Welcome everyone to the City of Joeyette City Council meeting here Tuesday, February seventeenth, twenty twenty six.

The meeting wouldn't will be um proceeded over by myself, Pat Mudwin is the mayor pro temp, Mayor Darcy is out of town.

And uh let's just take a moment of silence now to uh his life.

Lord, we thank you for the life of Jesse Jackson Senior Lord.

For all that he has done to help others and his care that he has extended to so many in this country, Lord, and the leadership that he provided.

And that we may um look out for the needs of one another and be more uh hospitable to warm to one another.

I pray for the proceedings tonight.

That uh everyone would be heard uh more than just listen to.

Lord, we just pray for uh a good meeting tonight and good results for the city, and we pray for a prosperous future for our city.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance.

One nation, another God, indivisible with team and justice for all the time.

Umdays, uh I'm with Pray Joliet.

And we have about 50 churches that have been represented at our prayer meeting that we have throughout the year.

Uh in couple weeks, Victory City Church, which is the mayor's church, they are hosting at the new branch location of the old St.

Jude, uh, another three Joliet prairie gathering.

So we'd like to invite all of you if you're around and available to come on out that night.

Six sixty eight at the old St.

Dude.

We'll begin with roll call.

Mayor Darcy is absent.

He did let me know he would not be in attendance this evening.

Councilman Carness.

Here.

Councilman Clement?

Here.

Councilman Hug.

Here.

Councilman Abarra?

Here.

Councilman Moreno.

Here.

Councilman Mudrin.

Here.

Councilman Queman.

Here.

Councilman Burden.

Here.

Next, we will have two presentations.

First is CERT graduates, presented by John Luke Hanzik.

She joined us.

Good evening, Council.

And thank you again for letting me uh come before you and talk about our wonderful CERT program here in the city of Joliet.

Today it's my privilege to talk to you about our very first high school graduating class for the community emergency response team.

They were wonderful, they were hard workers, and I'll tell you a little bit about the program as we go here, but uh some of them have joined us here tonight, so I thank them for being here, and I thank their adult teammates for being here too.

So everybody's very supportive of one another, and that's a it's a wonderful thing.

So just as it as a review, um we are part of a group here that has been around since the 1980s.

CERT has been around since the 1980s was a result of the Mexico City earthquake of 1985, which our students could tell you all about during our history class.

We talked about it.

So right now we have over 600,000 trained CERP members in the United States.

There are teams in all 50 states, and the Joliet program, which isn't even a year old yet, represents one of the largest CERP programs in the state of Illinois already.

We have 99 trained members, and we have more than 30 that are currently in training in high school class and in the adult classes.

So hopefully we'll be at around 200 by the end of the calendar here this year.

Um so I'm very proud of these young men and women who have gone through this.

Um I do especially want to thank the Joliet Township and Jolia Cap Academy administrators.

They bought in completely to this program, they helped these students along, they encouraged them to be part of it, and they gave them service hours to be part of it, which is wonderful.

So we appreciate all the people at all high schools in the city who were part of this.

I do want you guys to know that the young men and women who were in this program, they went through the adult curriculum.

This is not an easy program.

This is over 20 hours of education, uh, either before or after school.

So these folks were going an hour before school ever started, they were showing up to come do SERT training, and an hour after school ended, they were doing SERT training.

So I have so much respect for these young men and women.

So, all told uh just our high school students, this batch put in over 400 hours of volunteer time to get trained in this.

So that's a pretty big ask for high school students, and I'm very impressed, and I'm very proud to be associated with them.

This class had 22 graduates.

Um you could see the list up there.

We have we had graduates from from three of our high schools, uh, West Central and JCA.

So some of them are with us here tonight, but by the time these folks were done with their training, they were running incidents on their own by themselves, with me doing nothing but watching.

And they were doing rescues, they were doing medical care, they were moving patients, and they were wonderful.

So I really appreciate you guys being involved.

We have another twenty five high school students who were started just at the end of the beginning of this semester.

So we continue to make good progress, and we are really making Joliet a more resilient place from our high school students on up through our adults.

So I thank you guys very much for your support.

And uh thank you all for being part of this, and thank you for being here.

Jan, I can't see you.

How's that?

Better Council McClellan.

Yeah, we go.

Just kidding.

Thank you so much.

Yes.

Next is Joliet Comprehensive Plan Status Update presented by Jane Bernhardt, Planning Director.

All right, good evening.

My name is Jane Bernhard, and I am the planning director of the City of Juliet.

I'm also the project manager for this really awesome project.

The City of Juliet is preparing a new comprehensive plan, and it's the city's first plan of such in more than 50 years.

The comprehensive plan will serve as a guiding document that sets out the long-term vision for policy and land use in Joliet.

This plan will guide how Juliet grows, invests, and connects over the next generation.

I always like to start off with the six big overarching project goals.

The first is this project and plan will chart a vision for Joliet's future.

It will respond to change in plan for opportunity.

It will create a unified citywide framework.

This plan will strengthen regional and local collaboration.

It'll focus on implementation, and finally, it will empower local leadership.

And we are now in phase three, which is enhance.

And this phase focuses on preparing a plan and plan recommendations and vetting these with the community.

Community workshop number two is during this phase, which is occurring at the end of this month on February 26th, and I will highlight this workshop in a few moments.

I want to take a step back though and do a recap of what's happened to date.

Besides forming the advisory committee and launching this project, the first deliverable or product of this project was the existing conditions report, which was completed in June of 2025.

This report does not make recommendations, instead, it presents objective information about the city's physical, social, and economic landscape.

It gathers and organizes a wide range of data, typographics, land use, infrastructure, housing, economy, mobility, natural resources, and more to help establish a shared understanding of Joliet today.

This quite large document is on the project webpage, and I'm gonna mention this webpage multiple times.

It's WWW dot Joliet.gov slash comprehensive plan.

We also ran a community survey for two full months from mid-July to mid-September, and the aim of this survey was to gather information on community priorities.

We had over 2,000 people take this survey, which was a really really great number.

We were very thrilled with the level of interest from our community and with the outreach from our very own community members to encourage others to take the survey.

Community workshop number one was held September 17th at Joliet West High School.

At this workshop, information from the existing conditions report was shared out, and people provided input on opportunities and challenges regarding topic areas like housing, transportation, parks, and open space.

The culmination of phase two of this project was the vision, goals, and objectives document, which, as this title suggests, establishes these components for specific topic areas of the forthcoming plan.

This very important document, vision, goals, and objectives statement is also available on the project webpage.

And then phase three of this project kicked off in December of 2025 with the city hosting seven topic area workshops right here in the council chambers.

We moved chairs around, tables around, brought out lots of maps.

And the reason why everyone's staring at their phones in this image on the screen is because we use this online engagement platform called Mentimeter, which allowed people to share responses to two prompts to questions anonymously and allowed staff to gather that input efficiently.

So these topic area workshops offered community members an opportunity to learn where the city was at in the comprehensive plan process.

They got to explore specific topic areas in greater detail and then share input on proposed goals and objectives.

So in total of the seven workshops, we did draw an attendance of approximately 230 people those seven nights.

And then community engagement has been ongoing.

City staff and the advisory committee have staff tables or made presentations at numerous events or meetings, such as monthly neighborhood organization meetings, business civic organizations like Rotary Club, African American Business Association, Latino Economic Development Association.

There's been community events like last week's community resource fair held at Joliet West, and also government partner gatherings such as the Kendall County Regional Planning Commission's annual meeting.

And tonight, one of the prime reasons I'm here before you is we're we're announcing, if you haven't heard it already, that comprehensive plan workshop number two will be held at the end of this month on Thursday, February 26th at the Joliet Public Library, Ottawa Street Branch, or some people call it the downtown library.

It'll be from 5 p.m.

to 8 p.m.

and it is open house style, meaning you can stop by at any point during that 5 p.m.

to 8 p.m.

At this workshop, attendees will learn what the city has heard so far and how that input has informed the comprehensive plan in the realm of housing and neighborhoods, economic development, transportation, mobility, infrastructure and utilities, open space and the environment, arts, heritage and culture, and finally land use and future development.

Attendees will also provide input on what they would like to see in four distinct character areas of Joliet.

These areas from moving from west to east is the Ridge Road Corridor between Caton Farm Road and Black Road, the Joliet Mall area, the mixed residential industrial neighborhood at Cass Henderson, Cass Street and Henderson Avenue, and the neighborhood at Chicago Street and McDonough Streets.

These four geographically diverse areas represent a range of characteristics from commercial, residential to industrial.

And the ideas generated at this workshop for these four areas can be applied across the city where similar development patterns exist.

And I do want to end with that.

This is another announcement again for the comprehensive plan workshop number two happening at the end of this month, next week, Thursday, February 26th.

We really hope that you can join us at this workshop and share your vision for these four areas in Joliet.

And with that, I would like to take any questions from the council.

I guess we have no one to ask if it's okay.

And I was told that the reason why it was done is to accommodate the committee members, but we have to remember we have to accommodate the residents first and foremost.

So I just wanted to make that comment.

Nobody that works full-time or even part-time is gonna give up two nights in a row.

So therefore, what I had to do, and if I had to do it, I'm sure the public had to do it as well.

Decide which one was more important to me.

Is economic more important or land use and um planning, land planning or something.

I just want to say, I want to say it on the record, I'm not a fan of doing two workshops two nights in a row, same week.

I'm just not a fan of that.

Thank you.

I do have a comment.

I like that you included a Joliet Maul area, Rig Road and far west side, so that was good.

And you know, we've got a little bit of it's not just centered in one spot.

Um so thank you.

I guess I also want to say because I have nobody to stop me, that I have due, I do love the comprehensive plan.

I do love that we're doing it.

I love every part of reaching out.

I just I'm not a fan, so I don't want anyone to think I don't support.

I support it a thousand percent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You have a good point.

I had a picking myself.

So which one you're gonna go to?

I went to one of them, but I think she has a councilwoman has a point.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, you know how to reach me if you have more questions or comments.

Um again, Juliet.gov slash comprehensive plan is the project webpage.

Um our email addresses comprehensive plan at Juliet.gov.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your leadership and passion on this, Jane.

It means a lot to the city.

Thanks, Jane.

Good job.

Under Mayor is a proclamation honoring Black History Month presented by Councilman Carnes.

Yeah.

All right.

Proclamation, whereas this year marks a hundredth annual celebrations since Carter G.

Woodson Institute, Negro History Week in 1926, which was labor change in 1976 of Black History Month.

Whereas each February, Black History Month honors the struggles and triumphs of millions of American citizens over the most devastating obstacles, slavery, prejudice, poverty, as well as as well as their contributions to the nation's cultural and political life.

And whereas today, the accomplishments of African Americans in every aspect of our society, continue to encourage people to reach as far as their dream may take them.

And whereas African American organizations have played a vital role in achieving justice and equal rights and have helped many commun make communities across our country stronger and better.

Now, therefore, I, Terry Darcy, mayor of the city of Joliet, Illinois on behalf of Joliet City Council, encourage the citizens of Joliet to reflect on the past success and challenges of African Americans and look to the future to continue to improve society so that we live up to the ideals, freedoms, equity, and justice.

Thank you.

When I say proclamation, uh I think the first thing that probably comes to mind for me is emancipation.

That just seems to be like a natural uh next thought.

Uh probably be for most African Americans.

And so when you say proclamation, you know, being another preacher, you're talking about proclaiming something that takes a unique position or what you you're stamping it in.

You know, hey, we're saying this, whereas this marks the 100th year.

You know, uh it's interesting that that's 1926, but it was 1976 before Duro Fulward made Black History Month official in the United States.

So as much as 100 years for Carter G.

Woodson, it's only been half as long for that.

