City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. This meeting of the Aurora City Council for August 25, 2026 is hereby called to order at 6 PM. I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Alderman Barrera? Here. Alderwoman Garza? Here. Alderman Maciakos? Present. Alderman Nunez? Here. Alderman Branco? Here. Alderman Savelle? Here. Alderman Ben-Wales? Here. Alderwoman Smith? Here. Alderman Buck? Alderwoman Babe? Here. Alderman Larson? Here. Alderman White?

Here.

Mayor Lash is present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Is there a motion to approve the appointment of Sergeant at Arms for this meeting? So moved. Second. Motion was made by Alderman Smith, second by Alderman Franco. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries by voice vote. Tonight's Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Alderman White.

under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Alderman. Next, we'll move to the Mayor's report. Take it away, John.

Thank you so much, Mayor. We have a very special recognition to get to here tonight for an Aurora resident and IMSA manager who conquered the Mississippi River. Let's watch.

An Aurora man is making Chicago proud with his incredible feat of endurance. And tonight, the Aurora City Council plans to honor Grant Bell.

Yeah, he ran the entire length of the Mississippi River to raise money for childhood cancer research. Over the course of June and July, he ran 2,139 miles. To Louisiana's Gulf Coast, he averaged 41 miles a day and finished this whole thing in just 52 days.

More than a marathon a day.

Yeah, a day. Man, was he rolling.

He's incredible.

Give it up for Aurora's own Branch Bell. 41 miles per day, 52 days, and $12,000 raised for childhood cancer research. What a feat. Grant is here now along with the president of IMSA, Dr. Evan Glazer, as Mayor John Lash presents a special recognition.

Outstanding.

I'm going to let Mr. Bell do most of the talking tonight, but I want to make sure that we honor an Aurora hero with a Mayor's Award of Excellence. It is honorably presented to Grant Bell for conquering the Mississippi River Trail, running the entire length of the river in just 52 days, and raising over $12,000 for childhood cancer. Your endurance, dedication, and service to the city make us all proud. Thank you so much. Turn the microphone over to Mr. Bell. You can tell us a little bit about what motivated you and what it was like and the biggest challenge. Absolutely.

Well, thank you all again. Yeah, so ran the full length of the Mississippi River. I grew up in Minnesota along the Mississippi River. I went to college down in the Quad Cities along the Mississippi River. Just always had an affinity for it and spent lots of time running on the trails. uh... parts of the way uh... but then uh... wanted wanted to make an attempt at the entire length and didn't really have a cause until about two years ago my niece was diagnosed with uh... with cancer bone cancer uh... as a young woman uh... and that's always always hard many of us are affected by cancer in our families or in ourselves uh... so we really just wanted to to put a cause to the effort uh... again like Like the mayor said, we've raised a little over $12,000 on our GoFundMe page for childhood cancer research. Coming up in September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, so we're definitely going to keep it open through then, accepting donations. We ran an average 41 miles a day for 52 days, a little over 2,100 miles for the full length of the Mississippi River, starting at the headwaters in Minnesota all the way down through southern Louisiana. Luckily, we didn't have too many difficulties other than just running really far in some pretty hot weather. We had about three weeks straight where it touched 100 degrees for heat index. So those got pretty toasty days. But didn't twist an ankle, didn't get a flat tire, didn't get hit by a car. just ran through some heat, ran through some rain, and we were able to make it through. So, awesome.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

What an inspirational story here in Aurora. And if you want to hear more about Grant and hear more about his story, he's going to be live tonight at 840 on Box 32 for their pre-news show. So if you want to see him live on TV, you can do so tonight at 840. One more round of applause for Grant Bell. Amazing work. A couple more pieces of news before we conclude the report here tonight. The city's GAR Museum, in partnership with the Aurora Historical Society, opened up a 100-plus-year-old time capsule on Saturday and included a number of interesting relics. Let's hear what our museum director, Eric Frey, had to say on FOX 32 from last night.

So you open up a time capsule, and from what I understand, this is about 100 years plus old, correct? Yeah, so we estimate about 104 years old. The old Masonic Lodge that burned down in 2019, that in the cornerstone, this time capsule was placed, we believe, on September 9th of 1922. That's incredible. So what were some of the things that were found in here? Well, first, the first thing that pulled out, I believe, was the blueprints to the whole building, which is absolutely fascinating. As a historian, as somebody who works in historical preservation, this is just an incredible find, especially since we no longer have that building. So now we're able to look back at it and hopefully have it on display for other future architects and historic preservationists to learn from and take a look at. That's just one of them. Of course, we also bought a couple newspapers, one of which, as you can see on the screen, the Aurora Beacon News from the day before. And then in that envelope is the Aurora Star from that morning that they placed the time capsule in the cornerstone.

A round of applause for the GAR and the Aurora Historical Society.

Fascinating find here in Aurora.

Residents are going to have the opportunity to actually view those items in the months to come over at the Aurora Historical Society's museum. It's right down the street here at 20 East Downer Place, so be sure to check those out. And finally, just a reminder that the internet self-response period for the 2026 special census has now closed, so the mailings have ended. Your ability to respond online is going to be over, but don't fear, there's going to be many more opportunities to respond. The enumeration process is going to be getting underway here very soon, so if you get a knock on your door or a phone call from the Census Bureau, we encourage you to please respond. Your responses are safe and confidential. And, of course, by responding, you can help the city recover millions of dollars in federal funding. If you have more questions about that, visit our website, aurora.il.us, slash special census. That's going to conclude my portion of the report. Next up, we're going to have a presentation from the Compassion Foundation. They're based right here in Aurora. Thank you.

Thank you, John. You guys are waiting for the PowerPoint slides. Yeah. Let John get over there. He'll pop them up soon. Not a problem.

Appreciate the time tonight.

Do you want to just introduce yourselves? Sure. First and last name?

John Schmidt. I'm the president of the Compassion Foundation.

Margaret McKenna, secretary of the Compassion Foundation.

Thank you. Looks like we're ready to roll. Awesome.

