[1:02] Good evening, welcome to the first workshop for the proposed 2027 budget.

[1:06] Councilman Sayed will be participating by phone tonight.

[1:10] Councilman Sayed, can you hear us?

[1:12] Yes, I can hear you.

[1:15] Okay. Tonight our professional staff will focus on the preliminary capital improvement program.

[1:20] As a reminder, no final actions are being taken at this meeting since it is a workshop.

[1:25] Also, all the rules of the city council will still apply.

[1:28] speakers are asked to present their comments and a respectful and curious manner.

[1:33] Speakers should be on topic and be cognizant of their words.

[1:37] Speakers are given three minutes to address a city council and to help speakers stay within

[1:41] the three-minute timeframe.

[1:42] Speakers should be aware of the timer on the side, diastue, your right.

[1:46] The timer will buzz when it's zero and we will alert the speaker that their time is up.

[1:50] Mr. Krieger, I want to call the first four.

[1:54] All right, the first four speakers would be Theresa Huss, Joe Huss, Patrick Kennedy, and John Doyle.

[2:01] If you've heard your name called, just please proceed to the front row.

[2:05] Thank you.

[2:14] Hi, Theresa Huss, longtime resident and a member of Nest.

[2:18] I know tonight's meeting is focused on the capital budget, but I'd like to look ahead to the next meeting,

[2:23] the operating budget, and urge you to consider funding a climate action plan.

[2:27] The Climate Action Plan would be a one-time cost of about 0.015% of our annual budget, and it would give us a clear framework for measuring tracking and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions while preparing for the impacts of climate change.

[2:43] At their core, these plans focus on implementing the most cost-effective actions to reduce emissions and strengthen our long-term resilience.

[2:51] And we've been talking about climate action plans for years.

[2:55] It began back in 2019 when the City Council directed NEST to prepare an April 2036.

[3:01] It continued through last year when we completed our greenhouse gas inventory in 2025, both

[3:06] of those being important precursors to having an official plan.

[3:10] And many of you on the diet have expressed support for developing one and say you understand

[3:15] their importance.

[3:16] So our question is, if not now, when.

[3:19] Naperville has already shown it can lead, our annual sustainability work plans of help move

[3:24] individual initiatives forward.

[3:27] Staff have worked really hard to keep sustainability on the agenda.

[3:31] But work plans alone can't provide the long-term structure that we need.

[3:36] A climate action plan would allow us to measure progress year after year and identify the most cost-effective actions,

[3:44] ensuring our investments align with the clear and forward-looking vision.

[3:47] Funding a climate action plan is also fiscally responsible.

[3:52] Communities with climate plans are better positioned to compete for federal and state grants

[3:57] tied to clean energy sustainability and infrastructure.

[4:01] A plan would help prioritize our actions and save us money over time through energy efficiency,

[4:07] reduced operational costs, and avoided future risks.

[4:11] And most importantly, a climate action plan would reflect the values of

[4:16] The recent survey show that sustainability is a high priority for residents, many of us already work on sustainability in our neighborhoods, our schools, our faith communities, and in organizations like Nest, but a citywide plan would bring these efforts together and demonstrate that Naperville is committed to thoughtful and long-term stewardship.

[4:36] So, I respectfully urge the Council to fund the development of a climate action plan.

[4:41] It's a practical, community-driven investment in Naples Future.

[4:45] And now is the right time to move forward.

[4:48] Thank you for your time.

[4:50] Thank you.

[4:50] Thanks, Speaker.

[4:52] The Speaker shall us.

[5:03] Thank you. My name is Jeoha. I'm a 27-year resident and an S. Fontier and I have two questions. Why didn't we put any money in the capital budget for a battery?

[5:15] And second, why would we assume I am a should operate the battery if we purchase one?

[5:21] My recommendation is simple. Put some capital in the budget for a battery and use a competitive process to choose the best battery operator.

[5:30] First, why doesn't the capital budget include any funding for a battery, both the cities and

[5:36] NASA analysis indicated that a battery would quickly pay for itself and reduce our electricity

[5:41] bills.

[5:42] The value is not only financial, as you can see on the slide, the city's consultant found

[5:48] that the battery can address several existing reliability violations.

[5:52] Delaying action not only increases the risk of a serious outage, but also risk losing millions

[5:58] of dollars in federal investment tax credits that we'd get with a battery purchase.

[6:03] The prudent step is to reserve capital in the budget now, only to be spent if there's

[6:09] a compelling business case.

[6:12] And second, why would we assume IMEA would run the battery?

[6:17] In an email from the city to the battery author, I've said, quote, IMEA expects to control

[6:23] the battery.

[6:23] At the last electricity presentation, Council emphasized the importance of local control.

[6:30] IMA is a government entity based in Springfield, and it's not clear why, if any,

[6:35] utilities, if they have any utility scale, battery operating experience.

[6:41] They likely don't have the systems or the processes operate, one effectively.

[6:46] Naperville should instead follow our procurement process, experience firms operating hundreds of batteries nationwide,

[6:52] and can compete for our business.

[6:55] A battery would allow us to earn money

[6:57] through ancillary services such as frequency regulation

[7:01] and capacity sales.

[7:04] Although our current contract restricts us

[7:07] to only purchase electricity from INA,

[7:10] it's silent on battery operations

[7:11] because batteries weren't an option

[7:13] when the contract was written.

[7:15] Competitive bidding is the best way to contain costs.

[7:19] In closing, Council voted unanimously

[7:22] to direct the city to gather information for a battery business case to save Naperville residents

[7:27] and businesses money. But a business case is only it only creates value if the city is prepared

[7:32] to act and I ask the council to preserve some capital in the budget for a battery and require

[7:39] a competitive process before selecting an operator. That approach protects Naperville's options

[7:44] and gives residents the best chance for lower costs and better reliability. Thank you.

[7:50] Thank you, next speaker.

[8:10] Good evening.

[8:11] My name is Pat Kennedy.

[8:12] Resident and former chairman of the Riverwalk Commission.

[8:17] I want to give some context to the CIP request on behalf of the Riverwalk Commission for the South Extension Project specifically.

[8:27] The Riverwalk, it's shown on the screen here, but this section of the Riverwalk was originally expanded.

[8:32] the limits in 2015 for the boundaries of the river walk.

[8:36] This was planned for quite some time.

[8:40] Thank you.

[8:41] The master plan was endorsed in 2021, including this project

[8:46] and held public review at that point.

[8:49] It prepared design and permitting documents in 2023.

[8:54] At that point, I had met with Endeavor Edward Hospital

[8:57] and outlined the project for them.

[8:59] And the idea was that it would open and concurrent

[9:01] with their cardiovascular building which now open the last fall with permitting and

[9:09] permitting and design in 24 construction in 25 and a concurrent opening.

[9:14] And at that time, we had procured grant from Janet Eang-Ror and her group and her office.

[9:24] I appreciate that and asked the hospital to come up with another donation that would get us

[9:30] 50% of the total budget at the time, which was $3 million, and they did so enthusiastically.

[9:36] They put that money in our account in 2024, where it still sits today.

[9:41] The project got deferred for one year, I don't exactly recall why.

[9:45] Last year, the project got deferred because the bridge was delayed, and the 430 South

[9:50] Washington project, therefore, got pushed back a year, and the council determined that

[9:56] That was too many projects in one year for the River Walk in the Capital and Prick.

[10:00] So, it's currently in the CIP to go to bid this fall, this outfit extension is.

[10:10] The commission proactively reworked our five year look ahead to decrease various projects by over $3.5 million and push them into the future to accommodate this as our priority.

[10:23] I personally believe that there's a return on investment for anything we do with our river walk,

[10:28] our businesses, our households, and home values, and our reputation is all driven by this

[10:33] jewel we have as a river walk in this city.

[10:39] In addition, we have this commitment to one of our

[10:42] great institutions in town and in debt for Edward Hospital. I think the time is now the investment

[10:48] as the right investment, and we ask you to include this project in the CIP.

[10:53] Thank you.

[10:54] Thank you.

[10:55] Next

[10:58] speaker is John Doyle, followed by Katie Wood and Chris Hartner.

[11:17] John Doyle and Aprilville, President.

[11:18] Thank you.

[11:20] Paul G's for not sending these in advance, but I do have some questions on the debt strategy

[11:24] for our electric utility.

[11:27] First off, tonight's plan shows up to $10 million in new debt for $207.

[11:31] Is there any borrowing and already anticipated beyond 2027 and if so, how much?

[11:36] You know, next year's rate study is going to determine revenue requirement for 28 through 2030.

[11:41] How are you going to make the decision on what gets paid for through borrowing and what gets paid for through rates?

[11:48] The summary says the utilities that coverage ratio is a well below integer standards, which is great.

[11:54] So just curious, what range are we comfortable operating on now that we're taking on debt?

[11:58] And I say now that we're taking on debt, it seems that 2025's barring was the first new

[12:03] debt since 2011, and we are on track for three consecutive years of barring, so why

[12:08] the sudden change in funding philosophy?

[12:12] And lastly, but not least, any benefits that we are getting from barring potentially such as increased

[12:19] rates of stability.

[12:20] We need those benefits depend on who our wholesale power provider is or can we do that

[12:24] regardless of who we buy our power from.

[12:27] I'll also have some questions about the 2027 project list specifically.

[12:33] This plan includes almost $30 million in investments for the utility, but only about

[12:38] two thirds of that are accounted for in the presentation, so I'm asking where the other

[12:41] $10 million is.

[12:43] My assumption is that it's just all for recurring programs that happen every year and if that's

[12:47] the case, my question would be, is $10 million the expected annual run rate for those programs

[12:52] going forward.

[12:54] Separately regarding the debt I mentioned, which projects will have the $10,000,000,000

[12:58] tied to the U.T. tax purposes.

[13:02] And lastly, I want to talk about the total way of substation projects.

[13:05] It's become quite hard to keep track of when we're spending and where we're spending on

[13:08] what given the scope creep over the years and, you know, this is going on in 2021.

[13:13] It would be really appreciated if the utility and staff could give us a little more detail

[13:18] on what's going on with that project, you know, something similar to what the water utility

[13:22] did with the Spring Book project. I know this is an order of magnitude cheaper than the water project,

[13:28] but it would still be nice to know, for example, how much of that $6 million is for delivery

[13:32] of something that we ordered two years ago? I know that's going to be a big chunk of it.

[13:38] So yeah, those are my questions, and I'll get those emailed out after I'm sorry for not

[13:42] sending them in advance, but if you can get them tonight, that would be appreciated. Thank you.

[13:46] Thank you, next speaker.

[13:49] The speaker is Katie Wood followed by Chris Sartner and Monica

[13:57] Good evening, Mayor Whirlie and members of the City Council on Katie Wood with the Downtown

[14:02] Naperville Alliance here tonight with Don Portner with the DNA Monica Conners from the

[14:07] NDP Chris Hartner from Naperville Running Company. We're representing the boards of the DNA

[14:11] and DAC, the Downtown Advisory Committee. First, thank you for keeping the design of the Nichols

[14:18] Library Parking Deck in the 2027 budget that has been our goal from the very beginning design

[14:23] in 2027 with the hope of building in 2028.

[14:27] We've done the work.

[14:28] Starting this year, we've met with the Library Board of Trustees.

[14:31] We've met with the Chamber of Commerce.

[14:33] The Naperville Development Partnership, the River Walk Commission,

[14:36] DAC, DNA in each one of you.

[14:39] We've received support from all.

[14:41] And we continue to hear the same thing.

[14:44] Downtown needs more parking.

[14:46] Our businesses tell us parking limits.

[14:48] Their ability to do more business.

[14:50] Developers tell us perspective tenets.

[14:52] ask about parking when considering downtown Aprilville consumers tell us this repeatedly and now we have full

[15:00] Verify significant developments on the horizon that could bring approximately 160,000 additional square feet of commercial space downtown.

[15:09] We need to plan for that growth, not react to it.

[15:12] That's why we're concerned about moving construction of the Nichols Library deck from 2027, 2028, out 5, 6 years to 2031, 32.

[15:21] We've already delayed this project, plans were developed in 2008, revisited again several years later, waiting till 2032 means we've been talking about this location for over 25 years.

[15:33] In 2031, as Naperville's Phi Centennial, we should enter that celebration with this infrastructure in place, not begin major construction right in the middle of it.

[15:43] If capital priorities have to be made, we believe nickels should even come before additional

[15:49] streetscape work.

[15:50] Streetstap is very important that adding parking capacity is more important right now to

[15:55] downtown's economic health and future.

[15:58] We were also surprised to see the municipal center deck emerge as a priority with significant

[16:03] downtown parking fund dollars potentially used for that renovation.

[16:07] We understand that debt needs maintenance, but it primarily serves the government campus with really limited use by downtown shoppers and diners.

[16:17] With limited downtown parking funds available, we believe they should first be invested, where they can add parking capacity directly to support our downtown businesses.

[16:26] So tonight, we have three asks of you, keep the nickels design moving forward, please, in

[16:32] 2027, that move the construction significantly sooner than 2031, 302 by considering

[16:39] the priorities, readjusting priorities of future streetscapes.

[16:45] We want to get that moving.

[16:47] And thirdly, please reconsider the use of the downtown parking fund dollars for the municipal

[16:52] That fund was created to support public parking in the CBD and those dollars really should be invested.

[17:00] Sorry, I'm at it time.

[17:01] Thank you.

[17:02] We have a head start.

[17:03] Let's get this going.

[17:04] I appreciate your time.

[17:06] Thanks, Speaker.

[17:08] Next speaker is Chris Artner followed by Monica counters and Neil Malone.

[17:12] I'm Chris Artner, owner of Naperville Running Company, downtown business owner, downtown property owner,

[17:18] and I live right off of downtown and it might be pretty quick because Katie covered I think

[17:22] all the important stuff. I just want to reiterate that in the development of the food and

[17:29] beverage 1% I think I don't recall the exact wording that's in that document but nobody

[17:39] of all the people we worked with on it. I don't think anybody ever thought that it would be considered

[17:44] to be used for anything but something built and used for people coming downtown, shopping, eating,

[17:54] working, whatever it might be. There is never any consideration that it might be used as for

[17:59] the municipal deck and that's pretty much all I wanted to say on that. Thank you, next speaker.

[18:07] Next speaker, Monica Conner's, followed by Neil Malone.

[18:13] Good evening, city council and Mayor

[18:18] here tonight to say a few words about the Nichols parking garage and downtown neighborhood.

[18:24] Downtown neighborhood brings our city what we need economically.

[18:27] Tremendous property tax revenue which helps the schools in the city.

[18:32] Tremendous sales tax revenue in the form of sales tax and food and beverage sales tax.

[18:38] Thousands and thousands of jobs and a quality of life for our community.

[18:42] According to Placer AI's 60% of the 9 million visits from downtown, come from people outside of Naperville.

[18:51] That lowers the tax burden on all of our residents.

[18:57] The nickels parking structure has always been part of the 2030 plan as you've heard.

[19:01] Unfortunately, it was delayed in 2008.

[19:03] If we continue to delay this project, it will only cost the community more in impacts to lost sales tax revenue

[19:11] and higher construction cost. According to research, construction costs have increased

[19:16] 68 to 80 percent since 2008 and about 5 to 13 percent annually.

[19:24] Gushman Wakefield just last week issued a report that showed construction commodities of 13

[19:30] percent year over year that affects construction materials. This is why the NDP board wants to build

[19:36] the Nichols parking structure had its highest capacity,

[19:40] because it maximizes our investment for the future.

[19:44] About eight weeks ago, I attended a virtual retail seminar,

[19:47] hosted by ICSC in a national council shopping center,

[19:51] that was led by a national retail sales consultant.

[19:54] They post three questions, retailers want to understand

[19:57] in order to choose a location.

[20:00] And they serve enough customers. Two, can they generate profitable sales, profitable? Three, can they operate successfully

[20:08] over the long term, not the short term? All of this depends on parking supply, which is likely

[20:14] why the consultant listed parking and infrastructure is one of the top three items we have

[20:19] to demonstrate in order to be successful. One of the things that is impressed me about the most

[20:29] decades. Today is not the day to stop thinking about the future, parking impacts

[20:34] our ability to land new tenants and retain the tenants that we currently have. It

[20:39] directly affects our sales tax revenue, our food and beverage revenue, which

[20:44] impacts seek a fund, police, fire, so many things. With so much development in

[20:48] our line of sight and DP fields we need to invest now to be successful in the

[20:53] future. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker.

[20:56] The final speaker is Neil Malone.

[21:06] Good evening, Mayor.

[21:06] Members of the council.

[21:08] Thank you for allowing me opportunity to provide some comments.

[21:11] My name is Neil Malone.

[21:12] I serve as Director of Government Affairs for the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.

[21:17] We have submitted comments.

[21:21] Written comments as well from myself and from ours.

[21:24] You know, Killing Resolve.

[21:25] It was a little period of night.

[21:26] But I feel like I'm hitting clean up on a really good baseball team tonight because

[21:32] The three speakers in front of me really did a great job of laying out the case for why this is needed and why this is needed now

[21:38] We had really five areas in which

[21:42] Really kind of speak to the need for the structure

[21:45] One is it addresses a long-term and long-standing infrastructure need as you've heard

[21:51] This has been in the planning stage for quite some time

[21:54] two, it really, location is really important, and as to where this would be located, it kind

[22:02] of provides that system of each of the cardinal directions having adequate parking resources.

[22:10] Three, it provides support for downtown businesses who are, as mentioned, a large part of the

[22:23] reviewed in the larger economic development context that this is an important investment in infrastructure

[22:29] that will continue to encourage tax dollar growth and revenue growth from the businesses

[22:37] that we represent. And then finally, it is kind of the opportunity to continue on that larger

[22:43] plan. As we've seen in the discussions, there will be additional parking areas that will need

[22:50] maintenance and refurbishment, as well as the streetscape work that's going to be

[22:55] needed done that it's going to actually take parking spots out of rotation while those

[23:01] projects are being completed. I think it's important that we provide this additional capacity

[23:05] prior to some of these other activities that we're limiting parking downtown. And they're

[23:12] respectfully just on the accelerating of the timeline. It's really just two points that I wanted

[23:16] make, as I mentioned, as construction projects occurred downtown, it takes a parking out of

[23:24] play.

[23:26] And so, and with additional refurbishment going to be other decks, it's going to be important

[23:30] to have that capacity, so there's not an awkward phase of not having the mobile parking.

[23:39] And then two, just the cross factor.

[23:41] I mean, when this was initially proposed, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 18.0 point

[23:46] 9 million. Now we're looking at 30 to 36 million with CIP, putting it at 37.7. The longer we delay

[23:57] this project, the more it's going to ultimately cost our taxpayers. So I would encourage that we move

[24:01] forward with the nickel structure as expeditiously as possible. And here are to answer any questions

[24:07] if you need me.

[24:11] Thank you. Any council members have an item for the public

[24:14] form portion of the Councilmanals are. Thank you, Mayor. I had questions for first Mr. Doyle,

[24:19] and then I was going to ask some questions to the last three speakers as well. Probably

[24:25] easy answers from staff, so I'll turn to Mr. Krieger and I know Mr. Doyle said that the city

[24:32] last took on debt to support the electric utility in 2011 and he was just wondering what the

[24:38] change in philosophy was that we're starting to do that again. Would you, do you mind answering

[24:41] on his career.

[24:43] Yeah, certainly no problem.

[24:45] You know, we look at that with each individual rate study.

[24:49] We have had debt issuances included subsequent to 2011 or planned debt issuance included

[24:58] in rate study.

