Good evening and welcome to the May 5th Naperville City Council meeting.

Roll call.

Worley.

Here.

Gibson.

Here.

Hold Tower.

Here.

Jane.

Here.

Kelly.

Here.

Big Broom?

Here.

Cyan.

Here.

White.

Here.

Wilson.

Here.

Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which we stand one nation under God.

Liberty Digital.

First on our agenda tonight is awards and recognitions.

We have two proclamations this evening, and Mayor Pro Tem, Councilman McRoom will be presenting them.

So first we'll be recognizing National Mental Health Awareness Month.

Would the any recipients here like to come up and join National Mental Health Awareness Month, May two thousand twenty-six, whereas mental health and the impact of trauma can affect the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children, families, communities, and whereas major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse disorder are common causes of hospitalization and whereas people diagnosed with mental illness can achieve strength and recovery through individual or group treatment, allowing them to reach their full potential.

And whereas agencies like 360 U Services, Lynn and Oaks, and Sumericare are dedicated to providing treatment and support, and NAMI DuPage, Interfaith Mental Health Coalition, and Kids Matter are dedicated to reducing the stigma of mental illness by sharing ideas and resources, and whereas the City of Naperville is honored to work with these organizations and urges all citizens to talk openly and honestly about mental health.

The 34th Annual Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Day, May 9th, 2026.

Whereas hunger is a concern that affects us all, and we are dedicated to the ideal that no one should go hungry.

And whereas, every second Saturday in May, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association mobilized to combat hunger during the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, through which more than 1.9 billion pounds of food have been collected nationally.

And whereas in 2025, Naperville letter carriers collected nearly 60,000 pounds of donated food for food insecure families.

And whereas Loaves and Fishes Community Services has witnessed an overwhelming surge in demand for its services, reflecting the significant impact of economic hardships on individuals and families, and now serves approximately 10,000 people each week.

And whereas the need for food continues to grow at a rate that exceeds available available supply, highlighting the persistent challenges faced by our community.

And whereas the resilience and compassion demonstrated by all involved exemplify the spirit of unity and care that defines our community.

Now, therefore, I, Scott Worley, mayor of the city of Naperville, Illinois, do hereby proclaim May 9th, 2026 as letter carriers stamp out hunger food drive day in the city of Naperville and urge all residents to recognize our letter carriers and support the food drive by placing healthy, non-perishable food items near their mailboxes on Saturday, May 9th, 2026.

Together, we can fight hunger in our community.

Next on our agenda is public forum.

I'd like to remind everyone of the citizen participation rules on the city's municipal code.

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

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

Personal attacks on council members, staff, other speakers, or members of the 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 jeering.

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

If this occurs, you will be uh asked to stop immediately, and if it continues to persist, I will recess the meeting until the audience abides by the rules in our city code.

No speaker should ever feel intimidated by the crowd.

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

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

Speakers are given three minutes to address the city council.

To help speakers stay within the three-minute time frame, we have a timer located over on the side dais 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.

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.

And when your name is called, please come and have a seat in the first row.

Mrs.

Schatz, please call the speakers.

There's 15 public forum speakers this evening, and two written comments have been posted to the website.

Our first five speakers are Derek Adam Hoover, Sarah Manat, Raina C, and Raina S.

The next speaker is Sarah.

Yes.

And then you're just going to hate it.

Okay.

Right close into that mic.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Sarah Coumrell, and I'm the Youth Prevention Education and Youth Advisory Committee Coordinator for 360 Youth Services.

360 Youth Services is a nonprofit in Naperville that provides housing, counseling, and prevention services.

Natasha Grover, who is our community alliance for prevention coordination, and I are here as part of the prevention department.

Our youth advisory committee members are here tonight as well to share the important work that they're doing in our local schools and community.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Manath, and I'm here with YAC.

The Youth Advisory Committee, YAC is part of the Committee Alliance for Prevention, which has a membership of different stakeholders in districts 203 and 204.

These members work together to build resiliency, strengthen mental health, and prevent youth substance use.

YAC is a diverse group of D203 and D204 high school students who develop leadership skills.

We make an impact on the local school communities through creating substance use prevention materials activities as well as positivity messages for D203 and D204 high school students.

Some of our projects include filming our own video PSAs, creating radio and streaming audio PSAs, developing social media campaigns, creating custom art designs for each high school, and engaging students through contests.

We vision our community working together to support positive choices so our local community members can build healthy, safe, and successful lives free of the challenges associated with substance use.

Hi, I'm Raina C, and I'm with Yak as well.

We don't have time tonight to share about all the impactful things we do, but we wanted to highlight a few of our accomplishments from the previous year.

Our committee has students representing all five D203 and 204.

D203 and 204 high schools, and we held events at each high school throughout the year.

High school students spent a lot of time on social media, so we designed several campaigns, including a prescription medication Snapchat campaign for the Alliance, which received over 1,039,763 impressions.

The data from for our projects is gathered from the Illinois Youth Survey.

The IYS is a self-reported survey administered every two years for 8th, 10th, and 12th graders by the University of Illinois Center for Prevention Research and Development.

The survey is designed to gather data on health and social indicators, including substance use, mental health, and more.

Hi, I'm Raina S, and I'm here with the YAC.

Our main focus each year is planning activities and materials for National Prevention Week.

NPW was created by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to encourage communities and organizations to spread substance use prevention messages, activities, and to promote positive mental health.

NPW takes place nationwide from May 10th through May 16th.

Our youth advisory committee will be providing active activities and materials in person at our local D203 and D204 high schools and via social media during the week.

We will be providing underage drinking and alcohol misuse prevention, prescription medication information, and opioid misuse prevention, as well as mental health awareness.

Our purpose is to help teens feel empowered to steer clear of substance misuse.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Antara and I'm here with Yak.

During National Prevention Week, we will be posting a variety of messages to our social media account.

This includes an alcohol-free focused video, effects of substance misuse post, an RX and opioid trivia post, a substance use prevention art piece created by a local student, and more.

Thank you.

I'm Shrita.

I'm also with YAC, and we also will be hosting.

You also will be hosting lunchroom table events and where students can come up and come up to our table and build their own box with substance use prevention resources.

The resources include a breathing exercise sheet, RX and OPR resource cards, relaxation coloring sheets, and stress relief bendy sticks and brains, alcohol messaging stickers, and more.

We work very hard at creating these materials because we see the value in these important messages to promote substance use, substance free living with teens.

We are really grateful to be doing this work in our community.

We very much value our partnerships with districts 203 and 204.

We are excited to put all our plans into action next week.

Yak has also some materials that we would love to share with the city council members in the meeting.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And if you want to stick around until after the public forum, there might be some questions.

Next speaker.

The next three speakers are John Doyle, Signey Gleason, and Ted Boulard.

John remind me what is there.

Affordable electricity.

Sorry.

This one.

Sorry, electricity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you, John Doyle, Naperville President, and welcome to week two of my series on affordable electricity.

You know, last week I challenged this council to require affordable electricity via regulation.

And today I want to offer you a path to do just that.

Rooted in two principles that I hold very dear data driven decisions and democracy.

Starting with data, you can commission a Naperville specific affordability assessment with results due back early 2027.

This is admittedly a tight timeline.

But I stand by my uh prior assessment of 10,000 households being eligible for Combat's program.

It's much harder to estimate how many of those households would be actually eligible for assistance under a Naperville program.

The study would answer that.

Most Naperville sized municipalities skip this step and go straight into a full rate study with an affordability mandate, but this intentionally cautious route could be sped up by by borrowing from several larger jurisdictions that have already done versions of this.

You're not committing to any program or policy.

You're just enabling us to make a data-driven decision.

On the democracy side, you can add a non-binding advisory question to this November's ballot.

Here's my opening pitch for what the wording could be.

Midterms are a great time to ask this question.

Turnout should be high.

We have a governor's race, Senate seat, and people across the spectrum are more motivated than usual.

The park district just borrowed 120 million, 204 just borrowed uh 420 million, and 203's deficit is going to need addressing.

Gas is five dollars, and everything's more expensive than ever.

If you ask this question in November, you're gonna get a representative and a very honest answer.

You know, if we say no, well, that's the answer.

I'll drop it and move on.

I can accept that I'm in the minority on this if that ends up being the case.

But I think we'll say yes.

Either way, you'll be armed with that knowledge as well as the results of the affordability assessment before committing to any rate study of requirements.

Of course, I'd be perfectly happy with skipping the assessment and going straight into the rate study with with the mandate in place, but I know how much the council likes their menu of choices.

This two-phase approach would give you the most accurate and complete menu.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Signe Gleason, followed by Ted Bullard and Bill Simon.

This is yours.

Good evening.

I'm Signe Gleason, a long-time and concerned resident of Naperville.

I'm concerned for the character of our community and our collective willingness to support each other, especially the most vulnerable among us.

While ICE is on the down low in Illinois, agents remain in our area.

Most of us here this evening don't know what it's like to be in fear of being stopped because of the color of our skin, a so-called collateral detention.

Most of us here don't know what it's like to have lived in and contributed to our country for many years and now need to carry a passport documenting the right to move freely.

Most of us don't know what it's like to fear that a loved one may be illegally detained and lost to us, as has happened to so many.

Most of us do understand that ICE activity is harming the soul and spirit of communities.

An antidote to that calm is meaningful demonstration that we in Naperville stand with one another in solidarity with immigrant populations and in opposition to cruel and often illegal illegal activities of ice.

Passing the Naperville do ordin process and municipal property ordinance is just one important and concrete measure that Naperville can take to stand with and for one another in the face of assaults on dignity and the rule of law.

I want to borrow some chalk art that the youth advocacy committee presented to us.

Um simply be fearless.

