Brookfield has earned the first of three tiers of electric vehicle readiness designation from ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus through their EV Readiness Program.
The village was awarded the bronze designation — the first before silver and gold — for completing the first 16 steps in the program and was declared “EV Ready” alongside 16 other member municipalities of the third program cohort.
The cohort graduated from the program at a ceremony on Aug. 4 at the Illinois Institute of Technology that included remarks from speakers including Gil Quiniones, the president and CEO of ComEd; Nancy Rotering, the chair of the MMC; and Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago.
“Electric vehicles are powerful tools for not only reducing climate change but also ensuring that all Chicagoans and residents of northeastern Illinois are able to breathe clean and healthy air,” Johnson said.
Brookfield took the final step for the bronze designation in June when it approved electric vehicle chargers in town.
Community Development Director Libby Popovic, Business and Economic Development Coordinator Deanne Adasiak and Trustee Katie Kaluzny attended the ceremony on Brookfield’s behalf.
“I’m so happy to be here to accept this on behalf of the village,” Kaluzny said after the three received a plaque recognizing Brookfield’s progress. “I want to thank the Brookfield Conservation Commission for undertaking a huge volunteer effort, writing a comprehensive sustainability plan to help focus our efforts and track our progress using the Mayor’s Caucus sustainability framework, and I want to thank my fellow village board members and President Michael Garvey for their leadership and support of our efforts.”
She also thanked village staff, including Popovic, Adasiak and Management Intern Zander Jones, for their work in implementing the necessary changes.
Having received the bronze designation, Popovic told the Landmark the village is already full steam ahead on working to earn the silver designation. The first step, she said, is to set up electric vehicle charging stations at village hall and Ehlert Park with the help of the Driving a Cleaner Illinois Grant, worth $140,000, from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
“We’re waiting right now for the consultants to come back to us. They’re already working on what the infrastructure is that we need, and we’re already talking to ComEd about the power that’s going to be needed for that,” she said.
She said Brookfield is planning to add four dual charging stations to the parking lot at village hall for a total of eight chargers there by the end of 2026.
At the ceremony, Brookfield was also recognized for its “permitting prowess,” which Popovic attributed to advancements in the village’s permitting systems.
“We just switched over to Cloudpermit, which is a new platform that allows everything to be cloud-based. You can make payments online. It really allows us to organize better and makes it so much easier,” she said. “If you don’t want to have to come into the village to pay for a contractor’s license, you don’t have to. You can do it on your phone. We’ve received a lot of compliments on that.”
She said the new software also allows residents and contractors to submit plans for permits and acts as economic development software that keeps village code in one convenient place for village staff.
Popovic said Brookfield was one of just seven municipalities that earned bronze designation within a year, attributing the village’s speed to her staff and the village board.
“We did move quickly on this, and our intern, Zander, was very instrumental in helping us check off some of those boxes. Deanne and Zander worked quite heavily on this project,” she said. “The trustees are very accommodating, and they were very supportive of it.”
