Any items to remove from consent.

Councilmember Sear.

Um Madam Mayor, thank you.

Like to remove item number 25-229.

25 25-229.

229.

Thank you.

Any other items?

Okay.

Councilmember Sear.

Um, it's okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

You want to move to approve the other items?

Yes, ma'am.

Um to accept the rest of the uh consent agenda.

Thank you.

Uh seconded by council member Allen.

Okay.

Any questions or comments?

Please cash your ballots.

Motion passes unanimously.

Madam Clerk.

25-229 is a communication from the C manager and chief of police with a request to approve an extension to the existing contract with Galls LLC for uniforms and clothing and to authorize a continued procurement of Armor Express concealable ballistic body armor through Galls LLC in an amount not to exceed $375,000 annually.

Councilmember Sear?

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Mr.

Manager, just I need some clarification on this item.

Tell us a little bit about the there's a lot of different discount, big pictures in this item.

Uh 10% from current contract number one.

Is that per year for three years?

Can you explain to us a little bit what the 10% is, please?

Uh if I can, I'm gonna turn that question over to the police chief.

This is uh a contract in his budget, and uh let him talk about the the discounts that they have and and you know the total amounts.

Thank you.

Yeah, so this is uh a renewal, and you guys have signed off on this already.

This contract, but in this new contract for three years, if I'm correct, it was for three additional years.

Um there was going to be a price increase, and so we knew we had to bring that in front of you because of the price increase, which wasn't stipulated initially.

And uh this contract was reviewed by our our corporate counsel and just it's brought back in front of you today.

So the question I need to know is the 10 percent for per year for three years or 10 percent total.

I'm gonna ask Mr.

Hayes if he remembers the clarity of that on that contract when they went through it all for us.

The original contract provided for three-year extensions at the same price.

They've established a 10 percent increase for this renewal, so that would apply in each of the years.

It won't be 30 percent over those three years, it's three percent and be level at that amount for the for the three-year extension.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Hayes.

Uh, next question, tell us a little bit about can we buy all our uniforms and the gears at same place?

Because if I read this correctly from gals, I mean we're getting 20 to 40 percent discount.

Can we buy uniforms from this same company?

This is where we buy our uniforms from.

So, but we get 10 percent increase for three years, but then we're getting discount on other items, 20 to 40 percent discount on other items, is that correct?

Correct.

So in a lot of items we get a major discount on them.

Our officers have a uh a dashboard where they can go in and get uniforms.

We initially issue those uniforms, and then as years go on, they're able to buy what they need instead of us just giving them uniforms where we were wasting quite a bit of money doing that before.

But the big ticket item on here is really the vest that we have to get every five years, and and this vest, this ballistic vest, and the ratings that uh are required of us uh are what the big ticket items for, and as we hire and as they exp they do expire, we have to renew those, and that's that's on us.

Last question under financial impact.

Uh you're using three different accounts there.

Can you tell us about where is the money coming from?

Because I don't recognize any of these accounts.

Jenny, do you happen to have that there with you?

No.

Okay.

I I saw you looking.

Um I don't have I I did not break down these accounts and I didn't bring that with me to tell you which accounts these were.

Uh I don't have the full sheet here.

Um, but some of it we we're able to use when we're able to use some grant money, we will do that.

Um, but we have different uniform lines within our budget that we use to purchase these items.

So this will be paid out of your budget, basically.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Sorry, is Chief.

I didn't know um I should have called you so you could uh prepare yourself for my question, but I apologize for that.

I'll be prepared to send these the other information to you afterwards if you need it.

Thank you, sir.

Move to approve, Madam Mayor.

Is there a second?

Seconded by Councilmember Gordon Young.

Uh continued discussion.

Councilmember Kelly.

Uh thank you, madam mayor.

Uh Chief, um when the officers uh need new uniforms, they go onto the uh dashboard, et cetera.

Who pays for those new uniforms?

So we pay for them, they get a an allowance, if you will, uh a year to go in and be able to purchase that uniform.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

That's what I thought, but I I wanted to check.

Um I'd also like to point out that the system that we used uh prior to uh our chiefs uh uh taking the job uh was that we got tons of uniforms that were never used, and it costs a great deal of money.

Uh and uh the chief put a stop to that.

And uh uniforms are purchased as needed now, uh, which uh has saved uh the department and the city money.

So well done, Chief.

We actually get money back at the end of the year from from golf that isn't spent.

So thank you.

Thank you, madam mayor.

You're welcome.

We have uh a motion and a second.

Are there any more questions or comments?

Please cast your ballots.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Chief.

Madam Clerk.

We have one presentation.

25-234 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to receive and file a presentation by Amran, Illinois regarding electricity rates.

Mr.

Manager.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

I think everyone has felt the sting of higher electricity rates.

Um we uh at the request of the mayor have asked uh our uh uh friends at Amarin to come and speak this evening.

Uh so with us we have Matt Tomk, who is the vice president of regulatory policy and energy supply, Bryce Sheriff, who is the senior director of regulatory affairs and energy supply, Tucker Kennedy, who's the director of community and public relations, and Ruthie Bertram, who is the community relations coordinator.

Uh Mr.

Tomk is gonna is gonna provide a little presentation for us this evening, and we look forward to hearing what he has to say.

Thank you.

Can you hear me okay?

Well, I really appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight.

This is a very important issue for us, and obviously um very concerning uh impacts, these bill impacts our customers have been experiencing uh this summer.

Certainly hearing a lot from our customers and communities uh about these impacts, and it's something that we're um paying very close attention to and we're working on each and every day.

Um, you know, I think part of the challenge here is the sudden increase and how that impacts folks who are trying to um manage their household budget or a small business that's trying to you know uh uh proceed through the summer and and is faced with these impacts.

So I I did want to give you an explanation, and and I've been I'm talking to a lot of folks about this and you know, kind of what is going on here, why is this happening?

And and really I think what um well there's a lot of discussion certainly out there, but I I really, in my view, and sort of looking at this day today, you know, I do see a a confluence of circumstances that have come together um really in a storm, if you will, uh um variables that creates that gives rise to this sudden increase in prices.

Um so the high power prices themselves really, you know, they you you know you have to start with the um the framework that we have in here in Illinois.

We are what's called the deregulated state, as you may be aware.

Um other states are similar, like New York, uh Texas, California, Connecticut.

Um, and to varying degrees, they're they're experiencing some of these these same issues we're facing here today.

So in Amory, Illinois, and I I talk to folks all the time, and it is on our bill, but we are a wires company, so we are an energy delivery company, and uh the power supply that comes across our wires and that that is billed for through our often through our bills.

Um that is actually um that is not something that we make a profit or a margin on.

There are third party suppliers and marketers of power, and then there are competitive generators that are bidding in that generation and doing that.

Um and then I think you know, another another issue that we're seeing here just across the country again, and in particular, I think in some certain regions, including including ours, um, is some supply and demand dynamics that are less than optimal for customer prices, right?

We have uh an energy transition going on across the country, right?

We are moving away from centralized power stations, older fossil fuel uh generating units here in in Illinois, being a coal producing state, we traditionally relied on coal, and we've seen a lot of renewable technology coming online, and we've seen a lot of retirements.

Um we're in the bit of a transition there, and we have some some tight supply situations that we've been uh monitoring over the past couple years, and that certainly is is the case here as well.

And then also we have um actually for the first time in a long time, we're looking at increasing electric demand across the country.

So we have a couple things going on there.

We have data centers, right?

We have this whole data center thing going on, uh artificial intelligence, but also just the increasing amount of um human activity that's happening online across the world.

Uh and we're seeing a lot of data centers develop.

But we're also seeing onshoring of manufacturing uh in the United States and in data centers and and new factories being built, certainly good economic things to be happening in society, but they are increasing um the amount of electricity drawn off of our power grid.

And we share that grid, right?

We share that grid with uh many other states, and we are actually part of a market called MISO, a mid uh mid-continent independent system operator.

And so we do have a common market, we have this tight supply and demand situation.

And then finally, I think cognizant of some of the issues that we're seeing with generators retiring, maybe some new generation, whether it's fossil or traditional, slow to come online to replace those retirements.

The federal government has been working to adjust our energy markets and our capacity markets in particular.

And capacity is an industry term, but basically part of the electricity price that you're paying is not just that kilowatt hour of the meter uh running, but we're also paying for generators to be idling and sitting and ready to run when we have those super hot days and demands going up, we have to pay for them to be available to deliver that power.

So that's part of your price.

And the and the federal government, being very concerned about generator availability, has made some adjustments.

They were concerned that the prices that were being reflected through those markets were not high enough to sustain uh generators staying in the market and new ones coming on.

So they've made some changes and those changes have come to bear uh this summer.

So when you think about those three things, the changes to markets, the supply and demand situation, the fact we're in a deregulated state, what we've seen is here at the summer period, which is the peak period, these higher capacity prices have come into effect, and also on top of that, we've had some pretty hot weather at the beginning of the summer period.

So that all leads to customers experiencing these high uh commodity prices.

Now, I think um the industry, utility industry, Amiron included, um, very concerned about that.

We were concerned when we first got the results from our capacity auction that were showing an 18 to 22 percent increase in power prices for the typical customer.

We were concerned about that this spring.

What's come to bear is many customers are experiencing much higher increases than that, again, because of that weather.

But the industry is very focused about identifying solutions and strategies to try to address these issues, working with state uh state legislators, state policymakers, state regulators, federal regulators, and federal legislators as well to try to as much as we can to inform and address these issues and try to figure out a path forward.

You know, in the meantime, you know, what can we do to help our customers is something that's been top of mind.

Just recently, Amran announced that they would be providing four million dollars in uh support for our customers, including two million dollars earmarked for Amran, Illinois customers.

This goes on top tens of millions of dollars of assistance that we've uh provided to date.

We're gonna continue to look for opportunities to help those customers, particularly those that are you know imperiled by these circumstances due to their income.

But we're also looking at just what are the other strategies that we can offer out there.

We're trying to communicate as much as we can about our energy efficiency programs, right?

We have a whole suite of energy efficiency programs that help customers save money, and there's a number of options that customers can take.

So we're trying to get those customers to our website and help to identify and match up where we can get you know strategies and measures to help them manage their energy consumption.

But that's a general overview of our perspectives on the issue, what we're doing about it, and how we're how we're seeking to address it.

But I do want to stand, you know, for any and all questions, uh, the mayor, the the council members have uh regarding this issue.

Thank you for your presentation.

Um thank you for coming out today.

I just wanted to kind of kick off with the first question.

If you could kind of look through your crystal ball in terms of what we can expect in the future, is is there any relief expected, or are we constantly going to be on this increase in terms of residential rates moving forward?

So the near term, and that's a great question, Mayor.

And I think um for the near term, I think we do have one sort of silver lining.

For one, we've seen the weather cool off the past couple days is a good sign, but also it is a seasonal rate.

So I said the federal government was changing the way they regulate these markets.

They've asked the market that we participate in to have seasonal capacity auctions, you know, payments that are seasonal to generators based on the need each season.

So summer is the highest usage season.

We're actually going to see we're going to exit the summer season in September, and those capacity prices will come will return to what they normally were.

So depending on whether the customer takes service from us or if they take uh service from a third-party supplier, that will depend on how quickly those savings translate to their bill.

I don't have insight into what uh all customers' contracts are, but for the customers that are served through from Amran and the Illinois Power Agency, it will be a pretty quick transition back to sort of lower rates.

You know, crystal ball looking uh forward, I would be candid to say that I am concerned, right?

I the supply and demand fundamentals, um, the you know, there's going to take some steps to address those, right?

So we um we continue to see retirements of fossil generations as we as we move to cleaner energy goals, of course, which Amor supports, we share those goals.

But we also know that in the meantime, those are going to have implications on power markets, and what are we doing, what strategies are we employing to ensure that those transitionary issues don't have these these impacts.

We still have to get our handle on that.

I'm also concerned, you know, I do think we are going to continue to see electricity demand uh increasing.

So I think in the near term, um, you know, it's hard to predict what commodities markets will do, but I think they will can continue to remain to be volatile, uh, and that we probably will see uh increased pricing pressure on our electricity going forward in the in the short term.

I do think that policymakers are interested and motivated to take action on this.

I know that there is a bill pending uh, you know, in the General Assembly right now, trying to look at some strategies, whether it's leveraging energy storage.

I think there's other bills on you know, potentially deferring um some of the the um closure requirements for our gas generators and maybe even our coal generators.

None of these are without controversy, uh certainly, but the the good news is policymakers appear motivated to work on these issues, and we're having some really great conversations.

And of course, we're always working with our legislators to try to figure out what kind of innovative um things can we do, whether it's new energy efficiency programs or otherwise, to help help our customers and including renewable energy and things of this nature.

So I think that we're going to face some headwinds in the in the short term.

Uh and the question is can we make some policy adjustments that that can really get us back on track?

Because it at the end of the day, energy affordability is absolutely critical.

It's critical to our local economy, it's a critical to the local to the well-being of our residents, um, and really our competitiveness as a state in terms of attracting manufacturers and creating new jobs.

It's important as well, and it's important from a national security interest, frankly, as the world is um really you know evolving into a more electrified um marketplace, and it's important that um those businesses, those types of businesses locate here.

