Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Good evening everybody. I would like to call the May 14th regular board meeting of the village board of trustees of Indian Head Park to order. Can we please have roll call?

Trusty I. Trusty Sana, Trusty Ack here, Trusty Donnersburgger, Trusty Zedka here, Trusty Gazis, President Amy Joe Whittenberg here. Can we please stand 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. Thank you everybody for joining us this evening. Whether you're here in person or with us on our YouTube channel or on Comcast channel 6. Thanks for joining us. I am going to go through my report tonight. I have a couple of different slides that I am going to put up. One second. I'm having a little technical issue. All righty. I've talked about this a couple times. I've written some emails on it, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time, but there is a threat in Springfield right now on some state legisl legislation that is threatening our local zoning control. So, I know we've been talking a lot about fences lately and we have the beauty of having local control, right? We can sit here and deliberate and have a dialogue about fences, right? Well, there are things going on in Springfield right now that will not that will usurp our authority for local control. So, the state's proposed build initiative, there's six different bills, but the main one is 5626, is a threat to our local zoning control. The build act aims to boost housing supply through state mandates requiring higher higher density residential development and streamlined approvals. It would override Indian Head Park zoning by allowing four to eight units on many single family

lots. So hypothetically, if there was an open lot in the village or a tear down lot in the village or somebody combined two lots in the village, a developer could come in and build a 4 to 8 unit uh complex town home apartment on the lots. We would have nothing to say about it. They would standardize the impact fees and set strict permit review timelines. So, we wouldn't have the ability to have our own oversight. It would permit ADUs in all single family districts. That would be another unit on your uh detached unit on your property. It allows third party reviews and inspectors if deadlines are missed. It removes local development direction. It permits single stair residential buildings. That's a huge safety issues. Most fire protection districts and public safety professionals are very against that. It permits uh limits parking requirements. So, it takes all the requirements to have ample parking away. And it significantly reduces local zoning and regulatory control. I know I've mentioned this before. We do not know if the bill when the bill will be called. It is a bill that was lobbyed by the real estate president of the realer uh lobby and the governor. Um there is other people supporting this. So, we really need you to go on the Illinois Municipal League website, look at the opposing. There's been some other organizations that put alternate ideas to the state to the governor and the team, but nobody has heard anything

about when this is going to be discussed, when these bills are going to be called, when they're going to be out of committee. So, it's a big quagmire. We keep asking everybody what's going on with this and nobody knows. So, I really need you to contact your state legislature, um, Nicole Laha, Senator Curran, um, Chris Welsh, anybody that you know down in Springfield, and tell them that you oppose this build initiative. If you look at the Illinois Municipal League website, they have their alternative proposal that's available for you to review. Very quickly, I wanted you to know that we did have a Wolf Road redesign meeting this week. We are going through a lot of details regarding the um the drainage and how drainage would be handled both in Indian Head Park and Burr Ridge. This last week, we had our maintenance of traffic analysis meeting with all of our public safety, school districts, and everybody in our community to talk about how we are going to reroute traffic during this project. So, we are in the preliminary stages of bringing that to everybody to have everybody look at that and see how we want to maintain our traffic flow during the project. Uh it will be probably a uh three-year project. One year for north of Juliet Road, one year for the bridge at Flag Creek, and one year south of the bridge. So it'll be done in a phased approach.

There is a new Planefield website that we put out uh on the Facebook page this week. So keep in mind that um if you want to hear the latest and greatest on Planefield Road, the project has been broken up into two. So the area from Laurel West to County Line Road is project number two and that has been split off from the main project and that is slated now for 2031. So I want everyone to know that from this the street at the school Laurel west to to county line is a separate project due to the complexity of the drainage and all of that going into Flag Creek and the approximate timeline is 2031. Next if you can go to the next slide please. I just wanted to take a moment to thank Corporal Cassain. One of our longstanding residents emailed me about a case, checkashing case that Corporal Cassain worked very, very hard on very diligently went through all of the um details to put the case together even when um the bank didn't really want to follow through to go after these people. So he took the initiative, collected all of the information, was very diligent with his team and investigated this checking and was able to um make an arrest and bring this case to court and to justice. So I want to thank the resident for coming forward and and complimenting investigator Corporal Cassain, but we want to take a moment to just say thank you to him for going above and beyond with this case. um and thank him very much.

Memorial Day, there is a com commemoration at the Lionsville Cemetery on Monday, 5:25 at 9:30 a.m. I'm sure you probably are aware that the Lionsville Cemetery is an extremely historic cemetery with graves from the War of 1812 all the way up to our some of our current um wars. So, it's not just a military se cemetery. It also has some of the founders of our Lionsville community which was never incorporated but was what we were called in uh in the olden days. So at 9:30 on that Monday is going to be um a time for the people from the Robert American Legion Robert Coulter Post will come and do taps. We'll have a ceremony and um we'll commemorate um all of our veterans on Memorial Day. So, if you've never been to it, it's very informal. Please come and join the cemetery board and the American Legion. Um they will also have refreshments there in time for you to meet your neighbors and to be together um saluting our veterans. And you can also take a walk around the cemetery if you haven't had a chance to do that. All righty. Thank you for listening. Can I now have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved. I second. Any questions on the consent agenda? Can I have a financial report, Gavin?

