[0:03] Call the meeting to order. Please call the roll. Councilman horn. Present.
[0:07] councilman kuhl. Present. Councilman cole? Here. Councilman cooper? Here. Councilman
[0:11] mcdaniel. Present. Councilwoman gregory present. Mayor mark wolf. Present, seven. Present
[0:16] and absent. Please stand and join in the pledge of allegiance regions,
[0:23] the united states of america, and god for which stands,
[0:28] one nation and under god, indivisible, liberty and
[0:32] justice. For
[0:40] we do have a proclamation tonight if I could ask mr. Gleason to go to the podium.
[0:51] thank you, mayor and council. And for the community, uh, this is
[0:56] one that I actually, uh, requested. So I very much appreciate this.
[1:01] uh, this one is, uh, near and dear to me. Uh, what I'm about to
[1:05] read, uh, affects, uh, our family. Uh, it's a,
[1:09] uh, proclamation for, uh, pitt hopkins, uh, awareness
[1:13] day, which is actually the 18th, and I'm gonna read the proclamation.
[1:17] whereas, uh, pit hopkins syndrome is a rare and severe neurological
[1:22] disorder caused by spontaneous mutation or deletion
[1:27] on the 18th chromosome. And whereas pit hopkins
[1:31] syndrome is characterized by developmental delays, moderate to severe
[1:36] intellectual disability, breathing problems, epilepsy
[1:40] or recurrent, uh, seizures, gastrointestinal issues,
[1:44] and distinctive facial features. And whereas approximately
[1:49] 1800 people, uh, worldwide have been diagnosed with pitt hopkins
[1:54] syndrome. However, given the fact that the discovery of the gene
[1:58] occurred in 2007, there are likely many other cases that remain
[2:03] undiagnosed. And whereas given its rarity, online support
[2:07] groups play a pivotal role for individuals, families, and their loved ones
[2:12] in order to connect and increase awareness. And whereas pit
[2:16] hopkins research foundation annually celebrates september 18th
[2:21] as international pit hopkins syndrome awareness day to raise awareness
[2:25] and funding for pit hopkins research. And this date was chosen to
[2:29] bring attention to the fact that it is a disorder caused by spontaneous
[2:33] mutation or deletion on the 18th chromosome. And whereas
[2:38] pit hopkins research foundation is a volunteer organization
[2:42] of families professionals dedicated to finding a cure
[2:46] for pit hopkins syndrome through the funding of research, education
[2:50] and, and advocacy. And whereas the foundation's
[2:55] goal is to bring practical treatment and a current medical practice.
[2:59] now, therefore, I you wanna read this?
[3:03] you go ahead and then I'll sign it. All right. And therefore, I, um, mayor
[3:07] moore wolf, mayor of the city of decatur, illinois, do here hereby
[3:12] proclaim september 18th, 2024 as pit hopkins syndrome awareness
[3:16] day and recognition of the needs of individuals with pit
[3:20] hopkins syndrome, and urge all citizens to support the awareness
[3:25] and education regarding, uh, pit hopkins syndrome in order to assist
[3:29] those individuals and their families and grandpa, uh,
[3:33] who live with this condition every day of their lives. Uh, down at city
[3:37] hall on the 16th day of, uh, september, 2024,
[3:41] and if you would bring it up, I'd be happy to sign. I'm gonna do it. And I do, uh, wanna say thank
[3:45] you. Uh, my daughter, son-in-law, um, my
[3:49] grandson, caden, uh, has pitt hopkins, and, uh, his, uh,
[3:53] younger brother, uh, corbin, who's six is, uh, quite support and
[3:58] love 'em all. So thank you.
[4:06] thanks.
[4:19] thank you.
[4:28] all right. Now moving on to appearance of citizens. The policy
[4:32] relative to appearance of citizens is as follows, a 30 minute time period is provided for
[4:36] citizens to appear and express their views before the city council. Each citizen speaking will
[4:40] be limited to one appearance of up to three minutes. No immediate response will be given by city
[4:45] council or city staff members. Citizens are to give their documents, if any, to the police officer
[4:49] for distribution to the council. When the mayor determines all persons wishing to speak in
[4:53] accordance with this policy have done so. Members of the city council and key staff may
[4:57] make comments. Uh, would anyone like to appear before the council time? Sure.
[5:02] and we just need your name. We don't need an address. Okay.
[5:12] my name is verlin rosenberger. Um,
[5:16] so honorable mayor, uh, decatur city council.
[5:20] despite many voices and many years of concern,
[5:25] warnings and protests from environmental
[5:30] advocacy groups, we kept hearing in
[5:34] response, no worry. It's safe, nothing
[5:39] bad will happen. Well, it did happen, didn't it?
[5:43] the carbon dioxide injection into the ground
[5:47] seeped into unauthorized zones at a dm.
[5:53] the epas violation, um,
[5:57] found that they cited a dm for injection
[6:01] activity not allowed under its permit, failing
[6:06] to follow an emergency response plan in accordance with the
[6:10] permit and failure to monitor the well.
[6:16] um, and it was not discovered until
[6:21] late 2023 and another incident
[6:25] in march of 2024. What's more, we
[6:29] are just now finding out about these infractions. So what else
[6:33] do we not know about all this?
[6:38] then in 2023, the decatur
[6:42] city council authorized, and earlier this summer, city
[6:47] staff approved an easement allowing a
[6:51] dm to pump liquid carbon dioxide into poor space
[6:56] more than a mile underneath city owned land.
[7:00] this will essentially allow the plume of co2
[7:05] to grow beyond adms property
[7:09] and onto city property. So what were
[7:13] you thinking when you allowed that? Both
[7:17] the muhammad aquifer and the lake decatur must
[7:21] be protected from irresponsible, dangerous,
[7:25] experimental co2 sequestration.
[7:31] the new clean energy equitable act signed by governor
[7:35] pritzker does not put a ban on drilling through
[7:39] the muhammad aquifer, nor does it allow for setbacks
[7:43] from personal property, people's lives
[7:48] and property are at risk. If our water supplies are
[7:52] contaminated beyond use, we will be forced to move
[7:56] and we will be unable to sell our property. I have
[8:00] for each of you a flyer from a meeting from the,
[8:05] uh, illinois people's action this summer, 10 things
[8:09] you should know about carbon sequestration in illinois.
[8:13] and I'm sorry you're out of time, but the police officer will distribute those to the
[8:17] council. Thank,
[8:32] good evening. My name is brett robertson. I did request some additional time later
[8:36] to speak on the topic regarding the, uh, macon
[8:40] county, uh, hazard, uh, uh, plan my
[8:44] comments tonight, um, follow ms. Rosenberger's
[8:49] comments, and I applaud her for raising this issue. It's a very serious problem.
[8:54] um, and, uh, I wanna remind you again that
[8:58] march 20th, 2023, this is now almost exactly 18 months
[9:02] ago, you met to hear from concerned citizens
[9:08] who were against rushing into the carbon sequestration project
[9:12] that was presented by a dm and their allies at that meeting,
[9:17] their concerns related to safety and environmental contamination.
[9:22] you did invite three speakers, one from the university of illinois, one from
[9:26] richland, and one from a dm who testified in support of the project.
[9:30] but all three of these organizations have substantial financial
[9:35] interests in the project going forward.
[9:40] remarkably, not a single expert was invited,
[9:44] who was an expert on the risks of liquid co2
[9:48] pipeline technology, nor any expert on the health risks
[9:52] of, of or implications. If there was a significant co2
[9:56] leak, you took at face value the words of city manager scott
[10:01] wrighton, who stated, quote, it was almost impossible
[10:05] for a leak to occur. And yet, here we are less than
[10:09] 18 months later, and we've already had a serious breach. In fact, I, I believe
[10:13] what mrs. Rosenberger stated was that even at the time that
[10:17] a dm was here testifying there had already been a leak.
