City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Monday, December 15th city council meeting. Clerk, please call the role. Alderwoman Baney here. Alderman Glab here. Alderman Dhy here. Alwoman Bassie here. Alderman Davis here. Alman Cook here. Alwoman Miller here. Thank you. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

First item on the agenda is a presentation by Hartland Realer um organization. They're going to have a presentation of a grant for a parking study. I'd like to have uh Jim Heisler go ahead and uh speak first and then afterwards we'd like to get a picture of all the council members coming up front and myself with them and take a picture. They have a check to present. So Jim, floor is yours.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council, for having us. Uh I am the CEO of the Heartland Realtor organization. We are not for-profit trade organization uh serving Mckenry County. So we are the local arm of the National Association Realtors and also work very closely with Illinois realtors. So, uh, in this case, we work closely with the three to, uh, secure a grant to be able to help offset the cost of the parking study. So, uh, very pleased to do that. We, my team here, so, uh, Neilie Ericson is a employee of Illinois Realtor. She's a government affairs director. And then Sandra Anker is, uh, our ARPA pack chair this year. I think it's the right one. Our ARP pack chairperson. So, we work together with the National Association Realtors to secure a $7,500 grant, which is the largest that we can get. um and able to help again offset that parking study and I'm a resident of Mckenry myself. So I live right in downtown so I I deal with it. My friends want to come over and we're looking for parking. I live right next to Steve practically. So uh very familiar with uh what's going on with downtown. We walk there a lot and appreciate all that's being done and all the the fantastic events you put on. But was there anything else I missed you want to say?

So thank you very much. I already handed the check over to staff. I did not hand it to a politician. Yeah. Good call. You just might. If we could get together and just take a photo, we'd like to uh use that for some publicity. Yep. Absolutely. Thank you.

All council members, if you come to the front, there's got it. for one.

Okay, you guys ready? All right. One, two, three. Merry Christmas.

Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, thank you to the H Heartland Realer Association for their check for the $7,500 towards the parking study. We greatly appreciate on behalf of the city, the city council, and the residents. We thank you very much. So, have a great night. Thanks, J. Thank you.

All right. Next item on the agenda is the public hearing portion of the meeting is for the 2025 property tax levy in the amount of $3,265,000. At this time, I open up for p the public hearing at 7:05 PM. Is there any public comment for the public hearing? See none. Closing the public hearing portion. I am looking for a motion to pass the 2025 property tax levy ordinance in the amount not to exceed $3,265,000. Alone Miller. I'll make the motion to pass the 2025 property levy ordinance in the amount not to exceed 3,265,000. Thank you. Second, Aldwin Bainy.

I'll second the motion. Thank you. Discussion by city council on this item. Aldwin Bassie. Thank you. This is not a vote on whether or not to fund NISRA, only how it will be funded. staff confirm NISRA funding is not under threat and the st city will continue funding its portion of NISRA even without the additional levy. NISRA is currently funded through the general fund and should continue to be funded through the general fund. Residents are tightening their household budgets and I do not support addition adding to their tax liability. Thank you. Thank you. Any other Glenn? Go ahead.

Yeah. Uh I'll tie it to the NISRA as far as the fact that I asked uh when we were discussing it as far as how many of our residents uh are affected by NISRA and uh I never did get an answer as far as uh you know are we getting our bang for our buck, you know, are they are we paying for others uh being taken care of or are we taking care of our residents? Never did get a an answer back on that. I believe staff is still working on that and getting that information. Bill, go ahead.

We talked about it that evening of the number of participants over the last 10 years that I provided that information that evening uh on a yearly basis and I went back at least almost 10 years that I was able to provide information of the number of residents on a yearly basis. Okay. All right. Any other comments by city council? All right. Clerk, please call the role. Aldderwoman Miller, yes. Alwoman Bainy, yes. Alderman Glad, no. Alman Dhy, yes. Alwoman Bassie, no. Alman Davis, yes. Alman Cook, yes. Thank you, council. Next item on the agenda is public comment. Is there anyone from the public that like to make a public comment at this time?

