Hello, you committee of the whole meeting for the Elgin City Council for August 25th 2021 order. Will it work? Please call the roll.
Consmembers, Dixon. Here. Good. Here. Martinez. Here. Powell.
Prashmer.
Shaw. Here.
Stefan. Here. Thorn. Here. Mayor Captain. Here.
plus minus here.
Prove on the minutes of the previous meeting of August 11.
So move.
Second.
Let's move in a second and then a corrections or additions.
Hearing none, please call the roll.
Comcent members, Dixon.
Yes.
Good.
Yes.
Martinez?
Yes.
Prost-merger?
Yes.
Shaw?
Yes.
Stuffet?
Yes.
Thorn?
Yes.
Mayor Captain.
Yes.
Mr. Manager.
Thank you.
Where we have one item that's on both agendas, item A is a resolution authorizing the city
to apply for an open space land acquisition and development grant, commonly known as Osla
grant for the rehabilitation of Millennium Park.
Millennium Park is located on the west side of the city at 725 Red Barton Lane in the Columbine
subdivision.
This park is 22 years old as constructed mainly of wooden structures that are now outdated.
For the past two years, staff has been working with Upland Design, the Parks and Recreation
advisory board and subdivision residents to create a new park and playground designed that
will incorporate new educational and play elements that will garner approval of an
Oslaid grant.
The initial estimates for the park's construction are at $700,000 in the Oslaid grant would
reimburse the city for half of that amount, $350,000.
Again, this is on both agendas, so the what will occur on the regular agenda.
The questions for the manager at this time are still moving right along.
Thank you.
The next item is a presentation from the ETC Institute.
There's many on the dice in the community
now over the past several months.
A scientific survey was distributed throughout the community.
This is the follow-up to a similar survey
that was conducted four years earlier.
And Molly Center, no, she's Gillespie now isn't she?
Molly Gillespie is here this evening to introduce
the represented from ETC Institute
who's going to walk through the findings of that community survey.
Sorry about that, Molly.
How are you? Good to see you.
You run spaces as well. As Seaman Jerkoso mentioned, the last community survey was conducted
in 2017, that was also conducted through ETC Institute. So ETC has been administering the
survey during the months of June and July, and they have put together a findings report
in tonight. ETC's director of community research, Jason Moreto, is going to provide a summary
of those results. So it's my pleasure to introduce Jason.
Thanks Molly. My name is Jason Marado. I'm with ETC Institute and we're a
working research based in the Kansas City area and the thing we specialize in is
conducting community surveys or local governments and we just finished for the
second time that's making you survey the city of Elgin. So today I'm going to go
through the high-level findings from the survey,
the four-port is very detailed in the comprehensive.
So today what I'm going to go through
are really being keep findings from this.
So I just have one, the two, we're based in the Kansas City area,
but we're a national leader in providing
market research for local governments.
We've been doing this type of work for over 35 years.
And in the last 10 years alone,
we've conducted surveys in more than 900 communities
across the country. So this is really the type of work that we specialize.
This is just a quick
rundown of what I'll go through today. I'll go over the purpose and methodology of the survey.
What I call the bottom line up front are our main conclusions from the survey world down to one
PowerPoint slide. And then I'll go through the major survey findings to show how we came to those conclusions.
And I'll be happy to answer any questions as well.
So there are several reasons to conduct the survey
What is to get an objective assessment how satisfied residents are with city services and then also to determine what residents
the only top priorities for the city.
And then also we're able to compare your results with other communities across the country on our regional and nationalities.
So the survey was administered by a combination of mail online to randomly select households throughout the city.
are goals to receive at least 500, be it surveys and accomplish that goal, been it up with
501 surveys. And as we were administering the survey, we were monitoring the demographics
of survey respondents to make sure and reflect the actual population. So we make sure we had
a good representation by key demographic areas such as race, ethnicity, age, gender, geographical
location. And the results of B-501 surveys at the 95% level of confidence has a margin of
air of plus or minus 4.3%. So essentially that means that if we conducted the survey the same way
100 times 95 times the results would be plus or minus 4.3% from what we're looking for. So the results
aren't perfect, but really it is a very small margin of air.
Here we have a map of the city,
the red dots at Houseville Bay.
We did a survey, so we had a good distribution throughout the city, and this looks similar
to the distribution we had when we conducted a survey from four years ago.
So here are our main conclusions from a survey.
We found that residents had a positive perception of the city.
75% of our respondents, we did Belgium as an excellent or a good place to live.
And as compared to only 8% to get away in a low average or four,
We also found that the satisfaction of state services is higher in
energy than in this other communities.
You read it at or above the U.S. average, 40 out of 54 areas that we
compared, and one area that especially stood out is that you read at 13% of
the U.S. average when it comes to the overall quality of customer service.
We found that the top priorities for state services over the next couple of
are maintaining street sidewalks and infrastructure and enforcing codes and ordinances and then we
ask residents what they feel are the top issues facing the city over the next five years. They
had to listen 10 items to choose from and there were three that really stood out with her homelessness,
the affordability of city services and public safety.
So first we'll look at some general
perceptions that residents have at the city. This was the very first question on survey,
You're asking your residents to rate their overall perceptions of the city on a five-point scale
To the dark blue are residents who get a rate of excellent light blue is good
The gray is neutral and we interpret neutral as meeting expectations the rate of a three on the five-point scale
And then the pink is below average and red is poor
So overall there are a lot more positive ratings and they're on negative
a lot more blue than there is paint and red. The area that especially stands out is the
top row where you can see that 75% of respondents rate Elgin has an excellent or a good place
to live compared to only 8% and give way to low average rate.
