City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'll call our Committee of the Whole to order here in Council Chambers at 6 p.m.

Roll call, please. Alderperson Silas?

Present.

Macias? Present. Mazak?

Aye. Tinian? Present.

Finch? Present. McNeil?

Present.

Castro? Present. Schmidt?

Present.

All right, we move to public comment. Do we have any public sayings? One electronically. Are they signed in, Mr. Rohler? Okay, we'll see if they come available at the next public comment. So we'll start with the oath of office for regular commissioned appointment as firefighter paramedic to Levi Schilling effective July 14, 2025.

Thank you, Your Honor, your Navy members' counsel. It's my privilege tonight to introduce firefighter Levi Schilling. Levi is originally from Geneseo and is a 2011 graduate of Geneseo High School, where he participated in both football and track. Shortly after high school, he enlisted in the United States Army. During his military service, he successfully completed some very demanding U.S. Army Ranger training and went on to serve as a rifleman with the 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Air Force Base in Georgia. After serving our country, Levi was hired as a firefighter by the city of Moline on August 18, 2023. And from very early on, his leadership abilities were quite evident. In fact, among his fellow recruit class, which was extremely large, we hired, I think, 11 others with him, Levi became affectionately known as the dad of the group at the academy. I think that says quite a bit about the role he naturally assumed among his peers and the respect they had for him. Levi brings to the Moline Fire Department not only the skills and knowledge he has gained through his fire and EMS training, but also the leadership, discipline, teamwork, and commitment to service developed throughout his military career. Most importantly, and Levi will tell you this, it's most important to him, Levi is joined here tonight by the people who have supported him throughout his journey. His wife Amanda, their three daughters Evelyn, Julia, and Paulina, and their son Levi, along with his mother-in-law Julie. Levi, we're proud to have you as a member of the Moline Fire Department, and although this recognition maybe have taken a little bit longer than we'd have liked, we're very pleased to finally have the opportunity to formally recognize you and your service to our community. Thank you very much. Mayor, would you like to join us at the podium?

This is for you. If you would please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Levi Schilling, having been duly appointed as a firefighter paramedic for the City of Moline, Illinois, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Illinois and will strictly adhere to the laws of the state of Illinois, the city of Moline, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of firefighter paramedic for the city of Moline, Illinois, according to the best of my ability.

Congratulations.

Thank you. We can invite his wife Amanda out to tend to his back.

Congratulations, sir.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

All right, we have two appointments. filling in some openings that we had. Mayor's appointment of Adria Johnson to the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners for a three-year term to expire May 31, 2029. And Mr. Nelson, could you please stand so we can recognize your amazing years of service on the Police and Fire Board of Commissioners? Thank you so much. owe you a communique but we have spoken before about all this so thank you so much really you have helped build an amazing department two departments two departments and worked with our staff well and established high standards and I think that's why our community is so proud of our police and fire departments thank you And then Mayor's appointment of Catherine Tilburg to the Public Art Commission to fill the unexpired term of Zygote Thorson to expire September 30th, 2026. Just so the council's aware, I am aware of what the ordinance currently states of needing a liaison or a member from the Historic Preservation Commission to the Public Art Commission. I'm working on those details to figure that piece out right now. All right, so we move to our presentations. Introduction of Rick Edgar, Director of Illinois Quad Cities Civic Center Authority, and Brandon Miller, QCOM 911.

I got that, Your Honor. All right. Thank you, Your Honor. Tonight, we have two introductions for two gentlemen as new leaders for very important organizations in our city. I'm going to introduce Rick Edgar, and followed by Chief Reganweather introducing Brandon Miller. So Mr. Edgar is the new executive director of Vibrant Arena. He holds a degree in political science from Coastal Carolina University, a master's degree in media arts from the University of South Carolina, While in school, he worked in athletics as a video coordinator, helping coaches analyze scouting and game footage. He was a member of the staff that won the SEC regular season basketball championship in 1997. After graduation, Edgar worked in multiple jobs over the next decade until he figured out that working in the venue management industry is what he really wanted to do. He is a lifelong and avid Seattle Seahawks fan. He believes Disintegration by the Cure is the greatest album ever. And that it is borderline criminal that Weird Al Yankovic is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. No argument there. He is proud to call Illinois home where he lives with his wonderful wife of 24 years and their two smart and witty daughters. Welcome, Rick, to Moline and to the Quad Cities. Thanks, everyone.

Just for the sake of everybody's time, I've been on the gig for about five weeks. My job's much better than all of yours. I get to have a lot of fun. We also take our jobs very seriously. We're looking forward to becoming and reinvigorating the downtown. We take it very seriously that we're the economic epicenter of the community. If you don't believe me, come down and see what happens on Ella Langley when we have 11,000 people with 65% of them coming from other zip codes outside of the Quad Cities to spend their money in our town. If anybody has any questions, I'm happy to do that. It's a little awkward for me because I haven't had a chance to formally or even non-formally meet you individually.

Any questions from the council? We won't put you on the spot here. Thank you so much for joining us tonight, though. Just so the council is aware, Mr. Nelson, also the dedicated servant of Moline that he has been, is serving as the chair of the board for the Vibrant Arena this year, correct? Yes. Thank you.

All right, Chief. All right, thank you. I get the pleasure of introducing Brandon Miller, the new director of QCOM 911. Brandon became QCOM's Emergency Communications Director on July 27, 2026, bringing nearly three decades of experience in public safety communications and emergency dispatch leadership. Most recently, Brandon served as Executive Director of Illinois Valley Regional Dispatch, where he guided organizational growth, advanced quality assurance and accreditation initiatives, and fostered a workplace culture centered on service excellence and employee development. A respected leader in the 911 profession, Brandon holds the Emergency Number Professional, ENP, and Center Manager Certification Program credentials from the National Emergency Number Association. That's a mouthful, I've been practicing it all afternoon. He is a past president of the Iowa chapter of NENA, an instructor with the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch, and a former member of several public safety emergency communications and training boards. He is passionate about building high-performance teams, supporting employees, and advancing the quality and effectiveness of emergency communications. Welcome aboard, Brandon. We're happy to have you.

Thank you so much. Happy to be here. I'm happy to serve the citizens and visitors of Moline and all of the agencies that are serviced by QCon. It's been a great three and a half weeks. Excited to continue on, and I'm appreciative of all of you inviting me here to be introduced tonight, so thank you.

Thank you for joining this team. All right, we move to 7.2, review of payments. Actually, Barry, because we have Mr. Viegbe, and he's one person, and everyone else, there's a lot more people, and I think people should see what Brian's going to share. I'd like, if the council is fine, to move this number 7.3 in front of 7.2. Brian, are you okay with that? Please come forward. We'll start with Brian Fiegbe, Bob Turner Internship Presentation.

Hello, everybody. My name is Brian Fiegbe. I was the Bob Turner Intern for the City of Moline this year. It's an honor to be here today. I'm just going to be giving you guys a brief presentation about my time here at City Hall and interning here.

Doesn't want to advance.

To start off, during the summer, I worked a lot with the different departments within the city. For example, I worked with Dawn to see different grant applications and how they can be used to help improve some of the projects within the city and future projects. Additionally, I attended multiple community meetings and events through Ashley Allen Smith. And I also often did a lot of paperwork and tasks through the executive and city clerk's office through Stephanie and Macy. I also work together with other interns through the Bob Turner Scholar Program to create an interactive map to connect different local government resources to teens and young adults. I'll explain a little bit more about that later. After this internship experience, I would definitely say I gained a better understanding of local government, especially seeing a lot of the behind the scenes work of how all these projects and initiatives get done. Although I would say I've had a pretty good understanding of local government from my internship last summer and my high school government class, I feel like this summer I just got a better and deeper understanding of how much time and money really goes into these different projects. I would say on a personal note, I learned a lot more how to work on my own, as I often did more individual tasks compared to last summer. And I thought this was just a really great experience. Some of my internship highlights I wanted to share was the Faith Leader Summit. I really like seeing this conversation between city officials and different residents about local issues. I really love seeing the high school interns give their final presentations as it felt like a full circle moment as I was an intern last year and I love seeing their different ideas about local government too. I love working with the college interns like Rowan Smith and Charlie Anderson, the abundance intern. That's me and him on the right. I'm about to present the Bill Moline report. He was such a great guy. I really miss him a lot. And probably one of my favorite memories was the ribbon cutting at the Quad Cities Tennis Club. I never went there, but I've never went there before that ribbon cutting. But I thought it was just a really cool place, and I loved meeting all sorts of new people. To expand a little bit more on my Bob Turner experience, I have to give a little bit of context. ICMA, the organization that runs the Bob Turner internship, they basically have a challenge or prompt basically every year for the different interns all throughout the US to basically separate them into different teams and give them a challenge of, how can we connect local government to teens and young adults to make it more interesting? My group decided to create a PSA called Locating Local Government, where we created basically a map of different parts of our cities to show how governments all around us. We feel like this would just make it more interesting to people to see how government works all throughout our daily lives. Can you be able to hit the map?

