City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. It is 6 o'clock p.m. on Tuesday, January the 27th, 2026. I'd like to call the meeting of the Peoria City Council to order. I'd also like to welcome everyone who's here in our historic council chambers as well as our listening audience watching on cable channel 22. Madame Clerk, the council mics are open. Please call the role. Mayor Ali present. Council member Allen present. Council member Carmona here. Council member Seir here. Council member Gordon Young present. Council member Jackson here. Council member Kelly

here. Council member Oiler here. Council member Rianbach here. Council member Velpula present. And council member Vespa here. You have a quorum present. Madame Mayor.

Thank you madam clerk. Uh please join me everyone and stand for a moment of silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Madame clerk, we don't have any proclamation. So we we would be on to the approval of the minutes. Council member Rigenbach. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I move to approve the minutes of the joint city council and town board meeting held January 13, 2026 as printed.

Thank you. Seconded by council member Kelly. Any comments or questions? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Madame clerk, we are at the consent agenda. 26-15 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve an agreement between the city of Poria and Poria County for the Radner Road reconstruction project. 26-16 is a communication with request to approve the master service agreement with client first consulting group LLC for information systems department technical support in an amount not to exceed $200,000. 26-17 is a communication with request to approve the extension of an intergovernmental agreement between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the City of Peoria. 26-18 is a communication with request to approve the Second Amendment to the WD Community Investment LLC redevelopment agreement. 26-9 is a communication with request to approve a second amendment to the master professional services agreement with Thuveno Wade and Mer Merson in an amount not to exceed $300,000. 26-20 is a communication with request to approve a resolution in support of an application for the build planning grant for the downtown complete streets connectivity improvements project in the amount of $4 million. 26-21 is a request to approve a resolution regarding the release of closed session minutes. 26-22 is a request to adopt an ordinance amending the city council rules to allow electronic attendance for performance of active military duty as a service member. 26-23 is a communication with a request

to concur with recommendation from the planning and zoning commission and staff to deny a special use in a class R4 single family residential district for a short-term rental for the property located at 1637 West Main Street. 26-24 is a request to concur with a recommendation from the planning and zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance amending an existing official development plan ordinance number 13361 as amended in a class N1 institutional district for local sign regulations for the property located at 1501 West Bradley Avenue commonly known as Bradley University and primarily bounded by Main Street the alley east of Cooper Street Bradley Avenue, Fredonia Avenue, Dorier Place, St. James Street, University Street, Borland Avenue, Windham Street, and Garfield Avenue. 26-25 is a request to concur with recommendation from the planning and zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance amending an existing special use ordinance number 14789 as amended in a class C2 large largecale commercial district for a shopping center to add outdoor selfservice mini storage for the property located at 2323 West Pioneer Parkway and 2311 West Pioneer Parkway, 2327 West Pioneer Parkway and 2401 West Pioneer Parkway. 26-26 is a communication with request concur with recommendation from the planning and zoning commission and staff for the following. A adopt an ordinance reszoning property from a class R1 single family residential district to a class C1 general commercial district for part of 4020 North Brandy Wine Drive. and B, adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class C1 general commercial district for outdoor

recreation to expand an existing outdoor athletic field, repurpose an existing building for indoor recreation use, and add existing off- streetet parking for the property located at 4100 North Brandy Wine Drive and a portion of 4020 North Brandy Wine Drive. 26-27 is a request to concur with recommendation from the planning and zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance reszoning property from a class R1 single family residential district to a class C1 general commercial district for a portion of the property located at 4020 North Brandy Wine Drive. 26-28 is a communication from the city manager and corporation council with a request to approve the site application for a class B restaurant 50% food liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for Vault Peoria LLC doing business as the vault at 240 Southwest Jefferson Street with a recommendation from the liquor commission to approve 26-29 is a communication with a request to approve through the site application for a class B restaurant 50% food liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for Popup Express LLC doing business as Pop-Up Chicken Shop at 800 Southwest Adams Suite 106 with a recommendation from the liquor commission to approve. 26-30 is a communication with a request to approve the site application for a class CG beer and wine convenience store gas station liquor license with the retail sale of alcohol for Sterling Avenue Mart, Inc. doing business as Shell number 9 at 4709 North Sterling with recommendation from the liquor commission to approve. 26-31 is a communication with a request to approve the site application for a class CG beer and wine convenience store gas

station liquor license with the retail sale of alcohol for Trace Smart Inc. doing business as shell number six at 3903 West Bearing Trace with recommendation for the from the liquor commission to approve 26-32 is a communication with request to approve the site application for a class CG beer and wine convenience store gas station liquor license with a retail sale of alcohol for 710 Poria Inc. doing business as Shell number three at 710 West Deweiler with a recommendation from the liquor commission to approve and 26-33 is an appointment by Mayor Ali to the sister city commission with a request to concur of Christopher Si and that concludes our consent agenda.

That was a mouthful. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Are there any items to remove from the consent agenda? Councilman Carmona. Thank you, Madam Mayor. 26-0262. Thank you, Councilman Seir. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Move to approve balance of consent agenda.

Seconded by Council Member uh Council Member Allen. Any discussion? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Madame clerk 26-026 is a communication from the city manager and director of community development with a request concur with a recommendation from the planning and zoning commission staff for the following. A adopt an ordinance reszoning property from a class R1 single family residential district to a class C1 general commercial district for part of 4020 North Brandy Wine Drive. And item B is to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class C1 general commercial district for outdoor recreation to expand an existing outdoor athletic field, repurpose an existing building for indoor recreation use, and add existing off- streetet parking for the property located at 4100 North Brandy Wine Drive and a portion of 4020 North Brandy Wine Drive, Poria, Illinois. And we'll need separate votes on each, please.

Okay. Thank you, uh, Council Member Carmono. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, I just wanted to start off by saying, uh, thank you, Leah, Allison, uh, Joe Doulan, and your whole team. Um, this is a good development that's going to happen, um, for the Christian Center. I really appreciate the, uh, the waiverss that we were able to grant them. Um, some of them were going to add quite a bit of money to the um, to their overall budget. So, I really appreciate it. Um, I do want to um make a motion to approve this, but I want to remove item three from the uh uh from the conditions. It is item three is to install parking lot perimeter landscaping uh for the parking area with the frontage on Brandy Wine Drive. Uh after talking not only to the Christian Center but uh many developers in um the area, something as simple as this uh doesn't seem like it would cost too much, but um I'm told that it is quite difficult to keep brand new trees and shrubs alive and uh until they reach maturity, costs a lot of money for maintenance, mowing around them and stuff like that. And uh the Christian Center is doing a lot of great things there and I um want them to be able to execute all of their great ideas. So um just a quick question. There's I don't know which one A or B that I need to remove this from.

We're working on item A first. Okay. So, and well, let me ask this to uh assistant director Allison. Is this associated with item A? It's actually associated with item B, the special use ordinance. Okay. Yeah. And and then I Well, I'll wait till we get to that one and then ask the other question. So, proceed. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh move to approve uh 26-026A.

Seconded by council member Seir. Any questions or comments? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. For item A, uh Council Member Koma, uh please proceed.

Uh move to approve item B, removing uh number three on the list of conditions. seconded by council member Seir. I do have a question on that. Um item three says install parking lot perimeter landscaping for the parking area with frontage on Brandy Wine Drive. Uh can you describe what the consequences are by not providing that and how whether it would be inconsistent with other similar projects or whether it would be standard? Can you speak to that please?

So what that means is currently the the property's developed with the Christian Center and they have an existing parking lot. That condition, if included, would have required um a solid hedge kind of lining the parking lot edge creating screening aesthetic value for the landscaping in that particular area. There isn't a lot of that in in installation. So, you won't see that hedge in this area of the of the city. It's a relatively newer requirement. It's been in in our regulation for a bit, but it is a newer type of of landscaping. Um, so

we've had some installed and some have received waivers, so it's it's a little bit of a mix. So it won't look would look odd if it's not there in that area. Unfort member Carmona, did you make your motion already? And it was seconded. Any other questions or comments? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, director. You're welcome,

Madam Clerk. We are at first readings. 26-34 is a communication from the city manager and director of community development with a request to receive and file a first reading of an ordinance amending appendix A of the Unified Development Code relating to street walls. Mr. Manager. Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. I'd like to turn the floor over to our assistant director of community development, Leah Alice. Thank you. No wonder she stayed there, right?

Thank you. Um, council members, this is a request that was brought to our attention through the development community. Um, street walls are a part of a regulation within our form districts and we have the four form districts, but the application of the street wall has been most common in the warehouse district. Um, it's it's a 6 to 8 foot tall wall and wall is kind of a loose term. It can be a solid brick wall. It can also be currently designed with um brick columns and a a fence like infill within the brick columns. Um the wall is is required in the absence of a building line or a building wall. So that's where the the wall requirement kicks in to fill in that space where there isn't a building along the frontage along the front line. So the ask is to kind of alleviate that that requirement and make the street wall more of an optional type of for design elements. So in the the report to you there are four proposed modifications to the street wall that give options to the developer. Okay. The first is to remove the requirement for the masonry columns. Currently there's requ columns of brick or masonry like material that are required to be spaced every 20 to 30 feet. The proposal is to make that an optional design element. So not required but an optional to that street wall fence street wall. The second item is to remove the requirement for the twoft base course that is currently required. So, for a street wall today, there's a twoft masonry base kind of

along the the bottom of the street wall that with this proposal would remove the brick columns and the brick base. Staff's concern is we end up with a solid potential metal type wall, which I don't think would be the desire of that. So that's why if the fence or street wall is proposed without any brick elements, we want to have an openness to it, which is in keeping with more of a traditional type fence. The last thing we did was more of a housekeeping issue. We modified the street wall definition to kind of align with these proposals of of modification for the regulation. Um, so it's consistent. Hopefully in your packet you saw some uh pictures or or you know two pictures showing a current street wall as regulated and then what could be the potential for a street wall which it looks more like a fence if you accept these modifications. Again, this is in response to the development community. We've had variances granted for street walls already that have kind of created this mix. So this might be more of the direction to bring flexibility to design. We encourage the brick, but it would not necessarily be required if if you accept these changes.

Great. So development community, we're listening. We're acting on your input. Council member Kelly. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, madame assistant director, does this mean that there could be a chain link fence instead of what we have now? No. What we would what we would accept is more of your rod iron or aluminum style fence. Chain link would not be allowed. And we can make that clearer in the regulation if that's a concern.

We can certainly make that That would be a concern of mine. Y it seems like with the rules as stated that would be an option. So thank yeah absolutely welcome that recommendation. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're welcome. Any other questions for Director Allison? Council member Seir. Thank you, Madam Mayor. With the addition of no chain link, I would uh move to receive and file. seconded by Council Member Allen. Um, continued discussion, Council Member Carmona.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, I just wanted to make a quick comment on uh John Kelly's comment uh which uh I think to alleviate the um the worries about a chaining fence too. It might be good to look at removing this requirement altogether. Um I know that's now what's proposed here and it's a first reading, but um it's requirements like this that um are little too arbitrary and um are not serving us as well as we had hoped. And so um although I do love this improvement and thank you thank you very much uh for um all your work. Uh I just wanted to throw that little tidbit out there. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. And we have a motion to receive and file and that has been seconded. Please cast your ballots. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Madame clerk. We are at regular business. 26-35 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve the sole source purchase of pavement marking material modified urethane paint from Swarco in the amount of $100,000 and this item requires a twothirds vote of council member v council members voting no less than six votes please. Mr. Manager.

Uh thank you madame mayor. I'm going to turn the floor over to our public risks director Rick Powers. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Manager, excuse me, madame mayor, counselors. Good evening. Uh, this is pretty again pretty straightforward. This is a specialized paint that we used that as a sole source. The reason you see half the total amount that we are paying for is because we have an agreement with the county. We paint for them and directly invoice them. They are also paying for half the paint as a result. Um, again, that's it. I can go as deep as you want on this, but that's pretty much it. It's a specialized paint. We've upgraded our truck. in fact just went through an upgrade to be able to actually handle more capacity in that regard.

Thank you. Uh it was moved by Council Member Oiler. Can I get a second? Seconded by Council Member Rianbach to approve uh questions, comments. Council member Seir. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Mr. uh Mr. Powers or Director Powers. Uh where's this company from? Where's the company from? Where's their home office? I do not know, council. I'll have to get back to you. Thank you, sir. It's a good question, Council Member Kelly.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, is this a uh just wait here? Director Powers, uh, how long will this particular purchase, how much time is this? A year's supply is Yes. 2026. also will get us the 2026. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're welcome. Uh, no more questions, comments, please cast your B. Madame Mayor, if I could just clarify, Councilman, uh, the company's from Tennessee. What was that, Mr. The company is from Tennessee. Oh, okay.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. We do not. That's why it's so source counselor. We do within our purchasing ordinance give preference to local vendors where we can and where possible. Um again, I think because of the specialized nature of this type of paint, that's the reason why we're utilizing this company.

You're welcome. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Director Powers. Thank you, Mayor. Madam Clerk, 26-36 is a communication from the city manager and fire chief with a request to approve an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Poria Fire Department and the village of Poria Heights for fire department related service. Mr. manager. Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, our fire chief has just walked to the podium, so I will turn the floor over to Chief Soulberg. Okay,

Madame Mayor, distinguished council. Mr. Manager, I appreciate the ability to speak on this topic today. Since 2023, the concept has uh been alive between the city of Poria and our fire department and the village of Poria Heights. Um, I've tried to communicate with council to the best of my ability. Um, obviously this particular topic has ebed and flowed through the years. U, we re-engaged in 2025 when former Poria Fire Chief Tony Artist was working with the village of Pure Heights. And what you have in front of you today is an IGA for automatic aid for fire department related services for three U fire department incident types. And that's working structure fires, automobile collisions that require extrication, and cardiac arrest. and I'll entertain any questions or comments if anybody has any.

Council member Allen. Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh Chief Saulberger, I know that there has been ongoing conversations with this concept, but just for the listening public, can you talk about uh the capacity of our current fire department being able to now add on these additional services to the village of Pure Heights?

Yeah, absolutely. So, based off of our incident totals for 2025, we responded to over 24,000 incidents within our city limits. Um, that being said, with these particular incident types, they're high acuity calls. And what we mean by that, it requires a certain amount of uh manpower to be able to accomplish your goals, but they're not high incident volume, if that makes sense. So as we did the working with ECC and dispatch reviewing these three incident types, what was the call volume relative for the last 5 years and we found these to be single digits for all incident types. So whether that's a working structure fire, um automobile extrication or cardiac arrest, uh the village of Pure Heist did not experience a high call volume.

And will we be showing up in conjunction with their fire department or will we be solely uh handling these incidents ourselves? Yeah, that's a great question. So, part of this IGA and it's a little bit of the nitty-gritty. We try to detail it as much as humanly possible in the IGA, but essentially what we're trying to do with the city of Poria Fire Department is work with the village of Puria Heights and their fire department. So, this isn't displacing their fire department. This is no type of takeover of anything of that magnitude. What we want to do is prop that fire department up. So, part of the details with that is us educating and training with their fire department. So eventually potentially they can get into a capacity where they no longer need us.

Thank you, Chief. I love collaboration over competition. Thank you, Madame Mayor. You're welcome. I'd also like to uh welcome Poria Heights Mayor Matt Wigington. Uh Mayor Wigington, do you want to make any comments? You're good. Okay. Well, thank you. It's always good to see you. Um Council Member Seir, uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, Mayor Woodington, welcome in our chamber. Good to see you here. Uh, Chief, just one, it's really I don't like to add to ask this type of question, but it it's obviously uh it's our dime. What would happen if there any accident or death uh serving that community?

Yeah. So, what's part of the IGA too? So, as we work with the villages of Poria Heights and their legal counsel, we use our legal counsel with reviews. So with uh Patrick Hayes and Christy Kapusa, we had the ability to come to an agreement that would capture a realistic approach for anything related to injury or death. Uh unfortunately if a city of Pure firefighter would experience that. So that is included in the IGA as well. Thank you sir. Thank you Madam Mayor. You're welcome. Council member Kelly.

