The Taylorville City Council met in regular session Monday night. The meeting started off with the local Citizens for Education group addressing the council. The group gave the council some information regarding the progress of state education funding reform, stating how State Senator Andy Manar’s plan which the group supports had passed through both the council process, as well as being passed in the Illinois State Senate, however was stuck in the State House due to House Speaker Michael Madigan not calling it, or anything for that matter, to the floor. The Citizens for Education group informed the council that without any assistance from the state, an idea that’s quickly becoming reality, the school would have to issue a referendum for more local funding in order to keep the school operating. The Citizens for Education group said how should Taylorville fail to fund its school system, law dictates that the State itself could step in and take over the running of the school district.
Another item that was mentioned during the opening of the meeting was the public hearing to consider the request of the Grace Baptist Church a Special Use to build an addition onto the worship center of the existing structure, and add an additional addition to the building to better join the old and new structures together. There was a motion to vote on an ordinance to allow the church the special use of the property to build the additions, which ultimately passed 7-0.
Several other resolutions were discussed at Monday night’s Taylorville City Council meeting, one of which was an alarm agreement with FBS Inc. and the city of Taylorville. It was pointed out during discussion that the agreement was a three year agreement, which the city would be locked into, regardless of whether or not the city owned the building that the alarm was installed in anymore. The resolution ultimately passed 7-0 with the agreement to amend the language of the agreement with FBS Inc. that the city would be able to opt out of the agreement at any time under the right circumstances.
A rather controversial item that was discussed during the meeting was a motion that had come out of the ordinance committee to recommend to the City Council to direct the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance that provides and adds a definition of “gross revenue” in sections 3-3-1 and 3-3-21 of the Taylorville City Code. The discussion was to help better define what businesses could or could not have video gaming on the premises. Alderman Shawn Burtle, who had opposed to motion during committee, commented saying how he didn’t understand why the statue couldn’t be less complicated in terms of what businesses could have the video gaming.
The motion ultimately passed 5-2, after some lengthy thought by several of the alderman before they casted their vote. City Attorney Rocci Romano gave some updates to the council, as did Mayor Brotherton, and the meeting adjourned at approximately 8:30 PM.
