City Council - Regular Meeting

the Microphones are live Yes Uh well, at least, at least 10 years I saw that, right? We're supposed to get, uh, that. it's a number of because you think a special micro I get special. He's going to be really laughing with you. how we're going to be able to But that's the only thing I I I'm gone, man. This one you. we always say that sooner the bed wire. Good. You ready? The chair will call the May 5th, 2026 meeting of the City council to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. of the United States of America. and to the Republic for which it stains, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Clerk Redpath, can you please call the roll? Yes, ma'am Haldeman Cox. He Alderman Gregory. Yeah. Oderman Williams. Alderman Rockford. Alderman Purchase. Alderwoman Natriano Alderman Carlson here. Alderwood McConnley. Present. Alderman Donlin. Here. Alderman Hanau. Here. Mary acorum. All right, present. Um, the civil pledge in the interest of civility, I pledge to promote civility by listening , being respectful of others, acknowledging that we are all striving to support and improve our community and understanding that we each may have different ideas for achieving that objective. There are no proclamations tonight but two presentations, Alderman Gregory, you signed up to speak.

No, I'm sorry. That's all right. I didn't want to skip you. OK, there are two presentations. The first will be the mayor's youth council. If, uh Chief of Staff Fleischley and the youth council would like to come up for their presentation. it takes 8 Hello, uh, my name is Satch Beaker. I go to Southeast High School. I'm a senior, uh, I've been on the emergency council for 3 years Uh, I'm gonna go to college at UIC up in Chicago um for finance , and then I job shadowed the office of budget and Management. Um, hello, uh, my name's Josephine Ake. I'm a senior at Springfield High School. I'm gonna go to school at the University of Illinois Chicago, studying nursing on the pre-med track and doing Air Force ROTC, uh, I've been on the Marriage council for 3 years, and I shadowed the fire department. Air Force. Hello, my name's Justice Moore. I go to Springfield High School. I'm a sophomore. I shout out the legal department. and yeah, this is my first year on a Mayor Duke Cale. Awesome. Hello, my name is Grace Beekley, and I'm a senior at Lanford High School, and this is my first year here, um, I'm going to go to Lincolnland for nursing and I shadowed the HR department. Hi, my name is Madeleine Raskey. I go to Sacred Heart Griffin High School, and I'm a junior. Um, this is my first year with the mayor's youth council. and I plan to go to Holy Cross

College, um, study psychology through um Air Force ROTC. Hi, my name is Drew Gross. I'm a freshman at Rochester High School. This is my first year. I'm being on the Mayor City youth council, and I shadowed the police department. My name's Matthew Christie. I'm a junior at Sacred Het Griffin. This is my first year on the Mayor's youth council. Oh, and I shadowed a corporation council. He's got room for a job or two. My name is Jacob Brown. I am a freshman at Sire. Griffin, and I shadowed the fire department. Hi, I'm Isabel Coleman. I'm a junior at Pleasant Plains, and this is my 2nd year on Mayor's youth council and I shadowed, uh , public works engineering. Yeah a little bit more. Come on, Josephine. Josephine's the president of the Mayor's youth council, hello everybody. Um, it's my honor to be here again, uh, for my final time. Uh , I've been president of the Mayors Youth Council for 3 years , and in my 3 years of being in the Mary council, I have been honored to lead and be part of this team of dedicated young high schoolers working to make a change in the city, um, all of our initiatives have been rooted in trying to improve the city from a youth perspective, so we focus on issues like homeless ness and we've also focused on trying to improve the city through beautification as well. Um, this past year we created an initiative for mental health. We started an event, a mental health fair in the library. This is the first year that we started the event, but we had it comprised of a panel discussion and we also had multiple workshops aimed to improve mental health and with from multiple different angles, um, I'm extremely proud of this team and everything we've

accomplished in these past 3 years that I've been on the Marriage council. I look forward to what they do, um, in the years come, and I hope to continue this, um, mission of improving wherever I go in my college education. Thank you so much. Thank you. And I just wanna thank the youth council before we go down and give you your certificates. Um, these are the true leaders of our future. Uh, there's some amazing people that are gonna be in charge of our futures, and I look forward to watching you all do that and just so the council and those listening know when they talked about who they shadowed, uh, this year I had the Mayor's youth council choose an agency the directors had to give a little elevator speech to them, and they chose an agency to spend a half a day or a day with in job shadows so they could see what it was like to work at the city. Um, we would love to have any of you back joining us in our workforce. We wanted to make sure that they participated in that, so. oh, and we have one more to you have to go out, yeah, you just thank you, just. you wanna hold theseilly? Sorry, um, hi, my name is Caitlyn. um, I got a ring for the high. I am a senior and I'm planning on going to Bradley University in the fall to major in psychology and emergency council. I've been on it for 4 years and it's been really awesome and helping me plan for my future, and it's really great and I'm really excited to see what the future holds for me, so thank you. Awesome. Chief of Staff Weisley has a certificate for you and then I will see you all tomorrow because you have a meeting tomorrow, right? And I'll see you all tomorrow at your meeting . Thank you for coming this

evening. eyes s Can I have them step in front of you all, you all stand up and we take a picture? Yeah. Yeah. OK. Billy, do you want to send our chairs or down with them? Down with Down them. Everybody come down with me. still staying the same level Yeah, it's good Do you want in it? All right, ready 12123. 123 I'll take one this way Perfect, thank you. I think that so was coming Oh. Our next presentation is Chief Beal has asked to come up and present to the council, so he'll be up next. Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity, uh, to present to you real quick just to kind of cover our wellness unit, uh, when we were in budget hearings there was some conversation around our wellness programs. I mean there was uh asking me to

come back and kind of discuss that, what it looks like. currently, uh, uh, we've had, we have an extremely robust wellness system, um, what we did not have at that time when I took over was a general order or a policy, if you will that covers wellness, uh, so we took some time and hammered out a policy that's about 6 pages long to kind of cover everything has to do with wellness, uh, in every aspect. um, we established a wellness team, that team is a diverse team, uh, when I mean diverse, I mean diverse as in uh race and and ethnicity as well as uh people's specialties if you will , um, some people that um are good in the mental health wellness. Some people that are good with physical wellness, uh, some people are good with diet and exercise things of that nature so we wanted a very diverse team uh to cover all aspects of wellness so they can bring their uh their uh professional, um, um. knowledge to to the table for that. Um, Jim update, so 11 thing we did, we updated our gym . Our Jim was, uh, probably the equipment in there was probably 50 years old, um, and every time you would lift the dumbbells, the, the little paint chips would fall on your face and in your mouth, it was pretty nice, um so we did that, we did an update in there, uh, took everything out, uh, put new flooring in, painted, um, and then had all new brand new equipment in there . Uh, one thing that we found and I found through research, um , is uh Chief Petrelli up in normal, uh, normal, Illinois. He is a law enforcement wellness subject matter expert and his uh in his opinion, the single best thing you can do uh for wellness , uh, holistically is, is good a good workout in and so we wanted to make sure our, our officers and our personnel have that equipment to do so, um, there's been some conversation around the Yos for first responders, uh, Sergeant Russell is our, uh, instructor for that. She has been injured. She was actually released to full duty, uh, effective this week and we'll be working with her to get that programming, uh, to the department and uh maybe even through um the mobile training unit here in Springfield which will cover 8 counties. We've been working with businesses in the community. SIU

is gonna come in and provide a cooking class May 19th for the nutritional aspect of wellness. Uh, we have chiropractors come in, um, and they attend squad meetings, discuss pain and wellness as it pertains to that, uh, Ferrell's extreme body shaping is hosting a class for us, uh, this month in May, um, and then supplement superstore comes in, has been coming in to uh squad meetings that will come into future squad meetings to talk about nutrition and uh supplements to uh to help with that. Well, every officer is going to complete a wellness, a wrap, uh, form, which is a wellness recovery action plan. Essentially, it established an action plan um to find out what your baseline is for your wellness, and then how do we get back there and then find out what our stressors are, um, so we can kind of manage those a little bit better. That's more just as much for the for the officer as it is for anybody. um, peer support, um, we have, we had a peer support program in the police department. One thing we did not have was a uh an active peer support program in the police department. Uh, we're looking at programs, uh, what, what's best practices and best programs throughout the nation, um, the We Don't Walk Alone program is one that was highly recommended to us by some of our wellness team members, um, and other, uh, members of wellness teams throughout the state, um, the one thing we like about this is it not only leverages peer support within our department, but there's agencies throughout the state, um, that are part of this peer support program that if you wanted to remain completely anonymous and not have any conversations necessary with your peers. You can call other agencies that are within this Pierceport network and have conversations with them and they can support you in that way. Uh, we talked about a facilities dog, um, comfort dog if you will , completely ADA compliant. Uh, we went through a rigorous, uh, testing, um, and application process to to get this dog out of California, um, it's highly renowned um and highly recommended for us, um, June 18th, I'm proud to say that June 18th we fly out to California to get the dog. We thought this would be about a year to 18 month process but um somehow we got to the top of the list and