Thank you Madam Mayor. I think it's just it's important for the public to know I asked this question earlier of the manager uh that uh this agreement will cover all of our costs in in this in this aid. Um uh no discounts or or or whatever. Uh so we are we are covered for this additional uh capacity for our fire department. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. It took a little while to get to this point, but uh we're here. So, good. Uh is there a motion? Moved by Council Member Seir, seconded by Council Member Allen to approve. Uh any other discussion? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Chief. Madame Clerk,

26-37 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request for the following. A, approve an agreement between the city of Poria and Poria County for the Sheridan Road reconstruction project. and B, adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2026 2027 bianual budget relating to the local motor fuel tax fund to add engineering costs in the amount of $250,000. And item B requires twothirds vote of council members voting no less than six votes and we'll need separate votes on each. Please, Mr. Manager. Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. I do have uh our public works director back at the microphone, so I'll turn it over to Director Powers

again. Thank you, Mr. manager. Madame Mayor and Council, again, this is a good project. It is Sheridan and Glenn. The reason you do say that, I know we just went through the budget cycle and you' say, "Why isn't this in the CIP?" Well, the grant wasn't announced until after we had submitted the budget. That's the reason we're coming before you now. This our portion for the match and this would be 250k at which time then the road would be u jurisdictionally transferred to the city when it meets our standard. And I believe everything else is explained in the communication in great detail. Council member Rigenbach.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um this is literally in my backyard um in the third district and it truly is one of those proverbial bottlenecks where south of Glenn Sheridan Road is a four-lane street going north we have in our CIP I believe it's now the fifth district um that will have improvements made there. So all the way from from Glenn up to Knoxville, that whole section will be brought up to standard. So um we appreciate the governor um earmarking this $10 million for this project and I am enthusiastically move for approval.

Okay. For item A, it seconded by council member Kelly. Any other discussion? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Uh, Council Member Rianbach, move for approval of item B. Seconded by Council Member Kelly. Any discussion? Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Powers. Madame Clark 26-38 is a communication from the city manager and chief of police with a request for the following. A accept the less lethal alternatives for law enforcement grant from the Illinois law enforcement alarm system in the amount of $21,600. and B, adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2026 2027 bianual budget relating to the general fund to recognize the receipt of grant funding from the Illinois law enforcement alarm system in the amount of $21,600. And item B requires twothirds vote of council members voting, no less than six votes, and we'll need separate votes on each. Please,

Mr. Manager. Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. This is a grant agreement that we have with uh Alas and I'm going to turn it over to the police chief to walk through.

Good evening, mayor, city council, city manager. Uh yes, this is uh again we're accepting some grant money. Uh we have to use it specifically for these items. So this is a less lethal version uh of uh it's a less lethal option that we have now. We currently use some tasers that are uh a younger generation. This is a newer generation model that gives us some more capabilities. More specifically, distance uh compared to 24 uh 25 ft. We were able to use it before. Now, this gives us a distance of being able to deescalate something without lethal force of 45 feet. Um we we we actually have some videos of us using them. Our SWAT members are the officers that get them first. They are uh 10 prongs on on these things. you're able to uh individually use 10 different ones at a further distance. Um, and we do have an incident where we had a a male running with a weapon in his hand and we were able to take that person into custody without any injury uh without using a different option with this one because of the distance. So, kindly ask that we uh move this forward.

Thank you. Any questions for the chief or can I get a motion? Uh moved by Council Member Jackson. This is for item A. Uh can I get a second? Seconded by Council Member Gordon Young. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Councilwoman Jackson. Um yes. Approved as uh as mo as mentioned.

Seconded by Councilwoman Gordon Young. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, chief. Madame clerk, 26-39 is a communication from the city manager and finance director controller with a request to receive and file the month ended November 30th, 2025 un audited financial report. Mr. manager. Uh, we're seeing just about every department head this evening. So, I'm going to turn it over to our finance director, Kyle Kra.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Um, in your packet is the month end of November 30th, uh, 2025 financial report. Um, so this is the second to last report for the year. Um, I think you'll see very similar themes in this report to what we've been talking about throughout the year. Um we are slightly below uh expectations on budget, but we are about 3% up year-over-year um on the revenue side in the general fund. In terms of expenditures, we're down 3.6% compared to budget and down 11.2% compared to last year. Um, and I want to draw attention to really I think that that interesting dichotomy um in the sense of um if you remember last year we talked heavily about the ARPA dollars rolling off and not having those dollars. Um and what we're actually seeing is while yes we're seeing that decline in expenditures um we also are still seeing revenues maintaining at similar levels even when we are accounting for those dollars. So um as we talked about over uh the last few months um there will be receipts that come in post fiscal year um for the report in December. Usually we present this based off of uh the month end uh 1231 reporting. I will also give council an indication at the next meeting really how we're looking for year end because we'll have some additional receipts that aren't included in that in that information. Um, but really I I I still stand and and say that we're on pace to be where we said we would be for budget. And with that, I'm available if council has any questions.

Of course, council members here. Uh, oh, what? Hold on just a minute. Think I messed something up. My screen disappeared. Bear with us just a minute.

Council member Seir.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, good evening, Director Katty. Just a couple questions tonight. Number one would have to be with our investment rules. Do we have any investment rules for this uh roughly $113 million that we have? And reason I'm asking obviously I believe that the next few months uh we'll have a new Fed chairman and I think the short-term rates are going down. So what will be uh what are the rules and what do you think we can do to to maximize our yield on our on our cash? Uh thank yeah the we do have an investment policy that uh the council does approve. That investment policy is very much in line with the state statutory requirements. Um it's really looking at your more usual safe investment types. uh things like CDs, agency bonds, things that usually you're looking at maybe a a little bit of a smaller return um with but usually in in a safer position um in terms of you know really and I agree with you in terms of where interest rates are look like they're the trajectory is um what we've been doing and why you're seeing more and more um placed investments um because really liquid cash is not the place to be long term right now. So, we have been um going out on the yield curve up to two years um with some of our reserve dollars to make sure we're capturing as much of that interest rate on the long end of it. Um when that stops, we'll have to see, but that's really been our strategy recently has been lading um about half of it um in kind of a two-year fashion to make sure we're we're capturing that that interest rate.

And and uh thank you for that explanation on your budget. I see. Uh this is as of the end of November. Uh and I heard, if I heard correctly, you're pretty uh satisfied and uh confident that we'll be within budget. Just uh refresh our memory though, we have like a $10 million gap between our expenses and revenues. Can you refresh our memory? Tell us how did we close that gap?

Yeah, so in the months of January, February, and March, we will continue to receive revenues. uh really looking at sales tax, some state income tax receipts, and some other state revenues. Um those numbers um on average um we're looking at that being close to $20 million um at the that we'll probably receive after year end. And so yes, there is currently the gap. Um but my anticipation is because of those receipts and how they continue to come in that that will will close that gap. And obviously by law, we need to have a balanced budget. sell our budget for 25 will be balanced because of that. Correct. Correct.

Last question. On page, last page, my favorite page looks very good to me. We're down to maybe just I'm looking at three accounts really that are in the in the red. Uh and we're closing the gap. I mean, do you see a time where we'll be on green? Every one of these account these lines will be in the green.

Uh that's always the goal. Um, if there's an area that I probably have the largest concern that we need that we're focusing on right now is going to be on the healthc care side. Um, as I'm sure all of you know, those costs just continue to explode nationwide. So, it is a area that we're probably struggling the most with, but our goal is always to to be moving all these in the direction of at least being um at a 0% fund balance or in the green.

Why would we keep a negative on the tiff? Um because really if you're looking out at the projections um long-term in terms of the entire in total increment is the anticipation is before the end of that life of that tiff we'll be back in the positive position and since tiffs really are intended for that increment to feed the development in that area. Um we traditionally let the increment catch up to to offset that that negative amount. Thank you Director Katty. Uh madame mayor move to u to receive and file. Yes. Okay. Seconded by Council Member Gordon Young. Council member Allen.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh thank you, Director Katty. Just a couple of questions. Uh for most people um in the listening audience, um our primary revenue sources typically are property taxes, home rule, and uh state sales taxes, income taxes, and personal property replacement tax. Looking at our local and uh state sales tax in 2025, they were very strong, which is good. But I see that the personal uh property replacement tax continues to decrease. Do you forecast that it will be even lower in 2026 or are you getting any maybe um being able to look talk to IML or anything like that to forecast that it may be an increase in 26?

The um the IML kind of working with the Illinois Department of Revenue. I believe the most recent projection they had had out is looking at about a 10% decrease year-over-year. Um looking at the budget that we presented to you, we believe that that number that we have in there is in line with what that estimate is. Um, again, because of the variability of really this being tied to corporate income taxes, it's a little difficult to know for sure. Um, but from what we are aware of, the funding formula issues that cause the larger declines is not the problem now. Now, it's really just some declining corporate income taxes.

And also, did you get that jacket from uh men's warehouse? I think I got that same one in my closet. Look very sharp. No, but no, thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you, Madame Mayor.

All right, we have a motion to receive and file. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes unanimously. Madame clerk, we are at unfinished business. 25-334 is a communication from the city manager and director of community development with a request to concur with recommendation from staff to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class CN neighborhood commercial district to establish a halfway house for the property located at 1924 Southwest Adam Street. And there is a motion on the floor to adopt an to There is a motion on the floor to adopt the said motion.

That motion was made by who? It was made by council member Jackson and seconded by council member Rianbach. Okay. Thank you. And uh Mr. Manager, start with you. Um thank you, Madame Mayor. um this item since it was uh deferred um we do have the motion on the floor um and discussion would be you know on that motion for our council to consider. Sure. Uh we'll start with you council member uh Jackson.

Thank you Madame Mayor. Um first of all I just want to thank everybody for attending the meeting on January 21st which was a followup to the uh December 9th meeting. Thank you to the business owners and residents who stayed uh during the duration and offered their dialogue afterwards. I would like to, Madame Mayor, if I could pick up where we left off on December 9th, and that was to give Grow and its uh team an opportunity to talk a little bit about the work they've been doing here in Peoria, as well as the transitional uh housing project. So, if we could, Madame Mayor, I would like to have uh uh the CEO and the founder uh Mr. Malroy Francine P and anybody else who would like to join him at the podium to uh give us uh a little bit more insight into um this project. Thank you.

Uh good afternoon or I'm sorry, good evening. Thanks for uh having us here. Um yes. So we've been in the Poria area for the last two years uh providing uh mental health services to particularly boys and men. That's that's our specialty. That's our niche. Uh and uh one is that you know we've found the opportunity for us to particularly strategically grow uh and actually have a home or area where we can provide services. Um and so you know my goal today is just to hear any questions or you know we've had variety different meetings with different councilmen and council women and and whatever you know concerns or or challenges that you foresee uh would love to you know just address. Uh we've provided uh uh a document that uh some questions are raised up around our program. What does that look like? Uh and so that's available for you to look at as well. Uh and two, I want to make sure that there's a delineation between what we're doing and the term halfway house. Uh this isn't a halfway house uh that we'll be providing. When we think about a halfway house, that's individuals being released from prison and been directly sent uh to a location or a space. Uh this is an opportunity one for individuals to get treatment, to get support, uh and to build workforce development skills. Uh and so to even qualify for housing, you have to complete our workforce development program, which is a four-month, very intensive program. uh and providing cognitive behavioral therapy, workforce development, uh outline uh kind of some of the things we'll be doing in in the packet that's been provided uh in hopes that, you know, we're helping individuals who oftent times have not obtained those employment skills, have not obtained those resources to help them uh so they can be individuals that contribute back to the Peoria area and to be able to help the local businesses in the area thrive as well. Um so yeah, that's you know, ultimately our goal. I will also say too, I don't know if everyone has been inside of a facility. It's a very remarkable facility. It has a full court uh basketball court. It has a recreational area. Uh and we also see this as opportunity to provide uh

resources to the community, particularly the south uh end of the city. Uh where, you know, we're working with uh young people right now on the south end. We have to drive all the other side of the city to provide support. Uh now we'll be able to do it right there. Uh we'll be able to have uh activities to support the community in this area and to really uplift the community. So uh one re-entry is one component. Uh I would just like to reiterate that uh it's not a halfway house. Uh that there is a very structured component to our program. Uh and our goal is to help uplift uh residents of Peoria. We're not bringing people from Chicago uh to Peoria. This will be um for the individuals who are currently on parole or engaged in a criminal justice system in Peoria. Um, last time I looked at the numbers and the data, uh, within the radius of the 61, uh,605, 61602, and 61603, there's over 309, uh, individuals that are on parole from the Illinois Department of Correction. Currently, our hope is to be to help those men and give them the support and guidance and assistance.

You currently are operating um, out of an office in North Peoria. Could you tell us a little bit about the location and the work you do and how it will connect with uh the transitional housing program?

Yes, so currently we are in North Poria and it's a just an office space. Um and our goal is to be able to one we've outgrown that space. Uh two was not designed uh for the level of programming and support. Uh and really it was just a way for us to uh just to build in Peoria. Uh and so our goal is as we move into uh you know Lord willing we we get the approval from you all to be able to move forward. The goal is to be able to have a larger space uh and again that is connected more uh to the community that we serve. What would your programming look like for the participants?

Yes. So for the workforce component um program is uh from 9 to 5 uh 9 to 12 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. is intensive cognitive behavioral therapy is group counseling uh in which uh we're helping our guys recognize their thoughts understanding that your thoughts are connected to your emotions and also helping teach them how to regulate those things. Uh there's one in regards to risky behavior uh so that we can minimize hopefully recidivism rates but also there's an employment component too where we work and we help them how to respond in a work environment. If you have a boss and he says something you don't like how do you respond in a way uh which uh your anger doesn't get the best of you? How do you demonstrate work ethic skills? How do you uh ensure that you demonstrate that you know if you're dealing with frustration how do you do it in a positive way? Uh in the second half of the day, uh our men are working in our screen print facility and basically just learning like how to work uh in a team environment. Uh essentially how to um um complete tasks. Uh a lot of the guys that we work with and also what the research and literature says oftent times have not had any employment opportunities or learned those social skills for employment. And so we're creating a space where it's a simulated work environment where they're producing something. We're holding them accountable. Uh and then after that uh they may have a counseling session uh and then they are um you know sent home or they're gone for the day. The individuals that perform well come to work on time uh complete all their tasks the way they required or supposed to. If they need housing then they can qualify for that. And often times you know you have people who just can't get their own time every day can't hit the benchmarks uh that's required and so they wouldn't be able to qualify. Um but there is a subset who um thrive in structure um unfortunately never have structure in their life you know and so uh when we create this opportunity of structure they thrive exceptionally well and they yearn for it they want it and so those are the individuals that we're looking for uh and again uh and the housing component our goal is to provide uh landlord like guidance and assistance and and when I say that oftentimes a lot of our guys have never had housing they never had rent before right so they

don't have no landlord reference uh they never paid rent before right and So, uh, it's really hard to help somebody lift them up if they've never had that landlord reference. So, when they go to a landlord to say, "Hey, I've paid rent before. I know how to budget. I've saved. Hey, here's the money that I saved up." And that's the other part of this goal uh is so that we can help these individuals uh to be self-sustainable um where they can be uh independent, be self-sufficient uh and to be able to have pride and take care of themselves. Um, one of our participants that came down the first time, he didn't get a chance to speak. Um, but he was one of our first cohorts in Chicago, did the program exceptionally well, was able to get his own apartment afterwards. Uh, but currently, uh, he was able to buy a two- flat building. He's a landlord now. He has tenants upstairs, and he's doing exceptionally well. Um, that's our goal is to create self-sufficiency, to create independence. uh and to give individuals who often times society has given up on who society has kind of you know turned their side to have have called undesirable our goal is to lift them up and give them a second chance. Now again know that's just one component of the program right we're still doing our counseling in the community uh still providing the case management and now we'll have a a base uh like I said the residents on the on the south side of uh of this great city of Por will be able to also get resources and assistance as well. you had questions from last night.

