>>> >>president scaman: welcome. It is 7:01 pm.
I call this regular meeting of the village board to order. Clerk waters, please take the
role. >>clerk waters: trustee eder, here, trustee enyia, here,
trustee leving-jacobson, here, trustee straw, here, trustee taglia, here, trustee wesley -
president scaman. >>president scaman: here. We do have quorum present.
entertain a motion to approve the agenda as has been presented.
>>speaker: moved. >>speaker: second. >>president scaman: motion by
trustee eder and second by trustee straw. All in favor?
(multiple speakers) aye. Ms.
>>president scaman: okay, moving forward to non-agenda public comment this evening.
hello, please - and if you will bear with me for just oe second - do we have loretta
ragsdale here? Jane miller? Rosario?
please, would you join us? Right up here at the microphone and you have three minutes,
sir. Thank you for joining us. >>speaker: I have been a
resident of oak park for 63 years. I live in a building that I was
born in. And my parents - in the last year or two I have had a
considerable problem with parking in my driveway. Parkway driveways are 11 and a
there is not a car that is produced today that are shorter than 11 and a half feet long.
I've got probably 50 or 60 tickets in my driveway for parking over the curb line and
parking over the sidewalk line. When I did a (name) of the village I am the only person
last time I received tickets he they were on the driveway and I have a vehicle which I
explained to parking enforcement will not pass eissions and I have a covered
and they continue to give me tickets and I cannot move you and I cannot pass emissions.
I get tickets for having plates and not having plates on the vehicle.
a girl driving excessively slammed into the cars on my parkway both of which were
total. The village was out there an hour and and a half later for
my tickets being stuck in the street and being in the street. I argued about those and
received those tickets. Every morning I walk my dog. Here's a car less than a block
away completely parking on the sidewalk. Here's another one on the
sidewalk ad here's another one - and I have gotten for having for more than the vehicle than
that on the sidewalk. Here's another one. Here's another one.
completely blocking the sidewalk. This is the way that I parked
there I a mailbox at the y. Corner and I always shovel during wintertime and there is
more than enough path for people to go on the driveway, this was my suburban that was
total that I got tickets for having plates on it and then not having plates on it and
having expired plates and this was pushed out industry and an hour and and a half later there
were four officers that gave me nine tickets and three for this one, two or three or four for
another vehicle that was in my driveway. There is plenty of space to
walk on and it is not an issue. I have to have three more tickets now - these are also
pictures that I have taken a vehicles in the street. None of them get tickets.
I seem to be singled out. I have kind of had enough of it.
licensed attorney and I will have to proceed to court if I cannot get this issue resolved.
I've heard all types of different stories from parking enforcement about how if it
sticks over the street they have the right to do it - every car sticks over the street that
is parked in the driveway. They are just simply too short for a modern vehicle.
some part of a vehicle will be either sticking over on a sidewalk or over the curb.
and I think they really need to review this law or these ordinances, because it is
expensive and you cannot comply - if you prking a driveway perpendicular or horizontal,
your vehicle is going to stick out onto the sidewalk or onto the street and I don't know why
I'm being singled out, but there is a lot of other people that are not getting tickets
and blocking substantially more of the sidewalk or way further in the street than I.
>>president scaman: thank you for sharing. I do have your contact
information. So, I'll share that with staff contact. Ask for additional
thank you for being here. Melanie. >>melanie: hello, I am melanie
weiss and I live at 215 clinton avenue in oak park. I am here, because I feel like
it is my responsibility to keep this and the board and the village 's year which is that I
know that we did get rid of the flock camera system and I believe it was december 2025, I
could be wrong. But, there was an incident in front of my house where the
person who did battery to a ups driver making a delivery to my home and also was spending the
whole day waiting in front of my house for a delivery that he was trying to steal from my
house that the ups driver was incredible and he yelled out the license plate of this man
who was trying to mace him and hurt him to steal this package in front of my house and this
happened on december 18, 2024 and I happen to be like looking outside my window washing this
whole thing happened which was crazy. And the ups driver had the
foresight to call in the license plate right away and this person was caught driving
away in the village ad he had a long rap sheet and I had a hard time - I had fraud in my
account from him and he stole my credit card information and it was a lot of problems that I
had and I am just explaining to you one situation that was resolved very quickly and
successfully because of flock and I understand that there are problems, but I would hope that
with the way things are much more sophisticated now both with criminals and technology
that there is another way that the village cn look at having some type of license plate
reader or some type of technology to support the police, because I'm just
telling you one story, but for me it was a really big deal. And it was really important and
this person needed to be caught and he was only caught because of the flock camera system.
and I hope that the village does put that seriously on their priority list to look at
other ways that they can support the police and give them license plate reader
technology and other technologies to help, because this person was very scary and
dangerous in our village. And was only caught because of flock.
thank you. >>president scaman: thank you. All right.
maybe I don't even need that - okay, so - (name)? No?
okay. We do have a copy of her public comment for the record that I
can share with staff. Special education transit contractors repeatedly failed
t provide federally mndated bus aids for my son who has autism and seizure disorders.
I will share this along with the parking public comment. Is there anyone else here for
non-agenda public comment this evening? Frank and then frank and I
don't know who would like to go first. >>speaker: (away from mic).
>>frank: my name is frank v. You guys know me well because I am always here - I am always
here giving my position on single-family, the elimination of single-family zoning.
but, tonight want to talk about something else that is very important to me.
before I start, though, I would like us to remember that we lost to great american today.
someone who many people thought was a hick and a right-wing and was a hoagie and that person
would be dolly parton. Mrs. Parton gave many hours and many millions of dollars to
support progressive causes to include the fight against covid and for the vaccine.
as a musician, I feel great sadness, because I did not always like music, but she was
a great musician and a great american. To you about my concern about
what is happening with policing in oak park. By the way, I am pro police.
if you ever see me by a police car it is because I'm walking up and saying thank you to that
officer for what they do. If it were not for them, I don't believe that I would live
here. My neighborhood would be dangerous without the police.
despite their best efforts, I have had a break-in where I a second break-in where I had ,
home damage, but luckily the guy was scared of my dog so he did not take anything and I had
my garage broken into, lost two cars, bicycles and tools. But, still, the fact was that
the police were there and they helped us and as a matter of fact it was a police officer
that told me I had been broken into. Safety when I see those blue
and white cars. I appreciate them. The police department and even
when I get pulled over I appreciate them. Maybe - I am hispanic but also
an old guy - they think they should give me a break - but, every time that I have been
pulled over I have been wrong and every time I was wrongly pulled over I was educated.
and by the way, I am a better driver now. Now, this does not mean that I
do not have criticism of our police force. Force that respects the law and
are citizens and human rights. Wrong, we need to intervene,
because a law will not have respect if we do not have the log respecting us.
when I was a commissioner on the crc I brought up an issue where one of my fellow
commissioners had been harassed by oak park police and my chairman was too much of a suck
up, pardon my speech and after there was a death because of a really hard for us to hold
hearings and we were told that we could not because of the open meetings act law and
luckily the police and dan haley were able to do wat we could not.
>>president scaman: frank, we are at three minutes if you are able to come to a close.
>>frank: the thing I want to ask - one, why is it that police cars are not patrolling
anymore? I just see them sitting by the roads.
two, I have not seen anything in the local papers about something that scared the crap
out of me. On a saturday night, sunday morning there were at least 100
kids running down my block. I read in the paper what happened where there was a
problem in chicago and they moved here and they took over the shell station and luckily
the state police, forest park moved them out and then chicago and nine suburbs including our
own got these people out of my neighborhood. I was in my house afraid.
I cannot leave my own house. If we talk about getting rid of police or cutting back police
or not getting respectable police, those of us who are in an area with a potential for
high crime - who was going to protect us? I do not own a weapon.
>>president scaman: I will keep yours with everyone else's so that I can share your contact
information with frank. Thank you again for joining us. And the other frank.
and then mr. Donovan. >>frank: frank s. The scottish poet robert burns left two
lines to us that have stuck with me since high school and they go like this - without god
the gifted deist to see ourselves as others see us? And I'm here tonight to give
you a gift that god did not. I have three things I want to say.
first is to those board members who others see as bound and determined to put through the
proposals for the zoning changes. I would like to concentrate on
a remark that ever used several times. And that is that we have been
working on this for years. Something that is probably different than what it was
intended to, because I think it ties into something that I find to be a common and if not
universal human trait. And that is that the longer that we are set in the past
that we have chosen to walk down, the harder it is to step back and re-examine our
thinking. Where we correct? It through?
reason for doubt? Particularly we are good people of will approaching problems
with conviction, ideological, moral, well-intentioned, noble and desirable goals.
inertia can in my opinion make people blind to plain facts and in this case I would say clear
economic loss and render an inability to reconsider evidence and new reasoning.
and just mind you, potentially to the fact that this whole idea just will not work for the
goals at wich it was intended and has the potential to make things worse.
I hope I am wrong. I hope that you are not in the tunnel or that you have come
out or will come out, but that is how I feel that a great many people see.
the second thing was for trustee wesley, but since he is not here, I can shorten this.
the third thing is to trustee taglia - to those of us who see you as a hero and a model of
prudence, caution, sound analysis and based on sound economics, I wish that I were
able to bring in mail sacks full of mail and dumped them on the floor like in the miracle
on 34th street with the letters that prove chris crinkle is santa claus.
and not like the letters dumped in the well of the senate in mr. Smith goes to washington,
because those were all written up by the opposition and if you want to know how that ended,
you will have to watch the movie again. But, to me - the fact is that
we truly - I hope others will join you. And with that I will be abroad
for a while and so no one will be able to tell me what I look like to others which I am not
entirely sure I want to know, but I will be back. >>president scaman: thank you.
mr. Donovan? >>speaker: hello, my name is chris donovan, 373 s. Elmwood,
ridgeland and van buren and it has been great progress for safety reasons and instead of
having those we trust you signs that have you stop and intersection there putting up
those lights making it easier and safer for people and myself and especially schoolchildren
school.ack and forth longfellow so, that is great. However yesterday I was coming
up ridgeland avenue coming north and I found about both directions they put in
something where there can be no left turns off of ridgeland onto van buren which I think
may have been a little bit of an overkill, but more than that if it is driving people down to
the lights to make a left turn at either harrison or at jackson - traffic congestion at
those intersections trying to make a left-hand turn is really difficult.
look like at this time temporary diversions are going to be permanent, can there be a
left-hand turn signal install both at jackson and at harrison to make a left turn their
easier and safer. You for your time and look forward to hearing your
consideration. >>president scaman: thank you. Any other non-agenda public
comment today? Please. Thank you.
>>speaker: hello, joseph b, oak park resident for the last seven years and I did not
prepare anything today and I have not for the last two times to speak about the same issue
which is zoning and I am here on the record that I would like the board to slow down and
think about what the ramifications of and would be of this change.
I know now that we have six information sessions crammed into roughly 30 or so days
before there is maybe sme more public comment followed by a decision in october which is
less than two months away. I would encourage the board to look for other solutions to
this issue. I think a lot of them have been raised at the last few meetings
that I have attended and I would love to see some of those ideas be thought of as
alternatives to a wide sweeping change that I think the community is largely against
and I think you know we are going to find out the reaction if this passes and I hope the
board will take everyone 's comments under advisement and I hope that the board will attend
these six information sessions and really listen to what people have to say and I think
the gentleman appear before about not having television on this is going to be what is
best for the community. Thank you. >>president scaman: thank you.
any other non-agenda public comment? All right, excellent.
thank you for joining us again. Proclamation or women's
equality annually on the 26th of august. Entertain a motion, please.
>>speaker: moved. >>speaker: second. >>president scaman: motion by
trustee leving-jacobson and second by trustee straw and typically I do spread this out
amongst the women on the board and so my apologies, but I will share it and appreciate all of
the women leaders in our community, particularly those in service.
equality day, observed annually on august 26, commemorates the certification of the
nineteenth amendment to the united states constitution, a landmark
achievement that affirmed women's legal right to vote and transformed the american
electorate; and whereas, this day honors the courageous women-organizers,
trailblazers, and everyday citizens-who, despite exclusion and injustice, stood
up and spoke out to claim their place in democracy. We also recognize that for many women,
especially women of color, indigenous women, and immigrant women, full access to the vote
and equal participation in civic life came only after generations of continued
whereas, while some women gained the right to vote in 1920, native american women
were not recognized as citizens until 1924, chinese american women until 1943, japanese and
other asian american women until 1952, and black women faced ongoing suppression until
the passage of the voting rights act in 1965. These milestones
reflect both the resilience of women and the persistent need to
defend equity in every generation; and whereas, women's equality day
challenges us to reflect not only on the victories of the past but also on the
pressing work ahead - to ensure that all women, including transgender
and women of all races, lities, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, are fully included
in our civic, social, and economic life; and whereas, we further recognize
and thank the women in public service roles - elected officials, municipal leaders,
and government staff - whose leadership, vision, and dedication
shape policy, advocate for justice, and ensure inclusive governance at all levels; and
whereas, oak park's history of progress and commitment to equity is strengthened
every day by women who organize, speak up, run for office, lunch businesses, lead
families, and reimagine the future. We reaffirm our belief that every
girl and woman deserves the opportunity to thrive, lead, and live free from
discrimination or limitation now therefore, I, vicki scaman, president of the village of oak
park and board of hereby proclaim august 26, 2026, as women's equality day
in the village of oak park. We invite all residents to reflect on the sacrifices
made by those who came before us, celebrate the women leading in
our community today, and recommit t a future where equality
is not just a value, but a lived reality - for all women. Thank you.
all in favor? (multiple speakers)
aye. >>president scaman: wonderful. Thank you.
and we will move to the village manager report. I do think that I have some
public comment here, as well. Public comment first? >>manager jackson: yes, sure.
>>president scaman: very good. Mary reynolds. >>manager jackson: I will go
ahead and introduce it and then to the public comment. So, we have mary reynolds,
director from the early childhood collaboration doing a presentation on our updated iga
agreement between the village of oak park and district 297. The board of the early
collaboration for childhood consists of representatives of each of the jurisdictions and
representing the village of oak park is president scaman, trustee and myself and there
was a working group that was formed and over the last year that will be sort of looking at
the outcome that is presented tonight with this updated iga. And I think that will pause
right there and do public comment and then we will invite mary up to the podium to
provide an overview of the iga and also by the way the iga, the updated iga appears on the
consent agenda as item I. >>president scaman: ecellent. I have doctor catherine eason.
everyone. I am doctor kaplan -- catherine eason.
thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the iga and I hail from chicago on the
south side and if we had anything similar to what the village has here in oak park,
we would be a phenomenal city, right? The collaboration has been a
great part in my trajectory and I cannot imagine along with your help to continue the
longevity and the services that we offer here in oak park is a privilege to be here to speak
to you and also on behalf and collaboration of work. The support is definitely
needed. Early childhood education is the foundation of everything
that we hold dear. If we do not support those efforts, I don't know where our
children would be and that is why I am happy to speak and ask that you cntinue to support
the collaboration and mary reynolds and what it is that they do for the village of oak
park and the families of the oak park area. I want to say thank you also
for the emergency loan that you provided for the nursery, it has put us in a positive spot
and in a great position to partner with the organization that may be able to offer more
services. So, again I ask again that you continue to support the
collaboration of oak park and early childhood education. Thank you.
