City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Elmer City Council for Monday, April 20, 2026. At this point, I'd ask you all to rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We're all here. Thank you. Clerk Tamer, please call the role. Nuda here. Virgil here. Nardini here. Bastid here. Herby here. Brennan here. Veris here. Bellinger here. Shenko here.

Hill here. Bram here. Jensen here. Toudo here. Baker here. 14 present, zero absent. 14 present, zero absent. We have a quorum. Um, we'll move on to item two, receipt of written communications from the public. Is there anyone in the public that has a written communication that he or she would like to deliver to the council? If so, please raise your hand. See none, we'll move on to public forum. Has anyone signed in for public forum this evening? Yes, Mayor. Dr. John Jevitz.

All right. So, for public forum, we'll use the back microphone. Um, when you approach the microphone, feel free to adjust it. You have three minutes to talk about whatever is of concern to you. Uh, we'll give you a gentle reminder. when you get close to 3 minutes. Um, and I also want to point out this is your opportunity to tell the council anything that you would like to tell us, but uh, we don't respond. If you state your address, which is optional, we may be able to get back to you. Um, so don't feel offended if we don't engage in debate with you from the dis. Dr. Jebbitz. Well, you know why Elmer is ranked number one, don't you? Because of you guys. So, uh, character, I'm the president of character counts in Elmherst. Character is doing the right thing when no one is watching. That's the definition of everybody here tonight as well as the mayor and also police chief, fire chief, everyone else. So, thank you all. God bless. This is to honor somebody who used to have black hair from Manuka. So, I'm going to bring this up so you see. So, this is a presidential award from Character Counts. This is for Jim Rabbit Hoffer for his years of assistance. I never thought after Tom Borcher was here, I thought, uh oh, no way could somebody follow Tom's steps. I couldn't be more proud of you, John. This is an award to honor him. Our presidential award for character counts. I'm going to have to pull this out quick. I'm sorry. This is for you. So, number one, congratulations on retirement. Congratulations on a great career. Congratulations to all of you for doing a great job. I want to get this real quick for you.

Very good. Thank you. Feel like I'm interfering with the picture here. So anyway, congratulations all you. God bless and thank you for the great work you all do.

Um all right. Any has anyone else signed in for public form? No, mayor.

All right. Is there anyone who did not have the opportunity to sign in for public comment that would like to do so? If so, please raise your hand. Seeing none, we'll move uh on close public forum. Are there any announcements from the disman? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um just a a quick heads up. We all know that uh the spring cleanup is ongoing as of now. Uh, cool. Elmer's cool cities is taking up the task of working with wings, which is about uh preventing domestic violence and supporting those who have uh been in a part of any type of domestic violence. Um, collecting furniture. So, instead of throwing your furniture to the curb, uh, go to the Elmherst Cool Cities website and they have a link in regards to what the process would be to donate your furniture there instead of having it go to the landfill. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other announcements? All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Clerk Tammer, please read the consent agenda. 5.1 minutes of the regular meeting of the Elmer City Council on March 16th, 2026. 5.2 Minutes of the Regular meeting of the Elmer City Council on April 6, 2026. 5.3 Accounts payable April 20th, 2026. 2,886,431.14 5.4 report case number 26PO6 Amended plan unit development with site development allowances subdivision and annexation 188 West Butterfield Road 5.5 report intergovernmental agreement for school resource officers 5.6 6 report DuPage County ETSB continued PRMS participation letter of intent 5.7 report 2026 explore Elmer's community grant program 5.8 report Indiana Street sidewalk project construction engineering services 5.9 report Indiana street sidewalk project construction construction bids 5.10 report planket park temporary construction easement agreement 5.11 an ordinance to amend section 14.09 909 entitled residential storm water management of chapter 14 entitled storm water and flood planes of the Elmer's municipal code. 5.12 an ordinance waving bid and authorizing the issuance of a notice of award purchase order for the purchase of concrete street light poles. 5.13 an ordinance waving bid and authorizing the execution of an agreement with Deep Walk Research Inc. for ADA sidewalk evaluation software. 5.14 an ordinance reserving and authorizing the transfer of volume cap in connection with private activity bond issues and related matters. 5.15 an ordinance approving and authorizing the execution of a non-exclusive license agreement buy and between DUP page cycling Foundation and the city of Elmherst DuPage and Cook Counties,

