City of Markham City Council met Jan. 19.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
Mayor, Roger Agpawa called the Regular Meeting of the Markham City Council to order at 7:11p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. Prayer led by Ald. McDowell. Roll Call was taken by City Clerk, Leslie Trimuel.
ROLL CALL: ALDERMAN PRESENT
Alderman Rondal Jones – (7:20 p.m.)
Alderman William Barron
Alderwoman Wanda McDowell
Alderman Breanna Hampton
ALSO PRESENT:
Attorney Steven Miller
Attorney Michelle Broughton-Fountain
Attorney Lauren M. DaValle
City Administrator, Derrick Champion
APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
January 5, 2022
Motion to approve minutes of January 5, 2022, by Ald. McDowell, seconded by Ald. Barron Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
AUTHORIZATION OF CLAIMS
Motion by Ald. Hampton-Houser, seconded by Ald. Barron, to adopt Authorization of Claims and Accounts Bill list, totaling $828,399.05, with manual checks of $28,645.95 for a grand total of $828,399.05
Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
None
CITY ATTORNEY’S REPORT
Members of Council members of the public with respect to the city attorney's report, starting off with 8a, a proposed resolution approving the extension and renewal of the Re-Proclamation and Declaration of a continued local state of emergency, within the City of Markham, and approving the Mayor's Determination Regarding Modifications to In-person Meetings in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, (January 19, 2022)
ADOPT RESOLUTION
22R-669
Motion by Ald. Hampton-Houser, seconded by Ald. McDowell, to adopt Resolution 22-R-669 A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE EXTENSION AND RENEWAL OF THE RE-PROCLAMATION AND DECLARATION OF A CONTINUED LOCAL STATE OF EMERGENCY WITHIN THE CITY OF MARKHAM AND APPROVING THE MAYOR’S DETERMINATION REGARDING MODIFICATIONS TO IN-PERSON MEETINGS IN RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC (January 19, 2022)
Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
WAIVE READING OF ORDINANCE
22-O-2324
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Hampton-Houser to waive reading Ordinance 22-O-2324 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 32 “CITY ORGANIZATION” AND CHAPTER 156 “ZONING CODE” FOR THE PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
ADOPT ORDINANCE
22-O-2324
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Hampton-Houser to adopt Ordinance 22-O-2324 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 32 “CITY ORGANIZATION” AND CHAPTER 156 “ZONING CODE” FOR THE PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
MAYOR AGPAWA
Let me just make one comment Attorney before you move on. I'll address it under my report to comment just a bit about the ordinance and what is attendance for the public. I know that talked with some of the aldermen offline, but to be reasonable to the public, I'll make mention of what it's really all about. I did hear that there was some concern from board members so I will give a courtesy to mention why we took the action that we did. I'll do that in my report.
CLERK REPORT:
Good evening. I have a business license for ECCO Environmental Inc.
OPEN FLOOR
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Ald. McDowell to open floor to ECCO Environmental Inc. Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion carried
MAYOR AGPAWA
Good evening, Mr. Vahora, what we're going to do you see me with your business license application is ask you to address the City Council about your business. Let us know the nature of your business, we do have your application here, they may have some questions for you as well.
ECCO ENVIRONMENTAL INC.
The business concept is seal coating, paving, power wash, concrete services.
MAYOR AGPAWA
I'll just make one mention, I know that I we got some estimates from you come to city once before. I can say that before they comment or question as well the Council is that I'm very glad to see that you not just want to do business in Markham, but you live in Markham. That's very good. He's over in Ald. Jones’s ward, in the Berkshire subdivision and we're glad to have you here in the community. I'm sure we'll revisit in the spring if we need some work from you.
ALD. JONES
Exactly where are you located?
MAYOR AGPAWA
3915 166th Place, over by Crawford and 166th, across from the rock crushing place over that way.
ALD. HAMPTON-HOUSER
I have a question. Can you tell me approximately how long have you been in business?
ECCO ENVIRONMENTAL – MR. VAHORA
Since last year in April.
ALD. HAMPTON-HOUSER
That's when your business was established? No further questions.
CLOSE FLOOR
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Ald. McDowell to close floor to ECCO Environmental Inc. Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion carried
GRANT LICENSE
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Ald. Jones to ECCO Environmental Inc.
Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
MAYOR AGPAWA
Just to mention I talked with the inspector about the condition of the building and activity over there today. He said that it was a very clean business, and it seems like it's pretty well organized over there. I believe this might have been an old was this an old location where they did sealcoating at one-point. I just want to throw that in for good measure. Thank you very much. See the building department tomorrow about your licensing.
