City of Monmouth City Council met Feb. 17
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
I. CALL TO ORDER & PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mayor Rod Davies called the meeting to order in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 100 East Broadway at 6:00 p.m. and led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
II. ROLL CALL
City Clerk Melissa Teel called the roll and those answering Present were: Aldermen Roger Teel, Brad Bone, Scott Weber, Brian Daw and Jim Conard Absent: Aldermen Juan Pinedo, Kevin Ferry and John VanVleet Also Present: Mayor Rod Davies, City Clerk Melissa Teel, City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher, City Attorney Marcum Spears, Communications Director Ken Helms, MFD Chief Casey Rexroat, MPD Chief Joe Switzer, Public Works Director Brayden Bledsoe and Building and Zoning Director Joe Clark
III. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
A. Approval of the February 2, 2026 Council Meeting Minutes as presented
It was moved by Alderman Teel and seconded by Alderman Conard to approve the minutes. AYE: Aldermen Teel, Weber, and Conard PASS: Aldermen Bone and Daw NAY: None
MOTION CARRIED.
IV. PRESENTATIONS
A. City Clerk Melissa Teel swore in two new fire fighters Benjamin Ketchum and Donnivan Reed.
V. CONSENT AGENDA
A. Approval of the Bills
It was moved by Alderman Teel and seconded by Alderman Daw to approve the bills as presented. AYE: Aldermen Bone, Weber, Daw, Conard, and Teel. NAY: None
MOTION CARRIED.
VI. COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
A. Chief Switzer presented the Police Department Annual report as follows: 43 arrests were made, 91 citations were issued, 2611 calls came into dispatch, 1541 calls were handled by MPD, 2688 calls were handled out by the dispatch center, 11 accidents were handled, and the officers worked 18 grant hours. Officers spent 10 hours in court for various ordinance violations and criminal cases. Chief Switzer submitted the traffic stop data to the state of Illinois. MPD conducted 1,053 traffic stops in 2025, which is the most traffic stops made by the department since 2016. Chief took part in zoom meeting with Quicket in reference to the ECitation program. The MPD received a grant from Immanuel Baptist Church for $6,577.95. The grant allowed the department to replace their defibrillators that are kept in the squad cars and were extremely outdated. There were several work anniversaries including Deputy Chief Bratcher-28 years, Officer Jared Beckman-11 years, Officer Gara Huston-2 years, dispatcher Julie Richardson- 27 years and dispatcher Alexis Johnston-5 years.
Officers continued state mandated training. Chief attended several classes including one on Illinois trust and voices act and one pertaining to executive leadership. Several squad cars were taken in for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance for operational concerns. Looking forward, the department will be deploying the new Taser10s and will be going on board with the new ECitations which will be coming in the near future.
B. Chief Rexroat presented the Fire Department December report as follows: there were 82 calls for the month to start the year off. He stated that he didn’t go back and look at the stats for the past years but that was the lowest number of calls the department has had for quite some time. Chief Rexroat extended a thank you to Brad Bone for conducting some courses for the firefighters over a few different days so no one had to come in on over time to attend. Brad used to be an instructor at the Illinois Fire Services Institute. Work anniversaries for the month included Craig Cozadd- 21 years and Gary Carson- 13 years. The department talked with the police and fire commission and set a new test date for April 18th to get a new list started for future positions. The application for that has been updated and will do some advertising for the test date next week. The two new firefighters that were swore in will start academy on March 2nd and have a few classes following that and then will be back with the department.
C. Mayor explained that the next item is a discussion on proposed rate increases at Citizens Lake Campground for the upcoming camping season. The proposed rates will raise the price $5 per night, $10 per week, and $25 per month for RVs and the tent camping and dump fee remain the same. Alderman Weber asked when the last time they were raised and City Clerk Melissa Teel replied they had been increased the year before but did not get increased enough. Alderman Daw stated that he has noticed that there are campgrounds that will charge people if they want to charge their electric vehicles. It was moved by Alderman Conard and seconded by Alderman Daw to raise the rates at the campground.
AYE: Aldermen Weber, Daw, Conard Teel and Bone. NAY: None
MOTION CARRIED.
VII. ORDINANCES
A. Mayor Davies explained that the ordinance was an annual ordinance that is a housekeeping matter where we reallocate our home rule volume cap for debt service for issuing bonds back to the economic development authority. He explained that we have no plans to issue any bonds to use it and it helps support bigger economic development projects in the region. It was moved by Alderman Daw and seconded by Alderman Teel to approve the ordinance.
AYE: Aldermen Conard, Teel, Bone, Weber and Daw. NAY: None
City Attorney Marcum Spears explained that since there were only five council members present, the ordinance would need to come back for a second reading because it takes 6 votes to pass on the first reading.
VIII. RESOLUTIONS
IX. EXECUTIVE SESSION
X. REGULAR SESSION
XI. OTHER BUSINESS
XII. ADJOURNMENT
A. Alderman Daw moved to adjourn the February 17th meeting at 6:21 p.m. and Alderman Teel seconded the motion. MOTION CARRIED by unanimous voice vote with the exception of Alderman Pinedo, Ferry and VanVleet who were absent.
https://www.cityofmonmouth.com/sites/g/files/vyhlif7191/f/agendas/february_17_2026_council_meeting_minutes.pdf
