City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Elmer City Council for Monday, July 20, 2026. I'd ask that you please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Clerk Tamer, please call the roll.

Verrimas? Here. Bellinger?

Here.

Shanko? Here. Hill?

Here.

Graham?

Here.

Jensen?

Here.

Toledo, absent. Baker? Here. Newdera?

Here.

Virgil?

Here.

Nardini?

Here.

Bastido? Here. Irby?

Here.

Brennan?

Here.

13 present, one absent.

13 present, one absent. We have a quorum. Item three is we have a couple of presentations, the first of which I will do from the dais, since I have no one to present it to, but we have a proclamation. honoring our 250th year of our country. And I'll read the proclamation as follows. Whereas in the year 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, asserting the right of 13 American colonies to self-governance and freedom from British rule, and whereas the Declaration of Independence held certain truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And whereas this bold declaration laid the foundation for a new nation built on the principles of liberty, democracy, and justice, and whereas over the past 250 years, the United States of America has grown from a fledgling republic to a leader among nations, continually striving to uphold these foundational ideals, and whereas in the year 2026, the United States commemorated on July 4th its 250th anniversary also known as the semi-quincentennial, and whereas this occasion offers a unique opportunity to reflect on the nation's journey, celebrate its achievements, and envision its future, and whereas nationwide celebrations and events continue to be organized to engage and inspire citizens from all walks of life, with activities to include historical reenactments and exhibits, parades and festivals, public discussions and forums, and community service initiatives, and whereas the City of Elmers has worked to cultivate a year-long calendar of celebrations and events to engage and inspire our local community in conjunction with the nationwide celebrations, And whereas, as the United States embarks on the next chapter of its history, this milestone celebration will stand as a testament to the strength, resilience, and determination of its people. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Scott M. Levin, Mayor of the City of Elmhurst, do hereby recognize and celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation's independence, that the City of Elmhurst confirms our commitment to liberty and democracy, honors the sacrifice made by countless individuals to protect these values, and ensure that future generations continue to enjoy the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. This proclamation will serve as a powerful reminder of our nation's enduring spirit and a call to action for future generations. As the United States embarks on the next chapter of its history, this milestone celebration will stand as a testament to the strength, resilience, and determination of its people. and witness, whereas I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of Elmhurst to be affected. We can give ourselves all a round of applause. A little something for you, all right. All right, Mr. Rudy Spirito, the village manager is here from Berkeley on behalf of the Illinois City Manager Association.

Great. Welcome. Mayor Levin and city council members, good evening. My name is Rudy Spiritu. I am the village administrator in Berkeley, neighboring Berkeley. So hello, neighbors. So I'm here and I'm joined by Erin Jason, who's the assistant city manager in Highland Park. You may remember Erin from her days here in Elmhurst. So good evening to all of you. We are here actually representing the Illinois City County Managers Association. We have a number of city managers in the audience as well, so we welcome them too. But we're here to actually recognize and honor City Manager Jim Grabowski on his retirement for a service to not only as the Elmhurst City Manager, but also for a service to the city management profession. I first met Jim 25 years ago when I was a lowly intern, and Jim just started in Minooka. So I have a lot of good memories with Jim. But throughout the years, I have gained a lot of respect for Jim, for his ideals, his integrity, and so forth. And I also appreciated, just being in neighboring Berkeley, that Jim always included me when appropriate. So we always wanted to have the United Front when we negotiated with the tollway. That was always fun. And then more recently, even the Western Merger Oversight Alliance, and we're working with the UP Railroad. So Jim called me and said, hey, you need to be part of this. i always appreciated that with jim um so if i can just read the certificate from the city manager association it says in recognition of the retirement of jim grabowski ilcma is proud to contribute 100 towards the icma fund for the profession so jim we just want to thank you for all you've given to elmhurst but also to our field and for setting such a high standard for all of us congratulations jim thank you

ALL RIGHT. WE'RE GOING TO GO ON TO ITEM WE'RE GOING TO GO ON TO ITEM WE'RE GOING TO GO ON TO ITEM FOUR, WHICH IS THE RECEIPT OF FOUR, WHICH IS THE RECEIPT OF FOUR, WHICH IS THE RECEIPT OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC. PUBLIC. PUBLIC. DOES ANYONE HAVE A WRITTEN DOES ANYONE HAVE A WRITTEN DOES ANYONE HAVE A WRITTEN COMMUNICATION THAT HE OR SHE WOULD COMMUNICATION THAT HE OR SHE WOULD COMMUNICATION THAT HE OR SHE WOULD LIKE TO DELIVER TO THE COUNCIL? LIKE TO DELIVER TO THE COUNCIL? LIKE TO DELIVER TO THE COUNCIL? IF SO, PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND. IF SO, PLEASE RAISE

Yes, Mayor. Julie Benz.

All right. So for public forum, for those of you who have not seen it before, we'll use the back microphone from which the last speaker was positioned. You have three minutes to speak on any topic of interest to you. State your full name, first and last name. Address is optional. It just helps us get back to you. And I want to remind you that we are here to listen. You have our undivided attention. It is not our practice to engage in debate or in a conversation, so don't feel that you're being ignored if we don't respond. Thank you, and please state your name.

My name is Julie Bentz. I live at 201 North Willow here in Elmhurst. And I'd like to address some comments about the recommendation that Elmhurst replace Motorola with flock cameras that was made recently. While this has been an emotional, um issue for some i'd like to base my comment simply on facts that have developed recently namely that six days ago which was after the committee made its recommendation one of flock's largest customers the los angeles police department board of commissioners accepted a recommendation from their office of inspector general to suspend their contract with flock and not renew it until they had addressed serious concerns about high error rates, namely a 32% error rate in identifying stolen vehicles, data ownership concerns, and security and privacy concerns. Public documents available indicate that the LAPD is insisting that they have new protections that indicate and clarify that the LAPD owns all the data Flock collects, that Flock may not share or commercialize the data, and that Flock is subject to civil fines for using the data without permission. I'm aware of the fact that Los Angeles is just a little bit bigger than Elmhurst, and they may have some leverage in negotiating contracts that a city of our size may not, but I also believe that the citizens of Elmhurst are due the same sort of protection. And I would urge that unless the contract specifies who owns the data, how it can be shared or that it cannot be shared except by elmhurst whether or not it can be commercialized and the privacy protections are clear that you either post vote no or postpone the vote until you can look into these newly developed these new information shortly before the the meeting far too soon for them to have read it i sent copies of the 98 page la inspector general report and some reporting from nonpolitical publications such as Forms Magazine and Tech Times to my fourth ward alderman. I hope they would share it with you or that you would look into these information before voting on this contract. Thank you.

Thank you.

David Terrell.

I'M HERE TO URGE YOU TO USE GREAT CAUTION ABOUT THIS WAREHOUSE PROPOSED. I'M DAVID TERRELL. MY WIFE AND I HAVE LIVED IN SOUTHWEST ELMHURST SINCE 1982. OUR YOUNGEST DAUGHTER LIVES ON WEST AVERY STREET, VERY CLOSE TO THE PROPOSED WAREHOUSE. THE CITY COUNCIL HAS THE RESPONSIBILITY TO CONSIDER THE PREVIOUS COMMITTEES. but you also have the power to reject this project, rethink this. Will this decision improve Elmhurst? I will list four legitimate concerns and one visionary proposal. One, zoning and best use. The area's outdated zoning plan included a buffer zone between industrial and residential. THIS WAREHOUSE AND THE CITY'S PLAN TO EXPAND PUBLIC WORKS TO THE SOUTH BOTH VIOLATE THIS NECESSARY BUFFER. RETHINK THIS. WILL THIS PROJECT IMPROVE ELMHURST? TWO, FINANCIAL LOSSES TO BOTH THE CITY AND HOMEOWNERS. PLEASE REVIEW THE DETAILS FROM MY PUBLIC DESTIMONY AND BOARD DOCS OF JULY 13TH ZONING MEETING. This warehouse will reduce property values for the 192 Butterfield Highland homes by 10%. Homeowners will lose $326,000 per year in homeowner's property tax revenue due to this 10%. A warehouse may provide $122,000 or $128,000 a year in property taxes, but this is a net negative. Rethink this. Will this decision improve Elmhurst? Safety hazards number three, safety hazards in the bulb intersection. The bulb intersection is very unsafe. Now, with 100 more semi trucks per day, it will be dangerous. Rethink this. Will this project improve Elmhurst? Four, environmental hazards during construction and from a working warehouse. These are our school children. This is our Salt Creek. Rethink this. Will this decision improve Elmhurst? Let's get visionary. Let's think of something new. Let's come up with a different proposal that will make Elmhurst better. Here is only one idea. REVISE THE ZONING PLAN. REJECT THE CITY'S PLAN TO EXPAND PUBLIC WORKS SOUTH ONTO THE LAND THAT WAS PREVIOUSLY RESIDENTIAL HOMES. PLEASE CHANGE THAT ZONING BACK TO RESIDENTIAL. EXPAND PUBLIC WORKS TO THE NORTH BY THE CITY PURCHASING ALL OR PART OF THE CLARION HOTEL PROPERTY. TOO EXPENSIVE? REDUCED SOME EXPENSES BY SELLING THAT RESIDENTIAL LAND WE JUST REFERRED TO TO THE SOUTH BACK FOR RESIDENTIAL USE AGAIN.

MR. TAYLOR, ABOUT THREE AND A HALF MINUTES, SO PLEASE CONCLUDE.

OKAY.

THANK YOU.

WAS IT TOO EXPENSIVE FOR ELMERS TO INVEST IN FLOOD CONTROL? Heck yes, it was expensive, but we all benefit every time there's a big rainstorm. Please rethink this. Let's improve Elmhurst.

Thank you.

Mark, I don't know if I'm saying the last name right, Dreisig? Close enough.

I'm Mark Drish. I live at 877 South Hawthorne in Elmhurst. This is regarding the Arco Murray PUD and warehouse proposal. I've attended all the meetings at the zoning and planning and the DZP. And all of these were unanimous votes. And with the amount of information we provided them with, I just can't understand that there was not one no vote on this proposal. Not one commissioner or committee member recognized the 800 pound gorilla in the room. When I say industrial zone or industrial district, what image comes to your mind? I'll bet it doesn't include an elementary school, a nature, a forest preserved nature area, a trail, a nature trail, Salt Creek Waterway, two residential areas, a public park, and an intersection access point that's rated F. That is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. This is not a typical industrial zone. You can't just drop 140,000 square foot warehouse box on this site and assume it will have little to no impact on the traffic noise and air pollution. The traffic impact study that was done is not a fact. It is a prediction. You don't have a fact until the warehouse is up and running and you can measure the actual usage. Then you'll know what the actual impact is. Alliance intends the warehouse to be a low volume operation. The intention is not the same as a fact. Would 28 truck bays operating 24 seven be a low volume operation? I don't think so. We don't have a noise or air pollution study. We don't know best case, worst case scenarios to make a well-reasoned decision. alliance says route 83 is the source of the noise and air pollution the warehouse will only add a little bit but why would you knowingly add even a little bit to the problem it is only going to make it worse just because you can fit it on the site doesn't make it right for this non-standard industrial zone if i have not convinced you to vote no then i ask you to table the vote until all the council members all the council members have read all the public inputs for the zp dcp and the city council and perform more rigorous studies so you know what you are approving if you are still determined to vote yes after that then at least pass an ordinance prohibiting 24 7 operation in this zone as well as reasonable weekend and weekday hours, and I would suggest something like Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. And please, reconfigure the Route 83 access intersection before starting the warehouse construction. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Brian Katz.

Hi, all. My name is Brian Katz. I live at 454 South Sunnyside Ave. I'm coming to talk to you about the warehouse proposal. If anybody knows Elmhurst, I live nowhere near this thing, right? I have a professional background in supply chain, part of it warehouse planning, part of it logistics, and now I currently work in global sourcing. So I've talked to some of you today and explained my issues mainly with traffic, the amount of trucks going through this frankly horrendous intersection for a car let alone a i don't know 53 foot trailer and the the power unit right going through so 65 feet um i just it could work but i don't see it in the current configuration i would request all of you to table and defer this to the next committee meeting to really read everything source your answers talk to the community get further ideas to modify this project and work with alliance to put it in here and work with another constituent of mine who has a plan to make it fit and and the more we work together the better it will be right because i think this could work But only if we all work together. Trucks are loud. Trucks are dirty. Trucks cause a ton of traffic. Trucks are also a huge source of accidents, injuries, and deaths. I don't want anybody dying by an elementary school. an accident at the only intersection to this area for large vehicles to happen. As I've told some of you aldermen and alderwomen today that have my contact information, you can ask me about these projects. Happy to give you my professional and personal experience. But at the end of the day, this really doesn't work here. Happy that Elmhurst is getting investment But I don't think this works here. So please either defer to the next committee meeting before the discussion happens among you council, or reject it. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

I think Frank Vesquez.

Good evening. My name is Frank Vasquez. I live at 459 West Verret, just west of Butterfield Park. And I'd like to speak to you about the warehouse development today. I'd like to recognize first off that our current city administration and staff and our council have had many wins in this city. And I appreciate everything that you have done for it. I've lived here my entire life. I've seen the progress we've made. But please do not make any mistake in your mind. This is not one of those wins. The only entity that is winning here is the developer. It is objectively a multi-decade failure of our civic institutions to take this area seriously and give it the attention it deserves. This area holds so much promise and could be so much more. And by passing this, we're going to lose the best version this area has to offer. It is unacceptable to put this next to a school and to Salt Creek, let alone let the corridor industrialize further. You can tell a lot about a community by the way that they treat their children. And I don't know if this is the message we want to send out to the world. Alliance gave us examples of other warehouses next to schools, few of them that they did give. And honestly, shame on those communities. That's not a good decision and they made a mistake by doing that. So I hope going forward that you will really take the time and effort to dream big for this area because it can hold answers to some problems we're facing as a city. We're having a housing shortage crisis. We can build up housing here. And the one other thing I want to leave you with here is I want to remind council that when the city put in the public works garage, they made a very public promise that they would not extend the garage south. This building locks in the public works garage. And if the city wants to keep the trust of its residences, it needs to keep its promises. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Andrea Ross.

my name is andrea ross i live on commonwealth lane and this riverside trucking facility has been my first experience with city planning i always just trusted the adults to do the right thing But this process has been maddening and deeply disappointing. ZPC Chairman Rose told us that ZPC has to judge the proposal purely on legal terms. The time to ask, is this a good idea, comes later, she said, at council.