Thank you for sharing all of that insider information with us that you learned. We appreciate your several years of service to the city in the summers and wish you good luck at Blackhawk this fall. Thank you. All right, now we'll go back to 7.2, review of payments to agencies. Mr. Dutkeson.

Your Honor, before you is the list of requests from area agencies. Some of this list are repeats. Some are by agreement or contract. So this list is before you in its raw form as we move forward with the budget process. And I believe there are a few representatives here that are hoping to speak.

Yeah. So I have Rick Edgar on behalf of the Quad City Storm, Christy Adamson from the Third Place, and Project Now, Ron Lund. Everyone's here? All right. Rick, do you want to start?

kind of on the back end of this, so I apologize for, essentially what it is, it's a request to cover the expenses that we need for public safety for our hockey games. The team is looking forward to, we're gonna be signing an extension A five-year extension will be the first time we've had the same owner sign two contracts. One of the challenges was the cost of the police to get people in and out was a little, it was difficult on the team. So they had had a meeting with city leadership and asked for this to be able to be something that the city could cover for them for the next three years while they're getting their finances in order.

Questions from the council? Yes, Mr. Timmy.

So is the intention to taper off eventually?

Well, they haven't received this before. Hopefully, they'll be able to build it up. But we are also, we've changed up their deal so that we're more of a partner versus a tenant-landlord relationship. The intent is we want more people to enjoy the venue, and this is one other way that we're going to be able to do that. So for right now, we're at a three-year, and then we're going to take a reassessment at that time.

Thank you. Mr. Schmidt?

Why would we consider a benefit like this to the storm and not to any other teams or organizations coming into the USP

Most of them don't need the level of security that they do. And honestly, our performing shows, our concerts, they have the funds to pay for that, even when we co-promote. We have one other tenant, but right now we're in negotiations to see if we could extend that contract, and that is not something that has been presented by the team. This was something that the team went to City Hall and negotiated on their own.

Mr. Tamir?

I haven't seen the agreement. Hopefully you've read it. Is this a maximum? Because I know a lot of times our officers are there in overtime working that. So obviously the hourly rate might exceed the budgeted allotment.

The way we've constructed the contract is if something was not covered by the city dollars, then we, the venue, and the team would split any cost 50-50. But these were costs that were run through the police department and they felt would be enough to cover their expenses to cover the hockey games. The other thing is, too, the hockey team has expanded from 28 to 30 games, regular season games. And in their playoffs, they went from a best of three to best of five. So there could be five to six additional games if they're able to extend their season into the playoffs.

Great. That's wonderful news for everyone downtown for sure. Citywide. And just to refresh the council's memory, if you didn't have this in your head already, we have a similar agreement we've had for 2026 with Mercado. So it's not a completely new idea. Anything else you want to add?

No.

Okay. Anything else from the council? Thank you for sharing this. We're excited to see what happens.

Remember to be vibrant.

All right. Christy Adamson?

Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. My name is Christy Adamson. I'm the director and co-founder of the Third Place QC. Chloe, who's hiding back here, and I founded the Third Place to fill a gap in our local safety net. We created a daytime community center for Quad City residents who are experiencing homelessness and housing instability. When we opened just last year in October 2025, we anticipated serving about 40 people a week. Today, we welcome 100 to 130 people every day. About 90% of them are unhoused, while others are recently housed or experiencing some sort of housing instability. We provide essentials like restrooms, warming and cooling relief, snacks, clothing, hygiene supplies, showers, Wi-Fi, phone charging stations, mail service, and secure storage for belongings and important documents. But most importantly, we want the third place to be a launching pad, a place where someone can walk in, be known, but also get pointed to their next step. Next slide, please.

I think you have to press. Oh, it might be on the shelf.

OK, it's OK. We got it. What's important to note tonight as well is that when someone loses housing, they often lose more than just their roof, which is what we usually think of. They lose community, their routines, relationships, and a sense of belonging, which inspired our name. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg described the third place as a social space outside of home and work where people could build relationships and participate in community life. For someone experiencing homelessness, home and work may both be temporarily out of reach. We believe that having a third place, a place to belong, rebuild relationships, and regain stability can be an important path of them moving forward. The data on this slide predates our opening last October, but the important takeaway is the trend that you'll see here and continue to see. More people are entering our local homelessness system every day, many for the first time. And the third place has given our community an opportunity to intervene early. I sometimes describe our services in the Third Place like a train station. Some guests come every day, some pass through once, and others need help figuring out each next stop along the way. Our goal at the Third Place is to provide immediate face-to-face support and help people navigate services without unnecessarily languishing while waiting for answers from more traditional nonprofits. This slide obviously shows the range of services, which I mentioned earlier, that happen underneath our roof every single day. And importantly, we have no residency requirement for those that access the third place. We serve people throughout the Quad Cities, including here from Moline. Homelessness, as you all know, doesn't recognize city limits and neither does the front door of the third place. Another important component is that we also serve as a bridge to the many excellent services that already exist in our community. Things like healthcare, behavioral health, housing, benefits, employment, and other providers like Project Now, who's here tonight, regularly come directly to the third place to meet with our guests. And that really matters. If a referral across town isn't particularly useful, if someone doesn't have transportation to get there, a phone, or the ability to navigate any sort of complicated system. So by bringing these providers directly to where people already feel comfortable, we see people accept referrals more quickly and make actual connections with service providers. Our goal has always been not to duplicate existing services, but also help make those services in our community easier to reach for people who are unhoused. A lot of folks, even though we've only been around since October last year, ask us what our short- and long-term plan is. Our immediate goal is to relocate to a larger facility in Rock Island, and we are actively working towards that move, so stay tuned. But we also don't want unlimited growth. We don't want a warehouse of sorts. What makes the Third Place special is its intimacy. If you've visited us, you'll know that. People know one another, relationships develop naturally, and people feel like they belong, and that matters a lot. So our long-term vision would be to grow the model, not the building itself, potentially helping establish smaller third-place communities elsewhere in the region as needed, while still preserving that sense of connection. Building community requires community participation, and I would have to say this in any presentation. People can support our work in a lot of ways. Donating, volunteering, or simply following us on social media helps other people understand what services are out there. We always have to include a list of our most current needs. We really need blankets right now, but we'll let you look up the rest of this on our website later. And I'll close with this. Homelessness is not confined by municipal boundaries, which I know you all learned this year hosting the Winter Emergency Shelter. The people we serve at the Third Place come from throughout the Quad Cities region, including here. And as we all know, these challenges affect our entire region. The third place began with a simple belief. People experiencing homelessness are still our neighbors, and every day we see what happens when someone who has experienced isolation begins to feel known again by coming to our doors. People become more willing to accept support, and we've seen an enormous amount of success in the folks that join us every day. Thank you for the opportunity to share our work with you tonight, and thank you for considering our request. Your commitment, all of you in Moline, to build a stronger and more connected community means a lot to those of us down in Rock Island at the third place. So thank you. Thank you very much.

Questions from the council? Mr. McNeil.

So I'm in awe of the work that you do, your service numbers. Are you still, is it just you and Chloe still?

So we have hired a part-time staff who's helping us in the background. But yeah, Chloe and I are the ones that run the space every day.

So obviously if you expand to other sites, you're expanding staff. But do you have a short-term vision for...

adding more staff or is that part of a plan yeah one of our goals before we opened was to remain as sustainable as possible so while yes we have some short-term plans to add staff we're very cautious to do that so quickly after opening we want to make sure we can retain the services that we're already providing okay thank you yeah anyone else

I think I just want to reiterate to the council and the community that the reason I invited third place to come speak is that we did depend on them in the winter when we hosted the winter shelter. I have told everyone that we're in communication with about potential future directions in the county, that this is an essential piece, the day shelter piece of it or day community piece of it. And so just, you know, up for your consideration as we continue through the budget cycle. And so just as, so everyone's aware, we go all the way into October, the end of October, November, before the decisions are all final. That's partly why, even though they're a Rock Island-based organization, we do depend on them, and so that's why I invited them. Thank you. Yep, thank you. And lastly, Project Now, Ron Lund.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. I will make this quick to respect your time. So our request, or let me talk real briefly just about what we've kind of dealt with this current year. Now, similar to what Christy had said, these are outdated numbers. So part A for level up is the $400 a month stipend. We had 35 households enrolled, $168,000 spent, and then $12,000 for our paid intern, who is a Moline resident. Part B, we had projected we would house or we would serve 57. We actually served 67. I think as we sent this in, we had said we had spent 86%. Funding is spent. So we will continue to take applications just because we have other pots of money that we will use after this. So the application will remain open however level up money is spent. You can see overall, similar to what Christy had said, housing is the greatest need at this point in the community. So 53 individuals or 53 households for rent with one mortgage. That mortgage is kind of an outlier. It will be realistic with the Tyson plant closing. That number is going to skyrocket. So... So what we're asking for, for FY27 through 29, we are asking for an increase. So our FY26 was $315,000. We recognize that the community needs more assistance for that. With that, you'll notice that the only change that we've asked for, our paid internship, we're asking to be able to double their hours because the workload has increased with the need of the community. Other than that, we are looking to increase the client assistance dollars, and that is it. So Project NOW has agreed, I believe since year one, to take a reduced rate than what we would normally take from our grants. We're going to continue that. This money is most needed in the community and not in our coffers. So that would be our request again this year. You can see for Part A, we're looking to expand that moving forward, and then as well as Part B to increase that from 62 to 68 over the next three years. Now, that obviously is the full $2,000 payment. If somebody's requesting less, we'd be able to serve more.

