Lincoln, Illinois

City Council Committee's Meeting

March 13, 2012

Minutes of the City of Lincoln City Council Committees' Meeting held in the Council Chambers on Tuesday, March 13, 2012.

Those present were Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, and Alderman Tibbs. Also present were Assistant Fire Chief Dunovsky, Street Superintendent Mr. Jackson, Safety and Building Officer Mr. Lebegue, Police Chief Greenslate, and EMC Manager Mr. Palmer. Also present were Mayor Snyder, City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach, City Attorney Mr. Bates, City Treasurer Mr. Conzo, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.

Mayor Snyder called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. There were eight Aldermen present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, and Alderman Tibbs) and two absent (Alderman Busby and Alderman Wilmert).

Everyone present recited the Pledge.

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

Finance, Policy and Procedure:

Chairman Alderman Anderson said she wanted to remind the department heads that haven’t gotten to her or Mayor Snyder their inventory on the equipment and vehicles in. She has additional forms if they need them.

Fire/Water & ESDA:

Chairman Alderman Horn said she had gotten an email from Fire Chief Miller. She said that the State Fire Marshall’s office has the 0% loan available again. She said Fire Chief Miller wanted to know if he should apply for the loan and how much he should apply for and would be to replace 5104 a 1991 engine. He has completed a grant application for the 2012 Illinois American Grant for new mobile radios. A new siren for Northgate on Kickapoo which we talked about Saturday would cost $14,424.59 and the battery back up cost would be $3,503.20 but that is not required. Ameren has in the past has made connections as a public service.

Assistant Chief Dunovsky said the one on Lincolnwood was removed and the one they are talking would cover the entire area out there.   Mr. Jackson said Ophir Street is a new one.

Grounds, Buildings & Local Improvements:

Chairman Alderman Tibbs said she did not have a report.

Police:

Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said Police Chief Greenslate had some information.

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Police Chief Greenslate said that Paul Adams on his own initiative. The State of Illinois is going to one website for all sex offender information clearing house. The monies were provided by Attorney General’s office. You can track through Lincolnpolice.us you can click on offender and you can type in your address and up to however far you wish from your residence and it will tell you how many offenders, where they are located and if you have a certain offender you wish to track you can punch that person and if they change any address, job or anything like that you will be sent an email. You can also receive an email if a new offender moves into your area. It is free to everyone.

Sewer Treatment Plant, Sewers and Drainage:

Vice Chairman Alderman Neitzel said she didn’t know of anything.

Mayor Snyder said they needed to talk about the acceptance of grease policy.

Mr. Palmer said they were trying to compromise with the sewer treatment plant and the small businesses. They were having trouble with people dumping 1,000’s of gallons of grease and are not set up to take that amount. They end up having to haul it away. This is a compromise.

Alderman Neitzel asked to have it on the agenda. Mr. Bates said it would be better for the city if they said what they want to do.

Mayor Snyder said they also had the ILEPA Composed Compliance Agreement. There was some dried sludge that got on the street which was a violation. There is a penalty clause with a $2,000.00 penalty.

Mr. Kitzmiller said he was under the understanding that there was no penalty for this. Mr. Palmer said he read it was a future violation.

Mr. Kitzmiller said it was accidental and they responded to the EPA’s notice of violation. We did not ask for this agreement but responded with a letter that said here is what we did to try to prevent the situation and here is how it was cleaned up. They took this response and turned it into this compliance agreement. It is not doing anything more than what we have done before other than to formerly notify the trucking firms we use that they will have to use their locking devises on every single load. They will draft a formal letter notifying them at the time of hauling as well as install at the spot where trucks are loaded to remind the drivers to check their trucks before they leave the loading site. He said they would be responsible up front for the fine.

Mr. Bates said the way it is phrased it really isn’t a fine for another incident but a fine for violating the agreement. As he read it we have complied with the terms.

Mayor Snyder said they have 30 days to sign. Alderman Neitzel asked to have it on the agenda. Mr. Bates asked if they could go ahead and send in the Certificate of Compliance.

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Mr. Kitzmiller said they have to go in the same time as the agreement. Mr. Bates said they want to approve the CCA and the Compliance statement.

Streets and Alleys:

Chairman Alderman Neitzel said she did not have a report.

Mr. Jackson said they dropped the water level by three feet today. They got half of the dam torn down and can’t reach the other half.

