City of Rochelle City Council met Sept. 23.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
The Rochelle City Council met in Regular Session at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, September 23, 2019 in the Council Chambers of City Hall; 420 N. 6th Street; Rochelle, IL 61068.
PLEDGE TO THE FLAG & PRAYER: Prayer was said by City Clerk, Sue Messer.
ROLL CALL: Present on Roll Call were Councilmembers Burke, Gruben, Hayes, D. McDermott, T. McDermott, Shaw- Dickey, and Mayor Bearrows. A quorum of seven were present. Absent. None. Also present were City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh, City Clerk Sue Messer, and City Attorney Dominick Lanzito.
PROCLAMATIONS, COMMENDATIONS, ETC:
• Public Power Week – October 6-12, 2019
• National Fire Prevention Week – October 6-12, 2019
REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS:
• Mayor-Thanked staff and engineers who worked on the Well 10 Project. Thanked Councilman Tom McDermott for the program at the museum on history of Flagg Township. Reminded citizens it is not too late to attend the Revved Up meetings. Mayor attended the IML Conference was pleased on a very informative on various topics. Citizens of Rochelle blessed with Ogle-Lee Fire District, 80 volunteers between the two.
• Council Members
• Good News - Kyle White-Recognition of his work for providing above and beyond service.
PUBLIC COMMENTARY:
BUSINESS ITEMS:
1) CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS BY OMNIBUS VOTE with Recommendations:
a) Approve Minutes of City Council Meeting – September 9, 2019
b) Accept and Place on File Minutes of Planning & Zoning Commission – August 5, 2019
c) Approve Exceptions – 09/04/19-09/16/19
d) Approve Bills – 09/17/19
e) Approve Payroll – 8/26/19-9/8/19
f) Accept and Place on File Financial Statement – August 2019
g) Approve Request from Flagg Township Museum to hold Hobo Travels – October 26, 2019
Motion made by Councilor D. McDermott and seconded by Councilor Burke “I move consent agenda items (a) through (g) be approved by Omnibus vote as recommended.” Roll call vote was taken. Ayes: Councilor Burke, Gruben, Hayes, D. McDermott, T. McDermott, Shaw-Dickey, and Mayor Bearrows. Nays: None. Motion passed 7-0.
2) Council Chambers Audio/Video System Renovation Project. Most of the audio/video equipment in council chambers was installed in early 2008. Over the past couple of years, the equipment has become less reliable with microphones cutting in and out and frequent feedback over the speakers. The City began live streaming council meetings over Facebook in 2017 as a way to engage more of the community. Since that time, we frequently receive comments about the poor audio, which we have discovered is because the sound is only being transmitted via the video camera’s microphone. Based on a recommendation from the City of Belvidere, City staff have been working with AVI Systems on a design to upgrade the audio and video presentation systems. As a part of this process AVI Systems also evaluated all of our existing equipment for its usefulness and recommend maintaining a limited number of items. The design developed by AVI includes new sound processing equipment, video presentation equipment and unified controls system equipment as follows:
Audio:
▪ 1 new audio processing unit for mixing microphones and presentation audio for the rooms speaker system, audio recordings and web streaming.
▪ 9 Dias Mics and 1 Lectern Mic
▪ 1 Handheld Mic and 1 Lapel wireless Mic
▪ 8 new Ceiling speakers and new amplifier
Mixing:
▪ A new digital video switcher installed in AV Rack
▪ A new digital audio processor installed into the AV Rack
Conferencing:
▪ A telephone interface provided by the city to enable audio conferencing in the room using new mics and speakers.
▪ Dialing via control panel
Controls:
▪ The video switching and audio mix control will be via a Dias mounted touch panel. The touch panel will provide controls for presentation source selection, audio gain adjustments, room volume, audio conference controls, and audio recording controls. Training:
▪ Equipment and system overview
▪ Equipment operation and function
▪ Discussion and documentation relating to control system operation
Alternate #1:
▪ Replace three existing consumer TVs with new commercial monitors
Alternate #2:
▪ Remove existing camera and replace with a new camera mounted at the rear of the room for webcasting meeting. The camera will have power and zoom available from the control panel and audio and video will be sent to the webcast encoder that feeds Facebook live.
City staff hired IMEG Corporation to develop a Request for Bidders, provide the technical expertise to interact with the contractors during the bidding process, and to evaluate the bids. Sealed bids were opened on September 17th with three companies submitting bids. The base bids ranged from $39,390 - $64,466, alternate #1 bids ranged from $4758 - $663 and alternate #2 bids ranged from $4953 - $7,217. IMEG Corporation is reviewing the bids and will provide a recommendation prior to the council meeting. The 2019 City of Rochelle budget includes $50,000, split between the general fund and RMU, to upgrade the audio and video equipment in council chambers. Sue Messer and Jenny Thompson were available to answer any questions. Motion made by Councilor Shaw-Dickey and seconded by Councilor D. McDermott “I move council accept the low bid proposal, as recommended by IMEG Corporation, and award the Council Chambers Audio/Video System Renovation Project, including alternates 1 and 2, to Tri-City Electric Company in the amount of $49,102.79.” Roll call was taken. Ayes: Councilor Burke, Gruben, Hayes, T. McDermott, Shaw-Dickey, and Mayor Bearrows. Nays: Councilor D. McDermott. Motion passed 6-1.
3) Ordinance Approving a Utility Easement Agreement with Residential Alternatives of Illinois Inc. - Manor Court. As part of the Manor Court project, the state plumbing inspector is requiring that the City operate and maintain a fire hydrant installed by Manor Court on their property. To meet this requirement, the City needs a utility easement for access to the property. Water/Water Reclamation Superintendent, Adam Lanning, was available to answer questions. Motion made by Councilor Shaw-Dickey and seconded by Councilor T. McDermott, “I move Ordinance 19-5057, an Ordinance Approving a Utility Easement Agreement with Residential Alternatives of Illinois Inc. related to Manor Court, be approved.” Roll call was taken. Ayes: Councilor Burke, Gruben, Hayes, D. McDermott, T. McDermott, Shaw-Dickey, and Mayor Bearrows. Nays: None. Motion passed 7-0.
4) Ordinance Amending the Municipal Code of the City of Rochelle by the Addition of Chapter 90 Article IX Entitled “Municipal Cannabis Retailer’s Occupation Tax.” According to the Illinois Retailers’ Occupation Tax Law, 65 ILCS 5/11-8-22, a tax may be imposed by a city on all persons engaged in the business of selling cannabis, other than cannabis purchased under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act. The tax, which is levied at the retail level, may be at a rate of up to 3% of the gross receipts from the sales made in the course of that business. The imposition of this tax is in accordance with the provisions of Sections 8-11-22, of the Illinois Municipal Code (65 ILCS 5/8-11-22). If approved the tax herein shall take effect for all sales on or after the first day of January 2020. Staff is recommending to the City Council that the initial tax rate be set at 2.5% of gross receipts beginning January 1, 2020. Further, the law allows future increases to be set in increments of.25%. This will allow the City to impose an additional.50% in the future if needed. If the City of Rochelle is awarded a cannabis dispensary in the future, staff will come back with a recommendation on possible projects to fund with the revenues such as unfunded pension liabilities and public safety projects. Other communities who have adopted the same tax include Dixon, Sterling and Rockford. All three of these communities approved the tax at 3%. City Manager, Jeff Fiegenschuh was available to answer questions. Motion made by Councilor T. McDermott and second by Councilor D. McDermott, “I move Ordinance 19-5058, an Ordinance Amending the Municipal Code of the City of Rochelle by the Addition of Chapter 90 Article IX Entitled “Municipal Cannabis Retailer’s Occupation Tax”, be approved.” Roll call was taken. Ayes: Councilor Burke, Gruben, Hayes, D. McDermott, T. McDermott, Shaw-Dickey, and Mayor Bearrows. Nays: None. Motion passed 7-0.
DISCUSSION: Outage Management System – RMU. RMU Electric recently deployed an outage management system. We will be using this tool to help both the linemen and the dispatchers back in the office keep track of outages and restoration times. This system will also help us in reducing outage times as it brings in information directly from the metering system and GIS servers to pinpoint the outage. Blake Toliver presented on the outage management system. Community Survey. One of the five key initiatives of the 2018 Strategic Plan is Core Service Delivery. To better gauge how the community feels in relation to the services, the City Council authorized funds in the current budget to implement a community wide citizen survey. The City has contracted with the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University to a conduct a survey of all Rochelle residents beginning in September. This survey will help us understand how satisfied our residents are with City Services along with our Customer Service and Communication. The findings of the survey will help the City plan for the future. Barbara Bell, Jenny Thompson and Sue Messer all presented on the community survey.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: None.
ADJOURNMENT: At 7:41PM, moved by Councilor T. McDermott and seconded by Councilor D. McDermott, “I move the Council adjourn.” Motion passed by voice vote without dissent.
https://www.cityofrochelle.net/2019-city-council-meeting-minutes/6878-09-23-2019-city-council-meeting-minutes/file.html
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