(A) Costs and fees deposit. At the time of filing a petition, the applicant shall submit to the City Clerk a costs deposit in the form of a certified or cashier’s check made payable to “City of Villa Grove,” to pay the reasonable and necessary fees and costs of the city in processing and responding to the petition, including but not limited to the fees and cost of: city employee or staff review time, legal fees, expert witnesses, scientific testing, records or other investigations, data searches, notices, court reporters, transcription costs, consultants, the hearing officer, other expenses incurred by the city in conducting the review of the petition, the public hearing, and the city’s site location decision. The amount of the costs and fees deposited shall be determined by the City Council on a case-by-case basis.
(B) In the event the applicant files an amendment in accordance with ILCS Ch. 415, Act 5, § 39.2(e), an additional initial costs and fees deposit shall be delivered to the City Clerk at the same time as the filing of the amendment, and such deposit shall be in the same form as described in division (A), above. The amount of the additional initial costs and fees deposited, shall be determined by the City Council on a case-by-case basis.
(C) All fees and expenses incurred by the city as described in division (A) above, shall be paid from the fees and costs deposits as provided herein:
(1) Records of city-incurred fees and costs, including but not limited to relevant time records of city employees and staff and city consultants, to the extent the city is needing reimbursement of their time, are to be submitted by the persons creating such records to the Finance Director on a monthly basis.
(2) The Finance Director or his/her designee, shall organize the records and prepare and submit periodic reports to the City Board, City Clerk and the applicant, of invoices to or expenditures by the city. The actual invoices and bills submitted to the Finance Director and included in the report submitted to the City Board, City Clerk and applicant with all privileged and confidential information, if any, redacted. Inadvertent disclosure of confidential or privileged information by the city is not a waiver of confidentiality or privilege.
(3) Upon approval of each report, described in division (C)(2), above, by the City Council, the Finance Director may draw upon the applicant’s cost and fees deposits in the amount of the reported incurred costs and fees, or as otherwise provided by the City Council.
(4) In determining the fees to be paid to the city to reimburse the city for its employees or staff’s time involved in matters concerning the petition, the Finance Director shall determine a rate for each employee who submits a record of his/her time to the Finance Director, including in such rate, all costs of the city in compensating such employee or staff member, such as salary or wage, or benefits. The Finance Director shall include the rate it calculates per employee in the report described in division (C)(2), above.
(5) At any time the amount on deposit with the city falls below 10%, then, upon written demand from the Director of Finance, the applicant shall deposit, within 5 business days of receipt of the demand, an additional sum determined by the City Council, on a case-by-case basis, or the amount reasonably estimated to finish the process, whichever is greater. Any unpaid amount shall constitute a debt and the city shall recover its costs and attorneys’ fees if it is required to make a claim or commence a suit against the applicant and to recover the unpaid fees.
(6) Any portion of the fees and costs deposits that remains unexpended at the conclusion of the local site location review process (including all appeals and resolution of any applicant challenge to fees or costs), shall be returned to the applicant.
(7) Nothing herein limits an applicant’s ability to contest or object to the reasonableness of costs and expenses described herein.
(D) This section shall not be applicable where costs and fees, deposits, and/or payments have been established pursuant to a host agreement.
(Ord. 042604D, passed 4-26-04)