we'll be flying out to California on June 18th. The handler will go through 10 days of training, uh, with the dog, and then they'll fly back and they'll bring the dog back into the police department and that's uh for officer wellness as well as victim advocacy as well, uh, for those tough, uh, conversations and tough interviews that we do with uh with particular victims, especially children that are victims of crime. Critical incident stress management debrief will continue those, um, we, we use a team out of Saint Louis. There is a, a, a local team here in Springfield. Some of the members of the former members of Springfield Police Department are part of that local team, so we use a team out of Saint Louis, um, I'm on a first name basis with them. We've been having a, uh, we've had a great relationship with them for about 5 or 6 years. Uh, we will continue to use them during these critical incidents, um, that where we need somebody to step in professional right then and there to not only uh impact our officers and our personnel, but also fire personnel that may be impacted by this as well as dispatchers and other people that are first responder networks. Uh, we make sure we open that up to everybody that is a first responder that is affected by a particular call for service that we may be involved in. Um, SPD Family Academy, um, this is something new to Springfield Police Department, um, we were out at the International Associate Chiefs of Police Conference back in October. Um, Colorado Springs, Colorado does a family uh academy and really what that is is bringing the families of the loved ones in uh that we have now hired and they're gonna work for us to talk about what police work looks like, uh, and wealthy's wellness programs and the and the and the holistic wellness program looks like for the police department. One thing that we have found is sometimes officers are uh apprehensive of reaching out, uh, or may not, uh , see the signs of uh challenges that they're having because of uh stressors in their job, but their family does their family sees that and so if their family knows what these resources are they can access the most as well, uh, the other thing is, is, is some a a vast majority of these resources are accessible by family members as well, so the children of first responders, the children of our officers, uh, spouses of our officers and things like that, so we wanna make sure that they

have uh those resources at their fingertips as well. Uh, we looked at, or we're still working with uh visions, uh, visions are, uh, does our annual wellness obligations that are state mandated by ILETSB. Uh, we're working towards, uh, our own officer hosting wellness hours here. Uh, I talked about having those clinical hours within our own agency by our own personnel that have lived experience, uh, and we're doing just that, um, we hope to have a certification to be globally recognized, a resource for prevention, substance use treatment, and recovery credentialing, as well as a peer support specialist in recovery support specialist so uh those are the few things that we are looking at right now, um, there's been some conversation around benchmark software. I know we discussed that a little bit, um, it is a software essentially it's a predictive analytics uh where they pull in um certain data sets such as, you know, hours that officers or works, traumatic incidents, the officers are involved in use of force um, and things of that nature and so what does that look like and how does that uh play into trauma or a cumulative trauma that an officer has seen and then how do we get that to the supervisor of that particular person and say hey. they may not have an issue but we probably should have a conversation with them to make sure everything's good with them , so something we've looked at it, it, it does come with a significant price, um, and we can have more conversations around that as it pertains to benchmarks specifically so that's really the wellness program and a as in a wrap, um, it's still a work in progress. It's taken some time to really get a lot of these things built, especially the policy, um, and, and getting these things off the ground so I'll take any questions if anybody has any. Uh, older woman Conley. Thank, thank you, Mayor. Chief, thank you so much. I, I was the one who did ask that you come back and I, I appreciate. Sure. Making time for this. And, and again, I appreciate the thoughtful review and, and the effort that's going into this. So, um, I, I hope, I hope that this provides more support and, and relief to your officers. I mean we know that we need, when we talk about a healthy police department that's, that's

healthy in a lot of ways and that makes, I think they can lead to better interactions with our community and better actions with each other, um, I really appreciate the family academy. That's, that's a real, that's a, you know, we want to make sure that families are supported through this too. So thank you very much for, for everything you're doing and looking forward to seeing how everything plays out. Can't wait to meet our new dog. Yeah. Yeah, be here, let's see, June 28th or 29th, we'll have them back here, so him or her, I'm not sure if it's a boy or girl necessarily so we will have the puppy here then. For sure. All right, great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Any other discussion? Thank you, Chief, very much for the update. Yes. The chair will now entertain a motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the April 21st, 2026. Regular city council meeting and approved the minutes. So I'll move a second. We have a motion in a second. All those in favor of the motion please say aye. Those opposed, nay, sorry, backwards. Does anyone have discussion on those minutes? Apologies. The chair will now obtain a motion to incorporate the pre-council first reading of ordinances into the record of this council meeting. So move, Mayor. If a motion to second any discussion on the first reading of ordinances. Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion please say aye. Those opposed, nay, the ayes have it. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. The chair will entertain a motion to incorporate the pre-council reading of the consent agenda into the record of this council meeting. We have a motion to second any discussion. Being none, all those in favor of the motion please say aye. Those opposed, nay, the ayes have it. The chair will entertain a motion to place the consent agenda on final passage. Motion on the 2nd. Any discussion? Or? I'm not logged in. Oh. could we get someone from the clerk's office to help Alderwo know Triano. There's someone coming over, Alder woman for you. OK. Any other discussion on the consent agenda? Seeing none, alderwoman, I'll let you give a verbal yay or nay if you don't mind. I'm a little bit. All those in favor of the motion will vote

yes. All those opposed will vote no. And the motion passes with 10 voting yes, none voting no. The next item on the, uh, I'm sorry, there are no items remaining tabled or in committee at this time. So the next item on the agenda is item number 2026-245. In ordinance accepting an authorizing the expenditure for 2026 plant beautification for downtown Springfield of contract RFP number PW 27-03 with MG Stewart Land Designs LLC to enhance the visual appeal and vibrancy of downtown Springfield and a total amount not to exceed $58,028 for the Office of Pub Works for Emergency Passage. We have a motion and a second for consent for item number 2026-245. Any discussion, Alderman Gregory. I would ask for it to be on debate for a second. So I, I just had two questions. So is, is, um does, does this include any um. beautification efforts on, uh, my portion of downtown. Billy, I appreciate your call too. I, I wasn't able to get back to it as I work. I apologize, um, is, is there, is there, um, any of this going on in the War 2 section of downtown as well as um I know I had asked for some planners in the south town um area as well. um Doctor Fuchs, are you here Well we talked about this Chief of Staff Leshley, if you have any input, you can help too . Did you hear the alderman's question director Mayor, can I make, uh, clarification. This has to be a motion for approval. This is emergency passage. Motion for approval. Second motion and second for approval. We're on discussion. Alderman Gregory, the floor is yours. Um, so for me it enabled to support this is gonna be depending on what my, my friend Dave um tells me. Uh, this includes, uh, all the

planters that are already located in and around downtown, uh, and some of that is in in Ward 2 around um the Y Block area. Yes, sir. What about the planters in Southtown? Uh, we could certainly make, uh, make arrangements to have some there. I don't think we have anything there right now. No, there's none there. How many do you want? Uh, Chief of Staff Fleischley is asking how, what are you thinking, uh, can you specify the area so we also can write that down? I, I had requested before that we did something from um from 11th, um. to, you know, uh, where Clay's barbecue is in that area. It doesn't have to go all the way to 12th, but we're, we're just trying to beautify beautify that area of, um, George Sinclair is doing a, a fantastic job. Why is this coming so late on emergency classes, Dave. Director Fuchs, excuse me. Yes. uh, it's, uh, uh, it's essential that, uh, that we uh provide for plants downtown, um we've gotten terribly busy and I apologize for its lateness. No, no problem, no problem. I just, just wanted to check. I know we, we try to get these things done early in the season, so I appreciate you. Thank you. Any other discussion, Alder McGregory? OK, so 11th to Clay's Barbecue that area correct? I'm just making sure we have your boundaries, OK. OK. Yes, sir. Alderman Rockford, yes , uh, so director, I, I need to ask, so didn't we, did we not get new planters last year? or my my question is is I've seen pictures of some planters that were cracked, busted. so my question is is this gonna be, is this gonna be like a yearly thing or are we gonna, are we able to get them and pick them up and and get them out. I I I don't know why they cracked. My, my guess is maybe got some water in them and and froze and. the uh the the planters that we uh we have downtown there's uh

several different purchases. groups that were purchased and unfortunately we had drainage problems with uh with a number of them over the last two summers so some of them are. beyond repair and we've been able to make adjustments in quite a few of them, but, uh, uh , they do have some age on, yes sir. Some of them that I've seen could have been older. OK, I got you. OK, I just, I just ask that you know if we, we get them, you know, I don't know what they do elsewhere, but they could be, I think, put in storage or something through the winter months unless we plant put lights down there or something. I don't, I don't know , but I just, I just think if we're gonna leave them out uh. yeah we're just asking for trouble. We, we make sure that we drain them, uh, some of them have reservoirs inside of them so that when uh the crew waters them it stores water and some of those, uh, irrigation systems, uh, have proven to be problematic. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Um-hum, thank you, alderman. Alderwoman Conley, thank you, Mayor, and, um, director, I'd just like to clarify, so, um, because maybe not everyone unders, I mean, we know, but this is a local small business, um, that, that's doing this, this work for us? Yes ma'am, uh, they actually had the contract last year and we received a number of compliments on the uh. innovative and creative way they put the plow flowers together. I'm not a flower guy, but uh I would have never guessed that about you. Well, um, but we, and , and also just for clarification because they were, they were very nice. um, there were some, some planners that were that got disturbed or maybe didn't do as well in direct sun, but this does include replacement of plants if we need that, correct? OK, wonderful, looking forward to this. Thanks, Mayor. Alderman Williams, thank you, Mayor. Um, you use the word essential Uh, sorry, the, the word essential is essential that we provide uh plants downtown are

we required? to have plants downtown. Required I know it has been a tradition and something that the city has expended uh revenue on. over many years, certainly, uh, uh, predating my time here. yeah, since I've been a child, I , I, I've seen plants downtown, so I would agree with you, I couldn't say, sir. OK, I think in the condition that we're in, we're still operating here we are, uh, $58,000 for some plants downtown with all the other needs. that are exist in this city and and and we're worried about, you know, providing and probably getting ready to pass an expenditure of $58,000 for some, some plants that ain't required. Uh, so when do we cut back council? When do we try to to be financially, you know, at least paying attention to, to what we're doing here. But we're just gonna keep operating like things as usual and it ain't your fault . it's our fault. It's the city council's fault for not doing their due diligence to our financial situation here which I guess they don't get or they don't care. I don't know which, but I just think that when we start spending this kind of money again, there's so many other needs. in this community than to just put some plants uh downtown that we and then and this is an annual thing, so like you said it's before us, but when do we change or or recognize that these ain't normal times. that we don't have the money we had 2 years ago. And, and, and that's my comment, uh, uh, you guys probably are gonna approve it. I just think it's, it's not a good use of of the city funds at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Director, for coming up. That's all we have requested to speak. Yes OK, so the voting will now be open because the motion was for

