City Council Regular Meeting

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MINUTES DATE: Monday, May 13, 2019 TIME: 7:00 P.M. PLACE: Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St., Urbana, IL 61801 The City Council Committee of The Whole of the City of Urbana, Illinois, met in regular session Monday, May 13, 2019, in the Council Chambers of the Urbana City Building. ELECTED OFFICIALS PHYSICALLY PRESENT: Maryalice Wu, Ward 1; Eric Jakobsson, Ward 2; Shirese Hursey, Ward 3; Bill Brown, Ward 4; Dennis Roberts, Ward 5; Dean Hazen, Ward 6, Jared Miller, Ward 7; Diane Wolfe Marlin, Mayor; Charles A. Smyth, City Clerk ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT VIA TELECONFERENCE: None ELECTED OFFICIALS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Elizabeth Beaty; Kris Francisco; Elizabeth Hannan; Alyssa Jaje; Kay Meharry; Carol Mitten; Lorrie Pearson; John Schneider; James Simon OTHERS PRESENT: Elderess Melinda Carr; Danielle Chynoweth; James Kilgore; Darin Riggs; Bishop King James Underwood; Members of the Media Chair: Dennis Roberts, Ward 5 1. Call to Order and Roll Call With a quorum present, Chair Dennis Roberts called the meeting of the Committee of the Whole to order at 7:01pm. 2. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting CM Jared Miller made a motion to approve the minutes from the April 22, 2019 meeting. Motion seconded by CM Maryalice Wu and carried by voice vote. 3. Additions to the Agenda There were none. 4. Public Input Bishop King James Underwood did not wish to speak but wanted his concerns about the Dr. Ellis subdivision sewer problems entered into the record. Elderess Melinda Carr did not wish to speak, but asked that her concerns about the Dr. Ellis subdivision sewer problems, equity, and historic impact be entered into the record. Darin Riggs, with Riggs Beer Company, spoke to committee members about the changes in rules that have taken place since his business opened in 2016, including an increase in food and beverage tax, and state rules concerning brewing licenses. He said in 2018 Riggs Beer Company generated over $16,000 food and beverage and package liquor tax. He suggested applying the tax increase only to packaged liquor not produced in the City of Urbana. 5. Presentations There were none. 6. Staff Report There was none. 7. Ordinance No. 2019-05-029: An Ordinance Amending Urbana City Code Chapter Twenty- Two, Article VI, Section 22-91(A) (Amendment to Food & Beverage Tax Ordinance) Financial Services Manager Kris Francisco and Finance Director Elizabeth Hannan presented Committee of the Whole Minutes Monday, May 13 2019 Page 2 of 5 this ordinance. In 2011 a 1% package liquor tax was approved and has not increased in the past eight years. This proposed tax would make the total tax collected on package liquor 12%, when added to the sales tax. Raising the package liquor tax is part of the strategy to increase revenues in trying to balance the budget. This increase in the package liquor tax would increase revenues by $220,000 for the General Operating Fund, and the change would take effect on July 1, 2019. All businesses with a liquor license that would allow the sale of package liquor were notified by mail about the proposed tax, and encouraged to comment on it. Ms. Francisco said there are 30 to 40 businesses currently selling package liquor. Committee members requested a list showing how many of the businesses currently licensed to sell package liquor list that as their sole source of income. Mayor Marlin said that the city is currently in the process of revising the liquor code and possibly revising fees for liquor licenses. CM Miller moved to send Ordinance No. 2019-05-030 to council with recommendation for approval. Motion seconded by CM Hursey. The suggestion by Darin Riggs to apply the increase in package liquor tax increase only to packaged liquor not produced in the City of Urbana was discussed. City Attorney James Simon said he would do some research on it. Another suggestion was to give a production credit or rebate instead of a lower tax rate. It was also suggested to increase to 2% rather than 3%. After discussion and direction to staff to research the possibility of a lower tax rate for package liquor produced in the City of Urbana, the motion to send Ordinance No. 2019-05-029 to council was approved by voice vote. 8. Ordinance No. 2019-05-030: An Ordinance Amending Urbana City Code Chapter 1, Section 1-10(J), Regarding the Schedule of Fines for Certain Local Traffic Code Violations (2019) Administrative Services Manager Elizabeth Beaty presented this ordinance. She said the changes include an increase to the parking late fine after seven days and adding an additional late fine after 30 days, with no changes to