City Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone, here to the city of Joliet meeting at 05:30 March 19, which is continuation of the March 16 city council meeting. Presiding over this meeting will be our mayor, Terry Darcy.

Thank you. At the previous meeting on Monday alright. Alright. At the previous meeting on Monday

Excuse me. I'm I sorry to interrupt, but I would like to make a statement.

Keith, can

you let let Todd

do this?

Yeah. Let me let me finish my

specific meeting. I wanted them to know why I'm here.

Yeah. Okay. At the previous meeting on Monday, the city of Joliet held a public hearing regarding a resolution to approve an annexation agreement for approximate 795 acres surrounding South Rowell Road and Bernhard Road A 4 Dash 25. The public hearing was closed at on that date. Before the council proceeded to the agenda item one seven nine dash two six, the city council adjourn adjourned the meeting to be reconvened tonight, 03/16/2026 at 05:30 in the City Council Chambers. The council will now resume its business at the point where the meeting was adjourned. Thank you.

Councilwoman Quillman now

is the time.

You gotta take room.

It okay with the mayor?

Yeah. We just need to get the meeting.

Okay. I just like to say, I'm sorry I wasn't here on Monday. I had a vacation planned for months, and I kept trying to get home here, and the weather was terrible. We ran into tornadoes and rain and snow. And by the time I got home on Monday night, it was 11:00. I have never missed good meeting. I could count on my left hand, if not even five times in my twenty years have I missed a meeting. Especially, I don't intend to miss a hard vote as well. So I just wanted you all to know that. And since I've been home these last two days, I have watched 90% of the video that was on from the other night.

It was on YouTube, and I sat there for two days and watched everything, and I took notes. So I just wanted you to know I was not avoiding anything, but mother nature was not cooperating. So and the airports were booked. I even thought about that, but then my husband had to drive home alone, but that wasn't gonna happen. And then they said the airport, well, you gotta get here three hours beforehand, but then there was a ground stop at O'Hare. So I'm like, well, okay. I there's there's no way I'm gonna make it. So apologize, but mother nature was not cooperating. So thank you everybody, and let's get this going.

Alright. Thank you.

Welcome back, Jan.

Thank you, mayor.

Alright. See, clerk clarify, Chad. I I I unless I missed it too. So and the reason we ended the meeting at midnight, we weren't in a hurry to get out of here. State law required we ended because of that we were entering an election day, and state law doesn't allow for public meetings on election day. Did I say that correctly, Chad? Well enough.

Okay. You conveyed the message. Thank you, Larry.

Think the clerk needs to take the role?

Mhmm. Thank you. We'll begin with roll call. Mayor Darcy? Here. Council McCartney? Here. Council McClellan? Here. Councilman Hug? Here. Councilwoman Navarro? Here. Councilman Moreno? Here. Councilman Madryn? Here. Councilwoman Quillman? Here. Councilman Verdin? Here. Okay. Is there a motion to reconvene the 03/16/2026 combined city council meeting?

So moved. Second.

Councilwoman Navarro? Aye. Councilman Moreno? Aye. Councilman Mudran? Aye. Councilman McCorman? Aye. Councilman Reardon? Aye. Councilman McCartiness? Aye. Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy? Aye. Motion carried. Okay. Is there a motion to approve council memo number 178Dash26, public hearing for a resolution to approve an annexation agreement for the annexation of approximately 795 acres surrounding South Rowell Road and Bernhard Road A Dash 4 Dash 25. It is recommended that resolution be adopted.

So moved. Second. Any

comments or questions?

I have a question. And and I I did already talk about some of my concerns with the city manager. Question for Hillwood. I it has really nothing to do with my opinion from my perspective on how I vote. But I wanted get something clear. People kept coming up to me saying that if the plan commission meeting I wasn't at, they were saying that even if Hillwood went bankrupt or if Hillwood didn't fill it, it could never be torn down. What does that mean? It it could be demolished if you want. If if okay. Certainly. So it's not a permanent structure that if it's no longer used, can't be torn down. No. So, there was a misunderstanding.

Correct.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

The only other thing I'm not gonna get belated at this point, you know, there's an 800 pound gorilla not for you guys. An 800 pound gorilla in the room about a member of our development staff. And so, actually, I can ask a bunch of questions, but you know what I'm talking about.

We have

a development staff member whose family owned the property. I will explain to people as I looked into this because this came out from a gentleman on Monday. I did some research on it. I called our city manager about it and discussed it. And, you know, it it it has nothing to do with the design of Hillwood. It has nothing to do with Hillwood being a Joliet because if it wasn't that 795 acres, it could be other we have a lot of land out there. But it has a lot to do with our ethics, you know, ordinance or integrity within the city. And any any discipline, if it were required following an investigation, would be meted out by law. The discipline is completely in the city manager's hands. Can you update us to to to what you're doing on that, you know, as briefly as possible?

You can't talk about specifics because it's a matter of personnel, but you can say it's being investigated. Correct?

Well, I

I can't make public statements about personnel. Like, these things I have to talk to counsel about Okay. In closed session. That's the law. But if the questions are about site selection, I think that Hillwood could answer those.

Okay. Thank you. Mhmm. That's that's the comments I had, man.

Thank you.

I just wanna make a statement if you allow me to. I could also do it after the vote, so it's up to you, mayor.

I think we all might wanna make comments after the vote.

Okay. Let's do that.

Yeah. Let's do that.

Let's do that.

Thank you.

Mayor Beth, can Hillwood tell us how they came across site selection? Sure.

Do you

mind just telling the

council? No.

I'm happy to do it, Alderman. So as you probably have after seeing all these hours of testimony, you can understand that a data center site really requires two things, power and land. And as we began to look for data center sites in Chicago, we had actually been working with the NASCAR team for several years and had talked to NASCAR about doing other things. We actually brought up a logistics project to the planning commission and was immediately shot down. And but we did reach back to NASCAR when we realized that there was power across the NASCAR site.

The four three forty five ComEd lines that cross or adjacent to the Bernhardt site actually also cut through the NASCAR site. So our first effort was to reach out to NASCAR and ask them if they would be willing or interested in a data center project there. The power was there, the land was there. We had a relationship with the NASCAR team, we worked with them around the country. They responded back to us that, No, we don't have an interest.

Our goal is to come back and race at Chicago land, which obviously they're doing in '26. And so we then did what other good developers would do, we looked for another option. And we followed the power lines down to see where the power lines were going for another site. We determined they were adjacent to and crossing the Bernhard property. So we reached out directly with no knowledge, no interaction with the City of Joliet to the Bernhard family.

We met several times with the Bernhard's. Again, the city of Joliet was not aware of our discussions, not aware of the plans. After several weeks, we were able to reach agreements with all the Bernhard family members. And then, and only then, did we reach out to the city of Joliet and have a conversation and let everyone know that we now had the properties under agreement. And I think the conversation we had was that we were thinking about a technology related development there. We wanted to make sure the city knew it was not a logistics project and it would not generate trucks. That's the beginning of what's been almost a two year journey.

So, first step was on your own as a developer, as you've done with other projects, is to locate land somewhere.

