Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, March eighteenth, Naperville City Council meeting.

Roll call.

Orly?

Here.

Gibson.

Here.

Hold tower.

Here.

Jane.

Kelly.

Here.

McProve.

Here.

Syan.

Yep.

White.

Here.

Wilson.

Here.

Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance.

Under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

First on our agenda is awards and recognitions.

We have two proclamations this evening, and I will be presenting the first one.

And that is Rosemary Mako Wisnowski.

And this proclamation is a recognition for you, Rosemary.

If you want to come over and stand with me, whatever make whatever wherever you're comfortable.

And whereas after moving to Naperville, Rosemary quickly became involved in the community, joining the Chamber, Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce in nineteen eighty-three and serving as its president in nineteen eighty-eight.

And whereas as a founding member of the Naperville Sister Cities Commission in 1993, Rosemary helped establish the partnership between Naperville and Nietzsche Slovakia, later earning recognition as an honorary citizen of Nietzsche in 2000, and a medal of honor from the embassy of the Slovak Republic in Washington, DC in 2001.

And whereas Rosemary has served as a trustee of Benedictine University since 1994, supporting international diplomacy efforts in 2002 related to NATO inspect expansion, and contributed to environmental stewardshire work with the Conservation Foundation.

And whereas from 2012 until January 29th, 2026, Rosemary served as the honorary council of the Slovak Republic, strengthening economic, cultural, and diplomatic ties with assisting Slovak citizens in promoting international understanding.

Now, therefore, I, Scott Worley, mayor of the city of Naperville, do hereby recognize Rosemary Mako Wisnowski for her lifelong dedication to service in the city of Naperville.

Thank you, Mayor Worley, and I have some other special thanks to city staff, city council, and to um Patty Gustin, our dear friend, and Jeannie Clare, who has a longtime Naperville and just moved to Colorado, for all of your participation in making this evening happen.

I was in Nietzsche recently, and they just replaced their city street signs.

Whoops.

That looks a little tattered, but it was up for almost 30 years when they decided to name a street after us.

I think it was a it was not a very nice name before, but now it's wonderful and very well respected.

And so I hope you will find a special place for that in the city of Naperville.

Sure will.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you to my husband Dennis for all the support over 63 years and for all my support for all the support he's given me for these many many years where we've both been involved with my Slovak heritage and his Polish heritage.

Thank you.

And I for the rest of my time to honorary consul Selega.

We do have one additional speaker, um, Joseph Saliga, honorary consulate of the Slovak Republic in Chicago.

Well, thank thank you very much.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor, members of the city council for for this opportunity to speak.

It's an honor to be here uh this evening.

I would like to thank the city of Naperville for the close relationship that it has developed with the Slovak people and particularly the sister city relationship between Naperville and Nietzsche-Slovakia.

And I would personally like to uh let all of you know that I look forward to working with you to continue and to deepen that relationship in the years ahead as honorary council.

I would like to thank you for recognizing Rosemary this evening for her many years of service in the city of Naperville.

Rosemary is a distinguished Naperville resident who uh, as you put so well, Mr.

Mayor in the proclamation, has served in so many roles uh in supporting the city of Naperville and supporting the Slovak people uh in Illinois.

And it's an honor for me to follow in her footsteps as honorary counsel uh for the Slovak Republic in Chicago.

It's also fitting for the city of Naperville to be recognizing Rosemary after Rosemary was recognized by the Slovak government in January with uh being given the Distinguished Medal for Service to the Slovak people by the Foreign Ministry of Slovakia and being given the title Honorary Council Emeritus by the Slovak Ambassador to the United States, Andrei Droba.

And finally, tonight I would like to recognize another distinguished uh citizen of the city of Naperville, and that is Dennis Wisnowski.

Dennis has served admirally in his career uh working with our United States military in multiple capacities to pro to promote the development of technology for our military.

He's founded businesses, including businesses here in the city of Naperville, and he has supported Rosemary and her work for over 14 years as honorary counsel, being with her as she has served the Slovak people, and in doing so, Dennis has served the Slovak people as well.

And for tonight, on this occasion, the Slovak government found it fitting for Dennis also to be recognized in addition to Rosemary for his years of service to the Slovak people with this certificate of appreciation and also the granting of a medal of service, the ambassador's medal from Ambassador Droba, the ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the United States.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight.

Congratulations.

I'll grab the proclamation.

We can just do it right down here.

You don't have to get out.

Yeah, yeah.

One thing I think six.

And by any one hand behind the house, they right now the mayor here.

Yeah, we can hear them.

So you're correct.

Right here, you can't be.

Yeah, maybe I can read you I'm going to body the mayor's shoulder.

So yeah, no, no, no, I know I heard we are the middle.

All right.

One.

One, three.

One, two, two, three.

Next, Councilman Kelly will present the next proclamation.

Councilman Kelly.

We can give everyone a moment, but is anyone here from the Conservation Foundation?

Yes, I think.

No street signs from Ford Countries.

You come up or sure.

Okay, so our next proclamation is for River Sweep 2026.

Uh, whereas the County of DuPage through the stormwater management department and municipalities, townships, and park districts recognizes ongoing stream cleaning and restoration as essential for the preservation of waterways throughout DuPage County and Northeastern Illinois.

And whereas the DuPage County River Sweep is a countywide stream cleanup and restoration event organized by the Conservation Foundation and held in cooperation with the American Rivers National River Cleanup.

And whereas the purpose of the river sweep is to encourage citizens and volunteer groups to help sweep our rivers clean by picking up debris in and along our waterways and by participating in stream restoration projects.

And whereas the annual stream cleaning efforts have been very successful with more than 16,000 volunteers removing over 300 tons of debris from DuPage County streams since 1991.

And whereas the mayor and city council of the city of Naperville congratulate the Conservation Foundation on 35 successful years for this event.

And now therefore, I, Scott A.

Worley, mayor of the City of Naperville, Illinois, do hereby proclaim April 18th, 2026 as River Sweep 2026 in the city of Naperville, and urge all citizens to make a positive change in your local community by helping to clean up and restore our local waterways and participating in River Sweep 2026 on Saturday, April 18th, 2026.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, everyone.

Has anybody uh I know a couple of the council people has anybody ever done river sweep in the last 35 years?

All right, fantastic.

Well, if you haven't, I really encourage you to come out and do it.

Um we have multiple sites all around to pay or all around Naperville.

In fact, our sustainability manager, Ben Mulsmith, is going to be running one of the sites called Wildflower Parks.

So registration closes on April 5th, so we we need a little bit of time to get all the gear and everything out.

It's a great time.

Bring your families, bring your friends, just come outside, you know, get some fresh air.

It's going to be hopefully warm by then, and we'll have a great time.

So, on behalf of our staff and our volunteers and our trustees, thank you for this proclamation.

I appreciate that.

And hopefully, we'll all see you on the 18th.

Thank you.

Next is public forum.

I'd like to remind everyone of the citizen participation rules in the city's municipal code for speaking at city council meetings.

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

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

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

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

Also, for audience members, there is no cheering and no juring.

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

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

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

No speaker should ever feel intimidated by the crowd.

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

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

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

We have a timer located on the side dias to your right.

It will give the visual cue when the three minutes are expiring.

This helps speakers conclude their comments in a timely manner without being cut off.

The timer will buzz when it hits zero, and we will alert the speaker that their time is up.

If a speaker's name is called and they are not in the room, we will move on to the next speaker and we will not go back.

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

Ms.

Marcordis, please call the speakers.

There is one position statement, and there are two written comments that have been posted to the city's website.

And there are five speakers for public forum.

The first speaker is Richard Stark, followed by Megan Rousinellis, Adam Van, Kristen Zanger, and Derek Hoover.

So if you've heard your name called, please move to the front row, and then we will start with Mr.

Stark once we have the podium ready to go.

You're sat.

It's right here.

Okay.

So my name is Richard Stark, and I'm here with my uh can you get close to the microphone for us, sir?

Thank you.

My name is Richard Stark, and I'm here with my partner, Mike Milano.

Uh we are both Naperville residents, and uh, we're here tonight to give an overview uh more information about our proposed uh workshops for an electricity strategy.

Uh we view the uh this is uh an overview of the core strategy, it has three main components a diagnosis, a guiding framework, and coherent actions, and the diagnosis and guiding framework will be covered in workshops one and two.

The diagnosis, the objective of that is to develop an understanding of the major trends affecting future prices, reliability, and other factors impacting Naperville's long-term electricity performance.

The guiding framework will have as its objective developing initial an initial vision statement, decision framework, and initial targets and benchmarks.

This is an example of uh a decision framework that I've shopped with most of you already that has four major components affordability and consistency, resilience and reliability, carbon free and value added.

We'll put it all together with four components.

Uh before the first workshop, we've already prepared a number of videos, audios, and reports that can be distributed to the council members to bring them all up to uh a reasonably good uh starting point for the first workshop.

And then the objectives for the first workshop would be to develop an initial vision statement and first draft of of the framework.

Uh following that, the team will develop more uh supporting information to bring you up to the next level after that.

And the the last workshop that we have planned would be a uh to do a um complete decision framework with initial targets and benchmarks from a timing standpoint.

We're prepared to begin the first workshop as early as April 8th, or of course later, depending on council preference.

And this is how it fits together with what the staff is working on now.

So the workshop will be combined with what the electric utility is working on now regarding options, and it will be an iterative process.

So we'll have initial targets that we'll establish, but those will be changed over time as we learn more about the options that are the highest probability ones, model those and so on, and the process will repeat.

So that's an overview of our proposal.

I look forward to a favorable decision, and thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Megan Rusinellis, followed by Adam Van Samaran.

Good evening.

My name is Megan Rusnellis.

I'm an owner in my chef catering.

I am here because I'm asking about the restaurant tax that was passed earlier this year.

Um we just found out about it.

We are a caterer, and we're trying to find out if we are supposed to be paying this.

I just so happened to find it by looking at the website earlier this year.

So I'm asking, do we owe this tax?

If so, why were we not notified?

And was it even intended for us?

Because it says in their catering, I understand that it was supposed to be more geared towards Andes Custard and places like that.