Um but in in all in all, I'm certainly grateful that uh our city is taking the time uh and the mayor is saying, hey, we're going to have the bunch of uh this sounds kind of weird.

So a bunch of our asses to get to it therefore now, therefore, on behalf of the Jodian City Council, encourages citizens of Joliet to reflect on the past and and challenges of African Americans and look to the future to continue to improve society so that we live up to the ideals of freedom, equality, and justice.

And I I just find it ironic or certainly coincidental that we're also uh um dealing with the loss of uh Reverend Judge Jesse Lewis Jackson.

Yeah.

And so uh it's interesting that he has and I I wanted to make sure that I I mentioned because he said some very profound things that have resonated in my life, and uh and when he said, I am somebody.

And uh when he said, I am somebody.

That's right.

You know, when you start talking about what African Americans have had to deal with being three-fifths of a man, he wanted to make sure that we were dignified as all men as God has created us.

He also said, respect me, protect me, and never forget me.

You know, because it's so easy.

We've uh we've lived in a country where if you weren't uh certain he or whatever it was, maybe your lifestyle was dismissed.

The other thing that he said, uh, and I hope it'll it'll rest and resonate in your spirit.

He said, keep hope alive.

Yes.

I think it's very tragic that uh through the life of Jesse Jackson, he lived uh talking about, hey, I'll give help you get the right to vote.

And now we're living in a culture where all that he fought for, that all citizens, all people might be created equal, there's something that's really active and aggressive in terms of taking those rights away.

So when you start talking about black history, it's not so it's not just a black history program for black people.

That's right.

It's for Americans.

I don't make any apologies that but it's only my opinion.

But I think that America has rested on the shoulders of African Americans.

And it also we are way past the time of identifying them as of as whole men and whole women.

Yes, and so as we proclaim, as the mayor has proclaimed this month.

I hope that we will kind of sow into this thing and proclaim every day.

Because African American history is American history.

It's not something that we set aside in February.

You know, and I didn't mean to take this long, but that's too bad.

I'm gonna preach.

But that thing in that it says we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

And that we are what in bow.

That means something with inalienable rights granted unto us by our creator.

You know, all of us.

You know, so this African American history is really an effort to say to dignify that.

And it's a tragedy that we're still trying to be more than three-fifths of a man.

But all in all, counsel, thank you very much for allowing uh me to stand before you at this point.

But I we I don't I've never I've been not been appointed to be the spokesperson for the African American community.

That's right.

But so I find it's such a privilege that I get to stand there and receive this proclamation that we observe Black History Month.

The other thing that I would want to do, and then I'll and I'll get out of your way, is that we are having a black history uh weekend starting Friday the 20th, the 21st and 22nd, and it'll be three days free admission.

Yeah, Friday night is something called stamped into history week.

We call that special delivery.

We have a lot of amazing dramatizations and focusing on on uh African Americans who were honored on United States postage stamps.

So it's going to be a really unique thing.

Uh I I call it unique, but I've been doing it here in Joliet for the last eight years.

I've been doing it at Bicentennial Park, where it's going to be this weekend for the last four years.

And so it's going to be an exciting weekend as we do special delivery on Friday night.

On Saturday night, it'll be something called Soulsville, which is really a variety show displaying titles, whether it's dancing, music, and whatever, uh, is rich in our culture.

And then on Sunday afternoon at four o'clock, it'll be something called rising together.

And that's an opportunity to to experience the richness of how we celebrate our faith.

And we invite you to come it uh Friday and Saturday, doors open at six, show starts at seven, Sunday, doors open at three, show starts at four, and I I uh it'll bless you.

And I invite you all to come.

May I hand each of you a flyer for that?

We need to go there and take a picture.

We're gonna have you take a picture.

Oh my goodness.

I'll just walk some by so that I can I can make sure that you got it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

He's gonna have his wife.

Thank you.

If you just want to stand out, your wife you want to stand right up here?

All the population.

I'll take this wire.

As long as they can see her.

Just because he wrote.

Yes, it's perfect.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next is the approval of the agenda.

Is there a motion to the to approve the agenda as written?

So moved.

Second.

It's a motion and second and to approve.

Councilman Cardenas.

Councilman Clement.

Councilman Hugs.

Councilman Abarra.

Councilman Marino.

Councilman Mudrin.

Councilman Rudin.

Motion carried.

Next is citizens to be heard on agenda items.

I have some names here that have signed up to speak.

We will start with Gina Glasgow.

Good evening.

He was a hard act to follow, I'll tell you.

Congratulations.

I'm here to thank all of you on behalf of our CEO, Nicole Murray, who could not be here this evening.

And she asks that I share her deep appreciation and the following message with you for your partnership and your heartfelt thanks for your continued belief in Habitats mission.

On behalf of myself and Will County Habitat for Humanity, we extend our sincere gratitude to the city of Joliet for the generous donation of six lots.

The city's partnership is much needed and speaks to the commitment to affordable homeownership and the investment in our community.

At Habitat, we're not just building homes.

We're building stability, dignity, and opportunity.

A home is where families put down roots, build memories, create generational wealth.

Yet here in Will County, rising housing costs and limited inventory are putting that future out of reach for many of our hardworking families.

That's why habitat exists.

The work isn't just meaningful, it is essential.

And it all starts with land.

Once we have the land, we can align the rest, funders, donations, volunteers, resources, and most importantly, the family who will partner with us.

The land is the catalyst.

Without it, this engine just does not run.

Your donation turns possibility into progress and progress into keys into a family's hands.

We especially want to thank Mayor Darcy and Councilwoman Sherry Reardon for your ongoing support and leadership.

Together, we are providing a hand up and not a handout.

Also, when you invest in habitat, you are not just investing in the dream of homeownership.

You are investing in Joliet's future.

Every time Habitat closes on home, that property returns to the tax roll.

Vacant land becomes a taxable asset, generating long-term revenue, which supports schools, public safety, city services, and strengthens our neighborhoods for many years to come.

On behalf of our staff, our board, our homeowners, our future homeowners, we thank you for helping us build hope, opportunity, and a strong Joliet and a Will County partnership that will last for generations to come.

So thank you very much.

And if anybody has any questions, our attorney is here and would be happy to answer.

Thank you.

You know, Mrs.

Last time you're trying to.

I just wanted to say nationwide.

Habitat for humanity does do a wonderful job.

So for those that are directly involved in offering these families.

Thank you.

Trista Graves Brown.

Hello, I am um Tristan Grace Brown.

I'm here to speak on the honorary street for the Reverend Larry Alice.

Again, and we're also getting honored to Reverend Jesse Jackson.

And I want to say one quote that I think we all should all pay attention to.

Never look down on anyone unless you're helping them to get up.

Quote from Reverend Jesse Jackson.

We're here today, and what's a beautiful day to celebrate Reverend Larry Alice.

And Larry Ellis is part of Speak Up.

Now, unlike him, unlike myself, he was a very low key cool kind of guy, right?

But he was the kind of person that stood up in a quiet way.

But he did for action.

He was from the South Side of Joliet.

He went to uh St.

Marks and he was part of that community.

Susanna can attest to the things that he did.

Um he stood up for things he went and did the work.

And he was a quiet kind of person.

He didn't wish to say anything.

But I know we are here today to say thank you.

Uh we are looking forward for that street name of Reverend Larry Ellis along with Sydney Edwards and Ms.

Coleman.

But I wrote this little thing a little bit about Larry, and I want the the family to know.

It's not about how loud you speak.

Just as long as you continue to move it and get as long as you continue the movement in getting the job done.

When voices become silent instead become a sit-down, the movement decreases, and no justice is one dedicated to Reverend Larry Alice by Tristan Brown.

Nice.

Very nice.

Sandy Costa.

Hi, Sandy Costock, uh lay community minister with the Universalist Unitarian Church, Joliet, and very proud member of Speak Up.

And I'm also uh expressing gratitude and the honor of having part of the street named for the Reverend Larry Alice, who was an amazing colleague and a very dear friend.

His sanity kept us grounded and moving along with our agenda and getting work done, and he led by that silence and the occasional facial expression that uh kept us as high-minded as we want to be, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with him.

He was absolutely fabulous, Dorothy Arrington.

Good evening.

I'm Dorothy Arrington.

I'm the sister of Reverend Larry Ellis.

Um, to Mayor uh Terry Darcy in his absence, the Joliet City Council, the Speak Up Organization, and those that have taken your time out to be present in support of us, the family of Reverend Larry Ellis, uh, at such a time, uh special time as this.

Though Reverend Ellis is no longer present in body with us, trust me, he's here in spirit this evening.

In fact, he's looking down from heaven at this moment and say, what is going on here?

Why are you all doing this for me?

The things I did for and with my community, for and with our organization speak up.

For and with my church, St.

Mark Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, was not for me to be honored or rewarded.

Anything that I or we did was for the love, the up-building, the embetterment of the community.

I can hear him now saying, you all don't have to do this for me.

Because what I did was not funny.

It was always for the glory of God.

This is who my brother was.

So I say to you, to Mayor Darcy, to the City Council, the Speak Up Organization.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you.

For making this honor possible for Reverend Alice.

But most of all, I give the thanks, the honor, and the glory to our Lord and Savior.

Thank you all.

That is everyone that I have signed up.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak on an agenda item this evening?

This is for anyone who'd like to speak on an agenda item.

I had signed up.

He said back there way in the back.

Yes.

Is it an agenda item or not?

This is for agenda items.

I'm not sure what that means, but this is my first time, so I apologize.

Okay.

It's not a memo.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

Good evening, Councilman Councilwomen.

My name is Ron Assange of Tomorrow Stock Today.

And I'm going to speak on the agenda item of the rename of the street of the late great Ellis.

I return home from federal prison in 2022.

I start the organization tomorrow stocks today.

And upon starting that organization, we needed somewhere to hold the visit.

We didn't have a big one.

I reached out to a couple of churches initially and nothing to your last month.

And then I came across uh the late great past Ellis, who I knew I hadn't saw him probably 30 years.

And I shared with him my mission and vision of what I wanted to do with helping our youth about the area.

And him and St.

Mark, they opened the doors to us.

And I mean they let us have all the events, everything we need to have.

Yeah, I mean just completely, you know, with no questions I asked, you know.

And I'm here to say that if him for not doing that, tomorrow starts today, probably wouldn't be here today.

You know, without him doing that for us, we probably wouldn't be here.

And so I say that, you know, and my story is one of many of the things of the uh times that he's opened the door to individuals in the community organizations, and that just speaks to what he did for the community.

But he was a man of God first and foremost.

Yes, yes, a man of character, man of morality.

Yes, you know, so I'm asking you all uh tonight to please vote in favor of naming that street if you know he's very deserved of that.

Thank you.

Yes.

Is there anyone else who'd like to speak on an agenda item this evening?

Uh Reverend Ellis Jew.

Very quickly.

Um I'm he was obviously a phenomenal man.

That's why we're here today to talk about getting the street named after him.

I just hope that you guys will get him his street.

Um, he is so deserving of this.

And I just want to thank him for also being a calming presence in my life as well.

Um we've all gone through things individually.

He's just he's just he was just there for everyone.

Um so thank you.

I appreciate you guys.

Is there anyone else who'd like to address the council on an agenda item this evening?

Okay.

Next our council committee reports.

We will start with communication technology information systems.

Okay.

Uh the CTIS committee met Wednesday, February 4th at 8:30 a.m.

in the executive conference room.

In attendance for Councilman Cardenus, myself, Councilman Reno was unable to attend.

We started with a demo presentation from Peregrine.

How does it represent Sam Baldassano?

Paul and Paul Procoda and Deputy Chief.

Um it was a very impressive system.

It is a very impressive system, and we all agree with that.

Um, it's an invaluable asset to the police department.