Here we ask residents to
range major categories of city services. So for this question we're asking residents to rate
these areas at the big picture of the park rental level and then later on in the survey we
asking about some of the worst specific areas
within some of these categories.
So again, the blue or the positive ratings
are pink and the better than negative.
And one of the things that really
stood out to me here is how residents
are dissatisfied.
Any of these major categories of services.
In most areas, 10% or less of residents
were dissatisfied.
And even for those areas that had the highest levels
of dissatisfaction, which were in forcing codes,
and street sidewalks and infrastructure.
Even for those of you that far more positive rays
and you look at the blue compared to the paint
for those these two modern roads.
And if you go to the top of the chart,
if you see the highest rate areas are public safety,
heart circumvasion,
why do you tell these services and trash and garbage?
We also compare your results against other communities.
For this chart, the dark blue line,
our Elgian residents through either very satisfied
or satisfied, and this chart is again for that major category of services services.
The white blue line or the satisfaction ratings for residents in cities with a population
of over 100,000 residents, the gold bar or the result for residents in the plains region,
which includes the state of Illinois as well as sub surrounding states, so that's really
more of a regional comparison.
And then the greater the result for residents of all across the country, that's their
national average. So I put blue arrows by the places where
Elgin rates above the average four cities with over a hundred thousand
residents and you can see that includes just about every category of
list. If you look at this bottom row, we saw in the previous chart that
says National Street, Taiwan's infrastructure was one of your lowest-rated
areas but you can see that's pretty comparable to other communities. In fact,
and your satisfaction rate in a 50% percent is significantly higher than the
cities with over 100,000 residents.
So it's not unusual for streets and sidewalks in the construction of one of the lower
rated areas.
So we also compared your results to the previous survey in 2017.
Now, for a lot of the services, the satisfaction rates were similar to 40 years ago.
One of the charts is said to be the most is this one where we ask residents, which sources
they used to get information about the city.
The blue eye of the results for recent survey we just completed, the orange of the results
for 2017.
So you can see that compared to four years ago, now residents are more likely to use city
sources than the information about the city.
So in 2017, 66% of residents said they got information about the city through their website
numbers of the 72% now. There's also been an increase in residents who are using the
city newsletter, significant increase in those who are using the 311 Contact Center.
It has been a decrease in residents who are getting information through
work mouth and local.
So now we'll take a look at the top overall priorities.
So this chart is something we call the important satisfaction rating, and this is a tool
that we use to help cities set priorities and the idea behind this is that those items that
have a combination of a low satisfaction rating but at the same time are the services that
residents do are the most important to receive the highest priority for investment. So making
improvements in the areas that the highest priority is impact the greatest number. So this first
The highest priority is streets sidewalks, infrastructure, residence rate that is the
most important service from this list of 10 items, and a rank at the bottom is that
is actually.
And the second highest priority is enforcing codes and ordinances.
It was rated as the second most important service and the second last.
This table is specifically for street sidewalks, infrastructure, overall the top priority
to condition of neighborhood streets, residents felt like that by far was the most important item
from this list of 15 different services and it ranked last and satisfaction.
And then the other areas we identify as a high priority on the condition of major streets,
basis and cleanliness, downtown, snow removal, residential streets, and the condition of sidewalks
in life.
This chart is for code compliance, the top overall periodaries and forests and clean-up
of trash in the real property of the areas we identified as a high priority or we're seeing
mowing and cutting of the needs of private property and forcing the exterior maintenance
of the presidential property and then just the overall actions.
For police in public safety, the top priority here was the visibility of police in neighborhoods,
other high priorities for overall efforts to prevent crime and the overall visibility
we've been
for parks and recreation. Here there are four areas we identify as a high priority
that includes the quality of park facilities, the maintenance of city parks, the availability
information of parks and recreation programs, and then the quality of walking a bike trip.
So now we'll take a look at other findings. This was a question that we added to the survey
this year, so we didn't ask it in 2017. Here we asked where the most significant issues you think
the original base over the next five years.
And you can see there are three areas
that really stood out far above the rest.
And those three were all weighted
as about an equal level of importance.
Those were homelessness,
the affordability of city services, and public safety.
We also had some questions we added this year
about the city's strategic principles and priorities.
And we had to consider questions for each one
of the three strategic principles.
This one is for city of choices,
and the town priorities were supporting the enhancement of public schools and educational institutions.
As well as promoting downtown as a unique destination.
This is for these protective principle of having a safe and healthy community.
The town priorities were investing in the continued maintenance of roads, bridges, sidewalks, and underground utility infrastructure.
The structure, as well as providing highly responsive public safety services,
and then for high-performing financial and state work government, the highest priorities were maintaining the responsible tax policies and sound financial management practices, and for providing a high-quality responsive city services.
But
just a quick recap, the solid residents have a positive perception, city, especially when
it comes to old chance of a place to live, we've saw it, satisfaction of city services,
this hiring, all June, benedities, especially when it comes to customer service, the top
railways for city services, and this is based on how important the satisfaction rating for
maintain street-side ones infrastructure,
they're forcing codes and ordinances,
and residents, you'll be talking,
if you space in the city over the next three years,
our homelessness, we're a building of city services,
and public safety.
So that is everything that I had for today.
I'd be happy to answer any questions if anyone has it.
Any questions from the college all at this time?
Mr. Dicks?
That's all right, Mr. Good.
Hello, thanks for coming in tonight and giving us a walk through of this report.
I happen to be involved with the group who was working on the 2017 survey and something
that stood out to me was the issues pertaining to sustainability and you may or may not
know that the city of Belgium passed a climate emergency resolution.
So I'm wondering if there was a section on this survey that covered the same questions
from 2017, and if there was what are those results?
Sure, those should be in the reports.
