City Council - Regular Meeting

isn't funds that are collected by the different developers. And I do also want to provide the caveat that there are multiple uh property owners within the Glen Hollow shopping center. So, it isn't just one entity that owns the entire shopping center. It is multiple entities that own property there. But I think it's important again to to discuss that you all have done your research. You all have decided that this is a good option. and for myself as a district representative for the shopping center and I'm thinking about not just what tomorrow looks like but I'm thinking about what does this area look like 2530 years from now and I don't know about you all but like I like to go in stores and try on pants I don't like to order things online and right now we have to be proactive to sustain our retail options within our city and assistant city manager Richardson talked about our friends across the river and a lot of times people come up to me and say man everything's going East Poria, everything's going to the Heights. Well, respectfully to them, they're using these same financial incentives to recruit retailers to their different municipalities. And that's just the space that we're in. When developers come to us, they're asking what incentives you can provide. If you say you can't provide anything, then they go somewhere else and they get that incentive. And then they'll be having the ribbon cutting ceremony and our constituents will be asking us how come they got to go across the river to try on some pants. So, I think that we have to be intentional and be proactive. I think we have to ensure though to CS Councilman Carman's point that we don't want an onslaught of these, but it sounds like based off of the criteria, not everyone is even eligible. So, I appreciate staff's uh intentionality on this. I think again the research you all did, I know some of the data that was shared with me from W Vanqu when we did our Zoomformational was that 40% of the people that shop at Glen Hollow Shopping Center come from outside of the city of Peoria. And this isn't a blanket tax that everybody is paying in the city of Poria. Only if you go to that shopping center, you will be paying into that selective tax. And and so I do want to

throw that caveat out there as well too. This is not something that I take lightly as someone who's trying to balance my own households finances, but I know and talking to my constituents and talking to many others, the amenities that you all want to have living in an urban city like the city of Peoria. You want to have quality shopping options and this is how we can sustain this. So, thank you so much for the explanation and I hope my colleagues can support me tonight on this. Thank you, Madame Mayor. You're welcome. Council member Vesa.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, so yeah, I I think uh you know, Councilman Rigbach raised a good point. You know, this is not something that we're requesting. This is something that the commercial landlords are requesting. Um, and uh, you know, in a perfect world, I I'm not sure I I wish that this existed, this law existed, but we didn't pass it. Springfield passed it. [snorts] Um, and this is the world we live in. I think East Poria is three of these districts. Um, and all the neighboring communities seem to have at least one. Um so you know in a perfect world I would say you know commercial landlords if you need 1% more um you know in revenue uh to fix up landscaping, parking lots, infrastructure then just raise the rent 1%. Um but for some reason uh that you know they don't want to do that. Um and so it falls on us. It falls on us because our competition's doing the doing this. Um it I will say one of the benefits is that is that the money collected as assistant city manager Richardson said um you know we can assure that it does go into the improvements into the parking lots and the landscaping. Um you know which you've seen at Westlake is is fantastic. Uh you know Westlake is sparkling. Um so I I mean I I I think it's not our job to protect them from themselves. you know, these commercial landlords might lose business. Um, maybe they like having the receipt say that it's up. It's, you know, us that are the bad guys with the 1% tax. Maybe that's that's what's appealing. Um, I don't know. But, um, I mean, if if they want it and it keeps them here, uh, we don't see any more uh, commercial flight. Um, and it's an optional tax, you know, you know, you don't have to shop there.

Um, I think it's good that we uh let everybody know that we possibly can that there is an extra 1%. Um, if you do shop there, um, I'm I'm going to begrudgingly support this. Thank you. You're welcome, Councilman Seir. Thank you, Madam Mayor, Assistant Manager Richardson. Thank you very much for your comments. Helps me a lot. I just want to make sure I understand. And I heard Mr. Vespa just say something again, but I want to make sure I understand. So the collection and the distribution of the funds who will be in charge of that and who will have will be accountable for that?

So it is collected by the the department of revenue and then we would have a designated fund for those dollars. So we will have it in our we'll call the BBD fund that would then sit in those dollars would sit there. So as they come through the revenue then we then would have they'll disperse them back to the city. So how will the money be distribute distribution or how will be the distribution after we get the money what would be the qualifications?

So that's something that once we so the implementation of this tax will not occur until next year later next year. So we will have time to come back with some type of plan that we would want to put together as relates to what does that document look like that we currently do with our tiffs. So right now we have a very extensive like u process for artists where we ask for additional information project information um your you know sources and uses and so forth like that. So we do have that information so we can have an understanding what the gap is that we're trying to help fill. So that those types of uh activities would continue to work. We would just have to myself working with the city manager and the incorporation council will put together that document so that we can make sure that whatever it is that council has eyes on as well.

Thank you very much your explanation. Um Mr. Manager, I love um Councilman Carmona's uh suggestions. Obviously there's a I see a big needs for us to have some training or maybe a policy session. I will be supporting this motion, but I'd love to to hear from you very soon how we can have some training for us or maybe a policy session before we have the next BDD. Would that be possible? We can certainly look at putting something together and having a policy session on that. That's if that's council's direction, we can do that for sure. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're welcome. Council member Carmona.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, to everybody in the crowd, everybody listening at home, you've heard it. If you wanted to play in Poria, you better pay. What will amount to tens of millions of dollars that goes into this fund is money that most people will not have a clue is being taken from them. Because even though we have a good crowd in here today, the reality is that most people just won't know that this is happening to them. They'll just chalk it up to inflation, rising costs like every day. We're taxed in so many different ways that it's things like this have become institutionalized norms for government to do to its own citizens and to allow businesses to do to its own citizens. Those tens of millions of dollars and all the ones that have already been collected from other counties, I don't care if they do it. That's great. Good for them. But it's still taxation without representation because you're not going to get a dividend check back from this great development. Best case scenario, you get more places to spend your money. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Welcome, Council Member Gordon Young.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I would like to follow Council Member Carmona's uh comments with the citizens of this community are smarter than we give them credit for. Um we want and meaning all of us want better. We want options. And the reality is this is the way things are going now. And we're always getting we we always hear how everybody else is doing it and doing it better. When we get an opportunity that was presented to us to take advantage of, you know, I think we got to be careful that we don't insult the citizens of this community. And also, uh, Assistant Manager Richardson, I want to thank you and your staff for all the hard work. I know you did your due diligence and I appreciate appreciate that and the work that you all do because when you like you said when we when you see blighted we see something different right but we also want to make sure that we're supporting the businesses here making sure that you know when people go into these places they're safe they're structurally you know good but also like I said we don't want somebody trip the parking lot we don't want people to not want to go there but at the end of the day I think we got to be really really careful when we're um and you know getting we're bordering on the line of insulting the citizens of this community and also the staff that are doing the work trusting the process. It's almost like we need to have a template for all the departments to do it the way we think it should be done when we're not the experts in those particular u fields. So again, thank you for your work. Um and again, I just want to thank the citizens of this community for entrusting us because they are much much smarter than we give them credit for quite often. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Welcome, Council Member Kelly.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and uh uh Council Member Gordon Young, thank you for the theme of your remarks that our people are rather bright. I'll get to that in a moment. I would like to remind the council that retail is the end of the line as far as economics is concerned. [clears throat]

You start with wealth creation over here. You pay wages etc etc and so that people can go out and buy something. It doesn't do a whole lot of good to reinforce the end of the line when the beginning is the part that really needs help and it takes care of everything else. Um, and we're not, in my opinion, we're not doing that because we as a government body are very, very dependent, in my opinion, overly dependent upon sales taxes. Sales taxes are punishment to people for buying in our city. The thing is, every city does it, so it doesn't look like that. Okay? But why would we penalize PE? You know, you want to you want to help retail, cut the sales tax. Oh, no, no, no. We can't do that. Okay, that would help retail and that would help our people. I'd close by coming back to uh I I I also want to say to uh to [clears throat] our assistant city manager, I appreciate very much the work that you do and I know that you work very hard at this and uh I appreciate it and I think I think our citizens should appreciate it. You are working with the conventional tools that everyone else works with. These tools don't work all that well here. They don't work all that well anywhere. And what they tend to do is I'm not saying anywhere. I'm sorry. In most places, these tools don't work. Um but

we do them because they're conventional and we're we are afraid to step out and and try something new. But I think the work you do within the constraints we have is very very good. Finally, I'll end by saying and going back to what Councilwoman Gordon Young had to say. I think our people are bright. I would like all the council members to ask themselves if this question came to your constituents, how would they vote?

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Welcome, Council Member Oiler.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I uh ask my constituents questions like that on a daily basis and I can show you the text messages, emails, voicemails on why we don't have retail and everybody else does. I guess also one of the things that uh comes with nearly a decade of sitting in this chair, other than the fact that I have a lot less hair than I did when I started, is the fact that I've seen this iteration go around a few times. And I know for a fact that Dillards is not here because we weren't willing to do this some years ago. U von Mau isn't here because we weren't willing to do this. Berg is gone because we weren't willing to do this. We have to be willing to compete. That's the reality of the situation. And I don't want to belabor the point because I made it the last time we spoke about this topic. But we can sit here and say we don't want to do the things that it takes to get the retail and to give our citizens the amenities that they ask for. But what's the alternative? Are you okay just sitting by and watching our constituents complain about the fact that we don't have these things and somebody else does? Somebody else is getting the tax revenue off of those things that we could be getting. somebody else is getting the property tax revenue off the buildings that are occupied when we're talking about how we're going to satisfy the vacant strip malls. All of these things are part of a bigger ecosystem that we get elected to make decisions on and protect. And so philosophy is great, but at the end of the day, I got elected to make decisions and I'm here to do that. So I will be supporting going forward with this. Thank you.

You're welcome,

Council Member Carmona. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, for the record, no one's ever called me to demand [clears throat] that we have more places to shop. When I get calls, it's always about safety. Um, I'm not disputing what you're saying cuz I know that people, some people do want more places to shop here in Poria. Um, Assistant Manager uh Richardson, if I came across as impolite, I'd like to apologize to you. As far as um the citizens of Peoria, I'm the one trying to keep the money in your pocket. I think you are intelligent. I am not here to help subsidize capitalists who aren't reading trends. I am here to uh protect the constitution and um to do right by every citizen in Poria which is why um I feel so strongly about this. Thank you madam mayor.

You're welcome. We are voting on item A, adopt an ordinance approving a business district plan for the city of Poria Glenn Hollow business district. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes with two nays, Carmona and Kelly. Council member Allen. Uh move to approve item B. Madame Mayor.

Seconded by Council Member Gordon Young. Comments, please cast your ballots. Motion passes with two nays, Carmona and Kelly. Council member Allen. I move to approve item C. Madame Mayor, any questions, comments? Please cast your ballots. Do we need a second?

Pardon me. Council member Gordon Young. I was just seconding his his motion. Oh, I'm just letting you know. Okay, please cast your ballots.

Motion passes with two nays, Carmona and Kelly. Madame clerk, we are at regular business items. Item number 25-348, a communication with a request for the following. A approve a agreement with the Hanks Foundation for a donation to construct the Dhanks Amphitheater in the amount of $11 million. And item B, receive and file a presentation from the Hanks Foundation. Um, we'll need two separate motions and there's handouts um for the agreements of the exhibits A and B.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. Manager.

Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. I'm going to turn the floor over to our corporation council, but I just wanted to have a a minute to just give you a couple of opening remarks. Um, we do have representatives of um that uh are here in the audience with us of the design team um of the park district of the Hankst Foundation um representatives that rep uh former mayor of of uh Washington who is uh representing Jim Henst. Uh we have elected officials of the park board as well as uh the staff of the park district. Um we have core construction. Um we have Epstein um uh architects. We have Terara engineering. And they're going to give a presentation after we walk through the donation agreement. Uh and so I'm going to turn it over to uh our corporation council to talk about the donation agreement, walk through what's in that um and then we'll we'll get to the presentation.

