Good evening.

The October 21st, Naperville City Council meeting is called to order.

Roll call.

Orlean.

Here.

Gibson.

Holzauer.

Here.

Jane.

Here.

Kelly.

Here.

Mick Broom.

Here.

Syed.

Yeah.

White.

Here.

Wilson.

Here.

Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag on the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stays one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice.

Tonight we begin with public forum.

As we start the public forum, I'd like to remind everyone of the citizen participation rules in the city's municipal code for speaking at city council meetings.

Speakers are asked to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner.

Speakers should stay on topic and be cognizant of their words.

Personal attacks on council members, staff, other speakers, or members of the council, or members of the audience, rather, are not allowed.

If inappropriate language or comments are expressed during this meeting, you will be asked immediately to stop commenting.

Also, for audience members, there's no cheering and no jeering.

Actions such as applauding, cheering, finger snapping, booing, or any other noises during or at the conclusion of any remarks made by any speaker are not allowed.

If this occurs, you will be asked to stop immediately.

And if it continues to persist, I will recess the meeting until the audience abides by the rules in our city code.

No speaker should ever feel intimidated by the crowd.

Audience disruption is meant to intimidate those speaking, and I will not allow it in the chambers.

Audience members with signs, the signs does not block any other audience members' view.

And speakers are given three minutes to address the city council to help speakers stay within the three-minute time frame.

We have a timer over on the side dice to your right.

Speakers are encouraged to remain in council chambers until the conclusion of public forum in the event council members want to ask follow-up questions.

Ms.

Schatz, please call the first speaker.

We have one written comment that was posted to the website for public forum.

We have three speakers signed up.

The first speaker is David Halleck, followed by Sam Entel and Ted Borlard.

And as you heard your name called for all the speakers, move to the front of the room so we can keep the meeting moving.

Mayor Worley, Council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Get a little closer to the microphone for us.

They're very, very directional.

Thank you.

Thank you again for the opportunity to speak in front of you.

My name is David Halleck, and I am a volunteer at the Naperville Senior Task Force.

Today we are led by Gwen Lloyd and John Gallagher, and we have 14 dedicated volunteers supporting us.

Our mission is to promote coordination among existing senior service groups, provide awareness of available resources, and identify gaps that we may see and provide solutions to those gaps.

Under health and wellness, silver CPR is the first one, and this is an area where we work very closely with Naperville Fire Department and EMTs, and we offer CPR training for seniors.

Last year we had hosted 200 seniors for that particular class.

Under our umbrella of dementia-friendly Naperville, we offer memory care and caregiver support groups, which offer solicitation and sorry socialization and with people living with dementia and their caregivers.

And lastly, we provide diabetic screening for those that uh may have that problem, and we do that with our medical practitioners.

Within the community collaboration pillar, we actively participate in neighbor's senior events sharing our mission.

Events such as Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise, and the Senior Housing Options are examples.

We write articles for our particular newsletter, which is listed as our voice, and also publications such as Napraville Connection and Positively Neighborhood.

Lastly, the senior of the year is a very exciting program.

As many of you remember from two weeks, three weeks ago, we hosted an event, Mayor Worley offered proclamations to the two winners.

We work with local merchants to help them improve the service and the opportunity that it may exist should a person with disability come into their facility.

We share with the Naperville seniors, the realaders in the area that provide housing opportunities for seniors, and we look for them to help improve that opportunity to help benefit Naplesville.

Mr.

Halleck, do you got about a minute or two?

Yes, sir.

Council, could I get a um uh show of hands in support of giving the presenter an extra minute or two to finish up their report from the okay?

Thank you, council.

Continue.

Last slide.

We are proud to host the Golden Age Summit here in the spring of this year.

This is an opportunity for us to present health care resources, downsizing or transitioning for seniors, travel opportunities, and tech support tasks.

Local vendors will be present and they will be sharing their services with the council with the seniors.

Want to recognize Major Mayor Ware, Mayor Worley, and Councilman Holzhauser for their continued support in making Naperville Senior Task Force a viable program.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Sam Entel.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

I'd like to return uh once more to the subject of SECA funds.

And we've heard more than once uh the claim that the SECA funds are only for a specific event or not funding an organization itself or not for general funding for a group.

And I'd like to go through quickly what are at least two reasons why that position doesn't withstand scrutiny.

Number one, when you give funds to an organization, it gives them flexibility, and it's in this sense that some have described funds as fungible.

So when you give CECA funds to a group, you capacitate them to repurpose their existing dollars that they otherwise may have had to spend on the event.

And that aspect can't just be willed away with the claim that groups are not supported generally when they receive SECA funds.

And this is particularly relevant if the council is aware of politicized or objectionable activities by a group, and they have every expectation that they will continue.

Number two, the groups market themselves at their events.

If they're putting their name and branding on the event, SECA is helping promote that organization in general.

An event can't be compartmentalized from the group.

So whether or not the rules of SECA say on paper that the event is detached from a group, it's an untell untenable position.

And I think Mr.

McBroom has been completely justified to simply ask questions about the SECA program in this regard.

These are taxpayer dollars, and by giving a group CECA funds, the city is enabling a group to repurpose money, is helping helping to market a group, and that can't just be brushed off as if an event is isolated from the group that is marketed by it.

So the council has every right and obligation to consider a group's general activities before awarding SECA funds.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The final speaker is Ted Burlard.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, City Council, members of the community.

I'm Ted Ballard here for your three minutes with NEST.

It's good to see you again.

I attended the planning and zoning commit uh commission meeting on October 15th as I was interested to hear presentation for KARIS's revised data center proposal and comments from the public.

Russ Whitaker spoke on behalf of Keras Critical for about an hour, and 16 public commenters spoke for about an hour.

Fifteen opposed to the data center and one in support of it.

Many important issues are raised that I'm not going to get into tonight.

Due to the length of the meeting, their discussion will be taken up again at the next PCC meeting on November 5th.

Well, Keras has reduced their initial request by half.

The new 60 36, I'm sorry, the new 36 megawatt load is still more than 10% of Naperville's peak demand.

The forecasted electricity consumption would be equal to more than 20% of the city's current consumption, which is roughly equivalent to half the consumption of all residential homes in Naperville.

I have two straightforward questions.

Will Naperville's greenhouse gas emissions rise with large new electric load?

And will our city's electricity rates increase?

The answers to both questions depend on our electricity contract.

Naperville's counter proposal, the IMEA contract was presented to the IMEA two months ago.

The status of our city's future electric contract remains undecided.

Until this is settled, it is unclear whether our rates will rise and by how much, and whether our greenhouse gas pollution will rise and by how much.

NEST recommends pausing the consideration of this data center for six months due to the many questions that have been raised and remain unanswered, and especially its effect on our electricity rates and on our greenhouse gas emissions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any more speakers?

Any council members have an item for public forum?

Councilman Hallzauer.

Thank you, Mayor.

A couple of items.

Um a member of the Nipperville Township Board reached out to me and just wanted to put it out there that the Naperville Township and other townships are doing similar things, is taking applications from organizations that are providing mental health services, so charitable organizations to get grants.

So if you're watching this and that's you, if you have a program, I'm not sure if Mr.

Halleck's still here.

Um they have gotten townships in the uh township funds in the past for uh dementia-friendly Naperville and other programs.

Uh they are actively soliciting applications for similar programs now at this time.

Second question was uh for Mr.

Krieger.

I reached out earlier or late last week.

Um so I spoke with a um representative from the mayor's office in Aurora to discuss their moratorium on um data center construction or their pause, I should say.

And um they had stated one of their goals was to speak with the Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus about potentially a regional policy uh amongst multiple cities towards data centers.

And I'd asked Mr.

Krieger to uh get it get some information about what um Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus might be doing regarding that.

Mr.

Krieger, uh thing, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, Metropolitan Mayor's call and actually first off, thank you for bringing that up.

Um after you uh brought it up to my attention, we reached out to uh both our um center of government uh um DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference as well as MMC uh and uh um secured a spot for an Aprilville representative uh to participate in that task force.

Um what they're trying to do uh is really um attempt to take an impartial look at issues surrounding data centers to come up with some fact and information um uh so that they would be able to put that out.

Um their first meeting uh isn't until November, um, so they haven't had um any anything published to date.

Okay, and my understanding, mayor, Mr.

Mayor, if I can follow up with a question.

