HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-05-02 Transcription Page I
Council Present: Alter,Bergus,Dunn,Harmsen, Taylor, Teague, Thomas
Staff Present: From,Jones,Kilburg, Goers,Dulek, Fruehling,Platz, Sitzman,Kubly
Others Present: LeFevre,USG Liaison, Monsivais,Alternat Liaison
1. Call to Order
Teague: Welcome to the City of Iowa City meeting for May 2, 2023. Roll call please. (Roll
Call). All right. Well, good evening to everyone in the audience and to those that are
virtual,we're happy that you're here in your City Hall. So welcome again.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 2
2. Proclomations
2.a. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and Asia American and Pacific
Islander Day Against Bullying
Teague: We're going to go to item Number 2,which is proclamations 2.a, is Asian Pacific
American Heritage Month and Asia America- and Pacific Islander Day against bullying.
And this will be read by our own Mayor Pro Tem Alter
Alter: (Reads proclomation). And accepting are Sylvia Jones, Suyun Channon,Master Bay,
Master Dong Zhi and Na Li.
Jones: On behalf of the AAPI community,we're proud to be here with the Mayor and the City
Council and accept the Iowa City AAPI month proclamation. AAPI month is a time to
celebrate and recognize the contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders to our
country. It is time to honor their heritage and culture and acknowledge the challenges that
they have faced and overcome.
Channon: So Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have a rich history in this country, dating
back to the 1800s when Chinese immigrants fust came to California. Since then,AAPIs
have made significant contributions in many areas, including signs,technology,
medicine,politics, and the arts. Despite their many contributions,AAPIs have also faced
discrimination and injustice from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,to internment of
Japanese Americans during World War II, to the recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes.
AAPIs have had to fight for their rights and dignity. Luckily,we're not alone. We got the
support from City of-of Iowa City and since 2022,they proclaimed May 18th as the API
day against the bullying. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Li: That's why the AAPI Heritage Month is so important. It's a time to celebrate the
achievements of AAPIs and to ack- acknowledge the challenges they have faced and
continue to face and overcome. It is a time to raise awareness of the contributions of
AAPIs and to promote understanding and a respect for their culture and heritage. AAPI
Month is also an opportunity to educate ourselves and others about the issues that affect
AAPIs. It is a time to speak out against discrimination and hate and to support AAPI
communities. We are proud of all the contributions and the rich diversity that makes up
the Iowa City AAPI community and we look forward to celebrating, educating, and
encouraging our fellow citizens to stand in solidarity with AAPI communities. Thank
you. And we are inviting everyone,um, of City Council and in attendance to attend the
fust AAPI Awareness Festival. So this event is a collaboration between City of Iowa City
Human Rights Commission and City of Iowa City Parks and Rec, and Iowa City Chinese
Cultural Society. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 3
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Dong Zhi: Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Master Dong Zhi. I'm very delighted to be
here to represent my temple in Iowa City. Our temple Ultra Mood Buddhist Association
is a non-profit organization. Throughout the week,we provide mindfulness activities and
we have meditation and Buddhist chanting activities as well. Um, and we hope in
teaching mindfulness, it can help everyone stay cahn and safe in today's society. And on
Thursday we plan to start, ah, oh sorry. As part of the immigrant community,we provide
support by having English conversation classes on Monday for new immigrants who are
learning the language. And we also promote healthy eating habits by providing
vegetarian meals to our members and volunteers. Um, and we also-right now,we're also
working closely with the Food Pantry in Coralville to reduce and eliminate waste- food
waste. So we turn the excess food into meals for the community and also provide them to
our volunteers as well. So and I wanna take the time to thank you for this opportunity to
be here and anyone is welcome to the temple. We hope this is like home for everyone.
Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Thanks to all of our speakers.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 4
2.b. Bicycle Month and Bike to Work Week
Teague: Proclamation 2.b, is bicycle month and bike to work week. This is going to be read by
Councilor Bergus.
Bergus: (Reads proclomation). Accepting this proclamation this evening is Matt Burkey who
was a bike ambassador for Bike Iowa City.
Burkey: Thank you everyone. Iowa City is not just a great place to live, but also a great place to
ride a bike. And I believe the bicycle is an important tool for Iowa City's goals of racial
equity and climate action. And I look forward to seeing in future cycling progress made
by this council. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you so much.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 5
2.c.Jewish American Heritage Month
Teague: 2c is Jewish American Heritage Month and this will be read by Councilor Harmsen.
Harmsen: (Reads proclomation)And accepting tonight is Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz and if
possibly by Zoom Sammantha Marks.
Hugenholtz: Thank you, friends. An honor to stand before this Council. I don't think I have much
to add to this beautiful proclamation,which is rare for a Jewish person. All I want to say
is that just as we keep it national,we keep it local here in Iowa City. Our community has
been part of the fabric of the city for over a century. We feel loved,welcomed, and
cherished by our fellow Iowa Citizens and it is an honor to work alongside you to further
the cause of justice and friendship between all peoples, all faith communities and all
ethnic groups. Let us be strengthened. Let us remain curious about each other. Feel free
to stop by the synagogue. Feel free to reach out to your fellow Jewish Iowa Citians, if
you're curious about our culture, our face, and our ethics. With gratitude in my heart for
the holy work that you do and blessings for you all. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. We're going to-we're going to go on Zoom. Welcome, Sammantha Marks.
Marks: Hello. Can you hear me?
Teague: Yes.
Marks: Wonderful. Thank you guys so much for the opportunity to accept this on behalf of the
American Jewish Committee based here in Chicago, I'm an Iowa City West High School
grad and a Iowa Hawkeye, so I'm very-very proud to-to be here to accept on behalf of
the American Jewish Committee and as a former Iowa City President. And my mom still
lives locally, so we still have our roots there. And we're incredibly grateful to be a part of
the Iowa City community as well as see the Jewish community flourish in so many
different ways amongst all of the wonderful-wonderful people that live in Iowa City and
Johnson County. So thank you again,Mayor Teague for welcoming us today. And I
really greatly appreciate it.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 6
2.d. Missing and Murgered Indigenous Women's Day
Teague: Proclamation 2d is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Day. (Reads
proclomation). And receiving this is going to be Sikowis Nobiss.
Nobiss: [INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE] Hello. Good afternoon, or I guess in the evening now.
Um,my name is Sikowis Nobiss and I am here today to accept this award on behalf of
the indigenous community of Iowa City and indigenous people across Iowa.Um,the
reality is- is that Native American and Alaskan Native women endure the highest rates of
rape and assault in this country. Older statistics told us that one in three Native American
woman will be raped or experienced sexual assault in their lifetime. But recently,that
statistic has moved to one and two,um, and now,um, it's actually more like 56%. So
since that was written, actually. So 84% of Native American and Alaskan Native women
have experienced violence and that number can be higher in some of our comp- commu-
communities if you talk to grassroots folks. Over 60%have experienced psychological
aggression or course of control and 90%have experienced violence at the hands of non-
tribal members and that number actually,um, also,um, is for both genders, actually men
and women. So,um, experts say that these astonishing statistics still underestimate the
number of women affected by violence because the infrastructure for women to report
and handle incidences is underfunded. Also,there's a lack of local law enforcement on
reservations and tribal courts that do not have jurisdiction to prosecute non-tribal
members of many crimes like sexual assault and rape, even if they occur,um, on our
nation's territories. And our men and boys are also facing similar statistics. Basically,
there is a crisis going on, an epidemic that is unseen and unheard and that is because we
face such high rates of erasure whitewashing and stereotyping in this country. You think
that here in Iowa we would be,you know,hearing more about this because for instance,
there are as of 2021, 107 of 6,300 missing people reports in Iowa involving Native
Americ-Native Americans and Alaskan Native peoples,totaling 1.69% of this population
that is currently missing. Yet we only make up 0.54% of the population of Iowa. So the
next point I want to talk about is how on some reservations in the United States,native
women are murdered at more than 10 times the national average. And right now within
the National Missing database, I think there's about close to 6,000 native woman in there.
But again,that number is low because there's a lot of folks that are identifying as Native
American or being identified as Native American after they go missing or even when the
bodies are found. We have a huge-huge issue here. Rita Papakee is missing from the
Meskwaki Nation and we have a lot of women that had been killed right on the border of
Iowa and Nebraska. Like Lenice Back-Blackbird and Kozee Decorah and- and so many
more. Ashleigh Wabasha was just murdered not too long ago in- in the Nebraska region.
But remember, as indigenous people,we don't see borders. We don't believe in border of
imperialism. This area of the world is under attack and indigenous peoples are- are
paying for that and so that's why we are very glad to see that places like Iowa City that
are considered to,you know, safer,where indigenous peoples aren't necessarily being,
you know, outright-brutalized, or recognizing this and understanding that they have to
work in partnership with other places like Sioux City, like Omaha,which is eighth in the
nation right now for missing, sorry for missing women. I think they have, I can't
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 7
remember the amount,but- and then the state of Nebraska that is seventh in the nation for
missing woman,which has like something like 25 missing woman right now. So that-
those numbers also are here in this state,but nobody is doing anything about it. So I
implore,um,the City of Iowa City to do more about this and help us get legislation put in
place that will,you know, get some kind of program to,you know, get- gather statistics,
look into also sexual assault and, sex trafficking as well. Which als- is also a huge issue
in our communities and-and- and so much more. We have-we have so many more things
I could talk about. But, obviously, I don't have the time here,but thank you very much
for doing this. This is a really big deal for us and the indigenous community.
[INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE]
Teague: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 8
2.e. NAMI Mental Health Awareness Day
Teague: 2e is NAMI Mental Health Awareness Day. This will be read by Councilor Dunn.
Dunn: (reads proclomation). Accepting this proclamation is Mary Issah,NAMI Executive
Director of Johnson County.
Issah: Thank you. Thank you so much for this recognition as we kick May off as mental health
awareness month. And I encourage everybody to come out to the walk on Saturday and,
and come it's a day that we like to celebrate,um that we come together and acknowledge
mental illness in our community and the impact that it has. But we,uh have a fun day
with music and entertainment and speakers. So I encourage everybody to come out and
participate. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 9
2.f. Older Americans Month
Teague: Our final proclamation is gonna be 2f, and this is Older Americans Month whereby
Councilor Pauline Taylor,
Taylor: (Reads proclomation)Accepting is, and I hope I don't trash your name here,Bob
Untiedt?
Untiedt: Untiedt.
Taylor: Untiedt-untiedt. Okay. And John Grayhom and perhaps some members of the senior
center or senior commission.
McConville: I'll get my spiel underway, so we can get this over. My name is Angela McConville,
and I serve as chair of this Iowa City Senior Center Commission,which has one vacancy.
If anybody is interested in serving apply through the City of Iowa City. The mission of
the Senior Center mirrors the language and the proclamation and their actions,policies,
classes, events, collaborations with social service organizations, and relationships with
cities like North Liberty where I work, go above and beyond to support areas seniors,
especially during the pandemic. Thanks to LaTtasha,Michelle, Kristin,Emily, and Jessi,
a small team. Iowa's population is aging,but Iowa City is one of few areas rich with
resources for older adults. The local people who work directly with our aging population
serve as a patchwork quilt to make sure there's-there are no gaps in need. In addition to
the Senior Center,this quilt is comprised of The Heritage Agency on Aging,Abby Health
Aging Services,Horizons Meals-on-Wheels, The Advocacy of the Older Iowan's
Legislature,University of Iowa College of Law, especially the work of Len Sandler,
Johnson County Aging Specialist,navigator and mobility coordinators,Livable
Community for Successful Aging,Dementia Friendly Iowa and the Alzheimer
Association,AARP, TRAIL of Johnson County, SHIP, area libraries,hospitals,
pharmacies and medical equipment suppliers,home health aides and visiting nurses,
senior housing communities and transportation like Iowa City Transit,Johnson County
SEATS, Medicaid rides through Yellow Cab and yellow transport, and United Way
RSVP. I hope everyone appreciates the expertise and the compassion of folks who work
or volunteer for these organizations and others I'm sure I neglected to mention. I would
also like to plug that, I'm in the Iowa City Community Theaters production of The
Musical Follies by Stephen Sondheim about a 1971 reunion of old Follies show girls
where most of the characters are between 50 and 70 years old. The story touches upon
loss of youth and changes in relationships over time. We have three more performances
this weekend. I appreciate that theater is a hobby that lasts a lifetime where there are
starring roles of any age in Iowa City. Thank you.
Untiedt: I'm Bob Untied. I'm the Executive Director of TRAIL. We have always appreciated the
support we've gotten from the City, especially through space at the Senior Center. We
also support aging showgirls, as- as was noted, or of any age. And I'm also here
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 10
representing,with um a colleague,John Cologne, as the Chair of the Johnson County
Livable Communities Organization. Um, Iowa City has just under 9,000 seniors, and it's
expected that by the year 2030,there'll be more persons over 65 living in the county than
under 18. So we're a- a resource that we appreciate everything that the
City has-has done for in the past and-and hope you'll look to-to ask us to do more in the
future. Thanks very much.
Gilchrist: Hello,my name is Jay Gilchrist and my wife,Pam is here in the back row. I and Pam
retired here a year-and-a-half ago,because it's one of the best places to retire. We did our
research and we also grew up in Iowa,went to the University here,we're married here,
but worked most of our careers away. But we're glad to be here because and the Senior
Center is one of the main reasons why we wanted to come back here along with family,
along with a very livable community. But, ah,we hang out there a lot. As a matter of fact,
we're going over after this. Anybody can come along if they want. They're showing a
documentary about Pete Seeger, and we're going to sing some good old folk songs and
peace and justice songs and those,kinds of,things anyway. [OVERLAPPING] He did-
was he? Okay,Well, come on along. The more the merrier. Anyhow,the Senior Center is
a great place like good programs to keep people socially engaged,to focus on wellness,
to focus on lifelong learning. And most of all in this context to focus on community
engagement. It started out with something I heard way back when called the Council of
Elders.Now we have lots of councils and elders and wisdom circles and all over, and we
want to be part of the Wisdom Circle too of this great city of Iowa City.
Teague: Thank you. Thanks to everyone that came for these proclamations.Really appreciate
you coming here to Iowa City City Hall.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 11
7. Community Comment
Teague: We're at item 7, which is the time for community comment. This is an opportunity for
individuals to speak on an item that is not on our agenda. Um, so if you're here,please
raise your hands so that I can see who is here to speak on an item that is not on our
agenda. And I see two people online,three people online 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9. So we're going to,
um go with,um three minutes, and there is a sign-in little card on the back if you want to
get your name signed in and there's a basket here, otherwise you can sign in here. I'm
going to ask people to line up so that we can hear from each one of you. We'll go online
to Trapayne. Welcome. Please state your name and city you're from. Trapayne,we can't
hear you. You're-.
Batiebey: Can you hear me now?
Teague: Yes. Welcome.
Batiebey: Okay. Greetings and thank you for the warm welcome. And um,my name is Trapayne
Batiebey, longtime resident of the Iowa City area. Um, I currently live in Hiawatha. And
um, one of the topics that I was-that had brought a lot of concern to me is the fact that
the-the officers, and this has to-kind of has to deal with,um, systematic racism,but yet
it's- it's- it's its own animal. Um, and what this has to do with is we're looking at the, er,
police officers pulling people over and we see that,um,there are 28 cases I- I sent in you
guys. I don't know if you guys got the email, I sent it to, Ms. Kellie through the-through
the email. But there's 28 cases that I have sent in to you guys to show that, license and
registration and,um—license,registration and,uh -there's some- license registration and
insurance is not required by the Supreme Court. Yet this is one of the avenues where we
see the most,um,the most gateway to racial, disparity. I people are unable to travel to
and from work and uh those rights are being held by the Constitution where it says in
Article 6, all those who took an oath,judges or that nature, are held to the Constitution
and anything that's not within the Constitution is notwithstanding. Yet,you have officers
that are pulling people over, and pounding their vehicles. And this is all ah, ah, ah,real
breach and,um, erroneous method of enforcing laws. A matter of fact, if you read in
there,there's a quote by a Justice,um, if I can pull this up real quick. I'm going to try to
keep this under-under three minutes,but I have so much information,um,that I would-
I- I could present. It's just right now. Let me pull this up real quick. And, if you look at
one of these cases, and I had- I had been, victim of this just recently. I mean, I tried to
inform them of the-the violations that they had-had-had-they had taken place with me,
um,but they ignored it and chose to do what they wanted to do. And if you look at this
case, Shapiro versus Thompson,which is Judge, Chief Judge Egerton, it says, iron
curtains have no place in the free world. Undoubtedly the right of locomotion,the right
to-to move from one place to another, according to inclinations, is attributed of- is
attributed of personal liberty and the right ordinarily of free transit from or through the
territory of any state is a right secured by the Constitution. Yet this right is being violated
by all,um, all the LEOs. And this is not an attack on them. They're only doing what they
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 12
know,but it does not required for them to-to-to study law,is not a required for them to
[OVERLAPPING].
Teague: Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and city you're from.
White: My name is Sherman White, and I'm from Iowa City. And,um, I'm here tonight because
I'm asking, this council to-to investigate an audit, to Shelter House staff, starting with
the Director, Crissy Canganelli, Rachel Lehmann,Nicole Chaplin, and my-John Posey,
Mariah Breeze,Julia May. These individuals are part and parcel to the abuse and
circumventing of Shelter House mission and purpose for their own personal gains.
Currently, I am being faced with homelessness. I have $193 three-day notice for past due
rent. I live on a fixed income, I have diabetic neuropathy,but I was told by the above
Shelter House staff there were no funds available to help me. It's my understanding that
this Council awarded Shelter House 1.1 million to prevent this from happening, so why
am I being treated differently from-why is this similarly situated? I further substantiate
my claim of misappropriation of funds and unethical practices as listed below. There's no
one there. They have all these managers there,but there's no one there to deal with people
of geriatrics,people- older citizens.Not one time when they was looking for housing for
me, did they go to senior housing. They never looked for senior house. Where I live at
now in Town and Campus, I'm the oldest individual there. And there's people fighting
and ODing and everyday out there. And I have to deal with that on a daily basis. And
there's-there's no housing available for- for African Americans or poor people. They only
put us in high crime areas like Town and Campus,um,um,Lakeside, and there's- I can't
even think of the other place that they-they- send us to. They don't-they don't try to meet
your-your needs or- or what's available for you,they always send us to these high crime
areas. Boston Way is the other place that I was thinking about. And, they don't live there.
They wouldn't put their grandparents there,they wouldn't put their wife and children
there,but they put us there. They don't want us to have anything nice. They don't want us
to-to live comfortably,you know. And,um, it's- it's always there's something there. And-
and as far as-as the food,they don't feed us,they don't clothe us,they don't provide a
medical care for us. And I don't know where-where the money is going. They they give
you one hot meal there at the Shelter House where at one point you was getting three-hot
meals there. They give you one hot meal. And if you have a special diet, if you're
diabetic, or have speical needs, you don't eat,you don't get to eat. I had to buy my own
food when I was there.
Teague: Thank you. Thanks.
White: Thank you.
Teague: All right. And we'll have you come next. All right then. Come. Come now. Welcome.
Romano-fbarra: My name is Guillermo Romano-fbara. I'm from Iowa City. I'm here to discuss
the new City Park Pool redesign. Um, I'm aware that the new design is trying to take the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 13
experience of people with disabilities. And so I'm here to share my,um, relationship
with the pool. I moved to Iowa City in 2016 to come to medical school. And I was
thrilled to see how many opportunities there were in Iowa City to be outside and do
exercise outside and- and be in the outdoors. Um,things changed for me in 2019 when I
was hit by a car while riding my bicycle. Um, I was outside of Iowa City and they were
going,um, 62 miles per hour. So I got- I sustained pelvis fracture, spine fracture, and for
several months, I could only move with a wheelchair. And eventually I started standing
and literally re-learning to walk. Today, I can move around with a crutch. Um, I still use
a wheelchair at work and I-um,big epic things like airports and Costco. So my life
changed in many ways,but one of the most impactful for me personally was losing the
ability to exercise outside. And,um, I couldn't run and I couldn't cycle anymore. And I
found a lot of refuge in City Park pool where I could swim outside and,um, for a number
of different reasons. So for me it was the,um, easiest pool for me to get to from my car.
Um, it's the shortest distance from the ADA spot to the actual physical pool,um, in Iowa
City. It's also the fust pool that I felt confident enough to walk to,um, instead of having
to bring my wheelchair. Ah, and that's because the surface on all the other pools in Iowa
City are very slick and slippery. And so City Park was the first place that I was able to
walk to,um, for my swim. And then most importantly, for me, it was the 50 meter,um,
configuration was long and open and it gave me a sense of freedom that I had only had in
other exercise activities outside. So I'm here with the Back To The Future Group. It's a
couple lots of different types of pool users. And the-what we have in common is that
we'd like all of our uses and all of our views to be taken into account with the new
design. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you . Welcome,Audrey Keith online.
Keith: Hello. My name is Audrey Keith and I'm here to follow up on the,um, City Council
meeting that happened on April 4th. Um, at the time the council was considering, Laura
Bergus' amendment. And a lot of people talked about how they liked the spirit of the
amendment,but they needed to gather more information. And so I was wondering, like
what has been done, if there are any plans in the works to go and gather that information?
And specifically, I would like to request,um,having a neighborhood meeting over at
Mercer Park because this is my own neighborhood. And I would love for the opportunity
to be able to gather in that park with my neighbors, to hear their perspectives as well as
to voice my own. Um, and I'm specifically hoping that a lot of work is done to get
community input because I see that last year the council voted to increase the police
budget by over $1 million. And I was- I'm unaware of what work was done to
understand,um,the community support for that increase at that time. So I was wondering
if I could get an answer to that question at some point. Um, and also wondering what is
being done to get community input now. Thank you. That is all.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 14
EL: Evening, councilors. My name is Riley from Iowa City. I have a very similar comment. I
with my neighbors organized and did a lot of research in the month before the April 4th
vote about the police budget specifically,but actually about the entire budget. And the
month before felt really engaged. And it seems like you all thought that the evening of
was not the right time. And now we're a month after that. And just wondering where in
the remaining 10 months of the year does that- should we expect to engage usefully.
Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Well-welcome,YueWon online?
Lee: Hello. Can you hear me?
Teague: Yes,welcome.
Lee: My name is YueWon and I live in Iowa City. Um, I've heard the- last month I heard the
City Council is unwilling to reallocate the 1.6 million from the police, saying that they
believe in the spirit of the proposal,but needed more concrete ideas in order to vote for it.
I hope the City Council was serious about this believe. I'm afraid that these beliefs were
nothing but empty words in order to appease a passionate audience who showed up
nothing more than to create a better Iowa City,which they know is possible. I'm afraid
that the City Council will keep allowing the status quo to continue. When the status quo
is criminalizing houselessness, criminalizing drugs and drug addiction and evictions just
due to the inability to pay. Is that justice? Is that what we want for our community? I
want to come to the Council in good faith or hear from a Council who I believe are in
good faith. So please listen to the people of the community who want more than the
status quo. They want real change. I believe the council can start that process. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Sterling: Hello, Council. My name is David Sterling from Iowa City. It has been one month since
the Council decided to fund the police department an additional $1.6 million despite
overwhelming descent from the community and 2 out of 7 councilors voting against.
Councilors, Teague,Alter, Taylor,Harmsen, and Thomas all said that not passing said
funding would require more data and community input. It was also stated that the budget
could be amended, so this would be a valid topic going forward. You did not specify
what data. Two weeks ago, I asked you what data is missing and you did not clarify,nor
have you since. The scientific consensus supports defunding the police as a community
safety measure. The only community input has continued to voice opposition to said
funding. How do you plan to respect the criteria you've laid out given it supports
defunding the police. I also wish to support an audit of the Shelter House staff given the
plethora of comments,uh sorry, complaints about their conduct and abuse over the past
two years. It is appalling how these complaints have been made to Council without
action, and I believe that this Council, in good faith would support such action. Thank
you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 15
Teague: Thank you. Welcome,Katherine.
Dolesy: Can you hear me?
Yes,welcome.
Dolesy: Hi. I'm Katherine. I'm from Iowa City. And,um, I'm really glad that some people
brought up the police budget because this was actually something I wanted to bring up.
