Grundy Reporter

City of Kankakee City Council met Aug. 7.

Here is the minutes provided by the Council:

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Good evening I'd like to call the meeting to order.

With that being said we have Prayer – Pastor Larry Garcia From Pentecostal Community Church

PASTOR LARRY GARCIA:

(NO MIC ON INAUDIBLE)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG: In public comments.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – Youth From Pentecostal Community Church Next, on the agenda, we have public comments.

PUBLIC COMMENTS – Please give your name and direct your comments to the Mayor. Comments are limited to five minutes.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG: Our first person is Rosemary Norwicky

ROSEMARY NORWICKY: (NO MIC ON INAUDIBLE)

Mayor Wells, City Council, I’d just like to talk about what is going on in Marycrest, I live there and I am concerned. My concern is there is a lot of traffic driving through Marycrest. And the other night there was motor bikes speeding through. Now the police have done a great job. I am not criticizing the police. They are doing a great job. But the thing is I was hoping that we could get speed bumps installed. To keep these people that are cruising, I do not think these people live in Marycrest. Because it is all ours of the night. That is all I am saying. Thank you very much.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Thank you, next speaker is Angie Thymes

Angie Thymes: (NO MIC ON INAUDIBLE)

Good evening Mayor, I am here to speak about an (INAUDIBLE) that is coming up later. A permit rather. I am sorry. So my name is Angie Thymes I am a team leader (INAUDIBLE) right down the street here. Thresholds is a community mental health organization serving people with serious mental illnesses. Thresholds have been in the area for over thirty (30) years. Our request this evening is to hold a rally for mental health awareness. According to the world health organization, 1 out 5 adults’ worldwide will suffer from mental health challenge in their lifetime. 20% of youth ages 13-18 are living with mental health condition right now. To my knowledge, there has never been a rally of this sort in Kankakee before. The rally will have speakers from the local mental health organizations. Perhaps, someone well known in the national recovery community. But most importantly people like myself who have a psychiatric disability. And live, work, and participate in the Kankakee community. We want to share the message that there is help in this community. That people with mental health conditions do not have to feel alone. Recovery is not only possible but also the goal. Our message is that there is hope. (INAUDIBLE) We do not need the whole area. We are hoping that any and all of you can come to our rally. And if you would like to speak please let me know. Thank you for your time.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Thank you, next we have Steve Bertrand from the Kankakee Public Library.

Steve Bertrand: (NO MIC INAUDIBLE)

Good evening Mayor, I just wanted to bring everyone up to date two things. One was how did MusicFest go? I wanted to tell everybody it went very well. We grossed the greatest amount that we have ever had. (INAUDIBLE) Thank you, everybody, that volunteered. All the city support that we got. Since we started this in 2008 the Police have struck the perfect balance between keeping public order but not being a buzz kill and they did that again this year and we appreciate that. Public Works does a lot of moving things around and setting things up for us. Michael Costanza did a lot of our designs. (INAUDIBLE) We are 11 months 3 weeks before we do it all over again. That seems like ten minutes to me. I also wanted to bring you up to date on the Lions-I paid them a visit over at KNS they are doing ok. KNS has stripped the paint off of them. We have found 120 years’ worth of not so great repairs under their skins. Lots of Bondo and epoxy where people have done it for cheap before. We have agreed that we are going to do the work properly this time. Weld all of the cracks and everything with nickel and not put bondo in them. Because of that, it’s going to take a little longer than we anticipated. We anticipate to get them back next week or a little longer. But they are looking really good. One of them has been completed. And where there were big globs of resin (INAUDIBLE) Look brand new. We hope to have an unveiling, where you all can join us. I just wanted to bring you up to date with the things that are going on.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Thank you for coming. Next, we have Brian Scott.

Brian Scott: (NO MIC INAUDIBLE)

Good evening Mayor, City Council, Mayor I come here tonight it has been approximately two months since the first time I spoke to the City Council to voice concerns about the Police Chief appointment process. (INAUDIBLE) Having been two months I figured it was a good time to come and ask for an update. I believe at City Council meetings you have said you were open to an expanded search for this process, you have commented that you have received resumes from that posting. I believe that you have also commented that you have spoken with the Illinois Association of Chief of Police who was out of town when you last spoke. (INAUDIBLE) I know that you have commented that you were committed to transparency in all aspects (INAUDIBLE). I know I speak for myself and others that I ask that this issue stays at the forefront of City Council and the Mayor’s minds. I hope that you will make an update as to where the process is at this point.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Thank you. Aaron Bryant.

AARON BRYANT: (NO MIC INAUDIBLE)

Mayor, I would like to talk to you about the overall need for body cameras on police. This was one of the things that Mr. Snipes said when he ran for Mayor. On June 21, Last year I was arrested at my son’s baseball game. I went to my son’s baseball game and I was arrested.

This stemmed from a problem with the Little League in 2015. (INAUDIBLE) This is a touchy subject for me. I have been going through a lot with this subject. Being arrested at my son’s game was very very (INAUDIBLE) for my kids and everything. This year I went to my kid’s game at the pony league park and one of the little kids came up to me said: “Hey you are out of jail Mr. Bryant.” And that really hurt me. So I went to the court with the guy and I ended up losing the court case (INAUDIBLE) But I ended up switching leagues. Perry Wright called my son’s team for a special game. My so called son’s coach texts me right? And he says “well we at Jaycee’s park.” Well, I was at Jaycee’s park (INAUDIBLE) I was at Jaycee’s park on May 2, 2016. Now it comes time for all-stars (INAUDIBLE) Perry Wright seen all the names of the all-stars. He definitely saw my son’s name. We are from River Valley All-Stars. This man I guess allegedly tried to ban me. But he couldn’t ban because I never got any notification from the park district or anything. So I did go to my son’s game which was the first day of summer. He saw me and he called the police on me. Officer Supernant arrived right. So now he is trying to come and talk to me, the assisting officer was Sue Wagner. She was following me around; she was following me around. I’m at a baseball game, I am at a baseball game. All I want to do is be at a baseball game. All I want to do is be at a baseball game that is it. My son’s baseball game. Every man or parent has a right to be at their son’s baseball game. They followed me around. Supernatant asked me (INAUDIBLE) He leaves and he comes back and that’s when he arrests me. And Miss Sue Wagner assisted him. How much time do I have left? They arrested me. After that Miss, Carolyn Mitchell came out and I work for the Park District. How would you get arrested at a kid’s baseball game? So it was a crowd uproar. Miss Mitchell came out yelling well, In the police report, Suprenant has that Miss Carolyn Mitchell was a witness to the incident. I have plenty of FIOA requests to the park district where does Miss Carolyn Mitchell work at. They replied she is a volunteer for the Kankakee Jaycee’s. Miss Mayor. I petitioned them in June, July, and August of last year. Because I am trying to get a real specific answer do you have any record of Aaron Bryant being banned from the Jaycee’s park? They said no. But all of the sudden in December they produce a letter dated 6-20 the day before I was arrested that I was banned. By Carolyn Mitchell. But the letter says effective immediately to whom it may concern (INAUDIBLE). If there was a need for body cams. (INAUDIBLE)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG: Thank you, roll call

CLERK DUMAS: Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O’Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG: Department heads

CLERK DUMAS: Dumas; Schuldt; Kubal(ABSENT); Power; Simms; Piggush; Cross; Bertrand; Nelson; Schmitz(ABSENT); Costanza Thank you

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

May I have a motion to approve the City Council meeting minutes of July 17, 2017.

ALDERMAN TETTER: So moved

ALDERMAN BROWN: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderman Tetter Seconded by Alderman Brown Does anyone have any corrections, comments or concerns? Hearing none all in favor AYE. Opposed same sign. Motion carries.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Minutes are approved. There are no petitions we have none. Moving onto communications

COMMUNICATIONS

A) State Of The Kankakee School District 111 Presented By Dr. Generva Walters (Information Only)

DR. WALTERS: (NO MIC INAUDIBLE)

