City Council Meeting/Strategic Session - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the council city council meeting for 05/12/2026 to order roll call.

Houseman. Here. Furman.

Here.

Green. Here. Seton.

Here.

Stamen.

Here.

Would everyone please stand for the invocation given by pastor Miles Holmes from the revived church remain standing for the pledge of allegiance.

Let's pray. Our god and heavenly father, we come before you tonight with humble and grateful hearts for the privilege of gathering in peace and freedom. Your word in the bible declares that righteousness exalts us. So we ask for your righteousness, wisdom, and mercy, and truth to guide this city and every decision made in this council meeting. Lord, we thank you for our mayor, our city council, our city staff, every worker who serves this community faithful each day.

Grant them wisdom beyond their own, integrity and leadership, unity and purpose, and courage to do what is right. Give them strength when burdens are heavy and clarity when the difficult decisions are must be made. We pray your blessing over every home in this city. Let peace dwell within our families. Let healing come to broken hearts. Provision to meet every need, and let love flourish in our neighborhoods. Protect these streets from violence, addiction, crime, and fear. Let this city be marked by con kindness, honor, and hope. Father, we pray for our businesses, large and small. Bless the work of honest hands.

Bring opportunity, stability, creativity, and prosperity so that families may thrive and this community may flourish. We lift up our schools, teachers, administrators, staff, and students. Surround them with safety and wisdom. Raise up a generation that values truth, character, compassion, and personal responsibility. Protect our precious children from harm.

Guide them into bright futures filled with purpose. Lord, we especially thank you for our emergency responders, firefighters, paramedics, dispatchers, medical personnel, all who run toward danger in order to help others. Place your hand of protection upon them and our their families. And during this National Police Week, we give special honor and gratitude for our police department and every law enforcement officer who serves this city. We thank you for the sacrifices they make daily, often on scene, often unrecognized.

Protect them as they protect us. Grant them wisdom in moments of pressure. Discernment in moments of uncertainty. Compassion in moments of pain. Courage in moments of danger. And remind every officer that their service matters to you and to us. Lord, let your blessing continue to rest upon the city. Keep our homes secure, our streets safe, our leaders wise, and our people united. Help us to love our neighbors, seek justice, walk humbly, and pursue peace. We acknowledge that every good and perfect gifts comes from you.

We ask all these things in the mighty and the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. And amen.

Next item.

The first item tonight are proclamations. Item one, Emergency Medical Services Week and National Public Works

is EMS is a vital public service and whereas EMS professionals have a vital role in safeguarding the health, safety, and well-being of our community members and whereas the members of the Council Fire Department are ready to provide advanced life saving care and those in need twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. And whereas council residents have immediate access to superior lifesaving emergency care which dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate for those who experience sudden illness or injury. And whereas this year's theme, Improving Outcomes Together, is an opportunity to focus on the many ways EMS professionals work together and across disciplines with nine eleven telecommunicators, fire and EMS service, healthcare, public health, law enforcement, and others in the best interest of patients and whereas rapid access to quality emergency care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury. And whereas a member of the council's EMS team engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continue education to enhance their life saving skills to help our community. Therefore, Jeff Stamman, mayor of the city of Collinsville, Illinois, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17 through the twenty third, twenty twenty six as EMS week in the city of Collinsville.

Whereas public works professionals provide essential infrastructure facilities and services that are vital to the health, safety, and quality of life of the resident city of Connellsville, whereas the dedicated employees of the City of Connellsville Public Works Department work tirelessly to maintain and improve the city streets, utilities, water and wastewater systems, storm water infrastructure, public buildings, parks, fleet equipment and other critical public assets. And whereas these professionals play an essential role in protecting public health, supporting economic development, responding to emergencies and ensuring the continued delivery of reliable public services to our community. And whereas public works employees often perform these duties behind the scenes in all weather conditions and at all hours, demonstrating exceptional commitment, professionalism, and services to the residents of Council. Whereas it is important for the citizens of Collinsville to recognize and appreciate the contributions public works professionals make each day to enhance the livability, sustainability, and resilience of our community. And whereas this year's 2026 marks the sixty sixth annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association.

Now therefore I, Jeff Stamen, mayor of the city council, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17 to the twenty third, twenty twenty six, as National Public Works Week in Connellsville, and encourage all residents to recognize and thank the dedicated public works professionals whose efforts to keep our community safe, clean, and moving forward. I want to commend both of those departments and the excellent job they do for the city. Next item.

Next is speakers from the floor.

Speakers may address the council under the terms of Ardinance Number 4765. Time is limited to four minutes per speaker. Please refer to the last page of the agenda for our specific rules governing input. Is anyone on this side of the room that would like to speak? Please go to the podium and state your name.

I'm a little taller than the last person who was here, but my name is Kelly Klica. I live in Connellsville, 596 Watch Hill. And I wrote a letter to everyone in everyone on on the board last week about a situation that I find that I find alarming as a as a thirty year resident of the town. I'm just gonna read it to you. I'm writing you today as a resident of council for over thirty years to formally report a growing public safety and blight issue affecting my neighborhood.

Specifically, I'm drawing your attention to seven residential properties located at 214210218 Beverly, 1108, 1106, 1104, 1103, and 1100 Austell Drive. These these homes have been in severe disrepair for over two years. I don't know for sure how long. I know it's been two years because I decided in two years I was gonna start doing something. These properties have been vacant and their condition has continued to deteriorate despite the passage of time. The current state of these homes poses several risks to our community. Number one, structural safety. Roofs are leaking. I've got pictures of holes in the roofs. Ongoing damage is worse than the situation and the porches are unstable.

It's both a public health nuisance, it's overgrown vegetation, attracting pests, accumulation of trash, potential for mold and mold sorry, mold and rodents. Security risks, as we all know there's some some folks who may not have a permanent home. However, there's broken windows, they've now been boarded shut. That's now they've been pried open again, just so you know. So people can get in can once again get into these homes. So people are squatting and it can be used as a hideout. The biggest part for me though is the economic impact. Not just on my home but on the entire city. This is the place where you come off the highway and you see our city. Mean, I I've lived here for thirty years.

Long and that's I'm almost 60. I've lived in Collisville and Maryville for the last forty five years. When you get off the highway, you see these buildings and we look like we don't care about ourselves, to be real honest. So given that these properties have been neglected for such an extended period of time, it appears that the that the standard voluntary compliance measures have failed. As a community, we rely on the city of Collinsville to enforce housing and property maintenance codes to ensure safety and well-being of all of our residents.

I respectfully request here and now that that if there's an immediate inspection of these properties conducted through an on-site inspection and that the owners be notified, there's there's four different owners, that the owner be notified and and issued formal notice as a violation for any violations that are found. And then if the owners fail to comply, please pursue all available legal remedies. This is affecting our our house and our land and and our home and our appearance. And then I asked to be updated because I did, I've got pictures and I sent a note out May 2 and I heard nothing from any of you or the court enforcement division.

I didn't get it either.

I sent it to whoever was listed on the council committee.

We are very familiar with the property. Anyone else on this side of

the room?

Anyone on the right side of the room? Being none other one, Derek, you want to? Or are you gonna wait till you

Sir, I get your name again? I'm sorry. I couldn't quite hear you. Kelly. Kelly?

How do what's the last name, sir?

Kelly, thank you for sharing that with us. Obviously, that's something I will be following up with our community development department on to do an inspection on those properties and see what we can do to make sure we're bringing those properties into

conformance. Amen.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. And we will follow-up with you too as a result of that.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you for being here.

Next item.

Comments and announcements from the mayor.

I have none.

Comments and announcements from council members.

Nothing.

Next, city staff.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Two quick updates for you this evening. Both related to some festivities happening down at the Aqua Park. It's that time of year. We're within two weeks of opening day at the Akonsville Aqua Park. That's gonna be Saturday, May 23. Season pass holders will be able to get into the park at 11AM and then general public will be able to get in at noon. That will kick start our Memorial celebration this year which will be the following Sunday, May 24. That will take place from 4PM to 10PM down in Eastport Plaza.

