Moline Committee-of-the-Whole and City Council Meeting – January 8, 2025
Moline Committee-of-the-Whole and City Council Meeting – January 8, 2025
This combined meeting of the Moline Committee-of-the-Whole and City Council included oaths of office for three public safety personnel, three proclamations, public comment, and action on multiple resolutions and ordinances. The meeting featured significant debate on zoning text amendments, particularly regarding parking requirements, and the creation of a new tobacco license classification system. (Note: The printed agenda listed the meeting date as January 7, 2025, but the meeting occurred on January 8, 2025, per the provided transcript and instruction.)
Oaths of Office
- Police Officer Kyle Yeater – Regular commissioned appointment, effective December 11, 2024. Chief Gall noted Yeater was the 81st officer in a rebuild from a staffing low of 81 in April 2022, achieving the council-authorized strength of 84 officers. Yeater was the first out-of-state lateral hire under a modified lateral program.
- Fire Lieutenant Brandon Tomlin – Promotion from engineer, effective January 1, 2025. Tomlin joined the Moline Fire Department in 2008.
- Deputy Chief of EMS Jerry Sottos – Promotion from training officer, effective January 13, 2025. Sottos has nearly 30 years of service and holds a bachelor’s degree in fire administration.
Board Appointments
- Four reappointments to the Special Service Area 5 Board for two-year terms expiring January 1, 2027: Silas Inskeep, John Miller, Diana Haubenstricker, and Mike Wennekamp. Appointments were approved without objection.
Proclamations
- January 2025 as Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month – Presented by Maggie Tinsman (Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking and Braking Traffik). The proclamation encouraged community awareness and reporting to the National Human Trafficking Hotline (888-373-7888).
- January 9, 2025, as National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day – Read by the Mayor. Noted that 139 officers died in the line of duty in 2024, a 7% decrease from the prior year.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Joyce (senior resident) – Addressed the Council, requesting that seniors at the Moline Activity Center be allowed to park in the adjacent Bethany/Parks and Recreation Department lot for 45 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday exercise class mornings (9:30–10:15 a.m.) without warnings or tickets. She described the challenges faced by elderly participants, including those with mobility issues, and noted the lot is often empty. Council did not respond directly but referred the issue to staff.
Discussion Items
9.1 – Bee City USA Affiliate Designation – Presented by Kelly Notchi (Moline Pollinator Preservation Committee) and supported by committee members Don Temple and Dick Potter. The resolution designates Moline as a Bee City USA affiliate, a program of the Xerces Society focused on native pollinator conservation. Requirements include an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan (already adopted by the city), signage, and annual renewal. The application fee of $300 has been pledged by the city. The committee will manage the initiative with volunteer fundraising. Council expressed support and noted opportunities for education with schools and neighborhood groups. Motion to approve passed unanimously.
9.2 – Economic Development Partnership with Grow Quad Cities – Staff presented a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with Grow Quad Cities, a new economic development initiative spun off from the Quad Cities Chamber. The city’s per-capita contribution is $1.69 per capita (approximately $72,000 in year one), increasing by $0.20 per capita in subsequent years. Alderperson Schmidt expressed concern that the services may be unchanged from the Chamber’s prior work and asked for clarification on whether the total city allocation remains the same. Staff confirmed the existing allocation is now split between two entities, and the agreement includes a 120-day exit clause. Motion to approve passed unanimously.
9.3 – Text Amendments to Sign and Zoning Codes (Annual Review) – Staff (likely from Community and Economic Development) provided an overview of dozens of corrections and clarifications, including:
- Regulating bright window lights (targeting vape shops).
- Extending banner display limits from 60 to 180 days.
- Reducing recreational vehicle setback requirements from 30 feet to 5 feet from rear alley.
- Changing “and” to “or” on non-conforming lot regulations to allow development meeting either minimum width or area.
- Requiring six-foot screening around permanent dumpsters.
- Reducing residential parking minimums from three to two spaces per unit (approved via amendment).
- Reducing office/retail parking from 1/300 sq. ft. to 1/450 sq. ft.
- Adding architectural metal wall panels (up to 35% of front facade) and engineered wood to approved exterior materials for commercial areas.
Extensive debate on parking minimums:
- Alderperson Timian moved to eliminate all commercial parking minimums. After discussion, a substitute amendment by Alderperson Schmidt removed minimums for all commercial categories except lodging, entertainment indoor, entertainment outdoor, and adult entertainment. That amendment passed 4-3. The full ordinance, as amended, then passed unanimously.
- Staff noted the Planning Commission had not unanimously recommended the zero-parking approach; some members preferred further study.
