HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-02-07 Transcription Page I
Council Present: Alter,Bergus,Dunn,Harmsen, Taylor, Teague,
Staff Present: From,Jones,Kilburg, Goers, Fruehling,Platz, Davies, Ogden,Hightshoe,
Sitzman,Russett, Bristow,Ralston, Liston,Knoche,Havel, Sovers,
Seydell Johnson
USG: Zeimet,USG Liasion,LeFevre,Alternate
1. Consultation with the Planning and Zoning Commission regarding Orchard
Rezoning
Teague: Today is Tuesday,February 23rd-February 7th, 2023. And I wanna welcome everyone
into your city hall. And we have,um, a consultation with the Planning and Zoning
Commission regarding our Orchard rezoning. So we're gonna just jump right into there. I
wanna welcome all of the commissioners that are here, and,um, I'll just go through and
have you state your name. And I think many of you probably know most of the
councilors here,but we do have a new councilor and I'll have our new newest councilor
state his name and then we'll just start over here with the commissioners and, and go from
there.
Dunn: Andrew Dunn Iowa City at-large.
Signs: Mark Signs,Planning and Zoning Commission.
Hensch: Mike Hensch with Planning and Zoning Commission. I've been on it for eight years. I've
been chair for five years, so I've been doing this a long time.
Teague: Great, great.
Elliott: Maggie Elliott Planning and Zoning.
Townsend: Billie Townsend Planning and Zoning.
Teague: All right.
Hensch: Here comes Chad and
Teague: please come on up. [NOISE]
[inaudible]
Taylor:Nice.
Wade: Chad Wade,Planning and Zoning.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 2
Teague: All right. Welcome to all the commissioners. Super excited to have you,uh,here with
us. Thanks for your service. And we know that it is, uh,time-consuming and a lot of
dedicated work go into it. So we appreciate you being here today. So as we know,there
was,um,the topic of the Orchard rezoning and,um,the council wanted to just have a
consultation with you all. And I know that some of our councilors probably have some
burning thoughts so they wanna share. So I'll just open it up to whoever wants to begin.
Hensch: I'll just go ahead and start. Maggie Elliot and myself were the two- two affirmative
votes for this application and Chad, sorry, Chad. So probably wanna start off with folks
that were in the negative. So Billy or Mark?
Townsend: I can start, I'm not ashamed, I was concerned about- about a lot of affordable housing
that went down-that was being taken- getting- gotten rid of during this whole process.
Um, and that there was no affordable housing,uh, in this packet because it looked like
they were paying the fee in lieu of so that was getting rid of affordable housing that was
assessable to,uh,buses to the downtown area,to the things that they-that the people that
were living there were accustomed to seeing that wouldn't cost them more money for
affordable housing.
Signs: Okay. Um, I was concerned about a- a few things. One of them I think primarily being the
size of the project. When we had looked at this piece of property a few years ago,uh, and
looked at rezoning the Archer District. That area was kind of looked at as a transitional
area between the-between the more commercial area on, on Riverside and to the-to the
East and then helping transition into the Orchard district and the neighborhood there on
the West. And then you know in the time since the Riverfront Crossing District was
created,um,this,this group or previous groups have expanded that area a little bit into
basically crossing over Riverside. It was initially limited due East to Riverside and we've
expanded that a couple of times, including the latest one into the Orchard District. And,
you know, so one of my concerns was also, are we-you know,how long do we continue
to expand the area as opposed to putting a firm limit to it. Another issue that came up that
I, I guess I continue to have concerns about is the traffic impact on that area. In particular,
the Orchard Court itself, I think it's Orchard court,um, coming out of Kum & Go,
coming out of the two large apartment buildings that are already there. Um,there's-
there's one way in, one way out uh, and concern about the traffic there. Signalzation,
signalization causing more problems with the traffic-with the traffic there. Um,those
were, I think,kind of the general- generalities of my concerns.
Hensch: And just to,uh, get support for at least my affirmative vote is you know, of course,
traffic is an issue there,but this traffic studies were done by professional engineers and
planning staff. And then I think the conditions that are set for signalzation possible
turning lanes. And if traffic's heavier than anticipated,then the council will have to deal
with that at the time. And the staff I mean, as all development comes, traffic increases. So
there's just have to wait and see if, if the impact is greater than what's set some of the
conditions. And about affordable housing and I'm very affirmative in my support of
affordable housing. But this application is in compliance with the ordinance. There's two
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 3
options either provide 10% of the housing in the units to be affordable or to pay a fee in
lieu of And so that is in compliance with the ordinance. And then lastly,the bulk of the
buildings, It's a little overwhelming sometimes when you just see the concepts that get
submitted,but we always have to keep in mind that those concepts are there- developers
are not held to those That's just what- at this time, what they're looking to see that that
finally it will be reviewed in site plan review because that-that it's a very common thing
when we look at that to say this is what it has to be,but the rezoning can be whatever is
eligible and that rezoning um this would be Riverfront Crossings, Orchard. So um those
things are what led me to be in support of this. I think it's in compliance with
comprehensive plan, its compliance with the zoning ordinances, and the character of the
neighborhood. I think it is transitional because the building can only be three stories,with
the top story being stepped back 10 ft. So that provides,uh, a step-down degradiation
from the building immediately to the East,which are multi-storied buildings. So it is
getting smaller as we're going through the single-family residences to the West. So those
are my thought processes on that.
Townsend: I just wanna add, I just came from that area and Riverside is one of the busier areas in
Iowa City. And without that building,without those buildings, it's a heavy traffic area.
Even when it's not the traffic area time, like 05:00 when people are getting off work. So I
think we have to be mindful of putting more traffic in that area. Just for-just for general
use.
Wade: I'll, I'll weigh in really quick. Uh, for many of the reasons that Mike spoke about, I was
affirmative and supportive,um, like Mike just talked about um that project went from,
uh, a single- single building to multiple buildings. Um, given the rezoning,provide
zoning,but doesn't restrain the builder to that model. As long as the spirit remains the
same in a construction with multiple buildings,bridge is one large unit that the Good
Neighbor provided feedback on. I was in some part of it. The traffic does present a
challenge because of the cul-de-sac and how potential cut-throughs on Kum & Go and
the neighboring parking—or the neighboring parking lot for the apartment location.
However,uh,you know that area could use the redevelopment. It's underutilized in the
lot that's asked to be rezoned. And so it's opportunity to add some additional housing
there.
Elliot: Chad and Mike have done a good job of summarizing. I would just say the same thing as
that. There's more people-more people can live there and it's close to town. It's um- it, it's
accessible. It seems like it's good use. I'd rather have more people living there. It's close
to town. And I felt that,um,uh was part- It met the criteria for the comprehensive plan.
Hensch: And in that vein,my last thought was um—of course, in Riverfront Crossings,we want
density. Objective is to get people out of their cars and with the improvement of
Riverside Drive with the pedestrian passageway underneath the Railroad Bridge on the
West side. I think then that those units now will be more conducive to students and just
walking. So people won't- frankly wouldn't-nobody would take a car to go downtown
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 4
because there's no place to park or if you're a student. So I think,um it's certainly
encourage a pedestrian-oriented housing.
Teauge: Great. Well, I want to say thanks to each of you for kind of sharing your thoughts at this
time. Fellow councilors, certainly you can do whatever you want. I know I can't control
you. But what I do want to I want to remind you that this is when our agenda for later
today. And people from the public will also come up and uh you know talk to us. And so
I would just caution us on,um,um giving some firm positions and waiting for the public
uh to come and share their thoughts. But we do certainly have individuals here before us
that you can engage with and,uh,kinda have some dialogue with.
Thomas: Well, I, I was primarily interested in hearing your thoughts and rationale for the
position you took on the project And I did I did watch the video of your- of your meeting
when you discussed it. So what I'm hearing is fairly consistent with that. And I also
wanted to hear again,your understanding of the transition because I think the transition is
really at the crux of this whole situation and that that was really the reason for creating
the Orchard district was creating a transition.
Bergus: I guess, I just have some questions for,um, Commissioner Signs and Townsend. Thank
you for your comments explaining sort of what your primary concerns were.Uh, is there-
so if- if there were to be redevelopment are they're kind of suggestions or thoughts that
you have as far as what-what you would want to see on the affordable housing front or
on the kind of the scope and the traffic front that you think would make it,um, agreeable
to.
Hensch: Well I don't know about that continuing discussion we have in the planning and zoning
commission is,um,the ordinance allowing the fee in lieu of it's just felt that that's not
really doing much to address the availability of affordable housing in the Riverfront
Crossings District. Um, so as a matter of fact, I think we're going to be talking about that
in future meeting if we would like to put forth a recommendation to the council to re-
examine that ordinance because we're going to end up with a big pot of money but no
more affordable housing yet.
Townsend: And not only that,but what affordable housing actually is. As we know, affordable
housing right now is really not affordable for those that need it.
Signs: The other,uh, little bit more background on my thoughts on the transition piece. We had-
we had,uh, approved a plan for this property or part of this property previously. Um, and
it was I believe in the unanimous approval at that point. And what that-what that was
looking at at that time was more of a smaller townhouse style units and in- along Orchard
Street and- and taking the turn to the west there,whatever that streets called. And- and
you know that again,was-had unanimous approval with the Commission at that time
and- and I saw that is appropriate scale for that transitional area. Um, and I- I see you
know-this plan just goes beyond that for me. And one of the things Mike mentioned- and
I'll say Mike and I don't use usually disagree on a whole lot of things but on this one
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 5
we're pretty firmly on the opposite sides of the field. But,um, that-the- one of the things
that concerns me is that these are just conceptual plans and we never exactly know what's
going to happen and quite frankly, from our experience, it often at times turns into things
beyond what we originally thought it was going to be. And so that-that has big- I'll be
honest,that has become a growing concern of mine. In a lot of things we look at the
Commission and so that's certainly played part of my analysis of this- of this project also.
