City Council - Regular Meeting

their building regulations to create their own communities. And to add on to this, a lot of state officials also oppose the act with the belief that it goes too far in imposing state authority on local municipalities.

So an alternate option proposed by the Illinois Municipal League is the REAL Act. So it will reduce property taxes and excessive construction fees, lower bureaucratic red tape limits to increase the rate of development in Illinois, prioritize developments that fulfill the needs of municipalities based off their unique characteristics, and it protects against the violation of local and municipal authority by the BUILD Act. and it's proposed by the Illinois Municipal League that I believe our city is part of. So our opinions. I agree with the ideals of the BUILD Act in solving key issues regarding lack of affordable housing in Illinois and promotes the creation of denser communities that I think in the long term will benefit society and will improve the health of individuals, the collective, and also the environment.

So, I disagree with the current iteration of the BUILD Act because I believe that it goes too far in ensuring quicker housing developments and its effort to do so ultimately compromise public safety and reduce public authority to a ridiculous degree, even though I do believe that a similar act could have positive benefits on the housing situation within Illinois.

The conclusion is that while the current manifestation of the Bill of the Act did make its way through the Illinois legislative system over the past few months, it is undoubtedly a bit extreme, and it illustrates the commitment of the Illinois legislature to solve a problem plaguing many Illinois residents. Ultimately, the act highlights conflict between the state and local authority and evokes the question of how much the state should have over local affairs for the attainment of its own goals.

And these are our sources.

Any questions? When do you think it's going to come back for a vote?

I hope so. I wouldn't be sure. Probably when the legislature is back in session. Probably right away.

You think it's going to come up in the veto session? It might come up in the veto session. Okay. Yeah. But it wouldn't come back in the same form it's in right now. It would come back more as the real act. How did the vote turn out? It never came up for vote. Oh, it didn't come up for vote. Oh, I thought it just did. Oh, it never got out of committee? No. Oh, okay. The state legislature was very much engrossed in creating a budget. Yeah, right. And because of that, a lot of state legislators, and Mary and Jerry and Joe will tell you, they were down in Springfield with me. Most of them were really consumed with other issues, not so much with this.

Okay.

But the IML, Illinois Municipal League, has come up with this real act, and... That's probably going to be discussed more in the spring, in the fall, excuse me, in the veto session. I had a laugh because they showed you ADUs. Those are accessory dwelling units. Some of you may call them granny homes. These are people who have large backyards, and they build a home in the backyard for grandma or grandpa to live in. Yep. Funny story, I'm at my son's house the other day, and he said, well, you know, we have six more years. Ella has two more years of high school and four years of college. And when Ella's done with high school, maybe we'll sell this house and we'll build a granary unit in your backyard. Yeah. Your son. That's okay.

Any other questions for these two gentlemen? Are you aware of any other states taking this aggressive approach? Has there been any discussion about what other states have done regarding this shortage of housing?

I do believe this measure is similar to those already passed in states like California, but I'm not really aware of any other states currently passing similar laws to these.

The first iteration of the Build Act, Darien has an ordinance that says the minimum life standard is 10,000 square feet. We're a single family home. The Build Act said that you could build six units on 2,500 square feet. Wow. Think about that. That's why we were against it so much. And again, think about stormwater. Think about stormwater.

These people are already, you know, having trouble with stormwater. Why would we add to the problem?

In our audience, we have Dr. Kerry Paranto and Mr. Kyle Burts. You want to come forward? The Gary and Lyons Club is not here tonight to represent the club, but each of the students involved in this summer program is going to receive a $500 civic scholarship, and I'd like Kyle and Kerry to present this to the students.

Thank you, sir. If you don't want to take pictures, you're not taking pictures.

Is it okay if I take a picture?

I prefer not to take a picture.

You prefer not to take a picture?

Okay. Of course.

It's interesting. Great. Thank you. Congratulations.

Well, I have them here. A lot of you know that we held our Darien Fest this year at the Clarion Hills Road right in front of Hinsdale South High School. And I want to thank Carrie and Kyle and the administration and the grounds crew, everybody at Hinchdale South High School for helping us make that a successful event. It really was. It was a great venue to have the Daring Fest, but only because we had such great cooperation with the administration of the school. And I talked to Dr. Pettit the other day, and I said, we would like to have it there again this coming year. And he said, that's Dr. Peranto's call. So you had a tough decision to make.

We'd love to have you guys. We also ordered no rain. Yes.

And thank you. We'll do this again next year.

Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations.

Carrie? We're making a presentation before the District 99 School Board with the group that we had two weeks ago, and that's coming up in September. They gave me a date if you want to be there for that, but we do have to make one for the District 86 School Board.

We are recognizing our students at our August board meeting, August 25th.

Okay. Thank you.

I will email you later.

All right. I have to write that down. Okay, questions and comments and announcements of a general nature, and again, this is an opportunity for people in the audience to take three minutes to state their concern or their input regarding an issue. So, would the first person come forward and just state your name? No need for address.