My understanding is in other regions like Northern Virginia, some of those task forces that come together have um gone beyond just providing information, but also set guidelines for uh multiple cities in the region to form a more regional approach.

Is that accurate?

Um it would not surprise me that uh Northern Virginia had done that.

Um Loudoun County there um is really kind of like the data center capital of the U.S.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman McRoom.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um just wanted to clear the air on a couple things here.

Um I uh recently have been critical of uh Nest, uh specifically their leadership, and more recently, uh I've uh raised some scrutiny and some questions about SECA.

Um never once have I directed these criticisms to uh my colleagues or towards my colleagues.

Um but uh in response, I have had uh I guess let's say passive aggressive uh criticisms of of me.

And uh I was gonna let it go.

And um, but Councilman Sayed uh made a public comment today, and uh I just think for the purpose of transparency, um, you're not gonna hurt my feelings.

You know, when we say some people have been spreading misinformation, you can say councilman McBroom and and maybe mention what the misinformation might be.

So um it's been disappointing.

Uh I'm I'm all for uh uh open, honest dialogue.

Um, we can say what's on our mind and say what we mean and and have an open and honest debate, and and that's all I try to do.

So um that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Um I do think there's a lot of room for improvement in the SECA program.

I don't think it's perfect, and uh I will have a new business item tonight that's uh a possible way forward, and and maybe we can have an open discussion about that.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilman White.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Um I had a question for Mr.

Halleck, I see he's still here.

Sorry, would you mind coming back up?

I like to get your perspective on the question, and while you're coming up, I'll basically provide a little context.

I know I've spoke to staff a few times here at our meetings in reference to parking for uh uh disabled, and I know uh it's gonna be more I I'll make the assumption that more of our uh seniors are probably at that uh uh at that stage compared to uh some of our younger uh residents.

Uh so uh I guess my question for you would be um as you travel downtown and around Naperville, uh can you give me an assessment as a member of the senior task force um parking accommodations for in general for seniors or and or those uh who are disabled?

Um councilman white, that is not within the sphere of the Naperville Senior Task Force.

I can give you a personal opinion.

Sure.

My personal opinion would be there's not enough.

Um we would hope that there would be more opportunities for seniors and people with disabilities to have space in our various parking venues, but that is not something that's under the Paperville Senior Task Force.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, and I just wanted your again your opinion as far as not necessarily the task force, maybe so, but um, but thank you for that for that.

Uh I appreciate it.

Um so staff, I would just ask us to continue to kind of look at those, you know, you know, things that affect some of uh those members of our community.

Um thank you, sir.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Halleck, don't leave because I might have a question for you too.

Continue on Councilman White.

You want to ask your question to him?

Go ahead.

Then I'll okay.

Uh and then the other one would be caterers were included and some of these other uh uh groups.

The reason we're here tonight is to talk about the possibility of including those concepts that we never even thought about 20 years ago, and those are drive-through-on-type concepts that are now becoming more and more prevalent in our community.

In this write-up, we are actually correcting that situation and adding those drive-through only concepts into the food and beverage ordinance.

But one of the things that I found missing were food trucks, and I'm not necessarily talking about food trucks who pop in the Naperville once and then leave town.

I'm I'm more interested in the food trucks that set up shop here and literally run a restaurant out of a parking lot either all summer or all year, and are directly competing with our brick and mortar restaurants where somebody might go buy lunch instead, they're going to the food truck and buying lunch.

So I I think we need to consider including the food trucks into this category.

I know there's some concern about uh how we're going to enforcement from a professional staff side, but the optics here are that food trucks get a better deal than those restaurants or uh folks who actually invest and pay taxes, real estate taxes into our community.

So that would be my recommendation to bring back that option.

This is only the first reading.

Bring back that option for our next meeting.

And I'd be searching for a what do you need?

A show of hands in support of that.

And there's certainly discussion, obviously, that's that's coming up here.

So let's go to Councilman Wilson.

If is this related to what I'm asking for?

Uh somewhat okay.

I mean we can go through all the discussion, then we can get back to what I'm requesting on the food trucks if that's okay.

Councilman Wilson.

Uh that works.

I I mean I I don't disagree with uh the uh point you bring up as far as it being unfair to brick and mortar stores with regard to how it's set up right now.

Um that being said, uh I'm a bit uncomfortable effectively bringing in uh new uh I I guess you could say revenue um without specifically knowing what it's going to.

Um I don't know if there'd be a way to look at the revenue or the sorry, I should say the potential revenue that's being brought in and um looking at a way to root to reduce the existing food and beverage tax because of bringing in by bringing in um additional revenue from drive-throughs and the other things that the mayor mentioned.

Um so those are bit of the concerns that I have just with regard to just just applying food and beverage tax to um the other the other businesses.

Um so that's that's kind of where I'm at with those and my thoughts on it.

Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um so I I'm glad to see that we have this draft ordinance in front of us.

It's certainly not fair, I think, to have brick and mortars that are not paying in just because they're drive-thru only.

So I think this is a needed update in that regard.

Um for the food trucks, uh I I think it's a fair point.

Um that we should have some equity between different types of food servers.

So I'm I'm open to that concept.

My concern is and mayor you mentioned ones who are just maybe here once or twice throughout a year.

That might be logistically difficult, and it's not quite apples taffles.

Um, maybe somebody who is set up here year-round or or close to it, uh, that makes more sense.

I'm I've got a little bit of concern about the trucks that are in the middle, uh, maybe that go to some festivals, go to swim meets, you know, 10, 12 times a year.

And my I could be wrong.

We talked about this a few years ago, so I don't remember exactly, but my recollection is that most food trucks have a point of sale based on where the truck is based out of as opposed to where they're serving the food.

And that may not seem totally fair, but it seems like that's just a system that they're that they're kind of presented with.

And what I wouldn't want to see happen is uh to get a reputation of those food trucks that come once or twice or even 10 or 12 times that say, oh, Naperville is gonna be too difficult to deal with logistically, so we're just not gonna come.

Um I don't know exactly how we handle that, and and maybe you know, I don't know what the right number is, so I would maybe look to staff uh for when the second reading comes back to to ask if there's some threshold that might make sense, ones that are truly based in Naperville, and and that would make sense to pay, and ones that are outside and kind of come temporarily, because I also don't want to see staff spending significant resources tracking down payments that might be difficult to ever get or might generate far less revenue than expense out for them from the city to try to track it down.

So just a couple things to be cognizant of as it as it comes back.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman McBrew.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um yeah, I like everyone else.

I get it, it's not fair.

It seems like a loophole.

So I understand that the issue here.

Uh, but I apologize, Mayor.

I know you brought this forward.

I I just I can't do both.

I'm um I have some issues with how the food and beverage tax is being spent right now, so I'm I'm not gonna support adding more money to that pot right now.

So I I'm not gonna be supporting this uh this agenda item.

Councilman White.

Um question, uh similar question to um that councilman Kelly said uh just the time how often will they be coming be coming in and at what is it two, three, four times and at whatever uh that number is.

We need to get some guidance there from staff as far as uh what you think uh would be fair uh because there's a fairness issue to it.

Um I think the other thing to consider as well is um if I'm operating a food truck out of someone else's bit, let's take the menards.

Um I don't know if that individual is paying menards a sum fee or whatever, and menards is paying a tax.

Uh little things like that are things I think that also need to be considered as well.

Um therefore that you know we're not they're not getting double taxed and more or less uh because they're paying menards now, they're paying a tax on top of that.

It may be fairer, may I may not be it, but uh that would be part of the of the research.

I think we should take a look at uh as well as uh I I'd offer up uh uh I guess a question for staff.

Do we have an opinion or have any uh insight as far as how other communities are handling this very much, finance director?

So we started to look into this just a little bit this afternoon.

Uh we have found um as you'd expect, uh, different applications in different communities.

There are certainly communities that are including food trucks uh in their food and beverage bread beverage ordinances specifically.

Uh there's other cases where uh it's a little more silent, so I think it's it's an interpretation, uh, but we'll continue to look into that in the coming week or two.

Thank you, Ray.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, somewhat to pick you off, Councilman Kelly's point in this ordinance.

We're also removing the food tax from food trucks at festivals and stands at food at uh festivals is my understanding, right?

So I see a potential complication there that you know a food truck that's in town most of the time is paying taxes unless they're at a festival, and then that day they don't.

Um to me, I'm not sure where I'd fall.