I am here this evening to ask for two things.

Number one, council members and Naperville staff provide us with an update on progress towards a concrete plan to address ICE activity in our city, specifically efforts to engage with and receive guidance from legal staff in municipalities that have passed similar ordinances, of which there are many in our area.

Number two, a month ago, on April 7th, I urged this council to place the draft Naperville due process and municipal property ordinance on the council's April 21st agenda.

Regrettably, that did not occur.

I'm here tonight to ask once again that council members vote tonight to place the draft ordinance for consideration and adoption at the May 19th council meeting.

This ordinance deserves a public hearing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Ted Billard, followed by Bill Simon and Robert Jungles.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Council members, Naperville residents.

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

In their newsletter entitled School District 203 Board Scores a D in Critical Thinking, Affordable Naperville criticized the board's position, opening opposing the IMEA contract.

They argued Illinois State Law, CEJA requires the closure of all coal plants by 2045 and requires the state to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050.

The newsletter also said IMEA has a stated policy goal that their generation portfolio will be 100% net zero by 2050, which IMEA describes in 2050 net zero to be an organizational vision.

The newsletter concludes that's pretty clear.

IMEA by law and policy, IMEA will be 100% carbon-free by 2050.

But it is very clear that neither are true.

CEGA requires all fossil fuel plants located in Illinois to either reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to zero or close by January 1st, 2045.

IMEA is a part owner of the Trimble County coal plants located in Kentucky.

CEGA law stops at our border.

CEGA also allows power plants to continue to emit greenhouse gases by burning coal or methane if our grid becomes unstable.

So IMEA is not committed by law.

In an article entitled LGE and KU Plan to Burn Coal for Another Four Decades, Trimble's majority owners plan to continue burning coal through 2066.

The 2050 net zero vision only says Trimble II is projected to retire by 2045.

As long as IMEA retains their ownership interest in Trimble, IMEA isn't committed by policy to be 100% net zero by 2050.

And IMEA's proposed contract neither supports nor enforces their 2050 vision.

So IMEA is not committed by policy either.

On a different topic, their newsletter said Naperville's electricity purchases could be 70% carbon-free in a few months.

This assumes Naperville could use an MDR to reduce our responsibility for emitting greenhouse gases.

But Naperville's proposed contract is a full requirements contract, and IMEA members are required to pay all the costs of IMEA's energy generating resources.

Director Growth confirmed IMEA informed him and MDR would not lower IMEA build energy, nor would it lower Naperville's demand.

You can read more about this from CleanEnergyNaperville.org under how IMEA Billing Works.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Bill Simon, followed by Robert Dungles.

Good evening.

My name is Bill Simon.

I'm speaking for Naperville Preservation Inc.

May is also National Historic Preservation Month.

On the national level, we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and how the places in our nation remain and remind us of the greatness of our beginnings.

At the Naperville level, we are also celebrating historic preservation, our successes and challenges.

Now, over the last year, you have seen the first congregational church of Naperville become our sixth local landmark.

The church is the oldest in DuPage County and has had so many notable members over the decades.

The building itself is beautiful and the architect is notable.

It was notable.

The congregation energetically did the research with the support from our organization.

More recently, we've all heard the news of the Bidelman Furniture Store closing.

This has been sad news for many Napervillions, especially longtime residents who've always known the store at the corner, at that corner, and whose living rooms have or had furniture bought from there.

We should be grateful for the family who wanted the building to live on and who submitted to you the application to make the building our city's fifth local landmark, which it was granted.

We all know how buildings can be repurposed for a new life.

We're hopeful that the new owners will take the building in that direction, and we are here to work with them.

Now, some big news.

Any building that is over 50 years old is now considered historical.

Naperville Preservation Commission architectural survey of homes built by the builder Don Tosi, which we completed last year with funding from the SECA fund, among others.

This survey documented what Tossi homes was still out there last year in 2025.

We've published a beautiful book of the survey, which we will donate to libraries and history institutions, and that will be available for purchase by the public at cost.

And it's a great book.

It's a beautiful design.

It's got a lot of pictures in here of some of the uh most notable homes built by Don Tosi, especially the ones in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s.

It's got maps of all the Tosi homes and pictures and information about every single Don Tosi home in the city.

We are having a talk on May 13th, which is just a little over a week away.

This is going to be about mid-century modern architecture by uh Tribune Architecture Critics.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The final three speakers are Robert Jungles, followed by Santos Chaparro and Ashley Penick.

Hi, I'm Robert Jungles.

I live in Naperville, and I need to have uh the police to uh control the speed going through uh Crest Creek.

The cars are going down Royal St.

George at 50, 60 miles an hour, and there's two Tesla's a blue one and a black one that are repeatedly going 90 miles an hour because they've passed me and three other cars all in one shot and disappear.

It's ridiculous.

It's hard to walk your dog at any time of the day through the neighborhood because cars aren't stopping at stop signs, and they go and they turn on to Summit Hill and Briar Gate like it's a race course.

It needs to be stopped.

The police have been out there with uh with this with uh something to control speed by the golf course, it temporarily slows them down.

When you see the people go heading to the golf course, speed going to the golf course and then turn into the golf course.

Yeah, it doesn't, it's not a really good look.

Uh next, I also want to have the police take care of the drug dealing going around at Nike Park.

It's ridiculous.

Every time last year was a really good look when I saw a guy dealing drugs, shuts his door, then waves to a police car going through the parking lot, and the police officer waves to him and keeps going.

That's not a really good look.

I'd like to see him patrol that with some police dogs.

It's ridiculous.

It's all the time.

Next, I'd also like to see them get rid of the kids riding the e-bikes through the park.

They're on Saturday.

There were two of them driving 30 plus miles an hour on the walkway, and then they were going through everything.

It was through the through the grass, through the volleyball courts, the basketball courts, looking like they're trying to see what they could destroy.

I need to have that taken care of.

Also, is that there's also guys uh running drugs through the neighborhoods uh on e-bikes, and they're and there are a lot of them are really easy to spot.

They're wearing hoodies pulled tight across their face with a face mask.

And I know they're running drugs because I've talked to the police departments in Aurora and King County, and they've all confirmed that yeah, those guys are running drugs.

So I'd like to see the police do something about it instead of going, it's too tough, they're on e-bikes, we can't do anything.

I think if the police could could stop kids from uh terrorizing neighborhoods in the 70s on motorbikes, they can certainly do that with the e-bikes.

So I would like to have your help to get them to clean up our neighborhoods and stop letting it deteriorate.

The last three years, it's the conditions in Naperville have gone down dramatically.

I'd like to see that fixed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Santos Chaparro.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council and the public.

My name is Sanso Straparo.

I serve on the board of directors for River Place condominiums located at 509 and 511 Aurora Avenue.

This evening I wanted to share and raise a growing safety concern at the intersection of Aurora and West Street, specifically at the entrance and exit to our community of 250 units.

Over the past year, we've had experience approximately six confirmed incidents involving e-bikes colliding with resident vehicles at this location.

Along with several additional near misses, these incidents typically occur typically occur when residents residents are waiting at the light to turn east or west on Aurora Avenue, traveling north on West Street, and crossing Aurora to enter our property, or exiting our property to travel south on West Street.

The core issue stems from a combination of factors.

The sidewalk along Aurora Avenue is both curved and elevated near our driveway, and then the elevation drops off.

This creates limited visibility for drivers who are cautiously checking for pedestrians in traffic.

At the same time, e-bike users are traveling at higher speeds, often appearing suddenly within a driver's field of vision.

This creates a dangerous and unpredictable environment, not just for drivers, but for pedestrians and e-bike riders as well.

This is a very busy intersection with ambulances, high school kids, bus stop, as well as awkward configuration at the light.

We're deeply concerned that without intervention, it is only a matter of time before a more serious injury occurs.

Our goal is not to restrict mobility, but to improve safety for everyone.

We respectfully request that the city evaluate this intersection and consider potential solutions such as enhanced signage or pavement markings to alert both drivers and e-bike users, speed mitigation measures for the sidewalk corridor, improved sight line visibility or design adjustments at the driveway entrance, clarification and enforcement of e-bike usage rules on sidewalks in this area.

We're hopefully committed, we're fully committed to partnering with the city to find a practical and effective solution.

We'd be more than willing to meet with the staff, participate in a site walkthrough, or provide additional information if helpful.

Thank you for your time, your service to our community, and your consideration of this important safety matter.

We all share the same goal a safe environment for residents, pedestrians, and cyclists alike, and we appreciate your partnership in ensuring that we achieve that.

On a side note, I'd like to comment that I'm encouraged by the YAC group and their civic involvement in today's meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The final speaker in public forum is Ashley Penick.

Mayor and members of City Council, Ashley Penning here, member of the group affordable neighbor bill.

Submitted to you are my comments written pertaining to sustainability and what the actual uh definition uh is to you individually.

I very much appreciate you to read these comments and thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is City Council Public Forum as a reminder for the code.

Council members have three minutes to speak during public forum and can speak up to two times.

I want to start by first acknowledging and thanking the group from 360 youth youth advisory council.

I think your your being here tonight says a lot about your commitment to your community, and we applaud that.

Um not too long ago, we had members from 360 speak at the request of the liquor commission and uh weigh in on certain trends that we were seeing in our community.

You know, the liquor commission regulates alcohol, alcohol, and tobacco, so we were hearing all the emerging trends from them, and I would continue to uh reinforce your efforts in making sure people are educated on these these trends.

So thank you for being here tonight.

I also want to use my time during public forum to speak directly with our residents about a bill being considered in Springfield that deserves all of Naperville's attention.

It's called the Build Act.

It's House Bill 5626 with companion legislation in the Senate.

