City Council - Regular Meeting

Do any of the alders have any questions for the director? Alderwoman Conley.

8:08 – 8:25•ECErin Conley

Thank you. So I'm going to ask you about one of your future projects, the Chris Kindle Mart that's coming next year, right? Yes. I've been to a bunch of these across the country and other places, so I'm excited for this. It sounds like a lot of fun. Can you just kind of explain a little bit more what we have to look forward to?

10:34 – 10:55•ECErin Conley

are we you're anticipating we'll still have the ice skating and yeah it's my understanding uh that the ice skating rink would still be over at uh union square park sounds lovely thank you thank you mayor alderman carlson jay i don't spend as much time down as i used to but you mentioned

10:58 – 11:15•BCBrad Carlson

I was working full time at the state. We were in the office and working downtown. Is there enough signage downtown for people walking to see the various attractions? I've had people bring up to me and maybe there are some like painting aerials and things on the sidewalks or anything like that?

12:35 – 12:47•BCBrad Carlson

Have you thought about, and maybe this administrative, something on the sidewalks? I mean, I know other cities have painted stuff on the sidewalks as far as arrows or, you know, you're going the right way to Lincoln's home. I can take that, Jay. I can answer it as well.

Chief City Engineer Nate Bottom has looked into what kind of paint we could use for that, but right now we're finishing the streetscaping with the bricks to do that first because they're a tripping hazard for people, but... I was just curious.

Anything else, Alderman? Nope, thanks, Mary. Alderman Gregory.

13:35 – 13:48•SGShawn Gregory

Thank you. Jay, as representative of one half of downtown, We just had a big event with the big boy downtown. Yep. The record was probably thousands of people down.

14:28 – 15:00•SGShawn Gregory

I was just wondering as, you know, I see that event. you know when in my daytime job we set out some trash cans and stuff and there was probably two pieces of trash in it so it was just we were seeing you know those thousands of people not dispersed throughout throughout the town and things that sort of like with Levitt and and and all the people that come down you know I want to work with you to try to um come up with things to really encourage people to visit downtown even before and after yeah and that's one thing that that's a challenge for our downtown if you look at others

I just want to thank you for your partnership as well. We have a group of people that Jay is working with the mayor's office, group head, public works, Springfield police, uh, what's called the downtown Alliance group to make sure that that master plan comes to fruition and we're checking off pieces of that. So thank you for your partnership.

Thank you. The next item on the agenda is docket number 2026-021 for the property located at 724 East Edwards. The petitioners are Vondra, LLC. The present zoning classification is RH3, Historic Zoning District, Section 155.272. The requested zoning relief is conditional permitted use pursuant to Section 155.273H3, Historic Zoning District, conditional permitted uses. Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning staff recommendation is approval of the conditional permitted use for a restaurant with the service of alcohol with the following conditions. One, any live entertainment is non-amplif

17:30•SGShawn Gregory

Yes, Mayor, I have a motion to approve the Historic Sites Commission recommendation. Second.

Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the Historic Sites Commission recommendation. Is there any discussion from the council?

17:43 – 18:10•SGShawn Gregory

Alderman Gregory. No, I just want to compliment the owners who are in the crowd. They have been working really, really hard to not only bring a bright new business to our community, but keep that business. We've worked together on parking issues and this issue to make their business even better. And I hope that, Jay, that we can continue to work with them on the lot that's next to them for some additional parking.

Anything else? Okay. With all that being said, voting will now be open. All those in favor of the motion will vote yes. Those opposed would vote no. And... Yes, there would be alcohol. So the motion passes with eight voting yes, none voting no. Thank you for coming tonight. That concludes the zoning portion of the meeting.

18:45•ECErin Conley

Thank you, Mr. Harris. The Chair will now recognize Deputy Treasurer Ketchum for the presentation of the financial report.

Is that working? Nope. You want to come sit over here? It might be a working mic. We'll give you a chair next to Corporation Council.

Mayor, I make a motion to accept the Treasurer's report as submitted.

We have a motion and a second to accept the Treasurer's report. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion will say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. Thank you, Deputy Treasurer. The chair will also recognize the OBM director for any questions on the OBM contract report. Any questions on that from the elders? Seeing none, we will move forward. The chair will entertain with the motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the July 7th, 2026 regular city council meeting and approve the minutes.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. The chair will entertain a motion to incorporate the pre-council first reading of ordinances into the record of this council meeting. So moved. Second. And we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion will say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The ayes have it. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. The chair will entertain a motion to incorporate the pre-council reading of the consent agenda i A motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion will say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. The chair will entertain a motion to place the consent agenda on final passage. So moved.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Alderwoman Conley.

21:31•ECErin Conley

Thank you. If I could, clerk, just be noted as present for 2026, 319.