Um do we owe it?

And if so, this will harm us because there are a lot of caterers outside of Naperville that will come in here and not have to be charged that tax.

So I'm honestly just trying to find out where where the city council stands on this, and if we do owe it, how do we go forward from here?

Thank you.

Go ahead, Mr.

Craig.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um the uh whether you owe the tax or not, uh, will be very kind of um specific to each individual situation.

Uh so I would suggest that uh you get a card from uh uh director Ray Munch, our director of finance, uh, and they can set something up uh where you can walk through the scenarios that where the tax would apply and where it would not.

Can you um did you notify all of the caterers that this was going to be coming down the pike?

Uh yeah, I'm I'm not aware if we uh notified all of the caterers or not.

Um I don't know um what finance did with that.

It didn't just because if I hadn't found out accidentally, where would we be?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor Ray Munch Finance Director.

So after the uh city code was amended last year, we did targeted mailings to businesses that we were able to easily identify as um you know registered in town as sales tax paying businesses that did not currently remit food and beverage tax.

Uh admittedly, the the state records that those come from are not very clean.

Uh so you know we made a best attempt.

I believe we sent out about 80 letters uh last year and have done follow up since then, but it is entirely possible that your business was missed during that review.

Okay.

Okay.

Ma'am, could you do stick stick around after uh we get through the public forum?

There'll be city council public forum, and there will likely be some more comments or questions after that.

Great.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Adam Vansamaran, followed by Christian Zanger.

Uh good evening, Mayor Worley, City Council members.

Uh, my name is Adam Van Summerin.

I'm a lifelong resident here of Naperville, as well as a business owner for the last 20 years.

Um, one of the owners of Charleston Building and Development, family-run building company here, started back in 2005.

I've stood here many times before seeking your guys' approval on several developments.

Jefferson Estates, Charleston Row, Charleston on the Park, and our most recent Charleston place.

Always appreciate your time and thank you for hearing me out tonight.

Topic I'd like to address tonight is concerning the adoption of the Illinois Stretch Code.

To start off, I fully support ways to be more energy efficient in our building practices.

Charleston's never been a company that is a low bid gets the job.

We're always looking for efficiency and value.

Now, the key word of that is value.

Many of the changes the stretch code is going to force upon builders and new homeowners will not bring value, but it'll bring higher cost.

I feel there's been a lot of information presented to the city of Naperville through the Naperville Building Review Board and even the City Council that isn't completely accurate.

Um, in order to get a better grasp of it myself, I took a house that I'm currently building in Naperville and had my subcontractors bid it out to see what it would take to meet the needed measures for the new stretch code.

A 5,800 square foot custom home.

It would cost an additional $31,930 to meet the current code.

I'm sorry, to meet the proposed stretch code.

That extra cost does not create value.

In fact, that increase of almost $32,000 would save my homeowners a whopping $91 a year in utilities.

So I'd love to see if any of you found that as a good investment to sit down with you and offer you $91 for the rest of my life for a $32,000 check tonight, because I don't think there'd be many takers.

In a world, especially in an area where affordable housing is such a concern, why are we lavishly just putting rules in place that are going to force our hand to be more expensive without creating any real value to the residents or the homeowners?

I would invite City Council to use Charleston to use other Naperville uh Naperville builders to use the Northern Illinois Home Builders Association as resources to get real life examples, to get real costs in real um situations where the stretch code will change and affect Naple residents.

I appreciate the time tonight.

Thank you for hearing me out.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Kristen Zanger, followed by Derek Hoover.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Christian Zanger.

I'm a lifelong Naperville resident.

I'm a second generation home builder, president of Autumn Homes, and member Northern Illinois Home Builders Association, being one of its past presidents as well.

I'm here to urge you to vote no on any future adaptation of the Illinois Stretch Energy Code.

I've got a couple concerns that I can voice in three minutes here.

One would be we are building energy efficient homes currently under the International Energy Code.

That offers a performance-based pathway to energy efficiency.

On the other side of the coin, the Illinois stretch code is going to be a prescriptive method that's one size fits all.

So all home types would take the same insulation values in the walls, the same mechanical efficiencies in the basement.

And as we know, there's a myriad of homes varieties in Naperville, and one set of rules cannot work effectively across all those different homes.

The second issue I have is the cost.

Like Adam, I cost, I priced out a home with the Illinois Stretch Code.

My home was a little bit smaller at 3,800 square feet.

My total all in was 42,893 of additional funds required to build the home under the Illinois Stretch Code.

Now I'm a small business owner as well, two or three employees.

There's no way we're we can't pass those costs on to the end consumer.

And like Adam mentioned, where is that break even when it comes to savings in utilities?

Obviously, probably not the lifetime of the home.

The final issue that I have with this stretch code is that I sell to folks that are coming from the city of Chicago, typically one and a half kids, they're selling a condo.

We're looking at areas that are on the BNSF.

Naperville is not exclusively their target.

Do I sell Naperville because I I was about grown up here?

Absolutely.

And I do so on an even playing field.

If this stretch code is enacted, I will no longer be able to do that.

Putting Naperville at a distinct disadvantage with Lyle, Downers Grove, you name the other communities.

And I'm a tear down specialist.

The other component here is if I'm not working in Naperville, I'm working in an adjacent town.

I'm not removing an old home with mechanicals that were installed in the Reagan administration.

They could have asbestos, it could have lead pipes for plumbing.

I take care of all those problems, and in its place, it's a brand new home under the International Energy Code.

Very energy efficient.

That's a win for the whole community.

So with that, I would just like to urge you to vote no on any future adaptation of the Illinois Stretch Code.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Derek Hoover.

Okay.

Our next item is City Council public forum.

As a reminder per the code, council members have three minutes to speak during public forum and can speak up to two times.

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

Councilman Willson.

Uh question for Mr.

Van Summeren.

Uh if you don't mind coming back up.

So I asked I asked this question to when uh other builders came up.

Uh so similar question.

Um, and I'm asking you because uh your projected cost is cheaper than Mr.

Zangers.

It's it's only 30,000.

Um forward that have suggested the stretch codes and so that they'll subsidize the cost of uh uh so has anyone that has uh is proposing stretch codes that uh you're you're speaking about has have they come to you and go, oh I'll I'll uh pay the uh $30,000 on behalf of uh the potential uh buyer.

Um no, I'd be intrigued to find out if someone is running around town offering to give people $30,000 to meet the stretch code, though.

I'd I'd be intrigued too.

Um and then uh you know, in your experience, if uh a home is would be um I guess artificially bid up because of something like this, because of a regulation like this, uh, would it increase the costs of everything else on the market?

Um that that so you're uh selling a home at 500,000, it gets bit up because of the uh the codes.

Um presumably other homes that are on the market would get bit up too because now you've raised an artificial price.

Uh interesting question.

I tough one to answer.

I'd say no if I had to put an answer to it because this is really geared towards new construction, so the rest of the market's not gonna feel the weight of what it's gonna cost to update their current home.

But who's to say every model from this point forward's not gonna ask that?

Like, where do you start to draw a line of they're gonna expect you to update this to meet the current stretch code or not?

So from what I'm understanding, it's more geared towards new construction permits or remodel permits, but I you know the everyday homeowner that's putting their house on the market is not getting affected at this point.

Thank you.

Councilman McBrew.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um the uh amendment to the food and beverage tax.

I I actually voted against that.

Um I had some kind of larger issues with how the food and beverage pack tax is being spent.

Um, but uh in principle, I I understood uh mayor proposed it, uh fairness issue, but um and I understand this is a case by case basis, but in general, I I wouldn't mind a public answer as to um I wasn't aware, at least I wasn't that it would apply to caterers and just on the surface.

I don't I don't I don't think that's appropriate.

I mean I I thought it was targeted for businesses that drive-throughs and places that we go to in town, not uh a caterer um where I think they're right that this could cost someone to use cater from outside of town.

Uh so it is can we get you a general answer?

Does it apply to caterers?

Mr.

Mudge.

So caterers were always in the code.

The issue was whether you had a sit-down dining type of service associated with it.

And so when we made the amendment to the code, yes, the the impetus for that was certainly the drive-through only type of establishment, but there were other situations throughout the city where there was um some perception of a lack of equity in the way the taxes were applied.

It was the Eden pizza versus the delivery pizza.

And so caterers were always in the code, it just applies a little bit more broadly now.

And as Mr.

Kruger and I discussed this, one of the examples um that we brought up was you know, let's say you have a wedding across the street at the innovation gateway, and you bring in a caterer.

In theory, the food and beverage tax would apply to that caterer and that food service provided there, just the same as it would if you had your wedding reception at Elements down the street where Elements is a in-house food and beverage provider.

So there would be equity across those two situations there.

So that's just one example.

Um, but again, generally they were in the code, it's just the code apply applies more broadly, and it's seen to be more equitable under the revision.

Councilman Halzar.

Um thank you, Mayor.

Uh actually following up exactly on Councilman McBroom's point.

Um, but first actually wanted to turn to Mr.

DeSanto.

So earlier um I notified him that I um where I represent at least a couple of caterers that exactly fall into this situation.

Um I think I'd probably be conflicted out of voting on an ordinance about uh let's say repealing it or something along those lines.

But Mr.

DeSanto, could you give an opinion?

Would it be all right for me to uh provide a follow-up comment to what Councilman McBroom was saying?

Do you think that would be um you know not a conflict of interest counselor?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh yes, Councilman, I think during this public forum discussion, it would not be inappropriate for you to comment on uh the food and beverage tax, even though you may represent caterers in your private practice, provided that you can do so fairly and impartially, being that you don't have a direct financial interest of this issue as is being discussed now, and no final action will be taken tonight.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Sanch.

I appreciate that clarification, just keeping everything above board.

Um I tend to agree with what Councilman McBroom was saying on this.

Um I had remembered the conversation, at least being that situation with you know the pizza restaurant, or the like coffee shop is the one I really remember, right?

You go to Starbucks, you sit down, have a coffee in there versus you go to Seven Brew, and they're doing this huge business and just not providing indoor seating, and it's almost like a workaround um, you know, getting around the tax everybody else pays.