Um could you tell us a little bit uh I think um at one of the meetings there were some questions about your funding situation, your ability to sustain uh your program. Could you share some information with us about that if you could? Yeah. So, um, majority of our program even in Chicago is funded, uh, through our surplus. And so, um, we're a Medicaid provider. Uh, we also build other insurance companies. And so, uh, what we've done is we invest our surplus, uh, into our earnings into these programs. Um, we compensate our guys. They get stipens. Uh, we provide them with, uh, all the mechanisms they need for the housing as well as the program. And so, uh, essentially, you know, that's where majority of our funding is at right now. Um, Lord willing, we are doing some advocacy work in Springfield where uh, you know, we're able to get a line at them uh, exclusively for re-entry uh, services throughout the state as we expand this. Uh, but right now we've been invested in our surplus and really been doing that so that we can produce data to be able to show outcomes. Uh, and for us, you know, um, when you think about research and data, you have to have a large uh, data set, a sample to be able to show, hey, there's impact. And so for us um Chicago is a start but um we want to be able to bring this to pori to be to show a model that it is replic uh able to be replicated but also too to be able to have the data for research purposes to show that hey this is impactful. Um so we've started a little preliminary data with that work with Illinois's criminal justice information authority doing data exchange but again the data is so small it's really hard to to build it out. So our goal has been to um do this program again investing in it and just trusting Lord willing that you know we'll be able to get the actual dollars to build this out. Um, but we do have the funds to be able to support here in Poria.

Okay. Mr. Mallalerie, if I may. Mallerie.

Okay. Mr. Mallalerie, thank you for coming to Peoria. Uh, I think everybody's wanted to see who's in charge. So, as the CEO is, I think it's important for you to be here tonight. So, thank you for for driving into Peoria. Um, I've actually walked that building with a colleague of mine, Councilman Rianbach, several months ago. So at that time we were just exploring locations for potential housing for uh unhoused populations and um so we saw the condition of the the facility and it wasn't in great shape and it's going to take what we see as a pretty significant investment to bring it up to par for people to make it liveable. Can you speak to the investment that you expect to make financially in that building in terms of those upgrades?

Yeah, you know, so we're we're we're looking to spend between $250,000 uh and upwards to uh $750,000 uh and a million dollars. $250,000 at the base to uh roughly between $750,000 uh and no more than a million dollars. Um, you know, we believe that we can come in between $250,000 and $500,000 to be able to get it where uh it needs to be. I've walked the property. Now, when I walked the property, it was roughly about maybe two two months ago. They didn't have the boards up. Uh, and so I don't know the condition as it is right now, and we'll re-evaluate it. Uh, but what I can say is that we've done several extensive rehabs in Chicago. Uh, real estate isn't uh real estate and rehab isn't something that's new to me, nor is it to Francine. Uh and so whatever it takes, you know, we will uh put our uh efforts in to get this done and to be able to have a beautiful grand opening and to be able to support uh the residents of Peoria.

Does the 250 include the purchase price or that's the renovation? No. No. 250,000 does not include the uh the purchase price. Okay. So, you're looking at spending at least that much in terms exclusively on the that's what we're saying on renovations. um we already have the funds allocated to do the acquisition of the property.

There's also uh requests or I think um some interest in understanding who the people are. There's what 9 to 12 people or maybe potentially 10 to 12 paroleles that would actually live there. There's interest in understanding who these people might be in terms of where they're where they're from. Are they from Peoria? Are are the majority from Peoria? Can you speak to that?

Yeah, they would be from Peoria. There would be uh the the number that I just said earlier, which is almost over 300 people um within the 61602, 61605, 61603 uh that reflect this area right now. Um and again, that data is from the Illinois Department of Corrections, so it's public data. If you want to pull, you can see all the names of individuals that are right here in Peoria, uh, that would be on parole. And like I said, this isn't us bringing people from Chicago to Peoria. Uh, this is working with individuals that are right here right now that we all probably, you know, who all live here engaged would have seen, you know, that, hey, you need some extra support. So, we want to support them. Okay. So, it's reintegrating people back into the community that they they came from.

Yeah. Um, I don't want to convolute that with uh uh the halfway house, though. Uh, I I want to say that, you know, we're we're supporting and we're helping individuals that are here already in the community, been here their whole life, uh, and helping them uh, get to a a status of purpose and fulfillment. Okay, Councilwoman Jackson, just turn it back to you. I think there's some uh, questions. I know Councilman Oiler's light is on. Go ahead, Council Member Oiler.

Uh, first thing I want to comment on, you mentioned whether or not we'd seen the inside of this facility. I made a request on December 17th to see the inside of the facility to make sure that I was doing my due diligence on this and that was rejected in writing on December 22nd. So, no, I have not been able to see inside the vicinity the facility and do my due diligence. Um, also we were dropped off this packet about an hour ago to I guess be prepared to take a vote on this tonight, but I don't have time to read this within 60 minutes. So that would have been helpful some uh days or weeks ago. But my first question is uh within this packet there are multiple certificates of good standing with the state of Illinois for several businesses that you have some form of leadership role on. Well, I appreciate they're in good standing as of January of this year. Why were so many of them not in good standing in December of 2025?

Yes, sir. So, uh to address your your first point in regards to um you not being able to get access and and not allowed um you know when I want to apologize for that. We don't own the building. So, um that's exclusively with the owner uh and the owner that currently has it. So, you know, we have no control over that. Um, in regards to uh the businesses that you see, many of those businesses are not associated with this project. Um, when we talk about grow community, that that business has been in good standings. Uh, the other ones, our subsidiaries, um, and particularly uh, projects that we're working on in the hopes to create employment for our re-entry guys or other initiatives. So like the Grow University, we're still trying to get our accreditation together. And so, you know, just over a year lapse, uh the grow construction one, which I think is the most important one, uh was one of those where we had some oversight, um we've employed individuals, but they've been under grow community. And so, um we're in that process right now of creating that employment structure under growth construction. Um but the other ones, like I said, are not really relevant. Um but, you know, we had a really good meeting with Councilman Renbach. Um and that packet is basically um his requests and questions that he had after our meeting. And so, uh, I think it was a very fruitful meeting. Um, he entertained a lot of questions. He expressed his concerns. And so, we created that package so that, uh, one that he could have it, but also two, we thought it might be in the best interest for the whole council. And so, with that is all the questions that, uh, Councilman Rigbach had. We just wanted to make sure that we had as much documentation to answer it and that there might be value for you all to have as well. Well, I appreciate the fact that Councilman Rianbach got satisfied here, but there's 10 more of us that sit around the horseshoe that probably could have gotten some of our questions answered as well. Um, another major one that I have here is that you've said several times this evening that this is not a halfway house and we shouldn't refer to it as a halfway house, but right here in tonight's agenda item is an application for a halfway house. So, I'm not sure, Mr. Manager, how that

lines up. Uh, Councilman, let me uh ask our assistant community development director to come forward to talk about that and answer that question for you.

Thank you, council and madame mayor. Um, so we work with the unified development code that isn't able to have every type of terminology listed. We work with what we currently have and that was the best fit for the use that they are proposing. Now they are proposing additional services and that's acceptable under the terminology of halfway house but in our unified development code that definition fits best. It may not be perfect but it's it's the best that captures most of what they're proposing to do. Does that answer your question, Councilman? So, what are we calling this if it's not a halfway house?

Well, it is in our definition. There are other definitions of halfway houses that maybe state uses or federal definitions that are not the same, but for our purposes of zoning, the halfway house definition is what our term fits or their use fits within our term. And so I know that I'm sorry if that's a little bit

when along those lines. Also, I just want to clarify as well. It seems like in this packet it's referencing being more of a mental health facility. So if we're veering into health care, does that doesn't that come with additional requirements when it comes to our zoning if we're going to be providing health care services? Because tonight within the last hour is the first I've heard anything about that. So that's new news to me.

Yes, sir. Well, we're we're certified through uh Department of Mental Health as a community mental health center under rule 132. Uh and so uh currently right now um we would meet all the requirements. We're joint commission accredited. Um and so we are able to provide those services. Um at some point, you know, uh during the the rehab process, we would need to have the fire marshall to come out to do an inspection to be able to certify the place. Uh but we're not even in that position right now because like I said, we don't own the property. we don't really have access to the property. Um, and I would say too like when we think about community mental health, one of the questions that I think a community member or maybe a council member had is uh well mental health facility as you know bringing individuals who um have mental health challenges into this space. Um, and we're not talking about chronic mental health, right? We're not talking about individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar. We're talking about individuals who dealing with complex trauma, PTSD, major depressive disorder, anxiety, uh mental health disorders that are enough though that can disregulate and and disrupt normal functioning especially if treatment hasn't been provided. Um so that's where our lane is, our niche is in regards to the mental health services component uh to it.

Thank you. The only other thing I'd have is I'd like to hear from some of the people who operate businesses in the neighborhood on how the interaction with meeting with them have gone and if any of their concerns have been I we can definitely do that. I want to make sure that there's no more questions for Mr. Mallerie from the council before we bring up someone else. Uh council member Seir.

Thank you madam mayor. Just a couple question. Uh first one's probably more for our city manager. Um, for me, you know, $50,000 to a million dollars is a big gap. Has the city been involved yet? Have we seen as our our inspectors, have they seen the building? And what type of renovation would that building need to make sure it is compliant or really in livable condition by city standards? Well, they would have to go through the the building process, the building code process where they would um have to get a building permit for any of the work that they're doing in the property. And before they could occupy it, they'd have to get a certificate of occupancy. Um so, you know, as that assessment of the building is done by our building professionals, they'll make the determination.

So, tonight we just don't know what that really correct figure would be from 250 to a million dollar. We have no idea. That's correct.

Okay. Uh thank you very much sir for being here tonight. Just another question. My colleague talked a little bit about this. Uh the want to be or not want to be your neighbor. Okay. People that do not want to be your neighbors tonight. I want to talk about them a little bit. They have worked really hard to convince us that we should vote no to your So what do you have to say? I mean I really appreciate you being here. Uh what can you say? what type of neighbor would you be and what can you say to them that this is a good uh I mean there's no first of all I want I want to make sure the public and and my colleague and I think are are uh constituent there you're not asking for any money whatsoever from this city are you

not asking for any money from the city sir no so so we have no money okay so and your business plan your business plan I have I mean I I if it works I hope you're successful. I want every business that's in PR to be successful. So, I don't pick the winners and the losers, but your neighbors, I mean, really right now, I mean, you got I don't even know, I didn't count them, 20, 25 people, businesses in that area that do not want to be your neighbor. What can you tell them tonight?

I would I would say that um one, I understand their concern. understand um the narrative that's been presented to them in regards to um bringing individuals uh who have been impacted by the criminal justice system uh and the thoughts that often times can be associated with that. And so um they're warranted to have that concern and and and I would say that I understand it. Um, I would also say too that my hope is that if given a chance, uh, we we we show the business community that we're an asset. Uh, my hope is that if we're given a chance that, um, our participants that graduate from the program could hopefully maybe work for them and they see value in that. Um, or at the very least, uh, see that, um, we're helping in in hopes to help revitalize the area as well. When you look at the property right now, it's vacant. It's abandoned. It's bordered up. Um it's been vacant, abandoned, boarded up for the last two years. Uh and county. And so our hope again is to be an asset and a resource. Um our hope is to, you know, take individuals who we all probably know may have a brother, a cousin, a nephew that's been struggling that just, you know, if they found the right program with the right structure might get them on the right track. We just want to be a blessing and a vessel for that. Um, but I don't want to dismiss their concern. Um, I'm just asking for an opportunity and a chance to show them.

So, last question. As a CEO of this company, obviously you're u right now for your business in Chicago. You have extra I don't want to say extra, but you have obviously you're making money. Um, and I'm sure you want to make money right here. And it's an investment. You want a return on your investment right in that building. How do you select a a building a area and how did you select Poria and specifically that building that area?

Yeah. Well, you know, you know, in business you got to have money, right? Uh I would say my sole focus is it is it on on money. It's on creating change. And I feel like when I do that, God blesses with the rest. I think the second part of of of how we select a building. I think it's really just we have of a team of seven here right now who's been actively involved in the community uh and is constantly saying, "Hey, Aaron, this is the area that I think if we could really be positioned here, if we could support the community, particularly the south side of Peoria, that we really can have an impact. Majority of our clients are on the south side." Um, and so, you know, honestly, the property when I first saw it, I was like, I don't know. We went to another property that was was a little way rougher, but I thought that might be it. and and I went into the property and honestly when I saw the basketball court and I saw the gym I was sold like oh this could be a huge asset when you see the little recreational area um I saw the opportunity of what it could be um again for the residents on the south side of Poria um and so that's kind of just listening to my team that's on the ground you know individuals that are from Peoria that are working with uh young people in this community and they're expressing to me what they need um and us also knowing too we do want to be able to expand um our re-entry model I really do believe that we're we're on to something innovative where um you know like I said for me I want to help men become self sustainable. I want to help men to feel like they could be head of their households again. Uh and so for me you know it's about expansion and be able to get the data to be able to do the research as well. But again to answer your question just leaning on my team and what they expressed to me.

Thank you sir. Thank you for being here. Thank you madam mayor.

You're welcome. I do want to interject and and there's a lot more council members we're going to hear from, but uh Poria has about 800 people every year that go to the Department of Corrections and about half of those come back to live in our community and they're going to be our neighbors. They're going to be somebody's neighbor somewhere. They're either going to live with a relative or a friend. They're going to live on their own in an apartment. They're going to live somewhere. and they may live somewhere that doesn't have the resources that a program such as Grow might provide in this um mental health facility or I'm not sure what you call it but this this helping facility the resources that are provided that provide job opportunities career opportunities development opportunities can help those individual individuals that um are may, you know, may otherwise live on their own in a disconnected environment. And so I know that adult and teen challenge was not far from the uh facility that you're are that you're proposing right now. And we didn't have problems from the adult and teen challenge program that took place there in a nonresidential area. Again, people are moving back to P Peoria and they're moving in residential areas. In this case, it's non-residential and it's with a lot of support. So, I I just wanted to to get that out there about who our neighbors are. We get people that come back to our community. And I I think that this is an opportunity to actually help at least a few that come back with supportive services and hopefully jobs and uh more development than than some others might receive.

Council member Rianbach.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, and thank you, Mr. Mallerie and Miss P, for being back here tonight with us. When this came to the council back in November, I think was the first time it was listed on the agenda as approval of reszoning for a halfway house, which as we've heard now from our assistant community development director is the technical legal definition, even though that's not the use that you're going to be using. I think that this packet that you gave us tonight is extremely helpful in telling us who Grow is. That's a question that I've asked repeatedly in the last two months and I know many of my colleagues has and Miss Pool probably has my email address blocked or in in red blood or something um from the number of emails we've exchanged and some have been tense um but she was always very respectful in responding to every single one of them. Um, as Councilman Oiler said, it would have been this having this in November probably would have eased the whole process. So, if you look at other communities, I would strongly suggest this this is incredible and and it shows us the the programming that you offer. As a council, we're dealing with the unsheltered problem and that's something that consumes a lot of our um time and energy. And we hear repeatedly how there's so much mental health related issues in that. And if we're able to have an organization who does have proven credentials um address that for our community 12 people at a time, I think we need to take a a

hard look at what they're offering. The page three has as four bullet points that are very um succinct and to the point. Um I I also think that the vetting of the residents is something that needs to be highlighted as well because when you hear the term halfway house, it's it's assumed rightly or wrongly that those people will be coming directly from prison to this house at 1924 Southwest Adams. But that's not the case, is it? No sir, it's not the case at all.

And there is a vetting process that Grow has and and an an agreement of sorts that they have to be willing to attend the programming that you offer. Is that correct?

That's correct, sir. And you probably rolled your eyes when I asked for this, but just having this syllabus, this this example of what the programming looks like, I think also adds credibility to the program that that's being offered here. Um, I was very concerned at the beginning knowing that the the condition of the building that how how is it going to be paid for and um your your your funding sources seem to be as solid as anybody's these days and and you're realizing the fact it could be upwards of a million dollars is is also um reassuring. I would again encourage you to reach out to our local labor. Um we have some strong um contractors and um union representatives that will be happy to discuss this further with you. I also think it's important, as the mayor alluded, the adult and teen challenge facility just on the other side of Adams on the Jefferson frontage of Olive um operated for 18 years and had very similar a similar population. And in that very building, the human service center ran uh uh facility for people with the mental health problems as well. So this is not a new use for this area. This is just renewing what had been it had been used for previously. I am very sensitive to the bill the the the business owners concerns and have spoken with a number of them um throughout the last two months

and I think there's a couple things that we need to codify in the special use and that would be the maximum number of residents. Um in in your information you say 10 to 12. So when we make that motion, councilwoman, I would um want that to be a condition that there would be no more than 12 residents at any time and that there would be around the clock security at the place. Um, I also think this is more technical for us than you, but that no certificate of occupancy would be issued until all of the special use, excuse me, would not be issued until the certificate of occupancy is so you would have to, addressing Councilman Seir's concerns, have the building up to city code, the life standards that that we expect. So the special use would not be issued until that CFO would be issued. And then probably most importantly, something we've done with STRs and many other special uses is that this is not transferable. So if for whatever reason um grow decides to leave Poria and you sell the property, the new property owner would have to go through the same process if they desired to have something like this.