Here we are.

At DPZ, they tried to craft conditions that would make this more palatable, conditions that are likely meaningless in the long run. Never did I hear any of these officials ask, is this a good idea? Never did I hear anyone say, let's take a step back. Is this good for the area? Is this good for the residents? And what about the children at Salt Creek School? Do they matter at all in this process? We have had dozens of residents and parents speak up. Some of them were in tears, begging, pleading, my child has asthma, please don't do this. They have been ignored. I worked in the Salt Creek School Library for many years, leading story times with books that taught core values, honesty, decency, fairness, consideration for others, traits I find utterly lacking in this process. This book here, The Little House, is used every year in the kindergarten curriculum. It tells the story of a little house in a pastoral setting, but bit by bit, the city approaches until the little house is engulfed in noise and pollution. This book is the perfect metaphor for Salt Creek School. The school and the houses predate the I-1 designation, but they are being engulfed by ever more invasive industry. They are being swallowed up by noise and emissions. Our school is bordered by Route 83, creating an incredible amount of noise on the west side. However, maybe you don't know, the classrooms are on the east side. At the last DPZ meeting, Alliance showed a slide indicating that the distance from the closest loading dock to the front door of the school is 816 feet. But surely they know that the classrooms on the east are closer than the front door. The distance from the preschool windows and doors to the truck entrance and exit is 500 feet. If we look at the property lines, it's even closer. There's even a bill circulating in Springfield that prohibits exactly this type of new construction where the loading docks are within 1,000 feet of sensitive receptors.

Excuse me, I want to caution, you're at three and a half minutes, so I'll ask you to wrap up.

Thank you. 38% of the students at Salt Creek are considered low income. Compare that to 3% at Edison, 5% at Jefferson, 6% at Jackson. How can it be right to build a 28 dock truck warehouse within 500 feet of an Elmhurst public elementary school? With the income disparity, one wonders about their civil rights. Is this a good idea? How does this story end? What role will you play? Will you be a hero? Because these kids deserve a happy ending.

Thank you.

James Henry

My name is James Henry. Alderman Nardini summarized this proposal as, it's industrial use in an industrial zone. But that does not answer the question before this council. Section 22.31c of the zoning ordinance requires the city council to make certain findings. And it says, no application for a planned development shall be recommended and approved unless all the following findings are made about the proposal. I'm going to spare you. I'm not going to read all those findings. So the question tonight is not simply whether warehouses are permitted in I-1. The question is whether this council can make each and every finding the ordinance requires for this particular plan development. Can this council find that the proposal conforms to the city's planning policies? Can it find that the traffic circulation and access are adequate? Can it find that the buffering is adequate? Can it find that the design, location, operation, and maintenance of this development will protect the public welfare? Can it find that the conditional use standards are satisfied, including that the development will not injure nearby property, impede orderly development, or create inadequate access, drainage, or public facilities? Those findings are this council's responsibility They are not supplied by the letters I1 on the zoning map, and this council cannot delegate its responsibility to prior reviewers. Section 22.31B1D says, The burden of providing evidence and persuasion that any plan development is necessary and desirable shall in every case rest with the applicant. So it is on alliance to persuade this council that this warehouse is necessary and desirable in this location, in this form, with this access arrangement next to these neighboring uses. An applicant does not begin with a presumption of approval. It does not fall to residents to disprove it. The applicant must show that it will provide a development with, quote, a higher level of design, amenity, and public benefit than is possible to achieve otherwise under applicable zoning regulations. If the council cannot make those findings tonight, it is not limited to immediate approval or final denial. Section 22.31 expressly permits the council to refer the application back for further review or to postpone consideration pending additional information. A warehouse may be a permitted use in I-1. That does not mean Alliance is entitled to this warehouse on this site.

Sir, you're at three and a half minutes, so I would ask if you would wrap up your remarks, please.

Its industrial use in an industrial zone may be the beginning of the analysis, but if you are following your own law, it is not the end.

Thank you.

That's all that's said about me.

All right, that is the end of the list of people who signed in to make public comment. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to make public comment that I have the opportunity to do so? I see two hands. Ms. Buzell, you'll be first, and then the woman behind you will be second.

Hi, my name is Lori Buzell, and I have a few little chicken scratches again. UM, FIRST THING I WANT TO SAY IS I DID SEE THAT SALT CREEK SCHOOL DISTRICT DID POST A LETTER AND I APPRECIATE THAT AND I THINK THAT THE FACT THAT THEY THAT THE SCHOOL DISTRICT SHOWED RESTRAINT THEY AND THEIR TRUST IN YOU THAT YOU SHOULD CONSIDER THE CHILDREN AND THEIR SAFETY AND THAT'S WHAT THEY COMMUNICATED. SO I HOPE YOU READ BETWEEN THE LINES AND UNDERSTAND THERE IS RESTRAINT THERE. the first thing I don't know if I'm gonna be able to speak all this clearly but I do feel that the unanimous votes were a little interesting I had expectations of all three committee members and I can't really look at them right but you know in this case I think that there were some problems I feel that when Jensen was coming into it, he wasn't looking at the approval of it that was good for Elmhurst. He was looking at how to pass it with conditions. I think that's unfair for that to be his, like that's what he was after. I think that with Alderman Varamus' experience as a resident, for her not to talk about the environment in any way, and understanding that there are so similarities between both sites, I think that was, it wasn't responsible. And I think that Nardini, who I definitely, he's good. I just feel like you didn't ask a lot of follow-up questions. You had so much information at your disposal. You read it. You had your dinosaur notes. I don't think when it came to it, Alliance would respond very just like basically because they knew that we would accept that even if that's not what you think you did. That's unacceptable. There was no depth of answer and there wasn't that required by you. Another thing I want to talk about is the Dermody case that's to the north. There are some similarities between the sites. The northern site does have, like it had Sugar Creek attached to it. It had a lot of similarities with the hydrological concerns. But you could actually visibly see like around them like what some of these concerns were. WHEREAS HERE, WE KNOW WHAT THE CORRIDOR IS, BUT WE CAN'T SEE UNDER THE GROUND. WE KNOW IT'S THERE. WE KNOW THAT THE INFILL IS UNSTABLE. WE KNOW THAT THERE'S CONTAMINANTS. WE KNOW THE CITY IS PART OF THAT. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW. I DON'T WANT THAT SITE TO BE DISRUPTED UNTIL YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE GETTING INTO AND YOU HAVE THAT IEPA REPORT IN YOUR HAND SO YOU KNOW WHAT QUESTIONS TO ASK. This developer before you say yes, and that is days away you guys days away You should not be able to vote for that. You need to talk about the environment more You need to ask the right questions. You need to have the right information When Dermody presented their details, they gave plenty before you guys said, okay, let's do this. Their documents are visible, they tell a story. Here, they do have documentation, it's technical. Yes, it does tell some story, but there's a lot of stuff missing. There's a lot of stuff missing. I cannot say with confidence that this is a good project for this location. I think that for you to not, when you vote, you need to tell each of us, all of you, how much time you spent. how how are you voting is it because the cpc you're three and a half so if you would wrap up please just do vote for what you believe in don't vote for unanimous you don't know exactly what unanimous means you don't know that you need to each consider your own vote walking in here take that away listen to what we say vote the right way vote no

thank you there's a woman yes my name is linda strome i live at 1056 riverside drive i'm a resident of riverside drive and have been since 1957. i've come to realize that the residents in our area really have no representation from our city with the exception of our alderman recs. You really don't care about the citizens. We have tried and we have failed to make you understand what is and has been happening here every day in regards to traffic, our school, the citizens, and no one wants to help. But they do want to see a company from Texas succeed. Guess what? We've been here first. First. Not the industrial. You brought up my parents' house, Davis' house, old teen's house. the promise to the residents at the time of a green space between uh the city garages and and the residential area then they quietly rezoned it all industrial this area is our home there is no negotiating the intersection at 83 and riverside and frontage road and i don't know what that street is but as it exists now, but you want to add even more truck traffic to it without reconfiguring that horrendous mess that's down there. Honestly, why are we paying taxes? We've been honest with you here at numerous meetings. We told you that this is more than our little subdivision can handle. We know you're gonna do what you will, even after our residents have pointed out why additional truck traffic and diesel pollution will not work in our area. But we live here and we pay taxes here. without consideration from you who control basically the quality of our lives you literally are approving another truck warehouse right on top of us residents that are in elmhurst across the creek don't realize how significant the truck traffic is and what it's doing to our THE AIR NEAR OUR HOMES AND THE SCHOOL. YOU'RE NOT PROTECTING OUR RESIDENTS OR OUR SCHOOL. YOU SHOULD BE WANTING OUR RESIDENTS TO KNOW THAT YOU HEAR THEM AND THAT YOU'RE LISTENING TO THEM. THE CITY PROMISED GREEN SPACE BETWEEN THE CITY GARAGES AND THE RESIDENTS OF RIVERSIDE DRIVE ALMOST 30 YEARS AGO. That will not be happening. Instead, slowly but surely, if you do this, more commercial and industrial businesses will have taken over our little area. We ask once again for your consideration to actually review this before giving your consent. If not, I don't see that you care about us and that you've sold us out. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, unless I missed someone, that brings to a conclusion those who either signed up for or who wanted to make public comments, so we will close public comment at this time. We'll go on to announcements. Are there any announcements from the dais? Seeing none, we'll go on to the consent agenda, which is lengthy, and I'll ask Clerk Tamer to please read the consent agenda.

7.1 minutes of the regular meeting of the Elmhurst City Council on June 15, 2026. 7.2 executive session minutes of the City Council of Elmhurst on June 15, 2026. 7.3 accounts payable July 20, 2026. million five hundred ninety one thousand twenty five dollars and eighty five cents seven point four appointment of acting city manager Kent Johnson seven point five referral mitigate cut through traffic between North Avenue and i-290 seven point six report case 20 P08 Elmer's Police Department conditional use permit for a planned development with site development allowances conditional use permit text amendment Platt of Subdivision, 125 East 1st Street. 7.7, report case number 26, PO7, McMaster Car Supply Company, City of Elmhurst Conditional Use for Final Plan Unit Development with Site Development Allowances 590 and 600 North County Line Road, 501 East Lake Street. See item 10.1. 7.8, report Park Zone Speed Limit. 7.9, report Fire Department Hydraulic extrication tools purchase 7.10 report automated license plate reader contract renewal 7.11 report black party policy 7.12 report elmhurst park district 2026 fall fast 20 or 7.13 report elmhurst university homecoming 2026 7.14 report nights at columbus annual classic car show 7.15 report prairie path market nights at columbus renaissance room see item 10.2 7.16 report citywide garage sale pilot program see item 11.1 7.17 report city center wine walk see item 11.2 7.18 report, easement vacation request 625 Fay Avenue. 7.19 report, 2027 water main improvements, phase 2 engineering services. 7.20 report, easement vacation request 624 and 630 West Belden Avenue. 7.21 report, purchase of one F-350 4x4 and one F... SSO, 4 by 2, 7.22. Report purchase of one Altec aerial truck, 7.23. Report small wireless facility license supplement, Verizon Wireless, southwest corner of St. Charles Road and York Street, 7.24. Report Madison Street water main replacement, rejection of construction beds. 7.25 report contract amendment number one to the construction agreement for the 2026 water main improvements project 7.26 an ordinance to amend section 4 1 4.10 entitled veterans memorial commission of chapter 4 entitled boards and commissions of the elmhurst municipal code 7.27 an ordinance to amend section 36.09 entitled classification of licenses of article 2 entitled retail licenses of chapter 36 entitled liquor of the Elmhurst Municipal Code 7.28 an ordinance authorizing the execution of a master power supply agreement by in between McSquared Energy Services LLC in the city of Elmhurst DuPage and Cook Counties Illinois 7.29 ordinance to approve and authorize the execution of a 99 year ground lease by in between McMaster car supply company in the city of Elmhurst Illinois and 7.30, a resolution regarding the release of certain closed session minutes. And 7.31, resolution authorizing the issuance of a notice of award for the 2026 storm sewer rehabilitation project, project number 26-18 for the City of Elmhurst, Illinois.

Thank you for that, Clerk Tamer. Is there any item on the consent agenda that any Alderman would like to move either to vote against or for the purposes of additional discussion? Alderman Hill.

Thank you, 7.10.

7.10. All right, then I'd ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item 7.10. Alderman Brand with a motion, Alderman Bellinger with a second. Clerk Tamer, please call the roll on the consent agenda, minus item 7.10.

Berimus? Aye. Bellinger?

Aye.

Schenko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Bram?

Aye.

Jensen? Aye. Toledo absent. Baker? Aye. Newdara? Aye. Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Vestito? Aye. Irby?

Aye.

Brennan?

Aye.

13 ayes, zero nays, one absent.

13 ayes, zero nays, one absent. The consent agenda minus 7.10 passes. Clerk Tamer, please read the report 4710.

It is therefore the recommendation of the Public Affairs and Safety Committee to approve the agreement between Flock Safety and the City of Elmhurst for the camera equipment lease and operating system in the amount of $45,670.73. The city attorney has reviewed the license agreement and has recommended this project be approved by the city council. Signed, Alderman Michael Brennan, Chair, Alderman Karen Schenkel, Vice Chair, and Alderman Brian Bellinger.

We have a motion to approve 7-10. Alderman Brennan with the motion. Alderman Schenkel with the second. Alderman Brennan.

