City Council Meeting/Strategic Session - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'd like to call the Council City Council meeting for August 11th, 2026 to order. Roll call.

Green. Yes, I'm here. Seton.

Here.

Houseman.

Here.

Furman is absent. Stamen.

Here. I'm going to do things a little different tonight. We're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance, but first we do the invocation.

Tonight I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce...

new Catholic priest for St. Peter and Paul. So Father Michael Rosa is new to our city and new to the church. Please come up. At the Faith in Action dinner, you'd ask Steve Evans and said, do you want to meet the mayor? Because you want to be active in the community. We like to hear that. So thanks for being here tonight. And please, if you would, say a little bit about yourself. Of course, St. Peter and Paul are like 1,100 active members and very active in the community. So tell us a little about yourself and then lead into an invocation. Thank you.

Thanks for having me today. My name, like you heard, is I'm Father Michael Rosa. I was born and raised in Poland, that's why my accent. A lot of people will ask the question, okay, where are you from? And they usually say, I'm from here, but now I can't use that card because I just came here, and no one will believe me. But I was born and raised in Poland, and my last 12 years I spent in Effingham. I was assigned there to Catholic Church in Effingham, And this year Bishop moved me here. So starting July 1st, I'm assigned to St. Peter and Paul and I'm a pastor at St. Peter and Paul. So if anyone needs anything from Catholic Church, let me know and we will be happy to help if we can. So let's start with the prayer invocation for this city council meeting.

Everyone please stand and then remain standing for the Pledge of Believers.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of community and for the people of Collinsville, whom we are called to serve. Send your Holy Spirit upon the members of the city council, all elected officials, city employers, first responders, and residents. grant wisdom in deliberation, integrity in leadership, and charity in every decision. Help us to seek the common good above personal interest, to protect the dignity of every human person, and to work for justice, peace, and prosperity for all. Bless our city and all who call it home. May our efforts today build a stronger community marked by mutual respect, responsibility, and care for one another. And we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Father Michael, when I met him, that I had met the Pope, and he said, well, I haven't even met the Pope yet, so if you need any help, just let me know. Next item.

First item tonight under council discussion is the Southwest Corridors Business District number two draft plan.

Presentation be given by Interim City Manager Jessica Sharp.

Thank you, Mayor Stammen, members of the council. Tonight we actually have Jared Kanelliken from Moran Economic Development here. They are the professional services provider for the development of this plan, and Jared is going to give us an overview of the draft plan.

Thank you. So tonight we're talking about the new Southwest Corridors Business District, which I think if you have the next part. Yes. Okay. So what we're talking about here is essentially resuming the Southwest Corridor Business District. As you can see, the blue area there is the existing business district area. And after having some meetings with Jessica and some city staff, trying to identify what resources might be available, particularly for those folks in the uptown area after that TIF district had expired. One of the existing tools the city uses is the business district program, but the business district, as you can see, did not extend to the uptown area just yet. And because of some limitations with the language of the Business District Act in regard to moving money between joining business districts, and also the fact that there's no provision for extending the life of a business district area, the strategy we developed was just to sort of redistrict the area, encompassing all of the existing area, but then also expanding from some of those other areas that may benefit from being within the business district boundary. So in order to do so, you're required to follow all the Business District Act steps for the establishment. And mainly it's the preparation of an eligibility study for the boundary area, the preparation of a redevelopment plan for the area, and then there will also be a public hearing held later in the fall. So one of the first steps tonight is to set that date for the public hearing, so that's the actual action item on the agenda. But before getting to that, we want to provide some context as to why you would be establishing this public hearing. So that redevelopment plan that we have provided details the conditions in this area which would cause it to be eligible for being in this new business district. When we're talking about eligibility there, a lot of it's the physical condition of the properties. also the state of some of the utilities and infrastructure and we also looked at some of the economic characteristics of the area both in property evaluation and also some of the sales tax collection numbers which all that gets rolled into an analysis of how this area meets the criteria as defined in the business district act So knowing that the area would qualify for this new business district, we proceeded on with the creation of that draft development plan. Throughout the process, we would like to very much incorporate city staff feedback on that plan, particularly as it relates to some of the goals and objectives, some of the things that you'd like to do with this resource throughout these areas. In the creation of the draft plan, we did source a lot of the information from your existing planning documents. We have quite a few, so we combed through all those, particularly the uptown master plan, the comprehensive plan draft, the great rivers and routes plan, it's called, for the Council Road, St. Louis Road area. Great chance. So a lot of those resources have specific goals and objectives, and the tool of the business district would be very appropriate in order to fund some of those planning initiatives. But again, as we go through the process, if we do have any feedback, we're more than happy to accommodate that in the plan. From a procedure standpoint, as I said, there's a required public hearing. The ordinance will detail all that information, but we had it set for September 8th, which was at the regular scheduled meeting, council meeting that night. And then from there, the requirement would be that you dissolve the existing business district before you can approve this new district. But Department of Revenue, any sales tax changes, regardless of what they are, but in particular as business districts, they happen on two deadlines per year. Any changes submitted to Department of Revenue prior to October 1st would take effect January 1st of the following year. Anything prior to April 1st takes effect July 1st of that year. Operating on the schedule that if council were to approve this at the meeting in September on the 22nd, which is the current schedule, the existing business district would cease collections on December 31st of this year, and the new business district would take effect January 1. So we'd be dissolving the existing area, but there wouldn't be any lapse in sales tax collections for your existing business district fund. But overall, following the meeting that we had with some of the uptown business owners and then looking at the map and identifying some of the areas that would benefit, I think this would be, you've already had some success with the program, and I think extending to these areas would give a valuable resource to some of those businesses in the area and some of these properties, and in particular, some of the small businesses, local entrepreneurs, things like that.