All right. See none. Moving on to consent agenda items 7A through 7E. Uh, I'm looking for a motion to approve 7 A through 7E at this time. Alman Dhy. I'll make a motion to approve item the consent agenda items 7A through 7E. Thank you. Second. Alderman Miller. I'll second that motion. Thank you. Discussion on these items by city council. See none. Clerk, please call the role. Alderman Dhy. Yes. Alwoman Miller. Yes. Alderman Cook. Yes. Alman Davis. Yes. Alwoman Bassie. Yes. Alman Glab. Yes. Alwoman Bainy. Yes.

Thank you, Council. Next item on the agenda is 8A, individual action item uh regarding land donation. I'm looking for a motion to authorize the mayor to execute a gifting agreement accepting the donation of approximately 94 acres of vacant land generally located west of W's Edge in Oak Drive from Chicago Title Land Trust Company. Land Trust number 1449 with beneficiaries being the estate of Thomas J. uh Oregon and Daniel B. light is substantially the same form as attached for the mayor and city clerk to sign all relevant documents relating there too. I am looking for a motion to approve. Aldwin Miller,

I'll make that motion to authorize mayor to execute the gifting agreement. Thank you. Second, Aldwin Bainy. I'll second the motion. Thank you. Discussion by the city council. I see none. Any public comment? Seeing none, clerk, please call the role. Alderwoman Miller, yes. Alderwoman Bainy, yes. Alman Glab, yes. Alman Dhy, yes. Alwoman Bassie, yes. Alman Davis, yes. Alman Cook, yes.

Thank you, council. Next item on the agenda is a discussion item. Uh, this discussion item is a development update from 3510 West Elm Street. Uh we have the developer along with their tiff consultant uh to discuss the property and uh whether to move forward or not. Uh the floor is yours sir if you want to come on up. If you could just hit that center button. There you go. You're live.

Hi everyone. Um reason we came today is to discuss the tie assistance for the property. Uh I know we were here a few a few months ago. We had this uh um discussion in hopes that we can do this project without without any assistance. Uh I don't think we can. We we tried to find some other solutions going through uh maybe try to condo the building or do some other things. Um I I don't think there's a way for us to do it without the tiff assistance. We are asking for what the property generates. We're not asking for any um anything else from the city. Um and I think uh that's uh more or less a high level what we're what we're asking. We have the this is Chris if consultant he can you know discuss details and you have uh all the numbers and everything that's needed.

Sure. Do you want to step up and just explain the generation of the of the tip?

Yeah absolutely. Um for the record my name is Christopher Stark with Johnson Research Group. I am a financial consultant who specializes in uh tax increment financing and other incentive programs. Um this project is a little um unique from a tiff standpoint in that uh there it is an existing tiff district that is through the majority of its life. You have recently done a tiff extension. Um the challenge that the this project has is it is currently underwater is the is the way we would speak about it from a tiff standpoint. The base EAV of the parcels when it was a successful bank building is uh $1.68 million. The current value of the property is $670,000. And so the challenge that we have in this unique case with the TIF district in its existing condition is that even though this project will bring the building's value back up to $1.7 million and to have that immediate benefit of increasing taxes, unfortunately what it does from an incentive standpoint is it makes us flat. So it will basically generate like an $11,000 a year as it currently stands. The proposal uh that was initially uh provided that I know staff has been reviewing it was for a upfront areawide tiff grant because there was no mechanism for the developer to generate the inpin increment as we would generally do on a project like this. Um, we have since had conversations that there are plans for an adjacent tiff district to possibly um, uh, do a DTI or retif.

Um today really we're just here to kind of answer any general questions you have about the project from a TIFF standpoint and um try to figure out from you know an advisory standpoint where the council currently stands um not only on kind of the tiff assistance in general but uh the form and and fashion of of its uh provision as far as what is the comfort of the various members of the council.

Thank you sir. Thank you. I appreciate that. So, at this time, I open up for uh questions uh for the developer or um their tip expert here. So, I'll go ahead and Any city council has any questions, comments? Alderman Cook, go ahead. Uh you as a contractor went in there and you looked at everything and what is this a second look at it because the building's underwater. You're trying to make up for the land being underwater and trying to improve it at the same time. Is this why you want three million?

