City Council - Regular Meeting

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Here. Here. Here. Thank you. Please stand for the pledge. All right, at this time, I'm gonna go ahead and ask Chief Burke to head to the podium regarding a distinguished service plaque presentation to Chief Rudy Horace from the McHenry Township Fire Protection District. And once John gets there, he'll have the floor.

Mayor Jett and City Council, thank you for allowing me this time to recognize the retirement of Chief Rudy Horst of the McHenry Township Fire Protection District. Rudy, I'm going to do my best to say very few comments and be clear and professional as Rudy and I have a history of writing speeches that we have to share at the same time and his always seems to be a little bit better than mine. On June 17th, 2010, Chief Horst started his second chapter of his professional fire service career here at the McHenry Township Fire Protection District. He started out as Deputy Fire Chief Horst. Rudy brought over two decades of experience and leadership in fire service. Once here, Rudy wasted no time building professional relationships and getting to work. On January 8th, 2021, Rudy's leadership was again recognized and he was promoted to Fire Chief. I have had the honor of working with Rudy on countless safety initiatives and too many critical incidents to think of, and each time Rudy has served McHenry in the highest regard. Anyone who got to know Rudy or even receive an email could always remember what his motto was. I've gotten like 5,000 emails from Rudy, and it was the big four by Captain Von Apen. Do your job, treat people right, give an all-out effort, and have an all-in attitude. If I didn't read that motto like a thousand times, Rudy, I can honestly say that that is exactly how I would have described Rudy if somebody had asked me. You always got the job done. You always treated others with the utmost respect. You always gave your all. And you came to the job daily with an all-in attitude. I would also like to recognize the fact that Rudy recognized that McHenry wasn't just a place that Rudy worked these past 16 years. It was a place that he called home. Rudy is a McHenry resident. He's an active parishioner at St. Patrick's Church, and he's a community volunteer. He's the whole package. Rudy, on behalf of the City of McHenry and the McHenry Police Department, I would like to take the time to present you with this Distinguished Service Award.

I'll read this to you.

It says, Distinguished Service Award presented to Chief Rudy Horace, Badge 1202, McHenry Township Fire Protection District, June 17th, 2010 to June 17th, 2026. Chief Horace has hereby presented this Distinguished Service Award in recognition of more than 16 years of exemplary service to the City of McHenry and all those who live, work, and visit our community. Your selfless service to others and unwavering dedication to the health and safety of others is an example to all. Over the course of your career, your leadership has fostered collaboration and teamwork between the fire service and law enforcement service. The men and women of the McHenry Police Department thank you for always standing side by side with us to keep our community safe. Wish you the very best in a well-deserved retirement.

If you have a couple comments to make, the floor is yours.

And I appreciate John recognizing that my speeches were maybe better than his, but I just simply wanna say, I wanna thank the city council, Mayor Jett, all the city staff for this honor. It was truly an honor to serve as your fire chief. I am extremely grateful that the last 16 years of my 43 year career were spent here in McHenry. I wouldn't do it any differently. appreciate the support that the council the mayor and staff have given the mchenry township fire district especially we've been here over the last few months for a new station six and for a training facility but every person i have ever worked with at the city of mchenry and i say that as fire chief and and as uh i'm looking over at as a resident as well has just been actually absolutely great and a fantastic partner to our fire district And you don't see that all the time in every situation. And that is very much appreciated. Just real quick, personally, my wife and I, we love McHenry. We finally found our home after living in some different places over the years. As Alderman Doherty knows, this is where our cemetery plots are, so we'll be buried at St. Pat's. So we are never, ever leaving McHenry, plus my grandkids live here. So simply thank you again for this honor. Very nice, thank you.

All right. Conceptual presentation, Blackstone Realty Multifamily Development. You can step up to the podium. You can hit that center button there. I'll turn the mic on. If you could state your name and address for public record, and the floor will be yours after that.

My name is Tony Cirillo, owner of Cirillo Architecture. I'm at 1095 Pingree and Crystal Lake.

My name is Kashan Ahmad with Blackstone Roti at 386 West Virginia, Crystal Lake.

