To the July 6th pre-council meeting of the City of Joliet, uh 5 30 in Council Chambers.

Presiding is the Honorable Mayor Terry Darcy.

We'll begin with roll call.

Mayor Darcy.

Council McCartiness.

Councilman Clement.

Here.

Councilman Hug.

Councilman Abarra.

Here.

Councilman Moreno?

Here.

Councilman Mudron.

Councilman Fulman.

Here.

Councilman Vergon.

Here.

First, we'll have a presentation.

April Grand Prairie Water Commission Conservation Challenge winner, Q2, 2026.

Water conservation incentive program winners and intro for Q3 2026 program presented by Alison Swisher, Director of Public Utilities.

Okay.

I feel like I started.

So we're really excited tonight to further recognize our water conservation winners.

So in uh April, the Grand Bay water fishing communities had a water conservation challenge, and so we had members of each community take a pledge to conserve water.

And the community with the most pledges was the winner.

And the community the winner for Joliet was Lori Ludson.

So really happy that Lori is committed to saving water and was our winner for our water conservation challenge.

Thank you, Lori.

And then also we have our ongoing incentive program and for Q2.

So thank you for that.

And each quarter we also have a kids challenge.

This year, this quarter, the kid challenge was um collecting water sniff baseball cards, which um I'll give blood cards and groups for being extremely creative and coming up with uh 12 different cards, uh baseball cards with water uh conservation tips on them, and Felicity is our kids' winner.

Um so again for Q3 now we have our new incentive um for our adults.

We have a survey that adults can take to show how they're saving um water.

Um and then we're gonna do our baseball card um contest again for uh the kids to continue to collect those 12 cards and submit them to be uh a winner.

So we're really encouraging everyone to participate in these activities through September 30th, and they're all the information is available on our re-big water joliet website.

So um encouraging water conservation.

Um we also have a baseball game, a water conservation themed baseball game at the Slammers.

Um the game starts at 635, but we're gonna have um activities starting at 530.

This is a partnership with Will County Green that we've done for a number of years now, and so there's gonna be a lot of information at the game about how to um conserve water and the importance of water.

So encourage we're participating in this fun um activity tomorrow, and we're also gonna be participating in in kids' fest and continue to spread the word on the importance of water conservation as it relates to um our switch to Lake Michigan water.

And then lastly, just want to pat ourselves on the back.

We were the recipient of a gold level water ambassador award, and so we have um been a gold level for a number of years now.

Um, and the the um water ambassador program is um something the Illinois American Water Works Association sponsors, and it was created to elevate public perception, knowledge, and consumer education of the water industry.

Um the program aims to accomplish these goals by presenting communication platforms and promotional content in a manner that's relevant, engaging and consistent.

So we're going above and beyond with our water conservation activities uh in Joliets.

We're a model to many other communities who want to engage in with the public in water conservation, and we're one of thirty-six communities across the state that has achieved this gold level.

So that concludes our update on our water conservation efforts, and we'd love to get a photo with the council of our thing.

Congratulations.

Okay, seeing none.

Next, we will have the city manager review tomorrow night's actual items.

Good evening.

I hope everybody had a good fourth of July.

Tomorrow we will hear from the land use and economic development committee, public safety committee, and public service committee.

Approved payment to Will County Center for Economic Development for Annual Membership Dues in the amount of $50,000.

Council Memo 33726, approval of purchase of two specialty trucks for the Department of Public Works in the amount of 272,143.

Council Memo 33826, approval of purchase of six vehicles from Ron Taparelli Ford in the amount of two hundred and eighty-eight thousand three hundred and eighteen dollars.

Council Memo 33926, approval of amendment number three to the phase one, phase two, and phase three professional engineering services for the Joliet Centralized Traffic Management System Improvement Project to Iterus Inc.

in the amount of $14,999 and 24 cents.

Council Memo 340 26, approval of change order number one for the county line road from Van Dyke Road to Kennedy Drive Roadway Improvement Project to PT Faro Construction, a deduction in the amount of sixteen thousand hundred and twenty-two dollars and seventy-one cents, and payment number three and final in the amount of ninety-seven thousand six hundred and twenty dollars and seventy-four cents.