Correct.

If you could not locate land, there was no reason to approach us.

That's exactly right.

Once you located land, then you started having conversations with staff.

Once we located land and we had that land under agreement by the sellers Okay. We we wouldn't go to the city unless we had an agreement with the sellers to sell.

And nobody from the city pointed you in that direction?

No one at

all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Alright.

Okay. It's been motion and seconded to approve. Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin? Aye. Councilwoman Quillman? Aye. Councilman Reardon?

Aye.

Councilman Cardenas?

Aye.

Councilman Clement? Aye. Councilman Huck? Aye. Councilman Navarro? No. Mayor Darcy? Aye. Motion carried. Is there a motion to approve council memo number one seventy nine dash 26?

Ordinances approving the annexation of approximately 795 acres surrounding South Rowell Road and Bernhard Road classification to I one light industrial zoning and preliminary plan unit development and preliminary plat of Gillette Technology Center subdivision a dash four dash 25 and p u d dash eight dash 25 is recommended that ordinance be adopted.

So moved. Second.

It's been motion and seconded to approve. Councilman Mudrin? Aye. Councilwoman Quillman? Aye. Councilwoman Reardon? Aye. Council McCartiness?

Aye.

Councilwoman Clement? Aye. Councilman Hogg? Aye. Councilwoman Navarro? No. Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy? Aye. Motion carried.

Okay.

Next we have the city manager's report.

I have no comments this evening.

Okay. Next we will have public comments for non agenda items. So this section is for anyone wanting to speak regarding non agenda items. We do have some people that signed up. I believe they may be if they're downstairs, hopefully, they came up. Serena Guzman, Felix Ortiz, Amina Brown, Griselda Chavez, Alicia Morales, Andrea Baumhardt, and Kathy Garthas.

Great.

You can start.

Before we start, just a reminder, these are non agenda items. They're not data center or anything else on the agenda. Okay.

City Council, I'm extremely disappointed today. After the vote, that's

what gone

This is this is the data center

you're talking.

I would like to see committees that involve our Spanish speaking communities. I'm so disappointed that there are two Hispanics up there that have failed your community. There is one person up there with a backbone. It's not. And it's it's really infuriating, so I would like to see committees involving our Spanish community more. That's all.

Okay. I have also Cassidy Brown or Portia Gallegos.

There's a lot of people downstairs having a hard time getting up. Okay? Andrea Baumhardt. Well, you for my four minutes that I get today. K.

On March 17, just about 12:01, election day was announced by the mayor. But honestly, mayor, that's not the first thought that crossed my mind. It was Saint Patrick's Day, patron saint of Ireland

and Saint Patrick drove the snakes out. That was the first thing that crossed my mind. Okay? And

today, March 19, is Saint Joseph's Day, patron patron saint saint of of Italy. Terror of demons, if you are faithful and then you you would know what I'm talking about. So in honor of Saint

John.

Hail, guardian of the Redeemer, spouse of the blessed Virgin Mary. In you, God trusted his only son. In you, Mary placed her trust. In you, Christ became a man. Blessed Joseph, to us too, show yourself a father and guide us in the path of life. Obtain for us grace, mercy, courage, and defend us from every evil. Amen. Jesus, have mercy. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Matthew twenty sixteen.

I hope you enjoy your four minutes.

It's Kathy York as you know me. All I can ask is I need answers on where now I'm supposed to be able

to go live anymore now.

You just hate to say it, but you just pretty much cut my throat right now and stand me now. So I really don't know where to go live anymore now. My chances of trying to find a place to live are going out, but you guys really need start thinking about the residents and start taking care of all your problems that you guys are creating now.

Hello. My name is Griselda Chavez. I'm a lifelong resident of Joliet, and I thank you all for being here tonight. But I'd like to first ask, do you know if everyone here sitting in yellow is from Joliet? They're not. Yeah. Okay. And as a community, we are paying attention.

Speak, please.

We are watching everything that happens and when you all try to discredit us and our expertise, that's very insulting. People have been spending time doing research since honestly, before October, because we've known this to be a problem since before then, compared to the people who have been showing up for the past two weeks. And we are very curious if they are here on their own pure intention, or have were they told to be here? Okay. As a community, we took your vote and we demand the following.

A three to six month moratorium on existing preliminary and final plan unit developments for data centers in

Joliet. This is an agenda item.

And this would allow for

ample This is agenda item. Okay. Can't talk on agenda item.

Okay. I will change the subject.

Thank you.

The city of Joliet should really base their decisions on anything when they can wait until and to not misconstrued, wait until the Power Act s b four zero sixteen, h b fifty five thirteen

This is

just is passed this isn't on

the agenda. Item.

Is passed in this is

not on

the agenda. Is passed in legislative session and begins implementation.

Go on.

We also demand that data centers should cover their own costs and bring their own power. Yeah. Public participation during each phase of development, the bottom line okay. This is not about it. Bottom

Before we move on Quiet, please. Before we move on, Todd, would you like to remind them of the rules, please?

Good evening. My name is Alicia Morales. I am a lifelong resident of Joliet. I'm not gonna talk about something on the agenda. That was made perfectly clear earlier. But what I am gonna talk about, mister and mister mayor and every council member is the process. Okay? I wanna begin by addressing something that is deeply concerning and frankly unacceptable. This meeting was scheduled at 05:30. It was scheduled for 05:30 and many people arrived at four expecting to participate in a public process.

Instead, we found the room already full dominated by a single group of union members, some that don't even live in Joliet. Okay? Leaving little to no space for actual community residents who live and vote in the city of Joliet to be in the same room. This raises a serious question. Who is this process really for? Okay? At the previous meeting, public comment went past midnight and had to be continued because there are so many residents who wanted to speak. That alone made it clear that there's an overwhelming public interest in this issue. So knowing that, how is it acceptable that today's meeting was held in a space that can't even accommodate the community? This does not feel right.

When a decision of this magnitude is being considered, one that will impact our neighborhoods, our environment, our children, our future, our health. The public deserves a genuine opportunity to be present, to be heard, and to engage. When we are what we are seeing here tonight does not reflect transparency, it reflects exclusion. If the city truly intended to allow public participation, why was a larger venue not selected? There are spaces available like Billy Leemacher Park that could have been accommodated for more residents and ensured that access was not limited to those who arrived here first.

This is not just about seating, it's about trust. When community members are effectively shut out and bullied of the room it sends, the message that their voice matters less. I'm asking the council directly why was the venue chosen that could not reasonably accommodate the level of public interest that this issue clearly has and how can you move forward? Well, you already did. You move forward with the vote showing the residents that we were denied an opportunity to even be present in the same room.

Transparency is not just a word. It is an action. And tonight, that sounds less. It's it's this that standard has not been met. When I worked at the township and we had a a debate about a grant, $8,000,000 for everybody including migrants, every we held it at the Bicentennial Park so that everybody had an opportunity to come in. We wanted to hear from the public. You all could have followed suit. You all could have done the same thing, but we did we don't matter to you. Mayor, I go to the same church as you do. How did you allow this to happen?