the original parking fine amount. The changes would go into effect July 1, 2019 and would generate approximately $72,000 more to the general operating fund. No changes have been made to parking fine amounts since November 2009. Discussion included suspension of driver’s license for 10 or more unpaid parking tickets. Ms. Beaty said there has not been a driver’s license suspension submitted to the state for several years. The initiation of booting vehicles with five or more parking ticket violations older than 30 days eliminated the accumulation of five or more tickets on most accounts. She said exceptions are people who have left town and in those cases the City is unable to collect the fines. The $250 fine for abandoned or inoperable vehicles on highways and municipal property was discussed. Ms. Beaty said there have probably been less than 10 in the last 10 years. The process for abandoned vehicles is time consuming for staff, and they do work with property owners to give them time to remove the vehicles. After discussion, CM Miller made a motion to send Ordinance 2019-05-030 to council with recommendation for approval. Motion seconded by CM Brown and carried by voice vote. 9. Ordinance No. 2019-05-031: An Ordinance Amending Urbana City Code Chapter 23, Section 23-211 (Parking Violation Procedures) Administrative Services Manager Elizabeth Beaty presented this ordinance and explained that in 2009 a section in the code was overlooked when the ordinance was changed. The time frame for contesting a ticket went from 72 hours to seven days. This would correct the code so it reads seven days instead of 72 hours. Committee of the Whole Minutes Monday, May 13 2019 Page 3 of 5 CM Wu made a motion to send Ordinance No. 2019-05-031 to council with recommendation for approval. Motion seconded by CM Eric Jakobsson and carried by voice vote. 10. Resolution No. 2019-05-010R: A Resolution Authorizing the Acceptance of an Illinois Arts Council Agency (IACA) Grant for a Youth Employment Project (Arts and Culture Program) Community Development Director John Schneider presented this resolution. He said the Illinois Arts Council Agency has awarded the City of Urbana $1,800 Arts and Culture Program. Council approval is needed for the City to accept the grant and the grant would be used to hire a local high school intern for the Arts and Culture Program. The intern would develop monthly e-newsletters, social media content and provide support for arts and culture activity in Urbana. CM Jakobsson moved approval of Resolution No. 2019-05-010R. Motion seconded by CM Dean Hazen and carried by voice vote. 11. Resolution No. 2019-05-011R: A Resolution Approving the City of Urbana and Champaign/Urbana/Champaign County Home Consortium (FY 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan) Community Development Specialist Alyssa Jaje presented this resolution for the Home Consortium Annual Action Plan. She said the City received communication from the HUD representative in April with the funding allocations for FY 2019-2020. Those allocations will be $735,645 for the HOME Consortium (divided between administrative costs, Community Housing Development Organization [CHDO] set-aside, CHDO operating and Consortium split of the City of Champaign, Champaign County and the City of Urbana) and $442,063 for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). HUD requires that the annual action plan be submitted no later than June 11, 2019. There were questions concerning the neighborhood cleanup program budget. Community Development Director John Schneider responded that the $8,000 budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year remains the same as the amount for last year. He said the budget has been reduced in the past several years because the amount of funding has decreased, and allows for only one cleanup day per year. If the cost of last year’s cleanup day shows enough of a decrease, there might be a possibility of a second cleanup day in the upcoming budgeted amount. He said there are other things, like neighborhood improvements, that will also come out of the same funding. When questioned about the senior repair budget of $10,000, Mr. Schneider said he thought $950 or $1000 per senior household was budgeted. He added that sometimes there is carryover from the past year in other programs and that can be transferred to the senior program if needed. After discussion, CM Miller made a motion to send Resolution No. 2019-05-011R to council with recommendation for approval. Motion seconded by CM Jakobsson and carried by voice vote. 12. Discussion – Consolidated Social Service Funding FY 2019-2020 Community Development Specialist Alyssa Jaje began this presentation and said there was an increase in the number of