City Council - Regular Meeting

The Chair will call the August 18th, 2026 meeting of the City Council to order. Could you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Clerk Redpath, can you please call the roll?

Thank you, Clerk. The Civility Pledge, in the interest of civility, I pledge to promote civility by listening, being respectful of others, acknowledging that we are all striving to support and improve our community and understanding that we each may have different ideas for achieving that objective. This evening, there are no proclamations or presentations. First item on the agenda is docket number 2026-020 for the property located at southwest corner of South MacArthur Boulevard, Westchester Boulevard, 1022-16.0-101-040. Petitioners are Lamar, OCI North, LLC. Present zoning classification is

4:23•JNJennifer Notariano

I move to approve the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation.

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation. Is there any discussion from the Alders? Seeing none, 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. The next item on the agenda is docket number 2026-022 for the property located pen 21-11.0-300-030, approximately 40.78 acres farmland located north of Milby Lane. Petitioner is Memorial Health System. Present zoning classification is I-1 Light Industrial District section 155.040.

5:40 – 6:16•RHRalph Hanauer

Mayor, I make a motion to approve the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation of reclassification to B1 with the condition of the petitioner completed purchase of the subject real estate from the current fee title holder. If petitioner does not complete its purchase of the subject real estate within one year, of the date approval of the ordinance granting the relief sought upon petitioner's written notification to the zoning administrator, the transaction will not be completed and the zoning classification shall revert to its present classification.

I have a motion. Can I get a second? Second. I have a second. Thank you, Alderman Rockford. Motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the recommendation from Alderman Hanauer? 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. This does conclude the zoning portion of our meeting. The Chair would like to entertain a motion from the Alders to recess the regular meeting of the City Council to propose holding executive session, present to 2C11, pending probable l We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor with going to exec session, please say aye. Those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. We will go to exec session at this time.

The Chair will entertain a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the City Council. The motion is second. Any discussion? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. The Chair will now recognize Deputy Treasurer Ketchum, sorry about that, for the presentation of financial report.

Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the financial report. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. We had an email from Office of Budget Management on the OBM contract report. Any questions for Director Metzger? Seeing none, we will move on. The chair will entertain with a motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the August 5th, 2026 regular city council meeting and approve the minutes. There's 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. Oh, pardon me. Let the record show that Alderwoman Conley has joined us as well. The chair will entertain a motion to incorporate the pre-council first reading of ordinances into the record of this council meeting.

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 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 into the record of this council meeting. 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 place the consent agenda on final passage.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the consent agenda? 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 10 voting yes, none voting no. Agenda item number 2026-339 remains tabled or in committee. The next item on the agenda is item number 2026-373, an ordinance authorizing execution of contract PW27-16 with Waste Management of Illinois, Inc. for residential landscape waste collection from 9-1-2026 through 8-31-2029 in an amount not to exceed $4,152,836 and authorizing a supplemental

Okay, so Kyle Lester is here from Waste Management, and I believe Kyle signed up to speak, so thank you.

18:07 – 18:19•SGShawn Gregory

Okay, thank you. I'm glad to hear that. And, you know, I know in the past we had small problems with wet bags or things of that nature that may have set out there or rained or whatever that may bust open. What's your plan?

19:04 – 19:33•SGShawn Gregory

collectible I just asked that from working in industry I just know that at times you know our bi-weekly pickup and maybe some rain and things of that nature they do get wet I'll make them like they used to and yeah the guys go pick them up or the young ladies go pick them up at times they will fall from the bag and you know we'll get those complaints so I just want to forewarn you on that that may be something to think about in the in the future thank you okay no we'll appreciate it we'll absolutely keep

Any other discussion for Mr. Lester from Alders? Thank you for coming to present and thank you for bidding on our yard waste. Thank you. So that is it for discussion. Any other discussion? I'm giving you one last time as Alders. Seeing none, 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. No. Next item on the agenda is item number 2026-377, an ordinance appointing Jason McKenzie, Sarah Kink, and Jim Peters to the Deferred Compensation Committee. Chair, we'll entertain a motion t

Any discussion? Mr. Peters is here today if you want to meet him quickly because he, I know you met Jason McKenzie last week and King was here last week so here is purchasing agent Peters does anyone have any discussion for mr. Peters thank you I think everyone knows me I'm looking forward to working on the committee thank you very much all right any other discussion from Alders seeing none the voting will now be open all those in favor the motion will vote yes all those opposed will vote no and the motion passes nine voting yes none voting no Is there any unfinished business to bring before t