>>president scaman: thank you. And mr. Donovan, are you speaking on this one or later
that consent? The early childhood collaboration - no?
okay. (name)? I have been in oak park
resident for four years when my husband and I moved here I was a new mom arriving in a city
where I knew no one and was hours away from my village. When I found the collaboration
it was such a lifeline and my four month old signed up for the partnering and parents
program and was able to get the sound information and the support that I needed as a
first-time parent with a million questions and in every step of my mother journey so
far I have been able to find an advocate into collaboration ad attended programs, massage,
potty training, cpr, joined neighborhood play dates, completed developmental
screenings and even a parent leadership training that helped me to see that I have not lost
any of the dreams that I had before I became a parent. With every program I have
attended I have built the community I was missing. The collaboration helps me find
my footing as a parent and I'm asking the village to continue to invest in family and
community by investing in the work of the collaboration for early childhood.
glenn brewer? Good evening, my name is glenn, a member of the collaboration
for early childhood board of directors. I was on the village board in
2013 when we first signed the intergovernmental agreement that formalized the village 's
relationship with the collaboration and I supported it then because I believed
investing in young children was one of the smartest things a community could do.
the research has been clear for decades, public investment in early childhood returns between
four and nine dollars for every dollar spent through long-term and even multigenerational
impact. When children have access to high-quality early childhood
programming we see higher employment, lower incarceration rates and a stronger families
both now and when those children grew up and become parents themselves.
I stay convinced from a distance and I also joined the board of directors because the
collaboration has earned that involvement. It operates with transparency
and efficiency, execute with excellence and stays genuinely responsive to what children,
families and early childhood professionals in this community need.
I see this again and again at the board table. Oak park has long prided itself
on putting its values into practice and refreshing disagreement is one of those
moments. A positive impact and well-developed and
wll-documented and community tested and I urge your continued support.
okay, is there any other public comment on early childhood collaboration?
moses? Please do - >>moses: how is everyone?
good evening president scaman, village trustees - village manager jackson.
my name is moses valdes and I am a business owner in the hemingway district, president
of the hemingway district board and a lifelong oak park resident.
and I'm here tonight in support of the collaboration for early childhood.
I will be honest that I did not always think of early childhood as a business issue, but over
the years I have seen firsthand what happens when families with welcome in a neighborhood and
it has changed the way I think about community investment. The collaboration has been an
incredible partner and asset to the hemingway district from the recent construction block party
to the annual fall family fun fest, they bring hundreds of families into our neighborhood,
including the very youngest oak parkers and this translates into business and families who
feel connected and want to put down roots here like my family did in 1978.
the collaboration does not only bring families to the hemingway district, they draw all of the
big things in town like oktoberfest and the kids edition of thursday 's night
out. They do this really cute thing where they put crochet pigs and
the windows of stores and they make a treasure hunt for kids to find the pigs in the
windows. And they do this in different business districts which I have
seen in the arts district and pleasant district and downtown oak park and of course
hemingway district. The youngest kids at each of these events are tomorrow 's
neighbors, employees, customers, and maybe even future business owners in our
community. Supporting children, families, and the community that
surrounds them, the collaboration helps build the kind of place where people want
to be. And that is good for everyone, including those of us running
businesses in this community. Oak park has always understood that investing in people pays
off. And there is no finer example of this than our community 's
long-term ivestment in early childhood. I am asking the board to
continue to put your support for the collaboration for early childhood.
thank you. >>president scaman: thank you for joining us.
village manager jackson. >>manager jackson: thank you president scaman and as we
introduce mary I want to aknowledge the good work from our staff, jack malik and help
from kevin w and always grateful for the work that the collaboration is doing and a
product of the head start program myself and I am super excited about the work that we
continue to do in community. And I will turn it over to mary.
>>mary: mary reynolds, thank you so much for having me. Thank you - at the
collaboration for early childhood. I love any chance I get to talk
about the partnership between the collaboration in the village and so thank you for
having me for a few moments. Just to ground our conversation I am here to talk about - it is
a mouthful, the intergovernmental agreement pertaining to the purchase of
early childhood services. Between district 200, 97 and you all at the village of oak
park, that iga led your three parties to enter into the contract for early childhood
services with us at the collaboration. As you probably know that is a
really innovative approach and a very meaningful way for the village to reach out into the
community and shape the experiences of our very any chance I get I also like to
name early childhood education as essential community infrastructure.
the early care and education sector employs more than 600 people across oak park and
river forest and that enables workforce participation for parents and caregivers and that
allows children to have enriching learning experiences and when that sector is strong,
families stay put, businesses thrive and our community grows. And also a lovely moment to
pause and say thank you. The village is just an incredible partner -- this sets
them up for success as both students and as neighbors and helps us build a oak park where
people of all background can thrive. There you are.
the village board, you're all set really ambitious goals for the community and when I look
at those goals you know I am biased about this, but I see early childhood throughout.
community health and safety we know starts well before kindergarten.
we know that advantage and disadvantage accumulate over time and that the early years
are when we have a wonderful and amazing opportunity that can move us towards a more
racially equitable society. The vibrant connected neighborhoods that are a part
of your board goals happen when your family still rooted and supported and challenged with
access to affordable high-quality education are families that can afford to
stay in thrive here. We have the collaboration to work with our families and
especially those who start life furthest from opportunity so they have access to the kind of
experience is that set them up for success in direct service of your village goals.
now she cannot do two things - answer before I jump into the iga refresh, it is a good thing
to take a look at what our partnership looks like in practice peer over the years
we've had the chance to work alongside village staff and elected officials in so many
ways and some of the community events that you see here and on shared priorities and the
neighborhoods where families live and we are very proud of that relationship and grateful
for that relationship and excited to continue building on that.
and so as village manager jackson mentioned with the foundation in mind in the
spring of 2025 at a iga governing board meeting, all three parties agreed that it
was time to take a fresh look at the agreement which was originally signed in 2013.
there were some things in a document that were not working as well as they should and some
other good faith issues that had built up over time that needed to be addressed.
and so the parties formed a ad hoc working group and this slide captures how they framed
the purpose of that. There were also financial aspect of the agreement that
needed updating including that the funding had unintentionally leveled out and then been flat
since 2017. To add a little bit of further context, between 2017 when the
contract amount leveled and 2020, the collaboration actually still was not billing
to the full amount available to us. As I said, this is a pretty
innovative experience and a unique approach to early childhood work and work models
and other communities that we can look to to say what is the staffing structure look like?
how do you build up this kind of data infrastructure? We are functioning in many ways
as a start up and developing the staffing pattern and standing up the home visiting
and data partnership ad growing into the model. The first several years there
were lots of things to figure out which led to under billing and at those funds that were
under billed were put into a reserve account that you will hear a little bit more about in
a bit. By 2020 we were billing the full contract amount, but we
have been able to bridge the gap between what the contract covers and what the work
atually costs through arpa funds administered by you at the vllage of oak park and
those funds and december 31 of this year. So, the workgroup addressed
both the administrative pain points and the financial structure in their work
together over the last year. On the governance side they have recommended simple changes
that will make a practical difference and one is moving from a single tear into cochair
which allows for continuity and rotating the hosting responsibility every two years
instead of every year which again allows for some continuity.
the workgroup also updated language throughout the agreement to better reflect the
party 's deep agreement to equity, replacing deficit -based framing for children and
families and with language that is more accurate and aligned with shared values.
and the workgroup also made three significant financial recommendations and I will go
through each of those individually. So, the first is contribution
ratios or how the cost of the contract is divided across the three parties.
to make a fair comparison across the village budget and a school district budget, the
parties looked at each entity operating fund and for the village that is the general
fund and for the school district that is the education fund.
and then staff, including kevin b who is a joy to work with as person, I do not say that nce
lightly. Reviewed and compared looking at things like police and fire
pensions which schools do not have. And figuring out which costs to
back out of the total budget of each entity so that we were looking comparing like for like
in terms of the total budget and so that those budgets would be as comparable as possible.
and we call those what you see here as adjusted primary funds. You see the amount that those
primary funds were in 2012 and the adjusted primary funds and how the budgets have grown
since then, especially noting that the 97 has had operating referendum and the size of the
budget relative to one another have also shifted. And the way the workgroup
recommends the cost is distributed be shifted to match those new ratios of budget
comparisons. The scond financial component of this is looking at adjusting
the contract amount so that we do not find ourselves back here with a big gap to cover with
year-over-year flat which is better for everyone from a planning and balancing the many
priorities that you have perspective. Built into the agreement is a
formula which is very similar to how school districts budgets grow over time and it uses a 4%
cap instead of 5% as also a review so everyone has time to plan and balance the many
priorities that they have. And the third part of this is resetting the contribution
amounts. So, the original agreement with the primary adjusted - the
adjusted primary funds that we just looked at, the original agreement with the
collaboration was that each party was contributing .85% of that adjusted primary fund.
that began dropping as the party 's budgets grew and it is currently at about .53% of
those adjusted primary funds. So, the workgroup looked at one time reset to address this with
scenarios ranging from .75% back up to the .85% that was originally in the agreement and
they ultimately agreed on .8% based on analysis by cfos as well as asked andy
collaboration with the working budget on the ongoing fundraising efforts.
the workgroup also looked at the iga rserve account which I mentioned which was the account
where understanding was held and we smoothed these increases over the next several years, 10
years with no increase is a big job and the reserve account gives us a way to phase those
increases in to reduce the party 's payment amount as we get back up to that.8%.
so, this is also president scaman o the slide wich is just a - this is the iga reset
in a nutshell. This work really stabilizes the foundation that we have built
together over more than a decade. And I want to say that we do
not take that partnership for granted. We are so grateful for the
work. Your work is well recognized beyond oak park and some of you
know last summer that we hosted the staff team for early learning funding equity which
is a national funding organization that consults on equity and early childhood and
they came to here in oak park specifically to learn about this model and approach to
local support of early childhood. I am very regularly asked by
early childhood leaders what magically worked in oak park and I get to say that we are
fortunate to work with partners including the village who understand that the conditions
that children experience in their first five years of life shape everything that comes
after and investing in those years is one of the most community can do and we are
very grateful for that. And with that I will move us away from vicki looking cute in
costumes and welcome your >>mary: would you like me to go back to vicki looking cute?
>>president scaman: no, no, no! Thank you, though. I always love doing it!
there was a time where my granddaughter like hit the nose of - the big pig - all right.
questions and discussions? Also, I did think of the law firm and all of the work that
they put into it, greg smith and missing him today, but brooke, welcome.
thank you. Questions, comments? Brian?
don't have a question, but thank you to you and of the early childhood andy
collaboration for early childhood. I was saying to you earlier
that you guys are they under told success story of oak park and I am constantly in awe with
what the founders of the collaboration was able to do because it is not easy starting
something like this and across multiple governing is entities and it is something
that I know folks aound the country are able to see. And at the same time it is
under told success stories of progressive governance in oak park.
and I am proud that we get to vote to continue to support it today and I think that this is
something that I always view as a model for what we should be figuring out and how we can
move forward. Eder: I also don't have a question, just commentary.
I said as was mentioned I sit on the iga board and the working group for the
collaborative and I've seen up cose firsthand just all of the amazing work you do and how
accountable and transparent and joyful all the work that you do is and I'm extremely happy to
be a part of it and I did not know that I would be on it when I joined this board, but I'm
very grateful that I am. It is very rewarding work. And it is also a great
opportunity to work with our colleagues as was mentioned at the district, as well.
in addition to all of the amazing programs that the collaborative does, I also just
want to give a shout out to something that I think is also a under told story which is the
data aspect of things which sorry, I am the data guy, but it is truly - from a selfish
perspective, it is a resource that I think a lot of other communities and other
decision-making bodies get to have access to and you are tracking student outcomes from
very early age, birth all the way to adulthood and it is very rare to be able to see that
kind of high-fidelity information and actually use it as a way to measure the
outcomes of the policies that we are trying to pass here at the board.
so, we can actually use this information to help see whether or not the policies that we
have are having an impact that we want thanks to this data. And it is really a benefit to
the village and we are getting our money's worth for sure in many dimensions.
but, I just wanted to call that one out in particular. Again, very spportive and
looking forward to continuing the collaboration. >>president scaman: thank you.
trustee enyia? >>trustee enyia: I will try to think about things to say - I'm
kidding, I'm kidding! I could not. I honestly could not.
you kow I am biased and I have advantage of some of the ke programs and I look at my son
and I see it every day. And knowing those things gets me - when I - I was like do not
look directly at them you will get choked up thinking about the stuff, but when you know
that it has an impact on people's everyday lves, the person or the people that they
can end up being because they have opportunity as the doctor was saying you know I worked on
the south side and I worked on the west side and managed eight different buildings for cps and
I see children everyday that are impacted and some negative ways because they don't have
enough funding to do positive programming to keep kids on the right track, but also to catch
them to say hey like my son with a speech impediment, finding out that there are
with that could be a detriment later in life. So, I am just very very
grateful every time I get to see you and the work that you continue to do and I just don't
think our community knows enough about it because had my wife not been that person going
through all of the things and figuring out that there was help we can get for our kid.
we would not know. So, I am just very thankful and I have nothing to say but good
things. >>president scaman: trustee wesley.
>>trustee wesley: quite frankly just some of the best money we have spent.
a couple things - I also don't have any questions or anything - and the first thing I want to
say is that this is a great example of cross government collaboration and it shows that
it is possible to do this successfully in oak park and to do it well him to do it in a
way that benefits the entire village and to do it in a way where it works so seamlessly
that no one ever hears about it! Like that is just an amazing
thing. And so I just would ask anyone when we talk about or think
about cross governmental collaboration, look at the collaboration.
because, we can do it here and it has been successful for the entire village.
the last thing I want to do is read a small couple sentences from your website and I may
have done this the last time you were here. But, I just think that this is
so cool and not a lot of people know - inspired by the collaboration 's model, state
senator don harmon originated legislation that established the illinois early learning
council. Later, as a former state senator, president obama
proposed a national early learning council based on the one in illinois.
so, this thing that w are talking about here made it all the way to dc.
that is amazing. That shows what this village can do.
we had this opportunity and I just felt like that neded to be elevated.
thank you for all of the work that you do. And I am very happy to vote yes
taglia: I actually have some questions. And I'm afraid if I will be
asked to participate in the parade at some point during halloween that I may be asked
to dress up as the scrooges! But, thank you for all of your work and your exchanges and it
has been very helpful and tucker and others and thank you for filling in a lot of the
information questions that I had and I can see some of the luminaries of the collaboration
and bob and gordon, of course for many years, treasurer. I have no issue and really this
is a internal issue and questions on the issue - but, I have no issue with the work and
strongly in support of the collaboration and I have been on the board for several years
of course and I do have some questions on the funding. And based on the information
and the schedule, here comes kevin - >>mary: thank goodness!
>>trustee taglia: this is really a village question - and so although the amount we are
contribute in, the percentage is going to decline, the amount is going to increase and kevin
can tell you if you look at the first four years that the first year is $90,000 and if you add
it up over four years it is a 40% increase and I am just asking how are we going to pay
for that? Where is the money coming from, the extra money, the 600,000
and again, you can look at the numbers and just tally them up - that is what it is.
and I'm just saying how we do that? Are going to get the money. We
>>speaker: cfo for the village of oak park, kevin b, this has been budgeted in the general
fund since the inception. There was some relief during the pandemic due to arpa
funding as was mentioned in the presentation, that funding is ending december 31 and as we
move forward - it will move back to the general fund as a baseline service at the village
so, we will continue as of 2027 budget is proposed, that line item you know these expenditure
investments will be included in te general fund as a baseline operating expense.
in terms of then how and where the funding is coming from, obviously anything that is
coming into the general fund is supported by the top 25 major revenues including sales tax,
income tax, tax levy itself and because this has been a part of the baseline budget, we have
not outlined the separate expenditures and it is similar to how we are budgeting for any
other department that the village has. And we are not necessarily
outlining that funding specifically for one line item, it is just included in all of
the different revenues that we are getting and coming into the general fund.
time, the 2027 budget is going to be including this updated amount and that is including
you know the general fund as you pointed out and our conversation is coming up
during the budget conversation once we get to the operating side.
it is one of the reasons why we and I appreciate the collaboration including this
information in their was that we wanted to make sure that in march, early in our fiscal year
that we have a window if you will to look into what that increase is going to look like
so we can adjust the budget meaning if the board 's position is that we are not
going to increase the levy by 3%, that expenditure needs to be accounted for just as any
other department. So, it is a long-winded answer to say this is included in the
baseline and it will be included in the baseline 2027 budget which is supported by
the tax levy and sales tax, income tax and all of the other fees that are going into the
general fund. >>trustee taglia: thank you. And this is no reflection on
low collaboration, this is a village issue which we really have to keep that in mind as we
approach our budget, we have many demands put on us and this is an additional demand that we
will have to figure out a way to pay for this and in a way that we were nt doing
previously. Investment and we strongly believe that and thank you for
all that you have done. And we will work it out and w will have to figure it out.
thank you. >>president scaman: thank you. Any other comments?
