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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-11-13 Transcription November 13, 2006 City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page I November 13, 2006 City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators 5:00 P.M. COUNCIL PRESENT: Elliott, Wilburn, Vanderhoef, Correia, O'Donnell, Champion, Bailey STAFF: Atkins, Karr, Dilkes, Helling UISG REP: Austin Baeth LEGISLATORS: Senator Bob Dvorsky, Representative Dave Jacoby, Senator Joe Bolkcom OTHER: Attorney Eric Fisher STAFF: Atkins, Helling, Dilkes, Karr TAPE(S): 06-83 Side I and Side 2 Welcome and Introductions: Wilburn! Well, good evening. We should probably go ahead and get started. I'm not sure if any of your other colleagues are going to make it tonight, but why don't we start with introductions, in case anyone isn't familiar. I'll go ahead and introduce myself. Maybe we can go around this way. I'm Ross Wilburn, Mayor of the City ofIowa City. Champion! Connie Champion. O'Donnell! Mike O'Donnell. Bailey! Regenia Bailey. Bolkcom! Joe Bolkcom. Dvorsky! Bob Dvorsky, State Senator from Coralville. Elliott! Bob Elliott. Jacoby! Dave Jacoby. Vanderhoef! Dee Vanderhoef. Baethl I'm Austin Baeth. I'm the City Council Liaison from the University. Wilburn! Well, once again, we want to thank the three of you for meeting with us tonight and I really just looking at this as a.. . on-going attempt to touch base with you, and we know that throughout the course of the year, any and all of you are This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 2 certainly welcome to contact us ifthere are any issues that come up with you on your end that you're curious as to whether... what the impact might be here in Iowa City, but, Connie, I thought you were resting your head on my shoulder there? Champion! I was. Wilburn! Okay. (laughter) We have.. .there we go...we've got a list of items. I'm not sure if you received that at all. Okay. And I guess might as well just start from the top and run down the bottom and City Councilors and Austin, if a particular item comes up, this is a chance for you to ask one of our local legislators their thoughts and what they anticipate coming up. Iowa State Housin!! Trust Fund Appropriation: Correia! Well, I think. . . this was an item that I put on, on the agenda. I think all of you are familiar with the State Housing Trust Fund and the appropriation that the legislature made last year to that was $2 million. The original effort on the part of the Iowa statewide housing advocates was to try and get a percentage of the real estate transfer tax. I think that might be something that that statewide group might try and go back in this year to do. That was very difficult in the legislature last year. I think you're probably familiar with the original intent of the real estate transfer tax was for those funds to go towards affordable housing and then they got swept into the General Fund, and so that certainly is a consideration for a funding stream for affordable housing efforts. The.. .did they get? Okay, so there's the sample policy statement that you received about the State Housing Trust Fund. The statewide group, last year the appropriation was for $2 million. The request this year is for $6.7 million appropriation. Since the State Housing Trust Fund was first created, the number of local housing trust funds in the state has grown from 4 to 17, which is great that there are so many local housing trust funds that are being created around the state, but what that means is that money that is available, ifit doesn't increase, then it's less distributed, less...our housing, the Johnson County Housing Trust Fund, has received awards from the State Housing Trust Fund every time that it's applied, where.. . our community has a certified local housing trust fund. So... questions? Bolkcom! ... real estate transfer tax do you expect that housing advocates are going to be organized around, trying to make another run at that? Correia! Well, I think that, you know, with the change in leadership, that that may be opening up. You know, I'm not sure and that's something that certainly might come up at the Housing Trust Fund Board meeting on Friday. I don't know, Bob, if you're planning to attend that, but what I do know is that they, the statewide group has received a grant from Central Iowa United Way for advocacy this year, and so they're going to be able to have more of, be able to do more than, you know, in the last couple years where there was some money for advocacy for the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 3 statewide group, sO...that's a good thing. That might be, but you know, if the money needs to come out of the General Fund, you know, that's.. .or from wherever. But I think, you know, the increasing it from the $2 million to $6.7 million is critical just because ofthe amount of need and the growth in the local housing trust fund, and while 99, you know.. . all the counties aren't covered by a local housing trust fund and the way the State Housing Trust Fund works is that a certain.. .60% of the funds are earmarked for local housing trust fund. It's still a competitive funding round, they have to meet certain qualifications, and then the rest of the 40% goes for specific projects, that are applications to Iowa Finance Authority for projects that are not in areas where there's a local housing trust fund. So, the money does serve the entire state, just through different mechanisms. So, that's a positive thing. Vanderhoef/ Excuse me, I maybe should know this, but I don't. Were they asking for all of the real estate transfer.. .how much? Correia! You know, I can't remember the exact...1 think it was 25% the first year, with it transitioning up to, and that's where I don't, I can't recall, ifit was up to 50% after a certain number of years, but, you know, and that certainly could change with the, what would make the most sense, but... Vanderhoef/ And there's the other possibility, if that doesn't come about that way, certainly cities have taken a huge hit because of loss of revenues for our General Fund, that the return of some of the real estate transfer tax would be appropriate for cities as income that they use. Cities could then also use it and say a percent of that would go towards housing in our community. So, we're... to accomplish similar things, but give some flexibility to General Funds for cities would be real appropriate in my mind. Huh, that is not one of the top priorities; however, the priority umbrella that the League has will be new revenues for General Fund. How can we bolster them in our communities. Wilburn! Might be helpful too...1 know there's no way for you to...a lot of the items that I have on the list are not new, and are similar to some of the things we've brought up in the past, but if you have any hunches as to how conversation might go with the new legislature, it'd be helpful for us to know on our end on that. Bolkcom! On that issue, we made progress last year. It wasn't exactly what wanted, but it.. .it's moving in the right direction financially, and we just need to keep (unable to hear). Champion! Joe, when you said you made progress, what do you mean? Correia! Well, there was a year when they didn't give any