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Resident urges Saint Charles to buy locally, warns city over rising debt and proposed levy
Summary
At the Oct. 20 Saint Charles City Council meeting, resident Steve Leffler urged the city to use local tire vendors and raised concerns about the city’s debt levels and a proposed levy increase.
Steve Leffler, a Saint Charles resident, used the public-comment period at the Oct. 20 City Council meeting to urge the city to use local vendors for routine purchases and to raise concerns about the city’s outstanding debt and a proposed levy increase.
Leffler said the city bought tires through a national account, Commercial Tire, for purchase order 134852 totaling $2,696.76 despite having seven local tire shops. “We have 7 tire stores in this town, but we’re buying all of our tires through Commercial Tire, which does not have a presence in our town,” Leffler said. He recommended contracting with a local vendor that could match the national pricing program.
Leffler also presented a series of figures he said came from the City of St. Charles budget and debt documents. He said the city’s projected funds for fiscal 2025–26 are $223,000,000 and that total debt including IPA and IEPA obligations is $151,000,000. He said outstanding debt as of April 30, excluding IMEA, was $82,000,000, with $23,000,000 tied to TIF-related funds; he calculated a non-TIF debt of about $58,900,000 and said that equated to roughly 26% of general-fund revenue compared with a stated policy goal of 10%.
On taxes, Leffler said the average change in the consumer price index over the past four years was 4.95% and noted a proposed levy of 3.99%. He said a levy of 4.99% would be “not unreasonable” to keep pace with inflation or to use for debt reduction if inflation subsides. Those figures were presented by the commenter and were not introduced as official council action or verified by city staff during the meeting.
No council action or staff response was recorded in the meeting transcript on either the procurement question or the debt figures during the public-comment period. The meeting moved on after public comment to routine announcements and adjournment.
Leffler’s remarks were the primary substantive item during public comment at this meeting; other agenda items that evening were procedural or ceremonial."
