City Council - Regular Meeting

order the regular meeting of the Elmer City Council for Tuesday, February 17, 2026. At this point, I'd ask that you all please rise and join me for the pledge of 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. Clerk Tamer, please call the role. Bram, here. Jensen, here. Tudo here. Baker here. Nuda here. Virgil here. Nardini here. Basto absent. Herby here. No, no,

I'm here. Oh, I didn't know. Right. Sorry. Sorry. Alderman Bastto. Bastito. No worries. She said here. Herby. Uh, here. Brennan here. Veris here. Bellinger here. Shenko here. Hill present. 14 present. zero absent.

14 present, zero absent. We have a quorum. We're moving on to item three, uh, which is the MMC Homes for a Changing Region report. Um, by way of background, back in January of 24, the Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus with the catchy acronym of MMC reached out to city staff regarding uh, open slots in their 2024 Homes for a Changing uh, region program. And this is a program that assists municipalities with housing plans to serve the needs of um multiple generations of residents. It doesn't have a fee and MMC staff provides technical assistance through housing needs assessment, discussion with local stakeholders, a panel of housing experts, community survey, and a final report which brings us to tonight. Um this program has partnered with over 65 suburban municipalities uh in our region since 2005. Uh in the Elmer's city strategic plan uh we have as a priority residential development and housing options more so within the long-term routine category. The goal is the goal is to identify ways to promote downsizing and empty neester housing options. And I think we've kind of talked a little bit even more generally about uh the the ability of the next generation to come into Elmherst. Uh so the project kicked off in June of 2025 with a meeting of the advisory group and uh a a community survey focus groups and an expert panel were conducted throughout the summer and last fall the fall of 2025. Um before we get into the actual program, um I do want to uh acknowledge uh the people who were on our

um advisory kickoff panel. Um people to thank uh that who worked with us.

All right. uh our alderman Chris Jensen uh alderman Guido Nardini and alder for Jennifer Ramos who are our DPZ committee, Rich Riker uh chair of the economic development commission, Kathy Jordan who chairs our senior commission, Susan Rose who chairs our planning commission, Marty Douter, former alderman and current Illinois State Representative and Bob Dunn who I see in the audience of audience a former alderman. Uh so that brings us to where we are tonight and uh we have uh Ben Schnelli and Nancy Ferurer from MMC who will be presenting the final report to us tonight. Uh this is a presentation. Uh after the presentation if there's some general questions that would be fine and the the as we always do in our council would be referred to our DPZ committee for further consideration, debate and then uh their report back to the full council. So, uh, Nancy, are you going to kick off or Ben? All right. And, uh, do we have a handheld microphone for them?

We got the podium. All right. Thank you, Ben. Go ahead. Thank you, Eileen, and thank you, Mayor Leven, for the introduction. Um, thank you to the entire city council for the time this evening. As the mayor said, my name is Ben Schnelli. I'm the manager of housing and community development initiatives for the Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus. And I'm joined this evening by Nancy Ferur. Nancy is the former mayor of Glen View. Um served as mayor when the Glenn was redeveloped from the Naval Air Station and Nancy is the senior adviser at the Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus. We're here to present the housing report that was developed for the city of Elmherst through the Homes for a Changing Region program. This will be about a 15- 16 minute presentation uh starting with a background on the program, our process here in Elmherst and overview of key housing uh needs and findings there. Most of the presentation tonight is focused on potential strategies for Elmherst to consider. I was going to say please feel free to interrupt me with questions at any point, but as the mayor said, I'm happy to answer your questions at the end as if that's preferred. Since 2007, the Homes for a Changing Region Housing Planning Program has worked with over 70 municipalities across the region to develop tailored strategies that address their local housing needs. This is a program that's provided by the Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus uh or MMC. We are a nonprofit membership organization that serves our region's 275 municipalities. It's also provided with support from Brick Partners, a consultant The program is financially supported by the Illinois Housing Development Authority, enabling us to provide the

service at no cost to municipalities. You can see a map of communities this program has worked with on the screen with communities in DuPage shown in green. I'll do a quick recap of the process since Mayor Leven covered much of the process already. With every community, our process is guided by two simple questions. First, uh what does this community see as its top housing needs? And second, how have other communities similar to yours successfully addressed some of these needs? For the first question here in Elmherst, we gathered input from an advisory group that first met in June, a community survey that received over 1600 responses, and four focus group meetings with local employers, realtors, schools, homebuilders, nonprofits, and the Senior Citizens Commission. I do want to uh quickly share our gratitude for the advisory group um that Mayor Leven listed off. Thank you for your time in June. Um, as we always say, data is important to understanding a community, but it only goes so far. We really appreciate your input, as well as the input of anyone who contributed to the survey or to focus groups as well. After focus groups, we pivoted to our expert panel. This is a meeting where we heard from municipal leaders and housing experts who offered their advice, their lessons learned, and that advice formed the potential strategies within this report. So this report begins by outlining three key housing needs synthesized from all of the community input that we received. Uh this slide is just a highle overview. There's a lot more data in detail in the report, but again I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone has. The first finding is that Elmherst seniors need more homes that are

physically accessible, smaller in size, and more affordable. Uh this is a very fast growing part of your community. It's up 30% or around 2,000 people since just 2013. In our community survey, one quarter of survey respondents who are aged 65 or older said their home will not meet their future needs, citing accessibility, the size of the home, and maintenance. A second key finding focuses on Elmharst renters and specifically um housing options that better match their income. Nearly half of Elmherst renters or about 1,500 households uh are housing cost burden, meaning they spend more than 30% of their monthly income on housing. As you know, Elmherst does have older apartments that are more affordable. But what we saw in the data and heard in community input is that rents in these buildings have uh risen quickly outpacing inflation over the past decade. The third key finding in this report uh focuses on firsttime home buyers having fewer options for them in Elmherst. The median home sale value or medium home sale price, excuse me, in Elhurst rose from about $300,000 in 2012 to over 600,000 in 2025, nearly 8% per year, largely due to low vacancy rates, rebuilds, and the general desiraability um of the community. And I will note in our community survey, 72% of respondents agreed that Elmherst needs more homes for first-time home buyers, making it the most agreed upon um need with the most consensus. Pivoting from there, in our expert panel meeting, we heard from four speakers who shared their lessons learned from implementing housing strategies in their

communities. And they also offered advice for how Elmharst can tailor these strategies to your own unique context, recognizing that there's no one-sizefits-all approach or no uh silver bullet. We heard from local leaders in Glenn, Ellen, and St. Charles about how their communities addressed affordability needs of renters and people with disabilities. Then we heard about a DuPage County initiative to preserve affordable starter homes and closed out by hearing from a leading architecture firm about how new housing construction can add smaller, more attainably priced homes. And that discussion along with the input that we received from the advisory group during that meeting uh form the basis of five potential strategies in this report. We always want to be clear that uh these are a menu of options, a buffet if you will uh for you as elected officials and community leaders to pursue as you see fit. Um I'll walk through these one by one. The first potential strategy is the most straightforward. It is to utilize and leverage resources that are already available from area nonprofits to help preserve housing in Elmherst that is already affordable. There are three substrategies to this first strategy regarding the older, more affordable apartment buildings. You can connect these properties to the community investment corporation. This is a nonprofit that's based in Chicago that also does work in the suburbs and they focus on the preservation of affordable rental housing. They offer below market rate financing and also free property management training. The second sub strategy is to work with

DuPage County on the community land trust that it's creating. A community land trust is a nonprofit that builds or acquires property using a mix of funding sources, then retains ownership of the land while selling the physical home to an incomequalified buyer. That helps uh preserve the affordability over the long term. Recognizing that in communities like Elmherst, the land value appreciating is a major factor. When the homeowner decides to sell, whether that's 5, 10, 20 years later, a resale formula allows that homeowner to gain some appreciation while still preserving the home's affordability for the next buyer. The seller does walk away with equity as well from paying down the mortgage. And there's an example of how this works in practice shown on page 17 of the report. This is one of the most coste effective housing programs that exists because one upfront subsidy ends up helping many households over time. The third substrate with strategy one is to point property owners to nonprofit programs that can help with home repair, accessibility, and energy efficiency improvements. Without going into great detail about what's shown on the screen and in a table in the report, there are a few important things to know about these resources. One is that they're available for both multif family and single family homes. Another is that several programs are geared towards helping seniors age in place safely to modify their homes. And the third is that the senior handyman program shown on the right side of the screen currently operates in the northwest suburbs but could be expanded

to Elmherst with local funding. Now why do I point that one out in particular? It's a bit unique. It focuses on smaller repairs and since it's a partnership with municipalities, it avoids any potential of a weight list that can come with larger programs. So with all five of these potential strategies, this report breaks them down into smaller, bite-sized, more actionable next steps. So here we see the city can engage DuPage County about its community land trust. DuPage County is in the early stages of this, but they have released an RFP to attract nonprofits to uh run the community land trust. The city can also reach out to the longer list of nonprofits that we just saw on the screen and create a communications plan to continually make residents and property owners aware of these resources. Potential strategy number two is to consider the creation of a housing commission. Now, this is certainly not a prerequisite or requirement to advance any of the strategies in this report. But we do note that the municipalities that do have a housing commission shown on the screen have found them helpful to give in-depth evaluation of potential housing strategies and if any are implemented monitoring and refining them over time recognizing that the housing market changes year to year and decade to decade. Here, Elmharst would first consider whether this commission is worth pursuing, then recruit a diverse group of participants with a range of perspectives and give them a specific work plan, potentially starting with this report. The third potential strategy in this

report is to explore missing middle housing which can provide smaller homes for seniors and the growing number of one and two person households. What is missing middle housing? Well, simply defined it refers to housecale buildings with multiple units. In a sense, the middle ground between single family homes and larger apartment buildings. This could be appealing in Elmherst uh because it fits well into existing neighborhoods and firstf flooror homes can be physically accessible for seniors looking to downsize. Another benefit of missing middle housing is that it generates homes that are more attainably priced mainly due to being smaller in square footage and you can see this illustrated in a few comparisons shown on the screen. We see a forplex in Lraange that looks not too different from a house in Elmherst and a sixplex in Chicago built around the same time as a town home in Elmherst with the main difference being the square footage per home.