Yes, you may. The financial summary for the month ending April 2026. Cash on hand at March 31st, 2026 was $2,86,28920. Payments for April of 2026 were $467,669.13. Total revenues for April were $758,29.99. Ending bank balance at April 30th of 2026 was $3,96,6506. I'm happy to report that the village is in stable financial condition.

Great. Thank you. If there are no other questions on the consent agenda, can I have a roll call vote, please?

Trusty Inako I. Trusty Yak I. Trustes Vetka I. President Amy Joe Wittenberg I. 40. The motion carries. All righty. Moving on to new business. Can I have a motion for item D, please? The annual financial report. I move to accept the fiscal year 2025 annual financial report and related audit communications. I'll second that.

This item is consideration of the village's financial 2025 annual financial report and related audit documents prepared by Lau and Amen. Uh Jasine C from the from LNA is joining us virtually this evening any moment now. She's on the meeting but it'll be on the TV any moment. And the audit um staff previously reviewed the draft audit with the finance committee and it reflects an unmodified or clean opinion of the village's financial statements. The auditors also reported on uh no significant disagreements with management and no material difficulties encountered during the audit process. The management letter included recommendations regarding continued monitoring of budget appropriations and ongoing attention to cyber security awareness and IT risk management which which staff will continue addressing as part of normal operational oversight. So um Jasine's here. She'll car take us through the audit uh document the which uh is in front of everyone. Um there is the uh annual fi fis uh financial report and a management letter. Those are the two items before you Jasine. Can you hear us?

Yes. Can you hear me? Yep.

Um I will keep it brief and short. Gavin gave you a very good overview, but I'll just like a couple of um point out a couple of um a little more uh on the audit. Um I want to thank the board for letting me present remotely tonight. We're getting into our busy season. So appreciate uh being everybody being flexible. I also want to thank the staff for dealing with us during the course of the audits. Um having auditors on site is not the most pleasant um experience. Everybody's like, "Oh, the auditors are on site." So, we appreciate all the time and effort that went into getting um this finalized. The first piece I would like to go over is the SAS 114 letter. The primary purpose of which is to convey whether or not we had any difficulties or disagreements with um management over the course of the audit. And I am happy to report that no such disagreements or difficulties were encountered. And that is exactly what can be found in the body of the letter. The next I will go over the bound report itself. I would like to point out a couple pages, but feel free to stop me at any point if you have any questions about anything in particular. Pages one, two, three talk about the independent auditor's report which describes that the management's responsibility is the preparation uh and fair presentation of the financial statements. Our responsibility is to generate an opinion on those financial statements. And I'm happy to report that we've issued an unmodified opinion and the highest level of assurance. Uh which basically means the financial statements are free from material misstatement and there are sound internal control over financial reporting. Next couple of pages is the MDNA or management's discussion and analysis. It's a great narrative summary of the like uh fiscal year's financial highlights. We understand there's a lot of information thrown within the whole

report. So this um section breaks things down into words, charts and graphs for easier comprehension. I highly encourage the board to read this section through the like for um at the leisure. But if you have any questions even after tonight, don't hesitate to reach out. We'll be happy to discuss further. Uh next couple of pages, page 24 in particular is the fund level income statement uh for the governmental funds. Overall, everything looked okay except for cap capital improvements fund uh which Gavin and I chatted about today. Uh general uh fund had an operating income of about $429,000 with an ending fund balance of about 2.6 million. Um, motor fuel tax fund had an operating income of about $48,000 with an ending fund balance of uh about $849,000. Capital improvements, like I said, did have an operating loss of about $3,400 with a negative ending fund balance of about $848,000, which is basically carrying over previous year's um negative u fund balance. Then non-meor overall had an operating loss of about $8,700 but ended up with a positive ending fund balance of about $298,000. Um page 28 is the same statement but for proprietary funds. So the water and sewer fund was completely okay. We had an operating income of about $740,000 with an ending fund balance of 4.41 million. Any questions on those numbers or any other financials? Like that's like the basic that we go over unless there's like any particular questions before I move on.

No questions. I think we're good. No questions.

All right. Um next you will see there's notes to the financial statements where you will see anything basically the breakdown of investments, inner fund balances, u capital assets, long-term obligations that the village had for the year. um as well as IMRF and OP information. Lastly, in the required supplementary information and other supplementary information, you will see um budget to actuals for each fund as well as other supplementary schedules that we are um required to disclose. Pages 83 and 84 at least of the um towards the end you will see that we did have an ARP compliance audit done for the ARPA funds that were recognized within the fiscal year. So, our funds are completely uh spent down. So, we're good to go. We um but then there was no issues on that portion either. Last piece I would like to go over is the management letter comment. Um purpose of which is to convey any internal control recommendations. We have best practices that we see in the industry or uh upcoming Gazby standards. Um there's only two current ones which Gavin went over. Funds over budget. It's a budget. just keep in mind that the fund balance doesn't get too impacted by it. So general fund and special parks were a little over budget. Um and then IT security like he mentioned is it's just a precautionary. It's not like a ding to the village at all. We issued it for all our clients and then come next year it will be uh deemed implemented. Uh some updates to prior comments that we had uh deficit fund balance like I said capital improvements. So something to look into um whether what the revenue sources versus what expenses were incurred and then capital assets we um suggest having uh inventory done to get the historical records on the books. I think Gavin and I have chatted about that before but if you can fit it in the budget that would be great so at least you have like the fair value of what the

assets are owned by the village.

