Good evening, everybody.

This is the pre-council for the City of Joliet meeting in Council Chambers today on April 20th, 2026 at 5 30.

Mike's not working.

My seat's broken.

Okay.

There we go.

There you go.

Sabotage or April full still.

Okay.

Can we repeat it?

Oh, I think we're good.

Okay.

We'll begin with roll call.

Mayor Darcy.

Here.

Councilman Cardenas is absent.

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

Councilman McClellan.

Here.

Councilman Hug?

Here.

Councilwoman Abarra?

Here.

Councilman Moreno?

Here.

Councilman Mudron.

Here.

Councilwoman Quillman.

Here.

Councilwoman Redan.

Here.

First, we have a presentation.

Q4 2025 and Q1 2026.

Water conservation.

Incentive program winners and intro for Q2 2026 program presented by Alison Swisher, Director of Public Utilities.

Hey, Mayor and Council.

Just here tonight to give an update on our exciting water conservation incentive program.

So in the Q4 2025, we had a incentive where residents were asked to test their toilets to see if they were leaking.

Leaking toilets are a major source of wasted water.

And so we had residents participate, and the winner for that was uh Carmen Figaroa, who is here today.

Not yet.

Okay.

Um and then the Q1 2026.

We had another um in uh challenge to our residents, which was to uh do a winter water checklist to make sure they didn't have um issues that could affect in the winter with freezing pipes and those kind of things.

And so the winner was Luann McBride, who I believe is here today.

Okay.

Um so we have our new uh challenge uh for our incentive program, which is to look at outdoor water conservation.

I know there's many ways to conserve water outdoors, one is a you know rain barrel or other flow flow fixtures for your um watering when you're watering your landscaping.

So that's our adult challenge.

We also have a really cool kids challenge, which is um we have a made a 12 different baseball cards, each with a water conservation tip on it.

So we're asking kids to go around to different events this year and um collect all of those baseball cards, and then once they get all of them, they can enter to win.

So really encouraging everyone in a fun way to think about water conservation because that ultimately can lead to um saving money on your water bill.

And so we have a bunch of events coming up.

We um are participating in various events.

We always want to say we need to take the message to the people where they are, and so we go to a handful of events and also we're partnering again with Will County for our water conservation baseball game with the Joliet Slammers on July 7th.

So it's a really fun event to help educate residents about water conservation.

And just always a reminder that we do have our two city supported water conservation programs, our rain barrel program, where we provide a subsidy of $35 to uh residents and water customers.

To date, we've uh almost $896 brain barrels have been distributed.

So that's great that everyone's participating in this, and we also have our toilet low-flow toilet rebate program for um folks who have the high volume flush toilets.

You can replace those with a low volume um toilet and get a rebate of a hundred dollars for that.

So just want to thank Ann Grooms uh for all of her hard work on putting together these fun water conservation programs, and we'd like to recognize our winner now.

Well, we have a gift card and would like to take a photo with council.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

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

So I have two people signed up, so we'll start there.

Um, Bob Wonderlich.

Thank you, City Council and Mayor.

Uh most of you know me, Bob Wonderlich, Campbell Street Joliet.

I am here to talk about the revised PUD for JJC.

Uh I've got a couple of notes.

I don't know if I can read my own handwriting.

Um as most of you know, I was on the JJC board for 44 years, most of them as chairman.

Years ago, I think it was 2001, when JJC built the Centennial Commons housing, which JJC couldn't do, but the foundation did uh on JJC land.

For some reason there was some stipulation in the law that we could not have student housing ourselves.

Oh, so we partnered with the foundation to get students to come into JJC because Lewis had housing, St.

Francis had housing.

We wanted to bring our students in.

Of course, being the oldest community college in the United States, it just seemed right.

At the time we had to pull teeth with our your former city manager, John Mesera, who was not near as good looking as Beth.

But anyway, we got it.

We got it done.

And the PUD in and Meser has said the only reason I'm going to give you the zoning to do this is a PUD that says only students, students, family, or people that work at JGC will be allowed to live there.

Um it's been violated already, which I know, but I I that's beside the point.

Um at this time I just I just want to say that I am against changing the PUD to open it up to anybody else because we don't know who's going to be living there, at least if it's students and students' families and people that work there.

It's could the the people that live around there in the subdivisions, they know what's going on right now with JJC, and they know that it's supposed to be student housing.

Um they might be a little disturbed if it gets opened up to anybody who just wants to live there.

And thank you very much for your time.

Jim Rolfe.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Counsel, manager Beth.

I wanted to speak about item 218-26, which is going to provide a liquor license B and M for the Bartner Oberwortman for the cultural center in Pilcher Park.

This is a great opportunity to lift up the utilization of a tremendous facility that's in Pilcher Park.

And Mr.

Barber looked at Mr.

Dowd and said, excuse me.

I want to get Mr.

Oberwortman in here because I heard the whole discussion.

And Mr.

Barber said, Obi.

This is important to our community and will be a long-term enhancement at Pilcher Park.

And while they want us to contribute something, he said to Mr.

Dowd, he said, Ron, how much will this be?

