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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-10-14 TranscriptionPage I Joint Meeting Johnson County Board of Supervisors - Iowa City Community School District - City of Iowa City - City of Coralville - City of North Liberty - Other Johnson County Municipalities and School Districts Monday, October 14, 2019 Emma J. Harvat Hall 410 E Washington St, Iowa City Reception 4:00 p.m. - Meeting 4:30 p.m. Call to Order: Throgmorton/ Hi to everybody! It's great to see all of you, especially pleased to welcome our esteemed State Legislator, Mary Mascher. Hi, Mary! Are there any other legislators in the room, I mean State legislators? I guess not, but thanks for coming, Mary. Update on the GuideWay Access Center by Matt Miller, Project Manager and Susie Nehring, Assistant Johnson County Attorney (Johnson County): Miller/ I appreciate you guys lettin' me come give an update here and kind of hit all these various city councils real quick. It's helpful so I don't have to go to each individual one, so thank you. Um, I just wanted to kind of real quickly give you guys an update on where we're at with the Access Center. Um, first thing I'll point out on the agenda is it says GuideWay. Maybe you don't use that just yet (laughs) It's .... still getting permission to officially use that name. Uh, we found out through a trademark search that there is another entity in Alabama that uses that. Um, kind of a separate field than what we're in, but we're still working through that. So before you quite call it GuideWay (mumbled) get that cleared first. Um, otherwise, uh, I wanna definitely let you guys know where we're at with the building and construction, cause we've made a lot of progress, uh, there since I probably last talked to most of you. Um, a contract was just awarded last week to Merrick Construction. I think they're based out of Cedar Rapids, uh, but do a lot of work in this area. Um, they actually came in about $500,000 less than our estimate, so that's great news. Um, we signed the notice to proceed last week. So as long as weather and other factors, uh, go in our favor, we should have substantial completion of construction by this time next year. Um, we'll hopefully be moving into that building and .... and opening our doors shortly thereafter. Um, so fantastic progress there on the building. One thing I do wanna mention I don't know who's, uh, who's here I should put a plug in for half of the site plan is (mumbled) Iowa City (mumbled) Uh, just talked to our engineer about an hour ago. I said is there anything I need to bring up at this meeting. He said, no, I'm workin' through it. So I think it's in progress, but uh, that is (mumbled) hurdle we need to get past before we'll actually be starting construction, but I'm real hopeful that we'll start in the next couple weeks here. Um, another thing I wanna give an update on is kind of our operational, our legal structure. Um, we've been working with Abbe Health, who is based in Hiawatha, but they do a lot of work here as well. Um, they currently manage, uh, Chatham Oaks for example. So we've been working with them to be the day-to-day managing entity of our facility as well. Um, talks have been going well. I think with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 2 our, um, agreement, we're probably 80% of the way there. Still working out some of the final details on performance metrics, things like that, um, some of the final cost estimates and things like that as well, um, but we're really progressing quite well. Um, the County has hired an independent third -party, uh, healthcare specific attorney to help guide us through this process as well, um, so things seem to be going fairly well. We've been meeting really frequently with our service providers, as well. Um, for those of you that don't remember, uh, or never knew, um, the service provider's gonna be Prelude is gonna be doing the substance abuse side of things. Um, so they'll be administering the sobering unit and then detox. Um, we're gonna have Penn Center, that is, uh, kind of a .... their parent company is kind of Abbe Health but they're a separate tax I.D. They're gonna be administering the crisis stabilization and crisis observation beds. And then Abbe Community Mental Health Services will be providing the professional services. So any prescriber, um, therapy services will be there. Um, also on-site is going to be Community Mobile Crisis Team. Um, if you guys are familiar with them, they currently operate and are dispatched out to wherever a crisis is occurring. Um, it's gonna be great that they're in our building for a couple reasons. Number one, if they're dispatched out and they feel like someone's a good candidate to come to us, they can help get them there, and number two, when they're not out on a call, they'll actually be able to help out around the facility as well. We kind of envision them acting in somewhat (mumbled) so it's gonna be a real good collaboration there, havin' them on-site. Um, I think you guys know this as well, but I will mention the winter shelter's going to be on-site as well. That's all part of the building plans. It's going to be just adjacent to us, um, right next door. Um, so that's kinda where we're at with the operational legal structure right now and I'll mention as far as deadlines go, we hope to kind of get that wrapped up, um (mumbled) in place by the end of this year. So we're.... we're making good progress. Still some more details, but doing well so far. The other piece of this I wanted to mention is funding. Um, obviously that's a major thing that you guys have all been a part of. Um, current project estimates, not just the building but the land acquisition, all of the professional services, kind of the all in costs right now, we're estimating at just about $10.1 million. Thus far we've got about $8.5 million in funding pledges. And speaking of funding pledges, I know we've been in contact with Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, as far as kind of making those formal through these 28E agreements that Susan's been working on, along with your, uh, city attorneys. Um, we just kind of wanted to give you a nudge in that direction, and maybe, Rod, you wanna take it from here (laughs) Sullivan/ Sure, uh, well um, so .... Susan Nehring, our Assistant County Attorney, has been working with, uh, each of your city attorneys to come up with the exact language that we wanna have in a 28E agreement or agreements, and uh, really we've kind of reached the point where we want to ask each council to meet about the topic. Uh, because your attorneys really can't negotiate much further, unless they know how you feel about certain issues. So Susie has provided your, um, attorney's office with a, I guess a .... a starting point kind of document and we need to know how you feel about items A through F, so that they can negotiate and move forward. So we would just like to ask, uh, Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty if you could get this on an agenda sometime soon to discuss with your attorneys. Then Susie and your attorneys can take it from there. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 3 Miller/ And I'll mention again with the building schedule and our costs are going to be coming up, so if you could get this taken cared of by end of November, something like that, it would be much appreciated (mumbled) going forward with construction (mumbled) That's our request to you guys on that front. Um, also in the funding department, that's ... we're talking capital start-up costs when it comes to you guys' pledges. We're also definitely looking at long-term operational costs and how we're gonna be able to continue to have success here. Um, we have had some .... we've reached out to different payer groups, like Medicaid, um, and Wellmark, and have some meetings coming up with those folks to discuss reimbursement rates. Um, we've been talking to the East Central Region about ways we can, um, get some funding there. Um, also then meeting with our service providers on a regular basis to try to find some efficiencies in how we can share, um, share employees, share services, things like that, to cut down on those operating costs, cause we definitely want this to be a .... a long-term successful venture. Um, so definitely a lot of work going on (mumbled) Um, the other thing I'll mention, as far as community outreach, I already mentioned with the name, but we have been working with that marketing entity and hopefully we'll be finalizing that name fairly soon, and then I really wanna get a web site and print materials out. I think that's gonna be the important next step as far as getting the word out about this. Um, obviously law enforcement is gonna be a major piece of this, doing drop-offs, but also general public. I mean we want people to feel like they can walk in, know about the services there as well,um, so we really wanna make connections that way. So we've been doin' a lot of work with our marketing group. Um, and then the final piece, um, that I kind of look at is operations. Right now a lot of the work that we're doing as far as operations ties in with how we're structuring this legally. Um, we've definitely talked about our staffing model. We currently have a proforma that has like all of our different staff, based on each entity. Um, we're continuing looking to how we can tweak that, um, find people that are maybe cross - trained so instead of hiring two different nurses we can hire one that can work for multiple entities. So we're definitely looking at some staffing and other things like that, um, as far as operations go. So that's kind of the high level overview of some of the big things we're workin' on right now, but I'm happy to answer any other questions you guys might have for me. Silence must mean I hit all the big things. Cole/ I'm wondering in terms of the, sort of operational template, how much have you been able to utilize other access centers, in terms of the funding piece of it as well as the operational template, or are we sort of making it unique to this community (both talking) Miller/ It's sort of unique to our community, just because of the (mumbled) we're looking at are in bigger areas. San Antonio's the model, but they're huge and they get their funding from different places. Um, Kansas City (mumbled) there is like a consultant firm that works on these and has set things up in Arizona though that we've started talking to, so we're kind of looking at what they're doing, but we're definitely making it unique to us, making it fit our community. Cole/ Perfect! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 4 Miller/ But there are places we can look like for how are you measuring success, what are your performance metrics, things like that that we're tryin' to, um, utilize those so we're not reinventing the wheel, but definitely this is kind of (mumbled) Throgmorton/ Matt, I was jotting down notes when you spoke, but I could not keep up with what you were saying, uh, in particular. Could ... do you have a handout that you can distribute, indicating who will be responsible for what. You (mumbled) referring to Prelude for example and Abbe. Miller/ I'll email that to you first thing tomorrow (mumbled) Throgmorton/ That'd be very good. Miller/ Yeah, any other questions? All right, well I do appreciate you guys allowin' me to come in and I'll check in with you guys and make sure your county attorneys are in contact with Susie (mumbled) any other questions. Thank you, everybody! Throgmorton/ So this is obviously tremendously exciting. I wonder how many of us have been to San Antonio to see the Restoration Center and .... I've forgotten what else it's called. So Pauline was, John was, I was .... I know Susan Mims was. Lisa, yeah. So .... remember how inspiring that was? Yeah, so I'm really hopeful about this. I think this could be really great for our community and .... and, uh, am really looking forward to seeing that up and operating. Miller/ We're off to a great start, and just thank you to everyone as well, um, everyone that we've been working with so far have been tremendous, the municipalities, all the other providers in the area, so just a big thank you to the community on all that. Sullivan/ Yeah, and I was just going to add one other thing that, um, you know obviously Iowa City and Coralville and North Liberty have, uh, contributed the most money but actually there are a number of other cities in Johnson County that have made, uh, contributions that, uh, while not as large are pretty significant for them. So we wanna make sure we give them a shout -out too, that .... uh, I don't think anybody has said no. Actually everybody's going to make some kind of contribution (both talking) Green -Douglas/ And we've also gotten, uh, a nice contribution from Iowa County. They're within our region and so they .... they knew that they didn't have the means to do this, so they wanted to be a part of it by contributing. And then, you know, what you were saying about ... in answer to Rockne's question about tailoring it to our area, within our region there will be other access centers, but each one will have its unique qualities, um, and there's.... that I know of the first one opening up in the East Central Region later this month is in Benton County, and they're calling it a living room -style format, where it's not intended for people to stay there for any great length of time, but be there while waiting for mobile crisis to come and get them. So it's, um, kind of a holding place in a setting that will, um, address some of their issues, but very, very temporarily. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 5 Miller/ And I actually spoke with the person that helped set that up just a few weeks ago and talked about, you know, synergies between us. She had a lot of questions about how we were doing things, but the key thing there is that there's some partnership opportunities as well, like they're out in more rural areas that can just do kind of bare bones things, but find a way to transfer those people to us, um, it could be very good and we could kind of use that model with other rural areas as well. So it doesn't just have to be here in Johnson County, but over the whole region. Throgmorton/ Any other questions? I'd like to note for the record, Ruthina Malone from the School District joined us. Hi, Ruthina, it's nice to see you! All right, we could turn to the second topic, which is an update on the childcare summit. I think Jennifer Banta from ICAD's gonna talk to us about that. Update on the Childcare Summit by Jennifer Banta, Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce (Coralville): Banta/ I'm actually from the Chamber. Throgmorton/ Oh, my bad, I'm sorry! (both talking and laughing) Banta/ Well thank you for having me today. I wanted to talk real briefly about, um, the affordable childcare. I like to say the high-quality, affordable childcare initiative that we're working on. Um, last year about this time I attended, uh, Johnson County's poverty forum and heard, um, Dawn Oliver Wiand talk about, um, affordable childcare as being a barrier for women, um, to climb out of poverty, and um, after that I .... I just started, my wheels started turning. So I reached out to Lynette Jacoby and Laurie Nash, to learn more, spoke a lot to Mary Mascher about this, and then started hosting, um, some small group conversations. The first one was with resource providers like Four C's and, uh, CCR&R, just to kind of frame the problem, get some data. I then hosted a group of HR professionals from the area, um, some .... some business leaders in the HR industry to talk about, you know, are you feeling this in the workplace as well, and then, um, one evening we hosted childcare providers to talk about what are some of your hurdles and what makes it difficult for you to operate. So we learned things about wage, low wages, um, you know, healthcare, providing their employees healthcare or just having healthcare for themselves, um, and .... and some real barriers for them as well. And so that, those meetings then (clears throat) culminated in our, um, affordable childcare summit, solutions summit, that we hosted on September 20th at Merge, and um, I was thinking maybe 20 or 30 people would show up. We ended up with a standing room only, I stopped counting at 60. The room was very packed, very hot. There were many of you here at that event, so thank you for attending, but out of that came four different groups, action teams, that are going to begin working on various different issues, and these were self -identified. You .... they picked what they wanted to work on, and then within their groups, um, started working on setting some goals, but the four groups were, um, that were decided — building and expanding second and third -shift childcare options; uh, childcare entrepreneurship, so removing some of those barriers like I was just talking about; expanding before and after school and summer care options; and then connecting This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 6 business to childcare, so how can we start (mumbled) So each of these groups then, um, identified existing resources, outlined some gaps or areas of need, and then determined some next steps and set some goals. Um, and then within each of those groups, a leader was identified, and that leader is going to organize and keep convening the groups and (mumbled) I think you volunteered to lead one of the groups. So, um, I will be meeting with those groups, um, once a month, and then trying to bring everybody back together quarterly, just to see how things are progressing and moving along. Um, so if you're familiar at all with the work that the Iowa Women's Foundation does, you'll know that we are the 30th community to participate in an effort like this. Uh, Waterloo has been, um, kind of my guiding light through this, because they've been working on it for a long time, and their Chamber has been involved in that as well. So, um, I've been reaching out and having conversations with them about how their initiatives are going. Um, in early November the Iowa Women's Foundation is hosting an event for all 30 communities in Ankeny, and so I will be attending that and if there's anybody in this room that would like to attend with me I'd be happy to carpool. Um, so that is, in a nutshell, what we're working on right now. It's still very, very early, but like I said .... just overwhelming response in that room on September 20th, makes me very hopeful that, um, this will be something that we can kind of work on as a community. Rod and I were just having a conversation about what was the tipping point, because I know that when my kids were little, it was expensive and it was hard to find childcare, but why is that right now, um, that this is really the tipping point and people are really trying to address it. Well I think the 1.7%, um, unemployment rate this summer (laughs) when you're at full employment, you need everybody working and we need to remove as many barriers as possible, um, for women especially to .... to enter the workforce. So, um, if you have any questions. Salih/ I just wanna ask you, you said there is groups being assigned and a leader for the group, just like Bruce. Uh, what those group gonna do? Banta/ So I'm very curious, I haven't met with the leaders yet, so I don't know exactly what they're working on within those groups, but it is that building and expanding second and third -shift childcare, the childcare entrepreneurship, expanding before and after school programs, and connecting business to childcare. So I .... I have just very brief outlines about what they're gonna do, but they're meeting with their groups and hopefully, um, later this month I'll have a better idea of what they're doing. Salih/ You know this is really great ideas. You know I attend many of them, but maybe I couldn't attend the last one, but what I really notice, you reaching out to a lot people, but I don't see that you reach to the immigrants people who really, this is their obstacle of finding a job and I Trope if you can include those people on the team (unable to understand) connect you with people I will. Banta/ We do have a few that participated, but you're exactly right. I have, um, just as a side note, uh, on my own I have been working with Kirkwood Community College on how to offer early childhood training, um, to childcare providers, um, in a timeframe that works for them and then also to provide scholarships to remove that barrier, if. ... if there is somebody that wants to get the training, get the licensure, and then be able to open in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 