I'd like to hear from the rest of the council and talk with staff some more, but um seems to be an either or if we're gonna be adding applying it to food trucks, it seems appropriate to apply it to festivals as too as well.

Yep, I agree, and I think I mean we have some brick and mortar restaurants in Naperville who have their own food trucks and are arguably charging food and beverage tax when that food truck goes out.

That's really happening.

So to have somebody who has no presence in our community come to our community and not charge that same tax, that just doesn't seem fair.

Um the other things that's it's kind of ironic is in the case of some of the food truck events that are I believe there's at least one that was I don't know if it's still currently a SECA sponsored event, but you know, the SECA funds come from food and beverage tax, which is collected through our brick and mortar restaurants, which turn around and then subsidize an event that might be food trucks that don't charge the food and beverage tax, and those food trucks are taking away business from the brick and mortar restaurants that are subsidizing the event.

It just seems really disingenuous to have them playing at a different field.

So with that, I would like to ask council for support of bringing back some options to include food trucks in the next consideration of this ordinance.

Hands in the air in support.

Okay, we have eight hands or six hands in the air, seven hands in the air.

All right, enough hands in the air.

All right, this item will come back at a future meeting for final action.

Next item is 14.

Receive the staff for report for residents at Naper in Plank.

Yeah, but we have to vote them differently, I believe, right?

Councilman Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I asked for this and the following two to be pulled.

Uh don't have any questions for the petitioner.

I originally voted against this when this was brought to council, so I'll be voting for the aforementioned reasons then.

Uh don't have again, don't have any questions for the petitioner, just voting no on this for the reasons I had previously stated.

Thank you.

Okay, Councilman White, you have a motion to receive the staff report for item I 14 Mayor make a motion.

Uh move to receive the staff report for the residences of Naper and Plank.

Second, Kelly.

We have motion and second.

All those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes eight one.

Councilman White, I 15.

Mayor move to pass the ordinance approving the final plat of subdivision and the owner's acknowledgement and acceptance for the residences at Naper and Plank.

Second Kelly.

Motion and a second on I 15 roll call.

Gibson.

Aye.

Holz Hour.

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

Aye.

McGroom.

Aye.

Cyan.

I wife.

Aye.

Wilson.

Nope.

Worley.

Yes.

Motion passes eight.

One.

Councilman White.

I 16.

Mayor move to pass the ordinance approving a final planned unit development plat of the residences at Naper and Plank.

Second Kelly.

Motion and a second on I 16.

Roll call.

Hold tower.

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

I McBroom.

Aye.

Cyan.

Aye.

Wife.

Aye.

Wilson.

Nope.

Worley.

Yes.

Gibson.

Aye.

Motion passes 8.1.

Councilman White, M1.

Mayor move to approve the award of cooperative procurement 25-292 traffic signal and street light maintenance to H electric company for an amount not to exceed $1,201,294.1 cent plus a 5% contingency and for a two-year term.

Second Kelly.

Motion and second on M1 roll call.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

I McBroom.

Aye.

Say it.

I.

White.

Aye.

Wilson.

I warley.

Yes.

Gibson.

Aye.

Hold tower.

Aye.

Motion passes 90.

Item 01.

Item 01 is an update on the city's priority plan.

Just waiting one minute for our presentation.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council for taking some time this evening to hear updates on the goals from the city's priority plan.

Tonight we'll touch briefly on the history of the priorities plan, an overview of the progress and priority areas that we are not focusing on tonight, and then an in-depth focus on emergency management planning, priorities from the water and wastewater utilities, and three priorities from the natural environment community design.

The most recent version of the priorities plan, investing in our community was developed in 2024.

Driven by the city's mission, vision, and core values.

We use the 2023 community survey to redefine the city's priorities towards areas of highest value and importance to the resident.

Goals were created to support five priority areas utilities, economy, mobility, natural environment, community design, and safety.

Tonight you'll hear more detail about our progress on emergency management initiatives from Chief Chief Pugnitus, water and wastewater utility goals from Darrell Blennis, and our natural environment community design goals from Andy Hines, Christine Schwarzoff, and Ben Mulsonis.

Before jumping into our detailed updates, let's do a brief update on the goals you heard about in May.

Well, an update on the evaluation of the city's options to procure energy and associated services was originally scheduled for this update.

There's been significant discussion and activity on this priority already at the city council level level in the last quarter, including a workshop on July 28th, council direction on nine points to negotiate with IMEA, and council direction to release an RFP for renewable energy.

Negotiations with IMEA continue, and the proposal from RFP are due on October 29th.

Progress on the two public safety goals continue.

First, seeking opportunities and flexibility to expand the hiring pool for police and fire, in addition to broader recruitment efforts.

Both departments are working with the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners on opportunities to streamline the hiring process while still ensuring high quality.

Police and fire also continue to increase opportunities to engage with the community.

Most recently, through 39 neighborhoods participated participating in national night out in August, and an estimated 1,500 visitors at the public safety open house just a few weeks ago.

In a crossover with priority plan goals, the consulting firm completing the bicycle and pedestrian plan update had a table set up at the public safety open house, providing attendees the opportunity to give their input on bicycle and pedestrian needs.

Looking to the city goals under economy priority in an effort to ensure the continued diversification of the city revenues.

The city adopted the replacement 1% grocery tax last month.

And as the budget process continues, staff is focused on long-term diversification of revenues and as identified the evaluation of certain fees that have not been reevaluated in recent years.

The second goal under economy priority supports the development of the IEDA corridor to best meet the needs of current and future residents.

The study by AECOM was completed earlier this spring, and current efforts are focused on existing business visits, making real estate and site selection journals or marketing to real estate and site selection journals and attending site selection conferences to introduce global site selectors to the city of Napervale.

Moving to mobility, 2025 has been an active year for our mobility goals.

After receiving nearly 500 comments through the interactive web page and a public meeting, the Transportation Advisory Board recommended the plan approval at the September meeting for the road improvement plan, and this plan will be presented to the city council next month for their approval.

And finally, efforts on the bicycle and pedestrian plan kicked off earlier this fall with data collection and public and input efforts underway.

We're encouraging everyone to visit the interactive map on the city's website and submit submit your feedback locations on those areas that are difficult to bought bike or walk or destinations that are difficult to bike or walk to.

This input tool will be available through the end of this year.

And with that, I'd like to turn things over to Chief Pognitus.

Thank you, Marcy, and uh members of the council, Mr.

Mayor, ladies and gentlemen.

It really is a pleasure for me to speak to you about one of the priority goals here in public safety, which is uh the higher addressing the hiring shortage that we've had and uh and what we're doing to do what we're doing actually.

You've got emergency management on there.

Yep, yeah, let me go through emergency management.

Okay, okay.

I'd like to talk a little bit about the hiring shortage.

It's a very important uh item, and it's something that all public safety agencies are facing, not only around the uh state region, but all around the country.

We are addressing that in many ways, and uh one way is that we are marketing ourselves much differently.

We're not concerned about the volume, even though we know we are going to have many people retiring in the next uh fiscal year.

We're probably gonna see 10 to 20 people retiring in each of the departments in police and fire.

We're not concerned about the volume, we're concerned about quality.

So, even though it is difficult to recruit, we still have very viable lists, and we're recruiting people.

We don't need 300 people on a list.

We need several people that are gonna be the most quality related that are gonna spend their career here.

This is a destination uh city, and we're gonna make sure that we keep that up.

Uh, in the police department, they're seeing lateral transfers continuing to work very well and attracting uh police officers from other areas, um, even outside of the state.

The word of mouth recruitment is uh is making a huge difference.

Uh we've partnered with NCTV, we've also partnered with uh other areas to um other organizations to help devise videos.

We put together a video just as recently as this morning.

We have one done in the fire department that is going to focus on recruitment.

We're also very proud of the fact that in the fire department we have attracted our RNs, not just paramedics.

We've moved up moved to higher RNs.

And we talked about this.

We're the only department in the state that's doing this, and and we saw that as evidence of the RNs that are now on our department along with paramedics.

There's a lot more RNs out there than there are paramedics, and we need to look at that.

They're coming on the job, they're going through a program that allows them to become certified as paramedics from a national level, and uh they're doing great, and we think that's going to expand as time goes on.

And other departments are actually looking at doing the same thing.

We are we're also looking at targeting colleges around the area.