I think federal policymakers share that.

So I think there's the will.

Uh, it's just trying to get there, and how can we get solutions and bring that relief to customers in a in a meaningful and lasting way?

Thank you.

It's nice to hear that energy affordability is also very important for you as well.

Councilmember uh Vespa.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um Amran uh last year made a billion dollars in profits, correct?

Uh I don't know where the number that you're citing from is, but um I I have to do that.

From the Citizens Utility Board.

I I I don't I'm not aware of what we're doing.

Do you know how much your CEO makes?

I do not.

Ten million dollars.

I I I agree with you, you don't charge a profit on the supply.

And you stress that, and you're right.

But a third to a half of people's electric bills are the delivery.

And that's where you guys make killing.

This isn't a national company, right?

It's just like three states.

So there are three components to our bill, right?

There's a supply piece, there's the delivery piece, and then there's the taxes and fees.

Um so uh there is a significant portion of our bill that is related to energy delivery and the investments that we make into our system to ensure we have reliable uh electric service and we're capable of doing things like storm restoration when needed.

And I would not deny that over time those rates have increased as well as we've continued to invest in our system.

But the situation that is facing customers right now, the driver in that rate increase is clearly supply.

We estimated initially average customer would pay about 45 dollars extra a month for supply charges, and that far outpaces any any increase in delivery service rates that we've we've asked for.

Well you asked for a 334 dollar or 334 million dollar excuse me rate hike last year through 2027 correct and that was reduced by the ICC to 309 million.

Does that sound right?

That is correct it sounds correct to me.

So we filed last year what's called a MYRP a multi-year rate plan to increase delivery service rates over a four year period to do a couple things.

The Clean Equitable Jobs Act a bill that was supported by the Citizens Utility Board expanded the role of the utility to offering new types of things including beneficial electrification incentives to encourage customers to adopt things like electric vehicles and heat pumps.

And yes it also included investment in our wires business to increase our reliability and our ability to deliver service affordably safely and reliably so yes there was an increase in our delivery service rates over that four year period stepping up to that number that you referenced there at 3009 million.

That's correct.

Okay.

I appreciate your candor and I do agree we need to do something about the supply we need more power plants to come on the grid my understanding is it takes years to be approved by MISO.

But ultimately this takes me back to the Illinois American water debate you have a monopoly over a basic service and you have a company pulling in a billion dollars basically with the water just renting we're renting our own water under our feet.

And here we have a private company making a billion dollars to sell to deliver us our electricity granted they're not generating the electricity there they're charging it to deliver it to us it's it's hard to get ahead it's hard to get ahead as a state and as a region as a city doing this.

And our we might not have a lot of options we have the aggregation program the ability to install solar panels I think that the end of this year those subsidies go away and encourage people to do their own research but it's I mean this is um not not great.

And it hurts poor people the worst people living on the margins.

So I know this isn't really our ambitious it's more Springfield but just want to throw that out there.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Council member Allen thank you madam mayor uh thank you sir for your uh information this evening and I'm sure um many constituents appreciate it um I understand the passion for my my colleague uh many of us are fielding phone calls from people who are uh struggling to keep up with their their AM rates and doing their best to literally keep the lights on and so there is some some frustration there can you speak to are there any resources that Amram provides to constituents when it comes to education on how they can make their homes more energy friendly to where they can maybe save a few dollars whether that's inspecting their homes for best practices regarding installation uh their furnace their air conditioner unit just ways that they can kind of save some dollars because we have a lot of older heritage neighborhoods that many of our constituents rely on and so I could definitely see maybe some uh resources being beneficial there that's a great uh that's a great question and yes we do and in fact Illinois I would say is a leader uh in terms of policies that support energy efficiency and so Amhern Illinois has a whole suite of programs that are well regarded well recognized measures to help customers um with their uh with their energy efficiency including home energy audits uh which will identify things like insulation uh HVAC upgrades that those customers can take advantage of the other thing that that Amor Illinois has been a national leader in a nationally recognized leader is also including uh low-income energy efficiency so energy efficiency programs that have that utilities are now offering it's not a traditional service that utilities provided but over the past decade or two you've seen utilities now uh in the process of offering these benefits to our customers and what they do is they offer a customer an incentive to help them financially take that step to getting a much more efficient HVAC unit or something of that nature but a lot of times it requires them to bring their own money so it's really critically important that when a utility offers those they also have programs for low-income customers so that they can um they don't have to they don't have such a burden of coming up with their own capital to make those outlays so it's really important that we um our customers come out to our website a readily accessible on that website at Amory Illinois is uh is is a link to those energy efficiency programs.

I highly recommend if you hear from your constituents to steer them that direction, because not only is it sort of a one-time relief program, and we do offer those, we're continuing to offer them, and we have we'll probably have more in the future, but that's a one-time benefit.

An energy efficiency program can reduce that bill in a meaningful way year over year.

So I really encourage any any direction there and any help that we can give to you in your interactions with your constituents and help to steer them, we want to know and we want to help with that.

Yeah, no, thank you, sir.

I think that'd definitely be very beneficial.

And as you said, there could be some barriers with people being able to have it upfront cost to replace that furnace or that AC unit, but if there's any opportunities to help support that, that'd be great.

And then, Mr.

Manager, um, can you just provide some some clarity?

Because I know that every year when we have the municipal aggregation program notice goes out and people get confused on you know, what does it mean to be with good field energy, what does it mean to be with Amory?

Can you just provide that in layman terms to the listen to public police?

Yes, so back in 2012, uh there was a referendum that was passed uh inside the city of Peoria.

So we operate a uh municipal aggregation program on behalf of the 40,000 households and small businesses inside the city of Peoria that are eligible to participate in the program.

Uh currently about 85% of the residents participate in the city's municipal aggregation program.

Um we have a contract that we've had in place for um three years that's coming to close uh here in in uh with the the end of November, so uh beginning in December, uh, we'll have new rates that will be adjusted.

So we'll be probably coming out with uh the notice of that uh in the very near future.

Uh and then uh residents will have the opportunity to opt out.

They can analyze what Amerin's rates are versus what uh the city's rates are versus what other any other uh third party supplier provides.

Uh there's a website, plug in illinois uh dot com where you can go out and and check the rates on that.

Um so uh that's the program that we have in place.

Um it's operated.

There's a number of municipalities throughout Central Illinois and Southern Illinois inside of Amoron Service Terrier uh territory that operate those programs as well as uh counties do as well.

And then we're set to go out to bid the end of Q4, correct, of this year?

Uh it it correct.

Our contract ends in at the end of November, and so uh we'll have a new contract in place.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Manager.

I appreciate that.

I know that you know when those notices come out, um, even myself, I have to call you and get clarity, you know.

And so um anything that we can do to better educate our constituents, I think will be great.

Uh, thank you so much for coming today and providing information.

And before you leave, I want to get some context from you.

I would love to invite you to uh to a meeting that I host monthly.

Thank you, and thank you, Madam Mayor.

Welcome.

Councilmember Reaganbach?

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And we appreciate the Amran team being here tonight to answer these difficult questions because um we're all feeling it and we're all getting phone calls on this as well.

It's easy um from my perspective to explain the supply and demand piece, the um AI, the data centers.

I mean, the demand is just exponentially growing, probably beyond anyone's imagination and retiring the fossil fuel plants.

I understand that Illinois closed six or nine, I heard a number.

Um so the production clearly is dropping as well.

Um one thing that you mentioned though in your opening remarks was was it opportunity capacity?

Was that the terminology that you used?

Would you give us a little more um commentary on that that we're actually paying for standby energy?

I think that's something that um is important to make sure everybody's aware of as well.

Yes, absolutely, uh Councilman Burns.

That is a um that is a good question.

I think it is it's a challenging one, I think, to explain because the commodity of electricity is very different than other commodities.

You think about like wheat or corn or even natural gas, right?

It's a physical product.

But as we sit here today, the commodity of electricity is for the most part consumed the same time that it's produced, right?

So you do have some energy storage technology that's very promising that's starting to come on, particularly in states like Texas in a meaningful way.

But the predominant amount of energy that you are consuming at your home, as we are today, that's powering these lights, is being produced coincidental to its consumption.

So there's kind of two things that you're thinking about that you're paying for with this this this kind of funky commodity.

One, and the the best explanation is think about your odometer, right?

That's gonna measure the energy or the miles that you've traveled, right, as you go down the road.

But you also have a speedometer, right, and an RPM gauge.

And you need that car.

If you if you bought a car to drive Chicago and it could get you there the miles, but it went 15 miles an hour, that wouldn't work.

You need a car that can ramp up when you get on that interstate and really need to hit the miles per hour number.

So our um price for electricity is both the miles that we need to go, right, to power our devices, but it's also that ramp that we're paying for.

So we are paying capacity is the term that they use.

These energy, odometer, and capacity, speedometer.

And so capacity is where we're paying for generators to be available to run, to be ready to run as we start to see that consumption increase in those summer periods.

And the federal government and um the regional transmission organizations that it that it regulates, they run these markets, they've been concerned that we don't have enough capacity.

They're kind of watching load, get close to that ceiling where you've dispatched all that generation and you don't have anything ready to run, and they've been trying to change the markets to value capacity more.

And they've succeeded, obviously, as we've experienced that you're seeing these higher prices being paid to these generators.

And the hope is in a free market sort of deregulated environment, is that those higher prices will attract new people to build new generating units to raise that capacity to lower prices.

So that's the deeper explanation of what we talk about when we say generating capacity.

Fascinating.

Fascinating.

Um we've also heard um about the elimination of tax credits um for some of the wind and solar programs from the federal government.

Um again, uh I don't expect you to have an answer to this necessarily, but that's got to be another contributing factor to the capacity issue and the generation.

Would you care to comment on that?

Yeah, the industry's been watching that very closely.

And what we saw, I think recently passed in Congress was a pretty dramatic change in the way that we uh incentivize through tax credits, uh renewable generation and utilities in Illinois, um, you know, energy consumers, regulators have really been factoring in new renewable energy coming on board across the country, really.

I think the value of it of renewable energy is that obviously this is the obvious, it doesn't use fuel, right?

So once you install a solar panel or a windmill and the wind's blowing and that sun's shining, you've got a real cost-effective source of generation.

And and so those tax credits were helping to accelerate the deployment of that technology, right, to be part of the energy mix as we transition to a cleaner energy future.

The elimination of those tax credits will certainly have an impact, right, on those developers that are investing in and installing renewable energy, and it's something that policymakers at the state level certainly are paying close attention to in a state like Illinois, where we do have energy goals of uh net zero carbon by 2045 and zero carbon by by 2050, right?

How are those how is the the pullback on those incentives going to impact um those generators?

And I will say that like with renewable energy, it does provide some capacity, including solar, right?

There's also um energy storage technology, um which is about a four-hour duration battery is the standard right now, and they're coming in, they're just giant batteries, is what they are.

Those um are still eligible to receive the tax credits, but there's another part of the bill that relates to supply chain of materials coming from foreign entities of concern, namely China, that will restrict some supply chains potentially for the raw materials used to get to uh build those storage.

So if there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty about the impact that this new bill that's coming from the federal government will have on energy prices and energy policy, but we know it will have an impact.

Um will the supply chains be able to adjust?

Will producers be able to find other supply chains?

I think that there's a distinct possibility, yes, but how long will it take?

We st we do not know.

Not to be a doomsayer, but with with that um information and the fact that we've already closed such a great number of the fossil fuel plants, and now the replacement energy is in question.

Would it be fair to say that what we experience this summer is likely to continue for the foreseeable future?

I I think I would still I'd say that it's I think it will remain volatile.

I think you you do still see new generation coming online.

Um in states outside of Illinois, neighboring states, there's been a number of gas generating plants that have been announced for construction.

Um and there's new technology coming out all the time and being deployed.

We're seeing increasing energy storage.

Um I think that the data center boom is not going to come perhaps in sustained, but it could it's going to come in waves.

So I think there will be um some ebbs and flows.

But I would say again, I think overall in the near term, I think we're going to see supply and demand pressures, and I do think we're going to experience this type of uh event again.

And I think we need to pay very close attention to actions that we can take that will help uh consumers manage their energy usage and what can we do to help alleviate some of these supply constraints, you know, here at a local and a state level to help those consumers and and we are absolutely 100% engaged in identifying those solutions and trying to figure out how we can facilitate um you know getting the situation uh to be to become something manageable and bringing these prices down.

Well, I appreciate um the discussion here tonight, and I would just point out also that yesterday in the mail I got a postcard from Amor, and I think it was touting some new thermostats.

So we appreciate the the inserts in our bills with tips for conservation and um you know, we might not as individuals be able to solve the the global um dilemma here, but um you certainly are providing us with tools to individually help manage our situation, so that is noticed and appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Welcome.

Councilmember Gordon, yeah.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Uh, thank you for the information.

Uh you mentioned it, I believe, briefly, uh, about um some assistance in terms of um helping our low-income or individuals in this community who are unable to afford um the rates.

Can you speak to what the plan is or what um the marketing strategies are in terms of letting people know what's going to be available?

Absolutely.

So um I think first uh our rate our latest announcement um we announced um we're looking at 150 dollar bill credits to help customers, um, those that qualify.

So that's just our our immediate um program that we're offering out there.

