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AGENDA
IOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING. JANUARY 12, 1993
5:30 P.M.
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
ITEM NO.1.
CALL TO ORDER. /fw.6~ '
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ROLL CALL., " . ' fb,td 51, ,
[\1(.( U. tiue 6'et>S'IVY\ cp€ltd'!19 II~i'l. ~'Olt /IJ
t ., CONSIDER A RESOLUTION DIRECTING SALE /Ilc.f)
$38,000,000 SEWER REVENUE BONDS. ~.,
Comment: This resolution ratifies and confirms the actions of the S;31 ,
Finance Director in the determination of the most favorable bid /?o.Ir 'n
which was received on January 12, 1993 at 12:00 noon. These "'<-
bonds are being issued to finance the advanced refunding of the . ~
1986 Sewer Revenue Bonds. 7T~:i3
Action: ~ 1/'
.1-e 6v-u.hP-:r. f~
CONSIDER A ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 34,
ENTITLED .VEGETATION,. OF THE CODE OF
ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF lOW A CITY, lOW A, BY
ADDING A NEW ARTICLE IV, DIVISION I ENTITLED .
.COMMERCIAL PESTICIDE APPLICATION;. WHICH
ARTICLE SHALL PROVIDE FOR REGULATING
COMMERCIAL APPLICATION OF PESTICIDES AND
PROVIDE FOR THE ENFORCEMENT THEREOF.
(first consideration)
. ITEM NO.2.
ITEM NO.3.
93-"-/
ITEM NO.4.
Comment: Based on discussion with City Council on October 12,
1992, the commercial pesticide application ordinance has been
redrafted to include only four issues: a larger, bolder and brighter
sign; of a size at least 8 1/2 X 11 inches; which must be placed on
the property to be treated by the commercial applicator prior to
treatment; and including a logo, warning against entry onto the
property .
Action: ~ / ~~
J('7o--,
ADJOURNMENT.
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112 page 1
Courtney/ Moved by Ambr, seconded by Borow. Discussion.
Yucuis! You all know Dave Dl1rks, Senior \I-P Ji'om Evenson Dodge.
Dave wanted to make a little presentation to you.
Dave Di~rks! Mayor and members of the council, you will recall
approximately a year ago we set in motion thIs process and due
to changing market conditions we left in place the ability to go
ahead with this refunding when the market would improve.
We canceled or derailed, so to speak, the proceedings at that
time. In fact. in the little pamphlet we put together for you
giving you the results of today's sale. If you go to the first red
page, you will see last January 23 of '92 when last we talked
about this as being a possible candidate for refunding we were
looking at savings from the refinancing at the amount of $2.1
million. The sale that was conducted today brought in sa\~ngs
of $3.008 million dollars. I wanted to emphasize that at the
time that we suggested we cancel the proceedings at that time
you have been very well rewarded for that. And that was very
important because the market had dipped and it went away
and the other impact that selling last year would have done is
the other obligations that you incurred last year would have
taken you over the magic $10 million per year. A number
which would have created a higher interest rate in all of your
other issues last yem'. So you had even more savings that
would be realized because of this. That is part of histOlY. We
did take bids at noon today. We received four bids. The low bid
was that of Lehman Bros. of New York. It's contained in your
material there. But we would recommend award to them. Their
net interest rate was ().071 18%. The final issue size because of
the nature of tl1ese f1nancings, you've really structure the final.
Courtney I You gave the wrong answer. 6.04.
DI~rksl Oh, I'm sorry. I'm looking at the. 6.04374% which is the. The
final issue size is $37,300,000.
Courtney! Do you want to want to explain net interest cost. twenty-
eight million. I mean, what goes into that figure?
Di~rksl The net interest cost is the amount of money is the amount
of money that will be paid over the life of the new issue going
out from now to 2012 would also in this calculation Include the
underwriter's discount.
Kubby! That's an incredible amount of money.
Di~rks/lt certainly is.
Courtney/ The miracle of compounding.
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#2 page 2
That's why we tIy to I1nance most things on a ten year basis.
We can't do it on this one.
Kubby / Why?
Courtney! Because we pay less in total interest.
Why we can't on this one, because two locU1s were longer than
that.
Di~rks! These are revenue bonds and the incremental increase in
your sewer user fees would've been astronomical to finance
these over a ten year basis.
Larson! There's some equity in that. People who use these things
over a period of years ago, rather than this generation paying
for stuff others would use and their not paying for it.
Stretching the payments over time does make some equity.
Di~rks! That's correct.
Courtney! Any other discussion?
Rollcall.
resolution adopted.
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Courtney/Moved by Kubby, seconded by Larson. Discussion.