[25:00] The meeting in 2011, when we came around and looked our caste physicians saying, hey, you know what? We

[25:05] can continue operating without issuing the debt, so that is kind of at least for us as better.

[25:12] Our financing of last resort. What we're mostly doing is simply balancing rates with debt load and Titanic keyed to cash above zero.

[25:21] Okay, I say—if I may blow them there—no need for you to have an answer tonight, unless you have one ready.

[25:28] But one thing I would like to know maybe to future presentation would be what kind of impact it will have on rates to be taking on the first step that we've taken on in 15 years is kind of causing increase in rates.

[25:41] Just to be clear, this is not the general fund is not going to pay down that debt later. That's the electric fund will pay a correct 100 percent.

[25:48] Okay, the last thing I wanted to ask is a follow up to Mr. Doyle's point was he had stated that about two thirds of the electric cost was accounted for in the presentation. I think there was like a ten or eleven million dollar delta and he's speculated that maybe it was the run rate. I guess that would cover that. Do you need time to look into that or yeah, you know, I'd like some time to look you know, I think it is kind of a just our normal replacement programs.

[26:16] you know cable overhead poles such but it will be very simple for us simply to provide

[26:23] the reconciliation from the 30 million to like the 40 million dollars total and get

[26:28] that out to council.

[26:29] All right.

[26:29] Thank you.

[26:30] And then Mayor, if I may ask, Ms. Wood, but some questions and then anyone else in the group

[26:34] who spoke about the parking deck you feel free to say anything that's responsive to when

[26:41] I'm going to ask about.

[26:42] So, as I understood at the asks for keeping a close design moving forward, readjust priorities

[26:47] of the streetscape of necessary and reconsider our use of the downtown parking dollars

[26:52] to the municipalities.

[26:53] Correct.

[26:54] Correct.

[26:55] Okay.

[26:55] And I will say generally, I'm fairly sympathetic to those three asks.

[26:59] I mean, a big thing that I've, you know, I've voted on numerous CIPs in the last few

[27:06] years where this was kind of anticipated and it seems like there's a lot of last minute

[27:10] change, as municipal tech has been prioritized, I will say though that from my perspective

[27:17] there was a significant new ask in the letter that I saw and maybe in some of the discussions

[27:22] we had at DNA, which is that we're now looking to have a high capacity garage possible.

[27:27] Can you provide any more commentary on what the thinking is there?

[27:32] In our discussions with different groups, the thought was if we're going to do this, let's

[27:37] get the maximum parking out of it.

[27:40] And when we first design the parking deck back in 2008,

[27:44] I believe that there were some accommodations made

[27:46] in certain areas to beautify the parking deck

[27:51] as much as possible.

[27:52] And taking another look now 20 years later,

[27:56] do we need a lot of those enhancements?

[27:58] If there is a park, let's say,

[28:00] can that be better utilized as parking?

[28:02] Is an example?

[28:03] So I think that was the event of trying to get

[28:06] the maximum use out of that space we can, you know, some meetings,

[28:11] admittedly said, boy, can we go taller, using the van beer and parking deck

[28:15] as the model.

[28:16] The years ago, we built, I think that was supposed to be a three-level deck,

[28:20] and it was some of your former city council members that said, no,

[28:23] let's go higher, and we did that, that was a smart move.

[28:26] So I think it's just, let's get back to the design and let's see what we can do,

[28:31] but every 20 years later since that design was done, almost.

[28:35] and see what we could do to optimize parking.

[28:38] Does that help?

[28:39] That's extremely helpful.

[28:40] So I would just, for my one council member speaking

[28:43] for myself, like I said, I'm sympathetic to the three

[28:47] asks, they're in line with what was in the CIP before

[28:51] in prior years, a couple of things

[28:54] that are just kind of must-have for me,

[28:58] are bikeability, walkability, and downtown, right?

[29:00] Because if we get a customer in downtown on a bike path

[29:06] or feeling more safe to walk that is just as valuable

[29:09] having some apart downtown and what shoppers downtown,

[29:12] or people downtown, not just drivers downtown.

[29:16] So that's one thing that's like we absolutely have to be

[29:19] prioritizing that at the same time.

[29:21] The other one is just as a suggestion

[29:23] as somebody who talks to residents

[29:25] that's our job to be the voice of residents.

[29:27] My guess is if the push in the next year is to go a story higher

[29:31] And then what was on the previous elevations, my guess is that is going to result in community

[29:37] pushback that that just makes this project go years, years out into the future.

[29:43] That's one council member's take, I throw it out there, but as we further discuss this

[29:48] over the next couple of meetings, I just might be back.

[29:51] Thank you, Mayor.

[29:52] Thank you.

[29:53] Councilman White.

[29:53] I appreciate that.

[29:55] That's a true.

[29:57] I know Chris might ahead of him.

[30:00] If you ask one question, it's okay. Sure. May Chris, did you have follow-up to what Mr. Chair said?

[30:08] I just wanted to add to Katie's comments and you asked about, I think most of the talk of adding a story or maximizing

[30:16] came out of feedback from others, not this wasn't from us saying, I, as a business owner, property owner, resident of downtown,

[30:26] I live right across from where North Central just built the parking, the villian, we weren't

[30:33] asking for that.

[30:34] We were just taking that as feedback people saying, have you maximized it?

[30:38] Are you looking at the best ways to minimize cost per spot?

[30:43] We as the DNA and aren't weren't coming saying at a fourth story maximizes this thing, let's

[30:50] go big.

[30:51] That was not our request.

[30:56] Thank you, and a few comments and thanks for the, for everyone in the public coming out to speak on this.

[31:06] You know, I kind of look at our downtown as that as the anchor to the city.

[31:12] It's almost like putting in a Walmart at a big shopping center and a Walmart becomes the anchor.

[31:17] And I say that because I get a, some pushback and I live in South Naperville.

[31:21] and I get people in South and Aprilville that we, well, why aren't we doing something in South

[31:25] and Aprilville? And trust me, there's all areas of the community, North and South, I think

[31:32] should all be considered. But I think, with the downtown, it tends to bring in people from

[31:38] outside, we have the data to show that. And the rest of the city tends to benefit from that,

[31:44] because they're not going to just visit the downtown, they're going to go other places as well.

[31:48] So I do appreciate that, but one question for, well, to that point, so I would support trying to get that parking deck in there because of all the reasons that we're explaining up here, I think it's a good thing as far as allowing those businesses to have customers that find parking that's convenient for them to go and shop.

[32:12] And in my opinion, I think there's this parking in the downtown, but it's just not conveniently located.

[32:20] And I think we end up missing out on opportunities for businesses.

[32:23] Now, understand Mr. Krieger's focus is now on the municipal deck, and that was news to me when I heard about it.

[32:33] Yes, it was. And I believe Mr. Randolph will have more on this, but it was a result of kind of a condition assessment.

[32:39] And you know, that is municipal deck is now, I guess, 35 years old and, you know, has

[32:50] were entering some structural maintenance that needs to be conducted.

[32:55] I know that we did not have it in the last year's CIP.

[33:00] I believe it was moved up because of the condition assessment.

[33:06] Is that fair, Mr. Randolph?

[33:10] Walker consulting in 2022 recommended a rehabilitation of the DAC that's essentially the water proofing membrane that's in between the two different slabs of concrete.

[33:23] I don't recall when it was first introduced to the CIP but Walker was back this summer or earlier this year and did another visual structural inspection of all of our DACs and confirmed that we should move forward at that.

[33:37] Okay, now I know we did a few improvements down there and a couple years ago, I know we painted the entire flooring on the deck and so on, so I'm hoping that all that didn't go to waste because now we're going to have to go and do all this construction to read.

[33:57] Yes, I was on the board level, we're talking about the what's currently in the CFP is for the upper level.

[34:03] Okay, so all that work we did before go to go to waste.

[34:07] Correct. Okay, good.

[34:09] Thanks and a couple of other questions.

[34:12] On the battery that Mr. Hus got up to discuss.

[34:18] Any update on that, Mr. Krieger?

[34:20] Sure.

[34:21] And I've been in there a little bit.

[34:22] I will tell you if we have since had discussions with IMEA, why do we have discussions with

[34:30] them?

[34:32] Because we are currently in a full requirements contract with them, therefore they need to

[34:37] play a role.

[34:38] You know, it doesn't mean that they have full control, but we have looked over the financials

[34:43] and in this case, if we were simply buying on the market without any assets, a battery makes

[34:52] tons of sense. If you are hedged with generation assets, both the energy and capacity side,

[34:59] it makes

[35:00] Lessons, as a member of IMEA, there are about 100% hedged, meaning that there's ownership in either generation or contracts that cover all of the need,

[35:16] the real benefit you get from battery really comes down to.

[35:22] frequency regulation is one, although the value of that has been diminishing, really, just kind

[35:29] of your biggest piece would be kind of like the arbitrage. So by when prices are low, or charge it

[35:38] up on price are low and discharge it when prices are high. With our current contract, whether we

[35:46] use a kilowatt at 6 a.m. or 7 p.m. which is our peak time. We pay the same price. So that kind of eliminates that.

[35:57] It helps but to a much lesser scale. Because it will help IMEA reduce their total peak load.

[36:07] So it will reduce their capacity needs but to a much lesser extent than if we were buying directly on the market.

[36:14] So the information we got from the sales folks and I made the statement that says,

[36:23] oh, you know what this thing's going to pay itself off in three years was a great sales pitch,

[36:29] but would not work for us until after 2035.

[36:33] There is still, I mean, is still looking at a pilot in Napervilla still as a consideration for their PGM pilot for a battery and, you know, our hope is that that's going to play out.

[36:50] I mean, I'm just looking at it just in the simplest of terms.

[36:56] We would charge, we're going to use IMEA, what we currently use to charge the battery.

[37:03] So we're already using that contracted energy.

[37:06] So once we store it in a battery, I'm just kind of dumbfounded why they even have a

[37:15] so and what we do it, the energy that comes out of the battery at that point, because we've

[37:21] already bought the energy from them to fill up the battery.

[37:24] Right, right, it's really kind of the way the contract is worded.

[37:29] And if you do have one hundred percent or near one hundred percent hedging, the additional

[37:36] capacity you get, you can't, you're less like you're less able to leverage that because

[37:42] will always have to be sold into the market instead of avoiding a cost that you normally would

[37:47] have had for the capacity. Yeah, I mean, if we put a battery and charged it up, that would

[37:53] be full requirements coming into IMA and we would be purchasing that. When we discharged it,

[38:02] the way the contract is written, we would not be paying them for all of the energy that

[38:12] We required because we would be using the stuff we set aside for the battery and that, you know, that currently would be in conflict with the contract.

[38:21] You know, my guess is that they would be reasonable and we continue to have discussions with them.

[38:28] We're not at a point yet with the new scenario where we can kind of give you a payback, but we believe it is going to be north of 10 year.

[38:37] That doesn't mean we don't do it, but I want to make sure that I have all the facts before we bring it to you.

[38:43] Just because it is not in the CIP at this point in time does not mean it would not be something that we would do in 2027.

[38:51] But we would only bring it as a staff recommendation if we thought it made sense.

[38:56] And regardless, we will bring the results of that to Council, whether it makes sense or not.

[39:01] And all that takes into consideration, if we were to put it back into the market through PJM basically.

[39:13] There is a PJM that was given the, I don't know, a rack or bonuses to communities that have the batteries.

[39:21] Yes, PJM will provide credits for people who have the batteries just because it makes the whole system better and more resilient.

[39:35] However, financially those would, those would have to run through IMEA before they came to us.

[39:43] It doesn't mean the values really diminished. It just means that because it is a fall requirements contract, it means you run through that.

[39:49] Okay, and just one more question.

[39:54] The talk about what Mr. Doyle mentioned about the finances and the borrowing and so on.

[39:59] And maybe he...

[40:00] It was being more specific toward the electric utility from a borrowing standpoint, but I do recall during a COVID when the rates were like really cheap.

[40:09] We were looking at taking advantage of borrowing at that time, just because the rates were so cheap.

[40:16] Any, can you kind of fill us in on that?

[40:18] Yeah, absolutely. We kind of take a holistic approach to it.

[40:23] If money's cheap, which, you know, five, six years ago, it absolutely was, we've just kind of finished up, boy, at least a decade, almost two decades worth of very cheap rates.

[40:39] And as a AAA rate of community, we pay very little. We're not allowed to make any money on that, but our first choice, if we have the cash available, is to issue no debt.

[40:52] even as a low percentage. And we've been very fortunate over the years to not have to

[41:00] issue debt for utility because utilities typically very capital intensive. And therefore also

[41:06] typically very debt heavy. And we have avoided that by historically charging slightly higher rates

[41:13] so that we could issue less debt.

[41:16] Okay. Thank you. Kind of a little bit Jane. Thank you, Mayor.

[41:24] If I could pose a question to Mr. Kruger for the battery question again, if my understanding

[41:35] or memory is correct around this time and discussions with Director Grath, he had mentioned

[41:41] that batteries were more affordable right now and that this was the time to make those purchases.

[41:50] So, given that, I guess, how might we use this opportunity, or is there a way for us to work this in?

[42:02] You know, I think that there will be, and I think it's a great opportunity.

[42:07] He's absolutely right, you know, battery-placed prices over the last five years have plummeted.

[42:14] And, you know, as well as kind of efficiency gains in them have improved significantly as well,

[42:22] which means that during a charged, charged cycle, you lose less a smaller percentage

[42:29] just through like normal losses, so it absolutely is becoming more efficient.

[42:36] And I wish I had it today, kind of like the financial analysis that shows what it would look like,

[42:41] But right now, based on what I know, I believe it would require slightly higher electric

[42:51] rates on our part to cover the debt services associated with the battery.

[42:55] But I feel it's my obligation to prove that to you and because it's your decision.

[43:04] Another question I had was from Mr. Malone regarding the parking deck.

[43:10] You had mentioned that we may have started with an estimate of 18 million for that parking

[43:17] deck and that we have moved towards 37 million, about or 36 million.

[43:23] Is that increased due to materials and labor costs or are there other aspects that change?

[43:30] I think there are other aspects to that.

[43:31] I mean obviously time value of money, but construction costs are going up across industry

[43:36] And as materials become more and more expensive,

[43:41] you know, part of that is dollars in 2026 are less valuable

[43:46] than they were in 2007.

[43:48] Yeah. I just wanted to clarify if that was the key

[43:52] different or was it the design differences to,

[43:56] to ensure based on the feedback of the residents in that area.

[44:02] Could that be also prior to my time with the chamber,

[44:05] So I believe so.

[44:10] I'm just a trigger.

[44:12] Thank you.

[44:13] No, the design elements were all include like with the pocket park and the Plaza and the kind of gingerbread touches.

[44:24] Those were included in the initial estimate.

[44:26] So it was all simply inflationary increases.

[44:30] Thank you.

[44:31] I'll zoom in at room.

[44:34] Thank you, Mayor.

[44:36] First, just a, you know, my experience on the financial advisory board just to add a little bit of context and maybe relates to this dead discussion as it falls around the utility.

[44:49] You know, for many years, and Mr. Crier, you can maybe highlight this, but that Mayor Cherico is here, there was a big debt reduction move.

[45:00] It was a big concern that the city had too much debt and went on a campaign and used a lot of cash to really kind of clean things up and to the point where maybe there was an argument where some infrastructure was neglected, that we could use cash on and maybe we went a little too far and got a little too conservative on our willingness to use that.

[45:24] I think everybody understands if there's capital that we're spending right now, that's going

[45:28] to benefit a future generation that makes sense.

[45:33] So in that previous rate study, I believe the financial advisory board actually encouraged

[45:39] director Monch at the time to issue debt and levelize those rates a little bit.

[45:47] So I'm in my personal life, I'm not a fan of debt, but it should and it could be used properly

[45:53] and maybe we weren't utilizing it to the extent that we should have at times.

[45:58] So I want to go back to the parking deck.

[46:01] I think a lot of us are maybe a little bit surprised to recently hear about the

[46:06] parking municipal parking deck.

[46:07] I had to hear from a business owner, so I did call Director Galloway.

[46:12] We had a conversation about it.

[46:15] You know, I do see the parking deck as an investment.

[46:18] It's not just building the parking deck and I think there's a return on that

[46:22] investment.

[46:26] And maybe if you could kind of our conversation, you, my understanding, it really

[46:32] wasn't a capacity thing from a standpoint. It was more of a logistical. But 30 days ago,

[46:40] the municipal deck, it wasn't in our conversations when we were meeting with DNA. So this is a

[46:53] So, a couple things.

[46:55] The engineering or getting the new plans is, we are in clean that in the 227ers.

[47:01] That is that moved off as well.

[47:05] You know, that moves off, I think either Mr. Hanger, Ms. Loudon, will be able to give you a little more detail around the specific timing.

[47:14] Sure.

[47:14] So, with regard to the Nichols Jack, the proposal that we have in the slides tonight that we're going to go over includes,

[47:21] essentially concept design remaining for the Nickels Jack in 2027 and then pushing out the actual

[47:29] detailed design for the construction document that we would need for bidding. That pushes

[47:34] that out a few years to align it with construction coming after the next stages of streets gave

[47:40] an after the municipal Jack. So the reason that we proposed keeping money into continue design in

[47:48] of concept was because of some of the feedback that had been related to us from the meetings that

[47:52] were had where there's questions around the design. You know, does it need all the aesthetics,

[47:56] do we need the pocket part, can we forego the underground portions, could we go higher?

[48:03] You know, if we're committed to the design as it is, we could skip that phase and go straight to

[48:09] beginning preparation of construction documents for bidding. But if we want to investigate any

[48:14] those questions, we would want to bring a parking expert on board to evaluate some of those

[48:18] potential cost saving measures and things that would make the deck more cost efficient.

[48:23] So concept design in this budget, that's quite different than getting full engineering designs,

[48:30] right? Correct. And the numbers a lot bigger, right? The difference?

[48:36] What was first engineering? Yeah. So we kept the same amount for engineering as we would expect

[48:41] we've made, we just pushed that out and then added that 100,000 in for the concept phase.

[48:49] But what's changed is the timeline of construction instead of, yes.

[49:01] So for the past several years where we've slaughtered these within the Capital Improvement

[49:04] Program and through our conversations with Dak and DNA and NDP has assumed that we would

[49:12] basically dust off the old plans, fix them up a little bit, and move on to construction.

[49:17] So as we started to take a look further, we did begin to understand after having a courtesy

[49:22] conversation with some deck experts that we would need to do a little bit more robust

[49:26] design on those plans to bring it up to current building codes, which is where that costing

[49:30] crease comes in so that we'll take a little bit more time.

[49:34] And then as more of the conversations started to come around with questions regarding the design

[49:40] elements, height, park, aesthetic features, that's where we felt like that's going to take us

[49:46] more time. If we want to reopen those conversations, we're going to need a lot more time to prepare

[49:50] that design.

[49:53] Okay, so in the extending this timeline, is this a staff capacity thing or is it

[49:59] just

[50:01] It's a lot of both. Logistically, I do not recommend that we conduct major streetscape projects and multiple projects at a time. I think that's just too much impact on the downtown.

[50:14] That does require a lot of staff time if those are the priorities we can allocate the staff and adjust other priorities accordingly.

[50:21] But I really think it's more of a logistics impact to the downtown that we're concerned with.

[50:26] Okay, thank you.

[50:28] Councilman Wilson.

[50:31] Thank you, Mayor.

[50:33] So we had the PUAB board meeting this past Thursday and the discussion around rates was brought up.