Illinois. 5.16 a resolution approving an extension of services agreement between WSmart Software Inc. and the city of Elmerst Illinois. 5.17 a resolution approving and authorizing the purchase and planting of Parkway trees for the 2026 tree purchase and planting program in the city of Elmerst Illinois. 5.18 a resolution approving and authorizing execution of a professional engineering services agreement between the city of Elmerst Illinois and Baxter and Woodman Inc. for the 2026 wastewater flow monitoring assistance program project 5.19 a resolution to approve and authorize the execution of a professional engineering services agreement by between Clark Deeds Inc. in the city of Elmherst for the Berkeley Adams pump station rehabilitation project. 5.20 a resolution to approve and adopt the classification and compensation study prepared by MG MGT Impact Solutions Inc. 5.21 a resolution authorizing the application for a general working permit for the construction operation maintenance of city infrastructure located within stateowned rights of way within the city of Elmerst Illinois.

Thank you. Is there any item on the consent agenda that any alderman would like to remove either for further discussion or to vote against? Alman Brennan 5.9 5.9.

So 5.9. Yeah. All right. All right. Any Alderman Hill? Thank you. Uh just I don't know if it needs to be pulled. I guess it does. There's a my name is wrong in 5.1 in several places. I think that's a scrivener error that we can fix. What's your name? All right. And All right. We have a motion. Do we have a motion to pass? What part on 5.1? And is it on the Where is it on? I just every time it's mentioned it's under the deutive and not Jake Jacob. Yeah. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. It's only been that way for three years, but we're going to we're going to fix it. All right.

Uh so, I'd ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item 5.9. Alman Shank with a motion. Alderman Bran with a second. Clerk Tammer, please call the role. Nera, I Virgil I. Nardini. I Brennan. I Vere. I Bellinger. I Hill. I Shenko I Bram I Jensen I Tudo I Baker I 14 I's zero nays 14 I eyes zero nays the consent agenda agenda minus 5.9 passes clerk tamer please read the report on 5.9

it is therefore the recommendation of the public works and buildings committee to accept the unit price bid from the low bidder Nardulli construction company inc of Chicago Illinois for the Indiana street sidewalk project in the amount not to exceed $343,993.35. Additionally, the city attorney is authorized to prepare the appropriate documentation for city council approval. Signed, Alderman Emily Bastto, chair, Alderman Michael J. Bram, vice chair and alderman Mike Baker and Alderman Rex Irby. Have a motion to put 5.9 before the council for approval. Motion, Alderman Bastto, second Alderman Bram. Alderman Bastto. Uh, no, I have no further comment. I'll give the floor to Chair Brennan. Well, we'll see. Alman Brennan.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I pulled this report uh to highlight uh a couple of what I think are are pretty great uh things going on with uh with the city. Um the public works and building committee did uh a great job with with this report and future reports, I'm sure, will come our direction. Uh Elmer staff has done a fabulous job. As most of you know, uh last year we approved a 40-year uh sidewalk master plan. Uh first up was was Crest View and uh from from York to to the the park. Um next up is this report Indiana Street. Um project construction bids. As the report states, you know, uh this project is came in bid-wise lower than expected. Um, in addition to that, staff has secured and aligned $650 uh dollars, yeah, $650,000 of state grants, you know, to the Indiana Street and and Van Aen sidewalk projects. Uh, the combination of both these, you know, uh, favorable the favorable construction bid as as well as the grants will allow the city to complete the Indiana street project and accelerate the Van Hawken project. Um, so I simply pulled it to to share, you know, kudos with with the the city staff, the public works and building committee and congratulate, you know, all the kids in Northeast Elmharst uh that will have a safer uh walk to school uh going to Conrad Fiser andor uh Church Churchville schools. Um, this report clearly has my full support and I I want to thank again everybody that was behind it and look forward to the projects to be completed in the near future. Thank you. Thank you. You know, I do want to

add one thing. Um, these things the grants just don't happen. Uh, if you go back to when we were doing our sidewalk plan, um, people are saying where are we going to get the funds? uh our former state rep Jen Ladish Douglas contacted me and said and city manager and said what projects do do you have that you might want some assistance for and because the sidewalk program was a hot topic and there was a concern of where would the funds come from and I think Senator Gloria Hilton may have had a piece of that too so we identified those um from my office to say these are the ones that would be a priority if we can get funding and so even though she's is no longer our state rep. Senator Glowak is still our senator. They came through these with these funds that will help advance this very important project. Any other comments?

