CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
title
Approve the 2025 Legislative Priorities and proposed Legislative Review Process
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DEPARTMENT: City Manager's Office
SUBMITTED BY: Marcie Schatz, Assistant to the City Manager
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
In 2024, the City Council established the following goals:
1. Strengthen relationships and regularly communicate priorities with legislators
2. Actively leverage and collaborate with regional partners such as DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference (DMMC), Illinois Municipal League (IML), Pension Fairness for Illinois Coalition (PFIC), Will County Governmental League (WCGL), and the Illinois Municipal Utility Agency (IMUA)
3. Work with community partners including the Chamber of Commerce
4. Formalize capital requests for state and federal grant opportunities
5. Identify the appropriate scope and opportunities for future lobbyist engagement
6. Actively monitor and support/oppose legislation
A summary of activities related to these goals is attached as Exhibit A.
The City Council also approved the 2024 Legislative Priorities (Exhibit B) which served as the basis for most of the City's legislative activity in the past year. Our renewed efforts and increased legislative focus resulted in a number of lessons learned which are outlined below and will help as we begin 2025.
Lessons Learned
1. State and federal legislators want to understand our priorities and get feedback on bills. Specific examples and supportive data help legislators understand our perspective.
2. Now that we have established relationships with our legislators, we need to maintain those relationships.
3. Many bills go nowhere and many never even have a hearing. Often, bills that make media headlines do not move and or require a City position. Specifically, in the 2024 spring legislative session, 2,969 bills were filed with only 465 bills (~15%) passing both chambers and making it to the Governor's desk.
4. The City...
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