Councilman Kernis and I were able to ask many questions, and we did, and um I speak for myself when I say the data consolidation with this system is truly a game changer for law enforcement.

So it's very impressive.

Um besides that, we went on for three agenda items.

Uh we had the renewal of a renewal agreement with SRE, which is environmental systems research institute.

This is our GIS software license and support.

Uh it's a three-year contract.

Each year we'll be paying 120,542.

The second agenda item was award of contract to CDWG for our core network switch replacement for $62,953.12 cents.

Our current switch is near the end of life, and if you know anything about networks, if your switch goes, your network goes.

So this is a very important thing for us to implement before that happens.

The third item was award a contract to Heartland Business Systems for the Nutanix server replacement for 223,922.42 cents.

We are removing our last two spin notes and replacing them with four all flash notes.

These new nodes are much more reliable and will simplify management and support future growth.

And that's all I had for the report do you have anything to add?

Okay then that's it.

Thank you.

Finance finance committee met here Tuesday February 17th at 530 on the committee is Councilwoman Sherry Reardon, Councilman Larry Hugg, and myself we had a few items to report on the Route 66 grant from here it is corridor was given to the city this grant fund is 22500 for A V equipment for the city square.

This grant has much the requirements of $2,000 management fee part of it also DCEO DECA grant for the Poinfield Road Water Main is $100,000 on Theodore to Black Road contract amendments with the broader list neighborhood incentive grant for a half a million dollars the United States Department of Housing and urban development HUD to improve bicentennial block neighborhood this item is amended to the current agreement for the borderless studies to include housing market study for $30,000.

Monthly finance reports were very little to report for the month of January the Joey Area Historical Museum quarterly reports the museum had over 7,000 visitors in the fourth quarter the largest single event was the 45th anniversary of the Blues brothers.

There was also 2,184 self-guided prison tours and 663 visits to the museum anything to that was definitely longer than our meeting you can thank Mr Singh for that okay that'd be my report okay and public service public service met today here in the council chambers at City Hall this afternoon at 430 on the committee in attendance with councilwoman Meredith and Councilman Mudrin and myself also in attendance was director of public utilities Ellison Swisher and members of her staff as well as director of public works Greg Ruddy and his staff we have six contracts and five change order items to look at six uh contracts that we looked at for the most part obviously sealed bidders um three of them had to do with uh the purchase of new vehicles two of the contracts had to do with the purchase of new police vehicles and upfitting them with light sirens computer uh IT one contract was for 11 2026 forward pursuit interceptor vehicles for the police department and not to exceed 83000 another was for four forward 2026 explorer vehicles not to exceed 20800 and then there were five for the two 250s to be used by public works um you know the pickup trucks would not exceed 3200 or 321000 in change we also looked at uh a contract that would need to pay 53951 dollars to install well health care system on the uh newly acquired southeast Joliot sanitary district that we took over and again that will be reimbursed or to us or pay by the county not by us all transition into our system you know the bill has been paid by the county all of those five items were unanimously approved to move forward in the full council with committee recommendation approved then we looked at the contract with Jolie F Square Ottawa Street parking garage modification to stalks and construction uh in the amount of just over one million dollars uh we discussed that and that one was approved on a two to one vote in favor of recommending to the full council that it be approved under the change orders uh most of the change orders had to do with extending um project completion dates because some projects that don't get finished by the end of the year because of weather we have to formally extend them to you know April 1st May 1st and we've done that um we look at uh construction engineering for the road bridge over rock run creek um a change in the amount payment to in the amount of 11218 dollars to the I got that's our 20 percent of the 8020 split you know they cover the cost and we reimburse them sometimes they cover we cover the cost uh we cover the cost and they reimburse us but in this case it's the opposite we looked at those items will bottom to be in order and all the items under change orders pay estimates and final payments were approved unanimously to be sent to the full council committee recommendation to approve um nothing to report on orders and resolutions is all of it was generally housekeeping you know approved formally approving the expenditure of MFT Model 4

You know, they cover the cost and we reimburse them.

Um sometimes they cover we cover the cost, I just uh we cover the cost and they reimburse us, but in this case it's the opposite.

We looked at those items and bottom to be in order and all the items under change orders pay estimates and final payments were approved unanimously to be sent to the full council committee recommendation to approve.

Um nothing to report on the orders and resolution since all of it was generally housekeeping.

Um formally approving the expenditure of MFT mortal fuel tax funds for the projects that we I just discussed.

Um we did have a utility easement for two thousand dollars so that we can get a pipe um across the residential property at 705 General Street.

And with that said, I don't think that I was missing anything, was I?

No.

That would be my report on public uh service.

I show no other reports under consent agenda, approval of minutes.

It is recommended the minutes of the combined council meeting January 20th, 2026, stand approved as recorded.

Invoices to be paid.

It is recommended this report be approved.

Council memo number 114-26, award of professional services agreement for the 2026-2027, bridge program manager project to Willet Hoffman and Associates in the amount of 56,000 475,000 dollars.

Council memo number 115-26 approval of change order number one for the construction of the Essington Road Bridge over Rock Run Creek Improvement Project, MFT section number 16-00489-00-BR to the Illinois Department of Transportation in the amount of 112,158 dollars and 64 cents, and payment number two and final in the amount of 114,774 dollars and twenty-eight cents.

Council memo number one sixteen-26 approval of change order number two for the 2024 sidewalk curb replacement project central Joliet to deconstruction incorporated in the amount of 17,884.

Council memo number 117-26, approval of purchase and upfit of 112026 for pursuit interceptor vehicles and an amount not to exceed $810,000.

Council memo number 118-26, approval of purchase and upfit of four for 2026 explore vehicles and an amount not to exceed 208,000 dollars.

Council memo number 119-26, approval of purchase of five Ford F 250 service body vehicles in the amount of 320,957,000 dollars and sixty-five cents.

Councilmember number one twenty-26, approval of purchase of lift station and well house SCADA equipment for the Southeast Joliet Sanitary District from Metropolitan Industries in the amount of $53,951.

Councilmember number 121-26, approval of change order number one for the Glenwood Manor Water Main Improvements Project to lend Cox and Sons excavating for adjustments to project completion dates.

Councilmember number one twenty-two-26, approval of change order number one for the Reedwood Phase Three Water Main Improvements Project to Lend Cox and Sons excavating for adjustments to project completion dates.

Council Member number one twenty-three-26, approval of change order number one for the Midland and Campbell Water Main Improvements Projects Project to Lend Cox and Sons excavating for adjustments to project completion dates.

Council memo number one twenty-four-26 award of contract to CDWG for core network switch replacement in the amount of sixty-two thousand nine hundred and fifty-three thousand dollars and twelve cents.

Council Memo number one twenty-five-26 award of contract to Heartland Business Systems for the Nutanix Server Replacement Project in the amount of two hundred and twenty-three thousand nine hundred and twenty-two dollars and forty-two cents.

Council Memo number one twenty-six-26 award of contract to Esri for the renewal of existing enterprise agreement for three years in the amount of three hundred and sixty-one thousand six hundred and twenty-six dollars.

It is recommended council memories one fourteen-26 through one twenty-six-26 be approved.

Is there a motion to approve all site consent agenda items?

So moved.

Council McClement.

Aye.

Councilman Hub.

Aye.

Councilman Abarrow.

Aye.

Councilman Moreno.

Aye.

Councilman Mudron.

Aye.

Councilwoman Quillman.

Aye.

Councilwoman Merden.

Aye.

Council McCartanus.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Under agenda items.

Council Memo number 128-26 award of contract for peregrine technologies.

At this time, we will have a deputy chief boatsum provide a brief demonstration.

Good evening, council.

As requested, I brought um Paul 5 San.

Yeah.

Paul.

Paul Farcona and Sam Paul Sano.

And I apologize for that.

So we we spoke to you guys before a few weeks ago about this demonstration.

So they're gonna sit there and show you some live data about how the product can sit there and search people.

It's also gonna show you how we can search the maps and display that accurately, and also about officer wellness.

It's gonna be a very brief demo.

It's only about maybe 10 minutes or maybe less.

Unless you guys have any file questions.

And I apologize for pushing energy.

Thank you, Chief.

As he stated, my name is Paul Rakota.

I work for Peregrine Technologies.

I'm a public safety executive with the company.

Prior to my employment at Peregrine, I served a 34-year career in law enforcement in Southeast Florida and retired there as a major from the Palmage County Sheriff's Office.

So I say that because I'm not a tech engineer or anything like that.

I am an end user of this technology.

So in a nutshell, Peregrine was founded in 2017 by co-founders Nick Noon and Ben Rudolph.

Point of reference.

Ben was actually born and raised in Naperville, Illinois, so there's a regional connection to the product.

It's a hundred percent US-based and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

And the platform was purpose-built for public safety.

It wasn't something that was more from another career field to try to make it fit in public safety.

Purpose built for law enforcement.

And it is software only.

We are not a hardware company.

We don't do cameras or any other any other types of widgets.

We are software only.

Sam's going to go ahead and boot up the uh the platform here, and we're going to show you the landing page with the search capability.

So in essence, we have what I believe to be among the most powerful uh search returns in the industry with a product like this.

And it is the backbone of our system.

Obviously, the better the search, the better the returns and the better results that we get.

So he's going to click on a name here, Mitchell.

And essentially, if you were to run the name Mitchell in the platform, that was a person you were looking for, it's going to show all of the integrated data that comes back on that subject Mitchell.

So it's going to show CAD reports, arrests, uh RMS cases, photographs, and body worn camera.

And another point of note on the right is the AI generated person history that creates a summary of all of the available data in the platform to give you a one or two-paragraph quick look at the person that really acts as a time saver.

This is a linked individual to that person that Sam just clicked on, and it shows in addition to his photo, all of the associated cases, another AI generated person history, and it shows body worn camera in the platform.

Excuse me one second because there was concern up here.

Would you just mention the fact that this is created data?

It's nothing of this is really it is a CGIS compliant demonstration platform.

So it's fictitious data.

This is what it would normally look like if it were live data in an actual organization.

So yes, we are maintaining our CGIS compliance.

So flipping the data to a map.

We have the ability to search areas on a map.

We can show in this case, we're showing traffic crashes within the city of San Pablo, California, fictitiously.

And we can show it as points on a map, we can show it as clusters, or we can show it as a heat map.

Generally speaking, this type of information is very difficult to extract.

It's very time consuming for an analyst to be able to compile these uh sets of data.

And we can basically return a result in a matter of seconds, and then we can take that data and flip it to a heat grid, which is shown down at the bottom.

The brightest spots on the grid are the most frequent occurrences.

So for strategical planning within the agency to make sure there's enough manpower present to address certain issues, or if you're trying to build an enforcement plan.

This is information that traditionally would take weeks to get, and it's difficult to react to information or to take positive action on information that's that old.

So this puts it at your fingertips and allows the department to be much more responsive to the needs of the community.

The third thing that we're going to show you is a dashboard, and this is an officer wellness dashboard.

We're pulling that same data from different places within those silo data systems to display it in a more meaningful way.

And what we've done here is we've created this dashboard showing occurrences of incidents and types of calls, whether it be something hazardous or emotionally stressful to an officer.

So it's breaking it down a couple of different ways, but essentially what it's doing is it's taking all of the dots that are present behind the scenes and connecting those dots and putting them in a visualization that makes the data more meaningful.

So in an officer wellness capacity, hopefully you can see those indicators prior to something tragic happening and give the agency an opportunity to intervene and take appropriate action.

There's a couple of really quick success stories.

I'd like to tell you that how peregrine has been used, and we talked about the powerful search capability.

A partner agency of ours in Tuscaloosa, Alabama responded to a shooting incident late in the day on a Friday afternoon.

They had very limited information on the suspect.

