Good evening.

Welcome to the second workshop for the proposed 2026 budget.

Tonight, our professional staff will focus on the preliminary operating budget.

As a reminder, no final actions are being taken at this meeting since it is only a workshop.

Also, all the rules of the city council still apply.

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

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

Speakers are given three minutes to address the council and to help speakers stay within the three minute time frame.

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

Timer will buzz when I hit zero, and we will alert the speaker when their time is up.

Mr.

Krieger, do we have any speakers this evening?

Uh yes, we do, Mayor.

One speaker, Mary Lynch White, sir.

That's okay.

That might go.

Okay, I think I got it.

Okay.

So my thanks again to staff and council for publicly airing the budget this way.

Um, as you do.

And I really like this themes.

Um this year's themes, money with a mission.

As somebody who likes to anthropomorphize, I envision dollar bills with very serious expressions, running around just trying to do the very best they can.

So I have four points I hope you will consider as you uh go through the topics tonight.

The first is staff capacity on page 16.

That if there is insufficient staff, dollars are not programmed is a wonderful idea, and this strategy should be maintained year round.

Staff seems to be stretched stretched thin and at times at risk of being penny wise and pound foolish in the wrong long run because of that.

In budget discussions, my impression is that council scrutinizes spending on staff far more than what is spent towards studying other services.

Please work to achieve a good balance.

Two, the city website on page 20.

This is important.

The overall strategy should address all aspects of service delivery, and please confirm that this work includes the open data portal as well as the rather deficient help center.

Three, special area services on page 21.

Floundering around with planning strategies besides wasting time and money, so is community, business owner, and developer mistrust.

Developers and the community deserve some level of certainty.

The choice to have either yet another failed Fifth Avenue initiative or more waffling around I-88 is hard.

But please prioritize Fifth Avenue and commit to I-88 in 2027.

Fifth Avenue does not have the complications of RIA zoning.

It has a far better defined identity and has received more public input than along I-88.

Fifth Avenue should be much easier to wrap up.

If the city can't manage to successfully complete Fifth Avenue, I can't imagine the city would be capable of transforming the I-88 corridor into the I-88 vision of a vibrant walkable mixed-use, live work play environment.

In the meantime, use the 2022 land use plan for planning and development along I-88.

Data centers in particular should not be approved in areas slated for residential development, and especially those that have already been proceeding around that course.

Planning strategies should not be cast in stone, but they should also not be discarded readily for what appears to be just a quick buck.

Number four, seek a funding cap on page 30.

This spending needs more thought in public vetting.

Please don't raise the cap until a thorough analysis of the food and beverage tax, including that of SECLA obligations and CICA grants is available to the public.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, and thank you for your emails as well.

Are there any other speakers?

Uh no, sir.

Do any council members have an item for the public forum portion of the workshop?

Seeing none.

Before I turn things over to the city manager, just a reminder as far as the presentation goes, there will be an opportunity throughout the presentation designated for questions from members of the city council on the dais.

So uh please hold your questions, write down the slide number that should be in the bottom right-hand corner, I believe, of each slide.

If it looks correct, um, and then we will go back and refer to that particular slide for the QA portion at the designated moments.

I will also be recognizing you in order of the um the button presses.

So, Mr.

Krieger, are you ready?

We're ready.

Sorry, there's already a button press.

Mr.

Uh Councilman White.

Okay, point of clarification.

Uh the questions for the speakers, or we're going to ask those at what point after each section.

Yeah, there's a designated question slide.

Okay.

That's broken up intermittently.

Got it.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Mr.

Krieger.

All right.

Thank you thanks, Mayor, and uh thanks to all the council.

Uh, this is our second workshop to discuss the proposed 2026 budget.

And tonight we'll focus on the operational side of city business.

As always, please ask your questions throughout tonight's presentation.

And as you just said, we've got breaks throughout for these questions.

If a question isn't immediately available, we'll follow up with post workshop QA with the November 10th workshop materials.

We're going to begin with an overview of the main considerations department directors and finance kept in mind during the budget development process, specifically tonight for the general fund.

This year looked a little different from past few as revenues are expected to increase less while expenses continue to grow.

Because of this, we want to take some time to discuss how we balance the budget as we expect these trends to continue in the coming years.

While departments were told to hold the line on new requests, after staff reviewed the budget, a few few new initiatives were identified that had value to bring forward in 2026.

These initiatives are not high dollar value, but they're public facing, which is why we're presenting them tonight.

We will also review the miscellaneous services section of our budget, which is how the city allocates funds to outside groups that provide services through agreements with us.

Based on that discussion, we'll be starting the conversation on the current cap for SECA dollars.

Please note uh this is a separate discussion from what staff was instructed to bring back to the council during new business at our last meeting.

Finally, we'll hear from library and settlement, both of which the city levies for as part of the property tax about their 2026 budgets.

Uh and with that, I'd like to turn things over to Ray Munch to get us started.

Ray.

Thank you, Doug.

As Doug just mentioned tonight, we'll discuss our approach to developing the 2026 budget with a focus on the general fund.

But first, let's take a look at the big picture.

This slide captures some key numbers that summarize the 2026 budget, starting with the budget total of 685 million dollars.

This is an increase of 6.8% over last year.

Nearly 174 million dollars of this makes up the general fund portion of the budget, and another 190 million makes up our capital improvement program.

The 2026 budget is funded through existing revenue streams, including a modest increase in the city's property tax levy that will result in another year-over-year decline in the property tax rate.

Tonight, we're pleased to present to you another balanced general fund budget.

Over the next few minutes, we'll discuss how we arrived at a balanced budget, which focuses on core services provided by the city and continues to make significant investments in our infrastructure through the capital improvement program.

First, I'd like to talk about some of the assumptions that Doug mentioned earlier that went into developing this year's budget.

Understanding the financial landscape that informed our budget process is important as you will see fewer new programs and services in this budget.

Here we summarize some of the challenges we faced when developing the 2026 budget.

To be clear, this was a more challenging budget year than we've seen in recent memory.

The challenges we faced were both both short and long term in nature, but our team worked hard to ensure that this budget continues to provide the high level of public services that our community expects.

As we walk through these challenges, I think it's important to highlight the fact that Naperville continues to enjoy an exceptionally strong financial position.

If you haven't heard them already, there are countless stories in the news about mid to large sized cities across America dealing with significant financial challenges requiring right sizing of public services.

Some of those cities face tough decisions because of the way they use federal stimulus dollars after the pandemic.

This is another example of how Naperville's financial decision making during and after the pandemic put us in a position to succeed.

That said, there were tough decisions to be made this year, and those decisions started with you early this summer when we tackled the issue of the grocery tax.

The state of Illinois's elimination of that long-standing tax had the potential to create an estimated $6.5 million deficit in the general fund.

Fortunately, we avoided that outcome when you, the city council, made the tough decision to implement a local replacement for that tax.

And while that worst case scenario was avoided, we were clear during that discussion that our forecast showed the general fund would likely have a deficit to solve for in 2026, regardless.

At that time, we estimated the deficit was two and a half million dollars.

You're probably asking what caused that deficit, and there are a number of reasons, most of which we'll be highlighting we've been highlighting over the past 12 to 18 months.

Some revenues have moderated or even declined in recent years, and as those revenues produce less, we've been cautious to maintain property tax stability.

At the same time, we're spending more, investing in both our professional city staff and our infrastructure.

We're navigating all of this in the face of continued uncertainties at the state, national, and global levels as far as the financial climate is concerned.

So, how do we address a $4 million deficit?

In short, we took a hard look at all of our general fund revenues and expenses.

First, the finance department identified and corrected a longstanding error within our utility billing system that was using an incorrect formula to calculate electric use tax for our commercial customers.

This correction has already been implemented as estimated to net an additional 1.8 million dollars next year.

We also identified expenditure reductions that Tracy will detail in a few minutes.

Last, we continue to leverage our past successes in driving down debt and stabilizing pensions to allocate a greater percentage of property taxes towards city services in 2026.

Tonight I want to share with you some more details on the issues we're seeing in our revenues because it's likely these issues will continue to influence future budgets.

On this slide, we see some examples of revenues that are declining because of changes in consumer behaviors over the past decade or so.

On the left, we see two categories of revenue tied to changes in commuting behavior, whether that be the shift to alternative fuel vehicles or remote work arrangements.

Both local gas tax and commuter parking fees paint a clear picture of this shift with a steep decline in 2020 that has stabilized but never returned to normal.

On the right side, we see a slightly different issue that has played out more slowly over a longer period of time.

This is a story of consumers cutting the cord on landline telephones and cable television.

Utility taxes associated with these services have been in steady decline for many years.

Among the revenues we see on this slide, some may stabilize over time but are unlikely to return to pre-pan pre-decline amounts.

Some others we assume will remain in a state of long-term decline.

While the revenues on the last slide represent a relatively small percentage of total revenues, we have seen some of our primary revenues moderating over the past few years.

The chart on this slide focuses on several of our largest general fund revenue streams.

The chart helps visualize what we've described to you over the past year or so as moderating revenues.

I'd like everyone to focus on the period beginning in 2021, when you begin to see what I would describe as extraordinary growth in these key revenues.

Each of these revenues increased significantly over a two to three year period for different reasons.

Some were fueled by strong economic growth and high inflation coming out of the pandemic, while others increased as a result of changes in legislation that drove higher revenues.

In some cases, it was both.

But as you can see, most of these revenues have seen more muted growth over the past two years or so.

Ultimately, when you combine the issue of declines in minor revenues with the extraordinary growth in these more major revenue streams, the result is a shift in our revenue diversification.

Let's examine that more closely on the next slide.

Before I get too far on this slide, I want to remind everyone why revenue diversification is so important.

Revenue diversification ensures that the city is not reliant on any one category of revenue more than others.

This is particularly important during times of economic contraction when revenues that are dependent on the consumer may be more susceptible to declines.

In Naperville, we have a history of maintaining very diverse revenue streams.

We value this diversification so much that we've included it as one of the goals in the city's priorities plan.

You can also see how that revenue mix has changed in recent years.

For next year, we forecast that state sales and use taxes will fund more than 35% of the general fund.

Notably, less than 20% is funded through property tax, which includes contributions to pension funds and funding for core services.

About 16% is funded through the state shared income tax, which is distributed on a per capita basis.

These three pieces account for 70% of total general fund revenue.

The remaining 30% comes from a much larger basket of small revenues.

Those include things like licenses and permits, fines and fees, charges for services like the ambulance fee, other local taxes, examples are the real estate transfer tax, the hotel motel tax.

And as I mentioned on the last slide, we saw significant growth in both sales and income tax coming out of the pandemic.

And as these revenues grew rapidly, we saw this shift in our revenue diversification model.

So what we'll refer to is the big three revenue streams, that's 70%.

Those account for 6% more of general fund revenue today than they did in 2019.

And while 6% may not sound like a lot, it equates to more than 10 million dollars in revenue each year coming from those three revenue streams.

So while this doesn't necessarily pose an immediate concern during a period of economic stability, a greater share of revenue coming from those economically sensitive sources becomes more problematic if or when the economy contracts.

This is one of the reasons that management of our property tax levy must remain an important piece of our overall revenue strategy.

So in our third and final workshop, we'll present the details of next year's property tax levy.

But tonight I want to talk more about the strategy behind the development of that levy.

As we've stated in the past, a relatively small portion of a residence property tax bill goes directly to the city of Naperville.

And an even smaller portion directly supports city services.

Back in 2015, the city council at that time set a goal to reduce debt by 25%.

That goal was a set of broader, it was part of a broader set of financial principles that we still use to inform our financial management strategies today.

In short, we live within a balanced budget, we maintain strong cash reserves, and we limit the debt burden on the property tax levy.

Another important strategy, not specifically called out in 2015, was our approach to pension funding.

Today, Naperville maintains some of the strongest, most well-funded pension systems of comparable cities in Illinois.

It's our approach to debt management and pension stabilization that has allowed us to responsibly leverage our property tax levy.

As the debt obligation decreased over time, we've been able to ensure that core city services receive the proper level of support from the tax levy to ensure that those services are supported by an appropriate mix of revenues that provide long-term stability.

The chart on the slide shows how that change has been managed over time.

I'll note here that the chart does not include the library or neighbor settlement levies, as our focus here is core services provided by the general fund.

We've talked a lot about the declining property tax rate in recent years, but I want to be transparent that a declining rate does not mean that we are decreasing the amount of the levy.

The decreasing rate is more a function of the unusual increases that we've seen in property valuations than it is the amount we've levied in recent years.

If we had levied to capture all of the EAV increases over the last three years, residents would have experienced extraordinary increases in their property tax bills, and we avoided that.

With that, I'm gonna hand things over to Deputy Director Tracy Morocco, unless there are any questions.

I'm gonna insert a question slide on my own here because that was a lot.

We do have some questions.

We do have some questions.

Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Mayor.

I've got one question about the um the what you have on the slide five, uh, the long-term error and electric use tax calculation.

Wondering if you can just provide some more information about what exactly that was, uh, how long it might have been going on and how much we might have lost as a result.

Yeah, uh, great question.

So, you know, this was really a function of our budget process in total this year.

I mean, really, for um, you know, the first time we were forced to take a really hard look at both sides of the budget, revenues and expenses.

And as we were going through that process, um, it was clear our electric use tax is by code 5% of gross receipts.

And we noticed that the electric use tax we're collecting each year is not 5% of gross receipts on the electric utility.

So we started to investigate why that was, and what we determined is in the municipal code, there's actually two electric use tax calculations.

There's one for customers of the Naperville electric utility, and there is another calculation for customers serviced by other entities such as Commonwealth Edison.

There are very few, but they still exist within the city.

What we discovered was our commercial customer base was being taxed under the what I'm gonna refer to as the commed rate, which is a graduated rate that's slightly less than the five percent of gross receipts.

Um that's been in place, uh I can't speak to that.

It is a very old legacy utility billing system.

Our assumption is it's been uh that way for many years.

Um, in terms of total losses, I imagine it's quite significant.

Uh Mr.

Krieger and I discussed that, and while we have the ability to go back two years and backbill customers, we decided that there was no reason to do that.

Uh it was more important to correct the issue on a move forward basis, so that's the approach we took.

Just one follow-up, I guess for 2025 or 2026, whether you want to look at this year or projecting the next year.

I mean, how much is it roughly per year?

Yeah, so for 2026, that correction is assumed to account for about 1.8 million dollars.

And so there will that will uh result in some additional revenue for 2025.

We made that change effective October 1st.

So the fourth quarter of this year we will collect some additional revenue.

So, you know, proportionately $300,000 thereabouts.

Okay, maybe maybe just one final follow-up on that.

I I heard you say that yourself and the city manager discussed it, and that you don't want to go back, and and maybe there's equity issues and businesses had budgeting and everything.

I understand, but is that solely?

I mean, it's an awful lot of money.

So I'm just curious uh what the thought process is there exactly.

Is it worth even looking at 2025, the year that we're still currently in to go back further in October one, or have you had discussions with any of the businesses that might have been impacted just to talk it through, or uh it's a lot to leave on the table without maybe a little bit more conversation, is my thought.

Yeah, it is.

I mean, a couple things there.

I mean, first and foremost, our budget is balanced.

Um, you know, so for 2025, um, the budget was balanced.

So, you know, when we discussed it, you know, out of you know, fairness and equity, um, you know, admittedly, that that was a mistake on our side.

Um, you know, so you know, to your point, businesses have budgets, they're already living within those budgets.

Um, so you know, our our take on it was it was sort of the right thing to do by the customers for this year.

Thank you.

Councilman White.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just a quick question.

I just want to be clear if so this is not a use tax, this is a 1.8 million that would go into the general fund.

Yeah, so for clarification, uh utilities uh have your charges for services, and then it's common uh to have use taxes on utilities as well water, gas, electric, cable TV.

Uh so this is the use tax portion and has nothing to do with the actual charges for electric service.

Okay, that's what I thought.

Thank you.

Seeing no other questions here, go ahead.

All right, next is the overview of the 2026 general fund budget.

Looking on the revenue side, general fund revenues are estimated at nearly 174 million dollars in 26.

This equates to a 4.4% increase over the previous year's budgeted amount.

While revenues are moving in the right direction, 4.4% represents a more modest revenue growth compared to the 6% growth projected in the 2025 budget.

The largest revenue increase seen in the general fund is from utility taxes, which are projected to increase by 3.6 million or 23.9%.

This notable percentage is largely due to the one-time electric use tax rate correction, as we just discussed.

NYCOR's natural gas tax is also forecasted to increase by one million dollars as natural gas prices are expected to be higher.

The 2026 budget also reflects the replacement grocery tax that was approved by the city council last month.

The replacement tax is expected to generate 6.5 million dollars, the same amount as the current state tax in 2026.

Since the municipal grocery tax is considered a local tax, its revenues are now allocated under that category in the 2026 budget.

The state grocery tax was previously budgeted under state sales tax.

As a result of the reallocation of the grocery tax, local tax revenues are now budgeted to increase 11.9 million or 22.3%.

These variances by category have no impact on the total general fund revenues.

Other general fund revenues that are driving the 4.4% increase include property taxes, state income tax, and the hotel motel tax.

Looking at general fund expenses, total general fund expenses are increasing by 4.5%.

Operating expenses, excluding personnel and interfund transfers, are increasing by 127,000.

This is a modest increase compared to the 1.2 million dollar increase in the 2025 budget.

This reflects department's efforts to hold the line on their operating expenses as well as staff's budget balancing efforts.

The 2026 budget reflects no new positions.

However, as a service provider, the city's largest expense is personnel.

As a result, the 4.5% increase is driven primarily by an $8.4 million increase in employee compensation.

Salaries and wages increase $5.5 million, and we'll review those assumptions in the next few slides.

Lastly, public safety and IMRF pension benefits increased by $424,000 based on required contribution amounts, which we'll go into in the next few slides.

2026 is the first year for the new non-union compensation structure following the compensation and classification study completed the past in this past year and approved by the City Council in May.

Included in the budget is a 3% cost of living adjustment and a 1% merit pool based on employee performance evaluation.

Annually, the merit pool amount is determined partly through survey and market data collected by human resources.

Additionally, with the implementation of the compensation and classification study, the budget includes $38,000 to support a secondary phase of wage adjustments based on the study.

Union wages are budgeted according to the negotiated agreements for each bargaining unit.

The 2026 budget reflects the second year of higher than normal wage increases for two of our largest union groups.

This includes an 8% increase in police union wages and a 7% increase in fire union wages.

These are the result of a one-time adjustment to be made over two years, of which we are in the second year.

Heading into 2027, wage increases for police and fire personnel will normalize to 3%.

Moving on, health insurance premiums are projected to rise significantly across public and private markets and their plans next year, and the city is no exception.

As we can see from the graph to the right, the city's health care costs are mirroring the national trend after the past four years of coming in below average.

The average annual trend for health insurance increases nationally is 6.8%.

Over the period shown here, Naperville has increased by 6.4% annually.

Unfortunately, health care costs continue to rise, and next year we will see an 18.5% increase in health insurance premiums and no change for dental premiums.

Insurance premium costs are split between the city and employees.

The increase in the employee contribution is capped at 15% based on collective bargaining agreements, and the city's contribution absorbs the remaining cost.

Employer contributions to the city's medical plans increase by $2.84 million to a total of $19 million in 2026.

Dental contributions are just under $1 million.

These amounts are forecasted based on current insurance plan selections, and some minor changes will inevitably occur during next month's open enrollment period.8% to $10.9 million dollars.

The police pension contribution increased $2.1% to $9.1 million.

In addition to the required contributions made through the city's property tax levy, each of the public safety pension funds will receive an additional $874,000 through the poot through the food and beverage fund.

These additional contributions can help stabilize increases in the required contribution amount by offsetting changes in the pension funds, extuarial and market values in future years.

We will also see an increase in the required IMRF contribution rate for next year.

The contribution rate for IMRF employees will increase from 7.06% to 7.8%.

The 7.8% is higher compared to recent years, but still relatively low compared to five years ago.

For example, as recent as 2020, the contribution was as high as 11%.

Unlike police and fire pensions, IMRF pensions are paid as a percentage of payroll.

We estimate that IMRF contributions will total 5.9 million dollars across all funds in 2026.

As we mentioned earlier, as part of our budget balancing measures, city staff examined previous spending in the general fund.

The 2026 budget theme, money with emission, reflects that ongoing approach to financial management, emphasizing conservative budgeting.

During budget preparations, departments were instructed to hold the line on operating budgets due to budgetary pressure from increased personnel and health insurance costs.

Additionally, the city's budget team collaborated with departments to evaluate and potentially reduce baseline budget requests.

Staff focused on three areas when reviewing preliminary budget requests.

The first was to identify unused funds by comparing actual spending to the 2026 budget requests, highlighting areas of underspending that could be reduced or eliminated.

The other area of focus looked at staff capacity to complete budget projects and programs.