approval and there was a second. Um, those in favor of the motion vote yes, those opposed will vote no. They ain't going to give you no 91. And the motion passes with 9 voting yes, 1 voting no. Now we are onto old business slash unfinished business. Uh, the first thing I would like to announce is a thank you to the community. Thank you to all of you who shared the information that our fire department had an extended time frame today for testing of our sirens, usually at 100 a.m. the first Tuesday of the month We pushed out notification that it would go out for at least between 10 and 11. It ended before 11, but when we had the major storms a week ago on Monday. Um, some, we noticed that some of the sirens weren't working appropriately. Um, that's why they are tested just the community knows every month to to identify those, and we needed multiple times to see if we could fix those and I wanna thank the constituents that are listening that called in and said they couldn't hear them in their area. That's very helpful as well, so just thank you all for your patience as we try to make sure those emergency sirens are working appropriately. can I ask, are they working Uh, Chief Helms, do you mind coming up? I don't know that I can answer the alderwoman's question. I apologize. That's OK. They tested in the room and I was in a meeting, so I didn't get to participate in the testing, so older woman asked if we know if they are working, so I do not have that answer right now. We'll get it every month when we do it on the Tuesday at 10 o'clock. We get a download or report the next day and it goes to CWLP who maintains them. so I can't correctly answer that right now. Look at it. OK, thank you. Yeah, we'll work with CWLP and fire and get it out too so you guys will know. The mayor wanted to add to one

of the things for this morning was we have multiple ways we can activate the warning sirens from control boxes here in the the EOC uh county Dispatch we can log in dex desktop computers we can set them up from our cell phones and we can manually do them with keys so we wanted to make sure every platform we have activated and that was one of the reasons it went so many series this morning and all of them, uh, passed activ ated so that was a good thing, but we'll get the report tomorrow on which ones were. not activating Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it. Thanks Uh, the second item I have for unfinished businesses, you did all receive an email, um, and then in your chair, um, city code section 31.12 authorizes the Mayor to veto ordinances that she disapproves of and return those at the next regular meeting of the city council. For that reason, I am vetoing agenda item 2026-176 titled An Ordinance Authorizing Notice of intent to establish a state tax and revenue Starbond District and authorized the feasibility study not to exceed $75,000 to evaluate the potential creation of a tourism and economic development districts, utilizing Starbond financing in support of the history across the tracks initiative East West Downtown Development and future expansion opportunities for the Bank of Springfield Center. I disapprove of this ordinance as passed. I specifically object to the boundaries set forth in Section 1, the 2nd and 3 sentences of the first paragraph of section 2 , and the final sentence of Section 3 of the ordinance currently drafted. The city can and should look at utilizing star bonds for economic growth, but it should rely on experts in determining how to establish this district. Further , the city should work with the state and its representatives, not against them to utilizeA bonds in the manner that is best for the city. Well, I support the study of star bonds and their utilization, this very piece of legislation was utilized to criticize our state senator and her efforts to help Springfield. While this

ordinance was said to just fund a study for Star bonds, it may be used further in an effort to stop expansion of the BOS center which I cannot support. I support the ordinance of this language is removed. I support the creation and utilization of a Starbond district in a manner that will benefit Springfield. I support authorizing expenditures of up to $75,000 to engage experts to assist with the preparation of our application. However, I do not and cannot support an ordinance that will be used to oppose state legislation that has the ability to positively impact the city in a specifically downtown. Therefore , I am exercising my authority to veto this ordinance. Per City Code Section 31.13, the city council will be asked to reconsider this ordinance at its next regularly scheduled meeting. During reconsideration, I request that this ordinance be amended to remove the language identified in the veto if the language is removed, I will and can support this ordinance. Alderman Gregory, I support a Starbo for history across the tracks. I want you to know that. I just wanna make sure we don't eliminate ourselves by not including the downtown expansion that needs to happen with the BOS center so I support you. there's just language in here that I could not support. I want you to know that. Thank you. So I, I, and and I appreciate the and you know this is uh a little different for me because usually I'll probably be going nuts right now, but I, I, I, I read the sections and , and, and. you know, one thing I, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna say is this my ordinance, the Starbo ordinance was no disrespect to our senator to criticize her. In fact, the ordinance that I drew up I sent to her in our meeting that we had, so I, I'm, I'm a straight up and down guy. I don't, I don't really do all of that. I really just tried to tried to um get something done for our community um without trying to get in nobody's way. I ain't really on that, um. so if we change the boundaries and, and, and, and we changed some of those things um there

only can be, um, one starvi district or um you know per region because we don't have 600,000 people or more, um, so, so. I'll say that um I'm OK with looking at at some things um to better our community in a in a in a different district to help our um to help our box. I will say that I'm confident in in our senator in our discussions we, we, we've had discussions about um what we would like to see for history across the tracks and um I'm confident in that, um, of, of doing that, um I've already thought about some things on on on how we, how we can help this this box and stuff so um I'm OK with that, but I, I , I, I wanted to make sure that that um that portion is is wellly understood, um. that nothing I do up here is to criticize or come out of anybody . I know um there's some comments about oh me or or Roy or whoever go against you about anybody else and it's not um I'm always gonna be this way I'm always gonna try to do the best I can for our community no matter who sits up there, no matter who sits at this council that's just the way I am. um it's what I'm charged to do um, so um. I look forward to having some more discussions and, and, uh, coming out with a, a, a, a product that best fits our community. I agree, and I wanna work with you and that's why I offered amendments in it because I don't want you to think I'm just vetoing it. You and I had a sit-down discussion about the history across the tracks, and we talked about that already, so I wanna work with you. I appreciate you thank you. Alderman Williams. Uh, mine is on a whole different matter, so. OK, want to wait for a minute? Oh, awesome, thank you . Older woman Noriano. Thank you, Mayor. um so we just received this. 5 minutes before. um, coming in here

and um I do appreciate you reading out your entire veto, um, I will note that it sounds. politically motivated. um, and I, I don't see anything in the items that you pointed out. that were disrespectful or politically motivated. um so it seems like there's been some reading between the lines. And I'm just gonna register my personal disapproval and disgust. with putting my colleague in the situation. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you Any other discussion on the veto ? Alderman Williams Um, so, Mayor, we this past, I believe, 100. or maybe 90 uh two weeks ago I think, maybe 3. I can't remember, but it's been a while, so 5 minutes ago, something changed your mind. to veto it Do what changed your mind? The specific wording and the wording was there the night we passed it. It took you this much time to decide, oh, I don't like it. Or is somebody telling you, you know, you gotta get rid of certain things in the language. Just be honest. If you make calls, no one knows prior to here that I was vetoing it, so you can make those calls and ask . I'm asking you, the person that's vetoing it. Why would I call somebody else when I'm asking the person who's making the decision to be. Well, I didn't ask you if you was speaking to anybody. I asked why did it take you this long to decide I don't like this so I'm gonna veto it. 3 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago, somebody look up the date when we actually did this

and it was the majority council, I think it wouldn't nobody saying no, everybody voted yes that was here tonight. so that means it was either 100 or 90, and then you get your instructions or whatever happened to make you say, oh, OK , I don't like it, I'll do it. Or if that ain't true, what happened to make you decide to just 5 minutes ago we get something on our desk that says you're gonna veto the language. I'm not as, not this guy. I'm not changing my mind on this kind of stuff. I feel you owe us an explanation as to why you would wait this much time and then decide to do it other than what what my colleague is saying , political pressure. the code, the mayor has until the start of the season to it, so the mayor exercised her right , sir. Yeah, but, so you don't want to tell us I just told you what I didn't, you knew that that night, didn't you, or you didn't? Maybe you didn't. You didn't know you could beatle. The mayor has 2 weeks, sir, till the next meeting. I, I, I, I, I smelled problems, but what I'll say to you, Mary, you need to learn to be honest and be transparent and be upfront. You have plenty of time to do this, but you decide to do it tonight because you're getting the calls that some of us are getting. To make this thing be the way that the uh the county board wants it to be, and that's what this is all about. Thank you. That's why I'm willing to work with Alderman Gregory to make sure we can get history across the tracks done. That's why it's not planners again. Another year of that What else did you have, sir, that you wanted. Now I'm on to mine. So, corporate counsel, I've been talking with you I don't mind losing cause I win when I lose for my community. They know I stand up for them and the cities, I've been getting more positive calls than

negative on the positions that I take up here. So we had a resolution, council voted it down. That's fine. But it should have stayed in the system so that it's on debate tonight, it is not on debate tonight and I wanted to know why . So I called corporate council. Corporate counsel says, well, don't say one way or another, we gotta stop that because since I've been, we have done one that lost. and and we went on to debate it. I asked him to call Alderman Donling cause I believe he's the one that asked the question about, so if it don't pass, can we, will it still, you know, uh, you know, continue on in the system. So I'm asking tonight, have we ever done it? Have we ever had a, uh, an emergency passage ordinance go on without any requests by the sponsor. I could not find that. Uh that's what I'm saying. I don't think there's such a farm. I thought once it failed, that just means that it just continues on into our reading. There's, there's nothing, nothing that requires that now if you'd have seen the agenda that came out the Friday before the committee meeting and called the clerk. He could have put it on the agenda, but I don't know if that happened or if it didn't happen. That's what I'm saying, no one else has been required to do that one hasn't failed. It is required there's nothing there's a form that I fill out when my emergency passes fails that says now I want it to stay in this like we got going on, is that what you're telling me? You could, you could ask at a meeting, you can email the clerk . There's no form. There's any, any method you want to communicate that you wanted on the committee, so so you're sure that we communicate that OK well let's just keep it. So you're saying I failed to communicate or I failed to tell people I was interested in it staying in our process. You did not call me until yesterday, so I don't know