>>trustee leving-jacobson: I will echo the support and gratitude.
very grateful also for the public comments that echo just the range of impact that the
collaboration 's work has in the community and I think that was really valuable to hear
from the perspective and I am a big fan, as well and partnering with the early childhood
collaboration and joining this board around public safety topics and gun violence in
prevention and I appreciated the slide how you pointed out our investment in this
partnership reflects our commitment to those goals. So, I'll not take too much
time, but I agree with what my colleagues have said and I am very grateful for staff as well
inputting the work - the real work in the agreement. So, yes.
>>president scaman: okay, so - just real briefly, trustee taglia did mentioned bob s and
gordon and nora are here and you have a platform if there is anything that you would like us
to know next. No? Okay.
that one! Bob s has always got like okay, but remember we have got more
to do. So, I am very grateful for his investment and life investment
in this work as well as gordon, you've been the treasurer I think since the beginning.
a little one - okay. Thank you. Appreciate.
so, a pleasure to work with everybody, obviously there is a cost, but it is an investment
as was said and in investment that pays off very well. It goes to the goals that we
have that we all have to live and thrive and especially following covid - when our
babies were not seeing people speak for the first several years of their lives, speech
and other occupational therapy type challenges and increased greatly and you know here in
oak park we know that all of our - things to the early childhood collaboration,
daycare and early childhood facilities have the support all of those children in a very
loving and inclusive way. So, thank you. All right.
then - the actual vote of that agreement is on the consent agenda as village manager
jackson mentioned. And we also have as a village manager report just a space
holder for the calendar. Share on that?
>>manager jackson: just really quick. We did publish the calendar for
september, october, november, but I would like to represent the calendars next week at the
meeting next weekend I did notice that there ae a couple of missions from the calendar
that I would like to address and republish, but the ones that we have already published
if there are any questions about any of the items there, certainly happy to answer any
questions and I know that we have items on the agenda tonight -
scaman: I was just noting the september one is on the previous agenda if anybody
wants to pull that up. Just had a couple of things e that were not there that I
wanted to be there and I would like to represent it next week if that is okay.
>>president scaman: of course. So, anyone who is keeping track of our regular schedule, in
september we are taking the eighth off for the labor day holiday, is that correct?
>>manager jackson: that is correct. >>president scaman: it looks
like we have a full schedule on all of the other tuesdays as well as the hispanic heritage
celebration of september 26 and committee meetings. So, we will look for more
information next week. >>manager jackson: yes. All of that will be on the
calendar next week! Thank you. >>speaker: (away from mic).
>>president scaman: I get the power to do a recess - oh, like a actual vacation!
no, you blew that one! Village board committee reports - anyone have any - any
comments on village - okay, moving forward. We have a vacancy report that
is provided by the village clerk 's office and anyone interested in serving on a
village board or commission can please email clerk waters at clerk@oak-park.us.
we are now moving forward to the consent agenda and before I take a motion I will invite mr.
chris donovan - I'm sorry, that goes back to when I was clerk - >>speaker: good evening, chris
donovan, 733 s. Elmwood. At my checkered employment history I managed various
programs for homebuying, first-time homebuyer programs and home loans to assist
people. City of berwyn, county of lepage, brief time in benton
harbor, michigan. And the one thing that all of those places and others had in
common was that those loans for first-time homebuyers or home-improvement assistants
were interest-free and the payments were delayed until the time the house was sold.
great. The agenda and I saw these two addresses and then I discovered
that these homeowners have been there 25, 30 years and have been making payments on all the
time and while the payments are low as they have aged, these payments are difficult for them
because of reduced incomes and circumstances. So, why is this on there?
so, I would suggest that you consider tabling these two line items in the consent agenda and
suspending payments currently and postponing or rewriting the loans so that they become liens
on the property, interest-free liens, no payments until the house is sold.
now, over the years, these people have developed equity in those houses and so depending
on the amount of equity, these small amounts owed will not be a burden on their future
success because of the equity that they ever earned in the 25 or 30 years and I would like
you to do that and consider that and one other item regarding one of these loans,
522 south taylor - there was a release of mortgage filed on that loan into thousand 24.
make payments because right there in the document it says the debt secured by this
mortgage has been paid in full. So, that should have stopped in 2024.
what is going on now? Again, table this tonight and straighten those things out and
put it on the agenda for next time to recast this as a lien for payment at the sale of the
house. And I would also recommend that you look at the whole portfolio
and do the same with all of those. Thank you for your time.
>>president scaman: village manager jackson? >>manager jackson: yes,
president scaman, appreciate the feedback mr. Dnovan. I would take the opportunity to
remind the border where we left off with the loan forgiveness program and process and
certainly always interested with any additional direction, but it is a good idea to
actually just articulate where we currently stand today and how we got here with these
items on the agenda and so jonathan burch from the program can explain that.
>>jonathan burch: as you may recall back in october 2024, staff brought forward the loan
forgiveness policy and the board had no process to even consider the possibility of
loan forgiveness for folks who were paying loans to us for the long term.
at that time, the board adopted a policy and and since then we portfolio of loans looking for
those that have been delinquent over a long period of time to be able to come current or if
necessary, apply for loan forgiveness which is the case for these two loans.
where after working with those homeowners in one case going all the way back to 2021, the
other since 2024 when those loans were due at the time considering other alternatives,
they apply to us in the spring hvac for consideration.ess with one of the loans is a little
confusing because there were two amounts that were given back in 2001 and back to back,
one was given as an fully paid off and one was was given as an interest-free loan
that was then do years later or at the time of sale into thousand 24 and the one that
mr. Donovan is speaking of is the one that had interest related to it and it was paid
in full, but the other loan given to two individuals in the same household, two individuals
living in the same unit, the other one was not paid off at that time.
and because it was all due out once rather than the interest payment over a long period of
time, over 20 years. >>president scaman: okay. So if there remains the
interest of my colleagues and these are both forgiving these loans tonight - potentially a
discussion for a policy change - is that of interest? >>trustee straw: I am certainly
iterested in having further discussion about the policy change and I think that we
should proceed with the recommended action on these loans, but I do think they are
part of a broader policy discussion. >>president scaman: as long as
there is at least four of us we could review the opportunity for what we are hearing from
mr. Donovan or the payback at the end that the sale of the house.
>>jonathan burch: currently all of the rehab loans, these are 20 years later.
before that point we had many more and one of these as you can see is from a buyer loan
that goes all the way back to the early 1990s and those all had interest associated with
them for a long period of time. Almost all of those loans are out of our portfolio and there
is just a couple left at this point in a part of what we are doing here is housecleaning and
mr. Donovan as recommended to go down this road. Good.sident scaman: okay, very
well, thank you. So, we will look forward to that additional conversation at
a later date. And we will at this point, this is the arrangement you have
made with the homeowners. Okay, I will - since I had a very brief discussion with mr.
donovan, I understand another point that he is making is that allowing us to free up some of
the cash so that we can provide that loan to another person and postponing that - when it
finally is pale back at the sale of the home. >>jonathan burch: exactly and
that is what the funds related to these - that they are given interned to future folks to
help them fixing up their home and we have been doing that going back to the early 1980s.
>>president scaman: and the funding sources, the cdbg is exactly for this purpose.
>>jonathan burch: correct. >>president scaman: thank you. And if I do not have any other
public comment on consent agenda I entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as
has been presented. >>speaker: move. >>speaker: second.
>>president scaman: motion by trustee straw and second by trustee eder.
click waters, please take the role. >>clerk waters: trustee straw,
yes, trustee eder, yes, trustee enyia, yes, trustee leving-jacobson, yes, trustee
taglia, yes, trustee wesley, yes and president scaman. >>president scaman: yes.
thank you for the further explanation. Regular agenda.
first we have a resolution adopting the biodiversity and green infrastructure plan.
village manager jackson. >>manager jackson: we have lindsay, chief of
>>lindsay: we are very excited tonight to present the results of the biodiversity and green
infrastructure plan. We did this because of the crop land commitment that commits
the village to establishing 30% of village land as green infrastructure or enhanced
management. So, to work towards that goal we determined we needed a
baseline and we needed to have a better understanding of what exactly the goal meant to that
purpose we hired green print partners last year in september and this board heard in
february on part of the definitions of the framework that we would be using for the
study and tonight is the result of that. So, I am excited to introduce
citibank herein and we also have our sustainability officer as well.
sidney? Evening, thank you for having me.
so, I am here to go over quickly the overview of the plan itself and the
recommendations that were proposed. So, this work is really a
culmination of the entire planning process and the framework that was previously
mentioned that we spoke about earlier is included as well as a baseline conditions and
opportunities. We have recommendations sections and implementation
roadmap that brings it all together. I will go over each of these at
ahigh level. So, first we needed to set those definitions and
infrastructure and enhance management by 2030 could mean a lot.
we needed to anchor in these clear definitions of biodiversity as diversity of
life in oak park, green infrastructure is the kind of spatial metric and surface
areas of open spaces designed to mimic ecological functions and mitigate stormwater runoff
and improve air and water quality and enhance management was really the social piece of
how folks are caring for the land and actions related to the care and maintenance of those
open spaces that are intended to support biodiversity and ecological health and function.
so, tweaks to the 30 x 30 vision allows us to provide a little bit more clarity on what
this looks like and how it has been accomplished and saw four key elements arose and one is
public land and that is 30% of public land is established or managed by green infrastructure
and 100% of assets are managed with enhanced management practices.
tree canopy - and of recognizing the existing tree canopy is a success already
passed 30% and so this goal recognizes maintenance and continued care at the 36%
coverage currently. Resident participation is measuring kind of 30% of oak
park residents who have integrated or are practicing enhanced management or have
installed green infrastructure on their private properties and then can activities around
making sure that some of the core and natural areas have linear connections to other
core areas and there is a continuous network that can be really traveled through and
connected throughout the village. So, with those more specific
goals in mind, the baseline analysis looks at each of those where we are now and what
opportunities are there to fill in the gaps. So, for public land, we
calculated that 9% of land in oak park is currently established as or managed by
green infrastructure ad one 1% gap to the 30% goal. And a major opportunity area
here with such a built-up community are those alleys and kind of urban core doors and
public right of ways in public land opportunities or minimizing that goal and
reaching that 30%. Minimizing that gap, excuse me. For enhanced management the
vllage and partners are already doing so much on public land and at 90% of the assets
are already managed with enhanced management practices and those are in part because
of schools not being contributed to that goal with the inconsistent management
practices and there are plenty of great things that are happening, they are just not
necessarily defined in the same way across schools. And that is an area to really
quickly bridge that gap. As I mentioned earlier the tree canopy goal has already been
30% and so great work there.d in the urban forest management plan has already set a 38% goal
for 2043. So, this really tees up continued work towards the next
target that oak park already has. Participation - this baseline
analysis calculated 4% of property owners are applying enhanced management and a 26%
gap to the 30% goal and however this is probably a undercounting and there are
certainly folks who are practicing tese management steps that are not being
captured currently in the way that we are tracking this data. And the way to quickly I think
see these numbers grow is from continued measurement and continued engagement around
folks recognizing that they are actually already doing these things and reporting that out
so folks can see themselves in this goal. For connectivity, this looks at
again like I mentioned before the core natural areas and these are from the park
district recreation data layers and those larger kind of cores are represented there and the
kind of more distributed green infrastructure is not specifically connecting any of
those cores and we do see a 0% metric for the baseline there, but there are several adjacent
opportunities to start connecting those core doors and create a little bit more of
those core door networks throughout oak park. So, from the baseline and
opportunities assessment we put together a series of recommendations and this table
is too small to see on the slide, but it is in the report and hopefully you've had a
chance to take a look, but it really does organized the strategies and recommendations
across those subgoals of public land entry canopy resident participation and connectivity.
and also orients them to these kind of buckets o policies, programs, education and
coordination. And I will go through kind of those buckets briefly.
so, for the policies, this is getting at the reporting using the dashboard that is currently
existing to report on the progress and success that are to come on achieving these
goals and aligning implementation with existing initiatives including vision
zero, resurfacing projects and the urban forest management plan.
developing policies to advance biodiversity, including bird friendly design ordinance, dark
sky policy amongst others. And doing a kind of green infrastructure focused review
of municipal code and looking at particular at green infrastructure guidelines for
new development. For programs, this is elevating both the public and private
program opportunities and continuing to advance retrofit programs, because we know
private property involvement is key to the success of this vision.
and also looking at additional programming for the village to develop additional green
infrastructure projects on village owned properties both through initial programming as
well as existing programs such as the green alleys program. And also discussing what a
potential green schoolyard program may look like going forward.
on the education and outreach side, this is really focusing on those key stakeholders and
populations that would be really helpful to engage with around this vision and built by
buy-in and students and youth and engaging all of those folks I measuring progress and
including them in citizen science projects and data collection for the village.
and the coordination bundle is really looking at those cross agency partnerships both within
the village departments, sister agencies, as well as external partnerships amongst local
groups and property owners and then also regionally with additional planning agencies
and other municipalities. Just also on this point on this one, ongoing coordination with
c4 and the introduction group and building off of the success of the longfellow pollinator
garden and we are already seeing some implementation all success from this plan and the
rush oak park property is needing landscaping into the parking lot expansion because
of their involvement in the working group and we are really excited to see already interest
and buy-in on these ideas and implementation towards this shared vision.
in the implementation roadmap, construction costs for some of the scenarios that would be
required in order to achieve this 30% - these 30% goals. And so there are some you know
ballpark figures here on some of the scenarios and I think the main point to elevate
tonight is the sufficient funding and staff capacity are needed to meet this goal.
and so the exploration of the feasibility of a flat green introductory fee in 2027 is a
recommendation to allow for a dedicated funding stream to be able to fund the investment
that this vision requires and the benefits that will come of it, as well.
so, a kind of summary and next steps to - well there are a few specific next steps on the next
slide, but this one really mapped out all of the recommendations across the next
four years and it is not vry much time until 2030 and so suggesting some coupling and
phasing in of these recommendations to first start with building capacity and
alignment and then move into strengthening partnerships and programs, both old and new.
and really rolling into implementation across the board and continuing to roll out as
many projects as possible ahead of the 2030 goal. So, specific next steps,
recommended to continue to convene the stakeholders that were in the planning process
and to conduct that study to explore the viability of a green infrastructure c.
allocating resources for expanding existing residential retrofit programs and also
continuing to develop public awareness and education campaigns and some of those
collaborations and partnerships that are already in existence. And then review the municipal
code to identify existing barriers to green introductory and opportunities and pathways
to increase and the design and contraction of additional projects on village property.
so, I think with that, that is good of the overall summary of the plan and thank you very
much. >>president scaman: okay. Very good, anything else?
open for discussion. Very good, derek, thank you. >>trustee eder: happy to take
the lead on this one. Thank you for this work and I know that you came here a
couple maybe three or four months ago to give a little bit of an update and it is great to
see all of the progress that is made. Thank you staff for all the
work on this. I'll try to be efficient and I have like a lot of questions
with different aspects of it - and first of all I would just highlight te good stuff.
we are to meet one of the four subgoals like tree canopy, yes, but down is kind of obvious,
just look around oak park and it is like yes, we have a tree canopy and I'm glad to see that
we are aways striving to do more and we will keep upping awesome.that is great and
looking at some of these other items were we not meeting the gap yet, curious, some of these
questions may require staff input and I think it looks like from the green infrastructure
side of things like an obvious place to look at is the green alleyway.
and I noted that in the report like quite a lot of opportunity and I guess it is many alleys
that could be turned into green alleyways and I understand that there is additional cost
associated with that and I'm curious about the scope and scale of things and how many of
those do we do every year and what is the delta and could we do more?