Bless you.

Bless you. What we heard during the expert panel meeting is that there is no oneizefits-all approach to missing mental housing. Instead, it's always best to come up with a tailored approach to your own community, uh, your own residence and your own, uh, layout as a community. Being a builtout community, this looks different than a Greenfield community, for example. The speaker in our expert panel meeting suggested that rather than jumping straight into zoning and policy, starting with the people, asking uh yourself who needs this housing in our community and then translating that to what specific types of missing middle housing are best for them. Often missing middle housing is uh referred to as you know one type of housing when really there's multiple types of missing middle housing within that group. Um then you can consider what parts of your community are best suited for missing middle housing. As was discussed during the expert panel and detailed in the report. Uh some areas are better suited than others. In general, this housing is most successful when it's near public transportation and commercial areas. It's often used as a buffer between commercial areas and uh single family areas. Also want to note that there's room for nuance here. For example, larger missing middle housing types could be allowed on corner lots while focusing middle middle parts of the block on smaller types of missing middle housing. For helps with these steps, you can turn to a toolkit shown on the right side of the screen that was made for our region's municipalities on this topic. Uh, two years ago, 18 municipalities from across the region came to our organization wanting to learn more about missing middle housing. And this toolkit is the result of a

year's worth of work with them and the national expert on this subject. After these initial steps, Elmherst could consider what zoning approach makes sense for you as a community. There are examples of missing middle housing zoning districts you can turn to both within the region and nearby. It could also be beneficial to look at building codes. So, for example, Elmherst residential building code, which applies to single family homes, duplexes, and town homes, uh, currently prevents stacked duplexes, one duplex or one home on top of the other, which are an attractive type for home builders because they keep the same width as a single family home, work better on narrower lots, and they more closely resemble a single family home than side by side. So that is one example of how building codes could be explored if you see this as beneficial. The fourth potential strategy which looks at increasing the supply of affordable housing has two substrategies. A short-term step could be engaging a nonprofit or missiondriven developer to add housing that meets the affordability needs of local renters and people with disabilities. Several municipalities in the area such as Glenn Ellen, Neapville, and Woodridge have taken an active role by identifying sites and then issuing an RFP or an RFQ to attract developers. These developers use a federal tax credit to build housing that generally serves households earning up to 60% of the area median income, which you can see on the screen. This translates to incomes higher than one might assume.

next steps specific to this first substrategy. And number four, uh really focus on what we heard in the expert panel meeting from the experience and lessons learned from Glenn Ellen, which ultimately comes down to finding the right development partners who could leverage the financing expertise uh to create highquality affordable housing. That could be done through an RFP, RFQ, or other means to attract developers. And then the second next step that we heard from Glenn Ellen is identifying potential sites sites in the community and connecting these two components. Another tool to consider is an inclusionary housing ordinance which we heard about from the former mayor of St. Charles during the expert panel meeting. This is an ordinance that leverages the private market to add affordable homes and otherwise market rate developments. There are really two main parts to an inclusionary housing ordinance. On the affordability requirement side, this includes questions like what size of development does the ordinance apply to? Some municipalities it's buildings with more than five units and some it's buildings with more than 20. What percentage of homes in that building are expected to be affordable? Affordable at what income level? And if a developer chooses not to provide affordable homes, they're charged a fee. What should that fee amount be? On the cost offset side, because municipalities recognize that there is a cost to adding affordable homes rather than market rate homes and generally offer some incentives to offset that. Municipalities typically allow at least one extra extra market rate home to be

built for each affordable home that's built. They also generally offer fee waiverss specifically for the affordable homes built, not necessarily the market rate homes built, and also offer priority review. As you can imagine, each of these components needs to be carefully tailored to your local housing market and also adjusted over time. If Elmhurst is interested in an inclusionary housing ordinance, the first step would be to consider the process and timeline for drafting one. Who is responsible for carefully vetting this and how long do they have? Generally, what we hear from communities is this takes about 6 to 12 months, but of course that can vary. It can also be helpful to tour developments produced by these ordinances in St. Charles and other communities and working closely with these municipalities along with your local development community along the way. It's also helpful to consider how the community would be educated about this policy to make sure there's accurate information. To close us out, the fifth and final potential strategy in this report is to create a housing trust fund and increase demolition fees to support Elmherst housing efforts. A housing trust fund is a municipality controlled fund that holds dollars for housing related initiatives in Elmherst. It could be used for any number of uses depending on what your local priorities are. It could be used to add community land trust homes to preserve affordability in older apartments, build new mixed income housing, or help seniors with home repairs. In municipalities that have an inclusionary housing ordinance, when

developers choose to pay pay a fee instead of providing affordable homes, that money goes into a housing trust fund. Demolition fees or taxes are also another potential revenue source. Several municipalities in the region place demolition taxes or fees into their housing trust fund and often charge a rate of $10,000 or $15,000 per demolition shown on the screen with the rate of demolitions in Elmherst. This could generate a significant amount of funding on an annual basis. So the next steps for this potential strategy include considering what the priorities would be for such a fund, adopting an ordinance to codify guidelines and procedures, evaluating a modification to the existing demolition fee, and also encouraging DuPage County or local financial institutions to contribute or pair their resources with a local housing trust fund. You know, to close, I want to say thank you for the opportunity to work uh here in Elmherst. Um thank you to the advisory group that generously uh donated your time uh to advise us as we went. And I also want to say that the city really is doing a remarkable amount of work on housing already uh that we we learned from and we benefited from. So Nancy and I are available for questions now. And just as the Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus, we're also available for support moving forward, uh, answering any questions, whether that's days, weeks, months, years down the road. So, thank you.

Thanks, Ben. Um, let's open it up to some questions about the report. Alderman Brennan,

thank you. Uh, first off, sorry about uh my my watch noise from the the DIS. Clearly, I don't know how to operate the thing. Uh, I was trying to mute it. Um, so the community land trust, uh, h how do I get my head around the the volume or what what the size of that one-time subsidy, uh, would be? And, you know, I saw it later in the slide deck with respect to, you know, what comes first, the chicken or the egg, you know, the housing trust fund. And so the way you generate that, does that feed into that one-time subsidy or or how how do communities typically come up with that one-time subsidy? It's a great question, uh, Alderman Brennan. You know, some communities do pull directly from their housing trust fund to, uh, provide that onetime subsidy. Um, for example, Highland Park does that, Evston does that. Um, Northbrook um is in the process of starting that with their housing trust fund. Um, but that fund that local funding is also paired and leveraged with county and and state and federal funding as well. I I don't want to try to be too predictive about the case or potential use in Elmerst because ultimately that just comes down to DuPage County and and what their blend of local uh versus other funding would be.

Okay. Thank you, Alderman Nardini.

Uh thank you very much. Um this is coming to uh Chair Jensen's committee uh in a little bit. So I'm going to submit some questions in writing but I wanted to ask some questions from the dis now more for the public really than anything else. Uh I encourage everybody to read this. It's about 50 pages. It's written in layman's terms and I maybe it's just a nerd like me but it's it's really fascinating. It's a fascinating read. I'm thrilled to see uh Kathy Jordan, Susan Rose, and Bob Dunn here. Um, I have a couple of questions that I think people who live in Elmherst and uh care about staying in Elmherst would want to know. Um, from on high, describe to me the difference between the great town that has soaring property values and everybody makes money on owning a home. reconcile that with the very real need that we have to have affordable housing so that we don't tell seniors after they've raised their kids here, it's time to move out, it's time to go away. How do you reconcile the success of the market of home values with the endeavor to find more affordable housing?