, I don't, I, I'm only speaking for our conversation. I don't know if you asked anybody else's policy on it is what I'm asking. There's nothing in the code that requires it to go to committee. There's nothing in the code that prevents it to go to committee. OK. So, this is then, I'm gonna, this is half the council, pass that to the clerk. I'm filing for a special meeting to take place prior to the committee hearing. It only takes 3, Keesha, you're not gonna sign it? Oh I'm saying well? Oh I'm saying well you're on it? Oh I'm saying well, yeah. I, I, I think these 5 aldermen are requesting a special meeting . It only requires 3, since we're talking about what it reads, and that is in there. So we'll just have a special meeting on that resolution and this time it'll be open to the public to sign up to speak to the at the special meeting on their views because we're trying to hide this situation. We're trying to, that that's what this veto's about, that's what all this is about. Instead of just doing the right thing, I can live with it being voted down, but we wouldn't even put it on first reading, and here I am here, all the way around and, and we're here tonight again. So we'll do the special meeting next week. After we do the special meeting vote it down if you don't want to. I need the record. of of what what what all the women and all the men really feel about their city and their authorities. I need to hear from the people to come in here and say one way or the other, how they think, how smart this is to do this stuff, so since we can't do our I tried emergency passes, I tried the normal process, I mean , there's some powerful people really, they want it their way or the highway, I guess. So let's just do the special meeting, clerk. You have received it. With, with the signatures of the 5 aldermen . OK, so we'll do the special meeting. I'm, I'm offering and

asking every public citizen that wants to come in and weigh in on this to please do because our mayor has just agreed with our state senator, obviously, not just to to stop it but to veto anything else. And like I tell you, I'm not shun. I'm gonna fight to the end . All you got to do is vote your heart. Vote your opinion and live with that vote. Thank you, man. And I want to speak on behalf of the senator. She knows nothing about the veto , so I wanna stick up for her right now. She, she's not I don't know when you decided to veto it. That's why I asked it took 2 weeks. I'm quite sure she can stick up for herself, but I tell her like I tell you, it's the most craziest thing I ever heard of. to let somebody else, I guess you can buy power in Springfield . All you gotta do is pay for a study, and when you pay for the study, then guess what the city councilor, well then, OK, you got your own little authority. That that's, this is what's happening and this is what I'm trying to teach because it's not right, Mayor. and, and, and it's giving away too much of what we put in place that a descent decree had to be created to make us do this, and it's just unfortunate that the area that's really impacted is too minority. Aldermen They won't speak like I'm speaking, but I'm gonna tell you it's not right. Thank you. Alderman Gregory. Yeah, so, to, to be clear, just on this topic, and then I'll, I'll address the rest. So on this topic, to be clear, um, corporation council, um, if something fails on the, on, um. emergency passage, you have to request for it to be on the next agendavia writing of our boy, correct? All right, just so we're clear on that, um, do, do you have an opinion on if we need to y'all I know we got some things to clean up with our rules and stuff. Do we need to put that in our policies so there's no questions and we don't have. I, I would recommend

putting it in the putting it in the rules if, if we bring those back um. so everybody knows if it fails on emergency, it goes to committee and is considered at the next committee. OK. And, and , and, and so this, this veto thing I'm of course I'm, you know, I'm not happy. I'm really, really, really upset, but I, I, I, I, I'll, I'll say this, um, I consider all options, man, you know, I'm an old coach. uh, I try to prepare myself for all scenarios, right? and uh you know I was prepared for, for, for this I think you know we, we had a good ordinance uh much of the ordinance was, um, to draw the star buying box and to do what you're fussing about, brother, uh, keep the authority and stuff that's something that um they don't agree with and and you know for our community and what we're trying to do, um I feel like we're close on, on, on, on getting on getting a a major economic revenue system to try to move us forward so I'm trying to stay focused on that and when I do get upset, you know I lose focus, so I'm trying to stay focused, brother, but um I'm not giving up, um, I've had good conversations with our senator even until today, as you know, bro, and, and I'm trying to push to make sure that we're included and that nothing's changed with that, nothing's changed with how I feel about um the authority and where it's at. Uh, I don't know, I'm gonna be with you and I'm gonna support you on, on, on that end because I agree with you. So it's not about giving up um but I don't, I don't raised hell a long time, brother, and I, and I can't do it like you know, but I can't do it like you like yo, but I will say this and, and speaking on the plants. Dave Fuchs or somebody that I trust. and out of his mouth, out of out of his mouth, out of his mouth, no, it was about budgeting and getting into the budget and we didn't get it, but out of his mouth, out of his mouth, if he, if he say it and then the mayor just just just spoke on it they're gonna get it done because I she, she would tell me that she's not that's your word. I'm done. All right, bro. It

ain't no big deal. All right. Anything else, Ottoman Gregory? No. OK, thank you. Alderman Williams. Yes. I just want clarification. So we just passed emergency ordinance. for some plants on emergencies If it were to fail what I'm hearing there would have been a requirement to fill out something or Mr. Clerk, maybe you got the answer or something or, or do something to say, hey, keep this in the in the mix or is, is, is that what you're teaching tonight? That's what my guess would be the clerk would not have put it on the agenda, and then if, if the mayor was reviewing the, the agenda and wanted it on committee, somebody would have had to tell the clerk to put it on the agenda. This is. Thank you. Alder woman Notriano Thank you, Mayor. um I just wanted to point out for everyone. uh, since we are talking about um you know, boundaries, and, uh. I don't know what you would call it, uh, handing over devolving power to another unit of government, uh, which currently resides with the city of Springfield, um, I just wanna bring up for everybody um here who may not have been following, uh, the legislation in the General Assembly in the house, um so it was paired with another um bill, the megaprojects bill and in that. they did not give away their authority, uh, the city did not give away its authority, um, in, in getting money from the state and setting up this um

project area So I think that's something that's important for us to all think about. Um, so they were able to get it done and they didn't have to give away anything. So my question to you, Mayor, and to all of you is why in this case were we why did we support a policy that would give our authority to another municipal authority. Why would we support that? Or why did you support that? I have no idea what you're asking me Why do you support a bill? that will give away the City of Springfield's authority to another newly created municipal body. Number one, I don't get to vote at the House of Representatives, and number 2, it's not a municipal body. It's a authority, so, OK, well. semantics might be your interpretation, it might be different than mine. Well, Mayor , I'll tell you, um, you know that I know how things happen, uh, down the street at the General Assembly. and I'll tell you that um legislation doesn't get up there by accident, um, these lawmakers don't uh, pull things out of their hat people come to them and request policies. so someone came to them and requested this. so it's concerning to me. that you aren't able to justify why you were one of the individuals who have requested this. I don't agree with your

statement of your interpretation , ma'am. Um you don't agree that we're giving away authority to another taxing body, correct? You are correct Even though that's what the bill says. The bill does not create a taxing body, ma'am. Read it to her. Well, I don't have it in front of me, but. just, just so you know, it, it creates a board. that will, um, be funded by tax revenue. but not a taxing body. That's where I said, you and I don't agree. I can't answer your question because I don't think this isn't about like opinions or like agreeing or disagreeing. This is about like the facts what's written down. in the bill and what's written down in these ordinances. um or, or in this ordinance here that we have a problem with. um yeah, I mean, uh, that it, it gives me pause, um uh, whether it's a board or a taxing body or a municipal corporation or a however it's defined in that bill. We're creating or we're allowing , we're supporting the creation of an unelected 5 member board. who's going to make decisions with revenue generated within the city's bounds. um unelected board. I don't know about you, but I'm not much into unelected boards. So I think I've gone on about

this enough. I hope everyone's catching the drift. um wild times. Thank you, Mayor. AldermancGregory. I was, I was gonna ask some unrelated question, but if Williams, you want to jump in on this. No, I was just gonna say, who's the master developer? Since you know the bill so well and and and you don't agree and you do agree the bill talks about a master developer, being appointed You you are aware, you are, you know, OK, so who's the master developer? It has not been determined. See guys, this is why I'm saying it's too much that we don't know to be sitting here and not be in opposition of it. We are the city We should be in opposition until we have all these answers. Instead of letting them pass something first, appoint an unelected person that that's gonna be massive power, and I'm not even on the borders yet still cause they still play it like oh we're just doing a hotel and expansion, but the it it says the word projects and that might just be the first project of many in our downtown So what have we just done The only thing we'll be able to do is plants. At the, at the rate we going. So I'll just say you should know more. Before you even have press conferences and get involved. Master developer, and you don't know the senator saying something totally different. Oh well, the developer is the authority What? So the Delawas authority, then why are we using language like master authority. Like you said, a state legislation, then we should have just took our position and let them play it out. but at least we are on a position. We have taken a position now. We have ceded the city to or the downtown portion of the city to this authority that's unelected. and it's gonna have a master