Council Memo 34126, approval of change order number three for the 2024 electrical maintenance assistance contract to meet electrical company in the amount of $19,237 and 51 cents, and payment request number eight in the amount of $49,527.97 cents.

Under ordinances and resolutions, we have Council Memo 343 26, ordinances associated with the resubdivision of lot one of RISTA Vista Ridge Phase 3 Planned Unit Development, an ordinance approving a final plat a resubdivision of lot one of the Vista Ridge Phase 3 Planned Unit Development, and an ordinance approving a recording plat of re-subdivision of lot one of Vista Ridge Phase 3 Planned Unit Development.

Council Memo 344 26 ordinances associated with 58.

Oh, sorry, Larry.

Um, I should say.

Counselor Hugg, would you be so kind as to repeat your question?

Where exactly is the Mr.

Mitchell?

I I'm I'm really sorry.

Where exactly is the mic on?

Oh, my mic wasn't on.

Is that better?

Very good.

Yeah, thank you, sir.

Um, where exactly is the Vristor subdivision?

And I think we know let's just put it out there for those watching.

Where exactly is the Vista Ridge subdivision?

Like physically within the corporation of the city of Juliet.

You know, what part of the we're at in the city is located.

Uh yeah, it's way out less.

County line and ridge, sir.

Yeah.

Yeah.

County line and ridge.

Caiton Farm and Ridge.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, sure.

Thank you.

Council Memo 344 26.

Ordinances associated with 580 Caton Farm Road, and ordinance approving the final planned unit development of 580 Cain Farm Road, ordinance approving the recording plan of 580 Caton Farm, a planned unit development.

Council Memo 34526.

Ordinances associated with 1216 Fairview Avenue.

An ordinance approving a special use permit to allow duplex loaded located at 1216 Fairview Avenue and an ordinance approving a variation of use to allow an R3, one and two family residential use in the R2 single family residential zoning district located at 1216 Fairview Avenue.

Council Memo 34626 ordinance proposing the creation of a business district in the city of Joliet, Will and Kendall Counties, Illinois, and fixing the date and time for a public hearing in connection with the same rock run collection business district.

We do have representatives from our outside council, which is Croke Fairchild and S.B.

Friedman is here as well if you have any questions.

I would say just like a just a small short just explanation to whoever to our residents.

Sure.

Is that more appropriate for Mariah or for Caitlin?

This is Caitlin from SB Friedman.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Caitlin Johnson, Senior Vice President with SB Freeman Development Advisors.

We are one of the city's economic development consultants, and we have prepared the business district eligibility study and plan.

We were also involved with the negotiations with the developer for the rock run collection, which was recently passed by the council just a few weeks ago.

That redevelopment agreement contemplated a number of sources available to support future redevelopment that wouldn't want to occur but for the incentives provided.

One of those incentives was a business district that is a 1% sales tax on businesses or sales of goods within the proposed area, as well as a 1% hotel tax sales tax ones that within the area as well.

The areas contemplated as the southeast corner of I-55 and I-80, the rock run collection development.

Um it includes the undeveloped parcels as well as the casino.

Um there's one other business developed in that area, but the business district is contemplated to support redevelopment in that area in such a way that it establishes the area as a mixed use, vibrant commercial area in the district boundaries were contemplated to include those parcels that are anticipated to contribute to and benefit from the establishment of the business district.

You you really meant the northeast corner, not the southeast corner, right?

Yeah, the rock run collections.

I apologize.

That's fine.

Thank you.

Mayor?

And just to be clear for anybody watching, that one percent whole tax as well as the retail sales tax, that is only for basically the rock run collection.

Correct.

Those are for our businesses operating within the defined boundary.

It's only in the defined business district.

Only within the defined business district, and funds can only be used within the defined business district as well.

Right, which could actually go towards the bond depending on how much they collect.

This is not a one percent.

I want to make sure nobody misunderstood.

This is not a one percent give back.