If the project was included in the budget, but departments were unsure how the project would be completed in 2026, the project was reduced or removed.

Lastly, as with many local governments, department budgets included extra dollars for unforeseen events.

For example, staff reduce line items for winter operations to be more in line with recent weather patterns and spending trends.

Ultimately, while we should plan our response to these events, the city does have significant financial reserves in place to cover emergency expenses when they arise.

Department efforts to hold the line reflects no new personnel requests and limited new budget requests that will be discussed in the next few slides.

And now we can pause for questions on the general fund.

Councilman White.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I know a few years ago we had a large discussion on the fire and police pensions and and how we were paying into that.

And I know a lot of municipalities were really struggling to meet the deadline from the state.

Can you give us an update on where we are with that and maybe provide some perspective, especially for maybe some of our newer council members?

Sure, I'll I'll take that one, Mayor.

Um, you know, I I am uh super proud of the decisions that the city has made with respect to funding our public safety pensions.

I will tell you uh last time I looked uh out of the 20 largest communities in Illinois, uh the city of Naperville's funds are the best funded.

Um, you know, uh in addition, uh a lot of the reason behind or a portion of the reason behind that is we've never taken a pension holiday, um, we've never played any tricks.

Um we uh have always put in uh in excess of our required minimum contribution that extras come from the additional food and beverage tax, and uh you know, in uh the you know almost decade-long bull market, I think absent 2023.

Um served us very well.

So we are we are well positioned, and no one has ever viewed those additional contributions as hey, here's some dollars that we can use to you know do a pet project or something.

We've been very disciplined with respect to our increased funding for the pensions.

And uh this is a follow-up.

What at what point do we feel we'll be basically paid in full, I guess I should say for lack of a better word.

No, you you know that that is a great question.

Um there's there's no real math answer to that because you can't predict the future.

Um we uh use a 15-year uh kind of rolling amortization rate, uh, which helps us smooth things out.

So it's almost kind of like the the half the distance to the goal line problem where you know what you're never gonna get in, but you're always gonna get super close.

Um, you know, what what I like to focus on uh is really um our funding percentage compared to you know the other uh the other municipalities as well as some of the other statewide systems.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilman McRoom.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Director Munch, um, I think all of us saw this health insurance spike, the 18 and a half percent, and we're pretty shocked by that.

Um could you we are we are self-insured?

Uh I talked to some people I know in the insurance industry, and they said these kind of increases were not unusual uh this year, but um but for self-insured organizations, it might have been high.

That's just kind of what I um I've gathered from people in the industry.

But could you give us an idea?

I know you you see there's some medical claims here, so it uh you know that that would be a reason for a self-insured uh organization to see us a significant spike.

Are there any other reasons why we saw something that high?

And then we're giving you no indication of whether or not that's stable stabilized.

Uh, obviously, 18% year over year would be on unsustainable.

Um, so do we have any other options as well?

Director Munch.

Yeah, very good questions.

I'll I'll start and then uh if Director Ollis has anything to add, um happy to let her jump in.

Uh, you know, we had very good experience for a very long time.

Uh I came in 2020, and I think in the first four three or four budget years I was here, we had a total increase of less than five percent over all those years.

We had several years where the increase was zero percent.

So um we've had excellent history.

While you know, we had those really good experiences.

Other people were kind of already experiencing what we're seeing today, not not to this extent, obviously, but um so 18% certainly significant.

What's driving that?

Um, you know, in our conversations with our broker, pharmaceutical costs are one of the biggest drivers right now.

Um, you know, so you know, between that and serious health conditions that exist in the marketplace, um, our overall experience just hasn't been favorable.

So you know, we've been out of sync with you know the projections from the prior year, and you know, in turn, you have to make that up the next year.

Um, you know, whether that trend continues, impossible to predict.

Um Helga and her team do just a fantastic job with our benefits broker to work through different options for programs and services that really keep our um health, you know, employee population and and their dependence um in the best position to keep our fund in a good place, right?

And so can't can't know what the future is gonna hold.

Obviously, we're trying to control those costs as best we can.

Uh Helga's team is taking some steps with our broker to do that for the future.

But as far as our other options, again, we're fully self-insured.

So, what does that mean?

We pay all of our claims as a city on our own.

We carry some additional insurance policies when you get very high claimants.

We have some kind of backstop insurance for that.

But the other options would, you know, probably first be to start look at health insurance pools.

There's some risk pools that exist out there in the local government landscape.

Um, you know, there's advantages and disadvantages to those.

You you spread your risk out among a larger group, but if you're a member of a group that has um, you know, less health conscious community, then you take on more risk.

So you know, you kind of have to weigh the pros and cons of some of those.

Um, I would say that based on what we've seen over the last couple of years, it's a little bit early to jump to any conclusions.

18 and a half percent is not a number that anyone wants to see, but I would certainly encourage everyone, like we do with everything else we talk about when it comes to our finances.

We take a measured approach, we we wait and see, we avoid knee-jerk reactions.

So if this started to play out next year, the year after, we probably have to have conversations about how to mitigate that, but I would say it's premature to have those conversations based on one year of data.

Thank you.

Seeing no other questions, go ahead and proceed.

This is the first of three new budget requests to be presented this evening.

It's important to note that while we held the line on new requests, staff is also striving to achieve efficiency by finding faster, smarter, and more resourceful ways to serve the community.

We believe these next three public-facing items will enhance our services and bring significant value to the community relative to their associated costs.

First is the police department's drones as a first responder pilot program.

Well, this specific initiative is new.

The foundation for it has already been built over the past four years through the department's existing and growing drone program.

The drone program was created in 2020 and has continued to expand each year as the benefits of this technology is realized.

In 2024 alone, the drone team flew 386 missions.

Those flights helped PD to catch fleeing subjects, clear homes and businesses during critical incidents, locate missing people, document traffic crashes and crime scenes, and support large special events held throughout the city.

Let me give you a quick example that shows the impact of the current drone program.

Several suspects wanted for an armed carjacking in another municipality were found in Naperville.

When officers moved in, the suspects ran.

Two were caught quickly, but the one with the firearm was still at large.

This slide shows the actual drone footage from the scene where you can see someone enter a backyard shed.

The drone pilot was able to direct officers to that location and give commands to safely take the suspect into custody.

This is just one example of how drones give police a vital overhead view during critical incidents, which improves officer safety and brings a safe resolution to incidents.

It's also worth noting that oversight of the program has been extremely thorough.

Privacy, data security, and video retention are governed both by state law and police policy.

Building on that success, the 2026 budget includes a maximum amount of 150,000 to expand the current drone initiative into a drones as a first responder program, or DFR.

A DFR program is powerful because when a 911 call comes in, a drone can launch within seconds.

Under the supervision of a licensed pilot, it autonomously flies to the call location, often arriving in under two minutes.

That gives the pilot a live view of what's happening before officers, firefighters, and other responders even arrive.

This kind of speed can make a tremendous difference.

Take a burglary in process, for example.

Normally, an officer is dispatched about a minute after the 911 call and arrives on scene roughly five minutes later.

By then, the offenders may be gone, and officers are left interviewing witnesses and victims to piece together what happened.

With DFR, a drone can be overhead in less than two minutes, capturing suspect and vehicle descriptions or even even following the suspects as they flee.

That real-time intelligence helps guide responding officers to the right location and dramatically improves the chance of an arrest.

DFR also helps when callers can't provide much information.

The live video allows dispatchers and officers to scale their response appropriately, keeping both officers and the public safer.

Since these drones cannot currently cover all of Naperville, the pilot will be conducted on the north side of the city, which has the highest call value.

This area also includes the downtown.

And as you can see on the screen, while this is a police department pilot, the benefits could eventually extend across the city.

Just like PD's current drone operations, the DFR program will follow strict privacy, security, and retention standards to ensure innovation never comes at the expense of public trust.

In short, this is about delivering faster, smarter, and safer service for the Naperville community.

This addition to the 2026 operating budget will improve one of the city's most publicly accessible information sources and better align it with the future federal regulations and current website expectations.

Included in the city manager's office budget is 100,000 to procure a new website hosting solution and content management system.

It's been almost 10 years since the last major overhaul of the city's website.

And during that decade, a lot has changed.

And more change is coming.

Next April, a new Department of Justice rule goes into effect that requires cities of Naperville's size to make sure their website meets certain technical standards for accessibility.

Our current site was not built to those specifications as technology has advanced much more rapidly in recent years.

At this time, staff is paying its third-party consultant to help remediate accessibility issues.

However, today's systems automatically incorporate those updated accessibility standards into their platforms, keeping pace with technology.

Security is another major consideration.

The environment around cybersecurity is constantly changing, with bad actors finding new ways to disrupt business.

In addition, governments have increasingly been subject to evolving cyber attacks with headline making results.

Finally, how people use websites has changed dramatically since 2016.

People no longer expect to go to a website just to get information.

They go to achieve a task.

Online, not inline was a phrase staff has previously used around this philosophy.

Over the past five years, we've brought many of our services online, including building permits, billing for all of our general or non-utility services, and plan submittals.

Analyzing what users are coming to the site for and how they're navigating the city's website will help staff reorganize content and improve the user experience, providing citizens with faster, more convenient access to city services and information.

Overall, this work will result in a site that meets the needs of today as well as position us to best handle the unknown needs of tomorrow.

Staff anticipates the new website launch will align with the end of the current hosting contract in late 2026.

The last new item included in the 2026 operating budget is a special area study.

TED's budget has programmed 150,000 to initiate a study of either the I-88 Corridor, the Fifth Avenue area, or some other special planning project.

It is important to note that the money programmed for 2026 is to begin only one special planning project.

Although the development of these and other areas in the city is important, there are only staff and financial resources available to focus on one in 2026.

The table outlined on the current slide provides a high-level overview of where each of these studies started, what initial reports showed, and the next steps that would need to be taken.

Starting with the IADA corridor, the Naperville Development Partnership released an IADA corridor strategy report this past May.

NDP's report outlined a goal to add 15,000 jobs by 2045 across various targeted industries.

If council decided to move forward with conducting an in-depth study around the I-88 corridor, the next steps for staff would be to work with a consultant to conduct a land use study.

This study would ultimately assign a general place or character description to areas of the corridor.

Staff would then create a place type map, which will serve as a guide to target specific development.

Following the creation of a place type map, a city-led zoning evaluation would need to be completed to determine if any municipal code changes are necessary.

However, if council determined that moving forward with a Fifth Avenue study was the priority for 2026, then staff's focus would shift there.

While staff is not seeking a decision tonight on which study should be the priority, direction from council on this issue will be sought in the future.