Yeah, you know, thank you alderman for that. I might ask my colleague Nancer Nancy to give a first answer and then I could give a second answer if needed. I guess I have to bring this down a bit. Uh when you the the first part of your question, we know there are a number of communities around the region that have these soaring home prices and yet makes it really an important goal for them to have housing that's affordable for some of their seniors, for some of their workforce. The first one that everybody always thinks about is Highland Park because they were kind of one of the pioneers in doing this and I think everybody and they've been doing it for many years and their home prices certainly have not been hurt at all. If anything, they're going through the roof like like as here. Northbrook just started it and their home prices are doing it. St. Charles, we had the former mayor there who was I'm sorry all of you couldn't have heard him. He actually came in and talked about when he first got elected they were debating the first affordable project and he was a very skeptical about it and they did it right turned out to be a fabulous project. They have done many since and he got reelected several times and now he's even representing his community in the state house. So there's far more examples. I don't want to take too much time but I think the key to doing it is you have to do it right. it. If you're going to do it, which you should if you want, it needs to fit into where you're putting it. It can't stick out. You can drive through Highland Park, and I challenge any of you to find one of those affordable units there. And that's, I think, how you have to look at it. You can help people, but just do it right so it doesn't affect their neighbors. And I think that's probably one of the keys to doing it

successfully. Thanks, Thank you. I think that was well put. Not sure if I have anything to add. I'm sorry, Alderman Virgil was next.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Um, so I think the report does a really good job of sort of capturing the problem. Um, you know, we talk about uh, you know, kind of the scale of the, you know, housing shortage. you know, this does a good job, you know, capturing the needs for seniors, uh, you know, that want to downsize within the community or need more accessible housing. Um, you know, the renters who, you know, maybe they work in the community, uh, but are really challenged to to afford to, you know, continue to stay here. Um, first-time home buyers that are looking for a home, that's definitely a challenge here. Um, you know, there's very few houses like that that are around anymore. uh developers tend to snatch them up and they get uh you know torn down and then you know a much more expensive home gets built into place. What I am curious about um is you know looking at the different um potential solutions or options here recommendations um is there kind of a a hierarchy that you would potentially propose in here you know like you know these probably have different potentials to scale right so I'm kind of looking for a little bit of guidance on you know if we were to attack you know one or two of these where would we start what would be maybe the most effective

yeah that's a great question I'll invite NY's thoughts on this too, but the way we tried to specify it in the report was some strategies are more short short-term and easier to get off the ground um quickly while others just take some more consideration. So, you know, short-term strategies include number one, leveraging resources from area nonprofits. Um number five, creating a housing trust fund and increasing demolition fees. Um that can be done in a relatively short time compared to other strategies. Um, you know, number four is broken down into two different substrateies. Um, to the alderman's point about scalability, you know, the sub strategy A focusing on a specific site with a specific developer. Um, not necessarily scalable where having an inclusionary housing ordinance would be scalable um, if you anticipate more multif family development in decades to come. And then missing middle housing is sort of a a middle ground and it really just depends on um the priorities of the council and um you know the scale of the response that the council wants to see and also the complexity um and how much of it is a pilot approach. Um because what we lay out in the report is missing middle housing does take time to tailor an approach to your community. And so if you wanted to start small um you could and then refine strategies from there. So I I hope that answers your question a little bit. We didn't necessarily prioritize these one through five in terms of um what is most pressing um but tried to focus more on what is a short-term strategy that can be uh off the ground quickly. So

thank you Nancy. Um and again when the deep the deeper uh dive I guess we'll call it these days is going to happen in DPZ to ask those questions. So this is not supposed to be the end of it but the beginning. Nancy did you have something else? I would just add too if you decide to go to the the the root of um a housing commission that is a great place too where you can start talking about these issues and prior and having it prioritized by you know your own community because they can you know there's a lot of information out there on how to do it but I think it's up to this community to decide what you want and where you're where you want to focus first and put most of your energy because this is this, you know, these are strategies that can be from short to learn the long term.

All right. Thank you, Almanie. Thank you, mayor. Uh, I'll make it just real quick. Uh, right now we have a huge opportunity here in Elmherst with our zoning rewrite. Uh, we've been working on that what, two years, Alderman Jensen?

Five years. Five years. Um, so the question is, do we need to hold spots or is there an opportunity for your work and whatever strategy we deploy here from these potential strategies? Do we need to hold a placeholder in our zoning to allow these two to dovetail together or do they need to be completely bifurcated and and not connected? Does that question make sense? Yeah, you know, I think it's a good question. I I think similar to what Nancy just shared, it's up to you as a community to decide if this is something you try to fold in um or if this is something that is addressed on its own timeline.

Nardini,

thanks. And I promise the rest I'll put in writing and I'll shut up. My chair is already getting impatient with me, I'm sure. Um this is more again for the public than it is uh but I uh similar to my previous question. I am looking for um a metric to compare the following two things. Uh right now we charge about $2,400 for a tearown and Northbrook charges 10,000. Highland Park charges 15,000. Um, if we charged, for absurd devil's advocate argument, if we charged $30,000, we immediately have put a lot of money aside with which we can do great affordable housing things, and we have arguably destroyed development. We have queered the deal by charging too much for somebody who is looking to make money as a capitalist developing homes. How does one reconcile an affordable demolition that is, let's say, uh, in favor of development and a a rebuild with the desire to charge for that demolition so as to build up some reserves for these eventual affordable housing aims. Alderman Nardini, I think that's a good question. Um, and one that I would suggest speaking with the communities that have implemented these demolition taxes because they've surely asked themselves that same question. Um, you know, there are some considerations that could be given um to structuring the demolition tax or fee based on the uh home that is demolished or uh the home that is built afterwards. It would just make it more complicated where the demolition taxes that exist in Highland

Park and Northbrook, for example, are a little more straightforward. Alderman Hill. Thank you. It's a small question and I appreciate, by the way, all the I love census data. It's all throughout here. And I was looking at our demographics of Elmerhurst residents. Do do you happen to know the age range of firsttime home buyers? I mean, I have a guess, but I'm just curious if there's something better than a guess.

We don't have that on hand. Unfortunately, the Census Bureau doesn't capture that, but you know, occasionally realtors associations will have that information on hand for a municipality or a county. All right. Just wanted to know if you knew off the top of your head. Hate to put you on the spot. Thank you.

All right. I think we'll probably wrap this up because we have to move on. But I also want to thank our city planner, Eileen France, and uh Jessica Gal, our assistant city planner, who worked on this. Uh Molly um Arnold, our communications specialist, and Janet Crfeld who worked on it. Um and again, thank you both. Uh this is sort of the start of our path to evaluate this and it's been a took a while to get going but we're here and we're very much looking forward to getting into it. So thank you both for coming out this night. Thank you mayor.

All right. Um we'll go on to uh item four on our agenda which is receipt of written communications from the public. Is there anyone in the public that has a written communication that he or she would like to deliver to the council? If so, please raise your hand. Seeing none, we'll go on to public form. Clerk Tamer, has anyone signed up for public form? Nobody signed in, ma'am.

Right. Uh, is there anyone in the audience who would like to make public comment but did not have the opportunity to sign up for public forum? If so, please please raise your hand. Seeing none, we'll go on to the consent agenda. I'm sorry. Announcements. Are there any announcements from the dis clerk tamer?

Just have one. Um, the city of Elmherst Commission on Youth is currently seeking nominees for its 2026 exemplary youth service awards. Um, this is for students that live uh that reside in Elmerst or go to school in Elmerst Elementary School through high school, senior and high school, focused on individual or group achievement. Um the service would have taken place from February of 2025 till current and deadline is April 1st, 2026. Ceremony will be on April 22nd at Samberg. So uh nominations are open. You can go to the city website and find the nomination forms. Feel free to nominate, please. Thank you.

Thank you. Um all right. Um we'll go on to now the consent agenda and clerk Timmer, please read the consent agenda. Point of order, Mayor. Uh, I would like before we read the consent agenda that we remove 74 because it is not a valid referral under section 206. It says every referral will be required. Is that a possible? How about we read it and then you can pull it off. Thank you.

Okay. Go ahead. 7.1 minutes of the regular meeting of the Elmer City Council on February 2nd, 2026. 7.2 accounts payable fee February 17th, 2026. 2,26,7166. Appoint 7.3 appointment to the architectural and building commission. Shabir Sha Shanderbahai 7.4 referral events that require city services. 7.5 report Elmer's Running Club 4 on the 4th 2026 race 7.6 report spring road pet parade 7.7 report 2026 explore Elmer's trolley program 7.8 report professional engineering agreement for engineering plan review services 7.9 report York Street resurfacing and prairie path crossing improvements phase 1 design engineering services 7.10 10 report northwest Elmer Streets reconstruction project phase three construction engineering services 7.11 report northwest Elmherst roadway reconstruction construction bid 7.12 report rate adjust rate adjustment for refu and yard waste collection services 7.13 an ordinance granting a conditional use permit and associated variations for the reconstruction of a pyline sign on the property commonly known as 459 and 463 3 South Spring Road, Elmherst, Illinois 7.19. An ordinance to correct scrier's errors in MCO2 20226 entitled an ordinance amending section 7.2000 entitled water service charges adding section 7.205 entitled phosphorous fee and renumbering sub subsequent sections of article 4 entitled rates in charges of chapter 7 entitled water and sewers of the municipal code of ordinances of the city of Elmherst, Illinois. 7.15 an ordinance making an appropriation for special service area number six of the

city of Elmer's for fiscal year beginning January 1st 2026 and ending December 31st 2026 7.16 an ordinance making appropriation for special service area number 13 of the city of Elmpers for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2026 and ending December 31st 2026 7.17 a resolution approving and authorizing the execution of the Illinois Department of Transportation resolutions for maintenance under the Illinois Highway Code for the 2026 motor fuel tax appropriations for the general maintenance sections. 7.18 resolution approving and authorizing the execution of change order number two to the phase 2 engineering services agreement with CivilTech Engineering Inc. for the North York Road Sidewalk Improvement Project.