This proposal mandates density, not affordability.

It focuses or forces our city to allow by right six and eight unit buildings on lots currently zoned for single family homes.

The average Naperville residential lot is about a quarter acre.

And if this bill passes the next time a home sells in any of our neighborhoods, a developer could tear it down and replace it with as many as eight market rate units by right.

Every part of our community would be affected from the historic district to White Eagle from Crest Creek to South Point.

And the density question doesn't sit on its own.

It compounds with the change Springfield already made last year.

Last fall, the General Assembly passed Bill, Senate Bill 2111, which was the People Over Parking Act, which takes effect next month.

It eliminates parking minimums with a half within a half mile of our train stations.

That covers much of our downtown and the area around the Route 59 station.

Now consider what the Build Act does on top of that.

A single family home replaced by eight units could mean a dozen or more vehicles where there used to be two or three.

Within a half mile of our train stations, the developer is not required to provide a single off-street parking space.

Elsewhere, the cap is half a space per dwelling unit, which still leaves most cars parking on the street in front of the homes of neighbors who had no say in any of it.

All of this can happen without notice, no public hearings, no city council vote, and no formal opportunity for the neighbors to weigh in.

This bill takes those rights away.

It would override Naperville's home rule authority to manage growth in a way that has served our residents well for many, many years.

For decades, our community has operated under a locally imposed principle that development pays for itself.

But this act undermines that approach with a one-size-fits-all formula written by a state agency.

A statewide formula will not adequately address the true cost and impact on roads, classrooms, parks, and utility upgrades this density will demand.

That burden will fall on our local taxpayers.

I'm not against housing or development, but I'm good.

I I am for good government.

A conversation about affordability matters, but this bill mandates new density in our neighborhoods in the name of affordability without specifically addressing that concern.

Naperville is one of the top communities in the nation because prior leaders responsibly manage development and listen to real community input.

That process matters, and I don't believe it should be pushed aside.

Property rights matters, so does the right to be heard.

Our homes are amongst any family's most precious precious assets.

And that's why I'm asking two things of our residents tonight.

First, read House Bill 5626 for yourself.

Don't take anyone's word for it.

Second, if you share these concerns, reach out to your state representative and your state senator and let them know where you stand.

This is an issue for our whole community, and it needs to be kept on our radar.

And I'll be listening and standing up for our city on this issue and those that come after it.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'd also like to start off by thanking the 360 youth outlet for coming, um, not just for coming here tonight, spending your Tuesday evening with us, um, but also for the work you do in your community.

Um, you're building you know the next generation of Naperville and helping them start so that way you all can be sitting up here someday.

So thank you for the work you're doing.

Um this month is a year since I've been on council, and one of the first big projects that we kind of jumped into when we were elected was the Yurban Land Institute Fifth Avenue study.

Um, I know a lot of members of our community spent time working with ULI staff spent a lot of time working on that report.

Um, ironically, concurrently, Naperville Development Partnership also last May put out their 88 innovation corridor report.

It's a 75-page report that kind of outlines future opportunities in the ADA corridor.

Um, these two projects are really important for the future of our community.

Um, as the mayor just mentioned, prior leadership um responsibly manage development, and we know both of these projects are really important for what Naperville will look like 50 years from now.

Um during last budget Stephen season, we heard from staff that in 2026 we uh will need to prioritize one of those two projects.

And the last, not actually the last, a couple managers' memorandums ago, the April 16th one.

Staff gave us a really great report outlining some of the constraints that staff has on the planning team.

Um, and also what each of these projects would entail.

So, and then asked for us to provide directions.

So, in new business tonight, I'm going to look for consensus from my colleagues.

Um, to ask staff to come back at the next meeting and describe that report that was included in the manager's memorandum, which will then give us an opportunity to talk about that so we can provide council or provide staff with the direction of which of these special projects, um 88 Corridor, Fifth Avenue redevelopment.

I believe also in the memo, a potential include um IZO inclusionary zoning ordinance.

Um just as a heads up, that's what I am hoping we can talk about in new business.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Holzer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I have a question for Mr.

Krieger.

Um, could you provide an update on the staff work that has been done regarding the installation of a traffic control device at um I'm gonna describe it as the intersection of the parking lots, uh, the exit of Target on Jefferson heading towards Portillo's on Jefferson, especially with regard to the increased traffic at that intersection due to block 59.

Mr.

Krieger?

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, and and thank you for the question.

Uh that uh uh the intersection, the Portillos Target intersection is one that um has a uh a high volume of uh uh crashes at it.

Um staff is fully um in support of uh signalizing that area.

Um the uh uh property owner to the South Bricksmore has already committed to contributing their portion of it.

Um the uh hold up currently uh the last time we circulated was that Target deemed that it was not necessary.

Uh so there are some options that we would have uh where we could still do the intersection um without uh targets um support uh that would still financially bind them.

Uh but right now that is where we stand.

May I ask it, Paul Mayor?

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Mr.

Krieger, I think uh when we spoke at our two by two, you said that there was um a handful of owners that sort of have input on this.

Uh was it five?

Can you list out who they are?

Uh I can't list out who they are.

I believe there are four.

And uh if it were set up as a special service area, uh it would require three of those four to oppose um the SSA to build the stoplight.

Uh therefore a single party would not be able to prevent either being built or them from financially participating.

And and when we spoke at the two by two, it's my understanding that three out of four would support that that is that's our understanding as well.

Okay.

Um I'll say uh in addition to the statistical evidence and I think there's a qualitative argument here because when block 59 was discussed, this was expressly discussed at the council meeting.

And actually, Target happened to be there and was sort of supportive of the idea of it.

Of course, they were asking us for things at that time, but they sort of were indicating they thought a traffic light would be a good idea there.

Um, so you know, given that I'm not very sympathetic to them having changed their mind on it.

Um, unless I'm hearing you in correctly, we actually would have the power to implement an SSA there.

Um, you know, move forward with a traffic light.

Um, I personally witnessed a pretty awful accident there with a car.

Uh I didn't see the accent, I saw the aftermath, but there was a car in the pond, you know.

Uh I don't even know if the people survived that, but it looked very serious.

Um, this has been talked about for a couple years.

It appears that we now have the support.

So I I think with that, unless I've said anything wrong, Mr.

Krieger, I'm planning a new business to ask for hands in the air to move forward with that.

Uh you have not uh you have not missed spoken.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilman White.

Yeah, and to that uh to that point, yeah.

I recalled during those conversations as well when uh that was coming up that that would be part of it.

And uh I thought there were enough parties that agreed that we would put the stop sign or stop light there to help control the uh the additional traffic that we knew would happen based off the block 59.

So uh yeah, I concur with what Councilman Holsaur said.

Um I'd like to commend uh our 360 um Yak group.

You guys were absolutely amazing uh coming up here.

I've had an opportunity to work with you over the past, um, and I've just been amazed at the work that you all do.

Um, but I also recognize that that doesn't happen by accident.

You have great leadership, and I'm looking at Matt Cassidy back there, Natasha Grover, who are your adult leaders.

Um they put a lot of work and time into making it happen.

So uh I applaud the work that you all are doing, uh and I encourage you to keep up um the great work.

Um and finally, uh I'd like to address one of the speakers uh that discussed uh the e back e-bike traffic up around uh I think it was West and Aurora on our chief uh Aries.

If you can you mind addressing some of those concerns and see if we we were able to do anything maybe to mitigate um the dis uh future accidents.

Yeah, absolutely.

I took notes of that.

We'll have our traffic sergeant reach out to that area and work with them.

I will add one other thing that I've been telling a lot of community members.

It's a responsibility of all of ours.

The police department is gonna do its part with anything traffic related.

The other side of it is we'd ask our community members to responsibly you know, teach your children how to ride these bikes, make sure you know where they are, um explain the rules as they are to them.

So it's it's that community partnership and everything we do that I'm gonna ask for.

Again, we will do our part for sure.

We need the community to help with that as well.

Okay, uh great.

And I don't know if the transportation uh advisory board may need to get involved uh as far as signage is concerned.

Uh city manager if uh someone here can address that as well.

At least let's do let's look into the the particular situation and see if we can come up with some solutions to help uh mitigate another accident from happening up there.

Mr.

Kruger, yeah.

Um, in addition to uh um the uh use of the traffic sergeant and the increased monitoring up there.

Um staff is closely following uh the um changes that uh the state legislature is currently um uh considering uh during this spring session.

Uh and we would like to see the result of that um uh play out before we took a measure that would have to be changed again.

So and we will know the answer to that um by either last week of May or first week in June.

Thank you, Councilman Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I guess a similar question uh, but uh councilman Whitehead.

Um I guess it's more of a question for Tud or police chief Aries.

Uh Mr.

Jungles came and spoke about the uh traffic concerns, I guess, in Crest Creek and other issues and and Nike.

I was wondering if we had looked at any of the done any sort of traffic study or had extra um police monitoring uh traffic out that in the neighborhood.

So if either of the director loudin, you want to trigger sure.

Um certainly uh that area in Crest Creek um is one that comes up often.

Um it kind of cycles through our traffic requests um that Ted and police look at um you know every few years.

We have in the past addressed speeding in that area, um, doing some traffic calming measures, mainly pavement markings.

Um I'll have to take a look with our team to see when the last time is that we collected data.

Um, you know, we also um work very closely with the police department to put out um you know driver feedback.

That's pretty effective um in the moment, it does help remind it.

Um, you know, years ago, the last time we did a a pretty detailed study um there, you know, we did find that the majority of the people who were speeding through the neighborhood were the actual residents of the neighborhood, so sometimes community education within the different neighborhoods is helpful as well.