[50:41] We got the report from the Finance Department looking at it. Sorry, sorry if this was sort of been talked about.

[50:48] But with the rate recommendation changes that were brought seem to line up with the electric charges.

[50:57] at least year-to-date and from the variance from 2025 from last year obviously

[51:03] sends the debt that was occurred but they seemed to line up and the question was

[51:11] brought up to mayor I don't know if Tracy if you have any comment on the see

[51:17] there but the question as far as like subcitation subcities and rates as far as

[51:25] goes go how those occur and if both of them are remembering this, right and not to put

[51:33] hopefully I'm not putting words in Mayor's mouth here, but from what he had said, there may

[51:41] be variants as months to month, but actual, at the end of the year and I know director career

[51:49] you've talked about this before, where things may change months to months, but at the end

[51:54] the day at the end of the year, then we may be short or ahead based on people's purchases,

[52:04] purchase of electricity, or if we're not ahead of our debt, then we may need to issue

[52:12] our purchase debt, which is kind of what happened. And the discussion around not raising rates for

[52:20] some time had was brought up as well and what had happened last year as far as rate increases

[52:29] as well. Is that an accurate representation, Dr. Krieger?

[52:35] Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment.

[52:40] We strive from one rate study period until the end

[52:44] of the following one. We look at where we're going to be three years at the end here.

[52:50] knowing that you're going to have some years better than, better than, anticipate in some

[52:57] years worse. And yeah, I mean, for this three year period, we're actually tracking fairly

[53:04] close. You know, a lot of it, probably the greatest variable we have, you know, frankly, without

[53:11] a major customer ad or loss is really weather. And, you know, that's very difficult to predict.

[53:20] Thank you.

[53:24] All right.

[53:24] I'm going to reserve my comments for getting the parking garage and the funding source for

[53:29] the miserable parking garage for the actual presentation little later on in the slides.

[53:35] But with regard to the battery technology, we're in a full requirements contract with IMEA.

[53:42] Batteries are for peak shaving and frequency regulation.

[53:44] If the city goes out and requires a battery and it does anything that would trigger a peak

[53:49] to be leaving interpretation by the IMEA, their membership is likely going to say, okay, thanks for subsidizing us, because you can't be shaped without our being a party to this, so I think at this point where we are with the IMEA contract we're pretty locked in unless we decide to reopen negotiations and potentially have the conversation and get something done earlier, but they were pretty clear about where they were with the IMEA prior to our conversations.

[54:20] All right, so we need to get Councilman Sayed back on the phone, Mr. Krieger, you're getting

[54:25] to get your presentation queued up, are you ready to go?

[54:31] Uh, Mr. McCulloch said I'm not quite ready and I need one minute.

[54:34] All right.

[54:35] We are ready, Mayor.

[54:36] You can put it on the screen.

[54:38] How about that?

[54:44] Yep, they do that back in the booth also.

[54:46] Oh, I can do this. Oh, I can do this before everybody.

[54:55] Councilman Sayed?

[54:57] Yeah, back live in Council Chambers.

[55:00] Please hold on for a second. Okay.

[55:12] All right, we are all set, Mr. Mayor.

[55:14] Go ahead.

[55:15] All right, thank you and good evening and everyone.

[55:18] Tonight is the first of three budget workshops being held to discuss the proposed

[55:23] 2027 operating in the capital budgets. These workshops are an important part of the annual

[55:28] budget process. They inform the community on how the city will spend tax

[55:32] dollars and provide all of you with the information necessary to make well informed

[55:37] financial decisions.

[55:40] Tonight we'll start with an overview of the city's capital improvement program, more commonly

[55:45] referred to as CIP, we'll review that this year's progress, and discuss some of the major

[55:50] areas of investment plan for the next five years, and that will include no review of some

[55:55] of the projects we have planned and details on how we intend to fund those projects.

[56:04] CIP provides a multi-year roadmap for the city's infrastructure and capital needs, rather

[56:08] than looking at projects one budget year at a time.

[56:11] These types of projects often have long lead times

[56:14] in can span several years from initial planning

[56:17] and design through construction and completion.

[56:20] The multi-year approach allows the city

[56:22] to look ahead at major investments

[56:24] anticipate funding needs and better understand

[56:27] how projects fit together over time.

[56:30] It also helps staff and council

[56:32] consider the overall pace and sequencing

[56:34] of capital investment rather than evaluating

[56:37] each project in isolation, but we want to stress is just because we look at the CIP and

[56:44] five-year increments, doesn't mean this is a one-and-done review for council. You will

[56:48] have multiple checkpoints to review capital projects before significant expenditures occur.

[56:53] The first opportunity is really tonight. The reason we have a capital workshop before the

[56:59] proposed budget is published is so that council can discuss priorities, project, timing, scope, and

[57:07] I give a staff information we need about these major investments so we can adjust as needed and

[57:13] still have two more workshops for council discussion.

[57:17] As individual projects move forward, there are additional opportunities to review their

[57:21] funding contracts and other actions necessary to advance the work during the procurement process.

[57:28] This process allows council to provide direction as more information becomes available, particularly

[57:33] for projects with significant cost, complex designs, and changing circumstances.

[57:40] So inclusion in the capital program should not be viewed as a single point of approval.

[57:44] It's part of a broader process that gives council multiple opportunities to evaluate projects

[57:50] before major expenditures are made.

[57:53] This flexibility is particularly important for multi-year projects because estimates and

[57:57] circumstances can change between the time our project is initially planned and when construction

[58:03] actually begins. This approach allows the city to continue planning for long-term infrastructure

[58:08] investment while maintaining the flexibility to respond to changing priorities, costs, and

[58:14] financial conditions.

[58:17] This year, capital dollars spent in under contract are 11 percent higher

[58:22] compared to 2025. That improvement in spending is largely driven by projects within the

[58:28] electric water utilities along with Ted.

[58:32] We expect to spend roughly $157 million this year,

[58:35] about 87% of the CIP, with 51% of that work

[58:40] already under contract.

[58:42] Work on the reconstruction of Northborough Road

[58:44] Underpass continues with about $20 million currently

[58:48] uncovered.

[58:49] This project's funded 90% by outside resources,

[58:53] including federal, state, and local partnerships

[58:55] with Aurora as well as an April township.

[58:59] At the same time, water is making steady progress

[59:01] with ongoing work at Springbrook in other capital improvements.

[59:05] Overall, we're making great progress on projects

[59:08] that have been and projects that will continue

[59:10] to be in the budget for many years.

[59:13] And with that, I'll turn things over to Tracy Morocco

[59:15] to walk you through what the upcoming CIP looks like.

[59:21] Thanks Doug.

[59:23] This slide illustrates how our CIP continues

[59:25] to shift towards upgrades and replacements

[59:27] over the past five years, and will continue to do so in the future.

[59:32] Historically, the CIP has been divided into two major categories, upgrades and replacements, and maintenance.

[59:38] Projects have fallen to the upgrade and replacement category involved new assets, large-scale replacements of assets at the end of their useful life,

[59:45] or assets that are being replaced due to external factors such as updated regulatory guidelines.

[59:50] Water main replacements, the springboard troop implant rehabilitation and North Aurora road are all examples of projects that would be considered an upgrade or replacement.

[1:00:00] While most of the city's current capital program falls into this category, we're classifying another group of projects as maintenance.

[1:00:07] These are the projects that extend the useful life of existing assets.

[1:00:11] Examples include road, bridge and parking deck maintenance programs, along with asset repair and improvement programs in the electric utility.

[1:00:19] About 88% of the CIP has allocated upgrades and replacement projects, while the remaining 12% has allocated a maintenance focus projects.

[1:00:27] While this split has been relatively consistent over the last few years, we can see this hasn't

[1:00:32] always been the case.

[1:00:34] As the city continues to age, and as new guidelines are established and new developments

[1:00:39] come online, we will continue experiencing a shift towards upgrades and replacements.

[1:00:47] The proposed CIP for 2027 totals $211 million, this is 11% higher than the 2026 CIP.

[1:00:56] Outside of the utilities, this increases related to the North Aurora road project, the River

[1:01:01] Walks' health extension, Hillside Gateway project, and municipal center deck rehab, and

[1:01:08] those will be discussed later this evening.

[1:01:10] Again, I want to be clear that this number is preliminary and subject to change as we continue

[1:01:14] to work through the budget process.

[1:01:17] The chart before you shows the areas of the city where investments are being proposed.

[1:01:21] As is the case in most years, utility infrastructure projects account for the majority of the

[1:01:26] CIP at 60%.

[1:01:29] Water makes a 46% or more than $96 million of the proposed CIP, primarily due to upgrades

[1:01:36] at Springbrook.

[1:01:39] Electric accounts for an additional 14% are nearly $30 million.

[1:01:44] Outside of the utilities, the largest area of investment is transportation projects, which account for

[1:01:49] of the total CIP. Projects in this space include the continued construction on North Aurora,

[1:01:56] the 87th Street Bridge, and various traffic improvements. The remaining 21% is made up of items that include

[1:02:02] vehicle placements, technology upgrades, and river walk investments.

[1:02:09] Any questions on those first couple

[1:02:10] slides before we move on? Seeing none. All right. Moving on to the utilities. First up is the water utility.

[1:02:18] As we mentioned earlier, water's capital plan makes up almost half of the overall CIP for next year.

[1:02:25] The two main priorities include the multi-year reinvestment in the Springbrook treatment plan and ongoing water main replacements.

[1:02:32] The Springbrook site improvements consist of all other projects located at or associated with Springbrook that fall outside the treatment plan process.

[1:02:40] Lead Piper placement focuses on replacing the remaining lead service lines located in older parts of the city.

[1:02:47] Municipalities require to do these replacements and neighborvo remains on track to complete the work by 2027.

[1:02:54] The utility is also focusing on sanitary sewer improvements to help prevent groundwater and storm water from causing sewer backups and homes.

[1:03:02] And of course there are other capital projects that may not be aligned with one of these specific priorities but are vital to maintaining the utility's day-to-day operations.

[1:03:13] This slide should look familiar to most of you as the Springbrook revitalization has been going on for several years now.

[1:03:19] As a quick reminder, this work is driven by permit requirements, capacity needs, and the plants age.

[1:03:25] The progress illustrated on the slide is based on the project's timeline rather than dollars spent.

[1:03:31] This project began in 2021 and we are just over halfway through it in 2026.

[1:03:37] Work on the UB disinfection and Influent Pumps Station Projects is complete, and the South

[1:03:43] Plant Grit & Razz Project is expected to be completed in 2027.

[1:03:49] Designed has been completed for all projects except one, and much of the plan spending

[1:03:53] is for construction over the next five years.

[1:03:59] Despite here's the full scope of water's capital spending for next year's budget and beyond.

[1:04:04] For 2027, water's total capital investment adds up to $98.8 million.

[1:04:09] Approximately one-third of this work is associated with springbroke and the treatment plant with another third going to water distribution work such as water mains.

[1:04:19] The treatment plant and water main work continues until 2030 one at a combined total of $241 million.

[1:04:25] And as noted earlier, there are many other projects that contribute to the reliability of the utility that must be completed.

[1:04:33] Some examples include the rehabilitation of various sanitary sewers and water works.

[1:04:39] Here we've outlined some of the improvements coming to our water distribution system, including

[1:04:44] five major projects that cover just over six and a half miles.

[1:04:49] Work will take place in portions of the Crest Creek, Baye Colony, Olympic Terrace,

[1:04:58] and

[1:04:58] project is budgeted.

[1:05:00] At five million dollars, for half a mile of work. This is higher than the residential placements, as construction on major roadways is more complex and requires increased coordination and traffic control.

[1:05:11] These projects alone account for $27 million of waters of CIP. Additionally, we've highlighted some of the other major water distribution projects here.

[1:05:21] Two phases of the central elevated tank rehabilitation are budgeted next year for combined total of $3 million.

[1:05:28] Phase one involves the construction of piping, a pertinent and a new tank.

[1:05:33] While phase two involves the demolition of the existing tank and restoration of, excuse me, of the site.

[1:05:39] Two million is budgeted for the west elevated tank and reservoir coding.

[1:05:43] This work provides, sorry, this work protects the structure from UV exposure, corrosion, weather and other long-term wear.

[1:05:49] An additional $1.7 million in rehabilitation work will cover major maintenance in the city's

[1:05:55] eight remaining emergency standby wells.

[1:05:59] Finally rehabilitation for both the northwest and southwest waterworks are budgeted for a

[1:06:04] combined total of $3.1 million.

[1:06:07] Work for these projects includes replacing pumps, piping valves, and automation equipment.

[1:06:15] We wanted to make one more point about water main replacement work.

[1:06:17] Like Springbrook, this is a highly coordinated process.

[1:06:21] We try to ensure that no area of work overlap one another and coordinate with other departments

[1:06:26] to make sure we understand their work plans for the coming years.

[1:06:30] This is a map of replacements through 231 with work occurring in areas around and north of 75th Street.

[1:06:40] Next we'll discuss a few major sanitary collection and pumping projects that will be undertaken.

[1:06:45] First is the East Highlands sewer main replacement at $4.3 million.

[1:06:51] This replaces the existing sanitary sewer where current rehabilitation work has surpassed

[1:06:55] its useful lifespan.

[1:06:57] Next is the rehabilitation of the Springbrook Interceptor in the Dragon Lake area of the Springbrook

[1:07:02] Forest Preserve, totaling $5.9 million.

[1:07:05] The Interceptor is a large sanitary sewer that collects wastewater from various parts of the

[1:07:10] city and transports it to Springbrook.

[1:07:12] Finally, we have the rehabilitation of deteriorated sanitary service laddorals and old

[1:07:17] neighbor bill, also known as the Longwood Subdivision at $2 million.

[1:07:24] Any questions on the water, Sergei?

[1:07:26] I'm Kelly.

[1:07:27] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:07:28] Thank you for the presentation.

[1:07:30] So far, just a couple of questions on the water items, you know, there's not really much

[1:07:35] we can do about any of these.

[1:07:37] We don't see them, but things we essentially have to say, yes, I'm just curious if you

[1:07:43] book, it's like 10 and 11, just so we kind of keep track over the years.

[1:07:50] I'm just curious if the estimated totals were at 198 for Springbrook, is that the estimated

[1:07:56] total from when we started the Springbrook projects about five years ago, or is that as

[1:08:01] of today with inflation, or are they the same, and do we expect that to be what it winds

[1:08:08] up being about five years from now, or will that likely go up due to inflation?

[1:08:11] So that's was in the budget currently as the part of the 2027 numbers.

[1:08:19] The total project costs in future years could increase.

[1:08:23] This is based on our kind of what we know at the moment and including prior year costs,

[1:08:28] the actuals included up to through 2025.

[1:08:33] So 198 is kind of our number best known number at the moment.

[1:08:38] In next year's budget, that could go up slightly based on updated pricing, but it's kind

[1:08:44] of the our our 2027 number.

[1:08:49] And is it fair to say based on this chart we're looking at, are we about half way done

[1:08:54] with the actual work, but we've only spent about 20% of the dollars is that, and both of

[1:09:00] those.

[1:09:01] because the work from what I understand with these projects,

[1:09:06] the costs are kind of delayed,

[1:09:07] invoicing comes later once the work is finally completed.

[1:09:12] So the work is halfway done.

[1:09:13] I think we're just waiting on final invoicing for some of these,

[1:09:17] and I'm sure Director Blanis could explain more.

[1:09:22] But yes, the project that I completed was a smaller project,

[1:09:26] the larger projects are underway now in next year

[1:09:29] with the south plant and northern plant expansions.

[1:09:32] So those are the real big ticket items, the ones that we've been done are the smaller ones.

[1:09:38] So the Southland Project is underway, and the monthly invoices that we process are large.

[1:09:44] So as we get both the Southland and the Northland underway, you'll see this bit budget go up much higher

[1:09:50] because they're just much larger projects.

[1:09:52] Maybe one quick follow-up for Director Blena.

[1:09:55] If you could just tell us from a substantive perspective are the projects going well, is it about how you...

[1:10:00] We thought and hoped the spring group projects would go and are you happy with where we're at right now?

[1:10:05] Yes. Our spring group projects are going to stream me well. We're very fortunate. We've had good contractors and the projects are going very smoothly.

[1:10:14] I think we've had very few change orders, which is a good sign as well. So yes, I think the only thing that I would make my make a comment on is on the North plant.

[1:10:24] We wanted to be a little bit further this year, but as we got into the South Plank

[1:10:28] construction and finished the final design for the North Plank, we realized it was

[1:10:32] probably better from a coordination standpoint to delay the North Plank a little bit because

[1:10:37] we knew more about the South Plank in the North Plank design because that those two projects had

[1:10:42] to be coordinated very tightly as we build one and take it offline for the other one.

[1:10:48] So it's really important that we understand sort of how that works and because of that and

[1:10:53] what we know now, who final design on the North plant,

[1:10:56] that got pushed out a little bit,

[1:10:59] and we just picked out the bed early next year.

[1:11:01] So that's like the only delay, but it was a plan delay.

[1:11:04] All right, thank you.

[1:11:05] I'll tell him Gibson.

[1:11:07] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:11:08] I'd like to start off by saying this slide 10

[1:11:10] is an awesome graphic, really helpful.

[1:11:13] I know I sent through a lot of questions,

[1:11:16] kind of an acuté format, and this sort of holistic view

[1:11:20] for projects, it's just really helpful

[1:11:23] going forward in great question by Councilman Kelly

[1:11:26] about projected change in the cost.

[1:11:28] I hadn't thought of that, just in general,

[1:11:31] I like the slide a lot.

[1:11:34] So what we could level set about water main replacements,

[1:11:38] if you could just remind me kind of standard

[1:11:41] is the goal of what, seven to 10 miles a year

[1:11:44] is what we've been hoping for.

[1:11:48] Yes, so with each rate study,

[1:11:51] we were trying to take a little bit more work in that regard.

[1:11:54] Our goal is to get to 10 miles.

[1:11:56] We did a condition assessment study several years ago.

[1:12:00] And we've fallen pretty far behind on the main replacement.

[1:12:03] And to get caught out, we need to get to 10 miles for a while.

[1:12:07] But we can't do all that at once.

[1:12:09] So we had to sort of gradually stairs to up that program up.

[1:12:13] And we took the opportunity with each rate study to sort of take

[1:12:18] out more work with each.

[1:12:20] So like hopefully the next rate study, we go from 7 to 10.

[1:12:23] or somewhere in that ballpark. So we went from like three miles to five miles to seven

[1:12:27] miles to two miles. So on the waterway side, we really have been sort of growing the program

[1:12:32] with each successive rate study. Okay, thank you, Director Blennis. What's like the lifespan of

[1:12:38] a standard 75 to 100?

[1:12:42] Correct. About 85 years to 100 years. Fortunately, some of the pipe that was

[1:12:46] put in the 60s, 70s and 80s is not lasting that long.

[1:12:51] It's lasting around 50 years.

[1:12:54] So, but Pipe put in today should last 85 to 100 years.

[1:12:57] Okay, thank you, because I do notice I don't know if we can go

[1:13:00] to slide 13,

[1:13:04] this looks like a lot of water main replacement

[1:13:06] and it absolutely is, but I also notice that it's not a whole map

[1:13:10] our city,

[1:13:13] lots of areas to the south, to the west, and this is covering six years of

[1:13:21] plans. So I just thrown it on our radar that there's a lot of the city that this is coming

[1:13:27] up when we're talking about maintenance and increasing. And then on the next slide,

[1:13:36] it's

[1:13:36] probably a very dumb question.