All right. Thank you, Clerk Tamer. Uh other than um 74, is there any other item that any alderman would like to remove from the consent agenda either for further discussion or to vote against? Alderman Bram 7.7 77. Any other items? Alman Tuda 7.3 73. Any other point of order, mayor, on the 7.4, before. Why was that excluded since you read it on the the I said I I'm including that. So you Okay, you I don't need to make that request at this point because you're already taking it. Thank you. I heard you.

All right. Uh is there a motion to approve the consent agenda minus items 7.3, 7.4, and 7.7. Alman Bram with a motion. Alman Bellinger with a second. Clerk Tamer. Bram I. Jensen. Hi. To. Baker. Hi Nuda. Hi Virgil. Hi Nardini. Hi Basto. I Herby. Hi Brennan. Hi Vimis. I Bellinger. I Shenko I Hill I 14 I's zero naz.

Sorry. 14 eyes zero naz. The consent agenda minus items 7.3 7.4 and 7.7 passes. Uh, Clerk Tamer, please read uh the appointment uh of U 7.3. Appointment to the architectural and building commission, Shabir Shanda Habi. I'm saying it wrong, I know. All right. Uh, I think we probably need a motion to put before we have discussion. Are you making a motion? Have a second. Motion by Alderman Tudo. Second by Alman Dera. Alman Tudo,

I just had a question. You know, typically when we have appointments to commissions, um the application um the commissioner application form is included in those appointments and it wasn't in this case. Um I'm happy to support the appointment. I just think that it's a best practice to do and include that in the future. Thank you. Um um I I think it's usually sent out two weeks ahead of time uh for consideration and I I think clerk will have sent that out. the the application part, but it's usually posted with board docs. It's like 5050. Yeah, I'm not logged in right now, so I can't tell you if it's under it's not I don't think it's under executive content, but

I don't know that. Um, we'll have to look at that because I I it's my understanding that we usually send them out in Alman, you have a point of order. Um, I see it in the executive content. It is. Oh, it is in the executive content. Yes. Okay. My apologies. I'm not signed in, so I apologize. Any other discussion on 73? All right. Clerk Tamer, please call the role. Bram, I. Jensen, hi. Tuluto. Hi. Baker. Hi. Nuda. Hi. Virgil. Hi. Nardini. Hi. Best. I Brennan. I Bellinger. I Shenko. I Hill. I.

14 eyes. Zero naz. 14 eyes's zero naz. 7.3 passes. Clerk Tam, Ple Tam, please read the referral on 74 events that require city services. All right. Can I have a motion to approve 74? Alman Brennan. Second, Alman Tudo. Alman uh Alman Herby, did you or did you want to go first? Yeah. Go ahead, Alman Brennan.

So, thank you, mayor. Um so this is a this referral is requesting uh that the appropriate committee to review a few things. Uh first off all events that require city services uh Elmer's police, fire, uh public works, etc. Associated costs for those services and historical pay payment expectations or patterns for those services. The objective of this referral is to establish a clear and consistent expectations for all future events. So given the objection of alderman, uh I would like to make a motion to add aleroman to alderman nardini to this referral as co-sponsors. Point of order. Yeah, you we cannot make that adjustment or amendment on the dis. The referral is already on the consent agenda and we cannot make an amendment to a referral at this point.

Well, I'm not sure that we can or we can. So, why don't we because I wasn't sure where you were going, but Alderman Herby had a point of order, I think. Is that correct? Uh, I think you've already ruled on that point of order. No, I haven't ruled on it. I just said we'll take it up under when it's called. Okay. and and so I'm going to ask to defer that if you will. There's no second yet, so I'm going to defer that and we'll you have a point of order.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Uh this is not a this is a process problem. Uh I have no problem with uh the chair's alderman Brennan's referral along with the mayor. Uh it's a great idea. the chair of public affairs and safety uh kind of does most of this naturally, but I think this will be more of a codification and some further a little bit deeper dive with this process and I respect that. Uh I always want to just just to your point of order and then we'll get into the substance the issue.

All right. So my point of order is this referral is not a legitimate referral because it does not comply with section 206 council rules of order section DD as in delta delta referral of master matters to committee in which it says I'll just read the first sentence every referral will be required ired to have at least two aldermatic proponents. Period. So I would like to make a motion to have No, that's your point of order. That's my point of order.

All right. With no action item. No, I don't think it's required. Um and I is the is this handout from you or from the city? That that's me.

All right. So, everyone has 206. Just so you can see where I'm looking. Um, for those who will recall, uh, there was up until I think it was Kevin Alderman York made the change where any alderman can make a referral. It was changed to re be two alderman. Uh, for as long as I've been here, the city manager can make a referral and the mayor can make a referral. and 20 uh if you put it on here 209 uh G which is the next section says that uh no regular special committee of the city council shall conduct meetings on any matter which has not been referred by the city council which would be under 206 the mayor or the city manager this is a referral by the mayor uh I don't know that I really needed it needed to be joined by alderman in Brennan, but it was you feel that power there. All right. Um, so the I will grant you this uh if it needs clarification. I will make a well someone will make a referral to clarify it. But I I've asked for an opinion uh of the city attorney if he agrees with the reading and he does. Uh so I'm going to overrule the point of order. Um that being said, uh as an attorney, I read it and it could be said better between sections 2.06 6 and 2.09G. Um, now if you would be and I don't and Alderman Bram brought up a question about whether a an additional referral

could be added at this point. Um, uh, I don't know why it couldn't because it's on the agenda, but if you're willing to let it go on the referral based on the point of order, then we can correct the procedural matters for the future uh, by amending 206 and 209. Alman Bram,

um, thank you. So I just want to go not back to the point of order but in regards to 206 David Delta Delta referrals of matters to committee and that's the heading of that section. Um I will tell you in all my years only until recently has any mayor done any referral and any city manager done a referral and that's relatively recently. 209 my interpretation and I understand that you Mr. mayor, the city manager, and per communications from uh both of you that the city attorney agrees with your interpretation, but 209 is not the definition of a referral of matters to committee. 206 DD specifically says referral of matters to committee. 209 in my opinion is just sloppy old code that shouldn't be in there because it should be referring to 206 delta delta which defines the referrals of matters to committee and as Alderman Herby has stated the first sentence is every referral will not shall but will be required to have at least two aldermanic proponents. It's definitive there. There's no question in that sentence. It's definitive that two aldermen need to be on any referral. I do object that making a motion to amend something that's already been si submitted. Um, yes, it's a referral, so it's a little bit of an unusual case, but it's been submitted. It's already been, I guess, quote unquote, approved, uh, by the city manager to what committee it goes to. um that it is inappropriate to do any type of modification at this time. Um maybe that's more of a point of order than a statement there in regards to my um objection to this overall. I also agree

with Alderman Herby that I think the referral itself is a good one and we should we're not going into the substance but well I wanted to just make sure that's clear. I have no objection to the referral,

right? But I'm just sticking on the point of order. I'm going to uh there was a motion to amend to add an two additional aldermen uh on the referral and to I'm going as the parliamentarian. I'm going to allow that uh if there's a second by alderman Shenko. So, the motion before the council. Uh, and I'm doing that because I I believe that based on the advice of the attorney, I could make the referral, but I don't really want to spend the evening debating this fine point, which can be cleaned up by an ordinance later. Uh, so we are now on the motion, which is to add uh, alderman Tudo and was the second one. to the uh as referers on 7.4. Any discussion? Alderman.

Uh thank you, mayor. Uh I'm going to uh reiterate briefly what Alderman Bram says is that the open meetings act. Uh this this was posted as is in 48 hours or prior. So we complied. um by trying to fix it. It has not been posted for 48 hours and I'm not sure how you're going to get around the open meetings act with the 48 hour requirement by on the DAS doing a swap.

Well, I'm going to get around it by anything that's before the council. We can move to amend uh the business of what is required to be posted for the open meetings act is this referral. Um there are many things that we post that are discussed on the action item of the council that can be amended. In fact, virtually everything could be amended. So if that's a point of order, I'm overruling it.

Yeah. Let me put a little fine sharp on my point of order is that that assumes that it's a valid legitimate referral when you make that point. My point is it's not a legitimate referral and therefore we need to treat it as such and and and come back another day and get this fixed. Haven't you already ruled on the point of order?