Half of these union folks in this room don't live in Joliet, and they bullied a lot of people downstairs, and they've been very disrespectful to a lot of us as well. That's unacceptable. We will remember when you all run for office. Jan, I'm sorry, but I'm really disappointed in every single one of you. Juan,

Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm Portia Gallegos. I'm a Joliet homeowner, registered voter, and a member of Joliet Residence for Responsible Growth. Today, would like to talk about transparency and planning for large developments. I would urge our council and our city staff when a large development is planned for the city that could have a lot of community involvement to please have public meetings at places like Billy Lillemacher with the developers, city staff because city staff explain things very well and potentially with community groups and nonprofits who may have a different point of view about development.

Would encourage our city council and our staff if a large bill is in Springfield that may have something to do with a large development to please wait to vote on the development until the bill passes or does not pass in Springfield. I would encourage our city staff and our city council to negotiate very hard on community benefit agreements. Doctor. Glenda McCollum Wright said here on Monday that for a project, for example, the size of the data center, would between $206,100,000,000 dollars. I would hope that we would always have the maximum amount of money for community benefit agreements for large projects that are presented in Joliet.

With Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie so close by the City Of Joliet, and that being a regional resource among the largest tallgrass prairie restoration projects in the country, I would hope that the council and city staff would make sure that we reach out to the staff at Midewin and find out if any large projects could have an impact on wildlife. Along with that, anytime a large project or a large economic development is proposed, we have a very diverse city, which is one of the reasons why I live here. And I would hope that our city council and our staff would make sure that there's extensive outreach in multiple languages to our city residents who speak Spanish especially. Know I that there will be also encourage you just in general because our ordinances I went to the community meetings and the comprehensive plan meetings and they were really good and some of our ordinances are really outdated, unbelievably. I encourage you as a forward thinking city council to look at Aurora who is one of our model cities and to pass a good data center ordinance for potential future projects that has input from all of our residents and from community groups.

Thank you very much for attention. Hello.

My name is Serena McGasky. Let me put my items down.

I'm

not gonna talk about anything agenda. We've already been told. I just really hope we can have some changes for Joliet. White, brown, black. I don't care where we're from. I don't care. I'm adopted into this my Mogosky family. We've been here over a hundred years. My brother has a plaque and a tree in the bicentennial. We've already started that mess.

I don't I don't even know what to say right now. There's so many people upset right now. We have educated people here. I'm a well educated person. I've sat on boards here. I give my heart and my soul to the city, and I talk to everybody. I know we got union guys here. Okay? We got all kinds of people here. I don't have a problem with the union guys, but you know what? We gotta start looking at each other, helping each other out. City of Chicago, I've talked to a lot of reporters. In the last couple months, they they think it's ridiculous what's going on in Joliet. They think it's a mockery. They're like, how did they get away with this?

I said, I don't know. But I wanna be part of the change. So guess what? Serena Mayorski will be somewhere on that next ballot, and it's not gonna be pretty because I'm a hybrid. Yeah. Yeah. Okay? I'm I'm a hybrid, and I'm ready. And I've been Unity CDC, AIDS Ministry of Illinois, Saint Pat's Neighborhood Association, Saint Collins Street Association, all the neighborhood association. I was neighborhood council secretary around here, guys.

I'm nothing to play with. Anna Mamagoski, Marie Fahey, rest in peace. That's my great grandmother, and my brother was the last historian. I'm not I'm coming out of ashes. And you know what? A lot of these people, they don't know who I am, but they will soon. Because Rayfac, Mogatsky, Toth, Serena don't play. I know Susie. I know Larry very well. Correct? Larry, Susie? You know me very well. I'm very calm, very nice. But right now, god bless everybody on this on this council. And Jan, hello.

How you doing? Seth, 19 year death was the seventeenth on Saint Patty's Day. Okay? The last historian in Joliet. We're not going down without a fight with this one. And like I said, I don't mind the union guys. I don't have a problem with it. We need to come together, and it needs to come soon.

Yes. I'm

49 years old. My daughter said she's scared to go to school at Joliet West because of some of the stuff that's going on with ICE and all this other BS. Alright? And I know a lot of the cops, and I know a lot of the firemen. I know a lot of the people in Joliet. I'm just disappointed tonight. Okay? I just wanted to come up here and tell everybody, god bless, god bless St. Joe's today. I am part Italian, and I am Irish. That's where I get the fire in my belly from. K? God bless everybody. I don't wanna hear the comments. Everybody else got to talk, didn't they? Everybody else got to talk? Well, Serena McGoskey gets to talk tonight.

You done? Hey, everyone.

We need

to maintain decorum. So please

I'm being polite. I haven't cussed. I haven't said nothing

to ask you.

Address

the council. Please address the council.

That's the end. I was not being disrespectful. I didn't threaten anybody. I was not rude. I'm just telling you how I feel as a resident. I'm very disappointed. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Hello, my name is Amina Brown. I forgot to state I am resident of South Plainfield. I live about a quarter mile away from the Lou Australia Mall. So the votes approved. Alright? You guys won. But I just feel like we should discuss some things. So EDS is a Ross Perot company

because This is an agenda item.

No. I just want to say something.

It is. Okay.

They embezzled $650,000,000 from their worker paychecks in 2007, and they continue this very often. So this to the union, I hope that you are concerned, especially the union presidents who supported this. I hope you are very well aware that your paychecks are going away.

Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council on a none agenda item this evening?

Okay? No. There's someone walking out.

Someone's walking out?

Okay.

Good evening, counsel. I'm here to just talk about what's going on in America. As you guys know that the cost of living is going up every year, and I think everyone in this room can agree. The cost of living is going up. And my understanding is that once we switch to Lake Michigan water, we're gonna be our water bills are gonna go higher just for anyone that lives here and anyone that's connected to City of Joliet for water.

And because of other situations, our electricity bills are gonna go higher too. A lot of people here have families. We want our younger generations to get a good education, to be able to follow their dreams. And I wanna ask, if you guys happen to get a lot of money, what are you guys gonna do about the utility bills? How are you gonna help people with their daily needs?

I'm not saying you gotta give handouts, but I'm just bringing attention to a crisis that's coming to American homes, especially Illinoisan homes and especially Joliet homes. I haven't heard any talk from the council about this issue, about how are people gonna be able to pay their utility bills. It's outside of my control, and now it actually is outside of a lot of our control about how those prices are gonna go. And just so you know, some people are going to blame you. I'm not saying that I'm gonna blame you, but just know that that wave is coming.

People are gonna think people as we've learned about a lot of topics, people may not do all their research about why things happen the way they do. So people are gonna do simple math and say, it's your fault. I'm not here to say that it is. I'm just saying that that's how people are gonna see it, okay, in these coming years. And so I'm saying that you guys can be part of the solution.

Whether you think you're part of the problem or not, you can be part of the solution in terms of the higher cost of living that everyone's facing. And so that's why a lot of people have been wanting to be able to speak with you is because we're very concerned about the rising cost of so many things. And for us, for some of us, we thought that you guys that you may have some influence or be able to have some decision making to be able to help us. And again, I'm not asking for handouts, but you guys are sitting on a lot of money and will be sitting on a lot more money soon. And please consider all of your residents and help our the next generations to be able to follow their dreams regardless of where their parent works, what jobs they do, for everyone to be able to have equal access to opportunities.