Noted. Thank you very much, Alderwoman. Any other discussion? Seeing none, the voting will now be open. All those in favor of the motion will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no. And the motion passes with nine voting yes, none voting no. Agenda items 2026-294 and 2026-339 remain tabled or in committee. The next item on the agenda is 2026-333, an ordinance authorizing the execution of an agreement between the State of Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the City of Springfield for the donation of the block bound by 4th Street, Capitol Avenue, 5th Street, and Jackson Street for th

22:28 – 26:24•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

Yes, Mayor. I would like to introduce amendment one proposed amendment one uh to this ordinance uh this is something that many in the city have been wanting to see wanting it to happen of course as you know our voice um last week how i would do it a little different and and felt like we shouldn't give the way free In doing all this and thinking about all this and what you all want, what all of mine wants, I narrowed it down to some things that I think we must guarantee. I mean, I see us up here and we really don't make sense a lot of times because we'll take a guy from a TIF, want $10,000, and

So did you make a motion for the amendment? Yes, I'm making a motion. Second. All right, so we have a motion and a second now because we were needing that. Alderman Rockford. So any discussion on the amendment from the Alders? Alderman Williams, are you just making sure you're finished? Oh, yeah. Okay.

26:40 – 26:54•ECErin Conley

Alderman Conley. Thank you, Mayor. As with my present vote on Ordinance 319, I'll be voting present on the amendment and then the actual ordinance because of my employment by DNR. Just to be clear on that.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Seeing none, do you want a voice vote for the amendment or do you want, I don't know.

You can do a hard vote on the machine. Okay. So this would be a vote on the amendment only that the alderman has proposed. If you vote yes, you're voting for the amendment. If you vote no, you're voting not for the amendment.

I know I'm trying to vote, but my mouse is not... Well, I'm going to do a voice vote because I think this mouse might need batteries. I'm voting no. Amendment fails, five voting no, four voting yes, one voting present. I think there might be a... Thank you. All right, so that's the amendment. We'll go back to the original ordinance as proposed 2026-333. Any discussion from the Alders on the ordinance itself? Alderman Gregory?

28:12 – 28:24•SGShawn Gregory

Yes, just one point of clarification that I did check with Corporation Council. Our Black Lives Matter sign shall remain correct.

Any other discussion Alderman Gregory? No, ma'am. Okay, thank you. Any other discussion from the elders? Seeing none. Oh, sorry. Clerk Redpath says hold, please.

Any discussion from the alders? Alderman Hanauer.

33:17 – 35:00•RHRalph Hanauer

Yeah. Number one, I don't think you can build on that lot because the south end, I know there's the main sewer that goes through there. And the last administration put flood tanks underneath. You can't build on that part. Originally, in my opinion, we should have never had this. We should have never bought it back when, I guess, Mayor Houston was in. It was a bad buy. I'm going to ask for an ordinance that we can't buy property in the future without the seller doing an environmental study on them to make sure that we don't get burned on them. I can't tell you how many times up here... Since I'

35:00•BCBrad Carlson

You can build on the east side, the west side. You're supposed to be chiming in.

35:08 – 36:43•RHRalph Hanauer

But anyway, so my point is what we're giving up is we're giving up having to, I don't know what we spend, and I meant to ask the public works what we spend a year to maintain that block, but we won't be doing that. The state will be doing that. And they've come with a plan. I have to assume that their plan is what they want to do with it. At worst, it's going to stay the situation it's in, which you can still do 11 amp and all that. But at best, they've showed us a plan, and I have to believe, and I thank the governor and Andy Menard and Senator Turner and Representative Coffey for, again, tak

36:45 – 38:38•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

Yeah, we already knew he was thankful to the governor. This is what they do. But I'll say this. What about the money that we've invested? We're supposed to be broke. Mayor tells me all the time, we're broke. We can't. We're broke. when we want to do something for the people, we're broke. Want to do something for one of these municipalities of the state, I'll give it to you or I'll find a way to make it happen. My thing to you, you was up here when a lot of this happened. I just think you should do your due diligence and at least make the state do the guarantees. You vote against an amendment t

Thank you, Mayor. It's not the state's responsibility to pay for the mistakes of prior administrations, OK? We spent a ton of money on this place, had to invest a lot more, and never got anywhere. It's not this administration's fault. I mean, the people in the shoe. These are mistakes that were made a long time ago. This is simply cutting our losses at this point. I would think as a business owner in downtown, I would want a nice, beautiful park where people might come more than just once or twice a week for the Levitt. I know we have a few other events. We have Pride. We have a few other even

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. And again, I think this is an excellent, wonderful project. It is going to activate that space for decades, years, generations to come. This is something that Springfield has needed for a long time. And Mayor, I think we would be remiss if we didn't point out that when you are developing a project such as this, partnerships are important. The city, yes, has invested money in that property, money that would help alleviate major infrastructure drainage issues. uh... those issues have i don't know if they've been a hundred percent mitigated but they've been uh... addressed

41:25 – 43:52•SGShawn Gregory

Alderman Gregory. Yes. You know, as I've said before, you know, when I came into office, this was the first thing that I met with Senator Maynard, then now Deputy Governor, Senator Turner, Alderman Turner. And we were talking about the university presence and on and on. And we've seen plans. And, you know, last council, we dropped the ball on it to be able to do something with ourselves where we was going to pay something and get a grant. We dropped that ball. So we're at this point. And I can tell you that the people Um, who visit and visit that, you know, they never really asked me who owns

purchasing the property demolitions, and then the construction underneath the ground that you spoke of. The state is going to spend a minimum of $4 million, if not more. They're going to do the phase two mitigation of the needs that Illinois EPA will come down with. They're going to improve the block, and then they're going to take care of it. And Illinois Department of Natural Resources takes care of the governor's mansion area, and look how beautiful that looks. This is going to look just as beautiful. Sue, I agree with you. I trust the administration at the state level that they're going to

44:54 – 45:15•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

Yes. No one is saying, just don't mix it up is what I'm saying. It was a simple amendment because I can keep going on with this. So when I first asked you about this, you said it was some EPA issues. Now we're at this point is getting ready to pass. Is it still an EPA issue?

I just said they're going to have to mitigate when the Illinois EPA comes down.

45:19 – 45:34•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

Who's going to have to mitigate, us or them? There's nothing in it that says if the state finds something, now hear me clearly, if the state finds something, it comes back to us. Because in our meeting, I thought I heard you tell me that.

There's a clause in the contract. Do you want to speak? Corporation Council wrote the contract with the Council from IDNR.

46:00 – 46:26•BCBrad Carlson

Yeah, I just want to add, you know, how I look at this is really the entire city downtown as a whole. I feel we have a little momentum. Obviously what we have going on at the Capitol, I think obviously in the future we're probably going to have to deal with the BOS expansion, which I support. We have the transportation center down there in the hub, and now we have this on the south end of sort of those four data points. So Feel like we got a little momentum and trying to get some bodies as best.

We can back downtown So I'm happy to be a co-sponsor Thank you any other discussion from the elders Seeing none the voting will now be open all those in favor the motion will vote yes all those opposed will vote no And all the woman you're present so the motion passes with seven voting yes one voting no and one voting present I The next item on the agenda is item number 2026-338, an ordinance approving the appointment of Robert Mueller to the Springfield Urban Forestry Commission. The chair will entertain a motion to place agenda item number 2026-338 on final passage. So moved. Second. We have

We have a motion and a second. Discussion? Alderman Gregory.

48:02 – 48:29•SGShawn Gregory

Yes, real quickly. I put this on debate just to... bring the light that we get, I know I have gotten increasingly calls as far as in these neighborhood groups on Facebook and things, and I see just so many complaints about Republic Services. Now this is for their recycling portion, so I'm totally gonna support this for sure, but when they come back with their contract, We need to have some discussion.

Alderman, I'm sorry to interrupt you. That's for the trash pickup for us, for the city, like our buildings here.

48:34 – 48:57•SGShawn Gregory

OK. Like for them to waste haul for us. Are we having any trouble with them picking up our trash? Sorry. Because I just didn't want you to. OK. Well, that's fine. And I'm going to vote for it regardless. But I know when they come back for our residence trash contract, we have to have some discussion just about the timeliness and getting those things. and really responding to their constituents.

I'm sorry, can I ask, is it about yard waste or actual garbage pick up?

49:01 – 49:19•SGShawn Gregory

What is your complaint? Garbage pick up. And I know that they came in, the management team was wonderful. They came in and addressed our concerns last time and we still get those calls. I know I do. And I just want to make sure that when they do come back, that we have some good conversation about how we can get better.

And I think that the constituents complaints, Alderman, I would probably agree with them. I think the problem is there's a person in the truck and then there's an arm instead of two humans anymore. And the arm rubbish falls out and then they drive away. So I've witnessed that in front of my own home.

Thank you, sir. Any other discussion? Seeing none, the voting will now be open. All those in favor of the motion will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no. The motion passes with nine voting yes, none voting no. Is there any unfinished business to come before the council at this time? Seeing none, we're going to move to new business. The first thing I would like to do in new business is promote Lincoln Library. For those of you that don't know, and I can have Gwen come up to the podium if you'd like, but you can sign up at Lincoln Library online to join the Spice of the Month Club. And wha

No, it's a free service they offer, and I would try to pronounce the spice of the month this month that I would know I would mispronounce it. It is a, I believe it's a Korean chili. It's very cold, so.

51:03 – 51:14•ECErin Conley

I thought I would promote it, because I really enjoy it. I enjoy getting the recipes and trying it. I actually paid for something like that for my daughter as a Christmas gift, so that's a really great service.

