City Council - Regular Meeting

ouncil meeting for the city of Highland Park, Illinois, April 13th, 2026. Will the clerk please call the role? Council member center. Council member Buckman here. Council member Ross here. Council member Tapia. Council member Little here. Council member Bloomberg. Mayor Roing here. We have a quorum. Everyone, let's rise for 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. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the rescheduled regular consolidated meeting of the city council held March 30th, 2026. So move. Second. All in favor say I.

I. The minutes are approved. We have a motion to approve the warrant list. So move. Is there a second? Second. Any questions or comments on the war list? Hearing none, will the clerk call the vote, please? Council member center. Hi. Council member Buckman. Hi. Council member Ross. Hi. Council member Tapia. Hi. Council member Little. I. Mayor Roing.

I. Six eyes, no nays. The warrant list is approved. Before I begin with uh business of the mayor, I'd like to note that item two on tonight's omnibus agenda, a resolution approving the award of the lead service line replacement project phase 2 contract to try construction corporation of St. Charles, Illinois, will not be considered at all. Uh if anybody is here on that matter, that is no longer on the agenda. Um, okay. Continuing with the report of the mayor. Tonight begins the commemoration of Yamaha, the beginning of the days of remembrance. Before we continue our business for the evening, I ask you to join us in a moment of silence and remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. As we remember the unfathomable loss of precious lives, we also honor the survivors whose stories we must all pledge to keep alive. Thank you. May their memories be for a blessing. At a time when acts of anti-semitism continue to be on the rise in our nation and around the world, we recognize that the Holocaust was the evil expression of unchecked hate. It's important for all of us to stand against anti-semitism and to state unequivocally that we stand for the safety and celebration of our Jewish community. Continuing on, we have one appointment this evening. I am seeking council concurrence on the reappoint of finance director Christy Macallu to the police pension board. Do I have your concurrence? Great. And thank you Christie for being on the board. We appreciate it. We have two proclamations this evening. Tonight we're celebrating the 46th consecutive year in which the city has been recognized as a tree city

USA and proclaimed April 25, 2026 is Arbor Day in Highland Park. In addition, for the ninth consecutive year, Highland Park has been recognized as a pioneer tree city USA community and awarded a growth award from the Arbor Day Foundation. The growth award recognizes higher levels of tree care and community engagement during the calendar year. I'll now read that proclamation. Whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of the business areas, and beautify our community. And whereas trees help reduce the erosion of our bluffs and ravines by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees, wherever they are planted, are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. And whereas Highland Park has been recognized as a tree city USA by the Arbor Day Foundation for 46 consecutive years and desires to continue its tree planting ways. And whereas Highland Park is hosting an Arbor Day celebration on Saturday, April 25th, 2026 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Ravenia Festival West parking lot, 301 Ravenia Park Road, where the city park district, local organizations, and businesses will offer a wide variety of environmental resources along with more than 600 live native trees and shrubs ready for planting. Now therefore, I, Nancy Rotary, mayor of the city of Highland Park, do hereby proclaim our support of Arbor Day and the Tree City USA program and the city of Highland Park and urge all residents to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to support our city's forestry program. And further, I urge all residents to plant trees to gladden the hearts and promote the well-being of present and future generations. Uh, public works director Ron Bannon, this proclamation is for you. Thank you.

Suitable for framing. Many thanks to director public public works Ron Bannon, city forester Ben Miller, assistant city forester Hannah Kosiaak, and the department of public works for their incredible stewardship of our urban tree canopy. Rain or shine, the city's annual Arbor Day event is always a great event. Bring the kids. We have so much planned for this year. Join us on Saturday, April 25th at the Revenia Festival West lot from 9 to 11:00, as we mentioned, for exhibits, demos, and giveaways to brighten up your home and garden this spring. And here's a highlight. They will also be having birds of prey from the Northern Illinois Raptor rehab, a touch a truck exhibit, bicycle recycling, an electric vehicle showcase, and so much more, including free plants and free trees that they'll be giving away. Please visit city of highlandpark.com, actually, it's cityhil.com/arborday to learn more. Thank you. Is somebody saying something over here? No. Okay.