Crash. Sorry about that. Yeah, I... If you're really looking for help from the council, I've been through our police department and the city manager, and I'm getting nowhere, and I spend half of my nights breathing in smoke. I've got a neighbor that's, you know, if you're going to time me to three minutes and I'm out of here, I'm not going to be very happy. Everybody's only allowed three minutes, sir. I don't like sitting watching a clock, and I've got three minutes after I've been suffering through some real crap because of a poorly written ordinance. And it has to do... Why don't you tell us your concern? Name first. Oh, I'm sorry. Bob Fortelker. Thank you. I have... I have tried using the police officers on duty. Every time my neighbor starts up a fire in the backyard and the smoke comes into my house and it takes a while to get in, it's got to seep in. And after it comes in, I get to smell it all night long. Well, I got a guy that's a prolific burner. He burns trees down and he's still doing it and he gets away with it. and I met with the city manager, and that went nowhere because I mentioned the possibilities I have left. I could sue my neighbor or could sue the city of Darien, and he says, this meeting is over. I'm not going to talk about it anymore because you threatened to sue the city, so I'm left without anybody. And my neighbor is now up to his third fire area. It's not a pit. It's about a six-foot circle that he lays a little bunch of bricks out on. And he burns trees, whole trees. I've got a lot of photographs of it. It's just amazing that he can do that and get away with it. And a police officer comes out and looks at it with him and says, oh, this looks all right to me. So I did a little research project, and I looked at the ordinances and codes of all the surrounding communities, including Tri-State Fire, DuPage County. They all have professionally written laws that designate what you can burn, when you can burn it, and what you can't burn. Darien doesn't have that. I have no idea why not. It sure is required. I'm getting the brunt of this. There's no other houses behind me. And I'm really tired of it, but I have no other route. I don't want to enter into lawsuits.

Is he behind you, next to you, or where?

Oh, he's to the south. His backyard is southwest of my property. They're half acre and used to be called Clearfield.

So anyway, I'm coming to see what can I do? Bob, if you want, I'm going to give you my card here. Meanwhile, if you want to call me tomorrow, we'll speak to our code enforcement officer. and see what opportunities there are.

Call you tomorrow.

Aye.

Okay. Thank you, everybody, for your time. Thank you, sir. What is the current code?

We do have codes in place. We do have codes in place that also regulate what you can burn. I can't recite it for you at the moment, but I know we do have codes in place.

And if the smoke comes into your house, it's a nuisance, like a noise, and you can be cited, correct? Correct.

So I'm kind of... A great example of this is if you live in unincorporated DuPage County but not in the city, you have stricter laws about burning than you do if you live in the city. So that's not an incentive to become part of Darien.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

You're welcome, sir.

It was looking to me, so I guess it's my turn. Hi, my name's Bill Ulrich. I'm a member of Advocate for 708, which is a group of folks here in Downers Grove Township that have been working to bring a 708 community mental health board to Downers Grove Township. We are the only one, only township in DuPage County that doesn't have one. So we've been out collecting signatures. We got 4,500 signatures on petitions. So this proposal will be on the ballot in November. And I'm trying to encourage people to educate themselves about it and also to get ready to vote to support it. In case you're wondering, Downers Grove Township, we're right in the heart of Downers Grove Township at this moment. So this is a big area. There's a lot of people. It's the biggest township in DuPage, and that's part of the reason why it's been so tough to get everything collected and on the ballot. But as I said, we have 4,500 signatures, which are about 1,200 more than we needed, and the township voted unanimously to put it on the ballot for November. A couple things that a 708 board... It's not a big tax increase. It's about 35, 40 bucks, 40 bucks a year for an average price home in Downers Grove Township. It's not a subsidy for Springfield and Washington bureaucrats All the dollars collected stay in the township and are allocated by a group of volunteer mental health professionals to provide additional services, either from organizations that aren't providing services in the township currently and want to, and I'm rolling around here, or by new organizations that have come up in counseling services, addiction recovery services, all the kinds of things that encompass disabilities and mental health issues for our residents. It's also, not a big secret, all eight townships, all the other eight townships in Downers Grove, in DuPage County, have these 708 boards. You can go on their websites and see the minutes of their meetings, what they funded, how many dollars they collected, and where every penny went. And transparency is a big part of this whole effort, and we expect the same thing in Downers Grove Township. So I hope you all take some time to go to the advocatefor708.org website. Click on the Downers Grove Township link. Learn a little bit more about it. And come November, we hope you all vote in favor of this and raise us up to the standards of the other townships in the county. And I have plenty of information if people are interested, but it's all online. And thank you for your time. Thank you, Bob.

Do you have brochures tonight, or do you have anything hard copy tonight with you?

A couple of brief pieces, nothing very...

The website is Advocate for 708?

Right, right. And a sign you can put in your window.

I won't take the yes sign, I'll just take the info sign.

I'll give you both, just in case. A little scrap paper for what you're covering. So thank you very much for your time.

You're welcome. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Come here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm not selling anything, I promise, unless you want to buy something.

No problem.

All right, guys. My name is Kyle Nicholas. I live off of Gale Avenue. I just wanted to quickly put together, there's about seven of us here that are just getting pretty bad affected from these rainfalls that we're getting. I mean, even on Sunday, I think there was a group of eight of us over at Emily and Max's house here trying to keep the water out of their basement. It is very unfortunate. I wish that our... I wish we were getting sewer backup because we would be the first ones to sign up for that overhead sewer system. I have an overhead sewer. I have a back check valve, two sump pumps. Everything's tied into the gutters that go out to the village. We've done everything we can. I think our biggest issue is Cass Avenue slopes down towards our house. There's nothing we can really do about that besides moving out dirt from our backyards. I know that Mike here will speak again on behalf of his house, but there's about seven of us here, and we're just really looking for help here. There's nothing we can do. We saw on the City Connect about the low-interest loans, but to be honest, we can't afford any more loans. We can't just keep dishing money at this issue that potentially could keep coming back to us. So I guess my big ask is just if you guys could review this information, look at our specific households. I really do wish we could go with that overhead sewer program, but fortunately we can't. We already have that. If I could add two of them, I would gladly. I'll sign up tomorrow for that if that would help, but I don't think it'll help our situation. So I just wanted to take the time. Dan's been fantastic, outstanding, comes to our house, checks everything out, amazing from his aspect. I'm asking more for the board. If there's any way to have any sort of funds, any sort of property tax credits, something that we could do to get some money back in our pockets for this year.

