West Cook News

Village of Berkeley Village Board met April 21.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

1 President Lee called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.

2 Pledge of Allegiance

3 Roll Call

Present: Trustees Hammar, Grenier, Graf-Stone, Washington, Perez and President Lee

Absent: Trustee Salemi

Also Present: Village Administrator Rudy Espiritu, Assistant to the Village Administrator Justyn Miller, Fire Chief Michael Kuryla, Police Chief Timothy Larem, Public Works Superintendent Joseph Wagner, and Village Attorney Greg Smith.

4 Presentations and Appointment

4.1 Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative (NIMEC) Civic Grant Program Sharon Darling from NIMEC and Assistant to the Village Administrator Justyn Miller gave a brief presentation explaining about a Civic Grant Program offered by the Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative (NIMEC). In 2014, NIMEC worked with the Village on electrical aggregation for the community. Village residents approved a referendum question pertaining to electrical aggregation on November 4, 2014.

The Civic Grant Program works very similarly to how the electrical aggregation process works while supporting renewable energy and also providing a Civic Grant from the electrical supplier. The Village has the opportunity to determine and receive Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s) from purchasing electricity from renewable sources. The blend of the REC’s determines the amount of the Civic Grant the Village receives. The program guarantees to never be more than the ComEd Market Rate for electricity supply.

First, the Village would have to coordinate with NIMEC on the agreement length (years), determine blend of REC’s, and communication strategy about the program.

NIMEC will then select an electrical supplier through a competitive process on behalf of the Village. Once a supplier is chosen, NIMEC would work with the Village in communicating the program to residents and businesses in the community. As long as residents and businesses are not currently in an agreement with a private electrical supplier, they would automatically be switched over to this program. There is an opt-out ability for anyone who would not want to participate. If a resident or business is interested in enrolling in the Village’s program, the resident or business that is in an agreement with a private electrical supplier, would have to cancel their current contract and then contact the Village’s electrical supplier to enroll.

In addition, the program also has benefits such as supporting renewable energy projects/sources, electricity rate is never more than the ComEd Market Supply Rate, provides the Village with new revenue through a Civic Grant, curb issues related to private electrical suppliers. The Village found that 25% of those in the community are in arrangements with private electrical suppliers. Ability of residents and businesses to opt- out of program, flexible agreement and REC options.

Consensus by the Board to pursue Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative (NIMEC) Civic Grant Program (5 Trustees in consensus)

5 Public Hearings

No Public Hearings.

6 Public Comments and Questions (Consent Agenda Items Only)

No Public Comments or Questions.

7 Consent Agenda

The matters listed for consideration on the Consent Agenda are routine in nature or have all been discussed by the Board of Trustees previously and are matters on which there was unanimity for placement on the Consent Agenda at this meeting.

7.1 Village Board Meeting Minutes from March 17, 2020

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Larry Hammar			X
Diane Salemi			-		X
Raymond Grenier			X
Sherry Graf-Stone	X		X
Herb Washington			X
Jerry Perez		X	X

MOTION CARRIED 8 Claims Ordinance

8.1 Motion to Approve Claims Ordinance #1436 in the amount of $110,949.18

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Diane Salemi			-		X
Raymond Grenier			X
Sherry Graf-Stone	X		X
Herb Washington		X	X
Jerry Perez			X
Larry Hammar			X

MOTION CARRIED

8.2 Motion to Approve Claims Ordinance #1437 in the amount of $145,528.35

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Raymond Grenier			X
Sherry Graf-Stone	X		X
Herb Washington		X	X
Jerry Perez			X
Larry Hammar			X
Diane Salemi			-		X

MOTION CARRIED

9 Committee Reports

9.1 Administration, Zoning and Technology (Chair –Trustee Graf-Stone; Co-

Chair Trustee Washington)

9.1.1 Trustee Liaison Report – Trustee Graf-Stone shared with the Board that

all department heads, administrator and staff have all taken the lead during the Coronavirus shelter in place. A lot of coordination took place in a short amount of time and she thanks everyone for all their hard work to keep our Village safe. Village Administrator Espiritu began participating in the Governor’s bi-weekly conference call for all the updates. The team is busy in general, final tweaks on the Budget and thanked Assistant to the Village Administrator Justyn Miller for all the information on the presentation “Electrical Aggregation.” Staff is also working on the tollway project.

