City Council - Regular Meeting

[clears throat] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Um, we will go ahead and start the January 12th Bloomington City Council meeting and call order. And we'd ask if we'd all stand for the pledge of allegiance and then remain standing for a moment of silence. Thank you. Then we'll go ahead for roll call for attendance, please.

Council member Karns here. Council member Mosley here. Council member Mottney here. Council member Dannenburgger here. Council member Strazza here. Council member Hendrickx here. Council member Ward here. Council member Lee here. Council member Scott here. Mayor Brady here. Thank you. Next we move on to uh recognition and appointments. And at this time, I'd like to call forward to the podium um our chief Jamal Simington and new officers that he will make a presentation at this time.

Good evening, mayor, members of the city council, and city leadership. Thank you for allowing the Bloomington Police Department the privilege of recognizing four outstanding police officers who have successfully completed their 18-month probationary period. Each of these officers have met the highest standards of training and commitment, including a rigorous 16week academy at the Mon County Law Enforcement Training Center and a demanding 16week field training program. These officers began their journey with us on January 2nd, 2024 in April 29th, 2024. Choosing to serve in one of the noblest professions, dedicating themselves to protect and lead within our community. Their decision reflects courage, integrity, and a deep sense of commitment to this community. Their decision reflects courage, integrity, um, and a deep sense of responsibility. My apologies. We are proud to have them on our team embracing BPD's mission to work honorably and steadfastly with community members to enhance livability through strong partnerships, servant leadership and continuous innovation. On behalf of the men and women of the Bloomington Police Department, I thank you for your continued support of our accredited organization. It is through this partnership that we can continue to strengthen public safety and community trust. I'll read a short bio of each of the officers before presenting them with their commission. First is Bowen Bono. He graduated from Olympia High School in Stanford in 2017. He enlisted in the United States Army and served in the active army component from 2017 through 2023. Since 2023, he has been serving in the Missouri Army National Guard. Bowen briefly attended Hartland Community College in the fall of 2023.

In Bowen's free time, he shoots competitively, collects firearms, and plays video games. Bowen, thank you for your service to our country. And here's your commission, Aaron Pavoka. Officer Pavoka received his GED in 2017 and has completed 64 credit hours towards his Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice. He is engaged to his fiance Aaron. He was in the United States Army for 5 years prior to joining the Bloomington Police Department. Aaron was a staff sergeant squad leader as a military police officer. Thank you for your service to our country as well. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, working out, and going to sporting events. While working at the Bloomington Police Department, he has received a life-saving award.

Logan Colette Officer Colette graduated from Lexington High School in 2014. He is married and has three children. His wife Steelely is pregnant with their fourth child with a due date of April 22nd. They have been together since 2017 and married since September of last year. His daughter Marley is 12 and his middle son Brody is 11. Their youngest son is Madden who was seven years old. Prior to Logan's employment as a police officer, he worked as a blacksmith at Anvil Brand in Lexington, Illinois for a year and a half. He enjoys fishing even though he spends a lot of money on equipment. Um the seven-year-old outfishes him apparently. And if you didn't notice, um his wife's name comes from his favorite team, which is unfortunately the Pittsburgh Steelers. And his youngest is named John Madden, after the infamous um John Madden, of course. Logan Last but not least, um, Officer Brandon Bunch. Officer Bunch graduated with honors from Illinois State University with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. He started his law enforcement career with the Columbia, Missouri Police Department, where he served for five years. While there, he worked as a patrol officer, a SWAT team member, and a field training officer. He brought his high work ethic here to the Bloomington Police Department and is currently assigned to second shift patrol and as a field training officer. In Brandon's free time, he enjoys golfing, fishing, and hunting. Congratulations, Officer Bunch.

J, if you would ask the officers to come forward and so we can extend a handshake or at least congratulations to them all. Thank you.

Thank you for this time here. Thank you very much and congratulations again to the officers uh the new officers to serve the Bloomington Police Department. We certainly appreciate uh your service. Um, next we're going to have a proclamation recognizing uh, Tamil Day. And if those individuals here would like to come forth to the podium and after I'm done reading, we can present to you the uh, resolution. Uh, the following [clears throat] whereas Tamil language is the longest serving classical language in the world with a traceable history exceeding 2600 years. Tamil is a official language in India, Singapore as well as a minority language in Malaysia, South America and Canada amongst other countries. The Tamil community is widespread with about 100 million native speakers across the globe. Bloomington Tamils have established a self- sustaining literacy model for the Tamil language through Tamil language school and with 195 plus children and 75 plus adult volunteers and national level standards for Tamil education from 2015 completing 11 years in 2026. The Tamil community of Bloomington contributes to bilingual literacy with Bloomington by achieving high school

