development grant and financing programs.

They are not used as supplier diversity certifications or procurement reporting categories.

As a result, SEDI and VSB are not the most appropriate classifications for vendor registration, contract compliance, utilization reporting or supplier diversity initiatives within Illinois Public Sector Procurement.

Therefore, the city will bring back the language that is regionally recognized and will assist the city in data collection and benchmarking for the future.

By doing that, the data will then be able to be used to determine if in two to three years a disparity study would need to be conducted.

It is important to note that if a disparity study is chosen to be connected in the future based on the data collected, current cost estimates indicate that the study would likely cost somewhere north of 500,000 dollars if pursued.

And that's in today's dollars.

Now I want to talk about the things that we are doing.

So during our review, we did identify the following items currently in practice.

City bid opportunities are distributed through the U.S.

Minority Contractors Association's regional chapter network.

The procurement manager, you all know him as Nick, does present biannually at the U.S.

Minority Contractors Association events.

Staff also regularly assists businesses with enrolling in the electronic system so that they can receive automatic bid notifications and be sure that they never miss anything.

All bidders do complete an employee utilization form detailing their workforce racial composition by job category plus a written equal employment opportunity commitment.

And procurement staff, this is really really important to pay attention to.

Procurement staff is available by phone, in person or email on the day bids are due if additional assistance is required.

A Spanish language notice on all bid cover sheets advises of this service.

And we do have a bilingual staff member that can help a Spanish-speaking individual to be able to complete our bids.

So that's fantastic information.

The following items are in development.

These come right out of the ordinance as well.

One, procurement is creating a slide deck and bilingual English-Spanish video that will explain each step of the e-bidding process, and that will be posted on the city website.

And then with assistance from Corp Council, once we finalize the definitions, a new vendor demographic disclosure form would then be developed.

And upon completion, then the data would be tracked and reported quarterly on the city transparency page, probably beginning either this year or by 2027.

Moving on to the legal defense fund.

These are two the next two slide and the next one are both the two new items, the things that we are not doing yet that we would have to start doing if you choose to move forward.

So as mentioned during the gap analysis slide, most of the proposed ordinances objectives are in practice and embedded in the city operations.

The two primary gaps identified involve creating two new programs, legal defense fund and the municipal ID, and then also establishing clear administrative policies for how you would implement those.

Should the legal defense fund be pursued, it would be administered utilizing a purchase of services agreement where services would be provided through qualified legal service providers selected via a competitive RFP.

This program would not provide direct cash assistance to residents.

A framework including immigration defense, housing defense, and consumer protection would be developed that would include criteria such as eligibility for household cap and eligible expenses.

So if you remember, when we were here last in March, the original proposed ordinance only included immigration enforcement legal assistance.

There was a proposal by a member of the council to expand that, and that would have expanded into housing defense and consumer protection.

So that's why I talked about it a little bit more broadly.

There are still some things that we would need to determine before we could actually move this forward.

Some of those things would be the scope.

So an analysis is currently underway to determine how many LGIN residents would realistically seek services under each of the three council directed areas.

We'd also need to determine the typical cost of defense.

So we are gathering data on the average cost of civil legal representation for the types of cases that the fund would cover.

Initial signals suggest immigration defense cases will vary significantly in cost and complexity depending on the case type.

We'd also need to look at the structure of the funding.

What would the fund cover?

Would it cover just the retainer arrangement with providers?

Would it reimburse the full legal cost of the case, or would it operate as a capped per household benefit?

Each model has a different cost, equity, and administrative implication.

And then lastly, the total program cost.

A reliable cost estimate cannot be finalized until scope of need, case cost data, and funding structure are determined.

Once we have that, then we can return with to the council with options for funding for your consideration.

The next new program that we've evaluated is the municipal ID.

It is a brand new program that would require full scoping in our review of city services.

It was found that there is not a barrier currently to accessing, and we don't anticipate one either.

Let's clarify that.

We also reached out to a number of the homeless providers in LGIN, and they indicated that they would serve the homeless population with or without an ID.

Research to date also indicates that the proposed municipal ID would not be an acceptable form of identification for work authorization.

It could perhaps be used, like you know how there's like list A, B, and C identifications when you have to get for a new job.

It might be able to be used for a list C type thing, but you would absolutely still have to have a list A or list B type identification for work authorization.

And generally speaking, banks will also not accept the city ID as a primary form of identification as they require a state or federally recognized government-issued photo ID and a social security number.

Additional work would be required with banks to attempt to secure agreements for them to accept a municipal ID as a primary form of photo ID.

However, the federal regulatory compliance obstacles and hurdles are complex and there are no guarantees.

Only PACE paratransit and dial a ride would require an identification due to their eligibility factors.

A municipal ID may potentially be utilized for those transportation services, but only if the ordinance was broadened.

Currently, your draft ordinance does not include a number of items such as an address that would be required.

So you would want to broaden the definition within the ordinance to be able to have it used more places.

So I'd have to work with PACE to find out exactly what do you need the municipal ID to say for you to be able to use it for paratransit and dial a ride.

And if the council directs, of course, staff will develop a program designed to implement a municipal ID here.

And then lastly, one other thing on the draft ordinance that I would recommend changing.

Your draft ordinance currently proposes both an online and an in-person enrollment.

I would recommend only in-person enrollment so that there is no keeping of the information in an online database that would then be subject to potentially of disclosure.

If we're trying to protect people, you wouldn't want to have that.

And through online, they would have to submit it, and then it would become a record.

So that would be something you would want to consider changing in your draft ordinance.

So for next steps, as I mentioned in the beginning, this is just presentation one of two.

I'll be back.

Um between now and presentation two.

We will continue a review of each of the provisions.

Ongoing uh community updates will continue through the engage elgin page, and staff will complete a financial modeling and operational planning for the legal defense fund, municipal ID program, and revised procurement sections.

And that concludes my presentation.

Okay.

Any questions for Miss Hiller?

Miss Paul.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um, I guess I'll ask my first or main question at the beginning of the presentation.

Um, and you reiterated it just now that this is the first of two presentations, and that the second presentation would be another another 60 days from now.

45 to 60 days.

I'm aiming for the end of July.

Okay, which would be my final presentation with recommendations for how you would move forward.

Okay.

Um I'll leave it there.

Thank you.

Mr.

Paul.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um for sharing a lot more detailed information.

Um, I have a couple questions and thoughts, and and so I'm gonna um bear with me as I'm trying to gather everything and put everything together.

Um I know you started with the slide saying that Elgin's already inclusive.

So I want to start off by asking you what does inclusivity mean to you?

Inclusive to me.

Um, well, I I was reviewing it based on the draft ordinance.

I have a broad definition of inclusivity for me.

It means that you're open and welcoming to all, regardless of your ethnicity, your gender orientation, if you're documented, undocumented, if you're male, female, it doesn't matter.

It's inclusive to all.

The reason why I was asking is the city has done a lot of stuff and it has improved over the years.

Nothing to take from there, right?

It's done a lot, but there is a lot more work to be done.

You mentioned 33% of staff are now identified as minority, right?

Yet leadership in the city, only two identify people of color, to my knowledge, only one is of Latino or Latino descent, right?

With a community that's 49% Latino.

That to me showed that we need a lot more work.

Although we're doing in-roads and minority staff, we need to put them in leadership as well.

It can't just be in administrative roles.

Um you mentioned civil engagement um was embodying, and I know you and I have had conversations about this about civil engagement.

I still believe civil engagement should be its own pillar because although civil engagement is mixed and everything, and so is language access mixed to everything.

There should be a component on civil engagement of what does that look like for us versus how it's embodying everything, and maybe it's pulling from everything.

This is how we do civil engagement, and this is how we do it from this sector from that sector, but I do really think it needs to be a standalone separate item.

You mentioned that we're already doing everything from the um resolution, um, but we're not.

Um, we had asked for a report to be given to us in six months.

It's six months.

I haven't seen that report, right?

And so I think we are doing some of the things that we have said during that resolution, but we're not doing everything.

So I did want to clarify that to the community.

Um you had mentioned that we do have a lot of Spanish speakers on staff, which I think is amazing.

Um, and and I know we have now but more into bilingual pay, which is great.

Um, but Spanish speakers is just one step, and I know we have some translations and stuff, but like you hadn't mentioned there's a QR code at the meetings.

I've never seen a QR code at these meetings, so I don't know if it's just on the other side, it's over there on the side.

Okay.

So maybe if we could have a slide in the beginning that's face foring or something just so it's more clear to people, because not everyone visits the table, um, might be something to consider.

Uh, you mentioned we're already doing stuff in plain language.

Can you define what plain language is?

Is that at a sixth grade reading level or what kind of reading level is plain language?

It has been at an eighth grade reading level.

I know that the goal is to get it down to a sixth grade, and we are working towards that.

Perfect, thank you.

You had mentioned on procurement uh setting socially economically disadvantaged individuals and um very small businesses or VSB, which is a terminology used from the US Department of Treasury is not typical procurement language, right?

Um it's something that is newer.

So can you speak to what you were meaning about what is the typical language within procurement?

Yeah, so I did work with procurement on this.

I will do my best to give it justice.

He is not here.

Um so under procurement, um MWBE and that would be minority um bus uh minority owned business, a women-owned business, etc.

I'm fine with those terminologies, but there had been a lot of concerns um with certain things going on at the federal level, not to say minority, not to say women, and a list if you would like me to read it, I can give you a list.

Thank you.

So for vendor classification and supplier diversity reporting within Illinois, the most appropriate and widely recognized classifications are MBE, Minority Business Enterprise, WBE, Women Business Enterprise, PBE, Persons with Disabilities Business Enterprise, VBE, Veteran Business Enterprise, VOSB, Veteran Owned Small Business, S D V O S B, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business and DBE, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.

These classifications align with the certification programs administered by the Illinois Commission on Equity and Inclusion and the Illinois Department of Transportation, the City of Chicago and other governmental entities commonly recognized throughout the state.

And so those are the ones we're looking at.

So when we originally had drafted the ordinance, we had some real similar language in there, and we were told that um it would recommend it not to use that language, and this is why we had compromised with the socially economically disadvantaged individual and the VSB.

Um that's something we'll continue to look at, but um that was the reason why I was asking because um we were trying to find something that really targeted the demographics, and we were trying to ensure that with um having more of that outreach, right, and that opportunity for procurement at the city.

Um but if we want to go ahead and say minority women-owned um personal disability and veteran owned, I'm totally in favor of that.

Okay.

Um you hadn't mentioned the disparity study, right?

Um, and so to my understanding and the way we had put in the ordinance, the disparity study was only in the event that we were not doing a good job in the last two years, right?

And so how we were doing in the procurement, etc.

And so I just want to emphasize that it's a possibility we won't even need that if we are doing the intentionality of reaching out to um individuals that meet what we're trying to do, which is the minority women personal disabilities, etc.

But it's currently written is the socially economically disadvantaged individuals, which also encompasses English as a second language, um, those in um economic distress areas and very small businesses which are businesses that are owned with 10 or less employees, right?

And so trying to really make sure that those microbusinesses are also getting the opportunity to do procurement here at the city.

That's correct.

Thank you.

Yes, as I had mentioned, this data would then be used to determine if in two to three years and if was the key word if the disparity study would be needed to be conducted.

That is not an absolute, it's an if.

Yeah.

So I just want to make I just wanted to emphasize that um in the community because you did share the amount of money for the disparity study, and I didn't want it to scare anybody, right?

Thank you.

Um, and so I just wanted to emphasize that.

I do appreciate that you um did clarify from council member Paul's question on the presentation 45 to 60 days.

Um you had uh mentioned that you're still looking into the legal deference fund.

