City Council - Regular Meeting

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Where do I find it?

Thank you.

Thank you.

How are you guys? We're good, how are you? Good. Did you have fun? Did you have fun today? Yeah. She's been sleeping for the past two hours.

And then fell asleep on the right here. And I'm like, oh, this is going to be great.

Thank you.

Hey Bella, how was your day? Thank you.

Take a picture right now. Thank you. Hi. Hi. Yeah. Hi.

I don't know. Hi, Harlan. How you doing?

Stop it. Stop it.

Thank you. Thank you. I don't know. What? Uh-huh. When I was just holding him, I was like, I don't know why she's nervous. She danced in front of more people than me.

the police department didn't win. I feel like if the dog was in there, she wouldn't have. Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, yeah. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.

It's easy. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . . All right. All right.

I'd like to welcome everybody to the June 15th, 2026 council meeting. If you're able to please stand, remove your hats for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good job. Thank you. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for attending our council meeting this evening. For those watching online, thank you for attending. As you can see, we have a special guest with us today. This is Bella Foreman, and she is the mayor for the day. She's had a pretty exciting day. We're going to wait until the end of the meeting to see what was her favorite part of touring the different departments with the city. So everybody's been up here trying to bribe her already. So the pressure's on. But no, so Bella goes to La Verna Evans, and she was telling me she loves to dance. She just had a big dance recital. She does ballet, tap, and hip hop. So we were excited to see her this morning. She had a big smile, has her United States flag dress on, and is very patriotic. So she was fun to be with this morning. So she's going to kind of help us out here a little bit. At this point, we will move on to 1.3. Roll call.

Rosenberg. Present. Mylar. Here. Lotz. Absent. Stoffel.

Here.

Carney. Here. Phoney.

Here.

Roach. Here. Newcomb. Absent. Hudson. Here. Blackburn. Here. Worse. Here. Campbell. Here. Perchman? Here.

Ford? Here. Okay, thank you. Moving on to 1.4, the approval of the minutes from June 1st, 2026. Everyone should have received the minutes from June 1st, 2026 in their packet. So can I get a motion to approve the minutes from June 1st, 2026? So moved. Myler? Okay, we have Myler with the motion. Second was... Jim Campbell. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion and we have a second. Do we have any discussion or comments about 1.4? Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We move on to two. We do not have any public hearings tonight. We do not have any city presentations. So we will now move down to four, which is the first of two public comment sections. This portion of the city council meeting is reserved for any member of the public wishing to address the council. All remarks should be made to the council as a whole, not to individual members or the audience. The Illinois Open Meetings Act 5 ILCS 120-1 mandates no action shall be taken on matters not listed on this agenda, but the council may direct staff to address the topic or refer the matter to a committee. Please provide the city clerk with your name, speak into the microphone, limit your presentation to five minutes, and avoid repetitious comments. Thank you. Would anybody like to make public comments at this time? Okay, please approach the microphone.

Can you hear me? Yes. Awesome. Good evening, Mayor and Mayor. and members of the council. My name is Danny. I reside at 304 Howard Drive, that's ward four. And I'm here tonight to respectfully request the dismissal of the notice of violation I received regarding weed maintenance. I also want to highlight some conflicting language in our municipal ordinances and a severe safety hazard created by the city operations that prevents me from complying with the notice. I recently received a notice of violations citing an ordinance listed as 106.3 stating I am responsible for mowing weeds in my backyard and on city owned property located between my land and the alley behind it. First, upon researching the O'Fallon Codes of Ordinance, I could not find an Ordinance 106.3. Citing a seemingly nonexistent ordinance makes it incredibly difficult for a resident to understand and comply with city expectations. Because I couldn't find 106.3, I did a bit of research and found Chapter 94. Chapter 94 regards nuisances and weeds, that seemed to apply to me, which led to some confusing contradictions in the city's code. You see 94.03 A and C imply property owners must maintain and mow the public right-of-way and city land adjacent to their property, which is to say it demands that I alter and maintain city-owned property. Whereas 94.1 D protects city land by prohibiting private citizens from encroaching upon it, which is to say it prevents me from mowing and altering the city's land without risking an encroachment violation. By attempting to comply with 94.3 and mow the city's property, I could theoretically be penalized for encroaching on land under 94.1 , and residents should not be forced to break one law to comply with another. Even if we set aside the contradiction regarding encroachment, the Fallon Code of Ordinance contains a specific exception that applies directly to my property. Under Ordinance 94.3 , the requirement for a property owner to mow adjacent city right of way does not apply if the land is a steep incline. Specifically, it exempts land where the slope is three feet horizontal to one foot vertical or greater. The topography of the city-owned land behind my house meets or exceeds this requirement. Therefore, the city's own written code, I am legally exempt from the requirement to mow the specific parcel of land. Beyond legal contradictions, there is a severe safety hazard on the land directly caused by city operations. During the past winter, city snowplows pushed snow from the alleyway onto this disputed property. Along with that snow, the plows deposited a significant amount of street gravel and loose rock. When I attempted to mow this spring, my lawnmower struck one of these hidden rocks, launching it directly into my shin. No fun, I'll tell you. I'm unwilling to assume the physical risk of injury or the massive financial liability of a rock shattering a neighbor's window, hitting a passing car, or injuring a pedestrian or pet. Furthermore, under Ordinance 136 and the state litter laws, litter includes discarded debris. The city plows have essentially littered on this property and expecting a resident to run a mower over dangerous city-deposited rock debris in order to mow city-owned land is highly unfair at best. Finally, we have to address how chapter 94 is being enforced. As written, the weed ordinance applies to all properties within the municipal boundaries. That means all weeds everywhere, all the time. If the city is going to strictly site residents for minor growth on sloped rock student easements, then the city must hold itself to the same standard. Currently, there are various city-owned properties, including this building we're speaking of right now, we're in right now, and the police station that would technically violate the strict text of Chapter 94. The city should not use code enforcement resources to penalize citizens for hazards the city itself created, especially when the city properties are not held to that same standard. In summary, I'm dealing with an unclear citation, contradictory rules regarding encroachment, a failure by code enforcement to apply the slope exception, and a severe safety hazard created by city snowplows. I am respectfully requesting the following. The immediate dismissal of the violation as the slope exception clearly applies and mowing poses a physical danger. for the City Public Works Department to clean up the rock and gravel pushed into the right-of-way, which will allow me to mow again, and a review by the legal department here to reconcile the conflicting language between 94.03 and 94.1D to protect future residents. Thank you for your time and your service to our community. I'm happy to answer any questions. I have pictures and sort of a rock if you're interested.

Just for those that are watching online or even people that are new to the council meeting process, we have a second, as I mentioned, a second city comment portion. And after that, we have section 11 of our agenda, which does deal with questions that we can't answer. The city administrator will address what he can leadership team members can address things if they can, and other items just may be too much to unpack in a meeting that need more research. I can understand.

Can I see your ticket? Can I see the piece of paper again?

This is our city attorney, Todd Fleming.

We're going to continue with the meeting, but I'll look at it.

Okay, does anyone else want to make public comments at this time?

Good afternoon, evening. Verne Miller, Ward 3. Addressing the warrant report of 585, over $2 million we're spending this section. Just to highlight a few items that you're purchasing, maybe on Reasonable forget them on your agreement maybe whatever but just the highlights to the people who listen in That these items are being purchased for either use or whatever You bought some turf I guess for out there for nineteen thousand three hundred and twenty bucks your Amazon account was six thousand six hundred ninety dollars and change and some sort of forked train for IT department for $27,922 and change. Your bank card, Commerce Bank card, you spent $23,459 which consisted of many different types of items plus a lot of marketing, meetings, and whatever. I don't know how many meetings you need to attend, but I don't know how many marketing meetings you need beside the point. And then I notice under direct energy business for I believe the address here is 255 South Lincoln. I guess this is your electric bill for $28,235.46 for a month. question on that one. That's like almost being a IT data service center or something. I don't know. Your concession stands accumulated $1,571 in change. Gonzaga is doing some work for the city for $26,000 on several different city projects. An IT thing for another $16,000 $200 for help on a desk hour situation. Payments 9 and 10 were made to Hank's Construction, excavation for $674,966 and change. And of course, we're buying new water meters for $312,200. Charlie Valley Equipment, you bought a new brush haul for $28,177 and change. And Weber Granite City, you bought a new vehicle for the police department, probably budgeted, I understand that, and I'll catch flack for it, for $45,796. And I also noticed... Maybe somebody needs a contact Waste management because evidently they haven't been picking up to trash Uptown after like district nights or whatever Because I noticed several trash cans are still full There's someone sometimes are even sitting full in front of woods and a few other which you think wood bakery and a few others That's old school for people here And of course I'm still on the train for trying to get the streets striped in the city, because it makes it very difficult at night for people when they're driving, and of course if they're wet for sure, and to consider, and hopefully it doesn't pan out or whatever, that anybody gets hurt out of Vincennes Crossing and Scott Troy Road. Statistically, there's gonna be a problem out there and we should fix it before it becomes a problem. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Would anyone else like to make public comments at this time? Okay, seeing none, we will close public comments and we'll move on to five, the clerk's report. Mr. Mouser, please.