Thank you, gentlemen. The floor is yours, sir. Thank you. I want to say my appreciation for giving us the time to kind of present our original concepts here. The illustrations that we presented are necessarily preliminary, rough, not meant to have a lot of detail in them because we're at the very early stages, we want your feedback on how you feel what we're presenting here. The site, as you have up on the screen there, roughly two acres. Obviously, the biggest challenge is it's 100 feet by 800 feet deep. So it's a long-skinny lot that presents some difficulties in developing it. Currently zoned estate district. What you can't tell from this image is it's got a slope from the Crystal Lake Avenue towards the back of the property of about 30, 35 feet. So that equates to about a 4% slope. Definitely gradual enough that we can accommodate it with anything we want to put up there. So if you want to switch to one of the images, so there's a topo. So this is... one of the two concepts that we have this is a 24 unit townhome uh concept that is basically consists of four separate structures or groups of clusters of townhomes with six units each in this case we're looking at roughly uh townhomed around 20 2100 square feet probably a mixture of two and three bedrooms in this case we've got enclosed parking garages So our intention here is probably one parking space enclosed in the garage for each unit, and then another parking space for each unit immediately outside. So each unit will have at a minimum two parking spaces. And then across the driveway there, you can see we've got enough room for guest parking. In general, we're talking about looking at some higher-end finishes, masonry, hardy board siding, glass materials, kind of a combination of those, a little more modern decor, I would say. let's see and then if you can switch to the other concept so this is a 36 unit apartment building uh concept we've got three separate buildings with um with uh 12 units in each three stories tall uh similar in the finish we plan to hit the market kind of mid a little higher level with our finishes masonry hardy board in this case we've got all surface parking we're illustrating here 72 parking spaces so we have more than enough parking for two spaces for every apartment and in both cases we are able to accommodate the slope because of the separate buildings we're able to gradually step down the structures as it goes towards the back of the lot What you don't see is we know there's probably going to be some retention requirements. Obviously, we can accommodate those in the back of the lot. We haven't looked at those numbers yet. It would just decrease the number of units we're going to put up. Obviously, the lower part of the property is all the way in the back, so that suits the development ideas we have very well. We have anticipated all of our fire code requirements. We've got room for fire apparatus, access roads. We've got room to put a turnaround at the end of the property. Definitely we can include fire hydrants and those types of things. Building code requirements, fire separation distance, those are no problem accommodating here. AWARE OF THE NEW STATE EV READY REQUIREMENTS, EV CAPABLE I THINK IS THE PROPER TERM, SO READY TO ACCOMMODATE EV CHARGING AS NECESSARY FOR THE STATE LAWS. either plan we're trying to maximize green space. Um, it definitely adds to the value of the residences as well as just, it's a better way to be in the community. It's a good texture fit for the surrounding properties. We've got, um, kinder care immediately as a neighbor on one side. And then we've got, I believe it's, I don't think it's a nursing home. It's a senior living facility heritage woods immediately to the other side. and some mixture of single family residents in there as well. So I feel like it's a very good mixture that fits in really well with all the other residents around it and the other properties around it. And we'd really appreciate what you guys feel about it and which direction you feel that you go.

All right, thank you. Open up for city council discussion. Alderman Glemm.

Now I just look at, we have a lot of these lots that run down Crystal Lake Road, 400 foot deep. We've always looked at it, the fact that we would see much larger areas as far as several lots combined so that we would have a nice little neighborhood built rather than THIS IS JUST KIND OF A STRIP IN THERE. AND I JUST DON'T THINK AS FAR AS FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT, THIS IS KIND OF A ROAD BLOCK. I JUST DON'T SEE IT IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD. TOWNHOMES LOOKS NICE, BUT I DON'T THINK IT FITS IN THAT AREA. THAT WAS JUST ONE LOT. I DON'T THINK WE WANT TO PIECE MEAL ALL THE WAY DOWN Crystal Lake Road with that type of development. And to be honest with you, we started adding more and more multifamily type developments along Crystal Lake Road. Crystal Lake Road, especially between seven and eight right now because of the high school is difficult enough as it is to get around. And this would just make it even more burdensome for everybody that wants to get out of those subdivisions. So I just can't see it.

