[0:00] All

[0:02] » [music]

[0:07] » right, everybody. Welcome to the Monday,

[0:10] April 27th, city council uh meeting. Uh

[0:14] I will be your DJ for this evening. I am

[0:16] Mayor Pro Tim. Uh the way this works is

[0:19] there's a rotating schedule that

[0:21] determines who the mayor pro Tim is in

[0:24] cases of absences from our mayor. And so

[0:26] I believe the next person on the

[0:28] schedule is council member Kelly. Just

[0:30] for everyone's reference, uh we'll start

[0:33] off the meeting with a roll call to

[0:35] establish a quorum.

[0:38] >> Council member Hakaris

[0:39] >> here.

[0:40] >> Council member Kelly

[0:41] >> here.

[0:41] >> Council member Harris.

[0:43] >> Council member Isles

[0:44] >> here.

[0:44] >> Council member Nisma

[0:45] >> here.

[0:46] >> Council member Sufffordan

[0:47] >> here.

[0:47] >> Council member Davis

[0:48] >> here. Council member Rogers

[0:49] >> here.

[0:51] >> Council member Burns

[0:52] >> I am here.

[0:54] >> All right. We've uh established a

[0:55] quorum. Uh next up we have uh public

[0:59] announcements and proclamations

[1:01] which we have four.

[1:04] Uh first up is the world migratory bird

[1:07] day May 9th 2026.

[1:10] I will read the proclamation and then I

[1:12] believe we have uh Libby Hill in the

[1:14] audience who will come up and take a

[1:17] photo with our city manager. Uh whereas

[1:20] migratory birds are a visible and valued

[1:23] part of our community signaling seasonal

[1:26] change and highlighting connections of

[1:28] ecosystems. And whereas migratory birds

[1:31] play vital ecological roles through seed

[1:34] dispersal, pollination, and pest control

[1:37] yet face growing threats from human

[1:39] activi activity and urban development.

[1:42] And whereas the city of Evston as a

[1:45] designated bird city Illinois community

[1:47] recognizes the importance of migratory

[1:50] birds and has adopted bird friendly

[1:53] policies. And whereas through ongoing

[1:56] natural area stewardship and bird

[1:58] friendly practices, hardworking

[2:00] stewardship groups and city employees

[2:03] have preserved and restored bird

[2:05] habitats. And whereas the 2026 World

[2:09] Migratory Bird Day theme, every bird

[2:11] counts, your observations matter,

[2:14] highlights the importance of individual

[2:16] and collective action. Uh now therefore,

[2:20] um as I guess Mayor Pro Tim of city of

[2:23] Evston do hereby proclaim May 9th, 2026

[2:26] as World Migratory Bird Day.

[2:30] Libby Hill. [applause]

[2:58] Have a still repeat.

[3:09] smile.

[3:10] And then I'll do a little bit closer.

[3:40] Uh, Council Member Kelly.

[3:42] >> Sure. I just want to um say thank you to

[3:45] Libby Hill and the others who've worked

[3:46] so hard to um be engaged to um provide

[3:51] especially the Clark Street Birch uh

[3:53] beach bird sanctuary. The work they've

[3:55] done on that and how Libby Hill back

[3:57] when Northwestern was expanding its um

[3:59] visitor center and encroaching on our

[4:01] using of some of our um parkland really

[4:04] kicked into gear to work with city staff

[4:06] to create this um to expand the san the

[4:08] bird sanctuary. um this is really so

[4:10] meaningful and such a wonderful place in

[4:12] our city. So I just really want to say

[4:14] thank you to Libby and the others. So

[4:17] thank you.

[4:21] Uh any other public comments? All right.

[4:24] Uh next up we have International Compost

[4:28] Awareness Week May 3rd through May 9th.

[4:32] uh whereas composting is a way of

[4:34] returning organic resources to the soil

[4:37] to restore the health of the soil and

[4:40] enable its essential function in the

[4:42] carbon cycle. And whereas applying

[4:44] finished compost is a proven method of

[4:47] growing healthy food, conserving water

[4:50] during extreme drought, providing

[4:52] resiliency during flooding conditions,

[4:55] reducing water consumption and non point

[4:58] pollution, decreasing the dependence on

[5:01] chemical fertilizers, decreasing erosion

[5:05] uh uh carbon uh sequestration and

[5:08] remediating fire damaged lands. And

[5:11] whereas it is critical to recognize

[5:13] composting as an effective form of

[5:15] resource recovery, waste reduction,

[5:19] reuse and recycling, and pollution

[5:21] reduction. And whereas materials such as

[5:23] yard trimmings, fruit and vegetable

[5:25] cutings, ex acceptable food scraps and

[5:28] organics are all able to be composted

[5:31] and processed into a beneficial product

[5:34] known as compost. And whereas

[5:36] communities through their local

[5:38] governments, highway departments, soil

[5:41] conservation service and extension

[5:43] offices, and public works professionals

[5:45] can have significant impact on clean

[5:48] water, soil, climate resiliency, and

[5:51] landfill diversion by using compost for

[5:54] projects at all scales. And whereas

[5:57] international compost awareness week is

[5:59] a publicly and education initiative to

[6:03] showcase compost production and

[6:05] demonstrate comp post use. And whereas

[6:08] composting creates green jobs and

[6:11] infrastructure for cities and states who

[6:13] implement composting programs. And

[6:16] whereas this year's theme is compost

[6:19] feed the soil that feeds us. The 2026

[6:22] theme was chosen with the goal of

[6:24] highlighting the benefits of composting

[6:26] in agriculture and food production and

[6:29] its role in supporting healthy,

[6:31] nutritious food and by extension healthy

[6:34] people and communities. Beyond

[6:36] responsible waste management, composting

[6:39] recognizes the interconnectedness

[6:41] between every person who eats and the

[6:43] earth that provides all of our food, as

[6:46] well as our agency in feeding the earth

[6:48] our scraps so that the soil may continue

[6:50] to provide for us abundantly. Compost

[6:53] grows healthy soil, healthy food, and a

[6:56] healthy Illinois. And therefore,

[6:59] uh, um, as Mayor Pro Tim, we hereby

[7:03] proclaim the first full week of May as

[7:05] compost awareness week. That was a long

[7:08] one.

[7:10] I believe we have Brian Zimmerman, our

[7:13] solid waste coordinator, here to take a

[7:15] quick photo. I'm supposed to hand this

[7:17] off to you. Thank you.

[7:28] They gave me the long,

[7:45] [clears throat]

[7:48] » Council Member Kelly.

[7:49] >> Thank you. Um, and thank you all uh for

[7:52] your work on this. And I think we can't

[7:53] uh kick off this week without mentioning

[7:56] and and um and acknowledging Erlene

[8:01] Howard um who started collective

[8:03] resources back in 2010 and served over

[8:06] 3,000 Evston residents with composting.

[8:08] She really was the one that got it um

[8:11] people really committed and involved. So

[8:13] Erlene Howard, I think she deserves a

[8:15] big hat tip on this tonight. Thank you.

[8:22] All right, two more. Uh, next up is NA

[8:25] National Drinking Water Week, May 3rd

[8:28] through the 9th. Uh, whereas water is

[8:30] our most valuable natural natural

[8:33] resource. And whereas drinking water

[8:35] serves a vital role in daily life,

[8:38] serving an essential purpose to health,

[8:40] hydration, and hygiene needs for the

[8:42] quality of life for our citizens. Our

[8:46] citizens enjoy. And whereas Tap Water

[8:49] delivers public health protection, fire

[8:51] protection, support for our economy, and

[8:54] the quality of life we enjoy. And

[8:56] whereas the hard work performed by the

[8:59] entire water sector, designing capital

[9:01] projects, operators, ensuring the safety

[9:04] and quality of drinking water or a

[9:06] member of a pipe crew maintaining the

[9:08] infrastructure communities rely on to

[9:10] transport highquality drinking water

[9:13] from its source to consumers taps. And

[9:15] whereas we are all stewards of the water

[9:18] infrastructure upon which current future

[9:20] generations depend. And whereas the

[9:23] citizens of our city are called upon to

[9:25] help protect our source waters from

[9:27] pollution, practice water conservation,

[9:30] and give involved with their water by

[9:32] familiarizing themselves with it. And

[9:34] now therefore, I, Mayor Pro Tim, do

[9:37] hereby proclaim the week of May uh 3rd

[9:41] through the 9th, 2026 as National

[9:43] Drinking Water Week in the city of

[9:46] Evston.

[9:49] I don't think we have anybody here to

[9:50] collect this or do we? Oh, yep. Here you

[9:53] go, Luke.

[10:07] Okay.

[10:25] [applause]

[10:40] All right. And the last proclamation,

[10:42] Evston Public Service Recognition Week.

[10:47] Whereas a high quality and professional

[10:49] public service is essential to Evston's

[10:52] quality of life. And whereas employees

[10:54] are our most important resource. And

[10:57] whereas city employees strive to provide

[11:00] the highest quality services within

[11:02] available resources in a courteous,

[11:05] responsive, efficient, and effective

[11:07] manner. And whereas city employees

[11:09] provide highquality performance striving

[11:12] for the highest standards of personal

[11:14] and professional conduct, integrity, and

[11:17] innovation. And whereas city employees

[11:20] serve citizens in hundreds of ways

[11:22] through the city staff and all

[11:25] departments. And whereas city employees

[11:27] represent the city government in their

[11:29] day-to-day interactions with citizens.

[11:32] And whereas the citizens of Evston

[11:34] deserve a highquality professional

[11:36] responsive public service today and in

[11:39] the future. And whereas to maintain a

[11:41] highquality and professional public

[11:44] service for future generations, the city

[11:47] must attract and retain talented people

[11:50] with the required skills and who will

[11:52] use those skills in services to the

[11:55] people of Evston. Now therefore, I,

[11:57] Mayor Pro Tim, do hereby proclaim May

[12:01] 3rd through May 9th, 2026 as Evston

[12:04] Public Service Recognition Week. Um, I

[12:08] think it would be appropriate on this

[12:09] one. This feels like for public

[12:11] employees. So maybe everybody should

[12:13] come up now and I will take the photo.

[12:15] Let's go.

[12:21] [applause]

[12:43] » [laughter]

[12:47] » I need a little guidance from our

[12:48] communications director now. We going

[12:50] horizontal, right? Okay.

[12:53] >> I'm just getting ready.

[12:57] » I think I need an angle. This is a big

[12:59] group.

[13:00] >> Welcome to being journalists, Bob. I

[13:01] know, right? If I don't do it well, you

[13:04] got us in the back.

[13:05] >> No comment.

[13:06] >> Very nice.

[13:08] >> You getting a good angle there.

[13:13] » Cuz it's hard cuz all of this stuff.

[13:15] >> Yeah.

[13:16] >> Like what do you think?

[13:19] >> Or can we We can't move that.

[13:25] » Yeah.

[13:26] >> It's the podium.

[13:31] is on wheels.

[13:36] » The podium is on wheels.

[13:38] >> That's what I was asking if we can move

[13:39] it. But how far? Cuz it's got cords

[13:41] underneath, too.

[13:42] >> Don't tear nothing up. [laughter]

[13:44] We won't be invited back.

[13:49] » All right. All good.

[13:50] >> It's just the podium anyway, but it's

[13:52] good. It's the best we can do. All

[13:53] right. Y'all ready? One, two, three.

[13:55] Smile.

[13:58] >> All right.

[14:05] Got it. Thank you.

[14:06] >> Sorry about that.

[14:20] All

[14:26] right, next up we have city manager

[14:28] public announcements. Good evening,

[14:30] Mayor Prom, Council members, and Clerk

[14:32] Mendoza have a couple of announcements

[14:34] tonight. Um, first up, we have some

[14:36] friends here from the Illinois section

[14:38] of the American Waterworks Association

[14:40] to present an award to city staff.

[14:50] Good evening.

[14:52] >> Good evening. So, as you previously

[14:55] mentioned, drinking water week next week

[14:57] was established by the American

[14:59] Waterworks Association to recognize the

[15:02] essential role water plays in our daily

[15:04] lives and to honor the professionals

[15:07] like Mr. King here who work every day to

[15:09] ensure safe, reliable drinking water for

[15:12] our communities. My name is Laura Morgan

[15:15] and I represent the Illinois section of

[15:18] the American Waterworks Association and

[15:20] I'm honored to be here tonight to

[15:22] recognize and congratulate the city of

[15:24] Evston's water department for its

[15:27] ongoing commitment to educating and

[15:29] engaging its community and for promoting

[15:32] awareness of water conservation and

[15:34] quality. The city of Evston is a

[15:37] participate participant in the Illinois

[15:40] section's water ambassador program, an

[15:43] initiative designed to elevate public

[15:46] understanding of the water industry

[15:48] through education and outreach. The

[15:51] program provides a unified communication

[15:55] platform that helps utilities deliver

[15:57] relevant, engaging, and consistent

[16:00] messaging through tools such as website

[16:03] posts. [snorts] Uh Mr. King was telling

[16:06] me that they've given tours to

[16:08] Northwestern students and local area

[16:10] schools. They have shared links to their

[16:14] water treatment

[16:16] um procedures which are quite

[16:18] interesting if you've never watched

[16:19] something like that happen or don't

[16:21] understand it. They've put out social

[16:24] media posts, water smart messages, water

[16:27] bill inserts to help people understand

[16:30] their billing, and they've provided city

[16:33] council staff with drinking water 123 to

[16:36] help better understand the industry.

[16:41] The program recognizes achievement at

[16:43] three levels, bronze, silver, and gold

[16:48] based on the quality, consistency, and

[16:50] frequency of communication efforts. This

[16:53] year, we are proud to recognize 36 gold

[16:56] level water ambassadors and one bronze

[16:58] across the state. And we are especially

[17:01] pleased to share that the city of Evston

[17:04] has achieved gold level status for the

[17:07] third year.

[17:14] So, congratulations to the city of

[17:16] Evston

[17:18] >> on this outstanding accomplishment and

[17:20] thank you for your continued leadership

[17:21] in educating the public and ensuring

[17:23] safe and sustainable water for all.

[17:26] Thank you.

[17:28] [applause]

[17:49] Then I'll do another one.

[18:17] as uh as manager city manager Stow makes

[18:20] his way back. Um, you know, we have a

[18:23] former colleague of ours that is walking

[18:25] around the country to raise awareness

[18:27] around economic issues. And as he

[18:29] travels through different states, I

[18:31] won't say which states he's going

[18:32] through because the next thing I want to

[18:33] say, water is not as delicious as it is

[18:36] uh everywhere as it is in Evston and and

[18:40] so I think that's a testament to the

[18:41] good work of our water department. Uh so

[18:43] thank you.

[18:44] >> Thank you, sir. So, um, next up, um, we

[18:48] have friends here from Eff Cradle to

[18:49] career to make a brief presentation

[18:51] about changes to the SNAP program. So,

[18:53] Kimberly Holmes Ross of Extra Willie,

[18:54] thank you for being here this evening.

[18:57] >> And we'll have Anderson ceue up the

[18:59] short presentation.

[19:01] >> Very short.

[19:09] » May want to give it to the media. Want

[19:11] to just start? We can just start. I want

[19:13] to hold up.

[19:24] Happy Monday. In the meantime,

[19:27] while we wait

[19:43] » No. That's We Can you start at the first

[19:45] slide, please? That's the last slide.

[19:48] >> I'm sorry.

[19:49] >> The clicker.

[19:50] >> Oh,

[19:50] >> is this the clicker?

[19:51] >> Yeah. Can you click? There we go. There

[19:53] you go. Okay. So, good evening. Uh,

[19:56] we're going to speed through this. We

[19:58] did uh hand out a one pager for

[20:00] reference for the council members and we

[20:02] have some for the audience if you're

[20:04] interested. Um, and we did also send

[20:06] over the full presentation um for you to

[20:09] look over at your leisure. I'm going to

[20:12] stick to my notes so we can get through

[20:13] this quickly. I am Kimberly Holmes Ross,

[20:16] executive director at Evston Cradle to

[20:18] Career. We're grateful for this

[20:20] opportunity uh to have this important

[20:22] community conversation strengthening our social safety net

[20:27] today. It's about coming together with

[20:29] honesty, urgency, and the hope to ensure

[20:33] that no one in Evston falls through the

[20:35] cracks. As we begin, I want to ground us

[20:39] in the work of Evston cradle to career,

[20:41] which is proudly celebrating 10 years of

[20:44] impact and rising.

[20:47] For those who may be new to the

[20:49] organization, Evston Cradle to Career is

[20:52] a collective impact initiative focused

[20:54] on building a system that works for

[20:57] everyone

[20:59] from birth through career.

[21:02] We bring together schools, nonprofits,

[21:05] government, healthcare partners, and

[21:08] community members to align efforts

[21:10] around shared goals. In other words,

[21:13] wraparound.

[21:15] Our approach is datadriven,

[21:17] community-led and system focused. And

[21:20] because we know

[21:23] And [clears throat] because we know

[21:24] lasting change happens when people

[21:27] and institutions work together. Today's

[21:31] conversation reflects that same belief.

[21:34] Strengthening our social safety net

[21:36] requires collaborative

[21:38] collaboration, accountability, and a

[21:41] commitment to meeting the real needs of

[21:44] our residents.

[21:46] Thank you for being a partner in this

[21:49] work and for helping us move our

[21:52] community forward.

[21:54] So, I'm going to pass it quickly to our

[21:56] community impact director, Baxter

[21:59] Swilly.

[22:01] Hello and happy Earth month to everyone.

[22:03] I appreciate all of the water and all of

[22:06] the uh the the goodwill towards the soil

[22:09] that has been expressed here today. Um

[22:12] so re really quickly I want to say

[22:13] something about the numbers. Uh Evston

[22:16] has about 11,700

[22:18] Medicaid recipients. About 10,000 Evston

[22:22] ready residents are using SNAP benefits.

[22:26] And it's estimated that there are about

[22:28] 4,000 undocumented residents in the city

[22:32] of Evston. These are really big numbers

[22:34] because the newly eligible ACA

[22:39] recipients of Medicaid, there's about

[22:40] 3,100 of them. They are going to be

[22:44] vulnerable to benefit cuts as early as

[22:47] next week, as early as this week. May

[22:50] 1st is a um May is a critical cliff for

[22:54] public benefits. SNAP is the cliff where

[22:57] we expect the work requirements to begin

[23:00] to push people off of their um off of

[23:04] the roles of of SNAP benefits. If you

[23:07] are not uh found eligible as a result of

[23:11] not meeting those SNAP work

[23:12] requirements, essentially what happens

[23:15] is you'll get three months of SNAP

[23:17] benefits over the course of 36 months,

[23:20] over the course of three years. families

[23:23] cannot incur that kind of uh breach of

[23:27] trust when we're talking about money.

[23:30] SNAP benefits are cash and the economy

[23:33] is completely unaffordable right now.

[23:36] And if some families who are making up

[23:37] to $940 a month on SNAP, if they lose

[23:41] that money, they could find themselves

[23:42] in dire straits. People are becoming not

[23:44] just food insecure, but housing

[23:47] insecure. Um so there are income

[23:49] changes. When I began to talk about the immigrant issue, it's important to

[23:55] know that violence against women, the asyles and refugees who are here

[24:01] under the VAWA act, they are

[24:03] categorically kicked off a snap. All of

[24:06] the um so we got VAWA and we got VTTC

[24:10] victims of trafficking, torture, and

[24:14] other crimes. they are categorically

[24:17] removed from the SNAP benefit roles.

[24:20] Folks, this is going to be a very

[24:23] difficult challenge for us to uh face

[24:25] and I think that the only way we can

[24:27] post it is by doing it together. And so

[24:29] here are a few things that we need to

[24:30] do. Access the no wrong door policy.

[24:33] This is basically wraparound where we

[24:35] have a digital system and no matter what

[24:38] your problem is, you can access all of

[24:40] Evston's resources through an online

[24:43] system called EENS. It's called

[24:45] empowering communities through

[24:46] integrated networks. We need to align

[24:49] all of the systems, all of the programs,

[24:52] all of the we're talking about

[24:54] reparations, we're talking about green

[24:56] home programs, we're talking about um

[24:58] emergency assistance, all of that stuff

[25:00] needs to be integrated to ensure that

[25:01] nobody falls through the cracks. We need

[25:03] to help people keep their benefits.

[25:06] Navigation navigating the public benefit

[25:09] network or system is critical. Um, if we

[25:13] had more time, I could really get into

[25:14] that. Um, and then reducing the cliffs.

[25:18] We want to make sure that as many of

[25:20] these people who are exposed

[25:22] to the SNAP benefit cliff are

[25:25] undergurded with some kind of support.