It's definitely something to have on the calendars. It's a fun family event. We have all kinds of food trucks, vendors, live musics, a lot of activities for kids and the fireworks typically start around 09:15 once it starts to get dark. So this year's theme as you can see is obviously we're celebrating the 200 birthday of the country. We ask everybody to come out and have a good time for memorial this year. Erin, that's all we got for staff comments.

Next item.

Next is the consent agenda. Item one, motion to approve payment of bills for the period ending 05/01/2026 in the amount of $1,609,762.54. Item two, motion to approve payroll for the period ending 04/24/2026 in the amount of $943,066.07. Item three, motion to approve minutes of the 04/08/2026 council meeting. Item number four is the ordinance regarding the disclosure of closed session meeting minutes for the 2025.

Item five is a resolution requesting permission from IDOT to close Main Street for the Horse Riders Fest And item number six is a resolution requesting permission from IDOT to close Main Street for the Juneteenth parade.

Is there any items that the council would like to remove and vote on separately? Seeing none have a motion to approve. So. Second. Motion by Green, second by Furman. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Stamen.

Yes.

Next under new business, item one is the ordinance adopting a collective bargain agreement between the city of Collinsville and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local one forty eight.

Presentation will be given by public works director Troy Turner.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the council. Before you we have a collective bargaining agreement with one hundred forty eight which is our water treatment plant. Just some of the main highlights, this is a three year agreement, 4% annual increase. We did increase the shift differential from 50¢ per hour. One of the biggest items on here is the new agreement makes it so that comp time, so when they were earned comp time, they can't use it to cause overtime. Currently a lot of our overtime is going for comp time that was already earned. If there's any questions I'd be happy to answer them but recommend approval of the contract.

Any questions or comments from the council? Being none, the motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Seaton, second by Houseman. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Seaton.

Yes. Eamon. Yes.

Item two, the ordinance authorized an agreement between the city of Collinsville and intricate facility services in relation to the HVAC replacement at the animal shelter.

Presentation be given by police chief Borham.

Thank you, mayor Stamen, members of the council. Before you this evening, we have an ordinance authorizing an agreement between the city of Collinsville and integrated facility services in relation to HVAC replacement at the Collinsville Animal Shelter. So as you may recall, included in the 2026 capital improvement plan was the replacement of the existing HVAC system. This system, we believe, is original to the building and is approximately twenty years old. This replacement comes at the recommendation of both HVAC professionals as well as our own facilities maintenance coordinator.

And it comes because or primarily due to the increased frequency of necessary repairs resulting in rising maintenance costs of the existing system. During the budget planning process, we received quotes from three different vendors. Those vendors were Hoffman Brothers at a quote of $105,215 Integrated Facility Services at an amount of $109,850 And then Murphy came in at a staggering $184,317. So based on those quotes, we felt budgeting at the time of a $115,000 would have been appropriate in the CIP. Following the city's purchasing policy, competitive bids were sought in February resulting in only one company submitting a formal bid and that was IFS in the amount of $142,350, which ends up being about a $32,500 increase from their original quote in the '25.

In consulting with IFS, the following factors contributed to the price increase, increased equipment costs at $11,000, two year parts and labor extended warranty $6,000, increased sheet metal and pipe fitter labor $4,500, increased electrical installation, $1,500 increased costs for installation, $3,500 engineering and drafting costs, $3,000 and then a factory startup by an authorized agent of $3,000. I know it's much higher than we had anticipated, but we are entering into the heat of the summer months. And due to the fact the existing system can go at any time, staff recommends approval. I'd be happy to take any questions.

So what

are the engineering and drafting costs?

According to them, and drafting was $3,000.

I understand. But do we have an idea of what we're engineering? Aren't we replacing the system with system?

Now you're getting into really technical

I'm sorry.

Technical territory shooting people. I asked why the price was so high, and that's what they said, Alright. Why it went

Counselor Furman, I can probably shed a little light on that.

That'd be great.

The building codes have changed considerably on HVAC equipment in the last twenty years. And they do require on the system, they do require that it be done by a mechanical engineer. So it can't just, old days them just looking at it, yeah, we'll put a three ton in there or whatever those days are gone. So that's I'm sure that's what it is.