Isn't that the same? Lastly, like two upcoming standards that are coming up are gas 102 and 103. I don't think the village is subject to 102. It's more on like if you have um investments over 5% of c your of your total cash and investment value. It has never been an issue. So I don't think this will be applicable next year. Gaz 103 will be applicable um will be implemented next year. more on like how um the MDNA will be a lot more um thorough and explanations of why things were different and uh towards the end of like the budget to actuals you will actually see a variance column as well. Those are major changes um for those two Gazsby pronouncements. Any questions? I just have one comment that we've put in for a um CAP grant for our asset tracking and also our capital planning. We don't know if we will receive that grant, but if we do, I think we'll be well ahead of where we need to be, but we appreciate your suggestions. Any questions?

Thank you, Jessine. And I do want to say um it's we've been working with Jessine the this is the third uh audit cycle I've been through with Jessine and I've really appreciated her help. It will be our last year um working with Lback and Aman for the audit and and we'll get into that on the next item. Um I'll explain that. It's nothing that LNA did wrong. It's not that they're charging us too much. is just uh best practice is to alternate and and and rotate uh auditors from time to time so that you uh maintain independence and don't get too comfortable. So but thank yeah thank you Jessine. Thank you again.

All righty. Thank you. You can feel free to leave the call if that works. Have a good night. Thank you.

I think we will need to if there are no other questions, we'll need to uh have a roll call vote to uh to accept the 2025 annual financial report and audit communication. Trusty Anako I. Trusty Eek. I. Trusty Zedka. I, President Amy Joe Whittenberg, I 40 Z. Motion carries.

We did have a request from some of our attendees this this evening to move up the item. I in old business if we could move it up in the meeting and I believe I have concurrence that we can we will be able to do that. Trustees, you feel that's okay? All righty. Then we're going to move the fence discussion up uh old business up if if you don't mind.

Okay. Um I just want to clarify a few things. The purpose of tonight's discussion is not final adoption, but rather to confirm that the current draft ordinance language accurately reflects the direction and policy intent uh previously discussed by the board and to identify any final revisions or corrections before the ordinance returns for formal consideration and before we take it to a public hearing uh with the planning and zoning commission. Uh, pursuant to Illinois law and the villages zoning procedures, proposed zoning text amendments must first proceed through a public hearing process before the planning and zoning commission with required public notice published in advance. Uh because the village is currently because the board is currently undertaking a broader update to the zoning code. The public hearing for both the comprehensive zoning update and the proposed fence code amendments is scheduled to occur at a joint meeting of the planning and zoning commission and village board on June 17th at 7. If we can uh please be there so we can have a quorum. Um we'll need a quorum of both the planning and zoning commission and the board. Um and at least two weeks prior to that hearing, we're going to be sending out the final draft of the um zoning comprehensive zoning update and which includes the proposed fence code. Um and this um will get us through the process uh so that we meet the legal requirements of posting it and and notifying that following that public hearing uh process. The next step would be formal uh consideration by the village board of the zoning amendments at the at a future meeting probably July if everything stays on on target. Um and that will

include the entire zoning code. We're replacing our current zoning code. It's been many years. Uh we've been working with the consultant for months on uh getting to that point. And we did uh look at the fence code separately. You may be asking yourself, why did we pull this fence code out? And it had gotten a lot of public interest. There was a lot of discussion at the board level. There was a lot of discussion at the planning zone zoning commission. So, it needed to be uh talked about uh separately. Um I do want to come back to a couple of specific things in the uh packet materials that were sent out for tonight's uh meeting to avoid uh any confusion. Um, the packet did include an earlier conceptual exhibit showing a uh illustrating possible percentage-based interior fencing options that were discussed during the policy development process. However, the current draft ordinance language reflects the more recent direction from the board uh which is to limit by residential fencing to qualifying major roads and arterial street properties. uh the exhibit does not reflect that uh approach that the board has asked us to take. So, we'll be uh fixing that. Um I also want to note that staff identified a typographical issue with the section addressing fences adjacent to nonresidential districts. There had been a section there uh listing them as special uses, but they would be uh a byright use. And the example of what that's talking about would be the fence behind Walgreens or the fence along Joliet Road, which is is entirely different uh situation, a different solution that that has existed for a number of years. So, we didn't want to uh uh change anything with that, but it doesn't

you can't hear me. Sorry, I'll talk louder. Um so the uh that was that's going to be amended as well. So that um it will those will not be special use. They'll be allowed by right as they are already. Uh again, that's the the commercial the fence between the commercial districts and uh residential districts such as along Joliet Road um across from uh the plaza as well as uh behind Walgreens at Brookfield Plaza, Brookside, that plaza over there. Um, I also want to, um, so as currently drafted, the ordinance focuses on clarifying where fences may be permitted by right, establishing updated standards for properties along major roads and arterial streets, addressing technical requirements such as setbacks, gate placement, visibility triangles, and safety considerations. U it will also improve administrative clarity and enforcement consistency and balance safety, privacy and property maintenance concerns with preserving neighborhood character. So, the next steps following tonight's discussion, staff will incorporate any final revisions or technical corrections identified by the board and prepare the ordinance um and prepare the ordinance and for the public hearing on June 17th at 7 p.m. The board will vote on the entire zoning code um including the fence code at its meeting on July 9th uh 2026. Um, are there any questions about uh what was provided in your packet, the zoning code, um, the fence code updates that will be included as part of the zoning code uh, updates?