So So I I think there are there's two separate um conversations that that we would have. The first is a conversation over the physical development ignoring anything with the tiff uh as as a the issue as I've described it in form of it being underwater. um the project as it when they went back and did their analysis. I know there was some adjustment of the unit count that adjusts kind of the the proform overtime and once those adjustments have been made it seemed as though some form of assistance is needed in order to get to a marketable uh rate of return that equity partners will actually invest in in this current environment. the underwater nature of the tiff pins in question. So the individual parcels is sort of a unique uh aspect of how tiff districts function in setting that base in the initial year. So in this case back in 2002 when it was established you have a functioning bank building and that value that base is set at that value going forward. you know, this is a situation where because it's a rehab project, you generally don't see a dramatic increase in the valuations above, you know, um above where that property started at is is the challenge. So, we have this we have this separate issue over the the ask and how we're asking for financial assistance, but just from a rate of return standpoint, once they went in and started doing a deeper dive on the numbers, you know, they they figured out that it just it you get to this point where it's below the cost of capital is effectively what happens. So, what you're telling me is is that when you say it's $600,000, you know,

I mean, might as well tell tear the building down and build a parking lot. The I mean, you're telling me the the value of the property. I'm not I'm not necessarily saying the value of the property from a sales standpoint. What I'm saying is from the standpoint of an assessment purposes, so an advalorum basis that they would value it at, they're currently valuing it at $670,000 and the postrehab value would be $1.7 million. Okay, thank you Miller.

Thank you. Um, thank you for coming. Uh, honestly, I'll I will tell you that I'm disappointed in the request. Um, on the original presentation, I believe someone here at council had asked, um, you're not asking for money, you won't be asking for money, and you're doing the project without asking for money. And that answer was yes. So, to me, it seems a little backdoor that now we're here and you're in front of us saying, "Well, we we finally did the math and it doesn't perform, so we need some assistance." Um, as a developer, I I think that's kind of put in the cart backwards. Um, so thank you for the request, but I will tell you that I'm not in support of the request just because I think it should have come before we looked at the plan and had an a better understanding of what your request would be. So, I just wanted to share my thoughts. Thank you.

Any other questions, comments by councel?

Aldo Bassie. Um, according to your EMA8's website, um, the company manages over $100 million in property assets. Um, this property is in fact located in a current tiff zone that expires in 2037. And again, as Alderwoman Miller said, it has been asked multiple times if you were going to need assistance. And every time, I believe the word you said was cooperation. Um, I think it would be inappropriate to give a $3 million tiff and it would set a bad precedent for future city projects and developers. I too will not be in favor of the 3 million tiff. But thank you for coming.

Thank you. Any other questions?

I kind of uh was thinking the same way as uh uh what was mentioned as far as a parking lot uh for $6 million uh or $3 million rather. We could could just about level it ourselves and and build a parking lot for that kind of money. Um, I wasn't in favor of apartments over there before. And, uh, be honest with you, I can't support tax dollars, uh, you know, for, uh, for this project. I just believe that uh number one uh rentals will not generate as much uh uh revenue as far as uh property taxes as uh uh owner owned the units would and uh therefore uh I I can't support it.

Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Alone Benny? Um, for the same reasons that were mentioned, I really loved the project and and I'm sorry that if this doesn't go through that it won't um it won't happen. But again, for the amount of money that's being requested, I think it's incredibly excessive and that there's so many other opportunities in our downtown area that I think that money would serve um far more individuals. So, thank you again for coming and I really did think it was a great project, but I don't think I can be in favor I know I cannot be in favor of this request.

Can I Not to interrupt the other members, um, one question that had been raised by staff was that idea of dtiffing and reting the project. If the project were put into a um, new tiff district and it were only drawing from its project pins rather than the area request as it's currently being kind of formulaically forced to be asked as. Does that change your feelings towards the project at all or does your feeling remain the same?

I think for the amount of money requested it wouldn't be. Plus, we're not in that place and I think we're a little bit away from finding out what we're going to be doing with TIFF districts. Um, if it fit and the request wasn't so large, I would certainly be open to hearing, you know, about it again, but at this point, I don't think I have enough information to really answer that question. Thank you. Do the others agree with that? Mhm. Alder Miller. Alder Alderwoman Chris Bassie. Yeah. Same. Oh, you agree with that? Yes. Okay. Alderman Dhy. Same. Okay. Alman Davis. Yes. Okay. All right. That kind of answers that. All right. Well, thank you for your time this evening. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Uh, next item on the agenda, staff reports. Um, any staff reports this evening besides Monty? I'm excited. I never can give a staff report. I don't yours. I don't really have a staff report. I have a staff question. So, right now, we have nothing to put on the agenda for the first meeting in January. We left it on the calendar, you know, in case we did. That way, we didn't have to add it. So, it's ready to go. But, we don't have anything to bring forward as of now. If we don't have anything to put on the agenda, are is council okay with us cancelling that first meeting? Um or do you want us to show

