City Council - Regular Meeting

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meeting for the Elgen City Council for April 22nd, 2026 to order. Will the clerk please call the role? Council member Alfaro present. Dixon present. Good here. Martinez here. Ortiz here. Powell here. Stefan here. Thorne. Mayor Captain here. Uh, Council Member Thorne has asked to be allowed to attend the meeting uh via Zoom. So, we'd have a motion. Approve. Second. Moved and seconded. Clerk, please call the RO. Council member Alaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne,

Mayor Captain, [snorts] yes. Motion's approved on 80. Um, we have one person, uh, well, excuse me. Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting of April 8th, 2026. So moved. Second. Moved and second for approval. Any correction or additions? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 8 Z. Hey, Mayor, can I abain from that? I want to change my vote to extension. An abstension.

Yes.

70 with one abstension. Uh, we have one person signed up for public comment this evening, Elijah Stein. [snorts] Good evening. My name is Elijah Stein and today I was wanted to talk about something that's not getting talked about enough that I think we should be talking about because it affects all of us including in Elgen and you can let out the collective sigh when I say it. The Iran war and a potential draft. [sighs] It's not exactly something that I want to talk about either. I fully understand. I get sick of t talking about it as much as the next guy, but it's something we have to talk about because it doesn't just affect you. It doesn't just affect me. It affects our kids. It affects our kids' kids. It affects the wealth and the [snorts] economy of our country. And that's not something that we can just handwave away. So, as far as it goes, I don't know if anybody knows just how much it's taxed everybody because it's not something that's really getting talked about. But if you want to do something at home so that you can see it for yourself, there's a little website that you can go to called irran wararcost.com. So, you can see all of the estimations of just how much the budget is going to the war effort. And if you go there, you can see that the amount per taxpayer, that's not that's not any other amount. That's per every single person in this room and watching. $585. $585 soding dollars. Do you know what you could do with that money? You could go

take your kids to Dick Sporting Goods, get them all the sports tools that they need so that they can go and play the big game. You can get a filling for all those different teeth that you have been putting off so that you can finally stop having that pain in your jaw. You can go take care of different things that you want to in your lawn so that it looks prettier for your neighbors. But instead, we send all of that money over to another country so that we could bomb 150 innocent kids for the absolutely necessary result of Look, this war is pointless and a potential of a draft is also pointless. And I'm going to say on that point, we're not doing another draft. I'm saying that because you were the ones who promised that. You promised that to not just me. You promised that to my parents. You promised that to my grandparents who had already fought. You promised that to everybody. That wasn't just something that I'm saying. That was your promise. And I'm not going to have any of my family go to a draft so that they can fight in a war so that one person can get as many resources that they can from foreign country also that they can hoard it for their own wealth. I will protect and stand by my fellow Americans, not by some wararm mongers who decide that they're more important than we are. And I think that's important to talk about and we should all start doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you, Mayor. This evening, we have one item on both agendas. Item A uh is an ordinance amending chapter 5.18 of the Elgen Municipal Code pertaining to leases for designated city facilities and performance contracts. Uh this evening, I'm going to ask procurement manager Nick Etman to come to the podium to introduce this initiative to the council. Uh Department of Cultural Arts and Special Events Director Amanda Harris is also here to answer questions. As you know, with this being on both agendas, time is for discussion now and the vote will occur at 7 p.m. Nick, thanks for being with us this evening. How are you?

Thank you. Good morning, mayor and members of city council. Uh, this ordinance amends chapter 5.18 of the municipal code regarding performing artists contracting procedures. The purpose is to modernize the city's performing artist procurement process to reflect current practices, industry standards, and allow for all venues where the department of cultural arts and special events host performing artists. Chapter 5.18 of the municipal code currently restricts contracting authority to the designated venues such as the Hemen's Cultural Center, Wing Park Banshell, and the Lord's Park Pavilion. Since the original code was written, the city's programming has expanded significantly with events hosted throughout the city such as Nightmare on Chicago Street and Lafiesta. But the code has not kept up to pace. This ordinance removes venue specific restrictions and extends the existing contracting practices to all locations hosting events produced by the Department of Cultural Arts and Special Events, allowing staff the ability to finalize agreements and issue deposits in a timely manner. This improves the city's ability to secure talent, maintain flexibility across venues, and deliver highquality arts and cultural programming. All current internal controls will remain in place including legal and financial review.

Any questions? So far, thank you. And thank you, Nick, for sharing that information. So, if I heard you correctly, like the limits that the city manager is allowed to do without city council approval prior will still be in effect, right, in that one. That is correct. So, anything over that, it will still go to city council. uh in regards to the so like if we had a bigger contract that was over I think it's 25,000 if I'm remember remembering correctly if we had some kind of like orders or something like that it would have to come to council first

not in this um it doesn't pertain to this as the chapter allows the industry requires the contracts due to confidentiality and deposits being made that the um deass to uh produce the final agreements and take them to the CMO for signature So it wouldn't so that um limit that we do currently give to city manager is revoked in this one. Am I understanding that correctly? Uh council member Alaro, that's the uh this chapter, chapter 518 was actually amended back in 1997 to allow the city manager to uh enter into contracts that exceeded $25,000 expressly for these performance contracts. and what were termed as leases of these uh lease agreements with third parties for events. So, uh that's currently how things have been approved with respect to these uh agreements. There have been um numerous contracts over the years, performance contracts that have been entered into that have exceeded $25,000 to this chapter and that would continue. So, there's no change in that.

Okay. So, yes, it that it is revoked in this one because it's been previously approved in the past. Okay. I just want to say like I've mentioned in the past like I hope uh the office does take some feedback and trying to be um inclusive to additional Latino demographics beyond Mexicans as well as the Asian culture. And so I just wanted to also add that as this is something that I will be approving but just something to continue um thinking about. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Moving on. This is on both agendas, so there's no need for a motion.

That's correct, mayor. Um, item B are amendments to the 2025 budget consistent with the Illinois municipal budget law. City's annual budgets are prepared using revenue estimates and expend and expenditure recommendations, but the inherently speculative nature of budgeting makes it impossible to predict with complete accuracy the funding levels necessary for the coming fiscal year. The Illinois municipal budget law requires the approval of year-end adjustments that reflect the actual financial and programmatic changes approved by the city council during the budget year by amending the city budget in a retroactive fashion. The adjusted budget can reflect the actual funding requirements needed by the city. The amendments are required if the actual revenue or expenditure exceeds what was budgeted for the fiscal year. Under budget items that are not normally amended, the most significant amendments have been previously reported to the city council. Move approval. Second.

Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion? So far. Thank you, mayor. Um, I had a question on page 15 for the culture, arts, and special events budget. It was increased because of the short film festival in the summer theater. I was curious what was the increase? Is there a paragraph that that's specifically referenced on? It's number seven. That's what I thought. Thank you. So, it's on page four of your memo, Deb.

