Opening talks on 2023-24 budget lead to discussion on continuing support of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council CEDS program and the Regional Planning Commission

 

[April 14, 2023] 

At the Tuesday night Committee of the Whole Meeting of the Lincoln City Council, aldermen were introduced to the draft of the city budget for the coming fiscal year by Treasurer Chuck Conzo. While the ideal goal of Mr. Conzo was to start the discussions, then present a timeline for when the council could discuss details of the budget in special meetings or as part of future regular and COW meetings, prior to voting to approve the budget before the end of the fiscal year on April 30, 2023.

The discussion took a turn as Mayor Tracy Welch approached some issues with the city’s support of two specific groups, the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council CEDS program and the Regional Planning Commission.

Welch said that there was no way to say it other than to just say it, there is a member of the GPEDC that has ongoing litigation against the city of Lincoln. He said, “there is a question as to whether we should continue to fund that program.”

Welch said that the city has paid the GPEDC $2,000 per year and has for the last few years. Prior to that it was more, but the city had determined to cut back on the money it invested.

He said that the Regional Planning Commission receives about $12,000 per year from the city. He said that as one who is on that commission along with Alderman Kevin Bateman, he does not see that the city is getting its money’s worth from the RPC. He went on to say that he sees other municipalities in the county do benefit from the RPC, but has not seen it be of any great benefit to Lincoln.

Speaking about the GPECD, Welch said the GPEDC has done some helpful work for the city. He cited that the GPEDC had assisted Treasurer Conzo with some work on the census, had assisted in getting the city GIS updates done, and had assisted the city with some grant applications including applications for the bike trails.

Bateman spoke also saying that he felt that for the most part, the GPEDC was too far from Lincoln to do any good for the city. He felt that it would be a good idea to explore other communities closer to Lincoln and “put out feelers” to see if communities such as Bloomington, Springfield, or even Decatur would be interested in a partnership with Lincoln.

Bateman said between his time on the city council and the county board, he has never seen anything come from the GPEDC that was a huge win.

Alderman Rick Hoefle said he was in complete agreement. He said he felt every time the GPEDC had come to the city they were ‘selling something” and that all they really wanted was Lincoln’s money.

Alderwoman Wanda Lee Rohlfs asked if the council knew how many years the city has supported the GPEDC. Welch said he wasn’t sure, but since before he was on the council. Rohlfs said she felt like it was at least 15 years. She said in that time, she agrees with Bateman, there have been no big accomplishments, but there has been a lot of money put into the program.

Bateman said also, the money that was in the budget now earmarked for GPEDC could stay there but in a more generic line so that the city could use it for investment in another group.

Alderman Sam Downs asked how it would work to but out feelers. Bateman said what it would be basically was “putting ourselves out for sale,” to see who was interested in partnering.

Welch spoke specifically about Rivian in Bloomington-Normal and the relationship between that company and Heartland Community College. Welch said first, the city might not have wanted the Rivian company, but it could have handled being a distributorship location for parts or something such as that. He said that Heartland and Rivian have a good working relationship, and Heartland is training students to work specifically in that company.

With Heartland being in Lincoln also, there is a natural connection there that could help the youth in our community to have job opportunities with Rivian.

Bateman said in Lincoln there are buildings that could be converted to distributorships for Rivian, such as the old PPG plant.

Welch asked the council’s direction in what to do with the money allotted to both the GPEDC and Regional Planning. He said that the money could stay in the budget, but he would like to know the feelings of the council about holding off on specifically designating the $12,000 to RPC and the $2,000 to GPEDC. Bateman said he was in favor of keeping the dollar amount in the budget but not specifically designated to those two groups.

Along this same line, Rohlfs said that she had been talking with some of the folks at Eaton Corporation. She said she understood that they have needs and opportunities that the city might be able to address. She went on to say she wasn’t exactly sure what the city could do, but the company was of value to the community. She felt that the city could reach out to them and ask them “what are your needs.” She said that the opportunities that are available at Eaton could be part of what is discussed as the city talks to other communities about what it has to offer.

Welch agreed that Eaton was an important part of Lincoln, and also a great supporter of the citizens of Lincoln. He noted the efforts the company has made to support the Veteran Home projects as just one way Eaton supports the community.

As the discussion on the GPEDC and RPC wound down, the council moved on to decide on how to approach the rest of the budget for the new fiscal year.

Conzo explained the timeline and said that the council could have some special budget discussions. Bateman suggested the voting meeting next Monday, April 17th could start at 6 p.m. then a budget meeting could be adjourned immediately following.

The council consented to moving up the voting session to 6 p.m.

The notices and agendas for the meetings are in Lincoln Daily News. The voting session is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. with the Budget Workshop meeting slated for 6:15 p.m.

According to the open meetings act, a meeting of the council may start later than advertised but not earlier. The voting session may last beyond 15 minutes, and then the budget meeting will start immediately after. If the voting session should be done in less than 15 minutes, then the city council will have to take a recess until the advertised starting time of the budget workshop.

[Nila Smith]