Contract extension negotiations with the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency have officially been paused in Naperville.
A majority on the city council voted to hold off on pursuing an agreement through 2055, signaling support for other potential avenues for energy procurement.
The council cast a 6-3 vote in support of the pause at a meeting Tuesday, Feb. 3. Councilmembers Mary Gibson, Ian Holzhauer, Supna Jain, Patrick Kelly, Ashfaq Syed, and Benny White voted in favor of the pause. Mayor Scott Wehrli and Councilmembers Josh McBroom and Nate Wilson voted against it.
The motion, in full, reads: “I move to direct city staff to pause formal negotiations with IMEA, regarding a contract extension, unless a majority of city council members directs staff to re-engage in such negotiations.”
Councilmembers share rationale behind pause
Kelly, who made the motion, pointed to one certainty as he weighed in on the matter during council deliberations — Naperville will remain a member of the IMEA for at least 9 more years, the result of the existing contract sunsetting in 2035.
But he and other councilmembers who voted in favor of the pause expressed concerns with some of the terms in the IMEA’s contract extension proposal.
“What we don’t know about, in my opinion … are the source or cost of IMEA’s energy, post-2035,” Kelly said. “It’s not in the contract. We all know that.”
Naperville’s relationship with the IMEA was a major talking point throughout 2025, and Syed said he believed now is the time for the council to begin taking more decisive action on the issue.
“We have not moved a inch to make a decision,” Syed said. “How long will we continue talking about this thing? For me, it looks like we are doing a lip service.”
Gibson, who described the matter as a “complicated issue,” was one of multiple elected officials on the council dais who praised the community for coming out to share their thoughts on IMEA and energy procurement.
“When it comes to where we’re buying our electricity from — there’s a lot of decisions we need to weigh carefully: cost, environmental sustainability, reliability, long-term risk, and the flexibility in a rapidly changing market to chose what’s best for our city,” Gibson said.
Other councilmembers concerned about price unknowns
The one-third minority on the council voting against the pause motion expressed concerns about the unknowns of the future, citing market volatility in the energy market. Without a cooperative such as the IMEA in play, cost concerns for the average ratepayer entered the discussion.
“I don’t see what we gain by walking away now,” Wehrli said. Ending talks with the IMEA, he added, “limits Naperville’s ability to reduce costs, adopt cleaner technology, and respond to a rapidly changing energy landscape. That’s just the simple truth, folks.”
McBroom said he would not support a pause, pointing to expert insight that has been shared with the council and community this past year.
“We all have full-time jobs; we’re part-time city council members,” McBroom said. “We hire experts — industry experts — to advise us on our options. … I think we should be listening to our paid experts.”
Wilson attempted, unsuccessfully, to have an amendment to Kelly’s motion. Wilson said he believed one additional step should have been taken before the actual pause took place.
“The one entity, I guess you could say, that we haven’t heard from publicly is IMEA itself — the one we’re negotiating with,” Wilson said.
Community weighs in at council meeting
Nearly two-dozen people spoke to the council at the recent meeting before the vote to pause talks was cast. A similar number of written comments were also sent to the council.
Residents within the community, including those with the grassroots group Affordable Naperville, implored the council to continue talks with the IMEA and maintain a sense of stability as costs, across-the-board, continue rising.
“As it is, there is mounting pressure on many Naperville families to meet their monthly expenses,” resident Michael Lapinski said. “This has led to using charitable organizations to supplement food requirements, and more.”
Resident Patrick Hughes questioned the logic of the pause, pointing out Naperville has made investments into the IMEA through a 24-year bond.
“By 2035, when our current contract ends, Naperville ratepayers will have paid roughly $700 million towards that bond,” Hughes said. “At that point, just as that debt is paid off, and we finally own the assets, we abandon them. This is just like paying off your home mortgage and then walking away from the house. It simply makes no sense, and especially now.”
But other speakers, including members of the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force (NEST) said the discussion is an inflection point for the community and an opportunity to pursue a cleaner energy option.
Naperville Central High School sophomore Adi Julka expressed concern with the IMEA’s history of using coal for power.
“We are, in effect, the dirtiest city in all of Illinois, and are complicit in the damage to our environment, and everyday Illinoisans’ financial and physical wellbeing,” Julka said. “How many more habitats will we have to destroy? How many more families will we have to put in crippling medical debt or people will we have to harm to make a change?”
NEST volunteer Joseph Hus shared a number of concerns about locking Naperville into a new agreement for the next three decades.
“Signing a contract, 9 years before it starts, without any competitive quotes, for an extension that lasts until 2055, with no way to exit, is unprecedented,” Hus said. “The consultants the city hired said that they had never heard of anyone doing anything similar.”
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