The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM. The video podcast of the entire meeting is available at http://www.oakbrooktv.org/. All Trustees were present. The first item on the agenda was public comment. Three people, Roberta Petz, Lois Miller, and Marian Sharli, commented on consultants for saving money at the Library. They all opposed any cuts at the library. Lois Miller suggested that this meeting had inadequate notice and library supporters had not had enough time to organize and mobilize library supporters. Clerk Pruss noted that any resident could request they be emailed agendas for Village meetings. Trustee Wolin noted that the village needed to cut costs for every function of the village. Over the last 10 years the sales tax revenue had been flat while expenses kept growing. The library would need to share in the cost reductions all departments would have to bear. The next agenda item was review of employee health insurance plan for renewal. The proposal was to increase the employee share to the premium from 10% to 12.5%, increase the deductibles and co-pays and to eliminate the standard PPO option for new employees and replace it with a very high deductible $1500 singles, $4500 family) including a medical savings account. Trustee Wolin supported the proposal while suggesting that the employee share of the premium increase to 15% instead of 12.5%. In the discussion that followed Trustee Zannis proposed increasing this to 20%. Trustee Aktipis suggested 20% might be two much, so Trustee Wolin suggested a 17.5% compromise, which Trustee Zannis accepted. This passed with a request to staff to further investigate other options. The next item was the budget review, presented by Trustee Aktipis. Sales tax continues to fall short of the budget but now the village’s share of income tax from the state is also falling behind budget. The total deficit for the year is projected to be $1,860,000. The newly elected board members have been meeting with the village manager and don’t believe revenues will improve in the foreseeable future. Many of the expense reductions proposed by the village manager are postponements of expenses or temporary cuts and not structural cuts in ongoing expenses. In Trustee Aktipis’ evaluation, even with the proposed reductions in expenses the budget will be $879,000 in the red. He thought that the village should make budgets cut of one and one half to two million dollars. Trustee Zannis asked if the average village employee cost $100,000. Manager Neimeyer said he could not say for certain. He proposed making projections for the 2010 budget and developing proposals for several levels of further cuts. He suggested the board have a special meeting the week of July 6 to focus on the budget. Next Trustee Wolin presented the Library Associates contract. For $4800 they would interview the library staff and make recommendations on how much the library budget could be reduced while still providing good service to library patrons. Their report would be done in 30 days. The meeting was adjourned without closed session.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of June 9, 2009
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM. The video podcast of the entire meeting is available at http://www.oakbrooktv.org/. All Trustees were present. President Craig issued a proclamation supporting the census. Public comment began by noting several residents would comment on the Salt Creek dam later. Frank Trombetta of the Park District Board requested an additional stop sign near the Park District exit. Kathy Manofsky reported the Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce was having another drive around for meeting planners and asked the Village to supply coupons for something related to the Sports Core for the gift bags. Minutes for May 12 were approved. The consent agenda included $13,464 for Seyfarth, Shaw LLP, $16,000 for Croydon sewer project, and a request to seek bids for 35th St. water main replacement. A referral to planning for a Medical office building at 1802 & 1806 York was postponed at the request of the requestor. The consent agenda was adopted. The next item on Administrative Adjudication Hearings was removed. The next item was the Intergovernmental Agreement with the tollway. This passed. The next item was the DRSCW Review report. This was the recommendation to breach Salt Creek dam. Trustee Wolin presented the issue and moved to have the Village oppose any change to the dam. A lengthy period of prepared presentation from residents who live near the dam followed. Trustee Aktipis proposed amending the motion to include having the village contact all our political representatives and get our lobbyists to help us oppose any modification of the dam. After this passed, Trustee Zannis read from a letter from the Forest Preserve District which owns the dam. This letter indicated that while the District had not yet taken any position on the dam, they were already starting to remove several other dams and it would be several years before they would get to the Salt Creek dam. The next item was Trustee Liaison Assignments and Trustee Carson had one correction. The next item was the Police Pension Fund Board and President Craig recommended Hitesh Patel (recently elected Butler 53 school board member) for a two-year term. The board concurred. Next came an ordinance (which passed) reducing the authorized number of liquor licenses by one because President Craig acting as the Liquor Board revoked a license for violations. Then Trustee Wolin presented a proposal for an engineering design for water main replacement in Timber Trails for $137,720. This passed. Then Trustee Aktipis presented a proposal to create a Citizens’ Financial Advisory Board. This would be an ad hoc 5-member committee composed of residents with expertise in finance who would review the village budget and