City Council - Regular Meeting

member Thorne has requested to attend remotely this evening if it's all right with the city council. Mr. Mayor, we need to take a role first and establish quorum and then we can take a motion to allow Councilman Thornne to attend electronically. All right. Well, call the uh clerk, please call the role. Council member Alaro present. Dixon present. Good here. Martinez here. Ortiz here. Powell here. Stefan here. Thorne. Mayor Captain here. Councilman Thorne has requested to attend remotely if that's uh okay with the council. Move for approval. Second. Been moved and second for approval. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro. Yes. Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes.

Martinez. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefan. Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mayor Captain. Yes. Motion's approved. 90. Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting of February 11th, 2026. So moved. Second. Move the second for approval. Any corrections or additions? Miss Alaro. On page six. I just want to note that the the motion for the retail single-use bag orance was a split vote. It says that everyone voting in favor should postpone. So, it just needs to reflect um the split vote. That's right. Move for approval with amendments. Thank you. Second.

Second. It's been moved and second for approval with the amendments. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro? Yes. Dixon? Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne. Yes. Mayor Captain. Yes. The motion's approved. 90. Before we get to Councilman Thorne here, could you ask the audio technician to turn up the output? I can barely hear you. All right.

Are we good? Wow. Before we get started, the uh we have uh uh some technical improvements that we'd like to discuss. And uh Karina, there you are. I couldn't see you back there. Going to explain what's hap what's we're uh what we're trying tonight. Yeah.

Oh, there we go.

There. Okay. Um, we are testing out a new software, an interpretation translation software. You might have seen the sign on the TVs when you walked in, there's also a flyer on there. Um, when you scan the QR code, if you want to follow along in English, the transcript will come up or in Spanish. You'll also see the transcript. If you had headphones, you can listen to it in Spanish. Again, we are testing this out. We welcome your feedback um, at the end of the meeting. Um, and uh, we just uh, ask for your patience and cooperation. Um we will be um testing this out probably the next few meetings. We've tested it out with staff but not in a large audience. So um please let us know uh what you think. And now I will say this message in Spanish. Um Um, CTNG. Thank you.

All right. We have a number of people that have signed up this evening to make a public comment. Uh as the policy is, I'm going to allow you three minutes and I'm going to hold you to that. We have uh 19 people that signed up. That means this will take one hour just so you can set your clock. First person to sign up, Hank, but I believe it's Hank Romero. Is that correct? Yes, sir.

All right. Okay. Uh I'm talking about the homeless. The homeless, they uh they stay in the warming center from 8:00 to 6:30. They wake up and they got to leave the place by 7. It's a good thing to do that. Get them out. Um when uh season goes over in March 15, they got to sleep in the street. Um I think we should keep them in there and take the rugs off that that basement because those rugs are like 40 years old or something. I'm not sure. I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but you smell like you got sand in your throat. um year round. They can sleep and they can go out and uh and then they can cross the street and they got u food in the church at 67 6:45 across the street there's food. The people don't leave Elgen because they got food that all these churches around feed them. So if they go to another town, there may be one church and the place to sleep but there's no food. So they got to stay in Nel and leave out live outside. Um what these people need they don't need Jesus but they need they need jobs you know jobs are not here in America anymore um they got to uh you know the jobs if the if the village let's make uh Elgen beautiful um we put them in after they got the eating dinner 8:15 the ones that want to take for Bible study from 8:15 to 9:15 stay there and then go around picking up the garbage or if the guys that cut the grass are going to cut a field, they put them out there to pick up the garbage and let the guys cut the grass in a van. Um, if you got a a good uh good worker, you got a military uh guy that stands a chance to live. Um, not only that, the town will look better. Um

now you know they ain't got no hope because the way they going to go when the when the situation clos when the place closes. Uh maybe the other town should paid uh Elgen money to run the facilities because they don't have that the the churches they don't have the warming centers. Um if you get picked up on another town they probably lock you up and give you pills and you can't leave the place. So, I think Elgen is more humane. Um, they're trying to help people and uh, you know, that's the way to go. Help them. Maybe maybe they never they'll never help them. If we help two or three, that'd be good. Um, you know, jobs and Jesus together, they they make life a little a little bit easier. Um, but jobs help a lot. This, if you got a full stomach, you can think and you can work. But if you don't have a full stomach, you can't think, you work. You got to work to eat. But uh you know if we keep them in the center to sleep and then they go out and they know maybe they Oh, and another thing they got these facilities. Uh okay. See you guys next time.

Thank you. Okay, Vivian Bailey. Thank you, Mayor, City Council, community members. This is a singleuse plastic bag. Everybody recognizes these, right? This bag weighs from 5 to eight grams, which is approximately one quarter of an ounce. It cost 1 cent to manufacture. It costs 17 cents to recycle. This bag lives from 20 to 1,000 years. Please pass the singleuse plastic bag ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you,

Gary Swick. Good evening all. Thank you for what you do. I'm here this evening to represent the critters of the Fox River watershed. Modern humanity has made some regrettable mistakes that we have later realized and then acted upon. For example, the banning of DDT resulted in the return of the bald eagle and the banning of most uses of chlorofluorocarbons has resulted in the shrinking of the ozone hole. Those are truly amazing results to reactions. Plastics are a complicated and multi-level environmental problem. Plastics were developed and are used because their valuable properties. But we must weigh benefits with risks. And as we learn more about plastics impacts upon human and environmental health, we increasingly understand that we have made some mistakes and should take action when possible. Plastics in various forms are now legacy contamination in our Fox River and in your bloodstream. Doing what we can do to reduce plastics when practical is essential action. The bag ordinance under consideration tonight is your opportunity to take such action. On behalf of Elgen residents and the Fox River Wershed, I urge you to take the small step tonight in doing our part as a community to limit plastic pollution. Waiting for state level action is inappropriate. When Friends of the Fox River goes out and does cleanups on the river, on shorelines, on roadsides, and pretty much everywhere in the watershed, we find plastic bags. I have a photo of Council Member John

Stefen climbing a tree to get three plastic bags along Duncan Avenue. I have never found a paper bag or reusable bag floating in the river or hanging in a tree. you have an opportunity to make a statement about our local culture. Based upon my experiences with working with youth, I can assure you that making cultural changes to protect human and environmental health is important to them. Our achievements, but also our mistakes shape their future. They are ready for change. Please consider our community's culture and the human and wildlife members of our community, especially the children, when you vote for the plastic ban. Thank you for representing us and leading Elgen forward, and kudos to the sustainability committee and your staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Christina Haggus. My name is Christina Austin. I live at 1029 Poly Court here in Elgen. Dear Mayor and Council, I am once again advocating for your yes vote in favor of the plastic bag ordinance. As evidenced in the myriad conversations, emails, commission meetings, way subcommittee meetings, podcast episodes, reports, statements during persons present, and interviews that I have participated in over the last decade. This is not a new issue. There are going to be predictable arguments full of logical fallacies, false choices, and confirmation bias that you will hear in opposition this evening. But I ask you to exchange these short-sighted viewpoints for one of obvious value. Vivian, I also brought a plastic bag. Um, this one's from Walmart. I don't shop at Walmart. I found this wound around a branch in a tree in my backyard. And this isn't my bag. It shouldn't be my responsibility. Yet, here it is, irrefutably threat threatening the environment. Did you know that aven researchers are finding birds that make a crunching sound when they're handled because of all the plastics that they consume? They often die, an early death, emaciated and unable to even complete their first flight. I frequently drive along the Fox River between my home and East Dundee. One day last week, I counted 12 plastic bags before I gave up counting. They were on the ground, caught in the br caught in the bush or wound around tree branches just like this one. It is more than likely just a brief stop before they ultimately make their way toward the river. I know one of the arguments presented two weeks ago by Mike Warren suggested that we could educate and communicate our way out of this. No, we cannot. While it's a charming idea that to think that we all make consistently good

choices based on sound research and science, any sociologist, human behaviorist, or economist will tell you that that is often not the case. It's why we have whole documents and city administrative offices dedicated to code enforcement and permits to prevent contractors from cutting corners and placing lives at risk. It's why we tax cigarettes and we get tickets for not wearing seat belts. Sometimes we have to be nudged into what's better for us rather than choosing what's cheap, easy, or convenient. This ordinance won't solve the crisis in front of us, but it will make it easier for us to make better choices. Externalizing the cost of plastic production by placing the responsibility of figuring out what to do with it wholly on the backs of consumers is a nice way for industry to maintain their status quo with no accountability for what happens later. Many investigations, investigative reports have found that recycling plastic bags is a fairy tale. That we're told in the vestibules of our grocerers. And with most bags only reaching a meaningful utility of a few minutes, we are left to absorb an enormous impact. The world produces five trillion of these bags a year. It is impossible. And quite frankly, I am tired of being left holding the bag. This could be stopped to an extent with you all tonight. I urge you not to wait. More bags are drifting toward the river as we speak. That should be on everyone's conscience. Thank you.

Thank you,

Paul Berland. Hello. Um, I'd like to talk about the fact that 57% of the people voted against the plastic bag ordinance, but this to me is a sign that people are misinformed. They've been misinformed by the government, the media, and advertisements. And this is a problem. I would like to talk about what they're misinformed about. The each plastic bag and even the paper bags have a greenhouse gas footprint. And when um you add it up, it causes greenhouse gas emissions. And this as the climate emergency and what is not taught is our responsibility for the mother earth and helping the environment. Um we know that global warming is a problem because you look in the Arctic the minimum sea ice extent went from 7.7 million square kilometers in 1980 to 4.7 million square kilmters in 2025. So we know global warming is a real process. Um over 1.7 billion people have been affected by climate related disasters over the past decade and it has cost$ two trillion dollars for the world in the past decade. We shouldn't be passing the cost off of the climate emergency on less fortunate communities. Um climate induced famines in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Southern Africa, Madagascar, Libya, and Sudan. hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, the Carolinas, and the Caribbean, including Hurricane Katrina, which caused 21 billion dollars in damage. Wildfires in the United States, escalating heat stroke deaths in India, Africa, and the Middle East. The plastic bag ban is one of the least economically intrusive measures that the UN sustainability commission could agree to work on. It's a small step, but an important step in the right direction. Thank you.

Thank you. Empar um I wanted to uh comment on uh topic l discussion on adopting uh the ordinance for uh inclusivity and diversity in the city of Elgen. So, it was brought to my attention that a member of your council wondered why vulnerable member family uh vulnerable neighbors don't come here to voice their experience. As a group who serves the vulnerable, many of us can tell you that the silence that you hear is the sound of survival. The families we've supported are not living in the same timeline as you. We while we deliberate on budgets and long-term plans, they are living in a in 24-hour increments. They're not thinking about the next council meeting. They're they're thinking about whether they will be home to see the sunset. Right now on in our own neighborhoods, people are in hiding. They're afraid to step foot outside of their homes to go to work. They're terrified that a routine uh school drop off or pickup will turn into a forced abduction in front of their children. uh when a household loses their primary bread winner to detention or deportation, that family faces potent potential displacement within 60 to 90 days. They are thinking about keeping a roof over their children's heads. People are afraid to go grocery shopping or visit food pantries. Many of these uh families have documentation. They have active legal asylum cases and they are here uh they came here seeking the safety that we promised. Yet they are here facing and facing persecution. I have personally witnessed a US citizen being dragged through their own front yard maybe a mile from here from this building even after showing their identification to ICE agents. In fact, the recording that I have in my phone is

over 5 minutes long and much longer than the time that I have to speak uh here with you today. I've spoken to families who haven't slept because they they know that their loved ones are facing strategic deliberate state sanctioned neglect postabduction. One Elgen man signed a voluntary departure just to escape the unbearable conditions while he was in custody. He told me I couldn't take it anymore. We were in a cell meant for 40 to maybe 50 people, but there were over 90 of us that we counted in the room by the end of the week. We were chest to chest. There was no room to sit down, let alone lay down to sleep. So, if you're wondering why the people most impacted by your decisions aren't standing here at this microphone today, it is because they are being hunted in the streets of Elgen. They are not missing the meeting. They are fighting to remain whole in a system designed to break them. So, I just want to encourage those of you who represent a swing vote today to understand that we encourage you to use some of the taxpayers dollars that are going towards funding of many of these projects to go back to your taxpayers because while many of us may think that all of these people are undocumented or criminals, they are taxpayers of the city of Elgen and we hope for your support.

Thank you. Cheryl Brumal Cayford. Good evening. I want to thank you for bringing the singleuse bag ordinance for a first vote this evening. I want to thank you also for bringing to this agenda the new version of a welcoming city ordinance. I urge you to adopt the single-use bag ordinance. I urge you to listen to the needs of Elgen's immigrant community as you consider a new version of a welcoming city ordinance. As to the single use bag ordinance, I'd like to bring a clarifying thought. At the meeting two weeks ago, we heard from just a few business people primarily worried about cost and potential loss of business, although there is very little evidence that that will actually happen. I want to clarify that the single-use bag ordinance is not about cost, but it is about how much we here in Elgen, city council, business, and residents alike will do to ensure that a major source of pollution is beginning to be reduced. Be assured that plastics pollution is a real threat to us, to our environment, and to the Fox River, where we get most of our drinking water. Here are a few facts from the Center for Biological Diversity and the UN Environmental Program. Since the 1950s, 9.2 billion tons of plastic have been produced. 7 billion of those tons have become waste. 23 of the 430 million tons of plastic produced each year are short-lived products that become waste. Without urgent action, that figure will rise threefold by the year60. Current commitments made by governments

and industry will only reduce the annual volume of plastic flowing into the ocean by 8% by the year 2040. Plastic's durability means it can take thousands, hundreds or thousands of years to degrade. The cost socially and economic of plastic pollution reaches up to $600 billion dollars a year. The greenhouse gas emissions linked to the life cycle of plastics represent 3.4% of the global total in 2019. In a business asusual scenario, plastic could emit 19% of global greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2040. Widespread plastic waste results in damage to ecosystems and human health worth $30 billion to $600 billion a year. Marine litter harms more than 800 species. More than 90% of all birds and fish are believed to have plastic particles in their stomachs. In regard to human health, microplastics enter the body and accumulate in organs including the placenta and they have established links between exposure to chemical addictives related to obesity, diabetes, poor brain health and cancer. To clarify again, the question is not how much this will cost. The question is, will we protect to this space our home here in Elgen from plastics pollution?

Thank you, Diana Ortega. Good evening. My name is Diana Ortega Erith and I am a taxpaying resident of the city of Elgen. The city of Elgen is indeed diverse and I have experienced your leadership to be open and welcoming to people from all backgrounds and traditions. This is why I am glad to read in the draft ordinance to read about the draft ordinance to support and foster inclusivity and diversity. This may be how the city already operates, but having it codified and expanded in this manner is very assuring to the residents like me who will look to all future city leaders, both elected and non-elected after you for aligning their future actions with these inclusive values. To anyone who may have hesitations about this ordinance because not all Latinos support it, I say this. Please do not fall for the systemic racist expectation that all people from one ethnic group need to agree on an issue in order to gain credibility and be taken seriously. The Latino community is itself very diverse. Do not dismiss the voices and stories of the people who are asking for this ordinance to be approved. Do not cancel out the people who have been persistent in reaching out to you for support on behalf of the people whose lives have been turned completely

upside down. This ordinance is both symbolic and has important action steps that will move decision-making leadership at the city closer to fuller inclusion and positive outreach to residents to feel that they really are valued and that they do in fact belong here. Lastly, I ask you to please move beyond internal politics and be present to what members of the community are requesting from you today. It doesn't matter how some of you have voted in the past. What matters is how you will deliberate and vote today. What matters is how you prioritize spending of our tax tax dollars moving forward. Local organizations and volunteers are collaborating more and more every single day in order to help the residents of our communities and we expect the same from our city city leadership. Thank you.

Thank you. Am I Jarvis? is Jarvis. for MTO. No. Municipal. canchech.

I seeia. territori. Caseria. So be revealed. inclusion. Centidentific Municipal. Thank you,

Bob Johnson. My name is Bob and I'm here to interpret what was just said for those who don't speak Spanish. As a Latina, I am not and should never be treated as the spokesperson for all Latinas. Our community is not a single uniform voice. There are Latinos who may oppose this draft ordinance. Their opposition does not erase the lived experiences of those who do support it. It does not invalidate the fear, the harm, or the urgent needs of the families. I'm here to speak about our community and other targeted communities and what they are actually experiencing right now. Not in theory, not in headlines, but in real time. The people most affected are not preparing speeches for city council. They are scrambling to secure deportation defense for a father, a mother or a sibling. They are mapping out the safest routes between home and work and school, calculating which streets, which which stops, which parking lots might get them home safely. They are asking whether it is safe to go to the grocery store. Some do not have access to a car or reliable transportation to reach a full grocery store. They rely on the nearby grocery store because that is what they can access. Even that simple trip carries risk in their minds. They are wondering whether it is safe to enter this very building. And may I remind you, someone was abducted from this very parking lot. So when you do not hear directly from them, do not mistake that for indifference or confirmation of your position. Do not mistake silence for

consent. Do not mistake absence for lack of support. The targets of the current enforcement do not show up for target practice. Their priority is survival. The reality is different from yours. I'm here because they cannot afford to be. I'm here to urge you to vote yes on the inclusivity and diversity ordinance. And let's be clear, this is not a symbolic document. This is not just words on paper. This ordinance has substance. It has protection. It has a policy. It has an impact. Vote yes for municipal IDs. Vote yes for language access. That way you can understand what she said. Vote yes to the legal aid fund so families know who to turn to. Vote yes for our community. Do what is within your power to help our community feel safe, welcomed, and supported. Be there for the people you were elected to serve. You have the power. You have the responsibility. Use it. Vote yes. Thank you, Jeff Biffs. Good evening. We are here once again discussing single use bag ban because retailers and their customers have done absolutely nothing to solve the problem that they created. Retailers could have implemented policies to end the use of single-use bags, but they didn't. They claim that they cannot afford to do what Aldi does since it opens its first store. Customers could bring their own bags, but they don't. We hear the claim that customers cannot be burdened to bring their own bags as Aldi shoppers do. We hear the claim that it is not the right time for such a ban. To the opposition,

it never is. It is an objective fact that markets create problems. They do not solve them. Problems are solved by competent individuals and political will. It is time for Elgen to exert political will to create the pressure that will coers the market, retailers, and their customers to act responsibly because they have chosen not to and will not if left to their own choices. As the current marketbased solution or situation proves, after this ban passes, the market will adjust to the new reality. Thank you. Thank you,

Loa Dresden. Hi, this is a statement from a local support team providing follow-up care to impacted individuals and families in Elgen and surrounding areas. It came to our attention that some council members have asked to hear more from affected families on this ordinance that there is uncertainty as to whether this ordinance is wanted by those most impacted in our community. As a group who is in daily communication with families impacted by ISIS's indiscriminate and unwanted unwarranted assault on families, we are not standing here today to try and speak for the vulnerable families we know. We believe that if they could, they would speak for themselves. But so many are not here. Not necessarily because they do not support an ordinance, but because affected families are not spending their days learning about and then writing to their council person or appearing at a meeting to speak in support or opposition to such an ordinance. When your very existence is defined by the actions it takes to survive and keep going daytoday, this is not how one spends one's time. Families are in hiding or limiting movement due to fear, prioritizing only work and school. Families are relocating because the current living arrangements have become too expensive or unsafe with a breadwinner gone. Families are seeking financial assistance because money that usually goes to rent has had to be used for legal fees. Our most deeply impacted communities are not here. You are right. But do we really not know why?