Yeah, I I've already ruled on that. Um, and we're on the motion uh on the substance of whether or not we should amend 7.4 to add the two additional aldermen as being adding on to the referral. All right. Uh, call the role on. So the question is shall alderman uh Tudo and Ardini and Arardini be added to the referral as having Mr. Mayor refers. Yes.

I just want to say you are correct. I totally agree with making a motion to amend anything on the consent agenda or outside the consent agenda, the agenda as a whole. But this is not amending the context of the referral itself. This is amending the people on the referral. That is totally different. That is totally separate. This I I plan to make a motion to amend at a later item. That is editing the actual content or the recommendation paragraph. This is making a motion to amend adding people in this case to a referral. I I I don't think those two are the same things and I would disagree with that.

All right. Call the role. Graham, no. Jensen, hi. Toudo. Hi. Baker. Hi. Nera. Hi. Virgil. Hi. Nardini. I Herby. No. Brennan. I Bellinger. I Hill. I 12 I's two nazs. 12 I's two nazs. The amendment passes on to the main motion which is the referral itself. Is there any discussion on the referral? Please call the role. Graham I

Jensen. Hi Tudo. Hi Baker. Hi Nuda. Hi Virgil. Hi Nardini. Hi Bastido. I no Brennan I I Bellinger I Shenko I Hill I 13 I's one nay

13 I's 1 N 7.4 passes 7.7 clerk Tammer please read the report. It is therefore the recommendation of the public affairs and safety committee that the city council approve the 2026 explore Elmer's trolley program proposal from Aries Charter transportation and the total amount not to exceed $79,810.50 and authorize the city attorney to prepare the necessary documents for city council approval. Signed, Alderman Michael Brennan, chair alderman Karen Shenko, vice chair, and alderman Brian Bellinger.

All right. Is there a motion to put uh 77 before the council? Alman Brandon with the motion. Alderman Shank with a second. Alderman Brandon.

Thank you, Mayor. So, uh, everybody's probably very familiar with with um with this program. Um, for for the sake of, you know, level setting everyone, I I want to share some some facts with you so you have those facts to make a a decision this evening. Um most of these are in the report but I I want to verbally u highlight a few. So total wrership for the summer and winter trolleys you know in 2025 uh was at 20,618 uh this is slightly down from 2024 uh which was 22,293 uh and on on par with 2023 at 20,928. And as as the committee looked at the the data, uh so much of the wrership is dependent upon weather. And so in some cases, you know, we we could see, you know, blips, you know, especially during the winter trolley, uh, etc. So, prior to 2023, uh, we didn't have the systems in place to actually, you know, track, you know, apples to apples. um we do have data but but it's less reliable data and so therefore we we didn't think it was fair to to compare uh the writership. So uh advertising factual uh last year was the first year uh the the city managed the advertising that's on the trolley. uh 24 ad slots were were sold and and you know that translates into $24,000 in net revenue and it's my understanding that this uh this revenue goes straight to the general fund. So the 2026 program that that we're we're proposing the the trolley is

proposed to operate uh in a slightly different format this year. So, when we look at the summer program, we're proposing June 5th to September uh 19th uh Fridays and Saturdays from 12 uh noon uh to 11:00 p.m. So, so basically, we chopped off and the data warranted this, by the way, we we chopped off the last hour uh of a 12-h hour uh trolley day if you looked at 2025. uh predominantly just because the wrership did decline in from that 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. uh slot. So eliminating that that 1 hour uh results in a a cost savings uh of $5,586. Uh we did recommend that during rock the block the data also showed that two trolleys are warranted as well as that that later time slot was productive dur during that event and it makes sense that rock the block goes till 10 10:30 and you know people you know needed that time slot that that took the trolley uh to uh to and it was leveraged. So that's the summer program, the fiveweek collie uh trolley um November 26th uh to December 6th. Um and what's different here, this is instead of Friday and Saturday, remember this is a Saturday only. uh we we had truncated an hour on the front end at 1 pm. Again, the data, you know, showed that that people were were not, you know, riding the trolley between noon and 1:00 p.m. And and we also truncated the back end.

Uh we saw similar the data would tell us that that would be a wise thing to do. So because uh eliminating 2 hours u of time slots that resulted in in roughly 100 I'm sorry 1,828 dollars you know for the entire program. Again it's only one day and um uh which is just that Saturday and it only runs for five weeks. So, so there's not as much cost savings there, but we we cut two hours out of the trolley there. Uh 2026 will also continue to bring the St. Patrick's Day and the Memorial Day parade. Uh there are no changes to to the six stops. And I I thought it was uh uh spectacular that Aries Charter Transportation, which is the vendor that provides the trolleys, uh uh there's no proposed service fee increase for 2020 uh from 2025. Uh and they're aware of our desire to reduce some of the hours and they will comply. Uh I think that the the general feeling is that if we're tweaking uh a few hours here or there uh they're they're amanable to that. Uh if we we do anything dramatic uh I think that that could be subject to negotiation. So during our meetings as you can see we we let the data sort of drive our decision- making. Uh so so we took a deep dive on an hourly basis across the summer and and winter programs uh that led us to these recommendations. Uh the guiding principle that that we uh took on was uh is there any opportunity to scale back the program to save money

without negatively impacting quality and effectiveness of the program. So um we aligned on the recommendations that are in the report and uh we also asked staff to to further uh uh our understanding or get a broader community uh feedback link in 2026 to help us guide uh guide in 2027. That said, staff did go out and get survey results uh at at the tail end of 2025 and the in summary here are the findings. Um you know one the first question was please indicate how familiar if at all you are with the explore Elmherst trolley. Uh 45% said famili said they are familiar and have have used it. 43% said familiar and have not used it. 12% unfamiliar. So I think there's good program awareness and you know uh decent usage with uh with the households that that were surveyed and I failed to cover that. So the survey was targeted a random sample of households across Elmherst uh and we got 488 uh residents to to respond to the survey. So that was the response to the first question. The second question was geared towards those individuals or those families that that have uh used the trolley. Um and how how would they rate their experience? So it's roughly 220 uh respondents to to this question. So 73 uh% found it excellent, 24% good, 2% fair, and 1% poor.

Um so so I think very strong u survey results uh with respect to the overall program. So I'll conclude here. So what we are discussing tonight a a very successful and and wellreceived program that serves both the community and increases commerce in three different pedestrian centric uh business districts. Aries is demonstrating incredible or incredible flexibility a as we look to evolve our summer and winter trolley programs. Uh with with our proposed reductions and areas frozen rates, the program is a little more than 20,000 $20,000 under the approved operational budget of $100,000. This does not factor in the $24,000 in revenue that that are generated from the advertising. Staff is committed to get additional community and business district uh input uh to help craft the direction of this program into the future. Uh every year seems like we have a good discussion on this topic. uh and uh I don't expect anything different this year. Uh when when it's all said and done, uh I'm asking for your support on this report. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Alman Bram. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um thank you, Chair Brennan, for that summary. And the report is very well written. A lot of good data in there. Uh the survey results, I'll touch on that first. Um the survey results to begin with to me is very small sampling. So I don't know how much weight I put into it. But with that said, if I add up the percentages that were stated by chair

Brennan moments ago, the 45% that are aware of it and have used it and the 43% sorry I'm looking at the numbers on my phone here. Um the 43% that are aware of it and have not used it. So essentially out of that 488 respondents, 88% of them are aware of the trolley. The data that kind of scares me is that if I add the 43% that are aware of it and have not used it and the 13% that are unfamiliar, that's the majority by a slight margin, but the majority of those respondents don't use it at all. Um, again, small sampling, so I'm not going to put too much weight on that, but I wanted to emphasize that according to our own survey results, it doesn't seem like the majority of our residents utilize uh the Holly TR the uh sorry, Elmherst trolley. Next thing I want to kind of touch on in regards to the trolley program is one of the areas that I do have concerns with and I looked at the table that was attached to the committee discussion. um labeled 2025 explore Elmerst trolley data and that is in regards the column that I have concern over is the holiday trolley average wrership by hour um which seems significantly small relative to the other columns to my surprise and Alderman Brennan just mentioned it so he obviously knew about it more so than I did coming into this meeting rock the block is literally rocking the block I mean not only in regards to the attend attendance of the event itself, but the utilization of the trolley is tremendous and totally agree with the the warrant or the need of adding a a second trolley

because the amount of average ridership by hour is incredible. We're talking triple digits where no other day utilizing the trolley ever come close to that. But with that said, going back to the holiday trolley, obviously the weather is usually not the best. So therefore that would impact the trolley ridership. Um so I have concern of continuing at least for this year that segment of the trolley program. Um, as everybody knows here, everybody in the city knows, we are trying to look for ways to find monies. And I know that a little bit doesn't mean that we're going to balance the budget or anything along those lines, but just looking at the data in regards to the holiday trolley program itself. So, the subset of the overall trolley program, I don't see it warrants moving forward um with that part of the program. Now, I attempted, Mr. Mayor, to write up a motion to amend. Um, but I honestly don't know the dollar amounts. Um, so I I I have a problem doing so. Uh, but my motion at this time is to remove the holiday trolley portion uh from the overall trolley program. So, um, Alderman Brennan, my understanding from what I have is that that would be $9,143.75.

