Peoria Standard

City of Batavia Committee of the Whole met Sept. 24.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Chair Wolff called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.

1. Roll Call

Present: Barazza, Baerren, Uher, Leman, Beck, Pieper, Malone, Solfa, Wolff, Ajazi, Malay

Absent: Lanci, Cerone, Vogelsinger

Also Present: Mayor Schielke; Laura Newman, City Administrator; Gary Holm, Director of Public Works; Max Weiss, Management Analyst; Wendy Bednarek, Director of Human Resources; Lori Botterman,

Communications Manager; Chief Craig Hanson, Batavia Fire Department; and Peter Gerardi, Recording Secretary.

2. Reminder: Please speak directly into the mic

3. Approve Minutes: July 30th, August 13th and September 10, 2024

Motion: To approve the Minutes

Maker: Solfa

Second: Uher

Voice Vote: 11-0, motion carried.

4. Items Removed/Added/Changed

None

5. Matters from the public (not on the agenda)

None

6. Consent Agenda

(The consent agenda is made up of items recommended by city staff that require recommendation to the full City Council by the Cow. This agenda is placed as a separate item of the COW agenda. The items on the consent agenda are usually minor items, already budgeted, standard non-policy activities or outgrowths of earlier meetings and are voted on as a “package” in the interest of saving time on non-controversial issues. However, any council member may, by simple request, have an item removed and placed on the “regular” agenda).

a. Resolution 2024-124-R: Authorizing Execution of an IGA with Kane County for Animal Control (MW 9/13/2024) GS

Motion: To approve the Consent Agenda

Maker: Beck

Second: Malay

Voice Vote: 11-0, motion carried.

Ald. Vogelsinger arrived at 7:02PM

7. Presentation: Communications Department Annual Update

Communications Director Lori Botterman gave a Power Point presentation discussing what is going on in her department. She discussed the website redesign in regards to micro-sites within the website where certain websites were transitioned in house such as the Environmental Commission and the Bike Commission. Botterman said a new website was created for Economic Development to facilitate marketing for the City. She showed and discussed slides of metrics for the website such as page views, number of followers on social media and the top 8 visited sites. She noted that a chat bot was added to answer questions and they are working to improve that feature. Also a notification and alert system called Code Red with 12,000 people opted in. Botterman discussed her goals for 2025 indicating that she has already started a partnership with River Bank Media where high school students will create videos for emergency preparedness as well as a series called Street Stories. She said the department has instituted an external review policy to help communicate with residents on issues and to help improve search functions. Vicarious Multimedia was hired to provide improvements on content, quality and review. She noted that she is part of the AI working group at the City and is exploring ways to leverage AI to assist in content review and search. Ald. Baerren asked if there is a particular AI platform employees are encouraged to utilize and if there going to be a policy formed. Max Weiss noted that the City is a member of GovAI Coalition which is working to standardize policy for the City and looking to adopt Microsoft Co-Pilot but it is not yet available.

8. Discussion: Timing for Moving Forward with Master Plan for the Batavia Fox River Corridor

Laura Newman noted there had been a request of $200,000 for design engineering for the 2025 budget for Concept B, part of the Master Plan for the Fox River. She noted that a feasibility study at this time might be a better use of the funding given that the status of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) said in a draft report they want to collect more data on the environmental impacts of removing low cut dams. Also, there’s a discussion with the Park District about who is responsible for funding for the different parts of the project. She noted that the Park District has indicated they are engaged in a number of capital projects that prevent them from contributing towards the project for several years.

Ald. Uher noted the City needs to do something but is not sure if everything needed would be included in a feasibility study but is in favor of it if it includes what the river would look like after the work is done. Ald. Vogelsinger agreed saying she is in support of moving forward if this is the next step. Ald. Wolff agreed, saying the City needs to move forward to remove the dam and preserve the pond but find out from the USACE what the feasibility is for the City. Administrator Newman noted that if Concept B is implemented there would be no funding provided and added that USACE would pay 65% and IDNR would pay 35% if the dam was removed and berm built for the pond with a pump system. She said that when this project was first discussed, we spent 2 years to find a way so that we would not own the dam and the City would have all the liability associated with the dam and that the insurance carriers would cover it as long as we are moving towards removing the dam. Ald. Wolff said insurance liability questions should be part of the feasibility study if we move forward with Concept B. Ald. Leman noted that Concept B received 8 votes to move forward but we need to continue to gather information like the feasibility study so we are prepared. Leman said we are essentially making decisions for the Park District. Newman said the Park District is not interested in moving forward now. Mayor Schielke said he is a strong supporter of the feasibility study. He noted the 1958 Saturday Evening Post cover which showed the pond painting and should be significant in Illinois’ history addin that many people cherish that view of the pond. Ald. Malay noted his current understanding is that we voted in favor of Concept B to move forward with a tiered system and to maintain the pond. He agreed with Ald. Uher to maintain the impoundment and the pond and that moving forward with an engineering design is not appropriate at this time but is in favor of the feasibility study. Ald. Solfa noted there were several votes against Concept B. He wondered aloud if other nearby dams are removed then how that would affect us. Ald. Malone noted a feasibility study makes sense and doesn’t like being a passive actor. Ald. Beck wanted to know if we are going to have all of our questions answered with the feasibility study. Newman recalled a feasibility study would look at impacts the project will have on safety and ecology and give rough costs to construct and costs for future maintenance including future liabilities as well as the permitting environment for new river dams. Everyone seemed to agree on performing a feasibility study at this time.

9. Discussion: New Position – Assistant Public Works Director Newman noted that Gary Holm will retire early next year and that he has recommended creating this position noting it will be helpful in succession planning before he retires so the individual in that position can work alongside him for the next 3 or 4 months. Ald. Wolff believes it’s a good idea to have multiple people that can handle the operation. Ald. Malay said we are seeing the benefits of this model in other areas of the City and he supports it. Newman indicated that each department should have its own strategic plan that cascades down from the overall City plan. Ald. Wolff noted the budget should be good for the rest of this year to cover the position.

10.Project Status

Newman indicated that Planning and Zoning staff are attending the annual conference of the American Planning Association conference. An Elected and Appointed Official roundtable is scheduled for October 2nd. She noted that Fire Deputy Chiefs attended a 3-day class as part of the Fire Department’s strategic action plan goal related to accreditation. Detective Webb attended a training seminar centered around innovative approaches to address key issues of youth populations in the justice system.

11. Other

There was a brief discussion about garbage collection and tipping fees.

12.Executive Session: Personnel

Motion: To enter Executive Session

Maker: Ajazi

Second: Malay

Voice Vote: 12-0, motion carried.

Executive Session was entered at 8:09PM.

Roll Call was taken and a personnel matter was discussed.

Regular Session returned at 8:26PM.

13.Adjournment

There being no other business to discuss, Chair Wolff asked for a motion to adjourn. There was a motion by Ald. Solfa and a second by Ald. Uher. By a voice vote, all were in favor and the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 8:27PM.

https://www.bataviail.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09242024-2318