21:05 – 21:55•LPLakeisha Purchase

Thank you. I just wanted to commend the NAACP, City of Springfield, Ms. Gwen, and ask her to come up and give a recap from over the weekend. And I learned a lot about the 1908 race riot. I did not know about the levy on Washington Street with all the black businesses where we now have the Bank of Springfield, the BOS Center, the garage, their parking lot, and Horseman. So it was just really good to see the history of Springfield and how we was incorporated into downtown. And there was a big difference back then, but you did a very, very good job. Also, the African American History Museum, and

23:12 – 24:04•LPLakeisha Purchase

I have one recommendation, Ms. Gwinn. Please. When I was walking last night, you know it's a big day here, so a lot of my day job is here. We were walking through the bicentennial with the realtors, and we were reading the different signs that they had up to talk about history. And next year, if you do the hot three days again, I would love to make a recommendation and make sure during budget time that we put money in the budget and you put flags up going around downtown to also talk about the Malmark. that we have. Wayfinding plans? Yes. I think that would be really, really good to get people

We do have other alders to speak, but before they speak, I want to give Director Harrison a shout out because you actually started this three years ago with one program, and then it's just grown. But without your vision, it wouldn't be here. So thank you for your vision. Thank you so much. Yes, you started. Alderman Notriano.

24:25•JNJennifer Notariano

Thank you. This is actually on another matter altogether.

Okay, so I'll wait. Alderman Conley, is yours for Ms. Gwen? Okay. Well, thank you again. I gave Gwen the challenge three years ago to try to come up with something, and she has far exceeded The expectations. Alderman Gregory, it looks like you do have something.

24:46•SGShawn Gregory

I just want to say thank you. I appreciate the hard work that you and the whole team did. I enjoyed myself. Harlow enjoyed herself. And we'll be back. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Alderman. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Alderman Notriano.

25:06 – 27:30•JNJennifer Notariano

Thank you, Mayor. So my old business has to do with a building that has been causing concern for me since before I was elected in Ward 6 on South MacArthur Boulevard. Address is 1622. It is... partially demolished, partially open to the elements, and has been in a state of disrepair for, I don't know how long, But last year, around this time, I asked about it here. And I wanted to know what the plan was to move forward. And I heard from Public Works that the owners of the building were making plans to do something with it and they were going to submit those plans to public works to planning an

Alderwoman, I wrote down the address, and I can check with Code Enforcement and see where we're at on that. If there's a building that's not being taken care of, it would be going through Code Enforcement.

27:40 – 28:09•JNJennifer Notariano

yeah and and i know they do have a case um that should be in the works pending maybe has been to administrative court i'm not sure um but we we asked them to submit plans and they haven't done it for a year and short answer is that the building uh is is secure to the extent that the city asked them to do that meaning the first floor is secure

And I'll have code enforcement follow up as well.

28:28 – 28:57•JNJennifer Notariano

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. This is a building that appears to me and to Ward 6 residents to be condemnable and eligible for demolition. What are the next steps in terms of that? Like what is required of the city to do demolition?

29:27 – 30:23•JNJennifer Notariano

yeah i i just know if it was someone's house and the second floor uh was was demolished open so not a window it was like a window or something that has been enlarged to like the size of I don't even know, several windows, almost half the side of the building was open to the elements. And that was someone's home? We would not allow that to stand in somebody's neighborhood. So we really have to ask them to take it down, or we have to take it down, or some sort of consequences have to follow because this is This is just not acceptable anymore.

30:32 – 31:08•JNJennifer Notariano

Okay. Well, if there is another requirement that needs to be put into code in order to make it to where we don't have a commercial building, that has almost an entire wall open uh to the elements um sitting as blight in the middle of a residential economic district then please let me know and i'll be happy to bring that forward thank you thank you alderwoman conley thank you mayor i believe um mr aaron batiste from

31:09 – 31:34•ECErin Conley

Public is here. Thank you. I don't know if you were able to sign up to speak tonight, but we had talked about inviting him to come tonight. He reached out to Public Works and agreed to be here tonight, so I just wanted to give him a minute to come and end. Again, I thank you for your responsiveness. The residents that I've spoken to have been very pleased with Republic's response to the concerns.

I'm sorry to interrupt. Is this about the contract that we just approved?

31:37•ECErin Conley

No, this is about the... Okay, sorry. I thought this was about the waste... No, no, no. We are waste hauling. My apologies. No, this is Republic, not waste management.

No, I know, but they bid, so that's why I'm... Okay, yes.

31:48•ECErin Conley

No, this is in regards to the overbilling for residential waste removal. Okay, gotcha. Make sure.

We just did, so I was worried. That's all.

31:58•ECErin Conley

And I'm sorry, I should have framed this in my unfinished business is the overcharging of residents for their residential waste. Sorry. So yes, apologies. I didn't mean to.

