Geneva alderpersons recommended seeking a 2026 referendum for a new $59.4 million police facility, a question that could be put to voters on the March 17 Primary Election ballot.

Alderpersons also have recommended asking voters whether they support the city becoming home rule in a referendum that could appear on a ballot within two years.

After 90 minutes of debate Monday night, Geneva’s Committee of the Whole, voted 7-2 with one absent to recommend in favor of the police facility question. Third Ward Alderperson Larry Furnish was absent. First Ward Alderperson Anaïs Bowring and Fourth Ward Alderperson Martha Paschke cast the two no votes.

Alderpersons voted 9-0 with one absent in favor of asking voters to support home rule, but sought to push that question out as far as 2028 to give them enough time for voter education. They also did not want another referendum so soon after asking for a bond issue.

The City Council will take final action.

Fourth Ward Alderperson Amy recommended going with the top dollar choice for the police station.

“Our police station has been remodeled to the point where it can no longer serve,” Mayer said.

“When I toured four years ago ... they were not able to pull a police car in and have two people assist moving somebody from the police car. They have to do things outside and move people into the police station. These are things that are serious problems,” Mayer said. “I support going to referendum as soon as possible.”

Mayer said she supported the top dollar option, as the question would be for public safety. Any funds approved but not used for a full-sized garage and a firing range could be transferred for fire department facility needs, especially Fire Station No. 2.

“There’s a lot of worrying about, ‘What happens if? What happens if?’” Mayer said. “We know what happens if we don’t do anything. Nothing’s going to happen.”

The referendum would add $272 to the property tax bill of a house valued at $350,000, or $23 a month, officials said.

City Administrator Alexandra Voigt provided some history for the current police facility, saying that it was first a car dealership. It was then home to the city’s fire department and emergency dispatch – Tri-Com Central Dispatch – with the police department on the first floor.

“The Geneva PD expanded after Tri-Com and our fire department had facilities built for them,” Voigt said. “It’s my understanding that the Geneva Police Department has not had a facility that was built to be a police facility.”

Voigt said policing has changed in the last five years, as the council has had to vote for additional equipment, such as body-worn cameras and computers.

“We don’t just need a car and a person anymore,” Voigt said. “They have a lot of technology and equipment that they are responsible for maintaining, understanding how to use – all of those require space. Any time you have technology, you are introducing a public records component, which means you have technology space, you need extra people, there’s extra time and all of that takes up physical space as well.”

The current facility also does not accommodate revised police training requirements, so police used other spaces in city buildings when available, Voigt said.

“It doesn’t create the ability for us to have a consistent program of training that meets these state requirements for our officers to be certified,” Voigt said.

Bowring and Paschke supported going for a home rule referendum first. Home rule communities have more flexibility in financing, such as with sales tax. Municipalities become home rule either by population – 25,000 – or by voter approval. With fewer than 22,000 people, Geneva needs voter approval.

“I believe our task here is to set the best policy for the city and to trust the consultants and the staff to do the work,” Paschke said.

“A lot of the questioning and doubting and fear around the idea of home rule really gets down to the tarmac of whether consultants can educate the public about home rule and the flexibility that it gives us to pay for these facilities improvements,” Paschke said.

Paschke said every conversation she has had with residents about home rule ended with them saying they wished people were more educated about it.

First Ward Alderperson William Malecki said he supported home rule “more for local control than anything.”

“Having those tools in the tool box and educating our residents why home rule is good for Geneva is something that is worthwhile,” Malecki said.

Malecki also supported going to a referendum for the police facility first, as construction costs increase every six months.

“I think getting the police station ... out to voters and getting it approved sooner rather than later is something that is needed,” Malecki said. “We need to get that feather in the cap and to keep rolling.”