money in the (several talking at once) and part of that was it was a new program for the Iowa Finance Authority. It needed to get up and running, and so there was a bit of a lag time of getting the money out and doing something, and I think that our Finance This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 4 Authority is doing a better job of getting the money out, communicating back to the legislature what the money's being used for. I think all the local housing trust fimds are doing work with the funds and so I think that that's all.. . and this, this statewide advocacy group has been formed. That's well organized, focused, has a good lobbyist, and so I think all ofthose things have come together from last year. So I think the ball is rolling. Just want to keep it on the front burner. Dvorsky/ Mayor, to your hunch thing, I think something will be done. I don't know what at this point. I know Senator Riley in the Senate is very interested in that. He's from Oskaloosa, and they have a city housing trust fund in Oskaloosa, so... you know. Correia! A great one! A long-standing...yeah. Maintain local control over cable franchisinl!: Wilburn! The local control over cable franchising, I guess there's several items about, related to local control that, that I think this Council would have agreement, not necessarily whether or not something should go one way - yay or nay - but I think there's an interest in local control, wherever is possible, several of these items. Have you had further communications from, I know at the federal level there's attempts to get, to remove franchising from local and making it state effort. Have you had any recent signals about that or communication or. . . Bolkcom! I haven't. I do think there will be another push this year by Qwest to be able to offer cable services to Iowans. I think it's a really challenging issue, in that I think that consumers do want more choices for cable TV. Elliott! Joe, could you give me just like a 60-second overview of what they want to change? Bolkcom! Well, I think what we've seen in the area oftelephone, starting there I guess, we have companies like Mediacom who have in the last couple of years gotten into providing telephone services over the internet, and of course Qwest wasn't really too thrilled about that at the time, but it happened, and now Qwest is saying because you have (unable to hear) telephone dually, but cable TV and internet services, those three things, that Qwest, who provides internet and phone, would like to be able to provide (unable to hear) basically, and they're not really able to do that (unable to hear). So, I think there's some interest by consumers to see Qwest be able to offer that kind of, those three services as a package, if you will. A lot of people have taken Mediacom up on that, and get a discount if you have all three services with them. The challenge to it is Qwest wants a statewide franchise agreement in the face of Mediacom having to go out and negotiate hundreds of local franchise agreements and the cost to them, and there are substantial services in those agreements that people here in Iowa City and Coralville enjoy as a result ofthose franchise agreements. It's not exactly clear This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 5 how those will proceed into the future. So, it's kind of try to balance the consumer's interest with more choice, and I think more choice is good, and Qwest ought to be able to provide TV service, cable service.. . details are yet to be figured out. Elliott! Are they saying statewide or nothing? Bolkcom! Yeah, I don't think Qwest is interested in negotiating hundreds and hundreds of franchise agreements. They would like to see a statewide agreement. Vanderhoef! And eliminate what the old rule then that you have to, the citizens have to vote to allow another. . . Jacoby! .. . for the referendums, but I think two, one ofthe issues early in the session in January was not only would it open the door for Qwest and more competition, but would it supercede the contracts that were already in place, and that's where it got hung up, was on a couple issues, while if Mediacom had to do the local referendum and negotiate the contract with you, being the lead say in the County then does Qwest get to come in and negotiate, or have a vote, or do we let the sun set and then it's a level playing field. And then your secondary questions were, 'Well, do we write the agreements similar to what's already in place,' in terms of our local cable channels. So the original thing that Qwest rolled out was not very pretty for all of us. As it moved through the session, it got a little closer to where some of us at the table would be happy with it, but I think it still has a little ways to go, and it will come up again. In fact, I want to thank you and Bob and the other group here, the local channels here and the ones in Coralville, were on the phone to us every day and they, reviewing the law in Texas, reviewing the federal communications overviews of it. It's going to come out.. .it'll come out in January. If it gets very far, you'll know. Appreciate your feedback on it in January, too. Elliott! Steve and Dale, I don't know if it's even related to the subject - didn't Iowa City at one time authorize or approve a competing agreement, but the company indicated no interest? Helling! Yeah, that was McLeod. Well, there wasn't no interest, they...yeah, we negotiated somewhat and came to what we thought would work, and then things started to slip backwards and finally they didn't, they didn't come into the community at all. They built out, I don't know, 8 or 9% of Cedar Rapids at that point. Just so you'll know, that the League has a group of representatives around the state working on this issue, and Drew Shaffer, our cable TV administrator, is one of, he's a member of that group, and they're working with the League and, with Terry Timmons, I think and I don't know who else, so there'll be some feedback certainly to the legislature from that group too. Elliott! To retain local control? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. -- - -----_._------,-,---_.."---~---,-_."-_._'-_._--_._-_.----_.~-~--,_.---------,---_._- November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 6 Helling/ Uh, yeah, primarily that. They'll also be looking at...I think what Joe was talking about, and data too, which is...is there some middle ground somewhere that would work out. .. so.. . Wilburn! You're probably aware already, but Dale, our Assistant City Manager, handles the, our negotiations with Mediacom and our cable franchise so... Chanl!:e in Iowa Code 562A.12 (wronl!:ful retention ofIandlord deposits): Wilburn! The next item was mentioned to Council, brought up by Austin, andjust as a reminder, or if you weren't aware that Austin's our University ofIowa student liaison, so... did you want to. . . Baeth/ Sure, I passed this out and it should be before you. This is a code that, well would update a current code, that I believe was written in the 70's, that places punitive damages for a landlord wrongfully retaining rental deposit, at a maximum of $200. Now, this day and age, $200 isn't much. Of course, it is to me right now, and that's the issue, is that as college students, we can't afford to be cheated