Citizens' Environmental Commission

MINUTES CITY OF DEKALB CITIZENS’ ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION March 1, 2018 The Citizens’ Environmental Commission held a regular business meeting on March 1, 2018, in Council Chambers at the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 South Fourth Street, DeKalb, Illinois, 60115. Chairman Kenney called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. A. ROLL CALL The following members of the Citizens' Environmental Commission were present (indicated by x): X Dan Kenney (Chair) X Ken Koch Mark Hein X Clare Kron X Bill Oleckno X Sharon Skala X Ann Shult The following ex-officio members were present (indicated by x): Amy Doll, DeKalb Park District X Mike Holland, Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District X Melissa Burlingame, Northern Illinois University X Michelle Gibson, DeKalb County Health Department B. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION - To approve the agenda. Chair Kenney added the following to the agenda with the consent of the Commission: Mr. Oleckno would like to address the proposed changes to the smoking ordinance and proposed changes to Chapter 50 of the City code. Ms. Kron moved to approve the motion, seconded by Mr. Oleckno. Agenda was approved unanimously by voice vote. C. PUBLIC COMMENT None D. APPROVAL of MINUTES Ms. Kron indicated there are two minor changes in wording on pg. 3 & 4. Linda will make the changes and send them to Mr. Holdeman. Ms. Kron moved to approve the minutes of February 8, 2018, seconded by Ms. Shult. Minutes were approved unanimously by voice vote. E. COMMISSION REPORTS 1. DeKalb County Health Department: Michelle Gibson Citizen Environmental Commission March 1, 2018 Page 2 of 4 Ms. Gibson reported that all the waste collection drives have been scheduled for the year. Hazardous waste collection will be on May 19th at the Farm Bureau. Electronics collection will be June 2nd and September 22nd at the airport. Paint collection will be on July 14th at the Health Department. Monthly drop offs can still be taken to the City Hall. Best Buy has started taking larger items like TVs, but they charge at least $25 each. DC Trash also takes some electronics. Lehan's Drug Store will take some prescription drugs but not controlled substances. These can be disposed at the police station. Ms. Gibson will provide more information about prescription drug disposal at a future meeting. 2. DeKalb Park District: Amy Doll (absent) Mr. Holdeman read a written report from Ms. Doll: March 24th - 9-11am - Prairie Park woody invasive plant removal April 21st – 9-11am - Prairie Park clean-up day in conjunction with NIU Cares Day May 5th – Garlic Mustard Pull at Prairie Park June 23rd - Camp out at Prairie Park. 3. Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District: Michael Holland Mr. Holland reported that construction at the wastewater plant is moving along on schedule. They are also looking forward to the wild flower plantings to begin growing this Spring. 4. Northern Illinois University: Melissa Burlingame No report 5. City Staff Liaison: Tim Holdeman Pothole season has begun. Public Works kept up well with the snow and flooding this winter. Public Works is working in conjunction with NIU to further advance the bike share program. The University community is hoping launch the program with the City this summer. They are working through some issues with the vendor. Once they are ready, the plan will come before the City Council. Mr. Koch mentioned some problems with the vendor's bike share program that he read about in Tree Huggers magazine. Mr. Holdeman commented there is still a lot of discussion that needs to be done before the program is brought to the public. The City's refuse survey can still be completed. There have been over 300 responses online and 200 using the paper survey. The online survey is open until Monday, March 5th, and the paper survey ends Friday, March 9th. Recommendations will be presented to the City Council after the survey is completed. Road repair will be done on nine streets in the Ellwood and Taylor Street areas. The projected date to begin the project is June 1st. A Transit Consolidation Coordinator has been hired for one year for transit consolidation with NIU. This person will oversee the consolidation effort. A presentation on the topic was made to the City Council. F. NEW BUSINESS Mr. Oleckno and Chair Kenney provided testimony on proposed changes to the City's smoking regulations on outdoor patios before the City Council on February 26th. The Council voted 4 to 4 to change the regulations so as to allow smoking on outdoor patios consistent with the less 2 Citizen Environmental Commission March 1, 2018 Page 3 of 4 restrictive State requirements. The motion failed, however, because a tie vote is considered a defeat. There was a question by a Council member whether or not the Mayor should have voted, and the council member indicated that he may challenge the vote later. Mr. Oleckno indicated that it's possible that a new vote on the issue may resurface again. Following the City Council meeting, Mr. Oleckno did an impromptu survey by visiting 4 different establishments to seek owner/manager opinions on the current smoking regulations. The manager at Fatty's said his only concern was that smokers had to walk quite a distance to smoke, and he was concerned for their safety. The owner at O’Leary’s felt it was not a major issue. A veteran wait server at Rosita’s said they have not experienced any significant issues when telling people they cannot smoke on their outdoor patio. Mr. Oleckno said he would like to pursue a more formal survey of establishments. The Commission agreed to have him do this. He hopes to get an inventory of the different establishments in DeKalb, and Ms. Shult is willing to assist as able. Mr. Holdeman suggested that JoEllen Charlton be contacted to get a list of establishments to visit. Mr. Koch would like to limit the time spent on the topic. Chair Kenney commented he would like to see public health concerns as a priority. Mr. Oleckno went over some of proposed changes to Chapter 50, regulating the Commission's activities. He said virtually all of the changes were proposed by him about a year ago but never got acted upon. He made a motion to accept the proposed changes, and Ms. Kron seconded the motion. During discussion, Chair Kenney said that he would like to look at a policy regarding Commissioners who are consistently absent. Ms. Kron suggested if a Commissioner missed 3 consecutive meetings without a reasonable excuse he or she could be excused from the Commission. Mr. Holdeman suggested that Mr. Oleckno write language regarding an absence policy and that we wait until next month to vote on all the proposed changes to the Chapter 50. The Commissioners all agree to this, and the original motion was dismissed. G. OLD BUSINESS Mr. Holdeman asked to change the order of Old Business items so that item #3 on the agenda would be first since staff from the City were present in the audience. 1. CEC Budget Policy Change Update & Discussion Ms. Kron thought the document prepared by the City looked good and did not see any problems. Mr. Oleckno mentioned that it looks like the Commission has to do fund raising; he would like the document to say “may do" fundraising. He would also like the Commission to request some minimal amount of financing from the City for basic operations of the Commission. Mr. Koch suggested reviewing the document outside the meeting, making comments to Mr. Holdeman, and coming back next month to vote on it. Mr. Holdeman will send the document out again so everyone has a chance to review and comment on it prior to next month’s meeting. 2. Food Security Amendment Update & Discussion Ms. Kron handed out an options sheet for a possible backyard chicken ordinance. She included some myths about backyard chickens. She would like input from the Commission as to what is reasonable for DeKalb. Mr. Koch feels we should gravitate towards the more limited number. His suggestion was 3-5 chickens and 25-30 feet from neighbors. If the Commission has input, e-mail it to Mr. Holdeman, and he will forward it to Ms. Kron. It was suggested that we have a public forum on this issue before it is voted on. Ms. Kron will bring 3 Citizen Environmental Commission March 1, 2018 Page 4 of 4 a proposed amendment to the next meeting for the Commissioners to review. 3. Natural Landscape Ordinance Update & Discussion Chair Kenney said this is not the end result, and there will be more discussions. Mr. Holdeman commented that there needs to be an attempt to create a balance between different interests. When public comment was solicited in October/November, a lot of comments were in favor of allowing native plants. He said there needs to be a thoughtful and minimal approach to this. Mr. Holdeman reviewed the proposed ordinance with the Commission. There is a lot that needs to be adjusted. Mr. Oleckno suggested to have a few Commissioners work with the City and bring more suggestions back to the Commission. Ms. Skala and Mr. Koch volunteered to help. Mr. Oleckno thanked the City staff for putting this together. Whoever wants to give feedback, please forward it to Mr. Holdeman, and he will send it to Ms. Skala and Mr. Koch. Mr. Ron Cress commented on the 3 foot setback. He said ornamental grasses are messy and aggressive, and he feels they can be detrimental to the environment. Mr. Holdeman will bring back a revision next month. He would like to meet next week with Mr. Koch and Ms. Skala. 4. Other Sustainability Plan Updates Chair Kenney had a meeting today with Mayor Smith, and he will talk about this next month. Mr. Oleckno was concerned about the time constraint within meetings and raised the issue whether we should we have more meetings or meetings on a particular subjects. Ms. Gibson suggested the ex-officio members could submit written reports beforehand to save time at the meetings. Ms. Shult suggested only talking about a couple subjects per meeting. H. ANNOUNCEMENTS Next Meeting: April 5, 2018, 4:00pm I. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Koch moved to adjourn the meeting, and Ms. Shult seconded. Motion carried unanimously by voice vote. Chair Kenney declared the meeting adjourned at 5:58p.m. Respectfully Submitted: Linda Odom, Recording Secretary (Edited by Bill Oleckno on 3/19/18) Approved April 5, 2018 4