City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the City Council meeting for Monday, August 31st, 2026. Clerk, will you please call the roll? Here. Here. Here.

Here. Here.

Here. Here. Present.

Here.

Present. be given by Chaplain Kenneth Henley. I just ask that you all stand. And if the chaplain is present, can you please step forward to the microphone? Which I do not see. And I don't have any more. Do we have anyone on council that would be willing to lead us in prayer tonight?

There must be some military sort of prayer. It's going to be our father, okay?

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Amen. Amen. public for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We do have a special presentation tonight, so I'm going to turn the floor over to Chief Tyler. Chief, I'll just remind you to make sure you're speaking directly into the mic so the viewers at home can hear you.

Hello, hello, everyone. I would like to bring up a few of our members. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much, you guys, for recognizing them and for the applause. A real special moment that I get to, as the fire chief, very humbling to be in this position. The men and women of the Rockford Fire Department do extraordinary things every day. And the training that they do for fire and EMS, the number of hours that they commit to serving our community and giving that high level of service is something really special. A few weeks ago, we had an incident and these two gentlemen stepped up to the call. We had somebody who was stranded about 300 feet above the ground on a communications tower over at WTVO. And it's not something that we see every day, but it's something that these folks and the team that responded with them prepare for all the time. This is a very low frequency, high risk incident. And the complicated factor, the technical proficiency that they needed that day is something that they've been doing year after year, day after day, shift after shift, waiting for a moment like this. And so I would like to present to you two extraordinary human beings who, in that moment, said, I got this, I'm ready to climb. And they elevated themselves 300 feet and lowered this individual safely to the ground. And we know that it's a team effort. I know that these two have made it very clear to me that it was a team that made that happen that day, and it's not just... their work, but I think what you did was extraordinary. You raised your hand, you said, I'll do it, you were prepared, and you saved that gentleman that day. So thank you very much. So we have two certificates of achievement. In recognition for your outstanding performance, excellence, and service with the Rockford Fire Department, I'm gonna present you with these certificates and then two challenge coins. And one last thing to note, right when Sam got back to Station 11, we said, hey, Sam, thanks for that, but you've got to ride the ambulance tonight. And that morning he also delivered a baby. So he had quite a shift that evening.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. All right, we're going to move into tonight's public speakers. Just as a reminder, there are two microphones located at the back of the horseshoe. Each speaker will have three minutes to make their comments, at which time you'll hear an alarm go off. And we just ask that you bring your comments to a close at that time. That being said, our first speaker tonight is John Tack Brantley.

Good evening. First of all, I want to recognize Rockford has just made history. Not only do we have our first female mayor, but we have our first female chief of police, we have our first female chief of the fire department, and we also have our first, I believe, head of the human resource department. I wonder what city here in Rockford, I mean, what city here in United States got four females the head of their department? That's unprecedented. That's history. And I want to commend y'all for where you're at. But next thing, Alderman John, Alderman meets, and most of all, Alderman April. I want to thank you. The Power District, we have made big strides. The Power District not only is sponsoring the monument, but they also are going to take care of the funding. I got Woodworth Governor, Sean Strand, and other corporate organizations are already making commitments to fund our program. We're looking at putting a monument at the roundabout and also a monument at Woods Park. So I don't even have to worry about the funds. The mayor said it's going to cost $30,000 for a monument. Bump that. We're going to raise $100,000 for the mining. And then the art museum, they are going to spearhead the month of Dr. King's birthday, we're going to make the announcement. The month of February, we're going to have a drawing with the middle school, high school, and elementary school are going to do the drawing. Whoever has the best picture is the picture that we're going to utilize, that we're going to use tomorrow for Camp Grant, the monument. Also, whoever drew the drawing is going to get $1,000 scholarship funding. We're going to announce on Juneteenth who the winners are. That's step one. The other duel is I got a meeting with the school board members before the school board meeting. We're going to talk about the program, the kids that get suspended out of school, the kids that are being absent from school, we will have a program where we're going to address that. Also, the youth that's in juvenile and the chief of police can verify to this. The largest number of crimes that's committed in our community are committed by all the young people, and we've got tiny links to address the adults, but we have no one to address our youth besides myself. I'm only working with a small number, but I have made connection with other organizations who we're going to filter them kids to. So we're going to have a meeting, and I'm bringing the fire district with me, because the fire district will also play a role with the planning of dealing with our kids that are being suspended and absent from school. Also, the chief of the fire department. We made a bond back when Larry Morsi was mayor. Larry Morsi wanted to shut down three of the fire stations in the minority community. Brother John got 2,500 signatures, and the judge said, and he said one of my famous words, find another way to solve your problem and not take it out on the community. And we still got them three fire stations today. And congratulations for the firemen that stepped up to the plate. And I'm going to leave, but what got me on this road was when I heard they want to put a data center on our holy ground.

No way. No way. Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Larry Washington.

Up front, there's going to be some pauses in this, so don't think that I'm done. Okay. I want to get to the bell. So I'm just going to start out with another situation that happened at RMT. Do you guys know? That RMTD is not doing their jobs correctly down there. Those people are getting treated horribly. So anyhow, so I'm walking down the street, Court Street. And a bus driver stops in the middle of Court Street, opens up his door, says, hey, Larry, how you doing? I'm like, I'm doing all right, man. How you doing? So anyhow, and I noticed, um, there was, um, the security guards behind them. They rolled up next to him and I guess they was telling them, why are you blocking the street? And then they pulled off, right? Not that long after that, I got a letter from RMTD saying that I impeded that bus driver. I made that bus driver stop. That's RMTD for you right there.

