HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-01-07 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Alter, Bergus, Harmsen, Taylor, Teague, Thomas
Staff Present: Fruin, Jones, Kilburg, Fruehling, Platz, Davies, Fleagle, Ogden
Budget Overview and Highlights - City Manager's Office:
Teague: So it is 8:25 according to that clock, and we're going to start up the City Council
Budget Work Session for today, which is Saturday, January 7, 2023. And I'm going to
just again say welcome to everyone, and we're in a new year super excited to have our
staff before us today doing some presentations. And so we're gonna start with the budget
overview and highlights from the City Manager's Office and Finance. So I'm going to
welcome our city manager, Geoff From.
From: All right. Thank you, Mayor and Council, and you've got a long day ahead of you, so
thank you in advance for all the time today. We're going to cover a lot of ground. I do
urge you to jump in when you have questions, whether it's this presentation or department
had presentations. If we can answer things right away we will, if we need to circle back
and follow up with you, ah, we can certainly do that in the coming days. It'll be really up
to you to- to balance how deep you want to go into any one particular issue versus, ah,
you know, just how we get through this day. Typically, we will go easily till two or three
o'clock, um, without a whole lot of in detail discussion about topics. So you can kind of
think about what you want to put in into a future work session or budget meeting and -
and what you actually wanna get through and cover today. Before we get started with our
in-depth budget overview, I just want to thank a few people that put in a lot of time this
year to- to get this budget ready. And you can see them all in front of you. We have our
finance team with Nicole, Jacklyn, and Angie. Missing from the table is Michele Cook
who does a lot of work compiling the budget document as well. And then from the City
Manager's Office, Rachel and Redmond, who will be doing a lot of the presentation for
you this morning. So we'd like to start with just the schedule, the review, and how we got
to here today. So the little flowchart that's up on the screen there works left to right and
we are on January 7th, which is that third box. This is the operating budget review. In this
budget overview, I'll cover a little bit on capital, but most of the- the CIP or the capital
plan review will be Wednesday at two o'clock in this room. A couple of key dates. We
have two public hearings that are associated with this budget. The fust public hearing
will take place on February 21st that adopts the maximum property tax rate. And then the
second one will actually be the adoption of the budget on March 21st. So what does this
all mean for Council and your decision-making process? It really means that you have to
have your property tax related decisions made by the end of this month, by the end of
January 30th, we need to know how much property taxes we will be levying from the
public and be able to publish that for with- with that public hearing. So end of January,
really your- your property tax levy decisions are made. You can always go down, you
just can't go up after that point. By the end of February, you'll have to have all those
expenditure decisions made. So again, once you're working within that maximum
property tax rate, you have a little bit more time if you want to go through on the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 7, 2023.
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expenditure side. The budget recommendation is for a 2.3% growth in property tax levy.
There is a state law that was passed in 2019 that has a soft cap of two percent of property -
property tax growth year over year for cities. That does mean if -if our recommendation
holds- the staff recommendation holds for that 2.3% increase, then we will need a two-
thirds vote of the council to approve this budget as opposed to a simple majority. So
again, that's that two percent soft cap legislation that was passed in 2019 by the state
legislature. The budget document itself comes in at 728 pages. That's a lot to read,
especially when we send it to you over the holidays. As you work through that document,
I tried to give you some guidance on- on where I would suggest you focus most of your
time. So we won't go through each of these here today, but I hope this is just a reference
point for you as you circle back and continue to- to think about this budget. These are a
few key sections that I encourage you to spend some- some extra time with. And then
lastly, before we jump into the budget details, I just want to take a minute to review our
basic fund structure. It's important that we just all have a baseline understanding of how
government accounting works. So our fund structure is listed on the screen here. It kind
of works left to right with the- with the orange at the top. Ah, the general fund is probably
where you will spend 80-90% of your time with this budget. That is where a lot of the
discretionary decisions tend to be made. Your general fund is largely funded by property
taxes. We will go through that here in a little bit. And it funds a lot of the major
operations. So your police, your fire, your parks and rec, your general government, all
that takes place in the general fund, and again, most of the council decision-making
process, typically in a given year, will fall in that general fund area. As you move one
orange box over to the right, you have your special revenue funds. I like to think of these
as revenue sources with strings attached to them. So there are some rules on how we can
spend these, so we account for them separately. We don't want to intermix them with
discretionary funds. A couple of examples of that would be our affordable housing fund.
We transfer funds into the affordable housing and we keep them in that fund to make sure
that all expenditures align with the council expectations on affordable housing. We also
would have our federal CDBG, Community Development Block Grant funds in here. So
we get the federal funds, they go in here. There are certain rules on how to use them.
Those are our special revenue funds. Another big one there would be road use tax, and
that's the fuel tax that we would collect at the pump. The state actually collects and
provides to cities. We have to use those on road related expenditures. Debt service is
pretty self-explanatory. Any funds in the debt service go to retire debt that we have taken
out as a city. Enterprise funds are the operations of a city that we run like a business just
without that profit motive, right? So those are self-sustaining funds where we charge fees.
We collect those fees and those pay for those services. So easy example is your water.
You- we charge a rate to all consumers of our water. We collect those fees and that
operates the system. We don't use property taxes to support water. We simply use the
rates that we charge. So water, wastewater, refuse, parking, landfill, are all examples of
those enterprise funds where- where the rates support those operations. Capital project
funds are funds that are there to support our major capital projects. We'll go through
those on Wednesday, and our internal service funds are really just- just that, internal to
the operations. So information technology, vehicle and equipment servicing, a good
example department budgets would pay into- pay to the equipment fund and that helps
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 7, 2023.
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maintain their vehicles and makes sure that there's funds to replace those vehicles after
their useful life is done. So that's the basic fund structure, and with that, we're going to
jump into the budget details, and I'm going to turn it over to Rachel to get that por-
portion of the presentation started.
Kilburg: So fust, can you hear me okay? Okay. First, we wanted to just give a little bit of an
overview of what we're seeing in this current fiscal year 2023 budget. So last year when
we brought that budget to you, it was kind of a mixed bag of news where we were able to
achieve our 11th straight property tax rate reduction, kinda- kind of expected that to
stabilize going forward, and then we had just a minor utility rate adjustment to address
some cost and service demand increases in our refuse operations. Along with that, there
were some challenges that we are aware of and paying attention to. We saw actually a
shrinking tax base for the fust time in many years, over a decade. Um, and- In light of
that, we- we just strived- we strived for status quo budget. So we only had a quarter or
one and a quarter percent increase in our general fund expenditures. So, um, you know,
we are aware of these challenges. We felt like with continued kind of fiscal prudence,
we- we were prepared to meet those. Um, and since we adopted that budget, while we're
certainly still in a strong financial foundation, a couple of additional, uh, challenges have
cropped up, uh, that- that we're paying attention to. So, uh, fust of all we've had a new
state backfill added, uh, through the state legislature last year. Um, so that's just added a
little bit more uncertainty, uh, in the coming years. And then of course, if- if you've gone
to the grocery store or pulled up to a gas tank, um, you've seen, um, what those cost
increases have been like for you personally. And of course, the City is feeling that as well
as we try to keep our, um, projects within budget and on time, uh, keep our water
flowing, our trucks running, all of that kind of stuff. So you've started to see us kinda tap
into some of our reserves to keep those capital projects on schedule. Um, we're buying
less and spending more on what we do need to pay for the- to provide service and
complete projects. Um, and we're just gonna kinda pay attention to these- to these
continued inflationary challenges, um, and what impacts they could have long-term. So
that kinda just lays the groundwork for- for some of the challenges we're paying attention
to as we enter into the pre- preparation for this fiscal year 2024 budget. Um, and- and so I
just want to talk a little bit more about how we're continuing to navigate those and- and
some of the things that we're dealing with as well as additional challenges for this fiscal
year'24. So fust, although it was, um, passed over 10 years ago now that 2013 property
tax reform is something you continue to hear us talk about because it's still really
impacting our budgets. Um, we have that original commercial industrial property tax
backfill, which we now know we're going to be losing as that's phased out over the next
few years. And then as I mentioned, we have this new backfill which- which just adds
another layer of uncertainty. Fiscal year 2024 is also that, uh, multi residential rollback
cliff year that we've kinda been warning you about for the last few years. Um, so we'll
talk about that. Um, then going into this 2022 legislative session, which begins on
Monday, we anticipate that property tax reform, that they will be taking action on
property taxes again this session. So that all kind of co- coincides with the lowest two-
year taxable growth that we've seen in a decade. Um, kinda, that's partially impacted by
that residential rollback rate. We saw a pretty low residential rollback rate last year and
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 7, 2023.
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we have a little uncertainty about where that will go in the coming years. Um, and like I
mentioned on the last slide and you'll hear us kinda over and over again throughout this
presentation, those supply chains, inflation, labor shortage issues are really putting
pressure on some of our key line items. So I'm maybe a bit of a bad- bearer of bad news
here but just kinda want to prepare you with this knowledge and I'm gonna go into each
of these a little bit on the next few slides. So fust, as I mentioned, we have two backfills
to talk about now. So we have that commercial and industrial rollback backfill, which is
what you can kind of think of as the original backfill. Um, it's the one that was passed
along with that 2013 property tax reform. Um, so you know you have your assessed
value, which is essentially that market value of your home, and then you have your
taxable value, which is the portion of the property that can actually be taxed. And, uh,
what the state had done was commercial industrial property was previously taxed at 100
percent of its value, um, and they rolled that back to 90 percent. Um, they said, don't
worry cities, we're going to make you whole for this. Um, so we're gonna- they paid us-
reimbursed- a reimbursement or a backfill payment of about $1.5 million a year. Um, so
you've heard us say this before but for context, that's about 15 full-time firefighters and
15 full-time firefighters is about what it takes to operate a station. So as you hear on
Wednesday, um, you know, plans to- to construct that new Station 5, um, that- that kind
of gives you some context of- of what that operational impact is. Um, so we were
receiving those reimbursement payments and then, uh, in 2021, the state came back again
and said, okay, time for these to go away. So, um those have begun to phase out now and
those will be completely eliminated by fiscal year 2027. So that'll be about a 330,000
dollar loss, uh, this year, fiscal year 2023, and we estimate over seven million over that
full five -years phase-out. So as we're losing that one, uum, like I mentioned last year, the
state came in and introduced a new backfill. So what they did was convert, um, a
business property tax credit into a partial tax exemption on those properties. Um, so
previously where those business properties were receiving that tax break in the form of a
credit, now, um, that tax revenue just isn't coming in. And so the state, uh, appropriated
$125 million a year, uh, to pay cities back for that lost revenue. Um, and we anticipate
that that $125 million a year will be enough to- to cover that loss through fiscal year
2029, and which at that point, claims are expected to exceed that appropriation and so
then our payments will be prorated. So we anticipate then that this backfill payment will
decrease each year. So we expect it to be around 700,000 up until that point and uncertain
of what it will be after that. Um, so, you know, if- if you think about it, those- those
business properties, that growth was going to happen anyway. And whereas under the
previous system, um, we weren't necessarily going to be losing that value. Now, it's
riding on that state, that annual state appropriation. And as we've seen with the
commercial and industrial, uh, property tax backfill, the- they're certainly under no
obligations to continue making that appropriation going forward annually. Um, so then
another piece of that 2013 tax reform and maybe the piece that we're feeling the most
impact from in the fiscal year 2024 budget is this multi residential rollback cliff. So um,
pri- prior to the 2013 tax reform, multi residential properties like commercial properties
were taxed at 100 percent of their value. Since 2015, that has been declining each year
until, uh, it matches the residential rollback rate, uh, which happens here in fiscal year
2024. So if you look at the history, you can see that, um, the- the drops from year-to-year
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 7, 2023.
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around three, four percent. And then between '23 and 2024, it's about double that, seven
percent or a drop in about seven percentage points from fiscal year'23 to '24. So that's
kinda why we refer to it as that cliff. Um, and if you zoom out and kinda look at it from
the big picture, uh, over the past 10 years, we've had a 43 percent drop in the taxability of
multi residential property. So, um, the taxable value of multi -residential property has
basically been cut in half over the past 10 years. Um, that's a big deal for a lot of cities
across Iowa, but especially for Iowa City, right? Because we have, um, such a high rate
of rental properties. Um, eight percent of our taxable valuation is multi residential
properties. So I'll just kinda put it- on the next slide I'll put that into context about what
that actually means in dollar values. So kinda go back here. So just pay it- pay attention
to this, 63 percent that it was taxed at and 50, or FY23, and then this 56 percent, it's taxed
at in '24. And the difference between those two numbers is about 150 million in taxable
value and about three million dollars in actual lost tax revenue. So that's just in that one
year. So three million dollars lost tax revenue for fiscal year 2024. And over the full-
that- that full period since it's been declining, we estimate that's about a 17 million dollar
loss in multi residential tax revenue. And again, this is not backfilled that's just lost- lost
tax revenue to the city. So if you kinda say, okay, I'll swallow that pill and say all right,
we lost that tax revenue, let's- let's look forward. Unfortunately, the fact that multi
residential property will continue to be taxed as residential property going forward, we'll
continue to have some pretty major impacts for us. So it's kinda what we want to show
you on this slide, which shows that history of the residential rollback rate. And, you
know, we won't differentiate between multi residential and residential anymore going
forward. They're- they're the same, right? They're both riding on what that residential
rollback rate is. So again, you have your assessed value and then you have your taxable
value. Um, and how you get between those two is a lot- a lot of this residential rollback
rate. So the state has placed a cap on how much taxable value can increase in a year. So if
you have a year where, uh, property values are really high then of course that ca- or that
rollback rate is going to be a little lower to make sure that, um, it's not growing so much
to exceed that cap rate. So, um, you kinda look at the history here and you can see that
with the assessment cycle, you'll see this residential rollback rate kind of fluctuate along
with that. So in the odd years when it's assessed, you might see a little bit lower rollback
rate. And then in even years, um, when you get that assessment hitting the tax rolls, you
might see a bit of a bump in that rollback rate. And certainly what we've seen for'23 and
'24. So last year we had, um, uh, a bit of a lower residential rollback rate, around 54
percent. We've seen a 2.3 percent increase, uh, for fiscal year 2024. Um, a one -percent
change in a residential rollback rate is about a million- $925,000. So it's about two
million dollar difference, that little bump that we got '23 and '24. Um, but then I want you
to kinda take that- take that logic one step further and think about, um, kinda the housing
market right now. And we anticipate these really high assessment valuations in fiscal year
2023. So we're thinking about that cap and looking out what- what that residential
rollback rate might be in 2025. We anticipate it could be a- a bit of a steeper decline,
right? Um, so again, with one percent being nearly $1 million, just- just a couple of
changes in that percentage point can mean a lot, especially now that we have all that
multi residential property riding on this rollback rate as well. Um, so that kinda wanted,
we like to talk about, ah building construction value because it's often a good indicator of
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 7, 2023.
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taxable growth in our community. Right you build a building or your rehab, a building
that- that usually leads to increased, ah taxable value. And certainly in the past, we've had
really strong growth that's helped us overcome some of this 2013 Property Tax Reform,
ah and also ah you know just annual swings in that- in that rollback rate. Pre-COVID,
you can see, ah we were up there pretty high in 2016 is certainly an outlier. Um, and then
ah of course, we didn't expect that- that trend to continue, but COVID might've maybe
accelerated that plateau. So you see a bit lower numbers in 2020 where activity wasn't as
high. And generally we're growing out of that, ah 2020 slump. So you can kinda see those
numbers start to climb back up in 2021 and 2022. But what I do want to point out is that
in both of those years there was one big project that really, for lack of a better word,
made or break that- made or broke that year. Um, so in 2021, there was that $34 million
Tailwinds project and then a $55 million Gilbane project in 2022. So you take those two
projects out, suddenly those numbers fall back a little bit closer to that 2020 year. So
again, just something we need to pay attention to, um, just kinda be watching. Um, so this
slide looks a little crazy. I'll kind of explain what you're looking at. So the orange bars are
taxable values, so that's essentially our tax base. And then the- the black line is the
percentage change in valuation growth from year to year. But what I want you to pay
attention to is those little red, um two-year valuation percentages along the bottom. Um,
because assessment valuations happen on a two-year cycle, you know, you- you come to
expect those odd and even your fluctuations. It can be helpful to actually look at it just in
terms of a two-year average. Um so you can kinda tell what actually is going on. Uh, and
you can see traditionally, as you get a bump in those- in those even years will certainly
fiscal year 23, 24 is a notable difference uh in that trend. Last few years you see 10, 11
percent valuation growth over those two years. Um, and just a 1.8 percent growth in
fiscal year 23 and 24. So much lower than past, um tells us our tax base is not necessarily
growing at- at the rate that we need it to. And that's really important because right, we
depend on that to keep pace with inflation, with our growing service demands from year-
to-year. And this kind of stagnation in taxable valuation comes at the same time that
we're seeing these huge spikes in costs in uh some of our key expense line items. So just
a couple that we wanted to highlight and Redmond, we'll- we'll talk more about this later,
but in property and liability insurance premiums, so we've seen those increase 107
percent, so over $600,000 over the past five years. Fuel is certainly one you're probably
familiar with, um from fiscal year 22-24, we saw gasoline and fuel costs increase 54
percent, and heating fuel costs increase 87 percent. And again, this is not due to increased
consumption. In fact, this is making efforts to reduce consumption of both fuel and
energy and all that but just due to higher costs. So to kinda top it all off, I suppose just
adding to all of these financial pressures is uncertainty about what the state legislature
might do in this 2023 legislative session. So we've heard top lawmakers of the party and
control, um announce that property tax would be a key issue for them in this 2023
session. We don't know. They have not released a plan, so we don't know what that- what
those specifics are. Um, but, ah some have remarked that in the Ways and Means
Committee, this might be the only issue they take up this year. So, uh we're not sure what
that could be. And you've seen many being quoted in some of these news stories that they
haven't looked at property tax reform and a few years. Ah and certainly from our
perspective, we're still feeling that impact from the 2013 tax reform as I just talked about.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 7, 2023.
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And then, ah we've also seen additional legislation in the past few years that- that has
impacted our ability to bring in tax revenue. So in 2019, they passed that law that requires
an additional public hearing and then the two-thirds vote that Geoff kind of mentioned
earlier, if we're to exceed that 2 percent in certain property tax levies. And then uh, in
2020, they began to phase out that commercial industrial backfill that, uh they enacted
through the 2013 tax reform. And then a couple of years ago they introduced that new
backfill. So certainly we've been kinda feeling these pressures and it'll be something we'll
watch very closely as they can be in the legislative session on Monday. I hope that it
doesn't feel all doom and gloom where certainly still in a strong financial position as we'll
hear throughout this, uh- uh presentation. But these are very real challenges. And so just
something we need to- to be aware of as we discuss the- this budget today. So with that I
will maybe not so gracefully transition into just a review of our revenues, um but do keep
in mind kind of all those different influences on our- on our property taxes that I just
talked about because you'll kinda see how much we really do rely on it, especially in our
general fund. So this first slide here just shows a- a quick overview of our All Funds
revenue sou- sources. So that blue property tax slice, that's pretty much your general
fund. And then the green charges for services is kinda what you can think of as those
enterprise funds, the- the utility funds. Then this slide shows just the general fund. So
here you can see just how reliant we are on property taxes. So any charges for services,
other funding sources are really a much smaller portion of this pie. Um, just maybe call
out a couple here. So intergovernmental, it's kind of that middle- mid-range blue, that's -
that counts for about 7 percent. That's your federal state grants, road use tax, local 28 E
agreements. And then federal revenue is the largest share in there aside from road use tax.
This is just kinda, again, looking at that- that tax base in the context of our property tax
rate. Um, so as I mentioned last year, fiscal year 2023, we had the 11th straight decrease
in our property tax rate, and that was the lowest since 2022. We were able to achieve so
many uh, decreases in our property tax rate due to strong growth. Um, some reductions in
our emergency levy as we figured out what we really needed there and then a- a prudent
debt strategy in which we're able to retire some debt early. For fiscal year 2024 we have
no change in our property tax rate. Um, kind of pay attention to- to those green bars and -
and that red circle there, as I pointed out before, um our tax base isn't- isn't necessarily
growing at the rate that we need it to. Um, so we have no change in that tax rate this year
um and as we keep an eye on just kind our growth in general, we may need to- to actually
consider increases in the future if- if things don't improve or worsen. This is just kind of
looking at our tax rate. It is important to remember that um, as in- in the context of the
other taxing bodies. So it's important to remember that we're just one component, um, and
the eh, were we account for about 41 percent, which is still less than half of the um,
overlapping tax rate in our county. Uh, Johnson County and the school district, um, are
the second largest following us. Kinda of a different way of looking at the same thing.
This gives you a little better picture. Oops. Excuse me. Okay, I'll get it. Okay. So this
gives you ag- again that contexts kind of, uh, over time. So you can kinda see here in
fiscal year 2013, we were- we were pretty big- we accounted for a pretty high percentage
of the total, uh, tax rate, that property tax or I'm sorry, that property owners were paying.
Um, we're about 44 percent at that time um, and now uh, heading into 24, we're down to
around 41 percent, so about a three percent drop over time. Then this shows our tax rate,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 7, 2023.
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uh, in the context of other large cities in Iowa. So you can see we're hanging out here in
the middle of the pack. Um, this is- this is good, since 2012, we've dropped below
Davenport, Des Moines, and Cedar Rapids. So we've definitely done some work to bring
that rate down uh, and more manageable for our uh- uh, pro- property owners, and it's
unlikely that we'll be able to drop this any further going forward. So, um, we can expect,
uh, to maintain this position. A couple of other, uh, revenue sources that we wanted to
talk about in addition to property taxes, just some important ones. First here is hotel,
motel tax. Um, and overall, this is pretty small percentage of that general fund. Uh, so
what you see on the screen, uh, is only actuals because if we were to try to show, um, you
know, projected for 23, 24, it kinda skew it just because of how we do transfers, but, um,
I'll kinda explain some of these dips here. So in 2018, you see a little bit of a drop there
that was when the graduate was undergoing some renovations, um. So a little bit of
reduced revenue from that, and then of course, 2020, 2021, um, the COVID pandemic
influenced, uh, our hotel, motel tax revenue. Uh, so 20- for fiscal year 2022 are actuals
are about 1.7 million and we anticipate that 23 and 24 will be, um, very similar to that
level. Our utility franchise tax. So this is a tax, um, that the state allows us to impose on
gas and electric utility bills. Again, we only show actuals on this slide, um, because we
budget conservatively, uh, for, uh, this revenue source. Um, this really in any kind of
fluctuations and energy usage or weather if you have a cold summer, warm winter, that
can really impact what these numbers actually are, um. So our current, uh, rate is one
percent. The state law does allow us to go up to five percent with their approval um, and
you can kinda see on the screen just where some of the other cities in Iowa have landed
on this. And then we have road use tax. So as Geoff mentioned, this is- this is, uh, one of
those taxes with, uh, strings on it as you- if you will. So we use this for any kind of road
related, uh, expenditures and I'll just explain this another one of those crazy slides. So the
blue bars are actual revenue in dollars. And then the orange line is that you- change and
year-to-year, um, and looks kinda extreme, but some of these dips and valleys are to be
expected. So in fiscal year 15 and 17- between fiscal years 15 and 17, there was that state
fuel tax increase. And then in 20- 2021 you see a little bit of a bump there, um, from the
census numbers. Even though they were lower, we still got quite, uh- uh, little bit of a
bump and then they'll stabilize back out in fiscal year 2022, and we anticipate that will
probably remain pretty flat for the next decade until we get that- that next census count.
Um, I'm just kinda wanna point out that this rapid use tax revenue is not necessarily. Oop.
Teague: I have a question.
Kilburg: Yeah.
Teague: Sorry. So for both of the utility franchise and the cable TV franchise, these will be
directly taxed to the users, is that correct? All right, just wanted to make that clear. Thank
you.
Kilburg: It's applied to their bill. Um, so the other point I wanted to make here on this road use
tax was that the revenue is just not necessarily keeping pace with the- with the needs. We
had that pavement management study conducted in 2021 and, you know, just pulled one
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 7, 2023.
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of the stats out of that, they estimated that we would need an additional $11 million a
year to keep our road conditions steady. Of course, we- we give what we can in that CIP,
um, but this road use tax is- we rely on this road use tax to support that as well, and we've
seen a $3.3 million increase in road use tax over the past decade, um, again, just one of
those exp- for contexts, one of those expenditure increases we've seen concrete costs have
gone up about 54 percent from fiscal year 22-24. So those dollars certainly aren't
stretching as far as- as they maybe had been. And then when we like to also include, uh,
Iowa City does not have a local option sales tax, but it does remain a revenue source that
is an option. Um, we did have a four-year local option sales tax after the floods. So that
helped complete the Gateway Project, relocation of the wastewater facility and the
Riverfront Crossings Park, and that generated at about $8.8 million each year for those
four years that we had it. Um, you can kinda see many of the other major cities in Iowa
have opted to adopt a local option sales tax. That purpose column kinda shows what they
use it for. Um, varies a little bit, but you can see many, um, or use either all or a portion
of it for streets. Um, that would of course be an option for council. Just kinda, that can be
really hard to contextualize what that- what that would actually do. So we wanted to put
that in context here, um, and show you, uh, what could be some pavement condition
effects if we were to implement a loss. So a lot going on in this slide too, and I'll explain
what you're looking at. So this left map is the average pavement condition score. So the
bottom line, this black line, is basically if we keep doing what we're doing, and then the
top line is if we were to enact a loss and allocate all of it to street repair. And then all the
lines in-between are now just different kinda intermediaries of that. So kinda following
that logic, if we're just keep doing what we're doing, our current pav- average pavement
condition score is about 65, and by 2035, it would drop to about 50, and then on the flip
side, if we had a loss then we put all of that lost revenue towards pavement repair, we
would actually maybe improve a little bit, go from an average score of around 60 up to
closer to 70- 65, up to close to 70.
Alter: Is there a, um, an sort of the a baseline of this is adequate, sort of, like thinking of it as a
report card in terms of that score, that either the state or whomever like.
Kilburg: Yes.
Alter: What is an acceptable score for-
Kilburg: Yeah I mean -
Alter: Roads, or is it all contingent on what other cities have?
Kilburg: Um.
Alter: Like, what's the minimum- minimumly- minimally viable or acceptable?
Kilburg: Okay -okay.
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Fruin: Well, you- you got it?
Kilburg: Yeah.
Fruin: Go a head.
Kilburg: So when that pavement condition study was done, 36 percent, um, of our road network
was rated fair, poor, or very poor. Our average was 66 and that's considered a good score.
Alter: Right. With yet a third...
Kilburg: Yeah.
Alter: ... not being hard.
Kilburg: Yeah above.
Alter: Thank you.
Kilburg: Mm-hmm.
Teague: And is the report from- I remember that report but is that from 2020?
Kilburg: 2020 Yeah.
Fruin: As you know, road conditions, uh, while we do this- this pavement score, which is kind of
the- the more scientific approach to evaluating it, largely subjective. And you- and you
hear that especially this time of year and into the spring.
Thomas: I wo- I would add- add to and we've- we've talked about this at various, uh, meetings.
You know, the- the score- the average score is the average score, but you have quite a bit
of a difference and that difference is not equitably or equally distributed throughout Iowa
City. So some people experience the poor streets more so than- than others. So there -
there is kind of an equity issue here in terms of road conditions.
Kilburg: So it's ki- just kind of what we want to- to give- to- again, to contextualize, um, you
know, as you delay road projects that can increase the costs and get into the details of
that, that second chart here, but that's showing the backlog of roads that would need work
and essentially the same trend, right? If- if we continue to fund at the levels we are, we
see a larger backlog and- and if we were to rely on a newer revenue source to- to address
some of those quicker then, um, we'd see that backlog grow much slower. So again, not a
revenue source that the council has, but just wanted something, uh, wanted us to- to hit
on that.
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Alter: Rachel, I have one other just for a point of clarification, and I don't know if this was
mandated by the state, but at least at present, if LOST were to be enacted, isn't it
something like half of it is predesignated for property tax relief?
Kilburg: For property tax relief, correct.
Right. So in addition to thinking about LOST, it's already- half of it is earmarked for something
else, correct?
Kilburg: Correct.
Alter: Yeah. Thanks.
Kilbug: Okay. Um, so that was kinds my piece on revenues. I'm gonna hand it over to Redmond.
He's gonna, uh, walk us through the expenditures.
Jones: Thank you, Rachel. Good morning Council.
Council: Good morning.
Jones: Uh, so I- I'm going to, uh, kinds help us. I'm gonna be taking us through expenditures,
debt service, uh, and, uh, some of our funds and fees. But I wanted to kind of get us into
the mind frame, uh, to think about these next slides. And as I was preparing them, uh,
kind of beckoned to one of my grad school professors who, uh, kinds started out almost
every class with, uh, the fable of the- the goose that laid the golden egg. I- I think we're
probably all familiar with that. If we- we- if we recall it was- it was a farmer who had a
goose that- that would lay a golden egg once a day. And he got in his mind and he wanted
to double his- his yield and his profits. And so he looked at ways to- to push that goose
to- to get more of a yield. And, uh, he met with- with success early on. Uh, but over time,
uh, the taxing of the goose, uh, resulted in not being able to produce any eggs on some
days and- and not even keeping up with the once a day and, uh, eventually, uh, frustrated
the- the farmer gets in his idea that obviously there's a large lump of gold inside this
goose. And so he- he decides to kill the goose in search of this large lump of gold and
eventually loses everything because there's no gold inside the goose and loses his farm
and so on. So, uh, my Professor Moody, no connection to the- the- the bond rating
agency, um, would always start out with this- with this, uh, uh, kind of parable and- and
then he would introduce, uh, nuances in that. Um, I- I think when we, you know, we're
growing up, our parents told us this kind of the- to- tell us the- the threats and- and the
dangers of- of greed. But he kinds looked at it like, you know, the- the highlight is
finding the right mix, right? And, uh, much- much like, uh, this budget and especially in
years where it gets tight, finding the right mix where it- it takes, uh, the right, uh,
investment to maximize the sustainable profitability or successful, um, service rate of
your assets. So keep- keep that in mind. I'm gonna maybe reference it as I go through, uh,
these slides. Yeah. So many different ways to do it. So, uh, so this slide, uh, I like to -
focus on our- our expenditures on these bar graphs. We- we look at our public safety, uh,
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on, you know, both sides of the grass- graph we have our, um, public safety, which make
up our police and animal control, our fire department, but also, uh, our code enforcement
and building inspections. Those things kinda get overlooked when we think about public
safety. Um, and then on the other side, obviously our business, uh, business type
activities. These are transportation, uh, water utilities, wastewater utilities and landfill.
So- so, um, you know, really, uh, important activities that the Xity does. They are kind of
a business type of enterprise and usually handled in, um, different enterprise funds. I
think the interesting part about this graph is that, you know, typically it helps us identify
how much funding is going in each one of these bars. But in reality, these aren't really co -
competing interests, right? They're actually kind of connected with each other. And if you
could step up and look at it, it would actually probably form a circle, um, be more like a
pie chart'cause they're all connected. You take away from one and perfect somewhere
else along. So going to the next slide, actual pie chart, we see how important and- and
how, uh, big our personnel, uh, cost is for the City. Obviously, this is, uh, the main driver
of our service delivery. The people who deliver that service, and obviously annual wages
are- are constantly moving and to adjust with, um, uh, market and, uh, environmental
influences, uh, cost of living adjustments and those kind of things. Pension- pensions are,
you know, growing to keep pace with those demands as well. And then, um, our health
insurance is a constant demand, and constant, um, um, driver of those costs. So
obviously, in an, um, uh, industry where service delivery is the main piece, that's gonna
make a big chunk of our- our general fund expenses. So let's take even a- a little deeper
dive and- and, um, look at, uh, these personnel costs and breakdowns and the percentage
of change that this, uh, recommended proposed budget's going to, uh, look. So in
personnel, um, with those same demands that I kinda talked about where we're going to
be looking at an increase of, uh, 3.75 percent on that. Um, I also wanted to- to also focus
in on our contingency. And- and as we get ready for expansion for our fire services with
new fire stations, uh, we're- we're putting away, you know, some funds for that so that
tho- those don't hit us real, uh, with a big impact once we move, uh, forward to- with
those- those, um, service, uh, expansions. Um, and then also our capital outlay. Um, this
is, uh, something, you know, it fluctuates based on our equipment needs. These are
usually equipment needs that are $50,000 less. Thanks. So, um, looking at our- our debt
service and, um, there's a three- three areas that we really kinda focus in on. Uh, one the -
the state of Iowa limits, uh, no more than 5% of our, uh, total assessed property value,
um, uh, to be out on- on debt. And, um, right now the city utilizes, uh, 18.3%, of that 5%,
so you know, uh, much, um, smaller number. Uh, and in addition to that, it's kind of like
a funnel, it even gets tighter. The City is also in- induced, uh, a number of internal, um,
restrictions. So even, uh, within that, um, we- we've placed on ourselves a- a 30%, um, a
restriction on our- our debt levy. So we have our assess- our assessed value and then our -
our debt levy or levy as a smaller number, we even have a- a restrictions on that and it
will even take that, um, we're right now projecting to be only around 15.8% of that
smaller number. So, um, you know, those- those- those columns really show the financial
discipline that cities, um, practiced. And it's really kinda been one of the factors that has
helped us to, um, continue to hold onto our, ah, AAA bond rating, which we just went
through a review this past November. So I also wanted to kind of take a deeper dive into
that bond rating and kinda, um, look under the hood a bit of what some of the things that
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Moody's look- looks at. Um, and- and- and they obviously, uh, Rachel covered re -
revenues and they look at our revenues. They look at our income levels, um, for our
community, um, including the household income levels, family income levels. And
compare that to, you know, relative to US averages and levels. But they- they also look at
what they call market position. And- and that's our revenue predictability, um, revenue
stability, and our asset condition and utilization. So I think this is really important, um,
particularly things like you might hear us talk about livability ratings. Um, these are
things that kind of, uh, drives people to- to our community and, um, our assets are
awarded any come and visit community, that's what they see. Are those kind of things
Moody's actually look at. And so I took- take a look and talk a little bit more about that as
my presentation continues, but, um, keep that in mind. Also, financial positions are really
important and that's, uh, the way we've managed our debt service. Our- Our fund balance
management as well, and, um, budget flexibility. Uh, so when we're looking at having
some major projects and finding ways to have multiple funds involved so it's not just a
heavily- heavily relied on on general fund. Um, that's also a positive aspect. I think we're
gonna be talking about revenue, potential for revenue, um, balances as well. So that's
going to be- keep that in mind. Another thing is, you know, is debt affordability, and this
is- this is kind of, I smile on this - I think we can almost always realize going to the bank
asking for a loan, and they say as well, you know, if you had- if you had money then we
would give you this loan. Well, if I had the money, I wouldn't probably ask you for the
loan, that kind of thing. Well, it's kinds feeds into this stuff. So having a AAA bond
rating, uh, allows us to have debt affordability. But yet it still takes all these other things
to have that debt affordability. Um, so that's, but it is something that they look at. So let's
look at this next slide really kind of talks about how rare and challenging it is to- to
maintain, especially in- in this environment a -a AAA bond rating. In the country, uh, only
about 12.4% of cities have a- a AAA bond rating. So we're certainly in a, um, a elite
group there. This even gets smaller with Iowa cities. So, uh, that number has gotten a
little smaller since last year. I think um, uh, we might recall that Cedar Rapids was a part
of that group. They- they got downgraded, uh, to a AAI, just slightly below AAA. But,
um, one of the challenges, uh, that, uh, cities have, and we kind of talked about that
utilization and asset management aspect is- is having oldor-oldor parts of town, aging
infrastructure is a challenge in managing, um, maintaining that, and- and still having, uh,
having that with all the other things that you're balancing that- that appropriate mix of
investment as sustainability right. So some communities like Clive, and I think a West
Des Moines is also in that group. Much younger communities with infrastructure that
happened- went through the test of- of aging yet, right, and how they manage that yet. So,
um, I would argue that for Iowa City to- to be in that group is even more of uh, a- a kudos
to the way we've been able to manage that balance.
