Lincoln, Illinois
City Council Committee's Meeting
February 9, 2010
Minutes of the City of Lincoln City Council Committees' Meeting held in the Council Chambers on Tuesday, February 9, 2010.
Those present were Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert. Also present were Police Chief Erlenbush, EMC Manager Mr. Tackett, Safety and Building Officer Mr. Last, City Engineer Mr. Mathon, and Fire Chief Hulett. Also present were City Attorney Mr. Bates, Mayor Snyder, Deputy City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.
Mayor Snyder called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. There were nine Aldermen present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert), and none absent, and one seat vacant.
Mayor Snyder said after the sadness and sorrow we've been through the last couple of days with the passing of Nathan I thought maybe perhaps tonight we could open our Council meeting the way that the State Legislature does in Springfield and the way that our houses of Congress do in Washington, DC and that is with an opening prayer. I thought there would be nobody better to do that than former Colleague to many of you former Alderman, community leader and I think a friend to all of us Glenn Shelton. He asked Rev. Shelton to come and do that.
Rev. Glenn Shelton prayed.
Mayor Snyder thanked Rev. Shelton and said they would do a Resolution in Nathan's memory as the last item next Tuesday. To let you all know the visitation is Friday night from 5-7 at Holland Barry and Bennett Funeral Home and the memorial service is Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Neighbors to Nations Church.
The Mayor asked for the Committees' Issues to be Presented:
We have several items to take up tonight. We have several guests here and I am going to let Mr. Bates address that. It involves a bond issue that the city did.
Mr. Bates said a few weeks ago we were approached by Greg Eimer of Lincoln College. If some of you that have been around for a while the City of Lincoln and I believe also the Town of Normal did a bond issue with Lincoln College. There's been a technical issue come up with that bond issue with absolutely no fault of anyone involved with the college or the city. As part of that bond issue there were certain agricultural real estate was pledged as collateral which is extremely common and by many times and by many borrowers. Some events with our economy have created this technical problem because as many of you well know the value of farmland has astronomically increased over the last 3-5 years.
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Mr. Bates said it’s not by anybody's design and it has never happened in this bond municipal setting before but because of that there is technically some issue of arbitrage that I am utterly amazed about. The college discovered this through their own due diligence in monitoring the bond issue and their calculations that have to be made periodically and once it came to their attention that there was this technical problem they retained very competent legal counsel and they approached the administrative agency in charge of this type of thing. They have been advised by their counsel who I have talked repeatedly over the course of the last few weeks that they should submit a request through what is called a voluntary closing agreement program to resolve this technical problem with the service and move forward. Because we are the issuer of this bond issue and Lincoln College is the borrower this submission to this voluntary closing agreement program technically has to come from the city. I don't believe that is always the case and legal counsel for the college advised me that this is normally done by submission by the borrower but there is a new officer that is involved in this process and the program and her interpretation is the issuer is actually the one that makes this submission. We have been working toward getting some of the details for the submission letter finalized and it is finalized. What the submission letter does it sets forth what the bond issue was, the amount, the dates of maturity, it recaps what I just told you about the technical issue involved the arbitrage and then it sets forth the intention to reach an agreement through this voluntary closing process to resolve this technical problem. The sum and substance of what needs to happen is the City Council needs to authorize the Mayor to sign the submission and request for the voluntary closing agreement program so it can be submitted and once it is submitted ultimately once they reach their agreement then I think it will actually come back for us to sign it as the issuer of the agreement and it will be over. We don't have any liability at the city here we don't have fiscal responsibility we don't have any exposure this is something the college has taken upon itself as the borrower. They discovered it doing what they should be doing as far as I can tell. We need Council authority to have the Mayor sign this submission. Mr. Eimer and President Hutchison are here and I don't know if anyone has any direct questions. I don't know if they necessarily wanted to talk to us but they are here if there are any questions.
Mayor Snyder said do we have any questions. Mr. Bates said I don't know the appropriate committee here but I would ask whoever the appropriate committee is to put that on the agenda for the next voting meeting. Alderman Anderson said I would ask that we have that on the agenda for Tuesday for a vote on the Consent Agenda.
Finance, Policy and Procedure:
Chairman Alderman Anderson said the only thing I have is that we did receive some communication from the auditing firm that just completed our audit for the 2008/2009 fiscal year and normally we go out for bid on this on an annual basis. She read the letter by Estes, Bridgewater & Ogden. It said that they were interested in continuing doing the audit at the same price of $18,000.00 for the years ended April 30, 2010, 2011, and 2012. They were the low bid for the year and audit that we just had completed. Normally we would go out to bid for this but I do agree that there is a learning curve and we had probably quite a curve this year.
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Alderman Anderson said I personally think it is a pretty good offer considering it is not often that you can lock in something of this dynamics for another three years. We would need to vote on it and waive the bidding process if we were so inclined to.
Mr. Bates said technically bidding is not required on professional services. Alderman Anderson said I think I would be comfortable in continuing with that fashion if we are so inclined and if we are I would like to have it on the agenda to vote on. Alderman Neitzel said I agree put it on the agenda and lock it in for three years that way we know what it will cost us. Alderman Anderson said they did a good job and ask that it be on the regular agenda.
Fire/Water & ESDA:
Chairman Alderman Horn said she needed to put on the agenda the promotions of Robert Dunovsky to Assistant Chief, Ben Roland to Captain, and Darrin Coffey to Lieutenant and the Oath of Office.
Fire Chief Hulett said the Fire and Police Commission took the action of approving the promotions last week and they also approved a firefighter entry test it is going to be given on April 10 and there is going to be a mandatory orientation on March 27. We are trying to get the word out and we are trying to get it on the city website as well as three newspapers. I am notifying neighboring fire departments and trying to get as much interest as possible.
Grounds, Buildings and Local Improvements:
Chairman Alderman Tibbs said they had completed another phase with security of City Hall and that is the new door knobs. They are programmable and what I would like for each Alderman or anyone that would want access to the business area downstairs the business offices will have to have a code. If you want to get with me and give your code to me then we will have that all programmed in there. The door in the stairwell will require a code as well to get into. You could use that same code for this door here also. Cameras are in place and we have gone another step now to complete this.
Alderman Tibbs said another thing we have Attorney Bates along with our mayor have put a whole lot of time with drawing up the agreement between the city and the Lincoln Futbol Club. You have all received this 15 page document here and I don't know if you've had time to read it. Tonight we would like to have questions and answers or would you like to have a meeting called maybe before our meeting next Tuesday or have you had time to read it and have any questions about it. If it's ok we'll put it on the agenda and if it's not and we need more time we can do that too.
Alderman Anderson said I did read it and it is terribly dry by the way. I went back to my notes as to what some of our concerns were with regards to, if I think one of my bigger issues was if we found there was another use that we needed that for and it seemed like everything was addressed in terms of what our concerns and I'm sure you addressed their concerns.
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Mr. Bates said I did put in a 60 day termination right and I figured that would cover us and they did want a first option to purchase. That is in there if it's going to be sold to someone that is going to put it to a similar use than what they are using it for. Their big concern was when we talked to Dr. Hauter was well if we get this up and running and some other club comes along and offers you a big price for this land we don't want it sold out from under us. If we would intend to sell it for something of a similar use such as soccer fields they would have the option to purchase. We have the right to sell it to anybody we want other than that. I noticed today when I was rereading in for preparation of the meeting I don't have the number of days in there so they can notify us if they are going to terminate it. I would assume 60 days would be ok.
Mayor Snyder said they had initially inquired about it for a longer period longer notice period and as we discussed it if we were ever to be selling the property it's not like we would probably do it on a Tuesday and vote it on a Monday and the 60 day clock would start there would be a discussion about that which would be public knowledge. Their concern was they could schedule some large tournaments and have them on the books and maybe another buyer would come along and move it out from under them and they would lose the property. I mean I think there are several ways around that obviously you know perhaps the new buyer might even let them use it to finish out that tournament or whatever. That certainly wasn't a deal breaker for them.
Alderman Busby said Mr. Bates I really didn't have a chance to go through and read it but I did skim through it. I noticed you asked for a certificate of insurance. Does that also mean that we are co-insured with them?
Mr. Bates said I saw it when I was rereading it today. I don't think I have language in there that said it required that we be an additional named insured. I did not see that.
Alderman Busby said I did not either. Mr. Bates said if you want that I can add that. Alderman Busby said I think we should be co-insured. Mayor Snyder said did you find it as dry as Alderman Anderson. Alderman Busby said yes, that is why I skimmed through it. Mr. Bates said if you think it is dry reading you should try writing it. Alderman Bacon said Mr. Bates are you going to change the signature line. Mr. Bates said I did change that already on my copy and I did not re-circulate it. Alderman Tibbs said I would like this on the regular agenda and have Mr. Bates make those changes.
Alderman Tibbs said another thing we have here is the elevator. The State of Illinois will be visiting us before too long to make sure that our elevator is in compliance and it is not they will give us some cost figures and is that true Mr. Mathon that about April that will happen.
Mr. Mathon said the inspection that Alderman Tibbs is referring to would be the follow up inspection of the one that was performed I believe last March or April. There are only a handful of certified elevator inspectors for the entire state so they have a very long turn around time to make their return visits.
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Mr. Mathon said all of the issues that were pointed out to us with the compliance dates at the previous visit have already been taken care of so I don't anticipate that there will be anything else that will require expenditures. Alderman Tibbs said we are very hopeful that there aren't but if so we should probably have those figures in or at least be ready for that.
Finance, Policy and Procedure:
Chairman Alderman Anderson said I apologize but I was just going through my box here and the Ordinance for the Appropriations. Do we have to read this?
Mr. Bates said I think you can read the opening page and then you can just read the lines that have changed. Alderman Anderson said we should have this put on for Monday night and asked that Deputy City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach read. Deputy City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach read the Appropriation Ordinance. Alderman Anderson asked to have this on the regular agenda.
Mr. Bates said he needed to backtrack on the Lincoln Futbol Club. I had it in my head that we didn't have to do an ordinance to approve the Lincoln Futbol lease if it was 5 years or less and it is actually two and I am also going to have to prepare an ordinance authorizing the lease. I will get that ready for Tuesday also. We will need an ordinance on the agenda for the Lincoln Futbol Club.
Sewer Treatment Plant, Sewers and Drainage:
Chairman Alderman Busby said I would like on the agenda the re-bid of the Palmer Street bar screen. The reason for that is that we assumed the old bar screen blueprints belonged to the city. ENI corporation said no so we had to send them a letter to withdraw their blueprints and send some new ones so we have to re-bid the whole thing according to our Attorney rather than fight ENI so I would like that on the agenda.
Alderman Busby said I have another little item. It came to me and I finally got a hold of the lady. We have another sewer problem. This lady bought the home in November of 2002. She has been paying her sewer bill double amount because at one time it was an apartment in the basement of the house. It is the first home she ever owned and if you notice on your sewer bill it doesn't say how many sewers you are paying for. It just gives you a total amount due and she has been paying for this since 2002 which at that time the bill had been paid by the former owner so you have to go from 2003 she has overpaid by $1,422.96. I would like that on the agenda that she gets a refund in that amount. I mean there is really nothing we can do about it. She had never owned a home before and she had no idea what sewer charges were. I think that is the only fair thing to do is write a check.
Mayor Snyder said would she like a credit. Alderman Busby said I don't care for a credit because of what we're thinking about. Alderman Hoinacki said is she in agreement with this. Alderman Busby said I have not talked to her with regard to the amount but the office automatically would give her a refund for a year and she wasn't happy with that.
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Alderman Busby said she said if she didn't get it she will hire an attorney. Mr. Bates said that won't pay the retainer.
Police:
Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said he had bids to open for police cars.
Mrs. Gehlbach opened the following bids:
Jim Xamis Ford of Lincoln, IL $46,492.00 2 police cars
Currie Motors of Forest Park, IL $44,092.00 2 police cars
Landmark Ford of Springfield, IL $43,862.00 2 police cars
Alderman Hoinacki asked to have those on the agenda.
Alderman Hoinacki said they had a petition for parking spaces. Mrs. Gehlbach read the petition. Mr. Bates said they should post insurance. Alderman Hoinacki said it should be placed on the agenda.
Alderman Hoinacki said last Wednesday evening I went for a ride around with the Lincoln Police Department from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and it was very informative and very professional and encouraged the other Aldermen to do the same.
Alderman Anderson said I must fess up that I got stopped by one of the new guys for a light being out and he was very professional.