Kubby Il'd like to enter three amendments to tlle ordinance. And the
first one is on page three. and section, all of them are in section
A. And the basis for these three dil'ferent amendments are to
help tills, make this ordinance fulfill its purpose which is to
make sure people see the signs. And for that it seems that we
need consistency and the way the ordinance is currently
drafted, however many companies you have in town you could
have that many number 01' difl'erent signs. So the first
amendment is to change "brightly colored background" to a
"bright yellow background with black letters." And I picked
these colors I'rom many studies that have been done and these
colors have been endorsed by the Alliance for Environmental
Concerns that they are veIY visible kinds of signs like warning
signs you see on the street, deer signs, other kinds 01' warning
signs. The second one is having these cautionary statements
and it says here 1'01' example. What tllis does is it causes the
possibility of two different signs, one with the state language
and one with whatever sentence X number of companies come
up with. So it makes sense to have the state language in the
ordinance so that the companies have one sign. People see one
statement culdthey understand what it means and that
statemen tis, "Keep off this property has been chemically
treated with pesticides." I think that is all of it.
Gentry lIt's in-
Kubby I It says do not remove signs for 24 hours. So it has to say,
"Keep off. Chemicaily treated" and "Do not remove sign for 24
hours."
Gentry lIt's attached to my memo.
Larson/The next page of the memo.
Gentry/The ncxt pagc, Karen.
Kubby I Yeah. Okay.
Andlhen the third, it says, "Such signs shall include a logo." I
think wc need to specil'y the logo as in the state law, ~vhich
looks like this. It's a generiC adult, a generic child, witll a
generic dog on a generic lawn with a slash through it. And tllis
is about what the sign would look like. I mean if different
companies can lay it out c1ilTerent ways but this is the
consistent information that would be on the sign.
Larson/ Linda. of those three, I gather the last two of Karen's
suggestions are consistent with your memo of today.
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Gentry! Yes.
Larson What was the-her first snggestion that they be black on
yellow. You just haven't specified in the ordinance tlV2 colors.
But that would also keep us-that wouldn't be contradictory in
any way to state law, would it.
Gentlyl No.
Larson! So. I gather the thrust 01' your memo was that some of the
same concerns but lets have the signs not be dilTerent so that
they have to have two signs for Iowa City properties and-
Gentry I My memo came after a long conversation with the state
person, Mr. Eckerman, from the Ag. ~partment and he thought
my idea was novel to just have one sign and certainly would
save the companies a lot uf money. And I don't see any
language tl1at we have talked about over the last year and a
half that would be an improvement on what the state has
already done and there is no use reinventing the wheel. So if
we use their logo and their sign it will do what you are trying
to do and not create addiHonal expense for tllem other than the
larger sign.
Larsonl So, to incorporate Karen's suggestion on your ordinance we
need to say black and yellow on the sign. Black lettering on
yellow background and then we would have to say that the
logo shall be the state approved logo and then have an example
with our ordinance. Is that what you have in mind.
Gentry/There is notlling in the ordinance as it is written now that
has to be changed.
Larsonl What I am saying is that if we follow Karen's suggestion
which would be to say in the ordinance that not only should
you have warning language but it be this specific language. Do
we need to change some lettering on your ordinance.
Gentry I Yeah. II' you want to tighten it down to require that, yes.
Kubby I I want it to be really specific that every sign that is up in
Iowa City is consistent. Because part of our purpose is to have
people recognize the sign and be able.first of all to see it and
second of all to know what it says on there. If every sign is
dilTerent in town, different lay people, diflerent colors. how are
people going to know what it is. Consistency is vital to our
purpose.
Larson! My understanding is that the logo and the language or the
state law are set. So all we wouid have to do in our ordinance
is say that ours should be black on yellow and should use the
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logo and warning words set out in the state law. So we could
just change the language that way and that would keep the
ordinance still simple and keep the signs consistent.
Gentry I Yes. If you want to do that I can-
Larson! I seconded the original motion but-
Novl Do we want to eliminate the date requirement which is in our
ordinance and not in the state ordinance.
Gentryl The date requirement is not in our ordinance. My language
says for example, quote. It is not mandatory. The way it is
drafted now that date is not mandatory.
Novl Do we want that mandatory.
GentlY I That is up to you to decide if you want the date in there.
Kubby I I am not concerned about that. Unless-if this were a pre-
notification sign I would really want the date on it but because
it is not I am not interested. It is not a big deal.
Gentry I Doug may have some thoughts on that.
Boothroy / I agree with the uniform signage. One of my concerns
because If this were going to be enforced in a reasonable
manner we have to have some way for the inspectors to
understand what kind of signage is suppose to be posted on the
property. I think that-my real concern about this document is
the difficulty we are going to have enforcing it because we are
going to be dealing with trying to find facts about when it was
sprayed and we are going to have to rely almost entirely upon
the neighbors to testily and we wiII probably have to go
through some kind of process where we even get documents
from the chemical applicators tllrough a discovelY method so
we can find out when in fact they were actually out there. This
is information that none of us have at the city on hand. This
takes time and this takes a lot of effort. And the more
complicated this gets for us to enforce the more difficult it is
for us to enforce, the more likelihood that there is goIng to be
more frustration. There may be fl11stration on the pm1 of the
citizens who feel that we are always saying our hands are tied
or we are having failure in court. There may be frustration on
the part of council because it is not getting enforced according
to your level of expectation and it may be frustrating on the
part of the inspector because they feel that they are not gelling
the job done. I'm not sure what your level of expectation on
the enforceability of this document. But I can tell you that
they way it is drafted right now your level should be very low.
