Community Relations Committee

Village Hall Village of Lombard 255 East Wilson Ave. Lombard, IL 60148 villageoflombard.org Minutes Community Relations Committee Trustee Robyn Pike - Chairperson Trustee Bill Ware - Alternate Chairperson, Pamela Bedard, Ahmed Ali, Michael Ledonne, Sharon Vish, Barb Ware, Gladys Piper, Anthony Pacilli and Jenelle Hardtke Staff Liaison - Avis Meade Monday, November 12, 2018 7:30 PM Village Hall Board Room 1.0 Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Robyn Pike at 7 p.m. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Michael Ledonne. 2.0 Roll Call Present 8 - Robyn Pike, Pamela Bedard, Jenelle Hardtke, Sharon Vish, Ahmed Ali, Barbara Ware, Michael Ledonne, and Anthony Pacilli Absent 1 - Gladys Piper Also present: Scott Niehaus, Village Manager, Nicole Aranas, Assistant Village Manager, Avis Meade, Staff Liaison 3.0 Public Participation Trustee Robyn Pike moved the Public Participation agenda item to after the presentation on Strategic Revenue Generation Discussion - Video Gaming. Vicki Topalidis, owner of Maxfield’s Restaurant in Lombard commented that while the Village is trying to balance its budget, so are restaurants. We need to find a source of revenue like the Village. Restaurants can raise prices which impact customers and hurts business. Realistically, Village of Lombard Page 1 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 restaurants are looking at ways to raise revenue and video gaming would be raising revenue for the Village and restaurants. Businesses that have video gaming revenue are reinvesting that money into beautifying their business and improving the Village, not buying fancy sports cars. People that live in Lombard go to nearby communities including Oak Brook Terrace, Villa Park and other places that have video gaming. Other restaurants that do allow video gaming don’t suffer from people feeling unsafe. We didn’t invest our money to leave Lombard but it’s hard to compete and be successful with so much competition. When restaurants make money, it goes back to the Village. Video gaming in Lombard would be presented in a tasteful way for people to enjoy. Brendan Fitzharris, a bar owner in Elmhurst, Glendale Heights and Villa Park spoke. Video gaming allows my bars in Glendale Heights and Villa Park to succeed. He would like to open a bar in Lombard but cannot do so because video gaming is not allowed. He feels that he would invest in this town and feels bad for bar owners in Lombard who are not allowed to benefit from video gaming. Brendan stated that he has met more people in his establishments that allow video gaming that are from Lombard, who visit his establishment because they want to utilize video gaming. It’s difficult to compete in the bar business and it’s not fair for Lombard bar owners to not have video gaming when it’s so close to neighboring communities. Fitzharris read statistics that stated when video gaming was allowed Villa Park, sales from the Miller distributor, went up 2,986 cases in Villa Park and at the same time went down 2897 cases in Elmhurst. Budweiser went up 1693, in Villa Park and went down 1794 cases in Elmhurst. The estimated loss in beverage sales for that year in alcohol sales only, not including food or non-alcoholic beverages, was $1.7-2 million. After video gaming was enacted in Villa Park, my food and beverage sales increased 15 percent that year and 10% the following year. My sales at my Elmhurst locations were down 8% the first year and 4% the next year. Not only are these businesses losing out on video gaming revenue, they’re losing out on food and beverage sales because people are going somewhere else which is also lost tax revenue. For any local economy to survive and grow, you need locals Village of Lombard Page 2 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 and outsiders spending money in your towns, not leaving to go to other towns. You can’t prevent people from gambling anymore, because you can gamble on your phone. Times have changed. If you think video gaming is bad, you’re not preventing anyone from gambling, you’re hurting small businesses and the towns that need the revenue. Angie Neczek said that she has been a resident for 16 years. She has seen Lombard change. There have been three babies born on her block and she feels Lombard is becoming more of a family Village. She grew up in Fort Lauderdale during the time of spring break and she saw what that did to the perception of her town, so they moved to Boca Raton because of the perceptions of those two towns. When she looks at the list of towns (in DuPage County that do and do not allow video gaming), she wants to be on the side that does not have video gaming. The list of towns that prohibit video gaming have civic pride, great schools, and great downtowns. She does not feel as strong for the other side in her opinion. She asks what is the perception that we want to have in Lombard? What town do we want to be like? What is our vision for Lombard? Without meaning any disrespect, if we’re inviting people to come into our town and gamble, we are inviting losers to come in. Video gaming is not for winners. People don’t win. Is that the perception that we want to have in Lombard? That we’re inviting losers to come? I think gambling is fine, but I don’t want it in my neighborhood when I have new kids and children in schools. Marymae Meyer stated that legalizing video gambling in Lombard is being presented as a needed revenue source, but it has even more to do with the bigger long range picture. Elected officials and Village of Lombard Staff have worked together for years to establish the Village of Lombard Mission