Bergus: Redmond, I- I have a question about that. So the bond rating I understand- I- I'm just
hoping we can quantify what the AAA means for Iowa City as compared to a different
kind of bond rating. I understand the debt affordability piece. So that would mean if we
need to borrow money, we can maybe borrow at a lower interest rate than a city with a
different bond rating. What else does it mean like so when- when we sell bonds, we get
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better return or how- how does that all like, can we put $1 amount on [LAUGHTER] the
AAA bond rating because it's a sacred thing?
Jones: Well, you know, so the interests- the interest rate, right? So you have investors that will
buy bonds, that's municipal bonds, and so they look for safe investment, right? Just like
you would if- if you were making investment for your pension or what have you. So
having- having that, A paper, right, that highest level of safe- safety and credit worthiness
is, is, is- is viable in the sense that when you need it, you're going to- someone's going to
be there to- to -to invest in it that, right? So i- i- if you don't, um, and let's say we were
just talking about AA 1, which is also very strong paper, um, in the sense of investment.
Um, it may not meet everybody's needs. So there, there may be a group that only want
based on what their investment strategies are. They only want AAA. They- they want the
strongest. And the- they may overlook or let- let someone else seek that AAI. And so
your- your projects don't get the best rates, um, because now you're- you're kind of more
of a victim to the market and waiting for someone who is in that right spot to- to get that
level. So you kind of have more room to demand, um, better rates, better returns, better
negotiations, even in- in the whole bonding process. Um, they get better returns for the
citizens. So it- it- it's hard to say it's going to be worth this dollar. But in the process of
putting all that together, that kind of rigor that you go through to get that you're making
smart decisions along the way. And those smart, decisions are just as valuable, right? As
if you have to use that bond or not. So, um, it- it- it's a good practice. Sometimes, you
know, we may be more conservative than we would like to be. And maybe there are
certain projects that we take a little longer to attack because we're trying to think in- in
the long term, holding that bond rating, or- or at least giving ourselves the best chance to
hold that bond rating is maybe a little important than just running out and- and- and just
getting anyone that can give us money, even if it's not a great return or- or higher interest
rate or what have you, just so we can get a project done. Some might think that- that's the
way to go. But in the long term, the practice of going through and having the fiscal
discipline, like I was kinda in those fust two slides, we- we continue to press on ourselves
to be very, um, conscious with the way we spend our tax dollars. I think overall, that
helps us, um, not only in our operations but in also in the outcomes of having a strong
bond rating like a AAA.
Bergus: Thank you. If I want to get really into the weeds on that, who- who should I meet with
later? Call- okay, great. Thanks.
Jones: Well, we do have financial managers, but, you know, I- I have to- I have to make cause
even, uh, ah, um, even when we wait for that- that- that decision, if it's going to be AAA,
we- we- I almost feel there was some- some point where- where, uh, there was a question
of Alan Greenspan spending, I was, like, you know, I don't know what goes in, how they
come up with that sometimes, the formulas and everything that they use. But we try to set
ourselves up with- with the best mechanism going into the door and strong practices, you
know, GFOA, you know, budgets and those kind of things, and- and frankly, we've been
doing a good job of it, so.
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Bergus: That makes sense that it's really an aggregation of practices.
Jones: Absolutely.
Bergus: Okay.
Fruin: Yeah. And that, could just add real quick and we will- we will be happy to get in the
weeds with you on that sometime. You know, the state of the bond market will dictate the
spread on what a AAA rate is versus, uh, a AA or an A rate. Sometimes that can be very
narrow depending on the market and sometimes that could be larger. Um, one thing you
could do if you really wanted to get into the weeds is find cities with, um, lower bond
ratings and then look at their annual financial report, which will typically tell you the
interest rates that they're paying on their debt. Or- or maybe you can see that they
structured their debt differently to where they do variable rates or rate resets, and- so you
can look at just that bond structure and- and see the different risks that communities
without this rating sometimes have to take in order to finance their critical projects.
Bergus: Thank you.
Thomas: So Redmond, we- we know the you- you were saying Cedar Rapids is a AAI?
Jones: Yeah.
Thomas: Do you know what, uh, North Liberty and Coralville, where they, where they position
themselves on this?
Jones: I- I did not look, but I can- I can get that for you. Um.
Fruin: I don't believe that Coralville and North Liberty use Moody's rating system. You're not,
you're not mandated to use Moody's, um, there's other rating agencies. Moody's is
probably the- the most frequent uti- utilized by cities. But, uh, cities can use other bond
rating agencies or they cannot- they can choose not to use a- a- a bond rating agency and
do what's called a private placement bond which is basically going to the bank and
saying, will, you- you know will you fund this? So it's not a complete picture because not
all cities utilize Moody's services, but if we showed Standard & Poor's or Fitch, which are
the other rating agencies that are popular, there wouldn't be the number of cities, um,
represented in those graphs, um, and you can't really aggregate them because each have a
little bit different rating system as well.
Jones: So, um, moving on, um, so looking at our funding and fee, uh, analysis here, our
enterprise fund balances are on this slide, we- we looked at, um, was probably two- two
columns to really focus in on is the last two, but we kinda looked at our- our fund health
and this was internal review. Identifying what we would say is in good condition with a
AAA, a adequate condition at AA, and a, uh, area that needs to keep an eye on which
would be a single A. And so, uh, you will notice that we don't have any, uh, what- what
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we would consider to be AAA, um, fund status right now. Um, again, this is a reflection
of all the- the demands of inflation, uh, raising, um, project costs, but, um, also, you
know, um, revenues being flat, um, an- and things of that nature. So we- we keep an eye
on- on- no, those. I think particularly we are keeping an eye on our parking and- and
transit. Uh, those we do realize with the- the, uh potential for, uh, capital exposure or
having capital needs that will come up and also, wit- with things like riderships being -
being at low levels or not responding- coming totally back out from COVID, uh, Pre-
COVID numbers. Those-, uh, those funds we keep a real close eye on. I think also
though- is-, um, although water and, um, wastewater are at adequate levels, we also,
kinda, keep an eye on that as well, just because if something is to go wrong in those two
areas, those are very expensive operations, right? If, uh, something were to occur, even
though we- we look like it's pretty healthy say, 64% revenue with, um, um, excuse me,
with revenues and transfers and those look well, but gosh, we- we would like to see that
more like 80%. We keep an eye on those too, but that's- that's kinda what, that's like,
keeps, uh, look at. Then also tracking our, um, utility rate changes and so we- we have,
um, in this budget recommending that, uh, we have some- some rate increases here, uh, a
four percent, uh, water rate increase. This would-uh, this would be, um, increased, I think
the last time we- we've had an increase in- in water, uh, would have been in, um, 2022,
two years ago, fiscal year 2022 and, uh, before that it was, uh, a 5% increase and, ah, two
years before that it was increased 5%. So this is, you know, kinda in line with the
constant demand of, um, um, operations for our water, with, um, wastewater, um, we're
looking at a 2% increase. The last time that rate was changed was in, uh, fiscal 2009,
almost 14 years ago and at that time, they had a 5% increase, and in just a year before
that, ah, it had an 8% increase. So this is, um, actually very manageable small increase
for wastewater. Um, for refuse, um, we're, we're, um, looking at a two dollar a month
increase, uh, this service was increased $3 a month, ah, in, um, just last year, fiscal year
2023, and for stormwater we're looking at $0.50 a month increase. Um, looking at our
user fee, changes in our user fee, uh, um, charges we're, um, going to be looking at a five
dollar per month, um, on our monthly parking permits, um, this- this is, you know,
roughly we'll take, uh, um, our rates, uh, to $90 for, um, a month, uh, for our ramps and,
um, $70 for our parking lots. Uh, before- before that, ah, it was last changed in fiscal year
2018. Um, refuse, ah, our special, uh, bulky pickup items, uh, we're going to add $7.50
increase on fust item and, um, on our 24 tag rate increases that will be $13.50, uh, over
the minimum charge, ah, for a minimum charge rather. Our landfill...
Bergus: Redmond. Sorry. What is the 24-hour tag?
Jones: When you put out, um, a couch or what have you if, uh, you call, you know, you call in,
you can get a tag and put that on the couch and that's the rate. But if you have put it out
without a tag on there, then there's a much higher rate than.
Bergus: Got you.
Jones: But we'll give you a letter saying please, you need to take it and get it out. If you don't do
that, then we'll remove it, then it'd be a higher rate.
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Bergus: Increasing the fee relating to that. Okay. Thank you.
Jones: So looking at our landfill where, we we're at current rates, um, and we're not going to be
changing that. Um, however, ah, there is an exception with the minimum tipping fee, so if
you bring in things that are under that- tur- ton number, um, we- we're going to, um, be
asking, ah, for, uh, an increase of, um, $7 for Iowa City residents and $7.50 non -Iowa
City residents. Ah, and then also our- our Eastside Recycling Center hourly rate fees, uh,
$10 dollar increase for non profits, 17-, uh, $10 increase for non profits and $17.50
increase for all other, uh, all others and $20 increase for events with alcohol.
Alter: What is the current hourly? I'm sorry.
Harmsen: What was the I think it goes against the current tipping fees and the current hourly
rentals. With the current tipping minimum is $7 already, yes?
Jones: Correct.
Fruin: Yeah. So it's at the landfill, the minimum charge, again, this is mostly you're coming in
with some things in your car or your pickup truck. Um, currently $7, suggesting it goes
to- to 14 for Iowa City residents, it's 7.50 for non Iowa City residents, suggesting it goes
to 15. Um, at the East Side Recycle Center, um, currently it's only $5 an hour rental for
non profits, so $15 an hour is what we're suggesting is still very affordable, um. For
others, if you're not a nonprofit, we currently charge, uh, $12.50, um, for that, um, and
we're suggesting that that move to $30 an hour, uh, out at the Recycle Center and for
events that do have alcohol service, it's currently $40, we're suggesting it goes to $60.
And so those are those haven't been adjusted since we opened the East Side Recycle
Center. Um, there is a cost to setting up and tearing down and preparing those facilities
and even with these increases, we don't- we don't cover those expenses, but we want to
find that balance of keeping it affordable, and- and, uh, uh, making sure it's usable for a
lot of folks, but also trying to cover some of our increasing costs there.
Jones: Thank you. So our next slide, our potential revenue bonds for, er, fiscal year 2024, er, as
we look at this slide, I would like to remind council about one of the Moody factors to,
uh, financial position, the debt service management, the fund balance management, and
the budget flexibility. Er, we have two operations that are potential revenue bond, um -
um projects. One in landfill, er, where the equipment building replacement is in one of
our seriously, er, needed operations, ah, estimate right now is around 3.5 million. It's in
the planning processes and it may be, er - um, a project that allows us the flexibility to -
to add, you know some of that budget flexibility that we were kind of talking about and,
um, not put so much of - of demand on general fund. This is a landfill's enterprise. So the
enterprise, um- um, fund essentially works off of - of its - that enterprises ability to - to
conduct this business activity, raise its own funds, so it can be a, you know separate
bonded, um, activity, which would essentially be a revenue bond, so based on those
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revenues as opposed to a GO bond or general purpose bond. So this - this allows - this
allows us to diversify some of those, um - um, debt management issues related to getting
that investment for, um, that needed operation. Um, but until we go through that process,
you never really know if that's going to require tipping fee increase or what might need to
do for that - that actual revenue to support that particular bond, so that's kind of part of
the process. So that's why we say it may be a potential. Um, similar with Wastewater, the
budget recommends 214 million dollar revenue bonds in 2024. One, would be for a
digester complex rehab, and two, digester gas capture and reuse project. Both projects are
in the planning phase as well, um, and may have opportunity for some federal grants to
participate in the - in the gas project. And again, when looking at these potential projects,
the revenue drives what exactly is that that bond will require and that could involve rate
increases. So those two projects, again, the merits certainly makes sense to utilize, er, the
revenues. We don't have any revenue bonds at this point, but this could be one of the
approach from both of these projects are either or. And looking at, um, so what all this
means as far as, you know, I'm - I'm sure our listeners want to know what this means for
our property tax levels and we utilize this slide to kind of visualize the impact on property
taxpayers. Er, utilizing $100,000 adjustment, you know is just used as an estimate per
household. And on - on every, you know, valuation of your home and $100,000 clicks,
we - we anticipate the changes would be an increase of $35 a year. So roughly $2.91 a
month base per $100,000 of valuation of your property. Um, looking at the same thing for
our, uh, fee - our fee users or user fees, using the same adjusted home value, a number of
$100,000. We're talking about an additional $91 a year, uh, or $7.58 a month, again,
based on your home value of $100,000 and you can make the adjustments based on your
actual individual case. But, um, yeah this is just a breakdown and you can see each one of
those fund - user funds and how they break down roughly at 4.4% increase from our
previous year.
Fruin: Okay, Thanks, Redmond. Thanks, Rachel. I'm going to take us home with the final
portion of the presentation this morning and largely shift from that big picture to talk
about some of the - the expenditures, just, uh, specifically those that align with your
strategic plan and other adopted master plans.
Teague: I have one question before you proceed. For the bond, do - is there an amount that we
currently have bonded out that we can see? Do we have?
Fruin: Our current general obligation, um, debt, finance staff have that 56, 60, about 60 million,
but we'll get - we'll get you an exact number.
Teague: Okay.
Harmsen:: Mr. Mark, can we do a five-minute break before we jump into this next section?
Teague: We certainly can.
Harmsen: That will be okay?
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Teague: We're going to do a five-minute and then we'll come back to you. Alright. Thanks
Alright. We're going to continue with our council budget work session with Geoff Fruin,
our City Manager.
Fruin: Alright. Thank you, mayor. So we're going to talk about investment in your strategic plan
and - and core services along with other adopted master plans. And I want to start this
with just a quick review of our American Rescue Plan Act or ARTA funds. As you heard
from Rachel and Redmond, It's — It's a tight budget and -and even looking ahead, we've
got some caution flags in front of us, so we have to be careful with how aggressive we
get with our local discretion - uh, discretion and funds. Uh, what's nice is we do have
ARPA funds to achieve a lot of our strategic goals. And I think council did a nice job of
aligning ARPA priorities with your values and your strategic plan. So I'm not going to go
through the slide in great detail because we just had a work session on it in December.
But the, er, column on the left shows what we've allocated for ARPA totaling just over 5
million. And on the right shows you some of the things that we're working on right now,
including an eviction prevention or housing stability contract that'll be coming to you on
Tuesday which, er, comes in just over $1 million. You're also familiar that we're currently
taking applications for the social service capital funding grant program there. So a lot of
ARPA expenditures are expected to continue in the 12 months ahead. Okay. Strategic
plan. Remember, we have values and impact areas and resources. So I'm gonna touch on
these fairly quickly, uh, for time sake here this morning. Uh, if I don't cover anything,
feel free to slow me down and uh, we can talk more. But we wanted to give you some
examples of how we're uh, how we have funds allocated uh, to- to address, uh, each of
those areas that are highlighted in your strategic plan. So when it comes to social justice,
racial equity, and human rights, um, hopefully, you will see, ah, a lot of, uh, those efforts
embedded in- in our departments and our programming. You'll see it in the library
budget, in the Parks budget, in the Senior Center budget and so on. Ah, but we also have
um, specific funds like our social justice and racial equity grant program. You may recall
that council increased that from 75,000-100,000 back in fiscal year'22. This budget
maintains that $100,000 grant program. I'd also highlight that fust, uh, item as well. We
still have, uh, approximately one million from the Black Lives Matter initiatives um,
that's largely been waiting on the uh, TRC consulting contract to come to you, which uh,
we're actively working on, and should be uh, in front of you uh, here in the next month or
two. As we look at climate action, just a reminder that your climate action uh, operation
is funded in two different ways. Your staff is funded uh, within the general fund. And
then most of the programming dollars is funded by your emergency property tax levy.
That's a 20 cent levy that we uh, have allocated the last few years. It generates about
$850,000 a year. And that's paying for a lot of the programs that you're seeing as rolling
out, whether that's grant programs, um, the Climate Ambassador Programs, Root for
Trees, those types of things, are all funded from that emergency levy dollar. We're
making great progress with our Climate Action Plan. We're tackling a lot of the projects
that were identified in the Accelerated Actions Report. Um, some of the things I'll- I'll
mention for our fiscal year'24. We'll be looking at uh, residential energy efficiency and
electrification rebate programs. We'll continue the Climate Action Grant program. We'll
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continue a lot of outreach activities. I think our staff has done a phenomenal job of just
doing outreach in building th- the education uh, base uh, within neighborhoods. So
Neighborhood Energy Blitz, our Ambassador Program, uh, looking at launching our
Resilience Corps, uh Root to Trees, Climate Fest, those types of things are all funded in
this budget. Um, a lot of other similar to the, the last slide, a lot of other climate action
initiatives are also funded within individual department budgets. Uh lastly, partnerships
and engagement. Uh, these are just a few examples on the screen here of how we've tried
to increase partnerships and engagement uh, in the last few years. Really uh, happy with
the, um, the efforts of- of all our departments to get out more, whether that's uh,
additional Party in the Park uh, or Rec N' Roll events in neighborhood parks, whether
that's uh, public safety, police and fire events. We have Library, Senior Center, uh, and a
whole number of other options uh- uh operations that are really, uh working to get more
outwardly facing. I'll mention public art. You've seen a lot more public art been pushed
out into the neighborhoods in the last few years. Again, very reflective of this
partnerships and engagement model uh, that's identified in your strategic plan. As we turn
to the impact areas, we'll start with neighborhoods and housing. This budget continues to
provide one million dollars uh, to the Fffordable Housing Fund, that's from their general
fund to your affordable housing fund. We continue to uh earmark $3,000 to support the
winter homeless shelter and $30,000 to also uh, uh co -fund the street outreach position
uh, with the Shelter House. As noted earlier, your ARPA funds, we have 3.5 million
targeted for affordable housing initiatives. That does include the roughly $1.1 million
contract, uh, again, that you'll be considering at your meeting on Tuesday night. Uh, the
budget does include $150,000, uh, for the first year of a consultant to help us through
comprehensive, uh, plan change. This was identified again in your- in your strategic plan.
Uh, a comprehensive plan overhaul is going to take multiple years and it's going to take a
lot more than $150,000. It's probably going to take two or three times that amount
depending on uh, the level of, uh, services that we- we look at, but this- this budget does
provide a- a start for us down that process. We have increased the Neighborhood PIN
Grant five, uh- uh 25 percent, uh, in this budget to- to take that to $25,000. And our staff
is currently working on re -configuring that grant program a little bit. Uh, that's something
we'll be talking to you about uh, here, uh, in probably the first or second quarter of, uh,
2023.
Alter: Geoff, can I ask, um, what is the total amount for that street outreach, uh, position? You
said 30K is coming from the City.
Fruin: Yeah. I uh, I don't- I don't exactly know that it is- it is not a City position, it's a Shelter
House uh, managed position, so I don't know the full salary and benefits that they're
paying that uh, position. Um, I think it's something we can follow up and- and let you
know. I would- I would expect it's maybe- maybe close to a 50/50 cost share. Um, but -
but I could verify that.
Alter: Thank you.
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Fruin: Dig a little bit deeper into affordable housing. Um, uh, this is a good reference slide for
the future as well. But on the left-hand side, you see some statistics from fiscal year' 18-
'22, we invested approximately 10.7 million in affordable housing initiatives, which
assisted 1,771 units. And this does not include our- our federal voucher uh, program or
things like workforce, housing, tax credits. Well, we've leveraged 5.7 million in outside
funding with these dollars. That's through the low-income housing tax credit program.
And we expect to leverage 9.5 million more in this program, ah, in this current fiscal year
that we're in, and that's what the, uh, the next senior housing project, ah, that was
awarded state funds, uh, that will be located out on Rochester/Herbert Hoover area next
to the existing NEX, that's N E X Litech project out there. Uh, the majority of our funds
do get funneled through to the housing trust fund of Johnson County and they distribute
those primarily as loans. And that's important, it's very low interest loans. But
nonetheless, that principle that's coming back to them, uh, so that these affordable
housing funds don't just impact the- the one unit. Uh, they're impacting multiple units, uh,
over the long haul. The formula on the right is just to show how we distribute that one
million dollars, uh, annually that you set aside for affordable housing dollars. Moving on
to the next slide, uh, one of our key strategies with affordable housing was not to be too
reliant on property taxes. Knowing that there's only so much of the property tax we can -
we can do without impacting service levels. We wanted to make sure we were developing
new revenue streams so, um, the green highlights are- are, um, uh important information
for you to know. Tthrough the Riverfront Crossings, uh, affordable housing, uh,
provisions, we've collected almost four million dollars to date, uh, in fee in lieu dollars.
Uh, we did one TIF, uh, to- to uh, increase discretionary affordable housing dollars. That
was on the Foster Road project with the senior housing, uh, development on that Foster
Road extension. We still expect that to generate about 2.7 million over 10 years that we
can deploy to affordable housing projects throughout the city. And then, uh, when we do
have TIF projects, we do, uh, sometimes consider fee in lieu for affordable housing. We
did that with the Downtown Nest project. We collected $1.8 million up front, uh, from
that project and that's uh, we use th- the vast majority of that, about 1.6 million, to
purchase the eight duplex units in the South District which are part of that
homeownership program. So just a couple of examples of how we can generate
substantial revenue through other ways, uh, outside of property tax. So we look at uh,
mobility. Um, we have uh, an uh, EV charger installation rebate program that's already
been rolled out. We'll continue to- to do what we can to promote EV readiness in this
community. Uh, one of the larger decisions that will face the council in the fust half of
2023 is our fare -free transit analysis and- and decision. We're gonna be presenting you
with, uh, kind of a financial outlook, uh, on the transit fund and uh, showing you what we
can and can't do when it comes to expanding that service level um, and- and uh,
hopefully presenting a path forward, uh, to a pilot that would include fare -free transit. So
um, uh, that's uh, a major decision coming before council, but could be a significant, uh,
service enhancement for this community.
Alter: Geoff, this is um, just more like a, I don't know, bookmark -it type of thing for a discussion
later on. But the relationship between that monitoring slide that we had, which was
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transit, was one of them that was of concern in relation to this. So in that may well be
folded into the plan, the- the analysis part?
Frain: Yeah, that's- that's a great point. It's- it's in somewhat why we're- we've- we've really
taken some time to try to uh, bring this discussion to you. Um, there's a lot of variables
going on. Uh, both with the operation and the funding sources in transit, we're still not
seeing that full COVID recovery, uh, which was mentioned earlier, which is impacting
ridership numbers, which impacts revenue numbers. Um, in the same breath, we've
received a lot of federal relief funds. Those are one-time relief funds. Uh, so really what
we have the ability to do is, is probably a couple of years of fare -free, uh, on the backs of
a lot of the federal relief funding. Um, the larger decision for council is going to be how
to sustain that over time. Because if you strip out those one-time funds, we- we have
some- some pretty concerning trends in the transit operations. So we just have to go into
this knowing if we wanna do the fare -free, and we don't have a sustainable funding
source for that now, but we can do a pretty robust pilot and see the- the value that it
provides the community. It does put some pressure on that future council, uh, when that
time comes to say that we're gonna need another revenue source to continue this.
Alter: Thanks.
Frain: You can see some of the capital improvement programs, we'll touch more on those on, uh,
Wednesday with the CIP review, um, but a lot of great, uh, mobility projects impacting,
um, pedestrian access, uh, and- and bus ridership there. I want to talk a little bit about our
Bike Master Plan implementation. Hopefully, you've seen us, uh, each year, uh, continue
to build out our- our bicycle infrastructure in the community. 2023 and 2024 will be
extremely busy years for us, we have a lot of exciting projects. So I'll highlight a couple.
We do have bike lanes, uh, that are planned on, uh, Southgate and Sunset. Uh, we'll also
have bike lanes on Keokuk after a 4 to 3 lane conversion from Highway 6 down to
Sandusky, so a lot of good work in the South District there. Uh, we're also building out
the Highway 6 pedestrian trail right- right now, and that project will be complete next
year. Uh, a few other projects to note that we expect this next year. On the west side, we
have, um, the Benton Street resurfacing, which when done will include, uh, bike lanes.
Uh, the Rochester project will include bike lanes and then will be upgrading the bike
lanes on Market and Jefferson to- to make those a little bit more comfortable and add a
buffer into those as well. So we continue to work for that gold bicycle -friendly status, and
I think we're making pretty good headway. Um, Rachel had talked about our road
funding a little bit earlier. I just want to touch base and show that maybe in a little bit
different way too. So we- we fund our roads kind of through, you can think of it through
two different ways. We have our annual road kind of maintenance program, we do some
in-house, but we do that resurfacing. And that's when you see them kind of peel the top
layer off the street in town and they put that fresh layer on top, uh, that's our- that's our
rehab program, or sometimes it's concrete replacement. Um, this funding graph shows
where we're at, so you can see we've kind of settled in about- they're two million dollars
per year, that's kind of our sweet spot that we can afford. Um, the pavement management
plan, uh, recommends that we need about 9-10 million dollars per year to really keep that,
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um, uh, tha- that condition index, uh, flat or where it needs to be there. So, uh, we just
have to recognize that through our annual maintenance program, we're not able to keep
up, and most cities do not- are not able to keep up here, but that's- that's a pretty
significant gap that we just need to keep- keep thinking about. Road use tax is going to be
pretty stagnant, we're not going to see any bumps in that. Rachel explained we kinda got
a bump with census, but then it's kinda flat going forward there, especially as vehicles
become more fuel efficient. Uh, the other way we look at funding roads is through our,
uh, uh, General Obligation Bonding. So that's the next slide here that, um, is going to
show you, uh, some of the major road improvements that we have coming up, but, uh,
when a road, uh, needs full reconstruction, similar to what we're doing on Rochester, we
pretty much tear everything out and then rebuild it. It's a lot more costly, it's a lot more
disruptive to the community, and, uh, it also competes with other needs. So these are
some examples of- of larger capital projects, uh, in CIP that we'll talk about on
Wednesday, uh, that we are bonding for. So we can't use road use tax and we ca- we can't
really afford to do these projects with road use tax. As a result, uh, we- we utilize, uh,
general obligation bonds. Um, as you know, we levy a property tax to pay those bonds
back. So if we're spending more on roads, were not able to spend as much on parks, on
trails, on public facilities, on quality of life initiatives, and that's one of the concerns we
have. If we're not able to increase road funding, uh, not only do the roads deteriorate but
then there's more competition for those- those funds and we're not able to do as much on
the quality of life side of things as well. So something that we continue to monitor, and -
and that you all need to keep in mind going forward as well. But we'll- we'll dive deep
into these projects on Wednesday. When we look at the economy and other- one of your
impact areas and your strategic plan, a few things to highlight. We do have $50,000
budgeted for the BIPOC business accelerator and the ESL supplemental funding for
Kirkwood. So that's 50,000 total, $25,000 each to those programs, uh, those directly align
with not only your impact area here but certainly your values as well. We do have, uh,
other funding within our economic development program to support local arts, culture,
and tourism, uh, venues, um, and, uh, have some discretionary funds to provide, uh,
technical assistance, small grants, and those types of things. So for example, last year we
rolled out the targeted small business grant program that was through our discretionary
funds. And each year we try to, uh, identify needs in the community, understanding the
councilors' values and vision, and- and deploy those, uh, in a- in an appropriate way.
ARPA is going to help us a lot. Again, as we talk about childcare, uh, and looking at that
wage supplement program that the County and others are working on, uh, we'll be able to
really, uh, help our economy and our worst- workforce through a contribution to that
program. As we look at the safety and well-being, uh, components here, a few things to
point out. Um, we are going to, uh, actively start promoting, uh, 988 through, uh, some -
some paid advertisements in this coming year, and we'll do that certainly in cooperation,
uh, with our partners at community. Uh, on Tuesday's agenda, you'll be asked to consider
funding for a second mental health liaison, that is a community employee that works
directly within our police department to enhance the services, uh, and follow up in our
community. Uh, we have, um, uh, some- some dollars set aside for proactive vehicle
repair activities. Again, this is something that I think Councilor Taylor and others have
suggested that, uh, while the Bulbs Program is nice, it does require a traffic stop, and- and
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then we provide those vouchers. So this is taking that one step further to say let's kinda
like the child seat checks that we do at our- at our fire department. Um, this could be one
in which we just invite the public to come, we can help inspect those cars and then
provide some financial assistant to- to- to take care of any repairs that are- that are found
so in a non kindof enforcement setting. Uh, we do increase the Aid to Agency's budget
three percent, uh, with this budget as well. Uh, moving on to Parks and Rec. Uh, we
continue to remain- remain very busy on the park side, very aggressive in updating our
parks. Uh, this year is actually going to be a little bit more aggressive than you even we
thought last year. And what's happening is with some of those pressures on our CHP
projects, as- as projects got more expensive, we had to take a couple of the bigger
projects and move them back, we couldn't afford them all in a given year. So what's -
what's happened is some of the expensive projects have moved back, uh, and then we're
able to take some of the smaller projects and move them forward. So a number of smaller
projects are moving forward in your CIP, and uh, you can see a list of the upcoming
projects there on the slide, on the second portion of that slide. So those are all projects
that we plan to, uh, hopefully, tackle in 2023. Some may carry over to 24, uh, but again,
you've got projects nearly in every corner of the town, um upgrading current facilities.
All right. Uh, the strategic plan resources piece. So a key component of your strategic
plan is recognizing that, uh, not only do we want to move the needle on those important
issues that we just talked about, but we have to be good stewards of our core services as
well. We have to make sure that our core services are being delivered not only today but
for future generations. So how are we setting up future generations of City staff and
Council so that they can continue to- to, uh, deliver the services that are needed for this
community. A big piece of that is the on the facility side of things. It's something that
we've been aggressively working towards, uh, uh, since really 2019. Uh, but this is really
a fund that was created to, uh, address the needs of a growing community. Many of our
facilities have not been, um, expanded or upgraded since the 70s or 80s, and our
population has grown quite a bit and service demands have grown quite a bit. Uh, these
projects not only help us deliver services, but they also provide a safer, healthier
workforce- a workplace for our- for our employees. And that's something we- we
certainly need to consider going forward, especially in a- in a much more competitive
labor market. We have to make sure that we are providing, uh, safe, healthy workspaces,
uh for our employees. So the graph to- the table to the right, excuse me, shows what
we've been able to set aside, uh, in- in this facility reserve fund. Um, and, uh, the planned
uses then are there on the left. And we'll go through these again on Wednesday, these are
more on the capital projects side of things. But a couple of things to note with this slide,
the- the numbers that you see on the left side, those aren't project costs necessarily. That's
just the- how much the facility reserve is budgeted to pay into those projects. So, um, you
might look at something like the equipment maintenance facility and say, well, that's only
a million -dollar facility. Well, it's probably actually closer to a 15 million dollar facility,
we're just only planning to use one million from this one to support that. So, uh, this is
one tool that we have, the facility reserve fund, but it's- it's, uh, not the only tool we're
relying on to- to fund, uh, new facilities, uh, here.
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Alter: Geoff, I have a question about the facility reserve. Are those funds like from a particular
revenue source typically or is the aggregate, sort of surplus at the end of the year, or how
do we find the money.
Fruin: Yeah, we've- we've largely been utilizing surpluses, uh, to do this. So as- as, um, we come
in stronger than projected at the end of the year, uh, we transfer funds into, uh, both the
emergency reserve and the facilities reserve. So, um, if you looked at the fiscal year 24
budget, there is no transfer to the fa- to the- to the facilities reserve. Uh, what we'll do is
towards the end of the year, we'll look at our year-end position, and anything we can
afford to put in here will be put in here.
Bergus: But is- is it general fund?
Fruin: It's general fund.
Bergus: Okay. Thank you.
Fruin: Yeah. Okay. Uh, there's a lot of other facility projects that are being funded outside of the
facility reserves. So just want to highlight those as well. We know that the transit
building replacement is our top facility priority right now. Uh, Redmond had talked about
the landfill equipment building and the wastewater digest complex. Uh, a number of
other projects listed there. I just wanna make sure that- that you know, um, kind of the
breadth of facility needs, uh, here. Um, it's pretty extensive and we'll take some- some
discipline. Uh, but again, this is one of those responsibilities, I think as a- as a council
and- and senior staff, we not only have to look at today's services and how we're
providing those, but we have to make sure we're setting up the future and we need to
really focus on facilities to set up the future of service delivery. Outside of facilities, we
have almost five million dollars budgeted over the next few years for fire apparatus
replacements. Uh, a few of those are- are actually already, uh, on order right now. It is
almost a two-year process by the time you order to time, ah, ah, um, a fire engine is
delivered. So, um, uh, and we're seeing that a lot with all of our- our vehicle orders. Just
a lot taking a lot longer to- to procure vehicles for our operations. Uh, we're continuing
our asset management program implementation. And then we're moving forward this
fiscal year with our pedestrian mall camera system. This is replacing the existing camera
system down there right now that the Iowa ci- Iowa City Downtown District manages
and- and placing that newer network into the- the- the improvements that were built along
with the pedestrian mall rehab project a few years ago. Uh, when we look at people, uh,
this budget does recommend 9.5 new, uh, full-time employees, and I wanna walk you
through those. I'm going to start at the bottom of this chart. Uh, we have two positions
that would be funded with outside funds. Um, you've already approved one of those,
which is that volunteer program assistant at the animal center. The Animal Center
Foundation is reimbursing the city for the cost of that position. Uh, similarly, our
Housing Authority would like to add a family self-sufficiency coordinator. Uh, and that
can be paid 100 percent through federal dollars from, uh, Department of Housing and
Urban Development. So no- no impact on, uh, the City's budget with those two, uh,
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however, we'll- we'll greatly enhance services and both of those operations. Um, the next
few working from the bottom, uh, cover landfill, water, uh, uh, parking. Uh, those are our
enterprise funds. So again, the fees from those operations would be paying for these
positions. Uh, but these are- are positions, uh, that are directly responding to some- some
acute needs. You can see in the landfill, we had almost 2,000 hours of overtime, uh, in
fiscal year 22. Uh, not a sustainable operation for our staff out there, uh, so an additional
Maintenance Worker 1, which is really a frontline worker on the landfill, will help, uh,
provide some additional staffing support there.