Thank you. Alderman Doherty. Actually, I like the 24 unit townhome. I like the placement on the property, especially because your townhomes are on the side by the nursing home, by the facilities, the care facilities. Your other side of the property, as you said, it's a tight piece of property, yet you've used that land with a walking path. I know at the end of that 800 feet, you're close proximity to the park. down there the city park i think that's a great use to have the residents get access to that park and take to the amenities of town there's discussion going on with that park in terms of future developments i think this could only help the residents you sell it you know and have it to that area i like what you've done so far thank you hello danny

Originally, when I looked at this, I did agree with Alderman Glab. I thought it would be nice if you had more property. But at the same time, if you did, it would really be a nightmare across from the school because it can get a little bit crazy there. I also really prefer the townhome. And for all the reasons that Alderman Doherty just stated, I won't repeat it. I think that that would be something that I think does fit there. I think that this is such a unique space in town. And to do something with just 24 units that expands you know our housing availability is a great thing in the community um and i think that this town home development would actually work in that space probably better than putting a whole neighborhood or something in there all right thank you all the embassy thank you um both the 24 and the 36 units of housing are less on less than two acres of a narrow land is significantly too dense

Aside from the staggering density, the property abuts KinderCare, which you had mentioned, a daycare and preschool. I do not support the development moving forward with either one of the concepts. Any development should remain consistent with similar sized parcels in the surrounding neighborhood, which are larger single family homes or single family homes converted to very small businesses. Thank you.

Thank you. Alderman Miller.

Oh, Alderman Davis.

Actually, I like the townhome concept and the creativity to utilize this property just because it is unique and probably very limited in what you can do with it. So I do feel that on this side of town, there is a need for a little bit nicer of townhomes, apartments, and stuff like that. Excuse me. So I like the townhouse concept, actually.

Thank you. Alderman Cook?

I have to agree with Alderman Glab and all that. It's a long piece of property. I'd rather see single-family homes in there. You've got the daycare and all that. YOUR CONCEPTS ARE VERY NICE, THE APARTMENTS OR THE TOWN HOMES. NOT ON THAT PIECE OF PROPERTY.

NEW SPEAKER SO LIKE MY ASSOCIATES HERE, I PREFER THE TOWN HOMES OVER THE APARTMENTS. I THINK IT'S A BETTER TRANSITION FROM WHAT'S THERE, THE OTHER SINGLE FAMILY HOMES TO THE COMMERCIAL. My greatest concern when I saw this was 48 more cars coming out on Crystal Lake Road directly across from the entrance to the school. That already requires additional assistance to monitor on start of day and end of day by our police department because there are no traffic signals there. And having, again, not all 48 cars are going to come in and out at the same time. but it just adds another entry point to an already congested space. And of course, you know, there's no other way out. You can't go out through the back because it doesn't go anywhere. So my concern, I believe that we need this. I believe that upscale rental property is needed in McHenry. I just am very concerned about the location and the entry point coming into the school entry literally across the street without a traffic control. This is where I live, work and play. And there are days that Andy and I sit there for a half an hour to get through that process. That's my greatest concern, but I love the townhouse idea. I just don't know how it fits there.

Thank you. Thank you, council. So at this point, there's not enough support. You could bring it back, okay, but there is lack of support for moving forward with either project. But I encourage you, I love the development, just the location is obviously a little bit of a concern, I think for the majority of us, obviously, uh i would love for staff i know you've talked to staff and dealt with staff up to this point as far as presenting this item they've been great thank you and we would like to work with you because i think the development would be great and find another location another piece of property and then bring it back and i i think you would have that support um and you know doug martin ross palareki can definitely work with you to uh get that done all right thank you thank you all right thank you very much for your time thank you guys All right, public comment. I have one signed in, Erica Kalinsky. If you can just hit that center button, state your name and address for public record, please.

Erica Kalinsky. I'm at 213 South Green Street.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, council members and city staff. My name is Erica and my family has proudly called McHenry home for the past 13 years. When we purchased our home, one of the biggest reasons we chose it was because Knox Park was so close. We looked forward to raising our three children with such a wonderful community space right in our backyard. We aren't just neighbors of the park. We're active users of its many amenities. Every summer, we purchase a family pool pass to Merkle Aquatic Center. Our children participate in the Kenry Youth Sports. We regularly enjoy the playground, skate park, and the nature walking paths our kids have lovingly named the Stumps and Rocks. That is why I'm here tonight. For more than a year, the six pickleball courts at 330 Knox Drive have significantly affected our family and our neighborhood. From early morning, typically beginning around 630 until well into the evening, often past 9 p.m., we are subjected to the repetitive impact of paddles striking pickleballs. This is not occasional park noise. It is a sharp, high-pitched impulse sound that carries into our backyards and inside our homes seven days a week. Unlike the laughter, conversations, and other sounds typically associated with a neighborhood park, this repetitive pop travels long distances and continues for hours at a time, making it difficult to tune out. The impacts extend far beyond simply hearing the courts. They have changed the way we use and enjoy our home, both inside and out. Simple activities like sitting on our patio, opening our windows, eating dinner outside, or watching our children play in the backyard are regularly interrupted by the constant paddle strikes. I work from home and extended hours of play leave very few opportunities for peace and quiet. Even with our windows closed, the sound is still clearly audible through our home. Over time, this has become a source of ongoing stress and frustration and has diminished our ability to enjoy our home we invested in. Other families are also experiencing these impacts and our neighbors share similar concerns and deserve the opportunity to peacefully enjoy their homes as well. The city of McHenry's noise ordinance recognizes that loud, repetitive or continuous noise