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Larson/ I am not too worried about that because sometimes you
have to have a law that you know that you are not going to go
out and catch every single person who \~olates it but you are
trying to set a standard for people to follow. I think that most
people are law abiding. The point that I wanted to make is
that if you have the date on it then all you have to have when
the complaint comes in is that complaining person take a
picture of it from public thoroughfare and be able to then
show that-
Boothroy I Right. That would make it easier for us so that they could
verify. That doesn't say that that was applied on that day and
therefore you don't know whether the 24 hours was met.
Larson! But I think there is some advantage to having a date on it.
It celtainly doesn't add much trouble or anything and you
know it kind of lets people know. Some people may think-] am
just worried the signs may not come up exactly at the right
time. I just don't think it hurts anything to add something to it.
Kubby! So it would be as easy as canying a permanent marker with
you and putting the date.
Larsonl I think that all you have to do Witll the language here is to
say it should have lettering black on a yellow background with
the state statute waming and logo period. Then you are not
changing too much. With a date.
Courtney II am not as concerned about the enforceability of this one
as I am the one that was proposed before with the private
applicators on that. I can't imagine there being hardly
infractions of this particular ordinance-commercial applicators,
they are no fools.
Boolhroy I I think the pre\~ous commercial one was a little easier to
enlorce than this. I am concerned also, another issue that I had
raised with Linda, is we don't have any ,,,ay-we don't have any
designated agent to deal with in terms of contact. llooked
through the phone book and many of the applicators have a
p.o. box office and a telephone number. They don't have
addresses or they may not even be Iowa City firms. What that
means is that if we don't have designated agents to contact and
serve papers on then we have to do the worl<. We have to
trace these people down. We have to find out who we make
contact with. It just makes our job that more difficult and I am
back to , you knoll', going into this whole issue that was raised
with licensing. But there is a reason lor it. I think that we can
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have on me who the contact person is so wee can make contact
easier. It just Jllakes my job easier.
l.arson! And that is just a paragraph to add in that says anyone
commercially applying pesticides in the Iowa City area has to-
Boothroy I Has to register an agent.
Larson! Needs to register with the clerk of courts.
Boothroy/ Hegister an agent with the city. Someone we can contact.
I don't know if that is reasonable.
Ambr Ill' there was a charge and I assume that that could be made
by anybody just walking by or going by on their bicycle or
however they go by.
Boothroy! Well I think we would have to evaluate the-
Ambrl Are you going to name the homeowner as well as the people
that m'e suppose to put the sign up as the defendant.
Boothroyl That was a question that was raised in my mind. It says
that at least the sign initially is responsible to the commercial
applicator ,md it appears to me that the commercial applicator
is responsible to ensure that the notification is left in place. I
don't know what happens if the customer takes it down. Is the
commercial-that was an issue that I had raised. Is the
commercial applicator llable in that situation. Do we take the
commercial applicator to court and we find out in this process
that Sally took the sign down and we didn't knoll' about it. The
thing gets thrown out of court possible.
Kubby / You could come up with a tllousand hypotheticals like that.
For every law that we have.
Larson! This ordinance as it is set forth wouldn't expose the
homeowner to liability, would it necessarily. Criminal liability.
Gentry! No. This is against the commercial applicator.
Ambr/ That sign could disappear lor a number of reasons.
Boothroyl Right and I don't know at that point-I think there is a lot
of opportunity lor Ihilure because there is a lot of reasons for
that sign disappearing. It may leave the commercial applicator
let them get olT the hooJ<.
Kubby! Then it's their responsibility to educate their customers
about how important the purpose of the sign and the retention
of the sign/or the 24, or 48 hours afterwards is. The 24.
Boothroy I True. But I'm talking about the investment of our time to
file the citallon, to have the neighbor lake time off from work,
to go down to court, and to have possibly the whole thing
thrown out. You have, ii's very difficult to have anyone want 10
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go through the process to begin with. Even if it's been a
misapplication. But if there's reasonable ways to get cu'ound
this, I don't know at this point what IVould happen.
Kubby / So you're in litvaI' of a date and of having peopie like, have a
designated person for each business and if they're doing
business in Iowa City applying lawn chemicals.
Boothroy! I think it's really important to have an agent to contact.
Someone to serve the papers on, attorney or somebody else.
Horow! In other words the precedence IVould be similar to what we
have for absentee landlord.
Boothroyl For the housing code, right.
Larson! And the state laIV for corporations that are registered agents
so that you know.
Boothroy! fvr condominium associations.
Kubby! Do we want to deal with these changes one by one.
Horow/l would like to entertain another change though. I would
really like to see this a little bit more compact than the 8 1/2
by 11. This is 7 x 7, the one that I've drawn here. And that
seems to me to be a sign that I wouldn't mind having on my
lawn. And I think that we could get evelything on there in
terms of the homeowner having the sign for reuse, it seems to
me that this would be a discrete enough sign that you could
keep and not be buffeted by winds or rain or whatever. Even if
it is rain. And I'd like to see whether anyone would be
interested in going along Witll 7x7.
