The Argonne Road Project has its beginning in 2007. Over the years it has repeatedly been apposed by both the business community and the public. Yet at about 35:52 of the You Tube recording of the 5-14-24 City Council meeting (the link is below) our mayors says the reason we must approve this step is if we do not we will “experience a significant loss of status”.
The issue in play is the CR2A agreement between IEP and the City. This agreement conveys to the city control of the property. This is the final action step the city needed to secure some of the funding for the project.
IEP and the city came to terms over the land, now the city council needed to approve it. In the video you will hear that time is running out and this needs to happen now.
At issue is the City Attorney, the Mayor, and the City council violated procedure in conducting the vote the way they did.
The action item was not presented as a first presentation in the previous meeting. It is not listed as an action item on this meetings’ agenda. Public notice was not made that a public hearing would be conducted during this meeting. The action was taken during portions of the meeting that are clearing defined on both the agenda and the item 10.e in the agenda packet as “(no action)”.
The agreement itself was not presented for review by the city council before they voted on it. It would have been in the packet, or passed out to the council in hard copy during the meeting.
Thus, during the 5/14/2024 Regular City Council meeting the city council took action on an item that was not listed on the agenda as an action item.
Action items are listed on the agenda as item 9, a & b.
The action and vote took place during Item 10, which is listed as Reports (no action)
Item 10 e is the legal report. Mr. Werst in his comments told the council they are engaged in an action item and a public hearing. However; there is not any listing on the agenda that there was going to be a public hearing. Mr. Werst interrupts Mr. Culler’s over eager motion to initiate a vote, by saying, this is a public hearing and you need to have public comment. Yet, no where is a public hearing published before hand.
A chief complaint we have had with our city government is their lack of transparency. This city council meeting and vote is a perfect example of that lack of transparency.
Because this action was taken in violation of procedures the result should be declared improper and null and void. Any and all activity that has taken placed based upon this vote / approval should be discontinued and reversed to its former status / state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy00KwmVJ6I
Beginning at 28:18 of the video.
Public Comment: 41:50 — 47:20
Council Discussion and Vote: 47:20 — 50:10
Upcoming community engagement meetings
? 8/6/2024 and 8/13/2024. Not yet published by the city, and we will post it as soon as we confirm it.
Looking for the city council meeting when the engineers present the project..
Below are the letters referenced above as pdf files. I tried to condense to just the highlights, but they are already condensed to the important facts.