make recommendations on financial issues. This passed. Then Assistant Manager Wing presented the administration’s recommendation for health, dental & life insurance renewal. The recommendation included increasing employees’ share of the PPO premium from 10% to 12.5% for non-union employees as well as increasing deductibles and co pays. The HMO premium would also increase. A new, high deductible plan, would be offered with the village contributing to employee’s health savings accounts. The expectation would be that the village total insurance cost would be slightly lower than the present year. After extensive discussion, the board agreed to meet on June 15 to continue the insurance discussion. Trustee Carson then presented the agreement authorizing the Highland Games, which passed. Next was a request from staff for authorization to seek improved public entity liability insurance coverage as a change from IRMA that passed. During Trustee comment period, Trustee Carson mentioned that he had had discussions with Tray and DeLeos about DeLeos offering food and beverage service to the soccer fields. Because of the weather, almost no one was coming to the B&T, but hundreds were coming to play soccer. The other trustees agreed this was a great idea and urged an immediate start. The meeting was then adjourned to closed session.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of 5/26/2009
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM. The video podcast of the entire meeting is available at http://www.oakbrooktv.org/ All present except for Trustee Zannis. She arrived at 7:05. The meeting began with a presentation on the possible removal/breach of Salt Creek dam. The DRSCW Review of Results Relating to the Graue Mill/ Salt Creek presented the work of this group indicating that the Graue Mill dam caused a problem with very low dissolved oxygen in the water just upstream of the dam. There is a federal mandate from the EPA through the Clean Waters Act to improve streams to swimmable and fishable. Although Salt Creek has been greatly improved during the last 30 years, its greatest remaining problem is this dip in dissolved oxygen. Since the first proposal to totally remove the Graue Mill dam over five years ago, in response to community input, the proposal now is to only remove a piece of the dam at one side. This will drain the small pond just upstream of the dam and maintain steady flowing water. An effort would be made to somewhat retain the appearance of the dam and retain enough flowing water to turn the mill wheel. This committee will vote on their report to the IEPA at their June 24th meeting. The Village has until then to provide further input and instruct their representative how to vote. At the end of this presentation, members of the community were allowed to comment. Thomas Doyle, and Richard Allison of Robinhood Ranch and Joseph H. Rush, 3721 Spring Road, all opposed any changes to the dam. Mr. Allison complained they didn't get enough notice to fill the room as they had back in March. He noted that as head of Fullersburg Woods, he represented 2000 residents who supported keeping the dam intact. After the formal presentation and the three opposing residents, President Craig continued the regular agenda giving Trustees no opportunity to respond. The next item on the agenda was the proposal to extend the Butler National lease of the polo fields to include the days previously reserved for polo, since polo has been canceled for this summer. Trustee Carson presented this proposed contract and moved to accept it. Trustee Zannis seconded this proposal and President Craig called for a roll call vote. Trustee Wolin asked for an opportunity to respond to the Graue Mill dam issue before all the residents left. President Craig noted that almost everyone interested in that issue had already left, but allowed Trustee Wolin to comment. Trustee Wolin asked when the board was going to address the issue of the DRSCW recommendation to the IEPA. Village Manager Niemeyer noted that the final draft of the recommendation would be available at the end of May and the board could consider and discuss it at their first meeting in June. Trustee Zannis commented that the breaching of the dam would cause a loss in property value of the nearby homes if the dam were changed. She also noted that any change to the dam would need permits from the Village. She suggested that the pictures provided by the committee showing what the area would look like after the dam modifications were wrong and demanding that the Photoshop image of what the creek might look like if the dam is breached include a view of the mill and show a much narrower creek. She also wanted to hear from the Forest Preserve, since the dam belongs to the Forest Preserve. Trustee Saiyed noted that he would miss the next board meeting, but that he was against breaching the dam. President Craig then managed to return to the Polo Field contract, which passed. The board approved the fireworks on the 4th. Business Licenses were then discussed. Dave Niemeyer noted that this had been considered two years ago and dropped because of cost and effort for the village. Trustee Saiyed noted it as a source of revenue, but Trustee Moy said this was a bad time to raise fees and paperwork requirements on business. It was mentioned several times that the Chamber had some data, but Trustee Zannis wanted our own database. Trustees Carson and Aktipis supported a nominal fee to cover village costs. Manager Niemeyer agreed to bring a proposal back to the board at the second meeting in June. The board then approved outsourcing the B&T grill to DiLeo's. Clerk Pruss reminded everyone of the Wednesday buffets beginning at the golf course club house and wished everyone in the armed forces her best for Memorial Day. President Craig echoed her Memorial Day sentiments and moved to go into closed session.
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of 5/19/2009
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM. The video podcast of the entire meeting is available at http://www.oakbrooktv.org/ All present except for Trustee Zannis. She arrived at 7:05. The meeting began with a presentation on the possible removal/breach of Salt Creek dam. The DRSCW Review of Results Relating to the Graue Mill/ Salt Creek presented the work of this group indicating that the Graue Mill dam caused a problem with very low dissolved oxygen in the water just upstream of the dam. There is a federal mandate from the EPA through the Clean Waters Act to improve streams to swimmable and fishable. Although Salt Creek has been greatly improved during the last 30 years, its greatest remaining problem is this dip in dissolved oxygen. Since the first proposal to totally remove the Graue Mill dam over five years ago, in response to community input, the proposal now is to only remove a piece of the dam at one side. This will drain the small pond just upstream of the dam and maintain steady flowing water. An effort would be made to somewhat retain the appearance of the dam and retain enough flowing water to turn the mill wheel. This committee will vote on their report to the IEPA at their June 24th meeting. The Village has until then to provide further input and instruct their representative how to vote. At the end of this presentation, members of the community were allowed to comment. Thomas Doyle, and Richard Allison of Robinhood Ranch and Joseph H. Rush, 3721 Spring Road, all opposed any changes to the dam. Mr. Allison complained they didn't get enough notice to fill the room as they had back in March. He noted that as head of Fullersburg Woods, he represented 2000 residents who supported keeping the dam intact. After the formal presentation and the three opposing residents, President Craig continued the regular agenda giving Trustees no opportunity to respond. The next item on the agenda was the proposal to extend the Butler National lease of the polo fields to include the days previously reserved for polo, since polo has been canceled for this summer. Trustee Carson presented this proposed contract and moved to accept it. Trustee Zannis seconded this proposal and President Craig called for a roll call vote. Trustee Wolin asked for an opportunity to respond to the Graue Mill dam issue before all the residents left. President Craig noted that almost everyone interested in that issue had already left, but allowed Trustee Wolin to comment. Trustee Wolin asked when the board was going to address the issue of the DRSCW recommendation to the IEPA. Village Manager Niemeyer noted that the final draft of the recommendation would be available at the end of May and the board could consider and discuss it at their first meeting in June. Trustee Zannis commented that the breaching of the dam would cause a loss in property value of the nearby homes if the dam were changed. She also noted that any change to the dam would need permits from the Village. She suggested that the pictures provided by the committee showing what the area would look like after the dam modifications were wrong and demanding that the Photoshop image of what the creek might look like if the dam is breached include a view of the mill and show a much narrower creek. She also wanted to hear from the Forest Preserve, since the dam belongs to the Forest Preserve. Trustee Saiyed noted that he would miss the next board meeting, but that he was against breaching the dam. President Craig then managed to return to the Polo Field contract, which passed. The board approved the fireworks on the 4th. Business Licenses were then discussed. Dave Niemeyer noted that this had been considered two years ago and dropped because of cost and effort for the village. Trustee Saiyed noted it as a source of revenue, but Trustee Moy said this was a bad time to raise fees and paperwork requirements on business. It was mentioned several times that the Chamber had some data, but Trustee Zannis wanted our own database. Trustees Carson and Aktipis supported a nominal fee to cover village costs. Manager Niemeyer agreed to bring a proposal back to the board at the second meeting in June. The board then approved outsourcing the B&T grill to DiLeo's. Clerk Pruss reminded everyone of the Wednesday buffets beginning at the golf course club house and wished everyone in the armed forces her best for Memorial Day. President Craig echoed her Memorial Day sentiments and moved to go into closed session.
