City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'll open our meeting here in council chambers at 6 p.m.

Roll call, please. Alderperson Silas.

Present. Macias. Present.

Razak. Present. Timian. Present. McNeil.

Present.

Castro. Present. Schmidt.

Present.

We do have the need for remote electronic attendance this evening. someone have the motion to make?

I would like to make a motion to approve the remote electronic attendance of Alderperson Finch at the City Council meeting of May 19, 2026, due to family emergency or other emergency. Second.

Motion by McNeil, seconded by Schmidt. Roll call, please. Alderperson Macias?

Aye.

Rezac?

Aye. Timian? Aye.

McNeil?

Aye.

Castro? Aye. Schmidt?

Aye.

Silas?

Aye.

right do we have public comment this evening cheek

Hello, my name is David Soder. I'm here again to ask the City Council to take public steps to end Moline's use of clock cameras. I've been here previously and spoken about privacy and security issues, the potential for abuse, the company's disregard of Illinois law, but largely those concerns have been brushed aside with the promise that we own the data. But owning that data doesn't matter if we don't control access to it. Flock has recently updated their terms of service with changes that have stripped away protections, given themselves near total control over how they use our data, and quietly deleted the promise that they wouldn't sell it. And now it's been reported the FBI is actively pursuing access to a national network of automatic license plate readers. The data we supposedly own is going to be funneled into a national warrantless surveillance.org we aren't dealing with hypotheticals anymore this is the reality of the technology we have installed in our city and i ask you to think about what that means attend the wrong political event associate with the wrong people attend the wrong church come from the wrong country flox own ceo called opponents to this technology terrorists without oversight anyone with access to the system can weaponize this data to profile and track residents So why is Moline participating in this? Why are we paying to be a part of this system? I have a petition here that's been updated since last time with 702 people telling you they don't want to be part of that machine. Please listen to your neighbors and end our contract with Locke. Thank you. Can I start with this?

Thank you very much. We'll make copies or make it available to the council. Thank you. Any further public comment, Chief?

No.

Okay. We have our first proclamation then, a proclamation from Quad Cities Chamber to declare May 29th to June 5th, 2026 as Building Our Communities Week. Do we have anyone from the chamber? Jacob, do you want to say anything? Oh, okay. Do you want to say anything?

No, go ahead. Hello everyone, I'm Katie Schroeder with John Deere and I'm the Community Relations Manager for the Quad Cities. I'm so happy to be here raising awareness about building our communities. Our partnership with Habitat for Humanity and the Quad Cities is really strong and we are excited to be running this initiative with them. This is about expanding access to homeownership and communities where John Deere employees work and live. So on behalf of John Deere, I would sincerely like to thank Mayor Rayapati and the entire Moline City Council for allowing us to recognize this initiative. Thank you.

Sure. The proclamation reads, whereas the Building Our Communities initiative is a partnership between John Deere and Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Des Moines, Waterloo, Dubuque, and the Quad Cities, and whereas between 2021 and 2026, John Deere and its employees have contributed over 6.46 million and over 28,000 volunteer hours to Iowa Habitat affiliates, including the Quad Cities, Illinois area. And whereas in 2026, John Deere employees in the Quad Cities will contribute hundreds of volunteer hours through panel builds in Davenport and East Moline, offsite home construction in Iowa and Illinois, restore revitalization in Davenport and restart donation drives a new dealer partnership with Martin Equipment in Rock Island, and enhance financial support to advance affordable housing and strengthen our local communities. And whereas a coordinated Blitz Week during which eight different John Deere Quad Cities locations will host the Habitat Restore Donation Truck to facilitate employee donations will take place May 29th through June 5th, with additional community activities continuing through June and July. And whereas John Deere and Habitat for Humanity hope to continue building and expanding this partnership in an effort to stabilize and strengthen their communities, now, therefore, I, Sangeetha Rayapati, Mayor of Moline, do hereby proclaim May 29 through June 5, 2026, as building our communities be. Thank you so much.

This is for you.

Do you want to take a picture? I'll come down there.

Thank you.

Okay. I don't believe we have any questions on the agenda, so we'll move to our Committee of the Whole items. 7.1, a resolution approving the special event application for the Pride 5K and Pride Party event scheduled for Saturday, June 27, 2026 that is sponsored by the Project of the Quad Cities, Inc., and authorizing a grant to the Project of the Quad Cities, Inc. for the amount of $5,000 from the Special Events Fund to support promotion of the event and its partners slash sponsors through print and digital media and branded giveaways, enclosing certain streets more particularly described herein to vehicular traffic, and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute and attest to a licensing agreement with the project of the Quad Cities Inc. for use of public right-of-way in conjunction with said event.

Your Honor, Council, good evening. As the mayor stated, this provides $5,000 in grant funding to the project of the Quad Cities, closes complete closure of 17th Street, partial closure of River Drive and 19th Street, on June 27th. This is the fifth year that the city has hosted the 5K and I recommend approval.

All right, we'll go Mr. Schmidt with the motion and Mr. Razak with the second. Discussion?

Yes, Ms. Castro. I will be recusing myself from the vote because I am employed by the project of the Quad Cities. Thank you.

Anything further from the council? Oh, yes.

Can I make a request to Madam Clerk that this not be included in the consent agenda for next meeting? Thank you.

Anything further from the council? Hearing none, roll call, please. Alderperson Macias?

Aye. Rezac?

Aye.

Timian? Aye. Finch?

Aye.

McNeil?

Aye.

Schmidt?

Aye.

Silas?

Aye.

All right, that motion passes. 7.4, a resolution authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute and attest to a licensing agreement with 1522 River Drive, LLC, DBA Sins Tavern for use of city-owned property located at 1520 River Drive and better known as the Historic Black Courtyard for the outdoor service of alcoholic liquor and food from June 13th, 2026 to October 3rd, 2026.

Your Honor, nothing further to add to that. I recommend approval.

Thank you. Motion to approve.

Second.

Motion by Castro, seconded by Macias. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Alderperson Macias? Aye. Razak?

Aye.

Timian?