So that I think um summarizes my concerns and again I thank you for the the emails, the phone calls and and and the conference call we had just recently. So, um, appreciate it and I will be supporting them. Can I can I ask a question real quick? I'm sorry. I don't know if I'm out of order. Um,

um, I guess is there a way um, in regards to the special use not being issued until um, you know, we um, get the occupancy certificate, which is perfectly fine. Um, but some type of communication because we do have to communicate back to IDA, Illinois's housing development authority. And and one of those things is that um they want to make sure that the city uh has uh granted uh this special use or at least there's some communication so that we can move the ball forward in being able to close. And so uh maybe it's, you know, some communication that we can connect the city with with it, but long as that, you know, it's possible. Um I just don't want us to, you know, have that language where it may uh hinder us from being able to close uh due to Ida's request.

Yeah, Mr. Malor, I'm going to defer to our legal counsel. Uh Council Hayes, can you speak to that? how that could be handled.

Councilman, um, thank you, Madam Mayor. Councilman, there is a a condition of the special use permit already in the draft form that's before council for its consideration that states that building permits shall be required for compliance with all city adopted building codes before occupancy of the structure, which I think essentially addresses the issue that you want. So there's already a condition of the special use requiring compliance and a and a certificate of occupancy before it's occupied. So would that satisfy your additional request regarding the special use not issuing? I think that this the zoning of the property generally is required for all types of things, not just IDA, but loans, things like that. So, um that's why this is a condition um in the special use permit.

That's why we have Yes. Thank you, Mr. Hayes. Yes, that would be if that's in the the language is there already. Staff the ability to make certain there's a certificate of occupancy before the building's occupied and that they've met all the building code and requirements. So, that would I think satisfy your ambition. Thank you. Thank you, Y. And we definitely understand IDA and the way they operate, so we don't want to jeopardize anything on that front. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're welcome. Uh, and we're going to get to the other side, Councilman Oiler, in terms of hearing the other side of the issue. Uh, Councilwoman Jackson, do were you

Well, I um I I can wait. I'll give somebody else a chance. Okay. Because there's a lot of there's several other council members that want to speak to this. I I think next we had Council Member Carmona. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Yes.

Uh thank you very much for being here. I just have a few uh couple questions of clarification. when you first brought this to council um November 18th um you had expressed that um the budget was going to be about 250,000 to acquire the property and then I think another right around 200,000 to uh renovate it and that um you were going to use your internal uh is it the grow construction

uh to uh to help you do that um your your new certific certificate from today is actually from this very day today. Um, but the record shows that grow construction 4 days prior to our original meeting was dissolved. I just want you to speak to that part a little bit. Yes. And I guess the reason I'm concerned is because if this is if this is was your plan from the beginning to use the grow construction to help facilitate this uh uh the construction. Um why that part wasn't in order?

No, that's that's a valid question. Uh so Grub Construction was created some some years back uh and then we we stopped uh actually using the entity. Um we really just revitalized uh the aspect of grow construction uh roughly about four months ago. However, um the staff that have been working uh and doing the current work, we're actually doing um some rehabilitation work in Chicago uh have been under uh grow community uh and so honestly it was oversight. Uh and secondly, we haven't really had to uh integrate the grow construction model yet like we would like. Uh however uh as we're learning through this this pilot phase of our our renovation project that we're doing um our goal is to be able to embed that as actual business. Um but it's a process you know as we're as we're doing this rehabilitation um and we're learning but also to um like I said we're using um surplus funds to even compensate our staff and our participants and working in this space. Um and so honestly it's it's really just a a showfall that I take accountability on. Uh but also two it's a pilot in this idea. Like I said, it started some years back and then it halted. Um, and as we've been building up our housing program, um, one of the challenges that we've encountered is that, um, you know, we have a hard time finding employment uh, for our guys oftent times because they have that felony. And so, um, we've been trying to think creatively on how we create employment opportunities. So, revisiting this girl construction idea. Uh, we have a Grow Moves. We have a trucking company right now where um we're doing Amazon relay uh drop offs and uh looking at getting different routes uh to be able to support our guys with employment. Um we're also in the process of opening up a thrift store exclusively for our re-entry guys. And part of that is we've been thinking creatively because uh like I said oftent times people don't want to employ our guys because of the simple fact they have a record. And so we're just trying to be creative. So core construction was one of those things where we're being creative. Uh and again I take accountability on that. Uh that was an oversight uh in regards to uh

making sure that's rectified.

Uh thank you. Um going back to the budget question, um what is it that uh changed your guys' mind without having gone back into the building to go from a renovation budget of around $200,000 to now $750,000 or not to exceed a million. I just wanted to kind of see where that jump comes from. Yeah, you know, I gave a a range between 250 and 750. Uh, you know, one just to the nature of construction and you never know what to expect. I would say second two is uh we haven't been back in the property since they boarded it up. Um, when we went back a couple months back, uh, the property for the most part, you know, definitely needed work. Uh, but it was not in like a condition where it was a complete gut or nowhere near in the condition where um, you know, maintenance and things needed to be done. Um, structurally when I look at the tuck pointing looks fine. when we had a um inspection, we actually had an inspection inspector come out um and provided their feedback. Um the numbers we provided at IDA, uh they were satisfied with it. Um we've had another project in Rockford that didn't go through because I didn't believe that the construction cost was not going to work. Uh they didn't give us a hard time with this one. So based off of the inspector that, you know, they had to agree on it. We had to agree on who we brought in to do it and send back to IDA. They approved it. Um, but also too, like I said, we have not been in the property and my concern too is that because it's boarded up, that means individuals have been going into the property. Uh, and if individuals been going into the property, we don't know what has happened and we haven't been able to get access because we're in this like limbo with the seller because they're ready to close and we're going back and forth with the city, right? So, we got to it's really hard to get access right now until we can figure out what the direction is uh and what this deal would be.

Thank you. My final question is um we've received um I guess petitions uh speaking against um this development and I was just curious from your guys' side uh in that general area. Do you have advocates that are willing to or that you've talked to or that are that have written a letter or willing to speak in on your behalf? We didn't uh solicit for um advocates uh to come on our behalf, but but what I would say is that we work with clients in that area. Uh we provide counseling to young people in that area um who are currently getting services outside of the re-entry component. U but just with the the service that we're currently doing, um we're currently our current office, we have to pick them up from there and then take them all the way to the other side of town to provide services. Um, and so I would say those are individuals that are getting service right now. Um, and also two, this is bigger than just re-entry. Um, when I think about what this space will be, this is a community mental health center. Uh, it be a space to help young people, adults in the community outside of just re-entry. Um, family support. Um, so I say to that, we are currently servicing individuals in that area right now.

Thank you. I appreciate you being here. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome, Council Member Vespa. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, and I I do thank you as well for coming here and uh providing us with so much information. Um, I I mean, I did clear up my mailbox yesterday. I got a lot of packets uh for people opposing this. Um, this this is very good. Um, answers a lot of my questions um and does paint a better picture uh than I thought I had coming in here today. Um, I do have a few questions. Want to clarify a few things. You say you get funding from Medicaid, correct?

Yes, sir. Okay. You get Medicaid funding. Do you receive funding from IDOC? No, sir. So, it's just Medicaid. Yes, sir. Okay. Um, so does IDOC have a say in who uh you accept?

We have referral pathways from IDOC. Um we have a robust partnership uh in Chicago where we get substantial amount of our referrals. Um but also too um we get a lot of referrals from just doing community uh canvasing, passing out flyers, going to barber shops, going to stores, putting up our flyers. Um and so there's multiple pathways in which we're able to get our clients uh to engage in in the program. I I guess my concern would be if you want to take um just Poria residents, people from Poria and IDOC wants you to accept people from all around the state, some of which may have violent criminal convictions. Could they override you?

No, they couldn't. Um one wouldn't do that. If somebody's in Chicago, they going to they want them to get services where their local supports are. So if it was somebody in Chicago, they would say Chicago. you know, if they're living in Chicago, they're not going to tell somebody, "You got to move to Peoria because you're on parole. You have to get services in Chicago." If you live in Rockford, right? They're not going to say, "Hey, you live in Rockford, you got to move to Chicago to get services." You know, the goal is, and this is based off of the research, is help individuals based in their community to be able to thrive and sustain, right? So, um, IDLC would never tell it wouldn't be in the best interest of uh, the individual to have them move to somewhere else just to satisfy DLC, right? Um, so there's no way that that would be possible. Um, and like I said, this would be exclusively just for individuals that are on parole in the Peoria area.

How are you going to choose the parole lease?

Well, they have to go through the program, you know. Um, number one, no sex offenders. Um, that is just a population we don't work with. Uh, number two, uh, it's individuals who are um, accepted into our program. Uh, and um, when I say accepted to the program, the workforce program, if you're able to come and show up, you got a positive attitude, you're motivated for change, you're accepted into that program. That's not the housing program, that's the workforce program, and that's 9 to5. Um, some people fall off because they just don't have that commitment, right? They don't that structure, right? Uh, you know, the accountability. Um, but you do have those that make it. You do have those that are couch surfing, right? Who uh haven't had stable housing in years, right? and they see this as an opportunity like, "Oh, I actually got an opportunity to to have my own place, right? The opportunity to actually pay rent and see what that's like, right?" I think that's also too I want to like clarify too. When you think about a halfway house, they don't pay rent. These guys are paying rent to build landlord history. Um, but for them to qualify for that, they have to meet the metrics that's outlined in that um scope of our program uh to even be able to get the opportunity to be in housing. And we have those though who um like I said have been couch surfing, has not been able to had housing and so they see the value in this.

Okay. Uh no further questions. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're welcome. Did you say no sex offenders? No sex offenders. Yes, ma'am. Sex offenders. Okay. Uh council member Council Member Gordon Young. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um I have a lot of comments that I've written down trying to figure out where to start. Um, okay. So, I have a question and then a bunch of comments. The first question or the question is, can you speak to the type of um crimes that people will that's enrolling in this program will have been convicted of.

Uh, unlawful use of a weapon, possibly, um, drug offenses, um, vehicular hijacking. Um, I mean, one of our most successful individuals did 20 years uh for murder, the one that bought us home, you know. So, it's is it's a gambit of individuals who um have went through uh the legal system, have uh done their time and are looking for a second chance.

Okay. Thank you. And I'm glad you mentioned the ones that you did because um I work at the Puria County Jail and we have a re-entry program and often those are the individuals that are in the re-entry program. They've been convicted of of crimes that they're going to prison. Yes, they're in this program, but you're not going home. You're going on to deal IDLC. And the goal is that you keep that mindset of information that you're learning before you get there. So that once you're there, you continue in programming. And then once you get out, your mindset is already on this in this track of thinking doing thinking differently, doing things differently, and surrounding yourself with people that are doing things different as well. Um, this is very exciting for me because we often do the work at the Perry County Jail and then they are doing it when they go to DLC, but when they come home, there's no supportive services that's willing to work with them and really treat their mental health. And they may get their medication while they're in DLC or um, you know, in the jail, but those services are not being set up when they get out. Can you speak to I thought I only had one question, but I got more. Can you speak can you speak to um Gro's role in not just providing cognitive behavior therapy or those therapeutic services but for individuals that may need medication to assist with managing depression or anxiety um or trauma related ind indicators?

Yes. So we we have a full-time psychiatrist. We have a medical director there on staff. Um, I would also say too that um she's African-American and uh I say that because it's a huge shortage of psychiat psychiatrists of color. Um, and I say that too because of just the culturally competence and culturally relevance that she brings. Um, and so um, we travel to Africa literally to find her because of the shortage. Um, but to answer your question um, we do have a board certified here in the States psychiatrist just to fill that void. The second thing I would like to say is that um you made a point of you have so many people coming back home and if you can't get a job, if you don't have access to resources, what do you think is going to happen? Right? Like you know this was really birthed because we were just providing counseling services to guys coming home from prison,

right? And we started like looking like we're doing all this counseling but he's still depressed because he can't get a job. He doesn't have housing. Like it's hard to help somebody mentally be stable if you're worried about where you're gonna live or I'm trying my best to get employment and I just can't catch a break. I mean that's why that's why this was birthed. It was really birthed out of a need. Uh and part of me just being a social worker is about thinking about the environment, the human uh component and also thinking about how do we support individuals to thrive and so that's really the catalyst of why we even did this.

Yeah. So like this is my wheelhouse. Um, like my my dissertation was on African-American males who were formerly incarcerated, but I focus on those who were successful. What did it take for them to be successful? And one of those things, well, all of the things that Grow has in this booklet and what you've talked about are the things that are very necessary for positive change. Um, I think you've met that. I think that, um, the business owners, they have valid concerns. I believe that um with talking to you all and meeting some of your staff um I think that you all are a class act. Um you know your integrity speaks for itself and I I do believe that you will um ensure that this is a safe space not just for the residents that are there but for the the community. Um and that's what matters the most. You can do all the work on the inside but what does it look like on the outside? Well, they really shouldn't know you're there, right? and it's really about being a good neighbor. Is there anything that you would like to add to ensure that you would be a good neighbor?

My prayer is that at some point maybe the local business men and women here uh will see value in our guys and say, "Hey, you know what? I want to give this individual a chance." And they do a phenomenal job and help their business. That's our hope. My hope too is to invite the business community in for them to give us feedback to say, "Hey, you know, as we're everything we're doing, we're preparing guys for employment." And they may say, "Hey, this is a painoint. I've seen I've hired a couple people. They struggle with X, Y, and Z. Come on in, see what we're doing, see our program, see how we can maybe tighten that up, right? Um, we're essentially trying to create a pipeline for employers. Mhm.

What do we need to do to make sure that they hit the metrics that they're looking for? Uh and so my hope is to entertain the business community to come in, give us feedback, lessons that they've learned, what type of employees are they looking for, maybe even speak to the guys on, hey, you know, if you're looking for a job and want to keep it as an entrepreneur, this is what you need to do. Some of our guys have aspirations to be entrepreneurs. Even coming in and speaking to them about what entrepreneurship is. A lot of these guys have never been exposed to individuals who have successful businesses or even know what that looks like. They got an idea. They may have read some some books while they were incarcerated, but they don't know, right? The more people that can see and pour into them. And again, these are individuals already here in Peoria. Maybe these are individuals create their own businesses to continue to uh create sales tax to increase the revenue here in Peoria, right? Uh to continue to make this city thrive, right? So it my hope is to take those who everybody else has given up on and allow them to be assets in our communities. So that's my hope that you know working with the business community is something we could do.

Well, it would definitely take stress off of uh some of the staff that work with this population and because the unhoused um issue becomes a big deal like they don't have anywhere to go. Um substance use disorder is huge. Um so that's often a barrier and often a challenge. It sounds like you are putting all those things in place to really help them. Um, I appreciate what all you've done. I would like to ask if Miss Francine can speak to um the logistics. You talked about some things that you envision as far as um what it would look like on the outside. Um particularly the lighting um and just what you were talking about in terms of beautifying the area.

Sure. So, when you when you first pull into the property, I mean, it's it could be stunning. And so, um, we have a landscaping budget. We want to, you know, glorify the landscaping. We want to light it up. We want people to drive by and appreciate the property. So, we're going to do some beautiful landscaping. Um, so that people can when they drive by it look it looks beautiful. And like I said, um, you know, and the where the where it's located, it sets back, so you can't really see it and enjoy it. But if you drive by it and it's lit up, I think you can appreciate the property a little bit more. Thank you. Thank you.