so we'll definitely be doing the open house and the ribbon fitting the same one all right awesome thank you thank you guys thank you all right this time on the agenda is 8d is assigned variance motion to pass an ordinance granting assigned variance for kia castle automotive at 12 11 south route 31. for a motion to approve all majority i make a motion to approve uh item 8 8d castle sign variance as presented thank you second second second okay discussion by the senate by city council um you know i'm not exactly sure where castle falls in with that the

But yes, you're going to have a whole bunch of these coming. And then Subaru is also in the process of building next door. Any other questions, council? All right, no further comments. Yes. Yes. Yes.

maybe uh when the next one comes up uh and we kind of get a little package together as far as what went down when we had the 120 expansion because there were a lot of them at that time also that happened there that we had to do yes so the council has some background i i

It's hard for me to know which ones have fallen within the right-of-way acquisition from the state. Like I do know I'm working with the owner of the pound shop right now. Suzanne Cannon will be coming in shortly to move. We just have to go through that variance process. We've already went through it with the border center and the IDOC here over there. It's just, there's one attorney that's representing everybody and he's just going down the line.

Next on my agenda is AE, a future land use map. Motion to pass an ordinance amending the future land use map of the City of McHenry Vision 2050. Comprehensive plan.

I'll make the motion to approve the future land use map.

A motion to pass an ordinance amending it. Thank you. All those in favor? I'll second that motion. Thank you. Discussion by City Council.

yeah i was just going to mention the fact that yeah yeah i can see that some of these right at the corner of uh 120 and uh i couldn't see the building an apartment building where they don't gas you know i get it it's it's a massive document you know i understand that but the good thing is it's a living document that's why it's here tonight so

i think you were the one that said it actually we don't continue without taking that it's not working so absolutely you know we have eyes on it all the time now also the fact that you should have to come back to us all the time well it shouldn't it shouldn't future land use plan so we should be improving it and not always just because it shouldn't have planned it you know every every proposal all right thank you

These updates are mostly appropriate with the exception of the circle with Muslim rain and the former vickie's place change to downtown excuse. I would like to pull that circle to go separately, the existing future land use for that area is neighborhood commercial corridor and walkable residential neighborhood. the McHenry Recreation Bowl Center should be removed from the walkable residential portion and added to the neighborhood commercial corridor portion. But that is the only change that I would support. I'm concerned that this change to the downtown mixed use is a precursor to request a zoning change to C4 to remove the minimum parking requirements in that area. The east side of the Fox River does not have necessary pedestrian infrastructure in place to do that.

So it doesn't surprise me at all when this came forward. This was a massive undertaking and I was on planning and zoning when it started and then came over to city council when it finished. You couldn't possibly do it all.

once we we knew that going in so i think the attention to detail of both planning and zoning and our staff is commendable that we missed a few things and now we're fixing it and again it's a living breathing document so it's something that we can alter and change as we as we need to um but i'm okay with what i see because again it's subject to review and subject to exception so I'm happy that we're cleaning it up. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments by council? Trish, please call.

Alderman Bailey? Yes.

No, he's concerned. The motion on the table is to approve assets. Okay.

All right.

Yes. Alderman Bailey? Alderman Miller? Yes. Alderman Cliff? Yes. Alderman Davis?

Yes.

Alderman Bassey? No. Alderman Doherty?

Yes.

Alderman Glatt?

They have said the fact that when all the requests to folks that we don't.

Thank you. Next item on the agenda is 8F, Central Wastewater Treatment Plant Demolition. We're looking for a motion to award the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant Building Demolition to Power Service LLC of South Elgin, Illinois in the amount of $31,300. We're looking for a motion to approve. All the women made.