Informational – January 2025 Status Report – City Administrator Bob Vitas’s report covered December activities, including completion of two bike path sections, street reconstructions on 38th and 48th Streets, the library gardens (open house planned for spring), and a new traffic signal at 32nd and 41st Street by the library. The quarter-end report will be presented at the next meeting.
Key Outcomes
- Oaths of office administered to three officers.
- Proclamations issued for Human Trafficking Prevention Month and Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.
- Resolution 9.1 (Bee City USA) – Approved unanimously.
- Resolution 9.2 (Grow Quad Cities) – Approved unanimously.
- Ordinance 9.3 (Zoning/Sign Amendments) – Approved as amended, with modified parking minimums (see above).
- Consent Agenda (minutes, appointments, three second-reading ordinances, seven resolutions) – Approved via omnibus vote.
- Non-Consent Resolutions:
- 19.1 – Purchase of one 2025 garbage truck for $294,800 (Elliott Equipment Co.) – Approved unanimously.
- 19.2 – Five-year contract for web-based fleet management software (Faster Asset Solutions) – Approved unanimously.
- First Reading Ordinances (advanced to second reading):
- 20.1 – Childcare obligation exemption for council meeting attendance – Approved.
- 20.2 – Traffic adjustments (remove three-way stop, add all-way stop at 53rd & 5th Ave south branch) – Approved.
- 20.3 – Tobacco dealer license classification (Class A, B, C) with a moratorium on new Class A licenses. After debate, an amendment was added to grandfather any currently legally operating businesses that would need a new Class C license, with a 90-day application window. The ordinance as amended passed unanimously on first reading.
- Miscellaneous: The Mayor announced the State of the City address tentatively scheduled for Monday, February 3, 2025, in the morning. Council members acknowledged the passing of former President Jimmy Carter and shared community engagement activities.
- Meeting adjourned without executive session.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to welcome you to this meeting on the first meeting of 2025. You're in council chambers at 6 p.m. Roll call, please. Alder Person Murphy. President. Ms. Diaz. Present. Rizak. Present. Timmy and President. Finch. McNeil. President. Castro. President Schmidt. Present. All right, we move to item number four, our oaths of office. Oath of office for regular commission appointment as police officer to Kyle Yader, effective December 11th, 2024. Chief Gall. Thank you, Your Honor. Members of Council, I appreciate the time tonight. It's always a really fun time to recognize our new officers and uh to just give you a little bit of perspective on where we're at right now. Um, as you know, I usually bring the officers to council once they've completed their probation. Uh Officer Yader tonight, as you'll hear from his bio, uh, was previously uh a police officer in other agency, and so he had he served a one-year probationary period. But um, over the last several years, we've uh really struggled with our staffing. Uh we've gone up and down, as you know, I've reported to uh several months on our status information reports about our staffing. Uh and uh our prior to when I came to Moline, our our staffing number was 81 on uh April 5th, 2022. Uh the council and then the mayor signed uh our staffing increase to 84, and you probably saw in the news recently we finally achieved 84 officers uh on board. There's still some of several of them in training. Uh but officer Yader was uh actually the 81st officer in our rebuild, and he was hired on uh December 11, 2023, and as you're gonna hear in his bio, he's a lateral officer. Um so our lateral program uh has really worked out well. We worked with uh the uh uh police and fire commission as well as you to uh modify the rules uh so that we're able to have lateral officers, and uh we've actually gotten three, and and Kyle was our first one in that process where we brought a lateral from another state on board, and so I wanted to let you know that your work is meaningful and has really helped our staffing and and those officers that are already certified, and we can get them right back on uh into the training program. It it cuts it probably down in half at least the length of time. So uh the lateral program is very effective. So I'm gonna invite Deputy Chief Andrew Reyes to come up and uh give you a little bit of more information about Officer Yeater before the oath of office. Good evening, Mayor and members of city council. Today we have the opportunity to administer the oath of office to an officer who's completed the probationary appointment. In this case, Officer Kyle Yader was already a police officer as mentioned by previous by Chief Galt. He served a one-year probationary period. Also Yader is originally from Mylan, graduated from Sherrard High School. Kyle then graduated from Blackhawk College and attended the Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, where he completed the 720-hour police academy, which is longer than the Illinois Police Academy. Officer Yader was hired in Moline at Moline on December 11th, 2023. He was previously employed as a police officer with the University of Wisconsin Platteville Police Department. He received a department accommodation from UW Plattville in March 2023. As previous as Chief Gall mentioned, he was one of our first out-of-state academy laterals. He was certified in Wisconsin, and we saw it to we saw it to reach a waiver with the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board, and we received that. Officer Officer Yeater successfully completed that let's be receptacle training program and passed the Illinois exam and began the field training program in January 2024. Once he completed FTO, Officer Yeater has been assigned to third shift, where he has performed remarkably.
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