Highland Park City Council Holds First Meeting Since July 4 Shooting

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The Highland Park City Council met at City Hall Monday for the first time since a mass shooting three weeks earlier at the city's Independence Day left seven people dead and more than 50 people wounded.

Mayor Nancy Rotering led a moment of silence to remember and honor the victims and thanked city employees, volunteers and community members who sacrificed their own safety and ran into danger to save lives.

"Collectively, we experienced a violent event that will impact each of us in different ways and at different times. Understandably, many of us are feeling a range of emotions. None of us are alone in this process," Rotering said.

"We will encourage and lean on each other, finding the strength to move forward together as one community. Connections to each other and making use of the many programs and services available will carry us through our darkest hours," she said. "At this difficult time, it is imperative that we respect and care for one another and recognize that some of us will need more time and extra support."

Rotering recounted her two trips to Washington, D.C., in the wake of the shooting. In the first, she attended a July 11 White House event celebrating the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act the previous month in the wake of a mass shooting in a school in Uvalde, Texas.

Before the event, Rotering, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Highland Park Police Cmdr. Chris O'Neill met with President Joe Biden, who agreed that more must be done to reduce gun violence, she said.

The Highland Park mayor was back in Washington last week to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she shared her account of what happened on July 4 and reiterated her call for a federal ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

"It is important to note," Rotering said Monday, "that in 2013, in the wake of Sandy Hook, we sat on this dais and we banned assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. We knew that a federal ban would be the most effective, but a local ban reflecting the values of this community was the only option available to us under the law. Nothing has changed and we need help from all levels of government. We need to pursue all options. We need to save lives now."

Following the hearing, Rotering visited the White House again to meet with senior Biden advisor Julie Rodriguez. She also met with Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Lincolnwood native and Niles West High School alum, who shared the following statement, the mayor said.

“I grew up just 20 minutes away from Highland Park, so I know that this is an extraordinary community. I also know that you have had to show enormous strength over the past several weeks. The horrific mass shooting that occurred here devastated this community and our country," Garland's statement said, according to Rotering. "While nothing can undo this tragedy, the Justice Department is committed to doing everything we can alongside our state and local partners to provide this community with the support and resources it needs as we work together to end the plague of gun violence.”

On Thursday, Biden released his Safer America Plan, which calls for $37 billion in spending to fund the hiring and training of police officers, provide grants to state and local criminal justice programs and violence intervention programs and increase funding to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Following City Manager Ghida Neukirch provided an update about the response by city staff and councilmembers after the shooting.

"We are grateful to the 115 government agencies that provided support during and after the incident, continuing to today," Neukirch said.

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Staff have set up a new email address at HPCares@cityhpil.com for people to send ideas for discussing initiatives in the future, such as murals, gardens, signs and activities, according to the city manager.

"It is important to note that the city plans to create a lasting memorial and remembrance of the victims, based on public input and also input of those touched closest by this tragedy," she said. "On the advice of the Department of Justice victim services experts, we will not engage in this process in the immediate future, as it is important to take time to allow the community and those most affected by this incident to grieve."

Neukirch recounted how councilmembers, who were taking part in the parade, and Corporation Counsel Steve Elrod, who was attending with his family, convened an emergency meeting and declared a state of emergency in the immediate wake of the shooting.

City officials subsequently entered into several agreements on an emergency basis, including a professional services agreement with former Councilmember Alyssa Knobel's communications firm and a security agreement with Downers Grove-based P4 Security Solutions, which were unanimously approved as part of Monday's agenda.

The City Council also unanimously approved the creation of a new grant program for businesses that were forced to temporarily shutter for nearly a week after the shooting.

A total of 145 businesses in the city's Central Business District were closed until July 10 while the FBI and other authorities conducted an investigation.

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Under the terms of the grant program approved Monday, business owners can receive money to cover lost revenue resulting from the closure, as long as those loses are not duplicated by insurance, donations or other grants.

Restaurants are eligible for reimbursement of up to 75 percent of lost revenue. Retailers and service businesses are eligible to be reimbursed at up to 50 percent of lost revenue.

Finance Director Julie Logan said a little more than half of the $500,000 in initial funding for the project will come from unspent American Rescue Plan Act money, while the rest will come from the city's sustainability and general funds.

If businesses leave the city within a year of receiving the grant, they will have to pay it all back. The city will be owed half the grant amount if the business leaves in one to two years, according to the agreement. Applications opened Tuesday and remain open through Aug. 16.

Concluding her opening remarks at the July 25 City Council meeting, Rotering said the shooting attacked the community's collective sense of humanity but will not define the city going forward.

"Our coming together in the wake of this vicious attack, our outpouring of support for one another, and our heeding the call to action will make a tangible difference and speak volumes about each of us and our community now and for years to come," she said, concluding her remarks. "We are one. We are Highland Park."

More Patch coverage of the Highland Park July 4 Parade shooting