City Council Meeting Agenda - September 23, 2019

AGENDA
ROCHELLE CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
Monday, September 23, 2019 at 6:30 p.m.
City of Rochelle Council Chambers
420 North 6th Street, Rochelle, IL 61068

I. CALL TO ORDER:
• Pledge to the Flag
• Prayer
II. ROLL CALL:
III. PROCLAMATIONS, COMMENDATIONS, ETC:
• Public Power Week – pdf October 6-12, 2019 (114 KB)
• National Fire Prevention Week – pdf October 6-12, 2019 (132 KB)
IV. REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS:
• Mayor
• Council Members
• Good News – Kyle White
V. PUBLIC COMMENTARY:
VI. BUSINESS ITEMS:
1) CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS BY OMNIBUS VOTE with Recommendations:
a) Approve Minutes of City Council Meeting – pdf September 9, 2019 (157 KB)
b) Accept and Place on File Minutes of Planning & Zoning Commission – pdf August 5, 2019 (161 KB)
c) Approve Exceptions – pdf 09/04/19-09/16/19 (78 KB)
d) Approve Bills – pdf 09/17/19 (205 KB)
e) Approve Payroll – pdf 8/26/19-9/8/19 (57 KB)
f) Accept and Place on File Financial Statement – pdf August 2019 (672 KB)

g) Approve Request from Flagg Township Museum to hold Hobo Travels – pdf October 26, 2019 (55 KB)

2) Council Chambers Audio/Video System Renovation Project
3) Ordinance Approving a Utility Easement Agreement with Residential Alternatives of Illinois, Inc. - Manor Court
4) Ordinance Amending the Municipal Code of the City of Rochelle by the Addition of Chapter 90 Article IX Entitled “Municipal Cannabis Retailer’s Occupation Tax”
VII. DISCUSSION ITEMS:
1) Outage Management System – RMU
2) Community Survey

VIII. EXECUTIVE SESSION
IX. ADJOURNMENT

The Council Meeting will be broadcast live on Facebook

Agenda Item #2 -  Council Chambers Audio/Video System Renovation Project

Staff Contact: Sue Messer and Jenny Thompson

Summary: Most of the audio/video equipment in council chambers was installed in early 2008. Over the past couple of years, the equipment has become less reliable with microphones cutting in and out and frequent feedback over the speakers. The City began live streaming council meetings over Facebook in 2017 as a way to engage more of the community. Since that time, we frequently receive comments about the poor audio, which we have discovered is because the sound is only being transmitted via the video camera’s microphone.

Based on a recommendation from the City of Belvidere, City staff have been working with AVI Systems on a design to upgrade the audio and video presentation systems. As a part of this process AVI Systems also evaluated all of our existing equipment for its usefulness and recommend maintaining a limited number of items. The design developed by AVI includes new sound processing equipment, video presentation equipment and unified controls system equipment as follows:

Audio:
• 1 new audio processing unit for mixing microphones and presentation audio for the rooms speaker system, audio recordings and web streaming.
• 9 Dias Mics and 1 Lectern Mic
• 1 Handheld Mic and 1 Lapel wireless Mic
• 8 new Ceiling speakers and new amplifier
Mixing:
• A new digital video switcher installed in AV Rack
• A new digital audio processor installed into the AV Rack
Conferencing:
• A telephone interface provided by the city to enable audio conferencing in the room using new mics and speakers.
• Dialing via control panel
Controls:
• The video switching and audio mix control will be via a Dias mounted touch panel. The touch panel will provide controls for presentation source selection, audio gain adjustments, room volume, audio conference controls, and audio recording controls.
Training:
• Equipment and system overview
• Equipment operation and function
• Discussion and documentation relating to control system operation
Alternate #1:
• Replace three existing consumer TVs with new commercial monitors
Alternate #2:
• Remove existing camera and replace with a new camera mounted at the rear of the room for webcasting meeting. The camera will have power and zoom available from the control panel and audio and video will be sent to the webcast encoder that feeds Facebook live

City staff hired IMEG Corporation to develop a Request for Bidders, provide the technical expertise to interact with the contractors during the bidding process, and to evaluate the bids. Sealed bids were opened on September 17th with three companies submitting bids. The base bids ranged from $39,390 - $64,466, alternate #1 bids ranged from $4758 - $663 and alternate #2 bids ranged from $4953 - $7,217. IMEG Corporation is reviewing the bids and will provide a recommendation prior to the council meeting.