Thank you, Mayor. So this report is with respect to FLOC, automated license plate reader. We deliberated on this with a lot of focus on some of the issues that were raised and concerns. That said, Flock has superior technology over Motorola. Not only is it superior, it's very cost effective. And in the surrounding area with Elmhurst, many of the communities are leveraging FLOC as well. And that allows Elmhurst to have the choice of collaborating with them. And we control our data. And it's as simple as that. We share only with those who we elect to share information with. and the technology itself allows for that configuration to happen. And as we deliberate on this and just look at the historical effectiveness of the technology, we've caught a lot of bad guys with respect to this, proactively. We know through, again, we're collaborating with surrounding areas, they may have gotten a hit on a stolen car or a car that has created a robbery, et cetera. And as those criminals cross city boundaries, we pick that information up. So it starts one place. It goes into the database. We now know, oh, we got a hit on this plate. This automatically happens. Again, we control the data and what we do with it. So for a lot of reasons I just mentioned, FLOC is the direction that we propose. Motorola is just not a cost-effective way of proceeding. as well as their technology is not as strong as Flock. And so with that, I'll yield the time for any questions that Alderman Hill might have that I think it was you that pulled the report. Thank you.

Let's see, Alderman Hill.

Thank you, Mayor. So this is my fault because I meant to reach out to the chair in advance, and frankly, I ran out of time to do that, and I also meant to reach out to our chief and ask some questions, but the resident's comments reminded me of this item on the agenda. So perhaps this is best directed at the chief, and you kind of answered this, but did the committee have any... The reason I'm asking this is because not only of the comments I heard, but I've seen several sort of high visibility articles lately about flock, some issues with mis-centered data or sharing of data, things like that. And I think this has been going on for a little bit. And I just wanted to know if there was any change in adoption in the area, perhaps. And again, this may be a question for the chief, but are we seeing a trend in municipalities with respect to how they are renewing these contracts, I guess is my question.

Well, if allowed, Mayor, I would like the Chief to potentially weigh in. But yeah, we did discuss this. I mean, one of the challenges in our world today, there's a lot of information out there. know some of that information is not accurate um in in nature um but you know the discussion that we had was you know do we have control over the data do we have decisions with respect to who we share that data with and the answers to that was yes and so um i i think that in conjunction us so it's the implementation of the technology with respect to elmhurst this is not open to our federal government it's not open to communities that that we don't want to collaborate with and that's intentional these are decisions that we've made uh within elmhurst so chief please if i've gotten anything wrong there please correct me it's not intentional but we we definitely discuss this because it it should matter to to the residents and it's an important topic does anyone have an objection to the chief addressing the council all right chief

Thank you, Mayor. So I just wanted to just educate the council on a few points. There's a lot of misinformation about what license plate reader cameras are, and there's also a lot of misinformation about one of the company's flock safety. so flock safety is by far the largest license plate reader company there is it's nationwide they have grown from a company that was smaller than our original vendor and now they're widely accepted throughout the country because they offer a combination of excellent service excellent accuracy and also very low cost um you know you may recall if you were on the city council back in 2019 we spent 500 000 on motorola cameras for uh to geofence our community that was a great public safety investment you know and i thank the council for its trust in us to put those cameras up because it allowed us to interdict criminals that could come into elmhurst off the easy entry points like the i-290 expressway um the major roads like 83 and north avenue we were seeing a spate of crimes where people were coming into town committing crimes and gone within seconds because of the ease of entry and exit to our community really not allowing police officers the opportunity to interdict a crime without the the assistance of this technology so We saw that success and we noticed that the communities around us were adopting a different company and that company was Flock. As I stand before you today, there are 28 DuPage County communities that have Flock license plate reader cameras. All of our neighboring Cook County communities also have Flock safety license plate reader cameras. So by integrating with them onto the same system, When a crime occurs in Elmhurst and our detectives use our system to identify the car, when that car leaves Elmhurst and goes into the very next community, instead of disappearing off our radar, so to speak, we now know that that suspect vehicle is next door in the next town. And we can direct those officers to help stop that car and catch the bad guy that committed the crime in Elmhurst. It's not always a criminal investigation as well. It's also a missing person investigation that they're very useful for. We have cases where senior citizens get reported missing by their family because they left in their car to go someplace and they never arrived and they're lost i remember very vividly last fall we had one such incident and we put out a dispatch throughout you know the whole state that somebody was missing and ultimately we were able to track on the license plate reader system the flock license plate reader system that the person's car was actually in the joliet area when they were trying to just go to a doctor's appointment here in elmhurst We would not have had that lead without that license plate reader data. That lead ultimately led the Julia Police Department, after we told them that they were down there, to finding the missing person, bringing them back safe, home with their family. That's policing in 2026. You know, technology now has really driven a lot of policing, and that's very important. The idea of officers just randomly patrolling and happening upon something in progress is something you see in TV shows, but really you need technology to help officers be effective, and license plate reader technology is that effective technology. As far as what LPR actually is, there is no identity information attached to the license plate reader data. Nobody knows the registered owner of the car or the license plate. It's not in the Flock system. All Flock or Motorola, because LPR is LPR, whatever vendor you choose, it's the same operating idea. It is snapping a picture of a license plate, and it is... basically recording the date time and location that that license plate was seen and per illinois state law because illinois has a law that authorizes the police departments to utilize license plate readers is held for 90 days that is the state law retention period we follow that retention period Furthermore, we follow the laws that are in place in Illinois to protect people from things like immigration enforcement or investigations regarding reproductive rights. We have the Trust Act in Illinois. So to ensure that the data that we collect with our system is all under the same laws, we only share data with other Illinois municipal law enforcement agencies. We don't share data out of state. We do not share data with any federal law enforcement agencies. Everybody is operating under the same Illinois laws that our legislators down in Springfield have passed. So that is how the system operates. As far as the importance of this system, it is truly important. We used it in December to help solve a homicide case here in Elmhurst. We've used it to solve armed robberies. We've used it to solve road rage shootings where people have been shot on our roadways over the years. It has been highly effective and a truly important tool.

all right is it possible someone else another question that uh so mayor could i guess thank you for that chief i i think you know two things and and chief alluded to this but but as a as a tool for a police officer stopping a bad guy in elmhurst or outside of elmhurst having the knowledge that this car is up to no good allows the police to better strategize and plan for that stop so so it's it's safer for the residents and it's safer for the police who are making that you know for me it would be a very scary stop the second thing is one of the things with respect to the technology flock is is superior at night and so the the resolution the pictures that we get You know at night is of higher quality and there's a lot of confidence in that data that's being captured at night, which if you can imagine. You take a picture, your picture turns out differently at night and so flock does a better job with its imaging. Armin Baker.

Thank you. I too got my information a bit late to be able to address it with the committee beforehand. So the reason that Los Angeles ran into issues was error rates, misread license plates. data security and privacy concerns so I guess my question because our information is in essence our information is it in writing in the contract that the privacy concerns or because basically LA set up a policy that prohibits flock from sharing or commercializing and using that data do we have it in writing that that's not happening with our information

I would like to defer to Chief. I think he's knowledgeable on the topic.

So those points that LAPD referenced are redundant because they actually are part of the system that we have. So FLOC does not commercialize our data. They do not take the data from Elmhurst and sell it to any third-party vendors. They don't sell it to companies or people looking to make a buck like a trucking company or something like that based off people's movements. Because first of all, they don't even know people's movements. It's just a license plate number and a date time location. There is no identity information at all in the system. As far as it being our data, yes, it is our data. And we are selective about who we share it with. We only share it for legitimate law enforcement purposes. It's audited every month. Every single time there's an inquiry, the detective making the inquiry has to list what crime he's investigating and what the police report number is. So, you know, this is not just... know a random search these are these are basically specific investigations of crimes that we query our data for and if we share that data with another law enforcement agency in the chicagoland area it's because a crime that happened elsewhere has an almost connection or a crime that happened here in Elmhurst has a connection to that other community, and we're working together with that neighboring law enforcement agency to solve the crime. So that's how the privacy works. The data is encrypted, so as far as somebody hacking or getting into it, I would defer to our IT director for more specific information on computers, but it is encrypted. I know it is. um it's cloud-based it's not kept in a server in the basement of the police station or anything like that as everything is nowadays it's cloud-based just like our body camera videos that the officers record when they go to when they go to incidents all that is cloud-based nobody has the on-site storage to hold that amount of data so so like most things it's a cloud-based encrypted service

if and you didn't say this that it's in writing in the contract or not and because la had to negotiate that is an option in their contract to move forward with flock so that's not the case here flock cannot share our data with somebody else without our permission that's part of the agreement we have on the table now thank you all right before we let the chief go any other court on vellinger

I don't have any questions for Chief. He answered all of my questions today. I appreciate it, texting back and forth in the last minute. I feel like in our committee, we did a good job asking a lot of the questions about who would have access to this data, who's able to submit requests, what is the process for auditing those requests and reviewing them. Only this weekend and today did I start to look in the actual company in more detail. As I said, Chief was very forthcoming with sharing details with me. I work in data in the industry of selling data, collecting data. I'm not naive to how these companies work. However, reading through their terms and conditions, and as they lay everything out, they are very clear, very detailed about who owns the data. It is the city of Elmhurst. They are very clear about what data they are able to use in training their software. It is less than 1% of all data, and it must be de-identified. That means no license plates, no nothing. I think the work we did to review that, the information we have about them, I think makes me comfortable moving forward with this. As I did more research on the complaints about Flock, on the issues that they've had, the lawsuits that are out there, The biggest connection I saw, the repeat that I saw, was people misusing the software, not the software itself. I have complete faith in the Elmhurst Police Department to not misuse this and to do the correct thing, and I think we should all support this tonight.

Thank you.

Appreciate that. Anyone else? Alderman Hill. Thank you, Mayor. Just one quick follow-up question for the Chief. If you have this at hand, so you said we don't, whether it's federal or state, we don't share any information with other agencies outside of Illinois. Correct. Thank you.

Alderman Irby. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to appreciate the comments of Alderman Bellinger on him looking further at the terms and conditions and giving myself that assurance. So I had a little deja vu when the person came up in public comments tonight. That was me. WHEN WE HAD OUR FIRST CAMERA BEING BROUGHT HERE UNDER A FREE TRIAL BASIS AND THEN I STOOD UP OVER THERE AT THAT SAME MIC AND I SAID, I did an audit on the data at that time when it was the old vendor at that time when we had the free cameras and I hit nine million hits over six months and it was Colorado. Anybody could get to that data at that time and then I looked at how long it has been since they last deleted and like I said this was a brand new system so I want to congratulate the police department and the state for bringing not only the law but you guys following that and we've gone a long way since I stood at that mic talking about the problems from the initial cameras that we didn't have to pay for. They were brought here on a trial basis. The only thing I have a problem with tonight and I think I can overcome it is Flock is a private company. they are not a public company. So they don't have the same review of a public company where if I own stock, I know they have a public accounting firm that audit them. They have a security audit detail. This company would have much more rigor if they were a public-based company. So how would you address that, Chief, of public versus private? DATA RETENTION IN A CLOUD, THAT EQUIPMENT BEING SUBJECT TO THE SAME SCRUTINY OF A PUBLIC VERSUS PRIVATE COMPANY. IF THAT'S OKAY WITH THE MAYOR TO CONTINUE ON.

WELL, IF YOU CAN ANSWER IT, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPECULATE AS WE SAY IN THE LEGAL BUSINESS.

I don't presume to be an expert on public versus privately owned corporations. What I will say is this company is in use by thousands of communities throughout the country. As I mentioned earlier in my comments, it's in use by 28 other DuPage County communities. It is under a lot of use and scrutiny every single day as far as its operation, as far as its trust, as far as the inquiries and the audits go. So I think as far as use of it and testing by real world communities, it's got a proven track record.

Follow-up question? All right. So the only other thing I found in here, just doing a quick research here, why? when I heard the flock camera that immediately threw up an emergency bells in my head and I had the deja vu. And the point is that I hadn't had the time to look at this case or I mean this report until now because I've had other things I'm working on. So I want to apologize to the committee. that I didn't do the homework on that proper. But I think if I get this one answer here, maybe this will help me. There's the published error rate here. The public comment was that there's an error rate that's excessive or has been shown to be excessive. How do we know we're in this error rate, not in the error rate? How do we address that concern that's been big across the nation with this error rate? Where I get a false flag, Alderman Irby gets pulled over because My car is tagged wrong with the plate, and I got it with someone from Cook County, and you go, oh, it's Alderman Irby. What did you do? Well, maybe it was a flat camera. So how do you stop that from happening?

Sure. So Alderman Irby shouldn't be getting pulled over strictly because of a license plate reader hit because we don't take the humans out of the process. So at the end of the day, no matter what the vendor is, we're talking about a camera that that is mounted outside in the dark of night at three in the morning or in a rainstorm or during a blizzard in the winter and it's trying to snap a picture of a car that goes by. Sometimes the pictures are fantastic because you have ideal visual conditions to take that picture with. Sometimes they're less than ideal, but When the officer gets an alert or if he's doing an inquiry for an investigation, the officer is actually getting that picture on his computer screen. And it's his or her job to actually look at the picture of the license plates on the car and look at the information that we have in our law enforcement agency's database to verify that's actually really the stolen plate. and it's not something where something's smudged on a number and it's wrong or that there's snow on part of the license plate and it's not reading up the full plate that's still the officer's job to do so any police officer that's stopping a car strictly because the computer said so and they didn't actually look at the plate to verify that's the officer's fault So we have that in our policy. It's in black and white. Our officers must verify that the actual picture of the license plates for the ALPR system matches the actual stolen car's license plate before they initiate any enforcement action.

Thank you very much. That gives me a lot of assurance from when I stood at that mic 15 or 10 years ago. Thank you, Chief.

All right. Any other questions? Seeing none, Clerk Kamer, please call the roll on 7-10.

Verrimas? Aye. Bellinger?

Aye.

Schenko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Graham? Aye. Jensen? Aye. Toledo absent. Baker? Aye. Udera?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Irby?

Aye.

Brennan?

Aye.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. 7-10 passes. On to committee reports. Clerk Tamer, please read the report on 8.1.