Mayor, I have one item tonight. I have an item that's a raffle request from St. Clair Catholic Church to sell raffle tickets ranging from $10 to $100 each from August 29th, 2026 to September 26th, 2026 with prizes to be drawn at the St. Clair Oktoberfest on September 26th, 2026. We need a motion and a second. So moved. Second. Second.

Okay, we have a motion from Mr. Rosenberg and second from Mr. Vorce. Do we have any questions or comments on this? Motion.

Just a quick question. Is this something by ordinance we have to bring up every single time or can something be put in a place where we could give the city the autonomy to do this? I thought we've discussed this before, but I don't know where we landed at. Grant, apologies.

No apologies needed. We have not visited this ordinance. Raffle license requires. I mean, there is some flexibility on administratively approving it. If they go for a longer duration or it's above the winnable amount, it does go to city council and that's where we find ourselves at today for the duration and the total amount of ticket sales. Okay, thank you.

Okay, any other questions or comments? Seeing none, roll call please.

My Lord. Yes. Stoffel.

Yes.

Carney? Yes. Foley?

Yes.

Roach? Yes. Hudson? Yes. Blackburn? Yes. Wurst? Yes. Campbell?

Yes.

Parchman? Yes. Ford? Yes.

Rosenberg? Affirmative. Okay, thank you. Motion carries. Okay, seeing no other business for the clerk's report, we will move on to agenda item six, the mayor's report. 6.1, July 3rd, 2026, we're celebrating America's 250th anniversary celebration. Our city administrator just had a meeting before this meeting and he can share a few words about that when we get to section 11 for staff comments. uh... july ninth we have our just second district nights event uh... the first one was extremely successful uh... heard and heard anything but very positive feedback on that events so excited for that uh... six point three in the city of o'fallon mass notification system with email uh... you need to go to the city's website at w w w dot o'fallon dot org uh... click the alerts and notifications button you'll be asked to enter an email address, and then you can select which notifications you would like to receive. And, of course, if you have any questions or need help or assistance getting that set up, you can call us at 618-624-4500. We'll see if we can help you over the phone, or if you just want to come up to City Hall, we'll work with you to get you set up if needed. That is all that I have for the... Mayor's report, we'll move on to seven on the agenda item, 7.1 resolutions. Mr. Blackburn, can you handle that for us?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I'll make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the Mayor to sign an intergovernmental agreement with the OTHS District 203 for the School Resource Officer Program.

Second.

We have a motion and a second from Stoffel. Do we have any discussion or comments on 7.1? Seeing none, roll call, please. Stoffel.

Yes.

Carney. Yes. Thony.

Yes.

Roach. Yes. Hudson. Yes. Blackburn. Yes. Bourse. Yes. Campbell.

Yes.

Parchman. Yes. Ford. Yes. Rosenberg. Affirmative. Mylar. Yes.

Thank you. Motion carries. We do not have any other resolutions, so we will move down to agenda item eight, ordinances first reading. Mr. Rosenberg, please, 8.1.

Thank you, sir. I'm sorry, my screen froze. I'd like to make a motion to approve on first reading the ordinance amending code of ordinances chapter 78, schedule one, no parking zones. Second.

Okay, we have a motion, second by Blackburn. Do we have any comments or discussion on 8.1? Seeing none, roll call, please.

Carney. Yes. Froney.

Yes.

Roach. Yes. Hudson. Yes. Blackburn. Yes. Wurst. Yes. Campbell. Yes. Parchman.

Yes.

Ford. Yes. Rosenberg. Affirmative. Mallard. Yes. Dolfo.

Yes.

Okay, thank you, motion carries. We do not have any other ordinances for first reading, so we will move down to agenda item nine, ordinances second reading. We do not have any tonight. So we will move on to agenda item 10, which is the additional section of public comments. I'm not gonna reread the instructions. They're the same as what I just read a few minutes ago. But if anybody would like to make public comments at this time, please approach the microphone.

Verma wire Ward three just a question last Monday I Had to come to the city hall here to ask a question upstairs in public works And as I walked in I noticed there was a meeting being held in here in regards to the field house and I was just wondering was that open to the public because I didn't know if it was because I didn't see anything on that anywhere listed. I checked your calendar for different things. But then again, there isn't a site that you can go and find out everything you need to know in town that's going on. And I don't know why one doesn't exist to what events are occurring in town through the whole town. Thank you.