On November 4th,my husband was having a mental health crisis and happened to
relapse,um, on drinking and I needed help. This has happened multiple times, in other
states where we have lived. In fact,the house had been swatted in Wisconsin. Um,this
specific incident,he didn't get arrested. Um,but I was advised to go to a hotel and my
husband stayed at home. I'm sorry, I'm getting over a sickness. For the next five months. I
lived at home with my husband peacefully. Um, on March 1st, I got a text that,um,was
from my husband, and he mentioned that the police were there to arrest him on a
domestic violence warrant. The detective that I spoke to in regards to the domestic
violence issue was the most demeaning, condescending man that I have ever spoken to in
my life. He did not listen to me. He victimized me and he made me feel like a truly,truly
helpless person. When I said that I felt like the Iowa City Police handled this situation
horribly,he condescendingly responded,why don't you tell the domestic violence
intervention program that. Iowa City Police should be ashamed of themselves because of
their actions by husband spent four weeks inside the Johnson County Jail where he was
treated like a monster. My husband wasn't allowed to communicate with me and we
found out that he was there for three weeks without any type of care and he didn't even
need a lawyer to start the mental health program. I have now spent over $3,000 staying at
a hotel because my husband was going to be released to shelter house otherwise. And I
think that that is also something that's disgusting and that's also the fault of the police.
You guys did a piss poor job of handling this, and I really hope that Officer Fruin has
trouble sleeping at night.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Upshaw: Um,hello. My name is Harley Upshaw. I'm a resident of Iowa City. A little over a
month ago,you unanimously passed a proclamation calling for the uplifting and
recognition of the trans community. You also condemned anti-trans legislation in this
proclamation. Despite doing this on April 4th, only about two weeks after that
proclamation,you gave $1.6 million to the police department,the very people who will
be responsible for enforcing the laws you condemned,the laws that criminalize medical
care for trans kids and the laws that ban trans kids from playing sports. As a trans person
myself, I believe the budget should be revisited, and a portion of the funds be put towards
supporting trans people, especially trans people of color, and the rest be distributed across
community healing programs like the TRC. All of you claim to want to support trans
people, so prove it. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 16
Teague: Thank you. Um, Tra- Trapain,your hand is up. But you've already spoken. Welcome,
Noah.
Petersen: Hello. Can you hear me?
Teague: Yes. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello. I would like to thank you- I'd like to thank the,um,previous person for speaking
about how this council says it's supported trans people and then just a week later- a
couple of weeks gave them million-the cop-the cops and other million dollars increase.
I just like- it's just very disturbing that you would do that when that same police
government since you've given them over $1 million budget increase,has at least one
protester of a man who was called for the eradication of trans people,Matt Walsh. And I
sympathy felt it necessary to arrest people who were protesting him. A self-proclaiming
fascists who calls for eradication trans people. And ICPD thought, okay, let's go up to the
people who are protesting. A man who wants to genocide. I showed the serving you think
that department deserves a million-dollar raise when they going- go after antifascist
individuals who don't want the trans genocide while ICPD apparently does want that
genocide and you just gave them are over billion dollar an extra million dollars. So
congratulations.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Kretkowski: Thank you. Amy Kretkowski, I'm from Iowa City. I'm here with my friends from,
City Park Pool back to the future,um,to express my ongoing support for preserving City
Park Pool. On Page 3 of the RFQ,the request for qualification that the city council
recently approved under scope of services. It says that, "The consultant will present the
report of current conditions and analysis of viability for renovating the existing pool to
the city council. If the city council decides to renovate the existing facility," it goes on to
say the project will proceed to Item number 13. So this language suggests that at some
point,the city council is going to vote on whether to renovate the current pool or replace
it with a new design. The schedule in the RFQ calls for the city council to approve the
contract with the chosen consultant on June 20, 2023. And the RFQ also says that the
report of the current conditions and analysis of the viability is going to occur in July,
which is when the pool will be filled with water. The engineering reports that you have
from 2018 and 2021 where both based on visual inspection only. In order to make an
informed decision as to whether to repair or replace the pool,the city should obtain a
complete evaluation of the pool,not another visual inspection and certainly not while the
pool is filled with water in July. I encourage the city to have the pool evaluated by an
independent engineer who has experience with historic pools and not by an engineer
chosen by a consultant who has a financial interest in the outcome of the analysis. And I
really encourage the city to have this evaluation performed before the pool is filled with
water like this month. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 17
Teague: Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and city you're from.
Mills: Hi,my name is Daniel Mills. I'm from North Liberty. So a month ago,this council heard
loud and clear from our community that we want you to move $1.6 million from the
police budget. This body told the community that you needed to hear more, less you
move too quickly. So I asked you,what have you been doing to listen and learn from the
community about this issue? In the interest of continuing your education, I want to share
with you the comment that I did not get to share at the April 4th meeting. Too often we
turn to the police as the solution to every problem, even when we know that there are less
costly and more effective and more dignified ways to care for our community. I'm
speaking today because I benefit from unearned privilege and systems of racial hierarchy
that can make black, indigenous, and other people of color scared to voice their concerns
in front of this council. We know their fears are real. Police have arrested two black
members of the TRC and the former chair was forced to resign. It's vital that this council
deal more concretely with racial justice and Iowa City. Reducing the police budget is to
act in solidarity with our BIPOC neighbors. Public safety begins with stable housing,
having enough food to eat, and having your medical and mental health needs addressed
before they reached crisis. The police are not the correct agency to address any of these
issues. The more we demand from police,the less we're able to provide for the solutions
that will prevent small, but very real problems from developing into crisis. More police
does not mean more safety. It means more arrests as police make work for themselves,
criminalizing behavior in order to justify the money we spend on them. Forty five percent
of calls for service in Iowa City are initiated by officers. We don't need the police to tell
our community what keeps us safe. We can invest the money we save on cops armed
with deadly weapons, into caring for our most vulnerable neighbors. We've seen positive
changes from the guideline center,mobile crisis, and permanent supportive housing,we
can do more. The first step is cutting unfilled and unnecessary positions from the Iowa
City Police Department. The money saved can be put to more effective use, funding
community mental health, food security, affordable housing, and public health. Thank
you.
Teague: Thank you. And welcome. Please state your name and city you're from.
Sands: Hi. Another Daniel. Daniel Sands. I'm following up on comments regarding the budget
for the Police Department. And I want to go ahead and share some public health data
regarding policing. according to the prison policy initiative. During the earlier COVID
crisis, or at least the earlier part of the pandemic, counties that had higher prison
populations or people incarcerated had higher case loads. Similarly, if we're going to talk
about mental health in the study Geller et al. in the American Journal of Public Health,
young men 18-26 in New York City were assessed and found that man who had higher
rates of police contact displayed higher rates of anxiety and trauma. If we're carrying
about our public health and our public safety,there is role or there's a need to move that
money to other areas. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 18
Teague: Thank you. And thanks to everybody that responded,we are right at our 30-minute max
for public comments, so really appreciate everyone that came forth.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 19
8. Planning& Zoning Matters
8.a 2460 N. Scott Blvd- Ordinance rezoning approximately 10.26 acres from
Low Density Multi-Family Residential with a Planned Development Overlay
(OPD/RM-12)to OPD/RM-12 for the purpose of amending the approved Planned
Development Overlay Plan and Sensitive Areas Development Plan (REZ23-0003).
Teague: We're going to move on to Item number 8,which is planning and zoning matters. 8.a is
rezoned in 2640 North Scott Boulevard. I understand that um, Councilor Bergus will
recuse herself at this time . This is an ordinance rezoning and approximately 10.26 acres
from low density,multifamily residential with a planned development overlay to OPD
RM-10 I'm sorry,hyphen 12. For the purpose of amending the approved plan,
development overlay plan and sensitive areas development plan. I'm going to open up the
public hearing and welcome our staff,Danielle.
1. Public Hearing
Sitzman: Thank you Mayor. Danielle Sitzman,Neighborhood and Development Services
Coordinator. As you stated,this is a request for a rezoning for the purpose of adding
additional multifamily- one additional multifamily, building containing 16 one-bedroom
units. The property is currently developed by Oaknoll and contains three multifamily
buildings and 60 senior living units. The site contains regulated sensitive features
including woodlands and slopes. Due to the impact to the sensitive areas a planned
development overlay zoning district or an OPD district is required,which was what it
originally was rezoned to. And although the rezoning designation will remain the same,
low density,multifamily with a plan development overlay,the previously approved
preliminary plan development overlay and sensitive areas development plans will be
amended to show the new building. As such, a change is considered a substantial change
per city code, and substantial changes,um,must be approved by both the planning and
zoning commission and the city council. This proposal will also further impact sensitive
areas and I'll get to that a- a little bit more detail in the presentation. Um, so the proposed
development is shown here in this a pink building, is located on the western property line
of the existing property and the existing development. The parking proposed for this
development will be provided off that existing drive and much of the parking, it will be
within the multifamily building itself, except for some areas of parking to the North end
of the property. Um,this particular OPD rezoning, as I said, is triggered by the sensitive
areas present on the site. OPD rezonings can sometimes include a waivers to the base
zoning standards,but in this case,there are no waivers being requested to the zoning
standards. So the only reason for the OPD is the sensitive areas. When we re-review
rezonings,there are two criteria that we always review and consistency of the
comprehensive plan and compatibility with existing neighborhood. But there are four
additional criteria reviewed as well for OPD rezonings. So as far as consistency with the
comprehensive plan as with the past rezoning the proposed development in this location
conforms to the policies of the comprehensive plan, including the specific district plan,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 20
the northeast district plan. Um, it's also compatible with the existing neighborhood
character surrounding this property are developments both for office, for the school
district and ACT campus, as well as other senior, housing and, public park. The
proposed building would be of similar character to the existing, building and subject and
similar to the surrounding neighborhood. Getting into the additional criteria for OPD
rezonings, and the density overall is still well below the allowed density for this
particular base zoning districts, it would be 7.4 dwelling units per acre with the new
development on it. So overall,the proposed amended plan continues to comply with the
plan density requirements and the land use is proposed are also continuous and existing
pattern of development and is compatible with the existing land uses in the surrounding
area. Regarding open space,the proposed development complies with the private and
public open space requirements. They've done this previously, through the development
of their site and dedication of, fee in lieu through the previous rezoning actions. And the
proposed development will not impact neighboring properties anymore than a
conventional, zoning district would. Regarding mass scale and layout,the proposed
development remains consistent, as I said,with the existing senior living development on
the subject property and additional future senior, living development, or long Scott
Boulevard. Their proposed development meets all of the multifamily dimension
requirements of the RM-12 zone and remains consistent and mass scale and general
layout with the existing development of Oaknoll. The provo-pros development be
serviced by city waterstorm sewer on-site and sanitary sewer already provided to the site.
It's not anticipated to overburden the traffic system, internal private circulation, or the
utility is already in place. As I mentioned,there are sensitive areas present. Um,they
have been previously protected through the rezoning and planning process for this land.
Um,the specific sensitive areas present are woodlands and regulated slopes. So although
additional impacts,this sensitive areas are proposed,they are still well below the impact
levels allowed by our city codes and our standards regarding sensitive areas.Um,the
proposed development would being located where it's proposed to be on the western edge
of the property, is actually minimizing those impacts as much as possible. So regarding
the steps of development,the step we're on tonight as shown towards the bottom of the
slide in blue. As I mentioned,this site was not previously rezoned,went through planning
and subdivision. Actually had site plans reviewed and building permits issued for the
existing Oaknoll development. So after this rezoning tonight,they would go back through
those steps for this building and continuing through site plan and building permits. So
basically, a review of the relevant criteria for this type of rezoning staff did recommend
approval. At their meeting in April, the planning and zo-zoning commission concurred
with that recommendation, is forwarding it to you tonight with a recommendation of
approval as well. Happy to answer questions.
Teague: Hearing none. Thank you. Would anyone from the public like to address this topic, or is
there a developer here that wishes to comment?Will invite you up at this time. Welcome.
Rowe: Yes. Thank you. Mayor Teague and council members, I am Steve Rowe. I'm executive
director at Oaknoll and I've served the Oaknoll Community for 24 years, six years as
executive director. The purpose of this project is really to add an assisted living building
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 21
within our Oaknoll East campus. We purchased the property from the developer in 2019
as was shown on the previous screen. Uh,the-the friar rezoning work happened in 2016
and 2017 before Oaknoll owned the property. Had we owned it at that time, we probably
would have designed things a little bit differently,but we ended up acquiring something
that was partially developed and just not yet constructed. Uh, it is important for us to add
additional assisted living units for Oaknoll in total. And it would be very beneficial for
our Oaknoll East residents to be able to age in place and transition from independent
living to assisted living still at that same campus. And that's really what we're trying to
accomplish with this project. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Alter: So currently,um, and I- forgive me for not knowing on your original Oaknoll Campus.
Are there- is there an assisted living area?
Rowe: Yes. Yes. At our- at our main campus,we have three levels of care. Uh, independent
living is- is the bulk of the building,but we do have about 40 assisted living apartments
and a 58 bed licensed nursing home. Uh,the Oaknoll East development was originally
conceived as truly just being independent living spaces. And as we've lived that now for
about two-and-a-half years it just would be beneficial,we believe,to add that that
assisted living level of care at that campus.
Alter: Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Thanks. All right. Anyone from the public like to comment on this item? If
so,please raise your hand. Anyone online. Seeing no one before I close this council, are
you all inclined to vote with P&Z recommendations?All right. I'm going to close the
public hearing.
2. Consider an Ordinance(First Consideration)
Teague: I get a motion to give first consideration.
Dunn: So moved.
Taylor: Second, Taylor.
Teague: Well,by Dunn seconded by Taylor council discussion.
Taylor: Well, earlier this evening I'd read the older Americans proclamation. So we're hearing
that-that we have a large population now. Uh, it's growing, continuing to grow. And as a
community, as Iowa city,we-we value our older Americans and that would include
assuring that we have some safe, comfortable,healthy places for them to live. So I admire
what you've done with Oaknoll. I live on the West side and I've seen that campus just
grow immensely and- and people are happy to live there and- and it's really great and
thank you for that.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 22
Teague: Yeah, I would say that is-this is very valuable for the Oaknoll community and beyond,
right. The-the greater community to have assisted living beds. And I know that,um,the
folks that are part of Oaknoll,which that waiting list is long. I know would appreciate
having that opportunity. So thanks for bringing this before us today.
Thomas: Many of my former neighbors live at Oaknoll East now, and- so I've had an opportunity
to experience it there. It's- it's a really beautiful facility. Thank you for your description of
the history of the site because the,um, and noting that if you had been involved from the
beginning,perhaps the site plan would have been adjusted a little bit. It's-um, it's a little
bit tight where you kinda shoehorn it in there,um,but it's a needed element to that
facility so I will be approving it. Thank you.
Dunn: I'm just going to say I'm going to echo some other comments. I think this is an excellent
addition to the community, and offers a lot of folks you know a new option on the east
side and I- I will be supporting. Thank you.
Alte: I think it's a fantastic way to make Oaknoll that much more,um, of service for its residents.
And it is an ingenious use of land given how the pattern of it is. But I think it's fantastic
and I'll be approving this by supporting it.
Teague: Roll call,please. (Roll Call) Motion passes 6-0 with one recusal by Councilor Bergus.
And she is going to return into the room
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 23
8.b JJR Davis Second Addition and JJr Davis Fourth Addition - Ordinance
rezoning approximately 13.00 acres of property located within the JJR Davis
Second Addition and JJR Davis Fourth Addition Subdivisions and between
Mormon Trek Blvd. and Dane Rd. SE from Commercial Office Zone(CO-1)to
Intensive Commercial Zone (CI-1) (REZ23-0002). (Second Consideration)
Teague: Item 8.b is rezoning,JJR Davis Second Addition and JJR Davis Fourth Addition
subdivisions located between no-Mormon trek Boulevard and Dane roles South East
ordinance result in approximately 13 acres of property located within the JJR Davis
second addition and JJR Davis fourth addition, subdivisions in-between Mormon tracking
main road, south east from commercial office zone to intensive commercial zone. This is
second consideration. Can I get a motion,please?
Bergus: So moved Bergus.
Alter; Second Alter.
Teague: And anyone from the public who'd to address this topic?All right. I see, anyone online?
All right, we'll have you all come up and there's a sign-in, and if you got one of the
stickers,you can place it in the box. Welcome. Please state your name and city you're
from.
Dane: Uh,Bob Dane from Iowa City. This was quoted last meeting regarding the description of
CI-1, intensive commercial zone. The purpose for intensive commercial zones is to
provide areas for sales and service functions and businesses whose operations are
typically characterized by outdoor display storage of merchandise,repair and sales of
large equipment,motor vehicles, outdoor commercial, amusement,recreation activities,
or activities or operations conducted in buildings or structure,not enclosed.Further
reading in the ordinances in the paper- in the city documents. You also have the
categories of subsets. Residential uses, group living uses- group living uses, assisted
group living fraternal organizations, independent group living,household, attached
single-family dwellings, detached single-family dwellings, detached zero lot line
dwellings, duplexes, and group households,multifamily, adult businesses, animal related
commercial,journal or intensity of building trade, commercial parking, commercial
recreation, indoor and outdoor drinking establishments, eating establishments, general
office,medical, dental offices, and quick vehicle servicing. An alcohol sales, delayed
deposit service,hospitality services, outdoor storage, display oriented,personal service
repair oriented sales, surface-passenger service and vehicle repair. Industrial
manufacturing and production,heavy manufacturing,technical light manufacturing,
salvage operations, self storage,warehouse, freight movement,waste related uses and
wholesale sales. Uh, community service, long-term housing, community shelters,
daycare, detention facilities, educational facilities,hospitals, parks, open space,religious
private group assembly and ground mounted energy systems. So which of these would
complement the Dean Family Park? Some would, others would not. By voting for this
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 24
rejoining,you'll be adding 13 acres to the land south and southwest of the Dean Family
Park, already zones CI-1, since the last county- council meeting,billions has begun
activity alone. Mormon trek between the Dane property and Mormon trek. Some-
someone has a plan for this area. There are renderings and- on some war. Does the city
know what they are?Which scooters on Scott Boulevard,their council knew the plan.
And now for East,you also know the plan. City parks close at 10:30,but those are only
city neighborhood parks. Would parks and recs stay open later for solar events, special
events, satellite doing fireworks, stargazing? City- excuse me, city park used to be used
for overnight.
Teague: Thank you-thank you-thank you. Welcome.
Ballard: All right. Thank you. I think we're out of cards here, so-my name is Steve Ballard. I'm a
lawyer with the Leff Law firm here in Iowa City, and I'm here to speak on behalf of the
George Dain family trust. I live in Johnson County. I- I want to thank the Council for its
commitment and dedication, service to the community. I don't come to very many of your
meetings,but I appreciate your consideration,your deliberation,your patients,which you
apparently have a lot of And I appreciate that. Um,really, that's what I want to talk to
you about. I was at the meeting on April 4 which was by Zoom and I was also at the
meeting on April 18, in-person and had the opportunity to speak to the council. And I
believe that there was-there was an impetus,there was a,um, consideration by at least
some people on the council that some sorts of conditions might be appropriate to attend
to go along with this rezoning, if possible. Okay?And- and my-my main point, frankly,
tonight is to not-to not have a procedural obstacle,technicality, call it- call it what you
wish. Substitute the council's deliberation and opportunity to make a meaningful decision
about regulating this zo-this rezoning if it's going to happen. Okay. Major site plan
review, city staff at the last meeting went through what a major site plan review looked
like. We asked that the council, ah, do something now to-to ensure that more than just
institutional memory of- of current and future city staff are- are relied on to protect the
rezoning intention of the Council if the Council is going to rezone,there was discussion
about conditions. Uh,there was- I think it was a surprise to some people on the council,
at least it seems as though it was to me. That a conditional zoning agreement couldn't be
entered into by the time the Council started its deliberations, and when we're talking
about that,because the public hearing had been closed. Okay? I'm not sure the Council
knew that this would happen when you close the public hearing. The-the public hearing
was closed on April 4 as well,but then it was reopened because Council then
remembered. I don't mean it that way,but the council so we need to consult with
planning and zoning. And so the-the-the public hearing was reopened. We ask that you
reopen and again,we ask that you consult with city staff about what you can do to reopen
the public hearing,to pursue a conditional zoning agreement that might address some of
the things that the council discussed on April 18. Um, I don't know those-those options,
but you have competent city staff and certainly competent city legal staff to direct you.
And if nothing else,you could defeat the zoning-rezoning request and start over. Thank
you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 25
Teague: Thank you. And I welcome to the next person and up to three minutes to speak.
Mitchell: Great. good evening,Mayor Teague and members of the City Council. My name is
Dennis Mitchell. I'm a trust officer.Now I'm here tonight on behalf of the George Dane
family trust to hopefully convince you to vote against the pending rezoning. To echo little
bit of what Steve said, I do appre- appreciate how much time all of you has spent on this,
I- I believe most and perhaps all of you have been to the property. Many of you have met
with the Dane family members and so we-we do appreciate that. I know we've submitted
a lot of written material as part of our opposition but there are a few key points I wanted
to try to emphasize or reiterate tonight. The fust is that we believe the current commercial
offers zoning is- is much more consistent with the comprehensive plan, including the
South Central District plan as well as the future land use plan then the proposed
commercial intensive rezoning. So as noted in the South Central District plan,buffer
areas are important to mitigate potential conflicts between uses of different intensities and
to preserve sensitive features. The South Central District plan goes on to emphasize the
importance of parks and public spaces in further developing such areas. Likewise,the
future land use plan also supports protection and preservation of unique land, like the
future Dean Park. Unlike the proposed commercial intensive rezoning,the current
commercial office zoning, does provide a- a nice buffer area for this adjacent future park
area. As well as the-the topography and views in this area. The second point I wanted to-
to re-emphasize was that no plan was included by the applicant with the rezoning request.
If rezoned to CI-1,the future use is almost certainly going to be much more intensive
than-than permitted by the current commercial office zoning and the applicant likely
would have included a plan if it was going to be a less intensive use. Although we do
appreciate council's direction to staff at your last meeting, if the subject area is rezoned,
it's going to be difficult to limit the impact to the future park area as well as the
neighborhood. Finally, I do want to emphasize that the Dane family trust is not opposed
to the development of these parcels. We just firmly believe the current commercial office
zoning provides ample opportunity for development without detrimentally impacting the
future park, is more consistent with the comprehensive plan and is in the best overall
interests of the city. Again,we do appreciate the difficulty in making these land use
decisions, and we do thank you for your time and consideration. Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Driscoll: Good evening. I'm Jane Driscoll,the eldest granddaughter of George and Marjorie
Dane. Um, I have been before you a couple of times and you've heard a lot from our
family. Some of you have visited,thank you for that. From the beginning we have
advocated to deny rezoning and stick with the CO-1 or impose conditions on the CI-1
zone. Please continue to do that and not let them build whatever they want. At the
moment, it's kind of a carte Blanche open. Please focus on the ability to set some real
conditions on this proposal. We asked for a middle ground of conditions that offer to
meet the needs of our family who currently uses the property and our ability to enjoy that
as a property owner, as well as the future users of the Dane family park. We can also
enable with conditions to allow that owner of the adjacent property to also enjoy their
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 26
property the way they wish. Furthermore,we request an amendment to the
comprehensive and district plan to be updated so the future park is represented as it is a
legal fact. You can help make this happen and then it can be represented properly on
paper and document for everyone to know that that is what's going to be happening on
the Dane family property. So with future discussions can be informed that-that is the
plan and mindful planning decisions can be made. Thank you again for all of your
attention to this is obviously very,very important to our family. We have a long legacy in
this community and- of giving back and we look forward to a time where the public can
also enjoy the property that we have to share and my grandfather's dream can come to
reality. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you so much, and thanks to all that have come forth and shared during this time.
I'm going to ask,um, for council discussion at this time.
Dunn: Eric, I was wondering if you could talk us through,um,the situation with conditional
zoning, if that's something that we can continue to pursue or what is in- in the way of us
going in that direction.
Goers: Well, ah, in Mr. Valdez was correct in the sense that you may recall the council close the
public hearing and reopened it. But I would note the distinction is we did so immediately
at the same meeting. I think that's very different than a context in which we would reopen
a public hearing at a subsequent meeting entirely when members of the public would
assume that that public hearing is now closed. I've never heard of that being done. I
would not recommend that council do that. If council is interested in that idea, I can
research it more before the third reading,which of course will be required for this only to
be complete at the next meeting. But at this point, it's not something I would recommend
that the council entertain.
Dunn: Does it provide any risks of exposure to the city of any type or [OVERLAPPING]
Goers: Reopening,the public hearing today? I'm not even sure procedurally how you would
proceed. Uh, one of the risks would be you don't want to do-well,you would want to be
very careful in defeating the rezoning request because then any subsequent requests
would need to be substantially different in its nature and I don't know if you want to
foreclose that. Um, so procedurally, again, I'm not really sure how you would go from
here. Would you differ this second reading and at the same time set a public hearing on
an item that hasn't been noticed up. Would you do it at the next meeting to set it for the
yet meeting beyond that. I-I think it would be a very convoluted process that I would not
recommend. And to answer your question about liability or risk, I can't remember the
actual word you used you know, obviously,there are owners of this property who have
requested it'd be rezoned and- and,you know,they may they may choose a legal
challenge if- if they think that we haven't followed procedures as its required.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 27
Teague: I think the,um,maybe just jog memories. That question was asked,like, can we put
conditions, on- on- on- on this project before we close the public while we had already
close the public hearing. And I think what we did well,maybe we didn't,but staff came
up and went through what the requirements are. And I think this council,the majority of
the council,was comfortable with what those requirements were,knowing that it
wouldn't meet some of the-the needs of some of the individuals that spoke.
Alter: I have a question,Eric. Actually, and forgive me. I'm not going to get the language exactly
right,but the request from the granddaughter I'm sorry.
Goers: Jane Driscoll [OVERLAPPING]
Alter: Thank you,Jane. I apologize. About trying to get the Dane property included on what was
it,the comp plan or the map? That's-that's the piece that I'm confused about,but I guess
I'm wondering legally about that since is still within- I mean, it's still- it's- it's family
property, it is not yet a park. It is firmly in the trust that it will be,but it is it possible to
even do that since it is currently it is private property that is being used as private
property. Whether that can be included in a comp plan,that would then designate its
intention. I guess I'm just kind of confused about whether that can happen.
Goers: Well, certainly the council can amend the comp plan. My memory of the district plan that
covers this area is that all of the-both the property that's before you had to be rezoned
and the Dane trust property has a comp plan designation for- I can't remember the exact
wording,but essentially CO and Cl,you know,basically the two kinds of zones that are
both at present and are being requested. If the question is, could this council change that
district plan to account for the George Dane trust property to be public such that that
would be consistent with its use as a park? Sure at least I can think of no immediate
reason why council couldn't do that in the future. But I also want to be abundantly clear.
That's not something we do tonight.
Alter:No,no,no,no.
Goers: Yeah. That's a very lengthy process. I don't know when the district plan is next set for
reconsideration. It's- it's kinda old,but I don't want to speak for the planning folks to
when they'll be getting back to a two,but that's certainly something that can be done in
the future.
Alter: And then just as,um, a memory refresher, all of the land except for that,the piece in
question is already zoned as commercial intensive, correct?
Goers: When you see all of the land.
Alter: Here's the Dane farm and then here's the hill down,right?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 28
Goers: Right, all of the kind of[OVERLAPPING]
Alter: The ones river that is under consideration for rezoning right now because the rest is
already rezoned as-
Goers: Yeah,the property that's kinda crescent shaped, going from memory again to the south of
the George Dane trust property is already CI-1, as is the property to the south west, again,
going from memory is already CI-1 as well. Of course,the property across the street,
across Mormon Trek also. Is that your question?
Alter: Yes. Thank you.
Goers: Sure.
Dunn: Can you speak to what direction city staff would need to start that change in the
comprehensive plan in the South Central District plan?
Goers: Well, I'm not sure any frankly, oh,to-to begin the process?
Dunn: To begin the process.
Goers: Oh, sorry . Uh, well, that would- I don't give them direction that would go through the
city manager's office and maybe better defer to him as to how long of a process that
would be and- and what they're doing it. I mean,that's a big job. Maybe I'll defer.
Goers: Yeah. The-the council has a strategic plan item to update your entire comprehensive
plan. So that's our intention,but that's a multiyear process to do that involving a lot of
public input. You could direct a comp plan change,that would be initiated now, I guess,
um,but I- I don't know. That would be a wise use of time if your intention is to redo the
entire comp plan with a process that kicks off later this fall. So, if we- if you do send us
down that path, it's not just a- a text change to the code that's-that's presented in front of
P &Z and goes to you. That's a-that's a process that involves a lot of community input,
not just neighborhood input,not just adjacent property owner input. You can kinda think
of what we did with the Carson farm area,the southwest district plan we last brought
before you. That was a- a year long effort to update the comprehensive plan for that
portion of the community. So, it- it is kinda depends on how you want to sequence that.
But I would say if your intention is still to do a citywide comprehensive plan change then
I- I personally wouldn't move forward with a more surgical change just to reflect a
potential public use in- on this one property in this district.
Dunn: I would just say,um,you know,my-my thoughts on this. I think that's totally fine. First
of all,waiting for the,the broader comprehensive and district plan update. But I think I
should also explain, ah,more so a practicality reason why I think it would be important
that this be considered enacted on in the rework of those plans. As we're all aware, ah, it
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 29
is pretty much set in stone and an irrevocable trust that this is going to be some type of
park. That doesn't mean it is for Iowa City. It doesn't mean that it's for Johnson County.
We don't quite know yet what is going to happen in that regard with regard to ownership
management, etc. But we do know that it is going to become a park. So I think that it is,
um,pertinent to include that in our future planning. So I'm not going to ask for any
direction or anything like that,but just want to express it that be taken into serious
consideration when we get to that process in the city manager's office.
Teague: Any other comments?
Thomas: Yeah. I wanted to just follow up on my comments from a couple of weeks ago,which
where we did have a lengthy discussion of the possibility of conditions and landed on a- I
was trying to recall exactly where we had landed,but it had to do with a major site plan
review as I recall,with the staff review. So I'm still- I think as those of you who are
concerned with the future this project, I'm still concerned with the question of how do we
adequately buffer the Dane property. But even more so that we have an issue in my view
with the viewsheds that are offered from that property. And wanted to expand my
thinking anyway in terms of what might constitute a response to those concerns. First of
all,there will be as I recall,Dane road will be improved with this- with the eventual-
eventual development of the property adjacent to Dane farm,that public right-of-way
offers opportunities for landscape street trees for example to be planted as a kind of
intermediate zone between the adjacent property and the Dane farm property,which
could contribute, I think to the effort to buffer between the two-the two areas. In addition
to that,though, I would- I would encourage the Dane family to think about how to
address this issue of buffer and preserving and protecting the Viewshed by looking at
opportunities for that on your own property. On the- on the would be the west side of the
property. That's your land. And it's- I think in my view,there may be sufficient space on
that land to create a buffer that would may not be possible beyond,beyond your property
on the adjacent property. And that's something you could begin right now. In terms of
sight,the vegetation establishing vegetation. The sooner the better,because it would
certainly by the time that development should, should, should occur on the other side of
Dane road,haven't had an opportunity to mature. I think it would also offer some
intention on the part of the day and family in terms of that, this is a future park. We'd like
to initiate some improvements to the land which would anticipate how that future land
will serve as a public space. And it began establishing the vegetation that would, in my
mind be associated with such a facility. So those are some of my thoughts in terms of
how at least from my standpoint,the concerns that I have- could be acted upon in a more
expeditious manner under your own control that would be consistent with the future use
of the land. And also in addition to the viewsheds and the buffering issue,the-when I
visited the site a cold Saturday morning, and in part it was called because of those north
westerly winds that were running right over the hill top there. So it would serve that
purpose as well. If you began thinking about if this is going to be a public park,we
probably will want to try to mitigate some of the factors that one experiences on that hill
with respect to the north westerly winds to make it a more habitable space. So again,the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 30
sooner those improvements are initiated,the better it will be for the life of the park at the
time it becomes a park.
Taylor: Thank you, Councilor Thomas, for your comments. You you helped me remember that
the day I was there, it was also cold and windy and there were a group of four each
students, I believe is what they were-that were-that the snow that didn't last very long,
but it was a pretty heavy snow. But they're also,they were,they were making great
breathes out of the grape vines that are growing on the property, as well as some of the
kids were actually sliding down the hill, so great sliding area. So it just enhanced my
belief that this is valuable property land for Iowa city to preserve as best as we can. And I
think I made my thoughts pretty clear on how I what I believe the effects of rezoning
would have on the surrounding parkland at the last meeting. So I really won't elaborate
much at this time except to reiterate that we currently don't have any parks that are
surrounded by intensive commercial. And this just isn't the time to start even thinking
about that. I just still continue to believe that commercial office zoning is much more
appropriate for this area. But if we do have to go down that route,we do have to consider
the buffering,but I still believe in the commercial office owning and we'll vote this down.
Teague: We have a missing councilor . We're going to wait for a Councilor Harmsen to return
before we vote. Oh,there he is. Here. And no more comments. Roll-call,please. (Roll
Call) Motion passes 6-1. Can I get a motion to accept correspondence?
Alter: So moved,Alter.
Harmsen: Second Harmsen.
Teague: Alright. All in favor say aye. (Voice Vote)Aye. Any opposed Motion passes 7 - 0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 31
9. Regular Formal Agenda
9.b 2023 Bond Resolution—Resolution direction sale of$9,655,000 (subject to
adjustment per terms of offering) General Obligation Bond, Series 2023
Teague: Item 9.b 2023 bond resolution resolution directing cell of$9,655,000 of general
obligation bonds series 2023. Can I get a motion to approve,please?
Bergus: So moved Bergus.
Alter: Second,Alter.
Teague: Alright. And welcome our staff.Nicole.
Davies: Good evening,Mayor and Council. So this resolution is for our bond sale that happened
this morning for our Geo Debt and Maggie Burger from Spear Financial is here to walk
you guys through those results.
Burger: Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'm Maggie Burger with Spear Financial. We did
receive bids this morning on the original amount of$9,655,000 of general obligation
bonds series 2023. Due to the premium that was provided,we were able to size the bonds
down to $9,105,000 of principal that was borrowed. The original interest rate was a 2.85
and then downsizing that,we are at a 2.824,4%. We did show you that we have seven
bids that were received. That's actually fantastic amount of bids for the timing and the
market that we're looking at. We're really happy to report that the City of Iowa City has
maintained its triple a Moody's rating. So we would like to thank your city
administration, including your manager's office and finance department for their excellent
work,presentation itself, and spending time with the Moody's analysts to answer any
questions that they have. They did a fantastic job. So we've included that Ratings Report
in for you and part of our packet so you can review that. We've highlighted some of the
areas. Robert W. Baird of Milwaukee,Wisconsin is our low bidder. Again,there was
adjustments made due to the premium that they were going to give you,you'll still be
receiving premium dollars. The final debt service schedule is really as we had projected,
that it would be interest rates started at 5% and go down to a 3%. In the final year,we
were projecting 5% all the way down. So we're very happy with the results. I'd answer
any questions that you have,but we would recommend passage of this award.
Teague: Seeing no questions. Thank you.
Burger: Thank you.
Teague: Anyone from the public likes to address this topic?Please raise your hand. Seeing no
one in person or online. Council discussion.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 32
Alter: Kudos to staff and Nicole and your office. This is really hard climate to do this and that
there were that many bids speaks volumes to the sustainability and best practices of the
office. So I just want to say thank you. It's not something that gets a lot of attention. And
yet without the work that you all do,We can't do have a good functioning city. So thank
you.
Taylor: Also thank you. About the AAA bond rating. I heard for many years on my fust few
years on the council from Councilor Mims former Councilor Mims about the importance
of this and didn't really understand it till I've seen it the last few times and how important
that is to have that AAA. And how few and far between this set of persons and citizen
groups that actually have that AAA rating. So kudos on that.
Teague: Roll-call,please? (Roll Call)Yes. Motion passes 7-0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 33
9.c TRC Consultant Contracts -Resolution approving consultant contracts with
Kearns & West,Think Peace,Healing Partners, and Three Native Partners to assist
with facilitating the work of the Iowa City Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation
Commission.
Teague: Item number 9.c, is to TRC, consultant contracts,resolution approving consultant
contracts with currents and widths,think peace,healing partners and the three NATO
partners to assist with facilitating the work of the Iowa City ad hoe truth and
reconciliation commission. Could I get a motion to approve,please?
"Thomas: So move, Thomas.
Dunn: Second. Dunn.
Audience Member: You guys are quiet.
Teague: Alright and-
Alter: We were told we were quiet.
Audience Member: Speak up a little bit.
Teague: Yes.
Audience Member: Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. All right. And we're gonna go to our staff,Eric Goers.
Goers: Thank you,Mayor. So it's been awhile since we've started this process. So I thought I
would start with a very brief history, at least as it relates to a facilitate of contracts-
contracts and so forth. On September 15th of 2020, Council passed Resolution 20-228
which created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or TRC, gave them their
charges and mandated that they be quote facilitated by an independent consultant. Close
quote. On March 2nd of 2021, council approved a contract for Jesse Case to serve as a
part-time facilitator at the rate of$4,000 per month for 16 months. So, expected total of
about $64,000. However,Mr. Case never signed the contract and terminated his
involvement with the TRC approximately three days later. That caused the TRC to again
begin their search for a facilitator. On September 9th of 2021, Council approved a
facilitator budget for the TRC in the amount of$197,907,which was the precise amount
taken from a Kerns &West facilitator proposal,that they had been presented with and
we're working toward. And then later that month on September 21st 2021, in the face of
vocal opposition seeking greater local involvement, our Council voted not to approve the
Kerns &West contract. So again,the TRC sought a solution for greater local
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 34
involvement. This winter, or consortium of local and national consultants developed a
new proposal to the TRC totaling just over $400,000,which the TRC approved. That
proposal was what is before you now. First, I'll talk a little bit about the contract
structure. As like many things involving this project is not typical of what the-the city is
done. Obviously,the whole notion of truth and reconciliation is novel to the City of Iowa
City. In fact, it hasn't gone on a lot of places in the United States and so we're inventing
the plaintiffs. We fly a little bit and that's true of all parties involved. So as I mentioned in
the memo which I prepared last week and which I discussed at length with the TRC at
two of their meetings earlier this spring, the-the structure or the consultant agreement is
unusual in a number of significant ways. Typically we have a consultant or I'm sorry,we
have an agreement with a single consultant now that consultant may hire sub consultants
or other subcontractors to assist them with doing their work. But it's clear that we're only
contracting with one entity. It's that entity that is ultimately responsible for the work
being done and being done well, and if it's not, then that's obviously that entity to whom
we go and- and make sure that they get it done right. This proposal involves four
contracts with covering a total of four legal entities in three individuals who are all
working together to do the-the work of facilitating the work of the TRC. In addition,
oddly, or I should say unusually,the city staff will also have a key role in facilitating the
work of the TRC. And notably that's work including things like doing strategic doing,
and restorative justice processes that staff doesn't currently have the training to do. That's
something that staff would have to go out and-and seek so that we could do our part
under this proposal. We-the proposal calls for city staff to quote, coordinate operations
or the four proposals, close quote. So it would be easy to imagine that staff will or may
ultimately become the de facto general contractor or lead contractor. So that's just
something you folks should become aware of. Also unusual is that what we normally
encounter is we have a knowledgeable internal staff person, for example an engineer and
the engineering division,who need some assistance designing a bridge or a road or some
other public improvement project. And they write out very detailed notes about what
they'd like for the scope of services, for the consultants work. Here again,we don't have
that expertise within city staff and- and so we've had to rely on the proposers coming
together and saying,here's how we envision it. And then also they had some
conversations with the TRC, of course,to make sure that they were on board with that
vision and that's-that's what we've got. And obviously we hope that it is enough. Just but
again,because our role as staff is to alert you to potential problems in the future. Feel like
we're not doing our job if we don't lay that out,that this is challenging as with so many
other things with this work that we're trying to take on. Finally,having outlined the
potential challenges and so forth. Let me be clear about our- our role and it relates to
what I just said. Our job is to tell you what the issues are,the potential challenges that we
might encounter so that you are fully informed and you can make your own decision,
whatever that is. I take no position on whether they should go forward or not. I want you
to know for certain that if you move forward with the approval,this contract staff will
absolutely do everything we can in our power to mitigate the risks that I've described and
move forward with achieving the goals that you folks have laid out in your resolution to
our-to the absolute of our ability. So I know that there has been some coverage in the
media I- I- I read this morning that seemed to suggest that or at least imply that we were
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 35
staff was opposed to the approval. We no,not at all. I just want to make sure that you
folks have all the information you need to make an informed decision and then staff will
absolutely do our level best to make it work. With that'll turn it over. Let's do you have
any questions for me? I know the TRC members are here and I think that they wanted an
opportunity to advocate for this contract.
Teague: Hello and welcome.
Dillard: Hi. Thank you. Um,well, fust, I want to say good evening, city council. Everyone in the
public and city staff. Um, I- I want to thank everyone in this room for joining us on this
journey to make our Iowa City community a better place. I acknowledged that there are
and will continue to be differing opinions and views on the best path to achieve this goal.
And I'm so excited, I'm so grateful and hopeful because the passion filling this room
shows that we are all truly on the same side. We want a better Iowa City community. Let
me introduce myself again. My name is Chastity Dillard. I am the fourth chair of the
Iowa City ad hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And I and my fellow
commissioners, again, are so excited to present an recommend to the Iowa City City
Council and wider community our proposed budget. With this budget,we finally we'll be
able to carry out the charges of the TRC as dictated by you all the City Council in 2020. I
just want to remind everyone what our charges are. Um the fust one is fact-finding,
collecting evidence, including fust-hand testimony of racial discrimination and injustice,
says truth-telling,providing multiple ways for those impacted and traumatized by racial
injustice to share their stories and experiences. And finally,reconciliation. Involving the
community and learning about these injustices and putting together recommendations to
present to you the city council. So as we all know, our community is in dire need of this
work. This is why we recommend the following facilitator team comprised of highly
qualified and experienced local,national and international consultants. Those are Think
Piece,Kearns &West our healing partners and our native partners. It is no secret that it
has been a long journey, a long struggle and time commitment for commissioners our
proposed facilitators, city staff, City Council and our community to get to this moment.
This is a divided moment in more ways than one as we seen the fishers. We've seen the
discussions and the fights gross since day one. Still. We know that truth and-truth and
reconciliation work will be more difficult in a place where it is more urgent and needed.
This shows why Iowa City needs this team now more than ever. So again,my name is
Chastity Dillard. I have been a resident of the Iowa City community since 2007. I'm a
University of Iowa graduate and I've been working hand in hand with those in need in
this community for almost a decade. As an Island native, a woman, a black woman, a
member of this community, and a black member of this community, I know what it is like
to experience racial discrimination and racial injustice. I have witnessed the tools it takes
and how it can take on those experiencing the same around me. So I too, I'm ready to do
the work. Again. We are excited and ready to begin the work. The council has-the
council and the community has called for in 2020. City Council members, I hope that
you'll make that move that leap of faith and continue this momentum our Commission
has created moving forward. Um the way I was imagining tonight, I was going to speak
and then I'm going to invite the fixed mouth or eyes to speak on behalf of the proposal
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 36
team,just to give an overview of the proposals team vision um for what is presented
tonight, and then we have the rest the remainder and the remaining of our commissioners,
excuse me, I speak too fast. Who would love to also advocate for why they believe that
this is the work we need to be doing right now. So I'm gonna let Vee step to the podium.
Teague: Alright. Thank you and welcome.
Oraiz: Hello. My name is V Fixmer-Oraiz. My pronouns are they/them and I- I'm here before
you as the CEO and founder of Astig Planning and one of the consultants in this
proposal. I believe we were here in August at a work session, so it's really good to see
you all again. And I just wanna stress how powerful this work really is. I- I don't think
any of us take this lightly at all. So you've seen the proposal,we've talked about the
proposal just to give a bit of a brief overview. So we are four different groups. We've
been collaborating now for over a year and a half. Our proposal really is a community-led
framework and we like to-to talk about it as moving at the speed of trust. And that is
incredibly important. I have been working in this community for over a decade and I
know so many of the people in this room and on-online. And I- I think that we can all
agree that if this type of work and the power that it has for transformative healing it has to
be community-led so that's why the framework is what we chose it to be. A lot of this has
really co-creation with the TRC commission,with community members, and with our
consultants. We do see this as a two-phase approach. With evaluative breaks we almost
talk about it as like a sacred pause, an opportunity to reflect. What did we get right?What
did we get wrong?How are we gonna be moving forward?And those do include some
recommendations, again from the TRC, from,you know,the consultant team, and
obviously from the community as well. So as Chastity had pointed out,you know,the
charges,you know, fact-finding,reconciliation,um,those-those are the-the big,um-the
big fact-finding,healing,reconciliation, and education,truth-telling. So when you look at
our scope, and,um, I- I do wanna point out that,you know,these are, like I said,two
different phases. The general outline as the fust is three months, and then the second is
four months. That fust-that fust phase is really the education. What-what is the TRC
and how is,what is that gonna look like for- for Iowa City, for our community?And
Think Peace is an international-based organization. They are also in the United States and
they have a lot of that information that they'll be-they'll be sharing here,they'll be
coming here,they'll be educating,they'll be training,um, sharing that work. And then
also the fact-finding aspect will be happening concurrent. To dig in a little bit deeper to
the details we do have some native partners, and I think we're incredibly, incredibly
humbled and fortunate to have,um,three facilitators who are willing to do something that
I think is completely,um, incredible. Taking the sacred native traditions,um,healing
circles, and actually creating that for our community, for Iowa. And recognizing that
instead of appropriation,we're gonna be doing co-creation. That is just something that
they see as a need to -for the healing. And so we're incredibly fortunate to have those
partners. And then I'm actually trained in strategic doing and I know the attorney had
talked about staff having to do that. So actually, I will be leading the strategic doing. So
that is not something that staff have to be trained in. And then for restorative justice,um,
our healing team has actually trained in that as well. So we do have facilitators and that
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 37
so just wanted to clear that one point up,um. When you-uh,you know, so there will be a
deliverable that's,you know, obviously I said we would have those check-ins,we would
have those recommendations,um,you know,midpoint and then,um, after the second
phase,we will have final recommendations. And,you know this is just one of those
things where we don't know where we're gonna go,but we need to go together. So those
recommendations like I said,will be finalized and produced from the TRC, from our,um,
from -from our team. And when I say our team, I really wanna stress because I- I- I
understand,um, I- I was sitting in this very audience about a year-and-a-half ago feeling
like there was this outside company that was coming in to do work that I knew that we
have the capability to do in our community. I know it because I've been a part of it and
have learned so much from those around me. So I just wanted to say when I say our team,
I mean, our community. There is funding in here. Uh, and to make sure that we have set
aside for-um, for our community members who are leaders,um, and who can do this
work,who can do the fact-finding and the truth. And who know how to do reconciliation
so we're not saying that we're it,we're-we're definitely not saying that. We're just saying
can we get started so that we can bring others in? So this is an all and I really wanna
stress that. There are many people in this,um, in- in this audience right now that I care
very deeply about, and that I know care very deeply about our community and social and
racial justice here. Um, so with that, you know,there is a breakdown of costs. So you'll
see,you know, Think Peace,Kearns &West,Healing Partners,Native Partners. And then
we have some community researcher also that's identified here because we know that we
have that capability within our community that there-there very smart people here that
know how to do fact-finding research in our community. So you'll see the breakdown of
that. The-um,the total is $402,721.20. That includes $10,000 that's set aside for local
groups to set forward throughout the process. And then another 2,200 for a local
facilitarity- facilitator,um, working with Think Peace. Think Peace's total is $96,169.50.
Kearns &West is $140,460.50. Our Healing Partners, are $81,345. Our Native Partners
are $50,446.20 and then our community researcher is $24,300. So you can see that there
are those breakdowns there. I know that there-you know,there may be questions about
all of that. And- and in your packet,you'll see that there's breakdown,there's line-item
breakdowns for,you know, everybody's rate travel reimbursements, all of those things.
So that is a- a general overview of the proposal that you have before you. Of course, I'm
sure there will be many questions and I know there are others that wanna speak,um,but I
just wanted to kind of make sure we were all on the same page and clear up a couple of
the-the,you know, strategic doing and- and,um,reconci-um,reconciliation parts of it.
So that's what I have. And I think now we'll hear from the TRC commissioners.
Teague: Awesome. Thank you. Welcome.
