City staff told the board that benchmarking compliance for 2024 is about 65 percent and estimated roughly 150 covered buildings have not reported required data. Staff stressed that without higher reporting rates the city cannot hold covered buildings to building performance standards and asked the board to recommend which subset of noncompliant buildings the city should prioritize for outreach and assistance.

Board members described common characteristics of noncompliant properties: under‑resourced owners or managers, lack of technical capacity, out‑of‑state ownership, poor receipt of mailed notices, and complex metering. Members recommended strategies including prioritizing large or clustered buildings, reaching owners with multiple properties, door‑to‑door outreach in specific wards, and pairing outreach with immediate resources and technical assistance.

Staff said the city switched to the Beam (Clearly Energy) benchmarking tool in 2025 and that it provides training and webinars; staff also pointed to free support (e.g., Illinois Green Alliance) and local nonprofits that have done benchmarking support at reduced rates. Members and staff discussed that initial benchmarking often takes longer (staff estimated about three hours of hands‑on time for a first report, with subsequent annual updates taking less time), but complexity and metering can increase effort and cost.

Next steps: staff will prepare sifted lists for the next meeting showing noncompliant buildings by size, ownership class and ward, create maps showing clusters, and propose a prioritized outreach plan that could use limited FY2026 funds for planning and technical assistance.