That pre-council meeting for Monday, April 6th, 2026 at 5 30 p.m.

meeting in City Hall Council Chambers.

Call the roll, please.

Okay.

We'll begin with roll call.

Mayor Darcy.

Here.

Councilman Cardinals.

Councilman Clement?

Here.

Councilman Hug.

Here.

Councilwoman Abarra?

Here.

Councilman Moreno.

Here.

Councilman Mudron.

Here.

Councilwoman Quillman?

Here.

Councilwoman Ruden.

Here.

Okay.

Next we have two presentations.

I believe Hugh is stuck at a bridge.

So we are going to have Alison Swisher present the 2026 Water Main Replacement Program.

Director of Public Utilities.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

We do this presentation once a year about the time that construction starts.

So I guess with the good weather also comes the construction.

So this is going to be an update on our 2026 water main replacement program.

I was going to provide a quick reminder of the background of why we're doing this, talk about the details of the program, and then talk specifically about how we provide communication to our residents.

So as a reminder, this water main replacement program, we began in 2022.

The goal is to replace all of water main that are older than 1970s.

These have been identified as the pipes that have the most leakage.

It's about about 192 total miles and a cost of about 600 million dollars.

So just the progress of where we're at today, we're about halfway through the project.

Over the past four years, we have been we first two years at about 20 miles and then almost double that amount in 24 and 25.

So this year again, our goals are number one to reduce non-revenue water, and then also to uh reduce a number of customer water outages due to water main breaks.

So we have a lot of coordination that we do to make this a success.

A lot of planning and prioritizing has gone into establishing the program.

Um we do have our funding strategy in place.

So this has all been funded with SRF, which is the state's low interest loan program, as well as WIFIA, which is the federal low interest program.

We do a lot of communication with residents, and then we have to coordinate all of this with other programs going on in the city, such as the work being done by public works, the work being done as part of the alternative water source program, and then a lot of coordination with the work that IDOT is doing with the I80 improvements.

So our 2026 program is about 20 miles.

Uh construction costs about 53 million dollars.

The loan funding for this was approved at the last council meeting.

As you can see on the map there, we have projects in four of the five council districts.

Uh so councilman hug in district one has most of our newer system.

So a lot of these uh pro uh replacements are focused in the older part of town, and if you recall from the non-revenue water presentation that we did a few months ago, um this is where we have the highest water loss, is in that um older part of town on either side of the river.

So also this year we are going to do one of our first um alternative water source program projects.

This is called uh um AWS P0804.

This was awarded at the last council meeting, and this is a major transmission main on Morgan Street, so that project will also be a component of the work being done this year.

Um, also as part of the watermaker replacements, we do do the lead service line replacement.

I'm very proud of Jolie, it's been very proactive in the lead service line replacement where we do replace the full led service line at no cost to the owner.

So when we encounter our led service line, we coordinate with the homeowner to get inside the home and do that full service line replacement.

So our schedule, we have a project that actually started today.

Um we have a number of these projects on our are on some of our major thorough thoroughfares, such as Larkin, um Larkin Avenue, and also on Clunwood.

So you will definitely notice the construction as you're driving around town.

Um these projects are all sequenced with different start dates, but the goal for all of them is to be complete in in December.

So our construction services approach has been very successful over the past few years.

We assign inspectors to each project, working with our consulting firm, Burns and McDonald.

They have a resident engineer who oversees multiple projects, then an overall program manager.

So we're able to get in touch very quickly to identify any issues that might be brought to our attention.

We have a very robust website and map on our website that Joliet.gov backslash construction zones.

We do really say if a resident wants to be informed of what's going on, they can go to the website, they can click on the project specifically, and it will provide them an update.

We provide updates on there each week.

It also has contact information and other status of the of the project.

So really, if you're having residents asking you what's going on, they can go to the website.

We also have projects that are in planning phases as well as construction phase, so you can see what's going to be coming up as well.

We also start off a letter that's in both English and Spanish that is sent to all of the residents that are in the project area, and this just provides them again with that link to the website as well as general information about the project.

We host an open house.

We actually had the open house last week at our Eastide Waste Light.

We always encourage everyone, please sign up for Everbridge.

That is the way you're going to find out if there is a water main break or other impacts to your water service.

So please, if you're talking to any of the residents, sign up for Everbridge, and you can do that on the City of Joliet website.

And then lastly, if all the other communication failed, we do do door tags.

And so there's a series of four different door tags.

We have the contractors hand them out at the start of construction before any water outage, and then again with an update on landscaping.

A lot of people have questions.

The project you know finishes in July and they don't see anyone working, we're not going to plant grass seed in July.

You know, they come back later and do that in the fall.

So we give people a door tag, and again in both English and Spanish that provides that information.

All right, so that's just a quick update on our water main replacement program for this year.

Are there any questions?

Thank you.

Next, we will have Will County Governor Lee, Will County Governmental League presentation by Hugh O'Hara.

Mayor and Council, my apologies for being late.

I didn't realize that uh part of 80 was shut down this afternoon.

So made traffic a little interesting.

Um I'm here tonight.

The Will County Governmental League dues are on your agenda.

Uh I would have been here tomorrow for your actual council meeting, but I'll be in Springfield with Allison and Mayor DeBold asking for money for the water uh project.

So hopefully you'll understand the importance of that.

Um why suddenly is the governmentally dues coming to the council?

Uh well, they finally went over 25,000.

Um, so they require council approval from now on.

Um that change only occurred uh in the last year.

Uh we can get into that here in a second.

So for anyone that doesn't know who the governmental league is, we are a not-for-profit organization founded in 1968.

Um we are currently at 33 local governments, that's 31 municipalities, the county of Will and Grundy that are all members, and we work on regional issues, um, different things that are of mutual concern to all of our municipalities.

Excuse me.

Um interesting thing is in our office we have the original agenda from 1968 in there and some of the topics that are on there that I think you may find interesting.

Uh industrial development, the need for additional housing, a third airport in Will County, parking concerns in downtown Joliet, and our water supply.

So I don't know if that's good or bad that those are the same issues from 1968 that they are today, but here we are still working on some of them.

Um the league has an oversight board of nine members, three uh six mayors, two administrators, and the county executive, four full-time staff.

Um, and then we also have 60 corporate and supporting members.

Those are businesses that do business with municipalities across the county.

So think engineering firms, law firms, banks, um, anyone that's looking to do business with local governments tends to be members of the governmental league.

We are one of 11 councils of government in the Chicago and Region, so there are groups like ours all throughout the area.

They're all slightly different.

The Cook County ones are a little different to the Collar County ones, and even all the Collar County ones aren't the same.

Some are part of the county government, some are independent.

Um this gives you just a brief overview of who those municipalities are.

You can see who our board of directors is, uh currently Mayor Noak from Romeoville is our president.

You can see several of the members chair our legislative and transportation committees.

And then you can see we have a four-person staff there at the bottom.

So what we do?

Several main areas.

Number one is legislative advocacy.

We do a lot of work in Springfield.

We do a lot of work with our federal partners as well on larger municipal issues.

So if you're thinking of like, well, Joliet has its own lobbyists, what's the difference?

Well, Joliet's lobbyist is going to tend to work on Joliet centric projects.

We're looking more at the policy level where issues impact all of the municipalities across Will County.

So things like LGDF funding, pension concerns, uh, the governor's new housing proposal, things related to the open meetings act and FOIA reform.

So all of those types of issues are things that the league works on, as opposed to going to request specific dollars for specific projects.

Now we might add, say, large regional projects to our advocacy efforts, I-80 reconstruction, some large intersections, things like that, but not down to say local streets and issues for that.

There's 33 members of our ask list would just be way too long to try and try and get anything done.

Transportation funding.

The governmental league receives currently between 10 and 11 million dollars every year in federal surface transportation funds that were responsible for programming.

Those are dollars that communities can use on federally uh designated routes.

Um the city of Joliet in the upcoming program is proposed to get two million dollars uh in those funds in 2031 for Theodore Street, and there's 3.25 million in contingency funds.

So should another project fall off the list, this one would move up for um Essington Road.

That that program's been around since the 80s.

The city has received at this point tens of millions of dollars over the years from the league for that.

Uh for instance, infantry drive was funded largely with STP dollars.

It was spread out over multiple segments as that road was built.

So a lot of dollars went into that.

We also coordinate a lot with CMAP, IDOT, Metropace, and the new NETA board, which will replace the RTA here starting in July.

Um we work with them on not only regional planning, but just making sure that Will County's perspective is hurt.

Um, as you can imagine with a region as complex as ours, there's always uh variances between not only communities but counties and in different areas.

So we really advocate to make sure that Will County uh that our perspective is heard by those groups and that our work is included in their plans.

And then we do a lot of uh shared services type programs.

The suburban purchasing cooperative, for instance, uh that's a program where the municipalities come together and purchase anything from a paper clip to a fire truck, you can buy through the purchasing cooperative.

Uh sometimes they have a better pricing than you can get locally, sometimes not, just depends on the item.

But that's a program that communities can take advantage of.

IMED is the Illinois Metropolitan Investment Fund.

Um we just had an update from them at our last managers meeting.

That's a group where municipalities can park some of their dollars.

They know that it'll be uh invested in a wise and safe way where the relative risk is incredibly low.

Um EAP is an employee assistance program.

Joliet doesn't participate in that, but we do offer it to our other municipalities.

Um that program was widely popular before employee assistant programs became part of your standard insurance.

Um, but as that's changed, uh communities have been getting on their own.

Um we had some municipal auction arrangements, and then we do um quarterly manager luncheon learns.

And then the last thing we do what looks like all funds stuff there, special events, uh, golf outing, lobby day, legislative breakfast and holiday reception.

Um, what we try to use those for is really to not only for the two that are obviously legislative related, but um, to really build a sense of community in a sense of working together amongst the municipalities is I'm sure many of you know whenever a disaster strikes, you know, in Joliet you might be big enough to handle some things by yourself, but we have a lot of communities that are not you know the size of Joliette, didn't need need help when disaster strikes.

Um when the tornadoes hit Coal City and Diamond several years ago.

There were uh dump trucks, there were wood chippers, there were things from municipalities across the county on their way to Diamond and Coal City before those mayors could even ask for help.

And part of that is because you do have this sort of sense of of togetherness and sense of a region.

And I know when I spoke to those communities after the fact, you know, that was one of the things that they were very proud and very happy that they were able to get was you know, they were came in and said we didn't even have to ask for help.

Other communities just came, and they came because we got to know them at governmental league events.

We see each other, the mayors get to know each other, the managers get to know each other, it makes that phone call a little bit easier, and that ask for help easier.

So that is one of the biggest things that we do.

And then we also work with all kinds of uh you know, local and regional partners like the CED, the chambers.

We talk to pretty much anyone and everyone.

Um more importantly, how are we funded for tonight's purposes?

Uh municipal dues are the biggest contributor.

Uh municipal dues are based on a combination of factors, uh, community size, and then whether or not they take part in our transportation program.

Not to get two in the weeds, but of the 33 members of the municipal of the governmental league, 21 get their uh transportation dollars via the Will County Governmental League.

The rest get access to their transportation dollars from another council of government, but they're also happen to be members of the league.

So they pay a little bit less because we're not doing certain services for them.

Um communities over 35,000, by the way, pay the same amount, so it's not like Joliet and the county are getting hammered compared to everyone else.

Anyone over that size is all paying roughly the same amount.

And then um we do receive a federal grant from CMAP uh that comes from the FHWA that helps us to staff our transportation person.

Uh and then lastly, we have corporate and supporting member packages.

Uh we have a little over 70 corporate partners and supporting members right now.

Their dues go to pay for the fun things.

The holiday parties, um, all of our meetings are lunch meetings where the cost of lunch is taken care of by our supporting members.

So we try to use them to backfill the cost of any events that we invite our municipalities to so that the municipal members don't have to pay to participate.

Um that in general is the governmental league, like I said, we're small staff, uh, four people.

We tried to get a lot done for our municipalities.

Um I think we we provide a good service.

I know the mayor uh and Beth both take advantage of it as well as other members of your staff who come to league meetings.

Uh, if you're wondering why you, as councilmen maybe and women aren't really uh as active.

Um, because we have 33 members, we focus on the mayors and the managers.

There are simply way too many council members if we were to invite everyone from all 33 uh municipalities, and way too many opinions.

At some point, there's got to be one or two point people for each community.

Um, and I know a few of you have been at different league things in the past, whether it's a quarterly meeting or some of our more uh uh more fun events.

So if there are any questions, happy to answer them at this time.

Any questions?

Hugh, I would say that uh the work I've done with you over the last few years has really uh and will make a difference for Joliet and Will County.

So thanks for all your efforts.

Of course.

Anyone else?

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, next is citizens to be heard on agenda items.

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

Okay, seeing none, we will move on to the city manager reviewing tomorrow night's actual items.

Okay, good evening, everybody.

Um we will have an appointment to the planning commission.

We will hear from communication technology and information systems, land use and economic development, public safety and public service committees.

Um consent agenda, approval of minutes, invoices to be paid.

Council Memo 18026 purchase of 10 AirPacks X3 Pro SCBA, one AirPac X3 Pro and eight AirPacks X3 Pro CGA for Joliet Fire Department from MES life safety and the amount of 157,225.

I'll just pause after each one in case you guys have questions.

Let me know.

Council Memo 1812 approval purchase order number one for the 2026 School Zone Flasher Materials purchase to MobileTrex Inc.

in the amount of 41,312.

Council Memo 1822 approval purchase order number two for the 2026 traffic signal materials purchased to traffic control corporation in the amount of 29,642.

Council Member 1832 approval of amendment number one for professional engineering services related to the North Point Development Plan review to Hutchinson Engineering in the amount of $20,000.

So on staff here, we do not have structural engineering expertise.

So we are going to be using Hutchinson Engineering for that.

North Point does pay those bills, and this is for the bridge that goes over the UP.

Council Member 18426 award of contract for the 2026 utilities restoration program in the amount of 700,000.

This this is related to what um what Alison was talking about earlier and how we wait until the weather's nice enough to restore or lay seed or do all those things.

We we do that in one big contract every year.

Council Memo 18526 award or contract for the 2026 Sanitary Service Lateral Lining Program to Performance Pipeline in the amount of 719,939 and 64 cents.

An award of the 2026 Sanitary Service Lateral Professional Services Agreement to RJ and Group in the amount of 71,700.

Council Memo 18626 award a professional services agreement for safety consulting services to Sheffield Safety and Loss Control, LLC, in the amount of 485,750.

Mayor.

Yes.

Yeah, thank you.

I just had a few questions, comments.

Um I know this was on the agenda for uh Larry's committee and mayor, if you want to chime in.

I learned a lot in the last like 30 minutes just uh throwing it around.

But you know, can we in layman's terms uh let the public know and everybody up here on the council?

I know this has been going on since what 2019.

What do they actually do for the city?

Somebody can explain that.

Uh it is close to half a million dollars.

And my thinking is I'd like to see down the road have our own people do this in house.

And I understand we did I learned today we didn't have enough staff, we didn't and safety is paramount, I get that.

