Four agenda items, including the city's proposed 2025-26 fiscal year budget, went down to defeat Monday at a Pekin City Council meeting.
The vote on each rejected item was 3-3, with Mayor Mary Burress and council members John Abel and Karen Hohimer voting yes. Council members Rick Hilst, Dave Nutter and Lloyd Orrick cast the no votes.
Council member Chris Onken was absent. He's a teacher at Pekin Community High School, which is on spring break.
Historically, Onken has sided with Burress, Abel and Hohimer when the council has a 4-3 vote on an issue.
Also defeated Monday by the council were a plan to make 116 Ameren customers who are not paying a 5% city tax on their gas usage join the more than 13,000 customers who are paying the tax, a 3% cost-of-living increase for the 2025-26 fiscal year for non-union city employees, and a continued annual payment of $25,000 to the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (Discover Peoria) for marketing and tourism services.
The 2025-26 fiscal year budget will go into effect May 1. Council's next regular meeting is April 28.
"The budget still needs to be tweaked," Nutter said.
Among the issues mentioned Monday by budget opponents were a lack of enough funding for street maintenance and the completion of the Derby Street rehabilitation project, and the need to take out a $12.5 million bank loan to complete the $14 million purchase of the 1,000-acre Lutticken Farm property to accommodate possible development opportunities.
Economic Development Director Josh Wray said he hopes to bring a Lutticken property land purchase agreement with a developer to the council April 28.
"We need to start finishing projects before we start new ones," Hilst said, in reference to Derby.
"I love Derby. We're not neglecting it," Burress said.
Finance Director Eric Dubrowski said when he took the job last fall, one of his major goals was to modernize the budget process, make it more transparent, and use a data-driven approach.
According to a 2025-26 budget narrative in the council packet, an original $4.99 million deficit in the general fund that pays for most city services was reduced to $140,443 at one point with more cuts possible, including staffing and capital project requests.
The 116 Ameren gas customers, mainly large businesses, who have not been paying the gas portion of the city's electric, gas and water utility tax receive their gas from a third party, not Ameren.
City staff proposed enacting a "gas use tax" on these customers, equivalent to 5%, that would have brought in about $250,000 annually in revenue.
Other communities with a utility tax who were facing the same dilemma have enacted a gas use tax, Wray said.
Nutter said he voted against the implementation of the utility tax last year so to be consistent, he voted against the gas use tax.
On the non-union employees' cost-of-living increase vote, Nutter said raises should be merit based.
In a memo to council about the increase, Dubrowski said, "While the city is under budget pressure, it's still imperative to maintain competitive pay and benefits to avoid the much more damaging effect of losing skilled employees."
Dubrowski said members of the Pekin police and street department unions received a 3% raise for the 2024-25 fiscal year. Members of the fire department union received a 2.5% increase.
As for the PACVB vote, Nutter said the city recently approved contracts totaling more than $100,000 with McDaniels Marketing of Pekin to provide tourism and marketing services.
Partnership funding levels of $10,000 and $20,000 between the city and PACVB were available, but not considered by the council.
City ready to roll out vacant and foreclosed property ownership registry
The city's new vacant and foreclosed property ownership registry will be run by a Florida-based company.
Hera Property Registry was selected by city staff and approved unanimously Monday by the council for an initial term of two years. Hera will find the owner of a vacant or foreclosed property if necessary and collect the $300 semi-annual registration fee and late fee if applicable from all owners.
"We'll be your only vendor you don't have to pay. We'll collect money, take a bit out ($125 per registration), and write you a check," said Stan Urban, the company's national sales manager, who is based in Downers Grove.
"We'll save your staff a lot of work," Urban said. "They won't need to spend time finding out that a vacant home at 123 Lovers Lane is owned by a bank in Omaha."
Urban said Pekin has had 98 foreclosed properties in the past year, and the number is growing.
Hera will create a registry web page that will have a link on the city's web site, provide instruction and customer service for a property owner registering a property, and create a portal for city staff to access and monitor the registry.
Nic Maquet, Pekin's chief building official, said the city should receive more than $10,000 annually from registry fees.
Hera does similar work in 51 communities in Illinois, including East Peoria, and 181 around the country.
These text messages from the Pekin Police Department are real
The Pekin Police Department is rolling out a new communication tool today.
Because the communication involves text messages, Police Chief Seth Ranney said Monday he wanted to let the community know the messages are not a scam.
There will be a pre-arrival text message for some calls when an officer is on the way, and a six-question post-call survey will provide anonymous feedback for the department "so we can identify what's working well and where improvement is needed," Ranney said.
In each case, Ranney said, "the text message will go only to the person who made the call."
Ranney gave two examples of what could be contained in a pre-arrival message.
"Create a list of stolen items. Put the dog away," he said.
The communication tool is called My90 by Axon.
Moratorium halts permits for residential ground-mounted solar arrays
A six-month moratorium on permits for residential ground-mounted solar arrays was put in place Monday by the council.
The Pekin Zoning Board of Appeals will take a look at the city's current regulations and restrictions regarding ground-mounted arrays and see if they need to be changed or new ones added.
Backyard arrays installed recently by a resident in the north end of the city have caused angst among the neighbors closest to it.
During public comment before the council meeting, former council candidate Matthew Johnson asked that the moratorium not start until October to give residents who want a ground-mounted array time to have one installed before winter.
Maquet said he expects the ZBA will compete its work and the moratorium will be lifted in as soon as three months.
The vote for the moratorium was 5-1, with Hilst dissenting.
Pekin Outreach Initiative receives grant money to fix non-ADA compliant bathroom
Among the other items approved Monday by the council:
- Pekin Outreach Initiative was given an additional $7,950 in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant funds for renovation work at the Pekin Salvation Army 360 Life Center, 243 Derby St., that will create POI's day shelter for the unhoused. The funds are needed to make a bathroom Americans with Disability Act compliant after the bathroom was built incorrectly and approved by a city employee as being compliant. POI originally received a $75,000 grant.
- GFL Environmental will bring leachate water from its landfill in Clinton to Pekin's wastewater treatment plant, just as GFL does with its Hopedale landfill. Leachate water is formed when rainwater filters through waste placed in a landfill and draws out, or leaches, chemicals or constituents from the waste. Pekin charges GLF five cents per gallon to treat leachate water. Council directed city staff to increase that charge annually by the cost-of-living increase. The city expects to receive more than $150,000 annually from GFL for the service.
- New Director of Public Works Simon Grimm was appointed as Pekin's representative on the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission Technical Committee. He replaces Tina Hauk, the city's Community Development Block Grant manager, who is moving out of the area. The committee studies the needs and conditions of the region and develops strategies that enhance communities.
- A four-year contract between the city and Teamsters Local 627 street department employees was approved. Retroactive payments to employees will cost the $36,000 for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Each above item was approved unanimously except the Teamsters Local 627 contract. That vote was 4-1-1, with Hilst voting no and Nutter abstaining because his son-in-law is employed in the street department.
Coffee talks with the mayor start this month
Burress announced Monday that she will hold monthly "Coffee with the Mayor" sessions starting from 3-5 p.m. April 22 at the Coffee Connection, 404 Court St.
Each session will be devoted to a specific topic, but any topic can be discussed. The April 22 topic will be the Luttiicken Farm property.
A staff member will join Burress at each session to provide more feedback for attendees.