Okay. Council Hayes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, the agreement uh contemplates the uh design and construction uh of the amphitheater at Riverfront Park. Um, as the council may know, uh, Riverfront Park was acquired uh by the city through the uh Illinois Department of Natural Resources and National Park Service through a project agreement. And so there's some complexity to this agreement related to that. um staff has done some preliminary discussions with those entities and we're confident we'll be able to successfully get approval but that approval is a necessary part and is incorporated in this agreement. So first we have to get the design approved um by the city because we're going to be retaining directly the design professionals and the construction entities. Then that design has to be preliminarily approved by the Hanks Foundation because they're providing the funding for the project. Once that preliminary design has been approved by both the city and the Hanks Foundation, we'll be submitting it to the National Park Service and the IDNR for approval. There might be some adjustments to the plans through that process from the various entities that have a hand in it. But uh central to the agreement that the city struck is we'll be directly retaining and contracting with those design professionals and construction entities because at the end of the entire project, this amenity will be owned by the city of of Peoria. And so we want to make certain that we have direct contracts with those entities. One element of this agreement which is unique, we don't see this often, but uh the Hanks Foundation has determined already that they want to select the design professionals as well as the construction entities and we're going to we've agreed in this agreement to use our home rule powers to do that. We know

the firms that they've identified and we're confident in their ability to do a project like this or we wouldn't be suggesting to council that we agree to this. In the future, Hanks might decide to change an entity and any kind of change of entity would be subject to city council approval as well. And so, we do want the donor to have the flexibility to select the design professionals that they want to design the project and the construction professionals that they'd like to contract, but they are competent um professionals and if there's a switch, we'll make sure that that s that future firm would be selected. I don't have any reason to believe that would be there, but that's a component of this agreement. We want to make sure the council's aware of that. The donor would fund all the design and construction. And so we've segmented out the different steps. The design step will be directly contracting with the selected design entities subject to funding from the Hanks Foundation for the cost of those designs. Then once those designs get through that approval process that I mentioned earlier, we'll proceed with the con with the construction. there'll be quite a bit more transaction in the construction activity because all the different draws and everything and so there's an elaborate element of this related to that draw mechanism. Uh the Hanks Foundation wants to make certain that they are aware of all these expenditures and so we'll be going through a process with them to make sure we're approving the design expenditures and the construction expenditures as we go forward. One of the exhibits for this agreement isn't there. It's just a note because that very elaborate funding and distribution system, we want to retain the design professionals and that will be um doing that agreement and that was always anticipated that that would be a document that's subject to change. Exhibit A and exhibit a B of this of this A is supposed to be the legal description. I want to apologize to council. I didn't get the drawing of where this would land until this week. And so representing the legal description is a depiction of the

proposed site and we'll get back to a precise legal description once we have the engineers figure out what that description is. In addition, that legal description could change through the design phase as well as through the approval phase through the IDNR and the National Park Service. And so the the whole project might is going to have some flexibility perhaps in ultimately what that parcel identification is. Same with the design of the actual facility you've got in front of you uh and in the exhibits that you'll see in the presentation a depiction of the preliminary design that still has a lot of functions to go through. um the Hanks Foundation and the city will be collaborating back and forth to arrive at a final design, but once that's established, then we'll, as I mentioned, we'll be submitting that for approval to the uh park service and the DNR. Um so, um I was u happy to receive some input from a citizen about a couple of typographical errors in my document that I will be correcting. There's some misidentified sections by number and 3.1 in your document is 3.15. That should be 3.13 and that mistake carries out through a number of those sections. So, we'll be correcting those errors and I apologize for that. I dropped the word out of 4.1.1. So, um obviously the escro funds will deal with both the design and construction of the foundation funded facilities. So that that'll be corrected. And then um [clears throat] in section um what should be section 10.1.2 is identified as 11.1.2 and um we want to identify that the city would designate an authorized representative from time to time. So I apologize for those uh typographical

errors and the flexibility of this document also requires some flexibility from this body and I appreciate it. Um, but I'd be happy to answer any of your questions about the agreement. Um, and uh, thank you for your time. Thank you,

Council Member Kelly. A, is there a second? Seconded by Councilwoman Gordon Young. Discussion. Council member Carmona. [clears throat]

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, Council Hayes, um, as I look through this um, agreement, I just had a quick question. Um, if there's some sort of like unforeseen circumstances that affect the budget, I just wanted to know if there's like a way we can um, allow other donor funds, foundations, or grants that could come alongside this agreement, if that would be possible. And the only reason is because I have a couple architect friends that have expressed that obviously as things change um a lot of things get restricted with the the budget. And so I'm just curious if this agreement would allow for something like that. Obviously still keeping in mind that this is the Hanks Foundation, the majority their you know naming rights and all that stuff and we do appreciate this uh I think all of us appreciate uh what they're doing for our city. Uh but I but could you speak to that at all?

So obviously in any major project like this particularly with the scope and the cost of this project budgeting is part of the obligation of the uh of the professionals that are retained. That'll be part of that contracting that we do to make sure that the budget estimate is maintained. And so if there are augmentations required that that source of funding would have to be identified, the city is not obligated to provide additional funding beyond the contribution other than for site remediation costs. So this site originally was a rail yard years and years ago before the city acquired it. And so we may bump into some environmental concerns. We'll be looking through brownfield funds if there's a remedy that needs to be had. We often are able to access grant funds for those types of purposes, but other than that, the city's obligations end at the sort of proposed boundary sites. And so that $11 million amount has to be able to satisfy all of those costs of design and construction. And I think anybody with a with a u project like this is going to estimate some overages and things like that. So that's part of that responsible budgeting that'll be part of our contracting and oversight with those individuals. That said, like you said, maybe something comes up and we have to find another source. That's certainly something the city would would undertake at that time, but we don't anticipate that today.

Uh thank you for for that. I just want to make sure that if we can leave the door open cuz if there are options for say upgrades in scope, features or quality to make this as awesome as it can be, I think we should allow for that. Keep in mind that the whole riverfront park uh we have a major grant from the state promised money that hasn't come uh for the riverfront park that we're hopeful that this is uh sort of an incentive for our state officials to pay attention um through the benefit of the Hanks Foundation. We're tremendously lucky to have the ability to make this investment in our riverfront and we're hopeful that that will help trigger the state into funding the riverfront park grant so that we can undertake that and we certainly feel that part of the nice part of Terara being part of this design team is that they're our designer on the riverfront park as well. And so hopefully we'll be able to combine these elements and execute on a tremendous riverfront park project. That state part of that though is still in that state limbo and to your point we may need to look for other things to augment this but right now we're not obligated to do so.

Okay. Uh I appreciate it council Hayes and thank you Madame Mayor. You're welcome Council Member Gordon Young. Thank you Madame Mayor. Corporation Council Hayes, I don't know if you can answer this question. This is under section 7.3, ticket revenue share to donor, and it says the Hanks Foundation has stated that the $1 ticket revenue would be used for academic scholarships for regional students. Do you know how they plan to track that? So it it's my understanding that the Hanks Foundation is not engaged in a lot of that activity because of course they don't have this funding source and so um we don't have a lot more detail than that. Okay.

Um at this point in time to share other than the Hanks Foundation has been clear about its intention to utilize that to benefit u educational opportunities in the arts area. Okay. Do you know if that like that's going to be written in though and will there be like an accountability measure? Yes.

Yeah. So, anytime we have events on the riverfront, there's tickets that are sold. So you can you can audit the number of tickets that were sold at an event and go back and and you know if that additional dollar has been added under the ticket. You can you can have whether it's a promoter or whether it's a park district, you know, holding an event that you'll be able to to track that and we'll be able to work through that to make sure that those dollars were passed through appropriately.

Yeah, I think it's I think it's a wonderful idea. I think it's great, but I'm also like how many scholarships, how many, you know, I mean, like what's the dollar amount? Um, you know, when we said regional, what does that mean? Um, I just would like a little bit more clarification in terms of that piece. Other than have any further questions. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're welcome.

One final point. Um, Councilwoman, we did include a non-discrimination clause just to be protective on that issue. And that's at 7.4 to guide uh the Hanks Foundation on their um on their contributions. their charitable contributions would be non-discriminatory. Their whole basis of existence is as a charitable foundation. So there's some oversight there as well from the federal tax authorities about their purposes that they've stated in those documents and in that regulatory scheme. And so we have confidence that um the Hanks Foundation is going to follow through as they state. But there's also not only this agreement where we'll have some limited oversight, but also the federal government uh with regard to the foundation's tax status will be monitoring that. Thank you.

Thank you both for your explanation. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're welcome, Council Member Allen. Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. And under uh item uh 7.2, too. I I do just want to put this out there for the audience that the uh revenue sharing provision will uh not be limited to long-standing festivals such as the fine art fair, October Fest, Soul Fest, Iris Fest, Fiesta Elar Rio, and India Fest. So, um I wanted to state that then I appreciate them understanding that those are long existing programming that we're having that they won't be included in the revenue sharing. Is that correct, Corporation Council Hayes? That's correct. We want to make certain that our traditional items wouldn't be affected by this revenue share even if those events utilize the amphitheater. So, thank you.

Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. We have an item on the floor to approve an agreement with the Hanks Foundation for a donation to construct the Dhanks Amphitheater in the amount of $11 million. And we [clears throat] have a motion and a second. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Mr. Manager. Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. At this point, I'd like to ask Kevin Graham of Terara Engineering to come up and uh he'll walk through a presentation of the the possibilities that we're envisioning for the D Amphitheater. Mayor Ali and city council. Uh just wanted to say thank you on behalf of Jim Hanks. Uh Jim wanted this dream to to build an amphitheater to honor his wife that passed away. Uh he's a he's a Washington guy. He went to Eureka College, University of Illinois in Chicago, then on to USC for his doctorate. and uh he made drugs and sold them but they were legal. Chief uh he was ran a pharmaceutical company was very successful and what a great gift uh that the city has just received I believe. So uh the Hanks Foundation thanks you very much and enjoy the presentation and again this is just a conceptional uh first look of what possibilities can happen on that riverfront. So, pretty exciting times.

Thank you, Mayor Maner.

Thank you. Uh, again, my name is Kevin Graham with Terra Engineering. Thank you, uh, Mr. Manager. Thank you, madame mayor and council. Um on behalf of our entire team and it was kind of mentioned ter engineering with Ebstein uh global Patrick is going to help me with the presentation um Arab and then our valued uh partner core uh construction um Caleb is here tonight as well. They're really working with us as we go through this process to look at cost, to look at right sizing this so that as we're going through the design, we're providing you with accurate and and reliable information. So when we were last before you on September 9th I believe um we presented kind of what that general idea might be where might this happen in the riverfront and and how might that be the as a beall the riverfront its new home. So tonight, we're excited to come for you and provide a little bit more uh insight as to and a preview of what these possibilities, what the conceptual ideas um may look like and go towards. So with that, we'll launch into it. And this is just a little bit about the whole uh mission statement of the Hanks. I don't expect you to read that. um is in your information. But the proposed site um as we've we've talked about is um on along the riverfront between the Murray Baker Bridge and the River Plex uh as it as it sits. It's approximately

about 5 to 6 acres of land and kind of drawing that magical boundary on the on the far side closer to the Gateway Center. it's kind of that that flex part of that. Um, and but roughly that's kind of the area we're looking at. Um, what I want to go through is kind of bit a little bit of the features. You know, the the area currently has the Veterans Memorial, has the Gateway building on the side. um the playground that was taken out. There's a few little remnants of that, but has really, you know, this site um a big open green space. Um and I know there's been questions about, you know, how this land was was uh acquired originally through the land water conservation fund. Um, and yes, we have had conversations concurrently and actively through this process with the DNR and entities to talk about the use of standards, the requirements to make sure this this fits in with what we are we're envisioning. Over the n past few years, number of years, uh, city of Poria, the park district has hosted some very wonderful events on this site. Some festivals, cultural events, concert series. Um, and really that's kind of what we're looking to continue with moving forward, but making that part of the fabric of the riverfront that is celebrated and takes it to another level. So how are we looking to do that and what are we looking to do in doing so? Um through this process we looked at and wanted to learn from some of the other venues around the country in the Midwest that have some of the similar uh

understandings and and issues concerns uh that we've looked at here. um places in North Carolina, uh Cedar Rapids, um we went to uh looked at Nebraska, a number of different events spaces and said right sizing this, looking at the amenities, looking at the operational aspects and challenges that they've faced and said, how do we solve that here? And then we even looked at it and said, would that fit here? Are we right sizes? Do we have the right kind of parcel? This is the Cedar Rapids one. It would fit in here. It actually operates very similar to what we're looking at here. Um or in Aurora, uh we have a venue that um we'd operate a little differently, but again, does it fit on this site? Absolutely. So, I think we have confidence in the sizing of this space. We did prepared a and you approved a master plan for the riverfront a few years ago. And within that master plan are are a number of different features, but a key couple of them, items number 19 and 20 on there were festival grounds and a band shell. and really looking at this specific area for heightened infrastructure improvements and bringing in a a a more of a a structured uh venue for this site. This actually imposes this into the site. So, what are we looking to do with this site? Um, as you look at the the the area kind of between and what it does is kind of positions the the uh pavilion and I

would point to different things but you're looking at different we're looking at different screens here so I won't do that and for the people at home uh but we have a a performance pavilion the D performance pavilion which is uh more closer to the uh river facing back toward towards the skyline of the city and towards the bridge. We think this v this uh orientation is is a little more uh it's dramatic, you know, both for the performances. Uh it sets the stage out uh where it's visible as kind of an iconic structure and on the lawn. It allows us to have um other aspects to the to the services of this both from how do they load in and out for operationally um as to as well where we can include encourage some of the VIP and ex other uh uh accessory um items which would be just kind of pop up um in close proximity to the Riverplex and how that becomes an attractant to attracting talent to come to this venue. We've looked at where should we have um concessions and how do we uh bring people into the site maintaining kind of what is how the park district has operated it to date of utilizing that coming underneath the gateway building and you so we have a maintained secured entrance uh point to the to the site. Um a number of different amenities um uh are on this from VIP sitting seating areas to how would we control storm

water. Um one of the things that I that we learned and and and witnessed at a couple of the different venues and there was one in Lexington that I happened to be there uh for another uh event was this idea of kind of breaking the space up. So that and you kind of see the the wider walkway kind of running through an angle uh parallel to the stage that what that does is when we have those smaller community events, we now have a space they feel like they fit in and doesn't just become this wide open field. So it kind of helps us maintain and rightsize feel where we're at in the in the lawn. And I think that, you know, becomes important to those smaller cultural events that are happening that you host on a regular basis or new ones perhaps that want to take part in the riverfront. And I think that's, you know, a wonderful opportunity um for the for the lawn. What might this overall look like? Um, this is just kind of a ren uh a rendering of what it could look like on the riverfront. The bridge is so dramatic and dynamic. Um, it's wonderful. Every time I, you know, I turn uh turn the TV on, I see the bridge lit up and uh we want to accent that. And I think some of the images that um Patrick is going to walk through and describe the architecture. When we envisioned this riverfront, it was really playing off of Puria's history and heritage, the cultural heritage of the city, the historic and the industrial heritage of the city. And bringing in that element into the design, I think is really important. So with that, I'm gonna let Patrick uh take

over. and kind of walk you through what some of our very early possibilities might be.

Um, Madame Mayor and council members, thank you for your time. I'm Patrick Karat. I'm the architecture design director at Epstein. I'll walk you through briefly through some of the ideas and concepts that went into the stage design in particular. Uh, and as Kevin alluded to, the Murray Baker Bridge was actually an important inspiration to the stage design. Uh, we were really drawn obviously by the historic importance of this particular engineering feat. Um, but we also drew some inspiration as far as um ideas like connectivity, which is something that a bridge brings between communities, which is very important. Uh, as you zoom closer to the bridge, we actually start to um really be drawn to some of the engineering elements like the angularity of the steel, the perforations, and obviously that's really brought to life uh by the lighting as Kevin mentioned, especially in the evening. And as architects, we're really um drawn by our context. We're also we were very inquisitive about our context, but we also wanted our stage to complement what was around us. So, you see some of the angularity and the elements that you could uh reference from the bridge um being injected into our design.

We're also in a uh float flood plane, so anything that lands on the ground could be an issue as far as debris being caught when it does flood. So actually having two columns uh come down on a Vshape serves a purpose as well. It limits the number of points that touch the ground which was also important and also displaying of the column in the rear uh opens up that corner again for uh water debris but also serves a purpose for access from our loading area. Uh but we really wanted um this stage to be part of the community even when it wasn't being used for events like you know rock and roll concerts or orchestra as we shown in a previous uh image. So we thought that uh it it would be important uh for this um you know stage to have an icon iconic form and something that was recognizable and and could be used year round whether it's you know a yoga classes depicted in this image or somehow have some synergy with the river plex uh nearby. So, we wanted to go a little bit beyond um let's say two walls and a roof, which is typically what a stage is. And we thought about that connectivity that the bridge has, let's say, in theory. Uh and we thought about, you know, how can we make this a little bit more engaging for the community. So, we looked into things like, uh, you know, punch cards and morse code and even QR codes as sort of these fictional doorways into a world of information that you could access. Uh so we thought you know maybe the facade could be that kind of doorway to this additional information. So we introduced a pattern that could be readable and scannable by you know certain types of devices. [snorts] So, if somebody were to approach it during the daytime when there's not a performance, they'd be able to almost go in the scavenger hunt, if you will,

search for this uh code or QR code on the facade and then be able to access um you know, it could be a message from a performer, it could be a message from uh Jim Hanks and the Hanks Foundation, it could be a graduation that was filmed here. So we we sort of developed a memory bank or an archive for all these shared memories of the community and we feel like this will keep the the stage engaging uh and give it a life of its own. Uh we we obviously had to size the stage uh based on some minimum requirements. It's kind of hard to see here but the stage had to be a 40 foot x 60 foot minimum footprint. It had to have some clearance requirements for rigging and lighting. So we are addressing all these um sort of technical requirements and we have to make this uh function for a concert and again these are pre preliminary renderings. We look for feedback as we move this forward but we just wanted to to show you the exciting uh possibilities with the stage design. And then finally, I think this kind of summarizes the beginning of the presentation when we talked about context. Uh we think that the stage design could complement the bridge uh really well with its angularity and also have this very iconic form. Uh, and something that is a lesson from, you know, now 22 years of doing this is that if you can synthesize a shape into a couple of lines, it's typically you're typically on the right track for something iconic and that's kind of what we were aiming for. So, thank you.

Well, thank you both. Uh, Mr. Graham, Mr. Kurda, beautiful presentation. I'm impressed. I mean, it just looks amazing. I love the elements of the bridge incorporated into the design of the stage. I mean, it just looks like an art sculpture and uh yeah, it's it's very beautiful. Questions? Um Councilman Rigenbach.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. And it's the councilman whose district will host this um magnificent um amphitheater. Let me say thank you first of all to Mayor Maner and the Hanks Foundation in general. I think I speak for all of us around this horseshoe and saying we're just overwhelmed by the generosity and the vision and how this ties in with the master plan. There's just so much synergy that um we're we're will be forever grateful. So, make sure you give um Mr. Hanks our deepest gratitude and Kevin and Patrick. Wow. Um, as as the mayor just said, this iconic, I think, is not an understatement in any way at all. So, this is to to be incorporating a structure like this in a flood plane um with all the other concerns. And I I got a message from one of my constituents, make sure that it isn't facing the North Valley because they still have nightmares of a concert a few years ago. So this this just hits all the all the points that many in the constituents of ours has been have been talking about and again um we'll be excited to see this um be fine-tuned. But the iconicness of this just really speaks to me and um job well done. Thank you very much.

Well said, Councilman Ringov. He'll never let us forget this is in district three. [laughter] part of our downtown. And uh thank you to the Hanks Foundation, Mr. Hanks. Um M Mayor Maner, great to see you again. Emily, thank you all. We we really appreciate it. Before we Oh, well, maybe we'll get what I'm going to ask for. Uh Councilman Kelly,

I guess I'm being a little contrary tonight. First of all, I that I think the work done so far is wonderful. I of course we are all very [clears throat] very grateful for this gift and selection of Peoria and the selection of the site in Peoria I think is wonderful. I uh I remember I I was on a uh [clears throat] team for a new building some years ago for a new church and uh went around people were asked what they wanted in the church. They were talking about capacity and they were talking about this and that and it came to me and it's the same thing that I will say this evening.

[clears throat]

It should be beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful is also iconic. Um the design that we saw originally, that sloping arch, maybe there's something impractical about it, but it was a beautiful building. This to me is a little brutalist and [clears throat] we are um brutalist in architecture the architectural term. Um um I know that you know the bridge is a is a uh uh something that inspires and our uh industrial background is something that inspires. I I get that. But [clears throat and cough] this is a place to enter another world, it seems to me. and something beautiful would serve. If this is built this way, I'm sure it'll be great. And it certainly is iconic with just a few lines, but lines a few lines can curve as well. U I uh uh I do I think the idea of the memory panels is fabulous. And I I'm a little confused. Are these to be like taken off and new ones put on or I mean how or they're permanent.

Okay. I have a speech that I want to give you to put on one of those, you know, but uh so so the idea would be that they they it becomes a living museum because you can with that code that can be reprogrammed in that. So I see um the panel doesn't have to be changed. I see. But we can change on the back end the messaging then that they send housing. That's a wonderful idea. I think really terrific idea. Um uh that's all I have. I would just ask let it be beautiful. Thank you.

Can I get a motion to receive and file the presentation? Moved by Councilman Seir, seconded by Councilman Carmona. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Item number 25-349, a communication with the request to approve the 2026 annual city and county joint legislative agenda. Mr. manager.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. It's that time of year again where we uh approve our annual legislative agenda. Um we have our legislative breakfast is scheduled for January 9th um with our legislative delegation in the uh county and the health department. We have seven requests for direct sponsorship for our legislators. Um the first obvious um has been uh our opposition to any modifications or or pension sweeteners for police and fire. Um uh tier 2 modifications. Um the second is um focusing on the missing middle housing issues that we see uh and the challenges of finding housing for people that make between 80 and 140% of the area median income. Uh the third request came from the police chief which is um some modifications to the juvenile court act of 1987 that would focus on repeat juvenile offenders. Um the fourth item is um the request that um the state level off the 911 sir charge for uh downstate communities, everyone outside of Chicago um and setting that at $2.50. Um the uh next item is some clarification on a law that was passed uh last year pertaining to the certifications for building inspectors. Um just asking for more time and some more flexibility for uh that. I think there'll be some efforts that'll be pushed by the suburban building officials to do that. Um, we have the the next two requests are are economic development incentive request that if the state is looking at at what other states are doing that we become more flexible and nimble in our ability to provide economic development incentives at a state level. Uh, we feel we've got good economic development incentives at a at a local level, but it's really at the state level that we could use more

assistance. And then last, uh, this kind of ties in with what the the other item from the police chief is just allowing that juvenile police reports could be disclosed, particularly on autothefts. Right now, it's very difficult. You have to go to court to get that released. And, um, it's difficult if a a car is stolen by a juvenile to to get that police report released. And so, we're just asking that that some effort uh be taken there. Um we have some funding requests both vertical and horizontal but primarily uh we have four appropriations. Uh the Pat uh Mr. Corporation Council mentioned one earlier which was um the riverfront funding. We also are waiting on $25 million for Main Street. Uh $3 million more for MacArthur and $2.5 million for street lighting. Those are appropriations that have been approved uh by the general assembly uh year in and year out over the last several years and we just haven't been able to get them released from DCO. So, we'd like to see that coming forward. Then we have some vertical um hor u requests uh including the vehicle and pedestrian barrier system for downtown and the riverfront uh the warehouse district parking structure and then the relocation of the State Street post office. Um we have several uh road requests uh if there's funding available. Pioneer Parkway, Laramie Avenue, Prospect Avenue, um uh University, and then the Springdale Cemetery Road Network. Uh and then we have some just some general legislative support items that we've included uh over the last several years. Uh as well as uh we have the uh request that came from Councilman Kelly for the site valuation tax which would change the way that we would assess land um uh taxation here inside the city of Poria. And so that's our legislative agenda.

Okay, Council Member Reagan.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um very good comprehensive list, Mr. Manager. I think it encompasses many of the things that we talk about frequently and I'm happy to see the opposition to any tier 2 pension obligations being the number one item on the list. But in light of the next council agenda item, I think it would be appropriate to perhaps add another item. And I'm not sure the exact verbiage we want, but to ask the state to increase um funding for homelessness support for mental health resources and facilities and support for substance abuse treatment and facilities. Those are things that are um often discussed here and our hands are frequently tied. So, if we could put that on and finesse that as you did the other items, if you would. But, um, let's make sure that those are included in our list.

We can do that. What What So, what area would that be? M. Well, who's title? Um, just trying to determine the category. What category might that be, Mr. Manager? adding homeless [snorts] funding for the unhoused, uh funding for mental health and substance abuse. I I think we can put it under an other position support and and that way they know that that's something that we would certainly advocate for and ask that they would support if there's those appropriation efforts going forward. Okay. Good recommendation. Thank you.

Um the only thing that I would want to see, Mr. manager. I think it's a great comprehensive request list. Um, but once we get it approved by council and before it's sent out to all the places that it will go, I would just want to make some formatting um adjustments. Okay. Okay. All right. Can I get a motion? A move by Councilman Rianbach, seconded by Council Member Jackson. Any other just Excuse me. specifically added that request.

Yes. And with those additions that Councilman Ringbach recommended, please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Madame Clerk, item number 25-350, a communication with a request to approve an agreement with Phoenix Community Development Services to support New Hope Apartments at 301 Northeast Jefferson and the amount not to exceed $300,000. Mr. Manager.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. I'd like to turn the floor over to our community development director, uh, Joe Doulan, to walk through this item.

Uh, thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. Thank you, manager. Uh, I apologize a little bit, uh, for the wording of the item in front of you. Uh, this was all, uh, happening last week and we need to get something to put in place with you to have a discussion. Uh, so we'll be asking for a slightly different request towards the end. Uh, but I wanted to walk you through kind of, uh, the current situation. uh because I think there's been a lot of reports out there and a lot of things going on and I want to kind of make sure everyone is on the same page where we're at. So, uh a little historical background, uh New Hope Apartments is a permanent supportive housing complex located at 301 Northeast Jefferson. Uh it's kind of a joint effort owned by Pury Opportunities Foundation and Phoenix Community Development Services with Phoenix Community Development Services. Um kind of managing the day-to-day at the property. uh they really are uh the partner that we go to uh when we are trying to provide housing uh when a lot of different other places in the city of Peoria won't take someone for when they're ready to be housed. Uh you know whether that's a history of evictions, poor credit, uh just just some struggles that that they need to place. They're ready. They've gone through the processes. They've uh cooperated with our social service agencies. They're ready to be housed, but we're still trying to get over that hurdle of finding housing. So, um, they work really hard with us. When we relocated people out of the motel project last year, a lot of residents went to, uh, New Hope Apartments. So, uh, unfortunately, uh, the last 2 or 3 months, uh, they've seen some struggles, uh, due to some tenant behavior, uh, that they have made some decisions to they got rid of the tenants that were causing the issues. So, it's not a reflection of all the tenants in the space. Uh it's a reflection of a few uh and it's caused problems for everyone there. Uh October 14th they uh had a someone tamper with one of the sprinkler heads. Uh that caused 12 units to be damaged, eight of units which then went uh they were able to get back online but left four units down. Then unfortunately

on September 20th they had another fire that was intentionally uh set by a resident. that one caused damage to 20 units, security system, elevator control access systems, and the fire alarm system. Uh both of those uh incidences were reported to their insurance company for claims. They're working through those issues. Unfortunately, after that October 20th incident, uh their insurance company then dropped them from coverage uh due to the multiple claims they have. Uh they're still trying to to figure out going forward about the insurance issue as well. That gets us to kind of why we're here today. Uh last Tuesday uh there was another intentionally set uh fire at the property on the fifth floor. It caused the sprinkler system to go off uh causing additional significant damage to multiple units at the building uh leaving about 34 units at the building uh unfit for human habitation. At that point, city staff had a meeting with our fire department. Uh the damage was done to the point to the fire alarm system was not operational. So the sprinkler system still works at the property, which is great. Uh but there's no active fire alarm system at the property. Uh in talking to the fire department, uh without that fire alarm system, uh they did not feel like it was safe to occupy unless uh uh fire watch was put in place uh 24 hours uh 7 days a week. Uh and so unfortunately uh Phoenix based on all those incidences uh did not have the staffing to do it and we wanted professional staff to be able to handle it. The cost to a firewatch uh for the standard we need is about $2,500 a day. It's two workers overnight uh working with the Phoenix staff and then one worker during the day after that fire. Uh we reached out on Thursday of last week to the state of Illinois. Christine Haley put us in contact with the Department of Human Services. Uh and then they also uh everyone reached out to the Red Cross. We're very very lucky the Red Cross stepped up and said we'll help uh in

this situation. Unfortunately, they temporarily uh they provide temporary assistance. That's kind of the nature of what they do. So, they said, "But we'll come in for the next 14 days uh set up in your auditorium uh just help have some more personnel in the building. They provide all the food for the residents affected by the fire and just kind of handle the auditorium issue. uh some of the residents that were in those units that were displaced ended up in the auditorium as kind of a temporary makeshift shelter uh why we go through. So, Red Cross has been very uh supportive of those efforts and kind of helped us put together this plan to get us where we're at today. Uh so, that kind of is the past of where we've been at. We've been kind of troubleshooting day by day things that have come up at that building. Um and so then kind of where do we go forward here in the request in front of you? Uh I think part of it it's important to understand uh New Hope has operated at a deficit uh for a significant amount of time. They they aren't able to save up large kind of capital uh money for future needs. Uh and a lot of that is due to the structure of their various grants they get from the federal government. Uh they have a grant from the federal government that provides about $415 per month in rent subsidy per unit. Uh, another one for about500 or $600. They just don't keep up with the needs of the building. Cost about $140,000 for them to have this it staffed 247. Uh, it costs about 80 or $90,000 for pest control all year. Uh, and then obviously their insurance costs were very high, too. So, it's not like over the years they've been able to to severely save up for these emergencies. A lot of times when they have tenants moving in and out, it cost substantial amount of money to get the units back online. uh and all those things kind of contribute to the financial issues they were having at the property. Uh so we'd been working with them the last six to nine months on trying to figure out a solution long term. Uh and then unfortunately with the federal government changes uh that have may or may not be taking place and I'll get into that in a second. Uh it provides

just a lot of uncertainty going forward for the nature of this property. So, a lot of that said, uh where we kind of go from here, uh Red Cross is exiting the property on December 18th. Unfortunately, at that point, uh we will be at a place where the people in the auditorium are going to be, uh not allowed to be at the building, and that represents about uh 20 to 22 people. Uh the good news is at this moment, Pathway Ministries and Dream Center both have capacity to handle those 22 people. Uh so if they will uh have a place to go in a shelter if they choose to do so. Uh one of the things that we really struggled with last week was if the building is posted and we have to make room for 80 people, the shelters indicated they don't have the capacity to do that. But they did have the capacity for uh the 22 individuals that are in the auditorium. Unfortunately, just with the Red Cross not being able to provide the staffing levels for the auditorium, uh, and Phoenix not having the staff capacity to, uh, continue to provide that firewatch there, uh, that's kind of the path we're going to have to take. After that, uh, the next kind of deadline we're looking for the occupied units is February 28th. With the changes at the federal level to go from permanent supportive housing to temporary uh, I mean to transitional housing, the rent mechanisms and grants for that property just do not make sense. So, our recommendation tonight is to kind of uh for you guys to authorize the city manager up to $300,000 of the $520ome,000 we have remaining uh that were specifically uh repurposed from American Rescue Plan money uh to general fund money, but still with the intention of using it towards homelessness services uh to give the city manager the authority to use that to kind of minimize the impact as much as we possible. Uh it'll pay for the 247 fire watch at the property of of the security guards up until about uh February 28th when we'll be looking at the property uh

likely shutting down as it's currently uh situated. And then also add that will cost about 225,000 we're guessing uh based on what we're currently spending and what the contract is with the security firm. That'll leave us about 75,000 of that 300,000 to uh have some further assistance for the tenants that we will be looking to relocating and find different housing options for. Uh so I'm happy to answer any questions. Phoenix representatives are here as well. Uh I think, you know, it's obviously a band-aid on a situation that's bad uh that I wish I had a better solution long-term for in our community. I think the federal government changes about going from permanent supporting to transitional housing uh were something that was going is going to cause our social service agencies a lot of problems going forward. uh yesterday uh in response to a lawsuit by multiple jurisdictions across the United States uh who are suing over the changes, HUD actually uh rescended the notice of funding opportunity uh and the changes that were in that. Uh the problem with that is they rescended the no so there is no current no out for continuum of cares to actually respond to. Uh so it was already a delayed process that likely the funding wasn't going to go out to social service agencies until May of next year. The grants that were anticipated to start going into place in January, February, March, you know, just depending on those timelines. So by resending the no making changes and putting it out again, it's likely that May deadline is actually going to be pushed further uh into the future uh which will not only leave these projects but some other projects in our community uh in limbo not exactly sure what funding is available and not funding available. So I think after multiple discussions with all of our social service agencies and our partners and just the capital needs at New Hope and

the struggles it's had uh kind of that needs to be our path going forward is to look at that February 28th kind of as a deadline of trying to get all of the social service agencies rallying together trying to find and minimize the impact as much as possible similar to what we did with the motel project last year. Yep, that's a lot. Councilman Allen.

Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, Director Dulan, I've I've told you this before and I just want to publicly uh give you your flowers again. Um, this is definitely in the all duties as a sign part of your job description. of you have taken this on and just even things you just given us all of this and I know um you know this isn't necessarily your lane but you're you're running with this and I know you have a staff behind you and so I just want to commend you for that. Um and then also shout out to President Call and the rest of her staff from from Phoenix and this is such an unfortunate situation um that you all find yourselves in. And so, um, the silver lining of this, fortunately, we still have this allocation remaining from our American Rescue Plan funds. Um, I agree it's a band-aid to a very severe wound, but what we don't want to have happen is 72 individuals find themselves unhoused as we enter the coldest part of the winter coming up. So, um I definitely will be supporting this effort tonight um and hope that some of these challenges to some of the federal uh actions um you know are are able to be uh reversed because um unfortunately the forecast is not looking good as we look to try to address this issue of the unhoused in our community. So again, thank you to you. Thank you to everyone involved and I'll be supporting this tonight. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're very welcome,

Council Member Carmona. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, Director Dulan, um, I really appreciate all the additional work that you're doing to try to solve issues like this. It's, uh, greatly appreciated, I'm sure. Um, I just want to make sure that I heard correctly and clarify the I guess the the lapse of insurance. So, after their insurance was dropped, were they not Were they notified and did they re get other insurance? I I'm not sure if I heard that part.

