Lincoln, Illinois
City Council Committee's Meeting
September 29, 2009
Minutes of the City of Lincoln City Council Committees' Meeting held in the Council Chambers
on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.
Those present were Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman
Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman
Turner. Also present were Police Chief Erlenbush, City Engineer Mr. Mathon, Safety and
Building Officer Mr. Last, EMC Manager Mr. Tackett, and Assistant Fire Chief Dahm. Also
present were City Attorney Mr. Bates, Mayor Snyder, City Clerk Mrs. Martinek, City Treasurer
Mr. Plotner, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.
Mayor Snyder called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance was led by
Alderman Horn.
There were nine Aldermen present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon,
Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and
Alderman Turner) and one absent (Alderman Wilmert).
The Mayor asked for the Committees' Issues to be Presented:
Mayor Snyder said I thought we would run around the table twice tonight. The first time we’ll
do the committee stuff and the second time those of you that went to Chicago maybe you could
just share some insights, comments thoughts whatever struck sessions that you went to that you
would want to share with everyone.
Finance, Policy and Procedure:
Chairman Alderman Anderson said in line with this past weekend if you have request for
reimbursement for expenses you need to get those into the Clerk’s office as quickly as possible.
I am going to stop in tomorrow and review the ones that have been turned in so if you don’t get
them turned in yours might be delayed getting reimbursed just a little prod.
Alderman Anderson said we’ve had some conversations with regards to some of the overages
that we have seen in the budget over the vehicle insurance. If you would Mrs. Gehlbach would
you check on the police vehicles there was an additional payment made I think that was in
August that I understand is for the two new vehicles. It seems kind of high so we need to make
sure that we’ve either gotten credit for the vehicles that were paid for that were traded we just
need some clarification on that.
Alderman Anderson said Alderman Bacon and I had some conversations where we’re going
to have our hosting of a workshop meeting and we’ve kind of narrowed it down but I haven’t
actually talked with them yet so we will do that but we’re hoping maybe the 2nd workshop
meeting in November.
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Mr. Bates said are you going to talk about Wal-Mart. Alderman Anderson said if we would have
Treasurer Plotner give us a little explanation of the Wal-Mart infrastructure expenditures.
Mr. Plotner said we finally put together working with Mr. Bates and Alderman Anderson we
put together the figures for the Wal-Mart reimbursement for the infrastructure expenditures
that they had. If you recall back the development agreement the total figure set for total
gross reimbursement was $600,000.00 and then they gave us $15,000.00 credit for the Zion
lift station improvements which left us with a balance of $585,000.00 that we, according to
the development agreement owe Wal-Mart for infrastructure that they put in at the time they
were building the Supercenter and the area surrounding that. In checking back they said they
were going to set their base figures from 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. Adding those four years
together taking the amount of sales tax revenue they paid the City of Lincoln those four years
were averaged together to come up with the figure so that became the base figure that were going
to be used and how to figure out the formula to give them money back toward the reimbursement
total we owe them. When those were averaged out the figure came out for those 4 years at
$313,932.55 that is what the old store did those four years and averaged out. Now, according
to the development agreement it was to start in January 2008 and of course on delayed payment
situation that it’s collected a month, massaged a month and then finally paid to the city by the
State of Illinois. We looked at that so the January payment for 2008 would actually be March
payment.
Mr. Bates said the liability month January, 2008 collected in February distributed to us April
2008.
Mr. Plotner said then we went April through March, 2009 to come up with our year’s total of
how much revenue that they gave to the city during that period of time and that figure came up
$496,801.86. What we had to do, the way the development agreement was set up was use the
base figure in the year that the tax revenue that the new Supercenter generated subtract one fund
from the total and then the difference you had to pay has a first payment toward that $585,000.00
that we owe. That total then for 2008 was $182,869.31. As far as revenue payments concerned
where you’re going to get that money you would have to take that from the non home rule sales
tax fund and I know when they paid the various development agreements that we’ve got out
there with the Xamis, Coy’s and Burwell’s and so forth that money was deducted right out of
the sales tax receipts. In this case I would presume $182,000.00 plus will be deducted out of the
non home rule sales tax receipts. The amount that is left then is still $402,130.69 and it looks
like if that trend continues it would be 2 ½ years before you get that paid off. It is something you
agreed to therefore we’ve got to pay it off and this $496,000.00 was reached in a period of kind
of slow times so if it starts to kick in you’re going to have a pretty good sized amount that you
have to pay back for a year. I did give you a handout.