Sounds great.

Just curious, do you any idea how long like they honor their bid like from the fall? Guess prices go up, wages go up and that was it.

Usually thirty days.

I wonder if when they showed up for the bid meeting and saw that they were the only one bidding, that might have played a role in it. I'm not sure.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. I don't know. I'm speculating.

There was no the other ones gave no reason why they

Correct. Right.

Well, the only choice is to go out again. It's obvious if we didn't get them, we didn't get them.

And the fear, honestly, Keith has been working on this pretty hard. And he worries that if we get into the summer months and that thing goes out and you have those animals, now you're talking about, you know, finding relocation resources for the time that I guess the system is down and that can probably be quite a burden, I would think.

It's worth noting to counsel this is coming from the animal shelter fund and we do have the capacity to carry the variance between the original cost. While it was above our CIP budget that fund is in a good state to handle that.

That's a good point. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure it's not going to go down if we wait. No. Agreed.

All right. I have no other questions Motion or to approve. So moved.

I'll second it.

Motion by Furman, second by Green. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Seaton.

Yes.

Stamen.

Yes. Item

number three. Is the ordinance authorized the city manager to enter to an agreement with priority power related to the procurement of utility supply?

The presentation will be given by city manager, Derek Jackson.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. The last item before you this evening is an ordinance which does allow the city manager to enter into agreement for a all inclusive rate for kilowatt hours specifically for city facilities located in the Ameren territory. So I want to touch on that real quick. Essentially what this does, it does not have any impact to our residents.

It only impacts what we're doing here tonight, the rates the city receives related to city properties that are within Ameren. So that does exclude gateway and convention center, animal control, anything that's in Southwest Electric that does not touch but the majority of super majority of city's properties are within the Ameren territory. Priority Power, formerly AGE, we've had a partnership with them since 2018. They are a broker which helps us get competitive bids from suppliers that are out there on the delivery side of our energy rates. We did a two year agreement with them in 2018.

We did another two year agreement in 2020. We did a four year agreement here in 2022. The next slide will go over kind of how the savings were looking from those prior year agreements. But well, why we're here this evening is that four year agreement from 2022 is expiring in June. And the reason there's a little bit urgency to renew some type of agreement is if we don't have it renewed then essentially we go into the Ameren market rates and we're kind of stuck there for ten months.

And typically when it comes to Ameren market rates, the winter months are typically or excuse me, the summer months are typically a lot more higher than the winter months. So we're looking to experience some savings before we actually go into that. Also too what this ordinance does I want to be very clear this does not lock us. I'm going show you some figures here in the next slide. What this ordinance does this evening is it gives me as a city manager the ability to enter into the agreement.

The reason we're looking for that flexibility and we did the same thing in 2022 is typically these energy rates are so volatile they change on a daily basis. So I will be working with our partners at Priority Power to try and make sure we're securing the best rates for the city moving forward. So again, just want be clear this does not lock us in what we're going to talk about tonight but it gives me the ability to do so in the coming weeks. So to recap kind of on our past relationship with Priority Power, AGE, Here you can kind of see the past year's agreements we've done. You can see over time how kill rate hours have gone up.

Unfortunately, timing for negotiation hasn't been the best. That's nothing the city's done. A lot of that's driven by things that are happening around the world. In 2022, the Ukraine war and Russia kicked off. This year, the conflict in Iran. Obviously, those have some direct or indirect impacts when it comes to rates. But overall, you can see we've done quite well since 2018. We've saved about $353,000 by locking into these rates. You can see back in 2018, had about $0.47 2020, we had $0.43 and then that's where you started seeing stuff go up in 2022. We had about $0.99 per kilowatt hour, which again was below the average rate for an annual basis for what Ameren is providing.

Looking ahead for the 2026 and beyond, this was the latest pricing proposal that Priority Power was able to secure from us. They talked to three different groups, Constellation, Direct Energy and Home Field Energy. You can see there is kind of a mix of different rates and durations. After reviewing and consulting with Priority Power, what staff is going to recommend pursuing would be a two year agreement with Direct Energy. They had the most competitive rates.