Alter: So is it fair then,based on what John was just talking about as-he saw the transitional part
is being the crux and what you were talking about as well. Is it that there does not appear
to be firm enough direction about what transition looks like.
Dunn: Can I, could I speak to that a little bit?Yeah. I mean in our- in my conversations with-
with Geoff,really what's my understanding from the comprehensive plan,uh, is that we
don't have a definition for what transitional is. Um it is my understanding that that is
something that we pretty much determine as a body on a case-by-case basis.Um that's
my understanding of things. There's no definition in state code. There's no definition, I
believe in our zoning code or in our code of ordinances.
Alter: Is that also commissions understanding?
Hensch: I don't think it's concretely defined. It's certainly something that,um, in this- and I
disagree with my friend here,that I see it there since we do have the 30 foot setback. We
have Pedestrian walkway. We have a three-story limitation with a 10 foot step back of the
third floor and you take that to compare them to the buildings to the east. And that just
visually you can see the transition from multifamily,to a lesser multifamily, and then into
a single-family dwelling.
Teague: I see our city manager Geoff Fruin. We'll welcome you.
Fruin: I just offer a point of clarification. So there there's not a definition, so to speak, of trans-
what transitional zoning is. And I think that was the question that we discussed. We can't
tell you what exactly transitional zoning news. But you're zoning ordinance provides
regulations that govern that transition. And that could look different in different zoning
districts. So a transition in a commercial zone may look a little bit different than a
commercial than I'm sorry,the transition in this particular zone. But as,uh, Chairperson
Hensch was-was just commenting,the transition is governed in the regulations of the
zoning codes. That is that setback that step back. The height limitations that you have.
That is how we regulate that transition. But there is no specific definition and there's not
uniformity and transition across the code and I would say that's probably not something
that we would look to have because transition between single-family and multi-family
may look different,between two multifamily districts or commercial against residential,
that's all going to be different and that's why it's regulated a little bit different in each of
the zoning classifications.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 6
Dunn: If I could ask a question about that, Geoff. Um, so what-what you're saying is the zoning
code has examples of things that could constitute transitional,right? Could constitute a
transitional area or could potentially satisfy that category.
Fruin: The zoning code, is going to have regulations in place that attempts to create an
appropriate transition. Again,that's going to be height and step backs and setbacks and
things of that nature.
Signs: I think one of the challenges that we face as a commission and you all certainly face as
council is those intra- is making those interpretations and- and looking at those fine
details. And you know this is a-this is a request for a rezoning. This is a request to
change what's there now to something else. And- and so,um,you know we are called
upon, I think as- as public servants to you know help make those decisions as to what we
think is best overall. But it isn't always set in stone as much as we would love it to be it's
just not always set in stone.
Teague: I wanted to just address something that commissioner Townsend said in regards to
affordable housing. I know that we've had this conversation before,but affordable
housing in our community is a challenge um and how its defined- I think I know my
peers here,we really want affordable housing. We need affordable housing. We know
that our residents you know cannot afford. Some of them can't afford the prices that are
out there,um and- and some of that is determined by what is affordable. There's you
know thoughts that if you spent 30 percent or more of your,um, income,then you know
the housing situation is no longer affordable. Um,when I look at- and this isn't really
getting at the heart of this I think is talking about the entire-because I heard something
about,um,the fee in lieu of as well as the affordable the affordable period. So sometimes
we have the 20-year affordability period and if they were to remain in the Riverfront
Cross area or whatever. Well, at the end of that 20 years now the developers are allowed
to continue that affordable housing should they choose to do so but personally, I think
that's going to be not what we are going to see as a community and so where we've
intentionally thought we want to ensure that we have affordable housing and some of
these areas, it won't be there in 20 years. Then that's where I step back and say,well you
know we need a bigger conversation. I won't shy away from that. But in the moment
when I'm looking at a specific developer,uh I personally don't like to feel in lieu of
because I think experience in place outweighs million dollars for any one individual. If
you can put a person like, I'm from Chicago and wasn't from the wealthiest community
but if you put me, if you give a person an opportunity to be in a diverse area where it's
afluent,people sometimes mimic what they see and- and they can have some greater
opportunities. So the fee and lieu of doesn't sit well with me except what I will say is if
this body it takes the fee in lieu of more than likely what we're going to create,what that
will be housing and perpetuity. Um, so it'd be affordable units,not in that area but
somewhere else. Um,now, granted in the Riverfront Crossing scenario,we have to take
the fee in lieu of dollars and make affordable units within that area. Um, but I think as we
know,the cost of that area is going up,right?And so we may as a body determine that
we don't want to have those-we want to move those funds out of the area and I think we
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 7
can determine that and vote on that should we choose so. I-I just wanted to give just- I
wanted to touch base on the affordable housing topic because it is a challenge and so fee
in lieu off for me anymore. How do we get the most bang for our buck?And that is, you
know,taken the fee in lieu of money but then there are opportunities that I think someone
is going to miss out on because if we take the fee in lieu of they won't be in that area and
so it becomes a two-edged sword in a way. But I at least want to acknowledge that that
this is an issue. I think that,um,when we look at projects that come into our community,
we're looking at the complain. We're looking at what's there now,what's going to be. And
those are hard decisions. And I think that as many of you know,that the city is moving
more to these form-based codes,which we cannot take out the guesswork on some level
for P&Z, developers, staff,this council. But more importantly, the residents that are
going to be living there and the residents that currently live in the- in that surrounding
area. And so while I don't have something specific where- I don't have any questions for
you all,but I just wanted to acknowledge that what you're doing is a really hard work.
You're doing what we've asked of you and I really appreciate that. Yes. A correction.
Goers:No,not a correction.
Goers: I just wanted to,uh,point out that, of course,the affordable housing is a- is a crucial
discussion and something that city council has been focused on,uh, for years. Ah,but
just to be clear,the item you're discussing tonight is a specific rezoning and so forth, and
as a term and hence has mentioned,uh,this proposal does comply with the ordinance as it
is today.Now in the future council may choose to revisit,uh,the issue of fee and lieu or
any other issue related to affordable housing. But I just want to make clear both to,uh,
planning and zoning commissioners who are present here tonight and of course,to
council members that in deciding, as they will later tonight at the formal meeting whether
or not to approve this item. It could be in any number of factors,but failure or use of,uh,
or- I- I should say, compliance with the present city code by using fee in lieu should not
be a reason that the council should deny this.
Teague: Absolutely.
Goers: That's all. Thank you.
Teague: I appreciate that.
Alter: I have a question,um,pivoting a little bit na-not to- sorry,not for you. Um, about whether
it's for the- I have a question simply about there was something in the notes about the
potential of solar and I'm- on the roofs. And I don't know if that's appropriate for now or
if it's something,um,to wait for as a question in the formal for clarification on that. I
think there have been-
Teague: You can certainly ask staff or- so I think the question is about silver.
Alter:No,no. Solar. Solar on the roofs.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 8
Teague: Solar, oh, okay. I thought it was silverly.
Alter: Whether- given there's something about the density of the buildings,whether there would
be solar or not and ah- so I'm just curious about whether that is,um,part of the
conversation.
Fruin: Uh, I don't think that we're familiar with any plans for solar,but-but usually we wouldn't
be at that level of detail at a rezoning stage. That's something that,uh,the developers
would probably analyze in the design phase. So keep in mind that,uh, developers
typically are not going to put a lot of,uh,resources into design until they know that they
have the regulatory approval to move forward with whatever concept they may be
considering. Um, so if- if this were to be approved by the council-this rezoning were to
be approved,you would expect that the developers would then invest quite a bit in the
design of the building. Um,probably building from that concept,but you could and
should expect that maybe they'd be some,uh, changes to the design and that's when
something like solar would be-be looked at. I think the developers will probably have an
opportunity to-to speak tonight before you close the public hearing and if they're
considering solar,they can certainly let you know. Um,uh,yeah, I'll leave it at that.
Thanks.
Alter: Thank you. I think my confusion simply lay in the fact that this was an incredibly rich
discussion that you guys had and so as I was going through the minutes, I know there was
a lot so that's on me.
Hensch: It was briefly mentioned in the P&Z meeting along with charging for EV vehicles,um,
but that was it and it wasn't part of the application. And there is no possibility of bonus
height so it would have nothing to do with the height of the building.
Alter: Right. Thank you.
Townsend: And Mayor Teague you were asking me personally about the affordable housing
piece-
Teague: I wa- I was more given a statement and,um, agreeing in the- and some of the points that
you made earlier?
Townsend: I guess I just want to add that, ah, and I hopefully Ann I'm not being out of place
when I talk about the,uh, trailer courts that had been taken down around the-well the
foster road ones who now flattened. The ones on prayed machine now are flattened,
which were all affordable housing pieces in Iowa City. Um, and so how do those people
now find housing in Iowa City?And they have all been a part of our community. Those
places have been there for years. Ah,their children have gone to school in our area and
now there's no place for them that they can afford. So I just want to make that as part of a
why I voted against.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 9
Teague: Sure. Thank you.
Harmsen: I had some questions about the traffic,um. I don't know if members of P&Z or staff
can talk either specifically or in general,but with those two intersections so close to each
other,Highway 6 in Orchard Street. Um, obviously the plans that have and they came
before us mentioned having a traffic study and signalization and,um,uh,trying to
accommodate, ah,that area which has already- like the way it is now isn't exactly a
perfect thing either so in terms of like what's possible?What's sort of the standard for that
kind of a close intersection is traffic flow be improved. Um, I don't know if I'm- if I'm
wording this question right but maybe you're kind of following hopefully a little bit of
what I'm getting at. What will be sort of the end result. Can you keep that from being like
a crazy backups situation,people trying to turn off the Highway 6 onto Benton heading
west or,um,you know what do you-wha-wha- can you help shed some light on that for
me?