Important provisions like establishing a legal defense fund for residents and ensuring language access and equity for city processes will not undo the trauma and instability that has been forced upon so many of our neighbors and communities. But in a time when some seem to see civil, constitutional, and human rights as optional, this ordinance does take necessary steps towards strengthening a foundation of safety and belonging for all Elgen residents, those in this room and those who cannot be. Thank you, Tracy Howell,

mayor, and um city council members. I look forward to the lively discussion this evening on the um inclusivity and diversity ordinance. I ask that if you take issue with any portion of that ordinance, please do not kill it altogether. To dismiss this ordinance without discussion essentially would bind and gag all of us. We are here not now telling you what we need to help our neighbors. Don't turn your back on the residents of Elgen. in these horrendous times, we will not forget how we were treated and and um what your choice was in this matter. Thank you.

Thank you,

Susanna Padilla. Good evening. Hi, good evening. My name is Daisy Samura and I am a community organizer with Community Organizing and Family Issues, Kofi for short, a 30-year-old parent leadership and organizing center that works with parents across Illinois and serve as the Elgen branch of Kofi Statewide Parent Network, PowerPack Illinois, which stands for Parents Organized to Win, Educate, and Renew Policy Action Council. We are a group of Latino and African-American parents that work on different issues in our local community. Kofi has been in Elgen for the past 12 years and has been advocating for change in our communities. And we want to make sure we're here today with Susana and some of our parents back there to make sure that you hear our voices and we're here to make an impact in our communities. I'm going to pass it over to Susanna. Thank you for the time. Um, and I am here to represent all the mothers in fear sending their children to school. As one of my um, close friends wrote this letter, Elgen is a city made up of largely of Latino immigrants families, hard-working families who contribute to this city every day. They work, pay, they work, pay taxes, raise their children here, and strongly believe in education as the path to a better future. The presence of ICE on the streets of Elgen has created fear, chaos, and instability, not only among adults, but most concerning among children and teenagers who are US citizens and should be focused on learning, not on fearing for their parents' future.

As a mother, I have seen how this fear reaches into our schools. My daughter has shared with me that many of her classmates in middle school live with constant anxiety, fear that their parents may not be home when they return from home from school. Fear of being separated, fear of what tomorrow may bring. How can a child focus on math, reading or personal growth while carrying that level of emotional distress? This situation is leading to school absences, lack of concentration, and serious disruption to learning. Not because families do not value education, but because fear overwhelms everything else. Keep ICE out of the streets of Elgen is not about promoting lawlessness. It is about protecting the stability of our schools, the emotional well-being of our children, and the unity of the community. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Vote yes.

Ebenezer Almarat.

Good evening, mayor, council members, and uh my fellow me neighbors. For those who don't know me, my name is Ebenezer Amal Raj. I'm the owner of the Glass Market Smoke Shop here in Elgen that has now doubled as a space um for the community as a place of sanctuary and providing safety and education. I employ local residents. I serve local families. I'm also a co-founder of the Collective for Resource and Resilience, a grassroots initiative focused on supporting families, entrepreneurs, and community stability right here in our city. And I love this city. Let's let me ask you something. What kind of city do we want to be? A city where people live cautiously or or a city where people live confidently? because that's what this conversation is really about. Over the last few weeks, many of us have sat in rooms together and discussed this ordinance. We even sat with Councilman Corey Dixon and Councilwoman Diana Alaro, asking hard questions, raising concerns, and unpacking this ordinance line by line. Not yelling, not dividing, but engaging. And that matters. This ordinance is not about politics. It's about clarity. Clarity in how our city operates, clarity for families, clarity for business owners, and clarity for the next generation watching how we lead. When policy is unclear, fear fills the gaps. When policy is clear, trust fills the gaps. And trust is what keeps a city strong. Now, I know that not everyone agrees on every word,

and that's okay. That's participation. That's people caring enough to show up. And people have shown up after long work days with their children with real questions and real fears. That tells me something. This matters. So tonight, I respectfully ask this council to move this ordinance forward, continue refining it if necessary, continue listening, but show this community that their engagement leads to action. Because years from now, when people look back at this moment, they won't ask how long it took. They'll ask whether we had the courage to act. Let's answer that question tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Jocelyn Navaro.

Hello guys.

All right. Hi guys. My name is Jasine Navaro. Um I am a small business owner here in Elgen. Um, I have owned and operated my business, Gently Zero Waste, for over five years now, and I have serviced the downtown Elgen Farmers Market for the same amount of time. Um, I started my business because of one specific problem, and that is plastic and plastic pollution. Um, um, as we should all know by now, plastic is a substance that affects us all in more than one way. It has infiltrated our waterway systems, polluted our land, and is now even showing up inside our bodies. Globally, only 9% of plastic ever produced has been recycled properly. Um, it takes over 500 years for a smallsized piece of plastic to decompose. And I use the term decompose lightly because it does not add any nutrients back into our soils. Um, over 100,000 marine animals die from plastic entanglement and ingestion. And humans are buying millions of plastic components, bottles, packaging, and have accumulated the need for plastic bags just for most of this plastic to end up in our oceans just after 12 minutes of use. By the year 2050, if we don't do anything about this plastic problem now, the oceans will contain more plastic by weight than fish. If this is continued at the same rate, the plastic industry will account for 20% of the world's total oil consumption. And we should also know the health and environmental effects of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions. These are just a few of the facts about plastics that I have at the top of my list. I haven't even touched on the fact that plastics break down into microplastics and smaller nanoplastics um which are small enough to pass through human skin um into our bloodstream into the female

placenta to our unborn baby's developing brains and into the breast milk that we use to feed the future generation. Um with that being said, uh banning plastic bags will be just one step in the right direction to protecting our society. We should all benefit from cleaner air, water, soil, and healthier bodies. Um, so as a small business owner doing her best, I have diver diverted over 300 pieces of plastic packaging from being sent to landfill. And I am just one person. So if we held every business, not just individuals, account accountable for the actions, we would be placing human rights at the core of these environmental issues. Thank you. Thank you, Maria Elena.

Good evening. I'm here in support of the uh proposed welcoming ordinance. U my name is Maria Lena. Um, as a long-standing resident of Elgen, I am compelled to express my deep concern regarding the recent surge in ICE activity within our community. As a daughter of an immigrant from Mexico, and also Native American, a member of the PBLO tribe, um, from my m mother's side, I understand the importance of dignity and respect. As a single mother of four, and a homeowner here in Elgen, I am all too familiar with the struggles faced by the families in our city. This past year, Elgen has seen numerous instances of harassment, unwarranted detentions and kidnappings, and terrorization of our neighbors by ICE. I am all too famili uh resulting in the breakdown of families and businesses. Even US citizens of Latino descent are hesitant to venture outdoors due to fear of being apprehended or targeted by ICE. My 72year-old father, a US citizen and was a lifelong resident of Elgen, has been has been advised by me to avoid visiting Elgen due to concerns about racial targeting and I'm scared that he could be seriously hurt by ICE agents because I have seen this firsthand. My oldest son's safety is also a constant worry as he could be mistakenly stopped and mistreated by ICE. Despite this, the city of Elgen has not taken sufficient measures to safeguard its residents. Instead, community members have banded together, sacrificing time, resources, and energy to protect our immigrant community. We have organized food drives, collected funds, patrol the streets to warn of ICE activity, and provided support to families in need. This gr grassroots effort is driven by empathy, love, and a strong sense of moral compass. The detention centers used to hold our families are no

different than concentration camps where detainees are subjected to inhumane conditions. I have spoken to many people that have been released and I hear stories of their experiences in the jail. They are drugged to keep give to keep them quiet. They put something on their clothing that makes them itch all day and night. They are given minimal food and at times it's rotten or has maggots in them. They are beaten, tortured, and not given proper medical attention. Do you think this is right? How can we justify this? The majority of them have no criminal record, are hardworking, and came here to make a better life for themselves. People will say that the the system is failing us, but this system was never working for us. It was not built for us, for people of color. This country was founded through genocide and built off the black the backs of slaves. Racial profiling and discrimination has happened since colonization. People say that they should have come here legally, but the immigration laws are not set up for for people from Latin American countries whom the US has single-handedly had um have destabilized many of these countries. This past year, I have earned the trust of many people in our community. When some when some when ISIS in town, I am one of the first people they contact. They trust me to go out and verify, warn people, and defend them. when their loved ones are taken, I'm the person they contact, their families, their wives, their their families cry to me. Their children cry to me. My heartbreaks with them. I feel helpless. It's not it's uh resources. I'm sorry. This thing I'm like, we need radical change and this starts with our local government. It is imperative that we challenge the status quo and strive for a more compassionate and just system. This issue transcends party lines. It's not about being Republican or Democrat. It is about basic human decency and valuing human life. I urge our city council members to take proactive measures to support all residents regardless of their documentation

status. We must work together to create a more inclusive and supportive community. I implore you to consider how you can contribute to the solution. The fate of our community depends on the choices that we make. Thank you. Thank you.

Paul Miller, Paul Miller. and Paul Miller, 670 Carlton Drive, Elgen. Uh back to the uh the ordinance for the ban on single-use plastic bags. I am in favor of that. I support it. There are way too many plastic bags floating around in our streets and our open spaces and way too many plastic bags caught in our trees. However, I have one concern. A close friend of mine lives on the near west side. He does not walk very far, very well due to serious lower body injuries. Um, he gets 94% of his supplies, his food, and his groceries delivered from Walmart. He orders, they drop it off on his porch in plastic bags. Works just fine. when it's raining or snowing, paper sacks at 10 cents each are totally unacceptable in this situation. Now, having just reviewed the proposed ordinance, there is a section in there um that does address this under the exclusions uh item number 12 on page four addresses this. I guess my speech now is to encourage the council to when the ordinance is finalized, keep that as it is so that some people that use delivery services in all sorts of weather can have access to plastic bags. Um, that's all I got. There's been enough said already about how dangerous plastic is in the environment. I'm not going to add to it. Uh, that's all I got. Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you. Marie cleans Nunes. I am speaking in Spanglish today because of a little phrase called nidyaki nidya. It translates to mean not from here not from there. Although I was born in the US and grew up here in Elgen, there are various aspects that make me along with others in our community including the directly impacted individuals and families who are not here to speak for themselves because they are only trying to survive and live in fear from separation of their family and as of September 2025 even the possibility of death. multicultural. The feeling was always there. That feeling got worse when the federal administration started cracking down on immigration in such a harmful and inhumane manner. And that feeling felt worse when the city of Elgen didn't act for months because of the fear of being in the spotlight. This remains true to this day. from the municipal ID to the defense fund to to all of these actions because they were necessary.

And I hope that regardless of what your opinion is today that you may fight for your community even harder from now on because this is for the immigrant community in Elgen and for everyone in the Elgen community to feel like we are not on our own and to feel like we actually belong here. This will not fix everything that is wrong with the current situation, but this is a step forward to begin acting towards the issue. Thank you. can be done in a half hour.

Okay. the most expeditious way to most expeditious way to hear everybody. So what we're going to do is start the uh um committee of the whole regular discussion and we'll try to get through the plastic bag ordinance and then we'll take a break. So the first item, Mr. Manager,

thank you mayor. As you indicated, uh, we have two items that are on both agendas. So, I'll just introduce these items and we can go through any discussion during the regular 7:00 meeting. The first item is various East Side Streets 2025 reservicing project. This is change order number one and final. Uh, the purpose of this initiative is to compensate the contractor for some additional work that the city did for an alley at 40 to page court and some improvements in Bluff City Cemetery. Again, this is on both agendas. Any questions? We'll discuss this in the at the regular council meeting.

Okay. Item B is uh training mannequins, three of them for the fire department's emergency medical services. Uh the fire department is going to be purchasing three mannequins to assist in running its in-house paramedic certification class uh that will be conducted in the basement classroom at fire station number one. The creation of the simulation lab will place the fire department's EMS training program at a level that exceeds the requirements set forth by its resource hospital, Advocate Sherman, and also rivals the training provided by teaching hospitals and paramedic programs across the nation. Okay.

Uh item C is the purchase of seven supervac supervac batterypowered ventilation fans. Fire Department uses ventilation fans during its operations to improve internal building conditions by removing smoke and other byproducts of combustion. These fans are also used in many non-fire scenarios to remove carbon monoxide or other hazardous fumes encountered inside a building. By placing a high-powered ventilation fan outside a doorway, firefighters force fresh air into the structure, pushing out heat and smoke. This tactic improves visibility, reduces temperatures, removes toxic gases, and mitigates ongoing damage to the structure. In this instance, the city's current fans are 12 to 15 years old with built-in battery systems that can only hold a charge for a couple minutes. Once drained, alternative power sources have to be used to make these fans function. The new fans use the latest battery technology, allowing a runtime of 60 minutes. And rather than finding an alternative energy source, we just swap out with new batteries. So, this is purchase of seven units for just under $37,000.

Move for approval. Second. It's been moved. Second for approval. Uh, any discussion? Hearing none, clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. The motion is approved. 90.

Item D is the continued discussion of the retailer singleuse plastic bags uh ordinance. This evening, uh, sustainability manager Kristen Ifer will provide a brief overview of what occurred at the last city council meeting. Um, with her is Jessica Van Djk, the city sustainability coordinator. Also with us is the executive director of the Elgen Development Group, Tony Lenenko, along with representatives in the retail business community who will providing their comments on the uh, regulations being considered by the city this evening. Misser, how are you?

Good. Good evening, council. So, at your last meeting, we presented the retail single-use bag ordinance. We're going to do a quick recap before we get into discussion. So, the ordinance that we are looking at applies to all retailers in Elgen. There are a few exemptions on business types. It does not include gas stations. It does not include restaurants. It also exempts small retail establishments. The definition for retail establishments is up. It is reflective of the state um legislation. So, it's those who have 12 or fewer locations in the state and employ 250 fewer full-time employees nationwide. If enacted, this would prohibit single-use plastic checkout bags in store in person. There'd be a 10-centent fee on paper checkout bags, and individuals enrolled in SNAP or WICK or similar program would be exempt from the fee. As we began outreach, we wanted to see who this would potentially impact. um majority of stores are the big box, but we also wanted to make sure we were looking at um other more local retailers in Elgen to um be thorough with our outreach and getting feedback. We do realize since we started outreach, there were some stores that either um have been sold or closed. So, should this move forward and be adopted, we would make sure to um update and verify this list um so it's accurate for continued communications. With that, I'm going to hand it over to Jessica to give a overview recap of our outreach. Hi everyone. I'm Jessica Van Djk. I'm the sustainability coordinator for the city. Um, so city staff conducted a multi-channel public engagement process to gather feedback on this proposed ordinance. Outreach efforts included an engage Elgen web page, community survey, social media announcements, and tableabling at community events and local businesses. To the right, you'll see the results of

our survey where we received 2,185 responses. 57% of respondents opposed the ordinance, 38% express support, and 5% requested additional information. The survey was offered in both online and paper formats and uh in both English and Spanish. While survey results are not intended to serve as a statistic uh representative statistically representative sample of the community, they do provide valuable insight into community perspectives and reoccurring themes that were raised during the engagement process which we'll dive further into on this next slide. So getting into themes from the survey, opposition primarily centered on concerns related to cost, equity, effectiveness, and practical impacts rather than disagreement on environmental goals. Many respondents noted that checkout bags are often reused at least once before being discarded, and some indicated that they would consider shopping outside of Elgen if restrictions were implemented. supporters on the other hand emphasized environmental protection, litter reduction, public health benefits in alignment with the city's sustainability objectives. Approximately 5% of respondents indicated that they needed more information before forming an opinion on the ordinance. And these comments generally expressed an openness to reducing plastic bag use, but sought clarification on things like policy details, how equity concerns would be addressed, and evidence of effectiveness of bans and fees. Overall, the feedback from the survey reflects a shared interest in long-term environmental outcomes, even where perspectives may differ on approach. And this last slide for me highlights uh the community outreach efforts led by staff. From October through December, we

organized and attended eight outreach events across Elgen. These included both larger community events uh such as resource fairs as well as pop-up tableabling at retail locations like Walmart and Butra. With that, I'm going to pass it off to Tony Lenenko from the EDG to discuss the business outreach. Uh as you can see, thank first first of all, thank you mayor and thank you uh city council for postponing uh this discussion until today. Uh we are out um meeting uh with businesses in the last week. We had literally gone to all 42 businesses and let them know that there was a meeting happening tonight. those businesses that attended the October 9th meeting that we had had that's mentioned up there actually represented about 70% of the total square footage of the 42 businesses um that are represented in this ordinance. U I'm not going to take a lot of your time. There are businesses here who've been waiting to express their opinions. I just wanted to let you know that there were two letters that we had received since the last meeting. one from Ace Hardware that was in opposition of this ordinance and one from Target who is in support of the ordinance and staff has both of those those uh letters and uh emails. Uh I do want to say one thing that there are always people as you probably see quite often who come to city council in opposition. Um but there is a large group of people out there who are uh for um excuse me against this this ordinance. Uh you'll see that also in the business community as a couple businesses that I had talked to who called me their public affairs and governmental affairs people said you know we are against it but we just don't want that to go public and there are some pretty substantial businesses in in the community. And so with that I'm

going to not waste your time. I'm going to uh hand it over to uh the retailers and we've got several here who are going to speak and I'm going to start with Roy Kums. Roy is the manager at our local Walmart on Randall Road. He looks Thank you.

Hi, good evening. Uh my name is Roy Kums. I am the store manager at the uh local Walmart on South Rand Road. Um, I have been with Walmart for almost 30 years now and I spent most of my career in the Southern California area. Um, I ran stores in the Lancaster area, Lancaster, California. And we actually uh did this singleuse bag thing about 15 years ago in Southern California. So, I know it firsthand. Uh, so the Lancaster City Council decided to pass a very similar thing. uh but the neighboring community uh in Palmdale uh did not pass a similar thing. Um so what tended to happen is uh the it's really the outlying areas uh there many outlying communities uh back where I lived in uh California Roseman Quartzill Lake LA Mojave and um what would happen is uh my customers that were traditionally my customers coming to my Lancaster store uh because they were now being given a an additional choice to have to make a decision on uh they would drive right past my store and go down to the Palmdale store. So, it was actually chasing revenue away from the Lancaster community. Um and so what tended what happened is Palmdale eventually also uh took on a bag ordinance, but those people's shopping habits had already changed. Uh they weren't coming back to my store. uh they uh frequented the Palmdale area and it wasn't that they even just stopped with the the retail sales that they were doing. It changed their shopping habits completely. Uh they're getting gas in Palmdale. They're visiting restaurants in Palmdale. Um and so I think of the same thing here. Uh, you know, I think of people in like Pingry Grove that will come down the 20

and they have the the choice of taking a left to go to Alangquin or a right to come into Elgen. And I fear that this is going to chase those people to go to a different location. And um, to my understanding, I think the the state of Illinois is supposed to be uh instituting something very similar. At least if the state of Illinois does it, it puts us all on a level playing field. It's not a a choice for uh the consumer that they have to pick one place or the other. Uh we'll be on a level playing field all in the same boat having to deal with all the same things. Um my concern is that we're going to chase those people in the outlying areas to neighboring markets to go and spend their money. And I don't want to have that happen. I don't want to have that happen for the people that work for me. Um that affects their pocketbook. And I don't want that to happen for the people here in Elgen, who whether that's a restaurant, a gas station, or whatever that may be. And I I don't dislike Al Gangquin. I just don't want them to get my my customer. So, um, that's what I got. Thank you guys.

Thank you. I apologize. I wasn't here for the last one. I was in Houston, Texas. So, sorry about that.

Thank you. Hi, my name is Keith Roford. I'm the store manager of the Blaes Farm and Fleet on Randall Road. I'm going to come at this from a different angle. I'm going to agree with many of the things that Roy said, but Blaes has been around for 70 years. It's a family-owned business. We believe in community involvement. We believe in building communities up. What our consumer is going to be confused on is they come into our store or a larger store, they can't get certain plastic bags when they make a store purchase. But if they buy it online, they're going to get a bag. And some of those people come in the store for their online pickup. And then they come in to buy more things. So, they only have one bag, but they don't have a bag to put the other stuff that they have in. And if it's still a bag from my store, Walmart, or a gas station, or a restaurant for take-home food, and it's in a styrofoam container, I understand all of the numbers and all of the criteria that we have heard this evening about the damage that plastic bags can do. It doesn't matter whether it's from a big box consumer or a small restaurant or a gas station, it is still a plastic bag. If we're going to do this, we need to have it a level playing field and get rid of it completely, not just single out the big box retailers. That's what I have by say on it. Thank you.