Good evening, I have a few board members here.I would also like for all of my administrators to please stand. I was here about (3) three years ago, and I talked about my vision for the district. So, really what I want to talk about today is where we are and where we are going. To clarify some rumors and expectations in terms of what is happening in Kankakee School District 111. I really do believe that we are at what we call a tipping point. That we can either go forward or backward. And I really think that we need the community to work with us in order to go forward. So what we will be focusing on is redesigning education to support economic development. I know that three years ago actually it has been almost three and half years ago when I was actually appointed. The Superintendent one of the major concerns both at the county level and the city level is the impact of the school district on economic development. And I am just here to show you that the school district is defiantly doing their part. And we really want to partner with families and community members to continue the momentum. So, one of the things I talked about three years ago and I still stand firm on saying this is we are a social system the community, the schools, and the families need to work together in order to meet the needs of the students. Our students are right in the center of it all. I am here not because of a job but because of my mission. And I am really hoping that we do not just survive but that we thrive as a community not just as a school district. In April 2014 I announced to our staff that our focus would be student engagement. We need to make decisions based on what is best for the students. And not what is just best for adults. I would really like to call it the Hedgehog concept from Jim Collins. I would really like for our hedgehog concept what we are passionate about, what we are focused on, and what is important to us would be student engagement. So here is one of the things I did about 2-3 years ago (INAUDIBLE) now college career academy classes K-6. (INAUDIBLE) Each Technical science. It is really important that we restructure what we are doing in education. We don’t want to just make (INAUDIBLE) Now we are preparing kids for jobs that we don’t know to exist. And for careers that have not be developed yet. And in order to do that, we have to be very innovative, very progressive and we have to take in consideration that the technology is students are using not only changes who they are but how their brain functions. We have to totally redesign what we know as school and the school experience. Blockbuster actually had an opportunity to work with Netflix and they were very resistant to that opportunity and now we had Blockbuster in Bradley it doesn’t exist because it did not take into consideration the needs of the community and the people in the community at that time. So what we want to do is take into consideration of is the needs of our children in the future and how to design education to meet those needs. Otherwise, we are putting our students in a situation where they won’t be successful as adults. So this is just a really quick example of where traditional schools where one type fits all direct instruction to what we need to do now. Which is personalize learning. We talk about efficient learning. (INAUDIBLE) Take in consideration to change. Schools are designed to prepare students for adulthood. We are still here to prepare students for adulthood. What we have to remember is that we are preparing the students for adulthood. What we have to remember is that we are preparing for an adulthood that is not (INAUDIBLE) what it was years ago. My father maybe had a 3rd-4th-grade education. He went into the Navy, had a business in the community, he put 5 out of 6 through college. He was born in 1923. My son who is partially named after my father not have those same experiences. So we need to recognize that in order to educate our children. So here is our mission. We want our students to be ready for global citizenship. We have a mission statement. We want to celebrate the diversity of our students. If you think about global economy students have to be comfortable with people of different backgrounds. Our first goal was to really support academic and social skills. We actually develop these skills in December of 2015, with about 40-50 members both the school district and the community. I think we had Mike O’Brien and Mayor Wells- Armstrong was there actually involved in that. We are building trust between administration and teachers and students. And here are some things that we have done. We created College Career Academies, in a year we want to expand College Career Academies through 8th grade. So in 6th grade, our students take inventory that will show them what their career choices are. In 7th and 8th grade they will choose to either go to Montessori which already exists, honors which already exists, international baccalaureate at the Jr. High that does not exist we have applied and hope to have in place in a year, and college career academy which will extend through 6th grade through 7th and 8th grade. We have implemented career inventory. We talk about that in college planning. We have implemented league high which pushes our students AP honors classes. We are working with the Erikson Institute with early childhood. So we are really looking at PrK-12 and what their experience will be as soon as they hit the doors at Kankakee School District 111. Our Second Goal is communication and that is the reason I am here. We want to make sure that we are communicating our vision and our actions clearly to our stakeholders, parents, teachers, students and community members. These signs are available. If you would like one, I think I have one in my yard. I think it blew down. But I will put another one up. We want people to visually see this community supports our district. Our goal number three is Public Perception. We even redesigned how we communicate through our district. We are not perfect we are still working on it. At the top is the Board of Education and your staff members. The flow goes up and down and actually all the way through so you have a two-way communication. This is our data from what we call the 5 Essentials and you can see that effective leadership is increasing. In order for us to effective leaders focusing on students, our leaders have to be effective leaders. This is one of the things that we are really excited about. When I came to the district there were a couple of things subjected to me that we should do. One is that there is a 10-year project of working on the football field. I think 10 years of talking about the football field and doing something different with the football field. So we looked into it, we researched it, we did not think that we could pull it off. I really had a vision to really look at the High School. To virtually have a new High School. Our High School was built in 1969 I believe. Eastridge and Westview. So we actually wanted to update it. We had an opportunity through a program and I think it is a really hot topic. A program where we are borrowing 29 million dollars. The federal government is sending the state the reimbursement for the majority of the interest. So with the majority of the money, we will be put into the High School. This is kind of a layout of what we are doing with the High School. At our next board meeting on the 15th, we are going to have our architect talk about it in more detail. Our architects pay for us to go to Harvard and we talked about what we want to see in any facility that we update. There are four things that we want to look at. We want the facilities to be accessible to the community. History, we want to celebrate the history of our community and our district. Hope, we want students to have hope for their future when they walk into any new facility or any renovated space we have in our district. The last one is wonder. When our students renovated space we want them to wonder what is going to happen in that space. Finally, to prepare for the changes at the High School we have a new classroom that will start this year called Incubated EDU. It is supported by the Coleman Foundation. The Coleman Foundation is donating $15,000.00 in order for us to get new furniture. This is just a picture of what the furniture will somewhat look like. It’s not designed exactly like this. This is just a picture of the classroom. Students will actually come up with a business plan. Will pitch it to a group of business people in the community and we will try to get funding for their business plan and we will actually implement it, and raise money. This classroom is going to be an example of all expectations of classrooms 6-12th grade. Is that they are actually providing content with real world experience. And finally what I am asking from the community is not to limit your own child to your own learning and remember that our kids are coming up in a very different time. The last thing is that. Let’s go back from Mohammad Ali, “nothing possible is nothing” So what I am asking the community to do is, I know sometimes we are very negative towards ourselves so what I am asking to do is really believe that we as a community and district can significantly change who we are, we can change the narrative of what people are saying about us, and we can we can be destination education. We are taking into consideration the needs of all of our children particularly the needs of our children for the future. They do not have to memorize facts. Google does that for them in seconds. They have to be able to get along with people, problem solve, they have to be able to be flexible and that is what we are trying to teach our children to do. To be able to get a job that does not yet exist. Thank you. MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Thank you, Dr. Walters, and to all the administrators that came tonight and board members. Thank you. Next, we have a presentation and awards for our Kankakee Fire Department.