And when you guys talk about how you can help us in these situations, include us. Include all of us regardless of who our employer is, regardless of our background, regardless of our language, because we're all Jubilee. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

I'm Lily. I'm a lifelong resident of Joliet and on my way up here, I've heard several comments. Throughout the whole time I was up here, heard several comments. They said it was freedom of speech, okay. I'm very concerned about just the state right now, Joliet.

I know the we are going to we are a community who struggle already and as a resident myself of Joliet, I have neighbors and possibly people in this room might have financial crisis and might lose their homes once the utility bills start growing up going up because the TSA act does not protect us. There are children in the community who have developmental delays, disabilities, who any sound, you know, they're sensitive to sound. It causes health problems. Just sound at that speed. I just wanna say too on the petition, there's 6,000 votes.

So just keep that in mind. You stand here today. You you all are here today. Us as Joliet residents will remember you if you did if the good things you do, the, you know, not so good things you do, and we will remember the businesses you own. And going forward, we'll keep that in mind.

The family businesses that you own, like your family's own. So I'm just I'm generally just very disappointed. I know while I was waiting hearing other people talk, were complaining about how long the time is so I will take my time up here. And I'm just really just hurt. I'm disappointed in all of you and I know many people are and honestly, I'm worried for the union workers because a lot of corporations out there just sell lies to them and to us and a lot of times those corporations, they don't honor the promises that they make.

So I wanna know going forward, how will you ensure that they honor the promises that they made? How will you ensure to protect your residents, all the residents? How will you make sure that they stay safe and that they don't risk becoming homeless? We already have a big population who are experiencing homelessness, and the city, in my opinion, is not doing enough. So what will you do when people are going to start losing their water, are going to start having difficulties paying their utility bills? What will

you do until

we vote you out? And just just very yeah. And I was up there. I got pushed by one of the men. I went up to tell the security card guards that I, you know, I feel unsafe being here. One of three women of color. I know there's other women of color out there. And so I came back to find my spot to be to feel that safety with the people I came here with, the two other women who are residents of Joliet. And a man was pushing me and he's he's not even from here. And so just you talk about decorum, but you only told us to keep it quiet.

You never said anything to them. They've been crushing their water bottles. They've been saying comments over there trying to drown us out. But us as residents, although not all of us are up here, we are downstairs. We are watching online, and we will remember. We will not forget. And I will just stay here. I'm gonna take my time. And I just I'm very disappointed. You, I'm very disappointed in you. Cesar Cardenas, I'm very disappointed in you. Joe Clement, very disappointed in you. Larry Hudd, very disappointed in you. Susan Ibarra, you're awesome. I we appreciate you. I know you're pro unions and anti dd standards. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Madeline Gable?

Hello. My name is Madeleine Gabel. I did not plan on speaking tonight. Things went a little just felt a little inspired to speak, but did kind of wanna talk about something unrelated. I want to talk about the council and the council's responsiveness to communication and kind of maybe try and brainstorm out loud the best way to reach your council person.

I'm not sure what the standard procedure for that is. I sent an email to the mayor, the full council, the city manager, and the public comment page. And I believe I if I remember correctly, I got two emails back out of eight, nine, 10. And the public comment did anybody I don't know who runs that. But that was a little disappointing for me personally.

When your own counsel person that's supposed to represent you does not respond to your communication, it can be kind of disheartening and for some reason make you feel like maybe the maybe someone's not listening to you out there, you know. Because I think we can all agree that the job of a city council person is to kind of be a voice for the constituents. And I know some people have districts and some people are just at large and kind of everyone. But I think it's very important to even just send like a, hey, I got your message and I think that that would go really far in making people heard, especially if they're like directly your constituent. I had a lovely chat with one of the council people.

I called a couple but one was actually went to their personal phone. We talked for well over an hour, a very long time and I appreciated them for that. When I called my own council person, it went to their voice mailbox. I didn't even the thing that was frustrating for me was until the councilman that's not my council person, and it represents a different district, and I spoke on the phone, I didn't even realize that the phone numbers just go to a generic voice mail box, and then you guys get a transcript emailed to you. And then you find out after the fact that we left you a a message.

I'm not there's not really anything to my knowledge, maybe I missed it on the website, that indicates that that's how that works. So I know you guys have been working on transparency and I know you guys always say to like reach out with comments and concerns and questions, but I think maybe we could set up a little bit better of a way to make it a little more obvious how to reach your council person. Did also come across a counsel person on Facebook and I was like, can I talk to them on here? Like, I mean, Of course I can, like I have free speech, but I'm like, this feels weird. This isn't like the official way to talk to them.

So I think it would go a long way in kind of figuring out like how the best way to reach your person is, who your city council person even is. It took me five minutes of googling to figure what district I was even in. I looked at the map with the like 20 or 30 like different zones of Joliet and where they were, and I was like, okay, I'm in Zone 15, whatever. But that didn't tell me who my council person was, and I was well, that's kind of weird. Why would we have this map that's super detailed that tells me that I live in the center of Joliet that doesn't tell me who my council person is?

Seems like that could be revised a little bit. But I know you guys have a lot of big things coming up, some some projects and some big decisions have been made recently. When you get to it, we would love to have a better way to connect with you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your

Madeline, I'm I'm gonna, you know, say it out publicly. You you you you were very classier, not to mention. I'm the one you talked to, and we had a great conversation.

We did.

We agreed on some things. We didn't agree on everything, and, certainly, we didn't agree on the final vote, but you were very respectful and very insightful. Thank you.

Willing to talk to me even though you're not in my district because knew it

was you. You. Knew was you. I knew it. Alright.

Good evening, Joliet City Council. I am deeply saddened by your decision to vote yes to the proposed data center. My name is Tina Miller, by

the way.

Can't you can't you can't comment on it, ma'am.

I I'm commenting on it anyway. You have

shut up.

You have officially voted out every single citizen in Joliet. You chose corporate interests over the livelihood of the very people who voted you into your position. You chose money over the future of our children. They can still hear me. They can still hear me. Okay. Okay. Just just know that everyone is going to remember each one of you that voted yes on this, and we don't want to hear.

Thank you for your comments.

Hi, everyone. Sorry.

My bad. Thank you. I wanna thank you guys for, I know this meeting was initially supposed to be at 9AM today, and I wanna thank you all for having it rescheduled so that we could all, as many of us as possible, attend after another day of work and for giving us at least this opportunity to speak. Last time I spoke, I mostly spoke of questions and I think today I'll do it a little bit of the same. Some of the people were concerned the other day and today about the rising cost of living.

If many of you are unaware, there is a large population here in Joliet that is unhoused, that is down on

the

luck, that struggle every day And the only difference between us and them is is one one bad day, is is one one mishap, one accident. And when people talked about the rising cost of living the other day, living on Social Security, paycheck to paycheck, penny to penny, I hope I hope that it's in the council's mind to take that into consideration in the coming months, years, that this will happen and that as people get pushed out of their homes, as people can no longer afford healthcare, medications, daily essentials food, water, that you at least take into consideration and prepare for when this happens and try to mitigate some of these issues. I know decisions have already been made, but I just hope that you have the people's health and well-being in mind for the coming years. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening on a non agenda item? Anyone else? Okay. Seeing none. We

got one coming.