Good evening. Uh, I want to thank everybody for being here tonight. I'm Bob from Elgen Fresh Market. Uh, I've been working in the Elgen community since the late 90s. Um, question I have is comment question. Um, yes, bags is a problem going into landfills. Um, so is this cup right here that has a plastic lining. So is the aluminum can that has a plastic lining. So are many of the retailers that have plastic linings inside their styrofoams. When you look at Starbucks, all the iced coffee, all the paper cups, they all have plastic linings on the inside. So

um just doing some studying research, uh plastic bags are about 03% of what goes into a landfill. This is on the internet. I don't know if it's true or not. I gave you guys some study that talks about uh plastic bags in municipalities or counties that have been banned. There's actually more plastic that goes into uh thicker plastic that actually goes into the landfill because people then go buy bags to throw out their trash. Um we are exempt from this the way the law is written because the amount of employees we have. So for me, it's more if this passes, is the law ever going to get amended? City of Chicago passed this in 2017. I think it was a five or seven cent fee and it was two cents for the retailers, 5 cents for the city as of January 1st. They just raised it, I think, for the second or third time. There are 15 cents a bag, one penny for the retailers, 14 cents for the city of Chicago. Uh, a plastic bag costs under two cents. A good paper bag with handles cost about 45 cents. So the cost is huge. Um the one challenge is 25% of our revenue roughly depending on the store is food stamps SNAP program. So a SNAP customer not being able to come in or a SNAP customer coming in and not I don't know what I didn't know if there was any changes made since the last month. But what's going to happen is the customer going to be paying for that? Is the retailer going to be paying for that? And then also on all SNAP transactions, it's usually part SNAP payment and part credit card payment or part cash. So if you're buying your produce, raw meats and then you buy something from hot foods, it's not on SNAP. If you buy something from the non-food aisle, it's not SNAP. So it's one transaction with

two different payment forms. How's the retailer going to handle that? Um, a lot of our customers on the west side of town uh come from outside of town. We'd say about 15% of our business on the rewards customers we have. So losing that business would be huge to us. And then about 20% of our customers on the west side of town walk to the store and back. And how would that be if you have to carry one bag now, you know, with 22 pounds in it opposed to carrying three, four bags with four to five pounds in each bag? But you're one hand opposed to two hands.

Thank you. Thank you. It's not a discussion here. Okay.

Okay. And then just part of the recap. Um we are recommending to either defer action pending state legislation. Um at this time it timeline with the state is uh unknown and we're not sure if it's going to be picked up or um we're also recommending to adopt the proposed ordinance. Um as mentioned since the last meeting we did get um feedback from Target who was um in support. They did um also request um a modification to the definition for reusable bag. One of the one part of the definition is for the um reusable bag handle to be stitched. They're requesting the stitch be taken out. Um there are some reusable bags that uh seams or handles can be um put together with heat and glue. We are um recommending to leave the ordinance as is because the stitch does help um provide a more durable product. Also, as you're considering this, if um the decision is made to adopt, I'd also recommend um in the motion to um include this be in effect um for June 1st, 2027 to allow staff um the community and retailers to prepare for implementation. With that, I will turn it over to discussion and questions.

Okay. Well, we need a motion. So moved. with condition of uh June 2027. It's been moved and seconded for uh discussion for enactment of this ordinance on June 1st, 2027. Any discussion, Mr. McGood?

Thank you, Mayor. Um so, um you know, do the shout outs to everybody who's contributed time, staff, uh commission. It's been a long road to get here. Um and so, just to not bury the lead, I am in support of this. Um, you know, the way that we got here was, you know, council had a discussion. Uh, I think we put our heads together and said, you know, there is action at the state, uh, to the points that were made about a level playing field. Um, you know, we pointed to that and the commission started crafting something that mirrored that. So, just hats off to everybody for trying to find alignment. Um, what I'm at least seeing is that that, uh, is likely not going to pass at the state. What I've gathered about state level action, the committee that it's in is typically not a place where things persist on. So it looks like we're here uh doing this on our own. So I say that because there are um areas that you know at least in doing research I see where we could have variables that we could discuss or consider. I don't want to uh draw this out but I do want to just say that you know what we've seen in other communities whether they've continued to iterate on what they present or if they in some cases what was just provided here and this is research I did find is that some communities actually repealed it. Um we see that this is a living action that we're taking here. The goal is to try and clean up the environment as much as possible. Um to uh do this as fairly as possible, but as was just laid out, there are some uh exemptions to this. So that's going to be an ongoing moving target as to how this rolls out progressively. Do we keep the parameters as they are or do they expand? Do they constrict? So um I just wanted to throw out some of those comments. I don't know if we're going to get into any variables here from my colleagues, but um as it currently stands, I support it. Um with the caveat of knowing that there are some things that that beared out that um you know, I think we backed away from originally. I think originally the conversation was a fee on plastic, a fee on paper. Um I'm happy to see if the goal is to reduce plastic that the fee on paper was proposed because research

shows if you do a fee on plastic with nothing else, it just explodes usage of paper. Um and also the little caveat that you just shared about Target. Um, that's one thing to consider is that, you know, the bags that are going to be uh replacing this reusable bags, those also at some point end up in a a landfill. So, it's not a perfect situation, but um it's something that you can reuse hundreds of times, which you know, my family does. So, um that's all I have right now. Okay, M. Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I was thankful that um this decision on plastic bags was delayed slightly. Uh because when I looked at uh the survey here, people that were opposed was 57% and people that support it was 38%. And the 38% that support it, you know, we always hear about the litter, the pollution, the uh to protect the wildlife. Those are common sense things. We know there's a problem. Nobody's not denying that they don't understand this. But I'm going to be honest, just because I eat at a restaurant doesn't mean I can run the restaurant. Same way, just because I shop at your store doesn't mean I can run your store. What's amazing is how many decades you guys have been running your store. So, you're doing something right. Uh I applaud the enthusiasm and forward thinking of the sustainability commission and the work that they have done on this proposal. At the same time, it feels like the commission once again left people out that uh are most affected uh in this conversation and they provide they provide very little notice that this was being revisited. Uh but you know, I get it. You know, we announce it and announce it and still people didn't know. You know, uh, I can't stress enough how much I support the effects to make Elgen stand out and be viewed positively. I believe the only way Elgen will be recognized for our green initiatives is to launch a large community campaign to educate and inform Elgen about the value of recycling. I believe the only way algen will be recognized for our green um uh initiative is when you get everybody involved. Uh we always talk about

changing human behavior. I would like to see the sustainability commission reach out to U46 and provide education and excitement in the young people. You know, I have my neighbor here who's always this rival thing between Elgen and Larkin. You know, it can be the same thing with middle school. Uh but when you do this with children, you know, it's an educational thing for them. And I'm telling you, um children are funny. If they can scold their parents, they would love to do it. You know, you have three little kids telling parents, you need to recycle, and this is why you need to recycle. Um, and I think that when you have a campaign that engages the community that that excites everybody, you know, um, the sustainability commission could allocate part of their budget to print reusable bags and include recycling guidelines and best practices. And just because I know the sustainability commission, I'm not saying that I know how to run it either, you know, I'm just giving ideas. Uh banning plastic bags is a good idea, but it should be done at a state or higher level. When we make decisions like this as a council, sometimes we forget how close we are to adjacent municipalities. Mostly um maybe one that has no bag fees. Uh, I understand my fellow council members want to find ways to keep businesses and customers happy in Elgen and I don't think this proposal will do anything for that. We need to help drive change in human behavior. What I want for Elgen is to be the most thoughtful council in the decisions we make, not

the first one to cross some invisible line. We need to make smart decisions that serve all of Elgen. This is not a race, but if it's not done correctly, we all lose. Thank you. Okay. Anything down this way? So far,

thank you. Thank you to the sustainability commission. Thank you to staff. U Thank you for everyone that came out tonight. Greatly appreciate it. I have a couple of questions. Um, thank you for clarifying the implementation date will be June 1st of 2027. Um, why full-time employees? A lot of uh the big box stores have a lot of part-time employees and so the caveat was 12 or fewer locations or 250 full-time employees. Um, why full-time employees?

Thank you for your question. So, the original draft was u mirrored after state legislation and the state did not include a definition and that was a question we received. So, we look to define it. Um, this ordinance is looking to get the big box stores and not our smaller retailers. So, by having um employees be defined as full-time and not full-time equivalent or part-time, that kind of helps keep it targeted at the bigger box stores where we'll see a bigger impact. Was that something the sustainability commission agreed on too? Um, this ordinance was shared with the commission and they are

so they're in agreement with that. Okay. Um and then my other um question is on page 61 or page five of the proposed ordinance um under penalties B um number three it says the third and any subsequent offenses within a 24 month period shall be punishable by a fine of not less than $750. Um was there a reason why we stopped at three? I feel like there should be a fourth one. It's like three times you're out. The fourth one should be about $1,000. So I was just curious on how that was determined.

Um so the penalties in general um so they occur each day if it's not corrected. So, um, we did have this escalate. It could be adjusted to a thousand just, um, this is what Yeah, I just feel like there should probably be a fourth that says a fourth and any subsequent offenses within a 24-month period would be punishable by a thousand. If the council agrees,

I mean, I I can just address that briefly. I don't I don't think that the state statute had a penalty provision. This is fairly consistent with the other penalty provisions within the Elgen Municipal Code. So, we kind of try to stay consistent there. There's usually a first violation, second violation, any third or subsequent violations are um the amount in this case $750. It could be you could go as high as you want with the number of violations, but typically we stop at three. So,

oh, so that just it's consistent with our other ones. Okay. Yes, I'm fine with that then. I think this is a good starting point. I do agree with other um what other individual has stated. I think we need to go further than this. Um but this is a good starting point. Okay, way down here, Miss Powell.

Thank you. Um, I want to thank the folks that came here u two weeks ago to speak. Um, as well as staff, uh, Tony from EDG. Uh, thanks to the retailers that are here, um, and were here, um, two weeks ago as well. Uh, I'm I'm in favor of moving forward with this. We we've been discussing this for a long time. the the sustainability commission has been discussing this for a long time, but I I do agree that there are some disparities here. Um I I look at this as a starting point. I think one of the u retailers uh gentleman from from Blaine's which right around the corner from me come to your store. Thank you. Um, I I think he brought up a a valid point that I mean, a plastic bag is a plastic bag. It doesn't matter if you get it from a grocery store, a um a a gas station, you get it from Blaines, or you get it from Target, it's still a plastic bag. And if the goal is to reduce plastic bag use, you know, why are we only targeting, you know, certain stores? I understand that this was crafted based off of the the state law that or the state, you know, the proposed legislation that hasn't passed probably at this point will never pass. Um I I understand that, but I I want this to be a starting point. I just want to make this very clear that I want to plan for how we phase folks that are left out of this into the mix. I think that's only fair and I think that accomplishes what we're

saying our true goal is to reduce plastic bag usage. Um I want to also address I think something that Mr. Laseno said about some of the companies not wanting to come and publicly speak. I I'll be honest, I'll just call BS on that because if you know, corporate America, if if something's really really a problem for them, they have no problem coming out and speaking whether it's locally at the state level with their lobbyists. If this is really a problem for them, they would let us know. Target let us know where they stood. So if this was really going to affect their operations negatively, you can best believe they would be at that podium right now. So I just wanted to make make that comment. Um, speaking of the uh information that you received from Target, I I'm open and and I would like to see us um incorporate what they've asked for. Um, I think it's a legitimate ask around the stitched versus non-stitched handle. Um, I I think that's important for us to look at and and I would like to um I want to hear what everyone else has to say, but if if we're going to move forward with adopting this, I would like to adopt it with that that caveat, that change. Um, question for staff. Will these bags be tax exempt or will people be required to pay tax on these?

So, okay. So, at the inerson checkout, there's no plastic bags. There's a 10 um at least a 10-centent fee on paper and then reusable bags, it's um up to the store and what they charge. But the I was saying with the the paper bags that 10 cent charge for the paper bags is that only 10 cents or is it 10 cents plus tax? I believe it's just 10 cents, but I can clarify clarify that and get back to you.

Okay. And I'll just say I, you know, I would I want if we're going to charge people this, I I want that to be that should be taxexempt. So, that's just one comment. Um, well, probably several comments obvious. Um, back to the folks that are exempt. Um, I I encourage us to reach out and be proactive and educate these exempted businesses um to potentially voluntarily participate um with the understanding that our plan is to eventually phase them in over time. I think that's only fair. Um, I don't see anything in here about measurement and assessment. And I I want to see how we're planning to measure the impact both um negative and positive over time so that we can make adjustments to this as necessary. And finally a gentleman got up and um talked about I think it was Paul. Hey you mentioned um access to delivery services you know and people those delivery services if you order something from Walmart or someone them bringing it in the same plastic bags that we're trying to ban. Does this ordinance prohibit that or no? So um carry out or order online pickup those bags are exempt. The way this is designed is to um ban or how it's written is to ban the in-person uh checkout bags with the thought that that's where you're going to have the most impact. So the ban removes the

plastic and then the 10-centent fee is the nudge to um get people to change their behavior. And so again, this is where the ordinance is starting and where they could have the biggest impact in changing behavior and um decreasing plastic waste.

Okay. Um again, I'll add that in the same list as we I I know this is a basis. This is a start. We need to phase that in. Um I'm I'm thinking in terms of probably the only time I really used delivery services was during co u for my mom. um who's a senior out of state and when they delivered um stuff to her, it was in the big reusable totes a lot of times. So, it doesn't have to be the reusable uh singleuse plastic bags. A lot of times it's the reusable big tote plastic um uh plastic bags or or the reusable um uh fabric bags and they just charge you for that along with your you know with your online purchase. So again, we've got all of these carveouts that I I agree with the retailers make this a little inequitable um and and a little problematic. Um, so I I am going to support this with the understanding that our goal is to close those gaps over time and and sooner rather than later because I think folks have made some um some valid arguments about why are we exempting snap purchases, why are we exempting small um some of the smaller stores? Why are we exempting delivery services? plastic bag use is plastic bag use. And my statement um at the last meeting talking about environmental uh racism and environmental justice, plastic bags more directly impact some of these very

folks that we're um we're trying to exempt from having to make better decisions. When I go when I went to Aldi's this weekend and I actually remembered to get my my reusable bag out of my trunk before I went in the store, I saw people that were, you know, using reusable bags or making whatever decision they needed to make in there that came and spoke at this meeting against it. How ironic. So, um I I'm I'm in favor of this and and I really want to thank you all for the work that you've been doing. Um but I just want to make it clear that this is not everything that needs to be done here.

Anything else down here? Mr. Dixon,

thank you. Uh I want to first say uh a specific thank you to the commission and not just the current commission but this has been a conversation going on for the better part of about a decade. So we're talking about multiple commissioners from this city who have volunteered their time over that over these years who have been pushing for this plastic bag ordinance. And um thank you specifically to all the folks who showed up here who spoke in favor of it from uh you know who are here Tom Armstrong to Tia to Vivian and Cheryl and all the work that you're doing in the subgroups. Paul was back there earlier to Gary as well and if I'm missing somebody it's you know charge it to my head not to my heart. Um but thank you for for the continued work that uh and advocacy that you've done. Um, you're the reason why we're here now. It's not because of the folks who's sitting up here. It's because of your work. Um, thank you to Kristen, city staff for doing the work of Yes, absolutely. All of you for doing the work over the years and and just give like, you know, just a quick timeline. We I think we probably first like officially had the conversation in 23, right? Something like that. 23 24, right? Um and there were a lot of questions and a lot more information that we needed to gather and so we essentially took a pause and we reathered oursself and solicited more feedback from the business community in that instance and also in this year. Thank you Tony um for helping u facilitate that. Um, I know that I personally took time to not just talk to community members, um, to meet with Kristen to talk about this in detail, uh, but also business owners too as well because I value getting all of the information and making a decision. And so I don't mean to bury the lead, uh, as

my colleague just said here, I am in support of this, but I'm also cognizant of the of the issues that were being raised by some of my colleagues because I would rather have a plastic ban, period. But I also understand we have to crawl before we before we walk. Um we have a climate action plan that lays out some of the things or many of the things that we actually could execute on. Um and my hope is that this is the start of accomplishing more of that action plan as we go forward here in the in the next few years. So, uh, with that being said, I do have a a question about, uh, so does staff currently, if this does pass, and I'm, you know, hearing that it it probably will, can you, um, talk to the public about what the action plan is for educating the community?

Sure. And this is high level and um I've talked a lot with Jessica about this and our new communications team. Um so should this move forward, we would take steps to develop a robust communication and engagement plan um geared towards uh communication with staff um leadership so it's clear on what is in this ordinance as well as obviously with retailers and the community. Um so there's components in the plan of making sure we're uh doing what we can to support our retailers in the roll out. Um from the survey responses, we have an idea of where um topics that we would want to educate the community on where maybe there's some misconceptions or themes that we'd want to emphasize in messaging. So we'd want to develop that um again should this be uh adopted. Um, and we would aim to have that uh start being implemented towards the end of the year, definitely by the beginning of 2027 where we really start ramping up um communications uh and take that beginning of the year to help the community prepare so that we're ready for the um June 1st effective date.

Okay. All right. Thank you. And I think that and we all would agree the education component is really really important. um and the timeline in which we do it with on. Um and then the June start date, June of 2027 start date, which you know hopefully will allow the retailers time to adjust as best as you can um to to all this. So both of those things are are very thoughtful um in the way that it's being brought. Um I do have a question. I kind of we we talked about this in the last meeting and I also we also talked about it after the meeting. So I'll just ask some of the same questions concerning the survey.

The survey re results um indicated that more people in the community were in against implementing um the ban um and I raised um a concern that the survey actually wasn't gated that you could take it as many times as possible um and so that could skew the numbers. Can you speak to that a little bit and you know probably just reiterate what what we discussed?

Sure. So, as you said, the survey was not locked, meaning that respondents could take um the survey from more than one time from the same device. Part of this is by design. Um if somebody's at home taking the survey, they could pass it to their roommate, spouse, you're out with your friends, you could um yeah, pass your phone on, they could take the survey. I did take a look at the data um looking at IP addresses and I did not see any patterns um of responses suggesting that individuals completed the survey multiple times in a way that would meaningfully impact the overall results. And I'll also say this is not a scientific study. This survey was to get a pulse of the community and get a better understanding of what the residents current viewpoints are. Um you know get a sense of what their concerns and questions are pertaining to this topic if that helps.

Okay. Yep. Thank you. I I I wanted you to tell us all of that because I was questioning, you know, how accurate it really was and so you went back and did the research and found that there were no patterns and so I thought it would just be fair to also um make sure that that's known and part of public record. So, um so thank you for that. Um, so yeah. So, so for me, um, I want to listen to the rest of my colleagues, but, um, I'll be voting in favor of this. Um, and, uh, now just sit back and wait to see what everyone else has to say. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else down this way?

Mr. Stefan, you started this 10 years ago, so I'm going to blame it all on you.