All right. Call the role on 5.9, please. Nuda. I. Virgil. I. Nardini. I. Best. I. Herby. Hi. Renan. Hi. Veris. I Bellinger. Hi. Hill. Hi. Shenko. Hi. Bram. I Jensen I Toledo I Baker I 14 I's zero nays

14 I's zero nays 5.9 passes on to reports and recommendations of appointed and elect officials mayor 11 um there's a topic I want to cover for a few minutes this evening um uh with starting with the governor's address back in January he proposed a piece of legislation called build which stands for build up Illinois development and um it's uh I wasn't quite sure if it was going to advance but it is moving along handily. There's one house bill uh and then on the senate size there are five bills that say in total exactly the same thing as the house bill and I think it's kind of radical and I think our residents and you need to be aware of what this bill provides. Um the goal is laudable. It's to address affordability of housing and affordability is probably the biggest political buzzword we have today in 2026. But I want to give you a few pieces of how this legislation would work if passed. And um I would say the legislation has legs. It has the potential u to go through. So the first one is that it provides that a municipality shall um and by the way when I say shall we're home rule but this would uh overrule home rule provisions on any lot located in the zoning districts that has single family dwellings if and it has you know there's four different sizes but I'm just going to pick the one that is um 7500 square ft. So, if a lot is 7,500 square ft, which is 50 by150, not particularly out of line with what there is in Elmherst, it would permit uh someone to build an 8 unit

development uh on the property. Um, so if you think about that, if my lot uh is 50x 150 and I sell it, it's right in the middle of a residential block, it would allow the purchaser to then put up an 8-unit apartment building right in the middle of the block. Um, and as you'll see, part of the theme I'm developing here is part of the essence of local government, local control, is controlling the development of your municipality and how things are laid out and what your municipality design is. Um, so um, you can't impose additional uh, requirements for lot sizes, setbacks or aesthetic requirements on this. Um so it's a it's a big change. So if you think about this on your own block, it would be kind of a interesting development. Um it further provides that if we fail or any municipality fails to complete our plan review within a deadline established by this act that the um applicant can retain a qualified third-party apprais um um plan reviewer to go out and do it. uh and that it would be at our cost I believe but so we kind of lose the control which is so important to us to know that when development occurs in Elmer's it's done with the review of our building officials. Um same thing if we don't conduct a required inspection within uh two business days then the applicant can go out and hire their own qualified thirdparty inspector. qualified meaning with credentials but it doesn't mean they understand what's happening in Elmharst. Um so any impact fees have to be calculated for any project using a formula that would be approved by the department of

commerce and economic development. Uh so again taking away the local control. Um it also provides that uh municipality shall not establish minimum automobile parking requirements for and we have a number of these uh you know in our downtown developments um but for residential developments of less than 1500 square ft you know if you're talking about condos or apartments affordable housing projects um and a number of other areas um and I don't know if it's directly responsible but one of the key provisions is that uh no building code may prohibit a residential building from having a single stairway serving as an exit for all units in the bu in the building. Meaning like you could have a six-unit apartment and instead of having a main entrance in some required secondary exit, which seems important for safety purposes, you can no longer impose those requirements. Um, and I don't see it in here, but my recollection is the bill also says that instead of having your municipal building code that the state will provide a statewide building code and everyone will adhere to that building code. Um, we have very few structure fires in Elmherst. Um, we have very few problems with our buildings because we are stringent in making sure that our buildings are up to a code that requires a lot of the building to make sure it's safe both from the structure itself and from fire problems. So, this is a complete usurppation of local control. Um, something that's very important to us. Um, there are other factors which I don't know if they're if they're important, but they might be. So, um, and I should say, by the way, one of the things that's a topic of our, uh, new zoning code is whether we're going to allow accessory dwelling units or ADUs.