Ralston: Yeah. Good afternoon Commission, Council,Mayor. Uh,Kent Ralston, Transportation
Planner. So,yeah, as it stands today,um, one of the conditions of the rezoning would be,
uh,that a traffic signals installed at Orchard,uh, Street, Orchard corner and-and Benton
Street at that intersection. So, um,there was a traffic study done in one of the previous
iterations,uh,which when this was Orchard court lofts a few years back,um,that
development at that- or that concept at that time had something like 130 units.Now we're
up to maybe like 180 or 90. We did not require the developer to go back through the
process with the new traffic study because even at that point in time, a signal was already
warranted,uh, and the developer is aware of that. So it's something like 50 percent more,
uh, traffic,but when you look at the actual peak hours,which is what we're most
interested in. It's the matter of 10 or 20 vehicles per peak hour. So we're not talking about
a huge difference,um, and therefore,we didn't have the developer go back through and,
uh,take the time and effort and- and money to do a new study.
Harmsen: Oh, I see.
Ralston: So- so yes, at the end of the day,uh, if this moved forward,uh, traffic signal would have
to be,uh, installed,um, and that would have to be installed to the city,uh, engineer's
satisfaction. And what the study shows,to be more clear is that a traffic,uh, signal would
be able to handle that amount of traffic,uh,with acceptable level of service.
Harmsen: How does that work just maybe in- in general?Like is- is there a way to set the time
on those so that the flow isn't, you know-,uh,we think we all know, it's like when we're
driving down the street and we hit all the lights wrong.
Ralston: Right.
Harmsen: Um,you know. A- a- and so maybe that-maybe that's traffic calming so it might not
always be a bad thing but ah-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 10
Ralston: Sometimes we try, sometimes we don't- don't mix those no. It's ah- yeah,with respect to
the actual distance between the two,um,that's a good question. It is relatively short. It's
something like 260, 280 feet depending on how you measure it. Uh,but if you actually
look at other locations in town,we have some other,uh, some similar,uh, distances
between signals and we've just coordinate the two,right? So they'd have to be green
essentially at the same time and we do have mechanisms to do-to do that.
Harmsen: Thank you.
Ralston: Yeah. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Any other questions or thoughts at this time?
Teague: I really want to appreciate the commissioners for coming on a Tuesday and uh-
Hensch: Thank you.
Teague: For spending some time with us today. Thanks again for all that you all do. Really
appreciate it. And you're excused.
Signs: Thank you,Mr. Mayor.Thank you Council. All right.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 11
2. Presentation from local mental health providers
Teague: We're gonna move on to the next agenda item,which is the presentation from a local
mental health providers. And I see two that are gonna be presenting, Sarah Nelson and
Talia Meidlinger...Meidlinger.
Meidlinger: I know. It's a mouthful.
Teague: Yes.
Teague: Welcome.
Meidlinger: Thank you. Thank you for inviting us today. We're gonna breeze through the fust
half of this. Talia Meidlinger,Executive Director of UAY. The fust half of this, it's pretty
heavy on some stats and stuff because we wanna really land on what mental health looks
like in our community from our boots on the ground perspective and- and kind of what
we're doing in collaboration and partnership. So here we go. Uh, trigger warning. Sarah
and I talked about this. We will be talking pretty explicitly about mental health and
suicide. Um,there will be resources, of course, at the end of this presentation.
Alter: Could you lean into the microphone or bring it back down?
Meidlinger: Oh my lord. Thanks,Eric. Anyway, so there'll be resources.
Alter: And making such as,however, is easiest.
Meidlinger: Yeah,we're good. So if anyone is struggling after this conversation, our community
has a lot of resources. We talked a lot also about who has knowledge of the resources that
we offer and who doesn't,who has access,who's willing to access all that talking about
stigm- stigma, and which communities are- are comfortable engaging with our services.
Um, I debated talking about the pandemic because we're all tired of it. Pandemic,
pandemic. But I think that we can't talk about mental health without talking about what's
happening on the heels of the pandemic. Uh,the surgeon general said that,uh- officially
stated that we have a youth mental health crisis. We know that they were struggling pre-
pandemic, especially young people who belong to marginalized communities we were
worried about before the pandemic. Um, and I think that what we're seeing right now is
that they continue to increase in their level of mental health crisis. Also note that these
stats are old,right?Data falls on the heels of what's happening in the here and now. And
so everything that Sarah and I are gonna be talking about, I can guarantee in a few years
we're gonna see drastic increases in the number of young people and adults in our
communities who are struggling. Uh, a lot of this stuff I'm gonna talk about is fairly
generalizable to adults as well. Um,but I'm just taking the youth mental health
perspective because that's who I am and that's what I do. Um, factors that can shape the
mental health of young people. As a social worker, I always come at things from the
biopsychosocial perspective. So we're thinking about biological,psychological, and
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 12
social contexts in what people live and come from,right? So we're talking about society,
social and economic inequalities, discrimination,racism, all of these things that we know
impact how people are,how they show up,how they treat the world and how the world
treats them.Neighborhood safety. I mean, in this previous conversation,we heard us
talking about what's the best way to provide affordable housing. Where should it be
located?Um,relationships with peers and teachers and mentors, faith community, school
climate. What we know is that the identity is we carry impact,how we see ourselves,how
other people see us, and how we interact with the world and vice versa,how the world
treats us. I have right standing before you've had a pretty easy time interacting with the
world,but I work with a lot of people every day who don't. Um,relationships with the
parents,peers,teachers,how you are received in community spaces. And then the
individual age, genetics,race, ethnicity, gender, all of that. I think it's so important when
we talk about mental health that we understand all of these aspects of mental health and
who we are. We have to understand people in the context of their lived experience in the
here and now. And I think that,um,to that point, all of us are severely under educated
about what mental health is. Especially in our marginalized communities where mental
health is extremely stigmatized and access is incredibly difficult to come by. Um, it's
important that we shift the way that we think about it and talk about it, and provide
mental health services. So in 2019,right? One in three high-school students and half of
female students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and increase of
40% from 2009. Again,these are dated statistics. And when these fall on the heels of
what happened during the pandemic, I think I'm not gonna be surprised,but it's gonna be
alarming and we have some incentive to act now to work to address this,because like I
said, Sarah and I have boots on the ground, our staff have boots on the ground. And what
we're seeing is a lot of people, individuals, families, communities that are struggling and
honestly dying by suicide,uh,by violence,by being pushed out of systems that are
supposed to be supporting them. So a little bit about what UAY did in the previous fiscal
year with our staff, a limited staff of 30,uh,we provided 402 clients with 5,016 therapy
sessions. We average a therapy waitlist of 40 at any given time,which means young
people and families are waiting 1-3 months to being seen.Now,these are families who
feel comfortable accessing formal mental health billable therapy. You come into the
office,you spill the beans to somebody you've never known,right?And if we're talking
about stigmatized and marginalized communities,we're talking about transportation,
reimbursement rates for insurance,right? If you have Medicaid,not a lot of people in
Iowa City accept Medicaid because it doesn't pay well. And who has Medicaid,right?
Who has access to these services?Who's able to make it to an appointment during the
middle of the day. All of our therapists only have one four o'clock and one five o'clock
slot every single day of the week. And do you know who gets those slots?People who
show up. Why?Because insurance companies only pay us when people show up. And so
we have to address all of the barriers we've been talking about in this room today. Um,
we've done crisis intervention in mediation with 280 clients, 1404, sessions or contexts,
355 victims. We've provided 97 crisis support groups. This is the informal, let's go where
young people are. We call it hashtag,not therapy. They're not trained therapists,but
they're providing the very important social emotional support and social emotional
learning that young people in crisis need. Four hundred and twenty-five crisis counseling
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 13
sessions to 66 parents and families. And then our new spark engagement program,which
is aimed at targeting BIPOC youth who have barriers,um,to accessing services,positive
pro-social activities and peer relationships. 213 youth of color, and we didn't even have
that program,um, for the whole fiscal year. And then 434 LGBTQ youth.
Nelson: Okay. So I'm gonna talk- I'm gonna go through these fairly quickly,but just looking at
kind of what the stats are showing us nationally then what we're seeing in the state and
what we're kinda seeing in the county based on what's available for us. So again,these
are lagging statistics so it's as quick as we can get our hands on them. But in 2020, one in
five US adults were living with mental illness of varying degrees of severity. Which
means 21% of all US adults. Serious mental illness,which tends to be where you're -the
functioning and their daily functioning is more highly impacted is about 5.6% of all US
adults. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adults in the US in 2020,there were 12.2
million adults that had serious thoughts of suicide, 3.2 million made plans for suicide,
and 1.2 had attempted. Firearms were the most common. Yes?
Dunn: Actually, I have a question about the last slide that you have there.
Nelson: Sure.
Dunn: Uh,you have the difference between-prevalence between females and males. Um, do you
have any information as to why that exists? Is that,um, do you think there's factors
having to do with stigmatization where,you know,males are just not talking about it, or-
Nelson: Yeah, I would say,you know,you could speculate a lot,but my,um-this is very
anecdotal,but my suspicion would be that out of the people surveyed that females were
more likely to report versus the fact that females are actually experiencing a greater level
of mental health issues. That's what we see on the ground. That's what we see in the
suicide statistics that- that I'm about to show as well. Um, so we've seen firearms are the
most common method and accounted for over half of all suicide deaths in the US. Um,
something that's important in community crisis services work in suicide prevention and
intervention that we try to,uh,make sure that the community understands when we're
talking about firearms is it is the most most lethal means because we have the shortest
time to intervene. So from the time that we know somebody has a gun in their hand and
death can be eminent, our ability to intervene is almost non-existent. If somebody reaches
out and they've taken a bottle of pills,we can intervene. We have more chance of being
able to intervene. And so that's why you see that as the most deadly,um,means. So
overall in the US, suicide was the third leading cause of death for individuals between 15
and 24. And as Talia said,that is really concerning,um,because this is lagging. And
what we're seeing on the ground with youth mental health is that they're suffering more,
um,now than ever before. Uh, it's the second leading cause of death for individuals
between 25 and 34 in the US, and the fourth leading cause of death for individuals
between 35 and 44. In Iowa. Over the past 20 years,the rate of suicide has been climbing
out of proportion with the increase in the population over the last 20 years or so. The
population has only gone up by 6.9%,but the rate of suicide has gone up by 89%. So in
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 14
2021,we experienced 541 deaths by suicide in Iowa compared to 286 in 2000. Johnson
County, in 2021,there were 31 deaths by suicide, 27 male, four female,three youth under
the age of 18. That is actually an alarming statistic. It is not common. Four(4)young
adults under the age of 30,nine (9)between the ages of 30 and 39,marking them the
largest subset and Johnson County,the leading means was firearm, accounting for 12
total deaths by suicide followed by hanging and then a variety of other means. Hanging is
also something I would point out very hard when you work in suicide intervention and
prevention means restriction is what we often refer to. How do we restrict people's access
to means those two things we can do means restrictions with firearms. Means restriction
when it comes to death by hanging is very challenging, if not impossible,to address
without someone having eyes on someone 24/7. Go ahead.