Therefore, the Development Planning and Zoning Committee recommends that the City Council approve the preliminary planned unit development with the nine recommended conditions detailed above for the property at 933 South Riverside. The City Attorney is hereby directed to prepare the necessary documents for City Council approval. Signed, Alderman Chris Jensen, Chair, Alderman Jennifer Vareemus, Vice Chair, and Alderman Guido Nardini.

Can we motion to approve? 8.1, motion Alderman Jensen. Second, Alderman Vareemus. Alderman Jensen.

Thank you, Mayor. Our last two meetings, the Development Planning and Zoning Committee reviewed case 26P03, a preliminary plan unit development at 933 South Riverside Drive. First, this case was examined in detail by the Zoning and Planning Commission, where a recommendation for approval received unanimous support with two conditions. It then came to our committee. With an additional seven conditions, our unanimous recommendation is the same. We had a lot of public comment relating concern, and while I don't expect to change any minds, I'll do my best to convey the consensus the committee reached. I'll walk through all nine and the concern each one answers, and then some thoughts. I'll add some thoughts. The subject property is zoned I-1, restricted industrial. The Zoning and Planning Commission reviewed this application against 17 standards in our code. The seven conditional use standards plus the 10 plan development standards. That review included the comprehensive plans guidance for a sub area. CPC meetings are legal proceedings and in that legal proceeding, they found all 17 standards met and they found that unanimously. The DPZ committee reviewed the same record and reached the same conclusion and noted that the warehouse is a permitted use in I-1 industrial zoning and that there is a larger one hundreds of feet to the north. But we didn't stop there because our role in the PUD process is not just to ensure that a project conforms with our laws, which it does, it's also to look for ways to improve it. And the seven additional conditions we added go beyond what the code requires. And with them, the project is better. Residents ask the council to explain the justification for each condition. That's a fair ask. So here are all nine as written and what each one answers. Condition one, the applicant shall record a deed restriction on the property that prohibits the use of the property for a detention center. That answers a serious fear raised early in this process. A detention center is already prohibited in I-1, but with the condition it will be recorded on the deed and bind every future owner. Condition two, all exterior lighting shall be dark sky compliant. This addresses the lighting concern for neighbors and for wildlife, raised again in a written comment today. Condition three, trailer parking stalls for storage and crosstalks are prohibited on the property. This does not preclude trailers that are onsite to load and unload or be used in the operation of a business operating on the site. This is a condition that answers the fear of round the clock distribution hub. The traffic analysis for this project assumes an ITE classification 150, a low intensity warehouse, about 31 trucks a day, three to four per hour at peak. Without cross stocks and without trailer storage, a higher intensity last mile operation would not be able to use this building. Further, staff reviews any use against the traffic study to make sure it falls into the category used with confirmation from the traffic engineer if there are any questions or concerns. Condition 4. The applicant shall use all means to make sure trucks turn right onto northbound Riverside Drive. This shall include right turn only signage and language within the individual leases, binding on successors and assigns to ensure compliance. Language shall include a prohibition on trucks turning left onto Van Buren. This addresses the concern of trucks using frontage to cut through the neighborhoods to the south, written into the leases themselves, binding on every lessee and every future owner. Every one of those trucks then heads north to the intersection at Route 83 in Monroe. Let's be honest, Bob. That intersection is awful. It operates at a level of service F in the evening today, with the hotel sitting there. This reconstruction is already a separate, grant-funded city project with engineering underway and construction anticipated in 2028 or 2029. And for context, at the standard ITE traffic rate for hotels, if the Clarion fills just a third of its 104 rooms, it generates roughly 280 trips a day, more than the roughly 240 projected for this warehouse, of which 62 are truck trips and the rest passenger vehicles, employees and visitors. Even at one-third occupancy, which is a bit lower than what would be estimated by a hotel tax take, the use being replaced puts more vehicles through the intersection than the one replacing it. Conditions five through nine are environmental, and together they put a gate at every phase, before a shovel, before doors open, and permanently thereafter. Condition 5. Proof of an IEPA-approved remedial action plan is required prior to demolition or excavation occurring on the site. There shall be no ground disturbance until the IEPA has approved the remedial action plan and the remediation objectives report. This speaks for itself. Nothing can happen on the site until the IEPA approves the remediation plan. If the applicant is unable to meet the strict standards of the IEPA, the project will not move forward. Condition 6. Our remedial action completion report shall be submitted prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy. The building cannot open until the remediation is completed and documented. Condition 7. The applicant shall submit a job site construction plan prior to commencing construction on the property. This shall include details on dust, erosion control, and the plan for soil removal from the site. The applicant has confirmed in writing to city staff that their field engineer will be on site with a multi-gas meter set to alarm at the OSHA 8-hour limits. Oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, sulfide, combustibles, VOCs, checking the air downwind of the excavation and inside it. Given the level of attention on the site, they're adding a portable particulate meter for this project specifically. Soil stays moist, truck covers are checked before any loads leave, and every load carries a manifest. Condition 8. The applicant and subsequent owners shall maintain and monitor any engineered barriers or other infrastructure put in place as part of the site remediation. This protection doesn't end when the construction does. It's an obligation upon every future owner of this property. Condition 9, that no further remediation letter shall be provided to the city when issued and recorded within 45 days of issuance. The applicant shall follow all stipulations identified in the NFR. The state's final sign-off becomes a recorded permanent public record protections that outlast this applicant. A few more items on the environment. This site was developed in the 70s with no stormwater best management practices. It now gets an engineered detention basin with native plantings and permeable pavers under the DuPage County stormwater ordinance for the first time. The aging sanitary line under Salt Creek is abandoned and replaced at the applicant's cost, removing a failure risk whose outcome is raw sewage in the creek and up to a million dollars of city expense if it needed to be replaced, plus unknowable potential penalties and fines from the IEPA. If protecting Salt Creek is the measure, then the worst outcome would be for the site to be left exactly as is. The committee's report cites the U.S. EPA guidance that truck pollutants reach background levels within 500 to 600 feet of their source. It's roughly 700 feet from the closest docks to both the school to the southwest and the closest homes to the east. That is to the closest point of the building. The closest outdoor space for students is even further. According to IDOT, the average daily truck volume on Route 83 immediately to the west of the school is 5,500 trucks per day. This project's IT classification estimates 62 truck trips. The school sits less than 200 feet from Route 83. The closest playground is 100 feet away. The dominant emission source that's a concern for the school is the highway, not a warehouse 700 feet away, generating three to four trucks an hour at peak. These same distances are relevant to noise concerns as well, and at those distances, any noise generated by trucks would similarly fade into the background, especially when shielded by buildings and trees. Those were the conditions and what this approval actually does. What remains to address is an argument that has been prominent in public comments, a fiscal test that appears nowhere in our standards. Does this parcel generate enough tax revenue to justify its zoning? That has never been a standard under our zoning ordinance, but deserves a straight answer here, so here it is. Start with property taxes. This parcel generates about $116,000 today. The warehouse takes it past $300,000, nearly triple on a $30 million private investment with zero public investment. Most of that goes where it always goes, nearly 70% to the school districts 48 and 88. District 48 alone, which is Salt Creek School, picks up roughly $60,000 a year more than it gets today with zero added students. The Elmhurst Park District and Public Library gain as well. Under any use of this parcel, that's how the dollars split. Now the number that matters most for this council, the city's own budget. Here's the honest version. It's the same one printed in the committee's report. The hotel tax, about $75,000 last year, goes away with the hotel, and the city's direct share of the new property taxes doesn't fully replace it. The city's general fund comes out roughly $60,000 a year behind. That's a real number. But look at what the number assumes, and it assumes the hotel survives as a going concern. A hotel that is seeing no investment and, based on the same hotel tax figure, is nowhere near full occupancy. This is a property that has been under a contract to result in its demolition twice in the last 18 months. The same $5,000 was one company's tax category, not a land entitlement. The analysis assumes the hotel will remain in business and that no tenant ever generates a dollar of sales tax. When the applicant told the committee in June that possible tenants includes specialized distribution with a showroom or a retail component, exactly the kind of occupant whose sales are taxed. That doesn't mean they'll get that use in there, but that is certainly a possibility. Take the worst case on both assumptions at once and you get to $60,000. Exchange for a remediated brownfield site and a retired sanitary line with significant environmental risk. Speaking of remediation, Elmhurst has used TIF dollars to pay for environmental remediation before at Elmhurst 255, The Mark, and Marianos. At another site downtown, TIF dollars recently awarded were not specifically for remediation, but certainly played a significant part in the discussions of this committee. At 933 South Riverside, a developer is doing the same cleanup with private money, $600,000, and asking us for nothing. This is a substantial public benefit. Back to the fiscal test. Suppose we went along with it, what would it look like? A corporate headquarters, a law office, a medical office building, a daycare, a private school? Illinois doesn't tax services, so every one of them fails it. If that sounds wrong, it's because the test is wrong, not the use. The parcel's net revenue contribution is not an approval standard under our zoning ordinance, and treating it as one tonight sets a precedent that works against development this city may actively want tomorrow. Before I close, some things are in order. The Zoning and Planning Commission, for a thorough review across multiple hearings, to city staff who answered every question this committee put to them, This record is as complete as it is because of their work. And to the residents, your feedback has made this a better project. The smaller footprint, the reduced stock count, the expanded landscaping, the sound buffering on the southeast corner, the truck routing restrictions, the dark sky lighting, those changes exist because people showed up, wrote in, and pushed. That is the PUD process working the way it's supposed to, making projects better. With all that, thank you, and I ask you for your support on this report.

Thank you, Mayor. So I've been following this project for the past five-plus months. Andrea Ross, Mark Dottoli, as well as, you know, Frank reached out in March. with respect to their opposition to 933 Riverside. I listened closely to all their concerns. I encourage the group to share their results and their extensive research. and work with the the zoning and planning commission eventually the um the committee dpz committee as well and as as alderman or chair jensen has alluded to your your input has made this a better project so i'm gonna this is a little redundant but i think it's important You know, as I listened to the residents, they had concern around intensity of the operation. You know, the applicants saying it will be a low-intensity operation, there were concerns it could be something north of that high intensity. There was concern about environmental remediation. TRAFFIC TRAFFIC CONGESTION NOISE POLLUTION LIGHT POLLUTION AND THE POSSIBILITY OF THE WAREHOUSE BEING LEASED AS A DETENTION CENTER AS CHAIR JENSON SAID AS IT CAME OUT OF COMMISSION IT CAME WITH TWO CONDITIONS ONE ADDRESSED THE CONCERNS AROUND A DETENTION CENTER AND THE OTHER AROUND YOU KNOW LIGHTING Both these were on the residents list as I recall. As the project moved from the commission to the committee, I saw two ways to advocate for the seventh ward residents. One approach was to simply vote no for the project and try to influence and change the minds of the people on the dais. To be honest, my instincts were that not only was it unanimous, but I think the facts that were discussed at the commission were very strong. My sense was that this was going to, I didn't know if it would be unanimous or not, but I felt the DPZ committee would also approve this project. So the second alternative or option I felt I had was to ask the DPC committee via the chair to consider conditions in the report that helps address the concerns that I've outlined above. At the end of the committee deliberation, I was going to make the decision whether or not those conditions were representative in the report or not. And if they were, I feel obligated to support the report. If I wasn't satisfied, I would sit here and I would not be supporting the report because I would not want this project to go forward without ample conditions. so while voting no was certainly an option as i said i i believe the project was likely to to be approved given that i did conclude that the best approach was to move forward and ask the chair you know to consider conditions to address the issues that the the residents clearly outlined IN THEIR INCREDIBLE PRESENCE AT ALL STEPS ALONG THIS PROCESS. WHILE I RECOGNIZE THAT NOT EVERYONE WILL AGREE WITH MY APPROACH, I REMAIN CONFIDENT THE CONDITIONS INCLUDED IN THE REPORT REPRESENT MEANINGFUL IMPROVEMENTS TO THE PROJECT AND ARE A DIRECT RESULT OF THE RESIDENTS ENGAGING IN THE PROCESS. I'd like to thank the Chair, Chair Jensen, Vice Chair Varamus, and Alderman Nardini, city staff, for engaging with me and listening to my concerns via the residents and developing the conditions in tonight's report. So I will be supporting the report. I know this will be unpopular to many, but I do think it's the prudent path to take. Now, if I could just have a couple more minutes here. I do believe, and I'm working with staff to coordinate next year a sub-area plan review with the community. I ALSO WOULD LIKE WORKING WITH STAFF TO HAVE A REVIEW WITH RESPECT TO THE PLANS REGARDING PUBLIC WORKS. And lastly, I'll be submitting a referral that will codify and address southbound traffic on Frontage Road, which it's conditions via the deed, but we want to have our ordinance call that that's illegal and, you know, semi-tracks going south. all the way down to commonwealth and butterfield uh you're at five minutes but thank you you're going to wrap up okay and uh the vice uh the reverse trip needs to be codified as well we don't want semis coming off of butterfield on the commonwealth first off it's a difficult turn to make but a referral will be coming shortly I'll be asking for another alderman or two to sign up for that. But thank you, Mayor, and I appreciate the extra time.

Thank you, Chair. Others? Alderman Irby.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank my Alderman Ward 7 mate for coming out tonight and making a nice set of discussion items for this case. But what we have in front of us is a PUD, a Planned Unit Development. In front of you, of all the aldermen, I put out some sheets. One is a big question tonight. And if it's OK, Mayor, if I indulge you, can I go over five minutes?

I'm actually going to enforce it a little bit closely. So if it's a little bit over, and then we'll see to give everyone an opportunity. I'll do my best, if that sounds good. I'll let you know when you get to five.