[1:13:38] Sour main is different than a water main, correct?

[1:13:41] So, this East Highlands Sour main, 1990s, that's about 35 years ago, why, what's life span of that?

[1:13:52] So, that pipe was rehabbed in the 1990s, so we put it in a liner to extend the life of the pipe, and that lining is starting to fail.

[1:14:01] You can't line a liner, so now that we have, we put the liner in the 90s and it's failing,

[1:14:05] or only hope is to replace the pipe, so that's why we're doing the rehab for East Highlands.

[1:14:11] So the line of put in the 90s gave us more time, but that line is starting to fail.

[1:14:16] Okay, so presumably the neighborhoods that have been built later in the 80s and 90s further to the south are better sewer materials and won't need to be replaced.

[1:14:27] We do inspections every year, and any of the rehabs that we've done in that area are

[1:14:33] cornering our inspections are holding, and we did inspections of this area that lining in

[1:14:39] these areas are failing as causing problems.

[1:14:46] All right, thanks.

[1:14:46] That's really helpful.

[1:14:47] Council, were you referring to neighborhoods in the Southern portion of the neighborhood like

[1:14:52] Maplebrook and some of those older neighborhoods when you said the south, they're really...

[1:14:56] Yeah, just in general looking.

[1:14:58] and if we're replacing...

[1:15:00] So, we're main replacements that have been fixed in 1990s at $4.3 million dollars. There's a lot of news source

[1:15:07] that we're put in around that time too, and I'm concerned that that means we're going to have to start replacing those soon as well.

[1:15:14] The supermaids are typically also have a useful life of more than 50 years.

[1:15:20] You put the line around, the line that can get you traditional 30 years potentially, if it all goes to plan.

[1:15:26] Unfortunately, the liner in these areas are failing and we need to be replaced.

[1:15:31] Okay.

[1:15:32] Thank you.

[1:15:33] Council Magine.

[1:15:34] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:15:37] Along the same line of questioning regarding the water distribution.

[1:15:44] Are there any like external factors that might interfere with our timeline that, you know,

[1:15:51] whether or, you know, material access that we should kind of be aware of.

[1:15:59] I think our biggest limitation is cash of, you know, availability, you know, in funds and also

[1:16:05] coordination with other departments.

[1:16:08] You know, we have to coordinate very closely with the road program and road resurfacing program.

[1:16:14] So we have to make sure that we coordinate closely, you know, with all the utilities that are

[1:16:18] ground. So that's also a limiting factor as well. So every year we have meetings,

[1:16:26] they'll be coordinated with Ted, electric, public works to make sure that we're not

[1:16:30] getting in each other's way. Or Ted will do a row resurfacing and they're not

[1:16:35] coming in the next year and tearing up with waterman replacement. So we want to

[1:16:38] ensure it's coordinated. So I think those are the biggest limitations to make sure

[1:16:42] we do this at a very coordinated fashion.

[1:16:44] Okay. Thank you. And a quick question. And I apologize. I'm going back to slide number five.

[1:16:56] Just if someone could explain the drop from 2028 to 2029 and our CIP budget of roughly 50 million.

[1:17:05] Like is that due to anticipated upgrades that we have in the coming years, but we don't necessarily anticipate that starting 2029.

[1:17:15] Just seems like a substantial drop.

[1:17:19] We have to maybe check a little further, but it could be due to the timing of the Spring

[1:17:23] Brook projects.

[1:17:25] Also sometimes what you see in a CIP just in general is the out-ears tend to be a little lighter

[1:17:30] in terms of projects, we tend to front-load them, even though we try our best to spread them

[1:17:36] out as you'll see in the presentation tonight, but it could be Spring Brook and North

[1:17:41] a road dropping off as well.

[1:17:43] Some of the larger ticket items.

[1:17:45] Yeah, that makes sense.

[1:17:46] I just wanted to make sure there was something we weren't.

[1:17:48] That I might be missing that might be coming up.

[1:17:51] So thank you for clarifying that.

[1:17:54] That's an oight.

[1:17:57] Thank you.

[1:17:58] A question on the slide number 10, if you can go back to that one.

[1:18:03] Now, is everything here based on the phosphorus,

[1:18:07] or is there other items on here that

[1:18:09] with other aspects of the revitalization?

[1:18:14] Fossures is a piece of this.

[1:18:16] So we are using the Fossures funds to offset or cost

[1:18:19] across all these projects.

[1:18:22] This includes the Fossures Removal, this includes

[1:18:27] making the plant larger capacity and also just replacing

[1:18:31] 50-year-old concrete that's starting to fail.

[1:18:34] So basically, it's maintenance, it's upgrades,

[1:18:37] capacity improvements and also the phosphorus requirement. So it's all

[1:18:42] he about. And I asked a question because I mean when I was first

[1:18:46] on council I think my first budget was probably 2018's budget and I

[1:18:53] want to say the phosphorus plant was estimated to be 50 million

[1:18:56] dollars and we had to come up with about 25 and you're telling me we're

[1:19:00] to 100 million right now.

[1:19:04] The original estimates that is correct, phosphorus is a piece of this by the, and in phosphorus

[1:19:10] is mostly included within, I think that's what the clock needed disc filters.

[1:19:17] It would be a low-dream room room room unit.

[1:19:19] In the south plant, the North plant and the clock media disc filters are a phosphorus related,

[1:19:24] but they also include capacity expansions as well.

[1:19:27] So, I'd say the phosphorus improvements are probably total around half of the total cost.

[1:19:36] So it's, okay, that's kind of why I was wearing it.

[1:19:39] And the $15 million was in $2017.

[1:19:42] Yeah. So that's about 10 years old now.

[1:19:43] So it's essentially doubled.

[1:19:46] Yes.

[1:19:46] Compared to where, I don't know who was that.

[1:19:48] I think it may have been a meal.

[1:19:50] Mr. Malone was talking about how much things have increased.

[1:19:53] Correct.

[1:19:53] But the parking deck.

[1:19:55] And so in a longer way, more expensive it gets.

[1:20:00] It's a lie. Thank you.

[1:20:06] That's all for the questions.

[1:20:12] All right, that would bring things back to me. Let's see. For the electric utility, 2027 planned capital investments, total

[1:20:21] just under $30 million. Main focus is to continue with the Skate in Durham's implementation.

[1:20:28] As a reminder, this project is necessary to ensure the city can replace the current Skate Assistant

[1:20:33] prior to it becoming obsolete in 2028.

[1:20:37] Last year, the city was expecting a little over $700,000 in federal grants.

[1:20:43] They were going to help fund this project.

[1:20:45] However, due to federal policy change, grant funding was pulled.

[1:20:50] We appealed the decision, and while no grant money is expected in 2026 to fund the upgrade,

[1:20:57] we're very happy to report that about a million dollars in federal funding will likely

[1:21:02] be available, available to us next year.

[1:21:08] Now, this can still change.

[1:21:10] We're currently operating with the impression that the federal grant money will be secured

[1:21:15] in 2027, and that will be included as a funding component for the CIP.

[1:21:21] Other significant capital projects, $3.2 million for utility hardware and metering upgrades.

[1:21:28] This allows our electric utility to upgrade the hardware required to support

[1:21:32] metering and billiard operations.

[1:21:34] And then we also plan to continue investing heavily in cable replacement

[1:21:38] program with work scheduled to take place in the areas surrounding the river.

[1:21:45] Another major area, focus of the utility substations.

[1:21:49] The equipment plays a major role in reliably transmitting power

[1:21:52] through the city's electrical system.

[1:21:55] Whether a number of projects that maintain upgrade or replace

[1:21:57] sub-station components, this slide highlights a number of significant investments that are

[1:22:03] planned for the next year. Replacing various 34 and 138 KV relays at the ModF

[1:22:09] sub-station is expected to cost 1.3 million. Relay replacements enhance reliability

[1:22:15] across the system by protecting and isolating things like transmission lines and transformers.

[1:22:21] Utility will invest 1.3 million dollars to purchase sub-station and transformer replacements,

[1:22:26] which help ensure that assets meeting the end of their useful life are being replaced in a timely manner.

[1:22:33] Planion also calls for $2 million for cable replacements of various substations.

[1:22:38] And finally, we'll continue to see significant material deliveries for the toll waste substation.

[1:22:44] This substation is vital to the city's electrical system because it's responsible for power along the entire IIT corridor,

[1:22:51] as well as downtown Naperville, and question, spending to dates, we have spent $9.4 million

[1:23:03] in toll waste substation upgrades prior to this point.

[1:23:09] And then work, at least a toll waste substation, also includes construction of a new building,

[1:23:15] to House Equipment Indoor's, which we believe will significantly enhance our reliability.

[1:23:23] On to Undergrounding, during last year's budget process, Council engaged in a discussion

[1:23:28] around our plans for Undergrounding Overhead lines.

[1:23:32] At that time, Tier 1 option outlined on the table on the current slide was a directed

[1:23:36] path forward.

[1:23:38] As a reminder, this option is anticipated cost roughly $18 million by 2030, and focuses

[1:23:45] on under-grounding lines along major roadways and lines that feed major electrically equipment.

[1:23:53] The option allows you utility to reduce outages for more customers, while largely avoiding the

[1:23:58] need to work in residential neighborhoods. Proposed CIP includes $1.3 million for the continuation

[1:24:05] of the Tier 1 approach to under-grounding and work is going to focus on lines that feed major equipment items,

[1:24:12] including those that go in from the Aged and Substation to the Jefferson Substation.

[1:24:18] In the current year, we expect to spend $2.3 million this year.

[1:24:26] In Undergrounding, we previously, and what the 2.3 million

[1:24:33] and we're continuing to do it.

[1:24:35] Currently working on is Aged into Eagle Street Undergrounding.

[1:24:40] and we've actually already started the directional boring for that.

[1:24:45] For next year, the 1.3 is significantly less than our original plan.

[1:24:50] That was due to the fact that we anticipated getting some federal grant funding to assist us in this from resiliency standpoint.

[1:25:00] And that funding did not pan out. So our electric utility staff are currently reviewing the rest of the tier 1 to appropriately kind of sequence it because we're going to have to change its significantly since we'll be doing much less than we anticipated in 2027.

[1:25:21] Uh, let's see.

[1:25:27] Questions?

[1:25:29] Are there any questions?

[1:25:30] Councilman Gibson?

[1:25:33] Yeah.

[1:25:34] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:25:34] I, the Toeway Substation upgrades.

[1:25:36] How does the amount of work we've put into that substation

[1:25:39] compared to the substation and other 15 or on the city?

[1:25:44] You know, Mr. Man, you were probably best position for that.

[1:25:49] Yes, we, it's been a long term strategic position to upgrade Toeway.

[1:25:54] And we are spending more on that whole way because of the impact and proximity to I-88

[1:26:01] and the impact from Salt Spray.

[1:26:03] So when that happens, we've experienced a lot of customer outages,

[1:26:07] so the thought is to bring that infrastructure inside for long-term reliability.

[1:26:16] As a fellow, would you say most of that works to meet current need or expected increase need in the future?

[1:26:24] When the building was designed, it was with both in mind.

[1:26:29] It does need an immediate need, but it is planned for the future as well.

[1:26:41] Councilor White?

[1:26:43] Thank you.

[1:26:43] And just one quick follow-up to that with what we're spending for the boring and

[1:26:48] underground.

[1:26:50] We were at 94% where how much culture does this get us to 100?

[1:26:57] My answer would be a little bit.

[1:27:00] But Mr. Mayan might be able to provide a little more detail on that.

[1:27:03] I think with our current schedule, we were looking at what like half a percent per year or something.

[1:27:13] That'd be fairly accurate, half percent per year, but right now where we're at is the toughest remaining to underground.

[1:27:23] And what we haven't talked about is the rear lights where we would have to negotiate easements with each individual resident.

[1:27:30] And that becomes a little more problematic and a little bit more expensive.

[1:27:34] I mean, 94% is awesome, but I know with the recent storms we had and I want to say they hit

[1:27:44] your neighborhood, your neighborhood, lots of electricity for some significant period of time,

[1:27:50] I had some friends a little over there as well, and it does bring it to light that little extra

[1:27:55] 6% you know, let's see if we can take care of it.

[1:28:01] Councilman Olzer. Thank you, Mayor. Another question for Director Man is a follow-up to

[1:28:07] Councilman Gibson's question. I know that one of the developments that was contemplated last year

[1:28:14] would have been a major power user right by IDA. So the Keras project has been enough not happening.

[1:28:22] How had that gone through? How would that have impacted the IDA-8 substation and what changes,

[1:28:28] You know, now that it's a residential neighborhood, there that's using a significantly different

[1:28:33] amount of energy, we're talking about the data center, you correct, okay?

[1:28:39] There could be a lengthy answer, I'll try to shorten it, the demand for their electricity,

[1:28:47] we would have had to supply it from two different locations for redundancy.

[1:28:51] So it would have been a very significant project to undertake, we believe we could have fed them

[1:28:56] initially from a total waste substation.

[1:29:00] However, the second feed would have had to come from another area.

[1:29:04] And the good news is that cost would have been transferred to the cost-causer.

[1:29:10] So it would have helped with reliability for that location, but on the negative side too

[1:29:15] that, then, once that infrastructure is installed, then we have to own and maintain it.

[1:29:21] Okay.

[1:29:21] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:29:22] Councilman Kelly.

[1:29:24] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:29:24] Just want to follow up with Councilman White's point about the

[1:29:27] Undergrounding, which I think he's right on the money on that.

[1:29:30] We saw this past summer.

[1:29:31] How important it is.

[1:29:33] Two things I just want to follow up on that I heard from staff.

[1:29:37] One from Mr. Krieger I heard we're doing a lot less in

[1:29:39] 27 because of the lack of the federal grant.

[1:29:43] Will we so first question is will we still plan to do the same amount of work

[1:29:48] just over extended period of time,

[1:29:50] or is that going to impact the long-term scope

[1:29:53] of what you plan to do?

[1:29:54] You know, two things, the overall scope is not changed.

[1:29:59] Obviously.

[1:30:00] We are going to have to reprogram a lot of that 2027 work into the final three years, but we still need

[1:30:07] to get it done. And then second, related, even though it wasn't a question, we are going to continue

[1:30:12] to seek federal funding for assistance without further further undergrounding. And then the second question

[1:30:18] for either Mr. Krieger or Mr. Mann, I think I heard you say that right now, we're in the hardest part of it,

[1:30:26] and I always thought the hardest part was going to be if and when we got to the backyards that you mentioned,

[1:30:29] which I might or settings were not there right now, and that would be a decision for future

[1:30:36] council order to proceed with that phase, which would be a separate phase and this phase

[1:30:40] one. Do I have that right?

[1:30:43] Yes, that is correct. I may have missedpoke. The hardest part is going into the rear

[1:30:48] lots and negotiating for easements with each individual customer and identifying that that

[1:30:58] anything three phase along existing roadways because we already have rates to be there.

[1:31:04] And that's what we're doing right now.

[1:31:06] Yes, sir.

[1:31:06] That's correct.

[1:31:08] When would we reach a decision point for the city council to decide whether or not to proceed with,

[1:31:15] I don't know if it's phase two or phase three or some other phase number, but essentially the potential backyard situation?

[1:31:22] You know, they would probably be in 28 or 29 time frame, which would allow us time to take care of the design aspects ahead of the, you know, the end of 2030.

[1:31:33] And what we're doing tier one right now, we'll do that regardless of what a future council decides whether they decide to do that additional work or not.

[1:31:41] Our plan right now is to, you know, complete tier one, any council, any year could, you know,

[1:31:48] they could pull the plug on something, but that is, that's currently our plan is to complete

[1:31:54] all of the tier one.

[1:31:55] All right, very good.

[1:31:56] Thank you.

[1:31:57] Now we're going to take a six minute break, we'll be back at 737.

[1:32:46] Okay, it's 737 and we're going to go ahead and reconvene here.

[1:32:50] Can we confirm that Councilman Sayed is still with us on the phone?

[1:32:58] Councilman Sayed, can you hear us?

[1:33:04] Councilman Sayed?

[1:33:09] We're just good for him at the line still up in here.

[1:33:35] Good enough.

[1:33:36] High Councilman Sayed and your back live in chambers.

[1:33:39] Thank you.

[1:33:40] Thank you.

[1:33:42] All right, Mr. Krieger, you want to go ahead and proceed with the Facilities Transportation

[1:33:47] Technology Vehicles Network Project.

[1:33:50] Ms. Galley, you will be handling that.

[1:33:52] Thanks Doug. In this section, we will highlight the CIP for facilities, transportation,

[1:33:58] technology vehicles, and downtown projects.

[1:34:03] Plant capital investment in city facilities totals almost $14 million in 2027.

[1:34:08] Most projects in this category are multi-year programs included in several budget cycles.

[1:34:16] 2027 is year 5 of a 10-year renovation plan for the almost 40-year-old police department.

[1:34:23] Since 2022, the locker rooms, patrol sergeant area and evidence area have all been renovated.

[1:34:30] At a cost of just over a million dollars, the focus for the next year will be on rehabilitating

[1:34:35] offices in the Investigation Division and Bathrooms throughout the building.

[1:34:41] The continuation of living quarter renovations at the various fire stations is returning

[1:34:45] to the CIP next year.

[1:34:48] This project was included in several previous capital budgets, however, staff prioritized improvements

[1:34:54] at fire station for training facility in 2026.

[1:34:58] with the majority of those improvements come.

[1:35:00] Complete, staff is reprogramming $700,000 for living-quarter renovations at fire stations five and six.

[1:35:09] In terms of new initiatives, public works is including $300,000 for a comprehensive evaluation of city building assets and major systems.

[1:35:19] This project will allow staff to better understand the overall condition of city buildings, which will help prioritize maintenance and replacement needs in the coming years.

[1:35:30] The second new project is a feasibility study for long-range site plans that is being led by the neighbor settlement.

[1:35:37] The overall goal for this project is to evaluate moving four historical structures, the blacksmith shop,

[1:35:44] firehouse, stone carber, and print shop to new locations on the settlement property.

[1:35:49] Faces 1 and 2 are planned for 2027 and include a focused side assessment and the development of studies to evaluate the relocation of these buildings.

[1:36:03] As previously mentioned, the highest level of focus outside the utilities is on investments in transportation.

[1:36:10] In 2027, transportation focused projects are anticipated to cost roughly $41 million.

[1:36:17] Similar to facilities, many of these projects have been a work in progress over the last several years.

[1:36:24] However, there are two new projects to cover.

[1:36:28] The first is the signal installation at Jefferson and Westridge Court, or what is commonly referred to as the target light.

[1:36:36] The CIP includes $75,000 for design work in 2027 with installations set to take place in 2028.

[1:36:46] Although details are not final, staff will propose creating a special service area that both the developer and target will contribute to.

[1:36:56] The next new project is the traffic signal communications upgrade.

[1:37:01] Since the use of analog lines is being phased out, a number of traffic signal communication systems need to be upgraded.

[1:37:07] $300,000 is included in the CIP for these upgrades.

[1:37:13] The CIP also includes $575,000 for continuing initiatives like site and traffic development

[1:37:20] in the Naperville South 40 located near Route 59 and 103rd.

[1:37:26] Additionally, $1.2 million is budgeted for phase two of the centralized traffic signal management system,

[1:37:33] which includes adding 25 existing signals to the system.

[1:37:39] Construction costs for this project are estimated to be roughly two and a half million dollars.

[1:37:44] However, the city will only be responsible for 20% of these costs,

[1:37:49] with the other 80% being covered by federal funds.

[1:37:56] On this slide, we outline other major transportation projects that are planned.