Dunn: Is there any sort of geographic or municipal breakdown of where these occurred?
Nelson: So the Johnson County Medical Examiner may have that information which is who
provided it to me and I suspect they do. So in 2022,there were also, so note at the time
that I got this from the medical examiner,this was- did not include any December data.
So this is missing a month of data. There were 31 deaths by suicide, 20 male 11 female.
When I talked about Andrew,when you asked that question about females reporting it
more. When we see death by suicide statistics,more commonly,males complete suicide.
Three youth under the age of 18 and 20,nine under 30, eight between 30 and 39, five
between 40 and 49, six between 50 and 79. Leading means we're still firearm, followed
by hanging. So what do we have in our community right now to address these concerns
with mental health and suicide. Some of what community crisis services does this operate
crisis help lines,that means 988 IowaChat University of Iowa emotional support line.
This is half a year of statistics, so not a full fiscal year,but July to December being the
most recent data. We had 39,000 chats and texts that originated in Iowa. That data is
more anonymous. It can be really hard to drill down to exact locations if people don't
disclose it. It's part of why people use the service if they want help but want that
anonymity, 706 phone calls originated in Iowa, 272 contacts on the U of I Emotional
support line. What we were able to pull was 50% of Iowa City chat contacts were for
clients 23 or younger. That's not surprising, I think I talked about this last time when I
was here that we're really seeing text and chat utilized at a much higher frequency,
especially texts. And that is your 15-24 year old demographic that accesses that. In terms
of presenting issues, anxiety and depression are the largest areas of concern,followed by
relationship issues, school problems, self-harm, and sexuality. Mobile Crisis Response
(MCR) July to December,we had 543 mobile crisis dispatches, 170 youth specific, 125
ICPD LE Liaison Dispatches, 1207 follow-up contacts with those that we've seen in
crisis. Average 20-minute response time in Iowa City over those six months and 95%
conversion rate from hospitalization. Total MCR calls have increased by 35% from this
same time period last year, 73% of all of our calls are from Iowa City residents. And 54%
of youth MCR calls are for students in Iowa City School District. So this is something
Talia and I will tag team a little bit as we wanted to talk about how mental health
challenges show up in our community. Because oftentimes what we're talking about,
people don't understand that what they're seeing is mental health. And so we wanted to
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 15
just touch on that a little bit because these are things that have a lot of cross-section
reality with different sectors and things that we're seeing across the community.
Meidlinger: I'm a firm believer and so is Sarah,that behavior is communication. We look at
challenging behaviors with young people and community members as a behavior that
needs to be addressed,not something else that's going on beneath the surface. We talked
about this as outward suffering,not to label it as bad behavior. In the schools and in the
community. We see this as fighting disruptive behavior, agitation, disrespect adults,use
that a lot about young people who are struggling. It's a disrespect issue. Then the
internalizing the silent suffering,which is what we're all a little more familiar with when
we talk about mental health,reduced productivity, and performance that's talking about in
the workplace as well as in school, substance use, suicide, suicidal ideation,withdrawal,
and self-harm. And then the overarching umbrella that you see. All of this kind of course
crossover. But again, substance-use, low mood, feelings of worthlessness, change in
behavior,habits, and friends, school refusal, and self-harm. A lot of the work that we've
been doing and Sarah and I talk about is that young people and adults in our community
who have more externalizing behaviors are more challenging to work with. And they
often get penalized. They get involved in the judicial system or juvenile court. They pick
up charges,they get suspended from school. And all of these things have long-term
detrimental impacts those people's ability to get where they need to be and to be well and
to have the resources they need. And so when we talk about thinking about mental health
differently,we have to totally flip it on its head. We have to go to where people are and
serve them in the areas they are.
Nelson: I was talking to Talia, I think this is a good analogy to kind of help hammer this point
home. But oftentimes when we talk about individuals on the autism spectrum,what you'll
hear that community say is that just because I'm on the higher end of the spectrum doesn't
mean I experienced my autism lesson intensely. It just means you experience it less
intensely and vice versa. And so with externalizing, and we want people to understand
those are mental health issues. They're harder on people,they're harder on systems to deal
with. Those are hurting people that have mental health issues,where those that are silent
and withdrawn. They're not problematic for people and we worry about them too because
they're not problematic, and they don't might not stand out. And so they're not getting the
help that they need. So just realizing that all of that is mental health.
Meidlinger: And if we talk about marginalized communities who already have an inherent
distrust of many of our systems. They're angry,marginalized community members are
more likely to have externalized behaviors because maybe the internalized stuff wasn't
recognized or the internalized stuff isn't supported in the way they need it or it's
stigmatized, and so they externalize.
Nelson: So gap, so,you know-these are all specific to mental health,but we thought we see this
on the ground when we respond to crisis situations. And so just some of the observations
of our staff. Um, shelter specific to women and children is a pretty significant gap in this
community. If it's- if it's not related to-to domestic violence. That has been a real
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 16
challenge that on the ground, I can tell you anecdotally has seemed to increase in the last
year in terms of women and children showing up needing that support.Non-emergent
healthcare such as prescriptive-prescription assistance, it's something I would love and
mobile crisis if we could have some kind of ally that-that can prescribe medication, like
the ability to have a prescriber onsite with us to just do a script of Prozac.
Meidlinger:Not have to wait six months to get into a provider who can do a full evaluation.
Nelson: It would be huge and it's something that's doable. And I think that we could do as a
community. Uh, services utilizing a harm reduction approach. You probably don't wanna
get Talia and I go in on this, so I'll try to be short. Um,but, you know,we often take this
kind of punitive, like,you either,you know, are abstinent or nothing. And realizing that if
we meet people truly where they're at, if we have somebody that's presenting and that's an
alcoholic and they're willing to take that step and stop drinking vodka and switch to beer.
Or they're going-they're willing to,you know,make a decision about only drinking and
using Uber and not getting back in their car. Um, 20 million examples.
Meidlinger: I think- I think we have this idea about sex, drugs and suicide. That if we talk about
it in a real way and provide the real facts that we're gonna increase the likelihood that
people are gonna participate in those things. The reality is if we teach young people and
adults the truth about sex, drugs and suicide,they're going to make more informed
decisions. And then they have a trusted person to reach out to when they get beyond
where they feel safe and reasonable. But like Sarah was saying,this-this abstinence only
non-harm reductive approach is damaging to everyone,um, especially on the heels of the
pandemic and what we're seeing evolve right now.
Nelson: Like- I use- I can use another example of harm reduction that,you know, is sometimes
shocking to people. But when I oversaw the youth shelter in Cedar Rapids and there were
kids that they were gonna run if they couldn't smoke cigarettes,but we didn't allow
cigarettes in the youth shelter,right?And so was I'm more worried about them walking
down the street to smoke a cigarette or was I'm more worried about them running away
and being sex trafficked,which is how they showed up in the fust place? I'm more
worried about them running away and re-entering sex trafficking. So we didn't need to
know about it. We had a policy of you be be-hide those just down the street. You wanna
take a walk, go, don't talk about it, don't tell others about it. But is that what we want?
Ideally,no,we want them to quit smoking. But is that going to reduce the harm to that
young person?Absolutely. And so I would say in Iowa in general, services that take a
harm reduction approach to-to moving people along to that place where they're healthy
and bribing is something we severely lack in this state and in our community. Um, access
for individuals with a dual diagnosis. I do not like the term dual diagnosis because I don't
even think it should be a thing. We know that if people are using substances,there's
almost always mental health. But what happens is when people try to access one or the
other,they're kicked around,um,to a different door because,well,that's substance-use
not mental health, and that's mental health not substance use. And so people and families
aren't getting the help that they need.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 17
Meidlinger: Youth crisis stabilization. The number of times,um,we have a suicidal young
person who ends up in the emergency room for 24, 72. However many hours maybe they
get put into an inpatient bed,maybe they don't,but oftentimes they're like, I'm fine, let
me go home. That we don't have any real concrete meaningful ways to take a young
person in crisis and help them get out of that and then follow up with resources after that.
Families support: peers,respite,navigation and practical, concrete support,right?
Looking, again,understanding people in the context of their lived experience, I can't just
work with this person and not address the entire unit,right? In a really meaningful,robust
way. Because we know that generational trauma,poverty,racism,historical trauma, all of
that stuff follows people,right?And it's not just one kid who's the problem or one adult
who's the problem. It's an entire system that needs the support to get out of it. And we try
as hard as we can,but we're also severely understaffed to do that in a meaningful way.
Um, again,here's the funding for non-traditional and non-bill approaches to mental
health. We have a number of grants that allow us to do some of this. But we can't just
grow more therapists. That's not the solution. We're not going to like,here's 4,000 extra
therapists Iowa City,but the people who have a stigma about mental health are still not
gonna access it. The people who don't have private insurance probably are gonna be on
longer waitlist,right?And those folks need services now immediately and spaces that
feel comfortable to them and spaces that they trust. Um, and then the provider shortage
and skilled workforce. I have a number of people on my staff who are not trained
therapists,but their experience-their lived experience, and the cultural relevance of
where they're coming from and who they're communicating with goes far beyond what an
hour a week billable therapy will do for the people they interact with and their entire
family unit. And so we have to think about differently,how we define mental health.
Now, I don't wanna be able to all willy nilly like anybody can call themselves a therapist,
right? There's danger in that. And so that was a fear that happened some- some years
back. But I think we can think differently, and lovingly about interventions,#nottherapy
can get you as far as you need to go until you're ready for therapy. Again,mental health
disparities, little barrier access. All we talk about all the time. Um,we're going to step off
our soapbox soon here, I get it. But these go hand in hand,right?Provider discrimination.
We're talking about folks who don't take Medicaid. I get it. I'm a provider. I don't take
Medicaid. Why?Because it doesn't reimburse and that's my side hustle guys. Uh, lack of
professionals who belonged to marginalized communities. I don't wanna talk to
somebody who doesn't hold mice very same marginalized identity. Lack of access to
quality care, inadequate health insurance, again,talking about Medicaid or having an
incredibly high copay. The number of clients we see who come in who do have Blue
Cross,they're like, I can't afford to $60 copay for my kid every week. I'm barely paying
my bills. Stigma surrounding mental health, I'm not crazy, it's fine. I just,you know- it's
not a big deal. Uh,the historical trauma piece,mistrust of systems, especially health care
systems and awareness of mental health and what it means. Like I said, I think that we
are severely under,um, educated on what mental health looks like, sounds like, feels like
for all of us.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 18
Nelson: This slide is just because I wanted to make sure that we have a resource piece after we
talked about all of these heavy topics about how to access services at UAY,mobile crisis,
988 phone or text, crisis chat, community food bank and financial support,DVIP,
domestic violence intervention program, shelter house, and RVAP, a rape victim
advocacy program, are all,um,wonderful services in our community that help to address
some of these inter sectional things. And lastly, any questions you have for us.
Bergus: I have a really tough question that I'm almost sure you can't answer when you talked
about all the gaps. Do you have any sense of the scope of what it would take as far as
funding if we imagined a world in which those gaps were filled?
Nelson: We could,but it would be a project. I mean,there is an answer for that,but yes, it's not
something that would be answerable on the spot. I think,you know,what Talia
mentioned in terms of things that are non-billable,that-those really are the gaps. I mean,
when you look at a service like mobile crisis,that is a non-billable service and that is a
gap filler. That is what catches all the people that are waiting four months to get into
therapy or,you know,that- so when you- a lot of the things that we need as solutions are
more innovative and out of the box than an insurance will allow for us to actually have
the impact. Um, so the number could be arrived at,but it would definitely be a project.
Bergus: Thanks.
Dunn: I've got a question about,um, something that wasn't talked about quite too much in this
presentation,but I'm- I'm still interested in hearing your, ah,your take. Um you know, a
lot of seniors in the community and- and just around the-the country,um, also deal with
this in a very serious way. Incidences of suicidality increase,uh,you know,as you get
older just due to what happens,um,you know,what happens to your body,your friends,
all that type of stuff. Um, so I'm- I'm curious as- as to what you guys see in the gaps of
care for,you know, seniors in our community, in our county,um, er, as well as if you
think that a lot of the resources which are very virtual or are using a,you know, a phone
are- are sufficient,uh, at this time or if there needs to be,you know,more hands-on
approach with-with some of our seniors that are struggling.
Nelson: That-that's a really good question and it- I instantly went,um, so I would say that's a
population mobile crisis. Is an excellent service for that population,right?We can come
in person. It does not require technology. You do not have to be savvy. You just have to
be able to pick up the phone. Might be a little bit confusing,but compared to other
services,pretty easily accessible. That said,the outreach to that community looks
different than outreach. And one of the things when we added the youth mobile crisis
program coordinator, and I've talked to tell you about this a lot. Um, having an individual
going out into the community building relationship with each and every school, going to
different family practitioners,therapists office,that has increased why we're seeing so
many youth in mobile crisis. There is no number of pamphlets or radio spots or billboards
that would have had that outcome, so when funders invest in people for outreach,they
often don't want to. It doesn't feel that impactful and so it's almost exciting to me to have
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 19
a really concrete example of this. Like this is how many youth we saw before we had
somebody dedicated to this outreach and look now, I suspect if we had someone doing
that that-that is what their sole focus was,um, to build bridges between seniors in mobile
crisis and other services,we'd see those numbers grow because that-that's it-those-that's
how you reach people, is by building that relationship and that trust.
Meidlinger: Yeah. I was going to say relationship-focused interactions where you can come and
present and if I'm struggling, I say, "I talked to somebody from that agency and I
remembered that, and it felt good. I can trust that I can go reach out to them because it
might feel similar to what this presentation or this engagement looked like and felt like."
I think a lot of people are hesitant to call because they're anxious,right? Or acce- access
services because I don't know how to do it and I'm- I'm already depressed or anxious or
have no motivation. Why would I also now make this call? Oh,wait. But I remember
what that relationship felt like when we talked.
Dunn: I guess with-with regard to that, do you think that there is,um, is the time ripe or,you
know, is the setting right for,um, you know,us to develop some of the services that you
have that are,you know, group-based,you know,your peers are helping out,um,with-
with our seniors in our community,you know,trying to get folks that might be in a better
place with their mental health to be there for those who-who may not. Is that something
that you think would be,um,more beneficial or do you think that there might be some
large barriers to achieving that?
Nelson: Um,well, the university has a- a program that people can go to become certified as a
peer support specialists, so if they've experienced those challenges themselves and they
want to go and get that certification,um, so that's an-that's an option,um,when you're
talking about peer support,um,but I do think- I think getting-targeting,we're in a good
place and it's important right now to target resources at making sure that seniors in our
community understand what's available to them. We know,um,that population
experienced dramatically more loss during the pandemic than probably any other
population. Um, and so I think that making sure that we're reaching out and making those
connections so that people are aware and- and I feel like I say this every time I have the
opportunity,but when it comes to mobile crisis and crisis help lines, and I'm sure Talia
has programs that she would use as an example as well. Like those are accessible to
anyone in the community. It does not matter your socioeconomic status, it does not
matter your insurance, and it's not available to you any other way. It doesn't matter how
much money you make. You cannot get a service that's going to show up at your house in
less than 60 minutes. And so making sure that everybody in our community understands
this is for you,this is for everyone,um, it helps with the stigma busting,um,but people
that don't tend to access a lot of services also tend not to know about certain services that
might be really beneficial and are available to them. And it's that, again,relationship
building. I do not think the answer is a marketing piece. I think it's a lot of pounding the
pavement and building relationship to make people aware.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 20
Alter: Do you have- do you have,um, so in- in present state the capacity to do the kind of
outreach that,you know,that-that Iowa and you as a partnership have done because I'm
thinking about we've got trail and we have, I mean,thinking along the-the lines of the
senior piece,but-but in general,we have so many agencies where they could be sort of
partnering or helping spread that word about community as well as like the pure training
pro- I'm just thinking about ways because I recognize this is also a capacity issue,um, is,
Nelson: I think mayor, Teague,brought it up last time when I was speaking about seniors and I
thought I left that meeting thinking,man,that's another thing I've got to focus on because
it was such a good point and so specific to seniors,the short answer is no. We don't have
the current capacity to do that. Like I can tell you all the wonderful things right now that
we could do to reach out to seniors,but I can't tell you what staff I would have available
to do that.
Meidlinger: And I think until there's the resources to build a framework,right?Encouraging
people like do the peer support training, do that, it's really helpful and if you don't have a
structure in place to support that,um,you're relying on people who voluntarily want to do
a thing to-to improve the-the mental health outcomes for our community.
Taylor: The numbers you've given for the youth and particularly the teenage, of like 15-18, is
extremely distressing and alarming and I'm sure as it is to you too. Um,you mentioned,
briefly said,uh, something about schools. Is there currently any sort of partnership or
outreach into the schools that lets the- let see's troubled children know that there's
someone or something they can-they can do besides like the parents forcing them to-to
go to counseling and those kind of things. Is there a support system in the schools
currently?
Meidligner: Yeah. All of- all of our staff are pretty like daily in and out of all of the dis- district
buildings and providing those nontraditional supports to students. But again, it's capacity,
right?We-we only have so many staff people and how many thousands of kids in the
school district who really,really need the support.
Taylor: And that's the same. I- I think I've been tooting this for a long time about councilor, and
that's sort of a misconception. And- and from what I've heard from the school district,
now,you know, councilors probably have like- are responsible for 300 something
students or even more. And it really isn't a counseling sort of task gets more like getting
them on track to what they're going to do after high school. But actually having someone
to sit down and pour their heart out to there just-there's not the resources.
Meidlinger: Yeah.
Taylor: And that's hard. That-that must be,you know,really in a rock and a hard place there.
Meidlinger: And the counselors are great. They have the training to provide similar support. And
I think it's about recognizing how much stuff we put on people's plates. You're gonna be
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 21
in charge of academics and college planning and who gets to know their counselors. A lot
of the young people that we interact with are like my counselor,who's that, and what do
they do and how do I find them and what do I talk to them about? I don't know. Um, so
again, it's that counselors have such a broad spectrum of things that they're expected to
do. And to also then be like, also do have time to be an expert on youth mental health and
impacting that. They should know it. But right. Let's have other people who have that as
their job doing that work.
Bergus: On the capacity side,um, I think I'm understanding that the outreach leads to more use
of the service. So kind of looking at the-the backside of that,what is the capacity as far
as the ability to actually go out?Like specifically mobile crisis. Is it scaling fast enough
to meet the need as the outreach increases or just kinda where-where is that now?Where
do you see that going?