And he said it will be approximately two million dollars at that time.

And the two gentlemen looked at each other and said, we will do it.

That's the kind of commitment many people have made to our community on a regular basis.

And it's not always known.

I mean, people know the building is there, they don't think about Barbara and Oberwortman as being the generous supporters of the facility.

And it is a great facility that can be more highly utilized for a lot of different types of events right in Pilcher Park, right adjacent to the greenhouse.

And the greenhouse happens to have Shirley Oberworkman's name on it as well because she said, well, I'm not let those two guys do everything.

So she put her name on that.

And those two facilities are so important in Pilcher Park that this will just be a great enhancement to it.

I don't think it's controversial at all, but I thought the historic note was very important to mention tonight because that's the kind of people we have in Joliet that support causes many different causes, with whether it's time or financial resource, when there's cause is something that they're gonna ask for, they stand up and support it.

So I just wanted to bring that to your attention tonight as you consider this particular item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, that is everyone I have signed up.

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

Hello, all hello, council.

Um my name is Michelle Rana.

I'm the owner of Internode Greenerine Home located in downtown Juliet.

So as you all well know, uh downtown Juliet businesses have struggled for the last few years.

Um I feel that I've had about two, two and a half years of struggle because the construction did start directly outside of my shop.

Um, what that has made me do is look hard at my business model and realize that it's not working right now.

So what do we do?

We change and we grow with the times.

So um on your agenda tonight is a liquor license that we have applied for.

Um what that liquor license will do will allow us to have our new business model, which is an artisan bodega.

What does that mean?

That means that you can come in and you can grab some cheese, some meat, a bottle of wine, maybe a seltzer, go home, have a nice meal, a girl dinner as I call it, um, and not have to go all the way to the west side um and stop at a big box grocery store.

You can stop and find something small and still we can fulfill your needs.

This is also going to allow us to participate in events at the new city square that I feel will be a game changer for us.

So I would um ask you to please um think about and also to agree to allow us to have a liquor license because it is um our last chance effort in staying in downtown Juliet.

Thank you.

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

Okay.

Seeing none, next we will have the city manager review tomorrow night's actionable items.

Thank you, Lauren.

Um tomorrow we'll hear from the finance committee, legislative committee, public assets, and public service.

On the consent agenda, Council Memo 21026, award a contract for a vehicle lift equipment purchase and installation to Napa auto parts at an amount not to exceed $550,000.

Council Memo 2126, award of contract for the nine Osgood Street floor resurfacing to integrity concrete coatings and the amount of 84,913 and 20 cents.

Council Memo 2126 approval of amendment number three for the phase two engineering services for the Fail Road over Spring Creek Bridge Improvement Project to Hutchinson Engineering and the amount of $15,000.

Council Memo 21326 approve the purchase of body armor vests for SOS and from First Spear in the amount of $54,616 and 25 cents.

Council Memo 21426 purchase for fire station one of cabinets from Riverton Cabinet Company in the amount of $35,194 and the installation of cabinets for Fire Station One from Heinz Construction Incorporated in the amount of $32,450 for a total amount of $67,644.

We did budget for this.

Um it was approved for the 2026 budget, so we're bringing it back before you for approval.

Council Memo 21526, award of professional services, purchase and installation of the Joliet Slammers fire suppression pipe replacement to AMS Industries Inc.

in the amount of 186,70.

So this is a part of a three-year-old capital improvement plan.

We are continuing replacement of the fire suppression system throughout the stadium.

Council Memo 21626, water contracts for grass cutting on vacant city lots to summit long care in the amount of thirty-eight thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars, and to coal pepper lawn works in the amount of seventeen thousand five hundred and thirty-five dollars.

The city owns a number of vacant lots that were acquired over time through various means, including prior administrative purposes and other property transfers.

Neighborhood services is in control of 162 lots, and for many years has contracted with external vendors to provide routine, grass cutting, and general lot maintenance services.

Moving on to license and permit applications, council memo two eighteen twenty-six issuance of a class B and Class M liquor license at 227 North Galgar Road.

Barber Oberwortman Horticultural Center, venue ninety-eight.

Question?

How is this different from what they're doing today?

So what they're doing today is, and I don't know if we have a representative here, but um I think your catering company used to get the liquor license, and now they would like to get the light liquor license themselves.

So they obviously lots of us have been there for other things and they've had liquor at everything I've been had.

Yeah.

So I'll let it hear what you said.

So we're just I was just asking, what are you doing today that this will be different and more advantaged advantageous to you for you?

So prior prior to um the remodel, the caterer was uh the one that had the liquor license, not the Joliet Park district.

Um so we just kind of it was a turnkey kind of situation.

They rented the space from us and they kind of took control everything.

Um now I would be the event manager for the Barber Overwater Culture Center, Dash Venue ID.

So I would be in charge of selling the bar packages, the wedding packages, the venue itself, and then we have a private caterer that would just come in and do the cooking itself.

So uh do I park two will be taken more control over the whole operation?

Yes.

Since the remodel is it opened yet since we remodeled?

Not yet.

We're working on an occupancy.

