City Council Meeting/Strategic Session - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the Council City Council meeting for June 23rd, 2026 to order. Roll call.

Seton.

Here.

Houseman.

Here.

Furman.

Here.

Green. Here. Stamen.

Here. Would everyone please stand for the invocation given by Dale Barnhurst from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you. Thank you for giving us life today. Thank you for your protection throughout the day. And we just appreciate the opportunity of talking with you all through the day. Tonight, we are asking for wisdom. We're asking you to touch our hearts, touch our minds, and we just ask that you would rule supreme over the proceedings tonight. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Next item.

First item tonight is the swearing-in ceremony of Dawson Winkleman as firefighter.

And presentation by Chief Bailiff.

Good evening, Mayor Stamen, members of the council.

It's always a pleasure for me to be in front of you sharing the great things that the fire department is doing. As you know, I am really, really like to be able to introduce our new members to our team. Tonight is a little bittersweet as I get to introduce another amazing firefighter paramedic, but it's the last time I get to do so with my looming departure. Dawson Winkelmann is our newest member, making him the eighth firefighter paramedic brought in under my tenure. Dawson comes to us from the Maryville Fire Department with over two and a half years of experience, and he also works part-time in St. Louis Children's Hospital ER. Dawson is a nationally registered paramedic and holds advanced firefighter and fire instructor certifications through the Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office. Dawson did a significant portion of his pre-hospital clinical time with our team, which is testament to the value of the Collinsville partnering with the local pre-hospital training institutions. Dawson scored number one on our recent hiring list and is an excellent addition to our high-caliber staff. Dawson, can you come on up, please? Mayor?

So the city clerk ran upstairs real quick just to get the swearing-in statement. Dawson, if you don't mind, please come up. The mayor will join you up front. Can you do a song and dance for us?

A little skit.

So I would just like the comment, he's already got the firefighter mustache. He's ready to go.

He's got the look.

I do. And do you back it in all the time? Yeah. I went to look for the sheet and it wasn't there, so it'll be here in a minute. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

She's practically running. Yeah.

Trying to Google. Let's see if there's one online.

There she is.

Oh, OK. OK, please raise your right hand. Hi, say your name. Hi, Dawson here. Having been named to the position of firefighter paramedic. I have been named to the position of firefighter paramedic. Within the fire department in the city of Collinsville alone. Within the fire department in the city of Collinsville alone. In the counties of Madison and St. Clair. Madison, Erickson County, Madison and St. Clair. Do solemnly swear and affirm. Do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Illinois and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of firefighter and paramedic to the best of my ability. Faithfully discharge duties and positions. A firefighter. A patient. Faithfully discharge the job of a firefighter. To the best of my ability.

Mayor, if I could have just another quick minute. As you know, our usual is pinning of the badge. It's a pretty important part of a new firefighter's career. So I'd ask Kayla, Dawson's girlfriend, to come up and pin that badge for us. Great job.

Thank you.

Next slide.

That's the presentation of the June Yard's Month of Work.

Would Eric and Lorna Albert? Ebert. Ebert, okay, sorry. This is going right along with the rest of the stuff. This is one of the city council's favorite things, to reward the people that have done so much for the people of the United States. And along with that, the gifts that we get from the Greek side. Good job, Iron Man. Okay, let's carry on and see what else we can do. Next item.

Parks and Recreation Month Proclamation.

Whereas parks and recreation programs are an integral part of communities throughout the country including the city of council and whereas our parks and recreation are vitally important to establishing and maintaining the quality of life in our communities ensuring the health to all citizens and contributing to the economic environmental well-being of a community and region and whereas parks and recreation programs build healthy active communities that aid in the prevention of chronic disease, provide therapeutic recreation services for those who are mentally or physically disabled, and also improve the mental and emotional health of all the citizens. Whereas parks and recreation programs increase a community's economic prosperity through increased property tax, property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses and crime reduction. And whereas parks and recreation areas are fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community. And whereas parks and natural recreation areas improve water quality, protect groundwater, prevent flooding, improve the quality of air we breathe, and provide vegetative buffers to development and produce habitat for wildlife. Whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the U.S. House of Representatives have designated July as Parks and Recreation Month. And whereas the City Council recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources. Now therefore, be it resolved by the City Council that July is recognized as Parks and Recreation Month in the City of Collinsville. Next item.

Next, business prior to public input, item one is ordinance amending Title 17 zoning as it relates to pedestrian barriers for sidewalk dining.

Presentation be given by Senior Planner Caitlin Rice.