out of a dime of our money and so that's why it's very important for us here at the University of Iowa and I suspect also in Ames and in Cedar Falls that our landlords are held accountable for fairly treating us, in regards to withholding our rental deposit, and so ifI could, I'd like to bring up Eric Fisher, and he is the author of this. He is the attorney for our University Student Legal Services. Wilburn! Hold on, you'll have to, you'll have to corne up to the microphone. Fisher/ Good evening. Thanks. Basically, what this statute would do is, as Austin said, the punitive damages provision ofthe landlord-tenant act hasn't been amended since 1974. What this, and currently, that punitive damages amount is $200. This does not provide a great deterrent to landlords who, some of whom engage in predatory practices and routinely charge tenants more than the amount of their deposits. My office probably is in a unique position because we have 1,600 students corne through our office, and roughly 400 to 500 are landlord-tenant cases and 200 are non-return of deposit, 200 to 300 each year. So, I've seen lots of predatory practices, such as landlords charging double the amount of rental deposit, maybe $2,000 or $4,000 from students, and then charging them, for example, like $208 for a door jamb and six door jambs in the house, so that's $1,200 and you'll see that, or a landlord who charged someone for carpet cleaning, and it was a hardwood floor house. Urn, someone who charged for cigarette butts in the parking lot, all tenants in the building $5 a cigarette butt and took that out of each tenants' deposit. Urn, so, we've been very active in both encouraging and in litigating against landlords in Iowa City, and I don't want to say. . . there's some outstanding landlords who engage in ethical practices and I don't want to, in any way, imply that there aren't a good number of people really working hard and doing a good job as landlords, but there are a few bad actors This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription or the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 7 and $200 is not going to serve as a disincentive versus a $2,000 to $3,000 deposit. By amending the law to make it double the value of the rental deposit, first of all, you're not fixing the amount, so if the deposit is a great amount, then the amount of potential punitive damages is a great amount, as well. Secondly, changing the act, currently it reads "bad faith," and I think changing that to "wrongful" makes it a lesser standard by which a tenant can recover punitive damages. "Bad faith" means that you have to establish that the landlord acted willfully or maliciously, and it can be really hard to do that, and it gives lots ofleeway. "Wrongfully" just says that if it isn't correct, for example, the landlord charges $300 for carpet cleaning in a floor that has hard-wood floors, in a house, and the landlord comes in and says, 'Well, you know, that's just a clerical error on my part.' That goes out the window now because the tenant has to prove that they acted maliciously. They don't have to do that. They can say, 'That's a wrongful charge.' So, that would entitle them to punitive damages and the landlord would think twice when they were going to make up that return deposit statement the next time. It seems about time after 30 years to amend it, so hopefully with Student Government, we can form a good coalition, both elderly people are effected by this, transient people, students, people coming into the state, so that they have some remedy when they don't get their deposits back. Jacoby/ You mentioned about 200 people each year coming in and contest not getting their deposit back? Fisher/ Probably more, because we have a single landlord who sometimes will have 50 or 60 just from that landlord. So, but, probably 200 to 300 is right though. Jacoby/ And just to the best of your knowledge, things don't go to court, but how many out of 200 do you think are legitimate complaints, that that money is not coming back to the student, or renter? Fisher/ I think all are in part, I would say 100, close to 90%, ifnot higher, because when I say all are in part, there may be some legitimate charges, okay? They, a student may come to me and say, 'Okay, well, we'll admit we did this, but they're charging us for 6 doorjambs at $200 a doorjamb. I don't even know what a door jamb is,' is what they'll say, and I'll show them, and they'll say, 'How can we do that just by opening and closing a door?' So there may be some legitimate charges mixed in with non-legitimate charges. Often times it's not entirely not legitimate. There's some basis in some of the charges, but sometimes it is entirely non-legitimate. J acoby/ What are the landlords going to say about this? Fisher/ Oh, they're going to smile and say it's the most wonderful thing since.. . apple pie and sure go ahead and pass this (laughter). You know, I don't expect that the landlords are going to like this, but I think again after 30 years and no disincentive, the answer is to the landlord, well, gee, you know, then you're This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 8 honestly giving back your entire deposit amount. There shouldn't be any problem. You won't have to worry about this statute or about punitive damages, right? So, that would be my response to them, but I think after 30 years, it's time to amend it. Wilburn! Thank you. Fisher! Thank you. Elliott! First hand knowledge, in the late 70's, I don't know what it's like now, Austin, but our daughter had an apartment with a roommate in a complex with many apartments, and it took literally months to get the deposit, and we got it only when an attorney friend of my wife's put the pressure on, very informally, but put the pressure on, and finally, and so I figured that was a normal practice. They had dozens, if not hundreds, of them and if they could keep them three extra months, then they got three months of earnings offthe, off someone else's money, and it's high time that changes. Baethl Right, I agree, and in reference to the 200 students coming a year, I suspect so many more are victims of this, and the fact is that most don't even know that they have the ability to sue the rental companies over this. Elliott! It's the cost of going to school, for some of them. Baethl Right, right, so they're first time renters and they don't know that they're supposed to be treated fairly and that they should know exactly what they're being charged for, and they should be being charged for fair prices. Wilburn! Did you have a comment, Eleanor? Dilkes! Ijust wanted to note that there's a change in the way this reads too. Previously, the judge had discretion to award up to the maximum amount, up to $200. The way it's been written, it actually dictates the amount of punitive damages to the judge, of either $500 or double the damage deposit. So you just need to be aware ofthat, and that was Eric's intention... Wilburn! It doesn't exist until you speak into the... Fisher! Oh, sorry! I would just say that certainly, that's a point of, certainly no negotiation or amendment if, you know, that it doesn't have to say equal. Not speaking for anyone on the policy ofthis. I wrote this basically researching a lot of states. Some states do have a straight equal to so the judge doesn't have the discretion to award $25 and some have not, you know, not to exceed to award that discretion, but however anyone decides. Certainly I have no objection to it - it's ultimately how it comes out in the wash. So... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 13,2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 9 Baeth/ So do you have cases where judges decide like punitive damages of a few thousand dollars? Fisher! Well, I'll tell you, it's incredibly hard to get punitive damages right now. We've done it one time, and the only time we did it was when we appealed the magistrate's ruling to get the $200, and this was a case where there was a hole in the ceiling, the landlord decided, and there's water coming through, the landlord decided to repair it by putting up, a plywood board up, and then there was plaster falling on the student's dinuer when she had friends over, and then on top of that, when there were bats in the house, the landlord said, 'Well, those are creatures of nature,' so she had to call the exterminator and take it out of the deposit. That's the single case, out of all the cases that we've sued, that we've managed to get punitive damages. That's why I'm a little bit cautionary about saying let's give magistrates discretion, after what, after three and a half years of practice and probably over a hundred small claims actions filed that it's extremely hard to get it right now. Dilkes! I think that's largely dependent, a result of the "bad faith" requirement in the statute. Fisher! (unable to hear - away from microphone) Ifit was changed to "wrongfully," I absolutely agree with Eleanor's statement, is that if it was changed to a wrongful standard, versus a bad faith standard, and then the amount was discretionary, I think that would certainly make it a lot easier. Increase in hotel/motel tax to 9%: Bailey! I am the Iowa City City Council's representative on the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and I'm also the Chair of that board this year, and this has been something that you've seen before. I think that we have good return on the investment, and it is simply enabling legislation in that the cities would have to vote if we wanted an increase here, and as you know, I think we use that hotel/motel tax, I think at our anuual meeting last week, for every $1 of hotel/motel tax that we receive, it's about $8.27 return on other expenditures in the community. So this would be, I think, beneficial to our marketing efforts of the area. Additionally, the City of Iowa City uses some of the hotel/motel tax for other departments - police and parks. So, a percentage is reinvested in the Convention and Visitors Bureau, but we also use that for other attractions in our area. Elliott! What's the average in the state, Regenia? Do you know? Bailey! Well, it can't go above 7%. Elliott! No, but what does, do you know what most cities have for a hotel/motel tax? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. ..._.~----"_.__.__..--._------'"'-_.._'-"-- ---- ._._-_._._._------~---_..~._-----_._._---~---"_._--~--,-.-.. November 13, 2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 10 Bailey/7. Elliott! 7? That's the average? Dvorsky/ I would guess. I would guess it's 7. Is this just a straight up 9%, I mean going to 9%, not taking part of the money. . .. Bailey/ .. .just want a straight up 9%. Dvorsky/ Okay, because the last proposal had something to do with... Bailey/ Right, and that was the Chamber, the Chamber Alliances' proposal, and we're just looking for the ability to increase. Wilburn! I've been meeting with about, the mayors and staff from about 14 other cities, and about revenue alternatives for municipalities and, that you? Yeah, that's you. (noise in background) And this particular item is pretty consistent in interest in that across the board. Vanderhoef/ It certainly is, has been on the League's radar for quite a long time in that this is an alternative revenue that by law we have to send, use a certain percent of it for hotel, for the Visitors Bureau, so it gives us a little more option and a little more revenue in the General Fund for things like parks, related to taking care of visitors, and we also use it in this city for police, crowd control, and those kinds of things. Wilburn! You have a question on your face, Bob. Dvorsky/ Well, does the Iowa House collect that? This was a long time ago, I think when Representative Newhouse and I were in the house, we introduced a bill to say that the... Atkins/ I don't think so, Bob. Dvorsky/ Okay, we didn't really like that particularly. (laughter) It didn't go anywhere, but... Vanderhoef/ I see Riverside, or Washington, has just enacted their ordinance down there. Dvorsky/ I don't know how they did that though, 'cause supposedly it was everything except for the casino hotel. (several talking at once) Vanderhoef/ It is, and.. .the word is there's going to be another hotel down there. Vehicle tax on pick-ups: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting wilb Area Legislators Page 11 VanderhoeV I put this on. Elliott! Now, this is trucks, or people standing on the curb. . . under streetlights? (laughter) Vanderhoef/ Well... O'Donnell/ Where do you go at night? Elliott! I'm sorry. (laughter) Vanderhoef/ This comes into my interest in transportation and the fact that we are not keeping up with our infrastructure, let alone building any new infrastructure, and I think Representative Jacoby would agree that we don't have enough coming in to cities and this is certainly something we would appreciate, having more revenue, and it would be one ofthose revenues that would be shared statewide through the Iowa DOT. Jacoby/ Well, that kind of goes back to our discussions on road use tax, and where the people are, and where the roads are being used more. The vehicle tax on pickup trucks, it goes back to the old farm to market question, that's what the original intent of that law was to be a little more forgiving for those vehicles that are bringing things to market. Now we see trucks that are, probably haven't seen a gravel road in their lifetime. Vanderhoef! What market do we have in Iowa City? (laughter) Jacoby/ I think.. . (several talking and laughter).. .on the flip side, that's similar to trying to decouple ag and the property tax scheme. There's probably a better chance of me growing a full head of hair before (laughter) before we get some of that to go through. There's been a couple people, and interesting enough, the vehicle tax on pickups has been brought up to me, and I don't know about Joe and Bob, brought up to me from people from both parties and across the board. Interesting enough, bank presidents, for whatever reason, in the last couple of months, two bank presidents have said, 'You know, I'm never for raising taxes and I like business, but it's just ridiculous that pickup tax is,' what is it? $35 a year for the registration? $65? Is it an equitable? Yes. Will we be able to get it changed? I' lllet you know as soon as I comb it over. Elliott! Well, it's also an incentive for vehicles that are not as environmentally friendly. Jacoby/ How true! Elliott! Most pickups have a lower mile per gallon, than do sedans, or passenger vehicles. Pardon me? Champion! There's lots of small pickups out there. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 12 Elliott/ No, but 1 think, 1 think most pickups would have, would probably get less good mileage than most other motor vehicles of the same size. 1 may be wrong, but...1 bet the regular size pickups. I think Amy agrees. Amy, you and I, you'd.. . (laughter). Wilburn! We won't look for those hair extension on line! Allow Home Rule for smokinl! in public places: Champion! You're number 4. Wilbum! Am I? Champion! Doesn't that say (unable to hear) Wilburn! I know it's been brought up in the past. Any idea if any plans on, from the Assembly, allowing... Dvorsky/ Senator Bolkcom and I brought it up for the last, what, 20 years? No, I don't know, 3 or 4 years. Three or four years. Bolkcom! I think we've got a shot! Dvorsky/ Yeah, this year... Champion! Why would anybody object to it? Dvorsky/ Cigarette lobby...the cigarette lobby's far more powerful than anybody imagines, you know, when they get cranked up it's just amazing how.. .now, I haven't seen them cranked up in a while, but what they did before was just incredible, and they're very sophisticated too. Champion! What would they tell people (unable to hear)? Dvorsky/ Well, they have all those 800 numbers where you can just call in, start calling legislators and they'll hook you right up to your local legislator and you complain about whatever it is, cigarette thing. I mean, it's pretty scary actually. Wilburn! Well, we continue to get requests from all over town, different groups, for us to do what we can. Some folks aren't aware of that, but there are some, and I know we've received a recent request to pass a resolution just asking the General Assembly to allow local control to decide, so I guess in response to this, it'd be nice to be able to say we would either be approving it just to make you feel good, or maybe there'd be a possible chance of it, at least getting it introduced. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 13 Bolkcom! We'll definitely introduce it, and I mean, I think there's some uncertainty just with the new leaders, you know, we've got new people. I think a number of these issues, and I even throw the pickup fee issue in it, on this as well, that it's not clear exactly what, where we might go. Wilburn! Right. Bolkcom! And I think there's a new day, a new opportunity here on this smoking issue. I think we're going to do something on the tax side, and maybe this will be a part of that, or there'll be some more openness about this than we've seen. Pronertv tax credits! condos: Vanderhoef! Did I put that on? Wilburn! I think you did. Vanderhoeti' Okay, that goes right back to what is fair for housing and how some rental properties are taxed as commercial, and this has direct impact on our General Fund, and other communities as well, and it's a fairness issue, and it's time to settle that, and to me, it's commercial. That's all I can say is that why because of a little technicality in the law can they skirt that? Elliott! Dee, do all rental properties statewide have to have rental permits? Why couldn't if you have rental permit, it's commercial property? Champion! It's not part of the law. Elliott! No, but I mean that's, that would be very easy, easy to write, not easy to pass. Vanderhoeti' Uh-huh. Jacoby! Do you have an estimate how much the City ofIowa City is losing per year, I mean, even a questimate? Atkins! It was...oh... Jacoby! I know Coralville had an estimate about four or five years ago. Atkins! I'm sorry, David, I don't recall the number, but it was in the millions. I mean, it was a staggering number when we did the arithmetic on the thing. Champion! And because the laws, people are building condominiums instead of apartments. To skirt the (several talking at once). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 14 Jacoby! In the agreements we were talking about earlier, look a lot like condo agreements, but I think as far as property tax, probably heard me say it before, I'm still interested in looking at the whole property tax system. I'd be interested in Iowa City too, ifthere's any estimates in numbers, because when we talk about residential rollback, I'm interested in freezing the rollback, not raising, not lowering, but freezing rollback, and possibly setting commercial at 85, 90, or even 96%, if there' s any kind of numbers we could run on that. The reason that leads into what we're talking about is one of the questions that came up two.. . last year? Two years ago, was how we handle apartments-condos, and there was a proposal that there is a separate SILO for them. In other words, they're not taxed at the commercial rate, which is currently 100% or 99.7% I think is the lowest it's gone in four years, and do we look at a middle ground for the condos at 757 I'm hesitant to create another classification, but obviously, it is not residential because it's not owner occupied. Commercial isn't the same as industrial, of course not. It'll have a different value. We all tried to do a different valuation. I think we remember that one. We tried to look at square footage in a different way to set assessed values for different levels of property. I think it's a question offaimess and 1... they're not residential. Is there an interest in setting it at 75%? I don't know. I guess I would ask you if that's feasible, if we could do what the Councilor mentioned here, in terms of using the registration as rental property. Elliott! You would differentiate among commercial properties, perhaps industrial, manufacturing, retail would be commercial, but residential commercial properties, if you can say that, would be a separate. . . Jacoby/ Well, it's in some ways it's meeting in the middle from those people that are developing and owning them. I don't know how many new units were seen in the area. I think that's what's happening, I know, a lot in Polk County and some of the other larger counties, is it's a lot, you have your, I guess for lack of better terminology, your older housing and then your new housing going up, but the number of units being condo-ized is a significantly higher percentage than what we've seen in the past. Elliott! Yes! Atkins! That's a correct assumption. Jacoby! So, if we create a new SILO for those new and existing, then I don't know if that maintains the revenue stream, and some fairness in the system. Elliott! Unless we... Vanderhoef/ ...one of the things, if you'll recall a couple of years ago, ISAC and League of Cities put together a tax proposal, and one of the things that they were addressing in that tax proposal also was a different tax rate, if you had a second This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 15 residence, and that if you were doing a SILO, you might think about that being part ofthat SILO, that if you had the second residence. Jacoby/ I'm fairly sure that, and that's a good point, Dee. Ifwe went backwards, and even if you said that well, that 75% tax is for all units you owu, three, four and above, and that's workable, because if! understand it, most people are building, I know in western Coralville, there were 12-plexes, and they would build four of those. So at least you're going to get an equitable tax for 45 out of 48. I'm just throwing stuff out. I mean, the numbers