Kubby / Well I brought a good example of what 8 1/2 x 11 or the
7x7 would be. This is a stick that is available all over the place
and you can get three sticks for a lawn sign per one of these
sticks. If you put it In the ground thatlllr, which inmost times
of the year except for winter when you don't apply anyway, it's
really easy to put it in that far. And you put a sign, it has to be
at least 12 inches but I think in ~'Ionica's memo to us it was 18
so that's another 6 inches up to here.
Hol'Ow/ 12 inches can either be the bottom or the top.
Kubby! Right. So what I'm sayIng is it can be here or you can be
here. Either direction. This cloes not seem to me for 24 hours
after application 10 be u11\vieldy in the weather. You're clown
low so the wincl's not as bustling around. If it's water resistant,
it's got to be able to. high enough bond paper that it will be
rain resistant or whatever coating is put on it. This does not
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seem unreasonable to me. you're going to be like this if this is
the ground. I like it betler the other direction.
Horowl Is the smaller size, is that also 5x77 Is the inside line 5x7?
Kubby I I don't know what it is.
GentlY I The only problem with placing it that way is the fellow from
the dept. of Agriculture was siting me the minimum restriction
of the, the sign has to be twelve inches above the ground.
l.c'U'sonl The top of the sign.
Gentry I Well he said it's always been interpreted.
Ambrl The bottom of the sign.
Gentry I To be the bottom of the sign.
NovlOh they've never been twelve inches above the ground.
Larsonl That's what I don't like about them is if they're down there
next to the grass, you can't see them.
GentlY! Twelve inches plus 8 1/2 is only 20 inches above the
ground.
Kubby I Should we do that Sue? Then more like this. Or this. I just
contend my argument's the same.
Horow! Mm-huh.
Gentryl See and that's more than twelve inches.
Kubby I If I'm like this. I measured from (inaUdible).
Gentlyl Oh. Okay.
Kubby I So jf you're saying that the bottom of this thing is like this.
Gentryl And the fellow Ji'om the Dept. ofAg said well it's never
really been challenged whether It has to be the bottom or the
top of this Ji,lme.
Larson/Is there support from anyone else to make the sign smaller?
Ambrl Yes.
Larsonl Is there four lor that.
IvIeDI If we're going to do it, that's fine.
Ambrl I guess maybe that questions being asked (00 soon.
Larsonl/understand that
Kubbyl Can we make amendments one by one so we know what
we're dealing withl
Larson/ That's what I'm lIying to llgure out, which ones we get rid of
and if there wasn't anyone else other tllan Susan then we
didn't have to discuss that one but if there's fo!1l' than we can
leave that one and come back to if there's any need to.
Ambr/ No. Now my point is maybe we ought to have the vote on
whether or not we should have the ordinance before you stan
fine tuning it.
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#3 page 8
Larson,' That's what I mean. But once we pass it, we can't amend it,
then, so we'd have to take up the amendments J1rst or at least
decide are there four people for the ordinance. I would vote in
favor 01' the ordinance, and I'd prefer that it be with those
minor changes to make the language be what's required by the
state law, the language and the logo. And I don't care about the
color but I think it sense to have it uniforlll and if the nat'l std
is black on yellow, lhat's fine with me. My only objection to this
ordinance is I think we ought to regulate private applicators
exactly the same way we regulate commercial. But that's, if it is
dmlgerous, it's just as dangerous ii' it's put on by private or
commercial, probably moreso when put on by private. If we
don't have four votes for that, then I would vote for this. If
we'd all express our opinion, we'd maybe will figure out what
we need to do with them.
Kubbyl Are there still four people for the ordinance, depending on
the amendments, Sue?
Horowl Well, I'm not going to be that picky, depending on the
amendments. I think that something that is getting false
security, but I think also I just don't want to have to keep
dealing with this so yes, I will support it.
Kubby I Okay. We've got four, and so I move that we amend the
ordinance to have "brightly colored backgrounds" scratched
and in place of it, to have a "bright yellow background with
black letters." And that UJe otJler things get changed to be in
line with the state requirements, but that we have the date on
it.
Larson/ I think that Linda can put the language together rather than
us trying to quote it, just to say that we're using the state
language. I second the motion.
Gentry/Can I clarify are you using my amended version or the one
you got in the packet?
Larson/ I'm looking at the amended version.
1l1rsonl All I think you need to do Linda, would to be to say where it
says shill have large bold Jellering, just add the word black in
there.
Gentryl Now I've already rewritten, I've already included Karen's in
my version. Okay.
Novll would suggest just adding the word black in front of lettering
and yellow in h'ont of background.
Gentry/ That's what I have.
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Nov! And keep the large bold.
Gentry! That's what we have.
Larson! Yep. And then just the lines that say use the state mandated
logo and warning.
Gentry/ I can read it to you if, as I've written it if you want me to.
Nov! That'd be good. Go ahead.
Horowl At section A, 3479.
Gentryl Said sign shall be of a material that is rain resistant for at
least 48 hours, shall be a minimum size of 8 1!2 inches by 11
inches. Shall have large black lettering on a yellow background.
Shall be easily readable and shall contain cautiol1<uy warnings
to the public to keep off the treated area with the language and
logo approved or established by the Iowa Dep't of Agriculture
and stating the rate of treatment.