Thanks. Appreciate the time tonight. We're really just trying to get the word out about Compassion Foundation. We've been in Aurora and serving the Aurora community for over 37 years. I know some of you up there, I'm familiar with a few of you, but grew up in Aurora. The Compassion Foundation is a non-for-profit and when it was started back in the 80s, our idea was just how can we help other non-for-profits that would be light on funding, state level, city level, whatever it might be. So when it was founded in 1989, that was their goal is how can they help other organizations, right? So myself, Anthony, Dan, Maggie, that's our goal today, right? So typically we do a golf outing in August. It's always the first Monday. We also use Aurora country club. So we try and stay in the area because all of our founders were from the area. Most of the people we support are in the area. We don't offer grants to people outside of the area. Really. We try and stay inside the Aurora community mostly. As you can see on the screen, we've helped out many in Aurora, VNA, mutual ground, day one, you know, hands of hope. So just a few people, we try to give out just so everybody's aware. between 35 and $40,000 a year. So again, nobody's taking a salary. We don't have rent. We have zero bills with the exception of like credit card processing fees just to take in donations and golf outing stuff. Everything we raise, we try to give back to the community. This is just some additional things that we do in the organizations that we've helped over the 37 plus years. But one of the things that we do that I think is unique is over the 37 years, we've raised a lot of money. So we have a small endowment fund that also kicks off interest, right? And our biggest problem is just getting our name out in the community and getting people to help support us. Whether it's volunteering at the golf outing, or getting the word out about the outing or just getting it out to other charities or volunteer organizations that need help in the community. So all we're looking to do tonight is really just get the word out about compassion foundation. So, um, how we make a difference. Um, you can see in there, like last year we donated diapers to Aurora food pantry and hosted house because those were some things that they needed. Right? So typically in the grant process, We ask organizations to supply us with a list of things they need, right? So we can either purchase them for them or we give a grant that's directed to specific needs, right? We know Mutual Ground's doing some renovations, so we've helped them out in the past with some donations just to help their facilities, right? Or create more space for people that are in need. So that's all we do, really. We had more youth programs in the past. There was one, I don't know if anybody's familiar with it, It used to be called Aurora Children's Dental Network and it was great. A lot of dentists in Aurora would offer reduced pricing and we would cover bills for kids that their parents didn't have dental insurance, right? Or they had dental issues and nurses in the Aurora school system would contact somebody and we would give them $5,000 a year to fix kids' teeth. That's something that went away just over a year ago. The lady, you know, shut it down. She had no help. But those are some of the programs that we're interested in helping. And we only know what we know. Enough people don't go through the web. We don't have anybody working for our organization. So we're not huge on Instagram or anything like that, right? So we just wanted to get our word out to you guys so that if there's any organizations in your areas that need help, We just want you to think about us so we can partner with them. And that's about it. Any questions?

Any questions? Alderwoman Smith.

So I see that this is a list of organizations. Do you help individuals, individual families, or is it more through an organization?

We stay with the organizations. We do help individuals that might get help through an organization. We did a veterans charity. this last year where there was a veteran who owned his home and it was built for him, but he had his furnace go out, right? So that veteran organization was looking for a grant to redo his furnace and his heat for the winter. So we made a donation to that charity and then they contracted out like the HVAC and we got a new furnace for him.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Alderman White.

Two questions regarding the golf outing. When's the date and how many volunteers do you typically need?

We, over 37 years now, this was the first year we didn't have it due to circumstances. But it is always the first Monday in August at Aurora. We probably need 15 to 20 volunteers. What we really need help with is just getting the word out about it to get additional golfers or get companies in the area to sponsor and things like that. All of the money that we raise is either from the outing or sponsorships from communities or foundations in the area that believe in our cause to help other charities that are lacking funding. Obviously a lot of those that we showed you on the screen They used to receive most of their funding through the state of Illinois, and funding has been cut by the state. So we can't obviously make up all of that, but we try to make up some of it.

Thank you both. I know you're in the Fox Valley area, but not all your members are. But we thank you for prioritizing Aurora and working to support the families that are hard hit here.

Thank you. Absolutely. Appreciate the time. Thank you all.

OK, I'll ask the clerk to please read the first item under Mayoral Appointments.

260469, a resolution authorizing the appointment of Shanita Anderson to the Aurora Planning and Zoning Commission.

Is there a second? OK, there is a motion made by Alderman Smith, second by Alderman Seville. Are there any questions or discussions regarding this resolution? There being none, I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Barrero? Yes. Garza? Yes. Maciakos? Yes. Nunez? Yes. Franco? Yes. Sabell? Yes. Benuelo? Yes. Smith? Yes. Bade? Yes. Larson? Yes. White? Yes. 11 yes, 0 no.

Motion carries. This resolution is adopted. Is Ms. Anderson here this evening? Yes. OK. Please stand. Why don't you come to the front and take a quick photograph. Thank you for your service.

And you are returning.

You were previously on the planning and zoning.

Yes, I was on for six years.

So I did a couple years on that. Three, one, two, and three.

And with that appointment, if there's any questions, that does complete the full planning and zoning board. So the board is fully staffed. Next is public comment. Madam Clerk, do we have any members of the public wish to offer public comment?

Yes, we do.

And will you please read the rules for public comment?

Pursuant to the Open Meetings Act, all persons shall be permitted an opportunity to address public officials under the rules established and recorded by the council. Under our rules, any person may address the city council for up to three minutes with a maximum of 30 minutes allotted for all public comment. No person other than the timekeeper or the chair for the purpose of maintaining order may interrupt a person recognized for public comment during his or her comments. Members of the city council shall not engage with nor respond to a speaker during the time set aside for public comment. Staff is directed to follow up with members of the public with respect to any concerns raised during public comment within the scope of the city's authority following the adjournment of this meeting.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Before we get started, just say, do we have a long list of public commenters? So if we could hold the applause down and just try and move through the list as quickly as possible.

Madam Clerk, if you could note that Alderman Buck has joined us. Thank you.

Okay.

The record show alderman Bugg has joined us. And I'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the first person wishing to offer public comment.

Lee Angelo.

Is there a Lee Angelo? Miss Angelo? Lee Angelo? OK. I'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the next person wishing to offer public comment.

Sharon Foster.

Is there a Sharon Foster? Welcome to Take Either Podium. Welcome, Ms. Foster. You have three minutes beginning now.

Thank you. Greetings to the honorable Mayor John Laish and to everyone in their respectful places, all of the aldermen and alderwomen of Aurora. I am here on behalf of the Greater Mount Olive Church of God in Christ in Aurora, Illinois. I'm here to extend a personal invitation to community leaders. We respectfully extend this invitation to elected officials, government leaders, community and civic leaders, business professionals and faith-based organizations. Friends and supporters of Greater Mount Olive, your presence would greatly be appreciated as an expression of support to the pillars of our church to support the Pastor Gregory L. Jones and First Lady Dorothy Jones as they continue the honorable work and legacy of Bishop William H. Bonner. We are having any event this following Saturday and it is a community event, um, a Southern breakfast, and we are inviting each and every one of you to attend. Um, the ticket donations are $25, uh, to celebrate a legacy of faith service and community. Uh, Bishop Bonner served in this community, uh, for a, for more than eight decades. Greater Mount Olive was founded in 1944, and as we all know, he was a pillar in the community for over 72 years. The legacy of the Greater Mount Olive is inseparable for life and ministry of its founding pastor. Bishop passed on August 29th of 2016 after 72 years of pastoral service in the community of Aurora. His children have taken on following in their father's footsteps. Dorothy Jones is the daughter of Bishop Bonner, and Pastor Gregory Jones is the son-in-law. They continue to build upon this remarkable heritage of faith and service. As we vastly approach their sixth pastoral celebration on September 20th at 3 p.m., It would be an honor not only for their dedication to Greater Mount Olive, but also for the enduring legacy of the family whose roots are deeply woven into the history of the congregation and the community of Aurora. I'm sorry. So we're honoring the past, celebrating the present, building the future. I do have tickets available today. if you would be willing to support this great event and to celebrate the legacy of our leaders.

Thank you, Ms. Foster. Thank you. We'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the next person who wants to offer public comment.

Danny Suri. No.

Welcome, Mr. Suri. You have three minutes beginning now.

