Moline Committee-of-the-Whole and City Council Meeting - September 9, 2024
Moline Committee-of-the-Whole and City Council Meeting - September 9, 2024
This combined Committee-of-the-Whole and City Council meeting on September 9, 2024, featured presentations on the ICMA Bob Turner Scholars Internship Program and the retirement of Police K9 Annie, proclamations for Suicide Prevention Month and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and informational items including the 7th Avenue Reconstruction Project. The Council unanimously approved all consent and non-consent agenda items.
Presentations
- ICMA Bob Turner Scholars Internship Program: City Administrator Bob Vitas introduced intern Saeed Sirojev, one of ten interns selected nationwide by ICMA. Sirojev served a nine-week summer internship with the City of Moline and, along with two partners from Salinas, California, won a national competition for a social media campaign promoting youth involvement in local government. The team received a financial stipend and an invitation to the ICMA annual convention. Sirojev presented a video featuring city department heads describing opportunities for young people.
- Retirement of Police K9 Annie: Police Chief Darren Gault, along with handlers Officer Eric Schultz and Lieutenant Derek Colson, celebrated the retirement of K9 Annie, a Belgian Malinois who served from May 24, 2017, to August 27, 2024. Annie was a dual-purpose dog trained in narcotics detection, article searches, tracking, and apprehension. Over her career, she located and seized over $1.1 million in illegal drugs, including $63,000 in methamphetamine (2018), 3,877 grams of fentanyl and 2,000 grams of heroin (2019). Annie retired after suffering two torn ACLs (2022 and 2024) and a tail injury. A resolution on the consent agenda authorized transferring ownership of Annie to her handler, Officer Schultz.
Proclamations
- Suicide Prevention Month and Week: Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati read a proclamation declaring September 2024 as Suicide Prevention Month and September 8–14, 2024, as Suicide Prevention Week. Cecilia Bailey, Executive Director of Quad Cities Open Network and Steering Committee member of the Quad Cities Zero Suicide Initiative, spoke about the initiative's goals: a 1,000-day awareness campaign, training 1,000 persons in suicide prevention (already over 600 trained), and engaging 100 organizations. The annual Walk for Zero Suicide is scheduled for September 7, 2024.
- Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month: The Mayor proclaimed September 2024 as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, noting that ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths among women and that a woman's lifetime risk is about 1 in 78. No representative was present to accept the proclamation.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during either the Committee-of-the-Whole or City Council portions of the meeting.
Discussion Items
- Special Service Area #6 Bylaws Amendment (8.1): The Council approved an amendment to SSA #6 bylaws to set the number of directors at nine, each serving terms not to exceed three years with a maximum of nine consecutive years, with terms aligned to the fiscal year (January 1–December 31). Motion passed unanimously (8-0).
- Solid Waste Assistance Grant Application (8.2): The Council authorized the Mayor to apply for a $42,985 SWAG grant from the Rock Island County Waste Management Agency for solid waste management, recycling, and educational activities. The funds will help purchase recycling carts and lids, and support neighborhood cleanups. Motion passed unanimously (8-0).
- Parking Prohibition Ordinance (8.3): The Council amended Appendix 10 of the Moline Code to prohibit parking on the south side of Sixth Avenue, beginning 110 feet east of 53rd Street and continuing east for 60 feet. This recommendation came from the Traffic Committee. Motion passed unanimously (8-0).
- Professional Services Agreement for Revenue Audits (8.4): The Council authorized the Mayor to execute an agreement with Azavar Audit Solutions (contingency basis) and an engagement letter with Cozen O’Connor for compliance audits and revenue maximization services. The agreement extends a partnership since 2014, focusing on unreported Motor Fuel Taxes and Hotel/Motel Taxes. Motion passed unanimously (8-0).
- 7th Avenue Reconstruction Project (Informational): Director of Engineering David Dryer and Shane Larson of Hutchison Engineering presented the design for reconstructing 7th Avenue from 15th Street to 19th Street. The project includes a road diet (narrowing from four lanes to two), two roundabouts at 15th and 18th Streets, and streetscape improvements consistent with downtown. Total estimated cost is $3.75 million, with a $3 million grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). The schedule aims for design completion by end of 2024, bidding in early 2025, and completion by end of 2025. Council members discussed fire truck access (roundabout designed for vehicles larger than fire trucks), the absence of bike lanes (not in the bikeway plan and width constraints for parking), and construction phasing (likely closing half or third sections at a time, maintaining north-south street access).