I'll make the motion.

All the women do it. A second motion. Thank you. Discussion by city council.

Sure. In the supplement, it talks about leaving the foundation until we figure out what to do with it. Is there a reason that we're going to leave the foundation?

Right now, we don't know the extent. We have to remove the walls and the roof because we have to drill through the foundation to delineate the contamination. If we don't need to remove the foundation, that will of the contamination, and then once we have that delineated, there would be a separate proposal brought back to $1,887.50.

And I am very surprised I did all that. I'm not gonna lie, I bet that's pretty good. So I'm looking for a motion to approve 8G as presented. Alderman Mudd. I'm looking for a motion to approve 8G as presented. Would that be a second? Alderman Davis. I'll second. Thank you. Discussion by city council? I see none. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Next item on the agenda is 8.8, a rise-up donation in Friend Field Paving. Motion to approve the use of $150,000 in donated funds from the Rise Up Foundation for the rehabilitation of the All-Top Basketball Courts at Friend Field. Also waiving the competitive bidding process to accept the negotiated proposal for match ball removal and replacement in the amount of $90,306. 41 cents authorizing that expenditures of 37,205,55 cents for court resurfacing and authorizing the use of remaining donated funds for basketball goal and court lighting improvements within the approved project. Our motion to approve 8H as presented. I'll make the motion to approve 8H. Thank you. Second.

I'll second that motion.

Thank you. Discussion by city council.

I just want our public to know that Rise Up Foundation has donated so much money to this community. And I can only thank Amber and Wayne Jett for that on behalf of others, that it is an incredible, generous offering that you do every year.

And I am grateful to be able to help you.

And I hope that everyone else steps up and helps you as well, because it's gifts like this that make our life easier and better. So thank you on behalf of the public and on my behalf. Thank you very much.

One more minute. Not as grateful for helping you this week as I usually am. But I just want to reiterate what Alderman Miller is saying, how exciting it is to spend so much time, because I work on this year round. to see these funds being utilized to make things in our community better and to know that there's going to be kids and adults that are going to be able to enjoy their community even more because of this massive event and the 900 volunteers that make this all happen so i'm definitely in favor of it and excited to see this money being used for something that's going to benefit the community again thank you number one uh if we have any overruns where is the extra money going to come from

is it going to come from the rise foundation or is it going to come out of a parking developer donation funds well then we wouldn't be looking at painting it out at this general fund that's and this is why we never let's go to what we had hope to do i usually have some other alternatives like foxbridge and sherman park as well um we've got some old room for overage in this particular project and so there is some more which we have as a counter for

Another thing, too, is it says All-Top Basketball Courts in front of you. Isn't it the Jim All-Top Basketball Courts in front of you? That was dedicated to his name. Correct. I think if you get it in the minutes, the fact that that is the proper name for that field.

So I'd like to see it still stay that way.

It's packed that way.

And I have been in touch with the Altaf family just to be in conversation with them and let them know where we're at and improvements that are being made. But I did reach out to the Altaf family as well.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments? All right. Trish, please call the roll.

Alderman Doherty? Yes. Alderman Maney? Yes. Alderman McLeod? Yes. Alderman Bassey? Yes. Alderman Davis?

Yes.

Alderman Cook? Yes. Alderman Miller?

Thank you, Bill, for coming up with us and getting that done. And I want to thank all the council that does participate in this event. Obviously, we're about 40 days out or so, 39 days, which is very stressful. But I want to thank everyone that does participate. If there's council members that would like to participate, please reach out to me within the next couple days as our volunteers are to be locked in their location so we're not gonna make any changes after uh this thursday um also i just want to reiterate like we were hoping for a lot more money to be raised um if you follow the music industry and outdoor events and festivals uh there's been dozens of festivals going away it's very difficult to make money it's very risky um which is why um you know this year is about 3.6 million dollars show um so it gets it gets to a point where you're in the hole until you know sometimes a couple days or the first night right or or the second night depending on whether so um you know it doesn't make it worthwhile to do something like this and then not raise the punch like we even used to or we um dictate what we do in the future here so um i'm meeting uh i don't think my wife to see whether we continue it but uh we love doing this um it's not worth the risk 10,000 people. And I say, what's up with Henry? You know, that's what I'm saying.