Continuing on, um, next week, April 19th to the 25th, is National Crime Victim's Rights Week, sponsored annually by the Department of Justice, Office of Victims of Crime. This week serves as a reminder of victim's rights and services. I have a proclamation. Whereas crime affects individuals, families, and communities in profound and varied ways, often leaving lasting physical, emotional, and social challenges. And whereas crime victim's rights acts passed in Illinois and at the federal level guarantee victims the right to meaningfully participate and use their voice in the criminal justice process. And whereas victim service providers, advocates, law enforcement officers, attorneys, and other allied professionals can help survivors find their justice by enforcing these rights. And whereas the right to provide an impact statement ensures that victim's voices are considered in court during the sentencing and when applicable, restitution processes. And whereas including and elevating the voices of survivors makes certain that they are heard and seen and creates a path to forging and sustaining community trust. And whereas the theme for this year's Crime Victim's Rights Week is listen, act, advocate. And whereas National Crime Victim's Rights Week provides an opportunity to recommmit to listening to crime survivors in every space where decisions are made that could impact them. And whereas the city of Highland Park is hereby dedicated to amplifying the voices of survivors and creating an environment where survivors have the confidence that they will be heard, believed, and supported. Now therefore, I, Nancy Rodri, mayor of the city of Highland Park and the city council of the city of Highland Park, Illinois, do hereby proclaim April 19th to 25th, 2026 as Crime Victim's Rights this Rights Week. Um, and we continue to be deeply appreciative of the work of numerous victim's rights advocates and victim

services professionals who have unfailingly supported our community, especially the Lake County States Attorney's Office and their team of victim specialists. We also would like to thank the city social workers including police social worker Amy Bricker, resiliency specialist Jasmine Alejandro, and senior services division social services specialist Rachel Traveras for their work and support as they advocate for community members in need. Thank you all for your work. Continuing on with other business, next week is volunteer appreciation week. Tonight, we're delighted to share our gratitude for every volunteer who dedicates their time and talent to make our community such a great place to live, work, and visit. Many thanks in particular to the community leaders who serve on a city advisory group, board, or commission. As a council, we really appreciate your insights and are super grateful that you share your expertise with us throughout the year, whether by providing feedback on policy matters or helping to present special events. This summer, we're celebrating America 250, the semiquincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So, we encourage everyone to participate in what will be a record- setting year of national volunteer service. Please visit america2250.org and click on gives to log your service hours and be sure to include your organization's name and location on the form. As a city, we're working to make this a special celebration of our nation's promise as well as our community's values. And we encourage you to visit enjoy highland Park.com/amea250 to learn more about ways you can get involved, including through volunteer work, special events presented by Highland Park businesses, and city sponsored events as well. In particular, um many thanks to everyone who's volunteered to be part of our America 250 Independence Day events, including the parade. If you'd like to add your

group or organization's America 250 spirit to the parade, the application is now available at cityhpil.com/parade application. Lastly, we'd like to recognize the that a number of outstanding volunteers will be recognized uh coming up on April 23rd on the annual Highland Park Awards ceremony. Please join us at 6:30 p.m. at the Highland Park High School auditorium to learn more about the dedicated work of our award winners, especially the nearly 30 residents of all ages who will be honored for their exceptional character and community service. Always a special and fun evening. I also want to share that April is Blue Kids Month, an opportunity to raise awareness about child abuse prevention and how we can all contribute to creating safe spaces for kids. We'd like to welcome Officer Lesie Senos to the podium to share more about this initiative. Welcome, Lesie. Thank you, Mayor and Council, for the opportunity to share more about Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month, also known as Blue Kids Month. You may have seen the Blue Kids banner outside of the police department. During Blue Kids Month, our goal is to provide community education to protect children from abuse. This is an important initiative for the Highland Park Police Department. The 10 shared principles of public safety not underscore community education and engagement as a key component of promoting public safety and public trust. By working together, police officers and community members can create a safer environment for kids. Blue Kids Lake County is a program of the Lake County Children's Advocacy Center. Through this program, the Lake County Children's Advocacy Center brings together partnered organizations from