Hi.

So four minutes? Yes. Hi. So we're I came late because I have work. So I'm rereading.

It's the same, but we're not allowed to talk about the thing you voted on just now, yes? Okay. Then I would like to talk about the behavior that happened last time because this is my first city council meeting last Monday and it wasn't my best experience. I would say when a person comes up and someone has to excuse themselves to the bathroom, that is understandable, if they go and they ask somebody, hey, can I wait till they get back? And you start their timer and you don't stop it while they're asking a question about, even if it's no, it might be polite to stop it and say no and then start it again because it doesn't say anywhere we have to keep going if the person we're trying to talk to is not exactly in front of us.

Another thing would be if the person is in behind me within camera view and you guys anybody can see them and they're laughing at a woman crying up here about like their worries, somebody can address it because they're laughing and pointing, so that would be addressed. I am disappointed at the people who are laughing, They're in the same seats behind me today because again, it was women crying or even anybody crying. Pointing and laughing, somehow the people on the phone looking at TikToks were more appropriate. I looked at the eyes of every single one of you and I gave you all my faith. We see how that worked out.

But besides for that, there were squabbling up here and I don't think that was appropriate for us to see. Because someone can ask the question sternly, but if you don't like it, you shouldn't really address it to them in front of the public like that just to make a statement. Very odd. It's it's weird because the public, are all private citizens, are supposed to be respectful. We're supposed to not cry out.

We're not supposed to be too loud. We're not supposed to cheer. We're not supposed to clap. But the organizations, whether you are the ones behind me who are representatives, who are maybe incentivized to be here, this is what they're supposed to be doing, us who are private, unorganized, we're all individuals, cannot be controlled, you know, because we're all individuals, Somehow the people who are supposed to be as representatives aren't being professional, whether it's laughing, whether it's squabbling over, I don't know, whether it's them, like I said, not being good representatives of themselves. Here are the workers today, so it's much more, I can see if it was more unorganized, but it was just their representatives the other day and they were not professional and no one said anything for us.

When people when living beings are crushed, they will cry out, and we were scolded for that, understandably. And then half the meetings said, this meeting is unfair, it's on a Monday, and then you tried to move it to a 04:30 when common jobs are nine to five. And the first thing that happened after 12:00 was, we're gonna move it to Thursday at 9AM. That shouldn't even have been spoken out. Let me just show you weren't no one was listening to what we were crying about.

We can whine, we can moan, it wasn't listened to at all. And it's really sad. I thought better of this, I hoped for better of this, and I prayed for better of this. I want to be more than anything proud of my city, proud of the councilman, proud of the union that I respect so much and am part of, and my family is part of, and I want to respect them badly, but what I saw Monday was disgraceful. It was awful.

And then I hope to God, as everyone says, things can be clearer for the private individuals who want to be here, that these things can be actually listened to because again, so many questions, so many comments were there, brought up, and then 12 hit, and you couldn't do the election anymore. I think comments probably, because it wasn't part of the election, could be said. But a certain council member was cut off mid sentence, couldn't even finish his sentence before someone jumped on him and said, you're not allowed to talk anymore because we can't make a vote even though him finishing a sentence would be appropriate. So I pray, I beg, and I have faith in that this will be constructed from the ground up because I wanna be here and I wanna appreciate you guys.

Thank you for your comment.

Hi. My name is Felix Ortiz and I'm here to make a public comment. I don't know if it's honestly up to state rules on the open meetings act. The the two people that moved earlier, that's unfortunate because, you know, as you you all know, we live in a first a country that has the first amendment that allows for free speech in this country. And the Open Meetings Act makes it very open that as long as, you know, people are speaking with the quorum or being, you know, violently disruptive or otherwise, know, being belligerent.

They have the legal right to be able to address all of the city council people. It might not like it. It might not be polite. It might not be something that you any of you feel comfortable with. But we actually have the legal right to, you know, address everybody here directly on the same equivalent level.

You know, it's unfortunate that we have to be here at this pace because, you know, we've made it very obvious to all of you that we are concerned with the public health of the community. We would ask that, at the very least, the city considers safety parameters around pollution for all developers, making sure that our water stays affordable, sustainable. You know, we fought meticulously for years to ensure that we would have a tiered water system, you know, to hold other developers accountable to make sure that, you know, we aren't draining our aquifer at a rate that's unprecedented. But, you know, it's unfortunate that, you know, we're continuing to, you know, choose development that's going to end up consuming it in the long term. I know that many of you, you know, are looking out for the best intent for the community, specifically when it comes to producing jobs.

I understand that many of you are supportive of the trade unions. I, again, come from a Teamsters family. I know what it's like to have to pay bills to get by. We all do. But at the end of the day, you know, I ask that a lot of my union siblings consider that, you know, every development that we support is something that is ultimately gonna come and make its way back to you. We all live on the same planet. We all live in the same community. We all drink the same water. We all get electricity from the same grid. And ultimately, the same air that you are breathing is the same one that we all do.

And if we don't take public safety as a legitimate concern, well, we're not gonna have a planet left to live in a couple years, you know? We've already hit a tipping point when it comes down to, you know, a point of no return as far as our carbon emissions go. I know a lot of people here probably don't believe in global warming, but, you know, just go outside. It's been fucking hot. It's like, what, 70 degrees in February? Please don't cut me off. I have not done anything to Watch

your language, please. I did not say anything. Yeah. You

did. Yes.

You did.

I did not. I have a legal right to, again, state my case. And if I'm being cut off, I will file open meetings act violation because I am being challenged during my legal four minutes to be able to speak and address all of you. I am not being belligerent. I am not being aggressive.

I am respecting the rules kindly. I've not even once mentioned specific word that I know I shouldn't even say right now. But, yeah, I just want all of you to know that, you know, we're all watching what the city does. We are gonna be at this meeting tomorrow to talk about the, you know, the city's long term plans for the city. It's unfortunate that, you know, one of the biggest comments that was that's been mentioned that a lot of these meetings is not being taken into consideration.

But, you know, you're all reelectable. We all know where your business are. We don't need to choose to do business with any of you. I'd rather not have to, I guess, consider boycotting or doing anything like that, but, you know, the community's watching. We have the right to organize, and we have the right to make our voices heard. You will all be remembered in history for the way you vote, and every single thing that you do will come back to you because you're ultimately breathing the same air, drinking the same water, and your children will have to deal with the consequences that come in the future. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Is

there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening on a non agenda item?

Hi, folks. So this is not my first time speaking in front of you, and every time I'm doing it, it seems like I'm taking another l. I'll be honest. I'm disappointed in some of you. Some of you, I well, I know all of you pretty well, so we kinda knew how this was gonna go. But nevertheless, this is very disappointing. But I gotta say, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful for the first time because this is Joliet waking up. This is thousands of people responding to this state of I'm sorry. This thing that happened.

