City Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. This is the pre council for the City Of Joliet meeting in Council Chambers today. It's on 04/20/2026 at 05:30. Mic's not working? My seat's broken.

Mic's not mic on.

Okay. There we go.

There you go.

Sabotage or April fools still. Okay.

Do you want me to

repeat it?

Oh, I think we're good.

Here you go.

Okay. We'll begin with roll call. Mayor Darcy? Here. Councilman Cardenas is absent. He did let me know that he would not be in attendance attendance this evening. Councilman Clement? Here. Councilman Hug? Here. Councilwoman Navarro? Here. Councilman Moreno? Here. Councilman Mudrin? Here. Councilwoman Clemon? Here. Councilwoman Reardon? Here. First, we have a presentation. Q four twenty twenty five and q one twenty twenty six water conservation incentive program winners and intro for q two twenty twenty six program presented by Swisher, director of public utilities.

Mayor and council, just here tonight to give an update on our exciting water conservation incentive program. So in q four twenty twenty five, we had a incentive where residents were asked to test their toilets to see if they were leaking. Leaking toilets are a major source of wasted water. And so we had residents participate, and the winner for that was Carmen Figueroa, who did this here today? Not yet.

Okay. Then in the q one twenty twenty six, we had another challenge to our residents, which was to do a winter water checklist to make sure they didn't have issues that could affect in winter with freezing pipes and those kind of things. So the winner was Lou Ann McBride, I believe is here today. And so we have our new challenge for our incentive program, which is to look at outdoor water conservation. I know there's many ways to conserve water outdoors.

One is a, you know, rain barrel or other flow flow fixtures for your watering when you're watering your landscaping. So that's our adult challenge. We also have a really cool kids challenge, which is we have made a 12 different baseball cards, each with a water conservation tip on it. And so we're asking kids to go around to different events this year and collect all of those baseball cards. And then once they get all of them, they can enter to win. So really encouraging everyone in a fun way to think about water conservation because that ultimately can lead to saving money on your water bill. And so we have a bunch

of events coming up. We are participating in various events. We always want to say we need

to take the message to the people where they are, and so we go to a handful of And also, we're partnering again with Will County for our water conservation baseball game with the Joliet Slammers on July 7. So it's a really fun event to help educate residents about water conservation. And just always a reminder that we do have our two city supported water conservation programs, our rain barrel program, where we provide a subsidy of $35 to residents and water customers. To date, we've almost 896 brain barrels have been distributed. So that's great that everyone's participating in this.

And we also have our toilet, low flow toilet rebate program for folks who have the high volume flush toilets. You can replace those with a low volume toilet and get a rebate of $100 for that. So just want to thank Anne Grooms for all her hard work on putting together these fun water conservation programs. And we'd like to recognize our winner now. We have a gift card, and we'd like to take a photo with counsel.

Congratulations.

Okay. Next is citizens to be heard on agenda items. So I have two people signed up, we'll start there. Bob Wunderlich.

Thank you, city council and mayor. Most of you know me, Bob Wunderlich, Campbell Street, Joliet. I am here to talk about the revised PUD for JJC. I've got a couple of notes. I don't know if I can read my own handwriting.

As most of you know, I was on the JJC board for forty four years, most of them as chairman. Years ago, I think it was 2001, when JJC built the Centennial Commons housing, which JJC couldn't do it, but the foundation did on JJC land. For some reason, there was some stipulation in the law that we could not have student housing ourself. So we partnered with the foundation to get students to come into JJC, because Lewis had housing. St.

Francis had housing. We wanted to bring our students in, Of course, being the oldest community college in The United States, it just seemed right. At the time, we had to pull teeth with our former city manager, John Mezera, who was not near as good looking as Beth. But anyway, we got it got it done. And the PUD, and and Mezra said, the only reason I'm going to give you the zoning to do this is a PUD that says, only students, students, family, or people that work at JJC will be allowed to live there.

It's been violated already, which I know, but that's beside the point. And at this time, I just I just wanna say that I am against changing the PUD to open it up to anybody else because we don't know who's gonna be living there. At least if it's students and students' families and people that work there. It's could the the people that live around there in the subdivisions, they know what's going on right now with JJC, and they know that it's supposed to be student housing. They might be a little disturbed if it gets opened up to anybody who just wants to live there.

And thank you very much for your time.

Jim Rolfe.

Good evening, mister mayor, council, manager Beth. I wanted to speak about item two eighteen dash 26 which is going to provide a liquor license B and M for the Barbara Oberwortman Horticultural Center in Pilcher Park. This is a great opportunity to lift up the utilization of a tremendous facility that's in Pilcher Park. Let me perhaps remind some of you and inform others that Mr. Andrew Barber and Mr.

Clarence Oberwertman founded the Union National Bank and Trust Company of Joliet in 1940, and converted it into First Midwest Bank in approximately 1983. I was office between those two gentlemen when Ron Dowd from the Park District came to speak with Mr. Barber about contributing some form of dollar amount to help support the construction of the facility. And Mr. Barber looked at Mr.