I am just curious what that looks like - yes, rob, thank you.
>>rob sproul: good evening, rob sproul, public works director. I do not have the specifics of
that and I can speak in general - bill mechanical really the village engineer would be
better poised to answer this question, but to turn any alley or any roadway into what we
call a green alley or roadway - there is a significant cost difference based on what the
underlying soils are, associated with that space. And so we have through a
portion of town a spat of soil where we can access this directly during construction
and we can allow for that, that infiltration to happen directly through a green alley.
where we do not have that - we have to build that capacity as part of the infrastructure
would we build in that alley in order to turn it into a green alley and there is a
significant cost increase associated with that. And we can get you that number,
but off the top of my head, I would tell you that you would money when you start looking
outside of where we can directly access those sandy soils, it is probably not worth
the money to turn those alleys green. You would be better spending
off that money with other green infrastructure projects. I can get those numbers for you
so you can see the delta, but it is pretty significant because the capacity you need
to build for that storm water that you are taking off the alley and the potential
properties that are around it is significant and to build that capacity is expensive.
>>trustee eder: understood. Also my guest and this may be another bill question, but
parts that dn't have access, those are the areas that may need a green alley more because
I imagine it is not draining water as well under current conditions and is that a fair -
>>rob sproul: our sewer system really manages much of our water issue, but to that point.
yes, if you are looking to try to manage stormwater across the community the areas where it is
more challenging are the areas that need it the most and again I would go back to there are
probably things that we could do around bio swales were we can get a lot more bang for our
buck then the infrastructure excavation needed for a green alley specifically.
>>trustee eder: okay. That is surely helpful and the reason I'm asking this question
is because the number is great and who does that help and I am thinking about how this will
actually impact our residents and who needs it and where should we be prioritizing that
funding? So, thank you. I appreciate that.
just moving on to the resident participation aspect of things, you kind of answered the
question I had and 4%, that is not very high and in our house we have a native garden, but I
don't know if it is registered, because it did not drop in one of the categories that was
listed there. And do we have an idea or plan to fully measure that and what
could we do? Or biking - thank you! >>speaker: malcolm,
sustainability coordinator, great question and sydney pointed out that a lot of these
questions are what you're pointing out is that there is a lot of undercounting and is
partially why we talk about education and developing those metrics in better ways of
reaching out and communicating this goal through education and through engagement with some of
our partners that are already doing a lot of this work within oak park and tapping into that
and finding opportunities to get folks mre involved and find the information, not just
obtain, but celebrate it which I think is a major component to all of this.
there is a reason to celebrate what folks are doing on the properties and we want to be
able to find ways to emphasize that. A lot of that is teased out in
the education bucket so to speak. >>trustee eder: I think
education is always great and I have mentioned this before, but we do send folks around to go
like site people and their garages and you know having like chipped paint, can they
also while there walking around just count the native guardians and do something passive that
does not require proactive like you were never going to reach everyone and it would be great
if we could measure it without having everyone know about this program and trying to reach
these goals. And so I could just keep mentioning this every time I
can. Okay, onto the connectivity stuff, this is the most tough
thing to think of because it is zero and I guess I just wonder - is this an achievable goal?
and my first question is pockets of built-up community and there is only so much that
you can change over that period of time - is this even a achievable goal?
I guess this is a question that I have and if not and are there other communities that have
reached that and can we point to them? And if tis is achievable, can
we maybe reassess a look at a goal that is achievable? And also I was talking to
someone in the oak prk action climate network and what we mean by connectivity?
connectivity for what kinds of life? Are we talking about like
connecting different monarch like what are we talking about when we say connectivity?
it is not just one thing - do we have more specifics that we can dive into?
>>speaker: that is a great question and one that we talk a lot about and especially in oak
park for example and we are not talking about large herding animals, it is a lot of
pollinators and things of that nature and when we were looking into exactly how to achieve
cnnectivity across the central core areas, we really focused in on how can we develop our
streets and parkways in particular with seem to be the greatest opportunity area in
this space and the report teases this out a lot more which is how can we continue to
encourage residents to naturalized their parkways and what are other opportunities
that we have is a village to pull some levers and help those residents come forth with that?
and this also helps us to be able to track which parkways are naturalized and this gets
back to your original question about undercounting some of the data.
of folks at residence who are implementing these measures on the parkways and naturalizing
them and we don't need every parkway on the street to be naturalized to achieve what we
would call like ecologically beneficial connectivity, but we do need at least 30% so they
are providing at least you know within 100 feet of natural areas and space for those
pollinators to be able to travel or those birds to be able to travel and find
additional food sources from one core natural area to the other.
and I do think that the plan speaks to this a little bit more and it is again not
looking at every street like we need to completely naturalize it, but can we get it to a
point where it becomes ecologically beneficial to pollinate on some of the
smaller fauna that we have in this community. >>trustee eder: I think a -
moving on to the goals section, I think definitely jumped out at me the alignment with
existing plans and what is this - are we collaborating? We are to have lots of
relationships with all of our partners, but for example like the school district and park
district, do they have similar goals? Are we trying to aign their
goals and are they a part of that working group? How are they factored in to
what those goals could look like? >>malcolm: that is absolutely
correct, we are involved with through the cross sustainability exchange group
and we are working with district 97 and district 200 and this is managed by seven
generations ahead and we are working on not just green infrastructure as a part of
this initiative, this is the sustainability you know using this opportunity to coordinate
all of this in a similar direction - would you have a green in professional working
and as a part of that green print we did a green schools assessment looking at every
property in district 97 and district 200 and taking a look at their existing
infrastructure assets and then identifying opportunities to expand.
and we use that work to inform this. And through that green
infrastructure working group we are continuing conversations on where we can coordinate as a
village with district 97 since there is so much opportunity across those properties.
>>trustee eder: okay, great. You mentioned the schools, township, library, are we
talking to them? >>malcolm: yes, as a part of the stakeholder interviews and
some of the focus groups that sidney mentioned, we have been engaged with our district and
obsolete they are responsible for the largest percentage of our green infra structure and
they are doing great work and they serve as a leader in the space.
all of their properties are meeting those enhanced management standards that we
mention and so really our focus some of the connectivity issues and also some of the education
engagement and tapping it in partnering with tem to utilize the various strengths to help
elevate some of this work that we want to be happening village wide.
>>trustee eder: great, awesome. What is the green infrastructure fee?
do we know? Is tis just for a later time? I'm just very curious what that
is and also like maybe most importantly like who is paying that?
>>malcolm: we are going to investigate this in 2027 to look at the viability of that
and what is a equitable and impactful fee and something that we want to take a little
bit more time to study and investigate. >>trustee eder: okay, great.
tbd. Okay. I think my last thoughts here
just around obviously the slide with the dollar amounts, some of those dollar amounts are
pretty large, right? In particular. And so for our benefit I think
it would be helpful as we start to consider some of these things and I would really love
to get into some of the details and just learned about - the numbers are great and I love
numbers and I love kpis and whatever like it makes the complex city achievable and
understandable. But, ultimately we need to prioritize how this is actually
we are obviously trying to do what we can and do our part you know for mitigating all of the
climate change that is happening in our community, but it also needs to impact the
residence and I want to prioritize helping those who need the most help, right?
so, as we start to look at those items I want to make sure that that is - those factors
are included in how we are actually deciding where those dollars go, just because it is
the easiest thing does not always mean that it will achieve those goals for the
folks who needed the most. And so just want to make sure that that is like a factor as
we are putting this plan into action. Sorry for taking so long -
>>president scaman: thank you. Brian? >>trustee straw: I want to say
thank you guys for the work that you put in on this. It has maybe become somewhat of
a running joke, but I would ask everyone who was watching to actually take a look and read
this 80 page report and one of the things that often times there will be hot button issues
that come up in front of the board where people pay attention to the work being
done, but we so frequently receive very detailed and very thoughtful reports where a ton
of work has gone into it and community does not necessarily dig into it.
so, we have a detailed 80 page report and there is meaningful work and it is impactful.
so, thank you. I do want to talk a little bit about the scary budget numbers
that trustee eder referenced earlier. And first for staff, this is a
motion to approve this report and approving this report is not us directing staff to spend
$40 billion on connectivity - that is one of the listed numbers - just want to confirm
that that is the case. Staff would understand that to be the direction?
>>manager jackson: that is correct. >>trustee straw: 40 billion is
one of the connectivity numbers it is the outside estimate, it is 200 million up to 40 billion
- I wanted to confirm that, because it is important for the community to understand we are
not saying that we are going to be spending that number or 588 million on creating vegetated
bump outs immediately. These are just construction costs of if we did all of these
things imediately, here is what this would cost. So - what would you see as the
most impactful steps that we could be taking? What are the biggest bang for
our buck steps out of these recommendations? >>malcolm: maybe sydney also
has some additional insight on this and one from our perspective I think I mentioned
this earlier the parkways represent like a massive portion - a massive
opportunity. And this was analyzed through some of the scenario and
opportunity analysis which was also included in the plan in the appendices.
so, if you're interested in addition to the 80 page plan, there is -
>>trustee straw: 120 pages of appendices which I also commend you to review!
>>malcolm: but, they do show that has some of the greatest opportunity area at a
relatively lower cost and has similar impacts due to their benefits that native plants
have on stormwater, air quality and all of these issues. We do have our parkway planting
ordinance that we recently several years ago past to allow adjacent property owners to
naturalize those parkways within certain guidelines and we would really want to explore
opportunities to educate residents on that and we still have a lot of work to do to let
folks know that this is an opportunity and this is an area o growth, literally.
but, then also look at opportunities and program and assistance to help those who
maybe do not know where to start to be able to naturalize those spaces.
so, that is one area where I think there is a lot of cost-efficient opportunity.
>>trustee straw: I think that is an area where I would love to see us continue to push
forward. It is as noted in the chart - hundreds of thousands of
dollars, minimal cost in the village. And I think it does present an
we have had pioneers in this community who were naturalizing the parkways before we passed
the ordinance allowing that to happen and I'm grateful that we fixed that ordinance and
definitely I think that providing the additional education makes it simple like
here's what it looks like to do that and sort of we can provide you with an easy pathway to get
there. And it makes a difference and creates those opportunities for
connectivity. Rob, can you speak to the bump outs and the cost to a
vegetated bump out and what about as we do them now are? >>rob sproul: maybe not - no
(chuckle) all of the permanent installed bump outs that we do now are vegetated.
>>trustee straw: I believe the vegetated bump outs, we are talking about bio swale vs. -
grassy bump outs. Sproul: I can see. No.
I mean I don't think - I am not sure that will costs calculated for like improved bio swale
bump outs. That is something I could probably get back to you and we
are doing some improved planter beds that are bio soils and we probably do have some recent
numbers on what those could look like, but I would probably need to talk to the team about
the scale and cost per square footage and things like that. >>malcolm: we do have some
numbers for van buren and scoville and I don't know the difference, but we have
incorporated that into the implementation. >>trustee straw: it talks about
260,000 per intersection for a bio swale bump out and I don't know what a traditional grass -
>>rob sproul: I don't know off the top of my head. That is a big number in the
presentation, 588 million if we did the bio swale vegetated bump outs.
but, it may be one of those things where where we are already doing bump outs - if
the cost difference is somewhat marginal, it may present an opportunity for us as a village
and that is one other place - I think part of the reason these numbers are so big is that it
imagines us doing it right now and I'm definitely interested as we continue studying how to
implement this, where we can make those mrginal changes where you know every year we
are doing repaving projects and we are looking at where permanent bump out make sense
and how can we harness those as little bit further at a reduced marginal cost, because we are
already spending 70% of the cost, because we are doing the bump outs anyway.
sproul: the plan account for basically every intersection in the village in that huge
number. To, there is no ability for the village to do them all at once.
and anything that we did in terms of that would be a phased-in plan that we would do
as a part of our resurfacing plan because that is the time that we really look at
adjusting curb line and so we are already as you said accounting for any
recommendations in division zero plan where bump outs would be appropriate.
and we could look at what the cost delta is between an enhanced bio swale treatment at
those intersections vs. A traditional sod and get the information for you and present
as a part of a research project so you can see the cost and make a determination on whether
or not you want to include it. >>trustee straw: that would be valuable especially as we are
going into budget season and talking about cip and how we can integrate some of these
ideas and what that marginal cost actually looks like. >>rob sproul: the only other
item I would want to bring up is that in addition to the installation cost, there is a
potential maintenance cost that goes along with that. With the current treatment of
sod, that expectation on maintenance is passed back to the adjacent property owner.
I do not know if we could have that same expectation on property owners if we are
putting them in a situation where they're being asked to maintain and enhance landscape
treatment so then we would have to look out what that continuing cost would be for
the village as we make those changes, as well. >>trustee straw: thank you.
concluding - this is an awesome plan and there is a lot of detail.
there are big scary numbers and so we have to do the hard work of figuring out where we can
get the most bang for our buck and how we can integrate into existing planning processes and
sort o marginal cost that create outsize impacts. >>president scaman: kind of the
point of the plan. >>manager jackson: thank you, president scaman if I could
briefly - these are all really good point and I think the good news is that we are speaking
directly to integration, collaboration and prioritization and all of this
is conceptualized by the climate ready open -- oak park plan and we are doing a good
job and we are building up a lot of momentum and accelerating these programs and
master plans and now we are talking green infrastructure and a number of things we put
into place and at some point there may be a need to look at climate ready oak park as we
have learned more over the last few years in terms of what we can realistically take on.
but, the good news is that we have been working together and planning together and cross
jurisdictional boundaries and it is translating it into doing it together.
and we are seeing some real outcomes. But, climate rady oak park is
talked about in 2022, hat we revisiting some of the expectations around, but it
does not hurt us to stretch as we go through the budget cycles and so forth.
>>president scaman: excellent comments from trustee eder and chibikue -- and straw and I
welcome additional, but I would like to move towards adopting. Thank you.
>>trustee wesley: take you, president scaman and thank you guys for this great plan and
I've got a few comments on it. All positive and questions I think maybe.
first I want to echo trustee straw 's anyway that we can combine things, that is
awesome. I saw it was mentioned on slide 15 and not given in my opinion
as much maybe elevation as I would want to see as the public parking lot ad the items
second from the bottom - I think right now like all of the public parking lots are
concrete or asphalt? Could they be something else? Yes, yes - like lot 10, yes.