I do have that noted, but as Alderman Brennan stated, right, they already reduced. So, so, so that's what that number is with the the subtracting out the savings. So, so what Alder Oh, may I? Sorry. I hope you do. Yeah. Okay. So, so I I have the price sheet right here in front of me. Well, I'm not sure your your motion is to remove the entire Holly trolley program. The holiday portion. That's the Holly trolley, is it? Yeah. All right. So, which would be a savings of approximately $9,000 plus or

minus. I don't know that we need the exact dollar amount um because I think we uh we could unless anyone's uncomfortable that it would take out whatever amount was attributed to the Holly trolley which is approximately $9,100.

The reason why I was trying to come to that number because the recommendation paragraph does state the dollar amount. So I was trying to make a modification to that recommendation paragraph. But if everybody is comfortable with utilizing the general terminology of the dollar amount related to the holiday or holly trolley part of the program, I'm fine with that. I think that's fair. All right. So, the motion is to remove the Holly trolley um budget, the Holly trolley portion of the of the trolley program and the associated budget. Correct.

All right. second. Alman Herby seconded

of course. Um, additional discussion. Alman Brennan. So, you know, one one of the things that that I'm sensitive to is that th this is a program that serves um our residents and even though that the numbers and and I'm I I want to make sure that everyone understands um the the volume here, I I wish I had a calculator or could do this on the fly, but if we were not to go forward with the the the the the winter trolley or the holiday trolley. Uh we we'd be talking about, you know, hundreds if not thousands of of people even though the volumes are down. These are individuals that are going to these business districts and doing something from a commerce perspective. A and so um I I think that will have a a negative for for a $9,000 savings. Uh, I think it potentially has an I don't anecdotally I got to believe that they're going downtown to do something. They're spending money. So, how that translates into to tax dollars, how it translates into the the successes of of our businesses in these districts, I can't tell you. Uh but I I do believe that there's something there wi-i which quite frankly is is why you know earlier today uh had discussion with with staff that that we need to get closer not only to the broader community with respect to the their point of view on this program but also the businesses in in these business districts. And so I I can't support the the motion. I

understand the reason it's being done, but but I'm not so sure that this wouldn't have a quite the, you know, quite the impact on some of of the businesses during this five weeks. Thank you. Thank you, Almana. Yeah, I'd also like to add to uh Alderman Brennan's point is it's also during the holiday season, people are going downtown and they are spending money. So, you got to put that into into account. Alderman Brennan then Alderman Virgil. Brennan Jensen. Oh, you're Jensen. We look very similar. Brennan, did you have something else? Then we'll go on to Alman Jensen. All right.

Um, I support the report as is. You know, I I think the Holly trolley is great and maybe Ryers ships a little bit lower, but when I've ridden there with my kids in the evening, you see Christmas lights, that's immeasurable in terms of the return you get on that investment to see the kids' faces light up going down all the streets and things like that. So, I support keeping this. I think it's a great asset to the community. And maybe the blend of ridership's different for the Holly trolley versus rock the block later in the the evening, but I think it's it's a great uh asset to our community to keep it as is. Alman Virgil,

so I like the trolley a lot. I've ridden it many times myself. Um the concern I have with it is I try to figure out, okay, you know, how much is it actually providing back to the city? Is it justifying it its cost? And I struggle with that. If I do the math on, you know, how much we spent in previous years for this, roughly in the neighborhood, uh, for the trolley itself, 80 to 90,000 by the number of riders, we're averaging roughly about $4, maybe slightly more per ride. um to do that. In order to actually get a return on that, th the those individual writers would have to be spending in order to get, you know, the 1% food and beverage tax or one and a half percent home rule sales tax, they'd have to be spending hundreds of dollars per person. And given that a lot of the writers are children, I just don't see that actually being uh the reality. So, in this case, um I do support the the motion to remove the Holly trolley. That's the the one that seems to have the lowest writership. Um, and it, you know, to what, uh, uh, Chairman Brennan said, you know, it can be, uh, sort of a an unpredictable time of year with the weather. So, given that, I I support the motion to remove this.

All right. Alman Hill, I'd be remiss I mean I haven't decided how I'm going to vote on this particular issue, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out as I heard some other people say that not all areas of the city can enjoy this access to the Holly trolley and trolley stops and services. Yes, it's conceivable that we could ask people to drive to other locations and then enjoy some of the trolley services, whether it's the holiday trolley or the trolley year round, but it isn't equitably distributed amongst its residents in terms of stops. So, I I always keep that in the back of my mind when I think about how does it serve the city. Um, Alman Irby,

thank you, Mayor. Uh, I think the key point for me is the budget that we're dealing with here is this comes from the transient hotel motel tax. If I'm wrong, please correct me. Uh, city manager or mayor. In the past, that's averaged about $450,000. And half of that transient hotel mode tax went to the city. a quarter of that went to the trolley and another quarter, I'm not sure, I can't remember. But that's how we allocated the trolley dollars. That's where the money came from. As far as I know, that hasn't changed. In our 2026 budget, that $450,000 has dropped to a drastic $150,000. If you take the 25%

ju just point of clarific what are you saying is dropped from 450 to 150 the hotel motel tax correct the transient tax hotel motel yes the hotel motel tax sure that's correct all right

uh so it if if if someone wants to correct me that that's not where the revenue came from for the trolley I'll stand corrected um and that's one of I've got two points so the the the budget it will not if that's true what I just said and the 150,000 is our new budget total for the hotel motel tax per the 2026 budget then we only have $37,500 of the 150 to spend on a trolley in total Holly trolley summer 16 uh rock the block uh two parade routes the total package uh of of uh 79,811. I'm not sure if that's adjusted with or without the report, but plus 15,000 marketing. We are over 57,000 on the budget pending this discussion of the Holly trolley. Number two on my point is wrership. The Holly trolley peaked in 2023

significantly. I'm sorry. Just because I want to make sure I'm following this. So, do you have a do you have a budget line that you're quoting to on this 450 to 150? Yeah, that's the uh the hotel motel. It's a revenue on the budget. Do do you know where that is in the budget?

Uh do not have that documented right here in front of me, Mr. Can I comment? Uh, I'm being told by our finance director that our hotel motel revenue this year in 2026 or budgeted at $490,000. I saw I guess I'll have to I'm positive what I saw, but uh it was the hotel tax and it's at 15 1515 or 155 where it was cuz that I don'treed that would be

so I'm worried about that. If if I'm right that I'm right that's fine. If if I'm wrong take point taken the back to the writership. So is it okay with you uh mayor if I go to the second point please?

Um so the winter hol the holly trolley during the winter uh you know has varied from 3 weeks to 6 weeks usually it averages five. We came out of co uh with the trolley that was the first program we did and it was a three Saturday event for that first year after co and then the next year it peaked very nicely. That was the largest peak of the winter holly trolley. If you use that as a baseline, okay, that's how high we've been and where we are now. It was the last Holly trolley. The writership was 38.8% 8% down, not weather adjusted because of the argument that's been put forward and it's valid is that the reason why the numbers are different is because of the weather. Well, it's really two things. It's how many events there are. Are we at a threew week model? Are we at a fiveweek model or we have a four-week model? We've had them all. So, you can do the averages. So, when I do a 38.8 8 not weather adjusted. That's on a per day average to compare apples to apples because we never want to apply never want to uh compare an apple to an orange up here. So that's an apple to an apple uh or a trolley to a trolley. Now once you do a weather adjustment to that standard peak year to the actual weather there was on those days highs and lows and the published average that number drops means goes down to 28.3% down weather adjusted. So my point is the weather or I mean the uh the holly trolley is having trouble no matter how much you want to spin it. uh you know the summer 16 weeks yes it's down uh 5.8% 8% year-over-year.

Uh 7.5. You can play with the numbers there, but the Holly trolley is having trouble. And so I would wholeheartedly want to uh if the budget of my 150,000 is completely wrong, then I don't need to kill the the whole uh the whole trolley system. But I don't have a problem at all knocking the winter holly trolley down with our ridership and we know we're having a budget problem. So, uh I I do appreciate the chairs whittling that down with the hours. Uh I think a more consistent approach would be to just go ahead and uh with with these numbers I just uh elaborated. Let's go ahead and knock the the Holly trolley off.

All right. Um I we I have verified with city manager just to be clear the the hotel motel tax has been increasing in every year. So I'm not sure what you were looking at but um thank you for the alderman Bram you say

I was just if I'm looking at the right line item in the 2026 budget on page 2-6 40 410 245 it really hasn't been increasing or no it has been you're you're correct. I'm I apologize. My eyes are getting blurry. So, it it has increased from 440 plus,000 in 2023 to a proposed in 2026 490,000. So, it hasn't been reducing uh according to your numbers, Alderman Irby. Well, I apologize for me um quoting any wrong numbers.

No need for an apology. Just to get the data clear, but the rest of your points have been taken and we'll move on with additional discussion. Alderman Tuludo. Then Alderman Nardini.