The most of those questions were the same.
I need to check it be on many of them.
I believe some of those questions were the same last time.
And there is a section where that is specifically on on the trend.
It's also like 17, 2020.
There again, and we actually added one line to the question that addressed climate
specifically because that was not in the 2017 survey.
I don't know the comparison between the two, if they changed a little, but I know
that I believe trash recycling composting was the top or most important.
Yeah, exactly.
As Molly said, there was one new addition to that question this year.
But the other six items were rated again.
And overall, the satisfaction ratings are very similar to what they were in 2017 for the sustainability
question.
And was there the question of which two sustainability items listed in the question to
receive the most emphasis?
Yes.
That was one of the questions.
Yeah.
It was first satisfaction with the seven different aspects of sustainability and the follow-ups
which two are the most important.
Yeah.
And that's in the report as well.
Okay.
But we don't have those right now.
If you want, we can take a look at it.
I can let out.
Just for the public sake.
I want to let them know of the two top items.
Yeah.
So let me.
I'm going to pull this up.
Okay.
So can you see this okay?
Let's go to.
So sustainability.
So the blue line or the satisfaction ratings for this year's survey.
So those who give a rating of a or I on the five points scale.
that Danish color are the satisfaction ratings for 2017, so you can see the ratings there, overall they're very similar.
The margin of error in this survey is 4.3%.
So we consider any difference less than that not to be a significant difference.
So the only significant difference is there was an 8% decrease in alternative energy.
Everything else the ratings are within 3%.
Thank you.
And
then if you wanted to look at the importance aspect of it, which in that as well,
which two of these are the most important, 40% said recycling waste management composting, so that was the most important. After that, just kind of a lot of them are as low as level.
Okay, and communities that you do work with with these questions, do they ever break it down outside of recycling waste management composting and break those into three separate components?
not
usually, sometimes we ask recycling separately, but not usually compost, you know, waste management.
There's a few examples, but, but.
Thank you.
Any questions from the site?
Mr. Thorn.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Thank you for this report.
I just thought I would touch on something that I noticed being that we've been talking about the police of late and how
of Elgin being surveyed is so pleased with our police.
Yet I noticed that the one thing second to the top, they are concerned, they think it
would be best if they could get responsive public service hire and quicker police and fire
responses.
So I think that would just go hand in hand with the fact that we've been talking about, we
police retiring and we need police applicants. I just thought I would note that. I saw that.
Mr. Dixon.
Thank you. As I follow up to Councilman Goods question. I'm looking at
slide 22 and it references the environmental protection at 15.8%. And this is pertaining to
Question 28. What are the most significant issues over the next five years? So my question is is
the
Environmental data that you were referring to is that represented in at 15.8%
We're looking at a total number of sorts. I'm sorry. Are you referring to the the full reports or the the presentation?
Five out of three the presentation
Okay, I'm going to point yeah
So
slide 22.
As far as the environmental protection.
So we were, the question was just worried like this.
You know, we didn't specifically.
Can we let that kind of open it up?
Open ended to what residents perceptions were of
the environmental protection with that.
Okay, I got you.
Thank you.
Okay.
My next question is,
How many mailings went out?
The survey was mailed to 3,500 households.
And the reason we picked that number is our typical response range for surveys is about 15%.
So that's, I may survey about what you need to mail the survey to in order to get at least 500.
Okay, and do you also track conversion rates online?
So how many people may start a survey quit a survey how many people are touched by it are those numbers tracked?
Yeah, we do have that information
I don't have an infront of me, but I could get that for you. Um, I mean, it's not unusual for
up to even 50% households to start a survey online and then I think it's
For a variety of reasons, but yeah, I could I could find out what that number is
What you don't have to get that information. I was just curious
I don't know what you doing the additional work. I was just wondering what that conversion rate was like if you had that offline
All-hand I'm sorry
Sure for the mail surveys. We don't get them back. We don't really get
Right sales surveys not partially filled out, but for online surveys, we are able to track that
Okay, all right and one thing I would just like to point out what's that
What I was surprised by was that the 3-1 and the mobile app usage was low, as a way to
contact the city and things of nature and so I was surprised by that, so I just wanted
to point that out.
So, that's all.
Thank you.
And further questions?
I'm Ms. Powell.
Yes.
Thank you, Mayor Captain.
But a question regarding some of the questions regarding the top issues facing the city
over the next five years, are these repetitive questions from our last survey or these
new answers that were or options that were given to people just for this year?
This, I think you're referring to this question, question 28, about.
Yes.
Not through issues facing, yeah.
This was a new question we added to this year's serve.
Yeah, we didn't ask this last time.
Okay.
Because I would, I was curious as to, you know, five years ago,
what were the answers to that question versus versus now,
especially after living with COVID for the last year and a half.
So I think it's a great question, obviously, you know, it's hard to kind of dig a little bit deeper into what people are really thinking about on some of these issues.
I mean, homelessness is, you know, it's pretty self-explanatory and I know that we've had plenty of discussions here on the dias and in the community about that issue.
But when it comes to, I'm assuming this is supposed to say affordability of city services, property taxes,
I guess I'd be curious as to maybe getting a little bit deeper on that one, but I mean that's for us to kind of work around, I guess ourselves as a city to really kind of work on that one.
public safety that could mean a lot of things as well so interesting question I like I
said I just want to know if it was something that was asked last year that last year but
the last time we did the survey.
And just in general this is a question that we've been asking a lot
more over the past few years and we did previously just a lot of Canadians come on more popular
question in recent years. It was far as the public safety. There is a question on the survey that
asked about some more specific aspects of public safety. And then, for this question, we are
able to break the results out on a demographic. So, break it out by age group, by race, by gender,
by geographic location, and a lot of different ways we can really have drill deeper into this question.
got it. I didn't see a demographic breakdown of the folks who responded to the question.