They had a name of Demetrius, and they knew that maybe he went to the All-Star Academy.

They had no other leads, nothing to follow up on.

The All-Star Academy was a charter school that wasn't run by the county, and there was no after hours contact, so they really had no way to follow up until Monday morning.

The assigned detective taking that information with just the name Demetrius and All-Star Academy, typed it into the Google search bar within Peregrine and returned a result from a body worn camera transcript from an unrelated incident two weeks prior where police were called to a neighborhood and interviewed a lady that said that there's this kid Demetrius who lives in the neighborhood.

He's terrorizing everybody around here, and he lives in that house over there.

I think he goes to All-Star Academy.

Peregrine was able to link all of that information together through a body worn camera transcript that is generally not searchable.

So in Joliet specifically, they transcribe their body worn camera audio, so that would be a searchable database within the platform, and there is a treasure trove of information and intelligence that lives within those body worn camera transcripts.

The last case that I'll tell you about has a really significant impact on public safety in the community.

It was in Pinellas County, Florida, another partner agency of peregrines, and a four-year-old autistic child at two o'clock in the morning woke up and crawled out the front window of the house.

The parents were unaware, they didn't wake up, they didn't hear anything unusual.

The child starts wandering around the neighborhood, a concerned citizen sees it, calls 911, police respond.

The child is nonverbal and can't say where he lives.

So the police officer on the scene using the mapping mechanism within Peregrine was able to do a radius search from where they were and ran a search for previous CAD incidents from the past 90 days.

By doing so, that police officer found a similar incident that had occurred about six weeks prior and was able to put two and two together and in a matter of minutes go make contact at the residence and return the child safely home.

That is a huge win for law enforcement because there are a lot of bad things that could have happened as a result of that.

But generally speaking, it you know, two o'clock in the morning when there's no parent awake and aware, chances are children and family services would have had to been called and get involved.

You know, seven o'clock in the morning on the morning news, it would have been headlines.

Hey, is anybody missing a child?

And it would have been very tragic for the family and tragic for the child.

Because of the platform, we're able to return the child home in a matter of minutes.

That's all I have.

Thank you for your attention.

I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Are there any questions?

So do you foresee this being used in the squad by the officer in hand or more so in the back room for planning?

So it has applications across all levels of the agency to include patrol, which in the field they can use it for the search function because they can search people, places, things, vehicles, and get immediate return results in the field.

It's a very powerful investigative and analytical tool.

So in the Detective Bureau and with the crime analysts, there's going to be a direct application for them to do more in-depth analytics and deeper dive searches.

And then command staff is going to be able to have real-time dashboards that are basically showing them the things that are of concern or what's important now.

And those are all completely customizable.

There's no limit on the number of searches, the number of dashboards that you can build or anything like that.

So there would be a direct application across many facets of the agency.

So today I assume they have an opportunity to search specific location, there's specific software, but nothing that combines everything.

So there is nothing that harmonizes all the data into one location.

So you'd have to go into each individual database and then try to merge that data and the information once you extract it from CAD from RMS from evidence.com.

What the peregrine platform does is it brings all of that together in one place and makes it more visible and more usable.

So then you can map it, chart it, network it, graph it, dashboard it.

May one of the things I think that really made such a difference in me, they're really understanding this tool is when you described it as all of our different systems right now are silos, separate little silos sitting out there.

And any time an officer needs to find some information, they have to go to this silo and then they go to this silo.

This, you know, and so on.

This brings all the silos together, and one search brings every bit of information from all those what used to be silos.

For the patrol officer on the street, you know, with their MDT in the field, instead of having to be logged into 15 different databases, they can essentially go to one database in Peregrine and be able to pull information from all of those silo sources.

Is there anybody any city near us that's using this today that we've talked to?

Our first Illinois customer is Chicago Heights.

So the company's been around since 2017, founded in California.

We have over a hundred partner agencies in the state of California, and then we've spread nationwide.

We have major cities from coast to coast.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for coming.

Um I wanted you to explain this to the council and the public.

And that's why I believe it was myself and the mayor that asked you to do with this this quick demo.

As a former officer, I think this is so valuable.

And just like uh Sherry Rudens, Councilwoman Reard said, that the these separate silos, I wish I had it when I was there to put all this in.

There's so much work that goes in behind the scenes and even out in the field.

I think there's so valuable for uh current officers and detectives, tactical, basically everybody.

So thanks again for uh putting this on for us.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Now, can this, you know, like you said, we'll be if we do this, we'll be the second community in Illinois.

Yes, sir.

Can you add, I mean, when we talk about the silos, are the repositories of data that currently exists within the city of can it go to state records at any point?

So generally speaking, there is a data sharing capability within the platform based on the permission of that particular agency under uh memorandum of understanding and MOU.

So we do and I'll speak from experience in the state of Florida.

We incorporated uh the public-facing State Department of Corrections information into the website as a data sharing source.

Uh we do the same with the state of Georgia.

So there would be an opportunity if there is a public-facing uh State Department of Corrections website in Illinois, we could incorporate that data.

I believe you're so we could they could have access to that.

That that could be an integrated system, yes.

And the long and the short of this is uh formal retired police officer councilman.

Clemente, you know, the amount of time is intense to do this individually.

And so we're freeing them up.

This is a matter of milliseconds, if you will, um, with the program, depending on the data available in the different silos, the different depositories is that's more time on the street for those detectives for those police officers.

You know, we always talk about report right writing reports as an example and and and transcribing.

I think we have an automated transcription now that we and that's what we can operate, isn't it?

Yep.

Um so this is all about freeing up police to be on the street and not sitting there doing clerical work.

Without a doubt, sir.

Without a doubt, sir, the platform acts as a true force multiplier because it does free up uh officers and analytical staff from the mundane administrative functions and and trying to dive into these silo databases, so it allows the agency to operate more efficiently and effectively, which is ultimately better for the community.

And you said you have roughly 100 out on the West in California.

So almost 400 now worldwide.

Um including Canada.

I think we have five or six agencies in Canada, but uh within the US, there's almost 400 coast to coast.

So as you grow as a company and you have more municipality, more um entities doing it again with permission of MOUs, they can share amongst themselves through your program.

That is correct, sir.

We have agencies that have signed national data sharing agreements, uh, City of Miami being one of them as an example.

Would you at some point you know if we have somebody that's done nothing here locally?

Just arrived, just moved here through that data sharing.

We can find out all this is what they've been doing in Miami for the last ten years.

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Mayor Protown.

What I loved about this actually, uh public safety is it was explained to us that it also detects certain crime trends so that the supervisors can then send and allocate resources where they see these crime crime trends.

I'm sorry, I'm tongue-tied tonight.

Where they see the crime trends upticking, they can allocate resources, and I think that's an amazing concept to be able to do that to see um those crime trends.

The other thing is the wellness aspect of it, I think it's amazing.

You can see if you have an officer that has been involved in you know five traumatic events and give him the the check that he needs, check in to see if he's okay.

So I think this is amazing on so many fronts.

Thank you.

Also, too.

Your company does not harvest any of this information permanently and store it somewhere else for their own purpose of use.

This is the agency retains complete ownership of the data.

We store it in the cloud, and only part of that data gets stored in the cloud.

It's the AWS GovCloud West, a multi-tenant cloud, completely sieges compliant, and we have no interest in sharing the data with anyone.

Uh the AI that we used uses completely closed loop.

We don't share data from agency to agency to try to train the AI or make it smarter.

Any data that leaves the agency is with the agency's permission under that MOU.

Can you just say one more thing?

Sorry to run on here.

And then one more thing.

When I was employee with the city, if we like Suzanne said, if if we needed to find out trends, we would call Maria Green, and she'd have to work on it maybe today, maybe tomorrow.

And it could be hours, days, maybe a week later because she's backed up.

So this is going to cut this all like milliseconds.

I mean, we'll be able to put this all together.

You're 100% correct, sir.

In my previous career as a patrol sergeant, it would always be a question, you know, daytime burglaries was always a concern.

And I would go to the analyst in the district to say, hey, you know, what areas are the burglaries occurring in, or you know, what are the trends?

What you know, and it would be a week or two if I could even get the results back.

You know, so this puts all the officers and all of the detectives and all of the analysts in a position to win because it puts the data at their fingertips and it creates immediate access to it.

Thank you.

One more thing, because I I didn't get a couple of calls.

People are curious.

There's a misunderstanding, you know, they read in the media.

This is not directed towards you guys that the city's looking to spend a million.

This is not a million dollars a year.

This is 200,000 roughly on average, 200,000 a year for a five-year contract.

So I wanted to get that out there publicly.

It's not a million dollar one time one year.

It's for five years.

Am I sorry?

Yes, sir.

You're correct.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

May April 10.

Um ultimately who's gonna save the city money is gonna protect the community and is gonna help our officers stay um so we can figure out, make sure they're good as well.

Um I'm all for it.

100%.

Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's right.

Okay.

It is recommended council memo number 128-26 be approved.

So move.

Second, sorry.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilwoman Abarra?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

All right.

Councilman Mudron?

Aye.

Councilwoman Coleman.

Proud to say aye.

Councilwoman Verden.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinals?

Council McClement?

Aye.

Motion carried council memo number one twenty-nine-26 award of contract for the Juliet City Square Ottawa Street parking garage building modifications to stall sin construction and an amount not to exceed 1 million 27,136 dollars.

It is recommended, Council Memo number 129-26 be approved.

So moved.

Second.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.

Can we have an explanation on this item?

I know it was in the uh paper and all that.

Sure.

Um, so this I'm gonna defer uh largely to my staff, but this was publicly bid.

Um would you like background on how we publicly bid or do you want to skip that part and just why we need this?

Why we need it?

I will defer to Greg Ruddy, our director of public works.

Sure.

So this uh contract is is completing modifications to the Ottawa Street parking deck uh in support of the city square project.

Um this work was uh most of the work was anticipated as part of the project when it was conceived, and what we're doing in the garage is we're adding um uh two storage areas for equipment and facilities management for the uh the city square project.

There is a small single bay garage that we're gonna have in there for the sweeper that's gonna be utilized in the deck and the uh city square.

Uh there's an electric room which uh will provide electric service and electric panels and all the connections and uh fiber optic hubs for uh the city square to service the equipment out there, the the audio visual and and some of the lighting aspects, and then uh an IT room as well, which is gonna be the AV controls uh specialty items, and I apologize.

I said the fiber was coming to the electric room, the fiber optic will be coming to the IT room, and all those support items and then there's also a small uh salt storage shed that's gonna be constructed outside the deck.

Um generally these are all uh items within within the deck and uh are uh I'll describe it as a lagging contract.

Um we knew we were gonna need the majority of these items in support of the uh city square project in order to provide this the services and amenities we want there.

Um it was important to get the construction of the square itself in Chicago Street out early, those were lead items, and as the project continued to develop, um some of these items went through revision.

So this contract uh was able to lag.

Um it is part, it was budgeted as part of the shear's budget, and generally um that's what it serves.

There's also some HVAC in there, and there's some uh fiber runs that have to be uh to go out into the square itself, but that's a general background of of what this project is.

Thank you, Greg.

Sure.

Anything else?

Okay, spend second.

Yeah, one more I'm not gonna believe it, but you know, when we first did it, I I can't remember the order.

2017 or 2018 when it was first presented to this council.

This item was not in there.

The original I'm going off memory because uh staff I think that some later days are gonna provide me with an ongoing amount that we spent, but I believe originally was supposed to be about nine million and about six or seven million was supposed to be through state and I think I think some federal grants and so forth.

This has got way out of budget.

I said at the time I voted yes for the city's swear that I wouldn't be voting for cost overruns and stuff added later.

This absolutely million dollar expenditure was not there when it was first presented on the initial vote, so that's why I won't I won't support it.