[10:22] and they weren't, we weren't told that they knew it, they testified,
[10:27] and yet they didn't mention it. Now, I'm, I'm
[10:31] sorry to say this because a dm is important to our local economy,
[10:36] but here's a company that has a track record, a public track record
[10:41] that is the worst safety record in the state of illinois as
[10:45] measured by the number of osha recordables impacting individuals
[10:49] at their company. Okay? They have a, they have a, unfortunately,
[10:54] a culture that is not geared to safety first. And so you
[10:58] need to take that into account. You should have taken it into account when you made that decision.
[11:03] okay, I got 30 seconds from the shot clock here, but I'll be
[11:07] back later. Uh,
[11:11] according to the ep, a carbon dioxide injected in the ground flowed
[11:15] into unauthorized zones, and the company failed to follow an emergency
[11:19] response remediation plan or to monitor the well,
[11:24] uh, so there's serious implications here. I think what you guys ought to do now
[11:29] is suspend the agreement immediately invite experts on these risks
[11:33] to come testify. I'm I sorry, mr. Robertson, you're out of time. Thank you. And lastly, no, you
[11:37] are out of to incorporate. I, so mr. Robertson, this we have to, mr. Robertson,
[11:42] we have to have into mr. Robertson, we have rules about the
[11:46] amount of time I'll take and I kindly ask you to thank you. Stay with the rules.
[11:58] good evening, counsel. So I'm here with some
[12:02] calendar of events, things. There's a lot going on in this community
[12:07] and a lot of things that we would like for you to know. Uh,
[12:11] and I would like to just give some praise to some different people.
[12:16] so this friday night, I will be spending the evening with
[12:20] five living legends from the decatur high school, 63 64
[12:26] basketball team, which had the best record ever
[12:31] in decatur high school basketball. So we will
[12:35] be inducting them into the athletic hall of fame, history
[12:39] of the heartland nominated them. They were part of our living legend
[12:43] series, and it's really a wonderful thing that
[12:48] we have some that are still here to be honored.
[12:52] then on saturday, the 21st ,
[12:56] and I know I've emailed all of you, we're hosting an
[13:01] elms neighborhood program that will be at the library.
[13:05] so it's a two o'clock on saturday. We encourage
[13:10] anybody that wants to get involved in the neighborhood organization to
[13:14] come september 29th, two to fourth
[13:18] governor oglesby mansion will be having an open house
[13:22] on friday, october 4th. And on
[13:26] earth, decatur probably didn't realize that we would ever
[13:30] have. We have a pulitzer prize finalist
[13:35] at acorn, which is a lincoln, an author. He
[13:39] will be appearing as history comes alive at the
[13:43] oaks b mansion on october the fifth,
[13:48] history of heartland. We will have a tablescape
[13:53] at the garden clubs tablescape event. And our scene
[13:57] is history happens in decatur, illinois. So we invite you
[14:02] to come and see that. Then on october 19,
[14:06] something that should catch the eye of mr. Cope.
[14:10] um, we will be authorities for law enforcement,
[14:14] living legends of and, and so, um,
[14:19] capacity manager and also chief of police,
[14:23] jim williams is coming back from florida to moderate.
[14:28] uh, chief todd walker will be there, which
[14:32] ed served with, and we're hoping that chief mark
[14:36] al will be there, sheriff jerry dawson
[14:41] and jim root will both be there and several other
[14:45] law enforcement. So we just record this for our youtube
[14:50] channel, and you can hear a lot of cool stories. So
[14:54] I would much rather city funds be used to support these projects
[14:59] than demo. Thank you, ms. Owen.
[15:13] I need these. My name's linda little, I'm the dementia friendly decatur
[15:18] coordinator, and I'm here for two reasons. One, to give you an update and
[15:22] two, an invitation, which I think has been distributed to already. The mission of
[15:26] dementia friendly decatur is to reduce social isolation for people in our community,
[15:30] living with dementia and their caregivers. We're committed to raising community
[15:35] members awareness of the symptoms and progression of dementia, regardless of the cause
[15:40] to provide education programs, training and skill building to enable our community
[15:44] to respond appropriately to the needs of people living with dementia and their caregivers.
[15:49] and to advocate for beneficial community programs and services
[15:53] to address the unique needs of people living with dementia, for them to not just
[15:57] live in our community, but to thrive in our community with the best quality of
[16:01] life for as long as possible. In the fall of 2022, decatur
[16:05] was recognized by dementia friendly america as a dementia friendly community,
[16:09] and a kickoff summit was held to explore tangible needs in our community and how
[16:14] best to address them. Speakers included paula basta, who
[16:18] was the director of the illinois department on aging, and susan reel, who's the executive
[16:22] director of the east central illinois area agency on aging.
[16:27] um, also in the fall of 2022, this council presented a proclamation
[16:31] and celebration of this designation. There was a celebration of our commitment
[16:35] to intentionally becoming more dementia friendly as a community. Since
[16:39] then, we've been working on training businesses. We've trained over 250
[16:44] individuals, um, businesses that are now considered dementia friendly
[16:48] businesses, which means that a minimum of 75% of their staff has been trained
[16:52] and that they have incorporated the dementia friends training into their onboarding process for all
[16:56] new employees, the land of lincoln credit union, all of their branches,
[17:00] not just in macon county, empowerment opportunity center, the
[17:04] executive staff, the senior center, the energy services, all
[17:09] at the empowerment opportunity center. And we're continuing to work with the staff in the
[17:13] early childhood services area of that organization as well in the macon
[17:17] county office building, the auditor's office, the circuit clerk's office, the county
[17:21] board office, the recorder's office, the supervisor of assessment,
[17:26] the treasurer's office, and the veteran's office. And we'll soon beginning, beginning
[17:30] to work with the offices in the courthouse, paul prince's ministry
[17:35] and the executive staff at the decatur park district. We also sponsor
[17:39] zoo days, which is the first monday of the month from april to october. Oh, I need to talk faster.
[17:44] um, it's free admission. We have games in the education building, and they bring
[17:48] in a couple of animals every, every month and introduce 'em to our guests.
[17:52] and it's been very popular. Um, we did a dementia
[17:56] friendly movie at the lincoln theater, which is wide aisles well lit. We encourage
[18:00] 'em to sing along. We had snacks and a photo booth. We're looking forward to do that again this spring.
[18:05] my second reason I'm here is the invitation that's been passed out to you where we
[18:09] will be updating, educating, and highlighting. And I'm very thrilled to say that one of our
[18:13] keynote speakers will be mary eck, who is the director of dementia friendly america.
[18:18] thank you, ms. Little. You're doing a great job. Would anybody else like to
[18:22] approach, uh, appear before council tonight? Please approach manam mond down.
[18:31] hi, I'm kerry peters. I'll just be real quick. I just wanna compliment the police for the
[18:36] remarkable job they did the other night with the, uh, when the, uh, schools were threatened.
[18:40] it was, uh, phenomenal. I just wanted to pass that on. Thank you, mr. Peters.
[18:47] would anybody else like to appear before council?
[18:52] okay. Seeing none, we will move on to approval. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm, um, I actually wrote
[18:56] it down to ask to see if anybody on council had comments. Dr. Horn.