No, no, it's okay. I just wanted to make sure we were.

32:09 – 32:20•ECErin Conley

Thank you, sir, for coming in tonight. I know you tried to come one night and there was a conflict. So I do appreciate you coming again tonight because the council did want to hear as a whole from you.

34:30 – 35:05•ECErin Conley

And I would just like to say also, I have heard from a number of residents who have been dealing with you, and they were very appreciative of your responsiveness and the fact that people have already gotten credits on their accounts. So again, if people have issues and concerns with their bills, we've been encouraging people to look at their bills. So you did do a review of your accounts and identified those issues. If anyone does not get contacted by your office, who should they reach out to? What number should they call to resolve this?

35:50•ECErin Conley

Thank you very much. I have no more questions. Alderman Gregory, is your question for Republic?

35:54 – 36:40•SGShawn Gregory

Yes, I would just say thank you for coming in and acknowledging the issue and fixing it in a timely manner. I appreciate that. And I also say, and I'll encourage, unfortunately, we've been having a lot of storms and stuff, and I believe your company is one of them that utilizes the alleys. I mean, much of the city, and at times, there's problems because we've got trees falling, et cetera, et cetera, and you can't get there. And I know that at times residents have hanged us with trash and trash waiting. So I just encourage to continue to work with our public works department and communicating.

Alderman Williams, is your comment for Republic also?

36:44 – 37:15•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. So when residents move, vacate, you know, and they leave the cans, who's responsible? Like I see the trucks go by, but they'll just let them, you know, weekly be there until finally a neighbor tells the neighborhood association, hey, those cans have been there and that house has been empty two months, that type of thing. Do you all have a system that you realize that, you know, there's no longer a pickup but the cans are still there?

38:11 – 38:34•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

OK, so I'm speaking on abandonment, eviction. When a relationship goes sour, and the person's out the house now, and the cans are still there, but you're saying what the association or neighbors need to do is just call Republic and say, hey, there's two cans at this empty house, pretty much.

38:44 – 39:16•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

Well, I think the neighbors were thinking because the trucks, you know, drive by it, they see them, but they just drive, that's why. But now I can tell them, hey, they have to be notified. You know, and we'll do it. I mean, you know, they have officers and an organization. So the association has just reported so that you're notified and then you'll get it because not all people who leave these homes or apartments, not all of them do that notification to stop service. Thank you.

Thank you very much for attending. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Is that it for old business from the council? We'll move on to new businesses and new business to go before the city council. Older woman purchase.

39:34 – 40:16•LPLakeisha Purchase

Thank you. I think it may have been old business, but a lot of my residents wanted to thank Public Works and CWLP from the storm a few days ago. I know we were in Sam's parking lot and the trees blocked us in like it completely fell. But I just wanted to say thank you to the men and women who were out working all throughout the night to ensure people power, the trees were picked up. And then for you, Director Fuchs, are we caught up? Because a lot of, at least a lot of people in my ward, they have branches from their backyard that they brought to the front. So I know sometimes that can throw t

41:49 – 42:23•LPLakeisha Purchase

I certainly will. And CWLP, it was kind of scary. We was coming down Carpenter Street and the light blew over into the street. And it was good Samaritans because they got out of their trucks and pulled over and picked up this heavy light and got it off the street. But the controls wouldn't continue to work. So just wait for everybody to start doing stop, you know, stop and go. But the wind was very, very heavy. So thank you all for getting out there right away so accidents wouldn't take place.

Thank you. Yeah, and I know Alderman Carlson, you signed up. Alderman Purchase, thank you for bringing that up. I agree. I was at the fairgrounds when it hit, speaking to veterans, and it was Veterans Day at the fair, and then I ran downtown here to be with our crews. In the emergency operation center, and I did find out when I got there that it was a storm that we were not notified of at all from the National Weather Service. So I think our climate is changing and these things are happening and you have to just be aware. So Alderman Carlson.

42:53 – 43:56•BCBrad Carlson

Thank you, Mayor. Director Fuchs. Yeah, thanks for the good job that you did clearing, you know. Send some streets and some sidewalks in. As I drive through the ward, I'm getting a number of calls. You guys did a great job probably two months ago leading up to the branch pickup in July. I think because of the storms, you guys said, hey, it's essentially, hey, for the next two weeks, however you guys did it, you divided them in quadrants or whatever, you did a great job. I'm hoping, I'm anticipating, and I think residents are anticipating because the number of branch piles out there, And I'll g

Alderman Carlson, I think one of the things we can work off of is I can get the outage map from City of BLP because there were two giant pockets of large areas that were outages, and Alderman Williams, one of them was yours, and Carlson, one of them was yours. We'll start there first because those were the largest.