Alter: Does that have anything to do is there a relationship between that and the fact that we've
just approved for expanding the landfill at all?
Fruin: No- no, that's not, uh, not necessarily. Um, it's just the volume of- of- of work that's
coming in there. Um, you know, everything from, uh, composting operations to the
smaller vehicle pickups. But you just have a growing community too. And- and
remember, our landfill serves all of Johnson County. So as you hear about growth in
Tiffin and North Liberty and Coralville that's impacting the landfill and then the volumes
that are coming in there.
Alter: Image of, you know, the valliant worker having to like...
Fruin: Yeah.
Alter: ... stave off.
Fruin: You know, on the water side, uh, again, it's just, uh, uh, I think our systems growing, our
customers are growing. Uh, this is gonna help us, uh, respond more to, um, increased
demand, uh, and we have a lot of meter, uh, exchanges that are needed over the next
several years. So this is a frontline of water distribution staff person that can help
alleviate some- some of the pressures. Parking Enforcement Attendant..um, you've -
you've heard, uh, over the past few years- past few years really calls we're actually, uh,
being asked to enforce more frequently, particularly blockages of bike lanes and- and
loading zone violations, uh, things of that nature. So an additional Parking Enforcement
Attendant will help us, um, cover those areas a little bit- a little bit better than we're able
to right now. The Asset Management Position is funded from multiple funds, but, uh, this
will help us, uh, um, keep that ba- you know, foundational, um, data set. So our asset
management system is- is what kind of codes our-,uh, all the assets that we have on the
street, whether you're talking street signs, fire hydrants, stop boxes, uh, wastewater
infrastructure like manholes and things like that, this is kind of geographically, um, based
system that helps us manage, uh, all of those assets. And on- on the back end, we need
that person to really be that- that data steward, so that we know that, um, we have good
data that- that then informs our operations. The top three would be your general fund, um,
positions. These are where the budgets the tightest, but also where I think we have some -
some very acute needs and we'll start with two firefighter positions. Um, we have record
calls for service in our firefight- in our firefighting operation again. Uh, in fiscal year
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2022, we have some significant overtime numbers accumulating, uh, in the fire
department, uh, as well. And we also want to make sure that we're preparing for, uh, the
planned, um, opening of Station 5, which in the CIP we have construction, I believe in
2027. So, uh, there's a couple of ways you can go about doing that. You can wait until
that station opens, and then you can, uh, hire all the staff necessary at that time. Um, what
I'm working on with Chief Lyon is kind of a gradual, uh, move, so we can hire a couple
of firefighters early, and that's what we're suggesting here. Allow them to- to get into the
operation, learn the operation, alleviate some of the pressures on the current staff. But
ultimately, these two staff members will count towards the staffing of Station 5 when that
comes. So it provides some- some immediate relief for current operations, but also gets
us ahead of the game in building towards the opening of that- of that station. In the police
department we're looking at one -and -a -half, uh, positions. Uh, the Sexual Assault
Investigator position, uh, is something that, uh, we think is- is a- a very critical, uh, in
order to maintain our service, uh, level to victims. Uh, right- in- in, uh, fiscal year, um,
2021, I'm sorry, I think it's probably calendar year 21, we had 642 hours of overtime on
sexual assault investigations alone. And, uh, this year, that number went down a little, but
still 588 hours. I'm sorry, that's for- that's in 2022 in- in sexual assault investigations. So
an additional officer that would be assigned to the Investigations Division would, uh,
help us cut down on those overtime hours, and, uh, not only help the burnout issue that
we could have with investigations, um, but also provide a higher level of service, uh, to-
uh, to- to victims in our- in our community. The Civilian Accreditation Manager, this is
actually on your agenda Tuesday. Uh, we're not only recommending this new position for
fiscal year 24, but because of a retirement and the timing of filling the position, we- we
think it's advantageous to move ahead right now. This is a half-time non -sworn position
that would take over the management of our accreditation program. So accreditation is,
um, looking at best practices, uh, throughout the- throughout the country when it comes
to policing in different policies, um, documenting our compliance with those best
practices. Um, that can be done by a civilian employee. It's currently done by a sergeant
in the police department. So we'd like to civilianize that aspect of the operation. And
again, because of her retirement, we're suggesting, uh, that we tackle that one, uh, early,
uh, right now. So we'll talk more about that on Tuesday night. You'll hear from Chief
Liston on that one. So that's the people side of things. Uh, as we move to the financial
resources, uh, we are looking at two transfers in fiscal year 23. One to the emergency
reserve of 258,000, we're just over five million dollars in your emergency reserve. And
you can see the anticipated uses of those emergency reserves. Uh, I would argue that, uh,
these emergency reserves are- are probably more critical now than they have been in the
last few years, uh, because of the unknown with property tax reform. And one of the
reasons we created the emergency, uh, reserve was to, uh, help us, um, get through any
property tax reform without having to really severely cut any services,uh, would allow us
to more gradually. So if- if the property tax reform that is passed this year, if there is
reform and if it's severe, uh, we can use these funds to help soften that blow and- and
allow us two or three years to transition to whatever that new normal will be, uh, when it
comes to property taxes. So like to see, uh, this fund continued to- to remain at that 5-6
million dollar range for that purpose. We talked about the facility reserves and- and we'll -
we'll evaluate whether we can afford any transfers to these two funds with fiscal year 24,
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um, in about a year from now. So, uh, this budget does not specifically identify transfers
to either of those two funds. Okay. Down to the last couple of slides here, looking ahead
next year's budget. Kindof sounding like a little bit of a broken record here, but we're just
going to have to wait and see. It's a little nerve wracking because we don't- we don't
know what that reform will look like. We don't know what that residential rollback
number will be until next November. Um, and we're really unsure of what the
inflationary pressures will be on the city. Uh, so we- we're going to have to just be- be
kind of cautious and careful, uh, with- with how we administer this budget. Uh, Rachel
talked a little bit about tax base and some of the concerns there. If we don't see an
increase in our tax base in the next- in- in the next year or two, if we stay at that one or
two percent growth in tax base, we- we're not going to be able to sustain our operations,
uh, as they are now. So for example, when we review your capital pro- your capital
program, um, we're projecting bonding more than our tax -based can- can support at the
current rate right now in some of those out years. So we either need to get that tax rate to
grow up, uh, to- to- to bolster up, or we're going to have to scale back our capital
improvement program, or choose to increase the - the rate that we're- a- are- are levy rate.
So something that we'll- we'll keep in mind there. But really for the council and the
community to understand that the- the growth of our tax base is what funds our
operations. And if you want to see more funding to police, to fire, to social services, to
parks, to- to any one of those operations, we have to grow our tax base. And we're just
seeing that growth rel- being relatively slow out of COVID. So we really need to- to
hopefully see that bounce back in the coming- in the coming years. We are going to have
to watch utility rates. Um, the- the utility rates that Redmond reviewed were a little bit
more than we've done in the past. And- and that's largely because of the inflationary
pressure on those budgets. Um, we'd like to, you know, scale those back, uh, in the future
and not have two or three rate increases at once. But we'll just have to see what those, uh,
what that kind of economic inflation, um, looks like going forward. Uh, and I think the
last bullet points we've- we've covered pretty extensively in here. Um, final thoughts, our
last slide here, we do, um, we do present a budget that- that does navigate this cliff year
in multi residential. You heard the- the huge impact that that has on our budget, the
backfill phase out, the inflationary pressures. We're able to do that without increasing our
tax rate, without really, uh, decreasing service levels. That's- that- I'm pretty proud of
that. Um, we just don't know if it's sustainable over the next couple of years. We do, uh,
advance a lot of your strategic plan priorities, leaning heavily on ARPA for that, but
there's also evidence of that throughout the department budgets. And I'm- I'm proud to
put forward a budget that does recommend a number of new front-line positions in the
areas where I think we need them most. It does not, uh, come close to kind of covering I
think the needs, uh, that you have and all of your departments. I think everyone in the
department heads that comes before you today, will probably- could probably articulate
the need for new staff and how new staff could help service levels. Uh, I- I would love to
provide more in a recommendation to- to support those requests. But what I've put
forward here is I think where those staffs are needed the most and where service levels
are most at risk of kind of falling- uh, falling below expectations. So happy to answer any
questions. I thank you for listening to the three of us for a long time this morning. Um,
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the next steps would be to go through, uh, the department budgets, uh, if- if you don't
have questions.
Alter: I do have one. And it's just a- a recap question. Um, you were talking about the FY25. You
know, so what are the things that we need to be thinking about and you we're talking
obviously about the need to increase the tax base, um, to support our operations. And you
said otherwise, the options are- and you've provided three of them. One was to increase
the tax levy, the other was that we don't do as much in terms of we have to scale back
our- our CIP. And then what was the third? I missed that.
Fruin: You're reducing service levels at some point.
Alter: Yeah, for the worst-case.
Fruin: Your'e underfunding operations. Yeah.
Alter: Thank you.
Teague: Any other questions for Geoff? All right. We're going to move on to, um, program
budgets. So we're going to start with our City Attorney fust.
Goers: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So switching hats from sitting in on all the matters that you do to
wearing my hat as department head. The fust of many you'll hear from, um, throughout
the day. Uh, as you know, um, the City Attorney's Office does almost all the cities legal
work in-house. That separates us from the city attorney departments of a number of other
cities, um, who do a good deal of contracting out to private counsel and so forth. We take
some pride in- in handling almost all matters- legal matters in, uh, -house. There are
certainly matters that we do, uh, go to outside counsel for support. One is if there's a
conflict, if we have a, you know, police officer or other- other employee, uh, who needs
independent counsel as part of a lawsuit so we of course, have to hire outside counsel for
that. We certainly also reach out to, uh, outside firms, uh, for areas of particular expertise
that we lack, like immigration law or a bond council, uh, work- work really on that,
work-related, worker's compensation matters like that. But again, we do- the vast
majority of the cities legal work we handle in house. Um, you've of course got a long day
ahead of you, and our budget is pretty simple, so my presentation, you'll be pleased to
hear is brief.
Teague: And please give us the, uh, the nu- uh, page numbers.
Goers: Sure. So the budget introduction starts on page 48 of your packet. Um, and then the
budget information, uh, itself, the- the detail, uh, is on page 336 of- of the packet. Uh, the
structure of the City Attorney's Office is pretty simple. We don't have any divisions
within our department, and we just have seven employees totaling 6.5 FTE as we have
one attorney who is halftime. Um, you'll note that the budget, uh, particularly as you look
at it on page 336, shows 5.5 FTE, not 6.5. That's because Liz Craig in my office is paid
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out of the tort liability levy due to her primary focus on tort litigation and the, uh, more
healthy tort levy fund. We frankly just have more funding available there than we do in
the general fund. And so years ago that was a change in that- an earlier finance director
made. And we've been doing that ever since for budgetary reasons. Our budget
excluding, uh, Liz Craig, is for this next fiscal year as proposed at $914,555, of which 94
percent is personnel costs. We don't need a lot of equipment or don't do much other than
doing the work ourselves. Um, our lawyers are highly experienced, uh, not only in the
practice of law generally, but with the City specifically. Our- our least experienced
lawyers are in their 17th year of practice this year. I'm in my 26th year and Sue Dulek,
our fust assistant, is in her 37th year of the practice of law. We average, uh, within the
office 23 years in practice, and 14 years with the City. Uh, this year we lost our
Administrative Secretary to retirement, uh, but we're fortunate enough to gain Becky
Passivant who we stole from the police department. Um, she is new to our office, but it is
in her 26th year with the City. She'd previously been in Parking and then with the police
department before coming to us and we're thrilled to have her. Our Legal Assistant, Mary
McChristie uh, celebrated uh, 30 years with the City uh, last January. Uh, our proposed
budget uh, for next fiscal year increases by 46,000- approximately $46,000, uh, 50,000 of
which is in personnel cost, which is calculated by finance. You might say, well, hold on,
how can 50,000 of that $46,000 increase? That doesn't sound like that makes sense and
the reason for that is that we had an additional $50,000 in personnel costs budgeted this
year, but cut the remainder of our budget by approximately $4,000, um, to keep things in -
in check. Um, so that's largely it, um, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you folks
may have.
Teague: No questions for you. Thank you so much.
Goers: Thank you.
Fuin: And Mayor and Council, with your permission, I'd suggest we- we skip over the City
Clerk, City Manager, and Finance budgets and- and tackle those at the end since we'll be
here all day with you.You've got the department heads starting to line up and -and I think
we can jump into public safety if that's okay with you.
Teague: I think we're good with that. All right. So we'll jump into public safety and other staff
just hold on. We're going to start with the police department. And we're going to
welcome Chief Liston.
Liston: Thank you. Uh, Dustin Liston, Chief of Police. Uh, one of the things that occurred to me,
this is my second, uh, budget process. I started the day after- two days after the budget
process, uh, two years ago so I felt very fortunate for that. But when I showed up to the
fust process, I was wearing a suit and tie and I walked in with the former fire chief who
was a very short -timer at the time and I think he was in gym clothes. So I think what
happens is as you get more used to the process kind of a little more comfortable. And I
was going to tell the new fire chief that it was a black -tie event but I didn't. So um,
another thing. This morning my wife reminded me that we had a grocery pickup order at
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eight o'clock and I said, oh, I'll have plenty of time because they have this- they're going
to be picking the finalists. So when I was in line to pick up my groceries, I looked at- I
saw the mayor uh, wrapping up that session. So I- I congratulate you on your efficiency
on that so I'm sure everyone else is pretty appreciative of that too. Um, the budget starts
on I think it's 112 and then 348. Uh, the Iowa City Police Department is currently
authorized 84 sworn and 27 and a half non -sworn positions. The department, as you all
are aware, consists of two divisions. It's the Field Operations, which consists of primarily
what- what we consider regular patrol and investigation. And then we have a Support
Services Division which houses basically everything else, which would be records,
evidenced, planning and research, community outreach, and animal services. Um, some
of our recent accomplishments, we- last year we implemented a Community Outreach
Assistant, which focuses on the immigrant and refugee population. We staffed a full-time
Civilian Record Supervisor in Support Services. Uh, we're halfway through the rewrite of
our policy manual with the assistance of a nationally renowned uh, policy organization
called Lexipol, and I'm- I'm confident that that will help in our um, forward facing in- in
line with the, uh, City website. It'll be much more searchable. And if you guys have ever
tried to search our- our policy manual right now, it- it's very difficult. So I'm- I'm
confident that this will be a much more user-friendly experience with our policies. Uh,
we completed the fust year of a four-year CALEA accreditation cycle, and this is our
eighth accreditation award. We've been accredited through GALEA, which is the
Commission um, for Accreditation Law Enforcement Agencies. Uh, we've been a -
accredited since 2002, and that happens every four years. Uh, we recently finished our re-
branding project on our patrol vehicles, which included the 988, which we're really proud
of I think we're one of the fust, if not the fust law enforcement agency to brand with
988. So we're excited about that. Um, and as Geoff mentioned just a- a bit ago, uh, you
all approved the volunteer position- cor- Volunteer Coordinator position at the Animal
Shelter, um, so we're excited about that. I think that's going to increase the services there,
especially with getting our- our volunteers trained and getting our foster a- animals out
into the public. So we really appreciate that. Uh, the challenges, I- I say this every time
I'm at a meeting with anybody who's recruiting. Um, since I've this coming up on two
years next week, I will have hired over 20 percent of our staff- 25 percent of our staff. So
there's always a high rate of turnover. We're lucky. I think Iowa City is lucky in that we
have a de- we- we can recruit decently. We sometimes recruit from agencies around o -
our area because we have a lot to offer. City has a lot to offer. The department is a
decent -sized department for our area and we have a lot of specialty positions and that
seems to be attractive to people wanting to get into the business. And what helps us if we
can attract people who are already certified it saves the City a significant amount of
money because as you guys know, the spin -up process for a police officer is at the
minimum eight months, four months of the police academy, four months of field training,
and then they're brand new. Uh, lately, we've had good luck with hiring uh, previously
certified officers, some of them certified in Johnson County, and they already have uh,
familiarization with the community. They know how to be a police officer. Tha- so they
mostly hit the ground running and- and we're lucky to be in that position. Um, one of the
other challenges is the 911 diversion that we're, as you guys are well aware, uh, I don't
control the JEC, but I think we're one of the few pilot projects in Iowa that's going to be
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looking at 911 diversion, um, and I'm excited for that. It's going to be a challenge, but I
think, uh, we're in a unique position in our community where I think we're probably well-
positioned to start doing some of that. That's part of the reason we're doing the 988 on the
patrol car. So I make- that's a challenge but I think it is exciting opportunity. Um, the
budget additions, some of these things are gonna be a little- you're gonna - I'm gonna
steal my thunder from Tuesday because some of them are on Tuesday's agenda, but this
one is not. The fust one is the additional Sexual Assault Investigator. As Geoff
mentioned, we've had a considerable amount of overtime, the second highest paid person
in my department are sexual assault investigators, and that includes captains. Um, so she
had, um, 642 hours of overtime, investigatory overtime in 2020 and 500- 2021 and 588 in
2022. There has been a 24 percent increase in sexual assaults from the year 2020 to 2021.
And, uh, our sexual assault investigator maintains an average caseload of 19 cases. The
rest of the unit maintains a caseload of about 12, and some of those are sexual assaults
too, because she can't maintain all of them. So adding a second sexual assault inve -
investigator would immediately impact the services we can provide to our victims, um,
go ahead.
Alter: Did you say 24 percent increase?
Liston: Yes. I don't have the numbers for 2022 quite yet. So that's the difference between 2020
and 2021. So that is a position that can immediately start impacting the level of service
that we can provide. Because we- we - our goal is always to empower victims, but we -we
need to offer them some sort of, uh, finality on finding the- the offender and then- and
then they have the option to do what they want after that. We don't participate. We don't
prosecute, that's the County Attorney. We just investigate the case and provide it to them.
The next part is the part -time --these next three are going to be on Tuesdays agenda as
well, but they're on this budget. Uh, the next one is the part-time Civilian Accreditation
Manager. And I already mentioned the CALEA process. This is the person, currently we
have a Sergeant holding this position. He's going to be retiring in two months. And this
was on the preliminary plan for restructure to civilianize this position, and we think we
can do it with a part-time civilianization and we will repurpose that program, uh,
repurpose that position. And I'll explain that in a little bit, but again, CALEA is
something that's very important to us as an organization. And it is um - but it is
something that I think we can be more efficient on, and it doesn't necessarily require a
sworn officer to do that. Um, with that change, we would like to reclassify that Sergeant
position to a Lieutenant position and have them in charge of what we'll call professional
standards. In many larger agencies, they would call it an Internal Affairs Division. One of
the things that was surprising to me when I - when I arrived in Iowa City, is I learned that
our internal- if someone comes and files a complaint on the- on a police officer or a
supervisor observes something and wants to conduct - an wants to launch an internal
investigation that is done by our Watch Supervisors. So the people we have in the field,
it's done by our Watch Commanders which is a Lieutenant. They are the ones who
conduct the investigation. Ah, standard internal affairs investigation is between 40 and 60
hours of work. So while they're doing that, they're not able to supervise their officers in
the field. And we have four lieutenants on the department right now and those get passed
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from Lieutenant to Lieutenant. So the consistency is not always there. Most agencies our -
our size do have a specific point person for those and that's what this position would
create. We want to bump the classification from Sergeant to Lieutenant so they have the
appropriate authority to do these investigations. And Lieutenant, there's- there's only
three people who outrank a lieutenant on the Iowa City Police Department. So, um, I'm
excited about that position. I think it will help with our CPRB because we'll get much
more consistency in our investigations. The supervisor is doing a fantastic job, but when
you have four different people doing them, sometimes the consistency isn't there. Um, the
addition of the second Mental Health Liaison is something that it coincides with the
current strategic plan. That's one of the goals is to by 2028 to get to 24/7 coverage with
meant- the mental health liaison. We currently have one, so he works 40 hours a week.
This would double our coverage and of course we would stagger their shifts. So we
would go from 40 hours of coverage to 80 hours of coverage. And that gets us one step
closer to 24/7 coverage with the mental health liaison. Um, and again, that we'll talk
about it more on Tuesday, but that'll be funded 25 percent by the East Central region.
Um, let's see. One of the other things we're working on as we add positions, as Geoff has
often pointed out, we don't have a lot of space. If any of you have visited Joe, our mental
health liaison, he is literally in a closet. He's got- it's nice and cozy and he seems very
comfortable, but it- it does seem a little bit like Harry Potter in a cupboard under the
stairs. So we're going to have to make some adjustments and that's going to- we're going
to have to build out some workstations and some cubicles. So that's also included on this
budget. Uh, that's all I have. I'm pretty sure there might be some comments or some
questions, but I'm more than happy to answer them. One more thing, I forgot to add and
Eric mentioned in his, I think we're all probably going to sing the same song. Eighty three
percent of my budget is just contract negotiated wages and benefits. So and then you start
adding on IT costs, fuel costs, it- it whittles down the amount of impact I actually have or
wiggle room I have on my budget. So that was one of the things that was surprising to me
when I'm- when they- when finance sends this massive budget with all these lines. But
there's very few lines that I actually have anything to do with, which is good and bad. But
that -that was surprising for me, but I'm starting to get used to it.
Alter: So, I have a clarifying question that pretty much Eric would disallow if it was in court
because it's kind of a leading thing, but I'm trying to put pieces together. And you can just
tell me if I'm on the right path or not.
Liston: Yes.
Alter: So in terms of, um, the um, the Lieutenant position?
Liston: Yes.
Alter: Right. To- currently you said it's the watch supervisors...
Liston: The watch commanders.
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Alter: ... who are taking
Liston: And they are all lieutenants? Yeah.
Alter: Okay. So, um, that's taking them from being out of doing their primary duties of- of
overseeing their teams, correct?
Liston: Correct.
Alter: If they're having to do this 40-60 hour investigation.
Liston: Correct.
Alter: Does it make sense then to say that one of the benefits of having this internal investigatory
position, um, would be that there's the potential then of those commanders being able to -
to mentor, navigate, help their teams more. Which might mean that those actual, um,
investigations might go down, is that the hope
Liston: One hundred percent and I should have done a better job of explaining it. That is- that is
the idea. These supervisors are pulled from their supervisory duties to do the- this
administrative investigation. And then if that was taken off of their plate, they could be
mentoring out in the field, assisting officers, which is what their primary duty is. So this -
the investigatory part is a secondary duty, but sometimes it's very labor-intensive. And
again, that would be the theory that if there- if people are being better supervisor, I don't
want to say they're poorly supervised, but if they're being better supervised then the hope
would be, we would have less complaints.
Alter: And currently you said also you've hired 25 percent of your entire staff in the past two
years, Correct?
Liston: Yes. Yeah. Yes, ma'am.
Harmsen: Quick question with the new lieutenants position, would there- would they be tackling
other duties or would the internal investigations component be the you know, truly that,
you know.
Liston: The- the two primary duties will be handling internal investigations and use of force
reports. That is one thing that one of our other sergeants does now and that would be a
task that they would take on. Again, it would be one-person clearinghouse, all use of
force. Whenever there is a use of force in the city, we do a use of force report. Frontline
supervisor looks at it, the captain of operations and then I look at it. But we also have one
person that field's a use of force um, committee that meets monthly to look at that. This
person would be in charge of that and they would be in charge of sending the monthly
report which Amanda will be familiar with, to the CPRB.
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Harmsen: Thank you. Also, just glad to see that we're looking to move towards that 24/7 mental
health. We saw just a couple of weeks ago in Des Moines an incident that you know a lot
of details are still out there, but could very well have been a case where a mental health
crisis led to a tragic outcome. So- so I'm glad to see Iowa City's moving in that direction.
Bergus: Ah, Chief, I have some -just some questions and comments. Looking at, in our budget,
so on Page 352 where we've got these different columns, we have the- I always look at
the like where we are right now in the 2023 revised and then the proposed. And we met
earlier this week and kind of talked about how Geoff helped inform that but how maybe a
better lense is the approved a year ago and then approved now. So kind of like- especially
in our seat, what we were looking at was the proposed and then approved fiscal year 23
and the proposed fiscal year 24. So based on that, this is what you're requesting is an
increase of $955,336. I think we agreed on that number, right. Okay. And you'd
mentioned there's 84 sworn positions.
Liston: Right.
Bergus: How many of those are filled right now?
Liston: I- we- we're going to lose two more this month. So we're at 78 or 79 right now.
Bergus: Okay.
Liston: Yeah.
Bergus: And you'd mentioned that you'd hired a whole bunch of folks in the last two years just
since you've been here. And how many of those that you've hired were swom officers, do
you know?
Liston: Oh, boy. I don't. We- well, I can answer that. We've sent 4, 5 to the academy. So the
majority of them, I would say almost 75 percent of them were certified.
Bergus: Okay, and of the ones that are open right now, are th- those are- we're just talking about
those sworn positions, right? When you say 78 or 79.
Liston: Yes.
Bergus: It's just out of the 84.
Liston: Yes.
Bergus: Right. Okay. Are all of your civilian positions filled right now?
Liston: Yes.
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Bergus: Okay.
Liston: Well, we're in- in the interview process for that new volunteer position.
Bergus: Oh, for the animal shelter?
Liston: Yes.
Bergus: Okay? Alright. And then just kind of thinking historically like calls for service, you put
some data in our proposed budget about, um, crimes over the years. We know 2020 was a
bit of an outlier, but it looks like projected, you know, since then and projected, we've
still got a- a nice downward trend in some of those types of activities. You also
mentioned the 911 diversion. So I'll talk a little bit about that. It was two years ago that
we, in December, adopted that or I guess we received the preliminary plan to restructure
the police and, you know, at that time, I'd taken a bazillion notes as we're going through
everything. And the 911 diversion, which is this idea that a person who's out in the
community who has some problem would call 911. Um, that if that's a call that doesn't
require a sworn officer to respond, it could be diverted to somebody else. And as you
said, you don't control the JEC, right? But we're going to be one of those pilot counties.
At the time we thought, oh boy, this is going to be years before we could ever do it. And
here we are now. And as I understand it, the training for that and the implementation of
that, we hoped to have up and going prior to this budget even being in effect. Is that your
understanding too?
Liston: That's my hope. Yes.
Bergus: And I- I know from those conversations a couple of years ago, um, when Dave Schwint
was crunching all your numbers that his estimate at the time was, I -I think about 10-12
percent of calls were kind of out of the gate, classified it as mental health response. Does
that seem right to you?
Liston: If Dave says, that I trust. Yes.
Bergus: Okay. All right, and I think there are a lot of qualifiers on that at the time, you know, just
because Ming it that way.
Liston: Right.
Bergus: At that point in time, Dispatch wasn't- you know, they weren't necessarily coding things
for that anyway. So in- in this proposed budget, what we're not seeing increases for is that
diversion. And we're not seeing increases even prior to that relating to prevention, right?
And so I just turn to my colleagues and highlight that because I think the work that we've
done in the strategic plan, what we agreed on in the premli- preliminary plan to restuc-
restructure the police department was to try and shift away from some of those traditional
policing things and calls for service are not ramping up. We've got, you know, record
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calls for service in the fire department, um, but we believe that we'll be diverting at least
some number of calls for service, truly away from any kind of police response starting
prior to the implementation of even this budget. So I think we really need to look at that.
What we've got here is a proposal to decrease spending on the crime prevention side,
even within the department and to increase spending on the patrol side. So I think we
should really look at saying where we are now with the positions that are filled is plenty.
That the 78 that we have is what we can work with and to talk about prevention. What
can we do to improve safety in our community without having to have, uh, sworn officers
respond? And when we talk about the things that Geoff highlighted in his presentation,
um, promoting 988, the- um, something to replace the bulbs program, you know, having,
um, out in the community information for repairs on your car so that you don't have to -
you know, you might not get a ticket out in the field, those kinds of things. Those don't
need to be sworn officer police operations. Those can be community outreach and
neighborhood engagement operations. When we look at crime prevention, I think about
in the South District how I've spent time knocking doors, distributing LED light bulbs,
and talking to my neighbors about how we know that if you have a bright front light on
your front porch, there's less likelihood that somebody is going to be prowling around
your- your property and- and committing some kind of property crime. It doesn't require
all of the costs of an officer to be doing those kinds of things in our community. And I- I
think in- where I live and have lived for the last 20 years, I think I have more experience
with sort of the neighborhood patrol aspects of our police department. And I think what
we know in our neighborhood in particular is that a lot of the com- community outreach
and community policing, that Chief, I think you've done a really good job of focusing on
and orienting the department towards, that even that is intimidating. It can be threatening
and it can be harmful. And when we talk about preventing harm and providing
community safety, the City has an obligation to do that in ways that- that don't have to
leverage these resources. I know that some of my colleagues have seen the value of Iman
Sharif and his neighborhood outreach position. Imagine if the six open positions in the
police department, were six of him. And building leadership and connections and
capacity for people to help each other. Because as we face all of these budget he -
headwinds, these converging financial problems and the uncertainty of the future, what
we need is for our community to be empowered to help each other, to trust each other, to
feel safe, to have the capacity, to have leadership throughout the community,
cohesiveness between the neighborhoods, care within the neighborhoods. And when we
look at our strategic plan, that patrol aspect does not meet that. It is not what- what we're -
what we're looking for. So that's my pitch to you all, that we leave- leave that where it is
right now in the actual expenditures with those 78 sworn officers and shift those
resources into positions like Iman's, into NDS to ramp up our comp plan, maybe
additional firefighters. I think there's lots of ideas that would satisfy the prevention part
and increase our community safety.
Bergus: Can I respond? First off, thank you. Because this isn't an ambush. She is- we've talked
about this, so I appreciate that. Um, we're working at 78 officers right now. The high
point of my tenure here has been 81. When we got to 81, we were able to re -staff our
downtown Liaison position officer, and we did that with the idea that we were about to be
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fully staffed. We- I have to ask myself why I've had to hire over 20 officers in two years.
It's because of burnout. I established- we- the department has established, uh, minimum
staffing for each patrol shift, and that's based on a couple of factors. One of them is the
calls for service, but another one is being able to handle relatively regular emergency
situations. And when I say relatively regular, I'm talking about a serious traffic accident
or a missing child or a hostage situation at a parking ramp. I can tell you at that situation,
we had our Captain of Operations directing traffic. We- we run a lean operation. And
because of those minimums --I'm comfortable with those minimums. Dave Schwint has
done studies. I think we're in the right spot. Sometimes I think we're a little lean. But if
we change our staffing, what we've been- we've been working excuse me, working with
about 78 for awhile now, sometimes a little less. And if I hire a new officer, I basically
have to tell him, I hope you don't want any days off because we're going to have to force
you to work, we're going to have to force you to work. And then I have to tell my sexual
assault investigator, if you do -do the math on those numbers that I told you, it's about an
average of 12.5 hours a week of overtime. So I have to tell her you're going to work six -
and -a -half days a week. That's not sustainable. It's not sustainable. I have an obligation to
the community and to my staff to make sure that they have the tools they need to do their
job. And if we- if we go down to 78 as a permanent then all those specialty positions, the
downtown liaison officer, the neighborhood resource officer, they're going to be gone. I-
I just won't be able to staff them. And for the last year -and -a -half, we've been running
really lean in investigations. Starting on Monday, Investigations, because I thought there
was light at the end of the tunnel, Investigations was going to be fully staffed and then
hopefully next summer, we would add one more. On this budget, we won't be able to do
that. We won't be able to do that. So Investigations will still be our highest paid officers
on the department because they- we still have to investigate calls. Now I am hopeful as
you are, Laura, that the 911 diversion will help divert calls. Well, we're still getting the
same amount of calls for service that we have. The calls for service is not the only reason
that you establish a minimum of patrol. And one of the other things is, uh, I -I agree- the
bulbs program is fantastic. I think we can work out ways, but saying that we don't need
an officer to do that, that's denying us an opportunity for community-based policing. If
the only time you deal with an officer is when they're enforcing a law, then tha- then
we're never going to improve this. We're never going to improve this, uh, that people feel
intimidated. Well, of course they feel intimidated if the only time they have an interaction
with a law enforcement officers when he's enforcing the law. We have opportunity that
the basis of community-based policing is to have positive interactions with people. And if
the only time we're interacting people is when we're enforcing the law, I think that
removes an opportunity and we'll never- we'll never improve this situation, how people
feel intimidated, you know. And I- I came from a community that was much more
diverse than this community and I never felt uncomfortable wearing my uniform in a
school. I do hear- I do hear and I asked myself why is that- why is that? Why- why- why -
why does my son not tell people what I do for a living? You know, and that's- that's why
do I have to deal with that? And that's my goal is to make it that my children or my staffs
children are not embarrassed for what they do. But- but it's policies like this or thoughts
like this, like we don't want an officer telling someone that here's a voucher to fix your
car because they're intimidated. Well, they're always going to be intimidated by that. If
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we don't have those opportunities. So I want to work with community-based policing and
we're trying to, but if we are running so short that we're forcing officers to just work to
handle patrol calls, we're not going to- we're not going to have the opportunity for those -
to build those relationships, that's my fear.
Teague: I want to make sure that we're not going to get too far in the weeds on this item, um, but
certainly I want to, you know, offer council some opportunity to respond, I guess before
your response. One of the questions I had was staffing patterns, um, which I think you
explained that we're having officer working overtime and so, you know, when we look at
the 78 positions are the highest of the 81, that my- the fust question that comes to my
mind is, you know, the staffing patterns, what is it that will make the current situation
kinda hold? Um, I would agree that the- the commitment of this council through our
strategic plan has been, um, pushing more towards community policing, um, and what
does- and what does some of those, um, non -sworn officer opportunities look like? I
think that that is something that I appreciate you bringing up, um, because I do want, uh,
to stress to our chief, um, that that is what at least this council has kinda, um, earmarked
as our- as our goal. We don't continue to want to push it down the line because I know
how that can happen, um, and so I think my final words will be I- you know Councilor
Bergus has um, made some great points I think, um, there's a lot to digest, a lot of
intersections, uh, within that as well as you mentioned you know staffing patterns and
overtime as a part of the reality of what you need to look at. What I might, uh, suggest is,
um, walking away with that information, we're going to see you back on Wednesday, um,
and maybe we'll have more opportunities to, um, you know, maybe have you present
some more options potentially in the future. Specifically, with how well the department
move forth with some of the council desires, um, so that's what I would say at this point
that if there's no more comments but feel free.
Alter: Very, very briefly I just think that this is a -this is kinda that fulcrum that we need to cons -
continue to have these conversations and some of them may be uncomfortable, um, but I
greatly appreciate you raising it, uh, Laura and then also Chief e -essentially to hear your
rebuttle all about the logic of -of here's the, another facet to this and so I think this is
absolutely not something just to say we've brought it up now and then it gets dropped
until another flexion point. But that this is something that we should continue to have not
just to have the conversation, but to have like what do we do per, you know, the desires
of council and restructuring the police but then in a way that actually is beneficial for
both because, um, you know all other- all- all protestations notwithstanding, the police
department is not going away and so how do we make this so that it can be community
benefit, um, and also in a way that can productively address some of the really significant
issues, um, and- and trauma that has been incurred in the past, so thank you both.
Taylor: I appreciate what Councilor Bergus said but I also in the back of my mind, keep thinking
of the Safety Village, uh, and the bicycle program where the policeman of helping
children learn to ride their bikes and safe- and learn the safety issues about bike- riding
bicycles and I think that is something that's important for a police officer to do because I
think at that age the children, they need to learn that- that the policemen they- they aren't
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their enemies they're- they're there to help people too so I think that's- that's an important
aspect that yes, a community member could do those kinds of things. But I think it is
important to have a police officer presence at those kinds of things.
Thomas: I- I appreciate the give-and-take there I thought it was interesting hearing from both of
you. I- I also quickly want to emphasize, you know, one of my concerns has been for
some time that some of 25 percent of your calls for service or traffic -related and I- I'm- I
know I've said at some point, with you- with you in the audience are in the presence that
you know my- my sense of how we design our roads contribute to the fact that there's so
many calls for service. We- we essentially on at least some of our streets are inducing
higher speeds, which make a heavy burden on the police department, how do you enforce
something where, you know, a large percentage of the cars passing on that particular
corridor are breaking the law. If we can get those streets to be designed to reduce speeds
so that enforcement is unnecessary or tragically responding to a collision is unnecessary.
All the trauma associated with either one of those things the pra- the traffic stops or being
involved in a collision. How can we reduce that? Um, and it just self -regulates.
Everybody is safer, feels more comfortable and has- as we're trying to emphasize positive
experiences with our police force, not something where we're just in- in a state of anxiety
or trauma.
Bergus: And the reason I bring this up during our budget conversation is because to me it's really
a policy question of investment. You know when we think about the safety of our
community, I don't- I don't mean to make this, you know, attacking you or- or your
officers and I'm- I've always been very pleased with the interactions and I've had with -
with our officers and we're making great progress towards, you know, finding ways to
provide safety that are- that are more creative and I think organic and supported and
supportive in our- in our community. So again, just from a budget perspective it's how are
we investing in community safety and looking at 17.3 million dollars here versus other
places where we think we can impact safety.
Fruin: Mayor, I know you- you're wanging to move on, can I make a couple of quick
clarifications?
Teague: Sure.
Fruin: Thank you. Councilor Bergus mentioned a decrease in crime prevention. The budget
doesn't show a decrease in crime prevention. That is, uh,100 percent due to changes in
salary and insurance line items, uh, there's not a disinvestment in crime prevention. It's
simply a factor of senior staff moving on and hiring staff at lower rates or having staff
elect different insurance coverages, those types of things. So there's not a diminishment
of services in the Crime Prevention Bureau and, uh, on the patrol side that was
mentioned, I'd just like to highlight the- the patrol budget is up, uh, 2.9 percent- 2.96
percent over last year's proposed budget. Obviously, patrol is the largest portion of our
operations, 2.96 percent does not keep up with salaries, pensions, and insurance. So it's a -
it's a- it's a rate increase that, uh, is- is much lower than I would expect a budget like this
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to be. Largely has some of those same factors of senior officers retiring, uh, and younger
officers coming in. But I think it's important to understand what those individual rate
increases look like. And then I just want to say that I- I- I'm, and I know the Chief as
long- right alongside me, we are all for building this, um, alternative public safety
models. Um, hopefully, you've seen us be aggressive in that way. Our fust ARPA
proposal to you out of the gate was a million dollars to support 988. We've invested in
civilian staff to build relationships with the immigrant population. We've invested in
civilian Victim Services staff. We put 988 on our cars. We've- we've invested in those
partnerships. Uh, we are doing a lot. If we want to accelerate, I woud argue to you, let's
accelerate those but not at the expense of providing core public safety services to the
community.
Teague: All right, um, I think what we're going to do is we're going to take a five-minute break
and when we come back, we do see- we're going to have our, uh, um, budget reports from
our fire department, our library, um, that I see in the audience for now and then we'll go
from there, so we'll be back. All right, we're going to continue with the work session -
budget work session for Saturday, January 7th, and we're going to ask that we have our
Fire Chief Scott Lyon to do his presentation now from the fire department. Welcome.
Lyon: All right, thank you very much, uh. Good morning, everybody. I'm excited to be here this
morning. I- I am Scott Lyon, the Fire Chief of Iowa City fire department since April. It's
been a- a great time since April, learning a ton. We'll go over some information this
morning, uh, in the budget introduction, uh, handout, uh, we begin at page 129 and that
the proposed budget we are at page 354. Um, the Iowa City Fire Department is an all -
hazards fire department comprised 64 full-time members, uh, no civilians. Uh, we operate
four firehouses, five total companies, so we have four engines and one ladder company
and a battalion chief on duty at all times, um. With that, uh, we -we've been very busy,
um, last year. It looks like, uh, we've, um, we're going to be over 9,000 calls for service,
uh, for -for last year. Um, and that is about 11.5 percent increase over the year before.
And when we look at that over a 10 -year time period, we have a call volume increase of
about 75 percent. Uh, so we are -we are definitely a busy organization, um, and taxed at
some times, but nevertheless, uh, it's, uh, it's going pretty darn well. The fire department
has Fire Administration, which consists of myself, uh, the Deputy Fire Chief, and one
battalion chief, uh, emergency operations --which is a lion's share of -of what we do --with,
uh, two battalion chiefs, three Captains, 12 Lieutenants, and currently, uh, 42 firefighters
assigned. Uh, Fire Prevention has one-person, the Fire Marshal in that division currently.
And fire Training also has one person in that division, which is a lieutenant that functions
as our training officer. Um, each of those divisions, um, is -is very busy. Um, our
minimum -minimum daily staffing is 16 people. Um, and that -that is where we are
currently at today. Um, operations, um, by expenditure is by far the -the where our money
goes about 82 percent. It goes right into operations followed by fire administration at 13
percent, Fire Prevention at three, and then fire training at two percent. So much like the -
the police department our money is truly wrapped up in people and benefits and salaries.
Um, in the fire administration, one of our key objectives, aside from running the day-to-
day of the fire department, um, is- is managing our accreditation process. Um, the Iowa
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City Fire Department is one of 30 agencies worldwide that has maintained accreditation
up to the -the fourth cycle. Um, so it is a -a very rare position to be in, it's a great position
to be in, but I -I cannot stress enough of how much work goes into -to making that all
happen. It -but the accreditation model does -does help us with hearing the best practices
in all areas of the operation. So that's a very good thing. One of the other things that we
do manage at the administration side or the outdoor warning sirens that are spaced
throughout the community. Um, so that's one of the side tasks that goes with it. Um,
some of the upcoming challenges, um, on the administration side and running the fire
department that we're experiencing, um, is that this year in 2023, we -we are really
beginning the -the major changeover in the fire department through -through retirements.
Um, as it stands today, we -we have a number of people in key places within the
organization that could retire tomorrow if they want to. So it's on the back side of that
we -we're spending a lot of time and energy and funds preparing people to promote into
the next levels of the organization. Um, so that is a -a really, really a challenge at this
point. Big challenge. Um, another challenge that we're going to have coming up in this
year is replacing our records management system within the fire department. And -and
that is one of the budget asks that is -that is about $30,000. Um, our current product will
no longer be supported and even if it were supported, I'd probably be asking you to
change it anyway. It does not provide the type of high fidelity data that -that I need to
make long-term decisions with the fire department. So not only does it report on incident
reports and items of that nature, but it -but it has a full suite of analytical tools help with
some -some true strategic planning. So that -that is an ask that is out there in the proposed
budget. Uh, emergency operations, again, the core function of the fire department, we
deliver -we deliver service to people. That's why we're here. Um, that's -that's really why
we exist. Um, the -the Deputy Fire Chief overseas that area of the operation. We have a
three shift system. Each shift works at 24 hour tour and then they go home for one day
and then they come back and they repeat that cycle, um, a certain number of times and
then they have three days off. Um, again, our -our minimum number of -of people that we
need to -to do that, uh, response model is 16. Um, last year, I -I talked about our call
volume of -of right around 9,000. We'll call it 30-40. We're getting pretty close on the
final number. Um, but one of the things that -that does not capture is -is unit responses.
And when we're talking about burnout and personnel on how busy people are, I -I think
that -that you have to take the time to take a look at how many times are people actually
going out the door. Um, and -and last year, 10,679 times we -we had a specific unit
response going out the door. And that's an increase of 12.3 percent over the previous
year. So there -they are certainly a -a busy. The types of calls that we're going to, um,
they -they range very widely from -from an EMS call, um, to a cardiac arrest within that
EMS call. There are three -three of our customers are alive today following a cardiac
arrest within the last year, to -to with the efforts of our personnel and Johnson County
Ambulance. Um, so, you know, within the structure fires, um, various rescues. Last week
we had a -a dog rescue out of that Iowa River. So-so the calls vary, they are of all types.
Overall if you put them in two buckets, medical calls and fire calls, uh, we do about 53
percent medical calls. And then 47 percent we'll put in another bucket that's called other.
And that's everything from car crashes to building fires too, um, various rescues of -of
various types. Um, recent accomplishments, um, we have, uh, received -taken -we've
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received a new ladder truck. We're getting that to a placed into service. Uh, we've
updated and purchased a whole host of new automated external defibrillators to be placed
out, uh, with our people. So every vehicle on the Iowa City Fire Department will have an
AED assigned to it. Um, and we're also supporting Johnson County EMS on our
partnership with pulse point and community access de -defibrillation. Um, one of the
things back to the call volume side, that -that's surprised me since being your fire chief is
the number of concurrent emergencies that happen within Iowa City. So when a unit goes
on an emergency call, the -the unit goes, half of the time a second call will come in while
that fust unit is out. Or a -or a third call will come in when the units are out. So-so we're
getting stretched pretty thin. Um, being busy is good, being active is good, um, but there -
there certainly becomes a -a break over point. Um, our goal in response, overall
overarching is to be on scene, uh, within 6 minutes and 24 seconds, uh, nine out of 10
times. That -that's really what we're looking to do. Um, today, uh, we're sitting at -we're
providing at level of service at 8 minutes and 10 seconds. So we're -we're not quite where
we want to be. Um, and the solution is geography. You can only go so far, so fast. You
should only go so far so fast. And that -that will hopefully become resolved with the
construction of station 5 here in the future. The, uh, staffing level change that- that we're -
we are requesting with two firefighters will bring- bring us up to a- a spot where
hopefully we can provide a little bit of relief for two out of the three shifts. Um, it's
certainly not the- the end-all answer, but- but it is certainly a step in the right direction as
we be- begin the up staffing for the new fire station, and in the intervening time, um, help
to cover vacations, injuries what have you. Over the last couple of years we've gone over
on our- on our budget for- for overtime and- and we're on pace right now to- to certainly
do the same, to maintain the 16 people that- that are out on the- the floor of the fire
stations. Um, I am concerned as the fire chief of again with burnout, that the- the amount
of overtime worked is- is significant and at- at headquarters I tend to see the same faces
way too often. And- and I am concerned with, um, with what they got going on. Another
success this year is we're able to get back into the schools with Fire Prevention Week
face-to-face, it was great. Safety City happened this year face-to-face. We've promoted a,
uh, new fire marshal. We had a retirement and new fire marshal's in place. And we're
setting some really- really aggressive goals, yet achievable goals for- for that operation.
So tha- that's kind of a high level of where- where we're at today and- and what we got
going on. Um, partnerships, uh, we- we're collaborating actively with our neighbors, with
the Coraville Fire Department, North Liberty Fire Department, and- and Johnson County
EMS. We- we work hand in glove with Johnson County EMS every day and we- we do
everything we can to support their operation. And they're very supportive of- of our
operation as well. Um, here in the near future, we're- we're simply awaiting some
equipment to implement some new procedures or high-rise firefighting, so the tall
buildings downtown. And I look forward to- to that coming to fruition. I think that'll be a
great thing for- for our people and for the community as well. And- and most recently, we
are in the- in a hiring process right now, interviews are next week. And part of that hiring
process was a revamping and changing of the- of the testing process. And currently I'm -
I'm happy with where we're at with that outcome. We'll see what next week brings. But I-
I think it's a good step in the right direction. So at- at this point, I'd be more than happy to
answer any questions you might have.
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Alter: I actually have just a few. Um, one is, um, with the records management software changes
that you're requesting. How much is that?
Lyon: It's about $30,000.
Alter: For the licensing?
Lyon: Yes, ma'am.
Alter: Um, and then, um, now my questions are gonna go a little murkier. You mentioned that
you have several, uh, firefighters who could hand in their resignation than retire
tomorrow, um, and so right now I'm assuming that there's some succession planning and
training going on to help address that. So to what extent is- obviously that's taking time,
right, um, and resources, but is it also I mean, how does that work out in terms of dollars?
I mean.
Lyon: Sure. In terms of dollars, it's challenging. Ultimately, uh, we- we to- to do this training
effectively, so say we're doing a new frontline supervisor class like we have going on
right now. So we're preparing people to promote to- to Lieutenant currently. That's a
seven session class. They're half days and to- to get everybody in one room at one time so
that we have quality learning it's- it's expensive. Um, I- I believe it's worth the expense.
We train them on the front side. Um, that's kinda mimicked throughout various parts of
our organization right now. Right after I came to Iowa City, we did a internal pump
operator class of- of how to- how to pump the fire truck the, you know, the best way, the
most appropriate way. So all that is part of succession planning. My next challenge is to
move that further up into the organization of- of making that transition from captain. So
second -line supervisor to battalion chief. And- and you're right. It's simply gonna take
some time. It's gonna take some effort. One of the- the challenges outside of money with
this is- is that everyone that's involved in- in these trainings is a response person. So with
our current call volume, my- my options are to bring them in on overtime or- or bring
them in off time, however it works out. Um, so- so it's certainly challenging, but- but I
believe it's a challenge that we- we absolutely have to meet for the future of the Iowa City
Fire Department.
Alter: Sure. My final question is, um, I'm trying to figure out the best way to phrase it. With two
new firefighters coming on who will eventually move over to the new station or some
version of that, do you anticipate that the current size of each station, you've talked about
burnout. I'm trying to balance. Like on the one hand, a new station is going to help
immeasurably with stress throughout the city and response times and- and the individual
firefighters. But I'm also wondering about the composite of each particular house and will
the alleviation of some of that stress through two firefighters currently sort of bounce
back to create more pressures down the road if they're over at a different station with it.
But does that make sense?
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Lyon: Yes. It does. I- I understand the question. And- and that is a possibility down the road.
Um, as we sit today in- in the very short-term, um, I'm- I'm certainly willing to accept
any- any help that we can get to- to alleviate some immediate pressure. As- as- as I get
more comfortable in my position and- and spend more time, looking towards Station 5
and right -sizing the organization I think we can answer some of those questions. So I
think we- we will have an immediate, uh, relief of pressure to a degree. It's certainly not
the solution, uh, but I- I think it'll help just a little bit.
Alter: Thank you.
Lyon: Yes, ma'am.
Bergus: Chief, I did have just a couple of questions and I've had the privilege of having some
candid conversations with you, um, and I know there's challenges in not just with the
increasing calls for service, but talking about hiring new firefighters. And I'm really
pleased to hear that the testing has been updated from- from what you said. Whether it's
reflected directly in the budget or maybe in terms of your operations, can you just speak
to how, uh, increases in- how the new firefighters, how you're increasing diversity within
the department?
Lyon: Sure. One- one of the things that you and I have talked about and wi- with any one of
those involved in my hiring processes is- is my desire and- and quite frankly, your
expectation, that the fire department be more reflective of the community, and that is -
that is certainly- I'm hoping well underway what we'll see next week, how it all shakes
loose,um, but- but I do feel good in that we- we've at least got to the point now where we
reduce some barriers through- through the testing- the written testing portion. Applicants
can take it online if they wanted to. They could come in person if they wanted to, and
then- then changing some of the other testing procedures, um. This is definitely the long
game, uh, getting to be where we need to be. Uh, one- one of the things that myself and
the manager have talked about, uh, is that the sooner we start bringing in the new people
for Station 5, the more experience that these people get, and once we get to that point,
some of these new hires can be in, different places in the organization as opposed to
hiring them all at once. So I think it's a multipiece strategy to get to where we want to be.
I hope that answers your question.
Bergus: Yeah, I understand there's no easy path, or you'd be there. I guess.
Lyon: We'd be there.
Bergus: I do have a very different question about apparatus, which I understand. We'll talk more,
I think, in the capital side later, but just in terms of the overlaps in calls. So if you have,
you know, one unit out, and then you need another as well. Would you consider a
different format in terms of apparatus response, just knowing that the majority of your
calls are not fire, so sending a fire engine may not be the most efficient response?
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Lyon: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, one of the the things that --yes is the answer. You know, I'm open to
exploring the most efficient way to deliver service to our community while making sure
that we are able to respond to a secondary emergency after the fust emergency, where we
don't get back to the fire station. Right now, part of our challenge is, given the call
volume, given the types of calls we're going to, uh, call number one might be, you know,
a public assist of some type. Before getting back to the fire station, the second call
happens in the same territory, and it's easily a building fire. So that's the balancing act
that we need to strike, is that we're able to, once we leave the fire station, we can handle
the fust call, and we're prepared to handle the second call that comes in. So there are
many deployment models that can be evaluated. At the end of the day, it becomes
difficult that there's really no magic answer to-- to make all that happen. But I'm certainly
willing to explore and look and see what I can figure out.
Bergus: My last question is about prevention.
Lyon: Yes.
Bergus: Like, kind of like what I spoke with Chief Liston about, that the fire in your department,
again, calls for service include things that are a lot of-- a lot of responses other than to a
fire specifically. So just to clarify the prevention side of it, what does your department
focus on?
Lyon: So the prevention side is led by our fire marshal, and we have programs in place. Uh,
everything from school children all the way up to your items at the Senior Center and
things like that what some of the initiatives are trying to push through, recently, I know
our fire marshal has been talking with the south district neighborhood association about
smoke detectors for hearing impaired people. Uh, so we have programs like that. We
have crowd manager programs or the bars downtown and we really want to build our fire
prevention model away from fire prevention and hopefully get get rid of that-- that term
from our lexicon and let's do a community risk reduction. That's why I want us to land.
It's going to take some time. There's no doubt about it. But our folks out at station 4, um,
focus as as a fire station on fire prevention. And they do a great job. But once again,
they're balancing that secondary assignment of fire prevention against the primary
assignment of fire response. So that is where we're at today.
Bergus: Thank you.
Lyon: Yes, ma'am.
Teague: Any other comments?
Taylor: Does your department still do the child safety seat installation?
Lyon: We do that.
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Taylor: Okay.
Lyon: We do. Station Four is putting in car seats and all that good stuff quite frequently.
Taylor: Thank you for that.
Lyon: Yes, ma'am.
Teague: So I'll just leave it at that. If nothing else, we're going to move. Thank you so much.
Lyon: Thank you.
Teague: We're going to move on to our library. And I'm going to ask that director, Elsworth
Carman. Come forward.
Teague: Welcome.
Carman: Thank you. My name is Elsworth Carman and I'm the director of the Iowa City Public
Library . The library budget introduction starts on page 171, and budgetary details start
on page 366. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning and for the support that
you offer the library and your work on council. Please know you are all welcome to
come over it for a tour of our facility or a ride along in the Book Mobile at anytime. We
would love to show you what we do. The library is a semi -autonomous City department,
governed by a nine member board of trustees, appointed by council for six-year terms.
The library operates out of an 82,000 square foot building located downtown and a Book
Mobile that travels throughout the community. We serve Iowa City residents and via
contractual agreements, residents of Hills, University Heights, Lone Tree, and rural
Johnson County. We currently average to 1500 and 1800 visitors a day in our building,
which is just under our pre -pandemic door counts. And the Book Mobile welcomes an
average of 95 people each day it is in service. The library will open seven days a week,
including evenings and weekends. We have a staff of just under 60 FTE, the majority
part-time. All of our professional librarians, those of us who work in jobs that require a
Master's of information science or the equivalent, maintain full licensure through the
State library of Iowa. Personnel is our largest expenditure, followed by services and
supplies. Last year we accomplished several noteworthy things. Our circulation exceeded
1.2 million items borrowed. We offered 755 programs, specifically for youth ages 0-11
and over 21,000 kids participated, all at no cost to them. We extended our fine -free model
to all library collections. This was a major step in reducing barriers to material access
and your support in making this shift was greatly appreciated. We enhanced our internal
training and external communication related to intellectual freedom, taking a strong stand
against the current trends of book banning and program protests. We were reaccredited as
a tier three library through the State library of Iowa. This is the highest level of
accreditation possible and reflects the quality of services and facilities that are
maintained. In the coming year, we will complete the planning and implementation of a
new three-year strategic plan. We'll continue to advocate for fair a -book pricing and
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intellectual freedom and we will search for new ways to protect our patrons access to the
materials they need and want. We will also work with our partners to reduce the impact
of COVID catch-up for Iowa City students. Our approach to the 2024 budget was to keep
moving forward and making improvements without having to ask for more resources as
suggested by City Manager Fruin. Our requests were largely flat or reflective of
reallocation of funds within the budget. Maintaining a flat budget as a public library is
difficult, even when community needs are stagnant and inflation is not an issue. This was
even more difficult when the use of several of our services was trending higher than
normal and expected to increase as community members try to stretch their own financial
resources. Inflation is impacting every aspect of our budget. Print materials are averaging
8% to 10% more expensive than last year and a -books or averaging 15 to 20% higher.
Programming costs for summer reading and school break events have increased around
35% and we're seeing new restrictions in programmer contracts like limitations on
audience size and the removal of multiprogram discounts. Like many other departments,
we're also managing the increased costs of operating a large building. We're faced with
increasing social services needs throughout the community and trying to balance core
public library services that are used by many community members like materials,
collections, programs, and access to trained research staff. With the social services need,
though smaller but still significant and important group of users need and it's complex
and difficult. We want to serve everyone fully, but we do not have the resources to do so.
We make hard decisions about who to serve and how everyday. As the City navigates the
financial impacts of the pandemic and changing tax norms, I'm proud to lead a staff that
is creative, resourceful, and experienced in maximizing resources. We will do our very
best to monitor and control spending and stay within our allocations with a minimum
disruption to public service. And we are well aware that even in more difficult economic
times, the strategic financial management history practiced by the City of Iowa City
allows us to move forward every year. We're fortunate to be in a community that is
planful and deliberate in resource management. That said, we will have significant budget
needs in the coming years. As communities change, I had to anticipate a need for
additional staff, especially in youth and teen services and Communications and Outreach.
Our current public service areas and staff work rooms need evaluation and it is likely that
we will pursue a full space study in the near future. Additionally, we are thinking about
staff engagement and talent development in new ways. Expectations for workplace
amenities are changing and we want to grow and continue to be a place where staff want
to be. This means both physical changes to work areas and less visible offerings like
increased education and training budgets. I hope you've seen these future needs as a sign
of success and look forward to discussing them in more detail in the coming years like I
do. And again, I'd like to thank you for the work you do to support the library and in
general on City Council and answer any questions you might have.
Alter: Super briefly because it seems like can't help myself. Um, but no, I just wanted to say I
was in the library not long ago and cruising around in the new arrivals and that which is
right by where the main librarian helps. And it was I had the opportunity to be able to
hear some of the staff interacting with someone who I think was facing some mental
challenges, but also was very social. And it was just incredibly impressive how engaged
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and involved the staff was in- in recognizing and being very social and whatnot. I want to
commend your staff because there is so much that's not on the bullet points of what your
job description is, but they just take it in kind. And as a matter, of course, and they're
very professional and very sociable and outgoing, and I just wanted to commend them.
Carman: Thank you for that comment.
Bergus: I have a revenue side question, Ellsworth. So in- in the general operations part of the
budget, there's the general revenues subsidy and then a line item for property taxes. Is
that the levy specifically or maybe that's a Geoff question. Sorry.
Fruin: Yeah. The library has a separate levy, but that doesn't cover all of their operations. So then
there's the regular 810 Levy that would support those operations as well.
Bergus: Okay. I want to echo what Mayor Pro Tem said and just the library is really a focal point
for the community to come together for so many different reasons. And I guess my
question from that is why a flat budget?
Carman: We- we were requested to come in as close to flat as possible. And I feel really strongly
as- as a department of the City to be a team player and to- to really uh participate when
there is a reduction. We should mirror that despite the value of our programming and
services. And I think that this is a moment in time where maintaining that flat budget can
be done in a way that minimizes the compromise of public service. Partially as we
continue to read norm after COVID, and partially as we close one strategic plan and
move into another. This is just really good timing to be able to say, what can we pause or
what can we think differently about? And also in that pause, really be planful and mindful
about what will those staffing requests look like and things like that. Another issue we -
we have that will be helpful in making requests from the future, in a way is state funding
and continues to trend down for public libraries. So the specific pieces of money that we
get from a state, those are reduced every year. We don't expect that to go up, but we're
optimistic. So, uh, and I had some conversations with Geoff, I had some conversations
with Finance, and lots of conversations with the library leadership team about what can
we- what can we bring to the table that we feel is fair as a City department, but also as a
as an important resource for the community.
Bergus: Thank you.
Fruin: If I could just- just note, I recognize quite a bit of belt tightening from the library , which -
which like all departments, is appreciated under the circumstances. From last year's
proposed budget to this year's proposed budget, the library increase is 7.5%. That's the
second largest increase next to the fire department, which of course has two staff- two
staff increases. So 7.5% compares to the average department increase of 4.3%.
Bergus: Thank you.
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Teague: All right. Thank you so much. And of course, we still appreciate the library fines and
fees to be forgiven, especially for our youth. Thank you so much.
Carman: Thank you.
Teague: Alright. We're going to move on to our parks and recreation, and I see that we have the
park and forestry superintendent, Tyler Baird. Welcome.
Baird: Thank you. Like Mayor Teague said, my name is Tyler Baird and I'm the Superintendent
of Parks and Forestry. But I'll be covering all of the Parks and Rec Department today
with some notes from Juli as well. So and if we have any other fine detailed questions on
some of those other areas, we can always get back to you if I'm not able to answer them.
But we start on page 146 and 357 through 363 as well. So you'll see that covers quite an
array of different things. I mean, we think about Parks and Rec, but also we've got
Farmer's Market, we've got Government Buildings where we're spread out throughout the
City, helping with that. Recreation, of course, Parks, Forestry is a large subset of Parks as
well, and then the Cemetery. So quite an array of different services provided by our staff.
Like Elsworth just expressed, budget is pretty much the status quo, pretty- pretty level as
well. Trying to- to do our part to be creative and not ask for too much and- and kind of a
lean year. This will require some continued creativity by staff. We've- we've had a lot of
creativity over the last few years to either find more funding through grants or through
partnerships throughout the community. Some of our affiliate groups, things like that on
the recreation side. But we are- are also seeing added costs and our service area and
population are increasing. So we're- we're trying to do keep that level of service the same,
but we're growing as well. Um, some highlights and challenges for each of the areas from
kinda the past year. Tree plantings, big highlight for parks and forestry. So within our
parks and throughout our rights of way, we've done multiple larger scale plantings, quite
a few volunteer projects where we had help of volunteers come in and plant trees. And I
think that's really important to engage the community and also get that connection with,
with trees, with our parks as well. Natural areas --we've been working on quite a few
restorations, working on things related to the natural areas management plan and really
making good progress on that. Hickory Hill Park is a great example. And we did receive
a grant this last round for Hickory Hill. So we will- at the completion of that, pretty much
have touched most areas of that park. So that's a great example of some of the things
happening there, as well as increasing our prairie burns. Really staff getting trained and
working on to be able to manage those areas and keep them the way they are intended.
Staff has installed a couple of playgrounds. So Glendale and Whispering Meadows, those
two new playgrounds, our staff installed those and in the coming year, we plan to install a
couple more. So that's- that's something that staff enjoys doing. Not just the maintenance
side of things, but the construction side of things as well. Some challenges, ongoing
vandalism to our facilities. We're seeing that, it seems like, more frequently and it can get
quite costly at times when that happens. We do our best to keep as many eyes out there as
we can, um, and, you know, using things like cameras as we can to try to cut down on
that or to figure out why it's happening or how it's happening after the fact that at some
times. We also have some just ongoing equipment needs. And that's not only, you know,
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getting the funding for the equipment, but once the funding arrives, getting that
equipment here. We are close to getting a truck that I think was in the budget a couple of
years ago. So that kinda shows a challenge of how long it takes some times to get that
equipment through the manufacturing process and actually into our hands. So we try to
think ahead as far as possible with all of that. And then some delays to some of our
contracts as contractors are struggling to find staff. That seems to be especially true with
our natural areas projects that are contracted out. It's been a few different contractors now
that have had struggles to keep their staffing up to be able to complete those projects so.
Then for recreation side of things, really just happy to be returning back to more of a
normal. This is the first really full year of more normal programming. But at the same
time going through the master planning. So pivoting some of the programs to work with
the recommendations from that. So that's been an opportunity and a challenge at the same
time. A good milestone was Farmer's Market turning 50 years old. And they had a lot of
good comments from vendors and shoppers alike on those Saturdays. We did discontinue
the Wednesday market. There was low vendor interest on Wednesdays and we really did
see Saturdays continue to be strong though, even without those Wednesdays in there as
well for rec continued to increase free public events. So things like our Rec `n' Roll,
summer hydrant parties, Party in the Park, and then weekly events at City Park Pool. And
I know most of you, probably all of you, have been out to some or most of those. So
those are- those are always really fun to get out from the recreation centers and out into
the community as well. And we spread those around the whole community and- and
choose different parks each year and neighborhoods to do those events in. Some
challenges coming up ---part-time staffing. We have the- you know 15 dollar an hour
starting wage. Most of the other businesses in the community, um, have raised their rates
as well, or their wages as well to that or sometimes more, um, so that's a challenge to,
um, eh, attract staff and you know make us more desirable than- than other jobs in the
community as well. Um, so that- that's put a little bit of a strain on it, especially on the
recreation side, um, to a certain extent on the parks and forestry side as well. But
recreation, um, hires the most, um, seasonal, um, staff of- of any of the departments, so,
um, that- that tends to, um, impact us more than others. Um, one other fun highlight from
last year, we started to use the Ned Ashton house for the summer rec programming and
that was all received by, um, the campers that were there, um, and it made good use of
that facility it's- it's nice location. It's fairly close to the pool, City Park and then we have
the space in -doors there as well. Cemeteries, uh, pretty steady operations, um, and the
one main highlight I guess was removal of some dead and diseased trees, um, and in the -
the next year and beyond will be working to replace a lot of those trees to, uh, get that
canopy going again there. Uh, Government Buildings, um, so like I said at the beginning
that it really covers a lot of areas. City hall, Police, Fire, Senior Center and recreation
centers, and then also assisting with, uh, HVAC, Animal Services, the fire stations and
public works facilities. So that staff is actually really stretched pretty thin to cover that so
to -cover those seven days a week, um, especially with HVAC and the -the summer and
winter, uh, and as we saw the last couple of weeks, we've went from really cold to
unseasonably warm and back -and -forth. So that's really hard for staff to keep up with at
times. Um so there was a request for an additional halftime custodian that that isn't
actually included in the -in the current budget. But that is a need that we see you know in
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future years. Aging buildings is another challenge. Just requiring additional maintenance
repairs, remodels things like that um and the heating and cooling can be a challenge.
Building automation system upgrades, um, have been delayed due to supply chain issues
and some dealings with the contractor on that. So that'll help some once that's all -
automated. Think of it as like being able to login to your google home device and
changing your -your -your heat or whatever from wherever you're at. It's -it's similar to
that, but on a grand scale. So that really will help, uh, um, staff not have to go to multiple
places to check on things with that. And then just as for the department as a whole, um,
but especially with government buildings, uh, cleaning and paper supply costs have risen
quite a bit, um, so that's- that's the challenge just, um, we don't always know how much
or how fast those are going to change. So, it's kind of, uh- uh, can be said for all different
things we're experiencing right now and, um, getting things and getting them a- at a price
that we were expecting. I think that covers pretty much everything are there any
questions from the council?
Alter: I have a question for you, Geoff in it, sort of what's the percentage this year versus last as
you were talking about different departments and sort of what the-
Fruin: Yeah, we have- have it kind of separated out for parks, uh, uh, between recreation and
park maintenance. Park maintenance has shown about a 2.44 percent increase over last
year's adopted budget, um, on the recreation side, it is, uh,1.29 percent increase, uh,
government buildings is just about 0.2 percent increase in park and rec admires, uh, 3.5
percent decrease so, uh. Pretty status quo my guess is a lot of that's just salary and wage
fluctuations, again, I don't have a detailed kind of breakdown on that but I could- we
could do that if you wanted to at a future meeting.
Bergus: I just had a budget planning question which feel free to punt if um. I was thinking about
when Geoff, you mentioned the, um, park maintenance side and I'm thinking about like
Hickory Hill you know conveyance of 39 additional acres and those kinds of things that
maybe aren't anticipated. How does that -how do you absorb those or how does that get
built-in?
Baird: Yeah, as some of those new properties come online, we'll either already have something
plugged into the capital, um, side of the budget usually, or we'll look for those grant
opportunities, um, like REAP grant or something like that, um, that we're able to use on a
space like that. So, um, that space right now, it has functioned kind of as a pseudo park
for quite a while. So, in that instance, um, you know if it didn't change drastically right
away, um, it wouldn't be much different than the way it was before so sometimes we
have a little bit of, uh, time before we really have for the.
Bergus: Operational side would change.
Baird: Yeah.
Bergus: Okay, thank you.
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Fruin: Yeah, it -it's a good -this is a really good example about kind of just staff stretched thin if
the property tax reform that we talked about, uh, we navigated that okay but what it- what
it really did not allow us to do is expand services with the population growth that we've
had and with the community growth that we have. So, we've really for most operations
maintained status quo staffing through the property tax reform decade. Park maintenance,
uh, other than forestry, we did supplement the forestry staff a couple of years ago. I don't
believe park maintenance staff has increased in my time here and that's I I years and, uh,
you can think about the facility additions and park conditions that we brought on
Riverfront Crossings Park, Ashton house, Terry Trueblood, even smaller parks like
Chadek Green Park. We're getting ready, uh, in the next five years to accept parks at
Palisades and on the far east side was Stone Bridge Estates has a new neighborhood park.
You just stretch it out, right? You just stretched the staff a little bit -a little bit thinner and
parks is always adapting and they've got a great attitude and spirit about it. But it's
definitely an operation, um, where you can make a very strong argument based on just
acreage that they manage, that they should have expanded staff capacities. We just
haven't felt like that's been the most acute need with- with the City, um, going forward
but- but clearly, park maintenance is going to need some, uh, supplemental help in the
next few years.
