City Council - Regular Meeting

Please call roll. Cook here. Keith here. Henry here. Lockchman here. Oldenettle here. Pollock here. Ruben Dellis here. Scott here. Speed here. Williams here. Mayor Ezard here. City attorney Beard here. You have a quorum.

Thank you. Um just wanted to touch base with the council. I think you are pretty aware of the fire that was a couple weeks ago, little less than two weeks ago. Um, where we're at with that, uh, you know, the crane was was moved in the location. Um, we are, it's still a pending investigation as far as everything. Um, we know that there's the county uh building to the west. Those folks would really kind of like to know what's going to take place in the future. And at this time, we really don't know because there's a lot of unknowns. Um, I sense their frustration because I know that it's going to put them, you know, somewhat restricted on work out of that building because it is a hazard to work in there. So when we get something moving though, you're going to be the first ones to know because I think it's going to be important for the council and I know it's important for me is somewhat consensus on how and if we're going to pay for demolition. And that's kind of the hangup right now. That's kind of what we're waiting for. Um we can it's it's really tricky on how if we if we just move forward demoing it and then trying to get reimbursed later. That can be tricky until we kind of see a little bit further down the road where we're at. Um, if that happens, I know we'll have to work quick. I will probably be calling a special meeting on a, you know, just simply uh just to get the can we move forward with the appropriation

to demo. And at that time I will also have tied up a pretty solid number with the help of Brian Nyberg. He's really been bird dogging this from day one. There's Phil Mccardi has there's been a lot of good good help in this. We've had good cooperation with Jiren who's on site right now and good feedback on how we should approach them. We've had good uh you know results with the the fire marshal and the uh the fire side and our police. It's it's kind of a waiting game right now and but if things move, you know, I feel that if demo's necessary, I got asked today where are we going to get the money from? It's it's basically money that'll be coming out of our reserves. There's no special magic line. We are looking into grants. We have been in contact with DCO on a grant program that they're going to roll out. We may we we don't know if it necessarily fits this demo. However, we're exploring that. We're also exploring on procedures on what we can take from the property and what is hot, what's cold, etc. If then what happens? There's a lot of ifs in this. We know we want to act. We've we we invested too much money in downtown to have an empty building sitting that's burnt and a big safety hazard to our community. Um but we are sometimes you just have to really slow down and make sure we cross we dot the eyes and cross the tees and that's what our approach is right now. And I know some are frustrated with that. you know, if I'm a county uh worker and I that's my building I want to work at, I want to go back into my building and it it

certainly is not falling off deaf on our ears. Okay, we we know and if you ever have any questions, please reach out. Uh Brian, did I cover most of it? I mean, Yes, sir. Does the city own that building? No.

Because there's a lot to that and chances are things happen and we're just approaching that if we have to have a the demo on our D. We're going to walk through all of it before we're going to try. We don't know if the gentleman has everything in place. That's why we're waiting. There's an investigation. I mean, it's there's just a lot of moving parts. I apologize if you've already mentioned this, but are you do you have a ballpark if we do have to demo what it might

Yeah, I think Okay, I think demo on this would be, you know, if the work, we know the equipment's there, but if the crew's available, it'll be fairly quick process to get the building down to a a level where the folks can can get back into their building. And then a lot of the leg work will happen once it's down. But ballpark right now, Allison, is anywhere from 350,000 to 500,000. That's the ballpark. Uh we're We're gonna try to get it lower, but and that's a big pill to swallow when you're not, you know, for just for comparison in 2007 when we had the big ice storm, if you recall that, that was a $750,000 hit to the city when Skip was the finance chairman. And we were all as clerk, we were all scratching our heads, wow, what what we can do here? And we we we had the money available to to buffer the hit. But and we have that right now, but I I know all of you don't want to use it for that purpose. I don't either. And we're going to see if we don't have So, does that include removal the three? Okay.

I know nobody wants to bring this up either. Um but I know um the old Norris has also been a concern. Um any any movement on what's going on with that property that you can share with us?