Um I would recommend reaching out to some of the organizations that are working with our communities are impacted by this.

Um, not only um those are impacted by the immigration enforcement, but also the other pillars that we were looking to fund because they would be able to give you that data right away.

Um that might be something to consider.

But it does seem like a lot of work still needs to be done, and um the city has done a really good job um in working to be more inclusive and and putting things, but there is a lot more that needs to be done in order to be further inclusive and making sure that we're not just ending up in um small ways of doing things, but also looking at a big picture and making sure that our community has a voice at the table, and that's all demographics, and ensuring that they have an opportunity to procurement, civil engagement, language access, etc.

And the opportunity to know that their community stands with them, um, and we're here for them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else from Mr.

Excuse me.

Anything else from Ms.

Ms.

Paul again.

Just remembered my question.

Um regarding the legal defense fund.

I remember one of the questions or one of the particular um issues that was brought up by me in particular was is there a way that can be structured so that if individuals or organizations wanted to donate to it, that that could occur.

Is that part of it so that is part of what I've looked at already?

And my recommendation on that, I actually do have one, is that we would not do the uh collection of funds in-house, but once you've identified the service providers through the RFP process, you would establish a contract with them, and then they would do the fundraising.

Uh one of the comments that I had had from another member of the council was they were worried about it being tax deductible, and if we collect in-house, you can't do a tax deduction.

So it'd be better if the service provider did the collection because then it could be tax deductible, which may further incentivize donations.

So that would be how you would do it.

Uh I do have some ideas on how you would actually implement that too.

It would require some reporting, but that's that's for the next presentation.

Yes, absolutely looking at how to allow donations.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay.

Anything else?

Mr.

Dixon.

Uh thank you for the presentation, Cassandra, and um uh thank you for all the work that you've been doing on this too as well.

Um obviously there's still a lot of a lot more ground to cover.

Um, but I think that we're we're getting there.

Um I would like to point out we've been meeting probably bi-weekly, getting you know, verbal updates, right?

And we received our last verbal update this past Monday, right, in our regular scheduled uh meeting, which you gave a run a rundown um of things, um, not as detailed as this, um, so I certainly appreciate it.

Um, one of the questions that I asked was will there be a presentation?

Um I want to see the presentation, and the the answer was no, there wouldn't be a presentation.

So when did that, you know, when did that did that change after our meeting, or did something else happen that I'm not aware of?

Um during our discussion I realized it probably would be really helpful to have something that would help walk us through it so that everybody would see everything and that I wouldn't miss anything.

And so um thank you for your feedback.

You did suggest a written format, and so from when we met on Monday till now, I developed some slides to make sure I didn't miss anything, and that way also the public could see it, and I wouldn't have to say everything because some of it is just on the slide.

Okay, all right, very well.

I I appreciate it.

Uh and I will do that again for the next time.

I'll do another slide presentation.

I think it's easier and more clear for all of you if it's in front of you.

So yeah, and you know, I I'm just going to just piggyback off of some things that councilwoman Alfaro said.

Um we've made some strides as a city uh when it comes to inclusivity over the past 10 years, about 10 years.

Um I've been here for pretty much all of that.

And a lot of those uh initiatives that came for it, uh they weren't well received initially.

You know, they weren't beloved, it wasn't nine oh votes on it.

It was a lot of difficult conversations that needed to occur.

Um, but I think that you know, as time has gone on, we've become a better city for it.

And that's the goal of this is to become a better, more welcoming, inclusive city.

And even though there may be some discussion of saying, well, we do some of these things already.

Outlining them in a way that is unique to our city and making a declaration of source, I think is really important.

And so um, you know, I just want to continue to encourage you to go through this and do the good work, and you know, and um and for the council to have those discussions when when that time is necessary.

So thank you again.

I appreciate uh the work so far, and and thank you to Chris Beck too for providing that original draft.

So I can't you know say thank you enough to him.

Welcome, thank you.

Okay, anything else from Ms.

Hill?

Oh, and the website Martinez.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Ms.

Hiller, thank you very much for the presentation, and I know there's more to come.

Uh I just have some questions back on the slide where it says Algen is already an inclusive city.

And uh it says for the last ten years.

Um here twelve years, and yes, I've seen a lot of changes.

But on the part where it says 49% Alderman residents identify as Hispanic, right?

Is there any way that we could add on their preference of Spanish or English?

Because even though we identify there's a big um percentage, right?

I cannot.

No, I pulled that off the census website so that I could get the most accurate information to date on just what the percent of our population as a whole represents.

Because my point is just because we're we identify as Hispanic or Latino doesn't necessarily mean that we need everything in in Spanish, you know, some of us are like fourth generation, and uh or feel more comfortable with English and Spanish or vice versa.

Just wondering if there's any way that we could uh include that now, right?

Okay, and um when you say all city services open to all regardless of status, um you're saying that we don't ask for that information, so we don't know.

So my question is on services that are offered from um in this ordinance, for example, when it says uh documented or undocumented, how do we know then?

You know, because we don't ask.

Exactly.

Because it doesn't matter.

Exactly.

And that's that's my point.

Um because when people say we're it's for documented or undocumented, you know, it should just be all.

Because since we don't even ask for that, it should be all.

Um that's the other thing.

Do you know how many um cities have passed an ordinance or designated welcoming city in the state of Illinois?

I don't have those numbers with me.

I have uh that five cities have.

Okay.

And of course, Chicago.

And they have two million seven hundred and thirty-one thousand five hundred and eighty-five is a population that I saw.

And um, you know, the the white population is uh 36 percent, Hispanic 29, and black 27.

Uh and they just originally uh passed the welcoming city ordinance in 2006, uh, with subsequent amendments.

The other one um is Evanson, which is 76,000 is uh the population.

Uh white being 60 percent, Hispanic 12, and black 14.

Uh Oak Park, 53,000 again uh 61.

White, Hispanic 9, and black um almost 18 percent.

Umskokey, you know, uh 66,000 544, white 48, uh Hispanic 11, black 10.

Berwin, Berwin is 55,000, 56,000.

Uh white is 25 percent, Hispanic 63 percent, and black eight percent.

Urbana is the last one that I saw in that one.

The population is thirty-nine thousand with fifty-six percent white, ten percent um Hispanic and nineteen percent uh black.

So my point is um by not that many have uh cities in the state of Illinois have passed this, and the ones that have uh really don't fit our demographics, you know.

Um I just I'm very interested in looking forward to your second part and see what that is.

So thank you.

You're welcome, thank you.

Okay.

Okay, um to adjourn and we'll uh reconvene the uh committee of the whole after the uh regular city council meeting.

So moved.

Second, move and second, clerk please call the rule.

Councilmember Zelparo?

Yes, Dixon?

Yes.

Good, yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell, yes, Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Camp.

Yes, we are our adjourned.

We'll reconvene at the regular council meeting at uh 705.

For the Elgin City Council for June 10th, 2026 to order, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation, inevitable, liberty, and justice for all.

Council members alfaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Doran?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, motions approved nine zero.

We have two communications this evening.

The first one is a Juneteenth proclamation, and Mr.

Dixon will be reading that.

And Mr.

Stefan will be reading the uh proclamation for the Elgin Masters Swim team.

Can I please have AACKC at the podium?

Uh next week, and we have a proclamation that I'm going to read off.

Whereas President Abraham Lincoln signed an emancipation proclamation on January first, eighteen sixty-three, declaring all enslaved people shall be free, paving the way for passing for the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, which formerly abolished slavery in the United States of America.

And whereas on June 19th, 1865, two and a half years after the issuance of the emancipation proclamation, Union soldiers descended upon Galveston, Texas, where the last enslaved African Americans lived and shared the delayed news that the Civil War had ended and the safe enslaved people were free.

And whereas Juneteenth is a nationally recognized holiday, also known as Freedom Day, commemorating the emancipation of the last enslaved African Americans in the United States.

Now, therefore, I, Corey Dixon, on behalf of Mayor Dave Captain and the City of Elgin, Illinois, do hereby proclaim June 19, 2026 as Juneteenth in the City of Elgin, and we salute the African American coalition of Kane County Incorporated, whose longstanding commitment to cultural awareness, education, advocacy, and community engagement has helped strengthen the city of Elgin and Kane County.

Thank you.

I'd like to thank uh in behalf of the African American coalition of Kang County.

I would like to thank the board to City of Elgin for recognizing us as a Juneteenth.

And I would love to see all of you out there.

Okay, it's gonna be on the 20th.

So we would love to see everyone out there with their support and thank the committee.

Thank the mayor for recognizing us.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, good evening.

I'm gonna take this opportunity to uh invite you all to be volunteers for Juneteenth.

Our dear friend Denise was our volunteer coordinator for many years.

She's passed away.

I inherited that job.

I'm not a good at as good at it as Denise is, and I really really need your help.

So please go to our Facebook page, click on the link for volunteers, and sign up.

I hope to see you there.

Thank you for your time.

In the corner back there, do I see members of the master swim team?

You guys want to come up?

Yes, come on up.

I guess I get stuck doing this because I run into Jaime and Chris and others at the center, and I'm the one that was given the great news and pass it on to staff.

And so here I am reading this proclamation, but I want to do that.

So come on up, everybody.

This is your chance.

I think you coached my kids.

I think you did.

So anyway, the proc I'm gonna add a lib a little bit while we get everybody up here, but the proclamation does oh, there's Jaime.

I didn't see you back there.

Um the proclamation I don't think mentions it, but I will, and uh, that is this is the second year in a row that this team has won the state championship.

And it also doesn't say that they had to beat Naperville both times.

Right?

Okay, so I'm gonna read the proclamation and then I'm gonna give it to your coach Corinne.

All right, proclamation, whereas the Elgin Masters swim team has won their second Illinois State Championship, historic milestone for the team and the Elgin swimming community, and whereas competing against top clubs from across the state, team members aged 18 to 80 showcase the inclusive lifelong spirit of the sport, and whereas this achievement reflects years of dedication by athletes, coaches, and supports, many of whom are Elgin residents, balancing careers, family, and community service, and whereas high point winners include Krista Simolucka and lifelong residents Ben Culver and Eileen Vogel, and whereas Coach Corinne Grodinis, who has led the team for over 40 years, played a vital role in guiding the team to its first state title, and now wherefore I, John Stefan, on behalf of David Captain, the mayor of the city of Elgin, Illinois, do hereby congratulate and commend the Elgin's Masters Swim team on this outstanding accomplishment and for bringing the pride to the city of Elgin.

And witness whereof, I hear of I have hereon to set my hands this 10th day of June 2026, signed David Captain, Mayor.

So I'm gonna present that to somebody and I'm gonna let who's gonna take photos.

You guys all are here, nobody's coming.

All right, there we go.

Good, yes, get photos.

Um I'll just say that we can make this quickly.

Um I thank City Hall again for this great honor.

As you can tell, I've got I think 21 swimmers here.

Uh this past year um in April, we had 73 73 swimmers representing Elgin at our state championship, and we got first out of 38 teams.

So I am so happy to say that the Elgin Rex Center has done a wonderful job supporting our team as we continue to grow.

Um when I listen to other coaches talk in the state of Illinois, I have to say Elgin is very, very lucky, and we're spoiled to have such a beautiful pool that we have now grown so much that we have to be in there four days a week.

So I can't thank you guys all enough for all the hard work that you guys have done, and I'm so honored to be your coach after continuing to be a coach after 40 years.

Um I hope we can continue to beat Naperville and show Elgin that we have one of the best teams in the state, and we have our team is so family-oriented, we get swimmers from all over the state that swim for us.

So, and they'll even drive 30 minutes, 40 minutes to come and swim for Algin.

So I thank you for this.