Ordinance and Zoning:
Chairman Alderman Neitzel said I wanted to talk to Mr. Last because one of the ones from Zoning Commission wanted me to see if we could change the building code on the auxiliary building roof heights. They are having to do variances on roof heights.
Mr. Last said he thought they should meet first.
Alderman Neitzel set up a meeting for Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 6:15 p.m. for the sign ordinance. She said she was waiting on her buddy next to her to talk about the questions that he had about the signs but she has his questions.
Alderman Neitzel asked Mr. Bates if there was anything on 5th Street. Mr. Bates said yes there is as a matter of fact.
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Mayor Snyder said with respect to the 5th Street matter I passed out to you at your place a letter dated February 4, 2010 and it is a revised letter of intent that we received from IDOT actually they did it at our request because the prior letter of intent referred to boxes that we could check but there were no boxes included in the letter. This is a new letter of intent it is pretty clear and as you can see they have boxes where we can agree to participate on certain components or we can check the box where we agree to request not to participate. It led to a discussion that we had with regard to the resolution to direct me to check the appropriate box.
Mr. Bates said the mayor and I met yesterday and we talked about the new letter of intent and the dilemma of getting something before the Council to vote on. He said Blinn has now drafted 4 resolutions the project is split down to with new letter of intent from IDOT is actually split down into 4 aspects of work. One aspect is there is no cost share to the city and that is resurfacing of 5th Street from Evans to Keokuk so there is a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign as to that aspect of work. The second aspect of the work is to resurface the areas of 5th Street where there are parking lanes and there is a local cost share on that and that is $19,600.00 and there is a separate resolution on that aspect of the work. Next there is a resolution pertaining to the aspect of work and that is the signal improvements at College and Woodlawn that has a local cost share of $15,000.00 and there is a resolution on that. Lastly, there is a resolution on the 4th aspect of work which is the signal improvements at 5th Street and College and that also carries with it a cost share and that is a $20,000.00 cost share and there is a 4th resolution on that. As opposed to what we have voted on so far it is now broken down into 4 separate segments of work with one resolution for each segment and the Council needs to vote on those four.
Mayor Snyder said if I could suggest in the order that Mr. Bates just described those. I think the resolutions that you have would be on the agenda in this order, there are little numbers in the left hand corner. Number 2 that is the state work on 5th Street that has no local cost share, then number 4 which is the milling and resurfacing the parking lanes with a cost share of $19,600.00, then number 3 which is the signal improvements of College and Woodlawn with a $15,000.00 local share, and then resolution that is identified as number 1 which is the 5th Street and College stoplight with a local cost share of $20,000.00. By breaking these up into four resolutions these new resolutions are now substantively different than the prior ones we voted on so we don't have to rescind the vote on either one of those prior ones. The Council voted down both of those so to remember to rescind we'd have to have votes to reconsider those so these are substantively different it allows us to have a different vote on each one of these.
Mr. Bates said I don't know where the numbers on these came from because the ones I sent out. Mrs. Gehlbach said I think Mrs. Martinek did so I want to make sure and she read the Resolutions. Alderman Neitzel said that was all she had.
Alderman Anderson said for each one of these it's just going to be a majority vote then. I just wanted to bring up and touch base on this because we have discussed this and discussed this.
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Alderman Anderson said we keep hearing about all the traffic on 5th Street and if in fact there is this traffic at specific times during the day they're not changing any of the lane structures on this intersection so it is going to be one lane each direction on 5th Street. If we put a light there and the light is red with the traffic moving on 5th the people on College can get out but when that light turns green on 5th if one of those early cars in one of those lines wants to turn left that traffic is going to come to a halt in whatever direction that car is going until all that traffic going the other way before it can turn so if we're thinking about actually improving movement at this intersection I think we need to think about that because I am not sure this is really going to do it. That's all I've got to say.
Mayor Snyder said any other comments. Alderman Busby said that is why they have arrows. Alderman Anderson said no it won't have arrows it is only a two phase light. Alderman Busby said where did you read that? Alderman Anderson said it is in your explanation isn't it. Mr. Mathon said yes it was in the explanation that I passed out. Alderman Wilmert said could make a difference. Alderman Anderson said I think you need to be aware of that.
Mayor Snyder said other comments. Let's go from 5th and College and we'll move out 5th Street a little further. We'll get on Old 66 the 5th Street Road project. Mr. Mathon and I have been in several meetings with regard to the engineering work on that and it's probably how much complete Mr. Mathon.
Mr. Mathon said 95% is good.
Mayor Snyder said I will have Mr. Mathon explain it but part of the engineering work that has been developed requires a retention pond there for some drainage off that once that road is finally built and probably will involve some type of property acquisition for us to acquire that space for that retention pond so Mr. Mathon can you kind of walk through that a little bit.
Mr. Mathon said one of the issues that was brought up by Hanson that is working on this project is that there are several components that tie in with the storm sewers that are going to be put in have to cross underneath the railroad tracks there on 5th Street. Because of the size of the storm sewers that are required there is a very limited amount of cover top of the pipe and bottom of the tracks. To do that requires what they call a special structure that is built on site not a pre-cast type of structure. Also the amount of flow that is coming through there they felt it would be, if there was the opportunity to create an area that would create some of the flow to cut down on the amount of flow that runs off at any one time that would be very beneficial to us. What other points?
Alderman Neitzel said where is the retention pond going to be? Mr. Mathon said I didn't know how much you wanted to talk about at this point.
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Mayor Snyder said we have a couple of proposals from a couple of different vendors to talk about you know about property acquisition and those types of things. I mean I think you can describe that it's up closer to an earlier version called for the area, the retention area, to be further away from 5th Street. That involves some additional costs moving it away where there might be some available land. I think the engineering work, Mr. Mathon correct me if I am wrong, has shown that there can be some cost savings by moving that up closer to 5th Street and possibly might involve the acquisition of a parcel of land adjacent to 5th Street.
Mr. Mathon said that was accurate. Alderman Neitzel said when we talked about the movement of all of that water moving doesn't it all move in the direction of the hospital. Mr. Mathon said yes it does. Alderman Neitzel said ok what about the retention pond they already have, that won't help us.
Mr. Mathon said no that is sized such that it handles the additional flow that is off their property. The work to create a storm sewer to replace the ditches channelizes the water and increases flow rate and increases the amount of water at one time that runs off and that's what having a detention facility as a part of this work will help continuate that peak flow so as to not cause additional problems to eliminate the potential to cause additional problems downstream. As the Mayor referred we did get a proposal from two different companies to assist with the property acquisition process that which entails appraisal, acquisition relocation, plans and services. Because there is federal money involved in this project that this land acquisition would be a part of. There are some very specific requirements that are in state and federal statutes for property acquisition in dictating how the process is to be run.
Alderman Neitzel said one more question. If you're going to bring it closer to 5th Street, the retention pond won't that make going down 5th Street, won't that make it look ugly.
Mayor Snyder said as I understand it, it's what is called a dry pond. Mr. Mathon said it would be a dry bottom. Mayor Snyder said it would fill up with water during heavy storm times but then it would dissipate there wouldn't be standing water there all the time so it is not anything we could stock or anything like that. Mr. Bates said it wouldn't be any more offensive than the one that is out in front of Wal-Mart. Mr. Mathon said there is one in front and in back. Alderman Busby said there is one on Connolley Road too. Mayor Snyder said Mr. Mathon are we at a point that we need to get authority to approve one of those firms or are we not at that point yet. Mr. Mathon said we have written proposals from both firms it's all a matter of how the Council wants to proceed with it.
Mayor Snyder said there has been some contact with the family that owns the parcel and at least the initial indication is that would not be an adversarial relationship at all. I think there is some openness to that discussion.
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Alderman Anderson asked if this was something that the city pays the bill completely for or is this some sort of cost sharing with federal and state. Mr. Mathon said it would fall under the existing pilot project funds that we are currently using to pay 80% of the cost so it would fall under the same funding as far as being eligible for payment. Mayor Snyder said is it $1.3M from the state I know that we have $1M that Representative Mitchell earmarked for that project. Mr. Mathon said yes.
Mayor Snyder said there was another $300,000.00 I don't know if we have ever gotten word from Representative Brauer if that came through the emergency. We have at least $1M in state dollars.