Thank you, Mayor Samen and members of the council. This text amendment before you is regarding sidewalk dining and cafes in our Uptown area. In Uptown, we do allow sidewalk dining on our public sidewalks, as these businesses don't always have private dining areas accessible to them. in february of 2024 the city updated our liquor code to remove barrier requirements for sidewalk dining cafes specifically however those barrier requirements are still reflected in our zoning ordinance so this ordinance proposed to you this evening is simply to align the zoning ordinance with the liquor code where the sidewalk dining would require a barrier for any business in uptown regardless of selling liquor or not The reason kind of behind this thought process is that permanent barriers can congest our public sidewalks, reduce the accessibility for ADA access, restrict movement staff, customers, pedestrians, and limits the options and flexibility for simpler setups such as Verona Coffee. So again, this ordinance this evening is to align our sidewalk dining regulation and zoning ordinance with the changes reflected previously by the city. Redlined in the existing ordinance is showing the language that is proposed to be removed. Again, this is just reflecting, taking out the requirement to have a pedestrian barrier. So those fences delineating that area of dining outside of the public space. we are proposing to amend that with a temporary or temporary barrier option instead of requiring it for any type of dining with the temporary barrier option it was we're taking away some of those standards that require it to be a fix which may cause damage to our public infrastructure like the sidewalk and reduces the ability for businesses to remove them when they're not in use during the off season which is december 25th through march 1st So by allowing temporary barriers as proposed in this ordinance, we give some flexibility for businesses to maybe use decorations or they want to keep an ornamental fence, give them that option, but also kind of protect our infrastructure and ensure that we have some flexibility for the public space. Here are some photos of the different types of dining we have right now. I will say in practice, staff has already been amending our dining for folks to not require barriers as it was adopted in 24 through the liquor code and it was oversight that this was not in our zoning ordinance, but it was understood that that was the general intent. So we're bringing forward this amendment to make sure that it's still the intent and desire of the city council so we have kokomo joes who opted for more of a decor type style of seating hurricanes who has no barrier just their tables verona coffee with just their tables and then friday friday south who has the more traditional permanent barrier in place so that barrier type would not be required anymore but would still be an option if a business wanted to use it as long as it was weighted down and not permanently affixed That is the overall summary of the proposed text amendment. Staff does find that the proposed amendment does meet our criteria for amendments to text, and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

I just have one, and it's kind of minor, but during the Italian Fest, once the Italian Fest is over, things like the people are required to be in that Finston area, like at Sloan's, so they're off the street. Is there any way we're going to be able to like control stuff like that? Like I said, it's pretty minor. I was just thinking like if they're still serving alcohol beyond the Italian fest or horseradish festival, they're required to be in that buried barrier area.

So in there, it basically in their seated area essentially.

Okay.

So even without the barrier, it's wherever the tables would be. That's where they would be restricted to. I would say it's hard to enforce when you have big events like that and the massive flow of people. People will stand outside the fence and maybe have drinks or talk and mingle. But it would be basically the same process if there is a chronic violation of restricting your alcohol services where it's permitted.

Thank you.

Something. of events so people can walk in, get, and walk out with them. Correct, yeah.

I think it's what Councilman Seaton's getting at is this, you know, are they contained within that area? And I think, you know, if we do this text amendment tonight, we'll see how the coming festivals go this year, you know, with the Italian Fest in September and kind of based on where they're having the outdoor seating areas without the barriers, if that does become problematic or we're having some type of access issues, then we can come back and revisit, you know, if we need to look at other regulations to address that specifically.

Any other questions or comments? Okay. Okay, being none, have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Green, second by Furman. Roll call.

Seton? Yes. Houseman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Stamen? Yes. Thank you. Next item, overview of the 2026 National Community Survey.

Presentation was given by Assistant City Manager Jessica Sharp.

