City Council Meeting/Strategic Session - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the Council City Council meeting for September 8th, 2026 to order. Roll call.

Houseman.

Here.

Furman.

Here.

Green. Here. Seton.

Here.

Stamen.

Here. Would everyone please stand for the invocation given by Ron Habermill of the North Smoke Church and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Precious Father, we come before you and we thank you that, Lord, this truly is a day that you've made and we will rejoice and be glad in it. Holy Spirit, we come before you and we ask you to lead and guide our leaders here as they make decisions concerning our city. Father, we thank you, Lord God, that you give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Lord, I thank you that your word says that if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of you who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth not. I thank you, Father, that our council is seeking your wisdom and your guidance today. So I thank you that you help them and lead them and show them the way. And so, Father, we just thank you for this, and thank you that you protect our community, and we thank you for your blessings over our city, and we give you praise in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic Next item.

The first item tonight is the proclamation, Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance, September 11th, 2026.

Since we aren't going to be here Friday, of course, in September 11th, I'd like to do this proclamation. Whereas September 11th, 2026 marks the 26th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, which claims the lives of nearly 3,000 people and forever changed our nation. And whereas we honor the innocent lives lost that day and remember the extraordinary courage and sacrifice of firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency responders, and members of armed forces, and the ordinary citizens who answered the call to serve. And whereas the anniversary of September 11th serves as a reminder of strength, unity, compassion, and resolve demonstrated by Americans in the face of tragedy. And whereas we encourage the citizens of Collinsville to honor those lost through remembrance, service to others, and appreciation for those who continue to protect and serve our communities and our nation. Now therefore, I, Jeff Stamen, Mayor of the City of Collinsville, Illinois, do hereby proclaim September 11th as Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance in the City of Collinsville, and encourage all citizens to join in remembering the victims of September 11th, honoring those who responded and reflecting upon the spirit and unity of service that brought our nation together. I might add that I saw a program Sunday morning, and they talked about the number of people, young people, that weren't born yet when September 11th happened. And I think one of the important things that we have to do is make sure we've all heard the term, never forget. But I think we gotta do our part in making sure we educate our children, their children, as they come up, the importance of what that means to our country. Next item.

Next is the presentation of the August Yard of the Month Award.

Of course, I've known Chris for a long time, and your house is Linda's, my wife's, favorite house in the county. And that had nothing to do with us. Because the Denver Board does that. But it always looks so nice, and we continue to do that. So I'd like to give you this plaque, and also Creekside has a really good party. So let's get on with our picture. Next item.

Next, business prior to public input. Item one is a public hearing for the establishment of a business district in the city of Collinsville, Southwest Corridors Business District number two.

We're getting a motion to open up public hearing.

Motion to open up public hearing. So moved.

I'll second it.

Motion by Furman, second by Green. Staff report will be given by Assistant City Manager Jessica Sharp.

Thank you, Mayor Seaman, members of the council. Tonight we actually have Jared Kanalkin with Moran Economic Development here to give an overview of the Southwest Corridor Business District 2.

Yes, so what we're talking about tonight is essentially a new business district here in the city, but as you can tell by the title of the map there, what we're talking about is actually sort of an extension of the existing Southwest Corridors Business District. The darker area is the existing business district boundary, and then the black outline would be the proposed new business district area. The purpose of doing this would be to expand upon some new areas in the city to take advantage of this program a little bit better, in particular the uptown area. The business district is a program that can support local businesses and generally make improvements within this boundary area. So in order to help some of those folks out, the boundary needs to be extended to include those properties. And then on the north side, there were some additional properties that were determined could benefit from being in this business district area. But generally, the business district is an economic development tool, and it relies on sales tax collections that are pooled in a separate revenue fund that the city can use for improvements in that area. That sales tax is a 1% sales tax applied to certain purchases located within the boundary. It does not get applied to any medicine, medical devices. It does not apply to any groceries, nor does it apply to anything licensed in the state of Illinois. So no cars, trucks, boats, anything like that. And the goal here is, again, to sort of continue on with some of the successes that the existing Southwest Corridors Business District has had, but also with the downtown TIF expiring, really the priority was to extend some resources to the uptown folks. so that they can utilize the program to make some improvements in their properties as well. So you can see there some of the general goals that are outlined in the redevelopment plan, but things that we're talking about as far as eligible costs. Any public improvement projects within the boundary are generally eligible. Structure rehab, rehabilitation, repair, anything in that arena is gonna be eligible. Demolition of structures that are maybe beyond rehab, repair. New construction is an eligible cost within a business district. But all these things, streetscape improvements, sidewalk streets, these are all activities the city would like to ultimately facilitate in this area along the roadway improvements. And a lot of what we pulled for creating some of these goals and objectives in addition with working with city staff, we sourced a lot of this from existing plans of the city, including the new comprehensive plan. in the uptown master plan some of those things so the business district can be a tool to accomplish some of those goals and objectives and some of those planning documents so again overall the idea here was to extend this resource in a couple other new areas in the city and also doing a new business district it'll afford a longer lifespan for the redevelopment project So part of that establishment process is that we have to hold a public hearing, and so with that, I'd like to turn it over to the public input section if there are any questions or comments about the proposed business district.

Is there anyone that would like to give testimony in the public hearing regarding this subject? Being none, we'll close the public hearing. Any more, um, any more from you, Jessica on that?

No, that's it. Thank you, Jerry.

Okay. All right. Um, I have a motion to approve. So moved second motion by green second by seat roll call motion to adjourn. Yeah, motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn, not approve.

Okay, motion, I'm sorry, motion to adjourn, okay. Okay, roll call.

Okay, Houseman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes. I don't have a motion to approve.

There won't be any formal action. This is just the public hearing section. The next city council meeting will be the formal ordinance to dissolve the old business district and establish the new one. I knew that.

Next item.

Next, the speakers from the floor.

Speakers from the floor 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 my left that would like to speak? Okay, please go to the podium and state your name.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Mark Thompson. I am here to try to get your help in rectifying something on my street. I live on Redbud Drive off of 157, and there are between 30 and 40 potholes in my street, ranging from 3 inches to 8 inches deep. I realize it's a private street, but everything that takes place on that street tells me there's commerce. We have a fire hydrant, mail delivery, UPS delivery, Amazon, Republic Services, AT&T charter, water company trucks, tree trimmers, and lawn service. The road is getting torn up. My house value is going down. I have no curb appeal. I'm just asking for your help. That's all I have.

Thank you for comments there. Anyone else on the left side of the room? Anyone on the right? Senator Harris.

Okay, I'm Erica Harris, the state senator for this area. Happy to be here to announce tonight I was able to secure $100,000 worth of funding this last year in the state budget. That happened after conversations with several of you, actually, who alerted me to some of the water issues that you were having, and so we advocated for those in Springfield and were able to secure that. funding in the current budget. So we had worked with you all and you'd given us a name and DCEO will be contacting you in the next few weeks to talk about getting that funding moving. And I know that this is a big project and something you shouldn't have to tackle a loan so very happy to be able to advocate for you in springfield for that i know that that will just be a very small part of what you will need to do but hopefully will be very impactful as well so just wanted to make that announcement say thank you for all that you do and for the partnership that we have and and open communication so that i can be a better representative knowing what it is that you all need so thank you thank you appreciate it

Thank you, Senator Harris. And like I said, every little bit helps. But you've been very helpful in working through this process. Anyone else on the right side?

Hello, council, Mr. Mayor, city manager, city attorney, I appreciate the time for letting me talk. My name is Peter Hoffman. I'm a lifelong resident of Collinsville, 60-plus years, graduate of Collinsville High School in 1978, and I am the original founder of the Extreme Softball Club in the late 1900s. Okay, it was 1999. Late 1900s sounds better. Wanted to talk to you about, as many of you know, the extreme has decided to dissolve after this year. And we have a few loose ends that we need to tie up. One in particular that I want to talk to you about. A couple things I wanted to talk about first. When I first started the Xtreme in 1999, we knew that there was a renaissance of the complex that needed to be done at that time. And we had, as the Xtreme founder, I had a great relationship with the K-Hawk softball coach at that time, because he was a guy who had a lot of the same goals that I had, and that guy was me. So I was the founder of the Xtreme. I was also the K-Hawk's head coach. And another feather I had in my hat at that time is I was also the facility manager for the complex through the CBSL. It was like an opportunity for me to get some things done, and we really did. That is the time that Field 5 was rebuilt, where the press box was built and the dugouts. And we partnered with Unit 10 Vocational Center that built that press box for us. We did a bunch of other complex projects. That's when the three fields in the quad were fenced along with field five and six and seven. That was all done at that time. We built batting cages. We put sprinklers in the quad. Believe it or not, there are sprinklers on those fields. They're buried deep and probably can never be found again. But the biggest project that we decided needed to be done was an indoor training facility because there was no place, being the high school coach, I had to compete in the spring if it was raining or too cold to practice. I had to compete with boys basketball, girls basketball, the dance team, wrestling, and especially Bob Bone was the coach at that time, and you weren't allowed to make noise when he was coaching, and they gave me one little concrete balcony for 30 girls to practice on on a concrete floor. It wasn't a very good situation. I decided that we were going to try to see what we could do to build a facility. And I threw the ideal out there and I was, uh, amazed by the support that I received from so many different entities, including, you know, uh, of course the extreme CBSL unit 10 card at the time, the township and just community members and parents.

And we got the building in the, uh, the building, um,

description if you've never seen it or you've never been there it's a forty by sixty I don't want to say barn, but it's like an out building, but it's decorative brick in front. It's a, it's a good looking building. You walk in, there's a coach's office, there's two ADA compliant bathrooms. There's a small meeting room for teams. There's an equipment storage area. And then there's a 40 by 40 turf area that can be split into a split into four, 10 by 40 cages. So it's really set up great for what it is. And, um, There was a huge investment in this building. We figured all these projects and everything, we've probably got over $100,000 invested in the building, and everything that I just mentioned to field five, the building, everything that was done was done with zero tax dollars. It was all, am I done?

Yes, sir.

Okay, in conclusion,

I know the in talks with the mayor and and some and city manager, some of you think it may be a good idea to turn this building into a maintenance storage facility.

Pete, I'm sorry, but you're going to happen. We have a limit of four minutes.

You're going to have to please don't do that. The youth of this community need that building. There's been hundreds of kids that have come through there and gone on to be productive members of our community. Please think very hard before you turn that in just a storage facility for lawnmowers.

You're welcome to come back to the next meeting and do the same. Thank you, Pete.

Thank you.

That's all right. Anyone else on the right side? Okay, being done, next item.

Comments and announcements from the mayor.

I have none.

Comments and announcements from council members.

Okay. Next time.

Next, the city staff.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Mark, thank you for being here this evening related to the concerns with Redbud Drive. Our public works director, Troy Turner, is here. I'll ask that he follows up with you, too, as far as what the city can do to kind of address the situation you guys are facing out there. Thank you for being here. I see Senator Harris had to take off. I know she's busy, but like she mentioned, she was able to successfully put in $100,000 into the state budget, which really helps the city's efforts when it comes to PFAS. It's been really refreshing to get a lot of support, not only from the state level with Senator Harris, but also at the federal level, too. Nikki Basinski has got federal funds in for us at the congressional level, and Senator Duckworth as well. It really is helpful to the city to get all the support from different taxing bodies. So I just wanted to give a big shout out to Senator Harris on that. And Pete, thank you for your comments too. We hear you loud and clear as far as, and there's obviously a lot of history with that building, which means a whole lot to the sports programs of the community. As you know, obviously the city has taken over maintenance of the parks facilities since CAR dissolved. So we are taking a look at what we can do to continue that to make sure we're providing the best park services to our residents in the city. So thank you for your comments this evening. As the mayor said, you can certainly come back at a future one. Sorry in advance, four minutes kind of the cap we put on that. So with all that being said, can I have Jamie Lane, our director of Gateway Convention Center, come on and talk about some of the events we have going on at the center?

Hello, good evening, Mayor and members of the council. I'm gonna talk to you today about three different events, two in September and one in October that are coming up that are open to the public. The first one being the Gym and Jewelry Show. It's September 18th through the 20th. This is wholesalers, designers, and manufacturers. It's fine jewelry and vintage pieces, beads, watches, and more. It's a direct-to-consumer showcase, as they call it, and the admission is $6 if you buy your ticket online, $8 at the door. So it is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That is Italian Fest weekend, so hopefully people can stop by for just some shopping in between their fun at the Italian Fest. The event is Friday noon to 6, Saturday 10 to 6, and Sunday 11 to 5. The next event, I know I was here in the summer and talked about the Illinois Elvis Festival, which was like a multiple-day contest or performances, but two of the biggest names of those Elvis impersonators or Elvis tribute artists, as they like to be called, one is local, Bill Cherry, and one is Cody Denoeth, who's the owner and operator of the Illinois Elvis Festivals. Those are two of the most popular performers, and they are doing a new show at Gateway, the Ultimate Elvis Tribute. And that is Friday, September 25th from 7.30 to 10 o'clock. And the last event that's coming up is Archon, which is, for those that know, Eastport Plaza turns into one big... Costumes are everywhere. People are dressed up as some of these pictures I tried to highlight. It's October 2nd through the 4th. It's a fan-run celebration of science fiction, fantasy, and imagination. They call it a multi-generational convention because people have been coming so long they're bringing their children to attend as well. It brings fans, creators, gamers, artists, costumers, musicians all together for panels, exhibits, performances, such as the Masquerade on Saturday night, which is a big costume contest and performance. And so it's just a big celebration of community and they have hallway costumes and everything. So often the hotels are full and the restaurants are full. And if you see some people in costumes, that's why. So thank you.

That's it. Thank you, Jamie.

Mm-hmm.

Council, a couple more quick updates on the horizon here. Actually, this Friday, September 11th, is going to be the kickoff for the fifth annual Enjoy Illinois 300 race at the Worldwide Technology Raceway. With that, NASCAR is going to put on a Route 66 NASCAR hauler parade. It's going to start at Fairview Heights at the mall. It's actually going to come through Collinsville. You can see the route kind of here on the map when we share this on social media as well. So this is a great opportunity for anybody that's a NASCAR fan or if you have any family that's for kids that like seeing the vehicles. Obviously you can see here is about a 40, we're expecting about 40 or so vehicles that are gonna be hauled from the mall to the racetrack itself. So with that, there's gonna be parking opportunities. We've just highlighted a couple public parking lots on the uptown area where it'd be easy to see the parade. Again, it's gonna be sometime between three and four o'clock. We do ask if you do happen to be parking on businesses in town, obviously be mindful of their parking situation and we'd encourage you to solicit their business as well. So this will let you know that's coming up. And then it wouldn't be September without plugging the Italian Fest. As you know, the Chamber of Commerce does a lot of great work leading up to this and getting volunteers. That'll be Friday, September 18th, and Saturday the 19th. Opening ceremony will start at 11.30 on the main stage next to Spirito's on Main Street. And then always, we like to plug too, the city has an ongoing tradition of having a grape shop competition. As you can see there from the picture on the right, the police department was last year's 2025 champions. So we'll see if they get to retain the belt and a different department will unseat them. So always look forward to Italian Fest. Again, it's a great event and we hope to see you there. Mayor, that's all we have for staff comments this evening. Thank you.

