City of Markham City Council met Jan. 18.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
Mayor, Roger Agpawa called the Regular Meeting of the Markham City Council to order at 7:10p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. Prayer led by Ald. McDowell. Roll Call was taken by City Clerk, Leslie Trimuel.
ROLL CALL: ALDERMAN PRESENT
Alderwoman Wanda McDowell
Alderman Breanna Hampton-Houser
Alderman Rondal Jones
ALSO PRESENT:
Alderman William Barron
Attorney Steven Miller
City Treasurer, Belinda Richardson
City Administrator, Derrick Champion
APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
January 4, 2023
Motion to approve minutes by Ald. McDowell, seconded by Ald. Hampton-Houser
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 $931,229.22 with manual checks of $401,137.92. for a grand total of $1,332,367.14
Roll Call: 4Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
CITY ATTORNEY REPORT
ADOPT RESOLUTION 23-R-695
Motion by Ald. Jones, seconded by Ald. Hampton-Houser, to adopt Resolution 23-R-695
A Resolution Authorizing The Execution of A Letter Of Agreement With The City Of Markham And The Village Of New Lenox for Sale of Vehicles
Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
MAYOR AGPAWA
It says letter of agreement with the City of Markham, this would be with Village of New Lenox.
MAYOR AGPAWA
I have to say again, kudos without going elaborate about the whole ordeal. I mean, resolution but my goodness. You all continue to hit home runs. I think that what we're doing it with the equipment is just great. So kudos to everybody.
Contribution, Purchase And Sale Agreement For The Canterbury Shopping Center
MAYOR AGPAWA
I asked for some room from the attorney to talk about this for just a few minutes. I talked with some of you, we had this in Executive Session, a couple of months ago. It's moving along steadily; I'm just looking for some room to be able to get some things signed, not without Attorney Michelle. Attorney Michelle had a couple of things that she has some reservations about, but we just need some room to be able to do it pretty quickly. If need to do a poll or something with you all ahead of time, I just would like to be able to do that but have something passed to give me some authorization to sign the agreement. I would like to kind of just mention what's involved with the agreement, even though some of you have talked to me about it and I'll make it very brief. The contribution as you all know involves the middle section of the shopping center. The highlights of it is not just the middle section would be all the parking of the whole campus itself everything we would take that as well. One of the things that we are working on that will probably take us about a year to do is that the pins have to be divided. They will continue to pay the taxes in the agreement, there will be some money escrowed for any back taxes to assure that we won't have any liability exposure. We're waiting currently for an appraisal, that way we once we take and we're able to start doing some things that we want to do there we'll have some insurance and the agreement that will have some places where we'll have the right to do what we want, but we'll have to be insured. That's something we're working on, I included the existing contracts that they have, which we would not be keeping, one for cleanup, one for the landscape, one for snow removal. We would terminate those contracts on the parking lot because we would be able to supply the cleanup with our own manpower on the landscape. There's not much there to do but what little was there in terms of cutting grass and in pruning, we would do that and flowers or anything the lot. The only thing that I've made clear with them is that once we take over, I'm talking about the reciprocal easement part of the common area, that's what I jumped into, but I'll repeat it again if need be, but one is what the contribution, Attorney Michelle just wants to finish up a few things with their attorney to make sure that we don't have any liability or exposure, I wanted that off the gate for all of you.
You'll have time to digest it anyway, no matter what the council decides to do, this will not be signed overnight, I'm just looking for permission after I poll you all when they're ready, that's why I put on the agenda. I don't want to lose the opportunity for us to be able to get control of that area. So that's really what this is about, there's a lot still to digest with it. I can't tell you enough, Attorney Michelle has really been all over me about some of this, some good and some bad, but now it's mostly good because, Adm. Derrick got with her and really got some other things together about the agreement. I won't belabor the point, if someone wants to make a motion about moving it along and then we can do any other questions you may have, we'll do a couple of them and then move on. Okay. I make a motion to proceed.
MOTION TO PROCEED
Motion by Ald. McDowell, seconded by Ald. Hampton-Houser, for the approval of authorization for Contribution, Purchase And Sale Agreement For The Canterbury Shopping Center
QUESTION
Ald. Barron - In looking at the contracts, there should have been some more paperwork, a letter of intent and leases.
Mayor Agpawa - Yes, this is a draft, in terms of that, there would be a clean copy. We don't have we'll have to get a clean copy of this, if that's answering your question. Just to make it clear to the to the council, I will poll you all when we're ready. I think that we're getting very close, the way this is going the owners are getting pretty antsy about it. If there are no other questions, we'll do a roll call at least let's make it clear with this there's no signing until you all are polled with the attorney.
APPROVAL TO SIGN AFTER POLLING
Motion by Ald. McDowell seconded by Ald. Hampton-Houser, for the approval to sign after polling of Council, Reciprocal Easement, Restrictive Covenants, And Common Area Agreement For The Canterbury Shopping Center
Roll Call: 3 Yes/0 No/0 Absent/1 Abstain-Motion Carried
Mayor Agpawa - Thank you Attorney for leaving me room under your report for discussion. The same premise would be for the common area expenses for the whole center, We have our own labor to take care of these areas, that's what this second agreement is about, we would be responsible for that area. We've taken care of it for basically the last 10 years.
Motion by Ald. McDowell, seconded by Ald. Hampton-Houser to approve the Reciprocal Easement, Restrictive Covenants, And Common Area Agreement For The Canterbury Shopping Center
Roll Call: 3 Yes/0 No/0 Absent/1 Abstain-Motion Carried
CLERKS REPORT
Announcement - Notices for vehicle stickers were mailed out, late hours are available, Feb. 1, and 15 until 6:30pm
MAYORS REPORT
Appointment As Fire Chief For The City Of Markham Fire Department – Anthony Mazziotta
Under the mayor's report, I just have one item tonight that I'd like the council to consider to vote upon, I know when I took office in 2018 that I've had a lot of appointed officials currently the police and fire chief have been put in interim positions and I've made the fire chief wait for quite some time for his appointment to be official. I'm sure that I'll be bringing the other ones to you as well in the future but tonight I'm asking you to consider officially the appointment of Fire Chief of the City of Markham Fire Department with Anthony Mazziotta who has been serving since 2018, I just like to have a confirmation to confirm your appointment of the Fire Chief to a full time position.
MOTION TO APPOINT FIRE CHIEF
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Ald. McDowell to appoint Fire Chief for the City of Markham, Anthony Mazziotta
Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
Mayor Agpawa - I would say since it wasn't a resolution or ordinance, if anybody has a comment about the chief for this appointment, please feel free.
Ald. Hampton-Houser - The chief and I we talk quite a bit, I think he's doing an awesome job maintaining which was one which was one of my concerns, his financial budget. Also, I want to say that with Chief Tony and the firefighters they honestly do participate in basically everything that we do within the city of Markham, and I do feel that they are, and he especially is truly a good person and a good leader to actually sit in that role as the Chief of the Fire Department.
Ald. Barron - I concur. Exactly what Alderlady said, the Chief has been fabulous. He's very supportive of the community, and he is a true professional.
Ald. Jones - I can definitely support him, I've known for some years. I mean, hands down. He's a great guy, very dependable. Very active in the community, I mean, he started from the ground floor, worked his way up. I think with this particular person, I definitely will support you on this. T
Ald. McDowell – He has shown and proved his commitment to the city.