Thank you. Questions from the council?

Yes. The increase in the part A, you're wanting to expand, but I know that there was, are we changing anything as far as, because before we had it for like 12 months, and then I think we extended to 24 months.

My question was piggybacking on that was, can you give us the data on who's under the 12 month, 14, 16, and 18? Like how many? Do you have that?

Okay. We do not have that, but yes, we will get that to you tomorrow.

Okay. Thank you.

Is that all you wanted? Yeah, I just wanted to see what that breakdown was, who was still on it, and how for how long. Mr. Timian.

You mentioned, obviously, the Tyson plant closing is going to increase assistance requests for emergency funds. Why is Part B not being allocated higher?

Quite frankly, because I put this in before Tyson told me they were closing. That's the easy answer. The unfortunate answer is none of the local municipalities have enough funding to be able to handle what's going to be forthcoming. So our state partners need to step up.

Okay. Other thoughts from the council? Well, we thank you for the partnership. We've been through three years total.

I believe this was three.

Yeah, and we're always happy to come to that graduation ceremony you have because I want the community to remember this isn't about permanent assistance. It's about leveling up to the next place. And so I think that's part of why it's so successful is that it's... there's a deadline, people are moving forward and making other choices, et cetera, that this money allows them. So we thank you.

Thank you.

All right. That's it for payments to agencies, or did Renew Moline, you're all here, did you want to say anything?

All right.

I appreciate the opportunity to be here before you. Alexandra Elias, President and CEO of Renew Moline. We don't normally bring board members to this meeting, but we understand that there are competing priorities for your council funds. Carrie O'Neill, our board chair, has joined us this evening. Jim Nelson from Parr Instrument, who is a board member, carries with Wells Fargo. And Rick Edgar, of course, is going to be arm wrestling with Rocky to determine who's going to be on our board from the Vibrant Arena. So we're happy to answer questions. I believe the letter was pretty consistent with what we've requested in past years. I'm happy to answer questions. I also just wanted to briefly, I've been there eight and a half years almost. And in that time, we have created what we believe are catalytic projects. We secured $50,000 from the Moline Regional Community Foundation for the Public Art and Placemaking Plan, which established your Public Art Commission. We're just thrilled to see that continue. secured $40,000 for a national advisory panel with the Urban Land Institute for early riverfront work, and of course that work remains probably your most important focus. We put together $200,000 from both the John Deere Foundation and Renew's own funds to pursue study of the public market project. And we continue to support the work that's currently underway by the city. Last year, or excuse me, earlier this year, something we haven't talked about a lot is that we were a very tiny little owner of Enterprise Lofts. We negotiated a disposition of Renew's ownership in that. received funds that we intend to dedicate toward housing in the city of Moline and we're excited to explore that with both your involvement and of course city staff and then last but not least this year with Senator Halpin's help we were thrilled to be informed that we are in the state's annual budget for a half a million dollar grant to Renovate and develop over properties in the city of Moline. So some of that language is a little bit flexible to give us some options But we're very excited to be here tonight. We are so grateful for the 36 years of the work together with the city will continue to follow your direction our strategic planning and while we have two or three board members here there are 28 other 25 other board members that contribute and match the spirit of cooperation and the funding that is provided by the city every year and so we're very grateful thank you thank you very much any questions from the council

No? Okay. Thank you. They have all of the big, this packet of reading they are probably continuing to do as we get into budget talks. But thank you everyone for being here to share your stories and information. We'll move to, yes, Mr. Schmidt. Are we allowed to? Yeah, we can talk.

Is there any other discussion from the council? I just had a few of these. I know there were some thoughts on email. One that I think is worth looking at and considering and just i don't think there's any issues at the time of just keeping an eye on is as we look to the the grow qc i'm sorry hold on i do need to back up one second oh yeah um the visit quad cities is a client of mine that i work with but it's not considered a conflict because it does not have competitors also the quad cities channel covers occasionally works with my agency Looking at the GrowQC, I think I'm very excited and encouraged by some of the early signs and how it's building, right? And it has to go there. I would encourage us to continue working with them to show, ensure we're looking at the industries of growth for GrowQC that are going to work for Moline and frankly all the Illinois community. Because we are in different states, because we have different environments, I think there are different needs. And in the past, that's not always been addressed. It's always been like, well, the lowest paying fruit was to go after the big, vacant, empty sites. We don't have those. And we pay dues to it, I think.

i continue to express that and talk to the chamber i think they're working that direction that might what i've seen so far by revisiting and thinking about thank you that is um connected to what i experienced today at a breakfast with a leader from springfield um and we We discussed those different needs. I know Maria Harris from Rock Island was there as well as some other leaders, and I think it's in line with what you're saying in terms of what's unique about our side of the river versus the other side of the river. All right. Yes, other thoughts? Ms. Castro. I have another question on something else.

I just had a question. I see here that the Youth Commission is asking for $10,000 more. I know last year they asked for an increase, too, and we had kind of asked for a budget. When I saw this, I didn't see anything that was included. Did they provide? They did last year.

They did follow up with how they make their decisions, a document. We can have staff dig that up so you can take another peek at it. I know I wrote to you all that I read something about the Human Rights Commission wanting to do something with youth as well. And I think we actually need to have those staff liaisons talk to each other because we don't need to double up on spending, you know, when we already have a youth commission. Maybe the Human Rights Commission needs to focus on something else. So a little staff follow-up there. Mr. Schmidt?

I'm just one at a time. Yeah. had been brought up before, but I do think the two Rivers YMCA requests, I think it's a great request, but I think we should refer that to the Special Events Committee. I just think that's exactly where it's coming from, so I think we should put it in the right bucket.

And I think, Mr. Dykes, and they would be open to that because that's a new event, I think. I think that's a new event, and they'd like to try to help get those going. Other thoughts?

Yes, Mr. Macias. Thank you. I just wanted to share that I serve on the board of Grope. When it comes time to vote on that part, I'll excuse myself. Excuse yourself. Okay.

Mr. Timian? For line 19, the public art, it still has a 2% CIP for 27. Is that a holdover from an existing project? No.

I don't know the specific CIP project there, but...

Didn't we just get rid of that?

No.

We changed the model.

No, what we removed was the requirement for a private developer to contribute. So the CIP requirement is still there. If there's a CIP project in the downtown, it pays a certain percentage into the fund. So we didn't remove that. That's for like a CIP project.

Okay. Understood. Thank you for clarifying. Other thoughts from the council?

Yes, Ms. Castro. And this is just because I don't remember, and I apologize. For the Mercado request, I thought that that came out of the Special Events Fund. Is that something different, or am I just mistaken? I'll let Mr. Dykeisen answer.

Yeah, I'll have to look back. I don't have an answer for you right now. I believe this is different.

So it would be in addition to what we would fund for out of our special events?

I think that's the way it was structured, yes.

Which was, in that request last year, was... 20 or so. It's additional on the top of that. Okay, yeah.

If we could find that, that would be great. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Schmidt.

Chris, the Historic Preservation Commission They asked for that extra 490, and then they go back to the 15,000. I just didn't see a note that told me what we want this year. Or was it just that it has things totaled out?

I think it was getting... Was it getting involved in an organization that educates them, like a membership dues or something?

Yeah, there were two. There's already one they're in. There was going to be a new membership, like an Illinois landmarks type thing. So it's in the memo, but I can pull that up for next time.

Well, I saw the item, but I was surprised to see it going up and then back down. I think that's what caught my attention. Or if that was just a we're guessing that we were out of the Senate and we don't know what projects are coming. I can follow up with both of you on that.

Thank you.

And that will be final.

We'll come back to it. Mr. Timian.

Junior achievement number 18. How I read that letter says it was a renewal of our founder status. And so I'm a little confused. Is this a membership?

Well... It appears that this new executive director has turned it into that. I think that all of us who approved becoming a founding member and having a civic space suite there for kids to learn, We believed in the mission of junior achievement in our community, especially with all kinds of changing demographics and socioeconomic levels, et cetera. But I don't think any of us were expecting that kind of renewal. I think when we went into that agreement, it was a one-time deal. So I think there's probably some follow-up conversations to have there so they understand. We didn't understand it the way they're presenting it. Mr. Schmidt.

I guess I did understand it coming back for me. I mean, just from the reading, it was clearly a sponsorship deal. I work in that space. I'm looking at those more regularly. I think it's something we'll have to look at and discuss, but I do think there's a serious consideration that if we are not doing it, someone else will.

Oh, yeah.

And then it will be sponsored by someone else in the city of Columbia. And I'm not very fond of that idea.

You mean someone else in Rock Island County?

Or someone else in the Quad Cities? A different city in the Quad Cities will sponsor it. You said someone else in Moline.

Oh, I get you. Thank you for clarifying. Got it. Anything further? Mr. Timmy.

Line 20, the urgent rental and utility assistance. I imagine it's safe to say we're anticipating this happening because we had to re-up last year. I think we ran out of funds faster this year than last year. So this is an anticipated expense.

Yeah. Ms. Ramirez, would you mind sharing the... dollar amount if you have it with you. I don't have the right phone that I asked about because that comes out of cannabis. I think they should know, I don't think I forwarded to them, what we've gotten so far into May and where we might be doubling it, you know, at our halfway point.

Yeah, so we've received about $243,000. So we anticipate for the rest of you about doubling so well.

Yeah, and you all told me that the reason that cannabis tax revenue is going down is because the market has begun to get a little more saturated and the businesses are cutting their rates or their prices a little more, so not charging as much. We knew that was probably going to happen when we knew we weren't going to be the only ones with cannabis stores. Yes, Dan.

Back to J.A. I wasn't here when we signed the agreement, but I I guess I assume that it was part of their capital campaign where we paid, whatever it is, over three to four years. I think it was $30,000 total. I just want to make sure that if that's what the private sector is doing in their spaces too, is that they're paying membership every year ongoing where over 10 years it's north of $100,000. I mean, that's significant, right? So I... I'd just like to know that that's how this works for everybody. We can find the original. All right.

Mr. Dackeisen will follow up on that. Other thoughts for now? Okay. Thank you so much, everyone. I do have a proclamation this evening from Mayor Sankitharapati to declare the city of Moline as Moline the Entrepreneurial. And I want to give you just a little background. I think you know I serve on the steering committee for the Mayor's Innovation Project based out of University of Wisconsin in Madison. Someone on that committee serves as a consultant to the group that is sponsoring this effort, which is a nonpartisan effort to remind our nation of our entrepreneurial roots. I think we know that in the city of Moline historically as well, seeing as John Deere, the entrepreneur, had a huge part in our founding and success. It looked to me like the requirements to be a founding member of this network, we were already fulfilling. You'll hear me talk about the one-stop shop. We've already been committed to that and started launching that. And so I'm really excited to continue to have discussion with the council, especially as we get into our strategic planning next year, which we always do it after an election, especially, and we revisit it on the off years. Just where that place of entrepreneurship sits in our in our um strategic plan what more can we do um this is a backbone you know industry i think and and what can we do to go back to those roots or or help that more so the proclamation reads Whereas the United States of America is a bold entrepreneurial experiment, a startup nation built by individuals willing to take initiatives, seize opportunities, and create new pathways for economic growth. And whereas entrepreneurship fosters economic prosperity in Moline by creating homegrown jobs, spurring innovation, building wealth, strengthening communities, lowering poverty, and driving economic mobility. And whereas Moline is home to entrepreneurs, small business owners, and founders whose efforts strengthen neighborhoods and contribute to the city's economic vitality. And whereas entrepreneurs often face barriers such as red tape, fees, fragmented information, lack of knowledge, and limited access to resources. And whereas the American dream is always fragile and because America belongs to the living generation, it is our turn to renew the nation's entrepreneurial spirit. And whereas America the Entrepreneurial is a national, nonpartisan, civic campaign calling on mayors to take concrete action that restores entrepreneurship to the center of the American story by lowering barriers, elevating entrepreneurs, and strengthening the conditions for new and growing businesses, now, therefore, I, Sangeeta Rayapati, Mayor of Moline, declare... that we're joining America the Entrepreneurial, which has three points to it. The mayor of Moline hereby joins the campaign America the Entrepreneurial as a founding mayor, affirming a commitment to make entrepreneurship a core civic and economic priority of the city. Two, the city of Moline hereby joins the campaign America the Entrepreneurial as a founding city and proclaims Moline the entrepreneurial. And three, the city shall strengthen its one-stop shop resource for entrepreneurs, providing clear, centralized information for starting and growing a business in Moline. This resource shall... among many things clarify permitting licensing zoning and inspection requirements identify available programs incentives contracting opportunities and support services be accessible online and designed with the user experience of entrepreneurs in mind and we'll explore citywide review of entrepreneurial barriers entrepreneurship and economic development and workforce training and listening to and elevating entrepreneurs for incorporation into its next strategic plan so there you have it Not too much skin off our back at the moment and I look forward to a further conversation with you and the staff. All right, questions on the agenda? We move to Committee of the Whole, Agenda Items 10.1, an ordinance amending Chapter 5, Amusements of the Moline Code of Ordinances, Section 5-1101C, by increasing the number of video gaming terminal licensed establishments in the city at the request of Three Bros Hospitality, LLC, DBA, Four Bros Craft Taproom. Mr. Deggett.

Your Honor, Mr. Atkins will speak to this one and the next agenda item also.

And this particular establishment is already licensed as a Class B tavern liquor license holder. They meet the minimum requirements under the ordinance. They're before you asking that you increase the total number of licenses to allow them, I believe the plan is to put in four video gaming terminals. So staff is recommending approval.

Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Finch, seconded by Macias. Discussion? Yes, Mr. Macias.

Do they have a spot where they are going to put them already decided on?

You know, I do not know the answer to that. I don't know whether, Stephanie, did they have any information for you about where exactly they were planning on putting them?

I don't know.

Yeah. All right.

Well, first this and then that.

I was just curious.

Okay, thank you. Anything else from the council? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. 10.2, an ordinance amending Chapter 5, Amusements of the Moline Code of Ordinances, Section 5-1101C, by increasing the number of video game terminal licensed establishments in the city at the request of 1522 River Drive, LLC, DBA Sins Tavern.

And this is also a Class B liquor license holder. They are planning on actually putting in six gaming terminals. Again, they meet the minimum requirements under the ordinance, and it's a matter of your discretion whether or not to allow these. We are recommending approval.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Motion by Finch, seconded by Macias. Discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. 10.3, a resolution authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute and attest to amendment number three to the professional services agreement with FGM Architects Inc. for new central fire station phase two, design, documentation, bidding, and construction administration for the amount of 8.5% of the cost of the work of the project, including reimbursable expenses. Mr. Schmidt.

Good evening. FGMA is currently about 40% done with design. This next phase will get us to 100%. They will also assist with bidding, which we anticipate this winter, with further anticipation of construction starting spring of 2027. So we are recommending approval.

Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Finch, seconded by Castro. Discussion? Can anybody believe that spring 27 is when this is actually going to start? That's amazing. It's been a journey, right? All right. Thank you. If there's nothing further, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. All right. Ms. Temple, environmental resiliency plan.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. Before I turn things over to Blue Strike to present the environmental resiliency plan, I just want to take a few minutes to walk through how we got here because this journey has really been about five years in the making. In 2021, under Mayor Rayapati's leadership, a small group began meeting to talk about what Moline could be doing to become a more environmentally sustainable and resilient community. It included former Alderperson Pat O'Brien, Tony Lodi, Andy Parr, and later me. We simply called it the Enviro Working Group. And really the questions we were asking were pretty straightforward. What are other communities doing? What are we already doing well? And what opportunities are there for Moline to do more? You can actually trace how the thinking evolved through three generations of the city's strategic plan. In the 2022 to 2024 strategic plan, the goal was 1.6 D, investigate environmental best practice opportunities. And that's really what we were doing at that point, investigating, learning, and trying things. That included efforts related to EV readiness, water conservation, energy efficiency, solar energy, community cleanups, and the development of Green Moline concept. But as we learn more, I think we all also started to think bigger. In the 2024 to 2026 strategic plan, the goal became 3.3G, establish an overall environmental sustainability strategy. And I think that's an important shift. We weren't just looking at individual best practices anymore. We were starting to ask how all of these different pieces fit together. A larger cross-departmental environmental task force was formed to look at things like carbon reduction, clean energy, transportation, waste reduction, green infrastructure, natural resources, water management, education, and community engagement. But there was another important part of the conversation too, our own lived experience here in Moline. We don't have to look very far to understand why resiliency matters. We live in an area where severe storms and tornadoes are a reality. We've experienced flooding, downed trees, extended power outages, and disruption that comes with extreme weather. So resiliency isn't really an abstract concept for our community. We've experienced these things ourselves and we know they affect our residents, our infrastructure, our businesses and services the city provides. We also looked at communities like Dubuque and Iowa City that have been doing this work successfully for many years and thought about what we could learn from them. Ultimately, the task force came to the conclusion that Moline needed something more comprehensive than a collection of individual programs and projects. We needed a plan based on data and community input that could establish goals, identify strategies, and give us a framework for moving forward. That led to the RFP process and ultimately to our partnership with Blue Strike. We received nine proposals from firms across the country, and Blue Strike really stood out for both their experience and their approach. And now, having gone through this process with them, I can say we made a very good choice. Blue Strike has been an exceptional partner to work with. They brought a tremendous amount of expertise to the process, but they also listened. They took the time to understand Moline and worked with residents, staff, our steering committee, and other stakeholders. They didn't come in with a predetermined plan and tell us what Moline should do. They brought best practices and experiences from other communities, but worked with us to develop something that is genuinely Moline's plan. And now we've reached the third stage. In our new 2026 to 2029 strategic plan, the goal is 3.4A, adopt and implement the city of Moline's first environmental resiliency plan. I think these three strategic plans actually tell the story really well. We started by investigating environmental best practices, then we committed to developing an overall strategy, and now we're ready to adopt that strategy and start implementing it. That brings us to the plan before you tonight. And when you first look at this plan, I will acknowledge It can feel like a lot. There are lots of goals, strategies, and potential actions in it. It is comprehensive, and it is meant to be a long-term commitment. Resiliency does not happen overnight, and our needs and opportunities will continue to evolve over time. But I think it's important to understand that this plan is a roadmap, not a checklist. Adopting this plan doesn't mean every recommendation needs to happen immediately. It doesn't mean every action has the same priority. And it doesn't mean that we're committing to fund everything in it at once. We're also not starting from zero. We're already investing in energy efficiency. We're managing stormwater in natural areas. We're planting trees in pollinator habitat. We're addressing flood resilience, exploring renewable energy, and making investments in infrastructure and transportation. A lot of this work is already happening. One of the real values of this plan is that for the first time, we're bringing it all together under one comprehensive framework. But I also think there's another really useful way to look at the plan. It gives us an environmental and resiliency lens that we can apply to decisions we're already making as a city. When we're considering an infrastructure project, a development, a city facility like the fire station, transportation, natural resources, policies, and future budgets, we can ask, can we make this more resilient? Can we reduce its environmental impact? Is there an investment we can make today that saves resources or reduces risk for the future? And sometimes implementation might mean launching a completely new initiative, but sometimes it may simply mean making a better decision about something we're already doing. I think that makes the plan much more manageable. We can build on what we're already doing. We can incorporate these ideas into projects that are already underway. We can take advantage of grant funding and partnerships when those opportunities come along. And we can continue working toward the things that are going to take longer. We're also putting another important piece in place through our participation in Lead for Cities. And in some ways, I think Lead for Cities brings that five-year journey full circle. One of our earliest strategic plan goals, as I mentioned, was to investigate environmental best practices. Today, we're adopting our first environmental resiliency plan and participating in Lead for Cities, which is itself an environmental best practice. LEAD gives us a way to assess where Moline is today, establish a baseline, identify gaps, and then actually measure our progress over time. I think of the two efforts as complementary. The Environmental Resiliency Plan helps define where we want to go. LEAD for Cities helps us understand where we're starting and how we measure whether we're getting there. And ultimately I think that's how we should measure the success of this plan. Success isn't going to mean checking every box on this document. Success will mean that five or ten years from now we can look back at the baseline we're establishing today and actually demonstrate that Moline is more resilient than it was when we started. We've learned a lot from communities like Dubuque and Iowa City, and I hope we continue to learn from them. But I also think Moline has an opportunity to establish its own model and be a leader here in the Quad Cities. Not because we're going to accomplish everything overnight, but because we've established a direction, we're making thoughtful investments, we're looking at our decisions through a resiliency lens, we're measuring our progress, and we're continuing to move forward. So tonight is definitely a milestone and something worth celebrating, at least for me, but it isn't really the end of this process. It's the point where we move from planning to implementation. Before we get into the plan itself, I do want to recognize our internal project team, Denver Schmidt, Jennifer Bazzari, Ashley Allen Smith, and Daniel Davies, and all of the city staff who helped us get to this point. We had people from across the organization bring their expertise and perspective to this process, and I really appreciate their involvement. This truly has been a collaborative cross-departmental effort. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to BlueStrike to show us where all of that work has brought us. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Dawn. Good evening, everybody. Can you hear us? Yes. We can hear you, yep. Perfect. Thank you. So good evening and thank you so much for being here tonight and for having us here. It's truly our honor to be here today. And this may sound a little bit repetitive, but I also wanted to, before opening the presentation, to take a moment to recognize everyone who helped to bring this project to life. And I'd like to start by thanking the city leadership and city staff for initiating this planning effort. Your leadership made it possible for this work to move forward, so thank you for that. Thank you to the steering committee, environmental committee, city staff and your community members for your guidance and contributions and for the time you generously gave to meet with us and our team. And finally, I also wanted to recognize the project team, Denver Schmidt, Jennifer Buzari, Ashley Allen Smith, Daniel DeVees, and Don Temple. Their dedication and contribution to this project has been absolutely outstanding, and it is because of their hard work that this plan is so closely attuned to Moline. And this has been an exceptional team to work with, so we're truly grateful to have been a part of this project. And with that, let's get to the presentation. I am going to share my screen, so let me see if that's going to work. Can everybody see my screen? Yes. Perfect, thank you. So to quickly introduce myself, my name is Anna. I'm with the BlueStripe department, all the consulting team, and I'm here today with Rich Swanson and Brittany Mahoney. Rich and Brittany, do you both want to quickly introduce yourselves?

Sure. Thank you, Anna. Mayor and city council, project team and Moline, it's really been our pleasure to work with you on this plan. My name is Rich Swanson. I'm the director of our energy and climate practice here at Blue Stripe. And looking forward to being with you here this evening and excited to present what Anna and Brittany and Dawn and her team have worked so hard to put together.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Brittany Mahoney. I'm a technical analyst here at Blue Strike Environmental. I helped a lot on the data analysis across different departments with the city.

Thank you, Brittany. Alrighty, so for today's agenda, we're presenting the Environmental Resiliency Plan, and we're going to go over the project goals, greenhouse gas inventory, emission results, talk a little bit about community stakeholder engagement activities and some of the outcomes, and talk about the strategies and implementation plan, which is essentially the core of this project. And for the project goals and overall the idea of this plan and why this plan matters is because Moline is already facing environmental risks such as flooding, extreme heat, severe wind events. And this plan gives the city a clear roadmap of how to address some of these challenges. And a part of this project was creating a baseline for greenhouse gas inventories and set targets to be able to measure the progress as we continue into 2040 and 2050 and how Malina is doing in terms of reducing GHG emissions. But this plan isn't only about greenhouse gas emissions. We work closely to align this plan closely to your existing local, state, and regional efforts to make sure we're supporting your existing initiatives and avoiding redundancy here. But we understand your climate risks and your community and infrastructure vulnerabilities. So as an outcome of this plan, we engaged closely with your residents, community organizations and businesses to make sure that we are listening to what everybody needs and that we're creating strategies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also ones that promote resilience and adaptation practices. And that we're also supplementing these strategies with an actionable implementation roadmap. And to help you follow along, I wanted to quickly introduce the plan itself. And in case you have it printed in front of you or in a digital format, the planner is organized in a couple of different sections. First, you will see the executive summary and introduction, which sets the vision, talks about climate impacts and sets the foundation for this plan. We highlight some of the key results from the greenhouse gas inventories and community engagement activities. Then followed by the environmental resiliency roadmap that is organized in a couple of parts, which is the core of the project and highlights goals, strategies, and actions organized by five focus areas. And then followed by implementation, which covers funding mechanisms, monitoring, and reporting frameworks. And finally, appendices, which take a deeper dive in some of the technical aspects of this plan.