Was that somewhere, and I missed it?
The report has the demographic questions, like we can even take a look at that if you'd like.
I think we can see this.
The report has the de-demographics survey respondents.
It's a break now by a long day lived in the city, but their ages, their gender, they
had to never have demographic questions.
We've also provided a dashboard this year, which I can go through the example of Dr.
Questions that you'd like.
Which gives you the ability to look at the results program.
Great.
Thank you.
If I can just add, if you look at those demographic breakdown, it's amazing how accurate
the scientific survey mirrors the most recent results in the census.
It's really a testament to ETC's ability to drill down and get a representative segment
of the community and the responses because of the numbers they're right on the money with
what we're just seeing in the census figures.
Any further questions?
Mr. Good.
So this isn't pertaining to the report that we have more general question.
So I'm concerned with the public's trust of government in general, especially over the past
year and a half to years. I can look to Q and Gallup numbers that are somewhat dated.
Does your organization ever work with municipalities and have questions related to public
trust in their local government?
We've included questions like that.
Do you see any trends?
We've done all.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Sorry to catch up.
Did you see any trends?
You don't have to go back and look.
We don't typically do an entire survey like that, but sometimes there are some specific questions, some of those asking the pipeline scale that in a little more specific
So I can take a look and see what we have, but we sometimes
I don't want you to do more work.
Tim or the Councilman Dixon just wanted to know if you knew my fan
Just a shot, did you have something?
Yeah, I guess as I just going to read this through the very high level plans, right?
I mean, you can read a lot of different ways into a survey and then...
And the deeper full report will get more information. But I guess my short small takeaway, just what
I saw today, as I guess it gives me a little bit of hope. As I read through this, I see that
that Alten still has a little bit of empathy in them. They still care about the dollars in the pocketbook.
And they still want their city in the run well. They want the infrastructure, the services around
them to be, you know, that's important to them. And so that gives me hope that we've not strayed too
to the extremes on some of these different issues that we see nationwide where you know
why it's struggle once in a while. So to be honest with you, personally, because
we just a little bit of hope. Any further questions?
Wait, there's Martinez.
Thank you, Mayor. I think my take on it was the ones, the pages that were really intriguing
to me in the presentation. If you look at page 19, the category of services is the importance
satisfaction rating, police and public safety,
and the fact that I like how you did this,
the most important, most important rate, satisfaction, satisfaction, and important satisfaction
rank.
So I look as the very important is visibility of police and neighborhoods and then visibility
of police and the city and the police efforts to prevent crime.
These are important, they were ranked importantly.
The saddest fashion on it, what I like, is you look down here.
And it's the effectiveness of police protection,
professionalism of the police department,
and the response time for emergency calls.
So I'd like that because these are things that we've been talking a lot about,
that we've been looking at.
I think we have a new force that's coming out.
And this is from the people.
I like the fact that out of over 3,000 surveys
that just sent out, that's about right,
we're about like 500 comeback.
And then, and the second one was the significant issues
you think of, Al-June, go face in the next five years.
And these are things that we've been talking about,
which is homelessness.
You know, most 60% you know affordability of city services and property taxes everybody's always concerned about that almost 60% and public safety
That's very important because these are the things that I think as a city we've honed on we've been trying to get into these issues and
And I see it almost like 16% is the environmental protection and social justice equity and inclusion.
We have two positions that were recently made.
And I think that my take on this survey was as a municipality, we're kind of right on the money with what people's concerns are.
I sometimes think that we heard ourselves because people are happy with the services, you know,
people we announced it that this was going to come out.
And even then we got the average amount of people answering, which is like about 500.
And that was really just, I'm just giving you my take and thank you, Mayor.
Okay, you know, we did the survey about five years ago, and I think it's just for the
community to know that Council goes back to this survey.
Once we get a chance to really dig through it and take a look at it, the Council will
use this document time and time again for five years.
We've done that in the past.
We keep referring back to it.
And that's part of our job here is to make sure that the satisfaction of the community
is primary concern for us.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Manager.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Jason. Appreciate your time.
Okay.
Great. Thank you.
Mayor, thanks.
I'm sorry.
Item C's construction engineering services agreement with Hampton Lenzini in Rennwick for the 2021 North East area resurfacing project.
Proving this agreement authorizes the city's engineering consultant HLR to oversee the construction of the North East area resurfacing project.
providing field inspections, design interpretation,
contract administration and project coordination.
Representative Streets include Ann Street,
Hill Avenue, Waverly Drive, Stonehurst Drive,
and Lee Wood Drive, and I'm looking for the agenda here.
This is a compound, the bid for this engineering work.
Pears on the Council agenda is bid number four.
Move for approval?
Second, move to second four approval, any discussion?
Hearing none, please call the roll.
Councilmember Stixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Powell. Yes.
Rochamber. Yes. Shaw. Yes. Stefan. Yes. Thorne. Yes.
Mayor Captain. Yes. Motion's approved 90. 0. Item D is a construction engine and nearing
services agreement with Burns and McDonald engineering for the 2021 Columbine Square
resurfacing project. Similar to the previous agreement, this enables the city's engineering
consultant to oversee the construction this time in the Columbine Square area.
It also includes improvements to the Leo Nelson Riverside Water Treatment Plant Access
Drive in parking lot and the construction of a new bike path at Lord's Park.
The bid for the construction of this contract appears on the regular agenda is bid number
three.
Move for approval?
Second.
Move to the second for approval.
Any discussion?