Larson! Perlect. Now are you still going to have that sentence about
. how it shall be placed'!
Gentry! Then continuing on, Said sign shall include a logo also easily
visible, showing entrance onto the treated property is bcu1l1ed
and shall be placed in accordance with state requirements
concerning location and spacing as set forth in Iowa
AdmInistrative Code.
Larsonl You've already dealt with the logo.
Kubby I Okay, you've dealt wlth the logo twice.
GentlY I Right. r can delete all that, the second logo reference.
Larson! I believe you can just say, said sign shall show.
Gently/Be placed. Yeah. I wanted to reference the state
requirements for placement.
Larsonl Now that you're saying your using the state language, you
don't use some of for examples.
GentlY I No r don'l need.
Courlney/ [ want to deal with that with a separate look.
Gentry I Okay. That's what on tJle floor.
Courtney! Susan's going to make a separate motion on that size. Let's
go with the language, the color. Far be it from me to ever to
object to anything that's black and gold. Never happens. Okay.
Larson/Moved and seconded.
Courtney/Any more discussion on the amendments that were read
other than the size of the socIa
All in 1~lVor or those amendments.
(passes)
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IIorow/ I would like to amend that section 3479 subsection A, the
said sign shall be a minimum size of 7x7. and just continue the
way you already amended.
Novl Show me what that looks like.
Courtney / Can I get a second?
uu'son! Not fromme, you can't.
Gentry I Do you want my ruler?
Larson/ We know what seven looks like.
Gentry I I came prepared tonight.
u1l'S0n/ Four inches less high and one inch less wide.
Kubby I Less readable. Less accessible for our pllllloses.
Novl What is the center dimension on that one? Is thaI 6x9?
Kubby I That's not the purpose of the lines.
Nov/ I realize that. Couldn't we capitalize the 6x9 because that looks
so readable from here.
Larson! But on a sidewalk you're going to be forty feet away instead
01'5.
Gentlyl These signs are 4xS inches.
Kubby! Sue, can I hold that up a little further away.
Horow! The heavier. now remember, this is yellow and black. Right.
Kubby I What's more readable and visible for children, older people
from other communities?
Horow/ Either one of them, Karen. The ],ids aren't going to read them
anyway.
larson! This isn't rocket science. That's make up our mind on this,
let's get it figures Ollt here.
Kubby I This is more seeable.
Horowl I differ with you. I think we're getting your sign.
Courtney I Well for right now I don't have a second on this so It's a
moot point.
Any second on the motion?
Dies lor lack of a second.
Horowl Okay.
Larson! Call the question or whatever.
Courtney/ Any other amendments to be proposed I
Any other discussion on the motion as amendedl
Gentry! On the ordinance as amended?
Courtney/ Yes. On the ordinance as amended.
I think there's some pretty compelling, I think we've had it
presented to liS some pretty compelling reasons Jbr reducing
the size just from the standpoint of the viability of the sign in
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advcrse weather and the fact that you'rc looking at a larger
area for the wind to catch and blow over. And you defeat the
purvose of tile sign if it's not going to stand-up in the weather.
I've seen smaller square footage sign in political signs have
trouble standing up and plus it's going increase the cost enough
the way it is and if we can get a less rIgid sort of holding you're
talking about going from a what's currently used a wire to a
wooden stake. And I think we all know that thosc, if you're
going to use those dowels, they don't come cheap. There are a
lot of, I've always thought the signs are too small. They're not
readable from a distance and I wish we could do a compromise
on this thing. Thcre are a lot of good points that Doug makes on
the enJorceability of this. As r said before, I'm not as concerned
about the enforceability when it's just a colllmercial
applicators.
Larson! Well it would be my druthers to have another amendment
that requires just one sentence, or one paragraph that says
that anyone commercially applying pesticides in Iowa City
should register with the city. Period.
Kubby! [vlake such an amendment.
Larson! And just add that to it. But I don't want to prolong this. This
is a budget meetIng. But that amendment makes scnse to me. It
would heip the city, would not have an undue burden and it's
somcthing that the good companies are going to want to do
anyway.
llorow! I don't disagree with the need for something like that, but I
also think that will put a burden on the ofJke where they will
be registered. Because the telephone calls from the public. The
public will expect the elly to do something about it. And I think
that's a sense of false security. I rcally do.
Larson! Well what, if we're going to have and ordinance that some
portion of the public's going to expect us to do something about
it anyway. And what I'm trying to do is make it easier lor the
city staff to do what they're being asked to do.
Horow! But do you find it in the budget? I don't think we have really
thought this out.
Larson/ I don't care if we evcr cite anybody. This is stilI going to
have a lot more vlsiblc signs. What I'm saying is I don't wanl to
make Doug have to worry about who hall' these people are.
Now understand that six months after this things on Doug's
going to know who everybody is that hc's got to cite. llllcan
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he's going to find out pretty quick who these commercial
applicators are.
Gentry! He'll know, Handy because thc company name and phone
number is on each of their signs.
Larson! Hut that doesn't tell him who to file a lawsuit against or tell
you to file a lawsuit against. He needs that.
Gentry! Well, the registered agcnt aren't that hard to fincl. If they're
a corpomtion.
Boothroy! They do change.
Larson/ Well. I'd make that motion then. And let it live or die and
not debate it so much.
Kubby! I second.
Larson! Just one sentence that says what I said, that evelyonc
commercially applying pesticides in Iowa City shall register
with the city and we can set up procedures without them bcing
in tlle ordinance to do that.
Courtney! Moved and seconded for further amendment.
Discussion?
Horow! I disagree with that. I'm having enough problems just going
a long with the fact that we're going to put these signs all
around. Any more cost to the city, ,my more lillse expectations
on the part of the public, I think it's derelict for mc 10 go along
withir.
Larson! I can't arguc with the assumption the public, but Doug, this
would make it cheaper for the city, not more c,xpensive.
Because it reduces thc amount of time Doug has to spend
chasing after these people figuring out who they are. I'm
oJTering it as a way to make it more efficient and less costly for
the city rather than more. And that 's a matter of opinion. I
understand but that's my intent and that's what I hope and
that's what our staff person has told us is he wants it.
McD! Yeah. hut you just got through saying a few minutes ago that
you don't care if anyone ever gcts cites with this ordinance.
Larson/ [ really don't.
McD! That makes absolutely no sense to me at all.
Larson! The reason it makes sense is because they're going to
comply with the law whether we cite people or not. These
commercial opcrators are not going to ignore the law. Having
the law on thc books will be its oIVn enforcement by ancllarge.
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Kubby! Our staff person is telling us it will take them less time and
human resources to make this ordinance serve its purpose by
enforcing it. We should do that.
Karr/ But I have to clarify that that staff person may have less time
but you're invohing another department in the registlY.
Boothroy! The registration can occur in my olTice. II' that's a problem.
We register people now and it requires no time. And I don't see
any problem with registering these people in my alIke. I mean
they can register anywhere. As long as they have it on file.
Kubby! I feel like we're just finding excuses, you know, when people
don't want to do something, we're just finding, instead of
finding reasons why we don't want to do it, let's find a way we
can do thillgs.
Boothroy! I just think it would make it, well I've already explained.
But the registraUon can occur in my office. We can keep on the
computer. it's no problem.
Court]]ey! Okay, the motion is to create a registration.
Any further comments on that amendment?
Nov! We're going to register just commercial applicators? Okay.
Iloothroy! And it's really just an agent. It doesn't have to be, just so
we know what the mailing address and the person to send it to.
Courtney! Any further discussion'!
All in favor?
Opposl'(l?
I'm going to have a show 01' hands then.
Larson/ I request.
Courtney! Amendment passes, 4-3.
Okay. Now, any further discussion on the amended ordinance
before we have a roll call?
Ambr/ Is this a final vote?
Courtney/Final vote coming.
Gentry! FIrst 01' three.
i\mbr/ Well I think like a lot of things that we do in this hall, we
tend to create some monsters and some headaches for our stan',
and for just the ordinary people in town. I made a couple of
statements in the past and Ms. Kubby and your cohorts made a
point 01' telling the rest of the world about that where I have
changed my mind a couple 01' limes. I do that a lot. I did that
in 1951, I changed my mind on the girl r was going to many.
And I am very happy thai I did that. So there is an awful lot
of people that do those things. But this is another one of those
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ordinances, There has been some discussion around town that
kind of reminds people what was done back in '84 or so when a
nuclear free zone ordinance lI'as passed with Ambr and Zuber
voting no. I see this somewhat analoguish but not quite tl1at.
Somebody is tlying to make another statement. I really feel
that the people who are in this business and I don't have any
ax 10 grind for any of them. That they really ought to be able
to have them in and have a session and set down as ladies and
gentlemen and work it out and say look, make a bigger sign, be
more sophisticated about your scheduling so you totally avoid
those mistakes. And that is the whole reason we are here
bccause a coupie of mistakes were made and you had a few
citizens in the community put up a human ny. I really don't
likc to pass laws based on that. Very very vocal minority tries
to impose their will on 60,000 citizens that I am duly bound to
serve. And I will vote against this and anything like it but the
main headache that I see coming down the pike is trying to
enJorce CUl ordinance like this. It is just going to be a
nightmare. I see us pitting neighbor against neighbor and that
I don't like. Karen and I have had discussions earlier. The
Ambr. family had what use to be a beautiful Honeysuckle bush.
But through the years it just got to be a pain. Thc aphids loved
it more than I did. And I would wither have to spray it or hire
a professional to do it. Whenever that was going to happen I
went around to each one of my neighbors and asked them if
they mindcd. If they did we wouldn't do it and we would find
another solution. We make such a to do and we spend a lot of
money in having a full-time staff person called Neighborhood
Sen~ces Coordinator to tlY ad build homogeneity and good
feelings amongst our neighbors and I don't think this will do it.
llook at the ____. I talk to SOllle medical people about it and
thcy really don't think that this is a major problem. I don't see
anything in here that addresses. We have just one golf course
now within the city but we could have more. How do they
handle that. Do you have to put a sing like that up on every
tec box or every 50 yards oj' Jllinvay or just how do you handle
it. There are so many nuances and what ifs in an ordinance
like this that I just rcally can't support it although I do think
that the industl}' has some things to do to clean yourself up.