Thank you, Mayor Stammen, members of the council. Tonight, we will be going over the findings of the 2026 National Community Survey, also called the NCS. The city has participated in this survey since 2007, and we are now on schedule to complete the survey every three years. So the most recent one was done in 2023. The survey does collect information on our residents experience living here in Collinsville. So looking at aspects of quality of life, their confidence in Collinsville's government, and then what NCS calls 10 facets of livability. This survey ran from March 17th through April 28th this year. We did mail out postcards to about 3,500 randomly selected households. We had a response rate of about 13%, and then these results were weighted to reflect our population demographics. So before I dive into the data, I did have a council member request that I go into excruciating detail. I will spare you that. We'll try to be swift. But if there are any slides here that we go over that you'd like me to go into greater detail, please interrupt. I'd be happy to dive in. A few other things. Anything that had a change, 7% or greater, is considered statistically significant based on the company that prepared the survey. So that means that the results are very unlikely to have occurred by chance. So that means that that result, it's pretty accurate. We can trust that data. You'll see here we're going to look at national benchmarks, so how not only we compare to our own previous year's data, but how we measure up to other communities in the United States. So anything that ranks either quote lower or higher than the national benchmark means it's 10 percentage points different. And then if you see anything that is much lower or much higher than the national benchmark, that's 20 percentage points difference. So looking at the overall quality of life, this was rated by our residents as excellent or good. 63% of our residents said excellent or good. The choices to rate it were excellent, good, fair, or poor. This did decrease 11% since our last survey in 23, and this is rated lower than the national benchmark. However, the highlight section here on the right, I only call out things that were more than 5%, but the full details are included. We published the survey results with this agenda packet. We'll also put them on the city's website. So some highlights, folks said they would remain in council for the next five years. That number increased 7% since 2000, or excuse me, 2023. And then overall image or reputation increased by 6%. Overall confidence in our governance that was rated 39% as excellent or good. This number did decrease 4%, but it is similar to our national benchmark. Some highlights from this section were our overall customer service increased by 10%. Collinsville's performance in welcoming resident involvement increased by 6%. Attended a local public meeting increased by 10%. Watched a local public meeting increased by seven and overall quality of services That did drop by 6%. The next slides we'll go into cover those 10 facets of livability, and I will go through those in order of what our residents said were most important to them. So the first one will be the most important, with the 10th being the least important, but still important to the residents. So utility infrastructure quality only 33% rated. This is good or excellent. This number did decrease 26%. Um, it is also rated much lower than the national benchmark. If we can reflect back on some of the things that happened in the last year, or at least since the last survey, um, we did have findings for PFAS. That information did reach our, our residents. And so I would suspect that's reflected here, but we'll also, we just saw the increase in public engagement, which could also have increased because of this. So at least we know that our residents are informed And tentatively, at our next council meeting, we will have a contract for engineering services related to the remediation of PFAS. So I want the public to know we are continuing to work on that issue. Garbage collection, drinking water, sewer services, and power all did decrease in statistically significant ways. Some of these are out of our control. However, for example, power, the gas and electric, but they do reflect what our residents experience living here. Safety, we had 63% of our respondents say it was excellent or good. This is an increase from our last survey. It's similar to the national benchmark. And we did see significant increases in safety from property crime, from violent crime, police services, crime prevention, and emergency preparedness. Economic health was rated as excellent or good by 44% of the respondents. This was a slight decrease from our last survey. It is lower than the national benchmark. However, we did see increases in the vibrancy of downtown in our commercial areas, as well as a 9% increase in employment opportunities in Collinsville. Natural environment quality was rated as excellent or good by 57% of the respondents. It increased a slight amount from 23. It is rated lower than the national benchmark. And again, water resources saw a decrease, and that's likely similar to the other water results that we've just looked at. Parks and Recreation was rated by 64% of the respondents as excellent or good. This was a slight increase, and it is similar to the national benchmark. Some highlights here. These were all statistically significant. Increase in fitness opportunities, recreational opportunities, programming, and recreation centers and facilities. Education, arts, and culture was rated as excellent or good by 43% of the respondents. This was a 10% increase since 2023, but is still rated lower than the national benchmark. We did see highlights, an increase in opportunities to attend cultural arts and music activities, community support for the arts increased, and also rating of education available in the city increased. The connection and engagement facet was rated as excellent or good by 47% of our respondents. This increased 5% from our last survey. It is similar to the national benchmark. And some of these highlights include Collinsville as a place to retire, attracting people from diverse backgrounds, opportunities to participate in social events and activities, opportunities to volunteer, and opportunities to participate in community matters. All of these increased in statistically significant ways. A new series of questions that were added to this year's survey, so we don't have any prior year data to compare it to, but these questions focused on how reliable our residents consider various sources of information about the city. website, social media, council newsletter, public meetings, local media and word of mouth. And I'd like to call out both our social media and newsletter, which would be the city scoop. Both scored very high, but also, as you can see, that it's much higher and higher than our national benchmark. So the much higher against 20 percentage points or more higher than the national benchmark and higher is 10 percentage points more. Health and wellness was rated as excellent or good by 56% of the respondents. This was an increase of 5% from the previous year, similar to our national benchmark. And some of the highlights included availability of preventive health services, availability of affordable quality mental health care, health services, and then our residents also rated their overall personal health had increased. City design and layout was rated as excellent or good by 56% of the respondents. This was just a slight increase from 23. These numbers seem to have held steady since 2019 and was similar to the national benchmark. Highlights included availability of, or excuse me, a decrease in the available of affordable quality housing and also a decrease in the overall quality of new development. And the last facet of livability was transportation and mobility. This was rated excellent or good by 60% of the respondents. This did increase 7% since the last survey. It's similar to our national benchmark. Some of these highlights include ease of travel by public transportation, ease of walking, an increase in perception of our street repairs, increase in ratings for bus and transit services. And this was actually rated much higher than the national benchmark. Overall key findings, the utilities section actually moved up to the top priority position, which the last two surveys leading up to this one, public safety had been in that lead position. So this time around, utilities, which would be water and sewer and infrastructure, those were most important to our residents. It also experienced the widest gap between the ranking of importance and the ranking of quality. So it just shows that we have work to do there. Residents overall report feeling safe in Collinsville. There are still opportunities for connection and community, but those have increased. Again, mobility and transportation were favorably rated. Economy continues to be an area of improvement. Housing affordability and community design, excuse me, community design showed a decline from 2023. education, culture, and arts did improve, but there is still room for improvement. And then, as I highlighted, the new questions really speak highly to social media and our communication efforts with our residents. So looking at next steps, staff will publish these results on our website, our social media, and then this year we will be developing a new strategic plan, so we will be using these findings to really help inform and guide the development of that plan. So this time I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Yeah, a little disappointing to see some of those first figures there. I know since I've been on the council, not because I've been on the council, but I know in the years I've been mayor, we've really reached out to get public input. things and the neighborhood improvement program was probably one of the key things. But all of our things like comprehensive plan, I think this council has done an exceptional job in reaching out and we're working on those things. We haven't accomplished them all yet, but I do believe that the hit we took on the water was a big factor there. But I know we're gonna continue. I feel confident we will continue to work on those items and make sure that public confidence is up. But again, it's goal setting for us. So it helps in our strategic plan. But any other comments or questions?