credits and for the Tamil language and high schools as well. Bloomington Tamils have made contributions to the social, economic and cultural fabric of Bloomington, including promoting Tamil language, [clears throat] arts, culture, sports, education, and heritage. The Tamil community across the globe everywhere celebrates a 4-day long festival starting the first day of Tamil calendar month which is in January in the month in the English calendar. Tamil community across the globe every year celebrates Tamil new year on the first day of the traditional Tamil calendar which falls on April the 14th in the English calendar. Whereas Bloomington Tamils are committed to sharing their vibrant culture, richest traditions, and long-standing history with the people of Bloomington by celebrating January as Tural Heritage Month and by celebrating April 14th as Tural Day. Now therefore, I, Dan Brady, mayor of Bloomington, Illinois, do hereby proclaim January as Tural Heritage Month and April 14th as Tural Day and do call upon the people of Bloomington to join the Tamil community in recognizing and participating in this observance. Congratulations. If you'd like to come forward, Please.

Uh public comment clerk, are there public comments for tonight? We have one person registered for public comment and we've received no email public comment. Okay. And the individual who would like to make public comments is Nadem Damian. Okay,

Nadem, if you step forward, please. Ladies and gentlemen, the public comment is an opportunity for speakers to provide their views and feedback to the city council. It's also an opportunity for the city council to listen and hear diverse points of view. It's also an opportunity for the speakers to uh identify themselves for the record. An address is not needed and each speaker is given the floor for three minutes and the council does not respond or engage in debate. Any speaker that engages in threatening or disorderly behavioral will be deemed out of order and their time will be rescended. Go right ahead, sir. Thank you.

Oh, you just got to push that little button down there. There you go.

There we go. Okay. Sorry about that. Thank you. Um good evening everybody. Good evening, mayor, members of the city council. um appreciate the opportunity to speak briefly with you tonight. Um my name is Nadem Damian. I'm here tonight as a senior development manager at Cultivate Power and project manager for Copper Leaf Solar LLC. CopperLaf Solar is a 5 megawatt community solar project proposed for development on West Washington Street just south of the Constitution Trail. This project is a permitted use here in the city's agricultural district and of course we'll plan to follow all of the design requirements associated with solar projects in the lovely Bloomington solar ordinance. Um but I I wanted to take a chance just here for public comment. Um of course to introduce myself to all of you um as well as um you know there's a few items on your consent agenda today related to Copper Leap Solar. Um, but also to to give a a shout out to some of the city staff who have um, you know, helped guide this project along the way, namely Alyssa Peton and Kelly Feifer um, seated over there. Uh, their responsiveness, professionalism, collaborative approach have have really made a complex process uh, move forward slow very smoothly and I just wanted to shout out their their hard work. Um, I I also uh you know spoke uh briefly earlier today with Ward 7 council person Molly Ward and and after speaking it it it felt like it made a little bit of sense to to take an opportunity just to explain briefly what community solar is and and who we are at Cultivate Power. Um, so community solar allows residents and small businesses, particularly those who may not be able to install solar on their own rooftops, to subscribe to a local solar project and receive credits on their Amaran electric bills for the energy produced by that project. Participation is voluntary. It often

requires no upfront costs and subscribers typically see savings of 10 to 15% while supporting locally generated renewable energy. happy to provide more context or color about the state program that supports this uh after the meeting and happy to provide my contact information for anyone on the council or anybody in the public here. Um I know I have 30 seconds left so I'll just quickly mention who we are at Cultivate Power. Um you know we're a community solar developer focused here uh right in the beautiful state of Illinois. Um we focus on building infrastructure that strengthens uh local communities, local grids. Um, and with that, you know, part of this project, we've committed a financial commitment to the West Bloomington Revitalization Project, sort of to bring home that point of hyper local commitment, hyper localal development to bring benefits to the initiatives that um, Bloomington is trying to progress and that we support greatly. So, thank you for the time. Happy to answer any questions. Uh, and that's three minutes.

Thank you very much. Um and with that uh being said, we will move then to the consent agenda. Uh is there any members of the council who have an item on the consent agenda that they either want to speak to or want pulled from the agenda to speak to or have a question? If not, then we'll move forward with um a motion. I'll move approval. I'll second

by councilwoman Ward and seconded by council member Hendricks. And if you go ahead and take the vote please electronically. Madam of course you should be able to vote. Council member Dannenburgger, how do you vote?