Sure. Unfortunately, the best thing, the best tool out there right now is the SBA. And the SBA, again, that was declared from Kane County, I forgot what the date was, but that basically encapsulated our area for tornadoes slash flooding. Again, you're correct. There are some, it's a long one. And through that loan, you still have to go through that process. Is it free money? The answer is no. What's the discount on it? You know, maybe a couple points. But again, yeah, we understand that. And again, our survey crews, our engineer survey crews should be out within the next week to two weeks. So we'll be getting information. We've also been talking about ideas, including DuPage County, too. So we've engaged them as well. As far as financial, unless FEMA, again, is going to declare something, I don't see that happening. I think the last time I said I did call FEMA and we did not qualify based on the total dollars.

Yeah and and more for I don't know where the funds come for the backup sewer and rain. You know that over and so does that come from team or does that come from the village itself. And the county yeah counties doing it with that in partnership with the city comments of dissipate what is so there's a way to look into that I know that there's been a bunch of meetings you guys talk to a couple you know July what was that. 10th meeting or something right after that first flood. There's a lot of people, obviously, now there's a few handful of us. So I just appreciate if you look at that, read it, see if there's anything that you guys can do. Even a small gesture would be great.

Kyle, I had a meeting today with all three of our District 3 representatives and with mayors and... of the surrounding communities. And the topic was the flooding that we're all seem to be experiencing. Of course, Gale has some severe flooding taking place in your area. And we've talked a lot about approaching this from a regional standpoint. in terms of what does durian do that might negatively impact willowbrook if we fix something is going to send more water towards willowbrook so we're going to be having mr gondek and i are going to be having a meeting with the mayor of willowbrook and with some of the other mayors to develop plans that we think would slow the water or alleviate the issue and the county said if we come to them with a plan That is basically shovel-ready. The county would allocate money to help us solve possibly the issue that you have there. So we are having those discussions, Kyle. I want you to know that. Thank you. And this man, today's meeting was me, but he's already initiated contact with DuPage County people, as you know, and the SBA, as well as the... sanitary sewer backup reimbursement. So there's several of these programs that we're working on because we're hearing what you're saying. And I've been along Gale. Alderman Schauer and I were there a number of years ago walking down the street after a rainstorm, and it was pretty bad.

We both pushed for two years earlier to get the ditches done because we knew there was such a problem over there.

Yeah, and even those ditches flood. I mean, I can show you the ring footage from July 4th. There was water to our front door, and unfortunately, we just couldn't keep up. Some pumps didn't fail. They were on, but they just couldn't.

Kyle, I think your ask was whether or not there be any financial assistance from the city, too, if I'm not mistaken.

For the city, I know that we've talked about the county. This is more of just the idea is property tax credit for the people who cannot do that program for this backup sewer program. Because believe me, I think all five of us here tonight would sign up tomorrow. If we could qualify for that $5,000, the more of the ask is just property tax credits. So at least we could have $300 extra a month to fix something, replace photos, you know, kind of rebuild. Because unfortunately we're all kind of at ground zero. And we don't really want to fix anything yet, to be honest. Like our basement's still half ripped up because we don't want to put it on because last Sunday it rained for 45 minutes and we had water.

It's going to rain more this week, sadly.

We don't go on vacation, the financial burden, but more of that physical burden, that mental burden. You know, they were just talking about mental health. None of our mental health is great on Gale Avenue. You know, we're all stressed out. We don't go on vacation just because we want to be home.

I think all of us kind of cringe when we hear the weather forecast.

And it's crazy, that statistic, 31 inches of rain from the national, that is a wild number. So I know it's nothing we can prevent. I pulled this.

I wanted to pull the most accurate.

Our little rain gauge can't keep up. The ask is more for the board to look into any sort of property tax credits that you could do. That would be greatly appreciated if that would happen. Thanks, Kyle. Thank you, guys.

Mayor, just so the county controls the property. We only control our portion as it relates to the city. The county would have to be the ones to allow a property tax credit, correct?

Well, if you look at your real estate tax bill, I'm the treasurer. If you look at your real estate tax bill, we only collect a small portion of that. If you look at it, the city's portion is probably approximately $200 to $300, I'm guessing, on the average bill for the year. You're talking about several hundred per month. You're talking about the entire bill. Most of your bill is comprised of the school districts and everything else, which we really have no control over. So I think what you're getting at...

I just want to accept the expectation of what we're capable of doing. I had asked at the last meeting about emergency relief funds, and Dan shared the SBA, but they're loans. They're not. But we don't control the entire property tax bill. We have this conversation every year. because I'm the chair of the admin finance about budgeting and about how we impact the taxes. So, yeah, without going to the county and as treasurer corn indicated, the highest percentage of your tax bill is for the school district, which they also control. So I think more conversations need to hear happen here at city hall to see what, can be done. I just don't think the property tax bill relief is going to be the avenue because... Yeah, and I think you guys did a fantastic job with the backup, the overhead sewer program.

I mean, that was approved within two weeks or so.

It was one meeting and then three weeks later and that was... And that's because we piggybacked with an existing county program.

Yeah. And I mean, we've had the downspouts, every single thing we can do. For instance, like my house, we've done everything that the village offers.