I just wanted to make a quick comment, it's a point out that we're already into repaving
parts of Providence, I see Longmetal Parkways on here in some other streets, so we're already
seeing that kind of catch up with us, that's all. Anything else?
Please call the roll.
Question number six in. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Paul. Yes.
Rosha McGregor. Yes. Shaw. Yes. Stefan. Yes. Dorne. Yes.
Mayor captain. Yes. Motion's approved 90. Zero.
Items E&F both relate to the continuing work being performed by
City Engineer and Public Works Director Mike Povins on the Dundee Avenue
Rehabilitation from Enterprise Street to Page Street.
Item E is an amendment agreement with engineering enterprises
is ink for the phase one design study to prepare for construction.
The city is required to complete this preliminary design study to predict the needs of this
roadway section, prepare design strategies that meet those future needs and develop
cost and schedule estimates that will enable the city to apply for federal transportation
construction funding assistance.
The preliminary review of the phase one report has been completed by the Illinois Department
of Transportation and that department has indicated that additional drainage study analysis
is being required in order for the city to gain phase one approval.
Move for approval.
It's been moved in a second for approval.
I need a discussion.
Mr. Staff.
Just another quick comment.
I saw Mike here earlier.
I think he's in back and never chance to talk to him.
But I know there's some interest by lots of people to have some input by the public on
how this street gets designed.
This goes basically from some a street up to the merge with liberty at page and passes by a junior high or actually that's my old. It's a middle school now. You see a junior high dating myself.
But and it connects to neighborhoods with lots of shops of various sizes along there.
So that's the only common I would have is I know there's some interest to have some more
public input on how that's designed. Thanks. Anything else?
You're aware council member that the initial discussions happen before this project started and I know
that there are plans for that additional outreach with the community. Thanks.
Anything else? Clerk please call the roll.
Council number six in. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Powell. Yes.
Brassumberger. Yes. Shaw. Yes.
Southern. Yes. Lauren. Yes.
Mayor captain. Yes. Motion's approved 90. Zero. Item math. Ed Engineering Services
Agreement with Engineering Enterprise with Dundee Avenue Reconstruction phase two
design study. This is we talked about before. This is the funding for the phase two component
once we've completed the work in gain the expected approval from I.
out on the phase one study. This is in the amount of 668,682 dollars.
Move for approval. Second. Move the second for approval. I need a discussion.
Hearing
none, clerk, please call the roll.
Consmembers, Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Powell. Yes. Prussian burger. Yes. Shaw. Yes.
Steffen. Yes. Thorne. Yes. American captain. Yes. Motion's approved nine zero. Item
G is a contract with B&F construction code services for supplementary building inspection services.
The city has four full-time building inspectors, and with the current work well, they
can be as many as 25 inspections per day.
Two of those positions are vacant, but people still keep applying for building permits in
the city.
The proposed contract with B&F construction services enables the community development department
to continue providing the timely building inspections to residents and the development
computer community particularly during this period of unusually high
demand during prolongs acting vacancies.
The NF will be providing next-aid building inspections on an
Adidas basis and BFF is an urgent-based women and minority
own business to move for approval.
Second, moved to second for approval.
Any discussion?
Mr. Stefam.
I've got the energy.
This is not on this item specifically, but just in general I know from
The survey results code is certainly a concern for residents.
And I would just ask not today, obviously, but if we could have a presentation on code
2.0 and whatever else has been developed since that has been rolled out.
Sometimes this fall may be as we look at our budget for next year.
Thanks.
I'm not a problem.
Can't do.
Anything else?
Yes, Mayor Captain.
On this poll.
Yes.
Is there a reason for the staffing shortage in this area?
There have been some retirements or anything.
There was a resignation.
I can't remember if there was another retirement but like anything else.
It's a tight housing market.
The city's just continuing to progress.
we just, the permits keep coming in and we need to be able to, to provide those services
on a timely basis. But these positions are being posted to be filled.
Oh, two. Okay.
Great.
Court, please call the roll.
Councilmember Stixon?
Yes.
Good.
Yes.
Martinez?
Yes.
How?
Yes.
Roshmutter?
Yes.
Shaw?
Yes.
Shaw?
Yes.
Thorin?
Yes.
Merri Captain.
Yes.
Motion's approved 90.
At a mage, downtown on street parking regulations.
I guess it's a good thing that we have a parking problem downtown.
A decade ago, the city removed the overnight parking van in the downtown streets based
on stakeholder feedback.
Downtown needs have since shifted, driven by the addition of residential development.
Reinstating overnight parking regulations downtown is being proposed to address the
shifting and competing demands for on street parking.
and overnight parking van downtown provides two benefits.
First, clearing streets for public services like snow and ice removal, and secondly, encouraging
the use of off-street parking options so that the true demand for off-street parking
needs can be assessed through a comprehensive downtown parking study that will be occurring
later in the coming years.
Moved for approval.
Second, move to the second for approval, any discussion?
This is public.
Yes.
Can we just talk through this for the benefit of the public was there a survey taken of
downtown residents or business owners to kind of get a feel for their feelings about this
one way or where we are the other.
I'm going to ask community, our neighborhood services director Aaron Kazantino to come to the
podium and I know that he worked very closely with DNA executive director Jen Foucala who's
in the audience and I think that they will both be especially equipped to provide you with the
information that you're looking for council member.
Aaron will emerge shortly, you can go through the podium now, Jen.
Thanks.
There's a delay where the monitors are set up.
Should I wait for Erin?
Yes.
Wait for Erin.
While we're killing a little time, I do remember when we initially made these changes.