Yes. Motion carries. No need to announce. Thank you very much. Um, next we'll move on to the regular agenda and items in that or item on that regular agenda which is consideration and action on an ordinance approving text amendments. And I believe that we are going to have um remarks by um our director of development services, Kelly Piper, I believe. And um also joining her uh Alyssa Alyssa right if you'd like to go right ahead.

Thank you. Uh mayor, city council, city manager Jurgens. Uh thank you. Tonight um we have a discussion on text amendments. So you had asked in a prior meeting to make sure text amendments were on regular agenda. Um although this one would have been anyway because one of these hasn't gone through the process of a public hearing like the other. So there's two chapters affected. Um ultimately um we've had some requests um downtown uh to consider changing the standards for some recessed entries in buildings. So, if you didn't or you happen to have not noticed in D1, it's actually a it was a zoning requirement to recess the entrances. Few reasons. One, historical. It it's been done. Uh the other is safety. Outswinging doors going into sidewalk and walkways can pose a problem. Um and depending on the occupancy of the building, uh you may have to outswing doors. So the new um downtown for all plan um actually consciously moved the the walkway away from the fronts of the buildings and is going to allow the programming of those few feet there. So with that we plan on encroachment some in a temporary nature a sidewalk sale um streets. Um, so we had a discussion um with the historic preservation commission um as well as our traffic engineer about how they felt about making some changes. So the chapter 44 amendment, that's our zoning code. Uh that's the primary one. So, our plan commission held a public hearing related to the text amendment and forwards a recommendation unanimously to remove the requirement for the recess entries, recapturing some of that space, but provided that the the significant

the contributing structures to the historical fabric would have reviewed by the HPC. So, some of those buildings downtown have more significance than others. um and those would see the HPC. Um one of the things with encroaching into that public right ofway is we actually would have to give a permit for that you're giving away and allowing private things into the public way. So chapter 38 is our streets, sidewalks, etc. That one would need to be amended as well. So um going to the presentation, um there was a really pretty picture that showed you there's your standard downtown building. Um, so you can see the bottom left there's a standard recessed entry. So that's just a concept building. Next slide please. So right now we said um the D1, it's only D1 and we do have D1 and D2 in the downtown just to be clear, but D1 is only inside the buckle. Um, we were looking at trying to help these businesses reclaim some of this important square footage on the first floor. Um, we did have one particular building, Windy City Wieners is currently a tenant there that was very interested in trying to bring their front out. Frankly, like the predominant, most of those uh buildings on that uh street actually have what I call street wall doors. Um, so we would update those standards um to support the economic vitality of the area. again that important commercial square footage, but we need to have some standards to make sure that people don't they know that a door may open. So, next slide, please. So, we're going to allow the nonrescessed outward swinging door with those protections in place. Um, we would enable that limited sidewalk use.

Mind you, it's not the actual pathway. We've widened those sidewalks and we have some now real estate um in front of those buildings that we can use for this. We still have the 5T minimum pedestrian access. We will require safety barriers. Again, they'll be permitted. They'll have to be maintained um by the person with the permit. Um and we'll have historic review required for the contributing structures. Um the plan commission vote is seven to zero for that zoning. Next slide, please. [snorts] So, this is an example. I mentioned Wy Windy City Wieners. Um, this shows you kind of what's existing and what the change would allow. It would allow those doors to come forward um to that front line. Next slide, please use. So, this shows you in a kind of a cross-section what's currently allowed. You can see those recessed entryways and what the change would allow. Again, it would allow those businesses to reclaim some of that important square footage if they wanted to bring those out. Next slide, please. [snorts] These are some examples of what could be placed um in those first few square feet to provide that safety um to make sure that it's noticeable so no one goes and walking into an outswing door. Um I use these planters at home actually just by happen stance. couple blocks of concrete in them and they really don't go anywhere. Uh, next slide, please. So, [snorts] here's some other example. This kind of shows you how there's an area of a sidewalk that can have some of those amenities, seats, etc., while not encroaching in that walkway. Um, next slide. This shows you on the left hand side there are green check marks

um everywhere that we have a recessed existing recessed entry. [snorts] Um and the X's are where we have a entry that goes to the street. The on the right side of that screen the stars are the the buildings that are contributing. So if somebody wants to reclaim that it would be those buildings that would go and be seen by HPC. Next slide please. Is that it? All right. Um so you have in set two and both of these would need to be approved for this to actually work. Um so chapter 44 changes and chapter 38 and those are being forwarded to you um in concert with our engineering division um and traffic engineer that is not really what we call development services chapter ours is a zoning chapter um they are also on board and we're active participants in that um so we highly uh recommend you consider both there's really not a way to um extract these they're forwarded with staff recommend recommendation, plan commission recommendation, HPC um sign off for they appreciate being consulted um on contributing structures. So happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Um members, member Hendricks, yeah, I just no real comments other than thank you uh for working on this. I know this is something that was brought forward to me uh by a couple of businesses as well. And I think this speaks really highly to the fact that when businesses or when individuals reach out to the city, the city's willing to look at how we do things and review that and and find a process to possibly change it if it makes sense. So, uh really appreciate that and I would make a motion to approve as presented.