Um, but you know, it's, it's awesome seeing the 11,000, 10,000 people out there enjoying themselves and it just makes it all worthwhile. Um, and so we'll see what happens for 2027, but I just

had to say uh regarding that but thank you all um discuss tonight discussion items uh regarding roxo uh director adams we're gonna go ahead and start us off

to Justice Henry. I have been working on alternatives to procure salt.

In the agenda, I stated that I was recommending we're meeting on the statement for emergency procurement. At this time, I would like to revise that. So we have an avenue that quote is good until August 12th.

I also have a separate contact out to Morton Salt right now. They have acknowledged that they've received it and are reviewing it.

So if I get a response from them prior to August 12th, then we'll evaluate and see which one is a better option. And either way, you know, we will bring something to council to authorize that. The one caveat to this being, are you okay with staff proceeding with that that route just yourself yeah I don't know the

right now are good for a matter of days. You have maybe seven days on a softball right now.

Like I said, there were over 240 agents

year total for the accounts that did receive bids the lake county bid they only also only had two bidders this year so it's a very tight market right now and at this point just trying to secure material is the primary objective so if we leave the state program and go independent as you're not suggesting

we get back on the state program next year how does that work next year we can get back on it if we leave it we have the option we have to notify them by august 6th whether we wish to stay on it for this current 26 27 year or leave the procurement once we leave we're on our own but since we have an alternative that's why i'm proposing that we do that I think considering I mean this is a

stay in the budget, or even if he has to be 10% over. He's doing a great job negotiating, so let's not, because of time-consuming problems, we don't want to lose out on Rockville. But another question I would have is, considering years ago we approved the north side of 120 as far as rapid fit, found that they had all this sand in that gravel. And I was kind of wondering if we could get some real first-party sand. And I think sand works better on intersections than anywhere else. I mean, if we're going to be a little lean on rock salt, then we'd need to know that we could get some sand if we need it.

Well, so salt doesn't actually do anything to melt the ice. All it does is provide traction.

In an emergency situation, I'm not going to be

saying you know we just want to do it but it wouldn't hurt to have your back pocket you know if uh something happens and all of a sudden we don't get quantity you know so it's all good i would defer to director adams for which option best prepares the city for the weather any other

What Russ says is very true. Only under strict emergencies do you have to use the sand or bird's eye, as we call it. Then you have to mix the salt and all that. I, for one, have had to use that because of the shortages in my past years. And definitely clean up. It gets down there in the sewers in Illinois. You're jetting. You're having to clean up the storm sewers and everything else like that. Under extreme conditions, you go to that. I wound up using soot to help melt the snow off the roads. Okay, because of the salt shortage. And this is way back. But, I mean, yeah, I'm glad you gave them the leeway. I myself personally had to get personal contracts, who I work for. So, tough year, you know, and hopefully, you know, they're calling for a mild winter, but I believe them as far as I can see. So, you know, you always prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Good job, Russ.

Yeah, honestly, it's still within budget,

Thank you.

All right, 9B is a ward map of hundreds of populations. Anybody want to start that?

All right, John Burson wants to start something. Thank you, Mayor. Recently, staff was requested to examine ward population in the county for equality at Alderman Bassey. In the direction of Mayor Jeff, an evaluation of the city's ward map was conducted by staff and city legal counsel. Equal population amongst wards is a fundamental component in complying with of the U.S. Supreme Court. In examining this issue, the courts have ruled that wards should not have greater than 10% deviation. As a result of this evaluation, staff has found that there is an overall range or maximum deviation population that exceeds that 10% mark. We're looking between the least populated ward and the most populated ward. And that mark or that standard is being established by the court. The overall range is used to measure the quality of population for existing ward map and confirm that any new ward map developed is of equal population within the 10% deviation. Through data that was pulled from the 2020 Decennial Census, staff has established our 2020 population at 27,096 residents. Using this number, staff was unable to determine that the county's ideal ward population is 3,871 based on our 2020 census. When you examine the chart and the supplement, you can clearly see that we have multiple wards that exceed this number significantly and multiple wards that fail to meet this number significantly. The next step was to prepare actionable options for council to consider. These options include redistricting and amend the ward maps based on the 2020 federal decennial census, contract with the US Census Bureau to conduct a citywide special census, and then amend the ward maps based on the student population data. Redistricted amendment award match based on the upcoming 2030 federal decennial census. Those would be the primary three options that we would like council to consider tonight. A non-actionable item by council to allow the public to submit a petition or a change to add large representation similar to the majority

thank you all right so go ahead and open up for discussion by the city council comments

We did the 2000 census. You take a look on the other side of the creek, and we had Boone Creek with about 35 to 40 homes in 2000. And by 2002, we're looking at 140, 150 homes. I mean, it was just, you know. else is if we're going to read it, there is going to be a cost.