developer that's gonna have a lot of powers over all those projects, it's just that simple. And again, I'm teaching so please listen citizens and please read and please show up. for the, the special meeting. Thank you. Alderman, you are correct that it's going to create an authority. It's not a taxing body and tax or tax is going to be raised? be raised I'll wait be raised?. I'll put my light on and wait till you are finished. So, you are correct. It creates an authority . The SEA board cannot create enough revenue to support this project, the city of Springfield cannot create enough revenue to support this project. Sangamon County cannot create enough revenue to support this project. Therefore, all of the government bodies are working together to make this project happen because downtown needs this project to survive. Are you I'm waiting for, am I OK in the salt, sir. So then why isn't it just this project? Why ain't it just this why is it this big broad area. These are legitimate questions. Who's the master developer? Why is the area so large if it's just that project that you keep saying this project, this project. There's all kinds of stuff in this bill. that will allow them to do just based on what they get approved as a project. Now the senator's latest thing is, oh I'm just doing 627-01. That that's what blew him out the water and that's what got UV vote vetoing it. So I'm not, I'm not, I'm not gonna play the game. I'm just gonna tell the public the truth. So now she's on, well we'll just do 262, 701, that starts 11th and goes west. Still downtown, I noticed that. Still downtown, the two aldermen downtown won't speak up. They, they're silent for some reason, except to say we support the project, yeah, we, we're not

just talking the project though, are we, Mayor? We're not just talking expansion of the boss Center. and a hotel or casino, whatever they gonna do, not just that project because they wouldn't need all this other stuff they're passing. The borders wouldn't be what they are. You know how far west 62701 goes. And you're willing to just say, well, that's, come on now, that's the whole downtown that we're seeing, but you're playing it like they're just doing a boss expansion. It's much bigger than that. You know, the the the demo stuff , all that stuff, they could tear down the Wyndham. They'll be able to do a lot of stuff once they get it set up with thor authority of the unknown developer what they call master developers, the word they use in the legislation and I believe you know who it is. It's it's gotta be somebody with a lot of money and powerful in Springfield. You keep saying they brought us all together and it's not like that. It may be like that for you and your friends, but it's not like that because you left critical pieces out. But we will discuss some more next week. Thank you. I will tell you that I'm OK with 62701 because the business owners and the elder woman is one of them in the 62701 area code, do not have any say so on where their sales tax dollars go. They go on the corporate fund and they go wherever. If people who have businesses downtown can benefit from a project and they know where those sales tax dollars are going. I think that's very important for all the businesses downtown and even for the businesses to come downtown because of this project. I will stick up for Alderwo purchase and Alderman Gregory. The reason I think that they're being silent is because that they know downtown needs some help, and this is an infusion for downtown and I think they're aware of that and they represent part of downtown. I've committed to Alderman Gregory to working

with him to see if we can get the history across the tracks working right with the Starbond so that we don't just pigeonhole ourselves into only one project or the other but both. That's why I wanna work with you, alderman. Well, and, and so they're all I'm saying, it's a trust issue with me and you. Uh, I mean, I can go on, for example, let's take the Y block. What's the status of the white box? EPA, uh, environmental hazard issue right now. Oh here we go. Do we own it or does somebody else own it? We still own it. Is there plans to sell it, give it away. If we can get the environmental hazards taken care of, sir. Would you say if we can? I'll talk to you sidebar on this. I don't see that's the problem. The sidebars got us where we at right now. You should know if you're in discussions to give away or sell the wala. Are you Quit playing these games, argue and discussion or not, or is it gonna stay the same while you're here? as mayor I'm really not into the disrespect you're offering up. I've treated you nothing but kind, so I've been I've been been been, I'm loud a little bit , but I think I haven't used one cuss word because I know how you feel about that. I don't think I'm being, it's hard questions, but the only reason why I'm asking the hard questions cause you haven't been forthcoming with all this. I have to ask her about a master developer, but you went out and did a press conference not knowing who the master developer's gonna be. That's horrible. You should know more. Just like you should know more about the Y block. And I'm asking you, have you been in discussions to sell it. I am working on an EPA issue . That's what I'm once it's solved, do you plan on selling it What will Whatever we'd plan on doing. Who's we? Cause this is the city

council here and you, so who's the we? The Man, y'all, if y'all don't know by now, thank you, man. Alderman Carlson is next. Alderman Williams, you're signed up twice if you would like to remove those from me, that would be great. Alderman Carlson. We've, we've got a lot to unpack here um the first thing I wanna address is really the Wyndham. I don't, I don't, I think we all know that it's a, it's an FBI investigation between the owner and the insurance company, so I don't, I don't think uh, it's tied in with the uh uh, the BOS center is all, you know. as, as I've, you know, went to the press conference a few weeks ago, made some phone calls, did some research um, and and quite frankly take my lead from the chief negotiator on this thing, Senator Doris Turner , as I understand it, this is an unpaid authority held responsible by elected officials and and as I ask more questions I think the I think the authority, uh, uh, Representative Williams of the master is is required by the authority for it's required by these big bonding companies that are gonna come in and take the responsibility God forbid this thing goes belly up down the road, um, but I've also been assured and I've heard tonight by Senator Turner and Representative Coffey they can, this is not a taxing body at all. It's not a taxing body. It's just no different than, you know, it's just a, it's just the it's a small board , yeah, the county has 3 seats, but they've, they're, they're, they're already in for 560 $700,000 on the study. The, the, it's my time, sir, it's my time. Carlson has the floor, alderman. And the BS center is also in they also have skin in the game. I mean we're using the, the, the county lot.

for this expansion that is gonna help all of downtown and and for me you know, all, all the, all my questions over the last month have really been answered by uh you know, some phone calls to our legislators going through the process and, and again I said it a while back. I mean, what kind of message are we sending to the capital? when we just sit up here and just sort of micromanage some state legislation that ultimately is going to help the city of Springfield. It's gonna help all of us. I mean, we're gonna be able to have not one or two conferences at one time we're gonna have 345, and 6 where we need to compete with Peoria. I mean the and, and, and, and, uh, Sean, you were right earlier and you didn't say it loud enough, but as you know, there are 10 of these star Bond projects or or not projects, districts around the state. You can only have one project per star bond district and the concern for me when we passed your I mean your uh resolution a couple of weeks ago is like, hey, are we interfering ? I mean, what kind of, what's that dynamic if we're trying to talk about another Starban project already within uh within our region. and so that was my concern on uh yeah those are just, those are generally my concerns. I just, I just want to pass on some I thought some some uh statements that just weren't factual, uh, earlier. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, alderman, and thank you for your point. Again, as I repeat it, I will repeat SMEaor cannot do this project alone. Springfield cannot do that project alone in the city. County cannot do this project alone. The state is giving us an infusion to help all of us work together as governing bodies to do this project to help our downtown. I wrote a blog, I

don't know if you all saw it, about this project and about all the different entities doing this, there are several cities in this commun in this state that would love this project if we wanna, for lack of better words, screw it up up here. Everybody wants these. They're going all across the country. This is the way we can make it happen. Older woman no Triano. Thank you , Mayor. um, and no one up here is saying that they don't want. a big expansion project and Alderman Carlson, if you're worried about overlapping boundaries, why are we asking Alderman Gregory to limit himself or his boundaries, and not the county to limit their boundaries. so it doesn't overlap with the ordinance that we passed. like both both, uh, the boundaries of both Starbon districts. are, are not set in stone, so, uh, it's not only up to us to move out of the way of the state um I, I just wanna let you guys know, uh, you know what big business is located in 62701. Isringhausen imports that just expanded yeah, and and so their revenue now they're going to be able to direct their revenue. in in this deve I mean I, I understand, I get it. The business owners, including them in 62701, wanna have a bigger say over what goes on in their neighborhood well, boy, oh boy, I've got some residents who would have a bone to pick, uh, with them because they'd like a better say in their neighborhoods or bigger say in

their neighborhoods. um I just don't think that 1600 or $600,000 worth of uh investment by the county. necessitates 3 representatives on this board. Uh, whatever they're putting in. they're putting in, and that's fine. but I they they don't get to hold that over our heads. um in perpetuity I, and, and like. I, I've been waiting to bring everybody's attention. to um the fact that one of the people pushing for this project, this expansion of BOS, uh, Representative Coffee stands to financially benefit himself from this. Um, I'm sorry, did you have something to say. It's the same word you said earlier, sir. Could you, could I have some order perhaps? Would you like, would you like to? I'm trying to get the alderman calmed down so you can have the floor, ma'am. Oh, OK. But, but we're not going to say anything about the clerk. interrupting me and and saying what I'm saying is BS. Um, friends go to the parcel search, look up who owns, uh, the, the parcel efudos is on. This is a major conflict of interest, you guys. I like to sit up here and uh paper over and be polite about this. It's just not something I'm gonna do, you know, uh, there are definite consequences that could come to me and will come to me, no doubt, uh, for saying the things that I'm saying, but you know what matters more?

Doing what my constituents would want me to do. and saying the things that my constituents would want me to say. um so yeah uh, I, I, I, I don't know if there's any stone left unturned. uh, at the moment. I, I hope not to have to speak up again tonight. um but I, I just want to let everyone know the way this policy was brought to the state has nothing to do with those legislators. It has everything to do with the people, the interests behind this project it's a smia board, it's the county, it's our mayor. uh you know, we are her lobbyists, uh, slipped in favor of this, so, um. that that's that you just have to uh I really Oh boy yeah yeah, I, I, I, I appreciate though I will say. Mayor, I appreciate you being honest and saying that these business owners support this because they want a bigger say in their neighborhood, um but it's what I was afraid of. um because there's plenty more areas in that zip code, uh, where we could have more strip malls and and uh car dealerships, so thank you. Alderman Williams. Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna leave it alone there, I promise. I just focus on the borders, if if if we're at the alderman Carlson is saying it's true. Nobody's against the expansion. I've said it 100 times. Nobody's against

it. I'm against the the borders. He don't never address that and say they need all this, but they do need it and they have plans for other things besides just that two block radius. That's why they have to have all this, this space. in this particular legislation, they have the space going on in the other legislation and that's fine, it's good, I'm great, I like it. But this particular one that creates this authority, that's designed to weaken us. You can say to business owners don't want to go through the council no more, they'll be going through the authority because 62701 will cover them. I don't know. I just know the legislation says the word projects with an S. not just the one project, and I know the borders are more than just those two blocks right there. And I, I'm be mad at me for standing up for Springfield. But I think that's why I was sent here. To make sure I'm looking out for Springfield, no different than looking out and spending all this money when we know we're in financial trouble or we're headed for financial trouble. And I'll leave it alone there, I'll wait till next week. Thank you. Alderman Han. Thank you. You know, um, one of the things that I get asked a lot is what do we what are we gonna do about downtown? What do we got? It's, it's one of the biggest questions I get asked, you know, not on other wards, you know, what, what are we doing about downtown? We got a situation where the state's ready to infuse money in our downtown and we're arguing about it um it is it is it the exact way we would, we would have done things no but guess what it's better than nothing if we don't if, if, if this goes away we have 0, we have the same thing and guess what, the people will not come

we're this is the opportunity on this is we need to get bodies downtown If you don't have bodies they don't go they don't go spend money. That's just, that's just the way it is one of the problems is we've lost a lot of businesses, a lot of big businesses, lot of state business and that that we're downtown, the, the foot traffic's not there. We need to expand this, this, uh , uh, BOS center to bring in more people from outside that we can get the sales revenue up. and then it then that will help downtown and then that helps Springfield. Now I, you know, people can yell and scream and and not like the way they did it. I will tell you this I thank the governor who's been really pushing this and I think uh Senator Turner and I, I think Mike Coffey. They, they want it for the city. and there can be conspiracy theorists and all that stuff. and and you sound like some people that used to be on this council before. but I'm telling you this is about getting revenue for the city of Springfield. getting bodies downtown and again governor, I don't think you watch us, but thank you for for doing this and that's from somebody on the opposite party. I appreciate him doing this and I appreciate uh Senator Turner, and I certainly appreciate uh Senator Coffer. gave him gave him a raise a second, uh, Representative Coffe because this is something that we really need. We, we can't just continue to do the same old same old. and I, and to me this is a I don't think it's ever been done before and I think it's not just in Springfield they're doing it there's some other towns that the counties, whatever they're doing it and I

appreciate it and I think that's a message that needs to go back to them. Thank you. Thank you, alderman, and there were similar conversations up here when the sports park kept getting. different ideas and we had passages and votes for and against that. I talked to a visitor the other day who was complimenting incredibly delicious and how amazing the food was there, and they came for an event at the Shill Sports Park. They're not staying just around the sports park. This person traveled all the way down here and ate it incredibly delicious and wanted me to know as the mayor what a gem that was that we had. The same is gonna happen with this expansion. They're gonna end up in ward one. They're gonna end up in Ward 10, they're gonna end up in Ward 3, spending money. That's what we need. We need them in your wards spending money. Alderman, I want to work with you. I wanna help you and I've talked about history across the tracks, each of those buildings. We've had discussions but I have to help the entire city, not just certain areas. Alderman Williams Oh, I'm finished. Thank you. Um-hum. Alder woman kindly. OK, thank you, Mayor. And, and I, I kind of went back and forth because I, I'll be honest, I've um I, I'm, I'm intrigued by this conversation. I'm following it. I, I, I will say I have some confusion about some of the disagreement of the basic points , um, when I read the legislation, what I read was the city still maintains all of its municipal authorities, so we still have zoning authority. We still have our codes still apply if, if this body um and I and I understa Aldman Williams, I, I'm listening to you. I understand where you're coming from. Like I can kind of, I see, I, and I've gone back, I'm like, OK, reread this differently, reread this and, and look at this and, and try to see where someone else is coming to a different conclusion. I mean, that's because I do support this. I, I think, I

think Senator Turner has done fabulous work here and been very innovative and, and pushing and, and I can't believe I'm gonna a second Alderman Hanauer, but I will say absolutely, right? The, the governor is behind this because the governor wants to see our capital city strong and thriving and, and yes, that is beautification with flowers downtown. I will point out we need not just tourists downtown. We need residents downtown. We need people who want to live here and invest here. and we don't lose our authority to regulate that under this legislation so I don't see where I, I understand the concerns. I, I did see that project so I, I, I see what you're that language you're talking about. What I don't get is, is sort of um what authority we think we're we're ceding and I'm not asking this to be confrontational. I, I legitimately don't understand exactly what, because the legislation says specifically we maintain our municipal authorities. We, we still are our zoning guys, our code guys are still gonna be going out. If someone wants to put a bar into, you know, uh, this, this area here we, we still have authority over that, so, um, again I. I appreciate, um I appreciate you having this conversation. I, I think it's important that we make sure that we, we get this out, but, and I don't, not for tonight, but maybe for next week if we're going to have a special meeting now, um, maybe we could have more of a clarification on where you're seeing what authorities were were ceding, what authorities were losing to to this body, um. because I, I genuinely, and I, I'm not saying this to be confrontational, I genuinely don't see it, and I'm not reading it that way, so I think, um, and again if we're gonna have a special meeting on this topic, I, I'd prefer Alderman we just wait and really dig into that so I can bring, I want to

go back and look at the legislation again and um it's also one notri, I don't have it in front of me right now to kind of say, OK, this section I see this, this section I see this. but I just want you to know I, I would like, I'm looking forward to having that conversation and um yeah because I I think I think we need to be very careful. I, I've seen different dialogue and I'm, I'm not on social media a whole lot, but I get people screenshot things and send it to me, um I think there's, there's a, a misconception that people think that we're, we're losing parts of the city and that were someone else is gonna take over our taxing and someone else is gonna take over control of decisions within the city and, and I so we need to have a very clear conversation around a where you think that's coming from and then you know do we agree on this interpretation because I'm gonna agree with everyone around this horseshoe. Everyone We need to do better by our downtown. We need to be doing better and Alderman Gregory, um, I supported your, your ordinance because we need to be doing better for highlighting all of our history and, and what you brought forward was really, I mean, that's I did. I, I talked to Senator Turner before, before that vote. I'm like, you know, let's, let's just see this and and we all want that, right? We, we need that. We need that. I, I I've been saying this a lot lately, uh, people ask me, they're like, Aaron, you're running again. Um, and I'm not gonna get political and make any announcements right now, but but this is important to me, this council, and the work we do here, it has real meaning and real impact. And what I've seen over the last two years is a city that like I've seen as a nation, we haven't completely recovered from COVID. We haven't completely recovered from, we had this, then we had this duratio that came in. People

talk, you know one died, but we lived through a natural disaster in this community. People were without power. People lost the wealth of their food that they'd stored that was a lot Then we had two horrific murders in our community. We lost Emma Schaffer. We saw, we saw Sonnya Massey get executed in her own home. We've had a contentious election at the national level, and I see in these council chambers, people are come in and they're hurting and we haven't healed. Alderman Gregory, I, I see you making efforts to try to bring some healing and some recognition that we are one community. and as much as, as much as there are is division and, and as much as we throw the lot of things around in here. I, I think we need to really make sure that we're also focusing on the fact that we are one community, we're a community that's hurting. and we need to make meaningful efforts to change that and to grow and to yes I mean I see James Johnson, we need to be reaching out to our kids. We need to make sure that there are priorities that are established in this community that show we we actually do support each other. This is a big conversation. I'm sorry, I went way off track. I, this is why I pushed the button on, I pushed it off a couple of times, um we're having important conversations here and I think we just need to make sure that as we have them that we're recognizing that these words ripple out. We need to make sure that we have a clear understanding of what we're talking about. And without being contentious, without throwing labels and, and speaking for other people but just just. clear understanding of language and clear understanding of a path for us to move forward because this community needs to heal. We need to heal. We need to grow , we need to move forward. There are opportunities before us, and I'm excited to see that we're reaching out to them as a state

employee, I was very excited to see the news that the state's budget isn't an as horrible shape as we thought it was. I'm optimistic, as I was when we passed this budget, then our budget. is not gonna be in as horrible condition as we kind of thought maybe it would be. I don't know. but we're trying, and, and I just. so that's it. I don't have the legislation in front of me, Alderman, uh, and I do wanna have that so that we can have really a more, a more informed and, and specific conversation, so originally when you said special meeting, I was like, oh, Roy, but I understand it and um and I'm looking forward to that. I, I'll make sure I have everything printed when I come next week, I'll take some time this week to to really read through it so I can highlight and and we can have that informed conversation. but I think in the end we all around this horseshoe. we all in this room want our city to grow and want our city to be better and, and I just hope that we can continue our dialogue in in that vein. And that doesn't mean everyone has to say nice things. Growth isn't always pretty. I'm a personal testimony to that, right? But it's important that we recognize we've we recognize our conversations are in that vein So thank you Mayor. I won't completely off topic there. um, so thank you for your patience, everybody. Thank you. Alderman Williams. Yeah, thank you, uh, uh, the woman, um, I believe it or not, I, I appreciate that you're gonna look at it again. In particular, look at the section that talks about their powers. We, I haven't even touched that yet, but they get several types of powers. Please read that before that. And I have, I have, I just wanna make sure it hasn't changed, so I need to because it's not like we're creating authority and they have no power . They're gaining a lot that right now lies with us. that will lie with them for their portion. This is why I'm arguing the border thing, keep

it in that block then it don't need to be all these other areas . So please read, that's all I'm asking and give it a fair judgment. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman. Alderwoman Notriano Thank you, Mayor. Um, I, I pulled it up. and um uh, because I really wanted to get this right, um, there's a lot of confusion. I don't want anyone to think that I'm opposing this just because I don't like a certain person or I'm unhappy that a certain person is gonna, uh, make a lot of money when they sell their property, uh. the thing that gives me pause is it says all of the tax receipts generated from local sales tax within the StA Bond District. shall be dedicated to the payment of the project costs. We, we all know that we have a revenue problem at the city. um so if we put a company like a business like Isringhausen in this district. We're that revenue is now. no, no longer ours. it appears, and now this could change, you know, uh, Senator Turner could change what is happening. I what's happening with the bill What's gonna happen um, but yeah, yeah, all of the, the local sales tax within the Starbond district shall be dedicated to the payment of the project costs for the Starbond project in the district. Um, shall we consider Pledge Star revenues, yeah. I mean, that