And with that, I'll pass it to Brittany to talk about greenhouse gas emission results. Thank you, Ana. Before we talk about potential strategies and reduction targets, we need to know where Moline stands today. In other words, the baseline. The next two slides answer that question in two parts. First, we're going to look at the community-wide view, every ton of greenhouse gas emissions produced across the entire city by residents, businesses, industry, and traffic. And second, a closer look at just the city government itself, what it controls precisely, its buildings, fleet, and operations. Together, these two baselines anchor every reduction target and every strategy in the rest of the plan. So first, what you're looking at here is the community-wide inventory. We established in 2024, the total emissions is 534,020 metric tons equivalent of CO2. Three quarters of Moline's emissions come from stationary energy. That's electricity, natural gas, heating, and other fuels used in homes, businesses, and industry. This is the biggest lever here. Followed by transportation, it is the second largest source at about 23%. That's just on-road gasoline and diesel across the community. Then we have solid waste and wastewater together are just under 5%. We also have a small carbon sink. You can see a note on the bottom right. This is tree canopies at a little over 7,000 metric tons of offset there. It is not shown on the donut because it is a negative. And just to close this slide, Moline align aims to align with the state of Illinois GHG reductions targets of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Everything you'll see in the strategy sections is calibrated against those targets. And we can move on to the city government emissions here. So here we have total municipal operation emissions, where it's about 8,564 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2024. That is about 1.6% of the community total that we just discussed in the previous slide. Here we have electricity dominating about 70%. That's powering the city buildings, water and wastewater treatment plants, infrastructure, street lights and traffic signals. Followed by mobile combustion is around 15.5%. That's the city's fleet, police vehicles, public works, trucks and other municipal vehicles. Employee commute is about 7% and stationary combustion, primary natural gas heating in city buildings is 6%. Solid waste and water use round out to the remainder. The municipal inventory is small in absolute terms, as you can see, when compared to the community inventory. However, this is the emissions that the city has direct control over and can influence the reduction through considering potential strategies and reductions displayed in the plan. And I'll turn it over to Ana to finish.

Thank you, Brittany. Thanks, Anuj. Go ahead.

Yeah, thanks Anna. So as you have been told, this was it was very important that we heard from Moline about the direction that this particular plan would take, and so we did a very deep dive into community and stakeholder engagement. We had a couple of public meetings. One was a virtual meeting, the other one was in person in Moline. Several steering committee meetings, environmental Council meetings, We had a meeting with you all at a round table. We also conducted a series of surveys with the community, with employees for the city. We did a housing survey and an economic development survey. And all of these things helped us to understand what the city wants in terms of direction, in terms of specifics. And if we go to the next slide, you can see some of the outcomes of that engagement process. So a few things rose to the top in terms of initiatives or emphases that people wanted to see in this particular plan. The first one was nature-based solutions. This was the top program choice for residents and staff, things like tree planting, native landscaping, green infrastructure. Those led in every survey that we conducted. The second thing that rose to the top was infrastructure improvements. This was the most frequently cited action that the city could take. The third thing that rose to the top was a concern, and this was energy costs. This was the top personal concern for residents and employees alike. Seeing their utilities bills rise drove interest in things like home energy efficiency workshops and other programs that you can see in the plan. Another factor that rose to the surface was stormwater and flood concerns. These were the highest priority resilience initiatives for city staff especially, and things like stormwater and green infrastructure ranked very high across all the audiences that we talked to. And then finally, incentives and rebates. These were the second most popular action items across both surveys, residents and employees, and the top incentive tool named by local businesses. So a real desire to create programs and policies that kind of led with these types of incentives. And if we move to the next slide, We can see a little bit about how we took all of this information and merged it into a strategy development process. So one thing, Ana and I had a great privilege to be with your project team, your fantastic project team, on an in-person visit and a city tour. We visited all of your facilities and some of your beautiful landmarks along the river there. We also did a deep dive into existing city, regional and state plans, looked at both qualitative and quantitative input from all of our engagement activities, brought some best practices from some regional peers and some nationwide climate leaders, And then we worked closely with the project team to do a voting exercise on the different strategies and initiatives that would eventually find their way into the plan. And then there was a final review by the steering committee itself. There are a lot of initiatives, if we go to the next slide, thank you. There are a lot of initiatives in this particular plan, but they all enter into five focus areas. Energy and buildings, these are our built infrastructure around Moline. Transportation and mobility, this is how we transport ourselves, move around the community. Resource management, these are things like water, waste, wastewater, the way that we use the resources that we have. Resilience and adaptation, these are the resilience components, the ways that we bounce back as a community. from impacts and adaptation to future climate and weather patterns, and then innovative community. These are initiatives around education, around community engagement, and other types of innovative receiving input from the community at large and working closely with local groups. So all of the strategies and the actions are organized around these major bins or buckets And with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Ana, who's going to dive into each of these categories and talk about a few of the strategies that have been selected and highlighted.

Thank you so much, Rich. So a couple of things that I wanted to also mention before discussing specific strategies and actions is how, in addition to how the plan is organized, each focus area includes three layers of, three structures. One is a goal. that we're trying to reach. One is a strategy, which tells us what are the components that are included to reaching this goal, and then a set of specific actions associated with each strategy. And for each of the focus areas here, we have two tracks. One is a community track that is oriented towards actions that can be taken for the community or within the community, and then municipal tracks, which is something that is directly under city's control. And we realized this plan is a very long document. It includes a lot of information, a lot of initiatives, and this is something that is intended for long-term implementation this is not something that is intended to to to implement all at once and we also realize that funding can be one of the biggest roadblocks to implementation so the implementation of this plan may be impacted by political landscape funding landscape technological advancements so this effort is also intended to be as a living document and as a roadmap for the city of Moline to be able to face some of the environmental challenges that are occurring in the city. And the first focus area, as Rich mentioned, is our energy and buildings. And what we mean by energy and buildings is it's renewable energy, it's building efficiency, it's building retrofitting, and everything we can do to transition away from fossil fuels and make our building operations more efficient. And the strategy here that we wanted to highlight and the sample goal is reducing municipal facility energy consumption. And this is a strategy from a municipal track focused on developing resiliency hubs. And this strategy came, the idea for the strategy came around our in-person visit when we had conversations with the community, when we were deploying the community survey at that time and met with the steering committee and city leadership. And so everybody was talking about this effort in one form or another. So that's how this strategy originated here is from the conversations that we had with the community and city staff. is to conduct a feasibility study and identify priority locations and potential sites for a future resiliency hub that can be equipped with cooling and warming capabilities and with emergency backup power capacity. And one of the candidates for the first resiliency hub was the new fire station. So one of the actions here, as you can see, is that igniting and equipping the new fire station as the first resiliency hub. So this is a sample. You can follow along on pages 41 to 50, where we have all strategies in action for energy and building section. In addition to that, each strategy is accompanied by the key benefits, as you can see here on the slide. So in addition to promoting community resiliency and transitioning to renewable energy, we're also addressing emergency preparedness, quality of life, and infrastructure service reliability as well. For the next category here for transportation and mobility, and what we mean here is everything that relates to active transport, such as biking infrastructure, scooters, public transit, and transitioning to a more sustainable transportation options. And here we're highlighting a sample goal to expand access to EV, to electrical vehicles and clean transportation infrastructure. And this is a strategy from a community truck that is primarily focused on expanding awareness to your businesses and to your residents of how they can make this transition possible. And that includes exploring the demand for an interest in this transition, first and foremost, including your EV map and charging stations into the Resiliency Hub website, and promoting incentives for making this transition, whether they're e-bikes incentives, tax credits, charging resources, clean transportation options. So essentially making it as seamless as possible for the community to be able to make their choices on whether or not they choose to transition for some of the more active transportation methods or to cleaner vehicle alternatives. Next one is resource management. And what we mean here by resource management is everything that has to do with water, wastewater, waste diversion, some of your recreational areas, park spaces. And this strategy is an example of how this plan is integrated with your existing planning efforts. So one of the actions here, and this is a strategy from a community track, it is focused on continuing to implement the urban forestry management plan. And we're just adding a resiliency angle to it as prioritizing urban tree canopy and shade expansion with long transportation corridors, parks, schools, and trails to create a better environment for people to be able to choose some of the more active transportation methods such as commuting by bike or walking. And we're hoping that this is something that can also reduce the heat impact and improve comfort and quality of life for residents. So the strategy also intertwines with the transportation and mobility category that we just reviewed. So next one is resilience and adaptation. And this is perhaps the core of this project, core of the environmental resiliency plan. And before I... Review the strategy that we highlight in here. I just want to emphasize that this is a dedicated section but there are Resilience and adaptation components sprinkled throughout all of the focus areas all of the strategies And this is a this is a specific dedicated area that talks about some of these uh some of these more specific resilience and adaptation efforts and this is one of the one of my favorite personally strategies from this plan and it also he originated from one of our community workshops the sample goal here is reducing utility disruptions and strengthening urban forest resilience And the idea for the strategy here is to partner with MidAmerican Energy and other utility providers to coordinate hazardous tree assessment and removal. We realize that these initiatives can be very expensive for homeowners to remove the trees, to assess the trees, whether or not the hazards, because fallen trees can cause utility disruption, power outages. And the idea here is to coordinate and aggregate those services and efforts to be able to make this cost a bit of a heavier lift for residents who might need to face hazardous tree assessment and removal. So promoting cost share opportunities where feasible and targeting specific locations where these trees may be near power lines and other critical infrastructure. And last but not least, category here is innovative community. And this category is perhaps a core of the implementation and implementation driver for this plan. So how are we doing this and how are we implementing this plan? Who is implementing this plan? And here the sample goal is establishing sustainability, staffing, governance, and partnerships. And some of the actions included here is establishing a designated sustainability position to lead implementation of this plan and coordinate across departments and also promote environmental resiliency beyond this plan and beyond this effort. Because environmental resiliency trickles down to all sectors, energy, building efficiency, transportation, resource management. And it takes an army to implement some of these efforts. So it will require coordinating with your existing staff, building partnerships, engaging volunteers, and focusing on some of these workforce development programs to support implementation of this plan where feasible. And now finally to implementation, and we realize that implementation It can be challenging and there is so much that goes into planning, how to do it, who is responsible for what, acquiring funds. And I wanted to give you a quick sample here and the background of what is included in the implementation plan. And you can see here on the sample slide is each action is accompanied by A specific set of categories that are important to move implementation forward is establishing lead departments, establishing potential cost estimates, start years and implementation timelines, and if there are any greenhouse gas reduction opportunities associated with these strategies. And I just want to emphasize again that this is a long-term implementation effort. Not everything starts at once, and even if something starts in a given year, that means that the implementation can be lasting for years and years. So this is something that doesn't happen overnight, and this is a long-term coordinated planning effort. Another highlight here is just a snippet of a tracking tool that we're delivering to the city alongside this plan. And as you can see here, this is a more detailed implementation plan that includes also implementation partners. This tool also includes some officials. tracking and monitoring mechanisms for the city to use. And this tool can become a reporting template for city and the staff to keep track of progress to date, hopefully can act as a starting point to some of the budget planning efforts as well. So that's essentially kind of gives a foundation for implementation some of these specific actions and strategies. And now finally to funding monitoring and reporting. You already saw a snippet of the tracker in the previous slide. And it's also implementing the strategies is also important to know what are the key milestones we're trying to reach. And this may not be a perfect mouth here that may not be able to reach every strategy in every key performance indicator, but these are just some examples of how we can track success of various strategies. And on the slide here, you can see an example of of metrics that we can use to evaluate how we're progressing towards a given strategy. Are we making progress? Is it successful? And on the right side, you can also see a column with some of the funding sources. Funding can be one of the biggest roadblocks to implementation. So the plan highlights some of the funding sources available per strategy. And you can also see a more detailed funding and financing mechanism in the appendix D on pages 203 to 207. And lastly, I wanted to show the final version of the plan in case you don't have a full design version in front of you. This is just a snippet of a couple of pages of what the design document looks like just for your reference. And with that, we are happy to take any questions.