And a lot of a lot of feelings, a lot of facts, a lot of emotions, and people are starting to get engaged today. So I think today starts a new era, a new era of accountability for all of you and for the rest of the government. So all of you, have a great day, and I'm sure I'll be staying here again someday.

Thanks for your comments.

Hello. My name is Cassidy. I originally did come here to speak on an agenda item, but I'm gonna switch that up a little bit. Tonight, I would like to talk about censorship. I noticed after I left last night when I went to watch the publicly recorded hearing of this public the public meeting from Monday evening, my portion was cut out.

And that could be an accident, but I don't think it really works that way when you're recording on live, so I don't believe so. Especially after talking to a lot of my community who was here with me two nights ago who said theirs was cut out as well. So I think that people are getting scared probably. Like the gentleman before me said, a lot of us are waking up if, you know I mean, most of us have known for a while, but a lot of people are just now getting realizing how deep the corruption goes. So after talking with my communities, knowing that a lot of us were cut out from the recording last week, I obviously did some research and seen that public meetings are supposed to be pub open to the public no matter what, and that includes having a, properly recorded video of that meeting and publicly putting that meet that meeting publicly where anybody can have available access to it without any editing or interfering.

Not accusing, but I am going to be filing a freedom of information request and possibly filing a lawsuit if I do find out that things were purposefully manipulated. So thank you everybody for showing up in this beautiful day. I would like to talk about how we, the people, have more power than we think we do. I believe there's a class war in America and that we are intentionally divided. Racism, sexism, homophobia, political party division, it is all a fame that's fed by political acts of violence to keep us distracted and keep us mad at each other rather than taking out all of this energy and directing it towards a small number of number of people that they tell us are in charge.

Are you in charge, though? That's my real question. Everyone said that the thing I'm not allowed to talk about right now was a done deal. Decision was made behind closed doors. So my question is, if we as a nation openly understand that the people we elect to represent us do not care about us, what do we do now? Now that it's a yes, we did it. We talked for fourteen hours and it's still a yes. What do we do? They want us to sigh and move on, drink the poisoned water, breathe the polluted air, watch our mothers die of stroke from the noise pollution because rules are rules. These dozen or so people said death is worth the money. Our death is worth the money, so we must oblige.

I think she's going to I think you're on the edge.

I'm on the edge. Alright. Well, I think you are. So when is enough enough? At what point do we finally say this has gone too far and we will no longer die for their money hoarder? What's our motivation to continue complying? I don't have one anymore. I think we do have a good start to stopping the cycle. It was kinda satisfying watching the suits have to wait another two days for Voldy Knew was in the bag. You know, we sat here for fourteen hours and after, you know, after work, all of the things we had to do to get here, the least I could do is put more money into our local businesses. Right? The visible anger, the size of annoyance when you realize you'd have to sit through this again. I bet it was frustrating having to hear from the population of the city you plan to infest. I'm sure you are exhausted. I think she's Okay, ma'am.

Yes. Thank you now.

I got thirty.

I got

thirty more seconds.

No. No.

Slow it down. Demand answers. The point is disrupting the process. The point is slowing it down. This was the point. You may have thought you won, but the point is slowing it down. Be picky where you spend your money. Do not support the people in this room. The only people who benefit from our fear of resistance is them. I'm not saying it shouldn't be scary, but I'd rather be scared in the face of change than scared every time they wanna build a new death camp. No justice, no peace, and there's no more room in this. There's no room in there's no justice in the room, so there's no longer room for peace. You're not nice. You're very blessed. Okay.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening on a non agenda item? Okay. Seeing none, we're going to move on to mayor and council comments.

You wanna start?

Go ahead.

Alright. So I just wanna take a moment to speak openly and honestly of where I stood on this data center project. First, I've never really considered myself a politician. Even after serving in this role for three years, I see myself as a member of this community first. Someone who cares deeply about Joliet and the people who call it home.

And because of that, I've always made a commitment to myself and to the residents of Joliet that I will always vote for what I believe is right for our city, not based on pressure, politics, or personal gain. I've been told directly that I could lose someone's vote if I support this project, and I understand that. People are passionate and they care deeply about the future of our city. But I wanna be very clear, my decisions come from what I believe is right and the effort I put into understanding the facts. I'm not going to compromise my values to win or keep a vote.

I also want the public to know this. I have full trust and confidence in our city manager, our city staff. They put in the time, the analysis, and the due diligence to properly evaluate this project. This isn't a situation where we simply where we're simply taking a developer at their word. We have brought in third party attorneys, independent consultants to review the data, analyze the impact, and ensure that this information we are receiving is accurate and in the best interest of Joliet.

We are the third largest city in the state of Illinois, and with that comes opportunity. We are seeing major developments and investments come our way like the new Hyundai TransLeaf manufacturing coming to the old Caterpillar and Line Electric site. These opportunities don't happen by accident. They happen because our city staff is doing the work carefully, thoughtfully, and strategically strategically to position Joliet for long term success. I've done my own research, I've asked questions, I've taken the time to understand this project from multiple angles.

And based on that, I truly believe this data center project is a good project for Joliet. I believe it represents a strong opportunity, a win for our city, and for our future, and for that continued growth of our community. But this doesn't end with disapproval. What matters just as much is what we do next. I look forward to continuing to engage with our community to ensure that the tax revenue generated from these projects like this, used in a way that directly benefits our neighborhoods, and improves the quality of life of our residents.

I've met with probably 30 people individually, many people that have called me out, and we've sat down and we've talked about this. I have not changed my position of where I felt on data center. And I just think that it's good for Joliet. I know sometimes it's hard to understand, but I'm excited for what's the future of Joliet. Thank you.

Mister mayor, yeah, Cesar, good job. I agree with with what you said. I wanna thank again, I'll be very brief. I wanna thank Hillwood, power house City staff for answering all the answers that, you know, to my questions. I appreciate it very much. You know, fourteen and a half hours, I listened to the residents. You know, I know that they didn't like it. I understand that. You know, I I attended the open house, the planning meeting. Obviously, the the the meeting money in in tonight.

You know? But this decision, you know, was the the answers that I got to my questions about the power, the water, the noise, the land. You know, there's no trucks that are gonna be here to disrupt what we currently have going on. There's a thousands of union jobs. There's 700 permanent jobs. This is just, I believe, a win for the city of Joliet and and Cesar, I I agree with you. And that that's why I voted yes for for this project. I believe it's it's a great project for the city of Joliet Joliet in moving forward. So thank you. I

personally thank everybody who showed up today, Monday, at many of the meetings going back two or three months. I appreciate that, this democracy. I wanna point out that even those in opposition as passionate as they are, there was a 120 speakers, I think, roughly on Monday. Only three or four were disrespectful. Everyone else, even though they are in opposition of it, was very respectful. And we spent a lot of hours, and I listened to everything. And it gave me an extra three days to do research for anything new that they brought up because we couldn't continue the meeting. Just to clarify, there was a young lady that came up here and thought that somehow we cut off, I think, one, you know, a councilman no. No. It wasn't that we couldn't vote after midnight.