and it goes on to describe other powers, but that right there. is the one that gives me the most pause. coupled with the expansiveness of the district and what businesses that we need their tax revenue going in the general funds. Thank you, Mayor Alderman Cox. Uh, you can take me off, thanks. OK. Alderwoman purchase. Oh. Thank you. Um, the first thing that I would like to say is one of one of my solutions that I thought would be good was after all of the legislation passed to have some type of public meeting because listening to everyone I can see where some confusion comes in. I can see how everybody has their opinions. I spoke last week, so I'm not gonna reiterate everything that I said last week. um, I'm in support of having a special meeting because I've heard from my businesses and uh over the last week and a half, gotten multiple phone calls, had a meeting with the mayor, uh, talked with people downtown at the Capitol and there's a lot of people that's now getting confused from what they're reading. So them coming in for this special meeting also could be a good thing too so that they can also speak up to what they want to support or don't want to support, but everybody gets to hear it where it's transparent. That's number 12, I'm looking more so forward to when the legislation passed to ask Senator Turner, who has pushed the legislation forward in its passing to be able to speak about it. and speak about it to the public so that they understand what's getting ready to take place, understand what the future forecast looks like because this is not gonna happen overnight. I was very clear last week when I said I wholeheartedly support this project for downtown and

also support my colleagues and what they're trying to do too because you have the 1908 race monument that we're trying to bring together, which includes history from across the tracks, and it goes over into War 5, which is downtown so it's those boundaries, there's so many projects that's gonna come forward within the 30 years and alderman Williams pointed it out . It said projects. not project so I'm not for sure what is in the scope of projects. and not just one project, so instead of me trying to calculate or assume or put the cart before the horse. I wanna hear from our own senator with those projects look like and what the future looks like. She has a plan, she has a vision that she brought forward in all three of us, me, Alderman Williams, Alderman Gregory met with her and she said some changes can happen. This is the hall bill, am I correct, y'all, when she said it's the Shell bill like it it's, it can, it can change placeholder, I'm sorry, so that's another thing so you it it's definitely a lot of uncertainty, but what you do know is that something is coming forward. and with this sitting in my own backyard. I can't just say no. I don't want to see this project happen. I know what the businesses are talking about. We're getting ready to lose another business downtown and none of you all know about and you'll be hearing about it soon, so that's how much I do my job where I go and talk to our businesses. They're suffering so what I also heard tonight was a lot of tourism which will create from people coming out of town but then I think it was I try to remember what half of y'all are saying when it's like 30 to 45 minutes of talking. I think all the women said we all the woman kindly said that we need to see local people coming. and that's one of the missing pieces we have.

I'm gonna go back to even out of town because I said it during budget time to director Dah, there was another piece we was missing which was the black dollar. We have so many different groups and organizations one many of one that I'm a part of Delta Sigma Theta Top Ladies of Distinction, Linx Incorporated, and they skip over our our city to go to other cities in Illinois that has a bigger tourism area but they bring so much money here and guess what, there's history here that they know about and we're not talking about it, you have the NCW uh the NAACP. that was formed here, but it's supported and celebrated throughout the nation. but it started right here in our own backyard. and we don't have anything to show for it. We don't have anything that brings people together they have a awards. a national awards with celebrities and we don't have anything here in Springfield to show what they're using on a national platform So let's talk about that There's a lot too and I've been sitting up here being really quiet and I don't think that I'm being rude or disrespectful to anybody right now. I'm just pushing out facts. I'm pushing out what I wanna see. I'm pushing out what I know multiple people wanna see and I'm trying to figure out how do we make that one common goal and bring it together. So I look forward to this special meeting. I look forward to when the legislation is completed to have Senator Turner , um, do something where we have maybe uh a public meeting or round table where people can hear more about it because this is huge, so some people are very excited about it and so excited they just don't know what to be too excited about. And that's kind of how I was in the beginning when I first heard it, so I'm done speaking and I'm looking forward to next week and I'm looking forward to consistently paying attention to

the project as well. Thank you. Alderman Donlin. Yeah, thank you . He said to exempt Yeah, thank you, Mayor, and thanks everybody for the discussion this evening. Um, I just wanted to point out a couple of things and then hopefully we can close this down and for discussion next week, but you know, with any economic development plan, project where there's a TIF district or just a , a plan in general, uh, you don't always know what all the projects are going to be, so you wanna be open, but when I when I heard the word projects, plural being talked about, I assumed, of course, uh, the BOS expansion and the new hotel that's more than 1, right? plural. and hoped that there would be other projects because the way I understand it when I've read this bill multiple times. uh, what what it really does is it redirects state sales tax dollars and other and dollars that normally would not go to this to to this area. uh to help pay for the bonds and all the city would be. asked to do through an ordinance , I assume down the line would be to dedicate the sales tax dollars from the hotel that doesn't even exist right now, so that would be obviously a second city action so I know, I know we'll flush some of this out, uh , when we discuss this later, but I just wanted to point that out again. I know I talked about it a couple of weeks ago, didn't expect to talk about it this evening, but uh, you know, this could be, uh, extremely powerful for the city, the area. uh all wards, um, we need to do something different again I said it before my fear is that if this doesn't pass and it's the decisions made down at the Capitol, if it doesn't pass, then we're right back where we are right now and I don't want to be in this position. Thank you. Alderman Cox, do you have anything then? Oh, no. Did I click it again? I'm sorry. I'm just making sure like you're good. Yeah, yeah, you do that I want to thank you all for your comments. Everybody's allowed an opinion on the project. Everyone's not going to agree on

their opinions. But the downtown does need something. It's suffering, as the elder woman pointed out, businesses keep closing. The city doesn't have enough dollars in its coffers to bring downtown alive. This is a community project with state, county, SMEA board, and the city. It is not creating any new taxing authority. The citizens of this community are not going to have a new tax for it. That is something I want everyone to know. um, I look forward to the discussions. Again, we had these similar discussions with the sports park and look where we are now. We have to remember to keep our minds open to development for good things, and I promise you if someone's coming down here for this new mansion and it's one of your groups or any other group, the FFA, they're gonna be eating all over town. You know, there are groups that we've lost because our expand our convention center is not big enough for them anymore. The conventions have gotten so big, they're moving on to bigger ones . They're going to Peoria, where it's bigger. The letter carriers , they live here and went to Peoria because it's bigger so we either keep losing or we win. That's where we're at. So thank you all for your conversation. Uh, we are going to go on to new business now. Does anyone have any new business for the council that they want to speak of. Alder woman, you have something to speak of for Saturday. I, yes, the fats 5K. I wanted to remind you. to buzz to buzz in to buzz. Yeah to buzz, well, please join us um this Saturday, Friday night also is the pre-party, it is from 5 o'clock to 10:30 and then Saturday we kick off at 11 a.m. All of these proceeds that's raised from this, look at me how I naturally just well thank you for the reminder. You're welcome , uh, the all of the proceeds from this event goes to all of our um non for profits, they have continued to incorporate newer um organizations and it's

helping a lot of people and I, I will say this too we did hear of some news with the state fair where the ABC group was not selected and they normally give out a lot of non for profits so I feel like a lot of them are getting ready to shift over to the fat *** 5K organization, so please come out and support everyone join us, please pray that the weather is OK too. It's been very nice the last 3.5 years and please be very festive . You just never know what you're gonna see when you get to the starting line. See you Saturday. Good job, older woman. Any other new business? Seeing none, clerk, citizens who have signed up in advance to address the council. Danielle Webster Danielle Webster James Johnson See you later, and I See you next time. right. To God be the glory God is greater. I came up here with one thing, but after I sit here and listen to y'all, it's like there's a million other things to talk about. So I'm gonna just jump in and I'm probably gonna, I wasn't gonna take up 5 minutes, but now I'm gonna take up about 5.5, so, uh, first thing was the rules that are out there posted. Help me understand and help all the community understand and somebody can do this after my 5 minutes, but like what do we get suspended for, you know, because I don't wanna bang on this and then I'm suspended or you know, there was supposed to, there was something about cuss words too, but you know she just cussed talking about the 5K run. I ain't even wanna say it, so I'm just wondering what's

the rules, Mary of how do we get kicked out or suspended because there's two people who came up here and speak for, you know, community and rightfully so, like been suspended and nobody knew the rules, so um if you guys could help share the rules with everybody, uh, that would help. So moving on from that Mayor, um, last year and prior first of this year, I don't know , but last year you met with all the other wards and maybe I missed it and helped me out, but what happened to community meeting for War 2 and Ward 3 because I haven't seen one and I'm thinking right about now that we got left out and I'm wondering why and if it's on the calendar for us. to sit down with the mayor and the police chief and our wards and maybe even the public works director and all the other directors. Um, you can answer that after, at the end of my 5 minutes too. And because I would love to know why but now that we are talking about, you know. and I'm a piggyback off of Ardawama Connolly and and say that uh with this whole discussion we just had that I think you ought to involve the community. I think there should be some round tables with the community. um, I don't know what time this meeting is next week, but um I wasn't planning on coming next week, but I might have to because of that meeting, uh, to the black caucus, like we haven't had no meeting with us or War 2 or 3. I think that should be done. because uh I don't know if you