[19:01] thank you, mayor. I'd like to thank ms. Rosenberger
[19:05] and mr. Robertson for bringing up, um,
[19:10] the co2 leak that was reported. The
[19:14] leak that was associated with a dm sequestration operations
[19:19] illustrates the potential health risks that
[19:24] sequestration poses and the lack of safeguards
[19:28] in place for notifying the public. When a problem
[19:32] is identified. At its march 20th, 2023
[19:37] meeting, the decatur city council authorized the
[19:41] city manager to negotiate the terms and conditions for a carbon
[19:45] sequestration easement. At the meeting, city council
[19:49] members were repeatedly assured
[19:53] that carbon sequestration was safe and there would not
[19:57] be leaks. 18 months
[20:01] later, the city learns through the media
[20:07] not a dm, not u-s-e-p-a, that
[20:11] there was a co2 leak through a corroded well
[20:15] that had not even been in place 10 years.
[20:20] it is also concerning that a dm allegedly
[20:25] did not follow its own emergency response
[20:29] and remediation plan wouldn't. One of the first
[20:33] calls regarding a co2 leak b to the
[20:37] city of over 68,000 residents
[20:41] home of the north american headquarters of a dm,
[20:46] given the co2 leak, and that the us department of labor
[20:51] found that a lack of preventative maintenance played a major
[20:55] role in an explosion that injured three workers at
[21:00] adms west plant on decatur. On april 20th, 2023,
[21:06] city leaders would be right to ask questions about
[21:10] whether some of the activities that a dm is engaged in
[21:14] are safe for workers and residents of the city.
[21:19] it is reassuring that the macon county multi
[21:24] hazar mitigation plan that we're going to vote on later
[21:28] tonight mentions carbon sequestration
[21:32] and explosions as hazardous materials threats
[21:36] indicator. But it is unclear
[21:41] what the specific plans are. In the event
[21:45] of a leak or an event of an explosion.
[21:50] residents should unequivocally expect a dm to
[21:54] cease injection of co2 into
[21:58] unauthorized zones. It should expect a dm
[22:02] to follow its emergency response and remediation plan,
[22:06] and it should in expect a dm to monitor
[22:11] co2 injection wells in accordance with its u-s-e-p-a
[22:15] permits. Thankfully, this incident did not impact
[22:19] water quality, but given that the city of decatur recently
[22:24] approved an easement with a dm to significantly
[22:28] increase its carbon sequestration activities under
[22:32] lake decatur, these alleged violations are concerning
[22:37] and must not happen again.
[22:41] I will have specific questions to city staff when we get to other
[22:46] business. Thank you. Anyone on council? Mr. Culp?
[22:51] I wanna take a moment to thank linda whittle for coming night and, uh, her dedicated
[22:56] work for dementia friendly decatur. Not only this, but the, uh,
[23:00] the awareness you're giving our community as well, and we appreciate that. I've been a friend of,
[23:04] or a fan of linda for many years and what she's done for our community. So wanna pass
[23:08] on? I, my thank you, mr. Keel.
[23:12] I don't have a prepared statement, but I'm gonna make a comment about the a dm
[23:17] incident. Um, mayor, I wanted to just ask you, do they have 4,000
[23:21] employees out there? Approximately? Okay, so
[23:28] do I like what I hear about a dm and what happened? No, I'm
[23:32] not ready to throw 'em under the bus yet. Everybody else is ready to
[23:36] jump on and throw 'em under the bus. Let's, let's hear what they have to say. They've got
[23:40] 4,000 employees. If you've ever run a business, even with 10,
[23:44] it's tough to manage 10, let alone 4,000 mistakes are
[23:48] gonna be made. How about boeing? You know, they had that
[23:52] 7 37 max airplane. You think they built that plane so it would crash?
[23:57] I don't think so. How about firestone? We had that plant here in
[24:01] decatur, and our plant was targeted to close because they made
[24:05] bad tires. Do you think they did that on purpose? No. So let's
[24:09] wait and see what happens. And I'm sure there's gonna be
[24:13] investigations. Let's find out. Maybe a dm did something wrong.
[24:17] I don't know. Let's just wait and see. Instead we're just throwing our biggest
[24:22] employer under the bus. I get tired of it. And I do wanna
[24:26] clarify. I was contacted by the epa, uh, with notice that
[24:30] there would, there had been, uh, an incident and they were
[24:34] investigating, but not with any details. And I did have conversations with a dm and
[24:38] the public was not in danger when the leak occurred, so I'm
[24:42] sure there will be more to come. Um, moving on now to approval of the minutes.
[24:47] approval of minutes of september 3rd, 2024. City council meeting. I need a motion and a second.
[24:51] so moved. Second. Councilman horne? Aye. Councilman kuhl?
[24:57] present? Councilman colt? Aye. Councilman
[25:01] cooper? Aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory? Aye.
[25:05] mayor moore wolf. Aye. Six ayes. One. Present. Any unfinished
[25:09] business? None. Moving into new business item one. The treasurer's financial report.
[25:14] mr. Gleason. Thank you. Mayor is the, uh,
[25:18] treasurer, uh, makes her way to the podium. Uh, just a reminder to
[25:22] the community, our, our fiscal year lines up with a
[25:26] calendar year, so we're nearing the completion of our third quarter
[25:31] entering, uh, the fourth quarter down the home stretch. October 1st,
[25:35] uh, what was adopted, uh, last year? Uh, we find that the
[25:39] expenditure and revenue trends, uh, we are pretty close, uh,
[25:43] and trending well on revenues, uh, to, uh, what was projected last
[25:48] year. Ruby. Thank you, counsel
[25:52] and mayor. Um, so we are sitting at, uh, for august. We are sitting
[25:56] at 91 days cash, uh, which is where we expect it to be and where we expect to end
[26:00] close to the 90 days that is required by the council. And,
[26:04] uh, as a city manager said, we are very close, um, to
[26:08] where we were budgeted to be right now. So that is a much better place than we were during
[26:13] first quarter. So we're feeling better about, uh, where we're headed.
[26:17] and, uh, therefore, um, the concerns that we had about, uh,
[26:21] possibly not meeting budget or needing some money, um, are, uh,
[26:26] lessening. And so we feel much better where we're gonna end, end the year at. And we still have,
[26:30] um, expected, uh, personnel savings of
[26:34] anywhere from a million to a million and a half. So we are sitting in a good place. Any
[26:38] questions from counsel for ms. James?
[26:42] anything else you wanted to add further? Thank you. Thank you, ms. James.
[26:48] okay, moving on to item two. Resolution authorizing property and liability insurance
[26:52] coverage for the city of decatur, illinois for the policy period october 1st, 2024
[26:56] to october 1st, 2025. Motions to resolution to pass and be adopted.
[27:00] so moved. Sec, mr. Gleason. Mayor, if you don't mind, I'm
[27:04] going to have, uh, our city treasurer, uh, stand at the podium.
[27:09] items two through 10. They're all hers, they're all related to,
[27:13] uh, insurance. Uh, there's no concerns, but I don't wanna rush through 'em either,
[27:18] you know, this is, uh, this is our portfolio of, uh, insurance
[27:22] for the city and, uh, she'll go through each one of these. Thank
[27:26] you. Thank you very much. Um,
[27:30] so with that, uh, we also have from representation from aj gallagher,
[27:34] if anyone has questions of them. Um, and also I
[27:39] want to, uh, kind of as an overview, one of the things we did this
[27:43] year is a complete reconciliation. And, uh, when we went through the
[27:47] property and vehicles, uh, we noted that there were some items, uh,
[27:51] missing from the inventory between what the insurance had and we had,
[27:56] and all walk through that and, and note where that has made a difference in
[28:00] the insurance. And in the letter that is included,
[28:04] uh, within the first item, which is item number
[28:09] two, um, the letter is there and there's a summary of each of the, the
[28:13] property items there. So I don't know if we wanna go ahead and walk through each one is
[28:17] and then vote on 'em at the end, if that would be all right. We actually need to vote on them one at
[28:21] a time. Un understood. May I talk about them? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Very good.