aren't... Vanderhoef/ It still comes back to the fairness issue, and however we can help you with information and numbers, I feel sure this Council will approve, and our staff is always willing to help us out with.. . numbers. Wilburn! Steve, as a starting point, would you be able to dig up those, those old numbers? See if.. . Atkins/ That's what I'm going to do. Just so I understand what Dave is suggesting, is freezing the rollback consequences, and then having a commercial industrial at 75%? I mean... Jacoby/ No, commercial industrial, actually you could do it two ways. The way it is now, which is basically 100%, but if we were to look in the legislature, which it probably wouldn't move, at reducing the commercial rate. Let's go with 90. Atkins/ 90? Jacoby/ Just to see what... Atkins/ Once we get the thing programmed up, I mean, we can run all kinds of iterations for you. I just wanted to make sure I understood what... Jacoby/ Oh, if we could, I'd...85. I'd appreciate that. 85 and 90. Atkins/ Okay. We'll do that. Elliott! One thing that would make me kind oflook favorably on a separate category for commercial rental would be that certainly a sizable number of people who rent are people who can't afford to buy. We're talking about affordable housing and if you increase the taxes, you increase the rent, and therefore, we're increasing the cost of living for those people who can't afford to buy and must rent. Champion! Bob, do you think that people who are building condos are passing on the rent savings to the tenants? Not in this towu! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 16 Elliott! No, but if you increase it, it's going to increase. If we increase all commercial rentals to close to 100%, you can bet the rents will go up. Champion! They're already there, yeah, they're already there though. Elliott! But, rent.. .causes of rent are how much the property is, how much the construction is, how much the taxes are. Champion! I agree, exactly, but all that I'm saying is that people who build condos to rent them are not passing on the property tax savings to their tenants. They have a competitive...it doesn't make any difference to them what property taxes they're paying. They do not pass on those savings, and so I don't think if you increase their taxes they're going to raise their rent, because they're already renting them for the tax value. Correia! 'Cause there is a market component to rents. Champion! Right. Correia! It's not... Elliott! And certainly, every amount of stated cost is incorporated in the rent, and one of those costs is taxes. Champion! It's already in there. Elliott! Yep. Vanderhoef/ And the whole thing is, we're not recouping within the city the revenue to create that sewer system, that water system, that road system - all of those infrastructure things, we're getting further and further behind and are best example is the growth that we have and the lack of funding in our General Fund to hire firefighters. We can, we can build a new fire station to handle this growth, and we can't staff it because of lack of funds in the General Fund. Champion! And if condos were paying their full rent, we could staff it. V anderhoef/ Yeah! Basic services... Champion! .. . and they're not paying for it. Wilburn! Okay. Cultural Trust uDdate: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 17 Bailey! I added this because, as you know, we have a lot of cultural entities in the area, and I understand, I've read the legislation, but I don't know if this cultural trust fund has been funded? I don't know what it's been doing, and I don't know if it's something that our cultural corridor alliance should be looking at when they go up to the hill in February. So, it hasn't been funded, Bob? Dvorsky! I can't remember, to tell you the truth. It may be funded at a fairly low level. Bailey! Okay, but it, there hasn't been much activity from it? Dvorsky! Seems like $500,000 or something. I'm not sure that's correct, but that may be. Bailey! Okay. Yeah, just let me know because I'm working with the cultural corridor alliance. They're trying to do some more advocacy and this was something that they were particularly interested in because the legislation's out there and it's, you know, on the page of the cultural affairs talking about it, but I don't think that's there's anything to it. Dvorsky! Just remember last year when Sandy Boyd came up to me and asked for $2 million, I believe it was, so... Bailey! Yeah, he's on the Board of Trustees so that would make sense. Okay, thanks. Franchise fees (allow cities to charl!e oercental!e of I!ross revenues): Elliott! Franchise fees for what? Wilburn! Allow cities to charge percentage of gross revenues. Elliott! No, but what are we franchising - anything? (several talking at once) Helling! I think that, and correct me if I'm wrong, Eleanor, but I think that refers to the Des Moines case and some sort oflegislative (TAPE ENDS) Dilkes! .. . Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Des Moines' franchise fee had to be reasonably related to the costs they incur in regulating the franchise, and could not be just a percentage of gross revenues, and that, there is now litigation claiming that that decision is applicable to cable franchising. Wilburn! And I'm trying to remember what.. .I'm trying to remember what Des Moines was - were they trying to pursue something else, were they trying to pursue a legislative avenue, or were they. . . Dilkes! Yeah, I've talked to Bruce Bergman, the City Attorney in Des Moines, and I think that something similar to this is what he'll be pursuing, is basically just legislative fix that would allow cities to charge a percentage of gross revenues. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 18 The litigation now is it was sent back down by the Supreme Court and they are now litigating what the cost of regulating their gas and utility franchise, franchise ER. So that's a... Dvorsky/ Who's the plaintiff? Dilkes/ Kragnes was the plaintiff, K-r-a-g-n-e-s. She was a customer of the utility company. Wilburn! While we don't have that type of fee at this point, I know that this again was an item that mayors of the other cities were concerned about. I think we were waiting to hear back from Des Moines as to a direction to go, and so as soon as I hear anything back from that I'll certainly pass it along to you all. Vanderhoef/ Ross, if we have time, I've got a couple more I would like to just mention agam. Wilburn! Sure. I wanted to allow enough time to hear back from our legislators as to kind of what they see there, approach just in general. Mind if we do that first? VanderhoeV Go ahead. Other Business: Wilburn! Okay, can you walk us through...I know you all picked your majority leaders, etc., etc., but has there been any conversation yet about approaches, what you're looking at individually, collectively, coming up this January, or...? Bolkcom! The Senate and the House are on different schedules in that we, the Democratic Senate met yesterday and we chose our leaders, and over the next couple of weeks, we've also basically made priorities about our committees, what we'd like to see our leader assign us to. So, we should know in the next couple weeks our committee assignments, which will dictate in some regard some of the focus