123 Madison Street

Oak Park, Illinois 60302

www.oak-park.us

Village of Oak Park

Meeting Minutes

President and Board of Trustees

Monday, June 27, 2022

7:00 PM

Village Hall

I. Call to Order

Village President Scaman called the meeting to order at 7:02 P.M. She

authorized a statement be read providing that the meeting is being held

remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines and that it is not

prudent to have people present at the Village Board's regular meeting

location due to public health concerns related to that pandemic.

II. Roll Call

7 -

Present:

Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Enyia, Village

Trustee Parakkat, Village Trustee Robinson, Village Trustee Taglia, and Village

Trustee Walker-Peddakotla

Absent:

III. Agenda Approval

It was moved by Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla, seconded by Village Trustee

Buchanan, to approve the Agenda. The motion was approved. The roll call on

the vote was as follows:

7 -

AYES:

Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Enyia, Village

Trustee Parakkat, Village Trustee Robinson, Village Trustee Taglia, and Village

Trustee Walker-Peddakotla

NAYS:

ABSENT:

IV. Non-Agenda Public Comment

Village Manager Kevin Jackson introduced Interim Police Chief Shatonya

Johnson who gave an update on the homicide of Jailyn Logan-Bledsoe.

Village President Scaman thanked Interim Police Chief Johnson and staff

for their hard work with this incident and to keeping the public safe.

The following persons spoke their Non-Agenda Public Comments aloud:

Susan Abbott: Susan Abbott spoke their public comment regarding the

violence and crime occurring at the BP gas stations and asked the Board if

there are changes that can be made within our control that give less

opportunity for crime.

Laura Smith: Laura Smith spoke their public comment regarding the

multiple shootings that have occurred at the BP gas station and asked of

the necessity of having a 24 hour gas station operating in a residential

neighborhood. They asked the Board to do everything in their power to limit

the hours of the gas station to help prevent this tragedy from happening

again.

Barbara Shulman: Barbara Shulman spoke their public comment on

behalf of a group of neighbors regarding their growing sense of a lack of

safety due to crime and traffic in the residential neighborhood on Taylor

Avenue. They urged the Board to act quickly , the safety of the community is

not something that can wait.

Georgina Swanson: Georgina Swanson spoke their public comment

expressing concerns of the BP gas station and the necessity of it being

open 24 hours a day. They believe village leadership needs to develop

strategies to keep everyone safe and the first step should be to limit the

hours of the gas station.

Karl Leonard: Karl Leonard spoke their public comment demanding the

Board do something, anything, to address the issues at the BP gas station.

The Board and the business have done nothing to fix the problems and they

believe the business is a nuisance and should be shut down.

Megan McLean: Megan McLean spoke their public comment expressing

their concern over the increase of violence at the BP gas station. They are

not sure what to ask the Board to do to address the issues but asked the

Board to consider the pleas of the neighborhood and do something.

Melvin Nicks: Melvin Nicks spoke their public comment in support of

closing the gas station. The neighborhood is done with the violence, the

pettiness, the traffic and the amount of debris that is in connection with the

gas station.

Kathleen Cantillon: Kathleen Cantillon spoke their public comment in

support of shutting down the BP gas station. They expressed concerns

over the increase in incidents since 2017 to which the owners have done

nothing about and are negligent.

Kim Phillips: Kim Phillips spoke their public comment regarding the BP

gas station has always been a nuisance that has a cycle of violence that

keeps repeating. They feel if a number of crimes occurred in a particular

location where it is considered a hotspot, new restrictions would be placed

on the business. They would support the gas station shutting down, or at

least a reduction in its operating hours.

Kim Vulinovic: Kim Vulinovic spoke their public comment regarding the

24 hour operations of the BP gas station drastically affects the quality of life

in their neighborhood and they are requesting a shortening of business

hours or closing of the gas station. They do not feel safe in their

neighborhood and take issue with the noise level, irresponsible driving, and

the amount of litter and trash produced from the gas station.

Village Clerk Waters then read the following public comments aloud:

Marsha Borders: Marsha Borders submitted their public comment in

opposition to an ordinance change that would extend the lighting on the

Southfield at Ridgeland Commons from 8 to 10pm. They do not want the

noise, the parking issues, or the lights. Neighbors simply want to enjoy the

same peaceful and quiet environment at night afforded to others in the

community.

Albert Taruc: Albert Taruc submitted their public comment in regards to

the violence and robberies that occur at the BP gas station and request the

hours of operation of the gas station be reduced to 6am to 10pm or

midnight, which would allow the gas station to stay in business while

reducing the risk of violence in the residential area.

Trisha Girdwood: Trisha Girdwood submitted their public comment

pleading with the Board to take action and limit the hours of the BP gas

station for the safety of all residents.

Rhoda Bernstein: Rhoda Bernstein submitted their public comment

regarding the tragic, senseless, horrific murder at the BP gas station. They

are in support of limiting the hours of operation for the station to be closed

from midnight to 5am. They feel crime is an existential challenge to the

community that depends on the Board making Oak Park as safe as

possible.

Karen Burke: Karen Burke submitted their public comment expressing

concerns over the BP gas station that the neighbors have been trying to

engage with the Board about for much of the past year. They ask the Board

to prioritize the safety of Oak Park residents and to put more attention,

resources, and political will towards addressing the issue of violent crime in

Oak Park.

Shelly Uslenghi: Shelly Uslenghi submitted their public comment asking

the Board to address the issue of violent crime at the BP gas station at

Chicago Ave and Taylor. This 24/7 hour gas station has been a source of

excessive noise, violent fights, verbal altercations and now a murder. The

permit to allow a 24/7 hour gas station in a residential neighborhood should

be reviewed and revised.

Hilarie and David Terebessy: Hilarie and David Terebessy submitted

their public comment extremely concerned about the recent incidents of

gun violence in this area. They ask the Village to consider re-zoning the

gas station so that it is no longer open 24 hours; they do not believe that the

business owner’s profit margin should be prioritized over human life and

the wellbeing of the residents of this area, all of whom also contribute

significant tax dollars to the Village.

Denis Roarty: Denis Roarty submitted their public comment expressing

their frustration by the Board's inaction to regulate the BP gas station as

neighbors grow more anxious about the safety of their community. The

village needs to ensure the business limits the negative impact on the

community and not base their response on what other communities are

doing to regulate gas stations.

V. Regular Agenda

ID 22-204

Presentation of the Final Draft of the 2022 Comprehensive Sustainability,

Climate Action, and Resiliency Plan for the Village of Oak Park titled

“Climate Ready Oak Park”

Village Manager Kevin Jackson introduced Deputy Village Manager

Ahmad Zayyad who introduced the Item.

The following persons spoke their Agenda Public Comments aloud:

Jonathan Rosen: Jonathan Rosen spoke their public comment on behalf

of Movement of Students for Climate Action in support of the village's

Climate Action Plan. They appreciate the level of community input that was

put into create this plan, and they are hopeful the rest of the country will use

Oak Park as a model for the action that is necessary to combat the

existential effect of climate change.

Chris Pinc: Chris Pinc spoke their public comment representing the Oak

Park Climate Action Network expressing their appreciation for the

consulting team for its thorough process and extensive efforts to obtain

community feedback and engagement. They feel now is the time to make

bold decisions and urged the Board to develop a priority list, prioritizing the

actions of the plan, creating a budget requirement and identifying funding

sources, and a specific timeline for each priority.

Deputy Village Manager Ahmad Zayyad then introduced Sustainability

Coordinator Marcella Bondie Keenan, and Breanna Mack and Stephanie

Hacker from GRAEF, who then gave an overview of the Item.

Village Clerk Waters then read the following public comments aloud:

Dimitra Lavrakas: Dimitra Lavrakas submitted their public comment

stating we must move away from gas. There is the problem of an aging gas

line infrastructure causing explosions from gas leaks.

McLouis Robinet: McLouis Robinet submitted their public comment

expressing concern about the future implementation of Renewable Energy

Certificates (RECs) to claim offsets which would subtract form the village's

emissions. They advised Oak Park to not purchase voluntary RECs, and to

add a statement in the Climate Action Plan stating that RECs must not be

used in attempt to invalidly subtract from actual emissions.

Alex McLeese: Alex McLeese submitted their public comment asking the

Board to be more ambitious in their climate action plan and aim for carbon

neutrality by 2035 with limited offsets. The costs of transitioning away from

carbon are substantial, but they pale in comparison to the costs of inaction.

Village Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on the staff tracking

matrix.

Marcella Bondie Keenan responded the matrix is still in progress.

Village Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on if there is an overall

amount of metric tons that need to be reduced to reach the goal of 60% by

2030.

Marcella Bondie Keenen responded 270,000 metric tons of carbon

equivalents.

Village Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on if there are any

estimates on how big we could go with energy efficiency, beyond the goal

of 10%, considering the old housing stock in the village.

Breanna Mack responded the 10% goal was based on other peer

communities, but they could forecast out different percentages to see what

the emissions reduction potential could be for more ambitious goals.

Marcella Bondie Keenan added the challenge is there is a variety in Oak

Park's housing from multifamily to historic and vintage, but we should

always be aiming for the most amount of energy efficiency as possible.

Village Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on the cost estimate to

convert all buildings to electric.

Breanna Mack responded the assumption was people would be spending

their own capital to make those transitions to their homes or businesses

instead of through a village investment.

Village Trustee Parakkat clarified that the 1 Billion dollar price tag is

misleading as it is actually smaller as there are avenues to fund that, but we

have to be more clear about what they are. He would like to see the

breakdown of funding sources aligned with strategies to create a timeline

view of implementation of priorities.

Village Trustee Robinson requested clarification regarding if there are any

concerns with the modernization efforts being cost prohibitive, and if there

are, are there alternative measures that can be considered to offset their

footprint.