Next item.

Next is the consent agenda. Item 1, motion to approve payment of bills for the period ending August 28, 2026 in the amount of $544,561.14. Item 2, motion to approve payroll for the period ending August 14, 2026 in the amount of $901,585.55. And item number three is a motion to approve minutes of the August 25th, 2026 council meeting.

Is there any items that the council would like removed and voted on separately? If not, have a motion to approve. So moved.

Seconded.

Motion by Furman, seconded by Green. Roll call.

Houseman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes.

Next, under New Business, item one is an ordinance authorizing expenditure of Northeast Business District funds for the improvements to 1811 Vandalia as it relates to Northeast Business District Improvement Grant Program.

The presentation will be given by Assistant City Manager Jessica Sharp.

Thank you, Mayor Samen, members of the council. This evening we do have two Northeast Business District grant awards. This one is for 8 and 11 Vandalia. This is Swing City. This is actually a continuation of their previous Northeast Business District project. So they had the mural with some facade improvements. grant application is actually to finish painting some of the exterior of the building to match that gray color, and then also improvements to the parking lot. The total project cost is almost $62,000, and so staff is recommending an award of that. We do allow the 50% up to $100,000. So here are the existing conditions. You can see that new gray color on the building. And on this slide here, you can see there were a few areas that just didn't get updated with the first round of the grant award. So those kind of beige or yellow colored areas are going to be painted to match. And then also the parking lot is going to be repaired. There are some holes and low areas. And so those will be filled, milled down or filled in where they need to be and then sealed and restriped to match the current layout. So as I mentioned, staff is recommending approval for an award amount of $30,983.50. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Ellison, second by Seaton. Roll call.

Houseman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seaton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes.

Next item number two is an ordinance authorizing the expenditure of Northeast Business District funds for the improvements to 407 Beltline Road as it relates to Northeast Business District Improvement Grant Program.

Again, Jessica Short.

Thank you, Mayor Stammen, members of the council. This is the second Northeast Business District grant for this evening. This is also a continuation of an ongoing project. This one is for Pac Mail, which is at 407 Beltline Road. The owner of Pac Mail is proposing new side door, which is a double door, a new metal awning on the front of the building, and then painting of the storage building that is attached to the back of the front building. This total project comes to just over $20,000 and staff recommends an award of 50% of that dollar amount. So here is the existing building and then these are samples of the proposed improvements. So a new side double door, a new metal awning and then on the right hand side Not building that structure. I want to be very clear about that. Just a sample of the pink color that would match the exterior of the building. So staff recommends the award of $10,433.41. I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions or comments? Not motion. Approved.

Second. Motion by Seton, second by Housman. Roll call.

Housman?

Yes.

Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes.

Item number three.

I just want to make a comment on those. I guess after the fact, but it's made so much difference on the buildings and the properties that have asked for funds, and it's made that area look so much better. Thank you. Next item.

Next item, number three, is an ordinance authorized in the City Council to exercise power of administrative review for a special use permit request by Laura Buick for property located at 123 United Drive.

The presentation will begin by Community Development Director Travis Taylor.