Yeah. Well, first of all, that is privately owned. Again, um the gentleman that purchased that years ago had intentions to make something out of that property. Now, lately, he's been very respond responding to us with, you know, the plywood and things. Uh it's not as what we all want again. Um However, that is a building that we will keep adding towards our inventory as far as going out for grants. Brownfield grants, which is a federal grant program, and a new grant that the DCO is going to offer out that may be more appropriate for Norris Hospitals building than the building we have that's burnt. However, this is private. I mean, he's we're going to have to get the owner to commit and with us to make it work. And in fact, we're not just Norris. There's probably a couple other buildings in town that would qualify once the information's let out. Any other questions? Committee reports. Don or Chief Cook.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have one item tonight for the 26 appropriation budget and I'll turn that over to the city clerk. Uh you should have received a copy of the appropriations budget. Um we'll pass an amount now. I don't know if you've had a chance to look at anything. Um if you have any questions, please ask. There's a couple big projects on there. We have the fire truck uh which is 1.9 million. Um the radios that we have to pay for every year for the next few years. Uh trying to think of what else there would be that would be if you have any questions, please let me know.

Can we get a figure on what that appropriations dollar amount is? Yes. 65,539,381.70.

Thank you. Does anyone have any questions about the budget appropriations? We do have a couple of weeks. So if you do look at this, if you have some questions about it, there's a couple weeks in there where you can contact me or um bring it up at the council meeting. So next meeting we will have uh the read second reading of the appropriations and um first the resolution to pass the actual budget. Committee reports tonight special studies.

Yes, tonight we have one on special studies discuss public camping ordinance and I think we were all here. It was a 33 U in the preliminary meeting. Would you like to further discuss that? I would like to say I would like it pulled and re redone. Take out the car part. Take out a few things. I'm in agreements with pardon my language. It's a danged if you do. No, I think it's tough for I think it needs rewritten just a little bit. So that's all I got to say.

Okay. Well, just Yeah, John. Well, I was just going to say, will your committee get together and maybe discuss it and and hash it out? Sure. Can we please? So, what happens to the Well, I mean, there's a couple ways. I mean, and and that's what I was going to walk through. You can pass first reading and change it in the twoe time and pass it second reading. Um or you can just not pass it tonight and talk about it again. Now

concerned that you're not going to have enough time in the two weeks to do it. doesn't have to go for second week or two discussion. Hopefully the next two weeks well enough so we all feel comfortable having a plan.

Sorry, I think this is the second or third time we've talked about this. So I'd like to move it forward to the full committee. Okay.

Okay. Utility alman. Hi, thank you. We have two items tonight. The first is discuss approving an engineering agreement with Benton Engineering for engineering and technical services for the painting of Veterans Park 1.5 million gallon elevated storage tank and the other goes along with Any questions for Mr. Benton?

I have one question. Uh, when how often do we paint this tank? because I feel like it's not been that long ago that we did that.

Thank you. I'm sorry. Uh it has been since 2002 2003. It's like many things in our lives. It's a longer time ago than we thought it was. Uh back when it was last painted, we took it all down to base metal and uh put all new coatings. That's not going to be required this time. It's it's more of a surface preparation. Previously, the outside had lead on it. So that was the main reason that we took everything down to base metal. So this time it's more routine maintenance. 20 year service life of coatings is very much um a good standard. So these coatings have served you well. The tank was originally built in 1954. It is a very stout tank and very likely will serve the water customers of Jacksonville into its hundth year with proper m continued maintenance. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Any public comment at this time? Any more public comment? Yeah. Yes, sir. Come right up, sir, and state your name for the record, please.

