Village of Bartlett Committee met March 2.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
President Wallace called the Committee of the Whole meeting of the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Bartlett to order on the above date at 7:55 p.m. and NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to Section 7(e) of the Open Meetings Act as set forth in Senate Bill 2135 signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker on June 12, 2020, making it effective upon said signing (“SB 2135”), that the regular meeting of the Village President and Board of Village Trustees of the Village of Bartlett (the “Committee of the Whole”) scheduled to be held on February 16, 2021 at the Bartlett Municipal Building, 228 South Main Street, Bartlett, Illinois, may be conducted by audio or video conference without a physical quorum of the members of the Village Board present because an in person meeting is not practical or prudent due to a disaster, that being COVID-19 pandemic and the applicable restrictions imposed under various laws rules, restrictions, Executive Orders and/or announcements issued by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and/or Ngozi O. Ezike MD, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, including without limitation “Restore Illinois: A Public Health Approach to Safely Reopen Our State”, which currently limits gatherings to the lesser of 50 people or 50% of the capacity of the meeting room as a public health measure.
PRESENT: Chairman Carbonaro, Deyne, Gandsey, Hopkins, Reinke, Suwanski, President Wallace
ABSENT: None
ALSO PRESENT: Village Administrator Paula Schumacher, Assistant Village Administrator Scott Skrycki, Sr. Management Analyst Samuel Hughes, Management Analyst Joey Dienberg, Finance Director Todd Dowden, Assistant Public Works Director Tyler Isham, Director of Public Works Dan Dinges, Planning & Development Director Roberta Grill, Building Director Brian Goralski, Head Golf Professional Phil Lenz, Police Chief Patrick Ullrich, Deputy Police Chief Jim Durbin, Deputy Police Chief Geoff Pretkelis, Village Attorney Bryan Mraz and Village Clerk Lorna Giless.
COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, CHAIRMAN GANDSEY
Tekkie’s Computer & Gadget Repair BEDA Application
Chairman Gandsey introduced the item.
President Wallace asked if there was any discussion.
The item was forwarded on to the next Village Board meeting for final vote.
FINANCE & GOLF COMMITTEE, CHAIRMAN DEYNE
2021-22 Proposed Budget Review
Chairman Deyne stated that they will begin with the 2021-22 Proposed Budget Review. Police Department
Police Chief Ullrich began is review of the police budget and stated the budget has increased 5%. That increase is attributed to a request to add two additional police officers as well as increased DuComm fees and pension obligations. Adding two officers would allow the department to maintain minimum staffing of patrol shifts, in spite of with upcoming retirement. A portion of the fees to hire new officers like squad cars, equipment and academy fees can be offset by using equitable sharing funds. The budget includes $141,900 in equitable sharing funds. Some of those expenses are in capital which includes a new squad car for the two new officers we are asking for, the equipment to outfit that squad car, four new portable radios and the computer system we use to help write police reports. Another major expense paid for with equitable sharing funds is the academy fees. We anticipate seven openings over the course of the next fiscal year. We have to pay for those openings then apply for reimbursement through the state. If we do get reimbursed from the stated, that money has to be returned to the equitable sharing fund. A new thing we are looking to implement is getting a comfort dog. Staff has been working with a company called K-9’s for Comfort. They are willing to provide a trained dog, kennel, toys, shots, etc. and we would use that dog to benefit the community. Some of those uses would be community relations, aiding in investigations where the child is a victim of abuse, critical incident mental health support and stress management with our staff. Our police K-9 is trained with one handler and goes home with that handler. This dog would have several handlers and the dog would live at the police station and cared for by our staff. IRMA stated they would insure the dog as well.
Another thing we are looking to implement is a contracted part-time social worker. This is another concept we have been exploring for the last several years due to the amount of mental health calls we have received and the time it takes to follow up and identify resources. The Illinois Chiefs of Police Association conducted a survey and found that most departments found that having an onsite or on call social worker enhances the overall collaborative outreach of a department to a community. Some of the challenges we have is getting a mental health call and trying to work with that person to identify services. One issue is being located in three different counties which all have their own services. A social worker could take over that roll freeing up officers to do other things. The social worker would be based out of the police department, but could work with other departments as necessary.
When COVID took hold, we were not able to do as many community events or the same way they are typically done. We modified National Night Out and worked on the Boo Drive-Thru. We are also working on our succession planning. We have a training program, created to lay down tracts to follow for staff. We were also tasked with having a police officer test in the summer which happened right after the George Floyd incident. We were concerned if we would have people apply, much less take the test. We put a lot of information on a recruitment site we started called JoinBartlettPD.org. We also hosed an online written test with 10-15 participants per test so it could be proctored. We had 50% more candidates take the test this year then in 2018. Another thing we saw during COVID was people were driving much faster than they should have been. During the year, we made 359 arrests for aggravated speeding. 348 of the arrests were for Class B misdemeanors which is 25 to 35 miles over the speed limit and 11 arrests were made for Class A misdemeanors anything over 35 miles an hour over the speed limit. We also had four squad cars hit while enforcing speed limits on our major roadways.
Chairman Reinke asked if we can recoup that cost of the vehicles.
Chief Ullrich stated staff submits a claim to IRMA and IRMA can try to go after them. Many times judges can order restitution too.
Chief Ullrich continued, two of our staff members were certified in fair an impartial policing and they will be training our department coming soon. We were also able to submit costs for reimbursement because of COVID, so our staff worked with village staff and accounted for a $1,268,000 reimbursement from DuPage County and a $144,000 reimbursement from Cook County. Going back to the recruitment and testing process, out of that process we were able to increase the diversity of our staff. You have to recruit a diverse group of candidates, they have to score well enough to place high enough on the list and statutorily, we have to pick from the top of the list. Out of this last group, 3 of the five officers are female which brings our total number of female officers to 13 or 22%. We also prompted a female sergeant within the last year, so now 12% of our supervisors are female. Out of those new officers, one is Muslim, our first Muslim officer and one is Indian, our first Indian officer. We also worked to update our polices this year, especially our use of force policy in order to address choke holds and de-escalation policy’s. President Trump made a requirement of all police departments that they had to have their use of force policies certified through a certifying body. We submitted our policy to CALEA and continues to make us eligible for federal funding. We opened up a committee to explore body cameras. Throughout the year we applied for and received four grants for accreditation fees, ballistic helmets, ppe expenses and implicit biased training.
Moving on to the police summary, as far as staff goes, we are asking for the two additional police officers. Our total full-time equivalents increase from 77-79. Looking over are services for the last year, you will see our estimates for services and activities have jumped from 2019 to 2020 and 2021. Traffic enforcement is one of our highest priorities. We expect with traffic enforcement activities this coming year so there is an increase there. Training hours were one area we were negatively impacted by due to COVID.
Historically we average about 10,000 hours of training a year, this year we anticipate getting back up to that amount. We had an increase of 1,000 FOIA requests from 2019 to 2021 and we expect that trend to continue next year.
Chairman Hopkins asked why that would be.
Chief Ullrich stated he thought it was most likely because of the cannabis expungements.
Moving on to the personnel request detail, this is where we show the two additional police officers. This year, we are anticipating more retirements as well.
For capital outlay, we are asking for four vehicles this year out of the vehicle replacement fund. All four of those vehicles have met the criteria on our vehicle replacement evaluation form. Two of the vehicles are 2016’s and two are 2017’s. #2 is an additional patrol vehicle for the two new officers they are requesting. This would be funded out of the equitable sharing fund. #4 is a court liaison vehicle. It is projected to have 105,000 miles at the time of replacement. It also met the requirements on the vehicle replacement evaluation. #5 is portal radios that we carry on our hips. Those are required for the two new officers. Two will be kept as spares for now. #6 is the microphone needed for the radios. #7 is tasers. We are down to 20 tasers from 27. We are asking to replace he 7 tasers we are down. #8 is AED’s, these would replace old discontinued AED’s. Since 2015, we have saved 10 lives through using the AED’s. #9 is portal breath tests. We have 5 units that are all 12 years old to ensure accurate results. #10 is the LEADS software. #11 is CPR mannequins. Every year we certify our employees. There has been a change in the law that now requires CPR mannequins to register the number of compressions that are being done to obtain certification.
Chairman Reinke asked why we need 16. Is there going to be a class with 16 people in it.
Chief Ullrich stated we train all of our sworn and civilian staff in CPR and First Aid. Usually those training classes are about 25 people and its an all day class.
#12 is a pole camera. We use these in public areas where we are having car burglaries and things like that. #13 We are looking to purchase 16 standing work stations as a healthier option for people who sit at their desks all day. #14 are some deer cameras. We use them at public works that take still photos. We have also used them at the golf course. #15 is a wrap personnel restraint system that keeps people from failing and kicking in certain circumstances. This also keeps a person in a seated position which protects them from dying in custody if they are laying on their stomach. #16 is a rowing machine. We are looking to replace an old machine in our fitness room. #17 is a couple of police bicycles that are electric powered. They will replace two 10-year-old bikes. To conclude the capital outlay request, $185,000 of that is vehicle replacement, $96,000 of it is from equitable sharing funds and $38,000 is the rest for capital expenses.
Chairman Hopkins asked about the vehicle replacement policy.
Chief Ullrich stated that we implemented Oswego’s program a few years ago that uses a point system to calculate a score to determine if it needs to be replaced.