So probably another month, I would say, and then we should be opened.

Thank you.

Uh so will this give more revenue to the park district?

Yes.

In the current right?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, what is the class M liquor license?

It's not on the list.

Um, can you give me a clarification?

You know, it's not on the list always really hard.

M stands for music.

So it's just for uh audible music, uh bands, entertainment details.

We do when we have uh beer garden, we have same thing, it's just an M license, so it allows them to have uh music in the area.

So there's no neighbors around there, but everybody has okay.

I was just looking because it's on the list of all the licenses.

Now we're gonna add it.

Mayor tomorrow.

Mr.

Mayor.

Yeah, Joe.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, we're all aware they have liquor license throughout the city, and they've never had any issues.

Um, thank you.

Council Memo 21926, issuance of a class E liquor license at 81 North Chicago Street, Internode Greenery and Home.

Council Memo 2.

Sure, yeah.

Yeah.

We're doing class E, which is hotel.

Yeah, I had the same question.

Oak, can you address this for the council?

She originally wanted an A.

We do not offer A's anymore.

She's not really a bar, so it's kind of like an on-premise because she has she'll have a patio out there.

But in the state of Illinois right now, because of COVID anywhere, I think it goes until 2028 or 2029, if I'm not mistaken.

You're allowed to take package liquor out as long as it's in a sealed container.

So she would be able to take a four-pack or six pack of beer or sells or a bottle of wine out of there.

But with her thing that she would be able to get a class O with this as well and still sit outside and enjoy the downtown.

So it'll give her best of both.

We don't hand out A's anymore.

Those are kind of gone by the wayside.

Those are a back of the day license, and we handed a have it handed out those we've actually taken from some people as well.

So it's not thanks to it.

And what type of liquor would that be?

She can have any liquor she'd like, but generally what she's doing her thing would be beer and wine and seltzer only.

So I thought we had didn't we were working on, or did we ever finish?

Back when we had some people came with like a hobby stores that wanted to have wine and bear.

Didn't we put together a special license?

I think we did, but I this wouldn't fall into that carry.

This would be a little bit different too.

It's a little bit great.

It's almost like it's a bodega situation, which I've worked in different restaurants.

There's places in Detroit where they literally it's all one.

So it's almost like a bar, coffee shop, and then grocery store all into one place, and we really don't.

She would be the first one in town.

So we could give her this then and reach back again so she'd get doing her thing and reach back and do a different license for her as well if we feel like we need to do that.

Down the road.

Yeah.

There's kind of a beta test.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So this would be then in the new downtown city center.

Um bring a beverage with you.

There is talk of that.

Yes.

You would have to have a full food license and an open kitchen.

We're talking about doing that for, but there would be a beer garden license there, so should we be able to have a beer garden with ADA approval and all that and stuff and fencing, which we're working on right now?

So she would be able to be a part of that and have an outdoor license as well.

So it's a little bit different downtown.

It's actually called a cafe license because it's on city property, so the rules are gonna be much different than someone that would be say on the west side where they would be on private property.

So it's a little bit different.

We have we're working with legal right now to write up a bunch of different things because there's more scenarios in that way, because they're be on Joliet property and not on their own property.

Thank you.

Mayor, can I say something really quick?

I just want to let everybody know just for the record that I definitely support that.

She was recruited to come here from another municipality.

We're so much greater than the other municipality.

Now I'm probably gonna get us sued.

But she's been on the struggle bus for two and a half years, and so the this is an output business.

Like they live in Joliet, their kids went to school in Joliet, they're like lifers here.

We should do our part too and support this.

Thank you.

Mayor, just a follow-up.

So um, but this what what we would be granting this business does not give any right to go on city property with a liquor.

This is just on her own property, the private property.

Right, but there we there's a cafe license that we're working on as well.

So this is just a regular liquor license, nothing else.

Okay, so yeah, and there's a no whole other thing that you're not talking about now, and we'll talk about it later.

Okay, that's correct.

Yes.

I'm gonna ask one more question.

If we bring the food element into it, then are they going to be eligible to be part of the social area downtown?

Is that what we're talking about where they can bring one glass that's you know dated and tied?

If they have a full kitchen, yes.

That would be yes, that would be yes.

Everything is being in the works.

Uh we'll kind of get in our head of ourselves, but yes, all that is in the works right now.

So if that is the case, she would be part of it, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Memo 22026, issuance of Class B liquor license at 3147 West Jefferson Street, the prime house.

It's a breakfast place that's right next to Lamex.

Council Memo 22126, issuance of Class E liquor license at 101 McDonald Avenue, Wingate by Wyndham Joliet.

Council Memo 22 26, issuance of a class B liquor license at 16329 South Boulevard Place.

Long Hork Longhorn Steakhouse is coming.

Question Mayor.

I want to jump back about the prime house.

Did you say it's a breakfast place?

Yeah.

Why do they need a full liquor license?

Probably for mimosas and bloody Marys.

Okay.

Do you have is that what it is, Oak?

Bloody Mary's mimosas.

Bloody Mary's mimosa, and they're actually going to go to dinner as well, I believe, eventually.