Good evening, everybody. Well, John, another couple weeks, another embarrassment you give us. I got a great divorce lawyer for you, but we'll get to that in a minute. Let me give a quick update on the recall process. So as you guys all know, we turned in our signatures. We're going through the objections process right now. Doing a phenomenal job with that. And actually, we'll give some props to some of the folks you have working on your side, extremely professional. I'm not going to mention their names, but very nice people. So we're going through all this, John, and you recently just gave a statement to the press that said, you can't focus on your job here because you're too busy worrying about and working on the recall petition. One of the most pathetic things you have ever said. You've been the mayor for over a year. This recall has been in place for only about 60, 90 days. Why do we not have a fire chief? Why does AFSCME not have a contract? Why are you driving up and down the highways chasing ICE agents? I know, maybe to impress your girlfriend, but we'll get to that too. All the work that you could have been doing while you were here, You decide to go and do other stuff and you want to complain that we're taking your time away? You as the mayor knocking on people's doors at 8 o'clock at night demanding for them to verify their signatures is the worst mistake you could possibly make. But I'm not expecting you to use intelligence here. There's a big difference between me coming and knocking on your door to have a conversation. You're the elected mayor. They're private citizens. But I want to switch to that. I want to switch to another subject. Because you have just been served divorce papers this past week. This has been a secret to quite a few people. How do you as the sitting mayor win the election and you take it from a guy that's been here for eight years, you get married a couple days later and you're not celebrating like you just won the Super Bowl? Maybe because this was a marriage of convenience. Because now this woman who lives in Batavia, whose children she will not allow to go to school in Aurora to be amongst the children of this community, are now getting all their health insurance and benefits taken care of. And now that she divorced you, the city's probably gonna have to pay for that for quite some time. Between your first ex-wife, and now you're about to have a second ex-wife, and now you're dating a girl half your age, you're literally the Donald Trump of Aurora. I never thought I'd see that day. Here's the bottom line, bro. The embarrassment you have put on people, we still don't have a fire chief. You have all these people in the city that you keep raising taxes on, but you can give special favors, whether it be someone from your campaign helping with Ms. Garcia on two paychecks, this convenient wife of yours, and her getting all these health benefits for her kids. This is the time that you need to really focus on the people, claim to be the man that you are, and you need to resign from this office. You have been nothing but an embarrassment. What you do in the dark is pathetic. This is the city of lights, my guy.

Thank you, Mr. Sori. I'll ask the clerk, please read the name of the next person wishing to offer public comment. I'll ask the clerk to please call the name of the next person wishing to offer public comment.

Ronald Cobol.

Welcome, Mr. Cobol. You have three minutes.

Thank you very much. Glad to be here. My thing is about the Aurora Road sanitary sewer improvements. During my, Ron Cole, development of a self-storage facility at 819 North Leola Road, currently owned and operated by Storage Mart, the need of a sanitary sewer was necessary. There was, to the immediate neighboring south, business with municipal sanitary sewer that could have served, but it was inescapable desire by the city to develop and implement a sanitary sewer improvement to the north. This included a run together with implementation of many manholes from the northwest corner of Yola Road and Liberty Street under Yola Road to the northeast corner of the same under Liberty Street to the southeast corner of the same, then passing through the easements of five properties to finally make it to the self-sorge parcels. City of Aurora informed me that at the onset of this development, that my reimbursement would be the form of implementing an ordinance establishing the cost of recapture. On August 28, 2012, this was voted on and approved by the city of aurora 12 i and zero nays the recapture expires 15 years from the time of approval thus nearing its time of expiration unfortunately there has not been a single development of parcels identified in this recapture agreement during the past 15 years there has been a span of years where commercial business was experiencing recession and during Its rebound, COVID, stifled business development, even producing significant business properties vacant. Hope of these parcels becoming commercially developed during those many years has taken an overwhelming hit. Most recently, though, parcels on the west side of Europe across from the recaptured identified parcels have experienced development, thus a good sign that more development is likely. My request of the Aurora City Council is to support the implementation of an extension of this ordinance recapture so that I can have a chance to recover some, not zero, of the cost implementing the sanitary sewer improvements that this ordinance intends to establish. And it's essentially this, rather than receiving zero, some part of that $216,000 in costs that the recapture outlines.

Thank you, Mr. Covel. I'll ask the Chief of Public Works to give you a short update.

You'll just hang around and maybe step outside. Thank you.

I'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the next person and wish to offer public comment.

Erin Barczyk.

Welcome, Mr. Barczyk. You have three minutes beginning now.

Thank you. Thank you. So today I just wanted to find out more information on flock cameras and axon cameras being used by the City of Aurora. So I got into contact with apparently the only person that I could track down who can give me some information, which was, I think his name is Jim Lavecki at the police department. So I will read a brief summarization of our email correspondence today. So I said, good morning, as a resident in Aurora, I was looking for information regarding flock and axon cameras in Aurora. Can you walk me through the big picture of who accepts these contracts with flock and axon? Police, city council, how are these cameras used and who is accountable for them? Jim responded quickly and said, thank you for reaching out regarding the Aurora Police Department use of LPRs. It says that we understand there's been lots of number of questions and concerns about this technology. Going on to say that as other technology and services used by the department, contracts are reviewed through the city's established procurement, city council, police department evaluates operational need and proposed technology, and contracts requiring city council approval are presented publicly for consideration and a vote. Sorry, I wasn't there. Missed that one. These decisions are not made solely by the police department. Going on to say that one of the, that's a tool for investigations, yada, yada, yada. Capture license plates, vehicle information in public areas, recover stolen vehicles. Recognizing the responsibility that comes with the use of the technology, department policy establishes safeguards governing how LPR information is accessed, used, retained, and shared. Access is restricted, trained, and authorized personnel for legitimate law enforcement purposes, and systems are in place to document access and provide for oversight and accountability. Going on. glazing the technology for several account cases of how they've been used. And I said, thank you for your prompt and succinct response to my inquiry. I believe we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but I also know snakes hide in tall grass. How do we know data collected by flock is secure? Are there terms and agreements that are publicly available? How do we know who has access to the data and when? Does Flock sell information to third party on their databases, such as insurance companies? Is there a third party group monitoring use of the technology and flagging abuse? Can the public quickly and easily get a record of police queries in Flock databases? Has there been misuse of the system? On top of this, there's also Axon. Is it being used? And so, all these questions pertain to that. Oh, I'm running out of time. He said, basically, Our intent with the information I provided was to explain how the Aurora Police Department uses technology, the safeguards and oversight governing that use, and some examples of how we've seen from it. We believe the technology has been proven to be an effective safety and investigative tool when used responsibly and in accordance with department policy and state law. At this point, though, I think the information we provided best represents the department's perspective and practices, and I don't have anything further to add on these broader issues.

Your three minutes is up. Thank you for your comments, Mr. Bartosz.

A non-answer, pathetic response.

I'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the next person wishing to offer public comment.

Brenda Lee.

Welcome, Ms. Lee. You have three minutes beginning now.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Brenda Lee. This is my fourth City Hall town meeting, and I am here to put deliberate indifference and an abuse of power on the public record. Hesod House placed my disabled family into four consecutive homes with severe code violations. The last landlord was Ratna Kapoor, Hesod House's board member. When I exposed this The Hesed House retaliated exactly 20 hours after I read Ryan Dowd's email on this microphone. Karen Whitney from the Hesed House emailed me claiming that I suddenly owed $5,000 to Aurora Housing from 2016. Now Ryan Dowd is trying to force a soft transfer of my file to AID to escape legal liability. They're all in cahoots. We say absolutely not. This city protects the closed loop of power. Ratna Kapoor sits on the board of the Hesed House. Her husband, Girish Kapoor, is the city chairman. They protect each other while leaving my disabled family isolated in a hotel on Route 59 with no services or no caseworkers. We demand stop the retaliation. I demand a full criminal investigation. I demand a forensic financial audit. I demand you freeze all municipal funding to the Hesed House. I will be here every second and fourth Tuesday until my family gets justice. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the next person wishing to offer public comment.