Yes, Ms. Finch. So I just finished a book. And when I was reading that book, I had an idea. So I was excited to see it in the presentation. So as I was also reading the presentation, I jotted down a few notes. I jotted down a few notes and then I also have a question. E-bikes, they reduce the urban footprint and parking becomes less of an issue. Less areas that are devoted for parking can be used for housing. And parking garages have impervious surfaces that increase runoff flooding and the pollution from parking goes into our lakes and streams. And parking lots increase the urban heat island effect. And the more that we promote alternative means of travel lessens the carbon footprint. And as far as the e-bike infrastructure, is it possible that we could also maybe include like e-bike rentals? And I'm thinking more along the lines of in the future, downtown Moline, just as also an option.

Thank you so much for your question And I will start and see if anybody else from my team wants to to answer or anybody from the city has any comments But they we had a in-person community workshop at the beginning of this year and this specific question also came up and one of the attendees of that in-person workshop was a community member who was working with the Quad Cities to investigate establishing the rental network of the EV biking infrastructure. So this is just, I guess, one example of how your community is involved in these efforts. The EV bikes and EV charging infrastructure is a part of this plan. However, it doesn't set any specific requirements on the number of stations, or it doesn't set any targets on the transitioning to community miles to a specific transportation method because it is also climate related in the community like Moline. But I know to the best of my knowledge that there has been a community effort that has been working with the Quad City region to see if it's possible to bring one of the publicly accessible e-bike provider to Moline and some of your neighbors as well. Thank you.

I think more generally about the various specific strategies in this plan and others that might evolve from this plan or occur to people in the future. One of the characteristics of a plan like this, hopefully, is that it is a very living document, so it can be revisited and augmented and developed over time. This space, the environmental resiliency space, is constantly changing. It's very dynamic. And so there will be new technologies and new, you know, uptake of new behaviors. And so it'll be very exciting, I think, to see what happens in Moline, not just from the execution of the things that are written on these pages, But what those words drive in terms of future community involvement and innovation.

Mr. Silas?

Really quickly to Alderperson Finch's point about the e-bikes. The state has prioritized us doing a feasibility study on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities. So Metrolink has not signed a grant agreement yet, but we will be moving forward with a feasibility study for bike sharing at some point in the near future. I don't think that I'm stepping out of line by saying that. and then i do have a question for the team um i i know that ev charging for um personal vehicles is kind of all over the planet in the transportation section did you guys scout any city sites that you're interested in or corridors or how much effort went into like actual placement of the chargers or is it just like thank you general goal

Thank you. Yeah, that's an excellent question. We didn't cite specific—we didn't select any specific sites for installing EV charging stations. What we're suggesting as a part of this plan is, first of all, evaluating and understanding the interest, and this was one of the strategies that we were presenting, making it publicly available and organized and streamlines all of the incentives and rebates that may be available for transitioning to EVs for your community members, incentives for EV charging installations. The recommendation for other steps would be conducting a more specific study and understanding what are the most efficient sites for installing EV chargers, what kind of EV chargers, whether it should be level one, level two, level three. This was a bit beyond the scope of the project, but this is definitely one of the recommended next steps that can be undertaken by the city. Thank you.

One follow-up. Yeah.

So then something that I would say for staff then, Metrolink has taken the lead in like bringing in state and federal money for the chargers. So the thing that we need mostly from the city, that Metrolink needs from the cities is viable locations that have been scouted. So like is power available? Are you guys willing to, is the city willing to entertain it? So as part of this plan, I like that it's included, but like that is the next step that like is kind of an immediate, that'd be very helpful as an appendix to this plan.

Thank you. Yes, Mr. McNeil.

I have a comment and a question. I'd first like to thank staff and Blue Strike for your work and thank dawn for introducing the plan i i there's nothing else i can add as far as the value of this plan and the rationale for why we do this i think most when they think about government and conservation and environment think at either a federal or state level if that's epa or dnr fish and wildlife corps of engineers but We have a real opportunity here. And I know that one of the recommendations was also to have a dedicated staff member that works around these efforts. I'm excited to see that in our budget. So that's my long comment. My question is about setting priorities. So a lot of what's in this plan will be long-term, like the nature-based solutions, which are important for us to plant trees that we'll never enjoy the shade of, right, for our children and grandchildren. And we need to get started on a lot of these efforts. But we also have efforts that feel more pressing. I have family in Indiana that are on day six today without power, right? We've seen that here in our community. We'll see that again. and so i i really like the idea of the resiliency hubs but also that you included the um reduce utility disruptions and strengthen the urban forest i know we discussed that at a session and that those feel like pieces so do we consider in priorities those are also public safety and security issues and i feel right in front of us so Can you expand on how we're considering those things that feel, I guess to me, fairly critical in the short term?

I'd like to just speak on that for a bit. Because I think we'd like to consider how we develop the priorities and the strategies in a similar way to how we work with the strategic plan goals. So in the beginning of the year, we're looking to kind of prioritize certain strategies, bring those to the forefront, develop work plans with the staff, that will be kind of implementing those specific projects. So I think having those conversations annually and then kind of determining what are those priorities that we wanna be working on for this year. and then kind of assessing that at the end of the year and then looking towards the next year, talking about it again. So it's a conversation. It isn't something that just needs to be predetermined right now, like we're going to do XYZ in next year and XYZ in 28 and XYZ in 29. We can revisit and have these conversations as we move forward. So I just wanted to comment on that.

Thank you. Anything else from the council? Mr. Timmy?