So that's at least the situation I was envisioning when I voted.

It never really crossed my mind that um that this would be what is happening right now.

Um so I I was kind of surprised the first time I heard it come up from a caterer.

Um I don't know if that's something um council would want to clarify or take action on.

Like I said, I I probably wouldn't feel comfortable voting on that at this point, but I I just genuinely did not expect that.

So thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank um Ms.

Rusnells for bringing this to our attention tonight.

I had not heard any concerns about this until you spoke tonight.

So I've got great concerns about it as well.

Um we've seen this on the liquor commission side where we had outside caterers who were serving in Naperville, and when it comes to the sale of just food, no liquor.

I mean, in theory, if you hire a Downers Grove caterer to come to Naperville, you're getting an automatic one percent discount because the Naperville caterers charge one percent more.

That's a disincentive to have your business in our community, and I don't think it's it's it's right for those portable type functions.

So I I think it's something we really need to get all the details together, and perhaps I would look for council support to get a report from our professional staff about what events are being affected, what's not, what the history is when it comes to catering, and if there has been a mechanism for having outside caterers remit our our food and beverage taxes uh when they're not based in our city.

So I I'd be looking for some sort of support.

Council are are we in agreement we'd like to see more information on that?

Would that be fair?

Do we need a show of hands or do you the nods good?

Okay.

Okay, and then uh show an abstention from councilman halzar.

Councilman White.

Um thank you, Mayor.

Uh just a question uh reference to Mr.

Stark's presentation.

Um I think uh well I think he mentioned that we could have the first workshop would be the first one in April now.

Um I think staff plans on bringing uh information to the staff.

Was that the April 7th?

Which that first Tuesday is April.

Yes.

So I just want to make sure is that enough time to hear from the staff on these different options as we discussed, and then roll right into a workshop.

I don't know if we need to have maybe a little more time to absorb uh what staff has presented to us and then maybe roll into a workshop at maybe another two weeks or whatever down the line, whatever council thinks is appropriate.

Mr.

Krieger, uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh our our current plan um, you know, based on the council input is uh for the first meeting in April um to start, and they're not uh they're not workshops, they're gonna be reports given uh at council meetings uh following a cadence of one per month.

Um the uh April workshop uh is going to start on an overview of mission, um, uh bring in a lot of timeline information with detail, and then talk about uh some of the different options um as well as the timelines uh associated with each option.

Uh the follow-up workshops will look in depth at each individual option, each individual option, um, its pros, its cons, it's risks.

Um and then um following that and following the completion of the discussion on all of the options, um, thought that we would bring back uh kind of the strategic discussion uh to revisit that after all of the options have been on the table.

But that would be at the conclusion of our discussion of the options.

So what you're saying is that those options will be presented at an April 8th workshop or at the city council meeting on the 7th.

Uh city council meeting on the 7th.

Okay.

And the workshop would follow your thinking when uh I I know that we are planning on uh discussing options through August, so it would be after that.

August.

So the first workshop would be August.

The well, the final option presented would be at um city council meeting in August.

Okay, so the workshops would take place when uh it would it would really need to be discussed.

Um we're thinking having that discussion uh during our last uh option review, piggybacking onto that during the August discussion.

So it you know it it certainly wouldn't take place prior to August.

Oh okay.

I was under the impression we would start these workshops probably within a few weeks after we get that initial um presentation from council, I mean from staff.

Yeah, that um the that is not our current plan.

Um, you know, if the majority of council would support doing that, but our our plan was um to bring uh once a month a report to council during a city council meeting um to uh provide the overview as well as kind of an in-depth discussion on each of the options uh and do that first.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Yeah, and just for reference in the May 3rd council meeting minutes, it reads by consensus council directed staff to develop a series of reports for review and discussion at open or I'm sorry, March 3rd public meetings.

The reports will incorporate both reverse timeline from 2035 when the current IMEA contract expires and an overview of the different energy options available to meet the city's future energy needs.

The first report will outline the mission and the direction of the city utility electric utility, along with the guidelines staff will use in developing and evaluating the various cost energy cost options or energy options, rather, and council has the opportunity to review and discuss all of the reports and potential options after council has the opportunity.

A workshop will be scheduled to further evaluate the information and consider next steps.

So that that's what the minutes reflect from the March 3rd meeting.

Councilman Halzar.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I was gonna wait until the minutes came up uh asked for that to be pulled from the agenda, but since since he mentioned it, I I am gonna ask for um an amendment to the minutes um when we get to that.

So um I actually wrote down specifically what was um requested and you know, asking for hands in the air for that workshop.

Um so the line that says after council's had the opportunity to review and discuss uh all the reports and potential options, a workshop will be scheduled to, and I was gonna um request that the term set strategic priorities be um placed in there.

So um, you know, I uh I thought it was very important that it's it's highlighted that that workshop is setting strategic priorities and some of the things I'd envisioned there would be um, you know, uh where do we prioritize cost?

Where do we prioritize flexibility?

Where do we prioritize being able to get multiple bids?

Where do we prioritize carbon footprint?

Um all of those uh kinds of things.

And just to follow up on Councilman White's point, um, one of the things circling in my mind right now is um, you know, no secret here.

One one priority I would set, and I think something I would propose is a strategic priority is that um we look at the surrounding communities and what their carbon footprint is, and then had Naperville's be at least as good as theirs.

And um, so a concern I have is if we're not having other discussion until September, you know, is that is that burning a lot of the time we have between now and then.

Um, or maybe you can incorporate that in your presentations between now and then.

Hey, how would this come make us compare to Downerscrew over Lyle in terms of both cost and carbon footprint?

So thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

And and when discussion comes up on I2, we'll we'll revisit it.

Any other council public forum items?

Hearing none.

Our next item is the consent agenda.

I may have a motion to use the omnibus method to present to approve the consent agenda.

Mayor move to use the omnibus method to approve the consent agenda.

Second Kelly.

Motion a second to use the omnibus method to approve the consent agenda.

All those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes nine zero.

And I think counselor, we're pulling I2 and I four.

Is that correct?

Okay.

May have a motion to approve the consent agenda pulling I2 and I four.

Councilman White.

Mayor move to approve the consent agenda removing items I2 and I-4.

Second Kelly.

Ms.

Marcordis, please read the consent agenda.

Removing I2 and I-4.

Approve the cash disbursements for February 2026 for a total of 37,506,027.97.

Approve the city council meeting schedule for April, May, and June 2026.

Receive the year-to-date budget report through February 28, 2026.

Accept the public underground improvements at Orion Orion Prosperita at Mill and Deal Road and Laurel Subdivision at 202 to 212 Van Buren and authorize the city clerk to reduce the corresponding public improvement surety.

Approve the award of option year number one to a contract for storm sewer rehabilitation to perform pipelining to performance pipelining inc for an amount not to exceed 750,000 plus a 3% contingency.

Approve the award of option year number one to a contract for cross-connection control testing records.

Approve the award of cooperative procurement for aftermarket parts and supplies to genuine parts company for an amount not to exceed 137,000 for a 32-month term.

Approve the award of cooperative procurement for facility exterior restoration to Garland to DBS Inc.

for an amount not to exceed 117,156.

Approve the award of bid for custodial services in the central business district to EcoClean Maintenance Inc.

for an amount not to exceed 237,366 and 90 cents for a one-year term.

Approve the award of bid for 2026 Southeast Waterworks drainage pump replacement to performance construction and engineering LLC for an amount not to exceed 516,632 plus a 3% contingency.

Approve the award of bid for 2026 pavement patching to Geneva Construction Company for an amount not to exceed $608,300, $300 plus a 3% contingency for a six-month term.

Approve the award of bid for landscape restoration services to Christy Weber and Company and Sumperfigh Landscaping Inc.

for an amount not to exceed $600,000 for a one-year term.

Approve the award of bid for pumping equipment repair and maintenance services to Flow Technics Inc.

for an amount not to exceed 101,970 for a 20-month term.

Approve the award of change order number one to a contract for Springbrook Water Reclamation Center South Plant Return Activated Sludge and Grit Improvements Project to Donahue and Associates Inc.

for an amount not to exceed $70,000.

Approve the award of change order number one to a work order for for construction engineering services for Ogden Avenue and Washington Street water main improvements to Siorba group for an amount not to exceed $388,050 for a total award of $702,575 and an additional 182 days.

Waive the applicable provisions of the Naperville Procurement Code and award a work order for construction engineering services for Ogden Avenue phase two water main improvements to Siorba group for an amount not to exceed 394,428 dollars for a 16-month term.

Pass the ordinance to establish temporary traffic controls and issue a special event and amplifier permits for the 2026 Naperville Women's Half Marathon and 5K scheduled on Sunday, April 19, 2026.

Pass the ordinance to establish temporary traffic controls and issue special event and amplifier permits for the 2026 distinguished gentleman's ride schedule on Sunday, May 17, 2026.

Pass the ordinance approving variances for two ground signs along Aurora Avenue for the West Ridge Court Shopping Center.

Pass the ordinance approving a minor change to the conditional use for Olive Lutheran Church at 4055 Brook Book Road.

Adopt the resolution approving a lease agreement between the City of Naperville and Chicago SMSA limited partnership doing business as Verizon Wireless regarding communications tower at 18 South South Washington and adopt the resolution authorizing the city manager to execute the intergovernmental agreement between DuPage County and the City of Naperville for mowing along county roads and rights of way.

We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda minus items I2 and I4.

Roll call.

Orly?

Yes.

Gibson.

Aye.

Holz Hower?

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

I McBroom.

Aye.

Sayed.

I white.

Aye.

Wilson.

All right.

Motion carries 90 I2.

Approve the March 3, 2026 regular city council meeting minutes.

Councilman Holzar, you ask for the item to be polled.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, as I mentioned in my comments earlier, I would ask that after the phrase, um, after councils had the opportunity to review and discuss all the reports and potential options.

Um, a workshop will be scheduled to um and add the phrase set strategic priorities.

Um, let's put a motion up first and obtain a second before we have discussion.

