[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:19] Thank you, Director Palmer. Welcome to the August 12th, 2026 meeting of the Northeast Illinois Regional
[0:27] Community Railroad Corporation Board of Directors meeting.
[0:32] We know that directors, back then and Rodman are not expected to join, and there are no other board members
[0:39] joining virtually. Laura, if you would please call the roll.
[0:43] Director Backton. Director Brown. Director Craig. Director Diaz.
[0:53] Director Gordon. Director Palmer. Director Rodman. Director Sager.
[1:03] Director Shanahan. Vice Chair Ruffin.
[1:08] President.
[1:09] Chair McMann.
[1:11] Chair.
[1:11] We have a quorum.
[1:12] Thank you.
[1:13] This morning, safety briefing will be given by Signalman Alan Flores.
[1:17] He has seven years of service to Metro.
[1:22] I would also note that he is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.
[1:26] So thank you for your service and welcome.
[1:31] Good morning, Metro Board members and staff.
[1:34] Thank you for the opportunity.
[1:36] to present to you our safety brief and building evacuation procedures.
[1:43] We are in the 13 East board conference room located at 547 West Jackson Boulevard.
[1:52] In the event we need to be that great building, please do the following.
[1:56] Please be mindful of potential tripping hazards as you exit the room.
[2:02] Please exit out the doors into the hallway.
[2:05] Please utilize handrails and watch your footing.
[2:08] And as you make way down to the stairs to the building, please, you will exit the building
[2:15] and proceed to the Great Hall of Union Station where we will gather and wait for further
[2:19] instructions.
[2:21] Please take note of the person sitting next to you in assisting the ensuring everyone is accounted
[2:24] for.
[2:26] If you need assistance evacuating, the building, please notify Metro staff member or first
[2:33] responder will assist you.
[2:35] In the event of medical emergency immediately alert,
[2:38] a Metro staff member or the person sitting next to you,
[2:45] AEDs are located near the elevators.
[2:48] I will be the pre-determined staff member
[2:49] who will retrieve the AED if necessary.
[2:53] Metro staff are trained and certified and will
[2:55] administer first aid until emergency responders arrive.
[2:59] In the event of an active shooter,
[3:01] we will be governed by Metro PDs, guidance and instructions.
[3:05] Thank you.
[3:06] Thank you.
[3:11] I would ask everyone to please rise for the pledge of allegiance and ask that our Vice
[3:15] Chair, Ruffin, Director Palmer, and Director Craig, lead us in the pledge this morning.
[3:21] That's what I'm thinking here.
[3:22] I want the
[3:25] allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
[3:30] for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all
[3:37] all.
[3:41] Thank you, Laura, do we have any public comments speakers this morning?
[3:45] We have no public speakers.
[3:47] Thank you.
[3:48] With that, we'll move to the approval of the minutes from the July 16th,
[3:53] 2026 meeting of the Board of Directors.
[3:56] Are there any comments, deletions, or corrections?
[4:01] Hearing none, seeing none, is there a motion to approve?
[4:03] No, sir.
[4:05] Well, if you would call the roll, please.
[4:08] Director Brown.
[4:09] The same director Craig.
[4:16] Director Diaz.
[4:19] Director Gordon.
[4:22] Director Palmer.
[4:25] Director Sager.
[4:28] Director Shanahan.
[4:31] Vice chair Ruffin.
[4:33] Yes.
[4:34] Chair McMahon.
[4:36] Yes.
[4:37] We have eight eyes and one abstention in the motion passes.
[4:40] Thank you. Next, are the approval of the July 16th, 2020, and IRCRC closed session meeting
[4:49] minutes. Are there any comments, deletions, or corrections to the July 16th, 26, 20, 20,
[4:56] six, sorry. Close session minutes.
[5:00] Hearing none, seeing none, is there a motion to approve? Sir, second, second, Laura, if you would call the roll.
[5:07] Director Brown.