Aye.

Finch? Aye. McNeil?

Aye.

Castro? Aye. Schmidt?

Aye.

and oh sorry stylist thank you that motion passes 7.3 a resolution authorizing the mayor to submit an application enter into an agreement and execute all necessary assurances and certifications to the u.s department of housing and urban development for community development block grant entitlement funding under the housing and community development act of 1974 as amended for certain projects and programs identified in the 2026 annual action plan and approving the mayor to submit an application, enter into an agreement, and execute all necessary assurances, certifications, and related documents with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for community development block grant entitlement funding under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 as amended for projects and programs identified in the 2026 Annual Action Plan, which serves as the second year action plan under the City of Moline's 2025 to 2029 Consolidated Plan. and authorizing the mayor to implement and approve projects and programs upon HUD's approval of the 2026 Annual Action Plan and to exercise all powers necessary to obtain such funding and carry out the approved activities. Mr. Nikita.

Or Ms. Whitley. Thank you, Mayor. The CED Department is seeking approval of the resolution to submit this plan to HUD tomorrow. Our funding is down slightly from last year, about $20,000. There are two new entitlements. There's a total of 1,491 entitlements right now that will all be submitting their plan by June 1st to HUD. It goes to your regional office first, and after they approve it, review it, then it's sent to Washington, D.C. for them to review and send back with any comments. So we're seeking approval. Motion to approve. Second.

Motion by Timmy and seconded by Macias. Discussion? Thank you for taking advantage of the opportunity to seek more funding.

Thank you.

If there's nothing further from the council, roll call, please. Alderperson Macias.

Aye.

Rezac.

Aye.

Timian.

Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Schmidt.

Aye. Silas. Aye.

Motion passes. Thank you. We will see it later on the agenda. 7.4, a resolution authorizing the Community and Development, excuse me, Community and Economic Development Department to apply to the Illinois Housing Development Authority for the Strong Communities Program round three grant for the amount of $748,000 to address local affordable housing needs and community revitalization efforts and authorizing city staff to do any and all things necessary to apply for the Strong Communities Program round three grant.

Well, our team is so excited for this funding opportunity. This will be our ninth round. It all started with the Blight Reduction Program and then it went to five rounds of the Abandoned Programs Property Grant and now it's the Strong Communities Grant. But they all have been about revitalizing neighborhoods. So with this grant application, we want to demolish 10 units, residential units. We want to acquire two properties, and then we want to rehab two. So for the total amount of $748,000, the max was $750,000. So we didn't quite go for the max. But we're seeking approval to apply, and it's due on June 16th. Motion to approve. Second.

Motion by Schmidt, seconded by Timmy. Discussion? Yes, Ms. Timmy.

Do you already have the properties identified? I'd be curious to know which one. I mean, you don't have to do it right now, but I'm just kind of curious which properties you're looking at. If we're going to demolish, is there a next step after that, or is it just getting rid of these unsafe properties?

lighted properties where we're hoping to help the build moline if there's a lot that you can utilize and it's a lot that we can either acquire or the property owner is willing to sign it over and we can use it for build moline we certainly want to look at that great but nine times out of ten most of our properties come in on a right to a right of entry and we just go take it down so thank you thank you anything further from the council

Hearing none, roll call, please. Alderperson Macias.

Aye.

Razak.

Aye.

Timian.

Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Schmidt.

Aye.

Silas.

Aye.

All right, that motion passes. Thank you. Ms. Barnes, preliminary general purpose financial statements for the year ended 12-31-25.