Dowd and said, excuse me, I want to get Mr. Oberwertman in here, because I heard the whole discussion. And Mr. Barber said, Obi, this is important to our community and will be a long term enhancement at Pilcher Park. And while they want us to contribute something, he said to Mr.

Dowdy, he said, Ron, how much will this be? And he said, it will be approximately $2,000,000 at that time. And the two gentlemen looked at each other and said, we will do it. That's the kind of commitment many people have made to our community on a regular basis. And it's not always known.

I mean, people know the building is there. They don't think about Barbara and Oberwertman as being the generous supporters of the facility. And it is a great facility that can be more highly utilized for a lot of different types of events right in Pilcher Park, right adjacent to the greenhouse. And the greenhouse happens to have Shirley Oberwertman's name on it as well. Because she said, well, I'm not going let those two guys do everything.

So she put her name on that. And those two facilities are so important in Pilcher Park that this will just be a great enhancement to it. I don't think it's controversial at all, but I thought the historic note was very important to mention tonight. Because that's the kind of people we have in Joliet that support causes, many different causes, with whether it's time or financial resource. When there's cause is something that they're gonna ask for, they stand up and support it.

So I just wanted to bring that to your attention tonight as you consider this particular item. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. That is everyone I have signed up. So is there anyone else who would like to speak on an agenda item this evening?

Hello, council. My name is the owner of InnerNode Greenery and Home located in Downtown Joliet. So as you all well know, Downtown Joliet businesses have struggled for the last few years. I feel that I've had about two, two and a half years of struggle because the construction did start directly outside of my shop. What hat that has made me do is look hard at my business model and realize that it's not working right now. So what do we do? We change and we grow with the times. So on your agenda tonight is a liquor license that we have applied for. What that liquor license will do will allow us to have our new business model, which is an artisan bodega. What does that mean?

That means you can come in and you can grab some cheese, some meat, a bottle of wine, maybe a seltzer, go home, have a nice meal, a girl dinner as I call it, and not have to go all the way to the West Side and stop at a big box grocery store. You can stop and find something small, and still we can fulfill your needs. This is also going to allow us to participate in events at the New City Square that I feel will be a game changer for us. So I would ask you to please think about and also to agree to allow us to have a liquor license because it is our last chance effort in staying in Downtown Joliet. Thank

you. Is

there anyone else who would like to speak on an agenda item this evening? Okay. Seeing none, next we will have the city manager review tomorrow night's actionable items.

Thank you, Lauren. Tomorrow we'll hear from the finance committee, legislative committee, public assets, and public service. On the consent agenda, council memo two ten twenty six, award a contract for vehicle lift equipment purchase and installation to NAPA Auto Parts in an amount not to exceed $550,000. Council memo two eleven twenty six, award of contract for the 9 Osgoode Street floor resurfacing to Integrity Concrete Coatings in the amount of $84,913.2 Council memo two twelve twenty six approval of amendment number three for the phase two engineering services for the Fail Road over Spring Creek Bridge improvement project to Hutchinson Engineering in the amount of $15,000. Council memo two thirteen twenty six approved the purchase of body armor vests for SOS and from First Spear in the amount of $54,616.25.

Council memo two fourteen twenty six purchased for fire station one of cabinets from Riverton Cabinet Company in the amount of $35,194 and the installation of cabinets for Fire Station 1 from Heinz Construction Incorporated in the amount of $32,450 for a total amount of $67,644 We did budget for this, and it was approved for the 2026 budget. So we're bringing it back before you for approval. Council memo two fifteen twenty six, a word of professional services, purchase and installation of the Joliet Slammers fire suppression pipe replacement to AMS Industries Inc in the amount of a $186,770 So this is a part of a three year old capital improvement plan. We are continuing replacement of the fire suppression system throughout the stadium. Council memo 02/1626, water contracts for grass cutting on vacant city lots to Summit Lawn Care in the amount of $38,970 and to Culpepper Lawn Works in the amount of $17,535 The city owns a number of vacant lots that were acquired over time through various means, including prior administrative purposes and other property transfers.

Neighborhood Services is in control of 162 lots and for many years has contracted with external vendors to provide routine, grass cutting, and general lot maintenance services. Moving on to license and permit applications. Council memo 218.26, issuance of a Class B and Class M liquor license at 227 North Gallagher Road, Barber Wortman Horticultural Center, Venue 98.

Question? How

is this different from what they're doing today?

So what they're doing today is and I don't know if we have a representative here. But I think your catering company used to get the liquor license. And now they would like to get the liquor license themselves.

So they obviously, lots of us have been

there for other things, and they've had liquor at everything I've been at.

Yeah. So I'll let

I'm sorry. Hear what you said.

So we're just, I was just asking, what are you doing today that this will be different and more advantageous to you, for you?

So prior to the remodel, the caterer was the one that had the liquor license, not the Joliet Park District. So we just kind of it was a turnkey kind of situation. They rented the space from us and they kind of took control of everything. Now I would be the event manager for the Barbara Oberwoman Horticulture Center dash venue ID. So I would be in charge of selling the bar packages, the wedding packages, the venue itself, and then we have a private caterer that would just come in and do the cooking itself.