I'm Dave Robinson. Um, I have a building downtown. So, uh, some of you I know. Uh, basically really just wanted to share a little bit. I'm not here with a solution or any of that. That's all you guys' job. I just want to express a little bit of my concern with having a building and a business downtown. Uh, I grew up in Jacksonville. I went to Salem. Grew up walking from Salem to my dad's law office downtown. My myself and my sister. Um, my girls used to do that. I don't know. They're too old now, but I don't know that they would feel as comfortable. One of my daughters had uh an incident. She works for me um in my office there. It is uh she's designing kitchens and doing that sort of thing there. So, she was there working late. She's at IC. She brought a friend with her from IC from uh Quincy area which um as they walked in uh they were being yelled at by uh one of the it was a homeless woman who yelled at them, calling them names and threatening them, threatening to kill them, calling them elephants, uh that sort of thing. They were scared. They went inside. They continued to work thinking she'd go away. she stayed outside the business and yelling. So for me it isn't I'm not saying that that's everybody. The issue is that I do bring in people from other states. Bring them in. We have meetings. We have trainings. Uh we take them out to downtown someplace close to go have um lunch. part of my business and I want my daughter to feel safe going there. So now what she does because after that we actually I called Brett from Bill's

West. He had his bartenders walk them to the car so they got an escort. Police department was great at followup and everything after the fact, but I didn't want to make a big deal about it. it. The next day after this, um, you know, as I am driving to the office, I happen to see a different homeless woman woman who is in front of the Dunlap uh, with no pants on, bending over, picking up her other pants. Now, I don't know that she assaulted anybody or did anything wrong, but she's there bending over naked for everybody to see. if you look that way. But at the same time, if my kids were walking home, you're saying that's okay to walk by. I don't feel like that's a really good place for her to change her pants. And if she doesn't have any place, it shouldn't be downtown. It shouldn't be where I'm trying to do business and bringing in money for the city of Jacksonville. Now, I can help and I do help and I teach my girls outreach and to help. They help at the the uh food pantry. They donate time. uh they do meals on wheels, they do or doorbell dinners, they do that sort of thing. And I want them to understand outreach and all that. With without me having a successful business, it's going to make it really hard for me to be able to help others and to be able to help homeless people. So, I want to keep my business there. But at the same time, now my daughter when she comes to work in an afternoon, she looks out the window. She looks both ways and she unlocks her car and runs to it. That's really not a that isn't going to help Jacksonville. And I know that what you want to do is to help those people, but well, you can help them. I don't need

think you need to hurt the other businesses. My thought on this is there are places for them to go. Anybody that needs to say, you know, they they do Who here has a backyard? Maybe you want him to live in your backyard. And I joke about that, but the truth is I had someone homeless live in my shed who was down on his luck. I let him stay there. Stay there for a couple of years. So it isn't like I'm not saying you can't help people. But who here is doing that? If you can't do that, then why is it you're picking on those people who are trying to make Jacksonville better, you know, to be unsafe? That's all I'm saying. May I actually say that I have done that? That's great. But how many else how how many I mean

I I wish everybody would and yeah I I feel bad for downtown businesses but please if someone's being bad I'm all call the police call the police they get paid enough at least I assume they do that's their job I know I it it's their job but that also hurts their resources it costs money and then we pay more taxes and my point is is that there's only so much money everybody can spend they're just going to jump around from town to the other and then the other people will be

well but if it's if they jump to another town you realize that's not our problem anymore. I mean, just say that they may jump around. I'm not wanting to not help them. My point is there is an issue that is is is difficult for them for me to put money into a place where my daughter feels unsafe. So, if we want to keep seeing me improve my building, and it's expensive. It's I'm underwater on it as it is, but I just keep doing it because everybody else downtown is really proud of what you guys have done with Jacksonville. The people I do bring in comment on how beautiful Jacksonville is. I The downtown looks gorgeous. It's awesome.

But let's not stop there. I'm just wanting to re have it all rewarded. Maybe we can make it so nobody camps around a mile around that area too, whatever it may be. But it rewarded, I think. That that's all for you guys. I just want to give my two cents. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dave. Oh, you're good, Dave. Yeah. One more.