I thank all of you guys for this, and congratulations.

So thank you.

They want this to go down the rolling look.

All right.

Good job, guys.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah, we have no last coach.

All right, that brings us to public comments.

We have uh two people signed up this evening.

First one is uh William Wurst.

Good evening, members of the council.

Back again.

Uh after going through the committee of the whole report, uh, I thought it was rather interesting.

Uh although I'm not against diversity or inclusion, uh I think we're missing one important ingredient, and that is Elgin has always been a welcoming community.

Uh, we've always tried to include people who are coming here as immigrants.

Many of our families are members are immigrants, but I think one of the words that we're missing is assimilation.

In the past, people came to this country because they wanted to assimilate, they wanted to be part of the American life, and that's one of the things that's missing today.

They do want to come here, but and it's for economic benefit and a lot of host of other reasons, but we're not seeing the assimilation requests.

They want to bring old habits or and I say old habits, it's also their culture, which is one thing that does help our country is the cultures that they do bring.

But we're losing sight of what the American culture was to begin with, and where are we now?

So I think that with well, as we proceed through this diversity and inclusion, we need to include assimilation.

So they come to know more about what our country is about, what our country was founded on, and what the great things are.

Because if we don't do that, we won't have our country anymore.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, can I just ask a question?

Who what are we supposed to do?

What are what should people be assimilating to?

I I'm just, you know, since we're having this discussion and we're gonna have staff come back.

I I just need some clarification in your in your mind.

What should we include since we want us to do that?

A whole series of values.

A Judeo-Christian heritage.

Uh we had the country came first, the way we supported the members of our communities, the way we supported our military, we supported our government.

Um we're losing a lot of that.

And one of the discussions we were having right now, and the council has been uh having to deal with this issue is ice.

ICE was um uh a legal body, and our community with the some of our diversity is the opposite.

How do we maintain our value in our um society in believing what we had?

What what was our laws?

What was our order?

And if we don't go back and understand exactly what that is, we're in trouble.

Uh I support ICE.

They are here to do a job.

We had a lot of people have come here illegally, and as a consequence, there are consequences.

We're seeing a lot of situations taking place in our government today where people are not being held accountable.

Uh we have to start realizing that we do have to do those things.

Um as much as we like it or we don't like it, we have to get back to that.

Um there are certain things that uh in the Bible that we are trying to take advantage of and rewrite the Bible.

Well, wait a minute, the Bible had certain things in there that uh are there's only one way, and that's the way of our faith.

So thank you.

No, thank you for the clarification.

Uh I'll I'll just say this because I know this isn't generally not a time for debate, but I I guess if we're talking about assimilation and going back to, you know, our roots here in in the United States.

Uh in my mind, the first thing that I thought about when you said that is I guess uh we all need to go back and study more about the Native Americans.

Because that is, you know, that's who was here first.

So if we're really talking about, you know, going back to our roots here in America, that's who we probably need to go back to and and understand their faith and their values and their customs, um, because they were here before probably your ancestors, I I would I would think, and um perhaps maybe even some of my, but I can trace my generate my ancestry back here in this country about five or six generations.

So um anyway, just wanted to clarify that statement.

Thank you.

Ms.

Martinez.

I was just gonna say um that the issue with ICE is the fact on the treatment of people, you know.

Uh nobody should be treated that way.

I think that's that's the problem.

The other problem is um when people aren't given their rights, because we we have rights, everybody, whether you're legal or not, and I think that's the issue with ICE.

This uh movement or this um energy that comes and speaks, I wish that would go to a state level or a federal level, because they're the ones who are um making these laws like um SB 31 that we are um abiding by Senate Bill 31.

Uh that's something that the state did, and that's why we abide for here in Algen.

But this energy should really go to the state and to the government.

But thank you for your comments.

Thank you, Mr.

Wurst.

All right, that brings us to bids.

Uh this is not a debate, sir.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I got I got jumped over, you got jumped over.

I'm sorry.

Mike Lugo.

I'm sorry.

Uh good evening, council.

Um forgive me if I stumble a little bit here.

I wasn't planning on speaking tonight, and I'll be quick.

Um as somebody who is in support of the inclusivity ordinance, it was refreshing to hear that there are a lot of aspects that Elgin's already living into, uh, and the other remaining items, uh, there's plans to at least draft what adoption could look like.

Uh Councilman Martinez, I just wanted to clarify the comments that you made at the end of the uh committee of the whole meeting.

Um so the or rather ask for your clarification whenever you have time, but you listed off a number of cities that some were smaller, some were larger than Elgin.

Um I don't think if I remember correctly, any of them had quite as high of a Hispanic population, but all of them were somewhat equally diverse.

Um so I just wasn't really tracking your uh the meaning behind your comment.

And I assume, or I think what it was, and I want to put words in your mouth was basically that because Elgin already has such a high Hispanic population or uh minority population that we essentially already live into diversity, and so an ordinance isn't needed.

I think I assume was the meaning of your comments.

Um I would push back on that and say that because there is such a large uh uh minority population that that is all the more reason to pass something or put things in place uh to show that population that we are supportive of them and will protect them against an administration that is increasingly comically just depraved.

Um so that's all thank you.

Can I just Martinez?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

My point with that is that um out of all the cities that we have in Algen, there's only five.

I think Berwin was the one that was really high.

And I've always felt that um Algen is very, very diverse, very welcoming.

And um, you know, so to need to need a an ordinance site, this this is something that we're exploring, we're looking at.

But I feel that if we were not diverse, if we were not welcoming the what became the minority, right?

The minority that became the majority, right?

That wouldn't happen.

People would be leaving Algen if they didn't feel comfortable here.

But on the contrary, it's growing.

And people feel uh welcome here, they feel safe here, and I think that's a good thing for Algen.

Thank you.

Okay.

It does bring us to bids.

Uh first item is bid number 26-018 pool chemicals.

Move toward the bid to Hollygen Supply Company in the amount of 20,809 dollars and Hawkins INC an amount of 21,270 for pool chemicals in the total amount of 42,079.

Second.

Been moved and second floor approval.

Any discussion.

Got to keep those swimmers safe.

Yeah.

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 90.

Uh, item two is a copy or equipment leasing with source well cooperative agreement.

Mr.

Mayor, I recommend that we approve the contract with Conica Minolta Business Solutions for the lease of a fleet of black and white in color multifunctional devices in the amount of 221,979 over three years.

Second.

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.

Motion's approved nine zero.

Item three is an inventory control equipment purchased from global uh industrial Omnia partners.

Mr.

Mayor, I'll move that.

We award this to global industrial in the amount of 68,921 dollars.

It's an omnia partner.

Second.

Move the second and any discussion.

Ms.

Salfarro.

Thank you, Mayor.

I do have a question.

I I think this is fabulous to have a way to make sure that you know we're keeping inventory and we're keeping track of where our stuff is.

Once this is getting implemented, I don't know.

Do we have audit procedures already for this, or will they be drafted to make sure that equipment is where they're supposed to be?

It's not taken and used for personal reasons.

Um it's not at someone's personal house, et cetera, um, and all that jazz.

Yeah, that's precisely the reason to get the software to help implement with those procedures as well.

So will there be a like an audit guidelines or something?

Yeah.

It'll be included as part of the inventory that they're putting in place for this.

Okay.

Okay.

Anything else?

So um just oh sorry.

I just want to add uh if possible once those um guidelines are there.

Um I would like to get a copy if possible from staff.

Thank you.

Okay.

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 90.

Brings us to other business.

The first item is a consideration of petition uh 49-25 for 990 St.

Charles Street.

A plan development is a conditional use to construct a new approximately 2,000 square foot light industrial building.

Mr.

Mullat.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

The subject property is located at the southwest corner of St.

Charles Street, which is also Illinois Route 25 here and Hammond Avenue, a little bit north of the Canadian Pacific and Metro Railroad tracks that correspond with the southern edge of the city limits.

Here is St.

Charles.

This is Hammond, and here are those railroad tracks.

This is the water reclamation district's Alvin Pagorski treatment facility.

This is Aqua Backflow.

This is IWM Corporation, which stands for Industrial Water Management.

This is Advantage Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, and this is Welch Brothers Building and Construction Materials.

Advantage Property Holdings, LLC requests zoning approval to construct a new approximately 2100 square foot office and warehouse at 990 St.

Charles Street.

The 10,500 square foot corner lot is zoned for commercial and industrial use, but is improved with a vacant and dilapidated 1200 square foot single family house that would be removed.

The new building would house advantage property holdings, growing commercial property management services.

The new building would include an office for administrative functions and a small warehouse for storage of tools and materials used off-site.

All business activities would be conducted during normal business hours from 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

Monday through Friday by four to five employees.

No outdoor storage of any materials are proposed or allowed.

The proposed building is well designed, composed entirely of brick with a metal roof that reflects the historic design of brick warehouses.

The building is appropriately situated closer to St.

Charles Street with a small parking lot behind it.

Access would be from Hammond.

Other site improvements include the construction of a new public sidewalk along Hammond, a fully enclosed refuse collection area, and extensive landscaping around the perimeter of the parking lot and the building.

The applicant is present.

Should you have any questions?

Staff in the planning and zoning commission recommend approval subject to the conditions outlined within your packet.

Move for approval subject to the conditions.

Second.

Mr.

Thorne.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think this is great.

I like the uh design.

And I just wonder if the applicants are aware that years ago it was a famous site known for Elgin's famous five cent hamburgers.

Lightners.

I didn't know that, so I don't know if they did, but you can see by the grin on the mayor's face that he had some.

Well aware of it.

Okay.

Anything else?

Miss Alfaro.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh, can you walk me through as I was reviewing um the materials and looking at the drawings?

Um, I'm not super clear on like the drive because they own the properties nearby.

So to the south.

Right, to the south.

So can you go to an image where like where is the entrance and where is the other see if this is going to show up?

So Hammond is along the top, Route 25 is on the right side.

The parking lot will come in off the north off of Hammond Street, and you'll see those a distinct separation between the two properties.

This is the parking lot in the back.

So there was another entrance on the other street, uh Charles Street, and so that is no longer gonna be there.

Correct uh if I it's gonna be closed off then.

Uh there will be for this property, there will be no access off to on St.

Charles Street.

Okay, so that's being closed off because when I had looked at one of the pictures, it had two, it looked like two entrances, and so I just was trying to get clarification.

Gotcha.

That was gone.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

Okay.

Anything else?

Mr.

Mr.

Stefan.

Yeah, somewhere in the uh planning and zoning meeting.

I think it was brought up by one of the commissioners that there was a strip of land to the west that needed to be not an issue for this.

I'm just bringing it up.

Is that a legitimate concern or did that?

No, I think what I think if memory serves me correctly, what you're referring to is that there's potential for some uh public works uh in this uh some public works improvements in this area, and one of the conditions is is that the applicant will uh cooperate with the city on any easements that may be needed.

So it's about the easements.

I saw that too.

Okay.

All right.

No, Mike, just comments.

You kind of ran through the highlights that I really liked about this.

We're enclosing the garbage, which we always try to do when it's realistic, and in this case it certainly is.

Parking behind a new sidewalk and lots of landscaping.

So I think it's great.

I will give a shout out to the applicant.

They've been great.

I mean, so far as to even try and save the the oak tree that was along.

They hired an arborist, went out there, and upon further investigation found that it had been hollowed out and was on its last day.

So at one point there was even going to be a jog in the sidewalk as they worked, uh tried to work around it, but just prove uh would be would be futile.

But great folks to work with.

Yep, thank you.

Okay.

Anything else?

Okay.

Please call the roll.

Councilmember Zelfaro.

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Dorian?

Yes.

Mayor Hampton.

Yes, motions approved 90.

Second item is consideration of petition 08-26 for 4001 McDonald Road.

Preliminary and final plat of subdivision for the construction of the next phase.

Unit 4A within the ponds of Stony Creek subdivision with 140 lots for single family homes.

Mr.

Mulat.

Thank you, Mayor.

The Ponds of Stony Creek is located on the south side of McDonald Avenue east of Corinne.

This is McDonald.

Here is Corn Road.

This is the village of Camden Hills immediately to the east.

Lenar requests approval of the final plat for Unit 4A.

The nearly final phase of single family residential development within this 278-acre subdivision.

The preliminary plat for ponds was last approved in 2018 and included 504 single-family residential lots, two five-acre public parks, and about 43 acres of open space and stormwater management areas.

Ponds was originally annexed in 2006 and previously approved units one, two A, two B, and three totaled 358 lots.

Unit 4A would have 100 and would have had 141 lots, but it was determined that one lot was no longer suitable as a single family home site.

As such, with these 140 lots and five more in a the final phase 4B, the subdivision will have 503 single family homes once completed.

Lenar Corporation would offer the same model homes that have been previously offered in phases uh one through three.

And the applicant is available should you have any questions?

Staff in the planning and zoning commission recommend approval.

Subject conditions outlined within your packet.

Move for approvals.

Second move to been moved with sub uh move and seconds, subject conditions.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Ortiz.

Uh appreciate you joining us today, Mr.

Millet.

I always ask this question.

What's that a market rate nowadays?

I'm sorry?

What's market rate nowadays?

Well, uh I can tell you what these homes are going for.

There are two currently posted on their website as move and ready, a 2400 square foot home at 594 and a 3800 square foot home at 774.

Uh however, the models that are listed, there are six on the website range from 665 to 709.

So this ranch house right here is like a 500s.

Uh I this is probably in the 600s range.

Wow.

All right.

All right.

Well, then our needs are help us out by getting some of this stuff halfway affordable.

But I know that the market and housing is do the roof, so our these developers need to help us also at times because some of our residents can't afford stuff like that.

That's it.

All right, thanks, ma'am.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, I think that's Ms.

Alfaro.

Thank you.

Um I have questions on entrances and excess potential.

Because I can't really tell, like when unit four, once it's developed, um because I know it's um the township is next store to it.

So is it gonna connect to going to that neighborhood to get out is one of the potential and entrance and excess it's not a little bit more than a little bit?

No, this will all go right back in.

Right.

This will all connect to the north through two pathways.

So uh this area here is a blow up of this smaller area, and there are two points of connection that go straight to the north and then head up to McCoy.

Sorry.

I'm sorry.

Uh let's see.

Why don't I just walk over there?

Okay, sorry.

So I'll try and talk loudly.

This area here in the yellow circle is a blow-up of this.

So you see how this phase relates to the larger.

There are two roads that connect north on the north end of Unit 4A, and then those will all go north to McDonald's.

So those are the only two.

That's what I had a little bit of a concern about because um all the traffic flows through the same neighborhood up.

Like there's no and for what I could tell, it looks like in one of the other units that's that's already devolved or almost gonna be developed.

There is a connection into the other division.

So this was this was quite the approval process when this went through.

Uh to Campton Hills to the east.

We had contemplated uh an opportunity to connect into that county subdivision.

However, Campton Hills then took right of way that was adjacent there and gave it to the adjacent uh property owners so that there could no longer be a future connection from Elgin to Campton Hills.

Okay.

Uh there is a stub at the south end of this phase that if that property were to become available, this then you could have a connection to the south.

However, that has been purchased by Campton Township Open Space Program.

So there is nowhere else for these folks to go except for north, and so you have the two ways to ensure appropriate uh divisions of traffic, and in the event one gets blocked, there's an alternate route.

Yeah, my only concern is like that's a lot of homes.

Um, just with two small entrances that are near each other.

Um they're beautiful homes, right?

And I do like that some of the bedrooms had um they were sharing the bathroom, so you felt like every bedroom had kind of had a bathroom and stuff.

And so that it's that's really um nice, but I am concerned that there is only so on the other sides, there is no opportunity for another entrance to to the west.

Yeah.

That is also owned by Campton Township open space.

And so what we've um so we've made trail connections to the west to connect into their open space with the open space provided in this subdivision.

Okay, so in every corner of unit four, we're not able to have any additional entrances or excesses besides those two.

That's correct.

And making it making it further complicated in terms of why did those two entrances that do go north have to be put where there are, is that there's an existing water body that doesn't let you then go to the east side.

So all things considered, it's the it's the best possible solution, in our humble opinion.

What is the standard best practice for a neighborhood?

The amount of entrances and exits.

That depends upon how many homes there are, the opportunity for connectivity.

There is, I don't think there is an easy one-size-fits-all answer.

The fire code will say that when you have more than 30 homes, you should begin contemplating a second point of access, and this does have two points of access on McDonald Road.

In total, with unit four, it's gonna be 503 or five like they went down one rate.

Um 500 homes.

And just a little concerned with the amount of entrances and excesses, to be honest.

But thank you.

Anything else from Mr.

Millot or the developer?

Okay, Cork, please call the role.

Well, can we can the developer come up and speak to that on the entrances and excess?

Please, thank you.

Um excited about ponds, it's been a great community for us.

Uh we've been building here since 2006, so uh we want to continue that.

We want to finish off this community strong.

Uh we felt like we've built a great community so far and really just looking to finish up and continue what we've started.

So in your work and other communities, have you had this issue?

I'm just a little concerned with the two entrances and accesses.

So if you could give me some info to like so we so we have dealt with this.

Um this is unique because we do not have any access to the south, east or west.

We have to go north.

Um, but this having the two entrance points is is is quite typical.

Um I can defer to our engineer who does this as well.

I agree with Dave.

Two is nice to have, it gives you that emergency access if ever needed, but two is generally the most that you'll you'll see unless you have the opportunities to connect on the other parts of the the site, and obviously here uh we don't with Campton Hills.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Thorne.

Thank you.

Uh it's clear that Campton Hills as a township wasn't in favor of this.

Very clear.

I think they continue not to be.

Well, and what do you uh what's your opinion of why that is?

Well, I think that they um I think that town has a position where they want to keep a small country feel uh and they want to limit the uh density.

They want to increase slot sizes, and that's just how they want their community slash village to have.

And they wants the feel that they want.

Um that's it's well within, you know, what they want to do.

That's the the kind of been the the vibe, so to speak, with that town for quite some time.

Uh and I don't think that has really changed going through you know recent codes that they have established.

I don't think that is uh that's really changed very much.

So this being an opportunity on the far west side, and I'll just we would you know just want to continue uh continue with it just because it was so limited and then being up against Campton Hills, this this is like a unicorn, so to speak.

Well, I I can see the concern for even neighbors there with the excuse me, the additional traffic on McDonald, then it'll be additional traffic on Randall.

Um potential somewhat depending on the time and the people, congestion at the entrances and exits, but the plus is it allows Elgin to grow.

It's uh wonderful benefit for Elgin for tax base additional people, etc.

I will reluctantly support it.

Sure.

It seems like there may be a little uh question on what is actually being presented to city council signs.

So what is being presented as a final plat.

This is not a zoning petition.

This is not uh a discretionary approval.

This is a ministerial act.

The final the preliminary plat was approved in 2018.

The zoning was approved, the plan developments in place, and the developers coming forward with this final plat that reflects what was previously approved, which which does require the city council's approval.

If I may at the time of all those early approvals, did Campton Hills already own all that property that surrounding they had the property to the west.

The property to the south was in private ownership, which is why you see the stub there.

However, Campton Township took subsequent action to acquire that property and further prevent suburban development.

Okay, Mr.

Dixon.

Thank you for the presentation, and thank you guys for coming up.

Um my situation is probably a little bit more unique than the rest of my colleagues here because I I stay in one of our newer neighborhoods, being Bowles Creek, and so my family is uh, you know, we built our home there.

Uh and we are in the second to the last phase of that community.

And that community, excuse me, I have a little little bit of a code.

Um that community has uh we have two entrances and exits.

Um it takes you a long time to get out of the neighborhood.

Um it really does need a third entrance or exit on that last phase, which is well over 30 homes.

It's probably more around I don't know if I have the ballpark and maybe 75 homes back there.

Mark, you might know better than me.

And there's a there's an access, there's the beginning of an access road that has been built there, but of course there probably would have had to be more property purchase going out to you know the road that's on the opposite side there.

Um so I'm saying all of that to say um the two entrances and exits, the traffic for the neighborhood is good.

It's not bad traffic at all.

It takes a long time to get out of the neighborhood, especially if you're in that second and certainly that third phase.

And so the conversation already always consisted around emergency services.

How quickly can they get there and get out?

Um we do have a fire station that is located on bowls, uh right around the corner, so that doesn't seem to be really a problem for us.

Um being fair, traffic is okay, but I really wish we had that third exit on the back end of the community.

And honestly, uh you know, 2018 when we you know you say we approved this, I don't even remember approving this, right?

Maybe y'all do.

I don't remember approving this.

Right.

And some most of them weren't here, well not most, some weren't weren't even here.

Um but still and still, in fact, I from personal experience as someone, probably the only person that lives in a neighborhood like this up here, um, it is it can be frustrating, the access, the entrance and exit points, and you do want that direct access to Randall Road or to some ancillary world where you can quickly get to Randall Road.

And it it and going forward in the future, even though we've already approved this, you know, I think we should probably stay away from having two exits and move more towards three or even four, and whatever that entails, I'm sure that you know there's a financial constraint to that, and we want to, you know, we want to do what we are regulated and what we have to do as a community, and that's and is what the the rules that the state has set forth.

Um but you know, I personally I don't like it, but it works.

I still don't like it.

So I just want to give you guys that maybe next community you build, you want three roads in and out.

So I'm just maybe explaining that.

And I certainly certainly agree with you, Councilman.

At every operation it's a fun, it's one of the fundamental principles in our comprehensive plan is to promote connectivity wherever we can.

But even with the southern stub that was provided, when that property to the south was in private hands, there was still no certainty that that person ever was going to develop, ever wanted to annex into the city.

What we do is we we try in future proof to the best that we can.

We try and plan for those eventualities.

And at the very least, we have a fallback position that will handle the traffic and that there's emergency access, can get in and out with the two, and that's the best we can do in this particular circumstance.

Okay, Miss Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

As I recall, Hampton, Campton Hills uh went out far west west because they want to be away from everything, and now it's gotten to the point where um Alden is getting closer to them, and they say, why does Alden want to do that?

Well, it's our neighbors who sell you know prior private land that sell their private land to developers, and this is why it's happening.

You know, it's not um it it's something that Algen has the infrastructure, you know, and I think Compton House has been having issues with infrastructure.

That's what happens when you're far away.

Now back to um uh councilman Dixon's point, you know, it's true that uh there's subdivisions in Algen that are like that that have only two entrances, but the people who buy they have a choice.

The ones who want to live farther away from the entrances means there's less traffic, and they don't mind traveling far, but they don't have all that traffic.

But there's uh quite a few subdivisions in Algen that have either one entrance, right, and they prefer that, or that's how it was built, or two entrances.

This is not uncommon.

Um that I can think of that's fairly large is the one um northwest uh Brando on Route 20.

Yes, that's the one and that I believe only has two and so the busiest road in Elgin, you know.

But I'm not sure how many homes are there, but it's not uncommon to have that, and I think people have the choice of buying there or not, knowing that that's how many entrances are there are going to be.

But I know Williamsburg is another one, you know, big homes and one entrance, one exit.

It's not uncommon in in Alden.