Yes, thank you, Your Honor. And before I begin, I'd like to say Bob told me that since he is out of town, that I have as long as you will give me, but I'm going to try to keep it at 20 to 30 minutes. So rest. So with that, I am very happy to report that after five months, we have finally completed the field work for the 2025 audit. And the report is now in the review with the partners at Baker Tilly. And they will be presenting the final report to you on June 9th of 26. And this is the report they will be presenting in June. Tonight, I wanted to take a few minutes to take a little bit of a deeper dive like I have done in the past to look at some of the highlights of the audit and the financial statements as well as to answer any questions that you may have. So first and foremost, I would like to say I am very pleased to report that we have had another very clean audit this year. Just very, very pleased of our staff and all the departments that we've worked with. It's a very clean audit. Without exception, all of our major funds ended the year within the city's fund balance policy that was established by council. And we hope that that should reflect favorably with Moody's. As you know, we're going to be bonding for the Central Fire Station next spring. And when we have a good audit report as well as solid budget numbers, hopefully that will look favorably on our credit report when they go to review the city. No promises, but at least we are positioned well. we had no internal control findings or material weaknesses. And as an example of that, taking a look at kind of proper oversight. If you take a look at our purchasing policy, that is one of the biggest things on a day-to-day basis almost. Bob and I, as well as pulling Bill in, we take a lot of time to very closely monitor the policy to make sure we are consistently implementing those. And for the entire year, that was one of the things on internal control without exception, they did not find a variance where we did not adhere to the policy. Again, it's not just our staff, it's the directors, everyone is really working hard. Can you remind us how many years we've had the new policy? I think this is heading into our third year now. Third year, okay. Yeah. Great. Congratulations. I appreciate the council adopting that policy because it has served the council well. The other thing is, is our auditors have stated, and it is in front of you tonight in your council packet, that our preliminary statements that I'm reviewing tonight were presented fairly with no material misstatements. So when we start the audit and we were starting with all the field work, we actually give the auditors our internal financial statements as well as all of the thousands and thousands of documents for them to pull and test. But there were no material misstatements in these documents. And I do need to make one note that they will be pointing out in June as well. We are needing to make two prior period accounting adjustments this year. That is the result of receiving our actuarial reports from IMRF as well as our pension fund late. It came in after they had already closed the review process. There's not a problem with that. We just have to make a note that it came after the fact. And we anticipate actually that this is going to be something that most likely ongoing it's going to be the case because they're finding many cities that it's just a timing issue of when They issue the reports and then also, you know, some cities are on different fiscal, some of them are on fiscal years as opposed to year end and so that's part of the timing with that. There's no problem with our actuaries. It's just the timing of when we get the reports. we also had no compliance findings on our cfa report which is our schedule expenditure report of federal awards this year for 2025 we had nearly 3.7 million dollars from 11 different grants and when the auditors come in they literally test hundreds of invoices like on a particular grant they turn and No, KJ's back here. When they do CDBG, they leave nothing unturned, so every little invoice. And again, no compliance findings on that. And then lastly, from an audit perspective, they have told us that we will be receiving a clean TIF opinion on all of our TIF funds. And they are stating in that opinion that everything has been accounted for properly. So it's very good news from an audit perspective. And so now just to begin, and again, I'm gonna try to keep this as brief as I can. In front of you in the packet is all this preliminary report. But to simplify things, I'm gonna try to keep it in a format that you're used to seeing, so it's at your places. And I'm gonna kind of zip through the funds, just kind of in the order that they are of the main funds to highlight what I think that you're interested in. And please stop me if you have any questions. So the very first one is the general fund. And if you look down that very first column on the first page, you'll see that the general fund ended the year with a 24.8% fund balance as a percentage to expenditures, or approximately 89.3 days. We had actually budgeted 24.92, or 90 days, so it's a teeny dip, but we are right within our policy. I shouldn't say unfortunate, but the thing to note is that there is no excess funds this year. In the past, we have exceeded that 25%, and then the council has looked at that to potentially allocate to other funds. This year, we were really lucky that we just kind of stayed within that 25% margin. The total ending fund balance in the general fund totaled $12,596,000. net of $8.9 million in cash advances needed to fund all of the TIFs. And again, that's stated here. So once we get through all the TIFs someday, the general fund will have more money, but right now it's doing a lot of cash flowing for those TIFs. The amended budget as the council adopted in November of 2025 for the general fund, we had amended it to be drawn down $771,000. And that included the $500,000 allocation from the excess from 24, that included that. However, as we went through this year and we did our audit, we had revenues that fell short. Again, those are things that we cannot control. And so our entire drawdown on the general fund equated to $1.6 million. And the additional $800,000 of the drawdown due to the revenue shortfalls came largely from intergovernmental revenues. We had some hotel-motel tax and a little bit of a shortfall in interest income, just because funds weren't coming in, our interest was down. But fortunately, we still met that 24.8% reserve. The one other thing to note is expenditures. So this is all your departments in the general fund, lease, buyer, finance, executive. across the board came in under budget on the expenditure side of 1.42%. So it was a very tight budget, but without exception, everyone was under budget. But the revenues fell short by 3.13%. So that's the variance. Even though expenditures were down, revenues were down farther. but it was a very tight budget. And I would like to say, make one note with our revenues being down, that council made a very good decision to pass that resolution to keep that 1% grocery tax. We have received the first two months for January and February, there's a 90 day lag, but for January and February, it has been averaging just a little over 100,000 per month. which would have equated to $1.2 million. So we are very thankful that we have that revenue stream continuing. So the next one, we're just gonna follow along. I'm gonna go kind of quick on the rest of these funds. The General Trust Fund is the very next one in order, has about $2 million in the fund balance. That is largely public safety grants and federal forfeiture funds. If you look at the tourism fund, there's basically, it's just kind of an in and out on tourism fund, nothing really to talk to there. That lead hazmat grant, that fund is now closed. The NSP2 grant, we also anticipate that to be closed this year. It's a state grant. There's about $90,000 left in that fund. And then we closed out the CDBG COVID as well as the land-based funds. So you won't see those on the list anymore going forward. The Strong Communities grant, and that was previous rounds. You can see there's a deficit balance of $35,000. That's because we are waiting for a reimbursement on that. That's all it is. We have to pay the money out and then get reimbursed. So it's just reimbursed. We're waiting on... Then we've got the home repair access. Again, it's a little bit off. Again, we're just waiting on reimbursements. We have the half of the home assistant grant. That's a federal grant. $1,625,000 that was awarded. We've spent almost half of that. This was part of the ARPA funding from the state. It wasn't our ARPA money. It was the state of Illinois. So we have to have our money spent. They would like to have it in by September of 26. And I know that CED is all over that. The next one is the urgent rent assistance. As you recall, back in October of 25, council passed a resolution for $125,000. I mean, $150,000. And of that amount, at the end of December, we still had 127,000. But year to date, so far this year, we have spent an additional 34,000. And I know KJ and Chris, the team has been working hard to get that program completed. they're managing it well. The library fund is right on target. They ended the year with $935,000 in reserves, which equates to 29.4% of fund balance to expenditures. But we anticipate that it will be dropping down to about 22.2% by 2028. And as you recall, during the current year budget, you had... adopted to reduce the property tax levy a little bit. Normally it had been like a 3% increase annually. We dropped it to 2.21%. We are hopeful that the council would consider 3% going forward so that that fund balance does not drop down below that 22%. But they are right on the mark. Library's doing great. And as you know, they just paid off the purchase of that mobile outreach bus for about $240,000. And they were socking away money for a couple of years on that. So library is very conservative. The next fund is the Parks Fund. Again, it ended the year right on target with about 29.1% in their fund balance to operate in expenditures. And they've got about $2,075,000 in reserves. And then similar to the library, we project that fund balance to potentially go down to about 22.6%. That is also assuming that we do the 3% increase for 27 and 28. So we're hoping the council will consider that levy.

What's the policy for that fund?

The policy is between 20 and 25. We just don't want it to drop below 20. Yeah, got it. And again, we'll look at all that during the budget. But right now, that's kind of where we project it to be with the expenditures that... they had already had in the three-year budget. Mr. Schmidt.

So we're projecting here with a higher level of tax increase than the council has been approving?

No.

I might have said that. No, she's just saying please don't go low again.

Well, no, she did say that.

I apologize if I made that confusing. In the past few years... The council has increased the levy rate roughly at 3% a year, which has been between salaries and operating. It's been an amount that has been very workable. This last year, it was a little bit lower. We reduced parks down to 1.5%. Increase is just to increase the levy. And what I'm saying is as we move into the budget, looking at the adopted budgets for 27 and 28, as were presented last fall, with the reduction in the 26 levy, we anticipate that fund balance to go down to about 22%. If we decrease the levy rate for 27 and 28, it could even go below 20% based on the expenditures, operating expenditures, so.

That's the clarity. Thank you. I'm so sorry. As we look at that, That's assuming we aren't just then supplementing it out of the general fund. which would be, we don't have to fund 100% of the parks and library out of just that, the property tax, right? Is there a reason we couldn't split those?

Yes, and that is exactly right. And we do give money out of the general fund, but that, instead of increasing the taxes, we could try to increase the general fund contribution.

Well, we can make whatever pitch we want, but I won't vote for a tax levy that captures more than 50% of the growth. And I'll be working very hard to make sure everyone's on that same page.

With the Parks Department also I just wanted to note they did have the two million dollars in reserves but of that amount there's about almost $600,000 of projects that were in the works at the end of the year that didn't get completed. Two playgrounds, there's the mini pitch, and then $117,000 backhoe that did not get delivered by 1231. So out of that $2 million, it's already down to about $1.4 million. Okay. But again, they're in very good shape. They're well within the policy. So it's good news to report.

So essentially, they could handle an increase of cost to a certain extent for programming O'Brien Park and the East End Revitalization Project ideas we have, some of them. There is no programming in that park right now. I've talked with Eric about that. Part of the ideas Matthias and Daniel Davies and I have talked about for that project was about programming. They technically have funds that could be used for programming.

There's some wiggle room. The $600,000 I'm talking about is playgrounds he was already obligated or that was already in the works. Right, but they still have some reserve even after those things come in. They do, and it will be kind of in that 20, it'll be about in that 23% range once that's all paid for. Okay, thank you. Yeah, there's a little wiggle room.

Okay.

Let's see catfish Charlie's is the next one and you'll see a deficit of a little over a million dollars as You know the city cash flow the building of that facility and there is a revenue anticipation note that WPC Actually cash flow that building and that is that deficit number? Again, it's all working. It's just that's what that is reflective of. Then the next one is the motor fuel tax fund. It has about $5.2 million of an ending balance with several significant projects that were in the process at 12-31-25. And some of them They were either in the process or deferred by choice into 2026. And to name some of the bigger ones, including federal projects, is 36th Avenue Path. There's about $550,000 of city match left to pay. The River to River Path, the construction is complete, but we are waiting on the state to invoice us for our portion of the match. That's just shy of $700,000. Then we've got 34th Street, almost a little over a million dollars that's deferred into 26. And then Morgan Park, $1.25 million was set aside, and we project that to be started now to be constructed and then completed in 27. So when you add those up, that is the majority of what that fund balance is. Thank you. The next... fund there is the CDBG and I know KJ was right up here talking about it a minute ago. This last year we spent nearly $800,000 and the little negative balance that is sitting there again that is just a reimbursement that we're waiting from the state. The next one is the revolving loan fund. We currently have $277,000 available for future loans in this fund. And we do have, it's on the balance sheet, it's in the financial statements, about $47,000 in loans receivable that have not been entirely paid back. But the $277,000 is available if the council were to choose a program to implement. Then the next group of funds is all of our TIF funds. And again, without exception, they are all within budget. They have negative, most of them have negative balances that are being cash flowed, but it is on target. Like I say, we're getting a clean opinion from our auditors. The general fund is cash flowing about eight point nine million dollars in those funds and CED will be conducting their annual required to board meeting in July So we're up right on target for that Then the next ones, if you turn to page four, are two SSAs, SSA five and six. Seven is a little farther down. But both of those funds have positive balances and the boards are managing those projects well with the oversight of CED. And yeah, there's number seven and it's tips. And so we can actually, if you skip over to page five, At the very top, it's the last five funds. You'll see some of the smaller trust funds, the Ryer Art, Perpetual Care, Park Cemetery, Foreign Fire, and Library Trust. All those funds have positive fund balances that are held in trust with the oversight by staff. So again, they're doing just as targeted. Then on page... six let's go to public art public art has a fund balance at december 31st is everyone there page six first column 375 000 and um So that was a good amount at December but we do project it to be drawn down to around 50,000 here by the end of this year because several large projects are going to come to completion including the leading light and shapes and colors. And just as a reminder, the council funds that public art fund annually by contributing 75,000 annually plus the 2% from CIP projects within the downtown zones. Except we just, isn't that up for final second reading tonight?

The policy would change. The CIP would not be there.

Well, the 2% that the city contributes is, but it wouldn't be coming from the downtown businesses. Got it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So the next one is... It's the cannabis, and Bob wanted me to rename it, Cannabis Humanitarian Assistance Fund. It has a fund balance of $213,000 at the end of December. And that has been averaging, with our interest income, about $60,000 a month. So that's been very consistent ever since we started that fund. So I'm pleased that that... funding has continued on. And as you recall, 215,000 in the past has been going to the special CIP program, 315,000 to Project Now, and then we started 150,000 going to the Moline urgent care in the current year. And again, that will be for further discussion during the budget. Meaning the urgent rental assistance that we just went over. Yes.

So this, just thinking out loud, but not too far down the road, this is the potential balance that we could use to put toward a permanent shelter solution that the broader county is working on. That balance is unallocated right now. Or other projects that folks have in mind, but I've just... That is the question, right, that is most pressing. That and a location are the two things, and certainly we don't want to bear the full brunt of sponsoring it when the idea is that it helps the whole area. But we may be one of the few cities that actually have an amount of dollars to go to to help sponsor it, just so you know. This is... not necessarily a bone of contention, but it is a reality that not all of our neighbors are as balanced as we are.

And that's been accumulating since we started it over a couple of years, so there's not a lot of the excess, but yes, absolutely.

Oh, so this is excess created by the two years we've been operating.

Yeah, it's just been accumulating, but it is extra. It's unallocated.