- Non-Consent Agenda: Utility Billing Presentment Services (17.1): The Council approved a Master Service Agreement with InfoSend, Inc. for printed utility bill presentment at an anticipated annual cost of $28,320 (current postal rates). Director of Finance Janine clarified that the figure corrects an earlier misprint of $53,000. The agreement does not include digital payment services, though that is being investigated separately. Motion passed unanimously (8-0).
Key Outcomes
- All agenda items passed unanimously (8-0). No votes were divided.
- Consent Agenda (Minutes and Resolutions 15.1-15.3): Approved unanimously. This included the Police K9 Sale of Animal and Waiver (transferring K9 Annie to Officer Schultz), an Intergovernmental Grant Agreement with Illinois Department of Human Services ($8,427 for police department), and a contract with Capital Painting & Decorating ($199,730 for police department painting).
- Executive Session: The Council voted unanimously (8-0) to convene a closed executive session to discuss property acquisition (5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5)).
- Mayor’s Announcements: Mayor Rayapati indicated plans to host a community meeting for East End neighborhoods regarding the new TIF district and distributed information from Bi-State on the economic impacts of potential layoffs at John Deere. Alderperson Timian praised the streets crew for using new equipment to pave trails in lesser-known areas.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening everyone. I'll call this committee of the whole meeting to order at 6 p.m. in council chambers. Roll call, please. Alder Person Murphy. Present. Masias. Present. Rosak. Timmy and Present. Finch. Present. McNeil. Present. Castro. President Schmidt. Present. All right. We start the evening with item 4.1, ICMA Bob Turner Scholars Internship Program. Sir V class. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. It gives me great pleasure, actually, to have Saeed present this evening to close out his summer long internship with the city of Moline. Said was one of ten interns nationwide that was selected by ICMA, which is the International City County Management Association, which is an organization of over 10,000 members. So it's huge, it's worldwide. But he was selected along with nine other uh young people across the country, graduated seniors to participate in the Bob Turner program. Bob Turner is a former uh city manager who left an endowment for this purpose. And uh so he was selected and he participated uh did well here in the city first and foremost, and uh really got uh to know the city and and meet the directors and get an understanding of what local government is because when you come to work here, usually the truth the young people don't. So they gained tremendous knowledge while they're here, and he was one of 17 interns this summer. So we had quite a busy summer with a lot of young people running around our our buildings. But uh to Said's credit, he was partnered with uh two two young ladies from Salinas, California, and they participated in a competition with the other interns across the country, and his team was successful in winning the award, uh which I came with a little financial stipend as well, uh, as well as an invitation to attend the uh ICMA annual convention, all expense paid in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, should should he choose to go. So anyhow, kudos to Saeed and and uh his team for the work they did, and uh with that I want to introduce Saeed to come up and uh say a few words and then he has a presentation he's gonna share with you, which is based on the uh based on how they won the uh the award in the first place, but he localized it and made it Moline Zone. Alright, thank you, Mr. Vitas. Um if everyone didn't know, my name's Saeed Sarojev. I was an intern here during my nine weeks here at the city of Moline. I mean, if anything that hasn't been said already. Um one of my main jobs here was to learn, and I think I did pretty a lot of that. Um before coming here, I had no idea like everything existed, you know. I didn't realize the mayor had um the clerk or the coordinators or everyone in the executive department who uh worked together with her. Um I also learned about grant writing. I had experience with that. I had experience um drafting up uh integrated pest management plan, so that was pretty fun. I also sat in on a director meetings, so I saw the many directors around the city, like fire, engineering, and all the other directors. I saw how they like talked together, how they engaged, you know, they talked with the administrator, and then the talked about their projects, so that was good. Um it's good to see that uh the city, you know, is trying to make this city better. Um part of my internship here, um, as Bob already explained, I was part of the ICMA program. Um, you know, uh we had a final project and we were tasked, it was four other teams, me and my two partners. We were tasked with um a social media campaign campaign that's what we came up with um trying to get you get uh get more involved with local government. We had an Instagram page, we pushed out surveys, you know, see if uh people knew about local government, you know, people my age, and people did it, you know.
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