Gathua: Thank you,Mayor Teague. And thank you councilors for giving me a few minutes to
put my face in front of some of the councilors who don't know me. My name is Wangui
and I am one of the nine commissioners of the TRC. Oh, I'm standing here right now to
support our recommendation of the facilitator to bring in the expertise that we- I don't
have to put together,re-racial injustices experiences and make recommendations to our
city on how to move forward. Throughout since 2021 April, I've been excited because
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 38
this is a historical moment in the city I've called home since 2020. When I moved from
my country of birth,Kenya. So as we worked to get to this moment and present this to
you, it's very serious for me because I have- and my ancestors,they've experienced racial
injustice from Kenya to here in Iowa City. So as I work and as have we come to present
this-this facilitator, I am also working with that pain,but with the joy that I have this
opportunity. Then I also bring with me, I brought up my five children in this city. So
there's that love and I want my grandchild to have something better that I-than I have had
and my children have had. The third thing I have brought in and that's why I volunteered
myself into the TRC, is that I teach ratio-social injustice, and I research in that area. So as
I present the recommendation, I have put thought,tears,pain,but a lot of joy too, and as
you deliberate and reflect and you consciously and intentionally vote on how we move
forward today. Either way,whether we go forward with the facilitator or we do not
because of various reasons on how you vote, I will continue serving my city on making it
better as far as we tret each other in my city that I call home. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Johnson: Good evening. How are you guys doing today?My name is Cliff Johnson. I'm also on
the TRC and I would like to thank this-uh,thank you all for this opportunity to actually
get to speak with everybody. I really am looking forward to getting things rolling on the
right foot. I feel like we have all the tools now, and we have the motivation to move
forward and really get things done. And I really hope that we can make a- a strong impact
here in our community. There's been a lot of work that has been done. It might not seem
like a lot but,there is a lot going on and a lot of sacrifices happened from a lot of our
members. With that being said we really wanna just do the right thing. That's what this is
all about at the end of the day,we wanna try to make sure that we help our community to
the best of our ability. And we believe that you guys can help us with that right now. This
is something that like everybody has been saying this is historic, this is something else. Tt
has been done in many cities here in the United States, so there's gonna be growing pains,
there's gonna be hardships,but at the same time we can persevere and we already have
shown that we have the means to do it. So why not? I look forward to making sure that
we make our place a better city. That's pretty much it at the end of the day, I don't really
have much else to say. I- I have confidence that we'll make good decisions and, do the
right thing. I would like to thank you for your time.
Teague: Thank you,yes. Welcome.
Merritt: Hi. My name is Lauren Merritt. I am currently living here in Iowa City and one of the
last commissioners that came aboard the TRC back in October. Knowing that we were
going to be looking at this proposal today. I was trying to write what I wanted to do and
what I wanted to say, so excuse me if it's going to be kinda all over the place,but that's
just kinda how my brain works. Iowa City,well, for Iowa,my family moved to Iowa in
1978. This is my home, I love Iowa, and I've lived in Iowa City right after college for
nine years, fell in love with the city. And I was part of working with the flood recovery
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 39
for Iowa City back in 2008 and years after that, and when I had my daughter, I knew that
If there was any place in Iowa- I wanted to live. It was Iowa City. This is where my roots
are now firmly planted. Looking at the time right now the world, continent, country,
state, county, city,things are looking kinda dismal to be honest, and we have an
opportunity since 2020 when you started with the resolution to work on racial injustice,
social injustice. And one thing about Iowa City, it is a diverse community. That's one
thing that I love about it,but with diversity, you have different experiences,you have
different opinions,you have very passionate people. And it's going to clash at times as we
saw how the TRC went since its conception to now. But we all, even though they sound
like we want different things,want the same thing, and the way this proposal has come
together. Finally, I think it shows all the influences of all the commissioners, also the
community. This is supposed to be a grassroots movement, and,you know,the
commissioners,maybe nine people. The roots extend out to the whole community in the
city and beyond. So I know that we look at this. There was a million dollars that was
allocated to work on this injustice,racial injustice, and at one time it might look like it's a
lot of money, and I know this is the tax payers money that we all want to use in the most
effective way and not just throw it away. And I think all the commissioners have kept
that in mind,but also trying to figure out what is the most impact we can make with the
money that has been allocated. Because in a certain perspective of a million dollars really
isn't enough to do what we really wanted to do if you really think about it. But I think we
have to start somewhere, and I think that this community has so many resources to at our
disposal to do this. We also need some experts that have had the experience of doing this,
and I think that the facilitators that are on the contracts that we have will provide that
training and present a model that we can not only use for this but using other areas of the
city. That's one good thing about us,that it can be molded into the way we need it. And
when I see for the TRC as a commission. Once hopefully we get this thing going forward
is being like the liaison between the community because we're the ones out in the street
and hearing people who are having issues and want to be heard, and it's a hard thing to do
sometimes if you think that people aren't listening. Also,we might hear things but not
listened very well, and I think that goes with not just what we're doing here, but
anywhere. And I think that this model is going to provide that platform that people can
speak, I can hear,we can listen. We can look at what the city has, at least the city as a
government body wherever else, and can help improve this community. As I guess my
fust started on the commission in October, I will fully admit that I had a different idea of
what the TRC was doing or what it was about, and I think the very fust meeting that I
was on it was when the proposal was finally in its condition and people were ready to
vote on it, and my fust looked at it, I was like, Oh,this would not be a good thing to have
the new person all of a sudden say, oh, let's put the brakes on this because I have some
questions. But I basically decided to have faith in the people who were there. Over the
time I've grown to hear them,hear their experiences which have been very different from
mine in some ways,but very same with certain injustices or whatever but over the
months and now,we're at this day and I have full confidence that this is something the
city, it's going to work. It's going to be the things you're going to change because we don't
know what we're doing in the sense of this is gonna be something new for here but I
have-we have a lot of people, I mean,not only the commission but here who have a
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 40
vision and I think that this will be the platform that will get us there. So I hope that the
city will take that into consideration and be ready to move forward. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. . Welcome.
Krebs: Hi. I'm Marie Krebs. I'm part of the commission and also of course. So just a little about
me. I'm also- I'm new, right? and I came in with Ms. Lauren. And so I've had the comfort
of watching,you know and making assumptions and comments from the outside as things
were happening. I was actually drawn to the project because of some of the chaos that
was happening. That may sound strange. But to me, I was like,What is this powerful
thing that's happening? "That's got everyone so,you know, feeling certain ways and-there
was- I could feel that there was passion there,right? Things are happening. So it actually
is what kind of drew me in. Having that outside perspective and kind of watching from
the outside. You can come in with a different perspective. I guess,maybe more. It's
objective to me,right? I'm not part of it, so I can come in with an objective mind and
hopefully have something to offer with that. So with that being said, I think it's important
that with the contracts, some of this is done with outside sources because of that
objectivity piece. They're not aligned with a certain group or they're not aligned with a
certain person or whatever the case may be. They're coming in-they're coming in to do
the work. Of course,we need people in the community. That's obviously very important
thing. We need both pieces there. And I- I really encourage everyone to work together-
together to move this forward. Again, I'm new, coming in on the backs of a lot of hard
work and tears and three years this has been going on. So I'm rolling in here and
everyone's already put in so much time, so much effort. My other concern is we've had
people these contracts there,they'd been working for free,putting things together for free.
"They put a lot of time in and I hope that we can get moving and get things going. Thank
you.
Teague: Thank you. . Welcome.
Traore: Hello Muhammad Traore. Honestly thought a long time about whether I was even gonna
say anything at all. Uh and I've been thinking about this meeting since, I'd say about
November,December of last year pared back a lot of what I want to say. Just keep it to
the important pieces. When I joined this commission, I was 24 years old when it fust
started. I turn 28 this summer. The next item on here is about extending this commission
to December 2024, at which time I would be 29 and a half years old. I was a junior in
high school uh,when Trayvon Martin happened. I just finished my freshman year of
college when Michael Brown happened. There's more of course,but,you know, it goes
on and on and on. If you do the math and extend back,that's from age 16 to today for age
27, so essentially my entire most of my adolescent life and pretty much my entire adult
life. I've just watched these occurrences happen on TV being the news people talk about
them,how much they care,how much they want to do something about it,whatever,
whatever,whatever,whatever and none of it's true. And I say none of it's true because if
any- if anyone actually wanted to do something about it, I feel like something would have
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 41
been done by now. Yet,you know, I come to these meetings,you asked for people from
the public to show up. You do everything you can and next to no one comes,you know,
you get some engagement here and there,which is great. But you didn't come to these
meetings where your group is worked so hard to put a proposal in front of the City
Council,knowing that there's gonna be people that are going to come after you and just
look to tear all of you apart,tear your work apart so you can't start any of it. And the
thing that hurts most about that is that those people that could come after you and say
those things if they do. You know we're all people right? I hurt you hurt. I go through
things,you go through things,but I'm still likely going to have people come up after me
and tear into us, even though are one and the same. And that's just a really unfortunate to
know that. Given up a lot being on this commission, lost a lot of time with friends that's
for sure. Summer 2021 actually, if you don't believe me, I can show you the records on
my,you know, sleep app later. About four-and-a-half hours of sleep, averaged that entire
summer. You mentioned,you know, September when that proposal was brought up,want
to two hours and 40 minutes or so was about how much I slept at night before we
presented that to the council and again,the seven pages of words, in that entire line item
budget that I'd worked on and created alongside the commissioners for so that entire
summer,just got torn apart and I had this kid that I honestly never seen before come in
and talk about that piece with $1,000 stipends and how the audacity to come up and say
without ever coming to a meeting,without ever contacting me or trying to even though
my phone number was public information, even though I'm on social media,that we are
not worth paying a dime. And again, I've never seen or heard from that kid again. I think
I don't know if it hurt more that I never heard from it again or it hurt more that says white
dude that probably didn't care telling me I'm not worth a penny even though I had just,
you know, done putting in all that time and effort all summer. You know,to add to that
joint city council meeting and I think maybe it stung even more of that. You know,the
amount of just like Ayer and just discontent that has come has been really hard to
stomach. Uh, a good friend of mine brings us up to me a lot and I always tell them do,
don't do that. Like I don't care anymore. I don't care anymore and the truth of it is is that I
was lying to him. I did care a lot and it's that I had someone stand over me in public and
give me the some of the ultimate forums and disrespect I've ever had,which was telling
me after again all that work that was put in and knowing that I was again going to do
work after that meeting,that if I want to get paid, could go get a job that pays me. That
was really crushing. So say all that to say of like it's been really hard. Sucked a lot of
energy out of me. I've watched my best friend since I was seven, go homeless and
mentally,he's gone to the point that I don't really know that he recognizes me anymore
and so many of the times I'd see him I was coming down here for these meetings. And
then there was November of 2021. My sister called me and told me, "Hey, can you please
call me out of school today?" I asked her why? She said that some white kid posted on
Instagram that he wanted to kill all of the N words,you know,the actual word that
though in school. So of course I called her out immediately. But I don't know what stung
worse the fact that what happened in the schools when I went K-12 and Iowa City
community schools is still happening, or that kids were more bold about it,you know,
doing that whole social media thing, or that I don't believe it was ever properly taken care
of, or was it worse that just three weeks prior, I had donated to $1,000 to a scholarship to
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 42
that very high school. I felt like an idiot. So I hope those that come after me if you're
going to come at the commission,honestly,please just either say to-to me, address me or
here or outside of it,but please don't come after the rest of the commissioners. The reason
I say that is, the amount of times I've had to talk people off a ledge from quitting this
thing has been insane. And at the same time it was hard because I knew so many times
that I wanted to do the same thing. And honestly, as I stand here today,um,I honestly
have to say like, I know this isn't the best place to do it,but my name is Muhammad
Traore and I had- I resigned from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I can't do it
anymore. I honestly cannot. You people put me through hell for two-and-a-half years. I
cannot keep doing it. And all that time spent, all that sleep lost, there weren't people to
just hit me up like,hey, do you have 15, 20 minutes of stuff I can do for you,help you
with?You know, like I know you've got a job,you're working full-time,you know,but
still, you know, can I help you with this?Not really much of that. And you know, other
people are busy too,but,you know, I sacrificed, I took the time. So I just hope that
everyone that wants to get involved with this or says they really care about this,really
think about it. How much do you care?What are you really,you know,willing to do to
get this moving,to get it going forward?Because last month I missed a TRC meeting and
I was really mad at myself for it. But then I sat back, I kinda laughed. I was like, "Wow,
I'm mad at myself for missing this meeting, and you know why I missed it? I just got an
eye surgery for retinal detachment."And I was upset I had to miss a TRC meeting. I'm
also here today,you know, I'm still kind of grieving. It's less than 48 hours ago I found
out that another close friend of mine from high school passed away. January,you know,
another family member. July,that summer of 2021,two days after my birthday I find out
my cousin passes away. And yet,you know, still putting in that work for the TRC
constantly, and having people tell us that we are not worth investing in. I kept all that
back all this time because I didn't think it should ever matter,but I'm saying it now
because even though I am resigning,you should all know, if you've been a part of the
push back,what you've actually been pushing back against. Have so much more I wanted
to say,but I just don't wanna call anyone out,you know, like that,you know. Just keep
throwing dirt on anyone's name or anything like that is not what I came here for. I just
wanted to speak my truth. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. I wanted to have,um, I know you're gonna come. Um, yeah. Please.
Nobiss: (Native Language). My name is Sikowis Nobiss. I am a commissioner on the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission. I'm here today to just be very specific about like what we're
here to talk about,right?Like we're-we're here to talk about,um, approving these
contracts,um, so that we can move forward with the, ah,tasks that we've,um,um,been
working on of carrying out now for quite some time. So I'm- I'm just gonna ask you that
you please vote in favor of these contracts. Ah, and that it might be some- it might be
hard for some of you to do that,um,but I- I would like you to consider decolonizing
your-your mind for a moment and taking a chance and doing something different from
what you are typically told and thought to do in these spaces,right?Because these spaces
have never been set up for us,which is why we have a Truth and Reconciliation
Commission,right? So if you're not gonna allow us to move forward and make these
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 43
changes and be unique and take chances,then how are we going to do what we need to
do,because that's exactly what we are meant to do? So I would ask that you just really,
really consider allowing us to take this one step forward,take a chance, and let us do our
job, finally, after so many years. You have seen people come up here just now,who are
literally feeling broken from years of having to deal with not just trying to get things
passed,you know,through this particular council,but the fallout from a particular faction
of the black community that has come after us over and over again. And like we can't
allow one portion of the community to effect the rest of us that are trying to move
forward in unity. I will say as an indigenous person that the TRC has allowed me and the
community to do things that I didn't think I could do here in Iowa City. You know, for
instance, I watched my daughter be involved in a very racist moment at the Shimike
Elementary. And because I had this ability to be,you know,to speak my mind,you
know, clearer and with a with a and- and testify and with a group of people that had my
back,we were able to make a huge change in the,you know,the-the City of Iowa City
Public School District. You know,now there's going to be books that are going to be
given to these teachers and training so they understand like cultural,you know,
appropriate ways to deal with the indigenous peoples, indigenous culture, indigenous
ways of teaching. You know,tonight this particular proclamation that I came up to,you
know,to receive,that happened because I am on the TRC and that I felt empowered to be
able to do that here,whereas before I didn't think that I really had a voice in Iowa City
because indigenous people are a small population here. You know, also moving forward,
you know,we're working on,you know,having an indigenous people's day. You know,
we-we are,um, getting heard more and more because we are a population that deals with
exceedingly high rates of erasure, exceedingly high rates of whitewashing.And it's not
just us,right? It's not just indigenous people. There are the Asian-American population
here. There's the Muslim population here. There is more people here than just the black
community that we need to consider. And that's why I ask that when you think about this
and you-you-you might hear things moving forward after I speak,where people are
gonna talk against,you know,voting for this,that you consider the work that the TRC
has put into this already, and that there are communities other than com- like some folks
here that are going to speak against it that really need this very badly,very badly. I have
never been able to feel heard in the city as an indigenous person until I joined the TRC.
And I want you to remember that,that it's not just about one particular faction in this
community that has power-that has political power and a voice, it's also about the people
that have not been heard and that are getting heard now. So thank you very much. Um,
please,you know, get this going, get the ball rolling and we're gonna do some amazing
stuff. (native language). Thank you.
Teague: Thank you.
Billard: I just wanted to come and- come up again and say thank you so much for listening to us.
As you just heard, all of us were very passionate people that are really committed to
moving forward with what you have,um,tasked us to do. Again,we hope that you
choose to approve,um, our proposed budget so that we can move forward in the work.
Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 44
Teague: And now,this is an opportunity for the council to ask any questions to any other TRC
members, any other partners because once we're once we're done with questioning here,
then,you all won't be able to come up and respond during the public comment. Of
course,the council could still continue to ask questions when we deliberate. So I wanted
to just make sure that,um,the councilors know now is the time to ask any questions to
our presenters today and our commissioners.
Alter: I'm gonna leap right in. Um, so one of the things I'm curious about, and I've- I've heard
some,but I would like to know,what role do you as the TRC envision yourselves taking
in?Er,you know,the contracts,they have to be,you know,they're very out there and this
person and that party and this,that. What is the TRC going to-what roles are you going
[OVERLAPPING] to play?
Dillard: As commissioners?
Alter: Yes.
Dillard: Awesome. So I will speak on- on my behalf and then I'll have maybe some other
commissioners that might have a different viewpoint. The-the beautiful thing about this
proposal is that it could be anything,but the one thing I do know is that we are gonna be
very involved. We can't do anything until we have a budget to move forward. As many
other commissioners have said we have people reaching out to us weekly, asking if we
can help them out,but we can't move forward until we have a budget so that we can
discuss the-the correct protocols, so that we're not putting anyone in danger of
defamation or liable, so that we can make sure that we're not re-harming anyone,um,re-
traumatizing anyone. But as I can say,we are committed to be-being a part of this
process wholeheartedly. We just need the experts to be here for us. Is any fellow
commissioners like to also chime in?
Marritt: Lauren Merritt, again,Vice Chair. I see th-the TRC commission or TRC being two
different things because right now we need to, like I said, create this model, work with
the facilitators to figure out how we won't allow people to speak their truth, do the
reconciliation, and figure out how to close the gap between the -the cause of the injustice,
whatever else, and the people who are the- considered the victims. So we are going to be
working with the facilitators and the community to figure out what this pro-model is
gonna look like. Once something is hopefully in place I think they're moving along, I
mean,the commission is probably going to change. I don't know if we're going to end up
having proposing to the city to hire somebody to be that contact with the model or
whatever else and for the city or hopefully, if things are going well,you don't need the
commission because that's- if we're not having an injustice,that's,you know,kind of the
goal. Obviously, it's not maybe the most realistic,but once we get the platform,then
we're gonna look to see wh-what is the need for the city for us. What is the need for the
community for us? That we can't necessarily see that picture is until we have the model.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 45
But- so it's going to be fluid. And we're going to take advice for the city council, advice
from the community, advice from the facilitators, and figure out what will be the best
role,the most effective role the TRC can be for the city and the community.
Teague: Thank you. And wh-what I will say is,um, because we wanna make sure that we allow
time for the community to speak, as well as the council dil- deliberate,but please go
forward.
Nobiss: Yeah. I just wanted to say that,you know, I think that the Council-the City Council
should know like what we're supposed to do right. Because we were charged with the
task and we'd like to carry that task out that,you know,was set in front of us in the fust
place. So that's what we're here to do. We are leaders in our communities. We are
touchstones. We are people that understand what's going on based upon living and
working and being in our communities because we are,you know,Black and Indigenous
and Latino and Latina and Asian-American because we are all those people. And so we
are here to represent,you know,those communities and we're here to,um,move the
process forward. And as that process unfolds,you know, like yes, again, like it might you
know, change. But right now,we-we are those people that understand best what other
people need,um, our communities are looking-what our communities need to get-to
heal. I was part of truth and reconciliation process in Canada. I'm fust Nations,my
whole family was part of the residential school system and it changed our lives. And so
I've know firsthand like how healing this can be and what it can do to-to make change-
positive change. So I- I can say that very positively that this will do a lot of good in the
community.
Teague: Thank you. I wanted to just have- oh, sorry,please.
Johnson: I'll keep it short and sweet. Things cost money. We all know this. And we have a job to
do. If we get the proper funds,we can do it. This is something that's new. We aren't
expected to know everything, so we got the right people to help us out with it. There is-
this is only po- a positive,that's it. This can only grow to become something better,but
we have to actually get to start it and actually do it. That's the only way for that to
actually happen. There's-there's-there's growing pains when it comes on everything. But
we're a strong enough city. I think we-we were fully capable of it. So I- I just hope that
we can make the right decisions and we're not going to please everybody. That's not what
this is about. This is about taking care of a job and getting a job done. And that's-that's
all I'm about right now. I'm just ready to go. I say we get this done once things start
rolling through,you know. We'll make moves,we will make mistakes,but then we'll fix
them. And that's,that's life,that's- that's-that's living. So I hope that we can do better.
Teague: Thank you.
Johnson: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 46
Teague: I wanted to have Chair Chastity come up. I have some questions for you. So I know that
we had a conversation. Um, I don't know,was it yesterday or Sunday? I have no idea .
Dillard: Yeah.
Teague: But one of the- during our conversation,there was questions about I have brought up
because someone had contacted me saying that there was folks one in a comment shut
down the TRC and you heard that. And what I told you during that time is that there's a
lot I've heard from a lot of people in the community and no one was talking about
shutting down the TRC. So I wanted to just-because I'm hearing a little bit from the TRC
commissioners because you heard that, do-were any of that share with the individuals?
Because there's a lot of hurt that I hear going on from things in the past.
Dillard: Just so I understand,you're asking me if I communicated what our conversation was
with the rest of the TRC?
Teague: Yes.
Dillard: Of course I did.
Teague: Okay.
Dillard: I absolutely shared all conversations I've had with all councihnembers because we want
to be open and make sure that everyone knows what's going on. I believe that my
passionate colleagues,my commissioners,members, are reflecting on the hurt that
they've-they've experienced on their own. I can't stop them from talking about how they
feel.
Teague: Sure. Sure. I'll deliberate a little more on a lot of things that's going on here,but I at least
wanted to just set the stage that what I've been hearing from a lot of people is they-they
want to engage with the with the TRC in this process. Can you tell us what are some of
the things that you all have done to reach out to people that are in this room. When the
commission-when the council voted in- on September of 2021,there was a directive that
they gave and it was really the majority that didn't-you know,that- it didn't pass. And it
was to engage the community. And I want maybe if you can address that briefly. On how
you all have engaged the community. And I know that your desire because I heard it in a
lot of your meetings,that you all really-have wanted to have public input.
Dillard: Right. Of course. Forgive me if I'm forgetting exact dates. But after that disappointment
for us in 2021 of a couple of us did go out and reach out to a local group and had
conversations with them not once but twice,maybe three times. I do-Like I said,when I
spoke- fust spoke we don't always see eye-to-eye because everyone has their own beliefs
and passions on how we can move forward,which is okay. We've also individually
engaged with other parts of the community. I worked for a local non-profit and I've
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 47
talked to the people in my own non-profits and people in my- in those communities just
talking to them about how they would like to be engaged. I mean,there was a situation
where our entire group decided that we wanted to create a list of connections, of people
we wanted to connect with over the next year. I believe that was December of 2021 and
then that's when we started jumping into another phase of how we can recreate this
facilitation- facilitator projects.
Teague: And were those people on that list contacted?
Dillard: Yes, of course. Yes.
Teague: Okay.
Dillard: So we all came together and we said that we reached out and those people-those-the
list,um, some of my commissioners might need to remind me how many it was, at least
10-15 local entities that said that they would be happy to work with us once we figure out
what are our proposed budget is going to be,what our plans are gonna be moving
forward. So we're just been waiting until we can get the budget passed so that we can
move forward in that way.
Teague: And then the last thing I'll ask because I know we probably need to get moving to the
next phase is,um,we know that there has been a lot of tur-turmoil,right? Over the-
Dillard: Yes.
Teague: But what I will say as with the last term, you know,um, challenge,um, I got a sense
from a lot of individuals that I've talked to that there was a- a bit of reconciliation starting
and a healing starting,people were talking to each other. As I see it,people have been
very calm. And what I hear now is people that I've talked to directly that they want to
engage with the public. So- I mean,with the TRC members of the public. The-they want
to engage. And so I feel like we're at a different time. Whereas you all- as you mentioned,
you-you wanted to reach out to the community,but maybe during those times it was so
much turmoil and things happening that it wasn't successful. My question is, since the
last turmoil where things have kind of I would say turned around for good for the
community lines of communication,has there been any outreach directly to some of those
people that were there?And,you know,when the council voted that your last proposal
down,has there been any contact to explain you-your budget proposal?
Dillard: To explain the budget proposal?
Teague: Or- or how they can be involved.
Dillard: Um, I mean, after-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 48
Teague: Since the last turmoil.
Dillard: Since the last turmoil which happened last August,um, and was quite the whirlwind,
might I add we engaged with the community involved and ask them to participate in
some circles with us. I know that that did not happen. We did our own circles because
we're about a restorative justice practice. And then when we finally got presented the-the
contracts and the proposal in December and January we have not fully reached- actually,
no,that's not true. We have talked to a couple of community members,um, in April about
when they came forward to us about what we had already agreed to-
Teague: Okay.