>>malcolm: absolutely. It is something that we have included in the plan and we
took a look at this several years ago through another process just looking at parking
lots as an opportunity and we incorporated that into this plan and it is certainly
something that is somewhat similar to the green alleyway to manage stormwater where it
falls and a lot of the grant funding opportunities - you know we obtain a portion of the
funding for the green alleyways through mwrd and this is an avenue that we can look into as
well as those opportunities arising. >>trustee wesley: I would love
to see none of our parking lots just be straight asphalt. There is a mention in here and
you didn't think that you would slip this one pass me - parking converted to permanent - did
you really think that you would slide that would buy? What about we just get rid of
it altogether? Mentioned you know there was a actual article on me mentioning
shrinking the streets. Like I have never - I have said a lot of things that does board
table and I did not think that one was the most controversial that I've ever seen.
a colorful page article. I was crazy. Anyway -
>>president scaman: you are not the first. >>trustee wesley: okay, anyway
- like what we are talking about, 30% of our streets being converted to permeable lanes,
maybe we should think about those streets being more narrow instead of a permeable lane,
baby return to green space in general. Mobility -
>>malcolm: we can take a look at and of course it comes back to the conversation about cost
and the reason we look at the permeable parking lanes inputting for that number of
one lane, because that would allow us to effectively manage the stormwater of the entire
street effectively if we are able to correct it. And just trying to think costs
to be cost-efficient with these opportunities and these are opportunities for bio swales as
we were mentioning previously and we can take a look at those opportunities as they come
across. Absolutely. You just shrink the history and
you save the money and get the green space and it is a win-win and I like win-win.
we can also use these for the slow streets and bringing those back would not necessarily be a
bad thing. We don't have any in the village, but I have seen green
little roundabouts and we have got a lot of four way stops that may be beneficial to be
converted to a roundabout. And again just throwing it out there and if you have tarred
about it before I would love to hear about here - >>rob sproul: we have looked at
the ability to install and the ability of tight constraints and based on just the tightness
of our streets, they would need to be rather small so they become very challenging to
maintain from a landscaping perspective. And then once you get rd of
the landscaping, they often just become a driven over more of like a speedbump, right?
the value in going to the traffic circles or the roundabouts over the bump outs
at the curb, because it is really one or the other based on the restrictions that we
have and we see a lot more value with shrinking and bringing those curves out and
drinking the travel lanes then going to a traffic circle in the middle.
>>trustee wesley: awesome, love it, I appreciate that. Any thoughts on prioritizing
this infrastructure in northeast oak park where we see a lot of flooding and how that
could potentially mitigate some of that? >>malcolm: I'm glad you brought
that up and I think trustee eder, you were mentioning prioritizing where we expand
green infrastructure. This is a priority area for climate ready which we want to
continue that program providing large native trees to properties in north, east and
south oak park and according to vulnerabilities and according to the flood susceptibility
risk and the tree canopy numbers. This is also something that we
have incorporated and continue to incorporate into the updated version of the rain skate,
climate ready rains gate program and so identifying those areas as high priority
areas where we can see outsized impact for the support of installing rain gardens and
other infrastructure for residents. >>trustee wesley: awesome.
I appreciate that. I love the trees, always have to mention that.
we have a lot of them. They are amazing. Multipurpose infrastructure,
right? They call the earth and they clean the air and slow down
traffic and there is a lot of bang for your buck for a tree. And I think it just bears
I know, right?ry time. We still could do more, derek! >>president scaman: I love the
energy on this agenda item, but I - >>trustee wesley: I'm almost
done. Any thought to density bonuses for green space during
development? We are talking about a lot of zoning reform and one of the
things in there was a bonus for affordable housing and maybe a bonus for green infrastructure
wouldn't be a bad idea as well. Any thoughts on getting folks to sponsor this?
could we get mcdonald's to sponsor a bump out or I don't know, just throwing it out and
I've seen this in other places where infrastructure gets sponsored by corporations who
then pay for the bid to exist and I'm perfectly happy taking the check for smebody to build
a bump out. As long as I is tasteful. >>trustee straw: we can have
the culver's bump out - >>trustee wesley: yes, burger wars!
that is all I have, thanks a lot. >>president scaman: are the
rest of us good? Thumbs up, chibikue. Okay, may I have a motion to
accept this adopting the bow diversity and green introductory plan?
>>speaker: moved. >>speaker: second. >>president scaman: motion by
trustee eder and second by trustee leving-jacobson, clerk waters, please take the role.
>>clerk waters: trustee eder, yes, trustee leving-jacobson, yes, trustee enyia, yes,
trustee straw, yes, trustee taglia, yes, trustee wesley, yes and president scaman.
>>president scaman: yes. Entertain a motion to advance the police department cmponent
of the oak park municipal campus project to design development and direct
staff to negotiate a professional services agreement with
johnson, lasky & kindelin architects, incorporated for preparation
and delivery of the required construction documents. Motion, please.
>>speaker: moved. >>speaker: second. >>president scaman: motion by
trustee wesley and second by trustee enyia. - motion by trustee enyia and
second by trustee straw. >>manager jackson: yes, I'm
turning this oer to rob sproul, public works director. Just want to acknowledge that
you know tis step in the stage of the project, completion of schematic design is a
substantial milestone in the journey of this product over the last several years and a
cumulatively all of the work that has gone into this effort to this point even prior to the
last few years. So, it is I think a significant moment and I think that we are
excited to present the outcome of the schematic design and also seeking direction to move
the police station to full design development. And I know that there are
several other steps that are left that remain in this process, but I just thought
that it was important as we teed this up that we acknowledge that there has been
a significant amount of work that has gone into this process to get to this point including
staff, the board, and the community and our other partners here that will be
presenting tonight. So, just want to take a moment to just contextualize that and
I will turn it over to rob and he will explain what we are asking for and introduced the
guests. >>rob sproul: good evening, rob sproul, public works director,
thank you village manager jackson. The jl k team along with
dewberry and other consultants have been working since the board gave authorization in
february to complete schematic design for the multi site oak park municipal campus.
are here tonight to present those documents. We are going to go through a
high level presentation that shows you just a little bit of the work that has gone into
that today. You have received quite a bit more information in the aic
packet associated with this. And I will even say that there is work for the security
reasons or for security reasons around building police stations, there is a level of
information that we are not presenting publicly as it relates to the layout of that
facility. So, there is actually even more work that has gone into it
beyond what we are showing tonight just simply not showing because of the security
reasons. If the board really had a desire to see them and that
level of detail in those plans, we can set up a time for you guys to see those plans
privately and so you can have an understanding and we are at what we typically call
schematic design which is about 30% plan delivery. So, we will be delivering those
documents and having a conversation about where we are.
and then based on the prior village board feedback, we do have an understanding that the
priority for this larger scale project is to accelerate the police station side of the
project. What we are asking for tonight is for authorization to begin
negotiating the professional services with this architectural and engineering
team to deliver those documents through completion so that we can kind of continue to advance
this project. In addition, earlier this last month, we got authorization I
tink it was last month or maybe a couple months ago, got authorization from this board
to start the selection process for construction manager associated with this project
and that process is ongoing peer we have an expectation that we will be delivering a
recommended contract to the board in early october on a construction manager for this
project if we get the authorization to kind of continue to take this project
forward tonight. So, we have multiple avenues that we are continuing
associated with this project and we are very confident that if we continue to advance this
project forward on the schedule a position to begin hould be in construction at some point in
2027 on this project. With that I will turn it over to may k who is the project
lead and we all know meg, she has had a number of conversations with us and she
will show you all the pretty photos and everything that we have been working on and finish
up on cost estimates and where w are at and then we will open it up for any questions that
you may have throughout the process. >>meg: thank you, rob.
and thank you for the opportunity to present and talk about this wonderful project
with you. We are really excited to be working with you and we have
been working hand-in-hand here and here we are. Thank you.
so, just to turn our eyes to the screens here, we will go over as rob said, a pretty high
level discussion tonight and then I know that you have questions and comments that we
will get to as well. So, moving in - we always return our questions, our work
and just want to take a moment and remind ourselves of the metrics of success for this
project that we established at the very beginning of our working together.
of these projects being a place of pride and being mindful of cost and mindful stewards of
the public money and the police department and the respect it deserves and a sense of
inclusion, security and safety being paramount and solving and recognizing parking issues and
sustainability and of course being involved with the community and police department
and the village hall for that matter, they are both community buildings and these are
community services. Turning for a moment to the village hall and a site plan
and the work we have been doing as we advance this through schematic design - we took to
heart this idea that as you may recall, these two projects were together on the village hall
site for quite some time and that is where the idea of the municipal campus came from and
it is kind of a little bit of history here. So, as we have separated the
two buildings and the components, the work on the site plan and the village hall
site continued and here we have the rudimentary and very schematic level site plan here
showing the existing village hall and the location of the new addition which pursued the
east side kind of public access way and we have parking shown here and the green lawn of
course still remains in this image and we have some public plaza and the south end of the
building is celebrated as the main entrance and the new addition provides a new secure
cuncil chamber and entrance. Loking first at the lower level - here we see that the
lower-level hlf of it shows the blank space where the police station has been removed
and that section there is open for future use by the village hall or other community groups.
it is kind of a whitespace in this plan. The northern part of the plan
have it and news facilities and requirement for the vllage hall staff.
I will move pretty rapidly through this. The eastern spine here is shown
with the new council chamber and room 101 remaining as a public use room.
the courtyard open up to the eastern spine and the more protected and private areas
kind of the remainder being a secure zone for the work of the village hall to have or to meet
modern requirements for security, privacy, etc. On the upper level, the mezzanine also
devoted to the work of the offices are clustered around r the exterior and we see the
upper level of the new council chamber and the old in this plan, as well.
a couple of design concepts and disk idea of the public plaza was very important to welcome
the community into the building and really look at where the south has a drop off and that
is the entrance that most people are using for the village hall and also keeping
the courtyard entrance open with two additional doors.
looking back to see some stairs ramping up to really celebrate that so people know where they
are supposed to enter and looking at the council chamber, very important to provide
looking at the materials in a way that was discussed with you and the building committee
early and this idea of more materials and more environment and a sense of transparency and
built on the idea of transparent government. That is really important to
bring forward to the idea of the council chamber. When we look at the addition,
this is the look of the building and this building has a very strong architecture
statement to say the least when we are looking at how we complement something like this
we thought it should be a using major angles or another kind of over strong expression
of geometry which is the instead we took one gesture d which is this kind of ramp that
we have outside and the layered effects of these vertical elements and said what if we
talked about that and we arrange them mostly so there is a sense of transparency and the
new council chamber abuts the back and it is kind of celebrated incredibly oma's to
what the building is all about and one side of that window would be a place for the public
to have small meetings and it is a conference room and will still be used on the other side
would be the council chamber with the public in this community speak so loudly and
boldly and it is a nice area there. The transparency of government
is the other idea that we are looking at with having those vertical elements and you can
kind of see straight through here and we can control the view for other ideas of
security, but really having really important.sparency was have a view of the ramp going
up and up main stairs and function space with a clear box in the front and the council
chamber to the right. Here is another view of that and this is what the new
council chamber would look like from one area it is very protected and you cannot cnn
from the other it is completely transparent and you can see right through it.
that is the general idea of the village hall project and of course this also includes in
the numbers, rehabilitation systems and other items related to the project.
turning to the police department - a moment here when the police department decided
to go to the other property and what we are looking at here is the idea of the municipal court
order and all of these facilities we think that that is really exciting and perhaps
there are some residents between substrate furniture and other ideas between areas which
would be quite compelling. As we look at how we address the police department and
looking at we have the existing building and it is very high-level and just moving very
quickly through the existing building which we are working with we have the addition and
those two areas comprise the spaces for the program for the police department and then of
course we have the parking garage. The public realm is very
important and the building is really sitting tight to the sidewalk and looking at how can
that public be embraced with paving or greenery and trees etc. And it does become a vry
large imposing building and looking at how we can use material to in some ways break
up a little bit of that fac and looking at materiality and looking at strong, durable,
safe materials for the police station and also the glass for the transparent areas and then
the parking garage which is at the west end and looking at ways that that needs to be
strong and protect the users at the same time. These floorplans I will just go
through as rob has mentioned for safety sake we do not go through everything a portion of
this, but all of this to say we have the parking and the blue and gray areas at the center
for a back of house private area and the green area at the corner there to the upper
right-hand corner which is the community room public space where the community is welcomed
into this building. We had some good discussions about how this is a community
building and a oak park community building and not police station that the
community can come into. And on the roof level we see some certain spaces and on the
second level, this is all police and private areas and I go into that with the public
record and I will mention that the offices and conference areas are to the east and the
more private areas may be to the back into the west. We had some good discussions
with village manager jackson and president scaman as well trying to see revisiting what
we had discussed in the initial design and what really makes this a oak park police
department. And first of all the sense of community and we wanted this
idea of a welcoming front porch that the community is really welcomed into this building and
it is a community building. Second was a theme of honor and respect to the history and
service and what it takes to be a police officer and to have an attitude of honor and respect
for the profession. And an idea of welcoming that the police here are welcoming
and that spirit of we are here for you as the community policing and also an exciting
moment bringing forward the idea of art in the community and that being a way to express
the personality and essence of oak park and there is so much public art here that that would
be a desirable way to bring that into the fac building in a meaningful way.
of community and making a strong corner presence, this is where the glass part of the
first floor would be the community room and there is office functions up above and
you can see the diagram on the upper left-hand corner. The idea that this is the
corner point and the threshold if you will and the easternmost area of oak park and moving
forward thinking about this moment of honor, we are looking at the welcome desk and the
entry area as being a place where there would be a moment of honor or respect for the
police right at the entrance and that could be incorporated into some art exhibits as well
as we look at how this functions. And then thinking about the
whole fac course could be incorporated. So that way you kind of have
that sense of it being a welcoming presence along madison street there.
and kind of making sure that it is a lively and welcoming place in the evening as well as
during the day. And then thinking also about these ideas of public art and
presenting a moment perhaps where there is working with a muralist or various muralists
or just a semblance that art would come into the building and the artwork would define
the public realm and come into the building so that you are really welcomed into this idea
of oak park community. We are happy to answer any questions about the design
specifically and we will move have been shared, as well.which so, as we turn our hand or turn
our minds and eyes to village hall and where the estimated construction costs are falling,
we have here and sorry, my eyes are bad and I will lean over and squint a little bit and
looking at the basic renovation in addition coming in at the 27 million of the maintenance
items which include a lot of exterior work and just obvious conditions and the envelope
windows in the building, the l courtyard windows and others a total of $33 million.
there is the ad alternates which are listed there if those would be chosen and then be
included of course some ideas about escalation and about how this is the nature of money and
time and construction costs. We do have more itemized breakdowns here kind of looking
at the envelope improvements and there was a request last time and there were buckets of
money that were more itemized and we included them this year for conversation and where the
exterior improvements and the maintenance side and renovations fall and also shows
the subtotals about the construction cost and where they are for things like
escalation and general conditions and other contractor fees and contingencies on this
page. And we do get a sense of where the mechanical systems are and
speaking of which - you are very quiet efficient systems! And where the mechanicals and
the electrical etc. And where all of these line items come into contribute to the final
cost. And turning to the police department we have separated
the two sections of the renovated existing building and the addition into the 44.6
million and the secure police parking garage at 10.5 million and the various site
developments allowing the project to go forward at 2.3 that comes to the 57.5 million.
and again we can see the alternates just one alternate here and then the price of
delay which is the escalations that come along with that. As far as breakdown, these two
you can see more detailed breakdown for site development and the police department and
the parking garage, as well.n and so we see these numbers right here.
and with that if there are any questions that we can answer, we are happy to do so.
>>rob sproul: just one point of clarification, the delivery on schematic design was for the
village hall project as well as the police station. What you have before you
tonight is a motion to advance the police station component of this project.
that does not mean that staff is abandoning the rest of the work that has occurred at
village hall. I do think that we want to work with the architectural team to
evaluate how that project can be further phased in more meaningful ways over time and
maybe that work continues on more through our capital plan and is acknowledged through
that process in a meaningful fashion. So, the focus tonight is on the
police station, but it is not the intent here to abandon the rest of the work that has
occurred. There is a lot of good work and recommendations for improvement
that can happen here even on a incremental level that we would continue to advance forward.
but, if the board has a different perspective on that we would be happy to hear that
tonight, as well and can make any adjustments necessary as it relates to that.
>>president scaman: who would like to start us off? >>trustee wesley: I appreciate
the presentation as always, meg. Great detail.
the number one question I have goes back to one of the questions I had last time we
talked about this is that we have these exclusions, but there is no quantification
around them and I don't know how to value them. >>meg: I will speak into this,
that has to do with the construction manager is going to be hired as well and some of
those would be kind of fine-tuned related to their contract and their approach.
some things like is this nightwork or is it not and are they accelerating some of that
stuff and how they approach the project that will come out in those kind of figures related
to the manner in which the work is done and we can present the design and work with our cost
estimator to say like how much will this cost and then when it comes down to it, the
construction manager will determine if you want it fast like this and how - the how and
methodologies. So, those exclusions are accommodated by the c mark.
>>trustee wesley: this is a question that is more for you, rob or maybe kevin, can we get
a small, medium, large estimate around the exclusions so we can estimated all in cost to the l
project? Because, we still don't really have that.
that is better than what we had last time and we can incrementally move forward in a
more granular and better estimate and I do appreciate that and I do appreciate that
the number also looks better, but I do not know how much better without knowing how to
quantify the amount of these exclusions. >>rob sproul: we can talk
off-line with the team about trying to get you some understanding with that number.
change and even through the process, because things like design contingency and
construction contingency, as you continue to develop the design and move through that
process, those numbers actually go down because the risk associated with the design goes
down. So, there is a lot of fluctuation that happens
through the process as we continue to advance through the numbers.
and we can talk about maybe what a percentage increase looks like over that.
and I mean just I will leave it there. >>trustee wesley: I appreciate
that. And I'm always fine with numbers going down.
if you give me a high number and you come back later and you can say hey, guess what, the
number changed and it went down, I would say thank you. >>rob sproul: and that is
always - we understand that that is the expectation through the process and the design
process you always want to be more conservative and as you continue to refine that design,
you typically have opportunities to reduce costs when possible and we have been
going through the c-mar process and there are ecstatic contractors and they are very
excited to be able to see how early they are getting involved and they are very confident
that they would bring a lot of value to the project and understand again the board 's
desire to find opportunities. >>trustee wesley: I definitely appreciate that.
and I would say the sooner the better on that and obviously based on what you just said, as
well. That is really honestly - I will not belabor the point on
this one. This is just really mostly what I had.
I would like to be able to know what like the maximum number that we are going to spend on
this is and I would say that this is going to cost $75 million or less, right?
and I can say when pople ask what does it cost? $75 million or less or whatever
the number is. And that - >>rob sproul: are you okay with
200 million or less? >>trustee wesley: 40 billion is what I just heard!
>>rob sproul: that is a good point and a reminder tonight we are not signing any contracts,
the intent is to return to the board with those contracts and that is something that we can
have by the time we returned with the contract for jlk and the construction manager to be
able to give you that level of information. >>trustee wesley: perfect.
I appreciate that. >>president scaman: jim? >>trustee taglia: thank you for
the work. It is very pleasant looking complex or campus that you are
working on. I appreciate that. There is a lot of good thoughts
here just a quick question on the underlying police station numbers that we have today so
far based upon these - can you tell me how it compares with the last look just a few months
ago? Is there much in the way of differences?
that we can quantify just so we can understand what direction we are headed at least?
>>meg: so, we, yes, thank you very much. Thank you for pointing this
out. We had a previous cost of 63.7 that was the previous concept
phase plan and price for this. And tat has come down and we have done some value
engineering and trying to figure out how we can be even at schematic design level
trying to be clever with how we ae using space or selecting materials, etc. So, it has come
down and we are at the point where we are scraping kind of where we need and what we
really need to spend to have a police facility that is durable, proper, adhering to
proper standards for police because they deserve a building that protects them as they
protect you and so we have to have certain things in this building for the idea of a
police station. And we are being prudent and I mean we do - I don't know 95%
pblic work at jlk and dewberry and we are good stewards and we tried to provide public with a
good value. And I think that accepting the challenge of like how prudent
can you be or how careful can you be and we take that to heart.
so, we accepted the challenge and we did get it down and this is a $200 million building or
however - >>trustee taglia: the last update is a reduction.
is this a reduction? >>meg: this is a reduction again.
>>trustee taglia: that is great. I appreciate that.
may I ask about the village hall portion? And rob, I just want to get a
little bit more background in this is the first I've heard of this where I am stepping back a
little bit and I just want to understand this a little bit more.
what is the reasoning behind this? Is this too much to bite off?
>>manager jackson: we just want to make sure that as we move forward, the project
encompasses everything that we are doing that we are contemplating financially with
the introduction project and large ones and there is an opportunity for wicked phase
this in and not saying that is what we should do, but we just want to make sure that we have
that option and pathway that is available and what it may look like.
>>trustee taglia: and why would that be beneficial as opposed to doing it as asingular
project? >>manager jackson: I think you would be beneficial in the
context of what the board 's ultimate preferences are and how they want - the financial
commitments that they want to make and a variety of projects that they have in front of us.
we have talked to the finance committee and the board has adopted a framework for
financing the village hall in its entirety. So, we understand that that is
a possibility and that we could do this in a responsible manner and ultimately save a lot of
money over time because of phasing it will be more expensive, but from a
decision-making standpoint - the board wants to focus on the police station first.
and then we shift to having a more thoughtful conversation about the village hall and I
think the idea is to really make sure that we fully vet this for the different possible
pathways. So, we can do this all at once and that still may yet be the
board 's choice or if you wanted to phase this end, this is what it would look like and
they would be trade-offs that you would have to consider as part of phasing it in.
>>trustee taglia: a little bit of capacity concern, but that is not a bad thing.
>>manager jackson: I think it is just due diligence. >>rob sproul: and there is an
understanding that a lot of the work that will happen in village hall is predicated on
the police moving out of the basement. So, there is time, right?
so, w were to try to honor the board 's preference to accelerate the police station
project understanding that we had time to deal with village hall on kind of a different
timeline then the police station. >>trustee taglia: very good.
thank you. Scaman: this has not actually changed - we have always said
from the very beginning that the police department was the priority.
but that we also wanted to understand all of what was our responsibility and what all of
our needs are and on day one - I say that you pull it police station out of the basement and
you are going to need to address that. So, we have been looking for
all of the iformation from day one. And it has been said at every
step of the way that it will become at some point our choice to at what rate we do that.
and we have always said the police station is the priority, but it is not going to end
there. And so nothing is changed. Just an order of events.
(chuckle). >>trustee taglia: I am done, sorry.
>>trustee eder: I will go next. Thank you. At all of the work.
and I echo trustee wesley 's comments, the number going down is good.
I - I did see the number go up recollection?all - is this my I think I remember it was the
26 million range and now it is up to 33, did I - >>meg: we had a couple of
different versions and ways of dealing with village hall and at one point the council
chamber was larger and elsewhere and it was moving around.
places.smaller in different and this is where after kind of moving the design through the
various iterations we had shared, selecting one and further developing it and
looking at how things need to change in between to actually work and get the elevator in an
all of the pieces and parts in place appropriately so that the council chamber was right sized
so that we had the pre-function space that was adequate to make that ada and accessible in full
public entrance appropriate. And just today as I was walking from the west you know I wanted
to take a picture of the ada it should not be - and so which tweaking this building to get
it where it needs to be to respect the public and the and business changes that need
to be made with the project. >>trustee eder: and we are not approving that tonight and so
there is still more time to potentially refine - >>meg: and at risk to just
further explain - with an existing building there is always the work that comes in
the beginning and the low hanging fruit if there is some window work or masonry work or
maintenance items that are a part of a larger scope of work, there comes a time where the
changes to the mechanical systems really need to be made in tandem with changes to any
plans that you're making so that you get the benefit of getting all of your work done.
so, there comes a moment where that is very appropriate, but we achieve that, it is just how
that by step-by-step and analyzing and again - that is with existing structures where
you like how you say peck away at the bigger issue and then you get to the point where
eventually there is the bigger moment. But, there is lots of steps
before that. >>trustee eder: got it. Thank you.
I know that we are pretty far down the road and 63 - 57, that is good.
I am also really interested in seeing the ways that we can reduce that even further
because as we are talking about this at the finance committee and the budget and the debt
that this village is going to have to take on with bonds to pay for this in the debt
service that we are going to have to pay over 30 years to pay this off - anything that we
can do now to reduce this large ticket item even though it is a one-time expense, that will
affect the amount of money that we have t stand over 30 years. And so I'm really curious if
there is any other areas that you think potentially could be additional savings and
particularly interested in the parking garage and it just seems massive.
like it is a double-decker and I know there is probably needs for secure parking and things
like that, but $10 million for a parking garage - I mean please explain how that is so
needed and the scale of it and need all of those parking we spaces and I'm very curious
what we can do there. >>meg: bills are the number of parking spaces required for the
program and I think there is not enough parking spaces right now and there needs to be
adequate parking spaces for patrol change for the necessary vehicles and then protecting
again like that is a very station when people are olice arriving by car with shift
change and whatnot and we can always look at everything if there is a more efficient
fiscally responsible way to do that and again we have been doing serious value engineering
in this process, as well. Think the one thing that stands out is stepping back even from
that - construction always just gets more expensive. And these numbers are for a
2027 dart and everything escalates if you move to 2028 and that is the thing that you
can do to not make that more expensive and do it sooner. That is the only thing that I
bring to that. Everything will just get more expensive.
>>rob sproul: it is important to note that the intent of the parking garage is to serve all
of the police squad vehicles and all of the vehicles that the village owns plus all of
the officers 's private vehicles which we do not provide that level of you know
just parking on the street. And we have to account for I think it is the afternoon shift
change where you actually have basically almost everybody and all three shifts converging at
the same time and this motion that is on and a shift that is coming off and there vehicles
are there as well and you have the new shift coming on and you need to account for all of
those spots and it is a lot of parking, but if you want to provide secure safe parking for
the police officers, you have to account for all of that parking just for that window in
those couple windows of time each day. >>trustee eder: I would still
love to see it come down if possible. Any other areas that you see as
opportunities for reduction in cost and other parts of the build out?
>>rob sproul: from my perspective the biggest opportunity is when we get the
construction manager on and they're able to work directly with the engineering and
architecture team t talk through some of the design decisions that they have been
making and maybe opportunities to change the construction method that may be they had
assumed or change timelines on how quickly things can get done or you know opportunities to
purchase materials sooner. Think that there are some opportunities and there is also
quite a bit of - I should not say quite a bit and I don't know exactly what that means,
but there is contingency related to the structure of the existing building and we have
not been able to get as much information about the existing building as we want and so we
have had to kind of worst-case scenario that situation and if things are not worst-case
scenario, there may be potential for cost savings there as we can refine the
design based on the actual circumstances that exist. I don't think that we are going
to see huge reductions, but I think that we all and I think everyone here and even the
construction managers that we were talking to all understand the importance of finding
additional value savings with the project and everybody knows that it's kind of one of the
primary drivers of moving this project forward. >>trustee eder: and I
appreciate all you've done so far to reduce it and I'll keep repeating myself t hammer that
home. Last question I think - is the cost of acquiring the building,
the bank building included in this? Additional 2.6 or something,
right? >>rob sproul: the number has not been determined.
>>trustee eder: not determine. Something in the ballpark. I think those are all of the
questions I had and I appreciate the work and any opportunities would be greatly
appreciated by everyone in the community. Straw: we have talked a lot
about the cost has gone down and that is great. I actually want to zoom out on
that point a little bit, because we have talked about the $6 million in savings from
last time you were here, but I think as important context when we started having these
conversations back in 2024, the estimate of building a new police station on a separate
site and making renovations and improvements to village hall was $140 million.
and so the combined number that we are down to now of building a new police station off site
and renovating and improving village hall is a combined about $90 million.
so, through this process and through your diligent work and through the advocacy of full,
board and the work of staff, we have reduced the sticker price by $50 million.
and that is no small achievement. So, I am incredibly grateful
for all of the work that everyone has put in on this over the last two years.
I do think - the design for the police department, it makes sense and obviously if we can
save more money you know I agree that would be lovely. I want to reiterate that.
when do you expect that on the village hall side that you would be coming back with what
the timeline and the phasing approach that you want to discuss with us would be so
that we - when would you expect that we would be making decisions on that?
>>manager jackson: cfo b reminds me about the financing plan and we have adopted
financial framework to initiate construction of the village hall improvements in 2028 first
quarter. And this means you know and maybe we can put this in a more
specific timeframe to be able to really drill down on it and we kow that the conversation
about village hall, once we move this project once we move this along into design and into
construction in 2027, at least by early 2027 we need to start talking about the village hall
in anticipation of initiating the project in 2028. >>rob sproul: I would just say
in advance about you may see and speaking of the low hanging fruit, there are some things
that we think even within 2027 we should start to tackle in terms of the maintenance and we
have a million-dollar grant to help assist with replacing all of the glazing around council
chambers or not council chambers, but the courtyard and you may see even those projects
come in advance of that recession because the opportunity exists and the work
needs to get done to piece out some of those smaller projects. >>trustee straw: I bring this
up because one of the things that we have been discussing and certainly one of the things
that we have seen from the last decade of history in the village is when we delay these
projects, the costs go up. And we are looking here at the pricing around village hll
with escalations of 5 1/2, 12 and a half as those costs get delayed.
and certainly - I want us to be thoughtful about phasing in and be thoughtful about sort of
obviously we need a place for the police department to go before we start doing work in
the basement of village hall. These things all make sense. And I don't want us to delay
unnecessarily, because I cannot even - you know the history so much better than I do of how
long we have been discussing the ned to do a new police department and I have talked to
folks who say as long as they have been on the force, there has been talk about a new
police department. And the cost estimates have gone from - have magnified
immensely as a result of delays. Things to be in a similar place
where instead of the incredible cost reductions you have managed to achieve as we have
value engineered this, now you are looking at the cost increasing as a result of delay
and the fact that materials and labor all get more expensive over time.
>>president scaman: excellent. I'll keep doing this and insert a tiny bit so I do not forget
and I do not think that I have to keep defending some of this, I think we are largely together
and of the community is with us. But, we never actually voted
yes on $140 million and I know that you did not say that - I am just putting it out there -
what we voted yes on was to continue moving forward and every step of the way said can
you please make it cheaper. And so yes you have done that and you have proven that you
are constantly thinking about that and I will say that I have gone ahead and encourage my
colleagues if that is what is still on your mind you can go ahead and keep saying this.
but, I also want to give credit as you are also here and hopefully you hear this loud
and clear, that obviously you have been dligent and listening.
okay. Who would like to go next? All right, I'll just keep -
>>trustee leving-jacobson: okay. I will echo the gratitude for
the value engineering that is happening. I guess my question is like two
parts or if I am assuming the answer to the first - I know that there is a lot of
contingencies or factors keeping us from understanding costs related to whoever gets
put on as the project manager or construction manager. But, is there a ballpark that
we know like 2027 budget and 2028 budget would mean for this part of the municipal campus?
>>rob sproul: yes, I think so. I mean 2027 - yes. By the time that we are coming
back with these contracts we have the construction manager we will be able to give you an
idea of the completion on an order of magnitude scale. But, I think we should be able
to get that information to yu before the end of the year. >>trustee leving-jacobson: for
27 and 28? >>rob sproul: the completion of the police station project.
and as we kind of talk, there are those projects that we will probably start inserting into
the capital plan that we are maintenance projects associated with village hall so you get an
understanding of those and then we kind of circle back with staff and village manager and
we can probably be looking at q1, q2 two for a larger village hall and costs associated with
that. >>trustee leving-jacobson: so, what you think 2027 is going to
be - >>rob sproul: primarily design. And we hope that we will be in
a position to break ground at some point during the year. There is going to be some costs
associated with material purchase from the contractor to kind of start up, but the
majority of the cost associated with construction is going to come in 28 and 29.