So do I park district who will be taking more control over the whole operation?

Yes.

Since the remodel.

Mhmm.

Is it opened yet since the remodel? Not yet. We're working on an occupancy. So probably another month, I would say, and then we should be opened.

Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor? Mhmm. Question. Were they So will this give more revenue to the Park District? Yes. From the current, right?

Yes.

Okay. What is a Class M liquor license? It's not on the list. Can you give me a clarification? It's not on the list. All the other

It's really hard. M stands for music. So it's just for audible music. Bands, entertainment, DJs.

Like we do when we have a beer garden. Correct.

Same thing. It's just an M license. So it allows them to have music in the area.

So there's

no neighbors around there, but everybody has

Okay. I was just looking because because on the list of all the licenses

It's not there. M's not there? Okay.

Now we're gonna add it, aren't we?

Something to do tomorrow.

Alright. Thanks. Mayor. Mister

mayor. Yeah. Mean, we're all aware they have liquor license throughout the city, and they've never had any issues. So I don't see this being a problem. Thanks.

Alright. Thank you.

Council memo 21926, issuance of a class e liquor license at 81 North Chicago Street, Greenery And Home. Council memo two sure. Yeah.

Yeah. We're we're doing class e, which is hotel.

Yeah. I had the same question. Oh, can you address this for the council?

Hotel. She originally wanted an a. We do not offer a's anymore. She's not really a bar, so it's kinda like an on premise because she has she'll have a patio out there. But in the state of Illinois right now, because of COVID anywhere, I think it goes until 2028 or 2029, if I'm not mistaken, you're allowed to take packaged liquor out as long as it's in a sealed container. So she would be able to take a four pack or six pack of beer or seltzer or a bottle of wine out of there. But with her thing that she would be able to get a class o with this as well and still sit outside and enjoy the downtown. So we'll give her best of both. We don't hand out a's anymore. Those are kinda gone by the wayside. Those are our back in the day license. And we handed out those we've taken from some people as well. So it's not a thing.

And what type of liquor would that be?

She can have any liquor she'd like, but generally what she's doing her thing would be beer and wine and seltzer only.

Because I thought we had didn't we we're working on or did we ever finish? Back when we had some people came with, like, hobby stores that wanted to have wine and beer. Mhmm. Didn't we put together a special item?

I think we did, but I this wouldn't fall under that, Carrie. This would be a little bit different too. It's little bit gray. It's almost like it's a bodega situation, which I've worked in different restaurants. There's places in Detroit where they literally it's all one. So it's almost like a bar, coffee shop, and then grocery store all into one place, and we really don't she would be the first one in town. So we could give her this then and reach back and get so she'd get doing her thing, reach back and do a different license for her as well if we feel like we need

to Down the road?

Yeah.

This is kind of a beta test. Yeah. Mhmm. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Cool.

So this would be then in the new downtown city center opportunity to bring a beverage with you?

There is talk of that. Yes. You would have to have a full food license and an open kitchen we're talking about doing that for. But there would be a beer garden license there. So should we be able to have a beer garden with ADA approval and all that stuff and fencing, which we're working on right now, so she would be able to be a part of that and have an outdoor license as well. So it's a little bit different downtown. It's actually called a cafe license because it's on city property, so the rules are gonna be much different than someone that would be, say, on the West Side, where they would be on private property. So it's a little bit different. We're working with legal right now to write up a bunch of different things because there's more scenarios in that way because they're beyond Joliet property and not on their own property.

You. Mayor, can I say something really quick? I just want to let everybody know, just for the record, that I definitely support that. She was recruited to come here from another municipality. We're so much greater than that other municipality. Now I'm probably gonna get us sued. But she's

been

on the struggle bus for two and a half years. And so this is gonna help her business. Like, they live in Joliet. Their kids went to school in Joliet. They were like, lifers here. We should do our part too in support this. Thank you.

Mayor, just a follow-up. So but this what we would be granting this business does not give any right to go on city property with a liver. This is just on her own property, a private property.

Right. But there is a cafe license that we're working on as well. This is just a regular liquor license, nothing else.

They're just a

private And there's a no hauler thing that you're not talking about now, and we'll talk about it later.

Okay. Thank you. Correct.

Yes. I'm going ask one more question. If we bring the food element to it, then are they going to be eligible to be part of the social area downtown? Is that what we're talking about where they can bring one glass that's dated and tied?

If they have

a full kitchen, yes. That would be yes. Would be yes. The glass everything is being in the works. We're kinda getting ahead of ourselves, but yes, all of that is in the works right now. Okay. So if that is the case, you would be part

of it.

Yes. Okay. You.

Thank you. Thank

Council memo 22026, issuance of class b liquor license at 3147 West Jefferson Street, the Prime House. It's a breakfast place that's right next to La Mex. Council memo two twenty one twenty six, issuance of class e liquor license at 101 McDonald Avenue, Wingate by Wyndham Joliet. Council memo two twenty two twenty six, issuance of a class b liquor license at 16329 South Boulevard Place, Longhorn Longhorn Steakhouse is coming.

