There are three scanning committees because of the break we just took.

We also have a full city council meeting uh tonight, but before we call the role for uh codes and regulation committee meeting, um we will um entertain our five public speakers, and um before that we will have invocation and pledge of allegiance, and the invocation will be given by uh Pastor Cory Whitford from Bethany Presbyterian Church.

Thank you.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this invitation, invitation to serve such a fine city.

Father, we ask that you would bless us to God in our hearts so that we can listen and learn.

Father, you would guide us, guide us to the insurance of the peace and hold forever here.

We pray all this in the name that is above all names.

That name is Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen.

Indivisible.

Okay, so if you are uh signed up for public comment, uh you have uh three minutes to uh address the council.

Um you will hear an alarm uh that goes off uh when your time is up, and um you can approach either of the two microphones in the back of the room and address the council from either one of them.

Our first uh speaker this evening is Prophet Youssef.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and happy new year.

In the book of Psalms, 133rd chapter, the first verse, it says how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.

What I want to speak about tonight, hurricane rescue show how quickly division washes away.

Tragedies like the one unfolding in Texas, as rain continue to fall and flood water rise, have a way of peeling layers off people until only their humanity remained.

Just the bare essence, the good stuff, strip away of the things that bog us down so much.

Things like fate or skin cover, sexuality or political beliefs.

A few days before Hurricane Hobby began unleashing his fury on the coast of Texas.

My good friend, Senator Tammy Duckworth, an army comeback veteran, who lost both her legs in Iraq, released a statement reacting to a proposed ban on transgender men and women serving in the military.

When I was bleeding to death in my black hawk helicopter, after I was shot down.

I didn't care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me, were gay, straight, transgender, black immigrants, white or brown.

All that mattered was they didn't leave me behind.

When it comes to life or death, bias, hate, prejudice, bigotry, and bitterness tend to wash off rather quickly.

So it has been in Houston and Rockport and Dickinson and other Texas cities and towns.

You don't you don't see videos of people squabbling.

You see regular people becoming heroes and stranded people accepting help with tears and elation.

A story by Matt Pearson of the Los Angeles Time describe it this way.

Across Texas, there were reports of citizens mobilizing with walkie talkies, boats, and booths to help pull people from the rising water.

Social media lit up with a video posted by a reporter for CORK News, in which a man from Texas City, Nick Gabson, was preparing to pour his small boat.

I'm gonna go try to save some lives today.

He said that man is black.

I don't imagine that made a lick of difference to the people he went on to help.

There's a singularity about these folks.

They're good people doing good things, and there isn't anything else about them about the people that rest that matter.

It shouldn't take a tragedy to remind us how cable we are of cooperation.

It shouldn't take a storm to wash away our prejudice, bigotry and hate and grief and get us to grass land.

Hurricane Hobby brought out the works of Mother Nature, but it also brought out the exceptional goodness of American people.

I want to thank God for them American troops who saved my good friend, Senator Tammy Duckworth.

I want to thank God for the good people in Texas who saved the people there.

I also want to tell my brother Cedric this who made 92, and he's still not through.

And Pastor Melbourne Brown, Brother Yukobi's wife, and Brother Henry's wife, this for a long time.

And I'm going to get it off my chest tonight.

I don't like you.

I love you, and you can't do nothing about it.

And happy birthday, my good friends, and I wish you many more.

Thanks for allowing me to speak.

Thank you.

Our second speaker this evening is Denzel Winter.

Good evening, City Council members.

And I decided since uh we have the shortest month for black history, that I'm gonna go from January to February.

And my first one today is fighting on two fronts in the World War II.

And a count of American soldiers, black American soldiers in World War II, who combat racism in a segregated military on the home front, and then uh and in April 1945, some of the black soldiers were among the first to go in to some of the camps and liberated some of the prisoners in there.

And uh the thing that was that was troubling to me was the fact that everybody thought that the black soldier was a coward.

But if you look, look at history and look at where they were at.