[28:25] um, so with, uh, property and liability, uh, part of that,
[28:29] uh, where it contains essentially, um, auto and,
[28:34] um, auto was included in that, and that's one of the items where there was a reconciliation
[28:38] for additional vehicles, uh, that the inventory was different. And so
[28:42] that had an impact on the valuation, uh, that was there between last year
[28:47] and this year. So that had an impact on the 14% increase. It was not just a rate
[28:51] increase. I wanna point that out. Um, however, as we all know,
[28:55] uh, rates have increased, uh, across for everyone with, with home and vehicles
[29:00] and so forth, had an impact as well, um, with the municipalities.
[29:04] and in the first paragraph I talk about that auto went up by 9%, um, and general
[29:09] liability and property by 5.5%. So rates did increase overall.
[29:13] um, I did wanna point that out as well. And then, uh, property,
[29:18] uh, more in line with the 5.5%, uh, as quoted in the first,
[29:22] um, paragraph in there. And then equipment,
[29:26] um, essentially we talked about last year, uh, as well that this was a
[29:31] new item where we pulled out, uh, that mobile equipment is essentially something that
[29:35] we would pull behind. So it would be, um, things that, that would be pulled
[29:39] behind in the truck. And that was pulled out by the industry. And that became a new item where
[29:43] we had equipment as a separate insurance last year. And
[29:47] crime, um, uh, was basically remained stable.
[29:52] excess liability, you can see there had a, a fairly, um, a larger
[29:57] increase. And then auto in inland marine. I wanna explain that that is
[30:01] where vehicles are in the lot not moving. Essentially no one's driving the vehicle, it's
[30:05] sitting in a lot. So should there be a storm that impacted it or someone came by
[30:09] and did damage to the vehicle sitting in the lot and that's where we had,
[30:13] um, a difference in inventory so that that caused the significant
[30:17] increase you there see in the table of 60%. So that is
[30:21] the largest, uh, difference there. Cyber, uh, interesting enough,
[30:25] did not go up that much this year. Cyber has been a problem in the past and cyber
[30:30] remained at a pretty good, uh, rate there. Crisis was 17%
[30:34] workers' compensation, uh, due to aj gallagher actually negotiated
[30:38] that, uh, at the, at the last, uh, minute and was able to bring that down. That's good.
[30:43] and then, um, aj gallagher has, has, uh, kept their fee,
[30:47] uh, flat for us next year. Overall, uh, the
[30:51] increase was 13.6%. Again, the industry has seen, uh,
[30:55] increases. And then we did the reconciliation, uh, for property and vehicle.
[31:02] thank you for that overview. Anyone on council have a question? Chuck
[31:07] just had a question about deductibles. Have you on any of these? Have you
[31:11] raised the deductible on any of these over the last few years? Just because
[31:16] a thousand dollars today isn't what it was five years ago, so
[31:20] I don't, you know, I don't know the math on all this, but I was just wondering if you look at the
[31:24] deductibles to see if there's a way to save and increase our deductibles just
[31:28] for the fact that a dollar today isn't worth as much as it was five years ago.
[31:33] true on the auto. So some of the, um, auto, uh, insurance
[31:37] for instance is at $250,000. Am I quoting that right? Ted?
[31:42] why don't you come on down to the podium? Um, for the auto
[31:46] insurance for instance, we have a fairly high deductible. And so when our vehicles,
[31:50] um, would hit something like a tree or our own vehicles and so forth, they aren't
[31:55] covered and we can repair them ourselves. So that was a deductible we raised a while ago
[31:59] to save money. So we did that. And then last year, the
[32:03] property insurance, we lowered actually to $50,000 so that we would include
[32:07] more claims just in the sense that property is something that does get damaged
[32:11] more often. So we actually lowered that and the cost was not significantly more
[32:15] at that time. So that's something that we, that we did, um,
[32:20] to try and, um, we were able to get the same, uh, insurance coverage with a
[32:24] lower deductible at that time. It was just a, a math
[32:28] question basically. Sure. You know, and I just wanted to make sure that our deductibles were
[32:33] equal to what they used to be five, 10 years ago. And do you feel like they're comparable
[32:37] ted to what you see at other, um, institutions? Oh yeah,
[32:41] absolutely. And the city has pursued a strategy of self-insurance
[32:45] for the last 20 years where it's applicable. And this is a
[32:49] good example of that. Councilman.
[32:54] well, there's pat. Each of us, whether it's cars or or
[32:58] home insurance, it's gonna be an annual in pretty good size
[33:02] increases, wouldn't you say that years to come?
[33:07] I don't see it changing dramatically back to a buyer's
[33:11] market in the short run, let's put it that way. Okay. There's too much going
[33:15] on in the world from a climate standpoint, whether
[33:19] you believe in it or not, but I think the science is there to back it up,
[33:23] that it has severely impacted the insurance industry. Thank
[33:27] you. Anyone else on council with a question or comment?
[33:32] okay. Call the question on the, uh, item two, councilman horn.
[33:37] aye. Councilman kuhl? Aye. Councilman cole? Thank you. Aye. Councilman cooper?
[33:42] aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory? Aye. Mayor more wolf? Aye.
[33:46] seven ayes no nays. Item three, resolution authorizing auto inland marine lot
[33:50] insurance coverage for the city of dec gator, illinois for the policy period october 1st, 2024
[33:55] to october 1st, 2025. Motion at the resolution to pass and be adopted. So
[33:59] moved. Second. Any questions counsel? Seeing none. Councilman
[34:04] horne? Aye. Councilman kuhl? Aye. Councilman cole? Aye. Councilman cooper?
[34:08] aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory? Aye. Mayor more wolf? Aye.
[34:12] seven ayes no nays. Item four, resolution authorizing ex excess liability
[34:16] insurance coverage for the city of decatur, illinois for the policy period october 1st, 2024
[34:21] to october 1st, 2025. Motion that the resolution do pass and be adopted. So
[34:25] moved. Second comments or questions? Seen none. Councilman horne?
[34:29] aye. Councilman kuhl? Aye. Councilman colt? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman
[34:33] mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory? Aye. Mayor more wolf? Aye. Seven ayes
[34:37] no nays. Item five has a typo. It should read resolution authorizing
[34:42] property insurance coverage for the city of decatur, illinois for the policy period of october 1st, 2024
[34:47] to october 1st, 2025. Motion to resolution to pass and be adopted.
[34:51] so moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Counsel? Seeing none,
[34:55] councilman horn? Aye. Councilman kuhl? Aye. Councilman
[34:59] colt? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory
[35:03] aye. Mayor more wolf? Aye. Seven ayes known ayes. Item six resolution authorizing
[35:08] excess workers' compensation coverage, compensation, insurance coverage for the city of
[35:12] decatur, illinois for the policy period october 1st, 2024 to october 1st, 2025.
[35:17] motion is the resolution do pass and be adopted. So moved. Second. Any questions or
[35:21] comments? See none. Councilman horne? Aye. Councilman kuhl? Aye. Councilman
[35:25] cole? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory
[35:29] aye. Mayor moore wolf. Aye. Seven ayes no nays. Item seven resolution authorizing
[35:33] equipment insurance coverage for the city of decatur, illinois for the policy period october 1st, 2024
[35:38] to october 1st, 2025. Motion to the resolution, do pass and be adopted. So
[35:42] moved. Second. Any comments or questions? See none. Councilman horne? Aye.