[1:38:00] A little over a million dollars is included for the 248th Avenue upgrades.

[1:38:04] Design work in land acquisition are planned to continue into 2027 and construction starting in 2028.

[1:38:14] Upgrades include construction of new pavement, curb, gutters, streetlights, sidewalks, and storm sewers.

[1:38:22] Almost $2 million is included for the removal and replacement of the Fox River Commons retaining wall,

[1:38:28] and a little over $2 million is budgeted for white oak roadway improvements.

[1:38:33] This work includes bringing white oak up to city standards by upgrading curves, gutters,

[1:38:40] utilities, streetlights, and other amenities.

[1:38:44] Almost $3.5 million is planned to replace the 87th street bridge over Springbroke Creek.

[1:38:51] Total construction costs are estimated to be $5.7 million, but the city has secured $3 million

[1:38:57] in federal funding through the local bridge formula program to help cover the costs of this project.

[1:39:04] And finally, construction on the North Aurora road underpass will continue into 2028.

[1:39:12] Now I'll turn the presentation back over to Tracy to talk about technology.

[1:39:19] Thanks, Pam.

[1:39:19] Turning to technology, capital investments in this area total $8.1 million.

[1:39:24] Of that amount, 5.1 million is budgeted for the building security and access upgrades project.

[1:39:31] As previously presented, this project would provide an updated solution for managing secure access to various city buildings.

[1:39:38] The scope also includes funding to replace camera software and fiber connectivity.

[1:39:43] The 5.1 million dollars currently reflects the project cost anticipated for 2027.

[1:39:48] The total project cost for 2026, 2027, and future years is closer to $8.3 million.

[1:39:56] However, given the ongoing discussion surrounding the project, the budget...

[1:40:00] Budget remains subject to change. And staff will continue to keep council informed and provide updates on the project scope and budget during upcoming workshops. Other major items include IT's capital replacement programs.

[1:40:13] These are periodic replacement cycles to refresh various IT assets ranging from PCs and PC accessories to computing data storage and networking. The PC replacement program has a budget of 1.4 million while the strategic capital replacement program has a budget of 7 million.

[1:40:29] in 130,000. Finally, we have the replacement of our utility billing software, budgeted at 660,000.

[1:40:38] Our current utility billing software has been in use for more than 30 years. The updated software

[1:40:43] will better meet our customer's needs and reflect ongoing technology changes over that same time frame.

[1:40:53] Next is the proposed 2027 renewal of the Police Department's axon contract.

[1:40:57] The current contract expires this year and the proposed renewal totals approximately $1.5 million in its first year.

[1:41:05] The proposal consolidated several existing and previously approved axon programs and resources into a single contract,

[1:41:12] saving an estimated $1.4 million annually, compared to maintaining the program separately.

[1:41:19] The programs now covered by the consolidated contract include digital evidence management software and interview room technology,

[1:41:26] Automated police reporting functionality, virtual reality training, and emergency communications software,

[1:41:33] as well as body mourn cameras, which are legally mandated under the Safety Act and Squad Car cameras.

[1:41:40] The consolidated contract also includes drones as first responder technology,

[1:41:44] which was approved as part of the 2026 budget and discussed in last year's workshops.

[1:41:49] The proposed tenure agreement would provide locked in pricing for each year of the contract with annual increases structured at 3%.

[1:41:57] No, an annual increases provide greater predictability for future budget planning, which reduces uncertainty around future contract costs.

[1:42:06] While the agreement is structured as a tenure contract, it also provides a city with an opportunity to reassess the technology, services costs, and future needs at the five year mark.

[1:42:15] This provides a point for the city to evaluate whether the technology services, whether the technology and the services continue to align with operational needs and council priorities before proceeding with the remainder of the term.

[1:42:29] Overall, the proposal balances long term price certainty and estimated cost savings with the flexibility and opportunity to reassess the city's needs at the five-year point.

[1:42:40] Next, we'll discuss our vehicle replacement program, the total cost of vehicle replacements for the next year is $11 million, which is about $3 million more than last year.

[1:42:52] Ideally, replacement schedules are used to keep the budget flat and avoid major spikes from year to year.

[1:42:58] However, a number of public works vehicles were reprogrammed into 2027 and delivery of a fire engine was delayed leading to this year's variance.

[1:43:06] It's important to note that certain vehicles have years of lead time in order to secure delivery for a particular year.

[1:43:13] For example, the aforementioned fire engine was ordered in 2024, totaling $1.1 million.

[1:43:19] This equates a one-third of the $3 million variance in replacement vehicle replacements for next year.

[1:43:26] Display does a breakdown of vehicle replacements by department.

[1:43:29] Across all city departments, 46 vehicles are planned for replacement next year.

[1:43:33] three new vehicles are included in the budget pending FTE approval.

[1:43:41] With that, we can answer questions from this section.

[1:43:43] Tom and Jane?

[1:43:45] Yes, thank you, Mayor.

[1:43:48] Just a question regarding, well, I'm looking at the sign number 21 at the top.

[1:43:54] It says capital investments total 13.6.

[1:44:00] But the amounts listed on the slide don't add up to that.

[1:44:04] So what am I, what am I missing?

[1:44:10] So there's other projects that aren't included on this slide.

[1:44:13] Let me see if there's an additional slide.

[1:44:16] We could provide the full list of facility improvements,

[1:44:20] these are the highlights.

[1:44:21] We tend to also have, and we can pull the number,

[1:44:26] general facility improvements across all city buildings.

[1:44:31] That's not reflected on this slide.

[1:44:32] We just kind of pull out some of the major highlights,

[1:44:34] the major expenses, but we could provide a full list of what makes up that 13.6 million

[1:44:41] if you'd like.

[1:44:42] That's fine.

[1:44:43] No, I just needed to make sure my math skills first.

[1:44:47] It definitely does not end up yet.

[1:44:49] Thanks, Dad.

[1:44:50] Dad helped me with my math skills.

[1:44:52] So I just want to make sure about that.

[1:44:54] The second question I had is still on slide 21.

[1:44:58] just if you could get

[1:45:00] I have a little bit more of a background to the NAPERS settlement feasibility study. The need for

[1:45:07] the study and what we hope the study will inform us about.

[1:45:13] I think NAPERS settlement is here?

[1:45:14] Yeah, thank you.

[1:45:23] Ms. Calibrate.

[1:45:24] Did you state your name and position for the record, please?

[1:45:27] Absolutely. Rainer to my own calories. President and CEO of NAPERS settlement. Good afternoon.

[1:45:32] And as always, it's always a pleasure to be with you.

[1:45:34] Thank you.

[1:45:35] The feasibility study is necessary for a few reasons.

[1:45:41] There has been no long-range site plan for

[1:45:44] neighbor settlement for over 20 some years.

[1:45:49] And as you might imagine, 20 some years.

[1:45:51] It was set up mostly as a settlement village that was

[1:45:54] telling the story of the 1800s.

[1:45:58] And today it's neighborville.

[1:46:00] And in addition to the changes that have happened over the course of the last 10 years,

[1:46:04] All of those buildings which are part of the legacy that we have and are very important to who we are and what we have on site are being evaluated because we are looking to align ourselves with how we tell the full story of Naperville and the populations and the people that have lived here for almost 200 years.

[1:46:26] And the 145,000 for the feasibility city like can you can you just elaborate on what you think that study will show or

[1:46:39] Sure, what will be done for 145,000?

[1:46:43] Sure.

[1:46:45] That this feasibility study is based upon on already plan that has been put forth by the

[1:46:51] a heritage society and that plan was value will actually higher than 150,000 and so based

[1:46:59] on what was paid from the Naperville Heritage Society from the private side of this public

[1:47:06] private partnership, one of the important things is really to look at the interpretive

[1:47:10] plan and how do we tell the interpretive story, how do we interpret the story of the entirety

[1:47:17] of the city and the rest of all of those 40 miles that make up the city.

[1:47:24] So based on some of the results from that, what we are looking to do is really to tell

[1:47:30] a much more full town and country story.

[1:47:35] And in order to do that, there is, and it doesn't really necessarily mean that we will

[1:47:40] fully move the buildings and it may not even be feasible to move the buildings.

[1:47:45] but before we move forward, we need to know what we have underneath, what we have in terms of

[1:47:52] the buildings structurally to see whether or not they can withstand a move, for example,

[1:47:58] and then based on that, we can develop the interpretive plan that would go along with the rest of

[1:48:02] the long-site plan. Oh, yeah, thank you. And I have one more question. That's regarding the cameras

[1:48:12] that we hope to discuss more in detail in November.

[1:48:17] I just wanted to clarify by approving the 5.1 million,

[1:48:28] are we, are we, do we have room to make

[1:48:33] different decisions after afterwards?

[1:48:36] I mean, like, does this, does this lock us in?

[1:48:40] It absolutely does not. We plan on teaching that back up on November and, you know, we will do

[1:48:50] Bacy is council director's. But no obligation.

[1:48:53] Okay, thank you.

[1:48:56] I'll spend Wilson.

[1:48:59] Thank you. As far as the transportation goes, is there any way we'd be able to, I just just from

[1:49:07] feedback from the community and just sort of with projects all over the city this year as far

[1:49:16] as a book wrote and I mean a lot of this is out of our control here you know 59 for various things

[1:49:25] have happened Washington and I've done there's there any way to delay or push back some of these

[1:49:32] projects here, you know, I don't know, the site, south, south, 40 site development at 130,

[1:49:43] 159, I can see that being just a sort of a major inconvenience for people, the almost

[1:49:51] construction at 59 or, I mean, I don't know, the white oak roadway improvement wall, not

[1:49:58] and a major...

[1:50:00] 3, it's certainly a non-trivial amount of money.

[1:50:08] We certainly do take into consideration the impacts over all across the city as we're planning out

[1:50:15] these projects.

[1:50:16] And I know as Dr. Blundis mentioned, we have a coordination meeting with all of the

[1:50:21] electric water, public works.

[1:50:23] We try to make sure that we're closely coordinating all of our projects.

[1:50:26] This year, I agree has not been a good look between the waterlink project as well as

[1:50:31] out 59 being under major construction by IDOT.

[1:50:35] And then some of the other work going on.

[1:50:37] So I do understand that there's been a lot of impact, particularly south of 70th Street,

[1:50:41] for a lot of our motoring public.

[1:50:43] In regards to some of these projects that you mentioned,

[1:50:46] so we are actually already about to start.

[1:50:49] Those improvements for the South 40 sites of Altman.

[1:50:52] So we've been in award those, awarded that project already.

[1:50:56] That is adding some turn lanes into the lifetime.

[1:51:00] and the government development. So I'd like to see that continue on. I think that's going to be

[1:51:05] important for that project. 87th street bridge. I know a question came up about that recently.

[1:51:12] You know, that is a critical bridge improvement, understanding the location of that is a little

[1:51:16] concerning given the continuing work on the water link. But we do think that when we start that

[1:51:21] project next year, once it goes to bed, I think we're assuming around January, with work starting

[1:51:25] next spring, that a lot of the current impacts being felt by the water link project will have

[1:51:30] moved out of the area so we're less concerned. With that one, I agree White Oak is a short

[1:51:40] stretch that will be mostly impactful to those residents there. We've had a lot of engagement with

[1:51:45] those residents already and they're pretty excited about that. Project and seeing that upgrade. So

[1:51:51] definitely understand and I think as we continue to plan out our projects and look at our broader

[1:51:55] range, we'll definitely keep that in mind, but I think from a staff perspective, while we

[1:51:59] may feel some feedback and some bumps with these things, we're fairly comfortable with

[1:52:03] where we have most of these projects positioned right now.

[1:52:08] That's been white.

[1:52:10] Thank you.

[1:52:11] Similar question to Councilwoman Jane.

[1:52:15] I know you're only hitting the major projects up here, but I'm looking at the transportation

[1:52:19] and 41 million, and what I'm seeing 75,000, okay, it's not 75,000, a lot of money, but

[1:52:29] it doesn't seem to compute for 41 million.

[1:52:32] In fact, it's like, what you're showing is less than half of what you're asking for.

[1:52:39] Anything else you would want to mention that we would, we should know?

[1:52:44] You know, Tracy just flipped over to kind of like the other major projects.

[1:52:51] We, and kind of much, I guess we have a couple of things here.

[1:52:55] We try to highlight a project that is of importance to the community, obviously they're

[1:53:00] all important.

[1:53:01] Typically, those are the highest dollar projects, or, you know, in the case of, you know,

[1:53:07] the target stop light, it's not a lot of money, but it's important to a lot of people

[1:53:12] and has been topical.

[1:53:14] So we try to kind of pick and choose

[1:53:16] what we think people want to talk about.

[1:53:19] We're certainly not trying to hide anything.

[1:53:21] But we can give you the full entire listing

[1:53:24] before the next word job.

[1:53:26] OK, thanks.

[1:53:27] What's also not included here is the annual street maintenance,

[1:53:31] which is $12 million, and that's just so routine.

[1:53:35] But that would have come for a good chunk

[1:53:36] of that that's not on the slides.

[1:53:37] OK, and that's what I'm, yeah, that would be.

[1:53:39] The MFT projects, that's probably not.

[1:53:43] We might have specific projects,

[1:53:44] but still we're not the full plan.

[1:53:47] Now, that answers my question.

[1:53:48] Thank you.

[1:53:49] Councilwoman Gibson.

[1:53:51] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:53:52] I wanted to go back to the NAPER settlement feasibility study.

[1:53:56] The 145K for this year,

[1:53:59] and the NAPER settlement CIP, which is in the agenda for next week's

[1:54:05] settlement meeting.

[1:54:06] There's an additional 223,000 for a feasibility study.

[1:54:11] So we just speak, is that next year's expense necessary to make this year's expense useful?

[1:54:23] I was in Calabre, so you want to come back?

[1:54:38] The short answer, and if I need to introduce myself right now to my Calabre's for anaper settlement,

[1:54:44] the short answer is we're not entirely sure what will be necessary in 2028.

[1:54:50] And, of course, we will be back here to gain that approval and to have certain more certain numbers at the time.

[1:54:58] And then, at that point, we...

[1:55:00] We can also make the calculations. You know, one of the things that the public private partnership

[1:55:06] does very successfully is that it comes together and actually joins in the cost. And so, at

[1:55:13] this point, we're not certain what that cost will be. We know that a feasibility would study

[1:55:18] will be two other things. And then, with that, the Heritage Society will come forward in terms

[1:55:24] of what part it will contribute. And as I said previously, in the same way that it has

[1:55:29] here. The big lift for this in order for us to be able to know what we want to study was done with the funding from the

[1:55:40] April Heritage Society.

[1:55:46] Okay, so the feasibility study is two separate studies, one for 145,000, and then in 28,

[1:55:53] a second part of the feasibility study for 223,000, or it's a larger feasibility study for 372,000.

[1:56:00] The feasibility study at this point doesn't include the entire 13 acres, and it doesn't include

[1:56:07] the entirety of the long-range plan, part of what we're looking to do right now is to look

[1:56:13] to see whether or not the pieces that we want to do that would be necessary in the beginning,

[1:56:18] which is in the interpretive plan, are even feasible. So if we spent 145,000 this year,

[1:56:26] And next year, we decided not to spend the additional 227.

[1:56:30] Does that make the first 145,000 useless?

[1:56:34] Absolutely. It will be, it will nonetheless be useful because we will then know how to pivot

[1:56:39] the rest of the site and the rest of the study and the rest of the long range plan.

[1:56:43] Okay, so even if this expense is just at 145,000, the next year is just for gone.

[1:56:47] I'm sorry. So, it just, I'm sorry, because I said useless and you said absolutely.

[1:56:54] I just wanted to make sure we- Oh, I'm sorry. No no, useful. I thought you said useful.

[1:56:58] I'm sorry. I'm still useful even if we don't allocate the 227 and then the following

[1:57:05] 600,000 for the design development. Will that be necessary as well? Or will this 145,000 still be useful without?

[1:57:14] Well, the only the only way we would be spending that is if we see the feasibility study is something

[1:57:19] that is necessary and then we would move forward

[1:57:21] to build the actual full plan of that long range site plan.

[1:57:26] Okay, and then I mean, okay.

[1:57:29] And if you're looking at the very long range plan

[1:57:32] of what we would feasibly consider,

[1:57:36] it would include another building,

[1:57:38] but at this point in time,

[1:57:40] we don't, we're not even certain that we can do it

[1:57:42] with what we have underneath.

[1:57:44] So, okay, and do we know the shelf light

[1:57:47] of feasibility plans?

[1:57:48] I'm sorry.

[1:57:49] Do we know the shelf life of these plans?

[1:57:51] Say we do these plans and then decide it's a project we want to tackle in five years.

[1:57:56] What we need to, you know, much like with a downtown parking garage, where we need to redo

[1:58:00] them in five years if we decide to postpone the larger project?

[1:58:03] I don't think that this part of what we're looking to fund would need to be re-done as I said.

[1:58:08] Those buildings were put there at some 40, some years ago.

[1:58:12] And so knowing what is underneath and knowing the actual, let's say,

[1:58:22] sturdiness of the structures, et cetera, is something that is necessary

[1:58:25] any way long term.

[1:58:27] Okay, okay, thank you, that's really helpful.

[1:58:29] And then just, you know, to staff, it feels to me like the feasibility study

[1:58:34] is spread out over two years.

[1:58:36] So knowing that when we're looking at 145, it's kind of paired with an additional

[1:58:40] about 227 in the following year would be helpful

[1:58:44] when we're making the decisions on.

[1:58:48] Thank you.

[1:58:51] Thank you.

[1:58:51] Councilman McBrume.

[1:58:53] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:58:55] Deputy Director of Morocco is

[1:58:58] a possible to get a project by project breakdown.

[1:59:03] And do you think that would be useful for us to see?

[1:59:07] And I assume these numbers come from some spreadsheet

[1:59:09] you have and maybe it's an overwhelming amount of information, but is that something that

[1:59:17] Council could?

[1:59:18] For sure.

[1:59:18] We could, we're just kind of going off a prior year, it's just, we used to just provide

[1:59:22] the highlights and in the full budget book that I'll be available on October 9th, we'll have

[1:59:27] all the projects listed in that book towards the end and they all tie out to the categories

[1:59:34] that you see here.

[1:59:36] But, you know, for next year, for the capital workshop,

[1:59:38] if we want to see the numbers tied out by category,

[1:59:42] we could definitely do that as well.

[1:59:43] And for the second and third workshops too,

[1:59:45] if that's more helpful.

[1:59:46] Okay. Yeah, the reason why I asked,

[1:59:47] and going through this for several years now,

[1:59:49] you know, the CIP sometimes can have

[1:59:52] be hard for people to get their arms around

[1:59:53] because it's not like the operating budget

[1:59:56] where it's like we have to pay for these things.

[1:59:58] It's meant to be flexible.

[2:00:00] And we may not spend all this money and we may go through an economic recession and have to, but you know, at the same time, you know, kind of go, like councilwoman Jane, councilman White, sometimes we look at these numbers and it's like, what am I missing here, you know, here's what we think is coming in and this is what we think we're going to spend it on and it sometimes seems like we're missing a lot of pieces here.

[2:00:29] I'm going to count and I like to tie out the numbers two so I get it.

[2:00:32] I like to make sure they all add up.

[2:00:33] And is it correct?

[2:00:34] There's 40 million or 50 million that's unfunded out of the two 11.

[2:00:39] Is that right?

[2:00:41] What was that?

[2:00:43] Is there a portion of the capital of the CIP that's unfunded?

