5 Interesting Things on Tuesday's City Council Agenda

1)   Replacing former Deputy Police Chief David Delaney. Donald Schwartzkopf is expected to be sworn in as Yorkville’s deputy police chief, while Raymond Mikolasek is set to be sworn in as a police sergeant, according to the City Council agenda.

Schwartzkopf, who has been a lieutenant, won't see a raise because of the move, Chief Rich Hart said. The city has been phasing out the lieutenant position, which is governed by police commissioners, in favor of having two deputy chiefs appointed by the police chief, Hart said.

Schwartzkopf will be working on the street for another week, and Hart is letting him and Deputy Chief Larry Hilt determine which will lead department operations and which will lead administrations effort.

Delaney, who had been leading administration efforts, is accused of stealing prescription painkillers from a department program designed to accept unwanted prescription medication from the public and properly dispose of it. Delaney has been placed on paid administrative leave pending possible action from police commissioners.

Mikolasek's promotion is unrelated to Delaney's leave, Hart said.

The department has 24 sworn police officers, including Delaney and Hart. About a year ago, it had 30, Hart said.

2)   Another year of the water fee? Aldermen will consider charging residents the water infrastructure improvement fee for another year. The fee, which is $16.50 for each two-month billing cycle, was implemented in May 2010 to help cover debt payments in the city’s sewer fund.

If the city continues charging the fee, City Financial Director Rob Fredrickson projects that the water fund will have $219,124 surplus this fiscal year and an $894,150 total fund balance in May 2012. Without it, the water fund will have a $380,876 deficit for the current fiscal year, leaving a total fund balance of  $294,150 in May 2012.

The water fund’s total projected expenses for this fiscal year are $2.09 million, so the $294,150 fund balance projected without the fee would represent about 12 percent of its annual spending in savings. (The city’s general fund has much less in savings. the city will receive $11.5 million and spend $10.7 million in its general fund, with $260,636 remaining in the fund on April 30, 2012.)

3)   Costs associated with rejecting Route 47 bike trails. Cutting the bike trails from the Route 47 project could cost the city almost $30,000, City Administrator Bart Olson said in a memo to aldermen.

At the last City Council meeting, a $116,000 donation to cover the city’s 20-percent cost for the trail because maintaining the bike trail would be too expensive. Some private residents had offered to try to raise the money for the 2.44-mile section of Route 47 that the state plans to rebuild first. Those fundraising efforts have been suspended.

However, Illinois Department of Transportation officials included the bike trail in construction plans and has begun to secure the land to include them, Olson said in the memo. They did so “at our direction, in accordance with their policies, and because no communities have declined to participate in trail construction,” Olson wrote.

So, Olson and IDOT officials want to see if aldermen still want to pull the bike trail from the plans after learning this information.

4)   Drafting the new ward map. Aldermen will discuss how they are going to approach redistricting the city’s four wards.

The city must follow a redistricting process similar to that the county and state officials did in light of new census data.

Yorkville could add a fifth ward and two aldermen seats, but the City Council’s Administration Committee suggested maintaining eight aldermen. That would be four wards with two aldermen from each.

The Administration Committee suggested that city staff create a few possible ward maps that would even the population disparity between the four wards but keep the current aldermen within their current wards.  Then, the committee would recommend one map before the City Council made their tentative selection. A public hearing on the council’s choice would be held, and the City Council could make revisions before approving the final ward map.

On Tuesday, City Council members are expected to discuss that action plan.

5)   Coffee concessions at the whitewater park? Aldermen also will consider a second concession lease for a building at Bicentennial Riverfront Park.

The draft lease suggests renting the northern portion of 131 E. Hydraulic St. to River City Roasters for $250 a month plus 5 percent of the sales. River City Roasters is a coffee company; its owner Erich Goepel also is a Yorkville Patch blogger.

Last month, aldermen approved a similar lease with Creative Kernels for the southern portion of the building. Creative Kernels owner Kim McGuire plans to sublet some of the space to Whitewater Custard.

For more details on these and other City Council agenda items, see the full board packet posted on the city's website here.