MAYOR’S REPORT
Good evening, everyone here, and City Council, I just wanted to make mention of a few items. I will mention briefly about the Ordinance passage, I+ had some things that were brought up I would say kind of in the ninth hour indirectly. I did talk with Council Members about the ordinance change, and I explained the reason for the thought of changing the ordinance. Everything that is done and as far as I'm concerned when it comes to making or passing legislation as we're all part of the legislative body is all about business is to make the conducting of business smoother, and it's to transact business in a better manner that's what it's all about. My office is always open for any phone calls, or any conversations about any anything legislatively that's been put out there either by myself, or by any of the department heads and certainly by any of the legislators that come up with laws that they think are ordinances for the community that are pertinent. In my travels of the last 40 years, I've known that smaller is always better in terms of what you're able to get these numbers down, you're able to make decisive decisions and you're able to get things done a lot better. This Council used to have 10 people and it's now down to four that's those numbers. You can ask me, I in the last 24 hours and even before that I talked with four Aldermen all the time one way or the other. I usually have some dialogue with them about what goes on in government, that’s my span of control. That's where it ends for me anything beyond that, that's what the Aldermen/women do. Even Ald. Barron, who is a liaison to this board, had to make a decision of what he thought would be feasible in terms of taking care of business. He had no objection to it either. Some people sometimes they may or may not understand, seek me out, call me, I'll give you clarity of what the rationale is for what we do and why there's no hidden agendas here. It's all about what is going to make things better. Trying to get quorums and trying to make sure that there's some consistency on these boards is very difficult. We're constantly looking for volunteers and people in the community to step up and try to make our community better, that's really all it's about. So, I just want to take a moment, it’s that simple there's just nothing else to it, except I believe that with these numbers we made it a manageable number to where we're able to get business done and not have to worry about quorums and wonder what's going to happen. I'll be making some decisions about the board and the members will remain or we get new ones that'll be forthcoming. I don't know when but there's no big rush for me to change that because of the way sometimes the quorums go anyway. If I have to make some decisions with that to get the number right and we'll have a couple I may have to have a conversation with some of the board members about that sooner rather than later. But moving on, let me go over to talk about this cold weather, the cold weather has been an extreme challenge, not just when it gets to the frigid temperatures that are there. Right as it is even this evening, but it's actually when we have the temperature going back up, it's environmentally it creates a challenge for all the water main breaks that all the communities are having everywhere. We have had a tremendous amount of water main breaks, so people be patient, we handle our own water main breaks, and so they're difficult to do sometimes, especially in this weather, and the ones that we can't get to if we're really challenged, we'll have some outside companies to come in and help us, but we just ask for people's patience while the water is off. We're trying to always get it restored as quickly as possible, and we definitely try to get that water back on because we know that water is vital to everybody's living as well as it is to health and safety with even the potential fires. So, we always want to make sure that the water is up and running. With that being said one of the things that we haven't been able to do with the weather being the way it is, the snow hasn't totally melted in certain spots and with the Public Works crews being out we haven't gotten our Christmas lights down. We're working on that, I just want to make sure you all know that we're not trying to bring Christmas back we'll wait till December, but it's a challenge to get the lights down with all the personnel that's tied up on the water main breaks and everything else in the city. One of the things that has been mentioned, I know that Alderman Jones had mentioned it several times, we're going to put out a formal report where people can access the media. The media for all the meetings can be found on the city's website. www.cityofmarkkham.net you can go there, is the same place that you would look for minutes and agendas. There'll be a media section and you can go back and download any of the meetings that we've had months going back and you'll be able to do that, but we'll put out something to make sure all the public is aware how to get to it.
DERRICK CHAMPION – CITY ADMINISTRATOR
Good evening, Council, just real quick want to talk about some of the things that we're working on in 2022. Definitely, Business Development, still working with our lobbyists identifying federal and state grants. We’re definitely trying to make sure that we're continuing to move the city forward with development projects and resources also quality of life plans still working on that making sure that our parks and just the quality of life in the city is better for our residents. Another thing we want to make sure that our residents are safe, we are working on obtaining masks for the city of Markham. As you probably know by now. Everybody probably received some type of note or something regarding free at home COVID testing kits from the government, that portal has opened up we will have it on our website, there will be a link as you know that the government is actually sending out a set of four free at home COVID testing kits. That information is up on our social media platforms as well as our city website. That concludes my report.
ALD JONES
Just to piggyback off of Mr. Champion, I did have close to 200 N95 mask, I do not have any more, I'm all out, I got so many phone calls. I do have the cloth mask if anybody needs the cloth mask. I'm totally out of the N95. Please, if you need the cloth masks, please give me a call, come see me I can assure you some cloth masks. Also, hand sanitizer please let me know. Once again, my heart goes out to the Frank Zucarelli family. The funeral was well attended on Friday. Once again, he was such a role model for the township where I work and the things that I do, so my hat goes off to his family. Also, I like to address the water bills, and the one bill was due on the 17th and people’s water was turned off. Please come to me township if you live in the Third Ward and need water assistance. We do assist with water, we are partners with CEDA, it might take a little bit longer to process up to two or three weeks, but we can assist you with that. But you have a water situation, and you live in a Third or Fourth Ward which is in Bremen Township please come pay me a visit. Last but not least mayor I’d like to see if our Senior snow removal program is still being done. I got a phone call from seniors about snow removal. So, do they still contact Lisa Young for that.