And that is the way I prefer to do it. To sit down across the
table from them and 1I'0rk it out.
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Kubby/ You knoll', Bill, In the past when pcople have been looking at
thc state pesticide legislation and the industry did sit down
with pcople from the Peace Institute and they said largcr signs
no problem. They havcn't done it. They have talked about it
in a sit down situation. Thcy made verbal statements saying
that that wasn't a problem. [t is something that they could do
and they haven't chosen to do it and to me that is one of the
functions of governmcnt. When something is not working
right. The state laws is not working and it is not just because a
few people got wrongly spraycd that this ordinance has come
up. It is a lot of different issues. It is protection of water ways
for the original ordinance. It was much more comprehensive
and dealt with those issues of golf courses and how often you
put signs up. And people-the industry had a chance to do some
of these things. Just last October of '92 you said that if the
industry doesn't do it voluntarily that you would be back in a
year. I will be waiting to see in October on how things are
dilTerent and I hope that they are voluntarily. I am skeptical
about it becausc of past statements made that people haven't
come through on and as I have said before and so in a year 1
will be probably wanting to have a discussion with you about a
pcsticide ordinance. So I hopc that the industlY will do some
things voluntarily. They said they would. Thcy are not. And
that is why we are here talking about this.
Courtney! I think I have to differ just a little bit. The industlY, at
least the company that I deal with, has done a lot over thc
years to change the Ivay that they do business and change the
things that they are applying to the iawns and 1 scnse that
there are several of them that has. There has bcen a big
movcmcnt over the years voluntarily. Now maybe they
haven't made the signs any bigger and I would encourage them
to do that. Somebody needs to take the lead in this city at least
andmakc them bigger to the point of whcrc they think it is
reasonable to make it at least where it is practical to keep the
signs standing and practical to cvenmaybe rc-use the signs.
They have come a long ways.
McD! Whcn I came in here tonight I was really thinking that I was
probably going to vote in f~lvor of this ordinance and I was
going 10 vote in favor of il for the wrong reasons. I think as
someone said at one of our meetings [ think we have spent too
much time and 100 much CmJrl on this and really I really had
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1/3 page 16
the altitude that I wanted to get rid of it. Well as IVC have sat
here noW for an hour and rchashed everything that wc did
over several months ago it all started coming !Jack to me and I
can't support <1n ordinancc that in my opinion whcre the
council can sit up here and beat our chcsts and say oh look at
us and look how we are protecting the people of this
community. I think it is a bunch of crap. j;irst of all if there is
a problcm that exists out there by passing an ordinancc that is
going to put up a little largcr sign is not really getting to the
1'00101' the problcm. 'vVc are all very much awarc if there is a
problem from pesticide application it doesn't comc from the
commercial applicators. It comes from everyone using it and
misusing it. The commercial applicators would do the best job
probably of anyone that uses this kind of stull The second
part of it I don't know if you werc talking locally or you were
talking state wide. But I do knoll' locally last fall when we
werc going through this wholc discussion that there was a
willingness by the local association to put together a package.
Sort of a self policing package that they were going to present
to us if we gavc them the opportunity to do it. You say they
didn't do anything. We never gave them the opportunity. At
our last meeting on this we were never willing at any point. A
majority wcre ncvcr willing at any point to back off and say
okay put something togethcr and come and s<..>e us. We ncver
did that. At our last meeting we gavc Linda, the last time this
was discussed, we gave Linda direction, a majority gave Linda
direction to write an ordinance. SO if there was a willingness to
do it and I don't blame them. I mean here we arc silting up
hcrc. Well we are going to pick and choosc certain areas that
we don't think that you can do vcry well in and then we are
going to say that you are not willing to police yourselves or put
togethcr any type of program. And I think that is unfair. I
don'tthinl< wc gave them the opportunity to do it.
Nov! John, I think we die!. I think they got togcther and decidcd
they couldn't agree among themselves and that is why they
didn't comc back.
~'lcl)/ If that is true then J am wrong in that respect, Naomi. I don't
think-I thought at one point that wc had an understanding that
we would not necessarily pass legislation if t hey would come
forth with a package or program that we fclt would improve
the business would be conducted.
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Larson! Thc onc thing that has to be forced-
Courtney! The one thing that thcy agreed to at that time that has
bccn thrown out is the registration that tlJe com panics
themselves would monitor anclmaintain and I think that came
from legal advicc that one company should be themselves up
as he was willing to do to run that and be responsible for
evcrybody else and I can understand that. Now thcre are
other things that I think they ought to be willing to come
together and do.