I wasn't planning on talking tonight, but something happened to me a few hours ago and uh I was planning on coming just to hear your decision and everything, which is fine. Rewriting all that. That's good, you know. And you guys had said uh that uh you they're just going to move around. You're right. They're just going to move around. Okay. But the thing is the ones that move around is the one that don't want the help. There is resources out there. There is lots of help for these people. But sometimes people that have mental problems or people that need to be in an institution. I think that's who chased me down today. And or people that uh are on drugs and they don't want the help. You know, how are you going to make them take the help? There there is help out there. How are you going to make them do it? You can't make them do it if they don't want to. There is plenty of resources. Today, this is what happened to me. I walked out of the pizza place and I'm going in my car to put something in my car. This guy from behind me by the coffee shop hollers and they're always walking around there. I I don't care. I mean, I've even often bringing pizza up there. And he said, "Do you have a lighter? Do you have a light?" And I turned around. It's by the street there, Mobile Star. I said, "No, sorry, I don't." So, I turned around, locked my car, and I was walking around the pizza place because I was going by Cheryl in her harmony to bring her something. I need to bring her back. As I'm walking past right by the front door of Leos and I start to cross the street, I look from the corner of my eye and the guy's walking real fast towards me and I didn't turn around and let him see that I looked and I walked faster to Cheryl's, ran in, tried to lock her door, didn't lock and I said, I think this guy's coming towards me. I don't know what he wants, but so I walked right and went back to the back room, but then I felt like I put her in danger because I don't know if this guy's normal, not normal. I don't know what's going on. So, I went around to the other side where she does a karate and I'm ready to push 911 because I thought,

"Okay, well, let's make sure nobody gets hurt." He comes in and I could tell from the w the glass window he's looking for me. And uh she goes, "Can I help you?" that she had a client with her. So, I was glad she wasn't by herself right there, but And she goes, "Uh" he says, "Uh, I just came in to warm up." So, she says, "Sure, take a seat on the couch." And he did. And I'm waiting back there waiting. Okay, he'll leave and then I'll leave and it's over, you know. And then he gets up as if she pay her her client's pl client pays and walks towards the back where I was in had been around and she says, "Excuse me, can I help you?" And he said, "Yeah, I'm looking for a light." She says, "Well, I don't have a light for you or a lighter." And he goes, "Oh." And he and you wanted to keep going, but she's like, "So," she goes, "You know what? I got a a candle lighter here. Let me get it for you." and a clicker. And so she lit it. She goes, "But you have to go by the door." And you could tell he almost didn't want to. And uh then he did went by the door. She goes, "You're going to have to smoke outside because I don't allow smoking in here." And he went outside. Stood by the door like this staring in. And then he left. Okay. Yeah. I didn't want to call the police at that moment because I don't know. He could he could have been harmless. He could have not been. That's the thing we don't know. That's the thing we want to protect ourselves from. Not just us. just like these guys like being around downtown more. That's fine, you know. And like I said, I take care of most of them most of the time. The thing is, we have to write something for sure because we keep waiting and keep postponing it, doing something just because if I really think it's going to end up somebody getting hurt because we don't know if this person is mentally ill or on drugs. You know what I mean? There's a lot of them. They're down on their luck. Yes, there is. I've offered them jobs. I I've offered them stuff. I had one guy in there. He got a job. After two days, I had to lie and get him out of there because I was scared for our lives because he started singing out

loud and then he started going, "Yeah, I got knives this big and I got this." And he brought one in the pizza place. And I'm like, "Okay, you know what? That guy that you were going to replace, he's not quitting anymore, but I'll give you a call, you know, because I had to protect my employees, you know." So, it's not like we're heartless or we don't want them, but like I said, how would you like them if they came to your backyard? you know, you you have them, but like three, four stand there, you know what I mean? And you're not sure if they're gonna like for me, it's my clients, my my customers, you know what I mean? Or my staff. But for you, it'd be your children or anybody in your yard, anybody like that. You know what I mean? I mean, we could easily say, "Okay, you can't go there, but that person says you can go stay there. They got all this space to go to. We just need to come up with something." and I thought this would be a good start to do something for everybody and then move on from there and make it better or whatever. I just that's just my opinion. I could go on forever. Thank you to listen. That's what I kind of will the workshop session or is there any other public comment? We'll join the workshop session and go to the council. Are we ready?