[25:28] There are some people no matter what

[25:29] they do, they are going to lose their

[25:31] benefits. the city of Evston, all of

[25:33] your partners have to rally to ensure

[25:35] that these people don't go hungry, that

[25:37] they don't become homeless, and that

[25:39] they don't put more pressure on the

[25:42] social safety net. And then we need to

[25:44] center community voices. You need to

[25:46] hear from people who are experiencing

[25:47] this. We are not getting good, real,

[25:50] accurate data from the federal

[25:51] government. We need to talk to people

[25:53] who are filing for their benefits and we

[25:56] need to learn from them exactly what

[25:59] they are hearing from the federal

[26:01] government. So, we're going to put

[26:02] together something on that, too. And

[26:04] then focus on prevention.

[26:08] That's a little late. I mean, we really

[26:10] are here at the point where um we can

[26:12] focus on the pre preventing people from

[26:15] losing Medicaid. That cliff doesn't

[26:17] happen until January 2027. Lastly, we

[26:21] got to make what we have work. And

[26:22] that's what wraparound is all about. I

[26:25] do believe that there's an opportunity

[26:27] for us to raise up a wraparound program

[26:29] even though Evson is a small community

[26:31] for wraparound, but I do think that we

[26:33] can get it done. Thank you. We

[26:35] appreciate it.

[26:40] This one pager will be on the desk out

[26:42] with the security guard if anybody the

[26:45] audience if you want it.

[26:47] >> Any uh any questions?

[26:50] Uh, one question I have is where it says

[26:53] help people keep benefits, I know you briefly mentioned Medicaid, but when we think about how to help people

[27:00] keep SNAP potentially, do you have any

[27:04] response to that? What can we do to

[27:05] help?

[27:06] >> I do. Uh, there are a few things. Uh,

[27:08] Mr. Mayor Prom, uh, is it pro Tim? This

[27:11] prom, right?

[27:12] >> Council member Burns, Mayor Pro Tim,

[27:13] chair, uh, pick one. Um the first thing

[27:17] is making sure that your information

[27:20] with DHS, the Department of Human

[27:23] Services, State of Illinois is accurate.

[27:26] >> Okay.

[27:26] >> The second thing is um we are working to

[27:30] put up a notification system so people

[27:32] know when these eligibility cliffs

[27:34] happen. There's a new eligibility

[27:36] interval cycle where it's not every 12

[27:39] months anymore. It's every six months.

[27:40] And a lot of people don't know that.

[27:42] they're going to miss those

[27:43] redetermination meetings. So, those are

[27:45] two or three things that we can do with

[27:47] the community of recipients here in the

[27:49] city of Evans.

[27:50] >> Thank you. Uh, Council Member Rogers.

[27:52] >> Yeah, thanks. Um, this is something that

[27:54] we've been working I work for a church

[27:56] as my day job and so uh we have a meal

[27:58] program and we've been working really hard with the people who come to

[28:02] that program in order to try to find

[28:04] work that meets the work requirements

[28:06] for them which is a great way for people

[28:08] to get involved and help people keep

[28:10] their SNAP benefits because the biggest

[28:12] challenge for lots of them is finding

[28:14] the work. And so if you have

[28:17] opportunities to provide work to people,

[28:20] uh please reach out to I'm going to just

[28:22] call out uh Cradle to Career since

[28:24] they're right here, but any of the

[28:25] social service agencies that we have and

[28:28] try to find a place for these people to

[28:30] actually get their work requirement in

[28:32] so they can maintain their SNAP

[28:34] benefits. And Governor Prrisker is

[28:35] raising up a a mechanism, sort of an

[28:38] initiative for people to volunteer with

[28:41] the state and you can uh do community

[28:43] service with uh the state of Illinois to

[28:45] keep your SNAP benefits.

[28:48] >> Um Council Rogers, I appreciate you

[28:50] saying that because that that's that's

[28:52] probably what I had on the top of my

[28:53] mind is how can we

[28:56] >> also the

[28:57] >> how can we help people uh meet the work

[28:59] requirements? Um and and so I'd love

[29:03] manager Stow if between Joe Fields,

[29:05] Director Obo, if if you can schedule a

[29:08] meeting, you know, with Cradle to Career

[29:10] to see and so for those who don't know,

[29:12] Joe Fields is our workforce development

[29:14] uh manager for the city and then um Ike

[29:17] Obo is our health director. And so if we

[29:20] could, you know, get a meeting together

[29:22] to figure out what we can do in

[29:24] partnership to help people uh meet those

[29:27] eligibility requirements, especially as

[29:29] it relates to to work, uh the minimum

[29:31] work requirement, whatever it whatever

[29:33] that might be, I think that would be a

[29:35] important step. And then if there's any

[29:37] information like a summary that you can

[29:39] provide counsel as to what those

[29:40] requirements are, what the new income

[29:42] requirements are, work requirements, or

[29:44] any other details to help us better

[29:47] support our constituents. I think we'd

[29:48] all appreciate that as well.

[29:49] >> And we are working with our nonprofits

[29:51] for volunteer and work um require so

[29:55] work requirements can be met. Yeah.

[29:56] >> Because they can be through volunteers.

[29:58] So we are surveying all of our

[29:59] nonprofits, all of our partners. Um and

[30:02] we will share all of that.

[30:04] >> Thank you. Thank you.

[30:04] >> Thank you.

[30:06] >> All right. Uh Council Member Nusma.

[30:08] >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor Prom. I was just

[30:11] chatting with the city manager,

[30:12] recalling a conversation we had a month

[30:14] or so ago about um using potentially

[30:18] using city resources to pair SNAP

[30:21] recipients with volunteer opportunities

[30:23] because that's another way of

[30:25] qualifying. Uh what are we able to offer

[30:28] at this point?

[30:29] >> Sure. I just wanted to share the there's

[30:31] a volunteer Evston web page where um

[30:33] nonprofits and organizations can submit

[30:35] uh volunteer opportunities. Um then we

[30:38] post those opportunities and kind of

[30:39] serve as a matchmaker service for uh

[30:41] recipients.

[30:42] >> Perfect. That's great. That's awesome.

[30:45] >> That's great.

[30:46] >> Yeah. And I think we can learn more

[30:47] about what each other are doing during

[30:50] that that meeting. So I'd love to be a

[30:52] part of that. Uh thank you.

[30:54] >> Thank you.

[30:55] Kimberly Baxter. Appreciate

[30:56] you being here tonight.

[30:57] >> Appreciate it.

[31:01] Um, I also wanted to share just briefly,

[31:03] uh, remind folks that the Evston Chamber

[31:05] of Commerce and the Northwestern's

[31:07] Office of Neighborhood and Community

[31:08] Relations is offering a free bus service

[31:10] called Hop Around Evston to our business

[31:12] districts um on Saturday evenings from

[31:15] 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Um, that service

[31:18] continues started in early April and

[31:19] continues through June 20th. Uh, the bus

[31:22] route stops at 13 different locations.

[31:24] It it loops counterclockwise around

[31:27] Evston. Um, and you can learn more about

[31:30] Hop Around Evston and the map uh at the

[31:32] Evston Chamber of Commerce website. Um,

[31:35] and then lastly, just very briefly, I

[31:36] want to thank those who were able to

[31:38] join us for the celebration um

[31:40] celebration that we had at Robert Crown

[31:42] about 10 days ago. Um, it's great uh

[31:46] turnout from elected officials and staff

[31:48] and other uh community stakeholders. I

[31:50] just want to share a couple of um stats

[31:52] about that system. The system output is

[31:56] over 1.2 2 million kilowatts per hour.

[31:59] The useful lifespan of the system is 30

[32:01] years. Uh the consumption offset is 34%

[32:05] of Robert Crown's electricity usage and

[32:07] the life cycle savings over that time

[32:09] frame is uh over $3 million. I just

[32:12] wanted to share those stats and again

[32:13] thanks uh for those that were able to

[32:15] join us.

[32:18] >> Um and real quick actually first uh is

[32:22] still on council member please thing one

[32:24] of the other stats. How much did it cost

[32:26] us?

[32:27] >> Zero.

[32:28] >> How much is it going to cost us to own

[32:30] and operate over the lifetime of the

[32:33] contract?

[32:33] >> Zero.

[32:34] >> Thank you.

[32:37] >> Um, on the on the the shuttle side of

[32:40] things, so this is a a free shuttle,

[32:43] correct?

[32:43] >> Correct.

[32:44] >> 13 different locations.

[32:45] >> Correct. And um I I wanna I wanted to

[32:48] emphasize this again because I I swear

[32:50] I've been a part of so many community

[32:52] meetings over the year years and I feel

[32:55] like this is something that has come up

[32:57] consistently in those meetings and so

[33:00] often times I think people remember what

[33:02] you know it's easier to remember what

[33:04] the city is yet to do but I want to make

[33:06] this a moment where we recognize that

[33:08] this is one of the things that I have

[33:10] heard many times and so I haven't looked

[33:13] it up myself so hopefully it's the right

[33:14] locations right time of day and all of

[33:16] that, but please look into it and, you

[33:19] know, let us know if this is meeting a

[33:21] real need that we have in our community.

[33:23] >> And the last thing I would add is that

[33:25] um we're also there's data collection

[33:27] that's occurring and so I think there's

[33:29] already been a request to adjust the bus

[33:30] route just a little bit. So, we're doing

[33:32] some data collection to see if we can do

[33:33] that for future bus routes and going

[33:36] forward.

[33:36] >> Uh thank you, city manager. Next up, we

[33:39] have communications from the city clerk.

[33:42] Um you guys received some emails in your

[33:44] inbox regarding um the circuit breaker

[33:49] program, the landmarking and I think

[33:54] like one other that wasn't clear about

[33:56] what program it was. Um, and then other

[33:58] than that, I just wanted to let the

[34:00] community know that um, the clerk's

[34:02] office has been working to update our

[34:05] under our office, the different tabs um,

[34:09] in our

[34:12] on the website. So, you can go on to the

[34:15] clerk's tab and then find the city of

[34:17] Evston document center now where you can

[34:19] access laser fish and access a lot of

[34:22] public documents. Um, just so the

[34:24] community knows, with the new website

[34:27] um, update that we did, the website

[34:29] transition, we're still waiting for a

[34:31] lot of documents that be to be um,

[34:33] transferred over to the clerk's office

[34:35] via web transfer. Once that information

[34:37] is transferred to my office, we uh, will

[34:39] then add all of those documents that

[34:41] used to previously live on the old

[34:43] website onto the document center. But if

[34:45] you go under the city clerk's office,

[34:47] you look at the document center listed

[34:50] there, you will be able to find minutes

[34:52] dating back to 1860 um and different

[34:54] items and just like it's like total nerd

[34:57] stuff. If you guys are into this stuff,

[34:59] like I love it. But um and then we're

[35:01] wait uh we're working on different ways

[35:03] of indexing documents and just making it

[35:06] easier for you guys to search. Um so um

[35:10] it's there's a lot of cool features

[35:12] coming to laserfish 2. Um, and I'll

[35:14] update those as we um we have them.

[35:16] There's also a new uh compliance

[35:18] requirements tab for all boards,

[35:20] commissions, and committees. So, you can

[35:21] look at all the different types of

[35:22] compliant metrics that uh volunteers,

[35:25] staff, and um our council members have

[35:27] to meet throughout the year. And um

[35:30] there is also another tab where you can

[35:32] see the city council agendas um and

[35:35] minutes um and there's another tab where

[35:38] you can see all the boards, commissions,

[35:39] and committees. And with that, with the

[35:41] um transition of our new meeting

[35:43] management program, we also created a

[35:46] public comment directory. So you can go

[35:48] on to the boards, commissions, and

[35:50] committees tab now and click on the

[35:53] public comment directory or the or find

[35:55] that link also in the public comment

[35:57] guide where you can go to one simple

[35:59] page and find every single link where

[36:01] you can email and or sign up for public

[36:04] comment if it's a available virtually or

[36:06] via email. um there. So, you don't have

[36:08] to be digging around on many different

[36:11] sites to find that. So, it's pretty cool

[36:12] stuff if you guys care about that stuff.

[36:15] Um but that's all. Thank you so much.

[36:22] Uh thank you, city clerk. Next up, we

[36:24] have public comment. Everyone will

[36:26] receive three minutes. Uh as always, we

[36:29] will start with those who signed up

[36:31] online uh to speak in person. If this is

[36:33] your first time, you can sign up online.

[36:36] Uh clerk, do you want to explain where

[36:38] they go to do that? But you can sign up

[36:40] online to make a public comment in

[36:42] person or virtual if you didn't know.

[36:44] And there is a link on the

[36:47] >> in the public comment directory that I

[36:49] just mentioned.

[36:50] >> Thank you. Um next first up we have

[36:53] Thomas Weber if I pronounced that

[36:55] correctly.

[37:02] Good. Good evening Mayor Prom, council

[37:04] members. I just want to start off by

[37:06] saying it's really great to hear about

[37:07] all of the great work the city's doing

[37:09] on migratory birds and water and uh

[37:12] cradle to career helping keep SNAP

[37:14] benefits. So, it was really great to

[37:16] hear all that. Um, but my name is Thomas

[37:17] Weber. I live in the sixth ward. I'm the

[37:19] nominator for the Willard landmark

[37:22] designation and I urge you to approve

[37:24] the ordinance before you. Uh, it's

[37:26] Willard's a beautiful public school more

[37:28] than a century old and the preservation

[37:30] commission unanimously found that it

[37:32] meets the city's requirements for

[37:34] designation and retains excellent

[37:36] integrity. This was not a routine

[37:39] recommendation. It followed careful

[37:41] scrutiny and unanimous approval by the

[37:43] commission. The commission described

[37:45] Willard as a prominent visual landmark

[37:48] and community anchor. And I think that's

[37:51] exactly right. Its architecture reflects

[37:53] not only the work of an an important

[37:56] architect, Henry Rder, who also designed

[37:59] landmarked Orington School, but a time

[38:01] when public schools were built to embody

[38:03] civic aspiration.

[38:05] Approving this ordinance would also be

[38:07] consistent with Evston's long-standing

[38:09] practice of protecting distinguished

[38:11] public school buildings. Six public

[38:13] school buildings are already landmarked.

[38:16] Washington, Orington, Oakton, ETHS,

[38:19] Haven, and Nicholls. And several of

[38:22] those were built after Willard. This

[38:24] nomination fits squarely within that

[38:26] tradition. And this nomination did not

[38:29] arise from just me. More than 100

[38:31] residents uh signed on to the landmark

[38:33] nomination last fall, reflecting broad

[38:35] neighborhood support for recognizing and

[38:37] protecting this place. And because

[38:40] council member Rogers raised a

[38:42] thoughtful concern last time about

[38:43] burdening future owners, I would note

[38:45] that landmark designation does not

[38:47] prevent future adaptation. If the

[38:50] property were to ever change hands,

[38:52] which may never occur given its

[38:54] continued use as a public school,

[38:56] designation can support thoughtful uh

[38:59] adaptive reuse and make preservation

[39:01] incentives available to help make that

[39:03] viable. And this place carries civic

[39:05] meaning beyond architecture. It's widely

[39:08] understood to be the first public

[39:09] building in Evston named for a woman

[39:12] honoring Francis Willard, the famed

[39:14] Evston suffragist and reformer. And it

[39:17] was built just after ratification of the

[39:18] 19th amendment, giving women the right

[39:20] to vote at a moment when naming a public

[39:23] school in her honor carried particular

[39:25] significance.

[39:27] In the commission's words, the school's

[39:28] structure and grounds that comprise

[39:30] Willard are irreplaceable.

[39:32] I also want to thank the Shorefront

[39:34] Legacy Center for contributing research

[39:36] and perspective to the record. In fact,

[39:39] Shorefront's contributions here show how

[39:42] preservation can help bring forward

[39:44] previously untold or undertold histories

[39:46] and stories that remain overlooked. And

[39:49] I would simply say this, preserving a

[39:51] place and acknowledging fuller histories

[39:54] are not opposing values. In fact, they

[39:56] reinforce one another. at bottom. This

[39:58] is about stewardship, safeguarding the

[40:00] civic's the city's historic, cultural,

[40:03] and architectural heritage for current

[40:05] and future citizens. I respectfully ask

[40:08] that you approve the ordinance. Thanks.

[40:14] » Uh, next up we have William Carter.

[40:28] Good evening. Um, I am William Carter,

[40:30] formerly of the fifth ward. I want to

[40:33] speak briefly on the circuit breaker

[40:36] program.

[40:38] It's been worked on. It's been vetted.

[40:40] It's been approved by people who are

[40:44] knowledgeable in what's needed to help

[40:46] the elderly.

[40:49] in this city are the most

[40:50] vulnerable. They helped build the city.

[40:52] They've raised their families. They've

[40:54] paid their taxes. They've contributed to

[40:57] the building of Evston. And the way the

[41:00] tax situation is right now, they can be

[41:02] taxed out of their homes and ran out of

[41:04] Evston.

[41:06] To change the circuit breaker and turn

[41:09] it into something that's like a loan

[41:11] program is literally putting a band-aid

[41:14] on a bullet hole because you're not

[41:16] helping them. You're just covering up

[41:17] the problem for a short period of time.

[41:21] It's not helping them.

[41:23] I'll move on to the Wesley situation.

[41:27] You want to give them another year.

[41:29] Again, that is a band-aid on a bullet

[41:32] hole.

[41:34] And if you think about it, you shot the

[41:36] gun.

[41:39] They need something permanent.

[41:42] Ever. the city of Everson can start

[41:44] looking towards vouchers that's going to

[41:46] help these people stay in their homes

[41:49] without having to worry about losing

[41:51] their homes like they did two years ago.

[41:53] We need that security back. That's all I

[41:56] have to say for right now. Thank you.

[42:02] Next up, we have Jamie Upkey

[42:06] there. Jamie Upkey.

[42:09] All right. Uh Vicky Proctor.

[42:16] » Good evening, council members. I'm here

[42:19] tonight from president of the uh I'm

[42:21] president of the Friends of the Evansson

[42:23] Farmers Market, an organization that was

[42:26] started at the request of the city in

[42:29] 2010. And through those years, um I just

[42:34] SNAP was brought up earlier. We've given

[42:36] in excess of $160,000

[42:39] to SNAP uh shoppers at our market. Um

[42:43] and tonight we're here to ask for your

[42:46] support in passing uh the amended

[42:49] farmers market ordinance. And I want to

[42:52] thank in particular the parks and recck

[42:54] department working with them and in

[42:56] particular Matt P who helped us to uh

[42:59] make some significant changes in

[43:02] improving our market. So, we're here

[43:04] tonight to ask for your support and we

[43:07] thank you for your hopefully continued

[43:10] support of this wonderful organization,

[43:12] this wonderful institution in Evston.

[43:15] Thank you.

[43:16] >> Thank you,

[43:19] >> Frank Hill.

[43:32] Hi. Uh, Frank Hill, seventh ward

[43:35] resident and board vice president of

[43:36] reasonzoning for a better Evston or RBE.

[43:39] Regarding the landmarking of Willard

[43:41] School, as to landmarking Willard, RBE

[43:44] is agnostic. RBE is a nonprofit

[43:47] organization founded in large part to

[43:49] help stem the outigration of black

[43:51] residents from Evston by working toward

[43:53] abundant affordable housing and

[43:54] anti-displacement.

[43:56] As such, RBE is founded on the

[43:58] principles of advancing racial equity

[43:59] and working to undo anti-black racism in

[44:02] Evston. Residents of Evston pride

[44:04] themselves on diversity and in being the

[44:06] first city in the US to adopt municipal

[44:08] reparations. However, adopting a formal

[44:11] program of municipal reparations is just

[44:13] one step toward repairing the harm done

[44:16] to generations of black Estonians

[44:18] present here since at least 1855.

[44:22] Tonight, city council considers the

[44:23] landmarking of Willard School. There's

[44:26] no need for me to repeat all the history

[44:27] in Shorefront Legacy C Center's report.

[44:30] I hope that you have all taken the time

[44:32] to read it. Northwest Evston [snorts]

[44:34] and Willard School exist on land that

[44:36] was stolen twice. Once from Native

[44:38] Americans and then then again from

[44:40] people of limited resources who were

[44:42] essentially undesired by the city of

[44:44] Evston. The population of this area

[44:46] prior to being annexed consisted of both

[44:48] whites and blacks including a large

[44:51] number of black households who had

[44:52] purchased built homes on albeit without

[44:55] indoor plumbing and lived on the land

[44:57] that now makes up northwest Evston. RBE

[45:00] is somewhat agn is is agnostic to the

[45:02] landmarking as I said. However, should

[45:04] the school be landmarked tonight, we

[45:05] advocate for two interrelated things.

[45:08] First, there needs to be a much more

[45:09] rigorous and public acknowledgement than exists in the commission's report

[45:13] of the history of the site that honestly

[45:15] recounts the intersection of racism,

[45:17] classism, and segregationist zoning that

[45:20] led to the building of the school.

[45:22] Second, if after Willard is landmarked

[45:25] um [snorts] and D65 shutters the school

[45:28] to make up for more of its budgetary

[45:29] shortfalls, then the city of Evston

[45:32] should use any tools at its disposal to

[45:34] both acquire the site and develop

[45:35] through adop adaptive reuse into dense

[45:38] diverse affordable housing. That is the

[45:40] true spirit of repair that should be

[45:42] embraced by this first US city to adopt

[45:44] municipal municipal reparations. Thank

[45:46] you.

[45:53] Angie uh

[45:56] Angie Hammerall.

[45:58] I don't know if I'm pronouncing that

[45:59] right. Is there Angie that would like to

[46:02] make a public comment? [clears throat]

[46:03] Uh next up we have in Angela Penissi.

[46:13] » Hi, good evening. My name is Angela

[46:15] Wilson Pinei. I'm a resident of the

[46:17] 9inth ward. The purpose of the minority

[46:19] women disadvantaged Evston Business

[46:22] Enterprise Committee is to identify and

[46:24] assess the needs of this community on a

[46:26] regular basis and develop a program to

[46:28] address the established needs. I served

[46:31] on this committee for four years and

[46:33] worked tirelessly, but I feel ultimately

[46:35] ineffectively to support the committee

[46:38] in fulfilling its purpose. I will agree

[46:40] that the committee's input over multiple

[46:42] meetings focused on the responsible

[46:44] bidder ordinance did positively

[46:46] influence the protections for local

[46:48] businesses that were included in the

[46:50] final ordinance. And I also understand

[46:52] that in the year since my term ended

[46:54] that the committee has made some

[46:55] progress in supporting these businesses

[46:57] in the procurement process and has some

[46:59] momentum around the evolution of the

[47:01] local employment program. The staff

[47:03] working with this committee are

[47:05] primarily tasked with managing and

[47:06] reporting on the procurement process and

[47:09] the LEP local employment program.

[47:12] However, this committee continues to

[47:14] utilize a work plan that is more than

[47:15] three years old with persistent

[47:17] challenges in achieving its objectives

[47:19] particularly with businesses that are

[47:21] focused on consumers. So BTOC type of

[47:23] businesses. We discussed creating a

[47:26] directory of MWDEBE businesses and made

[47:29] recommendations to support the creation

[47:31] of such a directory for four years. I

[47:34] see it is still being discussed by the

[47:36] new committee members. Yet, I'm not

[47:37] aware of any progress made towards

[47:39] achievement of this goal. For this

[47:41] committee to materially progress towards

[47:43] fulfilling its purpose, additional

[47:45] resources or staff support outside the

[47:47] current support and committee members

[47:49] themselves will need to be engaged to

[47:51] complete the work. With appropriate

[47:54] support, the committee that should then

[47:55] be held accountable towards achieving

[47:57] its established objectives. My hope is

[47:59] that this committee can avoid being a

[48:01] paper committee making an empty promise

[48:03] to our local minority, women, and

[48:05] disadvantaged owned businesses. If the

[48:08] council does not view these objectives

[48:10] as a priority by the city, the purpose

[48:11] of this committee should be amended to

[48:14] accurately and transparently reflect its

[48:16] activities. Finally, I believe it's this disconnect between the stated

[48:21] purpose and the activities of the

[48:22] committee that has contributed to

[48:24] committee member turnover and low

[48:26] meeting attendance. Thank you,

[48:30] John Moore.

[48:35] And and John, I think, is online. Is

[48:38] there a John? Is there do you see a John

[48:39] Moore online?

[48:49] All right, John John Moore, would you

[48:51] like to make your public comment?

[48:54] >> Sure, certainly. Can you hear me?

[48:55] >> Yes, we can.

[48:57] >> Great. Thank you very much. Uh, I'm John

[49:00] Moore. I'm a W one resident and farmers

[49:03] market season is upon us now. Uh, it's

[49:05] very exciting for me and it's a

[49:07] highlight of the family here in the

[49:09] summer months. I'm just wanting a

[49:11] comment in strong support of the changes

[49:14] to the farmers market ordinance to

[49:17] improve the integrity of the market,

[49:19] including especially the prohibition on

[49:22] selling wholesale produce and goods. You

[49:24] know, it seemed obvious to me in reading

[49:26] the existing language in the ordinance

[49:29] that that was prohibited given the

[49:31] locally grown requirement. But given

[49:33] that some of this must be happening, I

[49:35] supported the I support the additional

[49:37] clarification in the ordinance to

[49:40] prohibit uh reselling wholesale produce

[49:43] and goods. And I just also say that to

[49:46] the extent the city is not doing this

[49:48] already, I would urge it to occasionally

[49:50] spot check farms themselves to ensure

[49:53] they're growing most of the produce they

[49:55] sell. Uh my niece actually used to work

[49:58] until recently worked for the Fairfax

[49:59] [clears throat] County, Virginia farmers

[50:01] markets and regularly inspected the

[50:04] farms in the region to be sure that they

[50:06] were growing only what they were

[50:07] selling. So, you know, in short, a

[50:09] little enforcement by the city will go a

[50:12] long way towards protecting the

[50:13] integrity of the market, which is a real

[50:16] uh distinguishing feature from some of

[50:19] the other markets in the region. Thank

[50:20] you very much.

[50:24] » All right. And last, we have Renee

[50:26] Peyton.

[50:28] Is Renee online?

[50:37] Okay, that concludes uh public comment

[50:39] for this evening. Um has as has become

[50:42] customary, uh each chair now before we

[50:45] go to special order of business, uh will

[50:47] read through uh the items that were

[50:50] voted out of those committees to

[50:52] council. And so we'll start with the

[50:54] administration and public works items.

[50:58] >> Okay. Um, first item is item A1,

[51:01] resolution 84R26,

[51:03] approval of the City of Evston payroll

[51:06] bills list and credit card.

[51:09] Item A2, resolution 85R26, approval of

[51:12] Harris Amazon credit card activity.

[51:16] Item A3, resolution 52R26,

[51:20] approval of contract with Innovation

[51:22] Landscape for the Chandler Totlot

[51:24] Improvements Project.

[51:26] Item A4, resolution 53R26,

[51:31] authorizing the city manager to execute

[51:33] an agreement with Compass Transportation

[51:35] for the Parks and Recreation Department

[51:38] uh summer bus transportation.

[51:40] Item A5, resolution 56R26, authorizing

[51:44] the city manager to enter into an

[51:45] intergovernmental agreement with Cook

[51:47] County Forest Preserve for collection of

[51:49] refuge containers in Perkins Woods. Item

[51:53] A26, resolution 60R26, authorizing the

[51:56] city manager to execute an agreement

[51:58] with Ample Group International

[52:01] um for the Fleetwood Jordane Exterior

[52:03] Renovations Project. Item A7, resolution

[52:08] 61R26, authorizing the city manager to

[52:10] execute an agreement with Hard Rock

[52:12] Concrete Cutters for the 2026 sidewalk

[52:14] grinding program.

[52:17] Item A8, resolution 62R26, approval of a

[52:20] single source contract with a TLER

[52:23] incorporated for the rental of a 200

[52:26] kilowatt standby generator for an

[52:28] 11-month term. Item A9,

[52:32] resolution 63R26, authorizing the city

[52:35] manager to execute an agreement with

[52:37] Boulder Contractors for the 2026 water

[52:40] main improvements and street

[52:41] resurfacing.

[52:44] Item A10, resolution 64R26,

[52:47] authorizing the city manager to execute

[52:49] change order number three to the

[52:51] agreement with Alliance Contractors for

[52:53] the 2025 alley and sidewalk

[52:56] improvements.

[52:58] Item A1,

[53:00] resolution 65R26, authorizing the city

[53:03] manager to execute amendment number one

[53:05] to the agreement with Schroeder and

[53:07] Schroeder for sidewalk improvement

[53:09] program.

[53:11] Item A12, resolution 66R26,

[53:14] approval for an agreement with Joel

[53:17] Kennedy Construction Corporation for the

[53:19] 2026 annual lead service line

[53:21] replacement project.

[53:23] >> I'd like to pull that one, please.

[53:25] >> Okay.

[53:25] >> Which one is that again?

[53:26] >> A12.

[53:27] >> Okay.

[53:31] » A2.

[53:32] And I'll pull A6.

[53:37] » And I should have said this, but you can

[53:39] pull items as you hear them. You don't

[53:40] have to wait till the end.

[53:43] >> Okay. Item A13, uh, resolution 67R26,

[53:47] approval of an agreement with the with

[53:50] Okay,

[53:51] >> that one was held over. So, A13

[53:53] >> is pulled. It was tabled.

[53:56] Um, item A14, resolution

[54:00] 69R26, approval of a contract with

[54:03] Suburban Tree Consortium for the

[54:04] purchase of trees and planting services

[54:07] in the Channelside Parks for spring of

[54:10] 2026.

[54:14] Um, item A15, resolution 77R26, approval

[54:18] of the purchase and installation of five

[54:20] dualport electric vehicle charging

[54:22] stations for public use at the Levy

[54:25] Senior Center and three dualport

[54:27] electric vehicle charging stations for

[54:29] municipal fleet use at 1800 Maple Self

[54:32] Park Garage.

[54:35] Item A16,

[54:37] resolution 78R26, approval of a soul

[54:40] source agreement with Spring City

[54:41] Electric Manufacturing for the purchase

[54:43] of 10 Talmage Street Light poles. Item

[54:46] A17 is resolution 80R26, approval of a

[54:50] contract for the National Bridge

[54:52] Inspection Standard Engineering

[54:54] Services. Item A18, resolution 82R26, a

[54:58] resolution authorizing the city of

[54:59] Evston to join cities and counties for

[55:01] citizenship. Item A19, resolution 87R26,

[55:06] authorizing the city manager to execute

[55:07] an amendment to the professional

[55:09] services contract with Passport Labs.

[55:13] Item 820,

[55:15] resolution 88R26, authorizing the city

[55:18] manager to execute a one-year contract

[55:19] extension with Canon Cochran Management

[55:22] Services for thirdparty administration

[55:24] of general liability and workers

[55:26] compensation claims. Item A21, ordinance

[55:29] 37026, authorizing the sale of

[55:32] city-owned real property at 1811 to 1815

[55:35] Church Street.

[55:38] Item A22, ordinance 39026, amending

[55:42] Evston City Code Title 3, Chapter 3,

[55:44] Farmers Market.

[55:46] Item A23, ordinance 33026, amending City

[55:50] Code Title 7, Chapter 10.

[55:54] and item A24.

[55:57] That's it.

[55:58] >> Uh, Council Member Burns, did you want

[56:00] to on A21

[56:02] uh just been the rules to take immediate

[56:05] action on A21?

[56:09] >> Um,

[56:10] >> which is the uh sale of property at 1811

[56:13] to 1815 Church Street.

[56:16] >> We just need to pull it then, right?

[56:18] >> Yes. So, we'll pull A21.

[56:22] Uh so I have uh a A2 A12

[56:28] A13 was held in committee and and then

[56:31] A21. So A2 A12 A21 A8

[56:39] » was A6 pulled

[56:41] >> A6.

[56:47] » Pardon?

[56:49] Um, was A6 held in committee?

[56:52] >> I'm sorry. I just meant to pull it now.

[56:54] >> You're pulling now. Okay. So, I have um

[56:57] A2, A6, A8, A12, and A21.

[57:02] Any others?

[57:05] Okay.

[57:06] Uh, what do we have next up after

[57:09] PND?

[57:12] >> Is this me? I can't.

[57:13] >> Planning and development committee.

[57:14] >> Who's planning and development? Is this

[57:15] me? It's been a while since we've met.

[57:17] All right. um for uh uh planning and

[57:21] development committee P1 ordinance 23026

[57:25] designating the property located at 2700

[57:29] Herd Avenue commonly known as Francis

[57:33] Willard Elementary School in Evston

[57:36] Landmark.

[57:36] >> I'd like to pull that one please.

[57:38] >> All right. P1

[57:41] and then human services committee. Is

[57:43] that council member?

[57:44] >> That I think that's me.

[57:46] >> Um HS1 ordinance 35026 amending city

[57:50] code title 10 to prohibit certain

[57:52] vehicles from parking on roadways.

[57:59] All right. And then next up we have is

[58:02] this social services

[58:10] resol uh SSC1 resolution 75R26

[58:15] use of CB D I'm sorry CDBG funds for FY

[58:21] year 2026 public services. I need that

[58:25] one pulled.

[58:27] >> All right. So that is SSC1.

[58:30] >> Yes.

[58:35] » Okay.

[58:35] >> The mayor.

[58:39] » Okay. Um and then we have uh resolution

[58:44] 70R26

[58:46] approving what is

[58:49] >> uh approving Deville. approving Deville

[58:52] Evansson LLC's class C restaurant liquor

[58:55] license application for Pizzeria Deville

[58:58] 1527 Chicago Avenue.

[59:01] Uh we have

[59:04] LB2 resolution 71R26 approving Night Ale

[59:09] Productions LLC's Class E Entertainment

[59:12] Venue small uh liquor license

[59:15] application for local note Jazz Club

[59:18] 1716 Sherman Avenue. LB3 resolution

[59:22] 72R26

[59:24] approving Fred's Bread LLC's class C

[59:27] restaurant liquor license application

[59:29] for Fred's Bread Bakery and Cafe 817

[59:33] Noise Street. Uh LB4 resolution 73R26

[59:38] approving Heritage Diners Inc. Class C

[59:41] restaurant liquor license application

[59:43] for Everest Indian Cuisine 630 Church

[59:46] Street LB5 resolution 74 74R26

[59:53] approving Bunny Concepts LLC's Class C

[59:56] restaurant liquor license application

[59:58] for the adult Bunny 1010 Church Street

[1:00:03] LB6 resolution 76R26

[1:00:07] Taste of Nepal LLC's Class C restaurant

[1:00:10] liquor license application for Taste of

[1:00:13] Nepal, uh, 610 Davis Street, LB7,

[1:00:17] Ordinance 38026, amending city code

[1:00:21] section 346, classification and license

[1:00:24] fees to extend permitted hours of

[1:00:26] alcohol service for class E2

[1:00:29] entertainment venue medium liquor

[1:00:31] license holders.

[1:00:34] And then under appointments, we have

[1:00:36] resolution 68R

[1:00:39] 26 appointing BCC members.

[1:00:44] >> I'm sorry.

[1:00:47] » Oh, and then all the way at the top.

[1:00:55] Where is it at? And then we have M1,

[1:00:58] approval of minutes of the regular

[1:01:00] council meeting of April 13, 2026.

[1:01:04] All right. So I have again

[1:01:07] A2, A6, A8, A12, A21, P1, and SSC1.

[1:01:14] Uh, Council Member Kelly.

[1:01:15] >> So with regard to the liquor licenses,

[1:01:17] are do those take two readings? Okay. So

[1:01:19] those

[1:01:25] » Okay. change now.

[1:01:28] >> Okay. The one that's an ordinance is

[1:01:33] » okay for Okay. Okay. But otherwise,

[1:01:36] they'll all pass then tonight. Great.

[1:01:38] Thank you.

[1:01:40] >> All right. If I can have a motion to

[1:01:42] approve our consent agenda items that we

[1:01:45] just went over.

[1:01:46] >> Uh, Mr. Mayor Prom, I will move the

[1:01:48] consent agenda, which does not include

[1:01:50] items A2, A12, I'm sorry, A2, A6, A8,

[1:01:54] A12, A13, which was tabled in committee,

[1:01:57] A21, P1, and SSC1.

[1:02:01] >> Second.

[1:02:03] >> All right, it's been properly moved by

[1:02:04] Council Member Nusma, seconded by

[1:02:06] Council Member Harris. Uh, any

[1:02:09] additional comments? All those in favor

[1:02:11] say I.

[1:02:13] >> I. Any nays? Any abstensions? All right.

[1:02:16] Uh on to special orders of business. If

[1:02:18] someone can make a motion for SP1.

[1:02:28] » Mr. Mayor Prom, I

[1:02:32] move for action 81R26, a resolution

[1:02:36] authorizing the continuence of the city

[1:02:37] of Evston's guaranteed income program.

[1:02:41] >> All right, it's been moved by council

[1:02:42] member Hedikatis. Is there a second for

[1:02:44] SP1?

[1:02:46] >> A second.

[1:02:46] >> Seconded by council member Harris

[1:02:50] and we have Allison Lepinger who is

[1:02:53] going to give us a presentation. Did you

[1:02:56] want to say

[1:02:56] >> Oh, wait.

[1:02:59] » Good evening everyone. Allison Lifiger,

[1:03:01] policy and intergovernmental affairs

[1:03:03] manager. Um I don't have a presentation.

[1:03:05] I'm happy to kind of give an overview of

[1:03:07] where we are. um which is that we did

[1:03:10] our second round of guaranteed income uh

[1:03:13] for the most part. Um it was called

[1:03:16] project 8092. It focused on families

[1:03:19] with young children in the census tract

[1:03:22] 8092.

[1:03:24] Um we

[1:03:27] used census data, ACS data to figure out

[1:03:30] how many people we thought that that

[1:03:32] would cover. As we know, ACS data is

[1:03:36] iffy at best, and the smaller the

[1:03:38] location, like a census tract, the worse

[1:03:40] the data is. So, we made our best guess.

[1:03:42] We were only able to enroll 99 of the

[1:03:46] 150 families that this council allocated

[1:03:49] ARPA dollars for.

[1:03:52] So, we are we'd like to fulfill the rest

[1:03:55] of that promise. We have $300,000 left

[1:03:58] because that will cover 50 over 51

[1:04:03] families. So that will cover 51

[1:04:04] families. We have a little bit more than

[1:04:06] 300,000.

[1:04:07] Um and so in order to spend that um and

[1:04:13] finish up the rest of the program, we're

[1:04:15] asking about how you want to tweak the

[1:04:17] eligibility to finish up round two. Um

[1:04:20] these funds need to be spent by the end

[1:04:24] of the year. So, if we There are several

[1:04:27] options. You could do it however you

[1:04:28] want. One option is to um do $1,000 a

[1:04:32] month instead of $500 a month, but for a

[1:04:34] shorter time period.

[1:04:36] That would personally be my

[1:04:38] recommendation to to spread it out um I

[1:04:42] think might be better for more community

[1:04:44] members, but the more you spread it out,

[1:04:46] the less the impact is. So, you could do

[1:04:48] um 102 households and $500 a month. Lots

[1:04:52] of options. Um the the biggest question

[1:04:55] and what I've put in the memo that

[1:04:57] you'll see is um and what the resolution

[1:05:00] currently says. So with no amendments,

[1:05:02] if you were to just pass it as is, it

[1:05:05] says find 51 families with the same

[1:05:07] eligibility requirements anywhere in the

[1:05:10] city, like no um no census tract

[1:05:14] requirement. And then um we would choose

[1:05:17] by lottery. Um, another option that I've

[1:05:21] put in the memo, um, and this would

[1:05:23] require an amendment is to focus on the

[1:05:25] next census tract that has the highest

[1:05:28] rate of childhood poverty, which is

[1:05:30] census tract 819 8102, which is in the

[1:05:33] eighth ward. Um, so lots of levers at

[1:05:37] your disposal. Um, and I'm happy to

[1:05:39] answer any questions.

[1:05:42] >> Um, just some real quick foundational

[1:05:45] information. So when you say when you

[1:05:47] allocated

[1:05:49] the amount of um the participants the

[1:05:52] participants we the 150 that was what

[1:05:54] that was the amount of participants that

[1:05:56] we thought might be eligible. We didn't

[1:05:58] know for sure we just thought they might

[1:05:59] be elig that's how many might be

[1:06:01] eligible.

[1:06:01] >> I mean what we what we did was we took

[1:06:03] data from the e plan and and we based it

[1:06:07] off of that and we said 8092 the census

[1:06:11] tract has the highest level of childhood

[1:06:13] poverty. So, let's try to guess how old

[1:06:16] the child needs to be in order to get

[1:06:19] 150 families. We could only guess. We

[1:06:22] went through district 65. We tried to

[1:06:24] get data from them. We went door todoor.

[1:06:27] We got 99 families. So, if we had done a

[1:06:31] higher age, we would have gotten more.

[1:06:33] >> Yeah. Um and only only say that as

[1:06:35] foundational cuz I I think the way this

[1:06:37] has been framed maybe mistakenly is like we failed in a sense. We didn't

[1:06:43] necessarily I don't think the city knew

[1:06:44] that there were 150 people or families

[1:06:47] that would qualify. Um but I think it's

[1:06:50] a success that we were were able to help

[1:06:52] 99 families. So I just wanted folks to

[1:06:54] understand that. Um first up I have

[1:06:56] council member Harris.

