I'd like to call the order of the planning and development committee meeting for Monday, February 9th, 2026.

Tonight's invocation will be given by Chaplain Mark Miller, followed by um the Pledge of Allegiance.

If you all could please stand.

Let us pray.

Father, we come to you tonight with open hearts, open minds.

Lord, we ask you to draw us closer to you.

Reveal yourself to us, Lord.

Father, keep your hands over this city, protect everyone here, protect our officers, fire department, and all first responders.

Lord, I ask for your grace in this meeting tonight and your peace to fall on this city.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Translegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Excuse me, we'll move right into our public speakers for tonight.

Uh just as a reminder, each public speaker will have thirty minutes, excuse me, three minutes to make their comments, at which time you will it was an error, three minutes.

She was from she was born in in slavery in in Missouri and she served in in the army for two years.

You guys are doing a great job.

Keep it up.

And I got my eyes on you.

But I'm I'm I'm I'm the one that's right behind you.

You got, if you ain't got but one person, that be me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next public speaker is Prophet Yusuf.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

In the book of Psalms, the 121st chapter, the first to the second verse, it says, I look to the hills, which comes my help.

My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

What I want to speak about tonight, that they said there was no African-American officers in the United States Navy.

That's a lie.

They don't tell you about the Golden 13.

In January 1944, there were nearly 100,000 black sailors in the United States Navy, but none were officers.

That would change when a group of 16 black enlisted men were somewhere at recruit trainers in Great Lakes, Illinois.

We call it the Great Mistake.

For officer training that month, the odds were initially sacked against them.

As there was still a strong sentiment within the Navy that African Americans was not qualified.

The normal officer training course was 16 weeks.

However, these men were expected to complete in eight, a move that they believed was an attempt to set them up for faith.

The Navy also expected a 25% attrition rate.

Similar to that of white officer can.

However, the group of 16 were determined not to fail and supported one another throughout the brutal pace of the training.

Though lights out was at 2230 each night.

The group placed blankets over their winners and studied together by flashlight.

Each man bringing his expertise to help straighten the skills and knowledge of the others.

When the course was over, all 16 passed the exam.

In fact, their marks were so outstanding that some in Washington were certain that the men had cheated.

When the group was forced to retake certain exams, they scored even higher with an average grade of 3.89 or four.

The highest average of any class in Navy history, despite the fact all 16 had passed the course, the Navy still wished to only commission 12 or 75% as officers.

12 were selected, and a 13 was made a chief warner.

Hence the nickname, the Golden 13.

The other three were sent back into the listed ranks with no explanation given.

So don't believe the lies they say about our people.

Here's my mother cousin, Frank Sublett.

He was one of them.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

But yet we don't see our flags up anywhere.

I missed the last parade that we was in.

We had our African-American flag and they and the Hispanics had their flag and we marched together.

Now, I'm going to bring back to the attention that this country was founded by immigrants.

And whether this country was built by immigrants.

A lot of people don't realize, but if you look in your history, before the English came here, the Spaniards was already here in America.

He got his millions from selling prohibition and also he was hooked up with the mafia from Italy.

That's why he got this thing about CRISPR Columbus.

Now, back then, when slavery ended, the Ku Kut Klan came out with their hoods on their head.

Now our new modern-day Kuduk clan is ice.

A lot of people don't realize, but I bet you if they took off that nast off their face, you would see a lot of them are proud boys, a lot of them are white supremacists a lot of them from South Africa that they came here, and a lot of them went to 1600 people that stormed the White House, and he called them patrons.

Now, uh to the mayor, Max Mayor.

I was at the hearing for uh Fab Dash studio, and the police that was there, everything he said was fabricated.

He did not have one evidence for why he went and killed that place of business and where they had me.

We need uh, and it's not the first time that a Caucasian officer have harassed young uh young black people because a bunch of black people that uh show up at a uh Pacific and then have the nerve to say, well, he assumed it was alcohol in that cup.

He assumed that it was alcohol.

Back in the summer, the chief of police asked about having a meeting uh with uh with uh with us to discuss our young people.

We need that meeting, not with just uh the chief of police, the chief of the fire department, and also the mayor.

Uh uh uh uh Mr.

Bell, your father uh took a uh uh uh took a book out of me during the 90s with uh Whitney.

The program he running now, he said he picked it up because we have our uh black African man uh major, uh we are endangered species.

We need more black men up to the uh plate.

So I'm proud to see uh Mr.

Bell taking a uh page out of what I'm doing.

So Gene the Minch is uh is is running our board.

We're looking at Mr.

Bell because that's the area that the incident uh happened in, and where they'd be we want to find a solution where we can work with the police and not hate the ponies, because right now our young people hate, they despise the police, and the police abuse their power.

I have been to court three times last year about driving while being black, and I have won all three times, and I got one more time to go again about driving while being black.