Even if we use the 2020 census, we still have all these steps that you have to go through.

There's a cost. Maybe it's $30,000, $35,000. I don't know. There is a cost to it.

And we're not going to get the balance

evenly the way it's supposed to be.

Because if we do it, we have to use the 2020 census. If you look at the 2020 census, since then, we have athletics that came and was built, and we've got the KUNET apartments that were built. We have Taylor Place apartments that were built. We had a lot of developments since 2020, and we can't lose those numbers.

HERE YOU TAKE IT, YOU DO A WORD REDISTRICTING RIGHT NOW, AND WE'RE GOING TO BE EVEN WORSE THAN WE WERE BACK IN 2002.

YOU KNOW, I SPENT A LOT OF HOURS SITTING DOWN AT MY DESK AND FIGURING OUT IN THOSE DAYS AS FAR AS THE COUNTS. I HAVE A HUGE MAP OF THE CITY WITH THE ACTUAL COUNTS ON EVERY BLOCK population and everything else. If we had to be at that time within 1%, it would be even crazier. I just feel that we need to have a game plan. We need to start now as far as doing a 2030 census. And we need to mandate it so that whoever is on a council back after the 2030 census, we just automatically take and know that this needs to be done and that it's therefore, we've at least shown that we're making steps to correct it.

I totally agree. You know, today I contacted our county clerk to kind of have a discussion with him as well to see, you know, his thoughts. It's going to take time to do it right. He suggests 2030 to do that properly. But also, you know, there's a process that we need to put in place to make sure that we do this the right way.

And I think rushing into it is not the right and start working on that process. All right. Thank you. I support option three, redistrict following the 2030 federal census for not only the reasons already spoken about, we're going to be adding one hour.

We're adding folks. We also have this huge hole in the middle of town called downtown redevelopment. And we don't know what that's going to end up being. you're going to have residential on there, which also are going to add humans to the factor, which affects all of our districts and the shifting of where those people live. So I support option three, let's get our dumps in a row, wait for the 2030 census, all of our developments.

If Lennar is going to take five years, if Oaks is going to take three years, and downtown is going to take four years, those projects are not going to be done by 2030.

2020 is not accurate at all all right so that's my thought thank you thank you i agree with all the things that alderman miller said once again this evening um if i only had these three options option three would be my choice and one of the reasons i don't want to rush into this is because i'm very interested in talking to council about a referendum to represent not represent boards and do an app you know at large representation on city council i think that as we sit here and we make decisions we're never making them just for our words we're making them for the city as a whole and for what's best for the city of mchenry and all of its residents so having the time to have that conversation and get more input from the community i think makes the most sense absolutely for all the reasons mentioned

all the names yeah for option three also especially with you know everything that was mentioned with vulnerability

A municipality is required to audit boards to ensure all residents have equal voting power after every decennial census. This was not done by the city following the 2020 decennial census, despite significant growth. So now it needs to be addressed. This is something that I have brought up to the city since April. Monty, could you show the chart, please?

public that Alderman Bassey's chart or mathematical calculations are not the product of the city staff or her mathematical process is not professionally referenced by the supplement she is referencing from Park Ridge. The charts that were provided to the council in an official supplement and in the council email dated 731 were completed in accordance with the professionally published Wisconsin guidebook. So I just wanted to make that very clear that this is not city staff's work.

Well, since you mentioned the math, I will explain to you the math, how it was done. Took each ward and subtracted either ward two or ward five, or four, which is the largest. Divided it by either ward two or ward six, which is the largest or the smallest, and then multiplied it by 100, and that will give you your variance. So you are looking at the variance spreadsheet, which is also very similar to what the Park Ridge put in their package when they had to adjust their boards also, and their math is the exact same as mine. So this chart shows the variance between boards. There are the percentages that are required to be under 10% to be constitutionally compliant. constitutionally compliant is not an option. No ward in the city has under 10% variance from both the largest and the smallest wards. The highest variance is 101.6%. If you add the populations of ward two and ward six together, that number is two less than ward four's population. Part of representing a ward is making sure your residents have equal voting power. There is no valid reason why residents, especially in Ward 4 and Ward 7, should have less voting power. Redrawing the map is the only option that actually addresses the issues of unequal wards prior to the April 2027 election. If the city would like to pursue, at large, rather than board-based representation in the future that can be discussed later, but it cannot be used as a deflector for addressing a massive problem. Not addressing and correcting this enormous disparity in voting power prior to the 2027 election is irresponsible and will put the city in a legally precarious position.