They're gonna be paying an extra one percent tax on top of any other sales tax that that exists because of the district.

And we're not including the industrial portion of that development.

And now understandably, industrial does not collect sales tax.

One thing I did I talk to you today?

Yes, I did.

Um so maybe legal can give an uh an opinion as to whether we we talked about as long as it stays industrial, it doesn't matter.

It's a wash.

We don't collect it, right?

You and I talked about that.

But if somebody were to sell it down the road ten years down the road, we're not here anymore, and decide to turn it into some kind of entertainment venue, some retail venue, one of the warehouses, they would be exempt from the tax that everybody else doing retail on that footprint is and you and I discussed we didn't know for sure.

If that were to happen down the road, could that council then expand or you know, because this is a 23-year sundown on the business district?

It only lasts 23 years, right?

Can that be expand uh expanded at the end of the 23 years?

Yeah, so the term of a business district is 23 years.

There are uh number of ways that you can amend a business district.

One of them is to expand it to include additional properties, so you can expand it.

It would need to meet eligibility criteria to go through that kind of public approval process, but it is possible to expand should conditions in the future warrant the need for the business district to include perhaps additional sales tax generating use.

Good job.

You did some homework since we talked, didn't you?

Um to find out for sure because we weren't sure.

So yes, we can I also spoke of legal council.

No, no, I trust you.

So if if we exempt the industrial now, there's there's no sales tax collected anyways.

Correct.

Should that convert or you know uh be changed over the years into retail the future councils could go back and add that into the into the uh uh business district, correct?

There is a process for doing so.

Okay, thank you.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Under resolutions, Council Memo 34826 resolution requesting authorization to accept a grant to assist Joliet tobacco enforcement program.

Excuse me.

Mayor this is a great program.

Um we used to do with the state the alcohol once or twice a year.

I don't know if TJ or mayor, if you guys recall, is that still going or did they stop doing that?

The state we used to ride with them and we would do the tobacco.

I know uh Kevin Kalinski is the state guy for the area for uh liquor, but we used to go out with the state once or twice a year and and check some establishments um for underage sale of uh alcohol.

So I don't know if we could maybe check into that, see if we're still doing that or not, because it's very important uh for the city too.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments on that one?

Council Member 34926 resolution appropriating motor fuel tax funds for amendment three to the professional engineering services for the phase one, phase two, and phase three engineering services for the Joliet Centralized Traffic Management Speaker Mayor, just this is for the sake of anybody watching.

Sure, it's a housekeeping item on the resolution.

People see it twice, and then sometimes they they wonder, you know, what what whenever you see this, when anything that folks anything to do with motor fuel tax has to be formally approved separately from approving the expenditure, you then have to approve as our our city managers just alluded, it's called housekeeping, a separate approval specifically to actually release the money.

That's all it is.

We're not paying twice.

Thank you.

Sure, thank you.

Council Memo 350 26 resolution approving an honorary street name designation for Les Cheney.

Council Memo 3512 resolution declaring property of the City of Joliet as surplus from the Tri County Auto Theft Task Force.

That concludes the agenda.

Next we have public comments.

Is there anyone who would like to address the council this evening on a non-agenda item?

I do have one person signed up.

Go ahead.

Good evening, Megan Cooper Joliet.

Um I'm here this afternoon because it's often on the news, or some of us may actually experience um issues when it comes to law enforcement as far as far as them hold on, I'm sorry.

I'm losing our thought here.

Um too often that we may see on the news or may experience incidences where uh police escalate a situation or use a cess of force or kill someone or seriously injure someone without just cause.

However, I'm not here for that today.

I'm here because I believe in given recognition where recognition is due.

We have some awesome officers here in the city of Joliet.

And we should be very, very proud to have them.

I was down at Bicentennial Park on the third, and I was there with my mother and my eight-year-old son.

My sister and her husband ended up meeting us down there.

This is the second year that I've seen where there was a large group of teens that attended the festivities without supervision, without any type of parents or anything being there.

They usually take over the playground area at by Centennial Park.