The police department is doing a really great job on getting out there and uh including designating historically black colleges and universities to uh help them recruit uh to get the more diversity in our recruitment process.

And we continue to work with our Board of Far and Police Commission to work on efficiencies to go through our candidates to make sure that the process is not stalled so that we don't lose applicants to other agencies.

Uh we take our we take our time to go through and filter those applications, but we're doing it much more efficiently where we're batching applications, we're doing interviews more in groups, and we're making offers to people quickly so that once they get that offer, they're staying here in Naperville and they're not going to other communities.

Once somebody goes to another community, even though they're not as good as Naperville, they have a tendency to stay there.

And we want people to come here, continue to make this a destination city, a destination department, and we're doing just that.

As we look at our community involvement, what have we been doing?

We have indicated that we would do more presentations, that we would get out and engage the community more, and we've done that through webinars, the police department especially covering scam awareness, traffic safety, safety on colleges, college campuses.

In May, we did fire prevention presentations, and we both did Citizens Police and Fire Academies both in the spring and in the fall of this past year.

We're looking at expanding those police and fire academies as time goes on.

And I could say in the fire department, what we're planning on doing is making more of those academies available, not just one a year, shorter time durations, but more intervals so we can allow people to come out and experience what we're doing, and it seems to be a really positive, make a positive impact in our community, not from people that want to be firefighters, but people that just want to understand what our job is all about.

So we're very proud of that.

Our public safety open house just took place in September 27th.

We had one of the most best, the best showings that we've ever had.

Over 1,500 people in attendance, both from fire and police, doing demonstrations, safety information, and many residents were able to interact with both of our police and fire personnel and get a great look at our vehicles and ask questions about what we do to help keep them safe in the many areas that we focus on.

From January through mid-September, the police department received 48 requests for presentations, training, and community events, and their attendance on the website continues to be very strong, focusing on active shooter drills, open houses, fairs, presentations, and their officer-friendly visits.

So we're making great progress in all these things, and we thank you for the support in allowing us to help do that for our community and our city.

And now we will get into emergency preparedness.

Emergency preparedness is something that we all should be concerned about, that we all should be very cognizant about because we will face an emergency.

We faced emergencies in the past, we've had tornadoes come past come into our community.

We've had floods, we've had droughts, we had cyber attacks, and we will continue to have emergencies and disasters.

Not only do we need to be prepared to mitigate these emergencies, but we also need to be prepared on what takes place after the emergency.

We've looked at this over the past couple of years, and we noticed that our emergency management needed a new plan.

We needed to reorganize it, we needed to reshape it, reinvent it, if you will, and that's exactly what we did.

What we did recently is we uh we hired a new emergency manager, an emergency manager that is going to come on board within the next 30 days.

We're very proud of our reputation and what we can offer.

And I will tell you this emergency manager that we have coming on board is one of the best in the state, if not in the country, and we're very happy to have her coming on board very shortly.

Her name is Natalie Weiza, and she recently worked for Aurora, I will say that.

We are working with the water department, the water utility to share the Southwater facility for an EMA space.

And that's going to be for storage deployment training.

We want a one uh central location that our volunteers can uh can get to their equipment and deploy their equipment from.

We have uh tremendous amount of volunteers.

We have about 50 or 60 volunteers in our core now that are citizens that volunteer their time that have specific expertise.

Some of them are retired meteorologists and weather people, others have technological skills.

And uh, over the last couple of years, two years ago, we purchased a unified command vehicle that we use for emergencies, and we used to set up in large-scale events and things like that.

Our volunteers set those up for us.

What we're trying to do is make emergency management not just a public safety type of priority.

It's a priority that the entire city embraces.

Every department director is embraced with emergency management.

If we have an emergency situation that comes up, there may be a specific director that that emergency is tied to that becomes the quasi-emergency manager.

At the very beginning of the emergency, both the city manager and the mayor will be prepared to address the city of the events that are going to take place and then and then in turn turn that over to what will be called the Naperville Office of Emergency Management, not just the Naperville Emergency Management Agency.

We will have trained staff to the greatest extent that we've ever seen.

We will see people, our directors, our secondary and our third people in line, um, be credentialed and certified.

We'll be doing table a lot more tabletop exercises, and we will be instructing the community on how they can be prepared, what measures they have to communicate with the city so that they know what's going on and what they need to do.

And we're committed to continuing that as the time goes forward.

You're going to see a new logo for the title of emergency management.

And like I said, the new office of emergency management is going to be marketed throughout the city.

And as we move forward, again, we're going to strengthen our post-emergency planning and recovery efforts because it's very important.

It's very important to every person that lives here to understand that hopefully it never happens, but if it does, we're prepared as a city, we're prepared as departments in the city collectively to work together to mitigate that and make people feel secure in probably the worst days that they'll ever experience.

So we're working as a group to do that.

We're working as a city led by the mayor and this council to do a great job for uh the residents that expect it.

The residents in this community don't look at this as an option.

When there is a major disaster, they expect us to react to mitigate and to follow through.

That's exactly what we're doing.

And I'm so happy that we have the support of the mayor and the council and all of the residents out there that help us do what we're doing.

So I'm going to turn that over right now, I guess, to uh Darrell Blennis.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chief.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council.

The Naperville Water Utilities, as part of the priorities plan, are focused on certain goals to ensure reliable, safe, and sustainable water and wastewater service for the community.

One of these goals is to complete upgrades and expansion of the Springbrook Water Reclamation Center and the removal of all less service lines by 2030.

The revitalization is the Springbrook facility is a massive multi-year multi-project endeavor with an estimated total investment of over 190 million dollars.

These improvements are driven by a need to address aging infrastructure, meet increasing demand, and comply with regulatory changes, such as the requirement to remove phosphorus from wastewater.

Next slide, please.

Key projects completed underway or planned through 2030 include the ultraviolet disinfection project, which was completed in 2024, the influent pump station upgrades, which are currently in construction and should be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, the return activated sludge and grit removal system, which is currently in construction and should be completed in 2027.

The South Plant upgrades, which you guys just awarded recently, should begin construction soon and should be completed in 2028.

The nutrient removal and north plant aeration improvements are currently in engineering design and with bidding expected in 2026.

The cloth media and disc filters, we expect to start design next year.

The water utilities are also committed to removing all known less service lines within the city at no cost to homeowners.

Naperville is aggressively tackling this issue well ahead of the federal and state deadlines.

As of this update, over 99% of over 42,000 parcels are lead-free.

This year, the city has replaced 63 less service lines with only 203 remaining.

The remaining lead services will be replaced next year in large part due to an interest-free loan through the Illinois Water Supply Program.

The third utility priority goal is to reduce non-revenue water by two and a half percent.

Two key performance indicators are used to measure our success in this area.

Non-revenue water percentage and the infrastructure leak index.

Remember, each one percent reduction in non-revenue water yields savings annually of approximately 300,000 dollars.

Non-revenue water is simply defined as the difference between water supply to the system and water billed to customers.

The infrastructure leak index is a ratio between total water loss compared to unavoidable water loss.

Unavoidable water loss is determined using an empirical formula that factors in physical system characteristics, including length of water main, number of service connections, length of service lines to customer meters, and average system pressure.

The five-year rolling average for non-revenue water stood at 12.2% for 2023-2024 reporting year, which is a little bit above the Illinois Department of Natural Resources goal of 10%.

However, the infrastructure leak index, another key forwards indicator was 1.28 for the same period.

And according to the International Water Association, an ILI of less than 1.5 is considered excellent.

To continue reducing non-revenue water and maintain a favorable ILI score, the city is taking several actions.

We continue the practice of replacing older mechanical water meters with ones that have more accurate technology.

This year, we will replace 2,000 mechanical meters with the newer technology.

Water mains past their useful life with poor service histories are being replaced.

This year we were placing 4.1 miles, and next year we're scheduled to replace 7.03 miles.

And with that, I'll turn over to our city engineer, Andy Hines.

Thank you, Daryl.

Regarding the natural environment and community design goal, I will review the implementation of the Riverwalk 2031 master plan.

Starting off with some great news, our contractor is in the process of putting the final finishing touches on the Eagle Street Gateway Project.

This $3.5 million effort will provide an accessible ramp down to the low flow walk.

New seeding locations and native landscaping have also been constructed that will provide an improved viewing area and better highlight the existing landform sculpture sculpture.

A $900,000 state grant funded approximately 25% of the construction cost.