So, can we just confirm when we will have the final document of all the zoning changes? What's the date? Two weeks before the 20 the meeting. Two weeks before the meeting on June 17th.

Okay. and we will send out a news flash with the links and a Facebook post. When we post something on Facebook now, it goes on Instagram, Facebook, Next Door automatically basically. So the links to those there will be links to those documents. So, the planning and zoning commission already is aware. They've already been working on the zoning updates with our consultant, but the consultant is going to be presenting all of those at the next meeting. So, the next meeting is going to be with the board. We need a quorum of the board and we need a quorum of the planning and zoning commission. That will be a joint meeting to go through all of the changes in the zoning code. The um consultant from ours from Safe Built will go through all of those changes. You will be able to see those changes two weeks before online at the links that we give to you. But it won't be just the fence changes. It's going to be all of the changes. Just so you're aware of that.

Is that correct? Okay. Is there questions? I have a question. Question. Um, so on the current proposed defense ordinance in section 1B5, it refers to the minimum setback of 2 feet from the property line. Can we just confirm? I I thought we talked about three feet and I could completely be wrong, but I just wanted to make sure that that number was as previously discussed. We'll have to look at that cuz I like

it looks like it looks like um fully on private property at least 3 ft from public right away. And then the next one, it says along property lines allowed if both neighbors sign approval or must be two feet away from the property line. So I think the 3 ft and the two feet are two separate situations, right? Let let me follow up on that. Um I I know what you're talking about Christian Danielle. Sorry. And we talked about mower clearance. Yeah, we we're talking about mower clearance and I don't remember if we settled on two three two feet or three feet. If we could just check. Yep. I'll do that and we'll get that corrected. Thank you.

Okay. And just for the audience, if if you don't realize this, many of you probably have, if you go to our meeting link, the entire board packet, including the fence ordinances, are in that link. So, if you're wondering what documents that we're looking up at up here, every board meeting, they're always in that link for the meeting. Some people don't realize that. So, if you just click on that link of the meeting, the entire board packet will come up and the fence ordinance in its current state is in that board packet. If you can't find it, just let us know and we'll show you where it is so you can read through it. Any other questions on the current version of the fence ordinance? Do we want to take any public comments on that? While we're

Sure.

While we're on the fence, old business, um, we will also take public comments at this time. There are no public comments. So, um, I think we've gone through what the process is going to be. We will make sure that the process has been delineated and reviewed again on our website and also on our news flash and our social media. But if there's any other questions, by all means, you know where to get us here at Village Hall. You can email us, call us, or come in and we will remind you what the process is moving forward. So, we will be able to see all of you on the 17th if um you care to be here. We can see you the next we can see you at the next board meeting, right?

Yes. Of course, which is always the second Thursday and then we can see you on the 17th for the combined meeting between the planning and zoning commission and the village board. The vote on this will be in July unless there's some extenduating circumstance. All righty. Hearing that there are no questions, we will now move on to back to new business to item E. So, this is resolution 202615 authorizing the engagement of Oh, did you want to take a motion? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Can we have a motion, please? Sorry.

Sorry. I move to approve resolution 2026-15 authorizing the engagement of Seldon Fox Limited to provide professional auditing services. I'll second that.

Staff is recommending this engagement as part of normal professional rotation process that I mentioned earlier and governance best practice. Lauderbback and Amen have served the village professionally and worked cooperatively with staff as you could see throughout this transition process um including assisting us with identifying potential successor firms and we got three bids. Um the Seldon Fox was the lowest qualified bid so we're bringing that forth. U we believe that Seldon Fox is well qualified to provide auditing services moving forward and we recommend approval of the resolution. Any questions on the new audit firm? Charlie, are you good with that?

Have you worked with uh them before, Gavin? I have not worked with Seldon Fox. Has anyone in our our staff worked? Brandy had worked with them before. Uh although she's no longer our finance director. Um she said uh she as uh has worked well with them and she's aware that others have also um various uh teams of from Seldon Fox have worked with uh people that she's familiar with and she was comfortable with it too. And what's our cost going to be? It's going to be uh the first year is going to be 26,000. It's a three-year agreement. Uh it increases each year. Um but the second and third years are optional. We're not tied.

And how does that compare with what we paid last year? It's about what we paid last year. I believe it was 20 about 25,000 last year. Thank you, Gavin. Is the three years standard? Yes. Yes, it is. Any other questions on the audit firm? Hearing none, can we have a roll call vote, please? Trust trusty I. Trusty Eek. I. Trusty Zetka. I. President Amy Joe Whittenberg. I. 4 Z. The motion carries.

Moving on to item F. Can we have a motion, please? I move to accept ordinance 2026-07 amending chapter 4 animals of the village code regarding managed feral cat colonies and animal nuisance conditions.