Dillard: - in January.
Teague: All right. All right. If you have a comment, sure. Thank you for your- for your
comment.
Dillard: Okay.
Teague: All right. Yeah.
Treore: Just have a follow-up comment to that. While I was still on the commission there is
actually far more outreach than that done. So me,myself,personally, I've actually had
multiple members of the community ask me about financial education programs, for
example, so I've had a few friends of mine that I've been talking to you about this for
quite some time. Actually started a podcast and newsletter around it,but again,you
know, TRC stuff, people coming in,bogging stuff down,you know,you can only do so
much when you also got a full-time job. You got no staff helping you out with this stuff.
So unfortunately,that was rough. But when it comes to school outreach I've actually
volunteered for like week-long summer camps, for example, actually volunteering for
another camp next week on Monday here at Merge, designed to actually teaching kids
about business startups,things like that. So that's been interesting. Um,the last few
weeks I've been going to a lot of the local track meets. Actually part of why my voice is a
little weird is I was at Drake Stadium last Saturday cheering on the city high four by 100.
That was great.You know,ran-ran there as well. Uh,just wish I could have actually been
coaching them,but unfortunately,you know, some of that outreach was stifled again by
TRC budget getting nexed,not having staff to help out, so me not having that extra time.
So there's a lot of outreach that's been done. That's just,you know, a little bit of the
outreach I personally have,but-
Teague: Thank you. Thank you. All right. We're going to let- are there other questions?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 49
Harmsen: I- I do have it. I want to do real a conversation though. I would love to revisit the issue
about that was brought up in the city memo,but I've had a chance to talk about some of-
some of you all about the issues of liability for things like libel and slander. And some of
you had the chance to talk to. I was looking at stuff to make sure everybody has the full
contexts. One of the reasons I'm very interested in that is because in my previous life, I
spent over a decade as a journalist, as a reporter and as a news director. And so drawing
from that experience where the daily you had to kind of understand how those laws
worked,where the boundaries were,where the defenses were and also there's some
differences,right?Because that was a private enterprise sort of thing versus the city
commission. So not- I'm bringing this up purely as a how do we make this work? Is it
possible to make this work kind of a question,not a I think this is already like decided no
kind of question,but I do think it's- it's- it's- it's a- it's an important thing and Be.
Oraiz: Yeah. Hi. Actually, I was wondering,um, if Eduardo from Think Piece is online. Is that
possible to pull somebody in from online?
Teague: Sure.
Oraiz: Thank you.
Teague: Welcome,Eduardo.
Gonzalez: Thank you,Mayor Teague. Thank you, everyone. I have been following the
conversation.
Harmsen: Thank you,Eduardo. Thank you by the way for that email,Eduardo.
Gonzalez: Oh,yes, of course. Well, as you know, it has been a few years following the
conversation in Iowa City. Sometimes with this instrument soon, sometimes in presence.
And this issue,the question of exposure to libel for a TRC is something that emerges
from time to time not just in the case of Iowa City,but in all those commissions that I
know. The reason is that a truth commission is already different animal from the kinds of
organizations that we have created in the past. It is not a court of law. So the allegations
determining a truth commission do not carry the authority that would have, for example, ,
concrete indictment in front of a prosecutor. It is also not just a civil society organization,
it's not just, you know, a place, company that is exercising its right to inquiry on
something. It is something else, it is something different. It has been established by the
city council. It is normally established via regular authority but it is composed by
members of the public. And so what would happen in a TRC is that people will come to
talk about the earrings that leave traumatic imprint in their lives. So, for example, finding
instances of discrimination having an automatic interaction with,um, a public servant
that the person believes has to do with racial discrimination and so on. Um, so is it likely
that the conversations in the TRC and the testimonies in the TRC are going to be tough,
are going to be harsh, are going to be emotional?Absolutely. That is going to happen.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 50
Does that mean that they are going to legalize that they are going to defame persons?No,
that's not the case. The reason why is because the TRC should not add in a completely
spontaneous manner. I will think that TRC is just open their materials for anyone to come
and and expose probably events that were in cranial automatic without any kind of
preparation. On the commentary, I think that when the commissioner organizes its
hearings, it should fust of all do a careful selection of the cases and situations that are
more illustrative of patterns of racism, of patterns of injustice are the ones to address. It
should work well in advance with a person who will present testimony to ensure that
these persons understand the context of a truth commission,that they are psychologically
prepared to participate. And that they understand, of course,what are the rules,the
parameters,the possible limitations in any public intervention of this kind. I myself I've
participated in a number of truth commissions. I personally organized public hearings of
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of my country,Peru. And in the case of Peru,
we advised about 200 individuals who participate in public hearings that since the
commission was not a permanent institution and the commission was not a court of law,
right. There were of course,parameters and limitations on what we advise them to do.
We advise them not to mention names because that would indeed possibly expose them
to,to-to judicial repercussions. And for the most part they follow the advice. In some
cases though,the inauguration,the names of the persons they believe had committed acts
of torture, executions. I mean anything about the country or having internal conflict with
69,000 people killed. So some of the weaknesses that came to this stand actually we
mentioned. Generals, colonels,ministers,presidents, and so on. But we were talking
about issues of such historical importance for our country. Issues that were so notorious
in our history that we-we have a single case of powerful person feeling himself or herself
agreed and bringing [inaudible] against a witness to the truth commission. That never
happened. I think it has to do with the fact that the commission,uh worked with the-with
this is inaugural to organize presentations of their experiences that were constructive.
That were-were substantiated. In fact,many of the cases that came before the Public
Hearing ended up eventually,um, as indictments against very powerful persons in the
country. In your case,this is a protocol notion not of a country scale is commission in a
smaller community. The situations that it confirms are not an internal armed conflict like
my country,but are really serious issues. Anyway, and very meaningful issues anyway.
And we're not even at the point of getting public hearing and public testimony from
persons aggrieved in the public, and you can still see already the passion the pain the
difficulties within the commissioners themselves. So precisely because this commissions
know how difficult it has been. I trust them to carry out a careful process for hearings for
testimony so that neither they nor the CP nor the particularly the survivors themselves are
going to be exposed to any kind of legal jeopardy.
Harmsen: Thank you-thank you for that. And just to be clear,um, in-to-to- to my core,those
are stories I think are important. And- and want to hear them come out. Just don't want to
give a bad actor an opportunity to do something that would be cashing in. So example,
John Doe is a- is a horrible racist landlord and somebody comes forward in his-process
like this and says,John Doe is a horrible racist landlord. And- and I believe that anybody
that's like that should be held accountable. But if we can't,you know,prove that,that's
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 51
when it gets into the libel area. And so that's- so I would hate for John Doe who is a bad
actor to walk away with a,you know, see the city has deep pockets,walk away with the
paycheck. Eduardo what I hear you saying is- and this is actually one of the things in our
discussions I've had with a couple of the TRC members and some of the partners is,um,
whether or not you can,because you want people to come up and give their authentic, if
this process is to work as described,people should be able to come up and give their
authentic,um,their story and be able to talk about their trauma. And so one of the
questions that I had had was can you tell somebody who is relaying their trauma and
wants to do so honestly to what they can and can't say. And what I hear you saying is that
it's actually within a very narrow parameter such as don't mention names is something
that as part of this process that's acceptable to do to somebody who's coming forward,
um,you know, and so- so that gets a little bit to that you know, in some of the other stuff
too,you know. And that's important because I- I noticed too, in- in some of the learning
I've done in this other places there have been immunity set up to protect against this kind
of thing. We don't have that luxury. Now, again, I think getting the stories is really
important. I just wanna make sure we do so in a way that we're not opening up and letting
a bad actor profit or- or derail this process or- or something like that or have that become
what people remember not the fact that there are,you know stories that would come out
from members of the community that are important. So- so everybody knows that my
motivation for that is- is not that I want to stop those stories I just want to make sure that
we're not opening ourselves up to liability.
Gonzalas: If I may thank you so much for- for that observation. I think this is-you have hit the
nail on the head. Yes of course,the commissioner should be protect against this kind of
bad actors or frivolous action. One,way commissioners can bring this in the past in- in a
comparative experience is that they need to have a certain basic protections for due
process, even if they are not a judicial institution. So if you have a place where people
who make allegations about e.g. this kind of mistreatment and, and abuse. The main point
that the commission should do is to prepare in advance before they-they air their story,
and contact the persons against which any adverse mention is relieved. So that this
persons have the opportunity to respond. Um,this is why for example,we in the Peruvian
Truth Commission, gain also the on opportunity to generals to ministers to come before
the Commission and clarify any indication that they, institution in which they had been
adversely motioned. Most of commissions that I know have done that, in fact anomaly
important protection is that when the commission writes its final report summarizing it's
findings. It should also reach out to persons or institutions that are being adversely
motion to receive any kind of answering response and it should be fair in the treatment of
those responses. The whole thing is in a person have an authentic, solid, effective
testimony without mentioning names? I think yes. And the reason is because that from
experience of recounting trauma,recounting the episodes that had been challenging in
real life. A person goes through different phases. And similar elements form the
experience of trauma and form the narrative. How do you feel,what were the
consequences in your life,what events,how did you experience the hearings, et cetera?
Not all of them have to do necessarily with the person,the institution,that committed the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 52
harm. I've assumed- I think there are forums that, can be [inaudible] of course of the
person who is speaking to [inaudible] their story.
Teague: Eduardo-Eduardo. I think that question has been answered. I'm gonna say thank you for
your response.
Gonzalas: Thank you.
Harmsen: Thank you very much,Eduardo. I appreciate that.
Gonzalas: Thank you so much to you.
Teague: Yep, and I'm gonna have you respond and then I'm gonna ask the councilors if they can
hold off on questions because we can still ask the, any further questions,but I wanna get
the republic up and speak.
Merritt: Yes. This is Lauren Merritt again. One of the things I express actually as a commissioner
in the meeting was that very thing because I have- I have a legal background and also
working you know,with um,municipalities and knowing about-you don't know what
someone's gonna say, and once it's said you can't unhear it. And one of the things that-
the plan was trying to figure out how are we going to get the truths. I get the messages
from the-the people,but also knowing that certain things spoken are public and public
record. And one of the things we're trying to formulate is what is the best way that we can
get this information, also realizing that the TRC is actually- it's an arm of the city. That
we have to take that into consideration. So that is already something that's been brought
up and will be taken into consideration when we formulate how to get this and get it out
while still thinking about the-the liability,risks, that kind of thing for the city.
Harmsen: Thank you.
Teague: All right,thank you. I wanna get a show of hands and I know some individuals have
stepped out of the room that wants to be on this agenda,um, or maybe-may want to
make comment,but I wanna get a show of hands on everyone in the room that wants to
make a comment because we're gonna be opening up the public comment. So I see two
online. I think we can- I think we can do three minutes and just know that if I felt like
we're getting more people jumping in, I may have to drop down the minutes.All right. So
I'm going to just ask that people sign in,there is a-um,yep. And if you can be-Yep.
There's a sign-in stickers for individuals where you can have that ready and you can drop
it in the box when you come. Although there is a sign-in sheet at the podium and so I'm
gonna go online fust. Eloise-Eloisa, welcome.
Roach: Hello. Um,my name is Eloisa Roach. I am a citizen of the Shawnee tribe, and I've lived
in Iowa City,um, for six years now. Um, I wanted to talk about um,this specifically as
an indigenous community member. I think the,um,the part of the budget that's
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 53
specifically contracts indigenous consultants is incredibly important and I really want the
council to pass it. Um, the indigenous people have like a specific knowledge-base,
specifically these consultants that needs to be represented in our community. And,um,
while I understand that these people are not members of the Iowa City community,they
don't live here,they are members of the state of Iowa and their tribes have historic
connections to this land. So I think they count as a local member of this community and I
think it's really important that we understand that the practices that they are using of
talking circles and the reconciliation process is representative of,um,practices that are
native to the lands that we are on right now. And it's important that we have indigenous
representation in the reconciliation process,um, and we can't get that just from Iowa City
because Iowa City is not a good place to be for- as an indigenous person right now. And
through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and these native consultants, aid is
going to get better for us,um, as a youth and a community member, I've seen how
important is that the TRC continue to do their work. Um,when me and a few other
Native youth um, one of which being child expressed that we had experienced racism,
um, from our school district and our communities,the TRC provided support in our
conversations with the school board and the superintendent. That was really important to
me because It's difficult to articulate your opinions when you don't have adults and
people who know what they're doing surround you. Um, I'd also like to say that the state
of Iowa is becoming an increasingly difficult place to live in,um, as a native person and
just like a marginalized person in general. So I think it's necessary that you as a council
support the commission in their efforts to continue to work and provide support and data
for historically marginalized communities in Iowa City, um, and I hope that you approve
this budget in its totality, um. Thank you Mayor.
Teague: Thank you. And I'll ask those that are present,just feel free to line up in the middle. And
if you're remaining seated,just raise your hand and I'll call you up whenever. Um,but
yeah, if people can line up in the middle that wanna speak and for those that wanna
remain seated,just raise your hand and I can call you up,but welcome. Please state your
name and the city you're from.
Sargeant: My name is Tracy Jon Sargent from Iowa City. I wasn't actually going to speak,but
I've been inspired or motivated to just say a few words. Um, some of you know that I'm
founder and executive director of a non-profit here in town, and I understand that the
work is hard. Um,my blood pressure has been at like 120 since this whole thing started.
And so I can appreciate how stressful it must be to do the work that the TRC is doing. I
can tell you as an individual that self identifies as a community advocate and somebody
that does work that's focused on racial equity and social justice, I've never been
approached by anybody in the TRC and that bothers me, it's a little disconcerting. I'm not
saying that I'm important. I'm not saying that I need to be involved,but it does seem a
little strange to be a black man in this town doing the work that I do and do not be
approached by anyone and I've heard repeatedly that you didn't come to the meetings.
You can come to the meetings and I think that's a dangerous perspective to have that you
expect everyone to come to you. As a commission you need to get out into the
community and do things. Uh, I'll end with saying that for the last four days, last week,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 54
Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, and Saturday I had an opportunity to be in Minneapolis
and I attended the national forum for black public administrators. And while I was there,
I had an opportunity to meet Dr. Logg Jones,who's the director of Human Rights for
Greensboro,North Carolina and I very specifically asked her about their project for the
TRC and I wanted to get her input on what worked,what didn't work,what they wish
they had done differently. Um, and I have a meeting with her later this week to get as
many of the gory details if she's willing to share. That was an amazing opportunity for me
and it's one that I decided to incur that personal expense to go there so that I had an
opportunity to network with other people that are public administrators that look like me.
They look like you and they're doing the same work that we're trying to accomplish here.
And so I would encourage us to reach out to neighboring communities that have already
started this work to understand what they've done to better get some understanding in
terms of what would work and doesn't work so that we can avoid some of those same
pitfalls. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. And I'll will go on line to Ryan. Welcome,Ryan. I will go in-person. Ryan
put their hand down. So,um,people can line up. I know that I'm Mrs. Kohl Milton hand
was up so we'll go to her next,but we'll go here. Welcome.
Salih: Hi. Thank you so much for this great opportunity. My name is Simona Salih and I am
originally from Romania, and my kids are half Sudanese,um, and I am an active member
of the community. And I'm here today to tell you that I heard about TRC just a few days
ago. So,um, I'm so, um, I'm so grateful to see that people really care about our city and
they have so much passion but what I'm here today is that I want you- I want you to ask
you,um,um,to not approve the budget until everybody hears about it. Because if I didn't
hear about it, imagine our community because I am sure I'm,100% sure there are many,
many members of our community they -they don't know about it. And I- I see that
everybody and I'm sure,um, even the TRC,probably they have good intention,but one of
the things that they are not doing is reaching to everybody. So,um, I would, um,really
appreciate it if you are you know just-just give us a little bit more time so we spread the
word and,um,you just go from there because I- I am sure that,um,we all want to have a
great impact on our city. And thank you so much for this opportunity.
Teague: you. I'm gonna go to Ryan online and then to Mrs. Coleman in person. Because I know
that I saw your hand. So Ryan online.
Spurgetis: Yes. Thank you very much. My name is Ryan Spurgetis Iowa City resident. I'm
speaking to voice support for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And I encourage
the council to vote and supportive than continuing their work by supporting this proposal.
It's been really moving to hear from commissioners and many community members
tonight to hear the work that has already been done in the space they provided. And I
think we're hearing some of what is possible from this being meaningfully supported.
And I do think that the city should provide that support. As has been spoken to tonight
repeatedly on and off this topic, issues of racism and the carceral system. Issues of racism
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 55
in the access to services and supports. These and we're continuing this community and I
think this should make it clear that the work remains relevant. The TRC has been tasked
with the mission to tell the truths and to aid in the work to seriously address what can be
addressed locally. And again,they should continue to be supported in that work. Thank
you.
Teague: Thank you. Mrs. Coleman. Welcome. Please state your name and city you're from.
Coleman: My name is Marianne Coleman and I am from Iowa City. I came to Iowa City when I
was 23 years old. Last week, I turned 80. During the time that I was here, I served as
executive director of equity for the Iowa City School District. I also served as a federal
compliance officer for all the schools in this- in this community for 40 years. So I am
familiar with many of the stories that I heard tonight. But what my problem is, is not the
TRC, it is civility. And I believe that if we are going to be successful,the TRC should
hear the real truth before the reconciliation. Because the truth is, if you don't know how
to approach people, I was approached here already tonight is giving me cause a pause
about how I could trust the goal and see them. I have kids here, I have grand-kids here.
So my feeling is that we have worked in Iowa City is not like we've been sitting back on
our hands blowing smoke. It's a process. It changes every time a generation changes, is
like the school district. Every time I had new administrators come in, I had to reteach. I
had to let them know what our rules were and how we pross-processed whatever
happened in our district. We had complaints,we had a complaint procedure. One of the
ways to deal with that is to write that complaint procedure down and let people know that
if you commit to filling this complaint,we will commit to looking into it,to investigating
it. I'm just saying there a lot of people around here who have done a lot of work. I mean,
my hair didn't get this gray just being in Iowa City,my hair got gray because we had to
fight too,we had to make sure that we were in place. Tonight I got told that I had a,
because I'm a member of a bad voice,voices that I had hurt somebody. Well,that's pretty
much slander because I have I don't- I didn't even know the lady. So I'm just saying that
before you move forward,there's some things I think should be in place. I think fust of
all,there should be some rules. You guys have ethics rules. We have ethics rules as
administrators. People should be ethical even if they don't work for an organization. But
the ethic rules that you have,these are agents of the city council. These agents of the city
council can cause you some difficulties if you don't put in place things that they need to
be aware of that would harm your organization. So I'm not against truth and
reconciliation. Anybody who knows me?Bruce was in high school.
Teague: Thank you. Thank you
Colman: Mayor. Mayor
Teague: Thank you. We- [OVERLAPPING]
Coleman: I'm finished. [OVERLAPPING]
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 56
Teague: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anybody else please step in the middle. Welcome.
Please come. And others can feel free to line up as well.
Estefa: And this,yes. No-no, it's okay. Um,hello everybody. My name is Marcella Este. I am the
president and board member of the Center for Public Justice. And as well, I've been a
leader for the Latino community. Um, as a community leader, I am a firm believer that it
is essential for our voices to be heard under the TRC. Represent an important opportunity
for our community to share their stories and experiences. I understand that the TRC is in
the process of healing someone to conduct interview for the commission. And I would
like to express my belief that it is crucial that this interviewer shall be someone we
choose from community. It is essential that they interviewer understand the nuances and
complexities of our culture and can relate to the experiences of those being interviewed.
It is only through his level of understanding that we can help to build the trust necessary
for our community to engage fully with the commission. And it's good. I encourage the
council to give us more time to talk with TRC committee so we could discuss this further.
Thank you very much.
Teague: Thank you. Yes. Please step up. Welcome.
Sterling: Uh, hello again. David Sterling from Iowa City. Um, so what I've been hearing from the
councilors for the past three years is that they've been working borderline overtime hours
on top of their day jobs and personal lives, often at the expense of their personal lives.
Um, it's clear that they have a deep passion for healing in the community that they would
put in that kind of time. I'm a parent myself, and I struggle to put in more than full-time
hours for my child sometimes. Uh,the amount of effort put in just to heal our community
and create this commission, I think has been astounding. Um,the facilitator that we just
heard from earlier demonstrated plethora of experience and knowledge and ability to
answer every single question I have seen a city councilor ask about this commission's
potential for liability, for success, for action. This facilitator can answer all those
questions. And they've been asked for three years and answered for three years. There's
no excuse to perpetuate this constant use of these people's valuable time that they have
donated so much about the expense of their youth in their personal lives. Uh,this
commission gives the community a means of resolving issues with civility publicly
without the need to just point fingers at people and shame them. But a means to discuss
things in front of others,holding themselves accountable to their community. I have seen
the opponents of this commission harass and demean its commissioners,these
hardworking people. I've seen them screamed at and yelled at, attacked,not just with
words but with gesturing,with a violent attitude even at city council meetings. I've heard
this happen on camera recordings of city council meetings. I just saw it earlier when I
see-when a commissioner tried to inform someone that it was not their turn to speak yet
until public comment and they were given a- a- almost violent,hostile attitude
immediately drawing battle lines. I don't know what they stand to gain from this
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 57
commission not existing,but I know that the racist landlord class benefits the most from
this community being divided. And I believe this is the best means for the community to
find a uniting narrative and begin healing. Thank you very much.
Teague: Thank you. And please step forward and give us your name and city you're from.
Hamad: Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ma- Ma- Maiasa Hamed and I'm a- a resident
of Iowa City.
Teague: Welcome.
Hamad: My-my-my name is Maiasa Hamed and my colleagues and I who-who had to leave be-
because of time are a- a part of the Su- of- are a part of the Sudanese youth group in- in
Iowa City. As- as a youth, obviously, I'm very engaged in- in my community and I know
what's happening in my I- Iowa City. I learned about TRC only recently and if I a youth
who-who-who-who didn't know ab- ab- about TRC to only recently, do you think my
parents or the majority of the- of the population here in Iowa City knows about it?Before
the budget-before the budget is- is approved,the-the-the-the TRC commissions should
reach out to the community and get to know them fust. We could come to a consensus
on- on how to use a budget later on. Just pause and don't approve anything yet. Thank
you.
Teague: Thank you. And I'm going to welcome the next person up. Please state your name and
city you're from.
Mills: Hi, again. My name is Daniel Mills from North Liberty. So my comment on the TRC
builds on the comments that I've made to this council regarding the urgent need to defund
the Iowa City Police Department as a matter of racial justice. This council should listen to
the hard and important work the TRC has already done. Ask yourselves how much video
of TRC testimony have you watched. Have you done as much as you can to support their
work? I think the answer is clear that the TRC needs more direct support from this
council. I urge you to allocate the money the TRC is asking for to bring in facilitators to
do their work of truth-seeking, listening to the community, and engaging in restorative
practice. The harms experienced by BIPOC folks in our community are many and the
injustices run deep. Help the TRC continue their work of listening to the pain and trauma
our neighbors are dealing with at the hands of the white supremacist status quo, including
the policing and punishment bureaucracy. The TRC is asking for $400,000,I know where
you can get at least 1.6 million. The opponents of this proposal set an impossible
standard. They want to delay. This work has already been going on for three years. If you
haven't gotten involved yet, ask yourself what's holding you back. The city attorney's
presentation focused on how city staff is not fully trained on the work TRC is doing. This
illustrates just how important this work is. The work is more important knowing that the
city staff need to desperately be engaged in this process. His comments focused on the
status quo,repairing past and ongoing harms requires us to think beyond the comforting
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 58
boxes of white supremacy that we are in. Support the TRC, give them the money they're
asking for. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. And I'll ask the next person to step forward and please give your name and
city you're from. Thank you.
Currin: Good evening. My name is Tony Currin and I'm a resident of Iowa City and a member of
the Black Voices Project, and I will be their representative this evening. And I will read
prepared remarks that you all received. Um,the following statement reflects the views
and the input of our members from the Black Voices Project shared during a discussion at
our April meeting,um,to the Iowa City- City Council from Black Voices Project,May
1st, 2023. We last addressed this-the council on the topic of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission in May of 2022. At that time, we raised three primary concerns issues. Uh,
one, 18 months after the commission was created, it still had not engaged in any of the
work it was charged to do,namely fact-finding,truth-telling, and reconciliation. Two,
lack of direction from City Council led to significant misunderstanding about the
available funds. Three,the Commission proposed to use city funding to hire an out-of-
state,um, firm lacking the kind of community roots needed to earn the trust of those
whose truths you seek. Today, a full year later,this community still has not seen any fact-
finding,truth-telling, or reconciliation. A budget is before you this evening that proposes
to pay an out-of-state facilitator more than $140,000 over the next seven months. For this
money,the city will receive a job description for a community researcher. Another part of
the budget and contract stipulates the city staff will take on the leadership of truth
gathering and restorative practice. Staff are not currently trained to do so and is not
included in the budget of contracts before you this evening. What we're asking you to do
is not approve this budget tonight. We are grateful to our black community members who
have attempted to navigate your ambiguous charge while serving on the commission.
And I thank you very much.
Teague: Thank you. And I'll ask the next person to come forth. Thank you and welcome.
Elshafie: Hello.
Teague: Hello.
Elshafie: My name is Aisha Elshafie from this great Iowa City. Er, I just heard about this
organization like two or three days ago and thank you for everybody, er, support and
stand behind this good, strong community. Um, I don't want to say please don't approve
the budget,but I want to say please delay the decision tonight because I- I thought I was-
or I am one of the active community in my- act- active member in my community but I
never heard about it, although they said it's running for three years since 2020 till today.
Please delay this decision for tonight. Let us tell more, er, of our community member to
know about this great organization and thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 59
Teague: Thank you. I'll have you step forward. Welcome. Please state your name and city.
Salih: Hi Councilor,Mayors and city staff. Of course. How are you doing?Okay. My name is
Mazahir Salih. I'm the executive director of the Center for Worker Justice. I want to start
by saying,thank you for all the commissioners who are in the room for the great work
you do for your time. We really, er, like value this. And also I want to say, TRC this is a
new-new unique opportunity for Iowa City. How many, like, cities have TRC?Few. And
Iowa City like one of the cities that in the Midwest and they have this TRC, this is huge.
Yeah,we should be proud of having just the TRC by itself. You know we are not against
the TRC. I'm personally not against,that's something that I-things I was part of it when it
happened and the-the only thing is when I- I rejected the budget before for for Kearns &
West and my reasoning was really we need-the-there is a division in the community
and, for the black community, and we need people to reach out to the community. Since
then, I don t think that-maybe I hear that they reach out to some people but like for
example Chastity said that she met with us. Yeah, I- we are the one who initiated that. I
went there with my other colleague and we just want to talk to them about, don't approve
the budget as the TRC level,not here. Before we come here, I went there to their
meeting. That meeting has been postponed because there is no quorum. After that,we
met with them with few member from different communities and we talked to them about
it again at the Center for Worker Justice and we are the one who reach out. I reach out
today and yesterday to four different organization on this community who are black
immigrants or non immigrants and I ask them if they being reached out by the TRC.
Interestingly,what they said what the TRC is. Okay, if the people who are going to be
telling the truth and the story, for those, like for Kearns & West or for whoever-whoever
going to come and talk to them,they don't know anything about it. How we can build that
trust so I can come confidently and tell you about my story. Kearns &West, another
problem with Kearns &West,they don't-they don't look like us as a community and we
don't trust them. So we need peo-people from this local even in- I don't care even if the
people are not local by the way. Right now, at this moment, I really care about the people
who look like us so we can relate to them and we can tell the truth. Before even we say
it's- like do anything I think we should come together and do this. My time is over. The
last thing I want to say. But please don't approve it. Let us get together-
Teague: Thank you.
Salih: And after that you can approve it. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Thank you. And- er, I- I know that you stated that you resigned from the
TRC but until-
Treore: Yes sir, I would like my three minutes,please.
Teague: Until the council,um,votes on that resignation you're still considered a commissioner.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 60
Treore: Well, I don't think that I am. I resigned. Um,unless you're forcibly keeping me on a
commission.
Teague: Okay.
Treore: Is that what it is?
Teague:No. If you resigned then you resigned.
Treore: Yeah.
Teague: Welcome.
Treore: That's why I said that. Thank you. Um, so I have my three minutes here and you know
the tone before was just really cahn of-you know,just really trying to plead with people,
you know. Just remember who you're talking to,what you're talking about. These are
people within your community,you know. And then unfortunately, I just started hearing
as- some lies that were being told and it was really hurt because again,these are people
you're talking about. When you say this didn't happen,that didn't happen,that didn't
happen. I mean, like,my name is my name at the end of the day. And when someone's
going to say,you never reached out to me,you never spoke to me, and I can literally pull
up my phone right here and show the text messages,which I'm going to have to turn in
for public record anyways,you know,with the resignation, it honestly baffles me. And
then when I have more people say that, oh,the TRC never reached out to these groups. I
mean, one of the people that said that-there is a business owner, it's a black woman,that
she was actually getting- essentially bullied out of her business and this was dur- during
the TRC pause. Um,you know, I didn't say a lot about it publicly at that time because I
just figured this doesn't have to be public. I can just work on this behind the scenes. But I
literally went directly to the Center of Worker Justice and accompanied her there and sat
there in that meeting. And not only that, I went to an event that they held and I spoke on
her behalf there because she didn't want to leave her store that day. And then when she
was at court, I went there too. And I also asked this council before all of that. Well-
actually a member of the council, I'm not going to say her name. Doesn't matter anyways,
you know who you are. Uh, I asked you what I should do to help her because she
forwarded me the emails showing that she contacted the council on a specific date and
the council did little to nothing and that I thought that was problematic because the news
is going to contact me and I'm not going to lie to the news and I'm going to say that she
did contact the City Council and they didn't do anything about it, so what can I do to help
her?Um,And I bring that specific example up to say that I think a lot of the blame here
that some of- some people place on the commission is honestly misplaced. It's okay,you
didn't do all of this to reach out,but did you again listen to what I told you earlier?
Summer 2021, I literally slept four-and-a-half hours a night. It's like, I'm really sorry I
didn't get to every single person in the city and I'm sorry if that makes you feel like you
didn't matter as much. Again, I'm taking the blame. It's on me. It's on me because I was
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 61
the chair at the time. But if all it's going to be is,hey,this is a problem,this is a problem,
and I'm not hearing real solutions, I have a problem with that because we are never going
to go anywhere. Every time we come here for this. It's a new thing, It's a new thing, it's a
new thing. Show up to the meeting and tell us then, show up to the meeting and tell him
then, call people on the phone.Numbers are literally public information. Address is
public information.No one reaching out and I- and I have multiple.
Teague: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please step up to the mic. Please step up to the mic,
please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please step up to the nic-mic and
give your name and the city you're from. And I will say, we need to not be clapping.
Especially- I'm speaking specifically to the TRC commissioners. Welcome.
Henry: Good evening. Uh,my name is Diana Henry and I have been a resident of Iowa City
since 1977. I believe the council needs to support the TRC. So many of the BIPOC and
other marginalized community members have been left out of experiencing what it means
to be truly welcome in Iowa City. I hope by supporting the TRC and its consultants as
cited earlier,with an understanding that TRC needs to reach out to all the stakeholders in
a compassionate and professional manner to achieve its goals. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. And I'm going to take a show of hands because I'm going to bring this to a
close. Any other one- anyone that is seated that want to speak?All right. I'm gonna have
you come and then I'm going to have this one this supervisor board to come. And you
want to come? Okay. And then we're going to close the public, er,portion of this.
Welcome.
Nilles: Um,Brian Nilles, um, er, living in the Iowa City area here. Um, ever since hearing about
the TRC and the work that's going on and er- again as other people very rightly put it all
the passion that's behind a project like this. It's very exciting to see. It's not all that
common in the US, and as someone who wants to live in this community in the future, it
would be really awesome to grow with a community that does that. I haven't personally
experienced those things before but it seems like,uh- I guess to use an exact language,
something very cool, something very fulfilling, and a growth filled to be part of Uh, that
being said,we've heard from a lot of different community members here who haven't
been reached out to, or,uh-maybe don't know have enough information to be a part of
the process. But that is, er, like something that, like, facilitators that these consultants,
that is-that is something that they-they bring to this,that is the experience of bringing
people together,the experience of how to make sure to reach out to as many people in as
many communities as possible so that we don't let people fall through the cracks. And I
really urge the council here to approve the budget so that that work,that that process can
happen so that the experts who can come in from both locally and, er, from the state are-
are helping us do that process so that we don't leave people behind. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. And I'll ask the next person to come forth. Yep. Welcome. Please state your
name and city.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 62
Porter: Supervisor Porter. Royceanne Porter. Iowa City, Iowa. You know, I was going to read
something,but I'm just going to state it. When we talking about truth and reconciliation, I
did not onetime came here to put the TRC down. I came to support the TRC. But I'm
looked at because of all that everything that has happened,to me, it seemed like the TRC
won't let it go. I've let it go. When the chair of the TRC call the black voices members
coons,niggers. You want to talk about reconciliation. You want to talk about hurt. If we
don't reconcile within ourselves this whole thing, I don't give a damn who they give them
money to, it's going nowhere.Nowhere. I came here. I invited four of you. The four of
you standing back there, I invited you to black voices. We talked. I never put you down.
We had a friendly conversation. Clif, Mohammed, Chastity, and Eric Harris who is not
here. Until there's some healing within the TRC and our black community, I don't care
how much and who do you give the money to. We're going nowhere. I'm going to stand
here today. My recommendation was to come before you and asks you the City Council
members, TRC and our black community have a town hall. Already, I did have one of the
members of the TRC throw the black people under the bus like we nobody,the black
community. Let's continue to move on. You can't go nowhere without us. We are here,
we're going nowhere. And this is where the hurt is,when we talk about hurt. When you
talk about somebody within your own community calling you coons and niggas,we can't
get along with each other. Yet you want to sit and have some white men come in,pay
them $140,000 from California. We don't know them. We don't trust them. This work,the
indigenous people,the Hispanic people,this work can be everybody that's on that agenda
for today in this community,the work can be done by them. We don't need Kearns and
West to come in here. The money can go to them. Annie Tucker mediation,all this
reconciliation and- and- and- and all the stuff they want to do,that can be done within our
community, amongst ourselves. But fust of all,they got to for- forgive themselves to
move on.
Audience Member: Yes.
Porter: Or we're going nowhere. I ask recommendation for all of us to have a town hall meeting.
Audience Member: Yes.
Porter: Thank you.
Audience Member: Oh,yes Lord.
Teague: And please come forth and state your name and city your firm.
Valesquez: My name is Danny Velasquez I'm from Iowa City. And I've been a resident for the
last three years. Um, I had a written letter here and I'll read a little bit of it,but it's been a
lot of passion going on today. I believe that this council needs to continue to advise
everyone on what we should do next. Uh, I do stand with some of my indigenous
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 63
community here that this is necessary. Um, last year, I was at a school where they were
talking about before where there's some stuff that happened that shouldn't have happened.
Um, and that-that's-that's hurtful. And the indigenous community that we're still being
erased. Um,the indigenous community is a small folks here in Iowa City,yes. Um, and
it's an area that we demanded to be included in the Truth and Reconciliation process. We
are tired of the erasure. The erasure is that main component and the root of the
communities most harmful injustices resulting in continuous genocide. We understand
that the TRC was mobilized in the wake of the George Floyd's horrible death. And we do
not wish to take away from any of those traumas. We do not wish to bring awareness-we
do wish to bring awareness to our own horrific issues. The police brutality that seems to
be invisible. We implore you to look at what happened to Zachary Bear Heels on June
5th, 2017, so you can understand why many of us are here with you and with the black
community. We took to the streets with the black community during 2020. Additionally,
please read about Shyla Wolf, Meskwaki,who was assaulted in front of her children on
March 30th, 2023,by Officer Kyle Howe in Tama, Iowa. And for further information on
that violence,you can go to the collective action will end police violence in indigenous
communities at the Great Plain Action Society's Blog. We felt the pain,the rage,
watching scenes of brutality against our own loved ones. We've understand what the
unique issues within our communities. We also understand that we have common themes.
We have common oppressive systems. We have a purpose and a unified front to provide
the power protection order to give some space of work unique to those issues within our
communities. We understand that division is the foundation of what people call America.
Starting with Manifest Destiny and with the doctrine of discovery. This indoctrination of
division has been forced upon us for 500 years. We have heard the concerns of divisions
coming from the community because of indoctrination. The division is prevalent in most
communities, including our indigenous ones, lateral violence hurts us every time. We are
essentially fighting two wars, one against our oppressors, one against-
Teague: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Our last speaker is coming at this time and
those online,your hand wasn't raised from the beginning. So we're going to be ending
with this. Welcome.
Jordan: I'm Angie Jordan. I'm a South District resident. Um, I wasn't planning on speaking
tonight. I feel like I've shared a lot of my thoughts both publicly and one on ones,um,
with-with council,with TRC mission- commissioners,with folks throughout the
community. And I'm- I'm moved here then this moment because it's going to sound
hokey,but look at all this energy in this room that was created and- and brought into this
cauldron because of the TRC without a budget,with-without consultants. They are able
to garner this-this that's vibrating in us, that's shaking in my hands here now. Imagine
what they could do if unleashed width resources. People. Imagine the spaces they could
go. Imagine this energy multiplied if this budget's approved and they're given that
opportunity. I'm so excited to see if this can keep continuing to expand,to reach those
places that right now they're unable to reach,right? They're not able to. They don't have
all the tools. This is the opportunity for the council tonight to approve something that
gives them those tools, so that we can continue to co-create. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 64
Teague: Thank you. And at this time,we're going to have council deliberation. And thanks to
everyone that spoke tonight. Um, I know that you've put yourself out there to really share
from your heart and your thoughts. So I really appreciate that. Council deliberation.
Teague: Well, I'll start, if no one will jump out there. So again,thank you to the TRC members. I
really appreciate all of your presence being here tonight. Um, and of course,thanks- of
course thanks to our TRC members. Of course,thanks to all the voices in our community
that came out tonight. Um, I- I think because of time I won't be able to go into every
thing. But I'm going to do just a real condensed. Um, so when the Council in 2021 said
no to the budget,the reason they said no to the budget was because the community came
out and said we want to be involved. And the council said,we need to see the community
in this budget. Um, and- and at that meeting,there's a few things that I want to talk about
that took place. Kearns &West, I believe Larry is his name. And I will quote exactly
what he stated. He said the only way for the TRC work to be done to be a success either
way if we're engaged with it or not is if the community defines how the process should
look and participates in that process that they will fully embrace. Our work is in tandem.
We're a conduit for the community to have a process that they need to have and to help
the community create the brave space to hear each other's truths,that reflects a process
for truth,reconciliation. And that's a challenge we-that they've embraced. So I just want
to highlight that they talked about that-that the community defines how that process
should look and the participants in that process that they fully embrace. Also,we have,
um, one of the consultants,which at the time wasn't a consultant that stated, um, at that
same meeting, "And fuse in resources into liters that are already in this community builds
trust, support. It's difficult to bring someone in from the outside, even as much success
that they have. I don't hear a lot of healing. Um, look.I don't hear a lo-uh, I'm sorry. I
don't hear. What I hear is a lot of healing that was going on in the room that night.
Looking for leaders to do the work,we need to talk about healing. I do believe we have
the proclaimed or unproclaimed those closest to the problem that could use the resources
and find that path,that good path that healing road to build,um,that healing process."
So,when I think about Kearns &West,they already differ- in that moment, there was a
lot of hurt expressed in the community. We're still hearing that hurt today. We're still
hearing it. 2021 to now,there has been so many challenges. And I think we check-the
last one was in a- it- it ended about October. And what I saw at that moment was when it
ended the conversations between,you will say the-the-the community individuals that
were having tension,the com-the communication started to happen. People started to
talk. But what-but- and the budget wasn't a part of that conversation,which it wasn't
appropriate. It was more like healing the- starting the healing process, starting the
reconciliation. Just having conversation which had never really happened before. We just
heard the-this side and my side. So then when-when the budget gets to the,you know,
the-the-which I really believe it was a continuation from 2021. When the budget gets to
the commissioners,when they were all finalized,then the community said,we want to-
we're ready to talk,we're-we're-we're ready to be engaged. I know the TRC want the
engagement. You all have done things to try to get some folks engaged. You want the
engagement. That's a part of what I heard from you all. You want-you want the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 65
community engaged. There was a statement that was made,um, speed of-you know,
community led framework moving at the speed of trust,the trust just started to happen
between the community and the TRC members. It just started to happen. What I'm gonna
ask of this council is to defer this decision because the last thing I wanna do is for it to be
front page that this council has not accepted the TRC budget. I don't wanna do that. I
don't wanna do that. I'm gonna ask for a deferment so that the community that is here
today, and the-the- one of the other things that happened is that this council,we have not
taken the responsibility of given direction to our TRC commissioners. That is on us,that
is on me. I am sorry. So at this time, I'm gonna ask,um, and maybe people need to talk
fust,but I mean, I can say a lot, a lot more stuff. And people say why now?People say
why-why are they coming now? Is because all that trauma before they couldn't-there
was no-there was no space for discussion. It was just back-and-forth. There was no space
for discussion. And so- and- and the other thing is, I don't want the TR- this is- I- I want
the TRC members to know that I am not saying that you all have done anything wrong.
That's not what I'm saying. The tension happened. It was- it was moving, it wasn't- it
wasn't the moment. It happened. At this moment the community is saying,we are ready
to engage. That's what you all want. You want the engagement you talked about it is
happening right now. Let's pause, engage with the community, figure it out. They're
ready to engage. That the-what-what we heard from the TRC members and what we
heard from the public. I'll tell you that even myself, over the past few days, I have been
going through a reconciliation process. I've done saying things to people,that it took this
moment for me to share my truth and my frustrations, as well as share my joy that we
have a TRC in our community. So I needed to take that moment as well to vent. And we
saw that here today. I think the venting happened. I think when you all come together that
venting is gonna shift. The space has already been created. It's gonna shift. So I don't
know,but I would like to- I don't know when I make the motion. I don't know if people
talk fust, but-.
Alter: I would like.
Teague: Yeah-yes. All right.
Alter: Um, Yes. Thank you. Um,this has been an extraordinarily,you know,whoever spoke
about blood pressure. I understand. And- and I also was realizing- I was bearing witness
to anguish and to hope and to wanting to move forward. And of- also recognizing that
there's a lot of pain still. For that reason, I feel more compelled to say this is why we need
to pass this. Because I am a firm believer that the work that has been done since October
22 pause by local entities who said,we need to think about this in a different way. And I
will go all the way full circle to the beginning when we talked about this being, it's an
unusual set of contracts. It's an unusual way to put this together. And that would not have
happened. It didn't happen as it was presented or was going to be presented in October
when there was a hierarchical person who was or entity that was for accountability. And
then everyone else was going to do the work. And yet,there was a-there was a vertical
hierarchy through working through this process and coming to an understanding and
bringing people in and educating, I think Kearns &West who has not operated in this
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 66
way before. As well as the strength of exactly what I've heard tonight about the local
community leaders making those changes. We have them. Right? That's how there has
been some shifts in the way in which this entire contract or set of contracts has been
conceived of. I firmly believe when I started off saying about blood pressure and
shakiness,this has been three years of it. And more- and more for the community. Is
decades and decades and decades. And I can't speak to that. I don't have that lived
experience. But what I did witness tonight was in fact- and I wrote it down to say,we
need to reconcile,we need to heal. And it was pure pain. And saying then we can do it
ourselves. There are good reasons to have people who have gone through a process that
non-nobody,no one in this community has gone through before and very few in the
United States have before. To work with experts who already have been educated by the
local community to say,you need to understand how we're gonna function and you have
to be flexible with that. And from what I understand,they've sat- okay down to where the
bottom line is quite literally. Then also to be able to listen to what the community needs
and be able to contribute. Here's how we did this globally. I think that-that expertise at
the very same time I do not want to dismiss and nor am I. List- I am listening to the fact
of this doesn't work if the TRC doesn't show up. And I know that you have been working
and working against headwinds. But you do need to be in the community. You need to do
the reach out. It's not enough just to have the meetings. And I know that individually
people have been having those conversations,but you need to have that approval. Uh,
What am I saying?Why am I looking for a word?You need to have the approval of
council to be able to move forward and say,hello, I am in the TRC and I am here to help
and to go and have that authority. It's one thing when I was not a councilor and I was a
volunteer and I was a community engagement person and I will go out. I didn't have the
authority. That does matter in this process too. And I am not dismissing I know that there
are those who will think that I am. I am not dismissing the very-very valid issues that
have come up. There have been a lot of missteps by council,by some members of the
TRC. There's plenty of fingers to point. But the point is, is everyone in this room, as
Angie said, is looking to heal, is looking to channel energy in a way so that we can all
move forward. I do not see having conversations,which I don't see this as a chronology. I
don't say that you have to have conversations in order to pass the budget,pass the budget
and have the conversations. That's what the work is. So, with due respect to-to and you
and I have had many hours on this,um. There has been so much compelling truth. But
this is where I say that actually, this is what this is for-this is what this process is for, and
this is what movement forward is for. And so I do believe that approving the budget right
now,this is the step that the TRC needs. Otherwise, I don't know how long this is going
to last regardless of whether we pr-we extend this or not. What work can they do? So
thank you for indulging me that long.
Teague: I- I- I know that this isn't totally appropriate,but I just want to make one other comment
that I didn't make. Um,but we heard from one member of the public that said,you know,
they don't trust Kearns &West like,you know,there's groups that don't trust Kearns &
West. And then I heard s- someone from the TRC say that,you know,the groups have
been-we need outsiders to be objected-to be an objective group,not aligned with any
person or group. I have to tell you that when the-when we had that thing about the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 67
Commissioner here in this room, one of the partners came in, Think Peace,um, and
spoke of or had a letter that came to council, as well as spoke to meet one-on-one. It
wasn't about healing process. Well,there was some elements about,you know,r-
restorative justice healing process. But there were some personal direct this is not the way
opinions;how about that? So there is harm done that I think we cannot ignore by the
facilitators that the commissioners have in place, so I don't want that to be missed. That
there is some hur-hurt feelings about the folks that is a part of this process. And- and I
won't say anything else until I can get to a deferral.
Taylor: I've been trying to scribble my thoughts down from what folks are saying, and I- I do
appreciate what the mayor is saying, and also what-what,um,Mayor Pro Tem Alter said,
but- and- and I applaud the commissioners, I came in with an idea in mind, and then
your-your passionate pleas, and they're very convincing for your need to proceed with
this. But then hearing-hearing the hurt that's still out there. And I'm going to get
emotional because, I'll admit I have some very dear friends who were hurt by comments,
and actions that were not appropriate. And as- as I've said,they-they've tried to move on
that, and-beyond that, and I've tried to move beyond that. But it sounds to me as though
there's part of the commission that-that needs to talk about this amongst themselves, and-
and solve those hurt feelings, and also move beyond. And if that would take a deferral for
just a moment, I mean, I'm all- I'm in favor of having this facilitator. And I applaud you
also for looking at the-the healing partners, and the folks that are local Vee, and- and-
and her group, and Annie doing the healing circles. That's community-that's coming
from the community. That's a big part of the community. But speaking of community, I
was concerned by the number of people who said that they had no idea. Uh, I don't know
where they'd been. They had no idea that-that the TRC existed, or still exist, or it was
still trying to exist, and that concerns me. Because that reaching out that you say you've
been doing for the last two-and-a-half,three years, apparently has not happened. I- I- I
pretty certain,um,they didn't say that,but a lot of these folks who said this are part of the
Sudanese community,which I can very easily get a hold of them. I know where they are,
where the majority of them live, and if I have concerns or want to talk to them or call a
meeting, I go over their neighborhood center. I- I know. And- and that should have been
one of the fust places to go,because there are very large portion of the non-white
community he-he-here in Iowa City, and p-your group should have been contacting
them and saying,you know,where should we start?You know,where-what-what can
we do?Uh,that would have been a start. Uh,but I applaud you for what you've done in
the last six months,nine months. It's- it's very commendable. Um,but I'm- I'm- I'm going
to go along with the mayor on- on perhaps deferring, at least for another meeting. I just
saw you folks amongst yourselves can- can,um, solve these issues.
Thomas: Well, I'm going to try to be brief, because this has been a very-very long, and,um,
extended conversation, and I'll just simply say I- I- I'm of the opinion, or of mind that we
do need to approve this. I feel that the,um, the process for it to really work toward
reconciliation needs to start by-by signing the contract, and having the work begin. That
their participation will help resolve these issues that we still see are not fully resolved yet.
But I do feel we need, ah,the-the participants in the team to help with that reconciliation
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 68
among the community members,um, for that to happen. And and we've had deferrals,
we've had pauses on the Commission's part, on the council,you know,there are
numerous pauses along the way. I-really I'm concerned that we would consider another
one now. It seems to me we're at a point to make a decision. I'm impressed with the teams
concept,the-the project summary. Uh, I feel that what divisions we were experiencing
need to be processed through the Truth and Reconciliation process. Um, let's- let's have a
town hall meeting,perhaps that's one of the fust things that we-we need to think about as
part of how we're going to move forward. But let's do it as a part of the process. I really
want it to be folded into the work that we're considering tonight rather than viewing it as
something we are going to differ on, and then come back to later. Le- let's just move
forward. Let's learn from what we can for what's been said tonight. But that's, I don't
know, again,just feeling that we need to approve the contract, and fold into it what we've
been hearing tonight as perhaps the fust steps,um,perhaps their preliminary steps but,
um,part of the process rather than deferral.
Harmsen: So- so many different facets of this. And I'm not even going to attempt to cover all of
them,but a couple of things that jump out at me. And one of those is a thread of the-what
next or how to do this next step?What does this next step look like?And does it need to
be a part of the official contracted phase 1 or something else?Uh, as I understand in
phase 1 looks at going out and it's an educational component, going out and explaining to
the community the next steps in the process.Not all bad. I mean,that's- that's not a bad
thing to do at all. Um, but-but I'm also hearing then actually even just the last few days
reaching out to a variety of friends and people that I know care deeply about these issues
but one thing-uh, and I've- I've noticed this through the years of being involved in
politics and even back when I was covering politics,um,to a certain extent it's easy to
forget that in many ways we're a little bit of outliers. Where we're-we-the time we spend
in this is not necessarily representative of what you think about the majority of your
friends,right?You know, I don't know about you guys,but when I said it was gonna run
for council and many of my friends and family thought,you know,what-why would you
do such a thing?Um,we-we're outliers and that's okay but then what-what happens is
sometimes we get- let me speak for myself. I haven't gotten into that bubble where I
forget. I assume people know stuff that's going on. I forget that there's like that
disconnect and it's not because people don't care. It's not because people don't have the
same values. It's often just because people are busy. And so even as I was reaching out to
people that were,you know,people in this room and they were reaching out to me and
that's all good but also people that care about these issues but are a step removed,right?
Aren't always at these meetings,haven't been in this process. And I was struck by- and I
actually- and again,not doing this with any sort of an agenda here but the TRC still
exists. To explain to a friend with TRC was like that sounds great. We should have that,
and it's like,well, if good news for you because we do and it is a great thing. Um,but my
point being is there's like a disconnect between oftentimes when we think people are
hearing. Even though we're-we're yelling and we feel like we're yelling at the top of the
rooftops and- and what actually is- is going on. There's a lot of noise out there and us
trying to cut through the noise is tough. I don't care if you're trying to sell a car or trying
to make the world a better place. There's just a lot of noise out there. One of the things I
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 69
wonder and I think this is,uh- I wonder if this has to be part of the contract thing. And
what I hear from people saying they don't see themselves in some of the planning that has
happened.Now, I will defend a little bit that a lot of that work was done behind the
scenes and had to be done behind the scenes. That's-there's so much work that had to go
into coming up with this new approach with these four different contracts that are looking
at things in a new way and that's-that's exciting and it's daunting and it's a little bit scary
and it's a lot of potential. Um,Angie said earlier about feeling the energy in the room
because we all care about this stuff very much. And there's- it's just so complicated. What
I'm wondering is if some of that may just be back to the basic principles of just not
necessarily phase 1. Here's what we think needs to happen,but instead here's who we are;
community. Um, and- and I'm gonna throw an idea out there and I- I won't even take
credit. Is- is it coming from me?But I've heard it and I've heard it now from a couple of
different places,unprompted and unconnected. But the idea of just going out into things
like we're coming into summer and we have such a vibrant, active community in the
summer. So this is speaking to that piece,not some of the other very important pieces but
to that piece going out things like the diversity market,the farmer's market having a table.
Hey,we're the TRC and what do you think Truth and Reconciliation looks like to your
community?Now you already have a lot of work done in a lot of ideas, and it's not about
restarting that process but maybe spending a little time with that and then getting some
good ideas,right?Maybe there's some stuff that-that- and then people just- or just
building that goodwill that people say, okay,uh-uh, as some people have said,you know,
we don't know that we trust what's going on here in our communities but,you know,you
see somebody a few times in a couple of different settings, festivals, different things like
that. And we talked about-the Mayor talked about direction, and this is just me,this is
not the council giving you this direction. I'm throwing some ideas out there that if I were
if somebody were to say what direction would you give,this would kind of be it and it's
that basic level going out. And- and now taking all this work that you've done and going
out and just that last step of that process, letting people,um, get some buy-in,um, and
just,you know, in that visibility, that visibility piece,that it's not some strange thing. It's
something that's a part of the community which it really is and it's a shame really that
more people don't know about that but I'm not blaming the people. I'm not blaming the
TRC because you guys have been working hard. It's just a different approach and so my
question would be, does what I'm talking about?And I mean, if that's- if anybody else is
on this council even agrees with that-that thing, does that have to be a part of phase 1 or
can that happen?And then we launch into the contract and the actual phase 1 sort of
thing. So that's the question I kinda have. I don't know who could answer that,but that's
what's going through my mind as I'm trying to make a decision here.
Bergus: I'll jump in. Councilor,um, good news is that kind of engagement is what's in the
proposal and,you know, as well as I do that cutting through the noise takes resources. So
if we pause and we say,try and cut through the noise a little bit more and then maybe
we'll consider giving you resources to do that. We are just shooting ourselves in the foot.
It just it's nonsensical to me. So I- I think- I think if we listen to what's been in the
proposal and what-what the TRC has been saying it is that- it is that. It is the work.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 70
Harmsen: So in terms of just- and this again, does the resource- I agree there has to be some
support,but is that the only way like if we're talking about I don't know what does it take
to go out and have the-the-the material stuff. I mean,that we would go out with any city
commission.
Bergus: It's in there.
Harmsen: That's one approach. Right. And that that's-that's I'm just saying is that the only way
forward if- if- if-to have to approve the whole contract in order to get that piece moving.
Bergus: It's the way that our commission has said and would work very well for them after
deliberating after getting good direction from us on what was lacking before when we
paused and we said,no, come back with something different and they've come back with
something different that includes exactly those kinds of elements and the resources to
implement it. I think we had the same packet,but it's in there.
Harmsen:No-no. In the difference being is one is approving a contract that includes all the
pieces.
Bergus: Okay.
Harmsen: Versus a hey, let's go get that. The people who were in this room that say that are like
halfway there. That's kind of what I heard. We really- I've heard people that are halfway
there. There's- like the TRC,they liked this idea. They're not so sure about this-this
$400,000 investment. So what I mean, I guess maybe what I'm asking is do we start with
that $400,000 investment or do we say, I don't know if this is something we direct city
staff say,hey, TRC members,they need they need-they need enough resources to have a
table,to have some things to hand out flyers. But again,um, I'm just throwing that out
there as like the- as a- as the public launch versus the behind the scenes stuff. But then
still allows for that public to shape what comes- comes next is maybe there's a few things
that would be tweaked by that because there's,you know, it's just that part like yeah, it
can be like,hey,we're having meetings. Why?But that just hasn't just never works that
way.
Teague: I do think a deferment can allow the TRC to have some follow-up discussion based on
what they heard here from the public. And they could come back relatively quickly with,
you know, some immediate elements. Um,maybe they determined that they want to have
a town hall meeting with a-with a facility- with a facilitator. I would not suggest the ones
that's associated to this right now and because of some hard feelings,but,you know, a
neutral person. So there is opportunities. So I don't want the TRC or anyone to think that
this can't go anywhere. There's opportunity.
Harmsen: Sure.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 71
Alter: Can I ask a question? In what instance have we ever,has the council or any commission
crowdsource to budget,which is essentially what I'm hearing? I mean,honestly, I- I
absolutely agree that we need to get buy-in and we need to understand what the desires,
the needs, and direction from the community,who is now saying,we hear it,were
interested in this,right?But we also want to talk about how this money is gonna be spent,
which is valid. But what I'm hearing is that we're going to press pause until the
community can weigh in on precisely what they want that budget to be. That's the death
nail right there.
Teague: It's a continuation of the-
Alter: This is the three years.
Teague:- conversation for- is the continuation from 2021,we still have the same issues they were
idenified.
Bergus: How do we call the question on- I'm sorry there even been a motion.
Dunn: I would like- I would like an option and an opportunity to speak. So-
Harmsen: Okay. Andrew hasn't had a chance yet.
Dunn: So I will be supporting this. Um fust and foremost um I think that er I'm not gonna go
over all of the very intense emotions and um circumstances that we're dealing with here
today. But I-I very much largely do agree that one we should not be asking our nine
volunteer unpaid commissioners to be organizers in the community and telling them to do
more and more and more while they have their own lives and their jobs that they're
managing. While they are trying to do some of the most important work that our city has
faced in generations. I don't feel comfortable with that. Uh, I think that they have given
us with city staff uh and local leaders and providers an excellent plan for how we can
move forward. And I think that at the same time,the commission should take this
conversation at the very least as direction to-to address some of the concerns that have
been talked about today. Um, I don't think you can do that with no resources. You cannot
reach out to you. And I say this as someone who's worked in political organizing for at
least seven years,you're not going to be knocking on people's doors, going out into
places, and meeting people where they are without resources. Kearns &West is a
communications firm. We want to- I want to give you the resources that you need to get
our charge,which is admittedly ambiguous, done so that our community can heal. Um, I
think that that's the right thing to do. I know that it's certainly contentious. But if we are
to mend those-that pain,that people in this room and around the community are feeling, I
strongly believe that you need the resources to get that done. Um, at the same time,we
can have that form of-of our-of our leaders of the Black community and the black
community members along with anyone else who is interested in- in participating and
learning about the TRC. We can do it at the same time and we can do better with
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 72
resources. Everyone deserves a voice here, and everyone's voice is going to be amplified
by every dollar that we give them That doesn't mean carte blanche again,that we give
them all the dollars forever. But I think we have a good proposal in front of us. And I
think it's going to do a lot of good to-to heal our community. Um, and again, I think that
the-the commissioners are going to take our intense conversation today as a direction to
try to mend those- er those-that harm that has happened in the past so that the work could
actually get done. Because one thing that is true is that this will not work without the total
community buy-in. I do think that those- again,those harms needs to be healed. Hearts
needs to be mended. But the first step to doing that is giving our commissioners the
resources that they need to get it done and I will be voting to support.
Bergus: Mayor. I apologize. I thought we were only talking about the deferral at this point.
Teague:No.
Bergus: Okay.
Teague: Because I never made a motion.
Bergus: Got it. I apologize.
Teague: So,yes.
Bergus: I lost my temper a little. There may make some comments than about the overall
proposal. Thank you.
Teague: I know you can count.
Bergus: Well, I just think it's really important to acknowledge the work that has happened in this
community for decades. And- and the work that will happen is building on that. And I
have heard our commissioners say, I want to stand on the shoulders of the people who've
been doing the work. And Supervisor Porter, I agree with you 100%. Your quote is until
there's some healing,we're going nowhere. Until there's some healing,we aren't going
nowhere. You should have your town hall and it should be with support, it should be with
resources. It should be venting without that structure,without that care,without that
support,without the experts who can say, Oh, I've seen this before. We had one
commentor talk about Greensboro. Well, our experts work with them directly. We know
that's what we're bringing to the table in -in this and so I- I feel and hear deeply how
much this hurts. And we've been watching it and contributing to it. I know I have for
three years almost. And I just think this is our opportunity to take this energy and push
forward and-and to start it. And I really just want to reflect, yes, I can count Mayor,but I
really wanna- I wanna, I wanna share some positive things. [OVERLAPPING] Things
that I heard. I heard passion, I heard gratitude. I heard hope. I heard this is a historic
moment. I heard leap of faith. I heard we have the motivation. We need the tools. I heard
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 73
that we will do the right thing. We have an opportunity to improve our community. We
have to start somewhere. I want my grandchild to have it better than I did. I hope you
take a chance. Before this I didn't have a voice. This will do a lot of good and we are a
strong enough city. Thank you,Mayor.
Teague: Great. All right. So I think um,because I can count that there isn't gonna be a majority
supporting this. I will not make a motion for a deferment. Any final comments before we
go to vote?Again, I just wanted to say thanks. So the commissioners into the community
for coming out. While I-while I-while I will not support this. And I,you know, I think
for me it's the- it's the community part that was talked about 2021 is the the- I would not
call them non objective group that has been selected. Um, I think they've made direct-
they've inserted their own opinions throughout this process and not just talked like what,
you know,reconcile your truth looks like and how it feels. But nevertheless, at the end of
the day, I will fall in line and support what this council puts forth, as well as supporting
what the TRC has to do from here on out. Roll call,please. (Roll Call)And motion passes
4 - 3.
Goers: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear your vote.
Taylor:No.
Goers:No. Okay.
Teague: Motion passes 4 - 3. And again,thanks to everyone for coming out. And now you have a
new charge. You have some money. TRC members. All right. Can I get a motion to
accept correspondence?
Harmsen: So moved,Harmsen.
Bergus: Second Bergus.
Teague: All in favor say Aye. (Voice Vote)Any opposed?Motion passes 7 - 0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 74
9.d Extension of TRC Timeline- Resolution extending the timeline for the work
of the City's Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission from June 30,2023 to
December 31,2024.
Teague:Number 9.d, is an extension of the TRC timeline resolution, extending the timeline for
the work of this city's ad hoe Truth and Reconciliation Commission from June 30, 2023
to December 31st, 2024. Can I get a motion to approve,please?
Harmsen: So moved,Harmsen.
Alter: Second,Alter.
Teague: All right. And we're gonna go to Eric Goers our City Attorney.
Goers: Really nothing else to mentioned here er Mr. Mayor, obviously, it's been a lengthy
discussion already. And if Council's ready to move forward and the vote that you've just
er um offered to indicates you are,then we'll need to have an extension to allow the TRC
to do their work.
Teagie" Great. Thank you. Anyone from the public like to address this extension only? See no
one online or um-or present. Council discussion?
Harmsen: Mayor, I'd just like to kinda sort of echo um. So I was almost, but not quite there on
the last vote,but on this one,this is far-far easier. And this is where I can-can give the
full throated like just thank you. Um, and I do think that this one is easy to support. I-I
don't feel conflicted on this. The work you've been doing has been great. We are lucky as
a community to have you. It has been a rocky road. Um, I'm sure we haven't hit all the
bumps. Um,but I-I do have faith in this entire community. Um, and-and I do see the
work you've done and I see you. So this is an easy yes for me this time around.
Teague: And ditto- ditto- ditto. Even from the beginning,this was gonna be a yes for me because
I know that the work of the TRC, regardless of whatever the earlier vote,what's going to
be needs to continue. So I'm gonna be voting in favor.
Taylor: Well, I'll -I'll- I'll just go out on a limb and say that when I fust read this proposal, I
believed it was an unreasonable request. And I still believe it to be unreasonable as it's
already been ridiculously long time as we've been just discussing since the commission
um was fust created. Um, there are persons I'll- I'll mention because this was brought up
that are faulting the Council for lack of direction or guidance that they believe was not
given to the commission um from the beginning. And I do apologize for that. I admit
that-that-that possibly is true. But I also will say that with two of the initial appointments
that were made and the initial facilitator that was approved by Council, I felt that those
persons experience and knowledge would provide the beneficial leadership necessary for
the Commission to get started and get their feet on the ground. Um,but of course that
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 75
didn't happen and I won't dwell on what happened with that because we all know. Um,
my fust thought was to possibly propose a twelve-month extension rather than 18 and I
might stand by that still that I would think a year would be a reasonable amount um to-to
get that done because I think I've heard different like four months or one part of the thing
and seven months for another part. So I would think that um 12 months could get that
done. Um,but apparently,the commissioners believe um that 18 months would enable
them to undertake and accomplish what they have been charged to do um,but I-I just
can't in good conscience agree to 18 months.
Teague: Any other comments?Roll-call,please? (Roll Call) Motion passes, 6 - 1. All right.
Thanks, everybody.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 76
9.e Approval of the FY24 Annual Action Plan - Resolution adopting Iowa City's
FY24 Annual Action Plan which is a subpart of Iowa City's 2021-2025 Consolidated
Plan (City Steps 2025).
Teague: We're gonna go to 9E. Approval of the fiscal year 2024 annual action plan. Resolution
adopted Iowa City's fiscal year 2024 annual action plan,which is a subpart of Iowa City's
2021 through 2025 consolidated plan. And can I get a motion to approve,please?
Dunn: So moved,Dunn.
Alter: Second,Alter.
Teague: Moved by Dunn, seconded by Alter. And we're gonna welcome.
Goers: If I could fust, Mr. Mayor,because I serve in the UAY board,who is an applicant for
each of the next two items, I'm going to have First Assistant City Attorney Sue Dulek to
stand in my stead.
Teague: Thank you.
Dulek: Okay.
Teague: Alright. We're going to go ahead and continue with our business meeting. So I'll ask
everyone to please take their conversations outside. Thanks to everybody. I'm going to
welcome our neighborhoods Services Coordinator,Erica. welcome.
Kubly: Hello,Erica Kubly with neighborhood services. So the annual action plan is part of our
five-year consolidated plan called City Steps 2025. We are preparing for our fourth year
of the plan. The purpose of the action plan is to show how we'll spend CDBG and home
funding for the upcoming fiscal year, including goals,projects, and who will benefit. Our
allocation is $731,382 and CDBG funding and $550,000 for- $550.467 thousand in
HOME funding for FY20 before uh- Iowa city receives this funding each year as an
entitlement community. Our funding hasn't changed much in recent years,but this shows
our funding since 2000. So just to show that we're receiving less funding that we have
more than 20 years ago. We also have a chart showing inflation adjusted historic funding,
just to show that funding is not keeping up with inflation. Um- in the past few years with
labor shortages, supply chain issues, and increase housing costs, funding is not going to
go as far as we-we-we would have previously. That being said,we have some great
projects lined up for FY24. These are the HCDC recommendations for the plan. We're
funding to Aid to Agency projects with CDBG public service dollars at neighborhood
centers and DVIP. We have two facility improvement projects. Shelter house is making
safety improvements to their emergency- emergen- emergency shelter and supplemental
funds that were awarded to DVIP for their construction of their new shelter. Both of these
projects are only eligible for CDBG funds.Neighborhood improvements,housing,rehab,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 77
and economic development are set asides that we fund each year and administer
internally. Planning administration covers staff costs and that is also a set aside each year.
And then for housing activities,HCDC has recommended that 200,000 will go to housing
fellowship for construction of a single-family home on an infill site on Ronald Street in
partnership with the Home Builders Association and the school district. Housing
fellowship will also receive CHDO funds for rental rehab and operations. Um,habitat has
been allocated 8,000 for down payment assistance,which will provide affordable
homeownership for two households. The city applied for additional funds for a down
payment assistance program which will assist buyers who purchase homes and low-
income census tracks in Iowa city. This funding will continue our partnership with Green
State and add Hills as a partner lender. And then you UAY,their project is funding for
acquisition and rehab of transitional housing serving homeless youth in their transitional
living program. As part of the funding allocation process to escort applications, and also
made funding recommendations ahead of HCDC,based on the information provided,
staff did not recommend funding to UAY as project. They did not submit the required
rental performer to demonstrate that the project is financially feasible and viable for the
duration of the period of affordability. This information is required for the underwriting
of a project and we felt we didnt-we just didn't have enough information without it. The
project also scored the lowest and they didn't have a property identified at the time of
application which were other considerations for our recommendation. HCDC opted to
partially fund UAY's project at 110,000. They felt that the project fulfills a unique need
in the community and that there may be opportunities for UAY to leverage other
resources with an addit-with an initial commitment of the federal funds. And that since
has happened,they've been awarded funds through the housing trust fund as well. Um-
those are contingent on our federal funding. So based on this,um- staff recommends that
UAY is awarded funding as recommended by HCDC,with the caveat that they have until
March 15th, 2024 to identify a property and submit the necessary proforma and financial
information for their project. This aligns with their proposed timeline in their application
as well as our unsuccessful and delayed project policy timing. At that time, we would re-
evaluate whether the project can move forward,when fun should be re-allocated and next
year's um- funding allocation. And then each of these projects meets the city's values and
fit with it in the housing and neighborhoods impact area of the strategic plan. Um-all
projects serve low-income residents and meet the needs of vulnerable popu-populations.
And here is our timeline. Um-this meeting is our official public meeting for the action
plan. A draft has been available for public comment since April 1st. We have not
received any comments so far. As far as I'm aware. H CDC recommended approval of the
action plan on April 20th and is due to head on May 15th. Funding will be available
sometime after July 1st, once our plan has been approved and agreements are in place.
Thank you.
Teague: Great. Any questions for Erica?Alright. Anyone from the public like to address this
topic? If so,please raise your hand at this time. Alright, welcome. Yes. Yes.
Salih: It's again Mazahir Salih. I'm just going to talk about the like zero dollar recommendation
by the HCDC tool.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 78
Teague: That's next item. [OVERLAPPING] One more. It's the next item. This is a different one.
Salih: Oh,because I was outside. I don't [OVERLAPPING].
Teague: Yes,no worries. Yeah. Alright. Anyone else want to address this topic? Seeing no one,
council discussion. Roll call,please? (Roll Call) Motion passes, 7 - 0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 79
9.f FY24 Aid to Agencies -Resolution allocating human services Aid to Agencies
funding for Fiscal Year 2023,July 1,2023-June 30,2024.
Teague: Item number 9f. Fiscal year 2024, aid to agencies. Rel-uh-resolution to allocate and
human service aid to agencies funding for fiscal year 2023,July 1st, 2023 through June
30th, 2024. Can I get a motion to approve,please.
Alter: So moved,Alter.
Thomas: Second, Thomas.
Teague: Alright. Welcome again.
Kubly: Thank you. Each year, Iowa City provides funding for operational costs of local non-
profits serving low-income residents through the aid to agencies program. Legacy
agencies are ide- identified through the city's consolidated plans, city steps 2025. Only
agencies listed in the plan are eligible to apply for this funding. Last year,three new
agencies became eligible for legacy funding. This is the fust funding round that those
agencies; Center for worker justice stream city and houses into homes, are eligible to
apply. Agencies apply through the United Way joint funding process. We currently
accept applications every other year, and prorate awards for the second year based on the
approved budget. Agencies awarded funding this year will automatically receive funding
next year. Applications are due in September 2022,HCDC held a question-and-answer
session with applicants in October, developed an initial recommendation in November,
and made a formal recommendation to council at their January 2023 meeting. In
February, council requested that HCDC take another look at the allocation with direction
to consider all that came in,um-regardless of the deadline. That discussion took place at
their March 30th, 2023 meeting. Um-they discussed the applications again and voted to
keep the same recommendation,which is what you're seeing on your screen here. Um-
and this is in the order of the application score. And then,um-up to 5% of our total aid to
agencies budget can be allocated to emergent agencies and awards from $5,000 to
$15,000. Applications are accepted annually through the city. This year we received six
applications. HCDC recommended funding to four of those agencies maximizing the 5%
of emerging funds. Um- and funding for emerging agencies are for one year. Aid to
Agency program fits within several areas of the strategic plan. The program allows us to
have strong partnerships with local non-profits and each of those agencies shares the
city's values. Um, I call that the safety and well-being impact area,where it guides us to
partner with non-profits to address the most emergent and foundational community safety
and well-being needs. And this funding goes directly towards that work. We also have an
internal policy revision for our audit standards that I coupled with this agenda item,Um,
the policy applies to agencies receiving both emerging and legacy funds and potentially
other locally funded projects. Our current policy requires an audit or review by an
independent Certified Public Accountant in accordance with generally accepted auditing
standards based on the full budget of the agency ranging from a year-end financial
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 80
statement signed by the director and board president to a full audit lead- level statement.
We've gotten feedback,um,that this is burdensome for some agencies,particularly after
receiving larger amount of grant funds through the pandemic. Um, agencies budgets are
less predictable. And they've had increased budgets through the pandemic. Um,when
agency reported that a fust-time audit would cost them $10,000,um, some of our grant
funds are $15,000 so you can see how that would be a cost burden. So our proposed audit
policy is to require all agencies to submit copies of their 990 tax form as well as a year-
end profit and loss statement approved by the agencies board of directors. If the agency is
already receiving an audit,we may ask to review that as well. We feel this meets the
original intent of the audit policy and as a simpl- simple,predictable requirement,that
will not be a cost burden for any of the agencies. And then agencies that are also
receiving federal funding must continue to comply with financial management and audit
requirements. Again,this is just for local projects and its agencies. That's all I have.
Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Any questions?
Alter: I have a quick question and I'm- I'm sure it's in the-the minutes or the notes,but just a
quick reminder on the emerging agencies that Iowa City sober living was it that, I know
that they did not get funded. Um, actually I'm looking at this, the-the request was for-
their request was for 12,500 or I thought it was that they had not requested enough and
we're not therefore not going to be eligible.
Kubly: Um no their request was eligible for 12,500.
Alter: Okay. It was just that they sort of wouldn't.
Kubly: Um, I believe it was the timing of what they were proposing. And how far they were
along with their establishing their sober living project,um, and just to be available at the
of maximum amount of funds.
Alter: Perfect. Tha- thank you for the reminder.
Teague: All right, Thank you. Anyone from the public like to address this topic? If so,please
come forth.
Salih: Hi, Mazahir again. I- I really don't want to just talk deeply about what happened,what the
commission said,what the staff said and just go around that,that's going to waste our
time. I just want to focus on we work hard to become a legacy agency. And likewise, it is
not a clear policy in place whether you are a legacy agency to receive guaranteed fund or
not. I guess when we work hard and we applying for this because no another places they
give us like general operation fund at all. That's why we was really working hard with our
applications. And to come and say like, oh,we-we are-we are at the bowl that funding is
guaranteeing of minimum of$15,000. That what we believed, even though maybe that's
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 81
not right it is up to the commission,but that's not said anywhere. In the website if you go
there you will see legacy agency can apply for fund and after that period and they can-
you receive minimum of$15,000. And that's what we sold no matter what. As long as our
application aligned with the city mission. And I think we do-we will get fund. And also
they did not talk about the scoring. Do we get F, C, or A or B to get fund?And of course
our scoring will be low since some like commissions, like give us zero. So and it is
percentage and some commission did not really,you know,vote it at all. Was score it at
all. Anyway, I'm really here to tell you that CWA being open their door during 2020 and
2021,but like all year around during COVID,while all the organization who apply was
as their door was closed and we become like a gateway because they do a good job-job
on like helping people. And like financially,we was just sending the people to them. We
really work hard. We need general operation fund. You know,we need to help-we-we
helping the city of Iowa City. Yeah,we might have like little thing that application
maybe wrong. That's completely typo. As a city council pre-previous city council
person, I know city money should be spent in Iowa City, and that's what we've been
doing. And now this-this is not the fust time we apply for funds from Iowa City and get
it. We know what we're doing and we know what we're going to spend the money for.
Please,you're sending literally bad signal to another funder when they see that we did not
get approved for $15,000 by the city, as a people are not going to approve us because
there is many thing over there financing and things, anything,you know just like bad
signal there,please-please allocate it and you can find how what way you can get the
fund from. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and city you are from and there is sign in.
Stromquist: Thank you. My name is Shel Strumquist. I'm a resident of Iowa City. Uh, appreciate
the chance to talk to council about this issue. Um, in a lot of ways I think it's a very
simple question. Um,the center for worker justice with which I've worked for years,um,
and for which I have a deep respect of the work that's been done over,um, over more
than 10 years. And many of you know this summary of the 10-year accomplishments of
this center and I don't need to review it for you,but the issue is simple. It seems to me
that an established organization that's doing very important work and has raised funds
from a variety of sources private as well as public foundations as well as,um, individuals.
Um, is asking for support as a legacy agent at the minimum level,um,we're talking about
$15,000 and that may not sound like a lot of money. And in some ways, it isn't a lot of
money,but $15,000 will make a big difference in terms of meeting the ongoing operating
costs of carrying out programs that serve this community and serve segments of this
community that are deeply under served. Low wage workers and immigrants who don't
have a lot of other places to turn. And we saw that particularly vividly during during the-
the pandemic. So I would ask you to reconsider the recommendation from the HCDC,
um,budget and find this money,um,which is badly needed to support an organization
that has a strong reputation in the community. And I'm afraid that the reasons that have
been raised,um, for not providing support by the staff and the H- and- and the
commissioners really aren't meritorious and they'd been shifting over time. Um, and so I-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 82
I would urge you,um,to use your authority as a council to find the funds to support one
of your legacy agencies at the minimum level of$15,000. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Online,Noah. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello. Can you hear me?
Teague: Yes,welcome-yes welcome.
Petersen: Hello. I'm just seriously gone. So at- at the beginning of this meeting,you had people
talk about how they want an audit or shelter house, and it's facts that now three winters in
a row Shelter House has gone on to not have a shelter open during the winter. Having-
having emission cells are open during winter. There are certain winter time, now at least
three winters in row that's happened. And to reward shelter houses in competency, it
decides to give shelter house 721, sorry, $221 less- less than the amount that you have the
automatic audit. [inaudible] should do in-house auditing and this city is not going to do
any auditing of it. It's just very odd to me the fact that it's like literally $200 less than if
they had had $200 more funded,that they would have to have an independent au- audit of
their things. But- so an organization that's proven itself incapable of providing to the
community that's it's supposed to be helping multiple years in a row now. And the city
just has done nothing to address that problem. And it gives it the money just as short as
closest as you can get to not having to actually audit it. It's just very disturbing to me that
city council has no issues with tons of people have given you over the years complaints
about shelter house and the city does not seem to care. They obviously don't care because
you've taken no actions to ensure that people have housing at all times and just tell-just
give it off to shelter house and let them do whatever they want and have no oversight and
do nothing to address housing when the city should be doing housing themselves,but we
have a landlord mayor, so I don't expect it to happen anytime soon. And landlord Mayor,
who is selling his house is to Johnson County being affordable housing coalition,which I
don't know how that's not a conflict of interests that you tell me that you-the city won't
do housing. We're going to work private partners when those are the private partners
buying your house is Bruce. That's just really weird. That's just like a massive conflict of
interest. And that explains why you do nothing addressing the housing. If you care more
about- about your pocketbook,they marginalize black people in the community,because
probably about- at least 50% of the- on House Committee in Iowa City are black. So my
experience I've seen that's what national studies say. And you say this,they will do
nothing for housing,while you're a landlord and you're selling houses to private entities
that are supposedly helping the issue while your profit,your pocket grows bigger.
Something to think about.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Eastham: Uh, Charlie Eastham of Iowa City. Uh good evening. Sorry to take your so up here. So
lat- so late tonight. Um,we're going to talk about the center of a worker justice allocation
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 83
recommendation from HCDC of 15 over $0 and ask you to restore that to $15,000. The
minimum required by uh, our own policy or your policy anyway- anyway, for this- for
this category of funding. Uh,the ah- ah I want to point out that I'm also a member of the
ah ICCSD School Board. And to me that's relevant because all of the activities that the
Center for Work or justice engages in ah,have as their ultimate purpose. They increase of
family income. And family income levels are hugely important to how well kids to, or
what happens to the kids when they get into schools. So I think we're ah- ah striving for
ah- for this similar things here in terms of our- our trying to improve the livelihood of the
families and the experience of kids when they get into schools. Ah, I would request that
this ah I would point out a cup one thing about the outlet recommendation from HCDC.
Um, er, some comments are made about the uh, score HCDC assigned to this CWJs
application for these funds as being low. And it was we-we acknowledge that. But I
would also point out that the percentage of the- of our allocation request that was ah,
would be recommended as a binomial level,would be about 30 to ah, about a third of our
allocation requests,we recommend that we asked for about $45,000. I don't want to be
$15,000. So we are our request would have been funded at about a third of its ah our
requested amount. And uh, other agencies that had much higher scores also at much
higher ah, or percentage requests to their allocations that were funded. So I think that
makes sense to me anyway,that $15,000 for CWJ ah, is appropriate and we're not asking
for that money be taken from any other agency. I think the city has adequate reserve
funds to add that amount to the overall recommendation. So thank you for consideration.
Teague: Thank you. All right. Seeing no one else had the public that want to ah, speak on this
topic, council deliberation?
Harmsen: Sure. I can jump in. Um, let me fust of all say I- ah- I want to offer gratitude to HCDC
for the work that they do,um, including the working through going through all of these
applications. Um, and I know they approach. And if you go back and look at the meetings
and you look at the minutes it comes through that these commissioners approach these
meetings very seriously,um that they decide that they want to um,you know,they take
their charge seriously and- and I thank them for that. And as I looked through the
recommendations for the most part, I- I have nothing to quibble with,nothing that I
would disagree with. Um, and even in the meeting themselves and as every commission
notices,um,when they decided to zero this out, I know that was even in- in the
discussion in that last meeting. Well, even if- even if we are making a mistake,this still
has to go to the council and the council can catch it. I'm paraphrasing from the me-
meeting minutes,but that's essentially the gist of it. And I think that's true. Um,you
know,with any commission were still in process and we can take a look at stuff and we
can decide to accept,reject, or modify. Um, and that's-that's inbound we-we do that
ever- on a regular basis. Um, I think it's also important to note too that on a regular basis
we don't necessarily-we aren't necessarily the fust people to see an issue on- on
anything. Uh,we often rely on members of the public to come forward and say,hey, I
think this is a mistake and we would be much-much worse off as a community if we
didn't have that happening. Um, so for some of those reasons,um, I don't feel
comfortable uh, approving this as it comes before us. Ah,most of it I'm fine with,but ah,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 84
as we-we've heard here tonight,um, and- and but I would feel comfortable maybe after
some I don't know if we want some more discussion fust,but making a motion to restore
the $15,000 and to take that- and instruct city staff to take that from a fund-uh, a reserve
fund of some and not to take it from any of these other agencies.
Dulek: A motion?
Harmsen: Is that appropriate to make it this time?
Dulek: Yes.
Harmsen: I would- I would so move that. So-
Thomas: I second that.
Teague: Yeah. Is that moved and seconded um, discussion.
Alter: So my question is um, so our legacy agencies I mean,what is the language?Uh, sorry, let
me be clear. Our legacy agencies um, is there once they've gotten in, are they operating
under ah, a legitimate assumption that they will be funded? Is that- is the wording in the-
should I walk on to legacy agency?
Fruin: Erica can jump in on this if I misstate,but this is the fust round of legacy agencies to join
the legacy ag- agency concept just started in 2020 I believe. Um,the council made that
distinction to uh, create the emergency- emerging and legacy dynamics. So this is really
the fust entry. I can say the-the 15,000 minimum predates the-the legacy agency
framework. It's fif- to 15,000 minimum has been there for several years and that's more of
just uh,recognizing the cost of administration,right?We don't want to do sixty $2,000
grants. We'd rather do larger grants and have a bigger impact and not saddle staff with-
with as much administration because a $2,000 grant administration could be the same as
a $40,000 grant administration. So um,probably to answer your question,to-to be
honest, it's the perception of the agencies, of the- of the new agencies that were joining. If
they felt that when they were included in there,that it was uh,that they felt like they were
gonna get 15 and you have to take that at face value from staff standpoint. Obviously,we
didn't we didn't recommend funding for a couple of legacy agencies, so we never
assumed that you are guaranteed in there. But again,the-the perception of the individual
agencies,probably the right barometer in this case.
Alter: And I should have remembered that because I- I was part of the commission when it
actually did those tiers of saying that there would be sort of a- a pathway to legacy. So
um,thank you for clarifying.
Taylor: I'm glad you brought that up also because I- I was a little confused too about ah,what it
means to be legacy and if it means that they have stable funding or I- I thought that was
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 85
the understanding that they would then feel comfortable in proceeding with-with uh,the
tasks that they do for the- in the community. Uh,because- oh sorry, I'm forgetting that
microphone here. Uh,what I said was that uh, and I think it was questioned whether the
legacy agencies maybe we're thinking that they have this stable funding available. Uh,
which was kind of what I had understood at one time,uh was the purpose of establishing
the legacy agencies. And and so have to admit I- I- it was disturbing to me to see this
come- come back to us um,because when it was fust presented to us uh,we ask them to
take it back and relook at really seriously reconsider the agencies that weren't funded.
And- and then-uh then it comes back to us exactly the same and- and we weren't asking
them to like go back to the drawing board and totally upset the upper cut and readjust the
fonts because I think as Councilor Harmsen and said uh,those other agencies are all well
deserving also. But uh,my understanding of the legacies agencies is they-they
established uh,non-profits that strive to serve the city's values and mission,which was
also uh,talked about. Um, so I think we as a council need is sounding like is that we do
need to re-examine the allocation process and discuss what it means to be a legacy
agency. Ah, and most importantly uh, look at whether it does indeed mean that uh,they-
they have a stable funding mechanism uh-
Fruin: I have- I just need to correct myself. I'm sorry. It- there was language in the legacy
application that specifically stated that inclusion as a legacy agency does not guarantee
funding. So that was explicit and I missed that, so.
Bergus: Okay. Just an administrative question. The-this- from funding source standpoint,my
understanding is that this pool is a combination of CDBG and- and general fund? Okay.
Fruin: Correct.
Bergus: Do we distinguish when we're pushing the money out the door? In simplest terms,the
CDBG money has a lot more strings than the general fund money, correct?
Fruin: Correct.
Bergus: Okay. So do we- I'm just thinking about like the motion that's on the floor is to find
money somewhere else for that allocation. What does that mean for staff in terms of
administration?
Kubly: So usually you pick two or three agents-two or three experienced agencies to do CDBG
that are kind of other- otherwise receiving federal funds. So typically DVIP, shelter
house, and neighborhood centers do the CDBG portion of the funding each year.
Bergus: Okay.
Fruin: So we would-we would fund a supplement of 15 with local funds?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 86
Bergus: Yeah. Okay.
Harmsen: And so just kind of building off too on what city staff had mentioned, I went back and
looked at the-the resolution that we had taken up almost exactly a year ago, adding the
three new agencies. And,you know, several times in that document, like several points in
there, it says,you know, it kind of talks about the mission. The goal is to provide stable
funding and it's repeated throughout that document. And so in terms of the-what
impression that agencies would have,that would be understandable that-that since that is
the guiding principle for a legacy agency,that they would have that understanding of it is
I think,you know,pretty-pretty logical-pretty-pretty-pretty logical and- and would
make sense to me. Sorry, it's getting late. It's- it's- it's 11:00. If I repeated myself, I- I
apologize.
Teague: Any other comments?And please clarify the motion that's on the floor.
Harmsen: The- so the motion is to-to restore the funding of 15,000,the minimum level for CWJ,
taking that money out of additional reserves from the general fund,not taking it away
from any of the other agencies who have already had allocated amounts.
Taylor: I second that motion.
Harmsen: Yeah. He already seconded.
Teague: I just want to clarify. Yeah. Is that- that-that would be to approve the allocation from
HCDC,but we're adding funding from general fund wherever-wherever staff thinks it's
appropriate to find that funding source for CWJ?
Harmsen: If that's the cleanest way to do it. And I mean sort of agnostic on- on that. But if that's
the cleanest way to do it,then that would be my [OVERLAPPING].
Bergus: Well, I just want to know, are we considering the other allocation or not?
Teague: We-
Bergus: The HCDC recommendation.
Teague: Oh.
Harmsen: Oh,this would be-
Alter: I mean, if we're talking about the premise-
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 87
Harmsen: -an amendment to that.
Taylor: An amendment.
Harmsen: Right?
Dulek: My understanding is the resolution on the floor is amended. If- if that's approved,then
there will be a vote on the resolution as amended.
Bergus: Okay. So it'd be approving the allocation from the commission plus? Okay. Thank you.
Alter: I really don't want to throw a wrinkle into this,but if the substance of the logic is that
legacy agencies-new legacy agencies, since we-we-this is the fust time that we've gone
through this,have the right to- I- I- I guess I'm wondering, like,what do we do about
Prelude? They're a legacy agency. They didn't get any funding. Is it that we consider that
or is it the fact that as you had brought up earlier that we're reliant on agencies to say,
hey,we think that there's a mistake here?
Harmsen: Well, I think that those-
Alter: [OVERLAPPING] Otherwise we're doing a very specific surgical thing to say,well,not
all legacy agencies,just this one.
Harmsen: Well, actually I think- so there's two different questions there and actually, I would- I
would-think it would make sense to take up what council- Councilor Taylor said in
looking at that in terms of what do we want to do moving forward, like what do we want
to establish after this round?Now, in terms of the fixing what I see as a specific ill,yeah,
only one agency came to us and- and- and made a case. And we've been talking about
this publicly since January. And so they-they felt they had a case to make.And- and I
would argue that if we're in a situation where we're trying to,you know, if we- if we're
feeling like one way or the other and it's a matter of benefit of the doubt,we've already
bide- in my mind,making something a legacy agency means we've already decided that if
it's a close call, we would give a benefit of the doubt. I mean, it just seems logically
consistent with the idea. It might not be in the text,but that seems consistent to me. And
so that would be again, one more thing towards, it makes sense to me to-to restore this
and avoid what I think would be a mistake by zeroing it out. I think that would be a
mistake by the city to do. I think it's worth avoiding that mistake. And- and I realize
people-to me,that's the-that would be the- if it's a- it's a matter of two things that might
not be ideal,to me,that would be the bigger mistake, is to zero out the funding and go
with that.
Bergus: Sue, do you have any concerns with that distinction?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 88
Dulek:No. Because the-the policy is not guaranteed a minimum, so Council can make that
change.
Bergus: Thank you.
Dulek: And it seems rational too to distinguish the two for the reasons that Council Harmsen just
mentioned.
Bergus: Okay. Thank you.
Teague: I don't know that I fully followed that.
Bergus: Sorry, it was kind of a lawyer exchange right there.
Teague: Yeah.
Bergus: Okay. I apologize. Just that it- it- it was-was-what I heard was it's rational to treat
Center for Worker Justices request or to treat them differently than community and
family resources in this case, given the circumstances. That's what I heard. Because that
was your question,right Megan?
Alter: And I was also thinking of it as principal. In fact, actually Councilor Taylor's thing of
saying or Shawn echoing what Pauline had said about. And so we want to address this
and look at it moving forward for legacy agencies also is another- it's a good next step
after. So it's a yes and.
Harmsen: Yeah. And I think distance is kind of a new thing. It should not be a total surprise. We
find bugs that we-that we would want to fix moving forward so we don't end up in the
same place. So at least- at least make that clear. So-but that's-that's a different thing
that's on the- on the table and I feel comfortable not taking that up-that particular piece
up tonight.
Teague: Yeah. I- I think at least for me, that piece has to be taken up.
Harmsen: I think it does,but [OVERLAPPING].
Teague: Yeah. Yeah. Because,you know, a legacy agency,when I,you know,before any of this
stuff came up, it was a celebration time for anyone that became a legacy agency. I
thought,wow,you know,they finally arrived to this point where, in my mind,money was
guaranteed in a way. I,you know, I-without even thinking of it, I never thought money
guaranteed or not guaranteed. But to me,that seemed to be like the staple of- of,you
know,the-the program or one of the funding sources that we have here at the city. And
so of course,when this all came up,that question of,wait a minute,they don't get
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 89
funding,you know. I hadn't- I hadn't heard of it,but of course,the scoring that was
something new this time around,the staff recommendation. That was something new this
time around. Probably not totally new into our overall processes,but,um,when the shift
happened the fust time it didn't happen, and then the second time this happened. So for
me,the question is,you know,we had a- a commission that,um,regardless of anything
else,they made a recommendation to the Council even after they were redirected to
reconsider their fust recommendation and they came back. So a part of my challenge is,
I'm going to respect that part of their recommendation. As far as your amended proposal,
I don't think that it is in anyone's best interests, even for a lot of reasons that I won't go
into for the council to vote right now,to,um,bring out one agency and give them
funding. We have a bunch of agencies that apply all the time. They're gray agencies just
like CWJ that don't get funded. They don't get funded. Um,we had over $300,000 that
the social justice- and the social justice and racial equity grant,we had over$300,000 in
requests, only $100,000 got funded. We went through the round of,um, some social
services submitting applications where I believe it was $3 million that you all sat on, and
of seven agencies or something like that, only two got funded. And those are some
amazing agencies that submitted some projects. Um,but in order- so I- I think we we-we
rely on our,you know, commissioners to look over the grants knowing that,you know,
there are some-you know,they make decisions ultimately. Some-you know, I- even
myself, I have to tap into my own biases at times,um, and try to focus in on what's before
me. And right now I just don't believe that,um, a proven this this way is the right thing to
do. What I will say is that we can certainly have the conversation which I think we can
have that conversation with the HCDC because I- if it's appropriate or if councilors agree.
Just about what does the legacy agency mean?What does it?Um,you know,because
there was questions amongst themselves. Maybe just make it clear. If- if you've now went
into that pot of money,um, or that-with that umbrella, do you automatically get funding?
Um, I think there's a lot of questions, a host of questions that can happen. Especially
when we saw that the,you know,the legs,the agency could not go back to the emerging
agency to ask for funding. And so,um,what I-what I would be interested in- in a future
work session has to have the big picture whether this was the HCDC, or just among the
council, about what does it mean about a legacy agency?And then we determine what we
want to do moving forward with legacy agencies. Maybe it remains the same,maybe
there's thoughts of changing it. And at that point, if we should change it,then I think we
can consider looking at the two agencies that didn't get funded and- and- and give them
some minimal funding at that point. So I won't be supporting this amendment but I think
that,that is the way that I would feel most comfortable,um,you know, looking at what-
what is the expectations when you're in legacy agency,which I think is just a I mean.
That's a great honor because it just shows that they,you know,these individuals have
demonstrated as- a service long enough for our city to say,hey,we-we need you and we
want to partner with you.
Harmsen: Thank you. And that's -that's very well-taken.Now, it would just point out the one.
And- and these are incredibly tough decision that which is why I am not in any way
slamming HCDC. I see this as a little tweak,um,to the recommendations. Uh,but I
would point out that one difference between this and many of the other grand things is we
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 90
established a category of legacy agency. And to me that's a piece that makes this one a
little different in my mind. So that's- I just wanted to point that out that I recognize what
you're saying. I see this as a little different for that reason. But that's, I think you've raised
some great points.
Teague: All right,hearing no other comments. So this is roll call for the amended- for the
amendment of finding financial resources of$15,000 specifically to be given to CWJ and
the staff will figure out that funding source.
Dulek: You can just have a voice vote on the motion.
Teague: Okay.
Dulek: Because it's the motion to amend,then we'll vote on the resolution.
Teague: All- all in fa-
Dulek: As amended. Yes. So this is just a motion to approve.
Teague: Okay. All right. So all in favor say aye. (Voice vote) So aye 1, 2, 3, 4, so four ayes and,
um,ney-ney? (Voice vote). So 4 - 2 motion passes. So now we go to the original motion
if there's any more comments.
Dulek: So it will be just we would amend exhibit then A to put it in 15,000 and have them the
funding then from the general funds.
Teague: Yeah. Yeah.
Dulek: Are we ready for roll-call on that one?
Teague: Yes.
Dulek: Roll Call. (Roll Call)
Teague: Did she say Bergus?Maybe it's getting late.
Bergus: Yes, I was first.
Teague: Okay. I didn't even hear Bergus. Okay. All right, so motion passes six to zero.
Awesome. All right,um, and we'll bring in, Councilor Dunn, and he recused himself
from this item. Welcome come back.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 91
10. Appointments
10.a Senior Center- One vacancy to fill an unexpired term, upon appointment-
December 31,2023. (Theresa Messlein Resigned)
Teague: Item Number 10, council appointments, 10.a Senior Center, one vacancy to fill an
unexpired term upon appointment through December 31st, 2023. We have a gender
balance,no requirement and the council discussion.
Bergus: It looks like we have one applicant.
Teague: All right.
Dunn: I think they're great.
Teague: All right. And I don't have the name. I know it was just one female that applied.
Harmsen:Nancy Ostrognai. I don't know how to pronounce that.
Teague: Okay. Can I get a motion to appoint Nancy?
Harmsen: Ostrognai.
Teague: Ostrognai?
Teague: Yeah.
Bergus: Phonetic.
Harmsen: Phonetical.
Teague: Yeah. All right.
Dunn: So moved.
AkterL Second.
Teague: Moved by Dunn. Seconded by Alter. All in favor say aye? [Voice vote] Aye. Any
oppose?Motion passes 7 - 0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.
Page 92
13. Report on items from City Staff
Teague: Item Number 13. reports on items from city-state city manager?.
From: If you give me the time, I'm just going to get a-
Alter: I got a whole laundry list.
Teague: City attorney?
Goers: I just thank you to fust assistants Sue Dulek for staying up until 11:15 to cover for my
conflicts. So thank you Sue.
Teague: Appreciated.
Teague: So our city clerk office?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of May 2,2023.