[5:11] Director Craig. Director Diaz. Director Gordon. Yes. Director Palmer. Yes.
[5:21] Director Sager. Yes. Director Shanahan. Yes. Vice chair Ruffin. Yes.
[5:29] Chair McMan. Yes. We have eight eyes, one abstention in the motion passes.
[5:35] Great. Thank you. Laura, if you would read the consent agenda into the record, please.
[5:41] A. Summary of consent agenda, capital payments from July 16, 2021, through August 11, 2021.
[5:49] A1, contract for NEPA Environmental Assessment and Services for Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation.
[6:00] A2, contract for Continuous Welded Rail.
[6:05] B, summary of consent agenda operating procurement from July 16, 2021 through August 11, 2021.
[6:14] A1, change order for my telephone system hardware, licenses, and annual support, A2, change
[6:22] order for switch machines, A3, change order for annual software, equipment, and educational
[6:29] support services.
[6:31] C, technical ordinance, consent agenda has been read into the record.
[6:35] Thank you, Laura.
[6:36] I am going to pull C, the technical ordinance off of the consent agenda, and we'll address
[6:42] that after we address A and B, are there other items on the consent agenda that other board
[6:48] members would like to pull from the consent agenda?
[6:53] Seeing none hearing none with that,
[6:55] is there a motion to approve the consent agenda A, 1 and 2 and B, 1, 2 and 3? Is there a
[7:03] motion to approve? Second? Second. There's a motion and a second, Laura, if you would call
[7:09] roll on that motion please. Director Brown.
[7:15] Director Craig. Director Diaz. Director Gordon.
[7:22] Director Palmer. Director Sager. Director Shanahan.
[7:30] Vice Chair Ruffin. Yes. Chair McMahon. Yes. We have nine eyes and the motion passes.
[7:37] Now, I'd ask for a motion to approve the technical ordinance.
[7:45] Is there a second?
[7:47] There's a motion in a second.
[7:49] I'm going to open it up for discussion, but before I open it up for discussion, I would ask.
[7:54] William Benz to give some background on the timing, just an overall summary of this.
[8:00] And then I'll open it up to questions and comments.
[8:03] And summary, the law department is recommending this tactical ordinance to be passed, it is going to help the board moving forward to kind of clean up past ordinances that are should have been rescinded previously that are outdated and that are no longer in effect.
[8:19] We are not looking to make any impact beyond kind of clearing up matters that should have been addressed previously.
[8:26] And so my recollection is that the board created a subcommittee director, Beckton, and
[8:33] director Rodman worked on that committee, worked with staff to identify ordinances that
[8:39] are either superseded by state or federal law or no longer active because they addressed
[8:45] a pilot program and the ideas to really consolidate our ordinances for the new board coming
[8:54] And is that accurate summary correct?
[8:59] With that, I'll open it up to any questions from other board members.
[9:02] Director Craig.
[9:04] Yes, thank you.
[9:05] So one of the more recent ordinances, if you will,
[9:11] was an updated direct metric to develop a veterans preference
[9:15] program to enhance recruitment and employment
[9:18] of veterans.
[9:19] These matters are governed through corporate employment
[9:21] policies and administrative practices.
[9:24] I know my own community has been for six years recognized by the Department of Labor for hiring of veterans and we're one of two communities in the state.
[9:37] Metro is also within that direction with the leadership of Jim Dubinsky and others, especially this board.
[9:46] and so to acknowledge that and to reaffirm our recognition for the veterans in a certain
[9:52] country.
[9:53] And the many veterans that work for Metro in particular, we know when you hire a veteran.
[10:00] They come to work. They're almost instantaneous leaders. They come to work on time. They provide leadership within their own units.
[10:07] So, there's a lot of value there. And I would emphasize, I'd hate to see that lost in this transition.
[10:14] And so, maybe you give me a little background in hope for the future of Metro and its observance of honorary veterans in our communities. Thank you.