I second. This item originated from resident concerns regarding feral cat activity and related nuisance issues within the village. In response, the village reviewed approaches used by other jurisdictions, including county level regulations and trap, neuter, and return or TNR practices. Um staff worked with the village attorney to prepare the proposed amendments to our ordinance. The ordinance does not establish a villagerun feral cat program. I want to be clear about that. Instead, it clarifies the vill's regulatory appro approach to existing TNR related activity while strengthening nuisance related enforcement provisions and maintaining flexibility for humane management uh practices. And it is really uh incorporates and model is modeled on uh the county's ordinance regarding feral cats. And um the uh nonprofit that we've been uh talking with and and uh working with to develop the program is Triple R pets and they are a county certified u u overseer uh supervisor of uh feral cat colony caretakers which are uh individuals volunteers who um do provide uh coordination and care for uh feral cat communities. They help to trap them u work with triple our pets to have them neutered and then the cats are returned to the community and identified as uh cats that are part of a colony. And we've already gotten some volunteers. I feel like I'm talking really loud, but um we do we've already identified some

volunteers in the community who will help with as serve as feral cat colony

caretakers and um they will be going to trainings provided by triple our pets and they will be approved and uh certified um at the county level. One item. Um, Triple R Pets is going to have a training class here at Village Hall um, in June and we are just confirming the dates. It will be open to Indian Head Park and other people as well for for residents that want to be caretakers. So, you can come and get trained about what you need to do, how you need to sign an agreement with triple R pets. I went through this process at the committee of the whole meeting. So, you can self-identify. Um, feel free to email us here, but you really need it will be through Triple R pets that you will sign an agreement with them. And the responsibility that you'll have if you're going to be a feral cat colony caretaker, there is a responsibility to do this. And then you can always, you know, you could do it for a while and if you don't want to do it, you let them know so you just don't drop the colony. So, there's a whole process involved in doing this. So, the training will be here and we will be again putting that on social media and news flashash. Um, and you can let them know if you're coming to the training. It'll be here at Village Hall on a Saturday. So, please let us know if you're interested. Uh, we'd love to have you participate in Willow Springs. I think she said they had 25 feral cat colonies at one time, if you can believe that.

Uh, how many do we have here? Do we have any idea? Well, we have a lot. We know we have a lot of cats. Um, there is one person that has a colony through Hinsdale Humane Society that already started the process because her neighbor was feeding the cats and um then she passed away. So, all these cats were have been around. So, she's been doing TNR for probably 3 weeks or four weeks. TNR TNR TNR trapped neuter and neuter return. That's the process's acronym. TNR. So, we've got one colony we're aware of.

We have one colony we're aware of, but I mean, I have five different cats on our security camera on any given couple days. Five different cats. I don't know if you see them in Ashbrook, but I'm sure a lot of the people in this room can tell you there are a lot of cats.

Hey Gavin, just a um it kind of sounded like during the committee the whole meeting a few weeks ago. Uh will we be putting out and clarifying any possible misconceptions that people may have? Um good, bad, or indifferent. I think they can kind of help calm the nerves of some who aren't familiar with this. maybe uh prevent some uh annoyance or frustrations with a neighbor who may be participating. And I think just good clear explanation of how this actually really helps a community and what it does would be good to just kind of get out there and post. And then the final will we get regular data back on how many have been neutered, captured, released back and what that looks like?

Yes, that's part of the program. That's why it's good to have um work with an authorized um agent such as triple our pets. They're they're doing this at the county level. Um they understand the reporting needs and what u we would be interested in as a local government. They um also if there are issues with a colony, we can go to triple our pets and say, "Hey, this is not working well. can you uh intervene with the with the volunteer um or provide more training or something like that? It it gives us an opportunity to hold folks accountable that are participating along with the everything about the the colonies. Um the ordinance before you includes um some language about nuisance feeding. So, let's say somebody is not part of the program, but they're feeding wild animals and that becomes a problem, an issue. Um, this would give us something to to lean on to deal with that, too.

So, we're going to have to educate people that they cannot be feeding cats unless they are a feral cat colony caretaker. So you will not we will unfortunately have to come and have a discussion with with people that are feeding cats that are not feral care caretakers and then they have special hours they have to feed the cats. They can't feed them overnight. They have to do it during the day and there's all sorts of rules. So, um it's a very defined plan and we will be educating everybody about that uh in June, but we'll also be doing this no feeding education as well because we know there are people feeding the cats, they feel bad for them. But I think that once they know that other people are going to be caring for them, um they may stop all that hopefully. And then the last thing, village ordinance states we are, if we own a cat, we're not allowed to let that cat out and roam overnights. Correct.

Okay. Correct. No roaming.

It's considered an animal at large. You're not allowed to have a cat or a dog or a goldfish uh running down the street or in your neighbor's yards at any point in time. So, if people think that they have an outdoor cat, uh no, you don't. Your cat could be trapped. Your cat could be taken to the Humane Society, spayed or neutered if you have not done that, and you could be fined. So, please do not let your domestic house cats roam about the neighborhood. Any other questions on this ordinance? Hearing none, can we have a roll call vote, please? Trusty Ayanako

I. Trusty Yak I. Trustes Vetka I. President Amy Joe Whittenberg I 40 Z. The motion carries. Motion for item G, please. I motion ordinance 2026-08 granting a variation to allow for the removal and reconstruction of a detached garage at 11315 Hayawa Lane.

Second. I'm going to hand this one off to Brandon Fleer who's been working with Andreas Beltron on this case. Before you is ordinance 26-8 approving the variation request at 11315 Hayawa. On May 5th, 2026, the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public meeting um open to the public to allow for petitioner Allan Watson to remove, reconstruct, and enlarge his current garage. The property is located in a R1 residential district and due to the code uh any garages built after 1984 require a special use or variance to be rebuilt. Now, because the code mentions either being special use or variance, staff recommended to planning and zoning that the variance that the request is a variance due to the nature of a garage being a permanent structure. Therefore, variance is sticking to the property, not the owner. And after agreeing with the findings of fact, planning and zoning commission approved the recommendation, therefore passing it to the board. Thank you.

Anything else to add, Andreas? I do believe the petitioner is here. Uh the petitioners are here if you have any further questions for them as well. Any questions for the petitioner? In your packet, you had all of the details and images. You should have seen all of this in the packet.

Is the size of the the new garage going to be any different than the size of the old garage? Yes, the new garage is going to be 30 by 40 while the previous one was 18.35 by um I'm not sure the exact but it is in the attached staff report in the board packet. Charlie, if it helps. It's going from like a very small twocar to a much more standardized size three car, I think. Right, Alan? Yeah. Any other questions on this matter? Hearing none. Can we have a roll call vote, please?

Trusty, I. Trusty A. I trusty Zka I. President Amy Joe Whittenberg I 40. The motion carries. Moving on to item H. Please. Motion. I motion ordinance 2026-09 amending chapter 36 article 7 division 2 of the village code regarding vehicle licenses.

I'll second that. Over the past several months, the village undertook efforts to improve compliance with our vehicle sticker requirement for vehicles that are registered to Indian Head Park residents and businesses. During that process, we discovered that portions of the ex existing code were open to interpretation a little too too much. They were ambiguous and they could benefit from some clarification and admin administrative cleanup. The pro proposed amendments are intended to improve consistency, clarify applicability and enforcement expectations and modernize portions of the code based on our operational experience. As part of this item, I also wanted to briefly just go over some some figures um in our effort to to improve compliance We um since we sent out the initial letter um making people aware that they had a vehicle registered in Indian Head Park but did not had not purchased a vehicle sticker. We have sold 232 such vehicle stickers. Uh representing uh $14,370 in in revenue. um the total late fees that were applied to those were another 13,000. So um we have also um you know issued as part of that after sending out a couple of letters we did issue um some citations and um there were 55 of those. So we have gained compliance. Um again I said as I said there were 232 stickers sold as part of this uh program and we

are going forward we'll be um getting a report from the secretary of state every six months so that we don't get this far behind again and we uh keep up with u vehicle sticker purchases. Um, we're doing a lot. We've already sold 871 stickers since May 1st for the 2627 season. Um, so we are uh doing our best to to make sure that everybody understands that a vehicle sticker is required. Um, and this is a good time to remind everybody that on uh this Saturday we have a an event. It's the paint and electronic waste recycling event at the public works garage. There is free ice cream. I hope I said that loud enough. Um the but we will also be selling vehicle stickers there. So come out, bring your old electronics, bring your paint, um bring any hazardous household materials. Oh yes, and document shredding also. free document shredding and um did I mention ice cream? The event will be from 8:00 a.m. to noon. It's at the public works garage um 71st place 70th place that place down there. Just Joe will talk more about that event. But the important thing is that we will be selling vehicle stickers at that event. We will also have be open late on until 7 PM on Tuesday, June 16th for vehicle uh sticker sales. And that is all the information I had about vehicle stickers. But back to um

the amendments, these will just clarify that anyone who has a vehicle registered with the Secretary of State or required to be registered with the Secretary of State who um lives in or has a business that's uh main place of business is in registered in Indian Head Park must have a vehicle sticker. Uh Gavin, I believe uh uh your staff did a superior job in regards to the vehicle staff uh the vehic vehicle uh sticker collection and uh identification. So want to acknowledge your staff for doing that.

Thank you. I'll make sure they watch that portion of the meeting. How many do we have left to collect? Do we know that received a ticket that didn't pay? That was Lucy. Do we know? I don't have that figure. Um but once we get to the um in the next couple of weeks, we'll be able to Okay. identify that now that uh sales are slowing down a little bit.

Great. And I get asked all the time why why do we do this program? And it's because we use this for local roads. So, our local road construction, maintenance, repairs, crack filling, snow plowing, all of that can be funded from the funds that we collect from our vehicle stickers. So, we really appreciate it. Really helps our budget. We do have revenue limitations in our village. So, this is why we have to do what people sometimes term a wheel tax. I think Anthony may want to amend the uh the motion here. Yes. Do you want to amend the motion? Sure. I would be to get those uh additional stickers. Uh he Oh,

you know the other stickers that we would get? Yes. Well, our vendor doesn't give us those anymore. So, unfortunately, we're we're not going to be getting those. There there's a way that we can perhaps acquire them.

We'll talk about that. So um just on that point u President Whittenberg the the code amendments will also put those reasons into the code so that people you know reading the code why do I have to get this right after the part about you have to get this is what we use those funds for and those funds are segregated in uh in our accounting those funds are to be used only for those purposes the ones you mentioned uh upkeep of the roads um and um funding the police to uh um monitor the roads, the use of the roads and uh safety.

Great. Any other questions on that item hearing? None. Can we please have a roll call vote? Trusty Inako I. Trusty AK as amended. I trust I President Amy Joe Whittenberg I 4 Z the motion carries. Yeah I go. All righty. I think we already did public comments but just to make sure um did I forget anything? Okay. No I didn't.

