The Finance and Personnel Committee of the City of Rockford met on Monday, July 27, 2026 at 5:30 PM in City Hall. The meeting included an invocation, pledge of allegiance, public comments, information-only presentations on financials and a departmental realignment, and unanimous approval of all consent and resolution items. A notable announcement regarding the mayor’s early departure was also mentioned during public comment.
We're all good right now. I got a lot of people. Good evening. Welcome to our committee meeting agenda. But before we begin, we will have an invocation by Pastor James Jones of House of God Church. That's our needs for a word of prayers. Gracious and wise creative, most humble loving God. Lord God, we come to this place that you've appointed at this time and at this place. Lord God, we thank you for what you've done for this great city, Rockford. Lord God, we thank you for the citizenship that resides in this great city. Father God, we thank you for each officer, our mayor in particular, the automatic staff, the men and women that you have ordained, O God, to conduct the business for the city of Rockford. Lord God, we ask you in a humble manner, Father, please continue to endow our mayor and the entire council with clear minds and open heart. Grant them and rededicate, Lord, them with the wisdom and a steadfast courage, Lord, to continue to do what is right for all that are within this great community. Father God, we ask you to continue to give us the stamina that we may be able to face the challenges of today and all those that will come down the road. Please, Holy Father, grant them a never-ending strength to lead with honesty and integrity in all that they do. Help them, Lord, that everyone in this room, Father, be good listeners, speak with respect, and care for the common good of their brothers and sisters and the precious children in our community. Guide our choices that our city may grow in peace, safety, fairness, and love for all. Help us, Father, to always remember. And with special emphasis to the precious children within our beautiful diverse community. Father God, we ask you to continue to strengthen us. All these blessings and all these things we receive and ask. In your darling son, Jesus' name. The Lamb of God we say. Amen. I pledge a leaders to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic, which is one nation, under God, indivisible, with literature as well. Before we begin the meetings, we'll have our uh public participation. Uh it's three minutes. I'll set an alarm when the timer goes off. That's your cue to be done. Uh first we have John Lawrence. John Lawrence, I want to talk about our other department. Last year, I was here about a $600 bill for one month. One month. Then it mysteriously corrected itself, and every bill since then has been 52. Okay. I ended up having to pay that $600 excess on that water bill. Uh got no help on it. Um I remained on automatic payment, which is taken out of the credit card every month. That worked fine for a while. It worked in January, worked in February, March, April, and May. Every month it went through policy. All of a sudden, I get an email in June. I'm going to read it to you. Not that long. This email is to confirm that an attempted payment on 627 of 26 electric bill presentment and payment for your city of Rockford account that gives a number has failed. The payment of $50.23 cents that was made on 627 of 26 with confirmation number, and they read that, has been declined, and we received a final return. The funding source that we attempted to debit or charge for this payment is your funding account number, ending with, and it gives the last four numbers of my visa card. Your account will be charged $25 return fee. Customers who payments that have been it goes on.