Okay.

Um if you want to sure.

I'm gonna move, I won't reread the whole sentence, but I'm gonna move that um after the clause of workshop be scheduled to um the three words set strategic priorities.

I guess four words set strategic priorities and be added in.

Okay, and then let's second white.

Oh so we have a motion of second now, counselor.

You had some concerns.

Yeah, if I may help, I I think an appropriate motion would be to approve the March 3rd, 2026 regular city council meeting minutes with the amendment that you provided.

Yeah, okay.

I'll move to approve the March 3rd, 2026.

Um council.

Regular city council meeting minutes with the words set strategic priorities and added after the phrase.

The workshop will be scheduled to second white.

Okay, so we have a motion and a second and then discussion.

A question for council.

I I don't recall from that meeting whether or not those specific things were addressed in the meeting and as part of the discussion, and they were certainly not reflected in the meeting minutes here, which is why the councilman's asking them add them, add them now.

Um I assume the meeting minutes are to reflect what actually happened in the meeting.

So absence somebody going back and washing the tape and seeing what was discussed and what wasn't discussed.

How do we go about dealing with this?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I think there's a couple options.

Council can uh rely on their own recollection to see if you remember that being part of the discussion, and if so, if you're comfortable supporting the motion that was made, then I think you can vote for it.

You could also rely on Councilman Holt Tower's recollection, believing that he may have looked at this prior to the meeting and have or ask him whether he has, whether he's confirmed that was in fact part of the video that's on display.

Or a third option potentially would be to table the matter, and we can bring it back for council's consideration at a future meeting after you've all had an opportunity to review it on your own.

The last option if you disagree would be to vote against it.

And couldn't a fourth item be bring it up in new business and just add it in new business as if not as a change to the existing minutes, but add that language to what was put forward in the last meeting and look for council support on that.

You know the the the difficulty with the new business is that final action can't be taken under new business, and so we didn't bring that back at a future council meeting for council to vote on.

Okay, councilman White.

And what about if we did it at the end of one of the other before we got to new business?

Uh and in the meantime, someone maybe from staff can review review the video to make sure it's accurate and we can vote on it.

I don't know if that's possible.

Uh you you guys know the technology better than I, so I'm gonna defer to Mr.

Krieger to let me know.

Yeah, you know, I I'm I'm gonna look over to the uh side dais uh uh um uh Ms.

Marcordis is uh kind of playing double duty today.

Uh I don't know if uh Ms.

Portner would be able to uh review those or or not city clerk.

I can go back and review uh the minutes are presented as they were presented on May on March 3rd based on the discussion that I listened to, but I can go back and review it again after the meeting.

Councilman, would you be opening to tabling it until such time?

Sure, just for the record, Mr.

Stark listened to this word for word, and he brought it to my attention.

Also, I wrote down the exact wording of what I said, so I'll read it out loud, but I prefer to table it just so that everybody feels good about it.

But the exact wording was um that I asked for hands in the air to schedule a workshop on the long-term energy options to the city of Naperville with a focus on strategic objectives and excluding tactical decisions on a specific contract.

So that was one of the words that were used at the meeting, but with that, I'll just ask to table this so we can all review this for the next meeting because I it is an important viewpoint to me.

So motion to table.

Go ahead, counselor.

There is a motion and a second that's on the floor right now, so I'd ask that you amend your original motion to table the approval.

Sure.

I'll uh amend my motion with the consent of a second.

I'll amend my motion so that we can table um table this so we can review the tape for the next meeting.

And second white.

Okay, we have a motion and a second to table item I too until the next meeting.

Any further discussion, roll call?

Gibson, aye.

Holzhour?

Aye, Jane, aye, Kelly, aye, McBroom, aye, syan, aye.

White, aye.

Wilson, aye, warley.

Aye.

Motion passes nine zero items tabled.

Aye four.

Approve appointments to various boards and commissions.

Councilman Gibson.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to move to approve Natasha Mariner to the police pension board.

Is there a second?

Councilman Kelly.

Second Kelly.

We have a motion and a second to approve Natasha Mariner to the police pension board.

Roll call.

Holzauer.

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

Aye.

McBroom?

Aye.

Syan.

I white.

Aye.

Wilson.

I warley.

Yes.

Gibson.

Aye.

Motion passes nine zero.

Councilwoman Gibson.

She's not okay.

Councilman White.

Um, a motion would be appropriate for the approval of the other appointment.

May I move to approve the appointment of uh Mr.

Grant Guts and Gustin to the special events and community arts commission?

Councilman Kelly.

Second Kelly.

We have a motion and a second to approve Mr.

Gusin to the SECA commission.

Roll call.

Oh, Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you.

Um I did pull this one.

I want to start by saying how much I appreciate everyone in our community who applies to these positions, who serves on these positions.

Over the last few years, we've had uh increased interest in our commissions.

Um I believe there were 23 applicants for this commission alone, and I think that's pretty consistent across the board for our different commissions.

A lot of people are paying attention to these commissions and want to participate.

Um we've also seen renewed interest in the process we follow for appointments for these positions.

I know League of Women Voters in 2023 came out with a pretty comprehensive report on the process we follow.

Um I believe we should be intentional about creating opportunities for a residents to participate in local government.

And when someone's already served on a commission and termed out, I think it's appropriate for us to prioritize new voices and perspectives rather than reappointing individuals to new commissions when they've termed out of their other, um, especially when we have a strong pool of applicants in our community who want to participate.

Uh for me, this isn't about specific individuals.

Um rather it's how we approach these appointments as a community, how we intentionally build a process that fosters inclusion, expands access, and brings new voices to the table.

So for those reasons uh for this appointment and for future appointments that come before us, I won't be voting to approve applicants who've already termed out of other commissions.

Um I will be voting now.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second to approve Mr.

Gustin for the seeker commission roll call.

Jane aye, Kelly, aye, McBroom, aye.

Cyed.

Aye.

White aye.

Wilson.

Aye.

Worley.

Yes.

Gibson.

No.

Coltour?

Aye.

Motion passes 81.

Item L one.

Pass the ordinance rezoning 222 South Mill Street from OCI office commercial and institutional district to B5 secondary downtown district.

Councilman.

Thank you.

Councilman, I knew that would happen.

Um, Mayor, I am going to rekeise myself to avoid the uh appearance of a potential conflict of interest.

Okay.

Councilman White, may I have a motion on L one?

Mayor, I move to pass the ordinance rezoning 22 South Mill Street from OCI.

That's Office Commercial and Institutional District to B5, which is secondary downtown.

Councilman Kelly.

Second Kelly.

A motion and a second on L5.

Any discussion?

Or excuse me, L one.

Any discussion.

Seeing none.

Roll call.

Kelly.

Aye.

McBroom.

Aye.

Cyan.

I White.

Aye.

Wilson.

I warley.

Yes.

Gibson.

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Motion passes a zero with one abstention.

Or I'm sorry, excuse me, one recusal.

Item M1.

Councilman White.

Mayor move to approve the award of bid 26 that has 045 landscape maintenance mowing and herbicide services to Yellowstone Landscape, Groundworks, Land Design, and Romero Guzman Landscaping Incorporated for an amount not to exceed 1,808,240 dollars.

Councilman Kelly.

Second Kelly.

We have motion and a second to approve M1.

Any discussion?

Roll call.

McBroom.

Aye.

Syed.

Aye.

White.

Aye.

Wilson.

Waterly.

Yes.

Gibson.

Aye.

Hold tower.

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

Aye.

Motion passes nine zero.

Councilman White, M2.

Mayor move to approve the award of bid 26 as 032 municipal center IT server room expansion to light construction incorporated for an amount not to exceed 1 million ninety-seven thousand plus a three percent contingency.

Councilman Kelly.

Second Kelly.

Any discussion?

We have a motion and a second on M2 roll call.

Saiyed.

Aye.

White.

Aye.

Wilson.

Aye.

Worley.

Yes.

Gibson.

Aye.

Coltour.

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

Aye.

McBroom.

Aye.

9001.

Director Munch.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

And good evening.

Tonight I'm presenting our preliminary review of the 2025 budget.

Here's a brief overview of the topics I'll discuss tonight.

First, I'll summarize the 2025 budget focusing on outcomes in our major budgetary funds.

Then I'll highlight the performance of some of our major revenues and expenditures last year.

And last we'll look ahead to some of the errors we're keeping an eye on early in the new year.

Before we begin, I give you this uh disclaimer every year.

I'll remind you that the numbers we're presenting here this evening are preliminary and unaudited.

Uh the finance department continues to pay final invoices and work on year-end closeout procedures in preparation for our annual audit that begins later this month.

I'd like to begin tonight by sharing a few key takeaways from this year-end report.

Uh, first, overall financial outcomes were positive in 2025 as the city benefited from generally favorable economic conditions.

We continue to see good performance in some of our more economically sensitive revenues like sales, income, and real estate transfer taxes.

We also saw strong revenue performance across building permits and related fees, as well as much stronger than expected interest and investment income.

The result is an estimated increase in fund balance of $28 million across all budgetary funds.

I'll note that this is largely due to lower than expected spending rather than anything else.

Across most funds, expenditures were either in line with or lower than the amount we budgeted.

And while total spending ended the year 8.5% under budget, there were several funds that exceeded their authorized budget.

As a result, finance intends to address uh several of those through a year-end budget amendment that will bring you at a subsequent meeting once we get a little bit deeper into our audit process.

Now let's start to look at some of the numbers from last year.

As usual, I'll start out at a very high level and go into more detail throughout the presentation.

Here we've broken down the budget into the three major fund categories.

Uh starting from the left, you see maintenance and operations, then capital and debt service, and special funds.

For each category, you can see actual revenues and expenses represented by the green and red shading on those charts.

Uh that shading shows how close the actuals were to the budget.

As a reminder, our maintenance and operating funds are those major funds responsible for most of our public services.

Uh that's the general fund, electric water, the self-insurance fund.

The capital and debt service funds are those responsible for funding current capital projects or the debt that is associated with past projects and special funds are those that support special purposes like the library, neighbor settlement, and special service areas.

Starting on the left, you can see that our maintenance and operating funds exceeded expectations in revenue.

Expenditures came in below expectations, and accordingly, uh revenues outpaced expenditures by approximately 12 million dollars in total.

The major variance in expenses here is related to capital improvements, uh, mostly in the water utility that were not completed in 2025 and were deferred to future years.

The capital and debt service funds had the most significant variance from the budget.

Uh this is due to delays or deferrals of capital projects.

As a reminder, uh the revenue shortfall that you see uh in capital and debt service is mostly attributable to grants or one-time revenues associated with capital projects.

Um Road underpass is a good example.

We've talked about that expens extensively.

Uh, we'll start to realize those revenues once the actual work progresses.

However, the recurring revenues in that area, uh, such as the home rule sales tax performed according to our expectations last year.

Last you see the special funds revenues were in line with expectations, uh, while expenditures again were uh a little bit below budget in that area.

The neighbor settlement fund and the downtown maintenance SSA were the two funds uh that accounted for most of that uh under budget performance.

Now we're gonna look at at our three major funds the general fund, electric and water utilities.

Uh, these funds provide the resources needed to deliver the majority of our core public services, such as public safety, public works, electric water, and the technical and administrative support that's necessary to deliver these services.

The general fund cash balance continued to continued to grow from revenue that exceeded expectations and expenses that were below budget.

In 2025, general fund revenues outperformed budget estimates by roughly $5 million or about 2.8%.

About $3 million of that came from our investment returns, which I'll talk a little bit more about in a minute.

Expenses in the general fund ended the year about $4 million under budget.

This resulted in an excess of more than $9 million, adding to the fund's cash balance.

Financial outcomes in the electric utility were not as favorable in 2025.

However, we did perform much better than recent years.

On the slide before you, I noted a loss of $750,000.

However, based on some recent year-end entries, it looks like that fund is going to be closer to break even for last year.

While the rate study projected an increase in cash balance, higher energy costs and the unpredictable delivery timeline for some of our high value equipment contributed to that actual outcome.

The issuance of GO bonds for last year was smaller than we initially budgeted.

That's directly correlated to the expenses in that fund that were also under budget by about 30 million dollars.

Most of that variance again, it's attributable to the deferral of major capital improvements that were budgeted in water.

Next, we look at uh some of the key revenues from last year.

So I'm not gonna go through every single line in detail here, but I'll point out some areas of interest.

I'm gonna start at the top.

So you look at sales tax.

Uh, sales tax again was very strong for last year.

Um, if you compare it to 2024, it was up 14 and a half percent.

That's unusual.

Uh the reason for that, and we talked about this a little bit during the budget process.

Uh, the state took another swing at leveling the playing field for e-commerce and out-of-state retailers and how those sales taxes are applied.

So, as they implement those changes, uh, you see some unnatural increases in sales tax.

However, I'll I'll move you two lines down from that to the local use tax.

Local use tax is where most of your e-commerce and out of state sales tax was formerly generated.

So you see a significant decline in that area, and that has occurred over several years.

That local use tax used to be about a five to six million dollar revenue, and it's been effectively cut in half.

That is a per capita revenue source.

I would say that the changes that have happened at the state level are a net benefit to a town like Naperville.

So while we see that decline, uh the gain in sales tax is has been more than we've lost in local use tax.

Um the utility side, electric actually had a very good year last year from a revenue perspective.

Uh they sold more energy uh than was anticipated, so you see the revenue performance was quite strong last year.

Uh water uh a little bit lower than expected, uh but higher revenue in the prior year.

That's mostly due to rate changes.

Uh, ambulance fees a little light last year, uh not necessarily because of the activity uh in the fire department, but there's some challenges with the billing provider that we've been working through.

Um, so we hope to correct that in the coming year.

Uh food and beverage tax.

We talked about this one last year a couple of on a couple of different occasions.

Uh you see that it underperformed.

That was largely due to some of the rotation of businesses downtown.

Uh, if you recall Rosebud was close to renovations for a long period of time.

There were some other vacancies, so we anticipate that that will kind of smooth out over time.

Uh, most of our other local taxes performed as expected.

Um, again, we've talked about local gas tax being down, no surprise there.

Commuter parking is coming back, uh, so we saw good performance on a budgetary perspective there.

The last line I'm gonna point to, I mentioned it earlier, the investment income.

So we maintain a portfolio of fixed income investments.

That is where our long-term reserve funds are held.

Outstanding performance last year.

We saw a return of about 7% across our fixed income portfolio.

Um relatively unusual for investments of that type.

So we saw about a $13 million return on our invested funds last year.

So very good outcome there.

On the expense side, I would say largely things uh performed as expected.

Uh, salary and wages, you can see we're right on target for our our regular salaries and wages.

Overtime exceeded budget marginally by about three and a half percent.

There were a couple of issues there.

The fire department continues to see more overtime than expected as they see higher retirements and start to rotate staff out.

They have minimum staffing, so as retirements occur, those positions have to be staffed on an overtime basis at times.

The other consideration there is as we uh did uh contract changes in police and fire, those amounts weren't necessarily accounted for in overtime budgets uh as much as they were in regular salaries.

Talked about health care costs.

Uh the news is not great there.

Uh we talked about that during budget season.

Medical claims were up about nine percent more than budget, three percent from the prior year, but the real story there is in the pharmacy line.

You can see that pharmacy costs are exceeding uh the budget quite substantially by almost 15% last year and more than 40% higher than the prior year.

Um purchase items, mostly items for resale and electric and water, these are the costs that are really passed on to our residents.

Uh the cost of purchase electricity was significantly more than we budgeted.

A couple of factors at play there.

As I mentioned, we sold more electricity to the customer base last year.

Uh, that's point number one.

We've also discussed that energy costs are higher, specifically in the transmission costs that the city does not control.

Uh water costs uh significantly under budget at 8%.

Um there's a good news story in that.

Uh Director Blennis uh and his team reported that non-revenue water is down significantly from almost 12% to close to 3% last year.

So we're buying less water for the from the DuPage Water Commission because it's not leaking through pipes and and other non-revenue water sources, so that's good news.

Um the rest of the budget again, largely you know, on par with our expectations.

You see some some variances there in architect and engineering, as I've stated before, those are closely tied to the capital programs.

So as projects get delayed or deferred, so too do those expenses.

Um, and the bottom line there, capital again, largely based on project performance.

I would say the projects are move along moving along well, uh, but that line is rarely close to budget.

There's there's a lot of variability there from one year to the next.

So now we're looking ahead a little bit to next year as we turn the page.

Um, while it's still early, we're constantly monitoring activity that could impact next year's budget.

So throughout 2026, and uh that budget process, we focused on the idea that every dollar in the budget has a purpose that drove our budget theme of money with a mission.

You'll recall that last year we reduced several lines in the budget where historical spending did not support the budgets.

Um throughout this year, we're going to be monitoring very closely to ensure that those adjustments we made in the 2026 budget align with our operational needs.

Some of the budget challenges that we worked through last fall may persist in the next year.

As such, we're analyzing revenue streams to ensure they're supporting rising costs in areas such as health insurance and rising wages.

We also remain mindful that significant investments are required in our infrastructure that will continue.

As is often the case, Naperville does not exist in a vacuum, and external forces often influence our budget.

Once again, we're closely watching actions at the state and federal levels to assess any impact on our budget.

Notably at the federal level, the conflict in Iran has spiked oil prices, which raises new concerns over price inflation.

Closer to home, the state of Illinois has proposed a budget that includes a three percent reduction to the municipal share of the local government distributive fund or LGDF, which would limit future city revenue growth.

Uh protecting LGDF uh funding remains a legislative priority for the city and our municipal partners throughout the state.

So with that, I thank you for your attention this evening.

Happy to answer any questions.

When we do an overtime detail, say police officer works with special detail or public works gets called in for a special event or anything like that.

Where are we seeing the revenue picked up on the other side of the uh so it depends on the circumstances?

So uh certainly uh SICA plays an important role.

Much of our police fire public works overtime is driven by special events, so there are SICA reimbursements uh that occur there.

In other instances, we charge entities directly for overtime services so the police could provide a special service uh at a uh private event or a school function, and we get reimbursements through those under certain agreements.

Right, but the the overtime numbers that we're seeing, that's just the raw overtime numbers.

We're not seeing if we were able to bill back any of that overtime.

That's just the pure overtime number that we're seeing on the sheet today, right?

So there could be a million dollars of overtime that's billed out to private organizations that hire a police officers, and that revenue is being picked up somewhere else, and we just don't see it reflected, correct?

That's correct.

I mean, from an accounting perspective, we would ensure that they match up in the proper funds.

Right.

I I think it's an important point that you should potentially present in the future so we can be aware of what the real overtime numbers are, because theoretically, if we have an organization or a business that's going out and they're they're wanting extra police in their facility and they're hiring back several of our officers, and it's adding up over a year's time.

Well, it makes our overtime look a lot higher than it really is, and it doesn't show the revenue that we're collecting for those police officers from that private business.

So I think that's something that certainly helpful for us to see.

That's a fair request, thank you.

Councilman White.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I have a question for you.

Where can you describe where we are from a percentage standpoint on our reserves?

And we had a no 25% goal, and I'm I'm pretty sure we're exceeding it.

Yeah, I I haven't calculated yet for the end of 25.

We usually do that as part of the audit.

My recollection was last time we evaluated it, it was in the low 30 to 35 percent range.

Yeah, that's kind of what I recall as well.

Um so my my question would be um I know when I served on the school board, it was the weirdest thing, but if you went into your reserves, it was it was basically called deficit spending, and it's your money, but it would be deficit spending, which would affect your ratings and so on.

So is that the case for us as well?

Yeah, so when we talk about reserves, um typically reserves are um you know held for a couple of reasons.

One it's for unanticipated events, but certainly once you eclipse your required reserve requirements, you can start to have the conversation about appropriate ways to spend those dollars.

Uh I've always conveyed to you that the place to look at our one-time expenses, not a recurring expenditures that would have to be supported at some point down the road.