Yes, we got it. Yeah. um they get in um cultural arts gets in donations for different things and then they're they're held in in an escrow and then their um revenue is increased and the expenditure is increased so that they can go ahead and spend those funds. So the increase was the lack of donations then? No, because oftent times the city will receive funding that we didn't know we were going to get. Okay. And so we didn't budget for it like for a grant is a good example of that because we don't know during the budget process whether we're going to be awarded the grant. So then when we get the grant

we increase grant revenue and we increase an expendit an appropriate expenditure line so that the department can go ahead and spend the money. Oh, so we got more funding and that's why Oh, exactly. Okay. We got more funding and that's it wasn't because like something there was some type of emergency. That's why I was trying to figure out there was some type of emergency that we could plan for the future. Okay. So we just got more fun. Okay. Thank you for clearing that. [clears throat] Sure. Anything else? Click, please call the role. Council members Alparro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefen, yes. Mayor Captain,

yes. Motion's approved. 8 Z. Item C is in a contract with my end Incorporated for the Mad Bomber fireworks production for the 2026 Fourth of July fireworks festival or display, excuse me, in the 2026 Lafiesta del de Elgen fireworks display. Elgen hosts these two signature community events each year for which fireworks are provided. The fourth of July event features a parade, concert, and family activities at Festival Park and Laaf Fiesta de Elgen held in September, also at Festival Park, celebrates Mexican Independence Day with music, culture, community engagement, and fireworks. Both of these events draw thousands to the downtown to celebrate. Staff is recommending awarding the purchase of a service agree purchase agreement for the Fourth of July fireworks and Lafesta de Elgen to Meand Incorporated, commonly known as Mad Bomber Fireworks Production.

Move for approval. Second. Second. moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion, Miss Park? Thank you, mayor. Um, I had a question. So, I in reading the contract like if we cancel it's a 40% we still have to pay. So, uh, I'm assuming there's a plan B for rain. So, what is that plan B?

Good evening. So, we have worked with Mad Bomber Fireworks for many, many years. Plan B is typically a sixmonth reschedule. Uh some of that comes down to when the timeline when the call is made within the timeline. If they have already set up, if the fireworks are already there, there comes a point when the fire marshall says these have to be disposed of through proper channels. Um in which case they would have to be repurchased. So there could be an additional cost. Um if uh the call is made in enough time that they are not set, we could reuse those and there may not be an additional cost outside of some potential labor. So, we would tie it to like a movies in the park or something.

It depends. We would look for something that would be similar in size. That's actually how Into Summer Bash got started a few years ago. We had the Fourth of July celebration canceled due to weather. Um, and we had bands to book and uh that was the only date available and so we made the end of summer bash happen um stupidly very very fast and made use of those those things without much additional cost. Um, looking at our calendar, there's not a whole lot that would be applicable. Um, so that would be a conversation we would have with Mad Bombers if appropriate.

Okay. Okay. And then I do appreciate that you were looking into drones. I I understand the stopping and not doing it. So, a little bummed that we won't have drones, but I totally get it. So, thank you,

Mr. St. I just wanted to echo uh Councilman Al Faro's sentiments about drones. I was eager to see us kind of working our way towards that and I understand the need to kind of step back temporarily, but I I would urge us to continue to look at that. We have members of our community that have problems with loud explosions, PTSD, and other things and animals as well, including my dogs who always don't like the whole weekend. So, I'm just happy that that's happening. So, thanks. Yeah, drones were something [clears throat] we were looking forward to. We know the community really loves them. Last year's show was was lovely. Um, and in communication with this company as well as a few others. Uh, we were working to try to make that happen for the 4th of July. It's just not feasible this year. So, it's something we'll definitely keep working forward toward uh, in 2027.

Okay. Anything else? Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro? Yes. Dixon? Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefen. Yes. Mayor Captain. Yes. Motion is approved. 8 Z.

Item D is a cooperative purchasing agreement with Omnia Partners to repair and resurface various basketball and tennis courts in the city. Uh late in 2022, Parks and Recreation Department conducted a comprehensive evaluation of its tennis and basketball courts. This assessment revealed widespread maintenance need, including crack repairs and the relication of surface color coatings. While many courts were found require only routine maintenance, seven were identified as being in advanced stages of deterioration and in need of more extensive rehabilitation. The tennis courts and basketball courts at Heritage, Copper Springs, and Clifford parks exhibited larger cracks requiring more extensive repairs, though not to the extent of needing full reconstruction. The base structure of all courts remains sound with level playing surfaces intact. This maintenance work is recommended to prevent more costly full reconstruction in the future and is scheduled for completion by the end of November of this year.

Move approval. Second. Moved and second for approval. Any discussion? I I sorry, mayor. Yeah, thank you. I I'm glad the manager clarified the memo because it did say 2025 and I think I I was assuming that was a typo and I'm appreciate that was clarified. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. Clerk, please call a role. Council member Alfaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. [clears throat] Stefan, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 8 Z.

Item E is the replacement of pedestrian bridge decking at both Walton Island and the downtown bike path bridges. Staff have identified four pedestrian bridges, including those at Walton Island and along the downtown bike path system, with decking that is significantly deteriorated to age and environmental exposure. This decking was last replaced about 12 years ago, and the bridges are critical connectors within the city's trail network and experience consistent daily use. contact engineered solutions as the original manufacturer of the bridges um and um serves as the sole source for the specialized repair and maintenance components required to preserve their structural integrity. This proposed purchase includes replacement of approximately 372 Douglas fur treated wood planks along with all required fastening hardware and hold down systems.

Move for approval. Second moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion hearing? None. Clerk, please call a role. Council member Zelaro, yes. [clears throat] Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefen, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 8 Z.

Item F, office renovations and technology improvements for the police department's cold case unit. Police department formed the cold case unit in 2024. And as many of you know, this unit identifies and researches cold cases in the pursuit of justice and closure for victims and their families. These cases often require significant time and resources along with organizational and administrative support to ensure the case review and investigative goals and objectives are met. The unit has recently expanded, adding another cold case detective and sergeant to the unit and the need for a cohesive workspace where all members of the unit can occupy uh the where the unit can uh now exist. The department is seeking to renovate existing office space to house the unit that will improve the efficiency and better position the unit for current and future service demands.

Move for approval. Second. Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion? Mr. Far, I just have a question for city staff out of curiosity and this is something from with the discussion with council member Dixon who had asked and I thought it was a really good question. So, I'm actually curious. Is there podcast also going to be in that space? because I didn't see that in the in the paperwork for the reconstruction, but just curious if they're planning to do the podcast there as well. I can't say with certainty, but it's not my understanding that they were creating a recording studio in this location. This is for the actual work. Well, yeah, that's what I saw from the construction. I was just curious where they're doing the podcast. I don't know. I don't know specifically. Okay. So,

anything else? [clears throat] Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zaro? Yes. Dixon? Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 8 Z announcements from the council.

Mr. I I'm going to try to do this from memory, but um the Nenina uh neighborhood group has a bianual fundraiser for their butterfly garden and this year it will be Thursday, April 30th at Kubo. Cost is now I think $100. It space is limited. It's uh unlimited food from uh Kubo and also an opportunity to participate in an auction. Uh, you can get tickets at the Nenina website or see anybody who's involved with the butterfly garden or Nenina. Okay. Anything else? Miss Faro.