Question, mayor. Mhmm. I wanna jump back, Beth.

Yeah.

Pine House, did you say it's a breakfast place?

Yeah.

Why do they need a full liquor license?

For mimosas and Bloody Marys. Okay. Do you have is that what it is, Oak?

Bloody Marys, mimosas.

Bloody Marys, mimosas. And they're actually gonna go to dinner as well, I believe, eventually. I've been in there and met with them a couple times. It's stinking gorgeous in there, be honest with you. Everything in there is beautiful. It's a really cool looking place.

Thank you. Thank you.

Moving on to ordinances and resolutions council memo two twenty four twenty six ordinance approving the preliminary planned unit development of New Stoneshire Phase 2. Council memo two twenty five twenty six, ordinance approving an amendment to the preliminary and final planned unit development of Joliet Junior College student housing subdivision, which is what we heard from Mr. Wonderlic on.

Mayor? Yeah. So I understand what Mr. Wonderlic says.

May I ask your call? Yeah. By that. Sir.

I'm sorry. I forgot because I'm old. From what I heard from some of the board members, the proposal for changing the PUD was never brought before the board of trustees at Joliet Junior College.

Dustin,

can you speak to this?

The Board of Trustees have no legislative control over that PUD. There's not a legal requirement for them to. I know the owner of the property who acquired it through foreclosure from the foundation has reached out repeatedly to Julia Junior College. What that conversation between those two individual parties, I wasn't in the room when those conversations may or may not have happened. But with regards to a vote, a vote did not occur because a vote did not need to occur. It's not required to occur. The amendment of the PUD that is proposed is the province of the city of Joliet City Council.

Mayor? Yeah.

So Dustin, guess this would be for you. This had gone through then the hearing process? Or we didn't this didn't have to have a hearing?

This did go to the planning commission, yes, sir.

And any of the neighbors come to voice their concern?

I can look at the minutes, but I don't believe there were anybody remonstrating against this now.

Mayor, quick question. As a courtesy, why was the board not just notified what was going on?

I believe the board was notified that this was going on. I know staff reached out to Juliet Junior College and I know that the owner of the property also reached out to Juliet Junior College.

Okay. Because that's not what we're talking. That's why want I to make sure.

Okay, thank you.

I think we do have the applicant here if you'd like to ask any questions from them.

Sure. Come on down, you're the

next contestant. Good

evening, all. My name is Aaron Dorsey from the Law Offices of DeCA MacGusen. We represent the contract purchaser Midwest REO5 LLC and for the amendment to the BUD.

Then your hearing or your business plan then is to cater to anyone or try for students first? Or is it that something's been worked out

at all?

So I'm also joined here by John Kane, who can speak better to the business plan.

Bring him up.

Hi. I'm the director of acquisitions in Midwestern, Yadavik. It is still open to anyone who wants to rent, whether it's student, faculty, staff. In fact, there are many students that are renting there today. And it will be open to anyone. It would just remove the restriction that it could only be rented to students.

Today, any idea how full or occupied the place?

It's well occupied. It's at 95% occupancy. It always stays around that level. Now part of that is it doesn't quite and part of the reason for the change I mean, I can't speak to it. We didn't own it at that time. Part of the reason for the change was the lack of true student demand.

Okay.

You're at 95% right now, so why would you want to change that?

95 right now with the mix of student and conventional renters. Right? If you didn't have all the student if you didn't have the conventional renters, it would be much lower.

So there is conventional renters in there when the PUD calls for it not to be available.

That's correct.

Mayor? That was going to

oh. What?

Okay. Missed the call. Okay.

Marino? Yeah.

You you talk and then you, Larry.

Alright. There you go. Thanks, Dan. Yeah. I was gonna ask. So I was reading on here earlier that since 2019, wouldn't that be a violation of the ordinance having open to regular I I don't wanna I don't know if I can say regular people, but, basically, it was meant for students and faculty x y z. So not having students there or affiliates or people that work there, wouldn't that be a violation already of the orders as it stands right now? And if it is That's question I

know early on the property.

For Dustin, maybe? I don't know. No. I

can take a crack at it, counselor Moreno. In the plaintiff's sense, it would not be complying with the language in the ordinance. Now, the next logical question would be, so what then? And that ordinance doesn't prescribe a remedy. It just says, don't do this.

So at some point between 2017 and 2019, the property manager began leasing to, as you put it, and I agree, regular people. The property is in our rental inspection program. It has been inspected routinely by neighborhood services. And they're a rental property in good standing in that rental inspection program.

Yeah. Thank

you. So you you represent the company that wants to buy it?

We're yeah. We're trying to acquire the property.

From the one that's currently owns it and is not following the PUD.

That's correct.

Okay. You guys were well aware of what the PUD existed. This is not new like you just found out today. Right? You know what it is as you looked into buying it.

That's correct. We found out during our due diligence period.

Okay. And then, obviously, you can't speak to the current owner. That's not your client or your client. But they're aware of what the restrictions were, too. I remember it odd enough, guys. I was in my late 20s or early 30s when I did this. And I vaguely I had talked to some people that called about it. I vaguely remember because I remember thinking at the time, what junior columns needs housing? But they did. And I remember there was some controversy involved. The only reason it went through, as Mr. Wunderlich said, mister Mezra was pretty adamant about this restriction because otherwise, it wouldn't have passed because the neighbors around there didn't want it. Yep. I wouldn't support changing it. They know what it is.

The current owner you know, I I understand what Dustin's saying. That's kinda weird. We don't we don't have. Dustin, what happens if we have somebody who's not zoned for multifamily, but they're we catch them renting, you know, splitting their house and renting it out? Is there is there a remedy on that?

Well, what we've what you've seen, that that is an instance that has happened even in my short tenure here. We've brought it before you for a zoning change. And usually, I don't want to say 100% of the time, but the majority of the time, you look at the circumstances that are presented before you. This is a house that was either originally designed to be a multifamily structure and then was down zoned and now wants to be a multifamily again or was an errant. And we go back and we ask for compliance.

So that's typically what happens. If someone is out of compliance with the zoning, once we know about it, we bring it before the appropriate land use body and then to counsel, which is what we've done here.

And is it what if they after you go through that process, that particular owner said, we're not gonna come in compliance. We're gonna throw our nose at you. Do we have any recourse?

Now we're talking about course of law, is a place if I do my job right, I don't usually go. So I would I would gracefully defer to the gentleman to my right.

Yeah. We have to file sue. It's a long process. I've done that, but it takes a lot of resources from us. So there is some there's course of action we could take. We try not to get there, but

Right. We try to negotiate.

Right.

Okay. I was just curious because I'm thinking of the residents that live around there in in in the subdivisions. That was put in under certain promises Mhmm. That were put in writing that they're now asking them to reverse. And that's kind of a bait and switch on on on the residents. That's my opinion.

Right. Mayor, real quick. Dustin, do you mind checking or finding out within the last seven years? Because they acquired no. They acquired it in a foreclosure 2017. No. Was it 2017 or 2019? In those let's say it's 2019. In those seven years, have they tried the current owner, has has they tried to change the zoning on it to try to be compliance or they just said it is what it is?

I can find that answer out and and bring it to you tomorrow for sure.

Here. Mhmm. Welcome. Do you have any other locations where you run a complex like this?

We own 5,000 units in places across the country, many of them here Chicago and Indiana. None specifically like this with the mix of student and conventional rental.

Dustin, are we looking at any of these locations?

Of their current property holdings?

Yeah.

That's not something we have done. It's something that we can look into.

I'm just curious to see if maybe they have one in another jurisdiction see how they operate it there.

For sure.

Then my second question is, what are the rent ranges? Or what do you plan on doing there?

Great question. So the average rent today is about $15.30 dollars per month. And that range is, depending on if it's a studio, it's around, call it, dollars $13.30 up to about 1,900 for a four bedroom.

I don't know.

Okay. I do

have a comment.

Are you Go Go ahead. I

my train of

the other. Go ahead.

Okay. My comment is when this was allowed, very long time ago when it first started that it was no longer only students, people from the outside could come in and live there, there were many, many, many calls for service in the Joliet Police Department, and there was a lot of trouble out there. And it took a lot of time to get some of the people out of those rental apartments. So you might wanna think twice, do background checks. I don't know how to tell you to do your business. I'm just telling you, once that changed out there, it was a big problem.

One more. And then say this was the past. Do you have plans to expand to put in more apartments down the road?

We don't know. We're evaluating that. There is the five acres next door, but we don't have any concrete plans. Our plans are just to operate the 128 units that are there.

Thank you. Yeah.

I have a comment here. Thank you. It's kind of embarrassing and something I think that we should consider for the future. Having an ordinance with a bunch of people that show up and they really want it to be just students, and here we are all these years later, and we're finding out that non students were living there. If we have ordinances, we should have some at least fine mechanism or we should have some mechanism, some kind of teeth to enforce it. Otherwise, like, what's the point of having the ordinance at all? And this doesn't have to do with you. And none of you weren't here at the time, so this also goes up to you to do with you. But if we're revamping ordinances, we really should have, like, a fine mechanism or something. Thank you.

To be clear too, you guys don't I just wanna reiterate that. You don't own it currently. No. So you don't really have standing to make the change. You'll own it, but the current owner wants to make the change to sell it to you.

Correct. As part of our transaction, that was one of our agreements was that we would propose the amendment to the PUD.

So you guys haven't committed to buying it yet until this gets done or doesn't get done? Correct. Okay. Thank you.

One more thing here. Yeah, go ahead. So I assume all or the majority of the current residents have some type of a lease into the future. Correct. Which would obviously be honored. Of course.

Of course. Thank you. Is the seller in the house here? So you're here doing the job for somebody that broke the ordinance?

He was scared. Yeah.