Um we have uh recently offered a rearage reduction uh bill credits.

Uh recently uh enacting some state policy that was um in a in in CGI and in legislation, we've implemented low-income eligible rates.

We have discount rates on the gas side now.

Uh we actually um met with uh state leaders with respect to energy assistance and actually are now um put forward a proposal that's been approved to have some percentage of income payment plan um relief available on the electric side.

Unfortunately, it's not not ready yet.

Um we're anticipating we have uh just received the order approving that from the commission, and we are looking to um implement that, make the IT system changes we need to do to do that.

Um I will also say LIHEAP dollars, um, despite all of the um sort of changes in energy policy saw the federal level uh continue.

Um there's been some interruptions with uh change administration, but they they continue to be funded, and we're working with our um community action agencies uh to identify those.

We will host events uh as well periodically to try to connect customers with relief.

Uh and we've had some great success in doing that, sort of going around the state.

Really, when we do that, we're looking at um uh zip codes with high disconnections, right?

So we're we're trying to help get to those areas and target those those areas from relief.

You know, increasingly um a discussion that we're having with our regulators is um you know, they want to look at the the authorized um you know return as as um the council member was discussing that the company makes right to to pay its investors and its debtors back for the capital they've given us to actually adjust that based on performance and looking at what can we do, how can you measure us and our effectiveness um to deploy resources to avoid disconnection situations?

And we very much accept that and are engaged in trying to chart a course to do that.

So we're engaged at all levels of trying to uh uh you know be proactive in assisting that.

And I will um take back with my team, we'll get you some information on upcoming events uh and things that we're doing, and then if the community has any need for us to partner with anybody within the city, any organization to figure out we can come up with some strategies to get customers relief, get customers hooked up with energy efficiency program.

We absolutely 100% want to have this conversations.

Just one additional question regarding the events that you said you're gonna host.

Do you know how the community is gonna be like notified of this?

How what's the marketing strategy for these things?

So I think we use a number of channels, and I think um, you know, my colleague, you want to take that one, Tucker?

You're better versed in this.

I'd love to get out of the top.

So, yeah, one of the things we're gonna do in September is, and Matt mentioned it, hosting some uh customer assistance events throughout the territory.

So there'll be one that we'll host here in the Peoria area.

In the past, we kind of had a first come first serve sort of approach to that.

This time we're gonna look at some targeted direct marketing to specific customers.

So we'll be able to look at their bills, look at the arrearages, see who would be eligible, and actually do some preset appointments.

So our goal and the goal would be to try to cycle at least maybe 800 to a thousand people through to be able to get some information on energy efficiency, some tools, some resources, and then conclude that by saying, let's look at your bill, let's look at where you're at, and see if we can help you with a credit.

So it will be much more targeted.

It wouldn't be a mass thing where you'd read it in the paper and everybody shows up.

It would be a targeted direct marketing.

Great answer.

Thank you.

I like the word target it, right?

Because there's certain individuals and um in this community that struggle, and they're often the last to find out about the information.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Welcome.

Councilmember Euler.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.

I appreciate the fact that money is set aside to help subsidize the utilities of those that maybe have less means to pay it.

But where does that chunk of money come from?

So the assistance programs that I've mentioned come from a couple sources.

Uh one, they come from shareholders.

Uh we also have Amhern has uh a foundation, right?

That that comes from basically funded from from our corporation, right?

And our employees, um, as well as some we do have have had programs in the past where customers have been able to make uh donations.

We do get money from the state and federal government programs, mainly the federal LIHEAP program is a significant source of uh ratepayer assistance.

And then there also are ratepayer funded programs, right?

Where you have an assistance program that is funded through a line item or inclusion in our delivery services charges, and that is the source of funding for programs at times to help customers, including low-income uh discount programs that were uh authorized by CEJA and now uh implemented by all the major utilities in the state.

So I get these nice little alerts letting me know about my weekly usage and what my monthly bills projected to be.

And I got one the other day that said my monthly bill is going to be about 1490 dollars, which is pretty much exactly what my mortgage is.

So I'm wondering how much over I'm paying to help fund those programs that supposedly the shareholders are funding.

So if you if you look at your bill in Illinois, I think we often hear that the bills are too busy, right?

They have so many light items on our utility bills.

But the transparency is there, right?

So if you want to look at your bill and we could even look at it, help you identify, we'll show you where that surcharge would be for any any uh customer funded assistance.

And right now, that's only on the gas side for Amhern Illinois custom for customers.

Um there is a percentage of income payment program that's been approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission, and that will be included on be on bills once that's fully implemented.

So, how much money has currently been collected and set aside to fund that program when it goes through?

Zero.

So this so my example, you know, case in point, 1,500 bucks a month for utilities.

No one's making any money off of that, as I heard earlier that you guys aren't making a profit off these rate increases.

So no one's making money off of that.

Nothing extra is being collected that's all going to cost.

So within that rate, I would say there's probably a little bit of funding for certain programs that were approved pursuant to that $309 million that um council member mentioned earlier, that $39 million increase.

As I recall, there was a two million dollar um a rearage reduction program that was targeted at keeping um uh customers connected and able to continue to contribute towards um the distribution system.

So there's a small amount in that in that amount somewhere that would be reflective of that inclusion, but it'd be very small.

Um to back up, I would say we don't make a return, there's no markup, there's no margin on the commodity supply.

Uh we are an investor-owned utility.

Uh, we receive the capital that we get from financial markets, right?

Uh, we receive the capital that we get from financial markets, right, including banks that give us debt capital and also shareholders that uh furnish capital to us, and we use that fund to funds to keep up our system, right?

And in return for that, we give a return on and of the principle that has been given uh to us.

And the Illinois Commerce Commission um reviewed our rates, including those financing costs, those costs that we pay a return to our shareholders and to our um creditors, uh and they approved um a level in our diverse uh in our um delivery services rates to compensate for that.

So that is where um the company does have um right, a financial stake in the business activity uh that you're seeing reflected on your bill.

But it is subject to review uh and calculation uh uh debates uh before the commission as to what the appropriate amount is, what is fair to compensate the shareholder, what is a fair level of um debt return on the investment, and what's fair to customers, and they do balance that and consider that in setting the rates.

It's pretty frightening for a community when it reaches the point that the power bill is as much, if not more, than the actual mortgage on the house, and it's not sustainable, that's for sure.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Kelly.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um I'd like to start my soliloquy uh by saying that uh in my entire adult life, the public sector management of the electricity business has been a disaster and has dri driven costs up and up and up.

Do you happen to know how much our electricity the electricity that that you supply?

You know how much that's gone up in the last five years.

About well, I think I think it's been I I think that it has been relatively stable in terms of the supply charges over the past couple years.

I would say if you think about the increase that we were looking at this summer, really reflective of kind of you know what customers are experiencing.

I would say it's probably been fairly flat.

There's been some increases in taxation fees as well as delivery service improvements we made in the system.

It's been fairly steady, but then I think the significant increase was this essentially 30 percent uh you know for most customers increase in their bills they've experienced this summer.

It seems to me, and I may be wrong, seems to me before before the recent increase.

And they tripled on the basis of, as you suggest, supply and demand.

What happened to supply well, a bunch of real smart people figured they could shut down all these power plants, and they would often, often use poor people as people that they're going to help to do this.

I remember the uh discussions on the Edwards Power Plant.

Okay.

And it was pouring all kinds of particulates into the South Side of Peoria, and these particulates had the ability to seek out black people.

And they went right for black people, okay, and caused a lot of asthma and whatnot.

Okay.

We shut that down.

Now, the prevailing wind here is from the West.

That means that Marquette Heights would have been getting that.

Okay, but instead they use that as an argument.

Okay.

Now these are the people who are having the toughest time paying their utility bills.

This is not your fault.

Okay.

We had two, you had two award-winning power plants operating here.

Award-winning on the basis of pollution.

Okay.

They were the cleanest plants around.

Who cares?

We'll shut them down.

Where are we going to get the power?

Well, I don't know.

I don't know.

You know.

Well, we we now know power is becoming unaffordable.

And we had the greatest, we have the greatest system in the world.

And it was getting cleaner and cleaner and cleaner by the year.

And we have let this go down.

The uh what do you call the peak power?

You know, the the uh what do you call that?

We'll call that a peak peaking generating unit or a peak.

Peaking generating unit.

Okay.

We had a peaking generator, you had a peaking generator unit out by Northwoods Mall, right?

Ran on natural gas.

Right.

We assume so, yes.

And that was shut down.

It worked just fine.

It provided that peak load capacity.

And it got shut down.

Okay.

All these smart people out here who know so much.

Okay, they care more about their theories than they care about the people.

Especially poor people and middle class people.

This is not your fault.

Okay.

You are controlled by those people who are so much smarter than the rest of us.

This is just terrible, and it's not going to end until it ends.

And I don't see the I don't see that occurring any time soon.

Um thank you for listening.

Um Mr.

Corporation Counsel.

Do we have anything to receive and file?

I I don't think there's a document other than uh just the council um communication.

So I mean, I I don't want to stop the discussion or whatever, but what are we what are we receiving and filing here?

Okay, so we can you can move to receive and file if you want.

I I don't mind doing that, madam mayor.

Uh but I just want to make sure there's something to receive and file.

It's basically it's not a paper document.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

And that's kosher uh Mr.

Counsel.

It's up to the discretion of the council.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right, madam mayor.

I will move to receive and file this uh uh verbal presentation.

It is a video presentation.

Is there a second?

Seconded by council member Carmona.

Uh continued discussion.

Uh Councilmember Valpula.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you for your presentation.

I I just I'll start with the clatification question for me.

So the increase that we saw, is it because of the market prices, market volatility versus your operation costs on administrative costs?

So this recent power supply increases spike that we've seen is attributable to the increase in capacity prices and the resulting increase in that commodity um impact.

Now, over the past few years, uh as we've discussed, you know, our system does require ongoing maintenance and improvement right and reinvestment to sustain reliable service.

So certainly our delivery services rates have increased, uh, as well as you know, taxes fees and other additional charges.

Um, those have increased as well.

But the driver that we're all hearing about today, that six sudden increase where we went from spring to summer, and we saw that imposition of pretty significant bill impacts that are really impacting people's in in many cases severely, is a result of that of that market price of power.

A follow-up on that is what specific steps is AMARONILINI taking to shield uh people of Peoria from these extreme fluctuations due to the increase in market prices that we saw the fluctuation uh as in 2020.

Some out of 2025.

So, first and foremost, I think um we are completely and totally engaged in stakeholder conversations and in conversations with state and federal lawmakers and regulators, looking for solutions on how we can uh uh control this issue.

And I as I will say and I always said we're open to in all of the above approach.

We will look at every viable strategy, we cost it out, we do a cost estimate, we provide that to policymakers, and we make suggested improvements on many things.

I will say uh we are also working through our existing regulatory process.

My colleagues and I have been um advocating to do what's called hedging, where you're going out and you're actually trying to buy uh by you know, basically forwards of capacity.

You can actually, there's there's tradable things called uh they're called zonal resource credits, and we have not been able very effective as a state in uh procuring those.

Um we have a process through the IPA that we're only covering 15% of our loads.

We're only hedging 15%.

So we've been advocating for new ways.

We advocated for a novel approach of actually um from the short term using financial instruments to do that to help to protect the customers from um that volatility.

We've succeeded in increasing that hedged amount, I think, to close to 30% uh in some future years.

So we've had some success, and we're looking to build on that success, looking for additional uh additional policy reforms.

Uh, you know, I will say uh as well, I think when I am asked my opinion on various issues, I will offer it and I will talk about you know what we'll look at if if somebody suggests do we need to give gas generators, those peaking generators, is there some sort of um temporary exclusion?

We will look at that and see if that will have uh offer any analysis and impacts on that.

If there's folks that want to talk about renewable energy storage now that these tax credits have gone away, is there a state policy that we can get renewable like storage?

And we want to have those conversations.

We think storage, energy storage is gonna be a technology in the future that's gonna help us manage those.

So the main thing we can do, even though we can't control commodity prices, is we can certainly use our expertise and our access to some industry experts on this issue to help inform policy, and we're doing that every day.

We're very engaged in the Senate Bill 40 conversations that are now now going on.

I will say the industry and Amirt included, we're also um very involved in some of the tax credit issues that are going on.

So there still are some significant tax credits available for uh new nuclear resources.

I know we heard constellation energy talking about potentially upgrading Clinton power plant and even potentially a second unit or a or what's called a small modular reactor.

I think that was a big win for the industry through you know advocacy on the importance of those assets and how they're gonna have you know how they're gonna help us in the future, not only supply energy but meet carbon-free goals as well.

So, what we can do is even though we don't have direct control over those, we can actively engage with policymakers and try to help shape solutions that make sense uh for our customers.

And the guiding principle on all of that is energy affordability.

And Amorin is a business.

We are a big business, but we're a local business.

And no company, no business is going to succeed if the prices that it charges its customers aren't affordable.

And while we don't have control over capacity, it goes on our bill and we are fully invested in trying to help.

The other thing that we're we're looking at too is when we see um opportunities to efficiently deploy resources in a way that benefits customers on the margin to keep them connected and keep them contributing to the system, we want to look at that too.