That's all I have. I just appreciate the work that you're doing and I I definitely support your initiative. Thank you for all you do. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. We're going to hear from Councilman Kelly and then I'm going to turn it over to uh Councilman Oil Oiler so he can make some introductions and we can hear from some other voices. Uh Council Member Kelly. Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, Mr. Mallalerie, thank you for your presentation. Um, when I, uh, came into this these chambers this evening, I knew I was going to vote against you, mainly because there was there were a lot of concerns on the council and uh, about what you were doing. It was spoken of as a halfway house. Um it I mean I'm sorry we got the wrong impression. We got it from you folks. Um my biggest problem in the meantime has been zero communication. Zero. The only communication I've gotten is against what you want to do. The things you're talking about tonight are mostly news to me. I mean, I got this tonight, right? Do you want me to vote before I read this or after? This is not good communication. I represent people in our city, okay? We we all around this horseshoe, we want the best city we can possibly have. That means we sometimes have to make difficult decisions. Sometimes we make the wrong decisions. You have not made it easy for us

and apparently you have a wonderful program. It sounds sounds very good to me. Um, I mean, did you just think this up today? Uh, is is this a is this something that you have in your in your shelves that you can uh pass out to anybody? You know, I you know, it's like, well, take my word for it. you you know that's kind of how I feel. I don't I don't feel as though I've been treated or the community has been treated properly and apparently you have something really good to sell. Uh you know I I don't know I don't know how I ought to vote. I don't know if I the the uh presentation this evening is quite a bit different than the presentation we had. You know, the terminology was different. You know, this was a halfway house for people coming out of the Department of of uh corrections. uh we didn't know if we'd get Poria people in it or not or that and you know and that's that's kind of where we were and that's where we have been until this tonight and until you tonight. I know you want us to vote for you. I mean I I find your your presentation very good. I but I I'm I'm just really upset that we we didn't have this. Apparently, some of us

maybe had it or or just zip through it real quick, but I I challenge Nobody's read this tonight and we're supposed to vote. Um let me ask a couple questions. Um, apparently you have companies or services or whatever that you set up with your facilities that employ your clients, the delivery services, printing services, you know, etc., etc. Um uh and so presumably that would happen in Peoria as well. Uh what sort of uh businesses of that type are you considering for Poria?

We're looking to mimic uh well let me let me step back. I'm sorry. I I want to acknowledge the first part that you said in regards to the communication. Uh and um I do apologize, you know, um in regards to um we could have went a little harder, worked a little harder to make sure that we communicated with you. Um we we tried our best to do our due diligence having community focused groups meetings uh with the local council uh women. Um but I apologize that you felt that we we overlooked you. um that wasn't our intentions and I definitely want to honor that you know as you support and advocate for the residents of Peoria. Um in regards to the business model, Lord willing, my hope is to be able to mimic everything we're doing in Chicago here in Poria. So the screen printing for those that may need screen print services, the thrift store idea for those that need thrift store or would see value in a thrift store. Um the grow moves uh from the trucking component aspect. Um right now we're in the process of purchasing routes, bread routes. Uh there are many routes that are always going for sale here in Peoria that would create structure jobs for our guys, create self- sustainability. Um so our goal is to really create like an economic model that can be replicated. Um it's advantageous to me as I'm working on my PhD. I'm learning more about research and data and that you have to have more to show output to be able to do publications to do research to inform the criminal justice field on what needs to be done to create change. I think we can all agree that the current system is not working to its best efforts and that it needs some type of innovation. Lord willing, my hope is that we can be that innovation. Um, but to answer your question, our goal is yes, uh, to be able to create a model where we can replicate everything we're doing in Chicago down here and also to the other uh, surrounding cities, Rockford, uh, Lord Willing, the Square.

Thank you. Um, would these businesses be located on this property or other properties? The screen printing is because that's like the workforce component of it. That's like the work model, but the other ones, no, we will need to find locations uh for them to be able to operate out of. Okay. Um, how how long generally uh this is just for info. Yep. How long generally does one of your clients stay with you? Uh, a successful client I'm speaking of. It

varies. Uh, sir, it could be six months. It could be a year. It could be eight months. Everybody's treatment plan is different. That that that's okay. That that kind of range is is kind of what I was after. Not the Okay. Um, okay. And and you kind of run the show from what what you say is is surplus from these businesses. Uh, and you do get was it Medicaid money as well?

Yeah. What the businesses? No, no surplus yet on our grow community model. Yes, we're we we do well there. Uh the other businesses though, you know, it's it's a process. We're about maybe six months in a year in. So, we're still building. You know, every business takes year, you know, a couple years of figuring it out, figuring out the right systems, figuring out the right niche market. Uh but we are investing in making sure those do become successful. uh so that if the businesses are successful that means we can keep employing our guys that have backgrounds uh that that are um you know have been engaged in the criminal justice system and so we have this concerted effort but also two um self- sustainability we want to be able to also position ourselves to diversify our revenue source um you know right now our revenue comes from Medicaid but we don't want to be exclusively dependent on Medicaid and so our goal is to also if we can build successful businesses but also our self-sustainable uh businesses uh again we continue to have impact that we continue to create employment opportunities. Um, right now employ over 209 individuals here in the state of Illinois, 16 in Ohio. Um, but I want to think about also I'm always think about sustainability. Um, but within the mission, uh, I think it was brought up earlier, you know, as entrepreneurs, we do have to think about money, not money conscious, I'm more on change conscious. And it just seems when I do that, God blesses, you know. So, um, but our goal is to make these successful businesses, but we're in a pilot investment phase of that right now.

Okay. You you corrected me, but I don't I don't quite understand it. You you said you said about your revenues or something. No, that's grow community. Yes, sir. Okay. As opposed to like Grow Moves is another entity. No, I mean what entity are we speaking of when we're talking about Yes, sir. the uh Adam Street property. grow community is the is the main entity, right, which is healthy. Um, but I think you were you were alluding to like the other businesses and the success of those and so I just wanted to touch on uh one those are separate businesses that we're building up to build again employment for our our re-entry guys.

I I mean I I asked you you know about the surpluses and I assumed that the surpluses were from these businesses but they're not from these businesses. It's from the main grow community. They're from grow community. Where does Grow Community get its money? That's from Medicaid, sir.

Okay. Okay. That's okay. Thank you. Um I'm still um I'm I'm going to let you go. But I'm still on the fence. I'm just very frustrated with how this whole thing has gone. Um uh it seems to me you had a much better You should have been here in November. Maybe that's what I you know um u if I can speak to that, sir. Um that's all right. That's that's okay.

I I would just like to, you know, like um just highlight if possible. Uh we had some really good meetings with the council women, the councilman and and they were able to express their concerns and so we we knew what what you wanted and so our goal was to bring you what you wanted. Um you know I was dealing with a final who wanted to be here last time. Um however uh I was able to watch uh online and I was able to see kind of what were some of the questions and I was able to meet with my team. We actually had a retreat. We was we watched the video you know I gave feedback. part of, you know, my goal is always to also build a leadership. I don't want everything to have to fall on me. Sometimes I do have to come and show up, but um reason why I wasn't here, but I think also too, you have that document because um we had a very fruitful meeting with the the council woman, the councilman, uh they had questions and concerns and we wanted to make sure that you know they had questions last night. We wanted to make sure we brought it and we thought it'd be value for you all to see what they expressed as well. So that's why that's here today.

Okay. Um All right. Uh, thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Mayor. You're welcome. Councilman Oiler, you want to make some introductions here? Sure.

A lot of times when we make these zoning related decisions, it comes down to the people that are affected by them in the neighborhood, whether it's an Airbnb, a vape shop, a liquor store. And I think it's important to hear from some of the people that surround this regardless of the topic that we're talking about. But you know, these are business owners. These are people that operate in this area. That may not be where they live, but that's where they spend probably more time than where they live. And I know we have u Joe Richie from Tri City Machine, Janine Wester from Pure Architectural Salvage, Pat Sullivan from the Warehouse Association. I'm not sure who else is out there, but I know that those three are very actively involved in this discussion and should have an opportunity to speak. Gentlemen, please tell us who you are, your business, perhaps proximity to the location.

Pat Sullivan. I live at 100 State Street, Warehouse District. I've worked 100 State Street, 600 block Water Street, 736 Washington Street on down to 1,00 couple other little projects. Um, when we first heard this and then when we went to that meeting last week, this thing's all changed. I don't know how you guys are going to vote tonight. This should be deferred and let's get what's really going to go on. And they got good programs. I'm sure Boys and Girls Club's got a gym right down on Grenell Street. We work with kids. Not all the kids come out great. Can we take a chance? Who do we call when your teen your teen uh buildings were down there? We saw them climbing out our windows and roaming the streets. We had to put up with it. We had to make sure that they didn't get into real trouble in our areas. You might not have seen it, but we live here. Now, I'm not saying these people are going to crawl out a window and go cause trouble, but it can happen. Who do we call? I think I think you guys got a good shot of this call, the fed the the uh state representatives, the federal uh congressman in here. We need another zeal. It sounds like I I've done work in the Zeller project and I can't understand why they even closed it down. There's some people that have to be behind bars because they'll hurt someone

or themselves. I'm sure these guys deal with this all the time. There's other buildings in other place when uh Denise Moore represents a lot of the business down there. Right right there where this is going to go. She says, "I love your project, just not here." She's putting it She just bought a one of the U old Southside banks and putting two businesses in it. She already has another business in the main building where she fixed it up and it looks great. She's trying to revive the business in in in uh downtown Poria, the first the first district businesses. And it just shocks me that you just got this pamphlet and you haven't been able to read it that you're going to vote on this tonight. Now, I'm not against what they do, but there are concerns of how this is going to work. We deal with the homeless. We deal with some of them that craw out of windows and go around. We've gotten attacked and beat on. But who do we call? I'm tired of defending myself and other people. And I've called the police and we got we go through the rigma and they're let out the next day and we we're we're trying to sell this city. We're trying to bring people down here. Now, um

I I I just, you know, when this was sold being sold to us as a halfway, now it's a mental halfway, I guess. I I whatever we're calling it tonight. I think we need to give before we vote on this, let's get to what it's going to be and how it's going to work. I'd like to read that thing. I I like to help businesses. Business draws business. I hired some of the gentlemen off of Main Street. Unfortunately, 40% go back to prison. So that means they committed another crime in our city and the chief has to keep track of it and and and put raises our crime rate, which raises our insurance, which puts people in the hospital. It's unbelievable that we, you know, we need to make sure we're going to get what they're saying they're going to do. And u if they have to wait another week or two, let us all read what they have that guaranteeing us. Now, I I don't have any businesses right down there at this point in time. I've been looking But it it you know I do see what's going on down there. On the other side of St. An's you have new housing project with families going to be moving in which is great. It's it's it's it's getting it back to the old ways when I was down there.

I just um uh hope you don't do a rash fast vote tonight. It's been drug out, no doubt, but I've seen a lot of more projects been dug out drug out further. I mean, I I'm still baffled about the uh the zoning. I mean, you're not they're not doing a halfway house, but they went to get a zoning change to do it. You know, if I brought you a project and say, I'm going to put a nice jazz club down in the warehouse district and turn it into a strip club, you're going to be a little mad at me. So would my wife. But but it's not going to happen because we go through the proper channels. It should be stopped right tonight. And let's get a a zoning that's going to work. If you don't have it, and I don't believe you have it, let's let's work till we do get it. Let's get get the city rolling again. I represent quite a few of the businesses in that area. I've got their the We gave you three or four sheets of signatures. I got three or four more different ones. I didn't want to bombard you too much. You can't we can't read what you get sometimes. So, please put it off a little bit. Let us help them. And and just being a developer walking by that house, that's more than a million dollars in repairs. I can guarantee you that. And I'm not trying to be a downer on you, but we can help you. We got contractors that just live right next door to this and down the block and uh a couple blocks and and in in the whole area.

We can walk through that house until you're pretty close of what it's going to cost you because we don't want to get you all pumped up and then you have to come back to city hall and try to get money. It's hard because I try all the time, you know. All right, I'll let Joe Richie talk. And u Thank you, Mr. Salivan.

Madame Mayor and the city council, my name is Joe Richie. I'm an Illinoisan. I graduated from the University of Illinois. I graduated from Bradley University a few times. I live outside Peoria for a reason, but my business is downtown Peoria in the ware in the warehouse district and on the south side. Been there 50 years and I oppose this project. I sent to the city council four different opportunities to say no to this program. And I and I'm not going to read those obviously, but I I will just mention them briefly. The first one I sent was um the 17th of January, much earlier than the the pamphlet that you got this evening. The first letter that I sent was a relationship to Grow Communities because I wanted to find out what they were about, especially since uh Francine P mentioned that they had a construction company that was going to renovate the house. I did find that information on the state of Illinois's um site, but also found out that it was dissolved November 14th, 2025. Now, maybe Miss P didn't realize that, but you know, there is no Grow Construction Company. Also, I found the grow clinical services

not in good standing. That's uh September 1st, 2025. I found that the grow real estate is involuntarily dis dissolved on 0808 2025. All of these businesses here belong to Aaron Mallerie. They are fourprint businesses. So I didn't quite understand why are these fourpront businesses circling around the grow community in poria or circul wherever grow university not in good standing September 03 2024 grows active that might have something to do what's going to happen here I don't know grows active status growing active status. Now, why is all of this around such a what I would call a very small nonforprofit? I didn't have an answer and I'm not sure who does have an answer also. So, I went to charity navigator. Charity Navigator rates grow communities is a two and that's 69%. Primarily for financial statements zero out of 15 points. Website listed on the tax form missing zero out of two points. Conflict of interest missing zero out of four points. Whistlebl policy zero out of four points. Documents of board meeting zero out of two points. So, it seems like there's a bit of turmoil. I mean, I I don't understand it. I I got the information off the

internet. Uh it's easy to do. Uh especially with the state of Illinois. So, I began to oppose this from the from the get-go, frankly. So, that was the first letter that I sent. Uh the second one is on the 21st. Hang on a second please.

So on the 21st. So this might have something to do with why we changed changed the vocabulary from a halfway house to a mental institution is that frankly we have enough halfway houses in Peoria. We have three 350 to 400 people in just two facilities. One of them is an Illinois Department of Corrections facility downtown pory that houses a limit of 249 and last check they had 241 participants at that at that facility. So there's really room for whoever wants to put Peorans in Peoria, put them in the Illinois Department of Corrections facility where they have an opportunity to get a GED. They have an opportunity to go to college. They have an opportunity for counseling. They have so many more opportunities than what this particular group is trying to offer. It's right here in Peoria. If you want a Christian-based facility, you you go no further than the warehouse district. Pathway Ministries is there a well-run operation because we don't hear too much about it. Uh so I think that's why the the change to a mental institution, but obviously if we're going to vote tonight, we're voting on the wrong thing. So, if we're going to vote on a mental institution in this particular piece of property, do they need sprinklers in there? Do they what what kind of do they need three people there to pro protect themselves against 10? Is it is it a place for people that are violent to come and try to they're try to consult? We don't know.

But I do know that it doesn't fit in the warehouse district. Denise Moore, a former city council lady, doesn't want in her district. The the minary the minority business community doesn't want it in this district. She signed my com my petition. Gladly signed my petition. So, you came to the January 20th meeting frustrated about why this is going to be where it is at 1924. She didn't say it was a bad deal, meaning not sure what this group does, but she didn't want it in her district. Well, you know, we have housing. That's Pury Opportunities wants to put housing in 61605. That was a flyer that came out uh in my uh Sunday bulletin at St. An's which has spent and I I sent that out to the city council. Quite a bit of money to make their property a premier piece of property and invested piece of property in Peoria. It's about what? Two blocks from this place. The dividing line between 61602 and 61605 is Jefferson Avenue. Habitat Humanities building housing at the old McKenley school, which stood too long in a in a terrible fashion, but eventually came down. But, you know, they put they put a million dollars in there. $1 million Habitat for Humanity. That's in 61605. We don't need a halfway house or we don't need a mental institution at that location.