Marilena Arroyo Dorado.

Welcome, Ms. Jurado. You have three minutes beginning now.

Hello. How are we doing today? My name is Maria Elena Arroyo Jurado. I am the founder, director, and CEO of the new not-for-profit organization Mission Jade, which is justice awareness, dedication, education. And it aims towards miscarriages, stillborns, and reproductive rights. I'm here to talk about the recent activities how APD helped aid and outside agencies of a woman obtaining an abortion procedure. To me, I feel like that is a violation of her rights, and I feel like something needs to be done in accordance to the flat camera system aiding in this. With the new CDC director, Erica Swartz, taking on the position of enacting into law a national abortion ban, which will track anyone trying to achieve abortion procedures, even in the blue states, and with the current Attorney General Todd Blanch, who is trying to call upon a national abortion ban across this entire 50 United States, including that of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. I am here to advocate on the fact of mother who have miscarried twice. It is barbaric to put these laws into place and to demand incarceration of a woman who has miscarried due to Whatever reason is, there's no set stone of what causes a miscarriage. It could be due to genetics. It could be there's a plethora of things. I'm sorry about that. There's a plethora of things that can cause a miscarriage. And for someone like myself, I could be incarcerated for losing a child. I am calling for... I'm calling for an audit and to be able to hold the Aurora Police Department accountable for sharing information towards outside agencies and including within the municipal government as far as Naperville, North Aurora Police Department, or anybody else because outside agencies were able to obtain the records from the rural police department where the rural police department did redact that information from the public viewing. But other municipal governments and outside agencies like Missouri are able to come in and look at our database system and still be able to share that information. So are anybody who's trying to seek abortion care and health care really safe in the city if we are redacting this information, if we're going to be able to share this information with other municipal governments? I am only one person alone, and I cannot do this fight alone. I have flyers here for anybody in the community who wants to help my organization out and advocate for those who cannot. I have it right here. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Jurado. Ms. Burke, please read the name of the next person to offer a public comment.

Anonymous Aurora resident.

Welcome, Ms. Anonymous. You have three minutes beginning now.

Flock cameras are unpatriotic, and I don't want to forfeit my freedom to move around this country by getting tracked. Too many police departments use or misuse information for personal use, illegal use, and it's often with impunity. Yes, there are many officers that are really community-based and do a fantastic job, but there are some throughout this country or in the community who have done a disservice and are not doing their job and are misusing that information. We've even had, unless I'm mistaken, in recent weeks an officer in the APD who had issues by misusing flock information for their personal use. A flock is a waste of money and it's not as effective as they had hoped and there's no guardrails in place to limit its use when it's being abused. If it's so good at tracking crime, then why are there so many unsolved murders? Why are there so many missing kids? Why are there so many murders of indigenous women, sex trafficking, et cetera? Can we just cancel those contracts? Can we cover them up on the street corners? Can we just stop using them? Because they're not really as effective as people would like. How long is that information being stored in data centers? And is anyone personally and or in a business financially benefiting by selling our personal information? Yeah, right, like they can be trusted to self-monitor themselves for misuse and abuse of the flock system. It's like the fox guarding the hen house, and it cannot be trusted. On a side note, Many people are unaware that the folks that are sitting up here, by design of these meetings, are not allowed to speak up, to rebuttal. I think it's atrocious that there's people bringing people's personal business into this room. It has absolutely nothing to do with their job, and I could give a flying rip what they do in their personal life as long as they do their damn job, and I think that they're doing it well. They are progressive and they're helping this city. Some people are just coming here lately to attack people because they have a weird mental fixation. They fly around with lies and false accusations. It's total BS, and actually they're projecting what they're doing. There is no one who is going out and threatening certain people in this room. They have some bizarre and unhinged, unfounded stuff, and there's no evidence to support it. They think that because they can come here every week and say the same crap, that it's true. But just because you repeat it doesn't mean it's true and ethical or happened. The reason there's three police officers in here, for anybody who's been a frequent flyer in here, there's usually only one officer. Well, there's three tonight, and that's probably because there's some people in here that they have to pay attention to because they are unstable and they're unpredictable. Thank you.

Your three minutes is up. Last clerk, please read the name of the next person. We should offer a public comment.

Keith K.

Welcome, Mr. Kaye.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I'm here this evening to just implore you to hear the words of these Aurora residents here who are asking you to investigate avenues for shedding yourselves of the flat contract that this city has. Cities like Los Angeles that are far larger than this city have already done so, citing a 32% false positive rate on hits that they got within this system. Every single one of those is a waste of man hours, resources, and money, and invites legal liability for the city. You should try to shed yourselves of this as quickly as possible, and I cannot think of anything more un-American than developing dragnet searches and using that to police your citizens. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. K. I'll ask, please read the name of the next person who should offer public comment.

Amy Massaro.

Welcome, Ms. Massaro. You have three minutes beginning now.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name's Amy Massaro, and today I'm here to talk about flock cameras and how they've been popping up, obviously, all over the United States and here in Aurora. The reason why I'm here today to speak on my behalf is I've had my license plate stolen off my car three times in the past two months. The last time, um, the APD that helped make the report said it was a 16th call that day. So I don't know what flocks doing, but it's not helping us. We hear stories of people, you know, trying to seek medical care in a different state. They're being, um, you know, investigated because of flock and I don't want to live in a mass surveilled state. I want to be able to walk my animals, proceed along the street without being possibly even harassed for something I didn't do just because my face or my plate was appeared on a flock camera. I think they're a complete waste of money, invasion of privacy. And again, I don't see them doing any bit of help. in our community whatsoever. So I just want to say, we need to get the flock out. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Passaro. Last clerk, please read the name of the next person wishing off her public comment.

Anna Nunez.

Welcome, Ms. Nunez. You have three minutes beginning now.

I will be quick. My name is Anna Nunez. I'm a public affairs specialist for the US Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. And I see I have a cousin there. Thank you for allowing me to share information about the Illinois Disaster Declaration 21757 that's impacting the city of Aurora. Yesterday, we opened up disaster loan offices. And so I'm here to very quickly share the news about information impacting the city of Aurora. So the city of Aurora is unique because your residents comprise four different counties. And so there are different benefits impacting those residents depending upon the county that they reside in. I will follow up in writing if my time cuts off. and I will send all the information in writing. So the SBA announced the availability of low-interest federal disaster loans for Illinois small businesses, private nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and residents affected by the severe storms that occurred on July 2nd through the 4th. The SBA issued a disaster declaration in response to a request received by Governor JB Pritzker on August the 5th. So we respectfully request that you, your assistance in promoting this information on your website through your newsletters via email to your residents about the help that is available. The SBA's long-term The low interest rates are available to help survivors rebuild, get businesses back, and make property improvements that eliminate future damage and save lives. Homeowners and renters can use the loans to replace personal property. There is no need to wait for settled insurance claims, potential FEMA grants, or contractor estimates, and you do not have to own a business to apply for an SBA disaster loan. So the city of Aurora is located, again, in Kane County, Oregon, is designated a primary county. And they are eligible for three different small business disaster loans. And those residents that are in DuPage, Kendall and Will counties are contiguous counties. And they are only eligible for economic injury disaster loans. I'm going to quickly explain what those are. The business physical damage loans are for up to $2 million for homeowners, businesses, and private nonprofits to cover physical damage and financial losses. Home disaster loans are for up to $500,000 to cover damage to primary residences.