And I remember voicing some concerns at that time regarding in particular this change
Well, where we are right now, impeding our ability to provide adequate public services downtown
in terms, especially when it comes to snow and ice control during the winter months,
in street sweeping operations. Unfortunately, some of those things have been noted
in here as as surfacing and being a problem. I commonly come downtown. I know people who live
downtown, and unfortunately I see a lot of those folks
parking their cars on the streets indefinitely instead of using the long-term parking
deck.
So I definitely see where this is a need.
I was just curious as to, you know, what kind of conversations have been had with some of
the downtown residents regarding what is being proposed.
Sure. Thank you, good evening. Yes, so one thing that we've been noticing over the last several years.
Here's as we have a plethora of off-street parking options, parking decks. We made those 72 hours,
you can park their overnight into the weekend. And yet, still, I think convenience for the new downtown
residents is probably the most pressing need that they choose to park on the street. And sometimes,
those cars do remain. And so, through a series of conversations, executive director, Fukala,
can add additional context to it, but in short, the need to service those streets became
very apparent, especially last year during the winter conditions that we saw, just
the success of snow accumulation, cars not moving as often as they needed to, and then
as was mentioned in the memo too, when the Police Department presents their initiative for
more technologically advanced, way to enforce parking regulations within the downtown.
Those two items combined should really allow for us to have a much better handle on the
on-street availability of parking and the availability of the clear streets so that we
can service them.
And, you know, I don't have the daily conversations with the downtown business owners and
call theirs as Ms. Fukala does, but I'm sure that she can provide some additional context.
Certainly, thank you, good evening. So I would say that we did do a general survey at the
beginning of 2021 for business and property owners. This was asking for a variety of different feedback,
cleanliness of the streets, parking concerns, ants and no removal did come up on both of those
database, but we frequently, especially this last winter, received feedback from businesses
who were finding themselves in predicaments, looking for solutions, and trying to manage
situations that they were encountering outside of their door with vehicles being stuck, being
parked in the wrong places, things like that. A lot of times what will happen is when the vehicles
are parked on the street and then the snow cannot be cleared from around them. All of that snow
and ice freezes in place and persists for several weeks and then oftentimes, you know,
I'd be on the phone with these business owners, on the phone with our parking control,
on the phone with, you know, folks in our public works department trying to come up with solutions.
And, you know, once it's frozen in place, sometimes there just isn't a good solution at that moment.
And so prevention seems to be an appropriate measure in this case.
So the feedback comes to us.
We haven't had to seek it out.
It comes to us really.
So has there been any targeted outreach
to the residential properties downtown
to really try to get them to be more proactive
and encouraging their residents to not park on the street
and use the downtown parking decks and parking lots?
Yeah, we have had those conversations
with our property owners. We have mentioned it in our weekly business buzz email and I know that
when these type of parking situations are encountered and parking control gets involved they are
having direct conversations with these residents as well trying to get compliance and you know
sometimes unfortunately there isn't a real willingness to comply in these situations but at the end
the day, especially last winter, the circumstances with the snow removal and things like that
became very pronounced and I know business owners were concerned about how was impacting
the ability for their customers to patronize them.
Thank you.
I also have the same concerns that Councilwoman Powell was raising because it clearly
says when they're signs that say that you can only part from this time to this time and they're
not being enforced. And that is such a big issue. I realize that there's a plate reader technology
now, when that's going to take effect because we can make more signs that say four to six,
and we're understanding why you're doing that and we can clean the streets. But again, if
not be enforced, it kind of defeats the purpose, you know, can somebody just kind of explain
a little bit about this plate reader, you know, what happens as far as when the plate is
red, what goes beyond that, how do you get a hold of the person?
Chief Lally will be able to come answer that we're going to be introducing this initiative
with either the next council meeting or the one after that, but she probably has the ability
to provide some initial information, give her 30 seconds, and she'll be out here to provide
that information for you. Put her on the clock.
And I watched one additional thing I can say to that is the 4 to 6M was chosen because essentially
it makes you realize that you're not unless you really want to get up at 359 and then move
your car. So it effectively prevents overnight parking without directly impacting those
patrons that might stay within our downtown to the midnight 1 a.m. 2 a.m. time frame so that
those businesses that cater to that demographic can still operate without having them to move
their cars. So it's a purposeful regulation, the 46, just with the impact that hopefully for
the majority of folks, it effectively prevents them from parking overnight for the entire night.
Yes, that's my whole point, you know we could put four to six, but how is this being enforced?
Because obviously if we have these other hours it's not being enforced because it was said that we're going through a pandemic and then I can imagine how things were going downtown when cars are there for a long time.
So then the business owner comes in and it's hard for him to do his business when these cars are there for a long time.
And when they finally move them, the snowstorm was another example where they were complaining
about that.
And rightfully so, because the city couldn't get there to go ahead and clean that because
of the parking issue.
I would agree with that.
And I think also this last year, just with seeing more people working from home, our downtown
residents are likely no different, you know, there was just more cars, you know, that were
resident vehicles, being left in different places and, you know, it certainly does impact
the businesses and being that it's a Sunday Center City District, a commercial district,
the primary use of that district is for doing business. You know, we certainly want to welcome
our downtown residents and have them be an important part too. But at the end of the day, we still
want to make sure that our businesses can effectively function and be successful and I know
that's all of our goal here so.
Okay.
Thank you.
Chief Lowey.
Yes.
Good afternoon.
What's the question is regarding the license plate, the parking enforcement.
Can you repeat your question?
Because I was listening virtually so.
Okay.
My question is, if you can explain to us how this plate-readered technology is going to help
because it reads the plate and, you know, you go ahead and you, it's been there for a long time.
And as we were stating, we're having issues with residents that live there now.
And with businesses that want to do business.
And so what's the difference? Because I know before, Chief, we came up with something else that would be like a sensor that would tell if that car was parked there for a long time.