They were some of the first ones on on the front line.

They had some of their the so-called uh officers, rather than being with their troops, they're in the back line talking about well they're they're gonna run back here pretty soon, pretty soon.

But that never happened.

They fought and they liberated.

They went into uh uh uh prison camps and liberated prison camps.

Some of them said they never saw anything like they saw in them camps, what them people did.

It was a shame.

And then when we fought over there, a lot of us died over there, and when we came back here, you know what they did for us?

They started rioting against us because they thought we were uppity.

We thought we were beside ourselves.

But all we were trying to do was fight for our country.

You know, and it's a shame.

You know, I lost or lost a lot of people in the Vietnam War.

I lost one guy, he fought in Vietnam only to come back here to the United States to lose his life.

And that's a shame when we can't even put aside the differences that that happens so that we can get together as a uh a country.

But just like earlier today, when they they said that the uh the president went over there and took a president out of his country.

Thank you.

That wasn't right.

Thank you.

But I will be back.

Our third uh speaker this evening is Lola May Perham.

It's Lola here.

Okay, we will move on uh to our fourth speaker, uh John Tech Brantley.

I want to say uh happy new year to everyone.

And uh this past week was uh very interesting.

We took five families, six families to Walmart.

We had they got a hundred dollars apiece.

They was also uh they fed in subway sandwiches.

Then he turned around and blessed them five families with $950.

I split it up among them.

We also went to the Harlem Gold Travelers game, which is very interesting because our kids for the first time this year was able, 30 of them was able to interact with the Harlem Gold Travel's players and get autographs and take pictures.

I want to thank all the persons that was able to uh help make that happen for our 30 kids to go see the Holland Gold Traveler.

And once again, just like as the ice hogs, the school pay 500 to a thousand kids to go to see the ice hogs.

But when it comes to the Harlem Gold Travels, the school does not step up to the plate.

So instead of complaining about the school, what the school not doing, it's what we should be doing, and that's looking out for our uh looking out for our people.

Doing that kind of the hot and gold club, uh me and uh Alderman and Bell got uh um a little um uh let me turn this off.

They got a uh uh a little uh they brought us into the program.

Uh uh, I'm gonna speak on Bell first.

He came in there late.

The captain of the Holland uh gold uh travel players ran up there and they him and his entourage here up and sit down.

Lo and behold, just to show you how much they be paying attention, I call myself getting up, walking the uh go take a couple of the parents to the canteen.

All of a sudden I uh hear somebody captain on my shoulder, one of the parents telling me the book, I look around.

It's the captain of the Harlem Gold Travels players ask me, where are you going?

I said, I'm going to get some eat.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Uh you can't go, you can't get up in church.

You can't get up in my game.

Go go go sit back down.

And I'm looking at the kid laughing.

He said, 'Yes, your family.' I said, 'No, they in my program, renewal turning point program.' Then he turned around and told everybody, under 3,000 people there.

He told everybody, say, hello to Renewal Turning Point Program and Brother John.

Them 30 seconds of embarrassment of fame, I ain't gonna never forget.

But that's the best publicity in the world for them, the CR kids to be uh at the Holland Gold title gang.

So instead of complaining about what somebody doing or not doing, it's what we need to do is step up to the plate.

I'm gonna end my conversation about dictator want to be Donald Trump.

You knew doggone well, the only reason he went to Ben uh Venezuela was cutting the oil, the deepest oil in in the world.

Now, mind you, Colombia, Mexico, they got they got sections of their land that's controlled by the cocktail.

Why you didn't go where you know that actually where the drugs at?

And then why would you bomb boats leaving the uh leaving that uh country and not even getting on going on the boats to see if they had any drugs or not?

Dictated want to be Donald Trump.

Everywhere you see, he got his name posted up.

I will uh be back later to finish talking about Project 2025 and thank everyone that paid for our kids to go see the Holland Gold Travelers game.

And most of all you, Gene.

Thank you.

And um our next speaker uh is Ken Dickens.