We'll have some discussions, Kyle.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, so Governor Pritzker signed a bill last week for the city of Chicago, which allowed home equity insurance programs to establish a temporary three-year rebate program that certain Chicago homeowners can tap. Who's reaching out to the state? Why can't the state do more than just the city of Chicago? Can't ask that.

It all goes through FEMA, the state. The governor declares it, and then FEMA gets involved. The federal government gets involved. Dan, with the rebuild on Plainfield Road, with the extra feet that we're buying, is there anything we can do with that section, like sewers or anything? It doesn't matter if we put more sewers in. It's the volume and the intense rain events. What happens when it collects, and what can the system handle? Got you.

Does the county have an emergency fund or any other, like?

The county, today when I was at the meeting, the county.

Cass is a county road.

Has had a good year with sales tax revenue. And because of that, they're willing to work with us and Willowbrook or Burr Ridge to fund a program, fund a solution to the problem. But we have to come up with a solution. As Brian Krajewski said, if you want the county to help, we're not just going to give you money, but you come to us with a solution to the problem, something that's going to slow that water down. Because right now that water flows from Westmont through Darien through Willowbrook to Bird Ridge. Bird Ridge and Willowbrook are lower. So when we fix the problem here, Willowbrook gets more water. Potentially. Yeah, potentially. So we've got to come up with a solution that's going to solve the problem for all of us. And at that point, he said, that's where the county would be willing to assist financially. We have to come up with a solution. We have to come up with a plan.

That sounds like that's going to take a while, so maybe we can look within to see if there's something we can do relief-wise short-term.

Yeah, and just preliminary, you know, based on these rain events, they're getting to be more and more frequent. We all know that. Right. One of the things that we're looking at, different subdivisions, a stormwater modeling study. For example, Hinsbrook. Hinsbrook has quite several locations of street flooding in itself, yet alone the last event produced probably about 10, 12 homes throughout that area that had caused flooding. So in that particular case, we need to help ourselves first before we develop that regional plan. What does that local help ourselves mean? It may mean adding detention. Where do we add the tension? I think that's the million-dollar question, and that's where the million-dollar solution is probably going to come in. The studies are relatively inexpensive, anywhere from $40,000 to $80,000, which basically a water modeling study will tell us what tributary is it going to, what's the 300-year rain event and the 500-year rain event from upstream, whether it's Westmont, Woodridge. Willowbrook, all those have to come into play because that's off, that's out of our town, but still we get that stormwater. So what I'm going to be doing is bringing up for budget the thought process of water modeling studies for individual neighborhoods. And this study, the topographical survey now, will help us determine what are the starting points.

And would it be possible to expand the water retention that's in Innsbruck Park that DuPage put in 30 years ago? I mean, right now. There is still land that the park is truly not using all that much. I mean, obviously, it's owned by the Homeowners Association, but I mean, I don't know whether that would be helpful. If we added, you know, so many square feet of additional stormwater retention there, would it... caused the problems on 69th Street and on Seminole maybe to decrease?

Simple answer is yes. The more complicated answer becomes we're taking water that flows downstream and then we're reversing the actual flow. Can it be done? Yes, because all the water goes from basically 67th Street, Cass Avenue, and Clear Nose Road back to the south through Sawmill Creek, past 75th Street, so on and so forth. So But that would be also in that study, that water modeling study, what are the open areas? Community Park is one example. I think Community Park was brought up for discussion, I want to say 2008. So with that said, I know there was some controversy about the detention area. That's a perfect opportunity for detention. Can it still be utilized as a park? Don't have that answer, just because based on the depth, based on the actual logistics, do we need a pump, mechanical feature to pump that water out after the water has, or after the storm has subsided? So there's a lot of different calculations with this water modeling study. So that's what the most important thing is, is this water modeling study after the survey.

Any other questions for Deanna? Any other comments?

Okay.

Anyone from the audience have anything they want yet?

This is from 8642 Hensworth Drive. From Hensworth Drive at the 4th of July. I think Eric is our olderman, I believe. Sir Eric, if you can stop by over there at the Stuart Drive and the Ellsworth Drive, I can show you the issue. And Mr. Gumback already noticed. Did you do any movement on that? Did you talk to Woodridge?

The answer is yes. Yep.

What are they doing?

At this point, they're not doing anything.

Any update on that?

I'm sorry?

Any update on that?

There is no update. They have basically looked at everything downstream through their town, and they've concurred that there's no blockages, and the system is currently working the way it was designed.

Mr. Bobby, if you got 15 minutes of rain, it's chalk. 15, 20 minutes of heavy rain, the Woodridge, those three ponds, one by one, is saturated, and our water from elsewhere dry and stored, it doesn't go further back. I'm sorry. And as soon as the Woodridge water, water clear, within 15 minutes, it's clear from that street.

Understood. Let me ask you one question. Did your house take water? Did your house flood? Yes, once. From sump pump failure, or where did the water come in from?

We didn't have a power outlet at that time, too. So we had to back up some sump pump. He exhausted after six, seven hours. And that day, we have a... We have 11 hours of power outage. And another issue that the comet has a box behind my backyard. It usually floats over there.

And that's being worked on.

So we only shot a couple of...

I don't know yet. ComEd has not given me a date. I know that Mr. Misik, who's in the background there, did receive an email. Again, there's no confirmation from ComEd.

ComEd can raise their box at least about three feet from the ground.

They may be relocating the transformer. That's what I know at this point. Sure.

All right. They can do like that. So our older man, if you can stop by tomorrow or when we get a chance. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Hello, everyone.