[10:25] And I don't think there's any desire to move away from the progress that Metro has made from that.
[10:29] I think the veterans are valuable asset to our agency and the operations folks can speak to that.
[10:36] You know, this will give us a loud flexibility moving forward by having it through our policies versus, you know, through an ordinance.
[10:45] And it'll also make us consistent with what our sister agencies do.
[10:48] For example, CTA doesn't have an ordinance establishing their veterans' preference program.
[10:52] through an executive director order by their executive director.
[10:57] So we're trying to line up our policies and procedures
[10:59] consistent with our sister agencies, moving forward,
[11:02] and allowing us additional flexibility to kind of change
[11:04] and expand the program as needed.
[11:08] Jim, do you, sorry, but do you want to expand on that?
[11:11] Because I don't, there's no intent to try to pull back
[11:16] from the commitment that Metro and our executive leadership team
[11:21] has to recruit, retain, bring on veterans of the armed forces.
[11:31] But my understanding of this, that section of the ordinance, why that's included is that that allows staff greater flexibility to try to expand that program without having to go through the formalities of an ordinance.
[11:43] So I wanted to be clear, there is no desire to pull back from
[11:48] mattress commitment to the veteran community, but Jim, maybe you can
[11:54] expand on that a little bit.
[11:56] I think you did it perfectly, Chair.
[11:58] Yeah, we have no desire to pull back on that matter of fact.
[12:01] We'd still like to see that expanded.
[12:04] The results says, Skip said, Mr. Menz, said, are so true.
[12:10] And when we do get those veterans in here, they tend to be career oriented, have the skillsets
[12:16] already, the work ethics, and it's been really beneficial for us with no desire to pull back
[12:21] matter of fact.
[12:22] We look to actually try to expand as we move forward with the new board, Nita, and the region.
[12:33] Other questions?
[12:34] Director Gordon.
[12:36] Yeah, good morning.
[12:37] Just a comment.
[12:38] I think like so many I had questions about this and when I saw things being pulled or
[12:42] or any oversight or whatever, I did have direct conversations with a lot of private just to make
[12:46] sure that everything is being replaced or covered somewhere else and nothing is.
[12:51] We're not losing any oversight, any authority is a board and so I just wanted to comment
[12:55] on that and make that comment for people to benefit.
[12:57] Thank you for the work and thank you for the board members that were the directors that
[13:00] were involved in that process too.
[13:04] Director Sager.
[13:05] Thanks, Chair.
[13:06] As a new member to the board, I want to just educate the time and incredibly impressed
[13:11] by the fact that the work was done and done very thoroughly to ensure that one we are
[13:18] continue to be covered covering the areas of import in terms of philosophy and approach,
[13:24] but at the same time we're kind of cleaning things up if you will and so that we don't
[13:28] have quite so much redundancy and we make sure that we are in exact concurrence with
[13:35] the state laws or the policies of the body itself.
[13:40] So I'm very impressed.
[13:40] I just want to comment and say, thank you.
[13:42] I had a great honor to speak with Mr. Benz quite a bit
[13:46] about this to familiarize myself with the approaches
[13:50] being taken in and I was pleased with the responses.
[13:54] And I think that this a good new place
[13:58] is starts under the new structure and the new organization
[14:02] effort that is being made by the state.
[14:04] So I want to thank you all and appreciate this.
[14:06] And I'll be supporting this.
[14:08] Thank you.
[14:08] Thank you.
[14:10] Director Diaz.
[14:13] For veteran recruitment specifically, what is the policy
[14:17] that supersedes removing this resolution?
[14:25] Good morning.
[14:26] We basically memorialize the ordinance into a policy.