Next, we'll turn our attention to the commuter parking fund.

Historically, the commuter parking fund has produced more than enough revenue to cover both operating expenses and capital investments needed to maintain both the commuter lots and train stations.

However, since 2020, expenses in the commuter parking fund have outpaced revenues.

As a result, fund balance has been relied on to cover commuter fund related expenditures as commuter patterns normalized after the pandemic.

While this solution has worked in the short term, the return to normal commuter activity has been slow, and the fund is projected to entirely deplete its cash balance in 2027.

This means that in its current state, the fund is no longer self-sustaining.

In 2024, the parking fee structure was changed to a flat rate of three dollars per day with a 5% discount for paying by week and a 10% discount paying by month.

Prior to this change taking effect, staff from TED and Finance did extensive work to create long-term financial projections for the fund.

Through the analysis, it was determined that at some point in the future, the city would need to increase parking rates.

At that time, it was projected that an increase would not be necessary until 2028.

However, staff now believes this increase is likely needed in 2027.

Staff has taken a number of actions to reduce operating costs and deferred capital investments to ensure the fund expenses are minimized.

However, the need to invest in the commuter lots and train station platforms has continued to grow.

As expenses continue to climb and revenues moderate, additional action will need to be taken to allow the fund to continue to operate as an enterprise fund while maintaining a positive cash balance.

While the goal of tonight's discussion is not to seek direction on a potential solution, staff anticipates coming back to the council in 2026 for a more in-depth conversation around this fund.

And at this point, we'd be happy to answer any questions.

Councilman White.

Thank you, Mayor.

Since we're on uh the parking fund, um I'm looking at uh the 2027 and I understand what you're saying there.

Um ever is there do we run into a some relative conflict with it when we're also talking about what we're going to do either with I-88 or Fifth Avenue.

And if Fifth Avenue is the direction that the council wants to go, um, how does that affect the commuter parking situation?

Because I would imagine that's going to be part of the discussion.

Mr.

Krieger.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um we view those uh as two uh distinct uh and separate issues.

Um, you know, whether we head down the path and attack Fifth Avenue uh right now or if it gets put off a few years, um we will still need to make some adjustments, either revenue likely revenue, uh you know, possibly some expenditure wise in commuter parking.

Uh the other the other option um that we've been able to kind of stave off this long is really uh looking at um the potential uh of subsidizing commuter parking through general governmental uh uh uh revenues, um, something we've never done.

We've always had to be a standalone enterprise fund, um, and and that is uh that is how we would like to proceed.

Okay, thank you.

Um, follow-on question.

Um, with the city website, um, I'm looking at the cost 100,000.

Uh I guess a concern would be any additional cost to that.

So, for example, in order for us to properly secure the website from a cybersecurity standpoint, is that um uh a secondary cost to doing the website or in as just one example?

I don't know if there's any other secondary or tertiary types of um things that would be affected by building the web by doing the website.

If I could, Mr.

Mayor.

Kelly Munch.

Yes, go ahead, Ms.

Munch.

Kelly Munch, senior communication specialist.

So the scope for this particular process that we put out for RFP this year included the both the content management system that manages the website as well as the hosting and security of the website.

So it's all being bid as one package, and we are in the middle of that RFP process right now, but cybersecurity uh protection and all that is included with what we're currently bidding.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

And uh one last question for the the drones.

Um I like the uh where we're going here with the with the drone program.

Um question for maybe for chief.

Uh is the ultimate goal to be able to do this as some type of centralized system in which the department maybe at the headquarters is sending them all out.

I think he spoke to me once before about having them in different locations, but ultimately are we trying to get to a point where every officer or at least every vehicle actually has a drone with it where it can actually achieve situational awareness by themselves.

Chief Harris.

Yeah, thank you.

And thanks for the opportunity to speak about this.

We we actually aren't.

Um, and an even more expanded radius based on the battery.

So what I think we're gonna see is, and I thought um the deputy city manager hit this well in the points was it it's full transparency.

One isn't gonna cover our whole city right now.

In a couple years, one may cover the whole city, but at this point, why we're doing a pilot program is we need to realize the ROI on this in our busiest areas of town and then adjust it from there.

So I know that was a long-winded no, I don't see every officer with a drone on them.

I think it's gonna be we're gonna need less in the future.

We'll see still need the ones, and I I think it needs to be clear.

We're not gonna replace the current drone program we have because this is for one type of situation.

This doesn't cover indoor drones that we've used on certain types of calls, things of that nature to clear a structure before we send a human being in there.

Um but in this space we might need less in the future than more.

Does that help?

Yeah, that's good.

Great answer.

Thank you.

Councilman Wilson.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um question for Chief Aries.

Uh I know you're to put words in your mouth, pretty excited about the drone program.

Um do have a quite one of the bullet points here is privacy, security, and video retention dictated by state law.

Um can you expand upon that, or if not, if you don't recall off the top of your head if you're able to provide some of the details around that?

I I brought my cheat sheet here so I can answer your question for sure, because I thought that may come up.

So the state law dictates that the longest, and and there's different types, there's only 10 types of calls that we can fly a drone for, and I won't go into all of those, but um seven of the ten, the longest we can keep it is 30 days, at which point it has to be purged, unless evidence of a crime is part of that drone footage.

If the ev if there is evidence, if we capture the crime or evidence of a crime from that drone footage, it can be stored longer.

Otherwise, 30 days uh the drone footage has to be deleted.

So if we do respond to a crime in progress, allowable under the state law, but no evidence is gained, even if we catch the suspect later, the drone footage isn't going to be allowable unless it has some type of evidentiary value and thus it would be purged.

Thanks.

And then uh similarly, I I know when I was uh uh liaison with you guys, uh we'd I think some topic had come up about uh the drones being overhead and people's uh space, I guess, um, or backyards or what have you.

Um and you had I can't I don't recall who commented on it, but there was certain regulations around who dictates that uh um whether it's federally dictated or state dictated, um, or if people can have drones and just in general, uh whether it's with regard to this or not.

Um do you happen to recall?

What I can say is this there's a reason I don't I don't remember if it was in the slide or not.

I I'd like to answer in the in the drone as a first responder space and how we can use the drone.

The drone can be set when it launches from the point where we would have the drone housed, and when it flies to wherever that crime is or that missing person is, the camera will face the horizon.

So we won't be covering people's backyards on the way to that call.

Now, as we look for a missing person or a criminal suspect, because we are engaged in a police emergency call for service, at that point the drone could potentially pick up somebody's backyard as we look for a suspect or look to locate a missing person, whether that's a missing uh elderly Alzheimer's patient or a missing child, in that case, it would be allowable.

Um now where it would come in would be FOIA, and that type of stuff would be can be redacted, heavily redacted um in a general FOIA request.

So does that help your answer your question?

Okay.

Thanks for the clarification, Chief.

You're welcome.

Uh then at a question for Director Munch on uh parking um fund.

Uh because we had seen previous slides about how the revenue was coming in more it was expected higher than what we had previously.

Sorry, the revenue that we had seen was higher than was what was expected due to the uh increase in fees.

Um was wondering if you can get into some of the uh expenses that would draw this down that much.

Director Munch.

Thank you for the question.

So uh the commuter parking fund, I would say most of your expenses are related to the ongoing maintenance of the lots.

So in the winter you have to plow them and solve them.

Um the um so the public works department has some personnel allocated to the fund for the maintenance operations.

Um there are some contractual services like the janitorial services that go into the depots and the tunnels and things like that.

Um the police department, for example, has a community service officer assigned to the parking fund because they're responsible for the enforcement of the parking regulations and the fund uh in the uh commuter lots.

Um so there's a very variety of expenses um that are recurring annually.

Um the other is obviously capital.

So anytime we do any type of capital maintenance, whether that be patching, seal coating, striping, um, next year we have some more significant capital in those lots.

Um we've gotten to the point in some of them where I believe we're talking large-scale patching repaving.

Um the we talked about it in um the capital workshop.

I think it's come up in the context of the Fifth Avenue conversation.

Uh the depot downtown, it needs a little love.

Um it's it's just getting to that point.

So there's some uh expenses there that we'll realize next year.

Um I think what you're seeing here in in the context of the 2026 budget, we have capital needs next year that are more significant than what we've seen in prior years.

Um, you know, some of that is because we've been cautious, um, but some of that is planned capital maintenance.

So some of the the drawdown for next year is largely the effect of capital needs that have emerged.

Thanks.

And then presumably when this comes back, we'd see projections of rate increases to offset uh some of the things you talk about.

Correct.

So we've worked with um Director Louden's team and Ted on this going back to um the change that was made last year.

You know, the the hardest thing to predict at this point is what is parking capacity or usage going to look like in the future.

Um it's certainly coming back.

Um, you know, where it kind of peaks out, I I think we're probably in agreement that it never comes back to 2019 levels, but um, it's certainly much healthier than what we saw in the past year or two.

Um so we're monitoring that very carefully.

Ted, you know, does regular accounts to see um what the parking utilization is, and so we'll use that information to kind of inform the financial needs moving forward.

Thank you.

Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, a couple questions on the drone program uh as well, and uh one about special uh area studies.

Um for the drones, just for a little more kind of data and information, um, if staff could share.

I see on the slide 386 drone missions in 2025, and I apologize if I missed it, but what's the what's the estimate if we approve this program?

How many missions do you think roughly you'd uh have in 26?

Are we talking double, triple, less than that?

Just very roughly.

Chief Harry.

You know, as a numbers guy, I have a hard time.

I need to think about this a little.

I I it'll be more than 386 when you have a drone.

I mean, if you I would say at least once one day, once per day at least, that DFR would go out.

So that's 365 right there.

And I think more than that, depending, you know, based on our calls for service, we could have there's days where we've had three missing persons calls that we go out to alone by itself.

So it does hopefully that in the zone we have it, it will cover multiple beats.

So I would say there's multiple calls per day, but I would hate to just spitball that for you right now.

I I could do a little more research and bring that back.

I could take that away as a question and try to best best guess that with uh some research.

Yeah, that that that would be helpful.

I guess I'm just trying to get a sense of it.

You know, we already have it seems like a pretty strong program if we did 386 missions in 25.

I'm just trying to get a sense of for the additional money, what would change in 26 versus what we've already done in 25.

So whether that's number or scope or whatever that might look like.

That's great.

There will be more flights.

I mean, because we will be staffing the room for at least part of the day.

I'll give you an example.

Last night we had a car burglar um near Springbrook Forest Preserve.

We did not have a pilot on last night.

It was just a scheduling conflict, but calling Aurora over Aurora brought up um a pilot over fluid over Springbrook Pair and it helped lead us to where the suspect was hiding.