guys are paying attention to what's really going on, but uh there's some dark days coming. Just pit simple and um I don't know what the plan is or how you guys plan on handling and how we gonna go about it, but I agree with Alderman, we're kicking out money for plants, but there's a woman last week that sat back here talking about she gonna be homeless. Oh, that's about to get great. There's some people that ain't gonna be able to eat. I don't know, I might not even be able to afford gas here pretty soon. On top of all of everything else . and then the police department is talking about wellness Hmm. I don't know if I really want to touch that one right now because I, I have my own thoughts about that. but they need it They also need to be uh coming into our community where we're having a meeting, so everybody can come. because like some people have said in the past. this can be intimidating for a lot of people. and they don't want to come up here and speak, and some people do get retaliated on. Believe it or not when they come up here and speak , they catch hell outside of here. Now I don't know, maybe me, I'm just a different kind of guy cause I wish you would try to intimidate me. We'll take a walk in the park. but we're not having enough community meetings cause this right here, he ain't full like it should be, especially with what's going on. And I'm, I'm gonna say my piece on that whole county if, if the county board takes up any part

or have any decision on our community, we're cooked. we're cooked And if you really wanna know what's happening, follow the money. Alderman Williams. I just want to answer your question, um, so you know, all the women uh purchase often jumps us about not having that meeting, so I'll give you that and yes, you, you were right that people have been wanting to and but I'm gonna blame the chair. So we'll take care of that one. He'll blaming all three of y'all take care of that for you. The mayor's meeting, I, I did initially get the contact from her staff that this they were starting and I think they started maybe with Carlson maybe yeah, we went. We still have to Ward 8 because alderwo's schedule and mine are not matching with the location that has been chosen. So, so we have to get I was, it was announced and, and, and I was doing the expectation, but I haven't heard nothing yet since, you know, the initial contact of that someone's gonna be contacting me to maybe get this set up and that kind of thing, but they have been rotating around, it just hasn't got to 34 coming up on May 21st, the aldermen and I30 7. I'll be there. Alderman and I compared schedules, and then it would be your turn from there and then 2 and then 1. OK. OK. And then you, yeah so I just wanted you to understand, you know, it's still ongoing. OK, thank you. Thank you, Alderman. All right. Thank you. Ray Campbell. Yeah, I have assistance to the microphone please.

Absolutely. Chief of staff is coming your way, sir. OK, I won't, I won't bang on it, I promise. It's OK. OK. OK. Oh, there it is, here we go. Good evening. Uh, my name is uh Ray Campbell. I've lived in Springfield now for just a little over 4 years and absolutely love it here. We moved from the west suburb suburb suburbs of Chicago and absolutely love it here, although, uh, we don't go downtown nearly as much as we should either. Um, we do go to things the Hoagland, but that's not what I came up here to talk about. Um, one of the, uh, unfortunate things that happened recently. is that uh after much work went into publicizing rules that affect Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and say that. state and local government electronic information websites, mobile apps, and that like. have to be accessible. Rules were published two years ago. that would have gone into effect as of April 24th of this year, 2026. Unfortunately, recently, the US Department of Justice decided to issue an internal final rule, interim final, excuse me. that says that they're going to give a one year delay to those requirements. I come before you this evening to ask the city to to basically, you've been doing a lot of good work, I am sure over the last couple of years, I implore you to continue that great work and make your

electronic information, websites , mobile apps, and the like, fully accessible to individuals with disabilities as soon as possible and don't take the one year delay that's being offered through the interim final rule from the United States Department of Justice. Ladies and gentlemen I as a person with a disability and my wife is a person with a disability, have as much of a right and a need to access government services, electronically as anyone else, and that's how you do it these days, and so I ask you to continue your great work, get things accessible and please don't take the easy way out and rely on these accessibility overlays like accessible and user weight, which do not work. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Chief of staff is coming your way, sir. Right. I do have an update for you OK Allison Ford Originally, I was just gonna come up here and just cry for the whole 5 minutes. It didn't say anything about that out there. but just cry for five minutes. Are you guys listening to yourselves. You guys don't even like each other, so what makes you think you care about me? Nothing because you don't. you know When I was here last week, you know, uh the one person that stood up and took the initiative and

the care to do something for me. was Sean Gregory No, an open forum. He told me what the city could offer and help me with and do. So why, you know, and that was great But why did the mayor's office then ask me if I have a support network. And when I said yes, my, my church. didn't go to my church. and ask them to pay. And then and, and, and, and, and for me. I was gonna ask my church for money. I would ask them. This is not their problem So I had to call the mayor's office back and said that's unacceptable. I was gonna ask them for money. I'd have done it . So then we had a conference call And so then I was then told that that Mr. Shawn Gregory was wrong in what he offered me. And so, you know, I don't, you know my church is my only thing and and I do have a disability and I did everything. possible to make this move happen. I hired nums that I couldn't afford. You boxes. I did everything. Someone to clean up the trash. You all did not show up the moving company did not show up. I have lost everything now, every single thing I own. I got

to walk away with a shirt on my back. I'm sorry, I am yelling. and it went so far as my animals were in the house. I couldn't get them I couldn't get my own animals. I was told by the police that I had to leave the property. I couldn't even get a dumpster. I was accosted by the person that bought my house, verbally. You know what? And and and and and who is, I don't even like I said, I don't, I don't even, I, I'm here because I anyway I'm here because apparently I need to be here because this is nonsense. like this guy left because he doesn't care about the public and, and what's really funny of, you know , I don't know if anyone was here last week, but he openly said, you know, this is a mayor or city no matter what. That means your guys' vote don't even matter So now what am I supposed to do, please? I have, I'm 45 year old. My aunt, you like, where, where? What? The the BOS center, you know what's funny is, is, is my house was actually in the area you guys are talking about. There's only one or two houses on Klein Street. Again, the things you don't know about me you know, the Spanish and the BOS center or whatever. you know one of my nearest and dearest friends for a very long time, you know. just got signed from Empire Records. You know how huge that

is like for someone that came from the streets like me. and, and not just like signed but like he's not even a, he's he's a he's a punk folk artist. and the first artist ever. to get to keep all of their music So you know Thank you ma'am anyone else Yes. Ken Pacia OK You know, I wish Ralph would stick around sometime. It's kind of embarrassing to have council members that seem to think they don't need to attend these meetings, past a certain point If that doesn't embarrass the sitting council members who do stick around. I would recommend you talk to your colleagues. Because people think it's disgusting as well do I. But I'm gonna share a little bit of knowledge tonight. Like I like to do. One of my favorite sayings is is all money is not good money. I wish Ralph were here to say that . You know, I hear a lot about places that need money But I see a lot of money going right out the door. $74 million to a police budget. How's that crime rate looking? How's the east side doing? Is it 6 to 1 now on those traffic numbers? It is. We have how much of a deficit for this city? Was it $25 million? I'm off by a couple mil I'm sure. But it was almost 54/2 years, wasn't it? How's that looking We got money to burn Cause one of my other favorite sayings is get it and write it You can make me all the promises you want. You can say whatever you like. I think you're lying.

As an only child, I don't believe anybody. As a as a son of an alcoholic, I learned to not trust people. from a very early age and nobody has proven me wrong on that, because you asked about the master builder. Let's read that information because I'll be honest, if you're a sitting council member right now and you haven't read that bill, you don't deserve re-election. That bill is severe enough, and it means enough and it takes enough from this area that you should be reading it. Two weeks ago, when we passed that, it should have been required reading for you. Because one of the really important sections relates to the master developer. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the authorities shall own and control any Starbond project and acreage on which the project is located in Starbon District created in the territorial jurisdiction, the authority instead of the master developer as required by the statewide innovation, Development and Economy Act. Does that sound like special language to sidestep a requirement. Did my master's degree fail me on reading? I don't think it did So you guys are either lying to us or you think we can't read because let's get further, because they did add some stuff to that bill. And this was one of the really interesting ones. The corporate authorities of any political subdivision, read the authority that we'd be establishing. has a, that has established a Starbond district under this act may by ordinance or resolution impose a visitor investment surcharge upon all admission and charges from transactions it places a business located within the Starbon District at a rate not to exceed 9% of the gross receipts derived from any admission and charge within the Starbond district, to be imposed only in 0.25% increments to pay

for eligible projects. What does that apply to? I'm not gonna waste all my time reading the big long, bold paragraph that applies to every single thing sold in that district. Do you think that we are stupid or do you not know how to read. Because what it's saying there is very clear to me. The county will control it. The body will run it and the money that they decide to spend will be at their discretion, not yours, but it will, if you need me to read the rest of it to you, come from this city's money. $600,000 shouldn't buy you an entire zip code. And if you think that a representative like Mike Coffey, who's on the news saying he doesn't like the mental health reforms that we've had recently because he'd rather have a guy with a badge and a gun, instead of a psychiatrist show up like anybody's even proffering that. That's who's gonna be in charge of our money. I mean, do you guys big club and we ain't in it, guys. How foolish do you think that we all are. We need a special session because there's a reason you guys won't outline that stuff. I know why you won't. And when we talk about decorum around here. Let's talk about the kind of things when we say things like, what have we done in the last 4 years? Are we better off than we were? Let's talk about an administration that's lost 10 directors at this point. Greg Talley, Haley Wilson , Valeo, Mike Disco, Ed Candy, Ken Scarlett, Nicky Baker, Doug Brown, Mike Lesko, and Jamie Stah. It hasn't even been 3 years. Does that sound like an administration that inspires loyalty. It's one that runs by fiat. And people don't like to be dictated to, and that's what this is. You guys are dictating what downtown's gonna do, and I could care less what a bunch of business owners think their tax revenue could go to, cause guess what? It ain't gonna be us. It ain't gonna be the development

of downtown Robert Frazier can you say it one more time Robert Frazier That's it. Motion to adjourn. All those in favor? All those opposed? The eyes have it.