[14:30] We've also hired specific veterans as talent recruiters
[14:35] that actually go around the country to various
[14:39] locations and in terms of updating our various policies in terms of our job descriptions
[14:47] and things of that nature that we look at trying to hire veterans and give them some
[14:51] preference in terms of the large selection pool. So for example, we have a pool of like 300
[14:56] people and we feel that to other
[15:00] There's a good pool of a certain number of veterans. We will say, we will hire X number of veterans first, and then go to the larger pool. So, this is all put in the policy that basically has memorialized the ordinance.
[15:15] And so, currently, there is a board directive to metro leadership to emphasize recruitment and retention of veterans.
[15:23] If this resolution expires, let's say 15, 20 years from now we have a different CEO, maybe they don't prioritize better in recruitment and support.
[15:34] They would then have the ability to move Metro away from that policy.
[15:40] The board always, at any time, can provide direction.
[15:44] So just because you pull it back this way, there should still be dialogue going back and forth.
[15:48] there should be some oversight.
[15:50] And we believe that staff and the board really works well
[15:54] in this area in other areas.
[15:55] And at some point there could be a different direction.
[15:58] So it should not be stagnant.
[16:02] Well, you know, my preference is that that directive
[16:05] remain and also around DBE goals.
[16:11] And so for me, I will be a no vote.
[16:18] Any other questions, Director Brown?
[16:21] I agree with the comments that were made by my colleagues on the reason and the need to update
[16:30] the ordinance that we're putting in.
[16:33] What I am objecting to is that staff is asking this board to rush through this 166 page document
[16:41] and make a decision that was just given to me on Friday to make this decision on Wednesday
[16:48] a reading the Sunday to six page document to ensure that what you're saying is accurate
[16:55] and without asking really a lot of questions and two.
[16:59] So I'm opposed to the timing of it as well as I don't know if this is going to cause
[17:07] us down the road additional work in as much as NIDA, the new NIDA board is going to be sitting
[17:14] in another two weeks and we have not received any real direction from that board
[17:20] pit on if ordinance for all three agencies will be in collaboration to mirror each other and
[17:30] we don't I don't know what CTAs ordinance are or Paces or Desire it's related to some of the
[17:35] ordinance we're doing so I just I'm opposed to it right now because of the time of the time
[17:42] I mean, not because of the necessity to update or delete them, but the time and I think it's just bad.
[17:51] Any other comments or, so Dr. Shannon?
[17:56] I actually would echo Dr. Brown's comments.
[18:02] If we don't know what the whole scope of what net is going to want us to do, I think it seems like we could get ourselves into some sort of trouble and we could be on the same page.
[18:09] I think waiting will not be a big deal, and the timing can not be right for this.
[18:15] Just want to be open there.
[18:19] So, Director Paul, I think everybody's comments are well received and although I think
[18:27] the spirit of this sort of events is probably the right direction to go being the last
[18:32] meeting for some of us, and I don't want to pass on something to a group that needs a little
[18:38] time to look at this and I do think some of these ordinances were there for a good reason
[18:43] and some of it was not just on the veteran side, but protection of things that we learned
[18:49] that other boards in the past had not necessarily done on the right direction and so there
[18:56] were some protections put in place and things like that.
[18:59] So I think there's something that they should be able to review and do so I would make a motion
[19:03] to table.
[19:04] That's at this time.
[19:04] Okay, there is a motion in a second. There's now a motion to table. Is there a second on the motion to table?
[19:10] Second. There's a motion in a second. A motion to table is not available.
[19:15] Lower call the roll on the motion to table.
[19:21] Director Brown.
[19:22] Aye.
[19:24] Director Craig.
[19:25] Aye.
[19:26] Director Diaz.
[19:28] Director Gordon.
[19:30] Aye.
[19:31] Director Palmer.
[19:32] Aye.
[19:34] Director Sagar.
[19:37] Yes. Director Shanahan.
[19:40] Vice chair Ruffin.
[19:42] Hi.
[19:43] Chair McMahon.
[19:45] Hi.
[19:46] We have nine eyes in the motion passes.
[19:48] So that is table.
[19:51] Excuse me, Chair.