[2:00:47] Like that we don't see revenue for, that we're going to have to borrow for.

[2:00:51] That's where we have the issuance is plugged in for the utility funds.

[2:00:55] we're still kind of finalizing the funding for capital projects, MFT, we let in the budget

[2:01:05] book we will have when we finalize the numbers there is a cash balance summary, which

[2:01:09] would show if we, you know, have any funding deficits there, that's provided every year.

[2:01:16] Okay.

[2:01:16] But we're still finalizing tweaking that.

[2:01:19] Thank you.

[2:01:20] That's been Wilson.

[2:01:24] I hit the button again.

[2:01:26] I'm trying to turn the microphone off.

[2:01:29] Yeah, no, I guess the councilman at the groom's point.

[2:01:32] I certainly appreciate it.

[2:01:34] I guess to talk about the transportation point again.

[2:01:39] I know the roadway improvements.

[2:01:40] I guess I always forget about those until they happen.

[2:01:44] But I certainly like to look at them more in detail.

[2:01:50] just sort of to beat the dead horse, but I know it's complain about the roadways projects

[2:01:57] in the past and we don't typically obviously get a whole lot of bids, should say obviously,

[2:02:03] but we don't get many bids for them, but certainly to credit you guys, the roads here are much

[2:02:12] better than other cities, but at the same time, if we could try to, you know, again, alleviate

[2:02:20] some of the construction, especially this year or so.

[2:02:24] Thank you.

[2:02:27] That's all for the questions on this one.

[2:02:37] All right.

[2:02:38] That would be back to be mayor.

[2:02:40] Next up, Riverwalk, where we have 7.6 million in capital investment plan, of this amount,

[2:02:46] About 6.8 million is being allocated to the South Extension and Hillside Gateway Projects.

[2:02:52] Riverwark Foundation, as Mr. Kennedy noted, was able to secure external funding of roughly

[2:02:58] 1.5 million for the project.

[2:03:01] Although the proposed budget includes a full 6.8 million dollars for the South Extension

[2:03:05] and Hillside Gateway, the Commission has begun discussions with the Riverwark Consultant

[2:03:12] about what a reduced scope and associated costs may look like.

[2:03:17] Mr. Kennedy said, you know, kind of originally, the thought was that

[2:03:20] a self-extension, absent hillside would be about 3 million and they raised one and a half

[2:03:26] and, you know, leaving the other million and a half of the city that numbers increase significantly.

[2:03:33] So, ERA will be looking at that and presenting their results to the riverwalk consultant.

[2:03:39] As a result of that in their recommendation, a revised estimate for this project could be put into the budget before coming back due for final approval.

[2:03:49] The remaining $750,000 spread across the number of projects, completion of 430 South Washington,

[2:03:56] Rift Replacement on Webster Street Cover Bridge and Replacement of Rory Hill Irrigation System.

[2:04:09] Next up, Downtown Parking, kind of a busy slide provides a five-year view of the proposed

[2:04:16] Downtown Capital Investments, which total approximately $6,2.1 million.

[2:04:22] We'd like to move back to something that Councilman McBroom said, hey, you know what?

[2:04:27] We haven't been talking about municipal debt.

[2:04:30] First I heard about it was a month ago, that's absolutely correct.

[2:04:35] In last year's CIP, we had about 4 million in for FY 28 and 29.

[2:04:45] When we looked at all of the downtown projects, it became apparent to say, hey, you

[2:04:50] know what we can't have municipal center deck out at any time while the nickels parking

[2:04:56] deck is going to be out or down.

[2:05:00] So that's when kind of like the three big competing projects, streetscape, nickels deck, and city deck, that's when we kind of had to make the decision to say, all right, how can we sequence these?

[2:05:14] You know, street scape plus city parking deck works, street scape plus nickels parking deck does not,

[2:05:24] too much disruption, nickels parking deck plus municipal parking deck does not,

[2:05:30] because taking too many slots out of service.

[2:05:34] So we went, you know, through the exercise of sequencing these, we tried to minimize the kind of impact on the downtown, and, you know, looking at the three major ones, you know, putting the municipal center deck, and then the streetscape for Jefferson and Maine running those concurrently.

[2:06:02] was able to knock those two out without having what we believe to be significant disruption

[2:06:09] before moving on to the nickels parking deck.

[2:06:14] We thought this would be a better opportunity to balance the impact of the work on downtown

[2:06:18] businesses, residents, visitors, and also considering cash flow and capacity staff.

[2:06:27] streetscape projects have already been underway, they have established momentum, and this

[2:06:33] will allow us to continue that, at least along the Jefferson Peace, provide additional

[2:06:38] time to evaluate the long-term downtown parking strategy and design of the Nichols Parking

[2:06:43] Facility, which is a largest investment of these.

[2:06:48] And the current proposed schedule for Nichols Tech would have concept design and engineering

[2:06:52] taking place in 27 through 30 followed by approximately 36 million in construction, a

[2:06:59] happening in 31 and 32.

[2:07:03] You know, you might be wondering, you know, why would we go back

[2:07:07] to look at design if we already have an approved concept? You know, as we spoke about this before,

[2:07:14] you know, the updates to the old plan. We're very significant. I know there's been a lot of

[2:07:18] about kind of shelf life of plans, and you can get a few years out of those, we approve

[2:07:24] in that you can't get 19 years out of them, just because of the things that we don't

[2:07:32] control such as international building code. From a parking standpoint, we also have additional

[2:07:40] data that's being analyzed that can help with the downtown parking discussion. One, we

[2:07:48] and survey show it a reasonable level of satisfaction.

[2:07:53] Our Ted Group also conducted a separate parking downtown parking survey in July, and those

[2:08:00] results were going to be expected in October, November, and that's going to be another

[2:08:03] important data point for our planning purposes.

[2:08:08] We talked about the timing with this parking deck.

[2:08:12] Why is it a little bit of a surprise?

[2:08:15] Well, because within the last month, it was moved up by

[2:08:18] year and you know we usually talk about kind of the upcoming year. So I wanted to explain that.

[2:08:25] You know temporarily temporarily closing spots here and on the south side of the river impact

[2:08:33] what happens on the north as well as vice versa. So you know staff felt it best to do the Jefferson

[2:08:40] streetscape alongside music, municipal,

[2:08:45] and then pushing out nickels.

[2:08:50] Let's see.

[2:08:52] The other factor that we believe we can work out with this.

[2:08:57] But certainly, if council would like us to do something different, we can absolutely

[2:09:03] that is that this works with kind of like a staff timing and staff involvement as well trying to kind of spread that out.

[2:09:12] You know, it wasn't our intended delay projects because we want to get them all done.

[2:09:18] We just don't want to overburden the downtown and also, you know, city staff would do many projects at the same time.

[2:09:29] Now, if that didn't completely confuse you, I was going to turn over to continue the discussion

[2:09:34] and have Tracy talk about the actual funding of the downtown projects.

[2:09:43] Thanks Doug.

[2:09:44] This next slide shows how these proposed parking deck projects, just the parking deck projects

[2:09:49] on the streetscape, are funded, and how those funds are allocated to be transparent.

[2:09:55] In a few minutes, we will talk about the funding sources for downtown parking.

[2:09:59] Oh

[2:10:00] Which includes terminal sales tax in the downtown food and beverage. The project shown here represents a

[2:10:05] approximately $48.4 million in total costs between 2027 and 2032. Of that amount, approximately

[2:10:12] $30.7 million is proposed to come from the downtown parking fund and $17.7 million from the capital

[2:10:19] projects fund. Municipal Center deck rehabilitation is budgeted at $9 million. The proposed split is

[2:10:25] 50% downtown parking and 50% capital projects, which equates to $4.5 million dollars allocated to each fund.

[2:10:34] The 5050 allocation reflects that city hall and a percentile library employees use this deck heavily during the week.

[2:10:41] This allocation is staff's recommendation at this time when the project comes back to city council we can re-evaluate the proposed 5050 split.

[2:10:48] For the nickels library parking facility, we propose allocating 2-3rds from the downtown parking fund and 1-3rd from the capital projects fund.

[2:10:57] This equates to a $25.1 million from the downtown parking fund and $12.6 million from the capital projects fund.

[2:11:05] Not included on this slide, but important to note is that the water street deck was constructed as part of the larger water street redevelopment.

[2:11:13] The parking deck was funded through various sources, including water street tiff dollars,

[2:11:18] downtown parking fund, as well as a public private partnership.

[2:11:23] The downtown parking deck maintenance budget is budgeted, sorry, $1.7 million over the next several years.

[2:11:30] The proposed allocation is also two thirds downtown parking and one-third capital projects,

[2:11:35] which equates to an allocation of $1.1 million and $600,000 respectively.

[2:11:40] The CIP also includes one elevator maintenance project for the parking deck at a cost of $40,000.

[2:11:47] The proposed split is also two thirds downtown parking and one third capital projects.

[2:11:53] And with that, we'll answer questions on this section.

[2:11:56] Council, what else are?

[2:11:57] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:11:58] First of all, I'm going to ask Mr. Kennedy to come back up.

[2:12:03] And Ms. LaClosha was hoping that you could put up his.

[2:12:06] Actually, you know what I'm going to ask Doug if you could go back to the Riverwalk slide and then as soon as we get through that

[2:12:14] I went into, I'm going to this for Kennedy slides.

[2:12:17] Okay, so one thing I wanted to make sure is really clear is a few years ago there was a discussion of the private donations or outside donations being about half of a three million dollar spend on the trail.

[2:12:33] One thing to be really clear about is that was the trail, what's being talked about here is two separate projects, which is a South Extension, the trail, and the hillside gateway.

[2:12:44] So if you factor the gateway out of that, the Delta there's not nearly as extreme as it would seem.

[2:12:51] So it didn't grow from 3 to 6.8 million. This is mixing an apple and an orange, and I see that director careers nodding.

[2:12:57] So I just want to make sure that's out there.

[2:13:00] Um, and then with that, I was hoping Miss Lakoshi could put up the slides, Mr. Kennedy.

[2:13:15] All right.

[2:13:15] And would you mind just flipping through, I think, uh,

[2:13:18] thing Mr. Kennedy, you had slide one up there.

[2:13:20] But I'm not sure if you got to click through any of them.

[2:13:25] You know, just maybe three seconds, the slide would be good.

[2:13:34] Yeah, sure.

[2:13:35] Hello, everybody.

[2:13:35] Thank you for, Ian, for the question.

[2:13:37] And I really rushed through.

[2:13:39] I felt the pressure of that three minutes.

[2:13:41] So there's really, say, hello to everybody last time, but sure.

[2:13:46] Yeah, so just as background, Pat was the chair of the Revok

[2:13:51] Commission, great chair for a number of years.

[2:13:56] I have been on the commission since the beginning of my time

[2:14:01] as a council member.

[2:14:04] And the concern I really want to bring up tonight

[2:14:07] is with regard to process.

[2:14:12] So, when, first of all, Mr. County,

[2:14:14] when did this strip of land between,

[2:14:17] Edward Hospital, roughly, and Dunkin Donuts,

[2:14:22] like when did that become land for the River Walk?

[2:14:25] Could you repeat that?

[2:14:27] The boundary for the River Walk

[2:14:29] to my understanding was extended in 2015.

[2:14:31] Okay, so there's 25 numbers because when the planning for the start, right, and then can you flip to the slide that shows the the overhead view map?

[2:14:42] Okay, so if you can see the dunk and donuts on the right side of that screen.

[2:14:47] Okay, correct me from wrong, but dunk and invested funds in building a retaining wall with that riverwalk trail, you know, basically the city made them do that for the riverwalk, correct?

[2:15:00] That's right. Okay. So just to be clear, we're not just talking about funds that Edward has invested in this, or that representative Yang Roar has secured for the city, but private businesses relying on the city's mandate also invested funds in this river walk extension. So I just want to make sure, you know, that is clear.

[2:15:24] As far as process and you can correct me if I need it wrong at any of these dates, it's been a long time on this commission.

[2:15:31] But in 2022 and 2023, our consultants, architects, civil engineers came together,

[2:15:39] and we had months if not years of refinements to this map that came up with a spinal alignment.

[2:15:46] And those refinements included making sure that the lighting was not placed in a way that would be

[2:15:55] injurious to neighboring residences.

[2:15:58] The rules governing the path, ADA accessibility was fixed several times.

[2:16:07] There's a bike path, one thing to note here is this is a safety project, because currently

[2:16:13] if you've walked this, I don't recommend it.

[2:16:15] But if you walked this, you know, the sidewalk is right up against Washington Street.

[2:16:20] You can literally feel cars oozing by if you're on a bike or a, you know, or walking.

[2:16:27] There has been a fatality at Martin and Hills Ed Washington in the last 20 years.

[2:16:33] So anyway, all of these things were discussed at Nazium, right?

[2:16:37] For months and months and months and actually years.

[2:16:41] And we finally landed on this proposal, which just incorporated the feedback of so many

[2:16:45] residents and the project was ready to go in 23 with a bid in 24 and a build in 25.

[2:16:56] It was bumped to 2024 then it was bumped to 2025 now bumped to the discussion that we're

[2:17:05] having now and as you mentioned earlier Edward gave their $800,000 check with the understanding

[2:17:14] that this gateway would open up in conjunction with the opening of their heart facility, which,

[2:17:19] by the way, has passed.

[2:17:22] And, um, uh, representatives in Green War, I called her office today, um, it was news to

[2:17:28] her that we were talking about considering different plans, uh, for this path.

[2:17:34] Um, I bring all this up to say a whole lot of stakeholders invested, really years in the development

[2:17:40] of this path. I heard a comment, I think, director of career, senior manager of career said

[2:17:49] that the commission is looking into other options to be clear. The last commission meeting

[2:17:54] was on September the 8th, and this was not even on the table at that meeting. As late as August,

[2:18:03] I had asked city staff, are there any potential cuts to the budget regarding Riverwalk answer

[2:18:09] was no. Had we known this, the commission could have at least started discussions? So what

[2:18:15] we're talking about when we're talking about going back to a engineering consultant that

[2:18:21] spent years developing this to come to us in a month with some kind of proposed reduction

[2:18:29] to shave off a million dollars is, in my opinion, scrapping the many, many, many pieces of input

[2:18:36] that went into this.

[2:18:38] And if this was going to be an issue,

[2:18:40] this should have been raised, frankly, years ago.

[2:18:44] And many objections, this project were raised.

[2:18:47] And many of the criticisms of it were incorporated

[2:18:51] in the final design.

[2:18:53] So all of that to say, I think it's, well,

[2:18:58] you're a civil engineer, so I'll ask you, Mr. Kennedy,

[2:19:01] do you think it is realistic to think any kind of proposal

[2:19:05] going to come back to us that's vetted in the next two months that's that's going to reduce the cost of this.

[2:19:12] First, just for clarification for the record, Janet Ingwer's contribution was 800 in the hospital

[2:19:19] was 700. We flipped those back and forth a little bit. Relative to the potential phasing of the project,

[2:19:28] I'm all for having consultants. We have great consultants for the river walk and the commission

[2:19:34] does a great job of looking at all the alternatives.

[2:19:37] I'm, you know, as an engineer, I'm always all for looking at alternatives.

[2:19:42] For this particular stretch, you could even, you know, visually look at it on the screen.

[2:19:47] If the commitment is to connect the river walk at that point north of Hillside, bring it

[2:19:54] under the bridge behind the Dunkin Donuts and connect it to the hospital.

[2:20:00] That is, you can visually see, that's going to be 80% of the budget, if not, if not more. The basic infrastructure of putting a path and connecting it.

[2:20:10] The cost of the amenities and benches and landscaping and those other things tend to be smaller portions of a project like this.

[2:20:19] And, you know, so I personally feel like if we're going to follow through and have a project,

[2:20:28] once you defer that and spread that over two years or three years or multiple phases,

[2:20:34] we've already seen the impact that inflation can have on that, but now you're looking at multiple

[2:20:38] mobilizations for smaller portions of that work. So I'm curious to see what comes back,

[2:20:46] if there's phasing that, though that doesn't connect one end to the other and build half of it,

[2:20:53] I don't really know that that fulfills the intent of the project.

[2:20:56] I appreciate that and also I would add if it's, hey, let's cut the ADA accessibility

[2:21:05] or let's cut the safety with the distance to Washington or let's no longer click to the hospital

[2:21:13] or let's waste the improvements the dunk and did in reliance on the city.

[2:21:18] I just don't see any of those as good options.

[2:21:21] So thank you, Mayor.

[2:21:22] I'm from Kelly.

[2:21:24] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:21:25] A couple of different topics I'd like to ask about and talk about.

[2:21:28] I guess maybe I'll start with the river walks since we're on it right now.

[2:21:34] A couple of questions.

[2:21:35] One from Mr. Kennedy, one from staff.

[2:21:38] When you spoke in public form, I think unless I'm concerned, I think I heard you say that we

[2:21:42] are asking for the full project to move forward and I just want to know who is we. Are you on the commission still?

[2:21:49] Is that just you? I'm not on the commission. Is that the royal weir?

[2:21:54] It is mostly me. I'm part of a fundraising group.

[2:21:58] I'll only speak on behalf of myself tonight.

[2:22:00] Thank you for noticing that.

[2:22:02] I just want to be sure.

[2:22:02] And then for staff, I guess.

[2:22:04] So what I heard from Councilman Holtzauer just now is that this was a potential...

[2:22:10] Well, a variety of alternatives was not in front of the commission at their most recent meeting or it sounds like at any point, so where I'm trying to level said my head where did and I don't even see it on the slide, but in your presentation you mentioned the consultant potentially bringing back alternatives, who is it that asked for that to happen?

[2:22:31] Yeah, Andy, probably will be able to better handle it, or Riverwalk, Ref.

[2:22:40] Thanks, Mike.

[2:22:41] Sure.

[2:22:42] The project right now is as budgeted as for the full improvement in the CIP.

[2:22:49] There's been some discussions with the commission chair just about the cost of the project.

[2:22:55] And then, you know, intense phase of the engineering over the last couple of months, and, you know, the most recent estimate that we got was about

[2:23:04] a million dollars more than what the current budget is mostly due to some of the structural men's being more substantial than where I originally anticipated.

[2:23:14] So I think that just burdened the discussion about, you know, what the, you know, right approaches and how we should move forward.

[2:23:23] So, as of right now, the full amount for the entire project is included in the budget, and

[2:23:31] the intent was that we would move forward to bid the project in the next month or two.

[2:23:39] I think that answers it other than I heard that there's been some discussion with the chair.

[2:23:43] Sorry, I guess what I'm maybe my last question for now is, has the commission or advisory

[2:23:49] commission as a body if they take in any sort of a vote to either recommend that we do

[2:23:56] the full project or that we should seek alternatives or I guess where are they as a commission?

[2:24:03] It's clear.

[2:24:05] Yeah, and Deputy Director Heinz, if I help me out with this, I don't believe that a commission

[2:24:12] And as a whole, to look at any votes to kind of look at the options, I don't know if

[2:24:23] at their last meeting they said, hey, I don't know if they took a vote to say, hey,

[2:24:29] we should put the whole 6.8 million forward, but you might know better.

[2:24:33] Now, is this point the commission has not reviewed any other options?

[2:24:38] We did ask the consultant to take a look at that, and so we would bring that to an upcoming

[2:24:42] commission meeting to get the commission's feedback and we'll then happen before

[2:24:49] like I guess I'm trying to figure out how this is going to play out for us then

[2:24:53] is this going to be part of the decision-making matrix that works up three and we'll have

[2:24:57] input from the commission between now and then or

[2:25:00] Or what is your plan and what we're going to do with this?