Our black people got to stop arguing with uh uh with the police, because that's all you're doing is letting them win.

Follow my example, and I'm gonna need you to wait so we can have a better relationship with 5-0, and so 5-0 don't become like ice and next year our flag we represent our nation.

Peace out.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Stephen McMaster.

Hello, hello.

My name's Stephen McMaster.

You guys know that.

Uh I'm here to complain about the city codes and ordinances, yes, kind of figure as much.

Um maybe 10 days, 10 days ago, I sent a Freedom of Information Act request just to make sure that I understood what the rules were for all the boards and committees and commissions and councils and and whatnot that we have.

Uh the response I got from that was um I want to say incorrect, but I don't know, I'm not the city's legal counsel.

Uh I would say ill-advised for the continuance of normal government operations.

Because what I got back was just links to Municode.

Uh Municode doesn't cover like any boards that exist except for city council, and that's only that's only a little bit.

Uh so like these three commissions that are happening right now, not covered in Municode.

So when I send a Freedom of Information Act request, going, hey, what are the rules?

And I get back, nothing.

Understand that I am being respectful of what you're doing here by sitting in the back quietly and particip just just watching.

I, you know, I I had my one outburst, city council, you know, blah blah.

But uh again, I think that was justifiable.

My stance uh about knowing what our rules are is not just for me or for you, but it's for the city in law at large.

We need to know what we're allowed to do as citizens when our government doesn't do things that we like, or you know, does things that we don't like.

Uh I I now have rules from the legal department that allow me to do way more than I think you guys want me to do.

So, like, you should probably talk to legal and figure out what I'm allowed to do and what I'm not allowed to do.

I I'll give you another week.

Uh I'll be respectful this week.

Next week I'll I'll push some bounds.

Like, let's let's actually get the things that we want codified, codified.

Also, just as a side note, we have an immense amount of ordinances that we passed since 2021 that aren't like actually codified in the the legal code.

If you go to Municode, you have to like go and download the new the the PDF for what got passed in 2022 because apparently we haven't gotten around to the concept of actually updating that in Municode.

That that seems stupid.

Uh there's also a bunch of like obviously little laws that I would love to get changed, but can we just start with the whole 530 versus 6 o'clock city council thing?

Why the hell is that not changed?

Like, who do I need to speak to?

How many times?

We have a code and regulations committee meeting happening today.

Anyone want to bring up the fact that city council happens at 5:30 every single week instead of six o'clock as it's supposed to be by law?

We should change that law.

I'm on your side here, guys.

We should make sure the laws that we have reflect what we desire.

That's all I'm asking for.

I I had a couple of conversations with city council members about other things.

I really appreciate those conversations.

Uh I I understand that I won't get all the things that I want.

Thank you.

Let's update the laws.

Is Ken Dickens here?

That ends our public speaking portion for tonight.

We will move right into tonight's planning and development committee meeting agenda.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Thank you.

Item one is an approval of a preliminary conditional set-aside letter, which would lead to a rental development agreement with the owner of Rock River One Apartments.

The funding source is the Home Investment Partnerships Program, Home, and the Community Development Block Grant, CDBG.

Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second.

Are there any questions or comments?

Alder Woman Meets?

Hi, how are you?

I was just curious.

Um what was the cause for the delay in the development?

Because it looks like we approved this last year.

Sure.

So the process is that they have a preliminary application that they do and they get approval from Ida to go ahead and submit a full application.

And there were some changes since they originally submitted their application.

So now we're getting this um preliminary letter redone to accommodate those changes.

Okay.

And then that new application is going to be due February 25th, 2026.

And then we'll find out in June whether they've been approved or not.

And so can I get some help kind of understanding why we why the developer needed to decrease the number of units?

And then ask for an increase in funding?

Sure.

Um so you'll see that um we added a chart here.

And if you have other questions as well, um Richard Kaenigus here from the housing opportunity development corporation, who is a nonprofit developer and property manager for the new development.

You'll see on the chart of changes that I wanted to put in the comments what the reasons for some of these changes were.

You'll see um that the additional funds were due to escalating construction costs caused by economic conditions, total development costs have increased, and the number of units were changed because the project size was scaled to the low-income housing tax credit application.

Um so that it would meet the requirements of the QAP for Illinois Housing Development Authority.

The funder of the low-income housing tax credits.

Okay.

So I I guess I'm gonna need a little bit more clarity on kind of that, but I think that this is a question that I can ask off the record.

So thank you so much for sure.

And I can get that for you and submit it to you.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions or comments?

Clerk, will you please call the role?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Uh aye.

Thank you.

Do I have a motion to adjourn?

No motion.

Second.

Are there any questions or comments?

All those in favor, please state by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, same sign?

This meeting is adjourned.