And I've witnessed in myself last year, which I knew better this year, I had to snatch my kid off of the playground because it had become an unsafe environment for him.

And I don't think that that's fair.

I don't think that is fair that people can't actually enjoy the festivities in a safe environment without the fear of somebody's stupidity causing serious injury or even death.

So there was use of illegal fireworks, which is the Roman candlesticks.

They're illegal in the state of Illinois.

These Roman candlesticks became a weapon because they pointed them into crowds and fired them off.

And I mean, somebody can that got seriously injured or even killed by if they hit in the right way.

Their neighbors.

I mean, I don't know any way to put it.

I mean, they just stood there, they did what they wanted to, didn't even react when the officers even tried to get them to move.

They act like they were invisible, like the officers wasn't even saying anything.

So Jolie and PD did their thing.

You know, whether or not if it was pepper spray use or whatever else, they gave them ample opportunity to leave the situation, to leave the area to disperse before they even considered using any type of force or means to do so.

And I I just wanted to come here tonight because I don't, I, you know, I've seen some comments, and I don't think that is fair to villainize our officers when they are there to protect and serve.

They are there for our safety.

And they put their lives on the line daily for this.

So I just want to say thank you, and I just wanted to give them their recognition and you know their time in the spotlight because they deserved it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Megan.

Okay.

Including you, the speaker.

Hello, everybody.

Uh I am Julia Alexander, including you, P.O.

Box, 3132, Joliet, Illinois.

Uh, I just like to give don't start, Joe.

I just like to give an update on including you.

I know I haven't been here in a while.

There's been some things going on, but that doesn't mean that we're not still in the community doing what we do best, and that's giving back to the community.

So, first of all, I'm gonna have my secretary to read our mission and our purpose because I think that's kind of out of someone's uh out of the reach, and a lot of you probably don't even know the mission and purpose.

So step up to one and do the mission.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for having us.

Um, including your mission statement and purpose, and including you, our mission is to empower, inspire, educate, and equip our community members to become more actively engaged in their communities.

These core values enhance the self-esteem advancement of a more spirited Joliet community, including your purpose to cooperate and collaborate in partnership with our great city of Joliet businesses, organizations, and community members by promoting and enhancing a more diverse and inclusive community by providing resources to revitalize, empower, educate, and unite the community, thereby strengthening our communities through knowledge, information, access to resources, creating positive self-esteem, providing educational opportunities, and an effort to build healthier and more unified families, ministries, and local businesses, which in return advances the growth of our community as a whole.

Thank you.

And to back that up, improve some of what that mission and purpose is.

I'm gonna have my vice president step up, Nathan.

How y'all doing today?

Well, as you said, I'm a new vice president for Include U before that.

I also as the president of Prestige Athletic Club.

And basically, what we do is we offer education and we offer uh we take the kids to the junior Olympics every year.

So I got to work with Mr.

Darcy a couple of times and Mr.

Caesar, and they helped me out.

But including you actually gave me a grant, and I was able to start a scholarship fund for my kids.

I was able to pay for the low-income kids that couldn't participate in the program.

I was also able to get a computer and equipment for the keys so I can do my job and help with the supplies.

So before this is before I joined including you, I love their mission, so I decided to become get on their board with them, and then I was placed as vice president.

So that kind of caught me all on guard.

But you know, I really appreciate everything they're doing for us that we did for our kids as we uh like I said, I'm a prestige athletics as well.

So this year we'll also be going to the Junior LibriStars again, and we'll be using some of the funds to help uh sponsor those keys that cannot afford to go.

And we also, like I said, we paid for some of the uniforms, we paid for a lot of things with that money, so we kind of appreciate the other side with that.

So that's all I have.

Okay, so including you means including all of you, and I know many of you have given to um support us.

And uh we're asking that you don't stop your giving.

I do have forms over here that I will be getting you know one.

Pass it over, bring it over there.

All right, I have forms over here if you'd like to give, but uh we believe in giving back to the community.

That's what it was founded on, that's what is based on, and that's what we will continue to do.

But we don't do it alone, we do it with the help of each and every one of you.