44:54 – 45:12•BCBrad Carlson

I meant everybody has branches. I mean... I'm not going to tell you to do your job. I mean, it's a tough job, but I mean, I'll give you the 30 or 40, and would it be just to drive through the wards or the four quadrants that you guys do for October anyway? I mean, there's plenty of time between now and October.

Well, I would say the outage map showed two very large, like I said, areas. Those would be the first two to look at because of sheer number of damage that was there. So that would have been Ward 3 and... So we'll work on that, Alderman.

45:30•BCBrad Carlson

Yes, sir. Give me what you have right now. We'll get started on it. I'll get them to you Monday. I will drive the room for three days.

Alderman Croson, I'll work with CWLP. We'll work on this. Thank you. Alderman Williams, you're next.

45:48 – 46:58•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Director. I really give your department a hard time, but I'm going to thank them. This response to this last storm was really, really amazing. I mean, I was very proud. Anytime Barb Jones calls me up and thanks me and the crews, I mean, because Barb knows the business, but I'm telling you, that thing hit at Harvard Park, I think, and came across the Glen Eyre like that, and I just had tons of, of blockages and trees. There's just trees everywhere. I've always said I got them old trees. But I want to thank you because I never do. And this time I want you to thank you

I'm going to write down that you thanked me.

47:01 – 47:27•RWRoy Williams, Jr.

I'm concerned about the... I am kind of concerned about the next pickup. compared to what we have out there. And I do realize that these storms are extra. So the mayor's onto something about something's different because these things coming and they're blowing things down and they're raining extra, extra, extra hard and all this stuff. But you guys are trying to keep up and I want them to know I do appreciate them. Thank you.

And Alderman Williams, your area was hit hard. I saw that. Alderman Hanauer.

47:33 – 48:01•RHRalph Hanauer

Yeah, thanks, Mayor. We didn't have a lot of power outages because we're underground, but we did have a lot of tree damage. I was just thinking that if we could get zone managers to kind of go through areas and maybe that would help us out. I mean, I'll be out too, but to write them down, I mean... I think that would be a good exercise because...

Now I see Scott Rogers visiting over there already for that and again, thanks.

48:08•RHRalph Hanauer

Thanks to the crews. They did a great job.

48:13 – 48:51•JNJennifer Notariano

No, Triana Thank you. Um Scott if you could Come up the utility Scott. Yes. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry to make sure no, it's fine Yeah um so I think perhaps we need to have some few reminders about the outage map and reporting outages and things of that nature. So the only way to report your outage is via a phone call. Yes?

Yes. Okay. Until the AMI readers are all installed.

48:58•JNJennifer Notariano

Three years? Oh, no. I told someone it's a year. Oh, maybe they'll be the first one.

50:41 – 51:03•JNJennifer Notariano

Yeah, definitely. And so, since it's going to be three years, is there a way that we could... create an opportunity for people to report their outages via the web?

51:15 – 51:27•JNJennifer Notariano

Yeah, because I think the disconnect between leaving a message and then not seeing the outage map updated and then seeing in Ward 6

52:10 – 52:28•JNJennifer Notariano

That's good, yeah. And the blog updates were super helpful. I think including the notices that say we're aware of the outage in this area and that area helps to sort of make people feel more at ease.

52:45•JNJennifer Notariano

Sure. And do you have off the top of your head, how many hours was the longest outage that we had?

54:01 – 54:16•JNJennifer Notariano

Yeah, definitely, definitely. And I think, you know, as the hours pass, people are accepting. But once it starts to get, you know. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, you guys did what you could, and we appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.

54:16 – 55:33•ECErin Conley

Alderman Conley, do you need Scott Rogers? Yes, I do. All right. Good effort to leave. Appreciate that. I was trying to get out. It was a good effort. I just want to say again, and I know you've heard this, I echo the concerns about reporting and residents feeling like they've been heard when they've reported an outage. So I'm not going to repeat that ditto for the rest of the city for those concerns. But I do want to say that this time, people were very appreciative of how quickly crews were out. I heard from a lot of people that they very much appreciated seeing CWLP trucks. and knowing that

55:40•ECErin Conley

And I will just say, if people aren't following Amber's blog, it's a good one and well worth a read. Thank you very much, Scott. You're welcome. Thank you, Director. Thank you.

Did you want to say something, Alderman Gregory?

55:57•SGShawn Gregory

No, no, no. You didn't push your buttons.

Yes. Citizens who have signed up in advance to address the council.

I think it's Tony. OK, Tony. Sorry. Letter missing.

That's all the speakers we have. Motion to adjourn? I get a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it.