Nelson: Uh, fiscal year 2024 is gonna be a very complicated year to budget, I would say because,
um,we're seeing a lot of growth. I wanna make sure that mobile crisis remains
assessable. We no longer can hire on-call contingent mobile crisis counselors,the model
that we used to use for whatever reason. Um, after COVID,people do not like to be hired
on an on-call basis. And that- I mean that was the model I used at foundation to and
community for six years without any issue, and both agencies are saying the same thing.
We have to hire full-time mobile crisis counselors or we can't fill these positions. Well, if
I wanna have two te-three teams of two ready to respond between nine and five,that's
six FTEs that I need per shift,three shifts a day at around 24/7. So that's significantly
more than what I have right now and that's what I'm always shooting to have is 2-3 shifts
available because if we get a call,we don't need that overnight. But if we get a call at
five, a call at six, a call at seven,we have to have three teams available or the wait times
are gonna be long. And it's a firehouse model,right? There might be a lot of crisis that
day and there might not. And we don't-we don't know until-until it's- it's there. Um,but
with the outreach, I mean, definitely that outreach in our school response. I mean,just on
Monday we were in five different schools. It was not like that two years ago. Um, so the
outreach definitely- and now we've hired a second youth-specific counselor because it's
grown so much. So that person just started two weeks ago because our one coordinator
could not handle the scope and that was in less than a year of that being rolled out.
Teague: Any more comments by councilors before we move on to the next agenda item?
Harmsen: Other than to say thank you for the work that you're doing and thank you for this
presentation. This was really important information.
Nelson: Thank you guys for your interest in mental health and your support of it as always,
appreciate it. Try to reach out if there's anything else we can help with.
Teague: And thanks to all the staff that you all.
Alter: Are amazing.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 22
Teauge: Yes-Yes-Yes-Yeah. So it was good to see Community Crisis Services and UAY here
today. So thanks to both of you.
Nelson and Meidlinger: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 23
3. Presentation of the Annual Historic Preservation Report
Teague: Alright. We are going to move on to the next agenda item,which is the presentation of
the annual historic preservation report. And welcome.
Bristow: Thank you,Mayor. I'm having troubles here, I'm sorry. Yeah, I couldn't get that to go
at all. Thank you, Council. I'm Jessica Bristow. I'm the historic preservation planner for
the City. Uh, Iowa City is a certified local government. Uh,the certified local
government program was established in 1980 and Iowa City joined in 1983. It was part of
the amendments to the 1966 Historic Preservation Act. It encourages historic preservation
at the local level and encourages local governments to use the Secretary of the Interior
Standards for Rehabilitation. And it also provides technical assistance through what we
call SHPO, the State Historic Preservation Office, and it provides funding opportunities
for preservation activities. Every year SHPO requires an annual report and it's a calendar
year basis, and it's also required to deliver it to council. So I have about five minute or so.
One important thing to note is that a lot of historic preservation is based on the National
Register of Historic Places. So the national designation of historic properties. The
certified local government program deals with the National Register pro-properties,but
also any locally designated properties. The CLG program in Iowa is one of the most
active CLG programs in the country. In Iowa City, as you might know,we have both
National Register designated properties and locally designated properties. This map
happens to be a map that we provide in letters to property owners,uh, each year, and it
shows all of our historic districts and conservation districts. Historic districts are also
listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Conservation districts are only a local
designation. In addition to these districts in the map,there are also two local-two
National Register listed districts in Iowa City that do not have a local component. The
Melrose Historic District and our new Downtown Historic District. We also have 66 local
landmarks that are designated. About 45 of those are listed in the National Register.
There's also quite a number of,uh,National Register landmarks that are not locally
designated. This is personally my favorite map because it shows all of our districts plus
all the little red dots are local landmarks that are designated in Iowa City. Part of the
report includes just general information, such as the fact that we have 12 seats on our
commission.Nine of them are filled. The three that are not are small districts that are
very hard to fill. And so we've had those open,uh,pretty regularly. Our budget is mostly
from the Department of Neighborhood Development Services,but we include a little bit
for our annual mailing and some training. And then of course,we have our historic
preservation fund. It started in fiscal year,uh, 2017, 2018,uh,with $40,000 and it was
increased to $42,000 this past year. In the report,the fust thing that the state has us do, is
talk about National Register listed properties. And it has a list properties that were
altered,moved, or demolished in the calendar year. We really look at altered. We, uh,
review,uh, applications for alter- alterations to properties. And so those are the ones that
we,uh,talk about here. Um,there were 36 of our National Register listed properties that
were altered in some way during the calendar year. This does not include what we give as
a certificate of no material effect because it doesn't alter the property. Uh,this one
happens to be 623 Oakland and our Longfellow Historic District. And they added a
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 24
screen porch on the back and did a little bit of associated window changing. The next
thing that the report does is have us talk about our local program. And the fust question is
whether or not we designate it any local,uh, landmarks this year. And we did,we had the
937 East Davenport,the John and Anna Vrchoticky Prybil Cottage. It was built in 1874.
At that point it had a family of four living in it for awhile. And then they had two
additions that were put on the back,both before 1920 that you can see there. So then like
the National Register question,they ask a question about locally designated properties
that are not on the National Register that have been altered. And,uh,we have about 25
properties that were altered beyond a certificate of no material effect in our conservation
districts or local landmarks. This happens to be one of them. Uh, in our Goosestown
Horace Mann conservation district they had approval to remove their synthetic siding and
repair the siding and trim underneath part, and,uh, it looks spectacular. It sit 426 Church
Street. Uh, one of the sections also talks about the assistance that we as,uh, staff and
commission provide,uh, for historic preservation projects within the community. Um,we
include in this part of the report our reviewed data. We had 89 applications for historic
review in 2022. That's out of 246 inquiries about individual properties during the same
year. This is down just slightly from 2021,which is the highest year we've ever had. But
it's pretty much just right in line with what we had in 2020,which was a little bit more
than 2019. Our greatest benefit and assistance that we can provide is our historic
preservation fund. We provide $5,000 matching grants or no interest loans to property
owners. To date,there have been 43 projects on 36 different properties. This happens to
be one example. They- its 422 Grant Street and the Longfellow district. They had a deck
approved to be replaced. The contractor removed the deck and found basically the sill
plate and the studs were rotted out. And it's because somebody didn't flash properly, and
so we help them with the fund to repair that part of their house. And then they'll go on
later and build their deck with their-their own funds. Uh,the report also includes public
education and outreach. This year we,uh,had our historic preservation awards. Um, it
was the 39th annual. So I can tell you that the commission and I are very excited about
this coming year because it is our 40th annual. Uh, so we'll have to come up with
something exciting for that. Uh,we didn't really have much more,uh, education and
outreach this year,we've done more in previous years. And then there's a sec- se- section
on,uh, issues, challenges, or successes. Uh,the fund increase is great because it allows us
to just accept more projects right away. Um, challenges the open positions on the
commission has been a challenge,we've sent mailings targeted,we've-we've tried a lot to
get new commissioners. They must live within that historic district. Um, so students are
great in some of those rentals,but we still do have problems getting commissioners. And
the lack of available contractors. This is a nationwide pro-problem,not just within Iowa
City,but,uh, getting contractors who know historic buildings and can work on them is- is
a problem. So,uh, anyway,that-that's the end. Um, again, I'm Jessica Bristow. If you
have any questions.
Teague: Thank you so much.
Bristow: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 25
Teague: I really appreciate you coming.
Bristow: Thank you.
Teague: Beautiful,beautiful transitions here.
Bristow: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 26
7. University of Iowa Student Government(USG) Updates
Teague: All right. We're gonna- I mean just going to ask for USG to come up at this time, um,
before we continue with our agenda. So as the University of Iowa Student Government
welcome.
Zeimet: All right Council. All right, so we just have,uh,two announcements day,the fust being
town hall. We're looking forward to seeing you all at 7:00 PM this Thursday for town
hall, it will be a great way for the city council and Undergraduate Student Government to
connect and discuss a variety of topics. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach
out to Noah and me. Then,uh, our other announcement is the University of Iowa's
Graduate Student Union, COGS has been protesting and continuing to protest in
preparation for the union meeting with the Board of Regents,uh,where they hope to
negotiate for 10%wa-wage increase and paid parental leave. So that's all. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you.
Alter: Can you know- I'm sorry. Just very quickly. Um,remind me of the location of the town
hall.
Zeimet: Oh,yeah. So it's going to be located in the Old Capitol Senate chambers, so that's on the
second floor. There should be someone directing you to there.
Dunn: When-when are COGS negotiating?
Zeimet: Uh, I don't know the exact date sorry. It's- it's fairly recent here.
LeFevre: I wa- I wanna to say within a couple of weeks here at least.
Teague: Great. Thank you both.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 27
4. Continuation of the FY24 Budget Discussion
Teague: All right. We're gonna move to Item 4,which is the continuation of our fiscal year 2024
budget discussions.
From: Uh, Mayor there's a memo in your packet that responds to a couple of requests that you
had at your last work session,there was an interest in potentially adding some outreach
positions,um,to accelerate the action in your strategic plan, as well as a,uh, grants
position to al-uh, allow the city to more aggressively pursue some of the new federal
grant programs,uh,that are expected to roll out in the coming years. So that summary is
there. Um, as much as we try when we present the budget to give you a clear picture, it is
anything but clear at this time, uh,you've been tracking the,uh, conversations on Des
Moines. Uh,kind of- I- I'd like to say kinda two-fold. There's the immediate rollback
issue which we've-we've talked about,whether they're exploring that fixed that could
have a $1.7 million,uh, impact on the budget proposal that was delivered to you in
December. And,uh,the second piece is more of the overarching property tax reform.
And we have competing proposals that have been introduced in the House and Senate,
neither of which have-have garnered a lot of attention to date,but we fully expect they
both will garner quite a bit of attention,uh, in the coming weeks and months,uh,while
session is still in, and we really have no idea how that will affect,uh, future budgets
going forward. So unfortunately, I don't have that clarity,um,but hopefully the memo
gives you some,uh, good information to continue your discussion and I will happily,uh,
do my best to answer questions for you.
Harmsen: Real quick question,have they already changed some of the deadlines that we're
operating under? I know that was one part of the discussion early on.
From: Uh, The Senate,uh, i- in passing Senate File 181,which is that rollback correction, did
extend the budget deadline,um,uh, into April. Um,however,that is currently on the
House side of things and that,uh,has not fully passed. I believe there's a House
Committee on that legislation,uh,tomorrow. And I don't think anybody would be
surprised to see that fly through committee and show up on the debate calendar either this
week or very early next week.
Harmsen: The reason I ask is,uh, I'm looking at some of uh- and thank you for the detailed
information,uh,that you put in the packet. Um,but,you know, I- I think,uh,you know, I
for one and- and,uh,would like to see us,uh,be able to do something with some of these
positions that we've discussed. Uh,but I also understand that the commitment and trying
to balance those two things, I'm wondering what the time frame is we have when we have
answers to some of these,there's so many question marks and so- so,you know, I don't
want to,uh,you know, I'd love to keep pushing forward on these,p-me personally. Um,
but I also recognize-you know, so that's why I was wondering about the- about the date
shuffling.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 28
Fruin: Yeah, I think the- i- it's gonna be hard. I mean,maybe by your next meeting,we'll-we'll
know,uh, if the dates have been officially extended. Um,the-the one piece of- one thing
you can keep in mind if you authorize positions in the budget,we will account for those
expenses in the budget. But oftentimes when it comes to,um, reducing expenses mid-
year we'll leave positions open,unfilled. Um,we had to do that during COVID. We had a
number of positions that we didn't feel because of the immediate uncertainty around the
financial situations,uh, in early 2020. Um, So I -I fully would expect that you'd have this
question and that's what I articulated in the- in the budget. I have that same caution. Um,
one option would be for you to direct us to authorize the positions in the budget,uh,but
just understand that,uh, as we move closer to that July Ist date,we may have to analyze
not only those positions that you create,but-but the positions across the city that come
open,uh, depending on what type of legislation passes in Des Moines.
Bergus: And just to put a little finer point on that, Geoff, I think in your memo,the estimates that
you give for the cost is assuming that they'd be hired July Ist and s- and would serve the
full fiscal year, is that right?
Fruin: That's correct,yes.
Teague: I personally feel that we should move forward with the positions. I- I understand,um,
the hesitancy, of course. But as,you know,we're probably going to have to, depending
on situations, look at some of those oppositions at some point and determine what we're
gonna do with them. The other thing is, I'm reminded that,uh,you know,when positions
aren't filled,um you know,those are monies that we kinda bank,um,within our budget,
because we allocate full year positions and funding for full years. So I felt comfortable,
um, if you- if you was taking that risk,that will be able to fund this successfully and
they're critical-they're needed positions and I think moving forward and giving that
direction, it's probably critical for the staff to hear that from this council.
Alter: And just, ah,piggyback on that, I think that there is a timeliness to- for both of these
positions given, ah,the-the grant manager or the grant writer,um, as well as the
community outreach ah, especially in light of what our,um, one of our presenters was,
you know,the-the-the importance of community outreach and,um, I think it's- it's
gonna be really important. So in both cases, ah, I- I echo the mayor that,um, if we can
remain prudent,but think about this in terms of the timeliness of this. These are not
positions just- of course they would be good to have all of the time,but I do think that at
this particular juncture it would be very good to have them, so-
Taylor: I agree with,um, Mayor Pro Tem Alter,because I think,you know with the strategic
values right in front of us here,that position just fits into all of those categories. And
from what we're hearing out in the community, ah, it's really necessary and it's going to
help with housing and neighborhoods. It's going to help with safety and well billing-
being and, ah, equity and justice and human rights and- and all of those things,nice. I and
the community impact. So I just think it's really important for us to keep on top of it and
make it important.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 29
Bergus: Yeah. I just- I echo what my colleagues are saying and agree that we should move
forward. Um, I'm grateful for the way that this was framed in the memo and Geoff and I
had had some longer conversations about where particularly the outreach folks should be,
sort of, situated and how-how that could work and I'm- I'm really pleased with kinda
where we landed with that full-time human rights, ah,position. I think that would,um,
help fill some other gaps that we've previously identified and that's really exciting.
Harmsen: Actually segways into my other question, I had really nicely. Um,just wanted to like
get some more details on what a human rights,um, engagement specialist,what that
actually, ah, though more details on what that is. Well, this being conceptualized at.
Fruin: Yeah, I think- I think we'll-we'll take some time over the next few months to really focus
in on that question. Um, it's not a position that was um-um-has been fully fleshed out,
right? If we're gonna hire another firefighter,we know what that job description is and
we can be ready to go the next day. This is a-this is a brand new position, and so we'll
probably wanna research some other cities and see how they're using human rights staff,
um,but,um,right now you have a- a two person,human rights team and they do quite a
bit for- for just the two of them. And one really focuses on the-the-the,um, complaints
of discrimination and- and really looking at those,um,those situations. And then, ah,
Stephanie,who you're most familiar with,might be before you at a council meeting, ah,
manages not only the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Human Rights
responsibilities,but all that programming that you see in the community. Um,we do a lot
of web-based programs. We do a lot of in-person pace programs, and right now that's-
that's largely falls on Stephanie's shoulders with the assistance of- of an intern. And, ah, I
think an engagement person just helps us take that to the next level. Um, I like to use the
Climate Action Team that we have as a good example,that's a three-person team and
you've really been able to see since we've filled that,um,that- that-that full team,um,
and that was one of the areas in COVID that we held back on,um, filling. But now that
we have a three-person team in climate action. You see all kinds of outreach,you see
neighborhood blitzes. You see the Climate Fest, so larger- larger events. Ah, you see a lot
of,um, ah,kind of short, sweet,um, social media engagements. Ah,We're just able to do
quite a bit more and reach people through a lot of different means. When you are limited
with staff,you-you tend to find,um,uh, one or two areas that you can just continue to
replicate, ah, and this will just allow us to do a lot more. I know Stephanie has some-
some ideas. Um,we've talked about,um,really,uh,trying to get into neighborhoods and
build um-um, confidence in people to be able to step up and serve on a board or
commission,right?How do we tear down those barriers that it might be preventing
someone from saying, I- I wanna participate in the local government process. So we
talked about maybe an academy, ah,where we can really walk people through what local
government is here in Iowa City and how they can participate. That would be one
example.
Harmsen: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 30
Teague: Any other discussions related to budget and it does sound like majority is in support of
moving forward? I'm seeing that for those positions, okay. Here and no other top,uh,
hearing no other discussion on the 24- fiscal 24 budget,then we're gonna go onto
clarification of agenda items.
5. Clarification of Agenda Items
Teague: All right,hearing nothing there.
Bergus: Well,maybe just to comment on the clarification of the agenda itself. I love the new-
Teague: Yes.
Bergus: -way that it is on the Internet and in the packet. Thank you.
Teague: Yes. But I'd like that, yeah it's- it's clear. Yes.
Alter: So I have a very basic question. Um, am I remembering correctly that the bulleted list of
pending upcoming topics-potential topics,that that's a prioritized list?
Teague:No
Alter:No. Okay.
From:No, it's not.
Alter: Okay.
From:No and-
Alter: That's good.
From: - if there's no questions on the agenda I assume,we can jump in-
Alter: Sorry, I didn't mean to-.
Teague: -jump into for- information packet.
Alter: Sorry, I hopped into quick but-
From: It's okay.
From: I- I can elaborate on what I've put forward here.
6. Information Packet Disuession [Januart 12, January 19,January 26,February 21
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 31
Teague: Yeah. So we're-we're gonna go in order of the info packets. So we're gonna start with
January 12th.
Fruin: I just like to mention that the, er,Joint Emergency Communication Services,uh,
Association, or JECC, as we call it, they've submitted their annual report to us and that,
ah, Councilor Taylor has been serving on that board and Councilor Bergus will be joining
that board now going forward.
Teague: Information packet January 19th- 19th.
Alter: I just wanted to ask actually, I believe it is IP 9 on the draft minutes of the Ad Hoc ah,
Truth and Reconciliation Commission,that-my understanding is that they have-that staff
has been working to get contracts out to the individual to the different folks.
Fruin: Yes.
Alter: Where we are in-where's staff out in the process?
Fruin: Yes. So the,um, five consultants,we had five?
Goers: I think it may be more than that.
Fruin: Okay. The proposal included a number of organizations,um, and,um, scopes that were
designed to work together in concert. They fell short quite a bit. There's a lot of questions
unanswered for us as we have to put together a detailed scopes of services for- for the
actual legal agreements. So,uh, earlier in January,we sent a- a list of clarifying questions
to all of the- all of the consultants. We got responses back,um, late in the day on Friday,
close to end of business on Friday. And we're evaluating those,but our- our intent is to,
um, develop the-the five or more consultant's agreements that will have to be developed
in order to accomplish this. Present those back to the TRC, so that they have an
understanding,um, of- of what they're recommending to you after we've gone through
these-these clarifications and then assuming,uh, continued support from the, er, Truth
and Reconciliation Commission's,we'd-we'd present those to you.
Goers: Just for clarification about the how many entities are present and so forth,you may recall
that there's you know, currents on West and think peace and,um,three native partners
and, ah,healing partners. Healing partners includes two entities,Astig and Eastern Iowa
mediation. We asked for the legal entity for the three native partners and they indicated
that he didn't have one. They really wanted to set aside money for each of the three
partners and so we would be sending to individuals. Presumably that would mean three
contracts or at least one contact with three signatures with them. Um,there's-there's a lot
there going on.
Bergus: Sounds like really fun legal drafting, actually.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 32
Goers: Yeah.
Bergus: Do you know when that part might get to the commission?