So I mean, we could go on and on and name some, but those are the ones I recall right now.

Thank you.

Mr.

Good.

I just have a question.

Uh out of curiosity with some of this conversation going on.

Um, what was the the PNZ vote on this?

I believe it was unanimous.

See if there was any sorry, typically put that at the end of your packet, it was seven to zero in favor.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, anything else?

Mr.

Ortiz.

Uh that's the developers.

I have a easy question.

Do you guys still do stick build or are these going to be panel homes?

What's that?

Are these gonna be panel homes?

Are they gonna be stick boat?

It's all panels.

Okay.

All right, thanks.

Okay, Mr.

Dixon.

I just want to to provide a little bit of of additional insight.

Um, when you go into these communities to buy these homes and you're dealing with salespeople, they're not familiar with the infrastructure of that community.

So they can't really tell you how many entrances and exits.

As a matter of fact, you know, we were told when purchasing that the third exit would actually turn into a road, and that's not true.

Right.

So that's just from personal experience because you're dealing with the salespeople in the office, and they don't have the information.

But not Lenar, though, right?

No, I'm not I mean they hire the salespeople, but I yeah, that would that was that was oh brothers, not Lenar, I should clarify that.

But I just wanted to give that, you know, just that perspective as someone who's gone through the process, you know.

You just don't know what you don't know, and sometimes you get bad information.

So I've been here for 15 years, and I still hear from residents of West Point Gardens that they were promised a Trader Joe's at Route 20 and Nestler Road.

So not by me.

Okay.

Anything else?

Okay, we have a motion.

Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro?

No.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good, yes.

Martinez, yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell, yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, motions approved, date one.

Congratulations, guys.

I was here at the beginning 20 24 years ago.

And remember the uh fights that we had at the uh when that all started.

In a long time.

Consent agenda.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move the second floor approval.

Any corrections, additions, 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.

Motion's approved 9-0.

Miscellaneous business.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move the second floor approval.

Discussion.

Ms.

O'Farr.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a question for staff.

Is there guidelines or procedures of how minutes should be done?

And I ask that because some of these minutes are very lean.

And it's really hard to tell what's going on at these meetings, and they're not recorded.

You're talking about the board and commission meetings?

Yeah.

Yes.

I'll take a look into it and see what it is.

A lot of that is it's it's um in instances it's a staple liaison or how it's uh I'll take a look into it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Okay, 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.

Motion's approved 9-0.

Next committee of the whole meeting will be Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 6 p.m.

in the council chambers.

The next regular meeting of the Elgin City Council will be Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 7 p.m.

in the council chambers.

Entertain a motion to adjourn back to the committee of the whole.

So moved.

Second.

It's been motion a second to adjourn.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, we are adjourned.

Entertain a motion to reconvene.

Committee of the whole.

So moved.

Second.

Move the second to reconvene.

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, we're back in business.

Mr.

Manager, I believe we're on item B.

Agreed.

This is an engineering services agreement with H.R.

Green Incorporated for the bridge and culvert 2026 through 30 program to better identify bridge and culvert conditions and provide a roadmap for long-term bridge maintenance and replacement needs and to adequately budget for future bridge construction efforts.

Staff recommends the separation of the inspection and construction functions.

This agreement provides for the continued bridge inspection and mandated reporting of those bridges plus GIS database management in bridge master plan technical services.

Future bridge and culvert construction contracts will be brought forward separately to the contra to the city council by contract for approval.

Move approval.

Second move and second for approval.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Stefan.

I I just want to say I appreciate the effort made to separate the inspections from the construction.

I read this memo, it reminded me of a year or two ago when we had our one an area of the city reinspected and I'm remembering over 125 properties put into the floodplain in the Poplar Creek area on the southeast side.

Um I think our review of that found that a lot of that was due to blockages in these culverts and these smaller um underpasses and bridges and so forth.

So I'm I'm uh also appreciative that we're gonna be studying major structures and minor structures as the that is being laid out in this memo.

So I appreciate it.

Thanks.

It's an initiative by public services director Mike Boobins, and as we all know, bridge construction rehabilitation is expensive.

So this provides an opportunity to identify the needs, pursue grant opportunities, and do what we can to minimize the costs on the community when we make these repairs.

Thank you, Councilmember Stephon.

To Councilman Stefan's point, um remember a few years ago uh I was called to uh Elgin High School uh by Deb Perriman and we went out and looked at the box at the culverts under the uh highway or the road near uh Elgin High School.

They're very big, they're probably 10 feet.

There were three of them, they were all blocked, and the water was backing up, and we took uh public works went in and it took them weeks to get the stuff out.

You can imagine it's like pulling the logs and and tree stumps and everything else out of a tube, and the haul it out of there was uh the cost of the city at that time was uh uh in the uh easily probably a hundred thousand dollars just to get the material out.

So it's a good investment and uh a good long-term investment for the people that live there and for the city in the uh the course of things as well.

Ms.

Martinez, mayor, to add to what you're saying, right there on varsity road, there's uh a bridge, and everything would be clogged up in that bridge, and it would cause all the school buses that normally would take that to Algen High or nearby to go all the way around.

We always had to close those roads.

So when the city would go ahead to clean that, you're right.

Aside from that, it would take so long because you need all these permissions from the Army Corps of Engineers.

You need, I don't know, like it seemed like seven different um organizations that you needed just to do this.

So it is very costly, and I'm glad that we're seeking help elsewhere for this.

Thank you.

Okay, clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Zelfaro, yes, Dixon?

Yes.

Good, yes.

Martinez, yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorn?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, motions approved 9-0.

Item C is the renewal of a consolidated subscription agreement for various Civic Plus products.

This renewal consolidates multiple existing city software subscriptions into a single annual agreement.

These services support the city's website, agenda management, the municipal code, Freedom of Information Act processing, accessibility compliance, and internal communications tools used by both residents and staff.

Move for approval.

Second, move to second for approval.

Any discussion.

Mr.

Ortiz.

I'm not sure if it relates to this, but as many people on the council know if I was on here, I used to be the FOIA master.

And I've noticed recently when I try to log into my old account, it doesn't let me in anymore.

So did our FOIA process change or the website change where you have to make a whole new account again and your previous FOIA's are no longer accessible.

I I I don't know the answer off the top of my head.

I'm I'm I'm laughing to myself because I know they used to submit a lot of FOIA before you were elected to the council.

And I I don't know off the top of my head what has changed, but I'll take a look into that and I'll be able to get back to you.

I'm sorry.

All right.

Thanks.

I'm not aware of any changes that are Mr.

Beck they have to deal with my torture with Mr.

Captain.

Sorry.

No, and maybe can do us or the city clerk can speak to this more.

But uh there was a change from Gov QA to Civic Plus, but um it was important that we maintained access to all the previous there.

We go fire requests and documents produced.

So we do still have those, but the system has changed.

So if you may need to do something else to log in.

I don't know.

There's no um login needed for the new system, but if you needed uh previous request information, we can certainly get that to you.

Yeah, and I don't need them because somebody else told me they couldn't log in, so that's why I tried to do mine, and it's not really it doesn't.

If they want to reach out to the city clerk's office, we can make sure they get that.

Okay, all right, thank you.

How's that for a quick response?

You know how to get it done.

Thank you both.

Okay, Mr.

Stefan.

Yeah, I just I just want to make a quick comment.

I also on this one appreciate staff.

It looks like we're consolidating renewals, and that should make things easier too.

So I appreciate that.

Yep.

Um, Chief Technology Officer Aaron Cosantino has been doing that since he took the position.

Um in the past, this is more for a transparency initiative.

If the city council approved a three-year agreement, we may not come back with a renewal uh with the renewal term on that.

Um, in this instance, is we want to make sure that the city council, the public are on board with those changes, and this is evidence of those continued efforts.

So thank you again, Councilmember Stefan.

Okay.

Clerk, please call a roll.

Councilmember Zelfaro?

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 a custom artwork agreement with ACME Design Incorporated for an angel of independence replica.

La Fiesta delgin takes place each September and showcases several large-scale props, including a large MX, Elgin-specific Callejones.

Am I saying that right?

And a replica of Mexico City's Angel of Independence.

Uh, creating a permanent decorative base for the angel of independence sculpture furthers the immersive experience and continues to set Elgin apart, creating a lasting memory and impression for the attendees.

These props will be used for several years and become uh and continue with solidifying the community's commitment to the arts and culture represented in Elgin.

For those that don't know, ACME Design Incorporated is a local Elgin-based business that provides many, many props and other work to the motion picture industry.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move to the second for approval.

Any discussion.

Ms.

Faro.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um thank you to staff.

Uh cultural art is important, so I appreciate that.

I do want to say, and I've mentioned this every time Piesa comes out that we need to try to find a way to be more inclusive to all all Latino communities, not just the Mexican community here in Elgin.

So if we could find a way, and then also looking in the future for additional art in case that's ever of an interest during like Hispanic Heritage Month, et cetera, trying to find a way of trying to do something that is focused on the Latino culture here in Elgin for those that have been here for generations and those that have immigrated to Elgin.

That's all.

Mr.

Thorne.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just wanted to make a quick comment about the fact of ACME design.

I recall that uh some years ago, the mayor, Dave Campton, was able to present Svengooley with a coffin on the nightmare Chicago Street's main stage, and it was built by ACME Design.

That's correct.

And now it's on television.

The bar is never low enough for me.

Clerk, please call the rule.

Mr.

Stephanie, I wanted to I wanted to follow up on Steve's comment because I've I've actually toured this uh plant because I know Clinton Elizabeth and now Alice works there, and uh I I've seen it and uh it is quite amazing.

They they do some really good work.

That's not in any way a uh a problem in this memo.

It's really good stuff.

So just wanted to make that clear.

Okay, Ms.

Powell.

Thank you.

Um Councilwoman El Faro's comment on uh focusing on on the wide range of uh Latino history here in Elgin is a perfect segue into um a project by the LG History Museum on Hispanic Heritage uh celebrating culture and community that uh debuts later this summer.

I want to say it looks like it's uh the documentary and traveling exhibit um premier on Friday, August 21st at 6 p.m.

And that's gonna be at the Elgin Community College Blizzard Theater.

Um so a lot of folks are familiar with project 231 that was done here in Elgin about the um African American history here in Algin, and this is a similar piece on the uh history of uh Latinos and Algin.

So looking forward to that.

But your comments made me think in you know opportunity for a shameless plug for the Elgin History Museum project.

Okay, thank you.

Anything else?

Ms.

Martinez.

Well I don't know.

We're at it.

I'm gonna also announce that on August 1st.

Um Buriqua Fest is gonna have um their festival at Festival Park.

And for those of you that don't know, it's for the Puerto Rican community, but like anything else, everybody's welcome.

Just put a plug for that.

Okay, Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Zalfaro, yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Dorns?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, motions approved 9-0.

Item Z and F are initiatives from the fire department.

The first is a purchase agreement with Air 1 equipment for replacement fire hose and nozzles.

Uh the fire department uh inspects its equipment in accordance with National Fire Protection Association testing and determined that some of its existing hose no longer is meeting performance standards and requires replacement.

This purchase will ensure the frontline apparatus remain fully equipped with reliable fire suppression equipment, enhance firefighter safety, maintain operational readiness, and support the fire department's ability to provide an effective emergency service.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move the second for approval.

Any discussion.

Hearing none, Cork, please call a roll.

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 F is another purchase agreement with Air One equipment in this instance for self-contained breathing apparatus units, commonly referred to as SCABA.

Fire Department is seeking to purchase six, what are called MSA G1 self-contained breathing apparatus, demo units, and six 4500 PSI scava cylinders and four G1 face pieces from Air 1 equipment.

