VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
DECEMBER 21, 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Services Committee meeting was conducted live remotely
via telecommunications.
CALL TO ORDER
Trustee Mark Gaffino called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Trustee Mark Gaffino, Trustee Michael Lowery, Trustee Tao Martinez, Mayor Dale Berman, Village Administrator Steve Bosco, Finance Director Bill Hannah, Village Engineer Brandon Tonarelli, Public Works Director John Laskowski, Police Chief David Fisher, Deputy Police Chief Scott Buziecki, IT Administrator Dave Arndt
AUDIENCE COMMENTS – None
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. Approval of the Services Committee Minutes dated October 19, 2020
Motion for approval made by Trustee Lowery and seconded by Mayor Berman. All in favor. Motion approved.
NEW BUSINESS
1. CERT EMA/Code Designation
Chief Fisher explained there were two items here both related to emergency management and turned it over to Deputy Chief Buziecki to explain in further detail.
DC Buziecki said the first item was an ordinance update to an ordinance passed in 1977 which specified that the Emergency Management Coordinator position was to be selected by the Mayor with consultation of the Fire Chief. In 2011 DC Buziecki was appointed to that role after there had been a period of no one running Emergency Management, but that action was done so not knowing of the existence of this ordinance. The update would bring the ordinance in line with what current operations are, which would be the Mayor appointing the position with consultation of the Police Chief instead of the Fire Department. Trustees expressed their support to the change.
The second item is to operate the under the name of Emergency Management rather than CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) as DC Buziecki explained that the program has both expanded beyond the CERT training program – adding things like search and rescue and sheltering programs – and that Emergency Management is more intuitive to explaining the operations of the program and is in line with what many other departments use. The CERT program would remain as a disaster education program and the more active volunteers in that program would become Emergency Management specialists. DC Buziecki also said that the CERT program is a 7 week, 21 hour program that can be a big task and commitment, but Emergency Management can be broken up into smaller courses with volunteers being trained in just one specific category and that will help focus efforts. With this change the Intergovernmental Agreement with the Fire Department would need minor updates.
Trustee Gaffino mentioned that the CERT vehicle, previously outfitted with orange lights, was requested to be outfitted with blue and white lights so that the colors would carry a little more weight, but not red, white and blue so as not to be confused with an actual police squad. He said they’ve had reports of people driving around traffic control and not obeying their instructions. All trustees expressed their support of blue and white lights for the vehicles, and Trustee Martinez also indicated he would not be opposed to red. All trustees expressed support of these changes.
2. Municipal Code Changes – Village Engineer
Village Engineer Brandon Tonarelli introduced a total of three updates to the Village’s municipal code, all for Tile 16 – Subdivisions.
The first change was in section 16.12.010 to add additional language that would provide flexibility to Village Staff to allow for field changes during construction or development projects. Engineer Tonarelli explained that if a developer requested a minor deviation this normally would have to go through the Board process and that can add significant time and delay to a project. With the change, Staff could approve minor deviations and allow construction to proceed more quickly. Engineer Tonarelli provided examples of how the Village currently has a deadline of November 21 for asphalt binding, but IDOT allows it to be placed at 40 degrees or higher, and in the event of a warm week in a winter month this project could thus be approved and flexibility provided. He provided another example of during public improvements how Village code requires full joint to joint curb of 10 feet and how if there was a defect between two sections that under this new language Staff approval that curb could be replaced at just 11 feet instead of 20 feet without needing to bring it before the Board.
Trustee Lowery asked for clarification between what a minor and major deviation was and Engineer Tonarelli said that decision would be made at the discretion of the Village Engineer, although Staff would also discuss it. He said they were leaning towards minor things during construction and a time issue and said they didn’t want to define it to allow for flexibility. Trustee Lowery expressed concerns in the future with such a model, noting that as the Board and Staff exists now he has no problem with it but that that will not always be the case and there’s too much autonomy without the Board’s approval. He asked for language clarifying some operation difference between major and minor and suggested perhaps ac cost basis. Village Administrator Bosco said that could be done, just like how the zoning code spells out minor and major deviations. Director Laskowski said the idea was more to help private developers to keep on schedule and with their own costs. He said it was hard to quantify a cost as it was more to do with the contractor’s funds than the Village funds, but said he felt there was a way they could define those differences.
The second item Engineer Tonarelli presented was adding language to 16.12.100 in the sump pump section to require an above grade external overflow for discharge. Many contractors already do this, but he added recently they had found one in a recent inspection that did not have these guidelines, and putting them into place would give the Village direct language to enforce it.
The third update was modifying 16.12.100-f , the Stormwater ordinance, to follow the Kane County Stormwater ordinance. It currently incorporates old data from Illinois water survey data, but by referencing the Kane County Stormwater Ordinance the most up to date model will always be available and the Village will thus always be compliant and not need to update the code or table. Trustee Lowery said it sounded good.
OLD BUSINESS – Administrator Bosco said the Public Works walkthrough is going to be brought directly to COW since it is a project the entire Board would be interested in. The goal is to have that item on a COW agenda in January.
OTHER INFORMATION – None
TRUSTEE COMMENTS – None
ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn made by Mayor Berman and seconded by Trustee Lowery. All in favor. Motion approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Natalie F. Stevens
Deputy Village Clerk