Thank you, Miss Nunez. Three minutes is up.

OK. I will follow up in writing.

I'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the next person wish to offer public comment. The 30-minute time cap ends at 6.48. So the next person will let go their three minutes and call it after that.

Sean Norwood?

Mr. Norwood?

Hello.

Welcome, Mr. Norwood. You have three minutes beginning now.

Thank you. Hello, Mayor and Council. Thank you for offering space for public comment. I'm recommending that you terminate your contract with flat flock cameras. I believe they abridge the Fourth Amendment, which grants citizens the protection against unwarranted searches and seizures, which is exactly what automatic license plate readers do. They don't do it well. They get many false positives that waste police resources and can lead to conflicts with police that are unnecessary and just wasting police's time from whatever they may prefer to be doing. And I don't believe this service is appropriate for a private contract. The city of Aurora has no control over what happens to the data once it leaves their flock cameras. They have no control over how long it's stored. They have no control over where it's shared. It's not appropriate to be live streaming the entire business of every citizen in Aurora to a private company with no oversight. There's no protections from this private company for ensuring that the data is not misused, and it has happened many times already. There's no democratic oversight of it. It just cannot continue. So my recommendation is to terminate the contracts with Flock and remove the cameras as soon as possible. There have been other locations that have had Flock contracts that have not been able to remove them or get Flock to stop recording them. So that's a serious security threat. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Norwood. this concludes the 30-minute timeline Alderman Larson thank you I'd like to make a motion it looks like there's three people left I I moved to extend public comment an extra nine minutes to allow the remaining motion a motion to extend the public comment period by nine minutes by Alderman Larson's second by Alderwoman Smith I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll

Barrero yes Garza yes Masiakos yes Nunez yes Franco yes Saville yes Benuelos yes Smith yes Bugg yes Bade yes Larson yes White yes 12 yes 0 no motion carries we will extend the public comment period in here from the last three speakers I'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the next person wish to offer public comment Freddy Cruz

Is there a Fred Cruz, Freddy Cruz, Mr. Cruz? Okay, I'll ask the clerk to please read the name of the next person wishing to offer public comment.

J.K. Holm.

Is there a J.K. Holm?

Yeah, a real nice old guy. Good evening.

Welcome, Mr. Holm. You have three minutes beginning now.

A lot of businessmen in the downtown area got these delightful letters saying that they're going to steal another 1% from them with under the SSA1, I believe it is, tax plan to help supposedly developing businesses or anything. Well, my question is, if this is a benevolent measure on the city of Aurora, why isn't it voluntary? Why take the poor businesses that have developed themselves and established themselves and taking it from them. Doesn't seem too diplomatic and American to me. If you want to help these people develop and welcome businesses to Aurora, come up with a plan that's not going to gyp and handicap the people that already fought and put the efforts in to develop their businesses.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Holm. Last clerk, please read the name of the last person who should offer public comment.

Guillermo R. Welcome, Guillermo.

You have three minutes beginning now.

Thank you. Thank you to everyone for allowing me to speak. My name is Guillermo. I live here in Aurora. I've lived here for almost two decades and I'm coming here to speak about why I'm concerned about the use of ALPRs and flock here in the city of Aurora. You know, we've heard from many people today as to the dangers that they can cause, but I also wanted to let the people know that some of the other issues that I believe should be brought up, which is that from the dates of June of last year until the end of January of this year, the ALPRs that we have here in Aurora have been accessed over 1.5 million times from sources outside of Aurora and Aurora PD. If we allow for things like this to continue to happen without any oversight, again, like someone else had said before, it's a really big violation of our rights as citizens of this country. And I think it's important that we can do stuff and move towards a place where we can move away from these alpr contracts i also want to say that when these alpr contracts were put and passed through the city council in 2024 i think through 2025 when they were being discussed that there was only two people on the city council then that voted against allowing the contracts to be done one of them being the mayor so i appreciate you doing that and the other being ALDER PERSON, I BELIEVE IT WAS MESIACOS THAT DID IT. I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT THAT WE ALSO GIVE CREDIT TO THOSE WHO UNDERSTOOD HOW DANGEROUS FLOCK CAN BE AND THAT THEY HAVE THE BEST INTENTIONS FOR THE PEOPLE OF OUR CITY. AND I ALSO WANTED TO LET PEOPLE KNOW, LIKE THE OTHER LADY HAD SAID EARLIER, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A TEACH IN AND I HAVE SOME FLYERS HERE IF YOU DON'T MIND IF I PASS OUT TO the older people to talk about flaw cameras and why it's important to learn as to what they can do and the dangers that they can pose to the city. So if you don't mind, I'll just pass these out.

If you can give them to the sergeant at arms, they'll distribute them to the council.

And that's all I wanted to speak about. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Guillermo. This concludes the public comment portion of the meeting. Next is a public hearing, and this is only a public hearing. I'll ask the clerk to please read the first item under the public hearing.

260519, public hearing only, a public hearing on the proposal of Special Service Area 1, Aurora Downtown District.

OK, so the gentleman that came to speak on this looks like he's already left. But do we have a presentation from staff on the SSA 1 public hearing? Is Danielle Tufano here? Allison.

Hi. We were told that legal was going to be presenting this.

I was here to answer a question. We don't have a formal presentation if anyone has questions. This is for the SSA 1. I don't know if you guys recall, we are seeking to expand SSA 1 and to renew it. It is expiring at the end of the year. So this is the public hearing portion of that. This came before you. Several months ago, this is a step in the process in order to move forward with an SSA. One of the steps in the process is to take public comment in a public hearing, so this is that opportunity.

so there are there any members of the public who wish to comment and make a comment or statement and support or against the SSA one in the Aurora downtown district area we have three Three people who signed up, and there may have been errors in wanting to sign up for public comment, but I've got Anonymous Aurora. So you want to speak about the SSA one? Okay, just give me a second. We're going to have to swear everybody in all at once. Randy Ryder and Judd Loftshee. If you want to just come on, we'll have the clerk swear you in. And are there any staff that would like to be sworn in at the same time? Okay, I'll ask the clerk to proceed with the swearing in the members of the public who wish to testify in the matter of the city staff who will be participating in the public hearing.

All persons intending to provide evidence or testify, please raise your right hands. And do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

I do.

I do.

Thank you.

OK. Next, we'll take comments first from Ms. Anonymous.

