Sister Cities Commission

City of Naperville 400 S. Eagle Street Naperville, IL 60540 Meeting Minutes - Final Wednesday, August 14, 2024 6:30 PM NEU Sister Cities Commission Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024 A. CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Fuhrer called the meeting to order at 6:32 p.m. B. ROLL CALL: Commissioners Neelam and Wang arrived after the roll call vote. Wang arriving at 6:32 p.m. and Saboo at 6:42 p.m. Present 10 - Tony Chamberlain, Becky Rudolph, Allison Longenbaugh, Yugin Wang, Neelam Saboo, Daniel Bukowski, Ganesh Kar, Lance Fuhrer, James Alan Lowe, and Arun Mani C. PUBLIC FORUM: Commissioner Lowe asked if there were any Speakers under Public Forum. There being 1 speaker, Lauren Reyes-Yu was invited to address the Commission. Below is a summary of Ms. Reyes-Yu's comments. Speaker: Lauren Reyes -Yu addressed the commission stating that she is a resident of Naperville and grew up here and is interested in getting involved in local government. She saw that there was an upcoming vacancy and is here to observe the meeting. D. OLD BUSINESS: E. REPORTS: Recognize Chairman Fuhrer and Commissioner Lowe to honor their distinguished service on the Sister Cities Commission Councilwoman Allison Longenbaugh presented Commissioners Fuhrer and Lowe with a letter and certificate to honor their distinguished service on the Sister Cities Commission. Chairman Lowe addressed the Commission about some of the proud work and challenges over the years. He discussed building relationships with our current Sister Cities and thanked Commissioner Lowe for his work over the years. This past year, the effort has been to leave the Commission in a good place and making sure that the Commission and the Foundation can co-exist and work together. Commissioner Lowe thanked the Commissioner Fuhrer for his work and service over the years. He goes on to say that he is proud to be a part of the process that the Commission is making and he is happy that the Hispanic Festival is where it is today. Another success is that he served on the Commission when Cancun became a Sister City. He hopes the Commission can build on those relationships. City of Naperville Page 1 Printed on 1/23/2025 Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024 Marcie Schatz thanked both Commissioners for their time and effort over the years. She further states that both of them have busy schedules, but they continued to put in the time to serve the Commission. Commissioner Mani addressed the Commission to talk about the work that has been done while he has served on the Sister Cities Commission. He was thankful to everyone for spearheading the charge to keep Sister Cities and thanked both Commissioners for their work over the years. Approve the Sister Cities Commission meeting minutes of May 8, 2024 This Report was passed. Approve the roles and responsibilities of the Naperville Sister Cities Commission and Naperville Sister Cities Foundation and review effectiveness in one year. Marcie talked about the roles and responsibilities and met with the Foundation in order to have some clarity and they discussed special events so you will see some bullet points on that. Commissioners can work with the Foundation on that and then if 2 different Commissioners want to work on Hispanic Fest planning. Our biggest concern is Open Meeting Acts Violations. Feel free to volunteer on things like the art fair, but planning meetings and organizing, there can only be 2 members involved at a time. City Commission communications are coming from the City and the foundation is the fundraising arm and this commission continues to grow and look at activities going forward would feed those ideas to the foundation. Let the Foundation know when there are events/things the commission would like to see happening in the community and we really needs some funding. Whether that is scholarships or trips back and forth between different sister cities, but really try to harness the conversation from this group and also feedback from the Foundation. A motion was made by Lowe, seconded by Saboo, approved. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 9- Chamberlain, Rudolph, Longenbaugh, Wang, Saboo, Bukowski, Kar, Fuhrer, Lowe, and Mani Receive the annual report template Marcie addressed the next item on the agenda which is to receive the annual report template that was created after at a discussion at a City Council meeting last year. There were several changes made to boards and commissions and as a result of the idea came about for every board or commission to submit an City of Naperville Page 2 Printed on 1/23/2025 Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024 annual report of some of their accomplishments, challenges, and upcoming work for the next year. The annual report will be on the next agenda for the Commission to review and we will be looking for your feedback. Reports from all of the boards and commissions will be compiled to presented to the City Council at the end of the year. This year our goal was reestablishment our connections with our Sister Cities and you have done a good job. Every year we want to look ahead on planning goals for the upcoming year. If you notice there are challenges that this group has faced, what are they and how can we help you get rid of those challenges. We are looking to approve this item at the next Sister Cities meeting in November. Receive the Sister Cities calendar items of past and present events Commissioner Rudolph would like to make some additions to the calendar adding January 16, 2025 at 10 pm to include Lectures at the Library. Suggested speakers are speakers are Laurie Donahue and Rosemary Wisnowski. She suggest keeping the focus on Sister Cities in Naperville. Another add to the calendar: Hispanic Craft September 9 - 13, 2024 - paper picado flags (penants). The City will take care of the marketing for the craft event at the Library in September. Marcie suggested having communications take care of the marketing around the work of the Commission. January is Nitra Month. Some suggestions include asking downtown businesses if they would like to highlight Nitra or the City could communicate Nitra month through a social media post. Councilwoman Longenbaugh asked about a Proclamation presentation for Nitra. Marcie stated that she would look into this. Marcie suggested that either the Commission (Nitra liaisons), Foundation or Katie Woods at the DNA could reach out the downtown businesses to see if there's an interest in promoting Nitra. City of Naperville Page 3 Printed on 1/23/2025 Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024 Discuss inviting a Slovakian group to perform at the Naperville Community Concert Center Commissioner Chamberlain reached out to a Slovakian group who will be performing in the nearby area in September 2024 to see if they are interested in performing in Naperville, bu their schedule is too tight. F. NEW BUSINESS: Commissioners discussed the possibility of decommissioning ourselves with a Sister City if there is no longer a relationship with that City. Marcie responded that we have to make a connection and try to reestablish that connection and also make sure that the partnership is on both sides. Commissioners discussed their roles and Saboo and Bukowski will be liaisons to the Foundation. Commissioiners Butowski and Chamberlain are the liaisons for Nitra. Commissioners Kar and Saboo are the liaisons for the Foundation. Marcie stated that if you are the liaison between the Commission and the Foundation, you should not play a role on the Foundation as an Officer. She also stated that if you are a Sister City Commission and not the liaison, you should not attend a Foundation meeting due to the Open Meetings Act. Foundation and the Commission: Maybe the 2 new ones behind the relationship. Would Ganesh and Dan like to be that liaison for the Foundation If Commissioners have a report out for the next agenda, you must put some content behind it and send it to City Staff Liaisons. The goal is to provide the public with information behind the items that will be discussed at the meetings so that they can make a choice as to whether they would like to attend the meeting. It may be something they are interested in hearing more about. G. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioners Chamberlain moved, seconded by Wang to adjourn the meeting at 7:32 p.m. /s/Rachel Pruneda Rachel Pruneda Assistant to the Mayor City of Naperville Page 4 Printed on 1/23/2025 Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024 City of Naperville Page 5 Printed on 1/23/2025