Uh so you know, when it's appropriate to have that conversation, we would talk about things like supporting capital projects in lieu of bond financing for the future.

Um, but you know, the question of what is an appropriate reserve requirement needs to be looked at a little bit more holistically.

We focus on the general fund, but it's also important to remember that that also serves as a backstop to major electric utility, water utility, other important functions that don't carry as significant reserve requirements.

Uh so we look at that a little bit more holistically than just the 25% general fund requirement.

Right.

Um thanks.

I appreciate it.

Uh part of me was wondering, I I saw in the uh in the notes um leading up to the meeting uh how the reserves have because we're we're getting in a lot more revenue in the cash reserves have gone up.

And with that said, I'm like, wow, so for us to access that or it would require deficit spending theoretically, so would it would it make uh more sense, or it would you offer an opinion?

I should say, should we if we have those extra funds coming in to use it versus putting it in the reserves, which we we're we've exceeded and not risk you know, going into our own reserves, which would potentially affect our credit rating.

That's kind of where I'm getting at that was a question for for the director, correct?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you can give us your assessment on that, yeah, so um your reserves isn't necessarily deficit spending, it's only deficit spending if you're doing it to support an ongoing cost.

It's only deficit spending if you're doing it to support an ongoing cost.

Um I think there would be opportunities to start to utilize reserves.

Again, the one thing that I would point to is looking at our capital programs and is it appropriate to be issuing GO bonds for government capital when you have reserves that could support some portion of that.

That I think that's probably the first consideration that we would have.

Okay.

Thank you.

Seeing no further questions, thank you, Director.

It's a great report.

We look forward to the next one.

Oh, two.

Provide feedback regarding the potential development of the South 35 acres of the Nokia campus generally, located at the northwest corner of Warrenville Road and Naperville Road with residential uses.

There are four speakers.

The first speaker is petitioner Peter Friedman, who does have 10 minutes as a time limit.

And Mr.

Friedman, before you begin, this is something that does not come to the council very often.

So I'm going to ask Mr.

DeSanto to tee up the conversation.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Mayor and Council, this agenda item is a special informal concept review session requested by the property owner Franklin 1960 Lucent Lane LLC and its development partner Pulti Home Company.

The owner is seeking early non-binding feedback from the council on its proposal to rezone the approximately 35-acre site at 1960 Lucent Lane from the ORI district to the R3 medium density multiple family residential district for town home and row home development.

This preview process is the same informal mechanism that City Council previously used for the Naper Commons project, and that is at times employed in other communities for complex developments.

By proceeding with this concept review at the owner's specific request, the owner and the developer acknowledge and agree that one, this process is entirely non-binding.

Two, any comments or feedback provided by the city council this evening are subject to change at any time, including during any subsequent formal entitlement process.

Three, neither the planning and zoning commission nor the city council is bound by any input or feedback that is offered here.

And four, this session confers no vested rights whatsoever to the property owner or the proposed developer.

This opportunity is being extended at the owner's request, and any decision to rely upon the information, opinions, input, or feedback received this evening is undertaken at the sole risk of the property owner and developer without creating any binding precedent for the city.

With that understanding on the record, the owner is now prepared to present its concept plan.

Okay, Mr.

Friedman, you have 10 minutes.

Thank you.

Good evening, uh, Mayor Wortley and City Council.

Um my name is Peter Friedman.

I'm a partner at the law firm of Elrod Friedman in Chicago.

We represent Franklin 1960 Lucent Lane LLC, the owner of the approximately 30-acre property at 1960 Lucent Lane in the city.

Also here is Caitlin Chuck from Rosanova and Whitaker, the law firm of Rosanova and Whitaker.

Um, this property, as you are well aware, is located at the corner of Warrenville and Naperville Roads.

And of course, this property is was to be the site of the previously proposed CARES data center that the planning and zoning commission held public hearings on, and that the council considered and decided against just less than two months ago at your January 20th meeting.

During that data center process, community members and residents adjacent to the property expressed a clear preference for residential development on the property that would be consistent with the city's land use master plan.

During the council's delip deliberations, that same point was emphasized several times by several members.

As disappointed as we were with the decision on the data center proposal, the property owner's number one priority has always been and continues to be now, now more urgently than ever, to put this property to its highest and best use under the city zoning regulations.

So our team took to heart the council's sentiments and the residents' sentiments and immediately refocused our efforts on a residential proposal that responded to directly to that feedback.

As we indicated in our submittals, we are very pleased to have selected Pulti Home Company as our development partner on this project.

We have provided a preliminary site plan for the development and architectural renderings and floor plan depictions of the various types of proposed residential units.

I want to emphasize a few key elements of the proposal.

It's a residential subdivision with 262 medium density attached single family homes, about 40% of which will be townhomes, and the remaining will be row homes of varying widths.

We will be seeking a rezoning from the ORI district to the R3 medium density multiple family residence district.

Our proposed development is a permitted use in the R3 district.

The proposal is also consistent with the city's land use master plan, which, as you know, designates the property for medium density residential use and specifically includes residential developments under the R3 zoning as satisfying that medium density residential standard.

Staff has calculated the maximum allowable tentatively, preliminarily calculated the maximum density, R3 density for this type of development on the property at just under 11 units per acre.

We are substantially below that maximum.

We will only require one modest variation for the row home front yard setbacks to ensure streetscape character and massing.

That is entirely consistent with similar variations granted to other comparable developments in the city.

Public roads throughout the property will be provided to serve the community.

A homeowners association will ensure maintenance of all the common areas, the stormwater improvements, and the exteriors of all the homes.

We will use the existing naturalized detention area for stormwater management.

Homes will be generally centered around large common areas for open space and recreation.

We will establish and maintain a new recreational path around the detention area to alleviate the to activate the existing open space, and we will construct a new public road to the north on the northern perimeter of the property between the development and the Nokia property to provide fire access to the Nokia site as well as an easy integration point should the Nokia site develop in the future.

A few additional thoughts.

As I indicated in my cover letter to you, the owner cast a wide net and sought proposals from many acclaimed residential developers, specifically with Naperville experience almost immediately after your January 20th meeting.

Thankfully for us, and I think show well for the city as well, the response was extremely strong.

The criteria was simple.

Residential development that is consistent with the master land use plan, consistent with the applicable zoning district, and consistent with the quality and standards expected in Naperville.

We did not seek or accept the most profitable or densest proposals.

That would have included multifamily apartments that would significantly increase density beyond what we think is appropriate for the site.

That said, we do appreciate staff's comments on that option, and we are confident that we can find ways to try to respect the prominence of this corner and the desire for some transitional elements, such as buffering, landscaping, screening, and other similar efforts.

The other key factor that I want to emphasize for us is timing.

For better or for worse, and despite the owners' good faith and consistent efforts, this property has been vacant as zoned for a significant amount of time.

We needed a development proposal that frankly was straightforward from a land use perspective and from a procedural perspective.

And that is also why we are here tonight and why we are very grateful for your time and input and for staff's quick work in providing us this opportunity.

To put it bluntly, we simply do not have the luxury of another failed zoning entitlement process and the time and expense that that would entail.

We sought our proposals that would represent the highest and best use for the property, would be consistent with the trend of development in the area, would honor the city's zoning regulations and master land use plan, and that we would be confident we'll generate higher assessed valuations and create long term stakeholders for the community.

We think Poulty and our team have a good and strong proposal.

Well, we of course understand what the city attorney just described that the council's feedback here tonight is not legally binding, and we appreciate that.

We are hopeful, nevertheless, that you will share with us your honest assessment so that we can assess the likelihood of success with this new proposal.

Again, we greatly appreciate your time and attention to this matter.

We look forward to your comments and any comments from the public.

And of course, we are available for any questions.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We do have public forum speakers on this agenda item.

We do.

The next speaker would be Clara Lambert, followed by Priya Vincent, and then Marilyn Schweitzer.

So Ms.

Lambert, um and Schweitzer, if you could move to the front row and we'll be calling you in order.

And then just as a reminder, the three minute clock is over to your right.

You'll each have three minutes to make your public comment, and then Ms.

Friedman will have five minutes for a rebuttal.

Go ahead.

All right, thank you.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Claire Lambert, and I'm a resident of Donata Woods.

Um, one of the direct neighbors.

I want to start by sincerely thanking the landowner, Franklin Partners, and their development team for listening to our communities.

The shift away from a data center toward a residential proposal reflects meaningful engagement and that matters, shows a willingness to be responsive to the people who live here and are directly impacted.

Overall, I am supportive of a residential use for this site.

It aligns more closely with the character of the surrounding area and the expectations outlined in Naperville's long-term planning vision.

That said, I would encourage thoughtful consideration of incorporating a small complementary mixed use component into the plan.

Within a one mile radius, there are already nearly 400 residences, with many more proposed.

This creates an opportunity not just for housing but for walkable neighborhood serving amenities.

Something modest, small cafe, neighborhood retail or community-oriented space, could enhance livability, reduce short car trips, and contribute to a more connected and vibrant environment for our residents.

Doesn't have to be large scale or commercially heavy, but just intentionally designed to serve the immediate community and fit seamlessly into the residential character.

In closing, I appreciate the direction this project is taking and the collaboration that has brought us here.

With a bit more consideration for integrated walkable amenities, this development has the potential to become not just housing but a truly thoughtful extension of our community.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Priya Vincent, followed by Marilyn Schweitzer.

Good evening, members of the council.

My name is Priya Vincent.

I'm a resident of Naper Commons.

I live directly behind this proposed site.

I'm here tonight to express my strong support for this residential development.

I believe this plan reflects the thoughtful planning and clear alignment with Neperville's long-term vision.

To provide some context, I was one of the first Rasmus to oppose the previous data center proposal.

I spoke out early because the project was fundamentally incompatible with our neighborhood.

Concerns that affect me personally.

What matters to me now is that Franklin Partners listened.

After the data center was denied, they took the council, the residents' concern seriously, and immediately shift to a residential plan.

They selected the option that best aligns with Napoleon standards and the feedback we provided.

Supporting this proposal isn't a change of heart, it's a continuum of the same principles that I always stood on.