ALD BARRON
Good evening. I would just like to I just like to touch on something I've touched on before and that is, you know, the COVID the positivity rate, it’s right 14 ½%, it's coming down slightly. Sometimes I wonder what the government's thinking about I look at all these sporting events and I don't see anybody wearing a mask. But the pop-up restaurant they wanted to show you vaccination card. I just I find it amazing. This morning we lost a lifetime resident Sue, she was a wonderful lady, she's lived here over for 60 years turned her off but she's a member of St. John's, she will be missed. I will say that Public Works did an excellent job as far as we haven't had a huge snowfall, but they've taken care of what snow, so we have had and also by getting some salt down because the last couple of snows we have come with a freezing drizzle probably worse than snowfall and the cold weather is going to bring the worst on everybody. So, if you have any elderly neighbors you might want to check on them, yesterday there was a disturbing article in the Chicago Sun Times, the two hotspots in Cook County are up around Niles and then also down here the south suburbs,
Markham, Hazel Crest, Country Club Hills and Robbins are our neighbors. I understand, there was a report today that there's going to be another go round as far as offering shots, and bunch more vaccinations are heading our way. I'm sure we'll be contacting the city Markham. I noticed there's a lot of pop up COVID testing places and one of the things that I found out was that and from Mr. Champion, you might want to check on the Illinois Department of Public Health website and make sure that they're authorized with the state of Illinois to be a COVID testing place. I had a couple people who told me that they got tested on Tuesday, and were positive, went to another site on Wednesday and they tested negative. So there does there appears to be some discrepancy, I understand there's a bunch of these pop up COVID places especially the rapid ones. So, I don't know Mr. Champion I think you know more about this than me and you want to chime in.
DERRICK CHAMPION
I know that Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued a statement last week to be careful with some of the pop-up sites around the state. Any lab has to be registered with the Illinois Department of Public Health, so make sure that the partnering Lab is a registered entity with the State of Illinois. If you have any questions, you can visit that website.
ALD. HAMPTON-HOUSER
I received a couple of phone calls when we had our first snowfall with the ice stating where is Public Works? I just need everyone to be patient because Public Works does know their job. There's nothing that I can do personally to bring them out any sooner because I know they're out there diligently doing their job. As we all know sometimes this weather is too cold, salt doesn’t do a thing. So they have to wait until the temperature is to a certain temperature in order to apply the salt. But Public Works does understand what's going on with the city of Markham and they've been doing it for many, many years. Please just be patient, and I'm pretty sure they'll get it done. I know I have seen them, they're definitely on the job with snow plowing and trying to make sure to get that taken care of there. Kudos go out to Public Works, they do more than their fair share for the city of Markham, so please be patient with them. Also, with Public Works we have not had an opportunity in Ward One to get it to our easement, so we have had water main breaks and those are the priorities if it takes them 24-48 or 12 hours they have to be out there to repair the water main breaks. It's like the mayor was saying it's essential that we take care of the water main breaks because we need water more than anything. So as soon as we get an opportunity, we're going to actually get back on top of that. I want to thank everyone who sent me phone calls cards in the mail in reference to this COVID 19. So, I'm just going to elaborate just a moment or two in reference to the COVID-19 Just to piggyback off of Ald. Barron, he's absolutely correct, the South Suburban area has been hit hard, very hard, and I'm pretty sure we all know someone, well, a couple of individuals who have had COVID-19 in our South Suburban area. I'm just asking everybody to be cautious, be careful, if you don't have to go out don't go out. Make sure we wear appropriate masks to make sure that we can protect ourselves as much as possible. So please be safe out there. Again, my condolences go out to the Zuccarelli family. You're in my prayers, and we truly do understand your loss because we love someone as well.
ALD. MCDOWELL
Good evening city, Mayor and City Council, I'd like to let my 2nd Ward residents know if you are in need of the COVID home test kit, please give me a call. I do have some available Christian Family Health Center was able to provide us with a lot of them today. So, if you are not able to actually go online to order, we know we have a lot of seniors who are not able to use the computer. Just give me a call and I will make sure that you get some of the kits.
CLERK
No one has signed in to speak tonight.
MOTION TO OPEN FLOOR TO PUBLIC
Motion by Ald. Hampton-Houser, seconded by Ald. Barron to Open Floor to Public. Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
Miss Reed - Good evening, everyone, just to say kudos to the Public Works workers because they were happy to hear my story. In my driveway, and I certainly appreciate you. They did an excellent job. They came back they put the salt down, you know, and it was cold out there, but they did salt. It is really appreciated the residents. So, thank you.
MOTION TO CLOSE FLOOR TO PUBLIC
Motion by Ald. Hampton-Houser, seconded by Ald. McDowell to Close Floor to Public. Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
ADJOURNMENT
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Hampton-Houser to adjourn at 7:41p.m. Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/ 0 Absent-Motion Carried
https://www.cityofmarkham.net/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_01192022-186
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