Just curious how many junior college affiliated people are in the building, in the buildings. He may not have the Well, answer there right at

least 13 of the units that are rented by the bed to students. Beyond that, I'm certain that there are other students and faculty that live there, but I don't have that data.

Okay. Just curious. Yeah.

Mayor, you make a good point. It's kind of my opinion that the current buyer is not really that into selling it for sure, because they're not here to answer our questions. Right. You're doing great. You're doing the best you can. You have limited access to what their records would indicate, I'll make that clear. I don't want people to confuse you with the current owner. So, yeah. I mean, they should be here to answer these questions. Thank you.

Can I

ask really quick one more thing? Sure.

How many units are there? How many units? How many

In total? Yeah. 128.

And 13 are rented by students?

Correct.

Okay. Thank you.

And then I know.

All right. Any other questions? Can I add one more thing? Sure.

We did meet with the junior college as part of this. Their primary concern was the maintenance of Rivera Way, which we have agreed to participate, you know, should we close, in the short term and long term maintenance of Rivera Way.

All right. Thank

you. Thank you. Thank you.

Maureen, if you want to chalk, you have to come to the podium. I see you raising your hand.

I assume you're finished. As

a college trustee, just to let you know, when the notice was put up, we saw the March date. And that was the date that you guys had the big grouping of the IT issue, we didn't know that that meeting was going to be changed to April 8. We thought it was going to be April 16. So that wasn't where we could visibly see, just so you know. That's what

we

were

all planning there were people planning to come

on April 16 in regards to this. And I'm just saying the only ones that spoke from the school, from the board never had anything. It was only the president and the attorney that have talked to the seller and the buyer situation. We did not, as the board, have anything to do with it. We just heard about it in our closed session.

And I know I'm the senior member so far, the longest standing one. And I do know the prerequisites that what happened to it when it got sold, what the foundation went through, what the school went through. And we wanted, during that period of time, to make sure and Mr. Wunderlich did touch base with all of the councilmen that were on to make sure that that PUD did not get removed. He wanted to make sure that it stayed for the safety of our students, the safety of the environment, because that's right when you come into the school.

And that is the main concern that we have that I'm going to say is I have too, as the fact that we want to make sure it instills safety for our students because they are our primary focus. And yes, we are the first community college in the whole United States. And we do live by the fact that we want to make sure our school is safe and secure. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you.

Okay. Moving on there?

Yeah.

Okay.

Council memo two twenty six twenty six, ordinance accepting a million dollar grant from the Will County Community Mental Health Board for the no cost counseling program, amendment of the 2026 budget to receive and expend grant funds, and creation of an additional social worker position to perform grant funded activities. Any questions on that one?

Yes. Chief, what or I'll give you a chance. Go ahead. I don't have a mic back there. We've kind of had to go through this before with other grants. So what happens because I know there's no guarantee for this grant coming every year for, you know, perpetuity. It's expected that it should be there, but they it could stop. Then what do we do with that social worker?

Yeah. It would have to go into the city budget every year to get renewed. So if the the grant went away and we no longer needed that service, we would just phase out the position.

And it's it's my my understanding that part of the reason we might need another social worker is we've expanded even beyond Joliet residents.

Yes.

We allow other people. So if we were to approve this, it would be with the, you know, understanding that if that funding is gone, then we would probably pull in our clause and say we gotta go back to just Joliet residents and back to one person unless other communities wanted to whose residents were benefiting from this great program wanted to contribute to that.

Yeah. There's a lot of need. Now you guys have seen the program and how much we use it. So there's a need already for us. So this is actually very helpful. But if it started downsizing and we didn't need it, could always take that position out.

Council memo 02/2726, ordinance authorizing an amendment to the annual budget of the City Of Joliet for the 2026 fiscal year. 2025 projects that were not completed, so we're moving those to fund them in 2026. It's to move unspent funds for specific project and purchases from the 2025 fiscal year to the 2026 fiscal year budget that we do every year. Do you have any questions of our finance director? Okay.

Council memo 02/2826, ordinance amending chapter two, article two to authorize pre separation recruitment and temporary appointments. Questions on this one?

No. You know, I missed my I missed my queue, Beth. I'm the last one. I always like to do what I do every year. Kevin knows, and he actually expects me to just to make sure anybody watching understands. That amendment is not adding anything new to the budget. No. Work required by law, by statute

Mhmm.

In order to use last year's money to finish last year's project this year, we have to do the housekeeping to bring it forward. So I want people to know it's not an amendment that includes increasing the amount of money that we've already approved. It's already been approved. We just need to do the detail work. Correct. Is that correct? No new money. It's just housekeeping to take unspent from '25 and move it into '26. Otherwise, couldn't finish the project. Thank you.

Okay. Any questions on 02/2826, ordinance amending chapter two, article two to authorize pre separation recruitment and temporary appointments?

I think we talked about this initially a while back. And I know that's modified to a three month operational overlap. And I think Allison, you might have someone that is in a pretty big position on a one or two year project. And it's hard just to have someone come in and take the baton without some sort of overlap. So I think this would be used on occasion and only as an as needed basis for transition of an engineer, someone that's gonna have to be able to help move that, keep that moving along.