So tonight, a lot of you have big questions tonight. And I'm not going to go through those. You have those in front of you. But the reason it's a separate sheet from the other is so that you can keep that out. And as I read through my closing arguments here for this case, you can go back and look at that as a reference. So I'm going to go ahead and start. I will focus on three things tonight. I'll focus on one process. By the way, this is the second sheet I gave you, which is sheets page number two and three. If you want to read along or stay engaged either way, I just don't have the little bouncing ball going through on the screen up here. So we'll do as we go here. Number two is responsibility. Number three, limits of condition. the limits of conditions. Let me start with the opening frame of reference. I think the City Council is being asked to make a very consequential land use judgment. I am worried that discussion is drifting toward conditions before answering whether this warehouse belongs there at all. First, the PUD judgment is broader than a zoning compliance. The fact that the ZPZ recommended approval does not mean council's role is ministerial. A PUD is discretionary. Council still has to decide whether the plan development is appropriate at this location. This respects the ZPZ process without treating it as scripture. second conditions should not become a way to avoid the threshold question again conditions should not become a way to avoid the threshold question the threshold question is on the bottom of your big questions tonight sheet and i'll just go for it real quick here and i'll come back again does this warehouse belong here at all is it good for elmhurst so that is the threshold question i know you could say there's two in there uh give me that indulgence please um so on that condition should not become a very uh a way to avoid the threshold question i worry we're moving toward what conditions would make us comfortable before deciding whether the project itself is compatible Conditions can refine a sound project, but they should not substitute for deciding whether this is the right use in the right place. That is my core central message. Third, alliances low intensity theory has to be tested. Again, low intensity. It's a pretty ominous concept. What does low intensity mean? Don't forget this is a speculative warehouse. Code 150, you guys are getting thrown a lot of stuff at you, so let me dig in. Alliance keeps saying this will behave like a low intensity light industrial building, but the project is speculative, may have multiple tenants, has no known operator, unless you guys have come up once since the last time we talked, you would have told me, has no hours of operation of limit, Meaning it can be 24 by 7, we can't stop that in the code. The city should judge what the approval allows. Again, the city should judge what the approval allows, not just what Alliance hopes to market, what they will produce. If Salt Creek is the buffer to the east, what is the buffer for the school? The homes to the south, do they have a buffer? If the bulb fix is not required, again, the bulb is the intersection on Route 83 there at the Walmart in Monroe. That is controlled by IDOT. And the bulb is a problem, as we all have heard. If the bulb is not required to be fixed, then the project has to be acceptable with the bulb as it exists today. And no major change in level of service is not the same as saying the existing geometry is adequate for truck movements. So at this point, I'm going to try to find an exit from my only two choke points out of this landlocked corridor. Sorry, my closing arguments. Let me wrap up with these thoughts and questions. Am I doing okay on time?

About five and a half, but go ahead and wrap up.

Five and a half, how much more can you give me? Seven we can negotiate that but proceed. All right. I want to stay in good graces with the mayor. Thank you What finding or conditions do you think DPZ made and and now council has decided that makes this use Compatible with the school and homes to the south good question Are you comfortable relying on future conditions or do you think Alliance has already shown the projects belongs here? Again, back to the threshold question. If the truck court faces south for driver efficiency, how do we explain that to the school or the neighbors to the south? If the bulb is an LOS, which is a level of service F, meaning fail, today and the project does not depend on reconstruction, what is our basis for saying existing access is adequate for all the project phases for the truck traffic? I'm concerned council may be treating this like a technical cleanup exercise when it's really a discretionary PUD judgment. The question is not whether or where else can be drawn on two I1 parcels, because technically it can't. It would be violating the setbacks if we tried to stick a concrete pad on two parcels and split the line. The question is whether this plan development belongs at this location near home, Salt Creek, and a primary school. ZPZ recommendation deserves respect, but it does not answer everything. Council still has to make its own judgment. Alliance case depends heavily on the idea that this will be a low intensity, but the tenant is unknown. The building can be divided among multiple tenants and the city has no hours of operation limit. If higher intensity uses are not compatible with this site, that tells us something important. It means compatibility depends on assumptions and future controls, not on the project as submitted. I don't want conditions to become a substitute for the threshold decision. Before discussing conditions, council should decide whether this warehouse belongs here at all. Is this good for Elmhurst? That is the threshold question. Okay, Alderman Irby. Thank you very much.

You're at the end, right?

I am at the end.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate your indulgence. It's your award. All right. Alderman Virgil.

Thank you. So I think this case is a good reason why land use matters. It influences what kind of community we build. It impacts our housing options. It impacts how we support our businesses, walkability, and how different areas of our community interact with each other. It also influences how well our city covers its own costs and infrastructure for services and infrastructure. So I want you guys to bear with me a moment. I'm gonna start talking things that are a little bit nerdy. I'm gonna talk about zoning and municipal finance for a little bit, so kinda hang with me for a bit. I think it's important. Our land use is controlled by zoning. And this area is zoned as I-1, industrial, as we all know. When this area was zoned as industrial, at some point, this type of project became a potential outcome. You know, I know there's a lot of residents concerns about this project and a lot of those objections really seem to be objections of the characteristics of an industrial use. You know, truck traffic, noise, pollution, things like that. So, you know, based on what we kind of set up in our zoning map, you know, to some extent this was a predictable outcome of that setup. I WANT TO DIVE A LITTLE BIT MORE INTO THE REVENUE ASPECT OF THIS. CHAIRMAN JENSON TALKED A LITTLE BIT, BUT I'M GOING TO GO A LITTLE BIT DEEPER. HE SPOKE ABOUT THE TAXES, HOW THAT WOULD CHANGE FROM THE the current use of the hotel to the warehouse. I also want to bring up the fees that all of our parcels pay in terms of water and sewer costs. Those are important too. The hotel, it paid about $83,000 in fees for those things, not the water itself, because that's just a pass-through that goes to the DuPage Water Commission. But the actual fees that came to the city was about $83,000 for this. With the warehouse, that's projected to go down to $13,000. So a reduction of about $70,000 plus the reduction of about $60,000 that'll go to the city for taxes. That's a pretty substantial reduction. So if you look at what the hotel is doing today, and it's arguably not in good condition yet, it's contributing over $160,000 a year to the city. that's gonna go down to roughly about 35,000 to the city with the warehouse. One of the key points I think we need to understand here is that when we look at new developments, it's important to understand what their impact is gonna be and what that's gonna mean for the city going forward. It is a bit unusual for a site to become less productive for the municipality. It doesn't happen that often. It does happen, but it's not a common occurrence. And in this case, there's a substantial reduction in the revenue that's coming into the city from this site. Other things that kind of go along with this that we need to make sure that we're thinking of. There's been some comments I heard in the committee meeting that projects sort of even each other out over time. The city's costs are rising. We're dealing with a budget deficit that's expected to grow larger in the next few years. As we've talked about before, there's other items that we need to deal with in the future. Actually, items we haven't really discussed that much that we need to deal with in the future. We're behind on replacing our water mains. There's about 60% of our water mains that will be coming to the end of their expected life over the next decade or two. We're not in a position to be able to fund replacement of those at the moment. We're going to have to figure that out. So allowing more productive development that leverages our existing infrastructure is a way to mitigate the tax and fee increases to existing taxpayers that will come with these things. For some perspective, the taxes that are going to be lost on this project, I'll use my house as an example. 7% of my tax bill, or about $1,100, goes to the city. We would have to replace this development with about 55 copies of my house, of my yard, in order just to get back to even. Another way to think about kind of the revenue for the city is if you think about the area of a city as a farm, if the city government is the farmer, they're tasked with getting the most productivity out of their farm. They know which crops will grow best in which areas and what kind of return they can expect on their investments. They need to do this in order to make sure that they're covering their costs. If they don't, eventually they'll go bankrupt. You know, the city government has to behave to a certain extent in the same way. You know, we need to zone in order to get the most productive uses. You know, that's how we ensure that we're covering our costs. If we can't cover our costs, the difference becomes, you know, the city's not gonna go bankrupt, it just raises taxes and fees.

I'm in a virtual or about five and a half minutes.

I'll wrap up here shortly. Thank you. Um, you know, there are some other productive uses we could have considered for some, this area, you know, they could be, we need, we need, we know we need housing. So we could consider things like a senior living community or multifamily. Right. Um, so what, And when we look at this item, I would look at this particular thing that we're getting ready to vote on here. The question, and Rex had his question of what we're actually voting on. If I look at it in terms of is this industrial use a good land use for this site? Actually, I don't believe it is, but our zoning code has already determined that this is an industrial area. So the question before us is really, does this application meet the rules and the criteria of the zoning code and the planned unit development process? I believe the answer to that question is yes, it does. So I will support this, but I think there's much more we need to do in order to reform our land use and our zoning. I would encourage the energy that the residents have shown for this particular item to channel that into efforts to review and reform our zoning map, similar to what Alderman Brennan had mentioned earlier. You know, zoning is a bit dirty. I understand folks' eyes glaze over when, you know, folks start talking about it, but it's really important. And I hope folks will, you know, kind of continue to push to have those things reviewed and updated in order to be more productive and more beneficial for the city and the community itself. Thank you.

Thank you, Alderman Virgil. Others?

Alderman Bram. Thank you, and I will keep it brief, and it will be under five and a half minutes, I promise. I'll just say, because Alderman Virgil and Alderman Brennan touched on a majority of the things that I would have said, but I want to highlight, and Alderman Virgil did a great job in highlighting it as well, as well as Alderman Brennan making his comment about looking at this as a sub area that needs to be reviewed. I think the committee as well as ZPC has done a really good job and I also agree with the residents that you know if I was living nearby would I want this to go from a hotel to a warehouse of course not but I think with the facts laid before us and what the committee has done with the additional how many I don't know seven eight nine conditions applied really does help and that is utilizing the PUD process. I mentioned one of the residents I spoke with today that essentially the petitioner, in this case Alliance, if it wasn't, I think it's a two acre limit, right? If it wasn't two acres, then the PUD process wouldn't be applicable and we wouldn't even be discussing anything here tonight. But because that is, that's irrelevant, But I will say that from the testimony that I've heard, I was able to go to the last committee meeting on this topic, at least for some of it or majority of it, that there has been some concessions from Alliance to try to better the overall development. And that's what the PUD, to me, that's what the PUD is meant to do, right? It does meet all the conditions. There aren't any variances, no conditional uses, et cetera. But the overall planned unit development is better, and mainly, okay, I'll give you guys 99% because of the community feedback. Without that, we wouldn't have had the additional trees, landscaping, et cetera, the buffering that's been done, the conditions that were done. Alderman Brennan kind of, not kind of, but did touch on that. I think Alderman Jensen mentioned it, but I've heard over and over again concerns about the bulb or the intersection. Alderman Irby made mention of it, and I said this to another resident today as well. that Elmhurst has already spent dollars for phase one engineering. I've been in Alderman for way too long, for 23 years, and there's not a time in my recollection that we, the city of Elmhurst, have paid monies for phase one engineering and we didn't do the project. So I know there's concern over the neighborhood. Well, what if this doesn't happen? Or could we delay this until that intersection is up and running to see if it can handle the construction the tractor trailer traffic. Phase one is, I don't know if it's wrapped up, but just by looking at the budget document, phase one was coming to conclusion in 2026, and phase two engineering, I believe, was happening in 2026, 2027. And development of that, or redevelopment of that intersection is planned for 2028. Now completion, I don't know. But I want to make sure that that's one of the concerns that I've heard a lot about that is off the radar because I could speak for myself and myself only, that we will make sure that that moves forward. I mean, there's limits. It's planned for. Plans do change, and I understand that. but we have committed dollars and i believe villa park as well committed monies to do that project overall so the two takeaways is the intersection will be rectified no the development will probably be done unless something stalls for some odd reason prior to and two land use is important i do agree that this needs this area needs to be re-evaluated but i would also make that comment about a lot of the city of elmhurst that we should evaluate the land use within a lot of parts of town more frequently than we have in the past so with that i do support the project thank you for all the residents who've contacted myself personally as well has stayed with the process from the initiation of what's it called team south elmhurst up until tonight so thank you you had 30 seconds to spare old man

All right, before I go back to, is there anyone who has not spoken yet that would like to address the council on this topic? All right, anyone? That's it, I think. Alderman Irby.

Thank you, Mayor. I thought you were going to jump over me there.

I just want to give one shot first, but go ahead.

Let me go one more shot at this with some of the details of the PUD process. It has a total of 10 standards of the PUD. One of those standards has the seven conditionals, so there's really 16 in total. The comprehensive plan is one of those in the PUD process. We have a comprehensive plan, sub area eight. It tells us exactly what we should have done. It says when there's going to be redevelopment and you have an east-west corridor, north of the public works garage it should be developed commercial that's what the comprehensive plan says then we go over here and look at the map the zoning map and it says oh this is industrial well i can tell you right now that this used to be residential and after it went residential when the hotel was built in 72 it was commercial And then it went industrial, we think, I hadn't been able to find that exactly when it went industrial. The majority of its life, it's either been residential or commercial. But we still have the comprehensive plan, which is a requirement of the PUD. And that was ignored, but it was not ignored by the applicant. The applicant's attorney Mr. Scott said clearly in the record of ZPZ that this area of the sub-area plan is designated when on redevelopment that it would be commercial. But, oh, well, I guess since it's all industrial up here, their commercial plan isn't being followed. You ask, why do we need to follow the commercial plan? That's how we protect ourselves both to our residents to give them public input. That's how we protect our planning and development and production of revenue and so that we keep our coffers full and our reserves full. It is how we protect ourselves legally. When you go to court, they're always going to say, where's your comprehensive plan? And we have one. It may be dated, it's 2009, but again, The applicant's attorney admitted on the record in zoning that this should be a commercial for on redevelopment. Here we are today and we keep arguing it's an I1 and therefore it must be an I1 industrial building. That is not what the comprehensive plan says. You can argue that all you want, I just do not see that as a valid argument. Standard number four, Alderman Virgil brought it up with respect to The school, it's a two-parter. The first part we use normally and regularly. Do we have an impact fee for the school and the parks, et cetera? The second part of that, which we do not usually use, which I would like us, and I appreciate Alderman Virgil bringing that up, is our infrastructure. So our infrastructure, no matter how much we hear the applicant will pay for the sewer, they'll pay for their water, et cetera, they're still a hidden, not a hidden, it's, an undiscussed, what is the overhead that we do not collect from our revenue from the water main and the ground? We're trying to collect that now, but we still have many unpaid items in our infrastructure. And then we also have the revenue differential, which I am not in the mood to balance it. I don't think the people in the audience or anyone up on here want to balance it out of our own checkbooks. We're all going to have to pay for this warehouse because it's underwater. It will be underwater from day one. And the only thing that will keep it from going underwater will be a miraculous performing industrial building like we have on the northeast corner of Elmhurst.