This equipment is needed to fully outfit both the fire department's new six full-time ambulance and to also provide services for the reserve ambulance that goes into service as a seventh response unit when staffing levels permit.

Because ambulance personnel are cross-trained as firefighters and paramedics, all frontline ambulances must be equipped with SCABE equipment to perform firefighting operations safely and effectively.

To reduce costs, the fire department is purchasing discounted demonstration units for its existing Scaba vendor Air One.

This purchase will ensure operational readiness, maintain firefighter safety, and once again support the fire department's ability to provide comprehensive emergency response services to the community.

So moved.

Second.

Move the second for approval.

Any discussion.

Hearing none, Cork, please call a roll.

Council members alfar?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorne?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes.

Motions approved 90.

Item G is an initiative from Council Members Dixon and Stefan seeking consideration of city council initiatives to amend city council rules of procedure.

Thank you.

Normally every election cycle every two years we update city council rules.

But two weeks ago, we had a conversation here in the approval of our minutes.

On City Council, was not aware of some of the unset things.

And so, you know, we thought it would be a good idea to do what we normally do every couple of years now, since there were some things that obviously we were not aware of as it relates to travel and P card expenses.

Well, I'll I'll pick up and say my piece about some of the things I didn't know.

Um one was that there is a car available for close um conferences and trips.

And the example I gave to Councilman Dixon that I didn't realize it was for is two or three years ago I went to the sustainability conference in Dubuque, one that the mayor and I went probably 15 years ago or more with Dave Lowry, who was the public works director.

Um but I went by myself and just drove myself over there in my own car not realizing that there was an option.

Um and then we just went to lobby last month or earlier, yeah, last month in May or an overnight down to Springfield, and rather than hiring a um driver and bus, we were told that there is a car available that we the three of us who decided to drive down rather than come on our own from a different direction.

We all decided that it would be cheaper just to take the car rather than pay for a rented van and a driver.

So we did that, and that's really when I discovered that this thing is available.

Um the other thing is um that that councilman Dixon and I talked about first of all.

I I I want to step back and say the first thing I did after two weeks ago the conversation is I confronted Councilman Dixon.

We actually ran into each other at a police retirement and promotion ceremony last week, and I had the opportunity to sit with him and confront him about these expenses that came up two weeks ago, and um was assured and had it clarified to me that he this is not anything unusual.

This is what he does, and he clarified he cleans those up.

We mean he pays for the city expenses.

Um in fact, he told me he had dropped a check off at the office downstairs.

Lindsay is the staff that helps coordinate that, and he had dropped it off right before that meeting.

So he clarified for me that you know one of the one of the issues that came up two weeks ago was this overweight bag charge for a conference, I think in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the way back.

I was dumbfounded as to why that even came up in this kind of gotcha vibe that seems to be present, and he informed me that that was something he paid for and he was going to take care of.

I thought maybe the group that he went to the conference with since it was a nationwide conference, and they were recognized in several different ways for their efforts.

Maybe they had asked him to bring their rewards back.

I couldn't figure out why your suitcase was overweight on the way home and not on the way there, but such as it is, you explained to me that you were paying that yourself and had already done so, so at that point I no longer had any interest in finding out what that was for.

So, you know, all of that is to say, and and Councilman Dixon and I had a conversation, and I know he's talked to some others and tried to get some more feel for this, but it came up last two weeks ago.

I think a couple different council people said that we need some clarification because for instance, those P card expenses were from the same month that they were reported or the month before.

And I suggest that we give people 30 days to if they do use the P card and they reimburse the city, then give them the chance to do that before we start you know throwing those around.

get some more feel for this but and it came up last two weeks ago I think a couple different council people said that we need some clarification because for instance those P card expenses were from the same month that they were reported or the month before and I suggested we give people 30 days to if they do use the P card and they reimburse the city then give them the chance to do that before we start you know throwing those around last year we changed the rules and said that if any of us go to a conference or some kind of a field trip or whatever that we should I think the ordinance currently says we should present to the council at one of these meetings I honestly think that's too cumbersome we already saw how long it takes for one of our department heads to give us an update on just one issue of if all of us were coming back from conferences and taking city meeting time to make that presentation that would overwhelm us I think I think I would my idea and I think I've discussed this with councilman Dixon is to change that we should present information that we get from these conferences maybe in written form and get it distributed right after that was passed I went to LRS's recycling center through the Metro West Council of Governors it was an invitation to all the city man mayors and I asked our mayor if he was going to go and he had a conflict so I went to that and I brought back the materials that LRS provided us I got nine copies and I stuck one in everybody's mail slot so everybody got it that was my attempt to comply with that new rule but all that's to say I think we should again in that one I suggested a 60 day date to give people a chance to do that and I also suggested that we don't have people do it formally at our meetings as the I as I understand the ordinance currently says because I think that would just overwhelm possibly overwhelm our time if everybody who goes to a conference or goes someplace has to come back and formally present at one of these so anyway all of that is to say I was just a little disappointed now the way the meeting went two weeks ago especially after taking the initiative to confront councilman Dixon which I think is what should have happened before all that and ask him what is going on with these and getting a very adequate and to me satisfactory explanation as to why those charges were on the P cards and how they were going to be cleared up and were cleared up so that's all to say I'm picking up I think there were other councilmen two weeks two weeks ago that said we need clarification I agree I think we need that so we kind of stop this gotcha stuff and give people time to satisfy whatever rules we're gonna have.

And so thank you for that John so I I want to say a few things I've been on council for almost going on 10 years and in those 10 years I can count on one hand how many conferences or seminars I've been to my schedule didn't allow for it right three kids working full time you just don't have the time to to go to a lot of this stuff so you don't but the first conference I was able to to go to uh overnight was in November of this past year.

And I went to an Illinois mainstream conference concerning our downtown economic development thought was really cool it was in Dixon Illinois super excited to go driving my own vehicle because I didn't know a city vehicle was even an option I get in my vehicle to drive and my car doesn't start I end up having to take an Uber from my house to Dixon Illinois I go to the conference now for those that don't know this our well for me our administrative assistant makes all of the arrangements right she picks the hotel she pays for the conference but for this conference actually was no fee.

It was free for elected officials so elected officials are going and that's mayors city council people senators state reps it just is a whole thing city administrators but anyways I go to the conference I get there I you know stay at my hotel check in uh I need to get back home they don't have Uber they don't have Uber in Dixon Illinois to come back to Elgin so I had to take a cab back to Elgin right I get home after the conference good good deal few days go by I send in all of my receipts some more time goes by the holiday hits hey Lindsay what's the total tab from that from that you know conference okay X amount of dollars and I just wrote a check for it and I just paid for it myself.

So that's the Uber, that's a cab, that's food, that's hotel, that's whatever it is, I felt inclined to pay for it myself, which is what you know what I felt like I should do, right?

So the other couple of times that I've been able to travel because I have a little bit more free time these days, um, I cover most of the majority of of the costs.

So to be hit with this, you know, to for this to be brought up in the way that it was brought up was very gotcha, very disingenuous.

Um and I was actually still in the midst of having conversations with Lindsay and sorting out what the bills were for things.

So I definitely am not one to um to use a P card willy-nilly.

Uh you know, I was a government employee for a long time, all those dollars count.

Um, but when you travel on city business, you should use a city card, and then you just reimburse it.

Like that's just what happens in government or in corporate America.

That's the way that it goes.

Um and you pay for things that are outside of that realm on your own.

That's just the way that I've always known it to be.

That's the way that I've handled it.

That's the way that I've always handled it.

And I would like to say that when I first came on to City Council, you know, I felt discouraged to go anywhere, to go to any conference, any seminar.

Um when really a city council people, you need to go to these things and find out what the best practices are.

You need to find out what they're doing in other communities.

You need to go out there and talk to people who don't live in your community and hear about what's going on elsewhere.

To be to pat yourself on the back with, you know, you don't go to any conferences, you don't go down to Springfield to talk to the the governor's office or uh to the elected officials that are making changes and big laws that are affecting your community is just ridiculous.

You don't you don't pat yourself on the back for that of not having that communication and and uh that access.

You gotta go out there and you gotta go out there and get what you want and bring that back to the community so that your community can be satisfied with what you're doing uh as far as when it comes to the job that you're doing.

So I love seminars and conferences, and I'm gonna continue to go to them.

I mean, community events, supporting our nonprofits.

I go to as many of those as I possibly can.

Um, and I'm gonna continue doing all that because I think that as elected officials is what you should be doing.

Uh spending your time building that network and talking to people about what's happening and promoting your community.

So I just wanted to look kind of lay all of that out.

Um but in but just pulling it back in after that conversation, you know, I I said, let me go back and look at this ordinance.

The ordinance does not really give any guidance or clarity to us as elected officials as far as what we can and cannot do and should and should not do.

Now, you generally are going to know, but it doesn't clarify anything.

So there was a few things that I felt like we needed to clarify.

Um of the things uh which is in section 2.08.060, which is travel and expenses, uh, section A.

Um, one of the the final lines there reads, and this and Councilman Stefan kind of hit on this.

Um, that you do a summary of the conference or seminar seminar at a subsequent city council meeting.

Subsequent doesn't really give a time frame.

I suggest that we give it one.

Let it be 30 days, 60 days, but some type of time frame so that we can we know what the time in which we're we're working in.

Um that's one of the ideas.

Uh another one one of the ideas is and Councilman Sephum kind of touched on this too as well, the presentation type.

He placed after going to a conference, he placed things in the mail in in our mail slots.

Um I went down to Springfield to lobby with our lobbyist organization, Metro West, and I sent the information they gave us to our corporate council, and he sent it out to the rest of the city council.

Um so but sometimes you go to a conference or a seminar or even a lobbying act, and you don't have any paperwork.

So there's nothing to mail or email necessarily, necessarily, and maybe a presentation or speaking about it at a council meeting is necessary.

So I I I think that we probably uh probably explicitly say all of those options.

Um just as long as people get the information, I think that's the spirit of it.

I think that's the spirit of it.

Um so those were my few things that um I think we should discuss and changing um as well as the the vehicle rental, um not even knowing that that's available, but putting that into writing that if it is a a local event that you do have that option to rent that because I mean I'll probably spend 200 on going to that conference in Dixon.

I would have just been able to take a city vehicle, so I'll leave it up there and leave it open for discussion.

Any uh discussion.

Oh, Ms.

Alfaro.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think it'd be great to clarify in the city council rules um that because I think as if we want to be equitable for people to be able to run and serve in these positions, right?

Because it's in a part-time basis, and and most of everyone, unless you're retired, are working full-time positions and have family, etc.

Um, like going to all this conferences, everything, it adds up, right?

And I don't think any of us, or not to my knowledge, are millionaires and can't afford all this.

So, like I think it's be good to be clean cut, like this is the amount of money things could cost, this is what you're allowed to do, this is what how much you can spend on a meal, etc.

I think the clearer there is, the better, so everyone is fully aware.

Um the use of a city vehicle, I think is is great, but I also think if city staff are taking training and how to that vehicle should be used and not used, um, then that should be also something that council members that will use it need to do, um, just to be fair and make sure that they're aware of how to utilize the vehicle.

Given that we're looking to revise the city council rules, I have a couple additional items I would like to propose, and since we're doing this, so it's all in one.

Um the one thing is we had to we had brought up, and I know council member Paul has brought this up first, is um questioning uh how we were picking individuals for the C D B G subcommittee, the two council members to serve on that.

And so if we could put in here like appointments to the C D BG and others and clarify how those appointments will be made and how city council members will be selected, um I think that would be great if we could flush that out.

And so we're all in agreement, and it's completely transparent to all of us how that is being done.