OK. Basically, I just wanted to thank you for trying to define the downtown business area and trying to make it more vibrant and also attracting all people downtown, even those that some maybe think don't bring money to downtown. So if we can also, for some areas that have unused land or empty land that's an eyesore, some of the parking lots, some that may be owned by some uber wealthy people who basically are sitting on that land for decades. Is there any way to have some kind of ordinance forcing them to either develop it, sell it, but just to sit on it and let it be empty gravel parking lots in prime areas? Those parcels could be used to build affordable housing and house our unhoused neighbors. Also, is there a way to fund like a microbus and more transportation downtown so that people can easily navigate and get to a lot of these different areas of downtown? Basically, we just need to help our unhoused neighbors. And by doing that, it's also going to help the whole downtown environment. Everything's going to start with housing, and there's just not enough of it. If they could also maybe city or ask residents to buy houses in that area and maybe turn it into affordable income-based housing as well, I'd appreciate it. But good job in revitalizing things and having stuff for FIFA and everything as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we'll ask the second person who was sworn in from the public, Jed Loftshee, to come forward and make official public comment.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, and staff. I have a property at 160 South River Street, number 108. It's called I Office Suites. We didn't close until end of February, so we're in the expansion territory. And I missed the presentation. I didn't know there was a previous one. So I'm generally supportive of the SSA. I was on the board of Aurora Downtown for many years. And the group did great things. First Friday, I think, is one of the big things of the new group. to carry on, and I've been to a meeting recently, and the new executive director seems dynamic. The group has a lot of energy. There's committees. There's going to be meetings. Are they having meetings twice a month, which is great. I guess I would just like to see what the budget is. I mean, if we're going to tax ourselves thousands of dollars, I think it's fair that we know where the money's going, and I did reach out to them, and they said we want to be transparent. It's not on the website because they have issues with that, but I think that if you're going to vote on it tonight, which I'm not sure you are. No? OK. Before you vote, we would like to see it. And that's all. Thank you. CHRIS RODGERS.

Thank you, Mr. Lofsheim. OK, next we'll move to questions or comments from the city council on SSA 1. Are there any questions?

Let me just clarify one thing. The SSA is scheduled to be adopted on Tuesday, November 10th. So if that answers one of your questions. I thought that the, and maybe Danielle can clarify this, I thought that the information about how much tax is going to be collected and so forth was already published. But if it wasn't, that's something we can make available that's easy enough.

Questions from the council? Other woman, babe? Danielle.

Danielle, did you have, sorry, I won't let you. Didn't mean to cut you off.

Danielle Tofano, Downtown Economic Development Manager. So their annual budget, the Aurora Downtown districts will be published every year. So you will be able to see how those funds are allocated each year. And they host an annual meeting, and the budget will be presented at that annual meeting for all stakeholders within SSA 1.

And the agreement between us and ADD, the Aurora Downtown District, is that they will also come to the city council with that presentation about how they use the money once a year, correct? Correct.

As part of that agreement.

Mm-hmm.

Stay close. Alderwoman Bade.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick reminder, total number of businesses that will be part of this SSA? Danielle, do you have the answer to that?

No, but I think that's it.

Okay. Okay. And what is the percentage of tax that is being charged?

It's 1%. 1%? Okay.

Thank you.

It's a 1% tax that's collected by the city, and then we vote periodically to disperse it to ADD per our agreement with them. OK.

Thank you.

Alderman Nunez.

I see in the attachments we have the letters that went out to all the businesses and the proof of publication. One, was there any response from any of those businesses? And two, are we looking to explore or are we obligated to explore other options of communication with these businesses?

I can tell you, the legal department is the one that sent out the notices. We did not receive any written communications or calls, so we didn't receive anything about that. I believe we received one question about the public hearing when it was occurring, so we repeated what was in the letter, which is essentially the information about the hearing. economic development received any more questions or comments than the legal department, but the notice came from legal.

Danielle Tavano, downtown economic development manager. I did receive a few phone calls, so did David Debo from our department, just general questions similar to what we've heard tonight, how much will my taxes go up, and we were able to answer all of those questions. I did want to also let you know that aside from Marketing and event planning which is provided from the Aurora downtown district. We've also been working with our downtown services division To talk about expanded services as far as downtown beautification and that would include snow removal on the sidewalks in those areas planters and Flower beds as well, which you see in the downtown core that will be expanding into those areas as well Which a lot of people are excited about

So the map that you see up there is the current SSA 1 boundaries. For those people, the tax rate will stay the exact same. Do we have a map of the proposed changes?

We do. Does legal have that? If not, I can provide that to council tomorrow or tonight.

I don't have it set up on there.

Any other questions from the council? Alderman Franco.

So it's concerning that Joe Lafche mentioned that he's in the SSA now and he doesn't have the information that he wants and yet we're saying you could call us or I think we should be providing information then. That communication shouldn't be said, I've got to call you to find out how you're taxing me. It should say, this is what our plan is and go forward. So that was kind of concerning when he said that he doesn't have that information, yet he's got to come up with money. So I don't know how we fix that, and I don't know how you're going to address that, but obviously there's a communication breakdown from top to bottom, and I think we need to get those people their information because you should not be paying for something that you don't know what you're going to pay or where it's going. I think that's 101, basically. We need to do that.

Just to be clear, 160 South River is not in the current SSA-1, but it is in the expanded area.

Well, right. And that's, yeah. So that's what he's concerned is that he didn't, if it's going to be an expanded area and we know that, that he should know what's going on. I just think that that communication should have went this way instead of going up.

Maybe more clarification in the letter that went out.

Well, anybody's got a question that's paying money, that should have been answered ahead of time. That's my point. Yeah.

Any other questions or comments from the council? Alderman's bill.

No, I just want to clarify. Don't we as a city have a legal obligation to be sending the owners that will be approving this? That they need updated information across the board, right?

So the information that was provided is, we did provide them notice that had some information on it. We provided the legal notice. This came before the council previously, and so a lot of this information was previously provided. I'm sorry that wasn't attached to the packet tonight. I'm sending the map over to John to see if he can post it on the thing now. I'm having a little trouble with my computer.

Thank you.

No problem.

Any other questions or comments from the council? Mayor? Yes. My light doesn't work, so. Can you borrow, can you buy our older woman garages?

The mic works. The light doesn't. Okay. So just for clarification, so we had a person speaking about this new 1%, but it's not new for the SSA. It's only new for the new areas, correct? That's correct. So he has a business that's being added, and I think that's the issue of SSA. them getting more information as to what's happening. So it's not a new tax, but it is for them because they're new to the taxing district.

That's correct. I believe he, on his way in, he told me his address was Gale Street, so that would be in the new area. Alderman Bug?

Yeah, thank you. We began to discuss this a little bit. This is just a procedural comment. legislation text we got today on the dais and I got this question from a resident because they looked at the legislation text on the city website and it only has a subject header with no content I used to complain about this about ten years ago and we used to get legislation text memos like this so We definitely, we, the elected officials and the residents of Aurora, need to have more information in the legislation text so they can at least have a beginning point on what we're going to be discussing. Thank you, Mr. Vogue.

Any other questions or comments from the council? OK, so seeing no additional persons wishing to testify, the chair will entertain a motion to close and adjourn the public hearing. Is there a motion? Motion was made by Alderman Segal. Second. Second by Alderman Franco. Any discussion? I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Barrera? Yes. Garza? Yes. Masiakos? Yes. Nunez? Yes. Branco? Yes. Seville? Yes. Benuevos? Yes. Smith? Yes. Bugg?

Yes.

Bade? Yes. Larson? Yes. White? Yes. 12 yes, 0 no.

Okay, next we move to the consent. Agenda and direct council consent agenda before beginning staff has requested We remove item 2 6-0 4 8 8 from the direct to council consent agenda and hold until the next City Council meeting Are there any objections? Okay. If there's no objections, we'll move agenda item 260488 to unfinished business to be discussed at the next meeting. Will the clerk now please read both agendas in full minus agenda item 260488.

