Lincoln, Illinois

City Council Committee's Meeting

July 12, 2011

 

Minutes of the City of Lincoln City Council Committees' Meeting held in the Council Chambers

on Tuesday, July 12, 2011.

 

Those present were Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby,

Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, Alderman

Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert. Department Heads present were Fire Chief Miller, Safety and

Building Officer Mr. Lebegue, Deputy Police Chief Geriets, City Engineer Mr. Mathon, Mr.

Kitzmiller for EMC, and Assistant Street Superintendent Mr. Wright. Also present were Mayor

Snyder, City Clerk Mrs. Martinek, City Attorney Mr. Bates, City Treasurer Mr. Conzo, and

Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.

 

Mayor Snyder called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.

 

The Pledge was said by all.

 

There were ten Aldermen present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Busby,

Alderman Hoinacki Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, Alderman Tibbs,

and Alderman Wilmert) and none absent.

 

Public Participation

 

Mrs. Sarah Wilson was present from Ward 3 and lives at 419 Willard Avenue. Mrs. Wilson had

submitted a petition with 37 signatures. They were requesting 4 way stop signs at Willard and

Sheridan Streets. She thanked Alderman Tibbs for her guidance and support. She wanted to let

the Council know that she as well as one of her neighbors, Ike were present tonight and could

share personal experiences relating to this and answer any questions they might have.

 

Alderman Anderson said to just refresh her where the last one was at that they put down in that

area. Alderman Neitzel said it is on Willamette isn’t it. Alderman Anderson said this one is up

further. Mr. Bates said he did not have his files with him but they did a 4 way stop at Willamette

and something.

 

Mrs. Wilson said the first 4 way they have is where Froher, Sherman and Bryan Avenue branch

out at the bottom of the hill. She said that was probably the problem there is nothing to stop

anyone once they come off Wyatt until they get to the bottom of the hill or they are gaining

speed up the hill. If she had to pick and it had to come down to a 2 way she would recommend

putting it on Sherman. They would prefer a 4 way because we are also having excessive

speeding on Willard. Both and she and Ike have experienced near accidents there and the person

was speeding on Willard. They also just a couple of months ago had a fairly significant accident

where it was a teenager and a smaller car that actually flipped an older gentlemen in a Silverado

truck and it landed in the neighbor’s yard.

 

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City Council Committee's Meeting

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Alderman Neitzel asked if it was down a hill. Mrs. Wilson said they are at the top of the hill.

Alderman Wilmert said that his question was answered about what the last straw was.

 

Deputy Chief Geriets said after Alderman Tibbs advised him about this he drove down to

the area and from Wyatt Avenue to Froher Avenue there is no stop and that is an unmarked

intersection at Willard, however, Hamilton Street a block over the East/West intersection does

have a stop sign there. The last accident, there have been maybe 5 in the last ten years and who

knows how many near misses but there have been 5 accidents and the last one was in April

and it was a significant property damage accident where a vehicle did end up rolling over. His

suggestion since there is already a stop sign on Hamilton going East/West he thought if they

were going to put one on there it should be on Sherman Street for the North/South traffic and a 2

way would make a big difference there.

 

Mrs. Wilson said the 37 signatures represents one block on either side of Sherman Avenue just

on Willard and Willamette and had talked to additional residents down in Angel Valley who are

very excited about this. Everyone who is starred on there has had a near accident. She said Ike

had one just today. You might see little smiley faces there were signatures from friends of a girl

in the most recent accident.

 

Alderman Tibbs said she doesn’t live there and is not seeing what these people are seeing and

she felt this is very important that they feel stop signs need to be done in order to protect the

families along there too. Alderman Neitzel said she wanted to suggest that the stop sign on

Hamilton going East/West and they have a two way stop on Sherman.

 

Deputy Chief Geriets said they are already stopping a block back. He said your higher speed

traffic is the North/South traffic and those are the ones that you want to slow down.

 

Alderman Neitzel asked if there were any on Willard or Willamette. Deputy Chief Geriets said

he hadn’t checked those. Mayor Snyder said if they do a 4 way they will need a Resolution that

the Council will pass to authorize and then at some points in the past they have had the street

department doing a traffic count to try to justify it. Alderman Tibbs said she didn’t think a traffic

count has anything to do with it because it is not how many cars are coming up and down but the

speed of the cars that are going up and down and how they are traveling.