[35:46] councilman kuhl? Aye. Councilman cole? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman
[35:51] mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory? Aye. Mayor more wolf? Aye. Seven ayes no
[35:55] nays. Item eight, resolution officer authorizing cyber liability insurance coverage for
[35:59] the city of decatur, illinois for the policy period october 1st, 2024 to october 1st, 2025.
[36:04] motion that the resolution do pass and be adopted. So moved. Second. Any
[36:08] comments, questions? Seen none. Councilman horne? Aye. Councilman kuhl? Aye.
[36:12] councilman cole? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman
[36:17] gregory aye. Mayor moore wolf. Aye. Seven ayes no nays. Item nine, resolution
[36:21] authorizing crisis protection insurance coverage for the city of decatur, illinois for the policy period october 1st, 2024
[36:26] to october 1st, 2025. Motion that the resolution do pass and be adopted. So moved.
[36:31] second questions, comments? Seeing none. Councilman horne? Aye. Councilman
[36:35] kuhl? Aye. Councilman colt? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman mcdaniel?
[36:40] aye. Councilman gregory? Aye. Mayor moore wolf. Aye. Seven ayes no nays. Item 10
[36:44] resolution authorizing amendment number four to the management and professional services agreement between
[36:48] the city of decatur, illinois, and ever side health llc motion is
[36:52] the resolution to pass and be adopted. So moved. Second mr. Gleason
[36:56] or ms. James? Is are, are
[37:00] we on other side? We are, uh, items two through
[37:05] 10. Uh, we're gonna be, uh, the treasures. Okay. That's ms. James, I
[37:09] you didn't cover ever side, did you? No, I did not. Okay. I thought I was getting, I was just making sure
[37:13] loss in the twilight, so making pre comments there. All right, very good. So, uh,
[37:17] I wanted to, uh, give an overview of what the ever side health clinic is. Not
[37:22] everyone may know that for the public as well. Um, that is the city's health clinic where the
[37:26] employees can go and actually, uh, get free services there.
[37:30] and the idea behind it is that we can manage that better, uh,
[37:34] because when they go there, then we're not getting charged for, uh, services
[37:38] from, uh, a doctor elsewhere. And so we pay flat amount for,
[37:43] to provide that service to our employees. And the employees also are getting, uh,
[37:47] generic prescriptions there prescribed by the doctor at the clinic. And so it's
[37:51] a way that we can control costs and have, uh, been able to control costs. In
[37:55] the first year of the clinic, we saved $1.5 million. And in the second year of
[37:59] the clinic, we didn't save as much because, uh, employees had, um,
[38:03] health concerns that, uh, this is a regular doctor's office and the health concerns
[38:07] they had, uh, several of 'em that need to be treated by a specialist. And so we cannot do specialist
[38:12] work there. And this year, uh, we have not had as many
[38:16] employees with specialists, uh, health, uh, issues. And so we feel that
[38:20] in 2024, we will again save, uh, a lot of money by being
[38:24] able to go to the clinic and provide those services. Now, we have been
[38:28] so successful that in the first year of the clinic in 2020, uh, two,
[38:32] when it opened, there were, um, 79 visits in the first month.
[38:37] and when we go to, um, now this year in the highest month, there was 250
[38:42] visits. That's a very large increase. And on average in 2022,
[38:46] there were 109 visits. And, um, and this year there's 180
[38:50] visits. That's a, that's a large increase. So to provide this good quality care,
[38:54] uh, we are asking to add a medical assistant. The cost of that
[38:59] annually is, uh, 84, approximately $84,000. And so that
[39:03] is the request, um, on this resolution. A quick question.
[39:07] I know that initially, um, when this was first proposed to counsel,
[39:11] um, the hope was that other governmental bodies would
[39:15] also sign on, which would take away some of the overhead costs that
[39:20] we were being charged. Ha have we been successful in bringing on others?
[39:24] so far, only the pipefitters union, uh, has been included in that. So, and there aren't many,
[39:28] uh, individuals in that. We are still contacting others, uh, to do that. And with
[39:32] the new city manager, we are looking into that to see, uh, if we can do that successfully.
[39:36] yes. So we have, uh, continued to be in conversation, uh, to try and do that
[39:41] and, and we'll see where we can get on that. Yes. Other comments or
[39:45] questions from counsel? Mr. Colp? Just a comment, uh, since
[39:49] we've opened this, we've had great success. I've heard of a lot of positive things about it from
[39:53] city staff and retirees. So I, I think it's a wonderful program, but I
[39:57] do hope we get some partners for it though. Other comments? Dr. Horn?
[40:03] I just wanted to once again, thank city staff for their
[40:08] vision and launching this clinic. Access
[40:12] to healthcare is a critical benefit for
[40:16] our staff, and it helps make the city of decatur
[40:20] an employer of choice. $1.65 million
[40:25] saved in healthcare costs over a two year period is
[40:30] excellent. And hopefully our employees and their families
[40:34] are healthier because of it. So again, thank you to city staff for
[40:38] your leadership. Any other comments? Seeing none.
[40:43] councilman horne? Aye. Councilman khl? Aye. Councilman
[40:47] colt? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman
[40:51] gregory? Aye. Mayor, more wolf? Aye. Seven ayes. No nays. Thank you, ms. James.
[40:55] appreciate you staying at the podium. Item 11, resolution authorizing the adoption of
[41:00] the macon county multi hazar mitigation plan. Motion of the resolution
[41:04] to pass and be adopted. So moved. Second, mr. Gleason.
[41:08] thank you, mayor. Uh, I think, uh, most communities are familiar
[41:12] in the state of illinois counties, uh, run the lead with the relationship
[41:17] with, uh, the state emergency management and the federal emergency
[41:21] management agency. This mitigation plan is something that has to be,
[41:25] uh, adopted by all the local communities, uh, townships
[41:29] within, uh, macon county. And then, uh, will be adopted
[41:33] at the, uh, county level. Uh, it's a 300 plus page,
[41:37] uh, document. A lot of it's standard. I don't want to assume that it's
[41:41] standard, uh, to the council that might have questions. And, uh, the deputy city
[41:46] manager and I will do our best to, uh, answer if there are any
[41:50] questions or comments. Thank you. And I will note that mr. Robertson has requested
[41:54] to speak, and we'll have counsel discussion, and then I'll call you to the podium. Any comments
[41:58] from counsel? Dr. Horn? Just
[42:03] some questions. Um, question number one. The multi
[42:07] hazar mitigation plan focuses on natural hazards and
[42:11] hazardous material incidents, as well as nuclear accidents
[42:16] as it pertains to hazmat incidents. Does the city
[42:20] have any plans for what to do in the event of co2
[42:24] leaks and plant explosions? Um,
[42:28] given the regularity of these events in decatur, it may be inevitable
[42:33] that an incident will do harm to residents and their property.
[42:37] the multi hazar mitigation plan appears to have limited information on
[42:41] the specific steps the city will take. So my question
[42:46] as it pertains to this is, how is the city going to use the
[42:50] mitigation plan to make changes to its policies?
[42:55] and I think, not to avoid the question, uh, because I will get a
[43:00] response, but I'm going to assume, uh, related to the specific question, the
[43:04] relationship with a dmi know public safety, our decatur
[43:08] fire department, uh, they have a strong relationship.
[43:12] I would imagine that there is a plan, but I want to confirm that, and I will report
[43:17] back and then also how this connects to the, uh, macon county, uh,
[43:21] mitigation, hazard mitigation plan. I'll also, uh, check
[43:25] into that as well and see what the direct connection would be, uh,
[43:29] god forbid, uh, an incident.
[43:34] so one of the natural hazards that the mitigation plan focuses on
[43:38] is extreme heat. As per page 73
[43:42] of the plan, the national weather service has identified excessive
[43:46] heat as the leading weather related killer in the united states.