7 their home or (both talking) Yeah, so I have been talking to them, because they have quite a number of Sudanese, um, women in their program at Kirkwood and so we've been talking about how do we expand that. So that's one thing we're definitely talking about. Salih/ Sure! Cole/ And presumably the task force will be looking at individual recommendations to the municipalities in terms of, you know, what the municipalities can do? Banta/ Absolutely. So we had a number of, um, city council members participate that day, um, and then of course the County is very, um, closely, uh, entwined with this because Lori and Lynette, you know, helped me co -host this event. So we will be reaching out with recommendations, but hopefully we can also, you know, where it said the connecting business and childcare, maybe we can find some ways that businesses can offer inexpensive space for a childcare provider or, you know, there....I.....I don't wanna be too prescriptive, but there's gonna be a lot of ways that maybe the business community can help out (mumbled) Green -Douglas/ Um, in the group I was in, there was particular discussion about some of the training that could happen being targeted towards immigrant, um, families, immigrants, so that they could begin to, you know, know the steps to take in order to provide, um, in- home childcare, and so .... in fact it seemed like that was more upfront than any other group in terms of, um, who might be interested in ... in being involved in that kind of training. So ... it wasn't an absent part of the discussion. Salih/ Yeah, because I, there is many providers in Pheasant Ridge. They said they even don't hear about this, they have not been invited to this. She said she met with the providers, but those people, they .... I told them about it and they said nobody reach out to us. That's why I'm bringing this, you know, because those home provider I know in Pheasant Ridge, they have... childcare provider, they home, they be registered with the DHS, but they wasn't invited. I don't know how... she said she workin' with Kirkwood, but those actual people, uh, just I mean if she wanted to (unable to understand) can see all the providers that they doing this from their home and also they can be part of this. I know you try to reach the other one, I'm not like saying that but we just leave you some tips so you can include everyone. Yeah, you doing very good job. Thanks! Teague/ The one good thing is that in the meetings, um, in the small groups, there was a lot of suggestions for pathways forward, and so I think, you know, even this next step, there's so many options and there's going to be more options for the groups to consider, and I think, um, the .... that pathway forward to real opportunities becomin' a reality within our community. I think we have a good pathway forward, so that's good. And I appreciate your comments, because definitely, uh, we wanna make sure that we are, um, includin' everyone within our community. Salih/ Of course! That's why I'm here, so I can remind you when you don't do that (laughs) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 8 Throgmorton/ (mumbled) I'm sorry! Go ahead, Rod. Sullivan/ (both talking) .....you heard from some of the other, uh, outlying communities cause I know we've, um, had this conversation with Lone Tree, where they feel like they have a real crisis. Banta/ We had, um, the mayor from Lone Tree was at ... um, I, was he at the solutions summit? Green -Douglas/ (both talking) ....at the Kirkwood Regional Center. Banta/ Yeah, so, uh, we have reached out to them. Um, and just so you know, uh, Muscatine was represented in that room because they wanted to see what we were doing too. So I think when we think about the sometimes, uh, the major issue in Johnson County is also (mumbled) ....there was a report done, um, by 24/7 Wall Street that said that Johnson County, um, has the highest, uh, amount that you have to pay for childcare. On average it's 6K a year, across the country. Uh, Johnson County is about 12,000 a year for childcare. So we're not just talking about lack of access. We're also talking about affordability. And there's, I mean this is an onion and we can talk ad nauseum about all of the issues that we need to address within this, but I think that finding some .... a couple of pathways having some wind, finding, uh, some opportunities will be our first step. Thomas/ Jennifer, who's .... who's leading the, um, before and after school, uh, care and summer options group? Banta/ (mumbled) That is Megan Foster (several talking and laughing) Foster/ I left the room! (laughter) Never leave the room (several talking and laughing) Banta/ (talking and laughter) Lori (unable to hear) and Tasha Crowley. (laughter continues in background) Foster/ But I am on that committee. So I'm not leading it? Banta/ Yes you are, the three of you (both talking) Foster/ Oh, together! Okay! (talking and laughing in background) Banta/ It's at the Weber before and after school program and you guys all (unable to hear) Throgmorton/ (mumbled) conversation this morning with Jean Paul Mugemuzi, who's with the Immigrant and Refugee Association, and we were talking about a variety of topics that indirectly related to this, but they really had to do with how the various immigrant and refugee communities can be blended in better with the existing community. And, uh, and part of the challenge, which I think we all know but I'll just state sort of for the record is that the challenge that Sudanese face is different from the challenge that Congolese face, which is different from the challenge that Hispanic, uh, people face, especially if they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 9 come from Central America and speak tribal language. So language and culture and sort of the opacity of the, um, institutional system in Iowa City, all create enormous barriers and .... and they are in crucial to ... it's crucial to overcome those barriers. Salih/ I just don't .... I wanna really add something to that. You know (unable to understand) that's wasn't the priority in the (unable to understand) I understand you guys are not gonna miss that, but believe me, no matter how much you passionate, if you don't have those people on the table. You cannot advocate on behalf of the people that they even be given a seat at the table. Let them be in the meeting, not do something for them. Empower them to help you out, so they can tell you exactly what they are (unable to understand) and that what I really mean. You know, I know you are not gonna miss them, you will do something for them, but it's better to have them at the table with you and think about how you can help (mumbled) Taylor/ One of the childcare meetings I went to, big issue that came up was, and Maz mentions Pheasant Ridge, and those are renters. There are a lot of renters the landlords don't allow it for many reasons, insurance especially. I guess there's something that the group is going to work out (mumbled) Banta/ (both talking) ....one thing that was mentioned. Were you in that group? Green -Douglas/ No, but one of the groups was kind of born out of that was the, uh, looking at businesses and seeing, you know, what can be done in places of business .... to (both talking) Banta/ I'm sorry, I don't have intimate knowledge of each one because there was four groups going at the same time (laughs) but I do remember that being part of a report out from (several talking) Yes, yeah, it is. Throgmorton/ Any other questions for Jennifer? Mascher/ Yeah, you really did (mumbled) we had brought it up with, uh, Governor Reynolds and had had meetings with her about the Future Ready Iowa initiatives and how this plays into that, and doesn't surprise anybody that childcare providers make so little that they aren't part of the initiative for Future Ready Iowa. So increasing wages is an enormous part of this, in terms of we have two programs in Iowa — Teach, which allows people to go back to school to get their advanced degrees, and then we have Wages, which also then increases their salaries once they get that additional education. We have Teach in Johnson County. We do not have Wages, and that's an initiative that we should get behind and it would really help increase those provider salaries. So those are things that are part of this discussion too, and obviously we will continue to press the Governor about why that is so critical and why it should be part of the Future Ready Iowa initiatives. (unable to hear others speaking in background) Explore interest in a future discussion on the multi -family and hotel building expansion in Johnson County communities (Iowa City): This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 10 Throgmorton/ No other questions for Jennifer? So for the record I wanna note that Steve Murley from the School District arrived about nine minutes ago. Welcome, Steve! Okay, we'll move to the next topic, which is really just asking if you wanna have a subsequent conversation about this next topic. I'm not really trying to open it up for discussion today. Yeah. Some of you may know that there's a proposed rezoning and so on for a building on Prentiss Street here in Iowa City. It's an eight -story building and ... and it's primarily student housing oriented. And during the discussion I've said things like I can't tell ya how many people, uh, owners of apartment complexes, managers of rental property, ordinary people in Iowa City say to me, 'Why are you building so many large apartment buildings? Is there really sufficient demand for that?' I mean, I hear it all the time! Likewise, uh, because I remember the CVB's, uh, board as, uh, well I don't know, others are (laughs) like Royceann, you're a member of the board. Um ... I hear from... from Josh that, you know, the hotel occupancy rate is, has been declining, quite significantly. So that sort of raises the question, are we facing some kind of glut now with regard to large apartment buildings.... and.... hotel space? Or not, I mean I .... again, I don't wanna dive deeply into this, because that'd be unfair to you, but it's something I personally find myself wondering about, and I assure you our .... the people, many people in Iowa City are wondering about it as well. So my question to you basically is would you be interested in discussing this further at our next joint entities meeting? And if we were going to discuss it further, we'd probably wanna have some basic information about basically occupancy rates in large rental structures in .... in our cities, and, uh, hotel capacity, or occupancy rates, as well. So, whatda y'all think about whether you'd be willing to have that kind of discussion at our next meeting.... which will occur after I leave (laughs) Rod? Sullivan/ Jim, I think it's a good topic for discussion, but I would say, uh, if the conversation's gonna be held, I think we should involve somebody like, uh, Crissy Canganelli over here who, um .... can help us identify where people are living that sometimes we're not always taking into account. I mean I think there are a lot of, uh, situations in which people aren't viewed as homeless, but are doubled up, and uh.... you know, living multiple families to a .... to what's supposed to be a single-family home or a single-family apartment, single- family mobile home, that kind of thing, and I ... I just don't know if we're getting, um.... everybody counted properly in that way. It's almost like a census kind of issue. Uh, but that .... I think that would help us identify some of that need. Lundell/ I don't really understand what we could do regarding the, especially the hotel side of things. I mean that's.... that's private sector driven, um, you know, I don't think this entities are going to prohibit a hotel from being built if they wish to build one, I mean. don't quite understand what we would do as governments to .... housing's a little bit different because you, as .... as Rod just said, there's different factions and groups that have greater needs than others, and maybe worthy of a discussion but, um, so I'm ... I'm not sure about the hotel side of it. Foster/ How would the ... I would, I'd be curious just to know more about like what would the, you know, how are the two issues connected, other than size and .... and scope, of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page I l building, and I think that would be part of what could drive the conversation. Um, cause I .... I.....I, um, I think the housing piece would obviously be a very .... very worthy topic, um, but I would .... I would be curious on how the hotel piece would be connected to that. Throgmorton/ Good question, and if, uh, if there's not inter .... sorry, if there's not interest in looking at hotels, that's fine with me. I'm just trying to find out whether, what ... what (laughs) kind of interest there is. Uh, I'd say my sense is from attending the CVB meetings is that there's concern that some hotels, motels will not survive.... because the pressure to, urn .... to survive (laughs) with declining occupancy rates is pretty intense. What that means I don't know, but you can imagine some... the.... the least, um, effective motels shutting down, or maybe a hotel shutting down. Then what happens to that space? I don't know. I'm not trying to foresee the future or say I know it's going to happen or anything. I just know that the occupancy rates have gone down (laughs) Uh, with regard, yeah, with regard to the larger, uh, apartment complexes.... well, I .... I personally have concern that some structures will be, I don't know, 30, 40, 50% occupied. I don't have data on that. I just have anecdotes. Uh, be pleasing to have data (laughs) Donahue/ In the other respect, you know where the 45, 50%, what's the gross count of people staying over. That may have increased. So just tryin' to counterbalance those two particular things, and yes, I have to agree with you that some of the older hotels, motels, you know, may not survive this type of environment. That's business! Heiden/ I was just thinking about the arena and you know what, uh, projections are, um, estimated as far as, you know, increasing, uh, usage of the ... of the motels and hotels, and I would think that that would be, um, significant, um, and maybe seasonal... seasonable, but uh, significant as far as increasing those rates. Um .... just curious about that. Teague/ I think it's a huge conversation to have, both hotel as well as apartments. What is it that you're wanting? Is it just data .... of what people have in their community, as far as like vacancy rates or number of new apartment buildings comin' and how many it would occupy, um, what is the data that you think might be beneficial to bring to the group the next rime? Throgmorton/ Good question (laughter) I'll just .... go ahead! Green -Douglas/ And then beyond the build .... the big buildings, that are apartments, um, you've got rental.... rentals all over the place that you might not even be able to identify as rental, unless you somehow had a clearing house of some sort or whatever, but you know, there are homes that have been chopped up and made into rentals, and that ... that also has an impact on bigger buildings and occupancy rates and everything. I think it would just be nice to have an inventory of what's out there, in terms of buildings and, you know, how many units there are and (dog barking, laughing and talking in background) I've been upstaged by a dog! (laughs) Throgmorton/ We have ample experience with regard to spillover effects on, uh, detached single- family housing, you know, that has .... is occupied by renters and what potential effects This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 12 there might be from, uh, the construction of new, larger buildings that are designed as rental units and ... what the effects (both talking) Green -Douglas/ Well what I envision is being helpful information is really just that, like having a listing of what is out there. I mean do we even have a compilation of all of that, and then how many units are in there, what is the occupancy rate, and then .... and then maybe a visual, a map showing where they are, because I'm sure what we'll see are some ... deserts, and then some, you know, just really, um, great density in terms of...of that kind of thing. So for me, just seeing what .... an inventory is what I would find interesting and helpful. Throgmorton/ Well let's .... I don't wanna have us talk about this too much longer, because it'd be unfair to everybody, but .... but with regard to .... what my purpose is and what kind of information I think we could benefit from having, remember the basic question I referred to initially was coming from the public: why are you building so many new large apartment buildings, when the vacancy rates seem to be pretty high in those buildings. All right, but I don't have data about that. So I guess what ideally I'd like to see personally is, uh, an inventory of. ... um .... large new .... of new apartment buildings above some specified size, and information about their occupancy rates or .... or, uh, how many of the units are rented out, uh, within each of our cities, and .... and course there are spillover effects on .... all the other parts of the housing market. Those are the kinds of units that I get questions about. Why are we building so many new ones, and my answer usually is, well the population of Iowa City's grown by 10,000 in the last nine years. That's a key part of...why there's so much new construction, but .... that doesn't really fully answer the question. Green -Douglas/ Well and then you wonder sometimes when you get a question, sometimes the question is, um, coming out of some basic misinformation. So, is it .... are they really, um, you know high in their vacancy rate, or was that that person's perception of it? Throgmorton/ Remember I said I've gotten this kind of question from owners of apartment complexes (both talking) Green -Douglas/ Oh, actual owners. Okay. Throgmorton/ Now they have their own sort of, you know, special interest, right? They wanna be able to rent their apartment complexes (both talking) but I keep hearing that their vacancy rates have gone way up! Porter/ (both talking) ...focus on affordable housing. We need affordable housin'! Affordable housin' is what's needed, and what needs to be at the table is affordable housing. Salih/ If you can (unable to understand) all of us can talk about affordable housing, have ways to build affordable housing in all cities. Throgmorton/ May ... I'm .... clearly that's an important topic, but it's not the question I'm asking, you know, if. ... cause I'm tryin' to..... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 13 Porter/ But you want the entities to come together, Jim, and talk about apartments and hotels. I'd rather talk about affordable housin'. I don't know about the other entities, but I'd rather talk about what's needed. Foster/ Well and maybe there's a role that density plays in the affordable housing conversation, because it's basic supply and demand. Theoretically the more units you have, I mean we have a lot of demand here in this community, and theoretically the more units you have, that should help take some of the pressure out of the market, and so (both talking) Porter/ (both talking) .... mention .... he mentioned student housing. Salih/ Yeah. And most of the .... I just, by sitting on the Council, most of the highrise building or the multi -family housing that has been coming to the Council is just basically for students and maybe we need to think about building the same thing but not for students, you know, and they should be like affordable somewhere else, not like by the University, by the downtown area, or close to the University. So we can have same buildings, but for families instead of like students (mumbled) but I mean like we can think the other way because we been having a lot of those for students. Teague/ I'll just say this, uh, vacancies, open vacancies will drive affordable housing more, because nobody's gonna wanna be sittin' with vacancies, and so the, you know, the density, it does play into affordable housing (both talking) Porter/ ....gonna happen, cause there's vacancies now, Bruce. Teague/ I know. It ... the issue is is it's gonna be down the road so (both talking) Porter/ Yeah (both talking) Teague/ But in the interim, yes, we can talk about affordable housin' but I do believe that the more there is density built, vacancies are gonna happen and people don't wanna sit with empty buildins'! Taylor/ From what I've heard, The Rise, which is a multi-plex and .... and recent and new and geared towards students, but the rent is something like $900, so we're not seeing that yet, the ... the increased numbers of units is causing it to go down (talking in background) What I'd also like to see, Jim, you didn't have it in there and maybe it would complicate it too much, the very visible vacancies are the storefronts. I mean you just drive around downtown or anywhere, even in Coralville, and there are vacant storefronts, and .... and I think that's concerning to me and I don't know if we could throw that into the data or if that would skew what you're really looking at. Throgmorton/ (several talking) I think it would skew what I propose but (both talking) Taylor/ ...empty storefronts, old buildings, new buildings, everywhere. A lot of'em! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 14 Throgmorton/ Is there support for putting this on a future joint entities meeting for ...as a topic of discussion? So maybe we could ask our city managers and administrators to put their heads together and specify some maximum... or minimum size for large new buildings and see if there are ways to collect the kind of information I just articulated about those large, new buildings, and if. ... if there isn't, well there isn't! But, you know.... Salih/ (mumbled) yes. (male)/ ...have'em investigate it. Throgmorton/ Is that okay? Green -Douglas/ So we were just kinda havin' a sidebar here (laughs) Why only large, um, because I think when you're saying this, you have an idea of where or what you're thinking and the rest of us aren't, I mean we have peripheral ideas but why only large buildings? What about some of the smaller buildings (both talking) Throgmorton/ Because this is the question I get asked. Green -Douglas/ Yeah, but (both talking) also probably have vacancies. (several talking in background) Thomas/ Yeah, I think we may need to decide what minimum size, if we're gonna be thinking about this, because we've seen projects with 40 units. That's, you know, that's a sizable chunk of, you know, if you add up 10 to 15 of those, you know, it begins to add up (mumbled) so, and maybe just based on permits, of you know, see what the pattern is with permits and what's planned in terms of size. Green -Douglas/ (mumbled) Thomas/ Pardon me? Green -Douglas/ Smaller buildings have to get permits too. Thomas/ Right, no I'm saying (both talking) we, you know.... evaluate it by (several talking) Teague/ I think it's a huge undertakin' for the city managers to, you know, to ... to do this, and maybe get, I don't know if we're just gonna revert it to them to do a sidebar outside of this meetin' and figure out what's feasible, I mean, um, that's probably the best situation at this point, if everybody agrees that we would like to have the conversation, maybe just, um, ask our city man .... you know, each city manager to bring .... bring back what they think they can bring back for, um, a substantive conversation. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 15 Throgmorton/ I think that makes a lot of sense, but I guess we could ask Ryan and Geoff and Kelly whether they think it's feasible to collect the kind of information, uh, we've been talking about. Donahue/ After budget's done. Teague/ Yeah (laughs) Budget season! Fruin/ Vacancy rates by individual property are not available in any location that I'm aware of. We can get aggregate estimates and you can get some estimates off the American Community survey, but trying to get individual properties will require individual contacts, and you're gonna take the property owner at his or her word, if they're willin' to share that. Some (mumbled) some may not be willing to share that. C. Taylor/ I mean I could give you our vacancy rates right now, top of my head, but it's not gonna be statistically valid sample size, cause you won't (several talking) Throgmorton/ All right seems to me if we can't get vacancy rates then it's not worth tryin' to collect other information, cause all we'd end up with is a list of. ... of buildings above a certain size, and how many units are in those buildings. That in itself is not very fruitful. Salih/ Okay, since this one seem not going anywhere, why not talk about the affordable housing then next time. Lundell/ I think we have talked about affordable housing and ... a number of times... Salih/ Like ways of really building them and.... Lundell/ There's a lot of.....lot of organizations in this community, larger community, addressing, doing really good work, addressing affordable housing and that's, I think that's who we need to (both talking) Salih/ But it's not going anywhere (laughs) but we as a government are the one who gonna provide for that. I'm talking about as a government, as a municipalities, not like.... Taylor/ (both talking) ....talking about, you know, what kind of incentives can .... can we as municipalities provide (both talking) Salih/ Exactly! Taylor/ (both talking) .....and encourage them to .... to build more affordable housing (both talking) Salih/ Thank you! Taylor/ I think that's what you're trying to say. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 16 Salih/ Exactly! Yeah. Thanks! Donahue/ Rockne, you warm relate the conversation we had two hours ago? (several talking) Cole/ ....coming up with a variety of recommendations that we're gonna come back in the context of the mobile home issue to update our mobile home policy, so perhaps it would be as fruitful if you did something along the lines of what Maz is thinking is that each community update what they're trying to accomplish with their affordable housing and to make community -specific recommendations, based upon the needs of those communities. I ... I, if that's where you're going (both talking) Donahue/ ...what the issues of affordable housing and mobile home parks and stuff. Salih/ Exactly. Cole/ Some of what's gonna come up, and sort of stay tuned for the recommendations, little bit off topic, but ... we're gonna try to make ... well, I know, but I think it's important is that we're gonna try to make, uh, many recommendations for each municipalities, to update their mobile home policy and just go through that process of reviewing and approving that, and I think it's just good for all of us to remember that. So I think in terms of the affordable housing piece of it, it'd be a good time to maybe update that, based on the individual needs of the community. Salih/ Yes, because mobile homes are affordable and now people are losing that kind of affordability because somebody else will come, buy those and drive the rent crazy, and uh, then this was, uh, we have crisis, everybody know that. I understand there is another like number of organization work toward that, but I'm really talking about us as municipalities. Cole/ (mumbled) Mobile Home Task Force (mumbled) looking at it as a regional issue that we need to be able to work together on, which I think we've done a good job of in terms of building these things together. Salih/ Uh huh. Throgmorton/ Okay, thanks for discussing that