According to the state law, no public meetings can be assembled after midnight. We it could have been in the middle of the mayors. You know? It could have been in the middle of the pope giving you a blessing, and we had to stop it. Otherwise, we're outside of the law, and we are a nation of laws. With that said, I'll tell you a quick story so you understand because I did my research. I've talked to a number of people. Most of the people that I talked to are in opposition. They had a lot of questions. I offered the information that I found in my research. I've talked to experts. I didn't just turn to staff. I didn't just turn to Hillwood. I just didn't didn't just turn to those in opposition or those in favor. I I collected all this information, and I talked to people who don't even live in Joliet that are in the computer field and have been for years to get to get it crystallized, to get it clarified.

Back in '21 or '22, we had a economic development director. His name was Derek Connolly. I was at the time we had you know, I was the chairman of the economic development committee. We had a developer come in representing someone they didn't give us the name to, but we figured it out later, who wanted to put a data center in. They wanted a million to a million and a half gallons of water a day, and we said, not an option. We told them, if you need it was a smaller project than this one. This one, which they're not allowed to do, would take over 6,000,000 or more per day at full build out. We told them, we're not even going any further. We're not going to bring to committee. We're not gonna bring it to staff.

Derek told them. He said, after he talked to me, he said, no, you you have to know that we're not gonna provide that water for you. They left. They went to DeKalb. Funny because DeKalb, about three or four weeks after we said no, they announced the building of the new Facebook data center, the meta. We said no to that because we protected our water, and we're protecting the water in this. 150,000 maximum gallons on average per day. No day can ever peak above 300,000. That is like the the standard of water consumption of an entire subdivision. But, yes, it's not 5,000,000, 6,000,000, 7,000,000 gallons a day.

We wouldn't allow that. ComEd has done their private business guarantees that, you know, they're paying their their freight on the upgrades. So I looked at that. I had one woman, she spoke today. And she said, you know, when she spoke when she spoke about a month and a month month and a half ago, I knew nothing about at the time, tier one, tier three, tier two, tier four generators.

And she said, I hope you guys are are are requiring tier four generators because tier four generators mean under the current EPA, those are the ones that are the quietest. Not that they won't improve that over the next five, ten, twenty, the least polluting. Okay? Not not polluting, least. And I said up here to myself in my own mind, I talked to myself, but I didn't get an answer. And I said, what is this? Okay. I made notes. I went home. I did some quick research on it. I talked to some people. And I found out, okay, now I understand what she's saying. And I talked to the city manager. And the city manager talked with Hillwood. And we determined that the agreement required tier four compliant generators.

Am I

correct, city manager?

Yes, sir.

So had they said tier two, I would have ducked my heels in and said, hey, Hillwood. We gotta talk. They didn't. They realized that Joliet's looking out for citizens and that we demand the best that's available to protect our citizens. And if they didn't wanna do the best even though it was much more expensive, go on down the road. So with that said, I do really appreciate everybody that's come here on all sides, both sides of the issues. There's there's more than one side to this issue. I really do appreciate the opposition that came here. The passion they showed. We've had, you know, a 150 to 200 people in opposition show up over the last few weeks in in a couple of meetings.

I do believe as a city of a 152,000 people, I think miss McGoskey said it earlier. Simple message. Yes. Like this nation, we need to come together. That's my comments, mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I just wanna say and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak. My loyalty is to the residents of District 5 1st and always. Secondly, the residents in the city as a whole. For year my for years, my district has carried the burden of industrial development while receiving the least in funding and resources, and I could not them ask them to carry anymore, especially without basic protections in place. Let's all be clear.

The voice of the people has not been accurately or respectfully addressed in this process, and I will not ignore that. To the residents, I see you, I hear you, and I feel all your concerns, your fears, and your struggles. What I've seen that I am very proud of is residents across the city of every age, background, political belief coming together with one message. Slow down and get this right. Those residents are not saying no forever.

They're saying not until protections exist. And right now, even at state level, these protections do not exist. I want to commend the city manager, Beth Beatty, on those community benefits. That is a genius move and something that I've been talking about for more than ten years. If all the conditions exist and we have everything that a hill wood or powerhouse would want, why don't we get something out of it?

Why would we give tax incentives? Why don't we get something out of it? So I do wanna commend the city manager and the staff. That was really a genius move. We're talking about a 100,000,000 in community benefits agreement, money that could fix roads and sidewalks, improve neighborhood lighting across the city, especially in districts like mine that have been overlooked.

Instead, my district is being asked to accept risk, uncertainty, and too many unanswered questions. So the way that I describe District 5 is actually respectfully the dumping ground for what none of the other districts want. That might be the way that they're situated or that there is a lot of land, but their quiet peaceful lives have been upheaval, and a lot of these people are people that just can't afford to go anywhere else. So to the residents of District 5 in this city, you have my respect, and I hear you. And to our city staff, I respect the work and effort that has gone into this process, but my responsibility is to the people I represent.

I also wanna say my dad was local labor's local seventy five, and back in the day, this is actually extremely civil. My dad was in fist fights. My dad had guns held to his head for jobs. My dad has been through it all. So I do very much respect the unions, and I and this is extremely civil compared to the seventies and eighties when I grew up with, you know, my father who was labor's local seventy five.

So I do very much respect the unions, but I also I have I have to my I just want my regular life back. I can't go to the store to get dog food without residents from District 5 grabbing my arm and commandeering me, and I'm here for it. I wanna hear what they have to say, but we also have regular things that need to get taken care of, and we would like to get back to some of those regular things as well. So I want to thank everybody that came out tonight on both sides of this. I wanna thank house in Hillwood. This city is an amazing city. It is a fantastic city. I can see why you would wanna come here, and thank you for wanting to come here. Thank you.

Over the past several weeks, I've heard concerns. I read emails, took your calls, and had real conversations with people across our city.

I I don't know.

I I thought I replied I replied to as many as I could.

It's not a time for public. Alright.

Shoot. I lost my face. Alright. Those concerns mattered and they were part of my decision. This was not an easy vote, but it was an important one. Joliet is growing. Joliet is not the question is whether development is coming. It's whether we shape the growth in a way that benefits our residents. I believe this project is an opportunity to strengthen our tax base, support our future, and keep our city our yeah. Keep our city moving forward.

But let's be clear. My my support comes with expectations. I will be pushing for accountability, responsibility, infrastructure, and real benefits for the people of Joliet. Our residents deserve to see the upside, not just the impact. To those who are opposed, I hear you.

I respect you. That does not stop today. I will continue to advocate for your for you throughout this entire process. At the end of the day, I was elected to make tough decisions even when they're not popular, and I believe this is the right one for the future of our city. Also, I would also like to throw in there that with the revenues generated from this development or with the $100,000,000 that with community development, we can get rid of the grocery tax, which I famously opposed, or maybe even reduce the city's portion of the gas tax.