Mayor Agpawa - I thank all of you for your comments and it'll be on the record that what you all have said about him tonight. He could not be here and he really wanted to be more low profile about this and just get his letter and stick it in the file and keep working that's the kind of guy he is. I will tell you this though, there's not been one time that I've worked with him when I was the deputy chief at one point in the fire department, he worked under me as the deputy chief. He was a lieutenant. Why am I telling you this tonight because you may not always know some of the difficult things that you go through. One of the things that I strive for in Markham is to try to make this community as any other community anywhere in the state of Illinois, maybe in the country. What do I mean by that, there are same the same parameters that other communities follow. We should be able to have the same professionalism, the same processes, the same good checks and balances about the way we do government. I kid you not you know it was a bit trying moment what I took him through to get the job at the last minute. Why am I saying that? Because Tony had to sit in a room, and he had to be vetted. It wasn't comfortable for him at all. I don't know if I mentioned to you, I'll tell you about it. I know I told somebody on the council but as great as he's been. we were almost at a breaking point because it was tough for him to go backwards to realize and then later on he did. I made him go backwards and try to go back and be re- interviewed for a job he already had now how painstaking can that be too well, like I have to prove myself and I'm already doing it. Well, he realized it later that it wasn't just for him. He did it for the future of how we do business here in the community. So my hat is off to him, I felt better when he came back later and said to me, I realized what you were doing to try to make Markham do it the right way instead of just handing him the job. I could have done that but that isn't what I wanted. I wanted him to gain it on his merit, he does owe anybody anything because he earned a job. It's his job and that's pretty much what happened. So, anybody that knows, and it was really tough, and I feel that needs to be added because that said a lot about his character. So, thank you council for approving him, I appreciate it very much, for what you've done, and he does too.
CITY ADMINISTRATOR – DERRICK CHAMPION
Good evening, everyone. City Council, residents here in Markham, I want to definitely congratulate Chief Tony, he's a great leader for that department. The city made the right choice, making him Fire Chief. The city of Markham was officially awarded the CDBG grant on January 12 of $493,889.15. We want to say that we're consistently going after grants and looking forward to going down to Springfield. The Senate goes back in session on January 24th, the House is back in session on January 31, we are working closely with our lobbyist Frank Bass to make sure that we're having conversations with our legislators regarding some of our capital needs here. We are really diligent about building up the city of Markham but we know that we're going to have the resources to do that, we have some great leadership down in Springfield to definitely capitalize on. I spoke with the Attorney Michelle, regarding our housing redevelopment program, it looks like that program will hopefully get underway sometime in July. But a few legal issues, need to be cleared up, but we're looking forward to that housing program, getting underway here in Markham so really excited about that. I know there's been questions about the housing in Markham and we're looking forward to getting that back on track and on the tax rolls. Last but not least, we're still interviewing restaurants, we are targeting and looking for healthy options. We have some great restaurants that we're interviewing so just kind of stay tuned.
ALD. JONES
I want to piggyback off Derrick Champion, the CDBG grant, what does it go towards?
Derrick Champion - The streets.
Ald. Jones - Do we have a lot of streets already set up?
Derrick Champion - We have some streets. I'd like to email out to you guys to let you know exactly what streets will be redeveloped.
Ald. Jones - You have a list already?
Derrick Champion - Yes.
Ald. Jones -- Do we have a target date for the cameras for 159th Street?
Derrick Champion – I had a meeting last week on Fridays just had a meeting with the project manager, just going over the timeline and making sure that the project is still moving forward. We're waiting on some on some drawings IDOT. Once we get those drawings, they need to look at some of the poles that are currently in place. So sometime in the first quarter.
Ald. Jones What about the Buddy Bear and Dunkin Donuts?
Derrick Champion - That's another great question, we have a Planning and Zoning meeting on February 8th for that project. As you know that a new TIF District was created, it's back in front of planning and zoning. That project is probably not going to get underway until sometime in the second quarter. As you already know, we're using Teska to update the Comprehensive Plan and simultaneously, we're updating the zoning as well, that's part of that process.
Ald. Jones - Last but not least, Mayor, thanks for the lights in Country Aire the residents appreciate it.
ALD. BARRON
Good evening. I think we.ve been very fortunate with the weather. I'm sorry, I wasn't able to attend last Council meeting. It seems like this cold is relentless, I mean, you just don't get over it quickly. But I will say this, I didn't have COVID, and I strongly urge everybody to get their flu shot. Keep up to date with your boosters. My children had COVID, and it did not evolve into much more, they were confined to home for 10 days. It awful they had to go through it, but it's, the world we're living in right now. I don't think you can be too careful; I don't have a lot to report. I am hopefully putting out a newsletter to the Ward in the next 10 to 14 days of just kind of a year in review. And the redistricting of our wards I still wound up no place to have meetings in my ward. I still don't have a decent voting site for the pumphouse area. The things that I've worked on last year are still working on this year but I'm trying to hold a good thought. I have talked to the housing department, and they are working on houses that need to be demoed and I would also be really interested if we can get some of these properties that have sat for the last five to 10 years, to try and get developers interested in these houses and get them back on the tax rolls in our community. That will conclude my report.