Um, but we can between uh PD and Ted, we can take a look and see when we last collected data, see if that's um if we need to do any additional data collection out there to classify the problem.

Thank you.

Councilman Sayed.

Thank you, Mayor.

Saido, Matt, Hatasha, and the youth.

Thank you so much for coming and speaking today.

I have known you all for last four years.

I'm part of uh 360 youth services.

What an amazing job you have been doing it for the next generation.

And this is a critical work which you all have been doing it.

I urge everybody in the community, please go to their website, go to their office and see and learn what an amazing job they have been doing it.

Very meaningful work you have been doing it.

I wanted to acknowledge and see how we can help you in future projects or anyway, you know.

So thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, Matt.

Thank you.

And um, Chief Aries, regarding Mr.

Jungle's concerns from earlier, could you sidebar with him in the hall and get some more details so he can know that we're we're on this and pursuing it?

Could you sidebar with him in the hall and get some more details so he can know that we're we're on this and pursuing it?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Mr.

Jungles, he's gonna meet with you outside.

Our next item is the consent agenda.

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

Councilman White.

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

Second Kelly.

All those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes 90.

May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Councilman White.

Mayor move to approve the consent agenda.

Second Kelly.

Second Kelly.

Mrs.

Schatz, please read the consent agenda.

Approval of the regular city council meeting minutes of April 21st, 2026.

Approval of the city council meeting scheduled for May, June, and July 2026.

Approval of appointments to various boards and commissions.

Approval of the award of cooperative procurement for fire department vehicle replacements to Curry Motors Fleet for an amount not to exceed 150,002.

Approval of the award of the bid for 2026 sidewalk trip hazard removal to hard rock concrete cutters for an amount not to exceed 236,754 plus a 5% contingency.

Approval of the award of the bid for Mill Street Lighting Project to Utility Dynamics Corporation for an amount not to exceed 380,770 plus a 5% contingency.

Approval of the award of the bid for small 2026 small diameter sanitary mainline rehabilitation to performance pipelining for an amount not to exceed $854,347 plus a 3% contingency.

Approval of the award of the bid for police department evidence area remodel to construction incorporated for an amount not to exceed 579,000 dollars plus a 3% contingency.

Approval of the award of change order number one to option year number two of the contract for design build pollinator and native vegetation program to v3 construction group for an amount not to exceed 72,000 dollars.

Passing the ordinance granting variances to section 5 10-3.3.2 5 10.352.4 and 6-6E-7 of the Naperville Municipal Code for 595 West Fifth Avenue and 601 West Fifth Avenue, Naperville Community Unit School District 203 Transportation Building.

Passing the ordinance granting a variant to the corner side yard set to permit an addition to the principal structure at 32 South Columbia Street.

Passing the ordinance approving the final plat of subdivision and the owner's acknowledgement and acceptance for Everly Trace.

Passing the ordinance to establish temporary traffic controls and issuing special event and amplifier permits for the 2026 downtown Naperville car show on Saturday, June 20th, 2026.

Passing the ordinance approving a transfer of the 2026 volume cap in the amount of 20 million six hundred and seventy-one thousand seven hundred and forty dollars to the town of normal and adopting the resolution authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Naperville and the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council for the Naperville Police Department Detention Officers.

We have a motion, a second to approve the consent agenda as read.

Roll call.

Orally, yes, Gibson.

Aye, Holzhour.

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

White.

Aye.

Wilson.

All right.

Motion passes 90.

Councilman White, M1.

I move to approve the award of bid 26-011 2026 sidewalk and curb maintenance program to everlast Blacktop Incorporated for an amount not to exceed 1,122,180, plus a 3% contingency.

Council Kelly.

Second Kelly.

We have a motion and a second on M1.

Roll call.

Gibson.

Aye.

Coltsower.

Aye.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

Aye.

McBroom.

Aye.

Cyed.

Aye.

White.

Aye.

Wilson.

Orally.

Yes.

Motion passes.

90.

Item M2, Mr.

Krieger.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um staff would uh request that uh city council remove this item from the agenda and it will come back at a future date.

Councilman White, could I get a motion to withdraw the item?

Of course.

I move to uh remove item M2 from the agenda and authorize staff to resubmit it when ready.

Councilman Kelly.

Second Kelly.

All those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries nine zero.

Next item.

Item 01 is a recommendation to confirm the selection of the 2031 bicentennial committee trichairs.

We have three speakers on this item.

The first speaker is Stacey Fonticia, followed by Atusa Fryer, followed by Paul Hinterlong.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Staff, and members of the community.

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.

My name is Stacey Fontesha, and I am truly honored to stand here tonight as you confirm the 2031 Bicentennial Tri-Chairs.

I've been in Naperville resident for more than eight years, but a member of the community.

Sorry, but my connection to the community goes back more than 35 years.

I attended Hobson Preschool, Bethany Lutheran, kindergarten, and grew up going to downtown Naperville with my parents.

And walking the riverwalk with friends and family.

I am incredibly proud now to call Naperville home as an adult where I am raising my family with my husband Dave and my daughter Lily.

I am grateful to serve alongside Paul Hinterlong and Atusa Fryer, and will be leading the fundraising and resources for the committee.

I believe that the success of an initiative like this is built on three things relationships, creativity, and communication.

In my professional role as sales and sponsorship manager for the Naperville Park District, I focus every day on building partnerships that connect local businesses, organizations, and residents in ways that create meaningful experiences for the community while delivering real value for our partners.

This work has taught me how to bring people to the table, align goals, and turn ideas into well supported, well executed programs.

Outside of work, I stay deeply involved in the community.

I teach dance, volunteer for Riverwoods Elementary School, as the yearbook co-chair, along with being there all the time.

And I coach DuPage Valley Cheer through the Naperville Saints organization.

These roles keep me closely connected to families, kids, and the heartbeat of our neighborhoods.

Bicentennial is where we can share Naperville's past with its future.

It's an opportunity not just to engage the entire community in a way that feels inclusive, exciting, and memorable for all generations.

I am passionate about helping create opportunities for residents, businesses, and organizations to feel like they are part of this milestone moment.

And I am excited to use my experience and passion for this community to bring that vision to life.

Thank you for this opportunity and for your trust.

I am very excited for this.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Atusa Fryer, followed by Paul Hinterlong.

Well, I echo everything Stacy just shared.

Good evening.

Thank you so much for your time.

My talking points today truly center around the undertone of responsibility and community.

Now I find myself amongst a community rich in history, one that has seen days of pivots, evolution, compromise, understanding, empathy, and honor.

My name is Atusa, and I'm proud to serve as a bicentennial tri chair for marketing and communications.

Each day, I vow to operate under these very characteristics to see, to listen, to pivot, honor, and of course, celebrate.

As a lifelong Naperville resident, a career marketer, strategist, an experiential producer, this is a moment I will always cherish forever.

I will do my job to create everlasting memories, just as I remember this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The final speaker on this item is Paul Hinterlong.

Evening, Mayor and Council.

As many of you know, I've been well uh part of this community for years.

Um it was a pleasure to be on the 175th uh anniversary celebration committee, uh, as well as a few park district committees uh for the aquathon and uh committee to uh develop the uh skate park and other things, as well as uh be where you guys are sitting for 14 years.

Uh it's been truly an honor to serve this community.

Uh, as a 15-year-old kid, I remember the 150 celebration, and if you remember back then, uh we're in some pretty difficult times back then, much like 08910, uh, you know, interest rates 16, 17 percent, high unemployment.

Uh that celebration brought this community together.

And as a 15-year-old kid, I realized that, and just that's when I knew I live somewhere special.

And that's exactly what I want to do here uh 50 years later from that celebration is to uh give everyone a sense of belonging, community, pride, and hope for our future.

Um, I'd like to thank the city staff and the members of the 24 and 2024 and 25th uh emerging leaders program responsible for creating this fantastic document that creates the framework for us to follow as we plan, fund, and execute the 200th celebration, as well as thank you to the uh selection committee representatives from uh downtown Napro Alliance, the chamber, the park district, neighbor settlement, and as well as the city.

Um it'll truly be an honor is something I always look forward to.

And actually, uh, you know, in about 2010, when uh uh Grant Worley was on the council with me.

We actually tried to put in the SECA a bookmark for about 10,000, 15,000 a year just for this event, just to get some seed money going, so it will be less on the taxpayers when the time comes.

But um that didn't happen, so guess what?

Here I am.

So right out of the box, I'm gonna be looking for money.

That's what we need to do.

We need to work on that right away.

So I I didn't follow Sika close enough to know that if you guys designated any underspend to anybody or anything, but that would be my ass tonight if there's anything extra in the SECA funds after this year uh with any underspend.

If you could uh make a direction uh to staff to allow us to have some seed money, that would be that'd be awesome.

So thank you, council, uh, for your role and your partner partnership now and into the future.

Um hopefully we'll have another successful community event that everyone will remember and cherish for years to come.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Councilman White, may I have a motion on oh I'm sorry, Councilman Sayed.

Yep.

Thank you, Matt.

Thank you.

Congratulations to all three of you.

Amazing team.

And just wanted to know from the staff what is the process we followed so that it helps the community to know what an amazing team we got in, and what are the you know, policies and other things we have followed to get all the best people on board.

Deputy City Manager Galhu.

Sure, happy to answer that question.

Um, you may remember in November the City Council approved the bicentennial framework that the emerging leaders put together that Mr.

Hinnerlong spoke about within that framework agenda item.

There was also a timeline for applications and for selection.

Uh the applications were opened the entire month of January into February, once that application period closed.

Uh, the group of representatives from the Naperfall Park District, um, the chamber, downtown um Naperville Alliance, and the city and neighbor settlement reviewed all of the applications, brought in 11 candidates to interview.

