City Council - Regular Meeting

And I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Heap. Henry. Here. Lockman. Here. Oldenettle. Here. Pollack. Here. Ruben DeCellis. Here. Scott. Here. Sorrell. Here. Speed. Here. Thomas. Here. Mayor Ezzard. Here. City Attorney Salterman. Here. You have a quorum.

Very good. Is there a reading of the minutes this evening?

Make a motion to approve as circulated.

Alderman Scott, seconded by Alderman Largo-Nettle. All those in favor of approving the minutes, please respond by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Presentation of petitions.

No petitions, but I do have a couple of communications. Jill Alexander and her neighbors would like to hold the 36th annual Finley Street block party on Sunday, October 18th. They'd like permission to block Finley Street from State Street to Lafayette on Sunday from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock p.m. And Jessica Carey and her neighbors would like to hold a block party on Saturday, October 10th. They would like permission to block Caldwell Street from Lafayette to Douglas on Saturday from three o'clock to six o'clock p.m. All emergency personnel have been notified of both requests and I have not received any comments or correspondence from anyone. So if anybody has any questions or concerns, no? Okay, thank you.

and the claims are in the hands of the alderman is there a motion to pay claims this evening alderman lockman second by alderman henry all those in favor of paying the claims please respond by saying aye aye opposed city attorney's report

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I have one item, a resolution approving an easement between 643 Southwest Street owned by the city and 645 Southwest Street for a shared driveway. Is there a motion?

Alderman Rubin to sell, second by Alderman Scott.

Be it resolved that the city of Jacksonville authorize the mayor and clerk to execute a permanent easement agreement for the shared driveway between the properties located at 643 Southwest Street and 645 Southwest Street. Discussion?

I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Henry?

Yes.

Lockman? Yes. Olden Edel? Yes. Pollack? Yes. Ruben Decelis? Yes. Scott? Yes. Sorrell? Yes. Speed? Yes. Thomas? Yes. Motion carries.

Very good, city clerk's report this evening.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have four items. In your packets, you should have received the Community Development Department Report, City Clerk's Cash Receipts Report, City Clerk's General Fund Budget Report, and Revenue Analysis Report, all for month ending August 31st, 2026. If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you. Any public comment at this time? Public comment? Yeah. Hey, can you spell your last name for the record? Sure. So she gets it.

Joseph Newingham, N-E-W-I-N-G-H-A-M. You bet. Yeah, Joseph Newingham, a Jacksonville resident. When I served in the military, I took an oath, and like most veterans, I still honor that oath. You all took the similar oath that you all, you know, I can't remember your oath. It is, I duly and solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office to the best of my ability. Well, as recently, posts have been made by a few individuals and groups, most notably both the good old boys out, pretty damn good page, if you ask me. Why? Because they've continued to bust you all out, and not just you guys, the county commissioners. Mike Wonkle, Racer Wood, and Greg Hack are back here. Yeah, so anyways, you guys, they went behind our backs. We went up there and... Man, where do I start? Anyways, how about I've lost count of how many times I've stood at this podium and tried to remind you all that you're supposed to represent us, not, you know, the citizens of Jacksonville, not some rich corporation, and most definitely not some rich moneybag individual. I also noticed that this individual had conversations about data centers with Mike Wonkle, Racer Wood, and Greg Hacker, who's not even an elected official, but left out Michael Woods, who is an elected official. Why is that? I bet Michael Woods would like to know, too. I also notice that, once again, they want to put a data center on the east side of town. Why is it always on the east side getting crapped on? I've kept my language down because I know this is a child in here. I've never heard, let's build anything on the west side. How about we just slap a data center down in the middle of the square? Speaking of the east side, Laura, you stated at the August 24th meeting that no one called, texted, contacted you on social media or emailed you expressing that they didn't want the solar farms in your ward. Did you forget about the meeting that was on the July 13th meeting when Ben Cox and I stood right at this podium and said that we wasn't happy about it? And we spoke out against it. There was two or three individuals in the workshop that spoke out against it. They all live in your ward. And they spoke out against it. I spoke out against it.

Chat.

Anyways. Just another example of you guys not listening to us, even when we show up in person to speak. There's so much more that needs to be said. But, Excuse me. Are you telling us that a city, oh, I'm sorry, you guys, I got my notes mixed up here a little bit, but please bear with me. Okay, so anyways, on the South Church Street and this other stuff, you're saying that you took out the bids for the plumbing. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here, but the city of Jacksonville has 15,000 people, and you can't tell me that we don't have a plumbing company here in Jacksonville, that we've got to go out of Jacksonville to hire a plumbing company from Petersburg or from Springfield or whatever. I know some good plumbers in this town. Maybe they just ain't got the technology to deal with a manhole cover. I don't know. Another one is for the police body cams, in-car cameras, interview room cameras, and tasers. I hope more research went into this because the Jacksonville General Courier reported that the last system that you guys purchased was insufficient and you didn't have enough storage space. Hopefully this system has more storage space without costing taxpayers extra money to purchase storage. You all ain't too smart when it comes to cameras because like I said, you guys don't listen to the citizens that supported you to put you in the seats. You all should be worrying because both the good old boys out is waking up the citizens of Jacksonville Your seats could be placed with people that will listen to the citizens of Jacksonville. Here's a quote that you guys ought to hear. I'm sure most of you have seen it in your emails. Quote, I've been actively working behind the scenes to amend this ordinance to be receptive to data centers developments and also quell the local sentiment and scare tactics. I think the county would use ours as a starting point for theirs, which would represent the unincorporated areas of Morgan County. Brian Nyberg, email to Rabbi Rob Thomas copied to Brad Wilson on May 28, 2026. I stood up and made front page news because I got ticked off. because we wasn't being told honestly about this stuff. Brad, Mike, and Racer all sat there and told me straight to my face, nobody has approached us about data centers. I guess being a politician, you guys can twist your words. All right, correct, no data center has approached you. Rabbi Rob did. Rabbi Rob's got the money, the ability, and the knowledge to get that data center here. You guys, I said this before, I'll say it again. You don't listen to us, and you're not gonna listen to us on this. I guarantee you, if I'm still here in five years, we're gonna be seeing a data center, and it's gonna be on the east side of town. I don't see why you guys don't put it on the west side of town. Hell, there's a couple of good nice farm fields out there. Go ruin those. But no, let's go ahead and throw it on the east side. I mean, we don't mean nothing to you guys. So I don't know. I guess that's about all I got to say because anything else I say is just gonna get me in trouble. So have a good day.