And we also don't have a maintenance budget um the visible yet.

I was told it's a good committee meeting that they're working on it.

I don't know how we were gonna vote to spend over a million dollars and we don't have any estimate of what the maintenance is gonna cost.

Well we're gonna look at our artworks.

We did the same thing 30 years ago.

Um rushed to putting up these artworks and murals and these statutes, but we didn't have any estimate or any foresight for maintenance and what it would cost and then what happened, they deteriorate.

So again, this this whole project, which dates back quite a few years, like I said of 2017 or 2018.

The the the the cost of runs from the original estimate I can't support.

Thank you.

Okay, anybody else?

No.

It's been motion and seconded to approve.

Councilman Ibarra?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudron?

Aye.

Councilwoman Quillman?

No.

Councilwoman Rudin?

Aye.

Council McCartanus?

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hugg.

No.

Motion carried under resolutions.

Councilmember number one thirty one-26 resolution appropriating supplemental motor fuel tax funds for the 2010 roadways resurvicing contract, MFT section number one zero-zero zero four three two-zero zero-rs.

It is recommended, said resolution be adopted.

So moved.

Second.

If the motion seconded to approve.

Councilman Marino?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin?

Aye.

Councilwoman McCluman?

Aye.

Councilwoman Rudin.

Aye.

Council McCartanus.

Aye.

Council McClement.

Aye.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilwoman of Barra.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Councilmember number 132-26.

Resolution appropriating supplemental motor fuel tax funds for the various traffic signal improvement projects.

I dot contract 62879 in the city of Joliet.

Contract A, MFT section number 20-00532-00-TL.

It is recommended said resolution be adopted.

So moved.

Second.

It's been motioned, seconded to approve.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilwoman Quillman?

Aye.

Councilwoman Rudin.

Aye.

Council McCartanus.

Councilman Clement.

Aye.

Councilman Hug.

Aye.

Councilwoman of Barra?

Aye.

Councilman Marino?

Aye.

Motion carried.

Council Memo number 133-26.

Resolution appropriating supplemental motor fuel tax funds for the various traffic signal improvement projects.

I dot contract 62M72 in the city of Joliet.

Contract B, MFT section number 20-00533-00-TL.

It is recommended said resolution be adopted.

So moved.

Second.

It's been motion and seconded to approve.

Councilwoman Quoman?

Aye.

Councilwoman Rudin.

Aye.

Council McCartanus.

Councilman Clement.

Aye.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilwoman of Barra.

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Councilmember number one thirty-four-26.

Resolution approving an honorary street name designation for Reverend Larry Ellis.

It is recommended said resolution be adopted.

Move to approve.

Second.

Mayor Proton, can I can I have a second?

I just want to say in the first three years, I filed almost 400 citizen views.

And Reverend Larry Ellis was probably responsible for at least half of those.

Um never failed to remind me of everything that needed to be reported.

Everything that was going on.

Not only that, I would show up to the church and hop in his car and we go driving.

I know that city staff was probably like, what the heck is going on?

But when Reverend Larry Ellis called you to come and look at things, you just went.

He knew this neighborhood.

He knew the area very well, and he never failed to help anybody that needed help.

As Jeron Neighbors from Tomorrow Stars City said, he was the first one in this area to help also to keep some sense of calm and sanity with people.

He was just amazing for that.

So I just wanted to let the council know when an impact he had on district five.

Thank you, Mayor Proton.

It's been motion and seconded to approve.

Councilman Rudin?

Aye.

Councilman Cardinus.

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hugg.

Aye.

Councilwoman of Barra?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilman Quillman.

He will be missed.

I vote aye.

Motion carried.

Council Memo number 135-26.

Resolution accepting a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for the replacement of water mains along Plainfield Road.

It is recommended said resolution be adopted.

So moved.

Second.

It's been motioned and seconded to approve.

Councilman Cardinals?

Aye.

Councilman Clemen?

Aye.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilman of Barra?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin?

Aye.

Councilwoman Quillman?

Aye.

Councilwoman Rudin.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Council Memo number 136-26.

Resolution accepting a grant of utility easements from 705 Henry Street for the Washington Street Water Main Improvements Project.

It is recommended said resolution be adopted.

So moved.

Second.

It's been motioned and seconded to approve.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilwoman of Barra?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudron?

Aye.

Councilwoman Quillman?

Aye.

Councilman Rudin.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinus.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Councilmember number 137-26.

Resolution accepting a Route 66 grant from the Heritage Corridor Convention and Visitors Bureau for Audiovisual Equipment and Installation in City Square for the 2026 grant fiscal year.

It is recommended said resolution be adopted.

So move.

Second.

It's been motion and seconded to approve.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilwoman of Barra?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilwoman Quillman?

Aye.

Councilwoman Rudin?

Aye.

Councilman Cardinus?

Aye.

Councilman Clement.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Councilmemo number one thirty eight-26.

And it's recommended that resolution be adopted.

Second.

It's by motion and seconded to approve.

Councilman Abarra.

Aye.

Councilman Moreno.

Councilman Wudron.

Aye.

Councilman Coleman.

Aye.

Councilman Rudin.

Aye.

Councilman McCartanus.

Councilman Clement.

Councilman Hug.

Real quickly before taxable.

I'm thankful for habitat humanity doing this.

One of the things doing back in 2011 when I first was elected was the amount of property we've amassed as a public entity.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've been pushing for years.

You know, it's all you know, government shouldn't own any property it's not using so I'm so happy to see it's going we're getting rid of it.

It's going back on the back on tax rolls.

It's going to agriculture humanity.

We got more.

Let's get rid of all of it.

Let's keep in contact with them so we can get rid of it.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Motion carried.

Council Memo number 139-26 resolution authorizing approval and execution of a project labor agreement with the Fox Valley Building and Construction Trades Council and affiliated construction trade units for the Juliet Projects and the Alternative Water Source Program.

It is recommended that the resolution be adopted.

So move second.

That's the motion second to approve.

Councilman Moreno.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilwoman Rurdin.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinals.

Councilman Clement.

Councilman Hug.

All right.

Councilwoman Amara.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Next is the city manager.

I'll keep it brief.

I just want to thank John Lacanzik and all of his efforts that he does for the CERT program.

Thank you to everyone wearing a green vest that's in the audience for us today.

It's very, very important that we get our residents involved in helping their neighbors.

And he's just done such a great job with this whole program.

I know the council supports it.

I am very grateful to him.

And all I can say is thank you to all the students, the young people getting involved, everyone who's who's willing to really learn to help their neighbors when we're in need.

So I just want to highlight that.

Um so thank all of you for that.

Um I also just want to remind everyone what Jane said.

Please join us on February 26th from 5 to 8 at the library downtown here to give your um feedback on what you'd like to see in the long-term complan.

These sort of types of plans don't work unless we have engagement from the community, so that would be very much appreciated.

And thank you if you've already participated.

Um thank you for everyone showing up for Reverend Um Ellis as well.

In government, sometimes it can be heavy because you don't hear from people that are happy.

Um, but I feel a lot of joy in this community uh for people that are supporting one another, and great things are happening here.

And um, I guess I would just like to say that uh let's keep supporting each other and um and work on being better together.

That's all okay.

Next we have public comments.

So I do have some names signed up here, so we'll start with these.

Um Jennifer Garlets Hi, um, I am uh speaking on behalf of CARE.

Um CARE member and care stands for citizens against ruining the environment.

We're a local nonprofit grassroots environment group, and we work on various environmental issues in Will County, including uh Koolash, uh specifically Lincolnston quarry, and also Dallas Centers and other relevant um concerns and so I wanted to talk today about um a proposal for uh encouraging the city Juliet to have a single use plastic bag ordinance, such as other communities in Illinois have including um Chicago, Northbrook, and Evanson, and there are others.

Um a big problem with the plastic bags, the single use plastic bags that people get in the grocery stores, is that um you're probably driven by farms and you see them in the farmers' fields, and unless the farmers are getting them out of the fields, unless they're taking the time to pick them up, they are getting in our food supply, and microplastics is a big thing right now.

It's it's very I mean they're finding microplastics in our brains, and it is it is quite scary health-wise, and so I think we need that's a big reason to um to have a plastic bank ordinance to implement one.

And so I think we need that's a big reason to um to have a plastic bank ordinance to implement one.

Um, plastic bank litter is so unsightly.

Um, I want to share a brief story that I uh happened to me a few years ago.

Somebody called me, I was on vacation, someone stranger called me.

She got my name from someone, and she said, There's a plastic bag and a tree across the street from me.

I have tried everything.

I have called the the fire department, they won't get it down.

She said, I tried everything, and I'm calling you.

Well, I don't have a truck, I don't have a ladder.

I couldn't help her, and I felt bad.

But these kinds of it's so unsightly.

Um, plastic bags that go into the curb side recycling bans do not get recycled.

Many people do not know that.

They have to be taken to Joel or to Mariano, some place that collects the plastic bags.

They are picked up by the Trex Company and they recycle and they use them to make park benches and bird houses.

So just so everyone knows, and a lot of people don't know that, so they end up the plastic bags end up in landfills, which is bad.

Um, or they end up as litter.

Um I wanted to talk a little bit about Evanston's.

Uh we were looking at K was looking at Evanston's single use plastic bag ordinance, uh, which we like.

Uh no plastic bags are given out at checkouts.

If people don't bring their own bag, they pay for a paper bag that is made out of a high percent of recycled paper.

I believe it's 10 cents.

So five cents would go to the city of Evanson, and five cents goes to the store.

Um, and that was it would create if we had it here in Joliet, it would create a uh revenue stream that could be used for anything.

Uh I think it'd be great if it was used for cleaning up the city, like litter pickups, something like that.

That could be used for anything.

Um I wanted uh there are other options, and I sent out an email to the whole Joliet City Council with attachments with documents already prepared by the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic, and I want to thank them for for helping us with this.

And uh it's all spelled out, and there are other options.

Like another option is that you pay um people would pay um for a bag, but it might be a plastic bag.

But at least if they have to pay for it, they're less likely to actually more likely to bring their own bag and less likely to take a plastic bag.

My time is up.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate being able to talk about this.

Leo Vicarello.

Um good evening, everybody.

Thank you for uh letting me speak tonight in front of the council.

Um is Leo, I am with a company called Solar on Earth.

Um the last we are we basically are a community solar program.

Um tonight, uh the state of Illinois has a state program called the owner, it's by the Ownershine program, where we basically are able to help municipalities out with a higher percentage on their utility bills, uh their combat bills.

Basically, we take credits from solar fields, we can apply it to the utility bill, and it gives a discount off of the spent.

We are not supplier, we are not we can do that on top of that.

Um we have talked um to Calvin Department as well as Milton in there.

Um we've done this with a lot of communities already around around you.

Um has done this program actually.

Um talked to LaSalle about this program, and they recommended it.

Uh, we've done a lot of mutual franchises, McDonald's that nationwide is out of us, and we'll come into a state.

They actually want us to talk to their franchise owners to help them help lower their ever-rise electric costs.

Um with solar house.

We are not looking to build anything.

This is stuff that's already built in common.

This will be 20 right now for municipalities, school systems, and uh hospitals, we are doing a 20% discount.

It looks to save this community after talking to common cabin's people on just the spend anywhere between three to four hundred thousand dollars a year for the taxpayers, and you're back to the so you guys can rearrange the budget anywhere.

We've done this again for multiple communities out there looking for a chance in the future to come back, maybe look at and get an accro proposal off of bills, not just the spend that we were told that you folks have done, give an accro proposal so the council can actually look at it with you know hard numbers, not just estimated numbers off of a spend, but from what Milton and that department said from what he looked at, it did look like it was going to be close to about 400,000 a year back into the city from this program.