Okay.

And I was I've been in there and met with them a couple times.

It's stinking gorgeous in there, I'll be honest with you.

But everything in there is beautiful.

So yeah, I it's a really cool looking place.

So yeah.

Thank you.

Yep.

Thank you.

Moving on to ordinances and resolutions.

Council Memo 22426 ordinance approving the preliminary planned unit development of uh Newstoneshire phase two.

Council Memo 22526 ordinance approving an amendment to the preliminary and final planned unit development of Joliet Junior College Student Housing Subdivision.

Which is what we heard from Mr.

Wonderlich on.

Mayor?

Yeah.

So we I understand uh what Mr.

Wonderwick says.

Mayor, your call.

Yeah, why not?

Sir Commodum.

I'm sorry for that because I'm old.

Uh from what I heard from some of the board members, the proposal for changing the PUD was never brought before the Board of Trustees at Juliet Junior College.

Yeah, your information.

Dustin, can you speak to this?

Uh the Board of Trustees have no legislative control over that PUD.

There's not a legal requirement for them to.

I know the owner of the property who acquired it through foreclosure from the foundation has reached out uh repeatedly to Julia Junior College.

Uh what that conversation between those two individual parties.

I wasn't in the room when those uh conversations may or may not have happened.

But with regards to a vote, a vote did not occur because a vote did not need to occur, it's not required to occur.

The amendment uh of the PUD that is proposed is the province of the City of Jolia at City Council.

Mayor.

So uh Dustin, I guess this would be for you.

Uh this had gone through then the hearing process, or we didn't it just didn't have to have a hearing.

This did go to the planning commission, yes, sir.

And any of the neighbors come to voice their concern?

Uh I can look at the minutes, but uh I don't believe there were anybody remonstrating against this now.

Okay.

Mayor quick question.

Um as a courtesy, um why was the board not just notified what was going on?

I believe the board was notified that this was going on.

I know staff reached out to uh Juliet Junior College.

And I know that the owner of the property also reached out to Joliet Junior College.

Okay, because that's not what we were talking about.

That's why I want to make sure.

All right, thank you.

Um I think we do have the applicant here if you would like to ask any questions from them.

Sure.

Come on down.

You're the next next contestant.

Yep.

Uh good evening, all my name is Aaron Dorsey from the law offices of Dica McGusson.

Uh we represent the contract purchaser Midwest REO5 LOC and for the uh amendment to the BUD.

Your uh business plan then is to cater to anyone or um try for students first, or is it that something that's been worked out at all?

Um so I'm also joined here by uh John K who can speak better to the the business plan.

Bring them up.

Um yeah, okay.

And so it is still open to anyone who wants to rent, whether it's student, faculty, staff, in fact, there are many students that are running there today.

And it was it will be open to anyone.

It would just remove the restriction that it can only be rendered to students.

Today any idea how full or occupied the place.

It's well occupied.

It's at 95% occupancy.

It always stays around that level.

Now part of that is it doesn't quite and part of the reason for the change.

I mean, I can't speak to it.

We didn't own it at that time.

Part of the reason for the change was the lack of true student demand.

Okay.

You're at 95% right now, so why would you want to change that?

95% right now with the mix of student and conventional renters.

Right.

If it if you didn't have all the students, if you didn't have the conventional renters, it would be much lower.

So there is conventional letters uh renters in there when the PUD calls for it not to be available.

That's correct.

Ma'am, that was gonna oh.

Okay, you make the call.

Okay, Marino?

Yeah.

You talk and then you learn.

All right, there you go.

Thanks, Dan.

Um yeah, I was gonna ask, so I was reading uh on here earlier that since 2019.

Wouldn't that be a violation of the ordinance?

Having uh open to regular I I don't want I don't know if I can say regular people, but basically it was meant for students and faculty XYZ.

So not having students there or affiliates or uh people that work there, wouldn't that be a violation already of the orders as it stands right now?

That's and if it is a question, I know currently owned.

Okay, so for Dustin, maybe I don't know.

I I can take a crack at it, Councillor Moreno.

Uh in the in the plainest sense, it would not be complying with the language and the ordinance.

Now the next logical question would be so what then?

And that ordinance doesn't prescribe a remedy.

Uh it just says don't do this.

So uh at some point between 2017 and 2019, the property manager began leasing to, as you put it, and I agree, regular people.

Uh the property is in our rental inspection program.

It has been inspected routinely by neighborhood services, and they're a rental property in good standing in that rental inspection inspection program.

Thank you.

So you you represent the company that wants to buy it.

We are yeah, we're trying to acquire the property.

From the one that's currently owns it and is not following the PUD.

That's correct.

Okay.

You guys were well aware what the PUD existed.

This is not new, like you just found out today, right?

You know what it is as you looked into buying it.

That's correct.

We found out during our due diligence period.

Okay.

And then obviously you can't speak to the current owner.

That's not your client or your client, but they're aware of what the restrictions were too.

Um I remember odd enough, guys.

I was my late 20s or early 30s when they did this, and I I vaguely I I talked to some people that called about it.