Well, I obviously I'm for it. I I've been pushing this for a long time. Um, but I want to start by thanking people, thanking staff. Bobby, thank you for coming downtown, sharing your numbers, your concerns. Um, and I could say a lot of things, but I think a lot of them have been said. I just want to say for me, as for many of the people up here, it's a first step. There's a lot of exemptions. There's a lot of customers that are exempt. There's a lot of businesses that are exempt. There's a lot of plastics that are exempt, styrofoam and others. I think all of those have to we have to address those. But it's a first step. I think it's a good one. Um and I I want to kind of end all my comments there and move to the education that's come up repeatedly both as a way to be in support of this, as a way to be against it. And I've got a challenge and an idea and I brought them with me. So, I'm going to give all this stuff to Kristen and Jessica at the end of this. Took me about a half an hour. And this is what I collected in my house and half an hour or less of reusable plastic bags that I have. But I suspect every house in this community has cuz every time you go to a conference, every time some of my housemates go to Aldi's, as you can see from the number of Aldi bags here, uh this is a sister-in-law from Alaska and she's back there so I can throw under the bus. She has not learned her lesson that you can't go to Aldi without bags because you're going to buy them or you're going to carry your stuff out in your arms. And so there's lots of Aldi bags here because she has not learned that yet coming from Alaska. But um I I it's a challenge. I'm putting it out to I've talked to Kristen about this. Put it out to the sustainability commission. Put it out to the people

here who are not on the sustainability commission. And you know who you are. Matter of fact, I've got somewhere here. I've got the bag from the wild ones from two weeks ago cuz I don't need it. I've got several in my car that I use. So the challenge is this. Let's make this community a bag using community. Let's not wait for the ordinance which isn't going to happen till 2027 as it's set up right now and the state isn't going to do anything till 2029. Let's make it an effort, coordinate an effort and use it as an chance to educate people. some of you that I know and I'm on that climate chat and see the emails, see the keyboard warriors want to send the latest study and prove that they know what how bad the situation is. And I get it is bad, but let's put the keyboards down and let's go out and try to get these bags out to people. Let's get the SNAP recipients. Let's get the TANF recipients, the people that are exempt, and let's get them all bags. And so everybody that shows up at Bobby's store, you know, his his concern, and I I get it, is it's going to cost him a ton of money for paper, but if every customer comes into a store with a reasonable bag, his customers aren't going to need any of those. And he can drive that expense down to next to nothing. That's the goal. So that's what I want to talk about is a challenge to educate the community and take everybody's extra plastic bags or reusable bags like the ones that I collected in about 20 minutes, half an hour at my house and repurpose those and get those out to people that need them so everybody has them and it works. So that's all I wanted to say. Thanks. I'll get those to you afterwards, Kristen. I'm sure you're going to want those in your office,

Mr. Mr. Thorne. I'm looking at you on television here. Would you like to say anything before we wrap this up?

Well, I thank you all for letting me be Zoom. I'm uh not feeling well at all after a hospital full day there yesterday. Um, you know, I I I know that many of my co-consel valued the input by the surveys and they've said that in the past that that's how they want to get answers and uh but in this case I guess that doesn't matter to them. Also, um I do know that as small as it might be, uh I did a little research just checking some things out and in cities that have done this, the uh sales of kitchen garbage bags went up incredible. So, I think we all know that we all do use them for other things. Uh, I just feel that the I know there's an environmental issue here. I just feel that our town uh the impact is so minimal. Um, I'm just not in favor of it.

Thank you. Mr. Ortiz, do you have anything to wish to say? Oh, no. Everything's been said. Um, I do think that we when we talked about this last year, I wanted a full ban and then we went the state route because we expected the state to do something so we could just mirror. But yeah, I'm I'm in favor of it and uh I do hope that we just ban everything through and through instead of making 53,000 exemptions to stuff. So, I guess I'm the last one. So, I'd like to call the question. Um, I have one I have a chance. My bad. I'll take that. I'll take the last

uh I'm going to support this uh I'm going to support this change and I call it a change because it's got to be a change in the responsibilities of the consumers of the city of Elgen and not the retailers. The consumers have to change. I concur with Mr. Stefen and I've been carrying bags in my trunk for a decade and uh got used to it. It's not a problem. you learn to live with it. And uh I would hope that we'd move beyond paper and paper is not the answer. Paper's not the paper bags are not the answer to this. Consumers and customers carrying the bags in their car and carrying them into the grocery store is an answer is the answer to this. Uh the one year or 15 months of uh time between the enactment of this will allow the state to act give them a chance to act. Now, I don't have a lot of confidence there. I listed three things that I've been involved in uh in my time on the city council. Uh police cameras, vaping, and hemp uh uh derivatives uh all were uh banned and uh were addressed by the city of Elgen before the state did. And now the state and federal government are moving in to change those things. I would anticipate that this will follow that path. I don't know when it's going to follow it. I don't um I don't know if it's going to be by 2027, but I think that the changes should be here and should start with the consumers in the city of Elgen. Start to do it in your own home and do it yourself for once. You know, retailers were not the responsible for me smoking cigarettes when I was uh 20 years old. They sold them to me, but they weren't the ones that caused me to do it, and I learned how to get rid of it at the end of the day. So, I encourage us to do it. I think it's going to take a opportunity from staff, from the council, and let's take the next year to make this an educational opportunity for uh the

community. I would also challenge some of the uh the uh uh retailers. It's an opportunity to advertise yourselves, start offering some bags. Uh there are discounts that are given as uh opportunities at grocery stores to save money. We're going to give you a discount on this or we're going to give you a discount on that. How about we're not going to give you a discount this week, but we're going to give you a bag with uh Fresh Market or Walmart on it and let that become something that you can carry into that store. Uh let's let's think let's think outside the box in the city of Elgen and let's move forward with this. And uh hopefully this is just a small uh uh hesitation and a step towards solving this problem. Plastics are going to be a big problem. I'm not looking at anybody that it's really going to affect too much unless you smother in one, but it's going to affect your children and your grandchildren. And let's start thinking about that and move this thing down the highway. Miss Powell, you had your chance. Uh, unless it's real quick and

we're going to call the vote. It's been an hour. I I realize that. Um, I just want to um file make a amendment to the motion to include the um the change in the type of bag I think as um proposed uh in the letter from Target as part of this ordinance and also um include that the paper bags that are purchased are indeed tax exempt. Second. That's not part of it. Second. Second. I second. I'm sorry. I had had a frog on my throat.

It's been moved and seconded to make the uh paper bags tax exempt and to allow for um non-stitched bags. That's the That's the motion. You want to amend the motion? Mr. Good.

Uh I just want to say uh I disagree with that. Um you know, this is a corporation that has inventory sitting on their shelves. We shouldn't be taking analysis of the commission for the quality of the bag and changing that based on inventory of target because that that's my at least without speaking to them they're not here today. My guess is the reason why they're asking for this is because they've already invested and they already have inventory and they're now asking us to to change our standards for what the bag is. If if you guys are interested, I have an example of the like glued bag versus a stitched bag. You want to see like quality. I'll check it out.

Yeah. And I'm familiar with those. That's why I I I don't support that.

So, if I could address your your concern, I I wasn't agreeing to that based on that. I have some some love for Target. Um I I was because I think it's a legitimate um ask. I have several of these bags as you know does Councilman Stefen at home. I use both of them. And again, if we want people to start making these transitions, I don't want us to put so many barriers on what type of bag that they're using. I mean, obviously, yes, you're you're not going to put a a gallon of milk in in this one, but this could suffice for a whole lot of other things that you buy at a grocery store. So, that was my that was my that was my only reason for for bringing that up. And that's a small one, but I mean, I just think that, you know, folks should have options.

Mr. Manager, Mr. Mayor, can you explain the purpose of this regulation? This doesn't regulate what consumers are bringing into the stores. This is what the retailers can make as available as a substitute and why you're recommending not approving the amendment. Correct. Consumers, they can bring whatever

vessel they want to bring in for a reusable bag. They could they're saving plastic bags. They could bring those in. Um this is what the store is providing for their customers. Um so again, as a customer, I could bring in a laundry basket. I could bring in a bag. I um I could bring in whatever I want to carry out my products. Um so the in looking into the request and looking at examples, the durability of bags that are glued together, um I don't think there's just questionability of how durable that is. And if we're looking to for the purpose of this, if we're looking to decrease waste, if you take a look at some of those examples, there's one bag that we feel like you'd want to use again and again, and another one that I feel like might just end up creating a new problem of a different material that people see as single use,

but these are bags that they can offer for sale, which anyone could offer any number of these because we I mean, as a consumer, I have a choice as to what I purchase. If if I'm purchasing a reusable bag at the store, I have a choice. So they may this wouldn't be exclusively what they offer. Correct.

Um so the current definition is it as it is right now is there's a stitched handle. It needs to be made um for long-term use. Needs to be able to carry 22 pounds and then be made of material that can be washed um or sanitized. Um, so I guess if you remove stitch, as long as it's meeting those criteria, that's, you know, it's up to you guys discretion. But again, doing research and looking at different bags, I believe the stitch is going to be um a longer term, a longer term

and bags that can be sewn. Um, if you look at some of the materials, it's still using plastic. So again, it kind of gets back into um for the purpose of this. I feel like the stitch shifts the behavior um to getting people to use reusable bags. Yeah. Okay, fair point. Um so I I'll amend my motion again to just making sure to adding that the paper bags are indeed tax exempt. Second. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded to amend the original motion. Correct. Now that we've amended the amended,

can we vote on the original? Okay. Who made the original motion? No, you made the original motion. I made the second. So he's seconding your second amendment now. The original was Dustin. Oh to the original one? Yeah. Well, we're asking amendment was the first amendment Cy. No. Well, who who made the original motion? Who's on second? You.

Second. Is that all I need to say? I agree with the amendment. I second it. Okay, good. Now we're back to just So, we're having a vote on the amendment to amend the proposed draft ordinance such that there would be no uh sales tax on the reusable or the on the paper bag fee. Yes. Clerk, please call the role. Council members Al Faro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, no. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne. Yes. Mayor Captain. Yes. The motion's approved. 81.

We did the That was the amendment. So now we need a vote on the actual ordinance. Actual ordinance. Now this is for the actual ordinance. Good. Clerk, please call the role. That was for the amendment to uh uh omit the sales tax. Council members Alfaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, no. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, no. Mayor Captain, yes. The motion is approved. 72. Okay. This time I'd enter mo entertain a motion to adjurnn the committee of the whole meeting. So,

it's moved in a second to adjourn the committee of the whole meeting. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain,

yes. We are adjourned. We'll reconvene at the regular council meeting at uh 8:15. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Doo doo doo doo doo.

Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

meeting for the Elgen City Council for February 25th, 2026 to order. Uh please join me in the pledge of allegiance of the standy andice.

Will clerk please call the role. Council member Alfaro present. Dixon present. Good. here. Martinez here. Ortiz here. Powell here. Stefan here. Thorne here. Mayor Captain here. Mr. Thorne has asked the uh city council to uh uh be allowed to uh participate uh with via Zoom. So moved. Second. Moved in a second to allow Mr. Thorne to participate remotely. Or please call the role. Council member Alfaro. Yes. Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefen. Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mayor Captain.

Yes. Motions approved. 90. Approval of the previous uh minutes of the previous meeting of February 11th. So moved. Second. Moved and second for approval. Any discussion, corrections, or additions? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zero. Yes. Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz? Yes. Powell? Yes. Stefan? Yes. Thorne? Yes. Mayor Captain. Yes. The motion is approved 90. Uh we have no communications this evening, but we have a few people signed up for public comment. First person to sign up is Elijah Stein.

Good evening. My name is Elijah Stein. I've lived in Elgen for about 10 years now. And I did have some stuff written here that I wanted to say, but I'm just going to go off the cuff here and just talk real for a minute. I've been seeing a lot of students do a bunch of walkouts lately, and the thing I want to say about that is good on you. Keep doing that. I I want to give a palpable reason as to why you should keep doing that and I'm not afraid to go personal on that fact. When I was in high school, I was the saludiatoran of the Larkin 2016 class. I had a 4.72 GPA and a 3.6 GPA in college. Don't think I am flexing that in any way. Reason I say that is because despite all of that and all of the experience that I've had in various different careers and positions, it is still just as hard for me to find a position. And when I do, it is very underpaying and very brutal as to the things that they ask for. The reason I'm saying why you should keep doing the walkouts is because you as students have the capacity, the time, and the right to do it. We all know you're smarter than the media likes to make you out to be. We know that you know what's going on. And seeing you guys walking out there standing up for a movement, it's absolutely beautiful. Can't can't deny that in any way. Want to see more of that. Just constantly stand up for what it is that's happening around you. This is your life, too. This is your community. And oftent times the media and other people around you like to silence your voice. you have a voice too in this. So, want to make sure that that's said. As far as the people who are representing us in Congress, I would also like to say, please start doing that because all of the people here are

still having to deal with all of the repercussions of different things that have been going on because of your decisions. And especially I'm looking at you. Uh I'm looking at you. What? What even is your name? Served for how many years and I still don't know your name? Yeah. Bill Foster. You know the one who voted for the temporary funding bill for ICE, who gave them 11 billion. Meanwhile, people on your streets are starving, are cold, are hungry, and your citizens are getting taken away. If you want to know what I think about that, you can swallow my soilinfested rectum.

And I don't have anything to say about that. No shame about it. We all know it's and you should start doing your jobs and serving us. Thank you. Delani.

Hello community members. Hello everybody that's not happy to see me except for a few. I want to talk about the welcoming ordinance. Um it's not about legal status. It's not about proper documentation. It's about minorities and our rights. Uh the lack of rights, I should say. Many people are being hunted. My people, all minorities, they're being hunted. Uh they're being kidnapped. They're being put in concentration camps. Kids are missing. Um and they're here with asylum. They're here with visas. They're US citizens. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day if you're here like with proper documentation or not to be honest with you. We have human rights. Um, let's see here. It's inhumane what's going on with our corrupt system and our government and what they're doing. I want to remind you all that if you're silent, you're being complicit. Okay? You would have been the same people looking away when the Nazi pigs kidnapped and killed Jewish families in the 1940s. That's you right now if you're being quiet. That's shameful, disgusting, and an accurate representation of what our country is right now. To be honest with you, it's oppression. oppression for anybody that's not white. Okay, the council city members that are minorities and are up here, you got to do more for us. Elections are coming up. We see you. Uh we're watching what you do. One of you hit a car at a church for Renee Goods Memorial. We saw that, too. You didn't do anything about it. You drove away. Um you know, you can help us now or you can wait until we vote you out. I also want to piggyback on what a lovely lady said about more of our tax uh money coming back to us because it's true. Us, the residents, we're the ones that are taking care of our community. We're the ones that are out there helping families, delivering food, giving rides. Nobody asked us to do this. We want to

do this because we care about our community and our people. Not just minorities, everybody. Let's see here. Um, this system loves to help the rich. I heard it earlier from the mayor. This isn't on uh retailers. This is on us as a community. This is on our people. Excuse me. The retailers are already rich. We're already struggling to make ends meet. What are you talking about? Yeah. Let's see. I also want to add my two cents about the single-use bag band. Um, reusable bags are not that hard. It's really not that big of a deal. You know, help retailers provide some of those to us and we'll do the rest. We can also get some, too. Third world countries use reusable bags. It's very common in a lot of places to grab a bag, go get your groceries, and go right back home. It's not a big deal. You guys said you have it, too. But you guys have more money than us. I also want to admit, let's see here. 75% of this uh community is Hispanic and we're used to working. So carrying plastic bags is not going to be an issue or carrying reusable bags is not going to be an issue. The last thing I want to say really quick is protesting. Kids protesting. It's very separated right now what people think. Some people are all for it. Some people are not. We should be allowing our kids to protest. They have rights too. We should be supporting them. we should do be doing something to make sure that they're safe while they're doing it. It wasn't here, but it was in other places where kids were attacked by adults. That's not okay. It really isn't. If it was your guys' kids, it would be different. But since it's not, you're showing very little interest in it. The guy with the hat, I love everything you said. Absolutely. I'm behind you. You care more about us as a community than the people we voted in and are going to vote out. I guess that's all I have time for.

Thank you, Linda Ramirez.

Good evening. I have to raise mine. Thank you, city mayor and city council. My name is Linda Ramirez and I am a board member of the Elgen, one of Elgid's newest tax exempt nonprofit called Borikqua Unido the Elgen. Borikqua comes from Borikin which is what the indigenous Tyino Indians call Puerto Rico and it means land of valiant warrior. Elgen is home to over 3,500 Puerto Ricans and was home to its first Puerto Rican group in 1992. After 12 years, we're back. And we envision a future when Puerto Rican heritage is proudly celebrated, deeply understood, and passed across generations by uniting families, strengthening communities, and empowering all people to thrive through shared culture, dignity, and pride. I and my fellow board members behind me. Uh we trust we um sorry we trust that we have your support. We invite you to invite you to learn more about thousands of Elgenites that carry the island of Enchman in their hearts and look forward to seeing you at our festival on August 1st. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Susanna Padilla. Hi again. Um, I want to congratulate you on actually passing for the plastic uh ordinance. I learned that it's been 10 years and I just hope that um and looking at this it was I think we had about over an hour discussion over plastic bags and then I learned that it was over 10 years to do this good change. I just hope that it doesn't take that for human life human rights I think even though it's important environment but what you have heard today and what I have learned of what's happening for um fathers in prison you know side by side and the waters and the itching and that is not right so I just hope that you give a little bit more um I guess fast decision into a yes for human rights for mothers that I am grateful that I am able to have my daughter homeschooled where others cannot because they need to work but always working in fear making sure that they are going to be home for their kids and like I said before now the kids worrying about their parents to make sure when they come home from school that their parents are there. Please a yes. You're doing it already as we said and we had a meeting with you, but let's make it bold. Let's make it where the

community, feels it. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy Bernage. Nancy Bernage. She's still here. Milani. Okay.

Danielle Waha. Some of those were pretty uh difficult to come after. Mine is a kind of in a a different area. But I am Danielle Laha and I work at Association for Individual Development or AID. We serve individuals with mental health and developmental disability challenges. And I'm spec specifically here tonight simply to say that we are in support of the petition 01-26 in regards to the murals. Um, as you may or may not have seen, we have a beautiful handpainted mural on one of our buildings. um our 74 unit affordable housing project that supports individuals with mental health and developmental disabilities. So, I just wanted to come and voice our support for that um petition.

Okay, thank you. Okay, that brings us to bids. The we have one bid this evening. Uh the item is Delta Scientific uh 5,000 mobile crash barriers, a a group uh purchasing cooperative. Move toward the bid to Delta Scientific Corporation MP5000 mobile crash barrier barricades in the amount of 142,697. Second. Been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Mr. Ortiz.

Uh, I just have one. Um, last year when we put these on River Bluff Road or Riverside Drive, my bad, and Grove, the asphalt wasn't cut out when we dropped them. So, a lot of people when they were hitting them, they weren't expecting to go flying in the air. Are we dropping the barriers this year or at least cutting some of the asphalts out so they could be somewhat uh flush with the surface?

I'm not aware of anybody flying through the air, but I know that they were causing disruptions in the roadway. So, sorry. Yes, we are making curb cut or we're making street cuts, pavement cuts that will occur every season to drop those down so that the base of the barrier is flush with the pavement. They will be removed in the winter. The asphalt will be repaired and we will continue with that with that driving surface. But I um I wasn't through the air, but I did experience the troubles that you're talking about. It felt like the shock towers were going up through the roof. It was it was something that we needed to um to identify a little bit further in the process and we are making that remediation in this instance. All right. Sometimes it was worse driving than driving down a walnut going over one of those things. Same thing. Fair enough.

