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Home My WebLink About1990-03-09 Transcription CI ',:' .so tJ, 0 ' , . '2 (page I) Larsonl John the Issue I haven' t resolve~ yet Is the Senior Center's $7500. /tIS In the budget IS preposed to lower So,ToO ceilings In a couple of rooms for acoustIcal reasons, They have an echo problem and they wanted to lower them, Tho SenIor Center is askIng us to change that money over for photographic and fIlm equipment so they can better outreach. They offered to set back the renovatIon of the ceIlings for another year in order to have the phot09raphlc equIpment thIs year, If we want to honor that request we need to amend thIs budget. 1m not sure that the $7500 Is worthwhile for either reason, But I didn't know hew the rest of the Counctl felt, I propose an optIon would be to say leave the $7500 In but to not target and decIde later whIch of the two uses Is most approprIate. Atklns/ You got, If you wanted to spend some more tIme with It, approve the lIne Item, the $7500, and Just sImply dIrect It not be spent for either one of those purposes, And by memorandum I would Just sImply advIse them that an approprIation Is In place, the Counctl wishes to consIder It further and don't proceed untIl you hear further. That's not that uncommon. I I , I I HcD/ Atk/ They have sense decIded that... They requosted both and I rocommended on the ceIlIng and not on the equIpment and I thInk that I explaIned to you that I felt, bottom lIne, Is that I felt the equIpment could be securod through PATY resources, that saves the general fund obvIously, And thoy camG back and sImply made the proposal that you are aware of. Hr. Mayor. I would lIke to proposo th,at we stay wIth the capItal expendItures for the cell Ing. I thInk the excit~nt th~t I hm of our havIng our PATY gettIng started"...by my desIre for all of our varIous depArtments to bo consIstent In that equIpment that they have. I thInk tho Intorchangeablo Aspect of tape sizes and editorIal equIpment Is vory Important rIght now and I thInk It would do the Senior Center Cmlsslon well If they dId a little bIt more InvestIgAtIon Into how theIr equIpment could elthor be consIstent 1 I , , 1 I I , ! I I i ' I } 'I i , I 11 II ; ! i ! ! I I , HcD/ I can't remember when, was thIs an orIgInal request by them or WAS thIs the proposal ~y you? Atklns/ Which WIS was that? HcD/ Thdell Ing? Atklns/ No, the cellln9 was their's. KeD/ The money that's In there beIng allocated for the ceilIng? Atk/ The cell Ing was a proposal by tho SenIor Center and I recOfMlCnded It In the budget. HcD/ When the budget was beIng put together, Atkl Right. i, ;l' , , Iforo/ i " '. rl P S n . ' I - - - - '2 (page 2) Horol (cont.) wi th everyone elscs or they could shm with everyone. fvnbl JOhn, I would Just at soon put I t to rest, I truly beHave that there has been enough dialogue. I understans the Issues both ways. I think the City Hanager's recol1111endatlon Is a valtd one, that, that Is needed, and I also lean towards another purchase of televisIon equIpment ought to be done on a centralIzed basIs so that everybody In the communIty has equal access to It, Larsonl Steve, you thInk that this $7500 for acustlcal reasons Is ...no other optfons? Atkl Well, not accordIng to the Senior Center, I think thoy feel stron9ly that this Is a program they want to get Into. They feel, that 1'm baslcly repeatIng Randy what you already know, they prefer theIr own equipment Larson/ No, no, the $7500 for puttIng In a false ceiling. Atkl The ceilIng, and I thInk you can see It thoughout most of the budget that I , recommend to you, I'm really pretty easy when It comes to buIldIng related I Improvements because I think over the long haul we Just sImply recover our , i costs and I encourage folks to look at theIr facIlItIes and $7500 may help , acustlcs and may make the place more attractfve and Is an expense that you ! II probably wIll have to bear sometIme In the future. I ; Cnurt/ Lower ceIlIngs tend to be more energy effIcIent too. I r,u " , . Atk/ There's a whole varIety of reasons why I thInk that captlal improvements to , , ~ buildIngs SAve us money over the long haul. , 1 I Kubby/ Well, to me the bottom