It is a program that I also want you to know you already put into.

So on your utility bills, there are charges on there that fund these programs.

Being part of the Illinois Shines program and the Illinois Power Authority and everything that goes with that, these are programs that become available to the ratepayers because you are actually paying into these programs already.

Um again, we aren't looking to build anything anywhere.

Some of these farms are over a hundred miles away.

Um again, it does put money back into the city's budget.

Uh I just asked in the future if you do consider it and let us come back with a proposal based off of what your bills have or whatever procedure you guys do.

I don't know if it's bid or whatever, but whatever you folks do on it, it is an incredibly beneficial program to municipalities that have done some pretty amazing things across the state with it.

Uh I know a lot of municipalities angle for the money to be able to find with it, especially school systems as well.

Uh again, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Andrea Baumart.

Hey, good evening.

Okay, last week I was present for the open house for the Juliet Technology Center that's being proposed.

And post-open house, I have a couple questions.

Number one, there was not a visual graphic available to explain to the public how the water would be utilized.

I asked, and I was told that their graphic was too technical and that they would create another.

I asked if this could be put on the website so that the public could view it, and I was told, of course.

As of today, I was unable to locate any such visual graphic on the website.

So if the council has one, could you please make it available and easy to locate in the spirit of transparency?

I was also told that there would be a soil study, which I think is excellent.

Okay.

The public would like to see the soil study as part of a public record.

A special concern would be the presence of any remaining potentially harmful chemicals, and also the presence of limestone.

As a here nearby local, I am concerned about selected construction practices that could potentially cause damage to the integrity of our homes and our wells, such as lasting.

And I know that Juliet has had to address that with past projects as well.

So I'm hoping that you are keeping us in careful consideration.

And again, Juliet Council, could you please publish safeguards to protect our communities before you rush to vote?

John Wagner.

Good evening, Council.

My name's John Wagner.

I'll be speaking to you tonight on the relationship between uh flock safety and city of Juliet.

Uh thank you for your time this evening and hearing me.

Um contractor and business owner, and I'd like to say I think about things a little bit differently than your average citizen.

Um I've got a whole long speech up here and flashing before me.

I don't know which words and how to say them to you, but the best way I know how to speak to you guys is to speak to you.

Uh flock has a lot of concerns about it.

Uh there's not a lot of great things that the citizens of this community see about it.

I personally pass by nine cameras on my average drive out of the city into work every morning.

That photographs me a total of 18 times every day if I don't come home for lunch or you know, take a cat or something for my girlfriend and take care of it.

I'm a standard law-abiding citizen, and every single day my truck gets categorized based on the deans on the side of it.

For what purpose necessarily?

There's, I mean, countless, countless ends of data use that is being, I'm gonna say mispurposed uh by this safety system, that I do find benefits for uh, I'm gonna say law enforcement.

Uh there's quite a few benefits for it.

I just, however, think that the ongoing contract I know is coming up this summer uh from council to review with flock safety, and I just want to say please think uh about the upcoming contract further and the continuation of the standard citizens thought process and how this program is being used, the hardware that is uh in the city.

Uh there's I mean four or five cameras, uh I believe four on average.

There's two six-corner locations that I live uh locally next to, and I drive by once just to go get groceries and all of my data and information.

Now I understand is only stored for X amount of days and supposedly not being kept, but that still takes resources to keep and store it.

There's uh still endless opportunities, I think, for potentially the software and hardware to be used for better, but I think there's a lot of things wrong with the current company uh that is uh got the software running these cameras.

There's uh several other cities locally in Illinois that have cut ties with Flock.

And I just would urge you, council, please to consider reviewing any data you have, anything that's concrete to say this may not be what our citizens want.

Um we feel that our privacy is being invaded and blatant uh civil rights are just being violated left and right by tracking what are supposed to be licensed place scanners, but are capable of doing so much more.

And I understand that data can be extremely useful in law enforcement, uh but that's that's also data that belongs to potentially us as the citizens, then is it is it not per se, even though it's a third-party entity.

I mean, we're being tracked, we're being told where we're going, coming from to and fro when uh I'm gonna say most people sitting here are law-abiding citizens, and why is our information being tracked as heavily?

It uh just doesn't seem like the right practice per se for this exact hardware and software to be uh in the city at the moment.

It's a wonderful city.

I love being here.

It's a great place to live, it really is.

Uh, but it's sort of deterring when you see that much more hardware next to the stop sign saying we're watching.

We see you.

So thank you for your time, counsel.

Thank you.

Christine Johnson.

Good evening, everybody.

Um, mayor, wherever you are watching from afar, perhaps.

Uh, city council members, city officials.

Um Christine Johnson.

With respect to the indefinite ban imposed on myself and six others in May of 2023, I Greg Peerbault, CEO of the Joliet Area Historical Museum.

I would like to again bring your attention to this matter.

It is a fact that Mr.

Peerbolt terminated and wrongly accused seven individuals of crimes and imposed the ban that is unjust.

The seven individuals were exonerated from any wrongdoing or criminal activity by the inspector general via his report issued in December of 2023.

According to the Illinois Constitution, Mr.

Peerbolt has violated the 14th Amendment rights of seven individuals by depriving them, including myself, of liberty interest, which is the right to move and be in public spaces.

The 14th Amendment of the Constitution also guarantees equal protection and due process process, which we were never given.

Of additional importance is the fact that only the state of Illinois or a representative of the state can permanently or indefinitely ban a person or persons from public state property, and only after receiving some form of due process.

With respect to the intergovernmental agreement by and between the Illinois Department of Central Management Services and the City of Joliet regarding Joliet Correctional Center, signed in December of 2025 by representatives of Central Management Services, IDOC, and the City of Joliet.

The Joliet Area Historical Museum and the City of Joliet are not representatives of the state.

And vice versa.

Section 26, paragraph H.

The state leases the prison to the city, not JAHM.

The city, not JAHM leases the prison from the state.

The purpose of the agreement is to provide the city with temporary possession and control of the prison, not the Joliet Area Historical Museum.

And certainly not Greg Pierbo.

While Illinois is an employment at Will State, Greg Pierbolt of the Joliet Area Historical Museum has the authority to terminate volunteers and employees and his whim for whatever reason.

However, I now question, and so should you, Mr.

Pierre Bolt's authority to ban any individual from public state property, including the old Joliet prison.

Since Mr.

Peterbolt took it upon himself to be the judge, jury, and executioner without any regard for the agreement or the Constitution, it would see the ban that was, it would seem to be that the ban was unauthorized, is unlawful, and therefore unenforceable.

Mr.

Pirable alleges that the Joliet Police Department through a cooperative trespass agreement with the Joliet Area Historical Museum will arrest us for trespassing on public state property.

Considering the information I have presented to you at this time, it is my sincere vote that the city of Joliet and the Joliet Police Department will provide the seven of us with assurances verbal and written that we will not be arrested when we visit the old Joliet Prison.

Lastly, and I think it's worth mentioning, several of us have obtained our heritage quarter destinations, tourism ambassador certificate.

They are signed by the president, Bob Navarro, and the chairman, Greg Pierbo.

Asking for a friend, is this negate negate the ban?

Wondering.

Does anybody else think it's a little embarrassing to the Heritage Corridor, JHM and the City of Joliet that certified tourism ambassadors are banned from sites that they are encouraged by the Heritage Corridor to visit and promote, especially during the centennial.

After almost three years, don't you think it's time that we mend and put this all behind us because it's never too late.

See you in opening day at the Joliet Prison.

Thank you for your time.

Abby Vulmer.

Hello, everybody.

I think we're all getting tired here, so I appreciate you guys hanging on and listening to us.

I'm here to talk about the data center, per usual.

And excuse me if I'm all over the place.

I worked with my kids all morning, and they seemed really excited.

We had a four-day week and did not want to be back class.

So I wanted to bring up a news article that's been circulating a lot.

New York State lawmakers have introduced a bill that would impose an excuse me, I stumble over this word, lower trimonium, at least three years on along on permits tied to construction and operation of new data centers.

And this is just a like, they want time to see what effect it's going to have on us, on our communities, on everyone involved, on the infrastructure, of water, all that good stuff.

And they aren't alone.

There are six other states proposing this right now.

And there are both sides, um, Democrat and Republican who are opposing this.

Bernie Sanders was like, please don't do this, and then Ron Santos from Florida was like, please don't do this.

We want water and electric uh bills to not surge.

So it is being spoken about quite a bit.

Um I know obviously you guys don't have the power to be like, Illinois, no one, but we do have power here.

Um, what's that good quote?

It's um think globally assemble locally.

Um, I think it'd be a really good example of all of Illinois that like Juliet cares about its people, it wants to know that it's safe for everybody, that we have electric costs that is livable for everybody.

Um, so I think it's just something to really keep in mind that other states are scared.

Um, it's not just us who comes in this room and talks to you.

There are full government forces who are worried.

Um, and then I wanted to also touch on, and sorry, this is uh kind of over the place.

Um, we had a really great prayer this uh start of the session, and I know that some of us do enjoy the prayer religion and all that, so I thought really the verse that I think of.

Um, keep your lives free uh from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.

Um I think Joliet's really rich in ways that don't need more money.

Um we're working on our centennial.

We have great people getting honored with street names.

We have whole groups coming in to talk about it.

We have such a big diverse group that comes in to um advocate for the safety of all the Juliet with this data center.

Um just like everybody who I've seen here for celebrations for proposing things, it's such a diverse group.

It's people who care.

I see that you guys care.

I've seen you guys fight for what you believe in is best for your people that you represent, and I admire that in all of you.

Um I think we're rich enough without adding money into it with this data center.

It's scary in the long run.

Um, I think that the deficits would hurt us more.

Um we don't have people who want to come in by houses if they don't have water or if they're paying more in their electric than anywhere else in the state.

Um I want to see Joliet keep growing and becoming more and more beautiful because as I've grown up with Joliet, I've just seen what an amazing place this is.

Um and Manhattan is also great, and they'll be affected.

I uh went to church there my whole life, have family there.

My grandparents are very well known in the community.

Um I'm currently student teaching outlet, and I love it, and I love my kids, and they crack me up, and it's a good time.

Me and my younger sibling when I walk for about an hour and wave to everybody on the street, and we know so many people by name.

Um, and I just really love and care for these communities, and I want to see it protected.

So I appreciate you guys' thoughts, and I really really hope that you continue to keep us in mind and know that other governments are keeping their people in mind.

So thank you all.

Have a great night.

Thank you.

Hey, thank you, City Council.

Thank you.

Hello, City Council.

My name is LeVard Lee.

I represent uh organization called All Rise, which is for people with disabilities who can't rise up out of a wheelchair, and it's something.

I'm here today because the city of Joliet have failed the people with disabilities in wheelchairs.

A lot of the curves are not accessible to wheelchairs.

They have holes where you cannot get up with your wheelchair.

And most of them are downtown from the new construction.

They did not uh how can I say they didn't straighten out the curves to get up?

One curb is right there, and well, I'm not gonna go there.

The businesses in downtown Joliet is not accessible for wheelchairs.

Starting with Juliet's Tavern, the 158 Chop House, the new brand new uh uh business haven't been there for six months.

It's on CAS, I believe in Henderson, right next to the high school.

I went there to buy groceries.

The man told me not to have to come around the back to go in the back door where they get due deliberately because it's a hump right there.

It's you can't get in the store from wheelchair, and that's unacceptable for people in wheelchair.

We already is not being behind eight ball.

But we we're being discriminated because we're in a wheelchair.

We didn't choose this life.

I didn't choose this life.

It's just something happened.

So I'm asking the city council to look into this, especially the curves.