I have a couple. Jessica, how many surveys are sent out to our residents?

We send out about 3,500. And we did have, I want to say, about 115 that returned undeliverable. And then so of the ones that didn't bounce back, we had about a 13% response rate.

And then do you know what the response rate was in 23 by chance?

It was a little bit higher. I think it was closer to 14%. That's disheartening.

Any mail out survey, anything over 10% is considered a big return rate.

Really?

Yeah.

Any other questions or comments?

I think if you look at that, I'd look a little closer, but I think it's reflective of national and state trends, particularly with utilities. Yes, we had the PFAS situation, but I would bet you that it would have been down without pfas as well before i came here i'm watching the local news and they're talking about the lack of available housing right and people are not moving they're hanging on to their homes that's in in my neighborhood they're hanging on to their homes and those things are pretty reflective and so some things are within our ability to have impact in some cases we're we're kind of at the mercy of state laws and things like this as well so but anyway thanks for putting it together absolutely anything else okay being done next item next is speakers from the floor

Speakers may address this council under the terms of ordinance number 4765. Time is limited to four minutes per speaker. Please refer to the last page of the agenda for specific rules governing input. Anyone on my left side of the room? Please go to the podium, state your name.

Hi, my name is Debbie Nelson. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. As a resident, I was impressed to see such a an event such as the 2026 Great Race brought to our city. It took great insight and I can only imagine effort to campaign to become a stop along the way in such a world renowned event and to understand the effects both long and short term this will have for Collinsville. It was refreshing to see and be a part of Collinsville being celebrated for its past and ties to something as magnificent as Route 66 and reminding us that we should never be eager to outgrow our history and always celebrate the legacy that makes us what we are today as a city. sorry i'm part of an out-of-town based car club that due to recent events have spent more time and money here in our town enjoying what we have to offer as opposed to other neighboring cities thank you to all the city and staff and officials for whatever part was played in making this happen since the event via social media i've come to understand that a particular employee of the city that amongst many other things Assisted with correcting info on the city's website about the animal shelter and came up with innovative new ways to advertise adoptable animals in Collinsville Played an integral part in bringing the great race to our town So just a shout out to Judd Robbins who really seems to be able to make things happen both big and small for our city That benefit our businesses and our citizens both two and four legged Thank you.

Thank you Anyone else on

Hello, I'm Kelly Klika.