I vaguely remember it because I remember thinking at the time, what junior college needs housing, but they did, you know.

And I remember there was some controversy involved.

The only reason it went through is Mr.

Wonderlich said, um uh Mr.

Mesrow was pretty adamant about this restriction because otherwise it wouldn't have passed because the neighbors around there didn't want it.

Yeah.

So I wouldn't support changing it.

They know what it is.

The current owner, you know, I I understand what Dustin's saying.

That's kind of weird.

We don't we don't have Dustin, what happens if we have somebody who's not zoned for uh multifamily, but they're we catch them renting, you know, splitting their house and running it out?

Is there is there a remedy on that?

Well, what we what you've seen uh that that is an instance that has happened even in my short tenure here.

We've uh brought it before you uh for a zoning change.

Uh and usually uh I don't want to say 100% of the time, but the majority of the time you look at the circumstances that uh are presented before you this is a a house that was either originally designed to be a multifamily structure and then was downzoned and now wants to be uh a multifamily again or or was an errant and we go back and we ask for compliance.

So that's typically what happens if someone is out of compliance uh with the with the zoning uh once we know about it, we bring it before the appropriate land use body and then to council, which is what we've done here.

And is it what if they after you go through that process, that particular owner says we're not gonna come in compliance?

We're gonna thumb our nose at you.

Do we have any recourse?

Now we're talking about courts of law, which is uh a place if I do my job right, I don't usually go.

So I would I would gracefully defer to the gentleman to my right.

Yeah, we have to file sue.

It's a long process.

Um I've done that, but it takes a lot of resources from us.

So there is some there's course of action we could take.

Um we try not to get there, but right.

We try to negotiate and okay.

I was just curious because I'm thinking of the residents that live around there and and and the subdivisions and that was put in under certain promises that were put in writing that they're now asking them to reverse, and that's kind of a bait and switch on on the residents.

That's my opinion.

Right.

Uh Mayor, real quick.

Um doesn't do you mind checking or finding out within the last seven years, uh because they cried no, they acquired it in a foreclosure 2017.

No, uh was it 2017 or 2019?

Um let's say it's 2019.

In those seven years, have they tried the current owner?

Has they tried to change the zoning on it to try to be compliance, or they just said it is what it is?

Uh I can find that answer out and bring it to you tomorrow for sure.

Here welcome.

Thank you.

Um do you have any other locations uh where you run a complex like this?

Uh we own five thousand units in you know places across the country, many of them here in Chicago land, Indiana.

None specifically like this with the mix of student and conventional renter.

Dustin, do we look into any of these uh locations?

Of their uh current property o holdings.

Yeah.

Uh that's not something we have done.

It's something that we can look into.

I'm just curious to see if you know, maybe they have one in another jurisdiction and see all the operators there for sure.

And then my second uh question is what what are the rent ranges or what do you plan on on doing that?

Great question.

So the average rent today is about 1530 per month.

And that ranges, depending on if it's a studio, it's around call it 1330 up to about 1900 for a four-bedroom.

Okay, I do have a comment.

Are you go ahead?

I watched my training out there.

Go ahead.

Okay, my comment is um when this was allowed very long time ago when it's first started that it was no longer only students, the people from the outside could come in and live there.

There were many, many, many calls for service from the Joliet Police Department, and there was a lot of trouble out there, and it took a lot of time to get some of the people out of those uh rental apartments.

So you might want to think twice, do background checks.

I don't know how to tell you to do your business.

I'm just telling you, once that changed out there, it was a big problem.

One more.

And then say this was the past.

Do you have plans to expand um to put in more apartments down the road?

We don't know.

We're evaluating that.

There is the five acres next door, but we don't have any concrete plans.

Our plans is are you know just to operate the 128 units that are there?

Thank you.

Yeah.

I have a comment.

Thank you.

It's kind of embarrassing, and something I think that we should consider for the future.

Having an ordinance with a bunch of people that show up and they really want it to be just student, and here we are all these years later, and we're finding out that non-students were living there.

If we have ordinances, we should have some at least fine mechanism, or we should have some mechanism, some kind of teeth to enforce it.

Otherwise, like what's the point of having the ordinance at all?

And this doesn't have to do with you, and none of you weren't here at the time, so this also does have to you to do with you.

But if we're revamping ordinances, we really should have like a fine mechanism or something.

Thank you.

To be clear too, you guys don't.

I just want to reiterate that.

You don't own it currently.

No.

Um, so you don't really have standing to to make the change.

You would you know you'll own it, but the current owner wants to make the change to sell it to you.

Correct.

As part of our transaction, that was one of our agreements was that we would propose the uh amendment to the PUD.

So you you guys haven't committed to buying it yet until this gets done or doesn't get done?

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

One more thing there.

Yeah, go ahead.

So I assume all or the majority of the current residents have some type of a lease into the future.

Correct.

Okay.

Which would obviously be honored.

Oh, of course.

Of course.

Thank you.

Is the seller in the house here?

So you're here doing the job for somebody that broke the ordinance.

It was scary.

Yeah.

Just curious how many uh junior college affiliated people are in the building, in the buildings.

You may not have that answer right now.

Yeah.

So well, there are at least 13 of the units that are rented by the bed to students.

Beyond that, I'm certain that there are other students and faculty that live there, but I don't have that data.

Okay.

Just curious.

Yeah.

Mayor, you make a good point.

It's kind of my opinion that the current buyer is not really that in into selling it for sure, because they're not here to answer our questions.

You're doing great.

You're doing the best you can't.

You have limited access to what their records would indicate now.

I don't want people to confuse you with the current owner.

Um, so yeah, I mean, they should be here to answer these questions.

Thank you.

Can I ask really quick one more thing?

Sure.

How many units are there?

How many units?

How many in total?

Yeah.

128.

And 13 are rented by students.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

And then I know.

All right.

Any other questions?

Can I add one more thing?

Sure.

We did meet with the junior college as part of this.

And their primary concern was the maintenance of Rivera Way, which we have agreed to participate, you know, should we close uh in the short-term and long-term maintenance of Rivera Way?

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Maureen, if you want to talk, you have to come to the podium.

I see you're raising your hand.

I I assume you're finished.

Okay.

As a college trustee, just let you know.

When the notice was put up, we saw the March date, and that was the date that you guys had the big grouping of the IT issue.

We didn't know that that meeting was going to be changed to April 8th.

We thought it was going to be April 16th.

So that wasn't where we could visibly see, just so you know.

That's where we were all planning.

There were people planning to come on April 16th in regards to this.

And I'm just saying the only ones that spoke from the from the school from the from the board never had anything.

It was only the president and the attorney that have talked to the seller and the buyer situation.

We did not, as the board have anything to do with it.

We've just heard about it in our closed session.

And I know I'm the senior member so far, the longest standing one, and I do know the prerequisites that what happened to it when it got sold, what the all what the foundation went through, what the school went through, and we wanted during that period of time to make sure Mr.

Wonderlook did touch touch base with all of the councilmen that were on to make sure that that PUD did not get removed.

He wanted to make sure that it stayed for the safety of our students, the safety of the environment, because that's right when you come into the school.

And that is the main concern that we have that I'm going to say is I have too, as the fact that we want to make sure it instills safety for our students because they are our primary focus.

And yes, we are the first community college in the whole United States, and we do live by the fact that we want to make sure our school is safe and secure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on there?

Yeah.

Okay.

Council Memo 226-26 ordinance accepting a million-dollar grant from the Will County Community Mental Health Board for the no-cost counseling program, amendment of the 2026 budget to receive and expend grant funds and creation of an additional social worker position to perform grant funded activities.

Any questions on that one?

Yes.

I don't have a mic like that.

We we've kind of had had to go through this before with other grants too.

So what happens, because I know there's no guarantee for this grant coming every year for you know perpetuity.

It's expected that it should be there, but they it could stop.

Then what do we do with that social worker?

Yeah, it would have to go into the city budget every year to get re renewed.

So if the grant went away and we no longer needed that service, we would just phase out the position.

And as it's my understanding that part of the reason we might need another social workers, we've expanded even beyond Joliet residence.

Yes.

We allow other people.

So if we were to approve this, it would be with the you know understanding that if that funding is gone, then we would probably pull in our clause and say we got to go back to just Joliet residents and back to one person, unless other communities wanted to that whose residents were benefiting from this you know great program, wanted to curr uh contribute to that.

Yeah, there's there's a lot of need, and obviously now you guys have seen the the program and how much we use it, so there's a need already for so this is actually very helpful.

But if it started downsizing we didn't need it, we could always uh take that position out.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Thank you.

Um, Council Memo 22726 ordinance authorizing an amendment to the annual budget of the City of Juliet for the 2026 fiscal year.

Um 2025 projects that were not completed, so we're moving those to fund them in 2026.

It's to move unspent funds for specific project and per purchases from the 2025 fiscal year to the 2026 fiscal year budget that we do every year.

Do you have any questions of our finance director?

Okay.

Council Memo 228-26 ordinance amending chapter two, Article 2 to authorize pre-separation recruitment and temporary appointments.

Questions on this one?

No, you know, I miss my I missed my cue, Beth.

On the last one I always like to do when I do every year.

Kevin knows, and he actually expects me to, just to make sure anybody watching and understands that that amendment is not adding anything new to the budget.

No.

Required by law by statute in order to use last year's money to finish last year's project this year.

We have to do the housekeeping to bring it forward.

So I want people to know it's not an amendment that includes increasing the amount of money that we've already approved.

It's already been approved.

We just need to do the detail work.

Correct.

Is that correct?

No new money, it's just housekeeping to take unspent from 25 and move it into 26.

Otherwise, we couldn't finish the project.

Correct.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um any questions on 22826 ordinance amending chapter 2, Article 2 to authorize pre-separation recruitment and temporary appointments.

I think we talked about this initially uh a while back.

Okay, I know that's uh modified to a three-month operational overlap.

And I think Alison, you might have someone in that that is in a uh a pretty big position on a one or two-year project, and it's hard just to have someone come in and take the baton without some sort of overlap.