Alderman Irby, you're at four and a half. I am going to limit you to five on the second go around.

And then that was standard number four, which I don't think was met. And then finally standard number 10, Commissioner Burns admitted that there was no sign plan. Today there still is no sign plan. There is some verbal testimony that we will get to that. But the applicant did not give us a sign plan and we still don't have it today. That was a failure of number 10. And so if we look at this, their PUD failed because you have to have all of them checked. Number 10 was not checked. Number four I don't think was checked. Comprehensive plan wasn't checked. So the process that we're relying upon has, and our review of that, needs to be extensive, and it's part of our job. I will be voting no for this tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Alderman Jensen. Just a couple of minor things on the biometric rate stuff that was brought up. If we start looking at any potential development on whether it uses as much water or more as the previous development, then we're going to run into issues and lose any future development, including possibly residential. We have a fixed limit of how much water we can take from Lake Michigan. That's set by the IDNR. This project will actually free up some of the allocation to use possibly for a residential project in the future. that's point one point two I don't know that I just don't agree that we need that using less water and this property is a net negative it's better for the environment to use less water generally and I would rather save our allocation for future residential whether that's affordable or somewhere in this area if we do some rezoning or update the comprehensive plan which is again advisory to zoning which is the law or somewhere else in town. Thank you. Alderman Virgil.

Just to respond to that. yes less water is definitely better for the environment but as a factor of the way we cover our costs for our water distribution and sewer system water treatment plant or at least part of it it's based on those volumetric rates so if we decrease the amount of water we're not going to be able to cover our costs so we either have to change how we calculate the rates or we need to make sure that we've got a development that's paying for those costs

All right, I think we're ready to vote. So the question before us is approval of report 8.1. Clerk Tamer, if you would call the roll on 8.1.

Vareemus? Aye. Bellinger?

Aye.

Janko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Brim?

Aye.

Jensen?

Aye.

Toledo absent. Baker? Aye. Udera?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Irby?

No.

Brennan? Aye. 12 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent.

12 ayes, 1 nay, and 1 absent. 8.1 passes. Thank you.

Is this for me? Mm-hmm.

All right, we go on to item nine, reports and recommendations of appointed elected officials. Mayor Levin, join us for public safety night out. Bring the whole family to Barron's Park on August 6th from 6.30 to 8 for a free evening of fun. Education and community with their Elmhurst police and fire departments. Meet police officers and firefighters, explore their vehicles, enjoy interactive activities and safety demonstrations. Meet the big dog Sparky and watch a helicopter land. A great opportunity to learn about public safety and meet our first responders and have a good night out. I hope to see you there. I will be there. I will not be dressed as Sparky. In honor of America's 250th anniversary, the City of Elmhurst invites you to take part in a unique community experience. You can sign the Declaration of Independence at locations throughout town. We're having signing dates from now through July 23rd during normal business hours. Participating locations include Blue Point Craft at 617 North York, the Community Bank of Elmhurst at 133 North York, the downtown branch, John Nolden at Cross Country Mortgage at 115 West Adelaide, and the other community bank of Elmhurst location at 330 West Butterfield Road. And there's a final opportunity on July 24th at the Elmhurst History Museum. Additionally, I sent out an item. You may have heard we're getting a new city manager. I hope that's, we all knew that. All right. So it's a unique process, which we haven't done for a long time. I have outlined a process that's on a memo before you. We have engaged a private search firm to assist us that has taken some 80 or 90 applications, and I've today received their top 20 for our consideration. So the process would be this week, the applications and resumes for those top 20, as recommended by MGTR consultant, will be made available for every alderman here at City Hall. I believe we'll do that through HR. Correct. And I will accept comments from all the aldermen who want to share them with me before about 11 o'clock on June 27th, July 27th. On that date, I'm asking tonight that we approve a special committee that would include myself and the four committee chairs. And the special committee would meet on July 27th with our consultants to review the top 20 candidates with the goal of reducing that to eight. The special committee would then interview the eight candidates in person on dates to be determined. We're running not only with the people on the council, but with some of the candidates. I think it'll be equally true. Couldn't be a worse time except maybe Christmas week, but a lot of vacations going on, so we'll get it done as quickly as we can. In that interview process, it'll be done in executive session, which means it's not open to the public because it's a personal matter, but any alderman who wants to attend and as Alderman Ndidi puts their eyes on the eight, can watch the interview process of the committee. And I will then accept comments from any aldermen who are observing that process or if they want to get there when the committee deliberates, we will do that. The special committee will then narrow it down from eight candidates to four candidates, which they will have as city manager had the opportunity to interview in front of 17 council members, a couple consultants, and maybe a city attorney. And I'm hopeful that we could make an offer sometime by the end of August. SO I'M ASKING FOR A MOTION TO APPROVE A SPECIAL COMMITTEE AND TO PROCEED ALONG THE PROCESS I'VE IDENTIFIED. MOTION, OLDMAN SHENKO. SECOND, OLDMAN NUDERA. DISCUSSION? OLDMAN ABRAM.

I'LL START IT OFF. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. THANK YOU FOR THAT SUMMARY. THANK YOU FOR THE MOTION. Yourself and myself were probably or were the only two around the last time we did a process or needed to do a process like this and that's when we hired outgoing city manager Grabowski, approximately 15 years ago. And I guess offline, city manager Grabowski can tell you on how great it was to walk into the city council chambers and see a lineup of chairs and tables and then sitting in the middle and answering a whole bunch of questions from however many there were, 17 individuals. um with that said back then we we did the process a little bit differently and i think back then it was more inclusive of the full city council earlier on in the process than here it's at the tail or at the end of the process so as what is being requested from the mayor is that a special committee made up of four aldermen and himself pretty much take it down to the final four candidates which then the full city council will then be able to provide not only input but make the final decision previously and my recollection is a little cloudy i did talk to a few former aldermen who were on the council at that time to make sure i was relatively accurate before saying this tonight Before, the full city council was involved in the process earlier on. I believe it was when there was 20 candidates or approximately 20 candidates left. At that time, we were told to rank those 20 candidates depending on who the top 10 were. Again, the numbers... you know might be a little bit inaccurate but the process I believe is accurate that I'm stating back then then those candidates the top 10 move forward or top eight whatever it was but this full City Council had some say so not just input but literally being part of the decision process early on here Four aldermen, and no offense personally, nothing directed at any of the aldermen selected to be on the special committee, but four aldermen are making the decision to put four individuals, four candidates in front of us for the final decision. I think us as a full city council, albeit a very large city council, albeit it would be awkward, albeit it would be laborious, should have... more input earlier on, and more decision-making power early on, on the process. We were all elected. To me it's irrelevant if you're a chairperson or not. I don't know, and Mr. Mayor, if you want to speak to this, it's up to you obviously, but I don't know why the four chairpeople were put in this position. I'm the only one other than the mayor that has already gone through this process at the city of Elmhurst. And I'm not saying I'm volunteering or even want to be or begrudging that I'm not part of the process, but I think us as a full city council should have say-so, not only input, but say-so and decision-making ability early on in the process. So with that, I'm sure I'm under five minutes. With that, I cannot support this process and therefore I'm not supporting the special committee appointments that's recommended by the mayor.

Let me just point out, you're correct that in the last iteration of hiring a city manager we did have the full council interview the final eight and the final four but there was I'm moving up some of the process in the last go around the mayor selected the top candidates there was no participation by anyone so I'm opening it up to the committee chairs to work with me to do that. Second, I think it's a more efficient process, both in terms of protecting confidentiality of the applicants, many of whom I suspect have employers that don't know they're out there looking. And I think it's The first round is intended to be maybe a half-hour interview to sort through it. It's open to anyone who wants to be there. We're taking your input. So it's not that it's being excluded. We're trying to find a timeline where we're going to find... eight interviews with five people and whoever else wants to be there, and then we'll be doing four interviews with all 17 people there. So for scheduling and efficiency, I think this is the best way to go forward, but I appreciate your comments. Alderman Irby.

Thank you, Mayor. I do appreciate you giving us a little bit more detail on what the special committee does. I live in a household with a Since I was married for 35 years in the hotel business, she is a Sherma HR professional with Hilton National. And so I kind of, I don't have that title, but I get to live and breathe it every day in the hotel business with HR. That doesn't make me, again, that doesn't make me an expert. I do know how to read our ordinances and this special committee is not in our ordinance and The ordinance is pretty clear. It may not give us the SHRMA HR method of hiring a city manager. But this is our fourth iteration of this. This is not the first time I rodeo to hire a city manager. This will be our fourth one. So we've done this three times. All three times, as Alderman Bram has mentioned, we haven't done that, this special committee.

i'm aware of correct me if i'm wrong well i'll correct you then but we don't know what happened the first time you know it's uh 82 years 70 how many years ago it was 1953 1953 yeah so many people here weren't yet born and the second iteration i'm not sure they didn't just offer the job to the to mr borchardt we only know what happened last time

fair enough and and i think after we get to the next iteration maybe we ought to have a three-ring binder on a shelf let's hope it has a lot of dust because i'd like the next city manager to have the same lineage as our current city manager so um I just don't see the need because if we come down to four, I do appreciate you offering the 20 back to us for review from the consultant. At this point, with the consultant, I don't even know how they vetted the applicant pool. I have no idea. I'm going to guess what they did. I'll make some assumptions. Maybe they asked them some questions. Are you an introvert or are you an extrovert? But you get the point. Until I know what that is, I don't know how we vetted the applicant pool down to what our delivery point is tonight. Secondly, how are we going to take the job description that I haven't seen? I saw it posted on the consultant's website. I have not seen the official job description. for the city manager. How are we going to grade them to this job description? What about a multiple panel review where we have a district 205, a park district person, people from the public can come and be a part of a multi-panel review. That is not here on the sheet today. Those are standard operating procedures for most positions like this. This is a position that we will live with I am hoping for 15 to 20 years, just like Mr. Grabowski, and for us to make a special committee, I am uncomfortable with it. So I am hoping that the rest of you are uncomfortable with it and that we act like a committee. This has been six months since we had some wind that this was happening. And here we are today and we have nothing codified except what we're looking at here on the sheet and what's on board docs. That is not enough for me. Therefore, I'll be voting no. Thank you.

Alderman Nardini. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A couple of things. So first and foremost, this is a long meeting, and the stuff that happened earlier with 933 Riverside is really important and really emotional. I am thinking something that I'm guessing a lot of people on the dais are saying. The Grabowski family patience is so appreciated. We lost one, but... What we're doing is important and your husband, your dad's role is seminal here. Your patience is really important. Thank you for... I can only imagine what the texts are. Okay, back to the issue at hand. Regarding Alderman Bram and Alderman Irby, I agree with a lot of what both of them say. As far as it having not been done before, Alderman Irby, I... concede the point, I'm sure you're right, I am prepared to vote on that process now. I am satisfied with what is codified in this list. As far as Alderman Bram brings up, it is frustrating to have been somebody who stood for office and now there is a council within the council that is seeing this process, but I would be absolutely overwhelmed if I was facing 78 applicants. So I'm relieved that that has been presented to the consultant. And it's a dubious honor to have to get the 20. And all of us are engaged at the eight. So I don't feel like I'm being locked out of this process. We will be able to see the eight. We will be able to interact with that process. We will be able to submit our other trusted aldermen our thoughts and questions that they can ask I appreciate the fact that all 14 plus clerk plus treasurer plus mayor is bumpy and sloppy I'm in support of the process and I absolutely agree with Alderman Irby that I hope the next time we're doing this is 20 years from now. If we get the tenure half as long as James Grabowski, we're doing this process right.

additional comment woman baker thank you mister uh... i do uh... take some uh... s of record of alderman irby suggestions relative to criteria uh... if we're all acting as a team and looking at these applications in a way that we want to attain a quality candidate, then I think we need some idea of what we're looking for specifically. And then we can add whatever our backgrounds are, our information and otherwise. But since they have gone through about 70 applications so far, narrowing it down to 20, they should have some idea of what they were looking for. I'd like that information too.

Well, this process includes looking at those 20, and in the packet you will see they have their criteria. And I'll also add the job description is what we published. Okay.

As long as it's got their criteria is how they narrowed it down, that would help. Thank you.

And the committee may develop additional criteria, and if you have things that you want to send to us, we could consider that too.

Of course. Thank you.

All right. Let's see if we can keep it moving. Others? All right, then, since it's my proposal, I'll just close and see.

We had a motion.

We have a second. We're ahead of you. So, I mean, this is not an unusual process. You know, if you have a board of directors of a public traded company and there's 20 directors, I don't know that they're all sitting in and going through the whole process. There might be a special committee of eight or ten that would do it. I'm not trying to exclude them. I'm trying to do this efficiently and have a number of opportunities for people to have their input. We're not opening up to 205. That's not necessarily standard procedure. So this is my proposal. There's a motion, and I'll ask you to call the roll.

Ramos. Aye. Bellinger.

Aye.

Schenko. Aye. Hill.

Aye.

Graham.

No.

Jensen.

Aye.

Toledo. Absent. Baker. Aye. Nudera.

Aye.

Virgil.

Aye.

Nardini.

Aye.

Vestito. Aye. Irby?

No.

Brennan?

Aye.

11 ayes, 2 nays, 1 absent.

11 ayes, 2 nays, 1 absent. The special committee passes. City order, Mayor? Yes. That's a two-thirds vote. Can you put that on the record? Well, it is a two-thirds vote.

Okay, it is. All right, thank you.