Yeah. So, um from you know and uh Chris calls here, but from from this will be their that would this is their third claim in about four months to already uh multiple claims throughout the years just based on kind of the nature of the business. Uh you know they do have some liability on the insurance. It's basically on the property. Yes, they were aware that that they didn't have property insurance at the time. Uh, you know, they're trying to see what they can do. This isn't necessarily just a a New Hope problem. It's kind of a problem we're seeing across the country and some of these uh permanent supportive housing facilities that uh tenants are are sometimes cause issues and are very hard on the building. Uh so, they're exploring every option that they can. Uh there might be an opportunity in the future to to find that insurance. That's what they're diligently working on. Uh but yes, they were aware.

Uh thank you for that. Um you know, I'm inclined to support this because we have obviously we have the funds to do it directly for that purpose. Um I just I wish we had a way to recoup some of that cost, not for obviously city hall, but because the the fund that we have is not going to last forever and um it it is we're going to need it indefinitely. So, um, yeah, like I said, I'm I'm going to support this. Um, but I hope that we can somehow recoup some of that cost through the insurance. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And welcome.

And we we uh we will have those conversations with Phoenix, anything that's eligible from from past expenses, things like that. I mean, I think they're willing to to work with us on all those things as well. Um we've had many discussions with the state with um uh Jason Marks at the emergency uh management uh with the county about what we could maybe submit to the state too. So we will explore all that. I'm not sure if if we will get anything back or what we can do, but we're continuing to look at that and we'll make sure to to to look at everything we can.

People often ask us what keeps you up at night. Well, I know that this situation has literally kept you and your team, Chris call and her team up at night and working overtime, overtime, overtime and throughout the the day and night. So, I want to express our appreciation for your efforts and your leadership and in trying to resolve this situation. Uh what involvement has I I see uh CEO Crawford here with PHA. What what involvement has the Poria Housing Authority had in this?

Yeah. So um sorry I didn't mention that. Um part of that discussion uh they are involved of of what happens on February 28th. Uh you know there are multiple different funding sources for the tenants in these properties. Different rental subsidies, different vouchers. Uh, Director Crawford uh, met with with Kate Green at the continuum of care and Chris Call uh, last week uh, about possibly whatever they could do they could look into about transferring some of their project based vouchers into tennis based tenantbased vouchers that can go with them. I mean, when we talk about some of the residents at New Hope, some of them have been there for four or five years, not cause any issues, would be good tenants in other locations if those vouchers can go with them. Uh, so she's she's been a great great support working with us. uh willing to have those conversations with us uh use their creativity to do whatever is possible. And I think that's kind of what it's going to take with the other funding sources uh that the continuum of care might lose is what we can do to to maximize every resource we have available. Uh and the housing authority just as they were with the motel project and moving people into different units uh continue to want to be a partner with us in this discussion as well. So appreciate their their help. Sorry I did not mention that but I had a long a long item. So

yes. Yes. Thank you for your contributions, Council Member Oiler. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Um, I had heard the county board of health was asked for over $100,000 yesterday for the same effort. Are there other organizations that are being asked for funding as well and what is the status of those?

Yes. So, we uh had a discussion with uh Monica Henderson at the Pory County uh health department. Uh if you all remember, we gave them substantial money uh from American Rescue Plan specifically for housing. Uh then the county matched that. Uh since then, we've launched uh the flexible rent program that they gave back the money to the city, but it doubled because it was the county's money. Uh to essentially uh not to veer off topic, but a program that essentially uh allowed us some really flexible money to help those who are experiencing homelessness who have an income. So, you're uh someone who might be on social security uh and get a monthly check every month that could go into senior housing, but they don't have the money for the deposit or the moving expense. Uh that program has been in place for about a year and a half now. We've been able to successfully place about 60 uh three different units of people experiencing homelessness into housing. um that money uh because of our success in not needing as much per family as we thought we would, we have money left over, that still needs to be spent uh by the end of 2026. Uh it has a little longer shelf life of American Rescue Plan money because uh we have a contract with them to do it even though they gave us back the money. Uh so we feel this kind of fits really well into that program. Uh so that is why we made an ask of of getting that money because a it needs to be spent, b it fits well into there. Uh and so kind of that's where that ask came from. I think your question of of asking other money from people uh we haven't made a direct ask of other organizations yet. Uh we did have a call with multiple organizations uh about how they can support this effort. Uh that's where the Red Cross came in to provide the food and the supplies and things like that. Uh we have uh had multiple discussions with uh Carl and OSF about making sure they have health care professionals going in and out of the site now and kind of until

things change just to address those mental health issues and provide that mental health support. Uh but as those are the kind of resources we've been looking for, uh we haven't made a financial ask anyone else yet. So, if they were to approve this, is that in addition to the 300 that's on our agenda, or is that part of this 300,000?

Uh, I think I don't have quite the answer to that. Uh, I think we would use that money obviously first as much as we can specifically because that money is designed for the flexible rent and uh has more of a deadline than our money. Uh, I think, you know, we're asking originally put the 300,000 up there. Uh, just penciling out what the firewatch is going to cost till February 28th is about $225,000. Uh, so if we need the additional funds, uh, I think that that we will use them. Uh, but to answer your question, I'm not sure. Unfortunately, they don't meet again till January 26th. Uh so even if they made a decision on January 26, we'd have liked to be between now and then working to uh provide tenants other opportunity and provided some of that financing necessary. I think if they do provide that, we'd obviously use that money first.

This $225,000 until late February, is that just to have someone keeping a watch on the property? Yes. I manage a 24-hour [snorts] door staff at another building and that's what I spend for the entire year. So, I I would really encourage you to take another look at that.

Yeah. So, last Wednesday uh when we had to find a firewatch uh had to really appreciate the the police department who called four or five different uh security companies to see if they would offer assistance. They all said no. uh they all said either a they don't have firewatch insurance to be able to cover it or they're just not interested in providing that assistance. Uh we were able to find one firm who was it's uh about $65 uh an hour uh per employee from the 700 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift we have two employees and then the 7 a.m. am to 7:00 p.m. we have one uh and they have to be walking as the firewatch kind of walking each floor every 20 minutes. Uh, so that's kind of the requirement that we have to have in place and kind of being transparent with where that money is coming from and how it pencled out.

So, does it really take a security professional to watch and see if somebody started a fire? uh there's some insurance requirements involved to to to be uh I think that's what makes our fire department feel more comfortable to do is and then it doesn't it also helps that they are security personnel to make sure that uh if other issues are coming up they can assist with those as well and then am I correct to understand that Phoenix has no insurance on any facility at this point any facility in Puria correct Or it's just New Hope. Just New Hope. But the other properties are insured.

Yep. Okay. I I thought you had said this was a bigger problem with the insurance than just this building. So I wanted to No, I mean like globally like uh other performative supportive housing across the country are seeing these similar issues of being. I just wanted to make sure if this is something we could be discussing about another building at another date. No, right now. Uh yeah, the other the other ones and the other ones are all pretty much newer construction. I think one of the other things going against this building is I think it was built in 1920. Uh so it's an older building. Uh most of the other projects are fairly new construction, so uh much better warranties on stuff, things like that. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Council member Gordon Young.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I just wanted to take time out to thank you, Director Dulan, and your staff, but also to thank the staff of uh Phoenix Development. Uh, you know, you're working hard and it's like every time you take one step forward, there's two or three steps back. You know, between funding cuts, between, you know, just the lack of housing that we have in this community, and then here we have this happen. Um, I want to say to the the the residents, I see you. I see you. Um, I just had somebody today come up to me crying and afraid that she wasn't going to have a place to stay and she said that she stays at New Hope, right? Um, you know, we are committed. I am committed to helping any way that I can. I think this is something that um goes beyond the $300,000, way beyond that. I mean, it's like it put a hole there because that could have been used to elevate, right? But things happen and um as a community I think this is time times this is times when we come together and we definitely should come together. You definitely have my support on this. Thank you. Thank you madame mayor.

You're welcome. Councilman Regan Bach.

Thank you madame mayor and director Dulan. Not to sound like a stuck record here but um thank you for being the quarterback who [clears throat] brought all the this team together in so many ways. And I see Nicole Morrow, our housing coordinator in the background. we know the work that she does in this space also. So Nicole, thank you very much for being here. And um the Red Cross, Phoenix, the continuum, PHA, I mean, what what what a team and um I think I've heard the phrase, it takes a village. Um you know, truly thank you all of you for for being part of this. And um if there's any um affirmation as to the request I made to add to our legislative agenda about the need for more funding, I think this just really exemplifies why we need more funding and whether it's at the federal level and I understand the continuum has had conversations with Congressman Lehood who's going to be meeting with the HUD secretary. So, I mean, you know, we we we just need to be advocating every chance we get and and I'm so glad to see so many of the residents of New Hope here. I think that's a powerful message for us to to understand what's happening to these people that live here in Poria alongside of us. So, um, thank you for for coming out and, um, let's let's move for the approval of this item. And I would like to offer the correct verbiage, if I may.

Yes. So, the communication should read, this is a communication from the city manager and the director of community development with the request to authorize the city manager to spend an amount not to exceed 300,000 to assist with New Hope Apartments located at 301 Northeast Jefferson.

Okay. Is there a second? Seconded by Councilman Councilwoman Gordon Young. Any additional discussion? Council member Kelly. Uh, Director Dul, and again, as everyone has said, thank you so much for the work you're doing. Um, is it true that the uh perpetrators of uh the lighting fires, etc., uh, were arrested, uh, were put in the county jail and were uh, and the tra the charges were dropped by the state's attorney. Um, I don't know the specifics. Chris, do you do you want to only the perpetrator of the fire that was done October 20th? Because since that took down the security cameras, we are not able to determine who set the fire last Tuesday. There's no footage. So that perpetrator on October 20th was arrested, was released within hours from the jail, and then the charges were dismissed by the state's attorney's office. That's correct.

How about the other incidents? The sprinkler one, there was no arrest made on that charge. I thought we had multiple fires.

That's what I'm saying. There were the fire October 20th resulted in the arrest that got dismissed. the fire last week. There's no security camera, sir, to show show who did it. It was on the fifth floor of a building. I do think you could be referring that our agency had a third fire at a different building. That was a deliberate arson and that person remains in custody. That is not a New Hope resident. That was at Madison apartments one. Uh, was there one of these uh suspected [clears throat] uh arsonists or whatever tried to get back into New Hope and was told you can't come back here?

That's correct. We have there's a process and we have um the police chief has been down there with us. There's a legal process you have to go through to publicize no trespass. But additionally, the assistance from director Dulan helped in that that unit that was damaged, they were able to come very quickly and say that unit could not be habitated, you [clears throat] know, or uninhabitable for the condition it was in. So that then gave us more emphasis to be able to say or, you know, more permission to turn the person away because our clients are lease holders. They hold a lease and so they are protected by landlord tenant law in the state of Illinois and so there are certain processes that we have to engage but we are very much aware that tenant behaviors cause the three incidents in that building that got us here today.

I'm I'm glad that you are trying uh uh because uh those folks I think have uh forfeited their that is correct. Yeah, but I want to attention. People have talked about the residents that are here. You know that I don't see I don't see any arsonist here. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. [clears throat] We have a motion on the floor and a second. Uh, Councilman Rigbach read the u read the motion that's a little different from what you see on the agenda. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Director Dulan. Thank you to all the partners. Item number 25351, a communication with the request for the following. A approve an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Poria and the greater Poria sanitary district for the outfall pipe repairs project in the low bid amount of 1,574210 with an additional authorization of 157,420 for contingencies for a total project amount of 1,731630 and B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2025 revised budget relating to the sewer fund budget for fiscal year 2025 to increase construction costs as a result of actual bid costs exceeding the plan budget for the outfall pipe repairs project in the amount of 691,630. Um this requires two/3 vote of the council um no less than six votes. Um, and this will also require two separate votes for A and B.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. Manager. Um, thank you, Madame Mayor. I'm going to ask that Director Powers walk through this item.

Mr. Manager, Mayor, Council, Good evening. Um, actually, the clerk summarized it very well. Basically, there's one bid, our standing partnership with G GPSD and ongoing outfall repairs. Um, one bid was received by the district. It greatly exceeded what we had anticipated from the engineers estimate. We were able to identify funding to meet the requirement and go forward with the agreement. Uh, if you agree, uh, the district has already signed the agreement as you may note. The locations are noted on a map uh, enclosed. And I'll stand by for any further questions you may have.

Questions? Can I get a motion? Uh, Councilman Oiler, move for item A, seconded by Councilman Kelly. Any questions? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Council, thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. Move for item B, seconded by Council Member Kelly. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Again, thank you, mayor. Thank you, council.

Madame clerk, item number 25-352, a communication with the request for the following. A, adopt, I'm sorry, accept the transportation grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation in the amount of 66,213 and B, adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 20th 2025 revised budget relating to the general fund to recognize the receipt of the transportation grant funding from the Illinois Department of Transportation and the amount of 66,213. Uh this item is um also requires twothirds vote of the council um and we'll need two separate votes.

Mr. Manager. Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to turn it over to the police chief to walk through this item. Good evening, Madame Mayor, Council, City Manager. Uh this grant is uh to improve highway safety through programs that were described to this grant. Um there's 14 key areas that we'll focus on, but the main thing to understand is this is those campaigns that you see click it or ticket uh sober driving campaigns. Um and we have specific dates that we'll be doing these campaigns and that's what this funds that overtime for our number one complaint in our city, traffic. Any questions for the chief? Congratulations on the grant.

Thank you. Can I get a motion? Moved by Councilman Allen, seconded by Councilwoman Gordon Young. Please cast your ballots. This is item A. Motion passes unanimously. Councilman Allen. Item B, seconded by Councilwoman Gordon Young. Any questions, comments? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Madame Clerk,

item number 25-353, a communication with a request to adopt an ordinance proposing the extension of the duration of the Westlake special service area in the city of Poria, Illinois, increasing the Westlake special service area sales tax rate and providing for a public hearing and other procedures in connection therewith. Mr. Manager.

Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. at the request of the uh property owner um Westlake Shopping Center LLC um they are requesting that that they would increase the special service area uh supplemental sales tax rate from 3/4 of 1% to 1% and extending the um uh termination date of the SSA to July 13th 2055. This would necessitate that we establish a public hearing before we start this process. And that's what's in front of you tonight is this is just setting the date of the public hearing. Coun, excuse me, Councilman Allen.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. As Mr. Manager said, this is to set the public hearing. I forecast a lot of conversation uh as we lead up to that uh public hearing. Um but again, this is just establishing the public hearing. And so without further ado, I would like to move for approval. Seconded by Councilman Seir. Any discussion? Councilman Carmona,

did you guess it was going to be me? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, not a fan of the the way we disseminate information to have public hearings here. Um, I'm not blaming the staff or anybody else. It just is what it is. U, unfortunately, uh, not many people have or citizens have time to listen in to city council to come here after work and whatnot. Um, I'm not going to support this motion. Um, big surprise. U, thank you, Madam Mayor. Okay. What' you end with? What was that last statement? I'm not going to support this motion. Just making your comment.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. There's no specific recommendation, though. No, not yet. Not yet. Coming. It will be prepared. Okay. Thank you, Councilman Carmona. All right, we have a a motion and a second. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes with one nay Carmona. Madame Clerk, item number 25-354, a communication with the request to receive and file the month ended October 31st, 2025, un audited financial report. Mr. Manager,

thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to turn it over to our finance director, Kyle Kra.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Manager. Uh, the report in front of you tonight is for the end of October. Um, we have two more months of reports for the year. Um, what I will say is is I it's going to be kind of similar to the reports I've been giving you over the last few months. Um, we are slightly below budget on revenue, but we are closing the gap of what it was last month. Last month it was around 3%. So now we're about 1%. So that trend will continue. Um, on the expense side, we are below budget on our expenses. Um, and in both cases, we're ahead of where we were last year. So those are really good trends in terms of what our expectations were. Um, if you go a little bit deeper into the report, you'll see kind of uh um where I have the kind of my still belief and the conversations that I have with council um on where we'll end the year. Um if you look at the specific charts around home rule sales tax, state sales tax, income tax, and property tax specifically. Um those are on a cash basis. So the trend that obviously we're seeing is is that we're seeing numbers that are um larger than we that that uh are above last year. So, um, I'm still comfortable and what we told council during the budget process is where we'll end the year. Um, and with that, I'm available if there's any specific questions from council.

Thank you, director Kate. Councilman Se. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Director Katty. Just a quick question with the property replacement tax. Did you what were your your estimate for the 26th? I don't remember for the 26th budget. the 26 the 26 budget IML at the time of the budget had a increase of about uh 5% for next year. Um so I think our number was around 10 and a half million was our estimate for next year.

For next year. Okay. Thank you sir. And just I don't know if it's a question just a comment. I mean it's getting late here. There's a couple items on page nine of 10 under expenditures. I'm just concerned a little bit every time we go over five or 10%. We have two items that actually are over 19 and 20%. Uh I'm I'm just going to keep an eye on that. Hopefully maybe I can talk to you tomorrow in the future about that. I don't really have any questions for that. But I'm just it's just a big miss so far. So I'll probably give you a [snorts] call just talk about that. Okay. And madame mayor, I just like to make to move to receive and file.

Seconded by council member Allen. Any questions or comments? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Madame clerk, item number 25-355, a communication with a request to receive and file a presentation on the city of Poria strategic plan. Um, Mr. Manager,

uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. What I'm going to do right now is turn it over to our assistant city manager to walk through um a presentation on the strategic plan and as well to to talk through uh the dashboard that we have that will you know track the measurement and um progress that we're making towards achieving the strategic plan. Wonderful.

All right. Good. I will be brief in my comments because the the night the late the night ah see the night is getting um late. Uh so good evening madame mayor and council members. Uh what I wanted to do tonight is give you a brief update on where we're at with the strategic plan. Um Councilman Riginbach, I remember in 2023 when I came up to the council and requesting for this uh funding to do the strategic plan that was a community informed process, you wanted to make sure that we were implementing the plan and not just doing this as a rudimentary activity or exercise. So tonight I want to show you at the council uh over the last two year our effort in implementing this the current strategic plan. I want to update you also on just the process and the systematic approach we've taken to ensure accountability and measurable outcomes something that you all requested as part of this process. Uh, so tonight I'm so excited to um publicly display our dashboard which is now on our website and I am going to figure out how to do this. Um, there we go. I'm good. So um as you recall we have our six priorities of our strategic plan which is quality of life, downtown development, community safety and um and embrace diversity, equity and inclusion, business growth and prosperity and infrastructure. So the staff as we began to be do the process of implementation we really be had to think about the framework for how we wanted to do this and what's in front of you is how we as the departments started looking at our strategic plan we have this very clear policy direction from the council which is at the top those are the priority priorities that you have set forth and then within the strategic plan itself you have objectives so that's the community level

um outcomes that we focused on and then what we took is a different approach. Uh for the last two years we have been meeting as a leadership team every month for almost two and a half to three hours at times figuring out how do we execute the strategic plan in a more comprehensive and collaborative effort. So no more siloing our efforts to being public safety is only for police and fire or commality of health is community development or infrastructure is public works. Every department you as you've seen in the budget process has a piece of how we implement your priority, your policy direction. And so this is just to demonstrate the process for which we look at the activities that we're going to be showing you on the dashboard. Secondly, we use this also as a tool to create an internal team outside of the leadership team. So the leadership team includes our directors and our number tws within the departments. But we also decided that you know what this is a great part opportunity to involve our staff our junior staff in this process of implementation and so we it's a more of a training ground for them as well. So what we've done over the course of the last year is we've given some improvement processes that they have been looking at and so you don't see them in the strategic plan dashboard today but you will in 2026 and this team of staff which I have to commend them they are doing this on top of the work that they're already doing in their departments and some of them even coming off night shifts to come to a morning session to do these activities. They are defining their practices within the strategic plan and they're looking at a number of process improvements that will help facilitate some of the activities that we are going to discuss. I also want to take the moment to just identify those staff just real quickly just because those individuals really have put a lot of effort and I want to publicly acknowledge them. From human

resources we have Tanya Rickman and Ryan El Peter. From our legal department, we have Max Walton and Stephanie Thornhorst host, excuse me. Um, for our city manager's office, we have Uriah Kilgallen and and Blake Egleston. Fire, we have Nick O' Conor. Public uh police department, we have Chris Collins. I Jason Biller, community development, Lomnia Dooughey, and Matt Smith. Finance Department, Christina Engold, and Amanda Hall, ECC, Brianna Egnu, and public works, Loretta Adams. And I just want to acknowledge those staff members because they have really put in a lot of effort and time and energy in talking to their staff, their colleagues to help us think about from their lens how we can better implement strategic plan, the strategic plan. So, I just want to give that um them some kudos. So, let's get on to the show. This is really what I'm here to show you tonight is our strategic plan dashboard. And I practiced this this morning and yesterday. So hopefully we are able to get this going. All right, Paul. Now the keyboard doesn't want to work. Is it? Let's see. I did this twice and now it doesn't do it. Let's see. Now I went to bituspiciousness. [laughter] This is what happen when you want to do technology in real time. Apologies. I'm going to keep us moving.

Yep. See, we practiced this.

Anyway, so as Paul continues to get us going, I will talk through the dashboard. So, our dashboard is now live on our city website at poriagov.orgstrategic plan. and where you will be able to see the dashboard. You'll also be able to see the plan and all the activities that led up to the creation of the plan. So what nice what is nice about the plan is that it's irrerative. It's not a document. It is a a living dashboard. What does that mean? So on a monthly or weekly basis on a monthly or quarterly basis, we're looking to make updates to the plan. Now sometimes we have to say uh not everything is given to us on a monthly basis. So that's why we're still trying to figure out will a quarterly or weekly basis work. Thank you. Uh so I am going to um this is a big I have to tell you the mouse is bigger than the actual screen size but we'll work with it. Uh zoom. There we go. So what I would like to show you today is where does the city uh plan live? So if you see every ex a priority is displayed on the dashboard. When you click on the dashboard, you'll then begin to be able to see and now this has gotten too big. Excuse me. Uh we practiced this and it's still it's so you'll see that this is the council's uh not only priority but their uh goal which is displayed here. And then here where you see in our descriptions, these are your objectives. These were the how do we how do we actually fix these these issues to actually address the the goal that we want to to be able to um achieve. And so what you're seeing here is as we continue to fill out the the

strategic plan and continue to do the work, we will begin to fill these in. So as last um budget process you saw the department had goals. So what we are now showing you here is if you go under financial stability you'd see the activities that we've are upcoming that we've identified in our our budget process that the departments are going to be focusing on. And as you see in here we also talk about things that we're working on that may not be able to uh currently be displayed. So, what's nice is that you're getting to see real time activities being worked on as a staff. And over time, where it says upcoming, they will then go to on time. If there's a delay, they will say there will be a a signal for showing a delay or if it's something that's completed, it will show completion. And it'll allow for us to even put some explanations and updates at the bottom so that if there's some additional details that we want to display, you're able to do so. So if we continue to go through downtown development, I remember at this the meeting in uh October, we talked about downtown development and there was a question of why is there nothing present? As you can see in downtown development, we have several areas that we are focusing on re um renovate revitalization and development, downtown safety and livability, riverfront in the destin and being a destination uh location. So when we start looking into the actual activities, what you start seeing is what are we doing as stab to address these issues. So we go into the actual partnership that we're working through. So like tonight with the the passage of the Hanks Foundation uh project, we can add that now to our strategic plan as an activity. And then you keep going down as we're working with our community partners, our CDOS's, as they have activities that we are

partnering with them, we can then continue to add that information into this. This is a living document. This is not static. So as we have new information, the dashboard will be updated to to reflect that information. And as we grow, because there might be information here that we are not talking about today, but over the course of 2026, as a council, you may have some additional priorities within the current six priorities that you want us to focus on, and then we can add those objectives into the strategic plan as we continue to build this out. This is going to continue for now up until the end of this current plan which is scheduled to um conclude in 2029. Now it'll be at that point council make a decision probably in 2028 how we want to proceed in 2029 with reviewing the plan. But the document on a quarterly basis will be presenting to some form of fashion to council and update us as to the dashboard. [snorts] As we continue to train staff and as we continue to iterate and look at how we can better present things, you will see some additional addition additional um updates to this aesthetically as well as information wise. So again, we would love your feedback and your um if there's any feedback from your perspective that you want to make sure is being reflected, we would love to hear that and we will definitely make um to receive those that feedback. And of course, we want this to be understandable to our community members. We want them to be able to see in these uh activities what they came to a two-day uh community engagement activity see reflected as what we're trying to strive for. So with that I will stop talking and give you the floor to ask any questions. And again, I want to also just really quickly I want to truly

thank my partner in crime in this effort, Kyle Kate and I have really been handinand every single day. I think all we do maybe once a week is talk about strategic plan and with that we have two excellent amazing upand cominging just great employees that have really done the effort in making this dashboard be what it looks like today. And I want to acknowledge Blake Egleston and Amanda Hall for all their efforts to have to deal with me and Kyle and the amount of information that we're throwing at them all at one time and then telling them, "Okay, come back and figure out how to make it work and they always did." I just want to want to give them a public acknowledgement for their effort because what you're seeing in front of them is 100% their work and dedication and it would not have happened without them. So, I really want to give them a thank you um for their effort. So, with that, I will give the board back to you, Mayor Mayor.