[43:51] and as per page 74, the plan extreme heat can disproportionately
[43:56] impact disadvantaged and challenge communities in ways such
[44:01] as financial constraints and limited mobility. How is
[44:05] the city of decatur going to use the mitigation plan to make changes in
[44:09] its policies? For example, the plan states that quote, some
[44:13] residents of disadvantaged communities may have limited mobility, making
[44:18] it difficult for them to leave their homes or access transportation
[44:22] to cooler areas during extreme heat events.
[44:26] so if residents lack air conditioning or as an example,
[44:31] or running water as an example, is there concern
[44:35] that they won't be able to get to cooling centers?
[44:42] I'm gonna bounce around maybe a little bit on, uh, this response, but I think it
[44:46] all, uh, ties together. Uh, in, in fact, I, I'll share with
[44:50] the community. I know council's aware, um, but I serve
[44:54] on, uh, fema's national advisory council, uh, finishing up a three
[44:58] year appointment. In fact, I'll be in dc next week. And when we
[45:02] talk about, uh, heat related, uh, incidents, it's one that the, uh,
[45:06] administrator, uh, deanne criswell, uh, is actually talking
[45:10] about naming, uh, heat, uh, related, uh,
[45:15] um, I, I, I guess weather issues not
[45:19] dissimilar to how we name, uh, hurricanes and tropical storms because
[45:23] they have that kind of impact on communities and regions.
[45:28] specific to, uh, your question, councilman horne, you know, I know that there are
[45:32] partners, uh, in this community that when we have a forecast for,
[45:36] uh, heat related, uh, problems in the community, that there are,
[45:40] uh, different, uh, programs, assistance cooling centers available
[45:44] in the community. I don't know how closely we worked together.
[45:48] I think we were fortunate this past summer that, uh, we did not have,
[45:52] uh, those challenges, I believe like we did in, uh, 2022 and 23,
[45:58] uh, that I'm going to ask if I have a chance follow up on that one as well.
[46:05] and then one final question. Uh, page 2 0 6 of the multi hazar
[46:09] mitigation plan is to remove trees and increase green spaces.
[46:14] uh, this involves removing trees from setbacks of roadways and
[46:18] increase in green spaces and reduce elevated vegetation. Um,
[46:22] could someone from the city explain what is envisioned for increasing
[46:27] green spaces and reducing elevated vegetation?
[46:33] I understand, um, what is meant by removing trees from setbacks,
[46:37] but from roadways, but what about green spaces and reducing elevated
[46:41] vegetation? And on this one, I'm going to,
[46:46] and real quick, I I appreciate that you give us a prep on the questions
[46:50] that you're gonna ask deputy city manager, uh, eth if, uh,
[46:54] I know that you ran the lead on, uh, that response earlier in the day,
[46:58] and if you would, uh, share that. And also as he's walking to the podium,
[47:03] uh, our community development director, uh, cordero patrick,
[47:07] uh, shared with me, um, a question or, or a
[47:11] response or part of a response to, uh, your last question. We do have
[47:16] a standing grant program, and I was actually familiar with that from, uh,
[47:20] my time here before, uh, to, uh, provide, uh, those
[47:24] without air conditioning units, uh, that program. And I do
[47:28] in fact, think it's a partnership, uh, with, uh, amin.
[47:32] more to come though. Thank you. And
[47:36] the last part I would add is, is that the city also runs the public transportation. And so when that's
[47:41] transportation is needed to the cooling centers, that's certainly something that's within the city's,
[47:45] uh, ability to provide. Uh, but to the question councilman horn
[47:49] about the, uh, removal of trees and vege, uh, elevated vegetation,
[47:54] essentially, I think the storm last year, uh, the dre show that came through decatur
[47:58] and macon county, uh, is a good example of that. Uh, essentially a lot of the,
[48:02] uh, the damage that was done was caused by trees in the, in the parkways.
[48:06] uh, and that took a couple of days to essentially reopen some of the streets
[48:11] and to ultimately get the power restored to the community as a whole. Um,
[48:15] I think the best indication that the city has already started to move towards that direction
[48:19] is the tree replacement program that the city adopted. Uh, within the last couple of years,
[48:23] there was a recognition that the city did not wanna par plant trees between
[48:28] the sidewalk and the curb. And ultimately the city, uh, council adopted a
[48:32] policy that said, put the pop put the tree on private property 10 feet
[48:36] behind the, the right of way line. That way, as the tree grows and matures, it's not
[48:40] growing into the overhead utility lines, uh, that, uh, can
[48:44] easily be damaged in, in high winds and storm events, as well as if the,
[48:48] the tree tips over, uh, it likely doesn't block streets, uh, that impacts,
[48:52] uh, first responders, uh, response time. And so I think those are indications that this
[48:56] is the direction the city has already been moving. Uh, but this plan does call
[49:01] for the city to continue to, to move towards those efforts all the way through 2030.
[49:08] mr. Mcdaniel, on that note about the trees I brought up to the former
[49:12] city manager after we had the, uh, uh, last shutdown of,
[49:16] uh, of power because a lot of trees falling
[49:20] as I drive around the, uh, uh, the city on
[49:24] private property, I see so many dead trees and they're right near
[49:28] major power lines now, uh, mr.
[49:33] uh, uh, former city manager said, of course, that's a, uh, it's private
[49:37] property and he was gonna look into it. I had never heard back, but that
[49:41] is a major, major problem in this community is I'm constantly
[49:45] seeing major, uh, uh, dead trees
[49:50] and, you know, they're gonna topple over in major storms in
[49:54] that. Is there anything, you know, would you staff look into that?
[49:58] what, what we can, I know it's cost costly for
[50:02] trees to be cut down, but when you lose power for quite a few days,
[50:06] that's, that hurts families and, uh, the population. So,
[50:11] and the, the cost of taking down a large tree, I've got a lot of large trees.
[50:15] it, it can be three or $4,000 for one tree. So it's out of the rate
[50:20] of a lot of our citizens. And, you know, unfortunately, unfortunately,
[50:24] then until something really bad happens. So other comments,
[50:29] chuck, I just had two trees cut down in my house,
[50:33] 2200 for two trees. So these trees must have been bigger, but they're,
[50:37] it's not cheap. That is a problem,
[50:41] you know, then because everybody gripes then about I've lose my power,
[50:45] you know, and the problem is, is stuff it's on private property and
[50:49] homeowners aren't doing anything about it. 'cause I know it's cost, but it's
[50:53] also a cost for the community on the long run. Other comments from
[50:57] counsel? See none. Councilman
[51:02] horne. Aye, wait, stop. I forgot to have mr. Robertson and I wrote it
[51:06] in really big letters. Mr. Robertson, I apologize if you'd come to the podium. Thank you.
[51:15] you have something to,
[51:36] so the, uh, the documents that I'm, I'm passing out to you, one is a copy
[51:40] of the letter from, uh, the environmental protection agency to,
[51:45] um, archer daniels binland that I thought you all should have a copy of. The
[51:49] second is something called a material safety data sheet. Um, those of you
[51:53] that are familiar with hazardous uh, materials know that every hazardous type
[51:57] material has to have an, uh, msds and there's one for liquified.
[52:02] um, uh, co2, uh, this, this one is
[52:06] a copy from helo liquid. Any, um, commercial provider has to have
[52:10] it. And the reason I include that is 'cause there's some special hazards that go
[52:14] with, uh, this particular, uh, material. And if
[52:18] there was ever a large scale accident, it would take a, a
[52:22] combination of circumstances to create kind of the nightmare scenario.
