East Peoria is going to keep most of its recently purchased property on the north side as an operating farm for at least the next year.
Members of the East Peoria City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a lease agreement with Mike Yordy and Sons covering about 210 tillable acres on the three-tract, 272-acre Keil & Blye property.
The cash rent agreement will allow Yordy, the land’s current farmer, to oversee the 2027 crop season.
“It’s a fifth-generation family that has an excellent reputation, and they’ve done a really good job, and actually have made some improvements up there,” said Mayor John Kahl.
East Peoria secured its purchase of the property at auction and expects to receive ownership in late October. The city's lease with Yordy will be finalized after East Peoria receives the title, and the agreement will roll over year to year.
“It’ll give us the opportunity each year, if we’re ready for some development, where we would have that ability with this type of land rent,” said commissioner Mark Hill, noting the city's intent in purchasing the property is to have complete control over the future development.
“As we stated when we first got, I’ll say, some pushback from citizens: ‘Is it going to be a solar farm? Is it going to be a data center?’ We acknowledge that we bought this for the future benefit and development of East Peoria,” said Hill.
Mayor’s salary increase
On its second reading, the council unanimously approved a new salary structure for a mayor who also acts as the city administrator, with Kahl abstaining while defending the merits.
“I have never voted on this. I’ve never voted on anything that applies to John Kahl as the mayor of East Peoria. When it comes to salary, that’s not my job,” he said.
“What I have done over the last seven years, and I’ll continue to do for the next eight months or whatever left on this term, is dedicate and commit my entire life to serving this community.”
The salary increase doesn’t apply specifically to Kahl, but whoever is elected mayor next April, should the council choose to have that person continue operating as both the full-time mayor and chief executive. It will take effect May 1.
The ordinance sets the full-time mayor’s base salary at about $128,700 annually in filling both leadership roles. Should the council split the roles, or even make the mayor a part-time position, the salary would be reduced.
Commissioner Dan Decker was the lone council member who opposed the raise on its first reading, citing concerns about giving the mayor a raise when other city employees — notably firefighters — may be underpaid.
“There’s no doubt that the effort and the work that John does justifies the position. My concern was that we were looking at one job and not looking at other employees as well,” said Decker. “Now, having said that, I think one of my last comments was, ‘I hope in two weeks from now to have progress made and then I can support this,’ and I believe that we have.”
Commissioner Mike Sutherland thinks Kahl has excelled in handling both roles for the past seven years.
“There are people sitting up here on the city council that I would never vote to be a full-time mayor or a full-time city administrator — and I’m one of them. I’m not smart enough,” said Sutherland.
“Just because you make it to the city council or to be a mayor doesn’t make you capable to do what’s being done now. Take a look at our past city administrators that we’ve hired, and they haven’t turned out so well. This one’s turning out pretty good for all of us.”
Hill said comparative estimates in the market indicate East Peoria would likely have to pay a salary of at least $160,000 for just a full-time city administrator, so paying less than $130,000 for one person in a dual role is a major savings.
“We did look at what was, I don’t say what was fair but what was the market, and $128,000 is what’s proposed in this ordinance,” said Hill. “That may even be shy, but we felt that that was a fair wage for a mayor that’s doing or a mayor that’s doing both.”