Yeah, 10 would be two-thirds. Okay. So for the record, it's a two-thirds vote. Actually, it's three-quarters. I'm not going to negotiate with you any further. It's three-quarters. All right. City Manager, do you have anything to report tonight? I'M GOING TO TAKE A LITTLE I'M GOING TO TAKE A LITTLE LICENSE HERE DUE TO MY FRIENDS LICENSE HERE DUE TO MY FRIENDS OF THE GERBOWSKI'S AND THE OF THE GERBOWSKI'S AND THE OF THE GERBOWSKI'S AND THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE JOINED US FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE JOINED US FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE JOINED US FROM DUPAGE MAYORS AND MANAGERS, DUPAGE MAYORS AND MANAGERS, DUPAGE MAYORS AND MANAGERS, INCLUDING THE RETIRED CITY INCLUDING THE RETIRED CITY INCLUDING THE RETIRED CITY MANAGER FROM LOMBARD. MANAGER FROM LOMBARD. So traditionally what we do as part of our program is we take an opportunity to exchange some parting comments to our departing alderman or departing city manager. Do we have the traditional rocking chair here? I won't use the old office rocker joke. yeah and he's answered my question city manager does not want to sit in the locker and you could face sideways you could face your family but uh this this is i i don't know it's it's a traditional gift that has uh started long before my time and i suppose yours it's uh I HOPE YOU HAVE A HOUSE UP NORTH BECAUSE THAT WILL FIT IN WHILE YOU ARE ON THE BACK PORCH. AT THIS POINT, I WOULD LIKE TO OPEN UP FOR COMMENT BY ANY ALDERMAN WHO WANTS TO EXPRESS ANY THOUGHTS. DON'T FEEL COMPELLED BUT THIS IS OUR OPPORTUNITY. I WILL SAY, WE DO HAVE A MORE FORMAL CEREMONY THAT WILL BE, IS IT THURSDAY THE 30th? THERE WILL BE A LUNCH HERE FOR STAFF, THEN 4 TO 7, IT WILL BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND OTHER PEOPLE COMING AND WE WILL HAVE BRIEF REMARKS THERE AS WELL. ANY REMARKS I MAKE TONIGHT WILL BE ABBREVIATED FOR THAT REASON AND BECAUSE THERE WILL BE ENOUGH OTHER ONES. I OPEN UP THE FLOOR TO ANYONE WHO WISHES TO COMMENT.

Thank you mayor. So Jim looking around the room you can see how many people came out to celebrate your service. Or to be honest, maybe they're just here to make sure you actually leave before then you change your mind and Decide to say for another very exciting budget season You know to be a successful city manager. You have to wear a lot of hats and as alderman has 14 all one of 14 alderman I've witnessed that the challenges that come with the volume. And I really appreciate the level of patience and care that you've taken to make us feel heard, follow up on our requests, et cetera. It's not an easy job. I admired how you mentored your staff, hiring a great team, motivating them And to be honest, that within itself is a big part of the job. And I think as I was walking the hallways tonight, I saw this mission statement in the hallway. The city of Elmhurst is committed to provide responsive and superior governmental services in an environment of respect, in order to protect and enhance the quality of life of those who live, work, visit, and conduct business in our community. And, you know, I look at City Hall and I feel that, and I think that starts at the top. So job well done. And, uh, At the end of the day, as you step down, you leave behind a stronger, safer, and better community than when you first got here. And that is your legacy that you should be extremely proud of. It's been a pleasure working with you. And to be honest, I don't consider this goodbye. Look forward to seeing you on the tee box at the first hole of whatever golf course we choose. But thank you for everything that you've done for me and the community. Thank you.

Sounds like there's corned beef in your future. Corned beef. Yeah, you're on. I'll go to Alderman Baker and then Alderman Bastido.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the chance to share some memories, if you will. Back in 2011, the Elmhurst History Museum portrays a house divided through two new exhibits. The city budget for 2012 and 2013 was a complex city-wide budget that Pete DeCiani, I'm sorry, Mayor DeCiani was bringing forth. There was a comprehensive flood task force involved back in 2012. People in the city at that time, if you recall, was Mayor DeCiani, Patty Spencer, a city clerk, David Dyer, a city treasurer. Those are the people that were here as far as officers when you began. dated july six twenty eleven the community bank of elmhurst and the elmhurst chamber of commerce and industry will co-host meet and greet with the communities uh... in the community room at three thirty west butterfield road on july twenty first from five to seven the two hour event will follow the chamber's business after hours jim is a great talent and skill in economic development, stormwater, thank goodness, intergovernmental cooperation. But he also has the intangibles, such as insight, graciousness, and is a people person. He was and is described as a nice guy. And that, along with his professionalism, is what makes him a fine choice for us, according to Mayor Duciani. Grabowski and his wife of 13 years are the parents of two children, Michael and Anna, far removed from age eight at the time. The front porch also added that Jim has a great talent and skill in economic development, stormwater, and intergovernmental activities. intergovernmental cooperation, but he also has the intangibles. He has great talent and skills and with his professionalism is what makes him a fine choice for us. I saw all of those things and many more in the many years that I've been involved at City Hall or with City Council work and I want to say that I thought you brought it every day to the table and I hope you do the same with the enthusiasm in retirement. The last thing I have is I'm really trying to figure out who this person is. So if you can help me with that later, that would be great. But best of luck to you and your family, and thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. So Jim Grabowski has never been an alderman and will never be an alderman, I'm sure. He's much too smart for that. But I have looked to him many times on how I should do this job, especially at the beginning, because I really appreciated your experience and your approach to things. In many ways, we are opposite. I am much too direct, and you are very good at hiding your opinion sometimes, because I think you were very faithful to your job to run the city. You know, you're not political. You don't run campaigns. You run the city. And I really admire that about you. You are very diplomatic. And the only time we really quarreled was when Jim texted me after Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois. But he wasn't the only one. Don't worry, I got plenty of ticks. But that was really the only time I hated the man. And it was very short lived. And I recovered from that loss. But I really, I don't know how long I'll be on city council, but I really had hoped that you would stay the whole time. So I was very sad when I got that phone call. But I'm happy for you. As evidenced by the tan on his head, I think Jim has other places calling him and a lifestyle that he has earned and that he deserves and time with his family because this really is a 24-hour job. And he gave himself to it. And the city of Elmhurst is better. So thank you.

Alderman Jensen. Thank you, Mayor. I have nothing prepared for some reason, but I just want to say thank you for your service to this community. I remember, what was it, back in 23, the last time we dealt with a lot of Canadian smoke, we were on a bus at O'Hare as part of a tour of the airfield via ONCC, and you were talking to our city manager. I was sitting there, and came up uh you know how you're the only a third city manager in elmhurst and the other two were 30 years i'm like well i hope you you know continue the tradition of 30 years of service and i meant that and it's sad to see you go because you did the job with lot of dedication and put a lot of effort into it you did a great job at it and the city is better off for it um unfortunately i won't be here on the 31st because we'll be on our one vacation this summer um so i'll just wish you uh wish you uh good luck in the future and a lot less strokes than i saw last time i played with you thank you alderman varamus

Thank you, Mayor. Jim, congratulations on your retirement, and thank you for your years of dedicated service to the city of Elmhurst. Your steady leadership, professionalism, and commitment to our community have helped shape Elmhurst in countless ways. Through challenges, opportunities, and many important milestones, you have always led with integrity and a genuine desire to do what's best for our residents. I still laugh every time I think about Alderman Jensen was with us. Our drive down to DMMC. We were going to Springfield. The mayor, three aldermen, and our minivan decided to break down. It was the only time I saw Jim maybe not be as cool as a cucumber. A little bit. But nonetheless, it was a great memory. And it was clear to me when we were down there seeing you outside of City Hall, how well respected you are amongst your peers, our legislators, and everyone in between. You also have the patience of a saint, because when I started here, and you, to Alderman Bastido's point, had to explain quite a bit to us. You probably don't remember this, but we had an extensive conversation about how a lift station works. I had literally no idea what that was. But you were very patient in onboarding me, so thank you. It has been a privilege to work alongside you. I appreciate your guidance, your sense of humor, your dedication to public service, and mostly your friendship. Wishing you many years of good health, happiness, time on the golf course, and with your beautiful, lovely family. Thank you for everything. It's been a pleasure.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Jim, you are a consummate professional. I noted when I was watching you interact with DMMC people that for the first time, you're amongst peers. And it was pretty cool to see the respect that I could kind of eyeball amongst that group. You have to put up with us. You don't get to hire us. You don't get to fire us. And some of us... hit on all cylinders, and some of us you must have to have Herculean patience for, and I'm sure I'm one of them. I remember you drawing out a TIFF graph time over years of TIFF at breakfast together, and you know, like, I've got a college degree and I'm getting a fourth grade pencil drawing graph about a TIFF. I very much appreciate it. I won't be in attendance. I work on Thursday, so I feel obliged to get out what I can say with great affection about you now. The first tomato sauce I've ever had is my Aunt Mariangela's. The first city manager I have dealt with is you. I will be using you as the gold bond standard for whatever CEO I am dealing with going forward. And it's going to be a tough bar to measure against. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Jim, you're a fixture here. And I never imagined you not being here. I guess I thought you would be here forever. But I first heard of you when both of my parents spoke highly of you with their involvement with the city and the commissions. And then I started to get involved. My dad said to me, this city has run so well because of the city manager, Jim Grabowski. And I did not know what that meant until I'm here. I'll never forget that. And then when I had the privilege to chair the youth commission and then this city clerk position, I saw it firsthand. You've been a steady, strong, positive leader, acting in the best interest of the residents of Elmhurst and have always led by integrity. You've gone above and beyond your role and embedded yourself in the community. The success I've seen in this city and staff are a direct reflection of you and your dedication to Elmhurst, and I thank you. You've set the standard high. will be missed I've learned a lot from you through the years as you always said to me what would Patti Spencer say or do thank you for your service your guidance and thank you for your friendship I wish you all the best in your retirement and I think I need to learn how to golf real soon city treasurer

You know, we're sitting up here, and I feel like I've unlocked core memories I've forgotten about. The first time we ever met was with Tom Shrozine, and we sat in one of the conference rooms back there. And nobody knew who I was. I kind of ran at the last minute when I saw no one was running. But because no one knew who I was, I don't think you guys had any way to contact me. So I was summoned by letter to come meet with you. And this was, like, not long ago, either. And so I was summoned by letter and came. I don't know, you treated me with the utmost respect, having no idea who I was. And I feel like we talked for probably too long in this meeting. And I totally forgot about this. And I was like, man, that was a really, like from the jump, you're just really respectful of me when you had no idea who I was. And that's continued on for the last couple of years. Final meeting was one for the ages, I think. So congratulations on getting out of here. And yeah, we'll see you around the neighborhood.

Alderman Hill.

Jim, on behalf of the Bald Municipal Men's Committee, We mourn the loss of one of our members, but encouraged to see that it will be replaced by a similar one. But that being said, I just want to say that I look to you a lot when you're over the years, when you've been asked questions and I've constantly been waiting for you to be flummoxed, right? Caught out without an answer to a question. I have never seen it. Now you may not have the answer, but the way you were always willing to, um, go back to the well and find it, or even give an answer that sounded like an answer when really you were saying, I don't know, but I'm going to make sure I have an answer for you eventually. I just want to say I always admired that, watching you be an effective communicator, and also a very good speaker on occasions when you would come up and speak, especially to my class. I really was glad that I had you come and have that opportunity to speak to my class was impactful and I didn't know it was going to be the only time so I don't know maybe I can come in the future and we teach a different one maybe you know hair care I don't know whatever but I do want to say that I will miss your always reassuring presence you know I knew that if I didn't have an answer to a question I always felt like I knew who to turn to and if they didn't have an answer they'd make it sound like they had an answer and they often would have the answer so you will be missed thank you

thank you other than your family and mayor levin i think i've known you the longest uh possibly in this room but there's not many people left in this room either um what's funny is everybody's as everybody is speaking i'm looking towards the family more than you jim to see if they're nodding their heads up and down or side to side if they agree with some of these comments And thank you all for staying this late at night. We typically don't do anything after 10 o'clock because bad decisions are made, and it's 10.01, so I'm not saying another word. All joking aside, You know, Jim, as I alluded to earlier, walking into a room full of 17, 18 people to interview must have been daunting. I remember you. I could probably call out what suit you were wearing. I don't think you own it anymore. But I could probably call out what suit you were wearing at the time. I don't even remember what questions we asked you. But I'm sure you walked out of this room probably cursing as well as calling your wife immediately. Like, could you believe this? I just had an interview with an army. And it's also great for the family to be here today to see the faces of those he's complained about over the decades and a half of serving the city of Elmhurst. But in all seriousness, I know that we've agreed and disagreed on some issues, but as others have already said, I think you've always kept your cool. You've always responded, always gave good answers. Again, we may not have agreed on the topic, but I always respected your perspective on every single thing that we've ever discussed and or debated. Communication has always been there. I can't imagine getting, you know, I don't know how many emails a day just from the city council, let alone from staff and residents and everything else. It's amazing to be able to do that job and do it as cool and calm and collected throughout the days. I don't have the luxury of city clerk tamer of seeing you on a day-to-day basis, but anytime I've worked with you, you've always been cool, collected, and given a very professional answer. I will say from that, I don't know how old you were when we hired you, but we won't mention ages anyway. But I'll say that I've seen you develop over time. Someone, I think Alderman Hill just mentioned in regards to you presenting. Your growth since day one as we sit here today is remarkable. Not only knowledge of city functions here, specifically to Elmhurst, but city government overall, as well as presentation. and communication all have exceeded my expectations, so thank you. Thanks for everything you have done. Family, thanks for all your sacrifices, unless you're saying you're very happy to have him out of the house that often. Much appreciated. Now you can continue on for the rest of your years living a normal life and not being on call 24-7, so thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

When I first got my call from Jim Grabowski, I remember when you told me I'm not related to the Grabowski Bears player. I'm kind of sitting there laughing. I'm saying, but his name's Jim, so he's got to be pretty good right there. But I just have a couple of comments, just a couple of statements that I think you fill these characteristics. One, you're a leader. You're respected. You're patient beyond belief. You have a great sense of humor. You're mild-mannered. and you hold your standards high. And I wish you and your family all the best, and I hope that we see you in the neighborhood, see you down the street, and you deserve this retirement. Thank you very much for all your service.