ALD HAMPTON
Good evening, Mayor, Diocese, and everyone here present. Mayor I just have to ask this question, I remember a conversation that we were having in reference to our crews cleaning up our easements if I'm not mistaken, I do recall you saying if the weather's not too bad, we're going to keep moving and still get some done. So my question to you is by the weather being like it is, can I ask the crew to come out, you can really get in a few more of these easements. May I get permission to do that. Mayor Agpawa - Let's talk about tomorrow for sure. We can see what they have lined up and see if the weather cooperates and we can get in some of those places. I really don't have too much of a report right now, just trying to like everyone else, stay safe, stay healthy, and we'll be moving forward in the upcoming months.
ALD. MCDOWELL
Good evening, Mayor and City Council, and residents, I had a resident on 158th Street, come to the office there's water drainage on that street, it's sitting on front of the resident's house, can we go by there and see exactly what's going on?
Mayor Agpawa - Okay, well, just let me know., we can run by there tomorrow.
MOTION TO OPEN FLOOR TO PUBLIC
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Ald. McDowell to Open Floor to Public.
Roll Call: 4Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
MAYOR AGPAWA
I left up one thing and that is with Miss Bridget Reynolds who gave a very nice note to the city about how we responded to her family with her mother. I wanted to tell you thank you and certainly that's what we want and what we should be doing.
DERRICK BRANCH - RESIDENT
I was I was interested in in the community we live on Avalon and I had a discussion with a few people about plumbing going into real estate I talked to Anthony saying you have to get a community together to see what we can do to get this plumbing done, so houses can be built or constructed on certain properties. That's probably some of the reason why I like down on Avalon you go straight ahead, the street curves at 158th, we own two lots on the opposite side of it on the backside of our house. We want to know how can we get the city to get that reconstructed? How does that work? I'm sorry, it's Albany.
Mayor Agpawa - What are you trying to do? I'm not following.
I'm trying to build some residential homes down that way. Because we have residential homes that are on 157th and 159th and Troy.
Mayor Agpawa - Do you own the lots? You've talked with the building department?
I did, I was told to come to the council meeting and see if they can see how we can do it.
Mayor Agpawa - You really wouldn't do that here, you would have to deal with the Planning and Zoning and present your plan of what you want to do and they would let you know.
DERRICK BRANCH - RESIDENT
One of the issues is who pays for what?
Mayor Agpawa - You mean the infrastructure, typically it's not something that we do, that would be included your cost. You're going to have to develop that area, there could be a possibility be some incentives to want to do it. It's something that can be discussed. Because nobody would tell you that out the gate.
DERRICK BRANCH – RESIDENT
My concern is how I would like to get that developed and work together to try to get that started. Mayor Agpawa - That's something we would have to see that would be something that we would want to do. Typically most of the time it's a developer that makes that part of their project, unless there's some other benefit why the community might want to pay for that. They may or may not see the benefit to that, for you to build and we pay for the infrastructure.
When you have residential homes, they come out of tax bills.
Mayor Agpawa – It does after you build it, taxes that could be coming out of that, but it is an upfront cost to build that's, if you're a developer, that's what developers they have to they have to deal with it. That's something that we could talk about. Talk with Mr. Champion you could talk with him in my office that's something that you all can discuss.
MOTION TO CLOSE FLOOR TO PUBLIC
Motion by Ald. Hampton-Houser, seconded by Ald. Barron to Close Floor to Public
Roll Call: 4 Yes/0 No/0 Absent-Motion Carried
ADJOURNMENT
Submitted by:
Motion by Ald. Barron, seconded by Ald. McDowell to adjourn at 7:48p.m. Roll Call: 4Yes/0 No/ 0 Absent-Motion Carried
https://www.cityofmarkham.net/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_01182023-217
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