All right, that's it. Thank you. Anything else? Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 90. Uh, brings us to uh other business. First item is consideration of petitions 35-25 and 50-257 Clock Tower Plaza, an amendment to the plan development and conditional use to establish an entertainment venue as part of an existing restaurant. Mr. Malot,

thank you, Mr. Mayor. The subject tenant space is located within the Clock Tower Shopping Center, which is located on the south side of National Street and at the end of South Grove Avenue. Here is National Street and this is Grove. This is the Grand Victoria Casino, U46 Planetarium. These are the Rivers Landing Apartments. Here is a Butra Market grocery store. And this is the National Street Metro Station. Kasalara requests approval to establish an entertainment venue as part of the existing restaurant. Kasalara opened in 2014 as a restaurant and bar and has been hosting music concerts and live entertainment. This application would provide the necessary zoning approval for the music concerts and live entertainment. The restaurant fronts the southern end of the parking lot and occupies only about 6,100 square ft of the more than 85,000 square ft of space in the southern leg of the L-shaped commercial building. Performances are expected to include live bands, mariachi, karaoke, and recorded music concerts from the distinct stage area. Kasalar is open from 8:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and from 8:00 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Businesses closed on Tuesday. While limited food would continue to be served, the facility would transition operations to an entertainment venue from 9:00 p.m. to 2 am on Fridays and Saturdays. The shopping center is fully occupied and has a substantially underutilized parking lot with 584 parking spaces that are shared by all tenants. The applicant is present. Should you have any questions, staff in the planning and zoning commission recommend approval subject to conditions outlined within your packet.

Move for approval or subjects. Second. It's been moved and second for approval, subject to conditions. Any questions for Mr. Matto or the petitioners are here as well. Looks good. Mr. Mr. Dixon. Yeah. Not so much of a question. Uh I just want to say congratulations uh on uh similar concept. Not the same thing, you know. So um you know, long established um uh place of business and and shout out to Councilwoman Al Faro for working on and getting this uh helping you guys get this through and and certainly city staff and things of that nature. So, uh, congratulations and best of luck. I'll definitely be down there. All right. See you there.

Well, thank you anytime. Okay. Anything else? Clerk, please call the roll. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motions approved 90. Congratulations. Good luck. Item two is consideration of petitions 44-25 and 45-25 601 South Randall Road. An amendment to the plan development conditional use to establish a restaurant with a banquet hall with an existing within an existing commercial building. Mr. Malot,

thank you, Mr. Mayor. This 2.9 acre property is located along the east side of Randall Road, north of Spartan Drive at the north end of the shopping center anchored by Blaine's Farm and Fleet. Here is Randall Road and this is Spartan Drive. This is Farm and Fleet Planet Fitness and this is Bank of America. The applicant requests approval to make interior and exterior changes to the former Golden Corral restaurant which closed last fall. The applicant proposes to open a full service Indian restaurant and banquet hall in the vacant 11,000 square foot building. The facility would include two banquet room banquet rooms, excuse me, for various types of events such as weddings, private parties, fundraisers, and community social events. The restaurant will be open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. whereas events may go to 11:00 p.m. mostly on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The facility is required to have 197 parking spaces, but only 166 parking spaces are located formally on the subject property. The applicant is finalizing the details of an agreement with adjacent owners for the shared use of all parking spaces. The entire shopping center has 960 parking spaces, including those on the subject property, whereas only 871 spaces are required. The applicant is present. Should you have any questions, staff and the planning and zoning commission recommend approval subject the conditions outlined within your packet.

Move approval. Second. It's been moved and seconded for approval. Subject to conditions. Any discussion, Miss Martinez? Thank you, mayor. Uh, is the owners are they here? I believe they are. Yep. Um, no, I just wanted to make a comment. Uh, I wanted to thank you for opening this up. I understand that you were the previous owner of the Golden Corral. Yeah. Thank you very much because you could have gone anywhere else, but um I think it's really nice how you are reusing it and doing something and I wish you luck. Anything else? Please call the role. I'm sorry, Miss Paul.

Yes. Thank you. Um I also want to thank the owners for for bringing something new to Elgen. Um looking forward to this and I I really like the design. So uh again, thanks for staying here um and your continued investment in our community and looking forward to uh to patronizing it. Okay. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro. Yes. Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefan. Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mir Captain.

Yes. Motion's approved. 90. Congratulations. Just item three is consideration of petition 32-25 850 North Grove Avenue. A plan development as a map amendment to cons to cons for construction of a new school district U46 public elementary school. Mr. from a lot.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This 9 acre property is the block bounded by Slate Avenue on the north, Grove Avenue on the east, and Lincoln Street on the south. Here is Slade. This is Grove and this is Lincoln. This is the Slate Avenue Park and Slade Avenue pumping station. This is the former Sherman Hospital property. This is the Riverside Club. And this is the Fox River Water Reclamation District's North Plant. School District U46 requests approval of a new public elementary school on the site of the former DC Cook Publishing Factory. The vacant 145,000 square foot building would be demolished. The new twostory 88,000T elementary school. It is designed to accommodate up to 680 students in preK through fifth grades, although U46 only expects about 450 students when the school first opens. The new building has a mostly masonry and glass exterior with a sawtooth roof inspired by the existing DC Cook building. The new building is located in the center of the site. Generally, staff and visitor parking lots are located southeast and north of the building, respectively, with outdoor playgrounds and playfields located west and southwest of the building. The main vehicular access to the property for the north parking lot is located on Grove directly opposite and as an extension of Slate Avenue. A second ingresson access on Grove is the entrance for school bus drop off and pickup lane with an exit only driveway to Lincoln. These latter two driveways also serve the southeast parking lot. The amount of on-site parking meets the zoning ordinance requirement. The plan saves the 44in oak tree in front of the building along Grove, two other mature trees at the southeast corner of the site, and many parkway trees. 81 new trees would also be planted. U46 submitted a traffic study for the new school, which is largely based on traffic and parking observations during drop off and pickup times at McKinley. The school start and dismissal times will remain unchanged from 8:20 a.m. and 2:40 p.m. respectively, which were then

extrapolated for the maximum attendance at the new school. The parent drop off and pickup line is designed to occur in the north parking lot with a capacity for up to 69 cars, while only 66 vehicles are expected should the school reach full enrollment. The maximum number of vehicles queued counted at McKinley, both parked and in the student pickup lane, was 39 vehicles. The bus lane provides stacking space for eight buses. U46 will install highly visible crosswalks at the intersection of Grove and the north parking lot entrance and at Grove and Lincoln. U46 will also implement a traffic management plan during sturden drop off and pickup times with crossing guards at the Grove Avenue intersections and additional staff stationed in a north parking lot to facilitate drop off and pickup operations by managing the carline progression spacing between vehicles and the crossing of pedestrians within the parking lot. U46 will be extending the sidewalk along Lincoln Avenue west to connect to the Fox River Bike Trail. The school district held several meetings with Nenina leadership and general membership, the last of which was in October of 2025. The school district would like to start demolition this summer and open the school in August of 2028. The applicant is present. Should you have any questions, staff in the planning and zoning commission recommend approval subject to conditions outlined within your packet.

Move for approval subject to conditions. It's been moved and seconded for approval subject to conditions. Uh any questions for the some of the petitioners are here or any questions for Mr. a lot. Mr. O Faro, I just have a procedural question for staff. So, in the materials, it indicated that four-way stops will be um included in different locations. Um it says that the school district will be putting those stop signs up. Yes, ma'am. Um I'm just curious why the school district is putting them and not like our public works. Well, it's part it's part of their project and so in the coordination with our public works department.

Okay. So, they're going to be chatting. I just want Absolutely. Okay. I just want Yes, ma'am. Okay. Okay. Anything else, Mr. Ste?

I a couple things. Um, first of all, I've, as somebody who lives in this neighborhood, I've been to these meetings and part of these meetings and I've met with Brian and I think Dr. Williams has been at some of our meetings. Um, appreciate all the work. I had a couple questions uh, and a comment. I I'm glad to hear that there's going to be some anticipation of wrinkles and things that are going to happen when you put a new school in in a new neighborhood and traffic and who knows what's going to happen. So, I'm glad that there's going to be some anticipation and some staff and other people out to kind of deal with what comes of that. The question I had in looking at the transcript and and and the maps, everything is the deadend streets down to the river on either side, Lincoln on the south side and Slate on the north side. Um I think it came up in the in the hearing at the planning and zoning commission that the Lincoln Street, particularly that block down to McBride, is in really bad shape. And on the other side on slate, slate is only about 2/ird built. It doesn't have any curbs or swails.

Um there's no sidewalks. So, I'm just wondering what's going to happen with those two streets. Um are they going to be repaved or built up? And if so, when? Sure.

Uh so, let's start with Lincoln. Uh that one receives school buses that Let's see if I can go back here to a site plan. There we go. There we go. Lincoln is on the left hand side of your image there. you'll see the bus lane exits there. Uh so I've communicated with public services director Mike Pubans who says that there is anticipated road work in this area and they will evaluate the quality of both Lincoln and Slate as part of that greater work. Obviously there's no desire to do anything right of way especially considering there's going to be construction and construction trucks going on. Uh but considering that there is anticipated work, they'll make sure that if uh Lincoln does rise to the level of of of needing it as compared to all other streets that it'll it'll receive the appropriate attention. Uh U46 as part of their project will extend the curb on the north side of Lincoln down as well as the sidewalk and connect into the to the bike trail.

Great. Thank you. And and then anything with Slade because I know that street center uh same but at least at least with Slade there's no anticipated uh vehicles or buses or anything like going to Slade. So in as much as you'll have north south movement up and down Grove all the sidewalks are there. Right. Okay. Thank you. Those are my questions. Okay. Anything else? Miss Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor. I would just like to thank you 46 for everything that it's doing. and I call it beautifying Elgen, you know. Um you went ahead and you um renovated Memorial Field, the welcoming center with um the smaller parking bus section there, uh the school on Ror and and Bod, the expansion of Kimble Middle School, the new football field, and now this. So, thank you very much. which we just issued a permit for by the way for the new stadium on Lurin. So, Miss Paul,

just want to say congratulations to you 46 and staff that's here. Uh the the renderings of the new school um are are really impressive. I'm looking forward to uh seeing this this property uh be reused in a way that is not only going to be uh conducive to the neighborhood but uh helpful for our entire community. So, um thank you for for the continued reinvestment and definitely looking forward to uh the groundbreaking and opening of this facility. Okay. Anything else from the council? Okay, we have a motion. Clerk, please call the role.

Steve wanted to make a comment. Oh, I'm sorry, M. I'm sorry. I didn't see your hand up. Forgot about you. I'm sorry. Besides all the other thank yous, which I agree with, I want to just chime in and say that it was nice that it was noted that the famed 250y old oak tree will be saved. Thanks. Okay. Clerk, please call the RO. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor, Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 90-0. Congratulations. Good luck. Get that shovel back out.

Okay. Next item is uh uh consideration of a petition. uh consideration of petition 01-26 zoning ordinance text amendment to allow mural signs in the end neighborhood business district and community facility districts. Mr. Mal.

Uh thank you Mr. Mayor. Uh staff has prepared and is recommending approval of an amendment to the text of the zoning ordinance that would allow property owners in the NB neighborhood business and CF community facility zoning district to put a mural on their building. Murals are currently allowed only in the CC1 and CC2 center city districts and the AB area business district. This zoning map shows the city divided into its zoning districts. The CC1 and CC2 districts are downtown and the AB districts are generally along busy arterial streets. NB districts, those in the light pink and somewhat infrequent are generally applied along the edges of our neighborhoods and commercial streets like Dundee, Liberty Villa, Larkin and Mlan or intersections surrounded by established neighborhoods like at National Street and State Street and others. The purpose of the NB zoning districts to provide for commercial areas that supply daily convenience commodities and services to neighborhood populations. CF districts, those in green and appearing to be much more substantial in number, typically include governmental buildings, park and recreation facilities, schools, and religious institutions. But when you start backing out the amount of green on the map that's owned by local governments or taxing districts, it's nearly not so numerous. Quickly, let's knock out these larger properties. Bluff City Cemetery and Bluff Spring Fen, Elgen Sports Complex, Highland Golf Course, State Mental Health Property, Elgen Community College, City Neighborhood Parks for Kain County Open Space within residential neighborhoods, Hawthorne Hills Park, Larkin High School, Eagle Bernage Park, Wing Park, Judson University, Trout Park, Cobbler's Crossing Lake, Lords Park, the city downtown municipal buildings and riverfront, and Elgen High School. Other big holdings that are not local governments, but certainly large public institutions include St. Joseph Hospital, Harvest Bible and Westminster Presbyterian Church, and Advocate Sherman Hospital. No other changes are proposed to the mural regulations. Buildings can have one mural. Murals cannot cover major architectural features such as doors, exits, and windows, and murals cannot include more than 3% text. You may recall that the city most recently amended the mural

regulations in December, adding the AB area business district as a zoning district in which murals allowed. ER center on Larkin has expressed interest in putting mural on their building this spring. During the presentation of the text amendment to city council, council member Martinez let me know that the American Legion Posts 57 at 820 North Liberty Street has long wanted to put a mural on their Chester Avenue side of their building facing the property formerly occupied by Simpson Electric. The American Legion is zoned NB. Also, since that presentation, it was discovered that the graphic at Wildwood Commons building at the Association for Individual Developments campus on State Street was painted directly on the building when it was intended to be painted onto panels, which would then be attached to the exterior of the building. This distinction, while not readily apparent to most passers by, changes the zoning classification of the graphic from a wall graphic that was approved in their plan development to a mural, which was not currently allowed in the CF district. This amendment would bring Wildwood Commons into compliance. Obviously, Council Member Martinez is here. Did you have any questions? As was Daniel Laa, associate vice president with aid, but I believe she may have left. Staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend approval of the amendment.

Move approval. Second. It's been moved and second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro? Yes. Dixon? Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Abstain. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefen. Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mayor Captain. Motions approved. 80 with one extension. Item five is a resolution authorizing execution of a purchase of service agreement with Henry Shine Incorporated for the purchase of EMS training mannequins. Move for approval. Second.

Moved. Second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call a roll. Council member Alfaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefen, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motions approved. 90. Item six is a resolution authorizing execution of a change order number one and final with Everlast Blacktop Incorporated for 2025 various East Side Streets resurfacing bid number 25-038. So moved. Second. Second. Moved and second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the RO. Council member Zaro? Yes. Dixon? Yes.

Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz? Yes. Powell? Yes. Stefan? Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mayor Captain. Yes. Motion's approved 90. Item seven is an ordinance amending a an ordinance amending ordinance number G59-25 establishing fees for various city services, permits, licenses, and use of facilities and other matters. Move for approval. Second. Moved and second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the role. Council members Alfaro. Yes. Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefan. Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mayor Captain.

Yes. The motion's approved. 90. Consent agenda. Move for approval. Second. Moved and second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Alfaro? Yes. Dixon? Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz? Yes. Powell? Yes. Stefan? Yes. Thorne? Yes. Mayor Captain? Yes. Motions approved. 90 miscellaneous business. Move for approval. Second. Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion? Mr. Mark Alaro.

I just wanted uh in reading the miscellaneous um business, specifically the cultural arts commission. I just want to thank council member Pal who was requesting during the meeting in the minutes to be more inclusive to diverse demographics. And so bringing a movie for Black History Month, bringing a movie for pride, um talking about culture, cultural and within arts. And so I appreciate you being having those conversation of inclusivity in the culture arts commission. Okay. Anything else? Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne,

yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motions approved. 90-0. Announcements. The next committee of the whole meeting will be Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the city council chambers. The next regular meeting of the Elgen City Council will be Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers. I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. Back to the committee of the whole. So moved. Second. Moved and second to adjurnn. Clerk, please call the role. Council members Alfaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefen, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. We are adjourned. Entertain a motion to reconvene. Second.

Moved and seconded to reconvene. Please call a role. Council members Alfaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Uh, Mr. manager. I believe we're on uh item E.

Agreed. Mayor, this is an agreement with 120 water to continue the city's current agreement for water pitcher filter distribution and water sampling. This continues the use where the city will be providing uh filters with certification for both ANE and NSF42 class one particulate lead reduction and ANC NSF-53 lead reduction. Uh the leaden sample kits will provide three bottles to collect an initial draw sample, two-minute flush sample, and a fiveminute flush sample. And an additional program is being added to this year that will fulfill the federal requirement that residents be offered testing within 3 to 6 months following lead service line replacements at their residences. Move for approval. Second. Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion

hearing? None. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zarro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefen. Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mir Captain. Yes. Motions approved. 90.

Item F is a recreation services agreement with the Midwest Academy of Taekwondo. Uh Midwest Academy has been providing instruction at the Edward Chox Center of Elgen since 2020. The sustained presence has established the Taekwondo program as a well attended and valued component of the cent's recreation portfolio. proving this agreement for 2026 is necessary to continue offering the program. Uh because of its success and participation levels, uh compensation to Midwest Academy Taekwondo is expected to exceed the $25,000 procurement threshold. Supporting this partnership preserves the program quality, maintains cost efficiency, and sustains a proven service model that benefits both residents in the city. Move approval. Second. It's

been moved and second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Crook, please call the role. Council member Zelf Faro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Or Martiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. The motion is approved. 90.

Item G is property tax abatement for the 2026 adopted budget. The city annually prepares property tax abatement ordinances that remove from the annual property tax extension. Those debt payments relating to general obligation bonds issued to finance enterprise fund capital improvements which typically relate to water and sewer. The city makes payment on the bonds from the utility fees paid by water and sewer user users. So the tax abatement ordinance are enacted to prevent property taxes from being used to service those water and sewer line improvements. Move approval. Second. Second. Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion? So far,

I just want to um and city manager, please correct me if I'm wrong. So, this doesn't in include a property tax increase. What it's doing is um providing us an opportunity to get a loan at a lower interest rate because we're letting them know if the re if we can't pay, we will be able to pay them back by a future tax. So there is no property tax increase with this and yes what you're referring to the city and we'll have this in the next in the next initiative on the agenda. The city issues general obligation bonds rather than revenue bonds because we can typically get a lower interest rate on that because general obligation bonds require the city to commit to raising property taxes to make payments on those. We have to file a levy every year to make that commitment to the lenders. But when we know that we're going to be using those general obligation bonds for water and sewer improvements, we pull back the amount of those that are going to be funded by the water and sewer fees.

Okay. And that's what's happening in this abatement. Thank you. Mhm. Anything else? Okay. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefen, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motions approved. 90.

Item H is a sale of general obligation corporate purpose bonds to finance utility fund projects. This is a uh issuance of bonds up to just short of $27 million. The 2026 adopted budget approved issuing debt in the amount of $40.6 million. Um in this instance, that $40.6 million um has been reduced by $13.6 6 million in loan assistance that the city will be receiving from the IEPA. Um, so that is the reason the 40.6 that was contemplated in the budget is being reduced to $27 million because of the city's ability to get more favorable loans through the APA program. Um, the general obligation corporate bonds, the plan is to again seek the sale of these bonds um during the last week of March. Excuse me. Um, no, during the first week of during the during the last week of April or the middle of April and it's expected that with current market rates, the city will be paying interest on these in the range of about 4%.

Move for approval. Second. Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion, Mr. Ste? Just just looking forward. I think we get an email just an update and I think it the timeline says sometime in April we're going to get the rating that we get. It's always somewhat good news for a city our size and our struggles but it's good. So I'm looking forward to that.

Agreed. And and for some of the uh current debt that we have, I was speaking to the chief financial officer today Fitch Ratings. They will also review even when the city doesn't go out to sale. There are existing uh debts that the city is making payment on and Fitch affirmed the double uh the double A+ stable rating for some of the existing debt and we expect to see something similar from that for standard importers in this instance. Thanks council member. Okay. Anything else? Please call the role. Council member Zaro. Yes. Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz? Yes. Powell? Yes. Stefen? Yes. Thorne? Yes. Mayor Captain. Yes. Motion's approved. 90.

Item I is public improvements and easement acceptance for the development at 1425 Gford Road. This is an industrial development that was required to uh construct a sidewalk as part of its redevelopment. A portion of that public sidewalk is located within a city easement and the city staff is recommending that the sidewalk be constructed over that easement to avoid existing utility infrastructure and to ensure the sidewalk alignment provides a safe ADA accessible route. So in this instance, we're asking for acceptance of the easement that allows the city to access the sidewalk constructed on the private property and also to accept a storm water management easement that allows the city to enter on the private property to maintain the detention system in the event that the property owner doesn't do so.