Marcella Bondie Keenan responded any building can approach this in a

variety of ways. Recognizing not everyone will be able to take action, the

hope is others will go above and beyond to help balance this as well. The

other piece are the larger structures, like commercial or multifamily

buildings, that use a lot of energy can move the needle for us quickly, much

more than a single family home owner. So focusing on those makes room

for perhaps a low income homeowner to do less or not demanding them to

do something that is unaffordable to them.

Village Trustee Robinson requested clarification regarding what sorts of

tracking or measurements would be realistic to assess our progress.

Marcella Bondie Keenan responded they will be developing a website to

show key performance indicators which will require more data collection

than they are currently doing. Getting every large building to benchmark

their energy usage annually will show how we are doing as will continuing

looking at energy usage through ComEd.

Village trustee Buchanan requested clarification on if the community

aggregation program is not currently 100% renewable.

Marcella Bondie Keenan responded in the affirmative, it is not. Staff is

currently working on bidding out a community choice aggregation contract

that will require vendors to do better than ComEd, and because of

legislation the grid itself will have more renewable energy that will be

accessible.

Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla commented there is a greater

opportunity for cross collaboration with other governmental entities like the

library or park district to work to achieve some of the goals and she would

like to see more of that in the plan. She also feels the first line actions

should be based on the climate vulnerability index; who are the most

vulnerable people in our village, based on our assessments - those areas

should be prioritized.

Marcella Bondie Keenan responded staff has been working with other

intergovernmental and other collaborative partners to help with this. The

vulnerability assessment is intended to be used that way and is called out

in the economic development and extreme weather sections. The

assessment should be updated regularly.

Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla added when we talk about climate

vulnerability it has to include things like can a long-time resident keep on

affording to live here in Oak Park. Housing vulnerability and climate

vulnerability are tied together.

Village Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on how we are

determining who the low and moderate income residents are within the

community, and how are we ensuring that these residents are aware of

other free programs or resources not funded by the village that are

available for them.

Marcella Bondie Keenan responded they would reference the vulnerability

maps based on emphasis, they would refer to the village's established

income qualified program, as well as look at issue-specific things to help

determine who the low and moderate income residents are. Regarding

using outside available resources, they can look at how Potomac Park as

part of their program is requiring the need to stack in every external funding

source first before considering paying out any type of rebate.

Village Trustee Taglia expressed his appreciation for the focus on the

conservation aspects of the plan and the commitment by Public Works to

work towards minimizing the water loss throughout the village. He

requested clarification if the final plan documents will include discussion as

to what the investments might be that are needed to curb water loss.

Marcella Bondie Keenan responded the short term goals are already

planned for or budgeted into the CIP, but long term they will need to

continue to invest in infrastructure to continue to see a reduction in the

water loss in the future.

Village President Scaman expressed her appreciation to all the work that

went into this plan and directed staff to develop a list of priorities and

recommendations that the Board can further discuss in context with the

entire budget.

ID 22-208

Presentation on a Racial Equity Toolkit

Village Manager Jackson introduced the Item.

Human Resource Director and Assistant Village Manager Kira Tchang

then gave an overview presentation of the Item.

Village Trustee Robinson commented the terms "racial equity" and "equity"

were used interchangeably throughout the toolkit and they are not the same

thing. They would like to ensure they are specifically talking about racial

equity in the materials. They also would like introduced into the toolkit a way

to look at unintended inequality in policies or procedures - what happens

when we have an initiative, policy, or program that seems completely

neutral but in its application actually produces unintended, inequitable

results.

Director Tchang responded race is the leading indicator and they want to

begin the equity analysis in that way and staff will continue to refine the

toolkit to ensure that other are considered on a deeper level. There is a

thought exercise in the toolkit that asks people to reflect on unintended

consequences, and the toolkit can be used to circle back to evaluate the

success of a program.

Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla commented racial equity is looking at

equity from a holistic perspective - race gets at the underlying issues that

ultimately lift every other group up. They also recommended using the term

"feasible" rather than "realistic" in step five of the toolkit.

Village Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on how they are defining

the term "racial" in the racial equity toolkit and if they are referring to one

specific race.

Director Tchang responded they are defining race in a similar way as the

U.S. Census does and there is no specific focus on a single race when it

comes to the toolkit. The racial equity toolkit is designed to get at

disparities across all races, and all races experience disproportionate

impact of different decisions and policies throughout community and the

U.S.

Village Trustee Enyia thanks staff for all the hard work in putting the toolkit

together. He recommends focusing on the engagement process and

standardizing the engagement process so no stakeholders are left out of

the conversation.

VI. Adjourn

It was moved by Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla, seconded by Village Trustee

Robinson,to Adjourn. The motion was approved. The Meeting adjourned at 10:11

P.M., Monday, June 27, 2022.

Respectfully Submitted,

Deputy Clerk DeViller

7 -

AYES:

Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Enyia, Village

Trustee Parakkat, Village Trustee Robinson, Village Trustee Taglia, and Village

Trustee Walker-Peddakotla

NAYS:

ABSENT: