President and Board of Trustees

123 Madison Street Village of Oak Park Oak Park, Illinois 60302 www.oak-park.us Meeting Minutes President and Board of Trustees Monday, November 8, 2021 7:00 PM Remote I. Call to Order Village President Scaman called the meeting to order at 7:01 P.M. She authorized a statement be read providing that the meeting is being held remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines and that it is not prudent to have people present at the Village Board's regular meeting location due to public health concerns related to that pandemic. II. Roll Call Present: 6- Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Parakkat, Village Trustee Robinson, Village Trustee Taglia, and Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla Absent: 1- Village Trustee Enyia III. Agenda Approval It was moved by Village Trustee Taglia, seconded by Village Trustee Robinson, to approved the Agenda. The motion was approved. The roll call on the vote was as follows: AYES: 6- Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Parakkat, Village Trustee Robinson, Village Trustee Taglia, and Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla NAYS: 0 ABSENT: 1- Village Trustee Enyia IV. Non-Agenda Public Comment There were non Non-Agenda Public Comments. V. Regular Agenda A. ID 21-348 Village Board Review of the Recommended Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Village Clerk Christina Waters read the following Public Comments aloud. Brynne Hovde: Brynne Hovde submitted their public comment requesting the Board to put aside funding for a non-police crisis response solution as a first step down the path of transformation and meaningful change. Village of Oak Park Page 1 Printed on 11/16/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 8, 2021 Lisa Rader: Lisa Rader submitted their public comment requesting the Board to respond to calls from ROYAL and other activists and community members of color to re-imagine our community safety response model and demanded that the Village Board vote to set aside funds in the FY2022 budget to create a non-police crisis response program in our village. Interim Village Manager Lisa Shelley then introduced the Item. Steve Drazner, Chief Financial Officer for the village, then gave an overview presentation. Village Trustee Parakkat requested clarification regarding the lost revenue and the ARPA distributions for 2020 and 2021 lost revenue - are the funds appropriated for 2021 yet? CFO Drazner responded the lost revenue has not been calculated yet for 2021. Once 2021 has been audited the actual lost revenue funds will be allocated. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla expressed concerns with the habitual parking fund lost revenue and the sustainability of the fund for the future. CFO Drazner responded the topic warrants further discussion as the fund is paying out a significant amount of debt annually in addition to the cost to maintain the structures. Interim Village Manager Shelley added these discussions are scheduled to happen with the Board in the first quarter of 2022. Interim Village Manager Shelley then gave a summary of the Finance Committee discussions regarding future budgeting challenges which include requirements to fully fund the public safety pensions, the sustainability of the parking fund, body camera requirements, the lead service line replacement notification act, the response for mental health and behavior services, and the continued impact of Covid. Interim Village Manager Shelley gave an overview of the follow-up items from the Finance Committee discussions. Public Works Director John Wielebnicki gave an overview of the Vision Zero pedestrian safety project and staff's recommendation to add $25,000 for a consultant for this project. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla requested clarification if the Transportation Commission agrees that $25,000 is sufficient for the consultant. Village Engineer Bill McKenna responded the requested funds are to get a Village of Oak Park Page 2 Printed on 11/16/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 8, 2021 consultant on board to guide the commission through figuring out the elements to include in the future plan. Village Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on the origin of the Vision Zero plan and is it separate from the Greenways Plan. Interim Village manager Shelley responded the Vision Zero plan was specific to this year's Board goals. Public Works Director John Wielebnicki added they are different plans. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla provided background that both the Bike Walk Oak Park organization and Transportation Commission members have asked if the Board would consider a Vision Zero plan to create a safety network to increase pedestrian and bicycle safety. President Scaman requested staff to put together a formal action regarding the Vision Zero plan for the November 22 meeting. Interim Village Manager Shelley and CFO Drazner gave an overview of the request for three additional full-time Firefighters. Village Trustee Taglia requested clarification on if this request was related to having a third ambulance in service. Interim Village Manager Shelley responded the idea is by adding one additional person to each shift the likelihood becomes greater to have the third ambulance in service. President Scaman requested clarification on if the recommendation is to consider postponing this to the new year to customize these positions to be potentially in response to an alternative 911. Interim Village Manager Shelley responded it could be an option but with an added cost due to it's dedicated staff and ambulance vehicle. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla requested clarification on how a third ambulance would impact call times and added that whether an ambulance could play a role in alternative crisis response is orthogonal to the conversation of increasing firefighters. Increasing the firefighter and paramedic staff should be done because the community needs it due to an aging population and an increase in call volume. Village Trustee Parakkat commented understanding what percentage of the call volumes are due to Covid could make for a better informed decision on staffing needs. Village Trustee Robinson requested clarification on if the increase in staffing is in conjunction with staff who are retiring. Village of Oak Park Page 3 Printed on 11/16/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 8, 2021 Interim Village Manager Shelley responded they are an addition to filling any vacancies to ensure there are enough staff on shift. President Scaman read a comment submitted by Village Trustee Enyia requesting a study of services and call times be done at the end of next year. Staff was advised to report back at the next meeting on response times with the third ambulance and what percentage of the calls are related to Covid. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla requested clarification if the $50,000 requested is for the alternative crisis response team and if that funding is sufficient. Interim Village Manager Shelley responded it is difficult to assess what amount of funds would be needed at this time prior to having discussions on what the Board wants. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla suggested there should be a larger amount of funds set aside for this program. Village Trustee Taglia commented the Board can amend or change funding amounts but at this point, until the Board understands what could be recommended for this program, it is performative to change amounts. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla commented the current response model with Thrive Counseling needs to change to a model the community wants. The current model has police responding first instead of trained mental health professionals and crisis response professionals responding to calls directly. Village Trustee Parakkat commented he supports mental health services to augment policing, but there should be support for the existing model as well. New models should not come at the expense of the existing model. He encouraged the community to not pit these models against the each other, to respect both for what they are, and figure out the right balance. Village Trustee Buchanan commented that she feels the frustration but has confidence in the consultants they chose to do this work given the reassurance that the Board is in charge of what the consultant does. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla commented a non-police emergency response team should happen in addition to what the consultant recommends. As a municipality that calls itself progressive we should be doing this regardless of what the police consultants recommend. Village of Oak Park Page 4 Printed on 11/16/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 8, 2021 President Scaman commented she looks forward to talking to as many members in the community that will engage us on this, from every sector of our community. Every community is going to have to customize what the response is for the needs of their community, and the consultant will create a response structured to meet our need based on data. Village Trustee Robinson commented this Board got handed the consultant piece from the previous Board and she does not understand why no progress was made in the last six months of the previous Board's term. Getting the consultant underway will let us know what things policing-wise are being done right and will help identify and address gaps. President Scaman added consultants are brought on due to capacity - there is not enough staff to run the assessment needed in a timely manner unlike the consultant who is kept to a timeline. There is a lot that needs to be pulled together to have a dialogue that is as informed as possible and this is the fastest way to achieve that. Staff was advised to bring back a dollar amount for this item to the next meeting to show a commitment to the plan. Interim Village Manager Shelley commented based on the direction tonight for what will be brought forward at the next Board meeting, staff will make a recommendation on if the budget needs to be adjusted or cut as items are added or subtracted. Interim Village Manager Shelley added the recommendation for the alternative service delivery model is to fund a program like that based on the program that is selected as there are so many varying options. The amount suggested was to generate conversation among the Board of what it really is the Board is looking to accomplish with this request. CFO Drazner then gave an overview of adjustments made to the affordable housing revenue. Staff was requested to provide a memo regarding the Sustainability Incubator Program for the next meeting. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla requested clarification on the Communications memo which is requesting $14,000 for the website revamp. CFO Drazner responded this would be in addition to the original funding request. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla requested clarification on the Village of Oak Park Page 5 Printed on 11/16/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 8, 2021 additional $50,000 requested for the Community Safety Consultant. President Scaman responded that was the $50,000 that was to be set aside for the alternative response team. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla requested to amend the wording as it currently reads the money is going to the consultant and not the alternative response program. Village Trustee Robinson requested clarification on if the ARPA request that are being approved are for the first ARPA allocation the village has already received. Interim Village Manager Shelley responded staff will provide a report on all the requests so the Board can see the bigger picture. The village is expected to receive the second ARPA allotment sometime in late Spring of 2022. Interim Village Manager Shelley added staff will report back with a snapshot of the community survey and comments for the ARPA fund allocation at the November 15th Board meeting. Village Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on if there were any remaining funds from the Covid Relief Fund. CFO Drazner responded the village received approximately $450,000 which was all applied to firefighter overtime. He does not expect to receive any additional funds from that. Staff was requested to follow up at the next meeting with any possibilities to get federal funding for the website redesign. President Scaman requested clarification on if ARPA funds would be needed for any of the partner agencies for their fiscal year. Interim Village Manager Shelley responded she would confirm and if ARPA funds are needed before the end of 2021 then she will bring that to the Board. She will report back to the Board on November 22 as to what ARPA funds are needed to be passed before the end of the year. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla requested to get a layout of what the expected starting fund balance is for the future Affordable Housing Trust Fund. CFO Drazner responded he has an updated schedule for the Affordable Housing Fund budget which will be presented at the next meeting. VI. Adjourn It was moved by Village Trustee Buchanan, seconded by Village Trustee Robinson, to adjourn. The motion was approved. The Meeting adjourned at 8:50 P.M., Monday, November 8, 2021. Village of Oak Park Page 6 Printed on 11/16/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 8, 2021 Respectfully Submitted, Deputy Clerk DeViller AYES: 6- Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Parakkat, Village Trustee Robinson, Village Trustee Taglia, and Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla NAYS: 0 ABSENT: 1- Village Trustee Enyia Village of Oak Park Page 7 Printed on 11/16/2021