Along with this, I see there is a section here about streamlining solar for residential. And I don't know what barriers there are currently. There's a lot. There's a lot. So that's a problem. I know that historically solar has been viewed as grid dependent and the newer... cheaper batteries have allowed residentials to Have solar independent of grid connectivity and I would encourage staff to Incentivize this as much as possible. There are kits now people can start with one battery pack one solar panel and add on themselves pretty easily more batteries, obviously there's an electrical component if you're looking into your controller box, but The technology is becoming a lot easier to use, and so I would love to see incentives or just streamlining of this process, because I do think I was without power. Was that this week, that storm? Yeah, I was without power last week. I felt great. I was reading. It was wonderful. I can survive it, but my 75-year-old mom has a harder time. And her 95-year-old neighbor had a really hard time. And this kind of redundancy and backup, I think, is what's going to get us through the ever-changing climate here.

Thank you. Well, we very much appreciate your time this evening. Thank you for everything you've shared. I feel like we need to applaud the staff for their dedication. because our partners with blue strike also noted their the great working relationship they had with you all so thank you very much um we look forward to more conversations on that so we will move to calling our regular council to order Unless you have anything. Thanks, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a good evening.

FYI, we were going to try to put a resolution forward to bring for vote on the first. We just wanted to give you guys some time to review and provide any feedback as well.

Thank you. Pledge of Allegiance, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to

Do you have an invocation, Mr. Schmidt? No. Roll call, please. Alderperson Silas? Present. Macias? Present. Razak?

Present.

Timian? Present. Finch? Present. McNeil?

Present.

Castro?

Present. Schmidt?

Present.

We have no remote electronic attendance. Is our online public comment there now? Okay, and no further sign-ins. Thank you, Brian. So we will move to our consent agenda.

You're on our request approval of Committee of the Whole, Council, and Executive Session Special Meeting Minutes of July 30, 2026, Committee of the Whole, Council, and Executive Session Meeting Minutes of August 4, 2026, appointments made at Committee of the Whole on August 18, 2026, and consent agenda items 19.1 through 20.7 inclusively. Motion to approve. Seconded. Motion by Finch, seconded by Castro. Roll call, please. Alderperson Schmidt.

Aye.

Stylas.

Aye.

Macias. Aye. Razak.

Aye.

Timian.

Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Eight ayes, no nays. That motion carries. non-consent agenda resolutions. Item number 22.1, a resolution authorizing the mayor, city clerk, and city staff to apply to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for an open space land acquisition and development grant for the amount of $600,000 to improve ADA accessibility and safety throughout the Milt Hand Softball Complex. That includes work to replace deteriorated and uneven sidewalks and paths, replace old playground equipment for 5- to 12-year-old age group, provide shade structures, provide accessible multi-use trail, and provide educational signage related to the local ecosystem, and authorizing the mayor, city clerk, and city staff to do all things necessary to prepare and submit said grant application. Motion to approve.

Second. Motion by Finch, seconded by... Silas? Oh, Macias. Oh, Razak. All right, thank you. Discussion? I was curious, Mr. Griffith, with, I think Oslad was mentioned last week when we were talking about the Riverfront project. Yeah, see, we're on the same page. Okay.

uh is this going to jeopardize future ocelot grant applications uh no but if we were to receive it in 2026 it's a you have two years to spend it so you could not apply for another one until the grant is completed if we were to receive it in 2027 our goal would be to have it done at the end by the end of 2027 so we could submit another grant for 2028 okay it's Fairly easy to get that done based off of our schedule.

Okay. Mr. Macias? Thank you. So how much of the space, so my son did pitch T-ball, coach pitch, and I did notice there was quite a few spots here and there, but would this cover like all the areas or just some of the areas?

I'd say it's over 75% of the asphalt will get redone. New shade structures over the bleachers, the 5- to 12-year-old, the main structure for playgrounds. And then we're currently taking some old sand volleyball and we're turning it into grass so that next year we can move, like, soccer and flag football outside of softball and baseball over there, and that would create an accessible path over to that area as well. They came out and actually gave us how they grade these grants, and so we've tweaked it to include some educational signage as well to start hopefully kind of developing that area down there in Green Valley for the local ecosystem.

Thank you. I just want to clarify, following up on Mayor's question about the riverfront. So I don't remember when we had our presentation last week what the plan was for when they wanted to apply for that, or was that just part of the budget? Mr. Parr.

Yeah, so those were just identifying all the grants that were possible. So out of all those that we know, we're projecting probably a 25% hit rate, so that'd be covered across all. So we have the ability to adjust years.

Okay, okay, thank you, thank you. If there's nothing further from the council, roll call, please.

Alderperson Schmidt. Aye. Silas. Aye. Macias. Aye. Rezac.

Aye.

Timian. Aye. Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Eight ayes, no nays. That motion carries. Item number 22.2, a resolution accepting the resignation of Bogdan Vitas Jr. as city administrator, effective August 14, 2026, and terminating his employment agreement as city administrator.

Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Timmy and seconded by Finch. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call please.

Alderperson Schmidt.

Aye.

Salas. Aye. Macias.

Aye.

Rezac.

Aye. Timian. Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Eight ayes, no nays. That motion carries. Item number 22.3, a resolution approving the appointment of Barry Dikeisen, Assistant City Administrator as Interim City Administrator for the City of Moline, and approving temporary compensation during his service as Interim City Administrator. Motion to approve.

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

Alderperson Schmidt. Aye. Silas. Aye. Macias. Aye. Rezac.

Aye.

Timian. Aye. Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Eight ayes, no nays. That motion carries. Non-consent agenda, first reading ordinances. Number 23.1 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 M.K. Oil and Real Estate, Inc., DBA M.K. Mart Moline 58700. Motion to advance the second reading. Second.

Motion by Finch, seconded by Castro. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please. Alderperson Schmidt. Aye.

Silas. Aye. Macias.

Aye.

Razak.

Aye.

Timian.

Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Eight ayes, no nays. Motion to advance to second reading carries. Item number 23.2, an ordinance amending Chapter 20, Motor Vehicles and Traffic of the Mulling Code of Ordinances, Appendix 5 thereof, all way stop intersections by adding the intersection of 54th Street and 11th Avenue B. Motion to advance the second reading.

Second.

Motion by Finch, seconded by Silas. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please. Alderperson Schmidt?

Aye. Silas? Aye. Macias? Aye. Razak?

Aye.

Timian?

Aye.

Finch? Aye. McNeil?

Aye.

Castro? Aye. Eight ayes, no nays. Motion to advance to second reading carries. And that's all I have this evening, Your Honor.

All right. I just have a brief note that Thursday evening we have a cock carrying award ceremony. You're all welcome to come at 6 p.m. at the library, correct? We did have a really nice response. If you recall, I have the challenge coins from the 250 celebration and It's it's really beautiful things were written about our neighbors by neighbors And so I'm excited to see all those folks in person and give them their challenge point I do have been talking with Ashley about you know, how can we continue to recognize people doing good things? Who are not always, you know in the spotlight? potentially related to the timing of our state of the city and and that kind of thing. We'll see where we go with it. But I'm excited for that. You're welcome to come. Mr. Silas. No, thank you.

I attended another meeting today with the working group for Build Moline. I just want to express my gratitude for how mature the program is evolving into and the thought the staff is putting into it. And I've really felt that there's a strong desire for more housing in the city. And so we just wanted to share that with the council. Thank you.

Thank you.

Brian left, the intern Brian, but he was also fantastic to have around this summer, so we will miss him. And I know all the interns really appreciate being able to present to the council, so I just wanted to thank the council for allowing them a few minutes of your meeting.

Thank you. Any other staff reports?

Yes. I just wanted to share that Steve Moline placed second in the corporate games for our division. Yes. And I wanted to acknowledge Denver Schmidt And Vaughn Schultz, who is our employment specialist in HR. The three of us are your coordinating committee. We participated in 22 events. And across all those events, we filled 183 participation seats. So that, just as a reminder, or if you've not heard of it, Corporate Games is a summer long competition between different organizations. And so we did, we're number two overall, and just saying we were above the city of Rock Island, city of Davenport, city of North Carolina. And I just wanted to share our trophy that we won. And really just give a shout out to Denver and Vaughn for being great teammates. Congratulations, Denver.

Thank you. There was great participation. Great. Any further public comment? Hearing none, I believe we have executive session.

Your Honor, I make a motion on the council convene executive session for the purpose of discussion of appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, 5ILCS120-2C1. Second. Second.

Motion by Silas, seconded by Timian. Roll call, please. Alderperson Schmidt.

Aye.

Silas.

Aye. Macias.

Aye.

Raza. Aye. Timian.

Aye.

Finch. Aye. McNeil.

Aye.

Castro. Aye. Nadeyes. No nays. That motion carries.