Joe Majchak. First of all, I want to start by thanking Dan for sending me all that information. That was very helpful. You know, it's hard to make any type of, you know, contribution to a solution to a problem if you don't have information. So I do appreciate that. So I thank you for that. I think you also sent it to other members of the council. I don't know if you had time to look at it or not. So thanks, Dan. I do appreciate that. You're welcome. One thing that I'm concerned about, and you mentioned this just shortly ago, is the system is working as designed. And I kind of, in the correspondence that I sent to you, and maybe the other council members got it too, you know, the system seems like it was designed probably about 40 or 50 years ago. And my observation, it seems that the water in our subdivision drains down to one point, And it was supposed to, in the past, it was supposed to spill out into farm fields and an open field that was there. Well, that's no longer there. We've got the business development that has the CVS and the PNC Bank and Planet Fitness. When they developed that, they raised the land up, okay? Gallagher and Henry did, and now M&I Homes, did the same thing. When they developed their area, they didn't keep it flat. They added a lot of earth and built everything up. So there's nowhere for that water to go. It just kind of sits in like a bucket almost. And when the bucket gets filled, that's what stops the drainage from the street. We start seeing the flooding on the street. So my question to you is, is there something else that we can do to stop all the water coming down So this one low area, it's kind of by, it was a former swale. It starts kind of on the north by, behind my house, and it goes as far south as I think 8652, which is like two houses down. And that's always where it flows. It seems like the water from that 42-inch diameter pipe, which is on that, some of the information I think Woodridge gave you, although their information was incomplete because their information shows that that very large 42-inch diameter pipe is just a very short section. And I know as a fact it actually extends further north from my property. Where it goes, I don't know. And what it's collecting, I think it's a lot of the houses along Aylsworth Drive. I think those sewer inlets. I think that's the ultimate place where that water goes. And then it goes downhill south, unfortunately, to this one spot.

Let me summarize things real quick here for you, Joe. Okay. First of all, when that subdivision was built, whether it's the one in Woodridge, whether it's the one in Darien, the bottom line is the standards that were used on stormwater ordinance, at least for Darien, was not in effect. I believe the homes where you live are 1970, 77 maybe at best.

1977, I believe. I'm sorry? Almost the last time my area to get built, I think. 1987, I believe.

1987 was prior to, was definitely prior to with the actual subdivision, the Platts. So with that Platts, there was different criteria in place. Now, the question becomes, what were the actual, what was that subdivision sized for? Was it a 50-year rain event, a 75-year rain event, a 100-year rain event? The typical standard today is 100. And a 100-year rain event is based on the last 30 years of precipitation within a given year. Okay, and that's for 30 years. So obviously that average keeps on changing. I think a lot of things now, besides the stormwater ordinance coming into effect in the 1980s, that the subdivisions that were built prior to do not meet that criteria. So we, the city, cannot basically take 10 buckets of water and basically dump that 100 gallons into another town immediately. We can't do that. Stormwater ordinance prohibits that. And that's DuPage County, that's citywide. One of the things I'm looking at, there's three sag points within that subdivision between 83rd, 87th, I'll call it Woodward, and Lamar Road. There's three sag points again, like I said, and that's another thing we're going to be looking at is the water modeling study. You asked for a topographical survey. There's no reason to conduct a topographical survey just for the simple reason there has to be a larger study to determine Where is the water? What is the rate of release? What's going into Woodridge? So it's not a simple math calculation. There's models that need to be ran through computers. And what is the current 30-year rain event? for a 100-year rain event. Is the 100-year rain event gonna be increased to a 300-year rain event? There's documents out there that they're speaking of 300 and 500-year rain events. So to your point, in November, when we start doing budgets, I will be including your section for consideration in respect to a water modeling study because we had two homes, That did flood in there. And the flooding, again, is something that we're looking at. And they may be maybe because a person could have a shed in the easement that basically blocks it, diverts it back to their home. So that's a case and cause at the same point. All right.

So are you saying that there is something that municipalities can do to address changes that have come about because of developments that What was good in the past does not work now, and some municipalities can look at that and say, okay, these are new changes, and maybe we can consider doing something. Or does DuPage County or a state say no?

No, we have that opportunity. We have that opportunity. What that opportunity basically means, the first thing we look at is open land spaces, and those open land spaces gives us an opportunity to provide a calculation of how many cubic feet of water that... lands has. If there's no opportunities, then the option is buyouts, property buyouts. Okay, so you're looking at probably, you know, is it two houses, four houses? I can't tell you that answer. You know, again, the goal of this, these recent storms is... who has flooded and why. And when I say flooded, interior homes, not roadways. Roadways were designed years ago to hold certain amount of water. So again, we'll stay in contact with you and we'll go from there, okay? Okay, very good. Thanks for your question.

Thank you, Joe, for all your work.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Okay, with that, we'll move on to the approval of the minutes. I'm asking for a motion to approve and a second to approve the minutes of the July 20th 26 City Council minutes. Moved by Alderman Schauer, seconded by Alderman Stampinato. Questions or comments? I know we didn't have a chance to discuss these. Are there any questions on the minutes? If not, on the roll.

Schauer? Aye. Stampinato? Aye. Belzac?

Abstain.

Gustafson?

Aye.

Kenny?

Aye.

Leganski? Aye. Sullivan? Aye. Six ayes and one abstention.

Those minutes have been approved. Now I'm asking for a motion and a second to approve the August 3rd, 2026 minutes. Alderman Leganski, seconded by Alderman Schauer. Questions and comments? If none, the roll.

Leganski? Aye. Schauer? Aye. Sullivan? Aye. Belzac? Aye. Kenney? Aye. Stapanato? Aye. Gustafson? Aye. Seven ayes.