Moving on, the Naperville Park District has completed various native planting projects along the riverwalk frontage over the past two years.

These include the Prairie Nature Garden, located just west of this of Centennial Beach, and riverbank stabilization along the east side of the river south of Jefferson Avenue.

These projects were completed with funding from the Riverwalk Foundation as well as DuPage County.

The Riverwalk Commission is also currently in the process of updating the 2031 master plan document, primarily to reflect updated costs and completed projects.

The commission commission intends to complete this update by December, and the revised document will be subsequently shared with the city council.

Last, I want to highlight two significant riverwalk projects that are anticipated to begin construction in 2026.

The first is the construction of the park on the North Central College property located on the east side of Washington Street along the south bank of the river.

The park will provide another accessible ramp down to the low-flow walk seating and provide a gateway to the North Central College campus.

A state grant of 1.1 million dollars was secured back in 2020 to help fund this improvement.

An $800,000 state grant and a $700,000 contribution from Endeavor Health will pay for the construct will help pay for the construction of this facility.

Construction will commence in late 2026 with the bulk of the construction occurring in 2027.

Now we'll turn the presentation over to Christine Christine Schwarzkopf to discuss public works native vegetation program.

In 2023, the city partnered with a consultant to develop a comprehensive native vegetation management program.

The initiative began with an evaluation of five city-owned stormwater management areas that already contained existing vegetation native vegetation.

Based on the assessment done at that time, site-specific management plans were created.

Annual maintenance and restoration activities began in 2024 and have continued through 2025.

These efforts include tree and shrub clearing, invasive weave control, native plant and seed installation, and prescribed burns.

The city will continue maintaining and improving these sites to ensure long-term health and sustainability.

Seven sites totaling more than 32 acres were also evaluated for conversion to native planting areas, and a man management plan is currently being developed for these locations.

Several factors can make a site a strong candidate for native plantings, including the present the presence of existing native landscaping, underutilized spaces such as dry uh basins, dry detention basins, and areas with high maintenance costs due to extensive turf grass.

In 2025, a portion of Naperville Boulevard was added to the program, and a five-year management plan was developed for that site.

In 2026, two additional basins near Aswego Road are scheduled to join the program.

It's anticipated that each site will require three to five years to reach a healthy, stable condition, but long-term maintenance plans and cost projections have been developed to ensure these these areas remain in optimal condition.

To foster community engagement, educational signage is also being created to highlight the ecological importance, importance, and environmental benefits of native native planting areas.

With that, I'll turn it over to Beth.

Thank you, Christine.

It's good to be here with you all tonight.

Ben Mule Smith's sustainability manager.

I'm here to report on uh the priority goal of further engaging the broader community in preserving the environment through many different incentive programs and voluntary initiatives.

So you know, the city of Naperville aims to be a leader in sustainability and protecting the environment.

And in order to do that, it's important to engage with our stakeholders and our community partners, our residents and our businesses.

It's really key to making real positive lasting impacts to bring those folks and those organizations into the conversation and empower them to make uh sustainability priorities and actions.

So I'm gonna give some updates on a few different programs.

We'll start with some of our incentive programs.

First, the renewable energy program, which is funded by voluntary contributions from uh City of Naperville utility customers, residential, commercial alike.

This pays for things like residential rooftop solar, attic insulation, and replacement of old single family or pardon me, single-pane windows that leak energy.

To date, we've spent a little bit over 250,000 across 162 different applications, and that is through September 30th.

Another energy efficiency program is funded by the IMEA, and this covers things like EV charging stations, uh air conditioning upgrades to much more efficient units, and smart thermostats and more.

To date, we've awarded almost 220,000 to commercial projects and nearly 100,000 to over 340 residential projects.

Moving on to a different very popular program is our electric lawn equipment incentive program.

So this was launched as a pilot in 2022, was very popular, and uh annually we budget for 200 rebates to give out to Naperville residents who want to move away from older gas-powered equipment to quieter, cleaner, electric battery-powered versions of lawn mowers, trimmers, edgers, leaf blowers, and even snowblowers.

And as of mid-September of this year, we uh approved all 200 of those 200 available rebates.

Moving on to some newer programs.

So last year we launched a partnership with local nonprofit, the conservation foundation, who's a very strategic partner of ours in the environmental space.

They're headquartered here in Naperville.

One of their special programs is called Conservation at Home, where the Conservation Foundation will send out a landscape expert to actually meet with homeowners and walk their properties and assess issues like drainage, uh, slopes, shading, how much sunshine they have across their yard, and uh look for ways that they can do things, whether it's removing invasive plant species, installing a rain garden, uh, making or planting areas to be more pollinator friendly for the monarch monarch butterfly, bees, and hummingbirds.

So in 2024, we launched this partnership where the city covers the the small certification cost a resident would pay for this service.

So last year we had 22 yards fully certified through the program and an additional 57 documented site assessments where recommendations were made for future improvements.

In 2025, we continued the program through the end of September.

We've had 19 certifications, an additional 75 uh site assessments.

So we look forward to seeing more certifications in the future.

We also launched in June uh the free food scrap composting drop-off program for Naple Naperville residents.

This is in partnership with our waste and recycling contractor, Groot.

Um, we initially agreed to a pilot period of June 2nd through the end of August so we could determine popularity, performance, uh, contamination issues, and um we decided to extend the program based on really promising early data.

And as of September 5th, which was the latest date, um, I was able to get collection data on.

We had collected over 340 65 gallon carts of food scraps to be composted.

So this program has been extended.

I it will end this season for sure because uh Groots organic collection season ends in mid-December each year.

It usually comes back mid-March.

We'll see, we'll evaluate the rest of the year's performance and see if it will come back in uh spring of 2026.

Finally, another uh program that started as a pilot with partners is the clothing and textile recycling program, which we launched in partnership with DuPage County and eWorks, which is also our e-waste recycling contractor.

And this was initially launched just like food scrap composting is a pilot to go from June 2nd to the end of August.

Again, measure performance, participation, contamination, and uh the program was popular right off the bat.

We average between 12 and 15 cars per day, dropping off clothing and textiles at our facility at uh Fort Hill through the end of September.

We collected over 17,300 pounds of clothing and textiles for reuse, repurposing, or recycling.

Um 17,340 plus pounds that did not go to the landfill.

And the program is now a permanent part of our environmental collection campus.

Thank you.

Thank you again to Chief McNitus, Daryl, Andy, Christine, and Ben for the updates on our priority plan.

From a next step, we'll be updating the webpage and look forward to providing a formal update in spring 2025.

Um, but you will see many items related to these priority goals between now and then where you'll be taking action.

In addition, um, as we look to next year, we have budgeted a community survey for 2026 to put us on a three year since the last community survey and then move to a four-year cycle after that to reassess community opinion about city services and look forward to using that feedback to engage with the city council mid-year on planning and goal setting.

If there are any questions, we're happy to take them now.

Council Molzar.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I'll go in reverse order first.

I just wanted to thank uh Ms.

Schwartzhoff for a fantastic presentation on the Prairie Yipgrass program.

This is something which uh I've been watching now for the last four years or so, and I know how much pride Mr.

Dwinski and others took in this program.

Um, and I just encourage you to keep up the good work.

And um, I notice it when I'm around town.

I'm excited to see what's gonna come on Neighbor Boulevard.

So thank you very much for your hard work.

Um, this uh I'll start with Mr.

Krieger on this.

Maybe the chiefs want to uh throw in a comment.

Um, I know last year during budget season, one of the things we had talked about was we had budgeted for the hiring of um new personnel, both in uh fire and police uh specifically with regard to mental health response.

And I know there was some fear of a budget shortfall for that.

Did that hiring happen this year?

Uh that hiring um uh uh the program you're referring to is the crisis intervention team for the police department, and that hiring did not happen this year.

Okay, so I I want to flag that that is a concern for me.

Um I think public safety and mental health were uh pretty clearly outlined as as priorities of this council.

If there was an item that had to uh be cut, I don't know why that one would have been the one that would have been selected, but uh I don't personally support it.

And I would hope that in this budget season we can correct that if it's not corrected before then.

Um second comment or and then um was there also hiring in CAR 47.

Uh you mentioned police.

Was there also uh a similar thing with fire?

The um well, the CAR program and fire uh had been was already in place and has um continued.

So there's no program is is up in functioning.

There was no non-hiring that that happened there that was supposed to happen.