So moved. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? I'm so far. So if I was a private property owner contacted? Yes. Okay. Because it says interested persons and there's none. So I just wanted to make sure. Okay. Yes. Okay. I have nothing further. Okay. Anything else? Clerk, please call the role. Council members Alaro? Yes. Dixon, yes. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell? Yes. Stefen? Yes. Thorne? Yes. Mayor Captain? Yes. The motion's approved 9 and0.

Item J is acceptance of public improvements in the Highland Woods subdivision neighborhoods G and I. This subdivision was platted in 2019 and comprised of single family homes with three public roads. Crown Community Development has completed the installation and punch list of all infrastructure items and is requesting acceptance by the city. With this acceptance, the city will be taking ownership and maintenance of streets, sidewalks, water manes, sanitary sewers, storm stores, street lights, street signs, and parkway trees. Move approval. Second. Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Cler, please call the role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell,

yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain. Yes. Motion's approved. 90.

Item K is change order number one for a job order contract relating to the Heman South Temporary Drive storm sewer repair work. As part of the recent Hemen's Cultural Center renovations, sections of damaged storm sewer pipe designed to remove storm water from the Heman site were encountered. To eliminate any flooding concerns in the future, the city issued a contract for sewer repairs as well as additional underground utility location and mapping. Review of the existing utility mapping was used to determine the project scope. But as construction proceeded, several unmapped and conflicting utility lines were discovered. These utility conflicts required project revision, including structure adjustments, pipe upsizing, and additional soil excavation. This change order reflects the additional costs for the construction revisions, the completion of which will allow for proper storm surrainage and provide accurate utility mapping for the hemens. Uh, also we'll be preparing the site for pending permanent driveway installation. Again, pending the approval of this additional work. Move

for approval. Second. Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Please call the role. Council member Alaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain,

yes. Motion's approved. 90. Uh the final item L is a discussion on adopting an ordinance to support and foster inclusivity and diversity within the city of Elgen. Council member Dixon with council member Al Farro as his second is requesting this item to discuss the adoption of a proposed ordinance that will codify existing policies on local cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement. uh creates a municipal ID program, addresses language access, provides for the future development of an inclusive procurement plan, and establishes an immigrant legal defense fund. Move for approval. Second. Second. It's been moved and second for approval, but this is just a discussion. Go ahead,

Mr. Mr. Dixon.

Yep. Thank you. Um I I just want to first just start off by thanking the community members who showed up and spoke out tonight. really appreciate it and all the energy and synergy. I mean, between that and the plastic bag ordinance and mentioning both when you spoke, really really appreciate it. Um, also thank you to staff and specifically uh Chris, our corporate council, for writing uh an excellent draft uh ordinance and working really hard and taking our feedback and uh and and really working. And so, um, so I just appreciate the community and for our corporate council for taking as much time as he did, um, in crafting that ordinance. And of course, um, Councilwoman Al Faro um, for working with me, um, us working together and the community groups that we've met with and all the people that we've talked to, um, those four, those not for, I appreciate all the conversations that we've had thus far. So, uh, what I'm going to just attempt to do is just give a broad overview of, uh, not the ordinance itself because we're just going to discuss it, but I just want to hit some things that I that I think are important. Um, as far as timeline, uh, is concerned. So, um, you may or may not know that we first started this conversation in December, early December. And so it is taking us now to, you know, second week in uh February to actually discuss a tangible ordinance. And so just know there's been a lot of work by staff and council members um to get it to that point. And while I'm on the subject of of council members, this is a collection of not just things that we've heard uh from the community or from city staff even um or that we've

come up with, but this is this is actually a reflection of nearly every council member uh has put in something into into this ordinance. So this is a wide body of work that is representative of in some way of all of us and not just a couple of us because we're the ones bringing it forward.

Um this is the draft 2.0 is is what I like to call it. So um as you know um we we did not discuss it when we originally planned meeting before last. So, we ended up moving it back a couple of weeks. Um, we received a draft. Uh, that draft did not uh there was some things that still needed to be worked on, some things that still needed to be changed, added into um and so corporate staff, corporate council um got to work and started working on those things. Uh but uh Diana and I, Councilwoman Alfaro and I uh took the path of let's go and start talking to the community about the ordinance since we're already, you know, delayed in doing in getting to that point in doing so. Um so we went and solicited your feedback as we were as it was actually being worked on with all the things that we eventually got into the ordinance, which was 2.0, O, which is what the community now has, which is what the city council received, the rest of the city council received on this past Friday. Um, so um so we normally receive our packet information for the previous for the next week on the Friday afternoon evening uh before the city council meeting. And so this was in accordance with that. Um so just to you know also just hit on a couple of a couple other things. Um you know this this piece of code codifies some things that we are already doing as a as a municipality. Um it brings up things like the Voices Act um and some other acts uh from the from the state level and we're essentially adopting a

lot of that language uh and codifying some of the things that we're already doing as a municipality. Um and I just want to point out that as a municipality uh inside of the state of Illinois, we often times adopt language from the state level. um or even take it a little step further. We adopt it or we uh we may adopt it, but we may drill it down to where it it specifically is speaking to this community. And so that is a lot of what this ordinance uh is. Um, there are some some items on here that um I just want to be really clear and I've had multiple conversations with with council members and community members. There's nothing in this ordinance that's going to stop ICE. Nothing. We could pass this tonight or another day and it's not going to stop ICE. They can totally disregard it and do whatever it is that they want. So, I just want to be clear about what our restrictions are. I wish we could do something to stop ICE from coming in into this community. Okay? But this piece of code and no other code that we currently know even exists or could even be available is ever going to do that. So I just want to be clear as we're doing things in support of our immigrant comm of our immigrant community. It's not for us. It's not about stopping ICE in my mind. It's about supporting our community members, our neighbors, and doing everything that we can within our power to give that support to so that we can let the community know that we hear you.

We don't like what's happening and we're going to do everything we possibly can um to support you. uh because for me personally and I know a lot of my colleagues feel like this we're nothing but a muse in reflection amuse for which we are representing the community. So the things that you want we try to represent or at least I try to represent and make sure that I'm speaking and advocating on behalf of um I'm obviously a black man so I'm sensitive to the plight of government's oppression and things of that nature because of the history of black people in this country. So, um, I'm not just going to advocate for black people, though, right? I have to advocate for Latino people, for Hispanic people, for Asian people, for Native Americans, for any other oppressed group. Um, even if you are not a part of an oppressed group, but you are being oppressed, it's still my job to advocate for you.

And it was beautiful. It all you you know, almost made me cry. Thank you for that. I appreciate appreciate all of your all of your words. Um, last thing is um there are some items in here that aren't fully fleshed out because honestly you need more time to do so. Okay. But I think corporate council did as best as he could with the time that he had, you know, so, you know, if we're able to go forward with this or whatever direction, I'm open to whatever discussions that we need to have in order to get these items across the the finish line. And so some of these items have budgetary restraints. So we talk about the municipal IDs or the um the legal defense fund. Um those items, you know, have money attached to them. And so we have to figure we would have to figure out as a as a council how we're going to accomplish, you know, whatever we approve. Okay. So you're probably going to have some conversations um around that. Um and even, you know, things such as pro procurement, you know, that also has a financial impact, not in that it will take us a lot of money to actually execute, but it has a financial impact as far as like how we operate as a community. Um, and so these are, you know, ambitious items, but I don't know how else how else to really be. Um, but to just go for it all because you're dealing with some of an administration that is so extreme um that you can't just sit back and relax and hope it goes away because that's not how bullies operate. So, we need to be um as pro we need to be as progressive, I believe, as progressive um and fight as strong as we can possibly fight. Um and so with all

of that said, I also recognize that and it was said earlier, there's a faction of there's a there's a faction of folks who do not want this. Okay? Um, and their voices and their opinions matter too. Um, if they're affected or if they're not affected uh by it, they have a position and we want to respect those two. So, as you're hearing tonight, voices that may not represent yours, understand that they probably represent someone else's in the community. So, let's be as respectful as we as we possibly can. Um, and so with that, I will pass over to uh, Councilwoman Al Farro to put put in everything that I probably missed and then from there we could uh, start having a a discussion. And so that's the the point of today's you know a lot of the council um the the council actually received this on Friday as I as I was saying um the final draft of it uh they just received on Friday and so there's a lot to go through and to think about here and so tonight is the the point of having the having a conversation and asking the questions and things of that nature. So,

all right. So, so far, all right.

Uh, thank you. Uh, thank you to the community who has given us feedback, who have been vocal and letting us know what they want and what they didn't want in this ordinance. Um, thank you to my council members who took my calls um to make sure that what they had requested at the December 3rd meeting was reflected into this draft ordinance. And thank you to staff for taking the time to answering all our questions and working on on drafting this. Um, so some things to keep in mind. um some of the stuff that you have seen already in in previous work like the resolution etc on the ice freeze zone some of that information is in here um so I just want to name a couple of things um and go through it so one of the things we had said was that every six months the city council would get a report we have changed that timeline to every other month there is a lot of things happening um things are moving very quickly and so we want to make sure the city council is aware of what's going on in a timely manner so that has been changed in here from things that we have seen in the past. In addition to that, um we have put in information on a civil engagement. Um and you'll see for the language access plan, the civil engagement, the procurement, economic development, everything has exact same timeline of 180 days. So in anticipation that all that could come back at the same time for discussion with the council the civic engagement is to provide education to the community want the community to understand and how to get involved with city council how to contact us um what's the difference between a resolution and orans etc and work alongside our community partners um and then ensure there's a a plan for language access some of the stuff in here I think should have been done a long time ago language access plan should have been done a long time ago ago. Um the city has been doing a lot of things. There's different departments who've been taking their own initiative to do things, but this helps ensure that it's in writing. It is in code and so

this is a standard regardless of who's sitting up here, right? And so in two years when there's elections, in four years, etc. It doesn't matter who's in here, it is in writing. The other thing we have in here is the economic development and procurement. So, um, any organizations or third parties that or PSAs or public service agreements, did I get that right? Okay. Um, public service agreements that we have with the community who do support us for economic development. We'll have to ensure that they have an intentionality to the two groups that we have identified in here. We're using terminology from the US Department of Treasury. socially economically disadvantaged individuals, also known as SETI, which include English as a limited proficiency. Um, it includes minorities, veterans, gender, etc. to make sure that they're reaching out to those business owners so they could procure and get contracts from the city. In addition, very small businesses, businesses with less than 10 full-time employees. We want to make sure there is a plan um in place to get contracts in the city, but also the people that we give contracts to are including those two demographics. Um the language access plan, make sure everything is translated. You saw today we're testing something out with cap closed captions, but also looking at how do you get these materials, these agendas, the meeting packets also in Spanish and other languages, etc. And so I kind of don't want to take too much time because I know it's late and want to leave it open for more discussion between the council.

Okay, anybody else? Miss Powell. Thank you, Mayor Captain, and thank you to my colleagues, uh, Councilman Dixon and Councilwoman Alparro for, uh, leading this effort and bringing this forward. And thank you to the members of the community um, here in person as well as that, um, have reached out to us either online or by telephone or text um, with their feedback and their support for passing such an ordinance. Um, I fully support um the inclusive direction of this ordinance. I think it's long overdue. U I think it codifies, which is important, you know, some work that we're already doing, but also codifies work that we need to do more of. Um, however, if we're going to pass an inclusivity ordinance, I want to make sure that our equity framework is not limited to immigration status. If we are advancing an inclusivity ordinance, we should oper um prioritize equity in a way that is both immigration inclusive and race conscious. And that's the portion of that's what I see is missing. and in the draft that we have in front of us. Um, and I understand it's just a draft. It's it's, you know, something that we we can continue with, but if we're truly going to be inclusive, that is a critical piece that we have to include here.

Um, and that will be necessary for me to see um, moving forward. Um, we have to ensure that long-standing disparities affecting both black and brown residents are intentionally addressed, intentionally addressed in our economic development, civil legal assistance, um, access to services and provisions that are addressed in this ordinance. If we are codifying inclusivity, let us do so in a way that is comprehensive. This ensures that this ordinance is indeed inclusive as well as principled and constructive. Um I I just want to point out a couple of areas where I think we can include some of the things that I'm talking about to to make this a stronger, more inclusive ordinance. um and include uh the the race issue uh you know make sure that it's it's addressing racial disparities as well as um immigration issues which I um I I obviously support. Um, in the purpose section, I would like to see us broaden the purpose clause to explicitly recognize racial disparities in policing and economic access. Um, commitment to equitable treatment across race, national origin, and immigration status. Um in the economic development chapter um it references uh social socially and economically disadvantaged individuals using the federal treasury language. Um and I just want to make sure that um it addresses local disparity issues and contracting

inequities. It it kind of talks about it, but it doesn't talk about how we're going to do that. And it definitely doesn't talk about measurement because equity without measurement is symbolic. And I don't want this to be symbolic because I'm and and I think Councilman Dixon um you know prefaced this that this this ordinance unfortunately will not stop ICE from coming to our communities. I get that. But there are some things that we can do with this ordinance that will make things better for disadvantaged residents in our community. And that is something that we as a city council have the ability and the responsibility to do for folks in our community. Now, as far as what's going on at the federal level, we need to hold those folks accountable for what they are doing in our community with ICE and their their their lack of of of leadership and allowing the horrific things that are happening to our immigrant community. We need to hold them accountable. We need to hold them com uh accountable. Um, but today I I want us to really take a look at all the things that we talk about here and how when when we're out and, you know, whether it's the mayor or my my other fellow council members and we talk about how great the diversity is of our community and and it is it is wonderful, but what are we doing to address the disparities and some of the issues that our diverse community are suffering from

and this this this ordinance has to address that and and and and we we can put some teeth in here. Um so those are some of the things and I can I'll go down the line for a couple of other things. um capacity building technical assistance strategies designed to address barriers faced by historically underrepresented racial and ethnic communities and procurement. Um, looking at the legal the civil legal assistance fund, I want that broadened to include um civil matters uh that disproportionately affect um other minority communities, you know, such as housing discrimination, predatory lending, um eviction defense issues, um and require demographic reporting to track who's using the service and how it's being used. So, those are some of the things, you know, I I'm I I I want to hear a little bit more about, you know, how this is going to be framed with the civil legal uh assistance fund, but again, I want this to be more inclusive for the benefit of other disadvantaged residents in our community. There are folks that, you know, send us emails, you know, they are looking for assistance. They're about to be evicted from their their apartment and they don't have anywhere to go and they don't have the ability to access, you know, to hire an attorney to assist them to, you know, to stay in their their apartment or their home. So again, in favor of, you know, looking at this, but I want to make sure that there's some other folks in this

community that could use this same assistance as well. Um, I have some just scrolling down my my list. Um, those are just some of the the things I have right off hand, but um, I'm I'm open to listening to some some other input from from from my colleagues, but I I appreciate this as a first draft and a first step. Um but but ultimately I want whatever it is that we adopt to be meaningful and to have some teeth in it and be like I said um relevant and important um and helpful to not only our immigrant community but our black and brown community in particular. Thank you.

Okay. Anybody else? Minez.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you everybody for staying as late as it is. You know, I just want to ask anybody that's up here. You know, if um it's ever happened to you that ICE has come to your house, you know, and I look around and probably not, but it did happen to me. It happened to me when I was 5 years old. And um it's traumatizing. You'll never get over it. You know, that was over 60 years ago. And then I have talked about it. I've been very open about having um the status of waiting to be deported. Okay. I don't think anybody else has had that, but I have. And um I appreciate the comments that uh Councilman Dixon and Councilwoman uh Powell have said. You know, I'm just worried that something like this gives people the false false pretense, okay, that we're going to Okay. And it's fine because like they explained, it's really the federal government. It's not surprising to me because even in the first um term and you put children into you take them away from their families, 5,000 of them, you know, that that's that's unamerican. Okay? And like I said, to this day, there's still 500 that probably will never be connected back to their families. So what's happening now? It's horrific. It really, really is. But let me tell you, don't forget that Elgen, Elgen is a good community. Elgen is a great community. It's very diverse. I think that's why a lot of people have stayed here. You know, like um I know some people, this is very sad, but I know some people that have been in this community and have lived in this community for decades and they're undocumented

and they've been here because they feel safe. Okay? And unfortunately, I know some that for whatever reason will never be able to be residents and much less um US citizens, but they're still here. Okay. I think Elgen has done a good job in um being diverse and welcoming. We've never had um something like this, you know. Um I I was kind of surprised the lady was right who said the speaker who said um when somebody talked and and was wondering why you know they wanted to hear from people from the stakeholders I think it was said you know and I too was surprised because people who are undocumented they don't come you know you need to go to them and I have I've talked to a lot of them about this and uh the fear is there and it's not because it's Elgen the fear is because of the federal government how we're being treated and uh you know I my fear and my concern here is that this talks about documented and undocumented. How can you look at somebody and tell what they are if they're documented or not documented? you know, uh, of the three Latinos that are here, I'm probably the darkest one, you know, and yeah, it used to bother me when people come up to me and are always asking me if I speak English, you know, I was born and raised here, but they can't tell just by looking at me, you know, but I do look very Mexican. I'm very proud of it. Um, I'm second generation in this country and um, my nieces and nephews and their children, they're considered fourth generation, you know, but it doesn't it doesn't matter. You know, we're all

human. You know what I this is what I love about Algen. I was really excited when I when I read this part of the of the ordinance that is being presented. The city of Elgen welcomes diversity and believes that all individuals living in and visiting the city of Elgen should be treated fairly and with respect and dignity. And that's true. I've always felt that way in Elgen. Are there some people that made me feel uncomfortable? You know, that's on them. Not everybody's perfect, but I really feel that the majority of the people feel safe here. Is it uh the outside that comes and scares us? Yeah. You know, uh I'm somebody who um uh even though I I was born here, my first language is Spanish. Um and my parents instilled in us our culture and our customs from Mexico and we're bilingual and our success is uh because we've always blended into the community. you know, like I look at you as a person. You know, I look at you as as a neighbor. You know, how we look like, you know, we're all residents of Alden and um our success is, like I said, blending and we never asked or expected anything and we're known for our strong work ethic. Okay. I just have some questions because these things were brought up. Um, I was surprised to see the prohibition on use of city-owned property and either Councilman Dixon or FTO. I I just want to know why this is um being included in here. you know, we already have uh a resolution and we

discussed it on September 9th council meeting, discussed it for hours and it was approved as a resolution. And um it was a 90 vote. And so I just want to know why this was put in because, you know, they say they talked to us, nobody talked to me. And as I read this um you know I I went through it and um I went through it and I all these whereas the one and the 11 were the ones that I agree with and I almost agreed with eight um the whereas eight because it starts with due to the city's limited resources Um, and you know, excuse me, but I was very quiet when other people talked. Okay, just listen to me. Just listen to me. Okay, that's all.

Miss Martinez has the floor. I'm just trying to explain things that people don't know. The the lady in back the lady in back, I remember we we talked. I you know, I offered myself and I said, "Hey, anytime." We had a great conversation. There's a lot of things that people don't understand with a municipality. So what happens is um right here uh cause calls related to immigration enforcement operation. I think this is not necessary because um to put into this document the city has partnered with um centri that has existed here.

I'm sorry. Can you repeat that part again? I just wanted to take note the part you said you didn't. It's on page 12. Page 12. Calls related to immigration enforcement operation.