Good evening.

I just want to take a couple of my seconds to acknowledge the gentleman that spoke.

And I I don't know if you know this about the history of Rosie the Riveter.

She was characterized after a black woman, but they made her white because it was the black woman that they took and forced them to go into the factories and work, and she was literally drawn based on what black women's efforts were, but to make it for warm and fuzzy for America, they did make her a white woman.

So that is actually a fact.

Rosie the riveter was designed on black women during our military times as well.

Just wanted you to hear that, but from here.

You're welcome.

Now, I will continue to talk about the uh cannabis grant, but different aspects of it, and the reason why I chose to continue to speak about it tonight is granted it it is was part of the budget prior to the end of the the close of last year.

My concern was and will be moving forward, the fact that Rockford ultimately ends up with a surplus.

Case in point three 31 million surplus revealed from 2022 Rockford City budget.

Rockford City Council approves approves 320, 300 and uh 32 million surplus spending plan.

Here's how it will be spent.

This was in December 19 of 19, December 19th, 2023.

October 8th, 2024, breakdown, Rockford's newly approved 23 million surplus revenue spending plan.

If history is going to repeat itself, we will have another one.

So for anyone to sit in here, it would be disingenuous to say it's an all or nothing, we have to spend it, and we can't replenish the Rockford Regro Grant.

And before I left, one of the main things that I heard that disgusted me, and yes, I'm using the word correctly in context.

It disgusted me to hear the pushback from some of the aldermen when that was even proposed to replenish it.

I even heard one alderman, I don't have to call him out.

You can pull the video if you want to watch the clip, where he literally shook his head, turned Brad Red and said, absolutely not.

When someone else suggested it and said, Well, if there is a surplus, sir, when you said it.

When you said it, when there is a surplus, why why wouldn't you?

Why wouldn't you replenish it?

That's what he said.

And the response came from the Alderman.

Absolutely not.

Dispended.

Keep in mind the money is an opportunity because it becomes seed money in the hands of a man who can't flip burgers because he has a felony.

Keep in mind that there are doctors and lawyers all over Illinois quitting their practice so they can become multimillionaires in five years.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

And um we'll go back to Lola May Parham if she is here.

Okay.

Uh seeing that she appear is not, um, we'll move into our agenda.

We have eight items.

Uh clerk, would you please call the roll?

Here you are first item is approval of the 2025-2026 contract between the City of Rockford and the Winnebago County Health Department for a tobacco enforcement program to conduct to conduct compliance checks.

Is there a motion to approve?

I'll second.

Are there any questions or comments on item one?

Elderwoman Torina.

Thank you.

I do have a question for the chief on this one.

Um obviously we've approved this in the past, but I guess I'm just seeing it with a fresh set of eyes this time.

Um it's it's it's a pretty small dollar amount.

It's like we're paying 11,000 a year for this program.

Is there?

Can you explain to me why the city is paying for this and not the county?

And if they're not, is that like a possible partnership?

Or can you just kind of give me a little bit more info about and then also I don't I don't know that I'm clear on what fund we're taking this from to legal?

I guess we're going to legal and not to the police chief.

Okay.

Yes, I'm sorry, if I could take that uh finger pointing here.

Whoever is the appropriate person.

So no, for the city of Rockford, this is a free program.

This is a grant um secured by the Winnebago County Health Department.

We spend the money up front.

We are reimbursed 100% by the county.

So it's a zero dollar for the city.

So yes.

Okay.

That's all.

That answers your question?

It does, thank you.

Are there any other questions or comments on this item?

Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item two, uh 32 XX Searles Avenue, zoning board of appeals recommends approval for a zoning map amendment from R3 multifamily residential zoning to R1, single family residential zoning at 32X Searles Avenue.

Melanie Ladig and Gary Hafferty are the applicants.

Is there a motion to approve?

Are there any questions or comments in item two?

Alderwoman Meeks.

Thank you for allowing me to speak on your committee.

I was just, I didn't get a chance to review this.