I'll second. Motion by member Hendricks, seconded by member Ward, and any other comments? Go ahead and take the vote, please. You should now be able to vote. Motion carries. No need to announce. Thank you. Thank you very much. Then uh ladies, thank you again. I also want to acknowledge our deputy city manager, Mr. Tyus, for his work uh in in that particular ordinance as well. Um, next I believe we have the city manager report. There's no other items.

Yes. Thank you, mayor and council. Uh, it's been a few weeks since we've had a meeting, so I have a few updates for the council. If you can go to the next slide. First on the streetscape. Um, just got information in. They are at 81% complete on the pavers. Um, so they we got uh this all of this work was originally scheduled to be done before Christmas. As everybody knows, we had some unprecedented snowstorms, freezes, and you can't put pavers down and temperatures like that. So, uh, we've luckily had a couple of days where the crews have been able to work. This picture is actually from just today where they were out there working really hard. Uh, really appreciate, uh, the crews from Stark being out there and they are now at 81%. Uh we hope uh we'll have enough days where we will be able to get this uh completed and then get this street reopened here within the next couple of weeks. So uh we will work on that, continue working on that as much as weather allows. Next slide. We also last week closed on what uh so far we're calling the Elks parking lot where the Elks building used to be. Uh that is now open to public parking. It was used at the bison game over the weekend and uh just additional parking that's now available in our downtown area. Next slide. Want to continue to encourage the community to conserve water where they can. We continue to be in a moderate drought. Uh we've had a little bit of rain. It hasn't helped as much as we would have liked and and we hope to get some more in the forecast, but as of now, we continue to be in this moderate drought. And again, just encourage everybody to really just use best practices, uh, where you're doing a full load of laundry or a full load of dishes, fixing leaky faucets, things like that. Everything everything will help as we try and reach our target of saving at least 5% in water conservation during this period. Next slide.

uh leafs has been a big topic of conversations uh uh recently and so want to assure the council and the community that our crews are out there. We had 40 over 40 people out on Saturday, another over 40 people out on Sunday working to pick up leaves. You're going to see people using leafs backs. We have the same piece of equipment that we use both for snow plowing and for our leaf backs. And so we have to transition those as we go between snowstorms and and going back out and picking up leaves when they're not frozen. So we have transitioned some of the vehicles. So you will see some leaf facts back out there. You'll also see them picking up with loaders. Uh but they are out there uh working hard. We've also extended some of the uh hours during the week that they're going to be out there. uh they are right now trying to finish up last week's bulk rate uh uh uh routes and starting this week's orange routes. So truly within the next couple of weeks, we hope to see uh a really a big improvement in all the leafs that are out there. Um but again, just really appreciate the crews that have uh been out there working and everybody's patience as we deal with the weather and the holidays and everything else that we've been uh working through. Next slide. And finally, just want to say uh the the demolition on the front and center is complete in terms of the building being down. Um you can see kind of a before and after picture and certainly a new view. Again, uh over the next couple of months, we'll start to see that area filled in and a parking additional parking will be added in this area. Uh but for now, the demolition is completed. All the roads have now officially been reopened. I did contact Transit this afternoon to make sure they're aware of the opening and so that they can hopefully start to relocate some of the bus temporary bus drop offs and pickups back in into that area which is a a much better area for it than than

where they've had to relocate over the last couple of months. So again, another major project that we're seeing progress on in the downtown. And that's all I have.