9.1.2 Monthly Report

9.2 Finance and Economic Development (Chair – Trustee Washington; Co- Chair Trustee Salemi)

9.2.1 Trustee Liaison Report – No report.

9.2.2 Monthly Report

9.2.3 Motion to Approve an Ordinance of the Village of Berkeley, Cook

County, Illinois Adopting the Annual Budget for the Fiscal Year beginning May 1, 2020 and ending April 30, 2021

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Sherry Graf-Stone			X
Herb Washington	X		X
Jerry Perez			X
Larry Hammar			X
Diane Salemi			-		X
Raymond Grenier		X	X

MOTION CARRIED

9.2.4 Motion to Approve an Ordinance Amending Section 3-1-4 of the Village Code of the Village of Berkeley, Cook County, Illinois Adopting the Annual Fee Schedule

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Herb Washington	X		X
Jerry Perez			X
Larry Hammar			X
Diane Salemi			-		X
Raymond Grenier			X
Sherry Graf-Stone		X	X

MOTION CARRIED

9.3 Police and Property Maintenance (Chair – Trustee Salemi; Co-Chair Trustee Hammar)

9.3.1 Trustee Liaison Report – No Report

9.3.2 Monthly Report

9.3.3  Motion to Approve a Resolution of the Village of Berkeley, Illinois, Approving the Purchase of Two 2020 Ford Police Interceptors in an Amount not to Exceed $90,000

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Jerry Perez			X
Larry Hammar	X		X
Diane Salemi			-		X
Raymond Grenier		X	X
Sherry Graf-Stone			X
Herb Washington			X

MOTION

9.4 Fire and Health (Chair – Trustee Grenier; Co-Chair Trustee Perez)

9.4.1 Trustee Liaison Report – Trustee Grenier thanked Assistant to the Village Administrator Justyn Miller, the Police Officers, Firefighters, and Public Works for all their hard work. Some of the Trustees and Chief Kuryla spoke about masks or face covering, social distancing and how keeping your hands clean are key to staying healthy during the pandemic.

9.4.2 Monthly Report

9.5 Public Works and Utilities (Chair – Trustee Hammar; Co-Chair Trustee Grenier)

9.5.1 Trustee Liaison Report – Trustee Hammar thanked Public Works, Staff and all of the employees for stepping up and all their hard work.

9.5.2 Monthly Report

9.6 Community and Intergovernmental Relations (Chair – Trustee Perez; Co- Chair Trustee Graf-Stone)

9.6.1 Trustee Liaison Report – Trustee Perez met with the Lions Club. They sponsored Meals on Wheels and donated $500 to that program. The need is growing for this program. The Village will be getting a notice soon about a bus that does hearing tests will coming into the community to do these test on July 16th for free. Results will be given on the same day.

Although the City has postponed all concerts to June, the Village of Berkeley will wait for the Governor’s official order and decide if the spring and summer events be postponed or cancelled. All Trustees agree to wait for Governor’s official lead. Golf outing will be moved to September.

10 Village President

10.1 President’s Report

10.1.1 5/5/20 Village Board Meeting at 6:30 p.m.

President Lee wishes everyone good health. President Lee thanks everyone for all their hard work, managing a pandemic, passed a budget, and working on the tollway negotiations.

11 Village Administrator

11.1 Verbal staff report on the COVID-19 response

Village Administrator Espiritu thanked the Board and the Mayor for all their help through the pandemic and the budget.

Staff and Village Administrator Espiritu had a plan already set four weeks ago for the worst of the pandemic. Thankfully, that was not the case for them. Staff is healthy and are handling their work and projects just fine. He thanked them all for stepping up and doing great work during this time of uncertainty.

He also wanted to share some data on Berkeley. It looks like Berkeley is now passed the curb. The highest of the curb was on April 17th and it is now looking like its slowly going down, however, it’s still early (less than a week). The stay at home order will probably be extended. The challenge now is when will our leaders decide when is it safe to start opening up? Each state will probably be different, as well as what parameters will be put in place.

Police Chief Larem reported that the officers have changed some general practices. They are exercising universal precaution when they are out and trying to avoid unnecessary contact. The Police Department are still taking all their calls and responding accordingly. When possible, they will speak with the person on the phone instead of in person, officers are still speaking to people on their front steps at a safe distance.

Fire Chief Kuryla reported that the department is doing well. Since March 15 through present, the Fire Department received 45 ambulance calls, of those calls 15 were suspected covid-19. The Fire Department wear full protective equipment and treat every patient as if they are infected with covid-19. As for our Firehouse, no one but our personnel are allowed in. They are sanitizing the firehouse and vehicles twice a day, especially the ambulance, it is cleaned after every call. The Fire Department did lose 8 Schaumburg fire fighters because they are not allowed to work a 2nd job at this time. Chief Kuryla is grateful for the firefighters that are working in Berkeley full-time and those that are working at other locations and then coming to Berkeley to work as well. Firehouse is doing well on supplies.

12 Village Attorney –Village Attorney Smith gave two brief updates. His firm has been monitoring the legislation is Washington, DC to determine if and when some financial relief will be coming to municipalities. At this time the municipalities are under fire regarding finances. The latest appears to be the next big stimulus bill to be coming out of Washington should include some relief for municipalities. This was also mentioned in the newspaper. Their firm has been reviewing all the bills as they have been coming out to date. They will keep the Village of Berkeley up to date and will let them know as soon as they hear of some relief for municipalities.

Village Administrator Espiritu and Village Attorney Smith have been monitoring a piece of litigation relating to the Village of Oak Lawn. The Village of Oak Lawn, like the Village of Berkeley allow video gaming terminals. The Village adopted a so call a penny per push tax ordinance which imposes on the video game player a one penny tax on every bet that is placed on the system. It’s a way to earn more money for the municipality.

Oak Lawn was sued by some video game operators and litigation funded by the video game industry challenging the tax. Village Administrator Espiritu and Village Attorney Smith will continue to monitor that litigation to determine which way it goes. If the litigation resolves favorably for the Village of Oak Lawn indicating that such a tax is legal, that may be an option for the Village to consider and it looks at the new revenue picture.

13 Public Comments and Questions

No Public Comments or Questions.

14 Executive Session

14.1 Motion to enter into Executive Session to consider the:

a. Appointment, Employment, Compensation, Discipline, Performance or Dismissal of Specific Employee(s) 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(1)

b. Collective Bargaining, Salary Schedules; categorically 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(2)

c. Appointment/Removal for Public Office or Attorney 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(3)

d. Consideration to Purchase, Lease (Buy), or Acquire Specific Real Estate Property 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(5)

e. Setting Price for Sale/Lease Specific Real Estate Property 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(6)

f. Security Procedures and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual, a threatened, or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees, students, staff, the public, or public property. 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(8)

g. Probable or Imminent and Pending Litigation 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(11)

h. Establish Reserves or Settle Claims (Tort) 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(12)

i. Consideration of Release of Executive Session Minutes 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(21)

Enter Executive Session at 7:52

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Larry Hammar			X
Diane Salemi			-		X
Raymond Grenier			X
Sherry Graf-Stone	X		X
Herb Washington			X
Jerry Perez		X	X

MOTION CARRIED

Exit Executive Session at 8:45

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Larry Hammar			X
Diane Salemi			-		X
Raymond Grenier			X
Sherry Graf-Stone	X		X
Herb Washington			X
Jerry Perez		X	X

Voice Vote

MOTION CARRIED

15 Action to be Taken as a Result of Executive Session

16 President Lee adjourned the meeting at 8:45 pm

Trustee	Motion	Second	Ayes	Nays	Absent	Abstain
Larry Hammar			X
Diane Salemi					X
Raymond Grenier	X		X
Sherry Graf-Stone		X	X
Herb Washington			X
Jerry Perez			X

Voice Vote

MOTION CARRIED

https://www.berkeley.il.us/vertical/Sites/%7BB4877CC9-5533-47FA-94DE-B3C09F1665AB%7D/uploads/Board_Meeting_Minutes_April_21_2020.pdf