We want to ensure that um we're not disconnecting customers and causing hardship and actually sort of reducing the pool of customers that are helping us to pay for our energy delivery systems.

So that's something else we're very engaged in.

Just from what you have said, I like the hedging strategy.

So does it mean that the going forward we will not see this fluctuation because you already have started this approach of you know acquiring more and more power so that you we don't expect these kind of fluctuations going forward?

Can I interpret like that?

I think it will be a useful tool.

Um right now, I think that summer price, and I'll I'll talk about the price of capacity, it's measured in megawatt day.

It went from $30 a megawatt day to 666 50 a megawatt day.

That's a significant increase.

I believe our hedged price that we've got covered now, we're looking at probably an average around $300 a megawatt day, not $30, but certainly not $66650.

One of the things that we're working on, just to um given your interest in that in the subject of hedging, that we're actually exploring, we were talking about today.

Is there a way that we could um work?

I mean, it probably require legislation that the IPA can go more than one or two years in hedging.

If you could go maybe out five years, say, for example, you're probably gonna be able to more effectively hedge those prices because we're not the only ones dealing with uncertainty while prices are up now.

These generators who are having to operate these very expensive um pieces of equipment, they don't want to go from $30 to $666 back to $30.

That's a that's a volatility that they don't like.

Is there a balance that we can find where we can go out?

And a seller is willing to lock down a lower price for certainty, and we can take advantage of that and help stabilize and lower prices to a more sustainable level.

So that's another policy that we're looking at, and we've been talking about to folks about uh around the state generators, uh regulators and policymakers to see if there's a way that we can incorporate something like that because it is potentially feasible.

One additional question.

Does Zam Ranil and I have uh uh any consideration towards expansion of uh renewable energy projects targeted to Peoria's vulnerable population?

So um I think uh we have done some pilot projects, and one of them is going to be um constructed here in the Peoria area.

We recently um uh uh did construct a pilot project in uh East St.

Louis looking at underutilized property um within um in or around uh urban environments, right?

Where where we could put some potentially some solar panels, get some tax base going, um, and use that as a as a demonstration project also because we also need to attract professionals into this area, including linemen and women and and workers of all kinds, and that's a great opportunity to do that.

Those are very small, they're pilot projects because again, as a as a distribution utility in a deregulated state, they don't want us to be in the business of you know using our sort of regulated uh model to enter a competitive space.

So that's somewhat controversial.

There is some discussion around the country about is this working and is there a role for utilities that that have not been in generation space to re-enter it?

That's a conversation that's happening, but that's not a near term sort of uh it's highly controversial number one, and that's really not sort of a near term um thing that you could deploy that you could this a very structural change that would take time to accommodate.

So that's the answer on that question.

But we are looking at ways like is there you know, certain renewable projects certainly do benefit affordability to benefit customers.

We've been having some conversation.

There is some window of of relief uh for those projects to still get some of these ITC tax credits before they expire, if they can get some steel in the ground within a certain time.

We were just up in Chicago meeting with regulators and developers to see if there's a way to advance viable energy projects to come into Illinois and still take advantage, grab those tax dollars to for the benefit of this of uh Illinois, and we are working on that.

Thank you for your answers.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're very welcome.

I I just have to note for the record, um following up on Councilman Kelly's comments that I was quite pleased with the court's decision to shut down those award-winning power plants based upon the toxins that they were putting into our community, particularly the impact for decades that they the harm caused to people of color on Peoria's South Side, 61605.

There was justification for the settlements that were made and the decisions that were made to shut down those facilities.

There was proof, provided that harm was being caused to those communities.

And um, so I just I just feel compelled to note that council member Vespa.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um also uh just to add quickly, um average in the United States residential customers of consumer consumer-owned utilities have rates 13 percent cheaper than customers of investor-owned utilities, according to the American Public Power Association.

So that's the entire country public-owned utilities are cheaper, and that's actually more than the 10% profit that they realize or return on equity is as the companies call it.

Um facts are stubborn things.

Thank you.

Okay, you're welcome.

Councilmember Sear.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, sir, for being here tonight.

Uh this conversation, I believe, has been happening for at least over 200 years, this uh this uh supply and demand conversation.

And I believe that uh tonight, you know, the conversation is really about Wall Street versus Main Street.

And of course, in my opinion, you are representing Wall Street tonight.

And there's nothing wrong about that.

I mean, I'm a financial advisor, and uh, you know, you have a 27 billion dollar market cap.

Your stock went from 81 dollars to 104 dollars in a year, about 20, 20 percent increase.

So, I mean, this is Wall Street, so you this this conversation would could go on for for many, many hours tonight, but you have been very, very successful company for Wall Street.

Now, how does Main Street get to participate?

And that's just my personal opinion.

I think the government conducts once a while, they conduct experiment, and this one this experiment we were conducting right now started about four or five years ago between the green energy uh and no clean energy.

Uh we're just losing the battle.

I think it was a bad, bad experiment, and I think Main Street it's really feeling um really feeling the pain from this this experiment.

And how do we change that?

Well, I think we need to go back to again, it's very simple.

There's just enough supply.

How do we increase the supply?

Well, we all know about four or five ways to increase supply, but now the problem is how long is it gonna take to turn back no defaucet to have enough energy so the prices can come down.

To me, it's all about no again Main Street versus Wall Street, and and your company has done an incredible job for Wall Street.

But now, how do we turn that around for Main Street?

And we just need to go back to again, we just increase the supply, find ways to increase supply as fast as possible so prices can come down.

I think it's just that simple for me.

So thank you very much for being here.

Um you've done a great job for your company, but we need to find a way to do you know a good job really for Main Street now.

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you, madam mayor.

You're welcome.

Uh Mr.

Matt Tomsick, Tompk.

Tom C.

That's how do you say it?

Tompkamatomk.

It's oh okay.

It's a tricky one.

It's a slip.

Okay, it's just spelled a little different.

So thank you very much.

Uh you and the entire team for honoring my request to come out and educate us, communicate with us, communicate with the public in this forum.

We really appreciate uh your being here.

We are leaders within our community, so we're very opinionated.

Uh we express our our thoughts and opinions.

Uh so you know, no harm cause, but uh we hope that you have listened.

And again, thank you all for for coming out.

And there has been a was there a motion yet?

Yeah, okay.

So it's still on the floor, right?

Okay.

Thank thank you, Mayor.

And council members, I've appreciated the opportunity to come speak with you about these issues, and I do appreciate the dialogue and the discourse.

And I know there's a number of perspectives in here, and it's it's always great to have um that perspective and the and hear those conversations.

If there's anything, any information or anything that we can do to help you in the systems of your function in providing services to this great city, always let us know, and I'd be more than happy to come back and speak with this uh body again at a time that is convenient for you.

So thank you.

We look forward to the continued partnership.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second on the floor.

Please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We're at regular business 25-235 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve the low bed of Illinois Civil Contractors Inc.

an award of contract for green infrastructure maintenance CSO years one and two in the amount of eight hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred and five dollars with an additional authorization of eighty-one thousand five hundred and ten dollars for contingencies for a total award of eight hundred and ninety-six thousand six hundred and fifteen dollars.

Okay, uh Mr.

Manager.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

I'd like to turn the floor over to our public works director to walk through this item.

Counselors.

Um, most of you, I believe, have been contacted individually about this particular council agenda item because at a glance, when you look at it in the amount of $815,000 and considerate of the policy session we had with you recently relative to CSO, you might go, whoa, another $800,000 toward green infrastructure.

And again, hopefully, and I think one of you actually said the reason we put this on regular was more so for the public education than your own, because we did, I hope, get to each of you.

What this was was a program as we were going through years one through four and learning about the challenges with green infrastructure.

What we found were several issues, which you heard about in the policy session, not the least of which was settlement control, discharges from alleys, things going into inlets, and the things that we learned in year one and two that were not a part of year three and four or four that we're going to be starting.

What this is bringing years one and two to the standards of what we learned in year one and two and to years three and four.

It's this was programmed in the CIP.

This was not an addition.

This is not asking for additional funding.

I just wanted to make sure that that's clear.

That although again, we did make a very, I think, strong presentation to you in the policy session as to what we're finding relative to cost with green infrastructure, which we're working through.

This is related to at least getting the functionality to an even keel, if you will, on years one through four.

And this will do that by adding those inlet baskets and the inland improvements and so on.

So with that, I will stand by for any additional questions you may have.

Councilmember Regenbot.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

No questions, Director, but I do think it's worth noting a couple um things that you just highlighted.

That these improvements will ultimately reduce the ongoing maintenance needs.

And that you've taken the lessons learned and incorporating them into years three and four.

So, like I think the technical term was even keel.

Um putting off four years worth of work at the same level.

Um of year one and in my council districts.

I've heard from many constituents who have been concerned about that debris and and questioning the long-term viability of it.

So we appreciate you being proactive here in getting those addressed.

So I will definitely be supporting this, and I'd be happy to make a motion for approval.

Okay.

Thank you.

Seconded by Councilmember Jackson.

Uh Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, uh Madam Mayor.

Um, and I I just would like to echo some of the uh sentiments of my colleague uh Mr.

Riggenbach.

I too um in being the representative of District One have seen some of the fine uh CSO work that has taken place uh over the last what four years and uh uh the comments have been well received from the folks who have uh been in and around those areas.

Uh I do just have uh one point of clarification if you um don't mind.

Um I I am in support of this.

I just kind of want to know uh what's the scheduling gonna look like over the next uh years.

We're entering year five next year.

We're in year four.

Four, four.

Um we talked about delays.

Uh could you give us uh just an update on what I'm sorry, counsel.

Do you have that information tonight?

Well, the we yes, we just went out for year four.

So that will start and it will be executed on time.

In other words, relatively soon.

That's where we begin moving again, probably a different direction into what we are looking for overall relative to meeting the consent decree requirements.

But we are on schedule for years one.

Well, years one and two are running, or come year two is coming online, year three will come online as soon as under construction.

Year four is on schedule and being let.

So again, we are on schedule with all of the GI projects that we did.

Sorry, green infrastructure.

I shouldn't use an acronym.

Um there is no delay in that regard.

It will come online as scheduled.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you for the clarification.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Welcome.

We have a motion on the floor in a second.

Um there's no more questions, please cash your ballots.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Director Powers.

Madam Clerk.

25-236 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with a request for the following.

A approve the authorization to purchase one Ford Explorer interceptor from a no-bid procurement source in the amount of approximately $50,000.

And this item A requires two-thirds vote of council members voting, no less than six votes.

And item B approve the authorization to purchase the parts and labor estimated at $35,000 to have the vehicle equipped with all the necessary equipment needed for patrol.

And we need separate motions on each, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um for um a squad car that was involved in an accident.

I'll turn it over to the chief to just give you the highlights of this.

Um this is a budget amendment.

That's the reason why it's coming to you like this.

Yes.

Council on July 7th, one of our patrol cars, a 2019 Ford Taurus with over 105,000 miles was totaled in an accident.

We're requesting authorization to purchase a replacement uh explorer interceptor.

That's about 50,000 and 35,000 to equip it.

Um this keeps our fleet at full strength, prevents wear on remaining squaws, and ensures we can maintain safe and reliable patrol coverage for the community.

So requesting humbly.

Any questions for the chief?

Can I get a motion?

Move by council member Valpula, seconded by Councilmember Sear.

Any additional questions?

Councilmember Carmona.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

Not really a question, just more of a comment.

Uh Mr.

Manager.

Uh, in the future, uh, when it comes to things like this, uh, I had a conversation with uh the police chief about it.

Is um I think it'd be helpful to add in the mileage of the vehicle because I was I was looking through the damaged parts, most of them are cosmetic.

There's only uh the transmission oil cooler and the AC heater ventilation that was damaged.

So I had questions about well, you know, why don't we just fix this thing?

The engine still runs and looks good.

So anyway, now that I know that the survey it's at basic not at the end of its service, but it's more likely to you know have problems in the future because of the high mileage.

I think it'd just be helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome.

Please cash your ballots.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Chief.

Madam Clerk.

Oh no, that's item.

That was item A.

That's item A.

Uh, the motion initial initial motion came from Councilmember Valpula Valpula and seconded by Councilmember Sear.

Are you moving for council for item B?

Okay, seconded by Councilmember Sear.

Please cash your ballots.

Motion passes unanimously.

Madam Clerk.

25-237 is a communication from the city manager and fire chief with a request to renew a five-year franchise agreement with advanced medical transport to continue ambulance transportation provisions for the city of Peoria.

Mr.

Manager.

Um thank you, Madam Mayor, for uh a number of years.

We have had a franchise agreement in place with advanced medical transport.

Uh that agreement uh is quickly coming to a close.

And uh the fire chief and uh the CEO of advanced medical transport uh have uh negotiated a new agreement.

And I'll turn the floor over to the chief to walk through uh what's in the agreement and then hopefully answer any questions that the council may have.

Thank you.

And then our director of emergency communications was a part as well.

That's correct.

I'm sorry, I apologize.

Uh Brandon Blaney, our our director of emergency communications was involved in the conversations as well and has an important role to play here uh in the provision of services in this document.

Okay, thank you, Chief.

Good evening, madam mayor, Mr.

Manager, distinguished council.

Um thank you for the ability to stand before you today.