Thank you, uh, Madame Manager, for continuing to make the strategic plan a priority and delivering on your promise of a dashboard. Uh, I recall that the purple uh was act. Uh, so that was just for the please don't clo those are two separate things. So, if I go back to the dashboard, that's a good point. So uh there is a color scheme to this and we will make sure the legend is up here but in the legend you will see when it's upcoming which means we haven't started the work it's purple when we are working through it it's green for progress and then when we're completed it's blue blue

and we're trying to be mindful of sensitivity of people's color schemes and so we're trying to use primary colors that does not impact um ADA issues. Okay, great. I I love the color coding. So, yes, great job. Thank you, Council Member Allen.

Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to give kudos to you, Assistant City Manager Richardson, and the rest of the team here. Um, this is a great uh accountability tool for our organization and allows for our constituents to go to our dashboard in real time and see how we are performing and uh what are our growth opportunities as well, too. So, I appreciate you all and um under your leadership, I'm not surprised that we have this and uh a shout out to the pop model. I know a little bit about the pop model. So, [laughter] uh, but yeah, just wanted to give you your flowers on this and the rest of the team. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You want to make a motion to receive and file? Motion to receive and file this item, ma'am.

Okay. Seconded by Councilwoman Jackson. Um, okay. Again, thank you. I can't wait to get my hands on it. All right. Well, I look forward to your feedback, Mayor. Thank you. Please cast your ballots. [clears throat] Motion passes unanimously. Madame clerk,

we are now at unfinished business. Item number 25-334, a communication with the request to concur with the recommendation from staff to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class CN district to establish a halfway house for the property located at 1924 West Southwest Adam Street. Um, the motion on the floor is to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in the class CN district to establish a halfway house for the property located at 1924 Southwest Adams. Okay, Mr. Manager.

Uh, thank you. We have with us our assistant community development director, Leah Allison, who is here to follow up on this deferral of this item from the last month's meeting.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, Council. I'll just give a brief recap. Grow Community is here tonight um requesting a special use for a halfway house at 1924 Southwest Adams. It's an existing developed property that will uh include 12 bedrooms to accommodate 10 to 12 paroleles as a transitional housing residence. Um it will be staffed with uh three staff during normal business hours have 247 after hours security on site as well. Um the property is zone commercial neighborhood commercial. The use is allowed through this process as a special use. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions, but as I mentioned, Grow is here with representatives to answer your questions that you had uh mentioned at the last meeting and would, you know, like the opportunity to speak to you as well.

Sure. um the leading representative for Grow. We'd like to hear from you. And there were some questions that were um that came up in our last meeting and maybe you can help to answer some of those questions. [clears throat] Yes, please.

Well, good evening uh Madame Mayor and the Peoria of City Council. My name is Francine P and I serve as the director of real estate and development for Grow Community. We appreciate the opportunity to speak with you regarding our proposed acquisition and development for 1924 Southwest Adam Street. We'll be h happy to answer any questions you have, but I'd like to give you an opportunity to hear me out because as the as a real estate director and then also hear the re-entry director so you can get a little bit of an an idea about the how the program is. So, if you would just hold your questions to the end, I would sincerely appreciate it. Thank you. Can you spell your last name for me?

Sure. pool is P O O L E.

Okay. At Grow Community, my role is to oversee all property acquisition, development, planning, rehabilitation, oversight, and compliance with state and municipal requirements. Every project we pursue undergoes a strict and comprehensive due diligent process to ensure that we are investing responsibly and that our work contributes meaning meaningfully to the communities we serve. Before we move forward on any property, including 1924 Southwest Adams, we follow a structured evaluation process. We hired a local reput reputable architect that the city of Peoria approves. We conduct a full professional inspection to identify structural needs, environmental concerns, and required upgrades. We prepared a detailed performer outlining expected costs, contingencies, and long-term operational stability. This information is then submitted to IDA, which is the Illinois Housing Development Authority, which reviews our plans and provides an initial approval before we proceed to any form of acquisition. Please note that IDA is a state institution that has a very rough and tough thorough evaluation process. We have done other projects with IDA in Chicago in which demonstrates our credibility and ability to deliver a good product. Once Ida gives preliminary confirmation, we move into the initial closing checklist which includes verifying zoning compliance. This is why we are before the city council today seeking a special use permit. An essential step in our process to ensure that the the property's future use aligns with the city requirements and community expectations. Regarding concerns about renovation costs, here is the financial structure of our project. Grow community has been awarded 475,000.

Um it's a grant through IDA for this development. Our purchase price for the property is 27,500. All remaining funds over 250,000 are allocated direct directly to repairs and rehabilitation of the property. Much of the construction work will be performed by grow construction, our internal construction construction division and some of the participants are in grow construction. So once they get out of the program, they actually get hired to to be part of the the grow construction family which significantly reduces labor expenses and ensures quality control throughout the project. We anticipate int anticipate beginning this project in spring of 2026 with targeted completion date in the fall of 2027. Our timeline accounts for permitting, supply availability, workforce scheduling, and the detailed rehabilitation needed to bring this property to the standard our organization is known for. This project represents more than a bu building. It represents opportunity, rev revitalization, and long-term stability for residents who need it most. We are committed to transparency, responsible investment, and sustained collaboration with the city of Peoria. We thank you so much for your time, your consideration, and your continued support as we work to bring highquality community services to Peoria. I will now turn this over to our director of re-entry, Gregory Williams. Um, thank you for your time. Uh, council members and madame mayor. It's a

pleasure to be here this evening. Uh, medication is wearing off. Pain is uh emanating, but that's okay. It's for a worthy cause. uh Grow Community. Uh I've been with Grow Community a little over five years now, working uh started as a therapist. Uh did the um first pilot program for the workforce development program. Uh they're successfully running right now in Chicago. Additionally, um I've been supervisor for the community department, which handles just regular walk-ins and people just coming in off the streets, etc. Um, now I'm uh currently the director of re-entry and I work with uh men who are dealing with uh severe trauma. Not only the trauma that they have experienced in the streets, but the trauma that they experienced while incarcerated. Uh, one of the things I want you to remember about grow community is that it's healing boys and restoring men. uh thus transforming the community by making sure that we take time out to pour into individuals that have been traumatized as well as being incarcerated. And if I had time, I would want you to understand something very seriously that that that that resonates with the incarcerated population. I met a young man that I worked with. He had been in the Cook County Jail for approximately somewhere between 3 to 6 months. the individual um got out on bond finally when Holmes uh stayed uh with his girlfriend. What happened is is that in the middle of the night this young man got up and I want you to know that I had been working with this uh young man for a while and I had been working with this fiance also because the trauma extended extends all the way to the

household sometimes. And so while working with them uh we became uh it became more like family counseling versus me just counseling him and that was no charge to them. That was just a charge to them for and that is paid by insurance. It's not out of pocket. And so we also do pro bono and I want to make sure you understand that when we can't get the insurance for the uh individual. We work primarily with men. We will do it pro bono. All it needs to do is to be approved. But I want you to realize that this as I digress, I want to go back to the young man that as he got up in the middle of the night. Uh he woke up in the middle of the night, went to go relieve himself to use the restroom. However, he got up and did not make it to the restroom.

He made it to the wall and the dresser. While I received the call at around 11:00 at night, I noticed that it was on my Google line, which means that it's a it's a client calling. This is when I was doing actual therapy. The gentleman was sleep, went back to sleep. She tells me, she gets on the phone. She said, "Uh, Mr. Williams, you need to come and get him. You need to do something right now." I said, "Do what? What's going on?" She tells me say he's walked over by my dresser, urinated on the dresser and the wall, and he got back in bed like nothing happened and went back to bed. I want you to understand how traumatized these individuals are prior even after they have been incarcerated. I I I said, "Well, let's do this. Let them stay until I can come [clears throat] tomorrow and we'll talk." Long story short, I get over there and I talk to them. I ask the gentleman. Um, I separate them because I need to have him to talk to me in private. Then I need to talk to her and then I need to talk to them together. I talked to them and he lets me know. Uh, I said, "So, I have a question for you because you urinated in in the house." And he said, "I don't even recall that." I said, "Were you sleepwalking? Do you think you were sleepwalk?" No, we eliminated that. the other piece that I understood. Then I started asking him another question. Draw me an outline of your cell. And when he finished drawing me the outline of the cell in proximity to where the bedroom is situated, that's where the toilet was. Do you understand that it is embedded in them when they come out? Not all, but most. there is a severe level of trauma that they experience while they are incarcerated. So, we need to be there to help them. Uh I they asked me to take

over the re-entry department and it has grown in Chicago and we have we have a program that works. We have a program that sustained there are three gentlemen here at least that have stories that have that are success stories that have that are working for grow. One is in school in Governor State University. Now um we have seen tremendous transformations. So without any hesitation I really want you to realize that they have been through some traumatic experiences but they have been able to overcome. And so some of the barriers that we deal with is transportation when they come out. So you have transportation issues. Why do you have transportation issues? I'm glad you asked. Because there are barriers going through different neighborhoods and territories. Because sometimes what they have done while they were on the outside that caused them to go into on the inside does not allow them to walk freely through different areas and grow community. We solve we help solve that problem. And how do we solve that problem? By allowing our therapists to go to them. This works. This also I want you to know it helps them to deal with their parole stipulations. Some of their parole stipulations require that they go in different places to do different things. get their identification, uh, making sure that they have, um, uh, insurance, uh, parole stipulation. They have to have therapy. That's where we come in. That's where the re-entry department starts at, therapy. The therapeutic process is important, very important for this population because sooner or later, and I visited multiple prisons in Illinois. I made it my business this year to see at least o I was in at least a dozen prisons. I made it my business to do that because I wanted to see where are the people going

and do the cities have a plan for this population and we have a plan and there's not planning for every situation but we have a plan for this population and I want you to understand something. I believe I can stand now and got my my knees loose. Let's go. You got one more minute, please. I

That's all I'm going to take. That's all I'm going to take if you just give me that. So, I want you to understand that we will go to the Let me Let me fast track it then since I have one minute. We will come to the client and make sure they satisfy the parole stipulations. We have case managers who will also assist in that process. The stipulations usually start with with with therapy. They also usually there's a 45 review day period that they need to have had therapy with a counselor. Then we look at the workforce development program and I'll be through workforce and then the housing. The workforce development is directly tied to that. If you're in if you have a re-entry counselor and then you want to go into the uh workforce development program, what has to happen is that you need to get a recommendation from your therapist. Now then you have to apply just like a regular job. So we're training them to go forward not to not to be crippling them but to train them to go forward so that they'll be able to do this. Now in workforce development we have a unique thing called we have uh uh screen printing screen printing and uh therapy. So group therapy and screen printing. So now you're getting a dose from the therapist, right? So look at it like medication. They're seeing the therapist one to two times a week which is intense outpatient therapy. Now they're in workforce development. They receive this a six-hour program and you're pay for six hours. Now three hours is in the workforce side learning learning and training how to do uh screen printing, shipping and receiving. And the other part is the um is the uh cognitive behavioral therapy work model, workforce model so that you have therapy to deal with workforce situations because you have some some of our guys have never had employment. Some are at 35, 40 years old and are just now having their first job. So, they have to be walk through this process. We have that process now.