We went through two rounds of interviews, and we made the selection at the end of April.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Councilman White, might I have a motion on 01.

I move to confirm the selection of the 2031 bicentennial committee tri chairs.

Councilman Kelly.

Second Kelly.

We have a motion and a second on 01 roll call.

Jane.

Aye.

Kelly.

I mick Broom.

Hi.

Cyan.

Hi.

White.

Aye.

Wilson.

Warley.

Yes.

Gibson.

Aye.

Holz Hour.

Aye.

Motion passes 9-0 and good luck and Godspeed to our Tri-Chairs.

We look forward to seeing you all quite often in the future.

Item 02.

Item 02 is a recommendation to receive the electric utility presentation regarding joint action agencies.

There is one written comment and seven speakers.

Call the first speaker.

The first speaker is John Doyle, followed by James Fillar and Joseph Huss.

And if you heard your names, please move to the front row.

Mr.

Doyle.

Thank you.

Thank you, John Doyle, Naperville resident.

Thank you again.

Just wanted to say, you know, I'm a little disappointed with the amount of structured public engagement we have with these presentations.

I think several of you just came from the parks department before you're on this council, and I want to you know really call out what Brad Wilson did with that referendum that just passed.

That was a master class in public engagement, and I think we all know that there's no way that referendum wasn't passing if you didn't have those open houses and pivot a bit, right?

I just don't understand why we're not having those those same kind of engagement activities with decisions that are this large.

I mean, we just had an open house about bike paths, and we're not doing them for the electricity contract for the next 30 years.

You know, and I say that as somebody who does my grocery shopping via bicycle.

It's very bikes are very important to me.

But I have an e-bike, sorry everybody, but uh electricity is also important to me.

Uh so you know, again, can we just please have some actual structured public engagement, some opportunities where we can ask the staff that puts all this work in these presentations so we can ask them direct questions, we can have conversations.

That way we're not just talking at each other.

Let's talk with each other.

And and if you guys give us a forum to do that, I think you'll get some valuable information from the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is James Fular, followed by Joseph Huss and Tim Farido.

This is yours, Mr.

Fuller.

No.

That's it, yeah.

Third time's the charm, right?

I'm sorry.

Third time's the charm.

Yes.

Good evening.

Tonight you are considering the option of joining a new joint action agency.

New agency or not, the city will be subject to an economic environment outside of your control.

Last month we were told IMEA's new Bihalo solar farm would begin delivering into the grid in July.

This is a significant milestone for their professional staff.

This project was a nine-year journey and is a reminder of why IMEA asked Naperville if the city was in or out 10 years in advance.

A new agency won't change these timelines.

Let's revisit the economics of solar.

The slide, this slide was presented to you at the IMEA workshop held last August.

IMA told us the cost of power from B hollow is fixed for 20 years at a price of 75.

That price included the benefits of federal tax credits no longer available to new solar.

By contract, power from our Springbrook solar farm will escalate to $92 in 2035.

CES used $88 in their long-term studies.

The VP and CFO of Next ERA, one of the largest solar developers in the U.S.

reported that rising demand is raising power prices.

Expiring PPAs are being replaced at $20 above prior contract prices.

Adding $20 into B hollow brings us up to $95 for new solar.

However, what's missing from these current prices is the impact of solar's intermittency when combined with high renewable penetration, say nine years from now, due to CIGA.

Intermittency is solved by pairing solar with expensive utility scale batteries.

According to NUST's trusted source of price information, Lazard, the price of 100% solar compensating for its intermittency is about 165 dollars.

So pick your poison for solar.

Lazard confirms that IME8, what IMEA told us, the cost of power from Prairie State is about $35 per megawatt hour.

A simple penciling out of today's economics shows IMEA's advantage versus solar is about $60 million per year.

Looking forward, again, about nine years, IMEA's advantage over solar will grow to about 130 million dollars per year.

Bottom line, evaluating a different joint agency is a distraction compared to the broader economic landscape affecting this issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Joseph Huss, followed by Tim Fredo and Patrick Hughes.

Thank you.

We have to fund longer mics in the future.

My name is Joe Huss, and I've lived in Naperville over 25 years, and I'm here on behalf of NEST.

We appreciate Director Grove's presentation.

It helps us compare emissions from IMEA with other sources.

It's been suggested that we aren't responsible for IMEA's coal emissions.

However, as an IMA member, Naperville is tied to two large cold burning power plants.

As the city's website says, Naperville, quote, required IMA to participate in Prairie State Energy campus as IMEA did not have enough capacity and energy to serve the households and businesses of Naperville.

The coal plant referenced has the highest emissions in Illinois.

Naperville ratepayers pay for the coal, pay for burning the coal, which creates the emissions, pay for maintaining the coal plant, pay for disposing the coal waste, and pay for the bonds used to build the coal plant.

You've received presentations on IMEA's benefits.

When you receive the benefits and fund every step in the coal electricity generation, you take responsibility for the coal pollution.

That's both common sense and standard greenhouse greenhouse gas accounting.

This charts from the city's greenhouse gas inventory.

The highlighted row shows stationary emissions, so those are emissions from buildings.

The chart shows the emissions that would have we would have had with three different energy sources.

So on the left are some regional sources, in the middle is IMEA, and on the right is PJM.

You can see that with IMEA, our emissions are 30% higher.

Now, this chart has both electricity and gas from buildings combined.

The next chart has that broken out.

So some of the city's greenhouse gas inventory emissions came from a study by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Their report listed gas and electricity separately.

So when you look at our electricity emissions, you can see that our residential emissions are more than double the DuPage County average.

Director Gross's presentation makes clear why.

Purchasing power from other sources rather than IMEA would dramatically reduce our emissions.

Because of our IMEA contract, our pollution levels make Naperville an outlier and a larger contributor to climate change related damage.

This last slide in closing, we share these recommendations on the energy selection process, including the view that the city would benefit from obtaining information from external sources, such as electricity vendors, also known as power marketers, and firms specializing in energy procurement.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Tim Fredo, followed by Patrick Hughes.

Great evening, my name is Tim Ferrito.

I'm a Naperville resident and co-founder of Citizen Group Affordable Naperville.

Earlier this year, U.S.

Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright described energy as the enabler of life.

That abundant, affordable and reliable energy is foundational to prosperity and in every sector of the economy.

That used to be common sense, but in the recent decades has often been overshadowed by a singular focus on energy transition.

The slide on the screen highlights a key reality.

Hydrocarbon energy has been the primary driver of the industrial revolution and the human progress that followed.

We saw this again during the January cold SNAP when natural gas and coal power provided over 75% of electricity across affected grids.

What also is notable is that the prices have remained natural gas prices have remained relatively stable during the current global instability in the Persian Gulf.

Today, natural gas and coal in the U.S.

remain among the cheapest sources of energies in the U.S.

At the last city council.

There was a presenter who discussed defining and measuring affordability.

That is a worthwhile goal.

I would suggest applying the same rigor to sustainability.

However, I do not support implementing a version of the Illinois mandated low-income discount aka led program.

Naperville already has a utility assistance program in place that avoids additional administrative cost and fraud risk.

More importantly, programs like LID do not solve affordability.

They shift cost.

They are funded by other tax ratepayers.

Again, they are funded by other ratepayers, which increases overall bills and expands the number of households needing assistance over time.

We've seen that this elsewhere.

In California, their public person public purpose charges have increased 500% over the past 15 years.

On the screen here is uh replication of what was presented last week with a couple different scenarios.

So is showing the affordability index.

That is the cost of electricity as a percent of household income.

The first scenario is uh is the Naperville as it is today, the Naperville cost.

The second scenario down is I've increased the rate by 50 percent.

As you can see, the increase in red is pretty significant.

The last one down is based on California's energy prices, specifically SOCAL ason's tier rate plan.

As you can see, things are get a bit of out of control when the prices go up.

Affordability is not achieved by suppressing demand or redistribute redistribute redistributing costs.

It comes from ensuring abundant, reliable supply.

Enough not just to make me use, but to support growth and human food.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The next speaker is Patrick Hughes, followed by Robert Geese.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the Neighborhood City Council.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

My name is Pat Hughes.

I'm with Affordable Naperville.

I've been a resident of Naperville for 35 years.

The City Council is once again launching another review of our electricity options.

This one expected to take the next five months.

While we study options, electricity electricity prices on the grid continue to climb, and the lower cost power from IMEA slips further away.

December 23rd, 2025 Chicago Tribune editorial warned that Illinois must move quickly to avoid power shortages.

The paper highlighted a major report from Illinois Power Agency showing that northern Illinois could face serious electricity shortages beginning in 2030, unless the city instead unless the state's 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act CJ is adjusted to keep critical natural gas plants online.

The Tribune's warning was accurate.

On April 26th, just a week ago, the Tribune reported the owners of a large natural gas peaker plant in Will County announced they are moving one gigawatt of generating generating capacity to Texas, literally loading the equipment on the trucks and leaving our region.

That's equivalent of an entire nuclear power plant's nameplate capacity vanishing from our backyard.

They're not going to wait until 2030.

Naperville residents have heard repeated calls from activist groups urging us to leave the safe, reliable electricity supply provided by our partner of 15 years, IMEA.

In today's volatile energy markets with rising prices and disappearing power plants, stability matters.

As the council continues its review, I urge you to focus on three practical priorities.

Number one, protect our residents from higher electric bills.

Number two, ensure reliable power during peak demand.

And number three, make decisions based on engineering realities rather than optimistic assumptions.

Electricity is not optional.

It powers our homes, our businesses, and our quality of life.

Let's keep Naperville energy decisions grounded in what actually keeps the lights on and bills affordable.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

The final speaker on this item is Robert Geese.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Robert Gesey.