Okay, so it's not like we have 213 every year that is unallocated. Okay, got it. But I guess it would help if I'm asking a direct question. It would help if I knew what the average unallocated amount we have every year is versus just the lump sum that's sitting there right now. Because any kind of solution when it comes to permanent shelter needs annual contribution from everybody.

And I will take a closer look at that. But if it's been a couple of years, which it has, it's probably around $100,000 a year if the revenue stream stays constant. The next fund then to touch base on is our rental housing, and I'm very pleased to say that it is breaking even with our current fees. You'll see a fund balance of 131,000, but of that, 99,000 are from businesses that have paid their license I should actually say timely, but they paid it early. They're all due January 1, but we had received a big chunk of it prior to January 1. So that fund is doing very well. The opioid one is the next one. We've got 63,000 in reserves, and we anticipate at least another 100,000 over the next 10 years. So, I mean, it's kind of a slow trickle, but it will be coming in, we anticipate, over the 10 years. And as you know, that fund is certainly making a difference and serving a lot of people. The parking fund, we were able to complete $266,000 of capital projects at the Midtown ramp. As you know, we had a study done. There's a lot of projects that need to be done, but at least it is a start. And 157,000 out of this fund went towards maintenance of the other parking ramps. And then the last one here on special revenues is our care crew. And very happy to report that employees have been donating to this fund. And at the end of last year, we had about $4,100 remaining to be going to good causes. Then if you turn the page to page seven, we've got debt service, it's right on track. We've got an ending fund balance of 50,000. And then in our CIP fund, we've got about $6.6 million in reserves. We actually completed $9.6 million in projects this last year in CIP with the Arsenal Bridge Deck being the largest project that is ongoing and some things are carrying forward. But a lot of activity with capital projects. We've got some money in the Public Safety Equipment Fund, but that money is gonna be transferred in to help pay for the design. for the fire station coming up, new fire station. And then we've got our special CIP fund with reserves of about one point, just shy of $1.2 million. And this fund, you might say, oh, that looks like that's a little bit low. The biggest part of that is because revenues from the DECO grant, that $450,000 that we've been seeing, didn't come in last year, but we now have it in the current year, so it's just deferred to 26. We also had a land sale of the Spiegel building that we had thought was going to be last year. It's happening now, so that's $300,000-plus pushed into 2026. And then our, so anyway, so that, in addition to our franchise revenue, fell short by $104,000, unfortunately. As you know, That is a tax on the utility bills, gas and electric, so it is just totally dependent on what commercial businesses pay, residentials pay. Their average, when they project what our franchise fee, it's going on a rolling average of five years, but this one, it went down. So our franchise fees did fall short. But if you add all that all together, we are very close to what we had amended the budget to, so the fund is on target. We did complete over $5 million in projects as well as various expenditures in that fund. We purchased the land for the new fire station for almost $1.3 million. We allocated $1.8 million to CIP projects. and we completed the CSC improvements on our new building for a little over half a million. And we paid for the controlled entries at Public Works as well as Hall downstairs. And then we had consultants with MKSK Trippers and we purchased the I-74 property. So that was the brunt of it, but there was a lot of activity in that fund. We are hoping to be meeting in July, and we're kind of waiting on everybody to respond as well. But if we get together at the roundtable in July, we're going to be taking a very deep dive, not only with the special CIP fund, but all of the CIP projects like we normally do, as well as the fee review. Any questions on that? So to kind of highlight on capital projects, if I look at the total across all funds, total capital project, this is not on your sheet, those are my notes. Total capital projects increased $5.4 million over 2024. If we exclude the ARPA funds that were like that bonus money. So we had a very active, very aggressive construction year. In 2025, we had $810,000 between the library and parks. 25.6 million dollars of CIP MFT and utility projects and 3.8 million dollars were spent in capital equipment and vehicles for a total of 30 million two hundred and two thousand dollars So you've heard me say this before that we have a very aggressive capital So I mean, it's physical items, fixed assets, as opposed to lean operating. So we try to keep the operating really lean, spend our money, put it into the streets, put it into capital and physical things. So the next section, I'm gonna have you actually go clear back to page 11. We like to review all the enterprise funds and internal service funds looking at cash flows. So if everybody's on page 11 If you take a look at kind of the gray blue line right in the very middle of the page I'm just going to kind of look at all these enterprise funds together water WPC stormwater and sanitation and without exception they are above the minimum cash reserve policy of 25 to 30%. So we are following the plan that you laid in front of us. We've got good reserves, we've got a lot going on in those funds. We continue to try to keep those fees low, but by keeping them low, like for instance, water, storm water and sanitation at the 2% level, Those fees are less than our costs of doing business. So like our cost of increases in our labor, you know, runs closer to four, four and a half percent. Plus our operating now with inflation, you probably heard the new inflation numbers that just came out at 3.8%, which affects our gas construction, our chemical costs and those. So as we enter the budget and talk about it at the round table, We're not going to do it out of the chute, but as we develop a new three-year budget, we need to keep that in mind. We've got good fund balances, and we know we're drawing them down a little bit, but we don't want to just tank them. So at some point, we may be pushing some of those 2% increases up a little bit. But I've got to get all the budgets in that are being submitted by the department heads first. But I just kind of want to throw that out. Any questions on those funds? One thing, too, maybe to keep just in the back of your mind, and Laura and I, we've been working very, very closely. It is wonderful that we are accepting and able to get all this grant money on these lead services. I mean, and I am in the number one, recommend go after it and get it as quickly as possible. However, as you know, even though it's 0% interest, you do have to pay the principal back or if it's low interest. So we have that surcharge that's been in the fee I think we should still continue to talk about going after the grants but we just have to be watchful of how that impacts fund balance and everything else because we've got to be able to be able to pay that back over the next 30 years. So then the last group is our internal service funds and that's on page 12. And again, all six of these funds, if you look in that kind of a gray-blue category, they are, without exception, at or above that 25% fund balance minimum, or that cash reserve minimum. In our active health insurance fund, we've got almost $1.7 million in our health insurance fund with an ending balance of 25.49%. Our health insurance claims increased by about 9.9% or $502,000 this last year. But again, it's been very well managed, very well managed. Our retiree health insurance fund has about $4.3 million in that fund. And that ending reserve balance is about 30.97. Total claims in that fund actually increased 23% this last year. It was up over 439,000. However, when you compare and you look back, 24 was an exceptionally low year. So when you look between the two, it bounces out to almost what health insurance is at about the 9.9% is reasonable. So again, that fund, it's being funded well, being managed well. So HR's doing a great job. And then IT, David, you guys are doing great too, right on target. You spent, I should take a peek here, $262,000 on some capital equipment. And you have an ending balance of $477,000. And so excess reserves above and beyond that policy is about $151,000. And I know you've got some big things that are planned for this year as well as in 27. So that fund is right on target. Our liability fund has ending cash reserves of just shy of $3 million or 82.3%. Total claims in the liability fund totaled $765,000 or $1 million less than 2023. So I don't know if you're grasping that. In 2023, it was $1,700,000 and we've got it down to 700. We have to keep a good fund balance because things can fluctuate, but... I know HR, you have changed the way that you are managing those liability claims, and the attorneys that we're using as well, and it is working very, very well to get that fund managed well. The next one is our facility fund and we've got cash reserves of $727,000 or about 33%. And a goal of this fund, we kind of talked about it during the budget as well, was that our new facility manager in Denver, they're working on developing a longer range plan, identifying capital needs and maintenance for all of our city-owned buildings, Grounds as well and we're going to be bringing that forward at some point I don't know for sure if it'll be ready during this budget or not but at some point we will be bringing it forward for your consideration and most likely it will require trying to find some additional funding for that fund And then our fleet fund is right on target. We've got $2.2 million. It sounds like mercy, that's a lot of money. But as you look at those three-year rolling, there's some really big years coming up just depending on the timing of when vehicles are purchased. So again, that fund is working very well.