committee members, and included Township Board Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth, two other representatives from Cunningham Township, Grants Division Manager Sheila Dodd, City Council member Maryalice Wu and Alyssa Jaje. Agencies were required to attend one of two application workshops and only those who attended were allowed to apply for funding. Minimum grant request was $4,000, with minimum award of $3,000, with proposed funding amounts ranging from $5,000 to $21,000. No late application submissions were accepted. A list of the criteria used for deciding which entities would receive funding was included with the packet information. Committee of the Whole Minutes Monday, May 13 2019 Page 4 of 5 Thirty four agencies submitted applications for funding for 45 programs. Recommendation from the committee is to fund 17 agencies and 18 programs, and funding is to be used for programming costs and staff support only. Ms. Jaje and CM Wu clarified the selection process and answered questions from committee members. Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth was present and answered questions from committee members. There was discussion about an unallocated amount of $13,000 and whether it would go to the Rapid Response fund or toward the Youth Assessment Center funding and other programs. City Administrator Carol Mitten said she would look into it. James Kilgore, with First Followers was present and spoke about about the GoMAD program, as well as ongoing projects. 13. Discussion – Committee of the Whole Review of Development Projects Planning Manager Lorrie Pearson began the discussion by looking at the types of cases Committee of the Whole would want to review. Suggested cases are: • New planned unit developments including new construction • New special use permits involving new construction • Zoning map amendments (rezonings) to any zoning district except R-1, R-2, or R-3 • Major Variances if involve new construction or expansion of more than 50% of gross floor area of building, with exemption for single-family homes and duplexes Another suggestion for cases to be considered by Committee of the Whole (COW) was any case that does not have a unanimous vote by the Plan Commission (PC). Staff suggested three options to consider when looking at cases. Those are as follows: • Send case to COW on Monday immediately following the PC meeting of the previous week. There would be no time for staff memorandum or to have PC meeting minutes available for COW meeting. Staff could summarize the PC meeting and PC meeting vote. Comments from committee members would be provided to developer earlier than if it were presented at a council meeting. • Schedule a special COW meeting on the second Monday following the PC meeting. The special COW meeting would precede the regular Council meeting and council members would have memo from staff as well as minutes from the PC meeting. Two options for that scenario: o Council members decide at special COW meeting they are ready to vote on the item that evening at the Council meeting. o Council members decide they need more time for discussion and move to send the item to a special Council meeting the next week. A special Council meeting would be scheduled the following week for further discussion and final vote on the item. • Send a case to regular COW meeting 18 days after the PC meeting. Council members would have memo as well as minutes from the PC meeting. The ordinance would then be forwarded to the next city council meeting for a final vote. This option would result in the largest increase in time spent processing a case. In discussion relating to the second option, City Attorney James Simon said rules of procedure (rule two) for council and committee meetings do not allow a committee meeting to precede a council meeting on the same night. He said rule nine states that the rules are procedural only and if procedure is not followed it would not affect the legality of any action item. His recommendation would be to move to suspend rule two and move the item on to the council meeting the same night, requiring a motion, a second and a vote to move it on to that meeting. The item would have to be on both the special COW meeting agenda and the Council meeting agenda. Committee of the Whole Minutes Monday, May 13 2019 Page 5 of 5 Consensus of committee members was to consider option two. It was decided to delay the decision until after the 2019-2020 budget presentation and discussion. 14. Adjournment With no further business before the committee, Chair Roberts adjourned the meeting at 9:27pm. Kay Meharry Assistant City Clerk Materials and video for this meeting can be found at: https://www.urbanaillinois.us/node/7608 Minutes approved: May 28, 2019