[52:27] um, right now, you know, a dm isn't fully ramped up. If they were fully ramped up with that
[52:31] pipeline pumping the liquid co2 through at the volumes
[52:36] that they anticipated, we would've had a much more serious accident than we
[52:40] had. And if we ever have that, if anything, breaches that
[52:44] pipeline, uh, then, then, um, you're all familiar with
[52:48] dry ice, right? You know that co2 is strange, right? It's not like water. Like
[52:52] most li like most materials, they go from solid
[52:58] and then water melts and becomes a liquid and then becomes a gas, right?
[53:02] if we, if we boil it. But co2 goes directly from a solid to
[53:06] a, to a gas. That's why we have, uh, dry ice. But so how is
[53:11] it that a dm is able to liquefy it? Well, you can only liquefy it
[53:15] by putting it under tremendous pressure. So this pipeline is highly pressurized.
[53:19] it's like at least 70 times atmospheric pressure, and
[53:23] it has to be cooled as well in order to keep it liquified. So
[53:28] why do I bring this up? Well, if anything happens that would cause the
[53:32] pressure to drop or the temperature to go up, then
[53:36] what's that liquified co2 gonna turn into? It's
[53:40] gonna, it's gonna snow, it's gonna turn into dry ice. And then
[53:44] we know what happens with dry ice, it quickly evaporates and you get a huge
[53:48] volume of gas for a relatively small volume of liquid. That's
[53:53] why it's so efficient to move it that way, right? But it also means you, you gotta have a tightly
[53:57] controlled process. And if anything goes wrong, then you're gonna have a rupture
[54:01] in that pipeline and you're gonna have a cloud of co2 grow around that
[54:05] rupture. And unfortunately, co2 is heavier than air.
[54:10] and so if you have a day like we often have where we smell the, what we used
[54:14] to call staley, right? That's, that's the kind of day where there's not much air movement,
[54:18] then you could have an accumulation of co2 on the ground and that's
[54:22] what potentially could cause asphyxiation of people. They can't breathe, they
[54:26] vomit, they pass out. And then the problem for first responders
[54:30] is they can't just rush in there, they gotta have special equipment. So I'm
[54:35] out of time. Thank you. And I hope you take action. Thank
[54:39] you for your comments. Any response from counsel before we move on
[54:43] to the question? Dr. Horn? Um, I just wanna say
[54:47] to mr. Robertson, uh, thank you for, for bringing back that back up.
[54:51] and the one leak that we're aware of. A dm was
[54:55] apparently aware of the corrosion and leakage in one of
[54:59] its two deep monitoring wells in march.
[55:04] uh, the corrosion of the well resulted in 8,000 metric tons
[55:08] of co2 and formation fluid entering underground areas
[55:12] for which a dm did not have a permit.
[55:16] and a dm was already subject to a class action lawsuit that
[55:20] was filed last year alleging that the company did not obtain pore
[55:25] space rights from landowners. And so combined
[55:29] these events could call into question the reliability and predictability
[55:33] of carbon sequestration operations being performed
[55:38] in decatur. And I appreciated city manager's res um,
[55:42] um, city manager gleason's response here and
[55:46] the importance of dfd being involved in these discussions
[55:51] by, I think it's important to note, we've had carbon sequestration
[55:55] in decatur for 10 years and so there should
[56:00] be a plan already, and one only has to look at what
[56:04] happened in rural mississippi where dozens of individuals were
[56:08] exposed to co2 when a pipe ruptured
[56:13] to understand, uh, what the consequences are of a
[56:17] leak of a pipe rupture. And so we've,
[56:21] we've had a decade to have a plan in place. Um, and so
[56:25] I think it's important that we have one. Any further comments?
[56:31] seeing none. Councilman horne? Aye. Council
[56:35] councilman kuhl? Aye. Councilman colt? Aye. Councilman cooper?
[56:39] aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory? Aye. Mayor more wolf?
[56:43] aye. Seven ayes no nays. Item 12 is our city manager. Update. Mr. Gleason?
[56:48] thank you mayor and council. Uh, no slides this evening. Uh, the only thing,
[56:52] uh, is just a preview for the october 7th council meeting.
[56:57] uh, there will be agenda item on video gaming. Uh,
[57:01] so a menu of options, uh, where I think we've got, uh, support,
[57:05] uh, tho that will come back for, uh, council consideration. Thank you.
[57:11] moving now to the consent calendar. Does anyone on council wish to remove any of those
[57:15] items that are listed? See none.
[57:20] item a ordinances authorizing consumption of alcoholic liquor on public rights of way. 100
[57:24] block of merchant street northeast community fund farm to fund item b, receiving and
[57:28] filing of minutes of boards and commissions. Item c resolution approving reappointment city plan
[57:32] commission item d, resolution approving reappointment zoning, board of appeals item
[57:37] e resolution approving reappointment, fireman's pension fund, board of trustees, item
[57:41] f ordinance annexing territory 29 43 south wheatland road, item
[57:46] g ordinance, annexing territory 29 41 turin road item
[57:50] h resolution authorizing a local public agency agreement with the state of illinois to improve
[57:54] 27th street city project 20 24 11 item I resolution
[57:58] accepting the bid and authorizing the execution of a contract with dun company, a division of tyrell
[58:02] inc. For 2024 local motor fuel tax street improvement project city project 20 24 25
[58:08] item j resolution authorizing a professional services agreement with clark dietz inc. To provide
[58:12] design engineering services for the south taylorville road water main
[58:16] replacement project. City project 20 24 16 item k ordinance
[58:21] vacating public rights of way 1300 block of north 23rd street alley, south of
[58:25] east locust street between 22nd street and 23rd street and the south half of the 1300 block
[58:29] of north 24th street. Item l ordinance rezoning property from r three single
[58:34] family residence district to b two commercial district 2192 eastwood
[58:38] street. Item m resolution authorizing the execution of an agreement with
[58:42] schafer excavate excavating for the demolition of one 30 north edward street.
[58:46] item n resolution authorizing the execution of an agreement with steve's trucking for the
[58:50] demolition of 1255 east prairie street. Item o ordinance and
[58:55] amending city code chapter seven officers and employees generally. Item
[58:59] p ordinance amending city code chapter 6 56, refuge and recyclables
[59:03] removal. Item o ordinance amending city code chapter 70.2,
[59:08] registration of a of at risk properties item r resolution
[59:12] authorizing purchase of tyler technology, software and reallocating funds budgeted for time
[59:16] and attendance system purchase. I need a motion to approve the items as presented.
[59:21] so moved. Second. Councilman horn? Aye. Councilman kuhl? Aye. Councilman
[59:25] culp? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman
[59:30] gregory? Aye. Mayor more wolf? Aye. Seven ayes, no nays. Anyone on council
[59:34] have other business? Mr. Culp, I just want to thank decatur
[59:38] police department for their, uh, swift reaction to the school threats without going too
[59:42] deep in the case. Uh, I just want to appreciate their, what they've done
[59:46] for us and putting everybody at ease over this recent threat. And again,
[59:50] thank you. Agree. Other comments? Mr. Ko?
[59:57] I'd like to go back to carbon sequestration and now that we're other,
[1:00:01] we're in another business, I can ask questions of city staff.
[1:00:05] um, there are many unanswered questions
[1:00:10] about the co2 leak that, uh, took place. For
[1:00:14] example, could the corrosion of a well take
[1:00:18] place closer to the surface thereby posing
[1:00:22] a health threat to the public? And second, does the amount
[1:00:26] of sequestration activity influence the rate of corrosion?
[1:00:31] the amount of co2 predicted to be sequestered under
[1:00:35] lake decatur is substantially greater than what was done in the past.
[1:00:40] and that well corroded after 10 years of operation.
[1:00:44] frankly, I don't want the vi violator of the safe water drinking act
[1:00:49] to answer those questions. I'd rather have an independent
[1:00:53] assessment from city staff to answer those questions.
[1:00:57] to my knowledge only the mayor was notified of the leak,
[1:01:02] uh, prior to the u-s-e-p-a action in august,
[1:01:06] the leak took place months prior to the city
[1:01:10] reaching and final agreement with a dm that permitted the
[1:01:14] company to sequester carbon under lake decatur. It
[1:01:18] is very fair to say that the knowledge of a co2
[1:01:22] leak when it happened could have influenced the city council's
[1:01:27] decision on whether co2 sequestration was
[1:01:31] in the best interest of the city and its residents and
[1:01:35] could have influenced the terms of the easement agreement.
[1:01:40] and so the question is why weren't the city employees
[1:01:45] notified and why wasn't the city council notified? Because
[1:01:49] keep in mind, passage of our laws requires
[1:01:53] more four members of the elected body.
[1:01:58] why didn't adms emergency response
[1:02:02] and remediation plan include calling the city of
[1:02:07] decatur and its water department? And again,
[1:02:11] I don't want the violators of the safe drinking water act
[1:02:15] to answer these questions. These questions should be done
[1:02:20] by the city. Now, the city should also be asking
[1:02:24] why it took the u-s-e-p-a months to issue a notice
[1:02:28] of violation of the safe drinking act while the city's
[1:02:32] water supply thankfully was not impacted in this incident.
[1:02:37] it was not even notified until months
[1:02:42] afterwards. Can we expect the same lack of transparency
[1:02:47] from a dm and the u-s-e-p-a if the leak took place
[1:02:51] 10 feet underground again, the incident took
[1:02:55] place in march. The u-s-e-p-a issued its violation
[1:02:59] on october, on august 14th, and the
[1:03:03] public was not even made aware until september 13th.
[1:03:09] thanks to an article in the national media politicos
[1:03:13] ee news. And I also wanna thank, uh, brendan moore of the
[1:03:17] herald and review for the work that he did. Um, in
[1:03:22] following up a dm and u-s-e-p-a simply
[1:03:26] have failed the city of its decatur, city of decatur and its
[1:03:30] residents and their lack of timely incident reporting
[1:03:35] may have ensured that decatur residents live with the threat
[1:03:40] of carbon storage permanently. And this
[1:03:44] is all for a one time payment of $1.2 million,
[1:03:48] which represents about 1% of our general
[1:03:52] fund revenue we receive each year. But now I do have some
[1:03:57] questions for city staff and for the mayor. Mayor, you said you were aware what
[1:04:01] month were you aware of the leak? Late august, I received
[1:04:05] a very minimal correspondence from the
[1:04:09] epa. Okay. And then, uh, this question I guess would be city
[1:04:13] manager wrighton. Was any city employee aware of
[1:04:17] adms violations of the c mr. Wrighton isn't here. Oh, I'm sorry.
[1:04:21] I'm sorry. Tim. Mr. Gleason apologize. Um, was
[1:04:25] any city employee aware of adms violations of
[1:04:29] the safe drinking water act? And if so, when?
[1:04:34] and I say this with all due respect, uh, because a number of your,
[1:04:39] uh, questions, comments, concerns are things that I'm
[1:04:43] standing up a team. We've had internal discussions, uh, from what I learned
[1:04:47] about this, uh, last week. But at this point for an ongoing
[1:04:52] investigation that we are just learning about, les is best
[1:04:57] at this point from a city standpoint and for the community.
[1:05:01] that's not for a lack of transparency. It's we do not
[1:05:05] know what, uh, what the investigation is going to,
[1:05:09] uh, determine, but rest assured that many of the
[1:05:14] questions that councilman horne is raising, those are
[1:05:18] the very same questions that we've had internal discussions about and
[1:05:22] seeing how we stand up the appropriate team to address that and
[1:05:26] or get answers to those questions. So I would, uh,
[1:05:30] very much ask, uh, that we, uh, uh, take some time.
[1:05:35] uh, but those questions will be answered at some point, I promise you.
[1:05:40] thank you for that. So I will just put this question on the record, but
[1:05:45] I, I will give the city staff the time that it needs. But
[1:05:49] would adms failure to disclose
[1:05:54] pertinent information, um, negate the
[1:05:58] city's easement agreement? That is to say, is it negotiation
[1:06:03] in bad faith? I can personally speak, uh,
[1:06:07] to this issue and say, if I knew that a
[1:06:11] monitoring well was going to leak co2,
[1:06:16] uh, less than 10 years after it was installed
[1:06:20] and after being insured that co2 sequestration
[1:06:25] was safe, I would have changed my vote. And I
[1:06:29] think dr. Horne, if I can interrupt you, a lot of that kind of discussion really needs to happen
[1:06:33] with legal in, um, a more contained environment before
[1:06:37] we start talking about negotiating and, and changing, uh,
[1:06:41] where we are. 'cause I don't want us to get into a path that we don't want to be in. And
[1:06:45] I would defer to city legal that it should probably be in an executive
[1:06:49] session or, um, they may need time to look into it.
[1:06:55] yeah, I, when we are asked or
[1:06:59] directed to look into something, um, such as this,
[1:07:03] we would do that. Mr. Cooper,
[1:07:09] just one follow up question with, uh, dr. Horn's concerns there.
[1:07:13] um, and I, and I know that it's being looked into and
[1:07:17] I have confidence that it's being looked into. Um, but do we have any type of timeframe?
[1:07:22] 'cause I wouldn't wanna be sitting here 3, 4, 5, 6 months down the road waiting before we make
[1:07:26] a decision if we need to make a change on what we've already done in the past,
[1:07:35] a blended response here. And one, the completion
[1:07:39] of the investigation is going to drive, you know, the next
[1:07:44] steps, you know, based on whatever the findings might be.
[1:07:48] but maybe to answer your question, um, is we,
[1:07:53] we had this discussion earlier and it's an internal one and,
[1:07:57] uh, we are standing up the appropriate team to, uh,
[1:08:01] ask or prepare for the obvious questions that have been, uh,
[1:08:05] you know, circulated in the community and many of which, uh,
[1:08:10] councilman horne has, uh, raised tonight.
[1:08:14] further comment, mr. Keel. I'm sorry. No.
[1:08:18] um, for me again, I'm just, it's a wait and
[1:08:22] see. I have confidence that the people that are investigating this will do the right thing.
[1:08:27] um, councilman horn, you're against carbon sequestration, so your
[1:08:31] comments are slightly biased in my opinion. And it's an easy thing to attack.
[1:08:36] you could be a hundred percent right? I don't know, but I just wanna wait and see before
[1:08:40] we throw a dm under the bus, like I said earlier,
[1:08:44] let's hear from both sides. Well, and it's fair. And these kinds of investigations do
[1:08:48] take a long time, especially on the federal level. They tend to be extremely thorough.
[1:08:52] and so it is a very slow process. So it's kinda like when
[1:08:57] we have, um, a crime or an incident that's happening, everybody wants to know
[1:09:01] right now what's the answer, what is the investigation? And as,
[1:09:05] uh, councilman could easily tell us. Investigations take a lot of time to get
[1:09:09] all the facts. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved.
[1:09:13] second. Councilman horn? Aye. Councilman
[1:09:17] kuhl? Aye. Councilman colt? Aye. Councilman cooper? Aye. Councilman
[1:09:22] mcdaniel? Aye. Councilwoman gregory? Aye. Mayor more wolfe. Aye. Seven ayes,
[1:09:26] no nays. We are adjourned.