Um what was the reasoning for the change?

Uh Alder Woman Meeks, the woman bought this vacant lot that was at the end of a uh substreet that had been zoned R3, and she wanted to be uh attached to her property, which is zoned R1, so she just wanted to get one tax bill and keep it off the same zoning.

So that's why.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Are there any other questions or comments?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 3, 67 83 and 68 19 Fincham Drive and 88 or 886 and 891 Chapel, Whitechapel Lane.

Zoning Board of Appeals recommends approval for a zoning MAC amendment from C2 limited commercial zoning district to R2, two-family residential zoning district at 6783 and 6819 Fincham Drive and 886 and 891, White Chapel Lane.

LAS management is the applicant.

Is there a motion to approve?

Are there any questions or comments on item three?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 4, 2102 McFarland Road.

Zoning Board of Appeals recommends approval for a special use permit for an off-premise business sign in a C3 General Commercial Zoning District at 2102 McFarland Road.

First Perryville Development Corporation is the applicant.

I'll move.

This is 2102 McFarland Road.

I believe so.

I'm sorry, did somebody second?

Okay.

All right.

Do we Mr.

Capoville?

Do you want to explain what this is since not everyone apparently saw this?

Yeah, I think that's a good question.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um this is for a new Chase Bank that's going to go in.

Um if you're at the development there, um, I believe it's uh Anjali uh way or drive it comes in off of um Perryville and goes over to McFarland.

So there so between McFarland and Perryville, there's a large area, and a big portion of that on the fronting Perryville is actually detention pond.

So Chase will be sitting over on the McFarlane side, and they want to have signage that goes out to Perryville Road.

So it would actually be off-site and it would be on part of the detention pond and not on their property.

So are there any other questions or comments?

Alderman Durkey.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, this sign and this development is in my ward.

Um I'm opposed to this sign.

The reason being is um if uh it's not on any of your documents or or pictures.

When this uh first started uh years ago as Meyer and was going to be Perryville Promenade, the developer asked for an out of uh ordinance and asked for a special sign that's now placed on Rote Road and Perryville.

It's a large sign, it's uh made of brick, it's a nice sign.

And the reason why the developer asked for that is because of the the development, and he wanted a bigger sign so that people could see that.

Because obviously, we have enough sign jungles.

So along Perryville, council at the time made an exception for this larger sign with the anticipation of further development coming, and that's why we did it.

The developer then uh took advantage and put up another Verizon sign along Perryville.

Um so this is now turning into a signed jungle area.

Um most of the it's it'll be a Chase Bank.

Uh, if you've seen the Chase Bank, uh their sign is on their building, is big.

Uh if you drive by it, there's a light on Perryville, and there's a light up by Spring Creek.

So even if you drive past it for some reason you miss it, you don't need a big sign, you'll easily find it.

And to tell you the truth, banks and such, their drive-to destinations.

You don't need a sign to find them.

You got GPS.

So again, I I I uh I know this is unusual because I've uh supported some other sign, but it's avoiding a signed jungle, and it's putting a sign really where we don't need it.

And um, and I'm uh actually pretty strongly opposed to it because we already had an agreement with the developer for the larger sign on rote and Perryville that was out of compliance with our ordinances at the time.

We made an exception for that.

Are there any other questions or comments?

Alder Woman Prentice.

Did you want to can you um come not disconfirm it?

Um it's not that I disbelieve Alderman Durkey.

Would you have anything to add to that?

It's not that I disbelieve I'm asking the chairman if there's more that Mr.

Capavale can add to that.

I really don't think there's anything to add.

I mean that's uh no Alderman Durkey's welcome to his opinion on the situation and staff made a recommendation, and so did the zoning board.

Um I think what Alderman Alderwoman Prenti is asking, though, is is it correct that a larger sign than would have normally been allowed was granted when this development was first approved?

The the larger sign was granted uh off-site premise off-premise sign for the Meyer development as well as what was supposed to go to the north of Meyer on the east side of McFarland.