I think this is um I'm just saying it's not necessary to put into this document because the city has always partnered very well with centriion that has existed in our community for more than 50 years. You know, we also have Gilboard and Library. Uh they have resources YW.CA CA Gasa Mitraana and they're all bilingual. This is what I love about this community that we're not afraid to work with with people. So the part uh that says limited access to limited English, I believe the city of Elgen, this organization has like 90% in all their departments that um are bilingual. And that's done because the majority of us, we are the minority that are the majority. And I think that that's good. The other the other thing is I don't know if you guys remember I see a lot of you here that were present at um we had a town hall meeting and in that town hall meeting what happened was there was 200 to 250 people that were there and uh it was a good meeting because you know people have to let it out how they feel and I was what I noticed is is that we had two translators. The city paid for two translators and for the two hours, two and a half hours that we were there, nobody used them, you know, and um my concern is how much is this going to cost? You know, I was Go ahead. You know, I was just going to ask you um have you taken into consideration how much this is going to cost? going to say

until until this budget until this budget, this is the first time that we've had to raise taxes because to cover a shortfall of $4 million and this budget was approved in December. Martinez has the

for the year of 2026. It's the first time ever that I have seen the vote be 8 to one. Eight approved and one disapproved. Historically, for all these years to not have our taxes go up, you know, we've we've been very mindful. You know, historically, it has always been approved unanimously. And for the person who voted disapproved, how are we going to pay for all these things? You know, everything that has come up and that we had asked for uh a vote to approve it, they've said yes. They're nine votes unanimously. But if you say no to the budget, you know, how are we going to pay for it? I would rather see that this document says all residents to me. That's truly inclusive. This is inclusivity when you all of them. You're a resident of Algen, so you're included in this. And lastly, what I want to know is um in this And lastly, what I'd like to let you know is I just want to know where maybe I missed it. Does this document does it say where is it written that this document will prevent what happened on Chipoa Drive in Maple Lane?

I don't know. Yeah. Anybody else at the council from the council have Well, if you would like to address our questions, Mr. Dixon, question. We'll we'll start. Um Yeah. I'm just I just want to understand it. Okay. And I appreciate it. I appreciate it. And I'm we'll we'll do our best to try to address your questions and concerns. Sure. I appreciate it.

Okay. Um, I'll start with the calls related to immigration enforcement operations, right? The 311,

right? We've had conversations um going back probably around the ICE free zone time uh if not before or immediately after that. Um where um I actually asked for asked for us to consider two things. Um and I don't mean at the on the dis it was actually you know with the city manager and and chief loudly uh in conversation and there were two things. Um one of the things was to create a page on our website where a resident can go to find resources for uh immigration immigration resources.

Um and Chief Lai created that that's actually on the police department. You know I actually thought that she forgot about it. She actually surprised me with it. Okay. So, I I take my hat off to her for doing that. And on that page, just so that the community knows, you can go there and see the ice free zone um resolution and everything else that we've done, even the letter that we sent off to to Springfield. Okay, so that was that was the one thing. And then the second thing was to educate our 311 operators to be able to receive calls surrounding immigration. Not so that they themselves will be the you know be the case worker or anything like that. Know where to direct them.

Yeah. But you know knowing where to direct them. That's pretty much it. It's it's not that you know all the information they'll take on additional roles or anything like that. No, they're they're doing their job as they normally do. You know, this is just a you know, a separate, you know, item in which they can just direct people to the to where they need to be. If that's our website, to the website page that I just mentioned or if that's to um central deformation or some other Yeah. YMCA or whatever, that's it. So, so just to put that in a layman's term,

but just also to to add that responsibility of protecting the community doesn't fall just on central demarc. It falls on us too as a as a government information on where to start. That's really that's really what it is. That's what but it is a shared responsibility. Right. Right. We partner with them. Right. We partner with them, but the fall does not fall just on them. And that's why we had that put in here to make sure that this there is some teeth to it.

Right. And then just to address what you were saying um everyone matters. Of course everyone matters but all lives mattering something is not intentional. We're trying to be intentional with this orance. I'm trying to make sure people who have been left out, who feel left out, are being included. And there's an intentionality to make sure that immigrants are heard and seen. Making sure that as council woman Paul had mentioned that other diverse groups are heard and seen in this orans because just saying everyone matters sometimes it loses people. It leaves people out. Yeah. Now, please calm down because I've talked to people who go ahead.

Why? I'm I'm just answering your response. I'm just answering. We can hear you yelling up here. So, all you're doing is is stopping the meeting. So, just let them talk. Feel safe. Let them speak. That's why I keep saying they stay here. Just be quiet, you know, but they just like to be uh, you know, they don't want to be like the center attention. That's why they, you know, cuz I know people that when they are going to go see their lawyer, they're looking at the phone to make sure that ice isn't around. That's terrible to live like that. But, you know why? Because what happens is that this right here is uh we're living in unprecedented times. We've always said that.

Yeah. So to what do you want to do then, Council Member Martinez? Do nothing. What is your solution then, please? I'm willing to hear it. Well, you know, I that's why I don't understand why nobody called me. You know, you said that you talked to us and I wasn't called. I talked to the individuals whose components were missing from the December third beanie. Right. And I'm just trying to understand that because, you know, I I sit with 311. I know the questions that come in. I All right. You know, like I said, I'm just worried that this right here is going to give people the false pretense that this is the dual.

This is why a civil engagement component was in there so we could educate the community on the differences of a resolution of an ordinance to where this can fall and what not. And this is why council member Powell and Dixon has indicated this does not stop ICE from coming in. What it is doing is making sure that our community is feeling heard and seen and other communities who haven't felt that are feeling that. And I get that. That's why I've gone and talked to people because they're scared to come. They're scared to come here.

You're right. We said that. They're not going to take your That's exactly what I'm saying as well. That's why that's why I have gone out to them. Mayor, I can I'm requesting that we hand the floor off to another council member so we could hear from additional council members at this time.

Okay. I I'd like to make a couple comments. Um I got this thing the same time as everybody else did. I have about four pages of questions, but they're small questions as part of this thing. I think uh I see a problem with the document and the document because of the parts each one of these things I look as something that is a standalone resolution or an ordinance. I look at economic development. I look at the communication and if you do this this way you diminish the whole you diminish the the individual parts. The immigration part fell off the table here. We're talking at We're looking at different things now and we're starting to talk about different things. I would prefer to see these come back as individual parts. I don't care how you want to chapter it or or do it, but some of these things are going to require additional personnel. They're going to require fees. There's going to require different types of um teeth. Let's put it that way. There's not going to be one set of teeth that's going to take care of all of these things. So, you're throwing them all in the same bucket and think you're going to solve it all at one time and you can't. you and ma'am I I think I have the floor. I think I gave myself the floor.

So So I think this I think this is best served if you bring it back and we talk about each one of these things as a single uh possibility as a single ordinance and pass it as a piece.

It's not going to take longer. It's going to take the same amount. It's going to be it's going to take the same amount of it's going to m I've been doing this for a long time and I'm going to tell you I'm going to tell you it makes it more difficult to pass the hole when these parts are like this. It'll be easier to pass a part at a time. Economic development economic development is a totally different subject here compared to what language access is. So you can do these separately and still accomplish the same thing.

Okay. investment. That's my that's that's my thought and I think it should they should come back. Uh we need staff to uh be involved here. Uh staff has been doing many things as you just saw with the language access that's part of this. How do we clean this up and make it so it's more easily to pass as a as a uh um two or three or four documents however you however you want to see it. If you try to pass this thing as a whole be sitting here for a long time because people are going to see people are going to see different things. I think it'd be it'd be quicker. You've got 180 days to do each of these. Send them take turn it back to staff and say, "We'd like to see this back in 180 days." Each one of these things and do them at a at a getting knocked on our ass.

And how is the economic development thing going to help you with that? It's not going to help you. I'm just saying. So, you've just diminished the the point that you came to talk about because you put all of these things here. If you want to talk about uh talk about a welcoming ordinance and helping out in the street, the economic development part is not going to help. It does because it creates generational wealth. Yeah. It's going to take We have for years. Yeah. But I'm saying it's not going to help it right now. It's not going to help the situation there. Mayor. Yeah. I know that. That's what I'm saying. And this is I think there's I think it I think it's the best way to start is to try to do these as individual. I I c I certainly appreciate your feedback. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um let me offer you another perspective. Yeah.

Okay.

From what I've seen around the country when it comes to these types of ordinances. Okay. They're used as umbrellas. Umbrella code umbrellas by which everything immigration related falls under for the municipalities that have them. Okay. these welcoming city ordinances, whatever you want to call them, have been around since the 70s. Okay? So, this is not anything new. But in the municipalities, specifically in the state of Illinois that have had them, what they have done over the years is they just update their ordinance. It's not headlines every time they change it because we receive different administrations, different federal governments, different state governments, things of that nature, different populations. As far as the residents are concerned, communities change. So these types of ordinance are are in place as an umbrella by which all things immigration can live under so that it can be reflective of the community over time.

So I just want to offer you that. Okay? And here's the here here's the thing that I think we miss sometimes when we're having these types of conversation. We don't understand sometimes how one thing is connected to the other. Today is a perfect example of how one thing affects what you think it is affecting one community and it affects multiple communities. We talked about the plastic bags. Climate action um or the lack of climate action affects disproportionately black and brown communities more than anybody. That's just an absolute fact. So, it's not lost on me, as Councilwoman Powell pointed out, that we're having that conversation while we're also having this conversation because what's happening with those plastic bags also affects us as a municipality and not just the greater world because of climate change. So my point is is that when it comes to things like procurement, when it comes to things like the municipal ID, yes, it does affect the immigrant community for sure, but it also can support and also affect uh other black and brown communities. And so everybody that needs to benefit from these types of things being in place, they benefit. Let me give you another example and specifically to the municipal ID and I think councilwoman Martinez I think you might have mentioned in some in some part but some part but let me mention this part too. Um the municipal IDs if we were to change around this language you know just a little bit to allow others to benefit from it. For example, um we have a houseless community and the houseless community has a really really

hard time achieving the proper identification. I know this as a former case worker. I know this as a government uh administrator who has worked with the population that we are talking about today being the immigrant population um but also being people who are who have other barriers because they've been incarcerated or they have mental health issues. This also help could also help support them too as well. And just to speak to your to your point, Mayor, um it's not just about right now and I I feel that that's a really disingenuous argument because I can't count how many times I've heard you talk about we make decisions not for the day but we make decisions for the future city 25 50 years out.

So if it if it's Yeah. So if it's not just for you know so some of the stuff will be effective today but we're not really just thinking about today. We're thinking how you said you think which is 10, 15, 50 years in advance. You know, we want to be progressive. We don't want a reactive community. We want a proactive community. So that's just me speaking respectfully to to your thoughts and your ideas to the

Yeah, I I understand and I agree with that. I don't I don't think that's the issue. When you talk about this, when people are talking about an ID card, uh, they need that as an as assistance and they need assistance today in dealing with what's going on out on the street with ICE. If you want to wait and that could dra and that's and this could drag out for a long time to try to to try to uh um approve all of these things that are that are isolated in here. I think there's some we always talk about let's get the lowhanging fruit out of the way first. So, you can do that if you separate this. If you don't do if you don't want to separate it, then those things will be stay hanging there with the rest of them.

Well, there are some things that we can do to accelerate moving some of this along to help address some of the problems that are here and still look long term. You can think you can think short term. Think long term, but act uh short term and try to do that as well. That's that's my point. I want to hear I want to hear from everybody. I just want I don't I don't want to sit here. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We we could talk off we could talk offline. I want to hear from everybody. I want to make sure. But can I just say one last one last thing? When it when it comes to separating um all these don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we have it all figured out. No, I don't I don't either.

I don't have all the answers. I don't I'm not the smartest person in this room. I am not. But what I am is an advocate. And I know in listening to my community, your community, our community that we love and care about, that we spent our lives and that we've raised our families in, that we have neighbors who we care about, that we've known for all our lives, I know that an ordinance like this, even though it's not fully fleshed out, that I have faith in you. I have faith in Miss Martinez. I have faith in Councilman Ortiz. I have I have faith in Councilman Thorne and everybody else up here that collectively with city with city staff assistance that we can figure this out.

Yep. This isn't rocket science. Now, is it going to take work? Absolutely. Is it going to take time? Absolutely. But I'm just telling you all that I'm willing to do whatever it takes to flesh whatever needs to be fleshed out to assist staff in getting whatever answers and direction that they need in order to make this a workable document. That's not just reflective of what we put on paper between, you know, the three of us being me and Councilwoman Al Faro and and corporate counsel, but it's truly reflective of all of us and and our entire community. That's my pledge. Yeah. That's where we're headed. Okay.

That's why we have the That's why we have the discussion. Okay. All right. Thank you. I So, I appreciate it. But I Yeah. Thank you. Uh Councilman Good, I think, wanted to speak. Okay, Mr. Good.

Um All right. So, uh, going back to December 3rd, I know some of you were here for that meeting. Um, you know, we ended it in a very confusing manner, right, which has been one of the issues throughout this entire process is just confusion in general, right? It's being, uh, induced intentionally by the federal level. Um, we've got things that are happening at the state, that's another layer of complexity, and then we have what's happening now. So, I I I really hope um I I kind of pled on the 3d of December and again tonight is that I do think that um even before I got here and some of my colleagues that staff and council have built up trust in the community. That's our biggest thing right now is like do you trust us? I can tell you I've I've heard from the folks here in the room. Uh um but the point is that that trust is an asset and what we see right now right now is language access that's happening on the TV as of tonight that's a policy that moved faster than this. So what I said December 3rd and what I've said to people when I spoke in the community is like would you trust us to work with us towards a different vehicle not different values. I think what we've shown in some of our votes that went 900, the actions that have taken place in this community, um what we've seen how our police has uh worked to accomplish better relationships within the community, um is that we can work together on policy items as this is going on. And so that was the plead on the 3rd of December was can we get one item going tonight that actually takes off because we trust staff to do the work. And what we saw tonight is some of that beared out. I think what we're having a debate over right now is ve uh a vehicle versus the values. We heard some Yeah, there's some items in here and and I will say I think what we're also hearing from some of our veterans up here is that the more that you pack into something, the more opportunities there are for objection or for nitpicking. And so I would just say I'm not I'm not disputing what we have in front of us.

The values here I think are aligned by the majority of the organization. It's the vehicle in which we we use right now at this specific point in time. And so I've spoke with people that have said varying different things about what the feds are doing or are not doing. What we do know is that they are deploying forces that are vindictive and violating laws that are on the books. So we're in the middle of a constitutional crisis. We're in the middle of a constitutional crisis right now. So the things that I think are the most important is that we're able to move quickly and leverage the asset that we have in our community, which is trust between staff, council, community. That doesn't exist without you all here tonight saying like, "Hey, we're going to be here. We're going to watch your next election. We're going to vote you out." That's the mechanism at work, right? The thing is is do you trust us to pick up the phone? Even if we're going to have a disagreement on how we do something, can you find out what our values are? Are we aligned? And do we have an agreement on how we're moving forward? I had a chance to meet with some of the folks from the Kofi group. We sat that meeting for hours and I think we we were pretty transparent. We shared where we were coming from. Don't know if we agreed on everything, but I hope that that was trust that we cultivated that they will they can reach out. We'll be in contact. We'll have that meeting. We'll have that conversation. So, I don't exactly know how things are going to shake out tonight. All I'm saying is I hope that you are seeing the same city that I'm seeing is a it's room for improvement always, but that we have cultivated trust and this is the one thing that we can leverage right now more than fees and finances and stuff to to fund these is that do you trust us to work with staff to bring forward programs to prioritize these lists and expedite them and bring them forward as fast as possible. So that's um I think something that I wanted to frame this conversation as is the values versus the vehicle in which we take to get there. And so, um, I think I'll I'll pause at this point.

Okay. Mr. Ortiz, Mr. Stefen. Okay. Mr. Ortiz,

I'm glad I let Mr. Good go first. He said a word that caught my interest. Uh, is this thing on? Okay, there we go. I can hear myself now. is uh vehicle and uh I think in December 3rd when we got that 90 vote we're all driving in that same vehicle. We're going to a a policy based initiative and work with city staff and get things done because there's some things in this ordinance that I do like like the language access and uh privacy uh protections and things like that. And there's also things that need to be like Mr. Dixon need to fleshed out. We need some more details like the the cost for the city ID program and how are we going to put together the legal defense fund. So how Mr. Dick said he's he's willing to work and get together with city staff and work with the rest of the council. I'm willing to do the same thing and see what this program would look like and how much it would cost because how Miss Martinez was trying to say but she was getting heckled which that's everybody's right to say what they need to say to the United States uh is we raise taxes so we need to know how much it's going to cost to know if we could incorporate it into our 2027 budget

and uh and get and get the ball rolling on this program. And then I also agree with the with the mayor and I think Mr. the way Mr. Good used the word vehicle, I think in lines with what the mayor said is putting this together like a Washington DC package with a bunch of stuff in it is going to be the hardest way to get it to pass because like Miss Pow, she went very detailed in the things that she wants included in this. So, is this getting sent back or are we going to vote this one down and then come back with a different one that for things that Miss P wants included into it? Because she listed I think a handful maybe maybe 10 things that she wants changed within this. So, this is not even able to be voted on today. So, when the mayor said come back in 120 days, Mr. Dixon kind of alluded to it too that we still have to flush this stuff out and and go further and figure out the refine details and add in or remove things that Miss Paul wanted. So, we're all saying the same thing. So, uh

I don't know where I'm at right now if I'm a yes or a no, but if we're voting on this whole thing as one package, I'm most likely will be a no. That's it. Thorn here. Okay, Mr. Thorne. Hi,

Mr. Mayor. Um, well, I' I've sure heard a lot of uh a lot of good things and a lot of things I agree with, but uh I want to reiterate I I certainly compliment Rose on so many things she brought up because that was one of the things I had in my notes uh as far as, you know, we we voted to raise taxes, but one person didn't, but they're behind this and they expect this to be free. I there's no research done as to the expense uh which I find very surprising. Um, also, you know, we all appreciate corporate counsel. He recommended a resolution, not an ordinance against ICE. Yet, it's been inserted in here almost, in my opinion, it could be construed as sneaking it back in. um you know the opinions it was voted unanimously uh by the council to to uh be a resolution um uh and so many of these things we do already. So, as it is, I really like what the mayor said. To me, there's so many parts here that should be separated because you could be just like what Anthony just said. He could be against two of them and for three of them, but because he's against two of them, he's going to vote no on the whole thing.

It's too much stuff. 20page legislation dropped in on Friday. I didn't get the call. Rose didn't get the call. Uh but some community members did. So they're there supporting it. Um as a whole, as big as it is, I I certainly can't support it. Thanks. If I could address his comments,

Mr. Because he was referring to me. I am the one who voted against the property tax. Yes. within that budget and the information I was given, there was some wiggle room that I felt that we didn't need to increase property taxes at this time. Would we need to include in the future? Yes, from the way we were going, but I voted against it to say like there is no money. There is still that budget. We could still figure out what can we prioritize what we said was we were going to fund this year that could wait till 2027 because this takes priority. There is an opportunity for us to do that in here. I know you indicated that no one called you. I apologize no one called you, but oh my god, we are public servants to the community. We shouldn't be letting our egos take part in here.

In addition to that, you mentioned council member Thorne that we're already doing it. And if we're already doing it, then what is the problem making it with teeth? And I understood that the vehicle, but this is our vehicle as a city council as a promise to the community that we will hold our government accountable to this. Policies are not accountable to the entire council. We as a council have power over ordinances, not the policies. The policies are then held differently. This is what makes sure that we're giving teeth to what we're saying that we are going to do and our commitment and the trust to the community. Mr.