And I know that in the beginning of the year, we typically would like to know. And I think, Allison, you have a person or two that had given us notice that this was gonna be their year of retirement. And some of these crucial positions, you you just have to have that that overlay. So it's budgeted, and it would be budgeted in most cases that if someone's gonna come in, it's gonna come in because we're diligent in having that transition happen. So that's that's where this comes from.

Mayor, can I say one thing? I've taken many calls on the temporary appointments, and I don't know if you want me to read the whole thing. But I think that temporary workers may be an employee or contractual employee. So the city manager will have the appointment power to contract for temporary workers or contractual, and this is outside of or unrelated to the first part of this. So I'm wondering, is there a limit on these contractual employees? Is there like a dollar limit? It's not in this ordinance, and maybe Todd can answer that. I really would have liked to have heard the meeting, but I tried to listen to the tape, and I don't know.

Are you talking the legislative committee? Is that

the meeting?

Yeah. So the focus of that was on the first part and the feedback from that, we moved it from six months to three months for the overlap hiring and it's for institutional knowledge. We don't want to disrupt services. A lot of the institution's knowledge is very key. It's vital. You don't want to lose. They want someone to walk out the door and that knowledge is gone. So part a, that's what that is pretty much all about. The temporary workers, there isn't, but right now, the city manager has a spending authority, so it would probably be up to that limit that we could hire these people out. Over that would take it has to be budgeted.

So council's role is is for appropriations and budget. Okay. So over that would have to be to get council approval.

Thank you. Mayor? Yeah.

I've heard conflicting things, so I just wanted a clarification. At the last meeting, it was said that part of the reason was that we couldn't even host the position until somebody left. I'm being told that that was that was not altogether accurate.

That wasn't

correct. The memo I wrote, I wasn't here at pre council last time I decided that I could take a vacation, you

know. Yeah.

How dare you?

Yeah. So

see when you get vacation, you get in trouble all

the time.

Right. So, no. You can recruit prior to this. And this is actually the way we change it is it says six months out, which puts another restriction restriction on on the the guidepost on this. Six months is a long time. You don't usually get that much notice, but that this ordinance, the way it's written now is they can recruit six months out and hire three months

prior. So

So I'm gonna make a comment about that. Okay? Anyway, came to legislative last Monday morning and on the board was mister Mudran and Sherry and myself and the Beth was not in attendance, but I had talked to her private before the meeting. And she wanted she thought three months would be adequate. But after we had many discussions with our attorney and with the HR people, it was decided to put six months in there.

So when people have to leave, like, another municipality in a director position, you might have to give them six months notice that you're leaving. So that was the other reason that they put that in there. Or it could be less. But it's up to the director and ultimately the city manager who she's going to hire. But the misconception out there I'm going to repeat this again tomorrow. We are city manager form of government. Okay? And it's up to the city manager after they interview people and talk with the directors of the departments who they want to hire. It's up to her to ultimately have the hire. She hires and fires.

Okay? And it's out there that she has all this power, and we're giving her too much power. And she's doing it's just terrible what's going on out there. And I have many, many phone calls to document that. And it's absolutely ridiculous beating our city manager up right now for no reason. All we're trying to do is get continuity with our employees. Because there's a lot of things here that are different than other municipalities. It might be programming. It might be who's who and other different things that we do that might not be the same as where these folks are coming from. So just to give them that little bit of training before they leave, it's like putting a round hole in a square peg.

You can't do that. You can't come here cold turkey. The city of Joliet is very complicated, but any municipality is complicated. You just can't come and just sit right in and be Okay. So I'm very proud of what we did the other day. We discussed it. We didn't agree at first, but then everything made sense at the end. And we decided to go with the six month. But it would be up to the directors of the departments when they want to hire somebody, or it would come out of their budget if they hire a little earlier. But it wouldn't be hired at six months. It's like you can start looking, because these jobs are far and few between. And it's hard to get good people to come on board. Do you want to add anything, Sean?

Other than Pat wasn't the one there. It was Cesar.

That's right.

Well, he's always by me, that's why.

All right. No. No. He did a great job.

All right. Sorry. Cesar's not here.

Okay. So

The other question, I

had clarification. Sorry about that.

But Somebody

That was the that was the whole thing of it. And I was against it at first, but I want everybody to know it wasn't our city manager Beth saying, I want six months. That was not. There was a lot of misinformation out there. I'm gonna repeat this again tomorrow. And none of the complainers even showed up at that meeting. And nobody called me after the meeting, but you can listen to it online. It's it's all audio online.

It's not there.

Yes. It is. It's on my iPad. Look under video, and it says audio the clerk.

The it's not there. Here. I'll show it

to you. Alright. Well Moving on, mayor. So, anyway No. We're not learning. That's how that's how we left it. And, ultimately, it's up to us tomorrow to pass that new ordinance that we have in place. So

Can I say one more by our committee?

Yes. Okay. So Oh.

It was unanimous.