that Bob and I will have. House is (unable to hear)... Jacoby/ House will meet Thursday to elect leadership and then Monday following Thanksgiving, we will have our committees by then. Vanderhoef/ So you'll have those by the time we do the legislative thing for the region, the COG? Jacoby/ Should be in place by then. Vanderhoef/ Why don't you bring us a handout with that? Jacoby/ As soon as we get it, you'll have it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 19 VanderhoeV Good! Bolkcom! But I think, I mean, the budget is still kind of, we still have a bit of a deficit in the budget, so I think we're going to have a fairly austere year in 2008, in terms of the budget we're going to work on, and I think that just making sure we have a pragmatic approach to, you know, what's doable in terms of demand for more programs and more services are certainly some constituencies that like to invest money in a lot of different things, and I think we'll have to have a probably more cautious approach about that, given just the general state ofthe budget. Wilburn! Urn, at what point will, I'm forgetting here...is first (unable to understand)? That date, will that be part of the calendar as you get together in January to corne up with there? Bolkcom! Yeah, I assume the leaders will determine the calendar sometime in the next six weeks, eight weeks. We'll probably be ready by the middle of December, in terms of when those dates will be. Wilburn! All right. Jacoby/ What's the due date for the revenue _ conference? Dvorsky/ I can't remember when they meet, it's early in December, I know. Jacoby/ First or second week of December, so that'll give you some numbers to look at, see what we're looking at for our budget discussions. I think what's a little unique in the conversation that we're having here this afternoon is just remembering that Bob and I have city background and Joe has county background. There's a number of legislators in Des Moines that do not have any local government experience, and so at some levels within both parties, we still have the discussion, if you want to call it that, that local governments are fat with money. Champion! Oh, really? Vanderhoefi' Oh, yes! Jacoby/ And, I don't mean to quote someone from Davenport (laughter) who goes unnamed. It's the son (laughter and several talking at once), but there are a number of people, again regardless of party background in Des Moines, that don't have any local, city, or county budget experience, and there's that feeling well, if the cities need money just raise a fee, or they've got it, you know, they've got enough money, and we all, we here know that that isn't true. Budgets are tight. Wilburn! Dee, you had a couple items you wanted to bring up there? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 20 Vanderhoef/ Yes. One of them is the solid waste and diversion programs that are...cities have to weigh all of the tonnage that comes in, and we are challenged to decrease the amount that goes in to our landfill all ofthe time. However, any ofthe diverted tonnage that goes out of state does not get charged a fee that goes into our recycling kinds of fee. In fact, it's a real detriment, both in meeting our goals and overall if you're looking at environmental issues, it doesn't serve this (unable to hear) to be not recycling. So... Jacoby/ Is that usually Illinois? Vanderhoef/ Uh-huh, but this is where waste management is the biggie that's coming in and buying up all of our small haulers and just shipping it all out. Well, we in the COG who are in charge of the regional waste management, we're not getting any money from any of those transfers to help educate or to do waste reduction programming. So any money... we used to get some money, for instance, from the state for the tire recycling. We don't get that money any more. It's gone, because there's just not any new monies coming in to the program. So, it would behoove us to change that rule. I think it's straight out rule, rather than a new bill, per se, but I'd like to get their attention on it. Champion! Well, it's damaging to the environment because there are landfills in Illinois that have no rules. They're privately owned and they have no rules and you can dump anything there, and of course that's why people like to take their stuff there. There's no accountability for it. So, from a local standpoint, we're losing money, but from an environmental standpoint, it's very damaging to the whole world, I suppose, so I mean, it is a concern that there are no rules. Just some flaw in the Illinois law that allows private landfills not to have any rules, and we have a lot of rules for our landfill. We do. Vanderhoef/ And we keep expanding our recycling, and trying to take our load down that goes in, so we'd like a little help with that. And the second thing that I have, and you folks have heard me talk about it before, while you're looking at taxes, I was talking about taxes on vehicles, well, this is another kind of vehicle. This is the mobile home, which has changed drastically since the 70's when the last rules were written and mobile homes, even though they're on permanent mounts, are still called mobile homes and they are taxed by a square footage, which does not begin to cover the infrastructure and services that they are provided within a city. We looked at this at the League maybe three or four years ago, and suggested a step-up, just trying to get it up to what CPI would have been, had there been CPI on it over the years. Yes, it is low cost housing in a way; however, it's a fairness issue, again, for the services that are provided to those permanent mobile homes. Correia! The only, one of the issues that I have with looking at this at this point is that right now the way the Iowa law is for mobile homes is because they are renting the lot, there's no protections for no-cause evictions, and so it's, I mean, so I think This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13,2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 21 that if we're going to start to consider taxing differently because, you know, they're not moving them around necessarily and it's very hard to do that and expensive, but you just get into a situation where you could get evicted for now reason and not be able to move your home somewhere else and depending on how (unable to hear) and then really having no ability to push at an owner of a park for infrastructure issues, that the park is responsible for, not the city or the county. So... Vanderhoef! The eviction piece I don't understand. Can somebody... Correia! So, for somebody that is renting an apartment in a building, there is, the landlord can only evict for cause. They have to have, it's set up in the law there has to be a reason within the parameters, but for a mobile home parks, there are no, there are no-cause evictions. I mean, it could be... Elliott! I didn't realize that! Um. Correia! .. . no-cause, and there have been efforts for years to get that law changed, but the manufactured home lobby is very strong and so when, so that's just an issue. Vanderhoef/ If that is part of the issue or part of the conversation, all I'm suggesting is, is just change the rate per square foot right now. Certainly, we still, the landlord who owns the land pays tax on the land, but there's no tax on the improvements on that land, and that's why they were originally all taxed separately. They still are in a rental situation, but some of these have, I mean, they're like 1,400 square feet homes with fireplaces and everything else on permanent mount and I think that is a fairness issue on paying for services in our community. Correia! Well, the other thing about mobile homes though is they don't appreciate in value. Vanderhoef! They do now. O'Donnell/ How come the majority of them, the majority of them still depreciate. Vanderhoef! In the good parks, they are appreciating. That was part of the research that we did, uh-huh. O'Donnell/ I'd have to talk to the realtors on that. It just seems.. .that is a, that's affordable housing and they pay a lot rent which is substantial, and you know, if you do something to affect taxes, you're certainly going to affect the affordability ofliving in what's an affordable venue in Iowa City. Vanderhoef! (unable to hear).. ..tax back up on the rental condos. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 22 Champion! They're already paying that. The renters in rental condos are already paying rent as if they were paying full taxes. Elliott! You're talking about that maybe now, but the taxes have an impact on the cost of rent. Period. Champion! Of course, nobody argues that. Wilburn! Out of respect for time of our guests, just wanted to know if there are any questions you have of us. Bolkcom! How we doing on TIF? Does anybody have any TIF issues...that's come up with the bankers last week. Wilburn! Urn... Champion! Our TIF's are very small. O'Donnell/ We use it very judiciously here. Wilburn! I think we, we tend to use the rebate and so I think, at least a majority ofthe Council's comfortable with that format right now, and I think also some of the people who have been concerned about it in the community, I think, in general once you.. . most recently the Hieronymus project had requested TIF, and we did rebate and got some things, excuse me, our Economic Development Committee negotiating for certain features to be added, walkability, the lead certification or some type of environmental certification. We got some things in exchange, but they've really got to come up with the capital to pull the project off before any of that kicks in. So I think once we walked the public through some of those concerns, I think, some of those concerns were alleviated. Elliott! I would hate to punish everyone because a few, a few entities abuse it. It's just like welfare. There is some welfare abuse, but that doesn't mean we should... Wilbum! And if that does come up, you know, on the state level about restricting or eliminating that, I would encourage you to contact our staff to just get examples with numbers on, on results related to the requirements, performance standards, I guess, is what, ifthere's any modifications then, make it to some type of performance standard. Vanderhoef/ I think that's right, Ross, that performance based TIF's, so that there is a return on the investment to the community, is a very positive way to look at TIF's. Personally, I would like, and we've started talking a little bit about it, that once again to assist providing services that the performance based TIF have a certain percent that goes for infrastructure for the city, in the area where it's, where it's... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 23 Jacoby! ...that's what TIF is supposed to be used for, infrastructure. The one caution or honestly the issue that I have is that we're melding two tools. When you say a rebate, that's not a TIF. That's not tax incremental financing. Any time you give any dollars back to a developer directly, then the use ofTIF is to pay for infrastructure for the city portion of that to alleviate the taxpayer paying for improvements, directly or indirectly. I think it's important, both at the table and with our members of the press, that we're very careful in how we define rebates and TIF, because undoubtedly, it happens every year, the discussions are melded in Des Moines. You can say, oh, you gave rebates, or you gave rebates to a developer. Hypothetically I could be talking about general growth and a hypothetical mall in Coralville. No rebates were ever given to general growth. All dollars were used for infrastructure needs. No rebate. No tax abatement. No tax rebate were given to the developer. So, I think you're using it judiciously. There's some good growth in all of Johnson County, but I'd be very careful. I've talked to Wendy about it and some others at the table that we be careful how we define it and how we get it across to the media too because it's very important that the public understands what dollars are being used where. Dvorsky! TIF is very poorly understood, and most ofthe stories that I've seen aren't close to being accurate, especially on the impact of school. For whatever reason, they aren't able to get that correct. On some of the other they do, but one of the problems are the reporting requirements aren't very high and we don't really have the total impact, especially with school finance. So, we did have a little, the Chamber had a TIP discussion with the person who essentially wrote the TIF law and that was very helpful, but even he didn't quite understand how it works with school finance. So that is a major problem, and we need to get the right information out. So every time it's brought up, you get all kinds of disinformation, and you need the correct information. Jacoby! I think it's a good practice for the local entities to release funds, and I know that's what most have done is released any ofthe infrastructure dollars created within those TIP districts to the schools. Wilburn! Well, thank you. Dvorsky! Can I have another editorial comment here? We obviously are trying to sort of lowball expectations because there's only x-amount of dollars and that sort of thing, but it really is very exciting to finally be back in the majority, and it's also doubly exciting because the good Senator Bolkcom, the good Representative Jacoby, and Representative Lensing, and Representative Mascher, who've never served in the majority, will get their opportunity now to serve in the majority and you can hold them accountable. I served in the majority before, but I think it's really exciting to some people who've served a number of years in Des Moines and done good work, never served in the majority - now it's their time! So I think it's very exciting. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 13, 2006 City Council ofIowa City Meeting with Area Legislators Page 24 Champion! Some of the things... we're all excited about the majority, but... I shouldn't say all of us - I am! But (laughter) I think most the things we're asking for, we're not asking you for money. Jacoby/ Well, I can almost guarantee we won't be doing any budget de-certifications in March. O'Donnell! Just don't be taking any more money! (laughter) VanderhoeV That's a promise we can... O'Donnelll You guys who know the cities aren't flush should watch that. Wilburn! Thanks for your time. Adiournment: Meeting adjourned at 6:15 P.M. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 13, 2006, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators.