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 Tuesday, March 12, 2024 6:00 PM Village Hall I. Call to Order Village President Vicki Scaman called the Regular Meeting to order at 6:25 P.M. II. Roll Call Trustee Enyia joined the Meeting via remote participation per Village policy. Present: 5- Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Enyia, Village Trustee Straw, and Village Trustee Wesley Absent: 2- Village Trustee Parakkat, and Village Trustee Robinson III. Agenda Approval It was moved by Trustee Straw, seconded by Trustee Buchanan, that this be approved. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved. V. Non-Agenda Public Comment Linda Berger: Resident of 32 years. Referenced the noise ordinance and would like to file a formal compliant for non-compliance about the loud music from motorcycles on Madison Street. Requested advice and direction from the Village Board. President Scaman said someone from Village staff will follow up with her. VI. Proclamation A. MOT 24-132 A Motion to Approve a Proclamation for National Community Development Week Occurring April 1-5, 2024 President Scaman said she and Village Manager Kevin Jackson had the honor of receiving recognition from Seguin Services for CDBG funds that have been committed for the past 10 years. On April 4 the Village will recognize Congressman Danny Davis for his continued support of CDBG funds for the Village. She then read the Proclamation into the record. It was moved by Trustee Straw, seconded by Trustee Wesley, that this Motion be approved. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved. Village of Oak Park Page 1 Printed on 4/10/2024 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes March 12, 2024 VII. Village Manager Reports Chief DEI Officer Dr. Danielle Walker announced the Village will host its first ever Women in Leadership symposium on March 23 from 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. at the Community Recreation Center. Village Manager noted he started his career working on CDBG and is excited about the 50th anniversary. President Scaman noted that she and River Forest Mayor Cathy Aducci, Kenya Thomas, and Police Chief Shatonya Johnson will be interviewed by the Wednesday Journal for their experience in women in leadership. VIII. Village Board Committees & Trustee Liaison Commission Reports There were no comments. IX. Citizen Commission Vacancies B. ID 24-199 Board & Commission Vacancy Report for March 12, 2024 There were no comments. X. Citizen Commission Appointments, Reappointments and Chair Appointments C. MOT 24-135 A Motion to Consent to the Village President’s Appointment of: Community Design Commission - Sarah Guerin, Appoint as Member Farmer’s Market Commission - Woody Meachum, Appoint as Member Historic Preservation Commission - Jessica Paul, Appoint as Member It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Straw, that this Motion be approved. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved. XII. Regular Agenda D. ID 24-198 A Presentation and Discussion of Various Transportation Items Including the Traffic Calming Petition Process, the Vision Zero Study, School Safety, Bike Planning, Pedestrian Signals, and Enforcement Village Engineer Bill McKenna presented an update on the neighborhood greenways system. Trustee Straw said the small sections of the neighborhood greenways that are already built are impactful and the Erie and Oak Park intersection at has become a very safe place for high schoolers. Trustee Buchanan inquired what facilities are being used. Engineer McKenna said on-street pavement markings, speed limit reduction signs, and speed feedback signs are being used. Paint and post bump-outs at Village of Oak Park Page 2 Printed on 4/10/2024 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes March 12, 2024 corners are for pedestrian improvements. Intersections have flashing beacons and green striping. Trustee Buchanan asked if there will be signage for cyclists. Engineer McKenna said there is some wayfinding signage for cyclists throughout the Village which we can look at updating. Trustee Buchanan inquired about the intersection at Washington and Scoville. Engineer McKenna said the Scoville network is part of the build-out plan in 2024. Trustee Wesley said he would love to see some kind of marketing video to showcase how the greenways work and how safe they are. He asked if we are pulling data from the speed feedback signs. Engineer McKenna confirmed the Village does look at that data. Trustee Wesley said he would love to see more of the speed feedback signs and intersection treatments. President Scaman asked what the bike boulevard will look like on Madison when it's done. Engineer McKenna said it will look similar to east of East Avenue on Madison. Engineer McKenna presented an update on the traffic calming petition process. Trustee Straw inquired when toolkit recommendations and traffic calming measures like speed humps are expected to come before the Village Board. Engineer McKenna said that may come with recommendations from Vision Zero which is looking at systemic treatments throughout the village and reviewing policies. Engineer McKenna presented an update on the Home Avenue pedestrian bridge. Trustee Wesley requested more information about prefabricated bridges. Engineer McKenna said they are typically like the steel one shown in the image. They are built off-site and then installed with a crane. They can work well here because the bridge is not very wide and they can be custom built. President Scaman said she is in favor of it. Engineer McKenna presented an overview of pedestrian push buttons and the Village's signal system. Trustee Buchanan said she didn't realize the signals were constantly reading the traffic and adjusting the timing and she thought it was just set. Engineer McKenna confirmed all signals in the village are like that. Trustee Straw noted that it isn't required that the walk signal only appear Village of Oak Park Page 3 Printed on 4/10/2024 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes March 12, 2024 when a push button is pressed, which Engineer McKenna confirmed. Trustee Buchanan asked how long it would take for the light to turn green if the beg buttons weren't there. Engineer McKenna said a pedestrian would probably never get a walk signal without pushing the push button the way they are currently set up. Trustee Straw said going to a default mindset of pedestrian recall and then work backwards from there for particular intersections is the right approach. He asked if there are places where we can implement pedestrian recall more quickly rather than waiting for 2025. Engineer McKenna said staff can look into it and follow up with the Village Board on ones we can move quicker on. Staff are working with the contractor on the Lake Street construction project to optimize signals and Lake and Marion and Lake and Forest. Trustee Wesley said he trust's staff's expertise on this. President Scaman and Trustee Enyia agreed. E. ID 24-171 A Presentation and Discussion of the Village of Oak Park Fall Leaf Collection Program and Alternative Options Public Works Director Rob Sproule and Environmental Services Manager Erica Helms presented the Item. Trustee Straw inquired if staff knows the current overtime costs. Director Sproule said we do not have a specific number because there are streets staff that transition to a night schedule during the leaf season so the Village pays them overtime on their fifth day. Changing to a model where we don't utilize streets staff overnight won't realize a large overtime bank. It is more about the opportunity gained with those streets staff not having to dedicate 120 hours a week for those 6 or 8 weeks. President Scaman inquired about the 11 communities still using our program model. Manager Helms said most of them were smaller and she can follow up with the list. Trustee Buchanan said she would be interested in knowing what Evanston does and she was fascinated to see how much it decreased during COVID. Director Sproule said there was cost savings in 2020 from the transition from an 8-week to a 6-week program and the hauler transition in 2022 was an additional savings. President Scaman said she would like the Village to buy the bags in bulk and people could pick them up at Village Hall. She expressed concern about older residents and people with disabilities that might be challenged with using the bags and how the Village would engage those residents. Trustee Wesley said he wanted to elevate the safety issues of our current Village of Oak Park Page 4 Printed on 4/10/2024 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes March 12, 2024 program. Director Sproule said staff have received complaints of kids playing in leaf piles in the street. Trustee Wesley noted that Naperville uses a vacuum mulcher truck and wondered if that is a possibility here. Director Sproule said it has been explored a number of times and was determined infeasible because of contamination issues. Trustee Wesley said he finds it hard to write a ticket for pushing leaves in the street. Director Sproule said the intent is to get compliance from residents to remove the leaves as quickly as possible. Police, code enforcement officers, and public works staff will be out at the start of the program to educate and give notifications to residents that they need to comply with the program. Neighborhood services will follow up to ensure they have complied. If they haven't complied, then enforcement may be required. Trustee Wesley said he is in favor of the new program because it would eliminate leaf piles in the bike lanes. Trustee Buchanan said she and Trustee Robinson are in support of this. She referenced comments from West Cook Wild Ones board member Adrian Ayres Fisher and why leaving the leaves is such a good idea. She thinks the bag program will promote leaving the leaves. Trustee Straw said he supports the Village moving forward and should put the message out to the community to provide feedback. He said providing some complimentary bags in the first year along with messaging will make the transition far more visible than just mailers and an article in OP/FYI. Trustee Wesley said he doesn't like that LRS will still charge us the same price. Director Sproule said the Village had a number of conversations with LRS and they are supportive of the transition. LRS was unsure about having the right equipment and what the volume would be. Once the five-year agreement is done, there will be a good opportunity to talk to them about the cost of the program moving forward. Trustee Enyia said he is in support of this. President Scaman said she would like to see the communication be educational. She inquired about the timeline. Director Sproule said it will take staff time to create the survey with results coming back in May which would impact staff's ability to get the steps in place to make it a successful transition in 2024. We will need to look at the code and bring a revised contract to the Village Board. President Scaman said it would be helpful to take this to the Aging in Communities, Disability Access, Community Design, and Environment and Energy Commissions. Director Sproule said none of them have been Village of Oak Park Page 5 Printed on 4/10/2024 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes March 12, 2024 engaged yet. Trustee Straw noted that the Disability Access Commission cancelled their March meeting. Trustee Wesley wondered if the community engagement would change our mind. Director Sproule said the Village can do meaningful engagement with the groups of concern while developing the program. Manager Jackson added that staff can bring that feedback back to the Board and present a program design based upon the input collected. President Scaman said she is comfortable with goal of implementation for this year. Trustee Straw agreed that is a smart and wise approach to wrapping the community engagement into the implementation. He asked how the Park District does their leaf management. Director Sproule said their leaf collection is a separate program. XIII. Call to Board and Clerk Clerk Waters announced that it is the final week of early voting here at Village Hall, Wednesday through Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM, Sunday 10 AM to 4 PM. The last day is Monday, March 18 from 9 AM to 5 PM. There is no voting at Village Hall on March 19. Trustee Straw noted there is a Village Board meeting scheduled for March 19 on election night. He encouraged residents to vote. Trustee Buchanan said she read the article in the Wednesday Journal about the incident at the Finance Committee meeting and was surprised that President Scaman has still not received an apology for the comments made by Trustee Parakkat. She said when she shot her mouth off at a meeting, she sent an apology email to her colleagues as soon as she got home and she then publicly apologized at the next meeting. She said she thinks our Village President deserves the same from Trustee Parakkat. President Scaman wished the community a happy Women's History Month and congratulated CDBG. XIV. Adjourn It was moved by Trustee Wesley, seconded by Trustee Straw, to Adjourn. A voice vote was taken and the motion was approved. Meeting adjourned at 8:31 P.M., Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Respectfully submitted, Deputy Clerk Hansen Village of Oak Park Page 6 Printed on 4/10/2024