Those minutes have been approved. Takes us to receiving of communications. Do any of you, all the men, all the people have any communications they'd like to share with the council at this time? Now we move on to the mayor's report. I'm sorry.

No problem. Just, um, received, um, um, a couple of emails and Dan's been looped in, um, about, um, with Irene Spolato, um, over in Barrymore, there was a water main break and there were some other things. So I know our crews were busy dealing with that. Um, there was, you know, lack of water pressure, but just, um, you know, obviously received Joe, my checks, um, email along with follow up and, um, Just obviously continuing the conversations of people continuing to have water issues. I know Dan's been doing an excellent job of copying the various aldermen, women, you know, when City Hall receives information about certain things so that we're looped in on that. And I'm just appreciative of that.

Mayor Kaye? Yes, Mr. Mayor, I got it. Communication from Jesse Calabas, who's here in our office, our audience this evening. Her next-door neighbor's tree came down and just missed her house by that much. But the owner was able to get his private tree company out to come, and they had it, you know, up and done in about 48 hours.

Anyone else? I had a communication from Mr. Joe Bosch. Joe lives over in the Bailey Park area, and Joe's voicemail went on about five minutes, and all it was was singing the praises of Dan Gombeck in the Public Works Department. And Joe covered everything. Snow removal, brush pickup, on and on and on. And Dan's listened to it, and... Joe is a great guy, and he lives over in the Bailey Park area, and he just said there's a lot of thanks that needs to go to the public works group for the work that they do on behalf of the people in Bailey Park. So I just wanted to share that.

So the motto is, residents, please call in and tell public works what a great job they did.

Call the mayor and tell him how great Dan Gombeck and the guys are doing. Okay, that takes us to the mayor's report, and you heard the interns tonight. Real quickly, the overhead sewer program is running. I was informed today by Mr. Brian Krajewski that we've had 31 people who have applied for that already, and we've set a limit of 50. Might go over that if we have to. But Brian said that they're very happy. As you know, the county will pay up to $7,500. The city then, after the bill is paid, will reimburse the resident the $5,000. In most cases, that will cover the complete cost. There are two companies or three companies they're working with who can do this outside the house so they don't have to tear up any of the In Jerry's ward, they're mostly split levels, and that level is completed. Nice floors, hardwood floors, bathrooms, things like that. In this case, the work would be done outside the house. So I just wanted to mention that. And then we got a notice from the page members and managers. And Dan got one, I got one about the SBA disaster assistance available to Durian residents. This is something we mentioned to Kyle. Businesses affected by the July 2nd to 4th severe weather. We've put this out in our Direct Connect. And we'll continue to put this out in our draw and connect. But I urge you, if you had severe damage, it says homeowners up to $500,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate. And there's also money here for businesses as well. This is long-term, low-interest loans. And I realize not everybody can pay the loans, but there is some assistance out there. And I just wanted to mention that. Again, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but... rate it so that people know that it's out there.

Dan? Mr. Mayor, if I may interrupt, just in regards to that SBA, there's still people out there who do not have computers. So, again, if you know someone that doesn't have electronic messaging, if you could forward that message to them, they can call us and we can guide them a little more, too. So we put it up on our marquee panel up at Plainfield and Cass Avenue regarding the SBA. So, again, just wanted to mention that there.

Yes, sir. said right now there is no loans. They had to still do background stuff from the storm. So the loans are not available right now.

And when did you call, sir?

I want to say Thursday of last week.

We released this on Thursday. The day you release it is the day I... Let me follow up on that because it's clearly... You know, through DuPage County, the one link didn't work. I put a new link on there. I know that link worked. Again, if that's the federal government, let me find out what's happening.

She just kind of mentioned that they were still reviewing the events that happened, so it wasn't ready to submit.

Let me find out, Mike.

Okay. No other communications? Aye. City Clerk's Report, Joanne.

I have quite a few things. The Darien City offices will be closed on Monday, September 7th, 2026 in observance of Labor Day. The City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 8th of 2026. And also... Packets for the April 6th, 2027 Consolidated Election will be available at City Hall beginning on Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for the elected positions of Mayor, Clerk, Treasurer, Alderman Ward 2, Alderman Ward 4, and Alderman Ward 6. Notice is hereby given that the office of Darien City Clerk will be open from 8.30 to 5 o'clock beginning November 16th of 2026 through November 23rd, 2026 for the purpose of accepting candidate petitions for the consolidated election to be held on April 6th, 2027 for the following offices, Mayor, Clerk, Treasurer, Alderman Ward 2, Alderman Ward 4, and Alderman Ward 6. All of this information will be on social media. It will be posted on our bulletin boards, and we're doing our best to get the information out there. This is all according to what I have to do with DuPage County.

Okay. Our city administrator is not here tonight. No report. No report. Department had information and questions. We didn't have a chance to talk to Chief Thomas or Mr. Gondek. So is there anything you want to report, Greg?