So when when uh when when we talk about parole leaves, we all know what recidivism is. It's how often that a person who commits a crime commits another crime. And we find out that the best statistics is the Illinois Department of Corrections because they know who they are. So they know what the recidivism rate is. And we know and I passed out to the city council people a document summary from the Illinois Department of Corrections that explained that in within 3 years 40% of the parole lees commit another crime. Now that's not good. There are a lot of people that make it out but they make it out with education. They make it out with a job and they and and and they make it out with with the ability to learn and read, write, arithmetic. It's it's what they got to have. If they didn't get it in school, they're on the street without it. They they they can't get a job. They can't get a really good job. So when they come out of incarceration and they go to an a a program like they have downtown, they have those opportunities to get better education, to go to college, to get counseling. None of these things aren't offered here by grow communities. They're offering, from what I understand, an opportunity to not be violent by consulting. Surely, this is the wrong place. There may be a better place in Poria, but frankly, I doubt it. I don't think we need a halfway house anywhere.

We're looking at putting housing development at the Pure Exposition Gardens. Now, would we put a halfway house? Mr. Richie, I'm I'm going ask you to wrap up in about 30 seconds. I think there's a couple more business. Okay. I only need 30. Speak. Okay.

Would we put a halfway house at the at at the old Pury Exposition Gardens property? Not without a lot of protest. Why would we do it down here in the south end? We're trying to scrape our way back into something. and the residents down here, they're really afraid to come here and talk. I'm their representative. So, I I think you got two issues here. One, probably shouldn't vote on this, and two, you probably should never vote on a on a mental institution at third for 1924. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Richie. Hello. Uh, my name is Janine Wester. My husband Thomas Wester and I own the business at 2000 Southwest Adam Street, which is uh directly next to the proposed uh 1924 development. Um, or the big purple and orange building. You've probably seen it. Um, so I just I I don't really have a a whole lot to say. Um, I I really actually do think that Bro has some awesome ideas. Um, I love the clarifications you guys have proposed um and provided tonight. Um, also speaking uh with Francine uh the other week um answered a lot of my questions. Um so that was a little bit provided me a little a little bit of uh comfort I guess. I don't know. Um I I it is still my personal opinion that um the immediate Adams frontage should remain commercial. Um just seems to kind of lend itself more to commercial and retail spaces just being on a busy road and the lack of resources for the residents does concern me a little bit. Just if I were to live down there, I think it would be hard to if you don't I maybe they do have access to vehicles. I I I don't know if everybody I would just think like walking walkability the neighborhood it's not a super walkable neighborhood in my opinion but um maybe you have a way to address that with your residents and get them to and fro. That was just sort of one of my main concerns with that. Um I think that I would just like to see a cohesive vision for Adam Street going forward. there's sort of a border at MacArthur where it's just sort of uh undeveloped and so I'd like to see an infill of more commercial businesses. So that was my initial hope. When that property first vacated we were like,

"Oh, cool." Like maybe, you know, like it'll be like a restaurant or something. Yeah. I don't know, whatever. But um I think that um I like the vision you guys have for the exterior. I think that um the area is going to make a comeback. I I really do. I really believe that. Um but I think that fighting public perception is going to be a big part of that because we say that even now um people don't want to come down to our area cuz it's rough or you know I that's it's not but that is the perception. So I think that that's something that if um you guys are to be our new neighbors, we're kind of all going to have to maybe band together to sort of uplift the neighborhood, get it looking really good. And I want to make sure that everyone, my building included, is held to high standards because I think that that's going to be make or break for this area. Um, I know I've got lots of plans in the future and it sounds like you guys have lots of plans for the future for upkeep and and beautifying and things like that and and we want to do that too. Um, but I want to make sure that that applies to the whole neighborhood. Um, and so that's maybe getting a little bit off off topic, but um, that is my hope for for Adam Street. And I the warehouse district is so beautiful and I'd love to see the momentum, the wonderful buildout that they've had going down there sort of start to creep down a little bit farther our way. So, my initial, you know, concerns were just that I I'd like to see us concentrate on commercial and and more revenue coming in from that as well. I mean, I think it's pretty clear that our zip code has a little we're at a little bit of a disadvantage as far as tax income and things like that go. We've lost a lot of businesses. So, I think we really have to fight to get more revenue generating income businesses, um, commercial things

like that coming in to sort of prop up the area again. Um, but I that that I really don't have a lot else to say, but I I just I hope going forward that we can sort of come up with a strategic plan and make sure that we can continue this development. Um, because it's really important to me and I love the neighborhood and I'd love to see it continue in an in an upwards trend. So, yeah, that's absolutely totally agree. Thank you very much. Was there another gentleman? Did you want Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you all. Uh did you have any um closing comments on that commentary? Uh Council Member Oiler.

No, thank you. Okay. Okay. Uh can I hear from Council Member Allen, please? And then I'll go back to Council Member Jackson.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. And I wanted to uh provide my remarks after I heard from all of the parties involved this evening. And first off, thank you to everyone uh for their engagement uh in this particular matter. Uh this is a uncomfortable conversation um because I think everyone knows the challenges that we have in our society especially when it comes to uh assisting those who have been impacted by the criminal justice department. And we say um you do the crime, you do the time and then when you come home you get a second chance. And unfortunately, many people do not get that second chance unless they have the resources. Um, and one of the things that really binds majority of these people in this room is I think we all know someone who has been impacted by the criminal justice system and they probably are still being impacted by a mistake that they made years ago. And so what girl is looking to do is looking to to fill that void. Um, I understand the concern even in the frustration from the business community as well as some of my colleagues around the horseshoe. Um because tonight a lot of things were were answered tonight. Um and sometimes when the fear of the unknown is present, it's hard for people to wrap around uh themselves around a concept, especially when it's going to impact something that they've put so much into, whether that's your business or your or your residence. Um, no one raises their hand and says, "Hey, I want to have a home next to a holistic support system, halfway house, whatever we're labeling it now." Uh, where no one wants to say, "Hey, I want to live next door to one." Um, but we know that these are things that are necessary in our society in order to impact those criminal uh justice impacted individuals because at the end of the day, um, if we do not find the support services for them, we're going to be taking care of them regardless. And that's going to be whether it's them going back to jail, us needing to expand jail services, us needing to clone more Dr. Bernice Gordon Young's at the Peoria County Jail

because we're not able to give them the services for them to reintegrate into society. So again, I'm very uh appreciative of everybody's feedback today. I will say um one of the things that I do appreciate about Grow and is learning now that they are looking to treat individuals from the city of Peoria. I think that's very important. Um, also to the individuals that are involved in Grow, especially on the the grassroot level. I'm fortunate to know those individuals. You have former Poria firefighters that are part of it. Uh, community activists and and and um leaders uh that are also part of it with boots on the ground that have those relationships and have a true pulse on what's going on in the city of Peoria. And I think that's very important as well too because I don't like we can't have people from the outside solving our issues. We need those who truly understand the dynamics of Peoria. and we're a very uh interesting place and so it's good to have those boots on the ground. So, um I feel good about the project where it is now. A lot of my questions were were answered in the presentation today. Uh I I do want to shout out uh soon to be Dr. uh Mallerie. Um first off, I appreciate your passion. Um your commitment. Um this work is not this work ain't sexy. I mean, just frankly, it it's not. and I really saw your passion sign through tonight and so I really appreciate, you know, the things that you're trying to do. I can tell that this is your your life work and look forward to reading your dissertation in the near future. But again, thank you to everyone being involved tonight and u I appreciate everyone. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome, Council Member Jackson. Thank you, Madam Mayor. If I could, I would like to call one uh more person who uh has been at this for uh over 30 years. Uh, Bishop Sam Russell, uh, would you come up, sir, and, uh, share with us just briefly a little bit about your experience in this area?

Thank you. And and based on the time, uh, Pastor Russell, please come. I I would just want to limit your time, you know, to no more than five minutes just because of where we are. And I'm sure that's probably what you prepare for anyway. to everyone that's here. Um, just to give you an idea, uh, I'm going to say a few things that I've been there, done that. All of what I'm hearing, I've been there, done that, and had to deal with it. not necessarily in the form that we are in now, but I had to deal with it on an individual basis. And as you well know, everything that somebody does in Peoria just about comes through this council. I'm hoping that this council can make a decision that will help Peria grow. I know of terms called and was shaped by the idea of nimi. What you want to do is good, but nimi says not in my backyard. And we've got to get past that because the people who are coming out of DLC, male and female, and I don't know if I can be me when I say stuff, but I'm going to be me. They need your help. They need your forgiveness. They need your consideration

to take their past and really put it behind them because if you don't support them in that effort, they're going to fall flat on their face again and you will find them back in the same mess they came out of. I pastor a church Sheridan Road Gale Richmond and the church sits there. I've been there 40 years and I've had programmed a program called PH Connection in that church to help people with the problem of getting jobs and getting people to trust them again. And people who are really really want to do better with their life, but they need support from the people, the movers and the shakers who make the decisions to give them a place where they can abode and get the help that they need. This is something that we cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to or be afraid of what they going to do if they come into our neighborhood. I had a lady say to me, "Well, I don't want them people in my neighborhood." and she was talking directly to me and I said, "Sweetheart," I said, "they already living in your neighborhood." Mhm.

But if you want to envy them, not in my backyard, it sounds good, but not in my backyard, then they're going to end up one more time back into the madness of being out of control in some shape, form, or fashion. I don't have the degrees that other people have, but I do have something that somebody said, "This is why you deserve this doctorate." So, I was given an honorary doctorate degree, not because I went to a university and spent eight years and trying to make it happen, but somebody saw me doing the work that was being done in the neighborhood right there at 1701 North Sheridan Road. I teach people how to stop the madness of being out of control. And the issue is the city has to get to the place, those of us who are now well prescribed, if you will, we have to get to the place where we say, "Okay, we're going to open up the windows of heaven for people who need God's touch, God's influence, who need the one source that's going to be able to help them get to the place where they need to be. And I hope I get more than five minutes. But anyway, Mr. Sullivan got his length of time. And the other gentleman got time. You know, your preachers can go on for a long time here. You got two you you got a minute and a half, pastor.

Did they miss their calling? But anyway, my point is nothing beats a failure but a try. But a try. We need to give these people a try. No, no matter what the unknowns are. Okay, I'm just going to say this, but and then I'm going to get back on point. The chief of police came to my neighborhood and got some baked beans that my wife had made. And he said, "Who made these baked beans?" And if I'm lying, God can strike me dead now, but this is the truth. I said, "My wife made them baked beans." He said, "Man, these B." Well, I would say to him, tell them what you said, but we got to give things that unknown to us a try. So that the people, if you will, the recipients of what needs to be known after you try it, we have to give those people the opportunity or we'll look at failure in the nimi fashion for the rest of our lives. Even the business owners, they need to say, "Okay, I'm going to back off and say, "Let's give them a try." This council, you guys, when you vote, you got to give them a try.

Councilwoman Jackson. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Well, um I won't um prolong anything. I um just want to add um as a former business owner myself, small business owner, I understand the value of small businesses and um as I've said to some of my colleagues around the horseshoe. I'm very protective of my district. Extremely protective of my district. Y'all know how I feel about liquor licenses and all that other stuff. And I probably live um closer than anybody to this uh facility. and I do what I do with the students. So if I had any doubt in my mind about the viability of this program, I would not be supporting it. So um no more questions. Well, there there there's comments, but I think you want to go a you want to go ahead and with your amended motion and then we can have continued discussion.

Well, uh Madame Mayor, I'd like to move to amend the motion. uh can I say no more than 12 residents and uh no more and there will be at least one security staff member on site 247 and if at any point there are no participants on site the requirement of one security staff member being on site would not apply transferable and it's non-transferable do you have that do you want her to I have Read it again. Okay. Yes, Madam Mayor. Thank you.

Is there a second? Seconded by Council Member Gordon Young. Uh I think we had some further discussion. Council member Allen.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. One last thing I wanted to add to my comments. And regardless of uh tonight's outcome, I think that we need to have a a greater discussion on uh when it comes to these types of proposals in neighborhoods. What is our our vision or our strategy? similar to what we learned when it came to STRs and we started putting some distance requirements after we got the feedback from neighborhoods and things of that nature. And I believe that that is something that we can maybe have a down the line as maybe a future policy session or maybe a recommendation of staff. So then that way residents and business owners don't feel like these are oversaturated in their communities. Um, and so that's just something that I wanted to state tonight that I will definitely welcome either a policy session or a recommendation from staff on best practices to ensure that residents and neighborhoods and business owners don't feel like these are being bombarded or oversaturated in their community. Thank you.

You're welcome. You know, I that makes me think of the young lady who spoke about what's going to happen. What's the vision for Adam Street where your business is at and and your hope that it's you know the improvement and this is located in the South Village TIFF. Is that right, Mr. Manager? That's right.

And I think she needs some understanding of of that South Village TIFF and and what the vision is for developing more commercial there because that's why the TIFF was put in place in the first place. But but I think getting with staff and understanding what the plan is uh to boost economic development and commercial development in that area would be helpful to you. Okay, Council Member Vespa.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, I'd just like to start off by saying, I mean, as a public defender, I do believe in rehabilitation. I have seen it firsthand. Um, I know people with violent felonies on their record who um very much go on to contribute to to our community in a lot of a lot of great ways. Um, I'm also not stareyed. I mean, I know that uh it's true, as Mr. Richie said about 40% of paroleles do recidividate uh within 3 years of release. Um so when I came here tonight, you know, my concern was bringing in parolees via this halfway house with violent or sexual convictions from say Rockford or Chicago. Um knowing that as Mr. Rich you said again 40% and end end up recidivating even despite you know best efforts of of counselors in halfway houses. There are studies saying that that doesn't make any difference. Um but halfway houses are important because people are on the street if not for halfway houses. Uh they get released from prison and a halfway house lets them transition into a full life. Um the thing is, you know, we have more paroleles uh than any other downstate community. Um it's great to help, but other communities need to step up. Um we're told today though that this is not a halfway house. Uh this is more of an Oxford house focusing on treatment and selecting paroleles who are already here in Poria. Uh so then these would be individuals who often would otherwise be on Poria streets um that are probably currently on Puria

streets or maybe living in less than ideal circumstances maybe surrounded by bad influences maybe the same influences that led them to prison in the first place. So instead of living on the street, they would have a roof and a job and treatment. Now I I understand and appreciate nearby business owners concerns. I think anybody would have concerns. Most people would. Um uh and we definitely should try to work with them and see if if you know we can develop policies to help alleviate those concerns. Um but looking at you know from the best interest of Poria, these are people already in Poria. Would we rather have them on the streets or around the previous bad influences or or would we should we put them in a house where they can get the help they need? Um I uh I happen to live and I I really didn't know the extent of this. I live about a couple blocks from a halfway house downtown in the Twin Towers. I'm sure some people aren't going to be happy that I said that in my my complex, but um yeah, uh apparently that IDOC there's over 200 beds um on Main Street and so I I kind of live near Prolles and I I don't experience a lot of problems. And that is an actual halfway house. That's not an Oxford house. Um but you know, the numbers are real. You can't wish them away. that recidivism is a is a serious problem. Uh but you are looking at an either or situation. Would you rather have them get treatment they need, get a

roof over their heads, or have them on the streets? Because I mean, it's it's it's either that or they're on the streets or living in, you know, bad situations which can lead them to make more bad situations with bad influences. So, I I came in here not really sure how I was going to vote. Um, but I have been persuaded uh through this literature uh through what I've been told and the assurances that I've been given. Um, that this would be a net positive for the community in the best interest of Poria. Thank you, Madame Mayor.

You're welcome. And I'll close out my comments by saying thank you to everyone for your feedback. Whether you support or don't support the project, thank you for letting your voice be heard. I think that that's important uh to our process. Uh, I want to say to Grow that, you know, we need you in our community and we're counting on your success, but I want to put you on notice that you're going to be under scrutiny. you're going to be under scrutiny uh by this community, by the leadership, by the businesses that spoke out today, by, you know, other residents that may have some interface with that population that resides there. You're going to be under scrutiny. So know that and keep your standards high to make sure that I mean there's no perfect organization where nothing there's nothing goes wrong where you don't make any mistakes but but you know it's to your advantage to make sure that everything goes as well as possible in terms of how you deliver your program and services. So, that's that's my kind of warning to you that you're going to be under a microscope. Um, and and we hope and pray that you're going to be successful, assuming I'm assuming this is going to pass tonight, but I'm I'm hopeful as well. We are about to vote. We have one more comment. Uh, Council Member Kelly.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I would just like to say to the petitioner and to the uh and to my colleagues, um, I'm going to vote no. Um, not because I disagree with the mission, the mission that we, as far as I'm concerned, first heard about it heard about tonight. I'm not going to vote no because I didn't like this booklet. I haven't been able to look at the booklet. I This makes me question the quality of this organization, not the quality of the mission. I think there were ample opportunities for them to communicate with us. They didn't Okay, they didn't. What does that mean about how they're going to manage this business or this facility uh in the future? I don't I am not confident about that. I don't have any problem with the mission, but I just wanted to explain uh my negative vote. Thank you, Madame Mayor.