Mr. Mathon said I believe it is $1.3M at this point yes. Mayor Snyder said in our discussions about it we met with state engineers as well the thought was that we had enough money right now basically to do everything up to the point of construction, is that right Mr. Mathon. Mr. Mathon said correct those items being looking at getting started on right of way acquisition, utility relocation, and some of the preliminary storm sewer and drainage work which would all be items that would (tape changed) . Mayor Snyder said do you want to put it on the agenda to consider these two firms or do you want to talk further. Alderman Neitzel said I want to talk further I just don’t want to be the City Council the last to know when we read it in the paper who the firms are.
Mr. Bates said this particular topic involving the acquisition of real estate is the proper subject to discuss in executive session, if you want to discuss it. That is exactly what the executive session is for so you don’t lose your competitive advantage on that on the real estate by disclosing things at the public meeting.
Alderman Busby said is this acquisition just on the holding pond or all the property. Mr. Mathon said what this would be talking about would just be the parcel that would entail the whole detention area. Alderman Hoinacki said I think what Alderman Busby is talking about is that you talked earlier about additional land acquisition. Mr. Mathon said correct that would be a separate subject for a separate time. Mayor Snyder said there are 23 parcels I don’t remember the exact number of going out where they have to go out and acquisition and that might not be the right number. Alderman Busby said the reason I ask is I own land that would be involved in this so I would have to abstain not only from voting but also from discussion on the right of way.
Mayor Snyder said would you like to discuss it in executive session. Do you want to do it after we end tonight or at a future meeting? We’ll do it tonight at the end.
Mayor Snyder said one other matter involving the state. We have been contacted by the state they need to acquire an additional piece of our landfill property out by the Salt Creek Bridge. It is an oddly shaped piece but they have given us a proposal to purchase that little parcel that would allow them to redo the bridge over Salt Creek on Old 66.
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Mayor Snyder said Mr. Bates has reviewed it and has a couple of issues and has contacted the IDOT attorney to try and get that worked out.
Mr. Bates said if you visualize Salt Creek Bridge (showing a map) this is Old 66 and this is the bridge this red line is the existing right of way. The state wants to acquire this piece of ground and would have a new boundary where this yellow line is. I had two principle concerns initially that I talked to Mr. Mathon about. One there is a structure on top of the landfill and I thought it was an old curtain burning unit but it is a metal shed of some type.
Mr. Mathon said it is a related building to the air curtain devise that is next to and it houses equipment.
Mr. Bates said as you can see this new property line comes right up to the corner of that. The other concern that I have is there is a lift station down there on the south side of the creek and that’s over here. The way we get to that now, from my days when I was a college student working at the sewerage plant and we turned back to the right as you cross the bridge going south along the sportsman’s’ club go under the bridge and back to the east and then over to our lift station. In this whole process they are going to put a new road in on the east side that will allow us to turn here and come over to our lift station without going under the bridge. For my discussions with Mr. Mathon and my discussions with Dan Turner, who is a right of way agent with a company that works with IDOT and I just found out yesterday he is Nathan’s dad. I am comfortable with the layout after having talked to Mr. Mathon and seeing the photograph but I am not particularly comfortable with yet is the legal documents that being the deed by which we would convey the property to them and an affidavit they want the mayor to sign away his firstborn I think about some title issues that he would have no way of knowing but none of us would. I have a call into IDOT’s attorney on those issues on those two things. They have done an appraisal, they have provided us with a copy of the appraisal, and how big is this parcel I don’t remember.
Mr. Mathon said just 8/10ths of an acre.
Mr. Bates said just short of an acre mostly on the slope side of the creek going to the landfill and they’ve made an offer based on the appraisal of $3,000.00 to buy that from the city. If we agree we would give them a deed to the property. This is like any other acquisition we can do it agreeably and voluntarily, we can tell them we don’t agree with them, we can negotiate the money, we can get our own appraisal, we can tell them we don’t agree and let them file a condemnation suit against the city and if they do that they are going to get the property but a jury or a judge would fix what the fair compensation would be. That is a typical Eminent Domain condemnation. I have no clue what it is worth. I have their appraisal and anybody that wants to see it is welcome to it.
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Mayor Snyder said so at this point I think for Tuesday we don’t have anything we need to vote on because we still need to hear back from the IDOT attorney. This is just to make everyone aware of that offer that was extended to us.
