The Naperville City Council has rejected a city staff recommendation to end the use of Municipal Center meeting rooms by non-governmental organizations and community groups.

Staff made the request out of concern for security as well as billing and reservation system challenges and a significant drop in room bookings, officials said.

“We have meetings that are occurring on evenings where we do not have city staff responsible for folks who are in the building,” said Marcie Schatz, assistant to the Naperville city manager.

A security guard at the entrance lets people in, Schatz said, but “it’s not a city employee who’s tracking the folks coming in, making sure that every person who has come in has left the building in case of an emergency in the building.”

The second issue stems from the city’s billing system, which Schatz said is a manual process that started 10 years ago and can be difficult to manage. City staff also use a calendar rather than a formal reservation system to book meeting rooms, which is burdensome, according to a city memo.

Beyond that, meeting room reservations have declined drastically, a change attributed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2015, about 900 room reservations were made annually by outside organizations but now the number is about 200, the memo said.

“This proposal does, unfortunately, kind of strike me as the latest in a series of changes which have the effect of making Naperville residents feel less welcome in the Municipal Center,” resident Tim Messer told the council at the meeting. “Doing things online is convenient, including having meetings, and it’s great to have that option, but it’s not and will never be a full replacement for in-person service.”

Local organizations also pushed back against the suggestion, arguing that the center’s meeting rooms are important to outside groups’ operations.

“We have really appreciated using the meeting rooms here at the Municipal Center, and especially every other month for our membership events, which are always at least 30 people and sometimes as many as 90,” said Jane Burke, speaking on behalf of Naperville Preservation Inc.

The most comparable rental room system is through Naperville Public Library, which offers “six larger meeting room options ranging in capacity from 40 to 150 people and conference room rentals for smaller meetings with capacity up to 15 people,” the city memo said. By comparison, the largest number of people for a meeting at the Municipal Center is about 100, according to the city website.

Other agencies that offer rental rooms include the Naperville Park District, Indian Prairie School District 204 and Naperville School District 203, the memo said.

But the reality is more complicated, according to Burke. Naperville Public Library’s booking system can be difficult to use and some of the other meeting room options noted in the city memo are in less accessible locations with fewer options for parking, she said.

“I’ve been on the board of Naperville Public Library for five years and, practically, I’ve seen how difficult it is to reserve a room there,” said Councilman Ashfaq Syed, recounting an experience from a few weeks ago where he struggled to book a room for a small community meeting.

Burke also emphasized that if the city improved its billing and reservation system, she believes meeting room use from outside groups would increase.

The Naperville Municipal Center opened in 1992. Since then, it’s been open for use by community groups.

“In my view, this is the people’s house,” said Councilman Ian Holzhauer, arguing that the public who funded the construction of the center with tax money should be able to host meetings in it.

Staff will report back at a future council meeting with solutions to keep meeting room rentals public while addressing concerns.

cstein@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/18/naperville-council-meeting-rooms-center/