Bergus: My last question is if you've seen any changes in those needs, particularly in park
maintenance that you think are related to climate change?
Baird: Yeah, that's a really good question and it's one that especially with the pandemic and kind
of in the mix, it's- it's hard to say what all is attributed to what. But um with trees and
other plants and keeping things alive in a changing climate, that will be a challenge going
forward, watering we've- we've come up with creative ways to keep two water ligands
plus some other smaller tanks going as often as possible during dry spells. If we get a
really dry summer, it will be even more of a challenge. Um this last year was pretty dry.
We so -we saw, we still see levels of water out at Terry Trueblood, the lake lower than
any of us can probably ever remember, just like the Iowa river was- was really low
throughout the year, um, so yeah. I don't know what all, uh, can be attributed to that but -
but I- I know there's definitely been an impact so.
Bergus: Thank you.
Teague: If hearing nothing else I would just add from my experience talking to people the
consumer, people that actually go to the parks and partake in some of the festivities that
you all do overall is very positive and I think there's a lot of background here that we see
in the budget, right? But I think that consumer, uh, experience has been overall good I
just wanted to say thanks for all that you in the park staff, uh, do so thank you.
Baird: Thank you.
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Teague: All right. I hate to do this, but we're going to take a break, we're going to take a lunch
break and, uh, I know we have one more that was due before noon, but we're going to
take a lunch break and we're going to come back at 12:35.
Alter: Sing a high note LaTasha.
Teague: All right. Ready? Well, we are back uh, from a little lunch break on this Saturday,
January 7, 2023 continuing our City Council budget work session. We're going to call up
our director- our coordinator LaTasha DeLoach who is over the Senior Center. Welcome.
DeLoach: I got to change my- hold on, let me change my speech real quick. Good afternoon. Uh,
my name is LaTasha DeLoach. As you all know, I'm the Senior Center Coordinator um,
and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about our budget. It starts on page 180, um, goes
up to about 188. Uh, we are a small but mighty department. Um, so first, thank you all for
the opportunity uh, for department heads and our representatives to come and talk to you
all about our budgets as well as our challenges, as well as the things we've been able to
accomplish. I'll try to be brief um, and tell you all a little bit about it as well as you have
the report in front of you, so I won't get too detailed into the numbers. Um, the overall
vision for the Senior Center is to end isolation for community members over the age of
50. Lofty. Can we do it in my lifetime? I don't know, but we're going to try. Uh, this
vision is deeply embedded in every single value that your newly updated strategic plan
includes. Um, and as we continue to provide more classes that teach older adults not only
content about racial equity, social justice, and human rights, these classes also provide the
opportunity to learn new and updated language and how to have important conversations
in a safe and productive space and in a way that informs them uh, this- about these
different topics allows them to be informed on the importance of this value that you all
have presented and to support it in our community. So we're grateful to be able to provide
that well. Those things are definitely infused in our programming that we provide. Uh,
we continue to partner and engage which is another one of you all's values with groups
such as 100 Grannies and um, other climate action programs and services throughout our
year to provide folks with more information to become not only aware of sustainability
options, but to help spread the word. A lot of our folks are really well-known for word of
mouth and incorporate that information in their daily lives as we try to decrease our
footprint here. Actually just yesterday, we had our First Friday which you all are always
welcome to come to. We have coffee- coffee and conversation. And so the Sustainability
Office came over and talked a little bit about uh, energy, reserving energy, and how do
we decrease our footprint here and also provided some information on services that some
of our folks can be able to utilize um, in the community. So our community continues to
attract older adults from all over the country actually and one of the deci- deciding factors
for people choosing our community uh, is the investment that retirees see that the City
Council and our community continues to put into that Senior Center. So uh, many times
when I've spoken to folks, they're like, that was important thing that we were looking at.
We're looking at how active was uh, people and- from their age demographic involved,
and- and was there access and space for them in the community? And so I've heard that
many, many times from plenty of people who have moved here um, that that Senior
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Center was a part of their attraction here as well as the Coralville, Iowa City Convention
folks. They make sure that they always highlight that and we make sure we send them
programs frequently so that they're able to pass that out to people who are visiting. Um,
so we also worked really closely with a lot of other, uh, not just folks that serve older
adults, but just to be informed on different services in general because we don't want
duplicated effort, right? We want to be able to- things were good at, we want to be
excellent at and we want to be able to provide those referrals to others so that we're not
duplicating those services. And so ways that we also do that as we have in-house
agencies that um, will allow us to uh, be able to send those referrals or they're able to take
care of some of those things that were not able to. Um, and we really enjoy being able to
do that, which is also a part of your value of engagement partnership. We have about
seven folks. Um, three are full-time, three are permanently part-time, and then we have
one part-time member of our staff, as well as veried numbers of students depending on
uh, you know, the different student employment opportunities that we have, as well as
students who are there for practicum purposes. We serve currently about over 1,200
members, which is a decrease from what our numbers normally were pre-COVID, which
is usually about 1,t00-1,700. But we also know why some of those reasons are. Honestly,
some people have passed away, some people have moved. So, you know, so many
different reasons on why that number is decreasing. Oh, it's not decreasing, it's actually
increasing but it was -it was lower. We provide about 10 percent of those folks get free
memberships or very low-cost membership of $10. We try to make sure we um, ask
people as politely as possible if that's something they could benefit from and many
people take us up on it and some do not. We provide virtual hybrid and in-person classes
for uh, numerous numerous programs that you all can see there in our report. Um, we
have broken them- those different classes down to our four core values um, that we have,
that are also connected to the current strategic plan. Um, over 80% of those classes do not
require membership at all, and they're open to the public. A lot of our membership goes
to people having access to some of our special spaces, like our um, fitness room that is
geared specifically for people 50 and older, etc. We continue to feed our community with
partnerships. People might not think of Senior Center as feeding folks outside of a hot
meal from Horizons, which has our Meals on Wheels program, but we have a pantry.
And that pantry every single Monday has a line stretching until there's no food left and
people can get what they need. And we have a partnership with Table to Table. And they
uh, do a really good job of bringing us food. Well, also with our partnership with Meals
on Wheels, if there's leftover meals that were not microwaved or were not heated up, they
put them in our freezer for folks to be able to take them with them so. Excuse me. Um, so
also, um, we have a couple of in-house agencies that are really important. I just wanted to
mention them. We have TRAIL of Johnson County specifically looking at tools and
resources that they can provide for folks, um, whether that's coming by to change a light
bulb or your know, helping someone get connected to who can shovel the snow, etc. We
also provide space for VNA so we have like a foot clinic, you get your flu shot. And a lot
of those are open to the public. They're not just Senior Center members. Folks can come
in and utilize those spaces. We also provide assistance with health insurance as well as
we have a tax program that is free cost for folks of a certain income level in different
specific age demographic that we also housed in our building. I'm trying to think, did we
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miss anybody? No. Some of the challenges that are coming up is that we have the
construction of the exterior part of our historic building that is coming up. We're getting
very close to hopefully we might get a summer start on some of that. But as you all know,
there's lots of delays with all of the different things that are just going on in the world. So
we're hoping to bring that to you all at some point and maybe discuss a little bit more
about that at the CIP meeting next week, so I don't want to get too far into that. As you
all are waiting to know the surveys have closed as of yesterday, so I do not have any
preliminary- preliminary data to share with you, but we are meeting this week with the
University of Iowa, so start looking at that data so we can start to disaggregate that and
hopefully get an opportunity to send you all a memo. We had lots and lots of people who
were very interested in being a part of that from our public input sessions as well as I
believe we have over 600 survey returned um, and so that was -we only sent out about
5,000. So that definitely would be statistically significant. So whatever the results are, so
we will get that to you all as soon as possible. Other challenges is as we have equity and
budget issue, the Senior Center is one of the few, uh, programs, um, that are under the
leisure in our culture and leisure program that does not have nights and weekend staff. So
we're not able to fully serve the full scope of the people that we need to serve because
many times if you're 50 to maybe almost 70 at this point, you're probably still working
8:00 to 5:00, so you're not able to utilize the building in the same way that you would
with the rec center or the library. So we are trying to come up with some- some options
there. We've included that in our budget as a way to maybe somehow- somehow do some
stipend positions or something. I don't know the technical term, so don't don't get me for
that. That's HR. I don't know that. But, you know, being able to have some folks that can
help us, including potentially even some of our current senior members having some way
to be able to help us with some of those hours. So we don't know all the pieces of that just
yet, but just know that we're trying to be creative about how we solve that equity issue.
Uh, we do have a new logo, so we're very excited about that. We launched a new logo.
We launched ourselves as officially the Iowa City Senior Center. We no longer call
ourselves The Center anymore because it was a little nebulous. So we're very clear about
that. People see, to be very happy about that. So you will be seeing hopefully a new
picture next year in your budget book of our -of our new logo, which we call ourselves the
ICSC for short, just like all the other IC, everything else here in town. We're proud of the
work that we do and happy to serve our community. And if it- anytime you all want to
come by or you want to have a more detailed conversation about our budget, please let
me know let Geoff know, Redmond, etc. And oh, one last thing. We're very excited. We
are partnering with the children more, not just inter -generational with college students.
We've always had college students, but there's a private school next to us called
Tamarack. And so they come over for lunch, which is kind of nice because we have two
different groups of lunches happening at the same time. Um, so it's always nice to hear
children in there as well as, I believe starting next week, we'll have a Spanish-speaking
school called Escuelita that will be joining us a couple of days a week there in the Senior
Center. So we're kind of serving a wide variety of folks and um, and uh, we also are
starting to see some increased revenue of people coming out and having more events. So
they're starting to use to build more. So that's been really helpful to us as well. And if you
have any questions, I'll take those.
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Teague: I think I have some- just some budgetary questions. First, which might be our Finance
Department might want to take a stab or whomever. The 28E Agreement, is that that
revenue amount is that from Johnson County. The majority of that, if not all of it. And
then the general revenues subsidy is that that's our general funds of, I think we're gonna
be doing 939 this upcoming budget? Okay. Just wanted to, um, get some clarification
there, and then where we see the personnel services FTEs, this has not only been on this
one but on others. So you might have- is that full-time equivalent? All right. That's- that's
what I figured. Just wanted to make sure. All right. Other than that, um, I did have a
question about, um, the times of programming at the center- at the Iowa --
DeLoach: Iowa City Senior Center.
Teague: Senior Center. Thank you for the correction. There used to be a lot of evening times
available. Has- has that changed?
DeLoach: After COVID, I had some concerns about that coming in in this position. And- and my
concerns were that we only had like one or two students running that entire facility. And I
had some concerns about that with all the floors being- some of the floors were locked.
But knowing that, you know, we have four floors with only two people, I was deeply
concerned about that. So coming back, we decided that to do nights and weekends just
for safety issues in general, but we have set it up now that if we have at least two to
maybe even three people, as well as if I can move my staff around a little bit, having
them do some- some evening times coming in delayed and coming in evening times, that
we should be able to get that going if we have the finances to do that. But I do want it to
be paid folks and not just our- our students who are getting student subsidies from the
University, you know. Um, so I would like it to be some staff that we actually super-, I
mean, we supervise them but we supervise them without the subsidy from the university.
Teague: And you have that in this budget just to-.
DeLoach: Yeah, it's in as a note- it's in as a note.
Teague: Okay. Alright. Awesome. The only other comment I'll make is regarding, I saw the
demographics of, you know, who's using it. I didn't see, um, because we really serve
Johnson County. But I didn't see any numbers as to where the individuals are coming
from of those that are participating. Do you have that anywhere? I'm sure we- yeah, we
can definitely pull that, that's really easy to pull. I would tell you that probably more than
80 percent of the folks that are utilizing the Senior Center are coming from Iowa City.
Teague: Okay.
DeLoach: So we have a small percentage coming from North Liberty where we have a satellite
site. And then we have a number of folks coming from Coralville area, and then we have
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some from outside of the county as well as a few folks that are coming from those kinda
surrounding areas. But majority of our folks are coming from Iowa City area.
Teague: Thank you. Any other comments? All right. Thank you. You're free, and thanks for
waiting.
DeLoach: No problem.
Teague: All right. We're gonna move on to the next individual, um, or the next, uh, department,
which is going to be under the community programs budgets. And that's gonna be our
Neighborhood and Development Services as well as the MPO. Um, are you going to
cover them both?
Hightshoe: Yeah.
Teague: All right. Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County, and we're going to
have the present- this presentation by our NDS Director, Tract Hightshoe. Welcome.
Hightshoe: Oh, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. It's rare that depart- department
directors get to talk to you about their departments, answer questions without a pressing
agenda item or a packed house. And I realize I'm getting after lunch and it's a long day.
So I worked on this year about how I can make my presentation little bit more lively.
Even if it's by numbers or NDS trivia, but you don't get that today.
Teague: We'll you're doing it with the hand gestures, so that helps.
Hightshoe: A little bit about my department. We are 46 FTEs. We have a budget of about 20.7
million. We're not asking for any increased FTEs for fiscal year 24. However, not this
agenda, but your subsequent January agenda, we're going to come to you because we just
found out HUD approved our family self-sufficiency coordinator requests. So it will add
another full-time equivalent. And if you're not familiar with the family self-sufficiency,
it's a program for our voucher holders where they enter an agreement with our
coordinator about goals trying to increase their income, reduced dependence on public
assistance programs. And as they see their income increase an amount is credited to their
escrow account. And when they graduate from that program, they can use their escrow in
any way they- in any way they choose. So our caseload is currently 184 households.
HUD lets you get the second caseload or a caseworker when you hit 75. So they really
want us to concentrate on job training and development. So this FTE will allow us to,
instead of just doing bare minimum services, to expand what services we provide those
participants. So you're going to hear about, you'll get it for that next agenda in January, I
think 24th. So the position will carry over to fiscal year 24. It'll be paid through with
HUD funds, Housing and Urban Development. I'm trying not to use a bunch of
acronyms. The rest of the budget is mostly continuation of last year except with this- the
exception of the consultant fees and urban planning. With the affordable housing action
in our affordable housing, just the problems that we have, we are trying to hit those goals.
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We'll do a new comprehensive plan. We're trying to combat predominant areas of single-
family zoning and trying to make it easier for our development committee to develop
housing such as duplexes, townhomes, small multifamilies by right. And so you'll have -
we have too a comprehensive plan amendment to do so. So you're gonna see the fust a
150,000 request that probably is not going to cover the whole plan, but we have carryover
funds and it's a multi-year process, probably 1-2 years. This is not like a six-month plan
that we'll have and this just be done. So comprehensive plan updates, usually they take
some time to do. The rest of our budget, just a source of funds for community
development. The Housing Authority, we get large amounts of our budget through the
US Department of Housing and Urban Development, like I said, HUD. And then for our
building inspection and our rental inspection, a lot of that comes through just the permit
fees that we charge, rental and building permit fees. We have three main divisions in
NDS. They are the Development Services, Neighborhood Services, and the Metropolitan
Planning Organization of Johnson County, which I'll call MPO. Otherwise, it's a
mouthful lot. Let's start with the Development Services. So Development Services is that
wing of our department that facilitates the development process through our
comprehensive plans, district plans, to annexation, zonings, final plats, site reviews,
building permits, and then your final certificate of occupancy. So that is Development
Services, what they do. There's 13 FTEs in that department or division. They staff the
Planning and Zoning Commission, the Board of Adjustment, Board of Appeals, and the
Historic Preservation Commission. Our next division is Neighborhood Services made up
of three; our Housing Inspection, Housing Authority, and the Community Development.
Housing Inspection inspects about 20,000 rental units at least every other year. They
receive over 2,000 nuisance complaints and they're coming in right now for snow and ice.
We do get complaints for garbage, cars on the- on the front lawn. But primarily it's grass
and snow.
Bergus: Sorry, Tracy, how many per year did you say?
Hightshoe: Over 2,000.
Bergus: Two thousand, okay.
Hightshoe: We did a study about where complaints coming, wondering if some neighborhoods
don't complain. Now we see it all over the city. We're reaching everybody, they know
how to reach us. That's a good thing. We're continuing with Housing Inspection, our
Invest Health work and many of you remember our Invest Health or we're trying to get
disparities and health, and a lot of your home environment where you spend most of your
time. Our Housing Inspection, they inspect for minimum code to make sure, but we're
also trying to focus on is the home dry, is it pest free and is it well-maintained. Will work
on that. You'll see that this past year, we delayed it a year from COVID. We started doing
single-family, detached single-family and duplexes must get tested for radon, which is
huge by September 2023, will have went through that two-year cycle and making sure.
It's really important because renters tend to, if they're low-income, they tend to rent for
much larger, longer duration. Their exposure to radon is larger. In Iowa, we are over six
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times the national limit for radon and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa estimates 400
deaths per year due to radon induced lung cancer. It's about the same number of Iowans
that die in traffic accidents each year. So it's a huge win for us and it'll make our living
environment safer. The Housing Authority --we stabilize housing for those most in need
in our community. We assist more than 1,500 families with low incomes, acquire and
maintain safe and decent housing. We own and manage 86 public housing units, 16
affordable units, and then we administer about 1,400 housing choice vouchers. We serve
all of Johnson and Johnson County, Iowa County in parts of Washington counties, and
we are the second largest housing authority in the state for voucher usage outside of Des
Moines, and I always want to, there's always missed when it comes to housing choice
vouchers or misconceptions about people who use the vouchers and I always want to
stress that our vouchers are dispersed throughout Johnson County, mostly by populations.
There's vouchers in Coralville and North Liberty and our metro area, and almost 60
percent of the vouchers that are utilized are by the elderly or the head of household that
are disabled, and for those families who are working with children, or sorry, those
families with children, less than one percent report welfare as their sole source of income.
So our families are working, they're just not able to afford our market rate rents here.
Community Development --there's the division of ours that plan and administer housing,
jobs and services programs to assist those in need. We utilize federal, state, local grant
program, any type of money that we can get a hold of, we will use those to work on the
programs that we have. Were often called upon to administer federal disaster aid to
households. Such as the floods after 2008 and then a recently during the pandemic. In a
typical year, we administer about 2-3 million and projects for the Community
Development Block Grant, CDBG or home funds, and our local programs such as
housing rehab, healthy homes, aid agencies, south district Affordable Homes program,
the affordable housing fund, and even though some of those program limits are much
higher, like 80, 110 percent, we find that the vast majority of people that we serve are
under 50 percent of median income. They staff the, The Community Development staffs
the the Housing and Community Development Commission. Then our last division is the
MPO. They are our transportation wing of the department. They're looking at all modes
of transportation, vehicle, bike, pedestrian, transit. They complete traffic studies, traffic
analysis. They prepare and administer transportation related grants. They federal federal
and state transportation funds to projects and programs, through planning. They're
governed by and staff and two policy boards, the Urban Policy Board and the Rural
Policy Board, and they're comprised of elected officials. The Urban Board is us,
Coralville, North Liberty, Tiffin, and University Heights, the County, the University and
the school district. Some of our highlights and concerns over this past year. I think Geoff
took you earlier through our building permit activity and our taxable value. We show that
we had 152 million in building permits. I did want to say interesting part about the impact
of zoning when I'm on the development services is that we rezone the Riverfront
Crossings district back in 2014 with the Gilbane Project on 700 South Dubuque Street.
Since 2014, we've generated 250 million of building permit value and they've constructed
over 1,300 multifamily. The impact of when you rezone a segment of land can have a
huge impact for generations to come. All are building inspectors are now International
Code Council Certified, which is ICC certifications. We've increased cross training
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amongst all the building inspectors for the various construction trades, and with the
adoption of the 21 code in early 2023, you'll see us adding those additional inspections
for energy efficiency. We completed the Tailwinds Project, East College Street
Development that you see the 11 -story tower. It was a great project. We did the rezoning.
We preserved three historic structures that have built since the 1850s and the late 1800s.
The 11 -story tower was substantially complete this summer. They had to pay 1.8 million
fee in lieu of further Tax Increment Financing. We turned around and used those funds
and we bought eight duplexes, 16 units in the South District Program. We promoted
neighborhood commercial use by encouraging adaptive reuse. So the continuation of the
well, the new coffee shop at the historic property at 518 Bowery, and we designate a 937
East Davenport as historic landmark. We adopted the south district foreign-based code
the year prior, but based on that code and using some of the same concepts and land use
categories, we have created the Southwest District Plan and you'll be seeing that on your
agenda. We set the public hearing for that plan. This on the tenth and then you'll hear the
full presentation by Danielle on the 24th. A lot of the urgency for that plan was the
upcoming infrastructure that will be installed in 2023, and so it opens it up for immediate
development, so I won't take anything from Danielle. You'll hear about all that plan on
the 24th. In Neighborhood Services we completed the Affordable Housing Action Plan,
which was about a year process, and there's about 30 recommendations that's coming
from that report and we're working, we're going through those recommendations. We've
already seen some of those recommendations pan out. We discontinued the affordable
housing location model. We increased transparency and the funding process to our non-
profit agencies. We now make staff recommendations before HCDC makes their
recommendations that come to you. We're marking the funding availability to our
affordable housing non-profit providers. We need more people in the affordable housing
game. We're trying to figure out how to get that information to our affordable housing
providers. Either that have only limited number of units or who are thinking about.
Because if, we get it that your permanent affordability when a non-profit owns housing.
That meetings this Wednesday with about 12 of our non -profits. We worked with the
University of Iowa student government to advertise who can assist with rental issues. If
it's a leasing issue, if it's a housing issue, if it's a discrimination issue. You probably saw
their, I think they are refrigerator magnets that went out. What's really exciting for me
since we started with affordable housing action plan, the fust plan in 2016 and when the
affordable housing fund started, we had the landlord risk mitigation fund. Well, that will
be a reality. Shelter House submitted the housing stability pilot project. You're going to
get that on your January 10th agenda. Part of that project in one small aspect is a landlord
risk mitigation funds, so they will operate the fund, we will provide that capitalisation of
the fund. For non -profits who are trying to house tenants that might have some difficulty,
whether criminal history, landlord history, if they're a difficult to house client, this
provides some reassurance to the landlord. So if there's any damage to the unit, if there's
a loss, rental loss, or legal fees, they can apply to this fund for up to 3,500 and get that
reimbursed. So hopefully, we get those tenants housed. And then what has consumed us
since about the beginning of 2021 is that we're administering over 22 million in funds
dedicated to COVID relief in addition to our regular programs. We have hired one grant
specialist, but it just as a comparison, a three-year period, we'd administered about seven
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to eight million. We've partnered with over 50 agencies. so far to provide pandemic relief
through our non-profit community or through small business community, and we have 13
million left to allocate under those ARPA funds. I'm going to take a drink. I'm trying to
talk slow, it's hard. The Housing Authority, we have embraced the Housing First model
and that's the model that basically says you provide permanent housing with support. And
we had about the stagnant number of vouchers. And there's a misconception that people
think that if you have more low-income people in your neighborhood or in your city, you
get more vouchers. You don't. Ah, these are- the application process to have a few and far
between. And so it's impressive that over the last five years, we've added 235 new
specialty vouchers for veterans or for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of
homelessness. There are a vast mainstream emergency vouchers, incremental vouchers,
or the conversion of regular vouchers to project based vouchers helping, um, Crosspark
place and the 501 Project. The specialty vouchers provide housing assistance to those
most in need under community. They follow the HUD best practices for reducing
homelands- homelessness, and they're in line with your strategic plan. They provide
considerably more administrative funding that are regular vouchers. However, there -
there are some- there are always some challenges. Ah, these vouchers are intended to
serve specific high barrier populations and we have not always hired people and staff
with specialty training or background to work with these higher populations and
consequently, sometimes it can be challenging. The MPO they- they're not immune,
they're getting- um their capacity is being stretched as well. Um, they've allocated over
17.3 million to a three transit providers with COVID relief money through different
sources. Um, those funds have went to the Iowa City Transit, Coralville Transit and
Cambus. Over 17.3 million, Iowa City transit received 10.7 million. And these are pass-
through funds. So you don't see it in our budget because they go directly to um the three
transit services. On the bike master plan, we completed 4-3 lane conversion on Madison
Street with bike lanes and American Legion Road from Scott to Taft now has bike lanes
and a- and a side path. And then always the best part, I know I get to the challenges and
the concerns that I have for our division over the next year. Um, back in April, we
analyzed and we sent you a council memo, but we analyze residential lot creation to
compared to building permit activity. The MPO projects that we'll have an increase of
10,000 residents by 2030. But if our final platted land and our building activity remain at
the same levels, we will only be able to half- house half of those- those- those
households. So if you have increasing demand, you have insufficient capacity, you have
inflation and you have rising interest rates, affordable housing problems will- will
continue to increase. So we're looking like there's communities all across United States
that they struggle with affordable housing. And so how best- how best do we meet that?
How do we work with the partners that we have? How do we create win-win situations
with the private development because they're gonna be providing most of that building?
So we will look to ways how we can do that. Then, you know, the 20 years that I've been
here, there's always been nybyism then not- not in my backyard. But we're seeing across
the- the nation the more of the banana, the build anything- built almost nothing anywhere
near anything. So we have to- we have to figure how we get past that. How- how do we
encourage development to continue? And then throughout all our programs with- it is a
great problem that we have all these funds that are coming to us. They- they're- they're
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gonna make impact for generations to come. These- these onetime projects- the large
projects that we're doing, but all these pro- programs that we're getting through HUD and
through different sources, they're like CDBG, but they're not. They're like home, but
they're not. They're like a typical voucher but they're not. They're like surface
transportation funding, but they're not. So for our staff to learn all these different funding
streams and all the different requirements, it takes some time. For example specialty
vouchers. They're voucher, but they don't go through a waiting list, they go through a
referral agency. They had- some of them use different payment standards, different
eligibility criteria, and we're finding that throughout all these programs that are coming
in. So keeping track and reporting on all the programs, and it's time-consuming. It can be
confusing and I'm afraid at times there will be mistakes made. Never on the intent of the
program, but you know, did we- did we apply this? Did this get happened? Did we
document? Such and such. And with all these funding coming and we still have to
maintain compliance with our regular- regular program. So we're still getting those
CDBG and Home Dollars. We're still getting state dollars and we still have to maintain
compliance with them. So I'm proud that we are one of the few entitlement communities
that met the CDBG timeliness tests back in 2022. We were one of the few, but we're
struggling to meet that test in May of 2023. And HUD has decided to give all entitlement
cities across the country a waiver because of the HUD and all the other funds that were
coming in. But as you mount funds that aren't spent, it's going to make it even harder to
hit that May of 2024 when will no longer have that waiver. And just as I'm sure Geoff
mentioned and all the other department directors, we're just continue to get increasing
requests for services based on expanding growth area and more residents. We'll also work
to prioritize the several items in the code that need to be prioritized. We have on our
workload, district plans and updates. We have 10 districts. Some of those were not
updated in several years or decades. We have amendments to address climate change,
housing affordability, the comp plan, parking reform, amendments to be consistent with
state law and code cleanup. So we will do our best to try to prioritize based on what
you've said. And then we do all these things and all these challenges with the staff that
we have hire- almost 35 percent of our departments staff has been- has been hired since
2021. So while we work on these workloads and challenge, we're in that constant state of
training and staff capacity is a challenge at this point. So we're excited about the
opportunities for the next year and will continue to tackle as much as we can, as
effectively as we can based on the priorities you set. And I- that's all of my prepared
remarks. So I can answer any questions you have.
Bergus: I have a few Tracy. Thank you for all of that. And I think I've said this before, but I feel
like your um, department sort of touches everything, right? And really when I look at our
new strategic plan and those impact areas, it's like housing and neighborhoods. Totally
your focus, right? Mobility, MPO, economy. You're talking about the- the development
and- and building permits and the tax base growing, safety and well-being, meeting the
needs of those most vulnerable in our community. So I just think from a policy
standpoint, your department has all- let me- you hit every impact area and deeply in most
of them. So on the budget side, um, you had mentioned there was like especially in MPO.
I think you were speaking of the federal relief funds that were passed through, so they're
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not reflected in the budget. The most notable thing to me in our budget document when I
look at the like by department expenditures as NDS went down from the revised 2013 of
about 39 million to the proposed 20 million. Can you just explain what that was about?
Hightshoe: I believe into Culkin, all the ARTA funds were kinda, got there carryover funds now.
So they're programmed in 20. Yeah. They're there.
Bergus: Okay.
Hightshoe: We didn't lose them.
Bergus: Yeah. Okay. Great.
Hightshoe: Just for year they're reported in.
Bergus: Well, and so just looking at the growth from like 2020, 2021. So I guess the- the ARPA
funds probably start being reflected in here in 20... Okay.
Hightshoe: You'd have CARES Act funding before that. We've got CARES Act funding before
ARPA.
Bergus: Okay. Okay. My- my overall like question is just with how much demand, how much
growth, um, you know, physically in the community, on the development side, on the
human services side, on all of that. It just feels like the- when you back out, the relief
funding, your department isn't increasing much. Is that a correct observation or?
Hightshoe: No, we won't- we- we've maintained about the same level of staff approximately for
the last few years. I mean, we have yeah.
Fruin: I think we added a-
Hightsho e : Inspector.
Fruin: An inspector and then we had maybe a half-time planner that we added maybe 2, 3 years
ago um,.
Hightshoe: We did hire grant specialist for all the ARPA.
Bergus: Yeah. Cassie. Um, yeah. So I guess I would just, you know, urge my colleagues to think
about that and- and see if is- could we possibly be more- a little more aggressive in
providing some support to this department. I don't have a specific recommendation, but I
just feel like the level of impact that your department has, when I think about again, the
ability to maybe move faster on a comp plan amendment or have better engagement in a
process like that. Or to really, um, put more resources towards the overall affordable
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housing framework to address some of the challenges you're talking about. Those kinds
of, things.
Bergus: We'd never tell you no, we don't want the money.
Teague: I think, um, your presentation probably struck you the same way it struck me. At
hearing the huge need being spoken through you and in your presentation that's
happening in our community. Um, and when we look at the strategic plan, of course you
hit every- you hit every one of them. Um, and I, you know, went back to where our
people suggested for new staffing is throughout the, you know, that's being recommended
by the City Manager's Office. And of course, the FSS position is there and I knew that
that was going to be be fully funded by HUD. Um, and then I didn't see any anything else
and you- you just mentioned that the- the ARPA fund, how you all worked with 500
different agencies. Is that?
Hightshoe: Fifty.
Teague: Fifty. Fifty different agencies.
Hightshoe: Five hundred, but no, 50.
Teague: No. Fifty different agencies. Which is a lot because there's, you know, there's paperwork
and all types of agreements potentially associated with that, and then all of the funds that
you had to, you know, give out and there's still more additional funds. Um, I guess when
I heard the presentation, I- I certainly felt that this is a major part of our community. This
department, um, I think speaks to the heart of a lot of the mission that this council try to
do through policy setting. And I guess I do- I will just state that at least I have a- a soft
spot to make sure that your department, as well as all the other ones, but your department
at this moment seems to be very critical, especially when we're talking about the, um, the
economic challenges that everybody is facing. Um, and we're also trying to ensure that
we retain people that come to this community and in affordable housing, as we all know,
that's a challenge. And these new things that's coming across your desk is new
information, is new knowledge. Um, and I guess I'll just put it out there, which I don't
know how to put a totally into words, but, um, this department just seems very critical
and to the lives and the quality of life of our residents or people that live within this
community. And so I just wanted to highlight that if there is a need to make sure that, um,
you all are more successful. I personally, as well as Councilor Bergus and I imagined my
other colleagues are very interested in making sure that you all can,um, consume all that's
commg your way.
Taylor: I- I agree with my fellow councilors because as- as I mentioned, you hit all the highlights
in the strategic plan. But that also means that that takes a lot more funding for- for those
things and- and time staff time that things were asking you to do. You know our priorities
and we want you to look at these things so we can understand and appreciate that, that is
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taking more of your time and your staff. And if it's more staff you need or more funding
then- then we should seriously consider that.
Alter: I guess in the- um. What I'm hearing from my councilors is saying that there's- there's
certainly room for support from council because of the way in which your department is
encompassing, and dealing with so many of the points of our strategic plans. So I guess
my super blunt question would be like do you have a pressing need for more and if so,
where?
Hightshoe: The answer is always, yes.
Alter: Like you said, I mean, like you're never going to turn it down, but I guess it's.
Hightshoe: What that actually looks like.
Alter: Put it into concrete terms of like is- I know that this has been an excruciating for all staff
and department heads still have to look at this year's budget and then also think about it in
advance. And I'm very mindful of the way in which Geoff and- and Rachel and Redmond
have presented this as like, this is a time for extreme prudence and caution, right? But
we're trying to balance it out also with like, what are the pressing needs and looking
forward, is it better to think about need now so that we're not caught up in more dire
straits later. So I guess I'm just asking for more like concrete. Because of course, every
department I have no doubt would say yes, we could definitely use more. We're all
stretched really thin. Um, so I'm just kinda like trying to consolidate, and translate sort of,
more general like you seem like you need support to like do you and in what way. Is it-
Hightshoe: If you want some of the planning priorities and you want them now, then yes, we'll
need some more support, but I would like to have more time to think about how that
works. Um, you know, ARPA funds are onetime funds will go away. Um, it'd be great to
keep that position on that grant person on, but also about how to implement all those
planning and changes and what that might look like and what type of position who best
fills that. So I guess I would just need some time to. I don't want to turn any money
down.
Alter: No, but does it- does it make sense then to have this sort of like as a prioritized alert, or
what have you to think about what that would look like for next year?
Hightshoe: Oh, yeah.
Bergus: And I would say maybe if I'd say for this year, but I really wanna call back to um, our
Deputy City Manager's golden goose parable because I think what your department does
empowers and creates the structure, and framework and scaffolding for so many other
things. And that's where I really see the value, and trying to be more aggressive sooner
because we know additional challenges are coming, and if we can lay that you know, sort
of, foundation for the capacity for things to continue rather than constantly scrambling to
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catch up with the next emergency. I don't know if that framing helps in your prioritization
that you might come back with but.
Hightshoe: I struggle with what makes the largest impact to what we actually need help with
right now. I'll talk to Geoff about that and I'm sure we can come back with something.
Bergus: Thank you.
Teague: Anything else? Yeah. Thank you so much. All right. We're gonna move on to business
type funds and we're going to invite uh, the Transportation Service Director, Darian
Nagle-Gamm, to talk about Transportation Services. Welcome.