This land should be used to strengthen the surrounding neighborhood.

This project profils the city's medium density plan and incorporates community-driven design and public benefit.

This project sends a message that Neighborville values responsible development.

It will bring long-term ownership, townhome owners, and a very community that complements our existing surrounding neighborhood.

I hope the council provides positive feedback tonight and encourage the applicant to move into the formal approval process.

This is exactly the kind of well-planned development Naperville deserves.

Thank you for your time.

I and your dedication to the people of Neperville.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Marilyn Schweitzer.

Okay.

So good evening.

And first I greatly appreciate this concept review.

And my so my thanks to the property owner, and I want to note that I understand their frustration.

Generally, I'm in favor of residential use and rezoning for the site as such.

I do think though there should be given more thought to residential amenities near this location that could serve the neighbor neighboring neighbor commons as well.

Traditionally, developments used to have some sort of small retail area within walking distance.

This area of Naperville has no such amenities.

Groceries, drugstores, convenience stores are all pretty much require driving.

Children can't even walk for a treat with friends anywhere.

Small convenience retail areas don't need much space.

For example, Huntington Square at Naper Boulevard in Chicago is only three acres.

And I think that's something that the first speaker noted as well.

So I mean, perhaps the area on the east side of Naperville Road where there's a defunct restaurant or business could be revitalized, still not great for children to access.

Or perhaps some portion of the 35 acres under discussion could be used as such.

One area might be the southwest corner of Naperville Road and Weatherby Lane.

And so that's not directly on the intersection, so it doesn't have quite the traffic concerns.

So please give some more thought before designating the whole area, R3, other zoning options like R4 might even be more flexible.

And finally, I would just like to note that the density calculation siding on the plants currently does include areas that cannot be developed.

Um such as wetlands, retention and detention areas.

This makes the development scene artificially less dense in actuality.

And I mean, this is just the way that Naperville calculates its density, so I'm not faulting the developer on it.

But other municipalities use different means in calculating densities or point out these differences.

And I think it would be worthwhile in our planning to do so as well.

I can mention one reason why I find this important is when I moved to Naperville, I I noticed that all our parks are really retention basins, and it was a very strange siding for me.

I mean, they weren't very playable parks in a lot of ways.

I mean, they flood.

I mean, and now, you know, I mean, I know the park district would never accept that kind of property as parkland anymore, and I'm sure they won't in in this area either.

I mean, the park that could got developed at Naper Commons was very thoughtful and was very separate from the retention detention areas that were put in there.

But it does, you know, and how these are calculated, it does artificially sort of lower what you're thinking the density really is.

So I hope that that sort of is thought out when this is done as well.

I'm not against the density, I think it could probably even go you know, go go higher, but I don't think it you know, saying this seven is really a quite accurate rec um recommendation.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Friedman.

You have five minutes for rebuttal.

No rebuttal.

Okay, uh who is going to be taking feedback from the council?

Would that be you want to do that?

Yeah, why don't you all come up to the the podium and then as we go through and hear council comment or questions from council, they can provide you direct feedback and we can go from there.

Thank you.

All right, so council, um councilman Sayed, we'll start with you for for feedback to the potential developers here.

Thank you so much, Matt.

Thank you so much for joining us today and giving this wonderful presentation.

I was one of the council members who met with this community almost like six, seven months ago, and they definitely had a concern about the data center, but they were very, very open for any residential or commercial.

So they wanted to have a mix of both.

You know, like uh residential, definitely they were looking for that.

But apart from residential, they were looking for some restaurants, coffee shops, gym, and something like mini block 59.

You know, we have got 59, block 59, something like that where people can come and enjoy the place, have fun as well as dining and all those things.

So these are the suggestions which I got it from when I was speaking to them.

And a small park will be better.

So these are the inputs which I got it.

And so my suggestion is to take this also in your in your plan and see how we can work together on this thing.

You know, thank you so much.

Any other feedback from council members?

Councilman Holzor.

Thank you.

Um, first of all, I wanted to thank you, um, Mr.

Friedman and to all the residents who came out and commented.

Um, I actually think it's great that you came and asked us for feedback.

Um, actually wish this would happen on more developments.

I think it gives us an opportunity to have a really good conversation ahead of time.

Um, one thing that I've discussed um at length actually with um uh I think Mr.

Whittaker is not here today.

I think he's sick.

Um, but attorneys for the potential developer for this, as well as our city staff is um what I'd consider to be an opportunity for a win-win.

Um not something that would cost any money, but it is something that would mean a lot um to me and I and potentially other members of this community.

Um the broader idea I raised with them, um, which they've by the way expressed excitement over, is the idea that we could explore ways that the city could be intentional over time about encouraging street names and our new developments that reflect Naperville's history over the past 50 years.

Um so we do a great job of honoring leaders and milestones through um place naming from early history in our city, as we should, and this would extend that tradition to include this the story of a city um that's grown both might more diverse and more dynamic.

Um it aligns with our mission statement to provide a high quality of life, sound fiscal management, and a dynamic business environment while creating an inclusive community that values diversity.

So I've discussed how this could work specifically with city staff.

Um, the suggestion they made is that staff could work with organizations like neighbor settlement to create a historically grounded bank of potential street names, maybe 50 or something like that for this project in any future development.

This wouldn't be mandatory to you know use names from the bank, but it's a signal from council that it is a priority, and developers when they're looking for names could have a meaningful set of options.

Um creates an opportunity to recognize contributions across civic, cultural and professional life.

Um, and one that's more inclusive of women, diverse communities, and newer neighbor villions.

To pick one obvious example, um, someone like Candace Parker, who is a Lincoln Junior High School graduate, Naperville Central graduate, and the greatest WNBA player of all time.

Um, but there are so many others in this great community uh who come to mind who could be honored in a lasting way.

I think it's a no-brainer.

Again, it costs no money.

I think it's something we could all get behind in celebrating the greatest community in America.

I thank the developers' attorneys for being so willing to entertain this, and I think it's something that helps build an inclusive community that values diversity.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um sorry, I I agree with everything Councilman Holzhauer just said.

I think that's a good idea, and if uh staff can get some processes in place for that for this project and others, that that would certainly be a positive, I think, for everybody.

Um, in terms of the development itself, I I will also um just say thank you to the developer.

I I appreciate uh the process and and where we're at right now.

I think this is what the neighborhood was looking for, the community, the uh surrounding communities and and the majority of the council.

So I think we're on on a good path here.

I know it's been a long path, even before the data center, there are conversations, warehouses, other types of use.

Um, for me, one out of nine.

I think we're zeroing in here on what I think and hope is is gonna get built.

Um it's a very unique property, right?

And I do think we should uh as a council and and staff be very intentional about what's happening here and why it's uh it's a unique property with a unique history, and I don't want it to necessarily bleed into all the other areas where we're gonna be looking at in the 88 um project coming up uh if we move forward with that project over the next year.

Um so I I don't necessarily hope every other property owner nearby is gonna be sending out similar requests for proposals to uh residential developers.

We want to maintain that base uh along that corridor in particular.

Um, but this one for the uniqueness of it, I do think this is the best use that that we're gonna have as a city.

Um, in terms of the specific plan, uh, you know, I I appreciate it appears to be some walking paths kind of on the northern end of that detention basin.

You've got some park that's at this point, obviously very generic.

I wouldn't assume that you would have any more details on it.

Um, but I would you know hope that you'll be intentional regarding what would be in that park and the amenities in conjunction with the neighbor commons park that that's you know very nearby.

I would hope there's gonna be maybe some additional pathways so that the residents can get back and forth between those two communities.

Uh if there was any possibility for neighborhood center type of a use, whether that's commercial or a small little cafe, that's great.

But I also don't want to be unrealistic.

Uh the site's not that huge, and I know time is of the essence for you all, so I'll just say from my perspective, if you can do something like that, great, but I don't want to necessarily hold this up and have it just live in purgatory forever because you don't know exactly what folks want.

Like I think something like this with some hopeful improvements to staff's five bullet point recommendations is where I kind of expect that this will go and and where I expect that I will be okay with it.

I want to be clear about that.

Uh I do hope that I'm sure you will talk to staff.

I hope there can be some movement on some of those bullet points that staff has suggested.

I don't want to just shortchange the process either, right?

But kind of going through the normal process in a in an expedient way, and I think that we're gonna get there.

So appreciate what you've done with this and uh look forward to seeing it back before us too before too long.

Thank you.

Councilman White.

Um thank you, Mayor.

Um, and I like to echo what uh a lot of the others uh other speakers have already said.

Uh I really appreciate uh you guys' willingness to to address this and in a manner that uh the residents were very excited about.

Uh I like to uh commend Councilman Holzhauer's uh suggestion as well.

Um we've noticed our community.

If you just look at our demographics, 35% um minority uh in Neighborville is very diverse community.

So um, and we honor the rich uh traditions that Naperville has had over the many years, um, but we also recognize the fact that this uh the the city's changed somewhat.

So I think uh as we look into the future, let's do some things that reflect that.

And uh from talking to um uh you know, I was talking to Mr.

Olson over uh earlier, and uh he we he voiced his excitement uh with the opportunity to make potentially do this as well.

So just uh uh appreciate your effort in least considering this and saying that if we can do this uh even better.

I like the idea of the uh some maybe some types of convenience stores when meeting with the residents that I met with over at uh Naper Commons that seemed to be something that they were very interested in.

Uh just you know, if it's a coffee shop or uh some kind of local entity where they can go and just get items here and there, I think would be um fantastic.

Um environmental challenges.

Uh I know when Naper Commons went in, there was a lot of concern about uh the environment, the um the topography and and uh the ecosystem, I should say, uh, with some of the um the wildlife and plants and so on on so uh please take that under consideration as you continue uh to look forward with this.

Um thing that we've been discussing we in the last couple of meetings is affordability.

I'm not sure where you are, what type of customer or family are you uh or individuals are you looking to sell to.

Um we've affordability in Naperville has always been somewhat of a challenge.

So as we as you continue to do that, um to at least have some type of what I would describe as workforce type of housing, um, where you know a lot of the folks that make our community special have an opportunity to actually live in this community, and uh they could you know a lot of our law enforcement officers or firefighters would serve our community great.

Um many of them can't afford to live here.

So as you can as you continue on your journey, I would uh ask that you definitely consider that.

Um the other part I finally I would just offer.

Have you done any?

I know you're in the early stages and you're in the concept piece of this, but have we run any generation tables to kind of see what the impact on the school district uh would be one of the petitioners want to take that question?

You know, we we actually did run those numbers.

State your name for the record, man.

Sorry, Caitlin Chuck with the law from Rosanov I'm what occurred I'm here on behalf of Poulty Homes.

Uh we were looking into putting together the generation tables as this is written very early in the process.

We'll make sure to speak with the school district to make sure that they're comfortable with this and of course have the conversations with the park district as well.

Okay, yeah, they're they I know they'll they'll be interested on the impact on the school district.

So uh yeah, definitely do that, and um again appreciate uh the work you guys have done.

And then it looks like you're going you're heading uh in the right direction.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um I guess I'll just echo most of what my colleagues have already said.

Thank you for bringing this proposal, listening to the community.

Um I'd like to thank Councilman Holzhauer for bringing up the street naming.

I think he's right, representation in our public spaces is meaningful.

Um, and I'm in support of us being more intentional about how we choose our street names.

Um that we're doing it in a way that reflects the diversity of our community.

Um I agree with Councilman Kelly.

Uh obviously the 88 corridor study going forward, we're gonna be addressing it more as council, hopefully in the future.

So I want to be sensitive to the risk of adding more and more residential creep, but I I think this is a great proposal for this transitional location, especially with neighbor commons there.

Um so I obviously the suggestions staff made, I think, are worth considering.

I also uh real quick, Marilyn brought up a great point about considering the wetland area and the density.

Um so that's something I'd like to circle back with staff about offline is fine.

But um great proposal.

Thanks for bringing that in.

Thanks for this early opportunity to provide feedback.

Appreciate it.

Councilwoman Jane.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um thank you to the proposal and um and uh for the thoughtful response to to what the community shared these past few months.

Um I also want to echo and support what councilman um Holtower stated about the street names.

Um I I think it's really important that we acknowledge and recognize um the diversity of our community, and with that respect, I also want to echo um Councilman White's comments about thinking about the population as we um perhaps offer different types of housing, about our thinking about our multi-generational families, um, our young uh professionals who are looking for housing, um and also as someone who's on the advisory commission on disabilities trying to provide um housing that's visitable, um making it easy for our residents who who um experience different disabilities to make such housing if that's possible.

I I I know uh we're giving you our dream sheet, our dream list here, but um, since you asked, uh we're taking this opportunity to share at least things that are on our mind of what's possible uh in addition to what um community members have shared about walkable amenities.

I don't know if that that's possible, but the varied housing um is something that I'm I'm interested in seeing if if that's possible for our diverse community needs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So the IEA corridor obviously has been something we've been talking about here for the last couple of years, specific to all of the opportunities we have in that area, how important it is to our community to make it really have a comeback and the potential we have over the next several decades to really rejuvenate that part of our local economy.

When you look at the IEA corridor study uh specific to residential, it is addressed.

And you know, one of the themes of that study is that a thriving corridor would be a place where people could live, work, and play.

And they specifically say in the study to create a live work play environment along the corridor, an increase in housing options at different topologies and excuse me, typology, and price points will need to be considered.

So it sets up the idea of some places along the corridor converting to a residential component.

And I think with some of the the history behind this property and where it's at today, um, I would be supportive of that transition.

I think staff has provided some really great feedback.

I don't know necessarily if I'm I'm fully on board with doing an apartment building out in front.

However, the theme that they they focused on with the apartment suggestion is this is the eastern entryway to our I-88 corridor.

And I think when when folks are coming into that corridor, um work at some businesses that are doing everything from biomed to fintech to egg and and all sorts of unique things that we're specifically good at in this community.

They're gonna want to see some sort of natural, hey, I've arrived.

This is a very special place, and I think whatever you put on that corner should reveal that type of I've arrived in the corridor.

It doesn't necessarily have to be reflective glass homes that that look like an office building by any means, but I think what staff is looking like or looking at rather is some sort of transition that says, I'm here.

This is the IEDA corridor, and I'm in it.

So I I hope you would take that under uh my guidance for what could be reflected in future elevations and in a natural progression.

Um as for the rest of the corridor, I think we're there's there might be a piece or two left that could potentially go to a residential use, but let's face it, we've added going on four digits of additional housing units in that area on the north side of town, and there's going to be a point in time where we have to double down and focus on the commercial development that needs to take place up there for it to thrive.

Councilman Sayad.

Thank you, Mayor.

I know the wish list is increasing, but uh I think you know this is required so that you know we all collaborate and work towards this goal.

So one of the things where I wanted to add is uh workforce housing.

A lot of youngsters they cannot afford to live in Naperville.

Buy a home, leave and work.

Maybe you know, you can think of doing something special for workforce people, youngsters.

I know we were able to buy homes via blessed community, we have blessed people, we were able to manage buying homes, but today's youth they struggle.

They cannot afford to have a home here in Naperville.

Think about having a small apartments or small buildings where they can afford, they can leave, enjoy while working here.

Otherwise, I see a lot of people moving to Chicago because they they know that you know they cannot afford here, they cannot have their job here and all those things.

They're moving to Chicago, looking for a job, settling there in apartments and all those things.

And I latest incident, I know it.

Two weeks ago, one of a very young boy, 25 year old boy, he met with an accident, killed in Chicago downtown.

His job was there, but he used to live in Naperville, just because transportation, timing and all those things, he shifted six months ago to Chicago from Naperville.

He was born, brought up, lived here in Naperville.

But you know, situation has changed, and he was killed last couple of weeks ago.

And his parents, everybody lives in Naperville.

So we need to provide them also some some space so that they can also live here, work here, and you know, take care of their life.

And definitely I like the idea of uh councilman Ian.

Naperville is very diverse community.

Almost 35 to 40 percent people are diverse.

I'm one of the diverse can uh, you know, uh city council member.

I like that having names on different diverse community members or community like uh Rose Mary.

Today we awarded Rosemary.

You recognizing people like that who has done wonders for Naperville City for 50 years, 30 years, who has contributed a lot in the community.

Maybe you know, we can have the name on the street names with those people.

So start thinking about those so that we recognize respect, as well as people know that, yeah, these are the people who have done wonders for Naperville in the community, and we are really not by lip service, but practically we are doing something for those people.

So that will be a great, great uh achievement.

I can say maybe you can start, nobody has started, but you can take that and you can build that legacy thing that yes, we are proud to recognize the community who have done so much for our community.

We want to have their names.

So that is one.

And uh, yep.

So some people asked me, can we have a gym in that area?

So I said, definitely we can check.

Uh and uh I-88 is a key position where people definitely would like to come for dining and everything, which I said earlier.

So that's it from my side.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I don't see any other lights lit up here at the city council um Dias.

So do you have enough feedback to take it back and incorporate some of that in your proposal?

We have a lot of feedback.

We appreciate it all.

The site obviously has some constraints, but you've given us a lot to think about.

Um we appreciate all of the comments.

Again, we appreciate staff to from two months ago to now to have done all this would not have been possible without staff's cooperation.

We appreciate all of your time, and um we um look forward to the process in front of us.

Thank you for the proposal, and we look forward to seeing you again in the future.

Thank you.

Our final item tonight is new business as a reminder, new business for items as council asking council asking staff to bring back on a future agenda or for motions to reconsider past city council votes.

Does anybody have any item for new business?

Councilman Holzar.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just just one process suggestion, and I don't think any vote is needed.

Um I thought it might be um good to encourage us, all of nine of us, um, to make it a standard practice to have um the council reps to a particular board or commission, you know, if they know an appointment's coming up, or if mayor knows an appointment's coming up, uh, to have a meeting between that commission rep and the mayor um before the appointment cycle.

Admittedly, this is five years I've been on council.

This is not something I've ever thought about.

Um I didn't realize it until someone actually brought to my attention that this is actually on the city website that says what it's what we do.

Uh it's a simple step, but I actually think it's a good idea.

Um, so it's just a suggestion going forward.

Um, and I will look at Riverwalk, which is mine, and make sure that I'm paying attention going forward.

Um encourage everybody here.

Uh just like I said, something I've never thought about before, but it should probably um align with what we have on our website.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I I think there may be some confusion with regard to what is actually on the website um or how it's being interpreted.

The staff liaison is the person who has been meeting with me on all of the board and commission appointment considerations.

So the way the process works right now is when an opening occurs.

I meet with the staff liaison.

I ask the staff liaison what is the commission missing.

Is there a particular skill set, a particular part of the community?

Um, what do you what do you think would be helpful for the commission?

And we then go through the applications.

Normally the staff liaison will come in with some tags on the applications that they have reviewed.

I will come in with tags on applications that I have reviewed, and an almost ninety five percent of the time.

There are some tagged applications that we have alignment with, and then we look at those requirements or those those needs of the commission at that particular time, and we bring those applications forward and say, okay, well, let's bring this person in or that person in and see how they do.

In some cases, those interviews don't go as well as the application might have led us to believe.

And the staff person and I will meet, and if we don't agree that this person should go forward, we don't push them forward to you in the the 14-day blackout period.

Um the process I think has worked pretty well.

I mean, we've got some amazing backgrounds and and basically resident experts on boards and commissions as a result of it.

I don't believe the the website or the um uh the board and commission uh um booklet or or um guide book specifies the council liaison.

It was it it was and has always been interpreted to be the staff liaison to that board or commission.

So is there something different that you're seeing coming?

Yeah, mayor.

Um thank you, mayor.

I'm gonna read off the website.

It says so the way I read it is that the council liaison is actually on appear to the um the department all pretty much everything you said with the addition of a council liaison.

So the website says, quote, the mayor includes the city council liaisons, department directors, and staff liaisons in the appointment process.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right, well, take that under consideration.

Any other new business?

Is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

Second Kelly.

All those in favor saying aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned.