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Pekin council approves multiple contracts, tables CityLink and right-of-way items
Summary
At its July 13 meeting the Pekin City Council approved contracts for digital forensics, body cameras and GIS maintenance, authorized equipment purchases and passed a $25,000 regional economic-development contribution; council tabled a CityLink transit renewal and a proposed right-of-way vacation for more information.
Pekin’s City Council approved a string of routine contracts and purchases on July 13 while tabling two items for further staff follow-up.
In a 4-2 vote the council approved resolution 447-26/27 to provide $25,000 in annual support to the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, a regional organization city staff said helps market Pekin’s available sites. Josh Ray, a city staff member presenting the item, said GPEDC "connects us with utility companies" and provides services the city cannot easily supply in-house.
Council unanimously approved the yearly contract renewal with Magnet Forensics (resolution 449-26/27) used by law enforcement for mobile-device data extraction and parsing. Chief Raney described the GreyKey and parsing tools as "valuable" for extracting evidence from locked devices.
The council approved a five-year, $40,241 agreement with Axon for a body-worn camera system for the building department (resolution 450-26/27). Staff said the purchase covers eight cameras, seven licenses, docking/evidence storage and training, with $13,521 charged to the current fiscal year.
Other approvals included a routine annual maintenance renewal with Esri for city GIS services, and the purchase of a T 7,500 spray patch machine for street repair (approved 5-0 with one abstention). City staff said the vendor has one unit available for delivery within two weeks and recommended keeping the older machine as a backup.
Council also approved an agreement with CivicPlus to implement Doc Access, software that converts PDFs to searchable HTML to assist ADA compliance on the city website, and passed an ordinance to retroactively document a TIF intergovernmental agreement with the park district covering a previously reimbursed splash pad project (no additional money requested).
Two items were tabled for further information: a renewal of the intergovernmental agreement with Greater Peoria Mass Transit District (CityLink) — staff reported no price increase but several council members asked that CityLink representatives attend to answer route timing, ridership and safety questions — and a proposed vacation of a small public right-of-way near Davis and Malvinas Streets, which staff said could require costly survey work and property-owner notification. Council voted 6-0 to table both items and directed staff to invite CityLink and notify affected property owners ahead of the July 27 meeting.
The meeting concluded with a unanimous motion to enter executive session to discuss real-property purchase/lease, pricing and probable or imminent litigation under the cited Illinois statute.
Actions at a glance: resolution 447-26/27 (GPEDC support) — approved 4-2; resolution 448-26/27 (CityLink renewal) — tabled to July 27 (6-0); resolution 449-26/27 (Magnet Forensics) — approved 6-0; resolution 450-26/27 (Axon body cameras) — approved 6-0; resolution 451-26/27 (right-of-way vacation process) — tabled to July 27 (6-0); resolution 452-26/27 (Esri renewal) — approved 6-0; resolution 453-26/27 (spray patch machine) — approved 5-0, 1 abstain; resolution 454-26/27 (CivicPlus Doc Access) — approved 6-0; ordinance 4414 (park district/TIF cleanup) — approved 6-0; ordinance 4415 (sale of Kenmore property to Randy Linton) — approved 6-0; motion to enter executive session — approved 6-0.
No formal vote was taken on proposed policy changes to redevelopment incentives; staff will return with specific grant recommendations for individual projects at a future meeting.
