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Joliet City Council Meeting – NORTHPOINT HEARING
December 15, 2020 @ 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Hearing for annexation of ~1360 acres to Industrial will be held.
Attend in person or sign up for phone-in comments.
The next hearing is during the Council Meeting on December 15, 2020 at 6:30pm. Comments are so important even if you think the Joliet Council vote is hopeless. Everything you say and everything you get Northpoint to say becomes part of the public record which gives us avenues to continue to fight this.
I just want to explain how to make a comment by phone at the Joliet hearings in case anybody is doing this for the first time:
1.) You sign up at the following link by 6:30pm on Monday December 14, 2020 (24 hours before the hearing). It takes less than a minute to sign up, you enter your name and select the hearing “12/15/2020 Council Meeting”. You should receive a confirmation email. You can also sign up by calling Joliet at (815) 724-3800. Monday-Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm.
https://www.joliet.gov/departments/city-clerk-s-office/meeting-schedule-procedure
2.) On the evening of the hearing, you can watch the hearing on JC-TV if you get that channel, or on You Tube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/user/JolietTV. The live feed for the hearing should start at 6:31pm.
3.) NorthPoint will present first. This is sworn testimony and you are supposed to be allowed to question them on anything they say. Then the people who show up in person make their comments. Following this, the call-in people are called in the order they signed up, so it is almost impossible to predict when they will call you.
4.) Your phone will ring with an 815 number, my last two were 815-724-4000 and 815-724-3780. A nice lady will speak to you and just tell you the rules and then put you on hold.
5.) Once you are on hold, you then hear the hearing through the phone like you were on a conference call. You are muted by the system (they can’t hear you even if your phone is not on mute). If you are watching the hearing through You Tube or JC-TV, now would be the time to silence that.
6.) In my experience, they put me on hold when there were two people ahead of me. So, I would be patched in while someone was speaking and then after that person was done there was still one more person in front of me, so there is no super panic if you need to find your notes, move to a quiet place, or grab a drink.
7.) When it is your turn, a computerized lady voice will say “you are unmuted”. That’s how you know you are up. I usually say my name at this point. They will confirm you are there and then ask to swear you in. You do not have to give your address even if they ask for it.
8.) Once you are sworn in you can give your comment. If you say anything insulting, they will cut you off. The time limit is unclear; historically it has either been 4 minutes or no limit. It is also not clear if they will allow us to ask questions, but you certainly can try. Even if they shut you down, you will learn how to use the word germane in a sentence (thanks Regis!).
9.) Once you are done the system will cut you off and you can go back to watching it online or on TV.
10.) Pat yourself on the back. You just helped in the effort to Stop Northpoint!
Thank you so much for considering commenting, we need everybody’s ideas and personal stories about how this will affect their lives.