Thank you. So at this point, the consensus is

Yeah, this is only on for discussion tonight anyway, right?

Yeah.

Sure. This should be some kind of a record. I don't want this to fall through the cracks, if that makes sense. Yeah, we should have a specific direction in the staff. Anybody objective looking at this is going to look at the history of this since 2010 know, 20, almost 30 years ago. And there should be, you know, all of that has to be taken into consideration that we're being made aware of this now, and we need to address it, whether it can be done for the 2027 election. If we receive an at-large petition that's referenced in the supplement, if that were the case, then we'll deal with that as well. At-large is obviously the solution for the reasons Andy stated. If you go into 2030 population decennial count, the next day it will change. If Lenard's in here, it will change every month and for years to come. So how many special mentioned in the supplement it's very expensive so at large in the end is the way to go it may take years to get there but that is the solution but yes we can prepare a resolution to the effect of the direction tonight awesome all right okay thank you council for that um next item on the agenda is staff reports any staff reports this evening

We had an internet issue at the beginning of the meeting. So I know there were people online that got paused or frozen and the meeting just froze and it pooped out. So we have a very little bit of tonight's meeting is going to be saved and online. So when people complain, it was a technical issue. I just nothing we could do about it. So I apologize. I'll apologize to everybody who tried to watch the meeting or finds out we have a short meeting on there.

her call my wife because she just got kicked off all right uh any other staff reports thanks brian you've shown up did a great job uh i have no mayor's report of any city council departments hold on i just want to say i don't have the date maybe sue does that chalk fest is coming up at miller point um their second annual

chalk fest it was actually a really cool event with some very cool artists so um once again i'll say i hope to see council members participating in these kinds of community events i hope to see everybody there what date august 29th I was going to say, while he's looking that up, if you don't mind, one other thing I just want to say, which I was gone when the mural was installed and got to go down and check it out. And I happened to run into a gentleman while I was down there who came to McHenry because he's an artist and was looking for inspiration and came from another community kind of far away just to come down and walk the river walk and see the new mural. And I thought that was really very cool. Kudos for the change to put it down on Miller Point, and it's already attracting people from other communities to come check it out.

Last year we had 18 participants at the Chalk Fest. They couldn't have been more weary than you can imagine from very traditional artwork to off-the-charts artwork. It was amazing to watch that experience. The sad part of last year, and Bill's going to fix it for this year, is we called it at 3 o'clock because looming inclemency was coming, and all that chalk, well, some of that chalk washed off within an hour of the rain coming. So if you weren't there and you didn't get to see it, it wasn't there the next day. Bill said he'd fix that this year, and it's not going to rain for like a week and a half. everybody can see the beautiful artwork but it was certainly stunning to watch those artists take a box of chalk and create 18 amazing pictures on that concrete so a great day please come out please support the riverwalk foundation um it's just going to be another amazing thing registration is open if anybody's oh we're not online so it's 35 to be a chalk artist 50 for the day if you'd like to be a vendor okay question on that is there um is there something

would only last a temporary period of time just to preserve it for a moment? You would know better than me what I can think of now. I just didn't know if there was something that you guys had to do in the past. That way it doesn't get washed off within hours of .

So we'll look into that. Of course, do you have any suggestions from your background?

I mean, usually, even with a solid sealer, it's going to last at least a year before it starts to break down. If you go to a water-based, it'll still, it's more internal. We do need donations of white chalk and black chalk.

Because the colored chalk boxes that are bought don't have white and black, and white and black are the most required for detailing and highlighting. So if anybody wants to donate white or black chalk, those two items are still on the need list. Thank you.

Here you go.

it's very expensive now because it's kind of nostalgic so find something any other city council comments all right see none now at this time we're going to go into executive session uh regarding to discuss the purchase or lease of real estate property for the use of public body including meetings held FOR THE PURPOSE OF DISCUSSING WHETHER A PARTICULAR PARCEL SHOULD BE ACQUIRED.