line Is that ~eoPle who usa the facility can hear what's , f i goIng on because a lot of people of earlr,g aIds over there and with all the i I bouncIng around and noIse It's Just a buzz and they can't even attempt to , , partIcIpate In programmIng eIther though respondIng to anythIng or Just hearIng I what's happenIng. To me that's even more Important....aspect that's another I plus. I HcDI Consensus I ~ to stay wI th It as proposed. I ; , Kubby/ I had a few other cOlll1lents that I wanted to mako and one of them Is about i I , , evaluatIon In that In the past we have talked alot about lookIng at our budget ! '" and then later In the year evaluatIng the departments and then goIng back '-, and 100kln1 at theIr budget and comparIng the two, SInce I've been on Council we ve done one department and so I'd like tospeed up our ovaluatfon " process . ;, , Atk/ I can't really promise rou that you'll be abld to do that In the very vory near near future, Untl we got a lot of those pOlicy thfngs out of tho way, Karen. I'd lIke to have those bohlnd us because they wtll have longer term operatIonal slglnlflcance. I happen to agree with you that I thInk that ongoIng evaluations aro very very critIcal Just to the health of a good , organizatIon. . , I thInk also when we are talkIng about addln~ so many new city employees at , Kubby/ I one tIme that the evaluatIon becomes more cr tIcal to make sure that wo are I I I ! I I' I' I I I I i. - n ,:/ S n ,:::' - - - - 1- . 12 (page 3) Kubby I (cont. )uslng our employees In a way that that JustifIes hlrln9 so many new people and havIng positIons change and shift and we don't know exactly where , j we're at. Not to say we don't but... , , i Atkl I know what you're sayIng. ' , I KubbYI ..helps us focus a If ttle more. I Atk/ AgaIn, I think the evaluation process Is critIcal to the health of any large ! . , organizatIon. It's just that I thInk there are so many pOlicy quastlons that J ultImately you have to decIde that will have an Impact on that, It would i be nIce If they were movIng along sImultaneously but wo sImply we have not staffed ourselves to do those formal evaluations as quIckly as they should be i done. HcD/ S t fll on the agenda to do i I Atk/ Stfll there. I HcD/ Haven't gotten to It i Atk/ Always stfll there. In fact \'Ie have a couple In draft I just sImply have not I , . I taken the tIme to pursue them, I r HcD/ One of the thlnf that Steve mentIoned, the polley Issues, several have to be , , ,i: , ~..~....T.- addressed somet me In the near future. One of the thlnfs that I thInk hl'ro j goIng to start doing and probably by next month so I wI I forwarn all of you ; , . I just a little bit sInce we all sort of mentally block out Honday or Tuesday \ anyway, I think we're gOlnf to start usIng our off Tuesday for soma Informal . meetIngs. The thought beh nd It now Is that we'll run from about 6:30 to I 8:30 schedule lIke two a nIght, we'll try that...schedule, depondlng on ~e , I , j ssue like one or two you know for that particular nIght and just sort of l t , I scheudule everythIng out because there are several thIngs hanging out there , I that we just have to get too, I I floro/ I apprecIate that, John, CertaInly as ~ou talk about them It seems to me I ! that the CIty H4nager has the abllltf t en to ~luCk out actIvities that will address those major polIcIes. Just Ike In so Id waste planning. You set your goals, you set your activItIes, and they follow thru on a time line. We don't talk about then enough,and Karen Is consIstently sayIng thIs, but we haven't had the tIme because there are so many of them, HcD/ RIght. floro/ But as you do discuss them then these actIvities do fall out and Stevo can ;1 I i capture them and dIreCt staff to start dealing with them. I.' I I HcD/ ,..50 far thIs yearand I don't know If thIs Is goIng to contInue or not i but our regular Informal meetings have just gotten to the poInt that there's so much to handle that usually sItuatIons have to be addressed ImmedIately . so my thInkIng was that these are thIngs that somo decIsIons need to be made In some of these a~eas so I thInk we're goIng to start usIng some of the off Tuesdays, Lar/ When wIll tha t s tart