You have the monthly report. And in this monthly report, there's a discussion on urban SDK. And hopefully that discusses and answers any questions that the public may have. There's not been a lot of feedback on urban SDK. There's been one email and one person that spoke about three meetings or so ago. But it's an issue regardless. And so what we decided to do in the police department was to create a frequently asked questions page. So if you go to the government tab and then from the government tab to the transparency list, you will see stuff that's now being populated regarding urban SDK and FLOC. Deputy Chief Jump's been doing a lot of the work given me probably 100 pages of stuff to read through. And when I get it through, I'll give it back to him. He'll start posting all those different types of things. One of the issues, for example, was Fourth Amendment right. And I forget what the case that the individual cited, but it's the wrong case. The correct case is Shoal v. Illinois State Police. And it went to the appellate court. And what is being done is legal. So that's just an example of a frequently asked questions. Is it legal and then we'll go into the fourth amendment discussion and then we'll go into The statute that regulates what you can do those type of things and then Flock has been hearing all of the complaints as well So they've added different measures and settings onto their website. And for example, legally you can go up to 30 days. Internally to the police department, we decided that seven days is enough to get the information, do the searches that a detective may need and those type of things. So we're opting to move from 30 days to seven. FLOC has changed their audit practices so they have an automated audit process to check on officers that are running plates more frequently. So all those things have been, I can't see all of them, because like that seven-day rule, that's not a user preference. That's a preference that FLOC has to make, but the request for them to make that change has been made. so when that change has been made we'll just add that to the frequently asked questions so that everybody gets the same answer versus trying to answer one question that's slightly off from another question and a separate email and all the other stuff so it's all in one place uh so that should um like i said it's already started but we'll continue that process until we're done um And I don't really have anything else on the monthly report unless there's any questions or concerns.

Thank you, Mayor. So, Chief, I know I read one article as well about that in order to even trace a license plate, you have to formally set up a case within the system. So people can't randomly just track somebody. They literally have to go in and set up a case, which sounds like Flock has put a little bit more control on how these things... Those have already been there.

The issue more so has been... how they handle fields. So they put mandatory requirements on those fields. So something's happening right away and I need to check flock for the offending vehicle, something like that. So I may go in and type in ABC 123 investigative and then move on. Well, that doesn't mean anything to many people. Or I skip that entry altogether and I don't put in a report number, something like that. But now the fields are now mandatory. And so those missing data fields are going to go away. And it's also part of the audit process that we would get information that missing information and those type of things.

With the Darien, would you be able to audit your officers in the event one was using more than the rest of the department was? I mean, because that's the complaints that people have pointed out, bad apples.

Yeah, it's a little bit of a misnomer. So last meeting, the gentleman talked about an officer running, over 1,200 searches, didn't run 1,200 searches. He ran one against one plate, but that plate or that search checked 1,278 cameras. So that's a big misnomer. So those type of things, Flock has sent us, or we didn't send it, we looked at their audit process online, and There was 38 instances where an officer ran the same plate more than once. And so we, I didn't know, Deputy Chief Jump looked at each one of those cases and found them that they were appropriately done.

Anything else for Greg? Any other questions for the Chief? Okay, we move on. Anything for Mr. Gondek?

Thank you, Mayor. Dan, I know at a previous meeting, since we didn't talk in pre-council, one gentleman brought up about possibly MetroNet nicking ComEd lines, and I know you were going to do some research. What has ComEd said? Is that an ongoing problem? Are we seeing that? Was it just a one-off, or are they seeing some issues where possibly MetroNet has caused some problems with some of the electrical ones?

When Metronet first came into town, there was a couple of issues where they had what they refer to as dig-ins, hit-com headlines. The issue that you're referring to is back on 71st Street. It's unclear or unfounded at this point whether or not supposedly a transformer was making noise prior to the crew starting to dig. Once they started to dig, was it coincidental? No. That's the transformer basically blew out and affected certain people on 71st Street. So we're still trying to get that confirmation from ComEd.

But any other cases throughout the city where they're saying that that's been an issue?

No, no. It's been very, probably three I can think of offhand. Any other questions for Dan?

We'll move on to the Treasurer's Report.

Treasurer Quarren. Thank you, Mayor. This evening I'm requesting Council's approval of warrant number 262708 in the amount of $1,006,541.59 from the listed funds. Payroll for the period ended August 6th in the amount of $356,250.71. Total will be approved $1,362,792.30.

Motion to approve. Alderman Sullivan, seconded by Alderman Schauer. And again, any questions or comments? None of the roll.

Sullivan? Aye. Schauer? Aye. Belzac? Aye. Kenney? Aye. Stampinato? Aye. Gustafson? Aye. Likansky? Aye. Seven ayes.

The board has been approved.

Mike, do you want to share something about the pension? Yeah, well, just quickly, the audit has been essentially completed. We have received a draft audit report. Julie and I have been going through it, making a couple of little adjustments. The auditors are finalizing it, should be ready for the finance committee, the first meeting in September, as well as we had a police pension fund meeting on last Thursday. The actuary presented the actuarial report that also, I mean, the actuary will come to the city council meeting in October to present that. I will be presenting that at the finance committee meeting in early September, just to give a preview of it. It was a very good year. Obviously, the stock market was great. The performance, the return was over 23% last year. But if you remember, they smoothed that over five years. So just kidding, it's only 7.38% for the way they put the numbers together. But anyway, it was a very good year, so the report is very good. So I'll be presenting that. What else on our contribution for the coming year should be decreased slightly from last year. Our funding ratio should be up at least 3% based on even the five-year smoothing. It would actually be up about 10% if it weren't for the five-year smoothing. So be funded at least at 60% versus 57%. And it would be 70% if we were able to absorb the whole return all in that one period. Michael, my apologies.

What's our target number now for the pension? It's in the 60s still, right? 65, 66 million? For 100% funding.

Oh, for 100% funding. The liability went from last year was 68.6. The actual liability went up to 69.4. So, it went up about $800,000, but our assets went up on an actuarial basis, smooth basis from 39 million to 41, but this is where they do the five-year smoothing. The 41 is not the real number. The real number is 47 million instead of 41 million. So, we're within about 20 million of it now. So, it's... gotten a lot better. Equities, they've got about 75% in equities now. The second quarter return, which would be April, May, and June. Now, May's already been reflected in the actuary report, but April, May, and June was up 11% just in the quarter. So, even the current year's starting out pretty well. I do have some other comments on it, but I'll reserve those for the Finance Committee meeting once we get into that.