So I think this would be used on occasion and only as an as needed basis for uh transition of an engineer, someone that's gonna have to be able to help move that, keep that moving along.

Uh and I know that in the beginning of the year, we typically would like to know, and I think Alison, you have a person or two that had given us notice that this was going to be their year of retirement.

And some of these crucial positions, you you just have to have that that overlay.

So it's budgeted, and it would be budgeted in most cases.

That if someone's gonna come in, it's gonna come in because we're diligent and having that transition happen.

So that's that's where this comes from.

There's mayor, can I say one thing?

I've taken many calls on the temporary appointments, and I don't know if you want me to read the whole thing, but I think that temporary workers may be an employee or contractual employee, so the city manager will have the appointment power to contract for temporary workers or contractual, and this is outside of or unrelated to the first part of this.

So I'm wondering, is there a limit on these contractual employees?

Is there like a dollar limit?

There, it's not in this ordinance, and maybe Todd can answer that.

I really would have liked to have heard the meeting, but I tried to listen to the tape, and I don't know.

Are you talking the legislative committee?

Is that the meeting?

Yeah, so the focus of that was on the first part um and the feedback from that.

We moved it from six months to three months for the overlap hiring, and it's for um institutional knowledge.

We don't want to disrupt services.

Um lot of the institution's knowledge is a very key, it's vital.

You don't want to lose they want someone to walk out the door, and that knowledge is gone.

So, part A, that's what that is pretty much all about.

Um, the temporary workers, um there isn't, but right now that the city manager has a spending authority, so it would probably be up to that limit that we could hire these people out.

So over that would take it has to be budgeted.

So council's role is is for appropriations and budget.

Okay.

So over that would have to be to get council approval.

Thank you.

Mayor?

Yeah.

I've heard conflicting things, so I just wanted a clarification.

At the last meeting, it was said that part of the reason was that we couldn't even post the position until somebody left.

I'm being told that that was that was not altogether that wasn't correct.

And um the memo I wrote, I wasn't here at pre-council last time.

I decided that I could take a vacation, you know.

How dare you?

Yeah.

Um get in trouble.

Right.

So no, you can recruit prior to this.

And this actually, the way we changed it, is it says six months out, which puts another restriction on the guidepost on this.

Um six months is a long time.

Uh, you don't usually get that much notice, but um that this ordinance, the way it's written now, is they can recruit six months out and hire three months prior.

So I'm gonna make comment about that.

Okay.

So anyway, came to legislative last Monday morning, and um on the board was Mr.

Mudron and Sherry and myself, and the counsel was here.

Beth was not in attendance, but I had talked about her prior before the meeting, and she wanted she thought three months would be adequate.

But after we have many discussions with our attorney and with the HR people, it was decided to put six months in there.

So when people have to leave, like uh another municipality in a director position, you might have to give them six months notice that you're leaving.

So that was the other reason that they put that in there, or it could be less.

But um, it's up to the director and ultimately the city manager who she's gonna hire.

But this conception out there, I'm gonna repeat this again tomorrow.

Okay, we are city manager form of government, okay?

And it's up to the city manager after they you know interview people and to talk with the directors of the departments who they want to hire.

It's up to her to ultimately have the hire.

She hires and fires, okay.

And it's out there that she has all this power, and we're giving her too much power, and she's doing it's just it's terrible what's going on out there.

And I have many, many phone calls to document that, and it's absolutely ridiculous beating our city manager up right now for no reason.

All we're trying to do is get continuity with our employees because there's a lot of things here that are different than other municipalities.

It might be the programming, it might be uh who's who and other um different things that we do that might not be the same as where these folks are coming from.

So just to give them that little bit of uh training before they leave, it's like putting a round hole in a square peg.

You can't do that.

You can't come here cold turkey.

City of Joliet is very complicated, but any municipality is complicated.

You just can't come and just sit right in and be okay.

So um I'm I'm very proud of what we did the other day.

We discussed it, we didn't agree at first, but then everything makes sense at the end, and um we decided to go with the six month.

But it would be up to the directors of the departments when they want to hire somebody, or it would come out of their budget if it they hire a little earlier, but it wouldn't be higher at six months.

It's like you can start looking because these jobs are far and few between, and it's hard to get good people to come on board.

Do you want to add anything, Sher?

Other than Pat wasn't the one there.

It was Caesar.

That's right.

Well, he's always buying me, that's why he did a great job.

All right, sorry, Caesar's not here.

Okay, so step on the other question that had clarification.

Sorry about that.

But somebody that was the whole thing of it, and I was against it at first, but I want everybody to know it wasn't our city manager best saying I want six months.

That was not.

There was a lot of misinformation out there, and we're gonna repeat this again tomorrow, and none of the complainers even showed up at that meeting, and nobody called me after the meeting, but you can listen to it online, it's uh it's all audio online.

It's not there.

Yes, it is, it's on my iPad.

Look under video and it says audio.

It's not there.

Here, I'll show it to you.

All right, moving on, Mayor So, anyway.

Um, we're not moving.