Thank you, Jared. Are there any questions from council on the draft plan?

I don't have any questions, but I thought maybe you might, not to put you on the spot, Jessica, if you might explain to folks here and maybe those listening in that we have a current district in the Northeast and maybe give an example of the program you started and were behind for those folks and what's happening with that.

Sure, I'd be glad to. So what Councilman Hausman is referring to is the Northeast Business District. And in collaboration with other staff, so I appreciate the credit, but it was definitely a team effort, we put together a facade or a grant program that really targets those businesses to improve the look and feel of that corridor. And that is a matching grant, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000. This district, we may not have the same dollar amount thresholds, but we certainly envision a similar grant program, particularly for the uptown area, to help incentivize improvements to aging buildings where there's just not a lot of resources or other funding opportunities to help these small business owners improve the exterior.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? I think in the last discussion we had, I'm glad it's worked out that we can move that up. I think there'll be some big benefits to that. So being there's no action.

Correct, yep. This is just a discussion item. Later in the agenda, we will have the ordinance to set the public hearing date, but right now it's just discussion.

Okay, so if there's no other questions, move on to the next item.

Next, the speaker's from the floor.

Speakers may address the council under the terms of ordinance number 4765. Time is limited to four minutes per speaker. Please refer to the last page of the agenda for specific rules governing input. Is there anyone on the left side of the room that would like to speak? Anyone on the right side of the room would like to speak? Okay, being none, next item.

Comments and announcements from the mayor?

Excuse me. The only thing I have tonight I'd like to announce, a former council member, Mike Keefe, passed away last night. He was on the council just a short time, two years. He filled in for a death, I think, of... Mayor Schaffer had filled in as this extra council member. Mike's a super guy. His wife died about a month ago, and he lived right up the street from me. So they've had kind of a tough year or so, but our thoughts and prayers for the family. That's all I have.

Comments and announcements from council members? Next, the city staff.

Thank you, Mayor Stamen. Members of the Council, if Kimberly Coren would please come to the podium and tell us about some perks programming.

members of the council have a few programs to highlight tonight one of which is a movie night scheduled for this Thursday at Woodland Park this is a free movie and we do have a sponsor this year Revity Bank has been our sponsor for both the outdoor movies that we are hosting and the fire department will be assisting and coming out with fire truck for the event on Thursday night and um stay tuned though to our socials in case weather it's a 50 chance of rain at this point right now so we're hopeful that we will be able to get this event in um and then with school starting back up that means our programs can be back in the gymnasiums and our adult drop-in volleyball will start this monday on the very first day of um council's first day of school And then we've got Barnyard Buddies. We have that going on at the farm this weekend. Pre-registration is encouraged. And new this year, we're going to do a fall citywide garage sale. Registration will open for that on Tuesday. That will be a free program, and it will be in coordination with the last 100 miles of Route 66 celebration here in town. More to come on that day or on that weekend. We'll have more events coming up, but we'll talk about that at the next meeting. any questions keep your fingers crossed for friday night employee appreciation yes again 50 chance rating right now so um we're hoping that i think friday's actually gone down in percentages it looks like it's early okay it's sunny in the afternoon all right and saturday no thank you

Thank you, Kimberly. And just a quick announcement from me. Our city manager, Derek Jackson, will be coming back next Monday, the 17th. So, council, I appreciate the opportunity to keep his seat warm while he's gone, but we are excited to welcome him back on Monday. And that's all. Thank you.

Next item.

Next is the consent agenda. Item one, motion to approve payment of bills for the period ending July 31st, 2026 in the amount of $1,251,301.23. Item number two is a motion to approve payroll for the period ending July 17, 2026 in the amount of $968,987.73. Item three, motion to approve minutes of the July 28, 2026 council meeting. Item number four is a resolution requesting permission from IDOT to close Main Street for the Italian Fest. Item five, resolution requesting permission from IDOT to close Main Street for the Italian Fest parade. And item six is a resolution requesting permission from IDOT to close Main Street for the Collinsville High School Homecoming Parade.