[2:25:05] Yeah, I don't know if ERA is going to be done with their analysis. No, you thought they would be

[2:25:14] done prior to workshop 3, but I mean, as a stance right now, we have the full 6.8 million in the budget.

[2:25:24] Okay, okay, and then if I could may or on a different topic, so some questions and thoughts

[2:25:32] on the Nichols Library deck, and there's some discussion early on in public form, and

[2:25:37] I'd like to may or I kind of held my thoughts, I want to see what ZF had to say in this chart,

[2:25:43] which was helpful to see how everything's kind of fitting together, you know, it's interesting.

[2:25:49] That's a much larger project now than the streetscape, so only a few years ago, the streetscape

[2:25:52] We're kind of the monster project and the question was whether we would do them or not and when and I'm glad that we have and that we're still going to finish up on those.

[2:26:02] So I think we certainly are certainly are investing a significant amount of money in the downtown through through the streetscapes and now our municipal deck for me the question on the nickel stack is less about the timing and more whether we should do it or not.

[2:26:17] And I heard mostly positive feedback I guess from Council during public forum, but for what

[2:26:23] it's worth I'll give maybe the contrary and view on it, and I'll do that saying that I've

[2:26:29] been the liaison on deck for the whole time I've been on Council, and they've been talking about

[2:26:34] this deck for pretty much the whole time I've been on Council for many years now, and I've

[2:26:39] heard the pleas for it from the business owners and the private owners, and I understand it

[2:26:44] certainly, and I'm sensitive to those requests.

[2:26:49] My thought is for, and I've got a lot of thoughts on it,

[2:26:52] but my overarching thought is for almost a $40 million project.

[2:26:57] It really should be something that we decide one way or the other

[2:27:00] based on the data and the real need of it.

[2:27:04] And Mr. Krieger mentioned that we've got one data,

[2:27:09] but really only one data point so far I would argue,

[2:27:11] which is a city survey that came in with, I believe it was 12%,

[2:27:17] said it was poor, and 88% said it was better,

[2:27:20] either excellent good or fair.

[2:27:22] I think we're the three other categories.

[2:27:24] So when you've got 88% saying it's,

[2:27:28] I would argue, okay, at least, if not better than that,

[2:27:33] to invest 37 million that seems like an awful lot,

[2:27:38] I'll say just from one you walk around town,

[2:27:41] I really never see the decks that we've already got being full, but that's just visual, not

[2:27:47] data, right?

[2:27:48] I'm very curious to see what staffs data will show.

[2:27:51] I've been told, and it was just mentioned earlier that we're going to have some actual

[2:27:56] data and information regarding the usage rates on the decks that we have.

[2:28:01] For one, I'll be very surprised if it shows that they're ever full, even on the busiest days.

[2:28:08] I just don't think that they are, and I think that's for a few reasons.

[2:28:12] One, I'm just not sure there's the need, and two people don't love parking in decks.

[2:28:16] I think we hear that all the time.

[2:28:18] I think that's one reason the nickel's lot is as popular as it is right now.

[2:28:23] And so hard to get a spot, because people will circle.

[2:28:25] We all hear people circle for the surface flat parking spaces, and don't want to go to the top levels of the decks.

[2:28:32] So to replace it with a deck, I just don't really see it.

[2:28:37] But what we've heard is that there's a need, but we've also heard that downtown visitors

[2:28:42] are at the most they've ever been, over the past few years, it continues to grow and grow.

[2:28:47] It certainly doesn't seem like parking has been an impediment to that.

[2:28:51] Our food and beverage taxes continue to grow.

[2:28:55] And when we think about the future, I just don't know that I see trying to make downtown

[2:29:01] a more car centric area as what we necessarily want to be doing and how we've grown but

[2:29:10] the parking satisfaction is higher than it used to be is kind of an open question but one

[2:29:15] thought and it's just a thought but you know we approved happy hour to come back to Naperville

[2:29:19] and hurt on the basis that we've got much more right share and maybe that's a piece of this is

[2:29:25] that you've got more right share, more car pulling, more walking biking, there may not be

[2:29:30] I think, hey, we're downtown, suburban destination.

[2:29:34] There's always going to be people that want to drive here.

[2:29:36] Obviously, cars aren't going the way, but directionally it seems like people are driving

[2:29:41] and parking a car on their own less than they used to be.

[2:29:47] So I'm just not there on this, especially considering the costs and granted it continues to

[2:29:52] go up if people are committed to wanting to do it, then sure, probably should be done sooner

[2:29:57] rather than later, because it will cost less.

[2:30:00] And for what it's worth if a majority council wants to do it, I hope that you do it in the way that, as visually pleasing as it could be done, I would not support, let's scale it back or make it taller, get rid of the pocket part, because it might save some money. I would say if we're going to do it, we should do it right. I, for one, would say yes, include the pocket part, include the bells and whistles on the outside, make it look nice. Because that is a concern I have to that you're really going to change your character in the downtown. If you build this, in my opinion, not for the better.

[2:30:31] So that's my position, I just don't think the need has been proven and so to just kind of go along with it because it's been a part of a discussion for a long time for $40 million.

[2:30:41] If we don't need it, I'm just not there.

[2:30:45] And so my question I guess is process wise, what a staff you for this will this be a decision.

[2:30:52] Matrix at the final budget workshop is it's going to be a standalone agenda item at some point.

[2:30:59] I would argue we haven't really had a full presentation from staff and if and when we do

[2:31:05] it should certainly include that data, that staff is accumulating, so I mean is that

[2:31:09] going to be an agenda item before the budget might get approved or in the next year.

[2:31:15] I mean there's only 100,000, but I also think it would be helpful for both the business

[2:31:19] community and residents to know if we're going to do this or not.

[2:31:22] For me, I wouldn't even want to do 100,000 to be honest if we weren't going to do it.

[2:31:27] if the Council is committed to doing it, then fine.

[2:31:30] But I don't want to just keep dragging it out and say, well,

[2:31:33] we'll talk about it in five years.

[2:31:35] We'll do a hundred thousand now.

[2:31:36] I think at some point some Council's got to decide

[2:31:39] whether we're going to do this big picture-wise or not.

[2:31:41] But I don't know what your plan is for the near-term

[2:31:43] if we're going to make that decision.

[2:31:49] So we won't have the results of the data collection

[2:31:53] that we completed in July ready as part

[2:31:56] of this budget process in order to present that.

[2:31:59] I would anticipate that that's going to be coming, you know, kind of after we have our next workshop.

[2:32:04] So, you know, we're targeting October, it might be November, it's including development projections, customer service data, as well as our parking occupancy data.

[2:32:14] So, it's a lot to pull together, and in the past we've brought a pretty substantial report.

[2:32:20] I think from the last time we actually brought a full report was in 2015 and I actually don't think we've brought it until around January or November or the following year.

[2:32:27] So we definitely are trying to get this one to you faster.

[2:32:30] I think a couple of kind of key points with the schedule

[2:32:34] that we have, we are deep in the design

[2:32:36] on the Jefferson streetscape with the intent of constructing it.

[2:32:39] Next year, that hasn't changed.

[2:32:43] I think public works is well on the way to getting ready

[2:32:46] for the Municipal Center, Zachary Habs.

[2:32:49] So I think there are pieces of this plan that

[2:32:53] and move forward as planned.

[2:32:55] And then, as we refine the conversation around the Nichols

[2:32:59] Daccan, as we hear more feedback,

[2:33:00] and we bring this data point, I think we can refine the decision

[2:33:04] as it relates to the future phases of streetscape,

[2:33:06] being Chicago and Jackson.

[2:33:10] So I think as Doug mentioned, we're here to hear the feedback

[2:33:13] on this, and we can kind of work through the discussion

[2:33:16] on how we sequence those, but I think as far as the municipal

[2:33:18] second, Jefferson Street, scapegoals, those are going to be pretty ready to go for construction

[2:33:24] for next year.

[2:33:25] So my last song, if I could, I would really ask that we get that data and I would suggest

[2:33:31] it should be a council meeting agenda item where the public would be aware and it's not

[2:33:36] just something as part of the budget process that we're just going to say 40 million is approved

[2:33:40] by a show of hands and a workshop.

[2:33:43] I think we should have that data, have a full meeting, have the neighborhood aware, have

[2:33:48] everybody come to a meeting and really discuss it before any final decisions made.

[2:33:53] Thank you, Councilwoman Jane.

[2:33:55] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:33:57] I won't become, I too will be talking about the parking decks.

[2:34:01] Not making any comments in general about where I stand.

[2:34:05] But I do agree with Councilman Kelly on data being important and helping us make these decisions.

[2:34:13] And so I do appreciate Mr. Krieger, your reasoning behind the shift in the timeline and the projects that you propose.

[2:34:26] I would like to also see the results of that survey before we make any decisions, including the municipal center deck.

[2:34:35] For me, I guess you may have spoken to this earlier, but if you could clarify the urgency or if their structural needs that need to be attended to right away or is this something that could be delayed, if you could just speak to that.

[2:35:00] I love to look for Mr. Randolph to see. If I miss speak, you know, last year we had it slated in for 2028, 2029, I do not believe anything, has changed to make it more urgent, kind of the acceleration of that by one year was really just part of the coordination.

[2:35:19] So if it, I mean if it pushed one year, assuming that wouldn't be a big issue, I'm guessing

[2:35:27] we could probably push two, but probably wouldn't want to go beyond that.

[2:35:31] Is that fair?

[2:35:35] I would want to consult the structural report before I provide feedback on that.

[2:35:41] In my experience, you don't want to put off maintenance to waterproofing membranes on

[2:35:47] a structural debt.

[2:35:50] But, yes, if it was slated for 28, 29 and we are accelerating it for logistical reasons or, you know, then that's a real consideration, but I will have an information for the council.

[2:36:07] So, yeah, thank you.

[2:36:12] Councilman Maybroum.

[2:36:14] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:36:16] Don't quickly back just briefly back to the Riverwalk.

[2:36:19] Appreciate Councilman Kelly's questions.

[2:36:21] I was a little confused.

[2:36:22] I'm what we were talking about.

[2:36:24] Just for my own clarity, director Heinz,

[2:36:28] the full projects in the CIP budget.

[2:36:33] What's the concern that we're talking about here that we think that

[2:36:36] bid may come in higher than what we're budgeting for and it's a buy a million dollars, or is that what we're talking about?

[2:36:44] Yeah, so the final design, you know, the latest cost estimate is more than what we budgeted for, so I think the question was, you know, do we need to look at other options?

[2:36:54] Buy a million dollars.

[2:36:55] Approximately yes.

[2:36:57] Okay.

[2:36:58] Doesn't seem insurmountable.

[2:37:00] But, okay.

[2:37:03] Thank you for that.

[2:37:04] As far as the parking deck goes, I agree with the Councilman Kelly on the transparency and the data.

[2:37:12] I guess the calendar to the need, I have seen a lot of data from DNA and Chamber of Commerce.

[2:37:20] And I think it's, you know, the people that these business owners want in those parking spots aren't necessarily necessarily in our

[2:37:28] available survey. They don't live here. And I look at it as what 380, 400 new shoppers.

[2:37:37] And I just think we should keep that in mind. You know, it is very expensive to run a city.

[2:37:44] And in order to keep that property tax levy low comparatively to our other communities, we need economic activity.

[2:37:56] We need economic growth and so I understand fully why these downtown business owners want an avenue to get more vehicles downtown

[2:38:08] But I think I think you're a hundred percent right. I'd like to see a staff recommendation

[2:38:15] You know

[2:38:16] You take guidance from us and we kind of push you in different directions on on the budget

[2:38:22] But $40 million spend getting data and getting a staff recommendation on it.

[2:38:27] I think, and having a public form and notifying the public and getting more feedback.

[2:38:32] I mean, it's not a small thing.

[2:38:35] My last concern would be, you know, and along the lines of the $100,000, we can say $100,000 is meaningless.

[2:38:43] But I was kind of the same way when we first started talking about this when I thought that the engineering plans,

[2:38:48] million and a half bucks that we don't just throw that in the CIP and thus we're really

[2:38:53] serious about doing that. We should probably treat a hundred thousand dollars like that as

[2:38:58] well. Now a lot of us might not be here about the time we get to two thousand thirty one and to

[2:39:03] vote on it but you know so and lastly since I've been sitting up here I've kind of seen maybe a

[2:39:11] during theme a little bit, where we've had extensive permit delays, we've looked at opportunities

[2:39:20] like Fifth Avenue, having to be pushed off, and I'm starting to feel like, and this is

[2:39:27] nothing against staff.

[2:39:28] I think that you guys are doing a great job, but I think your job is mostly reactionary, and

[2:39:32] it's preventing anyone from really taking the time or having the ability to do any forward

[2:39:36] looking, and so I think about things like being told that we can't pursue a fifth avenue

[2:39:43] development, hundreds of millions of dollars of development, and then I look at this timeline

[2:39:49] and say, well, if you're going to do a parking deck in 2030 and we start talking about fifth

[2:39:53] we're going to be told we can't do that, so, you know, I think council when we get to

[2:40:00] I think that our planning and engineering is probably at capacity, and I don't think they're able to tackle multiple projects, and I think we're seeing some of that in the CIP, and so I'm going to be supporting whatever it takes to get our planning department, the resources they need to be able to take advantage of investment opportunities for us.

[2:40:24] So, Councilman Wilson?

[2:40:27] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:40:29] Didn't turn off the microphone this time.

[2:40:33] I guess similar thoughts and thank you, Councilman.

[2:40:37] Holds our for the background on the riverwalk.

[2:40:42] Some of which, I guess I wasn't aware of,

[2:40:45] or had needed to be reminded by it.

[2:40:48] But I guess similar to getting data for the nickels library parking deck, I mean, maybe

[2:40:57] this is just a counterfactual, but I would be curious if it, I don't know, I get

[2:41:01] possible to see how much utilization that small stretch of, I guess, the block would actually

[2:41:12] be used.

[2:41:14] I don't know.

[2:41:14] To me, it's just, and again, I guess, kind of,

[2:41:17] going back here to the theme of, you know, delaying things longer is going to increase the cost.

[2:41:24] But, um, at the same time, just six, seven million dollars for, um, small piece of, uh, land,

[2:41:35] when I'm not entirely sure how much it would be utilized, is expensive to me, um, I mean, you know,

[2:41:43] But whereas you can argue that the parking deck at the nickels library, you can make a very

[2:41:50] good argument that it would bring in more people to downtown businesses, which is certainly

[2:41:57] the downtown business community's argument would bring in more revenue, which would certainly

[2:42:04] be appealing.

[2:42:05] I guess kind of the councilman Kelly's point, I would be interested though in having like, I don't

[2:42:11] what that would look like as far as like a public hearing or because it does seem like some

[2:42:17] of these projects like this would like, you know, a few years down the line, the public ends

[2:42:23] up getting developed and then the public is like, oh, this is almost 40 million dollars

[2:42:28] in there like, I didn't even know about it. So I don't know, to that point, I would be interested

[2:42:34] and seeing feedback like that.

[2:42:37] So, thank you.

[2:42:39] Mr. Krieger, I'm going to start with just a couple of questions

[2:42:41] about the history of the River Walk in this particular extension.

[2:42:45] You've been around for this entire discussion going back

[2:42:48] to 2015, I believe, when it first started.

[2:42:52] Was it your understanding that there was some sort of fundraising

[2:42:58] expectation from the River Walk Foundation

[2:43:01] and the city would do a match or what

[2:43:03] what's your recollection?

[2:43:05] And, you know, thank you for the question.

[2:43:08] You will not find anything in writing and, you know, Mr. Kennedy may be able to add on

[2:43:14] as well, you know, so there were no, there are no formal commitments or obligations.

[2:43:20] My understanding, at least with the South Extension, and thank you for clarifying, you

[2:43:26] know, you know, it didn't double in value, that includes both the Healthside Gateway as

[2:43:30] well.

[2:43:30] you know, it certainly wasn't my intention to show that and it goes back, I don't know, maybe

[2:43:37] probably like the full 10 years where we think, hey, you know, we think this was about 3 million

[2:43:43] and, you know, foundation was created, said, hey, all right, you know, I don't think they stopped

[2:43:50] at the 1.5, I think it was just the hey, we hit the 1.5, you know, you add hillside gateway in,

[2:43:57] that increased costs, you know, as Deputy Director Heinz mentioned,

[2:44:02] you know, increasing the size of some of the structural elements

[2:44:05] that increased costs, costs are always getting increased.

[2:44:08] That's, you know, that's not anybody's fault.

[2:44:11] That's just kind of the way it has been going.

[2:44:15] But, you know, I think the informal original thought was kind of like a 50-50 deal,

[2:44:22] but you're not going to find that in writing anywhere.

[2:44:25] I don't know was that consistent.

[2:44:29] Mr. Kennedy?

[2:44:33] Yes.

[2:44:34] Thank you.

[2:44:35] Yeah.

[2:44:35] I'd say that was the intention.

[2:44:38] And so now we are a fundraising group within the Neighborville River Walk Foundation.

[2:44:44] And we have been actively working.

[2:44:47] If you look back at the projects that have been accomplished through the Master Plan,

[2:44:52] I think we're at this point over 50% as they've kind of all.

[2:44:58] come through different.

[2:45:02] Entities, repfosters, representative fosters, grant and some of the other projects along the river bank ecological restoration projects that have been funded with other people's money.

[2:45:16] So we've worked hard at that and we'll continue to work at our fundraising.

[2:45:20] There are still opportunities for different naming rights in those types of things, even during construction and even

[2:45:29] as the project moves forward, and in fact, we believe with support and with approval and with momentum for the project moving forward that will kind of put some wind in our sales as a fundraising group as well.

[2:45:44] So right now we're at the two donations, the 700 and the 800, the grant from the state and the 700 donation from

[2:45:51] Yeah, that's basically the extent of all private donations at this point for this project.

[2:45:58] For this specific project, that's correct.

[2:45:59] And I will, in 2023, in the look ahead CIP budget, and based on our consultants, the budget for the project was $3 million.

[2:46:09] And so that's kind of the basis for how we raise the $1.5 million.

[2:46:14] And again, I think maybe the project needs a little bit momentum to support further fundraising around it as well.

[2:46:23] Director Heinz, when it comes to the six point eight, number you've got in here, what do you have for padding there?

[2:46:34] I mean, we haven't had a Riverwalk project in the last three and a half years.

[2:46:37] I've been on the council that's hit budget.

[2:46:40] They've always gone over.

[2:46:41] The last one we had was over seven digits in change orders.

[2:46:45] So is it six point eight or is it nine point eight?

[2:46:53] I think, you know, it's 6.8 is a reasonable number, I mean, we won't know what the market conditions are at that exact time.

[2:47:02] But I will say, you know, going back in time a little bit, you know, we've had three major projects over the last few years.

[2:47:08] The Eagle Street Gateway, which we only had two bidders, and that did commence significantly over budget.

[2:47:15] The North Central College Park, we had better luck, so we did get five bidders, and actually

[2:47:20] the low bid was pretty significantly underneath the engineer's estimate, so that's good news,

[2:47:30] but we'll have to see how the South Extension goes.

[2:47:32] It's a bigger project, so I'm not sure if it's going to generate the same number of bidders,

[2:47:37] but hopefully it will, and I think the 6.8 million is a reasonable number at this point.

[2:47:44] And is there funding established in this number for the continued care and feeding of the new addition to the river walk?

[2:47:52] What would that look like on an annual basis, do you know?

[2:47:55] We do have an estimate for that number.