Ready? You're terrible. Okay. Thank you. So right now, even if we didn't pass the revised ordinance, you can still post six months out.

You can start the recruitment.

And you could you could start the recruitment, and you can you can even offer a job, but the start time has to be when the other person leaves. Correct. So even if we have somebody that comes from another municipality and they need to give six months, well, it would be perfect even under the current ordinance because we'd say, well, we can't start you for six months. Sure. Okay. So I'm gonna be clear there. Also, is a what is it? A tier one employee? What what what if somebody's here twenty or twenty five, thirty years ready to retire, how many weeks of vacation have they accrued?

That varies depending on if they're union positions or

know, most of these are nonunion. Right? Most of these are

No.

I mean, the positions that that Allison's trying to fill are union. And the identified person that will take over would come from finance, is also union. So it's really just allowing the people that have been here for thirty years to train someone in some way before My they

question is to try to get clarification on the vacation. Sure. I mean, I think after twenty, twenty five, thirty years, you're probably talking at least six or eight weeks, if not more.

Yeah. We can

get it. We can get it. So what do we do when they go on vacation? Now when these critical positions go on vacation, do we shut down that department?

No. We don't shut that on the department.

Do have a way to keep the department running even if somebody's learning how to take over that position?

Liz, do you want to opine on this?

So typically when there is a vacation, yes, we have individuals that can overlap. However, they would overlap for short periods of time. They wouldn't learn the totality of position.

Right. Somebody could take a thirty days vacation. And we'd have to we don't shut down. I'm just, you know, trying to establish the facts as I make my final decision.

Typically, we don't have individuals who take thirty day vacations. It does need to be approved by the department based on operational needs.

Right. We do address their actions now. This ordinance will give you a hundred and twenty days. Right? A hundred and twenty? Yeah. A hundred and twenty days.

So Ninety. Ninety. Ninety.

Oh, we're down to three months. That's

Down to three months. That's what we heard from

days or twelve weeks. Mhmm. Okay? And some people could have vacations of six, eight, ten weeks that we know of. So alright. I got my information. Thank you. Thank you very

There's never a time when a residents call us asking us questions because we're all the ones that face the public. That them calling to ask those questions or the words that are coming out of their mouth are construed as beating up on anyone. They're asking questions. They feel like a lot of bad decisions historically have been made here. I'm glad the residents are involved in asking questions. We're all, as Councilman Hug has said, the purse strings. So the money that's going out, we're the ones that have to face the public. We face the public every single day. So there's never a time where our residents are calling us. They're mad about something.

They're worked out about something. That's our job to listen to them and then disseminate what they want us to do as elected officials. Thank Thank you. You.

Thank you.

I just got a quick question for me. Excuse me. It didn't go when we when it got brought when it was put on the agenda last time, it didn't go through committee. I I was wondering. Was it

It it did.

It got it went

went to another committee. I'm not sure what Yeah. We

it a finance I

think it was finance.

It went to finance first. But then we I talked to councilwoman Coleman, and she desired to have it go through legislative.

Okay.

And so we held it at that time to take it back through legislative committee so you would all have more opportunity to learn more about it and ask questions, etcetera.

Yeah. I thought I under impression that it did not go through the committee. That's why I was I was thrown off a little bit. So thank you for the clarity.

Yep.

I mean, I can't overspend your authority. You have to give me authority to do that. And I don't have any interest in going over any of my authorities, limited by the council. You decide how much and how much we

should

spend on certain things. And I have to stay within those parameters.

Okay, moving on.

Resolutions Councilmember two-thirty-twenty six resolution appropriating supplemental motor fuel tax funds for amendment number three to the phase two engineering services contract for the Fair Road over Spring Creek Bridge improvement project. This is the housekeeping item just to appropriate the MFT funds to the Fair Road over Spring Creek project. Council memo two thirty one twenty six, resolution accepting a grant of permanent easement at 18711 South County Line Road for the County Line Road from Van Dyke Road to Kennedy Drive Roadway Improvement Projects. Council memo two thirty two twenty six resolution authorizing the sale of a police dog to canine officer Adam Stapleton.

Mayor. Yeah. Just to touch. I I talked to Adam, and I believe they're going to show up here tomorrow.

Great.

I think there was some interest in seeing Neville, the dog, and, you know, I think when we do this, when we retire a dog, we should bring him here and let the public see the canine and the handler and maybe get a photo and stuff. Nice long career. Mean, in our world, it's a short career. But in the dog's world, it's you know, nine years is long time.

Yeah. Yeah. Agreed.

So everybody leave your own mentionables in the glove compartment.

Okay. Is there anyone who would like to address the council this evening? This is for non agenda items at this time. Anyone? Okay. Seeing none, I did receive a request for closed session. Is there a motion to go into closed session to discuss personnel, collective bargaining, land acquisition, or conveyance pending or threatened litigation after which the meeting will adjourn?

So moved. Second.

It's been motion and seconded to adjourn. Councilman Clement. Aye. Councilman Hug.

Aye.

Councilman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Moreno.

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilman Quoman. Aye. Councilman Rooden. Aye. Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.