topic. I think we will set the one I proposed aside, not pursue it for the reasons we've already articulated. Donahue/ Maybe ask to be a guest speaker at the next one. (laughter and several talking) Throgmorton/ That's right! (laughs) Just when I thought I was out they drag me back in, yeah! Okay, how bout Item 6, other updates from the various entities. How bout the County (both talking) Other Updates: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 17 Donahue/ ...North Liberty is that the council approved the contract with Yellow Cab to start on - demand transportation, using that cab service, and we're working on the final mechanics now. Cole/ So how will that work, on -demand for what? Just for (mumbled) Donahue/ Basically we're focusing on people (mumbled) the elderly who are unable to drive, down to persons who temporarily can't drive because of physical disability or mental disability, um, to get them to their basic services that they need to go to. Cole/ Paid for by the City of North Liberty? Donahue/ Dollar by the individual and the rest of it is subsidized. (several talking) Throgmorton/ How bout the other entities? Green -Douglas/ Can we go back to, uh, so how does this work, um, so the city will pay Yellow Cab, and then .... and what? Donahue/ One dollar. Green -Douglas/ Okay, the client (both talking) Donahue/ ...the city picks up the rest of the tab. Each individual will have a identification card, and when they call in they'll say, you know, so and so, I have a card with the city, that way they know how Yellow Cab will take that information so they can bill us back adequately. (several talking) They'll still all come out of Coralville and Iowa City. The thing is teaching our people, don't call and expect it in five minutes. Give yourself some leeway, like 20 minutes to a half hour, before you have to get someplace. It's going to be a teaching experience at the same time. Green -Douglas/ What is your outreach for this, I mean, how will people know that this even exists? Donahue/ That's part of the mechanics that we're doing, we're doing the public piece as far as information, um, again, teaching people what to do. Green -Douglas/ Great, but like they have to know .... in order for them to know what to do, they have to know that there's something to do, like.... Donahue/ Yes, there is an application process. They will all be involved in that. Green -Douglas/ But how do they find out about it in the first place, to apply? So there's somebody in need and they need a ride (both talking) What? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 18 Donahue/ We'll have our own public service campaign. Green -Douglas/ Okay. What is that gonna be? Donahue/ When we get the mechanics done (laughter) Green -Douglas/ So you don't (mumbled) When is this gonna roll out? Donahue/ Kind of hopin' for around November 1 st, plus or minus. Green -Douglas The outreach part of it? Donahue/ The service part of it, if we (both talking) Green -Douglas/ I mean .... I have family that lives in North Liberty. They've never said anything about it. I mean how do people know about this? Donahue/ They will be told! It will be advertised! Green -Douglas/ How!? (several talking) Donahue/ I thought I answered that. Green -Douglas/ You're not gonna answer that? Donahue/ I thought I had. Green -Douglas/ No, you just keep saying it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen, they're gonna be told. How? Like on TV, by mailing (both talking) you gonna go door to door, how? Donahue/ Go ahead! Heiar/ Couple different ways. We're working with our communications department to get the information out on all of our obviously platforms, which would be social media, etc., but we're also going to be going to the, some of the facilities, so there's three in particular, three facilities, uh, that are in town that we'll actually go there, set up a registration, uh, desk or booth or something to get those folks involved, and then we have, uh, some senior programming at the rec center. Uh, we plan to use that, uh, as a .... as a area where we can get the information out and get people signed up as well. Uh, and then as Terry mentioned we're still working with, uh, the communications department right now to, for other ideas, so....and of course we use the traditional newspaper and things like that, but if you have ideas, certainly we'd like to hear about them. Green -Douglas/ Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 19 Throgmorton/ Any other entities want to say something about what's going on with them? Anybody in Iowa City wanna say anything? Cole/ Well I guess I'll just comment. I think this is gonna be my last meeting, um, but I think in terms of this sort of substantive policy sharing and problem solving, I'm hoping that sort of moving into the future, we can have more of this or that the body will do this, as opposed to the platform that I observed, which is still very helpful, which is sort of the show -and -tell framework in terms of we're doing this particular project, we're doing this one in terms of infrastructure. I really like this in terms of the policy because I just think a light bulb went off in my head, we'd really like to model that. We're really struggling with what to do on Sundays, in terms of Sunday transportation. That's a huge expense for us. Um, we wanna carefully study it, but we're looking for interim solutions, so, um, you know, that sort of put me to thinkin', I got two and a half months left to think about that, um, so hopefully there will be more, uh, that sort of substantive policy sharing, collaborative framework sort of moving forward. Schedule Next Meeting: Throgmorton/ I don't know who is .... gonna be host next. (several talking) All right. (several talking and laughing) North Liberty, well, I don't know, three months from now? (several talking) Yeah, I don't know, uh, mid-January? Kellie, do you know when our next Council meeting is? In January that is? Salih/ January 7, January ...7 is next Council meeting. Fruehling/ (unable to hear clearly) 21 st, but then the 20th is Martin Luther King, so unless you do the Monday between the two meetings (both talking) Throgmorton/ (mumbled) the 11th or something like that? Fruehling/ Uh, 13th. Throgmorton/ 13th. Salih/ The 13th? Throgmorton/ Geoff, is that when we're doing budget stuff? Salih/ We doing it Saturday the 4th and, uh.... Throgmorton/ So (both talking) Salih/ Monday the 6th, and Saturday the 4th. The budget (several talking) Throgmorton/ Okay. So does the 13th of January sound okay to y'all? (several talking) Yeah. North Liberty. (several talking) Normal time? It's gonna be darker (several talking and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019. Page 20 laughing) Okay, I think that means we've reached the end of our meeting. Thanks, everybody! (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint entities work session of October 14, 2019.