Can I ask a question about that? Maybe it's for Denver and Sarah. Are we talking at all about electrifying any portion of our fleet? Especially when you look at now cost of gas and just having that diversification of our fleet, whether it's for the environmental resilience or it's for cost savings. It's somehow... Are we looking at that at all?

Yeah.

Yeah. And I know in some of the mayor things I've gone to along these lines, like... some mayors have said you don't need to electrify everything that's really expensive and when there's flooding etc you can't use those that equipment but as i was saying like a diversification of the types of vehicles we have would i'm thinking might be smart i don't know what y'all think willing to glad to hear about it in the future i guess

And then lastly, just as we begin to look forward into the 2027 budget, just a couple things to kind of keep a watchful eye on. As you know, in the past, our police and fire pension costs always increase annually. Last year, they increased about 10.8% on average between the two of them. If that grows again at that same rate for 2027, that would grow to $530,000 additional tax dollars that we would need to fund the pensions. Again, we don't have those reports yet. We won't have them till probably the end of July, but we will certainly let you know as soon as we get those reports. On the flip side, we have potential positive news. that our IMRF, they are projecting, again, this is not in concrete, projecting a potential reduction in employer contributions. Currently, in the current year, it's 4.45%, and it may be as low as 2.66%. And that could equate to almost $275,000 across all of our funds, so all of the city's funds. We got the actuarial report as part of the audit. And the fund is actually performing very well. They had very good interest return. on all the investments at the state, and they are now funded at 100 point, I think I wrote it down, but it's like 100.8%, so they're overfunded, so that's why they're reducing it this year. But anyway, so that's some positive news. And then again, we will continue to monitor that intergovernmental revenue. I actually heard on the news today, watching the news, it said that the state of Illinois is potentially reducing their sales tax projections down from the 20-25% by 1%, down from the 20-25 levels, actuals, down by 1%. And we had anticipated to be up 3%, so that 4% swing, if that really did occur, That could mean a shortfall, and it would be in the general fund of a half a million dollars. And that is just one of the intergovernmental revenues. So again, we're going to keep a watchful eye out on that. Very difficult to project those numbers. It's totally based on spending of people. We have to rely on the state to give us good information of what's coming in. And again, we talked about the inflation. So Overall, I would just like to say I think that we are well positioned going into developing the 27 to the 29 budget. And as you have heard me say before, we continue to follow the plan that you established several years ago and it's working. So from a budget perspective as well as the audit. So... I appreciate all your support and we'll have big discussions coming up with the budget. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Anybody?

Yes, Mr. Timmion.

This is maybe a conversation for October. Our franchise fees for utilities is a percentage.

Yes.

there is currently legislation or discussion to increase utilities rates for our region. Just by default, that would increase our cut of the pie so we could get more revenue without increasing the rate in following budgets. I'm just sensitive to increasing that cut Anymore and knowing that it's a percentage base. So it might naturally just rise with rising rates. Is that an accurate statement?

No, that is right. It's something that I need to kind of work it all the way through the when I say the good news, we just increased it January 1 of 26 and in our plan and a plan can always be changed, but the plan to increase it the next time wouldn't be until January one of 28. So we could kind of see kind of a wait and see what happens during this year as well as next year. And then we could calculate what that impact is based on what's coming in. But that's a very, it's a very valid point.

And we are, are we boxed by increments on what we can, I know we can only do it annually, like once a year, like we can't just change it frequently. Is it at a certain percentages like sales tax so we can? No. Okay.

No, that's at the council's discretion. We just can't exceed. The last time I looked at it, the maximum was 5% total.

I would say I'm going to need a refresher on the impact of TIF 7 and where things are at with that. I'm assuming in the July discussion.

Or maybe even a special session for the TIFs. But yes, I'm happy to go through that so we have a plan in place before it ends. Thank you.

Anything further from the council? Seeing none, we will move on. Thank you so much. I will call our regular council meeting to order. Pledge of Allegiance, please.

I pledge allegiance 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.

Mr. Macias?

No, Your Honor.

Okay.

Roll call, please. Alderperson Silas? Present. Macias?

Present.

Mazzoc?

Present.

Timian?

Present.

Finch? Present. McNeil?

Present.

Castro? Present. Schmidt?

Present.

Mr. Atkins, because we passed the remote electronic attendance earlier, do we need to do it again in number 13?