Someone we probably wouldn't have caught without the drone's assistance.

So with the drone as a first responder program and having staffing around that, it's gonna offer more opportunity to fly that drone because we're gonna make a more conscientious effort to always have a pilot.

We've already increased Am I am I correct in saying the past four years the software wasn't integrated with the CAD system, or it has been always, or it's new and innovative today.

No, that's a good question.

And I probably didn't explain it well enough.

The software is what helps the drone autonomously fly to the location.

Right now, a pilot will physically have a controller.

So respond to a scene.

Sorry, can you hear me?

Yes.

Respond to a scene and then physically flies the drone with a remote.

There will be a remote, so this pilot will be at the police department if this program is approved, and the drone will automatically fly to the scene.

There is a manual override where the pilot can take control, but that's the difference.

The software gives all the in takes all the information for our from our CAD system and really it's the latitude and longitude for that, but then there's also you know, height.

There's um the radar, you know, for object detection.

There's a lot that goes into that software because that's the difference.

It's autonomously flying.

Thank you for that clarification.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's where the intelligence comes in, and that's where the price comes in for that.

And um you anticipate this being at most possibly a reoccurring um expense if we like the program.

We'll continue the program.

If we pilot it and realize the return on investment is worth it, and we're not the first department in the country.

This isn't a lot of police departments around the country, so I would expect there to be success.

Yes, I would expect this to be this is a recurring cost for it's a subscription model plan for every company out there.

Um so for the one drone, that is the cost per year.

Okay.

And you kind of answered my next question was how prevalent of a program is this, how popular is it?

Um, are we seeing cities across the nation piloting this?

Are we unique in piloting this?

No, this is one, and and a lot of police technology develops on the West Coast.

These are extremely prominent in California.

There's significant drone use in California departments.

As a matter of fact, I took a team out to a department that's very much like Naperville in the spring, Elk Grove, California, similar population, similar demographics, similar crime rate, just to see how they're using the program, and they realized great successes.

So this is one where we're not at the cutting edge of this technology.

It's been out for a couple of years now and continues to improve.

So there's many departments throughout the country.

Um, I think the only one in this area right now that's currently doing it is Oakbrook, and I believe Rockford has it right now.

Illinois is just you're starting to see it grow and more departments signing on in Illinois to implement this program.

Thank you.

And then the last question is um the cost would also cover any damage to the drone and the maintenance of the drone and equipment associated with it.

Yeah, that's correct.

I I guess the best thing to say is if we had a lemon or there were issues with the drone, part of the subscription model is we send the drone back, they overnight us a new one so we don't lose that that service of the drone being available for the community.

Um, and it's it's a one for one.

Similar to our body cameras.

If my body camera had issues right now, we'd overnight it or they'd overnight us a new one, I'd send mine back and we'd have it replaced, so I had it ready to go.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Not the drone on, Chief, but I just to um uh clarify and distinguish drone as a first responder is a completely separate and distinct program from the current use of trunk deployed drones that pilots who happen to be on duty deploy when they respond to a call.

Would that be accurate?

Yes, sir.

And I I got a demo of this in Oak Brook with the two page mayors and managers conference.

Um they dispatch theirs out of a real-time crime center, it's launched from the the uh roof of their police department and goes to an active call in progress.

Is that how you envision this?

That's exactly how we do.

And it would return to that same launching site for a battery change or or whatever the case.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

I think that's it for the questions in this section.

Go ahead, proceed.

All right, thanks, Mayor.

Um, now we're gonna focus on a few of our community partners that are funded through our annual budget.

Uh these include the downtown Naperville Alliance or DNA, the Naperville Development Partnership or NDP, NCTV 17 uh and SECA.

All right, let's start with uh DNA.

DNA is responsible for marketing and advocacy for our downtown business community.

This organization is funded through the downtown maintenance and marketing special service area tax, which provides funding for special municipal services and marketing efforts to benefit the downtown area.

This organization is funded through the downtown maintenance and marketing special service area tax, which provides funding for special municipal services and marketing efforts that benefit the downtown area.

This SSA has been renewed every five years since 2006, with the most recent renewal process taking place this year.

SSA 36 was established with no objections for many property owners, and the final vote by council last week.

The 2026 marketing request totals 510,000, which is an increase of 17.1% compared to the 2025 request.

While this may seem like a significant increase, it's important to note that the marketing request is fully funded by downtown property owners through the SSA.

This requested amount was included in the financial projections provided through the SSA renewal process, and this request was also supported uh by both the DNA board as well as the property owners.

Next is the Naperville Development Partnership.

Uh NDP is a public-private partnership responsible for economic development efforts in Naperville.

It also encompasses the Naperville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

NDP's 2026 budget request is flat to the 2025 request and totals 1.37 million dollars.

While the overall budget request is flat to 2025, the 2026 request looks to make the 150,000 dollar allocation towards IADA corridor marketing permanent.

In both 2024 and 2025, NDP requested 150,000 of additional funding to put towards the marketing of the IADA corridor.

730 a.m.

at Metrics Club.

I want everybody to join for that breakfast, support them so that you know this this community is doing so well.

And NCTV needs that support from our own community.

We get a lot of support for Los Enfiers, Footband or any other organization, but NCTV need about 200% support.

So I will be supporting NCTV, part of this funding.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Jane.

Thank you, Mayor.

One of the greatest markers of a community is when they're informed.

That helps them be engaged.

And I believe NCTV 17 has kept us informed and engaged through the pandemic and many other events they went above and beyond.

They've expanded the scope of what they do to meet the needs of our community.

Um oftentimes without asking an increase in city support.

Well, now when circumstances in our society is changing and the fee structure and the funding structure has negatively impacted, meaning we have to think of new ways of supporting journalism, an unbiased source of journalism, which is so critical to any community.

So for me, supporting them through SECA and having to increase SECA cap as a way to address this need seems seems the right approach.

Councilman McRoom.

Thank you, Mayor.

So this is a difficult one.

Put a lot of time thought into it.

I I have sentimental value for NCTV.

I've been on a lot of your programs since before I was involved in politics, and um, you know, we all have friendships and relationships at NCTV and and I've really tried to put that aside in this um in this in this decision.

Um I I think there's tremendous value.

Um, I've asked the question many times.

I don't know why the school districts aren't involved.

Um, you know, people that have high school athletes, I I think that's that's a big part of it's not the only thing you do, but it's a big part of what you do.

I don't know if you've approached the the school districts, but um and and uh you know great value, but not everyone values it.

You know, when I when I ask people, there's a whole lot of people that don't they don't see a value in NCD TV, and I'll I'll argue with them about it.

You know, it is free.

Um, a lot of people don't you know want to go through the paywalls at the Sun and the Herald.

Um and so me, I naturally go to well, would you pay a subscription fee?

I I think I would.

Um, and I've asked that question, and I I sounds like that's not a that's not a consideration to to ever ask the public to pay some kind of nominal uh subscription fee.

So um, you know, it honestly it it pains me to be in this position, but I I I I do think it's a slippery slope.

I you know, it does seem like I wish there was another way, and it does seem like it's it's kind of a dying business model, and and I don't I'm not sure I would ask my clients to invest in NCTV with with the business model it is right now.

And and then you know, going beyond that, I have some concerns about how heavily reliant.

I mean, we'd be getting getting close to, you know, at some point 100% funding uh uh NCTV, and I worry about how what effect that would have on on coverage uh uh when there's new leadership uh down the road at NCTV when uh you know that the reporting would be uh 100% um you know relying on uh a city council uh to to fund the operation.

So uh honestly uh you know kind of pains me, and I I hope there's another way.

Uh I'll be at the the breakfast to support you.

Um, but uh I won't be uh supporting uh raising the cap and uh and the allocation of NCTV.

So Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh a few points on NCTV and then and then one other question generally about uh the SECA funding cap.

Um agree with a lot of the comments we've heard about NCTV.

I mean, I I think it is an important amenity, and amenity is not even quite the right word in my in my opinion.

I think to remain the community we are, it's imperative to have uh services like this that bring the community together.

That's that's one of the biggest things I think in knowledge is power, having people know about community events, what's happening at city level, park district school board.

I I learn things that I didn't know about the city every day in those emails that come out in the morning with the top three or four news stories.

Um I I think kind of conceptually it's it's a very important um uh organization to have in the city in terms of the request tonight.

I think there's a uh significant and positive change in what we saw last year.

You know, this has been a discussion for over 12 months now.

It's not just a brand new uh question that's been posed to us, and I and I appreciate a lot of work that's gone on behind the scenes and in front of the scenes, but with between staff and CTV, staff council members um taking meetings one-on-one, two on two, um, to make sure that NCTV does have a uh positive path forward to remain solvent and grow, and and I will say I am comfortable.

I mean, hey, there's never any hundred percent guarantees the media landscape certainly is shifting all the time.

Um, but from what I've seen in terms of really thought through budgets uh for uh multiple years out into the future, I feel comfortable that there is a positive path forward.

Uh I I think that city staff agrees with that.

I mean, the request is baked into the budget, which is a balanced budget.

That was certainly not the case a year ago.

Um, you know, it was not part of the staff recommended budget.

Uh they asked us if we wanted to do it.

It was kind of a shaky request, uh, as far as I would call it.

Um I think staff has gotten to a place where they're much more comfortable, which makes me much more comfortable.

Um, so I am uh ultimately uh supportive of of this request.

Um the one question I've got on the city services uh for SECA and grant awards for SECA related to the cap increase is um the downward trajectory for the city services.

I'm wondering why that, and I'm looking at slide 29.

Um there is you know a significant change in the city obligations, which is mostly related to to NCTV.

Um and by the way, I do wish the school districts would chip in.

I've had that same request.

My understanding is that they've just flat out said no and it comes back to us for better or worse.

Here we are.

But uh, you know, if you can continue that conversation, I'd appreciate it.

But in any case, that that change is in large part um going up due to NCTV.

Uh the grant awards is up quite a bit, which you know, great.

Maybe we can host some more events uh and award more money.

I think we already do offer a lot in that regard.

The one that I hear the most pain about is is city services with organizations hosting events or parades that complain about city service amounts going up so significantly in the CECA award not always following suit.

So I've got some concern about that amount going down, and I'm wondering why that is, uh and maybe the why will help answer my question, but I'm thinking about should some of the additional awards amount instead go into that city services bucket.

Mr.

Krieger, you want to take that or director munch?

I'll take that.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so you know, the numbers that you see here are budget projections.

So, you know, the city obligations are are sort of the the static portion because council you know directs those dollars.