I don't know if people didn't understand or what, but it turned out that it didn't work.
So I just want to make sure that this is going to work.
Yes, so in essence, how it will work is you are correct.
About two years ago, we contracted with a vendor for the installation of parking sensors where a vehicle would park.
And then we would be notified that they're out of the restriction time.
we did have some concerns that that technology did not work so we are in the process of finding
better technology and we've found a vendor we're still in contract negotiations but in
essence how it would work is that a parking control officer when these restrictions are in place so they obviously
are aware of where they should be driving and with the restrictions are as the parking control officer
drives by, it will collect the plate, the plate is not stored indefinitely, so that negates
some of the privacy concerns that may come with that, and again, this is, and I'm going
to probably hopefully be here at the next council meeting with more in-depth information,
so this is just a very high level overview, because we're still finalizing some of the details.
But as that vehicle drives by, it's a virtual marker.
The parking control officer then comes back after two hours, and those vehicles that are still
there are then our, that are in violation can be ticketed.
So that's how it works.
We recently also added some additional parking control officers.
We are in the process of hiring a few,
one just recently left.
They went to be a police officer.
So we're in the process of getting more parking control officers,
which in essence, then we would be able to have more people
in the downtown area, more parking control officers
that can better enforce based on the restrictions
because there would be certain restrictions for certain times.
So that's how the interior will work.
So what do you mean by certain restrictions at certain times?
Like, let's say during the day, if they part there too long, they'll get a ticket, right?
But at night, when the crews are trying to clean,
and we have this parking ban from four to six,
how is that different? How does that work then?
So if there's a parking ban, and again, depending on who we have it,
staff and also police officers working overnight can also do some enforcement, but there's an
education component involved in it, notifying the residents, making sure they're aware
of the parking restrictions, and then there's certain levels of enforcement that we take
based upon how many times we've addressed this vehicle. So there's not a, if this happens in
this happen, there's an education component, there's also, you know, using a little bit of,
you know, is this the first time we're having contact with this vehicle or is this the 20th
time that we've asked this person to move their car.
So as we hire more parking control officers,
when we implement this technology, the hope is
that this helps to reduce some of the stresses
in the downtown area as it regards to parking.
Great, perfect.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Mr. Thorne.
Yes, thank you.
While I highly support this program,
and I think it's a good thing.
I also going to have some empathy for some folks that have moved to town.
They've been parking on the streets ever since they've been here.
So I wonder how it'll be implemented with some warning time.
I mean, I would think that would be somewhat fair.
I'm just curious.
I didn't get you there.
Yeah, when we implement new sorts of restrictions, we do go through just like the chief was
that education process are software that we use for taking it in is absolutely able to do
those sorts of warnings and sort of track the level of compliance for the specific vehicle.
So the warning education component is going to be part of this rollout program, yes.
I would also add to that the DNA is certainly going to do proactive outreach to our property ownership community
and, you know, the business community as well, to, you know, you know, if it's the
Council's desire to afford with us tonight to proactively communicate and advance
of things being implemented.
Mr. Steffin hasn't actually.
Just quickly, I, as somebody who's lived downtown for the last 18 months and had a business
downtown for over 40 years. I don't know, I guess I can say that any parking restrictions
there's still going to be work arounds and people that are going to come out and move their
cars.
I see it every day.
But I think a more effective thing that I would like to highlight is we need to extend
the TOE reparking restrictions beyond five o'clock, because people coming home residents
mostly are certainly right now encouraged to park on the street and stay there and that interferes
with the restaurant and bars that we're trying to encourage to have people come.
I would suggest we extend that to our parking to 9 o'clock, so if you are coming home 7 o'clock
earlier, you shouldn't be parking on the street.
Regardless of whether you're attending to move it at 3.59 in the morning or not, it's
just interfering with the businesses we're trying to encourage.
And the question I have is, why can't we instead of banning overnight parking for maybe two
three or four snows a year. Why can't we institute a snow route designation downtown and
make people remove their cars if there's more than two inches at a time? Rather than create this
year-round band that is going to help us in maybe three or four snows a year. So that's my question.
I think the yes, you're correct. The primary reason this is being proposed is to ensure the
in the winter months, but there's benefits beyond those winter months, including street sweeping
leaves, other debris on the street, and just general cleanliness of the downtown.
When we look at the availability of on street parking, especially when those businesses
then might open up earlier in the morning, getting ready for that next business day to have
on street availability for their patrons, so we see benefits beyond just the winter months.
Thank you. That's all, Mayor. Thanks.
Just follow. Sorry.
Thank you. Just a quick follow-up.
I understand why 40m to 6am was selected that was the band hour for many years, because we ran
it early street sweeping operation during that time. Are there intentions to bring that program back?
If we're going to have clear streets in downtown between 4 and 6, I would hope that we take full advantage of that.
So, my understanding is that there's already an effort to clean the streets on Fridays but with so many parked cars it's not as effective as it could be and I would just say that we get as, you know, during the good weather months we get as much feedback about the cleanliness of the streets as we do about the snow and the winter so, you know, a year-round solution seemed appropriate.
But there certainly, you know, been some discussions that I've been involved in about more
effective streets sweeping throughout the year to, you know, enhance the, you know, enhance
the clonliness.
I know fall leaves are another item that is difficult to address in the fall coming up here
when all the downtown trees drop their leaves, you know, sometimes they remain in place for
the rest of the year, unfortunately.
Yeah, it was more of a question for the manager.
The manager.
Mr. Cozantino will be able to confirm.
I know that Aaron was working with public work superintendent, Aaron Niel.
And we do have confirmation that with this 46am ban,
the regular streets sweeping will begin again in the downtown.
So we're bringing back early sweep.