So thank you all for always Mr.

Mayor and Mr.

Darcy.

Thank you for both your your angles of support, as well as everyone else up there.

I thank you for your support.

If you if you can't give monetary jam, just pray for us.

That's all we ask.

So God bless you and thank you all, including you, July 18th.

Bicentennial Park Theater, three o'clock until 9 o'clock.

Joe Clement, you better be there this year.

You go ahead.

Hello there, everyone.

Thank you for having us.

The festival is, as she was saying, Bicentennial Park on the 18th, and it is open to everyone.

It's our we call it our Joliet Family Fun Festival.

Thank you guys.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

She never catched the check.

Okay.

I come here tonight as I have been trying to get this thing done and get rights, my rights being protected here when my rights have been violated.

Now we all know how the Robert Hernandez, you know, got arrested for his petitioner and petitioner's residence school, daycare employment and the other specified place that responded to being prohibited from entering or meeting at the place of residence appointments called the car specified.

That was a recording of the police right in the police car, police Joey, police scott car.

The guys when they guys were arresting Robert Hernandez for violating an order for a stalking order.

Lady didn't even know it, and the lady didn't call the cops.

The Joey of the cops were just right on Robert Hernandez for just driving his vehicle down Jefferson Street.

You know, they stress, oh, 500, a thousand feet circle around the place that he's not allowed to go by that woman or whatever or else or anything.

I got my petition or my order protection, my respondents supposed to stay 50 feet away from petitioner at all times.

Even everywhere party is present.

No matter where I'm at, my attacker is not supposed to come within 50 feet of me and be any place that I'm at.

And it's not like my attacker doesn't know my vehicles when we've been friends for 30 plus years, and he's known my vehicles even when my boss owned those vehicles.

He knows my vehicles, especially when they're sitting in his driveway while I was living at his house.

But why Joey Police refuses to go after my attacker like they did after Robert Hernandez?

You know, if Robert Hernandez deserved to be attacked just for driving within a thousand feet of that lady's house, well, you know, why ain't my attacker allowed to be uh arrested when he drove up to the behind my pickup truck when I was sitting at the pilot gas station sitting inside my pickup truck?

I seen him come in the gas station.

I seen when this vehicle approached my truck as I was talking to my brother on my phone inside my vehicle, and so I'm drive by my vehicle.

And I seen the license plate, it was him.

So the police were called, and two Joey officers were called out there, and they wouldn't even go in and see the surveillance from the gas station.

They got all smart elk with me and says, Well, if you think they they'll let you go see the surveillance, then go ahead.

Then you can record it for yourself.

Well, my friend was working at the pilot gas station, and she's a manager, and luckily she did let me see the surveillance, and I did get the recording of the surveillance.

Which clearly shows my attacker driving his vehicle right behind my my pickup truck with me in it.

Because if you see me in a vehicle right on the surveillance tape, that clearly violates this order of protection I got against him.

Now, what good is having this order protection if law enforcement and state's attorney are not going to enforce it.

And because the Joey police didn't want to go after it, well, then of course the state's attorney didn't want to go after it.

But I'm sitting here, I'm supposed to keep on suffering.

And that, you know, with the fear of my attacker, which my attacker has guns, my attacker has stun guns, he has a crossbow, and he's makes homemade bombs.

I know how dangerous my attacker is, and how dead shot dead eye shooter he is, too.

But then talking to Joeyette police investigators would pee me off even more with my ongoing incident with my with the 87 Ford F-250 pickup truck that a guy named John Byrne had, which investigators say that admitted to me that John Byrne, the Joy cop, so John Byrne was the one that had that truck and sabotage that truck.

Why was in my ma's name still?

I got this pickup truck back, it's all tore up.

Which I think the Joeyette Police Department are just all mad because they their buddy police officer had to get back that 87F 250 pickup truck, is why they won't help me with my order protection and arrest my attacker.

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

Okay.

Seeing none.

There is no closed session this evening.

Well, I I wanted to call one.

And then I'm going to adjourn.

All in favor.

Opposed.

Meeting adjourned.