Okay, any other public comment at this time? Seeing none. Consent agenda items tonight. Finance, IT, and personnel. Alderman Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have two items. The first is the resolution authorizing payments from the Capital Improvement Fund for certain improvement projects. And the second is the resolution authorizing payments from the Journal Fund for services rendered.

Thank you. Planning and Public Works. Alderman Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We got one item. It is a resolution authorizing the waiver of advertisement for bids and accepting proposals for the purchase of cameras for East Cemetery and Diamond Grove Cemetery. And Public Protection, Alderman Speed.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have one item, resolution authorizing the waivers of advertisement for bids and accepting proposals for the purchase of body cameras, in-car cameras, interview room cameras, and tasers for the Jacksonville Police Department.

Thank you. And utility, Alderman Pollack.

Thank you. We have four items tonight. The first is resolution declaring four utility department vehicles as surplus property and authorizing the manner of sale. Number two, resolution waiving advertisement for bids and accepting proposal from Petersburg Plumbing and Excavating for manhole replacement at West College Avenue and South Church Street. Number three, resolution authorizing partial pay estimate number two to MB Construction for the lead line replacement project. And number four, resolution authorizing payments from the Water Works and Sewage Project Fund for services rendered improvement projects and ISO move.

Thank you, is there a second? Alderman Large-Zolnetto, you've heard the items under the consent agenda tonight. Is there any you wish at this time to pull for further instruction or discussion?

I do have a question about the cameras for the cemeteries. I noticed we got a GTSI bid. Was that the only bid that we went out for or is that, oh, it was, okay. was the original bid from GTSI as well? Okay.

Okay. Any other discussion? Seeing none, I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Henry.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We got four items. The first is the first reading of an ordinance amending the Jacksonville zoning map for property located at 620 Westwinds Drive from R4 to R4 with special use.

Is there a second?

Alderman Scott. Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Jacksonville that the Jacksonville zoning map for property located at 620 Westwinds be amended from R4 to R4 with special use.

Any discussion? I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Number two is the first reading of an ordinance amending the Jacksonville zoning map for property located at 438 EB Street from R4 to B4. And I so move. Is there a second?

Alderman Thomas? Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Jacksonville that the Jacksonville zoning map for the property located at 438 EB Street be amended from R4 to B4.

Discussion? Yeah, Darcella.

I plan to, letting everybody know ahead of time, I plan to abstain on this one because it may be a possible conflict of interest for me. So letting everybody know ahead of time.

Any other discussion? I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Henry.

Yes.

Lachman. Yes. Oldenettle. Yes. Pollock. Yes. Ruben Decelis. Yes. Scott.

Yes.

Sorrell? Yes. Speed? Abstain. Thomas?

Yes.

Motion carries.

Number three is the first reading of an ordinance amending the Jacksonville zoning map for property located at 1601 South Lincoln Avenue from R1 to A1 with special use. And I so move.

Is there a second? Alderman Lachman?

Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Jacksonville that the Jacksonville zoning map for the property located at 1601 South Lincoln Avenue be amended from R1 to A1 with special use.

Discussion? Seeing none, I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Henry? Yes. Lockman? Yes. Olden Edel? Yes. Pollack? Yes. Ruben Decelis? Yes. Scott? Yes. Sorrell? Yes. Speed? Yes. Thomas? Yes. Motion carries.

And the fourth is the first reading of an ordinance amending the Jacksonville zoning map for property located at 3001 West Lafayette Avenue from B3 Industrial to R5. And I am moved to go with the recommendation of denying this. Okay.

The recommendation to deny. Okay.

That's your motion?

Yes. Is there a second? Alderman Thomas.

How to express this, yes, yes.

I thought we had to vote it down so they couldn't resubmit.

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out how to read it. Because the motion is to deny it. All right. Interesting, okay.

All right.

Yeah, a yes vote is to deny.

A yes vote is to deny. Okay, all right, got it.

All right, so be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Jacksonville that the Jacksonville zoning map for property located at 3001 West Lafayette, the ordinance is to amend the map from B3 Industrial to R5. However, the motion is to deny that ordinance.

Is there a second? Are we already doing that? So yes is to deny.

I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Henry?

Yes.

Lockman? Yes. Olden et al? Yes. Pollack? Yes. Ruben Desilis? Yes. Scott? Yes. Sorrell? Yes. Speed? Yes. Thomas?

Yes.

Motion to deny carries.

Very good, thank you. Any old business this evening? Any old business?

Any new business? No new business?

Is there anything else for the good of your order?

Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn by Alderman Lachman, seconded by Alderman Henry. We are adjourned.