Um so if somebody could explain uh to the public what we actually hire Sheffield to do for the city of Juliet.

Sure.

So um I think who Allison's probably best at because she's been working with them since 2019 with public utilities and has implemented her own safety protocols.

We haven't implemented them in public works, but that's what we've been working on for the last two years because safety of employees is just a non-negotiable for anyone.

I think they all need to be safe.

Um so for last year and this year, we expanded it citywide, but mainly it's public works and public utilities.

But so Allison's got the most experience with them.

I'll let her take that.

Thank you.

Yeah, so um, as you mentioned, in 2019, we uh actually had an incident in my department with safety, and uh employee was um was hurt, and so it became obvious to me that we did not have any safety protocols in place, and the there was no staff within the city who could assist with implementing a safety program.

So we issued an RFQ to hire a safety professional, and that's who Sheffield is after we um received, I believe like five qualification packages.

They were determined to be the most qualified.

And so we then from that point began the process of developing a safety manual and developing safety training programs, uh PPE, which is like the safety equipment that is worn, um, and all those recommendations were made and then implemented.

And so since that time the program has evolved.

Um, one of the main uh objectives that uh that Sheffield works on now is basically auditing the program.

So they have staff that are in the field with our staff, just observing, making sure that safety practices are being followed, and really being a resource to our employees if they have questions.

Um, a lot of the work that we do is very dangerous, and so it's again very important that we have these resources available to our staff so that they can confidently do the work that's necessary within the city.

And so we have now transitioned into looking at more of our facilities and developing um lockout tag out programs, which are required by OSHA, as well as confined space entry programs, and these are very time-consuming programs to develop because we have to look at every facility that we have and then look at every piece of equipment that become can be electrified and every vessel container that can be entered.

And so we have been working a lot in specifically public utilities over the past um three to four years after the additional program was implemented on those um objectives, and there's still work to be done on those.

Yeah, and I understand uh, you know, we we had an injury like you like you said uh years back.

Is there any data showing?

I mean, obviously, one is too many.

We don't we do not want any.

Um, but is there any data showing that this is working, or is it?

Yeah, and I mentioned this at public service.

I I I know that uh my department, and you can talk to our employees, they work much more much safer now with the PPE that they have, uh, with the training that they've had.

Um I know there's been a lot of questions about can you correlate that to workers' comp reductions?

And you know, the honest answer is there's a lot other a lot of other factors that go into um reducing workers' comp claims, and it has nothing to do with uh the safety program.

Like I said uh earlier, I I'd like to see an the mayor and I spoke on the way way up here uh tonight, like to see us do it in-house at some point.

I mean, have our own people be trained or certified and in this matter.

Um, nothing that against Sheffield, just I'd like to save all half of this and this the fees here and see if we can do it in house.

I mean down the road.

That's definitely what we're working on, you know, with um Liz as the new HR director and additional staff that she now has in her department.

That's definitely the the goal to move forward is to um take the resources that Sheffield has provided to us and be able to then implement those and look at other ways that you know we can use our own staff for those purposes.

And then my last uh comment or question are we going to move forward with having our own people take the OSHA 1030 training?

I mean, I know they can do it online.

I mean, that would probably be our I would think our first step to make sure the entry level and our current people have have that type of uh training.

Yeah, those trainings are already implemented in public utilities and recommended for the other personnel who need them.

Um and there are like you said, there is an online option.

We talked about that at uh department head level, and you know, a lot of these trainings are much more effective in person.

So that's something we'll you know discuss, and then base you know, based on each department, each um each position, you know, make that recommendation about how to implement that.

But those trainings are definitely already being done in um in utilities, and that was the objective is to take what we're doing there and then have that done in other departments.

All right, thank you for taking the time.

Thanks.

Thanks, Joe.

Uh I got one more question.

Maybe um Allison, for the lockout tag outs.

Um I was I was reading the approval approver report.

I'm surprised it's not that we're not already doing it.

Um, for example, every shop should have it for the most part, like our shop mechanics should know.

Hey, like I don't know, to me, it's I come from this field a little bit.

Um everywhere I've been at that's uses them.

So I was honestly shocked to know that we were not using it.

Yeah, I mean it it's unfortunate that like I said, this was something I recognized as soon as I became uh director, was that we were very very far behind with safety culture at the city, and that's something that you know city manager has prioritized, and we're gonna continue to prioritize.

But that is definitely where a lot of the funding has been going is um is being put into that.

But it's uh it's something that's very time consuming, and it's uh you know, we've we've been phasing it in over the years that we've been working on the program because to do it all at once would be very, very costly.

And every facility that we have has like a um how do you say it?

Like a like for each shop, it has a mechanic, right?

A dedicated mechanic for each facility that we have, whether of any equipment that we may have.

Uh there's not necessarily a person who has a title mechanic, but what we're doing with our program is it's all going to be um, you know, each employee is trained who would potentially be working on that equipment, which is all almost all of the employees at our plant facilities.

So they will all get that training and all have the knowledge of how to utilize the uh procedures applicable for lockout tag out and confined space entry.

Thank you.

Okay.

Council Memo 1872, approval of amendment number two to the professional services agreement for the storm sewer GIS mapping project, contract two to twig technologies in the amount of 153,140.

Council Memo 1862 approval of change order number one for the Fairmont Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Program to Hair Construction for deduction in the amount of 77,241 dollars and payment number four and final in the amount of 44,000 dollars 44,224 and ninety cents.

Council Member 1892 approval of change order number two for the Heggy Park Water Main Improvement Project on behalf of PTFR Construction for a deduction in the amount of 291 dollars and seventeen cents.

Council Memo 19026 payment of the 2026 membership dues for the Lower Des Plains Watershop Group in the amount of 105,826.

Council Memo 1912 award of contract to Tyler Technologies for implementation of enterprise permitting and licensing solution in the amount of 156,09.

Additionally, plus an amount not to exceed 260,100 for one-time implementation fees.

Council Memo 1926 award of contract to Tyler Technologies for time clock upgrade in the amount of $47,700.

Council Memo 1932, award of contract to Xerox Business Solutions for three-year managed print services in the amount of $349,698 and $23 cents.

Council Member 19426 authorized authorization to fund draw 15 for the tax incoming increment financing district number seven in the amount of 1,368,951 and 12 cents.

This is for Rock Run and going to deconstruction.

Council Memo 1972 approval of amendment number one to the professional services agreement for the 2027 water main rehabilitation program for detailed design services to Baxter and Woodman in the amount of $1,323,900.

Council Memo 19826 approved payment to Will County Governmental League for annual membership dues in the amount of $25,077 and 45 cents.

Council Member 1992 approval of an amendment to contract for security services to Universal Protection Services LP doing business as allied university security services in the amount of $80,516.37.

Excuse me.

Mayor.

Oh sorry.

Before we met today, I had a lot nice little meeting with uh City Manager Beth to discuss this security services.

I believe it is needed for sure, but I was thinking it should have come to public safety, not public assets, so that we could talk about it further.

And I understand that for example, a security person, we don't know how well they're trained.

And if something happens, you have to call the police anyway.

So my thought on this was bring it back to public safety and see if we couldn't use this as a union job, which would be I know that the guys like to work some overtime, some do, some don't, but uh it would not take away from one of police officers, it would just be an extra job for them, and they would sign up for that.

And I just think that this is something that we should look into because we'd have a policeman here all the time, but they would be here on their overtime.

They call um union jobs, and because we can't afford to have take somebody from our force right now because we're short and we want to keep everybody that we have.

But this is a thought of mine that I thought we should have discussed before we go hire uh security guard that we don't know that could actually help us or protect us or have whatever in the end you have to call police anyway.