[19:52] Point of order.
[19:53] Yes.
[19:54] I know the motion was too table,
[19:56] but the intent here was to post pound.
[19:59] Correct.
[19:59] on to...
[20:00] So a future date and not particularly to table, because we will be revisiting this and are you expecting
[20:09] since it was table, are you expecting a motion to remove it from the table then in a future
[20:15] time or was the intent and is a friendly effort here to say that we were postponing this?
[20:21] So, the motion to table, I think we'll then place the agenda on the next agenda for our September meeting.
[20:33] I would ask our legal counsel to weigh in on that,
[20:37] but the answer to your question was to table from today to the next schedule meeting,
[20:42] so I think it will be on the next.
[20:43] So the intent really is to postpone to time-specific, correct?
[20:47] correct. The motion table actually could be the next board meeting or our subsequent meeting.
[20:54] So it will be up to the board at the next meeting to whether it wants to move forward
[20:59] for the September board meeting. So it's not automatically on this September agenda.
[21:06] So do we need a motion to place it on the agenda for the September board meeting now?
[21:10] Yes. So I would ask for that motion. So is there a second?
[21:14] The motion in a second to place the consideration of the technical ordinance on our next
[21:21] scheduled board meeting, the motion in a second, is there any discussion on that?
[21:28] I don't know if this is where I make the issue.
[21:32] I think if we're going to table a postponement, it should not be at the September board meeting.
[21:38] And as much as we're going to have seven new board members come on board in September,
[21:43] that would not have had an opportunity to hear any discussion prior to voting.
[21:49] They would just get the agenda and board material to review, but no real live discussion
[21:57] of the decarling skip, which might suffice for some, but not the majority.
[22:02] I don't know, because I don't know the individuals that will to speak on their behalf.
[22:06] So I would suggest that if we were going to postpone it, that it doesn't come up as early
[22:11] September, we just postponed it for a later future board meeting at some point for vote.
[22:17] They would be too.
[22:19] So, whether that's November, December, or, you know, it just seems that September is
[22:24] a rush because of the new members that are coming on board and affording them opportunity
[22:29] to review.
[22:31] So, there's a motion and a second to place it on the September agenda.
[22:35] My, I thought, and I understand there's going to be a lot to address it that
[22:40] board meeting with seven six new board members, six new board members at our September meeting.
[22:49] I'd like to put it on the agenda if there's a desire of the new board members to
[22:54] further table the technical ordinance. Let's address that at the September meeting.
[23:00] But that way this item remains on an agenda and if we want to extend it beyond September
[23:05] to give new board members a chance to meet with staff, to examine this in more detail.
[23:13] I would note that this has been an effort that has been initiated.
[23:19] I think about a year and a half ago, there's been, as you can see by the packet, there's
[23:24] a lot of work that went into this.
[23:25] There are a lot of ordinances that are being considered many of these are historical, some
[23:32] them in both pilot programs that are no longer in existence.
[23:35] So my desire is to keep it on the September agenda and to your point direct to Brown, if
[23:40] there's a desire to move it into October or November, let's revisit that with the new board.
[23:48] Any other discussion on the motion to place the technical ordinance on the September agenda?
[23:59] Seeing none hearing none more if you would call the roll.
[24:03] Director Brown.
[24:06] Director Craig.
[24:09] Director Diaz.
[24:10] Director Gordon.
[24:12] Director Palmer.
[24:14] Director Saager.
[24:16] Director Shanahan.
[24:18] Vice chair Reffen.
[24:19] Yes.
[24:20] Chair McMahon.
[24:21] Yes.
[24:22] We have nine eyes in the motion passes.
[24:24] Thank you.
[24:27] Is there any new or old business
[24:29] that any member would like to raise or discuss this morning.
[24:35] Seeing none, hearing none, is there a motion to adjourn?
[24:39] So, leave by prior role.
[24:41] Leave.
[24:41] Leave.