Do we have any other public comments on the other items that we have covered this evening? Do we receive any emails? Andre. No. Okay. All righty, we'll go on to reports. Trusty Sesca. Uh, the only report that I have is that we will be changing the date of the landscape meeting for next month for June. So, please keep an eye on that date change should you wish to attend. I think we're going to move it to the 24th, but not official until it's been published. So, that's all I got. Thank you. Trusty EC, no report. Trusty, no report. Village clerk,

just some brief updates um that we are currently in permit season in full swing. Uh last I checked, I believe we are have issued 59 permits this year um off the top of my head and uh so we are doing it. Uh if you think you need I always tell people like if you think you need a permit or if you have a question feel come feel free come to ask ask us. we'll do our best to help you out and it's better to for us to tell you that you don't need one than to find out and um have to go through a messy process of you know stop work orders and that. So, uh also in that process we are now doing everything through BSNA as you are well aware. Um we have training staff Brandon has been super helpful getting them all in. Um he is super excited that I had him put in 25 o over the counter permits this week. So now he's an expert on that project on on doing that in there. Um and we are now with doing that we are moving towards improving the process to uh orient it more towards doing it fully online by uh the end of this year the start of next year. Um at that point that is where we are going towards it so that it'll be more ease of convenience. Does that mean that you can't walk in and give us a permit? Absolutely not. But a lot of you know it's 2026 we'll be 2027. then we should be able to do it online. And uh we are currently tuning that up. And we are also looking at ways that in the meantime between that to also help residents know what the requirements are so that when they put the um permits in the first time, they can get it approved the first time because nobody likes having to come back and do a resubmitt for it. Um so that's that. The other thing is we are now moving into business license renewal season. So that's for your business licenses and also the liquor licenses. So we'll I'll be working on getting those out as soon as possible, especially for our liquor license holders because they have to go to the state and the state takes a little bit longer than we do. Um so now when we

have most of them in since last year, I think all of them in since last year, it's a few click of the buttons, we hit renew, they get an email with an invoice on it, they can pay it online, we can issue it and send it out. So it's a lot quicker, a lot faster than our previous manual process, which is super helpful in that regard. Um, other than that, but I don't have anything else as far as I'm aware, village treasurer, nothing, madame president, village attorney, no report. Village administrator,

just a few items. Our waste hauling uh franchise agreement with SBC solution waste solutions took effect on May 1st. We did have one issue with the switch in days for Ashbrook Estates and that has been corrected. The sticker program has been eliminated and residents can get an account credit for any unused stickers. So, you just have to send them back to SBC. Um, you can get them to us and we'll send them back for you, but um you'll see a credit on your bill for any unused uh waste stickers. Um the contract includes unlimited sticker-free trash and landscape waste services. So hopefully um that is has been a benefit for folks in the past couple of weeks. Um website redesign. We are kicking off a website rebuild. So any of you who don't like our website, it's going to get better. And I would be listed among those. Um, we're just we're starting with a a prune and simplify approach. So, we're going to take out a a lot of the excess links. There's a lot of broken links. We're going to fix that. We're going to uh update uh things so that we can ensure mandatory ADA compliance for our websites and we'll and we continue fixing other issues as we go. Um we are de developing a project tracking dashboard. Um and that the purpose of that is to share that with both the board and the public to improve visibility into the status and progress of priority pro projects and initiatives. Um we'll incorporate that tracking system into the board calendar that I shared with you uh several meetings ago. um so that there's a more centralized and transparent way to follow major projects, timelines, and implementation progress moving forward. Um we'll have our infrastructure

projects, our road uh and water main projects will be included in that. Our the project that Andreas mentioned about moving all of our building permits permitting process online will be in that. Um as well as anything uh related to the Triangle Business District. Um SB Freriedman is going to be sending us the first draft of the market analysis they've been working on next week. We'll share that with the ED the economic development committee as well as the board uh when we we get that further along. And I wanted to ask Brandon to talk a little bit about uh the heritage site and Saka Jia part. The heritage site advisory committee met met on April 29th. At the meeting, the committee discussed the next steps with planning resources, Inc. including the creation of two concepts for review at the next meeting. One concept with a structure, one without. The recommended plans are expected to be discussed at a town hall in June, which the village is currently working with consultants to schedule. Following the June town hall, the heritage site advisory committee is expected to prepare a recommendation for the village board in July. The heritage site page was also updated with new text presentation and summaries of the March 4th and April 29 meetings. So staff encourages residents to check that new page out. Uh in regards to Saku Jia Park, staff is currently working with surveyors to um finalize a surveyor to move forward the next steps of getting an updated plat survey and topography survey for the uh construction of Saka Jiulia Park.

Also wanted to note staff submitted a records disposal request in January and with the shredding event, the village clerk and I have worked together to get rid of 30 to 40 boxes from public works. Thank you. And I do want to say that Brandon has taken the lead on that. And over the last two years, we've gotten rid of somewhere between 100 and 150 boxes, which is like 40% of these old records that were just taking up space, making it hard to find things. And then if we get foyer requests and we still have the records, we have to respond to them. So, um, that is that phase one of that basically, as Brandon, as kind of Gavin said, that pruning process. Um, and then moving forward, we're going to be keep working on it using digital to make sure we don't have to keep doing it. So, and then scanning anything we need to keep like minutes and building permits.

Thank you. Would you like to do the police?