I wasn't planning on coming up today, but I drove by a place that I've been up here to speak about before. First off, though, I do want to say thank you. Everybody who I've been in contact with over this situation has been very good. Travis himself has reached out to me three or four times so far via email, responding to me now that I'm not spamming you guys anymore. But nonetheless, I wanted to give him a shout out for sure. He's doing what he can. But here we're talking about houses, we don't have enough houses. There's six houses that are falling apart on Austal, between Austal and Beverly. Today, on my way here, actually I was going to Walmart, on my way to Walmart Market, I drove by the front door of 2012, Beverly is wide open. House has been abandoned and it says on the front of it, the turd right. It's been there since my last meeting. It was there six weeks before I was here last time. Nothing's changed. Front door is wide open on an obviously empty building with private property and boarded up windows. Right next to it, and this is brand new today, there is shattered glass all over the driveway. Boards have been ripped off the windows. So I called the police, just so you know. I did report it. It wasn't a 911 call, but I did call the police on my way here. So I just wanted to make sure everybody knows that and to know that I'll be back giving you guys updates off and on. Hopefully we need to do something. I mean, if that's, if this was my house and there were boards on the windows and glass was all over the, all over the driveway, I do firmly believe that I'd be getting a call from police telling me I have to fix my house. That's all I'm gonna say. I don't know what's different about these homes.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else on the right side? Okay, being none, next item.

Comments and announcements from the mayor?

Yeah, a few things I'd like to... discussed tonight and one of them miss Nelson already talked about that I appreciate those comments but what a great weekend for Collinsville I mean Juneteenth Friday and then Saturday was just packed full of stuff the honor to have the great race come to Collinsville was an effort by our city staff and great rivers and routes. I think it's probably one of my, what was one of my favorite events that I've ever attended here, including the festivals we have. And I got so many walking the streets and I get so many positive comments. I mean, it was really impressive. But along with that, of course, the Hemings Great Race, this was our first stop. We also celebrated the Route 66 100-year anniversary. And the unique part about it, for the people who don't know this, that Main Street was part of the original Route 66 starting in the 1940s. We also had the world's largest ketchup bottle festival going on. Old Herald Square and Press House and numerous car shows mixed in different parking lots throughout that event. But it was so different than the other events. I mean the Italian Fest and Horseradish Festival and there's a lot of loud music and a lot of My beer? This was just a great family event, and so many people enjoyed it. and I know it's been said over and over again, but the city staff that made this happen, and I can't name all of them, Jed was a big part of it, I know Jessica was, Parks, Kimberly and Parks, all the people, if you walked around there and saw all the different city people that were working, and that was just the day it happened, but all the work that went in prior to that was, was just unbelievable. So, um, I think the city can be proud of that. Um, city council can be proud of the employees that participated in that. And, um, I just can't say enough. Um, so I know you have some pictures up there, but, um, Not to kill the good feelings about that, but I do have to say, I don't like getting on Facebook. I don't get on Facebook, but I do read it. One thing that just aggravates me when stuff gets on there that isn't factual, and people complain about the bump outs on Clay Street, and Troy, I asked Troy last time he was up to explain that, and for the people that put it on there, if you're listening, We didn't lose any parking places, and the road is not narrow. The lanes are not narrow than they were before. Those two items, people keep saying that, and it's not factual. So, of course, I don't think those people will be listening to me clarify that, but I had to say it. Sorry. That's all.

Comments and announcements from council members?

So I was just gonna piggyback on what Jeff said, not about bump outs, but about the event. A lot of times we hear those festivals are not family friendly. These were two very family friendly events, so kudos to the staff who were involved and to Mike and the Big Tomato and the Ketchup Festival as well.

Anyone else?

guys said at all okay i could talk more about bump outs but i won't all right next time next is city staff thank you mayor members of the council uh debbie thank you so much for for recognizing jed's hard work uh him and a lot of staff put a lot of hours into that event but jed goes above and beyond on those things and sometimes we have to tell him to you know take time off for himself too because he puts a lot of effort into it i appreciate the compliments Kelly, same thing. Thank you for complimenting Travis Taylor, our Community Development Director. As you know, and I think I was kind of on some of the correspondence, we do have some expectations with those property owners towards the end of the month here as far as some of the deliverables that we shared with you. I brought down all the details you shared this evening about 2012. We'll share that in addition to what you called PD on with Travis and his team so we can take care of that right away. So thank you for reporting that. Okay, and with that, can I have Chief Borum come up? Give a quick plug for the Youth Academy just wrapped up here earlier this month.

