Council approves consent agenda: sales-tax ordinance, motor-vehicle licensing repeal and Cook County hazard-mitigation plan; resident raises concerns about lost

The Palos Park Village Council approved multiple routine measures on its consent agenda Monday, including a sales-tax ordinance, repeal of a motor-vehicle licensing code section and adoption of the Cook County multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan.

The council passed Ordinance 2025-09 to approve an increase in Palos Park's non-home-rule municipal retailers' occupation tax and non-home-rule municipal service occupation tax to the maximum statutory rate of 1%. The ordinance amends parts of the Palos Park Village Code as described in the packet. The council also approved Ordinance 2025-10 repealing Part 4, Title 6, Chapter 462 of the Palos Park Village Code related to motor-vehicle licensing (vehicle stickers), removing the sticker requirement from the code. The council adopted Resolution 2025-R03 accepting the 2024 Cook County multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan and committing the village to participate in future updates on a five-year cycle.

All items on the consent agenda were moved, seconded and approved by roll call. Deputy Clerk roll-call confirmations recorded affirmative votes from council members.

During the citizens' comment period after consent votes, resident Mary Anne Hanson addressed the council about the vehicle-sticker repeal and broader ordinance changes on the consent agenda. She said residents may not have been adequately informed about the changes and raised a revenue calculation comparing prior sticker revenue to sales-tax receipts, citing 2,023 housing units and an estimated $121,380 potential sticker revenue under prior rates. She urged outreach to inform residents and new households about fees and deadlines.

Mayor Melinda Walters responded that the village had tracked a downward trend in vehicle-stick er purchases, that mailing notices are sent to new residents, and that enforcement and staff time required to administer sticker compliance was a factor in the decision to repeal the sticker requirement. She also noted that the village's half-percent sales tax generates about $325,000 annually and that removing the sticker was intended to ease burdens on residents, offset by broader sales-tax revenue shared by anyone who shops in Palos Park.

Mary Anne also raised parking and kiosk fee calculations for the train-station parking program and said the village should pursue outreach to nonpaying residents; the mayor said village staff would follow up and offered to provide more information.