Statement and Strategic Plan. Vowing to create, “a distinctive sense of spirit and an outstanding quality of life.” Although this is difficult to define, many people would extrapolate that this means a place suitable for audiences of all ages. The documents contain guiding principles and view community image as a strength and opportunity to be built upon. They state the importance of branding, building and maintaining a good reputation and making our community better, all of which requires setting good examples. You don't set yourself apart by being like everybody else. You can't be unique by Village of Lombard Page 3 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 trying to be all things to all people. You do accomplish that by demonstrating consistency between your values and your actions. She believes our leaders are duty bound to uphold the values that they themselves have attached to the words outstanding quality of life, and to the guiding principles which deal with, not just financial stability, but branding and protecting the marketability of our village. The potential harm in gambling is evident by the requirement of license and regulation. Reducing potential harm improves our quality of life There are many good citizens on both sides of this issue. She does not fault any of Lombard’s business owners for working toward the legalization of gambling. They’ve got to survive. She added that she spoke against opening the portal to video gambling in 2014. It was closed then and she believes it should stay closed. She believes the decision should be put to rest by referendum. In two final thoughts, someone wrote online that you can’t legislate morality and she’s not sure if that’s what we’re talking about, but she does believe that it’s going to be a tough decision for the people sitting on the Village Board to have to make so it should go to referendum. The other final thought is that Chief Newton spoke (at Public Safety and Transportation Committee) she went online to the website and she would encourage everyone to go online and look at the regulations that video gambling is under. It is not that it is without problems or faults but they do surveillance and manage infractions themselves and the board is tough, which is reassuring and educational. Village Manager Scott Niehaus commented that in anticipation to a question that a member of the committee or member of the public may have, and in response to Marymae’s reference to a referendum. The Village Board is a long way from making a decision on this, but a referendum in Forest Park recently occurred. When the state law was written to allow video gaming, towns had to opt out of it, which is what Lombard did in 2010. The State legislature did put in a failsafe piece of language into the law, stating that if a municipality or county legalized video gaming, they would still hand the final say to citizens through a binding referendum petition option. That is what took place in Forest Park last week. A citizen based referendum was run and the citizens of Forest Park voted by approximately 200 votes, it did rescind video Village of Lombard Page 4 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 gaming. I cannot answer any questions about what that means about how it stops, but for those who may ask about referendum, I wanted you to know that and be educated on it. So no matter what happens, in 10 years, the citizens have an option of bringing that to referendum at all times. Liam Quirke presented petitions to the committee. Liam represented Punky’s Pub in downtown Lombard, which has been in business for 45 years and would like to continue for as long as possible. Liam stated that video gaming has become a problem for their business because of the people are leaving Lombard to go to nearby municipalities to play. Video gaming is entertainment for those who play. He takes offense to the person who stated people who use video gaming are losers. That would mean that half the people who come from Addison or Villa Park to play video gaming are losers and he does not accept that. He does not feel that video gaming would be a detriment to the quality of life since Oak Park, Oak Brook Terrace, Addison, Glendale Heights or Carol Stream does not have a problem. He looked up home values for Lombard and other towns. He looked up home values and the average list price for a home in Addison was $279,000 and the average sale price was $259,000. In Villa Park, the average list price was $260,000 and the average sale price was $242,000. In Oak Brook Terrace the average list price is $250,000 and the average sale price is $246,000. In Lombard, the average list price is $269,000 and the average sale price was $249,000. Addison’s homes are selling at $180 per square foot, in Villa Park it is $188 per square foot, Oak Brook Terrace is at $172, Glendale Heights is at $162, and Lombard is at $182. The home values are pretty much the same in all of these municipalities so I don’t see how video gaming would be a detriment to the town or make the town a bunch of losers because they had video gaming. As far as revenue from video gaming, in the past 12 months Addison brought in $404,000 in video gaming revenue, Villa Park 432, Oakbrook Terrace 239, Glendale Heights 270, and that’s just the municipality’s take. Lombard doesn’t have it, so there’s no information for that. We have reports from the police chief from the last meeting and they presented a survey that showed there was no trouble from video gaming. Trustee Pike commented that this information has been presented to Village of Lombard Page 5 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 the committee and asked that Liam complete his statement as his time was up. Liam continued that he is the owner of a small business and they employe 12 people and would use the revenue from video gaming to hire more people and fix up their property. They find that a lot of their customers are leaving and going to other municipalities to play video gaming. They are small bets of only 2 or 3 dollars and the maximum you can win is $500. People are spending their entertainment money and the other towns around us are garnering the revenue and we don’t think that’s fair to small businesses in Lombard. We don’t want to open a casino, we just want to be fair. Pat Kennedy said he is a born and raised Lombardian who moved back to raise his family. He doesn’t believe that gambling will affect the community very much and that the public perception is that business owners will take the money and buy fancy things but most businesses he has talked with are interested in investing the money into their business. Village Manager Niehaus in the last meeting said it’s their job to turn over every rock to increase revenue, and I’ve seen that with the free bag pick up going away and the places for eating tax, that rocks keep getting flipped and this looks like easy money. It is a way for the community to look better. These tavern owners give back to the community and they do benefits for local charities or residents and they aren’t obligated to but they do this all the time. These people are important members of the community and throwing them this bone would be a good way to keep them going. I also don’t want to pay $25 for pancakes at Maxwell’s. Maryanne O’Neill from O’Neil’s Pub on St. Charles Rd. in Lombard said that she’s also a Lombard resident who has owned a home in Lombard since 1971. She has raised 4 children and 9 of her 11 grandchildren live in Lombard and go to school in Lombard so she is concerned about Lombard staying a family community and she doesn’t feel that bringing gaming into her establishment is going to harm that in any way. She stated that she wasn’t sure if the Lombard community realizes how much small businesses contribute to the community. They sponsor baseball, volleyball teams and hold fundraisers for families or Village of Lombard Page 6 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 charities that are in need. Hammerschmidt School has their fundraiser event at my establishment and she is sure that Punky’s also does similar events. She said they are invested in the town and they employ local people and they need to provide for their families too and they need to keep their businesses going. She agreed with the owner of Maxfield’s (Vicki Topalidis) who said that they are losing money. It’s going out the door and going down the road to Villa Park and Addison. She is not sure how much longer they can hold on without video gaming. They didn’t bring this up in previous years because it’s the 3rd time it’s coming up in conversation, but it’s the 1st time that the businesses are speaking out. She said this was because there wasn’t a need then, but there is a need now. Before, businesses around us didn’t allow video gaming so business was thriving but now they’re looking for something to balance their budgets, improve their properties, keep employing people in Lombard, and keep investing money in the town. This is important for not only their family, but for the people in the town. Maryann stated that she and her husband have been members of community groups including the Rotary Club, the YMCA, Chamber of Commerce, her husband was on the Village Board for 3 terms, and she was on the School Board. They are invested in the town and would never do anything to harm it. She believes that allowing video gaming will help small businesses survive and that’s all they are asking for. She thanked the Committee for listening. Mark Dvorak who lives in Lombard for more than 20 years said that he and his wife are not losers but do like to gamble. It is a form of entertainment, similar to going to a movie. They go to Villa Park because they have video gaming. They don’t get carried away, but they have fun. His brother lives in Villa Park, which was voted one of the best places to live in the United States and video gaming isn’t hurting the community at all. He advocates for it, because it will help businesses and help everyone around us. He says it’s not great but it’s inevitable that all communities will have video gaming. It’s already all around Lombard, so we might as well get it and see how it goes. Village of Lombard Page 7 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 John Hughes spoke and thanked the committee for an opportunity to speak. He is a member of the Lombard Moose Lodge, a fraternal organization. Their main forms of income are social quarters and pull tab machines, a form of gambling that is allowed through the organization that they pay taxes on. Since video gambling, their pull tabs have been down over 40 percent because their members are going to Villa Park and other surrounding communities and they’re gambling there. This is hurting us. We do a lot of good and portions of our money go to Moose Heart, a child city in Batavia for troubled children. I don’t know if we’ll be able to survive until next year because it’s so tight. We only have 1 paid employee. Our bartenders and cooks are volunteers. We are on a shoestring budget and this would be an opportunity for us to get in the black. He also commented to the Village Board of Trustees that he votes for them to keep the fire and police protection, potholes filled, and they do a fantastic job. He didn’t elect anyone to be his moral compass. If it’s legal in Illinois, then they should have the choice to do video gaming in our community. Import customers, don’t export them. He thanked the Committee for their time. Theresa Brzezinski thanked the Committee for the opportunity to speak. She stated that she is a fourth generation Lombardian and grew up here and loves it. Her family likes it here and has been here all their lives. She has worked and or managed 3 different businesses in downtown Lombard in the past 8 years. She is tried and true and loves Lombard. She was asked by some people to get together with some other business owners and managers in town, to try to get a campaign going on the positive side of video gaming. She is not a business owner so she is not speaking to line her pockets but because she believes in business and mom & pop cultures. At the end of the day she is fighting for this because it should be the business’ choice and it should not be the decision of the Village to tell them that they can or cannot have in their own establishments. She also respects businesses that do not want to have video gaming in their establishments. She manages O’Neil’s pub and agreed with Maryanne O’Neil saying there are a lot of things that we could do with this revenue. We could get a new parking lot. Just like all the other businesses here, they could put that money back into the businesses. Village of Lombard Page 8 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 She has met some great people on this trail and has worked together with other business owners and managers. She sat down with Brendan (owner of businesses in nearby towns that above stated that video gaming would benefit business owners of Lombard) and we are losing a lot of our business to his businesses. She appreciates everything that has been said by everyone before her. She can’t say how many times that she’s heard from her customers that they’d love to come see her, but they really wanted to put a $20 in the machine. She asked why we are letting our residents go to other cities and put their money into Villa Park, Addison, and Oakbrook Terrace? She said it’s very important for them. She has heard of 2 people, a 3rd this week, who want to bring a business, purchase a business, or buy a business in Lombard, and like Brendan said, they’re not interested if video gaming isn’t an option. I met a 3rd person this week who said they’d like to open a business in Lombard but won’t consider it if this (video gaming) doesn’t go through. So not only are we risking losing the businesses that we have currently, whether or not we’re closing doors or relocating because we’re just trying to make it work, but we’re also turning away additional business and revenue that our town obviously needs. She hopes that all of this work and effort goes to the facts of bringing it into our businesses so we can decide what we want to do in our own businesses instead of having a ban. She thanked the committee. Matt Cobb stated that he’s lived in Lombard his entire life, his mom grew up here, and he helps out at the local high school. He said that the facts that were shown about taxes going up for the businesses is forcing them to pay more without the option to make more. Limiting their options makes it harder for them and businesses are closing. They’re not able to upkeep and make their place look nice. Lombard has always been great but you can see the decline of local businesses. If you want to keep Lombard nice, then this is an easy way to get money. It’s an option. Other things you’re looking to do are not options, like forcing people to pay for stickers or take away bag pick up, this is decreasing the value of Lombard. This will help to deter that. This is simple money that you’re letting walk away. It’s hard for me as a young guy here, all my friends want to go Village of Lombard Page 9 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 somewhere else just because of the options of video gaming. Not just because they have video gaming, but because the businesses are a little nicer because they can upkeep it better and have better deals so young nightlife can go out. It’s hard to get anyone who grew up here, who spend their money here, to stay in Lombard. People coming here and buying houses with young families, video gaming won’t affect that. He said that he has several friends that are realtors and they say no one asks if there’s gambling in their town and it doesn’t deter from buying a house. But what will deter people is the more you have to pay and the less that you get. It’s going to be harder for businesses to stay open and we’ll see raggedy buildings. This is a simple way to help the businesses and let the community look good. Deb Dynako stated that she was born and raised in Lombard and returned to buy a house. Four years ago she came before the Board to ask that the Village not allow video gaming in our town. Our town’s tagline is Lombard Pride and she often thinks what does that mean. She said it means we take pride in our community and that we do take pride on our businesses. She said she puts her dollars in her community whenever she can but when she thinks about video gaming, one of the slides shown earlier that one of the reasons revenue decline has happened because of things like big box stores. Amazon did something new with the business model. A couple weekends ago she was in Villa Park and went to two different food and drinking establishments and the one that did allow video gaming was dead but the one that didn’t was standing room only. She looked around for machines but they weren’t there. She had to wait 35 minutes to get in because it’s so popular. She’s wondering that if the popularity of one pizza place in town, not mentioning any names, that one is thriving opens 3 different stores in town and another is not thriving. Does the pizza parlor ask do I need video gaming or do they ask am I making the crust right, is my sauce good, am I smiling when people coming in? Her uncle was a tavern owner so she knows that the cyclical nature of certain businesses ebb and flow. If we open the door to this, it’s not a guarantee. She said they were talking about business cannibalism in ECDC earlier. If everyone’s going down the street, are they still staying in your establishment? Now you guys have video gaming? But then Village of Lombard Page 10 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 there’s video gaming next door. Is there cannibalization with video gaming? Just because they have it down the street and now we’re going to have it? Is that a guarantee? I have a lot of questions about this and this is the first time I’m speaking out. Robyn Pike notified Deb that she had reached her full 3 minutes of public comment. Deb Dynako thanked the Committee. Trustee Pike asked if there were any other public comments. There were no further public comments. 4.0 Approval of Minutes A motion was made by Michael Ledonne, seconded by Barb Ware, to approve the minutes of the September 10, 2018. The motion carried unanimously. 5.0 Old Business None. 6.0 New Business 180450 Discussion-Video Gaming Discussion and recommendation on whether video gaming should be permitted within the corporate limits of the Village of Lombard. Discussion and recommendation from the Community Relations Committee regarding whether video gaming should be permitted within the corporate limits of the Village of Lombard. Village Manager Scott Niehaus reviewed the Strategic Revenue Generation Discussion Video Gaming presentation. He explained that part of this discussion will include budget updates for the committee, as well as a discussion about video gaming and other potential revenue sources. Mr. Niehaus noted that this Thursday, the Village Board will be adopting a 2019 budget. It is balanced, but we look ahead 5 years. We make certain assumptions about how much money we will have coming in and how much we will spend. We take a very conservative Village of Lombard Page 11 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 approach and do not assume any growth in our sales tax due to the closing of big box retailers and the changing landscape of retail. Village Manager Niehaus presented the first part of the presentation. This portion included an overview of the Village’s budgetary actions over the past three years. Niehaus stated that there is a Village revenue component to video gaming and it’s important for citizens to know what steps the Village has already taken to face budget challenges. The second portion of the presentation was given by Assistant Village Manager Nicole Aranas who reviewed the history of video gaming in Illinois and the Village of Lombard and the potential impact that video gaming could have on the Village of Lombard. There were no formal questions from the committee after the presentation. Trustee Pike asked the committee for discussion. Committee Member Michael Ledonne began the discussion. He stated that he’s been on the committee for quite a number of years and has been in Lombard more than 22 years and has raised his family here. It is a wonderful community. In his professional life he worked in retail for more than 20 years with the Tru Value Company and Sears Holdings. He said the Village of Lombard has an issue and that issue is Yorktown, because the Amazon effect impacts brick and mortar retail. When there are more people shopping online then there are less people shopping in brick and mortar retail and Lombard is not immune to that, just like other municipalities in the United States and across the country. When large retailers like Carson Pirie Scott, Sears and Kmart cease operations, unfortunately the tax revenues go away. Amazon does charge tax but unfortunately municipalities do not get a portion of that tax revenue. It goes to either federal sales tax or state sales tax - not the municipality. One of the things I love about Lombard and why it’s a wonderful community is that the Village takes its time and great efforts that the Village of Lombard Page 12 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 streets are paved that the parks are nice, and we have a great park district and schools, but the reality is that these fantastic features and benefits of living in Lombard require revenue to run. Lombard for many years has relied for many years on the sales revenue from Yorktown that will continue to drop. That is the reality of retail. That will have a cyclical and ripple effect to small owners as well. The less people that go to Yorktown the less people will go to the restaurants because they’re not there. Therefore, I am going to vote in favor of video gaming with the restrictions, because the reality is that the Village of Lombard is going to need that revenue. It has to come from somewhere. We cannot cut our way to making it work. We can’t cut it. And it will continue to get worse. Committee member Barb Ware thanked everyone for their comments. She asked everyone to ask themselves if they’ve ever bought a lottery ticket or a scratch off or played bingo or entered into a raffle. These are games of chance. They are not illegal in the Village of Lombard and the Village approves these games and it’s a form of gambling. With that said there is no evidence that these games diminish the quality of life in Lombard. Money magazine, in Dec. 2017, listed Villa Park as the 28th best place in the country to live and the 8th best place to raise a family. This is around 2 years after they allowed video gaming. She understands that there are moral issues when it comes to video gaming. In her opinion, she doesn’t want the Village of Lombard to tell her what she can and cannot do with her money. She doesn’t believe that the Village should police anyone’s morals. She is not trying to diminish anyone’s morals or beliefs, but if this is a moral issue for you, then just don’t play the games. It’s that simple. Lombard residents are spending their evenings having dinner, playing video games and having drinks in surrounding areas. That’s a form of entertainment they choose. The Village of Lombard and Lombard businesses are losing these revenues. Personally she would prefer to find new revenue streams that do not raise her taxes. This is one option that would only affect people who choose to play. If we don’t find new revenue streams then everyone’s taxes will eventually be increased. This committee has been asked the past few years to reduce the Village’s budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, that reduction affected senior citizens. I don’t know about the rest of the committee but I find it Village of Lombard Page 13 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 hard to sleep when I have to cut money from meals on wheels and taxi services for seniors. This revenue would help offset the budget deficit. Committee member Jenelle Hardtke stated that she has been on the committee for 2 years and a Lombard resident for most of her life. She thanked everyone for their feedback. She responded to a previous public comment, saying she understood the comment made during the public comments about losers. Jenelle said she knew it was not the way that the commenter meant it to sound. Gambling can be looked at as not a winning sport, otherwise we’d be gambling all the time. Jenelle stated that she understood what the public commenter was saying. She said she is a single mom and if she chooses to go out then she leaves her child at home and would like to be close to home. She doesn’t feel that traveling to other towns is unsafe but she would love to stay closer to Lombard. She has family and friends that will go to Villa Park or a different city to play video games and it’s just to put 20 dollars in a slot machine and then join us for dinner and drinks. These people are active in their churches, are active in their communities, and babysit for me for free when I need the help. There is definitely an opportunity to support Lombard businesses and keep our money here. She is definitely in favor of it. Sharon Vish said she was on the committee for a number of years and appreciates everybody’s opinions on this debate. She thinks video gaming is something that will benefit Lombard. She has been to establishments that allow it and she didn’t see any different types of people than she sees in other restaurants. It’s an opportunity for new businesses to be interested in Lombard and for current businesses to make additional revenue so she would be in favor. Ahmed Ali spoke and thanked everyone for their opinions and discussion in the matter. In his opinion he opposes video gaming. He said they shouldn’t think about the money, but should think about the character building of the next generation and what “we” are going to give them. Many people think that this is an opportunity to gain money and increase revenue, but it’s important to think about the affect it will have on our children. If you see the figure it indicates, if you make an environment for successful children then you have to create an Village of Lombard Page 14 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 environment that builds character. Including these types of things, it doesn’t raise them nicely. He is against video gaming. A motion was made by Michael Ledonne that the Community Relations Committee recommends to allow video gaming within the corporate limits of the Village of Lombard. This motion was seconded by committee member Anthony Pacilli. No vote was taken on this motion. Scott Niehaus asked Michael Ledonne for a clarification based on his previous comment, that stated Ledonne’s approval would be subject to restrictions. Michael Ledonne amended his original motion to include restrictions voted upon by the Village Board in passing the ordinance, the amended motion was seconded by Anthony Pacilli. The motion passed by a 6-1 vote in favor. Aye: 6- Pamela Bedard, Jenelle Hardtke, Sharon Vish, Barbara Ware, Michael Ledonne, and Anthony Pacilli Nay: 1- Ahmed Ali Absent: 1- Gladys Piper 7.0 Other Business None. 8.0 Information Only Michael Ledonne made a statement on behalf of the Community Relations Committee, thanking the business owners and residents for coming to the meeting. He commented that it is rare that the committee has any community participation and it just means that everyone was there is special and shows how much everyone loves the community. Village Manager Niehaus reminded everyone that the next meeting regarding video gaming will be at the Economic and Community Development Committee meeting on December 12th. After that time there will be no further discussion about video gaming in 2018. If the Village Board decides to hold a workshop it will be shared and widely publicized on social media. Village of Lombard Page 15 Community Relations Committee Minutes November 12, 2018 9.0 Adjournment A motion was made by Michael Ledonne, seconded by Jenelle Hardtke, to adjourn the meeting at 8:24 p.m. The motion passed unanimously. Village of Lombard Page 16