all sectors throughout Lake County to raise awareness about ch child abuse, engage kids by promoting peer-to-peer support, and encourage education to ensure that all uh that all children enjoy a safe childhood. to help support kids and teens, parents, schools, law enforcement, and other communities, community advocates. The Lake County Ch um children advocacy center offers numerous resources on their website from age appropriate discussions about abuse, dating, and healthy relationships and online bullying to conversation starters, toolkits, and principles. The Blue Kids campaign includes a a wealth of information to help us all create a healthy and safe environment for kids. There are also a number of events and activities for all ages planned for this month. See the resources and calendar at friends of lcc.org. You can also visit cityhil.com/bluekids for more information about this campaign and to learn how you can support the Lake County Children's Advocacy Center and the Highland Park Police Department in working to protect kids and teens from abuse. Now, really quick, I'm going to uh say it in Spanish. Um, so for educ.

Highland Park. Blue Kids Lake County Children's Advocacy Center. Hello, papas. Lake County friends of lcc.org cityhpil.com/blkids. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Officer Senos. And thank you to Chief Jogman, to the command team, to our outstanding school resource officers, Isaac Shenum and Teresa Steedler, and all the police department personnel for your work to protect the public safety and protect this important education to keep our kids safe. It's greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. Thank you.

The next item on our agenda is business from the council. All council members serve as liaison to city advisory groups, boards, and commissions, and attend these meetings to hear firsthand the insights and contributions of our commission volunteers. Tonight, council members Little and Center will provide reports on the work of the transportation advisory group and the zoning board of appeals, respectively. We'll start with council member Little and the Transportation Advisory Group. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Rhodi. I serve as leazison to the transportation advisory group. I am pleased to share an update on the work of the group. The transportation advisory group is composed of seven community members, several whom are new this year by the way, who are passionate about transportation. I'd like to recognize chair Elliot Rosson and staff leaison Anna Ford for their collaboration and leadership in strengthening transportation planning and education in our community. The transportation advisories group group's mission is to number one provide advisory recommendations related to the planning and implementation of transportation plans including but not limited to the move HP plan complete streets policy and recommendations from bikewalk highland park. Number two, provide advisory recommendations related to multi-modal vehicular and pedestrian transportation and parking conditions, projects, education, and communications throughout the city. TAG members meet quarterly and as needed throughout the year. I'd like to highlight several initiatives of TAG's work for this year. May is National Bike Month. The city is developing a community calendar based on the League of American Bicyclists guide which will be shared on the biking and walking page of the city's website. They also Highland Park um currently holds a bronze level bicycle friendly community designation. We are working to incorporate bicycles into the city's Fourth of July celebration. So, we have more to look forward to. And on behalf of the TAG advisory group, we hope you are looking forward to National Bike Month and we remain committed to serving the community in all facets, two and four wheeled and feet.

Wonderful. Thank you, Council Member Liter. Thank you, Chair Rosson, and all the members of the Transportation Advisory Group for your advocacy and engagement around the importance of promoting safer roadways, sidewalks, and trails for all users. Council member center, will you please provide the ZBA report? Happy to. Thank you, mayor. The zoning board of appeals or ZBA uh consists of seven board members and is chaired by Alexis Yablon. Its staff liaison is Patrick Hoffman. The ZBA considers and decides requests for variations from the requirements of the city's zoning code. It's authorized by us as city council to consider and decide 14 types of relief including but not limited to building setbacks, yard requirements and subdivision building line limitations, ravine and steep slope requirements, maximum lot coverage and floor to area ratios. The ZBA is also authorized to consider and decide variations from the city's tree preservation code and fence code. It makes recommendations and decides special exceptions and decides appeals concerning determinations of the zoning administrator. Although the ZBA renders final decisions on most matters before it, it also serves as a principal hearing and advisory body on a range of variations referred to it by the city council through the compare referral. Uh in the current year, the board has had 14 meetings to consider 22 applications for relief through a public hearing process, including one compare referral that was voted on by city council. The board did not see any heritage tree removal cases, although some setback relief granted by the board contributed to saving heritage trees. Board members uh have completed legal and procedural training, ensuring that members are knowledgeable of the open meetings act, Robert's rules on the state laws and local codes and regulations related to considerations within its jurisdiction. I have very much enjoyed serving as liaison and I've