John? McD/ I'm thInkIng of April possIbly. StartIng sometIme In AprIl and goln~ thru "f't. , I ' 1 'I , n ,=/' S n :,' - - - - - r-c , I. " , , i 12 (pagll~) lieD! (cont,) Aprtland Hay arid see you know how far we get, Do It that way, Larson! Going to call around and check on conflIcts or arc we just goIng to do ftr HcD/ RIght now, I'm plannln9 on just doing It. Just sChedullng the off Tuesday, Atk! It could be a Monday too. HcD/ Vea. Atk/ Could be a Monday or Tuesday, hrtJ/ I know I have a conflIct April 10. If you start there, Larson/9th would be the Tuesday wouldn't It? lleD/ I don't know, I haven't really looked at the calendar, Larson/ AprllID, yea, I havo a trIp but I'll be back the lith. I'll be gone the lOth too. .' , I { I I l: " , ';"-t~' ~-- , J . , r ! I , II : II " I I 'I t ' " I I', '" . }: ~ ; , j I. , , \ .-- I' , Atk/ We Just need SOlM fnfOf'IMl tl~ wIth you to gIve mo ~Q,'j.a ~lmtlun, I if~an III the pollcy questions we raised on tho budget plus a rather long list of other thIngs that just sImply you need to gIve me some directIon on. Larson/ I'm goIng to be on some voice rest for a weok whIch I am sure you all are glad to hear. I know how much you'd lIke to schedule a meetIng durIng that tIme but I need to schedule that voIce rest thIng so lleD/ I think we definitely have a meetfng that week. "ore/ DefInitely, Larson/ That would be funny wouldn't It, Hold up a Ilttle sIgn and Karen could read It for me. KubbYI Cue card. Courtl I'd just Ilke to put a plug In for Tuesdays. Little Leagua Is comIng up you know. Atkl Dkay. HcD/ 11011. we'll start sottlng It up and got back to all of Y')u. KubbYI Do you mind I f I make a few more cOl111lOnts 1 HcD/ FIne Kubby! I wouldn't be vory long. /lcD/ Okay. . ~ I i. ~ ",' Ii I , !. r -. - ...-.. ..... - - . ... .. - - --- . ~ rl I:' S (I L{ - - - - '2 (page.5') When I was lookIng thru the budget again I was just lookIng at these wonderful pie charts, I love pIe charts, they help me really visualize thIngs and lookIng at It. 481 of all of our funds are fines and fees compared to 371 beIng property tax, So when people are saying that property taxes are going up so much all the tfme and every year that they 90 up, I want people to know that almost h~lf of all eur funds are fInes and fees and that the fInes are not even a bIg, bIg, part of that so people, especIally for non-essentIal cIty servIces are those that are usIng It are payIng for It. I thInk that's Important to remInd people. There's only one thIng on that Karen, and I'm sure you're aware of thIs, but when IndivIdual does get hIs property tax bIll they thInk at that total bill. ObvIously there's three Indent1t1es Involved In that total bill Kubby/ RIght. HoD/ So you take our percentage, then you take the County's percentage, and then the shcool distrIcts and It starts getting up there, That starts gettIng to be a healthy Increase, But we can't control them of course. But when somebody looks at theIr total tax bill what percent of that Is City? About 401, Usually If you want just a rule of thumb 40-Clty, 40-School, 20-County. Okay. I mean that's real close and It's goIng to flux...a tad bIt, Remember on top of school you have to add they now have an Income tax also whIch wfll show up next year. There were a feW thIngs that were In tho budget that I jsut wanted to protest because I don't want to vote "no" on the whole budget because I lIke the budget overall but sInce we don't vote on it sectIon by sectIon I wanted to at least talk about a few thIngs that I had a concern about. One of them was the $200,000 for the Industrial park and I know that I am probably the only person who's not real gun.how on havIng more economic development In terms of an IndustrIal or research park but I just don't thInk It's a dIrectIon I want to see the City go. And the other Is that there's no rate Increase for parkIng and I just don't know how we're ever goIng to decrease the use of cars unless we make It economlcally.a better choIce to do and use mm transIt. So I wanted to just mentIon that, And as Randy Is always talkIng about I want more and moro money to human servIces and that will be a consIstent struggle, I'll always be talkIng about