Um, what you have in front of you is the consideration for a renewed five-year agreement with advanced medical transport.

Um, just a little bit of history.

Two years ago, I was tasked by the city manager to sit down with CEO Rand and review the current agreement that we were under and to see if a renewed franchise agreement is possible.

Um, I had the pleasure to have very fruitful in-depth conversations over the course of time, obviously with CEO Rand with the city manager with the ECC director, Brandon Blaney, because no doubt about it, that our dispatch center, which is phenomenal if anybody does not know that already.

Um, but they're they're our first target, they're the first person to receive that 911 call, and they play an important role with this as well.

Um, but I'll also be remiss if we didn't mention Peoria Firefighters Local 50.

So having the ability over the course of time over the the two years to have those type of in-depth conversations, and so through all of that, all of that work, we have the ability to craft the agreement that sits before you today.

So I'll yield some of the floor if that's okay with the council for CEO Rand to speak as well.

Okay.

Thank you, Chief.

Uh, Madam Mayor, members of council, Madam Clerk, Manager Urick, Council.

Uh joining me this evening are some members of my corporate board.

They're behind me.

Bruce Buddy, Christine Schwartz, Doug Stewart, and Roach Kriegsman, and also our general counsel Bob Gates is with us tonight.

I also brought with me members of our senior leadership team, Lauren Emanuelson, Tim Becky, and Derek Hahn.

I'm grateful to be with you tonight to celebrate what I think is another milestone for the city of Peoria, the Peoria Fire Department and AMT.

This resolution to me is a celebration of our 34-year partnership with this history that began in 1991.

And secondly, the resolution clearly uh establishes and dedicates a new partnership for what I would describe as the next level of emergency care.

Some years ago, AMT was organized as an Illinois not for profit, commonly referred to as 501c3s by Peoria's three fine hospitals.

Today we maintain a commitment to outstanding care and transport in the same charitable spirit, providing nationally accredited care, regardless of a patient's ability to pay.

Our motto, save lives is what we do, remains our only task, and regardless of the incident type, we were called to assist.

Team AMT is committed to the highest standards of care as a nationally accredited provider since 2001.

With a humble beginning of 24 caregivers staffing four ambulances and transporting 7500 patients in 1991 to a stronger company today of nearly 350 caregivers and a fleet of 48 advanced life support vehicles, transporting over 60,000 patients a year.

We still remain focused on the responsibility and are honored by your consideration of a new partnership agreement.

Finally, uh just last week I let Chief Salberger know because of his leadership that AMT has made an additional pledge of 50,000 per year for the next three years to underwrite the cost of the city fire department's apprenticeship program, uh placing their employees and students in AMT's Earn While You Learn program, which is a full-time job with fully paid educational benefits that provides these apprentices with not just wages and benefits, but at the end, a certificate as an emergency medical technician basic using our on-campus training institute.

This program also focuses on workforce equity and inclusion in all aspects of this initiative.

And it's just uh a data point, but it's one we're very proud of.

70% of our EMT basic workforce today in central Illinois comes out of this earn while you learn class.

So it would be um really weird if I didn't thank the chief and the manager for two years worth of effort in setting the table and redefining what could be.

And when I comment that this is a next level uh approach to emergency medical services, which is a big gummy situation when you have to do the details.

Uh, the chief has led uh capably, ably, and brilliantly uh on behalf of the citizens of Peoria and Manager Yurick, I'm sure you know that.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Brian.

Any questions for the chief, Mr.

Rand, and Mr.

Manager?

Uh Councilmember Euler.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.

In my nearly a decade here, I never thought I'd call a franchise agreement an easy one, especially not one that referred to AMT's service to the city of Peoria.

But uh that's exactly what it is from our chair tonight is an easy one.

I had the ability to see firsthand the amount of work that went into preparing this agreement, and it was uh large task for both sides and an extreme amount of work to make sure that the best product got put before us tonight.

And I got to see in the presentation that this was not just a numbers-based discussion on putting an agreement together, but an outcome-based discussion on providing the best outcome for the residents of the city of Peoria and ensuring that we're doing that in the most cost-effective best service provider standpoint.

And meeting with uh the labor union several times during the course of these discussions to hear uh their feedback is as this process went on over these two years, and the work that both AMT's leadership as well as Peoria's leadership put into coming up with the absolute best possible outcome was very encouraging in how these types of relationships are supposed to work.

So, with that, I'll move for approval.

Okay.

Councilmember Jackson.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just want to uh echo the sentiments of uh my colleague Mr.

Euler.

And um I was just uh taking notes as you all were talking.

If I uh heard you correctly, you said a 34-year partnership.

Uh and uh just listening at um all of the um statistics you were putting out there, uh it just uh is uh uh apparent to me that you all are doing something right to uh see the kind of growth that you have experienced over these uh 34 years.

And um I um would like I've witnessed some of it, and I I think I shared that story with both you, Mr.

Rand and uh the chief.

Uh um, oh, this was several years ago, uh, when I worked at uh OSF uh in the trauma center office, where at that time many of the EMTs in the paramedics came in for training and recertification.

And mayor, I let me see, I can't remember.

I must have been in that department for about five years, but uh very rarely saw an EMT or a paramedic uh who uh looked like me.

And um then to witness and hear of all of the changes you have made throughout this 34 years uh in that you've been able to uh diversify your workforce is uh uh and grow your numbers is a big indicator that you all are doing something right.

I just want to say congratulations on this new uh uh agreement and uh continued success in the future.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Sear.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I want to echo the comments of my colleague uh Councilman Orler.

When I said this chair eight years ago, and it was very stressful time, uh the relationship that uh that uh we had or that you know our fire department had with AMT.

So eight years later, I'm very, very excited.

I'm I'm I'm happy about this contract, but I'm more excited about the fact that last two years uh um city manager Urich and Mr.

Rand and our chief and and local 50.

I mean, everybody got together over the years, and and and it's no relationship are very, very difficult, it's never perfect, and this contract's not perfect, but I'm very excited that finally uh we seem to light the end of tunnel.

The relationship has been great.

You guys have been talking for a couple years, and this contract is is a good contract.

Just a couple questions if I can.

So first of all, congratulations on all of that.

Makes me really happy.

So tell us a little bit, do we talk about a five-year agreement?

I know it's more than five years.

My understanding it's four tranches of five years, is that correct?

This is a five-year agreement that's revisited within 180 days of expiration, and if both sides consider that they want to move forward with the next five years, it's put in front of city council for approval.

Okay.

And if either party are not happy with the contract for whatever reason, I my understanding also it's a three-year, we have three years, right, to to experiment this contract, so to speak, and then we have to give a two-year notice if we want out.

Is that correct?

No, that's not accurate.

Um, we originally had started with a three-year out clause, but through these discussions that we had talked about, one of the asks that Pure Air Firefighters Local 50 had is that we would consider reducing that number from three years to two years.

I brought that back to CEO Rand for consideration, and that's what's in the agreement.

So after the five years, when it's brought forward to city council, and if the city or if AMT elected to not continue that agreement, we would have two years to figure out who our next transport provider was.

And for the tranches, though every five years will the this body will have to vote again, correct?

Correct.

Thank you very much and job well done.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Allen.

Uh thank you, madam mayor.

Uh, just uh a couple of questions that I have uh for you gentlemen this evening.

Um can you both speak to your respective call volumes for each of your organizations?

I believe CEO Rand already mentioned that was you were at 66,000.

60.

Yeah.

So 60,000 from AMT's perspective.

Last year's um annual report produced that we had over 23,000 calls for service.

It's a lot of calls for service.

Yes.

And so I know that it began, I believe, in 2009, that the fire department started providing uh advanced life services.

Um I think believe at that at that time there was just only that one engine.

Um can you just talk a little bit about how the reliance on uh your medics has evolved over that time period, Chief?

Yeah, absolutely.

It was an initiative um that started shortly after the agreement, the 20-year agreement that we're currently in.

Um, and correct me if I'm wrong, CEO Rand, but uh AMT had committed to advancing Peoria Fire Department and their capabilities in regards to at last advanced life support, which is essentially training paramedics at that time.

Once we had sufficient paramedics, we put engine 20, which is on Wilhelm Road on the far north side of the city of Peoria in as the first ALS engine company for the city shortly thereafter we did engine four, which was at 2711 Southwest Jefferson.

So we had we felt that we had covered the north end and the south side fast forward now to today.

We're excited that we have 12 fire stations.

All 12 fire stations have a paramedic in them, 24-7, 365.

We have 60 system certified paramedics, we have five nurses, and we have over a hundred EMT um basics.

And so to that end, what it takes is is it takes a commitment from your workforce.

So recognizing as early as 2006, um, Peoria Firefighters Local 15, and we're working with the current administration at that time, recognize the need for the community to continue with our training and education for paramedics.

Hopefully that answered that.

No, thank you, Chief.

And I know you say you have 12 current uh ALS companies.

Do you feel that that is the proper number of resources you need to facilitate uh your end of the agreement?

And if so, uh, does AMT have a response to build around the current resources that you have?

Um yes, we feel like with our 12 ALS engine companies, um, we are responding to our ALS calls in a timely fashion, getting the paramedic on the scene when it is necessary.

Um I think that a quick note for us to mention is that starting in 2023, um advanced medical transport, specifically CEO Rand agreed to train three Pure Air Firefighter paramedics to the paramedic status, and we're currently working under that operation too today.

So that that's something that um I can speak to it from a fire chief perspective.

It provides um uh a level of um you know relief to the city.

It's it it's expensive to train people from an ENT basic to a paramedic, it requires over twelve hundred hours of training.

So it requires a dual commitment, one from the fire department that we're going to commit to that program, but then to have a third party or third party like AMT to commit to that type of partnership that helps us long term.

Yeah, thank you, Chief.

And I'll I'll end with this.

Uh last uh Friday, I believe I was with my colleague to the left at Dr.

Roscoe McCall's uh street honor and ceremony, and uh a young woman uh had a fall and fell on the ground, and we call it 911.

And I mean, before I could turn around, AMT and the fire department were both on the scene providing services uh to this young woman, making sure she's okay.

So um just seeing that, you know, in real time and uh knowing how fortunate we are to have you know both of you all working in concert together to ensure that our constituents are having the best life saving services is important.

Uh I commend the work that went into this.

Um, I know that uh it's not always easy to get to these type of agreements, but we appreciate you all's leadership.

We appreciate everyone who was involved and ultimately the teams of respect to organizations that will be carrying out this agreement over the next five years and beyond.

So thank you both and thank you to everyone.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Gordon, yeah.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um I I said when we met that how huge this is, and I don't know if the general public really understands this.

I said this is like the two cousins that uh met at the family reunion and didn't like each other in the past.

That's what it used to be like.

I was a dispatcher, so I remember those days where it was just tough.

Um, but you two have had the ability to build um not just something amazing for the fire department for AMT, but for this community, and that's what it's really about.

Um, and and the artery of the operation is director Blaney's work.

Dispatch is that artery, so thank you for your work as well.

Um I do have some questions um just in terms of um sustainability.

Have you guys talked about um a secession plan in terms of you know the ALS operation of this?

Can you speak to that?

I know I specifically can for the fire department.

So uh what we sit down in a labor management perspective.

We have an EMS committee, and and it is most definitely challenging to come up with any type of secession planning, um, future growth um if that's possible.

Review of our EMD cards, like are we are we sending the appropriate resource to the appropriate call?

And I know that you guys heard this during the presentation, and that's important for us.

So right now, um consistently we've been training three firefighters to that paramedic status.

I cannot stand before you and tell you that we know that three is the right number.

This is a constant um annual evaluation, you know, whether or not it's we train up to three or we exceed that number, that's really all based off of attrition or the interest from the firefighters to continue that type of work.

Thank you.

Um now you've got the wheel spinning.

So um have you thought about or can you speak to again um what that could look like if there are several uh emergencies going on at the same time?

Like would there be any um uh challenges in terms of available apparatus?

Sure.

So if you're speaking specific specifically to the unique clause that's in this agreement that's not in the current agreement, um is is that the possibility does exist.

Um one of the major features in this is is that AMT now is going to have the ability to have a basic life support ambulance on the street.

So essentially the difference between an advanced life support ambulance, which carries a paramedic and a basic life support ambulance, which would carry an EMT basic.

The ALS unit would go to your higher acuity calls, your chest pains, difficulty breathings, cardiac arrest, for example, and then your lower acuity calls would send uh the basic life support ambulance.

Um it was important for us in this agreement for us to provide coverage for our Peoria Fire Department in our city.

So you're only as good as the information that's provided you as you accurately stated already.

Our our major artery, our best point of communication is our ECC dispatch.

Director Blaney and the dispatchers do an incredibly good job trying to extract as good and as accurate as information is humanly possible, but we're all humans.

Sometimes it's impossible to get that information from the 911 caller.

So you may have a dispatch BLS ambulance that shows up with an ALS Peoria fire unit, and in fact, that is not a BLS call, it ends up being an ALS call.

So the provision in the contract does allow the ability of the pure fire provider, that paramedic to determine whether or not they should continue that level of care with the patient, get into that BLS ambulance, do a field upgrade, and continue to the hospital.

But that's determined by the provider and communicating with AMT.

Hopefully that answered that.

It does.

It it just raises another question though.

Okay.