So I would like to bring this back to uh public safety and discuss it there and then further have conversations with the chief on the piggyback on that.

Do you mind sure?

So this is for uh the train station, right?

Not city hall.

No, this one's for city hall.

So last year the council did approve a contract for us to have a security guard because we were having issues at our front desk or with other people.

Um just and just having a presence here to make our staff in City Hall feel more comfortable and secure.

Um, we would love to have a police officer, but right now we have 261 police officers, and we don't have the bandwidth to put someone in.

I can have the chief make comments to that effect.

So this is the same contract as last year.

I'm just we're just I can't do any more um without council approval.

I don't go over my approved amount of 25,000, and that's where we're reaching.

So I believe that we just have him through the end of this week.

Is that correct, Dustin?

Uh we have negotiated a verbal agreement to allow him to be here through tomorrow.

Through tomorrow.

So if we don't move forward with this now, then we'll have no one there and we'll have to have police coming in and out.

Uh could you speak about our limitations on staff, Chief Evans?

So as far as our staffing right now, we're lower than we were when I got here, uh, even though we're have a constant hiring cycle.

Um 261 isn't even a good number because some of those bodies are counted of people that are in the academy, people that are in FTO, people who haven't finished FTO, so it's really a little bit less than that.

What we're trying to accomplish here is sometime in the next couple months, we're trying to put more people on our special services bureau.

The reason for that is because you have a multi-million dollar development downtown and we want to have police presence there and through the the Chicago Street Corridor.

If we had two or three more people in special services, we would be able to put somebody at City Hall.

But right now we really don't have that availability.

We'd love to have a policeman here.

We'd love to have two policemen here.

But right now, I just uh I'm just trying to be realistic.

I've had this conversation with Rob Brown, who's operations uh deputy chief, probably four times in the last two weeks.

Uh you could decide to make it a a union job, but then you also have to remember that all union jobs don't get filled.

Uh we see that a lot where a vendor needs an officer and the and the position doesn't get filled.

So that is where we stand as a police department.

Any questions?

Yeah, I mean, can we see what the numbers are?

I mean I don't know if it was under the old administration or one before under Girani.

I just remember there was an incident.

And we would fill hourly slots or two hours here, three hours here.

It was probably before you were here.

Yeah, it was.

Um and I just remember that that's how we were handling it because they it it we just couldn't put a an officer there all day long.

So at that time they didn't have the resources to put an officer there all day long, but they were able to kind of platoon officers is what you're saying.

They were and and you know, maybe we do a I'm just throwing things spitball here.

We throw a four-hour union job there, and we gotta see from finance if it's if it's less than the is it is a feasible, but maybe we throw a three or four hour slot there, you union slot, and then we have we fill it with uh you know, maybe a detective could come for two hours, and uh and and a boss in in the watch commander's office can come for two hours and we fill it that way.

I I don't I don't know what the answer is.

I just I hate to give up the spot, and obviously safety is important.

There's there's no doubt about it, but I hate to give up the slot um when I when I believe we we could do it in-house.

Yeah, and and from a police department perspective, there was never any idea of not wanting to have a cop there.

We wish we had cops all over the place.

Uh but you know the biggest problem for us is just being able to staff people the right way.

Um we're we're we're down in detectives, we're down the TAC unit, we're down in every specialized unit we have.

Uh Saturday night, I hired five people back just to cover the sectors.

Um that is tough.

Uh and and it and it does have a price tag with it.

And as hard as we try to make sure that we don't overspend, we still have to have a commitment to the public where we have to have these beats filled.

So uh we we could we can talk about a few things and we could probably open it up to conversation to see if there's a way we could get this done.

Um I have no objections to that at all.

Uh what we were really hoping is we were hoping by the time the park opened, we would have we would be in a better position.

We just really aren't.

Um it just we get hit we get hit with retirements the last two years more than quicker than we can hire people back and uh put them through the rank and file.

Hey Dustin, one quick question.

This this has got a 30-day out clause as contract, doesn't it?

I believe the master contract for all services to which this is an amendment of has a 30-day out clause.

I know Joe, we are looking at all the alternatives, but when tomorrow rolls around, it it is imperative to have somebody here.

Yeah, and I and I spoke to Beth and uh definitely, but I would rather a police officer here.

So would we have a security guard?

I think that's what the chief's saying too.

We all the way we were talking, we thought that might be a way to be able to do it, you know, like Joe was saying too split it up like a four-hour shift here, four-hour shift here.

But I can't see nobody wanting to come here for four hours.

Yeah, I mean I I don't know.

I don't have the answer to that until we took a harder look at it.

Right.

But just something we had to look at.

But I to me, I would feel safer if we had a regular police officer, but I understand the parameters of what we're working with, and that's why I talked to Beth about it earlier.

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm glad that the discussion was opened up because it was uh it was something that was I've been on my mind lately.

I know, and I didn't get to talk to you about it, but uh you know there was also some some schools that uh had requested a uh uh an additional officer.

Uh some schools uh are requesting at least an officer.

And right now we we we can't do that for them.

And I hate to tell them no, but I just can't do it.

Um so we we do the best we can with what we have.

Doing great with what you have, I'm telling you that right now.

No complaints.

Uh you know, we'd like we'd like to be able to uh uh go to battle with what we need instead of what we have.

You know, uh so uh we'd be open to any conversation.

I would like to include most likely uh Deputy Chief Brown in those conversations because uh that is his division that he oversees and he has uh a lot of knowledge of the inner workings, who's leaving, who's coming, who's who's uh who's gonna stay.

I know we are gonna look at some retirements in the next 90 days.

I don't know how many that'll be, uh but there's some retirements uh where people have told us that they plan on leaving, but they just haven't submitted paperwork on it yet.

So uh I'd love to have that conversation so we can work and probably work this thing out somehow.

Mayor.

Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm one of nine up here.

I I can support this, but I I'd still like to have this conversation, see if we can you know have some discussion about how we can move forward here.

Um, you know, either either it's a union jab for three hours, or we could we can backfill it with with some uh personnel from across the street for two hours here, two hours there.

But I hate to give up this position here, you know, and we don't want it vacant, right?

So yeah, and and well, I guess our philosophy was we weren't giving it up, we were just more merely postponing it until we had the right bodies for it.

Uh because even if you do union job, that's still going to cost you.

Um still going to cost the the the city money for that union position.

But it's a problem.

A little bit more than what a security guard would charge you.

And I like I said, I would love to have a cop here.

I'd love to have more than one cop here.

Uh just would make me feel better uh more than anything.

But I I we'd be open to the conversation for sure if we can put our heads together and maybe work something out.

I may that that's why I brought it up.

I wanted to open the conversations to see how everybody felt about this, and it was I felt it was important looking into.

But I know what we're dealing with right now, but I wanted to open it up for future.

Yeah, and you know, sometimes it's it's uh it's hard on us when the rank and file requests these union jobs, and then we can't fill them.

Uh you know, then we for certain events we have to uh do forced overtime and things like that.

We have to allow that.

I understand the other I was just talking about I was just focused on City Hall.

Yeah, I I yeah, I totally totally agree.

But yeah, if you guys want to get together and talk about it, I'm I'm all for it.

Chief, we'll figure it out sooner or later.

What are we currently down for the the officers' unfilled positions?

Do you know?

Well, we have two sixty-one.

We feel we'd be comfortable around two eighty-five.

Well, how much are how many are you authorized for right now?

Oh 302.

Right.

So you want to get to the uh 285.

Yeah.

Which is still only halfway to 302.

Yeah.

The the thought of 302 was because in the next couple of years, if we do have a rash of retirements, it wouldn't impact the department the same way it has for the last four years.