Nagle-Gamm: Good afternoon, Mayor Teague, Mayor Pro Tem. Councilors, it's very good to see
you. I'm always happy to come chat with you about transportation. Um, so I guess we'II-
we'll go ahead and get started here, but uh, we are currently, sorry, wrong page. There we
go. Ah, again, I'm Darian Nagle-Gamm. Probably don't need to reintroduce myself. But
um, our department mission of course is to keep Iowa City moving, by bus, by bike, by
car, by foot. And we do this by either directly providing transit service, by managing
vehicle and bike parking in the downtown, or ah, by managing the upkeep and
maintenance of the Central Business District. Of course, um, we- we work to ensure that
the downtown CBD and the Ped Mall is a nice, pleasant, attractive, walkable, and
beautiful place that people want to visit. In your budget flip book, just a housekeeping
item, the Transportation Services Department introduction starts on page 254, um, and
then the bulk of the financial information starts a little further ahead on page 438. All
right, so let's kick it off with staff and divisions. So we are the third largest department in
terms of employees. We have 78 employees ah, in this proposed budget before you. Four
percent of those employees are assigned to the Transportation Services admin budget uh,
Admin Division and that includes myself, that includes Mark Rommel. He is the
Associate Director and also the central business district maintenance is under
Transportation Services admin. Parking operations makes up 28 percent of our staff. And
parking operations is what you'd expect. It's managing the parking ramps the six ramps
that we have, 1,200 on street meter parking spaces, parking enforcement. We also have
six parking lots, making sure we have bike parking uh, where it needs to be downtown in
the central business district. And then we manage and monitor about 20 specialty parking
zones in the downtown. So that's your- your loading zones or commercial loading zones.
You are all vehicle loading zones. The last division and the largest division of
Transportation Services is the Transit Division, and that makes up about 67 percent of
our overall employees. We operate 13 routes, approximately 17 hours a day during
weekdays, about 12 hours on Saturdays currently. Um, and that- that's just kind of a high
level of our overall staffing and divisions. In terms of the budget requests that you see
before you, we're proposing a 15.2 million dollar budget for FY 24 to operate and
maintain um, those transit, parking and maintenance services that we provide for the
community. Twenty-eight percent- excuse me, 29 percent of that budget is allocated for
parking operations and that's about 4.4 million, 67 percent the greatest share is for transit
services and that's 10.2 million. And then we have four percent of the overall budget,
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about $600,000 dedicated towards the Transit Administration Division, and of course,
that's CBD downtown maintenance as well. So again, both transit and parking are mainly
funded, 95% funded through enterprise funds. So the funding comes from the actual fees
for the services that we provide. You know, the parking fees, the citation revenue, the
user fees for transit and- and such. All right, so now we get into the fun stuff. So wanna
do a little bit of a rearview mirror look back at 2022, um, talk about a little bit of our
accomplishments, some of our challenges. Um, and I know, fust off, maintaining a safe,
reliable, convenient, and affordable transit system is a high priority of councils. It's been
in your strategic plan for more years than I can count, perhaps all of them, at least many
of the most recent years, and that is certainly- that is one of our core missions and
Transportation Services. So we're definitely aligned in that mission. And you know, our
commitment to the community is maintaining that bus schedule. Providing the service,
and then that bus schedule. I'm not sure if there's any other public services. Maybe Geoff
can tell me whether this is accurate or not. I don't know if we offer any other public
services that are provided down to a minutes worth of wiggle room. I mean, it's a really
small margin and everything, there's a lot of coordination that has to happen in order for
that to work. A lot of different people literally moving throughout the community in a
very coordinated fashion in order to provide that service and that commitment to the
community, that bus schedule. Um, when there are staffing issues, that exponentially
raises the challenge for us. So we literally, and I mean, the entire department, has to drop
everything when there are staffing issues and find a way to find somebody who can
provide that service because the buses can't call in sick. So last year was full of staffing
challenges. So something that is an already difficult and pretty intense service to provide
requires a lot of people, a lot of coordination. It was a real challenge last year, so staff
worked very long hours. Um, We paid a lot of extraordinary amount of overtime, um
which we need to do to fulfill that commitment. But I also recognize that is not a long-
term solution for our employees. So but they and did they worked week after week in the
office, out of the office. It was- it was an extraordinary challenge. The council did
authorize, which we very much appreciate, the expansion of our transit drivers staff by
four positions, four three-quarter time positions. In August, we've had to post twice.
We're still in that, we still don't have those positions filled. So that's again, just kinda
showing how the difficulties that we're having in attracting folks that already have a CDL
with a passenger endorsement or getting- getting them trained so that we can- we can get
them behind the wheel and continued to provide that service for the community. So I
consider that an accomplishment and a challenge, because we made a 2022. We're closer
to having those new staff on board than further than we were last year. So I think we're in
a good position. But I just didn't want to be remiss if, I didn't want to not mention the
challenges we had last year and then also mention how much I appreciate the amount of
work and dedication that staff put into making sure that we can fulfill that- fulfill that
commitment. Second, we launched electric bus operations last year for the fust time in
Iowa City history. Very exciting. That was also a very intensive project that's still
ongoing. Actually, we're still working on getting the final charging equipment installed.
But this of course, is not simply you just buy a bus, you take the other one off the road
and you replace it. There's an infrastructure project. We need the power to the building,
we need the charging equipment. Ah, we need to learn how this- to speak the language of
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this new bus company or bus provider, I should say. Um, and then we've been working
really closely with the manufacturer just to understand the buses and how far they can go
um, with their ranges during the cold weather versus the warm weather, there's been a lot
to learn. So it's been exciting. I think most exciting to me is the fact that those four buses,
which is 15% of our fleet, now, um, are being charged using the most sustainable fuel we
have available to us, which is electricity, especially here if Eric Gore's was correct, Mid -
American is now up to 88 percent renewable energy mix. Most of that is wind. So again,
we have four buses out there taking people to from work, school, shopping, powered by
wind, which is incredible to me. So I'm definitely cheering- cheering that when I- when I
did look back into last year, I'm really excited to continue to look for funding
opportunities so we can continue to replace our older diesel buses with ah, with the
electric buses. On the parking side --a couple of new things you may have noticed this
year we have a new mobile parking payment provider, so we transitioned from, our
contract ran out with Passport. This the University led this- this contracting process and
we went out again to see what the, what the world had to offer. I think it's been almost 10
years since we've had passport. Um, Park Mobile ended up being who the contract was
awarded to. I think the app is, from our perspective easier to navigate. It's got more
features than- than what passport could offer, for example when we get our new
automated parking equipment, which I'll talk about in a second, you'll be able to pay
leaving a parking ramp from your Park Mobile app on your phone as opposed to, you
have that option when you're exiting the facility also, but it's just another way to make it
easier, more convenient for people to pay for parking and just get in and out of downtown
more simply. So we're excited about that. We also on the parking side, we- you probably
couldn't see, but we've replaced all of the meter computers and all of our smart parking
meters throughout downtown. The good old 3G technology that- they use to transmit the
credit card information, so you can use your credit card um, at the actual meters now is
expiring soon, so we've been on the clock this you're trying to rush to make sure we got
all of those replaced so that you can continue to either pay with coin, pay with credit card
or you can use the app. So it couldn't be any easier really to park in parking meters now.
So that was a big project for maintenance and they worked very hard to make sure that
we beat the deadline which they had communicated to us was ah, the fust of this year. All
right, and then the last thing I wanted to mention it, kind of, in the rear-view mirror is,
um, the last accomplishment is our parking meter, excuse me, parking facility
maintenance program. So every year, and I'm sure you've all seen it in the budget there,
it's a big ticket item for- for the parking department is maintaining those parking
facilities. It is not inexpensive to do so, um, but it's necessary to maintain, um, to extend
their life to maintain- to do the preventative maintenance, um, that prevents future more
expensive repairs. And we have those every single year. Well, we had two on our plate
last year that were unplanned, um, and they were- it was the- the Tower Place, uh, facility
and the Dubuque Street facility. So when those things happen, when there is, uh, repair
that is necessary, you have to drop on that level, you drop everything and you make sure
that that's attended to. So I wanted to also mention that as being, uh, not necessarily an
accomplishment or a highlight, but something that really did take a lot of staff time that
was- that was unplanned for. Um, and I also wanted to acknowledge all the support that
we get from the Public Works Departments. They really helped manage those projects.
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We kinda manage the- the parking aspect of it and the- the interface with the public
aspect of it. And they really may carry the weight of the projects. So I just wanted to also
mention how much we appreciated their support, um, in making sure we can get those
done and we can get our parking capacity back, um, which everybody was cheering once -
once those are done and all the parking facilities were fully opened again. Um, and last
but not least in terms of challenges, um, I would say in general and not unlike what Tracy
mentioned too, we're also, I'd say we submit, um, staffing requests, um, to- to the City
Manager, um, every year, you know, and we- we- we don't communicate everything that
we need because we know it's- it's really not possible. Um, in your proposed budget, you
will see a, um, a request for an additional parking enforcement staff. That is one area- one
of our many areas where we could use additional help and we're actually getting requests
for more enforcement from the downtown district, um, because it's really hard at our
staffing levels right now to even enforce to the signage, um, which is- I mean to the
signage, the time -frames on the signage. So you will see that. Um, but as all departments,
you now, we're definitely feeling, um, feeling the stress of, um, not only just a growing
population, the more people reaching out to us, the more, um, communications. But there
has been an increase in, um, I would say, conflicts potentially with the public, um,
increasingly aggressive behavior, increasing amount of- I mean, we've- we've had some
situations, from a staffing perspective, we've had, um, staff that has been assaulted by
members and we are talking in random- random situations, um, and or just in the, you
know, in- in the, uh, course of the transactions that a bus driver might have, you know,
asking for, you know, fair and that sort of thing. The reason I bring that up is because
there's just been an increase in the amount of support that our staff has needed to help
work through these issues. Um, um, an increase in concerns about security and safety. It
just, it feels like the world maybe is just a little bit of a different place. So maybe it was a
few years ago and, um, and it requires more support from an administrative perspective to
make sure that our staff has what they need and that we're following through on these
issues and that were, um, we have the time and the capacity to really create an
environment- a safe and comfortable work environment for our employees. Especially in
our department our employees are everywhere at all times. We are not in one location
that we can secure, um, and lock down and, and make badge. It's- we're everywhere at
one time. So- so that was- that's- if you talk to anybody on staff in our department, you -
you might understand or you might, um, they might share with you some of the concerns
about just general, they're feeling that there's just generally, uh, maybe an erosion of -
erosion of, not sure what the word is I'm looking for, um, just more aggressive behavior, I
would say from the public. So definitely a challenge from last year, or a challeng that we
experienced last year and we're hoping that the trend doesn't continue. Um, in terms of
this year next steps. So I'm going to talk about parking fust and then we'll get into transit.
Um, the most exciting thing from a parking perspective- and you will- again, if you talk
to folks on our staff you would hear cheer from the parking department, but we're
replacing our automated parking equipment, which sounds like the most not exciting
thing in the world. But for us, we are thrilled because, um, the equipment is well past its,
um, useful life. It causes many heartaches for- for, um, both members of the public,
frustration for members of the public, frustration for staff. And- and some of those
conflicts, um, are arising when people are trying to get out of our parking facilities. Um,
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and it's just been a real challenge and it's, uh, we're excited. I think the kickoff meeting is
going to be next week. So expect to commence that project in a few months. So, um, it
will be easier than ever to visit downtown and to get in and out of the parking facilities by
car. Um, and then our staff will be able to focus more on their maintenance, um, duties
rather than either, kinda, babysitting equipment or, you know, making sure that, uh, that
people can get- I mean a lot of things we, you know, we have to put a lot of things aside
to- in order to make sure that- that people can get out of the parking ramps. That's kinda
one of our top priorities. Transit service, make sure people can get in and out of the- out
of the parking facilities. So- so we're very excited about that. Um, and then on the, uh,
parking side too, you probably saw that our parking permit fees are proposed to go up are
just for our parking permits, the fees are proposed to go up by five dollars. Um, and that
is to help us, um, compensate for the increase in expenses that we're seeing as part of the
inflationary costs, the fuel costs, every- all of those things that I know you all are very
well aware of, but it's an- it's an effort to help kind of stymie some that, um, some of that
loss that we've been experiencing in the last year. All right, in terms of transit, um,
transit, of course is always a big topic for us. I will- let's see, I'll go through the transit
facility fust. So we are, you know, forward, oh, with- with, um, with, uh, with our federal
environmental review and our federal planning review. We've been meeting with
representatives, um, from the FTA, Federal Transit Administration to, uh, move forward
the- the planning and environmental clearance that we need in order to, um, to get any
federal funding and leverage any federal funding for this transit projects. So they have
been great to work with. Um, they're out of the Kansas City office, um, and- and we're -
we're moving along and hoping, um, within the next few months we can have, um, the -
the parcel cleared, which of course is on the Public Works site. That is where the
intended, um, new shared, um, transit, transit slash equipment facility will be. Um, and
once that gets cleared, we can move past preliminary design and basically we get the
clearance from the federal perspective that the site is, um, is ready to go, then they have
done their evaluation of our capacity to use the federal funds, um, to build this building.
So that's kinda what that process means. We- they both need to clear the- the parcel, um,
and then they give, you know, whomever might be giving us a grant, that assurance that,
that this community is, um, ready, willing, and able to be able to facilitate a project on
this scale. Um, we're going to continue to seek federal funding sources. So next month,
um, the fust of this year will be due. Um, that's the RAISE grant. That's a US DOT grant.
It's a very large grant that we'll be competing against a lot of, um, different applications
across the country. Um, but we're going to that one that is probably the one that is most
competitive, but we are going to submit an application. Um, and then later this spring,
um, we will have a bus and bus facilities grant available, um, grant opportunity available.
And I think that is the one that we have the greatest chance for, um, and so we will also
be submitting, um, a request for funding for that. So fingers crossed. Um, we have some -
we're further along in the FTA, the environmental and planning review process. So we're
really going to leverage that in our applications. And, uh, we're hoping- we're hoping that
this is our year. So that's in- in terms of transit facility, that's kinda where we're at and
new transit facility. Also this year, we are very excited because, uh, we're going to be
able to make some tweaks, um, to our- our bus schedule. Right now, after we rolled out
the new transit system and changes, we found that there were certain routes at certain
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times of day that we were- it's virtually impossible to keep them on time. And that is of
course, our commitment to the community. Um, and the- the- the- the issue with is that
you can't just, it's not an easy fix. It's, uh, because that whole system is so interconnected,
you have to develop a plan and an approach to be able to- to borrow time from one place,
put it over in another place. You know, there's a lot of steps, um, a lot of- yeah, a lot of
coordination that needs to happen. Um, so we've been waiting until we have the staff on
board to be able to make the changes necessary because they will require some additional
staff. So again, those four, um, employees that you approved last August for us, once we
get them on board, we're going to be making some tweaks to a few of our route schedules
during peak times. Um, again, by borrowing time from here to there, um, moving break
times around and the like, um, pairing different bus routes together in a way that we can -
we can, um, just improve the service. So- so we're really excited to be able to do that this
year. And then last but not least, last item today is to talk about the next steps in terms of
transit enhancements or transportation mobility enhancements. Um, we've talked multiple
times over the last few years about, again, what the next steps are. As part of that transit
study, of course, we- the fust two phases were to- to, uh, bring our fare system in
alignment with Coralville and make it, you know, simple and easy for people to move
across the metro area. And that was the fust phase. Second phase was let's clean up the
routes. Let's make them, um, let's run them more frequently. Let's put them on arterial
streets. Let's, um, let's provide better service. Let's make it more reliable, um, for the
community and, and new routes to new bus schedule followed. The next steps that we
have been looking forward to is really, kind of, the enhancements. One of the thing that
you all asked us to work with the consultants on as if there was an opportunity to allocate
additional funding towards, um, transit service. What type of enhancement, or
transportation services? What types of enhancements would the community want? Um,
and then we came back with a list of nine different things and you all- the council
prioritized, um, for further evaluation. Sunday service, um, on -demand service for when
transit is not available. Um, and then zero fair transit service. Those are sort of at the top
of your- at the top of your list. We, uh, we initially, um, started looking at what we- we
were looking into all of them simultaneously and I, and, um, we have come back to you
and had discussions about moving forward with a- with a Sunday, um, service evaluation
and to understand what those costs might look like and what those staffing requirements
look like. And we're actually currently preparing for you, uh, a deep dive presentation for
the upcoming weeks to really talk about those three items and the benefits, the
drawbacks, the costs, um. And to- to really dig into those options to- to make a
determination about how we're gonna move forward. But I can say that during the past
year, due to the significant staffing challenges that we've had, we've had low app -
applicant pools. Um, on top of that, there is a new federal training requirements that were
very poorly timed, but it was planned five years in advance, uh, that rolled out in
February, which really lengthens the process and makes it m- more tough to bring on
people who don't already have a CDL with a passenger endorsement. Um, we've had
rising fuel costs, um, a very- have been significant rising fuel costs, of course, they're
inflationary pressures. There has been uh, you know, our ridership is still down 40
percent um, approximately 40 percent. Uh, so there's just a lot of variables affecting
transit right now and it makes it hard to have a clear picture, uh, especially from a
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financial perspective, of what the next 10 years or- are going to look like. We do have
some COVID funding, uh, which we are extremely grateful for that has helped kinda
cover some of those losses from the fare revenue and we can allocate some of those to
help launch whatever the next initiative is that the council wants to move forward with,
but of course, those aren't gonna be there forever. Um, we also do know in- in a bright
spot of news here, I just saw the recent urbanized area population um, census data. Or I
don't know if it's final or if it's pre- preliminary, but this pilot when the metro area grows,
that's helpful for us because that - that will increase our formula funding that we get. So
we did see that the part - the general uh, metro area, the urbanized area grew by 19
percent, um, which should you know, should be some increase to our funding levels. We
don't know what that's gonna look like right now. Uh, again, that's another variable we
just don't have a really clear picture of right now. So - so because of these unknown
variables and challenges, it's really lead us to kinda rethink the prioritization potentially
of those - those different transit enhancements that you all had identified as priorities.
And when we do come to you in upcoming weeks, you're going to see a um,
recommendation from staff to- to perhaps shift those priorities and maybe move zero -fare
transit to the top of that list. Um, reason being, um, well there's many reasons but the fust
I think foremost is that there's no staffing changes required to - to enact zero -fare. In fact,
it's very - it will be very quick from an implementation perspective. The longest part will
take is - is the financial analysis and making sure that we have a - we have a good solid
picture of the next 10 years. That part and potentially working through the MPO to make
sure our transit funding through the MPO stays potentially stable. That will take longer
than the actual pulling of the lever. So you know, the staffing challenges is- is the biggest
concern and you know, we're gonna need upwards of 20 people to provide Sunday
service and seven day a week service. And to be quite honest, at this exact time right
now, I'm not sure that we could - we could - we could find those people. Um, that's a real
concern of mine at this time. So um, a- another - another reason you know, the zero -fare,
at least from a staff perspective, comes to the top of the list is because it would be a
change that would impact every transit rider every day of the week immediately upon
again pulling that lever and enacting that. Um, so - and those who don't ride transit. Now,
you know, having that barrier removed, whether it's from an affordability perspective or
whether it's from uh, - whether it's- it's just a barrier for some people to have to figure it
out, or they don't know how to pay for transit. So that might be the simplest little thing,
the reason why people don't hop on board a bus. Um, simplest little thing, but removing
that barrier, I think would go a long way towards increasing our transit ridership. Before
the pandemic, because of course, we didn't see this in the picture when we were planning
this transit study, the pandemic has- is really had an effect and it's hard to separate out
you know, the transit study effects and the pan. I mean, it would have been really nice to
be able to sit here at pandemic not happening. And we build to tell you clearly these are
the changes that we've seen as the result of what we did, what the council approved, and
what changes we made, but we just- we just aren't really there. Um, but um, th- the other
options are - the other benefits are it will speed up our service. Um, there is not an
insignificant amount of time used when you board a bus and then there's conversations
sometimes, and then you know, they need to take their pass back and it just - it just takes
time. Um, and we could use that time to - to, again, to have a better shot of getting that
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commitment to the community, which is that bus schedule. So uh, let's see here. I think
the was - the increase ridership piece. Yes. So back to that. Sorry. I - I neglected to finish
that point. So the increased ridership. So before the pandemic, it was 40-60 percent is
what - what our consultant team found from other communities that had gone through, uh
gone through zero fare transition 46 - 40 to 60 percent increase in ridership. What we're
seeing now, we have had um, which I- I don't I can tell you I don't expect that that will be
what we would see. Um, I would love it if it was. Uh, and I think we could definitely
impact that number by the amount of marketing that we do. I think we- we really have an
opportunity in this community specifically to- to get people excited about transit, by
taken away that fare and taking away that barrier I think it's huge. I have seen other
communities, um, there's more people considering and more communities moving
towards uh, zero fare. Um, some did as part of the pandemic, I mean, Cedar Rapids did
for a very long time. Some are doing it because they're just - it's- they're trying to meet
their climate action and equity goals. Not unlike - not unlike Iowa City. Um, but I have
seen re- recent examples of you know, 20, 30 percent um, increases um, in people who -
communities, not people but the people of the community have approved a- a zero -fare
change for that community post pandemic. So I think either way, we're going to get a- a
significant increase in transit ridership, which again, meets our climate action. It meets
our equity goals, it meets our economic goals. Um, there's - there's so many pros and
positives. So - so again, a- a little preview to the conversation we're going to have, but
we'll go into a more deep dive in terms of what the- the pros and cons are right now at
this point in time. And that's not just say that any of these options aren't feasible. Um,
some might take longer to implement. I- I- I can't tell you at this point how long it would
take to potentially get 20 employees to be able to expand that service, but it wouldn't be
something that would- would be able to do quickly. Is - is - is the point at this - at this
point in time. So I think that's all I have for you all. Do you have any questions for me?
Teague: Before the council um, answers this, I just wanted to remind the councilors that we will
have a work session on the transit study, the things that she kinda went over. So um,
unless you're gonna ask some questions related to like the budget, um, we will get to - we
will get an opportunity really soon to talk about Sunday service, fare -free, and those other
things.
Thomas: I just have a couple of comments and on that, that I might forget when it comes to this
again, but on the - on the zero -fare. I think one- one advantage in addition to all the ones
you described would be that Iowa City then would have a- a zero -fare, if you consider
Cambus combined with the City service, I think from an image standpoint, that would be
a big deal. And also I suspect zero -fare, as you said, would make it very- very much
easier for the bus drivers. Um, if there are these incidents that are occurring, it just seems
like it would be much smoother not having to manage the fare issue for the drivers.
They're just operating the bus and being good ambassadors, but not having to worry
about collecting fares.
Nagle-Gamm: I absolutely agree.
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Bergus: I do have a question that relates to the upcoming work session where we may prioritize
or change some of this with this um, budget, would FY 24 budget then be the proposal be
amended with the intent of adopting that within this budget based on what we prioritize
in a few weeks, is that kinda what you're thinking? I see Nicole nodding.
Nagle-Gamm: Yeah.
Bergus: Okay.
Davies: Once we decide what we're gonna do more than likely it would create an amendment for
next year, for the FY24 budget.
Bergus: Okay, but the timing would be probably - it would get into the one later.
Davies: It would not get into this one that we're going to approve. It would be amended in next
year.
Bergus: Got it. Okay.
Fruin: It- it wouldn't affect implementation time, but the- but the - any amendments that are
necessary would come post -adoption.
Bergus: Thank you. That was just a weird procedural question, so thank you. I appreciate that.
Alter: And I just have a really simple, easy question. Um, you mentioned that there are four full-
time positions that are being interviewed for. Ha- have any of those been filled yet? You
said you were - I wasn't sure I was.
Nagle-Gamm: Not yet. So we- we posted for um, - this is our second posting. We- we have made
offers. Some of those offers were turned down. Uh, we are lining up interviews for the
second round, so we're hoping to have those four employees well, we're beginning the
interview process, so.
Alter: Thank you.
Taylor: Back in the day a few years back, I can remember the joke was that the transit drivers in
Iowa City were some- were more highly educated people in the community, you had
transit drivers that have their PhDs even but they just didn't - couldn't find a position in -
in their field. And so they opted to uh, drive transit. Do you see that still that kind of a
thing?
Nagle-Gamm: Absolutely- absolutely. We have people who are former store manager or for
managers of stores um, who have PhDs. It's funny, but as part of our FTA, Title 6
requirements um, and their limited English proficiency requirements, they're very
interested in how we are able to communicate with the public who don't speak English.
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Um, which we're very proud to say that- that our transit departments speaks, I think, 10,
11, 12 different languages. So we're never at a loss of finding someone who can help
somebody if there's somebody who does not speak is a rare instance that we cannot help
somebody and we need to rely on the language line. But yes, we do have uh, we have
artists, we have musicians, we have - we have those with their doctorates, their masters.
We've got - we've got a variety of - of people who work for us. And quite honestly what I
hear from some of those that you wouldn't expect it to be necessarily in- in the field, they
- they really like the customers and they really like helping people and they like that
they're always moving throughout the day and they- they enjoy - they enjoy that part of
the- of the work, so yep.
Teague: All right. Thank you so much. We are going to take a seven minute break and then we're
going to come back, uh, with our airport. So hang around, Mike. All right we're going to
continue on this Saturday, January 7, 2023 with our council budget work session and
we're on to Transportation Services. And we're going to ask that, or not Transportation
Services. We just finished that. Airport and we're going to have the airport manager,
Michael Tharp. Welcome.
Tharp: Thank you. Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and council members. I am the airport manager.
Myself, along with five members of the Airport Commission, we're charged with
operating the Iowa City Municipal Airport. The Iowa City Municipal Airport has two -
two runways. A primary runway that's 5002 feet long, and a secondary runway that's
3900 feet. We have approximately 36,000 operations a year. An operation is defined by
the FA as either a take -off or landing of an aircraft. Um, and we have roughly about 90
aircraft based in several buildings at the airport, uh, as well. At the airport, we have a
couple of independent companies CARE Ambulance and Jet Air Incorporated. Jet Air
incorporated serve as our as- as our fixed base operators. So they do aircraft charter,
fueling, ground handling, flight instruction, um, those type of services. CARE ambulance
is an ambulatory company, but they provide the medical crews for any, uh, medical
flights that Jet Air might be operating. Um, and then we also have a research lab at the
airport, the operator performance lab. They are a, uh, department under the College of
Engineering at the University of Iowa. Uh, they do a number of different things, but their
focuses are, uh, human factors, communications. Um, they've recently begun work on
some, uh, UAV drone technology, uh, being able to fly, uh, like utility lines and
pipelines, do- do inspections like that with- with drone, uh, drone technology. Uh, so they
are definitely on the cutting edge of a lot of things. Uh, they work petty regularly with
companies like Rockwell, Raytheon. Uh, they've worked with NASA, they've worked
with different department of defense agencies. Ah, so a lot of different branches in the
government that they work with. Uh, within that, so our budget is since fi- fiscal year
2019, our budget has been self-sufficient. We've- we've raised our own revenues and in
terms of what we're operating on. Uh, this year, our budget is- is roughly a $400,000
budget, and I think it's $406,000. Uh, the vast majority of that comes from our ground
rents, our hanger rentals. Uh, within that- that chunk of ground rent is also our farm lease.
Um, I typically say we have three- three major sources of income, which is our- our
hanger tenants and ground leases, our farm lease, and then our fuel sales.
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Teague: I want to make sure that council knows the pages that you're- that you're on.
"Tharp: Yes, the airport fund starts at 496.
Teague: And 269 is the.
Harmsen: Summary.
Teague: The summary. Yes. All right great.
Tharp: Uh, budget.
Teague: Sorry about that.
Tharp: No, you're fine. Some of the things we are doing this year, uh, we are in the process of- of
updating our five-year strategic plan, something that the council just finished with theirs.
Uh we also have a 20 -year roughly 20 year, I call it, uh, FA master plan. The FA master
plan for the airport kinda drives the, uh, aviation development side of things and we'll
talk a lot about aviation projects at the CIP meeting, uh, I believe next week. Um, but
internally, that strategic plan, we use that for more of our, uh, day-to-day operations,
some of our annual goals, and it being able to use that to help outreach, uh, uh, what the
airport does, why the airport is an important part of the, the community, uh, to other
community members. We also host throughout the year different community events. Uh,
typically, we do Young Eagles flights. The Young Eagles Program is a program put on
by the Experimental Aircraft Association, which offers free flights for kids under I
believe it's 17. Last year because of some runway construction e- we did not have one,
but we're going to revamp that and get that back- back going. We do an annual pancake
breakfast, which brings the community out to the airport. Uh, last year was an amazing
year, even though we had some bad weather, but we helped celebrate the Iowa City Fire
Department's, 100, and I forget the anniversary is- is a major anniversary. Um, um, and
we also worked with the, other events like Summer of the Arts. We've done drive-in
movies for the past few years. Uh, next month will be part of the Iowa Business
Partnerships Community Leadership Program, where we're going to be part of the
Economic Development Day. Um, so we're going to host, uh, that group at the airport and
talk about how the airport, uh, contributes to the economic development of the area.
Which if you've seen the news in the last couple of months, uh, the Iowa DOT did release
a new, uh, economic impact report, which put the economic impact of the airport to the
local economy at $24 million a year. Um, so that's something that, I'm pretty proud of,
um, especially with the numbers that came out, uh, that had come out of the 2009 report.
Uh, and it just reflects that all of the work that's been done at the airport over the last you
know 10, 15 years is really paying off, uh, not only for the community as a whole, but
just to the airport in general. And that's reflective in - in the ability for our budget to be
self-sufficient. Um, one of the ways we track activity at the airport, because we don't
have a control tower, we are- we are a general aviation airport. And general aviation is
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basically defined as any aviation activity that is not the commercial airlines or the
military. Um, so our flight training, our charter services, our medical transport flights,
um, um, those type of activities all occur under that general aviation banner. Uh, we use
fuel flowage as one of those mechanisms to track our activity. 2021 calendar year we sold
over 500,000 gallons of fuel. Uh, 2022 the year that just wrapped up, we did see a little
bit of a decrease, um, and that is probably, uh, one of those economic leaders, how the
economy is doing. Because we can't, can be one of those canary in the coal mine
warnings. Uh, our fuel flows did drop about 10 percent and we're roughly at about
460,000 gallons for 2022. Uh within that, um, that is, I think that is my information for
you. Um, we do contract with Jet Air for, uh, operational assistance at the airport. As you
look at our staffing levels, I am the City staff. Uh, so Jet Air does provide us with
grounds keeping, grounds maintenance, snow plowing operations. That helps- helps in a
number of ways because it does help to have a business that has a vested interest in
making sure everything's clean and looking good. Um, and then also, uh, we have access
to those, uh, that personnel and that pretty much 24/7. So it's not special trips to the
airport for somebody that's offsite to you know maintain something or, uh, make sure that
you know we're buried in a list of- of places that have to be snow plowed at after a major
event. Um. Yeah. I'm happy to entertain any questions.
Teague: Great.
Thomas: When is that Pancake Breakfast?
Tharp: The pancake breakfast is typically the last Sunday of August.
Alter: I don't have any questions, but I do want to say I'm sorry, I literally was the fust thing that
popped into my head and I just have to go with it. So I pardon the pun. But truly, I was
struck by how much you're flying under the radar. Um, I'm sorry, guys. Um, but no, I
mean, just in terms of hitting so much of our strategic plan. In fact, the kind of economic
development that you mentioned, I mean, 24 million to add to the area is tremendous you
know in terms of in with partnerships. Um, and the way that you're going to be hosting
the CLP. And I forgot completely about the drive-in movie host. And so it's just, it's
really cool to see because I think that this is not something when people think of the city.
They're like, Oh, yeah, there's that airport. It's up by the bowling alley. You know, it's -
it's just not something that resonates all that much, But in fact, you- your brief synopsis
really shows the degree to which you're engaging in partnering with so many places and
really helping bring our strategic plan actually into more fruition. So that's really, really
cool.
Tharp: Then what one of the other partnerships that I forgot to mention that just popped in my
head is the Art Mural Project.
Alter: Yeah.
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Tharp: We're working with the public art committee and the hanger- the hanger that faces
Riverside Drive near Sturgis Ferrt. We're going to basically allow an artist to- to paint a
nice, hopefully your giant mural on that thing and try to connect the community that way.
Alter: Fantastic.
Teague: I have to say in 2022, I was- I had more exposure to the airport than any other year, um,
by meetings. There- there has been an increase in meetings in your space which you
know people from the community come out. One time there was a lot of different, uh,
people from the community and never been there. A lot of individuals never been there.
And so it was opportunity to talk about you know the airport. Um, and personally, my
husband now is taking flight classes there, and so ah, that's been fun um, to be there every
now and then to see him take off in a plane which is scary. I'm not on there yet. but yeah -
but I think it's a great ah, kind of this hidden- hidden jewel that a lot of people don't know
about, um, in our community.
Bergus: I just had one question, Michael, um, because I think you can speak to this, but I didn't
hear it is the climate action part. So just kind of what the airport is doing relating to that.
Tharp: Yes. So we do have a solar power project that's in the works. Um, it's morphed a couple
of times between going from a PPA agreement that we were researching a couple of
years ago to now with the funding that's allocated to airports through the bi-partisan
infrastructure law, we're looking at purchasing a system outright again, and also
including our maintenance shop, our research lab, the LPL in- into that entire setup um, it
is looking like this here we will do a lot of the environmental work similar to what, uh,
Transportation Services has to do for the transportation facility. Same federal ah, kind of
hoops you have to jump through. We -we have to jump through those as well. Ah, so we'll
manage the environmental stuff this year and hopefully be ah, doing- doing a
construction project and getting that system online ah, next year. And then aviation as a
whole is still working on the transition from low leaded fuel. I think we are the last
bastion of -of fuel that contains lead in it. Ah, as soon as FAA certifies as a fuel, I think
you'll see that as a -a industry, we'll make that transition, ah, and then we'll do our work
to -to facilitate that as well locally.
Teague: All right. Thank you so much.
Tharp: Thank you.
Teague: All right. We're going to move right along with- to our public works program budget,
and we'll welcome our public works director Ron Knoche. Welcome.
Knoche: Good afternoon. Um, just want to start off by saying, ah, it's a privilege to serve as your
public works director. Um, and it's an incredible honor to work with this public works
team — it's an incredible team to work with. So, um, with that, ah, the Public Works
Department is funded through eight different funding sources. Uh, consists of general
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funds, special revenue funds, enterprise funds, and internal service funds. Which that
means that we're all over the budget book of various pages all over the place.
Teague: And what pages are you going to be referring to?
Knoche: So I -I will tell you as I'm working through it.
Teague: All right.
Knoche: I don't have a nice slide like Geoff said earlier today with highlights.
Teague: I will just mention that as 214 for the summary and then 376 as the council is trying to
figure their way through this.
Knoche: Okay, yeah. So, um, the Public Works Department is seven divisions if you include the
the administration, um, which is basically just myself and another support person. Um,
we have in this budget, there's 163.76 full-time equivalent positions. Um, and we
currently have on staff 159 employees, 153 that are full-time, three part-time, and eight
seasonal hourly staff on staff right now. um, proposed expenditures for the FY24 budget
is just over $47.4 million. Public Works Administration and Engineering Division starts
on page 376, as the Mayor mentioned. Um, the- this group is funded through the general
fund, storm water fund, and the capital projects fund. Uh, we oversee all the city and
private development projects that include infrastructure. Um, currently there's over 70
active City projects and 40 active private projects that we're working through. The
Engineering Division also oversees all the utility work within the right-of-way. Um,
currently, ah, some of the -the major challenges that are going on right now is -is some
fiber optic installation by ImON and Metronet because of those challenges that were
there. We, ah, added a civil engineer position and FY22 and, ah, with kind of- in this
count it- in this calendar year. ImON is pretty much as complete with their build -out. Ah,
I think they have one more neighborhoods they're going to be working in. But Metronet
is still about probably about a third of the way through their development within the city.