Thank you, Mayor and members of Council. The item before you is a vote for the City Council to request review of a special use permit that was recently approved by the Planning Commission. I'll give you some background on the special use permit and kind of describe a little bit what our code requires in terms of process for administrative review and that sort. So the special use permit request was for a property on United Drive. This is 123 United Drive. This property, dating back to about 2017, has been utilized for an automotive repair shop. This location is within a planned district, and that planned district requires that all automotive repair type facilities have a special use permit if they're on certain lots. This is one of those lots. Laura Buick operated out of this location from 2017 to 2019. At that time it transferred over to Freedom's Installations and they operated until 2023. At that time it was transferred back to Laura Buick and Laura Buick began operating out of that location. This is service for their current vehicle stock and they are operating there today. Staff became aware that when the transfer from Freedom Installations to Laura Buick occurred, no business license was applied for at that time and so this year we caught that mistake and we contacted them and asked them for their business license and at that time we also found that the no current special use permit was on file for that automotive repair facility. So that's what prompted this request, and that is why they made the request to go before the Planning Commission to request a special use permit. The special use permit request was heard by the Planning Commission in August 13th of this year, and the Planning Commission recommended approval with a few conditions, and those conditions were related to primarily some out of compliance code issues that we had found on site, including an illegal gravel parking area that had been installed at some point over the past several years, an outdoor storage area that had grown, and some landscaping that had been removed. Laura Buick was president of this meeting. They did not speak and they had no comments on these conditions and agreed to move forward with us in good faith. This evening, we're bringing to the council a request for the power of administrative review by the council. The process usually goes, the Planning Commission has the final say on special use permits, but the code allows the council to request review of those permits. In practicality, the city staff usually turns this over to council via email and correspondence and asking for the council to request review if they so desire. We did receive a request, And so then we immediately bring that forward to council at the next available council meeting. So we brought this forward this evening for a formal vote on whether or not the council would like to actually review the special use permit, which would happen at a later city council meeting. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Travis and I'll fill in some of the blanks here. I was the one that asked for a council review. And the reason I did is we have three other properties for Laura Buick that have violations of parking lot not being paved, lighting problems. There has been I don't know how many different agreements that they've had for resurfacing their parking lots or paving their parking lots. One of them is on United Drive also. It's right across from our... Culver's. Culver's? Okay, right down from Culver's a little bit, yeah. And that property has been, we've been talking with them for several years, and there's been agreements on their main building, on that lot, and there's been agreements that they have told us they would do, and they haven't fulfilled any of them to this date. So... My thought on it is why approve anything else until we get some solid movement on the other issues? So I'm gonna ask that, we won't discuss the details of it tonight, but I'm gonna ask that we bring this up for review at the next meeting. So any questions or comments?

So my question was going to be with the, with the recommendations that you have in there, what, what teeth, how can we make them comply when they haven't complied? So I was, that's exactly what I was thinking. So I would like to, to follow this as well.

Well, to me, it's just, this is just basically couldn't stop on this.

Yeah.

They can't move forward with this. And until we, until.

Right.

Uh, Travis's department is satisfied. You're gonna get compliance in the other items. I agree. Not that we're gonna take any. put any more requirements or anything else, but we just said, okay, we're not going to go any further until we get the plan.

Do they get to continue to operate at this point?

They already are, so it would be, Travis, you want to comment on that?

Yeah, so they were in operation and have been for several years without formally applying for a business license at this location, and I I would defer to legal counsel and the city council as to whether we would move forward with trying to cease operations at this location, but I do believe it might be a difficult task.

I would be in favor of that. I think they've been operating. Let them continue, but...

any comments on it yeah i mean they have a giant they have a giant lot that's gravel with all their vehicles parked on it and we don't let anyone else do that just because they're one of the largest businesses in our city doesn't they shouldn't get special special passes for that it just doesn't make any sense either they want to comply or they lose their business license

Agreed and for those in for some quick context that that the mayor was referencing Laura Buick had a had an agreement for that large lot behind North bluff and how were she like road that expired in 2018 and that agreement was to allow them temporary gravel parking and storage in that area. And then at that time, they either had to request a one-year extension, which we cannot find record of, or they had to bring their whole site into compliance. So dating back to 2018, they have been out of compliance with their current plan district. And the lot on 123 United was graveled illegally without permit.

Yeah, I think until they start taking some action, they shouldn't be able to operate. No one else gets to.

So just to clarify, the vote before you this evening is simply to bring this back to review for special use permits. So I want to make sure council understands that if you vote in favor tonight, it's not in favor of the special uses, just to bring it back to the second September meeting.

