Palos Heights aldermen split over renovations to City Hall

By Nuha Abdessalam

Residents at last week’s city council meeting asked Palos Heights aldermen to scale back plans to renovate City Hall.

Aldermen Michael McGrogan, Don Bylut, Jack Clifford and Robert Basso are seemingly at odds with Aldermen Heather Begley, Brent Lewandowski, Jeffery Key and Jerry McGovern over plans to renovate City Hall.

At the February 6 meeting, Begley said, “We do have to fix other priorities like Harlem and the roads, more investment needs to be done in that and we have to have those conversations. But we can’t lose sight of the fact that we have to invest in this building.”

She said the renovation proposal has been discussed for 18 months and any further discussion would be a waste of tax dollars.

McGrogan believes there are other more important issues and added he was more interested in protecting taxpayers from unnecessary spending.

“We have about $25 million in reserve,” he said. “But this project and with other projects including a big water and sewer project, we could be talking about spending upwards of $8 million. That’s a lot of money to spend in a year. I’m just asking to approve necessary spending. Maybe we can defer some of this work.”

“As a 22-year alderman and current chairman of the finance committee, the city is sound financially,” he said. “It has been the finance committee’s objective to be conservative spenders. It appears we are drifting away from that approach on certain financial issues.”

According to McGrogan, the proposal in question entails three phases. Phase one would be renovate bathrooms and make at least some of them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It would also return the Building Department from the back of City Hall to the front of the building. The heating and air conditioning systems would also be renovated. Phase two would be to then remodel the back of the building and bring the electrical systems up to code. Phase three consist of smaller, cosmetic changes to City Hall.

He said bids for the work ranged from about $919,000 to $1.1 million. Begley said Phase one would cost about $913,000.

McGrogan said part of his concerns were about what exactly is spelled out in the bids.

“You start working on bathrooms and take out a wall and discover problems,” he said.

Residents at last week’s meeting were vocal about the plan asking why the city should spend so much on the renovation when they took to the podium during the public comment period.

“Are we making the best use of our city’s money by renovating six to seven new bathrooms alone in the first phase,” asked Linda Schiappa. “Are there no better cost-effective solutions without spending $2 million?”

“Just because we have the money now, doesn’t mean we need to spend it all,” said Dennis Hyker. “Illinois already ranks second highest in the country in state fees. Do we have to add to that?”

“Spending $2 million on City Hall sends a bad message when people are already hurting,” Hyker said. “Can we scale back?”

Maria DeCaprio Sunta, a resident of Palos Heights for her entire life, said there was too much confusion among residents and the aldermen.

“Palos Height is not a cheap place to live,” she said. “I don’t understand where specific enhancements are coming from. As residents we should have had input and communication. If you go over budget, as these projects tend to do, where does that money come from?”

Todd Probasco, president of the Palos Area Chamber of Commerce, asked, “Have citizens come together to view the plan? Do we have options in scaling and cutting back?”

Bylut said, “We should re-evaluate and address the three real needs, the more pressing needs that are pointed out and reflected in the minutes of two weeks ago.”

Lewandowski said, “Mrs. DeCaprio-Sunta made a profound statement when she said she was very confused by the information coming out to the public, and that’s our fault as aldermen.

“We must be transparent and provide truthful and accurate info to the public. There have been a lot of misstatements. The total projected cost was $1.7 million. We budgeted $1 million for phase one, but the bid came under budget.”

He said the committee team working on the project did everything it could to mitigate the cost.

“We discussed several components in this phase that need to be done. I’m not going to apologize to anyone bringing our bathrooms to ADA compliant. I’m not going to apologize for bringing up the code for our electrical.

“I want to ensure to do the best I can to give the accurate information to the public.”

Council members unanimously voted to defer the motion to Tuesday, Feb. 20, meeting.