The Engineering Division also oversees the sidewalk repair program. So in our
community, we have split the community up into 10 areas. And each -each year, one of
those areas is inspected while the previous years inspections are being reconstructed. So,
um, as those folks are- as those inspections are done, um, those folks are notified as far as
that's the pink paint that you find on your- on your sidewalk square. Um, but as those
folks are notified that they have the opportunity to do those repairs themselves, or ah, the
City will complete those for them in -in that following year. Um, The Engineering
Division is also integral in the development of the Asset Management Program. So, um,
with this budget, we're proposing an asset management technician to be included in the
Engineering Division. Um, as we look at building that out, the- the third floor, if you've
been up there lately, is fairly well occupied. So we're looking at some utilizing- that
reutilizing some space up there and trying to organize that a little bit better on the third
floor. So we actually have a project that hopefully, it will have done this year for that.
Engineering Division also oversees the storm water utility. So we have ah, one of our
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engineers is -is tasked there. We also have a technician on staff that works with that
program. We worked through, um, ah, this last year we had 38 storm water quality best
management practice grants. So that's, um, whether it's folks that want to do some
pervious pavement ah, at their homes --ah, we work with those folks and so that's -that's a
grant opportunity for them. So we've cost -share on those. And then we also had seven
creek maintenance program grants that we worked with this year with our residents.
Those are creek areas that are privately owned, ah, but improvements need to be made as
far as erosion control and we -we cost share with them on those there some or utility
budget actually on page 500 in the budget -and the budget book, if you're interested in
how that how those play out. Any questions in regards to engineering or storm water?
Teague: How many staff did you say that you have?
Knoche: Total staff, we have ah, well, we have right now is that we have 159 employees. Um, of
that there's 156 of those are -are permanent employees.
Teague: Okay. Thanks.
Knoche: Yeah. All right. We'll move on to the Streets and Traffic Engineering Division. So that,
er, budget begins on page 384 of the budget book. Uh, the Streets Division is funded
through the road use tax, so- which is a special revenue fund. Uh, our Streets Division
maintains 500 lane miles of pavement, uh, 100 signalized intersections. Uh, that
maintenance includes patching repairs, snow plowing, sweeping. Uh, I also oversee the
leaf program, obviously a very popular program. This year, uh, we did collect over -
around 660 loads of leaves, um, over the eight weeks of the program, which, uh, was up
about 200 loads from last year. Um, it's just about 60 loads over what our average is over
the last 10 years. Um, one of the things that I think this year that- that led to that was it
was a very dry year. So when- uh, when you have dry leaves, they get very fluffy when
you- when you, know, when you actually do the vac on them. So, um, that's- uh, so that's
a program that, uh, is obviously very, very popular with our community. Uh, and the
streets staff we have, um, pretty-, you know, we- we- for winter maintenance, we have
13, uh, routes that we work on, so we have two members of the staff on each one of those
routes. Um, so when- when you look at how the- the Streets Division is- is staffed that -
it's really about emergency response, right? It's- it's the winter maintenance. Um, it's any
natural disasters that occur, um, you know, we saw a big response and- and a big, uh,
reliance on this group during derecho, um, and then so as- as- as we have these folks, uh,
you know, then they're also dealing with the -the pavement patching which is the other big
deal- the other big piece of their- of their jobs. Um, we did- in last year's budget, we did
have the opportunity to buy a new pave truck. That truck actually arrived, um, last week.
Obviously, we can't use it yet. But looking forward to being able to utilize- utilize that
this spring, um, you know, what I- what I mentioned last year during this presentation
was, uh, with the number of bike lanes out there, this will be huge asset for us from the
standpoint that, um, the way that we've been painting the bike lanes was actually driving
backwards because of the way- of the way our paint truck was actually set up. So huge
safety, uh, piece there. But looking forward to utilizing that. Um, last year, I also reported
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that we had- from a sustainability standpoint, we had crushed about 6,000 tons of
pavement that was pulled out of the street for patching, um. That has been very well-
received as far as the other divisions. We had had some past history with that where we
say crushing that was done didn't produce a very good material. So we kinda got away
for- for a few years. But I think with- with our experience, this go round we'll probably
be looking at every 3-4 years. All that pavement that's collected will be crushing that and
utilizing that as we move forward.
Alter: What do you utilize it for?
Knoche: So what- so the- basically, they create subbase and so we use that to put underneath the
patching work that's done. Um, you know, that is it. Typically, it's a base issue. So
excavate, put a rock down, and then, that material down and pave over it.
Alter: Thanks.
Knoche: Any questions on streets? Traffic engineering.
Bergus: I'm sorry, Ron. I did- I did have a question. Going back to some of our prior
conversations in the way in which your department fits into the new strategic plan. I did
just want to acknowledge, Mayor, because I don't know if we've said it publicly, but
when this budget was prepared, our staff didn't have the benefit of our new strategic plan
yet being adopted, right? Because we didn't do that until December 6th. So every
department has the, you know, map lining up to our former seven, uh, strategic focus
areas. Uh, so just putting you on the spot a little bit, Ron, but hopefully you've had a
chance to think about it as the new strategic plan has come out. Um, with your
department, like what, um, are there certain aspects of it that you see being able to focus
on more or less? Um, I'm thinking also about what Councilor Thomas said in the design
of streets in terms of public safety, his outfit into engineering. Huge question, but what
does that bring to mind?
Knoche: Yeah. I think the mobility standpoint is probably the biggest place that, you know, the
Streets Division fits in and engineering. And so as we- as we move those pieces forward,
um, I think we've done a pretty good job of that already as we've gone through some
newer designs. But clearly, with the mobility part of the strategic plan, um, it'll be a
higher focus for us. Uh, next division is the Wastewater Division. So that's on page 455.
The wastewater fund is- is an enterprise fund. Uh, we have 320 miles of sanitary sewer,
uh, and 16 lifts stations. So last year, I believe I reported we had 17 lifts stations. So with,
um, South Scott Boulevard trunk sewer extension, we were able to remove one of our
lifts stations, which is always a good thing, uh, from a maintenance standpoint and
operations. Um, we also have 110 miles of storm sewer and five storm sewer storm water
pumps stations that we maintain. Uh, we have one treatment plant, and that treatment
plan on the average is treating about 7.4 million gallons of wastewater daily. Um, last
year, we were under an EPA consent order, uh, because of some zinc violations that
we've had. We have been able to work through that, and that consent orders have been
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lifted. So, um, we are- the- the issue that we end up having there was the way that the
zinc, um, limit was developed, uh, didn't actually take into account the way our treatment
plan actually operated. And so we were able to do some studies and figure out exactly
where we need it to be at, uh, which then we are able to work with our industry -
industries in town to- to reduce some of the zinc that they were giving us in the waste
stream. Um, at the wastewater plant, we've partnered with the University of Iowa and
developed Iowa wastewater and waste to energy research park. Uh, they have been doing
some projects down there. They just completed a greenhouse, uh, which houses, um, a
technology by gross when technology it's a revolving how algal fihn system. So
basically, they're growing algae with the intent of removing nutrients from wastewater
and it seeing exactly what that efficiency is. Um, Professor Just with-, uh, with the
Engineering Division- Engineering Department at University of Iowa is the lead on that.
It's been going really well. I think they actually have been able to start harvesting the
algae down there. So we'll see. The intent then is to the way that they're set up, they
actually use it for fertilizer is what the final product is that they're producing. We- we
have been in the process of developing our wastewater digester complex project. Geoff
had mentioned this morning kinda the two major projects that we have going on down
there and the digester complex was one of them. Uh, the- the intent of this project
originally was to, um, deal with struvite and the struvite production or- or formation in
our plant. Um, struvite is a process- a process where the phosphorus that's in the waste
stream actually starts to, um, produce precipitate on the pipes and inside the pipes. So it
actually causes a huge maintenance issue. Um, as we were working through working with
a consultant on the overall kind of layout and the study of the complex, what we found is
with a chemical, uh, injection process, we could actually alleviate this district -wide
issues. Um, so with about 1.5 million dollar upgrade will be able to alleviate the struvite.
Unfortunately, there's a significant amount of deferred maintenance that's gone on in our
day district area. And so, um, it won't reduce the overall impact of the project, but will
allow us to do some more maintenance, um, and increase the- the plant life as we move
forward. Um, as a part of that project, we did look at the digester gas improvements, and
so, uh, we had done a study with HDR a number of years, I believe threre yeaers ago,
Um, with that study, they had found that, uh, the return on the investment as far as trying
to utilize the digester gas wasn't feasible. Um, what we found with Strand and their work
is we were about a factor of ten, uh, under what the actual production of our digesters are
in gas. And so as we've- as we've worked through that, we believe that there is a
feasibility, uh, it is feasible to actually utilize our digester gas and look at an injection
into a gas pipeline, um, and we're working through right now, is, um, developing the
kinda what that study, what the final study looks like. And then there is potential funding
out there in infrastructure investment and the Jobs Act to help move that project forward.
So we're excited about that. It's- we're excited that we were able to alleviate both the
struvite issue, uh, really, it was just a chemical process, um, that has no impact on our
biosolids that we're creating, but then we're also excited about the opportunity to be able
to utilize, um, the biogas, which we currently do utilize a portion of that on-site for
heating, but we flare a large majority of that off currently. So, uh, we're excited about the
what potential lies down in our Wastewater Division.
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Bergus: Ron, just sorry to interrupt. I just wanna make sure I understand what you were just
speaking about with the digester gas. So is this methane?
Knoche: Correct.
Bergus: Okay.
Knoche: Yeah.
Bergus: And so when we flare it, we burn it off, right?
Knoche: Yes.
Bergus: And I know when, uh, in our conversations about the Climate Action Plan, finding ways
to use that or contain that is very significant. So is that what you're talking about?
Knoche: Absolutely, yes.
Bergus: So we we're mismeasuring it. Is that what I understand?
Knoche: So what- what ended up happening was as- as- as the consultant had developed their
numbers, they- they- they're off by a factor of 10.
Bergus: Oh, they made an error. Okay.
Knoche: So which- which then at that point when- when- when you- when it's correct, it actually
makes it the return on investment much shorter time -frame.
Bergus: The bad news being we're actually producing ten times more methane than we thought?
Sorry. Okay. Sorry. Forget I said that. Strike that.
Knoche: Yeah. So it did- I mean I think- I think we knew but I- I don't think when they are
actually putting a study together it just got missed.
Bergus: Sure. Okay. Thank you.
Knoche: Yeah. But anyway obviously it was- it was as Strand and we actually- there's a lot of
questions that went back and forth in regards to how- how did this happen type of thing.
You know is this really a reality and at the end of the day, it was just basically just a
decimal.
Bergus: Like a typo?
Knoche: Yeah.
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Bergus: Okay. Thank you.
Knoche: Yeah. Any other questions on wastewater?
Harmsen: I'm just kinda following up on that just to make sure I understand the- the science.
Burning the methane so that it becomes carbon dioxide actually makes it much- much
less of an impactful greenhouse gas than methane released into the atmosphere, which is
order of magnitude worse.
Knoche: Right. So- all right. I'll move on to the Water Division. So that is in, uh, 466 is the page
number in the budget book. Um, the water fund is also an enterprise fund, uh, 280 miles
of water main in Iowa City. Uh, the annually we produce about two billion gallons of
water. Uh, that is enough to cover up Kinnick Stadium but about a mile high amount of
water. So it's- it's a significant amount. But with that, it's about a penny a gallon. This is
what it cost us to- to produce that. New federal standards are continuing to come out in
regards to lead and copper rules. PFAS the prefer- the forever chemical is- is another one
that we're starting to see, um, potential, uh, limitations coming down on. Um, so we're,
we're working through that now and- and developing kind of those responses. The lead
and copper rules--uh, the Iowa DNR is not produced what their requirements are gonna
be yet. Uh, but we have been going through and doing, uh, some inventory on lead
service lines and working through that. Um, so as those are developed, it'll probably two
years yet before those are- the final rules are- are completed but we're currently trying to
work through that and- and plan for that. Um, the current projects that we're working on.
We- we have a number of studies that'll be included, uh, in this- in this CIP. Um, really
about improving resiliency of the system and then also the source water, uh, for our
system. Any questions on the Water Division? Resource Management Division --so, uh,
divided into two work groups we have refuse and landfill. Uh, the refuse budget begins
on page 41. Uh, it's funded through the refuse collection fund, which is an enterprise
fund. We have about 16,500 customers that we pick up from each week. Uh, that results
in about 10,200 tons of waste, uh, 2,300 tons of recycling, and 3,400 tons of organics, as
well as what we're picking up, uh, annually. Um, we continue to- to push the organics
and working through that. Uh, we had a change in the management in the refuse group.
So Patricia Fossum was our assistant superintendent, uh, Mike Edwards has taken her
position. Um, Patricia did a great job where she's actually, uh, moved to Cedar Rapids, so
she's, uh, just north of us. But, uh, has- has really, uh, laid out a good plan. And- and
Mike Edwards has been with us for 20 plus years. And so, uh, a person that understands
the operation and- and I think we will continue to see good things coming out of the
refuse division. Um, landfill budget is on page 488. Uh, landfill is funded- it is an
enterprise fund also. Um, we serve Johnson County and Kalona and Riverside is our
service area. Uh, this last year, uh, the landfill took in 136,000 tons of waste in FY22,
which is down from 152,000 tons in FY21. So we are seeing a reduction in- in waste
coming into the landfill, which is, uh, both good and bad, right? Because the less is better
but it actually has an impact on the funding side of things. But, uh, we are starting to see
that reduction. Um, in the second quarter of this fiscal year, we just got those numbers,
uh, work through and we're actually down 10.5 percent from quarter 2 of last year. So,
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um, the- what we saw in the reduction we're continuing to see that a- at the landfill. And
this second quarter of FY23, uh, is the lowest second quarter that we've seen at the
landfill, uh, since 2015. So it's we're seeing a reduction in what we're taking in, uh, which
is a good thing. Uh, we have three recycling drop sites that we work with. We have one at
the landfill, down at the old public works site and east side a recycle center. Um, we've
been working through to improve the glass recycling access. And so, uh, what we did this
last year was added three drop-off sites. So we have a container over in the, um Robert A.
Lee Rec Center parking lot. We have a drop site in the upper City Park- parking lot. And
then we also added a drop site at the corridor of drop-off recycling centers of- of forest
glass recycling goes. Um, division is continuing to try to balance reduction strategies
while, uh, being able to operate a landfill and, uh, we are currently finalizing the master
plan, uh, for the, uh, landfill site. With that the kinda the major piece of that coming out,
it will be a new equipment building, uh, out of the landfill. One of the things that were- it
is the building that we currently have, uh, is- is old and not a good building, but it also
isn't large enough to house some of our equipment. So, um, we're looking at the ability
to- to get our equipment back inside again. Um, one of the things that did happen over
the, kind of, Christmas holiday weekend was, uh, with the cold weather and the cold
temperatures, we add some jelling of the equipment at the landfill, so and we'd actually
had to close on the Saturday and that was because we equipment issues. So I'm looking
forward to having that facility where we can get those- that equipment, uh, inside and,
um, being able to alleviate some of those operating issues that we've had. Any questions
on Resource Management?
Bergus: When you talk about, um, what's coming in going down, that includes all- all streams
like compost as well as refuse or everything coming into the landfill is going down?
Knoche: So- so- so that- so right now, um, that number would be what we charge for. So whether
it's- it's waste or is the compost coming in, um, we don't or the organics that are coming
in. We don't- uh, as a resident, I don't- I don't pay to take my yard waste out there. But if
you're a commercial hauler, and so it would be all of those pieces as far as that stream
coming in and actually it goes across the scale.
Bergus: Do you know why then that's declining?
Knoche: I think- the biggest piece that I think is the recycling side of things. I think that I think
the- recycling is- continues to be popular. I think the other piece of this is, um, with
COVID and with the pandemic, I think a lot of folks cleaned out their homes. And so I
think that we're seeing a decline just because, you know, that- that people who had done
the house cleaning now and are getting back to normal.
Bergus: I saw the landfill service area and the surprising to me that you'd see the overall, because
our population is increasing so much that you can see that decline.
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Knoche: So what we've seen is- so so pre- pre pandemic --I- I think we;re- we're still higher than
we were pre pandemic- pandemic in regards to that 130,000. But, uh, we were actually
seeing a decline before the pandemic.
Bergus: Okay.
Knoche: And so we were like 180-128,000, I think pre pandemic, which was a decline.
Obviously, we've made the big jump in regards to FY21. So it's nice to see giving back
down again, but we're still not lower than what we had seen is that decrease hasn't
continued from prior FY21.
Bergus: Thank you.
Knoche: All right. Uh, the- the Equipment Division, page 664 in the budget book. This is internal
service fund. We have- so the Equipment Division maintains all of the city fleet, except
for the buses. We don't- we don't maintain the transit buses, which equates to about 600
units, is what we're maintaining throughout the city fleet. The Equipment Division
oversees the vehicle replacement. Um, as- as we- as we go through that replacement,
obviously, we're looking at opportunities to bring in hybrids or battery powered vehicles,
EVs into the system. We currently have 26 vehicles in the fleet that are, uh, hybrids or
electric vehicles. And we're looking at this going out to around 36 within this fiscal year.
The- mainly the vehicles that we're dealing with the- the passenger vehicles, but we have
seen some other vehicles come online, availability for electric vehicles in other locations.
Alter: I have kind of, I don't know, dumb question. What happens to the vehicles that you're
retiring?
Knoche: So we actually sell those vehicles. Uh, so two different things --our larger equipment, if
we have- we will- Dan Striegel, who's our Equipment Superintendent, will look at the -
the vehicle and determine what- what their value is of that vehicle. If- if we think we will
have trouble selling it on our own, we'll trade it in as a part of the- the purchase.
Otherwise, we sell them through Gov Deals. Uh, the Equipment Division also oversees
the radio system, and so uh, we actually made the move to JEC this year, which is- is
been well received fro- by our staff. Coverage -wise is much better than what we had
before and uh, it'll take some of that maintenance it off of Dan's plate, which- which is
what he was dealing with in the past. So we- we're excited about that, and moved on the
radio system. Uh, we're also excited in regards to some master planning update at the
public works site, our new site and we'll be starting to design for a shared transit -City
equipment maintenance facility um, and the new transit facility here in this- in this
calendar year. So we're excited about getting that up and running uh, and moving that
forward. Any questions in regards to the Equipment Division? Okay. Um, biggest
challenges for public works? Staffing continues to be uh, a challenge for us. You know
we are still in that- that time frame of you know, 20 percent of our staff will be able to
retire in the next five years. Um, so we're- we're trying to figure out what- what we can
do to be able to build the bench in regards to bringing folks in so um, we are working
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through engineering interns. We have uh, water uh, hourly operators up the water plant.
Uh, we continue to work with the community college programs as far as internships at
our wastewater plant. Um, one of the- the challenges that came in this year um, in
February that or I guess last year now, but in uh, February that- that wasn't really on
people's radar, was um, an entry-level driver training requirement. Uh, so that- that's a
program that- that the federal DOT brought in um, requires a driver to both have uh,
knowledge testing and behind the wheel training before they can actually go and take
their driver's test with the DOT. Um, we have developed an internal program to help
address those issues. And we've had a number of folks that have gone through that and -
and have been able to go on to get their CDL. Uh, the- obviously, the challenge of that is
it's- if you do it yourself on your own, it's a very expensive program we go through, so it
may lead to challenges for us in the future as we train folks to get their CDLS and then
they move on to a different position. So uh, we'll see- we haven't seen that as an impact
yet, but there's always that potential out there. Um, we are continuing the development of
the Asset Management Program. Um, so we're- we're entering year 2 of a five-year
implementation program uh, for that. This year will bring the remaining pieces of streets
so currently the signs is- is included in the streets piece, but we'll be bringing in the
overall road as- asset side of things. So actually being able to um, determine where we're
doing a majority of our- our patching and then also bringing in the signal- the traffic
signal system. Um, transit will come in this year and then the water plant will also be
integrated into the asset management. Year I has gone very well and staff has really
embraced the use of cartograph. Uh we have onboard right now, as I mentioned, we have
the signs in the Streets Division. We have water has come on board which they are
already utilizing cartograph as a part of their system. And we've also brought in the
wastewater collection system into that system. Um, the- I think the benefit as we move
forward with the integration and implementation is it'll help us offset some of that loss of
institutional knowledge that occurs as folks retire uh, and then we'll also use it uh, as- to
help us prepare for uh, creditation in the future uh, through the American Public Works
Association. Supply chain issues continue to be an issue. Um, chemical costs continue to
go up. Uh, in the past we've been able to uh, as we procure chemicals for our treatment
processes, we've been able to get year contracts. Uh, we're- we're going down to quarterly
contracts because people, they- they just don't want to guarantee those numbers for- for a
full calendar year. So uh, there's been some challenges there in- in that procurement. Um,
as far as vehicle replacements go, um, availability has been a- a huge challenge for us.
Uh, and- and what we're seeing is as we order a lot of our vehicles off of state contracts
and- but those contract windows are very tight, so you may just miss the opportunity to
buy a pickup truck because the order of timeline was a day versus you know a month or
two months where it had been in the past. So it's- it's challenging times in regards to the
supply chain uh, as we're moving things forward. And then like the- the biggest challenge
for us and the one that'll be the most timely for us is in regards to the infrastructure
investment and Jobs Act and the potential of funding that's out there and being able to not
only identify it and figure out what that is, but then also um, hunt down those those
pieces of funding. Um, we were successful this year. Um, there's a bridge investment uh,
program. We're getting funding for the Bulington Street Bridge as far as um- um,
planning money. Um, hopefully that'll lead to some additional dollars for us in the future
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but um, it's- it's just very timely- very time-consuming to be able to prepare those uh,
grant applications and work to those things on top of everything else that we're working
on. So.
Alter: Before you go on, actually you just listed off a number of things that were sort of like
there's this and this and this but I'm- what I'm hearing them all in aggregate is that they're
all actually kinda interconnected to an extent. Um, if you're being forced to go down to
like quarterly contracts, I would imagine at any rate, at least in some cases that I mean,
that's a lot more administration and paperwork. Right? Potentially negotiating or what
have you your procurement issues too. I mean, it's like that you have to be that much
more on top of what those shrinking windows are. And then you had mentioned from the
outset that your administrative department really is you and only one other person. Is that
correct? I mean, does each department have someone who is taking care of some of these
components of like working with contractors and what not just -
Knoche: In regards to chemical contracts, that's actually handled through finance.
Alter: Okay.
Knoche: And so- and so obviously there's a support piece that we deal with in as far as making
sure specifications are correct, but- but that side of it is really handled through the
purchasing side of things.
Alter: Okay that helps, yeah.
Knoche: Absolutely.
Alter: Okay. So you've got to purchasing like a -
Knoche: There is a purchasing group that's in finance. Um, but as far as fleet goes um,
equipment pretty much handles all of that purchase.
Alter: Okay. Great. Okay. Thanks. Yeah, that helps kind of clarify some of this, but yeah, that
seems like all of this is predicated on time, becomes that much harder and then capacity
is stretched, so okay. Thank you.
Bergus: Ron, does your staff to the grant applications or is that handled elsewhere in the city as
well?
Knoche: It depends.
Bergus: Okay.
Knoche: We- we- we did- we um, for the bridge program, we actually engineering- actually
worked through that so it depends. Okay. But we try to work. We try to work as best as
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we can, but it is sometimes it's you know because of the knowledge side of things and
just kind of some of those experiences, it's just easier to do it yourself, but um, some of
those programs, but we- we try to spread it out as best we can.
Fruin: If I can add to that, in the resources section of your strategic plan we- there's a line that
talks about centralized grant. Um, that was one of the positions that we were considering
with this recommendation ultimately. Um, obviously, you didn't- didn't make it off the-
the- out of the draft into the recommended here. Um, we would like to try to explore a
more centralized approach to grant management um, and so you may hopefully see that
in a future budget proposal. But as it stands right now, it's largely a decentralized option
um, kind of system. And what- uh, what is challenging with that is - as you hear all the
departments before you are stretched thin or working hard. Those are the things that often
get pushed aside or those grant applications and investigating that. So it's something that
our office is looking at how- how would that be structured? Um, and uh, again, maybe
before you with the future budget, we just didn't think it could rise to the top with this
one.
Alter: And I just have one more quick question that- the cartograph, is that if I'm understanding
the way you described it, it's almost like Epic is for health care system. So- so it's a great
big software management piece, right? And it will sort of track everything and be able to
allow you to cross-reference and -
Knoche: So it- it basically it takes all- all of those- those maintenance pieces that you're doing
and tracks those with- and it is attached it to that asset. So um, one of the- the big things
that is coming out of this is- is basically going out and mapping and knowing what you
actually have as far as infrastructure, um, wastewater, um, sanitary sewer collection
system, we did that work last year. This year we did water, we did fiberoptic. Next year
we're looking at storm -water. So as we're as we're mapping out and finding where
everything is, then we can also track you know, those areas. You may have ones that you
think are you know that- that come to the top as- as far as issues just because of where
you've been out with them, but there may be other things out there that you're not aware
of.
Alter: Thank you. Yeah.
Knoche: Any other questions? All right. Well, I want to thank you for your time and thank you
for what you do for our community. And uh, as always, the public work staff is available
if you want a tour, ride along, more than happy to- to organize that for you. So, um, we'll
leave that out there. Um last year- you know last year during the National Public Works
Week, we had our open house at the Public Works facility and the quilt show. Um, this
year we'll be celebrating our 20th year of operations of- of our new water plant. And so,
uh, we're looking at organizing event at the water plant during National Public Works
week this year. So that's gonna be our highlight and looking forward to getting e -
everybody out and get the community out there to be able to kinda see what we're doing
at- at the water plant.
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Teague: Awesome. Thank you so much.
Knoche: Thank you.
Teague: Yes. All right, councilors, we have three more presentations before we kinda finish up.
Um I think we're going to ask our City Clerk's Office to do their presentation and then
we'll take a five-minute break, and then we'll finish up with our city manager and then
our finance department. Uh, doing the presentation today is our Deputy City Clerk,
Ashley. Welcome.
Platz: Hello, everyone. Um again I'm Ashley Platz, Deputy City Clerk, She, her. Um the City
Clerk's introduction, you'll find that on page 41 and the budget detail, it'll start on page
335. The City Clerk's Office or the city clerk herself, is one of three City Council
appointees, along with the city manager and the City Attorney. Um, the City Clerk's
Office is- has four full-time employees, and we are not recommending any changes at
this time. Our office coordinates City Council agendas, information packets for
distribution, and we archive those packets along with signed completed resolutions and
ordinances and we take care of those filings um, associated with each document, to the
county recorder and also to the State- Secretary of State's office. We are currently
implementing a new agenda management program. Um and along with that program, it
has a component that contains board and commissions. So that'll be nice to roll out here
in February, is when we're going to try and do that. Um, we are also responsible for legal
publications, public notices, ordinances, and minutes, um, as required by law. All open
records requests are submitted through the City Clerk's Office. Once we receive those, we
route those to the appropriate departments, um, to get the required information or
requested information. Some of the licensing duties - um, the City Clerk's Office is in
charge of, um, taxi- taxi cabs and taxi drivers, um, outdoor service areas, cigarette
permits, and also beer and liquor licensing. The City Clerk's office also handles the
applications for public assemblies, parades, and the use of the ped mall permits, which
that includes the information table and ambulatory vendors. We also provide staff support
to the Community Police Review Board and our clerical support for the cemetery and we
assist city staff and the general public in researching information. Um, this budget has a
slight increase due to it being an election year. Um, and I'd be happy to answer any
questions.
Teague: No questions, but we really appreciate all that you do for us. You make life a lot easier.
So thank you. And looking forward to the new system as well, um, may have some
suggestions on titles for some of the packets and but other than that, I think it'd be great.
Thomas: Yeah.
Teague: We're going to take a five-minute break. If there are no other comments at this time.
We'll be back. We are returning. All right. We're returning back from a short break on
this Saturday, January 7, 2023. Continuing our City Council budget work session. We're
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going to invite our City Manager, Geoff Fruin to uh give us an update from the City
Manager's Office.
Fruin: I'm promptly going to delegate that to the fine staff sitting below.
Teague: All right.
Kilburg: Yes, Redmond and I are gonna kinda tag team this, so I'm going to cover the divisions
that, I'll- I'll be responsible for and I'll let you know the page numbers as we go along
here. So I'll start with City Council, that- that's on page 334 of your budget document and
there's no summary there. That's just the budget information. Um, again, not significant
changes in this budget, about $9,000 difference over FY2023 adopted and usually these
changes are just related to, um, council, uh, salaries. Those are tied to an inflationary
index. Um, so aside from your salaries, most of the other funds in this budget, are dues to
professional organizations. You have League of Cities, and the Metro Coalition, the US
Conference of Mayors, a couple of others in there as well. Um, and then just a reminder
as well that we do budgets and professional development funds for you. If- if you're
interested in that.
Alter: How much is that? By the way, I'm just curious. I mean, it we're under this. I'm sure if I
just look at it more closely, never mind.
Kilburg: Which is what.
Fruin: Are you talking about?
Alter: How much this is prof- like the travel budget. Here was the, just in general for I mean for -
for the [OVERLAPPING]
Kilburg: They can pull that one off.
Alter: Thanks.
Kilburg: Any other questions on the council budget while Nicole looks
Bergus: Did you say our pay is tied to the inflationary index?
Fruin: Yes.
Bergus: So that's- that's like a big increase this year?
Fruin: Yes.
Am just want to make sure we're aware of that differ.
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Fruin: No I would say over time, but in this, this was a change that was made maybe four years
ago or so. Historically, if you look at the CIP, your salary would increase less than, say, a
negotiated wage with our unions. But you're correct this- this past year, your wage
increase, because it's evaluated every January, um would have increased at a higher rate
than- than all other staff.
Bergus: I suggest maybe we look at that.
Fruin: It's set by code.
Bergus: We can't- we can't roll that back. Okay. I mean, we'd have to change the code.
Fruin: You know the idea at the time that there was- it was a long period of time without any
adjustments, right? There was a lot of discussion about, um, the- the balance of
compensating too much versus compensating enough to- to- to pay for, um, the expenses
that one incurs to open up this possibility to serve, right does it childcare is a
transportation cost, is it lost wages and a job. So it is a delicate balance. But ultimately,
the council at that time felt that it's not healthy to set a wage and not revisit it for 5, 10, 15
years and thus the CPI index was landed at.
Bergus: Okay.
Teague: I was on council when we made the decision. Um and one of the things that did come
up, I just was making sure that whatever the compensation would be, um, we can try to
think about those individuals that aren't, um, they have financial barriers that might want
to be on the council and then this is just a way to make sure that more people have
opportunity as well.
Fruin: We probably have a answer.
Davies: Yeah. So back to the travel training, about $6,400 is budgeted total.
Fruin: So if you have an interest, historically, those opportunities would include maybe a
National League of Cities Conference which takes place twice a year. Um, it could be,
um, sometimes there's Iowa League of Cities conferences here in the State. Some of you
may have attended those in the past. Um, Mayor's Innovation Program has been another
one. But if you're interested in connecting with peers across the country or across the
state, I just urge you to reach out to me. I know the Mayor has participated in a number of
those he'd be another good person to talk to and we're happy to try to, uh, pair you up
with the right opportunities.
Kilburg: If no other questions in City Council, I'll move on to the City Manager's Office. Um, so
uh just the actual City Manager's Office itself, that introduction is on Page 54 and the
budgetary information starts on Page 337. Um, so we won't spend too much time on this
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one. I- I hope you have a good sense of what we do that's the three of us, three full time
equivalents, Geoff, Redmond, and I and then we also have some funds in there for um, an
intern from time to time, which we do have filled right now as well. Um the- the biggest
expenses in our budget outside of personnel related expenditures, are City sponsored
events. So all of our funding uh, you know, for some of the arts, the fireworks,
Juneteenth, Any Given Child our commitment to Any Given Child, all those kinds of
City sponsored event commitments are in this budget. Okay any- no questions on that. I
will move on to Communications Office. Um, so that introduction is on Page 60 and then
the budget information starts on Page 337. So the Communications Office includes
communications, digital media and graphic media, and then the Cable TV operation. So
total, they support 9.26 full time equivalent uh, employees. Uh, there's uh, about
$150,000 increase in this budget um from FY2023 adopted to our proposed for FY2024.
Um, this is due to a couple of reasons one, if you'll recall last year, um we- we moved
that neighborhood services position into communications, and then we also increased uh
our graphic designer from half time to full time. So you see- you start to see some of
those personnel expenses hit in this budget. Um, and then uh we also have a couple of
new softwares the Peak, the Peak agenda software would be in this budget and then a
couple of other services that are kind of going along with our new website. Um and then
this budget also includes as we mentioned earlier today, a 5,000 dollar increase to that
Neighborhood PIN Grant programs that brings that total up to 25,000, and there are -
there's some fund in the cable TV budget to purchase some portable live streaming
equipment. So that's for events that are held outside of City Hall, you know, as we have
more public meetings or- or just events outside of City Hall um that- that will enable us
to have some opportunities to live stream those events.
Teague: I'm just curious if the PIN Grant increased 5,000, did you say?
Kilburg: Yes, yep um.
Teague: Did the amount that a neighborhood could apply for increase as well.
Kilburg: Um so the- they're working- Ayman and Shannon in the office are working pretty hard
right now to just kind of re -imagine that PIN Grant process and program. So thinking a
little bit about, you know how did neighborhoods organize? Um how- how, what's the
best time for them to apply? Or is it just kinda more of a rolling type of situation? Do
they continue to offer this PIN Grant in the format that it has been in competitive funds,
as well as just looking out for those opportunities the way we do an economic
development. So they're kinda considering all their options right now.
Teague: Okay.
Kilburg: And hopefully later this spring will be able to give you a better idea of- of where we'd
like to go with that program.
Teague: Thank you.
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Alter: Have the PIN Grants been, excuse me, for this current year already been awarded or like
it- are the changes that are being thought of right now or discussed. Is that for the current
year or upcoming?
Kilburg: It's hard- it's hard to say cause it's runs are no odd cycle.
Alter: Yeah.
Kilburg: They were awarded last spring.
Alter: Okay.
Kilburg: So I guess yes it would be this current fiscal year.
Alter: Okay.
Kilburg: Right?