Larson/ J don't blame these companies for not coming fortll
voluntarily. There is no part of that is my rcason for voting for
this. Sometimes you just can't do something voluntarily. It has
to be force upon you by law because what if one company
decided okay we are not doing it and they have a competitive
advantage by being allowed to stllluse smaller signs. That is
what the homeowner wants. The smaller signs that makes it
sound like there is no problem and no hazard. I don't view this
as any punishment on anyone. I do think it wouid be better if
we regulated all use of pesticides and I don't mean regulate the
use. I just mean that thcre is a significant portion in the
conllllunity. Whether it is a vocal minority or an uninformed
majority or what it might be. There is a ccrtain portion in the
community that feels that they have a right to know when
pesticides are being put on the yard because there is significant
scientific evidence that suggests that it may cause a long term
heath problem. Or even short term in some instlmces. Whcn
some members of our public feel they want protection of more
noticc thcn I think that is all we arc doing. Is giving them a
lillle better sign and I think it is ridiculous that we don't
require 24 hour advance notice. I think it is ridiculous that we
are llying to hurt commercial applicators instead of making all
pesticide application live by these rules. I hope that the
commercial applicators will come to us and lobby us as a
council to apply this to cvelybody. This is a step. Sometimes
you have to move environmentally in steps. It isn't
punishment or anything of anybody. It is just gi\~ng notice to
that segment or our community that thinks they want better
noticc.
MclV \Vhal you say you are not wrong, Handy. But al the same time
r clon't
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CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 93-4 SIDE 2
McD! I don't care if anyone is cited. I don't think or see any reason
to pass the ordinance that is unenforceable. And I don't think
that this Is enforceable. One of the other things as we went
through this last fall. One of the things that I was so very
surprised. We arc not talking about [m unregulated induslIy
here. I was amazed at the regulations that cxist out there that
control these people and that control these companies. And I
gotlJuite an education. So by, again, us spending this great
amount of time to come up with an cight and half by whatcver
sign-well, the bottom line is is I am not going 0 vote for
something to get rid of it. Il is a poor reason to vote in favor of
it. I am not going to-
Larson/ You are right. You are right about tllat.
McD! I am not going to vote for it.
Nov! One more thing tlmt t11is gives us is a local ordinancc to enforce.
Thc state ordinance, though it exists, is not locally enforceable.
Larson! Or enforced.
Horow/ Il is locally-it is capable of being locally enforced. However
the statc staff doesn't have enough staff to even answer the
telephone but the process does exist. So it isn't as if it isn't
locally enforceable.
Nov/ It isn't. Because you have to call the Dept. of Ag. in Des Moines
and they have to send somebody here to do it. They can't do it
with a local call.
Horow! The person comes from Cedar Rapids. I went through the
whole thing with the Dept. Of Ag. From a public heath point of
view I think that this is a minimal step whose results are going
to bc woefully inadequate. I don't think-
Kubby! That is becausc we couldn't gct people to agree to a more
comprehensive ordinance. One of the things that both John and
Bill said tonight that I can't support this because it docsn't do
very Illuch. Well they wouldn't support something tat IVould
have done something. Il would have protectcd public health
by letting people have the individual control over cxposures.
Whether if you believe one scientific group A or B. Whethcr it
has public health effects or not. We start dealing with
managing storm water and having to clean up storm water we
may end up wanting to revisit this because we are going to
havc to deal with some of these issues heforc we put it hack
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113 page 19
into our water ways. The Nationall.eg. of Cities recommends
Ihat you deal with urban pesticide ordinances as part 01' your
storm water cleaning. Mandates that are coming down on us.
So I mean there are publIc health issues here and when people
are saying thaI they don't want to vote t()r this because it is not
comprehensive enough and they weren't supporting it before
that's crap in my eyes. I mean it just doesn't make sense.
McD! We have a difference of opinion. That is what it boils down to.
Noll' I appreciate where your position is and you must also
must respect my position. SO we will stop at that.
Larson! One last thing I want to say is this is a very small burden.
They have to put a sign up already. We just changed the sign.
We are just talking abut nickels and pennies and things like
that It may make them go to a permanent long lasUng sign
that the homeowner keeps there and they get and put it back
up each time rather than the little temporary signs that they
use right now. But I think that they can handle these things.
This is not going to raise eachmontllly \~sit J1ve bucks a shot or
somelhing. The compeU!ion 01' the companies will handle I1mt.
I wouldn't be-I am so displeased with nor regulating the
private applicators that I wouldn't be willing to make the
commercial applicators that is going to he grossly expensive. I
don't think that this is a tremendous burden. I CCUl understand
competitively and business wise why they would urge against
it but this is not something that is doubling the cost or
anything.
Kubby / We could tali( on this all night.
Courtney IAny further discussion on the ordinance.
Roll call (Yes: HoJ'Qw, Kubby, Larson, Nov. No: IvlcD, Ambr,
Courtney)
The ordinance passes first consideration.
Karr! Mr. Mayor, would you like 10 decide when you want second
consideration on this ordinance.
Courtney! Il'we don't have enough votes 10 collapse the readings /in
our regular meeting on Tuesday, we will need to vote again on
this on Thursday night. Three separate readings.
AllIbr! We got to be careful though 01' collapSing readings the night
Ihal we talk about it. non't we.
Karr! Do you want to call a meeting right now, Mr. Mayor.
Courlney/ We will schedule a jormal-a short j()J']nal meeting for
Thursday night at 5:30 to take second consideration on this.