Correction, September 20, 2026. We reported the $4.1M transformer award was tabled. The minutes show it passed 8-0 (M-1). Our error. We also had the kratom testimony backwards: we described testimony about deaths from synthetic kratom, and the comment in question said the opposite. Both are corrected below; the rest of the corrections are in our September 20 correction.
One kratom speaker had driven far enough that Council held a vote just to let them talk past the sign-up deadline. Tuesday ran to 10:14 PM.
What passed
Council approved the transformer purchase (M-1) 8-0: $4,096,400 to WEG Transformer USA LLC plus a 3% contingency. Resident John Doyle asked Council to table the item until the electric utility’s finances are clarified. No motion to table was made, and no vote on tabling was taken. The minutes disagree with themselves on the bid number: the item header reads Bid 26-124, matching the agenda, and the motion text reads 26-1242 once.
Council pulled four items for separate votes. The rest of the consent agenda cleared 8-0: the fall meeting schedule (I-2), $120K for garage floor work at Fire Station 4 (I-3), a two-year, $137K Debtbook software deal with Fifth Asset Inc. (I-4), a $101K sole-source award to Tyler Technologies (I-5), an $8,505 change order taking Baxter & Woodman’s water tank work to $301K (I-6), a $51,000 change order on the PayByPhone contract (I-7), a $52,800 bump bringing Kluber Inc.’s architectural contract to $1.3M (I-8), the October 10 marching band permit (I-10), and a resolution on older closed-session minutes (I-13).
The August 18 meeting minutes (I-1) cleared 7-1, with Councilman McBroom the lone no vote. Council discussed the downtown parking deck funding decision and how those minutes reflected it; no reason is attributed to any member.
Council passed the kratom retail ban (I-11) 8-0. Six speakers took the podium, each recorded as opposing the ordinance or opposing it as written, and written comments came in on both sides. One came from the mother of a 22-year-old whose death was ruled the toxic effects of mitragynine, the primary alkaloid that occurs naturally in the kratom leaf. She told Council her son did not ingest 7-OH or semi-synthetic derivatives, and she asked Council to ban all forms of kratom. The ordinance covers retail sales and draws no line between natural and synthetic. Police Chief Jason Arres said current lab testing for criminal investigations cannot tell the two apart.
The happy hour ordinance (I-12) also passed 8-0, needing six yes votes to clear. It allows specials consistent with state law and cuts them off at 7 p.m. locally. The motion kept three existing provisions: licensees must post their prices, no discount greater than 50% of a drink’s scheduled price, and no serving two or more drinks of alcoholic liquor to one person at once, except wine by the bottle or carafe.
Monarch Landing’s NorthGate development cleared every step. The public hearing (J-1) closed on a unanimous voice vote, with no roll call and no counts recorded. The age-restriction release on Lot 1B (J-2) needed six votes and got eight; the PUD change, the plat and the sign permit (J-3, J-4, J-5) each cleared 8-0. City Manager Krieger told Council that a street named for Candace Parker doesn’t fit the city’s naming conventions. The exception has to be included in the motion, he said, and its inclusion in the plat is sufficient to approve it with the motion.
What failed
The $8.3M, three-year camera and access-control contract with SDI Presence LLC (M-2) failed 6-2, with Mayor Wehrli and Councilman Holzhauer voting yes. Arres told Council the city runs 442 cameras and 404 access readers now, with the existing systems nearing end of life; the contract would have replaced 200 cameras and added 271 more, plus 98 access readers. Council discussed return on investment, hiring more officers, the AI capability in the tools, liability and privacy. John Doyle discussed transparency and questioned the need for more cameras; four people sent written comments, two asking Council to postpone the vote.
The Willow Road storm sewer recapture agreement (I-9) failed 1-7, with Mayor Wehrli the lone yes. Two residents, Richard Phillips and Patricia Pfister, asked Council to deny it. Hynes told Council that the homes on that block fall under the city’s storm sewer gap program, and that this would have been Naperville’s first recapture agreement for a storm sewer. The minutes record no floor amendment and no interest rate, only that Council discussed impacts on the homeowners and interest charges.
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