260169, a resolution authorizing the director of purchasing to utilize the Omnia Cooperative Purchasing Contract to enter into an agreement with Play Illinois LLC in the amount of $99,708 to purchase new playground equipment for Garfield Park. 260334 an ordinance establishing a conditional use plan development approving the kingsley row plan description and amending chapter 49 of the court of ordinances by modifying the zoning map attached thereto to an underlying zoning of r4a two family dwelling district and os1 conservation open space and drainage district for the property located east of the intersection of ogden avenue and 75th street 260335, a resolution approving a preliminary plan and plan for Kingsley Row subdivision on vacant land located east of the intersection of Ogden Avenue and 75th Street. 260409, an ordinance amending chapter 49 of the code of ordinances by modifying section 49-103.3 definitions, 49-107.3 residential district specific regulations, and table one use categories. 260413, a resolution authorizing the director of purchasing to enter into an agreement with RS&H Incorporated of St. Charles in the amount of $117,809 to design a repair to the wall between the Fox River and the city's canoe shoot in downtown Aurora. 260438, a resolution authorizing an agreement with GOGO Technologies to provide transportation coordination services for the City of Aurora Ride Solution Transportation Program. 260442, a resolution authorizing the award of a contract to Geneva Construction Company in the amount of $1,939,123.42 for the 2026 Citywide Right-of-Way Maintenance Project. 260463, a resolution for a development agreement between the City of Aurora and MI Homes of Chicago for the redevelopment of the property located at the southeast intersection of Ogden Avenue and 75th Street into 185 single-family attached homes. 260486, a resolution approving the revised rules for the administration of the city's deferred compensation plans. 260397, a resolution accepting the improvements in waiving the maintenance security for direct Aerosystems 2690 Deal Road. 260487, a resolution accepting the improvements in maintenance security for Chelsea Manor Schmigdal Boulevard. 260489, a resolution accepting the improvements in maintenance security for Lincoln Prairie Del Webb Phase 1 traffic signal installation and intersection improvements, SEC of Del Webb Boulevard and the Aola Road. 260505, approval of the minutes of the Tuesday, August 11, 2026 City Council meeting. So moved.

Are there any questions or motions to remove any other items from either the direct to council consent agenda or the consent agenda as read?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to pull off 26-0463.

Okay, we'll put 26-0463 on unfinished business. Are there any other questions, discussion on any of these items?

So moved.

Okay, motion was made by Alderwoman Smith. Second.

Second.

Second by Alderwoman Garza. I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Barrero? Yes. Garza? Yes. Maciakos? Yes. Nunez? Yes. Branco? Yes. Sabell? Yes. Benuelos? Yes. Smith? Yes. Bugg? Yes. Bate? Yes. Larson? Yes. White? Yes. 12 yes, 0 no.

Motion carries. Both the consent agenda and direct to council consent agenda are both approved. We will now move to unfinished business. I'll ask the clerk to please read the first item under unfinished business.

260418, an ordinance amending the Ward 4 budget for fiscal year 2026.

Motion to approve. It's been a motion by Alderman Masiaco, second by Alderwoman Smith. I ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Barrero. Yes. Garza. Yes. Maciaco. Yes. Nunez. Franco.

Yes.

Seville.

Yes. Benuelos. Yes.

Smith. Yes. Buck. Yes. Babe. Yes. Larson. Yes. White.

Yes.

11 yes, 0 no, and 1 not voting.

The motion is adopted. All the women, babe. There was a question on that agenda item.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask, shouldn't the alderman recuse?

You want to ask Alderman Nunez a question?

No, usually when we vote on certain things like this, the alderman for the word recuses.

Did you abstain?

Abstain.

He should recuse himself. You're correct. Turn around and come back in. Leave the room. Alas clerk to please read the next item under unfinished business

260447, an ordinance amending chapter 2, article 2-4, section 2-277, pertaining to residency requirements for department heads.

Mayor.

Is there a motion to it?

So moved.

Alderman Masiakos. I make a motion to postpone item 260447 until the next regular council meeting pursuant to section 2-1073 of the city code so that it can be remanded and reconsidered by the RAP committee.

Second.

There's a motion by Alderman Masiakos, second by Alderwoman Garza. That's two members to move it back to the RAP committee. So this is agenda item 260447 will be remanded to the RAP committee.

Mr. Mayor, may I ask why we're doing this?

Alderman Masiakos?

Per city code, the alderman request and remand shall appear at the committee meeting and present the reasons for reconsideration. That's it. Right there. I'll appear before the committee and present my reasons for reconsideration. You didn't want to know last week, so I'm going to go. I asked for a wrap this week. I'm going to send it back to wrap, and I've been honored by one of our colleagues. So very simple. That's the reason for it. So not much for me to say. Alderman Franco.

So we're going to need legal chime in. When you give your reasons, you didn't give a reason. You said you just read an ordinance. So I think the public should know about this, too. It goes through a PHST committee, unanimous. Then we say, oh, no, it's got to go through RAP. Okay, we go through RAP, unanimous. We provide documentation, overwhelming documentation, why we want this. We have 10 people that are on board with this. So I guess the fair question is, why? What are we going to go back to RAP to do when it was unanimous?

First and foremost, I'd like to let the city council understand one thing. If you want to go down this rabbit trail, I'll go a little bit. I'll entertain this thought process a little bit.

But when we had the police scanner, I remember you sent it back a third time to finance committee, only to not provide any evidence or why you wanted to send it back, except for I just wanted to make sure it was done right. But trust me, I'm not going to steal that line from you when it goes to wrap.

Okay, agenda item 260447 will be moved to the wrap committee and be heard at the next city council meeting. I will ask the clerk to please read the next item under unfinished business.

260463, a resolution for a development agreement between the city of Aurora and MI Homes of Chicago for the redevelopment of the property located at the southeast intersection of Ogden Avenue and 75th Street into 185 single-family attached homes.

So I move this to unfinished because I have a question. That's really all it is. So last week it was stated that we kept the amount of permitting fees.

Point of order by Alderman Seville.

There has to be a motion made in a second before we can discuss something on the dais.

You're moving to approve?

It's a point of order that you want to see a motion and a second before discussion. Right. So I would still move for approval. OK. Is there a motion to approve agenda item 26-0463 made by Alderman Seville, seconded by Alderwoman Smith? Discussion or questions? All right.

So again, since it was stated that we kept the amount of permitting fees, which the developer had to pay, which in essence was a taxpayer incentive to allow them to incorporate a certain stretch college, how much of taxpayer money is this costing the city? What is the difference between what we're going to get and what we would have gotten if we didn't cap the permitting fees?

As the Chief of Development Services, take your time.

Evening, Council. John Curley, Chief Development Services Officer. I must not have covered this well enough at the previous meeting. I apologize. The anticipated waiver of fees because of the cap is between $2,000 to $2,300 per unit. Times 185 units. Okay.

So we're talking about $400,000-ish, I'm going to guess. Is that the math? probably because I think it's important to know that we got stretch codes coming in and the only reason we get them is we have to have the taxpayers kind of pay for that because those permanent fees would be taxpayer money that we could use for other things so I just want to spell that out to people understand we connect the dots with that so this wasn't a benevolent gesture by the developer, we actually had to give him an incentive to do so. I just want to make that clear, because that's kind of what this is. And I want people to know how much money this is costing us, because that goes directly to the taxpayers for this. So I just want to put that out in the public. That's kind of all I want, John. Thank you.

Any other questions or discussions on this agenda item? Yes. Alderman Bug?

Well, I guess if you're going to look at it, you've got to look at everything. The city is not improving commons and extending commons, which was going to cost this city quite a bit of money, and the people on the east side have needed that stretch extended for decades. The developer is doing that to their expense, to the very large expense. So you have to look at everything.

Any other questions or discussions on this agenda item? Hearing none, there's been a motion and a second. I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll on agenda item 260463.

Herrera?

Yes.

Garza? Yes. Masiakos? Yes. Nunez?

Yes.

Franco?

Yes.

Sabell? Yes. Banuelos?

Yes.

Was that a pass?

Yes.

It was a yes? No, it was not a pass. Thank you. Smith? Yes. Bugg?

Yes.

Bade? Yes. Larson?

Yes.

White?

Yes.

Ferreira?

Yes.

And Maciakos? Okay. I heard pass. I apologize.

No, no, no. I didn't vote pass that. I guess I'm starting to sound like Alderman Banuelos, perhaps.

12 yes, 0 no.

Motion carries. This ordinance is adopted. Next is new business. Is there a motion to suspend the rules to consider items under new business?

So moved.

Motion made by Alderman Garza. One more. Second. Second by Alderman Larson. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Ferreiro? Yes. Garza? Yes. Maciakos? Yes. Nunez? Yes. Franco? Yes. Seville? Yes. Banuelos? Yes. Smith? Yes. Bugg? Yes. Bate? Yes. Larson? Yes. White? Yes. Tuavias? Zero.

Motion carries. I'll ask clerk to please read the first item under the business.

260520, a resolution authorizing the divestment and sale of city-owned property located at 625 and 627 South Lake Street in Aurora.

Is there a motion to approve this resolution?

So moved.

Motion made by Alderman Garza. Second. Second by Alderman Larson. Alderman Nunez. Are there any questions or discussion regarding this resolution? I have a question. Alderman Franco.

So the purchase price is $38,000.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Patrick Collins, yes. So this is one parcel. It's just oddly, it's 25 through 27. It used to be two parcels. It is one parcel. It's only been one parcel. It's that way on the Kane County Tax Assessor's website.

So when I saw something that showed that the value might have been $45,000, was that with the two parcels together or?

That might have been what the property appraised for.

OK.

I just want to make sure that we're getting the best deal that we can get.

That's basically what it is.

OK. All right. Thank you.

Mayor. Alderman Nunez. Thank you. As this individual was purchasing the property and planning to build a single family home, have they built here in Aurora before?

They have not built in the city of Aurora. I did check with building and permits. They have not. They have built other homes and several that they had represented in the southwest side of Chicago.

And they intend this to be a single family home?

Correct.

OK.

Thank you. Questions or discussion on this agenda item? Alderman Svill?

Yes. I just want to know, how did the city come to acquire this property?

Well, you've had it for a long period of time. It's been sitting on the divestment ones that we have. It's an empty, vacant lot. It's been sitting on the tax rolls. I believe the property just to the west of it was a church building. I don't know if it had anything to do with the church at the time or that gymnasium that's there. We had approached them previously, and they had no desire for the property.

I don't know the history. We'd likely turn to you, but you're the one asking the question.

The story started in 1947.

Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Barrero? Yes. Garza? Yes. Masiakos? Yes. Nunez? Yes. Franco? Yes. Seville? Yes. Banuelos? Yes. Smith? Yes. Bugg? Yes. Bade? Yes. Larson? Yes. White? Yes. 12 yes, 0 no.

Motion carries. This resolution is approved. Shrinking the list. Good job, Patrick. Next, we'll move to the treasurer's report, agenda item 260514, the treasurer's report. I'll ask the treasurer to please come forward if anybody has any questions. I acknowledge receipt of the July 2026 treasurer's report Are there any questions or discussion from the council? Okay.

Mayor. Alderman Masiakos. Yes. General question to Ms. Peterson. You came before Finance Committee and gave a presentation, which you also became city council with, and the understanding was there was going to be some updated numbers that are coming through as of June 30th, right, that you're still waiting on? Is that correct? um to finalize some numbers because it wasn't 100 for mid-year for the mid-year right um the mid-year we will be coming to you later at a later date i just want to ask if you have those numbers are they included in this report no this is just the treasurer's report for july of 2026. so as you don't have any updated numbers that from here will transfer into that report just curious they will be incorporated into all right that's what i want to verify that's all that was thank you for working with me on that thank you mayor

Any other questions or discussion for our CFO? Okay, hearing none, thank you for your time. Next we'll move to the, wait, maybe you wanna hang out, we got the bills left. So agenda item 260522, the bill summary and large bill list. Is there a motion to approve and pay the bills as presented? So moved. Motion was made by Alderwoman Garza, second by Alderman Masiakos. Are there any questions or discussion on the bills? Alderman Barrero?

Yes, I just had a question, because we had some getting their payroll reports. And the attachment wasn't included for about three or four different reports. And it's something that's very important to us. It helps us to understand what's going on with staffing. So I just want to make a request we continue to get those.

Attached to the email?

Attached to the payroll reports, the listing of the payroll. OK. Chief Peterson.

Stacy Peterson, Chief Financial Officer. Just to clarify, what reports did you need?

The one that has the listing of new hires and terminations, promotions, retirements. of staff, so that's included in the.

That's not included with this bill summary?

No, but it's related to this.

OK.

Does Chief of Staff step up?

We do. Well, we provide that every month.

But the attachment, we had the summary, but we didn't have the attachment, the listing of the employees for about four different reports.

The last report?

Last several reports.

OK.

ELIZABETH BUTLER- Chief of staff, Shannon Cameron. I believe that there was an email regarding that. It's an HR report. Chief Clark did mention that the most recent one was being finished up. We'll make sure, and I'll see if we can get the past few reports, if they've been missing, data to you for those back ones as well. And we'll make sure that those going forward, that's double checked before it gets emailed. Thank you for that.

Thank you, Alderman Barrero. Any other questions? Alderman Franco.

So under war projects, in the last page, we have a war project for Ward 11, I guess, and Ward 12. I'm assuming those are the aldermen at large. Would that be correct?

Give her a minute. I would assume you're right.

And then if that is the case, who's 11 and who's 12? I want to put a name by these numbers.

That's actually Ward 1 and Ward 2.

Oh, so the 11 should be a 1 and the 12 should be a 2?

That is a typo.

Okay, I've never seen that before. Okay, all right.

We did not add anything.

No, no, no, that's okay. That makes sense. That makes perfect sense. I just hadn't seen it, so that's why it's a question. Okay, thank you.

Thank you for catching that. Any other questions or discussion on the list of bills? Hearing no further, I'll ask that we have a motion and a second.

We do.

Last clerk, please call the roll.

Barrero? Yes. Garza? Yes. Naciakos? Yes. Nunez? Yes. Franco? Yes. Sabell? Yes. Benuevos? Yes. Smith? Yes.

Yes.

Bade? Yes. Larson? Yes. White? Yes. 12 yes, 0 no.

Motion carries. The bills are approved for payment. There's no need for a closed session. They're being known for the business to come before the council. Is there a motion to adjourn this meeting?

Motion.

Motion made by Alderwoman Smith. Second. Second by Alderwoman Garza. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. This meeting is adjourned at 7.30 PM. Thank you.