Would you would you explain to for the general public what the difference is between ALS and BLS response?

Absolutely.

So advanced life support is ALS, basic life support is BLS.

Essentially, ALS carries a paramedic.

Uh paramedic has training upwards to 1200 hours.

It allows them to secure airways, start IVs, push drugs, which far exceeds the capabilities of an EMT basic.

So an EMT basic is carried on that BLS unit, which is basic life support.

Thank you.

No problem.

I have one more question.

Okay.

Um, because this is a new approach, um, what do you anticipate in terms of like the additional emergencies when things are going on?

And and you as you know, things can get really chaotic very soon.

How do you anticipate dealing with that?

Yeah, in our unpredictable world, and you know this as a former dispatcher, uh, we try to uh implement as much predictability as humanly possible in an unpredictable environment, and that's that's very challenging for us.

So whether we're talking about um emergency medical services, which is the medical side of fire or AMT, but we also live in a different space.

We provide fire, um, we provide dive technical rescue, hazmat, you guys have heard all of these things.

Um it's it's extremely challenging.

So if we get into this to the space where the demands are high, we have provisions that are in our procedures and policies that will allow us the ability to hire back firefighters to fill in for fire stations that are not staffed.

Okay.

Thank you, Chief.

I appreciate all the work that you all three have done.

And uh we know it's for the best of the interests of this community.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Kelly.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um I did have a few questions, but my fellow council people are on it.

So I don't really have any questions left.

I would like to say though, how impressed I was in the uh the process where you were bringing us all up to date impressed with uh uh how you've taken an advantage of advancing technology.

Uh there from things like uh how the uh uh the emergency communication folks uh uh handle their checklist and that that conversation goes back uh further.

Um how we're at the cutting edge of these kinds of services in our city, and uh that's due to uh due to the two of you.

I uh I'm just I'm very proud.

I I like uh uh Councilman Gordon Young and uh uh Councilman Sear.

I I like uh uh Councilman Gordon Young and uh uh Councilman Sear remember when there was a lot of tension uh between AMT and and the fire department and uh uh I kind of thought that was there was still a bit of that, and I came to your presentation and I thought, holy cow.

It looks to me like that's gone.

That's gone.

And uh good on you.

So congratulations and thank you uh for the work you've done.

And Madam Mayor, do we have a motion yet?

We don't.

Well, I would have to do that.

Actually, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Yes, we do.

We have a motion, but we need a second, Madam Mayor, if we could please.

I'll we have a motion, but we need a second, please.

I'll we didn't get a second.

It was moved by Councilman Euler.

I'll second it.

Okay, second it by Councilman Kelly.

And thank you, Madam Mayor.

How do we go that long without a second?

Really?

Did you second it?

Did he second?

I thought you did second it.

Yeah, so it was seconded by Councilmember Sear.

I thought so.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilman Kelly, Councilmember Riggenbach.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And echoing many of the things you've already heard.

Congratulations, CEO Rand, Chief Solberger, Director Blaney, and I see leadership from local 50, President Fields, and Mr.

Simmons in the audience also, and I don't think they should be excluded from the thanks in this.

And I think what we have before us is the culmination of communication and transparency.

And I I don't think we should take that for granted that this kind of agreement doesn't happen by chance.

This happens because of the deliberate action of the leadership of these two organizations.

So again, thank you very much.

Hearing hearing the number of calls, um, 23,000 calls for service from the police uh fire department, excuse me, and and then add the police department to that.

So, Director Balaney is as councilwoman Gordon Young said, you are the artery that keeps this all going.

So many things can be highlighted through this, but I think the um remarks from CORAN really sum it up here that um taking us to the next level of care is something that we all want for our community, and this agreement will do that, and to make sure that the appropriate equipment is deployed and that the right resources get to all 911 emergencies to best serve the community, that that's that's a high standard, and it's so reassuring, I think, for all of us to see the commitment from everybody at this table to make that happen.

And then let's not forget that $50,000 for the apprentice programs, uh Mr.

Rand.

Thank thank you for that, and what that will mean for the next generation of firefighters here in Peoria.

So let's let's see um where where this goes, but after 34 years, I think um this relationship is stronger than it's ever been.

So job well done.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Well said, yes.

Uh Councilman Carmona.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just wanted to say thank you very much, uh Chief and CEO Rand.

Uh this being my first franchise agreement, since I'm the newest member of council, you made it really easy.

I really appreciate you taking me in and laying this out in detail to show me um you know the the benefits of this franchise agreement.

I know there were sacrifices on both sides, so I really appreciate um the level of sacrifice you both made, um local 50, everybody, to meet the taxpayers' needs and it'd be as efficient and as professional as possible.

So like everybody else, just wanted to say thank you and congratulations.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome.

So I'll I'll close out by saying that our current agreement doesn't expire until December 1st 2026.

We are a year and a half ahead of that expiration, which is a good thing uh in many ways.

Uh I agree that eight years ago, six years ago, this would not have happened, not in this fashion.

Uh so we've come a long way.

I think that we've come a long way with regard to finding agreement on the issues, and then relationships have been improved over time.

And I would say that this is the result of intentionality.

Working together, leaders within FIRE, local 50 leaders, the leadership at AMT.

I think this is a good agreement.

I think it's a strong agreement that includes more efficiency.

It includes more quality, more training, more tools, and overall more value.

This agreement has more value.

So I'm happy to support it.

I also want to thank Chief Solberger, Director Blaney, Mr.

Rand, and I want to thank Mr.

Manager, uh Manager Yuri, because you trusted your team members, uh, your two leaders to negotiate this contract.

You kind of took your hands off and trusted their ability to do it, and they delivered.

So I want to thank you for being that kind of leader as well.

So with that, we have a motion and a second on the floor.

So please cast your ballots.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

25 238 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with a request for the following.

A accept the co-responder grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority in the amount of $2,876,250.

B, adopt an ordinance amending the City of Peoria 2025 revised budget relating to the general fund to recognize the receipt of grant funding from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, providing the co-responder unit in the amount of $2,876,250, and C approve and authorize the city manager to execute an extension of the previous memorandum of understanding between the City of Peoria and Carl Health Services Human Service Center under the co-responder unit for a one-year period in the amount of $1,134,095.

And this item, I need three separate motions, please.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Manager.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I'd like to turn the floor over to the chief and his team to walk through this agreement.

All right, good evening again.

Uh Council, this 2.9 million dollar state grant continues our uh co-responder now social services unit, focused solely on helping victims of crime with housing relocation and mental health support.

Uh there's no local match required, and approval keys vital services in place for our community.

I want to ask uh Christina Gerlach to come up here with me.

She's the director of behavioral health, residential and crisis services for Trillium Place Carl, and love for her to introduce the team and just kind of go over and give a high level of what this looks like uh from the team as they come up at the end of the day.

This grant is about making sure victims and families in Peoria get the support they need to heal.

And once they're done, I respectfully ask for a vote to move it forward.

And we also have Jenny that everybody knows our magnificent grant coordinator, if there's some questions in relationship to the grant side of it as well.

So, Mr.

Thank you.

Come on, huh?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, ladies and gentlemen of the council.

Um, first I would like to introduce members of our awesome team.

Um, first we have Jmeen Juliel, she has our director of our co-responder unit.

Cassie Steele is one of our uh licensed clinical social workers.

Uh Lizzie is our other licensed clinical social worker.

Um she was not able to be here tonight.

And then she's in the back, but I do want to give her um just a shout out and recognition.

Ayana Washam is our administrative assistant, and she runs our office.

She's phenomenal.

Sorry.

Thanks.

You can tell I don't do this much.

You're good.

Um so I'm honored tonight to not only celebrate our continued funding at this time of uncertainty in funding for social services, but to also share with you our goals and successes.

Our co-responder social services unit is community service like we've never seen before.

I'm here tonight with the team to talk about this pilot program that's a state of Illinois pilot, and we partner with teams from East St.

Louis, Springfield, and Walkegan.

Our primary role is to it was to implement the team to help people to find resources they need exactly when they need them.

The initiative behind this program was to design a city of Peoria specific program that expands the services of Trillium Place Mobile Crisis Response.

It is not a replacement for that team.

So what does Co-Responder do?

Our team responds to community calls with the Peoria Police Department and referred by the Peoria Police Department.

We are designed as a secondary response and arrive on the scene separately once the scene has been secured by Peoria Police.

Our team can support and facilitate de escalation, emotional support, mental health support and services, provide resources for short-term emergency shelter for impacted uh victims, individuals and families, relocation assistance, um, case management and follow-up.

Currently on the team, we have two full-time licensed clinical social workers that work for 10 hour shifts, and when not directly available themselves on a call, um, have implemented an internal referral procedure within the Peoria Police Department and in collaboration with Trillium Place Mobile Crisis Response to respond as well.

In the past year, our social workers, I'm sorry, our entire team has attended 87 trainings that were provided or attended, including 41 for our social work staff, 31 for police officers, and 15 for our data analysts.

We have attended 37 community engagement events.

Six of those events were hosted by the Peoria Police Department in coordination with the co-responder program collectively.

These efforts were to raise awareness and strengthen relationships in regards to the co-responder program.

We reached over a thousand community members.

In addition to that, we've also provided victim support.

In the past year, 78 victims were connected to follow-up services after initial contact.

The program also responded overall to 101 calls for service.

52 cases also received grief counseling or social and emotional support.

The co-responder serves the team.

I'm sorry, the co-responder team serves the city of Peoria.

The majority of our clients were white, non-Hispanic, and between the ages of 36 and 45.

67 clients were served, individual clients were served, with females outnumbering males in the past year.

In addition to the community events that we attended and or hosted, the co-responder team initiated the Autism Awareness Blue Envelope Program within the city of Peoria and our surrounding communities.

And we've also been able to provide several families with angel sense, anti-wandering devices, and technology subscriptions to provide safety for their loved ones.

Thank you.

So before you take any questions, uh the amount of work that this team is doing is incredible.

And was just talking about this the other day.

We we've seen this uptick, I would it seems like in a lot of these mental health calls that we're seeing and uh barricaded subjects and people barricading themselves in their homes and um what we're seeing is now everybody recognizes where's co-response, where's that band that we bring people into?

Where's where's Casey uh Cassie who oftentimes is who people really see a lot in her vest and really coming out on scene and engaging?

Um so it's been a blessing and it and it's great that but the amount of work that's happening is tremendous, and there is more work that needs to be done.

We at a meeting today we're meeting with legislators and figuring out how we change some of the legislation here in the future to be able to open it up to have more mental health workers, not necessarily LCSWs or social workers.

So we'll take any questions.

Yeah, it's been a great addition to our uh police force and our community overall, making a huge difference.

My question is how long can we keep the funding going?

I mean, is it a multi-year ICEA grant or is it a one year at a time?

It's one year at a time.

I I have Jenny here who will try to correct me if I'm wrong, but it's it's one year at a time, ma'am.

Okay.

It's one year at a time.

We have to apply every year then.

Correct.

Okay.

But do you foresee ICIM making a long-term commitment here?

Because I know it's not just Peoria, right?

It's is about it's not Peoria, but we're the leaders of the PAC.

Okay.

When we talk about that.

Yes, so I want to, yeah, we are the leaders of the PAC in this.

It started in Peoria.

Right.

And obviously, it works better when we have a group of other departments or cities that come collectively in it.

So when we do need to go back to ask for these funds, it's a collective group, and it's just not one city, but we are the leaders of that pack.

Okay, great.

Well, the outcomes will make a difference, right?

Yes, this is a one-year grant, and we do have to apply every year.

We are anticipating that this isn't going to go away for at least five years.

Okay.

We are returning money every year.

So we get a like 2.89 million dollars.

Last year we returned over a million dollars.

Okay.

And you'll notice on our budget that I did not allocate $950,000 in anticipation of the legislation changing and me being able to throw in some new staff.

Okay.

So I'm we're very intentional with our budget, and um we know that at some point they're gonna come back and try to reallocate that somewhere else, but we've got Jahan on our side who's really helping us with this and guiding us.

Okay, you answered my question.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh Councilwoman Gordon Young.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I um really excited about the work that you all have been doing.

Um I visited a few times, and I thought one of the questions I had, you answered it, and then I had another question.

You answered it, and you answered it.

It really was about outcome measures.

And we all know you're doing the work, and it's a lot of work, and it's very challenging work.

I want to thank you for the other piece though, the community service, the going above and beyond and connecting with the residents of this community.

I was there for the autism awareness event, which was absolutely beautiful.

My grandson was there, he's on the spectrum.

Um, those are the things that people sometimes don't see.

Those are the relationships that matter.

You can have all the skills that there is, and that's required to do the work, but if you don't know how to build a relationship, then you're really probably in the wrong field.

You guys are doing the work.

Um, I don't you gave me all the information I wanted, which was outcome measures.

You're doing it.

I wish you continued success.

I do want to touch very briefly on the challenge though, because you mentioned it, Chief, um, that the average citizen doesn't necessarily know about, and is the the language of the um that's written in this particular um piece of legislation, in that it has to be a licensed social worker.

And we know that we have these cousins, which is what I have licensed clinical professional counselor, and so they're working to change that, which is why you have a limited pool of or there's some limitations and people that are willing to apply.

But I think the work that you're doing, you're gonna make people want to do what you do.

Continued success.

Thank you for all you do.

And thank you.

And it's not just in Peoria that they're seeing this in clinical social workers uh or or the lack of licensed clinical social workers.

So we're not immune, it's not just us.

Uh, we're seeing the other cities that are a part of this program have seen the same thing.

So thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Reggenbach.

Thank you, madam mayor.

What what an amazing program.

You know, this is something that we were all anticipating and looking forward to when we were able to implement it with the initial grant that we got from our state representative Gordon Booth.

But this is also one of those things that a lot of people in the public are like, well, what do they really do?

Well, all they had to do was listen to your report.

What an amazing list of outcomes and and what you know, if there's any question as to the value of this, you you removed all doubts.

So thank you all for the day-to-day work that you do, Jenny.

We have to recognize you for your continued diligence and finding the money for us.

And Dr.

Booth, I see you in the background there.

Thank you for your behind the scenes leadership too that helps make this all a success.

So um, I'd be happy to make a motion for item A.

Okay.

A seconded by Councilmember Allen.

A continued discussion.

Councilmember Allen.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

Just for the the listening public, can you describe the process of um I guess calling the social workers to the scene?

How is that?

How is a call?

I'm just putting it out there trying to describe this.

You know, someone has an emergency, they call 911.

Who was deciding when to triage the social workers to arrive at a call?

And also are the social workers.

Are you all 24-7?

Are you on call?

How does how does that process work as well?

Well, I think anybody can say in this kind of work, sometimes you're always on call.

So we work four 10-hour shifts because there's only two of us.

So when we're fully staffed, we're gonna have eight.

So with two of us, we can only do so much.

So when we are available to respond after hours, if the chief calls me, probably not gonna say no.

So we do everything that we can outside of our normal working hours.

Um for as for how we're dispatched.

Um so I think Christina said it best that we we can't respond unless the scene is secure.

So officers are already there.

So it is I tell people all the time if you want a co-responder there, you can request that.

And a hundred percent of the time that I'm aware of that someone has requested a co-responder, the officers have had no issue calling us there.

So we start every single day in roll call with them.

I'm at roll call first and second shift every day.

So they know us, we have relationships with them, we do everything we can to help the officers feel comfortable with us being there too.

And that includes like building that trust so they know that we're not gonna cause a safety risk, you know, and just understanding how we do what we do.

Um, so the officer will contact dispatch and say is co-response available.

We have radios, we're listening.

Usually we have an idea of a call that would be appropriate for us before they ever call us.

So we're listening, they say is co-response available, we communicate with dispatch, and then we get on the way.

Wow.

No, thank you.

I appreciate that.

And um, you know, I know there's a lot of moving parts uh with that, so appreciate you all's commitment into in this and sounds like we have a good thing going, so let's let's keep it going.

Thank you, madam mayor.

You're welcome.

Do you have current job openings?

Yes, yes, and would you tell us what they are?

We they can go right into the car.

Oh, let Carl call Christina thought that's we have um current positions for licensed social workers and licensed clinical social workers.

Okay.

Um, I will also um tout that we were actually able to hire somebody recently who's in school, pending degree.

Um, because with the state of Illinois, once you get your master's in social work, you can apply for your LSW, and that was a win for our department.

We had not been able to do that prior, um, but we're really trying to explore.

We also listed our job positions on the Illinois National Social Work Board.

The um there's a job board for community behavioral health.

Our positions were posted on there.

Um, so within the the guidelines we're currently given um for the degrees and the licensure.

Um we are also expanding how we can um encourage employment with the group.

Good.

So are the jobs posted on Carl Health?

Yes, ma'am.

Website, right?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Sure.

We have a motion was moved by uh councilman Riggenbach, seconded by council member Allen on item A.

Please cast your ballots motion carries.

Uh Councilman Riggenbach.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Sorry.

There we go.

Councilman Rickenbach.

It's not there anymore.

It's not I.

Okay, let's try it again.

I just love the time on mine.

Bear with us.

I think her monitor is not right.

Nothing's happening.

There we go.

Councilmember Rickenbach.

I move for approval of item B.

Seconded by uh Councilmember Allen.

Yes.

Who just said something?

So my honor.

Oh Council Hayes.

Sorry to interrupt.

Uh I should have noted on the agenda, and I apologize for that lapse.

That item B is uh amending the budget and therefore requires two-thirds vote of the council members voting and not less than six votes.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Okay.

You're welcome.

I don't think we're gonna have a problem with that.

Uh please cash your ballots for item B.

Motion passes unanimously.

Councilmember Rigenbach.

Move for approval of item C as presented.

Seconded by Councilmember Allen.

Please cash your ballots.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Madam Clerk.

25-239 is a communication from the city manager and assistant city manager with request to adopt an ordinance establishing a day for public hearing regarding the proposal to consider and approve a business district designation and business district redevelopment plan for the proposed Glen Hollow Business Development District.

Mr.

Manager.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

We have received a request from the property owners of Glen Hollow Shopping Center requesting a uh business development district on their properties.

Um so we entered into an agreement with SB Freedman uh to do that analysis.

This item tonight is just setting the date of the public hearing, which will be September 23rd at 6 p.m.

Uh there will be a report that will be coming back from SB Friedman that outlines this.

Uh but the intent of the business development district would be to redevelop existing properties in the shopping center uh to meet the needs of the commercial retail tenants and to acquire certain vacant spaces within the shopping center.

So again, this is tonight is just setting the hearing.

We just want to let you know that that's what this was about.

Um and then it would go um we'll have the full report for you the night of the public hearing as well.

Okay.

And just tell us what's the purpose of the hearing?

To allow public input.

So to it it is to allow public uh input on the proposed business development district.

Um business development districts are uh a statutorily authorized um form of creating uh a business district that uh then can there can be a one percent sales tax, which is added on top of all the other sales taxes uh to provide a number of different services within those areas, whether that's improving properties, marketing the properties, helping to finance the construction of properties, acquiring properties, all of that is part of of what a business development district does.

Um they are in place throughout.

We have actually two in place.

We have one at Keller Station and we have one uh downtown that covers all of our hotels.

Um East Peoria has several uh Bass Pro Shops, the Levy District, um Costco, all of those are are are uh part of the the business development district, so there's a number of of different communities that have used them across the state to great effect.

And and uh so we'll have that report coming back to you uh that'll outline uh the proposal and and where this would go from here.

Besides the hearing information being on the council agenda, do you notify other individuals or organizations about that?

We're in contact with all the agents, but we're not required to send it out to do any mailings, just uh two public notices.

Okay, all right.

It'll be it'll be published in the paper, though the public notice requirements that we have.

All right.

Uh is Ms.

Debbie gonna make a presentation.

No, I that I just brought uh Ms.

Van Sickle up if there were any other questions the council may have at this point in time.

Okay, because this is this tonight is just setting the public hearing, and we'll be back with the more formal information on the night of the 23rd.

Okay, council member Allen.

Uh thank you, madam mayor.

Um I think we've seen the the challenges that uh the retail space has uh endured over the last decade, whether it's the emergence of online shopping, um the cost of of doing businesses, whether it's maintaining products, paying employees, and then having enough capital to invest in the structures that makes it optically pleasing to the environment that they're they're currently operating in.

Um and then also too, I think we have challenged our staff to say what economic incentives can we provide uh to developers in order to you know maintain the current retail uh opportunities that we have, but also invite new opportunities.

I think that's very important as well too.

So I appreciate the the effort uh of you, Debbie, and and the rest of the economic development staff of taking that charge, and I think this is uh just an initial step for us to have the conversation on is a business development district appropriate for Glen Hollow, and so I definitely uh welcome that conversation in a couple of weeks when we have that hearing, but I do want to say thank you uh for for taking the lead on this and look forward to future conversation with uh my colleagues around the horseshoe as well as those who will attend the the public hearing.

And so I definitely uh welcome that conversation in a couple of weeks when we have that hearing, but I do want to say thank you uh for for taking the lead on this and look forward to future conversation with uh my colleagues around the horseshoe as well as those who will attend the public hearing.

So without further ado, I'll like to move for approval, Madam Mayor.

Okay, seconded by council member Gordon Young discussion, Councilmember Carmona.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Uh thank you to staff for bringing this proposal.

I also want to thank uh my colleague Andre Allen.

We had very spirit spirited discussion about this earlier for quite a while.

I know sometimes we're like oil and water, but uh I'm glad that we can still be boys after after our conversations.

Um I want to start with this, and I know this is just for the public hearing, um, but especially a hearing after um, you know, that residents don't.

I mean, if we're putting this in the newspaper, fine.

How many people read the newspaper?

Sorry, Journal Star, but many people just don't.

So to me, um, this is unfortunate.

This is uh to me gonna set a precedent, a precedent that I'm not really looking forward to.

As I read this um agenda item, the word that keeps popping into my head is bailout.

Uh it says right here property owners requested this BBD within the Glen Hollow shopping center to redevelop existing properties, a responsibility that they should already be doing, meet the needs of commercial retail tenants, something they should already be doing.

And the most egregious to me is to acry acquire property.

Now if we're gonna go down this path uh to ask our taxpayers to fund these types of things, um, I think it'd probably be best if we as a council set some sort of policy to identify um which of the what where to put these uh BBDs, uh BDDs, sorry.

Um a policy that looks at uh vacancies, attrition rates, overall health of shopping centers like this or whatever is to be developed.

Um the reason I say that is because I think by many measures, this is probably even though it lost um Best Buy and it's not as strong as it used to be.

Um, you know, if you drive by Metro Center or uh Evergreen Square or even the shops at Grand Prairie, you'll realize that they're all struggling.

Um so to me, it just brings up the philosophical question of is it proper to impose a tax on citizens so that a developer can acquire more property?

I'm sorry, but to me that's an easy answer of no.

Um, you can make the argument that you know this will have some benefits, which I will agree with.

Um we'll have if this all works out in a perfect world, we'll have more goods and services for all of us to go spend more money at, right?

I think all of us kind of like that uh in ways.

Could bring more jobs as well.

So I don't want to discount you know the positives that can come from this.

I think many of you know that I'm very business friendly.

Um, but I want our city to be business friendly by creating a competitive business environment with as little red tape and as little government intervention as possible.

This is something quite different to me.

Um this is not, in my opinion, it's labeled something as like a something of a corporate incentive, you know, to move business forward.

But to me, this is corporate welfare, uh, paid for by the people who it's gonna affect most, which is our taxpayers, our middle are low and middle class.

An argument was made to me earlier about uh this being something of a free market move, um, where if they choose to impose a 1% tax and potentially they'll lose a customer or two.

Um I I don't think it's a terrible argument.

Um, but I think that imposing more taxes um and you know having the potential of them losing business.

I don't think that's really how this is gonna work out because sales taxes um are you know very interesting and effective because who the heck looks at their uh receipt when they go to the lever district or any of the districts where this is imposed.

They don't.

They don't see the different ways that they're getting taxed.

So to me, this all comes back down to the foundational principle that I hold most dearly, which is to defend the Constitution, something we all swore to do when we joined this body.

And this to me is taxation without representation.

Because even though there's going to be a public hearing, um that many people will not go to.

And maybe this will be on the news, maybe this will be in the paper.

You know, maybe people do make a stir about it for a while.

I'd say a majority people actually won't know what's going to happen.

They're just going to go to Target or Lowe's or any other store in this area.

And um they're not really going to know that they're paying an extra one percent.

Uh and that may seem like a small amount, but um, to me, it's very unjust to ask this of any taxpayer.

And I so like I said, I know that this is just to get a public hearing.

But that's one step closer to something that I truly don't believe in.

So um I will not be supporting this, Madam Mayor.

Um, and I really appreciate the time.

Thank you.

Okay.

Councilmember Kelly?

Thank you, madam mayor.

Um I would second uh uh councilman Carmona's points.

I think if these are legitimate, I'm sure they're legitimate expenses that the uh developer would like to undertake.

Um let's just do it in the way that you do that.

So either it comes out of their pocket, maybe they borrow, maybe they raise rents or whatever.

But going after the taxpayer, I think relieves them of all those kinds of things, and they um get what they want.

There's another thing that bothers me also in section five.

Uh the second to last paragraph.

Um sorry, the third to last paragraph, the last sentence.

It says the city may issue obligations to finance project costs in accordance with the business district plan, which obligations may be secured by the business district tax allocation fund.

So not only are we going to be looking at uh the these folks imposing a sales tax on their customers for their use, but beyond that, um we're on the hook to issue obligations to finance project costs, which we're gonna supposedly get paid back on.

This is not we we we shouldn't be doing things like this, in my opinion.

We're a development Yeah, I don't think we should be doing things like this.

Okay.

Um I'm sorry.

You know, I I don't think so.

Um if these folks cannot afford to do this, then we've got no business underwriting.

Okay, so I'll wait for the public hearing, but I wanted to have my saying.

And I I will not be voting for the public hearing, although I suspect it will pass, but uh I will not be voting for it.

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Manager, you want to make a comment?

Yeah, just to clarify that that's language that's required to be put into the notice.

There's nothing that says that we're obligating the city to issue any bonds uh it for any project in this proposed business development district.

This is just the language that's required under the statute.

If there were, that would have to come back in front of the council under a separate action item to be taken and addressed.