>>trustee leving-jacobson: and acquisition - >>rob sproul: that is what we
are planning is associating. >>kevin bueso: kevin bueso, cfo for the village of oak park
erie so, this will include bond proceeds of $65 billion related to the police station which I
know is great news. And 2028 as we move the capital again ballpark amounts is on
the village hall we have at least $26.5 million and so just setting expectations again and
that does not necessarily align with what you are seeing here, because these are just again
estimates at this time. But, as we get closer to the actual budget amount, those
numbers are going to be going up. Abby budget as will be
presented for 2027 is going to include the bond proceed side on the revenue side on the
capital and then on the expenditure side it will be more again the numbers that rob
is talking about. Payout and cash flow, that is a different conversation.
that is the budget that is purely appropriating those funds and authorizing that we
are going to use the bond proceeds for that specific project.
capital plan is going to look a lot larger than what you're used to because of the bond
issuance is that we are planning for. 2028 as I mentioned, at least
as things are planned right now is for village hall again as the financing pan is currently
outlined for q1 and q2 of 2028 and that is going to be budgeted within that fiscal
year. Answers the question. But, I know that the numbers
themselves will be a lot larger than we normally see on the capital plan because if you
look at the budget you assume that all of that cash is going out, basil rob mentioned it
will be phased depending on when the work is actually done.
leving-jacobson: thank you. That is very helpful. >>president scaman: and since
you mentioned, you expect acquisition soon, can we just recap the timeline again?
>>rob sproul: so, I would say conservatively that we would expect to be breaking ground
before the end of next year. Think that we probably need to have some conversations with
the construction manager about logistics and what they would see as the best approach to
utilizing the site. It is a small site and it is bordered by two very busy
streets and so some of the assumptions that we have been making during the design phase
or staff was making about how the project to be phased in may need to be sweet with
deconstruction manager at risk and conservatively we will break ground before the end of
the year and if there is a phasing opportunity it could happen sooner assuming that
acquisition goes as hoped. >>meg: I concur working with the existing building and the
site, the contractor certainly wanted to get something done this year and whether that is
breaking new ground or whether that is working with the existing building and do
utility work, something will happen. I think that is what we want to
work toward. >>president scaman: okay. Jim?
>>trustee taglia: the last thing I want to mention about this item at the risk of
causing upset over my colleagues if push came to shove and if looking for cost
reduction we can always look at the construction of the new council chambers which we have
not discussed exactly what the cost, but I know it is not inexpensive and are not trying
to pick a fight here, I am just suggesting that things change, cost goes up and that is a
expendable item that we really - it is a want and perhaps there are some safety issues
that are present, but anyway - >>president scaman: first of all - we never get mad at you,
jim, but we should never say never - we value your input. Okay?
value your input. Correct, sometimes. We may have a disagreement, but
always value your input. Motion to go beyond 10 pm. >>speaker: moved.
>>speaker: second. >>president scaman: motion by trusted friend a and second by
trustee taglia. All in favor?
(multiple speakers) aye. >>president scaman: excellent.
who is next? You don't have to talk, that is fine, too.
>>trustee enyia: lower money is better. Obviously we think it is - I'm
glad that we have been able to bring down the cost and continue to find avenues to
bring that down. I agree - the easiest way to save more money on this is to
get this started sooner. So, I really appreciate all of the different avenues and the
reduction of almost $6 million and I think that we are taking the right steps.
I hope to hear mre about some of these things and how much that impacts the final number,
but I really like were it is going. >>president scaman: okay,
excellent. I just want to echo brian and trustee enyia and confirm
whether there is other direction to the same point, but I think the sooner the
better on al the projects. Trustee taglia 's opinion that
this room does not need to b replicated with the new space, I do disagree.
I do think that disability access very much matters and is not sufficient in this space or
access to this building at all. Many of you are aware that I have been caring for my mother
and she is with a walker now and that ramp that you mentioned access to would not
be safe for her without two people helping her. And that is something that she
said, that she would love to come back to illinois so she could see me back here in our
member bob tucker used to make the same point when he was sitting in this seat.
and we don't need - we are supposed to be accessible to all.
and the safety of this and I mean - I will stop repeating myself after this statement,
but it is ludicrous that we walk through a tube to get into this room.
I realize that architecturally we love it, sure. But, it is still ludicrous in
today's day and age for safety of everybody in here that we walk through a tube.
you are welcome to disagree! And I will still talk to you. (laughter) so, anyway - I do
think that it is important that we stay on schedule. Accepting here is that there is
a practical logistics to getting started and the thing that is the priority here and
then just keep the ball moving. Just keep the ball moving. Okay.
now, the care for all of our employees and access for all of our residents very much
mtters. >>trustee eder: you are looking for more direction on this
additional alternative nmber one the real-time crime center buildout.
are you looking for direction on that tonight as a part of this item?
consider this for later? Okay, just wanted to check before we take a look.
>>president scaman: and I'll not even mentioned the steepness of the stairs going
down if there was an emergency. Okay, moving on. Okay - we do need a vote on
this and we have a motion on the table, correct? Okay.
clerk waters, please take the role. >>clerk waters: yes.
trustee enyia, yes, trustee straw, yes, trustee eder, trustee leving-jacobson, yes,
trustee taglia, yes, trustee wesley, yes and president scaman.
>>president scaman: yes. All right, thank you. Thank you all also for
listening on those design qualities as well. So, I entertain a motion to
approve an ordinance amending chapter 20 ("public health") of the oak park
municipal code by adopting regulations and fees for single-use bags
at retail establishments. >>speaker: moved. >>speaker: second.
>>president scaman: motion by trustee straw and second by trustee eder.
>>speaker: thank you, good evening. So, this item is the ordinance
in front of you that is based on a recommendation from the environment and energy
commission that you received back in march and it was included with the packets and I
could go through the presentation very quickly. Just some quick background this
went into place in 2018 and aside from a brief pause in collection into thousand 20,
to it and the eec brought this up last year as a potential way to reduce single use baggies as
well to maintain revenue into the sustainability fund. And so the results that we have
seen from the bag policy that has been in place since 2018 is that there has not been a
significant decrease in the use of bags and in fact baggies now are 39% higher than the use --
start of the policy and so the eec as a proposal that was to create a policy that would try
to do both, reduce the single use plastic bag use as well as maintain revenue.
ordinance in front of you reflects that proposal that we increase the bag fee by five
cents per year for the next three years until it reaches a cap of $0.29 in 2029.
ad with the proposed increases we see a reduction in use of the first year of 50% and still
maintain the revenue that we see today into the sustainability fund and in the
second year that can be as much as a 65% reduction in the third year and subsequent years as
much as a 75% reduction in the still maintaining the same e revenue.
that we have made to the ordinance to put this in place, we added a definition for small
retail establishments that allows us to apply the plastic bag ban while maintaining fees
just on the larger retailers. We added a five cent increase annually until 2029.
and we did add a requirement for signage at the retail establishments where this
applies and this is consistent with other jurisdictions that have similar fees.
and then we created the ban are plastic bags as well as requirements for the content of
the paper bags and added the stipulation that the bags should have handles on the
recommendation of one of the commissions that we spoke to. This also, this 40% recycled
content is also consistent with other ordinances that have a plastic bag ban a fee on paper
bags. So, in the lead up to bringing this ordinance to you, we did a
significant amount of community input and we did do some survey at the general public and the
eec put together a survey in 2025 and we have added a few events asking a very civil
question, yes or no supporting te plastic bag scaman seven and we have gotten overwhelming
at these events support for the ban. We spoke to the businesses and
all 17 of the businesses to whom the fee currently applies and give them opportunities for
input. We heard no significant pushback from those businesses
and we met with the business association council and also got input from the community
relations commission, disability access, aging in communities and the farmers
market which all informed our approach and the ordinance. So, if passed tonight, the next
step so that we will work with a designer to create a campaign that will help to get more
interest and excitement in the community for reducing some of those bag uses ad reusable
bags. It will create reminders and one of the things that we learn
is that one of the reasons people use the disposable bags is that they have forgotten the
reusable bags and things that people can use as reminders and create new tote bags that we
will give away for free as we currently do and we will announce the upcoming changes
in the village messaging that we have and we will work with the signage requirements and
help them to meet those requirements and we will consider temporarily expanding
places where people can come get the free tte bags and have more of a 24 hour access then
currently exists in village hall. And then in 2027, once this is
in place, we will increase our messaging around it so people know that the fee has increased
and we also have taken another suggestion from the commissions to create limited-edition tote
bags to get some excitement to help also promote other things like age awareness and earth
months and pride and other events and activities in the village.
and that is it. I will take any questions. >>president scaman: okay.
derek? >>trustee eder: I'll be brief. Thank you.
I know it is late. I appreciate all the work that you've done and staff have done
and the eec and I know that this was the proposal that eec is working on.
and I wish that they did not meet on tuesdays, I am always busier tuesdays because I'm
here. And if you go back a couple slides, we are charging a fee
for paper bags, as well. Why? >>lindsay: it occurs to all
retail bags and yes plastic is not biodegradable and it stays in the environment and
paperbacks also have an environmental impact and so it applies across the board for
all single use bags. >>trustee eder: but like glass, right?
much less - >>lindsay: depends on how you look at it, it is a reusable,
but it is not a single impact, it is generally considered preferable just because of it
does not have the consistent litter aspect, but it is not a zero environmental impact.
>>trustee eder: and we are going for zero. >>lindsay: well, you ask for
the justification of why - >>trustee eder: okay. I guess the second question is
if - they make biodegradable bags and we use them in our compost bins and that is
something like - they sort of biodegrade by like 2 and a half years is what some of these
are. Those also would have a fee associated with them if I tried
to switch from I like straight up plastic to a biodegradable bag, same fee, correct?
>>lindsay: correct. The fee applies to all single use bags.
so, even if it is a powder gettable compostable plastic bag, the fee would apply.
now, there are jrisdictions that have you know as we have said the content has to be 40%
recycled materials and there are some jurisdictions that allow for it to be a
compostable plastic and the fee would still apply, but it would not be a and, necessarily if we
wanted to go that route, but that is not what we have. >>trustee eder: when I first
great, I support this and how will we get this to dick and people are always going to
forget their bags. It is just always going to happen.
is there a way that we can adjust this so that I think people you know using paper
bags is a fine alternative and using compostable bags is a fine alternative and I we can
get - and I will - I just looked on amazon, you can purchase biodegradable bags and
it is like eight cents per bag and that is on amazon and I'm sure that you can get cheaper
than that and is there a way that we can maybe rewrite this so that we can actually get and
encouraged as opposed to - I'm just worried about great - money is coming in and then
2030 rolls aound and then all of a sudden like people are not going to want to pull the
trigger on the band for the money reasons and then also because there will be backlash
because people get upset about it and I have seen the bags backfire like in the city of
chicago and is there something that can get us in front of that?
>>lindsay: one of the things that we are written into this to encourage that sticky
behavior change is the three yar ramp up fee. That gives an opportunity for a
little bit more of a pain point every year as people get used to it and it also gives us
three years to do the education and outreach and communication and help make tat behavior
change step. And the combination of the fee plus the ban is something that
is used in a lot of jurisdictions around the country and has had beneficial
impact. Because, there is still an option if you forget your bag
that is the paper. >>trustee eder: and you are still paying the fee for it.
okay. >>lindsay: if you want to direct us to also add that
compostable plastic would be allowable, that is something that other jurisdictions have
included that we did not. >>trustee eder: I honestly think I do.
I'm curious what my colleagues then, but I think that we should give people an easy path
to do the right thing and outright ban may backfire if we do not offer that pathway.
and I'm curious what my colleagues think about that. But, I am interested in
pursuing that. More work for you. (chuckle).
>>president scaman: is there interest in at least - now, are you asking - are you asking to
table this agenda item two. >>trustee eder: I would ask for staff 's recommendation on what
you need to accomplish this? Would you like to take it back? Or what is -
>>president scaman: approve tis and come back later. >>trustee eder: I am open to
your suggestion. >>village manager: if the only change is to allow compostable
plastic bags in addition to paper bags once the ban goes ito effect for the same fee as
the paper bag, I think that we can make that as a floor amendment prior to his
execution. >>president scaman: of course. I was just asking if there is
actual resource -- research - >>trustee eder: it sounds like we have enough examples to
follow that we could - >>lindsay: I don't know off the top of my head which
municipalities there are that include this as an option, because it was not something
that we included. Remember seeing it, but I do not have that like at my
fingertips. Eder: I want to get it right and if it takes some time to
come back I am okay with that. >>president scaman: it does not change the immediate action.
like for the next year. >>trustee eder: sure, yes. Absolutely.
and I'm fine - I am good with things up to the outright ban.
three years. >>president scaman: okay. And how do others feel?
anybody else want to chime in? >>trustee wesley: I am a no on this.
before I say that, what are we trying to do with this? I would try to raise revenue?
are we trying to prevent certain types of bags? We trying to save the
evironment? What is our northstar? >>lindsay: yes.
and that is the situation that we have found ourselves in with the fee that has been in place
is that it has been successful raising revenue and not particularly being successful
in decreasing plastic bag use or single use bag use. Answer based on the research
that we have done on other communities that have successfully reduced single use
bag use and with the idea that we have gotten used to having this revenue source and we
would like to keep it, we have determined that this is a potential path to do both
things. >>trustee wesley: we are reducing single use bag use for
what purpose? >>lindsay: in order to reduce plastic use and in order to
reduce waste and in order to reduce paper and in order to reduce the environmental impact
of the single-use bags. >>trustee wesley: got it. Okay.
and so the reason I want to get specific around that is because earlier point about the
conversation about what is better, plastic or paper, right?
it takes several more uses of reuses of paper to offset the environmental impact of one
plastic bag and it takes an order of magnitude more reuses of a canvas bag to offset the
environmental impact of a plastic bag. And it's so if we are trying to
offset environmental impact, we are ding it backwards. And I do think that people will
use the bags, the hundred 50 times or whatever it is that it takes to offset the one plastic
bag eventually. And I think that is a long kind of road before they get there.
and I am all in favor of recycling and preventing single use of bags and pretty much
anything, right? We dumped too much stuff in landfills and I would like to
stop that. However, there is the alternative and the other side
of this coin is that to produce those canvas bags is a huge evironmental impact because if
they are cotton, anyway because there is just a lot that goes into that.
and then for paper - same thing. And if this is merely revenue -
just to be clear I'm not voting for increasing the amount regardless, because even though
it is only a nickel - it feels like it I not the right time to increase costs for people
shopping for food. And I look at the national scene which I hardly ever do
when we are talking about items here and I look at the national scene and I see a president
that is struggling because he did not reduce the price of food in this country for the
last two years and he said he would overnight. And when I think about adding
even a nickel to a plastic bag, it is not so much the cost, but the signal and it signals that
we are told after the struggles of the people on the street and I would like to not send that
message and I will not vote for that message. Maybe in the future where
inflation has decreased again towards what it used to be before the pandemic, then that
would be something that would be something that I would consider.
but, right now to me it just feels like not a message that I would personally want to stand
and the environmental impact of this does not motivate me to do it either.
because, the incentives are closer to the plastic bag then it does with the paper and the
canvas. So, that is where I am on it. >>lindsay: I would like to
respond just to the impact of the reusable bags. That is something that is
absolutely true. The environmental benefit of a reusable bag is only so much as
it is offsetting the plastic bags and there is a certain number that needs to be offset
for for it to be better. If you are using reusable bags as if they are disposable, then
it is far worse then reusing a plastic bag. And that is something that we
have had a lot of conversations about in my office and what the right approach is for a totebag
that we are providing and giving out, because we do not want to create a situation
where people are using them as if they are disposable because we are giving them away for
free. And that is something that we are trying to balance wth
making them available to people who you know would rather not pay the fee or the fee is
onerous to them, have an option that is free to them while also not creating an issue that
actually makes the environmental issue worse. That is something that we are
taking into consideration as we are doing this. And I also just will highlight
the one thing that we are not changing in the ordinance is the exemption for people who
are using snap benefits or other food assistance programs, they are exempted from the fee
and I know that that does not capture everyone for whom the cost of groceries is a burden.
but, that is something that we are continuing to think about in our outreach and the way
that we are working with their businesses. >>trustee wesley: I appreciate
you adding the additional contact, because I do largely agree that over the course of I
guess probably years, the more people we get on reusable bags, the better it is even if it
takes you know 150 or 30 times, whatever the number is to recoup that environmental
impact, because if you are using it, then as long as the not fall apart before that,
then we do eventually realized that environmental impact. And I do appreciate that
contact and I definitely agree that that is the forward motion.