B) Presentation And Awards For The Kankakee Fire Department (Information Only)

CHIEF SCHULDT:

Good evening for those of you who do not know me I am Damon Schuldt, Interim Fire Chief for Kankakee Fire. I am here this evening to give these individuals awards for some of their life-saving efforts. And just to give you a brief synopsis of what happened on May 31, 2017, five (5) of our personnel were called to a report of a man down on a front porch. One of our personnel could not be here this evening but four of them are. So they quickly arrived, they assessed the situation, the patient was pulseless and not breathing. And they immediately began high-performance CPR protocol. They inhabited the patient and got a patented airway, gave several medications, (inaudible) and they did not give up they tirelessly worked on this individual for 20 minutes or more. And by the time they got ready to transport to a local area hospital, I am happy to report he had a pulse and started breathing on his own. And approximately 2-3 days later he walked out of the hospital with no deficit. Thank you. That is truly a credit to these individuals. If you know nothing about the fire service and being a paramedic there is hours and hours of training that has to be done. It is a dedication and a willingness not to give up. To provide that great patient care and provide the utmost service to our public. I’m also happy to announce that our patient is here tonight his name is Leonard Harris, and he is a citizen of Kankakee. Thank you, Mr. Harris, for being here. So at this time with the Mayor’s assistance, we would like to give these individuals awards. We have an award called EMS Excellence Award that we give out in situations like this. Brian Porter, Guy Masionovve, Chris Salazar, Jed Beaupre, Lt. Rich Skeldon.

I’d like to bring up Dave Nagle he is EMS for Provena St. Mary’s he has a few words also.

DAVE NAGLE:

Madam Mayor, Distinguished Council Members, thank you for allowing us to be a part of this great event tonight. The fine men and women of the Kankakee Fire Department do a fine job of serving the public every day and we are proud to have them as a part of the EMS system. There are a couple things about this call that really stand out to us. And to give our awards I’d like to call up a couple of our people. Sara Solo manager of cardiology services, Lisa Lemanager manager of the emergency department, I’d like to recognize our hospital President Chris Schride for joining us tonight we appreciate the hospital support of our EMS program. A couple of things that come out about this call, a couple of years ago the EMS system decided to implement a high-performance work in place CPR protocol. It differs in some parts of the country it is the thought process that the quicker you can get to the hospital the better. As medicine has advanced and Paramedics are able to do more and more there is a greater focus on doing more in place and working to save lives right where the patients are found. Kankakee Fire Department instrumental supporting that. Even though at times with shorter manpower and not able to put as many people on the scene at first, they worked tirelessly with us to implement this program. Some of their coordinators Jed Beaupre and JD Howle had some of the first saves in the county. It’s that type of system that allowed the save to happen for this gentleman. To work 20 minutes tirelessly to put life support into place, (INAUDIBLE) to get a pulse back and stabilize on the front porch, then to transport him to the emergency room. Where Lisa’s folks were able to further stabilize him and recognized that he was having a massive heart attack. Went onto Dr. Mansulu took care of him in our Cath Lab with Sara’ Folks. And to survive not only to survive but to discharge just to be alive but to be walking and talking back to the way he was is a testament. The next part that really touches us at the hospital. When we first ventured with the Kankakee Fire Department to create an EMS program, that is not only one of the best EMS programs around but caring, compassionate, and to really take a community program back to that community to care for them. As a follow up we always check up on most of our patients to see how they are doing. We follow up with the EMS coordinator, they either say they did really well or here are some lessons learned. And when I called Jed and said “hey we got this all from the 31st one of the managers said we may have had a really good outcome. You may want to call and check.” Jed called me back a couple of hours later and said: “The guy is doing great.” I said “How do you know,” Jed said, “Because we went over and checked on him.” For him to take his company and to welcome a member of the community back to the community and to not only see them on one of the worst days but on a good day to come back and have a cup of coffee just to say hello to a person. That touches the hearts of all of us at the hospital. It gives us goose bumps that not only do these guys go out the door to do the jobs they have to do, but they also go back into the community and invest and that is just phenomenal. From the bottom of our hearts, we just want to thank these guys for what they did and we have a couple of certificates for them as well. Like I said you have one of the finest fire/EMS groups around. We are proud to partner with them. Thank you very much for allowing us to be a part of this tonight.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Thank you, Kankakee fire for all you that you do every day.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Next items on the agenda I would like to make a motion to combine items C, D, E, F, and G if there are no objections.

C) Bishop Mcnamara High School Is Requesting Permission To Host Their Annual Ken Klipp Classic 5k Run/2 Mile On Saturday, August 19, 2017, From 7:30 A.M. Until 9:30 A.M.

D) Kankakee Colts Youth Football And Cheerleaders Are Requesting Permission To Host Their Annual Homecoming Parade On Saturday, September 16, 2017, With A Rain Date Of Saturday, October 7, 2017, From 9:30 A.M. Until 11:30 A.M.

E) The Free Christian Center Is Requesting Permission To Block Off The 100 Block Of East Oak Street For Their “Friends And Family Homecoming” On Saturday, August 19, 2017, From 12:00 P.M. Until 10:00 P.M.

F) Thresholds Is Requesting Permission To Host Their Annual “One In Four Rally For Mental Health Awareness” On Friday, October 20, 2017, From 1:00 P.M. Until 4:00 P.M.

G) Community Arts Council Of Kankakee Is Requesting Street Closure Of South Schuyler Avenue From East Merchant Street To East Station Street From South Schuyler To The Depot To Host Their Annual “Fall Arts Stroll” On Sunday, September 10, 2017, From 11:00 A.M. Until 4:00 P.M.

Do I have a motion to approve?

ALDERMAN O'BRIEN: So moved

ALDERMAN CRAWFORD: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion by Alderman O’Brien Seconded by Alderman Crawford. Any discussion? All in favor; opposed; same sign Motion carries.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Moving onto STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS.

A) ORDINANCE COMMITTEE – MAY 23, 2017

B) ORDINANCE COMMITTEE – MAY 27, 2017

ALDERMAN O'BRIEN:

Thank you, Mayor, The Ordinance committee met May 23, 2017, and actually June 27, 2017, I had a typo in the minutes. The minutes are in the packet. We also had out July meeting August 1, 2017, and our next meeting will be August 22, 2017. At that meeting, we have made arrangements through working with your office to have members of administration there to talk about the golf carts ordinance among other things. So that is some of the things that will be on the radar at the next meeting August 22, 2017, at 5:30 P.M. That is all.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Thank you, Alderman O’Brien. Anyone else?

ALDERMAN BROWN:

There will be a public safety meeting tomorrow night at 5:30 P.M. The location will be Kan- Com at 2380 W Station Street. We will have a presentation by Kevin McGovern, who is the director. Refreshments will be provided. I just want to make everyone aware because we got something in our packets saying Police Commission. We are just Public Safety. I just want to make sure they know it is not canceled

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG.

Thank you, Alderwoman Brown. At this time, I would like a motion to approve payment of the bills.

ALDERMAN FAFORD:

I would move that we approve the report of officers; place the money in the proper accounts and pay the bills in the amount of $ 403,414.68

ALDERMAN FAFORD: So moved

ALDERMAN TALL: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderman Faford and seconded by Alderman Tall. Any questions or comments on any of the bills.

ALDERMAN OSENGA:

Yes, check number 72276, for Schuyler Avenue properties normally that is about a $1,500.00 a month bill. That is for the storage back there and I see it is $6,200.00 bucks. And I was wondering what the difference was?

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

I will have to follow up with Elizabeth. Unfortunately, the entire department is on vacation. So I will have her follow up with you. She should be back on Wednesday. I’ll put a little note here.

ALDERMAN CURTIS:

I believe that is a net lease. And I think every June when that first installment of taxes is due it is for payment of the real estate taxes. That probably needs to be confirmed, but I am pretty sure that happens June of every year or July of every year. So I think that is what it is.

MAYOR WELLLS-ARMSTRONG:

I will have Elizabeth follow up. Any other items? Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS: Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion carries. We have no unfinished business.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Under new business,

A) Ordinance Amending Chapter 32, Section 231 Entitled “Handicapped Parking” Of The Municipal Code Of The City Of Kankakee Handicapped Parking Space Established At 576 North 10th Avenue May I have a motion to suspend the rules?

ALDERWOMAN LEWIS: So moved

ALDERMAN TALL: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderwoman Lewis, Seconded by Alderman Tall. Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS:

Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries. May I have motion for final passage

ALDERWOMAN LEWIS: So moved

ALDERMAN TALL: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderwoman Lewis, Seconded by Alderman Tall. Is there any discussion, questions, or concerns? Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS: Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries.

B) An Ordinance Amending Chapter 8, Article X (Contractor Registration) Of The City Of Kankakee Municipal Code And I will have our Planning Director speak to that Cliff Cross.

CLIFF CROSS:

Thank you, Mayor, many of you that are on our Code Committee are very familiar with this ordinance proposal. Specifically, Chapter 8 of the city’s municipal code regulates contractor registration. Those are those individuals that do work in the city, those individuals that pull permits, do electrical work, building work, plumbing, for the residents of the city. It’s probably been about 6 months ago we started talking about amending that ordinance because currently the way the ordinance is written contractors must register with Kankakee County but not the city of Kankakee. So the goal of this ordinance is to require those contractors to register with the city of Kankakee. This will allow us to assure that the contractors are bonded, insured to protect the residents of the city of Kankakee and the city of Kankakee. So this ordinance will simply now require the contractors to register with the city of Kankakee’s code department opposed to registering with the County’s code department. So that is the purpose of this ordinance it’s to ensure that we can better protect the residents of Kankakee and to ensure compliance with insurance requirements and bonding for our contractors who do work in the city.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Thank you, Cliff. May I have a motion to suspend the rules?

ALDERMAN TETTER: So moved

ALDERMAN TALL: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderman Tetter, Seconded by Alderman Tall. Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS:

Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries. May I have motion for final passage

ALDERMAN TETTER: So moved

ALDERMAN TALL: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderman Tetter, Seconded by Alderman Tall. Is there any discussion, questions, or concerns? Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS: Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries

C) City Of Kankakee Engineering Agreement & Resolution Pine Street & Pierson Parkway Drainage Improvements Section 17-00279- 00-DR PEI JOB NO. 17094.0301 And I will turn it over to our City Engineer Neil Piggush.

NEIL PIGGUSH:

Thank you Mayor, this is the engineering agreement proposed as part of the maintenance program but since we are installing new inlets and man holes we are required to in order to meet IDOR requirements we are required to create a construction section and pass a separate resolution or this as it is defined as a construction project, not maintenance. This is all part of each Ward's $100, 000.00 they were allowed to spend.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

May I have a motion to approve the resolution.

ALDERMAN TETTER: So moved

ALDERMAN CURTIS: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderman Tetter, Seconded by Alderman Curtis. Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS: Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron (ABSTAIN I represent Piggush Engineering); Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall (ABSTAIN); Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (12 AYE-0 NAYE-2 ABSTAIN)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries

D) Ordinance Declaring Certain Property Surplus Of The City Of Kankakee – Code Enforcement Department And Authorizing The Sale Thereof.

May I have a motion to suspend the rules?

ALDERWOMAN SWANSON: So moved

ALDERWOMAN MALONE-MARSHALL: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderwoman Swanson, Seconded by Alderwoman Malone-Marshall. Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS: Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries. May I have motion for final passage

ALDERWOMAN SWANSON: So moved

ALDERWOMAN MALONE-MARSHALL: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderwoman Swanson, Seconded by Alderwoman Malone-Marshall. Is there any discussion, questions, or concerns? Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS:

Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries We have no appointments this evening. Moving on we have a resolution:

A) Resolution Authorizing The Execution Of The Intergovernmental Agreement Between The City Of Kankakee And South Suburban Land Bank And Development Authority and I will turn it over to Alderman O’Brien to give some comments

ALDERMAN O'BRIEN:

Thank you, Mayor, this is something that the community development committee has looked at for the last few months. We had Russ Ridden the Executive Director of South Suburban Land Bank at our June meeting. Previous to that about two years ago he spoke to the housing task force about the South Suburban Land Bank and what they do. Basically, they are a collection of 17 communities in mainly southern Will County and Cook County. We would be the first outside of those counties that work together to try to redevelop either neighborhood and or commercial properties. Our preliminary thought is that we would work with them on commercial redevelopment. There is really no downside to doing this, there is no cost to join. And they would only do work in Kankakee that we would request of them. So it is not as though they would work on a project that we did not want or not interested in. So we really see them as a way to supplement our existing city staff and our efforts. And down the road identifying one or two key projects that we would work with them on. Some of the other members that are part of the group just for reference are the city of Oak Forest, the village of Richton Park, the city of Joliet, the village of Lansing and Olympia Fields they are communities ultimately dealing with issues similar to Kankakee. Ultimately we believe they can be a good resource to partner with for what we are doing here.

PAT POWERS:

Yes, I was asked by Alderman O’Brien to look over the agreement. I agree with him there is really no downside by the way this thing is structured. We cannot be forced to do any development or project that we do not want to participate in. On the other hand, it does give us the opportunity to partner up with a lot of other people who have a lot of experience in the field and can perhaps help us with financing the projects. So, I agree with the Alderman there really is no downside to this that I can see.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

May I have a motion to approve the resolution

ALDERWOMAN GALL: So moved

ALDERMAN CRAWFORD: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion made by Alderwoman Gall, Seconded by Alderman Crawford. Is there any

discussion, questions, or concerns?

Roll Call

CLERK DUMAS:

Tetter; Brown; Curtis; Baron; Lewis; Tall; Faford; Swanson; Crawford; Osenga; O'Brien; Gall; Malone-Marshall, Kennedy (14)

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion Carries

We do have an executive session this evening. We will have to ask the public to leave the chambers because we will be discussing items with pending litigation. Then we will return for Alderman comments and you are welcome to come back in at that time. May I have a motion to enter Executive Session

ALDERMAN BROWN: So Moved

ALDERWOMAN KENNEDY: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion by Alderman Brown, Seconded by Alderwoman Kennedy. All in favor AYE; opposed; same sign Motion Carries.

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

There will be no action taken in the result of our Executive Session. We will go into Alderman comments.

Going once, going twice, hearing none. May I have a motion to adjourn

ALDERWOMAN SWANSON: So moved

ALDERMAN CRAWFORD: Second

MAYOR WELLS-ARMSTRONG:

Motion by Alderwoman Swanson, Seconded by Alderman Crawford. All in favor AYE; opposed; same sign We are adjourned

http://www.citykankakee-il.com/City%20Council%20Minutes/ccm2017/08-07-17MIN.pdf