Uh in addition, executive session, we had mentioned that you're not allowed to take any materials.

I would like to amend that to uh say that um we can take a materials as long as it's tied to um the review of personnel.

Um that way we could look at that as we're supposed to be evaluating the personnel, etc.

And then the last thing I would like is um clean uh flushing out when city council members can put things on the committee of the whole for many years.

I know I've only been here for one year, but from my understanding for many years, the city council has operated where if two council members has um asked for something to be on agenda as long as there was two council members and they requested it on time, they were able to put something on the agenda.

Well, recently, a couple weeks ago, I had asked for something to be put on the committee of the whole.

I was seconded by council member Dixon, and I got pushback, and it ended up having to be put on the the city council because it indicated that this misapply d only applies to city council seven o'clock, not the six o'clock.

So I would like to add in here the rules for the six o'clock and how when and when we cannot add things to the committee of the whole thank you.

Okay, anything else?

Uh Ms.

Martinez, I too would like to add some things, but just um for uh transparency.

All of these expenses are on the website.

Um anybody can look at it.

I'm looking at last year's, and um there's a few things that uh I would like to amend that if we as council members meet with anybody in the community.

I do that a lot.

I just go Dutch, you know, they pay theirs, I pay mine.

But um I would like to amend where we should not be going and meeting people, residents, and in other uh cities.

Like here is um uh a restaurant, and it doesn't even belong to Elden, it's in South Elgin.

I would rather, you know, I encourage people to meet and and talk to community members, but it should at least at least be a restaurant in Algen.

That's one thing.

Um the other, I see a subscription here for um a membership, and it's a membership that I have, and I know quite a few uh council members have, and this is on the P card.

I guess um, I just never would have thought I don't have guidelines, but you know, it's something that I want to attend that I I can attend and go if I want and not attend if I don't want to, but it's something that I feel that if I want to belong to that, um it should be something I should pay on my own.

I think we all do that.

Um but you know, I encourage you to look at this, it's there.

Um I'm looking at um, I think there's 20 2024, 2025, and 2026.

And um, yeah, I think that um I agree with councilman Dixon that we should put a timeline on if you go to any type of conference, it should be 30 days because that's kind of fresh, you know.

Why do it six months later, you know?

Um it would just be I think beneficial to all of us to hear it um as soon as we can.

I don't know if it's because I belong to a union for 31 years and we always have to give receipts and stuff, but I've always said it that when I volunteer for something, you know, um, or I'm serving the public, it's known that you give a lot of time and you end up giving money.

Um, and that's part of uh the serving the community.

But that just me.

It doesn't have to be everybody.

Uh those are the things that I'd like to see uh changed.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Anything else?

Mr.

Good.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um so I you know for the public.

Um, you know, I agree with getting things formalized and transparency for transparency for those not reading the agenda.

This item says review city council rules and procedures, um, so consideration of city council initiatives and amend city council rules for procedures.

So that's kind of just a one-sentence um item here, and it sounds like we're expanding this to consider multiple different rule changes, um, which I'm okay with.

Um, but I would I would appreciate time um to to think about a what was mentioned today, and then if we're gonna open the scope up for all council members to kind of throw things in the pot.

That's that's what I would prefer happen.

Um, and I'm not saying delay this longer than even to next meeting.

Um, but right now I just feel like we're kind of tossing stuff out there, and uh, I don't know if this is if the intent was to lead to a vote this evening on something or if we're just having a discussion, but um, I don't want as a center now.

I prefer that we have some time to pump breaks and things about think about what was presented tonight as well as um any other items that we might be bringing to the table.

And I might even say because I think we're gonna be having meetings as council members and how we operate together uh in the near future, um, that maybe we take that into consideration as a revisitation.

Not saying we stop this, we could do this, um, but this could be potentially something that we work on as a group in a concentrated effort.

Um so that's my thoughts on that item right now.

Well, just certainly it's appropriate we can ask staff to review the uh the video and come back with us with a summary of the comments people and send it back to us sometime in the next couple weeks or next month and uh give people a chance to look it over.

Because we won't remember exactly what everybody said.

I tried to write down as fast as I can.

So anybody else?

Ms.

Paul.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Um I I need some clarification for some of the things that were brought up.

Um I think Councilwoman Martinez brought up some memberships.

Can you clarify what those memberships are that you're referring to?

Sure.

Um, I know that uh there's at least uh three other people that belong to Alden Hispanic network.

It's 120 dollars, it's an annual membership.

And um I only see one council member um that put that on the procurement card, or the rest of us have paid it on our own.

I guess it's our preference to do that.

But um, you know, I think on uh membership like that, because we have the option I pay for it, but sometimes I I don't attend, sometimes I do, but um I was just surprised that that one was on there.

Um it was just uh 2025.

I don't see anything for 2026, but the membership should be due in a couple of months.

That that was the example.

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

Um and then the other question was for councilwoman Alfaro, you said you had an issue placing something on the Cal agenda versus the council agenda.

Um I remember I I've been on council my goodness since 2011, and I remember when we changed that policy, and and it was around making sure that you know we we got a first and a second.

Um correct me if I'm wrong, I it's my understanding that what once you have that first and second, you contact staff typically uh before I think noon on Wednesday is the preferred time to place an item on the COW agenda because our items are typically any time that I've known that items have been placed on the agenda, had they been placed on the Cal agenda, they have not been placed on the council agenda.

Um I'm just what were you trying to place on and why was it on the council agenda?

Where was you want to explain discrepancy?

I'm I'm suggesting corporation counsel Chris back.

Okay.

Landed on this discrepancy, and I think it's probably easiest for him to explain.

Okay, that'd be helpful.

Thank you.

Sure.

The uh what councilwoman Alfaro was talking about was the uh regular reports with respect to the um diversity and inclusivity initiative ordinance.

And so uh upon review, there was discussion about wanting to do this on a regular basis versus having it as a um you know a one-time discussion item.

So uh the municipal code provides contains a language that when there is uh initiative that is seconded that can be placed on the city council agenda doesn't um say anything in the municipal code about placing that on the committee, the whole agenda.

Um so upon review uh determined that this item would be placed on the city council agenda on a recurring basis, so those updates could be given.

Okay.

And it was because it was a regular ongoing, and is that the interpretation?

It was just based on the what the municipal code provides.

So it wasn't a one-time thing.

The municipal code only talks about the city council agenda, it doesn't say anything about the committee the whole agenda.

Okay, yeah.

So yes, that is a loophole we need to close, but in practice, any time that we as city council persons, myself, anyone else has requested an item to be placed on the agenda, it's always been placed on the COW agenda.

So this is and this is why we have these conversations and ask those questions.

So I thank you, uh Chris, for the explanation.

Not blaming coming up before and so and I I didn't realize it was read that way either until I did, and yes, but that's what the language provides.

Not blaming you for the way city code is written, but no, thank you for the clarification.

Um but yes, that that's good to know, and that's why we have these conversations so that you know we can clarify things and um make changes because I think most of the time if we're putting items on the agenda for discussion, we want them to be on the cow agenda because that is supposed to be our discussion meeting.

So uh thank you for that clarification.

Um I guess a couple of things I have.

Um I want to begin by saying, you know, I definitely support accountability for the use of public resources, and every city council member has a responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately, and when mistakes occur, they should be corrected.

However, similar to what councilman Stefan said, um, I'm a little troubled by the manner in which this issue was brought up.

If there was a legitimate question about an expense associated with a conference or travel, the most reasonable first step would have been to simply ask the council member involved for clarification.

A phone call, an email, or a conversation could have been it could have answered a very basic question.

Were you aware of the charge?

And if reimbursement is required, do you intend to reimburse the city?

It doesn't appear that that conversation ever occurred.

Um instead, we find ourselves discussing a matter publicly that may have been resolved quickly and professionally through direct communication.

I think it is important that we distinguish distinguish between an administrative oversight and actual misconduct.

Those are not the same things.

So before we elevate an issue to the level of public controversy, we should establish the facts, determine whether an expense was appropriate, and determine whether any reimbursement is owed.

Accountability begins with asking questions and gathering facts.

It should not begin with assumptions, accusations, or public ambushes.

What is particularly concerning to me is that the expenses being discussed tonight have either already been reimbursed as mentioned by Councilman Dixon or are in the process of being reimbursed before these concerns were brought forth publicly.

The fact matters because it speaks directly to how this situation was handled.

I believe we need to be careful about the precedent we set.

If every questionable expense, every clerical error, every reimbursement issue is going to be handled through public accusations before a conversation occurs, then we need to be prepared to apply that same standard consistently to every elected official, every board member, and every employee.

Whether that criticism is fair or not, it has created an environment where many elected officials, some of whom sit right up here with me, have become hesitant to participate in opportunities that can make them more effective public servants.

The reality is that municipal conferences and professional training events provide valuable opportunities to learn from other communities, learn from other legislators, identify best practices, develop professional relationships, and bring new ideas back to the residents we serve.

Many of the policies and programs we discuss today are informed by information gained through those experiences, or can be gained by the experiences that we have at these conferences.

Council members may begin to wonder whether attending conferences is worth the risk of becoming the subject of public criticism or political controversy over incidental expenses.

And that would be unfortunate because our residents benefit when their elected officials are informed, engaged, and connected to what is happening in municipalities across the region and across the country.

We should absolutely expect reimbursement when reimbursement is owed.

But we should also be careful not to create an environment where good faith participation in professional development is discouraged.

If the goal is accountability, then accountability appears to have occurred or is in the process of occurring.

If reimbursement was required, reimbursement has been made or is being made.

If clarification was needed, clarification has been provided.

At some point, we must evaluate not only the allegation, but also the outcome.

Questions were raised, reimbursement was made or initiated, the city was protected.

At the end of the day, I want us to be a council that solves problems, not one that goes looking for them.

When there's a question, let's ask it.

When there's a problem, let's fix it.

But let's not confuse the two things.

I cannot speak to anyone else's motivations, and I will not speculate about them.

What I can speak to is process, and I'm big on process.

Would have been to gather the facts first by speaking directly with the individual involved.

We all have each other's phone numbers.

And then determine whether further action is necessary.

That is how accountability works.

That's how professionalism works, and that is how good governance works.

Those are my comments on this situation.

I I have a couple more things because I'm long-winded.

But hey, we're here.

So on if unless if we need to go to the city employee handbook and just copy that as part of our council rules or reference it in our council rules, I I think that would just that would be the easiest way to do it.

You know, what's allowed, what's not allowed, what can be put on a procurement card, what's expected to be reimbursed.

I think that makes it very simple.

In terms of reporting back what you learned.

Um I know Councilman Stefan said he didn't want a whole presentation, nor do I.

I don't think it's necessary.

I've been to other board meetings, um, simply during their own council announcements.

Councilmember says, hey, I went to this conference on such and such, it was held here.

These are the the highlights, the you know, the things I learned, and I think councilman Dixon, I mean Councilman Dixon, councilman stuff, and even said um he brought back some material from LRS and put it in our mailboxes.

So if there's material to be brought back, you can put it in each other's mailboxes, you could bring it to the council meeting, you can give it to one of the staff so that they can email it to us since we can't email it out to everyone.

Um it doesn't have to be a formal presentation, it's just hey, I went, this is what I heard, this is what I found, and obviously more conversations are going to be had with staff in particular areas where if it was economic development or if it was about something in our police department, but not looking for a whole formal presentation.

Um I do think one of the rule changes I would like to see is that there's an administrative review before a public complaint happens, so that this does not happen again.

So I would like to require that questions regarding council travel expenses be first reviewed by either the finance department or the city manager's office, the same as I'm sure that takes place again with employee travel expenditures, identify the expense, staffs determines, staff determines whether or not the policy was violated, and the council was notified.