Okay, sir.

Um, on an earlier slide, um, there's discussion of city staff looking at ways to do a long-term diversification of revenues.

And um I'll go back to you, Mr.

Kriger.

Do you have any commentary on what the city is thinking of there?

What does that mean?

Mr.

Krieger.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, you know, the this is something that um we we do really kind of like year-round and year from year.

Um one of the one of the things that um are kind of catching up with us right now are um looking at uh some revenues um that we do not believe will recover.

There's some that are cyclical, uh there's some um you know, such as um you know, telephone fees that we do not believe uh will be recovered, and we're looking uh really at the appropriate um both source uh as well as level um for replacement funding sources for something like that.

Okay, and just as a follow-up to that, um I know one of the arguments that was made during the group grocery tax discussion was that um sources of revenue that uh are tied to people's needs in life, things that they will have to purchase even during a period of unemployment or what uh what other else the case might be are in some ways more stable um because people need them.

Um I just want to throw out that as we're looking at different sources of revenue.

I I don't think that's the philosophy we should be looking at.

Um I think uh if there are luxury items, if it has to be a choice between luxury items or items that are necessities of life, um just increasing fees on necessities of life for the sake of having a diverse um revenue base.

I um I would hope that's not the priority of staff.

So um, so I just wanted to throw out that perspective as well.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilman White.

Excuse me, yes.

I'm sorry.

Um questions here.

Uh I'll start off uh with Chief Puck Nitus.

Um couple of questions.

Um CPR training, I know we guys are doing a really good job with that with the community.

I saw that the uh senior task force mentioned it with something that they're doing.

Can you comment on that as well?

Uh because I look at it as the more people in this community that are trained, it's just going to increase the possibility of every last one of us having a higher chance of surviving uh cardiac arrest.

Councilman, that's great, and I'm glad you brought that up.

But we try to do as much CPR training as we can.

Uh, we try not to turn anybody down, whether it's groups or individuals.

We have a website that people can sign up for CPR slash AED training.

We have that all combined.

We even do first aid training with people.

We do babysitter training, we do all kinds of training specific to different groups, but um, you know, sometimes there is a little bit of a demand that that that's somewhat taxing because we only have a certain amount of instructors, but we really do a good job.

We also have our our AED program through um the uh cardiac care alliance that we have that we've placed AEDs around the community, and part of that is to train people on how to use those AEDs and CPR.

So we have multiple prongs out there in the community that we're constantly trying to keep up with, and I think we're doing a pretty good job right now.

Um, I think with the resources that we have in place, we'll be able to keep up with the demand, at least where it looks like right now.

And I'm glad I was glad to hear about the silver CPR program that it's going well.

That's something that we've been doing now for uh probably six or eight years.

Very good.

I'm glad to hear that.

Thank you.

Um a couple of other things.

You talked about emergency response in case we get hit with the big one, more or less.

Um I'm always asking questions how we are we testing this system and just in case it does happen, and just making sure all the the entities and um components of the system are being tested.

Uh, if you can comment on that, um and it I like what you said as far as the team getting together, getting the getting with the mayor so that decisions can be made.

Um I I'm always a proponent of trying to get the council together to help make these decisions.

Uh, I don't think that's the most expedient, uh most efficient way of doing business uh because you just don't have time to go through that whole process, but there should be a process in which at some point the council gets drawn in uh so that we can make decisions for the community uh as a whole.

Um if you can comment on that and also about the radios.

Uh you mentioned in in in um if we have one of these incidents take place, more than likely it will not just be Naperville involved with solving the um the challenge that we're dealing with, and we're gonna potentially bring in outside agencies from the uh county from the state, maybe from the federal government that uh may be involved as well.

Uh I love the fact that we have these new radios um in case we do get hit with something along those lines, will those radios facilitate our ability to communicate with these other agencies.

So if you can answer maybe both of those questions, that'd be great.

I can.

Well, first of all, in emergency management, um you you hit the nail on the head.

It's process.

I've been asked many times about many specific types of large scale emergencies.

What if we had an atomic bomb drop?

What if we had you know Bach and crude that spilled over?

It doesn't matter what it is, what the emergency is or where it originates, or whether it is a police fire, weather emergency, cyber technological.

There has to be a process, and that's what we look at.

We look at what the process is, how do we handle um how do how do we put together a foundational framework of that incident?

We do that in police and fire every single day.

But how do we do that as a city?

So the way we do that is to prepare people, directors, and other public uh figures to make sure that they know what their piece is in this process.

And then the incident builds as um as it does.

I can't predict what the future holds.

I can't predict what that incident will be, but I can assure you that whatever it is, it will fall into a process that we have and a foundational um uh process that allows us to mitigate that emergency very efficiently.

And if we need resources, we will go ahead and and obtain them.

Um fill me in again the second part of your question.

Um the the if the radio, the cat art.

Yeah, the radios.

So our Motorola radios, we are in the process working with IT to get those radios in place.

They'll be in place probably by the first quarter of 2026, about a 30 million dollar project going over 15 years where any upgrades will be provided by by Motorola.

Uh, we're we are so happy about that because the system, the the radio system and the backbone that is in place allows us to have the interoperability, not with not just with our neighboring communities or the county, but also throughout the state.

And if we have to go anywhere in the state, we can program those radios very efficiently, very easily to communicate.

And we are in compatibility with uh anybody in this state that we have to deal with.

So, and any upgrades, any problems that arise, we're gonna have it covered.

So uh we did the right thing uh in hiring a consultant to give us the right advice on how to handle this program, and um, and I'm glad to say that we're on the tail end of it now to get it implemented.

And uh the um the feedback that we get between our ground uh personnel in police and fire have been really instrumental, and the teamwork that we have in our IT department to help making this a success has been really a tremendous process that other people look at us and they say, how can we be like you?

So I'm very proud of that.

And that's gonna be a huge plus for Naperville well into the future.

All right, good, and it uh makes makes me feel good about the investment we've we've put into that.

Um Mayor had a question uh for water.

Um when it comes to the leakage and stuff that you mentioned, Durrell.

Um I'm just curious how much of that, if any, is uh water that is lost coming into Naperville.

Are are we held responsible or we have to pay the cost for money?

I mean for water that's lost between Lake Michigan and that area between Naperville and Lake Michigan.

Director Blennis.

Thank you.

Great question.

Um fortunate, no.

Um we have meters at all of our delivery points.

Uh so the DuPage Water Commission is our supplier.

And they only bill us for what our meters read.

So uh anything lost between Lake Michigan uh to Elmhurst from Elmhurst to our delivery points.

Is that something that uh we pay for directly?

Indirectly we do because it increases the cost per gallon you know over the lifecycle of seeing no further questions.

Councilman White, may you have a motion to accept and receive item 01.

Mayor move to receive the update on the Naperville 2027 investing in our community priorities plan.

Second Kelly, a motion and a second to accept and receive item 01.

All those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes 9-0.

Our final item tonight is new business as a reminder.

New businesses for items is council is asking staff to bring back on a future agenda or for motions to reconsider past city council vote.

Does anyone have any new business councilman McBro?

Thank you, Mayor.

Um since before I was on council, I was I've always been a little bit um skeptical of the idea of tax dollars being collected by a government and then being distributed to nonprofits.

But I voted for the allocations the last two years.

Um tons of great events, tons of great organizations, some organizations that I've been directly involved in.

Um but uh I I don't need to rehash some of the concerns that I've had lately.

If you want to go to my social media, you can see it.

Um it really started with one organization that I I thought uh under the banner of the organization put out a pretty inflammatory uh statement.

Um I've highlighted a couple other organizations that you know I think you have conflicts, you know, elected officials on boards.

I mean, is that right?

Should we have that?

Um and and some politics, uh, overt politics.

Um and and so those are some of my concerns.

I I do think um, you know, if if if the argument is hey, everybody has good intentions, I I think that's probably fair to say that everyone involved in these allocations are good people.

That may not always be the case.

And and it is ripe for um you know political favors or uh uh steering um maybe in the future.

So um those are my concerns.

I know a lot of people do have uh some of those same concerns.

Um you know, some other people have other concerns that I share as well that are are more I guess logistical.

Um, and it's just around the intent, the original intent.

That's kind of hard to know.

I mean, you'd have to go back to 2004 and look through meeting minutes, and um, you know, I talked to staff, and I I don't I'm not aware of of uh any kind of full review of uh Sika um any formal review uh at least in in recent history, but you know, was it intent to be a permanent uh funding uh of events?