I'm with Affordable Naperville.

I moved here in 1972 after earning my PhD in physics from Stanford and spent 26 years at Argonne National Laboratory.

Much of it studying electric utilities and energy storage.

I'm here to share a cautionary story.

Naperville cannot afford to ignore.

In 2019, New York passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act with goals that sound familiar.

Rapid renewable adoption, electrification, and zero a zero emission grid.

Today the results are troubling.

Upstate households now face over $5,000 a year in added energy costs.

Small businesses, nearly 7,000.

Electricity rates are more than double ours.

At the same time, reliability is declining.

Blackout risks are rising due to premature plant closures and over reliance on intermittent energy.

State leaders are now delaying mandates and considering rollbacks.

Illinois is on a similar path under the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.

Studies warm of electricity shortfalls in Northern Illinois within a few years.

While capacity prices have surged, raising costs statewide.

But Naperville has something rare stability.

That stability comes from a balanced energy mix with dependable baseload generation, something others moved away from too quickly.

Not renewing IMEA won't reduce reduced emissions.

Renewing with IMEA is practical about affordability, reliability, and protecting residents from avoidable increases.

We'll be back at eight twenty-five.

Okay, it's eight twenty-five.

We're going to go ahead and resume our meeting.

Director Groth has built a presentation for us tonight.

And Director, I'm going to turn things over to you.

And Council, as a reminder, throughout Director Groff's presentation, there will be slides where there is a question queue.

So if you could hold your questions until those question queue slides come up, and we'll be glad to handle them in the order you push your buttons.

Excellent.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

Good evening.

Last month we began a series of presentations to review our options for procuring energy in the future.

We provided an overview of where we are at in this process, key terminology, some of the important considerations associated with energy, and the key dates coming up that impact our decision making.

Then we will review option one joint action agency participation.

To do this, we will review the agreed upon components to evaluate each of these options.

Physical or location-based energy defines the source of Naperville's energy every hour of every day.

PJM, the grid operator for Naperville, sends price signals to generators throughout the day.

RFC West generally incorporates the western half of the PJM territory, extending from the Iowa-Ellinois border through the Ohio Valley Valley.

Two additional sets of relevant data include the latest ComED environmental disclosure and the generation assets within 30 miles of Naperville.

These are important because they provide a basis for what customers surrounding Naperville are receiving, as well as an energy mix, as well as providing context for what generation assets are physically located near Naperville.

We must acknowledge that without real-time load flow calculations, taking into account generator size and transmission line capacity, it is impossible to know the exact source of energy in Naperville, and thus we must accept the pro the approximations.

When we view greenhouse gas emissions from a market or financial basis, we have several sources of data.

The Illinois Power Agency procures energy on behalf of Illinois investor-owned utility customers who have not opted to procure their energy from municipal aggregation or from an alternate retail electric supplier, otherwise known as an ARIE.

According to spring 2025 procurement data, the latest data that is available, the IPA's energy supplier indicates that the expected contracted fuel mix is equivalent to the PJM mix, but actual fuel mix delivered may vary.

This information indicates the power marketers' desire for flexibility in energy procurement over the term of the contract.

At the end of each fiscal year, IMEA provides information as to the source of energy produced and delivered to the grid.

This information considers performance of their thermal as well as renewable assets.

These numbers were used by Delta Institute to compute the financial or market-based greenhouse gas emissions of Naperville in 2022.

Using the latest information available from IMEA and Delta Institute's numbers, I was able to compute the IMEA 2025 fiscal year CO2 emissions per megawatt hour of energy produced.

When we compare Naperville to surrounding communities, we notice several trends.

All surrounding communities in this comparison receive their physical energy from PJM.

The financial source of the consumed energy varies with Oak Park, Evanston, and Aurora participating in municipal aggregation programs.

Two of these towns, Oak Park and Aurora, utilize revenue received from the power marketer or municipal aggregator to fund renewable energy programs like the city's renewable energy fund.

One town, Evanston, Illinois, utilizes this revenue to procure renewable energy certificates, increasing the renewable energy percentage in the city of Evanston to 26.6%.

The city of Naperville does not directly procure RECs.

However, IMEA retires RECS, retires the equivalent amount of RECs to match its renewable energy generation, allowing the agency to claim 14% renewable as of their fiscal year 2025.

This number is projected to be at 19% by 2027 with the 150 megawatt B Hollow Solar Farm coming online this summer.

In summary, market-based greenhouse gas emissions are determined by who we buy power from and renewable energy certificates that are retired.

Physical or location-based greenhouse gas emissions are determined by our location and any generation that exists in the city of Naperville.

This local generation directly reduces the energy procured from the grid as it is likely consumed before it even leaves the neighborhood in which it is generated.

Today, we estimate that between the city-owned solar and all other solar assets in the city, a half a percent of all energy consumed in the city is generated in the city.

Since most owners of solar assets sell their RECs to the state of Illinois, this energy cannot be legally claimed as renewable generation by the city.

We have discussed the concepts of renewable energy certificates or RECs.

This is the legal way to financially support renewable generation resources connected to the grid.

When speaking of zero carbon sources, the acronym changes slightly to EFEX or emission-free environmental certificates.

The City of Naperville has the Green Energy Certificate Program, which was launched in 2025 to facilitate the procurement of RECs by any residential or commercial customer in the city of Naperville.

I encourage all utility customers to review the information on this program that is available on our website.

Along these lines, the city's existing power provider, IMEA offers to procure at cost any quantity of RECs from the available generation sources across PJM or MISO so that a member city can meet their sustainability goals.

I'm happy to answer any questions before we get into joint action agencies.

Seeing none here.

Thank you very much.

The first option that we will review is joint action agency participation.

In our April 7th council meeting, we all agreed upon these components for evaluation of all the upcoming options.

Option one has two distinct parts that we will call 1A and 1B.

Very original, I know.

Option 1A is the creation of our own joint action agency.

While option 1B is participate participation in an existing joint action agency.

First, let's define what a joint action agency is.

In general, a joint action agency is a not-for-profit organization of municipally owned electric utilities pooling their finances and load to increase economies of scale.

Through joint action aid through joint action agency membership, smaller utilities are able to take advantage of larger utilities' load to participate in generation projects or energy purchases not always available to smaller load.

For example, a utility with a peak load of two megawatts is not likely able to access a 25 megawatt power purchase agreement for the output of a solar farm due to the volume of energy that will need to be sold or liquidated into the market.

The lack of diversity and sourcing would also leave the utility exposed to the market outside of solar producing hours.

Additionally, agency staff resources can be shared across communities as scheduling generation, load, and executing market purchases require only incremental levels of effort for like-minded communities.

Similar economies of scale can be realized from a resource planning perspective.

Next, we will discuss the general overview of joint action agency creation as well as the timeline for execution.

The first and most important step in the process is to identify other municipalities willing and able to joint to create a joint action agency.

Agency bylaws will then need to be created, and finally the hiring of employees to staff the agency.

Both customized energy solutions and Townsend and Pruitt opined that staffing a joint action agency would likely require 20 to 30 individuals across a wide variety of skill sets.

This staffing would be commiserate with the levels of service agreed upon by the members.

For example, if the agency was only to schedule power for its members, a smaller set of employees would be required.

Conversely, if the agency provides a full plethora of services, such as legal, regulatory, and energy efficiency programs, staffing is likely to be on the higher end.

A visual representation of the implementation timeline is shown on the screen.

Creation of a new joint action agency will require financial support and will come with a loss of complete autonomy and power supply decision making.

We will explore these topics next.

A newly created joint action agency with no proven track record will likely require direct financial investment from the city to support asset ownership as well as collateral for PJM market participation.

Areas of risk include the potential for unknown and unexpected costs, as well as short notice increases in collateral from the regional transmission organization.

A key topic in the creation of a new joint action agency will be voting rights.

It is likely that smaller members, at a minimum, will want a proportionate share of voting rights, not based on their load share ratio to preserve their voice in agency decisions.

It is also likely that Naperville will desire the most favorable voting rights in terms for itself, which may not be supported by any smaller members.

For example, if Naperville were to partner with a smaller load entity, it is possible the smaller entity could require 50-50 voting rights, while Naperville would seek load ratio share voting rights.

From an energy purchasing perspective, the possibilities are only limited by the members' desire to manage price and risk.

We have touched on some financial aspects of a newly created joint action agency, but as with any newly created business, significant financial risk exists, and we will explore that a bit more in the next slide.

One reason joint action agencies exist is to combine load to allow a larger, more diversified asset portfolio and share risk.

Several areas of risk in power procurement, not the least of which is contract and asset performance.

Many ways exist to mitigate risk, but they aren't, but they are dependent upon the number of members in an agency as well as the overall load of the agency.

Creation of a joint action agency is feasible, and several example communities exist near Naperville.

Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency, NIMPA, is a small joint action agency which was created solely to hold the joint ownership of several communities' ownership share of Prairie State Generation.

These member communities manage the market operations and scheduling of their share of the output from Prairie State on their own or through a contract with a market participant.

Batavia was a sample community included on a previous comparison slide.

Creation of a new joint action agency is feasible for the city, and given the proper lead time and staffing could make sense if a power supply portfolio and scope of services can be agreed upon by all members.

A joint action agency reduces the cadence of council decision making while limiting complete autonomy and power supply decision making.

As previously discussed, most, if all not, if not all, power supply options are available to joint action agencies.

This includes asset ownership, long-term power purchase agreements, market purchases, and various hedging strategies.

All purchases are researched and recommended by agency staff, with the board of directors ultimately voting to approve contracts.