Yeah. Could I have everybody please stand for a moment of silence for Addie Cameron who's alive but struggling Autumn and Ronin good good students it's been a tough weekend um also to Chris Kesler who passed old man Lori mother. Um, let's just take a moment of silence and do what you got to do, folks. Okay. Thank you. Thanks everyone. We'll get right into it. And I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Cook here. Keith here. Henry here. Lockchman here. Edel here. Pollock here. Ruben Delis here. Scott Speed here. Williams here. Mayor Ezard here. City Attorney Beard here. You have a quorum. Thank you. Is there a reading of the minutes this evening? Thank you, Alderman Scott. Motion by Alderman Scott. Second by Alderman Pollock. All those in favor of appro approving the minutes, please respond by saying I. I. Opposed? Petitions? Uh, no petitions, no communications, and no claims.

And no claims. Wow. Okay. Okay. Um, wow. So, I guess we're going back to public comment. Skip, do you have anything this time? Okay. Is there any other public comment? Okay. Uh, consent agenda items tonight. Uh, finance, IT, and personnel. Alderman Cook. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have one item tonight and it's the city treasures report for December 31st, 2020.

Thank you. Uh utility. Um the first item we have tonight is a resolution approving the engineering agreement from Benton Engineering for engineering and technical services for the painting of Veterans Park 1.5 million gallon elevated storage tank. Number two, resolution approving the advertisement for bids in the painting of Veterans Park 1.5 million gallon elevated storage tank. And number three, resolution authorizing payments from the waterworks and sewage project fund for services rendered improvement projects. And I move.

Thank you. Is there a second under the consent agenda? Alderman Williams. You've heard all the items under the consent agenda. Is there any you wish to pull for further discussion? Seeing none, I would ask the clerk to please call roll. Cook, yes. Keith, yes. Henry, yes. Lockchman, yes. Olden Edel, yes. Pollock, yes. Ruben Dellis, yes. Scott, Speed, yes. Williams, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Committee reports tonight, finance, IT, and personnel. Alderman Cook.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have one item. is the first reading of an ordinance making appropriations for corporate purposes for the fiscal year 2026 for the city of Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois. I so move. Is there a second tonight? Alderman Henry. We have ordained that the appropriations ordinance for fiscal year 2026 is hereby approved with the total appropriation being 65,539,381.70.

Any discussion on that? Seeing none, I would ask the clerk to please call roll. Cook, yes. Keith, yes. Henry, yes. Lman, yes. Olden, yes. Pollock, yes. Ruben Dellis, yes. Scott, yes. Speed, yes. Williams, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Special special studies. Alderman Williams.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. We have one thing on special studies. is the first reading of an ordinance or ordinance regulating public camping within the corporate bound boundaries and other actions in connection wherewith for the city of Jacksonville, Illinois. And is there a motion? I motion to table. That's what I want. I don't know if we got to that point. Let's go ahead and have a motion and second to get it on the table.

Okay. So the motion to approve first alderman large nettle second by alderman Scott be ordained that uh the city of hereby adopt the public camping ordinance regulating camping activities within the city of Jacksonville. Discussion. I want to table it for appropriate discussion. Is there a second for tableabling? Hold speed.

Okay. So, the roll call is if it stays or doesn't table. Don't want to table and continue to discuss it tonight. Vote no on the motion to table. Cook. No. Keith, no. Henry, no. Luckman, no. Golden Ed, no. Pollock, no. Ruben Delis, yes. Scott, no. Speed, yes. Williams, yes. Motion to table.