But when you get into the bottom two lines, the city services and the grant awards, um, those are largely budgeted on some assumptions.

The city services line in particular.

So those are budgets that police, fire public works put together based on what they've been informed are likely events to take place in the next year.

Um, I think that number goes down next year largely because of the events that are planned.

I think we had some changes in that space, um, some of the bigger special events.

So I think it's a reflection of the events themselves and not the cost of services.

The cost of services is absolutely higher than it has been in the past.

Um, but when we get into that SECA process, um those are the dollars we have available, and then through the SECA grant award process, they will determine where exactly the dollars will go between the city services and operational support and all those things in the what we kind of referred to as the decrest discretionary SECA bucket.

Yeah, makes sense.

Thank you.

Councilman Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just I guess echoing uh some of the points already made, uh, just the the value that NCTV brings in.

Um I don't think can be uh quantified, I guess.

Um I I personally know someone who's started as a um reporter, I guess you could say, and's gone on to do bigger and uh uh bigger things.

Um and so it's the certainly provided a start for him.

Um just in I guess in terms of uh an economic development, but um just you know, other things that uh NCTV does provide as uh spotlighting um businesses and and other events that people may or may not know about, which I think is certainly beneficial to the community.

Um I'm certainly supportive of NCTV.

I did have a question for Director Munch.

Uh, just if if we had re if we had looked at any of the uh scenarios of doing something where we could reallocate grant awards or the discretionary um seek a um pool, I guess you could say to NCTV.

Um I I guess in particularly with a scenario where you run into less money brought in by the food and beverage.

Um that's kind of where I'm thinking.

So if if we if less money was brought in, my preference would be less grants and more allocation to uh NCTV in this case.

If that makes sense.

It does, and and I think actually it brings up an important point and it goes back to the last council meeting we were talking about the food and beverage tax and where those dollars go.

So, you know, when you think about the SECA program, the numbers we're looking at tonight, the SECA program, you know, depending on on the decisions that are made here, um, you know, would would cap out at two and a half million dollars.

That's two and a half million dollars out of the almost seven million that the food and beverage tax would generate in total, you know, that tax has grown over time, and we've um strategically used those additional dollars above and beyond SECA um to really do tremendous things to stabilize our finances.

We talked about the extra dollars going to police and fire pensions, it's been a tremendous tool in uh reducing our debt obligations.

It's it's what keeps our property taxes as low as we're able to keep them.

Um social services funding, uh we've given some additional support to neighbor settlement through the food and beverage tax.

So when we talk about the food and beverage tax, I'm very cautious to refer to that as one in the same as SECA, um, because at this point, I mean SECA is actually um you know, a relatively minor portion of the total food and beverage tax.

So I don't think there's anything in the food and beverage tax space and that revenue in particular that really has an implication on this conversation itself.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I won't belabor um many of the comments that my colleagues have made here tonight.

I think NCTV 17 is a trusted member of our community.

Um if we were to lose NCTV 17, it would create a news vacuum, and I don't see any way our community could replace it with something as trusted and is I think non-biased um as what NCTV provides for us.

Um a non-biased comprehensive news source of what's happening in your city is essential to a healthy community.

Uh democracy dies in darkness, and NCTV has been a trusted member of our community telling our residents not only what is happening at sporting events or you know activities around town, but what's also happening in this chamber.

Um I served on the park district before coming here, and um not many people pay attention to that, but I have during the meetings, you know, I'd always see the top topic that we discussed at the meeting as the rundown from the day.

And I think that's just really essential to keep our community informed, but also to foster belonging so that people know what's happening in their city and feel like they are part of that and see how what we do up here and how we use their tax money is playing out in their day-to-day lives.

Um I think we have a lot of expenses in the budget that promote different things for common good.

I mean, we just discussed uh NDP, and I hope we get to questions before we move on from this, but um to support economic development in the city, and I see this request is similar.

Um we're using our funds to support um knowledge and keeping our community informed, so I support this request.

Okay, well, I I'm supportive of the idea of um putting NCTV into the city obligation.

I I don't fully support the idea of raising the cap to um the full 2.51.

So I think there's some trimming on the grant side and the city services side potentially.

Um obviously I would prioritize city services.

That was the intention of the ordinance to begin with.

Um, and then trim some of the grants partially, not necessarily the full 40 percent, but I think there's there's opportunity for those things.

And one thing to keep in mind, and we've we've discussed this before, is NCTV's role in promoting these events is the marketing that they get as part of receiving the grant.

They do the programming and the marketing for uh and promotion of all of these different special events that could seek a funds.

So I I do think it is the in the appropriate category.

So to respond to your question directly, I'm a partial yes.

And with the feedback from all the counsel you've received so far, Mr.

Krieger, do you have sufficient feedback or do you want me to just mayor?

Okay.

Councilman White.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

And just one final thing.

When as I guess as we're looking at where we're putting these different categories, uh, I'm just curious, is I'm not sure why we're putting it under Sika itself.

Uh, and when it's uh I get it's part of the food beverage.

Is there any discussion as far as I don't know, I'm uh maybe as an option to have another category that falls under food and beverage that would you know take what that would do NCTV 17, some of these other obligated funds that so because it that to me they're just not CECA.

If you look at the you know what is SECA stands for, I don't see how these actually fall under that.

But a lot of just name how we naming the stuff I get, but I don't know any any thoughts around that.

Sure.

Uh it's a valid question.

Um actually I had a conversation with a council member earlier today, and we talked about it in the context of neighbor settlement.

So a few years ago, uh we leveraged the food and beverage tax to um mitigate some of the increases that we were seeing on neighbor settlement property tax levy.

Um the difference there is you know, neighbor settlements budget is part of our budget, so we effectuate that support through a transfer of funds from the food and beverage fund and neighbor settlements fund.

Here it's a little bit different because we're supporting an outside entity, so we're actually writing a check to an outside organization.

Uh so we felt like the the SECA obligation process, and and while I I see your point that it's um not entirely uh aligned with SEGA.

I mean, I think everyone would agree that NCTV is certainly a cultural amenity of sorts.

So it seemed like the most appropriate place.

Um, you know, the starting point was the general fund, it's where their support comes from historically.

But the reality this year was as things got tighter in the general fund, um, that just wasn't the logical place to put the additional funding because that would have put um other city services on the back burner, and the general fund is really intended to support those core services.

So we felt like this was the most appropriate place.

Obviously, you know, policy direction from the city council as to how exactly um you want us to align that um would come from you, but the food and beverage fund seems like the most logical and fiscally responsible place to put the funding.

Yeah, I I I agree with that.

I guess my question is uh within that food and beverage we're we're putting it under Sika.

I would I would maybe even take a look at establishing a I don't know, whatever you want to call it category under food and beverage, so it's not Sika, it's whatever it is.

It I don't know if that falls under food and beverage.

Just a thought.

Thanks, Ray.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

On slide 15, we have that 874,000 from the food and beverage fund will be directed to the public safety, each public safety fund.

So I guess first off, so that really means 1,748,000, right?

But that's food and beverage.

And I guess it might tie to councilman White's question.

But how did we come to the 1,748 number?

And could some of that go to the SECA fund since it's all funneling down from food and beverage?

I I feel like this one requires a flow chart, but um so if you were to go into the food and beverage section of the municipal code, it's a little bit unique, and it's the one revenue stream in the city that really has dollars dictated to very specific permit purposes in a formulaic fashion.

So the way it's laid out in code is the first 50% of the food and beverage tax goes to SECA.

The next 25% goes to police and fire pension funds.

So that 874 is is really dictated by the language in the municipal code saying they get the next 25%.

And then you kind of fall in line after that neighbor settlement takes a piece, the social services grant take a piece, and then at the end, whatever's left, depending on how revenues um come in at the course of year, goes to reduce our debt obligation, so it gets transferred to our debt service fund.

Okay.

So this that's very apropos to what we're talking about then, which is changing that calculation for that flow to make sure we're appropriately covering the SECA.

Well, up for debate, but we're covering the SECA events to the desired level of council.

Okay, got it.

Thank you.

Councilman Ozark.

Thank you, Mayor.

Can you go back to the uh NCTV slide, please?

Thank you.

Question or actually the one where you had the question for council.

Um so I think the question was out there.

Do you have?

I think the mayor posed the question to Mr.

Crier, do you have what you need on this slide?

I'd like to kind of pin down what we mean by that because a majority of council gave an unqualified question yes to this question.

A minority said no.

So does that mean that you are going with an unqualified yes on this?

Uh well, you know, I I guess uh answer that delicately.

Um we are going with a yes on it uh because there were two individuals who were not 100% on board, it's not unqualified.

But what it does mean is we do not intend to change the budget um as we move forward from this point related to NCD.

Okay, so I uh just to make sure we're clear on that, we're not like lowering it to 180,000 because two said no or anything like that.

Thank you.

That is correct.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I guess just a partially solidify my answer here would be uh I guess somewhere, which is why I asked if we had looked at reallocating any of the CICA money to this, which is why I would frame my answer as a potential yeah or a partial yes.

So that's where I'm at.

Thank you.

All right.

We have the question slide next.

So at this point, um, beyond the CECA question, are there any questions related to the last portion of the presentation that started with miscellaneous services and the downtown Naperville Association?

Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you.

Sorry, I just lost my page.

Uh slide 27.

Um DP.

Um, I just want to clarify because it's unclear to me, the 150,000 was under I88 corridor marketing.

It's getting moved to economic development grant.

But would that 150K still be earmarked specifically for I-88 corridor?

Not officially, but um, wait a second.

You you're you're you're you're you can't at this point, yeah.

The uh the answer to that is um not officially, uh, but that is the intention of the NDP board um to allocate that to uh IEDA corridor marketing.

So that's like 28% of the economic development grant would be not officially earmarked for an area that council hasn't decided whether it's one of two options to pursue versus Fifth Avenue.

Is that correct?

Yeah, that is correct.

Actually, NDP's work on the IED8 marketing, you know, from my understanding, uh, is that it is kind of like separate and distinct from whether the city uh tackles the IEDA corridor zoning piece or not, uh, that they would continue the marketing campaign, whether or not the city um pursues that uh and they would do that um based on the AECOM report that had already been uh created for this year.

Okay.

If we tackled Fifth Avenue first and then did 88, would we be causing complications since so much of the 88 corridor plan would be zoning plans and changing things like that if we're actively soliciting businesses to come in to the corridor?

You know what um uh I don't think so.

