Village of Bartlett President and Board of Trustees met March 3.
Here is the minutes provided by the board:
1. CALL TO ORDER
President Wallace called the regular meeting of March 3, 2020 of the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Bartlett to order on the above date at 7:07 p.m. in the Council
Chambers.
2. ROLL CALL
PRESENT: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Gabrenya, Hopkins, Reinke and President Wallace
ABSENT: None
ALSO PRESENT: Village Administrator Paula Schumacher, Assistant Village Administrator Scott Skrycki, Human Resources Director Janelle Terrance, Economic Development Coordinator Tony Fradin, Sr. Management Analyst Sam Hughes, Management Analyst Joey Dienberg, Finance Director Todd Dowden, Assistant Finance Director Matt Coulter, Director of Public Works Dan Dinges, Public Works Engineer Bob Allen, Planning & Development Director Roberta Grill, Building Director Brian Goralski, Grounds Superintendent Kevin DeRoo, Food & Beverage Manager Paul Petersen, Police Chief Patrick Ullrich, Deputy Chief Jim Durbin, Deputy Chief Geoff Pretkelis, Village Attorney Bryan Mraz and Village Clerk Lorna Giless.
3. INVOCATION – Police Chaplain Breanne Fuelling gave the invocation.
4. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
5. CONSENT AGENDA
President Wallace stated that all items marked with an asterisk on the Agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. He further stated that there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Board member so requests, in which event, that item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered at the appropriate point on the Agenda. He asked if there were any items a Board member wished to remove from the Consent Agenda, or any items a Board member wished to add to the Consent Agenda.
Trustee Deyne stated that he would like to add Item 1 under Finance & Golf, Ordinance 2020-20, an Ordinance Amending Title 3, Chapter 3, of the Bartlett Municipal Code to Add New Section 3-3-2-19: Class Q Thereto Creating A New Liquor Classification for a Brew Pub to the Consent Agenda.
President Wallace then recited each item that was on the Consent Agenda, including the nature of the matters being considered and other information to inform the public of matters being voted upon. He then stated that he would entertain a motion to approve the Amended Consent Agenda, and the items designated to be approved by consent therein.
Trustee Deyne moved to Amend the Consent Agenda and that motion was seconded by Trustee Carbonaro.
ROLL CALL VOTE TO AMEND THE CONSENT AGENDA AND CONSENT ITEMS THEREIN
AYES: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Gabrenya, Hopkins, Reinke
NAYS: None
ABSENT: None
MOTION CARRIED
Trustee Deyne moved to approve the Amended Consent Agenda and that motion was seconded by Trustee Carbonaro.
ROLL CALL VOTE TO APPROVE THE AMENDED CONSENT AGENDA AND
CONSENT ITEMS THEREIN
AYES: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Gabrenya, Hopkins, Reinke
NAYS: None
ABSENT: None
MOTION CARRIED
6. MINUTES
Trustee Camerer moved to approve the Board and Committee Minutes from February 18, 2020 and that motion was seconded by Trustee Carbonaro.
ROLL CALL VOTE TO APPROVE THE BOARD AND COMMITTEE MINUTES FROM FEBRUARY 18, 2020.
AYES: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Hopkins, Reinke
NAYS: None
ABSENT: None
ABSTAIN: Trustee Gabrenya
MOTION CARRIED
7. BILL LIST – Covered and approved under the Consent Agenda.
8. TREASURER’S REPORT - None
9. PRESIDENT’S REPORT
President Wallace read a Proclamation celebrating the 10-year Anniversary of Bartlett’s Sister City Relationship with Miaoli City, Taiwan.
10. QUESTION/ANSWER: PRESIDENT & TRUSTEES
Trustee Deyne recognized staff birthdays and anniversaries.