All right, anybody else? Alderman Irby. Thank you, Mayor. Five minutes, start it now.

Start it now, thank you. I'll take one minute, how's that? don't believe you jim when i got into town 1993 and started work at the city of not the city of the uh the school district doing a task force getting involved through the schools eventually i came toward you before you even got here and then when you got here I finally came up and got elected, and we went to breakfast over at Egg Harbor. And then you told me some of your personal stories. You didn't know who I was. You didn't have to tell me all those things. And we shared nothing to do with city. It was all about personal relationships, our family. And we had a lot in common, where you met your wife, where I met my wife. And we established that trust from the beginning. And that meant a lot that day. And some of the things that you've done that are phenomenal here at the city of Elmhurst, one is the police force. So when I went to Citizens Police Academy, I saw that respect that several other aldermen are mentioning of the level of respect that Jim commands, gains through his skills, his care and outright, I think love. I think it comes down to love and Jim cares. And then when I look over here, I know who I'm looking at because you told me about them. And so Jim took us from this police department to one of the finest police departments, I think, in the US. And I say that because of the ratings. I know how they feel about Jim. And I've seen firsthand what our police department does. So Jim has done a phenomenal job with the police department. And the real person over here in the chair is his family and his wife. they deserve some of the most accolades of all people in the room here because not only did that to put up with you or me or any of our you know significant others they had to put up with us and all of the city and the huge time delays and here they are and so i would like to when i get done i would like to make sure i give them a hand thank you jim

Anyone else want to speak? All right, I will make a few comments. So 15 years, for people who aren't in the business, the average tenure I think when you were here was probably about seven. And despite the fact that we had someone who did 27 and maybe someone who did 40, kind of a short timer, but okay. 30 all right I just want to make sure you know Kent Johnson was pointing out that it's since you've been here it's two meetings a month times 12 months times 15 years that's 360 council meetings probably nothing new to you but what's really amazing uh is that we've been i've been here the whole time and i think you may have missed one or two um maybe three i don't know it's you've been here all the time so uh when we need you um we asked you to move into the community to be come part of the community and you did that's why there's so many lions candy rolls in there that you have to buy and try to pass out to people, but you walk around, you walk around with Christian and people know who you are. You've become a valued member of our community, not just an outsider who, sorry, who does that. You've done a great job. I look at the things you've led us through, floods, stormwater, COVID, the downtown development, and you know, and the race to the top, you know, with the, yeah, that was important. To the tower, yeah, I didn't, it's really quite remarkable itself. But, you know, in my time dealing with other mayors and city managers, YOU KNOW, SOMETIMES I'LL GO TO ANOTHER CITY COUNCIL MEETING AND THINK IT'S THIS BIG AND WE'RE THIS BIG. DEALING WITH 14 ALDERMEN AND A MAYOR AND A TREASURER AND A CITY CLERK IS REALLY DIFFICULT. uh i know you never have time off um i call you at various times you're you're always there you always answer um for those of you who don't know jim is not only recognized as a leader in our community but among dupage mayors and managers he is extremely well regarded and will be missed there as well personally i'm glad i got to know kristin and your children um and um I know the city manager, he can't hang out with us and go out and say we're going to have a scotch or something. But after August 2nd, you know, we could do that. I will say, as has been said, you have a wonderful sense of humor, which isn't itself as important as the fact that that's what helps everything move here. Everything goes in a... without a whole lot of tension. That's why we all get along. So you only had one wife, but you had three mayors. And that's like having three wives, don't you think? Thanks for the alimony, Jim. All right.

BEFORE I'M GOING TO ASK CITY MANAGER IF YOU'D LIKE TO MAKE A FEW COMMENTS TONIGHT OR IF YOU'D LIKE TO SAVE THEM FOR OR BOTH I I DO HAVE SOME COMMENTS TONIGHT AND I WILL HAVE SOME COMMENTS ON THE 30 ALL RIGHT THAT'S OKAY CITY MANAGER THANK YOU I VERY MUCH APPRECIATE ALL THE KIND WORDS IT'S IT'S REALLY PHENOMENAL TO TO HEAR THAT SO MICHAEL HAD TO LEAVE FOR WORK But I want to start with those two right there.

I'm not talking about you, Kevin.

I'm talking about Kristen, Michael, and Anna. Because thank you isn't enough to express how grateful I am. I'm only here because you're always there. That's what I know. Now I'll get on with the easy part. even in spite of me being on the phone for half of a vacation, which has happened more often than I like to say. But my how quickly 15 years in Elmhurst goes by, and 30 years in municipal work, with a majority in city management, but today I conclude my final council meeting, and as the mayor said, by my estimation, we've held approximately 360 council meetings while I've been here, and about 1,500 committee meetings of one type or another during my tenure. Not that I attended all those, of course, because I can't possibly when they overlap. But from all that, I can draw one conclusion, that serving the residents of Elmhurst has been a privilege and the absolute highlight of my career. In my view, few professions have the opportunity to positively impact people's daily lives as much as municipal government. Every day, dedicated public servants provide safe drinking water, reliable sewer service, exceptional police and fire protection, well-maintained infrastructure, thoughtful community development, cultural amenities, and countless other services that enhance the quality of life for the residents. I really want to recognize this group back here, all the municipal employees, and all the municipal employees that either were or are that are here today as well, uh because they bring that dedication and energy every day and for all the things that you said i did it's really them addressing long-standing flooding issues stands out as one of our most impactful accomplishments improving safety protecting property and strengthening the resilience of our neighborhoods but there is more work to be done and we all recognize that Helping guide the development of the city center has also been a highlight, transforming it into a vibrant destination that continues to attract new investment and activity. I'm equally proud of the role we played increasing residential property values, ensuring long-term stability and opportunity for residents. Above all, it has been a privilege to help develop a high quality staff whose professionalism, dedication, and talent will continue to elevate the work of this organization for years to come. One of Elmhurst's greatest strengths is its unwavering commitment to the city manager form of government. Our community has enjoyed 73 years of stable professional leadership under this system. As the mayor said, nationally, the average tenure of a city manager is approximately seven years. In Elmhurst, the average tenure is 24 years. That remarkable difference speaks volumes about the confidence the city council and residents place in professional, nonpartisan local government. I want to recognize and thank my colleagues who attended tonight, PHP, thank you. As I conclude this chapter, it is with immense gratitude. Mayor Levin, city council members, thank you for the trust you placed in me, for the opportunity to serve this extraordinary community, and for the support you've shown throughout my tenure. I wish you all and the city staff and the residents of Elmhurst continued success as you begin the next chapter in the city's history, and I have every confidence that Elmhurst's best days remain ahead. Thank you.

Well, I'm going to say something unusual, which is we're going to take a five-minute break. And I'm sorry for our friends who are waiting for the rest of the business, but we usually call quits at 10, but we want to get to all of the business that remains. But I want to just take the break so we can refresh. And five minutes, we'll be back, and we'll try to run through the rest of it. So we're in recess. Thank you.

Thank you.

We're back in session. City Manager reports that he has nothing under City Manager report tonight other than what we've already covered. We'll move on to item 10, 10.1. Clerk Kammerer, please read the ordinance.

ordinance granting a conditional use permit and approving a final plan unit development with site development allowances for the construction of a parking garage and associated improvements upon the property commonly known as 590 north county line road 600 north county lane road and 501 east lake street elmhurst illinois item 7.7 i have a motion to approve 10.1 motion alderman jensen second alderman vareemus

Alderman Jensen.

Thank you, Mayor. This is an ordinance related to item 7.7 that was on the consent agenda. We asked to suspend the rules because we're missing a meeting. Our next meeting was supposed to be August 3rd, but we don't have that because of our new schedule this year. So we asked to suspend the rules, and we ask for your support.

All right. Any discussion? All right. Clerk Tamer, call the roll.

Vareemus? Aye. Bellinger?

Aye.

Schanko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Bram?

Aye.

Jensen?

Aye.

Toledo absent. Baker?

Aye.

Udara?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Irby?

Aye.

Brennan? Aye. 13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. 13.1 passes. Thank you. 13.2, please read the ordinance.

An ordinance approving and authorizing execution of a non-exclusive license agreement for the Knights of Columbus Prairie Path Market.

I can have a motion to approve 10-2. Motion Alderman Brennan, second Alderman Shenko, Alderman Brennan.

Thank you, Mayor. Consent agenda item 7.15, Prairie Path Market, Knights of Columbus new event. We suspended the rules when we voted this in. The reason being their first event is this Thursday. So time was of the essence, and that's it.

All right, any discussion on that item? Clerk Tamer, call the roll, please.

Grimace? Aye. Bellinger? Aye. Shenko? Aye. Hill? Aye. Bram?

Aye.

Jensen?

Aye.

Toledo absent. Baker? Aye. Newdera?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Irby?

Aye.

Brennan?

Aye.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. 10.2 passes. Clerk Tamer, please read the ordinance on 10.3.

An ordinance to amend Chapter 22 entitled Zoning of the Elmhurst Municipal Code.

All right. We have a motion to approve 10.3. Alderman Jensen with a motion. Alderman Vareemus with a second. Alderman Jensen.

Thank you, Mayor. This is the ordinance for the report we passed a few weeks ago. I do want to ask to have one minor modification. The zoning ordinance currently has the following setback requirement. Rear yard, none, except that a 65-foot rear setback measured from the westerly edge of the alley right away as it existed on August 21, 2000 is required for the parcels fronting along the east side of York Road between 3rd Street and North Avenue. This setback dates to the North Downtown Design Plan when the block of York between 3rd and North was treated as a transition between Downtown and the North York Corridor. Its purpose was parking, consolidated alley access parking behind those parcels. Much has been built since, including the Elmhurst 255 garage and its 100 new spaces. Staff initially considered the setback no longer necessary, but after feedback from property owners, the better course is to review parking availability in the north end of downtown before eliminating it. So with that, I'd like to make a motion to add the following text. A 65-foot rear setback measured from the westerly edge of the alley right away, as it exists on August 21st, 2000, is required for the parcels fronting along the east side of York Road between 3rd Street and North Avenue to the July 26th ordinance, with the caveat that the committee will revisit it during future discussions on the downtown plan or any revisions at the six-month review mark.

We have a motion to amend. Is there a second? Alderman Ravrimas with a second. So this is essentially putting back in the existing 65-foot rear setback so that we can look at it more carefully. I think it was probably an oversight that it was taken out. Any questions or discussion on that? This is the area sort of across the street from Panera behind the buildings there. and there's a long history, but this will allow us to maintain the status quo that we have today, and so we can look at it separately. Any other questions or discussion? Clerk Tamer, call the roll.

Remus? Aye. Oh, wait, we're calling first on the amendment, right? Right. Okay, sorry, hold on one second. Remus? Aye. Wait, there wasn't a second to that, though.

Yes. Remus, same. Amendment? Both. Okay, I'm sorry. Jensen, Remus. No problem.

Remus? Aye. For the last time.

I've got three ayes from her, it's going to pass. All right, go ahead.

Bellinger?

Aye.

Schenko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Bram?

Aye.

Johnson?

Aye.

Toledo? Absent. Baker?

Aye.

Newdara?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Irby?

Aye.

Brennan? Aye.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. 13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. The amendment passes back to the main motion. Anything further, Alderman Jensen?

I mean, I said what I was going to say. I introduced this at length a couple meetings ago, so I asked for your support.

All right. Any discussion? So we're on the main ordinance. This is our new zoning ordinance that we had an extensive report on last meeting. All right. Clerk Tammer, call the roll.

Vareemus? Aye. Bellinger?

Aye.

Schenko? Aye. Hill? Aye.

Aye.

Graham?

Aye.

Jensen?

Aye.

Toledo absent. Baker?

Aye.

Newdara?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Kirby?

Aye.

Brennan?

Aye.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. 10.3 passes. On to resolutions. Clerk Kammerer, please read the resolution for 11.1.

A resolution to approve the citywide garage sale pilot program. See item 7.16.

I have a motion to approve 11.1 Alderman Brennan with a motion. Alderman Shenko with a second. Alderman Brennan.

Mayor, report 716. Under the consent agenda, we suspended the rules. for the citywide garage sale pilot. The pilot's gonna take place October 3rd and October 4th. Suspension of the rules necessary to allow for enough runway to ensure this event is successful and is out in the public and people are signing up for it.

Very good. Any discussion on 11-1? Clerk Tamer, call the roll.

Burimus? Aye. Bellinger?

Aye.

Shanko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Graham?

Aye.

Jensen?

Aye.

Toledo absent. Baker? Aye. Newdera?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Irby?

Aye.

Brennan? Aye. 13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. 11-1 passes. On to 11-2. Please read the resolution.

A resolution approving City Center Wine Walk in the City of Elmhurst, Illinois, see item 7.17.

Motion to approve 11-2, Alderman Brennan. Second, Alderman Schenkel. Alderman Brennan.

Mayor, this report was, again, approved. We need to suspend the rules. The event is on August 5th. This coincides with Wednesday night concerts for City Center. This is a new event and look forward to it. Thank you.

All right. Any discussion? Clerk Tamer, call the roll.

Verrimas? Aye. Ellinger? Aye. Shanko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Bram?

Aye.

Jensen?

Aye.

Toledo absent. Baker? Aye. Ndera?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Irby?

Aye.

Brennan? Aye. 13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. 11-2 passes. Other business? Only one item of other business. After our next item, which is adjournment, I'd like to have all the aldermen stand behind that rocking chair with someone sitting in it so we can get a picture. All right? Any other business? I ask for a motion to adjourn.

have other business oh so we have plenty of time i'm gonna try i'm gonna try this on behalf of city staff i'd like to formally request a late start for the staff meeting tomorrow it's already done alderman because um alderman barimus and i will be at the chamber board meeting right and early I'm shocked. I'm shocked. In 15 years, I don't think you've ever done that. So, well done. All right.

Any other business? Motion to adjourn? Alderman Schenck with a motion. Alderman Macedo with a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. We are adjourned. Thank you.