Thank you. Does anyone else wish to make public comments at this time? Okay, seeing none, we will close our second public comments. Move on to agenda item 11, which is staff and council member comments. We will start, as always, with our city administrator, Mr. Grant Littigan.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The 250th celebration of America. was mentioned earlier. That event is all planned, and we had our last event planning meeting before this one with that group of volunteers. And so the day begins July 3rd, a Friday, at 10 a.m. with a parade. I'm sorry, 9 a.m., and 10 a.m. is the actual event that starts in Community Park. It goes until 5 p.m., and then we transition to our fireworks over at Fallon at sundown and the dedication of the Liberty Tree all at the sports park that night. There's a lot of vendors, a lot of food, drinks, music, games, so it should be fun for all. A group of us will be waking up at 6 a.m. and setting up that morning and saying that. The group did want me to ask or bring it up to the city council. They do have a float in the parade, and anybody on the city council is welcome to join them, as well as their families, to walk in the parade that morning and throw candy and, I'm sorry, hand candy to everyone out there. So we hope you all can join us. We've had this event on Facebook, and we're pushing it out on social media, as well as our sign out front. addressing the violation notice. So as a quick reference, and we shared this a couple weeks ago, this is a busy season for grass and weed growth. And so how our code enforcement works, specifically with grass and weeds, is typically those are noticed to us. Occasionally, we will see them from the public right-of-way. Regardless of how they enter the system or come to us as an observed violation, our code enforcement officers have to go out and visibly document and take pictures of it in the eventual need for them in court. These are civil issues, not criminal in nature, and so how our system works is as the violation is confirmed, you get a first notice in five days to remediate the violation. From that, if it's not remediated, you get to receive a second notice again for five days. If we reach a point where there's a third violation notice, it reaches the point of a citation, which once it's a citation is issued, it enters the civil court system of St. Clair County, and it is between the judge and the violator and, of course, our code enforcement officer also testifies. So that is the process. From the dais, we cannot waive violations. Thank you for bringing that to our attention and the extra information. I will speak to our code enforcement officers tomorrow to validate and reach out to you, sir. We had some questions about expenditures and the warrant, the turf. Many of you know that we've just completed fields nine and 10 at the sports park as well as fields two. Those are up and running. I know field two opened up a few days ago, last week. Very busy fields nine and 10 are busy every night. These are all at the sports park. Direct Energy is our city electrical bill. That includes most facilities. It also includes all the streetlights in the city that we pay for. So we do have a lot of energy usage. Our sewer plant and probably our streetlights are our number one power users since they're running 24-7, 365. Gonzales is an engineering company that's working on a number of sewer and water system evaluations for us. The rather large bill from Hanks is the follow-up for the wood stream bypass project and the North Cherry project that recently were completed. We will continue to have water meter purchases for a considerable amount of time as we are replacing those all. A number of us at City Hall got a demo of it on Friday across the street. It takes about five to 10 minutes for them to replace a meter from the old system to the new one, and they have to do, I believe, 12,000 of them. A lot more than that, Jeff says. So this will be a long project, and you'll hear about those and see them in the warrant for a long time. The brush hog, as we mentioned, everything we purchase is in the budget or it's a large capital item. The brush hog was not in the budget or the large expenditure. We did send some information to the council in accordance with the purchasing manual, that brush hog. as we were preparing to mow the interstate right of ways was determined to be dangerous and we needed to pick one up for mowing that weekend so we made that emergency purchase and let the council know. And then I am unaware of a public meeting regarding a field house. The times we've discussed the field house has been in committees, in council, with our aldermen. At this point, it simply serves as the results of a feasibility study. And so until we have more information and some guidance, that's where it stays right now. Our website does have all public meetings posted on the front page, as well as our Build It Here map has a lot of the private construction. I send out a weekly newsletter that talks about some private construction and public construction. And in accordance with state law, we are required to post any meetings that could have a public quorum of the elected body within at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. We have to post them out here in the lobby, as well as send notice to the newspapers and post them publicly. On diligent which includes all these agendas and all the information that we think that the public needs and the council needs to make an informed decision I do want to mention a few things the district Knights was wildly successful They had the gold cups for this one They sold out of all three thousand of them and they had to go back to last year's cups because it was so busy It was a phenomenal night band was great. A lot of people were having fun. No issues and We do have two weekly pickups from waste management for downtown waste containers. One was missed, and Cameron DeWitt, who is our liaison with waste management, reached out to him to get that picked up. And the last thing I'm gonna say tonight is I spoke to Andrew Dallner for the pool, Last week was incredibly busy at the pool. Last year, they only had five days of business where $1,000 in concessions were sold. Last week, they had five days in a row with that same amount sold. So my kids and wife were there Friday, and I went and visited them, and it is really fun and a really great place to be. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, thank you. Do we have anybody on the leadership team that would like to make any comments tonight? Okay. Okay, seeing none, council?