Um just on the revenue number that there is a possibility uh we did recently approve an increase to the hotel motel tax to help pay for the police station. I don't know if that $150,000 ties to that amount of the increase, but that's a possibility. Regardless, um I support the um report as written by the committee. Um, uh, I am well aware, as we all are, of the multi-million dollar problem we have in the general fund. And I think spending this much time talking about a $9,000 savings is either disingenuous because it's just a excuse for people that don't like the trolley program or it is fruitless because it does nothing to solve our problem. Thank you. Parliament Nardini.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, a couple of things. Um, one along the lines that, uh, Chair Tuluto just brought up, I think it's important for, uh, the public or whoever is watching this that the reason that this line item is being discussed is we have been talking about a deep dive and we are making an effort to make sure that we aren't missing any uh, opportunity to cut costs. We have put in front of committee the idea of changing already storm water projects. we are looking at everything. So, in that regard, uh I see us discussing this as valuable if long- winded. Um the uh other point I wanted to make about uh Alderman Virgil's point about a dollar per ride. I agree with that metric, but I think it misses a whole lot of intangible that the trolley represents. Um and also the side that coverage is only addressing the city's portion of the expense. It it doesn't really take in my opinion I think the value given to the uh business owners isn't really represented in that uh metric. Um I agree with alderman uh with chair too that uh while we should be examining everything. So this is a legitimate discussion. We do need to remember that we're talking about nine grand. Uh the referral as the report as written is cutting. We are proposing cutting more. Both of those are valid. These are small dollar amounts. Thank you.

All right. Is there any other discussion? Alderman Baker.

Thank you very much. I'm sorry to uh take some time with some feedback. Um I think as far as the motion goes I think it's uh presented in good faith. I think in looking at the numbers the holiday trolley average is 381 uh people writership per hour I'm sorry wrership poor per day uh as an average whereas on rock the block it's 945. The summer program average is 669. So it's far less on the holiday trolley as far as an average goes. I commend the committee for presenting some uh cuts on this. I know it's not millions of dollars, but we do have to be lean and mean wherever we can. I also think that as far as the cuts go, if you actually look at the numbers the committee considered, there is a dramatic difference between the hours of 3 and 10:00 and the other hours during the day, which are 12 to 2 and 10 and 11. the numbers really would seem to show that these people uh that use the trolley come down during the dinner time to spend time downtown at those hours. Unfortunately, holiday writership is affected by weather. That first week in December always seems to be uh very cold at Wilder Park uh when we light trees and so forth and um is definitely affected by that. But I do think this is uh adding on to what the committee has already done and hopefully uh saving us a little bit of money along the way that uh can be used in other ways uh that might be more popular than uh 45% of a limited area making use of the trolley. Bram then Alderman Brandon please.

Thank you. Um, I want to speak to the numbers as a whole first. As others have spoken to, it's either pretty much flat in regards to the overall trolley program. Alderman Nurby made statements that the holiday portion of the program has um decreased over time. Um, but you also have to remember who uses the trolley to get on is more than likely using the trolley to get off. So if you're talking the program is hitting in 2025 20,618 writership. So cut that in half because the same people who are getting on are more than likely getting off. So over the year of 2025 10,000 plus individuals in the city of Elmherst have used it. And my guess, my speculation would be the same individuals probably use it more than once a year, once a season for it. I think it's disingenuous to make any assumptions on what one alderman is doing or for what reason. Um I think by making a cut there is no criticism in regards to the committee's reduction of hours to save some dollars. The current uh motion on the table is to increase the cuts. There is discussions during the budget cycle to totally eliminate the program for this fiscal year. that was not done because there was concerns over some of the aldermen on the dis of not going line by line which in this case my perspective I think that's our duty to go line by line and do cuts as we need to. So as we sit here today we still don't have a balanced budget in the middle of February um even though we knew about the issue back during the budget cycle. So, I think it's legitimate to make any concerted effort, no matter how small,

because we're not going to solve this issue in one slice in any one area. Um, you know, some of the aldermen have concerns over reducing staffing here at city hall. I think everything's on the table, this included. And if we, you know, how do you boil Lake Michigan? One pot at a time. How do we solve our budget crisis? One pot at a time. and this is a piece of the puzzle and I think it's it's valid to consider. Um, no, it's not solving anything in regards to the budget, but it's it's heading in the right direction. And lastly, I'll say it's about sending a message. It's sending a message to our constituency saying that we're willing to do what we need to do to balance the budget, albeit small. We there's a referral currently in our committee talking about cutting or delaying or not doing storm water projects. storm water projects that directly impact home values not only in that area but across town. So we're seriously considering that but we we're fine in regards to going full boore in regards to my favorite phrase a nice to have program. So I hope that I have said enough in regards to the data um to encourage you to vote for the motion. Um, I will say there's a lot of speculation. If the trolley doesn't run during the holidays, will the businesses be hurt? That's speculation. I don't know. Nobody on the dis knows. That doesn't mean people won't go downtown or to any of the business districts, just like in the summertime if the trolley is or is not running. Will we see a a detriment to the businesses? Nobody knows. We don't have that data at least to support that one way or another which is something that in the future we should consider somehow getting data whatever give gift coupons 10% off some way to collect that data so we actually

can speak to it instead of speculate it. Thank you. Alman Brennan,

last comment. So, just um you know, in 2025 the the holiday trolley uh wrership was 20 uh 2,137. And I'll reiterate, you know, the approach that the committee has taken is a measured approach. I mean, Alderman Bram just said it. I mean, some data is just not readily available, but my gut tells me that uh out of those, you know, 2,137 writers last year, they spent some money in town and they find value in that. So, so, um, we've asked staff to continue to try to get better data for us so we can make decisions on the future. I I think without that data, I I cannot support doing away with the holiday trolley altogether. You know, for $9,000, I I just don't I I don't see the the value in taking that leap of faith. Uh so that's my last comment.

Alderman Vamus, you haven't spoken yet.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I keep raising my hand, but I'm the other direction. So, I just want to say from a business perspective, and I understand both sides of it, and I appreciate it, um, but when I think about other downtown areas and all the experiences and how that has evolved for the consumer over the last several years, you know, are people coming to Elmherst, even our residents, like, let me just go to one store, or are they looking for an overall experience? And I would say the answer is the experience. So when I look at this, when I think about the Holly trolley, and I will be honest, I've only ridden the trolley during the holiday season cuz I have family in town and I'm looking for something to do. Um, and that adds to it. I can get off in a business district. I can go to a restaurant. We can have, you know, an afterdinner drink. So, this adds to the ambiance of the downtown area, not oh well, we're going to go downtown Elmharst or Spring Road and see the lights. This is a whole package that adds to that. And it's not just the residents in our town, but other people can come in from other communities and they can also utilize that and spend money at restaurants and stores. And we have several new stores coming to the downtown area, retail stores um in the upcoming months. So, I support this trolley program. I support it for the holiday season. Um, I think we're on the right path with that. Um, and I think that when or I believe that when businesses come to town and when they are looking at where do I invest tens of thousands of dollars of my money into a community, they're looking at the overall picture and this adds to that. Thank you. All right, let's uh as chair, I'm going to encourage us to kind of I think people

know where we're going. So, Alderman Tudo and then Alderman Herby and see where we go. I just want to clarify a comment that was made earlier about a quote unquote not balanced budget uh in 2026. Um that is not true. We do have a balanced budget in 2026. I think it's important for the members of the public to understand that. Uh the way that we are doing that in 2026 is through the use of general fund reserves to help us balance our budget. What we are looking at as a full city council and in the finance committee currently is how to balance that budget on our operational basis moving forward in 2027 and beyond. Thank you,

Alderman. Thank you, Mayor. uh listening to Alderman Virgil's comment about how can we get our money back or what percentage we're at and then I coupled that with the wrership being doubled up meaning when you get on the bus get on the trolley and you get off the trolley it's 10,000 people right for the whole year and if you do it for whatever segment you want if you Alderman's Virgin Virgil's number of $3, it would be double that or $4. So if it's four, it would be eight per person because the writership, and correct me if I'm wrong if that's not correct, Alderman Virgil, would we double that number to try to come up with a a a tax I mean a sales number that would have to be rung up at a register to make it back to the coffers at any some percent?

Your numbers right here, Alman, I would like to respond to Alman Virgil.