11. TOWN HALL
George Koziol, 654 Hazel Nut Court
Mr. Koziol stated that state and local legislators approved laws to ban smoking, and now vaping, in restaurants and public buildings. There are also laws restricting how close to doorways, smoking and vaping is allowed. Many businesses imposed similar bans for indoor areas. He thought and believed that many citizens are in agreement with these laws. Because of the large number of people in confined areas and the presence of hazardous smoke in high concentrations, this makes sense for the government stepping up to put controls in place. There are now discussions taking place in our town as to if government should step in to restrict smoking and vaping in public parks. The current proposal is targeting the Town Center properties, Koehler Fields, Bartlett Park, Veteran’s Memorial Park and Ruzicka Park. The big question on his mind is why exclude the golf course? Is it because such a restriction might impact attendance and cash income? Why should smoking and vaping be allowed on the golf course and not the mentioned properties? Is this fair? Are people in these areas complaining about smoking and vaping and to what degree? Are we making more out of something that really isn’t a problem? This is the great outdoors and any smoke or vaping is quickly blown away and very highly diluted. These are spaces for all citizens without restrictions. He could understand why you would want the best for the citizens but he has to question if government has the right to impose rules like this. He was wondering if in the interest of the public well-being, they are willing to ban all cigarettes and vaping related products from Bartlett completely? He thought that something like this happened years ago when prohibition of alcohol was tried with a resounding failure. He hoped that we are not overstepping our boundaries on this one and didn’t think this was needed or desired. He suggested a “No” vote to approve.
Gary Luper, 804 Brookside Drive
Mr. Luper stated he recently received a letter from the public works department that there was a possibility of lead in the water. He understood that the samplings were only.1% higher than the EPA recommended. He was curious where the samples were taken and how big of a problem it is and how long has it been prevalent. Was it since they installed the Lake Michigan water?
Public Works Director Dan Dinges stated that they did thirty lead tests and thirty copper tests throughout the village. They were at sixteen parts per billion and the limit is fifteen parts per billion. These are houses that were built prior to the 70’s. All the copper samples that they tested are below the limit and those were in houses built primarily in the 60’s to the 80’s that may have lead solder or fixtures with lead in them. They are required to do lead and copper samples every three years. The water we are receiving from Chicago through the DuPage Water Commission is lead-free. The City of Chicago injects phosphate into the water which helps create a coating on houses that have lead services or lead solder. They have three sample houses that were high and they can already see the lead level dropping. They will keep monitoring and make sure that it continues to drop.
President Wallace stated that the houses that had higher lead detection were provided with filters.
Mr. Dinges stated that the area that they believe has lead services (under 250 houses) out of 14,000 houses (under 2%) have been surveyed, but they did not have a good response. Therefore, they have been placing phone calls to each residence in order to make an appointment to enter the home to verify the type of material they have. Many of the homes that they have entered turn out to be copper instead of lead. For the homes that do have lead, there is a program where the village would cost-share to replace that service with a copper service. They are issuing filters for those homes with lead as well as educating them how to flush the line.
Mr. Luper stated that in January the village put blue flags all the way down the street and residents were told that they were going to replace the water pipes. He asked if his pipes were affected.
Mr. Dinges stated that none of the mains that the village owns or operates are lead. The project he is referring to is a water main replacement project. If they ran into lead they would replace the lead service from the main to the b-box. They are confident that his particular home is copper.
12. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. BUILDING & ZONING COMMITTEE, CHAIRMAN HOPKINS
Trustee Hopkins stated that there was no report.
B. COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE, CHAIRMAN GABRENYA Trustee Gabrenya stated that there was no report.
C. FINANCE & GOLF COMMITTEE, CHAIRMAN DEYNE
Trustee Deyne stated that Ordinance 2020-20, an Ordinance Amending Title 3, Chapter 3, of the Bartlett Municipal Code to Add New Section 3-3-2-19: Class Q Thereto Creating a New Liquor Classification for a Brew Pub was covered and approved under the Consent Agenda.
Trustee Deyne presented the Letter of Intent for Site E.
Economic Development Coordinator Tony Fradin stated that what they have before them tonight is a Letter of Intent from Mr. Manny Rafidia to purchase and develop the village owned property at the intersection of Railroad and Berteau (Opportunity Site E). They have worked closely with Mr. Rafidia for a number of years. First, in attracting to purchase and rehabilitate Bartlett Plaza, which he has essentially done. He expressed an interest in developing some apartment projects in the area and we apprised him of the village owned property that was the undeveloped part of Bartlett Town Center. Through the past several months they have been engaging in some ongoing negotiations with him regarding price and what he wants to do with the property. He currently wants to build a five-story apartment building with about 100 units. He has submitted a couple of offers for the property which the board has counter offered on. Ultimately, offering him the property for $400,000. He verbally agreed to that and began doing some of the due diligence on the site. While they were investigating the site and while Mr. Rafidia had some engineers looking into it, they determined that some utilities would have to be vacated or relocated to service the type of building he wants to construct. Once he started to do some analysis of the soil report, it was determined that there would have to be a substantial amount of soils removed from the site. While we continued negotiating with him, we came to offer a possible $50,000 credit upon his closing which would help offset some of the extraordinary site costs to bring the site shovel ready.
Village Attorney Bryan Mraz stated that before there would be any type of roll call, this is just a Letter of Intent and doesn’t have an extra ordinary voting requirement. However, for this to move forward there would have to be an official real estate contract and in that contract, the sale of village property requires approval of three fourths of the corporate authority, i.e., six board members. The Letter of Intent does not lock you into an ordinance because the details are in that contract. If there is not close to that number of votes, he didn’t think that it would make sense to go forward with the contract. He didn’t know what the Board’s thoughts were but he wanted to give that information to the Board.
Trustee Deyne stated that they have discussed this quite a bit. The site has been vacant for a good number of years and we have an opportunity to bring in a development which would really improve the quality of the downtown.
Trustee Hopkins asked what the appraised value of the property was?
Mr. Fradin stated that there was an appraisal completed in December, 2017 and the amount was $825,000. The asking price for the property has been $660,000 for the past several years. They have had a lot of “lookers” and they have pitched it to dozens of apartment developers through trade shows and email blasts. A few years ago, the village issued an RFP and Foxford communities presented a development plan. Once they backed out from their project (summer of 2018), this is the highest offer they have had on it. As much as he would like to bring a higher offer, this is the best offer they have had in quite some time.
Trustee Deyne stated that the first offer did not take into consideration the soil condition.
President Wallace stated that if we could get more feet on the street in the downtown area, that is where the bulk of the village’s revenue will come from long term.
Attorney Mraz stated that when they did the RFP there were different statutes that give the Board authority to sell village property. One of those was setting the price at 80% of the appraised value, which is how they got that first offer. Ultimately, if the Board feels it is no longer necessary for village purposes and three fourths of the corporate authorities vote in favor, than there is not a price restriction and the Board has the authority to sell it at the price they feel is appropriate.
President Wallace stated that the village attorney is looking for a straw pull to determine if they are going to seriously consider the contract.
Attorney Mraz stated that they are voting on the letter of intent. He suggested if they want to have further discussion or have issues they can adjourn to Executive Session or vote on it as it stands.
Trustee Deyne stated that he thought they have beat it enough and the public needs to hear how they stand.
Trustee Reinke moved to approve the Letter of Intent for Site E and that motion was seconded by Trustee Camerer.
Trustee Carbonaro clarified that this as not a contract, and there was no verbiage that says he is asking for additional credits for permit fees, etc.
Attorney Mraz’s stated that in the Letter of Intent there are reduced donations as well as reduced fees. Mr. Rafidia is not looking at it from what the price is. His perspective was that this is what he could afford to build, where it is economically feasible.
President Wallace stated that the Board has gone back-and-forth a few times and rejected a few offers to get a better deal. He is in favor and thinks it is a good deal on both sides.
ROLL CALL VOTE TO APPROVE LETTER OF INTENT FOR SITE E
AYES: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Reinke, President Wallace
NAYS: Trustees Gabrenya, Hopkins
ABSENT: None
Attorney Mraz stated that unless someone would change their mind, if they would bring a contract before the Board, it will die. Since it is close, he asked that he would be directed to put the contract together and bring it back to the Board. The contract would include a redevelopment attachment which would more clearly lay out the limits on donations and fees from the village as well as some of the protections that might alleviate some fears. It could be that some board members are just opposed and it doesn’t matter what the contract says.
Trustee Hopkins stated that if he wants to do that than the developer must burden those costs. He has heard what the Board has to say, so if Attorney Mraz wants to spend more billable hours on it, the developer should be responsible for those fees. To proceed, the developer needs to sign off and cover those costs to protect the taxpayers because they are already taking over 50% on the appraised value.
Trustee Reinke stated that it doesn’t make any sense to invest billable hours and drafting that contract right now.
Attorney Mraz stated that he has already began drafting because of tight time frames and he will stop immediately. Given that condition, if they would be willing to pay that cost than he would proceed.
Trustee Deyne asked what kind of revenue would come to the village if the building were completely rented.
Mr. Fradin stated that they anticipated $70-$80,000 at full capacity.
Trustee Deyne asked what it costs the village to have this undeveloped land. Mr. Fradin stated opportunity cost – it is tax exempt.
Trustee Deyne stated that they could generate $70-$80,000 on an annual basis. The reality is that if the building is rented with approximately 200 people, they would be walking the streets in downtown Bartlett shopping and visiting our restaurants. What about the sales taxes generated there. It would offset quite a bit of the discounted price on the property.
Mr. Fradin stated that there are math formulas that the former village planner calculated approximately for 180-185 residents. They backed into it from what the proposed rents would be to come up with an estimate of what the median household income would be ($70-$80,0000) and based on math formulas of what residents typically spend locally, came up with that number of additional tax revenues.
President Wallace stated that the area is weightable to the lot that is sitting empty at Prospect and Devon right now that we would probably have made $400-$500,000. It is disappointing.
Trustee Deyne asked if with due respect, he could ask his colleagues if they could possibly foresee the vision of an additional 100-200 people in the downtown area spending money in our restaurants or bars or just generally shopping down there and the amount of revenue that this village could generate and not be hung up on the discounted price Mr. Rafidia is asking us for.
Trustee Hopkins stated that he didn’t know if that was the only holdup here. He would not disclose what was discussed at Executive Session but price was not the only issue here.
Trustee Camerer stated that we have given other businesses discounts like this already. He’s not the first one, it’s just a bigger project. He thought this building would be beneficial for the city. It has been sitting there vacant since the village was formed and people are not beating the doors down for it.
D. LICENSE & ORDINANCE COMMITTEE, CHAIRMAN REINKE
Trustee Reinke stated that there was no report.
E. POLICE & HEALTH COMMITTEE, CHAIRMAN CARBONARO Trustee Carbonaro stated that there was no report.
F. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE, CHAIRMAN CAMERER Trustee Camerer stated that there was no report.
13. NEW BUSINESS
Trustee Camerer stated that a resident on Jackson was wondering about a house on that street that caught fire several years ago and has been vacant. The residents are concerned about mold and mildew and the fact that nothing is moving forward.
Building Director Brian Goralski stated that the fire was in 2018 and we are in court with them and their insurance agent. It is in foreclosure and they are hoping for a sale and turnover to a developer soon.
Trustee Camerer asked if when they turn it over to a developer, is there going to be precautions with mold and mildew.
Mr. Goralski stated that the house is closed up right now so it is contained. There will be an asbestos abatement requirement which is within our ordinances.
President Wallace asked the Board if they would be available on March 24th for the next meeting instead of March 17th.
14. QUESTION/ANSWER PRESIDENT & TRUSTEES - None
15. ADJOURN TO COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING
President Wallace stated that the Board will be going into the Committee of the Whole meeting immediately following the close of this meeting.
There being no further business to discuss, Trustee Camerer moved to adjourn the regular Board meeting and that motion was seconded by Trustee Deyne.
ROLL CALL VOTE TO ADJOURN
AYES: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Gabrenya, Hopkins, Reinke
NAYS: None
ABSENT: None
MOTION CARRIED
The meeting was adjourned at 7:47 p.m.
https://www.village.bartlett.il.us/Home/ShowDocument?id=10995
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