I just think because of the length of time that it takes to recoup that in the current
economic situations and just macroeconomic situations currently that it is too much
of a long-range perspective for me to justify the near-term impact, even the perception of
the near-term impact is really what it is. Because, again it is a nickel
and over the course of the year, it amounts to $30 or $40 for some people maybe if they
are using them all the time. I don't know what the number is, but it is the perception
that we don't care that people are struggling and after some people even a nickel they feel
like too much. And honestly I would rather raise the levy then raise this
tax and nickel. >>trustee straw: I think cory raises an excellent point on
the increasing the fee in this moment. I think that one of the things
that you talk about is working with retailers on signage requirements and I think
including in that signage, hw free tote bags are available so that we can be making clear to
folks like we have a free alternative for you that will offset you know where you won't
have to pay this bag fee ever again. Because we will provide you
with the tote bags that you will use. I think that if we make sure to
be very aggressive about communicating that particularly in places where those shoppers
will see it, that is one way to address it. I also - I would like to adopt
this as we have it today I think that I would like to sort of see a little bit more
development around the idea of compostable plastic bags being an option in the same vein as
the paper bags when the complete ban comes into effect, because I don't know as we sit
here today sort of what the environmental impact of those two options like how they
compare. Because, certainly the paper bags have a higher cost to
environmental cost to produce and transport and on the flipside, they biodegrade and
they do not create the litter and I often use those paper bags in my house as compostable
bags for our compost bin. And obviously the compostable bags also would serve that
purpose. I don't know how paper bags vs. The plastic compostable bags
compare in how they break down and what the environmental cost of manufacturing r. I was not
prepared for that research tonight and obviously that was not something that we are
considering coming in. Worth us talking about sometime between now and 2030 and we can
adjust this. I may suggest is a memo that t addresses the questions that we
have heard tonight about composting and somebody can in response to that memo make a
motion and a second to be on a future agenda. >>trustee eer: and if I can
just add the behavior change that I'm most interested in is not every resident in the
village of oak park, it is if we can see the environmental impact of using paper bags or
compostable bags is way better which I assume it is, then comes the time for the ban if
they just switch to those, we don't have to make any educational campaign.
it is just what is there. That is the lever that I want to make sure we are pulling the
right one to make sure that the businesses make the right choice and then we all benefit
from that coice. That is where I want to go but I agree.
the memo idea sounds great. I want to have a fully informed decision and I am okay with
voting on this as is tonight and bringing the conversation back.
>>trustee enyia: you probably want to talk to the businesses that are still using plastic,
because if you can figure out why they don't want t switch, then we will have the data we
need to get everyone else on board, because I feel like there are tons of people who
want to move away from the bags, but when the source is giving you the bags -
>>trustee wesley: really quick. I appreciate that comment, derek.
and what I would say to that is if our goal is to the northstar goals which is to we want
plastic bags because paper is biodegradable even though we know the initial construction
cost is multiples of a plastic bag, but we think the biodegradable part is what we
want to see then I would be perfectly fine if that is the northstar that we are pursuing.
I just don't want to increase fees and I want to be clear on what we are trying to do and
then move the policy in the direction of what we are trying to accomplish.
>>trustee eder: a lot of things going in that memo. >>president scaman: all right.
okay. We still have one more agenda item.
all of the comments that have been made tonight and do you have anything?
>>trustee taglia: the cost of the paper bag, the bags are paid for by the stores, right?
the nickel they get does not cover it - so, a paper bag cost a lot more.
you're putting that burden on the stores. >>lindsay: that is something
that we heard from the business groups that we spoke to and something that we can consider
boat ban like what kind of and assistance can we provide or programs can we put to place
that help alleviate that cost for businesses. >>trustee taglia: whatever gets
decided you don't understand the business to a neighboring community that does not charge
you know zero and then it becomes more attractive. I appreciate the desire to
understand what the potential outcomes could be at this stage because there is a lot of them
and they are complex, much like zoning, actually - >>president scaman: stop
mentioning that at this hour, please! Good point again in that
bringing this back to c4 and I think that we have got more of our neighboring communities to
participate and that would make all of this easier. I mean honestly - I have been
noting in other states that are more places where I shop that ask if I want a bag and just as
soon as do you want a bag, I say you know what, I don't need one, thank you.
thank you for asking. Granted I carry a very big purse, but - (laughter) okay -
so. Work on everything all at the same time, right?
have a motion and second on the table and I'm hearing interest in voting on it as is and memo
forthcoming and someone can then motion to bring it back if necessary after the memo.
clerk waters, please take the role. >>clerk waters: trustee eder,
yes, trustee transects, -- straw, trustee taglia, yes, trustee leving-jacobson, yes,
trustee enyia, yes, trustee wesley, no. President scaman, yes.
>>president scaman: okay. A motion by trustee taglia and seconded by trustee enyia to
discuss the establishment of a tax increment finance (tif)
district along roosevelt road. Motion, please. This is discussion only so we
can proceed. >>trustee taglia: I wrote out a little bit and it may take two
minutes at te most. >>trustee taglia: pass them
down! We need sugar. Sorry, jim.
it is perfectly fine. What did I get? I have to read!
that is not fair. Okay. >>president scaman: we have a
public comment, is that right? And I don't know if you have been here all night, did you
have any public comment this evening? >>speaker: (away from mic).
>>speaker: one last time. 733 s. Elmwood. We already have the motion made
by trustee taglia entering or. In short it is about time that the village of oak park put a
tif on roosevelt road. There was a note in the staff memo that there was community
input there with no committee input given to this item and I don't think that is quite true
because the community has been inputting on this for years. And that it is a good idea and
if you want idea how good of an idea it is, just go over to the borough inside which is put
together a tif for a number of years since 1997 and apparently it has done gangbusters and
probably the biggest the you could see is toronto read, but the increment that that created
now had oak park done the same, way back when - we would not be dealing with situations like in
boston and the resources to deal with the corner of boston and 6100 and 7100 roosevelt
road to get an idea of what could be done, look at what has been caused not to be done.
and that is why this should proceed. A friend of mine, jackie, she
is a resident of oak park and by far the biggest tif expert, nongovernmental or let's say
consultant. But, she suggests and I think this is great, you're going on
roosevelt road from boston to harlem. Between mabel and harlem and
you bring in the moore plan into the same tif. And so give that some thought
and get behind what they have proposed and move on from there.
and maybe we will see something in the future or at least in my lifetime.
thank you. >>president scaman: okay, you have a statement.
>>trustee taglia: okay, I'll just read it very quickly. I support creating a tax
implementing financing district for roosevelt road because I believe it is an important tool
for strengthening the court or in investing in the future and roosevelt road is an important
gateway to oak park and open to local businesses and serves our residents and neighboring
communities and has tremendous potential, but realizing the potential requires focus
long-term investment at a tif would let us invest a portion of the new property tax growth
generated within the district back into the roosevelt road area.
those funds can help improve infrastructure, support redevelopment, encourage
private investment and make the accord or more attractive to businesses and customers.
recommendations as far back as 2014 and probably before, but that is the one that I can
recall and craig would probably remember the other study have recommended a tif along
roosevelt road. But, it was never acted on. I also see this as an
opportunity to support targeting businesses. Economic development should not
simply be about bringing something new, it should be about helping the businesses
that have already invested in our community succeed and grow.
sidewalks, landscaping, storefronts and other public infrastructure can make
roosevelt road a more welcoming and vibrant place. A stronger roosevelt road can
also strengthen oak park 's overall tax based encouraging thoughtful development and
filling vacant and underused properties that can generate economic activity that benefits
the entire community for decades to come. Of course ceating a tif should
come with clear goals and transparency, accountability and careful oersight as to how
public dollars are spent. Tif spending has been a cause of concern in the past and a
tif is a tool and the success depends on how responsibly we use it.
I support a roosevelt road tif because I believe that we should invest strategically in
this important part of oak park with a thoughtful plan and responsible oversight, we can
support local businesses, attractive investment, improve the cord work and help
roosevelt road reach its full potential. Thank you.
>>trustee enyia: I cannot say it any better than that. Just living in oak park for as
long as I have, when you look at the different corridors throughout that border of oak
park you always wonder what more can we be doing to show a better corridor and also bring
a sense of pride to those that live on the outsides of - right outside these corridors.
and I consistently talk to neighbors because I live right off of the roosevelt corridor
and that is what they continuously talk to me about. I could say the accent and
everything, but they are always asking me, when are we going to get this?
are we going to see something on our side of the street? All of our neighbors are
completely fine to walk across the street and go to berlin and do their shopping or whatever,
but they wonder when it is going to come to their side of the street and knowing that
there is a way to create a level of investment that brings back to these areas would be
massive. Road is the poster child for reinvestment into a community
and when you see what berwyn has done on the other side of the street in such a short
period of time and how frequently these shops are having patrons come up and
utilize it is huge and it is a beautiful thing to see on the weekends to see families you
know utilizing that space and is on the other side of the street where there is not too
much happening on our side. Not saying that it cannot happen or that what is already
there that is working - we want to add to that and I think that this gives us the best
opportunity to do some of those things and I wholeheartedly agree with the same idea about
stretching to the moore property and including that within that tif.
and I think that is a tremendous idea and I think the residents would agree to it.
but, personally it is just something that through conversations with trustee
taglia and just in the past we have talked about this and no village manager jackson has
brought it up, as well. I think that it is all something that we would want to
see and careful oversight to make sure it has been done properly and we execute this
the right way which is huge here. And I think this is where I can
see a great opportunity for us as a village. >>trustee straw: I am in
agreement. And mr. Donovan, when you mentioned rapping in the moore
property, I think you probably saw corey and I cuckle, because I had said that to cory
not six hours ago. As we were discussing this. I think that it makes sense
absolutely to wrap it up to include the moore site and I think the moore site has the
potential to serve as an anchor for the roosevelt core door in some ways.
I would say I think that as we do this on our southern border that we should at the same time
be discussing a similar district on north avenue and I think that we are on both of
our borders and on roosevelt absolutely we are seeing development and on the borough
inside outpacing development on the oak parkside and the same is becoming true of our north
avenue border where development and chicago that does have a tif district on north avenue is
outstripping development in oak park and obviously there is need for development with a
couple of buildings that are vacant and in a poor state of disrepair through fire or
neglect or otherwise. And so I am in support and I think that this is an important
and effective tool for spurring new development and yes - >>president scaman: village
manager jackson, anything from your standpoint? I mean my commitments would be
similar in that and I don't to cut anyone else off and corey - but, I will say really quickly
that north avenue and the areas of our community are also on my mind, go ahead.
>trustee wesley: a couple things. One, I fully support tif on
roosevelt road and the wrapping up of the moore property as long as we also include north
avenue and I think that those have been discussed in conjunction for the entire time
I have been paying attention to civic discourse in this village and they have both been under
invested for the entirety of I think there is - I will tie everything into zoning and I
will tie it to this intentionality and what I will say is that I think in the past
the village has been intentional about establishing all of the community and the
reason for it is the investment in roosevelt road and north avenue because we have treated
them as barriers between oak park and the city and oak park in our southern neighbors and I
think even with the establishment of a tif and the intentionality and the
perspective on how we treat these border areas has to change in order for this to be
successful. That is all I have. >>president scaman: okay, any
other comment? >>trustee eder: in support and I live close to roosevelt as
well couple blocks from my house. I think - rapping in the moore
property makes sense. I think roosevelt and north - there is some tension in this
and I do want to call out that there is - there is - this is going to affect if it were to
be put in place it would affect the tax revenue from our partnering municipality and the
schools and I think that is just something that we need to conversations with those folks
so they know what the intentional impact would be. And also if we develop these
areas, there is an opportunity to put up more housing on those corridors as well which means
more people and kids go to school and is so there is a virtuous cycle that can happen
and it is all about the details about how this gets implemented.
stage, at this hour - generally favorable, but there is obviously a deeper conversation
that needs to be had before things really take off. >>president scaman: okay, so
>>manager jackson: I think - understanding what we are trying to accomplish in these
gratefully accept the challenge to do the tif study and come back with some recommendations
and so I would just like to say thank you to trustee enyia and taglia and all of you for
putting this on the table and giving us some direction to move on this and so we are
excited to come back with the studies and come up with some recommendations.
>>president saman: right. And I appreciate how you stated it, village manager jackson so
that w can prioritize as well. Because, we have mentioned roosevelt road and I am hearing
that as a priority, but we have also been talking about north avenue to trustee wesley 's
point four may be even longer. And now we are finally seeing - longer than I have been in
office there was a promise for north avenue that never came to fruition.
but, now we are finally seeing some early seed money and schematic design in order for
north avenue. Information that we need I think and to allow staff the
opportunity to give us all of the information with what is possible so that we can
prioritize because with more property that has also been mentioned a lot and the need
for the tif there, there are other directions we can go from the property as well that we
should contemplate to understand what the end goals are.
but, staff is hearing roosevelt road, moore and north avenue pretty loudly, right?
>>manager jackson: yes. >>president scaman: thank you. Then we do not need further
action on that right now other than we will see that come back to us and called to board and
clerk. Clerk waters? >>clerk waters: pass.
>>president scaman: trustee enyia? Trustee wesley?
wesley: pass. >>trustee straw: pass. >>trustee taglia: pass.
>>trustee leving-jacobson: okay, so back to school time is upon us and high school goes
back nd 97 starts tomorrow and it is a good time to remind ourselves about the importance
of secure firearm storage and this week is actually smart week apart of the smart
campaign which is public education campaign that is a part of every town for gun
safety and it reminds parents and caregivers and neighbors if they have a firearm in their
home to securely store that meaning that it is in a container, inaccessible to
anybody other than the owner and otherwise if it is in your home or vehicle and the acronym
s, secure so that means it is securely stored, m, modeling responsible behavior and
parents and children talking about what to do if they come upon a firearm as a precaution,
not a guarantee, a is my favorite most important is before a play date or
revisiting a new home, maybe always ask about the presence of a firearm if they have one
and how it is stored and r, recognizing the risk of suicide and t, tell each other,
neighbors, friends etc. To be smart. And have a very sfe school
year. Thank you. >>trustee eder: rest in peace
dolly parton. >>president scaman: yes. Thank you.
wonderful person. A musician. Entertain a motion to adjourn.
>>speaker: moved. >>speaker: second. >>president scaman: all in
favor? (multiple speakers)
aye. >>president scaman: have a good evening.