Votes at a glance: Lake Forest council actions, April 21, 2025

On April 21 the Lake Forest City Council approved a series of ordinances, appropriations, contracts and procurement items. Below are each action as recorded in the meeting and the roll-call tallies.

1) Approval — Comprehensive fiscal plan for fiscal year 2026 Outcome: Approved (8-0) Details: Adopted the comprehensive fiscal plan (operating and capital budgets, pay plan, financial policies); staff noted citywide revenues of about $143 million and expenses of about $144 million with a recommended transfer of an estimated FY25 surplus into the capital improvement fund (see fiscal plan article for details).

2) Ordinance — Supplemental appropriation for fiscal year 2024-25 (Laurel and Western Redevelopment Fund) Outcome: Approved by roll call (8-0) Details: Supplemental appropriation of $90,000 for the Laurel and Western Redevelopment Area fund to align appropriations with actual TIF increment financing receipts and lower-than-expected school impact fees; first reading and waiver of second reading were approved.

3) Ordinance — Municipal grocery tax (Chapter 39 amendment) adopting a 1% grocery tax effective Jan. 1, 2026 Outcome: Approved (8-0) Details: The council adopted an amendment to Chapter 39 to implement a local 1% grocery tax (the state had eliminated the prior 1% pass-through effective Jan. 1, 2026); staff noted a revenue loss of approximately $525,000 if the tax were not adopted and described Illinois Department of Revenue submission deadlines (to be effective Jan. 1, 2026 an ordinance must be filed by Oct. 1, 2025; alternative July 1, 2026 implementation requires an April 1, 2026 filing).

4) Omnibus approvals (seven items) — personnel policies/pay plan; liquor-license code amendments; professional services agreement for plan review/city engineering; supplemental bridge inspections; road salt purchase; park mowers; striping program extension Outcome: Approved as an omnibus block (8-0) Details: The council approved a set of seven items as read into the record; contract and purchase amounts were listed in the agenda packet (examples: up to $45,000 for plan-review engineering services; up to $59,686 for supplemental bridge inspections; $133,035 for road salt; $48,326 for three park mowers; $85,000 for line striping).

5) Contract Authorization — Recreation department pickleball instruction (JMPB LLC) Outcome: Approved (8-0) Details: Authorized an agreement/purchase-order-style arrangement with JMPB LLC for pickleball instruction with a not-to-exceed amount of $125,000 for fiscal year 2026; staff said the program is an 80/20 revenue split (80% to contractor, 20% to city) and that there's no guaranteed payment obligation beyond registration revenue.

6) Field rental fee adjustment (Deerpath athletic fields, year 2) Outcome: Approved (8-0) Details: Council approved staff Option 2, a $5-per-tier hourly increase for year two (August 2025'July 2026). Staff will reconvene a subcommittee to recommend a multi-year fee and field-replacement plan and return with tournament proposals.

7) Ordinances — Dissolve Parks and Recreation Board; dissolve Legal Committee (first readings) Outcome: Approved (first reading; roll call 8-0 for each) Details: Council voted to repeal city-code sections establishing the Parks and Recreation Board and the Legal Committee; mayor indicated volunteer positions could be reallocated to other boards or to ad-hoc committees for major projects.

Vote tally convention used at the meeting: roll call recorded eight yeas and no nays on each action listed above.