And I will add that, you know, They're a great participant in the community, a good business, and they do a lot of good in the community. But we just have to make sure we're getting compliance across the board. So like Derek said, the vote will be just for bringing it back to the council for review. So I have a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second. Motion by Seaton, or Green seconded by Seaton, roll call.

Houseman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seaton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes. Thank you.

Item number four, ordinance authorizing city officials to bid upon and acquire tax delinquent and tax sale properties on behalf of the city.

Presentation to give my city manager Jackson.

Yeah, thank you mayor members the council the ordinance before you here is to allow the city upstanding authority to purchase time-sensitive property Acquisition opportunities. This really has to do a lot whenever there are properties that are doing tax delinquents There are some times in the past wherever the city does have opportunity to participate to bid on those That's something that's permitted by state law essentially what this ordinance would do is give myself corporate counsel and or any designee the opportunity to place a bid no more than $10,000 on a property. We chose $10,000. That's kind of the limit for department heads. Anything north of that really needs to have more conversations with the council as well as the finance department for purchasing that. so appropriate uses for this and it's something commonly done by municipalities really is to help eliminate blight if there are any abandoned buildings in town resolve parcels with outstanding city demos or maintenance costs it really gives us an opportunity if you know knowing that there's two council meetings a week sometimes when these auctions take place it might not be an opportunity to get full feedback from the council it's really to give us some some flexibility and those and obviously would keep the council apprised This would not obligate us to acquire any property if we were to put a bid in. Obviously, that would always have to come back to the council. But again, the whole spirit of this ordinance is to give us those flexibilities when there are those kind of opportunities. That's certainly important. We've seen properties on Main Street in the past that the city had to get involved with to beautify a blight condition. So with that, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions the council might have about this proposed ordinance.

Any questions or comments?

Is there like a yearly limit on that? I mean, it's limited to 10,000, but is there like a max?

No, I think it's just per bid is the way we currently have it written. Per property. Per property, yeah.

I can't imagine us having that many. And if we would, we'd be letting you know. All right, have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Green, second by Furman. Roll call.

Houseman?

Yes.

Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes.

Item five is a resolution adopting the Illinois Municipal League Civility Pledge.

Again, Jackson.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor, members of the council. This is a request from the IML, they're asking all their community partners to adopt this civility pledge. So what this is, it's a non-binding resolution that promotes respectful and productive public discourse. And essentially what it asks is all of our elected officials recognize that there's different viewpoints, and when it comes to local government, encourages listening, honesty, mutual respect, and constructive debate. So obviously I think I speak on behalf of staff. We feel very fortunate with the elected officials that we serve, that the community sends our way. When you look at around the country, from the school boards and other communities, We know we have a good here when it comes to the discourse in this chambers and essentially all this Does it's voluntary. There's no financial impact. It's just an aspiration for us to continue to have good productive Conversations whenever we're doing the business of the city. So with that be more happy to answer any questions Council has on this resolution

questions or comments. So if I want to call Councilman Furman a name, I better get it done now? Well, and I've been on the Council since 2015, and there was a couple rough years right at the start, but I've been very proud to work with the Councilmen we have had in the past and now because we've had that, we've kept that pledge without having it, so it's still good to have it. It'll let the community know we think it's important. All right, motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion by Houseman, seconded by Seton. Roll call.

Houseman?

Yes.

Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes.

Next closed session.

OK, I'd like to have a motion to go into a closed session or discuss in accordance with 5 ILCS 120 slash 2C, number 11, pending or threatened or imminent litigation. Motion? So moved.

Seconded.

Motion by Furman, seconded by Green. Roll call. Houseman? Yes.

Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes.

Last is adjournment.

I have a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second. Motion by Green, seconded by Furman. Roll call.

Houseman?

Yes.

Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes. City Council meeting for September 8, 2026. This is adjourned.