I spoke to uh Sergeant Williams about a month ago on Cass in Ottawa, where the bridge is up, most of the trucks are making a left turn going down past the downtown library.

Huge hole.

Huge hole.

I didn't notice it because it snowed and it was kind of like a puddle there.

I looked up, I'm on the ground, and officer McClinton, which I'm not gonna go there, pulled over, pick me up out the street, got me up off the street in a wheelchair.

I spoke to all of Sergeant Williams.

They did patch that hole.

It's a lot better than what it was, a whole lot better.

But those trucks are making a left turn, they're tearing up the street.

Tearing it up.

I'm talking huge holes.

But most of the handicapped ramps, it's got holes in it, so you can't get up.

If you do too much, you're gonna fly backwards.

I don't know what's going on in the city of Joliet.

Well, people have no regard for people in wheelchairs.

There's supposed to be a line in the street where you're supposed to stop to allow predestinants and people with wheelchairs to be able to cross the street.

They'll go all over and then I give them, I have a uh slogan.

Really, really, and then they'll try to back up, but then it might be a car behind them.

You can't back up.

You back up in order to have a problem.

So I'm asking Joe the City of Joliet to and the council to speak to the owners, especially.

I spoke to Bill, the owner of Chop Shop in the city of Chicago with trains to have a ramp.

You just pull a ramp, you know, pull a ramp out, and people can roll up.

I actually maybe something you can consider is cheap, it's not very expensive.

You know, you just have a ramp where you can roll up.

When I go there to eat, I have to knock on the window or call an advantage and say, hey, this is Mr.

Lee in the wheelchair.

Can you come help me out?

Sometimes they get busy, I'm out there banging on the window, but then they see me all come out.

Sometimes the female come out.

She can't really push me a wheelchair.

So she can.

No bias with that.

She can, but I should be able to go in there, eat like everyone else.

So I'm asking the city council again to look into that.

And especially we have the hearing impairment on most of those stops.

I mean, on a stoplight where it says, you can walk now.

Or maybe it's something we can do with the wheelchair people.

Because we really are in a state of mind.

And then sometimes some of the people would enjoy there and say, Oh, let me push you.

Well, that's not a good thing in Jolie had to let someone get in back of you.

That's not a good thing.

Now you got somebody in back of you.

Well, good luck with that one, you know.

The use that vulnerable.

So with that being said, my time is up.

I would just like to ask the city council, especially also.

Please, please look into that for the wheelchair.

It is very like I said, I spoke to uh Bill.

He gave me the look like you know, but I gave a look back like you want to trade places, so we've time been up, and I don't want to uh take up too much time.

Please, please.

Everybody knows someone's in a wheelchair.

It's this is not this is a whole different lifestyle.

Your whole lifestyle changed.

It does.

And sometimes it gets humiliated because people go around you.

People will give you a look like, get out of the street.

What well, some of the sidewalks, again, it's a lot of bump.

And with the construction, it's a lot of things.

And I don't know who's who's in charge of uh I guess city works.

Someone move a big planner on the corner of Clinton and Chicago State in the way of the ramp.

You have to go on the other side and come in from this side to get to the library.

I have no idea who put that big planner there.

It couldn't have been moved by no means because it's full of dirt.

So again, I'm asking the city council and everybody to just kind of look into that and keep that in mind because we will rise.

Alright.

So again, thank you for the time.

My time is up.

Please look into that.

Okay, is there anyone else who'd like to address the council this evening?

Come on.

All right, hello, good evening.

I just like to keep this very, very brief.

We continue coming back to speak on the same issue.

I know that at some point within the close future, we'll probably come to a vote into further consideration about the data center.

And I please just ask you again, don't just hear us talk, listen to what we have to say.

In every single meeting that I've come to, I have not heard one person in any way, shape, or form, give any kind of positive comment or hope towards these data centers, or the one that is looking to be put into our area.

No one that I know, or no one that I've heard speak in any meeting here has ever had anything positive to say.

Please keep that in mind.

Please listen to what we have to say in our concerns.

And past that, I think you have one.

Thank you.

Hello everyone.

Happy Black History Month.

I would just like to make some mentions about that.

I'm a PhD student studying data science.

Less than one percent of PhD students studying data science and computer science are black women, so I'm making black history by being in this field itself.

So I want to acknowledge that.

And also acknowledge the work black women have done in computing.

I would like to tell a short story about someone that I look up to a lot.

So in 2018, a paper was published that was acknowledging the harms of AI.

This paper acknowledged the environmental harms, the ethical harms of AI, and was written by a researcher at Google who also happens to be a black woman.

And due to this paper that she published that got a lot of attention, she was fired from Google.

She was fired for telling the truth.

And she has continued to speak the truth, continuing to do research on AI, and also the ethics of AI.

And I'd like to share a little quote from her to you.

A lot of people who are making money are not the people who are actually in the midst of it.

And that is where we are.

The people who will be making money off of this data center are not the people who live in this community.

Data centers do not require that large of a workforce.

But it does require a large amount of resources.

And due to this, the electricity prices in Illinois are some of the highest in the country.

Just this year, electricity prices across the nation went up 6.9%.

And they are projected to go up even higher.

It's projected that by 2030, 72% of this like electricity demand growth will be associated with AI data centers.

So it's really important to understand that these data centers, they take a lot from our communities, but they don't give a lot to our communities.

I'm all for creating jobs and having economic development.

But I do not think having these large AI data centers that drive up electricity prices on most consumers and do not give a lot of jobs.

The jobs that they have are highly particular.

Most people in this city probably wouldn't be able to apply for them because they require complex degrees and a lot of experience.

So they wouldn't really in the long term benefit the community.

A thing that I like to do when I think about making a decision, I like to attend 10 tenants.

So think about how would something be in 10 weeks, 10 months, 10 years.

And when I think about what would happen if the data center were built in 10 years, there wouldn't be an increase in jobs.

Maybe a couple of jobs here or there.

But it wouldn't radically transform the community.

But the community would be radically transformed by the high cost of living.

People having their electricity turned off because they can no longer afford it.

People moving to different states because they can no longer afford to live in Illinois because electricity prices are just too high.

So they have to pack up and leave.

Instead of having a thriving community, you have increased abandoned buildings, high electricity prices, high water prices, and a town that is not very livable.

It's for those reasons that I strongly oppose having a data center constructed in this town because I think the outcome of it in 10, 15, 20 years, will only cost us.

And those who profit don't live here.

Thank you.

Hello, mayor, wherever you are, counsel.

I'm hoping I'm the last person, but I'm just a concerned citizen of Johnny Ed.

I hear because I have complained about a lot of things to the mayor, which he also knows about, to Suzanne.

I know we came up with different things to try to solve this.

I live in the new homes that are off of Water Edge, off of Wallace and Water Street.

We have coyotes.

We have coyotes that comes through the namehood where the children play.

I've seen them come up.

I had to tell the parents, get your children out of there.

Move them right now.

The coyotes come up through the apartments, come up through the homes.

They're not just one.

The fire side, when it's firing on for the first of the month, they come out, 20 of them came out.

I couldn't take a picture of them because we were so astonished of them.

We were we were looking at them.

We was like, wow, do y'all see this?

All of us came out.

We could take a picture so we could show you all.

They came out howling.

Howling for the siren.

And they're still there.

They have a little highway, a little hideaway back there.

It looks like a little thing that you go back there.

The kids used to have it back there to play.

We stopped the children from going back there because now the coyotes are back there.

I am a concerned citizen.

Concerned about the tire place that is off of Allen.

It has odor comes out from there.

They have trucks that comes through there.

We stop the trucks from coming through the name through the back alley because they think it's a street.

It's not.

It's no longer truck.

We have trucks that says no trucks allowed.

Trucks drop off particles off the tires that they have the rubber.

Loose rubber comes off.

It comes down water street.

They go down walls.

Loose rubber falls off.

Sometimes you get the smell so bad.

I have asthma.

Some of the neighbors said, Do you smell it?

They call it, I say, yes.

I smell it.

It's staying.

But sometimes it blocks off the other parts of the street Allen.

It blocks off what people can't go through.

So I have talked to a couple people, we're going to see what they're going to resolve and look at this.

And it needs to be addressed.

I've been there for nine years.

And even at the end of Water Street in McDonald's, it's been five or six accidents.

At nighttime, I called the mayor, talked to him, I talked to Susanna.

I even called electric company.

I keep calling them.

They haven't came out.

They asked me, was this the color of the electric thing?

I said it's brown.

They haven't came out.

When you turn that corner, I almost hit the fence.

When you turn that corner and I you cannot see it is pitch black coming from McDonald's unto Water Street.

It's very dangerous.

A couple people who are known had had accident.

I come through there and oh, they ain't gonna have an accident.

I almost had an accident.

So it's concerned I'm a concerned citizen.

So I hope that you can address this because I don't want to see nobody get you know physically or really bad hurt there.

And I I know that they said maybe that this is not our concern, but if it's the electric company, I've been calling them, I got no result.

And nobody talks to me about it.

And I call because they told the police department told me to call.

And I called.

I call.

So if um somebody can call the electric company, because I've been calling, and I'm very concerned, you know, for safety benefits.

And I thank you for listening to me.

Good evening.

My name is Griselda Chavez, and the following message is regarding any future data center proposals in Joliet, including, but not limited to preliminary plan unit development of Joliet Technology Center subdivision, also known as Joliet Data Center from Hillwood Development.

I'm a lifelong resident of Joliet, and I'm concerned about the 795-acre data center and Hillwood Development's attempts to construct a supposed optimal NX and annexation agreement and their insulting attempt to create a website with propaganda for the data center with its flashy buzzwords claiming the jobs and broken promises it will bring Joliet residents in the long run.

Data centers often promote their construction jobs as massive long-term job creators for local union affiliated workers.

However, investigations and labor advocates indicate that these claims are frequently inflated with the industry using several tactics to mislead the public about the true scope of union jobs.

Here are a few ways they mislead people about union jobs.

They confuse construction with permanent employment.

Data centers highlight the thousands of workers on site during two to three-year construction, or in this case, five to seven-year construction phase, often using union labor, but fail to emphasize that once built, a facility may only employ a few dozen permanent staff.

They also inflate local hiring figures.

While promising local union jobs, developers often rely on out-of-state contractors and non-local union members to fill positions rather than hiring from the immediate surrounding community.

Research shows that the investment required to create a permanent data center job is nearly a hundred times higher than in other industries, making them a poor investment for job growth, despite tax high tax subsidies.

They also tend to use white ticket non-union labor.

In some cases, to meet high labor demand, unions have allowed non-union workers to pay dues to work on projects which can undermine the goal of creating permanent high standard union jobs.

Also, there's revolving door construction teams.

Data center projects are often phased over many years, and a company might claim a project creates thousands of jobs when in reality the same construction crew is just moving from uh one building phase to the next in a continuous cycle rather than creating new and additional jobs.

New research from the environmental advocacy group, food and water watch, demonstrates that common claims of robust job creation from the ballooning data center industry are grossly inflated.

The research based on historic data center hotbed in Virginia finds that as few as 23,000 people likely held permanent jobs at data centers throughout the U.S.

as of 2024.

This represented about 0.01% of all employment across the country.

This represented about 0.01% of all employment across the country, while at the same time the industry consumed more than 4% of all electricity usage.

The research goes further, finding that the investment required to create permanent data center jobs in Virginia, for example, was greater than what was required to create a job outside of that industry.

The largely unregulated data center industry booming across the country due to unchecked emergence of artificial intelligence endeavors is already causing numerous environmental, social, and economic harms in impacted communities.

This includes skyrocketing electricity for families and serious threats to local drinking water.

Yet the industry regularly claims that its impact on how hosting communities is beneficial due to robust permanent job creation that it brings.

There is new research that disproves these assertions.