 

Mrs. Wilson said she could highlight that that is the primary access to Bryan Avenue down

by the Christmas Tree farm. It begins at that intersection at the bottom of the hill. Basically

Sherman stops and Bryan angles and picks up there it kind of winds around the back Most

people if they want to get to Wyatt they are going to come off of that to Sherman to do it.

 

Alderman Horn asked if they needed a Resolution for two way stop or is it just for a 4 way stop.

Mr. Bates said he thought they needed a Resolution for either.

 

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City Council Committee's Meeting

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Alderman Wilmert said if they need a Resolution either way lets do the one they want. I

remember putting in a stop sign recently and it didn’t even rise to this level.

 

Alderman Horn said if they are going to do it she thought it would be a good time to do it before

school starts again so the kids can get used to that stop signs being there.

 

Alderman Hoinacki asked to have the Resolution for a 4 way stop at Sherman and Willard on the

Regular Agenda.

 

Fire Chief Miller said EMA Director Dan Fulscher and some members of the Logan County

Dive Team. They have been working together as whole to improve response within the city and

outside the city for water rescue and Mr. Fulscher would like to give some highlights.

 

Mr. Fulscher said Chief Miller is also President of MAVIS and Nick Hanson is the President

of the Fire Association for the County. He was approached to turn the water rescue over to

MAVIS and they would be the lead agency. Dive 1 which the county now owns would then

be placed at Lincoln Rural Fire Department and right now the dive team is overseen by the

Lincoln Fire Department. They want approval for an exploratory to work on an agreement

that even though the county would own the boat and the Dive 1 it would be placed at the fire

departments. Lincoln Fire Department would oversee the boat as they do now and Lincoln Rural

would oversee the dive team and then the fire association and MAVIS division would be the

overseers of the personnel and the training and there is a lot of money out there for MAVIS for

fire suppression to oversee this. It would be very equitable for financing so they could do it.

Right now the dive boat is here for quick response for rescue and the dive team is in a warehouse

and have to call and page the people and they have to pick up and Lincoln Rural would be able

to administer that being out there. It just makes sense to streamline that the fire service would

oversee. They are just asking for an exploratory to look into an agreement that would put it in

place and the county would still buy the equipment (boat and trailer) and dive 1 would need to be

replaced and the day to day operations will be overseen by MAVIS.

 

Alderman Horn asked to have on the Consent Agenda for approval of exploratory discussions

about the dive team.

 

The Mayor asked for the Committees' Issues to be Presented:

 

Finance, Policy and Procedure:

Chairman Alderman Anderson said they had gotten copies of the tentative appropriations. She

has had feedback from one committee chair and she would be making up a few adjustments

otherwise it pretty much stands as you are going to get it. She said because of changes with the

way they are now doing street and alleys it will have to be cut and pasted the document together.

It is already on the agenda.

 

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City Council Committee's Meeting

July 12, 2011; Page -4-

 

Alderman Anderson said last week we pulled three reimbursement requests for clothing

allowance out of the police department. It wasn’t that we are necessarily picking on them but

their procedures with regard to clothing allowance and reimbursement has been handled in the

past differently than it has been in other departments. The streets and alleys when someone

turns in a request for their clothing allowance they are bringing receipts that show what they are

purchasing. Past practice for the police department has been that for the Chief, Assistant Chief

and Detective or Detectives they have a $500.00 clothing allowance and it is included in the

larger pot for other clothing reimbursement but past practice has been it was just paid out twice

a year with no receipts. It was pulled because some people were paying attention to the bills and

noticed there were no receipts. We need to make a couple of decisions. Do we just leave this

past practice and continue as it is or do we start requiring receipts from the police department

like we do for other departments and if that is the case do we start that going forward and allow

these to go through. We need to make a decision on how this gets handled. These three requests

are sitting there to be paid.

 

Alderman Neitzel said how would the audit handle it? Alderman Anderson said in all honesty

she wasn’t real comfortable with whatever the auditors say because in the past they haven’t

always caught everything. Alderman Tibbs said her feeling was that if the other departments

show receipts then she thought the police department could do the same thing that way they are

covered if there are ever any questions. Alderman Wilmert said to pay these and make it going

forward. Alderman Horn said she agreed with Alderman Wilmert they need to get these paid

and they expected them to be paid and they should be paid and change the practice as Alderman

Tibbs said.

 

Alderman Anderson said if she was the auditor she would be looking for receipts because

without receipts it’s just an open door for issues. She was inclined to go the same way. It

wouldn’t have to be just twice in a year but it could be any time they wanted it. She thought it

was a consensus to go ahead and pay.

 

Fire/Water & ESDA:

Chairman Alderman Horn said she did not have a report.

 

Grounds, Buildings and Local Improvements:

Chairman Alderman Tibbs said she did not have a report.

 

Sewer Treatment Plant, Sewers and Drainage:

Chairman Alderman Busby said he did not have a report.

 

Police:

Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said he did not have a report.

 

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City Council Committee's Meeting

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Mayor Snyder said he had petitions by the Harvest of Talents and they would get copies to

everyone.

 

Streets and Alleys:

Chairman Alderman Neitzel said she did not have a report.

 

Alderman Neitzel said they were going to bring up the shut off again for the sewer department.

She said she was going to put it on the agenda to shut them off if they don’t pay but Illinois

American would not do any of the billing. She said it has worked in other towns and said it was

time they got all of their revenue.

 

Alderman Tibbs said are they going to go down the list and shut them all off. Alderman

Anderson said not all at one time.

 

Alderman Neitzel said they start with the biggest amounts first. She asked who is going to

decide whose first.

 

Alderman Busby said he thought Alderman Neitzel and the girls downstairs.

everyone has a copy of the letter that would be sent to the owner and the renter.

 

Mayor Snyder said the water company would only do that for the ones they identify and if we

ask them to do that. Mr. Conzo said in talking with both Belleville and Pontiac they both send

out letters and Pontiac actually sends out two of them before they shut them off. He thought

Belleville only sends out one letter.

 

Alderman Neitzel said she talked to several that pay their bill and they think it is only fair.

 

Alderman Tibbs said she has great concern for the renter that has been paying their rent the

sewer bill they thought. They have been told by Mr. Bates that is doesn’t matter they get shut

off.

 

Mr. Bates said they are both responsible and that is correct. If the tenant hasn’t been billed they

don’t know they are supposed to be paying.

 

Alderman Wilmert said he was not familiar with the arrearages but his guess was they could

avoid that hornet’s nest if they simply not target those people first. If only 5% of our list of

delinquent people is a renter/tenant situation ignore that then go after the single family residents

occupied by the owner. Start there and deal with the rest.

 

Alderman Neitzel said that will all have to be reviewed. Alderman Anderson said she would

assume then that she needed to bump up the appropriations for postage.

 

He thought

 

Lincoln, Illinois

City Council Committee's Meeting

July 12, 2011; Page -6-

 

Mr. Bates said not just postage but the agreement calls that you have to pay American Water

for their losses of water revenue for anyone you shut their water off. Alderman Anderson

said where will that come out of? Mayor Snyder said that would come out of whatever the

people would pay to get reconnected but you are going to have some situations where there are

foreclosures or absentee owners and you may never get that money back. Alderman Anderson

said they don’t have a line in the budget for that.

 

Alderman Busby said the latest the $60.00 charge of shut off and $60.00 turning it back on

would be billed to the customer so they wouldn’t have an added expense there. Mr. Conzo said

along with the lost revenue charge.

 

Mr. Bates wanted to know where it said that. Your agreement with American Water cannot

control that your ordinance has to say that.

 

Alderman Busby said he thought they got that in the letter. Alderman Neitzel said it says the city

will pay to the water company within 30 days of receiving an invoice from the water company

the sum of $65.00 to cover the cost to terminate it and restoring water supply to each premise.

Mayor Snyder said that was Mr. Bates’s comment that the contract dictates our relationship with

the Water Company and what we have to pay them and then we would have to have language

and an ordinance to say that they are responsible. Mr. Conzo thought they could include in that

ordinance that we would also recover the money we have to pay to Illinois American for the loss

of revenue. Mayor Snyder asked if there were other questions or comments about this.

 

Mr. Conzo said he would strongly recommend in doing this that you would continue or go

forward with the practice of turning these over to collections especially in the case of absentee

landlords of people that may have left the jurisdiction. If we don’t do that we’re still not going to

have any effective way of recovering that and by turning them over to collections we would still

have that capability or a chance at recovering?

 

Mayor Snyder asked if any had been turned over yet. Alderman O’Donohue asked when

they were going to. Mrs. Martinek said she was waiting until Doris comes back. Alderman

Neitzel said do they need an ordinance in file first before we start this. Mr. Bates said you have

some tremendous penalties built into this on the past due bills already. Alderman Neitzel said

according to the Water Company it could go up $120.00 that we have to pay. Mr. Bates said

you have to do something and you have to do one or the other because he wouldn’t know how to

write the ordinance until you tell me what you are going to do.

 

Mayor Snyder said if the agreement is approved again the trigger is the city turning over the

names to the Water Company for delinquency and shutting off the water. We could have the

agreement in place and turn names over until the process is defined and we have an ordinance in

place that would allow for the recouping of some or all of the costs that the Council would deem

appropriately.

 

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City Council Committee's Meeting

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Mayor Snyder said it would provide the City Attorney with guidance on what you want to do

with regard to the Ordinance.

 

Mr. Bates said 7-8-1-15 of the code says “the rates or charges for sewerage service are not paid

within ninety (90) days after the rendition of the bill for such services, such services shall be

discontinued without further notice. In the event that services are discontinued said service shall

not be reinstated until all outstanding charges, penalties, and costs of termination of service and

reinstatement of the same are paid in full.” So it is already in there.

 

Alderman Neitzel asked to have it on the agenda.

 

Ordinance and Zoning:

Chairman Alderman O’Donohue said he did not have a report.

 

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 wanted to mention a couple of things. Earlier this evening he convened a

committee to start work on the City Administrator coming up with a job description and work

towards getting advertisement in place, candidates identified and screening those candidates. He

asked Alderman O’Donohue and Alderman Wilmert to join him in that effort. They met this

evening and talked about the job description. They have a template that they use for department

heads that they will use for those. They talked about some examples that they’ve seen in other

communities and thought their intent is to work on a draft job description that they would bring

to the Council for your review. Once the job description is in place they will need an ordinance

basically because we have nothing in the books. They have a target date of November 1.

 

Mayor Snyder said a comment about the redistricting he knew that Alderman Wilmert had

some input from some folks about that whole idea of whether to redistrict or look for additional

people to get us up above the threshold where we wouldn’t have to do that. He has met with

some representatives of Bruce Harris Associates who did the redistricting for the county for

their districts. They were not able to give him a price because we don’t know exactly what they

will need from them for the process. They don’t think it will be tremendously complicated they

talked about a cost of $100.00 to $150.00 per hour. They do have all the GIS data for the county

including the city, all the census data and would need basically some rough idea what the wards

might look like. If they decide to go that route they would put a committee together.

 

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Alderman Wilmert said he met with a couple of people from Prairie Engineers Darrin Forgy

and Lisa Kramer. They had noticed that the city was looking at doing a recount and the census

does that periodically and there is an expense associated with it and how much it compares to

redistricting he didn’t know. They could consider the annexing of the prisons and the different

costs that might be changed because of annexing in.

 

Fire Chief Miller reminded everyone about the drafts for the fire ordinance.

 

Alderman Busby said Eureka had 55 applicants for City Administrator.

 

Deputy Chief Geriets said they needed to swear in Aaron Pickett for probationary police officer.

 

Alderman Anderson said I move to go into Executive Session under 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5)

purchase or lease of real estate and Alderman Horn seconded it. City Clerk Mrs. Martinek

called the roll call. There were ten yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman

Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman

O’Donohue, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and none absent; motion

carried. The meeting adjourned to Executive Session at 7:49 p.m.

 

The meeting returned to regular Session at 8:34 p.m. City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll

call. There were nine present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon,

Alderman Busby, , Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, Alderman Tibbs,

and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and two absent (Alderman Hoinacki); motion carried. Also

present were City Attorney Mr. Bates, Mayor Snyder, City Clerk Mrs. Martinek, City Treasurer

Mr. Conzo, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.

 

Alderman Busby made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Alderman Neitzel seconded it.

There were ten yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman

Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue,

Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and none absent; motion carried.

 

The City of Lincoln Committee’s as a Whole Meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Risa Riggs

Recording Secretary