You're welcome, Council Member Seir.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I closing for me I want to make sure that everybody understand that are listening watching us and are here present tonight I've said before I want to say again tonight because we're so easily distracted number one Poria is my home I love Poria and I love the people of Poria because one of the main value in Poria people are very very giving very giving in Poria I mean we're probably one of the top 5% cities in United States per capita were very very very giving. So I feel bad. I feel frustrated. I feel I got all the feelings like everybody has because now we had plenty of meetings that you probably don't realize and obviously some of my colleague don't realize how many meetings we have about this subject already for the last many years. Now we didn't call it you know halfway house when we when we had our meetings. Okay. But we called it a business plan for the city of Peoria. We called it a vision for the city of Peoria and what the main thing for our vision was to have a safe downtown and a vibrant downtown. That's what we're supposed to be protecting. Okay. There's a lot more businesses in Pod that are leaving downtown that are coming in. Okay. Will this business qualify for our vision? Of course is not. It does not qualify. And it breaks my heart to say that. But I want everybody to know around this horseshoe, okay, that Mr. Director Dulan, who was in the back, I don't know, is he still here? You know, we help every year four or 500 people that are homeless, which 10% of them, according to my specialist, which is director Dulan would be my specialist, need a lot of help. They have a health problem that that need a really a place and and medication and and they need to

beosh hospitalized. So it's not like we do the city of Por does and I've said that for eight years. We do a terrible job terrible job at promoting the city of Poria. Okay? We do we invest a lot of money our people in Poria. We help a lot of people. There's just not enough resources and money for to help everybody. But it's not like I don't want anybody to make me feel bad that we cannot help everybody because we are trying very hard to help four 500 people. What we need is communities around us to start making the similar commitment to what we're making. Okay. Our vision is either we believe in our vision or not. Do we want vibrant downtown? No. We got OSF making progress. We Caterpillar making progress. We have some positive thing happening. Warehouse district. Do we want to keep that going? Okay. Again, very frustrating to have these conversations today because these are real people with real problem. But we just don't have we need help. Okay. We do need help from outside our community to take some of these projects on for us. So, thank you for being here and thank you for caring. But I want to make sure everybody understand that we do care too and there's just not enough sometime for everybody. Okay? We have a great vision and we want a safe downtown, a safe area and a vibrant area and we just cannot accommodate everybody. I'm just sorry to say that. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome. We have a motion on the floor, an amended motion on the floor. We have a second to that motion. Uh there's no more discussion. Please cast your ballots. Motion passes with one, two, three, four, five nazs. Uh Valpula, Kelly, Oiler, Seir, Carmona. Madame clerk, we are at new business. I have uh unfinished business. item. There's been a lot of activity in our community as it relates to the protests and events around ICE activity uh particularly in Minnesota, but there's been activity right here in in Peoria in terms of some of the protests and some of the community members have asked what is the city doing in terms of uh the city's response to potential ICE activity in Peoria. So, I wanted to make everybody aware of some legislation that we abide by uh that came out of the office for the

attorney general uh state of Illinois. Actually, it's guidance. I I shouldn't say it's legislation, but it's guidance. It's Illinois law that's governing uh the enforcement act interactions with immigrant communities. And it's called the Trust Act. The Trust Act limits our law enforcement actions on immigration matters. And I want to actually recite some of that um guidance that's provided by the Illinois Attorney General. And we as a city will abide by these laws and and this guidance that's recorded in the Trust Act. First, law enforcement authorities in Illinois generally are prohibited from assisting with any civil immigration enforcement operation. State law prohibits Illinois law enforce enforcement from entering into immigration enforcement in agreements with immigration authorities, from complying with immigration detainers, from transferring individuals into immigration agents custody without a criminal warrant, and from allowing immigration agents to access to state and local facilities for investigative or enforcement purposes. Next, state law likewise generally prohibits Illinois law enforcement from sharing information with federal immigration enforcement agents about individuals in their custody, including those individuals release dates uh with limited exceptions. Next, law enforcement may not stop,

arrest, search, or detain any individual solely based on their citizenship or immigration status. A removable aliens presence in the United States or the sole fact that an individual is undocumented is not a crime. Arrest may be made only when law enforcement has a criminal warrant or probable cause that a criminal offense has been committed. Next, local law enforcement agencies may not detain an individual beyond his or her release date pursuant to an immigration detainer or civil immigration warrant. Illinois law also prohibits local law enforcement agencies from treating individuals in their custody differently on the basis of their citizenship or immigration status. Custodial facilities must allow foreign nationals to communicate with consular offices. Law enforcement agencies are required to create procedures to ensure they timely certify forms for eligible victims of certain crimes who apply for U visas or T visas. And finally, law enforcement agencies must report annually to the Illinois Attorney General's Office regarding their compliance with the Trust Act and the Voices Act. This information was uh gathered and provided by our corporation council Hayes. Thank you uh for that information. And I do want you to know that that our police chief has provided specific guidance to his team as it relates to how our local

law enforcement um might respond should ICE come to Peoria. Uh basically it it describes uh their role and the limitations regarding federal im immigration enforcement. The mandatory bodywn camera activation uh the expectations around non-intervention and law lawful federal actions while preventing violence or disorder. uh deescalation, professionalism and dignity in all interactions and supervisory and command level notification requirements. So I don't know whether you want to expand on that uh chief um in terms of what you have communicated but I I just wish you would make some comment as well. Thank you. Good evening again, mayor, council, city manager, uh everybody that's here and and those that are listening online or via radio. Um, you know, we understand that many residents, particularly members of our immigrant communities and others across Poria, are feeling the uh fear and uncertainty due to the immigration enforcement actions taking place in cities across the country. I will tell you that just this week the Illinois's associate I'm sorry the international association of chiefs of police which is the world's largest most influential professional association has called to convene joint federal state local discussion uh on public safety to the white house. Um I sent an email to

the director of the international association of chiefs of police requesting a seat at that table if that if that occurs. Um, you know, I I'll say just from a from a personal standpoint, right, as a an Afro Latino man, a husband, father, and a grandfather, I understand these fears all too well. Um, you know, I I understand both sides of the coin. I've lived on both sides of the coin. So, I understand it and I understand the fears. We cannot control federal policy or decisions, but what we control is how we serve our community, how we're going to protect public safety, and how we treat people. Uh so about two weeks ago, uh I sent out a email to the police department. This was just an internal memo basically stating uh some of what the mayor has said, but I'll give you the seven core expectations that I I sent out to our police department. uh pure police do not enforce federal immigration law. Our our role is local public safety and we'll not assist in immigration enforcement actions behind beyond what is required by law and department policy. Right? We understand um you know the current state of ICE is a danger to communities. So I I I'll say that publicly. Um you know the the the impact of unchecked power is just devastating. Um two body warn cameras. Every officer in a situation where immigration is there or may be there um present uh we will have body cameras on and we will report and document what is occurring. We will not intervene in lawful, I'll repeat that, lawful federal actions, but we will not allow violence. Our focus remains on public safety and deescalation. So, their role is to maintain the peace, deescalate tensions,

protect bystanders, prevent assaults, riot, or disturbances, and ensure that no laws are violated in our presence. Treat all individuals with dignity and professionalism regardless of personal views, immigration status, or emotions involved. They are to conduct themselves professionally, respectfully in accordance with our department values. We do not inquire about immigration status. You heard the mayor said that. Let me repeat that. We don't ask about, document, or act upon any individual's immigration status unless it's specifically required by law. And if we become aware of any responding to uh of anybody responding to an incident involving immigration officers, it is an immediate notification uh to supervisory staff and it is immediate notification all the way up to me.

Okay. Thank you, Chief. I hope that provides some clarification to our community in terms of local response. Thank you, Chief.

Council member Rianbach. Thank you, Madam Mayor. New business. Yes. New business, right? Yes. Um, in light of the fact of our discussion um, regarding the grow community, I think it's appropriate to segue into the fact that tonight is the point in time count of the unsheltered in our community. This is something that is done every year. So, we have volunteers through the continuum of care and our other providers in that space that are literally doing a point in time count of who is unsheltered tonight. So, um, keep them in your thoughts and prayers as it's 90° out there right now. Yeah.

And also, I just wanted to, um, welcome Center Point Community Church to the East Bluff. For those of you that didn't see the press release from the dascese this afternoon, um, the old St. Bernard School and church and rectory um, are vacated. And now there's been an agreement with a new church, Centerpoint Church. And as I recall, um, his father, the pastor's father might be in the audience. Um, Brian Russell is going to be the new pastor at that church. So, um, we're excited to see what will unfold with this new, um, presence in the East Bluff.

Excited about that. Thank you. Any more new business, Madame Clerk? We are at citizens opportunity to address the city council. We have 12 cards here. Uh the first speaker is Michael Peterson.

13 cards

side. Um, this house, it's a good deal. There's

there's going to be security there. Care of business. These guys are out here looking for a place to to get out to reiterate back into society and stuff. They're under strict rules. The pole officers there, they ain't going to screw up. Let them have that chance. And then and this this bringing immigrants down from Chicago, trying to hide them out from from feds and ICE, they ain't going ain't going to get it. We don't feel safe with with all these immigrants there. And I said, hiding them down here in Poria ain't getting it. It's our taxes come to house them. We ain't gonna do that. Have a nice day. Thank you, Paul.

Thank you.

Next, we have Hen Abby Aar. and council members. I I think we all need to take a minute to breathe. This has been a heavy council meeting, hasn't it? I think it has. At least I needed a breath. Um, as as the tragic events in Minnesota continue and since Illinois is similar to Minnesota in being led by a Democrat, we remain at high risk of seeing tactics used in Minnesota, seeing them here in our community. At the last city council meeting, we asked the council for a position and reassurance of our safety. And I do appreciate mayor what you just said actually it it will take us it's so much parallel to what I will say and I do appreciate that. So I am here with with the scientists in me talking you know specific actionals actionable steps that I would like the council to consider and when I would say we it's it's a small group of us that you all know very well. So I'm going to ask first to affirm your support and adoption of the trust act which you just said and elaborated on and I appreciate that. Second affirm your support and adoption of the Illinois Way Forward Act of 2021. This act expands the trust act uh by ending ICE detention contracts in Illinois jails and further restricting

local law enforcement's ability to assist ICE in surveillance of uh enforcement which I think you also affirmed. Now, third, affirm your support and adoption of HB1312, which establishes safe zones where ICE cannot make civil arrests. These zones include state courouses, educational facilities, healthcare and child care, and high education. And there is an SB related to each one of them that explains exactly what they entail. Please also assure the citizens of Poria that you are following the recent Illinois state 2026 actions and proposed bills that include number one ban on hiring ICE agents. This is SB2820. Number two, attorney general lawsuit that seeks to block ICE from using tactics such as warrantless entries and chemical dispersants in the state. Number three, executive order 2025-06, which establishes a commission to investigate federal enforcement actions such as Operation Midway Blitz and recommend further state protections for residents. We know that these state laws do not prevent ICE from operating independently within the state under federal authority. However, actions by this council, as we just saw a

preview of, can reaffirm your commitment to do what you can within the law to protect the citizens of Peoria. and and we really ask if you can make those statement public whether on city council website or or any other way that you see fit. I would like to pivot for the last minute here because I have a question for Chief Chavaria and this is within your initiatives which is focus on community engagement. We would like to have a meeting with you to understand Peoria law enforcement's use of tactics that are used or developed by the state of Israel to oppress the Palestinian population. I want I am quoting a recent Veterans for Peace statement and I do really encourage you to look for that statement. It's Veterans for Peace. And the statement says, "ICE, CBD, and DHS actions mirror Israel's brutal occupation model from white surveillance to militarized rates to normalization of collective punishment. The violence

Thank you, Dr. Hand.

Just 10 seconds. that we have allowed to occur in the occupied Palestinian territories had finally come home to roost. Thank you. NEXT, Bridget Manley. Madame Mayor and counselors, thank you for this opportunity to address you tonight. Um, as with many people here, I'm here because of um what's been going on with ICE in Minnesota. Um, I love Peoria, love my community, moved here, uh, sight unseen, and I really love this place, so I want to make sure that it's protected. Um, thank you, Mayor Lee, for sharing um what you shared about um uh the act uh through Illinois. And uh thank you to the police chief for sharing what his uh team is doing. Obviously, I know there are people here a lot more informed than I am about different laws and different um different tools that we have. Um but I really just want to drive home that this is a critical moment for our democracy. what we're seeing is a federal agency being weaponized against its own people and that is a clear and present threat to our nation. So, I appreciate you taking this seriously and uh I hope we can count on you to stand beside us as we um plan and make resolves to protect our communities and our nation and our neighbors and our democracy should ICE come to this city. Thank you. You're welcome, Terry Blink.

Good evening. I was very pleased to hear you, mayor, and the chief address a lot of my concerns about um how Poria officials and police are going to uh deal with ice, which they probably will come because they're coming from the north and now they're coming up south. They're in Bloomington now. Um there is a pepable fear I know among a lot of people thousands about what will ICE do when they come here. Um I'm worried about my city, my own neighborhood in fact and peaceful protesters. Um I kind of am comforted by what the chief said about deescalation. Now, I'm hoping that means trying to deescalate ICE because they are out of control. But anyway, I want to thank you for your attention to this matter and God help us. I hope ICE doesn't come, but if they do, I hope that we have enough courage to deal with them. Thank you.

You're welcome. Valerie Inghome. Valerie Inghome. For starters, I can't wait to have and institutions such as yours in our neighborhood. So, thank you so much. Um, next I want to read a couple sentences from my friend Jamie Pratt who wanted to make a statement but couldn't make it in person. She says, "Long before ICE is entrenched into our communities, our most vulnerable, hardworking families who are integral to our economy and our community, these members of our community deserve the peace of mind of knowing their city is ready to defend their constitutional rights. An action plan is the best way to ensure the safety of us all." So, thank you very much, Jamie. And next, I want to start by listing cities where ICE raids are happening. New York City. We hear about Minneapolis every day, but there's New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Oregon, Portland, Maine, San Diego, Denver, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, San Juan. Nine people have been murdered so far by ICE. Citizens and non-citizens both, it doesn't seem to matter. And I would tell you all about my experiences with immigrants or my opinions on homeland in security, but I don't know that it matters right now with the enemy right there outside our walls. This is happening whether you like it or not, and more people are going to die at the hands of ICE regardless of our opinions. That's just

not okay with me. You've already stated some of your plans, but right now I don't trust promises, guidelines, or directions. Citizens and non-citizens both are residents of this city. ICE agents will come to Peoria and are probably already here. Average citizens just like us will be caught in the crossfire. In November of 2025, Aurora, Illinois approved an ordinance that prohibits the use of city property for ICE activity. Chicago passed an executive order restricting ICE activity, as did Minneapolis. We won't know how effective these ordinances will be until this battle is over. But for the people of Peoria, we need to know that you have a concrete plan for us. So what are you going to do as a city council, madame mayor and esteemed council persons, your constituents elected you because you promised to do right by the residents of this city. Documented and undocumented immigrants both are members of this city. Citizens and non-citizens are members and residents of this city. These are our neighbors. What are you going to do to protect us? Not a statement or some email you sent, but what actual action are you going to take? Thank you.