[2:48:00] It's not, you know, that's an operating budget, not the capital budget.

[2:48:04] So I don't know the number off the top,

[2:48:11] Matt.

[2:48:11] With regard to the downtown parking garage project, I think Councilman Miproom brought up a very good point.

[2:48:24] Ms. Conners stated very early on the record 60% of the visitors the downtown for shopping and dining are estimated to be from out of town visitors.

[2:48:35] And I'm not aware of any of our data capture through the National Community Survey plan that was only mailed to Naperville Residence.

[2:48:45] Select number.

[2:48:46] And then this new opt-in plan survey.

[2:48:51] Theoretically, somebody doesn't have to live in Naperville to fill that out.

[2:48:55] But if they have to have the initiative to fill it out of that, be accurate.

[2:48:58] Ms. Lodge?

[2:49:03] On the community survey, I'm looking over it.

[2:49:06] I'm talking about the special parking survey that was, it's currently in progress.

[2:49:10] National Community Survey was absolutely an April of residence only and only a portion of them.

[2:49:14] Yeah, thank you for the clarification.

[2:49:16] So, yeah, that was available to any downtown patron, as well as it was promoted to retailers and employees of the, of the retailers in the downtown as well.

[2:49:26] So, that was, we, we had QR codes available, broadcast all over the downtown during that time frame where we were doing those parking counts.

[2:49:33] So that was open to any downtown visitor at that time, as well as promoted through our

[2:49:37] typical channels.

[2:49:38] So not at all limited to just a city of Naperville residents.

[2:49:45] Okay.

[2:49:45] In my understanding, in different presentations, I've seen is that we are well below the

[2:49:50] parking ratios for a number one, a downtown with the number of stores and square footage

[2:49:57] dedicated to retail and restaurant.

[2:50:01] As compared to other cities and our true competition, is that still accurate?

[2:50:13] Yeah, I would say that is that is accurate. I know that is what, you know, the data that was prepared by DNA and DAX showed, you know, they were using some benchmarks.

[2:50:24] historically, the city has used its own downtown parking

[2:50:28] generation rate, which is very close to what they were using.

[2:50:33] So the last time we did the full report, we did provide an estimate of

[2:50:38] 2.0 to 2.5 spaces per thousand square feet, and that excludes any

[2:50:42] residential development.

[2:50:43] So we were using a similar ratio at that point, which did show that

[2:50:47] based on the amount of commercial square footage that there was a

[2:50:51] need from additional parking spaces.

[2:50:55] OK.

[2:50:56] And when it comes to the streetscape improvement plan,

[2:50:59] how many spaces are we taking offline during that project?

[2:51:07] For the Jefferson and Main Street streetscape

[2:51:10] it was total of 36 on street spaces.

[2:51:13] That will be gone through the duration of the project

[2:51:17] or when the project is over.

[2:51:19] That those would be unavailable while the project is underway. I mean, depending on staging, we might not have to take all of those out at one time, but the maximum during construction would be 36.

[2:51:30] Okay, and Mr. Hines, do we know how many would be out of service at City Hall or one of you? Mr. Randolph?

[2:51:43] Yeah, the project is split over two years. It would be one half at a time.

[2:51:48] So one half one year and one half the other.

[2:51:50] What does that equate to, approximately?

[2:51:53] It's half a 370, about 170.

[2:51:59] I'm learning from Director Loudon.

[2:52:01] So theoretically, we're taking 200 spaces offline at the same time.

[2:52:06] Yes.

[2:52:08] Without any sort of replacement for those spaces, correct?

[2:52:13] So, you can kind of see where I'm going with this as far as the concerns.

[2:52:20] One way or the other, we're going to have parking challenges with that project.

[2:52:24] We're going to have parking challenges if we decide to build a parking garage.

[2:52:29] But I think there's something more and beyond that.

[2:52:32] And that is by the end of this year, we're estimated to have about 16 million dollars in a downtown parking fund

[2:52:38] that was dedicated for more parking.

[2:52:40] And, if we're not going to build that more parking, why are we collecting $16 million in special

[2:52:49] tax revenues from food and beverage in the downtown specifically for the downtown parking

[2:52:58] fund, if we're not going to ever build the facility.

[2:53:03] I mean, we should be getting rid of that tax or given the money back if we're never going

[2:53:11] to build a facility that we promised or that was in the cards long ago.

[2:53:15] So I've got some great concerns about what we're doing there.

[2:53:19] And quite frankly, I mean, the last piece of my concern would be the downtown parking fund

[2:53:27] being used for maintenance on the municipal parking garage deck.

[2:53:31] I mean, we just heard, it mentioned that city employees use that, the nickels library

[2:53:39] employees use that, and neighbor settlement employees, and neighbor settlement uses it.

[2:53:44] And not one of those groups pays into that downtown parking fund.

[2:53:52] So to suggest that we're going to use half of the, half of the funding for repairs in the

[2:53:58] of municipal center parking garage and tap the downtown parking fund for it.

[2:54:04] I just don't think it's the appropriate use of those funds as this was pitched to the

[2:54:11] retailers and the restaurant owners who made the investment in our downtown many years ago

[2:54:17] under the guys they would be collecting these taxes, they would be increasing their prices to

[2:54:23] to have parking for their customers.

[2:54:27] So I think it's just not an appropriate budget allocation.

[2:54:34] Thank you.

[2:54:35] Councilman, how's it?

[2:54:35] Do you got a follow-up?

[2:54:36] Thank you, Mayor, just had a couple of follow-up questions

[2:54:38] for Mr. Kennedy.

[2:54:41] He looks excited.

[2:54:45] I think he said it earlier, Mr. Kennedy,

[2:54:47] but just wanted to verify.

[2:54:50] Had this project been approved in the, I'm sorry,

[2:54:53] If it had been, yeah, approved in the CIP and the original year it was proposed, not delayed.

[2:55:00] Half funding for the path was covered by private donors, correct?

[2:55:04] I'm sorry, I missed the, okay, sorry, if this had been approved in the year that it was first proposed.

[2:55:11] You had half, 1.5 million dollars was half of the net in cost.

[2:55:16] Correct.

[2:55:17] We've had an inflation in the cost of materials and construction.

[2:55:21] And now the whole site gateways been added in, but that's tossed that out.

[2:55:25] But the actual cost of the path, the issue we now have is a inflation in the cost of goods and construction correct, or that's a major issue.

[2:55:36] Is it fair to say it's a hard sell to go back to the donors and say we now want to maintain one-half private donations on a reason for that is that we delayed the project for three years.

[2:55:48] And we want you to cover the inflation for us.

[2:55:51] Is that fair to say that's a hard ask?

[2:55:53] Yeah, I can't speak for the leadership at the hospital.

[2:55:58] I know they were disappointed when it was deferred to this point, and they expressed that, but I can't speak to them.

[2:56:08] Being the person who's gone back to them each time and sat down and talked to them after each deferral.

[2:56:14] Yeah, those are uncomfortable conversations, so I wouldn't look forward to that.

[2:56:17] Okay, and then just as a, you know, following up on Councilman Brune's point, he talked about the $1 million being, or sorry, the cost being 1 million more than anticipated.

[2:56:29] I just wanted to make sure that it's clear on the record that that means 6.8 million is 1 million more than we had hoped we had hoped for more like 5.8 million.

[2:56:37] We're using last year's numbers, but yeah, I just just want to make sure let's clear

[2:56:41] us now we're talking about 7.8 million or something like that.

[2:56:47] And then final question is fair to say that in other Riverwalk extension projects or expansion

[2:56:54] projects, when naming rights have been sold to pavilion or squares or things like that,

[2:57:00] Those have generally raised six figure sums, which is donated back to the City for River

[2:57:07] Lock Maintenance Correct, or I'm sorry, is donated back for River Lock Maintenance

[2:57:10] Correct?

[2:57:12] Yeah, any fundraising we do would, the sole purpose of our fundraising committee is for

[2:57:17] Master Plan projects, and this is our focus and our primary objective right now, so

[2:57:23] anything we raised now or even over the next couple of years would go to the city to support

[2:57:29] This project. Yeah, and the final question is just to verify there were $3.5 million dollars of other

[2:57:36] World War war war projects that that the commission shows to defer into the future to prioritize this one correct not only to

[2:57:44] Fur but to look at the extent of those projects as they sit today the scope of those projects and even

[2:57:52] To scope of those projects in other words other projects for cut that's right for this. Okay. Thank you, Mayor

[2:57:59] How's it been Kelly?

[2:58:00] Thank you Mayor.

[2:58:01] A couple of follow-ups on the funding allocation that hasn't gotten a whole lot of discussion but one thing I will agree with you on what I might disagree and then a question for staff.

[2:58:12] For the funding split on the municipal deck I will say I wasn't sure what staff was going to propose there for my perspective when I saw 50 50 I thought that made sense actually because granted it's used by city and settlement employees during the day.

[2:58:26] But then it's of course also used on the top deck during the day for residents, but for shoppers and diners at nights and on the weekends and I'll say that's it's one reason that I don't personally see the nickels deck being

[2:58:40] a necessity because I can always find a spot. I'll say in the municipal deck to me, that's one of the one of the

[2:58:47] It's not a secret, but just a lot of people don't use it, but it's right at water street and right across the river from from the rest of downtown.

[2:58:54] So, that makes sense to me, I will say on the food and beverage tax for the downtown parking

[2:59:02] fund.

[2:59:04] I'll agree with the mayor.

[2:59:04] I think we should only be collecting what we actually need.

[2:59:07] If we are going to do the nickels deck, then we'll need a lot.

[2:59:10] Obviously, if we don't, I would be curious from staff if you could get some information

[2:59:15] for regarding what big ticket items we're going to have over the next many years.

[2:59:20] I know the central parking facility is talked about having to be redone at some point in

[2:59:25] what the potential just very ballpark costs on that might be what that eat up the entirety

[2:59:30] of the fund plus a million per year for the next many years.

[2:59:35] In any case at some point, whenever we've built out the parking that we're going to need, whether

[2:59:40] that's redoing central and or nickels potentially at some point I think it would make sense

[2:59:45] move into a maintenance phase, and maybe we reduce or eliminate that tax.

[2:59:50] The question for staff, I guess, is if you can explain for us how you came to that 5050 proposal

[2:59:55] for the municipal deck?

[2:59:58] Thank you for that clarification.

[3:00:00] You know, it's certainly not a black and it's not a white. For, you know, the city obviously does use that for city business. Should the downtown parking fund be used to assist us in funding city business, absolutely not?

[3:00:19] You know, our thought and Ted has been tasked with this is try to evaluate, you know, kind

[3:00:26] of the percentage usage, you know, and I don't know if it's that because it's used by

[3:00:32] both.

[3:00:33] So, you know, the low it would be zero if it were 100% used by non-sitting non-settlement,

[3:00:41] non-library people, it would be two thirds.

[3:00:45] It's going to be somewhere in between.

[3:00:47] Ted is going to come up with an estimate of use to say,

[3:00:50] you know, hey, on average, it's,

[3:00:53] I'll pick something to make the math easy.

[3:00:55] Say it's 40% used by downtown patrons, 60% used by the city.

[3:01:03] You say, okay, we have the 60%.

[3:01:06] That piece is going to be paid for entirely by the city.

[3:01:10] the remaining 40 percent, two-thirds of that would be paid for by the downtown parking fund,

[3:01:18] and then the remainder would be paid for by the city.

[3:01:21] That is what kind of got us near the 50-50, so it was a little more thought-pop behind it.

[3:01:26] It wasn't just split the difference.

[3:01:29] That is why we don't have kind of an exact percentage because we're still trying to calculate

[3:01:34] the best percentage of use of those spaces.

[3:01:38] And it will receive that you estimate from staff before making final decisions on this.

[3:01:43] Yes.

[3:01:44] All right.

[3:01:44] Thank you.

[3:01:48] It's all the questions.

[3:01:51] That's not all the presentation, though.

[3:01:54] I think Deputy Director Morocco has the next section.

[3:01:58] Just a few more on how we fund capital projects.

[3:02:03] First up, we have the Home Roastail Tax.

[3:02:05] This is a single largest revenue source dedicated to funding capital improvements.

[3:02:09] It was implemented in 2016 as a conscious decision to create a consistent funding source

[3:02:14] to support ongoing capital investment.

[3:02:17] In turn, this allows a city to responsibly manage debt because of that consistent funding source.

[3:02:22] To date, over $13 million in home real sales tax funds have been collected.

[3:02:28] The current tax rate of three quarters of 1% remains the lowest home real sales tax rate of surrounding communities.

[3:02:35] Sorry, I'm just going to add. Home real sales tax, however, does not apply to big ticket

[3:02:40] or essential items like title vehicles, qualifying groceries or medical health care items.

[3:02:45] You will notice that Home real sales tax revenues projected to increase by 3% from 2026 to 2027.

[3:02:54] This increases primarily due to sustained consumer spending and the ongoing impact of inflation.

[3:02:59] Additionally, many municipalities, including Naperville, are benefiting from expanded online sales

[3:03:05] tax collections as consumers continue to spend more online.

[3:03:10] The 2027 budget estimate is $24.8 million up from $24.1 million projected for 2026.

[3:03:20] Well, all right, motorfield tax, motor fuel and local gas taxes are used to fund the city's

[3:03:25] street maintenance program, which includes resurfacing and reconstruction, the motorfield

[3:03:31] tax or MFT is further made up of state MFT and the Transportation Renewal Fund or TRF.

[3:03:38] MFT is a fixed, great per gallon while TRF is adjusted annually based on the consumer price index.

[3:03:44] For 2027, MFT is forecasted at $7.6 million, which is a 4.8% increase from 26.

[3:03:52] The increase is driven by TRF, since motor fuel taxes projected to decline slightly.

[3:03:57] The state is still evaluating how MFT structure may need to evolve in the future, particularly

[3:04:03] as vehicle technology and fuel consumption patterns change.

[3:04:09] For now, staff is taking the wait and see approach at the local level as the state considers

[3:04:13] its options.

[3:04:14] Once the state's direction becomes clear, staff can evaluate whether a similar approach would

[3:04:19] be appropriate or workable at the local level.

[3:04:21] A pervils local gas tax is a flat four cents per gallon.

[3:04:26] Revenors here have remained consistent with past years at around 2.4 million, but

[3:04:31] have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels of 2.7 million.

[3:04:35] More fuel tax revenues will continue to be a closely monitored due to the current

[3:04:39] uneasy oil market and forecasted decline in consumption.

[3:04:45] Next we have the downtown food and beverage tax.

[3:04:47] Business is located downtown.

[3:04:49] Collector remit the additional 3.4% on food and beverage sales in addition to the Citywide

[3:04:55] Tax.

[3:04:56] The downtown food and beverage taxes fully dedicated to the downtown parking.

[3:05:00] Fund to support construction maintenance and improvement of downtown parking facilities. As a chart illustrates, collections have rebounded since 2021 and have been at at approximately one million dollars.

[3:05:11] For 2027, staff is projecting a slight decline of approximately 2% or 20,000 dollars. This projection is based on current collection trends and does not reflect any potential impact from a recent repeal of the happy hour ban.

[3:05:24] Staff will continue to monitor collections and if current trends improve, we will re-evaluate our preliminary estimates.

[3:05:34] All right, last we have capital support. This is another way capital is funded through the issuance of bonds.

[3:05:40] Neighborville is considered a low-deopard and community by our bond rating agencies.

[3:05:44] Our conservative practices on debt issuance is helped maintain this low-deoparden.

[3:05:49] In addition, debt is carefully planned and issued on a reimbursement basis to avoid unnecessary borrowing.

[3:05:55] The result is our prestigious AAA moderating for 30 years.

[3:05:59] The 2027 CIP assumes a planned-ed issuance of nearly $50 million in new utility debt.

[3:06:07] This includes $10 million for the electric utility and $40 million in the water utility.

[3:06:13] It's very important to note that utility debt in the water and electric funds is separate from the general fund.

[3:06:18] As a result of this, the debt that utilities would be taking on has no impact to the property tax levy.

[3:06:25] The 2027 budget includes no new bond issuance for capital outside of the utilities.

[3:06:30] Over the past five years, $15 million has been issued for general capital projects.

[3:06:36] This was included in the 2025 Geobons, along with $30 million for the utilities.

[3:06:41] With that, I'll turn it over to Doug for closing remarks.

[3:06:48] All right.

[3:06:48] Thanks Tracy.

[3:06:49] So what comes next?

[3:06:50] As we talked about previously, we're currently finalizing the proposed budget, which

[3:06:55] will be published on October 9th. We'll include all of the detail. This is a closest we come

[3:07:01] to publishing a phone book here at the city. Our second workshop, scheduled for October 27th,

[3:07:07] is going to cover our operating budget and major funds. And then if needed, third and final budget

[3:07:13] workshop would take place on November 10th, public hearing and approval of the 2027 budget and

[3:07:25] This concludes staff presentation for the evening mayor and we're happy to answer any other additional questions.

[3:07:32] Councillor White.

[3:07:33] Thank you.

[3:07:34] Just a quick question.

[3:07:35] You mentioned a motor fuel tax.

[3:07:37] I've been asking this when he probably knew it was coming.

[3:07:40] What we're doing with the electric vehicle registration, getting some net funding to come back to the city.

[3:07:49] As we mentioned, we're kind of taking away and see a approach.

[3:07:51] I think there was some proposed legislation from the state on additional surcharge for electric

[3:07:58] vehicles, but I think that's still going through the process, so until we kind of see some

[3:08:03] activity at the state.

[3:08:04] I don't think we're ready to take any action at the local level just yet.

[3:08:08] Yes.

[3:08:09] In the whole point, being there charging this forward when we register a car, but we're not getting

[3:08:13] any of that back to the city like we would be if we were actually spending gas money on gasoline

[3:08:18] and we get, we get that money back and it seems like I don't know how many years have brought this up and it's still seen the action on it.

[3:08:29] We continue to track it with the legislation. Other states have done it and they've done it successfully.

[3:08:36] I think it's more important for us here in Naperville because we have such a much higher adoption of electric vehicles.

[3:08:44] So, you know, we've got more cars, and you do mention electric vehicles do pay more to the state for the registration.

[3:08:55] However, the state shares zero of that with us as opposed to somebody buying gas at a gas station where we do get the share.

[3:09:02] But yet, no, we are continuing to track.

[3:09:05] Okay. Thank you.

[3:09:07] comes with my holes. Thank you, Mayor. I was curious why grocery tax revenue wasn't listed as a

[3:09:15] a revenue source on here or dime is it? grocery taxes in the general fund. Okay. Which we cover

[3:09:22] at the last two workshops. Okay. It's operating. Got it. Thank you. And then just final thing I wanted to

[3:09:28] clarify. I thought I heard that you said it direct Morocco. But there are no bonds being issued

[3:09:37] for anything outside of utilities this year.

[3:09:39] No plan, nothing planned.

[3:09:40] Okay, so in other words, balance budget for the CIP stuff outside of utilities.

[3:09:46] We do, you know, as I mentioned, the cash balance summary, you know, that's where we

[3:09:52] would be transparent on any kind of planned spend downs and reserves for funds in prior years.

[3:10:00] We have had that, but nothing at the moment planned to, for general debt outside of the utilities.

[3:10:07] Awesome job, then. Thank you, Mayor.

[3:10:10] All right. Well, folks, thank you very much for all your work on this tonight.

[3:10:16] Our workshop is now concluded, and we will wish everybody a good night.

City Council on 2026-09-21 6:00 PM - Budget Workshop I

Agenda

Transcript