[1:06:58] >> Thank you so much. So just wanting to

[1:07:01] get some data I guess on the people that

[1:07:04] did receive the money. Do we have we

[1:07:07] seen

[1:07:10] improvement? Has there been tracking?

[1:07:13] Have we done um analysis of how money

[1:07:16] was spent? So, I guess that's the first

[1:07:18] question.

[1:07:18] >> So, a foundational aspect of a

[1:07:21] guaranteed income program and a promise

[1:07:22] we made was that we don't track how each

[1:07:25] person spends their money. That was

[1:07:27] that's what guaranteed income is. It's

[1:07:29] like you know what's best for your

[1:07:32] family, how you need to spend your

[1:07:34] money. And it's the idea is to take away

[1:07:37] sort of the government overreach into um

[1:07:40] dictating what people can spend their

[1:07:42] money on like what food for example SNAP

[1:07:45] is really restrictive or Medicaid. Um

[1:07:49] they're all great programs but they're

[1:07:50] very restrictive. And the idea with

[1:07:52] guaranteed income is that it's not. And

[1:07:54] so a promise we made to people was we're

[1:07:57] not going to monitor or police how you

[1:07:59] spend your money. We have aggregate data

[1:08:03] um from the first round that says people

[1:08:05] spent it on um housing, clothes, and

[1:08:09] food. And that that's pretty consistent

[1:08:11] across the research that we see um

[1:08:14] nationally about how people tend to

[1:08:16] spend their money.

[1:08:21] » Council member Harris.

[1:08:24] >> Okay. Um I'd still like to see the data.

[1:08:27] I don't know if that's accurate, but

[1:08:29] I'll I'll take your word at at this

[1:08:30] point. Um, did we do financial literacy

[1:08:34] with everybody who was partial

[1:08:42] literacy training

[1:08:44] to help alleviate to do?

[1:08:48] >> No, we offered the existing financial

[1:08:51] training that the Y does um for

[1:08:54] anyone's. they've got a lot of really

[1:08:56] good programs that anybody can take

[1:08:58] advantage of. So, we let people know

[1:08:59] about that, but kind of the same

[1:09:03] principle applies that it we didn't put

[1:09:06] restrictions on the use of like how you

[1:09:08] could what you had to do um to get the

[1:09:11] money or how many hoops you had to jump

[1:09:13] through to participate.

[1:09:15] >> I get it. Trying to provide funding, but

[1:09:18] at some point there are hoops you have

[1:09:20] to jump through. The city had to jump

[1:09:22] through them to get this money. We had

[1:09:24] to do homework. We [clears throat] had

[1:09:26] to fill out paperwork. We had to

[1:09:27] subscribe and do certain things. So to

[1:09:30] ask somebody if you're receiving money

[1:09:34] monthly

[1:09:36] to me to say you need to do some

[1:09:38] financial literacy, it only improves

[1:09:41] that person and what they can should be

[1:09:44] looking and how to figure things out.

[1:09:46] So, it is my belief if we redo this

[1:09:50] program that we do have some things that

[1:09:53] people need to do and that would be some

[1:09:57] financial literacy. Um,

[1:10:01] that's just life and I get it. We're not

[1:10:03] trying to restrict, but by forcing

[1:10:06] somebody to get some literacy training

[1:10:10] is not being restrictive, it's being

[1:10:11] helpful. Um, the other thing that I

[1:10:14] would like to see is that this go to

[1:10:16] senior citizens. Um, I think more than

[1:10:21] the younger population. I think um, our

[1:10:25] seniors need it. We've talked about

[1:10:26] that. We've talked about the housing

[1:10:30] predicament and people are being um,

[1:10:32] priced out of their homes. I think this

[1:10:34] would bless you. I think that this would

[1:10:37] be help. Um,

[1:10:42] and I'd like to make sure that people

[1:10:44] who live here, that we can prove they

[1:10:49] live here are getting us funding. I have

[1:10:51] more, but I'll come back.

[1:10:54] >> Uh, council member Nusma.

[1:10:57] >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Mayor Prom, uh, I

[1:11:00] have a few questions. Bless you again.

[1:11:03] Uh, number one, exactly how much money

[1:11:06] is left? There are two different numbers

[1:11:08] floating around out there. If it's for

[1:11:10] 51 people at $500 a month, that works

[1:11:13] out to $36,000

[1:11:16] total. Uh but there was a number in uh

[1:11:19] correspondence earlier today that said

[1:11:21] we have $349,366,

[1:11:25] which is not quite enough for another

[1:11:27] whole person, but just

[1:11:30] uh to be clear, how much do we have?

[1:11:32] >> Yeah, it's the it's the bigger number.

[1:11:34] 3,449

[1:11:36] 30 349,000

[1:11:39] plus some change. Um, and some of that

[1:11:41] goes for admin costs. We have to like

[1:11:43] buy the cards and hopefully we can pay a

[1:11:46] little bit for Ike's staff to do this.

[1:11:48] >> That answers my second question about

[1:11:50] what if any overhead costs were there

[1:11:52] going to be. So that would be included

[1:11:54] in that larger.

[1:11:56] >> Correct.

[1:11:56] >> Okay, great. Um are we obligated to

[1:12:00] spend this money on uh on this program

[1:12:04] on extension of this program? What kind

[1:12:06] of constraints do we have? Can it be

[1:12:09] reallocated to different funds,

[1:12:11] different programs, different

[1:12:13] initiatives?

[1:12:15] Uh if not, why not?

[1:12:17] >> The deadline for ARPA to allocate where

[1:12:20] the money was going to go has passed.

[1:12:22] So, you'll remember there were several

[1:12:25] um uh council meetings maybe I don't

[1:12:29] know six seven months ago where we did a

[1:12:32] whole bunch of IGAS and we sort of had

[1:12:34] these contingency plans. If we're not

[1:12:36] able to spend the money here, it'll go

[1:12:37] to the water fund. We didn't do that

[1:12:39] here. This council allocated this money

[1:12:42] to this program.

[1:12:43] >> Okay. If we don't spend this money,

[1:12:46] >> we lose it

[1:12:47] >> in this program. We lose it.

[1:12:48] >> Correct.

[1:12:49] >> We can't send it to the water fund.

[1:12:52] Correct.

[1:12:52] >> We can't even use it to fund a different

[1:12:55] type of housing program.

[1:12:56] >> Correct.

[1:12:56] >> We can't use it for the Wesley Avenue

[1:12:58] tenants.

[1:12:59] >> That's right.

[1:12:59] >> It has to be used for some version of

[1:13:02] guaranteed basic income. Okay, good. And

[1:13:04] we have to spend that money by the

[1:13:07] >> December 31st of this year.

[1:13:08] >> The year.

[1:13:09] >> Correct.

[1:13:09] >> Uh not just sign a contract that we'll

[1:13:12] have it spent in January or February.

[1:13:13] >> Correct. It has to be out the door.

[1:13:15] >> Money has to be out the door by the end

[1:13:17] of the year. Okay. So, we're really kind

[1:13:18] of stuck with if we don't want to lose

[1:13:21] this money, which I certainly do not uh

[1:13:26] with one of these options that you've

[1:13:28] put in front of us or if we can think

[1:13:30] creatively

[1:13:31] uh along those same lines, but we can't

[1:13:34] get too creative because we're

[1:13:35] constrained to guaranteed basic income.

[1:13:37] >> That's right.

[1:13:38] >> Okay. And I would um also mention we

[1:13:41] don't want to get too crazy because time

[1:13:43] is of the essence and so if we're

[1:13:45] creating a whole new program that's

[1:13:47] going to delay money going out the door.

[1:13:49] >> Um all this being the case uh I would be

[1:13:54] in favor of expanding eligibility

[1:13:56] citywide going beyond just uh the

[1:14:00] initial census tract and I think that's

[1:14:02] what you've identified as option.

[1:14:04] >> Okay. Yes.

[1:14:05] >> That's what's in front of us. If we

[1:14:06] wanted to do something different, we

[1:14:08] would we we could modify it.

[1:14:10] >> That's right.

[1:14:11] >> Okay, great. Thank you.

[1:14:13] >> Thank you.

[1:14:16] >> Anyone else?

[1:14:19] Oh, is it? Oh, Council Member Rogers.

[1:14:22] >> Thank you. Um, yeah, I I would echo I

[1:14:26] I'm much in favor of option one, making

[1:14:28] this a citywide program. Um, the other

[1:14:32] thing that I would like to see us do is,

[1:14:36] um, Cook County did a similar program.

[1:14:39] Um, and they recently have decided to

[1:14:41] make it a permanent program, which

[1:14:43] they're still trying to figure out the

[1:14:45] details thereof. But the one thing that

[1:14:47] was helpful, I think, was to get a

[1:14:48] participant snapshot, which they've

[1:14:50] posted on their website. So unlike um

[1:14:54] and I don't know that council member

[1:14:55] Harris's question was as pointed as

[1:14:58] where did they spend the money, but I

[1:15:00] would like to get a profile of who are

[1:15:02] we giving the money to and some basic

[1:15:04] information about them. Um you know

[1:15:06] average median household income, maybe

[1:15:10] >> some general behaviors, uh things like

[1:15:13] that without getting into the

[1:15:15] nitty-gritty of produce your receipts

[1:15:16] and show me where you spent your $500

[1:15:18] this month.

[1:15:19] >> We can do that for both rounds. the

[1:15:21] first round and this round

[1:15:22] >> and so that that I think would be very helpful for us to understand the

[1:15:27] success of this program. I mean

[1:15:28] obviously giving people money um helps

[1:15:31] their financial situation but by what

[1:15:33] measure and and that sort of stuff I

[1:15:36] think would be very helpful.

[1:15:38] >> Great.

[1:15:40] Council member Kelly,

[1:15:42] >> thank you. Um, yes, I would also agree

[1:15:44] to expand it and if it needs to, you

[1:15:46] know, since we have to spend it right by

[1:15:48] the end of the year to increase the

[1:15:49] amount because I know it's hard. It

[1:15:51] takes a lot of labor to actually get

[1:15:53] it's allocated. So, I would support um,

[1:15:55] you know, increasing that to a thousand.

[1:15:57] And yeah, also I mean I don't expect

[1:16:00] that all to happen this year, but maybe

[1:16:01] after that gets done. I mean, if we can

[1:16:03] collect that data, like you said, I know

[1:16:04] the county promise or cook, they look at

[1:16:07] like even credit scores to see if those

[1:16:09] increased and things like that that

[1:16:10] where we'd have some metrics to gauge

[1:16:12] success. So, thank you.

[1:16:13] >> Great. Thank you.

[1:16:15] >> All right. So, we don't always do this,

[1:16:17] but I think it's important to um to uh

[1:16:20] solidify things with motions. And so, if

[1:16:23] somebody can make

[1:16:24] >> if somebody wants to clarify, I think

[1:16:25] the motion on the table was for what's

[1:16:27] in the pack. Option one. Well, I heard

[1:16:29] some, you know, the financial I don't

[1:16:32] know if the financial literacy piece is

[1:16:34] something that we can easily weave into

[1:16:36] it or if that would be an add-on or how

[1:16:38] we're going to there was I believe

[1:16:40] council member Harris also said um to

[1:16:43] look at seniors. This obviously

[1:16:45] >> is more about childhood poverty and um

[1:16:49] >> have to make a motion to change the

[1:16:50] eligibility.

[1:16:51] >> So, I just want to make that clear that

[1:16:53] to add any of that we'd have to make um

[1:16:56] additional motions. Uh, Council Member

[1:16:58] Kelly.

[1:16:59] >> Yeah, I mean, I would like to see this subsidy paired with employment

[1:17:03] support, but I don't think right now I

[1:17:05] think we're under a deadline. So, I

[1:17:06] would say as we look to continuing this

[1:17:09] program in future years to see um about

[1:17:11] pairing it up with that would be great.

[1:17:14] >> And I will just anecdotally, what we

[1:17:16] know about the research is that people

[1:17:18] who participate in guaranteed income

[1:17:20] programs typically have better

[1:17:22] employment outcomes. There's a myth that

[1:17:24] if you give people money that they'll

[1:17:25] want to stay home. First of all, $500 or

[1:17:28] in this case $1,000 a month for a short

[1:17:30] period of time is not enough to live on.

[1:17:32] That's people can't just like stay home

[1:17:34] and rake in that money. Um, but what it

[1:17:37] does is it gives people a cushion. So,

[1:17:38] if your car breaks down, you're not you

[1:17:41] don't lose your job because you can't

[1:17:42] get to work. It it gives you that

[1:17:46] cushion. Sometimes um they we the

[1:17:48] research has found that people um are

[1:17:51] also more um like entrepreneurial

[1:17:54] because they have that cushion. So

[1:17:56] there's like new businesses. So the

[1:17:58] research is actually really good on

[1:17:59] this.

[1:18:02] » All right. Um so the motion is to expand

[1:18:07] it

[1:18:08] >> citywide with the with the existing

[1:18:12] qualifications and guidelines. Um let's

[1:18:15] do a roll call

[1:18:16] >> and that's for a thousand, right?

[1:18:17] >> Yeah. So we need to

[1:18:19] >> one. Yeah, that's all. Okay.

[1:18:21] >> Yeah, you can just vote. Yes.

[1:18:22] >> Council member Rogers.

[1:18:24] >> Thank you. Um, so I'm not in favor of a

[1:18:26] thousand. I think 500 is is the right

[1:18:29] amount because the program is going to

[1:18:31] be going away. Even if we bring it back,

[1:18:34] it will be gone for some period of time.

[1:18:36] And so I think it's best to get it out

[1:18:38] to people, but also not suddenly cut

[1:18:41] their income by $12,000 for the year.

[1:18:44] >> It would only be six. So um, because it

[1:18:47] has to be out by December 30.

[1:18:48] >> Right. Right. But it's it's but but by

[1:18:50] paying $1,000 that would be

[1:18:52] >> $6,000. $6,000 for this year, but it

[1:18:55] would be like $12,000 for an annual.

[1:18:58] >> You'd rather do 102 families.

[1:19:01] >> I would 500

[1:19:02] >> 500 and more families.

[1:19:06] >> So, I guess I'm making a motion to

[1:19:07] change.

[1:19:08] >> Councilor Rugie, is it a substitute

[1:19:10] motion or what? How do we handle that if

[1:19:12] he wants to?

[1:19:13] >> It's a regular motion.

[1:19:14] >> I'm just amending the

[1:19:15] >> Yeah. Yeah. An amendment

[1:19:16] >> motion.

[1:19:16] >> I guess is everybody

[1:19:19] >> I don't know if everybody's in agreement

[1:19:20] with that. So, that's what I'm saying.

[1:19:21] How do we handle

[1:19:23] >> thing if there's support for his

[1:19:24] amendment?

[1:19:24] >> Was I in there?

[1:19:26] >> What's in here already? If we could

[1:19:28] clarify that, I think that'd be

[1:19:29] important.

[1:19:31] >> And I'm looking at page

[1:19:33] >> was the change in 500.

[1:19:35] >> Yeah. The way it's written on page 34 of

[1:19:39] 1281,

[1:19:46] » uh, you support an additional 51

[1:19:48] individuals or families.

[1:19:51] Yeah, there's I guess that's that's a

[1:19:53] good point. The um

[1:19:58] Hold on, let me pull up the

[1:20:02] >> uh But

[1:20:02] >> yeah, it doesn't say explicitly in the

[1:20:04] resolution. So, why don't we why don't we do it by motion how much

[1:20:11] um you want to give and how many

[1:20:14] families.

[1:20:15] >> So, C council member Hedkott has made

[1:20:17] the motion, so I'm going to go back to

[1:20:19] him. I didn't make

[1:20:20] >> I didn't make the motion

[1:20:22] >> or moved it. I mean, you didn't move it.

[1:20:23] >> I've moved it. Yeah,

[1:20:24] >> that's what I mean. So, do you want a

[1:20:26] friendly amendment or what do you want

[1:20:27] to what do you want to do as the mayor?

[1:20:29] >> I we can I I think we should vote on all

[1:20:33] the like I think my assumption when we

[1:20:35] moved this was a was the thousand as it

[1:20:38] was

[1:20:38] >> how the math works out like the

[1:20:40] resolution says 51 families and so to

[1:20:43] spend the money just the math is that it

[1:20:44] would be

[1:20:45] >> like that's what you support. I think we

[1:20:48] should because it's unclear. I think we

[1:20:50] should all we should just vote on the number, but I have a question for

[1:20:55] staff before.

[1:20:56] >> Okay. No, go ahead.

[1:20:57] >> Yeah. So, um this question is just for

[1:21:00] any staff who's worked on this. How

[1:21:02] confident is are you that we can

[1:21:06] >> um and my brain is is fried with the

[1:21:08] math part. So we need 15 150 families

[1:21:11] then

[1:21:12] >> we need

[1:21:13] >> So

[1:21:14] >> if we're doing 500

[1:21:15] >> 102

[1:21:18] >> how confident are we that we

[1:21:20] >> if we can do 99 families in one census

[1:21:24] tract we can do 102 over the whole city.

[1:21:27] >> Okay. So um in that case

[1:21:32] we'll get the I don't know I will take

[1:21:35] that as a friendly amendment.

[1:21:37] So,

[1:21:39] >> okay. So,

[1:21:40] >> 102 families

[1:21:41] >> currently amendment has been accepted.

[1:21:43] >> Yeah, I'll accept it.

[1:21:44] >> Um,

[1:21:46] council member suffered in

[1:21:48] >> Yeah, I I just want to make sure we're

[1:21:50] clear. So, it's 102 recipients at 500 a

[1:21:52] month citywide

[1:21:54] >> for 6 months.

[1:21:55] >> Okay. And does anybody want to make

[1:21:57] amendments to the eligibility or we are

[1:22:00] confident that with the existing

[1:22:02] eligibility we will find 102 recipients

[1:22:05] citywide for 6 months? Okay. Thank you.

[1:22:08] >> So, but I have a question.

[1:22:09] >> Council member Harris.

[1:22:10] >> So, what is the eligibility? Let me be

[1:22:13] clear.

[1:22:13] >> It's 185% of the federal poverty line

[1:22:17] living in Evston with children second

[1:22:20] grade or younger.

[1:22:23] 185% of the federal poverty line, not

[1:22:26] coincidentally, is

[1:22:28] um the same eligibility for free and

[1:22:30] reduced lunch, which is why we picked it

[1:22:32] so that we could work with the schools

[1:22:33] to figure out who was on those lists.

[1:22:36] Um, and we used um income tax returns as

[1:22:42] proof. So that has somebody's

[1:22:45] address on it. It has their dependence

[1:22:47] and it has their income.

[1:22:51] >> Council member or Harris, did you have

[1:22:54] another question?

[1:22:55] >> I I wanted I don't know how we do it,

[1:22:57] but I wanted seniors in there. I didn't

[1:22:59] just want grade school. So

[1:23:04] yeah. Council member Kelly and then um

[1:23:08] I'm going to entertain after this

[1:23:10] motions. Let's let's make motions.

[1:23:12] Council Kelly.

[1:23:13] >> Yes. So, I'd like to see it just opened

[1:23:14] up to um so that we can include seniors

[1:23:17] as well. Um I know they are impacted

[1:23:19] with the SNAP cuts also. So, um I would

[1:23:22] move to expand it to anybody who's

[1:23:25] eligible at that income.

[1:23:28] >> Um and Coun Council Rugie again, do we

[1:23:31] have to vote on this first? I can't

[1:23:33] remember. Or if somebody has another

[1:23:34] idea, can they substitute or we have to

[1:23:36] vote on what we have before us first?

[1:23:39] >> My recommendation would be that this be

[1:23:41] an official amendment and then we go

[1:23:42] through amendments one at a time.

[1:23:45] >> So we would go through this first,

[1:23:47] Council Member Kelly, for example, we go

[1:23:48] through that amendment first to see if

[1:23:50] there's support for it. Okay. Yep.

[1:23:51] That's what I thought.

[1:23:51] >> So I'll re um ask a question.

[1:23:54] >> Uh Council Member Isles and I'll go back to you for a motion.

[1:23:58] >> I want to clarify with staff. We're

[1:24:02] we've got a very short runway to spend

[1:24:04] this money before the end of the year.

[1:24:06] If we change the requirements from what

[1:24:08] they are now, which has sort of been

[1:24:11] established over the course of the last

[1:24:12] couple years, and we start messing

[1:24:14] around with requirements and who's

[1:24:16] eligible, are you still going to be able

[1:24:18] to deliver before the end of the year,

[1:24:20] or is that going to make it really

[1:24:21] difficult?

[1:24:23] When we did this program the first time

[1:24:25] around and we had those three very

[1:24:27] distinct groups,

[1:24:30] um, we got

[1:24:32] over 2600

[1:24:35] applicants

[1:24:37] and a lot of them were applying from

[1:24:39] like Brazil and India and the UK. Like

[1:24:43] we had a lot of

[1:24:46] spam and it took a long long time to get

[1:24:49] through that. um working through the

[1:24:52] schools is like a little bit different.

[1:24:54] You're not you don't have the spam. Um

[1:24:56] and it's a lot more targeted. Um opening

[1:24:59] it up to anybody at 185% of the federal

[1:25:03] poverty line is nothing we've ever dealt

[1:25:06] with before because we only the first

[1:25:08] time we did it, we had those three

[1:25:10] distinct groups. And so um I am not

[1:25:16] It will add administrative burden. I

[1:25:17] have no idea what that's going to look

[1:25:19] like.

[1:25:20] >> Um, my gentle suggestion to my

[1:25:23] colleagues is that we get through this

[1:25:25] as simply as possible by the end of the

[1:25:27] year. And if we're looking to create

[1:25:31] a subsequent program, then we start

[1:25:33] talking about who would be in it and

[1:25:36] whether it would include seniors. But

[1:25:37] I'm concerned that if we add seniors,

[1:25:40] it'll add some complexity and we won't

[1:25:42] distribute the money by the end of the

[1:25:44] year. But don't we have an um budsman

[1:25:46] that can help us do that? Somebody on

[1:25:49] staff

[1:25:50] this question?

[1:25:52] >> Um I can take that. So the arms budsman

[1:25:54] um is actually a state of Illinois

[1:25:56] employee and then she helps the city. So

[1:25:59] I don't know that she would be um able

[1:26:02] to help with that.

[1:26:04] >> Yeah, she's limited to what the state

[1:26:05] allows.

[1:26:07] >> Um I'm going to sneak in a question. The

[1:26:10] first time we did guaranteed income, did

[1:26:11] that include seniors? Yes, I did.

[1:26:14] >> Can you um remind us all what the uh

[1:26:18] criteria qualifications were for that?

[1:26:20] >> Sure. We did um three different three

[1:26:22] different groups. We did um individuals

[1:26:26] 18 to 24 year old. Um we did

[1:26:29] undocumented folks and then individuals

[1:26:32] 65 and older and they all had to be in

[1:26:34] Evston and be at 250% of the federal

[1:26:37] poverty line.

[1:26:38] >> Do you know how many participants who

[1:26:40] had

[1:26:41] >> 50 5050? It was 50 5050 which would have

[1:26:43] been although 50 be okay. Um I only say

[1:26:46] that because I know this you know it was

[1:26:51] there was an intent intentional decision

[1:26:53] made to make an impact on this group.

[1:26:57] And so I guess at this point we've

[1:26:58] helped 99 families that fall within this

[1:27:02] uh eligibility criteria. 50 seniors so

[1:27:05] far. Um,

[1:27:08] you know, and how many participants are

[1:27:10] we saying we can help again with

[1:27:12] >> if we if we do $500 a month, it'll be

[1:27:15] 102 households.

[1:27:16] >> 102 households. Um,

[1:27:20] >> okay. Um, Council Member Kelly and then

[1:27:22] we're going to Somebody needs Oh, yeah.

[1:27:25] For an for an amendment. You have an

[1:27:27] amendment?

[1:27:27] >> Yeah. But first, I just want to comment

[1:27:29] on Sean's comment. Yeah. That was why I

[1:27:30] originally said $1,000 because I

[1:27:32] understand that what we're under to try

[1:27:34] to move this along and make sure that we

[1:27:36] are able to actually pay this out. Um,

[1:27:40] so

[1:27:41] >> thank you.

[1:27:42] >> So I mean we had an issue with getting

[1:27:44] them all getting getting the money out

[1:27:46] there. That's why I thought expanding it

[1:27:48] for citywide and then also to expand the

[1:27:50] eligibility. My question is what is do

[1:27:53] we have like a five-year residency

[1:27:54] requirement? No,

[1:27:55] >> we don't have any. So someone could move

[1:27:58] here and correct tomorrow.

[1:28:00] >> Yes.

[1:28:00] >> Okay. I would like to just add a

[1:28:01] fiveyear. Can we

[1:28:03] >> Okay.

[1:28:04] >> That's

[1:28:06] >> No,

[1:28:06] >> I just administratively that's uh it's

[1:28:09] that's tricky for for us to verify

[1:28:12] >> residency. Okay.

[1:28:16] >> Um

[1:28:16] >> Okay. So at this point I'm I'm really

[1:28:18] going to encourage amendments. So do you

[1:28:20] have an amendment?

[1:28:21] >> So um well citywide. So is that in

[1:28:25] number one that it's citywide? Correct.

[1:28:27] >> That is there. So, it's restricted to um

[1:28:30] families with children under a certain

[1:28:33] age.

[1:28:34] >> Correct. Yeah. And and it doesn't have

[1:28:36] if you're a grandparent and you're

[1:28:38] that's your dependent, you're still

[1:28:40] eligible. There's no um age

[1:28:43] >> requirement for the head of household.

[1:28:46] It's just if whoever um is taking care

[1:28:49] of the child.

[1:28:50] >> Okay. Um, I'd like to expand that to

[1:28:53] include I won't say everybody, but to um

[1:28:56] residents over 65. I just want to show

[1:28:59] that we get it out since we've lowered

[1:29:00] it to 500.

[1:29:01] >> Is that just you can make Yeah, just

[1:29:02] make the motion.

[1:29:03] >> Well, I just want to say really quickly,

[1:29:06] um,

[1:29:08] about those 65 and older, I think one

[1:29:11] thing to consider is that 55 to 64,

[1:29:15] those are the folks who are going to be

[1:29:16] losing SNAP

[1:29:18] and have the work requirement. So, just

[1:29:21] something else to consider.

[1:29:22] >> So, do that 55.

[1:29:23] >> Do you want to change or 65 and up?

[1:29:26] >> Um,

[1:29:32] uh, no, I'll just leave it. That's fine.

[1:29:34] Unless somebody else wants to amend it,

[1:29:36] but

[1:29:36] >> All right. So, the motion has been made

[1:29:38] or amendment has been made by Council

[1:29:39] Member Kelly. Is there a second?

[1:29:41] >> No, I didn't actually make it. I

[1:29:42] withdrew it.

[1:29:43] >> Oh, you withdrawn it.

[1:29:43] >> I just as long as it's citywide. Um,

[1:29:46] yeah.

[1:29:46] >> So, no aid. We're not increasing the

[1:29:48] age.

[1:29:49] You're not doing it. Okay. All right.

[1:29:51] Anybody else have any amendments? Seeing

[1:29:53] none, let's do you do?

[1:29:55] >> Yeah.

[1:29:56] >> Council member Harris,

[1:29:57] >> I I'm gonna go back to what I said

[1:29:59] originally. Seniors I'll take the 55 to

[1:30:03] 64. So, I'm I um I'd like to amend it to

[1:30:07] include 55 to 64 with the two. You said

[1:30:12] a number for um

[1:30:16] AMI 210.

[1:30:19] >> You do you want it to be different than

[1:30:20] what everyone else is?

[1:30:22] >> No, it can be.

[1:30:22] >> Okay. It's 185 for everyone.

[1:30:24] >> Okay. 185.

[1:30:26] >> And I'll second that.

[1:30:26] >> And so 55 and up or 55 to 60?

[1:30:30] >> 55 and up.

[1:30:31] Okay. So a motion has been

[1:30:34] made to amend the guarantee program. Is

[1:30:37] there a second? It's been seconded by

[1:30:38] Council Member Kelly. Um, Council Member

[1:30:41] Manusma.

[1:30:42] >> Thank you. I I'm 100% with you in spirit

[1:30:46] uh and in theory, but I'm going to side

[1:30:49] with Council Member Isles because we

[1:30:51] have an existing program and we're in a

[1:30:53] time crunch to get this money out the

[1:30:55] door. I think we need to focus on

[1:30:56] simplicity and adding the uh if if we're

[1:31:00] going to do this program on an ongoing

[1:31:02] basis, absolutely, let's talk about

[1:31:04] increasing the age uh requirement. But

[1:31:07] for right now, uh, I'm going to, um,

[1:31:11] suggest we keep it as it is.

[1:31:13] >> But we already had a program. She said

[1:31:14] we had three programs that had seniors.

[1:31:17] Correct. You said we had seniors,

[1:31:20] undocumented.

[1:31:24] » Yeah. For the first round, right?

[1:31:25] >> Yeah. So, we So, they're out there.

[1:31:29] >> Uh, Council Member Rogers,

[1:31:31] >> everybody that would be involved in this

[1:31:32] round would have to reapply, correct?

[1:31:35] or would have to apply under these

[1:31:36] conditions. We don't have a pool of

[1:31:38] people that we're waiting to give money

[1:31:40] to outside of the original group of

[1:31:42] people.

[1:31:43] >> Correct.

[1:31:44] >> So whether we make a requirement that

[1:31:46] they be over a certain age or anything

[1:31:48] else, you're still going to have to

[1:31:50] screen these people from the very

[1:31:51] beginning. Correct.

[1:31:52] >> Yeah, that's right.

[1:31:53] >> All right. Thank you.

[1:31:54] >> All right. Um,

[1:31:56] roll call, please.

[1:32:00] >> Council member Haragaris.

[1:32:01] >> No. Council member Kelly,

[1:32:04] >> I.

[1:32:06] >> Council member Harris,

[1:32:08] >> yeah.

[1:32:08] >> I,

[1:32:09] >> Council Member Isles,

[1:32:10] >> no.

[1:32:10] >> Council member Nusma,

[1:32:12] >> no.

[1:32:13] >> Council member Suffford,

[1:32:14] >> hi.

[1:32:15] >> Council member Davis,

[1:32:16] >> hi.

[1:32:17] >> Council member Rogers,

[1:32:18] >> hi.

[1:32:19] >> Council member Burns,

[1:32:20] >> hi.

[1:32:22] >> What does that leave us with?

[1:32:23] >> 63.

[1:32:24] >> Give me one second.

[1:32:25] >> 63.

[1:32:26] >> That was 63.

[1:32:26] >> 63.

[1:32:27] >> Okay. Um, and then now the underlying

[1:32:31] motion, correct?

[1:32:33] Um,

[1:32:35] unless we have any other comments, we'll

[1:32:37] take a roll call on it,

[1:32:38] >> which is what 500

[1:32:40] >> citywide

[1:32:41] >> 500 102.

[1:32:43] >> I just want to be clear

[1:32:45] >> citywide. So to 102 people

[1:32:50] >> all right. Y

[1:32:57] » um and just to clarify, we okay 500 um

[1:33:02] 102 participants um

[1:33:06] with 185 AMI

[1:33:11] >> okay

[1:33:12] >> of of not AMI 185% of the level.

[1:33:16] Allison, could you just uh wouldn't mind saying it one more time,

[1:33:24] » 102 families

[1:33:26] >> in two what?

[1:33:29] >> Never mind.

[1:33:30] >> You sure?

[1:33:30] >> Yeah.

[1:33:30] >> Okay. Two different groups.

[1:33:34] >> And I assume there's no distinction

[1:33:35] between them. How many people in each

[1:33:37] one? Like

[1:33:39] >> correct.

[1:33:40] >> Okay. um people for both groups 185% of

[1:33:44] the federal poverty line not ami 100%

[1:33:48] 185% of the federal poverty line living

[1:33:50] in Evston one group with second graders

[1:33:54] or younger and the other group 55 and

[1:33:57] older. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

[1:33:59] >> All right.

[1:34:01] >> Okay.

[1:34:01] >> Roll call, please.

[1:34:02] >> Council member Heracaris,

[1:34:04] >> I.

[1:34:04] >> Council member Kelly,

[1:34:05] >> I.

[1:34:06] >> Council member Harris,

[1:34:07] >> hi.

[1:34:07] >> Council member Isles.

[1:34:08] >> Hi.

[1:34:09] >> Council member Nusma. Hi,

[1:34:10] >> Council Member Suffered.

[1:34:11] >> Hi,

[1:34:12] >> Council Member Davis. Hi,

[1:34:13] >> Council Member Rogers.

[1:34:14] >> Hi,

[1:34:14] >> Council Member Burns.

[1:34:15] >> Hi.

[1:34:17] >> Um, all right. We have SP1 approved.

[1:34:20] Next up, uh, if I can have a motion for

[1:34:22] SP2, please.

[1:34:27] » Mr. Chair, I would move um item SP2,

[1:34:30] resolution 86R26,

[1:34:32] additional financial support for the

[1:34:34] Wesley tenants.

[1:34:35] >> It's been properly moved by council

[1:34:37] member Rogers. Is there a second?

[1:34:38] >> Oh, second. Seconded by Council Member

[1:34:40] Hedikatis.

[1:34:43] » Um, you want to go first? Yep. Council

[1:34:46] member Rogers, you have

[1:34:47] >> Oh, I guess I was reaching for my light.

[1:34:49] You caught me off guard. Um, yeah. So,

[1:34:52] this is something I think is something

[1:34:54] the city has to do um to support people.

[1:34:57] We we um

[1:34:59] I as a newer council member don't know

[1:35:02] the whole history behind all of this.

[1:35:04] Um, I'm trying to learn it, but I want

[1:35:07] to make sure that we do not repeat

[1:35:08] something like this again. Um, I think

[1:35:11] there's blame to go around for

[1:35:13] everybody. Um, but I do also want to

[1:35:15] apologize to these tenants because we

[1:35:18] did relocate them, um, through no fault

[1:35:21] of their own. And, um, I think we need

[1:35:25] to, uh, figure out what lessons can be

[1:35:28] learned here. Um there's a bunch of

[1:35:30] questions in my mind about uh whether

[1:35:33] inspections were done on time and in a

[1:35:36] timely manner. Um

[1:35:40] about um you know sort of the the the

[1:35:43] money that we're spending. Could that

[1:35:44] have been spent rather than relocating

[1:35:46] people to put towards repairs um and

[1:35:49] finding other sources of income for

[1:35:51] that? Um, so but I stand fully behind uh

[1:35:56] making uh Council Member Burns request

[1:35:57] for additional funding for the people um

[1:36:00] that we have displaced.

[1:36:01] >> Uh Council Member Harris,

[1:36:04] >> thank you. Um so I just have a number of

[1:36:07] questions and I don't know who can

[1:36:10] answer, but I I I'm looking at these

[1:36:13] rents and they're really high. I don't

[1:36:15] remember the families being this many

[1:36:18] people. So can I go through? I don't

[1:36:20] know who I'd be asking if that's Sarah.

[1:36:24] Um about the households

[1:36:27] in general.

[1:36:30] Um so household one um the current rent

[1:36:35] is 2600. How many bedrooms is that?

[1:36:40] >> I don't have all that detail on these. I

[1:36:42] can try to answer what I can, but my

[1:36:45] expectation is it's a two or maybe a

[1:36:48] threebedroom.

[1:36:49] Okay. Would somebody have that

[1:36:51] information?

[1:36:53] >> Who is this? I got to go between a few

[1:36:56] different things, but what what

[1:36:57] household is this again?

[1:36:58] >> Household number one. Household of four.

[1:37:00] >> Okay. Give me one one moment.

[1:37:03] >> So, I have a set of standard questions

[1:37:05] that I'm going to ask for every

[1:37:06] household. So, I need somebody to have

[1:37:09] some answers.

[1:37:10] >> Um, Ike Agbo is on line, too. and um our

[1:37:15] social services group was directly

[1:37:17] involved with some of these. So I don't

[1:37:19] know if I can answer questions on the

[1:37:21] individuals. I'll answer the ones I can

[1:37:23] and we'll try to get other people in the

[1:37:24] ones that I

[1:37:25] >> somebody will need to answer them. So if

[1:37:27] it's you that would be great. If it's

[1:37:29] somebody else that will be fine, but I

[1:37:31] do need answers. So household number

[1:37:33] one, household of four, that's how many

[1:37:35] bedrooms

[1:37:37] do we know?

[1:37:39] >> I don't know. I believe

[1:37:42] real quick. So, let me let me let me uh

[1:37:44] try to handle this first cuz I think I

[1:37:46] can get answers quicker. So, we're

[1:37:48] talking household I got everything

[1:37:50] pulled up now. You talking about

[1:37:50] household one?

[1:37:51] >> Yes. I'm going to go through each one.

[1:37:53] >> Yeah. Yeah. So, household one.

[1:37:55] >> I thought somebody online also

[1:37:58] >> I don't think they have access to I mean

[1:38:01] council member I director Ike. Was that

[1:38:03] you?

[1:38:04] >> Yes, I'm I'm here. Good day members of

[1:38:07] the city council. This is Ike Health and

[1:38:10] Human Services Department. Um yes, we

[1:38:12] work closely with Connections for the

[1:38:15] Homeless uh regarding this this matter.

[1:38:17] Um Connections for the Homeless pretty

[1:38:19] much took the upper hand in assessing

[1:38:22] the the families and where to to locate

[1:38:26] them and the rent. Uh but we have some

[1:38:30] information that we can relay. I don't

[1:38:33] have that right in front of me. Uh, but

[1:38:36] we do have our human services specialist

[1:38:38] Maurice Wilkinson who can

[1:38:41] >> Thank you. Maurice

[1:38:42] >> our number it's again if I can now

[1:38:45] >> I'm here. Hello.

[1:38:46] >> It's three bedrooms.

[1:38:46] >> I'm here.

[1:38:47] >> It's three bedrooms.

[1:38:48] >> Yeah.

[1:38:49] >> So

[1:38:49] >> what's the next one?

[1:38:50] >> I've told it was three bedrooms.

[1:38:52] Everybody there. So the three bedrooms

[1:38:55] it's household of four. Are there people

[1:38:59] over the age of 18

[1:39:04] in household

[1:39:05] >> that are contributing or just there?

[1:39:10] >> Okay. Um, as I stated, I have our human

[1:39:12] service specialist, Maurice Wilkinson,

[1:39:14] who's here, I believe.

[1:39:16] >> Hello. Hello, city council. I'm here.

[1:39:18] Ike. Hello, council. Good

[1:39:20] evening, council. Um, yes, that

[1:39:21] household has uh from my information,

[1:39:24] they have two adults over 18.

[1:39:27] Okay. And are they helping contribute?

[1:39:29] Are they part of the

[1:39:33] income we're considering?

[1:39:36] >> No. The only income that was reported on

[1:39:38] there is from the uh head of the

[1:39:40] household.

[1:39:41] >> Okay.

[1:39:43] Number two, household of one. So that is

[1:39:46] one person. Their current rent is 17. Um

[1:39:51] and how

[1:39:53] that's good. That's good. That's a one

[1:39:55] bed for one bedroom.

[1:39:57] >> Okay, thank you. One bedroom. Household

[1:39:59] number three, household of three. How

[1:40:02] many what? One or two bedrooms? Probably

[1:40:05] two.

[1:40:07] >> That's a twobedroom and both I think um

[1:40:09] if I'm correct, those she that no one in

[1:40:11] that household is um over 18.

[1:40:14] >> Okay.

[1:40:18] Um household number four, household of

[1:40:20] four.

[1:40:22] Um, how many bedrooms?

[1:40:27] » That's a three bedroomedroom. And they

[1:40:30] have one they have one um family member

[1:40:32] over 18, but he's in college.

[1:40:34] >> Okay. So, he's in college. And then

[1:40:37] there's one other adult contributing.

[1:40:40] That's where the income is from.

[1:40:41] >> Just Yeah, just one adult. Yep.

[1:40:44] >> Okay. Household number five. How many

[1:40:47] bedrooms? How many adults?

[1:40:51] Um five is household of two uh two

[1:40:55] bedrooms. One adult, one one one uh

[1:41:00] just a Yeah, a child.

[1:41:02] >> Okay. And then household number six. How

[1:41:05] many bedrooms? How many adults?

[1:41:09] >> Two adults. The income is from one adult

[1:41:12] and uh two bedroom.

[1:41:13] >> Okay.

[1:41:16] is um are any of these a reason why if

[1:41:19] there's more than one adult there isn't

[1:41:21] more than one income listed or asked for

[1:41:24] or required?

[1:41:26] >> Um yes. So whoever yeah it's only one

[1:41:31] income. Well we when we um from our

[1:41:33] research we the information we gather

[1:41:36] whenever we we we tried to verify income

[1:41:39] only the income you see is is from the

[1:41:41] individual in the household. So the

[1:41:43] other individual doesn't have any

[1:41:45] income.

[1:41:47] >> Okay.

[1:41:48] >> For house I mean if I know for household

[1:41:49] six for sure

[1:41:51] >> for six and the single one as well.

[1:41:56] >> Yeah. But we didn't I didn't we we

[1:41:57] didn't get a chance to um run the adults

[1:42:01] in that household um

[1:42:04] to see if they you know anyone was

[1:42:06] working in there.

[1:42:08] I just know for sure the household 60

[1:42:10] ramp both of those individuals

[1:42:12] information.

[1:42:13] >> Okay. Thank you.

[1:42:16] >> Uh, Council Member Kelly.

[1:42:19] >> Thank you. So, I also support this and

[1:42:21] again I I agree with Council Member

[1:42:23] Rogers and at some point um taking a

[1:42:26] hard look at how this happens so we can

[1:42:27] avoid this was very upsetting um to many

[1:42:30] families and and seniors especially

[1:42:32] senior citizens. So I guess my question

[1:42:34] is I thought so we gave connections for

[1:42:37] the homeless 800,000 what I understood

[1:42:40] to be for this that so are you saying

[1:42:43] that only 417,000

[1:42:46] of that 800,000 went to support? No.

[1:42:50] >> Um this was not exclusively for the

[1:42:52] Wesley tenants. It was the first group

[1:42:54] that we helped. Council member Burns

[1:42:56] made it very clear that he did not want

[1:42:58] the money to be used only in 8092 even.

[1:43:02] Um and it was opened up and there are

[1:43:04] additional households that are helped

[1:43:06] with the rest of that money.

[1:43:07] >> Okay. So somewhere there's an accounting

[1:43:08] of that other 400,000.

[1:43:10] >> Yes.

[1:43:11] >> For Okay.

[1:43:12] >> Okay. Well, thank you. That's all.

[1:43:14] >> Council member Anusma,

[1:43:16] >> uh how much does it cost to administer

[1:43:19] this program? So, what are the overhead

[1:43:21] costs and and who pays for those?

[1:43:24] >> Um connections gets some of the money

[1:43:26] for of of that 810,000 for the case

[1:43:28] management. That's the bulk of it. Um

[1:43:33] we actually Maurice is doing a great

[1:43:35] deal of work with this group and um we

[1:43:39] have um we had some

[1:43:43] funding that is in our ARPA

[1:43:44] administration that we have used to pay

[1:43:47] for some of um Maurice's time on this

[1:43:52] and the other um rent assistance

[1:43:54] programs but it's only like 45,000 for

[1:43:58] both of them over the period of time.

[1:43:59] So, the request in front of us tonight,

[1:44:01] $63,229.50

[1:44:05] is direct for the tenants. That does not

[1:44:07] include correct. Yeah,

[1:44:10] >> we're absorbing that or connections is

[1:44:12] absorbing that.

[1:44:12] >> Um, well, no, Connections is getting

[1:44:14] some of that paid for out of the because

[1:44:16] they have a Yeah, but we are absorbing

[1:44:18] most of our staff that's been working on

[1:44:21] it.

[1:44:22] >> Okay. I support this. Um, you know, I do

[1:44:25] think this is special treatment for a a

[1:44:28] select population. Uh, but as some of my

[1:44:32] colleagues have pointed out, uh, it's a

[1:44:35] unique uh, situation. So, special

[1:44:37] treatment is, uh, is called for here.

[1:44:41] Um, [clears throat]

[1:44:42] but we can't let this kind of thing

[1:44:44] happen again.

[1:44:46] >> Council member Harris,

[1:44:49] >> thank you. Um,

[1:44:54] this is a hard place to be. And my

[1:44:58] understanding, somebody told me today

[1:45:00] one of the other porches collapsed

[1:45:02] within the past week. I don't know

[1:45:06] >> that's true.

[1:45:07] >> Well, not know it's true, but yeah. Um,

[1:45:12] so

[1:45:14] financial literacy, I'm going to keep

[1:45:15] talking about this because we're giving

[1:45:17] money and and we should, but at the same

[1:45:20] time, we shouldn't without

[1:45:24] some parameters to make sure, what do

[1:45:27] they say? If you feed somebody fish,

[1:45:29] they're going to be they're good. If you

[1:45:31] teach them how to fish, they can do it.

[1:45:33] So, we have to teach people,

[1:45:35] self-inccluded. There was a time where I

[1:45:38] needed some financial literacy

[1:45:41] because I just was spending money like I

[1:45:44] had it. So, is there some financial

[1:45:47] literacy tied up in this? Be it through

[1:45:50] the Y is is there some at this

[1:45:53] point because we've gotten almost half

[1:45:56] off of it. Is there some something we're

[1:45:59] going to do with some literacy?

[1:46:02] um all of the households if they were

[1:46:05] cooperating got wraparound services and

[1:46:08] some of the households were more able to

[1:46:10] cooperate and were more cooperative but

[1:46:13] it's very difficult to force people to

[1:46:16] take services um and they

[1:46:19] [clears throat]

[1:46:20] >> stop

[1:46:21] >> uh

[1:46:23] it's

[1:46:25] I'm frustrated I'm I'm very frustrated

[1:46:28] >> so it's hard for us to make them do

[1:46:31] something but it's going to hire for

[1:46:32] them take this money

[1:46:34] is that

[1:46:36] okay that's what I thought

[1:46:37] >> people are in very different situations

[1:46:39] >> I get it I get it I I totally get it but

[1:46:43] I need to know so for this round I would

[1:46:46] like for anybody on this list to be

[1:46:49] mandated to do some kind of federal

[1:46:52] financial literacy

[1:46:54] because what changes in a year if it

[1:46:56] hasn't changed now what changes what's

[1:46:59] going to be different in a year

[1:47:03] was different if the behavior or things

[1:47:06] haven't changed and you're saying

[1:47:08] cooperating. So if somebody wasn't

[1:47:10] cooperating, I almost want to know

[1:47:12] because maybe they're not eligible. If

[1:47:14] you're not cooperating with what we're

[1:47:16] saying you need to do so that we can

[1:47:20] move on and maybe figure out how to fix

[1:47:23] the problem we found ourselves in

[1:47:26] because this was not initially our

[1:47:28] problem. it became our problem because

[1:47:30] maybe CO messed up our time frame of

[1:47:33] checking things, but this wasn't our

[1:47:35] building.

[1:47:36] >> Correct. Um originally the um what was

[1:47:42] the promise that was made um upfront was

[1:47:45] that all the tenants would get at least

[1:47:47] a year of rent support.

[1:47:50] >> Mhm. um those who were income eligible

[1:47:53] whose incomes were under 80% of the area

[1:47:55] median income would be qualified for a

[1:47:59] second one but that was the end of the

[1:48:05] initial promise.

[1:48:07] >> Okay. So I'm just again trying to

[1:48:09] understand why we're still here, what

[1:48:11] would change in a year. Um

[1:48:15] >> I'm not a case manager. maybe um Ike and

[1:48:18] his uh group would be better able to

[1:48:21] respond to some of those questions.

[1:48:24] >> Right. Uh good day everyone. Uh it is an

[1:48:28] item that we can incorporate in case

[1:48:31] management this time around that it be

[1:48:35] some financial literacy in order for

[1:48:37] individuals to qualify for an extension

[1:48:42] of a year. And I I think if we put that

[1:48:45] we will make the individuals more

[1:48:48] successful in transition of of the

[1:48:51] program in the subsequent year.

[1:48:55] >> Uh C

[1:48:57] council member Rogers.

[1:49:00] >> Thank you. Um I don't think financial

[1:49:02] literacy is the thing that got us here

[1:49:04] to be quite honest. Um were these people

[1:49:06] at risk of being of losing their homes

[1:49:09] before we moved them out? Do we know

[1:49:14] » the property was not being managed by

[1:49:18] the property owners?

[1:49:20] Leases weren't being rewritten. They had

[1:49:23] a superintendent managing the buildings.

[1:49:27] >> Were they at risk of losing their homes

[1:49:29] because of financial issues from them?

[1:49:31] >> Um well, a number of them were not

[1:49:33] paying anything. we don't have

[1:49:35] background on they weren't income

[1:49:37] qualified and various other things to

[1:49:39] the best of our knowledge during that

[1:49:41] period of time.

[1:49:42] >> Okay. Um I think it's a little um

[1:49:46] frustrating for me that we're going to

[1:49:50] uh ask people that we've relocated out

[1:49:52] of their homes to um go through

[1:49:56] additional steps. This is we we we are equally responsible for these

[1:50:01] people being gone. And I know you and I

[1:50:02] have talked about that, Miss Flax, and

[1:50:03] we have a difference of opinion on um

[1:50:06] people's uh level of responsibility, but

[1:50:09] I've heard from a couple council members

[1:50:10] up here that we do need to figure out

[1:50:12] what happened. And I do want to make

[1:50:14] sure that once we vote on this tonight,

[1:50:17] we just don't forget about this and not

[1:50:19] come back to it. Um so that is something

[1:50:22] that I really want us to do. Um but I

[1:50:26] think again people who who we have we

[1:50:32] have moved out of their homes um to

[1:50:34] start uh

[1:50:38] saying well they're being uncooperative

[1:50:39] with us. Um

[1:50:43] I I just I just don't think that's the

[1:50:45] best approach. I think that these people

[1:50:48] we have we have put them in a situation

[1:50:50] it's our responsibility to take care of

[1:50:52] them for at least one more year.

[1:50:54] um and do what we can to move them into

[1:50:57] permanent housing. It sounds like we've

[1:50:58] been successful with a number of those

[1:51:00] people already. Um and my hope is that

[1:51:02] in the next year we can get the

[1:51:04] remaining few um back onto their feet um

[1:51:09] so they're able to support themselves.

[1:51:12] >> Council member Kelly, I think you had

[1:51:14] your

[1:51:15] >> Thank you. Um I concur with Council

[1:51:18] Member Rogers. I think I'm more

[1:51:20] concerned about um I'm glad to hear that

[1:51:22] wraparound service were offered and we

[1:51:25] have records so we know how many people

[1:51:27] were either offered or took wraparound

[1:51:30] services.

[1:51:30] >> Everybody was offered

[1:51:32] >> right. So I guess my question is how is

[1:51:34] that and I know for HIPPA we can't

[1:51:35] obviously um don't get identities but I

[1:51:39] so I I'm curious as to how were those

[1:51:42] records like how those are documented.

[1:51:45] Case managers have regular files that

[1:51:48] they keep track of. They keep track of

[1:51:50] the meetings. They keep track of the

[1:51:53] progress. They keep track of understood.

[1:51:55] But it's a third party. So, how do we

[1:51:57] provide the oversight to en to to know

[1:51:59] that the money we've given out and if

[1:52:01] it's I think to council member um

[1:52:03] Harris's concern about you know the

[1:52:05] support needed. I'm just curious. I'm

[1:52:07] not I'm wondering how does the city

[1:52:09] monitor when we give out $800,000 for um

[1:52:13] to a third party to provide services

[1:52:15] that they are in fact I know we don't

[1:52:17] have they have the case manager so how

[1:52:19] do we verify that the services are in

[1:52:21] fact delivered

[1:52:25] we do on-site monitoring sometimes and

[1:52:27] sometimes we review some of those files

[1:52:30] I have not done it with these personally

[1:52:32] um the other thing is we look at the

[1:52:34] successes um when you have people who

[1:52:36] are very low income. And of 18,

[1:52:43] well, first of all, there were um two,

[1:52:48] you know, there's outcomes for each one

[1:52:50] of these groups. The first one is stable

[1:52:52] housing was secured for five households

[1:52:53] within a year of being evacuated. Two

[1:52:56] were moved into subsidized senior

[1:52:58] housing. They had very low incomes, but

[1:53:00] they accepted subsidized senior housing.

[1:53:04] Um, one received a permanent housing sub

[1:53:07] subsidy and one was not eligible for a

[1:53:09] second year of assistance based on their

[1:53:11] income and took over their rent. 10

[1:53:13] households in addition are stably housed

[1:53:16] after completing or nearing completion

[1:53:17] of two years of rent.

[1:53:19] >> Sorry, if I may. So, yes, I understand

[1:53:20] the housing piece and we're glad um they

[1:53:22] got housing. I was just dovetailing a

[1:53:24] bit on Council Member Harris's question

[1:53:26] regarding supports and I and it sounds

[1:53:28] like we don't have documentation on it,

[1:53:30] but that's all I wanted to know. Thank

[1:53:31] you. But every household gets different

[1:53:34] services based on their needs. I'm

[1:53:35] >> just right. We just don't have any

[1:53:37] records or to verify is what you just

[1:53:39] said that in this case

[1:53:40] >> I said I haven't personally verified

[1:53:42] them.

[1:53:43] >> Uh council member Harris.

[1:53:47] So, just going back to the memo. Um, I I

[1:53:51] remember when I sat in on the Wesley

[1:53:53] conversation,

[1:53:56] a a tenant mentioned that they had a

[1:54:00] hole in their roof and they could not

[1:54:01] sleep in their bedroom when it rained

[1:54:04] because rain came into their homes. Um,

[1:54:08] [clears throat]

[1:54:09] didn't HOCC take were they in charge of

[1:54:13] this property? Who owned this property?

[1:54:16] The Evston Housing Coalition is the

[1:54:18] owner. The Evston Housing Coalition is a

[1:54:21] nonprofit that um lost its capacity to

[1:54:25] manage these buildings,

[1:54:26] >> right?

[1:54:27] um

[1:54:29] they

[1:54:32] got HODC or contracted with HODC to try

[1:54:36] to get the property under control, you

[1:54:39] know, get them um and HODC found that

[1:54:43] they did not many of the people had not

[1:54:45] had leases renewed. they had not had any

[1:54:49] number of other things done including

[1:54:51] income certifications probably all the

[1:54:53] sort of stuff that you normally do with

[1:54:55] this kind of housing. Um and um there

[1:55:00] was um one of the residents who had been

[1:55:03] given responsibility for managing the

[1:55:06] actual property.

[1:55:09] >> Okay.

[1:55:09] So, I was just trying to

[1:55:12] understand the finances, but um I'm just

[1:55:16] go I'm going to struggle with a person

[1:55:19] is being evicted for non-payment of

[1:55:21] their share and they've already received

[1:55:24] 24 months of rent assistance and a

[1:55:26] six-month extension. What changes? What

[1:55:30] is different? Then we have a senior that

[1:55:33] has an adult child that doesn't

[1:55:35] contribute towards the rent, but we now

[1:55:38] have to what

[1:55:41] those are things that are just causing

[1:55:43] me pause.

[1:55:45] >> But I get it. We're We are partially

[1:55:47] responsible, but are we done in a year?

[1:55:50] If if this comes back, Council Member

[1:55:52] Burns, are we done in a year?

[1:55:56] >> My question to you. Yeah, I'm gonna go

[1:55:58] to Council Member Kelly next and I was

[1:56:00] going to speak at the end. I I'm I'm

[1:56:02] pretty confident that all the questions

[1:56:04] that I've heard I can answer. Um and so

[1:56:08] um I will do that after everyone uh

[1:56:11] speaks their mind. Council member Kelly,

[1:56:13] >> thank you. So um you know there were

[1:56:15] many I don't know upwards of 25

[1:56:17] residents living there mostly for the

[1:56:19] most part doing fine. Um maybe there

[1:56:21] were one or two that were having some

[1:56:22] financial issues.

[1:56:24] So I just asked about the sports in

[1:56:26] general. I think on a broader discussion

[1:56:28] about you know how we ensure that you

[1:56:31] know a lot of tax dollar that's provided

[1:56:33] to third parties um this would be for

[1:56:36] another day but I would like to

[1:56:38] encourage that we do look at that how

[1:56:39] much goes to overhead how much how do we

[1:56:41] verify um that appropriate and

[1:56:43] sufficient services are in fact being

[1:56:45] delivered so that's all thank you

[1:56:51] » um

[1:56:54] the first thing I want to start off by

[1:56:56] saying that that um we have one person,

[1:56:59] one of the six households is on social

[1:57:02] security. The other five have full-time

[1:57:05] employment. I just want to make this

[1:57:07] very clear that these are hardworking

[1:57:10] people who had um who were living in

[1:57:14] affordable units and they had no reason

[1:57:17] to believe that they wouldn't be able to

[1:57:19] continue to stay there as long as they

[1:57:20] remained income eligible. Which is why

[1:57:22] when HOCC came in, one of the first

[1:57:24] things they did in addition to trying to

[1:57:26] renew leases was to income qualify

[1:57:27] everybody so that they could they might

[1:57:30] be eligible to um for grants that

[1:57:33] require income eligibility. These are

[1:57:35] hardworking Everston residents. Um

[1:57:39] probably some of the hardest working.

[1:57:40] The issue as we all know is that

[1:57:42] salaries are not keeping up with cost of

[1:57:44] living which is why affordable housing

[1:57:46] units like these exist. Not because

[1:57:48] people aren't working hard enough. Um,

[1:57:50] now if we want to I would not support

[1:57:52] financial literacy requirements, we

[1:57:54] should offer that anyway to anybody that

[1:57:57] feels like they need it. Um, we should

[1:58:00] offer that and I think people um, you

[1:58:04] know, if they feel like it would benefit

[1:58:05] be a benefit to them, they would receive

[1:58:08] that information. For example, I

[1:58:09] literally refinance my vehicle because

[1:58:12] of information I got from First Bank

[1:58:13] Northern and Trust. I just randomly went

[1:58:15] to one of their meetings. They just

[1:58:17] wanted me to go as a council member. I

[1:58:19] went also for myself cuz I was I had

[1:58:21] just purchased a vehicle. And so I think

[1:58:23] if you make the information relevant to

[1:58:26] people, um they'll use it, you know, as

[1:58:29] I did. And so um and so for that reason,

[1:58:32] I wouldn't support mandating uh it, but

[1:58:34] I think it's something that should be

[1:58:36] offered. Um, I I I just I don't want

[1:58:39] this to get lost that that out of the 18

[1:58:42] or so households that we started off

[1:58:45] with, if they're not on this list,

[1:58:48] through their own a mix of their own

[1:58:50] efforts, connections for the homeless,

[1:58:52] our health and human service department,

[1:58:54] um, especially Maurice who's on the

[1:58:56] line, and hopefully I'm not missing any

[1:58:59] everybody. They are in housing they can

[1:59:01] afford. They are stably housed, and I

[1:59:03] don't want that to get overlooked. There

[1:59:04] was a comment earlier during a public

[1:59:07] comment that suggested, "Oh, well, this

[1:59:08] is we're not doing enough. We're not

[1:59:10] getting them in stable housing. This is

[1:59:12] just kicking the can down the road."

[1:59:13] What that individual

[1:59:15] may have intentionally ignored, but

[1:59:17] ignored is the fact that everyone else

[1:59:18] that is not on this list through the

[1:59:20] efforts of all those organizations and

[1:59:22] people involved are stably housed now.

[1:59:25] Um, and so all we're trying to do with

[1:59:27] and and I've I've went over how they're

[1:59:30] stably housed. I won't go through

[1:59:31] everybody, but it is a mix of Prim

[1:59:33] Towers, Jacob Blake. They're paying 30%,

[1:59:35] no more than 30% of their income there.

[1:59:37] Some are in HLGC units, um, where

[1:59:40] they're paying a similar amount in rent,

[1:59:42] um, others have been able to find

[1:59:44] naturally occurring affordable housing

[1:59:45] that they can afford, and so on and so

[1:59:46] forth. I don't want that to get lost,

[1:59:48] not by the media, not by this council,

[1:59:50] everybody else. If they're not on this

[1:59:52] list, they are now stably housed because

[1:59:54] of the efforts of the city of Evston,

[1:59:56] Connections for the Homeless, and and in other in efforts of their their

[2:00:00] own will as well. I I I disagree with

[2:00:03] how some of the tenants are

[2:00:05] characterized in this. I'm not going to

[2:00:07] air that out today, but that the one

[2:00:10] person that's saying they didn't pay

[2:00:11] their rent, it was it was one month from

[2:00:13] what I understand, and Maurice can speak

[2:00:15] to this if we really need him to. I'd

[2:00:16] rather not, but he can. And there was an

[2:00:19] issue with the landlord. the landlord is

[2:00:21] trying to evict them. They're counters

[2:00:22] suing because they feel like the the

[2:00:23] landlord is evicting them because they

[2:00:26] file property standards compl complaints

[2:00:28] against them and the most of the rent

[2:00:30] that wasn't collected outside of that

[2:00:32] one month is because anybody knows how

[2:00:34] evictions work. Typically, the attorneys

[2:00:37] um encourage uh landlords to stop

[2:00:39] accepting the rent if they're filing for

[2:00:41] eviction. There's a lot of information

[2:00:43] that's that's not in this memo. Again, I

[2:00:46] don't think it's necessary to ear all

[2:00:47] that out um at council. I'm happy to

[2:00:50] provide more detail um offline and and I

[2:00:54] know Maurice can as well, but everybody

[2:00:56] that's here is because we've looked at

[2:00:58] their socials. We've we've we we

[2:01:00] understand what their household incomes

[2:01:02] are. Um we um in order for them to even

[2:01:06] get on this list, we made it clear that

[2:01:08] by this time, you have to provide

[2:01:10] information. People provided some

[2:01:11] information to us now that they hadn't

[2:01:13] before. we we require cooperation in

[2:01:16] order to even be considered um for

[2:01:18] additional subsidies. So, everybody here

[2:01:21] has shown cooperation. Everybody here

[2:01:24] other than the one who's on social

[2:01:25] security is fully fully um employed

[2:01:27] full-time. And um in terms of I I'll

[2:01:32] close with never happening again. Th

[2:01:34] this council had an opportunity to look

[2:01:37] into this deeply. We've had many

[2:01:38] discussions about it. Uh uh, Director

[2:01:41] Flax has answered many questions and so

[2:01:44] if if you were on this council last

[2:01:46] term, I would have hoped you would have

[2:01:48] gotten all your ans answered because

[2:01:50] there was an opportunity to do that. For

[2:01:52] council member Rogers and those who are

[2:01:54] new, I understand cuz you know, you

[2:01:55] weren't on that council and so hopefully

[2:01:57] staff as will continue to make

[2:01:59] themselves available to you and those

[2:02:00] who were on it. But I just want to make

[2:02:02] clear, we looked into this so much so

[2:02:04] that I understand that there was I don't

[2:02:05] remember exactly the policy change, but

[2:02:07] there was a policy change that came from

[2:02:09] this. Um there was um I also mentioned

[2:02:13] and I talked to Councilman Rogers about

[2:02:15] this because I felt like this was unique

[2:02:17] in that if it was not a oneway in one

[2:02:20] way out buildings, if they had a back

[2:02:21] stairwell, a option may have been to

[2:02:24] shut down the the the front and allow

[2:02:27] traffic to go through the back.