Chairman Reinke asked about the comfort dog. He knows we are getting the dog for free and the training but there will probably be a cost over the years to having it.
Chairman Ullrich stated we would need to buy food and occasional veterinarian fees for it, but other than that, there shouldn’t be many fees for it.
Administrator Schumacher stated they estimated between $300 and $450 annually. Chairman Reinke asked if there was a stipend to take care of the dog.
Chief Ullrich stated no, they might have to pay overtime if they take the dog to additional training, but that will not be often if at all.
Chairman Reinke asked if we planned to go out to RFP or if staff had an idea of someone.
Chief Ullrich stated they talked to a couple different departments about their social worker and grants. They talked with an agency that contracts social workers and they said they could provide the village with a social worker if we wanted to go that route.
Chairman Hopkins asked for a synopsis on what the social worker would do.
Chief Ullrich stated that they anticipate they would engage in some case review, hopefully decrease the need for police services by reducing follow up calls to the police for continuing incidents, reduce the potential for repeated police contacts, provide victim advocacy and mental health support, intervention for referrals for addiction,
homelessness, domestic violence, assistance with obtaining orders of protection, and maintain a direct connection with the referring officers and detectives. They would also promote faster connections to resources and increase the amount of time officers can spend on patrol instead of taking care of those duties.
Chairman Hopkins asked the Chief to find out if the other municipalities that have a social worker, use a contractor or have in house staff do it.
Chief Ullrich stated they can look into it.
Chairman Suwanski asked if other communities work with a part-time social worker or multiple.
Chief Ullrich stated it depends on the department. A lot of them start off with a part time person to see how the duties progress. They usually have at least one fulltime person and some have more.
Chairman Gandsey asked about the pole camera.
Chief Ullrich stated it is a camera mounted to a pole like a light pole and allows us to review the camera remotely. It can’t record anyone that has an expectation of privacy without a warrant or consent. If there are vehicle burglaries in an area, we can put it up on a pole, it will record and we can try to catch a view of the suspects, their vehicle or license plate.
Chairman Gandsey asked if there was anything that was not budgeted that you wanted.
Chief Ullrich stated that if there was something he thought he needed he would put it in there. They only ask for things that they feel they need and everything in there was necessary.
Chairman Carbonaro asked the Chief to confirm if the two new officers would be added in 2021.
Chief Ullrich stated that was correct. The staffing plan from last year was to ask for 3 last year, 2 this year and 2 next year. Part of the reason was to boost our minimal staffing needs and to overcome the looming retirements coming.
Chairman Carbonaro asked how many people are retiring this year. Chief Ullrich stated there are four he knows of, but more are eligible. Chairman Suwanksi asked how long it takes to onboard someone.
Chief Ullrich stated it is about a year.
Chairman Hopkins asked the chief to provide the starting salaries of officers in surrounding communities.
Chief Ullrich stated Moving on to professional development, there is not a lot of changes for the next fiscal year. There are four people listed for the International Chiefs of Police Association Conference in New Orleans this fiscal year. The reason four people are budgeted is because we submitted the Bartlett Community Care Collective as a potential program to present at the conference. One of our sergeants and detectives would present the program if chosen. The INIA Drug and Criminal Interdiction Conference is the conference that the officer assigned to the DEA has to go to. This year it is anticipated to be in San Diego in June. With a lot of new members and new supervisors, we want to do a team building training as well. Both Deputy Chiefs were slated to go to the Police Executive Research Forum Senior Management Institute for Police which is a prestige’s command staff training program. They are also looking to institute a master firearms instructor. They have had a couple of the years and since the last master firearms instructor retired we have not trained anyone else in it, so we are looking to get a new one. One new development that started last year that had not been done in previous year is having to pay for police academy expenses. We are anticipating 7 positions at $6,500 per recruit and that would be paid out of the equitable sharing fund.
Moving on to professional associations, pretty much everything remains the same besides a couple new entries. The first is for the arson investigator to become a member of the National Association of Fire Investigators for $55 for the year. One of our sergeants who runs the citizens police academy is requesting to become a member of the national citizens police academy for $35 a year.
Moving on to the line item summary, regular salaries have gone up 5%, mainly due to the addition of two new officers. Many line items have seen a decrease or no change. Service agreements are down 4%, Advertising is down 40% by not advertising for the police officer test this year. Impounding animals was down 50%. The dispatch center line item for DuComm is increasing 3% and the maintenance line item is increasing 5%. Vehicle set up is up 33% which results in more set up cost. The uniform budget is up because new ballistic vests are needed. There is a good chance we get a grant for it though. Postage is down about 15% because most of our required expungements have taken place. Safety program expenses are down because we eliminated some gas masks and CPR/First Aid fees are not required this year. The Police and Fire Commission is down about 45%. This was a rare year where we had police officer’s exam and sergeant’s exam occur in the same year. Equitable sharing is down about 20% because we are requesting less equipment and purchases from equitable sharing. The transfer to police pension is up about 20% due to increased pension contributions.