Still discussion. Any discussion? I just want to say I plan on voting yes for the first reading, but for the second reading I would like the committee to take a look at the overnight parking maybe removing it or lessening it somewhat. That's what I would like to see from second. Um yeah, I'd like to reiterate what um Alderman Henry said and also

um I'm listening to uh discussion about having a place for people to go and especially the um the people who are sort of refusing services. You know, we can't just push them out because, you know, push them off the square without having some place to to take them or some way to deal with them. And I understand for instance under the safety act there are provisions to involuntarily commit or otherwise provide services for people if they are a danger to self and others even if they're only charged with a misdemeanor. So maybe that's something we need to explore with um you know with the state's attorney. But um that's the reason that I you know I I'm in favor overall but I think that there we need to look more at those two aspects of the ordinance. Thank you. Any other discussion? I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Yes. Cut. Yes. Keith, yes. Henry, yes. Lockman. Yes. Yes. Pollock. Yes. Ruben Dellis. Yes. Scott. Speed.

Yes. Williams. No motion carries. Okay. Any old business tonight. Well, one thing I did forget earlier. Sorry for getting emotional, but I would al, you know, like to thank our first responders. That that was a tough a lot of things they do is tough, but um we we appreciate you first responders. Um And we also appreciate the comm community. Lot of support for these families. Way to go, Jacksonville. Old business. Well, he's not old, but maybe some new business. And I I don't want everybody to think that I'm bailing him for the issues that are coming up, but I did submit my resignation to the mayor back in December. effective at the end of this month. And uh so I I just you're going to have your work cut out for you in the future. Uh but after serving the city for like 54 years in law enforcement and and being an alderman, it's it's time for me to move on and and do some family things. And uh you know it has been an honor to serve the people of Jacksonville for the past 14 years as an alderman and 39 years as as a police officer. As a council, you know, we have we've done a lot of lot of good things in the last 14 and a half years and I expect good things coming out of the rest of you for the next 14 and a half years and beyond. Uh, I'd like to publicly thank my wife for

putting up for with all the things over the last 54 years and all the sacrifices that that she has made and my family has made me being away and everything else. But, uh, I certainly appreciate her support. Uh, you know, like I said, we have we've accomplished a lot in the last 14 and a half years. Some of the things being the downtown turnaround, the new water plant, sewer plant, and I'm sure there's many other things that we've made improvements to the parks and the lakes. You know, it's it's just Skip, you want get up there real quick? My name is Skip Bradshaw. I'm a retired city clerk for the city of

Jacksonville and I came here tonight to uh just talk about my friend, Mr. Don Cook. I've known Don a long time. Um Don retired when I became city clerk and uh then shortly after that he became an alderman and it kind of a pain in my neck. But, um, I just want to say thank you to Don and I just want to let everyone here know the type of person that you no longer have on this C council. Uh, he's been a really uh, good source for me when I was the clerk, something I could talk to him about and he knew what was going on with the budget and it was easy to talk to him and I know that he'll be very much missed. But, uh, he'll still be my friend and, uh, we'll still play a lot of golf. But, uh, I just wanted to let Don know I appreciated it. Okay. Well, we didn't Well, I didn't like share it because we had work to do, didn't we, Don? Since you turned in that resignation. So I I think people knew and you know Don was the guy that for a lot of us up here I think besides a lot of personal stuff he was the guy that and it's been said a lot he's the guy that would actually say no when we were all thinking it. He would he would he's the guy that kind of took took some things for us. Okay. And we appreciate that. I mean it, you know, I think it comes back to his pedigree as a serviceman, his, you know, teachings, his definitely his tenure as police chief and with the department. Fantastic. Um, wish I could have kept

him on longer as chief. Um, but I got him as an alderman and I thank thank you every day for that. Yes. But moving forward, I wish you and Pat the best. You got great grandkids. You got great kids. You're going to travel. Um I know that you're you're still my neighbor and down the street. You might still give me a hard time if something goes a uh the city, but Don's just a good guy. Everybody, I mean, he's he's he's been a blessing and just a good mentor to me. So, thank you very much, Don. I'll do it again as my official last act. Motion to adjourn. And he said we're he motioned to move into executive session to deal with pending litigation. Okay.

Collective and or collective bargaining. Sorry. Thank you everybody for your patience tonight and for putting up with us. Thank you. Oh,

the second was by alderman large olden. Do you want