Mr. Bates said 2 things I want to point out. This is late in doing this. This is September and we
received the sales taxes in March of this for December of last year.
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Mr. Bates said according to the development agreement we should have paid this in April but
Illinois Department of Revenue could not give us sales tax figures for 2002, 2003, 2004 and
2005. We had to ask Wal-Mart to give us those figures and Wal-Mart did not give us those
figures until September 2, 2009. Once we got the figures we started working on the calculations
so it is late. I think we should send them a letter which I will be glad to do after you approve
this Monday night if we should send them a letter outlining how we calculated the base years
and what we believe the base is and how we calculated the $496,801.86 and include the payment
with our letter so they know how we did it and that we did it according to this development
agreement. I got the impression they thought the whole $600,000.00 was coming but it’s not. I
personally think you should put this on the agenda vote on it to pay it out of the infrastructure
sales tax and then I will send a letter to this lady with Wal-Mart and explain how we arrived at
that and send our payment.
Alderman Anderson asked to have this on the agenda for Monday.
Fire/Water & ESDA:
Chairman Alderman Horn said she did not have a report. I do have a request from Alderman
Neitzel and Alderman Hoinacki if we could switch nights for our thing because I realized I’m
going to be in Texas that week and it’s not fair to do that to Alderman Wilmert and make him do
it all.
Alderman Neitzel said she would check it out.
October 13, 2009 is at Friendship Manor.
Grounds, Buildings and Local Improvements:
Chairman Alderman Tibbs said the only thing I have is a lease agreement.
Mr. Bates said he had called them today and he didn’t know if anyone knew what she was
talking about. The City has two farm cash rent leases. One is for the Wal-Mart excess property
of 25 acres which is currently leased for the term of March 1, 2009 to the last day of February,
2010. The Wal-Mart property is lease at the rate of $227.90 per acre. They also have a lease on
a 40 acre tract of land the city owns down by Lincoln Lakes on a 3 year lease with Darrell and
Sarah Benner of Broadwell, Illinois from March 1, 2007 to March 1, 2010 on an annual rental
of $150.00 per acre. Both of those leases come up as of the last day of February 2010. They are
subject to being renewed if you want to renew them. Discussions are usually done in the private
sector by talking to the tenant to see if they have interest in leasing the land in the future year or
years. If they do then you have to decide if you want to take their offer or not. There are some
issues with the land at Lincoln Lakes and they stem from some access issues on the farm. He
said that is the reason Mr. Benner has been farming it for quite some time.
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City Council Committee's Meeting
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Mr. Bates said he has left a message with Mr. Benner and did speak to Bret Farmer who is
Corey’s dad because he did not have Corey’s number and they met today and discussed the
situation for the 2010 year on the Wal-Mart tract. Corey is not willing to pay the same amount
of rent for next year that he paid this year. He said it is a relatively wet parcel and there are a
significant number of acres that he never did get planted because of wet ground and secondly this
parcel does not qualify to be in the farm program payments so he does have any subsidies on this
parcel under the federal farm programs. They did call him late this afternoon after discussing it
and they would be willing to pay $200.00 per acre for the 2010 crop year. He thought that parcel
was bid out last year and he thought there was only one bid. He didn’t know what the cash rents
were going to do this year because there are some in the county that are very high. They have
never done a title search on the Lincoln Lakes land and he didn’t know what the access issues are
out there.
Mr. Mathon said has seen plat information but didn’t remember seeing any title information with
it.
Mr. Bates said obviously that would be a serious detriment to opening that up and get to it.
That lease was entered into in 2007 and was a three year lease and it was really before the rents
escalated to the levels they are now. That seems very low to us now as we say $150.00 an acre
but keep in mind that is a 3 year old lease.
Alderman Anderson asked if there were water issues on that parcel as well.
Mr. Bates said he didn’t know and it was subject to flood when Lincoln Lakes flooded but now
that Lincoln Lakes doesn’t flood as much he didn’t know. He said he would have to ask Mr.
Benner. He has had indication that these astronomical rents were going to back off for the 2010
year because of the high production costs they had and they have come back down this year. He
had someone tell him that last year anhydrous was $8.50 an acre and this year it was back down
to $4.25. He didn’t think either one of these parcels dictate the high rents that you hear about
($300.00 to $400.00). From the perspective of what do you do these are both fixed term leases
in the first year and they expire by their own terms at the end lease year which is 2010. If you
don’t have a lease then most farmers don’t have a lease. He thought the prudent practice if you
are not going to renew the leases with these farmers is to serve them with a notice to terminate
by October 31 just so there is not misunderstanding about whether this was going to carry over
or not carry over. It has to be in writing in their hands before October 31.
Mayor Snyder said he has had a meeting with an organization that is interested in part of the
acreage behind Wal-Mart. They are looking at 12 acres and they have plans for that. He told
them they needed to come before the Council to let you know what those plans might be.
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Mr. Bates said keep in mind also on the Wal-Mart lease that he has a provision in that lease
that the tenant understands that this property is held for the purpose of enticing or attracting for
economic development. We have the right at any time during the term of this lease to terminate
the lease and if we were to do so before the tenant harvested the crop they would be required
to reimburse the tenant for their actual out of pocket costs for the production of the crop. They
don’t have to pay rent for the acres they don’t get to harvest.
Alderman Turner said he was interested in hearing the proposal. Mr. Bates said the farm tenants
like to hear as early as possible because they like to put fertilizer in during the fall for next year’s
crop. Alderman Busby said if you could get the developer to come to the meeting on the 13th
then they could vote on it on the 19th and farmers can fertilizer right up to Thanksgiving. Mayor
Snyder said this is a local organization not a developer. Mr. Bates said according to the farm
agency 25 is tillable but one of the people that looked at bidding on it was a client of his and they
went up into the coop on 5th Street and looked at the land and you can see where it ponds. Mr.
Mathon said at least 2 acres are deemed untillable.
Sewer Treatment Plant, Sewers and Drainage:
Chairman Alderman Busby said he tabled the Palmer Lift Station saying they would discuss it
tonight but Mr. Tackett had to get some more information.
Police:
Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said he had some things with regard to alley closures.
Deputy City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach read the petition to close the East half of the alley that runs
from Maple Street on the North side of the church from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 3rd Saturday of
October for Germanfest by St. John’s United Methodist Church by Wayne Mara Church Council
Secretary. Alderman Hoinacki said it is subject to proof of insurance and asked to have that on
the Consent Agenda.
Mrs. Gehlbach read the petition to block the alley between Peoria and Tremont Street and
between Hamilton and Sherman to be blocked off for a neighborhood party on October 10, 2009
by Brian Stoltzenburg. Alderman Hoinacki said they need some type of insurance.
Mr. Bates said because it is a neighborhood he didn’t know who would provide the insurance.
He didn’t think an individual home owner’s policy would endorse something like that.
Alderman Hoinacki asked to have it on the regular agenda.
Alderman Hoinacki said he thought Police Chief Erlenbush had a few comments.
Police Chief Erlenbush said he received a letter today from the U. S. Dept. of Justice and their
boomerang grant came back with money. He signed the grant and the Mayor will need to sign.
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Police Chief Erlenbush said they would have to go through the instructions for how the money
is spent and what reporting they have to do back to the DOJ. He would make copies for the
Mayor’s office and Alderman Tibbs and they probably needed to have a meeting and get the
show on the road.