The 2019 City of Rochelle budget includes $50,000, split between the general fund and RMU, to upgrade the audio and video equipment in council chambers.

Strategic Plan Goal Application:
Key Strategic Priority – Infrastructure Effectiveness & Improvement and Community Inclusivity & Engagement

Recommendation:  Approve a contract with the contractor recommended by IMEG in an amount to be determined to upgrade the audio and video equipment in council chambers.

Supporting Documents:
pdf Bid Tabulation (23 KB)

pdf   (23 KB) pdf IMEG Recommendation Letter (124 KB) pdf (23 KB)

Agenda Item #3 -  Ordinance Approving a Utility Easement Agreement with Residential Alternatives of Illinois, Inc. - Manor Court

Staff Contact: Adam Lanning

Summary:
As part of the Manor Court project, the state plumbing inspector is requiring that the City operate and maintain a fire hydrant installed by Manor Court on their property. To meet this requirement, the City needs a utility easement for access to the property.

Strategic Plan Goal Application: Short term routine- maintain infrastructure

Recommendation: Approve an Ordinance Approving a Utility Easement Agreement with Residential Alternatives of Illinois, Inc.

Supporting Documents:
pdf Permanent Utility Easement Agreement (156 KB)
pdf Ordinance Approving a Utility Easement Agreement with Residential Alternatives of Illinois, Inc. (64 KB)

Agenda Item #4 -  Ordinance Amending the Municipal Code of the City of Rochelle by the Addition of Chapter 90 Article IX Entitled “Municipal Cannabis Retailer’s Occupation Tax”

Staff Contact:  Jeffrey A. Fiegenschuh, City Manager

Summary:  According to the Illinois Retailers’ Occupation Tax Law, 65 ILCS 5/11-8-22, a tax may be imposed by a city on all persons engaged in the business of selling cannabis, other than cannabis purchased under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act.

The tax, which is levied at the retail level, may be at a rate of up to 3% of the gross receipts from the sales made in the course of that business.  The imposition of this tax is in accordance with the provisions of Sections 8-11-22, of the Illinois Municipal Code (65 ILCS 5/8-11-22).  If approved the tax herein shall take effect for all sales on or after the first day of January, 2020.

Staff is recommending to the City Council that the initial tax rate be set at 2.5% of gross receipts beginning January 1, 2020.  Further, the law allows future increases to be set in increments of .25%.  This will allow the City to impose an additional .50% in the future if needed.  If the City of Rochelle is awarded a cannabis dispensary in the future, staff will come back with a recommendation on possible projects to fund with the revenues such as unfunded pension liabilities and public safety projects.

Other communities who have adopted the same tax include Dixon, Sterling and Rockford.  All three of these communities approved the tax at 3%.

Staff Recommendation: Staff recommendations approval of the Ordinance Amending the Municipal Code of the City of Rochelle by the Addition of Chapter 90 Article IX Entitled “Municipal Cannabis Retailer’s Occupation Tax” and to set the initial tax rate at 2.50% of gross receipts.  

Supporting Documents: 

pdf Ordinance Amending the Municipal Code of the City of Rochelle by the Addition of Chapter 90 Article IX Entitled “Municipal Cannabis Retailer’s Occupation Tax” (117 KB)

pdf Illinois Municipal League Adult-Use Cannabis Resources (3.66 MB)

Discussion Item #1 - Outage Management System

RMU Electric recently deployed an outage management system. We will be using this tool to help both the linemen and the dispatchers back in the office keep track of outages and restoration times. This system will also help us in reducing outage times as it brings in information directly from the metering system and GIS servers to pinpoint the outage.

Discussion Item #2 - Community Survey

One of the five key initiatives of the 2018 Strategic Plan is Core Service Delivery.  To better gauge how the community feels in relation to the services, the City Council authorized funds in the current budget to implement a community wide citizen survey. The City has contracted with the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University to a conduct a survey of all Rochelle residents beginning in September. This survey will help us understand how satisfied our residents are with City Services along with our Customer Service and Communication. The findings of the survey will help the City plan for the future.

Reference:  document Community Survey Presentation (1.14 MB)