Uh, thank you, mayor. I just wanted to share at the last meeting, council member Dixon and I had shared an update on the inclusivity and diversity ordinance. We now that have that on the agenda on the 7:00 moving forward. So, under miscellaneous, we will now be providing that update. So, I just wanted to um be transparent with the community since we gave the update during this time last time. Okay. Anything else? Announcements from staff.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, this evening we're going to have fire chief excuse me. This evening, I've asked Fire Chief Rob Sagen to uh address the council and the public with additional information that he provided last summer around this time about the city's updates to the emergency siren warning system. uh work that has been performed to date, the changes or the revisions that are looking to be implemented and what will we expect to see in the future. So, thank you for taking the time to come out this evening, Chief Sagen.

Well, I appreciate the opportunity and I and I want to expand a little bit beyond that scope here because there's some things I want to reiterate from last year that we talked about. Um, and it's very clear to me just with some of the conversations I've had with some of the citizens over the last two weeks on the phone, some emails I've received, and obviously some comments that we've seen that there is some need for some re-education as to what the system is all about, how the system works. And that's what I'm going to provide to you tonight. So, very briefly, I want to start out with what are the purpose of the sirens. I was I saw a few comments that were use the sirens for their intended purpose, which is for tornado warnings. that technically is not their intended uh purpose. The intended purpose of these was from many many many years ago, decades ago for civil defense. It wasn't until the 70s that we started to see widespread use of these systems for weather advisories. So though they have been used traditionally for the purposes of identifying tornado warnings, we also have and I'm going to explain that in just a few minutes that we also have expanded capabilities today that we didn't have just a few years ago. So it's important for people to understand the sole purpose of this system is one it's a misnomer to call it the tornado sirens. That's a common name, but the TR technical name is it's the outdoor emergency warning siren system. The design of the system is to impact our most vulnerable members of the community and those are people who are outside to the time that severe weather is approaching the city. So we when when those sirens go off, the whole intent here is for individuals to seek shelter and seek additional information. Those sirens are not to tell you exactly what is happening. It's to tell you that a threat is coming your way. Get inside. Get into some level of protection and

seek additional information, whether it be from the news, your weather apps, your if you have a Noah weather radio in your house. So, that's the intent of the system. The second point I want to talk about is how the system works. So, in 2024, we upgraded our system. We added a couple new sirens in different parts of the city and we upgraded our software. That was in 2024. And what's important to understand is this is now our third storm season that we've had this system and this is the first time that we're starting to hear complaints about its use and I'm going to talk more about that in a second.

So in our 2024 upgrade, one of the key features was automation. So prior to that, those sirens went off only at the touch of a human finger, which can also lead to all sorts of problems. Can lead to delays, can lead to a misactivation, all of all of those types of situations. By having a fully automated system, it takes the delay out. It takes the h potential for human error out. And that's where we are with the system today. So, when we look at why there's been so many activations recently, it's because out of the last three storm seasons that we've had this system, this has been the most severe and most impactful storm season we've had in three years, and we're just in the beginning phases of it. Also, the National Weather Service has shown over the last few years that we are encountering here in Illinois more severe weather. You see a lot of it down south, but our severe weather potential has increased over the years and we will see and should anticipate seeing more severe weather, which is part of the reason why we're taking the action that we're taking, which I'll expl explain also in in a minute. So, the way our system works is any it's tied in essence, it's tied directly to the National Weather Service alerting system. So when the National Weather Service, and this is important, I am not a weather expert. We rely on the experts, which is the National Weather Service to give us the information that they're saying we have an we have an impending severe weather event coming our way. So when the National Weather Service and if you think about when you watch the news and you watch the weather during a severe weather event, you'll see the various boxes that the National Weather Service puts on the screen saying this is this is the geographic area for the severe thunderstorm or the geographic area for the tornado warning.

The way our system works today, which is pretty slick, is that when those boxes are put into place, if any portion of those warning boxes bisects the city of Elgen, our siren system automatically activates. So that that takes away, like I said, the human component of potential delays. The other thing the system upgrades allowed us to do is look at and notify for severe thunderstorm warnings. and severe thunderstorms I'm I'm going to discuss here can be more as impactful or more impactful in some cases than some of our lower grade tornadoes. So when we talk about some of the concerns that have been raised and some of the questions that I fielded over the last two weeks and I'm sure some of the questions you may have fielded over the last few weeks, I have identified three main areas that are what I think are the issues that people are concerned about. The first one is why we have multiple siren activations during a storm. That is because when the system when the National Weather Service identifies and we're going let's talk about just severe thunderstorm warnings. The tornado warnings are are a non-issue in my view. I don't think anybody's complaining about the idea of the tornadoes of the sirens going off for tornado warnings. So in 2024 because our system allowed for us to be able to look at severe thunderstorm warnings and activate for those we have we have taken that we have incorporated that into our alert system. So as we have as as those boxes are put into place by the National Weather Service. So again just looking at a severe thunderstorm warning and you have a storm that's coming in from the north from the southwest going across the city. just anywhere in the west and it's coming across the city. We're going to get a box that's going to be maybe

covering Pingri, you know, west of 47 and east of 47 all in one geographic box. That will set off our sirens. Then as that storm progresses across and now comes down to the city center area and it has maintained its severe level capabilities, they may issue a warning for the city center area that [clears throat] will activate our sirens. And as it progresses eastbound and it gets past city center and then we're covering the south the the eastern side of the city into the Cook County side, if they issue another warning, the sirens go off. We also had a situation that occurred last fall where we had a severe thunderstorm warning sirens activated and then just minutes later they also put into place a se a tornado warning which then activated the sirens a second time. The purpose was not is as of today the purpose is not to identify for the community what the siren is for. What the purpose of the sirens is to notify the community that there is a threat coming your way because these are warnings and these are not watches where the conditions could be right for something to happen. These are warnings that the National Weather Service has said something is happening. If we talk about from the tornado perspective for the tornado warning sirens to go off or to go off for tornado warnings is you have rotation in the clouds. you have a funnel cloud that's starting to form. You have a tornado on the ground. All of those things will generate a tornado warning by the National Weather Service and those would activate our sirens. So that's so that's why the sirens have gone off multiple times. The other part of that is the size and the size of the city. We're 38 square miles. So what's happening in one corner of the city,

what's happening in Highland Woods may be different than what's happening at Willard and Villa. It can be sunny and and and and cloud-free there and Highland Woods could be dealing with severe weather. Those are challenges that we face in how do we notify the public? And I'll talk about some of those issues in a minute. The second issue that I I've cultivated out of everything that I've heard is why do we activate for severe thunderstorms? So let me give a little perspective here. We only activate for severe for the top two tier categories of severe thunderstorms. That's considerable and destructive terms that the National Weather Service has issued for their thunderstorms. The classifications for a considerable thunderstorm is 70 mph winds or greater and or one and 3/4 inch hail. The criteria for a destructive level of severe thunderstorm is 80 mph or better winds and two and 3/4 in hail. All of which can be devastating. So when we now compare that to an EF0 tornado, which is a classification of tornado, it's the lowest classification. It's also the one that is most common in the state of Illinois. an EF-0. They account for approximately one-third of all the tornadoes that occur in the state. An EF0 tornado, and like I said earlier, nobody is complaining about our tornado s the sirens going off for tornado warnings. An EF0 tornado is 65 mph winds, lower than what we've put them off for when it comes to our considerable uh warnings for um severe uh severe thunderstorms. The other challenge is with an EF0ero tornado is