Um the uh the marketing for I88 um is really gonna be focused on I I think there were um like six uh really kind of like uh distinct kind of business types uh and that is uh that is gonna happen kind of independent of any additional zoning consideration or any zoning changes um that um the TED department would be making with the planning study um so you know geographically absolutely the same location um uh but um you know kind of kind of following two kind of separate independent paths.

Okay, thank you.

And then just one more question about um NDP, uh the restaurant marketing grant.

Is that the printed brochure or does that the 185,000 include more than that?

Uh I I know it does include um both the downtown dining guide as well as the citywide.

Um I'll look behind me to see if uh there's anything else um sitting in there.

This is uh thank you President Connors from the Neighborhood Development Partnership.

Good evening, Monica Connors, thank you, Mayor.

Uh yes, the 185,000 for the restaurant marketing includes the dining guide that we publish annually uh for every resident household.

It also includes uh marketing for restaurant week.

So we put on restaurant week uh uh for the benefit of the city.

Uh there's you know advertising costs and other things associated with that.

Um is a brand, so anytime you see an ad in Positively Naperville, Daily Herald, Neighborville magazine, Chicago Tribune, others, um, you know, those funds are coming out of this bucket as well.

In additional, uh, we've done some digital marketing this year as well.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Council McKelly, Monica, if you wouldn't mind coming back.

Thank you, Mary.

Uh one follow-up on on that specific topic and then another question for you.

Uh I don't know if you know roughly, could you tell us out of that 185 for the various restaurant marketing uh buckets that you just described, how much roughly percentage-wise would be the printed guide versus those other items?

Yeah, the printed guide is about 35,000 in terms of production of the the print booklets, but then there's postage as well.

So it's about 46,000.

Okay.

We anticipate an increase in postage for for this coming year.

So we added a little bit for that.

Okay.

And then on the 88 uh corridor marketing, if you could maybe just give us a little bit of detail on what exactly that looks like.

And I my understanding is that separate and aside from this potential study, but 150,000 worth of marketing is that uh what it what what exactly is that?

What does that look like?

Sure.

So uh it's a combination of trade shows.

So we have six uh target industries, right?

So the target industries themselves are separate from the actual uh plan that would be done.

Those target industries um focus on the actual potential that's in the corridor right now, and we have a number of we have ag tech, fintech, energy, uh, computer science, quantum, life science.

So those industries all deserve their separate you know, attention, whether it's advertising, trade shows, um, engagement with with the existing businesses that are already here, but also uh potential businesses that could move here in those industries.

So that's separate from the master plan idea.

Uh in addition to that, we've got uh your typical business development.

So uh there's a need to have a fam tour here, and by that I mean a familiarization tour where we would bring in consultants to the market, familiarize them with the city of Naperville with the corridor, so that um those site selectors can go back to their clients and say, hey, you know, now that we've got this other community that's top of mind, you should really consider them uh for your next location decision.

Uh there's other business development and opportunities in terms of actual trade shows where these site selectors um engage.

So we've we've already done some of that this year.

Uh we've met with about it'll be about a hundred site selectors when we're finished.

Um and those folks have clients that are like Eli Lilly and FISERV and um you name it, you know, 56%, roughly 60% of business decisions are done through the site selection community.

So they're running with big clients, both office and industrial.

So uh getting in front of those decision makers is really important to advance the corridor.

All right, thank you.

Councilman Holzauer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just since you're ready up here, uh, Ms.

Connors just wanted to give you a shout out.

It's been a delight getting to know you in the time since you've been here.

Um, I think you've done a great job bringing a fresh perspective specifically, and I've mentioned this before.

Um you sparked the idea of calling the Urban Land Institute.

That's an idea I got from you.

Brought to city staff.

Uh, they did a fantastic job with a Fifth Avenue study.

So um just you know, thanks for everything you've done for Naperville.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Don't leave yet, Monica.

Okay.

Mr.

Krieger, uh, the 150,000 for the additional economic development request on NDP.

Is this the second tranche of the hundred and fifty of the three hundred thousand dollar commitment from two years ago?

This would actually be the third, maybe third tranche.

Okay.

And then with regard to the restaurant marketing grant, um, it's my recollection that when the food and beverage tax was implemented many, many years ago, this was negotiated as the give back to the restaurant community for them to be the vehicle to collect the revenues that now fund SECA as well as our pensions and everything else.

Is that accurate?

Uh that that is accurate.

Um, you know, the tie that uh the previous council saw is that um you know the restaurant marketing grant uh is really the driver of the revenues um that feed SECA.

Um so you know, advertising uh will increase revenues, increases food and beverage tax revenue, um, and that it was uh it was really the best tie um uh from a revenue and expense matching standpoint.

Okay, and President Connors, um, with regard to some of the the printed materials for the dining guides.

What is your experience uh with regard to why you use printed versus digital and and the response?

Yes, uh that's certainly something that's come up uh within our own executive board.

I can tell you that I people like to see and feel it, they like to pick it up.

I do I do myself.

I mean, it's easier than you know, looking on a screen sometimes.

Um leave it out for the babysitter to order dinner, maybe they use their phones.

But uh no, that's definitely a conversation we've had.

Uh I know Hoffman Estates, theirs is digital, it's certainly something that we could consider in the future as an option.

Thank you, Councilman Sayud.

Thank you.

Thank you, Monica.

So, how many booklets do we print and send it to the community?

We have it published in up 155,000.

Yes, 65,000.

So we also send them to visitor centers, and that's probably a good point.

I mean, if we wouldn't want to do away with 100% of the printed material because these guides, we just we've had more orders this year to um fulfill the different visitor centers across the state uh than we have in the past.

It's probably related back to post-pandemic behavior, but um, those guides go to you know, Peoria.

I don't I don't know specifically, you know, Southern Illinois, but they are requested uh into our office, and we send boxes of those out.

Can we have some follow-up custom on this?

So can we have some locations where people can pick up?

Maybe Napoleon Library.

Yes, Chamber of Commerce, lose and fishes, 360 yields services.

We have got to many nonprofit organizations in town.

If we can distribute to everybody, and they can pick up from the front desk or you know, if you have a bucket that they can pick up from the absolutely, yes, yes.

And another way that we use them now that you've brought that up.

Uh, with you know, we have the CVB as well, so we provide gift bags to every hotel, whether it's a conference, convention, wedding, uh, those gift by bags include the wedding or the uh dining guide.

So it's just another way to get the brand and the information out.

If you're here on a visit, you don't, you know, the host most hotels don't even offer room service anymore, so having the dining guide in your bag is helpful.

Thank you, Monica.

Councilwoman Gibson, did you?

Um Yeah, I I guess this probably isn't a decision for us.

I don't know when the it was put in place what you were saying, Mayor, about this being put in place that the restaurant sales are what feeds this, you know, that absolutely makes sense.

Do you know uh um boy?

You know what?

I I don't um however um we'll be able to dig that up uh and we can provide that through the QA.

It was I I was there.

I it was uh it was noted when we were negotiating with the restaurant community.

The NDP was negotiating with the city, and the restaurant community was looking for something, and it was about the time when the ordinance was created.

That was the the idea behind it.

So that would that would take us back to about 04.

Okay.

I just wonder, you know, 185,000 is a lot of money in our city budget.

We're talking, you know, about a lot of things about that price range tonight.

Um a lot has changed.

I wonder if there's more effective ways to market that um I know I was again at the park district before this, and we stopped printing our park district program guide.

Um there was some pushback, but program registrations continued to climb year over year after that.

Um so I just wonder if that's the best use of city money.

Well, we do use QR codes on every advertisement to drive people back to the website so that they can get to the dining, basically the digital dining guide.

Um so I mean the the infrastructures there for QR code.

Okay, I think that's all the questions.

Sorry, Mayor.

Oh more.

I uh councilman Old Zower.

Yeah, just you know, as I'm hearing all of this, I do agree a lot of hotels don't do room service anymore.

Um other hand, I'm just thinking about every time I travel to a new city, like I'm pulling up Yelp.

Like that's where I'm going.

I mean, really, and I would suspect a lot of visitors to Napoleon or two, these are public dollars, you know, we've said no to a lot of things, which are high priorities mental health programming and other things.

Um I I just give it as feedback as as thing that maybe we could startly start to move towards a digital solution in the future.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilwoman Jane.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I just need a little bit more clarification on the I-88 marketing, and how that would that would align with perhaps and if we were to decide to do the study with I88, how how would we align these efforts and not contradict each other or um hopefully um invest in efforts that uh don't take us further or ahead?

Does that make sense?

It's it's yeah, I'm I guess I'm not understanding that since processes the timeline for the processes are at different at different times, and that since this is the third installment of this, um if you could explain that.

Sure.

So when we did this study, um it uh it outlined six different strategies that we can undertake uh to help you know support the 88 corridor.

The master plan that was you know discussed earlier, that's under strategy two.

That is its own, that is its own um activity within within one of six strategies.

And so the the request here uh really reflects uh strategy four, five, and six.

So it would help support three other strategies basically that are more marketing oriented to help support industry collaboration, uh you know, marketing the city, getting the name out, developing these targeted industries, and and what we've done the past two years with the 88 grant is to really hone in on what should the strategy be and begin to tackle it without basically permanent funding.

We won't be able to, you know, basically perform, you know, many of the out um recommendations that were made.

Hopefully that's yeah, that's that clarifies a lot.

Thank you so much.

Um comparatively to cities our size, would you say we are at the standard or above or beyond or below what communities normally invest.

I know Aurora to our West, they're a little bigger than us, and they have five million dollars committed to economic development.

Yes.

Um, I would you know, I I think we do a lot with what we're provided.

Certainly, we would be able to do more if we had more.

I think that our audit, as was pointed out in our letter, our audit um pointed out that uh economic the economic development funding was only twenty four percent of our total budget.

I mean, it's it's sort of like where do you want to put your investment, right?

If you want us to be more engaged in economic development, we we have to have more resources, basically.

And I think what's different about us maybe in some other EDCs is that we have the CVB as well.

And so, you know, a lot of our funding is going to support that as well.

Um, you know, the hotel motel tax is up as well, right?

So I think the constant support that we're giving all of these activities, we're doing a lot with um the um treasured dollars that you're giving us, but certainly we could do more if we had more.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

And at this point, I think we're going to take a seven minute break, and we will return at eight fourteen.

Our next topic is the Naperville Public Library presentation.

Hello.

Okay, perfect.

Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council.

I'm Dave Delaterza.

I'm the executive director at Naperville Public Library.

And I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about what the library has accomplished in the last year, what we hope to accomplish next year, and share our proposed budget for twenty twenty-six.

As always, our focus remains on delivering exceptional service to our community while being thoughtful stewards of public resources.