You're welcome. Justin Smelter. My name is Justin Smeltzer. I'm an electrician and rank and file member of UAW Local 974 and I'm a member of Worker Strike Back, a national organization fighting for working and oppressed people. Solidarity with everyone else here who has spoken out against ICE this evening. Trump's ICE has been terrorizing American cities. In less than a month, Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Eric Prey have all been murdered by ICE. The public approval rating for ICE has plummeted since Trump took office. And the majority of American people now disapprove of ICE and Trump himself. Hundreds of thousands of working-class people have taken to the streets across the nation to demand ICE out of their states and to shut down the detention centers and abolish ICE. Yet, the Democratic Party has refused to fight against Trump. This is because creating funding I for ICE attacks on immigrants super exploiting immigrants workers for Wall Street's greed has always been a bipartisan agenda of Democrats and Republicans. And that's why working people need to build movements independent of the Democrat and Republican parties. And that's why worker strike back is doing. We demand that the Democrats and Republicans on Poria City Council declared today they'll stop collaboration all collaboration with ICE. data reveals that ICE depends on city, county, state, police, uh, and licensing and other departments sharing data with ICE. Poria City Council needs to pass legislation banning all agencies from sharing data with ICE and have serious penalties if this does not happen. City council needs to ban law enforcement from wearing masks. City council should enact a citywide eviction moratorum to protect families targeted by ICE. So, if family members are unable to pay rent due to financial constraints, they won't be thrown out into the streets. There have

been powerful mass protests in Minneapolis and a growing call for a general strike to drive ICE out. As a rank and file member of the West Central Illinois Labor Council, I call on the council's leadership to immediately organize solidarity protests and strikes with the fight back in Minnesota. Unfortunately, US labor leadership is completely tied to the Democratic Party and has completely failed to call for the strike actions that are necessary. Working people need the kind of fighting leadership that worker strike back founder Shamas Sawant brought in the decade she was a socialist on city Seattle city council. Shyama went to war against the billionaires and the democratic party to win major victories for the working class. and Shyama won the nation's highest minimum wage and the nation's first ever ban on police use of crowdcontrol weapons. Shyama won these victories by using her office to organize people and union members into independent fighting movements, often dragging the labor leadership along. Now Shama's running for Congress against Democrat Adam Smith. And Adam Smith is one of many Democrats who voted to create ICE and fund ICE repeatedly. He has also bankrolled the genocide in Gaza. And this is why I'm volunteering for Shyamala's campaign and why I'm a member of Worker Strike Back, a nationwide organization that is mobilizing working people for an independent fight back against ICE terror and genocide funding. These city council members and the entire Democratic Party along with them have sat on their hands while people are being murdered by ICE and also by the IDF in Gaza. They've refused to do anything to protect their citizens from ICE terror. And this is not leadership. This is disgraceful. For us to succeed in shutting down ICE, we need a fighting revolutionary socialist leadership that will call for a general strike that is needed to shut down ICE. That is why I'm supporting Shamasawan's independent socialist campaign for US Congress. Sham is building a national movement with her campaign to stop deportations, shut down ICE and the detention centers, to win free healthcare for all funded by taxing

the rich, to win national rent control, and to end the genocide in Gaza and all US military funding for Israel and the brutal occupation of Palestinian territories. We need a new party for the working class that won't sell out and will fight for our interests, not the rich. And to any working-class or young people who are watching this and agree, we need a day, we need a break from the sellout corporate Democratic party to shut down ICE, I strongly urge you to join Worker Strike Back and get involved solidarity. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE. Shut down ICE.

Okay. Shut down ICE. I still have 30 seconds. Shut down ICE. Shut down ice. Shut down ICE.

Amanda Green. Hi. Um, I'm very nervous. I have a fear of public speaking, so please bear with me. Um, I had a lot of points to make, but um, all the lovely people that have spoken before me have covered quite a few of them, but one thing I haven't heard is accountability. Um, our police chief seems very adamant on making sure that ICE can't do some things, but unfortunately split split decisions are made and people lose their lives very fast and um, there's no accountability. So, I really hope that our our police force, if they see something being done, that they arrest them. If they're going to act like a masked terrorist, they treat them as such. They hold them accountable to the letter of the law. If they're going to kidnap children and use them as bait, they hold them accountable for that. If they're going to shoot a mother in the face after dropping her daughter off at school, they hold them accountable for that. There are no consequences for them. And it's terrible. And it's it's terrible to see. It's terrible to read. It's terrible to know that this is going on in my nation. I I wish we lived in a perfect world, and we do not. Um, but change has to start somewhere. I really hope that it can start here and that we can start spreading it across across the country. Somebody has to stand up and do it. I hope that it is you. Please, please let it be you. Please let it start here. Um the other point that I would like to make um and I unfortunately or

fortunately am not going to make it out of respect. Zachary Oiler, shame on you for being rude, condescending, and disrespectful to the people of the Grow community. Dear fellow congressw council women and council men had no problem leafing through that material and giving out constructive positive criticism. You couldn't find the time to do that. Maybe you can find the time to humble yourself and think about all the people that do not have your entitlement and privilege. YEAH,

Darcy Katie Darcy Katy.

Good evening, city council members and madame mayor. Dr. Ali. So, as your constituents within the community, we have gathered here tonight to ask that Poria City Council give deep consideration to implementing a comprehensive rapid response plan to prepare for ISIS's arrival in the city of Peoria. At the previous city council meeting on January 13th, six community representatives, including myself, attended the city council meeting to inform the council of the growing community concerns involving safety and security once ICE arrives in Peoria. As expressed to us as community organizers at the Renee Good Vigil on Friday, January 9th, the council acknowledged our concerns and stated they would discuss the matter in close session following the meeting. This discussion would result in the following statement from Madame Mayor Dr. Ali. I understand the community concerns regarding a potential increase in ICE presence and activity in Peoria and we will meet internally to discuss protocols in the event of this occurrence to asssure fair and legal procedures. I am grateful to the council for taking our concerns so seriously and discussing protocols privately along with additional supporting statements made tonight by both the chief of police as well as our mayor. This is a great first step acknowledgement. The second being education which each with each of you excuse me taking the necessary steps to remain informed on policy protocols as well as procedures. The third and final step we are asking for as you've heard is action. It is true that no single policy nor ordinance can stop bullets, but what they can do is direct us in decisionmaking and allow us to set a legal precedent that will not allow for immunity. This part is critical. By creating and implementing a

comprehensive rapid response plan within the city of Pory limits, it will not only showcase the council's deep commitment to our community, but it will also give each of our community members a clear framework for how to proceed with consistency and calm while navigating ISIS presence here. This is how we preserve life by providing clarity rather than allowing legal ambiguity to devolve into confusion which understandably leads to panic and fear. So how do we address this with a rapid response plan? The plan will explicitly state in clear language that all emergency services including Poria Police Department, Fire Department, and emergency medical services are to be utilized solely for the protection, benefit, and safety of civilians within Peoria city limits and will not assist nor participate in any capacity with actions involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, US Customs and Border Protection, CBP, or Department of Homeland Homeland Security DHS as it pertains to serving non-judicial warrants within Peoria city limits. The second request is that all emergency services within the city of Peoria, including Poria Police Department, Puria Fire Department, and EMS, be made aware that they are to continue to serve, protect, and preserve life for all civilians within the Peoria city limits, including during any unlawful actions, as the chief stated, taken by or directly involving ICE, CBP, or DHS. And finally, request number three, that all schools and child care facilities within Peoria city limits be notified and put on lockdown when there has been a confirmed presence of ICE, CBP, or DHS

within Peoria city limits. With the minute I have left, what I want to say is this. The irony that today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. While we ask for protection from the state sanctioned violence happening in our nation is not lost on me. As a proud descendant of Katarina Gdickstein, who escaped as a Romani Jew from Germany, I am so proud to stand before this council as a free person and ask that you utilize the capacity we have, the knowledge and power to do better because we must or we will have successfully repeated history. Thank you, Kathy McNeel. Kathy Kathy McNeel.

Kathy McNeel. What she said and the others that are on our page. I had something written up. But after the successes that I've seen at this meeting, I can't read the whole thing that I already had ready because um you have responded, which is what we're here to ask you for. Um so I'm in the 61604. It's a neighborhood of persons with disabilities, of color, immigrants, and persons who speak with an accent. So, and I can say that um I know some of them some of them personally who are not even aware of the danger that could come their way in my neighborhood. Uh, I'm not paranoid or anything, but we're here to ask that you, like I said, what she said. And then also my idea that I don't know, this isn't necessarily an idea because I haven't been to all of the protests, rallies, demonstrations. I haven't been to them all to know whether we have any council persons or you know who are willing to speak not just our speakers that we call on from the faith community and from the uh organizations who work to help Peorians in general and uh in poverty. Um I mean uh right now there's this lawlessness that does not follow our sacred constitution

like in the preamble where uh we we want to make a solid union of our citizens and there really is that there really is in Poria there's lots of people from all corners united for for this action and other actions for the people that uh you know we elect to do you know technically you guys are our boss whether or not we let you know what we want that's our responsibility and some of us are here and some of us have spoken out so um naturally uh as in the preamble We would like to continue all of us to seek justice, peace, defense, welfare, and our precious freedom. I don't know where the clock is, but I can tell you that when I took part in the July 4th parade in West Peoria, I couldn't help it. I was walking and passing out candy. And when I spoke to a child to give them candy, I said, "Say with liberty and justice for all." And they could because, you know, it's part of our pledge of allegiance. But, you know, to emphasize that and parents were responsive like, "Yeah, we should emphasize that." Oh my god. So, let me see what else. So yes, uh the community we are speaking out and uh whether you call them a protest or a rally, you know, it's it's us coming together like we do here, like

you do here, and um match our concerns um with one another. I mean, that's kind of what the the rallies and protests are about, letting others know, yeah, hey, we're here for you and uh you know, what else do you have to say about it? So, so, um, I was just thinking that whenever, you know, because we kind of get it out there and I think the police even know, uh, when we have our gatherings, our protests, our rallies, our uh, we would like to see some participation from our government and even from the police department, some some uh, police, gentleman's, ladies. Uh, I don't really have anything more to say, just that, uh, we appreciate you and, uh, we respect all the things that you do when we ask you to. There there are three more speakers and and I don't typically respond to public comment by design in this uh, format, but I do want to make a clarification. uh Miss McNeel that we are not your boss. Uh by by hierarchy the public and the voters, the citizens and the residents are our boss. Okay. AJ Dunn. AJ Dunn. council. Um, my name is AJ Dunn and I want to bring a few things up. The first is that in October of 2017, Poria no bans, no walls reported that the

October of that year, uh, the police advisory committee voted down a welcoming ordinance that would have affirmed the rights and dignity of immigrants and non-citizens in in this county. and it completely got sought down. And there is really more that I believe that we can potentially do to uh protect uh immigrants and uh legal citizen here alike. not just with a more expansive and inclusive welcoming ordinance for immigrants within the city, but also anything that can direct law enforcement to actually take not just a non-compliance role with ICE and ICE officials uh but actively protecting immigrants and citizens and non-citizens alike. Since one thing that motans have expressed frustration for with the local and state leadership is not is not holding anyone legally accountable, particularly federal agents who while I know that federal law supersedes state law and uh police cannot really interfere or disrupt any lawful action from a federal agent. when an action is illegal, when it is unnecessarily violent, when it is unconstitutional, and when it violates constitutional law and civil liberties alike, uh that's the exception at play. If someone is shot dead, like Renee Good was, and Jonathan Ross still has not been arrested, by the way. If ICE agents are invading occupying private property without a

warrant, if they're violating due process, if they are operating in such a way that it is there's abs when it absolutely calls for state, local, and county law enforcement to step in and say, "Hey, you cannot do this. Hey, this is illegal. Hey, we will arrest you." I want them to be able to do it because that's not what hap what's been happening in many blue states and blue cities in which ICE raids are happening and mass disportations are happening. If someone if one of your constituents gets shot dead, are you going to do something to investigate and prosecute the federal agents responsible? Is that is my concern? Uh I really have nothing else to say here. Pass a welcoming ordinance if you can. a more expansive one including condemnation of ICE and make sir that when ICE agents are violating the law or violating due process are ving civil liberties are hurting and killing people you are you can are now able to say hey this is wrong hey you got to leave hey we will arrest you because at this point this is not a lawful act thank you Bob Kessner. Bob Kessner.

I thought it was going to be a lot longer getting up here. Um, I've got a very simple thing to ask for since it is our 250th anniversary year for the Declaration of Independence and seeing the spirit of of uh the p the patriots who were together gathered pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor in in signing that document that gives us the liberties to come here today and have a robust discussion about political actions. I thought it'd be appropriate if the council actually did something that was very helpful to those patriots back then when they had a lot of dissension in the room. They couldn't imagine how everybody could get along enough to be able to make this thing happen in the first place. And somebody suggested that they pray that they ask for wisdom from the God that they all served in different forms. Now, we recognize that a little bit here in having a little invocation before the pledge of allegiance, but I'm going to suggest that to relieve a lot of the acrimony of discussion, which should be a just a civil discussion that we vocally invoke God and his participation in our thoughts and in the actions during these council proceedings. things. So, don't do it quietly. Get on your knees and pray for this because then you'll actually see God participating with you in resolving these issues that seem so go. Um, I'm going to be teaching a lot more about the Constitution down at the Puria

Riverfront Museum. I want to encourage everybody to come down there on the 31st when they have their opening of the exhibit uh on America 250. So, thank you for all you do. God bless you. Thank you for your time. Welcome. And last we have Ryan um I may pronounce it wrong. for Dasher. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, city council.

I'm a member of Workers Strike Back. My name is Ryan Ford Rusher. I'm here with a lot of fellow members of Workers Strike Back as well. Obviously, we've stated why we're here. I'd like to add just a few things to that. Um, we talked about having the laws in place, the act in place. Um, I'd also like assurance that there's clear communication between uh community leaders, pillars of the community and law enforcement and the city. Uh that is crucial in my opinion uh right now that communication between uh community leaders getting everyone together um should extend to the city of Poria as well. Um I'd also like to reiterate the fact that uh Border Patrol federal immigration agents are using militaryra tear gas on citizens, noncitizens, human beings. military grade tear gas on babies. A six-month-old baby was tear gas. Uh the same stuff that's in pepper spray, it's CO something gas. A six-month-old's affected by that. Something that could uh affect them for the rest of their lives. So, I'd just like to urge uh people to think past policy and think about our neighbors, our fellow human beings, showing compassion for them in the form of action, policy. Citizens are mad. They're very angry. You can tell I'm mad. I'm holding back my anger right now. and I'm the most privileged looking person in this room along with all other white males here. We need

action from white males. We need action from people that have the privilege and hold the most power. We need everyone to hold hands with each other and come together because we are stronger than the federal government together. And we all believe relatively the same thing that we should respect respect our brothers and sisters humankind humankind not they not other not gay not lesbian we need to come together and look at each other with with respect and actually have a conversation about what's going on instead of uh putting ideals onto things. We're all We're all here together and we all need to work together, including with law enforcement. So, I urge law enforcement that has the resources to protect its citizens like SWAT, you know, we have shields, we have uh ways that we can put police in between citizens and a tyrannical government. I also urge people to consider their right to bear arms. I am a very liberal person, but right now the second amendment is for protecting against a tyrannical government. And that is exactly what's happening right now uh against its citizens. Anyone that doesn't think uh doesn't feel that they're uh superior, I'm I'm trailing off. So, uh, concrete demands. Um, I'd also like to reiterate, police should not be wearing masks, uh, and, uh, should not be, uh, ICE should also not be they should be prevented from

wearing masks. Um I would also like to say that uh um the eviction moratorum to protect residents from being evicted during this time um is really important um for someone that doesn't have a lot of means to be evicted uh could be detrimental or excuse me to be um afraid to go to work not be able to pay rent. We need some protections for those people that are afraid to go to work or can't go to work, afraid to go to school. Um, I trailed off a lot because I think we covered a lot of the actionable items. Um, I would just like to say that this is a time for the time for civil discourses pass. There's a lot of anger. It's time for action. It's time to stop mass deportations. It's time to keep ICE out of Poria, central Illinois. And solidarity everybody. Thank you.

That concludes our our public comment. Uh madame clerk,

we have an executive session. I would like to invite a motion to adjurnn and to convene in close session immediately following adjournment of the city council meeting pursuant to the open meetings act 5 lcs 122c1 to discuss the appointment employment compensation or performance of specific employees pursuant to the open meetings act 5CS122C2 to discuss collective negotiating matters between the city and employees or the representatives pursuant to the open meetings act 5CS122C 11 to discuss pending litigation or probable or imminent litigation and pursuant to the open meetings act 5CS122C 21 for approval by the body of close session minutes moved by council member council member Carmona seconded by council member Gordon Young, please cast your ballots. Thank you for your service.