[2:02:29] That's that's only an issue with these

[2:02:31] California style walkups. One way in,

[2:02:33] one way out. And so this is a very

[2:02:35] unique situation that I don't think will

[2:02:37] likely happen again outside of the

[2:02:40] California walk up style buildings,

[2:02:41] which is why when we were having this

[2:02:43] conversation, I asked staff if they

[2:02:45] could um u um if they could um inspect

[2:02:49] all the all the California style walkups

[2:02:53] in Evston. They did and determined at

[2:02:54] that time that they were all in in good

[2:02:56] condition. So, and I can go on and on

[2:02:58] about things that we talked about when

[2:03:00] we looked into this. So, again, I just I

[2:03:02] want this council to understand, the

[2:03:04] public to understand, we did look deeply

[2:03:05] into this. Uh, I think Councilman Rogers

[2:03:08] obviously is new to the council and

[2:03:09] wants to explore this in his own way,

[2:03:10] which he should, but I just want to be

[2:03:12] clear. There was a lot that came out of

[2:03:14] this discussion. Um, I'll hold that for

[2:03:17] now. Um, oh, and actually last thing is,

[2:03:20] um, what I've said is is that because

[2:03:22] we've there's been such success in

[2:03:25] finding stable housing for a for most of

[2:03:29] the households that we started with,

[2:03:31] it's reasonable to believe that if given

[2:03:33] another year, especially with the 90s

[2:03:36] something affordable units coming

[2:03:37] online, right, we what was done before

[2:03:40] was done without really any new

[2:03:42] affordable units, the inclusionary

[2:03:44] housing program can't help them because

[2:03:46] it really only supports towards

[2:03:47] households that are about 60 to 80% AMI.

[2:03:51] And so we did this without the

[2:03:52] inclusionary housing program being able

[2:03:54] to support these residents without any

[2:03:56] new affordable units. And so it's reason

[2:03:59] to believe with 90 something new units

[2:04:01] available plus continuing the efforts

[2:04:03] that we've uh that connections and staff

[2:04:06] has done that at the end of this to

[2:04:08] council member Harris's question, where

[2:04:09] do we go from here? We're con, not only

[2:04:11] have we been successful, we're confident

[2:04:13] given that time, given the units um that

[2:04:15] we'll come back in a year and say um

[2:04:18] happily that everybody has is in units

[2:04:21] that they can afford. That's the goal

[2:04:23] and I think we're realistically on

[2:04:25] track. Um Council Member Kelly,

[2:04:28] >> thank you. Um, so and we don't have to

[2:04:30] uh interrogate this this evening, but I

[2:04:32] did have questions from last term

[2:04:33] regarding inspections and proper notice

[2:04:37] in terms of urgent repairs that were

[2:04:39] urgently needed and the time frame given

[2:04:41] before residents received a letter to

[2:04:44] vacate immediately their homes. So, I

[2:04:46] did still have some questions remaining

[2:04:47] and but I am glad um to move forward

[2:04:49] this evening to help um to help these

[2:04:52] residents. But I just want to say like

[2:04:54] I'm glad they're stably housed, but it's

[2:04:55] not the same. Many of these residents

[2:04:57] had lived there for over 20 years and

[2:05:00] that was their home and their

[2:05:01] neighborhood. So, it's a big difference

[2:05:03] um to remain in your home. And I know

[2:05:05] there were several estimates of the

[2:05:07] repairs to the stairs, which was the

[2:05:10] urgently needed item um that came in

[2:05:12] around 1.2 million, I believe. And so I

[2:05:14] guess, you know, those are all questions

[2:05:16] that I think I think every time there's

[2:05:17] a a tragic incident like this or where

[2:05:19] it's such upheaval, we want to say it's

[2:05:22] unique. Um, and maybe it is, but

[2:05:24] nevertheless, there are elements in

[2:05:25] there that I think we should um look at a separate time to really make sure

[2:05:29] that um

[2:05:32] whatever we could improve um from how

[2:05:35] that happened, what could have been

[2:05:36] improved is is acknowledged. So thank

[2:05:40] you. Um,

[2:05:43] there was something you said I wanted to

[2:05:44] comment on. I can't remember, which

[2:05:45] probably means I need to leave it alone.

[2:05:47] Um, [laughter]

[2:05:48] uh, anybody else.

[2:05:51] >> All right, that's roll call.

[2:05:56] » Council member Harakaris.

[2:05:57] >> Hi.

[2:05:58] >> Council member Kelly.

[2:05:59] >> Hi.

[2:06:00] >> Council member Harris. Hi.

[2:06:01] >> Council member Isles. Hi.

[2:06:03] >> Council member Nusma. Hi.

[2:06:04] >> Council member Sufffordan. Hi. Council

[2:06:06] member Davis. Hi.

[2:06:07] >> Council member Rogers. Hi. Council

[2:06:09] member Burns.

[2:06:10] >> Hi.

[2:06:13] >> All right. Uh,

[2:06:16] you start off with A2. If someone could

[2:06:18] make a motion for A2, please.

[2:06:20] >> Mr. Chair, if I could actually make a

[2:06:22] recommendation. I think we have two

[2:06:24] people who are kind of waiting. Um, I

[2:06:26] know one of them is waiting for

[2:06:28] something I pulled off the agenda. Yes.

[2:06:30] I don't know if the other woman is

[2:06:31] waiting for a particular item or not,

[2:06:34] but if so, I would ask that we

[2:06:36] [laughter]

[2:06:37] she just wants to hear us. Um,

[2:06:39] >> she actually has a wonderful newsletter

[2:06:41] that I subscribe to, so she might be

[2:06:43] here trying to get the news uh first

[2:06:45] maybe.

[2:06:46] >> Um, I I would ask that we rearrange the

[2:06:48] agenda and pull um item P1 forward so

[2:06:51] that the gentleman who's waiting for

[2:06:52] that particular item.

[2:06:54] >> Yeah, with no objections, Councilman

[2:06:55] Rogers, if you want to move item P1. Um,

[2:06:58] I would uh actually ask someone else to

[2:07:00] do it since I will

[2:07:02] >> I'll move item P1 uh

[2:07:06] which is landmarking of the property at

[2:07:08] 2700 Herd Willard Elementary School.

[2:07:11] >> All right.

[2:07:12] >> It's been moved by Council Member S and

[2:07:14] seconded by Council Member Harris, uh,

[2:07:16] Council Member Rogers.

[2:07:17] >> Thank you. I just want again want to

[2:07:19] reiterate um this the landmarking of a

[2:07:22] school does not prevent the school from

[2:07:24] being able to do anything while it

[2:07:26] operates as a school. it actually

[2:07:28] imposes the uh changes upon the next

[2:07:30] property owner. Um I have a question. Is

[2:07:34] the land being landmarked as well

[2:07:41] or is it just the land the the lots that

[2:07:43] have the building on it?

[2:07:46] It's primarily the lot that has the

[2:07:48] building on it. We've separated out the

[2:07:50] parcels to the north which are not built

[2:07:52] on. I've got Kate Sterling online if you

[2:07:55] want any more specifics about that.

[2:07:56] >> All right. No, that that's fine. I I

[2:07:58] couldn't remember because I'd heard both

[2:08:00] ways and and I wasn't sure where it

[2:08:01] finally netted out. Um I do understand

[2:08:05] how adaptive reuse can work in many of

[2:08:07] these situations. Um but I also know

[2:08:10] that that does require going through the

[2:08:11] preservation commission um which can be

[2:08:15] um sometimes fraught for a property

[2:08:18] owner. Um and so with that reason I uh I

[2:08:23] cannot support this. Um, I think what

[2:08:25] ends up happening is we are going to

[2:08:27] landmark all of except for about three

[2:08:30] schools. And when it comes time to

[2:08:32] closing schools, the district 65 is

[2:08:34] going to be faced with the challenge of

[2:08:37] closing the schools that are not

[2:08:38] landmarked versus closing the ones that

[2:08:40] are. And if they're looking for top

[2:08:43] dollar, um, obviously an unlandmarked

[2:08:46] property is um, in my opinion probably a

[2:08:49] more attractive um, site for them. So, I

[2:08:52] will not be able to support this.

[2:08:56] » Uh, council member uh Davis,

[2:08:59] >> I want to confirm. Has D65

[2:09:02] given any communication or direction as

[2:09:04] to what they would prefer for this

[2:09:05] building?

[2:09:06] >> I'm going to let Kate address that. They

[2:09:08] have been involved.

[2:09:11] >> Hi, council members. Kate Sterling,

[2:09:13] preservation planner with the city. Uh,

[2:09:15] the school district has been involved

[2:09:17] from the start. um they have recommended

[2:09:21] that the property be designated a

[2:09:23] landmark that was with some um mutual

[2:09:26] agreements that were made in terms of

[2:09:28] the specific um parcels to council

[2:09:31] member Rogers question.

[2:09:38] » I don't understand anything that D65

[2:09:40] does. So like if that's [laughter] if

[2:09:41] that's what they've said they want to

[2:09:43] do, then I'm going to go ahead and

[2:09:44] support. It is more so their

[2:09:46] jurisdiction than ours. and I'm in

[2:09:48] support of, you know, intergovernmental

[2:09:50] cooperation. But,

[2:09:56] » uh, council member Hottis,

[2:09:59] >> I just want to thank community members

[2:10:00] for their work there did they did, um,

[2:10:03] uncovering some of the history of, um,

[2:10:05] black displacement, um, that led to the

[2:10:08] forming of the school. Um, I'm going to

[2:10:10] be voting yes tonight because um based

[2:10:13] on our um current rules and standards

[2:10:17] for um historic preservation, it does

[2:10:19] meet all the standards. Um, but I would

[2:10:23] like um us to think um in the future of

[2:10:26] how we can um maybe take steps to um

[2:10:29] formalize our recognition of

[2:10:31] displacement and how that fits into our

[2:10:34] um history for our neighborhood. So,

[2:10:37] Anyone

[2:10:40] else,

[2:10:43] Council Member Harris?

[2:10:45] >> I think um I think Shorefront had a

[2:10:48] little bit to do with that as well and

[2:10:50] covering some of that information. So,

[2:10:52] thank you.

[2:10:55] >> Uh Council Member Kelly.

[2:10:57] >> Yeah, I think Sharon for that work and

[2:10:59] um our librarians who worked on that as

[2:11:02] well. So, will there be like a um part

[2:11:05] of this will include a public

[2:11:06] acknowledgement of the history? Okay.

[2:11:08] Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you all.

[2:11:10] Okay.

[2:11:14] » All right. I think we're ready for the

[2:11:15] roll call.

[2:11:18] » Council member Herakaris.

[2:11:20] >> Hi.

[2:11:20] >> Council member Kelly.

[2:11:21] >> Hi.

[2:11:22] >> Council member Harris.

[2:11:23] >> Hi.

[2:11:23] >> Council member Isles.

[2:11:24] >> Hi.

[2:11:24] >> Council member Nusma.

[2:11:26] >> Hi.

[2:11:26] >> Council member Sephan.

[2:11:27] >> Hi.

[2:11:27] >> Council member Davis.

[2:11:29] >> Hi.

[2:11:29] >> Council member Rogers.

[2:11:30] >> No.

[2:11:31] >> Council member Burns. All right.

[2:11:35] Um,

[2:11:39] next up we we have uh A6. If someone can

[2:11:42] make a motion

[2:11:43] >> uh A2

[2:11:44] >> or A Oh, sorry. That was P1. Um, are we

[2:11:47] good with the order

[2:11:50] moving forward? We're good. Okay. Yes.

[2:11:52] So, we'll we'll uh if someone can move

[2:11:54] A2, please. So I move approval of

[2:11:56] resolution 85R26 approval of Beimo

[2:12:00] Harris M Amazon credit card activity.

[2:12:03] >> Second.

[2:12:04] >> It's been properly moved and seconded.

[2:12:06] Any

[2:12:08] uh comments? Seeing none. All those in

[2:12:10] favor say I.

[2:12:11] >> No. Roll call. Roll call.

[2:12:14] >> Oh, we got one to abstain. I forgot

[2:12:15] about this. Um roll call, please.

[2:12:18] >> Council member Heracaris.

[2:12:19] >> I.

[2:12:20] >> Council member R Kelly.

[2:12:22] >> Hi.

[2:12:23] >> Council member Harris.

[2:12:24] >> Hi. Council member Isles. Hi.

[2:12:25] >> Council member Nisma.

[2:12:26] >> Hi.

[2:12:26] >> Council member Suffered.

[2:12:27] >> I'm stand.

[2:12:28] >> Council member Davis.

[2:12:29] >> Hi.

[2:12:29] >> Council member Rogers.

[2:12:30] >> Hi.

[2:12:30] >> Council member Burns.

[2:12:32] >> Hi.

[2:12:34] >> All right. A2 is approved. A6.

[2:12:38] » Uh Mr. Mayor Prom. My move item A6,

[2:12:42] resolution 16, R26, authorizing the city

[2:12:45] manager to execute an agreement with

[2:12:47] Ample Group International for the Fleet

[2:12:50] Jordanian exterior renovation project

[2:12:52] 26-22.

[2:12:54] >> Properly moved by council member Nusma

[2:12:55] and seconded by

[2:12:57] >> second council member Harris, council

[2:13:00] member Kelly.

[2:13:01] >> Thank you. I just pulled this to we had

[2:13:02] requested verification of compliance

[2:13:04] given some concerns with the RBO.

[2:13:06] >> Thank you, Council Member Kelly. So, I

[2:13:08] did speak with uh Tammy Nunes, the

[2:13:10] purchasing manager. She reached out to

[2:13:12] the Amool um owner. The the owner was in

[2:13:16] the car. He said he would provide all

[2:13:18] the documentation in the morning,

[2:13:20] including all the employees union cards

[2:13:22] with the proper apprenticeship program.

[2:13:24] >> Okay. Thank you.

[2:13:26] >> As soon as I receive those, I will send

[2:13:28] them to the council morning.

[2:13:29] >> Council member Rogers.

[2:13:31] >> Thank you. Um, can we please start doing

[2:13:33] this earlier because I think this is the

[2:13:35] second one in a row that we have um

[2:13:38] said, "Oh, we'll approve it and we're

[2:13:40] going to wait on some information." So,

[2:13:41] I don't know if there's a problem with

[2:13:43] getting information. I don't know if we

[2:13:45] can request that earlier so that when it

[2:13:48] comes to us and I'm not faulting anyone

[2:13:50] here in in the process. I'm just saying

[2:13:53] um there seems to be a little hiccup

[2:13:54] when it comes to getting uh especially

[2:13:56] apprenticeship seems to be the the

[2:13:59] issue. um so that we we don't have to

[2:14:03] approve things without all the

[2:14:04] documentation. I don't doubt that we

[2:14:06] will get the documentation, but again,

[2:14:08] just trying to close up that little gap

[2:14:10] um in the process.

[2:14:12] >> Thank you, Council Member Rogers.

[2:14:13] Understood. Um I think the issue here is

[2:14:16] that oftent times when we're getting a

[2:14:18] bid in, the contractor doesn't know

[2:14:20] exactly all the subs they're going to

[2:14:21] hire. Um so they may not have that

[2:14:24] information at the time of bid. Um but

[2:14:26] based on the project once they hire all

[2:14:28] the subs the doc the documentation is

[2:14:30] given to the city on a rolling basis. Um

[2:14:32] but we will certainly work to have that

[2:14:34] documentation ahead of time. We do have

[2:14:36] the proper certifications that are

[2:14:38] required under the ordinance. Um so we

[2:14:41] do have that and that's what we check

[2:14:42] off as we go through.

[2:14:45] >> Council memberis

[2:14:50] uh council member suffer.

[2:14:51] >> Yeah. Um, I just want to confirm if the

[2:14:54] documentation is not forthcoming,

[2:14:55] regardless of an affirmative vote

[2:14:56] tonight, the award will be invalidated.

[2:14:59] >> Absolutely. Because it does not comply

[2:15:01] with the RBO if we don't get the

[2:15:02] documentation.

[2:15:03] >> Thank you, Council Member Kelly.

[2:15:05] >> Yeah. So, the subs are subject to the

[2:15:06] RBO also. So, I feel like we need to

[2:15:10] >> and I know we do have we do have a

[2:15:11] referral for procurement and hopefully

[2:15:14] we'll get that um finalized. But until

[2:15:17] then, if there's anything that can be

[2:15:18] improved so that we are basically

[2:15:20] vetting um figuring out the sub piece

[2:15:22] also.

[2:15:23] >> Yeah. And as the contractor goes, if

[2:15:25] they don't hire compliant subs, they

[2:15:27] have to find different subs. So that's

[2:15:29] what it is.

[2:15:32] » All right.

[2:15:35] Um

[2:15:37] we don't need a roll call for this. All

[2:15:39] those in favor?

[2:15:40] >> I nays. Any abstensions? All right. Um,

[2:15:45] a who?

[2:15:48] If someone can make a motion for AA,

[2:15:49] please.

[2:15:51] >> I move for the resol resolution 62R26,

[2:15:56] approval of a single source contract

[2:15:58] with Alur

[2:16:01] Incorporated for the rental of a 200

[2:16:03] kilowatt standby generator for an 11th

[2:16:07] month term. It's

[2:16:09] >> been properly moved by council member

[2:16:10] Harris, seconded by council member

[2:16:12] Nusma. Would anybody like to speak to

[2:16:15] this? Council member Kelly,

[2:16:16] >> I just had a question maybe um which I

[2:16:19] meant to ask to APW about the be the

[2:16:22] best um the I guess it's battery energy

[2:16:25] services systems. Um if there's ever if

[2:16:28] we'd ever do like a hybrid rental so

[2:16:30] we'd have you know partial green um

[2:16:33] backup is that with the best system BSS

[2:16:37] is that I know we're waiting to purchase

[2:16:39] 2,000 watt generators. Correct. So, we

[2:16:42] need these temporary ones during

[2:16:43] construction.

[2:16:46] >> Uh, Mayor Pro Tim Burns, members of the

[2:16:48] city council, Daryl King, water

[2:16:50] production bureau chief. Um, so yes,

[2:16:54] there there's currently an electrical

[2:16:56] upgrade project. Our current generators

[2:16:59] have been demoed and the contractor

[2:17:02] brought in a 750 to replace them. Right.

[2:17:06] This generator will serve a couple

[2:17:09] things in, you know, to provide power to

[2:17:11] the filtration plant if something was to

[2:17:13] happen to the power, but also if the

[2:17:16] contractor 750 didn't work, we would be

[2:17:19] able to use this generator to back feed

[2:17:21] the 480 system for critical equipment.

[2:17:24] Now, in terms of uh our current hookup

[2:17:28] is natural gas and and well, actually

[2:17:32] this temporary generator um is is

[2:17:36] diesel. Uh the generator [clears throat]

[2:17:40] that will be

[2:17:42] that was recently approved that will

[2:17:45] replace this one is natural gas. Uh

[2:17:49] that's the hookup that we have uh at at the the water plant. Now, in terms of

[2:17:55] uh renewables and different things like

[2:17:58] that, there there may be options or

[2:18:01] something for that, but that's not what

[2:18:04] we're recommending in terms of uh

[2:18:08] reliable redundancy

[2:18:11] >> uh for backup power uh with with this

[2:18:14] type of application.