The council members notified, and after the council member has been notified, um they have 30 days to correct the situation.

If it's not corrected, then that's what it becomes that comes before this body.

But I think that that would be the professional way to to handle this and and a professional procedure to put in place since it appears that we might need one.

Um I think it makes sense to put a time frame on I think you said 30 or 60 days for a reporting back.

I like 30.

It's still fresh in in everyone's mind, what they learned when they went to the conference.

I think council member Martinez mentioned the same.

Um I think that's it.

I I I put clarifying what constitutes a reimbursable expense, but again, I think all of that is in the city personnel manual in terms of the city's travel policy for employees.

It shouldn't be any different for us.

So those are those are some of the things in addition to, you know, I'm I'm definitely open to some of the other things I've heard today.

But if I if I want to throw in my two cents about some rule changes, those are the rule changes that I would recommend.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anything else?

Mr.

Ortiz.

All right.

Uh no.

Uh one, uh, it wasn't a gotcha moment.

It was all in our agenda.

It's in disbursement reports.

We're all supposed to look at it before we vote on it.

So it was there.

We all well, where well, where or well, or what was in there if you read it.

The count the committee, the community has access to it so they can look at the agenda and see what's in there.

Uh for travel expenses, Ms.

Powell is correct.

That uh in 2.08.060 for expenditures, city members of the city council should adhere to a travel policy and conferences and sim seminars guidelines applicable to the city staff.

So pretty much whatever the city staff does, we're we're under the same scrutiny.

So she is correct on that one about uh we should do what the city staff does for asking questions and facts.

That's all I did was ask questions, then we made the motion, and Miss Alfaro helped me uh amend the motion to get uh best practice and guidelines.

So a lot of things we spoke about tonight, city staff should already be doing that because we voted on last meeting.

Um I agree with Ms.

Offaro on the C B D G committee thing, but we should also include the home commission and the eliging housing authority to that, and any other ones that are mayor-appointed commissions, so we'll all the commissions uh get voted on and know why Mr.

Steckman's on those or me and Miss Martinez on the C B G.

Um asking fix it.

I like that one.

So I did ask the questions, and then we made that motion to try to fix the loopholes and the gaps, and then I like Tom Ms.

Offaro brought up the the cow agenda.

That's a I think that's a loophole we need to fix and put that in the in the code.

So if we ask Mr.

Beck for his legal advice, that's in there because lawyers like to read it directly what's black and white in front of them, so there's no uh they don't get in trouble for anything.

So I I agree with that.

Uh the 30-day rule, I like that for uh reporting back.

I don't want a presentation, I was never expecting one.

I was expecting more like an email or how Mr.

Stefan said, throwing stuff in your mailbox when people come back from committee uh from conferences and I think that's all my little bullet points that I have, so that's all I have.

Thanks.

Okay, Ms.

Martinez was very quickly, very quickly.

I just like to say um, yeah, I look at some of these expenses like um Chicago Tribune subscription.

You know, I think the majority of us have those on our own personal, and it's something that we pay on our own.

But I I like this discussion because um there's things that it sounds like a lot of us weren't aware of, but it's there um as councilman ortiz was saying.

But um, like for example, um, that we should have time to look at our expenses, what they are, because I have never uh since 2014 that I've been on, I have never activated my procurement card.

Uh I never used it, but just recently from the last meeting that we had, you look at the transparency page, and I have a charge of 45 dollars to something that I attended.

Um it wasn't there before, it wasn't there um a couple months ago, but it was back in February.

And um, you know, if I would have known that was on there, I would have paid it myself.

But I didn't have that opportunity, and it's on there now.

So I like that we're discussing this.

I like that we're updating, and it's something that will always be in conversation, and maybe like uh Councilman Dixon said every two years is a good time to do it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Mr.

Matt.

Just just for clarification, I think um councilwoman Martinez brought up that if we're using our procurement card and we're going to lunch or coffee or dinner with with someone that it should be in Algin.

I'm fine with that if we're here in Elgin, but it's kind of hard if we're in Springfield or somewhere else.

So I we just have to make sure that the way the um the way it's written recognizes that.

Um so I I just wanted to bring that up because it'd be hard to come all the way back here to Elgin if we're like in Springfield.

I I don't I don't expect you, I don't expect you to do that, but when it's sweet bearing, you see it a few times and it's in South Algen.

That's what I mean.

Okay.

Okay, no, I just wanted to make sure that when we write it, you know, we take in into account that people might be out of town.

So Mr.

Manager, you have uh uh request to uh summarize this and share it back with the council.

Understood, and thank you.

We'll review the videos, keep track of all the notes and report back to the to the council.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, Mr.

Dixon.

Yeah, I I just want to actually just piggyball of that.

So unlike councilwoman Martinez is uh is retired.

I am not.

I run my own business.

I'm all over the county and other counties.

I don't have the convenience of being retired and just staying in one spot all the time.

So and that's for any one of us.

You meet where where it's convenient, you know.

If that's if that's another town over, a couple of towns over.

I think the the point of that should be is are you meeting make are you meeting on city business?

You know, I worked for a long time in St.

Charles.

I didn't have because I'm working for a government body, I don't have the time, two hours to get back to Elgin to have the meeting to get back to work.

It just doesn't, it just doesn't work like that.

So I would have I would sometimes have meetings that are in more convenient spaces.

So that needs to be considered, and that just goes back to councilwoman Alfaro's point.

Um, you know, these these positions um aren't just they should be open to everybody, no matter like what your personal setup is as far as your life is concerned.

Um we need to be inclusive of people who run their own business or someone that works in government or someone who's retired, someone who works at 95 somewhere else in corporate America.

It needs to be open to anyone, bartending who whatever your hours are, whatever you do, when you're doing city business, you can meet wherever.

So you know, so I find it hard to restrict and say just in Elgin, and unless you're in Springfield.

I mean, there are going to be conferences.

I mean, I'm looking at a conference right now, it's gonna be in the Carolinas.

You know, so are you then are we saying you can't spend money outside of Illinois?

You know, so again, we have to go back to what is city staff doing with their P card, because there are city staff members who go to conferences outside of Illinois.

Are they using it?

And and for me, Lindsay, our administrative assistant, makes all of my arrangements.

I don't make any of the arrangements.

So I just want to put that out there.

Is that could be uh a hindrance not just for us but for city employees Martinez?

Thank you, Mayor.

Just to make it clear, the reason why I said sweet berry is because you cross the street to the north and we're in Elgin.

Or you can go on Randall Road and it's even south, and that's Algin.

Obviously, I did not mean Springfield or going that of state.

I don't mean that.

It's uh common sense, you know, of course.

Um just to uh clarify too.

Yes, I am retired, but I'm very busy babysitting, taking care of my mom.

Uh, you know, it's all personal I get it, you know.

But make it sound like I don't have anything better to do.

I attend a lot of events.

I attend um uh things where I can easily put it on my P card.

I just choose not to.

No, I wasn't I wasn't criticizing your personal life.

I'm just saying there's a difference.

There's a difference between I and you as far as what work is concerned.

Sure.

That's all.

Okay, I think we've covered this.

Um close this out.

We have a direction for staff.

Uh announcements from the council.

Mr.

Ortiz.

This Saturday at June 13th, the Elgin History Museum, the Elgin Masonic Lodge 117 is having their centennial celebration.

There is a time capsule that was embedded within the old Chicago Street Temple.

And uh June 13th that was put in there in 19 uh 26.

So this coming Saturday we have 100 years of the time capsule being encapsulated, and they're gonna be opening it.

It's gonna be at the Elgin History Museum at 1 p.m.

I think the mayor is got invited uh give a speech or shake hands and kiss babies, he's so he's gonna be there.

Pick the lock.

So uh anybody wants to go see some Elgin history from 100 years ago, uh, you can go check it out because I know Elgin High School just recently opened theirs also, and they have some cool things in there.

Uh a little preview.

Uh one of the members that has it when they sold the Chicago Street, they opened it to make sure there was something in there, not just like rat droppings, and they said there was some newspapers from a hundred years ago in there, so it'll be interesting to see what those newspapers say about this concept at the time if this that article was in there or how the city was even operating a hundred years ago.

So it'll be a cool event over at uh the Algin history museum.

That's it.

Okay, Mr.

Good.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I was just curious.

Um, I don't have any trees because I don't have a yard.

Um, but I know a storm came through earlier.

Uh what is uh the kind of the state of down trees in the city?

If if if it's in the parkway, if it's in your yard, if you're a renter and your landlord owns a property, what does that look like for Elgin today?

Thank you.

And I thought you were gonna ask me how many trees have been down this afternoon.

I wasn't gonna be able to answer that.

Yeah.

Um the city is responsible for picking up any trees that are located in the parkway.

Those are city owned trees.

Anything that comes down, we will pick up and remove.

Um, we know that when there are significant storm events, and this is all apologies to Greg Hulke and land management, that there are branches from trees that we don't own that somehow make their way out to the parkway.

Trust me, the land management division knows the difference between the types of trees in the parkways and in the backyards, and in those substantial instances, we're gonna do what we can to help the community.

But I guess I would just urge in those more isolated incidents, don't make it a habit because they do know the difference and they might sit there.

But for something significant like today and what we're expecting tomorrow, we're gonna do everything that we can to pick up the property.

It's a good question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, anything else?

Miss Powell.

Um, I just wanted to um announce the Juneteenth celebration that's taking place here in Elgin on Saturday, June 20th.

We had the proclamation earlier tonight, uh, but I don't think there was information specifically given about the event.

Uh it will be held at Festival Park on Saturday, June 20th.

Uh it starts at 1 p.m.

and goes until 9 p.m.

There'll be food vendors, retail vendors, um, entertainment, music.

It's it's family friendly, uh, open to the entire community, celebrating Juneteenth.

So encourage folks to come down and celebrate.

Thank you.

Ms.

Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to take this opportunity to um thank Kenyan farm runners on another successful event.

As you know, on uh Sunday, May 31st was the 49th annual Algin Valley Foxtrot.

With the addition of the 2K fun walk for individuals and teens, there were a thousand five hundred and eleven registrants, three hundred and fifty more than last year.

And for those of you that don't know, in 2019, when the city was no longer going to excuse the punt, run the Elgin uh Valley Foxtrot.

The Kenyan farm runners were the ones that stepped up and they said they would uh be running the event uh and they started in 2020.

All of the funds generated go to 10 non-for-profits, um, which in return enables them to operate uh this event at a hundred percent volunteers.

Um in other words, all of those volunteers that they get are really from the nonfor-profits because they get this money back.

They recently became uh a 501 C3, and uh the Algin Foxtrot started in 1978, which means next year will be the 50th year anniversary.

And um I would also like to thank the team, Rosie Vanencia, Tim Williams, Chris McHugh, Ed Hanson, and uh Bates.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Okay, anything else from council Mr.

Thorne.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to touch on two things.

One is that the Wing Park new clubhouse is scheduled to open by the end of next week, open to the public.

Uh second is is that uh the Fox Valley Model T Car Club does its annual nursing home tour, bringing joy to many residents that uh uh are homebound at nursing homes, and that is also on the 20th, nine in the morning, and we visit uh six different facilities throughout Elgin.

Okay, it's the 24th year we've done that.

Wow.

Okay, anything else?

And also some staff.

None mayor, thank you.

Okay, entertain a motion to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of setting a price for the sale or lease of property owned by the public body.

So moved second.

Moved and second to adjourn, or please call the roll.

Councilmember Zafaro?

Yes.

Dixon?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Martinez?

Yes.

Ortiz?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Stefan?

Yes.

Thorns?

Yes.

Mayor Captain.

Yes, we are adjourned.