Fruin: Yeah, really what we're looking at is um thinking about your strategic plan and- and your
values. What we know from the PIN Grants is it's usually the same neighborhoods that
get the same funds, that are largely for the same purpose every year and those- those are
good. I don't want to take away but we have a lot of neighborhoods that aren't organized,
um uh that aren't applying for those funds that we know have needs now, and then part of
Ayman's efforts out of the gate were to help neighborhoods organize. So for example he's
working with the Pheasant Ridge Neighborhood right now, to help them organize so that
they can identify their needs. And what Rachel was saying here is, we want to- we want
to continue to help the established neighborhood associations, but we also may want to
hold some funds back so that as we help other neighborhoods organize, we can
immediately inject some- some funding into whatever they deem their priorities are,
right? If Pheasant Ridge wants to- to expand a community garden, we don't want to have
to tell them, oh, wait a year and apply for this grant program. We'd like to be able to help
them immediately so they can see the value of organizing and continue that. And we hope
to do that not only a Pheasant Ridge, I know they're beginning to work at I believe
Hilltop Mobile Home Park and a few other uh areas that uh again historically just haven't
been engaged in that program. So we'll bring that back to you it's a very uh Council
driven program from the start when it was created, we want to make sure you're
comfortable with it but we felt now is a good time to press pause. And because we know
that we want to do things a little bit differently, we wanted to just increase the- the
funding a little bit.
Bergus: Maybe not just specifically for the PIN Grant, but I really do see that those kinds of
activities of reaching into the neighborhoods, helping people organize, connecting them
to other resources, building and facilitating and supporting collaborations. I mean, anyone
who knows Angie Jordan, right? Like- we can help create more leaders like her if we
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support these activities of neighborhood organizing. And I think what's- what's Ayman's
position currently? Is it full time?
Kilburg: Half time.
Fruin: Halftime.
Bergus: We've got a 0.5 who started in June this year. Um this is- this is an area where I would
really encourage us to consider being more aggressive. Based on our strategic plan,
impact areas, right? Housing and neighborhoods, economy, right? Getting people who
can be more um sort of connected in the productive endeavors within their
neighborhoods, and in other places in the city. Safety and well being probably being one -
one of the higher ones. And it will even connect to mobility because, you know, once
people understand resources and trust, you know, know and trust their neighbors, they're
just- I'm not speaking of it very clearly but I really think there's a ton of opportunity here.
So we'll um like to see us consider just injecting more resources sooner into those
activities.
Kilburg: Just the last thing I want to hit on for communications before we move on, just because
it's such a big one. Uh in this current year budget, um there was that funding to do the
website redesign, and so um that's what it's been a huge undertaking and- and taken a lot
of staffs time and energy right now. We're kind of getting to the end phases of that with
um, you know a roll out happening here in the next couple of months. And um they're
just kinda in those final phases, you now we have all these different software platforms
that you've heard about uh throughout today and- and during other times. So they're
getting those integrations kind of finalized, doing a once over again of- of all that content
on there, um and then we'll do some testing and start to put together that plan for- for how
we communicate the change to the public. So just a quick update there. Okay, and then
I'm going to move on to Climate Action. And- and that'll be my last one before I hand it
off to Redmond. So reminder that Climate Action is funded in two ways. The staff and
AmeriCorps operations are funded through the general fund and then we have the
emergency levy, which actually funds a lot of the activities that they're doing. So uh the -
the the general fund portion, that introduction is on page 78, and then the budgetary
information starts on page 341. Uh this is pretty flat budget, really no change from- from
last year. Again, this- this supports those three full time equivalent staff that we have in
there, and then all of our Green Iowa AmeriCorps, that contract and those activities. Um
we separate these out just um knowing that the emergency levy, your priorities for- the
the use of that levy could change in the future. So making sure we have our baseline
operations covered in the general fund. Uh the one thing I will point out in this kind of
transition us into the emergency lever over levy overview is that, this year has been, I
guess yeah about not even a full year yet that we've had full staffing in the office. So all
three positions have been filled and if you get the Climate Action Newsletter or follow
them at all, you hopefully we'll see just what kind of value that has brought, they're doing
a lot of work. Um so I'll kind of move on there to the emergency levy, so that budget
information begins on page 400. We- we did not change that levy rate from what it was
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last year, so remains at $0.20. Um and we do have a bit of a fund balance that has
accumulated during some of these, as we didn't have all of these staffing positions filled
and weren't able to get that money out the door is as fast as we are now. Um so we have a
little bit of that balance to lean back on as well. Like I mentioned um the quantity and
quality of work coming out of this officers, really, I think in my humble opinion, good
value for your money here. I had a hard time kinda choosing which- which pieces to
highlight, but I'll just touch on a few. Um they've had the new- the development of the
new resilience core, they're continuing to run different cohorts of the Climate - Climate
Ambassador Program. Each year where we're expanding into different neighborhoods
with that uh neighborhood energy blitz, um several new household and small business,
commercial, I'm sorry, um energy efficiency and electrification programs from insulation,
to EV chargers, to electrical panel upgrades so that future electrification can happen. So
all kinds of different programs uh, they're continuing to run that roof, Retries Program
annually, and I think we just got final numbers and is around 300 again that we had in the
spring, the spring round um and then just supporting um several other programs in
different departments, composting, community gardens all of that kind of stuff. Uh we
also transferred $300,000 uh in that emergency levy to the CIP to help fund different uh
city facility uh improvements in electrification, and energy efficiency improvements. And
then this and then that balance that we've kind of built up helps provide us some of that
flexibility to make sure we still can focus on climate action projects. Um especially in
years like this where we have a little bit more of a squeeze on the general fund budget,
that's still gives us that flexibility to use those emergency levy funds, which are
specifically restricted for that. So you heard Mike talk about the solar project planned,
we're able to help provide some matching funds with these emergency levy dollars. Same
we'll be looking at the Senior Center once they get started on work in there kind of thing.
Any questions?
Jones: Thank you. So I'm going to take the Human- Human Resources Division. So that
introduction starts on page 64 and the budget information begins on page 339. Uh, our
human rights,uh„ excuse me, human resource, uh, division, uh, supports our employees
and our labor relations union contract administration, benefit administration, uh, and
employee, uh, recruitment. Um, of course, they spend a great deal of collaboration with,
uh, our legal department and managing, uh, issues of employment law and, uh, dealing
with any type of, uh, uh, potential litigation issues that could pop up through, uh,
employment- employee relations. Um, this budget it- might look like it's decreased a
great deal. It's because they're super efficient, uh, but no, actually, it's due to, um, not
having to pay for a major classification study which was in our last year's budget. So that
classification study is, uh, underway in our current fiscal year and is not reflected in next -
next fiscal year, this proposed fiscal year here, so you'll see a decrease there. Um, and just
also to- to mention, I think, uh, Councilor Bergus mentioned some of the, uh, issues with,
uh, DEI and recruitment in fire department --I wanted to let you know that they're not in
that by themselves. Human Resources plays a critical role in that, as well as the City
Manager's Office and um, are constantly looking at- at ways to, uh, improve that
situation. So although it may not bubble up to your attention all the time, it's not for lack
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of effort and, uh, I can tell you that, uh, HR has shown great leadership in particularly the
physical, uh, agility aspect of- of- of the recruitment process, uh, in that case.
Alter: Redmond, can I ask? Does HR- I'm assuming that there are sort of, um, places for being
able to advertise that are specific. You know, so HR has, sorry, there's- there's- there's
governmental equivalent of being able to find niches, to be able to do targeted
recruitment for say, DEI.
Jones: And absolutely. And there's those kind of usual suspects, if you will, that- tha- that we
use, but we're constantly also right looking at new ways to reach out to associations and,
uh, other venues to reach different people that might be interested in recruiting. So we're
always looking at that. So part of it is set in stone but didn't, there's a little bit of it that's
more of,uh„ a art, right? And we trying to find ways to reach new populations.
Bergus: Redmond does HR manage the employee self-service portal that includes the job
applications?
Jones: Yeah.
Bergus: And are we- are we changing that at all? I've talked to Geoff about this via some email.
I'm concerned that that portal and the way that the applications have to be viewed and
filled out in that kind of thing is a real hurdle for folks.
Fruin: We- we don't have any funds in here to explore a new system.
Bergus: Okay.
Fruin: Certainly could take a deeper look at that if- if council wants to.
Bergus: I don't know if any of you have tried to go through as if you were applying for a job for
the city, but encourage you to do it sometime and see if it's easy, especially on a mobile
device.Thank you.
Jones: You're welcome. Any other questions on HR before I move to the next uh. Next I want to -
I was constantly confusing with this, is Human Rights,uh,-,uh„ Office of Equity and
Human Rights. The introduction starts on page 68 and the budgetary information begins
on page 340. Um, this division supports discrimination investigations, it conducts, uh,
discrimination investigations, civil and human rights, community education and social
justice and racial equity initiatives. Um, departments are made up of two full-time
employees with a one year round intern. Um, staff human rights- of human rights also
works a great deal with the, uh, ad hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission,uh„ and,
uh, social justice and racial equity grant programs of about 100,000 dollars. 15,000, um,
dollars in funding for,uh„ sponsorships of community events. And these events include
WK Day celebration, Iowa City Pride, Latino Festival, just to name a few. Uh, and these
festivals have gotten increased, uh, funding of 9,000 dollars in, uh, FY23. An additional
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10,000 uh, were provided for our co- comprehensive staff and board commission DEI
training, and in FY2023 included a carryover, one million dollars committed for the
Black Lives Matter system and systematic racism um- um, funding. Was there any
questions on that? Okay. So moving on to Economic uh, Development. Um, that intro
starts on page 74 and budgetary information starts on page 341. Um, our Economic
Development, uh, division uh, is made up of one FTE and uh, supports uh, commercial
office, industrial development and business assistance, uh, in including public art. Uh,
budget funds annually assist, uh, programs to local art and economic development
organizations such as like the Englert, Riverside theater uh, FihnScene, and uh, City of -
City of Literature. It also includes funding support for place -making and downtown and
south district SSMID. Fy23 budget includes set aside of 50,000 dollars to support BIPOC
business growth and entrepreneurship. And uh, also administer's grant funding for the
industrial and um, commercial energy efficiency improvements. They also played a role -
a great role in our public arts funding of about 50,000, including match- matching grants
for eight changing sculptures and public art installations. Is there any questions with
economic developments?
Alter: You said both of the SSMID's or the- the support that we give is through economic
development?
Jones: Yes.
Fruin: Yeah. Just to- just to clarify what that is. So obviously the property taxes that the
SSMID's collect, that's passed through. It doesn't really hit the economic development
budget. What we do is we budget some additional funds to help with traditionally, it's
been place -making- place -making activity. So some of the public art installations that
you've seen Downtown had been partially funded by the City um, and this year, um, I
think the south side SSMID and South District SSMID, in their fust year is using some of
our funds to, uh, create their brand, alright, to- to develop a brand. And now I think in the
future years that will evolve to more of that place -making aspect. But the idea aligns with
what you came out with your- in your- in your strategic plan, which is makes sure we
have some discretionary resources to help those SSMID's achieve their goals. And so
that's how we uh, utilize those funds.
Jones: That is all I had, if there's no more questions.
Teague:: All right. Thank you so much. I think we are on to the last presentation of the day uh,
who had a large part in the overall budget, uh, our Finance Department, and I'm going to
in- invite our Finance Director, Nicole Davies. Welcome.
Davies: Welcome. Last but not least, right? Um, I'll keep this brief because our budget is- our
part of the budget is pretty boring. Right? We do the work to put the big part together but
our pieces are pretty small. Um, finance summary starts on Page 82. Um, again, there's
35 FTEs across si- six divisions so the- the budgetary numbers kind of jump around so I'll
give those to you as I go through the sections. But starting fust at 342 is the finance
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admin. Um, overall the Finance Department, a lot of what we do is behind the scenes,
um, you don't really see a lot of it. Um, so the finance admin, that's made up of three
FTEs but across four positions because some of us are split. Um, so that's myself, the
assistant director, our budget and management analysts that's here and then um, our
finance and risk assistant, um, makes up the finance admin. We handle a lot of the
administrative functions of the department, obviously the compilation of the 700 and
some pages that you guys get to read through. Um, also the capital improvement plan that
we'll go through on Wednesday. Um, we handle all the investment and banking which is
about 280 million that we're managing currently. Uh, we manage all the annual debt
issuances along with all the IRS and SEC compliance that goes along with it. Um, we
manage the health and dental reserves, the workers comp programs, um, employee
benefit programs, and then the TIF financing and TIF debt. Um, just to go over this, some
challenges. Um, I think our biggest challenge has been with dealing with, our software
has been kind of a challenge. We just went through a major upgrade in the spring, it went
less than stellar. And which ties into your ESS Laura, that's part of the same software.
They're switching there the way they kind of go about it, where we will be upgrading at
least annually, if not more frequently um, so that's definitely going to be a time drain to
make sure that's up and running. Because obviously all of the financial functions, we got
to be able to pay people, we have to be able to cut checks, we have to be able to receive
funds. So I- I feel like every time we do an upgrade there's something that breaks so we
just won't know exactly what's going to break and when so it's a constant battle.
Alter: Is this is coming from the licensing from- from the software or this, I'm sorry, I missed -
Davies: The- the software is just kind of changing their model as to how they put out inpro- what
they call improvements to their system. Um, they'll be coming out with quarterly updates,
but they'll force us to upgrade every year in order to be able to do W -2s and 10-99s,
which you'd think like, why don't we look at something else? They basically bought up
all competition that deals with governmental financial system.
Alter: So this isn't just like a simple patch? This is -
Davies: They- if they go to quarterly upgrades, they should be smaller and hopefully less
disruptive, but again, we still need to be able to do some testing on it to make sure it's not
going to break a major system, right? That we can still process payroll, that we can still
get checks out. So it will definitely take staff time just to work through those upgrades as
they come and deal with the problems after the fact. And just like everywhere else, we've
known- noticed a big decrease in the support side of the software because like everyone
else, they have staff short- staff shortages and turnovers, lack of experience on their
customer support end so it takes us longer to get help when there's problems. So that's
really been a huge challenge that we've been working through and- and I believe we will
continue to be a major challenge but.
Alter: I'm just curious, what's the name of the software?
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Davies: Um, it's a Tyler Technology product. It's- we refer to it as MUNIS, I believe they've
officially changed the name to ERPs enterprise something. But if you talk to anyone in
the city they're going to- they're going to call it MUNIS.
Alter: Okay.
Davies: Um, and then moving into accounting, this has about six -and -a -half FTEs over seven
positions, um, and this has a lot of stuff. I was just talking about all of the AP, all of the
checks that we cut, payroll is through here. Um, we do assist and manage most grants
that's from the financial aspect, we don't write the grants, as Laura was asking. We don't
have that expertise. And even one of the things that we deal with with the financial side is
we have a lot of very diverse activities that happen throughout the city and of course, you
know, the FTA system is different than the HUD system, is different and so even to get in
and access it and know where you want to go is a challenge, right? And anytime we have
staff turnover even to get like new logins takes an act of Congress is what it feels like just
to get a login let alone to figure out how to work the system. Um, so that's definitely also
just a challenge because we are dealing with a lot of diverse. You would think the federal
government would be somewhat- somewhat consistent but it's definitely not. Um, also
within accounting that's where we do manage um, do all the bookkeeping and payroll for
JEC as well, which has now been several years and that seems to be going really well. I
almost forgot this, I mean, a big part to this fall that takes up a lot of Jacqueline's time is
our annual financial audit that's handled all through accounting as well. One of the other
issues I think that has faced the Finance Department, um, I was really jealous of Eric this
morning when he was talking about how long his staff had been here. The fust three
divisions that I'll talk about between finance, admin, accounting, and purchasing, which
is almost half of our staff. I think the longest person that anyone has been in their position
is six years and that just happened a few days ago, so a lot of very new, some of us have
been here longer, which helps to transition, but like the three of us right, are all less than
a year in our position. So that's a lot of turnover- I shouldn't say turnover. It's a lot of
training and back training, right? As I'm learning how to do something, I'm teaching
Jacqueline how to do something else, who's teaching Angie how to do what she did,
right? And obviously that takes a lot of additional time and we'll take a little bit to get us
up to where we want to be as far as all of our duties. Um, and then into purchasing that
has four -and -a -half FTEs across five positions, um, so again, they handle a lot of our- the
purchasing. So as you were talking about the chemicals, they- they would be the ones
working with the vendors to procure that. So they handle our- all of our RFPs- RFPs, and
get quotes for anything that's not a public improvement. Or as Ron said, like a big piece
of equipment. Usually sometimes the vehicles as well. Um, they also manage contracts
even if it isn't handled through some of that. Sometimes if they're smaller or we have
state contracts as has been referenced previously, that they'll work with, um, so many
different things of those. They also handle all of our copiers, so they replace those as
needed. Um, they also handle all of the incoming and outgoing mail that comes into the
city. Um, one of the biggest things, uh, which I spoke about last year is we went to an
online bidding platform. That was last August, so we've been up on that on a full year and
that seems to be working well and should create a lot of consistency and more
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efficiencies as- especially if we have to- if we have to bid something quarterly right? It's
there, you can update dates and put it back out that will help rather than having to rewrite
some of this. I'd say one of the biggest challenges with purchasing, especially lately is
you know being able to get people to bid on it, right? Everyone's short staffed, doesn't
have the- the whatever we're needing, and so we're not seeing as many bidders. And also
to get a diverse bidders, to find them, to get them to bid, to get them into our system, um,
that's always a challenge. Next division, Revenue. Sorry, I'm giving- giving you the pages
for the budget, that starts on 347. Uh, this is about eight FTEs across nine different
positions. This is where all of our utility billing happens, so for the water, wastewater,
refuse and recycling, they handle all of that billing and all of the collections for that
billing. They also do all of the landfill billing so for our large haulers. Those get billed, so
they handle that as well. Um, and in this division is also where all of our daily banking is
so it's reconciling all the deposits that come in throughout the City, which are a lot of
them coming in through a lot of different systems so it definitely takes a lot of time to try
and reconcile all of that. Uh, the next division Risk Management. So that starts on page
669. That's about two FTEs over four different positions. This manages all the insurance
for the City, and this has been men- mentioned earlier. Write about the increase with
insurance rates. I think overall we saw a 12 percent increase excluding workers comp last
year and a 36 percent in the cybersecurity alone. I think that's an area where we're going
to continue to see increases, and even, not only increases, I know this year, even to get
the rate we did, they wanted X, Y, and Z implemented, which of course takes staff time, a
and usually some kind of software to help monitor whatever it is they want in place. Um,
they manage all of the insurance claims, they run all and coordinate all the safety
programs. And then they do any of the cities OSHA reporting. Now the last division is IT
Division. This starts on Page 672. This is about 10.8 FTEs over 11 positions. And it
really is what it says. IT handles all the computers and networks, the Wi-Fi, the fiber,
telephones, supports all the software, supports the GIS system, all the video cameras and
all the buildings throughout the City, um, and really, one of their challenges is always
network security that they're working on. They're always trying to make sure that our
network is secure as it possibly can, because I think that's what keeps IT director up at
night is a possible breach, which I wouldn't want to have happen either. So I'll let him
worry about that and- and we'll hope that that never happens, but that is all I have. Any
questions?
Teague: I don't hear any. Thank you so much. All right. Well, thanks again to all of the staff for
all of their hard work. There was a lot to go through today, thanks to the councilors for
navigating through all of this. And, um, it was a lot of- a lot of things to pay attention to.
We wanted to just open it up for any final discussion items that people want to bring up
related to the budget.
Harmsen: Just kind of like echo what you've said. And I was just kind of like as we we're taking
little notes obviously, but to think about the task of, uh, an organization that manages
about 1,000 employees, to serve 76,000 residents and have a budget of around $200
million. Our task would be impossible without the work that went into this document and
the work that happens all year. So echoing the thanks to all the City staff that put this
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together and all the stuff that we've heard today from department to department about
how through the challenges, coming out through and out of COVID into getting into
more normal times. The stuff that they've had to do to keep the wheels from falling off
the bus. And so- so that's- that's, you know, deeply appreciated and I just wanted to make
a note of that.
Bergus: Here's just a question on if there are things that we wanted to shift at all, like we were
talking about NDS and mayor, I heard maybe some support from you on that as well.
And I dropped that big question of community safety. If we wanted to make any shifts
and we're able to quantify those, what's the process for doing that?
Fruin: Well from this- this point forward it's, um, just a matter of you scheduling the time to have
that discussion and ultimately direct staff to amend the budget as you see fit. Um, we are
here to help advise you on those decisions. Uh, so if you want costing scenarios, uh, if
you want further background on issues to help you make those decisions, we're happy to
do that, um, but it's really up to you to schedule that time. Uh, I believe on, uh,
Wednesday when we go through the CIP, there's a part of that agenda that allows you to
continue this discussion, uh, here. Of course, we're- we're scheduled till 5:00 here today,
at least that's what was posted on the agenda. You're free to have those discussions now.
Otherwise, uh, you have to look at your regular work session times or schedule special
work sessions to have those conversations.
Teague: I think I did. I mean, I think from other colleagues I heard support for the NDS to maybe
work with the City Manager's Office. Um, and, uh, based on the things that we said and
see if there's an opportunity that they can identify, uh, where, um, that would be
impactful, um, now versus in the future because it's kind of what, you know, the analogy
that Redmond gave. So I think I'm comfortable, you know, with the support of, um, other
councilors, just saying directly to the City Manager's Office to work with NDS, um, to
just have a discussion about what council has talked about. Now I don't know if that's
something that, um, my colleagues are interested in directing the City Manager to do.
Bergus: Yeah, I think um, maybe trying to scope that a little bit of like, what- what kind of
budgetary impact are we thinking? Or I mean, I guess it's okay to leave it open-ended.
But if I were in Tracy or Geoff shoes, I would be saying, you know, what- what exactly
are we talking about in terms of increasing capacity?
Alter: I guess that's and that's my question too to you and to the rest of council. Like, what would
something that's helping with neighborhood engagement or what have you, what does
that look like? Does Ayman himself have the capacity to go to full-time. I don't know.
Would it be that we hire another full-time- half-time person with the same charge. For
what it's worth, part of how Angie has been so successful is that sweat equity of doing it
over years, right. And so I do understand like time is of the essence, but on the flip side, it
was also coming from within the neighborhoods. So maybe it is something more like
empowering Ayman and Shannon to think more about what that PIN Grant program and
maybe it's building out more. So I guess I'm uncomfortable to the extent of saying, well,
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let's kind of switch, potentially reallocate some of the budget work within a two-week
span about what we want when there have been a lot of discussions about what's possible
already within staff. Um, so I guess I would want to, I'm not trying to shut it down, I'm
just telling you what my concerns are, um, about saying, well, let's even if it's in a small
way, reallocate some dollars for something. I would rather us have this conversation with
a fuller understanding from the outset about what we want that to be rather than to say, in
a general sense, it could be more on the community safety or engagement. But what does
that look like?, right. Because we have such a short amount of time. And all we've heard
over and over again is how stretched every department is. And so I just would want to
have a much stronger understanding of what it is that we want to be able to direct. So I
guess I'm kind of I'm both pushing a little bit back, but I'm also agreeing with you of like,
I would think that staff would want a lot more specific direction. So I'm just kind of of
two minds here.
Fruin: What I always encourage elected officials is- is don't necessarily worry about identifying
the position, don't necessarily worry about identifying the department, um, tell me- tell
me what you want to see more of or what you want to see, where you want to see
accelerated action and- and we'll give you option. If you just tell me, go work with Tracy
and come back with an NDS position recommendation, off the top my head, I think it's
going to probably be a compliance. You know if you think you've talked to me about
what I think the top need is, it's compliance. It's making sure that all our affordable
housing agreements that are out there are- are being followed, it's the CDBG and home
assistance. I'm not really sure that's what you are looking for. That's probably what I
would say the greatest need is in NDS is on that compliance side, but if you're looking to
build neighborhood capacity, that's going to probably lead me one direction. If you're
saying, I want to move forward with, um, a- a faster process to update codes because you
want to see those climate action code updates, uh, come out- come at you a little faster
than- than what we've outlined in the strategic plan, that's a different one. So focus on the
what you want and let me help you develop the plan to get there.
Teague: I- I think what I heard overall is the councilors wanted individual impacts. So, um, we
know that affordable housing is a challenge and there's a lot of ways to get to individual
impact. Some of that is through these new programs that, you know, Tracy talked about
and ensuring that they have compliance. Well, if they're- if they're not really, um, able- if
they're not taking the time to, uh, really embody these programs and get them out and
running where people can utilize them, then that impacts individuals because it's not
there. I think about, um, we just had- had the discussion about the centalizing a grant, you
know, a grant writer. Well if you're leaving money on the table you know in a way, that
is- that is directly impacting individuals within our community and so it is, you know
sometimes you have to step back and say what is the greatest way to get the individual
impact and that is ensuring that we have programs available that can support, which
many of those programs come with some funding from Feds or wherever else. Um, so
when I- when I'm, you know, stepping back and looking at what NDS kind of was saying
and the responses here I think is more that individual impact and that really can look, um,
it can be looked at through several lenses. One is if we have the compliance, you know,
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of attaining these programs and making sure that they're available for, um, individuals
that live in our community then, you know, the individual impact will be there. So, at
least that's what I kind of hear from, you know, the comments more of this overarching,
um, and I think it can go various ways that how to get the individual impact.
Alter: Just one other thing I want to point out and I'm trying to phrase it in a way that is mindful
of what you just said, Geoff, about let you guys worry about it but I'm incredibly mindful
of the fact to that the budget is incredibly tight and that out whatever discussions you end
up having, it means is- it's going to have to come from somewhere. It's not because that's
the whole point of this budget is sort of saying like we have a finite amount of money,
here's how we're going to allocate it, and if we're saying shift it then that is the other part
of that like what you'll get from shifting it. That's incredibly important, but it's also
important to understand what is being lost or what would be more stretched potentially.
In order to do that, I mean, this is where we're at, it is a pie. We are figuring out who's
getting what parts or we aren't, but we are. Um, sorry. Um, so I just want us to be really
practical and reminded about that too. Do we feel like their you know Councilor Bergus
says that she feels that there are places in the police budget would that could be, you
know, used in other ways. Um, is that something that we- we would agree on, and is that
I don't know. It's just something that we need as we're talking about this and like who
would be impacted by such a shift it's there's two places the people- that the budget
would be impacted. Where would there be money put towards and then where money be
taken away in order to have that happen? Sorry, Pauline, I didn't explain that very well,
but -
Taylor: That makes sense. Kind of like robbing raphe that pay Paul.
Alter: It is. I mean, you can't just materialize more money for a compliance position. It has to
come from somewhere else and so that's something that we have to put into our calculus
as well.
Bergus: And I think just as to the timing part me and I think that resonates with me and we
didn't- we didn't adapt the strategic plan until just one month ago and we didn't get the
budget proposal until towards the end of December. So I feel like now is the time like this
is- like now we.
Alter: That was my question all along was is it the time or not?
Bergus: Okay.
Alter: To a certain extent.
Bergus: I mean if not now when? I guess is my serious question like, I- i think this is the time to
have those conversations.
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Thomas: We- we just, Council just received that email from Geoff on building community. I- I
which I emphasize that as an aspect or a focus of council activity. That certainly
resonates with me as it relates to NDS and perhaps, I mean, I could see asking NDS, how
can we accelerate actions that build community, whatever, you know and whether it's
Ayman or some other aspect of our operations in terms of creating opportunities for more
events or looking at- at accelerating the funding to make these spaces in which events
could take place. Um, but I- I certainly feel building community looking ahead is a major
issue. Um, partly because I feel we are, you know, we're totally talked a lot today about
budgetary issues and kind of the headwinds that we're facing. I feel in terms of social
cohesion, uh, that's another headwind that we're facing in terms of how do we build
community? Uh, because I'm feeling there is considerable stress and trauma, just kind of
almost free floating in our community that, you know, is something I would hope we can
try to get a better grasp of and how we might improve on that- on that matter, which ties
back into, you know the policing and- and you know I mean that, you know, the policing
aspect of this. You know, our operations are kind of and some least the way I'm hearing it
on the tail end. You know they- they- they are being forced as many public employees
are sort of trying to deal with these issues when they've already reached the point of, um,
just trying to control those outcomes rather than trying to address them at the- at the root,
rather than that they're- in their effect. So I don't know- I don't know if that if I'm making
sense to you, but just building community seems to me as a- as a front end up approach,
try to, if we improve the quality of life, how people can promote their sense of feeling
like they're part of this community and have a purpose in this community that- that has all
kinds of spin-off benefits. And asking NDS how- how their operations could advance
that. With some options, you know, give us some- some options- some different
approaches in what the associated costs might be to those options.
Alter: I know that I've made several comments already, but I just have to say one more. Um, I
think of this in some ways as inverting the lens. And I've been paying attention to what
different, um, people in neighborhoods actually are concerned about, um, certainly from
letters to us. Um, for better, for worse, Next Door, what have you. But in many ways the
things that I'm seeing people complain about and be unhappy about with their quality of
life actually has to do with essential services that the City provides. And so in some ways,
even though I have, you know, my rooting is in sort of neighborhood associations and
trying to help from a grassroots perspective and from community -building and whatnot.
I'm also my daily life is- is within a large company and it's dealing with the stress and the
strain of what it is like to work within a company that is stretched really thin. And so I
can't help but think that, in fact, the community might benefit by having there be less
stressed, if we're looking at a core issue of what's going on within operations, within the
city governments so that the people who are helping run the city in the various
departments can do their jobs better and more effectively by themselves, perhaps not
being burned out or by having the resources that they need, um, rather than creating
another event that puts more stress on, I mean, it's- it's an inversion of what we're saying
and I think that both things actually have a lot of merit. I don't think there's a right
answer or a wrong answer in this but I am just thinking about what the stress levels are
when we hear from the transportation director that in fact, there's- there are public safety
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issues for her team members. Right? And it's becoming, it's because, you know, end users
are saying, "I'm frustrated because the bus is late, " or "I can't get out of the parking lot."
If we can actually attend to some of those things which the budget addresses, um, then I
think that ultimately some of that strain that's reaching the public will be lessened. So, I
mean, I'm kind of going back to looking at what can be done internally for these many,
many departments. Um, and I think that this budget actually really addresses some of
those core issues, um, that might actually have this kind of effect on- on the public to a
certain extent, but we're also talking about a large section of people who are, um,
themselves working under a lot of strain and stress. And so if there are ways that we can
help those departments, I think that that makes a lot of sense as well. So I don't mean to -
it's an and to your suggestion, John, because, so see the merit of it. Um, it's been proven
time and time again to be so successful. I just wonder if that's, you know, if we're looking
at it, and Geoff has mentioned, you know, compliance would be the thing that he and
Tracy would probably talk about as being the position rather than, sort of, are there more
ways to- to create neighborhood events? I don't know. All right, I've said my piece.
Bergus: Let's just zoom out a little bit. I think if we- you know, if our goal is community -
building, okay, if that is an articulated goal, I trust staff to come back and say we can get
to that through adding a compliance position in NDS. Because it frees up. You know, one
thing I keep hearing from staff and certainly can say from experience in, you know, an
organization that's stretched thin, is that what you- what gets- what gets cut, or what -
what doesn't happen, is the ability to be creative, the ability to take the time to problem -
solve in new ways, to have have tho- you know, to have the capacity and the time and the
space for connections and, you know, meeting new people and doing new things that
really has to come from increased capacity. Um, and so my pitch fundamentally is, I see
that needing to be in areas other than patrol and police. I don't know, Geoff, if you want
to speak to some of the things we've talked about in terms of you're, you know, like is,
are there ways to increase capacity in other places that you would recommend?
Fruin: Well, it's- I mean, it's almost endless, right? If I went back and I had a department head
meeting and said, "Alright folks, the council wants to increase our community building."
I'd have LaTasha raise her hand and say, I'd like to open nights and weekends, I'd have
Elsworth, you know, want to do some things, I'd have Julie say, "We can do all kinds of
great events or build these public spaces. The fire department would love to have a new
position for community outreach and- and- and community risk reduction. So it's a big,
big question to ask. Um, I almost want to push back and say you need to be a little bit
more specific than community -building. You need to tell me what, what exactly you're
looking for. And again, I don't want, I understand you were, Tracy, had a great
presentation, but you have to understand that NDS may not be the answer to what it -
what it is. I don't think we've quite an un- uncovered exactly, it is what you're what you're
what you're looking for and that's okay. It may take some time for that to come out. But I
just urge you to- to not so much focus on the department. Itn may end up an NDS, but it
could be Communications, it could be Library, it could be wherever. Um, dig a little bit
deeper. And- and - and when it comes to community -building, what is that? Is that more,
um, like Councilor Thomas is talking about with community events and, er, those types
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of things, being out in the neighborhoods more, um, or is it on the flip side, which you
were just mentioning, making sure that staff has the capacity and in multiple operations
to stop and talk to people? Can the person that's cutting the grass and the parks interact
with the people playing at the playground and better understand what they like about that
park, what they don't like about that park? You know, there's a million different ways to
go about that.
Harmsen: One thing, it seems like we're talking a little bit is timing seems to be an issue with this
discussion. And we talked about, we didn't finish and finally approve our strategic plan
until December, which is, you know, already, the departments were already two months
into this budget process that we're now in and caught up in those deadlines. It does seem
like giving just overall, like you said, when would we do it. It almost, not to put off doing
because we already have a bunch of stuff that we're looking at for the strategic plan. But
in terms of seeing the strategic plan show up in the budget document in a very concrete
and comprehensive way. Even if we'd have approved our strategic plan in November, that
still wouldn't have given we were talking about capacity our department heads to have
that capacity to really do the kind of thinking and reflection that we want them to do,
even if we'd have approved that a month earlier. But that said, once we get through this
process, then we're coming into that fall and they'll be doing this sooner. We do this, say
on this hamster wheel and repeat all these things again. But I think, you know, especially
even if whether we push for something now or we make increasingly clear help staff
narrowed down some of these questions so that when we were here a year from now and,
you know, talking about these exact same things, we'll see those things showing up in a
way that we can really more work closely identify. So that's just kind of my thought. I
don't have anything against asking for some more stuff, for some more ideas at this point
But, but I think, you know, to me, to being understanding and realistic about what we can
demand- demand of our staff and we demand a lot of them and they provide a lot to us.
And we should push these envelopes. They're are all good, they're all good things that
we're talking about. But in terms of what we can, you know, in terms of what's what's
capable of being done with the capacity. This is my thought.
Teague: I do think that we have time --March 21st is when, you know, the last public hearing has
to be for the budget. And so, um, unless, you know, there is some more, we can certainly
engage in more conversation until 5:00. But I think unless there is something specific that
someone might want to bring up now, maybe what we can do is certainly have, not on the
next work session but, but the following work session, we can spend some time just
talking about our budget. And I think what we've done in the past is always had like a
little space in our work session to talk any budget items. Just, you know, some things that
come up between now and the end of, you know, this March 31st cycle. So if there's
anything else that anyone wants to, um, state right now, would be the time before we kind
of bring it to a close. All right. Uh, we are adjourned until Tuesday.
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