So that's why we requested over 300 on this last budget, and we we received that.

But I think we would be in good shape if we were on that 285 mark.

And a question, Beth.

Um is the security guard downstairs, is he armed?

He is.

He is armed.

And so he's got all the right paperwork, right?

Yeah, he does.

Um the mayor brought up uh a good point.

Uh it's a 30-day outclause.

So if we you know, I don't think we're gonna solve the 285 in 30 days.

No, I hope we could, but we know right.

But it won whenever we reach that, and we do have enough people, then we could obviously give them 30 days' notice, so to speak, and say when we don't get it.

That's the goal is to have police officers in this building.

That's what we're working towards.

I think it might be a good idea.

Yeah, we kind of thought thought the same uh same thing, uh, councilman.

We we kind of thought maybe you know, when we do get up this week.

Good example would be we hired seven this morning.

Uh of course those seven count towards police officers, but they're absolutely no good to us for another nine months.

Right.

Uh, because many of them have to go through the academy, then you have 16 weeks of FTO, and then you have two weeks in house, and then finally they're of service to us.

And for people watching.

How many weeks of the academy?

Sixteen.

What does FTO stand for?

Field training officer.

So after the after the officer has graduated successfully completed the police academy, he will go through 16 weeks with a veteran officer who will train him how to be a jolia policeman.

So that's approximately six weeks, 16 weeks itself, and then we have another two or three weeks of in-service training for uh new officers.

So it's quite it's quite a quite a back from.

Okay.

I just want to go watching wouldn't know what it what it meant.

Yeah, I probably should have.

No, that's all right.

We we work together.

We're a team.

Yeah, we have a lot of accurates.

Alphabet soup.

Yes.

Chief, are are you asking me to come back?

Is that if you want to come back, they'll take you.

Don't you chief?

Don't you want younger people that can move?

I have no room to talk.

You'll get security pay though, not the police pay.

Hey Chief.

I just want to excuse it.

I just I just wanted to bring up the conversation for us to talk about.

I just thought this was a good and since Beth and I had just had this conversation this afternoon.

I thought just bring it up now.

So put it out there.

I'm glad it was put out there so we can work on it.

Thank you.

Uh how many applications are we getting right now?

I don't worry.

We're hiring and we have 285 as of today.

We have 285 returned to us.

And there's still seven days left for them to submit.

Now, typically what happens is people wait to the last minute and then they they send in their their completed application.

So we do expect to have a pretty good year with this.

We've got a lot of laterals.

The word is getting out to other departments that our lateral program is is a good one, and the pay is increased, the residency has been taken away, things like that.

So uh we have been getting some more laterals uh looking to come over to the JPD as well.

More than last go around.

I think so in the county.

So no plan.

What do you mean?

Universe.

Yeah, the universe.

There y'all.

Thank you.

Does everybody else need anything?

Everybody got a question for Beth.

Um how much did we pay for the service last year?

80,000.

It's the same amount.

Okay.

Thank you.

I don't know.

Okay, moving on to ordinances and resolutions.

Council Memo 2012 ordinance approving the reclassification of 717 Henderson Avenue from an R3, which is a one in two family residential to R2 single family residential.

Um this is a petitioner who has a house and he uses this side lot as his yard.

Um it was recommended by the plan commission six to zero.

What the district is it in my sorry?

Yeah, I looked into it.

Okay, and and in my understanding is right, they they want to restrict it down to single family from multifamily.

They want to use it, yeah, for their yard.

All right.

Yeah, the petitioner put in for that.

All right, thanks, Caesar.

Council Memo 2026, ordinance amending chapter two, article two, city manager authority for succession hiring and temporary appointments.

So I know that there's been questions on this one.

Right now the reading of our ordinance says that I cannot even post for a position until that person is gone, which for the last couple of years has been a challenge with people leaving and not being able to get them in even a couple of months before someone leaves to train.

So what we're left with is um months of we're not really operating like we should be because there's someone new that we're onboarding and then trying to train without the previous person still being there.

Um all this is budget within sal which is is budgeted within salaries, which is the budget.

So we can't go out of outside of whatever budget that you approve.

But um for these people that are leaving, like Krista will be um retiring in July, it'd be very helpful to get a new deputy city manager in that can learn you know the institutional knowledge that Krista has to the best of their ability and also learn what the position is about and really be ready to hit the ground running when um Krista leaves.

So that's been a challenge.

It's been a challenge for really staff brought this to me.

So Alison's had some challenges.

Um I think a lot of people have had challenges here.

So I know you've heard from Allison on them, but it if you want to hear from any other directors on challenges that we've had, because we can't fill them before they're gone and out the door.

Sure.

Yeah.

Um you answered my question.

My first question was what are you doing now?

So you don't even have authority to like even post it until they're gone, right vacated their desk.

So I looked up the national average for non-technical jobs and technical jobs.

I'm wondering why maybe Liz can answer why six months was picked.

Like why that that designation was picked.

So six months is the maximum amount.

Typically, we would be looking at 90 days prior to, but for more technical physicians, let's say, you know, water treatment.

Um individuals who have been here 30 years plus need longer term individuals to train and ensure that they get up to speed prior to the other person departing.

So if so once this is made into an ordinance, then down the road, 15 years from now, we get someone who is a beusive with this, because it does say six months.

So we could get someone down the road when all of us are gone.

Um once it's made an ordinance, how do you unmake it an ordinance?

The same process that we're doing today.

Okay.

The the the other thing that Beth mentioned in the beginning is that it would still be within the budgetary uh constraints that you've approved for the year.

Okay.

So is there no possibility?

I'm just wondering if there's any possibility to bring it before us instead of making an ordinance, changing it within our ordinances.

You know, if it was really important to really get someone in the water department, could it be something that could just come to us for a vote?

I think operationally that just gets tricky because we have people leaving every day.

Um and like I said, we're still operating within the confines of our budget.

If we had to make an amendment to the budget for some reason, we would have to come back to you anyway.

So can I ask you really quick?

How many times you've been here for two years?

So how many times over the two years would you say this would have really benefited a situation that came on?

I mean, I can think of like five off the top of my head, and that's not even including what directors have brought to me.

Okay, thank you.

People that they have retiring.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Mayor?

Yeah.

To follow up on the councilwoman's question.

You were saying we have, you know, she she was saying what I was thinking.

Question I was gonna ask is it's a rarity, it's not something that happens literally every day.

Like you said, five times roughly in two years.

So yeah, you know, if it's if you need an ordinance to establish it, but it should be by a permission or vote of the council.

You know, you can't the council can't give away all of its managerial or governing abilities.

And you would say, well, you've got people quitting every day, right?

But this is supposed to be people that are giving notice.

So two weeks' notice, I mean, is not enough time really for us to get somebody else in place for operational reasons.

That's where you're losing me.

Two weeks' notice, then why are we going six months?

Because we can go for shorter.

We're just trying to make it as easy as we can to make sure that our operations don't come to a s standing halt because we don't have someone else in there.

So I'm happy if you want to go to like 90 days or something else.

No, no, what I'm saying is if somebody if the predominance of people can only give two weeks notice, this is a move point.

Two weeks can't do anything.

You can't even with an ordinance, you can't post and hire in two weeks.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, Alison, can you speak to your instance?

Um so I know for mine, like my question if you if you don't mind.

So I get it.

What I'm saying in a general sense, if you said two weeks notice something sometimes.

This ordinance ain't gonna help that.

So give you two weeks, that it's not gonna help that.

If somebody gives you the six months or 90 days, whatever it is, notice saying, hey, I'm gonna retire, like Krista has done, um, then you this option would work.

Yes.

But you would also have plenty of time to bring through the council.

It would be at the most two weeks later at a council meeting to say, hey, we just got uh notice from Krista, we would like to start uh hiring and have permission to to hire her replacement starting now, and we could say yes or no.

Right.

So this is the form of government that Joliet is as a city manager from a government, so I'm responsible for all hiring and firing of all of our employees.

Um that's I mean, that's just the law for how Joliet functions.

Um the reason we need an ordinance is because we control the first strings.

You can't do it without our try.

So this without this ordinance.

I didn't say that you should come to us and give us the candidate so we can pick a candidate.

If you say you want to start hiring somebody, put it out there.

Yeah, yeah, it's up to us to say, yeah, we'll give you the that ability budget-wise.

I would support that more than a blanket, regardless of who's in there now, being you bet, or who may be maybe there in five years, ten years, twenty years.

Right, you need to plan for the future too.

So again, I didn't uh mean I don't know if I misstated that.

I don't think I did.

I didn't say that you should bring the candidates to us.

But when you say, hey, we got a situation, Krista just said she's leaving.

We like to start a process of hiring so we can get them in three years, and I do that like often in closed session, and I'll ask about a specific person.

Right.

But then we then you bring it to us and we vote on it.

Uh yeah, we we we agree with you that's uh a pivotal position.

So yeah, we'll we'll give you the permission to start the hiring process.

And then you go hire because you're the city manager.

That's what I'm more supportive of.

Okay.

You know, I I understand the um when somebody retires that wealth of knowledge, it goes right out the door, and we really need to capture that for somebody new.

I understand that.

Um I just don't know.

I mean, when somebody's hired here at the city, and this may be for uh Liz human resources labor issue.

Um I mean, can they not can we not put that in I guess the the contract or or whatever that they have to notify us within so much time?

I mean, is that legal?

I don't know if that's currently in the contract, Liz.

Do you know?

No.

There I mean it would be great if it was in every contract that they had to provide us with a certain amount of notice.

Um, but currently there's a minimum of two-week notice.

I mean, I would feel like that's what maybe move in a different direction.

Maybe on top of this, this could be like the band-aid, and then we can put that in there so they have to notify us two months before they they leave or three months or just throwing it out there.

Yeah, no, I mean, these are all good points.

I would like you to hear from directors though who have come to me asking for this change.

Yeah, um, and I can speak this was specifically something I brought to Beth's attention because what has happened typically in our department is our senior positions, we do get notice because they're retirees and they have to give their irrevocable notice.

I believe it's what, six months in advance.

Um because then they can start um drawing their second vacation time as part of the pension package.

So we do get that notice, and so the positions that affect me.

Um is uh of one of our highest administrative positions at our plant facilities.

She helps Nick Gornick with his um EPA compliance paperwork.

And this is a position that if he had to fill um after she was gone, it would take away his time and doing his job to you know to to train someone.

And it's some not training that happens in you know a week.

There's a lot of different work that this person does, and so they need that extended time to see all the different work that is performed.

I know another question we received is why isn't that cross-training happening?

And it's because you know we don't know who's going to take that position.

It might be someone in Kevin's department.

Um, you know, so that cross-training isn't really feasible given you know how we do hiring um within some of those positions.

So it's it's something that um you know we would benefit greatly from having that that training um time.

Um another position is our one of our water uh treatment operators, he is retiring.

And again, we have you know given that notice, and again, that's uh a senior position, and it's important again that that someone step up into that role.

Um and you know, or if we know that there might not be someone able to fill that position, which is another problem we have in our department, and those positions are very difficult to fill just in the current environment.

We don't have a lot of um people who are qualified.

And that position could be time consuming to um find someone a qual qualified candidate.

So our ability to start that process sooner.

Um, you know, it's important that we have people in those positions.

So those were you know two examples specifically within my department that are uh critical.

We also have a wastewater operator retiring this year, our chief wastewater operator.

Um and that cross-training, uh or not cross-training, the training in advance of his retirement is is very important just to our continued um operations of our facilities.

Go ahead, Caesar.

Um I think I'd like to comment on this.

Um I would support it just simply because I think like you mentioned, it's not we're not you're not going over the budget that we've already approved as counsel to say this is the dollar amount.

And for them, for you to have to bring it back to us, then we determine whether six months, three months, five months.

That's gonna become a very tedious kind of deal where, well, I don't know.

I don't think three you know, I don't think you need three months for that, Alison.

I think you could do it in two months, you know, and and have it to determine that whether we're here or anybody else that's here, I think it becomes very it becomes very complicated.

Um and I do believe that we need to, you know, not that we don't, but you're right, we gotta have faith in our city manager and our professional staff that they're doing the the right decisions based off of that budget.

Now if it goes over the budget then obviously yeah it has to come to us because we're asking for more money that was already allocated for the year.

So I would support it uh just for that reason of just not for us to determine whether something's a six month, three month, four month out shouldn't be something that we should decide.

Go ahead similar to the seizure this was vetted at the finance uh all the items that Caesar just mentioned with going over the budget, being in the budget uh we we're talking about and I feel that as Cesar just mentioned we have all the safeguards that are needed uh but the city manager do a job real quick um I was gonna talk oh so I know sorry um I'll wait for you do I need to call I got oh man no just kidding um all right jokes aside right uh back to work um I it's not at the that I don't support it I see where you guys are coming from I get it um but six months does seem very lengthy and my my and my the way I think is okay we're gonna hire someone in right they already know how to at least have an idea of what what they have to do they're not coming in you're not training someone brand new to that job if you're let's say Chris I'm gonna pick on you right I'm gonna I'm gonna say hey we're gonna hire a new deputy city manager.

We're assuming if we're gonna hire someone that for that position is because they have a an idea of what to do.

So that you know I I get what you're saying I I understand where you guys are coming from and the necessity it may pose but at the same time it just seems six months is a little far out so those are my comments.

Mary can I ask a question before you finalize the comment okay.

Yeah people are you know are making this it's within the budget.

It can't be budgeted for we don't know when people are going to retire.

So what what you'll be doing is what if we have open you know there's extra money in the budget because this position hasn't been filled with that one.

But but this particular one has not been budgeted for and you would be paying for both two people at one time.

Well right because someone has to come in and learn the job so we don't lose that knowledge in between.

Kevin can you speak more fully to the budget so I'll as an example Elison's positions she had advanced notice I think actually longer than six months that the staff notified her that they intended to retire in twenty six.

And so during the budget process for her positions that was included in the budget to do I think three months.

Yeah we we did know and so I did present this to Kevin during the budgeting process that the three positions I mentioned were had given us notice that they were retiring which we appreciated and so then we did plan for three months.

So we're a couple of them you know we are already in the position of being behind.

So those three months won't even be utilized but we do have three months of each of those positions included in the budget.

And does it does the ordinance how does it provide for somebody who withdraws their I'm sorry these uh so again the the ones the positions I have they're um irrevocable so when someone turns in their notice for a retirement and I I don't know Liz can time in if that I mean irrevocable to me means you can't so these positions are not they cannot with withdraw their plums to retire.

Plus the ordinance states that as well that it can't just be a give notice it has to be an irrevocable notice.

And then as it relates to the budget you're right normally we do not budget for uh an overlap I think the since I've been involved in municipal Allison's is the first one that I've dealt with here and so when it comes to you know being in the budget really means that they have to create a department has to create a savings somewhere else and that could be from a vacancy somewhere else it could be from hiring at a lower level um but from a standpoint you know I cannot expend funds beyond what's in that budget so they have to either have it within their salaries or somewhere else on their budget to free up funds to pay for that overage.

