DeKalb Times

City of Sycamore City Council met July 20.

Here is the minutes provided by the council:

ROLL CALL

Mayor Lang called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and City Clerk Mary Kalk called the roll. Those Alderpersons present were: Steve Braser, Nancy Copple, Josh Huseman, Pete Paulsen, Virginia Sherrod via Zoom, Chuck Stowe, and Alan Bauer. Alderman Rick Kramer was absent. City Attorney Keith Foster was also present via Zoom.

INVOCATION- Led by Kevin Rutledge, First Baptist Church 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – Led by Alderman Josh Huseman

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

MOTION

Alderperson Stowe motioned to approve the agenda and Alderperson Braser seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE

Mayor Lang called for a roll call vote to approve the motion. Alderpersons Braser, Copple, Huseman, Paulsen, Sherrod, Stowe, and Bauer voted aye. Motion carried 7-0.

AUDIENCE TO VISITORS - None

CONSENT AGENDA

A. Approval of the Minutes for the Regular City Council Meeting of July 6, 2020. B. Payment of the Bills for July 20, 2020 in the amount of $1,316,730.73

MOTION

Alderperson Bauer moved to approve the Consent Agenda and Alderperson Stowe seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE

Mayor Lang called for a roll call vote to approve the motion. Alderpersons Braser, Copple, Huseman, Paulsen, Sherrod, Stowe, and Bauer voted aye. Motion carried 7-0.

PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, AND BILLS

Alderperson Nancy Copple read a thank you letter from the Sycamore Library, herein after, regarding the completion of the restoration of the Carnegie section.

Alderman Huseman wanted to thank the people and respond to the calls and inquiries of them asking about social justice and public safety. He said, in researching public safety reports and in riding along with the police, he has learned that the Sycamore Police Department has worked over many years to stay up to date on policing equity. He added that mental health needs more attention in this community and supports the calls for more resources referencing Dawn Littlefield’s past presentation of United Way’s 211 system. Lastly, he recognized that there is a citizen Police and Fire Commission made up of residents and invited those interested in joining to reach out to him.

REPORT OF OFFICERS

City Manager – Brian Gregory thanked Alderwoman Copple for the comments from the Sycamore Library and said it is an exciting project to see come to fruition and have that icon here in town be preserved. He said tonight’s hybrid meeting is also on Zoom. The City will continue to utilize the hybrid meetings for the interim and hopefully will be able to move to fully in person in the near future. Closed Session will be held in Chambers to keep social distancing. Those that are not part of the Closed Session will leave the room or be put in the Zoom waiting room and all will be invited back once we return to Open Session. The Harvestore Square complex is almost complete. The last piece is that two to three inches of blacktop will be installed and will be done at the same time that paving is done at the Public Works complex in late summer or early fall. The City’s has worked with DeKalb County from a property maintenance standpoint on the abandoned house at 258 Lucas Street which looks like the city will be able to acquire to hopefully demolish and put back into private use. It has been a long and complicated process and there will be more to come in the future agendas. He appreciates the help from the attorneys and the Community Development Department in this process.

Police Chief – Jim Winters said to follow up on Alderman Huseman’s comments, in November of last year, the Police Department had an initial meeting with Northwestern (NW) Behavior Health Services which oversees the Ben Gordon

Center. They created a partnership to provide referrals from cases handled by officers which would assist their mental health professionals with outreach to individuals who may benefit from mental health support services. They recently had a follow up meeting with staff from NW and that program is going well and continues to grow. The officers will be increasing interactions with one of their social workers. Within the last couple of weeks, the police department received the eight in-car video cameras that are being paid for mostly through grant funding. Installation will begin soon and once the in-car video cameras are fully operational, they will focus on the policy, procurement, and implementation of body cameras.

Alderperson Copple asked if the city had a Ben Gordon liaison.

Chief Winters said yes, they do but up until this point it had been himself and Deputy Chief Cook, however, they have certified two officers in a 40-hour crisis intervention training. They take the lead but they are actually expanding that to have more of the officers take that class through grant funding.

Mayor Lang mentioned that our officers have had over 3,200 hours of training in 2019 and are certified by ILEAP (Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Program) so we are doing our best to keep current.

Fire Chief – Pete Polarek said they received an $11,000 grant from the Assistance to Firefighter Grant as part of a special COVID-19 grant which called for a projection of call-volume related to COVID-19 matched to PPE (personal protective equipment).

Director of Public Works – Fred Busse absent

Director Community Development – John Sauter said they did a final inspection at the Suter Office addition and they were approved to occupy the space. They also did a final inspection of the new Rise and Shine Restaurant on DeKalb Avenue and they were tentatively scheduled to open today. They did a final inspection at Northern Axeposure, which is the new business that provides recreational axe throwing, and they are scheduled open this week.

Director of Human and Administrative Resources (DHAR) – Maggie Peck said they currently have a part-time position on the website for the Account Clerk position which is the only open position at this time. She met with the insurance committee last week and said she will be bringing proposals to the next council meeting. She reported that they ordered 150 shields for businesses and only have two left.

Alderperson Copple questioned that if we lost an accountant in Finance, how many positions are open.

DHAR Maggie Peck said they did have an accountant position open but didn’t get the pool of candidates so they decided to take a different direction. Currently they have two positions open in Finance; the part-time Account Clerk and Accountant. She said they are going to try to fill the part-time position to give some reprieve to Adam Orton and Jozi Meier.

City Engineer – Mark Bushnell said for the Public Works Storage Building, the concrete floor of the building was poured last week and lumber was delivered this morning. We should see vertical construction later this week. For Electric Park Drive, the preconstruction meeting is scheduled for Tuesday July, 28th. At the next meeting I hope to have an update on the construction timeline. For State Street, Curran’s crews are adjusting manholes, but should be done in the next day or

so. Public Works crews are prepping light poles for painting.

Treasurer/Asst. to the City Manager – Adam Orton said the June’s Treasurer’s report, on a cash-basis, has a benchmark of 17%. Two of the six property tax installments have been received for a total of $940,303 or approximately half of the budgeted total. For revenue sources, the City and State Sales Tax are both behind their benchmarks at 13% and 15% respectively. The Restaurant & Bar Tax is also at 15%. Overall revenues are about 19% but at 15% when weighted with property taxes. He will continue to monitor these numbers as businesses start to reopen. The expenditures are at 16%. The good news on the pension side is that with the market continuing to be strong, he has seen good gains. He reported that the auditors have finished the field work and are overall very happy. It was a smooth process. They are now moving on to the report writing phase. He thanked all the departments for their assistance but thanked specifically Jozi Meier and Denise Setchell who were a big help.

REPORTS OF STANDING COMMITTEES

Finance – Alan Bauer - no report

Public Safety – Pete Paulsen - no report 

Public Works – Chuck Stowe - no report

PUBLIC HEARINGS - None 

ORDINANCES- None

RESOLUTIONS

A. Resolution No. 839—A Resolution Authorizing Disposal of Certain City Property.

City Manager Brian Gregory said this resolution deals with the disposal of a 1998 Elgin Pelican P Sweeper (Estimated $5,000 value) and will be listed on the Wisconsin Surplus Auction site for sale.

MOTION

Alderperson Braser motioned to approve Resolution 839 and Alderperson Stowe seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE

Mayor Lang called for a roll call vote to approve the motion. Alderpersons Braser, Copple, Huseman, Paulsen, Sherrod, Stowe, and Bauer voted aye. Motion carried 7-0.

B. Resolution No. 840—A Resolution Authorizing the Mayor to Sign a Letter of Understanding to Incorporate the Future Traffic Signal Maintenance at Illinois 23 and Mt. Hunger Road into the Intergovernmental Agreement for Governmental Body Maintenance of Traffic Control Devices (“Master Agreement”) between the City of Sycamore and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

City Manager Brian Gregory said this stop light has been anticipated since the Townsend Woods development was approved and with the Old Mill Park subdivision, Brian Grainger took on the developer’s responsibilities. Traffic warrants have been met. Illinois Department of Transportation is proposing to incorporate the new signal into the Master Agreement. Given there will be three legs of this particular intersection, IDOT will be responsible for 67% of the energy and maintenance costs while the City will be responsible for 33%. These agreements that define the shared maintenance are called Master Agreements and so all the lights in town that have any State interaction or State roads crossing them have similar agreements. The State is in the process of permitting this and will hopefully start later this year.

Alderperson Copple asked if this agreement was good until June 30, 2021.

City Manager Brian Gregory said once that Master Agreement expires, the State would come back and renegotiate. He said sometimes a jurisdiction may change on a certain street, so everything gets cleaned up when they are renegotiated. They are a ten year agreement.

Alderman Huseman asked if a crosswalk would be fashioned somehow.

City Engineer Mark Bushnell said he believes there is one on the north side of the intersection. There will be paying on Route 23 and then this intersection improvement which are both IDOT projects so we asked them to coordinate them.

MOTION

Alderperson Huseman motioned to approve Resolution 840 and Alderperson Braser seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE

Mayor Lang called for a roll call vote to approve the motion. Alderpersons Braser, Copple, Huseman, Paulsen, Sherrod, Stowe, and Bauer voted aye. Motion carried 7-0.

CONSIDERATIONS

A. Consideration of a Recommendation from the Public Works Department regarding the Award of the Bid of the IL Route 64 Asphalt Stamping Project.

City Manager Brian Gregory said it was anticipated that when IDOT did the work on Route 23 and Route 64, they would not replace the crosswalks that consist of 11 between Maple and California Streets. In addition to this, additional material that will be required by Public Works to paint the stamped crosswalks was included the FY2021 budget. The City only received one bid from Gallagher Asphalt of Thornton, IL for $25,448.20, which is less than the Engineer’s Estimate of $31,611.20.

MOTION

Alderperson Braser motioned to approve $25,448.20 to Gallagher Asphalt and Alderperson Paulsen seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE

Mayor Lang called for a roll call vote to approve the motion. Alderpersons Braser, Copple, Huseman, Paulsen, Sherrod, Stowe, and Bauer voted aye. Motion carried 7-0.

B. Consideration of a Presentation of the 2019 Fire Department Annual Report.

Fire Chief Pete Polarek presented highlights of the 2019 Fire Department Annual Report which included the following:

Pg 1- Dedication of the Annual Report to Lt. Gene Listy who served the citizen of the City of Sycamore for over 55 years. He said that both Gene and his son Matt were fixtures in the community and Sycamore Fire service. He said that Gene was a very kind and gentle man and will miss him very much.

Pg. 22 - Emergency Response Services being COVID-19 related.

Pg. 9 - Service Awards – Seven grants from a variety of sources that equaled about $28,000.

Pg. 30 – Fire Loss – St. Albans, Menards, and a six-flat which accounted for 91% of the $3.5 Million dollars in losses.

He said this couldn’t be done without the dedicated hardworking fire staff and that he is proud of them.

The Mayor asked about the false alarm statistics on page 27 to which the Chief said those statistics remain flat.

Alderman Stowe said that the lift assists on page 26 are growing quite a bit and asked if there should be a charge when most go to facilities where there is a nursing staff.

Chief Polarek said if they don’t transport the patient, there is no charge. He said that they have addressed that before but it really comes down to a liability issue for them. They are watching these numbers closely, though.

Alderman Huseman asked how the spirit is with COVID.

Chief Polarek said they worked out procedures with the labor group early on to limit exposure and they have been very fortunate as the guys have been very diligent.

C. Consideration of an Administration Request for Closed Session to Review Closed Session Meeting Minutes.

MOTION

Alderperson Huseman motioned to go into Closed Session at 7:45 p.m. and Paulsen Huseman seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE

Mayor Lang called for a roll call vote to approve the motion. Alderpersons Braser, Copple, Huseman, Paulsen, Sherrod, Stowe, and Bauer voted aye. Motion carried 7-0.

MOTION

Alderperson Paulsen motioned to return to Open Session at 7:47 p.m.and Alderperson Stowe seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE

Mayor Lang called for a roll call vote to approve the motion. Alderpersons Braser, Copple, Huseman, Paulsen, Sherrod, Stowe, and Bauer voted aye. Motion carried 7-0.

OTHER NEW BUSINESS APPOINTMENTS

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION

Alderperson Stowe moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:48 p.m. and Alderperson Paulsen seconded the motion.

VOICE VOTE

Mayor Lang called for a roll call vote to approve the motion. Alderpersons Braser, Copple, Huseman, Paulsen, Sherrod, Stowe, and Bauer voted aye. Motion carried 7-0.

https://cityofsycamore.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/cc20200720m.pdf