Alderman Anderson said this land isn’t something that we are really utilizing at this point at a daily basis for operations. Mr. Bates said I have not talked to Mr. Jackson but I asked Mr. Mathon to take a look at the whole thing.
Mr. Mathon said much of the ground as Mr. Bates referred to it is sloping or it is in the flood plain or it actually runs to the center of the creek. It is where the property line starts. It’s not valuable ground to us and it does come very close to the structure down there that is the old air curtain device I asked Mr. Jackson about that last week sometime and he said we just need time to get it torn down and it is no longer used and no longer any value to it. That is the low area adjacent to the parkway it is just basically kept as a natural area, wildlife area.
Streets and Alleys:
Vice Chairman Alderman Armbrust said there was a petition for curb and gutter at 1319 N. Ottawa by Jean Cypher and Dorothy Hupp. Mrs. Gehlbach read the petition. Alderman Armbrust asked to have it on the agenda.
Sidewalks, Forestry and Lighting:
Chairman Alderman Armbrust said he did not have a report.
Sanitation/Technology:
Chairman Alderman Wilmert said he did not have a report.
Insurance:
Chairman Alderman Bacon said she did not have a report.
Mayor Snyder said the only thing I want to mention before we go into Executive Session I passed out at your places information from the Illinois Municipal League. I was asked to join with a group of Mayors that met with four legislative leaders today and this is the material that we provided to them on the Municipal League agenda for the year. I would encourage you to read the items there about pensions. There are some sobering facts in there about the downstate police and firemen pension funds. For example the debt for teacher’s retirement system per member is $187,000.00; it is on the 2nd page of the thing that says pension. The debt for the state employee’s retirement system is $193,000.00 per member, downstate police pension funds $274,000.00, downstate fire pension fund is $308,000.00 per member. At that bottom of that page you see the comparisons of the IMRF cost per member, cost for the police and fire per member and it is rather sobering and I think Alderman Busby and Treasurer Plotner have resounded the bell about pensions.
Lincoln, Illinois
City Council Committee's Meeting
February 9, 2010; Page -13-
Alderman Busby said your next meeting I suggest the state pass a new law that we can levy strictly for the pension funds rather than take it from our real estate taxes. It is over 50% of our real estate taxes goes to the pension fund.
Mayor Snyder said Mayor Davlin from Springfield that nearly all of what they raise through the property taxes goes for their pension contributions. There are some interesting information about how the employer contributions has gone up over the years but the unfunded liabilities have grown 9 fold. It is interesting reading so take a gander at that.
Alderman Tibbs said Mayor Snyder did you want to comment on the fast track demolition.
Mayor Snyder said Mr. Last had pulled all this information together it’s with regard to where we stand cost wise with the fast track demolitions. We’re trying to move with all haste on 417 N. Madison property the cost for the asbestos inspections for both of those properties was $851.00. For the abatement of asbestos of 417 N. Madison was $2,900.00 with demolition at $4,800.00 and as you can see a total of over $8,500.00. We only have $10,000.00 available so that is going to eat up most of that $10,000.00. I just ask that they pull that together so you would have an idea of why we would probably only be able to take care of one of those at this point.
Alderman Busby made a motion to go into Executive Session under 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5) land acquisition and Alderman Anderson seconded it. Deputy City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach called the roll call. There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and none absent, and one seat vacant; motion carried. The meeting adjourned to Executive Session at 8:20 p.m.
The meeting returned to regular Session at 8:30 p.m. Deputy City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach called the Roll. There were nine Aldermen present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert), none absent, and one seat vacant. Also present were City Engineer Mr. Mathon, Mayor Snyder, City Attorney Mr. Bates, Deputy City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.
Mayor Snyder said what is your pleasure regarding this matter. Do you want to put it on the agenda to approve the low bid here?
Alderman Anderson said I would say yes. Alderman Busby said I would say put it on the agenda.
Lincoln, Illinois
City Council Committee's Meeting
February 9, 2010; Page -14-
Alderman Busby made a motion to adjourn and Alderman Horn seconded it. There were seven yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and none absent, and one seat vacant; motion carried.
The City of Lincoln Committee’s as a Whole Meeting adjourned at 8:32 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Risa Riggs
Recording Secretary
City of Lincoln