Mike, you were talking about people's real estate tax bills and what portion of it is durian. Can you kind of explain where the real estate taxes go?

Yeah, most people don't believe us. We get all the phone calls because it says Darien on the real estate tax bill. And I am sympathetic to your concerns, but I know when I get my real estate tax bill, most of us just look at that bottom line number. But if you look at it, it's got a detail of probably eight or ten different taxing districts, basically your grammar school district district. your high school district, COD, the fire protection district, the park district, as well as the city of Darien. We have not raised our city taxes. We assess a dollar amount, and we've been assessing since 2009. I got elected First time in 2007. We raised them in 2009. And since then, we've kept them frozen at about $2.5 million. That $2.5 million is absorbed by everybody, all the individuals and businesses in Darien. And if you look at your real estate tax bill, I know on my real estate tax bill, I think the city portion is approximately $250 to $300, and it's been consistent. Also, 100% of those dollars go to the police pension fund. It used to be sufficient to funding it completely. Now we actually have to dip into our sales tax and everything to fully fund the police pension fund. So 100% of it does go to funding that, but the dollars that we collect have been the same since 2009. Again, feel free to complain to a lot of other taxing districts, which I do too, but I know we've all got kids in school and different functions, but take a look. I mean, it's very informative to see who you are paying your taxes to and not that we always want to complain. I mean, if we're getting the services we deserve, it's fine. I mean, I'm very impressed. I mean, in my mind, the city is responsible for two main functions. And that's the police department as well as municipal services making sure our roads and streets and snow plowing is every done properly. And I think we do a great job at the budget trying to minimize all the other superfluous things. But those things are really the core of what you're spending your money on. Thanks, Mike, for doing that.

All right. Standing committee reports.

Any of the chairs? Alderman Belzer. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The next Municipal Services Committee meeting will be a week from today on Monday, August 24th at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers. Thank you very much. Alderman Sullivan.

Thank you, Mayor. The next Administrative Finance Committee meeting will be on Tuesday, September 8th at 6 p.m. in the city hall conference room.

Thank you very much. Alderman Kenney. Mr. Mayor, this evening the police committee approved the minutes from the July 20th, 2026 meeting and our next meeting pending agenda items will be Monday, September 21st, 6 o'clock across the parking lot of the police training room. Thank you very much.

Questions and comments, agenda related. These are comments you may want to make about the one item on our agenda. No one. Takes us to old business. There being none. Takes us to consent agenda. There being none. Takes us to new business. We have one item. A motion to approve a contract extending year six with Eco Clean Maintenance Incorporated to provide janitorial services for the city of Durant in an amount not to exceed $32,260. Motion to approve Alderman Sullivan. Second by Alderman Schauer. And again, questions or comments? Joe? When was the last time we put a bid after this?

Do we know? When is it coming for bid? This is the fifth or sixth year we got a contract. This is the fifth or sixth year, so this is the final year of it. So it would come up next year. We could have put it up for bid this year. We discussed it with Brian, and we've been very satisfied. And last time when we put it up for bid, these people were the lowest bid on it, and we've been happy with their service. But theoretically, next year we would have to go to a new contract because this is still the last year of it. All right. Thank you.

We approved this unanimously in our last admin finance meeting and Brian was present and said they've been, you know, satisfied with the services and see no reason to change it at this point.

Anyone else? If nothing, the roll.

Sullivan? Aye. Shower? Aye. Gustafson? Aye. Stompanato? Aye. Kenney? Aye. Leganski? Aye. Belzac? Aye. Seven ayes.

The item has been approved. Takes us to questions, comments, and announcements of the general nature. Do any of the aldermen have anything they'd like to share? I'm going to reiterate what I said when the principal was here. Our Darien Fest, except for some rain on Sunday, was a banner turnout, both Friday and Saturday, the bands, the location. And a lot of that was because of the cooperation and work with Kingsdale South High School. And April Padlick and Jessica Playsink, they were there all weekend long. And many thanks to our food vendors, Lions Club, Women's Club, and our expo people. Again, I was extremely happy with the location, the venue, and we're seriously thinking about going back there again this next year. Mary?

It was really well put together. And I can see how the Dairy Fest, how the vendors and any participants, just the loading in and out and parking, just the accessibility. It was really, you know, and kudos to April Padaleck and Jessica Plazak and the entire team, all the municipal services people. I mean, it's a huge effort. to put that together. And I'm sure April, I knew April walked the grounds early on Monday morning and made sure everything was, you know, tidied up. So, you know, I think that's a great setup for that. Speaking of dairy and events, our last summer concert is on Thursday, July, I'm sorry, July. I wish it was still July. August 27th at 6 p.m. back at Carriage Greens. It's Heart to Heart. a great band, and I'm hoping for a great turnout and Mother Nature to cooperate. It's always a really fun night. I know the Lions Club will be doing their Oktoberfest, you know, in October, but this is the last of the three concerts. And I'm honored to be participating. I had first of a series of meetings at the District 66, that's Elizabeth Eye, Prairie View, Lakeview schools, to participate in their five-year strategic planning. And they've assembled quite the group of 50 people from staff, teachers, community members. You know, obviously District 66 also reaches into Woodridge. Members of some people in the Woodridge Board to participate in this planning process. And I'll be sure to keep everybody updated on how that goes.

Thank you. Motion to adjourn. All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you, folks.