People know that data centers are wreaking serious economic and environmental havoc across the country, and people are already experiencing many harms of unchecked profit-hungry industries like those attempting to come to Joliet.

If we look at the big picture, energy demand is only going to increase.

And in a letter sent to Congress last month, more than 230 national, state, and local organizations from across the country called for a full national moratorium on the approval and construction of new data centers.

While in Naperville on January 20th, the city council voted against the development of data centers.

So if this doesn't tell you anything, it shows you that this is more than just bringing jobs to a community.

It's more than that.

And you should please take time to research these issues and not just receive information from the same development company that will profit way more than any of you will and any of us in the city.

So please question the developers the same way you question the people who are clearly concerned.

Thank you.

Have a good night.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening?

Hello.

I just want to start by saying that maybe a new resident of Joliet, but I have the privilege of working with many not-for-profits in the area, and I care deeply about this community.

I'm not gonna belabor the points that have already been made of apart from you know bringing another example.

I don't know if people recall the ice raid that happened at a Kia factory that caused many uh I think South Korean engineers to be detained, but that's the reality of you know the situation.

There's specialized workers now in a lot of these jobs that previously could have been filled by people that are in our community that can't be filled anymore.

You know, we've talked about like how many construction jobs are gonna be created.

Like people have already said it's not gonna be from here, at least a lot of them.

So I think at the same time, what needs to be considered, and I was hoping that the mayor would be here because I know this is you know one of his main goals is a renewed downtown, which is discouraging, especially as somebody that is you know recently moved to the areas.

I don't see a real reason to say if you know my quality of living is gonna go down so much.

I think it's gonna detract from any businesses that want to, you know, move into the area, and I think it's it would be a very short-sighted decision to uh approve data center.

That's all I want to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening?

Hi everyone, did you miss me?

I've been gone for some time.

Anyway, I do good evening to Ela.

It feels good to be back.

I've had several people, excuse me.

I've had several people ask me, why aren't you going to the meetings anymore?

And why aren't you speaking?

We miss you.

So I not that I haven't wanted to come to the meetings, but I have been busy with supporting my family down south in Iroquois County with solar farms, solar panels, solar.

It's just um something that is very dear to my heart, and they're overpowering my family farms.

So that's where I've been fighting on that.

So anyway, I've been asked to give you an update on Love Strucks up.

So here it goes.

On January 7th, my husband and I attended a comprehensive meeting here at City Hall.

Many things were discussed in the group that I was in.

The group was led by Sean.

After our group finished, I asked Son if I was going to get my Christmas present.

He told me a call of the sack has been discussed and plans are being addressed.

So thank you, Sean, for that Christmas present and council members.

I appreciate it.

On January 8th at 11 p.m., my neighbor texted me in bold letters.

They flooded me.

So I called her.

She was fit to be tied.

And I don't blame her.

I would have been just as mad or even madder if it was me.

Her basement was underwater.

The area all around her house was underwater.

We told the city.

We've told loves about the drainage issues around there, but they didn't listen.

The contractor said they'd have it fixed in two weeks.

I told my neighbor to call Sean.

I gave her his number.

He got involved and it was fixed right away.

Thank you so much, Sean.

On January 12th at 6 30 p.m., NYCOR came knocking at our door.

Said we had a gas leak.

So we let him fix it.

It could it took quite a bit of time.

And so we were talking to him.

So I asked him, I said, you know what?

Why this happened?

You know, why these these became loose and what was the deal there?

You don't want to know what he said?

He said, probably because the vibrating trucks on our road.

On January 22nd, I reported to Sean the garbage dumping and the huge concrete slab being dumped on an R1 property coming from a commercial property.

I also reported that the silt fence needs to be inspected.

It's down, the stakes are everywhere, and it's not doing any bit of good being there.

I also informed him of wires being hit by a semi that came down New Linux Road.

This was not affiliated with Love's truck stop.

It was just a normal truck driver coming down our road on a 12-ton road limit truck was coming on our road.

I also mentioned to him all the mud and rocks.

And he said he had got other complaints, so he would be sending someone out.

Loves is doing a little bit better job.

They had to get some kind of sweeper thing to come out and clean up the streets, but still every day there's mud and rocks.

On February 10th, I called Dustin about Love's using New Linux Road as a construction site.

A 23-ton excavator with no rubber pads is tearing up that road.

I asked him if there was anything that could be done about it.

It's really has become a construction site.

It's horrible.

Residents should not feel like they are in a construction zone.

He said he would look into it.

And just this past week, Love said shut down Oakview Avenue with no notice to the residents.

So the residents had no way in or out of their homes.

This is my update concerning Love's Trucksite.

Thank you for all listening, and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who'd like to address the council this evening?

Everybody, huh?

In regards to all this gambling artist, uh, in regards to all these data centers, been popping up everywhere in the US and then the world and everything.

You know, I see more of this AI stuff and when I think of AI, I see things with AI on the internet and everything.

Well, you got my phone and everything.

I'm seeing, you know, we know what AI is stands for.

It's artificial and dreams ain't real.

Why do we want to go for things that ain't real?

I get so tired of seeing videos now on the internet now where it's AI generated.

You see vehicles getting in accidents and there's nothing done to the no damages done to the vehicles.

So you gotta sit there and wonder, is that real or is that AI?

You're thinking, well, why do we want this AI, which is all fake?

Why does why do we want data centers?

Google wants it and everything, and you know, I heard a response from the papers, I forget what it was, but I seen a response.

These data center CEOs and that say, well, everybody sure likes their high speed, high-speed phones.

Oh, so is that it?

They're trying to threaten us that if you they don't get their data centers that they're gonna cut off cut off our phones.

Like our phones have been working good, you know, before all these data centers even started.

I think our phones will work in good.

I mean, what do we need?

Our phones wipe our butts for us.

You know, we don't need data centers to use our phones.

Our phones have been getting along without data centers.

So they're threatened about, you know, if you don't get our data centers, we're gonna do stuff and ruin your phones and your phones won't work anymore.

And that's a threat they're trying to use now.

But the data centers, you know, just you know, we don't need them.

We've been getting home all along now.

We don't need them, you know, and there's more than enough on the planet for them to do what they need to do.

And now there's a new term, you know, new term about the earth and it's warming up and everything.

You know, we always started global warming.

I first termed it.

Then they turned climate change.

Now here's a new term.

Three days ago on the internet saying it's now being called Hot House Earth.

It's gonna be the new term for the climate changes on the on the earth because the earth is burning up.

And all this development and everything, not just the data centers, all the warehouses, air models, all the dish deconstruction of trees and and farm fields to build commercial and commercial and concrete buildings and ash ball roads and everything.

They're heating our planet up, and we can't keep going on like this.

The planet's burning up, and Earth is more than speaking back over the last three years being hot record.

Without a polar caps are melting at record pace.

You know, why do you guys want to keep going this way?

You know, it's the earth's gonna burn up and catch on fire, and you guys don't see it.

You guys should be worried about it.

And lastly, I want to think Jesse Jackson.

When I heard of his death, I was in tears because as a young person, that's all I heard growing up is certain Jesse Jackson Warski and Memic and everything.

And what Jesse Jackson stood for trying to carry on Martin Luther King's quest of getting equality to the blacks.

And when I was young, I see the blacks struggling, trying to get their freedom, you know, get their recognition they deserve equality.

And even in today's world now, the blacks are still struggling to get that.

Because now we're seeing like where the Hispanic population has overtaken them, and the Hispanics are getting more help from the government than the blacks are.

So the blacks still I've talked to black truckers and black people out there just so still depressed and everything because of the fact they can't get what they've been fighting for since my Martin Luther King's days and everything.

Since they've Abraham Lincoln ended slavery.

The blacks have been trying to get their deserving justice.

We gotta give it to one.

Let's carry on Jesse Jackson's legacy and Martin Luther King's legacy, please.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening?

Seeing none, we'll move on to Mayor and Council Comments.

No comment.

Oh yeah, I'm I have two very important items.

I have a constituent family that is looking for a living kidney donor.

This is a wonderful man in my district.

His name is Robert Pelkin.

He's faced some serious health issues.

He has actually fostered he's been a foster dad to over 30 children, and his last three placements he's adopted.

Te three boys, 10, 10, and 11.

He has stood by his wife through cancer.

He brings joy to thousands of kids by voluntary Santa and Easter Bunny for other foster family um productions.

He's created so many memories over the years, including welcoming his first grandchild, December of 2025.

The family is very desperate.

This is critical mass for him.

His name is Robert Pelkin.

I do have his permission and his family's permission to let everyone know to call Janet Palkin.

The numbers 815-557-0139 for anyone that's interested in being tested and being a living donor.

So thank you very much for that.

And then I just want to make a statement to everybody here and everybody listening regarding the proposed data center.

No elected up here has chosen the level of transparency in this process.

And none of my fellow council members, I'm sure, would choose to hide any data center plan documents.

Much land they much less the entire plan itself.

How can you conduct the data center meeting and expect our residents to have any well thought out intelligent questions without seeing the plan?

I want transparency for our residents, and I will ex accept nothing less.

Our residents deserve to know what it is and what will happen in their city, much less their own neighborhoods or my district.

I've asked for this publicly, I've asked for this privately, and now I'm demanding transparency, and I'm not up here to make friends.

This is actually what I was elected to do to bring the voices of my district.

And my phone rings day and night.

Literally, I get calls in the middle of the night on this.

But nobody sitting up here that's elected made the decision to send out 1,300 pages of almost fully redacted documents.

None of us had that decision up here.

So I am asking for transparency.

I want transparency.

The residents deserve transparency, and then maybe we can all move forward.

Thank you.

Earlier this month, I'd like to congratulate Joy Catholic Academy ladies who won the state dance class 1A championship.

Congratulations.

And I just want to put out there that Silver Cross Hospital is now giving a heart scan again for $49.

It takes about 20 minutes.

And the last couple times that I did recommend this, not only did I say my husband, but a couple other folks had called me and said, Thank you so much.

My heart was totally black.

I was on time.

And it's a very simple process.

You call up the hospital, make an appointment.

You don't need a doctor's order.

You go on a little bed, and they there's big uh x-ray thing, and you slide it in and your face is out.

You're not if you're claustrophobic, it's not you're not inside of it.

And um it's 15 minutes, and you're in and out, and then they will give it to your they'll read it and then they'll give you proceedings to your doctor.

So I highly recommend it.

It's 49, it'll be the best 49 you've ever spent.

So that's all I have to say.

They just be well and stay safe.

Uh I have I just want to bring up um the Royalto Square Theater.

We um are we're over the holidays, we kind of forget what's going on in town, but they are still having great programming there always.

So right now, Friday, they're going to be having um Aaron Lewis and Saturday, they're gonna have ABBA Mania or ABBA.

How do you say that?

ABBA Mania.

Um, but I think it's obviously they have so many um great programs coming up.

So all you have to do is go on their website.

They still do the the reels, which is the great um old films, and but it's on the big screen, and it's so great to go there and you know just popcorn and it's very inexpensive.

But um look at the other program they have coming up.

I I've been looking at it myself.

They have some um magicians and and other great uh performances.

So yeah, don't forget about our jewel and joliat.

So that's it.

I should hope about that.

Can you go up to the up there and buy a ticket at the box office?

Because I've had some complaints.

People want to go online or go down there to get you have to go everything through Ticketmaster.

No, you can go.

So that's what they they were told.

So no, you can't.

Okay, just want me to.

I originally purchased one by just walking up to the window.

Just want to make it clear.

Yeah, I think they open at 12.

I think or 11.

Yeah, I think around 11 or 12, but we can make sure to get that information up so people know when they're open.

Okay, is our motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Okay, all in favor?

All right.

Miniature.