Um, and it was specifically left out of this current version because people on the our committee felt that it needs more time to talk about that specific topic. under this state law, the build act, um you're required to have ad use with granny flats units behind the main structure. Um which may be a good idea, it may not be, but my my issue is it's not us deciding what we want in Elmherst, it's the state telling you you have to allow them. Um it doesn't this act doesn't address things such as um what if and maybe it's not a problem for Elmer's, maybe it is. if you start putting up these additional units, do we have the water and sewer service to uh provide what these buildings need? And if it's not there, are we paying for it? Uh or the state's not paying for it. I can pretty much assure you that. So, there's a lot here. Um and um I think it's very dangerous. And the reason I'm talking about this publicly is um I don't think in my time as mayor I've ever said, you know, here's something happening on the state level that's so drastic, so radical that we need to let you know for those of you who are social media hounds, unlike me, but this might be one where I'll actually post now to let people in Elmer's know what's being proposed because, and I say this with a little caution because I don't know this to be true, but I don't want our elected representatives who may feel entirely as I have just spoken but feel that they're under some political pressure to do otherwise and they need to know that this is not what we want in Elmer's and we're not the only municipality who's ringing this alarm from my role and on DMMC the DUP page mayors and managers a lot of other mayors are ringing the same alarm but our state elected officials

reps and senators must know that and hear from our residents that this is not what they want so that they can respond to any pressure from the governor's office saying I'm sorry I just can't back this. There are other ways to uh address affordability if you want to provide incentives if the state wants to give us money and say we will as DuPage County has offered some incentives financial incentives if you build some affordable housing. Um maybe that's a good way to do it. Um the problem with these proposals, it's to me I liken it to the grocery tax. Um the governor said a year ago uh in 25 we're eliminating the grocery tax. Um no one heard about it. It came on fast and it went through fast and I think because it was his signature bill and uh it looked great. I'd say 90% of the municipalities who uh well it was eliminated for everyone but uh the option was there to impose a local grocery tax which we did as 90% of the municipalities did because it would have been a a shortfall for our uh municipal revenues of a million and a half or$2 million. So, it sounds great, eliminate the statewide grocery tax statewide, but then we had to just plug the hole anyway. Uh, this is another kind of kind of radical present uh proposal that came out of nowhere and you know, things go fast in the general assembly and here we are April 20th. Uh, they will adjourn in about five weeks and so it's going to happen or not going to happen. And so, this is our call to action. Um, now I've also of import um I don't think the the public's going to understand it as well, but I think people on the

council and I think most of you have gone down to Springfield with um DMMC at one point or another is the LGDF, the local government distributive fund. Um we've been fighting to get back up to the 10% it used to be. we had a commitment maybe we'll get up to eight and this year for the first time I was really kind of surprised to see that the governor's budget proposes um knocking it down just a little bit. Um so there should be no negative momentum. This is a sharing of the uh income tax which is collected by the state that's then delivered to the local government. um the constitution when it was passed in 1970 uh sort of a I'm sorry it wasn't put in the constitution but the idea was that we would share the the constitution does not allow a municipality to impose an income tax. So the idea was the state would share what it collects and um the fact that it would be knocked down even a fraction of a percent where it's only gone up a fraction of of a percent over the past few years is kind of a slap in the p face face for local government. It would cost us I would estimate $250,000 if this goes through. Not a fortune, but I say to you and those of you who are students of politics, if you start taking it back again, I don't know which direction we're going. Um, but I will be talking to our state elected officials and tell them that it's unacceptable. We understand how dire things are for the state and its budget. We have our own budget problems as if we've talked about, but the idea of starting to take money back is completely unacceptable. So, I want to make the council aware of those two legislative initiatives which affect us directly. There are other ones which may be important but um they they go through in the usual course and they seem to be getting worked out but these

are ones particularly the build act or the build legislation needs to be out there for all of our residents to be aware of. It's a call to action. Every one of you I hope will contact our elected reps. encourage all of your neighbors to also get out there contact so that there is a ground swell of people saying this is not what the municipalities want. Uh any questions? Alderman Irby. Thank you, mayor. Do you have a house bill or Senate bill number on on the build act as you quoted it here?