Police Chief Erlenbush said the second thing he would report is that the Lincoln Police Dept.
is a member of the Beason homicide task force. They have 2-3 police officers that are working
on that case and they are sometimes working full time and part time. Their patrol units are
following up on leads and they report back to the task force. There will be another press release
in the next 2 days and will update the community on recent activities.
Mayor Snyder said it was nice having Mrs. Gehlbach present tonight and that Mrs. Martinek was
celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary tonight.
Ordinance and Zoning:
Chairman Alderman Neitzel said she had a Resolution approving a program for Identity Theft.
Mr. Bates said they should hand it out and approve as handed out. Alderman Neitzel asked to
have it on the agenda.
Mr. Bates asked if everyone had that already. They did.
Mr. Bates said he wasn’t sure he understood it and if they had read it is very difficult to
understand but this is a so called nickname Red Flag Legislation that was adopted by the
State of Illinois and it requires all entities such as the city such as law firm Woods and Bates
and all kinds of other people to adopt. He wrote this last year after the convention and the
Illinois Municipal League posted it on their website and then the government came along with
an extension of the deadline to adopt it. The deadline is November 1 and it is a mandate by
Washington, D.C.
Alderman Neitzel said the other thing she has talked about a procurement about the bidding that
takes place in Lincoln that they do something for the people who live in Lincoln and she was
going to try some different places and see if she could get more policies. She would then try to
put things together to have a meeting.
Mayor Snyder said the sign ordinance which has been on the agenda and kept on the table. He
has several questions on it but it dawned on him that he didn’t know if Aldermen Bacon, Turner
and Wilmert had seen it. He wanted to make copies available to them.
Streets and Alleys:
Alderman Turner said he did not have a report.
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Sidewalks, Forestry and Lighting:
Chairman Alderman Armbrust said he did not have a report on sidewalks. He wanted to go back
to streets with the white wash on Wyatt Avenue and that they were normally asked to do that.
Mayor Snyder asked if they had previously submitted the white wash separately from the parade.
Alderman Armbrust said yes.
Insurance:
Chairman Alderman Bacon said the bid specs have been put out for the workers comp insurance.
October 1 the bid packets can be picked up at the Clerk’s office. November 25 bids are to be
opened and December 1 bid analysis submitted to the city for their consideration and December
10 successful bidder notified.
Mr. Bates said Alderman Busby he overlooked something for your committee. They have
received the executed copy of the sanitary sewer easement agreement between Lincoln Towne
Center, LLC and the City of Lincoln. If you recall this was the extension of the sewer line for the
new Castle Manor extending across the old Wal-Mart property and hooking on the sewer. They
have now completed that work and pursuant to the license agreement they entered into with the
developer and St. Clara’s. It was agreed they would give us an easement and once that was done
we would accept the sewer. Mr. Mathon brought up a few weeks ago that it was time to accept
the sewer and we talked at that time it is time to get the easement. They verified apparently
through the construction survey that the new sewer is in the easement as granted so we are ready
to sign and it should be put on the agenda to authorize the Mayor to sign it.
Alderman Busby asked Mr. Mathon if they had completed the sewer. Mr. Mathon said they have
completed the portion that fits the easement that the city had agreed to accept the first two runs
of the sewer. Alderman Busby asked to have that on the regular agenda.
Mayor Snyder said he attended a meeting Tuesday the 23rd that was called by the Mayor Kuz of
Normal and he invited all the Mayor’s of the Amtrak communities from Chicago to St. Louis
to normal for a high speed rail summit meeting. Part of the meeting was to allow the Mayor’s
to ask questions about the high speed rail proposal. He had about 2 ½ pages full of notes. The
Governor’s office asked if they would sign a memorandum of understanding basically lending
support for the state’s application for high speed rail funding that the federal government has
available. A copy of that memorandum of understanding and he was sorry it didn’t work
out time wise for the city. He said Mr. Bates had looked at it and had concerns about the
memorandum particularly on the last page the last three Therefore clauses. He said Mr. Bates
concern was that they were committing the city to spend some dollars towards this effort. The
Normal attorney felt each city would be responsible.