learned what I can and can't do with my house and so really appreciate uh everybody who serves on it. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Council Member Center, and many thanks as well to Chair Yablan and all commissioners on the ZBA for your thoughtful consideration of applications for variations to the regulations of the city's zoning ordinance. Service on the city's land use commissions, including ZBA, often represents a significant investment of time and it's greatly appreciated. Um, continuing on now, I will ask city manager Newkerk if you have a staff report that you'd like to share.

Thank you, mayor. Um, just one report this evening. Um included in the packet is our fire department strategic plan um serving as a roadmap for our fire department operations for years 2026 through 2028. So Chief Shraggy is going to give highlights of our process to obtain feedback uh to inform the plan as well as highlights of the plan. And then also just to recognize Cheryl Smith, management analyst in the fire department who did a significant amount of the heavy lifting and coordination and collaboration with the team. Great. Thank you very much, city manager Newkerk, and thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it, mayor, council, uh, to share our plan with you this evening. So, we'll start with the fire department u mission. Realistically, if I was to paraphrase it, it truly is is to to save lives and protect property. Um, but there's one statement in here towards the end um that says that we're responsive to the needs of the community. And and so that's where when we talk about the strategic plan being important to us, it truly this the way we did our strategic plan was a communitydriven strategic plan. So we reached out to both external and internal stakeholder feedback uh to get feedback to really put together what we brought to you this evening. So, um, that is very important to us. Uh, where, you know, management analyst, uh, Cheryl Smith comes in really in in guiding us through that is it's able to allow us to kind of step back and, uh, the chiefs to step back and allowing people to really give their open feedback and that was very important as well. So when I look at this, no changes were made to our actual mission statement uh through that process even though it was reviewed because it truly does stand close to our mission and the fire service mission really doesn't change a lot. We're here for you. Uh as far as our

this is our organizational chart. It doesn't include the other departments of the city, but you can see obviously we start with the community. And uh as we continue through, we have a matter of 56 members on our fire department made up of uh 53 sworn members and then three civilians. So it's made up of three shifts. We work 24 48s, 24 hours on and 48 off. So you'll see every third day typically that same shift they'll work together and and are are really um congealed as far as being able to provide service and in a team atmosphere. In gathering the stakeholder feedback, there really was a overall process of um really determining our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that was put towards both the um external feedback holders and then also the internal feedback or stakeholders as well. And we we also mixed it up with the anonymous survey and then uh did a in-person workshop. the we were gathered we gathered this as far as the people that participate by publicizing in the Highlander and then also on the city website at the senior center and then outreach to local businesses. Uh all of the external feedback methods were available in both English and Spanish. 123 people responded to the online survey and then 12 community members and business partners attended the in-person feedback workshop. Uh internal feedback was gathered from all three shifts. We didn't want to exclude anybody. So unless they were on vacation or sick for the day, that would be the only reason they really missed it. So overall, we had 71% of our personnel go through the SWAT meetings. So during the external stakeholder, we really did get a good mix. when I look

at the um age groups as far as the um different diversity was very very good in our overall um respondents. So we were happy that this somewhat reflected the community. Obviously it's not exact but it uh definitely met the you'll see the census there versus the FD the fire department survey to see that there was a pretty good participation. So this is the feedback that truly came back in primarily as far as a prime focus on our external stakeholder expectations. Uh that they wanted a continued focus on emergency response. And nobody's going to argue that that's why we're here is to make sure that we save lives. We're we're here to to save property as well and make sure that people are safe. Uh but that being said, we need to do it expediently. Right? So that's the second point. The third point, maintaining and continuing to build skills. We always need to be prepared for that that event whether that's something that's routine to us each and every day or the something that's low frequency and high risk. So we're constantly training and uh we typically do get around 22,000 hours of training as a department per year. So uh it's a significant amount of training and then continuing to provide professional caring compassionate services. We try to treat our community as as it is our own family because you are uh when it all comes down to it, we want to make sure that we are providing a service that uh everybody would be proud of and and would be happy to have their family treated that way. And then continuing to provide and promote public safety education programs throughout the community. Uh we recognize that it is very important to continue to provide that ability to teach people not only what they can get from us, but then also how to keep their their home safer,

their family safer, and their community safer by some of the simple habits that they could have or things they could purchase. So, while there are other non-English-speaking populations in our city, you'll see that Spanish was mentioned in here, uh and that was specifically mentioned by the stakeholders. So we'll continue to seek opportunities to engage in all with all the members of the population. So moving on to the internal stakeholder expectations. Um like I said earlier, this is when the chiefs actually step out of the room and make sure the people don't our personnel don't feel stymied to to talk to to truly be open and shared. And uh Cheryl led them through this discussion. a few things that bring out that came out is uh staffing. You know, they the fire department wants to the firefighters want to make sure that we're keeping up with the community's needs, making sure that we're meeting them. And so, we'll continue in our strategic plan. You'll see it's a focus that we'll do a study to make sure that our staffing is appropriate. Uh technology continuing to it's continuing to evolve. So we want to make sure that we keep up with it. Not only, you know, as we sort our service to the community, but also internally to make sure our personnel have the right tools to to be able to for scheduling for um doing their report writing and so on. We want to make sure that they have the tools that they'll make them more efficient. And then uh public outreach and community relations. I found this interesting that both on the internal and the external feedback that that this was a theme. Now, we didn't include that as one of our primary three goals, but I want to highlight the fact that that was a main theme in our last strategic plan and continues to be a priority for us as we moving forward and continue to increase our our uh engagement with the community. So, please don't think that

we're ignoring that. It's just we needed to to prioritize some other ideas as well. So, and then uh interdep departmental communication. We continue to really look at how we can work across stations uh as shifts, how we can continue to work with our mutual and auto aid partners and then also other departments in the city, how we can uh work together to to accomplish all of our goals. So, these are the three primary goals that we pulled out. uh we wanted to keep it to three because we wanted to truly uh give time and focus and and not uh dilute our our focus. And so staffing, analyzing trends, practices, and personnel capability to most effectively meet the adapt needs of the community through data informed staffing and deployment. And I say that because it's not an automatic like, you know, we need to increase staffing or we need to decrease staffing. It's also really looking at what we do and how we do it to see if we're doing it in the the best way. So, uh we want to look at that. We also want to look at our training to make sure that we're not having any gaps in uh performance, making sure that we're essentially covering all of those topics that we might, you know, it's not too often we deliver babies, but that's a high risk and and low frequency, but we need to know how to do it, right? So, so there's a focus there. And at the same time, there's, you know, other things that we do. We pick up grandma off the floor on a regular basis, right? So, so we need to we need to make sure that we're ready for any of those calls. Um, and then technology and infrastructure, obviously looking to see what we have, making sure our assets are meeting the needs of our mission. So,

all right. So, so staffing this is some of the feedback that we got from our internal uh feedback uh to where there's really I mean what we're seeing is our trends are are going up and that's why it's such an important to truly look at deployment and and um how we deploy and what assets we use. So you'll see in uh the blue is uh EMS and all of the calls are in orange. you'll see that we're still sticking around that 50 percentile as far as the type of calls that we go on, but you'll see that there's been a steady increase over the years. So, we want to make sure that as we also see more woodframe buildings go up, we're meeting those needs and still recognizing that those those particular buildings are also seeing other fire protection that we didn't necessarily have in our prior prior buildings as well. So, but we want to make sure as as as the information is there that we're responding appropriately. Uh we want to take a a closer look at our increased workload per unit to make sure that like I said we're deploying properly, making sure that the right amount of uh rigs are on the road and making sure that we meet those uh needs of the community. So, we continue proactively also to look at reducing false alarms and other non-emergent calls. Some of that's going to be through education. Some of that's going to be actually addressing maybe for compliance on on making sure systems are working properly. Uh and then other aspects is it might be a reduction of rigs to certain calls but an increase in others. So um and then training obviously this was the other focus in training. you'll see that actually our age of the firefighters has not our years of service is not uh I'm sorry I'm probably saying it wrong. All right. So the the average age has