Obviously, that would have to we had to vote on that. I know I spoke to councilman Hug about that earlier. That way, so our residents must directly share in the benefits. But that being said, I to the comment that was made, I, you know, I replied to a lot of emails. I was on the phone for the past week. It was very hectic. I'm sure for every council member and even the mayor. We did it. At least I I can speak for myself. I answered to everyone everyone that I could, and I sent the emails back, text, and a lot of people that I spoke to, they said thank you for calling me back.

So with that being said, thank you everybody that showed up today in support and everyone that opposed it as well. And let's keep moving forward. And thank you Hillwood for being a good neighbor to the residents. And I know we're keeping open communication with our city manager, Dustin, and even Greg Ruddy. Maybe we can fix swipes of road. So thank you.

Larry, the lady who first for me, brought the difference in generators of generator two and four. His name is Andrea who spoke again tonight, and I think she's still here. And I thank her for that. I've obviously Exactly. Good want to thank her for that also.

She's She's still Thank you. Thank you. Mayor, city manager Beth, and the city staff, I know all of you put an enormous number of hours in, made yourself and all members of the staff available to us, gave us as much detail as possible, made Hillwood available to us for all questions, and I appreciate that. Use that with other articles that have been in public publications. Some of them may be questionable how well they fit into our situation.

Mister Singh, thank you for all the financial information that you provided for us showing how this potentially will positively affect everyone's cost of living here. With that said, I think my yes vote says enough on on that end and being for the project. As Cesar mentioned, Hyundai trailer was a bit overlooked. 2,500 jobs bringing two new two old facilities back to life is great for the community. Last Sunday, there was a brunch honoring Michael Austin Clark and his mentoring program.

There was a street named after him, which is Glenwood, right outside of Joliet West High School that was attended by lots of individuals. Everybody here today, whether you were for or against a project, whether you spoke or not also, I appreciate you coming. Those of you that were here and made it through the marathon on Monday, thank you, and have a good night.

Again, I thank all of you for being here. And it's about getting involved in government. And we need to have more communication. The young lady that was here earlier talked about our website wasn't so user friendly, and it's hard to communicate. And I would have to agree with that. We don't communicate enough with our residents. At one time, had a newsletter that stopped. And then we were talking about putting a bulletin in the water bill so everyone would get something to know what's going about. But no one reads the newspapers and listens to the radio. The main thing is social media now, but not everybody the older folks, they don't have social media.

And that that gets out of hand a lot. But somehow, we need to reach out to the citizens and let us know how we can communicate better with all of you. And I totally agree with that. So and I have a phone number that everybody calls me. And I say if I don't get back to you, it means you talk too fast or the recorder ran out.

And, if you emailed me this last two weeks and I didn't get back to you, it's because I was out of the country and, long planned vacation. But, anyway, I'm back now. If you wanna call me, the number's always up there. (815) 726-7071, or you can send me an email at JanQuillman@Joliet.gov. I've engaged with you all my twenty years here, and I'm not stopping now. But you're absolutely correct. We don't communicate well enough with our citizens. And so we need some suggestions. So I thank all of you for being here. This was a very informative interesting conversation.

I'm glad we were able here to have this conversation with all of you. Sorry about Monday. But I did for two days. If you weren't here at the beginning of the meeting, I looked at the entire six, seven hours. Seven hours and nineteen minutes. That's what it was. So I know I got beat up a lot on social media, and things were made up, but that's comes with the with the job. You know? You just gotta tough it up and figure it out and people it's like the telephone, that game. You'd say one thing, and by the time it gets down to number 10, it's a whole different story.

And that's what happened. So, anyway, appreciate all of you guys, and keep keep your please keep coming to the meetings. That's how we get to know you and, you know, contact your council person or your at large folks. So, anyway, that's all I have to say. I'm glad this went very well, very professional. I love your professional. I know anger gets us sometimes at the better of everybody, but that we're human, and that happens to everybody. So, again, I wanna thank you, and I will move this on to Councilman Reardon. Thank you.

So here I am at

the end, but at the risk of breaking our own rules of repetitive comments, I have a list of the repetitive comments. So here we go. I'd like to thank our city manager, Beth Beatty, and her incredible team for their countless hours of meetings, collecting the facts necessary for all of us to make an informed decision for this very important project for Joliet. Every single time I called with a question or concern, Beth answered my questions and or listened to my concern and contemplated whether adjustments needed to be considered. The entire team was always open minded to thoughts and ideas that we may have not already considered, aka the generators.

We I think we all jumped on that when we heard that comment. Last week, I had some residents reach out to me requesting an in person meeting. I asked our city manager if she could facilitate this. Within twenty four hours, Beth Beatty had put together Dustin Anderson, community development director Alison Swisher, director of public Utilities Kevin Singh, Director of Finance myself and Beth. We met with several residents here in the Executive Conference Room. It was an extensive give and take. It took over two hours. And in the end, it was yet another example of our desire to be as transparent as possible with the residents who reach out to us.

In addition, I'd like

to thank my district residents and all the residents of Joliet for your input and for for and against this project. Many, many changes to the final draft are of this agreement were derived from the public comments and questions. To Beth Beatty, a couple quotes I think truly apply. It is not about being the smartest in the room, but building a team whose collective wisdom far surpass that that of any single individual. True leadership is about cultivating a team with diverse, superior skills to drive better decisions rather than needing to be an expert on everything.

Based upon all of my individual research, meetings with staff, input from third party sources for each important feature of this project, staff recommendations, public input, and the changes enacted because of that input. I feel this project is a very sound, safe, and lucrative development for the city of Iet. And those are my comments. Thank you.

Thank you. For for the one that goes very last, I have x out a lot of what I was gonna say for sake of repetitiveness. If I look at my notes for more than three seconds, I have not fallen asleep. I too would like to thank everyone who has come to the council meetings and planning meeting over the past months to share your concerns for or against this project. There have been countless hours working on this to be sure that any information we share has been verified.

As I say, measured twice and cut once. Many concerns were brought to our attention during the comments to this council that has caused us to dig in to find the answers to those concerns so we can make a very informed decision for our community on this very important time. Please know that we have heard your voices and appreciate your time, your courage, and the energy you took to share all your thoughts and concerns with us. I did spend a lot of time on phones, and I tried to call everyone I could and respond so that I could share some of the things that weren't shared. It has been a difficult decision.

This will be built under very strict oversight of the EPA and all federal and state requirements. And I know that some of those things are changing and I believe Hillwood will file some of those changes with us. Whether we agree or disagree after tonight, we're all here because we love Joliet and wanna make that clear. You know, we've talked about the windfall of a $100,000,000 over a period of time. You know, I don't wanna make this a total economic decision, but some of the people we value the most are the youngest of our community.

And some of the investment that this is gonna bring through the tax rolls, one of the most important I see is that our Joliet Township High School system will get 677,000,000 over the next thirty years. That's $22,580,000 a year to help educate our young people. To me, that's an important number. Probably more important than the 100,000,000 we talked about. Joliet Junior College, $76,000,000. There there's a lot of good things that will come from this. And again, we're here because we love Joliet. We do appreciate all the comments that were made. And I just wanna say God bless Joliet and God bless all of you. Thank you. Is

there a motion to adjourn? So moved.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Meeting adjourns.