Thanks for that clarification.

And we are talking about it just a hearing.

Councilmember Euler.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.

I was gonna save my comments until later discussion, but I guess if we're gonna start to debate the issue now, I'll make a few.

Um I sat in a meeting about a month and a half ago with the mayors of three of our surrounding cities who credited the success they have to the city's willingness to get involved in these topics.

Peakin Washington and Morton all commented on development projects that they had been doing where they injected themselves into the discussion and decided that they wanted to be a player at the table to try to push development.

And those are some of the same cities that I see doing things in the media that our citizens come to me and say, why did we lose that?

Why don't we get that?

I was here on the council when the discussion was had in another room about incentives for Von Maurer, and it was decided not to even bring it to the floor for a vote because of the perception that there wouldn't be the will of the council to actually pass these types of incentives.

Yet I hear on a nearly weekly basis, why don't we have any retail here?

Why isn't there anywhere to shop?

Because that's the current economic climate.

If we're not willing to give it, somebody else is going to.

Whether you like it or not, it's the reality of the circumstances.

And if we don't want to be a player at the table, we don't have to be, but we also have to explain to our constituents why they have to go to another city or county or state or online to do their retail shopping because we aren't willing to compete.

It doesn't matter how we philosophically believe that this should go.

The reality is that these retailers want the incentives and they're not going to come to the community that doesn't offer them.

And I want to be at the table, I want to compete, and we have to have these discussions if we're going to do that.

We can not want to give them all that we don't want to.

We can fix all of the things internally that we need to fix to be a more business-friendly climate.

But if they're going to give it across the river and they're going to take the business from us, then we're not even going to have a chance to compete.

And that's just the reality of the environment that we live in, which is much more complicated now by online shopping and the fact that someone doesn't have to leave their home or workplace to buy the things that they need.

The retailer can't survive if we can't help create a playing field that equalizes some of these challenges so that someone is willing to go spend money locally, spend money in our community, spend tax dollars that then come back into our economy rather than doing it online or in another community.

When Best Buy made the decision to go to East Peoria, I got multiple phone calls on why we didn't do something about it.

Well, we didn't even know about it because the retailer had already made the decision to go and not to even ask the question because of the opinion that we weren't going to be interested in doing anything about it.

And that is a reputation that we've developed as a city and as a council over years of not getting involved in these types of things, not purchasing the land, not offering the incentives, not getting creative on how we're going to address the changing economic climate that's happening around us.

And these are the things that we're going to have to do if we want those things.

Otherwise, we can sit by and watch them leave and wish that the opportunities were different, but that's the matter of the situation.

If we want them, we have to actually do what it's going to take to get them.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Kelly.

Our notice wouldn't be valid.

I know.

Okay.

Not so there's a statutorily prescribed notice.

And that's what's before you.

Yes, I I believe the manager said that there was nothing in there that said that we would.

Correct.

But it does say may.

But if we drop that sentence, then the whole thing is gone.

Is that right?

I don't think there's a case on point where competent lawyers are going to put a defective notice in front of a body and then they go to court.

I don't think that would be a it would be that has dealt with that issue.

The statutes clear what needs to be in the notice, and that's what's in front of you.

Okay, so it would be a defective notice if we got rid of that.

It would seem to me that it would be a defective notice and might lead to a future challenge to the item.

So I would recommend we comply with the statutory notice provisions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And and Madam Mayor, I'd also like to point out that um while I love retail.

We spend a lot of time here on retail, retail, retail.

I love retail.

Retail follows wealth creation.

And wealth creation, we spend almost no time on.

Just a complaint of mine.

I don't really take issue with the things that Councilman Oiler said, except the reason we don't have shopping.

The reason our population is dropping.

That's harder.

That's much harder.

Okay.

And to me, we need to work on that more.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome.

We have a motion and a second.

If there's no more comments, uh please cash your ballots.

Motion passes with two nays, Harmona and Kelly.

Madam Clark.

We're at unfinished business.

No unfinished.

Okay.

Then we are on to new business.

New business.

I have a new business item, and I would like to ask our strategic communications manager, Miss Stacey Peterson, to tell us what has been discovered.

Right here at City Hall.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

We've had a very interesting two weeks.

Something that we never anticipated finding.

Unearthing was found and unearthed.

So in the cornerstone of this building, a uh time capsule was placed there in 1897 on November 2nd, to be specific.

Um for two days, members of the public were allowed to come and drop things into this time capsule.

And on all of the tours that I've ever given of this building, I always tell people there's a time capsule in the cornerstone of this building.

And inevitably somebody will ask me, when are we going to take out the time capsule?

And up until two weeks ago, my answer was never, because we have no cause to go into a granite cornerstone and drill this thing out.

Well, we have some stone carve, some stonemasons from Autobahn who work on this building regularly, replacing the Lake Superior sandstone because it erodes over time.

And the facilities manager and I told the head stonemason, be careful because you're working in an area where you might actually wind up hitting our time capsule.

And we received a text a couple of weeks ago, and the stonemason said, I think I found this this time capsule.

So we rushed over the next morning at 7 a.m.

And um over a couple of conversations with the mayor and the city manager early in the morning.

We told them to go ahead and unearth it.

And so now we have this magnificent copper box that has been soldered shut for 128 years.

Uh it is on display in the first floor.

I encourage everybody to go and take a look at it.

And over the last two weeks, I've been working with area partners from the Historical Society, Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation, Bradley University Special Collections, and Peoria Public Library Local History.

So we can plan an opening of the time capsule for the public on Sunday, November 2nd at 2 p.m., which will be to the hour 128 years to when it was placed.

So we invite the public to come out and take a look and join in on the fun.

Um it's going to be a really exciting afternoon when we open it up and see what's in there.

We also are inviting the public to participate in the 2026 City of Peoria time capsule project.

Uh we intend to have a sheet metal worker create a new box that we're going to place back in the time in the time capsule cornerstone next year.

And we're asking residents, community members, visitors, to tell us what they love about Peoria.

And they can do that by coming to City Hall and filling out a form and dropping it in the box, or they can also submit it online at PeoriaGov.org under the communications division.

We have a time capsule page.

And all of that input will go into the time capsule next year to be opened in another hundred years.

So we invite everybody to come out November 2nd.

Please mark your calendars.

Very exciting.

Very exciting.

It's a mystery.

Thank you, Stacy.

Other new business?

Anybody?

Madam Clark.

We're at Citizens Opportunity to address the city council.

Okay, we have two cards.

Uh the first is Cody.

Is it Beerley?

With Prairie Land Adaptive.

Madam Mayor, Councilmember, it's nice to be here with you all tonight.

I am Cody Burley.

I'm originally from the Quat Cities, uh, but I've been in the Peori area now for three years.

I'm a physical therapist and neuro rehab, so I see a lot of our people in the community with stroke, TBI, spinal cord, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's cerebral palsy, um, all kinds of things that cause people physical disability and inability to do the things that they used to love.

Um do you guys know anybody with one of those diagnoses in your life?

Yeah.

So it's pretty touching.

Uh, we have youth through adults here that I work with.

Um, I've been in the adaptive sports and recreational world for over 10 years now, uh, under a variety of different jobs, volunteer opportunities, and it is a gap in this area in the Peoria area, greater Peore area in central Illinois that I've um just come to hearing with my patients and talking with different groups.

So, as a result, um I've come together with a lot of community members through this idea of creating Prairie Land Adaptive.

We've been in existence for a year now.

It is a nonprofit 501c3 to bring uh adaptive sports, recreation, and fitness to this area for people with disability.

Um quality of life is huge for people, life is short, we want to enjoy it, and these disabilities keep people from that opportunity a lot of the time because of equipment, access to those opportunities or what have you.

So uh we are new, we've been working a lot with different groups in the area, different businesses to get the word out and to get support and also individuals with disability, and they are excited about this.

I am excited about this as a PT to bring um not just working towards independence with mobility, but getting quality of life back for these people and truly bringing our community around here together to make it more accessible and more inclusive so that people can use our amazing parks around here and people can go out in the Illinois River Valley or compete in sports.

We have infrastructure here that could support competitive sports for uh our disability community.

So I need that uh opportunity that is in the works here.

I just wanted to let you all know about it, and uh if there's any interest about you know what could this bring to the area, or if you guys have any ties, uh people that you know that would benefit from this, I just ask that you spread the word.

And uh at the end of September, once we get logistics uh figured out, we're hoping to have a big expo with Bradley's PT program to showcase different adaptive sports and recreation, bring equipment, uh, bring the community together with different businesses and organizations that have these resources available uh to just inform our community and really jumpstart our mission.

So again, thank you for this opportunity to share this with you and have a great night.

Very exciting.

Thank you very much, Cody.

And sorry you had to wait so long, Steve.

Our next speaker is Steve Shaw.

Well, good evening.

Uh I'm glad I get to address you tonight.

I'm having knee surgery in two days, so I wanted to get this done.

Uh my name's Steve Shaw.

I live in uh Northmore Hills 5913 with my wife Patty for 42 years.

Uh it's been a pleasure to have been in that neighborhood.

Uh it's uh centrally located.

My wife was the tennis coach at Richwoods for 25 years.

Worked out perfectly for us.

My message tonight is I want to say a personal thank you from myself and the neighborhood to uh the mayor, councilman Riggenbach, and the uh public works department of the city of Peoria for what we've uh begun to get accomplished in the road work in Northmore Hills.

Uh our home was built in 1962.

Uh and as you know, the streets, you know, have been there that long also.

So after a recent surgery, I was spending a good deal of time walking through the streets, and noticed there was quite a bit of erosion, the asphalt from the curbs.

There were several deep potholes, and I became very concerned because we don't have any sidewalks.

A lot of young families in Northmore Hills.

When Patty and I moved in, you know, 42 years ago, we're the youngsters.

Hell, now we're the old people.

We got to have walkers, we got to have assistance, and so on and so forth.

I really became concerned with with all the young children, the biking, the scootering, the parents pushing strollers, older people walking and jogging, and the chance for accidents with people getting hurt was really genuine.

I gave each of you tonight a picture of the I took some pictures in the neighborhood of activities of children on the streets, and that's only in a two-block area from where I live on uh Roxbury Lane.

So it is a serious issue, and and uh, but it's being it's being addressed.

After I took those pictures, I sent the pictures to the mayor and uh councilman Riggenbach, and just to make them aware of it.

So within a short time, uh Tim came over on a Sunday, and he and I had a walk around the neighborhood, and he firsthand saw the uh the situation.

So we we talked about it, and and really within a very short period of time, we had a meeting with public works, uh the councilman Riggenbach and several of the neighbors on Oak Glen, which was really one of the worst streets.

And it wasn't it wasn't long after that we uh began to uh deal with these concerns as the neighborhood uh as the neighborhood seemed to be wrapping up.

My wife noticed at the end of Northmore, at the end of uh Roxbury and Burnside, the curbs were were really terrible, and I don't think they'd been in the plan to redo.

So I called Cy Maroon and talked to him and see if he would address this issue, which they certainly did.

And uh it's just you can see on some of the improvements on the on the handout I gave you, it's really uh much improved.

And even today, on a couple of the streets, the the the uh public works department is out there making a great effort to really improve the uh the streets.

I'll tell you a funny little little ditty here.

When Patty and I first drove into Northmore Hills, I went to I grew up in the uplands, right on Parkside Drive across from Bradley Park, and my dad was a real activist.

You know, if there's something needed to be done with the park district, with the roads, the streets, he got really involved.

And he said, Hey, if you want to make something happen, son, get involved, take a position.

So that's why I got involved in this.

I went to Whittier School, went to Pure Eye with Councilman Vespa's father, uh retired judge Joe Vespa, went to Bradley, finished my career, but had two years at ICC, was actually the first class at ICC, and uh finished up at Bradley.

So when Patty and I first drove into Northmore Hills at the corner of Roxbury in Burnside, there was a lady, a short little lady cutting her grass.

And I told Patty, I said, you know who that is?

That's my second grade teacher.

That was Susie Korsgaard, and I thought, I'll be damned.

Pardon my language.

So I got out, went up, said hi to her, and believe it or not, she said, Hey Steve, how are you?

And that was 35 years.

That was just amazing.

But it told me that was such a great neighborhood to be into.

And uh, but what a you know, what a what a remembrance, really, what a remembrance.

But anyway, the just in conclusion, uh I just want to say again thank you to the mayor, uh, to councilman Riggenbach, to uh public work public works director Rick Powers, Simone, and the whole public works team for the job they're doing.

It's a start, we need to get this thing finished, but we've made some great strides so far.

Uh you know, Northmore Hills is such a great area.

And if you notice on one of the pictures, there's a picture of a young man who is uh handicapped in a in a in a wheelchair.

His father lives his mother and father live next door to me, and he's just wondering if we can get some signage, if there's signage available in a neighborhood for awareness for special needs kids.

So we can follow up with that at some point in time, Tim.

But again, thank you to all involved.

It's really uh it's a neighborhood to be proud to live in, I will tell you that.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you, Steve.

Madam Clark.

We do not have an executive session, so we'd be at adjournment.

Yeah, can I get a motion to adjourn?

Move by councilman, Councilwoman Jackson, seconded by councilmember Kelly.

Please cast your ballots.

Thank you for your service.