Yeah, you're not going to need to do it twice.

Okay, then we'll skip number 13. Thank you. Is there any further public comment this evening? Seeing none, we'll move to our consent agenda.

Your Honor, I request the approval of Committee of the Whole, Council, and Executive Session Meeting Minutes of May 12, 2026, and Consent Agenda Item 16.1 through 17.3 inclusively. Motion to approve.

Second.

Motion by Castro, seconded by Razak. Discussion? I mean, there's no discussion. Roll call, please. Alderperson Macias?

Aye.

Razak?

Aye.

Timian? Aye. Finch? Aye. McNeil?

Aye.

Castro? Aye. Schmidt?

Aye.

Silas? Aye. Eight ayes, no nays. That motion carries. Non-consent agenda, second reading ordinances. Item number 19.1 in Ordinance Amending Chapter 22, Offenses Miscellaneous of the Moline Code of Ordinances, Section 22-1105, Tobacco Products, Tobacco Accessories, Smoking Herbs, and Alternative Nicotine Products, by increasing the number of Class B incidental tobacco dealers licenses in the City of Moline at the request of Rosie's Watering Hole, Inc., DBA Rosie's Watering Hole.

Motion to approve.

Second. Motion by Schmidt, seconded by Castro. Discussion?

Hearing none, roll call please. Alderperson Macias?

Aye.

Razak?

Aye.

Timian?

Nay.

Finch? Aye. McNeil?

Aye.

Castro? Aye. Schmidt?

Aye.

Rosales?

Nay.

Six ayes and two nays, and that motion carries. Non-consent agenda, resolutions. Item number 20.1, a resolution authorizing the Mayor to submit an application, enter into an agreement, and execute all necessary assurances and certifications to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for Community Development Block Grant entitlement funding under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 as amended for certain projects and programs identified in the 2026 Annual Action Plan and approving the mayor to submit an application, enter into an agreement, and execute all necessary assurances, certifications, and related documents with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for community development block grant entitlement funding under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 as amended for projects and programs identified in the 2026 Annual Action Plan, which serves as the second year action plan under the City of Moline's 2025 to 2029 Consolidated Plan, and authorizing the mayor to implement... implement the approved projects and programs upon HUD's approval of the 2026 annual action plan and to exercise all powers necessary to obtain such funding and carry out the approved activities.

Motion to approve. Second.

Motion by Timian, seconded by Macias. Discussion? Yes, Matt.

Thank you for applying. Anytime we can do this kind of thing, it's great. I'm just really glad. Thank you.

Anything further from the council?

Hearing none, roll call please. Alderperson Macias? Aye. Rezac?

Aye. Timian? Aye.

Finch?

Aye.

McNeil?

Aye.

Castro? Aye. Schmidt?

Aye.

Silas?

Aye.

It ayes, no nays. That motion carries. Non-consent agenda, first reading ordinances. Item number 21.1, an ordinance amending Chapter 20, Motor Vehicles and Traffic of the Mulling Code of Ordinances, Appendix 20 thereof, three-hour parking restrictions in non-metered zones, adding 18th Street on the east side, beginning at 6th Avenue, extending south for a distance of 150 feet, and 18th Street on the west side, beginning at 6th Avenue, extending south for a distance of 123 feet.

Motion to advance the second reading.

Second. Yeah, you all didn't include the suggestion of advance to second reading on the agenda this time. Correct? Normally... when you're going from first to second reading. Yeah, so the suggested action should not read approval. It should read advanced to second reading, correct? I mean, Ms. Castro said it correctly. Thank you. Just please take note for the next agenda. All right. That was motion by Castro. Was there a second? Mr. Schmidt, thank you. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Holder person, Macias.

Aye.

Mazzac.

Aye.

Timian.

Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Schmidt.

Aye.

Silas. Aye. Eight ayes, no nays. Motion to advance to second reading carries. Item number 21.2, an ordinance amending Chapter 20, Motor, Vehicles, and Traffic of the Million Code of Ordinances, Appendix 35, Altered Speed Limits by Reducing the Speed Limit Along 15th Street C. 31st Avenue South to Dead End, 31st Avenue, 16th Street West to Dead End, and 33rd Avenue, 16th Street Southwest to Dead End to 20 miles per hour.

Is there a motion to advance to second reading? Second. Thank you. Ms. Castro, seconded by Mr. Silas. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Alderperson Macias? Aye. Rezac?

Aye. Timian? Aye.

Finch? Aye. McNeil?

Aye.

Castro? Aye. Schmidt?

Aye.

Silas?

Aye.

Eight ayes, no nays. Motion to advance to second reading carries. Item number 21.3, an ordinance amending chapter 20, motor, vehicles, and traffic of the Moline Code of Ordinances, appendix 15, 30-minute parking restrictions in non-metered zones to include 621 18th Street, 1 on-street stall, and 620 18th street one on street stall and amending section 20-5109 parking time limits slash restrictions established by enacting one new subsection c5 dealing with 30 minute time zones motion to advance the second reading motion by timmy and seconded by castro um discussion

Hearing none, roll call, please.

Alderperson Macias. Aye. Rezac.

Aye.

Timian.

Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Schmidt.

Aye. Silas. Aye.

Ayes, no nays. Motion to advance to second reading carries. Item number 21.4, an ordinance amending chapter 20, motor vehicles and traffic of the Moline Code of Ordinances, appendix 35, altered speed limits, 20 miles per hour speed limit by removing 18th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. by removing 23rd avenue between 34th street to 36th street and by removing 47th avenue 48th street to 53rd street and amending chapter 20 motor vehicles and traffic of the million code of ordinances appendix 35 altered speed limits 20 miles per hour speed limit by adding 8th street place 25th avenue court to 25th avenue By adding 11th Avenue east of 42nd Street in Springbrook Courts. By adding 11th Avenue Court east of 41st Street in Springbrook Courts. By adding 18th Avenue Court west of 48th Street Place to Dead End. By adding 19th Avenue 47th Street Court to 48th Street Place. By adding 20th Avenue 48th Street Place west to Dead End to 47th Street Court. By adding 41st Avenue Drive 38th Street to 41st Street. by adding 47th avenue 48th street a to 53rd street by adding glenwood drive south of 19th street and by adding parking adding park 16th street 31st avenue to dead end of 34th avenue and amending chapter 20 motor vehicles and traffic of the million code of ordinances appendix 35 altered speed limits 40 mile per hour speed limit by adding 48th street a 5th avenue to 11th avenue bay

Motion to advance the second reading. Second.