they're often very small in size. They're small footprint and they're also small in the they may cause a fair amount of damage, but it's going to be a very small geographic area that that you're going to that you have to afr going to impact. Take a severe thunderstorm, which we've all lived through many many many of those that can span the entire city and it's going to be moving. They may be moving at 50 miles an hour which is which they'll move through fa fast but the geographic footprint is far more impactful than that EF-0 tornado. This is why we have chosen with the abilities with the capabilities of our upgraded system to activate for these top tier severe weather uh severe thunderstorm events. An EF0 tornado at 65 miles an hour can tear a roof off a house. 70 plus mileph winds, straight line winds can have similar damage. And then you add on top of that one and 3/4 or 2 and 3/4 inch hail, breaking windows, smashing through car windows. We want our citizens to get into safe areas. That's why we set the sign sirens off for the thunderstorms. The third area, the third issue that that I I was able to pull out of all this is a concern that that we're creating a scenario of crying wolf. And I vehemently dis disagree with that. We are not creating a scenario of crying wolf. We are creating a scenario where we are providing notification of the community members for impending severe weather threat towards your area. the the National Weather Service are the ones who decide and say this is coming. We're going to warn you. We're going to move this from a watch to a warning. And all we're doing is taking that and saying in case you missed it, in case you're not watching the news, you don't

have a Noah weather radio on, you don't have your phone's not activated because you're not in the actual warning box yet. It's coming your way. We're notifying you ahead of time. It's what we call a proactive alert protocol. That's what we're doing is trying to be as proactive as we possibly can to alert the community to keep them safe rather than a reactionary alert protocol after the fact, which is one of the big concerns. If you remember back in 1990, the EF5 tornado that hit Planefield, Illinois, significant event killed 29 people. The afteraction analysis of that event was very, very critical about the notifications to the residents. Some reports I read even talk about how the tornado warning warnings didn't occur until after the tornado left the ground. So what came out of that planefield incident was something called the planefield syndrome. And very basically, and this is something that's talked about within the meteorological world, the the planefield syndrome is based on the idea that it's better to issue too many warnings and not have them materialize than to fail to to miss one life-threatening warning that could result in a death. That's the that's the concept that's come out of that disaster. And that's this. And I didn't even know that was something when we did this three years ago, but that is what we're trying to avoid is how many times do you see videos online of people on their front porch, in their driveway, in their backyard, out front taking videos of the tornado that's coming their way. They're not seeking, they're not taking the the necessary steps to protect themselves. And what they're also missing is whether you're dealing with a tornado or you're dealing with a severe thunderstorm is all the debris that's kicking up. 70 mph, getting hit with some debris at 70 mph is going to be

potentially catastrophic for you. That's why we want you inside. All we want to do is notify the community to please get inside, get to a safe place, and get more information. We have lots of ways to get that information. One of the things that has come up is the emergency warning system, which is what happens when your phone activates. You get them for amber alerts at times and it has that very screeching sound. Those only activate though when you are in that immediate area. And how those activate, I don't even I'm not even exactly sure if that's an automated system or if that's a manual system through the National Weather Service. But I can tell you I have not had the my phone activate very often over the years for a storm. The other thing with the with the crying wolf syndrome concern is this tornadoes. Think think about this. How many times in your lifetime have you heard the sirens go off for a tornado warning and a tornado never materialized? And some of the concerns I've heard is, well, you guys set the sirens off and nothing happened. We That's a good thing. We should be happy about that because here's what I can tell you. If you've lived in Elgen your entire life, like the mayor has, and the number of tornado warning sirens that you've heard go off, in the last 100 years, we've had one tornado,

one,

but we still set them off to notify the public to get out of the way of this of this weather. So what we're doing, what we've already done is when we put the system in place in 24, we expanded outside of the city limits our notification area. So if for example, we were all the way out to 47 in a straight vertical north south line. So if that storm crossed 47, we were getting notified. And we did that under the pretense of let's get early notification. We have now shrunk that down in an effort to help reduce multiple siren activations. We've shrunk that down to the city of Elgen limits. Now, we still go pretty close to 47 in some areas. So, we still can run the risk at 38 square miles of having a storm hit that far western area and down in Festival Park, it's sunny and the the the movie in the park can keep going on. We still can run into those issues. And as I said before, we can still run into multiple activation issues because of the weather service moving those warning boxes across our 38 square miles and by issuing going from tornado from thunderstorm warnings to tornado warnings. All of those factors can lead to multiple activations. So we've shrunk it down to the city limits. So know with confidence tonight that should our systems go off, it is because there is some area within the city of Elgen boundary that is under threat of severe weather. The second thing that we've done and this is a temporary move to help quell some of the concerns and and help us give us a little bit of breathing room to be able to evaluate some other ideas. We have temporarily deactivated the automatic activation for severe thunderstorm warnings. What we're doing is a hybrid

type situation. Now, our system will text my entire command staff in the fire department that the National Weather Service has issued a a warning of some sort for Elgen. We will be able to activate those sirens from our phones or from calling the 911 center and having them activate. So could we could there be a slight delay? Yes. But because our system is activating like immediately and we'll get those notifications immediately. We can have these sirens off within a minute of the time we get that notification if we if we if that's the direction we want to go. The other thing is and I anticipate what will happen. We will set those sirens off but we'll do it one time and then you won't get the subsequent this subsequent sirens for severe thunderstorms. But if we set those off at 7 o'clock and at 7:02 they do a tornado warning activation. They do a tornado warning box, the sirens are going to go off in rapid succession and that's what they're designed for. The third thing that we're doing is we're going to be developing a media campaign to better educate the community about this. That's something that we're going to be working on over the next few weeks that we can get out in multiple formats so that we can and it it won't be a one time a one-time deal. We will try to do this on a much more consistent basis to help get this messaging out. Many of the points I'm talking about today are things that we need to educate the public about because there's a misperception of what this system is. And then one other thing that we're look two other things that we're looking into and please understand every action we take has a reaction to it. So, we need to assess what all of those reactions are so that we can limit the negative reactions and still maintain high quality awareness of our community. So, the first thing is we're looking at the concept of using two different siren tones, one for severe thunderstorm and one for a tornado warning. There are a

lot of concerns about doing that that we're vetting right now. The other issue is the possibility of zoning the city's siren system. Could we zone it where if a storm is coming from the southwest going north northeast and it comes across I hate to keep picking on Highland Highland Woods, but it's a great example. Okay, coming across Highland Woods and it's not going to hit any other part of the city. Maybe only that zone of sirens go off. But as we all know, storms can change on in a heartbeat. We just saw in Lena, Illinois on Friday, just a few hours before our storm came through. They had a pretty significant tornado event that occurred within a thunderstorm. It's what they called a rainwrapped tornado. It can This is where I get nervous of making changes that don't notify the entire community. So, I am very um conscious and aware of the concerns of of some of our community members who have reached out to me and reached out online. Their concerns are things that we are we are trying to address, but we're a community of 115,000 people and we have a responsibility to to protect the community the best we can. And I think that that's what we're trying to do with these different things that we're evaluating, these different options we're evaluating. But please know that whatever direction we end up going is what we believe to be the best for the entire community and still maintaining that proactive alert protocol concept that we want to maintain. So that's what I have, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Okay.