Unless you want to go to Joe. I'll do the police. Um, uh, Chief Weatherford and I met with the New Pleasant View Fire Chief. We discussed joint training opportunities, communications, and making sure that they are included in community events such as National Night Out, which is coming up August 4th. I believe it's the second the first Tuesday in August. Every year we'll be doing that again. Um we have Chief has begun work on accreditation. That's the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, ILEP. Um they by the end of this month, the department will begin uploading its policies and submitting documentation demonstrating compliance with established standards and best practice. And the purpose of this accreditation program is to ensure that uh our law enforcement agencies adhere to nationally recognized best practices in policing and organizational management. Uh Chief Weatherford anticipates that the department will be prepared for an on-site assessment by IE evaluators by the end of the current fiscal year. Uh we the police commission is beginning a new round of testing with Sternard and Associates for prospective police officer candidates in order to continue building an eligibility list and support future staffing and recruitment needs for the police department. We currently have one opening for a full-time officer, but um there may be future needs and this will help us build a list that we can pull from if anything does happen. Um there is an opening on the police commission right now. The village is currently seeking residents with an interest in volunteering for service on the police and fire commission and they're involved in that hiring process for police officers.

Um the commission is responsible for matters relating to police personnel hiring, promotional processes, disciplinary procedures as required by state law. And then finally, National Night Out. mentioned uh staff in the police department are beginning discussions and planning efforts for this year's event. Um and this will be the fourth year presenting National Night Out and that's an opportunity for community engagement, neighborhood connection and positive interaction between residents, public safety personnel and community organizations. We have a lot of nonprofits, other G governmental agencies attend, provide a lot of information, a lot of giveaways. Uh Joe and his team, the entire police department put in a lot of work and effort to make sure that the the night goes well. And there will be a movie in the park and some other special exciting activities. That's my police.

I think we're on public works. Last but not least,

thank you. Uh just a couple updates on some of the projects. Um earlier this year we put a uh project plan into the IEPA for six different water main projects. Uh it's the first step to do this to try and get some funding loan low interest loans. The Pontiac water main that we've been talking about was number one on that. So uh we put in for that. We were trying to get the IEPA loan. Uh we'll find out toward the end of this month if we qualify for the first round of the loan. If not, we'll be put into bypass uh funding perhaps and we'll know about that in December. Uh if we do get the loan money, we'd be able to uh because since we're ready with this project, plans are complete and everything, we'd be ready to go with this project uh uh early spring. Uh so that's where we are with the the watering project. We also have other projects trying to get loans for those as well. Uh and we're working on the Blackhawk uh trail water main project. Um should you see a task order coming through perhaps at the next board meeting to the to plan the uh Blackhawk Trail Water main and road program as well through Strand Engineering. Uh also the public works uh louvers job that we were trying to get done. we put out for a bid. Uh we didn't get any bids on that last round. Um one company, Air Comfort, that was going to get in, didn't get in in time. Uh we put it back out for bid again. It went out this week. Uh we'll be uh doing a bid opening on May 28th for that. Um I've been soliciting, trying to get other companies to bid. The more the better, but I think Air Comfort for sure is going to get in this time around. So hopefully we'll get some bids on this job so we can get that started. the uh chlorine upgrade for the pump house. Um Dammy uh got the job on that. We're just

waiting for them to finish up their insurance paperwork. Um and then we'll be able to sign the contract and get that job going. Um we're working with the Morton Arboritum tree grant. Uh the spring planting, we did 25 trees last year. This year we're going to plant 33 trees. Um I have the letters stuffed in envelopes ready to go. I've been soliciting residents to see who would like a tree. Um trying to find some good areas. So, if you know anybody who thinks they have a good spot for a tree, feel free to reach out to me at public works. Um I'll be out tomorrow hopefully getting the rest of these trees planted and get the letters out. Uh it's a first come, first serve basis. You can rank one through nine species trees that we have. Uh we'll try and get you your first choice. Um but uh if not, we'll get you second, third, and so forth. Um, but that should be completed. We have to have this completed uh all the plants in in the ground by uh July 1st and all the paperwork submitted by August 1st for the grant program to be complete.

So, we're on we're on pace for that. The trees would be planted on on park.

Yes. Sorry. Yes. Not not backyards. Let me let me specify that. I should have said that. But yes, it has to be in the in our easement. Um yeah. All right. Uh speaking of trees, we had our Arbor Day event and we planted a Jane Magnolia right back here and uh behind the village hall and had a nice lunchon afterwards. That went well. Uh Berry Landscape, who does our uh grass cutting and so forth has started. They're maintaining all of our public buildings and parks and so forth. As Gavin mentioned, the recycle event, uh, paint, electronics, shred, vehicle stickers, and the ice cream, uh, 8 to 12 at, uh, the public works, which is 1130870th place. That's my report.

Well, that is amazing. I think we are now at the end of our meeting, but I think we have to have a motion to go in executive session. Is that correct this evening? So, can I have a motion to go to executive session? I motion to go in executive session. I'll second. You need to pursuant to the Illinois Open Meetings Act to discuss section 2C1 collective bargaining. Is that correct? You can say yes, it is. Yes, it is. All righty. Can I have a second? Yes, I do. All righty. We're going to be going into close session and then we'll be coming back to adjourn the meeting after we come out of close session.

Do I have to have a roll call vote? You do need a roll call vote. However, if there's no further business, you can do a motion to adjourn following the conclusion of the close session. So, you don't need to. I will make that motion to adjourn after our close session since we have no other more no other business. I second that motion. All righty. Can I have a roll call vote, please? Yes. Trusty Inaco. I. Trusty E. I. Trusty Zetka. I, President Amy Joe Winberg. I 40 Z. The motion carries. All righty. Yes, I've