And that was going to be this uh a lifestyle center that never came to fruition.

So the idea of that sign at that time was to advertise businesses that would be a part of that lifestyle center.

And you had anticipated that space being used in that way, and are do you anticipate more this um I I can't you remember the term that um um Alder Woman Alderman Darke used um sign jungle sign jungle?

Yeah.

Um do you anticipate more people um asking for that or being able to ask for that?

Uh well we do not, but there could be more lots created north of the Chase property because between them and Bell Tyre, uh Bell Tyre is the last is the north end of the of the front part of the development.

So you have Bell and Chase, and then uh to the south of there, he is correct.

Verizon has their own sign.

I I believe there's another sign with a gas station, and then there's uh and then of course McDonald's will have their sign as well.

Um just north of that uh off-premise sign for Meyer.

Uh but I would anticipate that anything that would occur would be developed uh to the north of Meyer's development on the east side of McFarland, they would take they would have to take advantage of that signage that's off-premise on Perryville and Road.

Um, and that would be the location where they would get signage for Perry for the Perryville portion.

Uh if for any reason they wanted to ask for signage on Perryville directly across from that development, then they would have to come back through to this council, and then you could make a decision at that time.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions or comments on item four?

Um seeing none, clerk, will you call the roll on this one?

Yes.

Aye.

Um legal is is it with the roll call underway?

Is it too late for a motion to lay over?

Yes, I think we need to finish the vote.

So if the vote were to can a motion be brought to lay it over after it's approved by committee, it can just be brought in council later tonight, right?

On the two alderman rule.

So yes, it could be brought at council, but um in retrospect, since you were the one making the motion, I suppose you could withdraw it.

You can withdraw your motion if you wanted to.

We are in order, Mr.

Chair.

Alderman Bell.

Are we out of order here?

Out of order because process the motion and a second, and we call the roll.

We haven't finished calling the roll, and I'm asking for clarification from legal.

Okay.

Just ask.

Okay.

Um I will withdraw the motion.

But I believe you seconded it, Alderwoman Terina.

So did she need to withdraw the second as well?

Oh, did I second that?

I think she did.

You did second that.

I did.

Sorry, I've been.

I'll I'm withdrawing the motion if you'll withdraw the second.

That's fine, I'll withdraw.

I'm just gonna make the motion to actually lay it over, just because I don't want to say no without enough information.

So I'm gonna just ask that if we could try and lay it over just so we can get more information.

I'll make the motion to lay over.

And I'll second that.

So now can we have a roll call vote on the motion to lay this over?

Aye.

Karina?

Hi, Conte.

Yeah.

I thank you.

Motion to lay over passes.

Um item five.

Item five is um 1111 and 1115 5th Avenue, 1110 and 1120, 6th Avenue.

Zoning Board of Appeals recommends approval for a special use permit for a special event space in a C2 limited commercial zoning district at 1111 and 1115 Fifth Avenue, 1110, 1120, 6th Avenue.

Anahi Rabi is the applicant.

Is there a motion to approve?

Are there any questions or comments on item five?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Oh question.

People say clarified in the memo how many parking spaces there was that just said there should be enough.

Did we actually get an actual count of what the parking was here?

Uh Elder One Torina, we actually um are waiting for a site plan from them, but there is a large parking lot to the south.

There's um it's on the aerial photographs that we have.

Yeah, you can't see the striping, so we really can't figure it out.

Well, but just kind of an you know an estimate that we believe could be there.

We think that's it'll be adequate to handle that.

Oh, it'll be more than 30.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

That's now two interrupted votes in a row, all of them and Torina.

It's fine.

Um, can we re read redo that vote?

All those in favor of item five signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item six.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, item six, yes, 1111 and 1115, Fifth Avenue, 1110, and 1120, 6th Avenue.

