City of Lockport City Council met March 7.
Here is the minutes provided by the Council:
Mayor Steve Streit called the Meeting to order at 7:48 p.m.
Roll Call:
Present: Mayor, Steve Streit
Alderwoman, Renee Saban
Alderman, Jim Petrakos
Alderwoman, Christina Bergbower
Alderman, JR Gillogly
Alderman, Jason VanderMeer
Alderman, Darren Deskin
Alderwoman, Joanne Bartelsen
Alderwoman, Catherine Perretta
Absent: City Clerk, Kathleen Gentile
Also Present: City Administrator, Ben Benson
Chief of Police, Terry Lemming
Finance Director, Lisa Heglund
Director of Public Works, Brent Cann
City Attorney, Sonni Choi Williams
Deputy Clerk, Donna Tadey
LTHS Intern, Andrew Smigelski
Press Present: Cathy Wilker, LCTV
Sarwat Ahman, Free Lance Reporter, Joliet Herald News
John Depaolis, Free Lance Repoter, Lockport Legend
Open Floor For Public Comments:
Motion By Deskin, Second By Vandermeer To Change The Order Of Business And Move Open Floor For Public Comments Ahead Of Regular Business.
All Voted Aye – Motion Carried
Petitioner, Roy Adcock addressed the Council. He spoke on Ordinance No. 18-012/ An Ordinance amending Chapter 51 as it pertains to Water Service Charge that is currently up for approval under the Consent Agenda tonight. He spoke about the year 2010 when the three Districts couldn’t come together regarding the Water Rate increase and it had to go to arbitration. “The City came together and gave the Arbitrator a list of things that the City needed to do that were IEPA mandates. One of the City’s biggest concern was Water Quality issues. They needed sixty million dollars in 2010. Much discussion took place concerning the type of filtration the City was going to use. They finally told the Arbitrator the type of filtration they were going to use which is why they needed sixty million dollars. This was going to be put on every well in all three Districts. Then they were going to put in new wells throughout all three Districts. Then they were going to put in water mains throughout all the areas and this was going to take them all the way up to the year 2040 with sixty million dollars. When it was all said and done the Arbitrator ruled in the City’s favor. We were stuck with 15%, 20% water rates. We finally got done with these water rate increases and got ourselves back to the 3% or CPI Water Rate increases. Not more than two to three years ago, here we find ourselves right back in the same predicament again.” He looks at the Capital Improvement Program and he sees Water Filtration, new wells. He asked “What happened? The City Council just voted last year to take out a low interest loan for iron filtration at a well for two million dollars, when in fact in 2010 the City was guaranteed sixty million dollars for every well throughout the entire system was going to have this ultra violet filtration installed, which was going to take care of the Water Quality issues.”
Alderman Deskin corrected Mr. Adcock and said it wasn’t an ultra violet filtration, it was a microfiltration.
Mr. Adcock said “We are here to vote for the Water Rate increase again, for the same thing over and again. New wells, water filtration, and new water mains, when it was already supposed to have been done from the last arbitration ruling. I am trying to understand where we are at with this?”
Mayor Streit explained the original increases. He stated we can’t use property taxes to pay for water. We will continue to seek new funding as we move forward. We will start off with our deep well, start off moving with the water main replacements. We will continue to replace the old ones and get to the point where we are with our new mains.
Alderman Petrakos said when he came on he spent a lot of time on the water. He sat down with Staff and had discussions. As soon as Lockport enacted the Water Rate increase they saw a 20 something percentage drop in usage. A lot of the money they had planned on getting in the original model right off the bat, the assumptions were much lower. Also, growth was lower. We’ve done a lot of water main replacements. A lot of wells have been capped, wells have been re-dug, a lot has happened.
What is different now is we have an actual Capital Improvement Plan with plans, and timelines, and objectives that we intend to meet. Previously there was no schedule of, this is the funding we have by year for this project that we believe we have the capacity to do. Obviously projects three, four, five years down the line there is some risks to fluctuation in costs but we’ve baked in reasonable assumptions to execute on these projects. He can say we have a plan. This has to be funded through Water and Sewer Rates. We can’t take sales tax, we can’t take property tax and use that for water. If we want to execute on the plan we have got to find a way to do that and Alderman Petrakos feels this is a proven way to go about doing that.
Consent Agenda:
Motion By Vandermeer, Second By Gillogly To Have A Consent Agenda.
All Voted Aye – Motion Carried
Approval Of Consent Agenda:
1. February 21, 2018 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes: Motion to approve the February 21, 2018 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes as presented.
2. February 21, 2018 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes: Motion to approve the February 21, 2018 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes as presented.
3. Payroll Period ending February 25, 2018: Motion to approve the Payroll Period ending February 25, 2018 as presented.
4. Various Bills: Motion to approve the Various Bills as presented.
5. Ordinance No. 18-012: Motion to approve Ordinance No. 18-012/An Ordinance amending Chapter 51 of the Lockport Code of Ordinances as it pertains to Water Service Charge.
6. Ordinance No. 18-013: Motion to approve Ordinance No. 18-013/An Ordinance adding Chapter 120 of the Lockport Code of Ordinance as it pertains to Municipal Motor Fuel Tax.
7. Ordinance No. 18-015: Motion to approve Ordinance No. 18-015/An Ordinance amending Chapter 10 of the Lockport Code of Ordinances, adding Section 10.18 adopting the City’s Code of Ordinances under its Home Rule Authority.
Motion By Deskin, Second By Vandermeer To Approve The Consent Agenda As Presented.
Roll Call Vote On The Motion: Saban, Petrakos, Bergbower, Gillogly, Vandermeer, Deskin, Perretta, Bartelsen – Ayes
0 Nay
0 Absent
8 Ayes 0 Nay 0 Absent – Motion Carried
Regular Business Action Items
Executive Session Requests-
Administrator Benson is calling for an Executive Session Request for 2(c)1 – Appointments, Employment, Compensation, Discipline, Performance or Dismissal of specific Employees, and an Executive Session Request for 2(c)5 – Purchase or Lease of Real Property, including Meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired.
Squad Car Camera System Purchase/Resolution No. 18-011-
Chief Lemming stated this is a request to purchase nine Watch Guard 4 RE in-car camera systems for a total of $45,000. These systems are used to provide critical evidence for arrests for driving under the influence as well as providing protection for our Officers against false complaints. The purchase would be made using budgeted DUI enforcement and Federal asset forfeiture funds. With the exception of three of our Supervisors’ vehicles, all of our patrol cars are currently equipped with in-car video systems. Six of these systems will be purchased to replace the six systems, which are more than eight years old, that are scheduled to leave the fleet with squad cars that are being replaced under the established vehicle replacement program, and three will be placed in Supervisors’ vehicles. The Watch Guard System is what he is requesting permission to purchase. This is a proprietary item so no comparative quotes are available. He was asked at the last Meeting if there was a State Contract price available and the answer is yes. Chief was also asked at the last Meeting if we are going to get the same price as the State Police and the answer is yes.
Motion By Petrakos, Second By Vandermeer To Approve Resolution No. 18-011/ A Resolution Authorizing The Purchase Of Nine Watch Guard 4re In-Car Camera Systems In An Amount Not To Exceed $45,000.00.
Roll Call Vote On The Motion: Saban, Petrakos, Bergbower, Gillogly, Vandermeer, Deskin, Bartelsen, Perretta – Ayes
0 Nay
0 Absent
8 Ayes 0 Nay 0 Absent – Motion Carried
Well 15 Project Award/Resolution No. 18-013-
Motion By Deskin, Second By Saban To Approve Resolution No. 18-013/A Resolution Authorizing The Mayor And City Clerk To Execute The Contract With Layne Christensen Company For The Construction Of Deep Well No. 15 Project In The Amount Not To Exceed $963,252.
The project letting was held on February 27 with two Contractors in attendance. One bid was opened and that Contractor provided a letter saying they would not submit a bid and later indicated they could not complete the job due to the location of their current workload and location of equipment. The only complete bid was from Layne in the amount of $1,016,721. After negotiation on a reduction in only the price term of the bid, the final award amount will be $963,252. The Engineer’s Estimate of Cost for the project was $958,000.
Administrator Benson said we could decide to go out to rebid and see what we get, but we feel confident that we have a fair price after we’ve negotiated the one low bid that we got and we got it a little lower. We are all concerned about the tariffs and steel – there is a lot of steel and casing that goes down 2100 hundred feet to get this good water. We don’t know what we don’t know. Vendors that have bid on this project will only hold pricing for so long and Sonni, Brent, and I got together with Layne and Strand on Friday and felt this was still the best thing for Lockport to proceed as we are recommending it on this well. We certainly don’t have to, you can certainly reject all bids and start over, but I feel candidly that if we went out for bid we would probably still be getting a bid from this particular Vendor and my guess is another 30 days will go by and the price will go up. I don’t believe we are going to be getting bids lower than the negotiated $963,252.
Alderman VanderMeer said he was ok that we went out to bid and only got one.we went through the process, but he felt in the 3rd paragraph of Brent’s memo made it sound like the City wasn’t following normal process.
A discussion ensued on the bidding process and getting more bidders.
Sonni mentioned paragraph 3 was just an error, she added something in the Memo without talking to Brent about it. She stated we aren’t going out of the process, she just put that in there. It’s a scrivener’s error.
Alderman Gillogly questioned the Capital Improvement Plan, he asked for clarification on the numbers. He is looking at 2018 and it is saying $985,000, but he is seeing $135,800 is still engineering and he was wondering if we were $100,000 over the construction estimate? Or is this part of the money that is part of 2019? Director of Public Works, Brent Cann explained.
Roll Call Vote On The Motion: Saban, Petrakos, Bergbower, Gillogly, Vandermeer, Deskin, Bartelsen, Perretta – Ayes
0 Nay
0 Absent
8 Ayes 0 Nay 0 Absent – Motion Carried
A discussion on the bidding continued, but also, about bringing recommendations to the Committee of the Whole first, and then to City Council for final approval. It was the consensus to not make any procedural changes.
Executive Session Request:
Motion By Vandermeer, Seconded By Bartelsen To Go Into Executive Session At 8:32 P.M. In Accordance With 5 Ilcs 120/2( C) (1) – Appointments, Employment, Compensation, Discipline, Performance Or Dismissal Of Specific Employees, And 2( C)(5) – Purchase Or Lease Of Real Property, Including Meetings Held For The Purpose Of Discussing Whether A Particular Parcel Should Be Acquired.
Back On The Record:
Came out of Executive Session at 9:07 p.m.
Adjournment:
Motion By Vandermeer, Second By Saban To Adjourn The Regular City Council Meeting At 9:08 p.m.
All Voted Aye – Motion Carried
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