The reason we're going two years, you can see on there twelve months, eighteen months indeed is lower. Kind of our long term strategy when it comes to energy is, as council knows, we've been very proactive with solar panels. The reason we like to do two years is because we are expecting the wastewater treatment plant to be completed, the solar project down there by the end of the year. This would give us another full year under our belt of realizing the savings from the solar panels and we queue up nicely for the next time we need to renew. So essentially that's what we're recommending.

There's 93 total city accounts associated impact and what we estimate based on that is about $200,000 saving by locking in at that particular rate. So with that, that's kind of the high level overview. With me this evening, got Rob Wilt from Priority Power. He's here to answer any questions counsel might have. That is kind of my overview though and I welcome any questions. If there's any technical questions I can answer, I'm gonna be deferring to Rob to weigh in for us. So welcome any questions or concerns the council might have related to the request this evening.

Questions or comments?

Yes. Does the power come from somewhere else then other than where Ameren has it? As I'm not sure how that

far as the transmission versus supply?

I didn't quite are you talking about the electric supply portion of the Ameren bill because that's what we're dealing with tonight. Where it comes well, obviously it comes off the grid. I'm really not sure.

How is it different than where Ameren is supplying it from? Like do you guys have your own power plant? I don't know how it works. We

serve as your broker and we go out and these three retail electric suppliers, there's 22 licensed in Illinois. We deal with these three. They're the three largest in the country and their rates are the most competitive. They know that they're bidding against each other. And so knowing that, they sharpen their pencil and come in with the best rates because they want City of Collinsville's business.

You're over 6,000,000 kilowatt hours a year. And so these suppliers have some of them like Constellation, their parent company is Exelon. They own the nuclear power plants in Northern Illinois, Homefield Energy, of course they used to have an office here in Collinsville. They've been bought by Vistra and they go back and forth between who's the two largest suppliers in the country with Direct Energy. They all headquarter down in Houston area which is the hub of the electrical industry, electric supply industry.

They secure blocks of energy and then we as brokers go out and try to get our customers the best rates possible. Does that make sense?

It helps. It helps. So it's not like you're not buying it from an alternative generation source. No. It's all the same. It's just the way it's been purchased on the market and access to

it. Correct.

Other questions or comments? I said in a comment I said you you've been right in the middle of it go with your recommendation.

Yeah we feel like this is going to put us in a good spot and I'll go ahead and mention too Eric's I forgot to mention my overview. We're not the only community that does this. I've sent an email out to the local city managers in the Metro East and got some feedback. Village of Maryville, they're in for a four year agreement. They're looking at zero zero dollars a kilowatt hour.

Not a contest, obviously, but a lot of that has to do with each community's power usage and if they have any solar projects in play which Maryville does not. City of O'Fallon or city ministry got back to me there about eight point two cents for a three year agreement they did in 2024. Edwardsville has a range of 6.7 to 8.5 depending on its street lights versus treatment plants and things like that. That was an agreement they did in 2022 too. So a lot of this has to do with timing, but a lot of it has to do with the size of the community too. As an example, Edersville has 11 gigawatts. They're usually handling to our 6.5. So, I guess if anything I'm just going to say this is pretty normal for municipalities to do this because we're getting pretty significant savings on our own facilities.

All right. There's no more questions or comments. I have a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Houseman. Second by Seaton. Roll call.

Houseman. Yes. Furman. Yes. Green. Yes. Seaton.

Yes.

Stamond. Yes. Next, closed session.

I have a motion to go into closed session to discuss in accordance with five ILCS 100 twentytwo C number 11 pending or threatened or imminent litigation. Motion?

So move. Second.

Motion by Houseman, seconded by Seaton. Roll call.

Houseman? Yes. Fuhrman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seaton?

Yes.

Stamen?

Yes.

Next is adjournment.

Motion to adjourn.

So moved.

I'll second it.

Motion by Fuhrman, second by Green. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Fuhrman. Yes. Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Statement.

City council council city council meeting for 05/12/2026 is adjourned.