Ordinance and Zoning:

Chairman Alderman O’Donohue said they had the Ordinance for City Code changes adopt what Mr. Lebegue has recommended to the Council on the agenda.

Alderman O’Donohue said they need a Resolution and notice of appointment of Mrs. Gehlbach to make her the elected official for the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund on the agenda.

Mayor Snyder said there is another Resolution that can go on the Consent Agenda proclaiming March 18 – 24 as MS Awareness Week.

Alderman O’Donohue said they have discussed about having a professional come in and do their HR manual. This would take into account the union issues, FMLA etc. They met with Julie Love and she is more than qualified. The cost will be $4,500.00 with it to be done within 90 days and would recommend the go ahead and do this. He asked to have it on the agenda.

Mr. Bates said she needed to have access to our policies. Mayor Snyder said she wanted to meet with the department heads.

Sidewalks, Forestry and Lighting:

Chairman Alderman Armbrust said he did not have a report.

Sanitation/Technology:

Mayor Snyder said he had a few things. A schedule of the Joint Solid Waste collections was passed out for glass recycling, paper shredding, hard drive shredding, etc.

Mayor Snyder said the city wide cleanup he had requested bids. He received information from Veola which said they were not in a position to offer. Allied Waste Services their proposal was for a centralized process with a cost of $20,000.00.

Area Disposal was free of charge. It will be a centralized location. April 28 from 6:00 a.m. to noon they will do West of Union and May 5 from 6:00 a.m. to noon they will do East of Union.

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Area Disposal will accept doors, windows, tires (up to 4 per household), appliances not containing Freon, bulky items (mattresses, box springs, couches and chairs and those types of things), carpet and wood scraps (as long as bundled). They will also pick up for senior citizen, someone disabled or whatever and ask they contact the city.

Mayor Snyder asked to have this item on the agenda. Alderman Tibbs said she would do that.

Mayor Snyder said they have $20,000.00 in the budget to do that. They are going to pursue demolition of some houses.

Mr. Lebegue said they had two houses on Sangamon Street that were fire damaged and another one by the fairgrounds. Those three would be the focus and they would get quotes. They are getting the process started.

Mayor Snyder said they are doing a title search and they will move forward and proceed.

Insurance:

Chairman Alderman Bacon did not have a report.

Mayor Snyder said there will be electric aggregation meetings on electric aggregation at the Park District on this Thursday at 2:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. There is a website on electric aggregation for local site information.

Mayor Snyder invited Lisa Kramer and John Myers to come and discuss TIF district.

John Myers said that TIF districts are an economic development tool. It can be the rehabilitation of buildings that are substandard and revitalize stores. Everything has an assessed valuation and the taxes are imposed and applied against the assessed value. TIF’s (Tax Increment Finances) are taking the assessed values within the TIF district as of the date TIF district is established. The property increases and the increases in taxes then those taxes can be used for economic development project. These TIF districts can be used to do projects such as infrastructure, street scape projects where you spruce up the area, façade projects, he has seen them used for bringing in Dollar General Stores but wouldn’t do that for a downtown TIF. You first have to have a feasibility study. He said Ms. Kramer had done some by looking at some properties to see if they meet the criteria as set forth by the TIF act. They are looking at a conservation area where most of the buildings have an age of 35 years or more. There are conditions in the district that are detrimental to safety or welfare such as dilapidation, deterioration, presences of structures below minimum code standards, illegal use of individual structures, excessive vacancies, and on and on.

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Mayor Snyder said he did not give out Mr. Myers primmer for the TIF district but that he could.

Mr. Myers said there is also information on the Illinois TIF website. You have the feasibility study and look at all the property, evaluate each property and evaluate the district as a whole and asks if this meets the standards. If you qualify then he and Ms. Kramer work with them on the technical requirements of qualifying as the TIF and then you set it up by Ordinance and there are several ordinances. You set up a budget in the plan and then you sit back and wait for people to come to you to set up projects and TIF’s last for 23 years. To do the feasibility study they are proposing a flat $25,000.00 fee. The feasibility study is the core of the whole thing and you have to see if you qualify. He thought the downtown area would qualify.

Ms. Kramer said EAV (equalized assessed valuation) of the area that we are looking and looked at the last five years and we have had a decline in the last five years.   The main part they are looking at is Decatur to Delavan Street and Logan Street to Sherman Street. It would just be business district.

Mr. Myers said one of the qualifying factors is a declining EAV. Any property in the Enterprise Zone that are getting tax abatements you cannot do both. He has been involved in TIF’s in the North side of Sherman, Litchfield, Chatham (downtown), Elkhart, and Springfield (downtown) has one but was not involved in that one. It will not turn things around overnight. It takes a while and in time they are successful. You cannot build a new building. It limits the developer from using all the available cash from the TIF district. You can couple the TIF with sales tax sharing to help with a new turn lane.

Mr. Bates said I have a building and I want to do a complete façade.

Mr. Myers said the city sets up a program. It might say we will fund half of the façade improvements. The building owner doesn’t necessarily get reimbursed for improvements unless the city has set a reimbursement program. You either set up a program that applies to people who come in and meet the criteria or you do a separate contract with each developer. There are incentives for property owners and that is the whole idea. Different school districts have a different view about this and if there are new students coming in and they are not getting any more money. You set up a Joint Review Board and the school district has a representative on the board. They advise if they think it is a good idea. The real TIF promoters have a lot of controversy. He did not think the downtown TIF should be a problem. They would want to talk to the school districts to make sure they were on board. Residential neighborhoods are worried that it will trash their neighborhood. They look to see if it is for real if they are just looking at lining their pockets. Are there weeds coming up, caved in roofs and things like that. He didn’t think they could use it to get a new station but you could buy a new truck.

Ms. Kramer said TIF is more flexible than Federal dollars that come with strings attached. There are a lot more federal regulations as far as material and labor requirements.

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Mayor Snyder said as they said there would be additional costs to the feasibility study which would include legal fees, engineering and that type of thing. Getting an ordinance in place which gets the legal in place and thought it would be around $10,000.00 range. The city can pay for those things by collapsing the revolving loan fund or the city could get reimbursed for those items out of the TIF. Another option would be if a private developer would want to underwrite these costs. He said he would make a copy of the TIF primer.

Mr. Myers said if the TIF doesn’t happen then the money you have paid out doesn’t get reimbursed and you are out that money. Mayor Snyder said if nothing happens and the assessed value keeps going down it’s not stopped but if a TIF is established and there is a bottom line there where the taxing district’s are kept for the life of the TIF but encourages investment and development to get it back up above the line.

Mr. Myers read the state statute. He talked about setting criteria for the projects. He said they went up and down the streets with Ms. Kramer and they were looking for the commercial areas and corridor. The TIF district that has been defined does include some residential.

Ms. Kramer said they looked at the possibility of South Kickapoo Street down to the underpass under the railroad and guessed it would just be the houses on the left side of the street. There is industry mixed in with residential and the substandard underpass that is an area that could possibly use funds.

Mayor Snyder said that it has not been finally decided. It is something they need to talk about.

Mr. Myers said you can frequently remove property from the TIF. TIF generated funds must be spent within the TIF. If you have two TIF districts and they are adjacent to each other you can spend money generated in one TIF district in the other. Once a TIF district is set up you can modify its boundaries but you have to start from scratch to do that. People often ask if in a TIF district do their taxes go up and the answer is no. The difference is the distribution.

Alderman Anderson said I move to go into Executive Session under 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1) to discuss personnel and 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5) to discuss purchase or lease of real estate and Alderman Horn seconded it. City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach called the roll call. There were eight yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, and Alderman Tibbs), zero nays, and two absent (Alderman Busby and Alderman Wilmert); motion carried. The meeting adjourned to Executive Session at 8:25 p.m.

The meeting returned to regular Session at 8:47 p.m. City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach called the roll call. There were eight present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, and Alderman Tibbs), zero nays, and two absent (Alderman Busby and Alderman Wilmert); motion carried. Lincoln, Illinois

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Also present were Mayor Snyder, City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach, City Treasurer Mr. Conzo, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.

Mayor Snyder said the group looking at the bike trail for the first phase of the bike trail talked to the county board about that and they are going after the bike trail.

Alderman Neitzel made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Alderman Anderson seconded it. There were eight yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, and Alderman Tibbs), zero nays, and two absent (Alderman Busby and Alderman Wilmert); motion carried.

The City of Lincoln Committee’s as a Whole Meeting adjourned at 8:49 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Risa Riggs

Recording Secretary