Motion by Macias, seconded by Razak. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Alderperson Macias? Aye. Razak?

Aye. Timian? Aye.

Finch? Aye. McNeil?

Aye.

Castro? Aye. Schmidt?

Aye.

Silas?

Aye.

Eight ayes, no nays. Motion to advance to second reading carries, and that's all I have this evening, Your Honor. Thank you.

So under miscellaneous, I'm pleased to say that, where's Mr. Mathias? Did he already? Oh, there you are. That the process we went through to interview fellowship students, I'm not saying this right, they're masters in urban planning, I believe, students from our fellowship at Harvard. It's a Harvard-funded fellowship, so we're not out any money, but we got our first choice candidate, and we're in the process of of finalizing all that paperwork. And so they'd be focused on under your supervision on the East End project and sort of getting some of that off the ground. I did have a good conversation with that neighborhood organizer, Claire Lindahl, so that she knew what was going on. I'm excited that we got who we wanted because we were competing with seven other cities.

Yeah, she's a grad student at Harvard in urban planning, so we're happy to have all of her assistance.

The other two interns, their offices are set up near Ashley's and there's small bios on their cubbies. So if you want to read about them, you can read more about them there. I don't remember when they're getting here.

Oh, great.

All right. So that's the person focused on housing fund and things like that. So that's good news. We had our first, as I mentioned last week, we were having our first permanent shelter discussion last Thursday that went well. Thank you to KJ for joining Bob and I. The next one is this Thursday. So we're continuing a pace, as they say, because the pressure is on to make sure we can do something that's sustainable and we did have a good trip down to springfield last week that conference is very helpful i think maybe in the future kj might be attending it as as a registrant um but it's uh sponsored through the office dhs basically through the office of um to the chief homelessness officer christine haley so there's a lot to learn there but we enjoyed our short time there um and it was great to hear we were on a panel reverend ford and i speaking about what we've done in the last few years so all of those presentations cages put together about project uplift and what we did with the um the winter emergency shelter etc we got to speak on that and we were joined by the city of springfield illinois where they've done some really innovative things but It was interesting to hear the difference between a big city like that that is doing things in-house way more than we're doing. We're focused on the partnership side of things, what have you. And I also just wanted to mention that coming up, I know we're moving the CIP talk to July. I mean, you're saying it's still... being finalized, but I think that's what's going to happen. But there are a few topics I've discussed with Stephanie that we could have as roundtable topics on June 16th that would be very beneficial for the city. Talking with Cecilia Bailey from QCon about what... her program is and does. She had talked to us last year a little bit about her big swing project that we didn't ultimately fund in the budget. But given the new conversations in the community from the clutch consultant workshops two weeks ago or so, and given what already exists because of her program, and given what we want to see happen with case management, et cetera, that we know is an important addition to or part of the approach here with folks that are unsheltered. I thought it would be good if she shared with everyone some of that in the context, and I'm going to see how that backbone service that tells us, you know, that it can go in and tell you where the needs are or who's already getting all these services right, how that might complement whatever the county discussion is. I need to see how that will integrate. Then there's also folks that are very interested in our code updates related to cottage industries. And you all may have code update ideas. I think that this would be a great time. Now it's less than a month away, so you don't have a lot of time. But even if you just came and said, hey, I've been thinking about X problem. could we address is this a code issue could we address it through a code update right i think we want to be mindful of the work it takes for code updates because some of you remember we were doing updates every month of almost every chapter and they were huge and we got a lot done but we needed to put that on pause because we had addressed most of the biggest stuff but now is your jobs as legislators right you're out there hopefully talking to residents when is your Ward meeting? Next weekend. Okay, awesome.

Week after? 27th.

Yeah, right? You're having conversations and all of that, and you might have had ideas over time that we just haven't had a chance to talk about, and a roundtable is a great time to talk about what those ideas are. We can't have every detail figured out for everything, but it's good for us to have a brainstorming conversation, I think. So that's what we talked about using the 16th floor in June. Okay. That's all I got. How about you?

Nothing tonight, Your Honor.

Other than your board meeting? Other than. Someone.

I buried the lead there.

Right. Yes. I'm sorry. I believe you mentioned it was the 27th. It's actually the 28th. Okay.

Okay. Don't show up on the wrong day.

Yes. All right.

That's what I knew in my head. End of the day. All right. End of the month.

Got it.

Whatever. All right. Nothing, Your Honor. Nothing, Your Honor.

I'd like to thank staff and those of us who attended the ribbon cutting for COIAs. the other day, amazing transformation inside. Every time I drive by now, I see a full Al's and a full Koya's parking lot. It's really great considering that area's needed a lot of attention lately, and I feel like we're starting to get movement there. And so just thank you to the staff as well that did so much to help them along the process. I know it was not a quick endeavor with all of our landscaping requirements and everything else, but it all came together. And so I apologize to the East End for stealing a business, but we'll find someone to fill that one, hopefully. Thank you.

Oh, no. Ms. Finch online. Any updates? Nothing, Your Honor. Thank you. Thank you. Nothing, Your Honor.

I just want to remind everyone that this is the opening weekend for Mercado on 5th on Friday and Thursday I think is the first day of the Bass Street Landing concert series as well Thursday. So like the official start of summer and with those events starting downtown.

Nothing. Nothing from staff.

Any other stuff? Okay. Then final public comment.

Hearing none, I need a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second.

All right. That's Castro and Silas. Roll call, please. Elderperson Macias.

Aye.

Razak.

Aye.

Timian.

Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Schmidt.

Aye. Silas. Aye.

See you in a couple weeks.