Alderman Gregory, you have new business.

51:18 – 52:00•SGShawn Gregory

Yes, no, I miss Gwen. I did see the book book mobile traveling down South Grand going on the past and it looks beautiful. Somebody driving. I was really surprised to see it. I'm like, oh, that's the book mobile. It was huge. But no, no, I didn't see that going going to do his thing. So I just want to compliment you on for getting that going. I don't want to be long, but I got 2 things 2 things and they'll wrap them together. Mayor Corporation Council. We have the South town. That's South town light and I know there's some tricky things with the covenant and stuff and you figured it out and got

Oh, the, the, uh, which used to be a marquee. Yes. Okay. I was thinking of stoplights. Sorry. Yes.

52:06 – 53:59•SGShawn Gregory

And the reason why I'm really bringing that up now is, is because I was over there the other day and walking under it and. The bottom of it is open and we got all types of pigeons, you know, live it in there, pooping down and, and. If you ever had to clean it up for a living, you got to put on all types of gear and stuff to keep yourself from getting all types of things that birds give off. And I really think it's becoming a healthy health situation. So I really want to work with you guys so we can finally come to whether we're going to donate that to the Springfield project after we fix it, o

I asked the budget director to write that down because the purchasing agent has done an RFP for sale for that. So I'll have her check on that and we'll follow up with you. I think all of it. I'll have her. I'll have Jim Peters, who's a purchasing agent, follow up with you. Yes, ma'am.

54:12•LPLakeisha Purchase

Thank you. Is that okay, director? Thank you.

54:17 – 54:28•LPLakeisha Purchase

Do we know what this week is? Anybody? What? Do we know what this week is? So the National NAACP is here in Illinois.

54:29 – 56:37•LPLakeisha Purchase

They're in Chicago. Yes, they are. They're here in Illinois. So I wanted to take a moment to recognize it was awesome for me to kick that off with them. Take a moment to recognize and I'm looking at some of the events that's going on while they're here just as we celebrate like this important work of the NAACP across the country. It is also an opportunity to remember that Springfield holds a unique place in that history. And do we know why? Yes. The events of the 1908 here led to the founding of NAACP making our city an important part of our nation's civil rights I would have loved to have see

56:37 – 57:12•ECErin Conley

Thank you. Thank you. Alderwoman Conley. Thank you, Mayor. I have just real quickly, and I'm sorry, the Director Harris has been trying to sit down, but you passed something out to all of us. Would you like to come and explain what this is? Because as you pointed out, Mayor, there are fabulous services and programs going on at the library, and I think You've brought a lot of energy and a lot of new ideas here, and so every opportunity I get, I'm going to bring you up here to talk about them.

57:37•ECErin Conley

So someone can come down to the farmer's market during the day. Come back that evening. Have a nice lunch downtown. Come back that evening and have some wonderful entertainment.

58:10 – 58:34•ECErin Conley

THANK YOU. WE'LL MAKE SURE WE SHARE THAT INFORMATION WITH THE REST OF THE PEOPLE AT LARGE, TOO, BECAUSE YOU'RE DOING REALLY GREAT WORK IN THE LIBRARY. AND I KNOW IT'S REALLY, IT'S ONE OF THE, IT'S A SOLID, HEALTHY LIBRARY. critical component of a community, and we've really seen it build up, and I'm excited to see the way you're expanding it. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm sorry, Mary. I'm on your website right now. Where do I sign up for the Spice Club? I'm serious.

He's trying to sign up for the Spice Club. I'm going to let Gwen talk to Alderman Cox. Alderman Conley, am I allowed to ask how you spent your morning in your day job? Am I allowed to ask that publicly?

58:57•ECErin Conley

I'll go ahead and let you talk about what went on this week.

Okay, so Alderman Conley's day job is IDNR, and Chief Sumo has put together a Safety City USA for first and second graders. And, Chief, we have 25, 26? 34 children. I stood in the front and greeted them Monday morning and they are at the safety city camp and IDNR presented today and yesterday was citywide light and power and public works and they're going to get police fire and I'm missing anything else. big truck day on friday yeah big truck day so um it's super exciting there's kids of all ethnicities kids from all different school districts um meeting each other for the first time and hangi

Dr. Casey, if you want to speak to my chief of staff, Billy Fleischley, he will talk to you about scheduling. And if you want to, I'm assuming you want to help coordinate that. Am I making a big assumption? Okay. I'm sorry. And he'll work with you on that. Thank you.

1:15:09•RHRalph Hanauer

Michael Flowers. Michael Flowers. Robert Williams.

Yeah, they're new, and we don't want to tear them up.

the mic can you hold for one second sir so i can see what's going on with the mic

Thank you, sir. That's it, Mayor. All right. No need for exec session. Motion to adjourn. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you.