All right, let me let me try to chime in here. Um, I'm trying to make sense of the opposition to this, particularly the one that says we should break things apart into different sections because if we if we address them individually, we're going to end up at the same place

uh if we do them one at a time. So, I I I'm having a trouble with that. Um, I also am agreeing with the the sentiment that's been expressed that if that the language access for instance, the inclusivity, the the part about public property being used for ICE activities, the fact that we've done these and we're going to restate them here is is not for me a reason to not do it. It's just a way to reinforce it. I I'm I'm not I'm not agreeing with the fact that people are trying to say we've done these in other ways so we don't have to do it here. Um and I you know I it sounds like there's going to be some tweaking going on but it was commented that it could take 120 or 180 days. I I don't I certainly hope that this will not be pushed off that long at all. I mean, that's the 180 days is something that talked about if it gets passed uh us coming back with some additional actions within 180 days, but I don't think this should take 180 days to flesh out. Um it should be

yeah, in the next couple meetings. So, it Yeah, it's uh that's those are my comments I I wanted to make at this time. Okay. Anything else? Mayor, if I could I want to make sure somebody else gets a second chance first. Anybody else? Miss Powell?

Yes. Thank you. Um I appreciate hearing from all of my colleagues. Um, again, well, f first thing I I do want I I want to go back and uh compliment staff for the the language access that was here tonight. That was it. I know it's a trial, but that was really helpful having that and I I appreciated seeing that. Um I hope folks in our community appreciated seeing that. And I'm assuming that people that are watching um you know uh via at home on TV or via YouTube that they were able to see that as well. Um so um I I do want to mention that and and thank staff uh and compliment staff for for moving forward with that. Um my ask I think is reasonable and relevant. This cannot just be an immigration related issue. Our issues in this community span beyond that. And if this is going to be called an inclusivity ordinance, it needs to be inclusive. Um we need to include racial barriers and issues um in this. And I think that that is easy to do. I don't think it's going to take 180 days. I am against breaking this up in parts. And and I guess probably the the easiest way for me to explain that is you take your hand and you ball it up into a fist. Your fingers together make the fist and make it strong. You can't make a fist with one finger. So the the the teeth and the weight of

this ordinance with all of these components together is what makes it strong. And I'm not saying we have to take 180 days. We we should not take 180 days to to to bring this back and put this together. But if we're going to do this, um it we we need to we need to tweak it. Obviously, this is important. Um, and I appreciate the draft work that's gone into it, but it does need some more work. Um, in terms of the budgetary components, I completely understand and I have questions about that as well, but the budgetary component of it does not have to be included in the ordinance. I can't think of our I can't think of specific ordinances that we have that say okay our ordinance say that we have to maintain streets. It doesn't say in the ordinance that we have to spend $3 million every year to maintain streets. That is a annual budgetary commitment. So,

um, so,

um, so we we can address those those questions because they're valid. Um, I have questions um, uh, about um the the ID program. And I appreciate hearing I can't remember who said it about the other people and populations in our community that that could be helpful for. um our our unhoused community, people in um re-entry um programs, um domestic violence victims. There there's there's multiple different populations in the community could that could potentially benefit from that. But yes, we do need to know from staff, okay, at some point, what is this going to cost? What does the administration look like? That's that's valid. I I completely understand that, but that doesn't have to be addressed right now. like I mean but anyway um so those are you know I I guess my ask at this point is that um we ask corporation council or work work through u the two council members that brought this forward to work with corporation council to incorporate some of the things that were said. I know I'd like to see some of the things that I incorporated um that I said tonight be incorporated um and bring this back for um for uh final consideration and approval by the council and and you know within the next couple of weeks hopefully not 180 days. Um, so I mean I I appreciate, you know, everything that people have said, but I I I would be strongly in strongly against, you know, breaking this up

because I think it it minimizes the impact of what it is we're trying to do. I I really do think it is. But I would I and I hear I hear all of you. But my question to those of you who have said, "Hey, I can't approve this tonight or I can't approve this the way it's written." I want to hear specifically and understand and and work with. What are the issues? What are the specific areas that you have a problem or a concern with so that we can see how we can work together to work around it. I would love to see whatever we finally bring forward be unanimously approved by this board. I think that would be that would be a phenomenal message to send to our community. So if there are certain aspects of this that are stopping you from being able to support this. Let's have those conversations and see what we can do to to to work together to address those. I think we owe that to ourselves and we owe that to our community.

Thank you. Okay. Anything else, Mr. Good?

Yeah. So, I um I just again to touch back on like December 3rd and the conversations that led up to this point. Um, and I think maybe to answer uh the question that maybe Councilwoman Pal just proposed. Um, so there's like that was a question about an itemized breakdown like are there any issues in here? That's what I'm arguing is that like values I think what we've seen from this community are aligned. Um, I think the hesitations that some people are having was that this started off as a conversation about a welcoming city ordinance. Um, and the concerns I heard in the community is talking to people is that well, does it what protections does it provide? Um, and we've heard some of that tonight and we've heard some of how it doesn't protect people and and you could argue how it protects people is it gives them a sense of uh of belonging, right? They they feel like the community they're in has got their back. Um, so

that again, so this is these are the items that we're weighing. that's emotional uh societal p feeling like you belong with the things that we're concerned about is their physical safety and so I can't

okay so this is not a binary this is not they're here they're not here them being here does not equate to intensity so what myself and I don't know about others up here lay awake in bed at night thinking is that like the the the items that were presented to us in December the numbers of contact points in October versus November October was a really bad month. That was the highest numbers. November decreased. And those are the margins we're dealing with is that we are going to potentially see a federal administration that's redeploying assets for physical infrastructure as well as deployments. So what we have to think about is in going through their operational deployment of resources, do we give them a reason to allocate more to this jurisdiction? I I understand. So I'm just trying to explain. I I

understand. Yes.

Okay. So every single day my frustration they're going to come back and we're going to be right back where we've been since it happened the first time you come together and do your job arguing about what you didn't know you didn't know you didn't work in the same Okay. So, I I I can understand we we don't all agree on everything right now.

I I'm trying to provide some background into how I personally got to this point and it talk I I know you're you're sighing and gasping, but it would be disrespectful and disingenuous if the people I spoke to in this community who are the most exposed told me their fear is that you speak to people. I'm taking them to immigration and I I hope you can appreciate that the the people right when you say who are who obviously you're not asking for names right now, right? You're just

really connected to these we'll get a So all right. All right. So So we get you a petition. Okay. So what what we're seeing tonight is okay this is this is this is not productive I got the floor guys I got the floor I I know I I'm trying to help that's all I'm trying to help

let him speak trying to help all right hey guys I really I know you're passionate and I really appreciate your advocacy like I really do like I love you but right now I need you to chill because I We need to hear each other. We We already I know. I know. I I I understand. I understand. Can if if

Yeah. If If you could let us see and see who they're taking. I'm taking the phone. I have every day. You're going to have some people in the room. You know who they call when I in town? They call me. Why? Because they trust me. Because And we're not that's what they actually need to see like what you're doing now. Yeah. Because I don't understand who these people that you're talking to were talking to these people. I tell the the point taken. The point

Yeah. The point the point is taken. The point is taken. My point is, if you can just hear me out real quick. My point is is that this is my colleague. Right, wrong, or indifferent, I just want him to feel heard. We don't we don't we don't get to where you want us to go by infusing more confusion and anger into a situation. We get it and I'm trying, but let me try. Let me work this. Let the man talk.

You know, part of this entire consideration is like what can you do? What do you where do you operate to be as efficient as possible? Um and so not only am I a council person, but I'm a family member. Um I I have Um, so, so my family, you know, I have people very close to me that are on every part of the spectrum of undocumented. Um, so things that we're talking about tonight, you know, threading the needle together, things that we kind of skipped over, sustainability, backb, one of the items, I mean, the average cost is going to be $30 a year, right? For some people, that's not a big deal. You're talking about who who are we speaking to? Who are we talking to? People that live three families to a home. And they don't do that because they want to. They do that because they need to support each other economically. So when we what we talk about what we're doing tonight is huge buckets of topics, federal legislation, sustainability, timelines of the acute right now, 3 months, 6 months versus 10 years, a generation out. We're conflating all of this right now. We're taking all of our emotions. We're putting it all in the same bag and trying to talk for this demographic or that demographic on different topics. So when you're saying who are you talking to to act as though we don't have conversations with people in the community that a you might not be speaking to does not mean that we're not having conversations with people who are the entire spectrum of uh exposure here. So the whole point that I was trying to make when I brought this back up was we're hearing from people in the community that they are genuinely terrified. As you've laid out the experience that I have is that I have a better half that works in the school district bilingual speech therapist. They're in U46 living that experience every single day seeing students that don't show up for a variety of different reasons. Um people within our own family have have tried to make x number of plans to navigate around this complicated situ. This it's not complicated. It's a humanitarian constitutional crisis situation. So again, what I've tried to do December 3rd, what I'm trying to do right now, I understand not everybody in this room is going to agree, but that you leave here

feeling confident that we align on values and the idea or what was pitched on the third was that we don't have to do an ordinance at this point in time because of the fear that we're hearing in the community is that putting that on the books is going to bring a heightened intensity here. And so if again, I can understand there's disagreement here. I'm just letting you know how we how me personally I arrived here, what influenced that decision, the logic that I'm trying to use to navigate through this point in time, and that we can leverage hopefully the trust that the community has built between staff, council, and the community to leverage some of these policy moves that move faster in some instances than what we're seeing right now. You're seeing it play out in real time where we're having a debate over a vehicle. you're having a debate over how the vehicle's designed, how many things are in the vehicle. These are all variables that are going to play out tonight. They're going to be variables that play out in the future. So, that that was how we got to this point. Um, this is a continuation of December 3rd conversation. Like I said, that was a messy vote, but that's the the difference here. So, I I do appreciate my colleague Corey, Mr. Dixon, and the group for hearing me out right now. I understand we're going to disagree on some things, but I I do appreciate you showing up and sharing your side of this with us. And if I could just add something really really quickly um just to you when we had this discussion in I don't know a couple months ago now um when it well when it was brought as a welcoming city discussion um I was listening to you all then right it was just a conversation that we were having in order to get corporate council to go forward to actually be able to draft anything at all I had to compromise Because in this business, you don't get everything that you want. This is all about compromise most days, right?

We compromised. We went from we removed it from being named a welcoming city

to just saying, you know, it's an ordinance. We didn't have a name. We didn't It was on the fly, you know. So I I guess what I would just ask in return is that you keep in mind the ability to compromise that even knowing that the welcoming city name was removed because you asked for it so that we can go forward in order for the um code to actually be drafted. So we have an ordinance now that's not named welcoming city and that was a compromise. So, I'm asking you to compromise and say, "Hey, yo, this is a vehicle. Maybe I don't want an ordinance necessarily, but I also understand that I can't get everything that I want, and sometimes I have to be the one to compromise." So,

yeah. And to respond to that, um the idea uh is is that you know changing the name of it. Um I'm not convinced that that's enough to alleviate the the the push back or the blowback from having a name welcoming or inclusive ordinance. Um so my my compromise or I don't even know if it's a compromise, but what I was pleading for is that we take a policy approach and we prioritize these. I'm not saying rule any of this out. I'm not saying we don't talk about this, but what we're clearly saying is that, you know, we want this to move in an efficient manner. The community wants us to they're already upset it took this long to do this conversation. They might be like somewhat okay, you guys finally do the language access thing, but that's what that's what I'm asking for is not to, oh, we changed the name of this thing and therefore all those things all those concerns are alleviated. Now, I'm of the mind that we're seeing an administration that's using every tactic at its disposal to create reasons to go after anything, whether it's a state, a municipality, individuals, groups, they're doing everything they possibly can. And and personally, I work in the space of technology. It's it's really easy. And that's why I think the concern is is once you put on the code book. And so that's why the the plea that I'm making is that we just prioritize this and we do policy initiatives as fast as possible, leveraging the trust that we have in staff currently.

Well, if here's the thing about that. No matter what we do, ICE is going to be here. before we before we ever be before before we ever before we ever had any public conversations concerning about ICE, you know, immigration. I'm sorry. ICE were already here. They were doing what they were going to do. They're they're here because we have a majority minority in mostly Latino community. That's why they're here. So we could you know hypothetically right if we do an ordinance an umbrella ordinance by every by which everything lives under or if we separate them out the substance is a substance attention still will be had it's not going to give us any type of any type of cover I think believing in that is like believing in Santa Claus. Well, so again, I want to just make this point not to conflate presence with intensity to pretend that resource allocation does not happen with you. You have x number of things and then you allocate it based on a list of priorities. There there's I've not heard anything that I is still here that's convinced me that there isn't the world where ICE intensity increases. And so if there's anything that we can do to ma to move the ball forward while not giving them a reason to allocate 10 more 20 more agents win into Elgen and have x number of contact points more that so that's where I just wanted to push back on that because I don't like the ISIS is already here. I don't equate presence with intensity. So I think I I've said that

well I've just I've said that at previous meetings. I've said it now tonight and I I could see some people might agree with it, some people don't. That's that's fine. I Okay, give the floor back to whoever. Just one thing here and as we start wrapping up, we're going around a little bit of a circle now. I think that uh uh one one piece of information that's been uh talked about a lot and we need to get some uh before we move forward with this and before you start writing these pieces is the things that we're already doing and staff has got lists of each staff member uh department head has a list of things that they've done to try to address these things and they need to bring those to us to share so that we know those before we move on. So what have we done? what have they been doing, how long they've been doing those things. So that has to become part of this document and uh we have to show that these things have been out there for a while and so we know where to start from. That gives us a starting point,

but that's also a reason why to pass this if we're already doing it, mayor, like but I did have a question for council member Ortiz. Council member Ortiz, you mentioned that if it was the whole package, you would vote against it. What part of the package concerns you? I don't have the financial analysis of how much stuff would cost. I'm not saying that it might I won't vote yes if it cost a million dollars or vote no. I just I just need the refined detail was the whole argument I was making. So if those two were taken out, would you vote yes for the rest of it? The the legal defense fund and the municipal ID are the ones with the budget ties. Okay.

I don't like legislating on the dice to be honest with you. I'm going to Yeah,

thank you. So, considering everything that was said, thank you, Councilwoman Ortiz, Councilwoman Martinez, Mayor Captain, Mr. Good, Mr. Thorne. Um, how about um we take all that feedback and I know corporate council if you could back me up on this. Um, I'm sure you've taken notes. We have video of course, right? Um, so how about we take all the feedback, um, and we go back, you know, to the not to the drawing board, but we go back to add in those items, make those changes, and then have those have additional conversations. Okay? So, I'll meet and speak with everyone here, you know, just to make sure that your ideas from what you see is reflected and what would eventually come back. And at that time we can decide which way we're going to go. But I think at least at least if we flesh some of these things out, especially the financial concerns, which you know, my concerns too honestly is budgetary um implications on on some of these things. Um we can just flesh all these things out as much as we can, get as much detail as we possibly can get and then we can figure out, you know, which direction we're going to go. But at least we'll have every all of our ideas included in what finally comes back. So, what comes back will include some some just some budgetary estimates on those two items to address the concerns that folks have.

Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. M Mr. Stefan,

um I've got some things that I want to add to the discussion as this is going to be coming or or either coming soon or it's already been asked for. So, I'm I'm going to throw these out again because I've made these comments or requests before. First of all, um I'm I've been asking to see if we can participate in the state lawsuit against ICE. Um the uh the the complaint includes incidents that happened in in Elgen specifically. So, I I just have a question, you know, can we participate? Should we participate? What would it cost? Um, I haven't gotten a response. Um, the other one that I threw out that I think we should pursue is I would like to restrict who can apply to our police force or who we would even consider to apply to our police force. Um, for me it would be anybody who has ever worked for ICE during either Trump administration or even apply because I would not want those people ever to be police in our community. Um, I have seen them at December 6th on Maple Lane. I have seen the lack of professionalism and I would be appalled to have them even considered for our police force which is much more professional and much more trained and wouldn't even want it. So, uh, the last thing is I I will be bringing something completely different to council for consideration and that is restrictions on detention centers. I've heard some comments on that. I know that that is the latest of this federal government's efforts is to stand up a system of essentially concentration camps across the country. Um Kansas City had to have an emergency council meeting to put a 5-year ban on them to stop what was looking to be a reconfigur configuration of a Amazon warehouse into a detention center.

I want to stay ahead of that. I think we can and rather than have the focus on the police, which is what has been up till now, I think we can do some things. I think case law says we can do some things to

uh make make any detention, prison, transfer station, anything like that. A conditional use, make them have to have a pre-application hearing so the public can weigh in on that. and also uh have found case law that the federal government because it's all about supremacy and and their right to not be subject to state and local laws but they have voluntarily subjected themselves to uh sto uh sewer and uh water connections and there are ways to regulate them in that way. So I I have been working on this with some help and we'll be bringing something to propose to attack uh what has been going on in that nature because we do not I do not want any kind of a detention center, transfer center, any kind of thing anywhere near our community. So

absolutely. So um that I will be proposing those things but those are related but slightly different. So we need John, would you like to include that as part of this discussion? Well, it's it's I just bring it out because it's tied to what we are discussing here, but I don't want to add it to what is already here. It's just something separate. I'm just giving everybody a heads up. Uh that will be coming. So, but the other two I'll certainly start with Christopher back at legal. So, what the first two things you do want added because I thought I like it. that was um well restricted. You guys it's your it's your uh it's your ordinance. I don't know if it should be

it's our we're council. Okay. You guys are leading that charge or counciloman Aaro. Maybe we can add that to the the thing that we're working on. Okay. We could do that too. So

anything else? Nope. So there was a motion on the floor and there was a second. So, are you are you are you redrawing it? Yeah. Well, that was council member Martinez who made the motion. Yeah. And it was seconded by member council member Ortiz. Made the motion. Martinez. Should we just wait? Yeah. Do you want to withdraw it? Yeah. Okay. So, motion to withdraw. Okay. Anything else?

All right. I I could just I think corporate council is asking for some direction. So, real quick, I'll make a I'll make a motion. Oh, I was asking if we needed a motion. You said we didn't need a motion because we're bringing it back. So, we don't necessarily need a motion. Right. Motion.

I mean, parliamentary procedure is really to help everybody get on the same page. It's meant to be a tool and not be something that obstructs how business gets done. So, um I was just talking to Councilman Dixon about wanting some direction on Yes, I I do need some further direction or else I can just go through the minutes and kind of just put in general terms what's been discussed, but if there's specific items that need to be included, I would need some direction on that. In terms of whether a motion is required, I mean, this can come back again if two council persons want it at the next meeting, two meetings from now. I mean whether we have a motion, don't have a motion. Um but describe direction whether that's on the record. I mean that would be helpful maybe but either way.

Okay. So um so corporate council um I know we you don't know what you're going to exactly get into at this point. We're still trying to figure that out. But what's the timeline that that you would be comfortable with? I guess

you know I I serve at the council's uh prerogative. So I I don't know what's involved. Again, if I'm just putting in just an example, if I'm putting in the words for economic initiatives, the city will also prioritize equity in a way that is race conscious. I mean, that takes a few minutes. But if there's specific programs with teeth, I mean, I've heard people talk about things with teeth. You know, I I haven't heard any specifics. So, it would take me a long time to just go out and devise specific programs. If somebody tells me a specific program, then I can give you an idea of how long it would take me. So,

okay. So, seeing that we're um we're at the end of u at the end of February, um let's shoot for the second meeting in March or the first meeting in April that with the understanding that hopefully I I would love to get, you know, you're going to talk to other council members and get some direction and provide that to me and as soon as long as I get it and Yes. And I and I also want the council members to feel free to talk to Chris directly themselves so we can, you know, I'll send you mine in writing.

Yeah. Send it to them in writing. I mean, I'll still reach out and we'll still talk to you, but I mean, if you send it in writing, that way there's no confusion or anything like that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that sounds good. All right. So, we'll So, we'll we'll just say end of March, March meeting. Okay. Okay. March meeting. Okay. Okay. I just want to say thank you to the community. Thank you to my colleagues, the council members. I know that was a difficult conversation, but I I really appreciate each one of you for for being open and listening and being willing to have a conversation. So, thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Anything else from the council? Any announcements from the council? and also from staff. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Moved in a second to adjurnn. Clerk, please call the role. Councilman Temple. Council members Alfaro. Yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefen, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. We are adjourned. Heat. Heat. N.