Goers:No. Well, I mean, I don't know how far we wanna dig into this topic right now,but,uh,
yeah, I mean,we're gonna need to go back to, I mean, I think the next step is going back
to,um,the TRC and saying, all right, this appears to be the structure. We've got all these
separate entities,none of whom is willing to be the kind prime. Whoops and- and that's
the part if- if I had you know,to censor to offer here, it would be,you know,normally
we're used to dealing with a prime contractor who subcontracts, get all the work done, so
we have one single contact. We don't have that here,um,you know they, ah,would like
to put much of that work in some city staff,um,that is yet to be identified how that
would work. And so we need to kinda make sure that we staff and the TRC are on the
same page about what they want,how they wanna see it achieved. And then once we
come to an understanding,then we could you know, draft some contracts that you know
actualize that,which of real course come back to you folks for your approval as well.
Teague: Anything else from January 19th?January 26th?
Bergus: IP 2 is that our long-term debt disclosure report,which I think is just a fantastic
companion to your budget detailed reading. So I would encourage folks if they didn't dig
in on that, it's just such good information.
Fruin: We just made our finance staff s day. That was a very kind of you. Thank you.
Teague: Moving on to February 2nd and IP6. So we'll have our City Manager take us away on
that.
Fruin: Yeah. So I- I took some liberties here and- and if I did anything that you want to unwind, I
will certainly help you,uh, do that,but,um, coming off the strategic plan, I thought it
would be good,um, for- for staff to identifies that,you know,the items that we think
we'll require,um, some- some council deliberation before you know, significant early
progress could be made. So what I did is I went through the strategic plan and,um, I-uh,
I added those items. They are not in any priority order. I think they're probably in page
order of your strategic plan. Um, I did forget one and I will- I will add that in future
updates to this but the-the Dodge Street two-way conversion, I think we wanna get with
you on that planning piece early,um, and make sure that-that you have an understanding
of how we're going to evaluate that, and- and that- and- and- and we can look at that. So
you can see-you-you will see that in future additions. Um, but again,these are-these are
ones in which we feel like we need your input. It does not mean that we're ready for those
discussions,uh, on all of those,we still need to kind of talk through that as a group at
these meetings. Um,but if you see something in there,um,that you're anxious to have a
discussion on,we-we'll do our best to-to prioritize those. For the other topics that aren't
specific action items on your plan, I just put those in a different category. That doesn't
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 33
mean they don't relate to the plans,that just means that they're not specifically articulated
in your plan. So this was my attempt to just kinda get you to keep that plan in front of
you,keep that focus in front of you. Um, and,uh, consider that when you're thinking
about adding other topics to the-to the pending list. If you backup to the memo that
precedes the new pending list, I did, um, list fi- excuse me, five bullets,uh, in there.
Those are the items that I removed. If you'd like to see any of those back in,we certainly
can. I just felt that they were either encompassed by other items,um, or it's been on there
for a year or more and we just haven't had movement on it. Um,but again,uh,happy to
add those back in if you'd like to see those in.
Bergus: I just had a question. What is the long-term planning work group?
Fruin: Um, that just refers to our in-um, our- our- our urban planning staff. So at some time, we
were thinking we wanted to s- s- come before you, and just kind of list out, here's all the
things that we've been asked to do. Here's the stuff that staff um,uh,uh,has identified on
our own that needs to be done. So you could think of it as,uh, for additional foreign-
based codes,uh, comp plan, district updates,uh, code- code changes for climate action,
code changes for affordable housing. You know,we've got a laundry list of things that we
would like to do when it comes to analyzing the zoning code and the comprehensive plan.
But as we've talked about,we only have,uh, enough staff to tackle a few of those at any
given time. So um,that is something that at one time we were gonna come to you and
say,here's how staffs prioritize this work. Here's-here's kind of the list that we're going
down,um,with the bullet 3 on your- on your,um, strategic plan. That's the whole update
of the comprehensive plan and then followed by a zoning code. We felt all of that
prioritization would probably get wrapped up into that discussion.
Alter: Um, I have a question,basically, I don't know,to everyone, Council, and to-to you, Geoff.
Um,under other topics,we do have the ICCSD request for the,um,preschool initiative,
and I know that there's a sense of urgency from,uh, ICCSD- ICCSD, sorry. Um, and I'm
just wondering if it makes sense to figure out a time so that we can have a- and we've
talked about having a conversation with them,having some representatives come in, and
that's definitely something that given the kind of calendar that they've been looking at, it
would be great if we could do that sometime soon.
Fruin: Yeah. So I've- I've offered the 21st to the school district. This is kinda late and the day-
Alter: So we're just waiting on it.
Fruin: Friday,we had a conversation, so.
Alter: Okay.
Fruin: Um, I'm waiting to hear back if that-
Alter: Awesome.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 34
Fruin: will work for whoever they're going to have present,uh,to us.
Alter: Thank you. Um, and then another, it's sort of a PS or an addendum to,um, since the-the
updates for ARPA are on there. Um, actually, Councilor Bergus and I were talking about,
um,ARPA dollars that might be going towards climate action. And I was asking, I said,
"I'm honestly having a- a blank screen moment and not remembering what kind of
initiatives." And she said, "They hadn't really been fully developed."And so um,there
could be an opportunity for us to discuss,um,the use of ABPA dollars for climate action,
um, specifically,um, actually,rather than owning and maintaining ebikes. I'm sorry, I'm
just like blurting this out. So it's just up to- to think about,not to discuss,right?Um,but
that we would be able to potentially use vouchers. So I'm just would like to have that put
up onto everybody's radar since we do have a timeline on that too,not as urgent as the
school district and- and their desires,but we do need to spend ABPA dollars by,you
know, a certain time. So I just put that out there as a pending topic.
Fruin: So generally,the rule of- of thumb has been,that if you want to add to the pending list,
you have to have three-three council colleagues to-to-to do that. Um, and that's where
you all kinda create this list, and then ultimately,you can tell the schedule.
Alter: Tell you what? If no one is- if you don't wanna answer right yet.
Fruin: Yeah.
Alter: Think about it and let me know.
Bergus: Certainly, about having a discussion of how to spend our climate action bucket-
Alter: Yeah. That'll be the best way.
Bergus: I think that should be on the list and could be coordinated with the staff. You know,
when staff is at the point of having those recommendations,that's when we're nailing that
down.
Thomas: Yeah.
Dunn: I would agree.
Harmsen: If I could throw out another,uh,topic that I'd love, and this is actually more short-term
than long-term. But for the next- our next work session, I have some concerns over some
HCDC recent decisions on legacy agency funding,um,that I would love to see on our
work session for discussion at our next meeting,um, if there are at least a couple of other
councilors that would be amenable to that.
Thomas: Yeah, I would- I would support that.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 35
Taylor: I would agree with that.
Goers: Okay. All right. Did we get four? Sorry.
Harmsen: I think so.
Goers: Okay.
Goers: Did we get four?
Harmsen: I don't wanna.
Goers: I saw John,Pauline, and Shawn. I may have missed the fourth, sorry. Yeah.
Taylor: We need four?Andrew?
Harmsen: To get on the work session?
Goers: Uh,yeah.
Thomas: Three.
Bergus: You have to get four?
Thomas: Three.
Bergus: It's three.
Alter: I think it's three.
Teague: Yeah. We typically do three or four,but I- I think it can make it with three.
Goers: Okay.
Bergus: I think the rules we adopted said three.
Goers: Yeah. Okay. Cool. Well, certainly added them.
Bergus: Okay.
Thomas: One- one thing on the-the list of the items that were deleted from the previous pending
list that I wanted to mention was on the fust item. Um, there were some t-that one had a
couple of issues associated with it,but the- the plan for the equitable distribution of
destination parks concept,uh,with an easy and safe distance of all residences. You know,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 36
I think we're making great progress on our new development. Our new development is
really focused on- in making sure that that kind of,um, access to open spaces are
integrated into our plans. This-this was something that I had been concerned with and it
really relates to existing neighborhoods where no such destination parks exist. And
exploring ways in which we could try to-to-to achieve that level of access. It was- it was
identified in the parks master plan. Uh,there were certain areas that were identified as
being deficient in terms of-uh, and kind of a social equity basis,uh,park access. So I'm
still concerned about that. I mean,there are-there are neighborhoods in Iowa City,
existing neighborhoods,uh,which don't have gathering- central gathering places. And if-
in my mind,that's,you know, as we're seeing with the new development,uh,kind of a
foundational element. And that's great. I love- I love to see the parks incorporated. I love
to see the traffic circles being incorporated on our street designs for safety. But in our
existing neighborhoods, in a sense,when we create these opportunities in the newer
neighborhoods,we're create-recreating-reinforcing the inequities of those existing
neighborhoods which don't have them,because there are now new neighborhood-
neighborhoods which,you know,have-have incorporated them. So I- I'm really would
like to see that still in there,uh, at least having a response. You know, looking at the city
in terms of where we see gaps and at least deciding what, if anything,we can do about it.
Dunn: I- I'd be in favor of that.
Teague: Yeah. I think that's so. Yeah.
Fruin: We'll-we'll add that fust bullet back in. Do you- does Council still want the rubberized
surfacing piece?
Thomas: I don't-that's-that's I think we can.
Fruin: We can take out that first piece and just start with develop strategies. Okay. I'm seeing a
few head nods. Okay. Yeah.
Teague: Anything else?We're gonna save council updates on assign boards, commissions, and
committees. Um,you'll be able to add that on when you give your updates at the end of
the formal meeting. Other than that,we are-
Goers: Recessing.
Fruin: I don't know if we intend to come back.
Goers: Well, I'm sorry. Oh, did you intend to come back?
Teague: Yeah. We'll-Yeah-No-no.
Goers: Oh, I'm sorry. With the council updates.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.
Page 37
Teague: Yes.No.
Goers: Okay. Sorry.
Teague: So we are adjourned.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of February 7, 2023.