I don't have it in front of me. I will send it out. I think it's 516. I'm not going to guess. Yeah, we'll send it out to council um along with mayor's comments and I'll send the Senate bills out too, but it's really the House bill that seems to be the one that's moving forward. Um and if you don't know who your our elected reps are, we can provide that information as well. I plan on putting that in our newsletter, the bill number, contact information for our um state elected officials. Okay. So, with that, um, Mayor Alderman Nardini,

thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I appreciate you bringing that up, and I think for, uh, not for council, but for the public listening, um, Chair Jensen's, uh, committee, DPNZ, the committee that the three of us are on right now, are in the process of doing a zoning rewrite that started before COVID and has been delayed. And now I think it's worth saying that irrespective of what we are going to face from the state, we're obliged to be rewriting a zoning code based on our uh zoning and whatever the state imposes upon us, we should not be changing what we are trying to do because what what is imposed upon us by the state may or may not occur. We started a process some years ago and I think we're obliged to finish it. um with the assumption that home rule zoning stays home rule zoning. What affects us afterwards is uh in the lap of the gods.

Well, for the timeline of your committee uh and the state's legislation, they're kind of running parallel. So, you may feel you're going to wrap up by the end of May, and I think the legislature adjourns May 31st. So we'll uh but I agree the committee's work must continue as if we are going to be successful in opposition of the bill legislation. Alderman Vamus. No. All right. Alderman Brennan.

So just a quick question about parking. Uh your your interpretation. I don't know if I totally followed it. Um what would I mean a a building of this nature in the middle of a residential area? I mean, uh, would would that force us to rethink our street parking ordinances?

I think it could because, you know, and and I I want Well, let me answer your question first. Yes. If there are eight units and you can't have a parking restriction, um, uh, I don't know what the answer is because it seems like if we can't regulate it and we don't allow street parking, um, it doesn't solve a problem for people who have vehicles. And I also want to say that, and this is just my own personal opinion, the goal is affordability, but if I were to sell my lot and someone put up eight units, I don't think those units are going to necessarily be particularly affordable. Um, they might be, you know, it's I, you know, it's a great block and people would want to live there and maybe those condos will be, you know, $800,000. That doesn't really achieve the goal of affordability because this is Elmherst and a prop. there'd be a lot of people would say, "Yeah, I'd like to downsize. Every time we put up a condo, um, they sell for a less than affordable amount." So, um, there are a lot of aspects of this that like the parking one I hadn't thought of, but it's a good point. I don't know if it's well thought out, and the problem is it's rolling kind of quickly.

Okay. Um, that's the end of my report, city manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, first, let me thank uh Dr. Jevitz for this. Uh it was completely unexpected and very humbling. So I appreciate it. I I know he couldn't stay but on behalf uh let me say for yourself

for what I meant to say was for character counts and the organization that he represents I sincerely appreciate uh the acknowledgement. Um other things that I have, uh the um spring cleanup continues as Alderman Bram said. Uh this past weekend was the south end of town. Um this Saturday will be residents with the Friday collection. So that's the north side of town. And then Saturday, May 2nd would be the final collection uh for those with Wednesday uh collections. And in addition to that, uh this weekend the uh public works uh facility will host an electronics and textile recycling uh collection. That's a quarterly event. and the uh police and uh our um our partners at the state's attorney's office will host a drug collection, prescription drug collection at the public at excuse me at uh the police facility from 8 to noon. Uh so you can uh drive up I'm sorry that's from 10:00 to 2. The electronics and textile recycling is 8 to noon. Drug takeback is 10 to 2. So, you can stop at the public works facility first, then drive over to the police station and drop off everything that you need.

Thank you, manager. All right. Um, any other reports of elected officials? All right. I I have one. Yes.

Um, I just want to say that we had the youth commission youth advisory committee hosted their very first bunny hop run this past Sunday and Chief McClean uh ran in the run. Thank you for being there and attending and running with the kids. It was great having you and um a battalion chief Lazowski and a couple firemen showed up and it was really great. Uh the kids had bunny ears. Some of the adults had bunny ears. The youth advisory committee really got into it. Um and it was a really great first time event for these kids. Did they literally planned this all by themselves, you know. Um and we were proud of them. They came up with the idea. They came up with the um uh the posters and the uh the design of it and everything. and we had a few sponsors that they went out and got. So, just really commend the kids. So, thank you.

Ronald McDonald House. That's right. Thank you. It benefited Ronald McDonald House. Thank you very much. Did the Oh, and uh donations are open till May 1st for Ronald McDonald House. You can find it online. Did the chief let the kids win? I don't know. He did. All right. That's character counts. All right. Thank you again. All right. Um any other business to be brought before the council? Seeing none, I'd ask for a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Alderman Bastto, second by Alderman Bellinger. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. We are journed. Thank you all.