[2:18:16] >> Okay. I just someone brought to my

[2:18:17] attention that you can get these BSS the

[2:18:20] battery um energy and do like a hybrid

[2:18:24] even when you rent you can do a hybrid

[2:18:26] but when we purchase if we had one of

[2:18:28] those that you can actually save cost

[2:18:29] during peak hours by actually using that

[2:18:32] one instead you can actually save this

[2:18:34] save money if you in and to actually use

[2:18:37] the backup best system

[2:18:41] not when you don't even need backup but

[2:18:42] to use it instead of the peak hours. So

[2:18:45] just putting that out there

[2:18:47] >> there. Yes, there are battery systems

[2:18:49] and and so forth and um that that's not

[2:18:53] part of this. We we have looked into

[2:18:55] that and you know maybe in the future

[2:18:58] that would be another redundant uh

[2:19:02] source that we could use at some point

[2:19:04] but that's not where we are now but we

[2:19:06] have looked into that and thank you for

[2:19:09] that that information. Thank you,

[2:19:12] >> Council Member Nusma.

[2:19:14] >> I'll second what Daryl said. Like,

[2:19:16] that's a great idea. Thank you for

[2:19:17] bringing that up. Makes a lot of sense

[2:19:19] to consider moving forward. The purchase

[2:19:21] in front of us tonight is for a

[2:19:22] short-term backup generator uh just to

[2:19:25] be there just in case. Hopefully, we

[2:19:27] never have to turn it on. So, yeah, the

[2:19:30] battery thing is really more long-term

[2:19:32] and there's KMED money available to for

[2:19:34] that kind of thing. So, let's move

[2:19:36] moving forward. Let's consider that. uh

[2:19:38] doesn't mean doesn't have to be part of

[2:19:40] this uh purchase tonight or this

[2:19:42] approval tonight.

[2:19:43] >> Yep.

[2:19:45] >> All right. All those in favor of

[2:19:47] approving A8 resolution 62R26 say I.

[2:19:51] >> I.

[2:19:52] >> Any nays? Any abstensions? All right. On

[2:19:55] to A12.

[2:19:56] If someone could make a motion, please.

[2:20:00] >> Uh Mr. Chair, I move item A12,

[2:20:02] resolution 66,R26, approval of an

[2:20:05] agreement with Joel Kennedy Construction

[2:20:07] Corporation for the 2026 annual lead

[2:20:10] service line replacement uh project,

[2:20:13] which is bid 2618.

[2:20:17] » It's been properly moved by council

[2:20:19] member NMA and seconded by council

[2:20:21] member Harris. Council member Roger,

[2:20:23] >> thank you. Um, I had pulled this off

[2:20:25] just because there is a cost to overrun

[2:20:27] on this and I understand that and we'll

[2:20:28] be discussing that in finance and

[2:20:30] budget, but I wanted to make everyone

[2:20:32] aware of that. Um, in case they didn't

[2:20:35] get through all the details of the

[2:20:36] packet. Um, so we have a uh the the bid

[2:20:40] that we're accepting is and I'm just

[2:20:42] going to look to staff to nod yes to

[2:20:44] answer my question. Um, exceeds it by

[2:20:46] about a little over 1.5 million.

[2:20:50] Yes, they're nodding their heads yes. So

[2:20:52] that is an acknowledgement that it

[2:20:54] exceeds it by about 1.5 million. Um so

[2:20:57] finance and budget we will have to

[2:20:59] figure out what we're doing um

[2:21:01] financially in order to get that

[2:21:04] additional money or potentially cut um

[2:21:07] something. Um and they're kind of

[2:21:10] rolling their eyes at me on that one. Um

[2:21:12] so I don't know if they want to respond

[2:21:14] to that. Um

[2:21:18] >> and I hate to make Miss Bigs come up. Um

[2:21:23] for a simple question.

[2:21:25] >> Hello everyone. My name is Laura BGS.

[2:21:27] I'm the city engineer. So yes, [snorts]

[2:21:30] we are also looking at that and we are

[2:21:32] fortunately able to miticate some of the

[2:21:34] million and a half dollars with

[2:21:36] additional loans that we can take out

[2:21:38] and that ultimately results in

[2:21:40] additional principal forgiveness which

[2:21:42] helps quite a lot.

[2:21:45] We can look at how we're doing it, but

[2:21:48] we are required to replace all the lead

[2:21:50] service lines within a specific amount

[2:21:52] of time. So, there's a limited amount of

[2:21:55] value engineering to some extent. We

[2:21:57] just have to kind of keep going.

[2:22:00] >> Okay. Thank you,

[2:22:04] » Council Member Kelly. Um I have a

[2:22:06] question regarding um and I don't know

[2:22:09] if this is common but how we publicize

[2:22:11] and since we have I know in this one

[2:22:12] this is for Kennedy I think Kennedy

[2:22:15] contract and Boulder was the other

[2:22:18] bidder u responded to the bid and then

[2:22:20] in another the other second highest

[2:22:22] contract that we have out tonight it was

[2:22:24] flipped it was you know Boulder and then

[2:22:26] Kennedy that we're just getting two

[2:22:27] responses I see we advertise in Demand

[2:22:29] Star and through Pioneer Press and I'm

[2:22:32] just wondering if that standard such

[2:22:34] like limited. I mean, could could we go

[2:22:37] broader? And

[2:22:38] >> we we advertise this one uh the lead

[2:22:40] service line one in the Chicago Tribune

[2:22:42] because of the EPA requirements,

[2:22:46] but we send out uh invitations to bid to

[2:22:49] a variety of contractors. But our work

[2:22:52] does have um a lot of very specific

[2:22:56] requirements that um that we need to

[2:22:59] follow. and Evston is a difficult place

[2:23:02] to work just because of the limited um

[2:23:05] places to stage and how you do not have

[2:23:08] space to work in. So there's there's a

[2:23:10] variety of things we have working

[2:23:12] against us. These are two contractors

[2:23:14] we've worked with number of times and so

[2:23:16] they feel pretty comfortable meeting all

[2:23:18] of our program requirements.

[2:23:20] >> Okay. Yeah, it seems like it would be I

[2:23:22] mean for that it's a large contract 13

[2:23:24] million that you feels like we would be

[2:23:26] getting more um more respondents.

[2:23:30] >> And Daryl King, water production bureau

[2:23:32] chief and and just some additional

[2:23:34] context I'd like to add is starting next

[2:23:37] year

[2:23:39] everybody in Illinois is going to be

[2:23:40] required to start replacing lead service

[2:23:43] lines according to law. Um, the lead

[2:23:48] service line replacement notification

[2:23:50] act in Illinois currently allows 20

[2:23:53] years to do that replacement, but the

[2:23:56] lead and copper rule improvements have

[2:23:58] been accepted by the Illinois Pollution

[2:24:01] Control Board, which once that goes into

[2:24:05] effect,

[2:24:07] um,

[2:24:09] November 2027, I believe, and it would

[2:24:12] actually,

[2:24:14] uh, activities ities would occur January

[2:24:16] 1 starting 2028.

[2:24:19] That time frame across the state could

[2:24:21] go to 10 years. Some uh utilities

[2:24:25] depending upon how they score could get

[2:24:28] a longer deferred

[2:24:30] uh time to replace uh Evston could

[2:24:34] possibly get 17 years instead of 10

[2:24:37] years. Um, but now you're talking about

[2:24:41] a bunch of work that's got to get done

[2:24:43] in the state of Illinois all at one

[2:24:46] time. So that could become an issue for

[2:24:49] how many bids utilities, municipalities

[2:24:53] are getting on these contracts.

[2:24:58] » Council member Nusmo.

[2:25:00] >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Daryl, as long as

[2:25:02] you're here, there's a mailing that just

[2:25:04] went out about lead service lines. Can

[2:25:06] you tell us what that is in case we get

[2:25:08] calls?

[2:25:09] >> Yes. So, uh, annually,

[2:25:13] uh, we're required to submit a service

[2:25:17] materials inventory to IEPA telling them

[2:25:21] how many lead services we have, how many

[2:25:24] galvanized requiring replacements, and

[2:25:27] so forth. So, we did that on April 14th

[2:25:32] or so. um within 30 days following that,

[2:25:37] we have to notify the community

[2:25:40] uh where lead service lines are believed

[2:25:43] to be galvanized requiring replacement

[2:25:46] service lines are are believed to be.

[2:25:48] So, we recently uh mailed out roughly

[2:25:54] just under 10,000

[2:25:56] um

[2:25:58] uh uh lead service line notices, couple

[2:26:01] hundred uh galvanized requiring

[2:26:04] replacement notices. People have gotten

[2:26:07] those notices. These notices don't

[2:26:09] require any action. They're

[2:26:11] forformational purposes only. But

[2:26:14] they're notifying those locations. Hey,

[2:26:16] we believe you have lead. Hey, we

[2:26:18] believe you have galvanized requiring

[2:26:19] replacement. Here's uh uh the risk of of

[2:26:23] having lead service lines. These are the

[2:26:26] programs the city currently owns. Um if you have currently provides if you

[2:26:33] have questions, uh you know, there's

[2:26:36] contact information and so forth. That's

[2:26:38] a required mailing that we have to send

[2:26:41] out every year. It happens around this

[2:26:44] time every year and we're required to

[2:26:47] send those out until they're all gone.

[2:26:51] There is a

[2:26:52] >> the lead service lines are all all

[2:26:54] replaced.

[2:26:54] >> All lead service lines, all galvanized

[2:26:57] requiring replacement service lines,

[2:26:59] those are those are galvanized service

[2:27:02] lines that have been uh downstream of

[2:27:05] lead service line. And so for, you know,

[2:27:09] the next 20 years, 17 years, 10 years

[2:27:12] until they're all gone, we have to keep

[2:27:15] sending them out. And if we ever run

[2:27:17] into situations where we're having

[2:27:20] difficulties, let's say at the end of 17

[2:27:23] years, and we we've had a hundred

[2:27:25] locations that either we can't get in,

[2:27:27] they've refused,

[2:27:29] or or whatever the situation is, we got

[2:27:31] to keep sending them out until they're

[2:27:33] all gone.

[2:27:36] Thank you.

[2:27:37] >> All right, we'll roll call this one.

[2:27:43] Council

[2:27:44] >> member.

[2:27:45] >> Hi.

[2:27:45] >> Council member Kelly.

[2:27:46] >> Hi.

[2:27:47] >> Council member Harris.

[2:27:48] >> Hi.

[2:27:48] >> Council member Isles. Hi.

[2:27:49] >> Council member Nusma.

[2:27:50] >> Hi.

[2:27:50] >> Council member Suffford. Hi.

[2:27:52] >> Council member Davis.

[2:27:53] >> Hi.

[2:27:54] >> Council member Rogers.

[2:27:55] >> Hi.

[2:27:55] >> Council member Burns.

[2:27:56] >> Hi.

[2:27:58] >> All right. Next up we have 821.

[2:28:03] Mr. Chair, I believe you are requesting

[2:28:05] that we suspend the rules to take

[2:28:07] immediate action on this tonight.

[2:28:10] >> You want to make that motion?

[2:28:11] >> So, yeah, I I will make the motion to

[2:28:13] suspend uh the rules so that we can take

[2:28:18] uh final action on this item tonight.

[2:28:20] >> All right. Uh second

[2:28:22] >> 21 has been properly

[2:28:24] >> um well, it's 22.

[2:28:27] >> This is we treat this like a motion is

[2:28:29] on suspending of the rules and then I'll

[2:28:31] make the next motion. Um, so that's that

[2:28:33] amendment has been properly moved and

[2:28:34] seconded by council member Rogers. Um,

[2:28:37] >> roll call.

[2:28:38] >> Yes.

[2:28:38] >> Uh, council member Hakadis.

[2:28:40] >> I council member Kelly.

[2:28:41] >> Hi.

[2:28:41] >> Council member Harris.

[2:28:42] >> Hi.

[2:28:43] >> Council member Isles. Hi.

[2:28:44] >> Council member Nusma.

[2:28:45] >> Hi.

[2:28:45] >> Council member Son.

[2:28:46] >> Hi.

[2:28:46] >> Council member Davis.

[2:28:48] >> Hi.

[2:28:48] >> Council member Rogers.

[2:28:49] >> Hi.

[2:28:49] >> Council member Burns.

[2:28:51] >> Hi.

[2:28:52] >> All right. And on to the underlying. Um,

[2:28:55] >> so the rules have been suspended. So, I

[2:28:56] will now make the motion on item A21,

[2:29:00] uh, which is ordinance 37026 authorizing

[2:29:03] the sale of city-owned real property at

[2:29:06] 1811 to 1815 Church Street. And this is

[2:29:09] for final action this evening.

[2:29:11] >> Second.

[2:29:11] >> All right. It's been properly moved by

[2:29:13] Councilman Newsmith, seconded by Council

[2:29:15] Member Harris. Any questions, comments?

[2:29:18] Uh, seeing none, all those in favor? I

[2:29:23] >> Any nays? Any abstensions?

[2:29:26] All right, 821 is approved. Moving on to

[2:29:29] SSC1.

[2:29:32] >> I move for the resolution 75R26

[2:29:36] use of CDBG

[2:29:38] funds for FY2026

[2:29:41] public service.

[2:29:43] >> I'll second.

[2:29:44] >> All right. It's been moved by council

[2:29:46] member Harris, seconded by council

[2:29:47] member Hakatis.

[2:29:49] Council member Isles. I pulled this

[2:29:51] because some of these funds go to my

[2:29:54] employer interfaith action. So I need to

[2:29:56] recuse myself.

[2:29:57] >> All right. Seeing other comments, we'll

[2:29:59] do roll call.

[2:30:01] >> Council member Heracaris.

[2:30:03] >> I.

[2:30:03] >> Council member Kelly.

[2:30:05] >> Hi.

[2:30:05] >> Council member Harris.

[2:30:06] >> I.

[2:30:07] >> Council member Isles.

[2:30:08] >> I abstain.

[2:30:09] >> Council member Nisma.

[2:30:10] >> Hi.

[2:30:10] >> Council member Suffford.

[2:30:11] >> Council member Davis.

[2:30:12] >> Hi.

[2:30:12] >> Council member Rogers.

[2:30:13] >> Hi.

[2:30:14] >> Council member Burns. All right,

[2:30:24] » last we have call of the wards. I had an

[2:30:28] order somewhere, but starting off with

[2:30:29] council member Hedicottis.

[2:30:31] >> Um, I will have to move my office hours

[2:30:34] this week. I will be out of town. Um, so

[2:30:37] I will be sending out a newsletter with

[2:30:39] the new hours and um, we'll talk to

[2:30:42] people soon.

[2:30:43] >> Yep.

[2:30:45] Uh,

[2:30:46] >> no report.

[2:30:46] >> Council member Kelly, Council Member

[2:30:48] Harris,

[2:30:50] >> Council Member Isles,

[2:30:52] >> I have uh office hours a week from

[2:30:54] Thursday on the 7th from 7:30 to 9:30 at

[2:30:57] brothers K.

[2:31:00] >> Uh, Council Member Nusma,

[2:31:02] >> no report.

[2:31:03] >> Uh, Council Member Suffford,

[2:31:06] >> Council Member Davis,

[2:31:07] >> no report. Council member Rogers.

[2:31:09] >> Um yeah, just real quickly, um we had a

[2:31:12] gathering of the Howard Street Business

[2:31:14] Association and our colleagues from the

[2:31:16] Chicago side, the Rogers Park Business

[2:31:18] Alliance, um at Peckage Pig last week.

[2:31:20] We had about 30 people show up. It was a

[2:31:22] great event. Um the city manager came

[2:31:24] down um and and met with the group. Um

[2:31:28] it was just kind of a casual cocktail

[2:31:29] hour and they plan on doing several of

[2:31:31] these. So I will share information with

[2:31:33] my colleagues as those come forward and

[2:31:36] invite you to those as well. That's it.

[2:31:41] >> All right. Um, and so I I need to make a

[2:31:43] motion to

[2:31:45] move the the conversation about the

[2:31:48] emergency assistance expanding the

[2:31:50] emergency assistance program

[2:31:53] um to allow for property tax relief

[2:31:56] funding to the June 8th meeting because

[2:31:59] we have our health department uh members

[2:32:01] of our health department will be out of

[2:32:02] town and of course what it's important

[2:32:04] that they're here to participate in that

[2:32:06] discussion.

[2:32:08] It was scheduled to be May 11th, but I I

[2:32:11] talked to Director Ogbo and he asked if

[2:32:15] we can move it to June 8th. And I asked

[2:32:16] him if at that time he could have an

[2:32:19] actual program for us to look at. And

[2:32:22] just to be clear, it's not a new program

[2:32:24] that he's just going to explain us how

[2:32:27] he would how they would expand it to

[2:32:28] include property tax relief. And he'll

[2:32:30] have that ready by the ETH. Um so I

[2:32:32] think I can make that motion. Second,

[2:32:35] >> it's been um moved and seconded. All

[2:32:38] those in favor or unless Okay. All those

[2:32:40] in favor?

[2:32:41] >> I

[2:32:41] >> Any nays? Any abstensions? Um, only last

[2:32:45] thing I I wanted to make a few more

[2:32:47] comments on the assistance to the Wesley

[2:32:51] tenants, but I forgot to to mention um

[2:32:54] is in in your memos, you'll see that

[2:32:57] there's a a bullet point that says if we

[2:33:00] had if they hadn't received the subsidy,

[2:33:03] how much of their income would be going

[2:33:04] towards rent if they did not receive the

[2:33:06] subsidy? And this is one of the um this

[2:33:08] is really the primary reason why I asked

[2:33:11] council to support this extension. And

[2:33:14] so remember that 30% or more is housing

[2:33:18] cost burden. 50% or more is severely

[2:33:21] housing cost burden. And so one

[2:33:23] household would be at 86%

[2:33:25] uh without the subsidy. Another at

[2:33:28] 172.5%

[2:33:30] that's the individual that's on social

[2:33:31] security. Um, one would be on would be

[2:33:34] 36.7%

[2:33:36] another 42.6%

[2:33:39] 61.4%

[2:33:40] and 67.7%.

[2:33:43] Um, I did also want to comment on there

[2:33:46] was a suggestion earlier that we could

[2:33:49] have allocated funding for the steps and

[2:33:50] I've said this and I'll say it every

[2:33:52] time I hear it. we would have been

[2:33:54] giving millions of dollars to an

[2:33:55] organization that had already shown that

[2:33:58] they not only could not keep the

[2:34:00] building safe by making sure that the

[2:34:02] steps and balconies were repaired, but

[2:34:04] as as director Flax mentioned, we also

[2:34:07] had reports of other issues with the

[2:34:09] building. So, we will be giving funds to a organization that has shown they

[2:34:13] couldn't take care of the balconies and

[2:34:15] steps, hadn't took taken care of other

[2:34:17] issues. Unfortunately, they weren't

[2:34:18] reporting a lot of those complaints to

[2:34:20] the city, but we found that they were

[2:34:21] reporting them directly to uh by to the

[2:34:24] owner. Um, and it wasn't it was unlikely

[2:34:28] that the that the um board was still

[2:34:33] organized, that they were meeting on a

[2:34:34] regular basis, that's who we would have

[2:34:36] been giving money to. And I don't think

[2:34:37] a majority of council up here would have

[2:34:40] supported doing that. So, every time

[2:34:41] people bring that up, that's what I'm

[2:34:42] going to bring up. And if you want to

[2:34:43] say, "Yep, that was still a good, you

[2:34:45] know, we should have supported them,"

[2:34:46] then say that. But that's that's the

[2:34:48] money we would that's the organization

[2:34:50] we would have been given the money to.

[2:34:52] What we decided to do instead is to

[2:34:54] still support these households as we've

[2:34:56] done today. Um, but to try to get them

[2:34:58] to more stable quality housing. I also

[2:35:01] think we need to be careful speaking for

[2:35:03] people because there are some people

[2:35:05] that actually prefer their new units to

[2:35:07] the old ones. And I'm not saying that

[2:35:08] they don't miss the community that they

[2:35:10] had there, but let's be careful to speak

[2:35:12] for people. Um I think they can speak

[2:35:14] for themselves. Uh I know that they're

[2:35:16] really looking forward, the six house

[2:35:17] owners are looking forward to um to

[2:35:19] these extensions and I appreciate that

[2:35:21] support. Um that's all I have. Seeing no

[2:35:24] matter additional matters before us, I

[2:35:26] call the city council meeting adjourned.

[2:35:28] Thank you everybody.

City Council - Apr 27 2026

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