Liquor and Tobacco Advisory Board recommends approval for the sale of liquor by the drink, class NGL in conjunction with a special event space in a C2 limited commercial zoning district at the 1111 through 1115 Fifth Avenue, 1110 and 1126th Avenue, Anahi Ruby, Daniel Palacios, Azul Ruby, Dominguez, Spider on Quinta, LLC doing business as spider on Quinta is the applicant, are the applicants.

Is there a motion to approve item six?

I'll second.

All those in favor, please signify are there.

I'm sorry, any questions or comments on items, item six.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, for allowing me to speak.

Uh the two items five and six.

I had a good conversation with the applicant.

Um they are trying to just uh bring some uh light to this uh more of a community family-based.

Um they are seeking the liquor license as well as part of serving some cocktails and some of the banquet.

Uh but more importantly, it's more for the community-based and doing seminars and stuff like that since they also their partner has a roofing company, so they're trying to figure out some workforce development there as well as some seminars there.

So it's more geared towards a community-based banquet space uh for the community as a whole and make it more of a family uh perspective.

That's my understanding from the family and the applicants that I had that discussion with them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions or comments in item six?

All the women, Torina.

Is there is there machines, game machines in this one?

No.

No.

Whenever you see the NG means no gaming.

So I just want to make sure I'll just ask my co-worker that thinks.

I forget.

Any other questions or comments on item six?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item seven, 1060 West Riverside Boulevard, Liquor and Tobacco Advisory Board recommends approval for the sale of liquor by the drink, NGL in conjunction with the restaurant and a C2 limited commercial zoning district at 1060 West Riverside Boulevard, Daisy De Hero, Casa Amigos Mexican Restaurant, LLC doing business as Casamigos Mexican Grill is the applicant.

Is there a motion or is there a motion to approve on item number seven?

I'll second.

Are there any questions or comments in item seven?

Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

And item eight, 22, I'm sorry, 2327, North Main Street.

Liquor and Advisor Liquor and Tobacco Advisory Board recommends approval for the modification of an existing liquor license to add video gaming terminals to an existing restaurant in a C2 limited commercial zoning district at 2327 North Main Street.

Thomas Rotolo, Olympic Tavern Incorporated, doing business as Olympic Tavern is the applicant.

Is there a motion to approve?

I'll second.

Are there any questions or uh comments on item number eight?

Alderman Beach.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

For letting me speak on your committee.

Just a question.

Are we still guided by the number of units that we can have to still maintain our agreement?

I believe that was part of the packet, and I the numbers I don't I don't have that in front of me, maybe.

It is so we we're still um I we're capped at 600 per the agreement with the hard rock.

And uh currently, if you looked on the uh packets, um we're we have 527 that have been issued.

There's 50 that have not been issued, but uh attorney Rubin and I will be looking over that because we think out of that 50, probably 25 are gone, and people there's 25 that are still waiting.

And then with this two.

So technically our number right now would be at 579 total approved, but but and are author authorized.

Um but the actual number is 527.

Thank you very much.

How many terminals are they asking?

Do we added just two?

Okay, thank you.

Um Mr.

Capavilla, can you elaborate that on that by gone?

Um do you mean I I I know there were some in the 14th ward several years ago where um they applied for say five and were only awarded three, and then um decided not to apply, go forward with just three, I believe that is a establishment that is now on the sixth ward, but um is that the sort of thing we're talking about?

Uh gone partially, yes, but uh we have some people that applied um for these, and uh for some reason or another they didn't open the business.

Um and so there's no business that is opened, and in a couple situations there's existing bars, and we're not exactly sure why they haven't been granted those, or reach out to the state and we'll find out.

We do know that there was a bar in Rockford that was denied gaming by this by the state, so even though we had approved it, they were denied by the state.

So we also had that situation with the truck stop in the first ward, where I believe we approved the VGTs, but they needed to re-establish that they're actually a truck stop before they could be issued.

Is that also in the 50s?

If we're talking about the old gas station, it's now a truck stop, yes.

So all right.

Um thank you.

Any other questions or comments on item eight?

Uh seeing uh none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Meeting is adjourned.