Could it be possible at the next public works meeting we get a little clarity on maybe the codification issue with that specific citation?

Like I don't know. So the citations and ordinances and violations exist in the community development department. We can revisit that. I believe the issue is we did a total recodification of our ordinances a couple months ago. and it did change some of the chapters around, and I believe the violation notice did not get updated to include that in there, but I'm gonna double check and get back with you guys.

Okay, thank you. Sorry, I meant community development. Absolutely. Thank you.

Okay, anyone else? Seeing none, we will move on to agenda item 12 with our reports. Mr. Roach, community development, please.

which we'll need to handle.

Thank you. Our next meeting would be next Monday, the 15th. If there is one, please check the website for details. But to handle those special events, I want to make a motion that we approve a special event permit request from MLDH for B roll of O'Fallon.

So moved.

Okay. So we have a motion. And Mr. Campbell with the second. OK. Do we have any comments or discussion on the motion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Phoney.

Yes.

Roach. Yes.

Hudson. Yes. Blackburn. Yes. Wurst. Yes. Campbell. Yes. Parchman. Yes. Ford. Yes. Rosenberg. Affirmative. Malarkey. Yes. Stoffel. Yes. Carney.

Yes.

OK, motion carries.

I'd also like to make a motion to approve a special event permit request from Richline Motorsports. Seconded Blackburn.

Okay, we have a motion and we have a second. Do we have any comments or discussion on the motion? Seeing none, roll call, please.

Roach? Yes. Hudson? Yes. Blackburn? Yes. Vorce? Yes. Campbell? Yes. Parchman? Yes. Ford? Yes. Rosenberg? Affirmative. Mylar? Yes. Stoffel?

Yes.

Carney? Yes. Foley?

Yes.

Okay, motion carries. I'd also like to make a motion to approve a special event permit request from O-Town Hustle.

Second force. Okay. We have a motion. We have a second for mr. Vorce any comments or discussion on this motion Seeing none roll call, please Hudson yes Blackburn yes worse.

Yes Campbell yes Parchment yes Ford. Yes Rosenberg affirmative my Lord. Yes Stoffel

Yes.

Carney?

Yes. Coney? Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. It looks like that's all we have for tonight for community development. We'll move on to agenda item 13, public works report. Mr. Rosenberg.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Pardon me. We have not met since the last city council meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for next Monday. Check the website at 7 p.m. Check the website for times or cancellation.

Thanks. Okay, thank you. Moving on to agenda item 14, public safety report. Mr. Blackburn, please.

Thank you, Mayor. We last met on June 8th. The draft minutes are attached. We did vote on the items we needed to take care of tonight. Our next meeting is July 13th, 6.30 p.m.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to agenda item 15, parks and environment report. Mr. Vorce, please.

Yes, sir. We met on June 8th. Our meeting minutes are attached. We had no council business. It was all information only. Our next meeting is scheduled for July 13th. Check the website for details.

Thank you. And agenda item 16, finance and administration report. Mr. Parchman, please.

Thank you, sir. We've not met since the last meeting. Our next meeting should be next Monday, the 22nd at 530. As long as we have items to do there, we will have that meeting. Otherwise, we will check the website for changes. We do have one item that needs approval, which is the warrant approval. So I'd like to make a motion to approve warrant number 585 in the amount of $2,064,202.33. Second. Second, Campbell.

Okay, we have a motion and a second from Mr. Campbell. Any comments or discussion on 16.1?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. As an Ameren employee, I do consent to all items listed with the exception of the multiple Ameren payments listed on page two of the warrant. For this reason, I am abstaining from this vote.

Okay, thank you. Any additional comments? Seeing none, roll call, please.

Blackburn. Yes. Wurst. Yes. Campbell. Yes. Parchment. Yes. Ford. Yes. Rosenberg. Affirmative. Mylar. Yes. Stoffel.

Yes.

Carney. Yes. Stoney.

Abstain.

Roach. Yes. Hudson. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. We do not have executive session. So now for the moment we've all been waiting for, Ms. Bella. What was your favorite part of today?

The firefighters.

I knew it, firefighters. Well, we were glad you could join us. You've been an absolute delight. Thank you for coming and spending time with us at the meeting, and I hope you have a safe summer and can come see us on July 3rd at our parade and the event out at the park. So with that, I'm going to let you close the meeting out. Meeting is closed. Some command presence there.

Real quick, we need a motion to adjourn.