And this is my last question is you know you read about even the smaller communities everybody's picking on on you tonight right Krista but you know you'll read oh the the the new deputy city manager they promoted the finance director the new the city manager left paper are we failing at preparing other people to step in is that something we should be addressing why aren't we training other people you know you call the the ordinance refers to succession there is no succession if we can't promote people from within that we have to hire from without or and hire people that we have to train from the ground up cold.

We're failing our our business model isn't working in that and you know we've got deputy not that I'm getting you to retire chief but we got deputy chiefs that could step in because they've been trained to understand what it is to be chief.

Why aren't the other departments doing the same thing?

That's something we've been asking for the last two years, and something that we're trying to implement department by department to make sure that we have those succession plans.

Um confident there's at least three people that can take this job right now that I have and transition smoothly.

Um everybody's at some point replaceable.

And I think that we all work closely enough that uh that's we used to operate more in silos, and we're not doing that as much since I've been here.

You know, like everybody we meet weekly, everybody knows what people are working on, how can we help?

We're I know that um it doesn't seem like it, but our staffing hasn't changed since we were like, what did you say, Kevin?

The 70,000 people that we've had when before our population grew.

We're we're at the same levels now.

So everyone is multitasking.

Um but we still have some issues like in purchasing right now, two people have just retired.

So we need someone to be able to take that position and learn purchasing in advance.

This is how every other municipality I'm aware of operates.

Um it's really just for productivity and operations to continue to be able to provide the services to the residents that they deserve.

Mayor, I know you're dying to talk, but that's I'm like Rodney Dangerfield, you know.

You didn't ask.

No respect, no respect.

Um, I correct me if I'm wrong.

One of the components of this current ordinance is that we can't even post the job.

We can't even go looking for an a new employee until the other one has lost the last time.

That's the reading currently.

When we say you know, we're giving six months, we're giving six months to post for the position to hopefully find that qualified candidate, you know, give the interview process, and then maybe we have a few months left.

I've hired many people and taken the six months to try to find the right person.

So just because we're saying six months doesn't mean we're starting to train somebody at six months, we're starting the process at six months.

Oh, yeah.

And right now we do not have that.

Correct.

Okay.

Mayor, it's your turn.

Sure, just took everything I was gonna say.

We're trying to get you in.

Thank you.

One of the things though that when I looked at this, I felt the same way.

We're not gonna hire somebody and for six months have them paired up with their trainee.

But like Greg Ruddy, I'm gonna pick on you a little bit.

We know how difficult it is to get engineers right now.

And if we don't have at least a six-month runway to get this thing posted and have an opportunity to try and get someone in here, um I mean that market's red hot right now, wouldn't you say, Greg?

It's yeah, excuse me, getting a civil engineer is is a challenge right now, and we're hearing that industry-wide.

Um thing I would say is you know, excuse me, some positions are are more easy to um uh promote someone, like in my instance, I have two deputy directors.

I feel confidently if if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, one of them can take over the job.

But uh we also have a veteran engineering staff of engineers and engineering aids and public works, and I expect some some upcoming retirements here, and because of the technical nature of their work and the project-oriented nature of their work.

If I could get somebody in ahead of time to understand the project, you know, road construction project that's a year or more or whatever the project might be that could get that knowledge transfer ahead of time instead of waiting for that person to retire and then it's left on remaining staff to kind of cobble together what was going on and then trying to get the new person up to speed.

If we could get some uh some like a position like that ahead of time, advertised for an engineer.

It's it's difficult to get engineering uh civil engineers right now for whatever reason.

Um so that I think that would be helpful in that sense.

Yeah, I think that conversation you and I had is what prompted me to think we need that six-month window just to get that ball rolling.

We're never gonna have anybody duplicating a position for five and a half months because we hired them in two weeks.

It's it takes a long time now to get good qualified staff, and like you said, we've got projects that are two years long, but you've got somebody leaving in a year, and and we need a we need a runway to have that baton handed off.

So that's why I agree that this six-month runway is pretty good for what we need to do in some of the positions, not all.

I mean, we're not I don't see abuse here.

I think there's positions you can take a two-week uh resignation letter and have somebody in there and keep it going.

But we can't wait until someone leaves to try and hire someone.

It's it's a tough pool out there to get young people.

That's my thoughts.

One last thing.

Can we still look into the this would be for legal or human resources?

Can we still uh have the uh maybe answer to the question of can we require our employees to notify us at a certain amount of time, not two weeks before is that legal or not?

Um it is not because we're talking about at will employees here in Illinois because the employer, the city of Joliet is not required to give any notice of termination.

The employee also is not required to give notice.

Um and if we wanted to head down that path, it would likely turn into a contract job, which we can't do for supervisors.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Moving on to resolutions, city council member 2042 resolution approving a property tax abatement at 33835 Young's Road Joliet for Hyundai Translead Incorporated.

And I know that we have Doug Pryor with us and a representative from Hyundai.

Um happy to answer any questions.

This is a big deal for the City of Joliet.

Getting Lions Electric uh building filled and bringing manufacturing jobs, it's really a wonderful opportunity for the city.

Uh thank you, Beth.

Um again, Doug Pryor with Willow County Center for Economic Development.

I have with me Sean Kenny, the CEO of Hyundai Translead.

Um Sean has been our our partner and lead on this project.

Um maybe I won't say how long, but it it's it's been some time that that we've been working on this.

This project in total um contemplates both the 3835 Young's Road building, what we locally call the former line electric building in the city of Joliet, and also what we call the former Caterpillar Building, 2200 Shanahan Drive.

Um this uh will ultimately take the full footprint of both of those buildings, about 2.4 million square feet, and put both of them back into manufacturing use.

Uh the estimate is that this will help create 2,475 jobs here in Will County and um in Joliet between the two buildings, um, and a capex number that is approaching 350 million um, I think yeah, maybe maybe a little more.

Um but um overall, look that this is a project we've worked on for a long time.

This is something you know, as we've looked at the growth of the transportation industry around the Joliet area.

We spent a lot of time talking about how we capture the next thing, more value add within this industry.

This partner, this project is a perfect way for us to do that.

Um, and as it stands today, uh the ask in front of you is for a five-year 50% abatement of the new increment at 3835 Young's Road.

I do want to point out that because of the investment in the facility, this is even during the abatement period accretive from year one to the city of Joliet.

In other words, it will generate more revenue than it does today, even during the abatement period for the city.

Um, and in addition to that, I I will acknowledge that um several years ago I stood at this podium and asked for something similar uh for a previous project at this building, um, the the Lyme project.

I I do think it's important to clarify that no local dollars were ever spent on that project, they never reached the jobs threshold, so no abatement ever took place at this facility previously.

Um so that this would be again a kind of new project, new revenue, but also um a lot of new jobs with a partner that has been incredible throughout that process.

And look, I'm certainly open to you know, opening it up to questions, but I don't know if Sean, you want to I will open it up to questions.

So what is the jobs threshold here here to activate one of the jobs threshold threshold in this group?

2475.

What do we hit for the total project 2475 for City of Joliet and the Young's Road building?

Hold on.

Councilman uh hug, I'm gray now and need the glasses.

Um Young's Road is 1291.

Yeah, 1,291.

But as far as as it goes through the tax abatement.

You know how the Lions was tied to it?

They had to hit certain numbers.

Right.

What are the numbers here?

Same.

Yeah, it's the numbers I'm giving.

One thing I'll point out for the time I did spend, which was a lengthy time on the economic development.

This is not a huge economic development ask.

It's not five years.

We lost the Toyota dealership to stay in the car theme because we wouldn't go above our this is kind of like Joliet's minimum, just so people out there understand that.

