Minutes of the City of Lincoln City Council Committee's Meeting held in the Council Chambers on Tuesday, August 27, 2013.

Those present were Alderman Anderson, Alderman Carmitchel, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O'Donohue, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert. Also present were Street Superintendent Mr. Jackson, City Engineer Mr. Forgy, Safety and Building Officer Mr. Lebegue, Fire Chief Miller, American Water/EMC Mgr. Mr. Ferguson, and Police Chief Greenslate. Also present were City Clerk Mrs. Gehlbach, City Attorney Mr. Blinn Bates, City Treasurer Mr. Conzo, City Administrator Ms. McLaughlin, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.  

Mayor Snyder called the meeting to order at 7:13 p.m. There were eight Aldermen present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Carmitchel, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, Alderman Tibbs and Alderman Wilmert) and none absent.

Public Participation:

There was no public participation.

Request to Permit:

Lincoln Area Running Club “2 Mile Tune Up” road race for September 14

Lincoln College “Civility Rocks” Festival for September 14

Lincoln Knights of Columbus for September 20 & 21

Logan County EMA & Logan County Department of Public Health for September 28

LCHS Whitewashing Streets for September 29

Placement of Sign for Harvest of Talents placed a few weeks before through October 28

5K Run during Harvest of Talents for October 26

LCHS Homecoming Parade for October 4

Cronin Brothers VFW 5K Run/Walk for November 10

Alderman Carmitchel asked to put all the above items on the Consent Agenda for the September 9, 2013 City Council Meeting.

Alderman Hoinacki said a box for insurance being provided should be on the Request to Permit form.

Discussion regarding Logan County Joint Solid Waste:

Alderman Wilmert said he was present at the last Logan County Joint Solid Waste meeting. The fees are being raised to approximately $14,000.00 for the City’s assessment. This will not go into effect until July of 2014 with the rate going from $3.00 to $4.00. He had information available for the Aldermen if they wanted to look at.

Alderman Anderson said the recycling is needed in our community and is a classic example of why the City of Lincoln will be discussing the utility tax.

Discussion regarding Whitetopping Bid results:

City Engineer Mr. Forgy said the City of Lincoln had a bid opening today (August 27, 2013) for a whitetopping project. This project is on Hamilton Street between Pulaski and Broadway (between Holland Bennett & Barry Funeral Home and The Glass House). The process is to mill approximately 4 inches and then lay concrete otherwise known as whitetopping. The Contractor who had the lowest bid was Otto Baum out of Morton, Illinois. The street will be milled out then concrete will be laid in one day. The street will be closed on Friday with the hope of being open on Monday. If the street does not meet the requirements, it might be as long as 4 or 5 days being closed. It was approximately $8,000.00 under budget. Maurer Stutz did the engineering for this project.

Mayor Snyder placed the acceptance of this bid on the September 3, 2013 Agenda.

Pulaski Street between Hamilton and Sherman as well as the sewer will be done this year. This will depend on the weather. The next four blocks on Pulaski Street have to be done at the same time due to the sewer.

Discussion re: Replacement of 3rd Street Garage:

Mayor Snyder said legacy utilities and Nicor are responsible for cleaning up the problem with the soil underneath the 3rd Street garage. The City of Lincoln got a response back from the utilities with what the utilities are comfortable doing and the response from the utilities is a like for like (same as current 3rd Street Garage) replacement. The architect hired by the City of Lincoln has shown the City cannot go back into the same spot to build with the same square footage as what is there now due to existing setbacks. A meeting has been set for September 9, 2013. Alderman Tibbs and Alderman Neitzel were asked to attend the meeting as City of Lincoln Council designees for that process.

Discussion regarding Utility Tax (no copy of Ordinance attached) and Taxpayer's Bill of Rights Ordinance:

Mayor Snyder said they will have people come forward that have asked to speak tonight.

Mayor Snyder said before they get to the tax discussion, he had letters from City of Lincoln Fire Department Local #3092 expressing their support for the utility tax. Also, the City of Lincoln Police Department FOP previously sent a letter in support of the utility tax.

Mrs. Wanda Rohlfs said she received a copy of the ordinance. The tax in the ordinance reads more than 4% and is actually almost 5% is she was reading that correctly.

Mayor Snyder said the 4% is actually 80% of the maximum rate that is allowed by statute. Individually it may be higher or lower depending on your usage. Mrs. Rohlfs said the Ordinance reads 4.88%. Mayor Snyder said if you use more then you pay less. Mrs. Rohlfs asked about the Fire and Police pensions.

Mayor Snyder said it would have been like it was when Mrs. Rohlfs was an Alderman. There is a Fire Pension Board and a Police Pension Board and the benefits for those are set by the General Assembly. The local pension boards have no control over the benefits or specifying what they are. The local government is responsible through a combination of employee withholding (contributions) and local government contributions to make that up. The street employees are under IMRF that is a “state fund” but does not get state money.

Mrs. Rohlfs said the City Council is asking for this money, after it is received, to be put in a pot and the City will use that as they see fit. She was concerned that, years after this has been started that there are no stipulations as to how it will be spent. It bothers her and she wants to know how much is going to each fund.

Mayor Snyder said it is no different than the sales tax or property tax. The City Council makes decisions on that money every year and there is no guarantee that what the City of Lincoln City Council sets up this year is going to be followed by the City Council 5 years down the road.

Alderman O’Donohue said the future City Councils can change the ordinances.

Mrs. Rohlfs thought the City Council could put some stipulations with percentages on that. She said there are a lot of people on fixed incomes. She wondered if the City of Lincoln needed such an elaborate building as the City of Lincoln is looking at.

Alderman Anderson said her concern for outlining in the Ordinance is when certain items would no longer need the money from this tax but because it is in the Ordinance that’s how it has to be taken out for that item. She said the fear right now is that the IEPA can come in and force the City of Lincoln to separate their sewers. This money would help if they have to redirect funds to cover that type of a project.

Alderman Wilmert said his constituents are telling him to vote against the Utility Tax. The decisions are tough on what to cut.

Alderman Anderson said the City of Lincoln wrestles with that every year at budget time on what gets cut. She said part of the reason why the City Council is where it is at today is because previous City Council’s (she has been one of them) and she isn’t placing blame. The City Councils’ have put things off, which now need to be addressed. This 4% will be a small part if they have to start taxing to get it to happen.

City Treasurer Mr. Conzo responded that the increasing price of coal and other fuel resources are the result of the current Federal energy ruling and that he expects that this will cause the price of electricity to continue to increase.

Alderman O'Donohue said he has been buying electricity for about six years and the trending has gone down.

Mr. Richard Sinks said last week he talked about how the money could be redirected to pay off an existing note. He wanted to know if the IEPA note could be paid ahead.

Mayor Snyder said it could be paid ahead and there is no interest.

Mr. Sinks said he was not for this tax. If the tax is needed then the City of Lincoln should get the most bang for their buck and is against long term debt. If done as proposed, 23.3% of the budget is for debt. If the City of Lincoln pays off the debt as well as the approximately $650,000.00 it will take 4.7 years to pay off the existing IEPA debt. That will free up $650,000.00 a year. This will come in $21.7M payback and that is about $8M for the life of the loan.

City Administrator Ms. McLaughlin said the sewer money is not going to be freed up to spend on other things. Mr. Sinks said paying $8M in interest is not a good plan. Mr. Sinks was concerned about the $650,000.00 of sewer debt. Mayor Snyder stated that the each community is bound by the statutes for debt limits at 8% of the EAV. Alderman Wilmert said there are mandates for the fire and police pensions that have to be met by 2040. Mr. Conzo explained that the City of Lincoln has other debts with things such as the G.O. Bonds and the debt certificates.

Mr. Don Bauer said he is retired and has to live within his means. He is against any taxes.

Mr. Jeff Short said he is not against the utility tax. He is more for working on the mandates. He felt the City of Lincoln needed to stick with sewers, public safety complex, and other mandates. He did not feel downtown renovation was a good idea and is not a mandate but is a want.

Taxpayer's Bill of Rights Ordinance

Mayor Snyder said the Aldermen all had a copy of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights Ordinance. Alderman Carmitchel asked why it was the City Administrator versus an elected official. City Attorney Mr. Bates said that could be changed. Alderman Carmitchel felt it should be the Mayor. Mayor Snyder felt it should be the City Clerk or the City Treasurer.

Mayor Snyder said the Aldermen have a document with the Utility Tax Usage Breakdown per dollar that was put together by City Administrator Ms. McLaughlin.

Ms. McLaughlin had a breakdown of the tax with the school districts getting 60% of the property taxes and the City of Lincoln only getting 13%. The pensions are 64%, which includes Fire, Police and IMRF, of the City of Lincoln’s share of property taxes which leaves 36% for everything else. She has the utility tax where she lives.

Utility tax continued

Alderman Tibbs asked what happens to the people that are on level pay. Alderman Neitzel said it would be reconciled in July.

Alderman Carmitchel said he could not support unless he could be convinced that building a new building was the best choice but knew the fire department and police department needed more room.

Mayor Snyder said a space needs report has been done and several properties had been looked at.  

Treasurer Mr. Conzo received a letter from Dan Bock and recommended the City of Lincoln establish a public buildings commission. This was done by the County Board when the Safety Complex was built. The Commission went back to the County Board with their recommendation.

Alderman Anderson said she was intrigued by Mr. Bock's letter also. After doing some research she found there were a number of grants that helped subsidize and the County borrowed $1.2M.

Mayor Snyder asked to have the Utility Tax Ordinance and the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights Ordinance will be placed on the September 9, 2013 agenda.

Other Business:

There was no other business to come before the City Council.

Announcements:

Mayor Snyder had an EDC Partnership handout that was given to the Aldermen.

Fire Chief Miller said he had an employee with four years of service resign. He asked to have on the agenda to hire another fire fighter.

Upcoming Meetings:

Council:                          September 3, 2013 – 7:00 p.m.                          

Committee of Whole:     September 10, 2013 – 7:00 p.m.

Alderman Neitzel made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Alderman Anderson seconded it. There were eight yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Carmitchel, 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 8:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Risa Riggs, Recording Secretary