In order to get into housing, you have to apply for it, but you only can apply for it after you've been in the program 8 weeks, which means you have eight weeks of intense outpatient therapy. And you have uh you have work training. Can you wrap up?

I'm wrapping it up. This is it. The last part, please forgive me. Um so the last is is that we're making sure that they get an honest chance when you get ready when they uh apply for the workforce housing uh re-entry housing which is transitional housing. What you have is the opportunity to pay rent. Rent is $100 a week. In Chicago the average price is $275 a week. When they finish up with the program we are making sure this is three things they have. They have they have their therapy set aside the program. They have their work, they're working and they're earning income. Three, they're in housing and what we're going to do when they finish housing because they have a budget coach, we move forward and then when they're ready to move, if we transition into another home, now they have rent receipts, they have work history, and then we will pay their first month's rent. That's what we do at Grow. And that's what I that's all I have, Madam. Thank you.

Thank you. We have some questions uh from the council. I'm not sure who they'll go to, but going to start with Council Member Oiler. Council member Oiler. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Uh, the main reason why I asked for the deferral at the last meeting was to receive clarification on where these residents would be coming from. One of my main concerns is that I am not supportive of the idea of them coming from areas outside of the city of Peoria. Okay. And I have not received anything since that last meeting.

Okay. So, let me uh satisfy that. One one of the most important things is if we're coming into a city, we want to work with that city. Uh we're working with the men that are returning home to this city. And so, usually that's the residents of this city. We don't go outside the city to get residents for this program. We work within the city limits. So we take the ones that come back from uh who have been released from prison. Usually they come back to where they were uh at home at and then uh or we also work with the people that they bring in wherever they come from. If they come from release them in your city, they're in your town and we prepare we're prepared to uh work with them. Uh but we're not looking to bring people in from other areas. Uh as far as that's concerned, that's not what we do. Do you have some type of a charter or something in writing that outlines that specifically?

If you would like to have a MOU or memorandum of understanding, we'd have no problem producing that for you. Is how do you get notified that there is someone eligible for this program? Where do you get them from?

Parole. Uh, usually parole. I'm like I said, I'm in I'm in multiple prisons and I visited uh just a lot a vast number of penitentiies this time. And I've noticed that I've noticed that I've seen Prioria constantly seeing Poria, people being released to Prioria, people being released to East East East St. Louis, people being released everywhere. But I I uh that's how we get our our information. That's how we we work with uh guys being released. The other piece is that we make sure that if I'm out there, I have them sign a form where we we get their information so we we are able to reach back out to them. That's how we really do it. And then now I'm I'm also prepared to meet with parole to see if we can work directly with uh the commanders in this particular area.

And have you had any type of a community meeting with the folks that own businesses? I don't think there's that many residences, but there's a lot of business owners in that area particularly interested in this concept and what the plan is. Okay. So I have no uh Francine, do you do you want to answer that question if there is an answer to that in terms of meeting with somebody u business owners in the area? Are you speaking of specifically on on Southwest Adam Street? Adam Street and the surrounding streets that would be affected by the change in zoning.

Yeah. Well, you know, I was around there and I didn't really see any any real businesses that were thriving. I mean that the the position where that that Adam Street property is is on a corner and it's kind of desolate. Well, I think one of the neighbors who's here next door would probably take exception to you saying their business isn't thriving. So,

I mean what I mean by thriving and I apologize to that to that to that owner. What I mean is is that I we didn't recognize um a lot of businesses there because the the position of where the property is the it's it's the area is very it's it's desolate. It's It's quiet. There's not a lot of There's not a lot of activity. The property sits back off of Adams. So, it it sits on a corner, so there's not a lot of activity right there. So, again, you know, we didn't talk to any business owners there around the area because simply we just didn't see them when we were there. We did. It was just It's very quiet where the where the where the property sits. Well, there's quite a few of them here this evening. Would you be open to having a community meeting with them before we take this item up at a future meeting?

Yeah. I mean, yeah, sure. Absolutely. That makes [clears throat] sense. So, I I would May I ask what may I ask what the concern is? I Yeah, they'd be happy to have a meeting with you to talk about that. So with that, I'd move for a deferral to the second meeting in January so that there's an opportunity to do that with the holidays. Is there a second to that motion?

Yeah. Oh, well, we have a second by Councilman Kelly. to defer it. It's up to the council to decide whether to do that or not. Uh his motion was to defer it to the second meeting in January. If anybody wants to speak to the deferral, you can have Are you done, Councilman Oiler? Okay.

Councilman uh Jackson, you want to speak to the deferral? Well, um my directly related to the referral, if those folks are here tonight, uh wouldn't it be uh only fair to give those business people who are present tonight an opportunity to introduce themselves and and [snorts] uh find out I spoke with one person on the phone and madame mayor um I'm I'm I I I traveled that area all the time. The closest business that I saw was the bar across the street. Um there there are some warehouse businesses, structures, uh the old Illinois American uh no, the old Illinois furniture store,

which is a warehouse now. And I I spoke I got a call briefly from uh I think Mr. Corey who said he was going to be here tonight. So, I mean, I would highly, it would make sense to me that if uh these folks are present tonight, please please come forward with we have a a motion to defer unless you're willing to def delay that until Well, they they indicated when I when I spoke to two of them on the phone, they would come here for the express purpose of of conversation tonight. I understand. No.

Well, we can vote on the deferral. Do you want to speak to the deferral, Councilman Rianbach? Yes, ma'am. Okay.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I I will be supporting the deferral because I have a number of questions that I would like to relay to Miss P um a after the vote because there there's there's a number of things I I love the concept of what what you do but how much can I say with the the budget of $450,000 is just not realistic. So, I I think there needs to be further discussion and if you could meet with some of us council members before that next meeting, I think um we'd be able to have that back and forth. So,

I definitely see the need for more time on this. Okay. Um, in terms of the the the budget, uh, the property had a professional inspection done and our performer is is using that inspection. So, the the property can be done for the amount that I stated because we've already had the construction crew out. I've had estimates from roofing and windows. So we've already you know the the budget is there for 450,000

450,000 is 475,000 is the grant and then the the the property uh acquisition cost is 20 what' I say 209 so the remainder is what what we'll be using to renovate the property so keep in mind though grow construction is an internal division too so we have our own internal division of of of contractors and and skilled laborers that will be doing the renovation.

Yeah. I mean I it's we've already done the Yeah, we have a motion on the floor to defer until the second week in January. There's a second second meeting. Sorry. second meeting in January. There's also a recommendation that um a meeting be held with some of the business owners in the area. Madame mayor, yes. Oh, I I I need to keep going with this process. Does anybody else want to speak to the deferral?

Councilwoman Gordon Yan. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I just want to know if we could clarify for Grow what the expectation is because I feel like they should have been told this before this meeting at the initial deferral that they needed to meet with business owners. um because we keep moving the line. So like can we at least give them some idea of what the expectation is so that they know and then when they come back we're not moving the line again. We're going to vote on the deferral and see where we land. Okay.

Okay. The motion is to defer until the second meeting in January. Please cast your ballots. Oh, wait. Okay. Don't vote yet then. Yes. You want to speak to the deferral? Yes, I I do. I didn't see your but I didn't see your light. [clears throat]

Okay. Um, I'd ask I'd like to ask the representatives [clears throat and cough] I'm [snorts] I'm sure you'd like to have this resolved tonight, but it looks like uh a deferral is likely other than the inconvenience of it. Is there anything that uh goes bad in the meantime or or can we Yeah. Can you can you accommodate the deferral uh even though you'd rather not have it um in that time frame?

Yeah. So, we have a a seller that's eager to get this done. Um Ida is was anticipating us to have an answer for them on whether or not this special use permit was going to be granted. So, we have to go back to IDA and restructure our meetings because of this. Um, I mean, if you ask me, do I want it done tonight? Absolutely. I understand.

Cuz now I have to go back to Ida and, you know, explain. Um, other than that, I can just say and I just want to make sure you understand whatever the renovation cost is not going to cost the city of Peoria. The only thing we can really talk about is the deferral. Okay. And and you've you've answered my question. I don't want to cut you off, but No, no, I understand, but I just we we can't discuss the facts. Okay. No problem. Um I I guess I think that's important for us to know, but u So thank you, Madame Mayor.

You're welcome. Councilman Carmona.

Thank you, ma'am. Um, I think I think that it's logical to um and I I wish this would have been done a little bit earlier. I I do really appreciate um what Grow uh is doing. Um obviously, it's very important to try to help try to help each other out to get on on the right track. Um, but I think it is very logical to um I mean there's a special use requirement for a reason I guess and um to speak to neighbors and just to put their mind at ease I think would be very beneficial. Um, I've reached or I've uh been contacted by businesses that um are, you know, it's a fear of the unknown, you know, and um I I just think a conversation would really go a long way to set some of those concerns at ease. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. [clears throat] Council member Jackson. Um thank you, Madame Mayor. All right. Just to council member Carmona's uh point. I was at a uh neighborhood association meeting uh couple weeks ago and Mr. Halloway was there. There were no concerns. At least not raised at that meeting. He's not what?

There were no concerns raised at that meeting at at that particular time. Okay. No. Uh, and if you're familiar with the area, it's largely industrial. There's not very many houses around there, uh, Madame Mayor. So, I'm not sure what neighbors you're talking about. The the closest neighborhood association, I was at their meeting a couple weeks ago. I didn't hear any major concerns. Mr. Halloway was there as well. So, what are you saying related to the deferral? Well, what are you saying? I'm I'm just I'm just relating to his point. He said neighbors need to come and talk about it. I don't know what that had to do with the deferral.

Okay. I'm just saying it's largely industrial. So I where those where these neighbors are, I'm not sure. At least in close proximity. Okay. Now there are I'll just leave it at that. Okay. Councilman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Sorry, I just wanted to clarify what I meant by neighbors is the immediate, you know, people, the businesses around there. I didn't mean neighborhood associations or residential. So, um, just wanted to clarify that. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Okay. The motion is to defer to the second meeting in January. If this passes, hopefully we will have some action the second meeting in January without continued deferrals. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes with one nay Allen. Madame clerk,

if there isn't any additional unfinished business, we are now at new business. Is there any new business? Do we have citizen comments? Thank you. No cards. No, I got you.

No cards. Okay. All right. There are no citizen uh comments. So, I would like to invite a motion to adjurnn and to convene in close session immediately following the adjournment of the city council meeting pursuant to the open meetings act 5CS 122 C11 to discuss pending litigation or probable or imminent litigation and pursuant to the open meetings act 5c 122C21 for approval by the body of close uh close session minutes. Moved by Council Member Allen, seconded by Council Member Gordon Young. Please cast your ballots.

Uh, Jackson Reaganbach. Jackson Reaganbach. Okay. [laughter] Thank you for your service. We are to close session.