remained fairly constant or consistent with the length but the length of service in our fire department has decreased. So obviously when you start thinking about the preparing people to take that lead in those emergencies being incident command and and really truly knowing our community, uh it's very important to make sure that we're training up. So So when I talk about that 20,000 hours of of training per year, uh that really is important to make sure that we're prepared for every one of those calls and that our personnel feel comfortable making those decisions. And so that's going to be a continued focus for us. And then overall, obviously, we look at um different pathways that we can send send them on, realizing not everybody's going to be an officer. That was one of the feedbacks that we got. It's very easy to guide people to the top, but it's not always easy to to show all the other education points to to keep people in line. And then uh other than that, partner collaboration. We can continue to train with our partners with our PD, with our PW, and and uh our community development, our other departments uh throughout the city along with our mutual aid and auto aid partners. Technology, uh this is I know I'm going a little long. I apologize but technology and infrastructure we want to make sure that u once again we're looking at uh different programs and different dashboards and uh one of the best uh moves that we made recently with with being able to truly unleash this data is hiring our management analyst Cheryl Smith who's who's well capable of of running that data for us. So that's been a a huge help. And so we have not only her but but also um uh Battalion Chief Jeff Jeff Marusich who's also uh joined the Association of Fire and

Emergency Services analysts. It's another program, another group that helps give us and share information across the fire service to to make us a little more rich in our data. So with that, I will open the floor to any questions.

Great. Thank you, Chief. And thank you management analyst Smith. Much appreciated all the hard work and thanks to your team for participating in such a strong way. Really appreciate not only their professionalism but their dedication to caring for our community. I had one question and that was the number about 74% increase in call volume over 10 years. Is that due to our aging population? Do you have any sort of a sense of why that's going up?

So it's really an industry trend. Um, couple couple things have happened through the years. You'll you'll see the fire service industry has taken on more types of calls as well. You know, once upon a time, you look back early history. We were a fire department. That's why we're called the fire department. We we responded to fires, but suddenly then EMS came in, then hazmat, then, you know, TRT, then yeah, I mean, we're doing everything now. Um, water. So, yeah, lockouts. It it just we continue to grow our mission. Uh that is part of it. Another part of it is is the the community truly seems to need us more and so you'll see generally across the across the nation about a 4% increase per year um for for calls for most departments.

Okay, that was going to be my next question is are your communities seeing a similar rise? Yes.

Yeah, I was just going to add because we did talk about that as well. Another elected official, Council Member Litter raised that um bullet point as well. So, we did add, you may recall, three um firefighters a couple years ago in the budget to increase our staffing level. So, one for every shift. Um that statement in the report more align when we look at our staffing level today compared to 20 years ago. That's where they are comparable. Um one thing that the chief and I have talked about that we're looking at is the calls that we are going on. Is there a way to reduce those calls? Do they really need 911 emergency responders? are there different ways to address those types of service needs? And so we're looking at that type of strategy. The department has done a phenomenal job in terms of fire prevention. And so we have seen false alarms being addressed by the proactive work that our department as well as community development um on the fire inspection side is undertaking. So that's something that we're always looking at as we take a look at managing staffing as well as responding to uh calls.

Great. When is the pancake breakfast? So tenatively scheduled for October 25th. Tenative. I got to I got to confirm that. But awesome. Thank you. Always a highlight. Council member Tapia. Yeah. On the third priority on technology, can you talk a little bit more about the what you're learning about the use of AI at every level? You know, I can see where you on the data analysis. I'm sure it's being run, but is there any looking at making AI available more at the ground level, at the site level? I mean what what's the latest thinking on that?