That's how that's how we left it, and ultimately uh it's up to us to tomorrow to pass that new ordinance that we have in place.

So committed by our committee.

Yes.

Okay.

So it was unanimous.

Ready?

Your turn.

Okay, thank you.

Um so right now, even if we didn't pass the revised ordinance, you can still post six months out.

You can set the recruitment.

And you could you can start recruiting, and you can make you can even offer a job, but the start time has to be when the other person leaves.

Correct.

So even if we have somebody that comes from another municipality, they need to give six months.

Well, it would be perfect, even under the current ordinance because we'd say, well, we can't start you for six months.

Sure.

Okay, so I'm gonna be clear there.

Also, this is uh what is it, uh tier one employee?

Yeah, what would what what if somebody's here 20 or 25, 30 years, ready to retire?

How many weeks of vacation have they accrued?

Um that varies depending on if their union positions or most of these are non-union, right?

Most of these.

No, I mean the positions that that Allison's trying to fill are union and um the identified person that will take over would come from finance who is also union.

So it's really just allowing the people that have been here for 30 years to train someone in some way before they're my question is to try to get clarification on the vacation.

Sure.

Whether I mean I think after 20, 25, 30 years, you're probably costing six or eight weeks.

If not more, yeah.

So what do we do when they go on vacation?

Now, when these critical positions go on vacation.

Do we shut down the department?

No, we don't shut down.

We do have a way to keep the department running, even if somebody's learning how to take over that position.

Um Liz, do you want to opine on this?

So typically when there is a vacation, yes, we have individuals that can overlap.

However, they would overlap for short periods of time.

They wouldn't learn the totality of the position.

Right, somebody could take uh 30 days vacation.

And we'd have to we don't shut down.

I'm just you know trying to establish the facts as I make my final decision.

Typically, we don't have individuals who take 30-day vacations, it does need to be approved by the department based on operational needs.

Right.

So we do uh uh address the options now.

Um this ordinance will give you 120 days, right?

120, yeah, 120 days.

So we're down to three months.

That's down to three months.

That's what we heard from.

It'll be nine days or uh 12 weeks.

Okay, and some people could have vacations of six, eight, ten weeks that we know of.

So all right, I got my information.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

There's never a time when a residents call us asking us questions because we're all the ones that face the public.

That them calling to ask those questions or the words that are coming out of their mouth are construed as beating up on anyone.

They're asking questions.

They feel like a lot of bad decisions historically have been made here.

I'm glad the residents are involved in asking questions.

We're all, as Councilman Hugg has said, the purse strings.

So the money that's going out, we're the ones that have to face the public.

We face the public every single day.

So there's never a time where residents are calling us, they're mad about something, they're worked out about something.

That's our job to listen to them and then disseminate what they want us to do as elected officials.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh I just got a quick question, Mayor.

Um it didn't go uh when we when it got brought when it was put on the agenda last time, it didn't go through committee.

I I was wondering was it did?

It did go through committee.

It did it it went to another committee.

I'm not sure what's the case.

Yeah, we what's a finance?

I think it's finance it went to finance first.

Um but then we I talked to councilwoman Quillman and she desired to have it go through legislative.

Okay, and so we held it at that time to take it back through legislative committee so you would all have more opportunity to learn more about it and ask questions, etc.

Yeah, that was I was under the impression that it did not go through the committee.

That's why I was I was thrown off a little bit.

So thank you for the clarity.

Yeah.

I mean, I can't overspend your authority.

You have to give me authority to do that.

So and I don't have any interest in going over any of my authorities limited by the council.

You decide how you know and how much and how much we should spend um on certain things, and I have to stay within those parameters.

Okay, moving on.

Resolutions, council member two thirty twenty-six resolution appropriating supplemental motor fuel tax funds for amendment number three to the phase two engineering services contract for the Fair Road over Spring Creek Bridge Improvement Project.

This is the housekeeping item to s to appropriate the MFT funds to the Fail Road over Spring Creek project.

Council Memo 231 26 resolution accepting a grant of permanent easement at 1871 South County Line Road for the County Line Road from Van Dyke Road to Kennedy Drive roadway improvement projects council memo 232 26 resolution authorizing the sale of a police dog to canine officer Adam Stapleton Mayor Yeah just to touch uh I I talked to Adam and uh I believe they're going to show up uh here tomorrow.

Great.

I think there was some interest in seeing Neville, the dog, and you know I think when we do this uh uh when we retire a dog, we we should bring them here and let the public uh see the canine and the and the handler and maybe get a photo and stuff.

It's not nice long career.

I mean in our world it's a short career, but uh in the dog's world it's you know nine years a long time.

Yeah, yeah.

Agreed.

So everybody leave your own menstruals in the glove compartment.

Okay.

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

This is for um non agenda items at this time.

Anyone okay?

Seeing none, I did receive a request for closed session.

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

So it's been motion and seconded to adjourn.

Councilman Clement.

Aye, councilman hug?

Aye.

Councilwoman Abarra?

Aye, Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudron.

Aye.

Councilman Quillman?

Aye, Councilman Rudin.

Aye, Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.