We continue to build on our purpose, which is nurturing lifelong learning, fostering community connections, and providing equitable access to diverse resources in a welcoming and inclusive environment.

This helps ensure residents have ongoing access to library services without having to remember to stop in to renew.

Now you can stop in and browse an inviting book club collection with different titles at all three of our locations.

As part of our strategic plan, we also rolled out several new initiatives that include a book club designed specifically for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities that creates a welcoming space for connection and conversation, public programs focused on artificial intelligence that help residents engage with emerging technologies in a thoughtful and accessible way, and a teen pitch program, which gives our community's ambitious and impressive teens the opportunity to develop and present their ideas for library programs, helping them build confidence, creativity, and project management skills.

We've selected two programs from the initial round of team pitch program applicants to run in the spring and summer of next year.

Finally, we completed a professional facilities plan to ensure proactive upkeep of our library.

As we have three heavily used public buildings, this plan ensures that our buildings remain safe, functional, and responsive to community needs for years to come.

Looking ahead to 2026, we're focused on listening to our community and investing in the services that they value most.

We'll begin the year by conducting a comprehensive community survey that will help us better understand how residents use the library and what they'd like to see in the future.

We are also looking at our Sunday hours to ensure they align with community schedules, and we'll be asking for feedback in our community survey as well as utilizing statistics to determine if we should make any adjustments.

We will be assessing our popular PICS collections, one of the most well-used collections to determine if any improvements can be made based on community feedback.

We're also reviewing our summer and winter reading programs to ensure they remain engaging and effective for all ages, especially for kids to help ensure they keep up their reading skills during their school breaks.

We're also taking a look at our children's play spaces to update them and make them more inviting and fun for our youngest library users.

We know that play is one of the best ways for young kids to learn, and we want to help reinforce that and ensure that our play spaces are places the kids really want to be.

In addition to these goals, we'll be completing several substantial capital improvement projects to maintain and improve our facilities that include a boiler replacement and 95th Street Library and a storm drainage and emergency exit repair project at Naper Boulevard Library.

So to support this year's budget, we're asking for a 3.7% increase to our property tax levy.

The property tax levy is the primary source of funding for public libraries in Illinois, accounting for 96% of our budget.

We always do our best to present a fiscally responsible budget, and our property tax rate has decreased every year for the past 11 consecutive years.

Additionally, our property tax rate remains lower than all comparably sized libraries in the region, while we continue to be the only suburban library that operates three full service locations.

For our other revenue sources, estimated personal property replacement tax revenue will decrease by about 40%, which amounts to a revenue loss of about 120,000.

However, other revenue sources like our state per capita grants, investment income, and operational income are expected to remain relatively stable year over year.

On the expense side, our operating budget would increase by 3%, totaling $18.48 million.

The majority of this increase, about 66%, is related to employee benefits.

This is driven primarily by the health insurance increase that was mentioned earlier, and it's about a 20.3% rise in employer contributions for health insurance for the library.

To help offset these increases, we've frozen the hiring of five part-time positions, which equals 2.5 full-time equivalents, and we've also scaled back or rearranged several IT projects to reduce spending without compromising essential services.

For example, we moved one project from our 2026 budget into our 2025 budget after realizing some savings throughout the year.

These adjustments reflect our commitment to fiscal responsibility while continuing to provide high quality service to our community.

We're also planning several important capital projects in 2026 supported by both the city's capital improvement program and our own library capital fund.

In the city capital plan, we're requesting 525,000 to address two critical infrastructure needs, a boiler replacement at the 95th Street Library, which is a 360,000 dollar project, and a storm drainage and emergency exit repair project at Naper Boulevard Library, which totals about 165,000.

From our own library capital fund, we'll invest 345,000 into projects that include new study shares in 95th Street Library, HVAC server control updates, water heater replacements, and electrical service repairs.

These improvements are essential to maintaining safe, comfortable, and efficient spaces for our community.

So in closing, the Neighborhood Public Library remains deeply committed to serving our residents with outstanding library service, and we're incredibly proud of what we've accomplished, and we're excited about what's ahead.

Our 2026 budget would allow us to continue this important work and provide well-used services to our community.

I thank you for your time, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Councilman Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, uh executive doctor and Delaturza.

Um you brought some folks from the board with you here tonight.

Uh yeah, so I'm the liaison join or recently became the liaison for the city council.

Um did want to ask uh you've you spoken about this about about this at a couple of the meetings.

Uh if you can talk about the where you're seeing people check out books more as far as it being electronic compared to physical.

Absolutely.

Um, so about 25% of our circulation right now is electronic, but that's the part that's really really gaining.

So um a lot of the physical stuff.

Physical books are still checking out relatively about the same.

I mean, they're down a little bit, but where we're seeing drops in physical materials is uh DVDs, CDs, formats like that where people may not have those players anymore.

So we're seeing large drops there, but large increases in ebooks, e-audio books, and all the electronic content.

And now that makes up, like I said, about 25% of our circulation.

So we're putting more and more money into those collections because those are the ones that number one people are asking for, but number two are accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week from anywhere you're at.

So there are they also are just a lot easier for people to access.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, just from my perspective, I think you've done a really good job with the budget.

Uh a lot of this is operational things that just need to be need to be done.

Um, and I think the the boards give our and uh re reallocating some of the full-time um positions.

Um likewise, I think the board's given a lot of valuable feedback um being in uh in on the meeting.

So um thank you.

Councilman Sayed.

Thank you, Mayor.

So thank you, Div.

Great presentation.

I was the boat uh Board of Trustee for five years with Naperville Library, and uh two years as a board president.

I have seen firsthand information how valuable Naperville library is for the community.

And I know it's almost like 1.3 million people walk into the Naperville library in three branches.

And I've been talking about this to the community always when I was a board president, and people used to get shocked.

1.3 million people walk in to Naperville library in Naperville.

Yes, sir, absolutely.

And that's what you know, it is amazing.

And the great work by Div, your team and board of trustees is excellent.

And the benchmark you have set for Napoleville Library is very high.

When I speak to other cities, they say yes, Naperville Libraries stop in the country.

And they they see us, they ask what different things you have been doing at.

So, you know, so this is amazing, fantastic job each of your people have given, done for many, many years, and that's why you know we have a great goodwill in the community, and people still come to library, but parking is an issue at Nipperville downtown.

I have phased five years that that issue and still continue to face that issue.

I think we need to start doing something about that because I see a lot of shoppers, they come there, park and they're out for shopping.

But uh the people who come there for reading for uh using the Naperville library, this struggle on the parking site.

So think about something, what we can do on that.

And I was happy to see that 25% of the uh community is starting to by the Naperville Heritage Society.

And finally, we are pleased that the updated agreement between the city of Naperville and the Naperville Heritage Society was finalized in April of um this year.

As we look to the goals for 2026, uh Naper Settlement will complete the final phase of the Mary and Richard Bank Agricultural Capital campaign by debuting debuting the permanent exhibit called Inventing Agriculture.

Over 75% of the 1.4 million costs for that permanent exhibit has been made possible through the outside funding.

Neighbor settlement events and curatorial innovation and education teams are also busy planning for the 250th anniversary of the United States, and the Naperville Heritage Society has also submitted various grants and applications for support of the programming and the exhibits that are related to the 250th anniversary.

The American Alliance of Museum reaccreditation process is also on schedule and will be completed in 2026.

That will be our third accreditation, and it's important to point out that only 3% of the museums nationwide are actually nationally accredited, and one of those is right here in your home count in your hometown.

Um additionally, Naper Settlement will be present.

Uh we'll um will present the long range type plan to guide the institution for the next 15 years during the first quarter of 2026.

And once that is approved, the implementation process for that will also begin.

As we look at our revenues, thank you.

The 2026 uh budget reflects a modest 2.5 increase in the property tax levy request in the amount of 97 431.

The levy increase will accommodate 32% of the increase in salary and benefits, and the balance will go towards the contractual services.

There is a 2% increase also in the food and beverage contribution in the amount of 20,400.

And as you may remember, that yearly 2% increase was codified about two years ago, perhaps.

Um, and this will cover another 7% of the increase in salaries and benefits.

The 2.8 increase in operating revenue equaling about 16 uh thousand seven hundred includes gate admissions, public programming camps, schools, field trips, tours, rentals, and weddings, um, which is that 600,000 that you see uh up there.

The um 157,000 of the fan of the fund balance will also be used to cover the increases in operating expenses related to the contractual services, property services, and professional services.

And as you know, um the 501c, the Naperville Heritage Society is going to also see contributions and grant and program for programmatic funding.

This year in 2025, the Naperville Heritage Society has received 500,000 in funding for the next three years for four specific programs.

Golden Day Senior Program, Camp New Horizons, the Regional Institute for Teacher Education, and the Field Trip Connect.

These will create a STEM, a STEM hub over the 26th to 2028 school year, and it will foster intergenerational connections, it will combat social isolation, provide equitable opportunities for seniors and also underserved children, and it will provide quality uh education and and development for teachers in need.

The funding will be administered by the Naperville Heritage Society.

And as we look at our expenses for 2026, there is a 5.3 increase in the operating expense or 293,000.

The 4.8 increase in personnel expenses is in line with the city's budget assumptions for salaries and benefits, and the health insurance increase accounts for about 47 percent of the personnel related expenses.

You'll be happy to hear, as we are too, that there are no personnel requests for 2026, and at the recommendation of the city finance department, Naper Settlement has increased the vacancy factor uh by 117,000 to offset the increase in personnel expenses as well.

There is a 6.4 increase in the operating expenses in the amount of 105, and this is due to the increase in the professional service for staff training and also for increasing increase in buildings and um grounds-related contractual services.

And of course, um, as you may see that this year we also have no capital improvement requests.

And um, with that, I thank you very much for your time.

I look forward to 2026, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

No questions, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Krieger.

Budget timeline.

All right, budget timeline.

Um our third workshop uh on November 10th is gonna provide a big picture overview of the budget for a major funds.

Uh, from there, we'll review the estimated property tax levy and schedule the public hearing on the 2026 budget.

Budget will then come back to you at the December 2nd meeting for a public hearing and vote.

Uh and finally, at the last meeting in December, you'll be asked to approve the property tax levy.

After that approval, uh staff will provide the information about DuPage and Will County before the year end deadline.

Um that mayor, um wanted to know if there were any remaining questions.

I see no questions.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Krieger and our all of our professional staff and of course all of the folks from the library neighbor settlement for being here tonight.

Um, Naple Development Partnership.

Excellent presentations, and we appreciate all your participation in uh the good discussion.

With that, our workshop is concluded.

Good night.