Um I've heard that you know it was always an in-kind city uh contribution for security and uh public works, and um it wasn't always uh operations or cash payments.

So um, you know, I think it's grown to a point.

Uh what is it seven million dollars food and beverage brings in now?

You know, whatever it was in 2004, it wasn't that number.

Um, and and we just keep finding ways to spend it.

Um and and I I just I think it's I think it's time that you know we have a public discussion.

Um, you know, I would I would hope that part of that would be you know some some standards, some conduct uh possibly for uh applicants, and then you know, you know, maybe maybe really zero in on what what the intention is and um you know kind of safeguard the future and protect the program because it's gonna keep getting bigger.

Uh we're gonna keep uncovering more conflicts that's gonna happen in the future.

Uh so I guess what I envision is um you know, city staff uh preparing um a report on the history of SECA.

Um, you know, perhaps uh council members suggest and send to the city uh suggestions on on how they would like to see the program or uh improve uh the program and then we and then we have a workshop.

Um it's budget season right now.

Uh SECA's already underway, they're already doing what they're directed to do under the current rules, so nothing of that changes now.

So I don't think this is an urgent matter at all.

Um, but I would hope that um my colleagues would be open to just having a public discussion on this.

Um, you know, and my understanding is I have to get five hands for a workshop or or three hands to discuss having a workshop, put it on the agenda in the future.

Um but uh uh that that that's my new business request.

Thank you.

Mr.

Krieger, the last time that the CECA ordinance was re reviewed with with city council.

Uh how when was that?

You know, I I think it was like 2017.

Yes, it was 2017.

Okay.

All right, so we're looking for uh councilman White.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh just a few comments uh on Councilman McBroom's request.

Um I'm glad that uh I mean you're not advocating, at least I don't think you're advocating for getting rid of the program, but maybe some revision uh and so on.

So uh I I can see that.

I I this is interesting.

I was over at the at the George when they had their ribbon cutting over there and had some good conversations with some folks and met an individual who actually did not grow up here, actually grew up over in the UK, and uh individuals, an artist, and uh was actually part of uh doing some work uh for an organization.

I think that was actually receiving uh some Sika uh money, uh maybe mistaken, but I think that was the case.

But anyway, um he happened to talk about how things were where he came, grew up over in England.

They have nothing like this over there.

Um they can't get certain things done, work done because uh they're not getting that type of support from their community uh the government specifically, uh whatever that city uh might have been a suburb or the actual city of London.

Um so I I like the merits of what we're we're able to do, and he really shines some light.

I wish he'd come in there and talk to us, maybe in public comment, uh, because I think it'd be interesting to get that perspective uh what he's doing from what he was talking about.

Um I also understand um I mean there's an uh is a good thing that we have a commission.

The mayor and previous mayors recommend people to be on that commission, and the council votes them uh approves them.

Um so I think we get more or less an independent assessment as far as uh rewarding those uh awards for Sika grant applicants.

So I think that's a positive thing.

Um then I've been to other events where it's I just go, man, if we didn't have Sika available, uh we really would be missing out.

Uh a lot of it comes down to artwork.

Um I just recently went over to um uh over at the the skate park, Max's mission over there.

I'm not sure if anyone's been there or they've witnessed that, but I would highly uh encourage you to go check it out.

Uh that would not have happened without the help of Sika.

And if you know anything about Max's mission, uh we had we lost a young man who uh to suicide and his families really has taken that to heart form their own 501c3 to encourage folks to get help if they find themselves in those in that particular situation, but it brings light to it uh to to the issue.

Uh so I just see a lot of positive effects of what this program has offered to our community.

Um so uh I'm I'm for looking at it.

I've again I've been at events where I've seen things politicized.

I'm not gonna mention the group organizations and so on because they're great organizations, but it does happen.

Um so if we want to look at certain things, I'm I'm fine with that.

Um, but let's um you know, as we do it, let's make sure that we're focusing on those those organizations, as I mentioned earlier in my comments, not necessarily what individuals are seeing because they feel a certain way about it, and they and then all of a sudden we start associating them with um with their with a particular organization's point of view, which may not be the case.

So that's where I am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Jane.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Um I'm always for looking at processes and seeing ways we can make it more efficient.

I just wanted to ask um Councilman McBroom if maybe we could specify what aspect of this we're actually looking at rather than trying to ask staff to just go and look at the whole system and the process and what aspect of it uh are we thinking requires uh a closer look.

I just worry that um we may be trying to reprogram something that we know as councilman White just mentioned has really helped so many organizations find a voice, find a space um in this community.

I myself was on um the other side of the whole SECA process trying to apply um and uh receive grant funding, and it was a tough process.

I mean, it really pushed me to think through in ways about my event.

Um, and I really respected the city of Naperville for making that tough and uh making organizations really think through, especially young organizations who have never maybe even written a grant before.

Um so I think the process that I went through, which was around that time in 2017, there's a lot of good stuff there, and I hate to just go in and try to um change everything without some guidance.

Like so, if we were to look at this, I think as council we should provide some more specifics in terms of what aspects of the program we want to um closer looked at.

Thank you.

Councilman White.

Thank you, Mayor I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I there was one point I I forgot to mention.

Um I think one thing that I mean, I think everyone up on this dais has said and it has acknowledged uh about the mental health crisis that we have in our community that that's across the board.

Um and uh I know we as a city uh organization, we donate uh we recommend money, and SECA does this to organizations that are actually working these particular issues, because let's face it, the government's not going to be the one that's going to go out and solve this, right?

It really is are those nonprofit organizations that are spearheading the efforts to bring awareness to mental health and uh to treat those types of things, and they can't do it for free.

Okay, they they they have a lot of donations, um, people do philanthropic things, and uh the city of Naperville through our through SECA and SSG actually work uh to provide funding for those organizations.

They have folks who are totally focused, they have individuals who are totally focused and have expertise in these particular areas, whereas, although we may show a level of compassion for it, we're not experts up here uh in order to deal with it.

So uh just another uh positive thing that I think the the SECAD helps uh the community with something I think might arguably be the number one challenge we have in our community is fighting the mental health piece.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman Sayed.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I'm the rep from City Council for Sika Commission, and I have attended two meetings, and I have seen the commissioners, you know, very dedicated, highly qualified, think through everything, you know.

And uh second, I also met a lot of uh applicants who has applied for Sika grants in this couple of months, and almost as of now, 87 people have organizations have applied.

And their question for my the thing is that you know, Ashwak, why this is so strict, why your policies, processes are very strict, why do you have the strict policies and processes?

And the second one is that why the why the amount is so less.

So these are the two questions usually I get from the community who applied.

And their their uh only concern is the amount, which I spoke to Director Mancha about that last week, highlighted that every every organization's concern about the amount which they are getting it.

So if we can work on that also is better regarding the policy and processes, yes, I have shared on social media, the present policies and process, how it works, and uh most of the community members came out, spoke to me.

They said, yes, this is fine, and it is very tight and very strict if we can lose it.

That uh so I said no, that we cannot lose in, but we can improve the policies.

Definitely I am for improving of any policy processes, but uh you cannot have a process where you discourage people to apply, like my councilwoman friend who said it is very tough.

In 2017 when she applied, so some of the uh organizations did get discouraged to apply, thinking so many, you know, questions, so many tough uh policies which we have.

So we need to make it easy policy for good organizations who are really serving in the community for many, many years.

And uh we should not discourage those people with our policies and processes, but encourage people in a positive way and good way so that they can apply, use the funds in a proper way, and we are the people who there are staff who vet those uh bills and approve for those uh funds.

It's not that they're applying, they're getting the funds, no.

Every bill is vetted by staff, approved by staff, and then they pay get paid.

So I feel that we have a great policy right now, and but still I'm open.

Let's see how it works.

Thank you.

I I believe that our our SECA commissioners are some of the hardest working folks uh of all of our city appointees, just on the sure number of applications they review and and all the processes they go through.

All that said, I mean, when you have an ordinance that goes back over 20 years and it was created by councilwoman Ellingson for one purpose, and it's it's developed its own life over multiple councils who have been in place since then.

I think it's appropriate and timely that this council take a look at and see if we are giving the SECA commission the right instruction based upon the current needs of our city.

It's been eight years since it was last reviewed.