So anyhow, the oath that I heard, I don't think any of you aldermen are following that oath.

If you listen to that oath very closely, because you're supposed to be all about protecting the people of Rockford, making sure that things are going well with them. And as you know, it's not going well with those people, those passengers at RMTD. Not at all. So with that being said, why have you not followed that oath, Alderman? Why did you take that oath, yet not follow that oath? We all heard the oath two weeks ago.

Why aren't you following it? Why aren't you helping those people that are riding that bus?

be treated the way they should be treated. Has any of you called down there and talked to Mike Stubbe, Dan Engelkes, and Drexel McAlvin and said, what's up with all these bad reviews? What's up with all these bad reviews? And as I said before, in a study, they were ranked the ninth worst mass transit district in all of the United States of America. And you're okay with that, obviously you're okay with it. Because nothing's been done about it. So I want to know why you lied when you took that oath and didn't and have not done all that you can do to help the people of Rockland, especially those riding the bus. That's what I want to know. Why did you take that oath that said... what you're supposed to do and not do it.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Todd Fagan. Todd Fagan?

It's OK. I'm Todd.

Miss Mayor, City Council, Uh, thank you for hearing me tonight and thank you for serving the community. Uh, we all appreciate it. Um, I left some packets on your desk. Uh, my name is Todd Fagan and I've been a traffic engineer since 1988. Um, was honored to be on the pedestrian task force where we studied city of Rockford, uh, traffic accidents. reasons why, and came up with solutions to improve those conditions in the community. And just some sobering facts real first. The first handout shows that combining all the traffic accidents in Rockford on a yearly basis, from everything from fatalities to serious accidents to the fender benders, the cost on the community is $88 million. And those are unit costs put out by the Federal Highway Administration, also the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those are some staggering numbers. And if you go through those costs, and I'm not going to be the downer here the whole night, I'm just trying to say why we're doing this study, is that those human costs are and fire emergency services, the legal and the court costs, productivity loss, household productivity loss, insurance administrative costs, property damage, legal and court fees, emergency long-term care costs. And it's really a staggering number. So that's why we're doing this. And I'm really hoping that what we've done in this study is brought some of those thoughts forward so that we can, as a community, start to improve these conditions, have more of a sense of urgency, if you will. And it's three-pronged. It's engineering and how they do their work, putting in sidewalks, putting in pedestrian crossings, doing those safe things. And they do a good job. We also have enforcement as the other prong. And I would say that's hugely important. That's probably 35% of how we can start to reduce some of these accidents on the road. And the third prong is education, public education. I spoke with Public Works Director Sanders. He put it really. Concisely, clear, good branding, consistent branding, making people aware of speeding is bad, driving drunk is bad, on your phone is bad while you're driving. All these things contribute to these traffic accidents, but things aren't changing. And I'm concerned that if we don't bring those three entities together, the police, the engineering, and the public relations, that it's just not going to come together. I'm suggesting that maybe a traffic commission could take the lead on that. But we really do need your political help on these issues. We need it from the top down.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Denzel Winter.

Good evening city council.

I'm Disney winter.

And I've spoke before about sidewalks for the kids over there on, um, uh, and, uh, over there by school street, there's no sidewalks over there. Uh, I haven't had a chance to get to talk to you to mayor, Mr. Bell, but we need to do something. before we end up losing some children. Because just like that man said, people fly around them corners down there and don't stop. They squeal tires and stuff. Mainly it's them kids coming out of school. They just want to see how fast their car will run. But once you take away a child from the parents, child from their brothers and sisters that they may or may not see ever again. That is going to be a very bad tragedy. I know when I was a building inspector and housing inspector for the city and the county, they had a a thing that said it took so many deaths before they changed anything. I don't think we need to lose any lives to make it safer for children to walk to school. I got 20-something grandkids, and I don't want to lose any of them. Just had one, just a baby. We have to do something to make these streets safer for the kids. Because I tell you, when you start losing the kids of our future, so goes our future.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Prophet Youssef.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. In the book of Proverbs, the first chapter, the seventh verse, it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Get wisdom, but out of all thou getting, get understanding. What I want to speak about tonight, a bad epidemic. Why civilians commit suicide. There are 12 reasons why, and I have the solution to solve this problem. The first cause is hopelessness. The second cause is despair. Hopelessness and despair is the mother of suicide. The third cause is relationship problems. The fourth cause is drug addiction. The fifth cause is alcohol addiction. The sixth cause is mental illness. The seventh cause is unemployment. The eighth cause is financial problems. The ninth cause is homelessness. The tenth cause is health problems. The eleventh cause is poverty. The twelfth cause is legal troubles. If you eliminate these twelve things, you could reduce the suicide rate in the United States. I'm glad You are here tonight, Alderman Bell. I wanted to tell you this last week. And I also want to tell my sister, Freda, and my niece, Barbara, and Mayor Morrissey this for a long time.

And I'm going to get it off my chest tonight. I don't like you.

I love you. And you can't do nothing about it. And happy birthday, my good friend. And I wish you many more. And God bless you and your family. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to my good friend. Happy birthday to you. Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you. That concludes our public speakers for tonight. We're going to move into tonight's agenda, which we have one item under our codes and regulations committee. Item one is committee recommends approval for the Labor Day parade and IDOT resolution. This event is scheduled for Monday, September 7th. The event time will be 10 a.m. to noon. The parade route will be the following, 7th Street to Railroad Avenue, North to East State Street, West to Wyman Street, South ending on Chestnut Street. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. Are there any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please indicate by stating aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. The item passes.