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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-02-19 Transcription Page 1 ITEM 2. Student Leadership Awards—Hoover Elementary Throgmorton: We have two terrific students from Hoover Elementary—Lars Anderson and Lily Lumb. So if Lars and Lily could come up, as I showed you,we can do this! (mumbled) Hi! It's good to see both of you again. Let me stand between you. Okay, so this is one of the great pleasures of being Mayor is being able to hand out awards to terrific students at our various elementary schools, and like I just said,uh,tonight we have two—Lars Anderson and Lily Lumb—from Hoover Elementary. So what I'm gonna ask each of you to do is read your speeches, first you, Lars, and then you, Lily, and afterwards I'll read the award, which has exactly the same wording except it has your name in your award and your name in your award. Okay? So why don't we begin with you, Lars. Anderson: Hello,my name is Lars and I go to Hoover Elementary. I've gone to many countries and I think seeing the poverty has shaped the way I see this world and that has made me want to get involved. This is what I have done for my community: I've worked at the free lunch program and sold lemon-aid to help the Shelter House. I've made quilts for the homeless. In Boy Scouts we have done many service projects. I'm very active at my church and I often read and usher. Every month in Sunday school we do service projects. These are some of the things I've done. I hope to do more in the future. Throgmorton: Wow! (applause) That's terrific, Lars. What countries have you been to? Anderson: Um, I think 10 or 11,uh, yeah(several talking in background) Um, Jordan, I lived there,um, Canada, uh, recently we went to Italy, like three weeks ago, and um....yeah! Throgmorton: Wow! (laughs) That sounds great. It's really gonna benefit,uh, you'll benefit from that, uh, for a long time in the future. Okay, now it's your turn, Lily! Lumb: (both talking,mumbled) Hi,my name is Lily. I want to start by thanking my teacher who nominated me for this award, and I want to thank my mom for inspiring me to help people, and my family for supporting me. I especially like working with kids in my community, at school, church, and local shelters, and around my neighborhood. One of my favorite opportunities has been working as a youth volunteer at the Antelope Lending Library bookmobile. I read to the children,play games, and organize craft activities. The Antelope bookmobile gives kids a pla...a safe place to learn and meet their neighbors during the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 2 summer. It's great to live in a city like Iowa City, where there are lots of volunteer opportunities. Throgmorton: All right! (applause) That's terrific, Lily! I...Antelope Lending Library does terrific work and I'm really thrilled for ya that you had a chance to get out and do some volunteer work with them. Bravo for you! Okay, so...we have awards to read. And again, the awards say exactly the same thing except for your names. So (reads Student Leadership Award) So,here's yours, Lars, and Lily,here's yours. So I know there are a bunch of very proud parents out there, I'm pretty sure about that, and proud siblings and other things like that, so please join me in congratulating our award winners for tonight. (applause) All right, good deal (mumbled) Thanks! Okay, it's so much fun to be able to do that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 3 l.a State of the City Throgmorton: So every year the Mayor reads a State of the City speech....signaling how our city is doing. It's my honor to be able to do that again tonight. We're gonna do a tag team show here, uh, I'm gonna read a little bit. Simon Andrew is gonna show some slides up on the screen, and once we get to the point where the slides are relevant, the lights will come down and we'll be able to see this information a lot more clearly. Oop, the lights are moving all over the place already(laughs) Okay, so here we go! Let's see if we can do this, Simon! (reads State of the City speech) So, Simon! Please join us; please take a look at these images shown up on the screen while I continue to talk. (continues reading State of the City speech) (applause) (several talking in background) All right. I didn't know I was gonna have to make these two additional comments right now, but I think they're appropriate,uh, they have nothing to do with the State of the City speech, uh, but....I wanna comment on the two dozen posters displayed....displaying a hateful anti-immigrant message, which were found on kiosks and sign posts in downtown Iowa City on Saturday. As we have said many times, as our Council has said many times in public, in resolutions, in proclamations, and I don't know what else—many, many times—Iowa City is firmly committed to being a safe and welcoming place for immigrants. We have been and are committed to working with the immigrant community, immigrant advocacy groups, and other community stakeholders, to make clear that acts of hate have no place in our community, and that Iowa City can be trusted to protect all its residents from those who would cause them harm. Hope y'all understand, some things are out of our control, things happen, but we are, as a group of people, as a city government, as a council, committed to those things I just mentioned. The other thing I wanted to mention is that...uh,just a few days ago I noticed that a former mayor of Iowa City died about four months ago. Uh,he was a man that I....I did not know of. I had never met. He died at the age of 93. His name is William Hubbard. So I wanna say just a few words about him. I understand he graduated from City High and the University of Iowa, and was the youngest mayor in Iowa City's history, when he served as mayor in the mid-60s. He was around 40 years of age. According to his obituary, Mayor Hubbard worked successfully with the University to keep the anti-war demonstrations non-violent and his legacy from that time includes the City's first fair housing ordinance; outlawing racial discrimination in rentals and ownership; the City's one-way streets, which we're tryin'to turn around (laughs); the Lee Recreation Center; and the pedestrian mall! So that's pretty interesting to learn about and....and,just by reading the obit. So I, uh, you know, send out my condolences on behalf of the Council and the City, condolences to Mayor Hubbard's family. Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 4 3. Proclamations 3.a. Iowa Honey Bee Day Throgmorton: Item 3 is a proclamation, but it...I'll just tell you what it is, I won't read the proclamation, cause there's no one here to accept it. It's Iowa Honey Bee Day. We're doing this coordination with the Governor of the State of Iowa, and with cities all around the state of Iowa. I can tell ya we revised the language just a little bit to make it sound more like it's from Iowa City,uh,but it's being done in collab....in collaboration with the Governor and other cities in other parts of the state. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 5 10. Community Comment (items not on the agenda) Throgmorton: This is a moment when anybody who wants to address any topic that's not on the formal meeting agenda should feel free to come up and speak to us about that topic,uh, I just ask ya to state your name and take not more than five minutes. So, would anyone like to speak to us? Good evening,Adil! Adams: Good evening. I....very pleased when I hear the Mayor talk about Iowa City is diversity city, and that it's good place to live, but uh....still I feel there is some places still has discrimination, and not real good with immigrant. For example, the Housing Authority. The first thing I don't like....when you apply for housing, they ask you to bring your statement, the bank statement, and this consider a private and....I believe this gets like invasion to privacy, to see what...at least you can ask for the average....the average of the, your statement(unable to understand)but you can't request statement for the individual who apply for housing. The other issue I believe also is wrong, when you apply for housing, and your....if your doctor recommend it, you have to have this for your safety, and the City,the Housing Authority, they don't like to respond to what the doctor said, and also this is, if they refuse this...I consider it just like discrimination on public (mumbled) Otherwise the city's good,but some individual, they make it not good. And make some immigrant not happy. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you,Adil. Anyone else? Okay, seeing no one else we'll turn to Item 11, which is Planning and Zoning Matters. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 6 11. Planning and Zoning Matters 11.a. Rezoning 2130 Muscatine Avenue—Ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately 0.155 acres of property located at 2130 Muscatine Avenue, from Community Commercial (CC-2)to High Density Single-Family Residential(RS-12) (REZ18-00025) 1. Public hearing Throgmorton: I'm gonna open the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Good evening,Danielle! Sitzman: Good evening, Mayor and Council, Danielle Sitzman,NDS, and I apologize if my numbering doesn't match yours. I might have been working off an old agenda. We're on the right agenda item though this evening! This is a,uh,proposed rezoning of 2130 Muscatine Avenue, approximately 7,000...or 6,750 square feet in lot area, located on the corner of Muscatine Avenue....Muscatine Avenue and Second Avenue, adjacent to the Walgreen's store. This is a former Frantz Pest Control offices. The applicant in this case is Anderson Construction. They are considering purchasing the property from,uh,the bank due to foreclosure. Um, the lot is currently zoned Community Commercial (CC-2) and it's at the western most edge of the larger Towncrest commercial area. Um, Community Commercial is intended to provide for a major business district to serve a significant segment of the total community, is typically characterized by a variety of retail goods and services, um, it can also include,um,multi-family housing over,uh, and above those, uh, first floor retail uses. It's expected to generate larger,uh, traffic volumes and be generally located along major thoroughfl...fares. Um,the surrounding zoning for this property is largely RS-5, or Low-Density Single-Family, and the requested rezoning would designate the property for High- Density Single-Family residential use, which would permit free-standing single- family homes,uh, similar to the surrounding neighborhood, as well as duplexes and townhomes, with certain setback design and access provisions. Little background on the proposal. The applicant has expressed a preference to renovate the existing structure as a single-family house,uh,perhaps to re...to perform a historic rehabilitation,um...uh, to allow it to qualify for,uh, State aid in that vein. However the struc...the structure is currently bank-owned due to foreclosure and has been vacant for some time, and it's likely in need of serious repairs. So alternatively the applicant is considering a redevelopment of the property as a duplex. Um, so staff did evaluate the applicant's goals and reviewed the existing zoning and,uh, evaluate potential rezoning classifications. The first thing we did is look at the existing commercial zoning. So under the CC-2 zoning, it's fairly This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 7 impractical to redevelop for a modem commercial use. Primarily because of the restrictions on the property for setbacks, for the parking areas, as well as restrictions in our code for how far away from the property lines the building needs to be for surrounding residential zones. So this exhibit is just an estimate that we,uh, worked through as kind of a thought exercise for the amount of available build....buildable area for the parking lot and the building. So once you subtract out those required setbacks, you're looking at a fairly small buildable area, and then estimating the amount of land that would need to be allocated for parking for any commercial use, um, kind of at the average standard,really the building, uh, could only be between 500 and maybe 1,000 square feet in area, which is fairly small for any kind of modem commercial use. Uh, we did also...staff look at then the potential rezoning classifications in the single-family, uh, density districts, um, so the question would be why RS-12? Um, the largest constraint on this particular property is the size of the lot. Um, RS-12 is the least dense residential zone possible, to allow for redevelopment of the site into a conforming duplex or even a conforming single-family detached home. We looked again approximately at the buildable areas available with the building oriented, uh, either towards Muscatine Avenue or Second Avenue, taking setbacks into account, and there's a much more reasonable amount of buildable area in those cases for that kind of development. We did also evaluate the future land use, uh, implications in the comprehensive plan. The Iowa City comprehensive plan identifies this area as general commercial development; however, the plan does include goals,urn,promoting infill, ensuring that infill is compatible with the neighborhood, and providing for a transition between high and low density uses, such as commercial areas and residential zones. It's located in,uh, the Central Plan District sub-area, sub-area B,where there are additional goals to promote, um....uh,reinvestment in those areas and to remove obstacles to reinvestment. Staff does feel like the commercial, uh, current commercial zoning is an obstacle to redevelopment of this, uh,property. Here are some images of the existing building. You may be familiar with it along Muscatine. Some views of the surrounding neighborhood, looking directly up the street, across the street, and down the street. As part of the rezoning we evaluate traffic access,uh, implications, urn, traffic....amount of traffic access the street design. Essentially this would be a down-zoning from a more intense commercial district to a single- family zoning district, um, so the traffic generation would be, is assumed to be less, um,because it's a corner lot it has access from both, uh, adjacent streets. There are currently no existing sidewalks as part of the street design and staff is recommending a condition that would, uh, require installation of sidewalks with redevelopment. So in summary it's a small corner lot. It's not suitable currently for modem commercial infill,uh, due to the required setbacks for the building and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 8 for parking. Uh, we feel that the rezoning to a High-Density Single-Family Residential, uh, designation would conform with the, uh,rest of the block, as well as the intent and stated goals of the comprehensive plan, and there would be no traffic or infrastructure concerns at this point. At this point in the process, we're in the orange, uh, category here, conducting the rezoning process, going through both Planning Commission and, uh, the City Council. The next steps, if this were to move forward beyond this application would be primarily staff-driven. There would be a design review based on the Towncrest design overlay and the site plan review, depending on what kind of, uh, development is actually eventually proposed. So,based on staffs analysis, the proposed rezoning is consistent with the comprehensive plan, compatible or complementary with the existing neighborhood, and would not overburden public facilities. Staff did recommend approval of the application to the Planning and Zoning Commission, with one condition regarding installation of sidewalks. At its January 17th meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission's motion to recommend approval of the rezoning failed by a vote of 3-3. Issues of concern for the Commission included the lack of a concept plan, and therefore uncertainty about the neighborhood compatibility of potential redevelopment, and also that no neighbor input on the proposal had been sought by the applicant. In addition some Commissioners felt the applica....applicant should have hired a historian to conduct an intensive survey of the building to determine its his...historic significance. Urn, the applicant has chosen to continue through the rezoning process. Um, to address the Planning and Zoning Commission's concerns regarding, uh, neighborhood input, the applicant did hold a good neighbor meeting on February 11a'. Um, they did follow the City's good neighbor program guidelines. One neighbor attended that meeting and the results are summarized in your packet. Staff continues to recommend approval of the application, with the one condition as noted. And I'd be happy to answer any questions! Throgmorton: Thank you, Danielle. Any questions for Danielle? Cole: With the parking requirement, could you explain that in a little more detail? As it stands right now, how many parking spaces would have to be there if it were to have a more...uh, commercial use or rebuild it? Sitzman: So currently it's a fairly undeveloped, urn, arrangement. It has a driveway with some pull-off areas for stalls, um, very kind of informal. If it were to be redeveloped to a modern standard, that would have to change to, um, a more traditional stripped, curbed,uh, parking lot area, with the required setbacks. Typically we use as a....use category, kind of the average, uh, depending on the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 9 zone, urn, so one space for every 300 square feet of gross floor area. There's a minimum requirement of four parking stalls, even with that analysis. So, if you look at the design of the parking, whether it would be angled,parallel, or any degree of angle, and the required access aisles, there's a kind of estimate that we use for how much of a footprint the parking would take up. So anywhere from, I think the slide said 1,400 to 1,600 square feet....foot, simply for those four parking stalls and the aisles to get to them. So.... Cole: The other question I have relates to,urn, you know we have some neighborhood commercial, for example on Summit,urn,how....how does a neighborhood commercial,um, differ from the community commercial in terms of could you put a little restaurant there, or a little cafe or something like that? Sitzman: So that would,uh, the neighborhood commercial designation would drive the uses that would be allowed. The site would still suffer from the same constraints, being a small site. So the parking demand would still be the same. They'd still be working with a small lot,just be....if you had a different,uh, retailer or different type of use that would be the difference between neighborhood commercial (both talking) Cole: And neighborhood commercial is a separate designation, correct? Sitzman: (both talking) designation. Cole: Okay. Throgmorton: Other questions for Danielle? Thomas: Has there....has there been any, urn, involvement with staff in terms of looking at the question of the historic significance of the structure? Sitzman: It's not a property that the Historic Planning Commission identified independently as one that they would study and propose,uh, any kind of historic preservation for. As you know, owners of property can undergo that, you know, on their own behalf. Um, it would depend on what the survey revealed, whether I think that the Historic Planning Commission would feel that it was significant and wanted to participate in any kind of designation of it. That's not the applicant's intent. Their intent is simply to be able to qualify for,uh, state and federal tax relief for funds to promote the historic renovation, but not necessarily designated as a historic... for a historic,uh, overlay(mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 10 Cole: Was there any exploration of possibly putting that into a conditional zoning agreement to ensure that if it was rezoned we would have a historic....cause that sounds great,but I'd wanna(both talking) Sitzman: ....discussed at the Planning Commission, but since it's not the applicant's intent, uh, they did not, the Planning and Zoning Commission did not take that action to make it a condition of the approval. Taylor: I know the weather's probably been prohibitive, but has there been any more, uh, looking into whether it can be preserved, what the condition(both talking) Sitzman: ...does have some photos of the interior to share with you tonight, so I'll let them address that. Taylor: Okay. Throgmorton: And the Historic Preservation Commission sometime within the very recent past compiled an inventory of buildings that it thought were top priority in terms of preserving. Sitzman: And this was not on their list. Throgmorton: This was not on that list,right? Yeah. Do we know anything about its age? Or who lived there? Sitzman: ...no, at this point we don't. We know what the Assessor's web site says,but that tends to be kind of the default data that they use sometimes, so it's not...we'd need a historic inventory to know more. Throgmorton: Other questions for Danielle? Okay, thank you, Danielle. Uh...would anyone else like to speak about this topic? Like, I don't,perhaps the owner, if the owner wants to. (unable to hear person from audience) Please just, you know,when you come up, state your name and say whatever....whatever it is you wanna say. Anderson: I'm, uh, Ben Anderson. I'm the applicant for this, uh, property. I'm not currently ....I am under contract to purchase the property,urn, depending on this outcome. Um, the intention would be to, uh,hopefully restore the existing structure, um, as it is. It seems to be structurally sound. We haven't gotten too far into it. It is, as you can see, in pretty bad shape. Um, everyone knows, they drive by it all the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 11 time. There's holes in the roof for years. Urn, I really think it's a....structurally it's pretty sound, foundation seems to be in good shape,um,there'd be some ....we've had some asbestos surveys done,um, I had spoken with a historical, urn, representative that,uh, Jessica Bristow had connected me with. There's some preliminary stuff that they had found,um, I wasn't really quite certain if I wanted to go down that path yet. Urn,but my intent would be to restore it as it is now. Um,we have....this is kind of an idea of what we would kinda propose if the structure is in fact not capable of being,um,rehabilitated,uh,just a simple,uh, home that would fit within the neighborhood. Just a bungalow is kinda what we had in mind. Urn, definitely would be within the limitations of the proposed zoning. Um, and then this is some ideas....some photos of other projects I've done, um, but.....like I said, the....ideally we'd like to rehabilitate the...the property. Urn, initially wanted to buy it and be able to build a retail area of some sort, cause I feel like the neighborhood could use that. There was really no other way to,um,no way to do that, given the size of the site. I was told that the, we would have to basically do underground parking to make it feasible financially. Cole: Is the parking the primary obstacle at this point? Anderson: Yeah, I think because the....it's' on a corner and you would have to have two entrances, and it would,that would eat up such a large portion of it,um, even as it was they....if we'd just rehabilitated the structure as it was that it would be too.... Too tight and I....and the, um.....the neighbor, one neighbor came to the, our meeting, and she was mainly just concerned that it would be anything other than residential. The parking in that neighborhood is an issue for her and um, especially along Second Avenue. Salih: Have you share your plan with the Planning and Zoning? Anderson: Um....so what....I was kind of under the impression that this was going to be a slam dunk, so that's why we didn't do a neighbor meeting,urn,that's why we didn't do a concept plan, that seemed really hard to do a concept plan of...with the intent of,urn,just rehabilitating the property. I think they were concerned that there'd be no controls over what we could do,um, if we were granted this rezoning. Um....that's kinda what I took from that meeting. But I have not shared any of this with them yet, but.... Throgmorton: The other projects you showed, that are your projects, are they located in Iowa City? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 12 Anderson: I've done, uh, I built seven or eight houses here in Iowa City and Coralville, and I also work....worked in Colorado, where I lived before. Throgmorton: Are any of the ones you showed images of(both talking) Anderson: Yeah, this one is in, uh....uh, Rochester Ridge and the others are in Colorado. Throgmorton: Okay, thanks! Any other questions for Ben? Okay. Anderson: Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this proposed rezoning? All right, I don't see anyone else. So, because there was a 3-3 vote, well I don't know, I guess this would be true anyhow, so I need to know whether you are inclined to vote in accordance with the Planning and Zoning Commission's recommendation. That is to deny the rezoning. If you're not, uh, if you don't want to agree with the Commission,uh, then we would continue the public hearing in order to allow, uh, the possibility of consultation with the Planning and Zoning Commission. So, I... to give you all,make sure we're all on the same path here. I am inclined to...I am not inclined to support the Planning and Zoning Commission's recommendation. I think we could move ahead with the proposed rezoning. Salih: I agree! Cole: I agree too,primarily because I wanna talk to the Planning and Zoning and have that discussion. Throgmorton: All right. So that means we will not close the public hearing,but instead we need to offer a consult with the Planning and Zoning Commission. So I need a motion to defer to, uh, March the 12th, is that right or what? Or....to the next meeting (several talking) Okay. Salih: I move to defer it to the next meeting. Throgmorton: Okay. Mims: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by, uh....uh (laughs) Mims. Sorry (mumbled) (several talking) Yeah. Uh, all in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 13 11.c. Rezoning at the northwest corner of Moss Ridge Road and Highway 1— Ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately 3.2 acres of property located at the northwest corner of Moss Ridge Road and Highway 1,from Interim Development-Research Park(ID-RP) to Highway Commercial(CH- 1) (REZ18-00022) (Second Consideration) Throgmorton: Could I have a motion for that please? Mims: So moved. Teague: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Teague. Discussion? Cole: I was a little hard on this project before. Um (laughter) so (both talking) Throgmorton: You're just that kinda guy! Cole: I was a little difficult,urn, but you know, Jim,I think you had made a....a comment sort of off-hand about, you know, the potential for it being more than, if it's the same one I'm thinking about,more than just a gas station. It's not necessarily guaranteed. I'm really hoping that,urn,that this can be essential infrastructure to support hopefully the adjacent area for purposes of development, and I'm also hoping that it won't just be a gas station, that they will seriously evaluate electrical infrastructure,urn, so maybe we can have a little bit of innovation there,urn, so I think they've done a lot of great work. You know,just had a little concern about that proposed concept, although even that's not guaranteed. So...I've come around. Throgmorton: Right. Any other discussion? Hearing none, roll call please. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 14 11.d.Zoning Code amendment related to minor amendments to address inconsistencies—Ordinance amending Title 14, Zoning Code of the Iowa City Code related to clarification on code language in multiple sections. (ZCA18- 00004) (Pass and Adopt) Salih: Move. Thomas: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Thomas. Discussion? Cole: Still have concerns about the facilitating of the alcohol sales. I think that's going to be a problem with the neighborhoods. Throgmorton: Any other discussion? Hearing none, roll call please. Motion carries 6-1. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 15 12. Gilbert Street Intersection Improvements—Resolution approving project manual and estimate of cost for the construction of the Gilbert Street intersection improvements project, establishing amount of bid security to accompany each bid, directing City Clerk to post notice to bidders, and fixing time and place for receipt of bids. 1. Public hearing. Throgmorton: I'll open the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Good evening, Scott. Sovers: Good evening, Scott Sovers, Senior Civil Engineer. Uh,this project generally includes the replacement of traffic signals and pedestrian curb ramps at the intersections of College Street and Washington Street, urn, also included is the, uh,roadway and pedestrian-level lighting,uh,new 12-inch water main, urn, on Gilbert Street between College and Washington Street, and then also,uh, roadway and pedestrian-level lighting on Washington Street, from Linn Street to,uh,Van Buren. Uh, in terms of the....the submitted cost and schedule (mumbled) costs for the project is 960,000. Urn the schedule, we're having the public hearing tonight,uh, receiving bids on March 26th, uh, rewarding at the April 2°d Council meeting, and then construction'll start,uh, later in April, and be finished up, uh, by December. Throgmorton: Scott,pardon me I just have to interrupt a little bit. I....I just noticed there's an accidental error,uh, at the very top. It says American Legion Road (both talking) Sovers: Oh,my...my apolo...I apologize, that should have been Gilbert Street intersection improvements project. At this time I'd be happy to, uh....uh, address any questions you may have! Throgmorton: All right, any questions for Scott? Cole: We've had some discussions earlier on about,um, road diets on Gilbert. This does not affect our ability, should we chose to go forward with that in the future,to engineer that? Sovers: Correct. We are setting up the traffic signals to be able to do that conversion if we decide to do that. Cole: (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 16 Throgmorton: How much of the roadway, if any,will be torn up by the,uh,the water line? Sovers: Sure. So because of the existing utilities that are, urn, outside of the roadway, we're having to relocate the water main under the new, uh, or under the existing roadway section, urn, so we're taking out one travel lane and replacing it with new paving....to be able (both talking) 'Throgmorton: ...other lanes'll still be open, huh? Sovers: That's correct. Yep! Throgmorton: All right. Any other questions? Thank you, Scott. Sovers: Yeah! Throgmorton: Would anyone else like to address this topic? Okay, seeing no one I'm going to close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Could I have a motion to approve please? 2. Consider a Resolution Mims: So moved. Salih: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Salih. Discussion? Hearing none,roll call please. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 17 13. Willow Creek Improvements—Resolution approving project manual and estimate of cost for the construction of the Willow Creek Park Improvements Project, establishing amount of bid security to accompany each bid, directing City Clerk to post notice to bidders, fixing time and place for receipt of bids. 1. Public hearing Throgmorton: I'll open the public hearing.. (bangs gavel) Good evening, Juli! Seydell-Johnson: Hi, Juli Seydell-Johnson, Parks and Recreation Director, urn,here to introduce you to the Willow Creek project. Uh, we had our neighborhood meetings last summer at the Party in the Park out in this park. Urn, and the idea with this one is a renovation of the shelter,restroom, and playground space, uh, with an emphasis on inclusive playground space. So I'll walk you through,urn, some of the items. This is what it looks like right now, our...kind of our older shelter,restroom combination that we have in a few parks still. And then you can see the playground is one of our older playgrounds, not much equipment there,very linear with not much in between. Um, the new plan takes about the same footprints. We minimized the number of trees that will be damaged or need to be rep...uh,taken out. Um, the playground area stays in about the same spot as the current playground,but this is much larger with a different node. So I'll get to those in just a minute,but there's about four different play zones within the playground are. The restroom is a single, um, single-stall family restroom. It has room for a larger changing table. Since the playground is designed to be more inclusive, we want to have a changing space for individuals with a range of abilities or disabilities. Um,that stays at the same site where the current restroom and shelter is, so that we minimize the amount of,uh, sewer and water that had to be moved, and the shelter moves slightly to the north, so it's in between the,um, playground and the,uh,restroom. The playground itself, as I said,has different nodes and I wanna mention that the color choice is slightly different than what you see here. Uh, it'll have some,uh, yellows and oranges in it, as well. It's called Carnival, is the color selection we're going with. Uh,but the main area has some climbing features. It'll have a poured in place solid surface underneath, with accessible paths all around the playground. Uh, you'll notice this kind of area at the top, um, is....oh, I guess my pointer doesn't work up there. There's a little quiet area. One of the things about being inclusive we hear from a number of families that have children that have sensory,uh....needs or have....get over- sensitized quickly at a playground. They need a quiet place. So this playground will include kind of a nice little circle space with landscaping around it that will have a seat...seating spot or climbing if you wanna do a little climbing,but where This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 18 they can get away. Urn, then we have the....the active play area in the center. Urn, we have a swing area that will have two banks of swings, urn, two of them being the expression swings, which allow parent-child swinging, looking at each other as they swing, urn, and then finally the first area is actually a music area, urn, and it has different musical instruments to play, and that has actually....will have concrete underneath, because it's not a climbing surface, urn, it doesn't have to have the playground surfacing underneath, which makes it highly accessible to a larger age of people. So we have kind of a nice mix in all of those. Uh, this is the....the drawing of the restroom. It's very similar to what's being put in at Creekside Park, and not much different than Happy Hollow, except the finishes are slightly different than Happy Hollow. Um...and then the shelter is very similar to what is at Happy Hollow and Creekside. They both follow the...the master plan guidelines for design. Timeline, uh, bid letting in March, award in April, construction starting by April 15`s. Uh, final completion by September. So that means that the Willow Creek part of the Willow Creek Kiwanis Park complex will be closed most of the summer for this construction project. Urn, depending on how it's staged, we may get the playground open sooner or later, um, depending on how we get that staged, since they're kind of in separate areas of the park. Urn, we are bidding it with three bid alternatives. One is the split-face block on the restroom and shelter, which we've done in a couple recent projects. Urn, installation of play equipment, what that means is (laughs) urn, whether or not we will have the,uh, construction equipment put the play equipment in versus our own staff. Our own staff can do it, um, but we'll see what the price is for the installation by the contractor, and then furnishing and installing all the site amenities—the benches, uh, the, um....trash receptacles, those sort of things. They will be a part of the project. We're just not sure if they'll be part of the larger project or done separately by our own staff. So with that I'll answer any questions. Mims: When I looked at the, when you laid out the first drawing showing kinda spatially, urn, and I don't know how much flexibility there is,but when I first glance at that, one of my concerns is it looks like the shelter is right in the line of sight between the playground and the restroom.....and for parents, that can be a concern. I mean you've got a child that's kinda old enough that you can send off on their own, you don't need to go with them. At the same time you wanna be able to keep an eye. So that was just something that...I don't know how much flexibility you have on where that shelter goes, so... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 19 Seydell-Johnson: Some,but not as much, due to....there's a number of memorial trees right there, so that's kind of part of why it's sitting there. Remember it'll be an open shelter though, so you'll be able to see through it,um, but I....I get your concern. Mims: Okay. Thanks! Taylor: Did you say it's going to be closer than it is now, cause restroom now seems to be quite a ways away from the playground area, but.... Seydell-Johnson: The restroom stays actually in the same location where it is now. So it's the same distance. Um,that was a trade-off for cost because the...then we don't have to move the sewer or water lines (mumbled)utilities for it. Cole: So this is only on the Willow Creek side. It will not affect, for example, the community garden on the Kiwanis side? Seydell-Johnson: Correct. This does nothing within the Kiwanis part of the park. This also doesn't go as far in as the stream, on the Willow Creek side. So this is a very limited project area,just the restroom, shelter, and playground, and then additional paths for accessibility. Throgmorton: Other questions for Juli? Seydell-Johnson: It's gonna be a really fun playground. I can't wait! Throgmorton: Yeah,but you have your own playground! (laughter) Seydell-Johnson:Yeah! Thomas: So the poured in place, uh, surfacing is in the active....where the play structure is? Seydell-Johnson: Correct. Yeah. Thomas: Is that the first...where do we have poured in place? We have it in the ped mall. Seydell-Johnson: Ped mall,um....North Market Square has the files (both talking) Thomas: ...tiles... Seydell-Johnson: I wanna say that's it....for....for parks. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 20 Throgmorton: Okay, thank you, Juli. All right, anybody else want to address this topic? Seeing no one I'm going to close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Could I have a motion to approve please? 2. Consider a Resolution Salih: Move. Thomas: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Thomas. Discussion? Salih: I just wanna say that...this is the first park I went to when I came to Iowa City. I really like it. I met a lot people that, you know,become long-rime friend on that park. I...I really like that park, and a lot people on the west side use that park. And looking forward to like this new development and also I guess...I was concerned that....cause it gonna be shut down all summer, and the west side, they don't have like really a lot of park. That will bring up the concern of thinking of another park in that area too. But, I think this is really awesome,uh, you know, an idea to improve that area and it will be fun. Everybody will like it! Taylor: I also had concerns when you said it would be closed most the summer,because I just live up the street from that and it's...it's busy. It's very, very busy at all times, no matter what the season or weather, uh, it's always busy, but uh, Kiwanis maybe will get a little more use that way and people hopefully, uh, maybe they don't Kiwanis is even there! Hopefully they'll use that and...until this gets opened. And I...I was very happy, John mentioned the, uh, poured in place surface. I was very happy to see that you're...you're going to give that a try for that park, and that's...that's a great idea. And also that minimal tree removal, cause there's beautiful trees. I think what...your tree study you did recently showed the thousands of trees I think in Willow Creek, which is amazing. It's a very busy park for....for, uh,trails also. Cole: Pauline, you had mentioned a lot of people don't know the Kiwanis Park is even there. Well I...I was one of those people, until relatively recently,um, when you and I, I think, had done a listening post out at Kiwanis. Um,both Willow Creek and Kiwanis, I...I really think they're some of the most spectacular,beautiful parks in the city of Iowa City. Urn, so if you haven't been out there, in the public, um, wait till obviously Willow Creek is done, but check out Kiwanis. These are This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 21 spectacular parks and it's very easy to sort of take it for granted. Major kudos to staff too. I think we're really getting investment in our parks, throughout the city, urn, which I think is very important and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of these other parks come online, um,like Creekside this summer. So,um, great work! Thomas: Willow...Willow Creek really is a beautiful park. It really has,uh,you know,nice extent to it and the tree cover,um....it's very...very lovely park. Susan and I were at a listening post there this past summer(both talking) Mims: When they were doing the thing for the(mumbled) Thomas: Yeah! Doing the workshop for the park, and um, so it really is a beautiful place, and the poured in place will certainly,urn, increase access. This is a structure which has a little bit more, from what I could tell,uh, ground level access and activity. So I...I think,um, in turns of ADA access, this has a very high level of access, so that's...that's another special thing about it. So, yeah,looks...things are looking good for Willow Creek. Throgmorton: Any further discussion? Okay,hearing none, roll call please. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 22 14. SJRE Grant Allocation for FY19—Resolution adopting the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant Allocations for fiscal year 2019 Salih: I just wanna ask the...if I,you know, my....my organization is one of the people who apply for this and even though they are not one of the recommended organization for this, I still....do I still need to recuse myself? Throgmorton: Okay, this is a resolution adopting the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant allocations for fiscal year 2019. Could I have a motion to approve please? Thomas: So moved. Cole: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Thomas, seconded by Cole. Stefanie! Bowers: This is,urn, a resolution to approve the recommendations from the Human Rights Commission for the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant for FY19, and the Human Rights Commission is recommending that eight of the 26 applicants,uh, be funded at the, uh, full amount that they requested in their applications. And those organizations are the Iowa Harm Reduction, the Refugee and Immigrant Association,the University of Iowa Labor Center, Inside Out Re-Entry, the University of Iowa Mood Disorder Center, Shelter House,Access to Independence, and then Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County in a collaboration with the South District Neighborhood Association. Throgmorton: Okay. Uh, does anyone want to ask Stefanie any questions? Teague: So out of the total it seemed like it was,um,probably some great applicants that had submitted,urn, and I can only imagine the difficulties of trying to,you know, uh....narrow it down to who would be awarded. Um,the agencies that you've selected,um,just because I know a lot of them and the work that they do, urn, seem like there, you know,will be great applicants,uh,to really move forward the mission of the, uh, social justice and racial, uh, equity grant. Um....I guess my question would be to you, like overall, you know,with this experience, um....um, can you give us a little insight of the process that was taken,um, to get down to this, to this group. Bowers: Sure. So,urn, the Commission met in early,urn, January and that's when the applications were distributed to the individual members. They then had, I would This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 23 say 10 to 14 days to read all of the grant applications that were received. They were then asked to rank them on a scale of 1 to 26 because there were 26, urn, applications received, with 1 being the highest. They then sent their, urn, rankings to...to staff, and then we averaged those amongst the seven Commissioners who participated. We had two that had conflicts, and then the rankings....there should be a graph in the handout,but the rankings were,urn, switched so that 26 kind of became the....the number one, and if you received a score of 1, then that would be the lowest ranking that an organization, um, could receive. So,um, the Commission met in this space on January 24th and they discussed the....the applications and they, urn, discussed the....the rankings, and there was some adjustment that they did do, um, because they did want to fully fund organizations versus partially or half-funding organizations. Um, and so they....they voted and this is what we have in front of us this evening. Teague: Thank you. (both talking) Bowers: That answer your question? Throgmorton: Sounds like a daunting challenge to go through 59 applications. (several talking) Twenty-six, well 59....1 thought I read somewhere 59 organizations applied for a total of$399,000. Bowers: So I think that's probably how they're numbered in the system when they apply. The system never starts back at 1. So....so each year we start where we left off the prior year. So the 59 is probably, um, start....I think we had 28 applications last year, so we started at 29 and that probably went into the 50s, if not the 60s. Throgmorton: Okay, so I wanna correct my own notes. So it's like 28 you said? (several talking) Bowers: Twenty-six this year. Yep. Throgmorton: And...and do you remember, maybe you already said this,but was the total amount of money they applied for? Bowers: So it would be$74,421 (both talking) Throgmorton: ...that's the limit, I mean(both talking) we were allocating 75. Bowers: Oh, you want the...the total (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 24 Throgmorton: Yeah, if you know it. If you don't (both talking) Bowers: No, I do! I have it. Teague: 387,612 (several talking) Is that the number you're wanting? Throgmorton: 388. Bowers: (several talking) 387,612.60. Throgmorton: Okay, thank....yeah, perfect. Thank you! Mims: One of the things I would like to do, and not tonight, but...and maybe, and I'm not sure the best way to do this,between you, Stefanie, and Geoff and whoever, but there was obviously some....pretty serious discussion within the Committee, with the Commission, um, about the allocations, things like, you know, should.... should an organization get money two years in a row, and some people felt they shouldn't, some people felt, well, it's a totally different program, so you know, that's just fine. Um, some individuals were concerned about the diversity of the Board of Directors, whereas me personally I don't care about the Board of Directors. I wanna know about the diversity of the people who are being impacted by the grant. But there's just....there was a number of things like that that I got the sense, and I think some people even said it directly,the way it was put in the minutes, that...either they needed more direction or they needed more... either they needed more direction from us or they needed to have more discussion before the next time as to how they were going through this. So....I guess I would like from staffs perspective whether we need to have more discussion at Council to give them more direction, urn, or whether you feel....you know, they can handle it with their discussion, I mean I just....I.....I read some things in there that concerned me. And so.... Bowers: So the Commission actually meet this evening and so they're, urn, each participating in a survey where they're giving feedback on the process and their thoughts for this allocation period, and then they'll hold a work session, um, later this...in the springtime. Mims: Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 25 Bowers: Urn, well their...they'll discuss, you know, some of the concerns that you saw in the minutes. Mims: Okay. Bowers: Urn, and I think, um....that they obviously wanted to fund everyone, but they can't, and it's....it's not an easy process, and there were a lot of discussions about, urn, who has been funded in the past and who should be funded moving forward, and this is only the....the third year that the Commission has been working on making the recommendation to City Council. So...so I....I think from the first year to this year was a....a big improvement, and I think you'll continue to see those improvements, and I think it's just a....a matter of them, you know, coming together, urn.....you know, each year they learn and....and the application has changed,the process has changed over the years to reflect, urn, some of the....the difficulties or challenges they've had. So the....the work session minutes would definitely be shared with the City Council, and you know, obviously it's your prerogative,but you could wait to elect...to take a look at those minutes to see if there maybe more in the ballpark of where you're wanting them to be. You know, that's' an option. Cole: One of the things that jumped out at to me is it seems like there were some organizations that are already getting funds through out block grant process, like so for example I think we already have funding for Shelter House. Urn, did... did that come up as an issue, as far as that goes, and then the other thing with the block grant discussion we've had, we've always had this discussion of, sort of legacy funds or more institutional versus sort of start-ups, for lack of a better term. How did that play out? It seems like most of the grants that occurred in this case were more sort of institutional, urn, recipients. Would that be a fair characterization in the sense that they're sort of full-time non-profits, as opposed to someone wanting to hold a community banquet that may benefit certain communities? Bowers: So the application does ask whether they've received funding from the City in the past five years. Um, it asks for, if they've received funding from the City for any program, and then it asks specifically for the program that they're applying for, for the grant, and my understanding from listening to the Commission, urn, speak, they evaluate them based upon whether it's a new program,um, or a new initiative for a particular organization,versus looking at the other things that the organization may be doing(both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 26 Cole: Okay! Bowers: So...so it was part of the discussion and it's just kind of an individual,urn, evaluation as to how they rank it, based upon, urn, that information. Cole: Thank you. Throgmorton: So thanks, Stefanie. I...I'm not inclined to second-guess the Commission on their recommendations. I...they put a lot of work into it and I appreciate that greatly. So I...I don't wanna second-guess that. I think it might be very helpful, pickin'up on what Susan said, I think it might be very helpful if they could identify specific questions they think we should as...answer for them. You know, they've experienced the process. They have insight into it. Okay, so....what do you need clarity about (laughs) from the Council? It'd be very helpful if they could provide that. I noticed too, and again I'm not going to second-guess the Commission, I noticed that the...that Shelter House requested funds to "revitalize the clinic and replenish needed supplies," and when I was looking at the, um....uh, criteria for the grants, uh, I noticed that funding requests for operational costs are not covered by the grant. So....that, it puzzles me, you know, uh....needed supplies sounds like operational funds to me. That said, I'm not gonna question it. I just observed that. So maybe the Commission can come to us with questions that we need to answer. Cole: I would agree, Jim. Teague: I wanna also say there might be some things that we have that we could offer to the Commission, or even discuss amongst ourselves. One of the things that I noticed, and I...this is what, um, Rockne talked about, uh, the...many of the organizations are not-for-profit. They've been granted funds before. When I look at some of the organizations that,urn, applied, one of the things that I've noticed, um, is that some of these organizations actually don't have, uh,routine funding sources. Um, whereas they don't have a service where they can get,uh, like grant from something, or it's not a service (mumbled) that they can get funding for, and so that, you know, for me would, urn,just let me know that there might be some things that Councilors might want to, you know,just throw out there, um, about, you know, what can potentially be some of the criteria for selectin' some of these individuals. Throgmorton: (mumbled) do that later on, after(several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 27 Cole: ...later on, and I think to Susan's point, you know, in terms of further discussions, I think it'd be fun to have a, urn, an Orville Townsend-type conversation that we'd had with the Community Police Review Board. If they select a couple of their members and come to us, and have that sort of same collaborative process, so there's a little bit of real-time feedback, to the extent people are interested. I felt that went really well and urn, you know, we're gonna...agenda item 16, gonna discuss one of the improvements made with other community members, so that'd be my suggestion. Throgmorton: That makes sense to me! Okay, any other questions for Stefanie? Thank you so much! Okay, anybody else want to address this topic? Okay,uh, seeing no one else, so uh,how bout Council discussion? All right,we already had it. Okay, so....all right. Roll call please. Motion carries 6-0. Um, Salih recusing herself. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 28 15. Animal Services—Ordinance amending Title 3, entitled "Finances,Taxation and Fees," Chapter 4, entitled "Schedule of Fees, Rates, Changes, Bonds, Fines and Penalties," and Title 8, entitled "Police Regulations," Chapter 4, entitled "Animal Services," to clarify recently enacted animal services provisions and to change the amount of the scheduled fines for certain animal services violations. (First Consideration) Throgmorton: Could I have a motion for first consideration please? Mims: So moved. Cole: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Cole. Uh, does anyone want to address this topic? Fruin: Why...why don't we have Chris...would you mind comin'up, for nothin' else an introduction to the Council (several talking)have not met Chris Whitmore. She's our Animal Supervisor, uh,Animal Services Supervisor. Throgmorton: Chris, what's your last name again? Whitmore: Whitmore. Throgmorton: Thank you. Fruin: You wanna give(both talking) Throgmorton: So how ya doin'? Whitmore: Good. How are you? Throgmorton: All right. So how are things goin'out at the Animal Services? Whitmore: We're very cold! (laughter) (mumbled) spring! Throgmorton: I gotta tell ya, I have a dog and two cats that came from the Shelter... Whitmore: ...good for you! Throgmorton: ...and two cats before that(laughs) There ya go! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 29 Whitmore: Good. Everybody else can come and adopt too. We have plenty of animals down there to adopt! Cole: I would but we'd probably violate City code if we were to do that(laughter) Mims: You just need to get a permit! (laughter and several talking) Cole: I won't say how many I have in my house! (laughter) It's the legal limit, that's all I'll say! (laughter) Throgmorton: Okay. Good, well....it's great to see you. Thanks for comin' and... Whitmore: (mumbled) much. Throgmorton: I think we'll probably take a vote here. All right, any Council discussion? Hearing none, roll call please. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 30 16. Community Police Review Board Amendments—Ordinance amending Title 8, "Police Regulations," Chapter 8, "Community Police Review Board," to provide for changes in procedure and enhance opportunities for conversation when the conclusions of the police chief and the Board differ. (Second Consideration) Throgmorton: Could we have a motion for second consideration please? Teague: So moved. Salih: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Teague, seconded by Salih. Anybody want to address this topic? Okay, seeing no one, Council discussion? Cole: I just want to re-emphasize for the people that didn't hear our last meeting, um, this is the product, I think, of true citizen-Council collaboration. We had Monique Galpin and Orville Townsend come in, who are Members of the Citizen Community Review Board, and they gave us some substantive discussions. We had an excellent dialogue, and as a result of that collaboration, I think we have a more effective board. So I would really like to see this as a model for future collaborations with other boards and I'm really proud of the work that both Orville, Monique, and the board did, as well as the Council in terms of working with them. Teague: I would second that! Throgmorton: All right! Smiles and nodding heads! (laughter) Okay! Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call please. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 31 18. Council Appointments Throgmorton: No gender balance requirement on the Board of Adjustment. One applicant is Ernie Cox. Uh, any objection to appointing Ernie Cox? Teague: I just wanted to point out that, urn, Ernie has been on several....you know, previous boards, but he's the only applicant right now. Mims: I saw Human Rights. Has he been on something(both talking) Teague: He was on Human Rights and urn....uh Throgmorton: Think that was the only City. Teague: Oh, is that the only one for the City? Okay! Yes. Mims: Yeah, that was my concern as well. We've tried to...get people in who haven't done things before. Throgmorton: I didn't know when his term expired on Human Rights, did you? (several talking) Teague: It didn't state it here. And I'm not sure if this is a....um, one that we get lots of applicants for,the....no, we don't? (several talking) Throgmorton: We get just enough! (laughter) Mims: I'm fine with it! (several talking) Throgmorton: All right, uh....okay, no objection? Okay, so could I have a motion to appoint Ernie Cox to the Board of Adjustment? Salih: Move. Thomas: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Thomas. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 32 20. Community Comment Throgmorton: Gustave, would you like to speak? Stewart: Hi, Gustave Stewart. Uh, Student Liaison. Urn, first off I wanna thank, uh, Mazahir and Rockne for the City Council listening post. It was great, a good discussion, at least I thought. Throgmorton: How many people showed up? Stewart: Urn, it was six, seven. There was a lot of snow out that night, so I'm guessing that hindered a lot of people. Um....and then I also wanted to mention Willow Creek Park. Um, I'm excited about that. I grew up right next to...by there. Urn, I always remember, um, playing there as a kid and had a super-fun time playin' soccer and just enjoy seein'that. Um, and then lastly I wanted to let you all know that a community event that, urn, a University group is putting on, called, uh, Gathe Raho. I might be mispronouncing that, um,but essentially what it is is February 23`d, um, Saturday at about 6:00, 6:30 RM.; urn, it will be in the Englert and it's a South Asian A cappella group the Indian Student Alliance is putting it on. So you'll have,urn, South Asian A cappella groups from all of, over the country, from what I understand. So it's a cool event, um, check it out if you can. Um, yeah! Thank you! Throgmorton: Great. Thank you, Gustave. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 33 21. City Council Information Throgmorton: And through a quirk of scheduling, we're gonna start with you and move to the right. Mims: Um....I just hope everybody's surviving the cold, snowy, icy weather, and I don't know what it's going to look like when we head out there tonight. I think it's supposed to start at 9:00. Um, yeah, so maybe we can all get home then before ....before it hits. Um, other than that, uh, I had the opportunity to go out to San Diego for a conference related to work, and it was not as cold as here, but not as warm as I had hoped it would be, uh,but it's always nice to travel other places and see how they do things,um, and one thing that they have is they call it Fred, and it's a free ride service that is really interesting. It's really built on, it's on the chassis of, urn, a....like a golf cart. Okay? But with like six seats, you've got three rows of seats, so you can have five people plus the driver. What they are trying to do, it's primarily for tourists in like the downtown San Diego area, and what they're trying to do is avoid having tourists, uh, using taxi cabs or driving their own cars around the city,because depending on where you're going, it can be far enough that you don't wanna walk, and urn, they told us about it at the hotel. You just download the app on your phone and you can call for Fred,the free ride, and we used it, uh, coming back from the....the beach area where we were, um, to the hotel. So it's interesting how innovative, urn, different cities are getting with different kinds of services that they might use. Urn, they also have some of the same issues there with the electric scooters and stuff, seeing them kind of laying around on the sidewalks, urn, I think a lot of cities are finding that, as the companies are coming in, it's just....people getting done with 'em and just dumping them. Urn, so that's kind of an issue, but was a great time. I always enjoy....enjoy San Diego when I get the chance, so other than that, uh, I mentioned Access Center earlier. So...not a whole lot else! Throgmorton: Great! Pauline? Taylor: Well we had another wonderful employee recognition event, uh, this past week, the 15's. Uh,just went to show what a wonderful group of employees we have working for the City and their tenure, it's amazing—30, 35, 40 years—uh, it was pretty amazing, and there was some good food also, uh, and that was on Friday, and on Saturday I attended an event at the Library, put on by NAMI. It was called a 'collaborative mental health event, uh, and it was very informative and I was glad to see two of our police officers actually attended, uh,because it really made me proud of what our city has done to support many aspects that relate to mental This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 34 health, and uh, how supportive we are of the vulnerable members of our community that suffer from mental health illness and it...just some of the, even the, uh, speaker mentioned our city a couple times on, uh, crisis intervention training and things that, innovative things that we're doing as a city, so that...that made me happy and proud. Uh, upcoming, uh, Saturday, March 2nd, is the Crisis Center, uh, pancake breakfast, um...it's always a fun event, and they always have elected officials helping to serve. It's early in the morning to like 1:00 in the afternoon. And Sunday, March 3`d, maybe you'll mention this, the Soul Food Dinner, uh, coming up at the Robert A. Lee. Maybe you have a little more information on that, but that's always really wonderful event, with lots of good food, uh, also. Uh....uh, soul food dinner they call it, and then I also wanna take the opportunity to congratulate, although the men are playing tonight, congratulate the, uh, women's, Iowa women's basketball team, uh, on their great win the other, uh, evening over Maryland, uh,being tied for first place in the conference for many, many years now. So...but I...what impressed me was, interviewing the coach as well as the players,the theme of...of teamwork and how important it is, that there's no one real star, although (laughs) one outstanding, but (several talking) could learn from that, you really are stronger together and working as a team is more important. So, that's what I got from that! That's all. Throgmorton: Great! Teague: All right! (clears throat) Actually most of my things have been canceled due to weather(laughter) But I was able to attend the, um, a neighborhood meetin', the South District meeting, and one thing I wanted to just point out about the South District meetin' and,uh, the enthusiasm by the, uh, attendants there were, it was astounding. It was,uh, very inspiring and lookin' forward to some of the things that are comin'up. Uh, I saw that they were granted, uh, some funds through the, uh, the social justice fund, and so, um, that's very pleasing. Um, I did attend the employee,um, celebration, and it was amazin'! The oldest, well the longest employee,uh, that was bein'recognized had...had been with the City 45 years, and so that is...(laughs) a long time! So congrats to all of those that,um,had milestone employment years, um, and I even talked to some that weren't recognized, and still there were a lot of longevity of City employees that, um, very impressive. Uh, this Saturday I'm gonna be goin' to a UAY event, um, for LGBT. It's gonna be at Tate School and so, um, that's gonna be, um, a....a great event to attend, um, and then on Monday there will be, at 5:30 on the 25d',urn, the big reveal lunch party for the...the Crisis Center, and so that'll be interesting to hear and learn about. So...that's all I have for now, if nothin' else gets canceled! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 35 Salih: Okay, I...first I really want to shout out to the University of Iowa for the good movement...movement of keeping the Labor Center open for the next five year. We saw that today at the press release, and I guess this will go to the Board of Regent on the 27 and 28. Hopefully will be approved too. That's really, uh, something made me very happy to keep like such great, uh, labor...the Labor Center, so that...because that's really helping a lot people in this community. Uh, second thing is,uh...I guess the listening post. I'm gonna leave that to Rockne, because I guess you have the notes, and you can report on it, and uh, also on the 2lst,Thursday, I guess we have Iowa City Federation of Labor gonna have the, uh, the Iowa City(unable to understand) everybody invited to come. And, um, what else? Yes, the good news that I been selected by the(mumbled)Arab Institute of Washington with the Department of....with the Department of State to go to Tunisia with, along with another nine elected official around the country, to go and teach or, uh, share our experience with the Tunisian city council, because after the...after the Arab spring movement, you know,Tunisia had new kind of government. They just trying to (unable to understand) and you know just like we going there so we can share our work and the way that, how they can become transparent and all this kind of things, and also (unable to understand) Saturday I guess,no, it is on the 2"d, March 2"a I'm going to Chicago also to speak, uh, for, uh, you know, Iowa City. No,hold on, let me(laughs) the name. It is a Fair Trade campaign and I'm presenting Iowa City for(mumbled) one of them. We going there for a big event in Chi....Chicago, and this is, uh,partnered with the University of Iowa. That's all I have! Throgmorton: (mumbled) (light clapping and laughter) Salih: Thank you! Yeah! Cole: Well, Pauline, urn....you took my event, the Soul Food. So...let me just second, let me just second the Soul Food. If you've never had an opportunity to go to the Soul Food event, it really is, and I'm tellin' you, it is the best food that you'll ever eat, and you know, I've often thought wouldn't it be cool, and I think it's Black History Month this month, isn't it? You know, I always thought, gosh, I wish I could've met some of the civil rights leaders of the 60s, like I'd give anything, and then it really occurred to me—we do have living legends right now in the City of Iowa City. One of them works for the City of Iowa City, Henri Harper, and of course the other is the, um, Royceann Porter is the elected Supervisor...to the Board of Supervisors, and so we do have these living legends in our community that are also tremendous cooks and they're a lot of fun and there's always a lot of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019. Page 36 good conversations, so I'm really hopin' to see you all out there, um, Sunday, March 3'd, urn, from 5:00 to 9:00 at the Robert A. Lee, so I will second that. Urn, I'm gonna take one thing a little out of order and, Jim, if I can't bring it up now I can bring it up next week, but um, work session topics, little bit out of order, but I've been getting a lot of feedback on this question of what happened with Lucky's, details related to that, um, so I would like to have a short discussion on that. I know our TIF agreement is with the developer and not with Lucky's, urn, but we've been getting a lot of questions, and I think it would be good to have a discussion on that about where we stand, if nothing else just an update. Um, a lot of people, relating to that, uh,have also brought up the concept of like a food hub, or to evaluate that, what we have in Cedar Rapids. Obviously we can't talk about that here for open meetings' purposes, urn,but I would like to at least get that on a work session,um (both talking) Throgmorton: If I could, Rockne, one...one easy way to do it is to ask the staff to prepare a short memo providing those details about the TIF agreement and how Lucky's did and did not fit into it. Then it becomes part of an information packet and we can talk about it. Cole: Yeah, and I wanted to get that in before but I didn't so, in any event, this is a little bit out of hand. Urn, so...and so we'll get that with staff, and so in terms of the, uh, discussion, Gustave is right. We did not have a lot of people at our listening post, but we had a lot of really good topics. Sometimes the smaller the group the more substantive the discussion. Um, affordable housing came up as a topic, and you know, we all talk about affordable housing,but I think for a lot of students, this relationship between affordability and students, are they eligible, urn, to....to petition for some of these units? What role does...and when I mean affordability, we're talking about traditional affordability in the sense of do you qualify for some of the affordable housing units? That was a topic that was brought up, are students eligible, and people have talked about some of the special eligibility criteria. So I think in terms of our outreach to the University, maybe in contact with Gustave, I think we really need to keep on that discussion. Um, one of the things that came up that I was not aware of is this question of composting in multi-family units, and I actually....do we....do we have composting in multi- family units, is that something that's on the agenda? That strikes me as.... Fruin: It's not mandated. Cole: Okay, it's not mandated. One of the students had brought up that as a big concern, um, who knows, you know, we fought for a long time on recycling in multi- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 37 family units. Maybe that's' something on to the future that we can look at, um, one of the students reminded, and I think it's good for...to remind all the audience out there,urn, with salt on sidewalks—we love to have safe sidewalks—but do try to get the pet friendly, uh, salt. Uh, one of the students had brought that up. It can be very painful for the dogs, especially it is a little bit more expensive,urn, but...but do try to do the best you can as far as that goes. Urn, that was...that was primarily,uh, what our focus was. It was a really good discussion. We did not have...what was that? Salih: The parking. Cole: Parking came up as an issue, how exactly did it come up? I forgot. Salih: Like most of the people live in the downtown area, that the, you know, the owner of the building they don't have like really parking and they have to go out and park far away(mumbled) Cole: That was an issue, especially as it came down to the concept of the shuttle, is that people really feeling they're still in need for sort of a late-night shuttle service, in terms of our public busing, and so we said of course we do have the busing transportation study. I know staff is aware of that as an issue, and there is the Night Ride service that's available,but the students really identifying as, um, as....as not really feasible in some cases, and I think the times are limited with that in terms of when it's offered. So as we do that housing study, I think looking at in collaboration with the University I think regarding (mumbled) and finally, urn, it was a really good discussion. I think we always hope that we can have this more productive conversation with students in the city, and it doesn't happen as much as it should for a variety of reasons. Um,but this was certainly a very productive exchange and, urn, gee whiz, we're always ready for more meetings, Gustave, so hopefully you can invite some of these other Councilors over there and we can continue these conversations. So it was a very good discussion! Thomas: Well everyone covered...things I was about to say, but, uh....thirds on the employee recognition potluck. That was a great event. A really nice sense of community among the staff. Uh, seconds on the Labor Center. Uh, that was a, such extraordinary good news. It was so much effort that went into that, uh, effort to try to save the Labor Center and it was successful. So that...bravo to everyone who participated in that. And, uh, the women's basketball, I happened to make it to that Maryland game (several talking and laughing) and uh, boy it was an electric atmosphere. It was really exciting, uh, they have one home game left. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19,2019. Page 38 It's,uh, March 3`d. I encourage anyone interested in, as you said, Pauline, team basketball, uh, and they play it well! Throgmorton: Nobody's mentioned the men's basketball team yet. (laughter) Couple nice shots there at the end! Yeah, so I won't mention them! (laughs) But, all right, so I...I won't repeat, you know, the good things that y'all have already mentioned. Uh, will bring up a couple other things. Uh, I attended the League of Women Voters 99th birthday party on the 14th....Valentine's Day! Don't know about the timing of that,but...and while there I witnessed a really outstanding one-woman play by Jane Cox, performing Susan B.Anthony. It was just an extraordinary performance by Jane. I also participated in a dinner with other Fulbright... Fulbright Commission grantees and witnessed a brilliant performance of letters from Iraq, at Hancher, by a sud....a zud player, and six....a sextet of string, uh, instrument players. I forgot....i didn't write the (mumbled) He was just amazing, and these....these, he wrote this music based on letters from people who lived in Iraq under several different conditions, all of which were pretty bad, and as he talked about how the music came out of those letters, it was really moving. That was really just amazing to listen to and the music, and hear him talk about it as well. Just great. On the 28th I'm gonna attend the Solarized Johnson County "Success Story." And also on the 28th I intend to attend the Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet. And lastly, I would like to invite Hoover student Lars Anderson to come up here,right after we finish the meeting. I'm gonna bang the gavel and say, you know, all right we're done. Why don't you just come up and walk around behind, uh, this podium, okay? All right, so I'm done! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of February 19, 2019.