Thank you. Mayor statement, members of the council, as you know, the police department has been conducting its very own youth academy, uh, for our area youth since 2018. Uh, and it has quickly become one of, uh, the most popular community engagement efforts that we put on throughout the year. Uh, and on June 12th, we concluded our eighth session of the youth police academy, uh, which ended up being our largest that we've ever held with 25, 25 kids graduating from this year's camp. The Academy continues to have three main objectives that I just want to highlight. The first is we really strive to allow the youth of Collinsville to meet the men and women who serve them, but we want to do it in a non-threatening and an educational environment. We want to provide our youth with a better understanding of law enforcement and the services that we provide, while also showing them really the human side behind the badge, right? We want to show them that we're just normal people with not normal jobs. And then we want to foster an environment for open and honest dialogue between the youth and the men and women of our department. It really does take a village to put this program on. I have a lot of people that you'll see in the video from my department that are responsible for the success of the program, but I do want to give another shout out to Jed Robbins and Alex Conley behind the scenes back there for their assistance leading up to and during the program during the week. And then a shout out to the fire department as well. they always provide provide their assistance and it really does show the collaborative efforts we take throughout the city just interdepartmentally to put something on like this and it's we have all have really good relationships so with that said let's take a look at this year's video

We say the word integrity during this youth academy quite a bit. It's obviously a code that we live by and we want the kids to really fully understand that. So not only for themselves, but also so that whenever they see an officer in the future, they know what to expect from that officer.

You can't be in this profession without integrity. I mean, the first week is a lot of class, but as we started getting into the more physical aspects of things, it started to become a lot more evident. That desire to kind of turn on the police brain that I talked about in that first week started clicking with some of the kids, and it's a great, great thing to see.

I liked the PT, and then I liked whenever we were doing all the traffic stops. I liked how I was able to pull people over and talk to them.

Probably going to the gun range. That was pretty fun. It's a great experience. You hang around with great people, and you're just, you're having a fun time while you're learning.

Honestly, I gotta go today with the fire department here, the car being torn apart. All this is really cool. Next up would either have to be Big Muddy or the firing range.

I think my favorite part is the Big Muddy adventure. be able to go out on the Mississippi, canoe down the Mississippi with everybody. We stop at an island and have lunch and get to actually hang out and swim in the Mississippi for a while. It's something before I ever got in this camp I didn't think I would ever get in the Mississippi River, you know?

I've actually seen two of these kids grow up for the last five years they've been coming here each year for the camp. But it's been amazing to see them grow and mature and see what kind of a young adult they've become. This year with this group of kids, several of them are on the younger age. There is like the 13 year old age. They're very interested. Those younger ones are still asking a lot of the good questions. Good questions that like we as instructors would be prompting them. But they're still asking those questions, and it just shows that they are here to learn. They're here to expand their knowledge and check out their options.

Officer Colbert, I think it was the end of my eighth grade year, he was like, hey, you want to go to Youth Academy? And I was like, heck yeah, let's see what it's all about. They change it up every year, so it's never the same thing, and it draws you back because you always want more. So I keep coming back because I keep on being curious.

Even if they're doing some of the same activities over and over again, they're still very much engaged they still very much enjoy it just being able to get over that mental block and still push through and get the mission accomplished it's just kind of great to see thank you very much

Mayor, council, one more quick plug. There's an upcoming partnership between the city and the Collinsville Historical Museum. We're gonna be doing a program right here in the council chambers that we're gonna start. It's the Collinsville Patriots of the Revolutionary War. It's gonna be a brief look at the six men who fought in the War of the Revolution. We're later buried right here in Collinsville. So it'll start here June 28th, 2026 at 6 p.m., and then it'll be a walking tour over to the Glenwood Cemetery. So I just want to put that on everyone's calendar. It should be a fun event to attend and a lot of history. That's all we have for staff comments.

You know, right on the heels of the police academy thing, I mean, I always encourage bring your kids to see this. Bring the teenagers. Learn the history of what went on in Collinsville prior to this. All right, next item.

Next item is the consent agenda. Item one, motion to approve payment of bills for the period ending June 12, 2026 in the amount of $1,373,547.47. Item two, motion to approve payroll for the period ending June 5, 2026 in the amount of $1,030,338.71. Item three is a motion to approve minutes of the June 9th, 2026 council meeting. And item number four is a resolution re-appointing a member to the Collinsville Historic Preservation Commission, Scott Raho.

Is there any items in the consent agenda that anyone would like to remove and vote on separately? Being none, motion to approve.

Motion to approve. Second.

Motion by Furman, second by Houseman. Roll call.

Seton.

Yes.

Houseman. Yes. Furman. Yes. Green. Yes. Stamen.

Yes.

Next, under new business, item one is ordinance increasing the 2026 expenditure budget and the motor fuel tax fund and the hospitality fund.