Thank you very much. Uh members of council with comments. Member Karns, member Mosley, member Matney. So a couple things. First of all, I want to thank the city manager and Anthony Nelson specifically as well for uh giving an outstanding tour of the behind the scenes the coliseum for for me and also for a a student intern who has spent the last uh two weeks with me, Corbin Chrisopoulos. Um it was really really motivational to hear his passion for continuous improvement. Um it's clear that the investment that's been in made in his development is paying off. Um and I think you know at some point it'd be great to have a summary report for the value that these investments in continuous improvement are bringing to the community. So outstanding job. Thank you so much. I also want to thank uh Kelly and Alyssa for and um senior deputy manager Taius for their multiple meetings alongside the Old Farm Lakes uh homeowners association board and addressing some concerns over the missing middle housing in their current zoning in their neighborhood. Um, thank you for all the work you've done there and I know more meetings are coming. Uh, but the neighborhood is is very pleased with the progress and I just wanted to extend my thanks for that. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Member Dann Ward Hendrickx Lee. Yeah. Just wanted to um give a shout out to the [clears throat] streets folks. Um I got an email from a constituent who appreciates the new uh road that's uh out there on by W 8, especially Oakland Avenue. Um they really appreciate having that repaved. So thank you.

Yes. Thank you. I've got a couple of thanks myself. One to uh for bulk pickup. I watched my uh futon mattress be picked up and carried outside the window today and now I have an understanding what a bucket is and what can fill it. Um and then secondly, I want to say thank you to council member Montney for your work on the mental health and public safety fund uh advisory council. Yes. Um I understand there were three emergency meetings. Um they were uh certainly a challenge for for me to follow. So I appreciate all the research that you've done there. Um, I do have an ask that given that it is a a challenge to to go ahead and follow what's going on that we do get reports um say on things that have been decided or informally if you could reach out and and share where you're at with that. Um and then um secondly, you had a great idea a while ago of connecting um county folks to the safe cities commission which is now permanent. I think it's a wonderful uh opportunity uh with your work on the behavioral health commission um and that fund advisory committee to to connect those two things. So, thank you. If I might respond. Um, first of all, thank you to the council members who did reach out to me and I really appreciated, Jenna, the conversation that you and I had. So, I appreciate that. Um, yes, there were three meetings. Um, you know, the behavioral health um coordinating council itself is not a um meeting subject to. So that's why as it relates to that particular um role there aren't updates here at our meeting which is subject to MA Hoya etc. Uh however um those meetings um would be happy to provide a brief comment about them. Um we were asked to um participate in addressing funding for a grant that was lost by an organization, a statewide organization,

Breitpoint. Um the reason three meetings occurred is because it was discovered that the city actually had a dedicated fund for one of those um requests that um was um sufficient to cover the the ask. So there was research being done across those um meetings in order to get that addressed. So hopefully that's helpful. But um my contact information is available and I welcome anyone to reach out to me anytime. Thank you.

County, excuse me, the county had a dedicated fund that by state law could only be used for um that purpose. So thank you. Sorry about the misstatement there. Anyone else I missed? Good. Um, I'm sorry.

I just wasn't fast enough. I I just will reiterate in um in public my request that I gave to you earlier before this meeting that we actually make space on our agenda, whether it's the committee of the whole agenda or the council agenda for regular updates. um and um discussions of um the representation of this body on both the behavioral health coordinating council and the criminal justice coordinating council. Um I think that that those um council member Montney and Council Member Mosley represent this body and the community, not themselves as individuals. And so I think it behooves us as as a body of representatives to have regular updates in a formal way. Not just that we have to go seek out that information, but that that this body makes space for them to be able to share that information. [snorts]

Thank you. Any other comments? If not, I have a a few mayor points and that is uh to talk about and really to say thank you on on several fronts where there's always things going on in particular um most recently uh for those members who are able to join us at the Bredge um projects uh ribbon cutting uh thank you for being there and I u I know that Matt Burgess and all of his staff and everyone that was there was great great community turnout and I thank for the members who were able to be there. I also um was uh honored to be at the fire department's um most recent promotion ceremony which was Friday at um Miller Park Pavilion. Uh I believe chief uh rescue uh engineers and captains, right? um and uh the promotions that were made and the families that were there and uh our city manager and city manager and uh our chief I know others were there as well and um thank you for that and thank you for the those who uh stand for the fire service and their promotions. Congratulations. And um also in regards to our city manager's remarks uh dealing with uh our water and our conservation side of things that we are calling to everyone's attention um to to continue and enhance uh voluntary measures uh to help from the water levels and also from the leaf side of things um and the collection of leaf and what's going on and the change to bulk. Um uh we have found many more people who want to be part of the solution than part of the problem when it comes from the city. And uh leading

in that area was our is our uh deputy city manager Sue Mclofflin. We thank you for your efforts in trying to coordinate um uh the pickups and and what people expect from the city of Wilmington as residents. So a comprehensive approach and the work obviously continues. We thank each and every one of you. With that, unless there's any other comments from anyone, I would need a motion to adjurnn. I'll move to ajourn. Member Hendricks, you need a second. Member Scott. Thank you. And all in favor? All in favor? I