So it's great because they're not asking more than the minimum, and they're tying it to the jobs.

Correct.

So uh, you know, I don't regret the Lions thing.

You got sometimes you you gotta you gotta pull the trigger on it.

I don't regret it because we were protected.

We're protected.

If if you don't mind my saying so I appreciate you saying that it's it's one of those things that look it was a new industry, we we took a shot.

That's that's how you find success in development work is often you have to take some risk on a new project.

Um very different, right?

Very experienced company in this space already doing it at scale on a global scale.

Um but I I appreciate you saying that obviously the electric car you know industry has grown quite a bit since this inception.

I gotta admit, you know, I still supported it, but looking at that, I'm like buses, I'm not so sure there's gonna be a demand for that.

And unfortunately, my my uh doubt came true.

That this this is something I say it's already established they're expanding um to meet the market, you know, and therefore expanding the market, sure.

And I just wanted to point out this is not a huge ask on on the abatement.

It's it's 50 percent of the taxes for five years.

After that, the paying full boat, and they don't get that unless they meet the the uh the employment requirements, and I needed I needed the people out there, the public that we serve to understand that.

So that's my comments, Mayor.

Thank you.

Mayor can I see some okay.

I just wanted to thank you for coming to the City of Joliet.

I am not in favor of tax abatements ever.

I think we have something that industry should want here, and everything exists.

But this is so amazing to have not one building but two be completely revived and no longer stagnant with an amazing company that is a fantastic partner.

So I'm definitely in favor of this project, and I want to thank you for coming to the city of Joliet, because I hear all the time that Lion Electric is sitting, sorry, I shouldn't have said that name, is sitting there vacant.

The caterpillar building is sitting there vacant.

So it's very exciting to have both of those projects in District 5.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And good job, Paulina.

Good job.

Thank you.

And the city manager, of course, and the mayor.

Thank you.

I'm very happy about this.

I'm always last if that's okay.

Um asked will be first, Mayor.

Thank you.

So you guys are making the your drive-ins, right?

Oh, 53 footers.

Is it is your logo uh blue, right?

Yeah.

Good traders, by the way.

I've driven them, I've moved them around, and nice traders.

So welcome to Joliet.

Thank you.

That's a those are my comments.

Yeah, I do want to thank you, Sean.

This is a big deal for the city of Joliet, and we appreciate you choosing us.

I'm sure you had other sites.

And Doug, thank you for all the work you put into it, but we're really grateful to have you here.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mayor question.

Let's get it out there.

Do we know what the average projected uh salary is for the 2400 positions?

We're still working through that.

It'll be a wide range though.

So um of the 2,400 and what do we say, 2,475 jobs, 2,455 will be hired locally.

And of those, approximately 230 are salary.

So it's a wide variety.

Um, they will be market plus with benefits.

Okay.

Thank you.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

County uh council 20526 resolution authorizing the execution of a property tax incentive with supermercados El Guerrero and the amount ink at 118 East Jackson Street for tax year 2025.

So really, um, the county clerk needs for their records um an official document certifying that the improvements to the supermarcado have been made and therefore can proceed with applying the property tax abatement.

Um, and so that's what we're doing here.

In 2019, you approved this tax abatement, but the county needs some documentation to make sure that they can pay it out.

Uh so it's really just housekeeping.

Council Memo 2062 resolution authorizing execution of an intergovernmental cooperation agreement between the City of Joliet and the Joliet Park District.

Um so the city and the park districts has identified a need for enhanced security measures at the district's property, which can be achieved through installation of cameras.

We were bringing this to council for just one for Heggy Park.

Um, but more intelligent heads prevailed, and um we're just entering into this IGA with the park district, so we can really put cameras wherever they're needed.

Council Memo 2072 resolution approving easement agreement for water facility construction with Plainfield Park District.

The Rob Ares soccer complex, southeast east of Caton Farm Road and Ridge Road.

So we're working with five other communities on an alternative water source program to design and construct the pipeline.

Um this program requires the city to provide modifications to its water system to enable the delivery of Lake Michigan water throughout the cities.

Uh the addition of a booster pumping station and water transmission main at the existing water storage tank located at Plainfield Site High School is where we need to make those modifications.

Um the Plainfield Park District owns the soccer complex located located southeast of the intersection of Caton Ferman Ridge and has agreed to grant the city a temporary construction easement on the district property for staging and storage of materials and equipment for construction and installation of boot the booster pumping station.

Councilmember 2082 resolution accepting a grant of public utility easement from Burton Place Apartment for the Larkin Avenue Water Main Improvement Project.

This easement agreement will provide access rights for installation of the water main loop on Burton Place's property.

Last but not least, Council Memo 2092 resolution authorizing approval and execution of an encroachment stipulation letter with Kinder Morgan for the 2026 Glenwood and West Acres Water Main Improvement Project.

That concludes the agenda.

Next we have public comments.

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

Mayor.

If there's not just real quick, um Greg, we spoke earlier.

I just wanted to get that uh Catherine uh north of Glenwood, south of Black Road on the list for paving if we can for this year or understood.

We checked it.

Um there's one section that I believe the section between Glenwood and Mayfield that's in a little worse condition, so we're looking at trying to do that.

Thank you.

I want to just program let the uh resident know I would say that publicly, and then uh want to make sure we get on these weeds uh citywide, they're already starting to pop.

Make sure we have a plant plan in place for that, and then lastly, um, I guess there was a Senate bill that was passed last year.

Uh SB 2111, it's the people over parking law.

I just didn't know if legal can maybe look into that and see exactly how that's going to affect uh the city of Joliet.

I guess uh it has to do with parking uh around a transportation hub or something along those lines.

I was trying to read it and decipher it and I didn't get around to it yet.

So we did look into it briefly.

Um the amendment to the law is effective in June of this year.

We at this point do not believe that it will affect the standard street parking in the city lots of the downtown area.

Um we don't we are not aware of any developments within the city of Joliet where it would be an issue under the definition of the development project, but we are going to communicate with community development to confirm that it will not be an issue.

In layman's terms, can you can you let us all it shouldn't affect us for parking?

I got that, but but the actual law that was passed.

What are they trying to do?

They are trying to ensure that where there is construction um that there is still parking for people around those construction areas.

Okay.

Mayor, I have one thing.

I'm so sorry, Joe.

Okay.

Um, city manager.

I've been getting a lot of complaints, and I mean a lot of complaints of the Millsdale Road cul-de-sac.

They I don't know who it is who's doing this, but they've sent me videos of people driving up over that cul de sac.

I'm wondering, is there anything we can do?

Can we put a sign like this road is now called a sack?

You can't go down or absolutely.

This is one of our priorities right now as well.

We've heard the public comment and also talk to you about these concerns.

Um North Prince working on um expanded landscaping, including trees, but the trees are small right now.

Um they're also looking at putting in a fence.

Um and if we need to, we'll have to put it in a bollard.

But yeah, people just are jumping the curb and doing what they like out there.

So we are working closely with North Point to make sure that is taken care of.

Thank you so much because you worked so hard, like the mayor, you guys all worked really hard, public works, all of us up here to call the sack for them to just ride over.

I know no way we're gonna let that continue.

Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay, seeing there are no more comments.

I did receive a request for closed session.

Is there a motion to go into closed session to discuss personal collective bargaining land acquisition or conveyance, pending or threatened litigation after which the meeting will adjourn?

So move.

Seg it.

It's been motion and second to approve.

Councilman Cardinals.

Councilman Clement, Councilman Hug, Councilman Abara, Councilman Moreno, Councilman Mudron.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilman McCullem?

Aye.

Councilman Ruordan.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.