Yeah. So like we canceled it last year. We did the same thing last year. We had it on the on the calendar. We had nothing to bring forward. And I don't think anything is going to come forward because it's the end of the year. People are getting vacation time in and not that there's not anything going on because there's a lot going on here. But as far as bringing things forwards, do you if nothing else comes forward, no one's going to Okay. I I would be in favor of uh cancelling that meeting, although I'm guessing. Um I know we've canceled it in the past and there's a very good chance we're going to cancel it again, but I'd like to keep it on the calendar until a week before as a just in case. I I'm I'm sure we're going to cancel it, but I prefer just to keep it open.

Yep. I can wait till that like normal the Wednesday before the meeting and and then yeah, we'll make it official then. Thank you. Yep. I probably won't be in town to be honest with you, so I'll be I'll be absent either way. But uh but yeah, Alderman Glenn, I could think of a hundred different things we're going to bring up. Well, you're not. Okay, perfect. No, as long as I'm not here. I I agree is the fact that we should keep it on there as you know, as long as we can only because you never know if something comes up. Sure. Okay. Absolutely.

All right, everyone agree with that? We're good. Okay. Um All right. As far as uh mayor's report, uh I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Um hopefully 2026, uh we do some great things here in the city and uh uh once again, I want to thank all of you for your service and all the staff members and everyone else in the city um for believing in us and trusting us to do our jobs. So uh yeah, so merry Christmas everyone. Happy New Year and uh All right. And city council comments, anything? Okay. Alderone Alderwoman Baney. Go ahead.

I have a couple thank yous. Um the complaints about the leaves keep rolling in, but I want to thank Monty and um Russ for putting together and doing some research on contracts and what we signed and that sort of thing so that we could at least put the issue to rest and let people know it just kind of is what it is. So, thank you. And I'm sorry that Chief Burke's not here tonight, but I wanted to um just share a little incident that happened and commend our police department about maybe it was a month ago before all the snow hit. I was outside in my sideyard doing some yard work and I heard this beeping at my neighbor's house and it went on for quite a while and I knew they were out of the country. So I went over to check it out and it seemed like it sounded like an alarm coming from their kitchen. I happened to be going out that night. So I called the non-emergency number just to say, "Hey, I would watch it. It sounds like a fire alarm, but there's nothing happening. There's no smoke, there's no, you know, smells, there's no nothing. But I just, you know, if I'm not at home, I just feel bad. So, they sent out everybody, fire trucks, police, the whole deal. Um, which made me feel really bad cuz all the neighbors were outside. What's going on? But that night, one of the officers somehow found the phone number of my neighbor because I didn't have it. called him seven times in Costa Rica until he picked up the phone and told them that there had been an alarm. At this point, the fire department had looked through all the windows. They didn't see anything either. He sent over a friend. Now, this house is pretty old. It was the Knox home. Um, and in the main part of their home, they had a water pipe burst and the house was just filling full of water. It had gone through the HVAC, put off the um, and so it was a CO2 alarm going off. But had they not done that and had he not tried so hard, they were gone for another two weeks before they were able to get home. But a friend had been able to come shut off the water. So that was just really going above and beyond. And when they got home, they came running over to say, "Bobby, you saved my house." But really, it was the police officer who found his phone number and called until he got them. So big thanks. They were really

grateful and now their uh rehab is much minimized. They said they'd have lost the whole house. So, just wanted to share. Awesome. Thank you. Any other city council comments? Alden Miller? I just want to thank um the city staff for the employee lunchon last week. I thought they pulled it off very nicely and it seemed to be enjoyed by all. So, thank you very much, Monty and Nicole, and everyone who puts in the extra effort to make that happen. Thank you. Any other city council comments? Hold on, Bassing. Just merry Christmas to everyone and I hope everyone is safe. All right. Looking for a motion to adjurnn. Alderoman Benny. I'll make the motion to adjurnn.

Thank you. Second by alderman Glab. That's fine. Clerk, please call the role. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. Thank you. Merry Christmas.