Alderman Neitzel asked how Mayor Snyder felt it would benefit Lincoln. Mayor Snyder said if
high speed rail were to become a reality the trains (high speed) would still stop here in Lincoln.
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Mayor Snyder said their statement to us that in all likelihood the same amount of trains would
stop in Pontiac and Lincoln and other communities that it stops at now. There may be additional
express trains added which would only stop at Joliet, Bloomington and Springfield and St.
Louis. There are trains now that go through Lincoln and do not stop. He thinks if the dollars
are available that it is going to happen. They are talking about 110 mph trains and right now
the trains go 70-75 mph and it is a higher speed. They are talking about the bullet train from
Chicago to Champaign to Springfield which would be 200 mph but the one on the line now
would be the 110 mph. The speed limits that are in each town is what they would have to
run. They have gone to quad gates so there are two sets on each side. The high speed rail
representative said for the high speed rail they would not need a separate track but down the road
the freight trains are talking about possibly expanding the number of freights that come through
and if that increases dramatically then there would have to be a second set of tracks. IDOT said
there is room in their right of way right now for a second set of tracks and he didn’t know in
Lincoln which side of the tracks it would go on. There is $8B for the high speed rail and they
had $102B in requests for 40 states. He was inclined to add his signature so Lincoln would not
be left out.
Alderman Anderson said she attended 2 presentations. She said one had a lot of grant
opportunities and she wanted to research that. She said she and Attorney Bates both attended the
Judicial Administrative process.
Alderman Horn said she had attended a meeting on Wind Energy and there were a lot of good
ideas about municipality partaking and one thing that came up was why they couldn’t have their
own at the sewerage treatment plant.
Alderman Tibbs said she attended a session on the Sunshine laws is going to be something very
complicated. The revitalization of the downtown area she thought was good.
Alderman Busby said he was disappointed that they didn’t have more diversified sessions. He
attended probably three or four on finance and but he thought the biggest fiasco was the vide
gaming since the rules have not been written yet. When it takes effect the machines they have
right now will be illegal to have.
Alderman Hoinacki said he went to three or four of the sessions. Enjoyed listening to other
communities speak on ideas they have with their downtown and their budget. He went to the
gaming one also and he compared it to the smoking ban in Illinois with no provisions how to
deal with.
Alderman Neitzel said she thought she went to four. She went to one on Finance that she
enjoyed and they explained the different funds. She went to Retail the new frontier and was
impressed. They were dwelling on downtown development. These towns have their own
economic development director for the city.
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Alderman Turner said it was his first time going. He thought the ones for the newly elected
officials was very beneficial and there was a lot of good information. He said the downtown
one when they listened to others talk about their specific vision and plan of what they wanted to
accomplish.
City Treasurer Mr. Plotner said he was not impressed but found out that Lincoln, Illinois is not
the only one that is in trouble with the economic depression we are in. He did not hear many
ideas on generating new revenues.
Mr. Bates said he Mr. Blinn Bates went to a session all day on Thursday. The entire afternoon
was on the Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act and legislation in Illinois.
There were no answers or directions for what to do or how to do or how to comply with it. Most
talked about the inconsistencies, etc. On Friday and Saturday attended several sessions and
thought very important that they use their city email addresses with any matters pertaining to
City business. He thought they needed another short training session with the Mayor and the
Clerk on how to access. He had given them a letter on the prevailing wage act. The collective
bargaining session was given by the young lady that they hired to help on contracts Jill Leaka.
Mayor Snyder said he went to several with a lot of good information for him. He moderated the
economic downtown issues. They are not getting a lot of help from the state and it came up time
and time again.
Alderman Busby made a motion to adjourn and Alderman Armbrust seconded it. There were
nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby,
Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman
Turner), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Wilmert); motion carried.
The City of Lincoln Committee’s as a Whole Meeting adjourned at 8:12 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Risa Riggs, Recording Secretary
City of Lincoln