Some autonomy will have to be granted to staff to manage day-to-day energy gaps that are created by plant outages, renewable resource production curves, and other non other anomalies that cannot be planned for.

Joint action agencies are a valuable tool for large and small utilities alike to access projects, share risk, and benefit from economies of scale and staffing.

As we have discussed, there are a wide wide range of functions that can be performed by a joint action agency.

Quite simply, the possibilities are limitless in all dimensions.

This opportunity must be clearly defined with clear agency goals and scope.

As a newly created agency gets started and begins procuring assets, long-term PPAs and staffing, the ability for Naperville to exit all but becomes eliminated for the life of the longest contract.

Finally, we did reach out to St.

Charles staff about the potential for creation of a joint action agency.

They noted that conversations around their long-term options for power procurement have not moved significantly in recent months.

Prior to any staff level discussions on this, they would be looking for clear direction from their council.

Many of the concepts we have discussed about the creation of a joint action agency apply to entering into an existing joint action agency, so I will attempt to only describe significant differences as we move forward.

Should we desire to enter an existing joint action agency, we must first identify an agency and begin negotiating the terms under which we will enter.

It should be noted that the contracting timeline of about a year was likely shortened by the fact that we were a non-power purchasing member of IMEA before we began purchasing energy.

Our formal energy delivery date was approximately four years from contract signing, as the agency needed to procure resources to serve our energy needs.

Financial considerations deviate from joint action agency creation, while power supply autonomy lies with the agency and negotiated terms of membership.

More specifically, Naperville would benefit from the proven track record of the agency both from a services delivered and power procurement perspective.

Terms of membership would dictate any premiums that would need to be paid for existing power supply assets if the agency held assets and Naperville desired to benefit from those assets.

Naperville's level of autonomy with respect to power supply choices would largely be dependent upon the agency bylaws as well as the negotiations that take place when entering.

From Naperville's perspective, financial risk is likely significantly reduced by participating with an established joint action agency compared to creating our own.

While some risk remains, mainly around asset performance, if assets are part of the agency entrance negotiation.

A large portion of risk around agency performance can be known by reviewing previous years' financial statements and asset performance metrics.

Feasibility of joining an existing joint action agency depends on Naperville outlining its requirements and finding an existing agency that finds benefit in partnering with us.

Several example communities exist, but the key point here is finding an agency that we desire to form a long-term partnership with, and that also finds benefit in our joining the agency.

Physical location is important, is also important as a joint action agency solely serving load in ERCOT or the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is not likely to become a member of PJM solely to serve one community.

It is also likely that any services performed by the agency would have to be modified or adjusted to be compliant with PJM rules and relevant to customers in the Naperville area.

Resource availability is largely dependent upon the structure of the agency as well as negotiated terms, while the cadence of council decision making is large is likely similar to new joint action agency formation.

If asset ownership and contracting is offered or negotiated at our entrance, a likely scenario is that larger projects will be contracted outside of the Naperville service territory.

This is like the creation of a new joint action agency, and the carbon emissions and financial concepts of physical versus market-based energy will apply.

As we close out, option one B, also known as joining an existing joint action agency.

Many concepts are similar to creation of our own joint action agency.

However, risk would be reduced because historical financial and asset performance will be available.

Joining an existing joint action agency will require mutually agreeable terms and may require premium payments to existing members.

Approximately 80% of public power utilities in PJM are part of a joint action agency with location limiting potential joint action agencies that Naproville could join.

Several point potential joint action agency partners have been identified, but it should be noted that none have reached out to Naperville staff to discuss potential partnerships.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Do you mind going to slide 28?

28, I'm sorry.

Yeah, I think.

28?

Yes, 28, thanks.

That last point there, the full requirements and energy procurement.

I am do you have a sense.

We're obviously in a full requirements right now with IMEA.

Is there an industry standard with joint action agencies?

Are most full requirements?

Are we the outlier?

Is what are we looking for?

I would say some are and some aren't.

I from the research that I've done, um a lot are and a lot are not.

Some are project-based, um, like NIMPA.

Um, I believe AMP Ohio has has different agreements for different uh entities and participation in certain projects, is not you know, it's not a full requirements contract from AMPOHIO.

So I I would say it's probably 50-50 across the country, but there's a lot of joint action agencies.

So then you just mentioned uh project-based.

So in theory, we could do part joint action agency and part something else.

Uh I'm not sure that that would be an option.

Every I I will say that most of you saw a lot of vagueness in my slides, but a lot of it is subject to what can be negotiated on the entrance to a joint action agency.

Um, you know, it's it's really up to what the other members have done in the past and are willing to do in the future.

Okay, thanks.

And then do you mind if I I have another question?

Um, when you're talking about one B, you talked a lot about the physical location of the other members of the JAA.

But if we were to start our own, would we consider starting one with members on a different grid, or is it significantly easier, cheaper, beneficial to just look at other communities on PJM?

I would I would not recommend that we start looking at other grids because then we would have to double or triple the collateral requirements, right?

Every time you register on behalf of a load serving entity in an RTO, you are now subject to all of those RTO rules.

And so I would say that you would almost double or triple your complexity in trying to do that.

And from a start-off basis, I I'm not necessarily sure that that's financially wise.

Okay, but that is somewhat what the situation we're in now, right?

Because we're spread IMEA over MISO and PJM.

That's correct.

For an existing joint action agency that's proven and can do it, it's probably a lot easier than from somebody that's starting up from ground zero to learn two RTO rules and maintain that.

Okay, but if we were to start over again, we'd probably just stick with PJM.

Cool.

Yes.

Thank you.

Councilman Holzer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so I had a um really nice meeting with uh Mr.

Krieger, Ms.

Gallahu, and uh Mr.

Groth a few weeks ago um where we just talked about these issues for a few hours, a couple hours, I'd say.

And um one of the things actually I think it was Mr.

Broth Groth first brought up, which uh really piqued my interest was um with regard to um sort of updates in the world of battery.

Um so I you know I wanted to you know run this by I guess Mr.

Groth if it's right, Mayor.

Um I I remember when I first ran for council this is three election cycles ago, so 2021 um battery storage had some kind of pie in the sky cost recovery period where it would take a very, very long time after installing batteries to have the cost recovery.

Um, even two cycles ago, like in 2023, I think similar, maybe even last year in 2025.

Um I was wondering if Mr.

Groth, if you could go through what a cost recovery period means, what that looked like five years ago and how that's changed over the over the time period I just mentioned.

Councilman, if I could provide a more detailed analysis in my next presentation, my intent was to discuss battery storage.

But uh, but uh just speaking in rough numbers, I think along your timelines, we've moved from a 14-year return on investment and payback period, saying that you know it would take 14 years to get our investment back and break even to somewhere the numbers that I've seen recently are around three years to return our investment.

And and why 14 years is can is was concerning to me was because over that period of 14 years, you would have had to have repowered or at least replaced all of the batteries within that installation, right?

So typically batteries are sold on a 20-year power purchase agreement or 20-year contract, um, and with one repowering in between around 10 year mark.

And so if we don't even get through one repowering and the repayment was not there, um that was concerning.

But I think we're likely close to three years now, but I will provide a little bit more formal answer in the next presentation if that's okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Groth.

Um, and then just to make sure um I have this right.

Um, what we're talking about is if we were to install something like at Springbrook Um, and I think you'd said something like a hundred megawatts might be sort of an ideal target with four-hour batteries.

Um essentially you could bond out for that in three years bonds could be paid off, and from year three on you know, basically all costs are recovered and are in our ratepayers be paying a lower rate.

Um, and to be clear, this is regardless of whether we chose IMEA, not IMEA.

In any case, you'd be looking at lower rates using that methodology.

Am I basically understanding that right?

Yes, I I think where we've been a couple questions there, and I'll I'll try and get them and let me know if I I've missed one.

But um, we have a couple different options.

Um, IMEA and the city staff have been talking for some time about battery storage, how we financially handle that so that other member communities are not financially harmed.

Um, I think you saw some of that in IMEA's response to the nine bullet points of how they were willing to work with us on those points.

Um, as we with respect to the size of the battery and state installation, I think a hundred megawatts is probably feasible.

My staff is taking a look at land right now.

Um, as some may have seen, IMEA is going out to member communities right now for an RFP, which the city will be responding to for a smaller battery storage pilot.

But in that process, we've also looked at large swaths of land that we have within the city that may be conducive to larger projects owned by the city.

Um, and so we are currently working on that.

And then um, am I correct in understanding that the um the idea would be to buy energy at the cheapest time a day, like 2 a.m.

Um put it in batteries and then and then use it at peak times, like when all the air conditioners are on at 3 p.m.

basic idea to have that right?

Yeah, I I think there's three accepted um financial ways to support batteries, energy arbitrage, which is what you discussed, peak shaving, and then frequency regulation.

One of the concerns with frequency regulation revenue, which is basically making sure that the grid stays around 60 hertz or in good shape at all times, so it's continually charging and discharging, um, is that as more batteries are deployed, the revenue from that source of frequency regulation is likely to be diminished.

So we would want to focus on other areas to make sure that we would get the revenue to make them viable.

And then a final question um is it fair to say that it's um energy in those non-peak hours can be multiples cheaper than it is in in peak hours.

Am I correct in understanding that?

I think that's a fair statement.

Okay, so um I definitely will look forward to hearing more about that our next presentation.

Um and um, like I said, I was kind of um surprised and excited to hear about this development.

Um, because uh both the campaigns I was in, this was sort of just not something we thought was going to be affordable, so uh it seems like a breakthrough in the technology, and I look forward to hearing about it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman White.

Thank you.

Um so one thing that's important to me, and uh I think this would come out if we if we really start working the strategy stuff that's been discussed before, so we can kind we can kind of iron out what are the aspects that are important to the city.