Most of us, with the exception of Councilman White, have uh we're not on the commission at that, or we're not on the council rather at that point.

So I think I'd be absolutely supportive of having our professional staff bring back a report as to the origins and where it's gone with the different timeline line events and changes to the SECA program over those years, and then maybe some feedback from the SECA commission itself as to what they find frustrating, what makes their life more difficult or obtrusive when it comes to some of the applications.

I mean, one of the members that I've spoken with, or my actually two members I've spoken with on the SECA commission find it very offensive when groups come in asking for a very, very large number to try to play the budget game, knowing that if they asked for 50, maybe they'll get half or at least more than they thought they would get.

So they inflate the number in anticipation of getting cut.

And I think that's really disingenuous to the organizations that apply for SECA funds and say, hey, I need $5,000 because this really is five thousand dollars.

So I that's one of the frustrations I've heard from commissioners say that this is happening, and we should try to get controls on this.

So I'd be very supportive of us bringing this back, whether it be a workshop or at least a report that we could potentially then turn into a workshop at a later time if we choose to.

Councilman McRoom.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um just want to respond to uh Councilman White and Councilwoman Jane.

Um, no, I'm not advocating uh getting rid of the program or food and beverage tax for that reason.

We couldn't do that.

Um I I do think you could make an argument for getting rid of CEQA.

I think you could make a very logical argument for um, you know, this idea that if government doesn't take tax money and fund something that that thing won't exist anymore.

I I don't I don't entirely accept that premise.

Um however, it's big and there's a lot of organizations that get a lot of things, and I'm glad you brought up Max's mural.

I highlighted that on my social media.

I looked at that and I'm like, wow, that that right there, there's an example.

This is why if you ever wanted to get rid of this, it'd be a tricky thing because I don't think there's a single person who would object to Max's mural that contribution to our our community.

So there are a lot of wonderful things that I wouldn't, you know, that I I would be inclined to continue to support.

Um, and I I do think you can find those things that everyone supports.

Um councilwoman Jane, you know, uh I I think if it was a workshop, there would be discovery.

I mean, certain things that I would want, you may not want, and you might disagree with.

Um I don't think there's any uh conduct standards uh right now, other than we we don't allow religious institutions, which I assume that's because it would be controversial.

And I that's fine, I agree with that.

But there are other controversial things out there as well.

Um so some kind of standards, and then you know, I just I do think we're just reviewing the history and seeing, hey, have we really drifted too far from what this was originally intent?

And if we don't get a hold of it, this food and beverage chart is like a hockey stick and it's just gonna keep going.

And where is where does this go from here?

Um, so I uh uh a report from staff on on the history of it.

I think feedback from council, feedback from everyone, you know, these are the things that I would like to change, or um, and then I I would like a workshop, but you know, mayor, if you wanted to uh um you know if you wanted me to change my motion to hey, let's get a report from staff, we get that report back, and then we talk about doing a workshop.

But I I think a public discussion should happen.

I think that um, you know, the public should have a chance to weigh in on and and see us have a discussion about um you know potential changes to the program.

Councilwoman Gibson, I assume it's still related to this.

Okay, go ahead.

I have a couple clarified questions for the city manager, or maybe for councilman McBroom.

Um, are we talking about food and beverage in general or the Sika programs specifically?

Because I've been hearing them used interchangeably.

Yeah, we get real into the weeds, we can talk about social service grants and uh SECA obligations, but um, you know, my focus for for this discussion would just be the SECA grant allocations.

Okay.

And then um, I guess my question for the city manager is about how many staff hours would you presume this request would take, and do you have an estimate of the cost of the city to look into that?

Uh well, I'll take those in reverse order.

Do I have an estimate of cost of the city?

Uh I I do not.

Um I I will tell you that um for a program that is this significant uh that we haven't really had a uh kind of a thorough going through for um you know a period of eight years.

Um it's probably due.

Um uh we can we can kind of dial in staff um support for for you know for the report itself um it is not uh going to be um overly burdensome for us to put that together and um I actually think that that's that's kind of a good first step to get both the history um as well as the requirements out there um you know to educate in addition to the public but to educate the city council because that's something that um we haven't done for a long time.

Okay, so to ensure I understand a staff report isn't necessarily burdensome, and at this point that's what we're discussing, and a workshop could be a discussion we'd have later.

Is that a correct understanding of your motion?

Councilman McBrown?

Yeah, I was looking for a workshop, but I'll I'll I'll concede if you guys are agreeable to uh directing staff um to bring back uh uh a report, and if you're open-minded to you know scheduling a workshop in the future, I'll take your word for it.

But um we could start with that first step.

Okay.

Councilman Holzark.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh question for Mr.

Krieger.

Uh what organizations are currently getting a permanent allocation from Sika funding.

Well, you know what?

Uh I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to miss out.

Uh I you know, I can I can throw out a couple, but uh I'll be looking for a lifeline out there for some others.

Um you know, I one I know that one uh is the Naperville Municipal Band.

Uh the second um is uh related to uh the riverwalk maintenance uh with the park district, and um you know I'd Melanie, I don't know if you're best positioned to uh answer any of the others or or Pam if you know that director Munch.

Oh, there it is.

You are the lifeline.

All right, so I'll I'll go with the uh 2025 city obligations.

Uh as Mr.

Krieger mentioned, it's the Caroline maintenance, riverwalk maintenance through the park district, municipal band, uh NDP specifically for their food and beverage guide.

Um NCTV has two very small obligations, uh Fourth of July fireworks contribution.

Um I think that's it.

There's a couple that have recently followed fallen off.

We used to pay the DuPage Children's Museum debt repayment through that.

Uh that was paid off last year.

So I I think that covers it in 2025.

And Century Box no longer on there?

Correct.

Okay.

Um of the uh questions I'd have is would those be or could those be included on a staff uh report.

So for example, like one of the things that was mentioned was um NDP publishing, like a physical food guide looking at the cost of that and whether that's the most technology efficient way that people are doing things these days, you know, other cuts that are I don't necessarily cuts, but reallocations that could be made within the permanent just to make sure we're getting good value there.

I'm seeing a nod, is that acceptable to everybody?

Yeah, I I think there's consensus that that would be acceptable to add.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just listening to various comments here.

Um, I mean, you know, listening to City Manager Krieger's comments about probably due for a review.

Uh I think it seems logical.

Um I mean I I I guess I'd be I'd I'd sort of preferred to do a workshop that way we could actually have a discussion about it as opposed to uh receive a receive a report.

That'd just be my inclination um to actually talk about the report and kind of go from there.

Um that's that's kind of where I'm at with it.

I guess I you know, similar comments to Councilman White and McGroom too, where you'd see certain organizations be orbitally political.

Um and just I guess similarly to echo um what Councilman McGroom had said with regard to organizations not or people for that matter not receiving money because of it not being funded um uh through Sega or the government for that matter doesn't seem uh logically consistent because many organizations raise significantly amount more amount of money that aren't involved with those.

So um that that being said, I uh to me I I think it'd be more reasonable to have a have a workshop so to actually discuss the report and process that that we'd um that we see.

So thank you.

Mr.

Krieger.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Yeah, I I look at it uh as the report as kind of a um uh progressive step to get through the workshop, uh report that will get information out um that can seed um some of the feedback from city council so that uh we would be able to put together a workshop that addresses and moves in the direction that that council's looking for.

So I look at kind of the report as the first step.

Um my guess is that when that's done, everybody's gonna say, oh, you know what, I love it the way it is, I don't want anything else.

Um, but that that would spur the feedback we would need to create um uh a workshop uh that would be productive.

And and my understanding, just for confirmation of this, um from a workshop timing standpoint uh would be um beyond budget season, so we'd be looking at something like Q1 of 26 for that.

Um I I think that's an efficient way to proceed.

Councilmember Broom, are you good with that?

Yes, I'm okay with that.

Okay, so we're looking for a show of hands in support of um requesting the staff report for feedback.

I guess I'm gonna summarize it as feedback on the SECA program and update on the timeline and everything that's been discussed by all of the council members here with concerns about what they'd like to see being addressed within that report for potential use to plan a workshop down the road.

Those in favor signify by raising your hand.

I I see eight hands in the air.

Is that accurate?

Okay.

Eight hands in support.

Any other new business?

We have a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second Kelly.

Motion and a second.

All those in favor sign aye.

Opposed?

We are adjourned.