that. And a few things that I was convInced on actually was the fIre traInIng and educatIon person and when Larry Donner saId that a few people were Injured that may not have been Injured thru havIng consIstent, better, traInIng that convInced me rIght away, First of all people are not gettIng hurt and second of all. It mes the City money In the long run. And the second one was Broadband TelecommunIcatIons dIvIsIon Intoractlve programming person, To have a full-tIme person for that, At fIrst I dIdn't thInk It was a good Idea but seeIng how much the system can be used and then later on InterfacIng wIth thp lIbrary's InformatIon system I thInk It's a good dIrectIon for us to go In. Kubby / HoD/ Kubby / Atk/ Kubby / Atk/ , Kubby/ I I I I I I I 1 I I , I I , l . , 1--. I.."--.-~ I . ' II II ~ I I , i " I "",,~,",".;.~;,':',,~.~~--,,~c~ n___"___,__"_'~_ __ .. _ .. I '7 -.. " , ! ',I :;j, '.' .,f , I 1 , , .' \ .. I , I i I i l\ l, , , ,/ I ; , ! I fl ,:' S n c, " - W'- - - _ 12 (page 6) HcD/ Well, two of your points I wlll disagree with you on, Your IndustrIal park, I do thInk It's a dIrectIon that we should go In, I do want to see the CIty develop. And you and I can havo a very heated agrument about parkIng rates some tlm. I'll Join her In that. Iloro/ Court/ Okay, then I'll get on tho other sIde with John, Kubby/ You should have p~destrlan malls allover downtown. Iloro/ I thInk the transportatIon at the federal level, tho new policIes at the federal level, are goIng to dIctate that wo really start 100kln9 at a coordInated approach to what we're talkIng about In terms of transportatIon for Iowa City. Not Just bus, not just car, and Its the Interstructure for ' everythIng that we have to start lookIng at, It scares me. It really does. We'll agree to dIsagree.., HeDI Other discussIon? Roll call. IWb 7/D HeD/ Rosolutlon adopted. Haro! ' H.ly Wll pl'!m! thank KevIn, Torr)', Debbie. Th~r,k jCU ,or/ llOlch for ~lilnil i fantastfc Job, really. O'.I411ey/ lid like you to thank RosClll4ry. Iloro/ Well, wo do thank RosClll4ry. Amb/ 00 you want to vote on thankIng them? HeDI Woll, KevIn told me that It mIght have taken an extra 20 mInutes ono day to put thIs together so that O'Halloy/ No way. HeDI Thank you, ~ .,., ,. ';",l~'" ,'.~ ,\ . I , . . I , I I , I . I , t ' I . ....J' " -... .-- - '.-17.',..,---- , I I 1 ,j . . I ~ ~ ? , I j I II . 1 ; l I i l 1 t " I . , . , : , , , . , . i. , I' I , ! , . l .. I , , ;; "'<I',, "; ~ .' '. t I ! i I I I I , i , I I "'I, " , , !'" " , I , J, I' J. .\ j I I I I I n I:' C, n 1'-, - - I -, - - 13 (pago 1) ! , ! I ! , , I , . I ; Kubby/ I wanted to IIlilke two quIck comments about the CIP and one Is that I wanted to thank everybody for movIng St. Clements from FY92 to 91. It's really a great situatIon to be In where it wouldn't make any dIfference essentIally In our plans, It wouldn't shIft other thIngs around but It will really help the neIghborhood a lot havIng that year difference, And the other one Is that I'm glad that we're 90lng to do Halden Lane Improvements thIs year, HcD/ AnythIng else? Roll call. Court 7/0 I . , , , ; . I : Ii' I I I I HcD/ Just before we adjourn, just to Inform everyone, that the County moetlng Is set for March 26, Want to IIlilke a note of that, Kubby/ Afternoon? HoD/ Afternoon 3:30 to 5:30. Larson/ 3:30 to what? HoD/ 5:30 Is what we tentatIvely scheduled at thIs poInt, Larson/ Oh, thIs Isn't a dInner thIng? HcD/ Yes, dInner wlll be afterwards. LarsOI1/ After 5:30? . HcD/ Yes. Larson/ But no meetIng durIng dInner? Me 0/ No. Larsonl 3:30 to 5:3D and off to dtnner. Old you choIce a restaurant yet? HcD/ Yer. We will be meeting at the Public, LIbrary. LIke I saId It Is tentatIvely scheduled for 3:30 at this poInt. So we will be puttIng an agenda together If any of you have any Items that you would like to see on that agenda for dIscussIon get In touch wIth me, Horo/ Dkay. HcD/ Do that over the next couple of weeks, Larson/ I'vo got some thIngs I don't want to discuss wltll them, Horol We are goIng to talk about solid waste, HcD/ MotIon to adjourn? Horo/ So moved. Court/ Second, J . ' l[ ! I . i' }, '!' i \ I I. r,t 1 I! ; ) 1 1 . , ; , , , \ . i! , I i, . I, "" \ i' I i ! I ;,