And that's uh we still need to have that conversation, maybe it'll flush itself out during these workshops.

But one thing that popped for this joint action agency is flexibility, and and what I'm saying is as we're looking at a joint action agency, will we have the ability to flex in certain areas where we've somewhat are restricted with IMEA because you know we've got 30 other members and have to agree on all these different things.

So, for example, um could we have our own bat if we've joined no four or five other communities?

Can we have our own batteries?

I mean another communities may not want to have them, and if so, uh how does that figure into this into it all?

Um so little things like that I think are are important that will allow us to you know not be constrained by the rules of the JAA.

I think another piece of this that I would like to hear is from you if you can if you can comment, as we're looking at other communities to potentially join if we go into a JAA, the infrastructure that Naperville has for from an electricity standpoint.

Um previous conversations with you all is probably tops in the area, you know, we when we look at all those different things.

Are we gonna be should that be something that we're considering with other communities that they have a similar type of infrastructure to support the electricity as it comes into their community?

Um if you can answer any of that.

Certainly, I I'll take the first question uh with respect to autonomy and flexibility.

Um I think a lot of that has to be negotiated in to the contract so that all members are clear what our intentions are because those options, much like where we are today with IMEA, could potentially shift cost to other communities.

For example, you know, if if we make our and they could shift costs back to us if we make our load perfectly flat through the use of batteries and things like that, but we're in a cost-sharing mechanism with the community that is very peaky and that it you know has a very high peak but very low energy usage.

You know, all of the investments that we've made could be negated by the other community if those agreements are not created properly.

So with respect to the infrastructure of the community, I would say we would probably want someone that has similar reliability, similar thought processes to us.

Um, but from a strictly energy sales perspective, I I don't think that the infrastructure matters so much.

Now, if we are looking to do um a lot of demand response programs with another community, then we certainly would want a community that could support and will support that technology being pushed out to their residents so that we could all be on the same playing field, right?

It wouldn't make sense for everyone in Naperville to have uh a battery in their home and then this other town have nothing and have no way to peak shave.

I I think we would get back into the same scenario in the beginning where you know we would be subsidizing their costs or they would be subsidizing our costs, and I'm not sure that that's a fair um a way to handle the situation.

Yeah, I I think that's important as as you go through it because I know we're looking at a lot of ways of maximizing the efficiency of of our electricity use usage and you know peak shaving and all those different things are become extremely important.

So I think it's important that other communities would be doing the same thing.

So we're we're all in the same sheet of music.

And and as we're looking at a premium cost of joining uh a joint action agency, um are you basically kind of saying that we would be we would have to pay that premium probably because I guess I look at it similar to how we do an SS on the SSA here.

If you're new to it, you've got to pay it, pay in just like everyone else who started off, they flip the bill early on and now that you're part of it, you're gonna have to do it.

Is that kind of correct?

The intention of a premium charge is to make the other members whole for their investment.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Wouldn't they have to negotiate some sort of pseudo tie, just like we talked about in a past meeting to deliver power into the PJM, which we are a member of?

Yes, if they would like to have the closest possible energy price spread between the sale and the purchase, right?

Because remember, IMEA sells in prairie state into PJM to offset the consumption of Naperville out of PJM.

Now, certainly you could sell into a completely different market, but your price structure is going to be completely different, and so therefore your peak times may not align, and you'll probably be very out of whack with energy.

And wasn't there testimony in one of the previous meetings that negotiating a pseudo-tie is almost unattainable?

Yes.

That's correct.

Okay.

So if we were to choose to try to bolt on to an existing JAA, it would likely need to be in the PJM zone.

Correct?

Absolutely.

Okay.

And of the the existing joint action agencies that you've kind of researched and investigated.

Do you have a sense for where Naperville would fall as far as our size as a member of one of those organizations?

Would we be on the big side, the small side, uh somewhere in the middle side?

Uh probably in the middle side.

Um, you know, from a from a size perspective, probably in the middle, probably from a um from a from a load perspective, maybe a little bit higher than middle.

Okay.

We're about a 350 megawatt load, so it's not it's substantial compared to other IMEA communities, but it's not substantial to other communities across the country.

Right.

And given that we haven't gone out and specifically asked if other joint action agencies are interested in having us join.

Do you have a sense for their available opportunities that are out there?

I would say there's probably two or three that would match our like-minded.

And and you know, when you start with two or three, I think you probably quickly dwindle down to one or two.

And those are all on the PJM side.

Yeah.

Fair enough.

I don't see any other questions.

Oh, Councilman White.

Yeah, uh, just a follow-up question.

Um we're looking at PJM, that's it's not just Illinois, it's you know, it's all over the you know, basically on the eastern from here or east, I would imagine that so as we're looking at potential partners, we we can be looking at partners outside of the state.

Outside of the state, yes.

Yes, okay.

Thank you.

See no other questions.

Thank you for your report.

I have one more slide if you would not mind.

Oh you had your yearly exit.

I also have my slides that communications has graciously made for me.

So at the first council meeting in June, I'll be presenting the concept of market participation with asset ownership.

While I have not yet formally started the presentation, I've pulled several stakeholders regarding this topic to ensure I'll cover the most likely outcomes, which include asset ownership to reduce costs, reduce carbon emissions, ensure local grid reliability, and mitigate capacity and energy price spikes.

No owned asset will produce 24 by 7 by 365 in perpetuity.

So we must also look at how we will handle such cases from a market perspective.

Thank you for your time tonight.

And now I'll be happy to exit.

If there's no further questions, Councilman Kelly, I do have one question.

Sorry.

Um I'm gonna I'm gonna go all the way back to the uh third slide about greenhouse gas emissions and physical or location-based energy versus financial market-based energy.

Just to be clear, tell me if I have this right or not.

I mean, is it fair to say that you really need both?

I mean, obviously, we need electrons delivered to Naperville, and you also have to pay for the amount of electrons that you use.

Is that fair to say?

Yes.

And when you describe it as a head, the financial or market-based energy bullet point there has a statement that the energy can be hedged, and it may maybe it's just a matter of semantics.

I guess when I think about a hedge, I'm thinking about your choosing to buy something to mitigate risk, but it's really not a choice.

We really have to buy electricity, it's not a choice we make to mitigate risk.

Is that fair to say?

That's correct.

You have you have to buy the energy somewhere.

And right now it just so happens we buy it from somewhere else.

You could in theory buy it from the same market mix that's local and delivering it.

You you could certainly buy it in the real-time market or in the day ahead market out of PJM and just take whatever the asset the generation mixes on the market.

And and if you did that, the greenhouse gas emission uh kind of question would give you the same answer for both of those two physical versus financial more or less.

Yes, but you would also need to add in the recs to claim the legal renewable portion.

Yes.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Councilman Wilson.

Sorry, I had a similar question to that.

Um if you buy the recs, obviously you're just purchasing them on a financial as a financial transaction.

It doesn't really would it be accurate to say that it doesn't really change the uh CO2.

I guess you could say, so if you purchase if we purchased a rec for wind that occurs in Texas, but we're still physically getting the electrons from the PGM grid or wherever, we'd still be the CO2 really wouldn't change in this case.

So would that would that be accurate?

Yes, that would be accurate.

Recs were created to provide a financial mechanism to support renewable energy projects.

And so that's how the money flows back to the generators for the renewable project.

I don't recall off the top of my head, but with previous previously had discussions about recs.

Have the price of those gone up, down?

Do you do you recall?

Um state of Illinois recs price, I believe, have gone up, but across the country, you know, there's a wide variety of recs across the country that could be had for you know dollars or or low, you know, single digits.

Do you know why the RECs are that cheap now?

Typically, recs become cheaper as the projects become older because there's more demand for project, there's more demand for recs in PJM.

There's more demand for recs within Illinois that comply with the Illinois Shines program.

Um there's less demand for RECs for, for example, for Western Iowa wind.

Presumably because there's not enough demand for those physically to actually get built.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Director.

A great report.

The next presentation will be on June 2nd.

And can you just highlight which one that will be?

Sure, that will be market with assets.

So uh the intent there would be to talk about asset ownership, all types of types of assets, natural gas generation, uh batteries, wind, solar, all generation assets that would be physically owned by the city, and then how would we handle the intermittency or the unavailability through market operations, hedging, things like that.

Looking forward to it.

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

Does anybody have any new business?

Councilman Holzhauer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, as mentioned in council member comments, um, I uh am gonna ask for hands in the air for staff to bring back an item uh related to a traffic signaling device at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and the road that leads into the target parking lot and to West Ridge Court.

All right, any questions for Councilman Hallzauer?

All right, may we see hands in the air in support of that request.

I think we got all nine.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

As I mentioned earlier, staff gave us uh report in the April 16th manager's memorandum about our choices between special interest um areas.

And I'm looking for consensus from my colleagues about asking staff to discuss that report, put it on the agenda for the next meeting so staff can present and we can discuss in an open session which one we'd like to pursue.

I I do have one comment, um, Councilwoman Gibson, and that would be there's potentially the possibility of a trailer bill on the people over parking act, which might very well affect the Fifth Avenue project.

Um I believe session will be over pretty soon, unless something really dramatic happens down in Springfield.

But would you be willing to defer to the meeting after the session is complete so we know if we would be looking at the Fifth Avenue project with the as is people over project, no parking required?

I I think I'd prefer to get a staff report, and then we maybe don't need action from council at that meeting.

Um, but it's already May and yeah, I'd I'd like to hear from staff.

Any questions?

Hands in air support of councilwoman Gibson.

All right, nine hands in the air.

Any other new business?

Seeing none, may I have a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

Second Kelly.

All those in favor saying aye.

We are adjourned.