No further questions were asked.
Planning and Development Services
Planning and Development Services Director Roberta Grill stated the Planning and Development Services Department has a proposed increase of 4%. We are asking for no new positions or vehicles. With development and home improvement projects increasing substantially over the last year due to COVID. The planning division has been unable to continue with the update to the zoning ordinance. We have completed 5 of the 14 chapters and staff has completed the commercial chapter in draft form, but the recently adopted form-based code overlay needs to be referenced as part of this chapter. Following the long-term routine goals established by the board, under “examining service delivery methods and approaches” we are requesting funding as part of the professional services budget for a consultant to complete the zoning update. Several chapters have not been updated since 1978. There are some outdated uses in the code as well. Our goal is to create a unified development code. This would combine our zoning ordinance and our subdivision ordinance into one document. Developers and residents would then search for information in one ordinance which will streamline their initially research and plan preparation while also reducing redundancy in our village ordinances. This year we implemented our development map and it’s found on the village website. It identifies projects currently within the plan review process approved by the board. Residents can be informed of the upcoming projects, where they will be occurring, their status, review process and any upcoming public hearings. Fish transportation group used this map for their traffic study as well. Redevelopment of the Streets of Bartlett continues. The recommendation for more screening on the MWRD site has been completed. Site E plans for a 104 unit apartment complex has been submitted. Those have been reviewed and sent to the developer. We are awaiting for their revisions. A grant for a bike shelter adjacent to the Metra station has also been awarded to the village which goes towards the TOD recommendation of more bike parking.
Moving on to the permit tracking system update. Weekly meetings have been taking place with the planners, IT and OpenGOV every Wednesday since August. We have created a new general permit application along with work flows, forms, attachments, documents, all associated with this new application. GIS and IT have sent addresses and historical permit data for integration into the new system. We have also developed express permit applications. These applications can be completed entirely online, paid for online and if all of the parameters are met in their application form, a building permit will automatically be generated and emailed to the resident. Required inspections will be listed on the permit. It will be required to be placed in a window or visible area. When the last inspection is approved, it will automatically generate a certificate of completion that will be emailed to the applicant. We plan to go live with this system in mid March.
With COVID, weekly tech staff meetings have been held virtually, both internally and with developers. We continue to work with potential developers on the property between Rt.59 and Lake St. Staff is currently working on creating a Plat of Subdivision to produce the legal description that are needed for the contract purchases on this property. Staff continues to work with Crown Community Development and have begun to review potential possibilities for a multiuse path that would provide a crossing under Rt. 59. This would coordinate with their overall development as well. It is in the early stages, we need to evaluate the engineering, but it is promising.
Chairman Gandsey asked if a tunnel was less expensive than an overpass.
Ms. Grill stated it is less expensive. It will require us to reach out to other jurisdictions because Crown owns property on the east and west side.
Ms. Grill stated this past year, over $105,000,000 worth of improvements were reviewed and approved by our department, over the $96,000,000 from last year. Staff created the temporary outdoor dining guidelines, brochure checklist and permits within a matter of days. The fair housing ordinance was passed and inspections increased 1249 or over 100 additional inspection a month over last year. Finally, the second 400,000 sq.ft. building in the cook county side of Brewster Creek is currently under construction. We received the large building permit fee yesterday.
Moving forward, there are no changes in personnel or new equipment. Professional development continues basically the same as last year. The professional association details remain the same as well. The service agreements shows an increase of 553%, that is with the new tracking system maintenance agreement which is $28,000 a year. We have a slight increase of 7% in our legal notices because development is increasing. Vehicle maintenance is increased 9% due to the age of the vehicle.
Chairman Reinke asked when they plan to have the unified development code completed.
Administrator Schumacher stated that is a big project, but we anticipate starting in this fiscal year and carrying it into the next fiscal year.
Ms. Grill stated they received an LTA grant for the parking chapter and lighting chapter which will help reduce costs. We are going to see if there are any other grants available.
Administrator Schumacher stated we have spoken many times about looking at our parking and lighting requirements and getting them up to date. It is a difficult and time consuming process, but the push to put them in one document will be important. Many times, a developer will only look at one, instead of all of them.
Chairman Deyne moved to adjourn and that motion was seconded by Chairman Suwanksi.
ROLL CALL VOTE TO ADJOURN
AYES: Chairmen Carbonaro, Deyne, Gandsey, Hopkins, Reinke and Suwanski NAYS: None
ABSENT: None
MOTION CARRIED
The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fu1_WA1nkzi3EeoGIyuP6kaGkB0Hr91q_AScJP5Erls/edit
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