Any questions for Chief Sag?

Miss Paul? Thank you, Chief. Um, as a um, closet stormchaser here, very very very much in the closet. Um, I I had some concerns as well about the the sirens and have heard from residents. I like hearing about some of the tweaks that you guys have already made. I think it will help along with the education efforts. Um, I was going to ask if there's a way, and I think you addressed this as something that you guys are looking into, um, having a different tone or a different type of siren for thunderstorm warnings versus tornado warnings. I I think that would be most effective for folks.

If I may, if you can, if I may, we we can do that. The one concern though that has come out of our research into this is we have especially during our storm season, our summer months, we have tens of thousands of people who come into our sports complex into our community events and they don't know what they and they don't know the difference and now the siren goes off or imagine 20,000 people downtown during Nightmare on Chicago Street we activate they don't know what they mean and that's where our concern is. I think we could get the messaging out to our community, but we have so many people that traverse our community for various things throughout the storm season. That's one of our concerns and that's where we're trying to weigh the options.

And and I'm glad you brought that up. So, as those of us who traverse the, you know, greater Chicago area, are there other communities that are dealing with the same situation that we are based on the system that we're using that their sirens are now going off for thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings, or are we kind of unique in that that instance? I I can't talk authoritatively on that because I haven't researched every community, but what I can tell you is that the National Weather Service provide guidelines, but they don't they leave it up to the individual jurisdictions on what they want to use them for. I in my research on this topic, um I saw multiple reports where one a community in the northwest suburbs here uses their sirens for to to indicate opposite the road parking based on snow conditions. So a community can use their siren system for whatever things they want to use it for as long as they communicate that obviously to the comm community to the community. I think utilizing our system the way we are for the considerable for the high level severe thunderstorms is probably um there's probably fewer communities doing that today than than not.

Okay. Or than that are I'm sorry that are. So we are probably on the leading edge of doing that. Okay. is my guess.

And I I appreciate the explanation in terms of breaking down, you know, the the wind speeds in a EF0 tornado versus a thunderstorm, a significant or or considerable thunderstorm, which can, as you pointed out, can be just as damaging, if not more damaging. I think getting that information out to the public, it helps them to understand why activating the sirens in those instances is very important. Um because we have had a whole lot of those lately. Um micro bursts as well. Um correct. Those are those are significant. Um

and those come out of severe thunderstorms.

They come out of severe thunderstorms. So um no, I appreciate all of this. I I see a whole lot of opportunity for our communication staff to to do some messaging and send something, you know, send things out to folks. But I I do appreciate the things that you have tweaked. I I personally would still like to see two different sirens. I think that would and obviously us um communicating that um because I don't want people to become desensitized to the sirens and that's what I am concerned with. But my my counter to that one point though to the community is that's an individual decision. We're setting these off to notify you to go get more information. It's no different than the person who hears if we only did them for tornadoes who hears the tornado warning go off and then goes outside to video the the tornado. That's it's a decision that they make. So if they want to if they want to if they want to desensitize themselves to the sirens that we're trying to utilize to communicate something, that's that's an individual decision that they're making.

I get it. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Dixon.

Thank you. U Thank you, M Chief Sen uh for the presentation. Thank you for looking into this and and um even coming up with some ideas of what we could do. Um uh first and foremost I I think that people have been conditioned to hear one thing for so long and then when they're not educated of a change in something and that change is implemented then they are you know guessing and wondering what's happening. So the major component of this is education and no matter what we do. Yes. Right. Um, from from there, the option of having a a different sound for thunderstorm versus a tornado, um, I think is is totally plausible given the situation. Um, I would steer clear away from having uh a decentralized system where parts of the city is having a warning while other parts are not. specifically for the reason that you stated, which is storms change directions all the time. So, I don't think that would be a good idea. Um, so I think that what this all just comes down to, you know, and we can say all the great things and nice words. It really just comes down to education.

Yes. And having a different siren. No one that I heard was upset that they were being warned. They just were upset that they didn't know what the warning was anymore. So that's the crux of it to me. So I think we figure that out, we're golden. Sure. So thank you for Thank you again for your work. Thank you for the feedback. Y, Miss Martinez, thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Chief Sen. You say you're not an expert meteorologist, but it kind of sounded like it. But I would just like to say that um what hit home one time was that micro burst that we had and we've had a few of them over the years.

Yes, those are the scary ones because they just happen out of nowhere.

And um so just for clarification, there's a way that you can go ahead and set the alarm to go off or the siren to go off at any time because like I said, those you don't know where they're when they're coming or where. A national emergency is like um it's hitting a lot of areas, you know, at at a time like it's raining, thundering, and um uh I I agree. It's kind of I'd rather air uh and be safe, you know, and uh uh but but it is confusing because I remember that happened to us where we were doing a siren over here at uh at the post office and um it was you're supposed to go ahead and seek cover, but I don't know why somebody just said uh got to go outside and everybody went outside and it was like a failure,

you know. Luckily, it was just a practice, but if it wasn't, that would have been uh terrible. So, um I agree. I think that uh it should be like the whole city, you know, the whole city. But, um I guess um you can figure that out. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Anything else, Mr. Steph? Yeah, just chief. Thank you. I I was one of the maybe all of us that wanted you to kind of give us this clarification. And the big takeaway, I will try to say it as many times I'm gonna say it and because I think it has to be said repeatedly, is that when you hear a siren, it's not a tornado. It's a notice that there is severe weather and you need to get inside and find a way to find out more information.

Yes, that's what I want to enforce. So, thank you. That's it. Anything else, Thoren? Okay, Mr. Thorne. Thank you. Uh, Chief, I wondered if you could uh compose an email describing all of this and send it to Christy Schmidt and she could then send it to all the neighborhood watch captains who could then distribute it to their uh neighborhoods. I think it would answer a lot of questions that people have.

Sure. And we're looking to do some we we want to hit every part of the community as much as we can. So that's a great thought on how we could start to do that. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? All right. All right. Thank you very much. Okay. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Moved and second to adjurnn. 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 7:05. [music]

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22nd 2026 to order. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of Americans and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Will the clerk please call the role? Council members Alfaro, present. Dixon, present. Good here. Martinez here. Ortiz here. Powell here. Stefan here. Thorne here. Mayor Tton here. Uh, Mr. Thorne has asked for permission to uh join the meeting remotely uh via Zoom. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Clerk, please follow Paul. 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. Um, approval of the minutes of the previous meeting of April 8th. So moved. Second.

Moved and second for approval. Any corrections or additions? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zelf Faro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, abstain. Powell, yes. Stefen, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain,

yes. Motion's approved 8 Z with one abstension. We have a number of uh uh communications this evening. The first one is a proclamation for uh Mayor Brandon Johnson. Miss Powell, please. Good evening. If I could have Mayor Brandon Johnson's siblings join me up here. We have Joy Johnson and Pastor Andrea Johnson Williams. Thank you for being here. Let's come over this way. Thank you. Thank you for letting me read this. Mayor Whereas Brandon Johnson, a proud native of Elgen, has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to service, leadership, and community empowerment. And whereas his formative years were shaped within Elgen's public schools, beginning at Garfield Elementary School and Ellis Middle School, culminating in his graduation from Elgen High School, where he developed the character, resilience, and vision that would guide his life's work. And whereas he continued his educational journey at Elgen Community [clears throat] College and Aurora University, reflecting a steadfast commitment to personal growth and lifelong learning. And whereas his dedication to youth development was evident early on through his service as a youth leader at Community Center Christian Ministries, the ministry founded by his parents Andrew Johnson

and William Willa Jean Johnson, where he mentored young people through music and character development. And whereas his foundation of faith, service, and family was further rooted in the legacy of his grandfather, Reverend Leonard R. Spate, Senior of Spates Temple Church of God in Christ, instilling values in him that continue to guide his public life. And whereas throughout his service as mayor of Chicago, just think about that. He is mayor of the city of Chicago, one of the top four largest cities in our country. Was born and raised right here in Elgen. I just wanted to take a pause for everybody to take that in. He has brought honor to his hometown, exemplifying principled leadership and a deep commitment to equity, education, and opportunity for all, and serving as a source of pride and inspiration to the residents of Elgen. And now therefore, I, Tish Powell, on behalf of Mayor David Captain of the city of Elgen, Illinois, do proudly recognize and honor Brandon Johnson for his outstanding achievements, his unwavering commitment to service, and for being a distinguished son and proud alumnest of Elgen High School, whose impact reaches far beyond the city's borders, and whose legacy, leadership, and example continue to inspire ire future generations. [applause]

Thank you.

Thank you um Councilwoman um Powell and to Mayor Captain and to everyone in their respective places. Um me and my sister uh Joy, we do accept this with great gratitude and um with the committed work of working in the community. It has been our life's work. Um he's got a bigger responsibility than we do, but we um do certainly believe that there is no person that is too small um to be able to receive basic human rights and we will continue that work here in Elgen and across the United States. So, thank you. [applause] Would Kat Herena meet me at the podium, please? That's for you proclamation. Whereas the month of April was established as Lao New Year celebration month, our community's Asian population will continue celebrating this milestone throughout the month of April. And whereas these celebrations are designed to combat polarization and stereotypes and to improve understanding and cooperation among people from different cultures. And whereas Lao New Year celebration month allows all citizens to celebrate and support each other's culture and heritage in the Elgen community. And whereas Lao New Year celebration month provides occasions of hopes to build relationships with community members and encourage support for the Asian population in Elgen. Now therefore, I David Captain, mayor of the city of Elgen, Illinois, to hereby proclaim the month of April as Lao New

Year celebration month in Elgen and encourage all residents to continue participating in the celebration events at various public venues. Congratulations. [applause] Thank you, Mayor Captain. Hello, Sabi.

Imagine a city that welcomes immigrants and refugees with open arms. A place where families arriving with hope, resilience, and dreams are given to the opportunity to rebuild their lives. That is the city of Elgen. Good evening, Mayor Captain, members of the council, distinguished guest here and at home because I know my aunt over there is doing Facebook live and our beloved community. My name is Gate Harena, president of Lao American Association. I'm honored to stand here alongside with our dedicated board of directors, our community members, and particularly our elders who paved the way with strength, sacrifice, and p perseverance. Since the late 70s, Elgen has been a place of refuge and opportunity for law families. What began a journey of her survival has grown into a vibrant, thriving community, one that continues to support and contribute to the cultural, social, and economic fabric of this city. We are deeply grateful to Mayor Captain, the city council, particularly Councilwoman Trish Pal and Councilman Corey Dixon and this and the Elgen Township for their continued support and recognition of our community. Your leadership and partnership means so much to us. We are proud that Elgen and Vangjan shared a sister city relationship symbolizing a deep cultural and historic ties between our community and the city. We hope to strengthen that com and that

relationship. Corey and I were just talking about that la new year is a time for renewal, reflection and unity. It is a time to honor our traditions, celebrate our culture, and look forward to a future filled with hope and opportunity. On behalf of Lao American Association of Illinois, thank you for standing and celebrating with us and continuing to make Elgen a place where all communities can thrive. Thank you, Sabayan. Happy New Year. [applause]

Ask Council Member Martinez to read the next proclamation. Sure. Whereas Sikhs have been living in the United States for more than 120 years during the early 20th century, thousands of seek Americans work on farms, in lumberm mills, and mines, and on the Oregon Pacific Eastern Railroad. And whereas seekism is the fifth largest religion in the world today there are more than 25 million seeks worldwide and an estimate 500,000 seek Americans and 25,000 seeks in the state of Illinois. And whereas seek Americans pursue diverse professions and make rich contributions to the social culture and economic vi vibration, I'm sorry, of the United States, including service as members of the United States Armed Forces and significant contributions to the great nation in agriculture, information technology, small businesses, and hotel industry, trucking, medicine, legal services and technology. And whereas seek Americans distinguish themselves by fostering respect among all people through faith and service. And whereas the city of Algen is

committed to educating citizens about the world's religions, the value of religious diversity, tolerance grounded in first amendment principles, a culture of mutual understanding, and the dimination of violence. And whereas today the city of Elgen seeks further and diversity, it's in in its community and affords our residents the opportunity to better understand, recognize and appreciate the rich history and shared experiences of seek Americans. And now therefore, I, Rose Martinez, Councilwoman, on behalf of David Captain, mayor of this great city of Algen, Illinois, do hereby proclaim the month of April as seek awareness and appreciation month in the city of Algen. In witness therefore of, I have unto my set my hands this 22nd day of April, 2026. David J. Captain. Thank you, Miss Martin. Is our sik heritage and history in the United States is in these posters and uh please uh read them later on when you get a chance. Now, Guinea Jolly would speak a few words on our behalf. Respected mayor, the councilmen, my friends, uh what an honor it is to be part of a day celebrating diversity, right? The sick word means student.

Think about it. Student for life. Isn't that the way to lead a purposeful life? We all should be students. We all should be constantly learning about each other. how we can become a better version of who we are and how we can support others. I as a aspiring sick constantly question my actions every day. What am I doing? What am I thinking? What am I doing to help my community become a better community? 43 years ago, we came to this land of opportunity, the land called United States of America. a beacon of hope for all immigrants. This is the land we chose to raise our family, to get educated. 33 years ago, with literally no money, it can only happen in America. If you dream big, you can reach it, right? I decided to start my own businesses. Phenomenal, right? 23 years ago, me and my family, we were in Vietnam adopting a little girl. This little girl who is so special, she's changed our why. She's the reason who we are now. The special daughter of ours teaches me life lessons every day. How to be happy always, how never to complain, how always to lend a helping hand. So we as parents of special need daughter know the pains and the worries special need parents have. Thus our foundation we help special need kids get education, employment, job training and we hold picnics where

the communities come together and celebrate each other. Martin Luther King said, "We must learn to live together as brothers or together we perish as fools." My friends, my brothers and sisters, we the sick communities extend our hands of friendship towards you. I want to know your story. I want to know your turmoils. I want to learn about your triumphs. And I'm positive together we can make Elgen a city whose model for its diversity, inclusion, and progressiveness. God bless America. [applause] Thank you very much for listening us. I will just give you a little bit history about our ancestors. We are the minority. No, we are the minority of the minorities yet very highly visible due to our identity given to us by our guru goven Singh in 1699. Uh we are in the America more than probably 130 years. I gave you two incidents. In first world war, Pagas Singh thinned who served in the US army. I have his posters here. In 1956, the gentleman Dip Singh Son came in this country. He studied be become a doctor of math. He want to teach. He could not teach because citizenship was not allowed to the Asians at that time. It happened 1946. He fought for being a congressman in 1956

and won three terms. I just want to let you know we are not just around here now. Our ancestors been around here more than 120 years. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you all. brings us to the portion. We allow people to speak for three minutes for items on the agenda. First person to sign up is Nicholas Sisley. Thank you, Mayor Captain Council members. Audio okay?