Yes, please. Um, so my comment about the uh the cost per per ride was, you know, we in looking at the wrership data, um, you know, for 2025 there was roughly about 20,000 rides. Um, I think your point is probably accurate where, you know, it's really, you know, two rides per person, a ride in and a ride back. So yes, maybe it's roughly 10 10,000. It's hard to say because sometimes, you know, people may just be going one way, but we don't know. Um, but you're probably directionally correct, I think. Um, which would then mean, you know, the the amount uh of spend needed from uh those riders in in Elmherst in order to recoup would be even more. Thank you. So, just to conclude, if that if those numbers are accurate, if it's $8, that means each person who rides the trolley at 2.5% back to Elmherst or whoever, that's $320 ahead. So, let's just say they spent $10. Well, we haven't even broke three or 4% return on our investment. No matter how much you want to say it helps, if the if the registers aren't ringing, I don't really see how we can't argue to the point of Alderman Bram and uh thus us wanting to slowly whittle ourselves back uh you know, line by line and you know, every dollar counts. And when you add up 250 items or 500 items times $12,000, we just hit a million. So, I I'm really upset. I won't say upset. I'm I I'm saddened that we can't come up with some kind of budget cuts and keep going on this line by line. And I just don't see

us spending $320 ahead to to even get close to breaking this thing back. And I I'd say we're barely making two or three% back. So, with that, I'm going to be voting yes. Is that correct? We're voting yes to cut the Holly trolley in our current motion. We'll I I'll rephrase it in a minute. Alderman Jensen does have a short rhetorical question of what's our ROI on repaving streets and resurfacing streets as often as we do. We're researching that. Um thank you. All right. I if you didn't have a uh All right. I think we're getting to the point where Does anyone have anything else that they would want to add? I No, Mr. Mayor. Pardon me. No.

All right, then. Um, so let me state the motion. So, um, Alderman Bram's motion is to re further reduce the trolley budget by eliminating the Holly trolley program of about $9,100. Correct. Pardon me. An amendment.

Yeah, this is the amendment to the main motion. So, we're voting on the amendment. If you vote yes on this, you're voting to eliminate the Holly trolley program and reduce the that the trolley program by 90,100. If you vote no, we'll go back to the main report, which is the main report we'll call. All right, so roll call. Everyone understand? Roll call on the motion. Bram, I Jensen, no. Tudo, no. Baker. Hi. Nuda. No. Virgil. Hi. Nardini. No. Best. No. Herby. I

Brennan. No. Pereimis. No. Bellinger. No. Chenko. No. Hill. No. Four eyes. 10 nays.

Four eyes. 10 nazs. The amendment is defeated. We're on to the main motion which is to approve the report. Is there any additional discussion on the report? Alderman Hill. I, you know, listening to the comments tonight, I agree with some of what I've heard from, you know, Alderman Tudo um about, you know, looking at such small, you know, amounts and discussing this. And I guess, you know, my way of thinking with this, and I also agree with um Alvin Bram here, is that, you know, I do think that there is a problem to me with trying to have these nice to haves. I don't like that phrase. I don't like the a luxury service or a premier service or something like that, like the trolley going forward when we're trying to fix structural problems in the budget. Okay. I I I don't I I feel a little that's a little disingenuous that we're rolling ahead with one when we ask the residents to deal with a tax levy increase whether that increase is a long time coming or not. And so I think um I'm a little concerned with this sort of magic bullet philosophy that we're going to find, you know, one or two or three ways that are going to somehow help us fix these structural problems. I do believe that it's a lot of little things. Maybe not $9,000 things, but a lot of little things that we have to address.

Hill, we're on the report. Yes. We're not on the So, to that end Yes. Very good.

To that end, I would Thank you. I needed the segue. So, to that end, um I feel like we didn't go far enough in in how we talked about the trial. I feel like it's a program that could have been put on hiatus for a year, the whole program, until uh we addressed these structural problems. Uh, from what I hear, I don't think the tenor for doing a hiatus or doing something bigger to solve our problems is here. So, I um am just making a comment rather than arguing that we do that, that we vote down this report and uh put the trial on hiatus while we solve our budget issues first because I think those are far more important than a program that is a nice to have. So, that's my comment. Thank you,

Hill.

Alderman Bram. Thank you. Um, I agree with some of Alderman Hill's comments. Um, I thought my motion to amend was a compromise because I thought putting it on hiatus was actually the right direction to go this year. I as well didn't think, especially seeing the committee, right, unanimously signed the report that there was appetite uh for putting putting it on hiatus. So, I was trying to look for a way to uh chip away or save some dollars. Um, and I do like the nice to have uh phrase. Um, I I I actually have a second motion here in front of me that I'm not even going to make uh because there doesn't seem to be an appetite uh for$10,000, let alone an additional $5,000 cut to the budget. Um, but I I will not be supporting this report as written. Um because I do think it's bigger than just the trolley itself. I think it's like I said earlier about the message we're sending. Um so I cannot support even though I do like the trolley. I think it serves the city. I think it adds to the experience as Alderman Verimis has stated. Um but at this time I cannot support this report as written.

Thank you Alderman Irby.

Thank you mayor. Uh I too was willing to make a compromise with the Holly trolley and um if we cut the whole program, we'll save some more money. And it kind of takes makes that argument that uh another bigger line item and the wrership, the amount of people that get on that trolley and where they're getting on from. Uh, I argued when I first got on council that it was 20 21 22%. Uh, it got quoted at 20 I believe in the meeting notes. I still believe it's in that low range where people in wards two, wards three, w six, w seven are not participating because they are 12 to 15 blocks away from the closest stop. Um, and so I will be voting no on the main report to put the trolley on hiatus for the year until we get this thing figured out.

Orderman Nardini. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Briefly, I'm a little confused. The reason that we're discussing a hiatus is only because not that an amendment has been presented, but that a no vote would mean we would be cancelling the trolley in Yes. understood. Thank you. All right. Any discussion further? Bram. No. Jensen. Hi. Toudo. Hi. Baker. Hi. Nuda. Hi Virgil. Hi Nerdini. Hi Vasto. I Herby. No. Brennan. I Vereis. I Bellinger. I Shenko. I Hill.

No. Leven eyes. Three nays. 11 I's three ns. Three ns. 11 I's, three nays. The report passes.

That brings us on to item eight, reports and recommendations of elected officials. As part of my report, I would like to comment on item 7.7. I don't get to participate in debate. I rarely uh weigh in, but I will say from I want the public and the rest of the council to understand that um from the comments I've heard up here, a $9,000 cut against our $275 million budget or $125 million uh operating fund is like saying I lost my job. I make a h 100,000 a year. So when my son asks for a gumball, he can't have it because we got a cut somewhere. Uh it's very insignificant. Uh when we go through the budget, if we're looking at three, five, and $7,000 cuts, we're going to spend a whole lot of time like we did this evening with little impact. Everything is not dollars and cents. Um I don't go to the Christmas tree lighting. It's a complete waste to me. I get no benefit. Not everyone in town uses every service. We have a multitude of services and things that we do for the public that some people use and some people don't. It's the nice to have that make Elmherst Elmharst. And if we eliminate all those, it won't be Elmherst. It'll be and I won't name any town because another mayor may be watching. But that's why people want to come here to shop, to live, to go to school. That's what Elmerst is. So, um, we could eliminate I I got a plan for the budget. If we eliminate the turkey trot, the St. Patrick's Day parade because I I I have neighbors that don't go to that. They don't get any benefit. But those are the things that make Elmherst Elmherst. So, that's just my my opinion is that, you know, beautiful Saturday, my kids are grown. What what's the return on that? Um, Christmas tree lighting, I haven't attended that in three years. These are all things that

have a public benefit that improve our city. And as we look to the budget, um I hope that we will look to things that have some substantive change. Now, again, not for debate. I get my comment. That was it. Mayor's report. I do want to note that the referrals that are still pending have been posted. If you didn't see that, it's under my report. Um, I also want to note uh on some positive news that uh the S&P Global Ratings has assigned the city of Elmer's its highest possible long-term bond rating of AAA and affirm the city's existing general obligation bonds, also at AAA with a stable outlook. The rating applies to the city's million.2 two series 2026 general obligation bonds um which will be used to refinance the older city debt um and will fund the design and engineering work for the new police station. So I thank in particular finance chair and finance director for the time they put on that. It's the highest rating a city can receive from a credit uh agency and it makes us proud. Um, I also wanted to note that the city of Elmerst has identified a need for storm water improvements for the north Growy Woods subdivision. Um, this project will create conveyance improvements throughout through the construction of relief sewers to mitigate increased water flows. Alderman Hill has been advocating strongly for that. So, I know you will be there with your neighbors. The open house for that will be on Monday, February 23rd at city hall council chambers right here uh where prelim preliminary project information will be available and uh public review and comment will be taken. Uh it's an openhouse format so you can come anytime between 4 and 6 on February 23rd. City staff will be here. Um that is my report. City manager.

Thank you. One item tonight, mayor, and that's that the Elmherst Lions Club pizza party fundraiser is Saturday, February 28th from 5 to 7:00 p.m. at Samberg Middle School. Tickets will be available at the door. You can also go to elmharstlions.org for more details. Thank you, city manager. Uh, other business, is there any other business to be brought before the council this evening? Seeing none, I would ask for a motion to adjourn. Motion by Alderman Nardini, second by Alderman Tudo. Um, roll call. Bram. Oh, hold on. I was right for once. Sorry. Bram, I sorry, Jensen. Hi, Tuludo. Hi, Baker. Hi, Nuda.

Hi, Virgil. Hi, Erdini. I Brennan, I Bellinger. Hi, Shenko. I Hill I 14 I zero news. All right. Before we adjourn, what time is it there, Alderman Bastto? 9:14 a.m. All right. Enjoy your breakfast and thank you for joining us. We're ajourned. Oh, she's going to be