The presentation given by Tim Lamble.

Good evening, Mayor Stamen.

Finance director.

Good evening, Mayor Stamen, Council Members. Before you this evening is an ordinance increasing 2026 expenditure budgets related to the Motor Fuel Tax Fund and Hospitality Fund. We also have a zero sum gain transfer in the Capital Projects Investment Fund. Specifically, the ordinance includes three appropriations. First, we are increasing the expenditure budget in the motor fuel tax fund by $110,840.15 to cover three different projects. The first is $61,151.81 for an IDOT project completed in 2019 for a main street sidewalk. The second is $25,892.14 for another IDOT project completed in 2013 for Kamala Drive Safe Routes to School project. The last is an IDOT project, $23,796.20, completed in 2016 for grades related to the streetscape four, which you'll hear a resolution on shortly from Mr. Turner. Second, with the capital projects fund, we are moving 27,000 from buildings to equipment for the additional expenses for the Edison lights in the last phase of delivery, or the next phase of delivery in Uptown. Third, the hospitality fund is being increased by 100,000 to expense a portion of the All Abilities playground that will be reimbursed in the future by a grant. We gotta get it out the door now. And second, by an additional 20,000 to cover the unbudgeted portion of the Johnson Consulting Gateway study that is ongoing, as you know. In total, the ordinance appropriates 230,840 dollars and 15 cents across these three funds. These expenditures are supported by available funding sources and are consistent with operational objectives and prudent use of taxpayer dollars to deliver results to the city. The staff is recommending approval of this ordinance. Subject to your questions.

Any questions or comments for Tim? Seeing none, motion to approve? So moved. I'll second it. Motion by Houseman, seconded by Green. Roll call.

Seton? Yes. Houseman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Stamen?

Yes. Thank you.

Item number two is ordinance amending the Council Code of Ordinances by adopting the provisions related to the project labor agreements.

Presentation given by Public Works Director Troy Turner.

Uh, thank you, mayor members of the council. I'm going to bring something, uh, that hasn't been brought to council in about 27 years. So project labor agreement, uh, came to council, uh, March 12th of, uh, 1999 under ordinance 29 47. Since then, there have been no changes to, um, to that ordinance. So we've, we've been close to 30 years of stagnant ordinance. Um, with related to construction projects. So one of the biggest reasons we're bringing this up is to bring it up to court current standards of our neighboring communities. Right now, ours is set at $10,000 is the limit for when we start having to do project labor agreements. So that would that that includes a lot of projects. So our goal is to push this up to $100,000. So more of our larger projects that we're going to go out and we're going to do sealed bids and they're going to be coming back to you are going to be requiring these project labor agreements. Another thing is We better define projects that require project labor agreements. Right now, it doesn't specifically state it, but we're making sure it is stated in there so that if public funds are used, like TIF monies given to a business, project labor agreements are not required on those projects. And then it's also giving us a little more latitude on when these projects have to have a project labor agreement. So one example is we do manhole lining. And when we do manhole lining, there's not a lot of local labor that does those and it's mostly companies that do a lot of travel so it gives us easier latitude than that of course anything where we deviate from the pla will be coming back to council and then right now our current project labor agreements all go through the southwestern illinois building and construction trade council this will allow it to go through any labor any of the local labor organizations and try to maybe streamline the process for some of these projects that we have going on for the contractors. If there's any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer it.

Any questions, comments for Troy? Seeing none, have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Seton, second by Furman. Roll call.

Seton? Yes. Houseman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Stamen?

Yes.

Next item, item number three is a resolution appropriating motor fuel tax funds in the amount of $23,796.20 for the installation of trench gates grates for Streetscape 4. Again, Troy Turner.

Thank you again, Mayor and members of the council. As everyone knows, this project's been done for a long time. It was finished in 2016. It involves East Main Street, East Clay Street, Aurora, and Chestnut. And what happened was IDOT finished the closeout on this project last year. And when they did the closeout, the contractor did not have the Buy America certification for any of the grates. So we had two options. We could have paid, reopened the contract, get an engineering firm in there, and we would have spent more money than the cost of the grates, or we could just take the grates out of the IDOT contract and then pay Keller, who installed them. It was the recommendation of IDOT and city staff to go ahead and do this. So as part of that, we're having to do a resolution appropriating motor fuel tax to pay for these grates. So if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer. This is just more of a cleanup item for a project that was completed about 10 years ago.

Questions or comments? Seeing none, motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Green, second by Furman. Roll call.

Seton? Yes. Houseman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Stamen?

Yes. Thank you.

Item number four is an ordinance amending chapter 2.04 of the Collinsville City Code by adding a section regarding electronic attendance by city council members.

presentation given by City Manager Jackson.

Yeah, thank you Mayor, members of the Council. The final ordinance before you this evening is actually a text amendment to the Code of Ordinance and what it does is it establishes procedures for electronic audio only attendance for the Council members during City Council. So what we're proposing tonight, it does adhere to all the requirements established within the Illinois Open Meetings Act. As I kind of clarified, this would be just for audio only, not necessarily video. And what we're trying to accomplish here is provide flexibility to council members now and future members who are unable to attend council meetings physically if there are qualifying reasons for not being here. As you can see there, listed in the third bullet point, those reasons include illness, employment obligations, family emergencies, and caregiving responsibilities. I would not allow council members to attend remotely if they are reasons for vacation or if it's personal convenience, scheduling conflict, or routine travel. A condition of this, and again, in conjunction with the Illinois Open Meetings Act, we'd still have to have a quorum here physically present to utilize this. We would not be able to have four or five, three, four or five members remotely at that point we would cancel the meeting due to a lack of a quorum. What this does is that there is language in here that there is an interruption, because technology problems do happen when it comes to an IT front. There is language where if that does happen, somebody drops off during a public hearing or something like that, due to technical difficulties, the meeting still would go on. In addition to that, it also establishes standards that City Clerk Wasser would reflect as far as meeting minutes and official records when someone is remote as far as making motions and things like that. So with that, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions or concerns that council might have about this proposed ordinance.

I'll just give you some comments about my vote. I've been on the council 11 years and I really haven't saw the need for this. Some of the discussions and some of the items that the city attorney has brought up about, I know there's provisions in the ordinance that if we're in the middle of a very important vote and we lose that connectivity in the phone, that could create, there's I think too many problems that could be created by this. And we function well for all these years without, so I'll be voting no on that. So any other comment?

Yeah, this was something I encouraged. I'm not saying this in a bad way, but obviously I'm the youngest here on the council. And when you're still in your 40s, you're going to have a full-time job. And sometimes my job requires me to travel. out of the country even and so I would hope that there's you know as the years go on that there's other people in their 30s 40s 50s who are still in their years of their career are willing to to run for office, and if their job requires them to travel, then this allows them to be able to not feel like they're really letting the citizens down by missing, you know, because just in the first month and a half, I think, of this year, I had to miss two meetings, and that killed me because I'm not one to want to not be present if I can be.

Yeah, I think this is pretty similar to Madison County Board's policy on remote participation.

So. So how would we be coming in via teams? How are we how are we facilitating that?

Yes, we have options. Alex Conley, our AV specialist, he tested both the ability to do Zoom or Teams. This ordinance doesn't specifically specify that, but we would obviously work with council too on what your preferred medium is for setting that up. I mean, obviously Teams is kind of our go-to tool, knowing that the city has Office 365 licensing and things like that, but we're flexible. This ordinance does not specifically state which the tool would get to utilize.

So there wouldn't be, but you would not be using cameras and things like that? Correct, yeah.

The intent is to do audio only and really the spirit of that to get rid of the video is if you are in a location remotely, if you're on travel for business or taking care of a family in a different area, a lot of times you don't know what the internet might be by having video on there. Now all of a sudden your upload speed is much bigger of a deal versus audio only. So it's kind of reducing kind of the needs for the council member that might be remote for this. Right.

Okay. What does routine travel actually refer to? I guess that was my only question.

I think it'd be any type of, let me see. Is that the prohibits? Yeah. It'd be kind of any type of like vacations or things like that related to.

Okay. Cause it said vacation and then, or routine travel.

I would think if you're coming back from six flags or something like that is how I would interpret it. Yeah.

Any other questions or comments? We'll call.

Motion.

I'm sorry, motion.

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Green, second by Seaton. Roll call.

Seaton. Yes. Houseman. Yes. Furman. Yes. Green. Yes. Stamen.

No.

Next item.

Next is closed session.

Have a motion to go into closed session to discuss in accordance with five ILCS 120-2C, number 11, pending or threatened or imminent litigation.

Motion? So moved. Second.

Motion by Seaton, second by Hausman. Roll call.

Seaton? Yes. Hausman? Yes. Furman? Yes. Green? Yes. Stamen?

Yes.

Passes adjournment.

Motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Green. Second by Furman. Roll call.

Seton. Yes. Housman. Yes. Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. City Council meeting for City Council's will is adjourned. June 23, 2026 is adjourned.