Is there any items that anyone would like to pull from the consent agenda and vote on separately? Being none, have a motion to approve? So moved.

Donna can have it. Okay.

Motion by Green. Second by Seton. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Houseman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes.

Next under new business, item one is the ordinance increasing the 2026 expenditure budget in the hospitality fund.

The presentation will be given by finance director Tim Landry.

Good evening, Mayor, city council members. Before you this evening is an ordinance to appropriate 2026 expenditure budget within the hospitality fund. Specifically, this ordinance has one single appropriation which will cover the capital improvement plan requirement at the Gateway Center to replace the final part of three different sections of the roof in dire need of repair. This additional funding will provide $51,950 on top of the $245,000 budgeted for this capital improvement plan requirement for total appropriation of $296,950. This ordinance only appropriates the $51,950 necessary to cover the funding shortfall of the original budgeted amount. These expenditures are consistent with the operational objectives of the Gateway Center and provides future cost savings by avoiding more costly repairs down the road. Staff is recommending approval of this ordinance, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have on it.

Any questions for Tim? Comments?

I guess just with this, because we all thought it was something to consider, just when it says it comes from the fund balance, can you just, just for my ignorance, can you give me a little bit of detail what that is?

Sure. It's where revenues exceed liabilities at the bottom line, and then we appropriate it out to the specific line item that is Jamie's capital improvement fund. And you're going to get a refresher on the briefing because Jamie's up next on what we're actually finally buying.

Yeah. But the fund balance is the reserves, right?

Available funding. Free available funding.

Okay.

All right. Any other questions or comments? Motion to approve? Motion. Second. Motion by Houseman. Second by Seton. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Houseman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Next item.

Item number two is an ordinance to award bid and authorize contract with Giesler Roofing for the roof replacement at the Gateway Convention Center in the amount of $296,950. Gateway Director Jamie Lang.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. Just to give highlights from the last time that we met, I was coming before you for the ordinance to award bid and authorized contract to Geisler Roofing for roof replacement at Gateway Center. The CIP approved amount was $245,000. When we did the bid specs for this project, we divided it into three different sections just because there was some uncertainty surrounding the cost, not knowing exactly where it would land. So at the last meeting, I was proposing section five and seven just to stay within and underneath the approved limit. During that meeting, we all discussed, or it was discussed, be more efficient, reduce startup costs, and minimize business disruptions at Gateway Center if we were able to find the additional approximately $50,000 and just replace all three sections at one time versus splitting it up into two different projects. So immediately after that meeting, the director of finance, Tim, and leadership were in communication about that, and there was $51,950 in the hospitality fund that we could move, which was the appropriation that we just did. So he reviewed that and said he would advise and approve of that. So with that, we would like to propose that we would do all three sections, five, six, and seven. So all three sections replaced with Geisler roofing for a total of $296,950. And just to remind, this is the north side of the building. It's over the ballroom CD section of the building, and we'll be able to do where the red, blue, and yellow stripes are there in the diagram. So the staff is recommending approval, and at this time, if you have any questions, I will address those with you.

Any questions or comments for Jamie?

When's our start date?

We do need to get in touch with them right away. It's going to, be a logistical thing because obviously we need a section amount of time without any disruption. So with event activity, we basically have limited windows of time that we can work within. So we'll be coordinating with them once they, that'll take four weeks, four to six weeks to get the equipment. So that's my first call tomorrow morning is to try to start that process of finding the dates and blocking off the time.

That was my next question. So you can't do any events while they're doing this project?

I believe that the beginning of the project will be the most disruptive because of crane activity and things of that sort that become more of a safety issue, but there are some components of the project that event activity could continue underneath.

Any other questions? If not, I have a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Green, second by Hausman. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Houseman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Thank you.

Item three is an ordinance setting a public hearing date for the establishment of a business district in Collinsville.

Interim city manager Jessica Sharpe.

Thank you, Mayor Stamen, members of the council. As we heard earlier from Jared with Moran Economic Development, this is the next procedural part of establishing the new Southwest Corridors Business District. So this ordinance is just setting a public hearing date, which will be September 8th here at our regularly scheduled city council meeting. Happy to answer any questions.

Is there an ordinance? There's no action required on that.

This is an ordinance to set the date for the public hearing.

Well, then let's, if there's no questions or comments to have a motion to approve. So moved.

Second.

Motion by Seton. Second by Hausman. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Hausman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes.

Next closed session.

Motion to approve closed session to discuss in accordance with five ILCS 120-2C. Number five, the purchase or lease of real property. Number six, the setting of price for sale or lease of property. 11, pending or threatened or imminent litigation. And number 21, discussion of closed meeting minutes. Motion?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Green. Second by Seaton. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seton. Yes. Houseman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes.

Last is adjournment.

A motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Motion by Houseman, seconded by Seton. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seton. Yes. Houseman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Council City Council meeting for August 11, 2026 is adjourned.