Very good. My name is Nicholas Sysler. I am an Elgen resident, a 1978 graduate of Elgen High School, an almost graduate of Judson College, now Judson University. I am a Marine Corps veteran, honorably discharged January 1984. Honorably discharged veteran of the Illinois Army National Guard, 1994. Public action to deliver shelter is a primary concern to me lately and I'm sure going forward. A year ago I May 15, 2025, zero income, no job and almost retired. I came back from northeastern Alabama with family after a failed five-month business venture. Okay, zeroed out. Turn the page. We start with a clean slate. After my orientation and intake with pads of Elgen, the intake was simple, efficient, and effective. And for two weeks, I read the rules morning and night. They are quite lengthy, but not as lengthy as your minutes for this evening.

They are detailed. They're purposeful. And I didn't forget them. They are part of my scrapbook right here. A wide variety of folks have been there and I am mobile though I'm not running the Elgen Fox this year. There are handicapped. There are challenged individuals, people who are hurt, who have been there and arrived there from domestic violence and other conditions that I am only an observer. My case managers provided me with clear-headed forward thinking, not shooting from the hip, not taking things for granted, not making the assumptions that I once did, which led to my unemployment. The first couple of days, I am certain I was asleep before I hit the pad, the mattress. exhaustion, stress, panic, and I've seen it on others as well. But as time went on, I'm almost complete. And it does fly. Public action to deliver shelter. I am a volunteer and will continue to be so. I support your unanimous consent on the grant funding application before you this evening. Thank you for your time.

Thank you,

Katie Thompson. Let me hurry up. [laughter] Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and Council, and to everyone here. My name is Crystal Thompson. I am a proud member to be of this Elgen community. Um but more so I'm a proud board member of paths of Elgen. Um I am an advocate locally, regionally and nationwide. I'm on a lot of committees, a lot of organizations, but PADS is most important to me because eight years ago, after working in corporate America for 20 years, and I decided to take a change in job opportunity to work for the state of Illinois. Several months after that, my health took a drastic decline. So, I'm one of those people who will say that it can happen to anyone and never thought that it would happen to me. After being off work for several months and realizing I would not be able to work and having over six months of savings that goes very quickly. I found myself losing my home, my job, my car and everything. But I tell people that I was blessed to be in a great city of Elgen who has pads, who has a place that I was able to call and not to live on the street or not even live in the car because I lost my car. So I entered pads of Elgen December of 2018. I was there through COVID. One of my health crisis is a lung disease. So that was very scary to be in PADS, but I'm blessed that I was in PADS because I could not

imagine surviving the critical health crisis that I was going through and not having a place permanently to be in every day and night. So through PADS and their great services, I was able to apply for permanent disability and to get housed. That was five years ago. That time I started my new journey as being an advocate. As I said, I'm on many organizations, a n two national organizations. I go around nationwide speaking. But every time I speak out, I always bring it back to Elgen and I bring it back to pads and the importance that we are there and that we remain there for people like myself, people that you see every day. trust and believe that you know people that are going through it but you don't know it because it's something that we often keep to ourselves. So I want to say thank you for the opportunity to allow me to speak briefly. Thank you for considering us and providing possibly the funding that we that we desperately need. And this is something that pads we have to continue because as a great city of Elgen I know that none of us want to see our brothers and sisters continue to suffer and by being a part of this communication that is something that Patz will commit to continuing to do. I thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Okay, that brings us to bids. First item is bid number 26-00005 lead service line replacement 5-year contract. Move toward the bid to Strong Piper Strong LLC of Shamberg, Illinois for the year five lead service line replacement program in the amount of $3,18,055. Second moved and seconded. Any discussion hearing? None. Clerk, please call a role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefan. Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mir Captain. Yes. The motion is approved. 90. [clears throat]

Item two is bid number 26-00006 lead service line replacement. A 5-year contract. Mr. Mayor. I'm make a motion that we award a contract to IH IHC Construction Companies LLC of Elgen, Illinois uh for the 5-year lead service line replacement in the amount of $4,165,270. Second. Been moved and second for approval. Any discussion,

Miss Paul? Um, I I just wanted to raise my hand because we're about to spend uh probably close to what, seven million, a little bit over $7 million on lead service line replacements. Someone should say something. So, I'm going to say thank you to staff uh for their diligence and continuing this very important work in our community. Um, I'm I'm pleased that we are able to do this. There are a lot of communities that um have not been as fortunate as us in terms of securing some of the grant funding that we've gotten um that we've received. So, um really thankful um and appreciative for that because this work is is not cheap, but it's very necessary. So, um we're spending a lot of money. We we should say something about it. So I just want to say thank you

and it is totals about $14 million annually that so this is just a portion of the work that we've been doing now going on this about eight years. Thank you council member long hill declined. Anything else? Please call the role. Council members. Yes. Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefan. Yes. Thorne. Yes. Mir captain. Yes. Motions approved. 90. Item three is bid number 26-014, maintenance codings.

Mayor, I make the motion that we award the 2026 pavement market marking program bid to the maintenance coding company in the amount of $461,340 400,000. Thank you. Been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Zelf Faro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 90. Item four is a public works interior lighting update, a job order contract.

Mayor, I'm sorry. Um, you have an agenda that was subsequently amended to remove that item. You will be seeing it at the next meeting. I apologize for that. Okay, brings us to other business. Uh, first item is uh uh for a uh a bond issue. Uh there has to be an amendment uh made to this. Uh before voting on this other business, we need to have a motion. I'd entertain a motion that would state I would first entertain a motion to amend number uh S2-26 to reflect the bond issuance amount of $24 million $3335,000. Um there's needs to be a vote on this. This updates because the bonds are sold and we can't actually predict the day that they're sold what the costs are. So it has to be updated on the day we make the vote.

I'll move that motion. Second. It's been moved and seconded to amend uh uh item one to uh uh to the amount of $24,335,000. Clerk, please call the role. Mayor Captain, you know, I think uh finance director Dearaki is going to do a brief presentation summary of the bond sale. I think we can allow that before we take the the vote on the motion to

All right, Mr. Naki. Good evening, mayor and uh city council. Um as I think you're all aware, the the city went to market today and um to sell general obligation bonds. Our sale took place at uh 10:00 this morning. Um you will recall during the budget process the um adopted budget for the utility fund included $40.5 million worth of initiatives that were to be raised through either um general obligation bond financing or um loans from the IEPA for lead service line replacements. Since that time we know that we've been awarded $13.6 million in funding from the IEPA. Those loans come in two forms. Um, a portion of the loan, $2.5 million, is a principal forgiveness loan, which, um, in effect is a grant. We don't have to pay it back. The other 11.1 million is in the form of a 30-year 0% interest loan. That bring uh brought our required funding down to 26.9 million. back on uh February 25th, the city council approved moving forward with the general um bond issue in up to that amount. Just to remind everybody, the debt uh financing for utility fund bonds, the principal and the interest are funded through water rates. The property taxes are abated and do not show up on the tax roster. Since the time that city council approved um going forward with the bonds, the city's been working with Spear Financial, our financial adviserss, and Chapman and Cutler, our bond council, to prepare an official statement, which is basically a marketing tool to market um the city and

our bonds to potential investors. Um it's a very comprehensive document that includes um all kinds of information about our financial position, development activity in the city, our tax base, demographics, uh a whole lot of um really good information about the city. During that time, we also had to undergo another um rating review with Standard and Poor. And I'm happy to let you know that they did um rate these new bonds and reaffirmed our rate on our existing bonds at the double A+. So we are very excited about that. in their report, which was attached to what I sent you earlier um this afternoon, they attribute their high rating um and positively call out that Elgen's stable operating budget, management's forwardlooking and conservative budgeting strategies, and our strong reserves, which they as part of this um rating expect to continue. They also call out the city's um debt burden and that it is relatively low in comparison to our peers in the state of Illinois and partially attributing that to the fact that we restrict our gaming revenues um for capital improvements that then don't require us to issue debt for that um those type of projects. Um on the negative side, they um point out that our pension obligations will continue to challenge the city. So, like I said, we um the the bond sale opened at 10:00 this morning. It's done through an open auction, which means that biders can come in and bid and then change their bid as they see other bids coming in to

try to to win the bid. We had uh nine investors that bid in the process um submitting 29 bids in the fight to uh um win the bid. I think this speaks favorably on the city and our financial position that we had that kind of interest in our bonds.

The winning um company was JP Morgan Securities with an interest rate of 3.46. The highest bidder was 3.55% which is less than onetenth of 1% between the top and the bottom bidder. And what this suggests to us is that these bonds are well priced and the people that were um investing read the market correctly. Our timing was very good. Our um Spear Financial pointed out that had our sale been scheduled for two weeks ago, they would have advised us to pull our sale and wait because of what was going on in the market with the war, we would not have gotten the interest rates two weeks ago that we got today. So very thankful for for our timing there. And um for comparison purposes, when we went to market last year in 2025, the rate was 4 111 which you know more than a half a percent higher than we're at this year and we only had four biders last year. So we were very pleased with the sale and felt like we got good pricing on our bonds. Um, and in terms of the results of the sale compared to our our budget and our what we were anticipating, the budget assumed that we would issue bonds at 3.75% over a 20-year term. We're act these are actually at 3.46 over 15 years. So, we're in a favorable position compared to our budget as well. So, overall, I think it was a very great sale for the city. Okay. Any questions for Deb? Okay. We have a motion to amend. Uh clerk, please call the role.

Council member Zelf Faro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain,

yes. The motion is amended. Now, we have to vote on the ordinance. An ordinance providing for the issuance of approximately $24,335,000 of general obligation uh purpose bonds series 2026 for this of the city of the purpose of financing water and sewer utility projects within the city and paying the expenses incident thereto providing for the levy and collection of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the principle of and interest of those bonds and authorizing the sale of the bonds to the purchaser thereof. of move approval. Second.

Move the second for approval. Any discussion? Clerk, please call the role. Council members Alfaro. Um, pass right now. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefins, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. The motion's approved. Oh, then yes. Yeah. Sorry, I asked corporate council a question. Sorry. Yes. 90.

Item two is an ordinance amending chapter 5.18 of the Elgia Municipal Code entitled leases for designated city facilities and performance contracts for Hemans Auditorium. Move for approval. Second. Moved and second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call a role. Council member Zelf Faro. Yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 90. Item three is a resolution adopting the city of Elgen ADA transition plan. Move for approval. Second. Second. [clears throat] Moved and seconded for approval. Any discussion? So far,

thank you. I had a question. In our full packet on page 183, there's a talk about a fee in lie of a sidewalk construction. So, a sidewalk fee in L program allows the city to collect a fee when properties are redeveloped rather than requiring property owners to construct sidewalks. Are we doing that already?

I'm I'm scrolling to page 183 right now. The city has pursued sidewalk gap programs in any infill developments that that we have. And I know that there might be certain circumstances where a fee could be paid in lie of that. I can't give you a specific example at this time because most of the debates for lack of a better term that I recall regarding infill development have required those developers to include sidewalks to complete the gaps. Okay. And then I just want to also thank uh staff. I saw that um Mike uh presented at the human rights commission um in reading their minutes and so I appreciate that they also got um the commission's feedback on the ADA plan.

So thank you to staff. Thank you. Anything else? 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. Motion's approved. 90. Item four is a resolution authorizing a grant to public action to deliver shelter incorporated pads of Elure. Move for approval. Second. Second. It's been moved and second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call the role. Council members Alaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, abstain. Ortiz?

Yes. Powell? Yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, abstain. Mir Captain, yes. The motion's approved 70 with two abstensions. Consent agenda. Move for approval. Second. Moved and second for approval. Any discussion? Hearing none. Clerk, please call a role. Council member Zaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, abstain. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mayor Captain, yes. Motion's approved. 8 Z with one abstension. Miscellaneous business. Move for approval. Second.

Move the second for approval. Any discussion? Miss Alfaro.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, number four is an announcement on the inclusivity and diversity um initiative update. So, council member Dixon and I will be providing that update. So, as council member Dixon has shared at the last meeting, um there is a website where you could find the information um at any time. It's engaged.gov. Um and then once you go there, you'll just click on inclusivity and diversity initiative. Uh but this council meeting update, we just wanted to share a couple of things. One, um staff has been working on creating a comprehensive like overview of looking at all the operations. Um who has um language access in their department, who has um translators, who needs translators, putting that catalog together to get a better idea for the language access plan. Um [snorts] in regards to the legal defense fund, uh staff has been looking at different models across the country um to see what might make sense here and looking to expand it to include the additional groups that we had discussed as a council. um the economic development piece. Um I actually had the opportunity to meet with uh Nick and Dev, finance and procurement um and got their feedback on that part and so I have actually revised that portion and so that portion's almost done. There's just a couple things that staff is looking at but that one is um in pretty good shape. And then in addition to that um the other thing is that for the municipal ID staff is looking into um what other cities are doing. They have benchmarked and found some really good models and they're looking into that work authorization still. So that is the update for this meeting.

Okay, great. Anything else? All right. Oh, we need to approve it. Sorry. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Council members Alfaro. Yes. Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Ortiz. Yes. Powell. Yes. Stefan. Yes. Thorne. Yes.

Mir Captain. Yes. Motions approved. 90-0. Uh announcements. Uh next committee of the whole meeting will be Wednesday, May 13, 2026 at 6 PM in the council chambers. The next regular meeting of the Elgen City Council will be Wednesday, May 13, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers. I'd entertain a motion to adjourn to executive session. So move to personal discussions. Please call the role. Council members Alaro, yes. Dixon, yes. Good. Yes. Martinez, yes. Ortiz, yes. Powell, yes. Stefan, yes. Thorne, yes. Mir Captain, yes. We are ajourned. [music]