So it is interesting because the fire service we're a little slow to accept some of the technology sometimes as nationwide service uh but uh there's certain avenues where we are looking at AI as far as like potential emergencies where it's most likely to happen looking at population. Um, and probably Cheryl could speak to this more because I know it's been used through our GIS staff as well as far as being able to kind of predict um, emergencies as far as um, report writing and such. Some of our programs do have some AI components built in, but we also have to be careful um, for HIPPA and privacy and so on that that doesn't cross into another another avenue or get out into the public. So, so we're somewhat limited on how we can use AI in that regard. Uh, but I do see there's a lot of potential for the future of us really diving into that topic more.

Yeah. And just a quick followup when I ask on the ground or sort of on the street or the site of accident, you know, like doctors, nurses are using it like just in time for all kinds of things popping up. Is that emerging in the in your kind of work? Not heavily yet. It's I do see that coming uh more especially in our EMS. So, okay. Thanks. Great. Anybody else? Council member center. Uh, council member Topius just took the words right out of my mouth in terms of what he was going to ask. I appreciate him doing so. Did you get any feedback from you in your interactions with the community? Did anybody ask sort of that similar question to understand what type? No, not that I'm aware of. Cheryl, I did not come up.

Yeah. Interesting. You know, they're really the one thing that that I would say that was reflective in our community is is those that have experienced calls really talk about that that personal experience that Yeah. the hands-on, the actual practical of us treating them like family, professionally, respectful, quick, getting to the hospital, having amazing outcomes. I think generally that's that's the feedback that we got from the public and they want to maintain that, you know, and are willing to support us in any way to be able to give that. So, well, thank you for everything you guys do. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Anybody else?

Okay. Well, great. Thank you. Great report. Much appreciated. Um, assistant to the city manager, Palpitzka, will you please introduce the next item on our agenda, business from the public.

Thank you, mayor. The next item on the agenda is business from the public. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the city council on a topic that is within the council's purview and jurisdiction but is not listed in another location on the agenda. If you'd like to speak about a matter that is listed on the agenda, we ask that you wait until that agenda item is called and we will give you an opportunity to speak then. If your matter is on the omnibus consent agenda, please let us know if you would like us to remove that matter from the consolidated list so that you can speak about it. Please be aware that business from the public is not intended to be a form for open dialogue or engagement with members of the city council. Rather, it is intended as an opportunity to make comments to the city council. Please do not expect a response from anyone tonight. If appropriate, uh we may direct the city manager or other city staff to respond to questions or issues raised at a later date. All comment should be directed to the city council. All speakers will be limited to three minutes. We request that the public not applaud or make other comments after any speaker. We ask that everyone be respectful, civil, and non-repetitive.

Great. Thank you. Are there any members of the public who wish to be heard this evening on an item not on tonight's agenda? Okay. Seeing none, we'll continue on with our omnibus consideration of one item, which is a resolution entering into an exterior improvement grant for Vagio Highland Park, Inc. doing business as Nico Restaurant. 581 Roger Williams. Uh, is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second, but I have a comment. Okay, go ahead. The sign is beautiful. So, okay. The grant is right. It just came up this weekend. So, the timing is really wonderful for us to approve and help them out with the sign.

Great. Great. Great. Thank you. Uh, we have a motion in a second. Any comments or questions otherwise? Any from the public? Will the clerk call the vote? Council member center. Hi. Council member Buckman I. Council member Ross. I. Council member Tapia. Hi. Council member Leto. Absolutely. Mayor Roing. I. Six eyes, no nays. Item one is approved. Uh there are no other items. I am seeking a motion for us to go into close session. I was going to say I would like to move that we go into close session according to section five of the Illinois code se 120-2 C11 for purposes of litigation and six and six so

and six and what and yes that too. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Will the clerk please call the vote? Council member center. Council member Buckman. Hi. Council member Ross. Hi. Council member Tapia. Hi. Council member Little. I. Mayor Roing. I. Six eyes. No. We will go to close. Thank you.