That is correct.
Thank you.
Anything else?
Clerk, please call the roll.
Council members Dixon. Yes. Good. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Paul. Yes.
Rashmerger. Yes. Shaw. Yes. Seven. Yes. Thorn. Yes.
Maricaptant. Yes. Motion is approved. Nine. Zero. And also is from the council.
This Martinez. Thank you, Mayor. Tonight's the 2021 North American
Caribbean, Hanvac, Confederation, NA, CHC, seniors, women's championship game between Greenland
and Puerto Rico.
This tournament has taken place at the Edward Shack Center of Algin since Sunday.
The organizers, players, and referees are all staying at Algin Hotels with athletes receiving
three meals a day, but in and catered by DreamHaw. I would like to recognize the team at Edward
Shack Center of Olgin, specifically Rachel Wayne Maria, for making the event run so smoothly.
Brad Bonder, who was a tournament's local point of contact for making sure the event organizers had
to date CDC and IDPA guidelines for COVID-19, the team at Hammonds, who opened the space for
daily COVID-19 testings of all players, coaches and referees, explore Algeria, specifically
Ryan Cortez, who did the site inspections and brought this event to Algeria while helping
plan all the lodging and dining needs of the group.
And I believe their entire team is over there right now
doing the tear down tonight.
This is a great example of success.
Our community can have in sports tourism.
I went, I had the opportunity to go and watch this.
It kind of was like a combination of like rugby and basketball,
But it was very interesting, a very physical, I thought, sport, and I'm glad that this
would come to Algin, and I thank everybody.
Thank you.
Anything else from the council?
I have a little combination that I think it's kind of appropriate tonight.
I see these young men out here for the New Rugby team, and I'm coupling these three
announcements together at the same time.
September is a pediatric cancer month, and it's a time for us to reflect on our own health and the health of children.
The past month or so, I've been to a couple of openings, and we have had four businesses open autism education facilities in the city of Elgin for young people from the age of three up to 15 that have autism.
And on Sunday, the Easter Seals will be holding a bike race and a fundraiser for children that have never been able to ride a bike, have been there and it's really something to see.
These are custom-made bicycles for kids that have all kinds of physical disabilities.
And it always gives me a chance to reflect and think how lucky I am.
It's one of the goals in the city of Elgin that every child deserves the right to do the best that they can do and that's what we're planning to do.
Anything else from the council?
I'm sorry.
Just a quick note.
Most of our students in our community have started school again over the past week.
just want to wish our students and our staff and all of the folks that work in our local school districts and
even our private schools
a great school year
safety
and a great learning environment
It's always a great time to remind people
Our students are out walking to bus stops for us as drivers to be more aware
get off of our phones, no texting and driving, just to be cognizant of the increased number
of students on our streets and sidewalks. So, as a mom, just had to make that plug.
Thank you.
Okay.
Miss Center.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Mr. Vixen.
Thank you.
I just want to say thank you to staff a couple of, about a week and a half, the week and before
school started. We had our fourth annual back to school, Barbecue Bash. And because of the
rising COVID numbers, we had to change things to make it more of a drive through style event.
So we held it from 12 to 2 p.m. at Wing Park there. And the parking line next to the band
shell. And so I was a wonderful event. We were able to give away a few hundred backpacks,
free food, thanks to Duke's Blues and Barbecue. And thank you to my community partners who all
came out so many to many to name but definitely want to mention the boys and girls club of
Elgin for hosting the free haircuts on that Sunday for any for all kids here in the community
way would get a free haircuts so thank you to them and Lincoln Avenue Barbershop located downtown.
We want to thank them too as well and especially thank you to Billy Rodriguez who was out there at
the park helping out clean up and just doing everything he possibly could to make sure that we had a good
So thank you to all the residents that came out and we look forward to coming out again next year to have the fifth
Then you'll even going back to our normal and being able to have people in person and and hopefully we will go over this COVID hump
And we don't have to have masks either so I'll but looking forward to that. Thank you
The center
Good evening
In partnership with the American Legion the city of Elgin will host its annual September 11th remembrance
ceremony on Saturday September 11th at 9 a.m. in the Civic Plaza. All are invited to attend the
service to remember those who lost their lives and to honor those who continue to serve today.
Limited CD will be provided. Additional details will be announced on the city's website in the coming
days. Illinois Brews at Bose Creek will be held that same Saturday September 11th from 4 to 8 p.m.
with all proceeds benefiting the Elgin recreation youth scholarship fund which provides access to
Recreational Programs and Services for Elgin Children, who otherwise could not participate.
This fun-filled event features Illinois Craft in Home Brutations, Snacks, Live Music, and
Raffles.
Visit ElginParksFoundation.org for more information.
The ElginFringe Festival returns for its 8th year, featuring Magic, Dance, Comedy, Drama,
Music, and the Undefined All in Downtown Elgin.
The event takes place September 3rd to 12th, tickets and more information are available at
And lastly, the city was formally notified by the Illinois Department of Commerce, an economic opportunity today of $2 million from the build Illinois bond fund that has been earmarked for the city of Elgin for costs associated with the infrastructure improvements to the civic plaza.
Thank you to Senator Castro for advocating on the behalf of the city and helping secure the much needed funds for this improvement.
If you haven't seen the renovated plaza yet, it's well worth the walk outside after this meeting.
Find a comprehensive list of community events at exploreelginaria.com.
Thank you.
I want to take a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Okay.
The move in second to adjourn.
Court please call the vote.
Council members.
Sixth.
Yes.
Good.
Yes.
Paul.
Yes.
Roshmer.
Yes.
Sean.
Yes.
Thorne.
Yes.
We are adjourned.
We convened at the regular council meeting at 715.